From behind another two grab your arms and hold your arms behind your back, do you struggle against it?
Whoa, hey friends.
What what you doing there?
I I I I don't probably fight, but I'm like and if it starts to hurt I might, but Yeah, it doesn't hurt.
But the the one who sat down silently pulls out a a small piece of flint that's sharpened, and he walks over to you and he says, put your head back and
grabs your hair and pulls it back.
Yeah, if you want to join, you must carry the mark.
And he starts to stick it onto your forehead and carve symbols into it.
Are you letting this happen?
Like, well, if I want to be part of the gang, I I guess I gotta get the marks.
Those are some sick tattoos.
I feel like they would certainly, you know, add to my whole uh aesthetic as like an occult herb master.
I know I'm not here, but I'd like to ask a question.
Yeah.
Does the guy doing the carving have the mark?
Yeah, they all do.
Okay.
And uh none of them appear to be enslaved by the mark doing zombie stuff.
Cool, fun.
Enjoy your new forehead tats.
Yeah.
He goes to town on it.
Give me a toughness.
Not you're not gonna lose any hit points, but let's just see how you react here.
Uh nineteen plus two.
Great.
You're tough.
I just don't really channel my my focus.
I'm like, yep, this this hurts.
It remembers me, reminds me of the time.
When uh you can stop speaking.
Uh okay.
Do not solely the name and do not solely the mark with your blabbering.
o okay.
Sorry, I just do it.
We can have a proper conversation now.
The blood's starting to run in your eyes.
You've been marked.
What brings you here?
Well, uh, you know, like I say, I've I've been looking for community.
I've been kind of community.
You're you're not like bound together.
I mean this feels like a whole like in group kind of thing that you got going on here.
It and that's that's what I'm looking for.
I wanna be in the group, in a group, instead of like out wandering on my own, you know?
All I got's me, an R B and rat, ah up the group, give up all of that for Sarai.
Oh, okay.
Tell me about that entity.
uh Okay.
Oh yeah, I have heard of her, actually.
People in the outlying area mentioned the name as I was walking up here.
They mentioned it in spite and venom, I suppose.
Yeah, generally they don't have nice things to say about her.
but you know, I mean she's never done anything to me.
What what do you guys do for her?
What's what's her deal?
What's her goal?
Is she like looking to uh I don't know, like ascend to like the ninth level of whichever plane you guys are interested in?
Talking about well.
I I'm just trying to guess her motives.
Does she want a kid?
Like sometimes we are here to fill her womb.
And you do look around and it's all males everywhere.
Hm.
So she wants to like have her own kid, like from herself, not just like get away Have you children?
Uh no, sir, I do not.
Never never sired.
I I I could, maybe.
I don't know.
Hm.
I I I guess I I never really like did any alchemical
tests on my own stuff, you know, to see like if it works.
No.
no.
We'll find out soon enough.
Come.
You bit now?
Oh, you mean go with you.
Yeah, all right.
I can do it.
You hear the tent open up and you hear real quick, while all that was going on, I would like to be scoping out a little bit more of this tent.
Yeah.
Specifically these uh wagon wheels.
Can I see through them to the person on the throne and whether they are armed or not?
Yeah.
I'll give you that.
Doesn't it look like she's armed.
Looks like a lady.
Just a lady, yeah, elderly.
Uh you do pick up whispers of her voice as she's talking with the people around.
A very motherly voice.
In fact, it kind of reminds you of the mother you never had, listening to it.
It's soothing.
Any treasure?
Yeah.
I mean those wagon wheels came from somewhere.
You see a chest off to the side that probably has something in it.
Yeah, but not
Not anything conveniently behind the wagon wheel throne, huh?
Yeah, there's it's utilitarian back there.
Sure.
There's a skull.
No, I don't need a skull.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, you've got one already.
Bellum, are you just gonna hang out and listen?
Are you gonna Yeah get into the tent more?
Well now I need to wait to find out how I can extract vrack.
Yeah.
This tent opens up, that smell of meat comes out of here.
You see
Atop a throne of broken rag wagon wheels and small skulls from child to adult placed around them.
There's a woman and she's wearing what used to be maybe fine gowns, but they're beyond fine now.
They have the black tinge of old blood, and her eyes are utterly vacant.
And she sees you as you come in, and there's a smile on her face, but not in her eyes.
Just kind of looking at it like
Makes your teeth ache when you see her smile.
They bring you in and he kicks you to your knees.
He says, Get down in front of Sarai.
The mother Yep, I'm I'm down.
You thought of that.
And this is a windy mountain.
And you hear that outside the tent.
It's like flaps.
But her voice cuts through it, but it's so timid and small.
She says, Hello, who are you?
Uh Hi, I'm I'm Vrak.
I'm new here, got the
The fresh cuts on my brow.
I I'm just here to kinda see what I can do to help.
I heard you're looking for a kid.
Abram has taken my son to the mountain.
You know, somebody else told me a similar story.
Are you here on behalf of this other person?
Uh not really.
I'm here for myself.
But what did she tell you is happening to my son?
Since I I'm part of this group now, I'm gonna be honest with you.
She told us it was her son, but she said that he was gonna like.
kill him with some kind of magic knife or something like that.
And that's that's really as as far as she got.
And I was like, yeah, okay, okay, well I'm heading to that mountain anyway.
I'll check it out while I'm on the way.
Like I said, I I was coming here l like and like I just told you.
So you are already coming to this mountain.
No one comes to this mountain, but we can deal with that later.
What how did hearing about my son being killed make you feel?
Well I it didn't make me
Feel great, generally speaking, you know, I ideally kids don't get killed.
You know, if there's some good reason for it.
You know, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine just the other day, uh, about well, I I don't really have friends, you know, that's why I'm here.
But you know, like what what is good anyway?
And it it's all come kind of coming down to motives.
You know, I heard this guy was gonna kill a kid, and I'm like, well, that's not necessarily good, so I'm gonna go kill him.
But if there's a good reason to not.
I'm gonna shoot one down with a a uh sling.
Okay.
Yeah.
The lamp hits the ground, it's a flame lamp probably filled with human fat and it spreads.
Rock, what do you do?
Holy crap.
That we gotta get out of here, man.
This thing's made of like uh what, fabric and stuff?
And wood.
It's gonna burn like crazy.
That looks like an oil fire, a grease fire.
Uh
We gotta get out of here.
I mean can I run away?
I feel like I'm surrounded by these guys, so yeah, the old guy like immediately stands up and runs to the fire and pulls off his cloak and grabs a blanket and they start trying to
hit it at hit it.
And the one who was standing kitty corner when you entered the tent approaches Sarai and grabs her and tries to pull her out.
As well.
And the old man says, Help me put this out.
Seems to have fallen.
Uh okay, sure.
I take off my cloak and instead of putting it out, I kinda try to like fan the flames, like I'm I'm doing it.
I is this helping?
I think I'm getting it.
Is this right?
Yeah.
Maybe try to fan them towards any flammable goods in the area.
Great.
Yeah.
You are able to start fanning a small section of it that's separate from where the old man was uh
Trying to put it out and it catches the door.
There's no way out behind you now.
go ahead, sorry.
Go ahead, Bellum.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
Keep going.
It's it's the one spot I really didn't want to be on fire.
Okay.
Yeah.
And it's just Vrok, Bellum conceivably, and this old man in the tent as it's starting to catch on flames.
Should we get an initiative order?
Well wait, what about the lady and the other people surrounding us?
The guard grabbed her and pulled her out.
Oh.
Yeah.
I can s I can retcon that if you want.
No, no, no, that's totally fine.
I'm gonna get that treasure.
Okay.
Yeah.
So let's go ahead and get an initiative order.
You guys can roll that.
So D six plus your agility, Brock.
Yeah.
That's uh five plus three.
So eight.
you just can't like not go first, I guess.
So we don't even need to roll that.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Wait, what?
Yeah, 'cause this is yeah.
Yeah.
That's very true.
Yeah, so I guess
Since I'm like right next to the action, if I can first, I actually have a a torch.
Or can I use like my torch or something else to like light this guy's clothes on fire?
Like there's fire from behind.
You could just light him on fire.
So push him into the fire.
Yeah.
I I basically want to do it like so that he doesn't turn around and fight back.
Although if he's just gonna burst up into flames and not fight back, then excellent.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Maybe I just push him at the flames, uh, try to like trip him a little bit as I do it.
And then I run over to where Bellum is and I'm like, let's go, buddy, let's go.
Out the back.
Under the M.
So I'll let you do the push strength.
Yeah.
My strength isn't great.
Uh that's the N minus two.
I'm pretty sure that does not do it.
Yeah.
Tell me how you sort of fumble this and miss the opportunity to knock him over.
Hmm.
Because as I'm picturing it's like when the thing fell down and exploded, kinda like burning grease splashed everywhere, and so there's a section he's working on and there's a
section I'm working on.
And I imagine it's getting really smoky and it's hard to see and I'm like going to push him and instead I just don't see some like maybe there's like bits of the tent that are
now falling down and I just like trip over some wood that fell and I just fall like maybe with my head like right between his legs, but like from behind, just like face playing
into the dirt.
Yeah.
You fall down under your elbows in the dirt, the fire starting to grow around you.
Bellum, what do you got for us?
What?
I whispered what's in the chest.
You're gonna run over to the chest.
Yeah, man.
Yeah.
You scramble through the tent, I imagine, on your hands and knees, rip it open, and there's a decent amount of silver in there.
And a dagger.
Fuck yeah.
God.
Okay, yeah.
okay.
Uh money into pockets, 'cause I don't know if is there a bag in there?
No.
Money into pockets.
Yeah.
I I put as many coins into my pockets as I can without taking any sharp rocks out of my pockets.
And then I would like to use that knife to cut a hole in in the tent and step through.
And so this would be out the side of the tent.
Yeah.
Out the side.
Fuck that.
I go back to the hole I cut in the first place and uh sort of wave rock.
Okay.
Old man's turn now.
Uh he has a club.
He wheels around on you after you try to push him but fall over and takes a swing.
Give me agility.
That is a seventeen plus
something that probably doesn't matter.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Yeah, he comes barreling at you and his legs are starting to catch on fire and it spooks him a little bit and he stops to pat himself off instead of like even swing at you.
It's over to you, Brock.
Yeah, I think while he's patting, I just like do kind of a barrel roll over to the the little hole and shimmy out.
Yeah.
Maybe as I'm crawling out I say, I'm burning, I'm dying in here.
nobody look for me.
I'm all burned to a crisp.
Yeah, both of you give me we'll do agility.
See if you can get out of here.
Is this to be noticed or to like literally just get out?
To be noticed.
Uh they get a DR sixteen presence.
Rolled a one.
Okay.
That's what I like to hear.
Yeah, the tent actually goes up in flames faster than you would think.
It must have been dried.
And that smoke is just blindingly giving you cover for all of them.
And you're able to scurry off like rats up the mountain, or get back down the mountain at this point if you wanted.
Well, that's that's that was a quick action with the uh the thing there.
I wasn't sure with the lamp.
I I you know, I was uh kind of running out of ideas there and it seemed like maybe even they were gonna even if they were gonna use me for something, they would have killed me
afterwards.
Uh it was not looking good.
Not looking good.
Yeah.
Real real bad vibes.
Sorry.
Sorry if you had a
A game plan and I messed it up, but it didn't it seems like you playing for time there.
Yeah, I was purely making that up as I went.
No no final plan involved.
Uh Okay.
up the mountain or back through the gulch?
Uh is is that knife the knife?
No, I d I don't think so.
I don't I don't know.
I look at the knife.
I yeah, I figured we weren't that lucky, but you know.
I I thought I would ask, so yeah.
You know how How many silvers fit amongst the rocks in my pockets?
Let's do a ret con agility to see.
Very, very funny.
Seventeen minus one is eighteen.
Okay.
DR is two.
Eighteen times ten?
Yeah.
Uh hundred and sixteen actually.
Yeah.
Hundred and sixty.
I love that.
Yeah, you're rich compared to where you started now.
I jingle.
My money does not fold.
You sound like a
A reindeer over there, just jingle along with all them silver bells in your pockets.
Hell yeah, brother.
Anyways, do we want to follow these guys up or go back the other way?
Uh you know, my life's kinda shit.
Maybe if that knife we get, uh makes us un untowardly, untoldly rich, uh you know, maybe it'll make it less shit.
I I Oh no, I meant I meant like you remember where the path split?
Yeah yeah, yeah.
We could keep going up.
On that side of the mountain.
Yeah, that's what I meant, was go up 'cause i you know, the guy isn't here, so maybe the guy's up the other path.
Well didn't they all go up the mountain this way?
Did I misunderstand this, Nick?
Are there two paths up the mountain?
One through the gulch, or is the gulch a dead end?
No, the gulch led out into this clearing and now you just have the path that curves up around the mountain now.
So we could get on a path to the top of the mountain through the gulch, or we could go back to the first path we were on, which still goes up the mountain.
they would meet here.
Oh, they meet here.
Yep.
Got it.
Great.
One path.
Yep.
All right.
Or you could scale, like, and come up instead of Well, if we really want to get the drop on I I do have this grappling hook that I bought before we left.
Fucking grappling hook.
I was waiting for it.
Were you?
Yeah.
Damn.
When he said I got a grappling hook, I was like, That's gonna come in handy.
So Damn.
All right.
Onward and upward.
Maybe this'll let us bypass some
monsters or you know, more cultist or whatever.
I am now concerned that I let that bat thing go.
Bat ox crow.
Yeah, I I kinda wondered about that, but you know, what's done is done.
No beating yourself up about it.
We'll do our best.
Yeah.
Yeah, we're good in a pinch.
So far.
We we've we've been doing all right.
We killed one of 'em and then I I was in the tent and you did the thing with the f the lamp.
And then I I I think I tricked them pretty good by shouting that I was dying and burning up in there.
So I don't think they'll come looking for me.
Uh they can hear you talk and they attack.
So going up the mountainside with the grappling hook.
Okay.
So let's do let's do some skill checks here.
We will do let's give get some agility for the grappling hook throw.
Yeah, it it was a fifteen plus three.
So eighteen.
Yeah, you get a good lock in and now both of you give me agility to climb or excuse me.
Give me agility or strength.
Fifteen.
Agility uh is still technically better for me.
Uh eight.
Minus one is seven.
DR minus two.
Still not great.
Yeah.
So Vrock, you go first or does Bellum go first?
Hmm.
I I think I have more hit points and if there's something up there I'm like, Yeah, okay.
you know, if there's something up there I'll kinda you know.
I'll I'll hold them off until you catch up.
Yeah.
Bellum, give me a presence.
Two plus one DR minus two.
Okay.
Yeah.
With that agility and your lack of presence, you have just started and you grab on and you're starting to climb and you hit your elbow on an outcropping and it fucking explodes
with pain through your body and you start to lose your grip and fall.
Rock
Give me a presence?
14 with no modifier.
Okay.
You see this happening, you see Bellum slipping.
What do you do?
Mm.
Ah, my elbow.
It's more like Yeah.
Um I if I can very quickly with my hook hand, because I don't really have to use strength for that, I wrap that around the rope so that it'm just like hanging by my hook hand.
And then I kind of
Slip my backpack off or my pack and hold it down with my other hand to kinda like extend it farther and I'm like, grab on buddy.
I gotcha.
Cool.
I'll reduce your DR by two for that.
Go ahead and give me agility to make that happen.
Vrock.
Sorry.
Well, it's a a six plus three, so nine.
And then you said you'll give me a minus two?
Or like a lowered two?
Yeah, one below.
Bellum, you fall a short distance.
Gimme a coin flip for damage.
Have it be a d4, coward.
Uh heads.
Yeah.
Useless are heads two headed.
What do you think?
Does armor protect against fall damage?
Give me a toughness, and if you survive if the toughness is a success, then it does.
I do not succeed at toughness, I got a seven minus one is six.
So you lose two hit points.
I have a hit point left, eh?
my elbow!
my back!
Uh my neck.
Hey, you you okay, buddy?
Hold on.
Well, I'm not dead, so I c I uh Yeah, uh here, hold on, and I uh lift my bag that I was ha holding down for up and I bite into one of the straps to hold it with my mouth and I
rummage around and then I I drop down my my medicine box.
I'm like, here, use one of these.
That's that's called medicine box?
I think that's what it was called.
Equipment.
Yeah, medicine box.
Fifteen silver.
Stops bleeding infection plus D six HP four uses.
For fifteen silver?
That rules.
What?
That's a good investment.
Full health there.
Probably.
Yeah, he drops down the medicine box.
Doesn't just ace me with it by dropping it on my leg.
Yeah, and kill you.
It's like hit your toe and you die.
Yeah, I I start bandaging up my elbow and bandaging up my back and bandaging up my neck.
So you're you're starting to bandage yourself and Vrock, you hear a strange crying sound and you see the oxen thing come swooping in toward Bellum as he's been injured.
You can yeah, just give me that initiative roll just in case you roll a one.
So a D six plus your agility.
three plus three six.
Okay.
you see this happening and it's coming in.
What what do you got for us?
I think I'm gonna wait.
until it's like kinda under me and then I'm gonna just undo my hook from the rope.
Actually no, I'm gonna like try to loosen it so it kinda slides down like the rope, you know, it's like wrapped around my hook and it kinda s yeah, like a little r repel line and
I just wanna drop straight on Okay.
Squish that little bastard.
Yeah, it's coming down and give me strength for that one since it's kind of a grapple.
Yeah.
Uh that's nineteen, minus two.
Uh wow.
Yeah.
You
Fall straight on it, it's between your legs kind of, and you hit on the ground.
Well, how much does Vrock weigh?
You're lazy?
Yeah, I'm I'm lazy.
I imagine he he's probably kinda like I don't know.
He does a lot of gardening, I guess, if he's an herb master.
So he's probably like average weight, but I've also got, you know, uh a bunch of shit in my bat I guess I don't actually have them.
I would say he maybe weighs like a hundred and sixty five pounds.
Just average dude.
Okay.
Yeah.
Give me a D four minus one.
That's two.
So one.
Okay.
One.
Yeah.
You have it grappled though.
It is under you, and it's going to try to claw your legs.
Go ahead and roll agility.
It's thirteen plus three, so sixteen.
It is cutting into you, but it's not making purchase.
It's being squeezed under you.
Okay.
Bellum, you're healing yourself.
Yep.
Well, I could stop.
Probably.
That's really up to you.
Do I think it'll take longer than two full rounds to finish up what I'm up to?
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh I knock it off and go in with the crowbar.
Okay.
It's between Brock's legs and Don't move.
Okay.
I got you, bud.
I got him.
Alright.
Strength.
Critical fail.
Yeah.
Bye Brock.
Ooh, fourteen.
Okay.
Yeah, what's the damage on that?
D four.
D four minus three minus your two.
So a minus is two.
So one.
Okay.
Yeah.
A little bonk.
Give him a bonk.
Yeah.
All right, Vrok.
Go ahead.
Uh yeah, so I imagine I kinda got him like pinned between my knees with his head going, I guess, in front of me.
Uh I just wanna take my hook and swing right down into his mouth.
Strength.
no, that's an eight minus two six.
You know, with a called shot like that, you're kind of like rooting for something specific, but you just like uh wiggling around like a blender, but it's not really cutting
into it.
So blance off of his beak, maybe.
Yeah, and the beak reaches up straight for your crotch and tries to bite.
Give me agility.
Uh that's uh Nat 20, if that's a thing in this game.
It sure is.
Yeah, so you it comes up to bite your crotch and you stick your hook in its mouth and it can't bite down.
And you can get a free attack in.
Uh right now.
Yeah.
I think I uh maybe take my torch and I just Well, it's not lit, never mind.
I take those eyeball marbles and I'm like, choke on your own eyes, you bitch.
And I just pour in his mouth.
So he choked.
You're just like you're holding it open with the hook and you Yeah, shove them in.
Give me strength for that and so Eyes to meet you.
No.
that's sixteen minus
Fourteen.
Yeah, you shove them down.
He's like choking on him.
And probably s take a second to choke, so we'll go over to you Bellum.
Have you played Bloodborne?
Me?
Yeah, you.
Yeah, yes.
You know the pebbles are little eyeballs?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah.
Very good.
Yeah?
Just uh just thought of that just now.
Hell yeah.
Um I give him a I give him a bonk, maybe.
Bonk it.
I miss.
I got a three.
Okay.
You come dangerously close to Vrock's knee and smack the ground.
Um it's still choking, it's gonna get a negative two on its C R, but it's going to try to dig its nails into your thighs again, Vrock.
Give me that agility.
Uh nope, that's uh nine plus three.
I guess that's twelve.
Yep.
So you are able to fend it off.
All right, Vrock, you have one last round probably here.
Yeah, I uh I think I uh
You know, I still got my hook in his mouth, those marbles are in there and he's kind of trying to gargle them up.
And I just like with my free hand hit the bottom of his beak, shove it up as I like twist my hook out, and I just try to hold his mouth shut so that he chokes on for final for for
real life.
Beautiful.
Give me the strength.
it's fifteen minus two, which is still a twelve.
Yeah, I'll let you hold that as a grapple and you hold his beak shut.
as you feel the life drain from it slowly and it's Thrashing and then the thrashing it intensifies for a second and then disappears.
And under you he starts to turn to black goo and these eyeballs and his wings hit the ground.
That was sick.
This is like, you know, you're never gonna run out of eyeballs if I just keep killing these guys with more eyeballs.
There you go.
It's a business, so
Yeah.
Man, if you could farm these things, holy crap, domesticated, and you can make a killing on whatever these weird eyes do.
With that noise, um, you do see the camp start to materialize and people come running toward your location.
And in front of them you see Zarai um sprinting your way.
That doesn't look good.
I think it's uh time we beat it.
I guess we beat feet.
The whole camp comes running b running back.
Because one of the bat things makes noise?
I mean it was screaming.
They always screaming.
Yeah.
They live here.
Not the whole camp, just Sarai.
How about that?
So okay.
Okay.
Also horrible and screaming.
You have your grappling hook still in in set up there.
Yeah, Bellum, it seems like your strength and what all ain't so good.
Uh can I get a sense of how many grappling hook things we'd have to pass to climb up?
I I'd only make you do one for the whole thing, so
Okay.
what's your strength?
My strength is not good, but we can also use agility in my detection.
I think you are, yes.
I see.
So that was a condemnation of the entire party.
Well you know, it just if we try to climb up and don't make it, we're kind of screwed.
but if we uh run up the path, I imagine we gotta go now.
Okay.
Uh up the hook.
Up the hook.
All right.
Let's roll.
Let's let's do it.
Agility or Steve Ho.
I fail.
I got a Nat twenty.
On agility or strength, whatever.
Okay.
You are able to bring Bellum up with you.
Like you see him struggling.
Yeah.
Buddy, you you're you're kinda small.
Uh just top in my pack.
We'll see if I can pull this off.
You know, I I'm not so strong, but I I'm pretty dexterous.
I think I can like stretch my feet around and get good footing on these these little outcroppings.
Maybe that one that you busted your elbow on.
Uh I I think I can do it.
Let's do it.
You you climb up and then you hold the wall and I'll grab the grappling hook and put it up one.
Okay.
Yeah, you work together like a little dig dug type thing or whatever those ice climbers are.
And yeah.
You get up there and you look down as Sarai gets to the edge of the cliff, your dog sitting next to her now staring up at you, wondering why you abandoned him.
And I say, Go around, boy, go around.
Yeah.
Dog
Stands there.
She doesn't do anything to the dog, but she shouts up at you and hell Well, it's she she's always whispering, but it's loud.
So why did you burn down my camp?
Well technically the fire did it.
don't oh just keep going.
Sorry, I can't answer.
Nope, don't don't have a good shot.
Shh yeah.
She just starts ranting like a mad woman down there.
She's like, You speak to me of mother's love.
You spoke to me of what is right and good.
We've ascended past that.
You seem to understand, and you run away.
Shouting at you, Vrock.
Well Yeah, it seemed like you were gonna do something bad to me, so Oh, okay.
And she screw starts screaming, To the world, my son is already a corpse.
We are all corpses.
It's a dying world.
Leave them be.
Leave them be Yeah, Vrock I mean that's true.
I just want the knife though.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Vrock can't not respond, but he's like, Okay.
Uh and he starts like whispering he's to himself, he's like, Look, lady, I I know you can't hear me, but I and I kinda agree with what you're saying, but I I don't like the way
you're going about it.
And if there's no right then like I'm not really wrong, right?
So like I you know, you you don't really have a leg to stand on.
You're f philosophically undermining your own argument here.
yeah.
Yeah, yeah, all right.
I
I okay.
I think that that got the the mental pressure off and and out.
Let's let's keep going.
Yeah, and she's like, Isaac does not weep.
Isaac does not weep.
The absolute requires everything over and over and over again.
And then the people come out after her, the cultists, and they start shouting along with her.
And she drops to her knees and just says these things over and over again, and you hear them echoing her almost in a chant.
And you ascend.
I think maybe they're cheering us on.
That's how I'm gonna tell myself what's happening.
Give some motivation.
Yeah.
Those clouds before they do start to trickle some rain.
Uh it's acid rain here, of course.
Like it sizzles and it hits your skin.
This atmosphere is dying.
And the sky's rotten, basically.
Um the bruised-looking clouds peel back, and you do see that sickening yellow.
behind it every once in a while, but it's getting a little darker and darker as you get to the top.
And there the rock is a void at this point.
It's blackened so much by who knows like the fire, maybe it's volcanic, but it's like you're climbing a void.
It's even hard to figure out where to put your hands at times because it's so obsidian like.
And you get to the top.
Do you just crest over?
I think we we do a
What was that World War II meme with the little guy with the Kilroy, yeah, we Kilroy it.
You peek your head over.
You peek over the top.
And the summit is flat.
It's like a plateau on the top.
The expanse of blackened rock is there.
You see a massive bonfire.
And silhouetted in that bonfire is a towering large figure in some sort of robe.
And he holds a dagger at his waist and there is a twelve year old child standing next to him holding his hand.
It looks like they're conversing.
And the dagger nervously flips in his fing between his hands and he's kind of wiggling it a little bit, like with some anxiety.
Hey Vreck.
Can I get one of those addictive healing things?
yeah.
Sure.
Thanks.
What what do you want to do?
We we gonna I I chugged that thing.
Okay.
Since uh the medicine box.
Not gonna have time to do it on this sheer cliff base.
Yeah.
I gained six HP back.
Okay.
It's really good, man.
Yeah, this thing this so funny I'm good.
I I cannot wait for my next one.
Yeah.
Maybe I'll be a little clumsy in this fight just to make sure I can get a little more.
You yeah, as you sip that you see Isaac sit down
in front of the flames and Abraham leans over his body and ties him to a wooden brace.
And it's hard to see because it's silhouetted.
Uh you can't see their faces or anything.
Ebraham holds up the dagger and it's shaking in his grasp.
You think he can like fling that thing out of his hand?
Awesome idea.
you got any those um eyeball marbles?
yeah.
And I hold out a little leather pouch.
I just marble marbiles.
I do the thing.
Yeah.
Give me the agility.
Or sorry.
Presence.
Is it an important presence roll?
What's the DR on this?
This is really hard.
So sixteen.
Yeah.
Sixteen.
All right.
I reduce it by two.
Okay.
And I get a thirteen plus one.
So at it, you see the marble flying.
Through and it hits his hand, and the hand explodes.
He didn't have a good grip on this anyway.
Not like his hand explodes, but uh and it opens and the dagger falls down and sticks into the stone.
And when it does, you see cracks illuminate from or just spiral out like a spiderweb from where it hits the stone.
And you hear a almost like lightning.
And
The sky above the fire tears open, and a strange yet red glow emits from it.
And through it there is a mass of grinding intersecting rusted iron wheels, and there's a pale fire in the middle of it that peaks through this hole in reality.
And the wheels are turning and the eye opens up and it's actually thousands of other smaller eyes.
They dart frantically around and a voice erupts into your head um that you do not quite understand at first, but it it knocks you over.
Can you both give me a toughness?
Does it say be not afraid?
uh fuck.
I got a twelve with a minus one is eleven.
Okay.
Yeah.
I got go ahead.
No, sorry.
No, please continue.
I got a a ten with a plus two, whatever that means.
Okay.
You pass vrock, this thing
Addresses Ibrahim and you hear it rumble through your body.
Bellum, it's too loud.
You're in the fetal position now, with your sling in your hand, and the sharp rocks are poking into your thighs.
And in a strange voice that almost sounds like a trombone and trumpets singing, says, Isaac is safe.
Your new Ram is here.
And the eyes point towards Bellum and Vrok, and Isaac turns to you, illuminated by this strange eyeball, and you see his face and you see elation on it that he no longer has to
sacrifice his son, and he bends over to pull the dagger from the earth.
Can you roll your initiative?
A D six, right?
Yeah.
That's a six plus three.
Okay.
Vrok, what do you do?
Can I try to grappling hook the dagger?
Yeah, of course.
Sick.
is that you want strength or agility or presence?
yeah, yeah.
I mean it literally says grapple for strength because like grappling somebody, but we'll just say let's call it strength.
Okay.
Strength or agility.
Okay.
well that's a two which is a fail on either one, so yeah, you throw wide and it clatters to the ground.
Do you maintain hold of the rope?
I do, yeah.
I say, yeah, I I meant to do that, sir, mister Mr.
Ebraham.
Uh it's all right.
I was trying to I shit, I don't know what I'm s I need to stop talking so much.
Yeah, he looks at you, he says, You My new lambs and he starts trying to get the dagger out and pulls on it.
Bellum, you have blood running out of your ears and your nose and your eyes, but it is your turn.
Catch And I underhand lob
My bomb at him.
Okay.
Uh yeah.
That's that's definitely a presence, so I would really n like to pass this check.
A sixteen plus one with a minus two DR.
Yeah.
you chuck it center mass or in front of him.
I want him to catch it.
He's down pulling this dagger up and you throw it and reflex he grabs it and it's like in his hand.
And does this have a fuse?
I'm assuming.
Yeah, it's a sealed bottle, it says.
So I'm imagining like a like a milk can with a whip with a with a fuse coming out of the top.
Yeah, he grabs it, uh, gimme some damage.
It blows up, and you see him fly backwards and hit the same pile that Isaac is bound to, and he lays next to him for a second and he has shrapnel all over his body.
His face is blackened.
Now the eye thing twitches and blinks a bunch and he stands up and let me see.
I'm gonna give him a toughness to see if he can like even go.
Actually, go ahead and roll the toughness as a part of that bellum.
He got a seven.
Okay, plus zero.
he does not have a turn, Vrock, it is your turn.
Yeah, I'm gonna uh yank the grappling hook back and try to catch the knife on the way and see if I can pull the knife towards us.
Just go get it.
yeah, I I guess it c can I?
I'm not quite sure about You can run over to it.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'll I'll just go try to grab the knife.
Yeah, you run over, slide in maybe, like uh you're sliding into a base.
Destiny slide.
Yeah, destiny slide exactly.
And then give me a strength to see if you can rip it out.
Oh not so strong.
Yeah, that's a one.
Okay.
You go up and yeah, you grab the blade in stid
of the knife and you lose your hand.
Um your other hand.
So now you just have a hook and give me a D six.
Uh two.
And I have I think my light armor it says D two.
Does that do anything?
Or not for critical failure.
Yeah, probably what if it gets him on the what if it gets him on the armored bit of his hand?
Okay, okay.
Okay, you slide in, it hits your wrist and then it slides up and de gloves you.
Instead of taking your hand and the skin on your palm is torn asunder, you can still grip a sword, but I will need a toughness roll to bear through it if you want to do anything
with that hand.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, armor's not gonna help you with that.
Yeah.
But you don't take any HP damage.
Alright.
That's a fair compromise.
More than fair compromise.
I liked him losing the hand.
I thought that was pretty funny.
Like I mean, it's at the end of this, right?
It is a magic knife.
Yeah.
I think he for a second he was real excited about having two hookayans if he lives through this, but it's fine.
We'll do the declow.
Yeah.
Um Iram stands up and you see him chanting to himself.
Sorry, go ahead, Bellin.
Yeah.
Is it Bellin's?
yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it is your Bellum.
It Bellin's thing.
Not bad.
Uh I would like to do the same thing, but I want to slow down a little before I get to the knife.
Okay.
Yeah.
Let's see if your role lets you slow down.
I
own chalk.
It's in my pockets.
Yeah.
Can I chalk my hands first?
Yeah.
Well yeah.
I'll give you.
Yeah, that'll reduce it by one.
Should have done that before the rock climbing part of our show, but whatever.
Uh you know, don't always think of it.
Uh Nat 1.
Are you fucking joking?
No sir.
Jesus Christ.
Okay.
You're going for the blade as well.
Okay.
Yeah, I bet.
Yeah.
Do you have any armor?
I do.
It's padded cloth.
Okay.
Give me a d6 as you slide into this blade.
Six.
Minus one.
A d2?
So minus minus two.
So still totally lethal.
Yeah.
Do you want to narrate how this happens, Bellum?
Yeah, so Bellum is running over and he's chalking up his hand.
And as he pulls the chalk out of his pocket, he spills maybe a dozen of his small sharp rocks on the ground and slips on him like ball bearings.
And as he does this, he baseball slides basically into the knife that is sticking out of the ground that cuts him from uh between his middle and ring finger up
Through his shoulder, just the whole way up, like a band saw.
And he he sort of looks at that and then just bleeds out like then and there.
Okay.
Well, let's let's g roll on the broken table for me.
Oh okay.
oh I'm at negative one.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
What does an omen do?
I have one omen.
Yeah.
You call upon the omen.
Yeah, I probably should have called upon the omen for this not to be a critical failure.
Right.
I'd like to re roll the dice roll.
If you will allow that.
Yeah.
Given that I just bandsawed myself like a like a butcher.
Yeah, so I imagine Bellum imagines this.
He's chalking up, getting ready.
He just saw what happened of Rock, and he sees himself doing the same thing and then slicing his entire arm up to his shoulder.
And then that bad omen is like, wait a second, maybe there's another approach.
Alright.
Rerolled, I get a
Fifteen plus zero.
Great.
You get over you slow down and get a good grasp on the knife and that was uh agility, right?
That you were rolling strength.
Yeah.
And you pry it up and it breaks through the stone.
You have the knife now.
I have the knife.
Let's go.
Go, go, go.
Alright.
Uh do we cut loose the kid?
Do we have to?
No.
Run!
Alright.
You grab the knife out
Are you helping Vrock up?
Absolutely, yeah.
Okay.
I grab him by the hook.
Yeah.
Yeah, he starts standing up after getting this explosion all over him.
He's smoking too.
He breathes heavily.
ah That holds the band that covers the noise of the dreams, yet undreamt those sleepers.
in the darker waters of the lake of mud And he's at the end.
And he can do a D four of people.
He gets three, so Uh Pick three it doesn't say up to a D four.
Yeah, so you are the two that he's trying to put to sleep.
Who's number three?
Uh pickin' Isaac?
Picking himself?
No, I'm kidding.
I'm sure it does not work that way.
But I'm doing my best here.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it's funny as a as an idea though, that it does mean exactly that many.
That's funny.
That would be funny.
And you would have to make yourself fall asleep if it's just like Yeah.
Like like what a die roll.
Like if you roll a three and there's only three people there.
Adios.
We all just wake up together and resume, so uh yeah, can you give me a strength or a toughness?
Uh fifteen plus two.
Okay.
You do not fall asleep.
I got a twelve.
Minus one.
Okay.
You feel like you're falling asleep.
It's a fourteen test.
And you see Bellum as he's shouting for you to get your ass moving, Vrock.
He looks woozy and starts to fall over and hits the ground.
Pour some of that berserker potion in me.
Mm-hmm.
ah
The dagger hits the ground again when it's in Bellum's hand and you see the spa it hits cracks and you hear lightning again.
It is your turn, Brock.
Yeah, how cups God didn't give me a target when I got the knife.
Hmm.
Yeah, I do I have like with my occult herb sense, any sense that the berserker potion would work?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, it's it's a powder.
Stimulant, so Yeah.
that's right, it's snuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's it's basically magic cocaine.
Uh yeah.
So I uh you know, I have a little vial and I just like pour some of it right in you know.
And I close the other nostril and close your mouth.
Yeah, it goes up.
Bellum, you feel uh the life come back to you.
Rock, that's your turn.
The dagger's laying on the ground.
We will Well, Bellum, I'll let you take a turn.
Uh can I pick up the knife?
So there's three things I'd like to do.
They are pick up the knife, resume running, and also whip a sling stone at this guy.
Uh how many of those can I do?
You can pick up the knife and start running, or pick up the knife and start swinging your sling.
Oh, w let's get out of this guy's line of sight.
How hard is it gonna be to get back down the sheer cliff face?
Otherwise we're gonna run into um every cultist on the way.
You you going back down the side?
Yeah.
It's gonna be tricky.
uh with speed and then who knows what's gonna be thrown down at you but there is the path too that you could take that would have taken you up uh yeah but there's eight dudes and
that lady on that path.
Seven if we burned up that one guy.
Yeah.
Choices.
What would your gut tell you, Bellum?
Run.
Okay.
Run down the path run down the path and maybe we can hop over the side of the path and like skid down the the side of the mountain.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.
You start taking off, Brock, you see him taking off.
He gets a room's distance away, which is about, you know, twenty-five feet or so.
you're still in line of sight at this point though.
Yep.
it's uh not that I want this to be the case, but it's Ibrahim's turn, right?
Like I use my turn for the snuff, Bellum did his thing.
Yeah, Ibram pulls out a sling of his own and spins it around to you.
Rock can you give me an agility?
That's an eleven with a plus
uh three so fourteen.
Beautiful.
Yeah, you see one of those eyeballs fly past your head and he starts bounding toward where Bellum was running um for his dagger.
Yeah, I wanna fireball him.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Uh what's the activation again for that?
Uh it's your presence.
The thing I think so.
And then I say the thing.
Yeah you can say the thing.
Uh
Palms open the southern gate, knuckles close the northern gate, fingers close the eastern gate, nails open the western gate.
From Hell's Heart I stab at the kapow.
Yeah.
Give me the presence roll to see the activation goes well.
I I have two omens.
If need be, I can can I use one on this?
Yeah, I got an eight, which I'm pretty sure fails.
You can use your omen, yeah.
What would you An omen reduces the DR by four.
So it it succeeds, yeah.
Okay.
Sweet.
so then I do the damage.
Two the eight.
That's an eight.
Wow.
You see Ibrahim bounding toward Bellum and he's running past you and you give him some lead as you read this scroll aloud and the flames erupt from like your hand and hit him in
the side.
Yeah, give me a description of how he's consumed by flames and killed.
Uh yeah, so I was picturing him in like robes and maybe like kind of a fancy hat.
Uh and I, with my skinned palm hand, I kinda point my hook at him and my hook starts to glow red as I'm doing the chant, and then just like BAM and like fire shoots out and it's
still kinda in the hook shape.
Uh and it just like flies straight at him as this like fiery hook and like digs right into his back and there's a split second where he kinda jerks, like, ah, like hands up and
maybe stumbles his step, and then his robes just erupt in fire.
Yeah, he
Falls to the ground screaming in agony as he's consumed by flame.
Bellum, as you're running, you have the dagger in your hand still, right?
Yeah.
It gets to a point where you run and it stops midair and you get jerked forward and it will not move any further.
And the figure in the sky rings in your head.
We demand a sacrifice.
I turn around and start dashing towards ah Ibrahim.
What what what's
Is he still alive?
He's he's screaming.
Okay.
And I really hope I can get there in time.
Also, I got a quibble for you, God.
Is it really a sacrifice if it's someone I don't know?
Just putting that out there.
I'm gonna go plant this in Ebraham's chest.
Yeah.
You're not really sacrificing anything but something's dying.
Yeah, like but it seemed to have counted because uh God said like, you can go sacrifice these mooks instead of your kid.
So Yeah.
Yeah, at this point it's a guy I wanna kill, so I I I mean, hey, just a win win scenario, you get your dead body, and we get this guy killed.
You mercy kill Ibram, and he is on fire as his dagger comes into him, and that lightning like resonance passes through him and splits him in half.
One of the halves slops around and falls off the side of the mountain.
Isaac screams from there.
He's just like
Dad, father, father.
And he's screaming and lashing against his restraints.
Uh yeah, I think we leave that kid there.
Someone will come up and get him.
Yeah, he he seemed like he wanted this whole thing to happen and I don't even really know which mother he is.
Hey, you know what?
For funsies, maybe we could pull a a whole a whole Bible and like saw him in half and then each mother can have the half they want.
No.
Okay.
Alright.
Yeah, let's get out of here.
Yeah, you take off down the path with the dagger in your hand.
Is God still there?
God's still there watching.
Still hanging out?
Yeah.
I s I want to do like a sort of like what the fuck gesture at God.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I have uh problems with authority and blasphemous tattoos.
Yeah, you do the gesture, uh seems uncaring, um, standing in the sky, these whirling, strange, rusted circles, and you run down the mountain.
And just take the path all the way down.
Where's the lady and the rest of the cultists?
At the end of the path.
Oh, waiting.
Waiting.
You see them in the distance.
They're all supplicated at the bottom of the mountain with the staring up at the strange eye in the sky.
Uh, you'd think we can just run past them?
They seem pretty much.
hold the knife like behind my back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
As you run into view, Vrock, you notice that Bellum holding this knife is glowing strangely.
Uh it's like a like a dark obsidian blackness folds the shadows around him in an anti-glow almost.
And they notice that as well.
Yeah, and they start they start bowing as you guys run up and turn towards you, s screaming prayers at you as you run by.
Yeah, I told you they were cheering us on.
Yeah.
Don't don't don't overthink it.
Just just keep going.
Go, go, go.
Yeah.
Go, go, go.
We uh yeah, well, Roadrunner off into the distance.
Like I don't think we stop running.
Yeah, where do you stop eventually?
Does God remain in place?
Mm-hmm.
Doesn't follow you.
Does it go away?
Yeah.
After a while slinks back and Probably that's when Vellum stops running.
Yeah.
Think I'm just following your lead at this point, because you seem to know more about this whole God stuff than I do.
I'm just I'm a long photo.
I don't know what that thing is.
Towards a village, towards wilderness.
Uh Village?
If this knife can make us lots of money, uh well, I I don't know.
Maybe we chop a tree with the knife and gold pops out, and then I don't know how this thing gets us money.
Yeah.
Wealth beyond measure, I hear.
Yeah.
Yeah, you go to a village, take a night's rest.
Are we able to stop at uh the late like run past the lady?
Of course, yeah.
He's dead.
Goodbye.
Yeah.
Your son's still alive if you want to go get him.
Bows over and over again, slamming her head into the ground as you run by.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, these these people are weird.
I mean, I'm not exactly normal, but like I you know, I wouldn't stuff like that, you know.
I yeah, it's ah crap.
I still got these carvings on my head.
Well, maybe one of the healing potions will take care of that.
I don't think so.
Yeah.
As a part of a I guess a uh epilogue, Bellum, you arrive in civilization and you cannot stop people from trying to follow you and bow to you.
Um you against your will have become a father of nations.
Um you gather more and more and more people everywhere you go.
You go into the wilderness to try to escape them, people follow, and then animals follow, and you have wolves, deer lying together in your presence.
I give Vrak the knife.
That's fucked up.
Bellum is not okay with that.
Yeah.
Bellum does not cannot become the authority.
Yeah, it's kinda your whole not thing.
The real you know, uh Paul Atreides, I don't wanna be king kind of situation, but you can't really stop it.
I don't know what happened.
I give him the knife.
Frack, you can't touch or lift the knife.
Like damn it.
It falls.
That sounds about right.
Yeah.
It's not you're in unable to touch it.
Yeah, I I'm okay with that.
I I didn't really want it either.
Uh I I'm not king material.
I I know that about myself.
Uh I guess it you know, even if I had like subjects to sit and listen to me ramble all day, I don't really like that I ramble.
It's kind of like a stress thing.
I don't really want to do it.
And if I had people stuck here that would listen to me all the time.
Bellum, you realize after a while that in your followers, some say that your nature is this, others say your nature is that.
None are quite right.
None really have a full understanding of you.
And then they start killing each other because they don't really understand you.
But you cannot stop this unless you have a creative way to.
I'm not sure he tried.
Yeah.
Hey, Bud, what if we take the knife back to the mountain and get someone else to kill someone and then they have the knife?
I mean we we got our wealth.
Why don't we just get rid of this thing and we could give it a shot?
Yeah.
Uh I I think we trek back to the mountain with a horde of people.
Someone's gonna want to be sacrificed, I'm sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, you get to the top of the mountain and raise the knife above.
No, I don't raise the knife.
Okay.
Someone else has to ra Fuck.
Can someone else raise the knife?
Like on a fundamental literal level.
Like I give it to some guy.
I'm like here, hold this.
Yeah, no one can hold it.
What uh what what about if you kinda hold it up and they and then let someone else drop it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Somebody else has their hand on it and you let go and it falls into a person.
We we try to trick God.
Yeah, you stand up top this mountain doing strange rituals.
That are mimicked throughout the land now by your followers.
People drop knives into their own feet.
People try to hold knives up together in a large group and hurt themselves all the time.
It and there's just strange things just around the land as this world's dying, even faster now.
But well you have temples built in your name.
You have access to gold and riches and men and women and everything in between.
Your desires are can be met no matter what.
The world is honestly your slave.
Yeah, except the one desire to not be the person that has all this stuff.
Yeah.
The monkey's paw curls.
Is that a monkey's paw?
I don't know.
The and yeah, you gave me exactly what I asked for in a way that makes me completely unable to enjoy it.
Sure.
There you go.
Yeah.
That's excellent.
Spectacular.
Cool.
Yeah.
Frog, do you have a prologue or just hanging out with Bellum?
Or not a prologue, an epilogue.
Yeah, I mean I I think I probably just hang out with Bellum.
Uh but I I don't I don't want like any kind of spotlight.
It's more like maybe we're drinking buddies or something.
Uh and I I I commiserate with ya.
And maybe after a years of this I kinda learn how to shut the hell up.
'cause he's the one with the problems and I find some inner peace from that.
The problem is thus spoke for Rock and everyone writes every little thing you say down and repeats it constantly throughout because you have the era of Bellum and your scripture and
testaments of Bellum are one of the only books that is rewritten and written over and over again.
Uh okay, well then I think that actually has uh unfortunate feedback for Vrock.
'Cause then he's like, one, he just is hyper verbose and says all this stuff.
But then two, 'cause he's deceitful and kinda gets a kick out of it, he starts saying really dumb shit just to see how much people will write down.
Uh maybe sometimes he tries to like you know, 'cause he th he didn't want to see the kid get killed.
He doesn't like the people dropping knives in their feet and stuff like that.
He's you know, I mean, he'll kill a man if there's a good reason, but you know, people just stick a knives in themselves because of some weird, like, ritual.
That that's just pointless.
So,
You know, he he maybe tries to be like, Look, no, you know, the don't with the knives and the dropping in the feet.
maybe like, you know, drop it next to your foot.
Uh and it's like the closer to your foot you get, the closer you are to God, but God doesn't want you to like hurt your foot.
Uh so if you make a mistake, then you gotta like give money uh to uh I I don't know, some kids who are in trouble or or some of it to us, uh, but not you know.
Yeah, yeah.
Most of it does.
Yeah.
And and then you also have to fuck off for a week.
That's that's how more than a week.
A a year.
After you donate money to us, you have to go away for at least a year.
So thus thus spake Vrock.
Leave us the fuck alone.
Yeah.
And Vrock's verbose like scripture is so confusing and archaic.
There are colleges and universities that devote their entire study to understanding and unpacking what Vrock has said.
And they translate it into other languages and miss stuff and they try to retranslate it.
And those are the testaments of Vrock.
People making themselves hook hands.
The in the monasteries, absolutely.
Yeah, that's that's pretty sick.
And that is the end for Bellum and Vrock and the world.
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