Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello world.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Hi. I've just realized I got a really painful crick in my neck or. Hi, I'm DM Dan. I'm clearly getting old.
Welcome to Explorers of Elsewhere Live.
That one. I wouldn't leave that in if I could edit it out. Hi, welcome, you four. Welcome back. Hello to anyone who's watching live. Because you're the cool gang. And those who aren't watching live, you're also cool. Just not as cool as the ones who watch it live. How are you doing? How. How's your fortnight been since we last convened?
[00:00:42] Speaker A: It's been good. Been good. Busy.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Marvelous. Marvelous.
Yes, Nate, we will on this. On this single occasion, we will classify you as cool.
Yeah, it's. Yeah. We are here to solve some mysteries revolving around some murder, some moiders. So the to recap real quick, the four. Well, three of you were invited to this gala event on behalf of the Explorers of Elsewhere, uh, to uh, pick up some doodads from a. An arch mage. Upon arriving, you found that there is a gala dinner being hosted. And as the a number of guests arrive, including a rather green round the Scales dragon scent by the name of Alfrek, you've discovered, well, there are a number of peculiar guests. And just as you sit for dinner and the final guest arrives, tragedy. The Archmage has been found. Kaput.
The investigation has begun with gusto. You've discovered that the mage you. Well, you found the mage lying in a pool of his own blood in his master bedroom.
And as the various guests and yourselves kind of start roaming round to the mansion in search of clues, you are all acutely aware that there is a literal ticking countdown. And the magic that manifests the manor dissipates. And at the strike of midnight, the mansion and the evidence containing the evidence of the murder will disappear.
So you've been tasked to try and find the murderer. You have all been magically sealed inside the mansion in order to stop the murderer from escaping.
And in your investigations, you have.
You've had a little snoop round in the bedroom. You found that the Archmage and the elderly lady Gwendolyn once seemingly were a thing, and that something went a little bit sour.
The Archmage's butler, his mage protege Agatha, and the mayor of the local town have been roaming around the mansions looking for clues.
You responded to a disturbance somewhere on the east side of the mansion. And in a like a connecting basement, you discovered what appeared to be some magically altered corpse imbued with. With a strong primal energy.
And like having been kind of having jumped the Mansion's chef.
And the chef has managed to sort of like disappear after. During the fight. You've yet to find her.
And after seeing the trio of the butler, the mage and the mayor, kind of having a little chin wag, a discreet chin wag in the library, they've disappeared. And you've then heard a bang from the center of the mansion. And within the Archmage's master bedroom, you have found two prone forms. The now dead form of the mayor and the unconscious form of the butler.
And what appears to be large explosive scorch marks emanating from a safe on the wall of the Archmage's bedroom, which was hidden behind a portrait of a younger lady, Gwendolyn.
Meanwhile, some of the other guests. So Paladin Valana, a keeper Paladin of Tione, has been kind of orchestrating the investigation efforts. There is an awakened statue by the name of Stradivon, a hero of your animated, or the statue of a hero of yore by the same name, animated at some point.
And I think that is all of the guests.
So you have done some snooping. You've discovered that the Archmage was heavily in debt to the local city.
So the local town that the. The now deceased mayor was in charge of, a town by the name of Seldovan and Alfric, your hometown.
You've also discovered that within his. Well, from the notes within his laboratory, the Archmage had a lot of adventures and was doing a lot of experiments on some of the artifacts that he had procured.
You found what you would assume to be the chef's room. And it would seem that the chef is not very good at keeping on top of the dirty dishes.
And yeah, there's a. You've also snooped around the trophy room room that contains a number of the Archmages.
Well, trophies.
And I think that pretty much sums up everything that you've looked so far.
Well discovered so far. Have I missed anything from your notes?
[00:06:49] Speaker A: I think the only thing that we haven't mentioned is there was a lot of seeming around one of the more recent adventures that the Archmage went on regarding a. I want to say a dark crystal or. Yeah, a dark crystal. And there was a temple and there was a lot of guilt. And I'm wondering if that's also involved somewhere.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Because it's a very recent thing, actually.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: We couldn't get. He like stole. He like took the crystal and he couldn't. He tried to do experiments and it didn't work. He also. Something went wrong.
[00:07:26] Speaker D: Regrets have taken and regrets taking it.
[00:07:30] Speaker C: You know, the villager temple person. Yeah.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: No, many theories. That is very true. Well, we have got everyone back up to date. What say we jump into the title screen and then carry on into the final parts of the Ulick Mansion murder mystery?
See you in a bit. All across the unknown world, rediscovery pushes ever onwards to find the lands and people lost.
All thanks to our brave explorers.
[00:08:16] Speaker E: Hi. Hi. I'm Dan and I'm playing Vanir, the Wolfkin warrior.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: Hey, I'm Livy. I'm going to be playing Ray Reid, the Scarlet Ranger.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Hi, my name's Theo and I'm playing Kell, a sang of our Guardian.
[00:08:30] Speaker D: I'm Georgia and I will be playing Elfric Stormhall, a dragon scent bard.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: And My name is D.M. dan. I'll be the GM in these adventures. The further we go, the more we learn of these magical tales from elsewhere.
Hello. Oh, we've lost Theo.
Theo's discorporated over the space of the intro, but yes.
So we find the four of you in and around the scene of another tragedy as we flick over to the map here.
So Vanier, you are currently stood in the. Like the. The marble. The white marble floored foyer with the. With Paladin Valana and the awakened statue Stradivon.
And up the flight of stairs in the mage's bedroom proper, we find Cal, Rayri and Vinnie and Alfrek, who's tripped over at Alfrek, kind of inspecting the scene of devastation in the.
In the bedroom, Alfrek, as you kind of crouch over the prone form of the small little Terran sprite mayor, who you will have known for quite some time growing up in the area.
They're like, yeah, the. The. His body is rapidly losing heat. As you kind of glance over at the large marble bust of the Archmage, which has kind of been knocked from the desk and unfortunately landed on the head of the mayor, killing him.
But in this moment.
Cowan, Rayri. What. What are you two doing?
[00:10:50] Speaker C: I'd like to check on Bendel, if Bendel's okay. So I think Rayri will just kind of run over.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: So I believe one of these roles are in the chat at the moment.
1. So Bendel, like it's already been checked that whilst Bendel is unresponsive, he is very slightly breathing.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Not dead.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Thank you. Mandatory fun time. Thank you. Yes, I'm quite fond of the intro as well and. Welcome. Hi, welcome.
Yes, the goblin, the. The very crotchety ancient goblin is barely breathing, but he is alive.
[00:11:42] Speaker C: Can I like sit him up.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: You. He's surprisingly heavy and it's not helped that he is nothing but dead weight right now.
He.
And sort of like as you lift him up and kind of shake him a little, the head, his l. Overly large head just kind of like swings from side to side and yeah, completely sparko.
What's Cal doing?
[00:12:20] Speaker A: I feel like, because this is a man quite used to seeing death, if I'm honest. So I think that's. This isn't phased him necessarily. But he is also aware that Alfric probably hasn't seen anyone dead before.
And as loathe as he is to admit it, he knows that's quite a big thing for someone to go through. So he kind of. He go. He moves towards Alfric and just like kind of gently like taps his arms like you right there, kid.
[00:12:58] Speaker D: I think Alfric is probably sort of just short of cradling this man's body.
And he looks up at you, big eyes, tearful eyes, and says can't. Can't we do anything for him?
There has to be spell or a. A potion or.
There was an animated down in the cellar.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but that was a mindless creature. You don't want, you don't want that to happen to this man, do you?
[00:13:43] Speaker E: No.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: We can check with the paladin. Perhaps she can look into it. But I wouldn't be too optimistic.
This was an accident.
[00:14:00] Speaker D: What were they doing in here? I. I mean we didn't set off whatever this is, any sort of motions to the scorch marks that we can see on the walls.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: So yeah, as the three of you kind of turn your attentions back, you can see that the large portrait of Lady Gwendolyn and you know she is significantly younger in this portrait is on the floor, the frame shattered as if it's been well blown apart by an explosion.
And at the epicenter of the scorch marks which you know, emanate from the wall down and up and across the carpet is this black metal safe with like scorch covered gold like bandings with a rather simple looking keyhole on the front of it.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: I, I feel like, yeah, I feel like Cal will look at Rayri because he, he knows she is a creature is mischief. He's probably unlocked safes before.
Give gives her like a, A look. It's it. He doesn't say it out loud. He just gives her a look of permission. Absolutely. Look of permission.
[00:15:43] Speaker C: I think Mary just kind of looks at Cal and then back at Bendel.
Can I see if Bendel's got anything in his pockets.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: As you rifle through the old goblin butler's pockets, you do not find a key. No.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: Do I find anything?
[00:16:14] Speaker B: No. For all extents and purposes he's got a snotty little handkerchief.
But other, other than that, just what you'd expect to find in the pockets of a 180 year old goblin so.
[00:16:31] Speaker D: Much lent.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: As well. As you kind of turn over the goblin butler, you hear the sounds of footsteps coming up the steps behind you.
Vanier, are you following Valena as she strides up into the bedroom?
[00:16:54] Speaker E: Yeah, if I don't immediately see anyone else either coming or going into this room, then yeah, I will follow behind just so that I've still got a bit of a line of sight on like any movement within this marbled hallway.
So yeah, I'll be following behind.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Okay.
In which case, yeah. As you follow the paladin up up the stairs, she steps into the room and looks around like her and her eyes open wide as she by the divine. But what happened in here? She says as she looks around and you can see sort of like her head just kind of flitting from point of interest to point of interest and like her brows kind of her eyebrows going up and down as she's kind of figuring out and piecing together everything that she's seeing around her.
And like she looks glances at the goblin like Bendel the goblin, she glances at Mayor Montgomery and she decides to kind of step over and kneel down alongside you, Alfric.
And you see her like she looks at you directly for a moment as if to sort like assume command and then kind of gently takes the Terran sprite from out from your hands and then sort of like starts turning him over.
She looks up at you, Cal, and you've seen this look from many a battlefield medic in your past as it's the like there's the ever so slight shake of the head and you watch as she closes this, this diminutive little sprite's eyes and she, as she looks around.
Where. Where's Agatha?
[00:19:19] Speaker A: He's not here.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Valana looks to you Vanier having just said this, but yeah, you, I mean you would certainly know the last time you saw these two they were with the Major's protege, Agathar. But he is nowhere to be seen.
There's a small part of you that looks at the degree of the scorch marks and wonder if he is part of the upholstery now.
But yeah, he is certainly not here.
[00:19:59] Speaker E: Interesting line of thought is there?
So I have the, these heightened senses so that includes smell.
Would I be able to sniff the air to see if I can catch like a lingering scent of Agathar like le at least leaving the room? Like do I smell him off in a different direction to this room or do I smell like a. A char Daggerth?
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Sure. That sounds like an instinct perceive.
[00:20:46] Speaker E: Quick note. As discussed before the stream, as part of my Call of the Slayer subclass feature, any unspent slayer dice from the previous session gets turned into hope.
So I've got an extra two hope making a total of five.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Okay, we will pop you.
[00:21:11] Speaker E: That's saying I'm gonna spend one of my five hope. I'll put you up to add my experience which is heightened senses to make this an extra plus two. So this is going to be made with plus four total this roll 12 plus eight. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 plus four. So that's a 24 with fear.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Okay, you, as you sort of like stand around and you kind of close your eyes, you, you, you kind of tune your set, tune your senses into the three distinct. Because they are distinct aromas of these three.
I mean, Bendel smells like a 180 year old goblin.
Mayor Montgomery had this very kind of appropriately fitting, this kind of earthy but slightly floral fragrance. So like a, like a perfume of sorts that kind of lingers and sticks to his, the collar of his coat.
But Agatha had this very kind of musky scent to him.
And whilst you can smell Bendel and Montgomery, you can also smell Agatha. But it's a traveling scent.
So it's a scent that has recently moved. Whereas the kind of the aroma around the other two is, you know, concentrating for all extents and purposes because they are in one spot. But it would appear that Agatha's scent is moving.
[00:23:27] Speaker E: And was it a scent that left this room?
Whether it's behind me somewhere or within this room. Room.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: His scent is, it has left the room.
But as you step out, as you kind of turn around and look down into the foyer, you are just kind of bombarded with all of the other probably magically infused scents from, from the mansion. And Agatha's kind of musk, if you will, is undecipherable through everything else. But it is clear that it has.
[00:24:13] Speaker E: Moved out of the room with that line of information.
As everyone can see, Vanya like sniff in the air and he looks behind him back into the, the, the main hall.
He will turn back around to his fellow companions and see.
[00:24:36] Speaker F: I think I can smell them, Agathor. But he's not in his room anymore.
He has left somewhere.
I can smell him.
[00:24:52] Speaker D: Where he is.
[00:24:57] Speaker E: I tried to. You could see him trying to track and then sort of like wince and.
[00:25:03] Speaker F: It'S like, I cannot depend point the smell. But he's definitely still alive.
[00:25:16] Speaker D: I mean, he can't leave the building. None of us can.
If you did this or if you felt it, you can't go anywhere.
[00:25:31] Speaker E: Yeah, I immediately just sort of turn back around and I'm at this moment in time. I'm just kind of trying to sniff there, see if I can hone in on scent. But that's kind of what Vanya's doing at the moment. Waiting for the more intellectual lot to figure out this space. What on earth's going on?
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Well, yeah, as Valana looks to the four of you gathered and she. She kind of reaffirms whilst if Agatha is still around here, whilst he can't leave, if we're not quick, it may be for naughts.
If the mansion disappears, it will all be for naught.
I implore the four of you to hurry on with your investigations to see if we can find if Agatha is the cause of all of this or whether there are multiple plots at work here.
I will. I will take Bendel into the parlour to ensure his recovery. Hopefully we can rouse him from his unconsciousness and he might have some more clues for us at some point soon.
And she looks around and she kind of heads to the other side of the bedroom, pulls the duvet off the bed and then uses it as a blanket to cover over Mayor Montgomery.
Well, she put. She puts the duvet over the Archmage because actually no one's done that yet. And then sometimes on the top of duvets you get those mini little. Like in hotels. Yeah, yeah, a little. A little blankie and that goes over MALE Montgomery and she kind of looks to the safe and she kind of tuts, shakes her head and then she leaves with Bendel.
[00:28:04] Speaker E: As I sidestep them to leave and they make their way out, I'll look to everyone else's like.
[00:28:16] Speaker F: Well, I don't know what you found yet, but has that safe been tampered with?
[00:28:24] Speaker G: Yeah, I don't know if it's been. If they tried to just like blow it open or if it was trapped. So I'm going to have a little look.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: Be careful.
[00:28:33] Speaker G: Yeah, well, it's all exploded, isn't it? What else is going to do?
[00:28:39] Speaker A: It wasn't Archmages safe. It's possible there are multiple protections.
[00:28:46] Speaker G: More than once, two explosions. That sounds like overkill to me.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: All right, I'm off.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: I think it did overkill Riri, but fine.
[00:29:01] Speaker C: Can I just gonna see if she just tried safe. Just give it a rattle.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: Are you. Are you. So are you physically inspecting or sort like magically inspecting?
[00:29:19] Speaker C: I physically want to see if it's. If the explosion has made. Has opened it at all.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: The safe door is locked.
It's.
Yeah, the safe door is locked. The safe itself looks in pretty good condition. You suspect expect that perhaps there is some sort of protection magic around it, some abduration magic of some sort.
But the.
The lock, it's not like the most. It's certainly not the most secure safe you've ever seen. Fundamentally it's. It's like a wall mounted lock box less than a safe.
But yeah, it's a single, single mechanical lock.
And when you say you're physically inspecting it just for sort of like physical traps and the like or.
[00:30:23] Speaker C: Well, just. She's just.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: What. Tell you what. Chuck. Chuck me a. Chuck me a.
A Finesse tinker.
[00:30:36] Speaker C: Finesse tinker.
Six, seven, eight, nine with hope.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Nine with hope. Okay, well, you get hope. So that'll take you up to five.
Yeah, you don't fundamentally. Everything I've just said.
Simple lock.
Doesn't look damaged.
Yeah, why not go nuts?
[00:31:17] Speaker C: Everyone's. The others.
[00:31:18] Speaker G: It's not open.
I told you it wouldn't explode again.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Well, that's a relief. There's enough dead bodies around here.
We could look out for the key.
[00:31:32] Speaker G: Do you think he was trying to get in the safe because he owes him all his money?
[00:31:37] Speaker A: I think it's a good possibility, yeah. Well, I mean.
I mean if Agatha is involved, it's possible that he was saying where that there was valuables in the safe which led to this. I don't know.
[00:31:57] Speaker D: And then he ran away.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Possibly.
I mean, there is the. The possibility that Agatha this laid the idea in their heads to go look in the safe and hasn't actually been involved, but knew it would be booby trapped. We were warned that this room was booby trapped.
You know, there's. There's multiple possibilities here. I still don't like the man, but it doesn't mean he's a murderer. We still need to figure out if he is.
[00:32:30] Speaker F: Well, we just need to find him then, don't we?
[00:32:32] Speaker E: Why don't we just leave this to.
[00:32:34] Speaker F: It and we go and find him in one of these rooms. I hate waiting.
[00:32:39] Speaker E: And Vanya just like starts walking up.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Okay, just to. As the four. As the four of you head down the stairs back into the foyer.
You see the large statue with a number of kind of metal organ pipes protruding from, like, the back of his neck and his shoulders. There's a large hole with, like, a lute embedded in his chest cavity.
And Stradivon, like, turns his large helmet, stony helmeted head to regard you.
[00:33:19] Speaker H: And this is a tragedy, he says.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: And sort of like shakes his head slowly from side to side. And as he kind of peers through the door into the parlor, the four of you notice that the chef is in the parlor, just kind of sat on one of the armchairs, just sort of like looking over at Bendel and you hear her saying, is he all right?
Is he okay?
And Valana is kind of doing her best to calm the chef down.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: We need to talk to her about what happened earlier.
We need to rule her out as a suspect here.
[00:34:09] Speaker D: Perhaps two of us could go and talk to her, and two of us could find our lost friend.
[00:34:20] Speaker E: As you sort of say this, you see Vanir start poking his head through the door of the parlor and sort.
[00:34:27] Speaker F: Of shout, has anyone seen Agathar.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Lady? So Lady Gwendolyn and Chef Sharia kind of both look over in your direction, like, suddenly.
Lady Gwendolyn.
Oh, he. Was he caught in the. Was he caught in the explosion, dear? She says as she kind of clutches at her. The jewelry around her neck is. Oh, I do hope he's okay.
[00:35:05] Speaker F: So you don't know where he is then?
[00:35:09] Speaker B: She shakes her head.
I. I haven't seen him know.
And the. The chef sort of like looks over and has he. Has he gone missing?
[00:35:24] Speaker F: Well, apparently.
[00:35:27] Speaker E: And whilst I'm seeing these two interact, is there any weird body language? So they're like, putting on an act that they seem shocked, or do they seem a bit like a bit nervous?
Not in the usual sense.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Chuck me.
So, yeah, another instinct.
[00:35:53] Speaker E: Yeah, instinct.
[00:35:58] Speaker B: This would be no sense.
[00:36:01] Speaker E: I am trying to hear. Listen out and smell there.
Listen.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Now, is anyone nervously farting?
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Nervously farting.
[00:36:13] Speaker E: Let me do the roll. But I'm not spending the experience on this one.
Oh, God, I'm rolling with fear. But this is a 16 with fear. Okay, as I'm listening, so watching there.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: The paladin, Valana is, you know, she is quite. She's quite focused on Bendel the goblin.
You know, she's kind of.
You notice that she, like, she's not. She's just trying to make the goblin as comfortable as she. She can do. She's got him kind of laid out on a kind of a lounge stretcher.
Lady Gwendolyn is sort of like.
She's got a hand to her chest and she's kind of like flapping her hands just a. Just, you know, calm her down to cooler. Cooler off.
But she's kind of looking over like with her and the chef are both looking over with particular interest just like they're. They're desperately trying to find out what's happened to Agatha.
7. A. 17 with fear.
[00:37:29] Speaker E: Was it 6? Wait, hold on. 16. Wait, 16 plus.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:37] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, I forgot to actually do the plus. It was a plus two. So 70. 18.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: 18. Okay.
[00:37:42] Speaker E: Oh, wait, no, hold on. 13. 16. 17. 18. Yes. 18. Sorry. I bet.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: The chef is kind of looking backwards and forwards and she seems quite jittery like.
Like she's, you know, she keeps on asking questions and she's kind of almost trying to push for answers just to see if she can find out what's happening.
And like she seemed very much on edge, which is most notable because as you kind of focus in on her slightly Vanier, there is a loud.
And she jumps at the sound of the clock striking the next hour. And there are three hours until midnight.
And the chef just sort of like kind of catches her breath and yeah, she looked like. You can see she's sweating slightly just from the stress of this all.
[00:38:47] Speaker E: Yeah. Because considering the chef had went through the Wardell being chased by a monster in the basement, I'm less suspicious. I'm assuming from what I can tell, those are more normal person reactions to the scenario that we're in then. Oh, like some ulterior motive of hiding some like specific information. It seemed that seems a bit more natural. I would expect it a typical humanoid to react to this, to what they've been experiencing.
But the. The lady Gwendolyn probably seems a bit more. Yes, there's less of a nervous response.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Whoa. So bear in mind you remember her fainting in the dining room when news of the Archmage's death was announced. And she's, you know, it seems that she's been in the parlor. She's not really moved from this kind of lounger since she was kind of chaperoned here.
The last you saw, she was kind of being tended to by Stradivon. This the large statue behind you?
[00:40:11] Speaker E: Yeah, I just turned around to the rest of groups.
[00:40:13] Speaker F: Like, he is not in here. Let's keep searching.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Right, so what are your plans of attacks? You've. You've. You've discovered a few things, but as of yet we. You. Yeah, we haven't got a. A murderer, murder weapon, or motor.
[00:40:36] Speaker E: I, I thought my little knife that was near the body was the letter opener. Yeah, the stuff step.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: Okay. Potentially the letter opener.
[00:40:52] Speaker D: If we wanted to go searching, if we wanted to split up to search for Agathar, to kind of round him off.
Alfric, I have a spell called.
I think it's just telepathy. Oh. And I can connect with one of you if we were in two groups. And we can talk, so if we find him, we'll know.
[00:41:22] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:41:23] Speaker D: One of my bard spells, it's only with one person. I can only with one person, but that means we can talk back and forth.
[00:41:29] Speaker E: Okay.
Do you cast it?
[00:41:35] Speaker D: Yes. What, what groups do you like?
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:40] Speaker C: How we split up.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: How are you splitting up?
[00:41:45] Speaker E: I, I.
[00:41:47] Speaker B: You're muted. Fear.
[00:41:48] Speaker E: Oh yeah.
[00:41:49] Speaker D: Theo, you're muted.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Sorry. I was gonna suggest that maybe me and Vanya should not be on the same team because we are both the powerhouses.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: Because I hate him. He, he looks funny.
[00:42:05] Speaker D: And me and Ray, we are quite squishy.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: Shall we do Carol and Ray? Ree, Alfrek and Vanu?
[00:42:11] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. I was thinking it's also good to split. Me and Ray reacts. We've both got survival skills in terms of searching.
[00:42:19] Speaker D: So Alfric has no survival skills.
[00:42:24] Speaker E: Okay, so not beefy.
[00:42:27] Speaker B: So tell you what, in which case, Cal and Rayri, whereabouts are you looking next?
[00:42:34] Speaker A: I have a suggestion because I don't think we. We didn't get to looking out in Agathar's room, did we?
[00:42:41] Speaker C: Nope.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: I think if, if, if there's any sign of guilt, it might be in his room.
So we could go that way.
[00:42:49] Speaker C: Like back where?
[00:42:51] Speaker A: Back the way we, the rooms.
[00:42:52] Speaker C: See if we can find his room again.
[00:42:54] Speaker E: Do we all just start opening all the rooms?
[00:42:57] Speaker A: I mean, possibly. I think we were told which ones. We think, I think we're aware which one's Agatha's. Right. Or. Oh yeah, we were given.
[00:43:06] Speaker E: But he might be hiding in another one.
[00:43:08] Speaker D: Yeah. I could just start kicking down doors.
[00:43:11] Speaker C: Ray's very good at that.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Can we kick down all the doors?
[00:43:17] Speaker B: You can, absolutely.
I think. Could you look in Agatha's room? I think you've seen. I think you have seen Agatha's room.
[00:43:25] Speaker D: We've not looked inside. We've looked inside the butlers and the chefs, I think.
[00:43:30] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:43:30] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: But we were told there was Agatha's room because he said, oh, you can look in there if you want. I think. And we were a bit.
[00:43:36] Speaker D: We're like, yes, we will.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: And then we didn't because stuff happened.
So I feel like we were told there was different which one was his. But we didn't get to look inside it.
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Gotcha. Gotcha. In which case for you two, it is this door here. So as you head back down the corridor, it's the third door on the left.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:44:01] Speaker D: And I'll connect with Cal.
[00:44:04] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:44:05] Speaker D: I think it's a creature I can see.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: So before you leave the room and where are Vanyer and Alfred going?
[00:44:17] Speaker D: Alfric will look expectantly at Vanier and his magical nose.
[00:44:23] Speaker E: Yeah.
I. At the moment Vanya can't pinpoint this his scent due to all the surrounding magic stuff going on. So Vanya will just look back at Alfred. Kiss.
[00:44:42] Speaker F: I. I can't pinpoint this center right now. So we'll just have to start looking at room by room. Let's start with the trophy room, eh?
[00:44:50] Speaker E: And you will just move straight up to the trophy room and peek is heading.
[00:44:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:44:58] Speaker D: Perfect.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:44:59] Speaker D: Hurry along behind you.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: Okay, so as you two head to the trophy room we'll snap to Cal and Rayri as you look into.
As you kind of step into Agatha's room.
The bedroom itself is quite sparse and spartan, which is odd for. Well from what you know of Agatha, you've expected there to be more, want of a better word, trophies.
But no, the, the say the room is quite spartan. That said, the desk in the corner is absolutely covered in like research tomes and parchments with kind of detailed notes scribbled on them. There's a very surprising.
A very complete set of kind of writing implements and various color inks and so on and so forth.
Yeah. Otherwise, yeah, everything, it looks quite tidy apart from the desk. But what is there? What are you. What are you hoping to find? What are you looking for?
[00:46:21] Speaker C: I think Ray just starts rubbaging through the drawers just through the paperwork hoping to find I don't know, something that maybe a key. I think she's just keeping this key or a knife key or not key.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: I'm looking. I'm looking for a myrtle weapon. No. Okay, roll me a.
Either an instinct perceive or what. What are you. I suppose if you're looking. Yes. Instinct perceive.
[00:46:53] Speaker C: Instinct per 16 with fear.
[00:47:03] Speaker B: 16 with fear. Well I'm going to go ahead and take a fear token cuz I haven't in a while.
A16 the notes tell like a lot of the notes and sort like diary entries recount his journeys out into well he to the. To the frozen. The frozen beyonds like he recently came back from.
And it that a lot of it follows the stories that he was telling earlier on about how he single handedly slew some giants. But you realize in the personal diary entries it's a little less heroic than he was making out to be. But it still kind of followed along the same kind of beats. He just neglected to tell you all about the rest of the adventuring party that he was with.
He does question whether in one of his kind of, in one of his personal diary entries, he does question Ulic's fascination with primal energies.
Like, whilst he, he acknowledges that whilst, you know, primal magics are relatively new, you know, they've only been around for about 18 months or so, ever since, you know, the, the conclusion of the eschaton.
Like, is primal magic really any better than arcane magic? I mean, it seems suspiciously like divine magic. And then, I mean, Agatha is not someone to ask for permission, you know, he's more someone to ask for forgiveness. That's the gist you get.
Yeah. So he finds Archmage Ulix. Yeah, fascination with the primal a bit odd otherwise. The only thing, the only other thing you do notice is that as you're kind of going through these parchments and these notes, your hand smudges a blob of like fresh ink across one of the parchments as you wonder why, what you might have accidentally kind of wrecked what page you've wrecked now that she's got this big old, you know, slightly glossy blue ink smudge across the page.
[00:49:52] Speaker G: That wasn't important.
[00:49:54] Speaker B: But cal, you then think about this for a moment and you've, you're pretty sure that, you know, you, you haven't seen Agatha in this room for a while and you haven't really like from where he's been throughout the night. It would strike you that he hasn't really been to this room since you all arrived.
So with that in mind, why is the ink fresh? It would have dry by now. Right?
So yeah, there is a blob of fresh ink.
[00:50:29] Speaker A: Is there no way to see what it was at all?
[00:50:34] Speaker B: Oh, well, I mean when you, when you have a look, it's like it's, it's a spell book page. So it's just like a spell scroll. So it's covered in arcane glyphs.
So you wonder if Ravi, you don't know if rabies accidentally tampered with the spell by just smearing this blob of ink across it.
But there's a part of you that thinks, well, you know wizards and they're usually very, very careful about things concerning their, like spell books and whatnot.
So it would seem quite, it seems quite Odd for a wizard to have kind of dropped a blob of ink on a page and then not cleaned it up, even magicked it off even, you know.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: So clearly when that something was happening, when this blob appeared on the page, that's. But that he's. But he's not sorted it out. And it's recent enough that it's still fresh.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's definitely recent enough. Okay, Riri, could. Could you bring that with us?
[00:51:44] Speaker G: What's with my hand?
[00:51:46] Speaker A: No, no, the. The scroll, mate. The scroll that you were holding.
Just if you. If you could.
Yeah, sorry, I'll. I'll take it. Let me take it. I'll. It's all right. I got it.
[00:51:59] Speaker C: She was just rolls up, puts it in Vinnie's mouth.
[00:52:11] Speaker B: As you.
So, yeah, as your Dietuwa takes the. The scrolling mouth.
We will snap over to Alfric and Vanier as you enter into. Back into the trophy room. So you came in here, you. The. You know, the four of you came in here a little bit earlier, like a few hours ago.
And yeah, as you look around just as a quick recap, the. The room, the. The obnoxious glitter of gold like, assaults your senses from all around this room. Marble plinths and pedestals, rings with gold displays, dozens of artifacts from years of adventuring. Wands, medals, crowns, skulls. The far wall is adorned with like a dozen mounted creatures heads, including Van Year, that very large fish skeleton that caught your attention earlier.
There are a number of plinths where seemingly like trophies of importance are satisfactory.
And you.
You remember seeing there's a. What looks to be a magical dagger, there's an amulet of enchantment magic.
There was a.
A black iron circlet with a note that says do not touch and an empty plinth labeled the Wilder Shard.
[00:54:03] Speaker E: Do we notice that?
Did the Wilder Shard have something there before?
[00:54:09] Speaker D: No, that was always. From what I remember.
[00:54:12] Speaker B: Yeah. So that was. That plinth was empty earlier.
[00:54:16] Speaker D: Which is in itself is slightly concerning now that we know the wizard's fascination with wild.
So it wasn't our magic, it was.
[00:54:26] Speaker B: Or primal magic.
[00:54:27] Speaker D: Primal magic, that's it. Yeah.
[00:54:31] Speaker E: So clearly from the first glance around this room, we don't see anything amiss, anything that's been taken away from its pedestal or. Because I think Vanya is trying to see anything, but he's clearly trying to pinpoint the scent of where Agatha might have darted off to. So that's where a lot of his focus is.
[00:55:00] Speaker B: Well, as you kind of head begin kind of investigating The. The room just to see if you can sense you. You can sense snip, literally sniff out. Agatha.
Alfric, like. You watch as Vanier wanders into the room, begins investigating, and you hear like from, you know, as you're stood in the doorway looking around, you hear a voice.
Like you hear Vanya say.
[00:55:43] Speaker H: Wouldn'T you like to know who did it?
[00:55:51] Speaker D: Sorry.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Vanier. Alfric has broken the silence by asking. Sorry.
[00:56:00] Speaker F: Sorry? What do you mean? What have you done?
[00:56:04] Speaker D: You asked something. I.
[00:56:08] Speaker F: No, I didn't. Unless you're talking about my sniffing.
[00:56:13] Speaker D: I'm very impressed by your sniffing.
[00:56:15] Speaker F: But is someone talking to you in your mind?
[00:56:20] Speaker D: I don't think so. It didn't sound like Cal.
You asked me if I wanted to know who did it.
[00:56:29] Speaker F: I mean, I would like to know who did it, but I didn't say it.
Agatha, where on earth are you?
[00:56:41] Speaker B: As Vanier rules this out and it's a sonorous boom of a shout.
Alfric, that makes you tense up for a little bit.
You hear.
[00:57:01] Speaker H: I wish I could be the hero that solved this mystery.
[00:57:09] Speaker D: Does it still sound like Van Year?
[00:57:14] Speaker B: You blink a few seconds because it sounds. Sounds like you.
But deeper, more resonant, more confident.
[00:57:34] Speaker D: Hello.
I don't. I don't think it's.
[00:57:39] Speaker G: It's.
[00:57:40] Speaker D: It's me talking.
[00:57:42] Speaker F: What are you talking to?
[00:57:45] Speaker D: I.
Something in my head. I think.
[00:57:53] Speaker B: You hear.
[00:57:57] Speaker H: Who's that in the parlor?
[00:58:07] Speaker D: We've already asked everyone in the parlor.
Yeah, the butler, Stradivar.
[00:58:21] Speaker B: Vanya, how are you reacting to Alfric?
Through no provocation. Reeling off who's in the parlor.
[00:58:32] Speaker E: I hearing this, I will turn around and say, who are you?
[00:58:39] Speaker F: Talk.
Stop talking.
It sounds like you are giving a hit list to someone.
[00:58:50] Speaker D: I. I was. I wanted to be helpful.
[00:58:56] Speaker F: To the voice in your head.
[00:58:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:05] Speaker H: It'S.
It's okay to accept help.
Allow me to help you.
[00:59:19] Speaker G: It wants to help.
[00:59:22] Speaker F: What does?
[00:59:26] Speaker D: I don't know.
[00:59:28] Speaker H: The wolfkin, he doesn't believe.
He doesn't want to solve this mystery, but I do.
We do.
[00:59:49] Speaker D: I should precise. Forget this.
I mean, first of all, I. I think he rather does.
[01:00:00] Speaker E: I immediately push our elf Alfric out of the room.
[01:00:11] Speaker B: As you go tumbling down a few steps. Alfric.
[01:00:16] Speaker E: I'm just holding on and just so basically shoving back down the stairs if I'm able to.
[01:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Alfric, you. You get pushed down a few steps and like you're. Suddenly the voice silences and then you hear.
[01:00:37] Speaker H: You are the child of gods.
Why should you accept. Accept this.
[01:00:53] Speaker D: I really think we should be Accepting help from anyone really.
[01:01:00] Speaker A: Right.
[01:01:01] Speaker E: Hopefully we're at the bottom of the staircase at this point.
So hoping like as I sort of release my gaunted glove off of Al at the bottom of the stairs, like.
[01:01:13] Speaker F: Are you still hearing voices.
[01:01:20] Speaker B: You haven't heard? Like the voice hasn't said anything since its bristling question, you get this, you feel this sense of sort of like misplace. It feels misplaced, I guess, but this almost like superiority.
This real you are, you are the kin of dragons.
Who is this wolf kin to push you around?
[01:01:56] Speaker D: I think he will just sort of. Alfric doesn't do anything arrogantly, but he will just. He will sort of try and unhand himself.
I haven't heard anything since you pushed me out of the room. Actually.
[01:02:16] Speaker F: Problem solved.
I'm sure whatever is in that room was talking to you. It is fine now.
[01:02:27] Speaker E: But if you, if you start hearing.
[01:02:30] Speaker F: Voices that aren't our comrades, then tell me.
[01:02:38] Speaker D: Right, right. I will.
[01:02:44] Speaker B: Vanier, as you kind of look at Alfric, you're somewhat frustratingly, you did not sense Agathar in the room at all.
[01:03:00] Speaker E: Yeah. So immediately say we need to keep searching and I like sort of pirouette around towards the dining room.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:03:16] Speaker B: In which case Alfric, as Vanier kind of disappears. Are you, are you following after him or.
[01:03:26] Speaker D: I think he's going to take a peek into the parlor.
[01:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:31] Speaker D: Just on the. The off chance of what the voice said.
[01:03:39] Speaker B: As you go to sort of like head down. Well, as you turn to head towards the parlor, you hear.
[01:03:57] Speaker H: Dragons are the only allies worthy of dragons.
Together we could achieve great things.
[01:04:19] Speaker D: You would reckon.
[01:04:22] Speaker H: I am the answer.
I am the salvation.
I am the glory and the victory.
And I can be yours as you could be mine.
[01:04:51] Speaker D: That. That's not really answering my question.
[01:05:00] Speaker B: The.
The voice goes silent. But then you feel this kind of force in your mind that makes you want to look back into the trophy room.
Do you allow yourself?
[01:05:17] Speaker D: I think he'll glance at the trophy room, but he's got his mind set on looking into the parlor.
[01:05:26] Speaker B: Sure.
In which case, as you kind of glance into the room, you kind of, kind of catch, you know, a quick sweep. As you turn away and begin heading towards the parlour, you notice that your. The memory of what you've just seen doesn't seemingly fade away from your short term memory as you would expect it to.
And in fact it almost seems to be pushing forwards to the front of your perception and your senses, but it also seems to be focusing in like shaking ever so slightly to the black iron crown on the pedestal in the center of the room. Room.
[01:06:24] Speaker D: Sign said not to touch that thing.
[01:06:31] Speaker A: Note do not touch is what I have written from the first session.
Put it on question mark.
[01:06:46] Speaker B: Alfric. As you peer into the parlor, you, you kind of look around and the keeper Paladin looks up to you and.
Are you all right? She says.
She looks at you with this frown.
[01:07:08] Speaker D: Yes, brilliant, you know, situation. Otherwise, just making sure everyone's okay.
[01:07:20] Speaker B: She, she kind of nods and Bendel seems to be coming round soon. By the time you and your companions finish your little excursions, he should be, you should be good to question.
And she kind of nods and returns to it and you notice that Lady Gwendolyn and the chef are both kind of looking at you.
And yeah, the chef says, have you found Agatha? Have you found Agathar yet?
[01:07:58] Speaker D: No, no, we just, just following Vanya's nose.
[01:08:06] Speaker B: You should, you should probably, you should probably try and find him. I, I, you know, she says. And it's, it seems like she doesn't want to say anything out loud, but she's kind of, you know.
[01:08:19] Speaker D: Right. Yes, coming.
[01:08:27] Speaker B: So yeah, Alfred, cuz you run across the foyer to rejoin Van Year, Cal and Rayri.
Are you leaving the bedroom behind and moving on to a new area?
[01:08:43] Speaker A: I have a suggestion. If we haven't looked somewhere already, but I can't remember if we have. I don't think we've looked at the library yet.
Have we gone to the library or have we not?
[01:08:54] Speaker E: I think we did.
I'm just saying if we came from this direction of the library and the bedrooms and then the hallway and then the whole bang thing happened, we gone up to the, to the room or whatever.
I'm wondering if like, unless there's any other hidden rooms that we don't know about, there's a chance that Agatha might have gone through the dining room into the kitchen, into the secret passageway underneath.
So I'm slowly heading that way now because that's the only path I can see available. But it's worth checking the library and the laboratory.
[01:09:39] Speaker C: If he's gone all the way around.
[01:09:41] Speaker E: Like we have it all the way around to hide in there.
Just saying.
[01:09:46] Speaker B: But as.
[01:09:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes sense.
[01:09:50] Speaker B: Okay, so the two of you head like as you come out of Agatha's room and you head towards the, the library. So you head to the T junction at the end of the kind of the corridor of bedrooms and then head right into the library.
You. So just to give you a quick recap, the musty smell that pervades this room immediately kind of hits you. And every wall is lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves that are stuffed with books and scrolls and parchments and all sorts.
There are additional rows of stacks containing newer books.
And there's a particularly large collection of books on the nature of planar travel that I believe you saw that last time you were in here. Cal.
You also know.
You also remember that on one of the like, there was a bookshelf of like, loose parchments and the.
That's where you found the large kind of ledger of debts that the Archmage was keeping.
And that was.
I believe you kind of pulled that out and it was on the sort like the central table of sorts.
But as you walk in, you find that the last few pages of the ledger have been torn out.
Okay.
[01:11:31] Speaker A: That since we've been in there, we need to find this kid.
[01:11:46] Speaker B: But otherwise. Yeah. What is it you're looking for?
[01:11:51] Speaker A: Well, we were looking for Agatha. He's not here.
We just think the. We head the laboratory and see if he's hiding that way.
[01:12:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:12:11] Speaker A: He knows his place better than we do. But hopefully our experiences crawling around by the lab will give us some advantage.
[01:12:24] Speaker B: Okay.
What are your respective instincts?
[01:12:35] Speaker C: Let's check mine's a plus one.
[01:12:41] Speaker A: Instinct instead. Plus zero.
[01:12:49] Speaker B: Plus zero, eh?
I'm just gonna roll some dice for no apparent reason.
[01:12:56] Speaker C: No.
[01:12:58] Speaker D: No reason at all.
[01:13:02] Speaker B: You hear a thud of a book hitting the wooden fl.
[01:13:12] Speaker C: Can I tell which direction it might have come from?
[01:13:19] Speaker B: It appears to have come from the back.
From where you're standing. The back right corner.
[01:13:33] Speaker C: Gonna run around there.
[01:13:39] Speaker B: As you run around there.
Roll me a.
Roll me a.
Roll me an. Agility.
[01:13:56] Speaker C: Agility.
We're gonna die.
8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Jealousy.
[01:14:11] Speaker B: As you come around this corner and sort of like skirt round, you see that there's nothing apart from this book that's been. That's on the floor. And you can see that there's a gap on sort of like the. The second shelf up where it's clearly fallen down from.
But as you come round, you feel this force strike you on both shoulders. And it pushes you back hard enough that you kind of smack into Vinnie behind you, who yelps out and you collapse to the floor. Floor as. As this thick as. This force kind of pushes against you.
And you see a number of parchments just kind of like flutter as there's a strong.
It's kind of disturbance in the air.
But you sort of. As you kind of pull yourself up, you realize you don't know where like whatever push. Whatever push pushed you. Whether it was magical or whatnot, you don't know where it's gone. Cal, you do notice this sudden like the sound of Ray we getting pushed. The yelp of this kind of giant miniature dog and yeah, this kind of like something moving at speed through the library. What do you do?
[01:15:38] Speaker A: Well, first thing do, I'm closing the door behind me. So we're staying in the library.
[01:15:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:15:46] Speaker A: And he like, like his hand on the hilt of his sword, looking around.
Ray. Ri, are you all right?
[01:15:58] Speaker G: Like a big wind. And it was like books. And I was like.
[01:16:04] Speaker B: You hear Cal, as R says this, you hear the sound of a load of books falling off a shelf and clattering against the wooden floor, making an almighty din. Over to your left.
[01:16:26] Speaker A: Okay.
Cal's going to very cautiously walk in that direction him but with his guard up.
[01:16:36] Speaker B: Okay, roll me. I perceive an instinct. Sorry.
[01:16:45] Speaker A: That. That thing I don't have. Thank you.
[01:16:48] Speaker B: You are welcome.
That's.
[01:16:51] Speaker A: Okay, so that's 7, 8, 13 with hope. So I gain a hope.
[01:16:59] Speaker B: Okay, so you gain a hope. You're up to five.
You. As you move round to investigate the disturbance, you see what you would describe as an armful of books on the floor.
And as you kind of wonder what's happening, you notice. You hear the sounds of footsteps on the floorboards. And you turn to see the door to the library reopen.
[01:17:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:17:41] Speaker B: But because you roll with hope, you're confident that whatever open the door like you've caught, you've noticed quick enough that you will be able to intercept.
[01:17:55] Speaker A: I'm intercepting.
[01:17:56] Speaker B: Okay.
In which case, as you lunge for this, like as you lunge for the area in front of the door.
H. How. How are you intercepting?
[01:18:13] Speaker A: I'm. I think I'm like rushing and I'm swinging with my sword because I. I think I'm fast enough. I think that whatever it is, is not. Is a force that I should not be letting out of this room.
And I feel like my battle instincts come into play and he just does this like a mighty swing. Cuz using his sword almost like an extension of his arm to, you know, add to that lunge.
[01:18:44] Speaker B: Cal, please make me an attack roll.
[01:18:48] Speaker A: Okay, let's go.
Let's go, baby. Okay. Attack plus three and because.
Okay, cool, cool. Just double checking something.
[01:19:03] Speaker B: I will ask.
[01:19:06] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:19:07] Speaker B: To roll with disadvantage. So make the roll and then minus off a D6.
[01:19:12] Speaker A: Okay.
So let's see what happens here.
So hang on. Do I, do I minus six plus three or do I roll a D6.
[01:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah, roll a D6 and then minus it off.
Okay, so 10.
[01:19:34] Speaker A: That's three.
[01:19:35] Speaker B: So 11. So 14. So 12. Okay, so you.
You sort of, like, lunge towards the doorway, and with a swing, the sword kind of arcs out.
And you hear it in bed, like, embeds in the side of the bookshelf on the other side of, like, the doorway.
But you notice from sort of, like, the sound of movement that whatever had opened the door has not managed to make it out of the room and instead had to dodge, like, back into the room to avoid your blow.
And as you stand sort of like, slightly. Well, as you stand in the doorway looking around, you realize that whoever, like, clearly whatever you're swinging at is invisible for. For some reason. But as you look around and wonder what it might be.
Let's go. A quick break.
So we will return in approximately 15 minutes. If you're enjoying this, make sure to hit the like button. Yeah, chuck your comments in the. Chuck your suspicions and your speculations in the comments while we're on break and we'll see if anyone gets the. Gets it right. Because we are rapidly zooming in on midnight.
And yeah, if you want to see more stuff like this, make sure to hit the subscribe. Subscribe button. If you haven't hit the subscribe button and you're watching it currently, you will be able to talk to us. If you do so, that'd be great. But otherwise, I will see you four in 15 minutes. I'll see you lot in 15 minutes. See you in 15 minutes.
