Bonus Content: Eight, Rialla and Jokul sit around a campfire to assess their journey thus far. During their conversation, the trio learn some details about each others’ pasts.
A few days before meeting Arthas, three companions sit around a campfire after a long day of travel. They have been wandering the canyon for just over a week, the city of Isha long behind them. Under a star-filled sky, Eight learns snippets of Rialla’s sad childhood and Jokul’s experience in the military.
Aside from the more somber moments, Eight learns the joy of cooking with friends. Rialla and Jokul aren't the only people to open up, however. As Rialla prods, Eight contemplates their true purpose.
Follow Dax @GM_Dax, Cole @ColeMorreale and Wren @ThornyDryad
Transcript by Dax
Upbeat piano intro music ends [00:28]
Calm piano background music fades in [00:31]
Dax: It is another night in the canyon, the air is cool. The stone beneath you chilly, but not terribly so. Still slightly warmed from the day's sun. The fire is burning brightly at this point. You were able to gather some wood from trees that you had passed on your day’s travels. Thankfully, you found a place to camp where there was a little overhang and some rocks that you could easily turn into chairs. What are each of you all doing tonight? It’s been a long day.
Campfire sound effect fades in [00:49]
Wren: Oh glorious DM…
[Dax snickers]
Dax: Yes, Eight?
Wren: What sounds are there?
Dax: You can hear crickets in the distance. You can hear the crackling of the fire, the logs snapping and breaking, the sound of wood crumbling and falling onto the stone as it heats up and turns to ash. Off in the distance you hear some sort of birdlike creature, you’re not really sure what. But otherwise it’s just the silence of the canyon. The stars are shining above you, in that deep, black velvet sky.
Wren: Excellent. And we’ve been travelling..a week since Isha?
Dax: At this point it’s been a little over a week, yes.
Wren: Okay, perfect.
[Wren sighs]
Wren: Well...I don’t know about the two of you, but I am sitting near the fire because that’s the most cheery place to be! Underneath the rock overhang, and I have Bessie nearby, and I am petting the muzzle of the faithful robotic steed. And, occasionally I give like a pat and tinker around with the plating and the screws and whatnot on her side and, you hear me saying,
[in tones akin to talking to a pet]
Wren (as Eight): Who's a good donkey? Yes. This is a long travel, but you are built for this! And you are so good at it. Good Bessie.
Wren: And, occasionally I will stop and turn to the two of you as I’m stroking this mechanical animal.
Cole: I think that I am sitting near the fire and, um, next to Jokul and I’m stoking the flames, um..and if you listen closely I am sort of humming this, um..a lullaby. Softly. Where it, sounds like a lullaby and I’m just humming, taking in the sounds and...is it cold? Away from the fire?
Dax: Yeah if you were to walk farther away from the fire, you would notice that the air is pretty chill. While you are..while you’re in a canyon, you are still technically within a large desert.
Cole: Yeah I’d have my cloak pulled tight, um, and when I’m not stoking the fire I have an arm looped through Jokul’s arm, rest my head on his shoulder. While I hum.
[Cole hums a short melody]
Wren (as Eight): Rialla, I must ask. That’s a lovely tune. Is it something from your childhood? Or..what?
Cole (as Rialla): It is. It’s um...a Thevenoudian lullaby.
Wren (as Eight): You don’t say. Well, I-I must admit, though Mother had so many books in the library I can’t believe I’d ever read anything about a place called...Thevenoud.
Cole (as Rialla): Thevenoud? Uh, Thevenoud is uhm...it’s uh...the sun never sets. It’s the city of the eternal sun. Way up in the sky. It was always...warm...and it..it was beautiful.
Wren: I give another long stroke down Bessie’s snoot.
[Cole snickers]
Wren (as Eight): Then, why did you leave?
Cole (as Rialla): I did not have a choice.
Cole: Uhm...she looks kinda sad, for a minute. Uhm, leans a little closer to Jokul.
Cole (as Rialla): Uhm...I was sent away.
Wren (as Eight): Sent away?
Cole (as Rialla): Mhm.
Wren (as Eight): Why? By who?
Cole (as Rialla): My parents.
Wren (as Eight): Oh..
Wren: My eyes-
Cole: Uhm-
Wren: Get dim, hearing you say that.
Cole (as Rialla): Uh they were afraid of me. And, um...other members of the family didn’t...want...the heir to the Lenoirs to be..to be me. So, I was sent away.
Wren (as Eight): Well that won’t do.
[Cole sniffs]
Cole (as Rialla): What do you mean?
Wren (as Eight): I feel like they made a mistake.
Cole (as Rialla): Maybe. I’ll never know though.
Wren (as Eight): Well…
Wren: I look to you, after staring at Bessie for another moment.
Cole: My piercing blue eyes meet you.
Wren (as Eight): I would say that you would be the best judge of knowing whether they were wrong or not.
Cole (as Rialla): I was so young. I don’t remember. When you’re a child, everyone but you is right. You have to listen to your elders. I didn’t really have a say in anything. They sent me away. Down, down to the other plane I guess.
Wren (as Eight): That sounds sad, and...you look sad.
Cole (as Rialla): A little sad. It makes me sad sometimes, but...nothing I can do about it. The lullaby was actually sung to me by, uhm...uh my parents didn’t watch after me it was um, a nanny, of sorts. Uhm..Winnie.
Wren (as Eight): A caretaker!
Cole (as Rialla): A caretaker, yes. Yes, yes. She was very good to me. And she was also sad when I was sent away.
Wren (as Eight): So it sounds that, not on...it was not just the children who had no say then.
Cole (as Rialla): I guess that’s true. Yes. My family made the choice. I think Winnie was the only one that missed me, though. And maybe my father.
Wren (as Eight): Hmm. Well, I don’t know much about people missing...other people...but, I’m assuming that you met Jokul as a result of being sent away?
Cole (as Rialla): I did! It took more than leaving to find him though. I did. It took um, several other circumstances to that though.
Cole: I look up at Jokul, like, with my chin on his shoulder and just give him a smile. Bat my eyes at him.
James: I-I return th-the look.
Cole: If he gets close to me, I lea-I reach up and..
[Cole makes a quick kiss noise]
Cole: Peck him. Quick kiss.
[Wren makes a bashful noise]
James: I imagine we-we’re like having that cowboy camp out where it’s just..campfire in the middle, like three logs and just..
Wren: Stones instead of logs.
James: Ah!
Cole (as Rialla): So..so there were some benefits to..being sent away.
Wren (as Eight): Yes, and then we met, and now we are on a..excellent quest to save all the missing children! Which…
Wren: And I tap my finger lightly on my chin.
Wren (as Eight): I must say, what will we do after we rescue the children?
Cole (as Rialla): I haven’t thought that far ahead.
James (as Jokul): If something is capable of abducting that many children in the span of a night, then something should be able to teleport them back home as well.
Wren (as Eight): It is sound logic. I suppose that begs the question, while we’re discussing this..course of plans..the two of you. I remember that night we met. You both fell from the sky, from another plane of existence, I think you said?
Cole (as Rialla): Yes. We..
James (as Jokul): You are one of few people to accept that story and regard it as fact, rather than us as crazy people.
Wren (as Eight): I have seen many strange things in the short amount of time I have left my study.
Cole (as Rialla): Planar travel isn’t..I don’t know I guess it isn’t as strange.
Wren (as Eight): Oh, don’t be mistaken. It is fairly bizarre...but, I don’t believe it is unheard of. But it does beg the question. You came here for some reason. You couldn’t have possibly expected to be on a wild goose chase to rescue missing children.
Cole (as Rialla): We didn’t have very much of a plan.
Wren (as Eight): I see. So, the two of you wanted to experience the world and all of its planes of existence, much like how I am right now! Kindred spirits we are, wanderers, travelers. To experience the wide world, yes?
Cole (as Rialla): Sort of. I just want to be with him. Wherever we are. As long as we’re together it’s ok.
James (as Jokul): In-in this case we were...not particularly seeking adventure, but..trying to get away from...trying to get away from an ensured fate I guess.
Cole: Well I’m sitting there and uhm..twirling my hand and there’s just like..
[Cole makes indistinguishable high-pitched noise]
Cole: Like little magic things just like..twirling around my hands and as, uh, my left hand like as I turn it over there’s a..ring...on my left finger. Shines in the firelight.
James: You-you’re doing that like, cool coin rolling- thing..
Cole: Oh!-
James: Thing-
Cole: With like, magic!
James: That people can-
Cole: It’s like-
James: Do-
Cole: Wispy smoke.
James: Yeah!
Cole: It’s like..
[Cole makes a sound imitating smoke dissipating]
James: I always wanted to learn how to do that ‘cause..it seems so cool. But, not coordinated enough.
Cole: But yeah, I’m doing that and a ring glints in the fire.
Wren: What color is the smoke?
Cole: Prolly grey.
James: I-instead of making magical smoke you’re just kinda peeling smoke from the campfire. Like smoke bending.
[Wren chuckles in the background]
Cole: It looks like there’s a little orb of like..white light, like in the smoke around it and it’s just like flitting around my hand.
James: I’m just kinda keeping an eye on our surroundings. Like, leaning like..Rialla’s leaning into one shoulder and just kind of watching the horizon, like...making sure nothing’s around us, threatening. Just kind of like…”I’m camping!” I haven’t done this since..I was in the military. Oh god...those memories!
[Cole chuckles]
James: Run away.
Cole: Uhh.
Wren: The distant stare?
James: Yeah.
Cole: Thousand-yard stare.
James: Not intentionally trying to look distant from his companions, but just...
Wren (as Eight): Jokul, you seem to be lost in thought. What’s on your mind, friend?
James (as Jokul): It's been a while since I've been camping. Or..I guess..roughing it, I guess. B-better than “camping”.
Wren (as Eight): “Roughing...it”?
James (as Jokul): Just...being out here, in the middle of nowhere. Just you and the elements and a handful of companions.
Wren (as Eight): How long ago was the last time you…”roughed it”?
James: I pause to like count off on my fingers. Be like,
James (as Jokul): Uhmm...thirty years.
Wren: At least thirty years.
James: Yes.
Wren (as Eight): Thirty years!
James (as Jokul): Yeah.
Wren (as Eight): Goodness! What was that old saying Mother always told me? It’s like...cooking breakfast. You never forget how to do it.
James (as Jokul): Riding a horse?
Wren (as Eight): It’s like riding a horse..
[Wren tries not to laugh]
Wren (as Eight): You never forget once you’ve learned! Did you do a lot of camping in your younger days?
James (as Jokul): Unfortunately, yes. They weren’t quite as pleasant as this, but similar circumstances usually.
Wren: I give a bright, cheery smile and I look dead in the eyes with Rialla,
Wren (as Eight): You hear that? We are excellent company! While, quote, “roughing it”.
Cole: Just smile. I’m assuming Rialla knows some about like your military time?
James: Yeah. Sh-she’d know the whole origin behind Maeve. That Maeve is basically the...offspring of his horse from his campaigning days.
Wren (as Eight): Well, at any rate, I’m certainly glad to be here with the two of you at this point. Sharing whatever company I can. [short pause] Speaking of which, friends, are you hungry?
Cole (as Rialla): Probably should eat something. I mean, something small?
Wren (as Eight): Yes, yes, of course!
Wren: And I will push up, off of my feet, and stand up and hussle over to the cart. And, uhm , I pull my, like, cloak up over my shoulder as it’s like fluttering a little bit and I just kind of, crane over the side and start like throwing stuff, and like picking things out from in and amongst the satchels and whatnot. And I come back after a little bit of time with a pot full of water and I set it down in the fire, I have some meager amounts of meat and other things, and I’m just gonna start like...chopping vegetables and preparing a small amount of food for us to eat, while you are all sitting there.
Cole: Oh, I’d probably help.
Wren (as Eight): You’d like to help?
Cole (as Rialla): Yeah, I wouldn’t let you do it alone.
Wren (as Eight): That would be..that would be wonderful. Mother always had me do all the cooking myself.
Cole (as Rialla): We’re travelling together. We should share the responsibilities.
Wren (as Eight): Yes, I suppose that makes sense but cooking for my friends is just such a fun experience!
Cole (as Rialla): And cooking with friends is fun too.
Wren (as Eight): I had not even considered this possibility!
Cole: I’ll walk over and kneel next to Eight, and, uhm, I’ll pull out one of my daggers and starting cutting up vegetables with Eight.
Wren (as Eight): Yes, yes, wonderful. Excellent.
Wren: And I’ll pop a potato peeler out of my wrist and start like, gradually peeling layers off the potato.
Wren (as Eight): This is...this is wonderful!
Cole (as Rialla): Maybe one day I’ll show you how to make Amanabouche.
James: Seeing that Eight and Rialla are over by the cart doing dinner prep, I stand up and he kinda like rolls his shoulder, cracks his neck and he’s like,
James (as Jokul): I will see about finding us some desert rabbit for, I don't know, extra sustenance.
Cole: With a flourish of my hand, the ring on my finger glows and Jokul, his ring also kinda glows for a second. And, basically I’m protecting Jokul.
James: Off I go! I’m gonna go find a s..a rabbit or something.
Dax: Well, damn you for making me actually make people roll this session so-
James: Oh!
Dax: I’m gonna have you roll a survival, uhm, I think when I was making you do it in the regular sessions it was medium, so do your two difficulty.
Wren: On your way out, I just call,
Wren (as Eight): Do be careful, Jokul! I hear there are jackals in the canyon.
James: Just kinda cock an eyebrow, be like,
James (as Jokul): Are those supposed to be scary?
Wren (as Eight): [whispers] I do not know what a jackal is.
[James laughs]
James: Ah, you said survival, I believe.
Dax: Yep. Survival, medium difficulty, so two purple.
James: Alright and I coulda sworn I had something for hunting...uhhh...nothing for hunting. Okay, then, so I just..dice. [short pause] All my dice have cancelled out! Why, thank you dice bot!
Dax: Alright! So, you go out and wander the canyon a little bit, um, you set some traps. You give it some time and when you go back, the traps look like they’ve been completely avoided, they’re..it’s not like they’ve been sprung and your prey got away. There’s just nothing there. If you would like to try again a little later, you could do that.
James: Yeah. Uh, I can roll again if..just delay..ten, twenty minutes and do it again. Oop, nope, it got-it got worse!
[James laughs]
James: I have two failures this time around!
Dax: Alright, so you go back to the campsite for a little while. You stoke the fire, you add a couple logs to it while Rialla and Eight are prepping. And you go back out again to check your traps and every single one of them has been sprung, but you have not caught a single thing. Um, unfortunately two of them were sprung possibly by something much larger than what you intended, and they are pretty much destroyed.
James: Oh darn.
[James chuckles]
James: Just look at my mangled traps and just be like,
James (as Jokul): Well, I guess I’m eating a potato.
James: And just...go back to camp.
Wren (as Eight): Jokul, I see you have come back..with the same amount of food you left with..
James (as Jokul): You might be right about those jackals! Something’s out there..
James: And I just kind of...ju-just kind of shows the mangled trap and be like,
James (as Jokul): Uhm..something’s out there! Clearly bigger than a rabbit.
Wren (as Eight): Oh yes, that looks like the work of jackals. Absolutely. I’m...I'm sure of it.
[James tries to hold back giggles]
James (as Jokul): I’ll have to take your word on it. The desert isn’t my normal stomping grounds.
Wren (as Eight): We will just have to try and catch some food again tomorrow so that we might bolster our supplies for while we travel through the canyon further. It’s okay, we have enough meat for food tonight, and a little bit for our stores as we continue. We’ll just have to try..extra hard to catch more later.
James (as Jokul): As long as we have something to last us through the journey. I’d rather use the..use what’s around us rather than tap into our supplies.
Wren (as Eight): I agree.
James: Just gonna accept my failure as a hunter for tonight, sit down by the campfire and start playing with the snares. Get ‘em ready for tomorrow night.
Cole: I feel like I...watching Jokul try to reset the snare and like, retie the rope or whatever…
[Cole giggles]
Cole: Part of me feels like if he’s struggling, if I see him struggling, I kinda like...you know “Bewitched” how she would like, wiggle her nose and shit would happen? I feel like I like, do something with my fingers and it’s fixed.
[Cole continues to laugh]
Cole: If he’s struggling Just..[makes a “fwhip” noise]
James: I-I imagine the snares for him are kind of like the..like a rubix cube or like a fidget spinner? It’s something just to keep his hands busy? Like, he’s not trying to do it correct, he’s just-
Cole: Doing something.
James: This will work as a snare!
Dax: He’s trying to make himself feel useful at this point, because he’s failed twice, um, and Rialla and Eight are busy doing what’s actually going to be useful. So he’s kinda like, “I wanna just do the...stereotypical man thing, I’m going to make myself look productive. I’m not really being productive, but I’m gonna try.”
Cole: [laughing] In that case I would not do that, I would just let him fucking have it.
James: Unless he’s sitting there with like a tangled ball of twine, like “look I made a snare!”
Cole: [laughing] My big baby, who knows? “Look, it's a stress ball! For the rabbits!”
Dax: So Rialla and Eight, you’re making dinner.
Cole: Mhmm. While Jokul’s out and about, uhm, sitting by the fire, uhm...I feel like I teach Eight the lullaby.
Wren: Love that!
Cole: I hum the tune and I teach Eight the words and...so now you know some Thevenoudian.
Wren: Neat.
Dax: You know the non-swear words.
Cole: Mhm.
Wren: Yep.
James: Yep.
Cole: Yup.
Wren (as Eight): Mother..never taught me anything like this.
Cole (as Rialla): Hm.
Wren (as Eight): Generally, when she wanted to go to sleep, I would...give her her special evening drink and recount an old tale from her books. But usually, she would take care of herself….for the most part.
Cole (as Rialla): Hm. I suppose that..kind of makes sense, uh, lullabies are usually for children.
Wren (as Eight): Hm. I suppose that does make sense. I’ve never been tasked with taking care of a child.
Cole (as Rialla): I think you would be good at it. As long as you didn’t, you know..fetch poison mushrooms for them.
Wren (as Eight): Of course not-
Cole: Give you..give you a teasing smile.
Wren (as Eight): I would never consider such a thing. I am designed to identify and isolate poison materials, to protect people from consuming them.
Cole: She’ll just nod and smile.
Cole (as Rialla): No, I-I think you’d be good with children.
Wren (as Eight): That may be. I’m unsure though. Mother never quite told me what my actual purpose was, beyond taking care of her. So now I take care of others!
Cole (as Rialla): I was about to ask, what is your purpose? What do you think your purpose is? What do you want?
Wren: I sit and think idly. My eyes are just focused haphazardly on the, uh..pot that’s in the fire.
Wren (as Eight): Hm. Originally, I wanted nothing more than to keep Mother’s study clean and tidy, and tend to it for when she returned. But these days…
Wren: And I’m still, like, peeling potato.
Wren (as Eight): I think...I’m much more content to travel with friends, and experience things with others. For now.
Wren: And then I drop the peeled potato into the..the pan.
Cole: I put my carrots in.
Wren (as Eight): I’m not sure what purpose that serves, but, I certainly have enjoyed meeting new people and seeing new things.
Cole (as Rialla): Eh, that’s the important part, and the beautiful thing about it is that it can change at any time.
Wren (as Eight): That’s true. I hope someday maybe I will find my true purpose. But until then-
Cole (as Rialla): Purposes change. You’re not one thing. When you complete something that you want to do, you find something else and that becomes your new purpose. You can be whatever you choose. And then if you don’t like it, you can...become something else.
Wren (as Eight): Wise words. I feel like that’s something Mother would have said.
Cole (as Rialla): Hm. Something I had to learn myself.
Wren (as Eight): But you did learn it.
Cole (as Rialla): Yes. It’s taken a little bit of time, but I think most days I believe it.
Wren (as Eight): So can I ask...what you want to do with yourself?
[Cole chuckles a little]
Cole (as Rialla): That’s a good question. Really just want to be safe. To...help people along the way, and there’s some things I..I’d like to understand. I..haven’t had a chance to think about these things ‘cause...don’t-didn’t really have time.
Wren (as Eight): We have been quite busy.
Cole (as Rialla): Yes. And we were busy before we came here too.
Wren (as Eight): Maybe with enough time, we can find a library with books that might answer your questions.
Cole (as Rialla): That would be nice. I would like that.
Wren (as Eight): That sounds like a great plan then. We will find more libraries, and we will all read books!
Cole (as Rialla): What sort of thing...obviously your Mother taught you many things...did you ever read anything about celestials by any chance?
Wren (as Eight): [in a whisper] Celestials…
[Wren sighs]
Wren (as Eight): Hmmm. I can’t say that I recall anything specifically about celestials. Though, if I were to extrapolate from the word, those would be..beings from the sky, yes?
Cole (as Rialla): Mhm.
Wren (as Eight): Hm.
Cole (as Rialla): Yes.
Wren (as Eight): You know, I came from the sky.
Cole (as Rialla): Did you?
Wren (as Eight): I did. I suppose that means, in its most basic form, I’m a celestial!
Cole (as Rialla): I don’t think so.
Wren (as Eight): Oh, no. I came from an island in the sky.
Cole (as Rialla): Celestials are a little bit different.
Wren (as Eight): Then I am sorry, I know nothing about them. But perhaps together we can learn.
Cole (as Rialla): Definitely curious. Guess we’ll find out!
Wren (as Eight): It’s a promise.
Dax: And I think that will be a perfect spot to end. Well done everyone.
Music and fire sound effect fade out [33:26]
Outro begins [33:27]
Dax: Thanks for listening! We hope you’ll join us next time but in the interim, follow us on Twitter @RoadsUncharted.
The “Roads Uncharted” podcast is GMed and produced by Dax, using the Genesys Roleplaying System published by Fantasy Flight Games. You can follow me on Twitter @GM_Dax.
Jokul Genhorn is played by James, and Arthas, Champion of Offam is played by Neil.
Rialla Lenoir is played by Cole, follow them on Twitter @ColeMorreale and check out their art.
Eight is played by Wren, who also composed the music for our opening theme, follow them on Twitter @ThornyDryad.