Good Tidings | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 24 Part 1

Summary

Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 24: "Good Tidings" (Part 1)

Date: May 7, 2026
Host/DM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Taliesin Jaffe, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Travis Willingham, Liam O’Brien

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Episode Overview

This episode plunges deep into the machinations and resistance within the fractured city of Dolmak Yar, as the players grapple with grief, political intrigue, the logistics of rebellion, and their own identities. As plans for confrontation with the Sundered Houses (the powerful oligarchs in the city) accelerate, the party forges clandestine networks, investigates magical supplies and manufacturing, and experiences poignant personal moments with allies and among themselves. The specter of betrayal and looming threat ties everything together, with significant focus on trust, secrecy, and the weight of legacy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Flashback & Foundation of Trust

[00:32] – [11:12]

• Starts with a atmospheric flashback to a public execution, where Laura Bailey’s character and Thiazi witness the hanging of rebellious figures.
• The flashback sets the tone for the episode, emphasizing loss, generational change, and the costs of resistance.
• Discussion between Laura's character and Thiazi on trust and the necessity of secrets:
  • "There are a lot of people counting on you. And there are a lot of people counting on me... And I think that... It's going to be better if I don't know their names and faces." (Brennan, 08:01)
• Decision to split responsibility and information, both for safety and operational necessity; secrets protect more than they hurt.

---

2. Scheming and Building the Network

[16:40] – [39:13]

• Back in the present, Verin Cadorn, an ally, reports collecting the names of 350 people likely to join a resistance network.
• They discuss organizational structure; lessons learned from the failed Falconer’s Rebellion require better secrecy, communications, and decentralization.
• Symbolism and Codes:
  • The party discusses using magpies (sometimes called a "tiding" of magpies) as symbols/messengers for the resistance.
  • Magical spells ("Animal Messenger", "Skywrite") are established as methods for clandestine and public communication.
• On Leadership:
  • The idea of a leader as an ideological fiction (like ‘Uncle Sam’ or ‘Betty Crocker’) is proposed to frustrate enemy attempts at decapitation tactics.
  • "A leader is a story. It removes any implications from an actual real person." (Taliesin, 27:14)

---

3. Clandestine Organization Logistics

[39:13] – [52:09]

• Azune (Ashley Johnson) and the others stress that the resistance must appear as an unremarkable, networked group, not a visible army.
• Plans to embed agents within the sundered houses, maintain small independent cells, and adopt strict need-to-know procedures.
• Sam/Hal’s pitch: Magpies as both literal messengers (via Animal Messenger) and as the network’s icon.
• Discussion on the limitations and risks of such networks, and historical references to magpies as omens in folklore.

---

4. Managing Allies and Gathering Intelligence

[52:09] – [79:45]

• Two NPC allies, Oras Blade (merchant) and Romina Rountree, arrive with urgent news.
• Oras reports his family business’ dire straits following the seizure of their spell glyph monopoly and potential avenue for the resistance’s logistical support (warehouses, manufacturing).
• Romina reveals the imminent return of Primus Taconis (enemy leader) to Dolmak Yar, and that serious tensions are rising among the city’s ruling houses; “confrontation is on its way.”
• The players arrange to visit Oras’s production facilities for more investigation, and reinforce their network of informants in different social strata.

---

5. Magical and Material Investigation

[82:09] – [110:06]

• Inside Oras’s "Hand and Wheel" workshop, the party traces enchanted amphora (jars, containers) possibly used for dangerous magical purposes.
• They uncover that Thiazi himself commissioned a mysterious order of enchanted amphora, to be resistant to detection and particularly to blood—hinting at dire, perhaps sacrificial, magical intent involving the upcoming theater gala.
• Logistics of spell glyph production and business woes are explored, with data on timeframes, resource constraints, and labor.
• Unveiling that secrets, payment, and operational flows for past rebel activities were controlled by "Thimble," suggesting a robust underground economy outside sundered house control.

---

6. Personal Reflection & Level Up Moments

[119:49] – [125:54]

• Characters return home to reflect, recover, and handle downtime.
• Belair (Marisha) checks in with Demetus Blix, her rescued roommate; Figment (the imaginary lizard) is reading books, humorously fascinated by architecture.
• Azune (Ashley) has a profound moment of self-examination:
  • Removing her martial uniform, she questions her identity apart from the roles shaped by Thiazi.
  • "I don't know who I'm supposed to be without you telling me who to be..." (Ashley, 121:06)
  • Casts "Alter Self" before sleeping, cycling through the faces of friends and family, wrestling with the blurry line between self and mission.
• The refrain: “Sometimes who you are is less important than who someone thinks you are. And sometimes it's okay to become whoever they need you to be in order to get the job done.” (Ashley, 123:13)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “There are a lot of fairies that need a place to hide... I think it's going to be better if I don't know their names and faces.” — Brennan as Thiazi, 08:00
• “Sometimes magpies are known as a mischief, sometimes known as a tiding.” — Sam as Hal, 33:10
• “A leader is a story. It removes any implications from an actual real person.” — Taliesin as Murray, 27:14
• “They have their secrets. Now we have ours.” — Ashley as Azune, 30:35
• “Their hearts are with you. Their bellies are not.” — Brennan (on the city’s desperate allies), 113:24
• “I don't know who I'm supposed to be without you telling me who to be. And I have embodied a lie for you for so long that I don't know where that lie begins and where it ends...” — Ashley as Azune, 121:06

---

Important Timestamps & Segments

• 00:32 – 11:12: Flashback, execution, and discussion of trust and secrecy.
• 16:40 – 39:13: Planning the resistance network, symbols, and magical communication.
• 52:09 – 79:45: Oras and Romina’s intelligence; organizational debates; network logistics.
• 82:09 – 110:06: Investigation at the Hand & Wheel ceramic workshop; enchanted amphora revelation.
• 119:49 – 125:54: Belair and Demetus downtime; Azune’s introspective level up.

---

Episode Tone & Themes

• Intrigue and Paranoia: The episode is laced with suspicion, strategy, and careful planning, all under constant threat of betrayal.
• Mourning and Legacy: The memory of Thiazi and the failed Falconer’s Rebellion haunts every conversation and decision.
• Identity and Change: Powerful scenes reflecting on becoming who the mission requires, not only for the city’s sake but for survival.
• Found Family / Chosen Alliance: Trust is built not just on shared goals but on personal growth and mutual support.

---

Summary Takeaway

Part 1 of "Good Tidings" is a masterclass in collaborative roleplay, weaving emotional vulnerability with daring political plotting. The party moves closer to a citywide confrontation with the Sundered Houses, all while constructing a hidden network of resistance, exploring the mysterious relevance of enchanted supplies for the upcoming gala, and confronting the way trauma and loyalty shape identity. With three days until a pivotal city event and enemies drawing close, tensions and hopes alike are running high as the episode ends.

---

Continues in Part 2...

Transcript

[Travis Willingham]

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[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

why hello there. I'm Brennan Lee Mulligan and welcome to Campaign 4 of Critical Role. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we explore Ahriman, a world of fractured kingdoms, tumultuous rebellion and sorcery that rises from the graveyard of the gods. You're listening to part one of this adventure, with Part two arriving this upcoming Tuesday. Our episodes typically arrive on the Critical Role Podcast network a week after our initial Thursday night streams on Beacon, YouTube and Twitch. But if you'd rather listen to a full podcast episode of Campaign 4 Right When it airs without any ads, consider becoming a Beacon member. You'll receive access to exclusive content discounts at all our online Critical Role shops, pre sales for live events and so much more. Start your seven day free trial today and at Beacon tv. Now, without further ado, let's begin this episode of Critical Role. Laura, someone that you are casual acquaintances with is about to die. Me personally? You personally. The year is not the year 71. No indeed. We move longer. The year 63 in our timeline. You are in the city of Dolmak Yar with Thiazi Fang at the Guardian Wall. You are in a crowd of people looking up at the gallows as a group of criminals are about to be hanged. This is a public execution and looking up at this moment, you find yourself for the first time, perhaps feeling your body start to get a little bit older. That's just started to happen at this point in time. Looking up, you hear the voice of a member of the Revolutionary Council shouting out at the top of their lungs. You can hear them saying tol yana Skiershah. For sedition and treason against the Revolutionary Council. For the accepting of bribes and the breaking of oaths. For conspiracy to kill a standing member of the Revolutionary Council. You and your accomplices are are hereby sentenced to death. The crowd mutters looking up and you see a frightening dwarven woman with a shock of red hair and a big red tattoo menacingly glare out at the crowd. Bodies hang in the air. Fiazi rubs his face looking up. I can't Believe it.

[Laura Bailey]

I land on his shoulder. I didn't think it was really gonna happen.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I didn't either. I thought, I don't know. Tiliano is a legend. I thought she'd figure something out. You see that? Tears well up in his eyes as he. But he looks like glassy eyed, like he's not here. He doesn't stay in his body for moments like this very often. Just.

[Laura Bailey]

I'm going to pull a ball of fuzz off the side of my pouch and stick it up next to his eye to absorb some of the tears.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hey, you make a hell of a handkerchief.

[Laura Bailey]

Well, I'm not gonna do this on your nose.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Why not?

[Laura Bailey]

I don't want your nasty snot all over my shit.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All over your lint? What are you saving it? Yeah, special. All right, let's grab something to eat. Walking away from the guardian wall, the Ozzy heads over to a small street cart. There's a little mobile cart that has a basin of coals in it that has meat on the top. And he looks and says, are you grabbing something? Are you hungry?

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah. I'm going to flit over to a nearby garden and pick off some little bits of nectar from the flowers. That's what you do. Little balls of nectar from inside, like

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

the honeysuckles, the water tent. She just, you see thiazi gets a little kebab, starts to eat at it. Goes to Yanna. This three of those guys were part of the choir and you had, I mean, no torn banner, obviously, but that's 12. That's 12 falconers gone. Former falconers.

[Laura Bailey]

How many more are left?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Who knows? Not as many as there were last year. God, how did they get all 12? There's no reason. There's only three of them in the tower. The.

[Laura Bailey]

There's gotta be someone that ratted him out, right? I don't know, somebody on the inside playing both or.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You see that, you see the young kid on the end, he. I mean, he couldn't have fought in the falcons rebellion. He looked like he was 20. The. The. What I knew about Toliana is I think if that kid was in the inner circle, she was running her mouth off way too much. I don't think she was playing the cards close to the chest at all. It's different in war, but this is not war. You have to move sideways all the time. You know, I had heard from Kaz that apparently one of the guys that was in her crew, you know, got nabbed. The sorcerers, the sundered houses, have mind readers, you don't even have to rat.

[Laura Bailey]

What are we going to do?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You're going to see that. What's her name? She just moved here with the whole. Ever since the. The day. I don't like talking about the doors closing. But you're meeting with that glass dude, right? Temelo. She's like the card reader over in the.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah.

[Laura Bailey]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm. I shouldn't come.

[Laura Bailey]

Why not?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You see, he looks up at the gallows in the distance.

[Laura Bailey]

Mind readers, huh?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

There's nowhere in this world that I wouldn't want to go with you. But there are a lot of people counting on you. And there are a lot of people counting on me. And we're always together if. I don't like keeping secrets. But I think that. He just looks up at the gallows again. There are a lot of fairies that need a place to hide or stay until they can figure out how to reopen the doors. And I think it's going to be better if I don't know their names and faces.

[Laura Bailey]

Like you could remember all their names and faces.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I have a brilliant social memory, I'll have you know.

[Laura Bailey]

We split up.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Not for the really dangerous stuff, but I think that. Look, I trust you and you trust me. And that means if you tell me something needs to happen, I don't need to know who it needs to happen for. And that means if anything ever happens to me, it keeps everybody you know safe. And. And there might be some people that are good for me to talk to and not you.

[Laura Bailey]

Everybody thinks we know everything about each other, though. If one of us gets caught, you think they're going to buy that? The other one doesn't know? I guess it doesn't really matter as long as we can't give up the secrets, right?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's my thinking. It doesn't feel good to keep secrets, but I think we more than owing it to each other. I think we owe it to the people that rely on us. Yeah. You'll talk to fairies, I think. You keep a hold of the underground stuff happening here in Dol Machiar. And I'll keep my eyes on, you know, Muckety Muck's Pentev role.

[Laura Bailey]

If something dangerous happens, though, we still got each other's back.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Obviously. I think the point of us trusting each other this much is I don't need to know who you know. I trust you.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And if I ever. It won't be fun keeping secrets from each other. But it'll be a little fun. A little fun. All right.

[Laura Bailey]

I guess I'LL go get some cards.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Red. Ooh, that'll be fun. See if there's any. Is this a good month to start a business?

[Laura Bailey]

Or if it is, you'll never know. Can I fly up in there?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right. Good luck. I'm glad to keep you safe. It would be a shame for anyone else to encounter how annoying you are.

[Sam Riegel]

Hey.

[Laura Bailey]

And I fly back and get right in your face. I'm glad that wasn't you. I smack him in the forehead and

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

run out of Never will be. I'm too fast, too wily. And you flit off into Dolmakyar. And we will return many years hence to this day and age of Ahriman on tonight's episode of Critical Role.

[Travis Willingham]

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Critical Role Announcement Playhouse. The crap. Travis, I believe you have another.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, I'm Laura. Okay, you guys. Our champion dice sets just got four new characters. We got Caduceus, Jester, Caleb and Vax.

[Ashley Johnson]

Who you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The dice were designed by Leorondo with illustration by Lisa Frick and packaging design by Elena Harris. Each set contains seven sharp edged dice, a velveteen drawstring bag and box art

[Ashley Johnson]

featuring the leveled up versions of these characters.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You gotta get em, so be sure to go grab yours in all of the Critical Role shops.

[Liam O'Brien]

These are sharp.

[Sam Riegel]

Are they?

[Travis Willingham]

They are sharp edges.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

So pretty. Look at their socks.

[Travis Willingham]

They're gorgeous. Functional and used in self defense.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, it's multicolored.

[Liam O'Brien]

That's it.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Thank you, Travis.

[Marisha Ray]

Laura.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Travis Bailey.

[Travis Willingham]

Also friends. The Daggerheart class packs are available. Yes, they are. Now the single pack, you have everything a player needs to build and level up your character in Daggerheart. It has ancestry cards, community cards, subclass cards, and all the cards from the two domains of each unique class. All nine classes from the Deck of Heart core set have a class pack and each comes with a link to a PDF excerpt from the core rulebook. So you have all the text in the sheets that you need to play. So huge thanks to all the wonderful backers of our Kickstarter who helped us make these things happen. So you can now find class packs at the Critical Role online shops and the Darrington Press Guild.

[Ashley Johnson]

The Stewart.

[Travis Willingham]

Appreciate y'.

[Ashley Johnson]

All.

[Travis Willingham]

These are awesome. Liam, you got announcement if you don't mind.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

Munchkin Vox Machina is available now.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Oh yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

It utilizes the classic Munchkin game mechanics, challenging players to recruit allies and equip magical items, prepare to battle fearsome villains such as Thordak and avoid devastating curses like the impenetratable door Impenetrable Impenetrable. You can find Munchkin Box Machima now at local game stores and on warehouse23.com

[Taliesin Jaffe]

use your maps impenetrable Maps.

[Travis Willingham]

There you go. I believe that concludes this wonderful organized setup. One take organized set of announcements. So let's go ahead and jump back into Ahriman.

[Sam Riegel]

Thanks Sam's wife.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sam. Ram.

[Liam O'Brien]

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[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

welcome back to the schema's table here in Dolmarkyard for another thrilling episode of Critical Role. We left off at a moment of peak here at the Seven Stars where Verin Catorn, an old veteran and ally of Lt. Azuna Nyar, had just let loose the fact that Asked to round up some names of some people that might be interested in quitting their current jobs or otherwise gathering together due to this ascent of the sundered houses, Varen said that he had spoken to a handful of people and had gotten together a list of 350 names. A staggering number. But then again, can you really be that surprised with what now unfolds in the city that there would be that many people? Oh, I mean, so good.

[Ashley Johnson]

All the people get dismissed from the

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Louis having a one sided conversation over here I am.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

This after several days in a row following the schemer's rescue of Demetus Blix from the clutches of the Crow Keepers. Still being hunted down by the Taconis, Demetus is now staying safe at Bolaire's apartment in the Overmach marketplace. We also saw our schemers kick into high gear, casting identify on the sort of Taconis candle and realizing that whatever foul plots the Taconus have at work. Murray seeing visions of far off stone statues, sarcophagi and a voice calling to fly the white banners. What this could mean you cannot say. But while you were doing that, Bolaire and Hal were busy getting their hands on the pariah blades.

[Marisha Ray]

Went fine.

[Sam Riegel]

Went very well.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Extremely well. It went so well in fact that when you were discovered by the lady Amaria Dacencormay, she wielded a pariah blade at your hand that she had marked with her own blood, pointed the blade at you and pulling off the suggestion of the century. Talk about a suggestion. Got her down into the private vault where she investigating the coffin of Obelad, opened it up. I don't know how many times Baler has mentioned the need for safety when working with these artifacts. Yes, that people lose hands. It's why it's end of time badness.

[Marisha Ray]

Don't touch that. It's evil. Oh shit.

[Sam Riegel]

So anyway, how's this thing work?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And Baulaire's sister, the mask Termina, who was the mask worn by Rowan, the trickster goddess, cracked and in shards leapt onto the face of a lady of the sundered house as she turned to say hello to her long lost brother in a cracked, distorted and wavering voice you did not recognize. And was sucked back into the mists of the coffin. Which slammed shut, leaving all of you stunned but wealthy in swords designed to kill the gods. Which you took first to the rookery. And then deciding that the paint given to you might be a way to disguise that, that had nice little illusory cover that would make these powerful weapons read as Triv magic. Those blades were discovered by your daughter's barking troupe. And you sold a bunch of tickets that day. So you know, highs and lows.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Bless you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Thank you.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Bless you. You're good.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You took a night off. You guys have been Making your rounds, Making your rounds, Making your rounds. Hero Divan has joined the internship program over the Arcanade. The crooked lieutenant of Ilcasare was with some careful, really strategic narcing from Azune was dismissed from his job. Oh, it's all damn.

[Sam Riegel]

By the way, Point of order. Point of order. Hero's name is Hero Divion.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Divion.

[Sam Riegel]

Because it sounds like Hero Divine.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, I love that Hero Divine Hostility Divine. Beautiful. Thank you. We find ourselves back at the Seven Stars upstairs here with Verin Cadorn. For our timeline's purposes, You are three days out from the Gala, which will be held at the Arkanade at the Old Lyceum, celebrating the coming of the hallowed round and its players opening of Kothaerai. So time moves ever onwards.

[Ashley Johnson]

3 days until the gala and the play is open.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

3 days until the gala. 2 days after that is the play.

[Sam Riegel]

Got it? 5 days till the play.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

Crazy idea,

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

you looking out in around you, you see that the Varen Catorna stays with you in the Aviary. You guys did not meet last night. After the wildness of the night in the Arcanade, you guys decided to lay low for a day completely. And you've heard some bits and rumors going around. Obviously people you know. Lord Dacen came to the Arcanade asking after his lady wife. You've heard things. You know, the rumors of Demetus, his vanishing. People are disappearing. And there's beginning to be a feeling of dismay and a little bit of panic in the city, which has been at a heightened state ever since the Azzy's execution. So that panic, rather than subsiding, is instead sort of increasing. There's a feeling in the air of that dread increasing. But we return to all of you now seated at your table with Varen Cadorn, who now speaks to you. I. I don't have all their names, but the ones that I do have, I thought it best for the people that were bringing me these names to keep their own lists and for me not to have all the names in one place. But I conversed with everybody and went over who they had spoken to.

[Sam Riegel]

And so your contacts have given you tallies?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

And run through names with you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We ran over names just because I wanted to make sure that nothing rang a bell. But I don't have them on me. I don't want to keep them in a place in case.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah, this has to be secret.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I had one or two of them ask about money, and most of them made a point of mentioning they had savings they were willing to wait and they are furious. We have to move quickly because they can't, you know.

[Ashley Johnson]

That can only last so long.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That can only last so long. Men need to eat. But they are. Asuna, you're. You are right in your assessment of the tenor of the city. It's very likely that the majority of the men that were dismissed have moved on, saw it as a job. Signed up with the Sons of the Dawn. But there is a considerable amount of people who. This has woken up.

[Ashley Johnson]

Good.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Good.

[Ashley Johnson]

Now a different kind of work begins. This has to be completely in secret. We're not waving a banner. We're not creating a mercenary company that's going to be walking amongst the people, drawing attention to itself. We need to be a network that's smart and secretive and is dispersed with ways to communicate with each other. That happen hiding in plain sight? I don't know if we name this kind of a thing. It's a clandestine organization. I don't know what to do. How do we become the leaders of this thing?

[Marisha Ray]

This works in very well to something I was already working on. We need a symbol, something we can draw, something we can say. And honestly, the less obvious who's leading it, the probably the better.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I agree. I think the most successful operations akin to this don't actually have a leader. The ideology should be the leader.

[Ashley Johnson]

See, that's the tricky thing. I think that's one of the reasons the Falconer's Rebellion failed. Not exactly because of that, but there were many fires that were lit throughout and it never came together. It's easy to put out fires that are smaller and dispersed, but maybe.

[Marisha Ray]

Well, this is precisely the notion of. This is we have an immediate goal. As long as everyone has the same immediate goal.

[Ashley Johnson]

This is resistance.

[Marisha Ray]

What specifically are we doing next? We don't need a plan, just a solution.

[Sam Riegel]

That's the thing. There isn't anything to act on yet.

[Ashley Johnson]

No, not yet. But there's position.

[Sam Riegel]

So everyone needs to be ready. We need a way.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I agree.

[Sam Riegel]

We don't want all these names on one piece of parchment ready to be damned at the sundered house's hands. But we do need a way to get the word out. Yes, when the need finally arises.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Right.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What if the leader is a figmentation? What if the leader is an embodiment of the ideology, but not a real person?

[Marisha Ray]

A leader is a story.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

A leader is a story. It removes. But we can give them name, but it removes any implications from an actual real person.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Marisha Ray]

They'd be searching for someone who doesn't exist when they finally hear the name correct.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I like it above table. Cause I don't want to muddy up the waters. But you know how, like, Betty Crocker was not a real person.

[Marisha Ray]

Betty Crocker wasn't a real person.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Betty Crocker's not a real person?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What the fuck is wrong with you?

[Marisha Ray]

Now?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I can't lose any more Euros

[Taliesin Jaffe]

or. Or Uncle Sam is another great.

[Marisha Ray]

You're ruining so many Reddits for me right now, I can't even say.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I don't know if you know this,

[Taliesin Jaffe]

but Uncle Sam, not a real guy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I have one less uncle.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

But, yeah, what if, like, you know.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, no, it's a. It's a. It's. It's.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's.

[Marisha Ray]

It's a. It's absolutely a notion.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Anyway, back.

[Travis Willingham]

No, this is.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

This is quite good. You see that? And I know how do you have

[Marisha Ray]

to wear it out?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Varen turns to you and says,

[Sam Riegel]

I

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

let everyone know that they maybe wouldn't hear back for, you know, a day or two. But I can't ask them to wait much longer than that. No,

[Ashley Johnson]

we need to make some decisions right now so that when you return to them, they're. They're set. Enough.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

350. You see, he says, I'll be at Falcon's Rest tomorrow morning. All right?

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I don't. You see, he looks. Having not introduced himself to any of the others, and you see that he kind of doesn't want to. You see, he looks at the other three, at Murray and Hal and Belair, and doesn't recognize you. This is a guy who's worked in private security for a Royce vassal house for the last few years and only really knew. So, you see, there's. Maybe he lingers on Howl for a second because of your brother, but other than that, he steps back and says, I'll meet you the Falcon's Rest tomorrow.

[Ashley Johnson]

I will stop him. And I'm going to walk him towards the exit. Just one last moment. I'll start walking to him and taking him in, noticing this sort of unsettled moment. And I'll say to him, varen, you've done great. And remember why we're doing. Remember that this is the way we honor their memories and their sacrifices by taking action. And you've done so good.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He just grasps you, brings you in and hugs you very deeply and sort of slams a fist onto your back. And he looks back at you and goes. The embers, they stay dark under the ashes, but it takes a long Time for those embers to die. I think we've all been waiting here in the soot and the muck. But you are right. I don't know the academics upstairs. I don't know the. I know that you speak with people that walk in other realms, in high society. The ideals of the Falconer's Rebellion were as pure as driven snow. I believed in them then and I believe in them now. And the purity of those ideals did not win that war.

[Ashley Johnson]

That's why we're doing it different this time. We're creating a different coalition, a stronger coalition, and we're gonna fight this in a very different way. They have their secrets. Now we have ours. There's one thing I want you to do. Those that you've gathered, some of them need to be standing by, but we need to have plants in some of the sundered houses. I'll leave it to you to create smaller groups that we'll still be able to communicate with, but we need inside

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

people, at least a few.

[Marisha Ray]

Everyone should be able to contact.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm sorry, I think this is happening downstairs at the exit. Oh, we're not there.

[Ashley Johnson]

Any further instructions I'll give to you tomorrow morning.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He nods, peels out into the dark and vanishes. You return upstairs and join your companions.

[Marisha Ray]

This could work. This could work. Very well.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Murray walks over to the large aviary that rests here on the balcony of the Seven Stars, opens it, takes a piece of biscuit and throws it on the table in front of us, allowing one of the magpies to come over and land on the table in front of us. You know, falcons, some of the fiercest birds. Hunters. But they're very solitary creatures, individual in their goals and efforts. Magpies are cunning and they learn from one another. They pass down knowledge from generation to generation. Very loyal to themselves, But also little assholes, too.

[Sam Riegel]

We are of one mind. I'd like to make a pitch.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

And Hal makes eye contact with this little bird sitting on the table amongst

[Taliesin Jaffe]

the four of us, tossing another biscuit crumb.

[Sam Riegel]

He watches it eat up the crumb and it warbles a little bit.

[Ashley Johnson]

And then Hal

[Sam Riegel]

purses his lips and you hear a warbling sound come out of his mouth, identical to the bird. And he spends 20 or 30 seconds talking back and forth with the bird, finally says, come here. Flies over to his shoulder. Sometimes magpies are known as a mischief, sometimes known as a tiding. And a bird flutters over and lands on Murray's shoulder, pecks at her neck a little bit. And then as it opens Its jaw. Not the jewels.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Not the jewels.

[Sam Riegel]

You hear Hal's voice come out of the bird, saying, sometimes magpies are known as a mischief, but other times they are known as a tiding. And Hal, at the jump, will level up As I catch use cast animal messenger.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Animal messenger.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What? Hell, yes. As you cast animal messenger, this aviary filled with magpies amongst other birds. Tiding, tighting, tighting, tiding all in. Hal's voice surrounds you in this moment, as the wind picks up the ability. There's 350 names held in secret by former rebels, and there are many more than that. Birds throughout the city ready to take wing and spread a message very quickly. Feathers flutter. As you level up in this moment, I will.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Sorry. Where are you going to?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No, no, you're good.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I'll also level up. I see you're level up. And I call. I think this is fantastic for little clandestine messages. But if I had to assume the time is going to come when a beacon needs to be lit, mass communication is going to be our advantage. We're going to need a symbol, something recognizable that as soon as it goes up in the sky, they'll know to act. They'll know to act. I'm going to level up, and I'm going to take a spell that I haven't had since keyleth, which is skywrite.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hey. Ooh, I like this.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

And you see, Murray, in a very small area, throws. And condensation starts to build here in the aviary. And as the mist begins to rise, it starts to collect and create clouds in this very condensed area. Emery takes another minute to draw the outline of a magpie within the clouds. And almost like you're enhancing or enlarging a picture, she takes her hands and begins to expand that. Don't want to call attention here. But then she shrinks it again, just to show and indicate that this can be quite a large symbol if we want it to be.

[Ashley Johnson]

I think this is going to work.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

How does this feel to you, Hal? It's a one, two punch.

[Ashley Johnson]

We can do this.

[Sam Riegel]

We can do this.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

And what exactly are we doing?

[Ashley Johnson]

I have a list for that, too. The last thing I spoke to Varen about, because this is clandestine, I think we need to position them very carefully. I suggested to him to disperse a few of the members that he already has and allocate them in different sundered houses. They need to understand the symbols that we're going to be using, and maybe there's some sort of exchange of words that we can use. I like that these magpies are known for mischief. Good mischief.

[Marisha Ray]

There's a lot of stories of magpies. They. There's even poetry omens. There's actually a poem about the meanings of different numbers of magpies and how they show up.

[Ashley Johnson]

Oh boy.

[Marisha Ray]

One for sorrow, two for joy, three for girl, four for boy. I remember. One for sour. There's a whole series. They go up to 13. I don't know what happens beyond that.

[Ashley Johnson]

Wow. Yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

11 for health, 12 for wealth, 13 beware of the devil himself, et cetera, et cetera.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think clear about our objective.

[Marisha Ray]

I think everyone gets 10 names. Each soldier knows 10 names of 10 other soldiers. They disperse so that no one knows enough of them to get them in trouble. And that's enough of a network that as long as you start with telling 10 people to spread word, that word will spread very quickly with minimal risk.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

It's not a bad idea.

[Sam Riegel]

We know that Conus and Halovar

[Taliesin Jaffe]

More

[Sam Riegel]

are moving to rob this world of peace. I think some of the sundered houses need to be sundered further.

[Ashley Johnson]

That is my hope.

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[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

There is a ginger knock at the door.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Clear everything.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Lockmir pokes his head in. Sorry to disturb, but there's. I've had two people slide a note across the bar to me that they are downstairs wondering if you are here. I have one from Oras Blade and I have another from Romina Rountree. The one Romina mentioned that it was quite urgent. Both of them are, I would say, perturbed,

[Sam Riegel]

Left notes and are still downstairs.

[Marisha Ray]

Did they want to see all of us or just particular people?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

They just said to bring it to the group upstairs.

[Marisha Ray]

Group upstairs? Is that who we are now? Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What do we do to piss these people off?

[Ashley Johnson]

I think they've come to report some.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It was Rowena and Romina and Oris.

[Sam Riegel]

Romina and Oris, I suppose.

[Marisha Ray]

Let Oris order a drink and Romina comes up first.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah, let's talk to Romina first because we've got business with Oris.

[Ashley Johnson]

Making Our job easier having him come.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

100%.

[Ashley Johnson]

Such plans.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Send for her vote Romina. She and Oras are in enormous dark cloaks, You see. Just want you to come take a look, if you'd be so kind. You peek down the staircase. Both of them are seated at the bright happy. The seven stars is like a lovely, lively happy. And you can see that Oras has this enormous dark cloak over his head and is tucked over it. And you can see that Romina is pacing in a corner also with this enormous dark cloak. And they both just are standing out really like sore thumbs. As Rumina is sort of pacing, looking around, like in trying to remain obscured. They just look like it's standing out. Two like party city. Grim reapers are in, like,

[Ashley Johnson]

Should we just invite them both up? Clearly they must have clocked each other.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I mean, if they were matching cloaks.

[Marisha Ray]

Honestly, it's probably a better idea if we get both of them upstairs.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, yes, all right.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Bring them both up. He says, all right, I'll go ahead. You see that both of them get to the bottom of the staircase, look at the other, don't recognize each other, and they both look up at the top of the open door, you see, Orra says, should I come after the.

[Marisha Ray]

No, clearly you're both coming to the same party. You're dressed for it, comrades.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

They both come up and you see that Oras walks up and says, this wasn't coordinated. I just assumed that given the last time we spoke, that some degree of secrecy and being clandestine, you see. He looks at the other, at Romina and says, not that anything clandestine's happened. I'm Oras. No, I'm.

[Ashley Johnson]

What?

[Marisha Ray]

Elridom Redenbacher. Just take that off and try and act naturally.

[Sam Riegel]

Have a seat. Have a seat. You're making us nervous. More nervous.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

They have a seat, you see, Romina looks and just says, if it's all right, I'll speak after the gentleman has spoken. And maybe after you see that, give me an insight check.

[Marisha Ray]

I would love to.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Ashley Johnson]

Me too.

[Sam Riegel]

2216.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, on a 22. Oras looks to be here. Oras just seems to look a little bit antsy. You talked to him a couple days ago and he hasn't heard from you. And the last time you spoke he was like, I'm in your corner. Romina is somewhere else. Somewhere else. She's dissociating.

[Ashley Johnson]

Do I get that at a 21 insight? Do I gather that?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

I just look to Hal. I'm going to take him to get a drink. Talk to her.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay. And I pour a glass of wine and set it near her.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Gotcha. Oris. Oh. Okay. I'll just speak to you. You go down with Oris.

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't know if you'll need that cloak. It's actually calling a lot more attention to you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, no. Really? A little bit.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Can I join you?

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

You stay. Oris.

[Marisha Ray]

I think I need Hal.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I'll go with Azune.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Murray and Azune head downstairs with Oras. As you guys get down to the bar, Orous turns to look at both of you and says, I wanted to come with you as soon as I had heard. We've been working with our own detective in the Revolutionary Guard. Not an arcane marshal, but just someone helping us with the wagon that was stolen. We believe that we've tracked down and that the Crow Keepers were responsible. And just this morning, we received word that the Crow Keepers, as a thieves guild, have announced themselves to the City Watch as disbanding. I think there was a death of a. A notable guild leader and they scattered to the winds. But there was a. Our detective came back to us and essentially said that they had discovered where they believe the stolen spell glyphs were being stored. And they said that it looked like a collaboration between over a dozen factions in the city. There was writing all over the wall in the place that they found them. It's a very confusing time, but I wanted to come to you because we spoke a couple days ago now.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes. Thank you. It definitely feels like there's powerful people pulling strings here, and it's time for us to come together.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

You left quite an impression on me last time. I saw how it affected you. Thiazi's execution.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Ashley Johnson]

We can't stand by and allow those powerful people pull these strings. I'm worried for you and the other merchants. You have some protections that you've put in place for yourself. A detective. How's your security beyond that? Knowing that your wagon got tipped so easily?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We. With the loss of. Of our ability to sell the glyphs, we're in dire financial trouble. We don't have the ability to hire added security right now. We just lost one of our major streams of income. And with all of the. To get to the point where we could make those spell glyphs took an extraordinary investment of resources that has not had the chance to pay off. So we are. It's part of the reason that I am. You got a 21 insight, right?

[Laura Bailey]

Mm.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You realize Orys is ideologically committed.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sincerely mournful and angry at Thiazi's death. But you don't go to a weird bar filled with rebels unless you're.

[Ashley Johnson]

Or begging for something.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, unless your ass is in the fucking fryer. Right. Like his family merchant company is on the ropes.

[Travis Willingham]

Okay.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

You know, Oris, if you would be down for a little field trip after this, I think we would love to take you up on maybe a tour of your facilities.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Done.

[Marisha Ray]

All right.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I can go tonight?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah, I think that'd be good. We've discovered a few things as well, many that corroborate what you're saying. But I think it would be good for us if we can just have a little educational enlightenment on your operations.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Wonderful. We have a number of places. But you. Would you like to head to the kiln, to the main studio where the

[Ashley Johnson]

production of the glyphs occurs and that's still intact? Yes. You still have the mechanisms to produce them?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes, we have every. We paid for it dearly. Yeah, absolutely.

[Ashley Johnson]

There might be a fruitful collaboration in the future.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I agree. And look, I know that ideologies are all fine and dandy, but beliefs in altruism don't necessarily put food on the table. However, as Izune mentioned, I think there is a beneficial collaboration. If you're willing to just hold out for a little longer and we might be able to do something to help with a little bit of supplementary support.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes. At least maybe provide some security.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Correct.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'll stand by and when you're ready to go, we can go take a tour. We have. We were preparing on a massive expansion and now everything that was an opportunity has become an anchor around our neck. We have multiple warehouses in the city. We have. That are just empty. We have business that was supposed to be moving and now is not the major. We have the main kiln down in the fray. I'll give you. The place you want to see is the kiln. That's the production area. That's where we actually shape the raw clay and fire it and prepare it

[Taliesin Jaffe]

in Brennan, above table. Just to refresh my memory, they're no longer able to sell their spell glyphs because that's been shut down by the houses.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Correct.

[Marisha Ray]

And there are multiple empty warehouses.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's what he just said. Yeah. A empty.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I order a couple of beer or, you know, a handful of beers for all three of us.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

And then as the. Once the bartender. Once he's landed in front of us, I'm just going to slip one of the runes that I have and I put the beer on top of it like a coaster, and then pass it over to Oras.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hell. Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Enjoy your beer. If you'll excuse us, I think we could. We need to chat with our partners upstairs and then we'll be right down.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'll wait right here.

[Ashley Johnson]

One last question. Your warehouses have been cleaned out.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Are everything that we can ship? We have. We. We're just starting to make inroads in other places, in other markets. But when we lost the business here in Dulmak, or when we lost the business in the marketplace, all of a sudden we don't have the ability. It is an enormous blow. And so we've had to retract everything. We're trying to unwind some of the leases that were signed for these. These buildings were. It's very bad.

[Ashley Johnson]

My concern is that some of these powerful people that are making these decisions. My concern was that they cleaned out a whole cache of empty glyphs. But that is not what happened.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No. No, I don't believe so.

[Marisha Ray]

Excellent. This could be very infantatious.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You guys head back upstairs. Coming back upstairs. Romina sits down looking at you, Hal, and goes. I didn't want to come here very often because I know how dangerous this is, but I knew I had to come for this. My Lord Harondus has heard from his uncle, Lord Otto Einfassen, that they have received word from Primus to Konas that Lord Primus will be in Dolmachyar this coming Traitors Day.

[Sam Riegel]

So the snake is surfacing again.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What do we know?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Traitors Day is that Traitor's Day is five days from now.

[Ashley Johnson]

Opening May. Oh, fucking God.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No way. Traders Day.

[Marisha Ray]

We have the gala and then we have the show.

[Sam Riegel]

This is great Gala. Two days to Traitors Day. The show.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Ashley Johnson]

The show is on Traitors Day.

[Sam Riegel]

The show is two days before the show.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes. So this coming Smith's Day is when

[Sam Riegel]

the gauntlet will be the first performance of the Kothhera. The opening is in five days, which is Traders Day, which is the day of the Tacona. So there's a big party, and two days later, the show. And Taconis returning.

[Ashley Johnson]

And Taconus returning.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

It's almost like it was the play on the whole.

[Marisha Ray]

Strange how these things work out. I haven't even told you the theme

[Sam Riegel]

of the Are you safe?

[Ashley Johnson]

Oh, no.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You see, she's very special. I think so. A pigeon came from Rhys and Girdle giving the news to Lord Horondus. I didn't want to put myself at risk, but I Overheard. And I only speak. I should speak it better, but I don't speak too much Helvarian. But they were speaking of the Tucanis. And I do. I've overheard enough gossip amongst jilted Helvarian maids and lovers in the palace that I do know the word for betrayal. And it was used several times. It was the tenor of Lord Horondus moved from one of confusion and suspicion to one of. I don't know what. But whatever was written to him in that letter from his uncle confirmed some truly sinister workings. And I don't know what exactly was said, but I do know that they immediately sent word to the Via Aurora and the Hailovar. I believe there may be. I believe that when Primus comes, it will be more than the einfassen that have questions.

[Sam Riegel]

So we're talking about some level of bad blood between.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Seems as though. The tenor of his voice was more stern than I have ever heard before. It has been so since, I think, two days ago. Since three days ago. And. And this would sort of azune. This would corroborate with when Ahsune made the report to Horondas at the Palazzo Divinas. Being like, this is what we saw. You see? She said. You see? Romina says it's all well above my head, but it no longer sounds like explanation is on its way. It feels as though confrontation is on its way.

[Sam Riegel]

Romina, I want you to be careful. This city is on a knife's edge right now. So I don't want you sticking your neck out. And if things start to turn in that household, go to your sister. Go to Inez.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay?

[Sam Riegel]

Will you promise me that I will.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes. What should I look for? Is there anything that I should. If I hear shouting or. I don't know.

[Sam Riegel]

Certainly. If Takona shows up at that household, find an excuse to run an errand.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The.

[Marisha Ray]

All right.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'll keep an eye out. If I hear anything. If I hear that the Takonas are coming, I'll let you know. It's a full keep. Right now. I don't think the. Yeah, all right.

[Sam Riegel]

You can also send word through Inez rather than risking risking yourself here.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay. In the future, I'll do that.

[Sam Riegel]

All right.

[Ashley Johnson]

Question. Have we made it back? Are we?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah. You guys enter the chamber at this

[Ashley Johnson]

moment knowing that this is not my asset. I'll approach you, Hal, and I'll just whisper towards you. I think she's perfectly positioned to overhear what other alliances are feeling, like how they're talking about Halovar is important to know.

[Sam Riegel]

Yes, absolutely. But be smart.

[Marisha Ray]

I will.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'll do my best. Okay. That's everything. I just needed you to know as soon as I did. Is there anything you think I should be looking out for? Is there any information that would be most helpful to you that you think might come across my path?

[Sam Riegel]

I'm going to sneeze.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Don't do it. It's gross.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

It's gone.

[Sponsor Voice]

It's gone.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah,

[Ashley Johnson]

sorry. It costs you a few brain cells when you hold it in, doesn't it?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No. Okay. What.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What Reddit thread did you see that on? All right,

[Sam Riegel]

well, tiding. Any requests?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I mean, I think we've already nailed it.

[Marisha Ray]

Just don't go looking for things.

[Ashley Johnson]

And be careful.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Just be careful.

[Marisha Ray]

If people arrive, it's good to know they've arrived. People are going places. It's good to know they're going places. Don't ask. Don't go looking for things. Just observe when convenient.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay.

[Sam Riegel]

And if the tension in the house rises, if you feel like there is anything, even if you don't know what it is, anything imminent, reach out.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right, I'll do exactly that. So she puts the cowl of the hood up.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I'm going to just toss her a gold piece just cause.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, thank you. Thank you for your troubles. She puts it away and she walks out. You see that? She takes a couple steps out, turns around and goes, I need to go back to work. And takes the gold piece and hands it to Hal and says, can you give this to Inez to hold onto for me?

[Sam Riegel]

Of course.

[Marisha Ray]

Just. Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What? Insight check. Insight check. Why is she weird all of a sudden? Did a spell fall?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Give me an insight check.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Was she under a spell just now? What just happened? And people looking through her eyeballs. I fucking should have done a sea invisibility or some shit. God damn.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's okay.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What did I say? I was doing an insight check. 15.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

15. You look at her, she looks on the verge of tears right now. She just looks over at you and goes. And sees your suspicion and goes, I'm

[Sam Riegel]

sorry, I walked to the windows.

[Marisha Ray]

I am very. I'm going to level up.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Whoa.

[Marisha Ray]

Okay. I'm going to cast telepathy and I'm going to look and see what kind of thoughts are running through this woman's head right now.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hell, yes.

[Marisha Ray]

Detect thoughts.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You cast detect thoughts?

[Ashley Johnson]

I do.

[Marisha Ray]

I cast detect thoughts. And it would also tell me the presence of any sentient creatures within 30ft.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hell, yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

As long as they're a. Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You cast detect thoughts. All of you speaking in Hal's metaphor, are on the edge of a knife. Hal gets up and moves to the side. Marie. You're suddenly worried about the safety of the view of the aviary. Suddenly leaves you feeling exposed. You reach into her thoughts. Paranoia is a powerful thing. There is something in her mind which is a projection of the future and is a fear she has. Maybe there's someone right behind you with knives out right now, going deeper.

[Marisha Ray]

She can roll a wisdom saving throw.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You go deeper, the shadows part and you see the truth. Romina doesn't get paid in gold. And if she gets found with a gold piece on her body, they'll kill her.

[Ashley Johnson]

Of course.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm sorry.

[Ashley Johnson]

I'm sorry.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I really appreciate it. I just. I. I don't.

[Marisha Ray]

It's quite all right. We understand. We don't want to get you in trouble. And you need to be safe.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Stupid.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Just know generous is okay.

[Marisha Ray]

If you need anything. We owe you something shiny for your troubles. Stay safe and breathe. Lord.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm just really happy that I. All of you are really important people. And if I can help make a difference, that really matters to me.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Hey, hey. You're important too, all right? You matter too. Okay? There's no caste system, injustice.

[Laura Bailey]

All right.

[Marisha Ray]

Gonna need everybody.

[Sam Riegel]

You've been vital already.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

She looks and has this large cloak around her and just goes. I'm trying to be smart. I'm sorry if I scared anyone.

[Marisha Ray]

Gold coin. Very clever not taking it.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

Go home.

[Marisha Ray]

Smarter than us.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Go home. Think of your alibi, of where you were just now. You understand?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

And listen. Make friends with the magpies around the city, all right?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay. Okay. She smiles and you see that? She puts the cloak up, heads out, and you guys are left.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Murray pops out her compact, does a little under her eyes. And I cast. See invisibility. I'm going to do a quick scan immediately.

[Marisha Ray]

Also, if there was anybody moving in 30ft, I would have gotten.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You do not detect anyone. But you know that Oras is waiting for you downstairs.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

One more order of operation. This is something that I meant to do last game. That got a little chaotic there at the end. My new charm necklace. My amulet of vigilance.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I would have loaded an illusory spell into it. At this point, I wanted to ask you a question for the illuseries. Okay. And also help refresh me. Dungeon Master.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

When people SCRY in, it's visual and audio.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Correct. Can they do that? Depending on the spell that they're doing. Right. Like they might be doing a short range Thing they might be just be doing detect magic. Right. It could be a very. This is sort of like a broad. Much like non detection. It's like a broad protection against divination. The only difference between non detection and this is that instead of blocking it, it alerts you to it. And you can put in something to attempt to fool certain types of divination. Divination, spacing based on the illusion.

[Ashley Johnson]

Misdirection.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Can I. Yeah. This is a little silly. But for on my critical role, my illusory spell that I want to load in there. Magic mouth is an illusory spell?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Could it be magic mouth? But if it triggers, it's like never gonna give you.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Shut up.

[Ashley Johnson]

No way.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The dwarven version of you've been rickrolled. Incredible.

[Marisha Ray]

Wow.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Okay.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Does that make. Does that work or is that.

[Sam Riegel]

Let's stupid.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Let's see what magic mouth does here.

[Ashley Johnson]

It kind of can meet the conditions.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Interesting. I'm gonna say give me an arcana check if you'd be so kind.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

If this doesn't work, then I have like.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No, no, no. It's great.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I have minor illusion and stuff that I can put in there. Let's do my padmin die.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Great.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Okay. Arcana, you said?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

So that's gonna be 23.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Putting a magic mouth in there that's singing a loud song. I think using your amulet of vigilance, not only will you be alerted if anyone scries on you, if their scrying has any auditory component to it, this loud body dwarven song will overpower the audio portion of the scrying. They might still be able to see you or read your lips, but you literally put like a radio jammer frequency so that if there's anything that allows them to hear you, it's just this loud music playing over it that they can't do anything.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Okay, great.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hell, yes.

[Ashley Johnson]

Perfect.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I like the bag. I'll tap into my dwarven side. It's a loud bagpipe jam, which is super awesome.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Bagpipe jam. Yeah. Great.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Ah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ah.

[Sam Riegel]

Before we move forward from here, I'd say Hal went to the window. So now that she's Romina's leaving, I want to watch her leave the premise and see if I see anyone on the street eyeballing her or eyeballing the place.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Give me a perception check.

[Sam Riegel]

Help me Orym. Oh, that's pretty good. It's a 21

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

on 21. You do not see anyone following her here. You see that she walks down the street a little bit and heads towards A laundry. There's sort of an open laundry near the Seven Stars. She goes to that and you can see is collecting her washing stuff for the Stahlkeep. So there's a. So basically, you see that she has an alibi set up for herself of what she was out doing.

[Sam Riegel]

Okay, so after staring from the balcony for a moment, Hal turns to the rest of you and says, too paranoid or not paranoid enough.

[Marisha Ray]

I looked into her mind. She was just smiling that she shouldn't be carrying gold. I'm remembering a bunch of old tricks.

[Sam Riegel]

Hmm.

[Ashley Johnson]

Let's put them too.

[Sam Riegel]

Anyway, we can fast track that.

[Marisha Ray]

I'm doing my best.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Before we move, Zunay and I went and we talked to Oras. He's waiting for us downstairs. He's gonna give us a little tour

[Laura Bailey]

of

[Taliesin Jaffe]

the hand and wheel. He's going to give us a little tour of his production on the hand wheel. Obviously, we got to figure out what's going on with these amphoras that the paints came in, but something that I'm trying to connect the dots on, and maybe we can do a little bit of this together. The Aussie said get paints from Bolaire. Who gave you the paints? Where did you get them from?

[Marisha Ray]

I believe Thimble, if I recall. It's usually Thimble. She was the one who would bring things to me.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You showed up, though. You recall you had worked with the Azzy and Thimble for long enough that it got to the point where sometimes stuff was just left for you there and the paints were just left for

[Taliesin Jaffe]

you there at the museum. Thiazi at the art at the museum.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah. It normally would be Thimble or a associate, but it didn't occur to me to. It was just there things. He would just drop things off all the time. I was not really part of that conversation.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Do you know how many other people were aware of this relationship where sometimes things just show up in your museum?

[Marisha Ray]

No, I was not. I was not privy to this information. I was not trusted. I might, but I would occasionally run these errands, and there's probably at least half a dozen, maybe less criminal criminals who would have been aware, at least, that I was a way of getting something to Thiazzi. God only knows where they are right now.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I'll just say what I'm thinking. I'm terrified that that pipeline was compromised, that something was slipped in that order of operations. Because we know that there's something going on with these paints. We know that there's a magical purpose far beyond basic illusory so much so that it's had to be masked.

[Marisha Ray]

It's very him.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Someone wants those paints smathered across the

[Ashley Johnson]

walls of that great big theater.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Of that great big theater. And now we've learned that Taconis is coming back just in time for opening night. I am terrified that we were an accidental accessory in whatever this grand plot was.

[Marisha Ray]

I think you may be going down the spiral.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Paranoid or not paranoid enough.

[Marisha Ray]

Hey, paranoid. Not paranoid enough is its own trap.

[Ashley Johnson]

But we have. I'll produce that candle again. If things work in a certain way, then we know that. That whatever that is, it can be interrupted before it's completed. And we know that you have a way of tapping into seeing what a potential future could be if it is completed.

[Marisha Ray]

And as I'm sure you're learning in this process, trusting on anything that's as precarious as the movements of your enemies is very foolhardy. The number of variables, of things that would have gone wrong with that paint, just handing it to us, that's a lot of faith in what we would do with it. Or anything at all.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

No. Okay, but wait. Hal had just spent several months petitioning himself to the sundered houses, prostrating himself in front of him to be able to be granted ownership again of the hallowed round. Everyone in the city knows what he was wanting to do. And you have no clear paper trail of where those paints came from?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

None.

[Marisha Ray]

But I've never had a clear paper trail of anything. There is a world, though.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Why are you so dismissive of this?

[Marisha Ray]

Well, if the Aussie was about to die, there's a world where I would have thrown it away before anybody knew. Not that I did.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

We already saw what was compromised in just the sheer plot alone of trying to save the Ozzy. We don't know. We still are very unclear of what happened in the bastardization of these runes. I mean, we're about to go to hand and wheel. Maybe we'll find something out.

[Marisha Ray]

We might.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

But I don't know why you think. It's not like it's such a wild theory that these paints were planted.

[Marisha Ray]

I don't think it's wild.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

It's a way to help an ends to a means of whatever Taconis has been.

[Marisha Ray]

I don't think it's wild.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I saw it, Bellair. I saw it. I sat there in that theater. There is a great magical linchpin. There is a moment in time that we are very quickly approaching.

[Marisha Ray]

And it's either going to be for us or against us.

[Ashley Johnson]

So let's make time to see if we can look into the future and maybe get some more information.

[Marisha Ray]

Just remember there are two ways to approach anything like this. You can decide that there are no friends anywhere or that there are enemies everywhere or that there are friends everywhere and enemies everywhere. Decide what you think the world is going to do.

[Ashley Johnson]

Let's wait to decide that when we get a little bit more information.

[Marisha Ray]

But yes, we have time.

[Ashley Johnson]

We have very little time. And we will do this.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We'll do.

[Marisha Ray]

And I'm not dismissing. I'm just reminding you that it's easy to distrust can spread is all I'm saying. You have to be careful to keep it contained.

[Ashley Johnson]

I can't.

[Sam Riegel]

You also all knew my fucking brother could have had a plan wrapped inside of another plan of a plan.

[Ashley Johnson]

Of course he did.

[Marisha Ray]

Do you believe in the field of

[Sam Riegel]

Can I jump above the table for a second and flash back to. It was when he spoke to me day one. It was to help Murray.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

He had paints from Baler.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

The wording on that was Bolaire.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think something along the lines of Bolaire has paint.

[Ashley Johnson]

Paint has paint.

[Sam Riegel]

So Thiazi wanted that paint to get into my purview and then it was to tell Thimbletta was going to be all right. I was just hoping that's the paint you wanted.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, I see that.

[Sam Riegel]

It's anyone's guess. It's anyone's guess. And then when I was petitioning the And I also just want to get some of our details cleared out above table. Petitioning the city for the theater. That was probably to a mix of the Revolutionary Council and Nobles, right?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

To get the right to grease the wheels to get the paper going. I was also petitioning the sundered houses specifically to drop the case against my

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

brother when the block came loose. That made it all happen was Wakander Halovar's enthusiasm for the hallowed round project. The Revolutionary Council didn't say no, but the Revolutionary Council basically was like, well, we should have hearings about this and we should determine if this would be. We need to get a task force together to review magically and see if it's safe to do that. We need to, you know, like it was basically a. The Revolutionary Council. The reason the Chamber of Lords advisory has taken over more and more. It goes hand in hand. The things that the Sun Druid Houses are doing are very bad. But they are doing things. And for the 10. I mean you've lived in the city your whole life. Ten years before the Chamber of Lords Advisory started making its first power moves. The Revolutionary Council had just stopped. Like you remember when the rookery had to get together and do a fund to like, recobble the streets. Like, the Council had just stopped its activities, like helping people. Huge, boring, simple things had just gone by the wayside. And the reality is, like, people at Gulmachia aren't stupid. A lot of the initial things that sundered houses were doing were coming in and doing flashy and exciting things, like building a fountain somewhere. You know, like coming in and doing things that.

[Ashley Johnson]

Making things a little bit better.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

Picking up the slack.

[Sam Riegel]

Right. So with the Council, everything had kind of reached heat, death.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes.

[Sam Riegel]

And then even if they weren't smart, they were making big moves so you could point to stuff out. Okay, that's all right.

[Marisha Ray]

We have some good.

[Sam Riegel]

Regarding the pain, we just don't know what we're setting up.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

No, but we're about to go find out.

[Ashley Johnson]

Let's find out. But we also have a couple of other things to. We have a list. Orys Blade is waiting downstairs. And I think there's a bit of a proposition. He has a means of production to create more of these empty glyphs.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And.

[Ashley Johnson]

And he's desperate for work and he's

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

desperate for some help.

[Ashley Johnson]

And he is definitely in alignment with what we're doing with our cause. He's one of us.

[Marisha Ray]

We have a place to stash weapons and to let larger groups of people have meetings.

[Ashley Johnson]

He's got empty warehouses to hide people

[Marisha Ray]

if they need to hide.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

You know, before Varan came in, we were having this conversation about how one of these gems could cover the salary of 10 men.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Mm.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

For a month

[Marisha Ray]

of a warehouse as well. Couldn't it?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Right.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I mean, I just. I just. I don't think any of us anticipated. I thought we would be lucky if we got two dozen people on our.

[Ashley Johnson]

We have a lot of people. And they will hold out. I think people underestimate their desperation and their hearts may be fully in it, but I think as that gets eroded. Desperate times make desperate people.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ashley Johnson]

We need money.

[Sam Riegel]

We have.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

You know, my mama used to always say, when money walks out the door, love flies out the window.

[Marisha Ray]

Oh, that's rough.

[Ashley Johnson]

I don't understand.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Meaning people will feel love and compassion. It was really a big allegory in a cautionary tale for divorce. But it applies here. Okay.

[Marisha Ray]

It's easier to have an ideal if there's food on the table.

[Sam Riegel]

Yeah. If your belly's empty. You're not writing poetry as Much some to say.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I mean, we can take some of these gems, cash them in, and at least give a handful of these soldiers, the ones who need at most 3 to 5 gold to at least fill their stomachs for the next few weeks,

[Marisha Ray]

a little bit of money to keep those warehouses. Maybe just to take the ease off of his reality. Especially if we're going to be using.

[Ashley Johnson]

If we cash in two of them, I think that'll cover us for at least the next week. These soldiers, I don't think, are expecting to have their salary met, which was, on average, a gold a day.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

So if they get a couple gold for the week, I think that'll be enough to float them until we can get more down the road in this warehouse.

[Sam Riegel]

If we need to, I can probably carve away a little of the theater's budget.

[Marisha Ray]

I don't think that's necessary.

[Sam Riegel]

We'll jump off that bridge when we get to it.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Well, what about your wife? Elodie? She's got contacts in the merchant guild. You know, as we were saying, what's most important for many of these men is making sure that they've got food on the table for their family. Do you think that any of the merchants would be willing to even just donate some basic provisions?

[Sam Riegel]

Well, first of all, don't have a wife. I've never met a woman I didn't marry.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Sorry.

[Sam Riegel]

That's all right. Common mistake.

[Marisha Ray]

Funny, you seemed married.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

You seemed married.

[Sam Riegel]

Oh, yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

I felt good.

[Sam Riegel]

Big dad energy.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Sam Riegel]

But I don't think you're wrong. And I think we could probably talk to my nose about who to approach.

[Marisha Ray]

We need students. We need young people. We need not just soldiers. We need people who can get in anywhere, hear anything. You have. You do have a daughter who's well placed at the moment at the university.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yes, she is.

[Marisha Ray]

It may be time.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I'm so sorry we're keeping Oras waiting. Yes, let's go.

[Marisha Ray]

Let's go.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

There's so much to talk about.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You guys head downstairs. You've finished your meal and your drinks. Oras nods and says hello to all of you. Says, all right, I'll give you a tour of hand and wheel heading out across the city.

[Marisha Ray]

You.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Did he take the rune that I slid over to him?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes, he did. Yes, yes, yes. Making sure he. And remind me, which is this one of the blank spelled One of the blanks.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Just as an indicator that, like.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes. He looks at it and goes. As he takes it, you see, he goes. Can't believe I wasted your time with all of that detective work. You know, this is one of ours. You know where these ended up?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

We do. But hey, it's always good to have someone check your work.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

All right, I'll take you there now.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

The ones we got from the Thieves Guild.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Because he told us the truth.

[Ashley Johnson]

He did.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Correct.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Heading out as the sun finishes setting into the dark night, you cross the River Vrosh and head down to the Fray. Where this is near to Potter's Field and near the. You can sort of the smell of the water of Lake Nahami and it sort of gets more humid down here. The incredible Nahami waterfall cast mist over this part of the Fray.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Pretty.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And walking over cobblestones with a light sheen of waterfall mist on them, you arrive and see the symbol of hand and wheel there up on this quite large industrial building. You see that this is sort of old squat stone buildings that some of them have survived since pre Shapers War and were like massive barracks halls or massive training yards and things like that that have now been repurposed into the modern industry of Dolmachyar. And walking in here, the first thing that's incredible because there's a lot of places down near the waterfront that don't smell that great. The door is open. It smells incredible in here. These enormous kilns where they're firing hundreds of pieces of pottery at a time. You see some of them. There's cypress and sandalwood logs underneath the fires that some of the kilns are marked especially. There's probably 12 large ones and there's two at the back that have some spellcraft around them, some druidcraft going around the kilns to help mark them as part of some of the spellglifts that were happening here. Oras makes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah. No.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

What's that?

[Sam Riegel]

I feel like I can smell it.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oras closes it behind you. And you can see that this room is quite dry due to the firing of the kilns. But you see that there is some large gates that go towards these huge stands of fresh clay. As he walks through, he points through the mist over Lake Nahami and goes. It's actually the far eastern side of Lake Nahami is our clay quarry. So we do all of our clay quarrying there. And it comes across the lake. We have a ferry that comes across and rests out here. And you can see that this enormous stone buttress is open to the sky and just lets the mist of the waterfall come in and keep the clay moist in this other room. And you see that as he sort of walks in you see that there are some beautiful charcoal sketches around that show a couple generations of this wing of the blade family. So you can see it's Oryris. There's a sketch of his mom who's spinning at a pottery wheel. You know, this is like many orcish families in Dhulnakyar 70 years ago. These were the workers and conscripts of an endless march to war. And this is a dream that came true just in a handful of generations.

[Marisha Ray]

The only glyph factory there is in the world that makes the glyphs by Waterfall.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I was wondering what you were giggling about over there.

[Marisha Ray]

Sometimes I think of things and I cannot say them because it's too much of a break in the table. And then sometimes I'm like, oh, yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You walk in and then you see there's a large. The loading dock is loaded up with stuff that you see is. Or I should say, actually, the loading dock is largely not loaded up with stuff right now. It looks like a lot of stuff has moved and that production has been stopped. You do see there are a couple of larger, more unique pieces. You do see two of the very large amphora, the kind that the paints came in. And you see they're identical to the ones you have. So this is clearly the workshop that

[Ashley Johnson]

created them, that created the container for them.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes. As he moves back, you see, he closes and locks the door behind you and brings you up over to another area that he opens up where you can see there are workbenches for spellglyphs and empty shelves. There are small trays that you can see might have had gemstones in them. You actually see the Magnessen name on a contract on a table of where they were getting their gemstones from. You're curious there, you see that? There's a little. Yeah, you look at it, it's like a smaller contract, but it's like you're sitting there, it's your family name. He comes over and says, so this was the workshop here. We were producing vastly more spell glyphs than we actually were. Enchanting here. There are, you know, sundered houses have their own ways of enchanting lots of things. So the business of the blanks was a much larger part of our business. But we did make and sell enchanted ones, the enchanted ones as well. And those were paying for everything. You know, the ones that we could make fully ourselves, we would sell those in the marketplace. And that was financing, getting us on caravans headed out east to Telmora and Zelmir and beyond. It Was financing us getting to Aziri and other places.

[Ashley Johnson]

How much did one go for in the marketplace?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

In the marketplace, a finished spell glyph was 500 gold pieces. Wow. And that's just for a small. But think about going to a knight and saying, break this and you'll be protected more than twofold of what a tower shield would be, Even if only for a span of a second. It's so you see there's a small noise upstairs from a catwalk that overlooks the production floor. And you see an extremely old pot bellied orcish man with spectacles and he's got white mutton chops and white hair, big tusks coming out the side, leans out and goes orus, what's going on? And you can see that Oras turns around and says, rohir, were you sleeping here? And you see there's a long pause and the old orcish man goes, no. He goes, rohir, as you see, he says, ahuras, I was going over, I found some savings. You know, if we run the ferry, not if we wait for a different time of day, it might be a little cheaper because the tolls are heaviest when the lake is. And you see that Oras goes, rohir, old man, get down here. I appreciate it. We're not gonna make the. We're not gonna balance the ledger on fairy fees. Just come on downstairs and you see the old man comes down and goes, whoa, late night for a visit? Hello Orys looks, you can ask him. He a little nervous because his clandestine meeting has been interrupted by what looks like sort of long scratching here. Yeah. Rohir says hello. I'm the bookkeeper for Hand and Wheel ceramics. I'm Rohir Howell.

[Marisha Ray]

Tom. Tom Rohir.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Hello.

[Sam Riegel]

Quiet night?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. It was a quiet night. But you know, you gotta forgive me. I live, you know, I used to be nothing to walk when the walk back to my home was 10 minutes. You did it all the time? Well, getting up there in years walk takes closer to 40 now.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

So you know, how long have you been working here?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I've been working at hand and wheel since the very first hand touched that very first wheel. I am a 58 year veteran of this ceramic workshop. Worked for Oris grandpappy.

[Laura Bailey]

Wow.

[Marisha Ray]

How much has changed in the process the way things are made here is it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We got more than one wheel now.

[Marisha Ray]

But beyond that there's just the right way to do it. And you've been doing it the right way for 50 plus years.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Been trying to, you know, we're A homegrown Dolmachia merchants company. And we, you know, and we can vouch for every part of the process. Unlike, you know, I mean the sundered houses, the marketplace. Well, I don't know to whom I'm speaking. Aha. Forgive me.

[Marisha Ray]

I like it when things work and when you can rely on them.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Rohir, if you're the bookkeeper, did that mean you were in charge of commissions?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You see that? Orys nods and says, I take a lot of time interfacing with the guild and traveling to try to collect contracts. And Ro' here manages a lot of our day to day here in the workshop. Rohir says, I do it. I collect a lot of smaller contracts.

[Sam Riegel]

Any new clients in the last few weeks?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, plenty. Yeah, plenty. Plenty of. We don't. We used to have a shop here and we don't anymore. It just became too, you know, it was not useful for us to sort of have that anymore. But we did take some custom orders, so we've had some of those in the past few. Yeah, we've had some big ones actually in the past few weeks. You see that Aura sort of raises an eyebrow and says big small orders. He says, yeah, yeah, Oras, we've had some big small orders and I'm proud of them.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Um, okay.

[Marisha Ray]

This is going to be an odd question, isn't it? I can see it brewing in your

[Ashley Johnson]

hand, but I think it needs to come up.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Oris, if it doesn't bother you, I would love to take a look at your books. Maybe look at some of these orders that have come in. Specifically one for a handful of enchanted amphorus.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You see that? He and Rohir look at each other and you see, he says, I thought we were here talking about spell glyphs.

[Ashley Johnson]

That too.

[Marisha Ray]

Quite a few things actually make him up.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You see. He looks over, Rohir says, he nods and says, well, I've lived in Dolmachia my whole life normally. He says. He says, I don't think it's right to allow you to look at our books. But because you're asking about Enchanted Amphora, I'd be happy to tell you what I know.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Look, I don't need to. I'm not trying to be a tax man or do some sort of intense audit on your ledgers. That's not what I care about. I am specifically. We are specifically curious about.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, you see that? He looks and says, well, I think I have a pretty good reason to tell you about Enchanted Amphora. You see that? Oras looks a little confused and looks over at Rohir. And Rohir looks up and says,

[Marisha Ray]

I'd

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

say about five or six weeks ago. So, you know, this is well before the war. This would have been before. Not only before the execution. This would have been rest.

[Sam Riegel]

Right.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Maybe this is before the offense. Well, before the offense. It actually would have been before thiazzi and thimble went north seeking the stone of. Oh, my gosh. Right.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Five to six weeks ago.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah. You see, he says, five or six weeks ago, we had. This is breaking a veil of secrecy. But then again, don't tend to need to keep secrets for those who have passed. Oh, okay. I'm sorry to say, Mr. Fang, but your brother came in about five, six weeks ago. He came in, ordered about six of the enchanted amphora we took. The order was a hefty sum of money. He said that someone would follow. He said he had to speak to. To a lady named Thimble and get the money all in order. But after that, he connected us with source of payment and gave us a point of delivery. He said he was not going to come pick them up himself. We had to deliver them. So you see, he says, let me go take a look.

[Marisha Ray]

Do you mind if we ask where

[Sam Riegel]

you were supposed to deliver them?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, where was. You see, he sort of rushes upstairs and comes back down with a book and looks through and says, we've delivered them to knife and pallet Pigments in the tanners. He says, for whatever it's worth, I knew the. The driver came back from it. We got an address, and we left it there. And he said he had to leave him on the street because there was no storefront. I mean, the tanner is not retail. Nothing. So we just. We just left the M4 out on the street. I mean, he. He said it was one of the roughest blocks in the tanners he'd ever been to. Oh,

[Sam Riegel]

now I'm seeing enemies left unwashed, unattended.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That was the instruction we were given. We were told to drop them off. They'd already been paid for. We were given the address of knife and pallet, and those were the instructions.

[Ashley Johnson]

And those instructions came from Theazi?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yes, that's correct. He had come in here with his animal companion and took a tour of the. Took a tour of the grounds and animal companion and, you know, made the arrangements and then took off.

[Ashley Johnson]

Animal companions.

[Marisha Ray]

Can you elaborate?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He had a falcon with him.

[Marisha Ray]

All right.

[Ashley Johnson]

Is that unusual, or have I known this before?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Do we know this?

[Sam Riegel]

For those of us who know him,

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

you don't know this at all.

[Sam Riegel]

Don't know about a falcon.

[Marisha Ray]

Fuck.

[Ashley Johnson]

So it landed appropriately just now.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Was it a shapeshifter? Is it a druid? Or was it an actual falcon?

[Marisha Ray]

There's a lot of options, Ranger. Could also be a way of hiding Thimble.

[Sam Riegel]

Well, Thimble was in the belly of falcon. Oh my.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Nevermind.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Anyway, all right. That's a big fucking question mark.

[Sam Riegel]

Do I know in my history with Titian now we have that. That is something that she would do.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Tysha, to your knowledge, cannot take the form of a flying creature?

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes. Not until seventh or sixth dark.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, no.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Did you sell these as part of the contract? Were they already enchanted?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We had to sell them enchanted. There were certain abjurations that had to be laid into the clay. So we took care of that.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay, and so this is where that product was then placed into this, I

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

suppose we were given specifications that they needed to be able to survive extremely high temperatures. That they needed to be. They needed to be able to survive high temperatures. They needed to be somewhat inscrutable to detection. But we don't really do that because that gets into illegal. We don't want to. But we were able to make. We basically were able to put an enchantment that kept the smell of whatever was inside from coming out. So just made them a little bit more, I guess, inconspicuous. And we. Oh, this was a strange one. You see, he goes through and says. We were given a specific instruction to treat the clay with a material that was extremely hemophobic. And essentially clay can soak up. It should be able to repel all liquid. But there's a certain blood. There's a secret place if you're gonna store meat or you're gonna store anything like there are just certain things that can seep into. Like taking care of a wood block.

[Ashley Johnson]

So it was making sure that blood would not seep into it, Correct?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, that's right.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Needed to be resistant to blood. I think you painted the theater with blood.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, let's find out.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I think she was right.

[Marisha Ray]

No, I'm. I'm. I'm starting to see some enemies.

[Sam Riegel]

It's very fair, but Ori was trying to out well about it later.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

We don't have you try not to jump to conclusions.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yes, no, but we'll get to that

[Taliesin Jaffe]

because then that can block you off from other realities.

[Marisha Ray]

We have to.

[Sam Riegel]

And this was kept private between my brother and your establishment. We're the first to ask any questions about this.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I assume you see that right here says. Yeah, no one, no One came asking anything because all he, you know, he basically just came in and arranged for everything. Payment showed up a day or two later we started production. We were just told drop it off at knife and pigment, Knife and pallet pigments in the tanners. We were given the address for it. We went, dropped it off in just a block of gray old battlements there in the tanners looking over the top of Lake Nahami. And we're on our way. And we dropped it off there

[Laura Bailey]

five

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

or six weeks ago. He was here. Probably completed the order in about two weeks. So this would have been about. Would have dropped it off about four weeks ago.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, he did. I did ask. I said what's the project? Because I asked do you want this to be a recurring order? Because normally big industrial things of that size, you assume very few people make hundreds of gallons of dye one time. Typically if you're making 100 gallons of something, you'd be. Keep making 100 gallons.

[Sam Riegel]

You have an industry.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

And he said it was a. What did he say? He said something like it's. He said it's a. He said it was a gift for a family member. He said it's someone's birthday or some. There's some special occasion. I don't know.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Was it your birthday a few weeks ago?

[Sam Riegel]

It was not.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Ro here. Do you mind if we get that address from you there?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sure, certainly. They need a run in a paint store in the tanners. They probably need all the foot traffic they can get. You see he sort of scribbles it down and gives you da da, da.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What was the Aussie doing?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He sent you see, he hands you a small thing. It says knife and palette pigment. 17 Hanadrosh Lane. Hanadrosh, good name. Hanidrash Lane.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah, 1700.

[Sam Riegel]

Do we know what part of the city that is on this map?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yes, the Tanners. I can't be far from here.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You would know the Tanners especially being in the rookery. Cuz there's those narrow set of eastern neighborhoods that don't have the main highway through them. So they. So those are really the. It's almost an outer burrow of the city is a way to think about it.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Right. He said it was overlooking. He said it was old battlement. So they should give us.

[Ashley Johnson]

It's not far from here cuz we're.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We're on the lake.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah,

[Ashley Johnson]

this is I think as far as we can get here.

[Marisha Ray]

Actually I have one last thing that I would like to do while we're here.

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah, yeah. Let's do it.

[Marisha Ray]

So what are your plans to keep this place open while you have nothing going on? Or do you not have any?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ro' here looks up at Oras and says, well, boss man, what's the plan? You see, Oras looks at it and goes, I am petitioning the Chamber of Lords advisory to receive dispensation. I see to they have made it known that there's a possibility that rather than selling in the marketplace, which is now illegal, we may be able to sell directly to them. And we are currently going back and forth on price.

[Ashley Johnson]

Have you thought about the Lord's advisory?

[Marisha Ray]

Yes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Oh, boy.

[Ashley Johnson]

I know you don't want to tell us what's in your or you don't

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

want us to look at the ledger.

[Ashley Johnson]

Have you done business with the sundered houses in bulk recently?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Not in bulk. This is the beginning of that conversation.

[Ashley Johnson]

This is the beginning of that conversation.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We were open to it. Not enthusiastic, but we were open to it. But they didn't want to start negotiating, and then they passed the law shutting down arcane magic in the marketplace, and then suddenly they wanted to negotiate when we had no other option.

[Marisha Ray]

If push comes to shove and things get dire, I assume you have some

[Ashley Johnson]

sort of

[Marisha Ray]

reserves of materials, clay, gems that you can offload, et cetera, or if you did have them, materials such as gems.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We've already attempted to sell back as many gems as we can. We're not gem merchants, so we can't fetch a high price for them.

[Marisha Ray]

What were you getting for the gems you were selling?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I would say four silver to the gold above table.

[Ashley Johnson]

These gems are the same as the ones that we put made to powder to.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

These would have been non magical ones.

[Ashley Johnson]

These are non magical gems.

[Marisha Ray]

Okay, if you had access to, let's say, magical gems, would you know where to sell them for a better price to keep everything afloat?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You know, we won't be able to fetch full price anywhere, but we potentially. Potentially, yeah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

We might be able to find a better solution to that.

[Marisha Ray]

I can immediately know. I was just looking for legal recourse.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Anyone who wants to give me a history check.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Well, yeah, I was gonna say, like being the daughter, you know, of the proprietor of the Magnussen family jewels. Would I have a lead on?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I'm gonna say you as the bursar. Give me this with advantage. Give me a history with advantage.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Great.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That was just.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I love that for me. I love that for me. What are my portents?

[Sam Riegel]

Just in case there's a one and a seven.

[Marisha Ray]

That was me going Ah.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ah.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I did new ones. So now I'm at five a half. And not my beautiful one.

[Marisha Ray]

Okay.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

But my history is pretty good as well. Okay, so that's gonna be 22. Total history.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

22 on 22. It all comes together for you in this moment. You did it.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I did it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You made the role on at 22. You realize how, Murray, you don't need to rely on your family. You and I both know that your family's minds are not doing what they used to do necessarily. How were you making ends meet for the Penteveral? For the last 10 years of your work there? You were working with Thiazi. You know, that's how you were making stuff happen. And Thiazi is no more. But you, I think in this moment, you just heard a name not that long ago here, about who was handling the finances for Thiazi. Who did he get to make the payment to this place? Cymbal.

[Marisha Ray]

Yes.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think you realize in this moment that there is an entire network of money that moves under the vision of the sundered houses in the city of Dhulmakyar. And the person that Thiazi entrusted with that was Thimble. Fuck.

[Marisha Ray]

All right,

[Ashley Johnson]

We need Thimble to move money, but we can give them at least an advance. Look, we have enough money to get this fired up and moving for at

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

least a little while.

[Ashley Johnson]

Just like we have enough money to get the soldiers that we've acquired.

[Marisha Ray]

I don't think we need little fans. I think, actually, if anything, I think holding off on advance right now would be the thing to do, I guess.

[Ashley Johnson]

Just our word that we'll pay them.

[Marisha Ray]

But to get things moving, they clearly will take it.

[Ashley Johnson]

For now, then. I think we need to establish those parameters, because the sooner we move on from here with these gears turning, the sooner we can get to the next thing. And we're already going to have a really late night again.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Lord, I wonder where.

[Marisha Ray]

But we now know that we can move that.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Who knows when Thimble will be back?

[Marisha Ray]

Well, we'll jump there.

[Ashley Johnson]

I think we can maybe try to find a way to. You have Pimlee.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Pimlee is in the underground.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I've got contacts underground.

[Marisha Ray]

Right.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Although I don't think Pimley's too happy with me right now. But I also have that guy from episode one that was like, I've got skulls.

[Ashley Johnson]

What's an episode one?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

What was his name? What was Skull guy? We have a skull guy.

[Marisha Ray]

Are we doing meta again?

[Ashley Johnson]

Yeah, we are. It's a spit you're sorting through your memory book.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I'll look it up, but I got a guy who's got skulls.

[Marisha Ray]

Let's look at. Let's look at these. Yeah, if we're gonna.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I'll look at it in a second.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Was this Dvrazy Gaunt?

[Marisha Ray]

I have some crazy ass thoughts.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

That's Tashmara Coppelgraves. Crazy.

[Ashley Johnson]

I love it.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

De sounds right.

[Sam Riegel]

Angle. Brat slapped you back.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Ankle.

[Ashley Johnson]

Dink.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Burp.

[Sam Riegel]

De back.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Burt. Herbie. Those are good names. You see, you see that? As you review, Murray, I think you can. You see that there's. There's definitely work to be done here. But again, the reason you worked with you had a lot of context. The reason you worked with Fiazi, first and foremost, the reason that you were close enough to him to go to his fucking funeral was that in addition to being dirty, he was reliable.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

He was reliable. Yeah. And he was a good mediator. He kept me from being too close to. Too close to it.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

Now we're getting our hands a little bit.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Also, it doesn't help that we sort of dismantled the Thieves Guild. But you know what? We'll figure it out.

[Ashley Johnson]

The Crow Keepers wanted to be trusted.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

They weren't to be trusted. In a way.

[Ashley Johnson]

We have other ones. Okay, so we'll get to.

[Marisha Ray]

I don't know what these are.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

So we'll get to all of that.

[Ashley Johnson]

We'll get to that. But how do we leave them here now? Do we tell them this is the setup. Get to work. And what funds we will acquire will be heading your way soon.

[Marisha Ray]

I think we'll talk to them later. I think we need to know what we need before we tell them. I mean, there's a lot of options here, but I think that we can get that word through other channels.

[Ashley Johnson]

How long does it take for you to make. Make 200 blank glyphs.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Sorry.

[Ashley Johnson]

How long would it take? Just curious.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It depends from where you start in the process. From getting the clay, to firing them, to everything being just the blanks or to enchant. Let's start with that. At top speed, probably six days. Six, eight days.

[Ashley Johnson]

Six, eight days.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah.

[Ashley Johnson]

So they would have needed to have started days ago. If we're thinking. If we're expecting something is on the horizon soon.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

I think his name Brennan. I think his name was Tunk Horman.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh. Oh, no, no, no.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Sorry.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

No, no.

[Ashley Johnson]

Razzie Gont.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Tonk Kovacs was a boreful mercenary who I think hit on tyranny. Tunk.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Tunk was a whore man, right?

[Ashley Johnson]

Look it, look it, look it it.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Oh, I guess. Okay. Jared is saying it's de. Okay. It must be Dezzi.

[Sam Riegel]

I'm Tunk Horman. I'm here to fix your plumbing.

[Ashley Johnson]

Back on the porn thing, huh? That's better actually. T. Tunk Horman.

[Marisha Ray]

Okay.

[Ashley Johnson]

What was his last name? Sorry?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think his last name was. His real last name is Gox.

[Marisha Ray]

No.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Where Horman comes from. I fell for it. Justice station which she said, who's man?

[Ashley Johnson]

Why isn't he working with us?

[Marisha Ray]

This I missed.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think you see that Oris at this moment goes. That goes. We should let Ro. I should walk Ro here home.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

All right. All right.

[Ashley Johnson]

You'll hear from us.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah, let's. We can be in contact. Maybe we can at least once again make this as like a food donation drop off that people can come and get supplies. I think operating on that level first as opposed to an actual exchange of gold, storage might actually be better storage because then if anybody comes by. If anybody comes by because if also if they're making deals and trying to like move this contract forward with the sundered houses. I don't want the sund houses to like people come in and check in and see something off kilter or something.

[Ashley Johnson]

I think that we need to come up with something. Do you have a back room? It looks like you do it. This work room that we're in right now is kind of a back room. Right? They have a warehouse and they have a warehouse.

[Marisha Ray]

The further away the better. Plausible deniability.

[Ashley Johnson]

And we need them to not work with the sundered houses. They need to have a plausible reason to have their equipment not be in order and sort of indefinitely not in working order at least. Front of house, back of house is where they're going to be doing whatever we eventually set them up to do.

[Laura Bailey]

Okay.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oras looks and says, I'm going to walk Rohir home. Yes, I was happy to tell you what I thought was news to you. You all are deeper in this than I am. Oh, I. I am here for you. I want to help. I need to take care of my people.

[Marisha Ray]

Yes, absolutely.

[Sam Riegel]

City contract is hard to turn down.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He turns as he goes to escort Rohir home and leaves you guys out there. You guys have this address, but it's also too late to go. You've spent half the night walking across the city. You turn around and feel from Oras the same thing that was communicated from Verin. There are people who want to help and they swim in deep churning waters that are commanded by the Likes of the sundered houses. They need to eat. They are drowning, and they need to make choices fast. Their hearts are with you. Their bellies are not. And so, You guys, I think it is late at night now, perhaps too late to go check out this other address. So, you guys let me know if there's anything else you do that night, or if you want to move to the next day and try to go accomplish that.

[Marisha Ray]

How far away from the gala are we?

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Two days? Three days?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Three days right now. Tomorrow will be two.

[Marisha Ray]

There might be a little bit of work that I'll cover with you later. I probably would have gotten a bit of that done. And I also, to be fair, I have a roommate I have not checked in with for quite a while.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marisha Ray]

But other than that, I assume once I get home, he'll be there. I just want to look at his work and see where we're at. At that.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You get home that night and Demetus is looking at you. It smells incredible in here. You see that?

[Ashley Johnson]

He's

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

looking out. Give me an insect check when you get back.

[Marisha Ray]

Yeah, let's see if I can actually roll something. Where's the good one? Where's the good one? Oh, yeah, look at that. 1818.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You get back. He's rearranged the various illusory gew gaws that make your apartment a little brighter and more lively. The kitchen is spotless. He looks out and goes, I was thinking about the decorations in the kitchen, and I know that I put that mobile by the window. I actually think the mobile's. I moved it over to the arch, but then it looked too chunky in the arch. I moved it back to the window, but the window, it's the same light problem, so I don't know if you want to get them to build another window in here.

[Marisha Ray]

Mm.

[Ashley Johnson]

Uh.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh,

[Marisha Ray]

I love what you've done with the place. Oh, that felt very weird to do. Oh, I did not like that. That felt. I can get used to this. You need to be comfortable. I'm not used to sharing space. Don't. Don't not change anything. Yes.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Don't not change everything.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Don't change everything.

[Marisha Ray]

Do what you need to do. How is the writing going?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

It's going okay. I certainly miss

[Taliesin Jaffe]

my novel.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

You know, if. You know when I might be able to go back to school, if that's ever going to happen.

[Marisha Ray]

Well, we'll work on that. We are working on that. At full speed,

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

ged. Demetus goes, yeah, yeah. Got it. Got it. I understand. How dangerous it is. I'm not impatient.

[Marisha Ray]

I may have something. I don't know if you've looked at the books. There's not a lot of books in here. But feel free to pick up anything that strikes your fancy. I think you'll find some very interesting reading for someone of your ilk. Things that you probably couldn't find at the Academy. And. Yes, and I look forward to reading everything you're working on. Where's Figment? Out of curiosity,

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

says Figment. Oh, up here. And you see that? Figment is currently turning one of the pages of the books, reading it. Oh, my God. You see that? He just looks at you and goes, I have read most of the books. I read all of them. I read them all. They're great.

[Marisha Ray]

Did he find the book that Hal had been looking for? Out of curiosity?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, Visages of Creation.

[Sam Riegel]

It's on.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

I think he did, but I don't think he knows.

[Marisha Ray]

He has not put that together.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He's not put that together.

[Ashley Johnson]

Okay.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Just curious. I didn't even know howl was.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

He says, yeah, he says, I have read all the books. Thank you for letting me have permission. I didn't know that I should check for that.

[Marisha Ray]

No, you had your complete permission. My home is your home for the moment. And I'm delighted by. I'm delighted by Figment. What are they reading right now?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

They're reviewing one of the passages in that architectural examination.

[Marisha Ray]

Do they have a particular favorite? A subject that they seem to be drawn to, or are they just reading for pleasure? They're reading.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Well, I don't know why Figment is so fascinated by the architecture, because I would have sworn it was bugs.

[Marisha Ray]

You don't. It just happened.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Mm.

[Marisha Ray]

This imaginary lizard just decided they were interested in architecture.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Oh, imaginary things can decide anything.

[Marisha Ray]

Do you think there was something in you or something beyond?

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Maybe it's both. Maybe there's something in us that's beyond. Oh, gods, I hate that. Maybe rest in hell.

[Marisha Ray]

I'm gonna go to sleep. Enjoy. There's nothing outside of the bedroom and everything beyond that Closets is absolutely, absolutely on limits.

[Ashley Johnson]

Whatever.

[Marisha Ray]

Not off limits is. This is so hard.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Thanks.

[Marisha Ray]

Good night.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Good night. Belair. You go to sleep. That night on top of 350 unnamed former veterans.

[Ashley Johnson]

Oh, my goodness.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The Hand and Wheel Merchant company and all of their potters and workers. You can now add Demidus Blix to the list of people desperately counting on you to find them a way out. We are going to move to the next day.

[Ashley Johnson]

I want to do my level up. Tonight, Great.

[Sam Riegel]

Level up.

[Ashley Johnson]

You know something? I see myself at home in my room, and I go through the same routine that I do every night. The same way that I get ready, take this arcane martial equipment, this garb off of myself. And I find myself in this moment in my room, looking at it. I'm naked and I'm looking at this equipment,

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

and.

[Ashley Johnson]

I have Bolair's words that he recently told me ringing in my head, that you cannot be a thing and a person at the same time. And I'm looking at this thing that I have become, a role that I play, a costume that I put on. And I speak out into the aether. Thiazi. I don't know where you are. I don't know if you can hear me. You probably can't. But I guess that means that what I have to say is to myself. And I'm talking to myself again, like I do in my head, over and over again. And I. I don't know who I'm supposed to be without you telling me who to be. And I have embodied a lie for you for so long that I don't know where that lie begins and where it ends and how much of it I've actually become and is actually me. And I realized that I thought we held funeral for one man, but instead, we actually held a funeral for hundreds of men. Because you have found this way to alter who you are a little bit, depending on who you are in the presence of. And that's how you get us all to do exactly the thing that you want us to do. And I've no way of knowing the person I would have actually been if I had not altered myself to be what I thought you needed me to be. And I think for the first time in a while, I feel like I'm on a mission with people that I feel like have my back. And it's not conditional. It's because of who they think I am. And I don't know if that's the real me, but I understand why you did that. I understand why you would alter yourself into tiny, different versions of you. It's effective.

[Marisha Ray]

And

[Ashley Johnson]

I guess I am still trying to be what I think you want me to be. And I think in this moment, I look to the mirror and I think I inadvertently, subconsciously, cast a spell. I see that I also activated innate sorcery without even knowing there's tiny motes of fire and sparks of electricity whirling around me. And I look in the mirror and I see my face is changing I see. I see a face looking back at me that looks a little bit like Hal. Then it changes into a little bit of Murray. Then it changes to Baler, then Einfassen than my parents. I see it going back and forth between my mom and my dad and their dark hair and their tan skin looks like such a contrast to me. But I see that my face is half hers, half his, even if in other ways I don't look like them. Sometimes who you are is less important than who someone thinks you are. And sometimes it's okay to become whoever they need you to be in order to get the job done. I've been altering myself for him for so long as I realize in this moment that the spell that I inadvertently cast was all true self. And as that sets in, I lean into the mirror and I look closely into that reflection and I choose the next change. My skin becomes a little greenish. My hair darkens, My jaw, my chin, my mouth changes ever so slightly. And I look at a version of me that would have been if he were my father. And then I turn around. And then I lay in bed. And I go to sleep.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

The sound of the rushing river outside your window accompanies you into sleep as it has so many times. All of the faces you saw in the mirror and the word remember. A word in the language of your people. A word in Navikan, a language

[Ashley Johnson]

that

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

starts to come back. It's the rushing of a river. Remember, remember, remember. A river rushing outside. Pounding waterfalls begin to sound like a deep and powerful growl. Its world torn apart by the forces of destruction. Force of creation. All but a distant memory. Memory. There is something sleeping in this world that is asking you to remember. And in dreams, a growl deeper than the foundations of your world as a massive head looms over you in dream smother and laughs in joy and recognition of its people. And that's where we'll go to break Schemer. And that's where we'll leave our story for now. Part two of this episode of Campaign 4 drops this Tuesday. Thanks for listening and we'll see you soon for more critical roles. And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird.

[Sam Riegel]

What is this, your first date?

[Travis Willingham]

Oh, no.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual Together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Taliesin Jaffe]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways.

[Brennan Lee Mulligan]

Get a [e-mail] or with your local agent. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty.