Jokul is visited by Baradesh, the Goddess of Death and Rialla’s patron, which results in an insightful conversation between him and Eight. The group also quickly becomes aware of the dangers of the forest in which they’ve found themselves.
The group enters the forest, the dark canopy above cutting off their view of the stars. Wishing to see the sky so far from civilization, Arthas manages to climb a tree but is disappointed to find he doesn’t recognize the constellations. Setting up camp is easy enough, and a small fire distracts from the eerie silence of the forest.
During his trance Jokul receives a vision of Baradesh. Shaken by the encounter, Jokul leaves the tent he shares with Rialla and joins Eight by the fire. When he prompts Eight on beliefs and spirituality, the warforged shares their own experiences with the gods of Rejiev.
The next morning when the group sets out, they notice that the sun doesn't move across the sky as the hours pass. When Rialla uses her mirror to try and find their way through the trees, she sees something terrifying in its depths. Something about this forest has twisted all magic.
Follow Dax @GM_Dax, Cole @ColeMorreale and Wren @ThornyDryad
Transcript by CJ Kallevig
Upbeat piano intro ends [00:28]
Dax: So I will say at this point, it is well past dark. Between your various night vision and your lanterns, you do reach the edge of the woods.
Mysterious piano music begins [00:40]
Dax: Foreboding as they are, these tall trees reach higher than Arthas’ head. Their large, wide canopies, full of broad dark leaves. You can’t see anything in the woodlands when you look, you don’t hear anything. It’s almost complete silence aside from the wind rustling through the grass behind you.
Wren (as Eight): Shall we go into the trees? Or shall we set up camp on the outskirts of this spooky forest?
Cole: Rialla’s already walking, I’ve jumped off Maeve and walking into the woods.
Wren (as Eight): Well, into the woods it is then.
Wren: And I grab Bessie’s reins and I just follow behind.
Dax: Rialla, you are walking into this woodland. You can hear the crunch of old leaves and sticks beneath your feet. The further you go in, the darker it seems. Even with your darkvision, the edges are becoming almost invisible in your sight. The air is starting to get colder, you can almost see the edges of fog, reaching out into the air and space ahead of you.
Cole: I want to take a moment to close my eyes and I, trying to grasp my holy symbol, I want to reach out and just put my hand on one of the trees. Just take a moment to be, this kind of reminds me of home so I’m taking a moment of silence to just kind of appreciate it.
Dax: As you do so and you touch the bark, you can feel the roughness. You can feel that it's also got some almost slime on it. There’s some sort of growth perhaps once resided on the edge of this particular tree. You feel nothing sinister, just the feeling of nature, that calming effect of being in a space of neutrality. What are the rest of you doing, while Rialla stands there, her palm resting against the trunk?
James: Jokul would have picked up the reins from Maeve and just followed behind Rialla like 5-10 feet, at whatever pace she’s going. Jokul would just be five feet behind.
Neil: Counting stars.
Dax: You find it very difficult to count stars the further you get into this forest. The canopy seems to almost overlap each other and the further you go in, the smaller and smaller the spaces are. Until it’s almost complete darkness above you.
Neil: I’m going to try to get up a tree so I can see where I am.
Dax: Okay! So, why don’t you go ahead and make me an Athletics check? I’m thinking, why don’t you make this average difficulty?
Neil: Cool! I have a net of two Successes, and one Advantage.
Dax: Alright. It takes you a minute but you do find a rather large tree. One that would be big enough to support your weight. It doesn’t take you long to climb up it, you’ve already got quite a bit of the trunk’s height in your person. When you poke your head up through the canopy and look out, it almost looks like a sea of dark green. In this night-time sky, these stars shine very brightly. It’s almost as if this navy-blue swath of fabric was laid out before you, dotted with little white blots, some brighter than others. Very little blue can be seen, there are so many. You can feel a warm breeze rustling over the treetops and caressing your skin.
Neil: Can I locate any celestial bodies that I am familiar with?
Dax: Yeah, if you wanted to try. I would say, that would be a Knowledge check. I’ll make this an easy difficulty for you.
Neil: One Advantage and two Failures.
Dax: I will say that you don’t recognize any of the celestial bodies above you. And unfortunately, in your attempt to lean backwards and try to get more of the sky in your viewpoint, you fall backwards off the tree. But it’s a very short drop and you land on your feet.
Neil (as Arthas): I meant to do that.
Dax: The rest of you, Rialla, in your silent moment, are all shaken by the *thump* as Arthas slams into the ground. His weight and girth making the earth around you tremble.
Cole (as Rialla): Are, are you alright?
Neil (as Arthas): No, I’m Arthas.
Neil: I say, trying to adjust myself as non-awkwardly as I can. (laughter)
Cole (Rialla): Oh, okay then.
Cole: And with that I’ll go back over to Jokul and we’ll start setting up camp. I think we’ve walked in far enough where if you do look up, it’s the thicker part of the canopy.
Dax: Yeah.
Cole: For more cover.
James: Depending on how long Rialla was meditating with the tree, Jokul would have started clearing ground and basically, ‘this ten by ten patch of dirt is good’. I’ll start clearing rocks and basically beginning that prep for a campsite.
Dax: Are you going to try and get food or anything for the evening? Are you guys going to dig into your rations, your food stuffs?
Cole: I’d be okay with just doing rations. That’s what we bought them for.
James: Yeah. We wouldn’t stray too far from camp. If the surrounding forest potentially supports wildlife, Jokul might set up a snare, maybe ten, twenty feet away from camp. But he’s not going to go ranging for food at this hour.
Cole: Yeah, it’s pretty late.
Dax: Okay. Are you making a campfire?
Wren: Well, if we’re not cooking, then I suppose there’s no…
Cole: Yeah, probably not.
Wren: We could make a small one maybe, for a little bit of warmth, but..
Cole: Yeah.
James: We’re still going to be, probably post watch, because we don’t know…
Cole: What’s out here? Yeah.
James: Yeah.
Campfire sound effect begins [6:21]
Cole: Okay.
James: So it wouldn’t be a cooking fire but it would be enough to give light illumination.
Wren (as Eight): I do not need to sleep. I volunteer to stay up and watch camp, for those of you who need more rest.
Wren: The other thing I would like to do, while Jokul is setting up clearings and while they’re getting the tent put together and everything, I would love to summon spectral insects that are glowy, that look more natural and provide light. So kind of lighting things up for us before we get the fire going. Then I’m just keeping them hanging out for the evening.
Dax: Okay. You need to cast a spell for that, or is that one of your…?
Wren: I’d assume, probably.
Dax: Go ahead and make it easy.
Wren: A conjurer of, kind of the other effect, I don’t know. Cool! A Success and two Advantage. So, as everyone’s kind of going about clearing brush and rolling out their bedrolls in the tent, I’m pacing around the clearing where we are. On every tree branch I can reach, I just point a finger and a little firefly appears, dotting the wood. It just sits there and it glows with a blue light. So it’s just kind of like *boop*, and one here and here and I just keep pointing, and they all start to appear. Slowly the clearing becomes illuminated with a very dull blue light.
James: As an amusing thing, just because EIght is doing that, Jokul would just be like,
James (as Jokul): Hey, Eight? You got something on your nose.
Wren: I do now!
Dax: And this little blue -
Wren: Little blue thing (laughs)
Dax: Perfect. Love it.
Wren (as Eight): But Jokul, I do not have a nose.
James (as Jokul): No, I was mistaken.
[Cole and James laugh]
Dax: Does Eight realize that there is a thing on their face?
Wren: Oh yes. And I look at it cross eyed and just give a kind of goofy smirk as I go about, continuing to put them in the rest of the clearing as well. Eventually, when you get the tent set up, I start putting them on the outside of the tent too. And I say,
Wren (as Eight): This way, it will look like you have a tapestry of stars on the exterior of your tent.
Cole: Rialla smiles for the first time that day.
Dax: So you managed to set up your camp and you’ve got all these little flickering bugs to provide some light. While the forest is cool, it’s not overly cold. You could probably suffice with a blanket to keep warm at night. Before you go to bed, is there anything in particular that any of you would like to do? Other than eat.
Cole: In their shared tent, before Rialla lays down and goes to sleep for the night, she’ll roll over and face Jokul to ask him,
Cole (Rialla): I didn’t get a chance to ask you after everything. Are you feeling okay? After what happened?
James (as Jokul): Yes. It’s weird, being back in this state after being on the run for so long and having that come out of nowhere. It was stressful, but I think it resolved itself quite nicely.
Cole (Rialla): I’m very glad that Eight was with us.
James (as Jokul): I’d considered doing something stupid, as you know me to do. It surprised me that Eight jumped to our defense.
Cole (Rialla): I was also surprised. I just, I guess I’m, I’m just glad that we didn’t end up in that situation again. Are you worried at all, that someone else followed us? Besides Viktor?
James (as Jokul): It’s strange. I thought such magic was a rarity, but apparently it’s more commonly known than I expected. Here I waited 50 years to call in that favor, thinking it was powerful magic, and apparently everybody can do it.
[Cole and James chuckle]
Cole (Rialla): I hope not everyone can do it. I do hope that it was just a fluke that, I don’t know. I’m definitely very uneasy.
James (as Jokul): Nothing we can’t tackle. We’ve been through worse.
Cole (Rialla): Nothing we can’t tackle together.
James: He’ll give her a hug and just be like,
James (as Jokul): We got this.
Cole: She’ll run a hand through his hair and just say,
Cole (Rialla): Je t’aime mon coeur.
Cole: And she’ll kiss him goodnight and go to sleep.
Dax: Arthas or Eight, is there anything you would like to do before going..well, Arthas before going to sleep, Eight before taking up your watch.
Neil: I am checking my brigandine for holes and I’m going to bed.
Wren (as Eight): Do not worry Arthas. I will watch over you.
Neil (as Arthas): Good!
Wren (as Eight): Consider me your sentry.
Neil: Arthas just nods a little bit and tries to mull on that when he’s trying to sleep.
[Neil and Dax laugh]
Wren: You just see my violet eyes glowing in the dark as you’re trying to close your eyes, and just staring towards you.
Neil: And the last thought I have is,
Neil (as Arthas): What’s the word sentry mean?
Dax: So, Eight. Anything? Or are you just going to take up your post?
Wren: I will be taking up my post and I imagine the whole time everyone’s just doing their stuff, I’m just kind of sitting and humming absent-mindedly to myself. I don’t want to say I’m trying to eavesdrop, but I would love to be able to hear what they’re talking about in the tent. But, I’m not going to. (laughs) Because I’m -
Cole: You can try.
Wren: I’m very focused on, I would, you know I would like to try. Just to see if I hear them, because I don’t know how quiet they’re being and how quiet the actual clearing is.
Dax: Sure. Why don’t you go ahead and see if in your humming and your weird hovering, you can hear what Rialla and Jokul are trying to keep as a very private conversation. (chuckles)
Cole: I’m curious myself to know how much they hear.
Dax: I will say, this is going to be average difficulty because I imagine they are trying to be whispering.
James: We’re already close enough to each other, so whispering would be.. makes sense.
Cole: More than enough, yeah.
Dax: What do you think? I think Skullduggery would be a good one.
Cole: I guess it depends on if they’re intently listening? Like, if they’re just passively trying to pick up stuff, maybe Perception?
Dax: Yeah.
Cole: But then if they’re..?
Wren: Yeah, I’m not like creeping outside the tent.
Dax: You’re not creeping, okay. Then go ahead and make a Perception check.
Wren: I’m just sitting there.
Dax: I thought you were intently hovering, like trying to make it seem like you were doing busy work. So yeah, go ahead and make a Perception.
Wren: No, I’m just kind of sitting around outside the tent. If I happen to hear them, I’m just, you know, listening. Because that’s what a good sentry does. Alright, this is..
James: Ironically, I did purchase Heightened Awareness. So I don’t know if that is going to (laughs), because according to what it says, allies within short range add an extra blue dice to their Perception checks. So..
Dax: Hmmm.
James: This might be backfiring on me at the moment!
[James and Cole laugh]
Dax: Yeah, probably.
Neil: Helping Eight through RAW, my favorite.
Wren: Yeah! The boost helped not at all. I just have a Threat left over so I don’t…
[Neil laughs]
Dax: What do you want to do with that threat?
Wren: I obviously don’t hear anything and…
Cole: They get distracted by the blue firefly on their nose.
Wren: Perhaps it’s just a, if you make me roll any Perception or Vigilance, I’ll have a setback?
Dax: Sure.
Wren: Just kind of spacing out.
Dax: Alright, so you’ve taken up your post. Everyone else around you is sleeping. Jokul, you enter that trance that elves do and it’s not so much sleeping as humans would know it. But it’s not quite the same meditation that many of the monks would consider either. It’s almost that in-between. And normally, it would be like a great void for you. This nice place of relaxation and silence and it’s a chance for your body to recuperate, that in-between awake and sleep. Tonight it is different. Tonight, you feel someone else’s presence there.
Piano music and campfire sounds end [15:19]
Dax: You almost feel a partially corporal form emerge, and you realize that that form is you. You stand in this void, and as your consciousness comes to, you start to see another almost corporal form. The more it takes shape, the more it becomes recognizable to you.
Wind blowing sound effect begins [15:42]
Dax: You see a woman standing before you. Black hair, skin as pale as alabaster. She wears a tunic, and trousers of the deepest night, and a silver pendant lies on a necklace. On that pendant is a raven’s head. She turns to you and though her lips do not move, you hear her in your head.
Dax (as Baradesh): [female voice] Well. Jokul Genhorn. You’ve gotten yourself into a little bit of trouble now, haven’t you?
James (as Jokul): Trouble and me seem to go hand-in-hand.
Dax (as Baradesh): Trust me my child, I know that better than anyone. You’ve seen a lot in your life, a lot of hate. Despair. But you’ve had some good things too. And now you’re on a journey, where I fear you will face some of your greatest challenges. Do you feel up to the task?
James: Jokul’s spent enough time with Rialla to have an idea that this might be a personification of Rialla’s god.
James (as Jokul): With your priestess by my side, I can accomplish much. Together, whatever threatens us is in for a world of hurt.
Dax (as Baradesh): I’m glad you have such a positive outlook on it, Jokul. Your priestess, she feigns strength and I believe inside of her is much greater strength than she realizes. But I fear this task may be more than she can handle. The two of you together, yes you can accomplish much. But I’ve come to warn you. You may already be aware that there are those that mean you great harm on this plane of existence. I can only do so much, and the best that I can do is to set you up for greatness. And then it will be up to you to move forward and use those abilities as you see fit. Is this something you willingly accept?
James (as Jokul): What you offer is obviously no small offering. Forgive me, I am not particularly experienced when talking to powerful entities as yourself. I am a very down-to-earth person. But if it means protecting Rialla, I accept.
Dax: She reaches out with a very slender hand, and as her form reaches yours, you can feel icy cold. From that cold hand radiates a warmth that reaches out from your arm and envelopes your entire body. Then you awake from your trance. Rialla is sleeping next to you, cuddled in the blankets in your shared tent. You don’t feel any different.
Wind sound effect ends [18:32]
James: Out of curiosity, he’ll look at the hand that she touched. Just..
Campfire sound effect resumes [18:36]
Dax: You see a very faint inky blackness, almost like a fog, and then it dissipates. Your hand looks as normal as it does every day.
James: Jokul’s just kind of sitting there clenching and unclenching his hand and looking at it. Just being like, ‘man I wish I drank so I had an excuse to not remember that’. Then he’ll, assuming he hasn’t gotten his full trance yet, he’ll just sink back down and go,
James (as Jokul): All right then. This’ll be an interesting conversation in the morning.
Dax: Eight, you spent your night as sentry and unnervingly, the forest was silent. With the exception of every so often, the breeze in the canopy overhead. What are you doing this evening while your friends sleep?
Wren: [sighs] I am ruminating on the events of the last few days. I have learned a lot about my friends, I have seen a side of humanity that I do not care for, and the trip to Kidohlva is proving long. I am anxious to get there because there are books to be read at the library, because we have to learn more about the missing children. I’m just sitting and thinking and it might look like I’m meditating but I’m just sitting and examining. And as the night goes on, I let small portions of the glowing insects I created just sort of phase out, so it starts to get a little darker as the night wanes on. So as to not disrupt my sleeping companions.
Dax: Jokul, when you fully come back out of your trance, do you stay in the tent? Or do you go out to meet with Eight?
James: No, if he can untangle himself from Rialla without waking her, he’ll slither out. If he’s tangled up, then he stays and just like looking at the ceiling of the tent, thinking. But if he can escape without waking her, he tries to do so.
Dax: I would say in this instance, that Rialla has her back to you. So you can probably exit the tent.
James: Yeah, and he just tosses on a jacket or whatever and just, go sit by the campfire. Or did we agree no campfire?
Dax: Yeah, I don’t think you guys started one.
Wren: It was a smaller one.
Dax: Small one? Eight, you see Jokul emerge from the tent.
Wren: I perk up, snapping out of my thoughts and my half-meditating sentry stance. I also get up when I see Jokul pop out of the tent. Standing, I do a little half wave and get closer to the fire and sit down close to where Jokul sits.
James: Jokul gives him a silent wave hello. At this point, Eight knows that Jokul just meditates for the eight hours so this has probably been a common occurrence during whatever traveling time we’ve had camping.
Wren: How long has Jokul been in the tent?
James: 4 hours. If nothing else, it helps Eight tell time. It’s been about 4 hours, there’s Jokul.
Wren (as Eight): Ah, Jokul. Did you get adequate sleep?
James: He looks like he’s just going to answer that like ‘yeah, of course!’, but he has that pause that’s like..
James (as Jokul): ..Yes.
James: That like clearly shows something’s clicking in his brain.
Wren: I arc an eyebrow, hearing that delay. Looking at Jokul, I say,
Wren (as Eight): Now, I may not be well-versed with the subtleties of communication but I have the feeling that there is something you are not quite divulging.
James: Jokul again just kind of keeps that silence for a moment but he kind of smiles because Eight’s good at reading people. That’s what we’ve figured out. Jokul just kind of smiles and,
James (as Jokul): You’d be correct, but let me ask you a question.
Wren: I shake my head vigorously at that.
James (as Jokul): You’re a seeker of knowledge, correct?
Wren (as Eight): Yes. I would consider myself to be one in search of enlightenment and knowledge.
James (as Jokul): How do you digest people’s beliefs and religions when things like that don’t always make logical sense?
Wren (as Eight): In my experience, and mind you, I have not been traveling for too long, I have found that people in different walks believe in many different things. My mother used to tell me many things, but one of the things she never did quite talk about was her particular beliefs or thoughts in spirituality or religion in gods. For my part, it’s easy to reconcile because,
Wren: And I smile.
Wren (as Eight): I’ve come face-to-face with one, you know.
James (as Jokul): When did you meet a god? Or, will you share said tale?
Wren (as Eight): It was before I met you, and Rialla, of course. But not long before we met. In fact, it was shortly after I left home, while I was traveling the Floating Islands that I called my original home. I came across a strange child, a capricious one, little mischievous. I offered them aid in a time of need. And beyond all things, I did what I believed was right and the god was pleased with that. They turned out to be the deity of nature, and they blessed me. To what extent this actually does anything, I have no idea but I was surprised to learn that the gods, in all their forms, will meddle with the lives of mortals. So, I suppose in a roundabout way to answer your question Jokul, I don’t see any harm in believing in things and allowing others to believe in things. Because regardless of whether they turn out to be true or not, those things they believe hold great meaning to them and their lives. I’ve had the good fortune of seeing tangible rewards for holding belief. Some folks do not require that to believe. And that is just the way of the world.
James (as Jokul): Do you believe in the power of nature greater because of your encounter with the child god? Or do you still, obviously you’ve read tales of different gods and things of that nature. Do you believe in one more than the other because of your encounter with that god?
Wren: I sit and ponder for a moment. And I look back, I cross my arms, fold them in front of me and sit and think.
Wren (as Eight): Do I believe in one god more than the other? That’s a very interesting question. As is the case with all things in life, whether or not we believe in something does not stop it from existing or from holding sway over different aspects of the world. There’s a balance between things. As I’m seeking knowledge, I do have to reconcile the fact that I will find information or stories of things I do not like or care for. That does not make them any less true or powerful. I suppose the short answer to you would be, I believe in all things equally. Whether or not they hold an equal amount of sway in the world around me is another question. But, that can be learned through first-hand experience or through research.
James (as Jokul): Thank you for your insight. I don’t place much stock in religion, it’s always been a troublesome point for me in my life but since Rialla has entered it, I have a great deal of respect for the devoted. Even if I question their methods of, obviously other deities that Rialla’s god does not see eye to eye with. I’m concerned because I may have just gotten a vision from her god, and I’m not sure how to react.
Wren: You notice the faint violet color from my eyes just gets a little brighter when you say that, as they widen. Some of the other fireflies vanish because I just completely lose concentration on what I was doing. I lean in towards you.
Wren (as Eight): You saw one? You saw one of the gods?
James (as Jokul): Not physically, but not a dream either. You have studied, you understand what elves do. We don’t particularly sleep, we go into a statis or a meditation. It’s not sleep but it’s not being awake either. She visited me in that state.
Wren (as Eight): I believe one might call that, what is it, the Astral Realm? The space between the physical and the spiritual. Jokul, you don’t believe in much, do you?
James (as Jokul): I have many beliefs, I am just.. I’ve seen much in my many years and it’s hard to keep faith in one particular thing when you feel like the world’s out to get you and everything is against you. As you’ve learned, Rialla and I have a shared darkness in our past and despite her devotion, many things went wrong. How do you keep your faith when everything seems stacked against you, despite you asking your god for help?
Wren (as Eight): You believe more in the internal strength of an individual rather than praying and hoping for the intervention of a greater power to assist.
James (as Jokul): I do.
Wren (as Eight): Personal merits over devotion.
James (as Jokul): That is my personal experience, but I’m also…
James: Jokul pauses as he’s like,
James (as Jokul): I’m 160. I have seen much in my years, many things have changed, many things have not.
Wren (as Eight): What sort of changes have you experienced?
James (as Jokul): Well, I met Rialla. That’s one big one. The world around us has changed multiple times, yet somehow the things we run from seem to find us again despite our efforts to escape them.
Wren (as Eight): Hmm.
Wren: I steeple my fingers and put them in front of my face.
Wren (as Eight): Like Hassan and his band of thieves.
James: If Jokul picks up on that, he just kind of like,
James (as Jokul): Don’t do that. It makes you look like him.
Wren (as Eight): Fair enough. I see. You and your companion have been through much. Even in just the last few months, you’ve met all sorts of strange people, you’ve left your homes. Ugh, I can’t even imagine. But, I suppose the things you should consider are the things to be grateful for. Your horse, your love, your experience and your own personal capabilities. Those are consistent, and as much as things change, the best things stay the same. Do they not?
James (as Jokul): They do.
Wren (as Eight): Perhaps that is in itself divine intervention of sorts.
James (as Jokul): You’ve given me much to think on. Thank you, Eight. That was far more insightful than I was expecting.
Wren (as Eight): I can be full of surprises. Just know, anytime you have need of comfort, I am your friend. And I will be here to help you.
James: Jokul will give them a nod, and he’ll pat Eight on the shoulder and then he’ll go, just step away from the campfire. Basically brush down Maeve, make sure she’s happy. Whatever she’s up to in the corner of the campsite.
Dax: So, because of how late everyone walked the night before, this whole conversation takes place in the last hours of the night. While it is a thick wood, you can see the sun, the rays poking through the canopy. Rialla and Arthas, who is the first one to wake up out of the two of you?
Neil: I’m pretty beat. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be sleeping in.
Cole: Yeah, it’s probably me.
Dax: You wake up in your tent, Rialla, and Jokul isn’t there.
Mysterious piano music resumes [31:43]
Cole: I’ll get myself together, put my leather armor back on, get dressed, all that. My cloak and everything, and I’ll exit the tent. I automatically walk over to Jokul and start helping him with whatever he’s doing, without even thinking about it.
Cole (Rialla): Did you sleep okay?
James: Thanks to the conversation he had with Eight, he answers with confidence.
James (as Jokul): Yes.
Cole (Rialla): Good.
Cole: She hugs you.
James: He returns the hug.
Cole: After that, I’ll notice Eight still up and I’ll walk over to Eight.
Cole (Rialla): Good morning, I haven’t asked you in a while. Are you feeling okay? Did you need another tune up now that we’re not in the desert?
Wren (as Eight): Oh, good morning! You know, I haven’t even really been thinking about that recently. We’ve been so preoccupied with stolen birds, missing belongings, and well…
Wren: I’m sitting and awkwardly tapping my fingers together.
Wren (as Eight): I do not want to be a bother.
Cole (Rialla): I don’t mind. I would like to get better at it so I don’t make things worse.
Wren (as Eight): Well in that case, please!
Wren: I hold out my right arm and push a little button in my wrist. *Beep*. The little tools kind of spring out from a little disc compartment that pops out of it, and I hold them out for you.
Cole: I take them and I want to spend this time with Eight really showing me how it’s done. I kind of want to use this to explain my new rank in Surgeon?
Dax: Sure. Yeah, I’m good with that.
Cole: So that I can help Eight and heal them accordingly. So more than making a Medicine check, I want this to be like a training. Like ‘okay, really show me how do I take care of you best’.
Dax: So, why don’t you two take a minute and tell me what this back-and-forth looks like? I mean, it’s not just Rialla putzing around in Eight’s inner workings so.
Cole: Rialla has the tools and she’ll take them and say,
Cole (Rialla): I’ve worked on many different people and I’d like to say that I’m good with medicine, but I haven’t, I want you to, could you show me? Where should I start? How do I.. I know last time, you looked uncomfortable and I don’t want to do that to you again. And I really want to learn how to do this correctly. So that next time you need, have need for this, you’ll feel better and not worse.
Wren (as Eight): Right, right.
Wren: I turn so that my chest is facing you and as we get started, I take off my cloak that I have wrapped around my neck so that it can expose more of my throat area and my shoulders. It won’t be draping over the back anymore, so it’s just uncovered and I set it down on the ground next to me. I hold out my hand and I say,
Wren (as Eight): If you lay the tools out…
Wren: And I just trace a line across my hand.
Wren (as Eight): If you lay the tools out in your hand and you take a look at them, you’ll see a couple different types.
Wren: I kind of list them off.
Wren (as Eight): There’s the fine hook, there’s the large hook, there’s the mediums, the medium hook. Obviously, there’s hooks of all different sizes. There’s also, on the opposite ends, flat edges and a couple of screwdrivers and a brush or two. These are all very important.
Wren: And I start going through how each one is used.
Wren (as Eight): You won’t need to really take me apart, which is great. Cleaning me up is not really like stitching together a body or anything. Most of the time, my body is pretty capable of mending itself. Although occasionally, a little bit of extra care is required. In instances like this where things get a little grimy or grit-laden..
Wren: And I shift an arm and you can kind of hear it pop and crinkle a little bit
Cole: Like sand in-between a ball joint.
Wren: Yeah.
Cole: Yeah.
Wren (as Eight): Normally, it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance to keep this from happening. But the desert’s been so dry, so sandy, that I haven’t really had a good chance to flush things out. Generally, if I sit out in a good rainstorm, that actually does the trick.
Wren: I smile.
Wren (as Eight): But in instances where I need this, because of a drought or just being in a really dirty section, all you need to do is use a screwdriver to pull up some of the screws.
Wren: And I just take one of them and I work the pieces on one of the platings.
Wren (as Eight): You can just lift it up and you don’t need to physically remove anything necessarily. But if you do, please take care to remember where you pulled it.
[Cole chuckles]
Cole (Rialla): Noted.
Wren: As we keep talking, I indicate when to use the hooks. So like, sometimes as you pull the plates, you can see there are thick tendrils of that like vine material and sinew that’s like if you took a muscle and you made it out of woven plant fiber.
Wren (as Eight): You can use the hooks to lightly pull these sections, trace the inside with the flat edge, and make sure there’s nothing hidden in there. They do constrict and stretch a little bit so there’s no real need to worry about pulling too hard. I would beg you not to pull as hard as you can, it would take a while for things to settle back in but -
Cole (Rialla): I am a medical professional. I don’t think I would be doing that.
Cole: And I take my hand and, Eight has a lot of runes and things etched into the metal plates, right?
Wren: Yeah, there’s different symbols and icons that have been etched or painted on to them. Or both. Most of them look like variations of eyeballs and some weird bird shapes, with long, thin beaks and tall, spindly legs. But the iconography is pretty consistent on most of the different plates.
Cole (Rialla): Do these symbols mean anything? Do they correspond with where the plates go?
Wren (as Eight): Well, I don’t believe they correspond to where the plates exist. Mother was always particularly fond of these types of symbols. She always told me that the eye represents discerning truth. That a keen one, a keen eye, cannot be deceived. I believe that she felt that if these symbols were etched into my frame, perhaps it would serve as an excellent reminder to me to never stop questioning and never stop looking for new things to learn. As for the bird, it was prevalent throughout the study. Mother had statues, busts, and paintings of humanoid figures that bore the same face. The protruding beak, the head shape. I am afraid I do not quite understand what this symbolizes, but I would assume that perhaps Mother had a spiritual connection to the creature.
Cole (Rialla): What did your mother look like? If you don’t mind me asking. You don’t have to answer, I’m just curious.
Dax: You hear Maeve snort very loudly in the background.
Wren: As I sit and think, recollect some of my thoughts, my face gets.. I frown a little bit.
Cole (Rialla): I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.
Wren (as Eight): It’s okay. Mother was very small. I say that, and I mean she was very small for a person. She believed very strongly in study, and working the garden, and self-sufficiency. Which is ironic now that I think about it, because she had me do so many things for her. She was very intense, she had kind eyes, when she wasn’t giving me a lecture. But, I cannot recall a time when Mother was not old and worn down. You see, I was her caretaker and I believe old age was the primary motivator for Mother’s teachings to me. Eventually, she passed on.
Wren: I’m still frowning.
Cole: Rialla shifts the tools to set them down and takes Eight’s hand.
Wren (as Eight): I do not recall the time when she passed. Nor do I remember how long ago it was. All I know is she is gone.
Cole (Rialla): I’m sorry.
Wren (as Eight): Oh, it feels like you’ve worked the dirt out of this section. We can move on to some of the plates in my lower back.
Cole (Rialla): Okay.
Cole: She’ll give Eight’s hand a gentle squeeze and pick up the tools again, put the plate back on without help.
Dax: You spend another good hour or so working with Eight on cleaning the various plates and learning a bit more about their inner workings, that you can help them in the future. I imagine at this point Arthas has woken up. Is anybody going to have breakfast or are you going to move further into the woods?
Cole: I think this is kind of the eat on the road.
James: I was going to say, depending on how long the maintenance and surgery went on Eight, Jokul would have stepped up and been like,
James (as Jokul): I will cook some toast.
[Wren chuckles]
Neil: I am absolutely shoveling breakfast into my mouth.
Wren: Art’s just eating rations.
James: Like Jokul’s going to be trying to cook breakfast, and anything he burns too badly, he just gives to Arthas. Just be like, this piece of toast is bad, here Arthas.
Neil (as Arthas): Hard disagree. It’s toast.
Neil: As I’m just shoving it in my mouth.
Dax: Oh my goodness. Um okay, so you (laughing) have the meal on wheels breakfast special. You pack up your, it doesn’t take you long to pack up camp. You didn’t have a lot set out, considering you didn’t do really any hunting or major cooking the night before. As you wander through the woods, you notice that there really is no trail from the road which you entered upon. Which is odd, considering in most cases a road will have a defined trail even if it hasn’t been used in years. But there’s nothing. You’re wandering through wild space.
Cole: In that case, Rialla would have her dagger and would be marking trees. I don’t know if that’s a bad idea, but I guess I’m doing it now.
Wren: How deep are you making marks in the trees?
Cole: I don’t want to make them too deep because I don’t want to be followed. But yeah, just like a little straight, not like a severe marking. Just something that I would notice.
Wren: As you’re doing that, after your first cut horizontally, I approach you. Just kind of as we’re walking and put a hand on your shoulder.
Wren (as Eight): Rialla, I implore you. If you will be marking the trees, would you please cut them vertically? The trees, they draw nutrients up the stem and if you cut across them, you could sever those connections.
Cole (Rialla): Oh, I wasn’t, it’s, yeah I can do that.
Dax: You have been scolded by the robit.
[Dax giggles]
Cole: It was such a, I wasn’t like, *uuugggghhhh* gouging the tree. But Rialla will listen.
Dax: So you spend the majority of the day traveling through the woods and it’s silent. It’s a little warmer in the daytime, that mist is gone. It’s not that weird, damp, cool feeling you had last night. But there’s still no sound of birds or animals. And stranger still, the longer you walk, you notice the sun does not seem to move overhead. It doesn’t get darker or brighter.
Cole: Do I feel any magic? Like is there any energy that I’m picking up on?
Dax: Go ahead and make a Primal check. I’m going to have you do this at Average difficulty.
Cole: I have a Success and a Boost!
Music shifts to mysterious piano [44:55]
Dax: A Success and an Advantage. So, I will say that after several hours, your feet start to get really tired. You look up and the sun still seems to be high in its zenith and you remember, in the deepest part of your memory, tales of places in the world where magic can be put on its head. Where it doesn’t act in the way that you normally expect it to. Of course as far you know, they’ve always been myths and legends, and not actual locations.
Cole: So, is this like a pocket where things aren’t right? Like what?
Dax: So with your Advantage, I will say that as you reach out your subconscious and you let that force that you would consider magic reach out from your body. You kind of do a metaphysical feeling of everything around you. You do realize that there’s, these trees, this air is soaked in some form of magic that seems twisted. Maybe not necessarily tainted, but it’s not following the laws of nature or magic as you would know them to be.
Cole: Could I, knowing that, what I want to try to do is I want to try and pull out my mirror and, not so much scrying. But I want to try casting a spell that could kind of, like if I were to hold up the mirror, if that could act as some sort of magical guide? Kind of like a magical compass -
Dax: So you’re trying to see through -
Cole: Try and see through this, yeah.
Dax: Whatever this might be.
Cole: Yeah.
Dax: And you want to use your scrying ability for that?
Cole: Yes. Kind of seeing through this strange, twisted magic.
Dax: If you would like to try, you may. I will say that this is going to be a Hard difficulty for that.
Cole: Okay.
James: Does that use Perception or is scrying a spell thing?
Dax: For Rialla, it’s a special skill. It’s one of the custom skills that you’re able to do with the Genesys RPG, yay!
Cole: So I think I know how this works but I just want to check. Scrying is keyed off Presence, interestingly enough. So I have two points in the Presence characteristic, but I have three ranks in Scrying. So that would be three green dice, two yellow?
Dax: You got it. And then three purple for the Hard difficulty.
Cole: (laughs) Nothing cancels out! I have four Threat and five Successes. I succeed but with all these Threats, I guess I could take just a whole bunch of Strain. Because if the magic is tainted or if it’s kind of toxic in some way, that probably affects me.
Dax: Yeah, go ahead and take the Strain. That’s fine.
Cole: Okay. I’m going to take a buttload of Strain though.
Dax: Mhmmmm.
Cole: Yep.
Wren: You stressing yourself out!
Dax: So what does this, what does this look like as you reach out and try to navigate through this tainted magic?
Cole: I would have stopped my companions after I realized that something weird was going on. I’ll pull out my mirror and I close my eyes. You see, as I kind of go into this trance state, I feel like I put a hand on Jokul’s arm to steady myself. I reach out, the tendrils in my face around my eyes get very, very dark and my skin gets kind of ashy. The mirror is, it’s silver and it’s intricately carved on the back with a crest that you don’t recognize. It’s a black mirror and you notice my hand gets even darker, like the same pigment around my eyes. As I’m trying to reach out and see through this weird magical thing, the mirror starts to glow and sort of pulse a little bit with this magical energy. It’s like, it’s not like a light glow, it’s like the dark. You know how you cast Darkness somewhere pitch black, it’ll glow because it’s a magical darkness? It’s kind of like that. So it pulses and ebbs with this energy and as I’m reaching, I suddenly... my grip on Jokul’s arm gets really tight and I’m wincing, but I manage to push myself to get through that. I start to move the mirror, and it starts to ping whenever I go over a certain spot. But I don’t, I kind of look like I was in pain there for a minute. The tendrils around my eyes, as the magic ebbs away, the tendrils don’t get thinner again and my hand is still dark.
James: I imagine Jokul’s seen Rialla scry and basically seen this whole effect take place before?
Cole: You haven’t seen that kind of stress, usually just when the magic is cast, the tendrils calm back down. But this is constant.
James: Okay. But Jokul would again, like you’re reaching for him. He supports you, but he’s also immediately tenses up and goes on that high alert. He’s looking up in the trees, is there anything stalking us, what’s going on. What does she sense that I can’t see?
Dax: So Rialla, you perform your scrying successfully. And you feel your consciousness, almost in a way, leave your body. You start to navigate forward through the forest, and then you see, almost as if your body was weaving, in and among the trees. It starts to speed up and go faster and faster and faster. The trees around you begin to blur. Then suddenly, you reach what would normally be the end of the forest. But it’s darkness, as if you have exited a bubble of perfect daylight and reached the forest at night. A deep, deep night.
Cole: Does it look like, like are we back outside and it’s nighttime or is this like a strange magical darkness?
Dax: From what you can gather, it’s a strange magical darkness. But amidst it all, you see a small pinprick of orange light. You can feel yourself being pulled toward that orange light and as it gets bigger and bigger, you realize it’s firelight. At the campfire, is seated an individual. Their back toward you.
Cole: I would have been holding Jokul’s arm the whole time. Is he still next to me?
Dax: Nope. You don’t even yourself in form, it’s just your consciousness. You come closer to the firelight and the individual perks their head up. The hooded figure turns to face you and you recognize the face of that one person you fear most in the world. A greasy, yellow-toothed smile crosses his face. Then your vision ends and you are back in the light, gripping Jokul’s shoulder.
Cole: The hand on your forearm gets tight, white knuckle grip.
James: Jokul’s still doing the paranoia like, is there something behind the trees? But he’s looking for the threat but not seeing anything. He’ll lean into Rialla and be like,
James (as Jokul): What did you see? Is there something? Danger?
Cole (Rialla): Bran.
James (as Jokul): You saw that dickhead again? Where?
Cole (Rialla): I don’t know.
James (as Jokul): I told you, you should have let me trip him down those stairs.
James: He’ll just hold Rialla close and again, still like warily keep an eye on the trees around him. He knows that name and he’s just a random dude, I could kick his ass.
Dax: Trying to put on a brave front.
James: Exactly. He doesn’t know the magical shenanigans that just went on, so he’s just like ‘oh that guy. Where is he? I want to kick’.
Dax: Don’t worry. Don’t worry babe, I got him, kind of deal.
James: I want to kick his butt!
Dax: Rialla, you feel a warm nuzzle as Maeve rubs her nose against the side of your face.
Horse snort sound effect [53:28]
Cole: I look down at the mirror. Do I see the firelight in the mirror?
Dax: The mirror is blank.
Cole: If I hold it up, does it ping in a direction? And does it echo what I just saw? Like, the same direction?
Dax: Nope.
Cole: Are we at the edge of the forest or are we still back where we were?
Dax: You’re still where you were. You didn’t transport or anything. You move it and you get no indication. The magic you tried to do didn’t work the way you wanted it to.
Cole: It just showed me what I was afraid of. Interesting, okay. What if I try..oof. Big oof. That’s not great. Okay. I can, maybe, this might be too big for a Dispel Magic. But my second idea is maybe, could I put a barrier around the group to shield us from the weird effects of this magic.
Dax: You can try.
Cole: I don’t like that. (laughs) I’m scared. I don’t know what else to do, so I guess I’m gonna try. Better than doing nothing and wandering in this forest until we’re dead. So.
Dax: Arthas, I will say that while Rialla is doing her scrying, you felt a little tingling on your skin and then as soon as she came back and said the word ‘Bran’, you felt normal again.
Neil: I would have smacked the tingling on my skin, as I assume it’s a bug of some kind.
Dax: Rialla, your barrier spell.
Cole: Sanctuary. Or something similar. So that’s a Divine spell check. We’ll see how this one backfires on me. It’ll be fun!
Dax: Make that one Hard as well.
Cole: Yep. I would assume nothing less. (laughs) Okay. Oooo, oooo boy. I have two Failures and an Advantage.
Dax: Would you like to use the Advantage to recover one of your Strain from the prior attempt?
Cole: Yeah.
Dax: And, quick reminder, what does your barrier spell look like again?
Cole: This one, since this one’s a protection not a sound shield, this one kind of, this time I’ll grab my.. I’m trying for anything to try and get us through this. So I’m grabbing my holy symbol and I touch that for a moment. I lift up my hand and I trace the symbol in the air. It’s this, sort of like, a black wispy smoke and the wind kicks up. Kind of like that autumn twirl of leaves, and a flicker of light comes up and around us, and then dissipates.
Dax: When that light begins to dissipate, it comes out blindingly in an explosion. You’re surrounded by this *fwhoom* loud noise, as if a bomb exploded right behind you. You don’t feel any force, you don’t feel any heat. But you have that loud noise and that blinding light. And that is where we are going to end this session.
Cole: FUCK!
Music fades out [56:52]
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.