Not Another D&D Podcast - C3 Ep. 54: The Family Secret (The Ice Knife Saga)
Episode Date: February 23, 2024Duck Team investigates Alexandrite's infiltration of the Ice Knife! Callie gets news from the Feywild, Sol bonds with Kenna, and Calder stands up to his big brother. Support us at Patreo...n.com/Naddpod to get access to the after-show and a bunch of other Naddpod content! Get tickets to our upcoming live shows at naddpod.com/live.Music / Sound Effects Include: “A Wizard’s Tournament” by Emily Axford."The Purge" by Emily Axford."Bittersweet Sixteen" by Emily Axford."The Smithy's Hut" by Emily Axford."Corrupted" by Emily Axford."Left is Left and Right is Center" by Emily Axford."A Memory" by Emily Axford."Tundra Trudge" by Emily Axford."Tarragon's Terrarium" by Emily Axford."The Lonely Autumn" by Emily Axford."Balnor the Brave" by Emily Axford. "Escape From Smuggler's Bounty" by Emily Axford. "Shock at the Dock" by Emily Axford."Mee Maw's Burden" by Emily Axford. "Irina" by Emily Axford."Oh, Melora!" by Emily Axford. "The Gunslinger's Girl" by Emily Axford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Welcome to the campaign after the campaign. This is not another D&D podcast.
Welcome back to Bohumia, everybody.
Right before we started recording, Emily started saying, YAH, King.
Well, I was like, YAH, what's that from? And then everyone said it's YAS Queen.
Yeah, it's half of Yas Queen, I guess.
Right, but this one's for the Kings.
Sounds like something else.
And then it morphed into Yaw King.
Yaw King, Yaw.
I used to hear this in its own thing.
I'm sure, yeah, somebody saying yeah in a funny way.
I'm sure it's been done a billion times in a Yaw I've heard it before.
It's kind of like, yeah, when you are like getting a horse to gallop,
something you go Yaw, Yaw, like that.
Oh.
So maybe it's like when you're gassing up your kid. You're like yaw King a very famous comedy bit
I'm sure that we're not
But it forgive me. I was trying to get this out before
And it had to be addressed because everyone was smiling and laughing as I started yeah Yaw. I could hear the smile in your behumias.
I could hear it.
And the audience needs things explained.
Right.
Okay, we can't just do things out of context.
I can't believe everyone's thinking about Dane Cook's famous yaw bit.
Yeah, honestly, it could be.
Who knows.
All right, I am your dungeon master Brian Murphy joined by Jake Hurwitz.
Feeling miffed about the nickname GIF.
Oh! Call it a kill day. But I'm. Feeling miffed about the nickname GIF.
Oh!
But I'm not actually miffed, I like it a lot.
And I think, okay, so in real life it's pronounced GIF.
Oh yeah, GIF.
And it's GIF in this case.
In this box of GIF.
GIF.
Wow.
I think I say GIF in real life.
Yeah, I don't know which one's right.
I don't know which one's right.
Do we really want to open this can of work?
Do we want to get into this?
Yeah.
Let's keep going. right this from the record knocking
No, and then of course we've got Emily Axford of Frigus ball Calliopee Petricle
His name right Frigus war yeah the character that you made off great you fucked in the Fey wild
Frigus Boris cannon now, I guess right the enthusiasm in your
Boris Cannon though, I guess. Right.
The enthusiasm in your voice is to save that.
I guess I have to make stats for him.
I guess he exists.
That's the first person we'll see when we go over
to the Feywild.
He's gonna be making a last stand to save the Feywild.
Gally, show us your home.
And then of course we've got Colgaltanner.
Oh, very worried about Calder's bro.
Don't want to do the intro no more it's all buffo. Let's fucking go
Sorry your reaction was like that came out of you unintentionally
It was like carbonation
Inate to your being everybody control themselves. We haven't even started. I'm sure it's from something so obvious
It does sound like something that a video game character would say when you hit them
Sure, all right, let's go ahead and do a little recap. Yeah, so last time
Everybody
Everyone I was yes, I time. Last time. We began with Sol dreaming about floating alongside Swag in a swamp. Swag thanked him for convincing him to fight against mothership and was proud that he got to quote be a hero at the end
Before he could finish his thought the vision glitched out and swag was grabbed by a sea of wires
As he was pulled beneath he shouted to Saul the name of Boris Frigg
Saul woke up and shared his vision with his friends after some debate about whether Boris Frigg was the same person as Frigg is Bor and an automoladron that Cali fucked, Calder remembered Boris
as a friend of his brother Gawens.
You packed up your things and headed out again into the tundra towards Calder's village.
After another successful but stressful day on the sled, you made it to the ruins of Mount Forge at
Sundown near the top of the hill. You spotted the first light of the Ice Knife along with
a squad of giant rangers preparing to launch a volley of arrows. You exchanged words with
a giant on a mammoth who revealed himself as Gregor killed Day after some light razzing. Gregor took you up to the tower and gave you the scoop.
The East Watch of the Ice Knife had been attacked
the day before by a group of androids
pretending to be Rangers.
That morning, Boris Frigg had disappeared
before he was able to make it to the tower.
Gregor also revealed that a bullywug was present
at the attack on East Watch, fitting the description of swag.
You left Gregor and went to Calder's house where Mira and Yurg embraced you with open arms.
During dinner, you revealed that you knew about the relic behind the waterfall.
After some initial shock, Mira revealed the truth about the Ice Knife. The original Dragon and Giant war on the material plane was started by Dragon and Giant Kin
from the Feywild.
Ariax the Winter Eladrin assisted the Giants only to the point that he could weaken both
sides of the conflict while the small folk established footing in their new world.
As the war ended, Ariax created the Ice Knife to seal the portal to the Feywild.
Calder's ancestors are some of the few who knew about Ariox's true plan. When the truth
was revealed, there was a fight, and a paladin of Groomsh killed Ariox with the Ice Knife
itself, the cavern where the Ice Knife lies is said to be cursed.
While Kali snuck off to find a map that we were hinted at in her office, Saul followed
up about swag and found out that he had been taken to the Alchemist.
After promising to come back, you said your goodbyes and headed off to Ingrid's tinctures.
When she answered the door, Saul ran through her legs and broke into her lab while Calder
and Kali were left to calm down an angry mob. Once Calder revealed his identity
and name dropped his brother, Ingrid calmed down and allowed you inside. Meanwhile, Saul
found an unconscious swag on an operating table and went in to check on him. As he did,
Swag jumped up and grabbed his arm, transporting Saul back to the vision he'd had the night
before. As Swag battled against the sea of cables.
He warned Sol that Alexandrite had gotten to Gregor and that's where we are now.
So Sol, you've just broken out of your trance.
You are standing over the gray, sickly body of Swag.
You see all these wires poking out of him.
Callie and Calder, you arrive in the basement
laboratory here and see Saul standing over swag.
Damn, what was that, man?
You went rogue.
I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. It's just I
I sense that he was in trouble and I think I think I was right. I kind of
moved to the side to show both of them. Swagg's current state. Oh, no.
Yeah, you guys see Swagg's body and you do see some light breathing,
like his chest moving a bit, but he looks like the corpses that you found
when the mimics deanimated, like the doppelgangers deanimated when you fought
them in Flurry Harbor.
And you see the alchemist Ingrid
walks forward and puts her hand on Calder and Callie and looks at Saul suspiciously.
These creatures attacked us and they can mimic. Are you 100% sure this is your friend?
I look over to Saul.
He would know. I raised both my hands. Do whatever tests you need to do. We have
glasses that up till now have been able to help us determine whose friend and whose foe, but I don't
I don't know how efficient they are anymore. I think that whatever infected him is evolving. It's it's getting stronger. It's changing
It's learning. Can I sort of like just do an investigation? Yeah.
To see if he's the same? You can.
That's one T. Whoa, totally.
That was my only chance because I don't have good investigation.
You see Saul is green and organic. He is your scouter, the one eye of the
sunglass. And you see that swag is showing red, is showing not even the
evolved Alexandrite thing, like he is infected or controlled by Alexandrite.
Just covered in Alexandrite. But it is still, he is the substrate of this construct.
You can't fully tell.
Okay, I guess I'm just gonna lay on hands
to see if that does anything for him.
You see, as you go to lay on hands, Ingrid,
once again, puts her hands on you.
Wait, please, everyone stop touching stuff in the lab
I haven't touched anything except for this one little beaker
Those are yes everyone
Put on your lab socks, which of course are super thick in case we step on something corrosive.
So sadly puts on socks. But she goes over and she's got an orb that kind of works similarly,
like detects magitech and detects certain types of magic and different signals and stuff,
runs it over you, Saul, and sees that you are in fact not a replicant, goes over and shows
saw and sees that you are in fact not a replicant, goes over and shows the body of swag and you see like you're looking through the scouter red all around him and Callie, I'll say a
little bit of your, your like paladin sense is coming through and you're not really sensing swag in there, even though you sense on the scouter that there's,
it's telling you like 99% inorganic.
Like it seems like he's in a state of deep meditation.
Like he's using his monk abilities
to keep himself there a little bit,
but you don't even know with that Nat 20
if that 1% is him.
So it could be like a replicant.
You don't know.
But you see that Ingrid walks over,
shows you guys the reading.
You see the little 1% of bio matter there.
And she goes, the Ranger General brought a few of these strange
beings here after the fight at Eastwatch. They were all effectively dead, puppets to
whatever was controlling them. Their nervous system has been completely
replaced by some kind of strange technology. This one was an outlier only in that according to my readings there's
there's still someone in there there's still something biologically natural in there.
Is it possible that that could be extracted revived in some way or?
I I don't know how to do it right now but he's been stable since yesterday and all of the other ones
Were lost right away, so I'm keeping him alive as best I can and we're trying to help him
In fact the the ranger general should be here in a moment
He had an alarm down here
He told me strict rules not to let anyone come near the body and to let him know if anything suspicious was happening
This is called her I nothing says love you love you Calder as a member of our community and I miss you and I'm glad you're back. I remember
when you were a kid. This is one of the most suspicious things that's ever happened. We just
wandered in here Calder is putting down a Bunsen Burger, another beaker. That's an exploding thing.
I mean like exploding oceans. I was looking at them to make sure.
Yeah, that's right.
We just didn't know if anywhere like bitters
and we could make a cocktail or a cocktail.
Well, the bitters are over there.
Next to the corrosive stuff.
Okay, they're right near all the corrosive stuff.
So the bombs are emeralds and the green,
the bright green, that is the bitters.
So why don't we mix a cocktail when Gowen gets it wrong?
Careful, that's the corrosive.
Oh, that's almost drinking. That's exploding. the corrosive almost right it almost happens all the time it smells strong
anyway your friend is in good hands okay well I just want you to know I'm
really sorry for how I acted but I'm willing to take responsibility for him
if it comes to it if if he starts rampaging again, if he's acting against the interests of the
town, I'll be the one to put him down.
Alright, well, hopefully it doesn't come to that.
From what I understand, the description of the fight at the East Watch was that there
were replicants there pretending to be Rangers, this one she justers to swag turned himself revealed his true form and warned everybody about what was about
to happen and that's when the fight progressed I don't think he's fully
able to control himself but he seems to be able to keep himself alive through
some kind of meditative state and we're trying our best to figure out how we can best help him.
That's my bratty, alright.
I don't know what that means.
It's okay, Saul's currently mixing cocktails for everybody.
That's the corrosive stuff again. You really, you all have to be careful and stop touching
things in the lab.
I've got to be honest, I've drank some of the corrosive stuff.
Are you alive?
It was really good.
It's OK.
Klaibre passes out.
Give me a sip of that.
She's going to have a stomach ache.
An awful stomach ulcer.
Calder, you're going to want something strong,
because I have news, unfortunately.
While I was in there, Swag managed
to get another message to me.
Saul, as you approach Calder, kind of senses senses that this is gonna be something a little bit more serious and goes over to the alchemist
Ingrid and starts to kind of tie her up in conversation. Okay, so this is the corrosive stuff
This is not the about allowed to drink this. No, just
Canna starts going around the lab kind of distracting the alchemist, giving you three
a moment to kind of speak amongst yourselves.
Ah, such a squire.
What's going on?
It's Gregor.
Uh, yeah, we just saw him.
He's pretty funny, actually.
He is.
He's a goddamn hoot.
But she got him.
No, it's impossible. We're just with him. I know.
It's what I said. She's getting better. She's growing in power. She's getting more human.
Calder looks at swag and thinks about his brother.
Okay, what do we have to do? We have to tell we have to tell Gowen. Where is Gowen?
I think he's on his way here. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's good. Then the breaking in and stealing Benson burgers and stuff won't really come up. Yeah, if anything, this is going to be like really
distracting information. Okay, bigger fish to fry. Yeah, but I haven't known him for very long
But from what I saw he's strong. He can fight. Yeah, he's
He's tough he can make it he can make it we can help Gowen can help
Yeah, I think you can help too
I'll do my best. I
Think I think swag's gonna too. I'll do my best. And I think... I think Swag's gonna make it too.
Thanks.
I give Calder and Callie extremely hard pinches on the shoulder.
Ow!
I love you guys. I love you so much.
Is there a chiropractor?
There is actually.
I'm technically a licensed chiropractor.
Go at my back.
She goes over about to pour oil on your back.
Oh wait, that's corrosive.
Why do you only have corrosive stuff?
I don't know.
I don't know.
This is my lab.
You weren't supposed to break in here.
Sorry, sorry again.
I understand the mess.
Okay, I have my own system.
Everyone should really be wearing
safe and sound.
It seems like everything's corrosive. As you guys fight with Ingrid, you hear a door open upstairs and you hear giant footsteps
coming down the stairs and emerging from the darkness of the hallway down here, you see
the Ranger General, Gowon Kilday, a giant that stands so tall and proud that he is a head above his fellow
Rangers. He's flanked by two Ranger Captains. Gowon has long, curly blue hair and a matching
beard trimmed neatly. On the back of his White Fur Cloak is his Ice Sword, once wielded by
Calder's mother. The name of the sword is Howl.
Fuck. I'm going to real quick sneeze and cast Enlarge on Calder.
Oh, sure!
I can wait for this moment.
I smack my head on a beam.
Oh!
My shoulder and head.
And I look at my brother and I don't know whether to hug or salute him.
Yeah.
And I just come over with like an unsure salute, turning into a handshake.
Yeah, you see Gowyn walks in, looks shocked, and as you go to salute him, he grabs you
by the shoulders and goes, Calder, why are you down here?
Yeah, it's a, well, it's a, actually it's a short story. This guy ran in.
Hi, it's... hi, hello, it's my fault.
It's just a ghoulish reunion, little brother.
Yes.
But it is good to see you.
It's... it's good to see you too, brother.
You've... you've grown five, six feet since I've last seen you.
It's only temporary.
You look good. You look good you look good, please brother meet me my friends me
Calliope Petricor Sol Bufo. Good afternoon Ranger General. I curtsy but like a military curtsy
so precise as
You as you say Calliope Petricor goes Calliope Petricor. I like that name
Thank you.
I didn't choose it.
I have to be honest about that.
Most of us don't.
Mm.
Yeah.
And those sparks.
Those sparks.
Looks over at you, Saul, kind of confused
and points at swag and then points at you.
Yeah, speaking of names, that's where I got mine from.
That's my brother-father clone situation.
We're still kind of settling on the name.
I say Brad, but that can be confusing as well.
Can I offer you something corrosive to drink?
I hold that a glass that the corrosive has hollowed out
the bottom of it.
So it's like a bottomless tumbler.
He holds his hand up to refuse it politely and then puts his hand on your shoulder, called
her and he goes, nice to meet all of you, but brother your timing is a bit suspicious.
I'm sorry for this. You see he brandishes a knife and stabs Calder directly in the chest.
What? Okay!
I'm going to ask a reaction.
Okay.
I'm going to fucking put that magic back on him.
Okay.
He has to do a wisdom save.
All right.
I don't like seeing that.
He gets a 21 on his wisdom check.
He saves, but he still takes half the damage.
Okay.
Callie, you go to reflect the magic back onto him.
You see a matching dagger shoots from Calder's chest and goes into Gowen's chest.
But Calder, you don't feel anything, and Gowen doesn't react at all to the knife in his chest.
You see, they both turn into harmless,
magically created illusions.
They turn to ice.
A litmus test.
And break.
Son of a wild beast.
He pulls you in.
Sorry, I had to be sure.
And now I know you're not a replicant either.
Looks like you, Callie.
Yeah, sorry, that was just a cut reaction.
What about you, though?
Throws a knife at Sully.
Sorry, Sully, I'm out of reactions.
I catch it between my tongue.
It just stabs me.
You catch it the way you normally would,
and Gowen goes, sorry, the last batch of replicants revealed themselves once they
were under attack.
So I had to be sure.
And maybe I wanted to test you a little bit.
I see you're using magic to try to stand a little taller.
I had nothing to do with that.
It was a surprise.
It's me.
It's just, I'm a bard.
And what I do is I sing great songs about my friends and it sort of
Magically inflates them. Yeah, or you know you just stand next to your friend and you're really small and they look taller in comparison
Yeah, it's called being a friend probably a minute is up now and he goes down
Yeah, you look up at count shit and you see a gallon you see, uh, Gowan puts his hand on your shoulder,
and he goes, I still think you've grown a few inches.
Mm.
High August leg.
Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha to talk. I heard tell that you were in town, but I'm assuming this is not just a family visit.
If only. Come, let's find some more private to talk. You see, he dismisses his rangers,
speaks to Ingrid for a moment, gestures to swag for her to keep watching swag. You see,
he brings you across the street out back into the town square to the north star at the main entrance
You see drunk giants like spilling out a few of them are tussling
Oh, but he takes you to a side staircase up to a private room on the veranda
You see he pulls a key from a ring of them and opens the door and here you see it's
The north star is a tavern and an inn So this is like a big like kind of private room.
See, there's a big cozy room built of enormous logs, similar vibe to Calder's home, but less personal.
There's a red rug in the middle of the room, an enormous bed, a window that overlooks the town square and a fireplace.
Gowan goes over and throws a log on the fire and gets it started.
And he goes, OK, little brother, tell me,
what is the meaning of all of this?
Well, man, I suppose we should start from the beginning, but the most pressing thing
is they've got Gregor.
You see his face drops, but go ahead and everybody give me inside checks to see if you can read
even more into it.
That's only a 10 for me. Okay. 15. But go ahead and everybody give me inside checks to see if you can read even more into it
That's only a 10 for me. Okay 15 that teen, okay
He seems to already kind of know a decent amount because there was this attack
They do know about they're not like ignorant to magitech You guys have been sending letters about mothership
They have been keeping up on some of this stuff and I'm sure they've been approached, right, by mothership or Alexandrite in some capacity.
Yeah, so you see, as you say, it's gotten to Gregor,
he just sort of drops the cool attitude.
That's not, that's not possible.
Who told you that?
I didn't think it was possible either.
I saw him a few hours ago.
But the gray frog on the operating table.
Yeah.
I managed to speak with him.
There's still...
A heartbeat of his soul left inside of that body and...
He communicated to me that...
Gregor...
As well as Boris, they've been...
They've been taken. I don't know if their bodies have been taken.
If it's hiding in their skin, I don't know what's going on, but we have to be wary.
I put him out there to try to protect him. Gregor is, he's headstrong. It would be hard
for him to navigate something like this, but I still find it hard to believe it's not your fault the
alexandrite was gonna find him out there or in here but you're right he's
headstrong if there's any chance he's he's fighting her he's fighting this
all right yes if I suppose if there's hope for your your, perhaps there's hope for our brother as well.
Stubbornness can be a great strength, especially in a battle like this.
I wish we could discover like a tech blight.
You know the way that like a plant can have like a blight that kills a bunch of trees.
Oh, that's the worst I was looking for. I'm from the Feywilds, so we call it a tech blight there.
Tech blight, right.
I called the right set down.
When your electric corn gets blighted.
This is, that's not a bad idea.
We should, if we can get a relay out to Albin, maybe we should talk to him and mob goblin
about that.
Yeah.
Gowyn just looks like there's a million things going on in his head, and he's just nodding
and thinking and looking kind of panicked but he takes a deep breath he calms himself and he goes
okay on the off chance that Gregor has been compromised that could mean that
everyone at first light has been compromised yeah I will send a message
and let them know to hold tight that way we don't tip them off and
It sort of keeps them quarantined out there without alerting
Whatever this is that that we're on to it. Mm-hmm. Yes
Brother Ranger General sir
You can just call me gowan or brother. I call you brother to do bro. What's up, bro guy? What can we do for you?
command us With all due respect Calder I Brother, I call you brother too, dude. Bro. What's up, bro? Guy, what can we do for you? Command us.
With all due respect, Galdor, I always
thought you would have made a great ranger,
but you are not a ranger.
You left.
So the most I can ask of you is to please look out for mom and dad.
But I'll talk to my Rangers
and I'll figure out a way to take care of this.
Thank you all for everything.
This is good intel.
This is good intel.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Colder shrinks.
Would you like us to spy on them?
I can't in good conscious ask you to do anything like that.
Okay, but like, I mean, do you want us to? Would it be helpful for you?
Yeah, you could just say it sure would be helpful if someone would spy on them and then we can
infer the rest. Yeah.
You see, Gowen, unlike Mira, is not playful and starts to look intense and goes,
and goes, please, we've already lost enough.
Do not put yourself in a position where I lose another brother.
I see.
Understood.
All right.
I know, no, I don't want to be protected anymore.
I want to help.
I'm, I can just as easily get compromised by Alexandra
cowering in mom and dad's basement. It's not cowering, they're in danger. Mom and dad are in
danger. Everyone is in danger. So send your rangers to look after mom and dad and let me fight with
you. Calder, I'm proud of you. You've gone out on your own and you've met people who seem like great friends and you
braved the tundra, you came out, you warned us and we appreciate that.
But again, you chose not to be a ranger and I respect that.
But I will do things my way.
It doesn't sound like you respect it, Calder.
Ranger General, may I interject?
Sure.
How many of your rangers have bested an ancient dragon?
I... an ancient dragon, like hundreds and hundreds of years old?
Yeah.
I can't say any of them.
Because Calder has gone face to face with King Dorotar and came out on top.
And how many of your rangers have gone up against Alexandrite and come out on top?
Because right now, we're looking at a handful that fell.
Because Calder has gone up against Alexandrite multiple times now and come out on top.
Calder shakes the dust off his shoulders and stands a little taller. Gowen leans forward and rubs his temples.
Again, Calder, I'm proud of you.
I'm happy to have you back.
Whatever you do is not with my approval.
Please, please stay safe.
Now I have an investigation to do.
And as he gets up to leave, he looks at you intensely, Calder.
Mom and dad are in danger.
OK, OK.
I'll go to them.
Marv, quick question.
Yeah, Saul is watching this all take place.
Yeah, seeing Gowen glaring at Calder.
Gowen and Gregor are identical, right?
Correct.
So they are, yeah.
Gregor said they were fraternal, but he meant it in like everybody
thinks Gowen's perfect and he's.
Oh, but they are identical.
However, I think I didn't fully describe Gregor.
They do dress differently.
Right.
Gregor has like a mullet and a long goatee,
whereas Gowyn has like a neat beard and chaggy hair.
And would Calda like 100% know
if one of them was pretending to be the other?
Probably, probably, yeah.
He brings you in for a big hug.
I'm proud of you, I'm sorry. I'm proud of you too Ranger General
He smiles and then
Leaves you guys in this room to your own devices
Kenna I guess was kind of there the whole time just staying off to the side to not get involved in the family stuff
But she's she's there as well. She's still asking questions
Really tactful there. Yeah. That's why. Yeah. Yeah.
So Gowen is left.
Gowen has left and you guys are now in this room above the North Star.
Okay. I'm, I hate to even say it, but I don't know who he can trust.
For some reason, the way that Gowen said look after your mom and dad made me
feel like he was at conflict with himself. Like,
I don't know if he's been compromised too,
but it seemed like he was trying to get a message to you like he was worried.
Interesting. That's, that was the gown I've always known, protective fiercely of, of our family.
If, if he is compromised, then yeah, maybe he is coming, maybe he's coming through. I feel like we have to go protect my parents.
I mean, it's honestly not even a bad idea strategically.
They're some of the most powerful people in this village.
Yeah, they know the secret.
Yeah.
What they know could compromise the village
and the whole world.
So let's go check in on them.
Yeah, let's hustle back.
You guys go downstairs,
and you do see in front of the North Star,
there are some Rangers,
and a bunch of them are slapping each other on the shoulder,
kind of drunk and just going,
this one's for Boris Frigg,
is the Friggin' Man!
It's the Frig the freaking man, dude!
Yes, yes.
I'm gonna just real quickly detect farts to see if I hear what's going on.
Great air.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
I'm just like absolutely an eavesdrop on air.
Right on.
You put on detect thoughts, go ahead and give me an inside check.
Eight.
Eight.
Okay.
These guys are definitely not doing what the Puffins were doing.
So you don't get the sense that they're any kind of replicants or anything.
The Puffins, the Puffin folk were thinking exactly what they were saying out loud.
These guys have all these mixed up emotions where they're all sad about Boris and they
want to know where he was and they're worried that he was like consumed or something by
some kind of monster and
They're as they're telling their stories and everything
They're telling all these dumb stories about how he was the freaking man, right?
So all of these things are coming to the forefront of their thoughts before they start speaking
So they were they're talking about he once jumped off his deck into a pile of snow
about he once jumped off his deck into a pile of snow and he used to ride a snowmobile naked across the lake. So cool. So fucking sick. They talked about how he had a fire pit on his deck
and then he inherited his parents' lake house and how fun it was and how they're gonna miss the
nights on the lake house and everything. Fuck, do I get an idea of where the lake house is?
You do, yeah. You would, I mean, a...
I charted on the map that I saw from that.
Right on. As you tell Calder what you learned, Calder,
you narrow down, you don't know exactly where Boris lived.
You guys weren't that close, but you do know that there's
essentially, you go across the lake, then there's the residential district. For him to have a lake house
means that there's a very small area that this house would have to be for it to
be lakefront, and then also it's pretty distinct that he had a quote fire pit on
his deck. I could see that thing blazing from down square.
The Boris Beacon they call it. You have an idea of kind of near where it would be.
Okay.
Somewhere to check out.
All right, so we can go protect my mom and dad
or check out this sick lake house.
Well, I don't think it's an either or.
Right, it was full of tough decisions, yeah.
I think we focus on your parents and then at some point.
Do you guys want me to go to your parents place that I could send some kind of message or something?
I look at Kenna and I know that we and I in my head know that we do to her what called as brother does to him
And for a second I'm like about to deputize her to do this and then then I'm like, no, stay with us. Stay with us.
Okay.
We need you.
All right, yeah.
We need you right where you are, which is with us.
Caldercy is what's happening, it wells up.
That's how you manage the money.
Yeah, we shouldn't split up.
I'm worried about what'll happen to us
if we're off on our own.
Yeah.
Okay, so you guys once again, walk across the lake on this trail,
back to Calder's parents house.
You guys go in the side door.
And at this point, you guys have been up for a long time
because this is the same night that you guys arrived
and that you spoke to Gregor at the tower.
And so you've already visited home, had dinner,
gone out, come back dinner gone out come back
So you come back and it's quite late. You get back to this giant warm cabin
It looks like Yergh has gone to bed, but Mira is up in the living room sort of absent-mindedly
Carving a bow she looks up and goes oh, I'm glad you're back. Did you did you get the answers you were looking for from the alchemist?
I called her. Stairs blankly. Yep, all good.
Uh-huh. Good.
Great. He's gonna make a full recovery.
Yeah.
Excellent. I'm glad to hear that.
All right. Well, we've got the calleders old room set up for you. You're welcome to use that or anywhere else you'd like to post up for the night.
But before you go to bed, Calder, do you mind if I had a word with you?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Sure thing, mom.
You see, Mira first takes you guys and shows you guys to a room.
You see, there is a treadmill that has been folded up
and put to the side.
And there is like an office space here,
but she has set up a bunch of beds, a bunch of cots.
Looks like she's split up a giant bed, essentially,
like cut it up specifically for you guys,
because she is doing all this woodwork.
So crafty.
And makes a bunch of beds for you guys. We're all just skating posters.
Those really should be in frames now, hun.
Okay, I'm getting them framed.
You're getting them framed?
Okay, can I go pick them up?
They're in the attic right now.
They're in the attic or they're getting framed?
They're in the attic.
I think next time when you come back in seven or eight years, they'll be...
They were glued to the ceiling.
Yeah, yeah.
You peel them all off and you're getting them framed. Let me speak to you for a moment.
Yeah, let's go speak.
You see, she brings you into her office, a different office.
This is your ex-office.
She brings you into her office.
Try and know what would have fit near fine.
See, it's lit by candlelight.
There are old tomes and banners and weapons from her time
as the ranger general. And you see she walks over to
the wall and grabs a sword. It glows dull blue and white like a frozen lake in her hands. It's
got a silver handle with a sapphire inlay. And she goes, I gave Gowen my sword, Gregor my bow, and I've got something for you.
For me.
Called her sits.
She crosses her legs and sits down with you.
She hands you the sword.
To you it looks like a great sword in your hands and you hold it and it feels good and
it feels balanced and
she goes, this is my dagger.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it.
I've got all the girls with it. I've got all the girls with it. I've got all the girls with it. I've got all the girls with it. I've got all the girls with it. need him. And I think he was my favorite. She gives you a little wink.
Thanks, mother.
And this dagger is a plus two great sword. And once per day, you can
frigo with the damage on an attack and attempt to cast slow on one target.
So essentially you can hit them and try to like slow them down.
Amazing. That's sick.
And she kind of puts her hand on your shoulder and goes.
And now that you know about the ice knife, I can.
Expand on some of the answers to the questions you had when you were a child.
Yeah, tell me, tell me everything.
Well, I will tell you just like I always do, that you are just as much a giant as me and your father and your brothers.
Calder looks at a family photo where he's...
You're cut out of it because you're so small.
You have to hold your hands up.
A thumbs up.
And she goes, now you know,
there are biological explanations
for why you might be different.
Alladrin, furbolgs, all types of fey folk in our lineage,
but I think it's more than that. If you were
as tall as your brothers, do you think you would have felt the need to prove yourself?
Do you think you would have gone to Esri and gotten all of this information that you needed to help us and met these fine friends of yours.
I...
No, I would have probably stayed here and wanted to be one of Gowen's Rangers.
I don't think that was your destiny.
You think I was destined to leave and to come back? Yes, yes.
I, a mother has an intuition,
but there's something beyond that.
I told you that I spoke to a specter
when I went down to seek the ice knife
when I was a young Ranger General.
Mm-hmm.
I told you that it told me that now was not the time,
but that was not all that the ghost said.
The ghost said, now is not the time,
but there will come a day when your little one
will be called upon to help the Fae.
Now you weren't born yet, and the twins were children.
At the time I thought the ghost meant Gregor or Gowen, but now I think it meant you.
Why did you wait to tell me?
Why didn't you tell me when I was younger?
I always told you the truth, Calder.
I told you that not all giants are tall.
But there was some information, our connection to the fey, our connection to the dimensional
portal that is dangerous in the wrong hands. And if I were to
share that with a child, they could gossip about it in school. I realized it was unfair of me to
put you in that position. I know that you were picked on, but don't you think it was likely
that you might have told someone that you might have shot back
that you had a destiny?
Yeah, that would have been really easy if someone said, you're small.
And I'd say, yeah, well, you don't have a destiny, do you?
There you go.
Exactly.
If you had that bullet in the chamber, I fear you would have fired it.
But that's not a fair thing for me to have put on you.
So I'm sorry for having not told you
and I would have told you a long time ago, but
I loved.
You had to go, you had to.
And I don't hold that against you.
I think some of us stay and some of us go
and when the ones who go come back, we're happy to have them.
You know, I missed you while I was gone, right?
Of course, my dear, of course, and I missed you very much.
Well, so maybe I'm ready to know the truth, but I still don't know what to do.
That is where I think you differ from your brothers. Gowlin always thinks he knows the way of it
and he is often right.
Gregor, I think.
It's really annoying.
It is.
It can be a bit much, even as his mother.
Gregor always thinks he has the right of it
and he's never right.
Let's face it, it's pretty funny though.
He's, Gregor has a very good heart.
It's gone.
Called a cry for his family.
Yes, yes, we both, we love our family,
no matter what kind of differences we have amongst each other.
But yes, I'm sorry for the part I played in making your child difficult.
And, no.
No, no, you made it easier.
You never made me feel small.
You see, she leans down and gives you a hug, kind of puts her head in your chest, so you're a little bit taller.
And we cut away from Calder and his mom.
And, uh, Callie, what do you think you're doing?
Well, I'm a little bit worried about Calder's parents. So I think I'm trying to, like, set up a Learman's tiny hut around Yergh's bed.
And I didn't have a chance to ask Mira.
And I'm like, explain it.
I'll explain it after it's done.
You go to, you see, Yergh is snoring really loudly.
Tiptoeing around with a small crystal bead, which is the spell component.
You hear, I dropped the bead.
As you drop the bead, you're...
Oh, hey, go.
Yeah, uh, I mean, Mr. Kilday.
I'm...
I know my room.
Right, sorry, this really looks really different.
I was thinking we could all have a big slumber party in here because I've got this little spell of protection
And I just thought with things being precarious
It might be a nice thing for us to all huddle up and know we're all safe
Okay. Yeah, no, there's sometimes
We were the kids were young they'd come in here and
We'd all have a little sleepover and say,
it was camping but inside.
Yeah, I want to do camping inside.
Yeah, I want to do camping inside.
That's fun.
That's really fun.
What's going on with your duck?
Plants at Foster, who is with you and you see Foster's eyes are glowing red and he's
looking out the window.
I'm going to really quick finish up the cast of the spell.
Camping inside of what it thought.
Yeah, spread the word.
We're camping inside tonight.
We're camping inside.
And then I'm just going to pick up Foster by his feathery wings and follow him, follow
his gaze.
Callie, you see that Foster is looking out the window out into the backyard near
like that meat shed.
Okay.
I'm just going to go with Foster.
Callie, you go out back with Foster and you see all of these dark houses around other
log cabins.
Nobody's got lights on.
The only light is the moon and in Calder's backyard backyard you see this meat shed and a white field of snow, but in it you see
that Foster is looking at one yellow sunflower poking out from the snow and
Foster's eyes are glowing red at it. F**k, how did you get here? Um, are you-
Magic!
Did you like create your own little mini portal?
Or did you come through the ice knife?
I just came up through the dirt.
He came through the dirt?
Yeah.
Hi.
Hi.
Good to see you again.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
Do you know, I'm on the other side, I'm on the material plane.
Yeah, I know.
What's going on in the Feywilds. Is everyone okay? No
God you're bashful. Yeah
Oberon said that I should come here because there's too many bad people around and they might not notice me
But guess what?
They're friends, too
Wait what?
There's bad people in the Feywild?
I mean of course there's bad people in the Feywild. Have you been to the Feywild?
Yes, yes, yes, of course, self-interested, but are there any that have been, that have been used?
Is it Alexander right there?
Is the machine working its way into our gorgeous biological roots?
Not yet. Those are the bad guys that are here.
Okay. Yeah.
So Oberon sent you?
Uh-huh.
Did he send you with a message?
So...
Spell?
Your friend's mom?
Yeah.
She said that Ariox came clean with his plan under the mountain and then that there was a big fight but there wasn't.
There was just one little fight with two people.
Everybody else got frozen for later and their friends.
So when we go down there, we have friends to free.
Yeah, they left the Feywild because they didn't like what it was becoming
and that's why they came here. But this plane was already spoken for. So Ariox kept them in a safe
spot so they could wake up later when things were different.
What? So they were like, Faye?
They are like giants, giant Kin Faye.
Yeah. Giant Kin Faye.
Yeah. OK. Why does Oberon want me to know this?
Ariax wants you to know it and Oberon wants you to know it.
And Ariax.
Yeah. Ariax has some kind of consciousness still.
He's dead and he can't really tell us what's going on, but he had a plan
and you're kind of part of it. Part of it? Okay. So if Ariax's plan lives on,
it's his plan to keep the ice knife as a portal or should we try to seal it up because I'm pretty perplexed.
Okay, well, I don't know what you're supposed to do with the ice knife.
But I do know that people think that Ariox betrayed all these giants, but really he was just being kind of tricky. And so he wants everybody to kind
of have their cake and eat it too. Way, way, way back there was this thing called the taming of
the Feywild. And Callie, you remember when you first found out about Oberon, that was why Oberon
originally made the serpents. He left the Feywild because they made the crowns
and they made the courts.
And-
Crowns and courts not wild enough for him.
There you go.
So there was this thing called the Taming of the Feywild.
And so Oberon had this prophecy that was like,
if you guys continue to take the wild out of the Fey,
the wild will rise from the earth and take over again. So it happens basically essentially what this flower is telling you is that there were other people that had the same
ideas over on there were other people that were like fuck this we don't want to be here
I don't want caught to crown totally so some of those original fey giant kin are still there frozen
So some of those original fey giant kin are still there frozen.
Okay, so they'll have a good idea of what Ariak's intended. I know what he intended.
What does he intend? No gods, no masters, no courts, no crowns.
You got it. You got it.
Okay.
You got it.
Okay.
But they couldn't break the crowns before.
But guess who can break the crowns?
Please say it's not Alexandra.
I think she would use the crowns.
Okay, cool, cool. Oh, god, I was so fucking worried you were gonna say Alexandra.
No, no. So I think that that's why times have changed because the crowns are now officially a liability.
And I think that if those were broken...
Because they accumulated all this power and now they're just these power nodes that anyone
can fucking hack into and ruin everything.
Yep. But your serpents, all three of the serpents, if they're together, can break a crown. And
that's the only way to break one. Well, that's the only way that I know. Why do I know I'm
just a flower?
You know a lot.
Thank you but I do have some bad news. Do you want to know?
Yeah I do.
The friends? Uh-huh.
Some of them are really mean.
Oh.
But they don't like the crowns so they might want to help if they know that you can help
break the crowns but they're gonna be mad that they got tricked by Ariox because he put them in a
cave for like 10,000 years or whatever.
Or actually, probably like 50,000 years.
I don't know how many years.
Okay.
So we've got like a diplomatic mission to like get them on our side.
It's your job.
At least long enough to break these crowns.
You've got to bring them together.
With the serpents and finding the other serpent is a priority.
Well, your sister already has a serpent and she is trying to do it without any friends and it's
not very smart and I tried to tell her and she didn't listen. Wait, really? Yeah. She wants to
break the crowns? Yeah, she's really mad at Queen Jovir.
Oh.
She got in trouble because her serpent got big
and she started a big fight.
And now Queen Jovir is after her and Cyrus says
she's gonna kill her.
But she can't because she doesn't have enough friends.
Oh, wow.
And like, just like how big is her serpent compared to like, I point at the garish. Bigger than your serpents?
Okay.
Okay.
What's her serpents name?
Marigold.
Fuck.
So fucking cute.
You guys like flowers.
Yeah, well, you know.
I'm a flower.
I like flowers.
I would think you'd like to be that.
Some flowers, some flowers are jerks.
Who do you hate?
Spoe.
Mark.
I also fucking hate Mark.
He's the worst flower.
He pitches me another screenplay that he wants me to write.
I'm gonna fucking...
Right, flowers like to dictate.
Okay, well.
Well, thank you very much. I am winter eladrin right now, but I melt some of my water to
water her.
She happily takes it. You see, she fluffs out and gets way bigger.
Whoa, I also grind up some fish guano. I know this is good fertilizer. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha helpful. Yeah. Grab her by the petals. Thank you, Obrin, for sending a flower to me.
I'll tell him. You see, turns to ice and shatters in your hands.
You make a little sound and Saul, what do you think you're up to? So I think that I
instantly got the treadmill back down.
And I've been just doing flips and running as fast as I can and trying to do some training.
I've turned on some really loud giant death metal that I found in Calder's closet.
I found essentially his old iPod.
Yeah, I've all been playing over my heart to heart that I was having with my mom.
Yeah, you just hear her blasting through the walls.
Yeah, I know.
Ken is trying to sleep and I'm just ignoring her.
Yeah, as you're working out, you see Kenna, yeah, she's lying in bed, but is just kind of like staring up,
and she keeps like making motion, like she's going to talk to you you but she's keeps like kind of stopping
herself. Sorry is the music too loud I can I can turn down a little bit. Yeah um
yeah why don't you Mr. Bufo why don't you turn it down I think. I'm just trying to get
a little workout in before bed you know I want to make sure I'm at my best for
everything we got going on tomorrow. Of course of course but up yeah Mr. Bufo I
have a fear of you bringing up like family and stuff a lot, and...
I don't...
I don't totally know...
how to say this, but do you think that...
I could show you something through, like, your sporse thing? Do you think it works like that?
I mean, we can certainly try. I'm not really sure what all it's capable of, but...
Yeah, I've...
Let's give it a go.
You hop off the treadmill, you see Kenna walks up, puts her
hands on your head, and then rests her head against them. And
you feel a sudden jolt as you are pulled into one of Kenna's
memories. And you see Jaina Bronzebeard looking over
some kind of city plans in her study
in like the Iron Deep Castle.
She's looking all stressed out.
And then you see Kena enters the room.
You see Kena is wearing like civilian clothes,
just like a regular tunic and no plate mail.
And Jaina goes,
shouldn't you be out in the yard sparring? And kind of looks down. I'm leaving
Iron Deep. My father's been sending me money and I bribed one of the couriers.
They told me where I could find him, so I'm gonna go to
Esrae and I'm gonna look for him.
Jaina puts down her work and nods and sort of crosses her arms and thinks and goes, well Well, has he reached out to you at all?
Or are you the one that is doing all the work?
And Kenna looks down again, kind of not wanting to answer.
And Jaina gets up from her desk, walks around, and kneels next to the young squire and goes,
I will not tell you what to do.
If you choose to go to Esri to look for him, I will charter the airship myself,
but I wanna tell you something.
I have had two little sisters in my life.
One shared a family name with me, and the other did not. One liked jewels in her beard, and music and dancing, and the other liked hammers and
plate mail and sparring, and she sort of pats on Kenna. And she wanted very much to be a knight. I would
hate to see her throw that dream away. And I would hate to lose another sister. Kenna
just breaks down crying and buries her face in Jaina's chest. Jaina brings her in, kind of holds her for a moment, and then Jaina pulls back and makes eye contact
with her and goes, the gods do not decide who is and isn't family.
And you come out of the trance and see Kenna standing there kind of awkwardly and teary-eyed. So yeah that's just a thought baby.
No yeah no that's yeah. I know that you call yourself a squire but I can see it everyone
can see it you've got a knight's heart beating proudly under that iron. Thank you for saying that, Mr. Bufo. Just call me Saul.
That's gonna be a hard habit to break, Mr. Saul.
And you see she goes over to her like pack
and she goes, anyway, I found some old books
in the equipment bags.
And you see she pulls out a copy of the boy wizard and his frog pal.
And she hands it to you.
Gosh, this whole thing.
She goes, Hey, man, I know the monsters weren't real at launchpad, but
I thought the Bade characters were very believable as brothers.
You're right.
Thank you for reminding me.
You know, no matter how much we lose, we got to hold on to what we have and
we've got to double down on those connections.
I'm really glad that we got to meet you.
I'm really glad you're here.
Thanks, big bro.
Um, gives you a big hug.
Did you want me to sign this book?
Yeah.
Yeah. For sure. Could you want me to sign this book? Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
Could you make it not personal so in case we ever have to sell it for potions that we
can get a kidding, a joking, a joking, a joking.
Just right, keep on truckin'.
That's hilarious.
Mr. Buffett, Saul, that's hilarious, Saul.
God, it's so hard.
It's okay, sis, you'll get it.
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Thanks for listening, enjoy the show, and remember, his hunger is infinite.
Meanwhile, Callie, you are still out in the backyard.
You've just finished up with the flower and you suddenly hear a crunching in the snow.
Before you can get back inside, you see Gregor sneaking around the back and he goes,
Oh hey, Kelly, hey.
Hi Gregor.
Hey, I'm supposed to be at first life, but I snuck off so I could talk to you guys.
Don't let my mom see or she'll tell Gowen.
Go get Jif and the other guy, Saul, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Go get them and tell Jif to meet in the meat shed. Okay, so me, Jif and Saul, just the three Jif to meet in the meat shed okay so
me Jif and Saul just the three of us to meet in the meat you can bring Kenna to
if you want yeah just don't let my mom find out you fucking tell Gowen
Gowen gets so pissed okay okay um cool I'll be right back right on okay my boys
are watching the tower for me so they're gonna cover me, but my mom is gonna tell on me.
Yeah, totally.
What's this about just so I can give them a heads up?
I just got some cool news.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
It's cool.
It's really cool.
Good news, yeah.
Okay, great.
Good news from Coldbreak.
Awesome.
I'm gonna pick up a bottle of champagne too.
Right on.
Sound good? Okay, I'll be in the meat shed. I'll be in the meat shed. champagne too. Right on, okay. Sound good?
I'll be in the meat shed.
I'll be in the meat shed.
I'll be in the meat shed.
Gregor goes in the meat shed and very quickly
after you see vape smoke coming out of it.
Can I do a detect thoughts on the meat shed?
Yeah.
I guessed it.
Okay, go ahead and give me an insight check.
Okay.
Come on, one of these, 15.
You hear racing thoughts from Gregor, Come on one of these 15 you hear
Racing thoughts from Gregor first off supermatic Gowan like stupid fucking piece of shit brother
Make me stay out at the goddamn tower. I should be back here like all kind of things about Gowan
Little bit panicked that his mom's gonna find out but Gregor is a little bit of a dumbass,
so he's kind of excited.
So he's kind of having fun excited.
He's excited to see Jif.
He wants Jif to come out so that they can hang
in the meat shed.
He's kind of like, this is just like all times.
And he's also thinking about like,
oh man, that little frog dude is gonna be pumped.
He keeps thinking that.
That little frog dude's gonna be pumped.
Okay, I go upstairs.
I try to get everyone to go into camping inside everybody.
I don't shout that.
I say it quietly so Greg doesn't hear.
Yes, I'll say you guys.
Yeah, yeah, let's go.
Alright, yeah, can't be inside.
Nice.
Can't be inside.
Just I go dime, scotter.
Yeah, I remember.
Yeah.
I think I'm gonna do like, I'm trying to think of like how I as an
a winter eladrin would write something
So I think I like
You know how like sometimes snowflakes collect to make patterns on a window. Yeah, I kind of write
Gregor's outside in the meat shed and he wants the three of us to meet him like on my hand as if it's snowflakes
Or it frosts on a window and I just show them. It's not camping inside without some frozen weenies.
Oh yeah, you guys wanna snack?
Yeah, I'm gonna run out.
Let's all run out.
Oh yeah, we'll play this a really good idea.
Yeah, we're really hungry.
We're gonna get a lot of weenies.
We'll be right back.
All right, we're not gonna come.
Yeah, stay here, keep it warm.
Yeah, yeah.
Keep it warm.
All right, I'll be here.
Into a camping. Well, that mirror, mirror. Get mirror in here. Come Yeah. Yeah, all right. I'll be here
Mira mirror mirror and here
Camping
We're going to get some frozen meat you and you need to warm up this
Space for you kids in here snack. Oh, we're starving. Yeah, we've got snacks covered you keep those. Yeah, no, no Dutch ovens though.
Am I right?
You can do it.
You can.
I already did it.
I already did it.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, they start getting ready for bed.
Start farting up a storm.
Yeah.
All right, let's go outside.
Let's go.
Yeah, I mean, I'm assuming, Colt, that you don't want to just like straight out attack
him or is that what you want?
No, I don't. I don't want to attack him, but I also, you don't want to just like, straight out attack him or is that what you want? No, I don't want to attack him,
but I also, I don't want to do exactly
what he's telling us to do either.
Is there any way we could do some kind of exorcism
or something?
Also, I got a lot of information,
but I'm gonna fill you in another time.
Okay, so just remind me.
Before we go into the cave,
I have like a ton of fucking info.
Interesting.
I was just talking about I didn't know what to do.
Well, I think I can help you with that, but just remind me, because I will forget.
Alright, can you write a note on my hand?
Yeah, I do.
The frost on the pain.
Ask Callie about destroying the crowns.
Interesting. Interesting.
Okay, so,
so Gregor wants us to go meet him in the meat shop.
Yeah, which I feel like he's maybe trying to heist us,
but when I read his thoughts,
I'm almost wondering if there's like a subconscious thing that's piloting him,
and his conscious thoughts are still him.
Which makes me wonder if we can do some kind of like
Exorcism, but he was saying he was it the little frog is gonna be so excited. He said yes good news
Okay, well
How big is the meat shed?
Pretty small. It's small for giants huge for you guys. So it's pretty big. Yeah, it's log cabin size
for you guys, so it's pretty big. It's log cabin size.
You can see, all right.
I will do a detect magic on the meat shed
to see if there's any magic emanating
from whatever's happening with him.
I know that this isn't really magic, but just in case.
And can I cast Mirror Image on myself?
Yeah, you make three duplicates.
Okay, three Calder's pop up.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right, take one of these guys into the
meat shed with you, me and the other two. We'll wait outside. Smart. Okay. I'll prepare an action to
just jump up into the rafters at the first sign of danger. Right on. Okay, so you're kind of,
you guys all go outside, Calder makes some duplicates of himself, Callie, you are there with
one of the duplicates, and you cast Detect Magic,
no magic coming from the shed at all.
If that's the case, okay, so if I'm with a duplicate, I can't also be invisible.
So yeah, I'm just going to go in with both fucking snakes.
Can I look at the mirror calder?
Does it look exactly like you or is it like slightly off?
I guess I imagine the mom was coming as like reflective icicle caulders.
I'm doing like really good pantomime to sell that it's real.
Yeah. Like putting an arm around it.
It's super close, but if you look really like, you know, intensely at it,
you'll see a lot of shagging edges.
The man has made a vice.
I hold its hand.
So, Ice Calder starts to walk towards the shed
with Callie, Sol's on the outside,
readying a reaction, ready to go.
You guys enter the shed.
You see there are hanging frozen carcasses,
stripped of skin, red meat hanging by hooks.
Moonlight pours in through slots in the shoddy woodwork of the old shed, when suddenly a
monster appears.
You see this horned beast with all this hanging meat over its face comes out.
Augh!
I'm fucking with you, dude! Did I get you? this hanging beat over its face comes out.
I'm fucking with you, dude.
Did I get you?
Wait, don't scream. My mom can't.
Okay.
Okay.
Don't don't scream.
Sorry.
All right.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Me and Calder, but the frogs taking a shit.
Oh, hell yeah.
Hell yeah.
He said he's got about 10 more minutes.
Oh, I know how that goes.
I think I'm on the roof.
Great. Yeah, I heard the, I think I'm on the roof great
Yeah, you're I heard the I heard the the shock scream and I'm like you saw the room
You see that Gregor has taken like a giant like goat carcass and put it over like the skin over his head
It's fucking terrifying looking and your brother would do this like when he was a kid and would still have a goat on his face
Yeah, took the mask off fucking gross
15 minutes I'll take you guys
Yes, I forgot to bring the fucking champagne. Okay, what was the good news? Yeah, okay?
You guys want to wait for your your frog buddy? He said get start a boot. I'm having my me time
Okay, okay, okay, so I'm doing just like mimicking everything Callie said. Like, talking or shaking, because my mimic will be there.
Your mimic can't talk, so I keep like,
I keep just like pretending like I'm speaking over you.
Sorry, cause I keep cutting you off.
I can't believe he didn't squeal.
Called us throwing his hands up like,
what the hell, let me get a word in it.
All right, all right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, all right.
Wave his hand off.
It's all right.
All right, so check this out.
Check this out, check this out.
Check this out, Chiff.
Okay, so I wanted to tell you guys out. Check this out. Check this out, Chiff.
Okay, so I wanted to tell you guys in person.
We got a message at first watch.
Apparently there were a bunch of survivors from Coldbreak.
They escaped during the attack and went south through the mountains.
They're with the frozen fist now.
We got a message from Commander
Fuldar and the weirdest thing. Yeah. They say it was a bullywug who saved them.
Saw Falls through the roof. Oh fuck. Okay. Oh was awesome, oh my god! Shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh That's fucking epic. That's fucking epic. Let's all get our fucking story straight, okay? All right, my mom and dad
Ask about why the fucking shed fell, okay?
I'm gonna break a branch out of a nearby tree. Okay, we're gonna pretend that fucking branch fell, okay?
It wasn't it wasn't cuz I got scared it wasn't cuz anyone got scared, okay? Yeah. Yeah, I've got it. I've got it
Yeah, yeah, anyway, you were off taking a shit. So right apparently okay
I know you said you had clones and stuff, right? Yeah, apparently a bullywug was in cold break and got a bunch of people out
They said that obviously little message on a raven so we don't have all the info right but apparently there was a big fight
They had a bunch of Rangers there and guards and everything and a bunch of rangers there and guards and everything, and a bunch of those guys got absorbed, but a bunch of the other citizens
were taken by this bullywug while they were hiding,
and he was able to get them away
from the other replicants or whatever.
Did they just, did they say what he looked like?
Did he have a beautiful wig of blonde hair?
They said that he didn't have that.
They said that he was gray and had wires coming out of him
But was doing his best. Oh
So it seemed like he was like fighting against something or whatever again bird message. So yeah, there's really these bigger birds
Am I right? Oh, do you think we should say that a big bird came through the
Actually go get the champagne. I'll be right back on yeah when I
Leave I just want to make sure that everything's normal at the house and he isn't isolating us to go after the yes
You go into the house and you see that Mira and Yergh are already like snoring in bed
And I'll say Ken, canna stands guard and good.
No, canna go in the Leamons tiny hut
because I'm scared that they're gonna leave.
I'm scared that if someone comes.
You got that.
Because I can keep everyone from them
as long as they stay within the hut.
Right, okay.
I'll stay in the Lea but the tiny hut.
All right.
Okay, so yeah, like a big bird.
Maybe the bird like accidentally got like a bottle of wine
and drank it and crashed through the wall
or something like that.
So something, we've got that, got our story straight there.
Seems a little complicated, but okay.
I'm still confused though, cause the bullywug is here now.
How did they get all the way from the rendezvous
with the frozen fist here?
I mean, no way it's the same frog.
Cause they said that just happened. or I guess like a few hours
However, long it took the bird to fly. Maybe it's a slow bird
True, you know strong from all the wine. Yeah, this this is getting more complex by the second. I
Don't I got to sit down. Yeah, you guys want to smoke?
Champagne's good for me
You guys want to smoke? Ah, champagne's good for me.
I don't think you should, Colder.
Oh yeah, Mini-Colder reaches for the smoke.
Colder, come on, please.
You had a big coughing fit last time.
Nod's nod steps back.
Actually fine, you can have one.
I hold it to his mouth and make it look like he's doing it.
Yes, nod smiles, pretends to blow smoke out the window.
Epic.
So does this mean that there's another clone out there?
I don't know.
I think that seems very possible,
but I hope not because that means that motherships
got into them too.
That's so selfless of you, Gregor,
that you heard this information.
You were so excited to share it with Saul.
It wasn't that selfless.
I kind of wanted to hang out.
Oh, nice. Hey, does everybody at first watch vape like this? Yeah. Excited to share it with soul. It wasn't that selfless. I kind of want to hang out. Oh nice
Hey, does everybody at first watch vape like this? Yeah, did you start this? Is this kind of like your trend? Yeah, nice
Can I see the vape? Sure Sick hands you a vape. It is like a magitek item
It's like a vape thing slide my glasses on and check out this vape
I kind of do like a I pretend like I'm a real cool guy vaping with my glasses on, but I don't inhale.
The coolest thing you can do.
Damn, shit, he's fucking just swallowing the smoke.
That's awesome.
You look at it and it is like a magitek item,
but it is not made by mothership.
Looks like it, it might've been something literally made
by like Ingrid.
Okay, but it doesn't seem like it's.
Doesn't seem like it's compromised. Okay, cool. Do you guys ever go to Frig's Lake house? Hell yeah. Just now
that we're like dude was fucking crazy. Yeah, she's ride a snowmobile naked around
the lake. Friggin man. And it but it was really late at night so no one was out so
wasn't like weird. Gotta understand the context.. The mimic holder is nodding. Deep-blooting.
Gif knows, Gif knows. Boris wasn't fucking weird.
Shaking his head. No way.
No way, dude.
I think this is the exact analogy he would have wanted.
And one time, one time he jumped off his freaking deck and you gotta understand,
like small folk, when they jump off decks into snow, it's like, you know, pretty, pretty scary.
But like this dude, we're talking like 700 pounds he went straight through the snow was like
dropping a fucking ball. Was he just breaks down crying? Was he naked when he jumped off the roof too?
Of course he fucking was dude. I mean being naked in this kind of cold so
confidently is such a flex. So fucking epic. Yeah Friggin epic friggin epic. Yeah, do you guys think that at his house when they just found like his clothes and his rings and like his
Family heirloom sword and all that stuff that it was just like him going off snowmobiling or doing something funny
It is true. He does like to get
like to get you. We have established that.
Oh, so maybe he was just doing some epic. He wouldn't do it during the day, though.
He was a weird.
We wouldn't do it.
He wouldn't do it if it wasn't just a party with like a few close friends.
He went through the full moon to show us full moon.
There you go. Yeah.
Fuck. Yeah. God damn, man.
It was the shit. Yeah, that's so fucking crazy.
Saul fills his gullet with vape.
I don't have a mind to fucking go over there.
Oh, I mean, I've been thinking about checking it out.
Yeah. Yeah.
Said heirloom sword.
Yeah, we should make sure that's safe, right?
Well, I mean, they didn't just leave it in the street.
You fucking Gowen took it.
Ah, Gowen took it
Can I do like I guess like I'm gonna write on I'm gonna write with Frost on the window to Calder
This is definitely Gregor, right?
Calder and his other two mimics peer in the window
Can I do an insight check on my brother? Yeah, of course.
I'll say Ian, you can do it with advantage.
Well that is a nat one and a 14.
Okay, seems like Gregor.
Okay, I guess I'm gonna have my mimic rush at him like he's gonna attack him.
Jif, what the fuck?
Go ahead and make an attack roll.
Jif, you've been baiting too much.
That's a natural three, definitely gonna miss. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha or anything, he just stands up and goes, Jip, what the fuck? And goes to, what he would always do
is just the old classic, like hold his hands on your head
to like stop you from charging.
And he just slams through your mimic that disappears
and like turns into ice.
All right, so that's-
Jip, what the fuck?
Got your ass, dude.
We got you twice, we got you twice!
Fucking switcheroo, ice switcheroo. We got to get to that lake house, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Um, something, something screwy's going on.
So let me see your glasses.
Yeah, sure.
Can I look at my brother again with the glasses?
Uh, go ahead and give me another insight check.
That's a 16.
Showing organic.
So why...
Why would...
So why would swag say, you know what, never mind. Alright, so like, what are you guys thinking?
Cause I gotta get back, because first of all, I'm gonna tell mom that you broke the roof.
What?
Why the fuck would you do that?
Cause I didn't tell him.
I don't think you were different now.
Yeah, I thought so too.
We could just say a bird did it. We could just say a bird did it. No one has to go down. do that because I didn't tell him I don't think we're different now yeah
we could just say a bird didn't know what to go down what kind of insane ideas
you are the fucking big bird came and clapped my face
Big Bird came? Yeah, Big Bird came? Yeah, you're not Big Bird but fucking such a mystery dude that doesn't exist in our world you fucking asshole
sorry that's a fair wild thing. I showed him on the phone.
It's amazing. It's pretty cool. It sounds fucking awesome. There's a frog in that too.
Whatever you guys need or it I don't give a shit. What fucking Cowan says he thinks he's the fucking boss of me, but he's not and besides
He's not gonna check on me till the morning anyway. So all I gotta do is get back to the tower
I can still get freaking drunk. I can get high and then get like four hours of sleep
and then wake up and still be fine for work tomorrow.
Dude is a genius.
All head down to Boris's place.
I'll meet you guys there, okay?
We'll sneak out like different directions.
We're not noticed.
Nice.
Okay?
That's awesome, yeah.
All right.
Friggs rig.
Friggs rig.
Epic. Live and big on Friggs awesome. Yeah, all right. Friggs rig Friggs rig epic living big on Friggs rig
Yeah, he throws up the devil horns and starts to cry thinking about Boris Friggs and then runs off
Okay, guys, I don't know what's going on
Calder he seems pretty authentic. Yeah, I don't I don't think a robot could replicate
But this seems like the best way to separate him
from everyone else, but still keep an eye on him, right?
Why did Swag say that they got Gregor?
Because they might have got him,
but it's operating at a subconscious level,
so he still thinks he's him.
It might be like a sleeper agent
that hasn't activated yet,
which means that maybe it could be extracted.
Which means that something's at Friggs rig
that he's been dispatched to get.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, so we have to go with them so we get it first.
Yeah.
We have to protect Gregor from himself.
Or is he being sent here to separate us from your parents?
Well, I've got to protect it by the tiny hut, right?
I have got Lumine's tiny hut.
It just is like a matter of if someone comes in knocking. I can't keep them in there.
Yeah, well, Gowyn told us to protect them and we did, so we can't get in trouble with Gowyn because technically they are protected.
And he didn't know that Gregor was going to be here. He would obviously have commanded us to go and watch Gregor too.
He's, he doesn't want anything to happen to our family. So we're still technically following his race
and I can't get in trouble.
Well, it's not about you getting in trouble.
Of course not.
But I can't, but yeah.
You're irreproachable.
Right.
But I mean, I don't want to put your parents in danger.
That's all I'm concerned about.
Well, I think.
You think they're safe?
I think they're safe. I think they're I think they're safe And I think Greg or poses a bigger risk now going to Boris's lake house, which I really you know
I do want to see it. Yeah, I was there. I mean I heard it and I was like I really want to see that
Yeah, I want to do that jumpy was talking about snowmobile might still be on the car. I
Need that to get snowmobile. I need to fucking ride into the Feywild
on a fucking snowmobile.
Yeah, man, I might just rope just to see what it feels like.
I know.
Yeah, it's getting late.
It would be fine.
The winds through my tits.
Contact your tits.
Imagine the crisp air on my tape.
Just vent out for all to see.
All right, let's go meet Gregor.
Okay.
Okay, I'm gonna leave the serpents to watch over your
parents. Good idea. Great. Yeah, you do get the sense that if something were to happen to your
serpents, you would know something was wrong. Oh, God. Great. Yeah, I'm gonna leave the serpents
with Kenna and I think I'm just gonna say like, he's the deer, we are going going I am worried that this is like to separate us from
Kolders parents. I'm happy to be a guard duty. Are you okay? Okay. Okay. Good. Okay. Awesome
And then I instruct the serpents to wrap around her. They just keep going in circles endlessly
Ken is just dropping pebbles for honeysuckle
And feeding lettuce to licorice
Okay, great great. Okay sweet. Yeah, I give Ken a pebbles for honeysuckle and feeding lettuce to licorice.
Okay, great, great. Okay, that's it. Yeah, I give Kanna a little knitted rag for cleaning your hammer, sis.
Appreciate that.
May it always be ready to swing.
You guys leave your house. Kanna is on guard. The serpents are protecting her. And you go
closer to the town square, lakeside, where you see a bunch of these lake houses, a bunch of these giant
cabins, and behind one you do see one with a deck and a fire pit, and you see Gregor
hiding in the bushes nearby.
Zit!
Spot!
Whoa.
Whoa.
It's even cooler than I imagined.
Yeah, it's so sick.
Look how high up that fucking deck is.
I couldn't see it because I was only ever looking at it from across the lake.
Yeah, you jumped from it.
No fucking way.
It was fucking sick.
Is the lake frozen, by the way?
The lake is frozen, yeah.
Okay, cool.
Sick, so it's just like you can like slide right onto the lake from the deck.
Yeah, it's pretty sweet.
Have you ever had magic cast on you?
Yeah.
You want some? Oh, the's pretty sweet. Have you ever had magic cast on you? Yeah.
You want some?
Oh, fucking hell yeah.
I'm gonna cast Pass Without Trace on all of us.
Okay, great.
And I'm just gonna see if the magic hits him in a different way.
Hmm, appears completely normal.
You guys see like snow starts to kind of gather around you guys, giving you guys more camouflage.
He's a fucking sleeper agent.
Yeah, swag.
What were you saying swag?
Alright, alright, so how do you guys want to go in because I'm not usually when I would like get up to stuff
Gowen would come up with the ideas
Not that he's my fucking boss. Yeah, is there a chimney? Yeah, yeah for sure there is sure
Me Santa Claus style yeah, yeah
Being this far north that just makes me think it's right that
means we got to climb the deck that's kind of almost as sick as fucking jumping
off it yeah and if we fall off then we can say we jump oh dude that's awesome
yeah technically we did all right let's let's start doing it um yep everybody
give me athletics checks as you guys at all. You don't even have to you can just literally like walk up the beams
21 hell yeah 16 sweet you guys make it up called her a little bit more laboriously
You see Gregor's climbing as you you tired
No, it's your ass you've tired. I could do it with one arm. I just it's hard to climb when you farted in my face
Yeah I can do it with one arm. I just it's hard to climb when you farted in my face You guys had to climb up quite high the authentic Calder's house is just the one story
But this one is is two stories because obviously giant the fucking levels got to be pretty high
So you got to climb this deck like fucking like 50 feet high
It's like pretty tall up and you get up to the top from the deck. You do see this big fire pit,
one of those like long rectangular ones that has coals that like lights up. Obviously it's out right
now. You see that everything does look neat around here. Same as like the other crime scenes that
you guys have seen. You see a big window looking into the main bedroom here, like a loft bedroom, where you can see a big
bed looking through this window here, and then you also see the roof and there's a
chimney up there. And there actually is a door from the deck.
I was gonna say we should check to see if it's locked, but I don't know if it's
trapped or booby-trapped or anything, so maybe we should just leave it be.
We can just touch it?
Yeah, you touch it.
You touch it. If you're not scared. I'm not fucking scared. Maybe you should just leave it be. Hmm. We can just touch it. Yeah, you touch it. You touch it if you're not scared
I'm not fucking scared. Maybe you should touch it. Okay
Don't touch it you touch it. I touch it. I call you touch it. Yeah, the doorknob jiggles like it is unlocked
It's fucking unlocked. What the fuck?
Well, maybe the I know the Rangers had to come here to check, so... Yeah, they maybe didn't lock it, but...
Okay, that seems...
Is somebody still inside?
Should we knock?
I don't know if we should knock. Let's... You know what?
I'm gonna go down the chimney. I'm not bailing on Santa yet.
Saul, you go up to the roof, you go down the chimney.
I pop my head out Grinch style.
You pop your head out Grinch style. You see there are
sort of through the windows and stuff. You can see the moonlight lighting up the room, but there are no lights in here. Everything is pretty neat. There's nothing out of place.
You see various wooden signs around with things like on lake time and it's lake o'clock.
There's a big cozy rug and a bunch of couches and chairs and there's a staircase going up to this loft
Bedroom that these guys are on level with up on the deck
Okay, um and you don't see anybody down here or give me a perception check. Yeah. Oh
That's an at 20. Oh
Nat 20 on the Jimmy check. Okay. That's a good perception check to get enough
I'll say you
Stick your head out Grinch style and look around
You don't notice anyone you have pretty decent senses about this type of thing
You walk over kind of touch the knob front door is locked
So upstairs was not locked
That's kind of weird.
Kind of looking around down here. You see that there's there's no one else down here.
But you look out the window. There's a big window down here from like the kitchen looking out at the lake. And as you look out, you see a little too close to the shore to be used for something like ice fishing. It has snowed
and it's a little bit covered up, but you can just make out a hole in the ice.
Okay, yeah. I shimmy back up the chimney, reverse Grinch style. Great. Sol easily-
Did you just reverse Grinch? Nobody reversed Grinch. This guy, the anti-grenge, is that technically Santa Claus?
No.
This guy is Santa Claus.
Oh.
On me.
Yo, yo, yo.
Guys, I think that Boris did the ultimate deck leap.
No fucking way.
Do you see that over there in the water?
He jumped over the lake.
Clear into the lake. That's right. Over the? He jumped over the lake. Clear into the lake.
That's right.
Over the lake.
Oh, no.
Okay.
Into the lake.
There'll be a few miles.
No, not the legendary deck jump where you clear the lake altogether.
The ultimate deck jump where you leap right into the lake and plunge through.
Okay.
I mean, should we go to where where you're pointing?
Yeah.
I mean, first we should see if Boris had any like potions or or you know, you know, snacks, but after that we should go.
Yeah, you look around doesn't have any potions here, but does have some snacks.
We grab a bunch of cans of Pringles.
Once you pop.
There's always a bunch of parties here.
You see Gregor walks with you guys out to the lake and you do see that there is a hole in the ice that has been kind of covered up by some snow
but it is not totally frozen.
It looks like it was broken at some point today.
Can I pierce it with my new greatsword?
Yeah.
Oh shit, is that mom's dagger?
Greatsword.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, now it's my dagger.
Now it's my tiny little dagger.
Okay.
Hell yeah, dude.
Yeah, you pull it out and you smash right through
ice's fin there.
Hmm, this has been pierced.
And cold water splashes up and you just see darkness
in that hole.
Alexandra was underwater.
Yeah, she's no stranger to it.
So I don't know if Boris went in I think
Think Alexandra came out
Could be
Do you think that that's how she infected him in the first place?
What the fuck are you guys talking about? Oh, you mean like the creature guys? Yeah, the androids. Okay
So they're like taking people over that's how they turned into the Ranger. So you think somebody came out of the lake?
And they All right, and maybe grabbed Boris. What the fuck? Are there any, um, are there any
tracks or any other signs of anything coming out of the lake? You look around and anything would
be covered up by snow. Do you want me to jump in, swim as far as I can, and then face it back up?
I just want me to jump in, swim as far as I can, and then face back up.
See if I see anything.
Oh yeah, whoa.
You want a cold plunge?
I think I'm gonna cold plunge.
Okay.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna.
Oh shit.
Is it consensual if I just robe?
Yeah, try and give it together, okay?
I fully just robe, and then I cold plunge.
All right, you jump in.
Knowing that, the second I feel like,
oh, I can't go any more, I'm gonna face it back out.
I rush really quick to get a towel from inside.
Right on.
He's got so many towels.
He hosts so many leg hardies.
He's always ready.
Yeah, he's always ready.
Damn, we get this robe too.
As I go, I'm like, thank God I took those swimming lessons
from Coulter. I didn't know they would come in handy. this robe too. As I go, I'm like, thank God I took those swimming lessons from colder.
I didn't know they would come in handy. It is even in your winter eladrin form,
it absorbs some of the cold, but you feel a shock as you enter. This is like the coldest
you've ever been. You are so cold. But after a moment, your body starts to adapt to it a little
bit. And some of the winter eladron attributes kind of help you here and
you're able to like warm up a little bit. It is completely dark down here but you do have dark
vision and you see Foster jumps in with you, swims down and lights up his eyes. So you've got this
like red light as you go and look around at the bottom of the water here.
And as you look around,
Duck's in the snow.
Go ahead, sorry.
Go ahead and give me a perception check with advantage.
Okay.
Nat 20!
Yes!
Yes, I did!
God damn, we're presented.
Yes, shit.
Okay.
Can't get anything past us.
Oh my God, I was nervous about that.
Callie, you swim around and you can still see Gregor is up there.
He casts a little fire can trip, have to help you see the surface, have to troll Calder.
He goes, can you do this yet, Jeff?
Yes, I can.
I just would be so stupid to do it in the dark.
Oh, people think this house is empty.
Shit.
Yeah, Gregor is holding a little light over the hole in the ice so that you can see it, Callie.
So you see this orange light, you swim away from it, and you're
using the light of foster to swim deeper and deeper into the lake
here. And it gets quite deep. You lose sight of the surface.
You are surrounded by darkness. you feel drawn in a particular
direction, kind of following Foster's lead, and you eventually find something.
You find some kind of underwater vessel, you find an empty pod. It looks like it could have held about half a dozen or so humanoids,
and it has some kind of drill apparatus at the top of it, and then a small hold for a few people.
I would like to loot this, please.
You loot it.
Anything and everything.
You as you look around it, you see,
it doesn't look functional.
It looks, it looks like something like burst out of it.
Like it was almost just like a casing.
And there's really not much to salvage here
because whatever was in it, didn't need to breathe,
didn't need to eat, didn't need any kind of directional thing
cause it's a hive mind.
So it's literally just like essentially a sentient barrel that flew up with a drill
on it with a with a few people in it.
But you see that it is empty here at the bottom of the cold lake.
I want to enlarge myself so that I can carry it up to the surface.
Fuck this.
Kali brings the pieces of this vessel up through the surface of the lake and emerges from this
hole in the water.
Whoa, Kali.
Whoa.
Shit, I need to push this.
I found this.
I think this is how they came, or maybe there's like a new contingency.
I know.
It's empty. That means they're here.
They've infiltrated.
Yeah, we weren't expecting them to be able to...
I thought they would just come through the coast.
The fact that they were able to drill through.
How should have thought of that?
They're from Iron Deep.
Okay, so they're here. Where would they go?
And that's where we'll end our session.
No! I wanna play more. Okay, so they're here. Where would they go? And that's where we'll end our session. Oh, no!
I wanna play more!
I feel like we shouldn't have left my mom and dad.
We shall see, we shall see.
With that, you can hear us talk more about this over on the short rest.
Patreon.com. That's NADD-POD. Don't sing yet.
We do not sing yet. Do not sing yet.
Does anyone have anything they'd like to plug?
Yeah, dude. We have a bunch of brand new merch
I believe we have some collared shirts. Yes. First ever Yad Pod formal wear. Very cool. Yeah, sure sure
So wear those to your friends weddings everybody in Tantan photos check out shop.net.com. You know what? It's fucking perfect for a lake party. Yes
Oh, yeah, dude. We're that shit. Good shit party gear. Oh, yeah, absolute lake party gear. We've got that
We've got our glade home cardigan in stock now
With fashions for if you're in the library getting some work done
We've got fashions for if you're hitting the lake whatever your fashion wherever your occasion is we've got you set those two
But that's really all
you set. Those two, but that's really all you do. Sweet. And with that, you can follow us on social media there, or me or man I use, at
CHverseMe, at Caldease Caldwell, at XRusEmily, and at CHerroIt'sAs Jake, and you can tune
about the show using hashtag NADPY that's N-A-D-D-P-O-D.
We are, we are, we are the nation. We are, we are, You are the meaning! God damn it!
It's the end of the show, if you want to know what that means, it's time to shout out our
benevolent council of elders, starting with Brad D. Jeffery S. Lord of the Fjord Hugh C. Later Mixgater Matt M. Cutter W. Jeff C. Daniel G. Daniel the Dastardly Dame
Beardman Dan Danny P. Bryant
The Microwaved Salmon and Brivory Guy
Oh I love the new ones Vincent W. Victor T. Bownlow's boy.
Hoyd's friend.
Justin I. Danny Danster.
TJM. Traydeh The Crafe.
Christopher B. Damiel R. Jordan L. Cyborg version
of Josh The Cobald.
Targot.
Stevie Wags.
Hellish Rebuker, PhD, RIP,
Squeeem, he died as he lived without context.
Princess Yarr, Jory S, Jack L, Nicholas C, star of every film
ever made in Bohemia, now starring in the Iron Deep
production of A Squire Never Tires
Ahahaha
Samuel B. Mike H. Alkesmilzer Plus
Great Value Gemma
Adam G. Tyler F. Nibadger
Panama James
Heredrian
Carbureaux Chapel Hill FPV
Rex Thaniol the White Diana De Los Lopez, ZZ Lulu,
Ecupagos, the rabbit folk detective,
Rico, Calder Cums, cold shout out to the cold cum companions from Steve Facial,
Taylor B, the vengeful one-winged angel cast skateboard cast
Steven is
Stephen T
unevenly you see see I
Know I've read that before but it really hit me right this morning
Mike K Lady taco and team incredulity
Joy T J. L. Nick W, Agnity, William W, Big Bat, Beard
of the Mad, Ananorama, Perceval, Fredrick, Steinbahn, Musil, Klazowski, Derolo the Third,
J Dragonborn, Albus, Bartleby, Mr.. Special Little Cutie Absolutely
Why?
The Sandrayan
Ben A
Dave H
Christian S
A Sal from the Prison of Elders
Dustin S
Danny F
Hawkeye Pears
Book Vars Assistant Izzy F
Deep PC is awesome!
Shown, the shade tree mechanic of Selboldar. Summer Rose Grand Tear. Katzy, Mesa of House
in Zunza. Ariel the occasional mermaid. Selena. Maxwell J. Lauren H. Nolani
The coffee barista brewing fighter of Fahumia
Serve 16
The bone duster
Annie the Feywild Therapist
Skillful ferret
I'd like to see that sunflower in the snow
It's classic, it's good. We like it.
Connor Savage,
Celil,
weed Goku 69 aka
Gunk at 16,
experimenting with drugs.
How could we Goku 69 get any better?
And yet it did.
Bio Quirt 7,
Amber Dextrous,
Sullivan H,
Trub Hop Trapper,
Jack H
King of the modal people under iron deep dressed in blue and fighting his way through a bracket style tournament!
I rang a nice note!
Lindsay W
Valen
Carlin C
Emily S
Noah the Bullywugboy
Hashtag release the filthy guppy cut.
James G. EverythingBago, the Eladrin who just wants to hang out with his pet badger, Stripey, DaddymasterDandy.
Han the Green Teen, Eric B. Marcos learns the balance druid, Dakota James P, Frida M, Pagos, self-proclaimed Fade, King, back on their
regularly programmed fashions and againeries, Tracy P, the Crick L Vibrarian, Maggie S, Holly
Hyena, Leah, Giovanni, the Fighter, Akash the Car, Dufufanus Russell H, a monk named Dilgo,
Cody C, key chains, Pentium II processor,
Lorelai the succubus and Kira her busty queen,
Matt M, your friendly neighborhood,
Yon and Yonkel Andrew and Sid.
John A, the right-in candidate for 2024.
So John Adams.
Okay, wow.
Meg, the male carrier of Bahumia.
James F. Jimmy A. M4L.
Austin S. Wavefarer now has to do something with the trolls.
Get rid of them.
Turn to page 42.
Keep them. Turn to page 69. Shane trolls. Get rid of them, turn to page
42, keep them, turn to page 69.
Jaincy, Barpo, Goodbarrel, Barbarian, Welshlender, Garrett, G1 Biggird, Mr. D, Dana the Daisy,
oh we just had a flower. Okay it was a sunflower, but I feel like Dana the Daisy is friends with the sunflower.
Ethan B. Havida Half Orc.
Renee the Monster.
Captain.
Bucks Clifton.
Olivia the Enchanting Bard, who is working hard on her audition for the lead singer of
The Mountain Crows.
Winter Slade.
Sammy B. Bohemia's finest linguist.
Riley S. Fico.
Garrett the Artificer.
Anthony the Raddest of Dudes.
Josh H. Abigail H. Caleb L.
The fairies have been partying nonstop
to celebrate hashtag CCC. We are hungover and resting and wishing best of luck to y'all.
Cantrip Dumbledore the bear onesie wearing barbarian.
Lexie H.
MJ the BFG. Cam the frogman.
man. Artavious crafts, Geno T, Mama Belle, the Silver Serpent herself, Derek D, Tristan, the talentless hunk, BTA Workshop, Shenanigans O'Connor, Meos the Great, Alex K, Joshua S. Alexander Lin's W. Angel La Pamela
That forever vindicated
Yes you were
Emma S. Red
The Reforged War Forged
Pawhu Eskenar
The Goliath Paladin
Providing service with a smile
Aggressively palm muting open strings
Because frets are for chumps.
Oh I bet the boys like that one.
A cat napping in a sunbeam listening to a podcast.
Nyax, nasty, nut.
I still can't believe those two follow each other.
Sea Jam Hampton.
Shelby, Kenna's second favorite sprite girl, a level 12 circle of party druid
with a once a day pinata wild shape.
Ooh, please don't smash her.
Jackson R. T3RHX,
official Ned Flanders.
Blake H.
Searching for a sweet blue hole with his bestie big bath
Papa Skydaze, Mima Skydaze, oh it's Faye
Tommy W, Mike and Lisa sending love to y'all
Thank you so much, I'm gonna just hold up a mirror and send it right back
Haley the human, Megan and the big M
Balnor's best friend, pardon me, I almost demoted you.
Balnor's best friend, Steve.
Stephanie of House in Zoonza,
Jake's Ramen Shop, RIP,
Melchior the Brave, Leon and Warrior,
who even cares about the rest of the party.
Gargish, Benjamin A, Sacrificialificial otaku pen name for Kali's cousin who discovered anime
and is trying to spread the word all over Bahumia.
Jiggy M, Miquel A, Josh H. Oh no, the mechanical yak teams are fighting! Frokey! Maple the shy book firm!
Ashley!
Seth E. Billy Baston!
Tori the dragoose!
Son of Thomas the blind bisexual goose!
Bye Icon and father of 69 signets!
It's a real goose, look him up!
Okay!
Sack, monkey, bob,
il clitoridae, the senora, grigia, homemade tea wine.
Ooh, Michael Lyle as the second, Jacob P. Nova cry.
Parcel, Dex R. Hannah A. Ace, Dregs,
High Lord of Critsburg, Joshua F. And and darious d thank you all so much for supporting us
we love you i personally love all the strange fantasy names you put into my mouth when i read
these we love you we couldn't do this without you goodbye sweeties that was a hit gun podcast