The Daughter of Storms

0:00:00 Brennan: Hello, one and all, and welcome to another exciting episode of Dimension 20: Pirates of Leviathan! I'm your humble Dungeon Master, Brennan Lee Mulligan. With me, as always, are our Buccaneer Buddies. Say hi, Buccaneer Buddies!

0:00:13 Group: [waving hello, all slightly out of sync] Hi, Buccaneer Buddies!

0:00:16 Brennan: That's Skype, baby. Yeah. [laughing] The cast laughs.

0:00:20 Brennan: Last we left our Buccaneer Buddies off, they were in the Bilge, the deep, dark, subterranean neighborhood of Leviathan, wherein live most of Leviathan's ratfolk, hardworking and sometimes somber citizens who all fear the tread of the approaching Jack Brakkow, the cursed man, who recently welcomed a young boy named Cheese! A gnomish wannabe wizard with a Trapper Keeper full of scrap spells who got himself into a real big pickle when he stole the Daughter of Storms, an ancient artifact, a statue from some long-lost civilization tied to the magic of storms itself. This artifact was strapped to Cheese's back, and in hot pursuit of him was Marcid the Typhoon, bag man and body guard of one Langley Sheffield-Harrington, the sort of impresario of the Crescent Moon Trading Company. This little artifact had been acquired from the aquatic Myrtle, cleric and priestess of Umberlee of the Deep, a merfolk witch with many trinkets to sell, but maybe shouldn't have sold this one in direct defiance of her goddess's edicts around mortals wielding storm magic. Myrtle is also tracking down this artifact as fast as she can, as well as Marcid the Typhoon, in tow of the beautiful, the sensational, the vivacious Barbarella Sasparilla Gainglynn, the Pearl of the Gold Gardens, a world-famous singer and performer, along with her new accompaniment, escort, and protector, the brave paladin of Jane Wren, goddess of the horizon, Sunny Biscotto, an aarakocra with visions of adventure and life of heroics. Our six piratical heroes have just tumbled into each other's wake wrapped up in some terrifying, villainous, and arcane goings-on with some exchanges of money and magic. The capture of Barbarella's good friend, Trixie, the tiefling, and they have arrived to witness battle unfold in the Bilge through the broken wall of Jack Brakkow's domicile. Folks, you can't make this up, combat number one, we're rolling initiative. [puts hands around mouth like a megaphone] PVP, baby! I will need everybody here to roll initiative for me if you would be so kind.

0:02:55 Marisha: Oh, shit.

0:02:56 Aabria: Ooh!

0:02:58 B. Dave: I would just like to say with supreme joy, I have advantage on initiative and I rolled a 1 and a 19. Casts laughs.

0:03:03 B. Dave: Marcid’s like,

0:03:07 Marcid: [panicked] Augh! [calmer] Ah.

0:03:12 Brennan: Incredible. Marcid at a 19.

0:03:14 B. Dave: Well, that's 25 total.

0:03:15 Brennan: Ooh, I see, much higher. Wonderful, did anyone else get above a 20?

0:03:23 Marisha: I got a 21.

0:03:25 Brennan: Sunny with a 21. Did anybody else get above a 15.

0:03:31 Aabria: 18 here.

0:03:33 Brennan: Myrtle with an 18, and did anyone else get above a 10?

0:03:36 Carlos: [overlapping with Matt] 11.

0:03:36 Matt: 12.

0:03:38 Brennan: We got Jack with a 12, and our dear unconscious Cheese with an 11. Cast laughs.

0:03:46 Brennan: At least you're not making death saves, you know? And then that, Barbarella, what did you roll?

0:03:53 Krystina: A four.

0:03:54 Marcid: You’re welcome, lad.

0:03:56 Aabria: That bard initiative, baby!

0:04:00 Brennan: Ooh, baby. We return to the deep dark depths of The Bilge. Light flickers in far little pockets with long stretches of tunnels in the deep wood of the various ships and hulls stretching away. So little light down here, but in the flickering candlelight left from Jack's home with the wall busted through, Jack and Marcid square off. Marcid, you are first to act.

0:04:31 B. Dave: So, bugbears have long arms? I want to hook my arm around the stone on Cheese's back and pick him up like a shield in front of me. B. Dave and Brennan laugh; Aabria puts her forehead in her hands.

0:04:44 B. Dave: And say,

0:04:44 Marcid: Just be cool, Jack. We can talk this out, mate.

0:04:49 B. Dave: [laughing as he talks] As I have the trident in the other hand. But I definitely want my arm around the stone. So I don't know. What is—I guess, theoretically, it's grapple or athletics, but I don't know that he's fighting me. So I don't know. What do I roll for that?

0:05:04 Brennan: I don't know that I even will make this a roll, man. Cheese is a small kid, he's got a rock on his back, you have an object interaction. Your athletics is plus six. I don't necessarily feel like this is that much of a stretch. Also, because you have that reach, it's like, bam, you have long arms, snap him up off the ground, have him in front of you. You hear your trident, Alycon, whisper in your mind being like,

0:05:27 Alycon: Sir, we have very little proof that this unfortunate rat man even cares about this child. Perhaps he wishes the child dead!

0:05:35 B. Dave: I am like,

0:05:35 Marcid: We're about to find out.

0:05:37 B. Dave: And I do start backing out of the hole that I Kool-Aid manned through, especially since I see them coming, and I don't want to be trapped in here with everybody. [laughing] Like, [makes psht sound, mimes picking up Cheese in front of him and stepping back].

0:05:46 Brennan: Incredible, so I'm gonna say because no one else necessarily initiated a fight, we can roll through your initiatives one by one. You can act if you wish to act. If you wish to ready an action, you also can do that on your turn. You may also just full-stop delay your turn, especially if you're trying to read what Jack is likely to do next.

0:06:13 Marcid: I think this parrot's about to do something foolish. B. Dave and Brennan laugh.

0:06:19 Brennan: Sunny, it is your turn, baby. You see a child, a very cute child in the arms of a bugbear. What do you do? Marisha, arms raised, makes panicked grunting sounds.

0:06:30 Marisha: Ah, Sunny just goes,

0:06:30 Sunny: [grunting, in a pirate affect] Ah, wait! [throws arms out in a full-stop motion] Rule! Number eight! Article number eight of the Pirate Code, no pirate shall strike another pirate that is a part of their crew. No one hit each other until we have rules and an agreed upon condition for a duel. That is the pirate code!

0:06:57 Brennan: Go ahead and make an intimidate check for me, Marisha, if you would be so kind.

0:06:59 Marisha: Oh, jeez!

0:07:01 Marcid: They're not rules. They're really more like guidelines. Cast laughs.

0:07:07 Marisha: Intimidation, it's okay, it's okay. Okay, 12 total.

0:07:12 Brennan: Well, weirdly, a little bit of paladin's aura surrounds Sunny in this moment, as though— Normally you hear pirate code, you just kind of laugh. You're like, why would I be a pirate if I cared about a code? But some deep occult power rings out from Sunny but is really undercut by [swelling music cuts] the stress molting that occurs in this moment. A ton of feathers just [makes flopping sound, imitating molting] come off as Sunny makes this proclamation.

0:07:45 Sunny: By the great goddess of Jane Wren, remember our roots, good pirates. Be honorable! Let's talk! [taps chest with fist]

0:07:59 Marisha: And then I take my-

0:07:59 Brennan: And then it's gonna be Myrtle's turn.

0:08:01 Myrtle: [gritted teeth] I don't know her. Cast laughs.

0:08:07 Myrtle: Okay, Marcid, I'm assuming that you're grabbing the stone for me, but what's the little boy that's attached?

0:08:20 Marcid: He tried to nick it. I was sent to get it back. [sighs]

0:08:25 Myrtle: For whom?

0:08:27 B. Dave: I say in primordial,

0:08:27 Marcid: Not in front of the amateurs. Aabria rolls her eyes, and it turns into a laugh.

0:08:34 Aabria: Can I insight check Marcid to see if he's [sweetly] lying to me?

0:08:37 Brennan: Yeah, give me a little insight, and Marcid—

0:08:39 B. Dave: I'm like, let me decide if I'm lying to you! [laughs]

0:08:42 Aabria: Yeah, 24! [raises arms triumphantly]

0:08:45 B. Dave: I don't—I don’t know. [makes various um and eh sounds, hesitating] He has no intention of handing it to you right now. B. Dave nods. Aabria narrows her eyes, tilts her head suspiciously.

0:08:57 B. Dave: He is definitely not going to be like, [miming offering an object] yeah, okay, GG! [laughs, goes back to miming holding Cheese and the stone in front of him like a shield]

0:09:02 Aabria: [shrugs slightly] Yeah, that's fair.

0:09:05 Brennan: Gosh. So that's your insight check, Myrtle. Anything else from you?

0:09:08 Aabria: Yeah, I would love to get a little closer then, and I'm just gonna like, while making eye contact with Marcid, just poke Cheese? And I'm gonna cast Cure Wounds at first level to bring him back up.

0:09:20 Brennan: Ooh, lovely.

0:09:21 B. Dave: [laughing] I'm like, oh no. I wanted to unattach the stone first, but that's all right. I don't know what she's doing. So here we go.

0:09:29 Myrtle: I have a soft spot for barnacle-like youths. [shrugs]

0:09:33 Brennan: Yes, how much damage is healed to Cheese?

0:09:38 Aabria: Ah, you take back 12 HP.

0:09:41 Carlos: Oh, man.

0:09:41 Matt: Oh, geez.

0:09:42 Carlos: Cheese is in a fever dream right now, passed out, where he's just like on top of this giant monolith that looks like the stone that he took, and on top, there's like one wedge of cheese, and there's a bugbear popping its head out of one of the holes, and then a rat poking out of another hole or whatever, and then he feels this surge and he's like sucked out, and he's just like,

0:10:04 Cheese: Oh god! [breathing heavily]

0:10:06 Carlos: And he's just like hugging onto the bugbear, like,

0:10:09 Cheese: Oh! [makes surprised noise, then a panicked noise]

0:10:12 Carlos: And tries to like, squiggle out.

0:10:17 Brennan: Incredible, yeah, Cheese, as you come back, you [gasp] from that dream state, and as you're emerging, you're going through what either feels like an undersea tunnel, but you also get this terrifying feeling like you're surrounded by roots, deep roots. And you see bones suspended in the roots as you eject from your dream atop the monolith, and one of the skeletons turns to you. Only a skeleton from the neck down, face, full head of hair, your brother, Spaulding, looks at you and says,

0:10:55 Spaulding: [echoey] Take care, kid, storm's coming.

0:10:59 Brennan: [makes whoosh sound] And you awake, and I think you probably vomit salt water from Myrtle's healing as this wrenching healing takes place.

0:11:09 Carlos: Oh, god, yeah.

0:11:09 Myrtle: Better out than in. Brennan laughs.

0:11:12 Brennan: Jack, that is your turn.

0:11:15 Matt: All right, at this moment where Marcid is distracted, both with this child trying to escape his grasp and the conversation amongst these newcomers, which I do not see from my perspective. All I have is this opening in which he's backed partially out of, I just go,

0:11:28 Jack: Oh, you bastard. I can't afford a new wall!

0:11:33 Matt: And I'm gonna go ahead and bonus action Rage and I'm going to recklessly attack him with my mast, just a full-on push right to Marcid's face.

0:11:42 Brennan: Incredible, go for it.

0:11:46 B. Dave: Is my A—Do I have partial cover from a gnome boy? [laughs]

0:11:50 Brennan: I will say that you, you know what? I'll let Matt pick his poison here.

0:11:59 Matt: I will take—I don't want to hurt the child. So I'll take the partial cover.

0:12:02 Brennan: Yeah, go ahead and take partial cover here for sure.

0:12:07 B. Dave: I very much am like [grunts, mimes holding a shield in front of him, laughs]

0:12:11 Matt: Okay, that is a 24 to hit.

0:12:14 Brennan: 24 is going to bypass the cover pretty handily.

0:12:18 B. Dave: Yep.

0:12:20 Brennan: Incredible, go ahead and roll damage.

0:12:27 Matt: 15 points of bludgeoning damage to the face.

0:12:30 Marcid: [groans] Oh, this was such a nice day. [clears throat]

0:12:36 Matt: And with the second attack, I'm gonna move out through the hole, after the slam happens, I claw the side of the opening and pull myself out kind of face to face to where you are, and with that kind of clutched to my chest and with my other attack instead, I'm gonna go ahead and attempt to grab the child and stone from your grasp.

0:12:54 Brennan: Awesome, so this is gonna be sort of a grapple check for this second attack here.

0:12:56 B. Dave: So, so—

0:12:59 Brennan: Go ahead and—

0:13:01 B. Dave: No, I was gonna say, actually, I don't care if he takes the boy. I want the stone off his back. So when he pulls the boy, I try and rip that off. I don't care if he takes Cheese.

0:13:12 Matt: Oh, the stone— I'm trying to take both. The stone I'm more worried about.

0:13:17 Brennan: So I'm gonna go ahead here. Yes, let's go ahead and do opposed athletics checks. I'll say if anybody hits a nat one, Cheese and the stone come apart.

0:13:34 B. Dave: All right, well, I got 21, so not that.

0:13:38 Carlos: I remember that old story, Cheese in the stone, yeah. Cast laughs.

0:13:44 Matt: Thankfully I have advantage on this because I am raging. So that brings it to a 23.

0:13:48 Brennan: 23, so, Marcid, you feel Cheese squirm alive. You're in this weird position where Myrtle, you guys don't necessarily have a label on what's going on between you, and it's sort of—

0:14:01 Marcid: It’s, it's a whole thing.

0:14:02 Brennan: You're sort of in this weird thing where you can tell that she was like, what are you doing with the stone? And you kind of had to give this— And you can kind of see a little look of heartbreak on her face when she's like, oh, you're being shitty, and— boom! [makes explosive noise, mimes falling out of frame with one hand to his head] Just this mast goes into your head, sends you against the back wall, and Cheese and the stone are wrenched from your grasp as Jack stands overhead with this huge mast under one arm. That is Jack's turn. I will also say this. As he does this, part of why you are shoved back is that mist coalesces, and with rotten water-logged faces, translucent forms in the mist of drowned pirates move past Jack along with the mast and grapple and push you further back against the wall, and—

0:15:02 Marcid: Oh, not again.

0:15:04 Brennan: And you're seeing real ghosts saying,

0:15:04 Ghost: [piratical, threatening] Stay down! Captain's orders. [gasps for air]

0:15:09 Brennan: As the jaw just fully distends. That is Jack's turn. Right now, the main shapes you're seeing are the rotting ghost of a goliath woman, and you're also seeing a, hold on one second. There's a goliath woman there. There's this huge lizardfolk guy with an eye patch, bandana. These sort of strange ghosts of this old pirate crew.

0:15:40 Marisha: And we can all see them?

0:15:42 Brennan: You can all see them.

0:15:45 Sunny: Whoa.

0:15:46 Brennan: It is—

0:15:47 Marcid: He musta hit me harder than I thought, oh.

0:15:53 Brennan: I will say they are very spectral. So you’re not— So they're not even fully embodied. You're catching the edge of a three quarter profile made of mist fading into nothing, just the tips of fingers, hands. You're only catching bits. It's like gestalt space. You're able to make them out just by hints and pieces of them that are appearing.

0:16:15 Marisha: You just see a single tear just come from Sunny's eye, like she's gone to Disney World for the first time. Cast laughs.

0:16:25 Brennan: Cheese, that is your turn.

0:16:28 Carlos: Oh, so… I’ve been ripped— I threw up, been ripped out of this bugbear’s hands. I'm now in a ratfolk's arms like I'm being held? Or how am I being held?

0:16:42 Matt: So he grabbed the back of the stone and just pulled you away. So you're just kind of now currently maybe a few feet off the ground, strapped to the stone, with my hand grasping one side of it.

0:16:54 Carlos: I want to slip—

0:16:54 B. Dave: For the record, sorry.

0:16:56 Carlos: No, go ahead.

0:16:57 B. Dave: I was just gonna say I did check, I maintain concentration on my Hunter's Mark. I did check, sorry.

0:17:01 Brennan: Lovely, good, good, good.

0:17:01 B. Dave: Good on ya.

0:17:03 Carlos: Cool, I wanna wiggle out of Jack's hands.

0:17:11 Matt: I drop him. I let him to his space, but also I'm keeping an eye to make sure he stays nearby.

0:17:19 Brennan: Cool and does this mean Jack is in possession of the stone right now, or is Cheese in possession of the stone right now?

0:17:27 Carlos: Cheese let go of the stone, yeah, for sure.

0:17:29 Brennan: Cool, Jack's holding on to the stone. Cheese, you made a little backpack thing to carry it. You just like drop out of the backpack. You are free.

0:17:37 Carlos: Yeah, it was probably in his brother's jacket kind of hidden at the top somewhere. I don't know, kind of wrapped up, but now he's just in a t-shirt and I want just kind of, this place is really tiny, right? How many people are in the room?

0:17:55 Brennan: You guys have moved out of Jack's room.

0:17:57 Carlos: Out of it, gotcha.

0:17:59 Brennan: You are, again, “street” is a funny term for deep within a mountain of rotting shipwrecks. Essentially you are in an old ship's passage that is basically an alleyway that wends into the mass of these other crushed subterranean shipwrecks leading off into wan candle light off around the corner somewhere.

0:18:22 Carlos: Cool, I want to find a place to hide. Just want to like duck in and just hide somewhere and watch all this madness go down.

0:18:29 Brennan: Incredible, do you want to rush back into Jack's home?

0:18:33 Carlos: Yeah, yeah.

0:18:34 Brennan: Cool, you flit into Jack's home. Aabria, do you have a reaction?

0:18:40 Aabria: I do because he technically just left my OA, and I would like to cast Hold Person.

0:18:47 Brennan: Incredible. (laughs) Amazing, go ahead and I'm gonna need, that's a Wisdom save I believe.

0:18:57 Aabria: Yeah, it's a DC 16 Wisdom save.

0:18:59 Brennan: Go for it, Cheese.

0:19:01 Carlos: Let's see. It is a 10.

0:19:07 Matt: Now, as a gnome, if I recall-

0:19:10 Carlos: Oh, yeah. What is that called?

0:19:14 Brennan: I think you just have advantage versus spells. You have advantage on wisdom saves against magic.

0:19:20 Matt: Yeah, gnome cunning.

0:19:20 Aabria: Yeah.

0:19:21 Carlos: Gotcha, let's try that, 22.

0:19:26 Brennan: That's a different number. So, Myrtle, you feel this about to work as one icy finger goes out, and there is a moment where a little sort of something in this kid's open fanny pack that has a little yellow happy face on it, there's some little pog with a paper clip tied to it, and there's a rune on the backside, and as you go to cast your spell, this pog just goes (imitates explosion) and bursts into a sparkle and the kid is gone. The kid's just not there anymore, some weird bit of gnome whatever, a pog and a paperclip and some rune completely bamboozled you. Cheese, you dip into this space. Go ahead and take whatever actions you're gonna take as you move into Jack's spot.

0:20:17 Carlos: Yeah, I want to see if there's any type of, this is kinda like a little shack of a place. If there's any place to hide or a floorboard I can pull up or some way. I'm super tiny. So, yeah.

0:20:30 Brennan: You see that Stimey, the mold, his eyes open. He goes,

0:20:35 Stimey: There, Child, hide inside of me.

0:20:38 Cheese: Stimey, what do you mean inside of you?

0:20:40 Stimey: I'm made of mold.

0:20:41 Cheese: I'm already inside the place. I'm already inside here.

0:20:45 Stimey: Then they'll never find you. Hold on, let me multiply myself. (grunts)

0:20:48 Cheese: No, don't do that. That's so gross. That smells as worse as it looks, oh.

0:20:59 Stimey: Here you go. Hold your breath.

0:21:02 Cheese: Hold my breath? You should have... (laughing)

0:21:07 Brennan: You are perfectly ensconced inside this bubbling mold on the wall.

0:21:14 Carlos: Han Solo style.

0:21:17 Brennan: You hear something like (slurps), and a little pocket of air opens up in front of you, and the two eyeballs that appear to be able to travel independently inside of Stimey's body appear in the little cavity in front of your face, and there's just this huge, molds eyeballs looking at you, weird yellow. You also see that they're not, I don't know how to put this. They're not as firm as human eyeballs. They wiggle a little bit like they're just like a soft boiled egg kind of, and he goes,

0:21:46 Stimey: Alright, you'll be safe here. So what sort of stuff are you interested in?

0:21:53 Cheese: Oh, what do you mean? You small talk? We're doing small talk right now? Are you kidding me?

0:21:57 Stimey: I don't know. It just feels polite.

0:21:59 Cheese: You're so close. What did you even eat? This doesn't make any sense. Did you have Oreos, god.

0:22:05 Stimey: Yes, I did. I had some. Mostly I eat the wood of the wall, but amazingly someone left some Oreos out for Jack the other day, and he brought them home, and I got to munch on them. You do the cream or the cookie, or do you do it all at once?

0:22:22 Cheese: I actually don't like the center part of it. It sticks to the roof of my mouth, and it gets a little bit slimy. So I just like scrape that off and just give it to the dog or something.

0:22:31 Stimey: The center part's all right for me. The double stuf actually feels like too much for me. Is that what you're saying?

0:22:37 Cheese: I feel exactly the same way. It's a marketing ploy that a lot of people fell into, but I feel like I'll just take a couple, right. I'd rather have two regulars than one double stuf.

0:22:46 Stimey: Yeah, exactly.

0:22:48 Cheese: Yeah.

0:22:48 Stimey: You can tell that they're just trying to have a new, it's sort of they nailed the formula and now there's all this extra effort to do something new when really, you already did it.

0:22:55 Cheese: Exactly, and I'm always thinking I'm gonna try one of those green mint ones, but I never do, and then when Halloween comes around and I want the orange ones, they gotta be the same, right? Are they changing all the vats and-

0:23:04 Carlos: anyways. (laughs)

0:23:07 Brennan: We cut from Cheese and his new best friend to the fight raging outside. That is going to be Barbarella.

0:23:23 Bob: I don't understand. (Brennan laughs)

0:23:28 Carlos: End turn. (laughs)

0:23:30 B. Dave: (laughs) Valid.

0:23:31 Bob: No, I don't understand. Everyone just came out and no one said hello. Everyone just started fighting with each other, and I'm pretty sure that I know that ghost guy over there. I think he was at the club. I think that might be where he died, but I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but can anyone help me find Trixie?

0:23:56 Brennan: Marcid, as you hear the name Trixie, you remember that as the name of the woman, the Tiefling woman that Clive Mardres brought to Bowser's Foundry in Cannon Court.

0:24:13 B. Dave: Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh. When she says “can anybody help me find Trixie”,

0:24:17 Marcid: Get me this stone and I'll take your right to her.

0:24:20 Brennan: That's what Barbarella hears. Any action from Barbarella or is she gonna delay her turn?

0:24:28 Bob: Myrtle, I don't mean any offense because I've noticed that you have kind of a connection with the big guy. I was just wondering. I'd like to maybe use a little of my charisma and charm and just see maybe, why do we need to give you something? I understand that most people don't want to give you something for nothing, but apparently if you know where Trixie is, you could just tell me instead of, I don't know, beating around the bush.

0:25:03 Brennan: Incredible, is this a-

0:25:06 B. Dave: Yeah, Charm Person? What's happening here? (laughs)

0:25:09 Krystina: No, I'm literally just trying to use my charisma to make you like-

0:25:14 Brennan: Cool, this is not going to be a binding roll, but just for Dave's benefit, if you want, Krystina, have Bob roll a persuasion check. It will not be binding to Marcid. It's not magical. So it's not binding at all, but just to get an idea of how persuasive Bob is being.

0:25:38 Krystina: I'm just adorable, geez. That's a 25. B. Dave growls.

0:25:57 Brennan: Marcid.

0:25:59 Marcid: Yeah, right. I'm sort of in the middle of something. All right, love, and then I'll explain to you what you're looking for.

0:26:08 Brennan: So Marcid says, he's going to help you, but, Marcid, it is your turn right now.

0:26:16 B. Dave: I'm trying to grapple to take the stone away from Jack, which I realize he has advantage, but that's a natural 20.

0:26:24 Brennan: Ooh, baby.

0:26:26 B. Dave: So that's a 26.

0:26:29 Matt: Let's go ahead-

0:26:30 B. Dave: For attack number one. Let's see. (laughs)

0:26:33 Matt: Nope, that's still a, yeah, that's a 20 total.

0:26:42 B. Dave: And then, I guess, that actually is attack number one, and then, having yanked this away from him, I look at him and I say,

0:26:56 Marcid: I'm not insensitive to your lot, Mate.

0:26:59 B. Dave: And then I just try and kick the mast out of his hands. So I guess another grapple basically to just attempt to disarm him, like yoink. Actually, you know what? Hold on. I take the stone, and I shove it down in the top of my Jerkin because I realized we're just gonna keep playing hot potato here. So I basically my second action is like yoink.

0:27:27 Brennan: Cool, so again, this is a big chunk of statue here.

0:27:31 B. Dave: Oh, is it? Okay.

0:27:33 Brennan: It's pretty enormous. Well, it's very heavy because it's a big chunk of statue taken off of a stone wall, but again, there's no wrong calls here. This is a very piratical party. So if Marcid wants to just bail, you have full permit. You will not screw my stuff up.

0:27:52 B. Dave: I still want to engage with these people, but I'm acutely aware of just constantly getting it snaked away. When I pull it from him, I point my Trident at Jack. I mean, although I see the rage in his eye and I'm like,

0:28:07 Marcid: Hmm, why don't we go for a stroll, Mate.

0:28:07 B. Dave: And run. (laughing)

0:28:14 Brennan: Hell, yeah. Okay, so, Marcid, you take 30 feet of movement down the plank, and you start sprinting away with The Daughter of Storms. After that, it's gonna be Sunny again.

0:28:36 Matt: Do I get an opportunity attack as he runs away from me?

0:28:38 B. Dave: Theoretically he should, yep.

0:28:40 Brennan: Yes.

0:28:41 B. Dave: Attack of opportunity, yep. Theoretically he should.

0:28:45 Matt: That'll be a 18 to hit.

0:28:49 B. Dave: That is enough.

0:28:51 Matt: All right. 16 points of bludgeoning damage. Dave groans in apprehension; his health is very low.

0:29:00 Matt: As he turns and I slam it into the small of his back, kind of giving it a little bit of a push at the initial push off, but the shadow behind him,

0:29:07 Jack: You know not what folly you hold in your hands, Marcid.

0:29:15 B. Dave: I do maintain my concentration on my Hunter's Mark.

0:29:19 Matt: You do, actually, and this is an interesting point of order. I do have Mage Slayer as a feat. So you do have disadvantage on your concentration checks.

0:29:28 B. Dave: Well, I guess I need to roll two more times, because theoretically I didn't make it either time. Nope, I still make it. [pointing at the camera] I know where that boy is. Yeah, right.

0:29:38 Matt: Well played.

0:29:41 Brennan: Okay, Marcid, what are you at right now? Marcid's looking rough.

0:29:44 B. Dave: 8 hit points. Yeah, no, he's beat up. Yeah, I can only take so many of those, yeah.

0:29:50 Brennan: Cool, Marcid sprints down the hall. That's gonna be Sunny.

0:29:57 Marisha: Does Marcid run past me as he's taking off, or does he get nearby?

0:30:03 B. Dave: I would try not to. I realize we're theater-of-the-minding this, but I'm just trying to be away from these people.

0:30:10 Brennan: For sure, yeah. I think Marcid is running down the opposite hall from where you guys are. So (imitates air whooshing) takes off into the dark, but Sunny, you might have the movement to catch him.

0:30:23 Marisha: Okay, yeah, I'm gonna try and go after him, and I'm just gonna say,

0:30:29 Sunny: You broke the code!

0:30:31 Marisha: As I go after him.

0:30:33 B. Dave: He'd be like,

0:30:33 Marcid: He hit me! (laughing)

0:30:40 Brennan: Yeah, Sunny's got a fly speed of 50. So you whoosh. I won't lie. It's scary for Sunny flying down here. You take a flap and have to be careful ‘cause you're zooming down a hallway with dark walls and ceilings shooting past you, but you catch up to Marcid. Go ahead and do what you're gonna do.

0:31:05 Marisha: All right, I'm gonna kind of fly, and I want to try and cut him off, and I take my pirate hook on a stick, and I'm gonna attack.

0:31:14 Brennan: Go for it.

0:31:15 Marisha: Just straight attack. Hang on. Let me get. Okay, plus 4, first attack here. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. 18 to hit?

0:31:32 B. Dave: That is enough.

0:31:32 Brennan: 18's gonna do it. Go ahead.

0:31:39 Marisha: 9 damage.

0:31:41 B. Dave: I am down.

0:31:41 Marisha: Oh, you're down.

0:31:44 Brennan: Marcid, a young woman with molting plumage who's wearing braces with a hook tied to a stick and a rum barrel lid for a shield flies in front of you and yells a commanding thing about the pirate code. What is Marcid's last thought before this hook catches him in the head?

0:32:09 Marcid: I should've killed that boy.

0:32:12 Brennan: (bonks) From Sunny, is this lethal or non-lethal damage?

0:32:17 Marisha: Non-lethal.

0:32:19 Brennan: Cool, so she uses-

0:32:21 Marisha: I just kind of trip him.

0:32:23 Brennan: Yeah, just bam. Marcid goes out, stone hits the ground, and so you guys have Marcid, the stone, we are out of combat.

0:32:37 Marisha: Sunny just turns to Bob and goes,

0:32:39 Sunny: [stuttering] I don't know what I just did. What is going on?

0:32:48 Matt: The lumbering footfalls of Jack immediately get louder and louder as he rushes over and lays the mast piece onto the unconscious body of Marcid so he can't go anywhere and stands with one foot on the stone that's currently on the ground before turning to the rest of everyone there and goes,

0:33:04 Jack: Right, what's your business here?

0:33:10 Marisha: Sunny puts her little clawed bird foot also on the stone and readies her shield and just mad dog's him in the face. (laughing) Aabria raises her arm in a silent cheer.

0:33:26 Brennan: What is the state of Jack's rage right now, would you say? Is he coming out of it or?

0:33:31 Matt: Yeah, at this point he's coming out of it. For him, actually, it's funny. When he was holding the mast as he approached, you watched him kind of pull back for a second, and for a brief moment, you're like, oh shit, is he gonna finish Marcid? And like (calming breath), and then just rests it onto his chest, which probably makes it hard for him to breathe at the moment in his unconscious state, but at least keeps him pinned, but he's calming down. (Dave wheezes) (laughing)

0:33:56 Brennan: The mist begins to recede and, Jack, as you stand there, Sunny, you look up at this rat man's face, and you feel wind blowing. Wind doesn't blow down here, ever. It smells fresh like the salt air, and, Jack, you can feel this as part of Sunny's divine presence, like a fresh wind blowing underneath here, and as it does so, your misty companions turn to you. You see them. You see Kiarra. You see the Bosun. You see all these people. You see Aram. They turn to look at you and say,

0:34:39 Ghost crew: Aye, captain. Ill omens.

0:34:46 Brennan: And all of them begin to vanish. As normal, your first mate is not amongst the ghosts present here. Whatever is keeping him from coming to your side from the ghostly realms, he is still not over it perhaps. Your ghost crew fades. Both of you are standing over the stone. Bob and Myrtle, as Sunny and Jack are kinda squaring up over Marcid, what are you two doing?

0:35:21 Aabria: I'm gonna give Bob a look and then sort of drift in my weird bubble of water rascal over and just sort of try to get Jack's attention like,

0:35:31 Myrtle: Jack Brakkow, you are even better than I expected. What were you doing with that stone?

0:35:42 Jack: Strange you know of me, wet one. The stone found its way to this neighborhood on the back of a small child who still resides in my abode.

0:35:52 Myrtle: No, I know where the stone came from. I have been to the wreck. That was your best hope, The Late Bloomer.

0:36:11 Jack: And what's it to you to be following down here after such a terrible ill piece of history?

0:36:19 Myrtle: I want the stone.

0:36:22 Jack: For what purpose?

0:36:24 Myrtle: My goddess commands it. I have one rule, that's all. I let no mortal control the sea or the skies above it.

0:36:39 Jack: So you say you mean to bury this away where none can find it evermore?

0:36:45 Myrtle: Mmhmm.

0:36:47 Matt: Do I believe her?

0:36:50 Brennan: Make an insight check, Jack.

0:36:52 Matt: I am great at these. That is, oh, I rolled a 5 with a -1. So, 4.

0:37:04 Brennan: The makeup running down her face makes reading what's going on kind of hard. The main emotion you're getting from her is not deviousness, but just discomfort at not being underwater.

0:37:18 Aabria: I do hate this. It's a very obvious she hates all of this.

0:37:22 Brennan: (laughs) I will say this too. Jack, go ahead and give me a history check, and you can do it with advantage.

0:37:33 Matt: Oh, 18.

0:37:36 Brennan: This stone is not something you remembered because you have a strong memory of it. In other words, encountering the stone triggered the memory. You wouldn't have never known to look for this before. It was not a big part of your subconscious, but just like, oh my God, that was something, and now that you look at it in person, two years ago, after saving up your entire life, you took this maiden voyage with your ship, The Late Bloomer. However, your cargo was pretty standard goods, right? You were a pirate ship. You were going out mostly to find the cargo that you were gonna, later, sell. You were meticulous. You were careful. You planned everything. This huge clunky piece of stone, especially if it was something that was in a chest like you saw it, you would have inventoried it. This wasn't part of your cargo. This would have only been able to exist on your ship if someone had brought it on the ship without your knowing.

0:38:57 Matt: As this flash kind of fades from my mind still kind of glancing over towards Myrtle, my eyes shift over towards Bob and kind of give a nod like,

0:39:07 Jack: Ms. Barbarella, what's your purpose with the stone, if I might inquire?

0:39:15 Bob: Oh, I don't care about a stone. I'm looking for Trixie.

0:39:20 Jack: Right, it's yours then.

0:39:21 Matt: And he takes a step off and gives a solid nod to Myrtle like, I believe you. (laughing)

0:39:30 Brennan: You guys hear, coming from Jack's place, a very muffled but increasingly heated conversation from Jack's place. You hear a voice being like,

0:39:41 Stimey: Well, for me, it's this, you need one salty snack, one sweet snack.

0:39:47 Cheese: And something savory.

0:39:49 Stimey: And then, yeah, sweet, savory, salty. So for me, it's a nice chip and then maybe a hummus, which is I think more substantive, and then something like a cookie or something, you know, just a sweet tooth.

0:40:01 Cheese: Have you ever had pickles and milk?

0:40:03 Stimey: Oh my God. No, I have not. That sounds incredible.

0:40:06 Cheese: I'm saying it's kind of a game changer. It takes a certain type of person to actually get into it, but yeah, pickles and milk, fantastic. Yeah, like also, chicken noodle soup and gravy, fantastic.

0:40:18 Stimey: Oh, that makes sense. I love that. Just like a richer broth. That's almost like a ramen broth, you know, there's a richer fat content.

0:40:25 Cheese: I feel like, I dunno, I feel like I should come here often and hang out with you a little bit more. We're vibing. I don't usually vibe like this.

0:40:35 Stimey: No, I'm vibing as well, and you know what's funny is I don't ever get to vibe with anybody because I'm a mold on the wall of a sad man's home.

0:40:41 Cheese: Yeah, you know, I wanted to ask you about that. What is that about? Who's this JB guy. He seems like a character, right?

0:40:49 Stimey: Ooh, Jack Brakkow, he's a cursed man- You know what's really embarrassing? My eyes are on the inside of my body right now, and I think everybody else is outside in the room listening to us.

0:41:02 Cheese: Oh, really? I thought you can see both. I don't know why I assumed that. That's wrong. I shouldn't have assumed that.

0:41:09 Stimey: Why would you know? I don't even have normal mold physiology. I'm a totally different unique mold.

0:41:15 Cheese: Oh, okay, yeah.

0:41:17 Stimey: There's no rules of thumb here.

0:41:20 Carlos: I want to see if they're watching us.

0:41:24 Brennan: Cool, so it's a little bit sketchy to be like out in that public hallway, you know, with this powerful artifact. So as the mold parts, Cheese, you see Jack, Myrtle, Bob, Sunny. I assume someone brought Marcid in here.

0:41:43 Everyone: Yeah.

0:41:45 Matt: We all just drag him in.

0:41:48 Brennan: Incredible, so, Cheese, you step out of here, see these people you haven't seen before, Myrtle, Sunny, Bob, Marcid, who's the only other person who knows how you got the stone, is unconscious. So there's a lot of people with like questions, and you are the missing link, baby, but so you descend out of the mold, Stimey looks up and says,

0:42:16 Stimey: Oh, more guests than we've had in some time. Can I offer anyone anything to eat or drink? The options are some of my body and rot water.

0:42:29 Myrtle: I'll take some of the water.

0:42:31 Stimey: Oh, very well.

0:42:31 Brennan: And kind of rings a corner of his head into a dirty shot glass and mold-arms it over to you.

0:42:40 Aabria: Yeah, she'll take the shot.

0:42:42 Brennan: Honestly, for Myrtle, this is good.

0:42:44 Myrtle: Okay, I thought this was a very sad room at first.

0:42:49 Jack: It's rare to meet an appreciator.

0:42:54 Brennan: Stimey looks over and says,

0:42:55 Stimey: To what do we owe the pleasure of all this strange company all at once?

0:43:00 Jack: Apparently there's a lot of folks here after this strange artifact.

0:43:04 Matt: And kind of gives it a little knock with his finger.

0:43:08 Jack: I think this thing, I think it was actually on The Late Bloomer and then part of me feels like my destiny and it's been entwined, or it's a terrible case of luck, in which case, I'm completely off the mark, but you know, I'm gonna go and lay that path there. Anyone else here can maybe fill in the gaps. I'm not the most up with current terrible cursed item events, though, you might think of otherwise being who I am.

0:43:33 Bob: So what happened was we got here and everyone was outside, and they were fighting, and they were just fight each other, and someone had a trident, and someone had a trunk of a mast of a ship, which I always wanted to be on a ship, but that's neither here nor there because it's not what we're talking about right now, but that's part of why we're here right now. Me and the bird chick-

0:43:53 Sunny: That's you, jack.

0:43:54 Bob: Yeah, me and Sunny, here, we're looking for my friend, Trixie, which is why we went, and we found the sea lady, who I love. Myrtle, the bitch, she's such a great gal. Anyway, we were all together, and we were on a mission, and we were trying to find out what happened to my friend, Trixie. You know Trixie. She's like a really, really pretty girl. She's got some purples and some pinks and really good.

0:44:15 Krystina: She's trying to maybe [behind her hand] me, trying to tip off Cheese.

0:44:21 Bob: [very quickly] Anyway, so I went, and I was looking for Trixie, and she said she was going off to the other side, and she was gonna go up with this gentleman-fella, and all of a sudden, I went back up to the room, and she wasn't there anymore and that was a broken piece of glass in the middle of the thing, and I was like, oh no, she probably just ran off to be a pirate. So she didn't. So I ran off to be a pirate so that I could go and find Trixie and figure out where she went, and now we're all here, and that guy's passed out, and this mold's talking. It's a really interesting thing, and that was really kind of gross what it did with the water there. I don't know. I wasn't gonna drink it because it's pretty disgusting.

0:44:51 Brennan: You see Stimey looks up and goes,

0:44:51 Stimey: Oh my goodness. Are you Barbarella Sarsaparilla Gainglynn?

0:44:57 Bob: Pleased to meet ya.

0:44:58 Stimey: I've never left this room, but I've heard about you. You're incredible. I was born in this room and I'll die in this room. I might never die. I'm not sure, but you're incredible. You're truly incredible.

0:45:10 Cheese: Yeah, you're amazing. I recognize you. One time I was hanging out in my parents' room and under my dad's mattress, I found pictures of you. This is amazing.

0:45:19 Bob: Oh, from the magazine?

0:45:21 Cheese: Yeah.

0:45:22 Bob: Well [hesitantly] the ye old newspaper. I was in the scroll.

0:45:30 Cheese: The scrolls.

0:45:31 Bob: Yeah, the scrolls.

0:45:32 Matt: At this conversation moment, Jack goes ahead and carefully discreetly kicks a small case further under his bed. (laughing)

0:45:41 Krystina: Someone's room just got a little less sad.

0:45:46 Brennan: Cheese, as Bob describes this woman, Trixie, you completely recognize this. This is the woman that you saw this horrifying ritual happened to in the foundry with the group Marcid was a part of it. So not only do you know this woman or at least someone who looked a lot like her, also, you remember Trixie yelling out about Bob being like, if Bob or Garthy find out, you're gonna be in trouble. So as soon as Barbarella says this, you clock it immediately.

0:46:18 Carlos: Yeah, as soon as Barbarella says that, I like,

0:46:18 Cheese: Barbarella, Bob, Bob, Trixie. Oh, that thing. Oh, God, okay. So-

0:46:28 Carlos: And then in a very out of sync order of things that are happening, he starts like explaining what went down, and it's just like,

0:46:39 Cheese: Oh, I had to get a job. So I had to run and you know, Milo was there. So I said, "Hello." But then, you know, there was that dwarf with my clerical romance shirt, and he just looked really tough and whatever, but your friend, your friend-

0:46:49 Carlos: And he goes for some more water, and Stimey's pouring more water into like, you know, his glass and he's drinking. It's like,

0:46:58 Cheese: Your friend was there and, oh, they did… This putz was there too!

0:47:05 Carlos: And he points or something, but he explains, basically, what went down that they did something to her because they didn't kill her. Her personality completely flipped, right?

0:47:22 Brennan: Yes, you guys basically, through Cheese's story and through weighing in from other people, you arrive at the fact that Trixie went up to this room with whoever that gentleman caller was in her room. The next time anyone saw her, she was at the foundry. This woman did this thing to her, stabbed her hand, drew the blood across her tongue, stabbed this forked tongue into her neck, and sucked this fire out of her neck and breathed it into this massive, glowing, copper, cylinder canister to make this big illuminated thing, and then after that, Trixie, the command from Sheffield-Harrington was “bring her to The Sternwood with the others”, and that's when Cheese nabbed The Daughter of Storms, ran off with it, and Marcid was put into hot pursuit. Myrtle, you still have that lamp with the little crescent moon symbol on it, which confirms something with Cheese, which is that these were Crescent Moon Naval Officers, and the only other connection that would come from anyone else here which is a far distant one, but, Jack, you bought The Late Bloomer, not christened as such then, but from a merchant of The Crescent Moon Trading Company all a couple years ago.

0:48:59 Jack: Aye, this here symbol, I know of it. It was stamped on the papers I bought that ill destined ship from. Stimey, do me a favor. If you don't mind lending some of yourself to tie up our unconscious and sleeping friend here for a minute. I think we all got some questions for him.

0:49:22 Brennan: You see Stimey (slurps) reaches these mold tendrils out. Stimey says,

0:49:27 Stimey: Very good, sir. I'd be happy to, and I'm glad that all of you here are enjoying the rot water. It's very good, and the nice thing about that, and you see he looks at you, Cheese, and says, Wherever you are, if you've had some of my rot water, you'll be able to talk to me because a part of me will be living inside you.

0:49:46 Cheese: Yeah, cool. Yeah, that's cool. I mean, that's whatever. Yeah, that's cool. Can you hear me right now?

0:49:54 Stimey: Oh, I'll be able to hear everything forever.

0:49:57 Cheese: Oh, it's just not, okay. I'm rolling with it.

0:50:02 Stimey: I just found out that that's how that works. I'm learning new things about myself all the time.

0:50:08 Cheese: Oh my God. Here's a crazy question. Do you sleep? Do you sleep at all? Just tell me that you do.

0:50:16 Stimey: No, I never sleep.

0:50:18 Cheese: Okay, cool, I'm just gonna have some mold in my head for the rest of my life. Okay, awesome. Hey, guys, I mean, what a day, right? Oh, this has been really cool. Hey, listen, you all did an amazing job, everyone, top to bottom awesome. How about we just hock this thing and kind of all split it, right?

0:50:44 Jack: Hey, Boyo, you said there were other ones that were present that saw your face, right?

0:50:53 Cheese: Yeah, I mean, it was kind of far. I don't know exactly if they noticed me. I mean, I was super stealthy. You know what I mean? I do this all the time.

0:51:07 Jack: I'm just saying there's a very, very small chance you won't see them again, and if you find yourself heading back home one day, and you haven't tended to this sort of loose end, well, you're liable to hurt those you care about too.

0:51:24 Cheese: Ooh, okay, I'm gonna be honest, completely honest, first adventure. This is the first time anything, really. I mean (sighs) my heart is pounding the entire time. I've never been on one of these things before, kind of new. I don't know. Don't know all the rules. I don't have to go back, okay.

0:51:40 Sunny: Hey, it's my first adventure too! What do ya know? That is so cool. I'm Sunny, by the way. I don't think we've actually had a chance to really go through introductions. Yeah, it's good to have someone to relate to.

0:51:55 Cheese: I feel like we're having different reactions to this right now, though.

0:51:59 Sunny: This is great. I do agree with you though. Article number 10 of the pirate code, every member of the crew is entitled to a percentage of the treasure found, and I feel like we kind of all found this.

0:52:14 Myrtle: We are not a crew.

0:52:17 Sunny: But we could be! (Brennan laughs)

0:52:21 Jack: You don't want to be part of my crew.

0:52:24 Sunny: Well, why not? You got like dope pirate ghosts to follow you around, and you're cursed, and if this thing was on your boat, on your Late Bloomer thing, which people call me that all the time, by the way, and I think it's kind of offensive, but anyway, maybe this statue is why you're cursed. Maybe it's not really you. Maybe it's just is all connected, you know?

0:52:50 Brennan: Myrtle, make a either arcana or religion check for me.

0:52:55 Aabria: Okay, ah, whoops. I got a 4 on an Arcana check.

0:53:02 Brennan: Cool, you made your arcana check. You're looking down at this chunk of stone. Sunny has posited that maybe this is the cursed thing. With a 4, you don't gleam any more insight into it, but you did have that identify spell. You do know that this thing is connected to weather and the control of weather.

0:53:25 Myrtle: We are not going to sell this.

0:53:28 Jack: No, you're not. This isn't gonna stay in the hands of any person that's gonna bring folly onto this here raft.

0:53:37 Brennan: Stimey says,

0:53:37 Stimey: Oh, sorry. It looks like he's waking up.

0:53:40 Brennan: Marcid, you wake up with one hit point in the deepest discomfort you can imagine. A stinking, from the feel of it, either it's moving or it's like very lightly carbonated or there's ants in it or something, just you're deep in the mold with your head popping out, and you come to looking at the five people assembled here.

0:54:15 B. Dave: When I feel myself waking up, I actually don't open my eyes at first. I listen for a little while.

0:54:19 Brennan: I think you hear the last minute or two of conversation there.

0:54:25 B. Dave: Then if I have sort of heard that, especially after I listened to Cheese ramble and everything, I just say,

0:54:32 Marcid: Your brother, Spaulding, was a mate of mine. He knew when to shut his mouth.

0:54:42 Carlos: Do I hear that or is it in my-

0:54:44 B. Dave: Oh, I say it out loud, yeah. (laughs)

0:54:48 Carlos: Cheese whips around and jumps right on top of him and just starts punching his face.

0:54:54 Cheese: Don't you talk about my brother ever again-

0:54:58 Carlos: and just starts wailing.

0:55:01 B. Dave: With only one hit point, it wouldn't take much.

0:55:06 Brennan: Marcid is restrained. Go ahead and give me an attack roll with advantage.

0:55:13 Carlos: 18.

0:55:15 B. Dave: That is enough.

0:55:17 Brennan: And one point of damage is enough. So Cheese experiences the catharsis of fully leaping up and wham, knocks this guy out.

0:55:27 Carlos: Can we say it takes four punches? So each of Cheese's punches are a quarter of a hit point.

0:55:38 Brennan: You feel your health, Marcid, being whittled away the slowest it ever has. (laughing) Pretty soon, okay, and there it is.

0:55:50 Carlos: And then Cheese looks at his fist in horror.

0:55:54 Cheese: What did I do?

0:55:57 Aabria: Can I just say,

0:55:58 Sunny: Hey, I have two brothers too. Something else we relate on.

0:56:03 Myrtle: The next person that knocks Marcid out, I will murder. He is mine to kill. Please, stop.

0:56:14 Bob: You know, I've got something for ya, Myrtle.

0:56:16 Cheese: Sorry.

0:56:18 Bob: It's okay, it's okay, I can help. I can help.

0:56:21 Krystina: And I walk over, and I say,

0:56:21 Bob: Now you stop that.

0:56:28 Krystina: And I cast Healing Word at third level.

0:56:33 Brennan: Oooh!

0:56:38 Krystina: That's gonna be 13 points.

0:56:42 Brennan: Marcid, you pop back up, still within this mold.

0:56:47 B. Dave: I got a 21 Sleight of Hand to shake out of this mold.

0:56:52 Brennan: What would that have been on an Acrobatics?

0:56:57 B. Dave: Oh, hold on, the same. I have the same modifier. 21, sorry.

0:57:04 Brennan: Cool, Marcid, with this Healing word, this divine radiance comes from Bob, you pop out of the mold. You see Stimey goes,

0:57:13 Stimey: Master, I failed. (laughing)

0:57:19 Brennan: And then, Marcid, you are out.

0:57:24 B. Dave: I just survey this group in front of me here, and I'm like,

0:57:27 Marcid: Oy, right. I was given two instructions. Kill this boy, [pointedly] which I held back for the sake of your brother, Spaulding, and return that back to my bosses at The Crescent Moon Trading Company. They don't take kindly at failing one thing. They'll do worse if I fail at both. So unless you want this waterlogged rat hole burned and sent to the bottom of the ocean, one or the other is about to take place.

0:58:06 Jack: Oh, I can tell you right now, not gonna miss too much if this gets burned away. There's at least four or five different little shitholes in the area that would probably be an upgrade from my living space. Take your pick.

0:58:19 Marcid: I'm not insensitive to your plight, Jack. I've been fished out of a ship wreck myself, but there's no point in going on about it down here skulking along like a drowned rat, is it?

0:58:33 Matt: I go ahead and put one hand up in front of his face and go,

0:58:35 Jack: Also, you should know to pay attention and listen when a woman is talking. Ms. Barbarella, my sincerest apologies. Big fan of your work.

0:58:45 Marcid: It's true, you are a credit to our community.

0:58:48 Jack: What were you going to say, Miss?

0:58:51 Bob: [giggles] Well, what I was gonna say is he said that he had two things that he needed to say, but really there's three because he never said thank you. Gotta use your manners. [crosstalk]

0:58:58 Jack: She’s got a point.

0:59:05 Marcid: You’re quite right. Thank you, and you know what? I'm gonna do you a favor, Miss. I do know where they took your friend, and I do know it's a place you don't want to go.

0:59:19 Bob: Why wouldn't I go where my friend is? If that's what I'm doing is looking for Trixie, why wouldn't I go with you to look for Trixie?

0:59:26 Sunny: Yeah, and she's got me.

0:59:29 Marcid: You've already broken the pirate code and attacked your crew, girl.

0:59:35 Sunny: Yeah, but you did it first. Actually, he did it first.

0:59:40 Marcid: I did not. He did it first.

0:59:41 Sunny: It was technically him, but then you stole the treasure.

0:59:47 Marcid: He stole it from my employer who duly paid her for it. So I think you will find the aggrieved party here is me.

0:59:57 Sunny: Okay, let's just say that we've all been bad pirates, and we've all broken the code here recently,

1:00:06 Bob: I didn't.

1:00:07 Sunny: Except for Bob, because she's the best.

1:00:09 Marcid: Also, Bob is, yes. Clearly the pirate Paramount.

1:00:15 Sunny: I mean, did you hear her recount that story? That was with expert precision. Pirates are really good at storytelling.

1:00:25 Marcid: Myrtle, you remember, earlier, those lads that were with me when we came to visit your shop.

1:00:32 Myrtle: [flatly] Yeah, I do.

1:00:32 Marcid: They're going to be along soon, and they're going to start kicking in doors and killing people. All those sweet families that support you down here, Jack, are all gonna get put to the bleeding sword soon if I don't return with me target.

1:00:53 Jack: And I can say, here, at least from personal experience, if this object that you're seeking returns to the hands of really anyone who doesn't understand its capability, possibly every freaking soul on this entire God-forsaken bilge is gonna sink to the bottom of this ocean.

1:01:14 Brennan: As Jack says that, all of you feel a rumble of thunder. You are many decks below Leviathan. Sunny, you were up in Riggaba this morning. There were no storms on the horizon. Something is going on. Something is happening that seems like it might be a little bit bigger, and that wind kicks up again. The kind of position you find yourself in, this missing friend of Bob's, this command from Myrtle's goddess. There are all these things spinning around in Leviathan, but they all are bizarrely interrelated. You get this sensation and almost a hear a voice on the wind whispering,

1:02:11 Voice: The net is closing fast.

1:02:19 Brennan: And all these-

1:02:19 Sunny: Jane, ooh, Jane? [high-pitched] Am I having my first deity talk to me?

1:02:31 Jane: [lengthy whispers] What's up? It's so good to finally talk. I can't believe you can hear me. I've been trying for a while, but it's like the paladin needs to get strong enough themself to hear you. So your conviction is there now. Oh my God, it's so exciting.

1:02:52 Sunny: Oh, this is the best. Oh, thank you so much for like, choosing me and believing in me, by the way. I'm not gonna let you down.

1:02:59 Jane: Oh my God, thank you so much for revering me and worshiping me.

1:03:03 Sunny: Hell, yeah, man. You're the coolest! Okay, so what's going on here? This is clearly something really bad.

1:03:12 Brennan: You see Jane Wren, the goddess of the horizon, speaks to you and says,

1:03:17 Jane: Fish in the sea swim to and fro. They swim to one wall of the net and are confused and turn and swim and hit another wall of the net in the other direction thinking that all of these are different things, not seeing the bottom coming up. These disparate acts, the lamp, the stone, the girl, all of these are the walls of the net, and the bottom rises swifter and swifter. It is coming for you. Heed the words of Marcid. Heed the words of the Typhoon. He knows where Trixie is. He knows where the girl is. More is at work here than you can imagine, and more mysteries may yet be solved than seem to lay on the edge of the same horizon.

1:04:22 Sunny: My first deity metaphor. (Brennan laughs)

1:04:29 Sunny: This day is the best, you guys! Okay, we got to go. Time is running out.

1:04:33 Aabria: Myrtle puts a hand on your shoulder and just says,

1:04:35 Myrtle: Congratulations. (laughing)

1:04:40 Sunny: Thank you. This is like, the coolest. Okay, we gotta go, you guys. Great danger is totally coming. So we gotta go to where Marcid said Trixie is right now because we're running out of time. Can you believe it?

1:04:55 Marcid: I believe I said you did not want to go there, but fine. Let's compromise.

1:05:00 B. Dave: And I say out loud to Myrtle in primordial, I'm like,

1:05:05 Marcid: I don't want to hurt these people, but Crescent Moon will kill them all. We have got to go.

1:05:18 B. Dave: Back in common, I just say,

1:05:18 Marcid: Jack, give me the stone. You can accompany me. We'll take it back to my superiors, and we'll pay a visit to Trixie all together. Maybe we'll find out what it is they want with it. I, myself, don't know and I don't care. It's my boss's property though.

1:05:45 Matt: Jack's gonna go ahead and take the stone and go ahead and shove it in the direction of Myrtle and says,

1:05:53 Jack: I trust her with this thing, and you're gonna have to get used to failure, my friend. Trust me, it gets better with age.

1:06:03 Marcid: Looks like I found the right teacher.

1:06:03 B. Dave: And I turn, and I look at the door, and I look at the hole I made in the wall, and I look at him and walk out through the hole. (laughing)

1:06:15 Brennan: Myrtle is in possession of the stone right now. Myrtle, you touch the stone for a moment and receive that vision again, and it's a vision of the young girl running across the waves with that huge storm cloud that was partially forming into the face of a bearded old man with lightning for eyes, with the grasping hand of storm clouds, but you've got the thing back. So you can feel some of your goddess's wrath lessen, but you also can feel the second part of this command, which is to recover the stone and to punish those that attempted to wield her magic.

1:07:12 Myrtle: It's time for the fun part. (Brennan laughs)

1:07:18 B. Dave: When she says that, I look at her, I'm like,

1:07:21 Marcid: No, we've still got more work to do first, darling. (Brennan laughs)

1:07:27 Myrtle: [sighs] It's not always about you. I'm a big fan of Bob's too. (Brennan laughs)

1:07:34 Bob: I am delightful. They don't pay me the big dragons for nothing.

1:07:44 Brennan: You mosey on out of here. What route is Marcid leading them on? Because he knows that Myrtle has the stone. You can either take them through the sort of subterranean parts through Bilge, through Cannon Court. You can also go up from here into Afterward. I know that you wanted to stop by Crescent Moon.

1:08:12 B. Dave: A couple of things. Yeah, first, along the way, any of the food that I see where people have left out for Jack, I don't know that that's why it's here. I just see food. I take it because I want to swing wide near where those kenku are and just leave it outside. I don't intend for them to see me. I just leave it as I'm going by.

1:08:33 Brennan: Awesome, that's great. If you want, you can grab the kenku's exact address from Crescent Moon on your way there. The rest of the party might want to hang back from Crescent Moon to not be-

1:08:53 B. Dave: Yeah, I don't, no, no. Myrtle's coming with me. No, no, no, no. I'm not going again. No, I'm coming back with the stone. She and I will come up with something, but I'm not going in there empty handed. Either I'm killing the boy or I'm taking the stone. That is Marcid's goal state right now.

1:09:10 Jack: The stone doesn't leave my sight as long as Marcid's nearby.

1:09:15 Cheese: Yeah, the stone doesn't leave our sight-

1:09:18 B. Dave: I turn and I'd look at him, and I say,

1:09:20 Marcid: You know they saw your face, boy. I spared your life. They will not, but if the legendary Jack Brakkow would like to accompany us, have at it.

1:09:34 Jack: I'm not saying I'm gonna enter. I'm just saying you don't need to take Missy here with you.

1:09:42 Marcid: I don't, I can take the stone.

1:09:42 B. Dave: And I just hold my hand out.

1:09:48 Myrtle: [shakes her head] We'll go together.

1:09:50 Marcid: Look at that, cooperation.

1:09:52 B. Dave: And then I do just extend my arm to her to walk arm-in-arm.

1:09:57 Brennan: So you guys are up in the Aftward neighborhood. This is not a fun neighborhood of Leviathan. This is trading houses, warehouses, big bulk industrial stuff, but out on the corner. So who all is going into the trading company and who all is staying outside? Cheese is probably wisely staying outside because he's been spotted.

1:10:19 Carlos: Yeah, also, Cheese is also very distracted. He keeps looking up at The Crow's Keep because he wants to go to school there one day. So he keeps looking up and studying it.

1:10:33 Brennan: You look up at The Crow's Keep up there. Who else is on the corner with Cheese, and who's going into the trading post?

1:10:43 Matt: I'm going in with them. He's not gonna let that slide, but he is also partially distracted by Ms. Barbarella the entire time they're traveling though.

1:10:52 Brennan: So is it sort of three and three where Sunny, Bob, and Cheese are out, and then the other three are going in?

1:10:59 Krystina: No, I want to go inside because they need the muscle.

1:11:04 Marisha: And I follow Ms. Bob wherever she goes.

1:11:07 Brennan: So, Cheese, you're just out there. Cheese, you're out on the corner looking up at The Crow's Keep. Sunny, as you're preparing to head in with everybody else, you look and see Cheese gazing wistfully up at Crow's Keep and remember Tulwar say that thing earlier. It was like, "You have no idea about the people that have dreamed about being up here in The Crow's Keep their whole lives."

1:11:31 B. Dave: If I see that we're all leaving and Cheese is by himself, I come back, and I look at them all, and I'm like, (sighs) and I cast Pass Without Trace. (Brennan laughs)

1:11:41 B. Dave: And I physically move Cheese into some shadows. I'm like,

1:11:45 Marcid: Stay here, all right? You'll be fine.

1:11:52 Carlos: Cheese is just mean mugging him because he's not being held down, but at the same time, he doesn't want his wrath.

1:11:58 Cheese: [scowling, quietly] Fine.

1:12:05 B. Dave: Yeah, everybody gets plus 10 on stealth if you try to do anything sneaky.

1:12:08 Brennan: Hell, yeah. Bob, Myrtle, Sunny, Jack, and Marcid all walk into the massive clerks floor of The Crescent Moon Trading Company. You see no walls between desks, but you see these large wooden desks spread out throughout what used to be a warehouse crewed by sort of accountants and clerks and bookkeepers going on. The walls are lined with huge shelves of leather-bound books, but these are all trade logs. Everything here is just sums, amounts, accounts, and then storage places of papers and letters of mark and trade and things like that. You walk in and you see this sort of officious gnomish clerk there. This is Leforge. You see he looks up at you and says,

1:13:01 Leforge: [stuffy high-class British accent] Ah, Marcid, Pleasure, happy to see you back so soon, and I see you brought a number of-

1:13:12 Marcid: Freelancers, they were of great assistance on my mission.

1:13:17 B. Dave: And I just nod towards the stone, and I'm like,

1:13:18 Marcid: Is Mr. Langley Sheffield in?

1:13:23 Brennan: You see he says,

1:13:23 Leforge: Freelancers? Ugh. Very well, I shall account for the papers of freelancing. I will need all of you to produce documents confirming your identity and work status, vis a vis Leviathan. Hopefully these have been signed and dated by The Ramble as well as your proper insurance forms and different certifications. Thank you, please leave them on my desk and I shall handle them forthwith.

1:13:49 Marcid: Yes, is the boss about?

1:13:53 Leforge: Oh dear, I'm so sorry. No, Monsieur Sheffield-Harrington has been out and about all day, I'm afraid, along with Lt. Mardres.

1:14:06 Brennan: Looking over for a moment, you see the desk that you know has that kenku address in there, and you know that Langley is probably out with that giant infernal lamp. He's out doing shady shit in the city right now.

1:14:23 B. Dave: Mm-hm. No, I have an angle I'm working here. Yeah, I look at the gnome and I'm like,

1:14:25 Marcid: When you see him, could you tell him that I returned with what he requested.

1:14:37 B. Dave: And I motion to the stone, and I'm like,

1:14:39 Marcid: I'll go take a look for him elsewhere. Just make sure you tell him.

1:14:44 Leforge: Very well.

1:14:46 Brennan: You see he gestures to you, Myrtle.

1:14:48 Leforge: Madam, may I offer you a spritz?

1:14:52 Brennan: And you see he takes a little crystal perfume decanter of salt water. Aabria laughs.

1:14:56 Myrtle: Yes, please.

1:14:59 B. Dave: I violently jump out of the way. (laughing)

1:15:05 Aabria: Myrtle has also produced her paperwork. She has it on her. She's legit and has put it on the desk too.

1:15:11 Leforge: Incredible, always wonderful to see a freelancer prepared. Feel free to invoice us whenever you like, spritz, spritz, spritz, spritz.

1:15:19 B. Dave: I turn around and look at Sunny and Bob I'm like,

1:15:22 Marcid: Well, you could apply. Steady work, good coin.

1:15:29 Brennan: You see Leforge looks at the rest of you and says,

1:15:32 Leforge: Yes, the young madam with the rum barrel lid, if you have your paperwork, I'm not sure if you're loaning out that equipment or not.

1:15:43 Sunny: No, this is mine, and you know, I think I left my paperwork in the glove compartment. I'll be right back.

1:15:53 Marisha: And then I just start heading towards the door.

1:15:59 Brennan: The gnome looks over and says,

1:15:59 Leforge: And you miss— [freezes mid-sentence and claps a hand over his heart] Oh my God. Oh my God, oh my God. [laughing nervously] You're the pearl of The Gold Gardens. This is absolutely crazy. What are you doing in Aftward? Oh my God.

1:16:16 Bob: I guess you don't need my paperwork. You know exactly who I am.

1:16:18 Leforge: No I don't. (laughs) Confirmed, I'll vouch for your identity. (screams)

1:16:24 Brennan: You see the gnome opens the desk and takes a framed wood etching in a gilded frame case of you. There's a little alchemical wax recording of some of your songs. He's like,

1:16:37 Leforge: I got up, truly, before the crack of dawn to buy your first wax cylinder. It's life changing. It's truly life changing. I went through a very bad breakup and that album saved my life. (laughing)

1:16:53 Leforge: I hope you know that. You saved my life.

1:16:55 Bob: You know what's really funny? The day that I sat down, and I wrote the song, I Flap My Wings and Hope You Fall Out a Window, I was in a really dark place because I'd really fallen for this guy. I really shouldn't have. He was actually quite terrible, but he bought me really, really nice gifts, but I threw him out the window uh— by accident. But I can say... We're just having a little bit of a trouble, and um, so we have this thing, and we need to keep it, but you guys want it back and you might hurt our friend, and it's just not exactly in, and have you seen my friend, Trixie?

1:17:43 Brennan: Go ahead and give me a Persuasion check, and I'm gonna say this guy's a huge fan. Do it with advantage.

1:17:49 Krystina: [clattering noise] Good because I just threw my other dice off the table. (laughing)

1:17:54 Krystina: All right, Persuasion, 26.

1:18:05 Brennan: Ooh, you see that the gnome looks up at you, and he goes,

1:18:12 Leforge: Oh, Ms. Gainglynn. Well, I'm sorry, I don't know any Trixie I'm afraid. In terms of keeping the-

1:18:23 Brennan: You see that you have asked him to do something that he knows he shouldn't do, but a 26 is really high. So you see he looks over at Marcid, and you see he says,

1:18:34 Leforge: Marcid, I thought I remembered that Monsieur Sheffield-Harrington wanted this put in the vault. Was this supposed to go somewhere else or are we keeping this here?

1:18:46 Marcid: I'm supposed to put it in his hand. So if he's not here, it's staying with me till the job’s done.

1:18:54 Leforge: That's very reasonable. Ms. Gainglynn, of course, yes. Well, we will be happy for you to take it, and obviously I didn't know that you did mercenary work. That adds a whole different dimension to your music, well.

1:19:08 Bob: Please, call me Bob.

1:19:11 Leforge: (screams) Holy shit! Bob...

1:19:16 Bob: I just feel like as such a close personal friend who does such a really great favor for someone that they don't even know just because of the power of music... I think we'd be great.

1:19:29 Leforge: Exactly, I guess call me Grover, um okay. (laughs) All right, well, I guess we're friends now. What are you doing on Thursday?

1:19:43 Bob: Well, I'm going off to be a pirate for a little bit, but I'll probably be back very soon. As soon as we finish my first mission.

1:19:51 Leforge: Oh, I can't believe it. Your first mission is for our company.

1:19:56 Marcid: I thought you were the thirsty one, Myrtle.

1:20:03 Brennan: You see he looks around, and he says,

1:20:05 Leforge: Bob, I hate to do this. I'm just gonna pop the portrait out. If you could autograph it, but I know you don't have to. I don't want to put that pressure on you. You're at work. I don't want to be that guy, but would you if it's all right?

1:20:21 Bob: Just for you, I'm gonna sign this, but you have to keep your word that we get to walk out of here with this and no one's gonna get hurt, okay?

1:20:30 Leforge: Cross my heart and hope to die. No, trust me. I couldn't make anything dangerous happen at all. I'm just a clerk here. Everyone important is gone. Honestly, if anything were to have been for something like this, I would be in a great deal of trouble, but don't worry. It's all above board. So everything's good.

1:20:51 Brennan: And, Bob, as you're signing, he looks over and looks at you, Jack, for a moment and goes,

1:21:00 Leforge: And actually, sir, you look very familiar as well. Have you been in here before?

1:21:08 Jack: It's been some time. I'm no one of import. Don't worry your little head there.

1:21:14 Leforge: Hmm, my head is, generally speaking, quite small, but I still take some umbrage. Very well.

1:21:24 Brennan: You see he looks over. He does seem to sort of recognize you, but, Bob, he's more so enamored with you. He goes back to you signing the autograph. Your persuasion was high enough that he's completely gonna let you guys walk out of here with the stone. Marcid, what are you doing over with the desk over there?

1:21:50 B. Dave: Well, actually, I don't even try and say anything. I just stealth over because right now, I should be obscene. Yeah, okay, that’s, uh, I got a...

1:22:01 Brennan: Your stealth is 7.

1:22:03 B. Dave: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm good. Yeah, but it is like 28 because I'm still passing without a trace right now. So I'm like (whooshes).

1:22:09 Brennan: You slink over to the desk with that kenku information, and either a Sleight of Hand or thieves tools to open the desk.

1:22:25 B. Dave: I'm looking for any information about those kenku and also about, I wrote it down, Sternwood, also, is what I'm looking for, and I Sleight of Hand. That is a 18.

1:22:45 Brennan: 18 is enough. You pop the desk open. Go ahead and give me just a quick Investigation with advantage.

1:22:57 B. Dave: Hey, good because that was a big old 4. All right, which became a natural 20, hey.

1:23:03 Brennan: Oh my god.

1:23:04 B. Dave: Just in time for some vital exposition. He's like, [Marcid voice] "I don't know what the, oh, what's this here."

1:23:11 Brennan: Shit.

1:23:12 B. Dave: (laughs) Right, would you like I could go with the 4 if that will make things easier. I'm like, looks like he took his papers with him.

1:23:20 Brennan: I didn't want a 4, but I don't know that I asked for a 20. [Dave laughs] So, Sunny, you are walking back outside to go hang with Cheese. Bob, you're distracting the clerk magnificently. Myrtle, you're gonna be able to hold on to the stone for the time being. Jack, you're looking at the inside of this place where two and a half years ago, you came to sign your first paperwork for your ship. Marcid, you open this up, kenku address, literally zero problem. Sternwood, zero problem. You find documents in here about the exchange of illicit goods, specifically something, and it's in a language you don't recognize, but there's a little parentheses below it describing the dimensions of the object, and you realize this paperwork is for The Daughter of Storms. The Daughter of Storms was bought many years ago. You also find reams and reams of stuff in here that are insurance policies, lots and lots of insurance policies. The Crescent Moon Trading Company has been buying up property all over the city, and it looks like since the death of the Pirate King…. Force majeure in insurance policy is sometimes colloquially used, call it an “act of God”, but you see that after some legal proceedings at The Row and the Ruction that were recognized as part of the new Ramble being built with money that was lent to them by The Crescent Moon Trading Company. A legal change was made in the laws of Leviathan, that acts of g od now also literally cover acts of gods, meaning divine occurrences cause all these weird byzantine insurance policies not to pay out to the individuals, to the ship owners, to the families, to whomever, but to pay out to the company itself.

1:25:43 B. Dave: Is there any particular pattern of where it has been bought or anywhere where there are no policies? I'm either looking as like, does a certain place look like a target or is a certain place overtly not a target?

1:25:59 Brennan: On a nat 20, it's so all over the place. It covers a lot. There are several places that have been bought that have more paperwork around them having to do with renovation and work there. There are 15 such places. You remember the number 15 being discussed with Bows of the Broad. There are 15 of these giant copper lamps, these infernal lamps that were made. Additionally, here's the thing I didn't want to give you on a net 20, a name has been forged on a lot of the most criminal stuff here because, of course, if any of these insurance policies were to pay out in a big way, there would be a huge risk of fraud, right? Of like, oh, this is pretty crazy, right? You look at the name that has been put on a lot of these documents and it is a perfect forgery of Marcid the Typhoon.

1:27:18 Marcid: Oh, I must've been in my cups when I signed these ones, aye?

1:27:24 B. Dave: I only take the things with my name on them. Anything else, I leave behind, but the things that have my names on them, I take.

1:27:31 Brennan: You take them, and again, on that nat 20, I feel like Marcid is one of those dudes where even if he doesn't have proficiency in Arcana or proficiency in history, he's one of those criminals that knows law backwards and forwards.

1:27:46 Marcid: Oh, yeah, you gotta know when it's not guilty versus no contest. That can be the difference of 10 years in the stockades here.

1:27:56 Brennan: Yeah, nat 20, this motherfucker got your signature when you started working for him and you are the fall guy, it's you.

1:28:06 Marcid: Me, it's a bit flatterin', though, that they have me. I'm the linchpin of their criminal organization.

1:28:12 B. Dave: And I just take it. Are there anything like lamps, candles, anything like that around? What's the light source?

1:28:21 Brennan: Out here, there's big windows in the walls where sunlight's coming through, yeah.

1:28:25 B. Dave: Okay, well, yeah. I actually try and put everything else back. I don't destroy it or anything. I do take the things with my name on it. Everything else, I try and put to rights, and I just come right back up where, presumably, Bob is still regaling this guy, and I'm like,

1:28:38 Marcid: All right. I found out where he is. We can just go right over and conclude our business. Leforge, thank you.

1:28:47 B. Dave: And I literally just keep walking to the door after I say that out loud.

1:28:55 Brennan: You see, he says,

1:28:55 Leforge: Oh, very well, Marcid. I'm sorry I didn't give you a hand. I was a little distracted.

1:29:00 Marcid: Yes, Bob has that effect, yes.

1:29:03 Leforge: Yes, absolutely. Good job. Good luck at delivering the stone, and, Bob, again, I love you. I'm in love with you. Flapping your wings changed my life, and you're my best friend. So goodbye!

1:29:19 Bob: Thanks for your kindness. We'll see you soon. Don't forget we're getting together, possibly, in like a fortnight maybe to have a drink, maybe. You can come by the bar anytime and just tell them that Bob sent ya, and you can sit at one of my tables.

1:29:36 Leforge: [clutching his hair and screaming] Sure, that sounds lovely! We'll have a drink! I'll get mimosas!

1:29:46 Brennan: And he just goes berserk. You guys proceed to walk out. I want to cut out real quick just to while that was all going on because Marcid takes a minute to pore over those papers and get all that together. Sunny, you walked back out to the corner with Cheese. You also have passed without a trace on you, and yeah, you see this. Cheese, you're out on the corner looking up at crow's nest. You feel this sort of mild paladin aura of freedom and adventure surrounding Sunny. What is Cheese thinking as he looks up at the crow's nest?

1:30:35 Carlos: So Cheese is looking up at the crow's nest, and he's thinking about how, man, this was like my big dream, and I had to put it aside, and now I'm in this whole different life, this whole different lifestyle, and as he feels Sunny walking up, he's just like,

1:30:54 Cheese: I don't know how you guys do it. I've been a pirate for like five minutes, and it sucks. I don't know how I'm ever going to be like one of you guys.

1:31:06 Sunny: Oh, I've been also a pirate for five minutes, and I think it's pretty great. I don't know.

1:31:12 Cheese: Wait, really, you?

1:31:14 Sunny: Yeah, I'm totally new to this thing, man, yeah.

1:31:18 Cheese: You do not show it at all.

1:31:20 Sunny: Oh, thanks. No, I'm terrified deep down inside, but I'm also kind of like a nervous smiler and nervous laugher. So it seems like I've got it all together, but really, I'm just really winging it. No pun intended. That's an Aarakocra joke.

1:31:35 Cheese: Wow, would have guessed, would not have guessed at all. I'm nervous on the outside. Maybe I'm really brave on the inside though. Like the opposite.

1:31:48 Carlos: I want to ask Stimey in my head, if he sees anything about bravery on the inside of me.

1:31:55 Brennan: You see that he says,

1:31:55 Stimey: Oh, hello there. Oh, Master Cheese, hello.

1:32:00 Cheese: Anything about brave on the inside?

1:32:03 Stimey: I'm not seeing any bravery. There might be just a small benign polyp in here, but no, no bravery really, but also, bravery doesn't live in the body. It lives in the heart, or I guess the heart's a part of the body. I wouldn't know. I don't have a heart. I'm a fungal growth. I'm a bit of mold. So which one is the fake one? Is the heart or the soul the one that's not really there?

1:32:29 Carlos: Sunny is just watching my eyes dart back and forth like that.

1:32:35 Cheese: The heart's on the inside. Hey, wait, hold on, Stimey,

1:32:36 Carlos: And I'm just gonna go back to my conversation with Sunny. Just like-

1:32:42 Sunny: You okay?

1:32:43 Cheese: Yeah, I'm okay. I was just, I don't know, just all those guys are so tough, and I'm not that. I just, I don't know, want to go up there.

1:32:52 Sunny: I think you're pretty tough. I mean, I haven't known you for very long, but I mean, you know, you wouldn't have been able to hold your own with that big rock lady, and you go up against the big kind of meany that Marcid is, you know? I think you're actually pretty brave, and hey, if you ever wanted to go up there, I can just take you.

1:33:18 Cheese: Like for real? Like sneak in or something, just like—

1:33:25 Sunny: Oh, you have to sneak in? Oh, I don't know. I can fly. So it kind of stops there.

1:33:32 Cheese: Oh, that's awesome!

1:33:34 Sunny: Yeah, I don't really know a lot about of the inner politics of the crow's nest or anything, but yeah, I can fly, and you know, and people told me I was super privileged for being able to fly my whole life, and I was like, that's dumb, but yeah, no, I'll give it to you. It kind of sucks down here, you know, it definitely sucks.

1:34:00 Cheese: Yeah, imagine where I live. I live below this. So I live below suck. So there's like, you know, privilege, and there's okay, and then there's sucks, and then there's where I live, but there's a thin layer of Stimey right above where I live. That's how bad it is.

1:34:20 Stimey: There's also a thin layer of Stimey within where you live. (laughs) Your body!

1:34:25 Cheese: He also said there's a thin layers, okay. I'm not gonna repeat all your jokes, Stimey, but that one was pretty good.

1:34:34 Sunny: What are you, what?

1:34:37 Cheese: Sorry, he's in my head, I guess. It's like a new thing. I don't know.

1:34:43 Sunny: Yeah, yeah.

1:34:44 Brennan: Emerging from The Crescent Moon Trading Company, Marcid, Jack, Bob, and Myrtle rejoin you guys. As you're stepping out onto the street, Marcid, you have the papers stashed away, Myrtle, you have the stone, and you regroup.

1:35:05 B. Dave: I do move them where I kind of had stood Cheese in the shadows, I sort of come and just sort of usher everyone into out of the way out of the foot traffic. Like I found an overhang or an alcove or something, and I kind of usher everyone in, and I just stop for a second, and I'm like,

1:35:28 Marcid: I am not what you would call a kind person. I've killed countless men, most of which who had it coming, but never for unnecessary cruelty. I'm starting to suspect something terrible is at a foot here in our fair Leviathan.

1:35:49 Sunny: Oh, yeah, we're not gonna argue with you on that. You kind of are a cruel person. I don't think there's anything to argue there, but what do you mean about something bad being in Leviathan?

1:36:06 B. Dave: I just say in primordial to Myrtle,

1:36:11 Marcid: You are probably the wrong person to ask about this, but have you ever had, what is called, a crisis of conscience?

1:36:21 Myrtle: No.

1:36:25 B. Dave: And then back to common, I just turn, and I look right at Jack, and I say,

1:36:30 Marcid: If you had an opportunity to go back, set things right, save your vessel and never set sail in the first place, would you do it or would you let the will of the gods play out as intended?

1:36:44 Matt: You see that haunted expression that it hasn't left Jack's face since he left the trading company building, the memory of his first purchase there still ringing in his head, and without making eye contact with Marcid, just goes,

1:36:57 Jack: I don't think there's much you can do to avoid what the gods want. If they want to crush ya, they'll find a way. It's the people that do their deeds in the name of the gods you gotta look out for. Myrtle gives Jack an offended look.

1:37:14 Marcid: Well, hopefully the gods are on our side this time.

1:37:19 B. Dave: And I take out whatever is the most obvious because I realize insurance is fairly arcane. The most obvious dollar signs, map, and I lay it down where they can see it, and I'm like,

1:37:36 Marcid: Crescent Moon will benefit from destruction. Many, many buildings in this town, if they are destroyed, become a profit center for them, and I'm beginning to suspect, based on what I seen, based on what happened to your mate, Trixie, they have some sort of power source that will allow them to reap this untold destruction and that,

1:38:08 B. Dave: And I point at the stone,

1:38:08 Marcid: Is a vital component.

1:38:11 Marisha: Brennan.

1:38:12 Brennan: Yeah.

1:38:13 Marisha: You mentioned, when I was talking to Tulwar, that he was looking at an insurance policy, right, when we walked in?

1:38:24 Brennan: Yes, I did.

1:38:26 Marisha: So do I recognize the building? Is it the same building?

1:38:31 Brennan: Yes, you recognize one of the 15 buildings that are these special, and again, the amount that the trading company has bought up is even bigger than that. They own almost 20% of real estate in the city. It's enormous, and it might have happened overnight, but because the Pirate King only died, you know, around 15 years ago or something like that. One of the buildings is the Ramble, which means that if there's a connection like Marcid is saying there is between these infernal lamps and these 15 buildings, one of them is going into the Ramble with Tulwar.

1:39:20 Marisha: And was, I'm assuming, another building that was on there was the golds, where-

1:39:30 Brennan: The Gold Gardens?

1:39:31 Marisha: The Gold Gardens?

1:39:33 Brennan: No, there's one going in near The Gold Gardens. The Gold Gardens are still owned and protected by Garthy O'Brien, but there is a large space near there.

1:39:42 Sunny: The net is closing.

1:39:45 Marcid: Excuse me?

1:39:47 Sunny: That's what Jane, my goddess, that's what she told me, that the net is closing. We're gonna run out of time. We could lose a lot more people, a lot of people we love. We gotta go.

1:40:07 Marcid: Hmm, maybe the gods are on our sides for once, Jack.

1:40:15 Jack: Not gonna lie, this looks like something far larger than any of us are capable of even making a difference.

1:40:25 Matt: He looks over towards Myrtle and says,

1:40:28 Jack: You're agreeing to what you agreed to before, this stone? Myrtle nods slowly.

1:40:37 Matt: Looks back to Marcid,

1:40:40 Jack: And you seem to have changed your stance on what failure really means and the people you work for, aye?

1:40:50 Marcid: Mm. Seems so, yeah.

1:40:52 Jack: I feel confident that you all could take care of this then.

1:40:56 Matt: And he lifts his mast on his shoulder and begins walking away.

1:40:59 Sunny: Are you saying that we're a crew? Are we officially a crew?

1:41:04 Marcid: If that means you won't hit me again, lass, then, aye, we're a crew.

1:41:09 Sunny: Yes!

1:41:13 Brennan: Jack begins walking away. Jack, you begin to make your way down the street. Yeah, Sunny, Marcid looks like he's cracked this conspiracy wide open. Cheese, you've met this person who can fly you to Crow's Keep. Sunny, you feel this net tightening in this adventure here. Myrtle, you're on the hunt for whoever was fucking around with this stone. It looks like Marcid knows how to get Bob to where Trixie is. Jack, you turn to walk away. By the way, Marcid, one of the pieces of paper you took has different names on it. There's separate names on it, and you see that... Jack, as you're stepping back, heading back towards an entry way down to The Bilge, you see the flickering faces of your crew look out, and Kiarra speaks to you and goes,

1:42:22 Kiarra: Captain, been a long time since the sun touched your brow. What brought you up here?

1:42:33 Jack: Oh, I don't know. there was some sort of unfinished business, sort of a vision from that artifact. It told me I had to make sure it didn't find its way back in the hands of the bad folk who did this, possibly. I feel that I've done that. It's time to move on.

1:42:57 Brennan: You see they look at each other and nod, and they say,

1:43:00 Ghost crew: Aye, we understand, Jack. We all understand.

1:43:05 Brennan: You see they look and say,

1:43:05 Ghost crew: We're all tied to the mast as you are, tied to that fortune that befell us all.

1:43:17 Brennan: You see that Aram looks up at you and says,

1:43:20 Aram: Captain, I'm sorry that we could not all be here. And you see that, yeah, indeed, your whole crew's there with the exception of your best friend and first mate, Clive McDune, your elven first mate. You see that your crew smiles and says,

1:43:49 Ghost crew: We could not find his spirit in the beyond. Perhaps he was too anchored, too betrayed. Perhaps if he was with us, we would all be released, but at the very least you found that cursed stone.

1:44:14 Brennan: Back with the other five of you as Jack is walking away, Sunny, as you say that net tightening metaphor once more, the wind kicks up. Marcid, one of the pages in your hand rips away, and it flies down the street in the strong wind that kicks up. The five of you all look up and see storm clouds barreling towards Leviathan from all directions, which is a weather phenomenon that literally cannot make sense. From all directions, that storm is approaching. Jack, as you're walking, you sort of reflexively— in that way when a piece of garbage is flittering down the street— you catch that page that came out of Marcid's hand with your foot. This page has several signatures on it. One of them is of Monsieur Langley Sheffield-Harrington, from whom you bought your boat, still a Lord Clerk of The Crescent Moon Trading Company. Marcid's signature is on it in that fall guy position, and as you move your foot, there's a familiar mark, a mark that was on your contract two years ago, but it wasn't on the trading company side of the contract. It was your witness, Clive M., Clive McDoon, and you see the first name and the last initial of a dead man on a piece of paper that was signed one week ago.

1:46:05 Matt: Stop, pick up the paper, kind of clutching it hard as it's kind of trying to escape in the wind, kind of crumble it a bit, place it into the inside of my pantaloons and kind of just stand for a moment looking back over my shoulder at the rest of the crew and begin whispering to the spirits around me and say,

1:46:30 Jack: Look I'm sorry that the curse that's following my life took all of you down. I can't drag them down like I did you.

1:46:40 Brennan: You see they gaze at you.

1:46:43 Ghost crew: We are here to serve you in death, as we did in life. We know that you are a haunted man. You must do what you think is right. If you wish to live out the rest of your days in solace, then you can, but just because you do not know the way to break the curse, does not mean that that curse may not yet be broken, and perhaps trying for your own sake is beyond what you can muster.

1:47:28 Brennan: Sun gleams and the mist, even in the window, fades, and they say,

1:47:33 Ghost crew: But perhaps you could yet find the strength to try for us.

1:47:39 Brennan: (exhales) And they're gone.

1:47:43 B. Dave: I lean over to Bob and I'm like,

1:47:43 Marcid: So I get that he's all tormented or whatever, and quite frankly, my solution would be a dagger in the back and put the poor bastard out of his misery, but maybe you can say something uplifting to him? He does swing a mean mast or whatever the hell that is.

1:48:06 Bob: Oh, cause this is my special area. It's my area of expertise, if you will. Excuse me?

1:48:17 Matt: And in this haunted moment where his brain is doing the math, all the emotions of all the failure that has haunted him his entire life, suddenly just breaks apart as he turns and looks right into Barbarella's face and gets a little flushed beneath the fur.

1:48:33 Jack: Oh, hello, Miss. [clears throat]

1:48:39 Bob: So I just wanted a minute to talk to you because you just look really, really sad, and that doesn't really make me feel very good because I don't like the people around me to be sad, and that's kind of why I do what I do in my job, you know? Because I like to make people feel really happy and feel good about themselves, and I think that you're really sad, and I think you need to understand that sometimes bad things happen, and you can't really control them. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're cursed. I mean, you really could be cursed because there's a lot of witches out there that do curses. Not just saying it's just witches, but they don't really corner the market. So the thing is even though bad things happen, it doesn't mean that you were a bad thing, and you can still be a good thing to other people. Does that make sense?

1:49:24 Jack: Aye, it does.

1:49:28 Bob: Well, maybe, not gonna tell you to smile because the only kind of people that do that are jerks, but what I was gonna say is I really hope you feel better, and if you're ever feeling down or really bad about yourself, just come over, and I'll try to give you something that'll lift ya, even if it's just the words.

1:49:47 Matt: He thinks about the spirits of his crew and looks back towards Ms. Barbarella and goes,

1:49:53 Jack: I will follow you to wherever you want. To the ends of the earth. I'm sorry, that was my, I, that was— (laughing)

1:50:04 Jack: That was my inside voice.

1:50:04 Bob: Oh, we're not going to the ends of the earth. We're going to find Trixie, and then we're going back to The Gold Gardens. It's not that far.

1:50:12 Jack: Well, that's embarrassing. You know, you're right. You're right. I'll make sure I muster a smile. (groans)

1:50:25 Matt: And muscles that haven't really been used in decades begin to knock the rust off the side with a heavy (squeaks) squeaking sound, a terrifying, Terminator 2 deleted scene-type, Arnold smile curls it's way across Jack's mouth.

1:50:47 Brennan: Jack, you turn your feet towards the city of Leviathan, who you have lived underneath these many long years. Questions ring in your head, and they are deeply painful because questions, by their very nature, engender hope because the answer could be one of many things. There is this name on this paper in a hand that you recognize, there is a question of this stone that couldn't have made its way onto your ship, and the answers lie down the road ahead of you. Sunny, you look as Jack turns around and rejoins you, the six of you stand here, and you feel that wind kick up again as a crew comes together. [choir harmonizing]

1:51:42 Sunny: Yes!

1:51:45 Brennan: Cheese, you've got your trapper keeper, the stone, the guy that was ordered to come kill you now, it looks like he's maybe your buddy, and is not gonna kill you anymore.

1:51:58 Cheese: This lifestyle is so crazy. It's just teeter-tottering left and right. I mean, on the one hand, it's like woohoohoo, but the other hand, it's just like, I'm kind of in it. I get the allure now.

1:52:15 Brennan: Myrtle, you hold this stone in your hands. You see the approaching storm clouds.

1:52:21 Aabria: Yeah, Myrtle's eyes have been staring straight upward the entire time.

1:52:26 Brennan: Lightning flashes, and as it flashes, you see two points of lightning that only you catch for a moment, almost like two eyes deep within the clouds, and for a moment in the deep dappled blue and white marble of this statue, the eyes of the young girl light as well. Someone is coming for what they believe is theirs.

1:52:58 Myrtle: Let them come.

1:53:02 Brennan: Bob, you are feeling great. You're gonna be going to get Trixie in a second. Life is good. Bob, I feel like Bob never sweats anything, another day in a perfectly charmed life.

1:53:18 Bob: Don't sweat the small stuff, it's all this small anyway.

1:53:23 Brennan: And Marcid, you lead this band of pirates away from Aftward as stealthily as possible. All of you watch as Marcid's knowledge of the Leviathan summons the very shadows of the streets to his aid. You all walk in perfect darkness with him, and Marcid, you have enough stealth of your own to leave that plate of food in front of the small dwelling near the rubble of the kenku's home, a tiny bit of softness in a heart that almost no one knows, does beat in that massive furry chest.

1:54:05 Marcid: Well, ya know, they didn't have it coming. (Brennan laughs)

1:54:11 Brennan: You stalk through the streets of Leviathan headed for the Sternwood, headed for this location and for Trixie with the knowledge of this vast conspiracy at work. You approach the Sternwood. On the top of Leviathan's mighty deck, the vastness of many ships cobbled together, some enterprising pirates, long ago, sought to solve Leviathan's massive food problem by capturing a bunch of druids from the mainland, dragging them to Leviathan, and asking them to make farmland on top of the ship's deck. Undoing their bonds and gags, the druids answered this request by making the most massive cursed forest, summoning all sorts of wild animals and creating a terrifying dwelling place of beasts and monsters in the middle of this bustling metropolis. The Sternwood erupts from the rotting wood of the decks of the ships, an imposing dark and haunted forest. Here are there many parrots, familiars, monkeys, rats that have escaped here, and things wilder still. Howls and roars echo from the forest. The sun disappears behind the approaching storm clouds, and the sharp, crisp day that began fades into gray and murky twilight. You enter in the trees gnarled shapes twist into the suggestions of horrifying faces leering out at you from the branches. Many pirates are rumored to enter, but none are ever seen to leave. And some say the forest be unnatural, can turn those that enter into beasts and creatures of the dark woods, but therein lies your bounty. All of you enter the Sternwood, and that's where we're gonna stop episode two.

1:56:35 Marisha: Wooh!

1:56:35 Aabria: Yay! [NEXT EPISODE - Episode 3: Into the Sternwood]

1:56:35 Transcribed by: Kyber Bonsai

1:56:35 Edited by: Sola, Kyber Bonsai, solsys