Meet the Robinsons.
Meet the Robinsons?
Oh, like the cartoon?
Yeah. Yeah. Hey. You know who has a song in that? Rufus Wainwright?
Oh, your guy.
So do the Jonas Brothers.
Well, who who knows who they are? They pale in comparison to the fame and infamy of Rufus Wainwright.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Hey, everybody. It's a podcast. Not only is it a podcast, it's season two of a podcast. Hey. Hey. Squawk on three. One, two, three. Squawk. That's right. This is season two of Dodoborne, and you may be wondering who's talking right now. It's me, your GM, your editor, and your good friend, Isaac Allen Burns. Joined with me today are three very special people. You know them. You love them. Starting with Rowan Collins playing Pistachio.
That's me.
And across the table from Rowan, we have Joe Diomede playing Kapi. Hello. And two Kapi's left. We have one Annie Hawthorne playing Crank.
Hey, everybody.
Check it out, gang. We're on a podcast again, season two. Now before we get into the meat and potatoes, before we get into the the pizza and garlic knots, we gotta Sounds
really good or making me hungry.
Yeah. We're gonna do some business. And first order of business I wanna say is something exciting has happened, gang. Do you know what's officially has happened that's exciting?
What? What?
Our players, our adventurers, our Dodos are now level two. Get off. That's right. Based on their heroics in the last session and due to narrative consistency, we have leveled up. We are now level two.
We are now in tier two gameplay. So before we get too far, I just wanna let everyone know what has updated for our characters. And you know what? Because I like to change things up and keep people on your toes, we're gonna go a different direction this time. We're gonna actually start with Rowan Collins. Tell us about this one. Tell tell us about Pistachio.
That's so funny. What I did was I added an additional hit point. So pistachio can take another damage. And I also took another domain card, so we'll see what those are. In addition, we do get new experiences. And should I say what those are or leave that?
Let's say what our new experiences are. Yeah.
Okay. My new experience based on everything in season one is a taste for blood.
Oh, spooky. Awesome. Keeping it different, keeping it fresh. We're gonna move over to Rowan's right and we're gonna go to Joe Diarmidi. Tell us how Kapi leveled up.
Kapi added points to attributes. He also took a new domain card.
Okay.
And his new experience given last season is like Cyrus, like Kapi.
Oh. Can't wait to see how that comes about. And now 45 degrees from where Joe is sitting, we have Annie Hawthorne. Annie, tell us about how crank has leveled up.
Yeah. So first of all, I have reflavored crank from a stalwart guardian to a vengeance guardian. That's gonna be fun. Oh. But, yeah, I increased Frank's strength plus one. So I have a plus three in strength now, and I increased knowledge plus one. He's been reading a lot. And I took an extra HP.
Nice. All tracking with narrative decisions that were made in last season. Very exciting.
Oh, wait. I forgot my experience.
Oh, yeah.
My new experiences. I've got the magic, baby.
You've got the magic. That's right. A little bit of magic for Crank. One other thing that we're gonna do is since the edition has come out, and I just want the fans to know that I'm doing this because sometimes I have to be a nice deal gremlin is that I have these little tokens here for each of my players, and these are gonna represent my fear. So not only am I gonna spend fear to do bad things, I also get to choose which person's fear that they gave me to use.
And so that's just gonna add a little bit of extra flavor here. Currently, following the rules, I have one fear from each of them. I start with one fear per PC, and I will no doubt grow this as time goes on. But nevertheless, that's all for business gang. Are we ready
to start
season two? Let's go.
Oh, it's been so long.
Let's do it.
Let's jump in. Last season on Donoborne, we followed the exploits of three up and coming adventurers in the Bracken Road Adventuring Guild. Bracken Road is a small little town within the middle of the Algenabai Province known for its apples. Our three adventurers got to know each other with a little bit of turnip hunting and some eel gator smashing, and soon upon them was the Apple Festival. As the Apple Festival drew nearer, strange individuals were coming to town causing chaos, monsters were attacking on the edge of town, and the librarian was acting hella sus.
Additionally, our three adventurers had strange dreams that eventually led them deep into the forests, just to the north of the town close to the mountains, where they met Percival Anachronisms, a joyful little guy who protects this little place, and told them about a relic from the gods from before the age of gods that was stolen at some point, and oh, if only it could get brought back. Our adventurers headed back into town and eventually discovered the relic deep under the town hall with a man chained to it whose head was quickly crushed. During the Apple Festival, the very end of the first night, an attack occurred. Big explosion. That's right.
The town hall blew up and insurgents wearing the armor of Jethane, a neighboring country, stormed into town burning things and causing chaos indiscriminately. Our heroes rose to the challenge and did what they could to protect the town, eventually culminating in a smackdown drag out brawl that was somewhat one-sided between them and a couple of the insurgents, including their leader, a red simia named Commander Glenn, who was knocked out and carried away, and maybe we'll see him in the future. After soundly defeating them, however, we left our heroes to ponder what had occurred in the broken remains of a burned Bracken Road. A day has passed since the attack. Ash still clings to the air and the smell of burnt debris still wafts into your nostrils as you survey the scene.
Sleep did not come to much of the people here as the shock of what has happened begins to wear off and the realization of the loss of much of their livelihood and their community sets in. Major Balthazar and his remaining squadron are doing what they can to keep things organized and help with as much rebuilding as they can, But you can see in their faces that there is very little belief of rebuilding anything here. A throng of people has begun to gather at the southernmost gates where the main road is as horses and the carriages that are available begin loading up people as the first round of refugees will be heading south to the Algenabai provincial capital. As a couple people are leaving though, you three are still here. And I wanna know, where did you spend the night and what are you doing now?
I think since Pistachio's house burnt down, I think Pistachio and their family kinda, like, slept outside as to where the farms used to be and that they've taken the displaced people from the town and set up camp there. Pistachio and Hazel would both be, like, running around, trying to help heal and provide care to everybody that was kind of down.
Nice. Nice. As the day comes to a close, a cart eventually makes its way to the remains of your family farm and loads up some of the people on there, including your mom and including Wally, whose face is not doing great, but he's able to at least walk around and at least help out a little bit. Mhmm. Before your dad gets on, though, he turns to look at you and nods solemnly and looks at his little baby child and says, it's gonna take some time to find any kind of normalcy, but we droops can be resilient, Pistachio.
We'll we'll be okay.
That's true. Stroops always bounce back.
He weakly smiles and says, that's that's right. That's right. And we still we still have some savings, you know, keep the savings in the mattress, which for us, the mattress is in the field out back. So, you know, we always had some.
Yeah.
We got a couple of handfuls of gold squirreled away, or should I say fond away.
You still got it.
I'm really proud of you, Pistachio. These last couple weeks, you've really grown.
Thanks, dad. That beats a whole lot. I have a lot of emotions I don't know how to handle.
Yeah. We all get sad sometimes. He just kinda bleeds in. It kinda gives you a a light hug, kinda like an awkward dad hug where he doesn't quite know what to do.
Awkward dad hug with the three pat.
He gives you the three pat, comes out and kinda, like, goes for a handshake.
Very funny.
Go for the fist bump at the same time. Oh, no.
Oh, boy, You're
not the not the little kid anymore. You're you're grown now.
That the world seems so much bigger, too big perhaps for someone like me. What did what did you do when you were this little?
I wouldn't know.
Yeah. Yeah.
I've always been this tall.
You've always since since you were a little baby.
That's right. This is how tall I came out.
You came out of your mom that size.
Sure did. Yep. That's what being a dad is all about. Oh. It's being big and important.
Okay. Alright. Wow. Impressive.
Well, anyways, good talk. Good talk. We're gonna we're of your mother's condition, we're allowed to be on the first run.
So Okay.
And with that, a bit of ash flies between you and flies up in the air. And we watch it. We watch it go. We watch it fly away. And we're startled as we look, and in front of us is, Frank, where are you at? Where did you spend the night?
Well, I think in the immediacy of after the battle, Frank would have made sure that all of the people that he cares about are safe. And I think he probably would have stayed up all night outside of wherever Timothy and Alana ended up to protect them, because that's really all he knows how to do in this moment.
Yeah. Timothy and Alana definitely also pretty much everybody slept outside as most of the buildings were torched. There were some awnings and some covered shelters that people were able to stay in. And because Timothee had a child, they slept under some coverage, you guarding them all night. What is Crank thinking as Crank is standing at attention there guarding them?
I think he's trying to figure out how to be useful. Because he doesn't know a lot. He doesn't have a lot of skills. He he hits things really hard, and he sometimes brings people food, and that's really the only two things that he knows how to be helpful at. I think he's just thinking about, oh, these all these people have to eat tomorrow.
I should try to find them some food. But the bakery's gone. The bar's gone. They're like, where can I find food? And I think that he's gonna make it his mission in the morning to go out in search of some kind of sustenance for everybody.
Oh, this is incredible. Okay. Our first roll of season two right here. Here we go. Go ahead and roll. We'll say a instinct check to find some food.
I still got my staff.
You still do have your staff. Yes. You do.
Uh-oh. Can I I wanna grip the staff?
Uh-huh.
And I don't think I've done this yet today. I wanna ask the staff and nature where I can find food. Beautiful. Amazing. And I want, if I can, to use I've got the magic, baby, for my role.
Oh. Here's what I'm gonna say. You've had the staff for a little while now. And as you reach in to that magic that is dwelling within this staff, I will let you have advantage on this check. However, I will ask you to mark a stress.
Can I use my experience?
You may use your experience. As you are getting more used to magic and magical effects and all.
Y'all, that's another crit on twelves. What?
Oh my god.
I'm serious. I'm a 100% serious. Second time I've rolled these dice Isaac's is just spell. Second time I've rolled these dice, both times I've been a crit on twelves. Isaac's face
is so upset.
Does Crank get that stress back?
I don't know. Do I? If I crit, what is I get a hope back, don't I?
If you crit, you can you gain a hope and feel the stress.
Amazing. I love that for me.
That is
insane. You guys can verify if you want. Like, look at that.
It is there. It is that's true.
I just don't know what to do. I just I just don't know what to do here. I feel like I need to take we need to take, like, a ten minute break. We've only been recording for two seconds and already Can
we I actually have to use the restroom.
Oh, okay. Yeah. No. We're gonna all take a break
because the grit was too strong. We'll edit that out.
We'll that out. But, you know, Joe's That
is absolutely wild.
So, Annie, you are reaching within this staff, and your senses take you underground, and you expand out your consciousness. And you see a little rat. You see a little rat screaming. He's dig he's digging in the ground. He's digging in the ground. What's he digging? Uh-oh. A hole is before him. He gets into a room. He falls three feet into the ground.
He hits the ground, but he's a rat, so he's fine. He gets up, and he looks in front of him. And what is it? It's a cellar. You know what's in this cellar? The most cheese you've ever seen in your life. You. That's right. This cellar is chock full of food and cheese and wine, and this rat rubs its hands together because it just got the payload. And little does it know that it just led you to its stash.
And sure enough, as your senses come back to you, like a pinpoint radar, you know exactly where that's at.
I will go off.
You go off. You find the building that you are going to. You realize this is the mayor's actual home and house. Crank, you walk inside, and you see a husk of a home. Clearly, this is very structurally unstable. But what does Crank know about structural engineering? Right? All you know is that you see a hatch in the corner of the main room. It looks wooden. The little metal pull handle that you know will lead down to where food is.
Yeah. I will go over to it and open the hatch and then go down.
You go down, and sure enough, you're pick of the litter. You've got wines. You've got cheeses. And you see there's a rat in the corner looking at you. Its hands are pressed up against the back wall, kinda like Krunk in Heifer's New Groove when he's hiding, and the rat is looking at you wide eyed and breathing really heavy.
I'm gonna just gonna reach back to the staff again and touch it, and I'm just gonna say, I mean you no harm. Will you share your food with me?
So are you gonna eat you're using the staff's magic too.
I'm trying to use the magic to speak to the rat.
Awesome. Okay. Well, we're gonna do this again. Can you give me this me a
presents roll. Annie, you have the chance to do the funniest thing.
Crit on twelve?
Once again, Marcus Dress and roll a presence check.
Presence check. I use I've got the magic baby again?
Absolutely spend a hope to do that, and I swear, Annie, if you crit
He's gonna
walk out
right now. I'm looking at a window right now. I am jumping out.
Please don't
I'm on the First Floor, but I will break through that window.
Please don't break my window.
I'm gonna cut my arms on the glass as I leap out and defenestrate myself.
Yeah. I didn't cry, but I got a seven and twelve.
Alright. With
hope. With with hope. Okay.
With hope. Okay. Awesome.
That's great. Nineteen twenty twenty one minus my presence minus one, so 20.
That's really good. That's really good. As, once again, you touch the staff and you feel your magic course through you, a tightness comes into side of you for just a moment, like a like a tension. But as quickly released as the rat looks at you, and its eyes are wide and says, who are you? How'd you find this place? This is my home now. You just come into my home. You steal my cheese.
Oh, I'm asking politely for some of your cheese. I don't wanna take all of your cheese, but my name is Craig. Hello. It's nice to meet you. What's your name?
My name is Pierre. Pierre. That is right. I found this place. I was on patrol with all of my brethren and my kin, and I found this place. I did not tell the others.
Oh, I see.
Of the action happened, and I hid here and ate some cheese.
I mean, that sounds like a great way to pass a battle.
It cuts away for a second.
She's like
Yeah.
There's a lot of people who who need food, and I I just wanna take some of it and share it with them.
I see you are a. Don't you know that many of my kin and brethren died in that battle? They were stomped on by nasty metro people. And here I mourn them by eating cheese in their honor. You would take that from them. You would take the the opportunity for me to eat cheese in their honor by stealing this cheese.
I I'm not stealing it. I'm just asking you if I can have some. Would would you let me have something
How much will you pay me for these cheese? Yes.
Yeah. I have some gold, I guess. What's a rat do with gold?
What did you like to know? I keep my own secrets.
Okay. Well, I'll open my hatch, and I'll see how much money I have.
Yeah. You got, like, a handful of gold. Give me some gold, please. However much you think I deserve.
Take, like, I don't know, a quarter of a handful.
Nice. You give him I'll pinch
a couple of coins in my giant fingers.
You give him an amount of gold that is allowed for a rat, and he takes it and says, very good. You have a deal. You can have the cheese.
Oh, well, thank you.
And for free, I give you the wine. Oh. Because that comes free of cost.
Thank you. I'm I'm sure someone will like the wine.
I cannot drink it for I am a rat. Mhmm. I do not know how to open the courts.
Right. You don't have thumbs.
I don't have thumbs. Mhmm. I can eat cheese very easy, but I cannot open wine bottles.
Yeah. It's a little difficult. I can't really either. I don't think that I have the the proper
I see.
Dexterity for that. Anyway Anyway Thanks for the cheese, and I'll just start shoveling cheese into my my body.
You see the business rat smiles as he's done a good deed today, and he scrambles into a little hole in the side and disappears. Maybe we'll see him again someday. Crank, as you head back to Timothee and Alana with a chest full of cheese, we go to Kapi. Kapi, where did you spend the night? Where are you at right now?
So I think Kapi wakes up in the adventuring guild. He's on a twin sized cot that he's probably slept on for sixteen years.
Like college dorm?
Yeah. I I just picture it's like in a corner. The bed's covered with, like, clothes and, you know, just all kinds of stuff and makes it almost impossible to see. But, you know, he gets up and he puts his jacket on like he does every day and he steps out into the main room and the place is just destroyed from the battle yesterday and he looks around and he can just just tell us he can just tell it's different and he sees a half bottle of booze on the desk and he turns around back towards the bed and goes, I think we gotta start the day. And Scarlet comes up from the pile of clothes that was Yes.
Scarlet leerily opens her eyes and says, I don't wanna wake up.
I'd love to lay here all day with you. I really would. But the town needs a scarlet. Let's go. Come on. Let's go. He's like dragging her. He's like, come on.
So the two of you get up, you get dressed, you get ready for the day, and you leave the Adventuring Guild to see the total destruction of Bracken Road. You see Scarlet looking out at it, and just she lets out a heavy sigh of disappointment.
Yeah. And Kapi, you know, has his hands on his hips and, you know, determination in his eyes, and he goes, let's get to work. You know? He's like and he clapped his hands, and he starts walking down. He's like Gosh. People need us.
She she follows you. You see that she does not look in the direction of the bakery. But sure enough, the two of you do your best to sort of help people out, get things moving. Scarlet is, of course, having a business mind, and so it's very organized. And so it does not take very much before the two of y'all are sort of not like ordering people around, but directing.
Mhmm. You you take on a managerial position, and you begin managing some projects. Pretty much the whole day here, you see that major Balthazar, yourself, and Scarlet as sort of two somewhat leaders, and then you are taking care of the town and the people who need help. Near the end of the day, major is talking to you both, and he looks at you too and says, I've already sent word to the capital, so they'll know to expect all of us. I also sent word to my brother to let him know the news of our father.
That might take some time, but I can promise you that we'll have a bit of a camp set up outside the walls. And if we can't get a good one, I'm gonna make sure that the manor itself, that the yards there use so that people have a place that they can stay. We'll be using the Balthazar Manor lawns for more than just aesthetics, I'll tell you.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, what's how who are we assigning to rebuild Bracken Road?
He sort of looks at Scarlet and then looks at you and says, son, the extent of damage here is such that we are gonna have to prioritize relocating people rather than rebuilding for now. Couple of individuals have indicated to us that they're gonna stick around and try and do what they can, but right now, we have about 1,500 people just milling about the ruins of this place that need a place to stay that isn't just under the stars.
Yeah. Yeah. No. I I no. I I know, but, you know, you're allocating funds to rebuild Bracken Road. People, they need to come back here. They people are and Kapi kinda looks around at the nothing. People have to come back here.
Scarlet sort of has put a hand on your arm as Major says. Right now, that cannot be our priority, is rebuilding. We need to make sure that these people are safe and have a place to stay.
Yeah. No.
I We need to figure out the line of succession.
I understand. We're gonna make sure they're safe. Yeah. What about the people that are gonna come back?
Son, I don't think people are coming back.
I don't have time for this. I every time I have to deal with your bureaucratic in there's a way that it can happen.
Crank walks up. Do you guys want some cheese? I found cheese. It's the only food I could find, but do you want some cheese?
Hey, Crank. Yeah.
Yeah. I'll take some cheese. Major reaches out. Hey.
Here you go. Here you go.
Thank you.
Then I move on. Continue my rounds of cheese.
Oh, Craig, you have cheese?
Oh, I have pistachio. Yeah. Here's cheese for you. Cheese for your family. Cheese for
your cow. We don't have a cow anymore.
I'm a cow.
Oh. Yeah. Cabbies.
Anyway This is this is the levity that we needed here.
It was good.
Yeah. So we'll probably know what's coming back here, but that's okay because people will be relocating. So where'd you get this cheese?
Oh, I found it.
You found it? Yeah. Where'd you find?
Nature led me to the cheese, and I've talked to a rat, and the rat sold me the cheese.
Oh. You talked to a rat?
I talked to a rat. I did magic, Happy. Can you believe it?
Oh my gosh. That's really exciting. You did magic?
How is that possible? I can do magic now.
Aren't you a mark two? I didn't know that was possible.
Craig is a mystery that can only be solved by Craig. Anyway, a rat sold you this cheese?
Yeah. He he was he was, I don't know. His name was Pierre. I think he might have been related to the mayor. And then he was like, I am eating this in the memory of my brethren. I was like, oh, well, can I have some? And he was like, if you give me gold, I'll give you cheese.
And I
was like, okay.
What does a rat need with gold?
I don't know. I asked him that, and he was just like, my business is my own.
I see.
So I was like, okay.
Well, there's a whole bunch of people that are also sick that probably also would like some cheese. Will you come with me and me distribute Absolutely.
Yes. I will. Sorry for interrupting.
Sorry, Kapi. Okay. I go off
and I distribute cheese.
As the two of them leave, Kapi, you realize that major Balthazar used this moment to go somewhere else. Yeah. And now it's just you and Scarlett standing there.
See, this is the problem with these people. They're not you know, you know, they're they're they only wanna help with what's gonna give them an award or put them in the best light. It's not it's not real helping. You know? It's it's why we need an adventure guild.
Well, they are doing what they can in this moment. We don't really have much on the way of resources and frankly, think I agree with that. I don't know about this town coming back. It's been pretty razed to the ground, Gappy. I mean, if they rebuild, it's gonna take years.
Yeah. What about your what about your bakery? What about, you know, Crank's mom's library? What about Cyrus and
They're gone, Gabby. They're gone.
Yeah, no, I know. I know. I know. Probably wouldn't be gone though if your family wasn't the way they are.
Excuse me? What? What's that supposed to mean?
What do mean what's that supposed to mean? Look around. The town's on fire. The apple tree's still standing perfectly fine.
That was maybe your Alfasar told us
that protected the work. This is why are you defending them? This is the same guy. We're not defending them. You are telling me. That was gonna marry you off. You had to close the bakery. You don't you really don't think they had anything to do with this.
I don't know what to think, Campy. Alright. I don't know. Everything has been turned upside down. I don't know what to think. I okay. You're gonna say that my dad did all this. Is that really what you're saying?
Yes. That is what I'm saying. I'm saying he definitely had a big piece. Scarlet, you cannot
What do you mean? How would this benefit him? What is this? You saw that you're taking on these soldiers.
Major Balthazar side, you're defending your dad of all people that slime ball.
He's the only family I have, Kapi. Scarlet just kinda looks at you for a moment. You can see emotions starting to build up. You can see tears forming at the side of her eyes, which you know is when she gets really mad.
Yeah. He's Kapi's also just has way too much, I think, going on to do anything productive. Yeah. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go see if Pistachio needs help taking care of the people
Yeah.
In the field.
Look, I get that you're mad about all this. I get that you had all these plans to try and stop all this and it still happened, but that doesn't mean that you can take it out on me and my family.
I don't know why you're Why I'm what? Defending them. I it's no. You know what? Yeah. No. I'm sorry that I took that on out on your family. I I hope your I hope your dad helps fund your business wherever that is gonna be. Next.
She sighs really tersely and just turns around and walks away.
Okay. Just so you know, you're never gonna get any of this, and he, like, rubs his jacket again. God.
Again. She turns around and flips you off.
Yep. Well Go, Scarlet.
You don't
mean it. Keep stomp she stomps away. Okay. Shaking her head.
Uh-huh. Wow.
That was intense.
Wow. There's a
Kathy's gonna turn around, I guess, and go find Pistachio and Frank.
Yeah. You go you go do that. You you turn around. You walk away. A scene has been caused, so you see a couple people who were, like, around the front gate or just kinda,
like, awkwardly watching. Yeah. What? Move on. Like, the whole like, we didn't just have a whole town burned down yesterday. That's the most dramatic get back to
You see a woman burst into tears, and you step inside the town. And you find Pistachio and Crank. They're over there's a little section in front of the church that stands there, the Enneach that father Graham runs. He's currently outside sort of tending to people, handing herbs and medicines to different people. You see that pistachio and crank are sort of in front handing people some cheese.
Yeah. I I built a stand out of debris, and I, like, wrote in, like, whatever I could find. I don't know
if if
We made a sign.
Made a sign. Ash.
Like, you used, like, the
ash of
something to make
free. Cheese. And I'm just giving people cheese.
Sweet dreams are made of cheese.
And Kapi walks up.
Oh, hi, Kapi.
Hey. Gang, real quick. Huddle? Sure. Yeah, gang. Well, everyone with waiting for cheese will be right with you.
I put a sign out that says back in five minutes.
Nice. You see father Graham walks up. You said huddle? Are we huddling?
No. Not you, father.
Can I
it's just more of like an adventure guild kinda meeting?
Oh, okay. My mistake. Sorry. I thought I was in
We'll be right with you, father.
Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. You still got some of that cheese, though? You're not gonna have cheese,
are Yeah. I have more cheese, and I know where to get more. So here you go.
Oh, thank you so much. He takes the whole wheel and then walks away.
See you.
You're a cheese dealer now?
I I just give people food. Okay. A wheel where you're dealing. Right?
Jesus. It doesn't matter. Hey, remember remember what we discussed about getting the staff back?
Oh. What stuff?
Craig, we're still doing the the staff. Do we think it's time that we mosey on to return the staff to the Tabernacle and Persepolis and
Percival.
That one. Yeah. And, you know, this whole thing.
I do think it it is something we should do before we leave. I look around, How does the situation look for is it kinda pretty much stable? Are people mostly leaving? Or, like because Pistachio's been doing a lot of, like, medical stuff and now distributing food. Does it look kind of, like, evened out so that they could slip away and not be a big impact?
Things have definitely settled down into a tenuous medium. You see that most people have either been taken care of or are kinda up and about at this point. Their wounds tended to. Lot of burns. Right?
So a lot of people sort of sitting around as various poultices are placed upon their skin. And you see most of the rescue efforts have pretty well finished off as most of the abled body have combed through the ruins to make sure that no one is stranded or in there. So now everyone is either being treated, standing in wait to leave, or quietly mourning by themselves.
Okay.
Kid, I know what you're worried about. Major Balthazaran, they they have this. Right? They've made it pretty clear that they're in control of the situation. You've been able to help. I'm sure that's probably helped your becoming a doctor skills, and I think it's probably time that we get this staff back.
Yeah.
Right?
Right. Crank?
Crank is very reluctant and is kind of, like, sidestepping to put more of himself in between them and the staff.
Mhmm.
Crank, it's probably the right time, you know? I mean, you were able to do all this magic. Now that you know what it feels like, you probably don't even need the staff. Right? That's just the easy thing.
Well, how do you know? What if I do need the staff?
What if
What if I can't do magic ever again without the staff?
Well, the first time I did magic, I thought it was a fluke. And then the second time I did magic, I thought that was a mistake. And then the third time, I believed in myself and knew what it felt like, and it was a little bit easier. So I think now that you know, it's you could do it. You know? And besides, don't don't you have that book that you could study? Have you ever looked at the book that Post Maid is delivered?
No. I haven't even looked at that book. It's just been in there. I forgot about it because of the staff.
Well, see, I think the staff is like an easy button. Right? You know what it felt like. Now you have the neurons or whatever. But now, I think to progress, you've gotta, like, do the work. And the longer you have the staff, the longer you're not gonna learn how to do that.
I guess that makes sense. Okay. I guess we can go take the staff in that direction.
We could take a scenic view, so you could say your goodbyes and stuff. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Gang's back together.
Yeah. Gang's back together.
I look off into the distance for a sparkle, a glint. Look A glimmer.
Incredible. You look off and you see that the unshakable mister Crank next to you looks into the forest. And, Crank, you do see a sparkle. You see a sparkle in the distance in the northern portion of the town over towards the trees. And as you look at that sparkle, you feel this almost thrumming vibration from the staff, almost pushing you in that direction.
Pushing me towards it, so I feel like it wants to go back.
You Crank does get that sense.
Okay.
You two look off and just see trees.
Well, I think that's what convinces Crank finally.
Very good.
I'll I'll just start towards the forest.
Oh. Oh. Okay. That's the direction.
We'll just follow
Yeah. The robot? Yep. We are following that way.
The priest watches you as you leave, watches you go towards the forest, and eventually deep into the trees. As you walk a familiar path, I wanna know where everyone's mindsets are at as you're stepping through these woods and thinking of your next steps of where you wanna go. And we'll start with we'll start with Pistachio. Pistachio, as you're walking through these woods, what's going on in your mind? What's going on in Pistachio's head?
Pistachio's got a couple of different things. There's still a lot of emotions that they're trying to process. They killed a man. Their father's proud of them. They can't talk to their sister right now.
And this staff is a is a problem. So right now, they're trying to focus on just the things that they can control, which in this case is being around the people that they love and care about, and trying to, like, lose themselves in that moment in taking care of the staff to go see Percival. And and a little bit of them is also like, I hope I don't see that turd again.
Turd? Turn. Oh, the turn. Oh my goodness. Every tweet in the air, Pistachio looks up to see if that turn is there.
Kapi, what about Kapi? What's Kapi's mindset right now? Where's his mind at? I think Kapi has convinced himself that returning the staff is going to somehow make everything better. He's convinced himself that there's clearly some kind of magic or something that the weird little gnome is gonna be able to do that is going to make him wildly prosperous or like turn back time or he's he's going through a lot of scenarios, a lot of ways that he's either going to, like, fix Bracken Road and be the hero and, you know, bring everybody back or, you know, make it so that none of this happened in the first place.
Nice. Hope this will be the solution. Yeah. And, Crank, I'm curious right now. Crank's relationship to the staff and to magic right now. What does Crank feel as he is walking to eventually potentially give up the thing that has really brought magic into his life?
Apprehension and dread. Because I think Crank is convinced that the staff is the reason that he can do magic, and he's really afraid that giving it up, as you know what I mean, that he's never gonna be able to do magic again. That's a freak. Yeah. I think as I walk, I just my steps get slower and slower the closer we get.
Hey, buddy. Oh, hi. You okay?
No. I don't think so. Is this what sadness feels like?
I would I wouldn't know. I've never been sad.
What does it feel like? I feel like heavy.
You're a robot.
Oh. Well, heavier than normal, like, in a different way. I mean, like, I don't I don't know.
Like, the entirety of the air around you is just denser?
Yeah. Yeah. Like that.
Shabby, like, looks off to the side for a minute. What? Listen. Even if you can't do magic after the staff, I mean, you're a seven foot robot, super strong.
All I ever wanted was to do magic.
But why?
Because I wanna help people the way Adrian helped people. Like, all I can do is hit things really hard. That's not helping people. That's hurting people.
You've also provided food for a bunch of people in the town.
Yeah. That's true.
You make us smile, and you make us laugh, and you protect us from getting hurt.
Yeah. I guess that is true. But if I could do magic, could do so many more things. I wouldn't have found that food if it weren't for magic.
Well, maybe we can ask the little gnome how you could do magic.
Oh, yeah.
This is gonna fix everything, guys.
Oh, everything? Everything. What okay. What do you think it's gonna fix?
Name a thing. Fixed. Name another thing. I point it correctly.
Rat that likes cheese?
Fixed.
Fixed. My farm being burnt to
ground. Fixed.
How is that gonna fix my farm?
Because if listen. Because it has to. Real easy. Right?
Yeah. But that doesn't mean that it's gonna change it back to the way it was.
Well, we don't know that.
I think that history would probably tell us.
Why is what is why what is the negativity? Guys, is it's gonna work out.
Okay. Alright. Pistachio jumps. Do you hear that?
I think it's just a bird.
I hope it's not that turd.
Tweet tweet.
Do you hear that one?
Are you okay?
I swear that one bird has it out to get me. I don't know what I did.
You talk to it.
I know. Why does it hate me? I'm a friend of birds and animals and most things. And like, that one bird just does I guess because I was trying to keep it from getting laid. I'm sorry. You didn't get laid, my guy. It's not my fault he didn't get laid. It's not my fault that we weren't birds. It's not my fault that our fucking better
Well, perhaps we should continue and get out of these woods.
Agreed.
Agreed. Okay.
Crank, you're in the lead, aren't you? Yeah. Can you give me a presence check with disadvantage, please?
I can indeed.
Has anyone rolled but Annie?
No. Annie
rolls enough for all of us with all your crits.
Four. Never mind. With white? Or four with hope.
I think that's the lowest Annie's ever rolled ever.
Three of you are walking through these woods, being led at this point by Crank, who is being pushed forward here. The tension and shock of yesterday has sort of worn off, and now the grating tension on your nerves from the stress has sort of wore away the defense mechanisms and walls you had up has this back and forth strained and stressful, continues. You don't notice the trees are quiet, that no wind is blowing. You don't notice the birds, other than in Pistachio's own imagination, have ceased tweeting. You see through the trees as you're walking through the clearing where the dais stands.
And, Crank, as you're sort of going forward, with that role, I think your mind is on other things. The worry of losing magic on the staff is forefront of your mind. The dais doesn't represent the location you're going to. It almost represents losing something, Which is why when you arrive in front of the clearing, the thing that jolts you out of this reverie of sorts for all three of you is a familiar voice that says, gotta love adventurers, always right on time. First and foremost, the dais is still there.
But seated on top of it, his legs crossed, is a familiar looking blue inferno wearing a purple vest, some loose fitting slacks, his hands in the pockets, his little vest. You see on their knees next to the altar, a burlap sack on their head, so you cannot quite see their face. But you see someone with verbal blue skin and feminine features. What have you done? Ash simply smiles. Well, I've done nothing yet. Hey. It's a podcast.