Daggerheart: A One-Shot Adventure Through the Sablewood

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Richard (00:00):
Hello and welcome to a unique, special episode of Deep
Space and Dragons.
Richard and Carl PlaysDaggerheart.
I'm Richard, the Game Masterfor this session.

Karl (00:12):
And I am Karl, the PC for this session.

Richard (00:15):
I appreciate that.
I appreciate the idea of that.
I thought you were about to saythe NPC and I would have given
you bonus points.
Alright, for just a littlecontext before we get into it is
we are attempting to try outDaggerheart, the new game by
Darrington Press, and we'regoing to be running an entire
one-shot, in theory, from startto finish, and specifically

(00:38):
we're going to be running theirquick start adventure.
So mild spoilers if anyone'splanning to have their GM run
the adventure, but hopefullysuper helpful tool for a GM
looking to run the adventure whojust wants to Karl-proof their
session in advance.

Karl (00:55):
I'm not up to that many shenanigans.

Richard (00:57):
You're up to a fair number of shenanigans most of
the time, my friend.

Karl (01:03):
If you say so, all right.
I think your other players arejust too conservative.

Richard (01:08):
We'll find out, because I'm running this again for them
the next week, so I will havethis knowledge.
Yeah, all right.
All right, so I'm going tobegin with a bit of background.
The Sablewood is a seeminglyendless forest of dark trees
that reach hundreds of feettowards the sky.
Some say that it's been heresince the time before the

(01:30):
Forgotten Gods.
It's famous for its uniquehybrid animals like lemur toads,
tiger, elks and platypusplatypuses, as well as its
well-worn trade routes populatedby traveling merchants.
The hybrid animals in thisplace range from completely
docile to extremely vicious.
A cat squirrel might come feedgently from your hand, while an

(01:52):
e-legator would see you laterand launch itself out of the
nearby river to snap you up asan easy meal.
Within the Sablewood, there isa small friendly village known
as Hush.
There's no inns within Hush,and any travelers passing
through are treated as honoredguests and invited to stay in
the home of a member of thecommunity.
Many people of the Sablewood atlarge still worship the

(02:16):
Forgotten Gods, despite havingno names to call them.
And with that, so we're quicklygoing to cover the basics of
what you need to know.
First off, daggerheart is acollaborative, narrative-focused
role-playing game.
That means me and you will beworking together to tell a story
, and you're not just going tobe a victim of my vengeance, but

(02:37):
we will be using the mechanicsof the game as our foundation.
You will make choices for yourcharacter during the adventure
and I'll describe the rest ofthe world reacting around them.
Sometimes I'll ask you aquestion, things like what your
character knows about a place orhas heard about a person, and I
will do my best to integrateyour answers into the story
we're telling.
So we're building the worldtogether.

(02:59):
But be warned carlos, with a k,not actually named carlos, I
know who you are and you like tomess with me.
And if you say in the distanceI see Cthulhu, I will try my
best to integrate that into thestory.
Do you understand me?
If you decide, oh, there's justa hip-gugging frog in the

(03:19):
distance, that frog will rip outyour heart in emotional triumph
and that frog will be the mostprized possession in your soul.
Before I rip it away from youor I would like to, but
daggerheart limits my powerreasonably and limits your power
reasonably we'll get to thatbut first your character sheet.

(03:39):
I have also given you anadditional page in our chat
that's called the sidecar.
That kind of explains whatevery notch on the character
sheet does.
If you're confused, we went forthe off streams.
This is mostly just for themind palace of our audiences
listening to this on the bus.
So I'm not going to go overevery component of the character
sheet here, but some of the keytakeaways are your evasion is

(04:02):
what I'm rolling to hit you.
Armor is when you get hit.
You can take an armor to reducedamage.
When you're hit, you see whichdamage threshold you go into and
that's how much damage you take.
Hope does things fear doesthings for me, hope does things
for you.
Experiences, like we kind oftalked a bit before, stream,
operate as the the game skillsystem, for example, royal mage,

(04:25):
are things that a royal magewould know studies, mystical
arts, filing paperwork, grantapplications.
Where not on my watch, a moreverbiage, vermin might be a
moment where you would literallyyell out not on my watch,
hooligans, as you go to stop achild from stealing your wallet
or put up a wall to protect acart right.

(04:49):
And then the stats, key statsagility for sprinting, leaping
and maneuvering, strength forlifting, smashing, grappling,
finesse for control, hiding andtinkering, instinct for
perceiving, sensing andnavigating.
Presence for Riz and knowledgefor knowledge.
Yeah, that's canon now.

(05:10):
So for what your active weapons?
You have a primary and asecondary, or just a primary.
In this case, a lot of timesprime, secondary will have like
offhand effects, like shields ordual wielding, and you can
spend a stress point which youhave.
Hp and stress are your mainthings.
You track to switch betweenyour primary weapons and those
backup weapons in your inventory.

(05:33):
Your inventory itself, yourarmor, is what determines those
starting armor thresholds andhow many shield points you get,
and your inventory really isonly designed to hold like five
or six things, but this gameassumes that basic stuff you
have.
You're not going to run out ofarrows, you're not going to run
out of snacks, you're not goingto run out of things unless
they're relevant to the story.

(05:53):
But if you tell me, oh, I'mgoing to carry this dragon on my
back, I'm like all right, markup all five of those slots and I
hate you and I will be veryclear about the hate you part.
Any questions on your charactersheet.
Or you think we're good.
I hate you and I will be veryclear about the hate you part.

Karl (06:08):
Any questions on your character sheet or you think
we're good.
Sorry, it costs stress to takesomething out of your inventory
or just to switch weapons.

Richard (06:16):
Just to swap weapons in the moment.
So if you want to swap weaponsand not lose your turn, it will
cost you a stress.
If it's your entire action todo it, it will not.

Karl (06:27):
Okay, okay, so stress, stress lets me quick swap.
And similarly, the domainfeatures that I would get if I
had a full set of domainfeatures.
I would be able to spend stressto swap ones that are in my
vault slash inventory.
Excellent, by spending stressas well, right, Perfect, so I
think you got it.

Richard (06:47):
The big thing they changed between the beta and the
current release is damage andthresholds used to require math,
but now it's you spend an armorjust to knock it down a tier,
which is much cleaner.

Karl (06:59):
That is clean, all right.
And then you repair your armorslots using downtime activities.

Richard (07:05):
Correct, you get two downtime activities and I'll
refresh you when we get there,if you manage to get yourself
any rest.
You know what's great is wehave epic adventure music
playing during this part.
Alright, so to go back towhat's written in the little
guide, now that we've looked atthe character sheet, we're going
to talk a bit about dice.
Yet again, for your benefitsand our listeners, this game

(07:27):
uses 2D12, called your dualitydice.
Decide which one represents hopeand which represents fear.
If you're using a digital diceroller, describe to me what your
hypothetical hope dice andhypothetical fear dice look like
this is important for our fanartists later dice look like

(07:49):
this is important for our fanartists later.

Karl (07:50):
Um, it looks like my hope dice is uh like a translucent
gold.
All right, uh, and my fear diceis a translucent purple,
beautiful.

Richard (08:01):
So when you have your character do something in the
story that's dangerous or couldresult in consequences, I'll
probably ask you to make anaction roll.
I tend to.
I know in D&D I've been knownto like make you roll for a
regular door to troll you, butDaggerheart tries to like make
it that if there's nointeresting outcome, you just
get to do the thing.
So as a general rule it'll beroll the two dice and add the

(08:24):
applicable character trait tothe result.
I'll usually tell you which oneit is.
But you can also try and likenegotiate.
Let's say you're making anagility roll and you have a plus
two.
You can either.
There's some rule in here abouttokens where, if you wanted to,
you could roll your dice withsome beads so you can track what
the pluses are.
But for the sake of this, sincewe have digital, that should be

(08:48):
unnecessary.
But I appreciate the idea thaton each of your stats you'd have
beads and you pick those upwith the stat and roll them with
the dice and add them up,because math is for chumps.
However, math is for chumpsonce you add the two numbers
together, and I do believe inyour ability to add two numbers
together for the most part.
If you roll a 6 on the hope anda 10 on the fear, that would be

(09:08):
16, and then your stat wouldbring it to 18.
But if you roll higher withfear, you would tell me you got
an 18 with fear.
If you roll with hope, you'llmark a hope on your sheet.
If you roll with fear, I mark afear on my sheet and then I
immediately get a GM turn.
So, effectively, when you failto do something, the board goes
to me to give you some sort ofcomplication or struggle or

(09:32):
consequence to your action.
In combat it's a little moredirect.
But out of combat, like, forexample, if you roll with fear
to kick down a door, I mightgive you a horrible splinter or
a sore ankle and have you mark astress, or simply have you take
longer than you wanted to forthe door and take down a
dramatic countdown as a trainpiloted by a mustachioed man
gets closer to running over itsvictim.

(09:53):
Make sense.

Karl (09:55):
So far, this does make sense.

Richard (09:58):
Excellent, as I'm re-explaining a game you read in
advance for the sake of ourlisteners so we can get to the
really part.
And the last couple notes arethe experience stat, as we went
over before, and thenspellcasting rolls are basically
the same as regular actionrolls, but you'll have a
foundation card that'll saywhich kind of stat you use For

(10:19):
the case of your sorcerer.
I believe it is instinct.
Feel free to correct me ifthat's true.

Karl (10:27):
No, instinct seems to be my spellcasting trait.

Richard (10:31):
Excellent.
So, and the last little note isnow that we know about dice,
I'll usually set a difficultyfor the roll like 6 or 14 or 25,
and your goal is to meet orbeat that number.
If an ability or a spell has anumber on it, like spellcast 13,
it tells the DC automaticallyfor it.
If you succeed, you get whatyou wanted.

(10:52):
If you don't, you fail andsomething new happens in the
story.
Hope and fear also play a partwhere, with hope, you accomplish
the goal and all is well, andfear means there will be a
consequence.
And then, if you fail with hope, you do still get some hope and
things don't go as badly asthey could have.
A failure with hope is like oh,you went to pick the lock and

(11:14):
it took longer than you thoughtand someone nearby noticed.
Or your hand is sore.
Where a failure with fear is,your lockpick broke inside the
door and your seasonal, seasonaleffective disorder is kicked
back in.
And lastly, if you roll two ofthe same number, no matter what
that number is.
That's a critical.
In Daggerheart, you get a hope,you get a clear of stress and

(11:37):
for an attack roll you do themaximum damage you could do.
So if it was like a D8 plusfour, it would be 12 damage.
So if it was like a d8 plus 4,it would be 12 damage, which is
fun because, to throw some shadeat another game, maximum damage
is better than those times youwould get double damage and end
up lower than a normal roll.
Yeah, that's true, and thenI'll quickly break over combat.

(12:01):
But we'll get into it.
When it actually happens, youmake an action roll with a
weapon.
You use the trade it calls for.
That's an attack roll.
When it actually happens, youmake an action roll with a
weapon.
You use the trade it calls for.
That's an attack roll.
If it succeeds, you make yourdamage roll.
You look at the dice section ofyour weapon, roll the specified
dice and tell me whether it'sphysical or magic.
If any of your roles duringcombat are with fear or a
failure, I'll often use my gmmove to spotlight an adversary

(12:24):
who is attacking you or doingsomething else important in that
scene Additionally that fearI've been stockpiling.
I can use it to take anadditional turn, but I cannot
move the same enemy twice in thesame turn.
So it's basically if I havefive dudes and I have five fear,
I can attack you with fivedifferent dudes, but I'm not
going to attack you with thesame dude five times.

(12:45):
Typically, and because we'replaying one-on-one, this doesn't
come up as often.
But there's no specified turnorder in this game.
You all get to do what you likein the order you like it, and I
make moves in response.
There is an optional rule whereeach player would get three
tokens and once someone's wentthree times, they have to wait
till everyone else has donethree things before they refresh

(13:06):
their tokens.
But it's not.
There's no counting initiative,there's no dramatic lockdown
and it's best to think about thescene and the situation as a
whole narrative moment andconsider what you can do to make
the best story right, because Ido love me a good story.
And the last note is the roles.
The rolls being a 10's easy, a15's medium, a 20's hard,

(13:29):
distances are typically.
Melee is when things aretouching Very close is where you
can easily move in a turn.
Close is it'd be difficult tomove to a turn.
Far is, it'd be really hard todo.
And very far is you're snipingthem?
Hmm, all right, you.
And very far as you're snipingthem, hmm, alright.
And with that I've gotten thelengthy monologue out of the way

(13:50):
in a cool 13 minutes the timeit would take to review a Final
Destination movie and we can getin this evening.
You've finally made it to theSablewood, a sprawling forest of
colossal trees trees some sayare even older than the
Forgotten Gods.
This place is renowned for twothings Its sunken pathways that

(14:14):
provide trail routes for manytraveling merfolk engines and
its unique hybrid animals.
Even now, from within yourcarriage, you can hear strange
sounds the low calls of larkmoths, the croaks of lemur toads
, the skittering of a family offox bats in the underbrush and
you are currently driving thecarriage.
You notice something uniqueabout the looks here in this

(14:37):
part of the Sablewood.
What is it?

Karl (14:41):
Oh, I notice something unique about the Sablewood
Forest.

Richard (14:44):
What catches your eyes about the look of the trees here
?

Karl (14:49):
The trees.
Well, I mean, it's theSablewood Forest.
That immediately makes me thinkof Sableye from Pokemon.
Okay, okay, I'm going to saythat the trees look like they
have little gemstone eyes.

Richard (15:04):
I love it.
So, as you look into and yousee the scraggly trees, and one
thing that's weird is in thisworld and it's not so weird to
your character but to outsideviewers in this part of the
world, the day-night cycle areweeks long a week of daylight, a
week of nighttime.
Weeks long, a week of daylight,a week of nighttime.

(15:27):
So you're expecting it to bedark and the trees almost as,
like a way of adapting, havethese gemstones that are
reflecting the starlight and themoonlight and almost lighting
up and some of them.
You look and you see your ownreflection.
You see what looks like a frog,you see a bird and they're just
kind of almost like when you'redriving down the highway and
you're seeing street signs andthe street lights, but they're
almost like streaking as you gopast, like that kind of light

(15:48):
effect and as you go throughyour steed, which, what do you
have?

Karl (15:56):
driving this card within reason, oh, let's see what do I
have driving this cart?
Well, it's got to be some sortof hybrid animal so it fits into
the forest.
I am going to say it's a lizardbear, Amazing.

Richard (16:26):
So this lizard bear, how I'm picturing it is.
Of course it's scaly, except ithas almost like a mustache,
like a muzzle of fur.
It has the bear's wet nose, butthe scales down the back, large
grizzly bear teeth, massiveforepaws, but a poofy bear tail.
It needs the poofy bear tail,Alright.

(16:46):
So as your steed pulls thecarriage around a tight corner,
one wheel is coming off theground.
For just a moment you see anoverturned merchant's cart lying
sideways in the path before you, blocking your way.
A scattering of fruits andvegetables and kale litter the
trail.
From around the side of thecarriage steps a strix wolf, a
large creature with the body ofa wolf in the face of an owl and

(17:08):
large wings adorning its back.
It's finishing chewing on itsmeal, the arm of a dead merchant
, its sinew dripping down, itsmarrow being licked clean, and
it stares at you curious, tryingto judge whether you're friend
or foe.
And then you see fallingclumsily behind a little ways
away, a close distance away, twosmall pups are watching what

(17:30):
you assume is their mother oruncle, cautiously, and you feel
your carriage come to a stop.
What would you like to do?

Karl (17:40):
Uh-huh, alright.
So Given that it's a heart-likebird owl, I'm assuming that
it's going to regurgitate thedead merchant for the pups.
Roll a knowledge check,knowledge check, roll Roll.

(18:04):
I got a 20 with fear.

Richard (18:10):
Okay, so it does not regurgitate for the pups,
because it seems the beaksalmost have like a serration in
it for chewing meat.
And as you look closely at itsface, its head just whips and
stares directly at you and ismaking eye contact.
Oh boy, it's staring you down.
It's wary of your movement.

Karl (18:32):
Hmm, it's wary of my movement.
Well, I mean, I guess my bestbet is probably to keep staring
it right in the eye and makemyself as big as I can.
Okay, actually, let's see nolarger than yourself, well, so I

(19:02):
kind of want to try this minorillusion to like.
Well, so I kind of want to trythis minor illusion to like I
spread out my arms and I want tomake it look like I have a
squirrel wingsuit so I seem evenbigger, excellent.

Richard (19:20):
I don't want to keep looking in its face and try to
intimidate this thing, so itwill let me past.
So first I'm going to have youdescribe what your character
looks like at this moment, foradvantage, because apparently
you're wearing a squirrel-likesuit and I need as much details
as you can give me of what thischaracter looks like.
No, no.

Karl (19:32):
I'm not wearing the squirrel suit.
I have a sorcerer class featurecalled Minor Illusion.
Okay, so you're making anillusionary giant version of
yourself with squirrely arms.
Well, yeah, I mean I guess aminor visual illusion, no larger
than yourself, with close range.
It's convincingly you want toclose range her further.
But basically I want to likespread my arms and make it look

(19:56):
like I have like big wings.
Okay, maybe make it look likeone of those moth faces.

Richard (20:05):
All right, all right, I'm following you.
I'm following you, so go aheadand make a spellcasting roll.

Karl (20:11):
Okay.
So it says, make a spellcastroll 10.
All right, that works for me.
So spellcast roll and roll.
Ooh, I got an 11.
Fear or hope.

Richard (20:26):
With hope, so go ahead and add a hope.
Also, I think you're supposedto start with three hope, so you
can just go ahead and have fourhope.

Karl (20:35):
It says you're only supposed to start with two.

Richard (20:37):
Well, now you're up to three and I respect your honesty
.
Have an extra hope for yourhonesty, all right, alright.
Okay.
So as you do this, it startscalmly trying to keep its pups
out of danger.
The group of them start backingup slowly and with one last

(20:58):
snarl, the pups clamber onto herback before she flies into the
air, landing on a nearby branchWatching.
But it seems to have its headdown and it seems to be spooked.
You have warded it offsuccessfully, all right.

(21:21):
So now that it is out of way ofthe and it doesn't look like
it's going to attack as you lookover and get, it's doing that
cat thing where every time youlook it's slightly further back
until it seems to be out ofsight.
Okay, so now that you didn'tmurder a bunch of puppies, what
would you like to do?

Karl (21:42):
Well, I mean, obviously this animal wouldn't have been
interested in anything of actualvalue.
So I suppose I need to checkand see if maybe there's someone
who survived and whether or notthere's anything of value that
is in this card.

Richard (21:57):
Okay, as you go closer, I'll have you roll either
instinct or knowledge.

Karl (22:06):
To see if you're trying to get it.

Richard (22:08):
So the difference in this case is, if you go with
instinct, you're trying tofigure out what happened
emotionally.
What does it feel like is goingon here?
Five check Knowledge isliterally like I'm going to
index the things.

Karl (22:21):
Well, yeah, I think I'm going with instinct, because it
is possible that this, that thisuh bear just, or the animal
just um, came upon the cart,those already tipped over.
All right.
So roll instinct, roll oh, aneight with fear.

(22:43):
Nope, not with fear.
That is a critical success.
I rolled two, threes.

Richard (22:49):
Well, that's opposite.
Just imagine that I'm moving anabacus to track my fear with an
evil grin on my face.
I'm like no.

Karl (22:58):
All right, okay, so I gain a hope for the critical success
.

Richard (23:01):
You do and you get some interesting information For the
critical success.
You do and you get someinteresting information.
So you're actually pretty on tosomething when it just came
across.
So you see that the dead driverit had its throat slit, its
neck cut open and it seems likethe bird picked it over for food
.
Its arm was mangled, as you'reaware.

(23:23):
But your ears perk up a bit andyou just you're suspicious that
whatever jumped this as youkind of like get the feel for it
, this feels like a trap, likean ambush is about to approach
you and you hear the sound of abranch snapping.
It seems the overturned cartwas a distraction but their plan

(23:45):
didn't work.
You see, hiding in a tree,literally like leaves, just kind
of stuck in randomly, one ofthose gems basically glued to
their forehead.
You see what looks like apoison dart frog with a dagger
curved behind its back,off-colored spots around it.
It's a beautiful red, like abeautiful ruby red, with its
dagger drawn, ready to jump down.

(24:05):
Not quite sure how it'll makethat distance.
Then you notice in another treeacross it looks like either a
halfling or globumoid with a bowdrawn, target aimed on you.
And because you managed to seethem coming.
The hypothetical battle map isset aside in front of you.

(24:26):
They're both about far distancefrom you.
You stand at the ready havingspotted them before they can
ambush you.

Karl (24:39):
Okay, so I feel like I should probably try and just
shoot the poison frog out of thetree with my dual staff.

Richard (24:51):
All right, go ahead and roll your attack.
Roll my attack and 17 to hitwith fear, all right.
So 17 hits, so go.

Karl (25:06):
So 17 hits so go ahead and roll, damage Alright, and I do
a 1d6 plus.
Okay, 1 Roll Roll.
Oh yeah, yeah, okay, 1d6.
Because it's plus, so that itwas giving me plus 3 and I'm

(25:28):
like what, what's going on there?

Richard (25:30):
but it makes sense because that's proficiency plus
my yeah, because proficiency isthe number of dice you roll in
this one so, and it also adds toyour damage overall, it seems
are you sure?
I think it's just built rightinto the weapon how how much the
weapon does?

Karl (25:47):
So Well, I clicked on the sheet and it gave me 1d6 plus 3,
and I managed to roll maxdamage for 9.

Richard (25:54):
Excellent.
So for 9,.
It's not a severe injury onthis ambusher, but it's a pretty
serious one, so describe howthis spell impacts and nearly
kills my froggy.

Karl (26:12):
Well, I mean, I think it goes straight for the gem on his
forehead and cracks it.

Richard (26:17):
So, as the gem cracks into the frog and it falls to
the ground because it's fear, Iget to make a move.

Karl (26:25):
The other one in the tree seeing his frog friend go down.

Richard (26:29):
And you don't know their backstory, maybe their
best friends, maybe theirenemies, it hardly matters.
What matters now is they'vebeen busted and they don't want
to go to jail again.
It ain't happening.
You aren't going to catch them,copper.
So a parkour's down the treeand manages whether through
magic, supernatural means orpure speed closes the distance

(26:52):
and gets right up in your facewith a serrated sword.
I'm then, gonna spend my fear tohave the frog then run down and
flank.
So they're both runningstraight at you.
They branch rest and right andthey're both on each side of you
Because they had a fair amountof distance to cover.
That is my go.
They spent their moves gettingto you and flanking you.

(27:13):
So you are up.

Karl (27:17):
Okay, so, um, Now the question becomes like my dual
staff has a range of far Mm-hmmand I don't see anywhere which.

Richard (27:37):
There is no downside in this.
You don't get a disadvantage oranything for having them too
close to you.

Karl (27:43):
Oh, okay, okay, so I can as far as the maximum distance,
but I can just shoot them at anyrange.

Richard (27:50):
I believe so.

Karl (27:53):
Okay, that makes sense.
I was just like didn't see anyruling on the character sheet,
so Give you like 10 seconds tomake sure.

Richard (28:02):
But yes, if a weapon has close range, it can be used
to get the target from close,very close, or melee.

Karl (28:10):
Okay, so far it's just my maximum distance and I can, in
fact and these guys are Close,no, they're very close.

Richard (28:17):
They're within melee range at this point.

Karl (28:20):
Ooh Well, I mean, I feel like it's not going to be as
effective the second time around, but this little frog, he needs
to get shot in the face, pointblank alright, go ahead and roll
your attack on poor point blankfroggy.
Maybe he has a wife and kids athome, you don't know yeah, but

(28:41):
he's poisonous, so I reallydon't want a 20 to hit with hope
That'll do it.

Richard (28:47):
That'll do it, okay.

Karl (28:54):
Okay, so now I guess I roll for damage, roll, roll and
that you may spend three hope toroll any number of damage dice
on a tank.
No, statistically speaking I'mgoing to get worse, so we'll
just stick with the seven damagethat I'm dealing it's just

(29:16):
enough to break his firstthreshold.

Richard (29:19):
So he goes ahead and takes a point of damage.
He's looking pretty rough.
He is being shot repeatedly,and was that with hope or fear?

Karl (29:29):
Uh, the dual staff attack roll was with hope.
Alright, you just get anothermove.
I mean I'm just gonna keepsavagely shooting this frog
because I don't want to getpoisoned.

Richard (29:42):
Reasonable, reasonable and brutal.

Karl (29:50):
Blast him Ooh, 24 to hit but with fear.

Richard (29:55):
24 absolutely hits.

Karl (29:58):
And then my dice roll is.
I'm going to spend three hopepoints to re-roll my dice roll.
Alright, alright, and thenre-roll Alright.

(30:19):
I got eight damage, eightdamage.

Richard (30:23):
Eight damage isn't quite enough for him to feel it.
So you blast him.
You blast him and then, like onthe third blast, he kind of
like half limbo's under it, hasthe knife directly pressed
against you and it's time forhis counterattack.
Oh boy, he's going to go aheadand make his strike.
What is your evasion?

Karl (30:44):
My evasion is 10.

Richard (30:47):
Okay.
So he does manage to connectReasonable and he manages to
then damage you for 10 points ofdamage.

Karl (31:00):
Oh boy, so my major damage threshold is seven.
So if I don't take an armorslot, I would check two Correct
Sheesh.
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to takean armor slot to reduce that by

(31:22):
one, I guess.

Richard (31:23):
I think I misspoke.
I do believe you did hit thatfrog for one damage, because
it's I believe it's any amountof damage will do Like it goes
one damage, then two, then three.

Karl (31:34):
Oh yeah, that's what it shows on my Like minor damage is
one and then my threshold isseven to get to two, and then
severe damage is 14 to get tothree damage.

Richard (31:46):
Just making sure I got three points marked Excellent.
So, yes, the frog did getblasted, as he did his awesome
duck under slash maneuver, buthe's still alive.
He's still alive and he stillmanaged to get a cut on you.

Karl (32:02):
And then I'm going to spend.
So I take an armor slot, Ireduce the damage and I mark one
HP.

Richard (32:09):
That sounds correct.
So you're probably feelingpretty rough from Froggy there
and then I'm going to spend mylast fear point.
I have stockpiled fromliterally this roll you made to
have the Goblinoid swing at youwith its serrated, rusty blade,
uh-oh, so that is coming at you.

(32:33):
Oh, wow, for four.

Karl (32:40):
He rolled a four.

Richard (32:41):
He rolled a one and got plus three.

Karl (32:47):
Wow, so I managed to evade .

Richard (32:49):
So here's how this plays out in my brain the frog
limbo's under your staff, getshis shoulder blasted, cuts you,
the other one goes to swing atyou dramatically and you just
kind of do that anime backhandblock with the back of your hand
thing.
Yeah, nice, nice, he did sopoorly.
It made you very cool and Iyield the spotlight back to you.

Karl (33:12):
Uh well, I mean I, I really I've got to keep blasting
this frog, because if I canblast the frog enough, then
hopefully I'll be able tointimidate either the goblinoid
to run away or that he'llsurrender and give me
information.

Richard (33:29):
Okay.
So my question for you is thefrogs looking pretty rough.
Do you want to try andintimidate them now or do you
want to kill this frog first?

Karl (33:38):
I want to kill the frog first, because I suspect that
the frog seems to be some sortof poison frog you've mentioned
and I really don't want to getpoisoned.

Richard (33:47):
All right.

Karl (33:51):
Ah, that is so I'm going to roll for ten.

Richard (33:56):
Okay, what did you get?

Karl (33:58):
I rolled a ten with hope.

Richard (34:00):
Ten with hope so.

Karl (34:03):
Is he more evasive than me ?

Richard (34:05):
let's find out so he'll take a 10 will hit him roll for
damage.

Karl (34:17):
wow, oh wait, so that was a 10 with hope.
Yeah, so I was a 10 with hope.
Yeah, so I get a hope for that,which means it's definitely
worthwhile to spend three hopeto re-roll my attack roll
because I rolled a one.

Richard (34:37):
Gotta spend it while you have it.

Karl (34:41):
No, I bumped that up to six Overall.

Richard (34:45):
Okay, so six is enough to beat that threshold.
How do you want to kill thisfrog?

Karl (34:55):
So I do the cool like backhand, and then I take the
staff and I stab it into thefrog's foot, and then as the
frog's foot, and then as thefrog is reeling backwards.

Richard (35:12):
I just pointed at his chest, and so, as the frog
explodes in a rain of gore, atthis moment you're a little less
hyper-focused and you realizesomething.
A third frog is stealing yourcart.
Oh boy, it seems these two'sgoal was to keep your attention.
A third frog is stealing yourcart.
Oh boy, it seems these two'sgoal was to keep your attention
while a thief attempts to stealyour carriage.

Karl (35:33):
Right, hmm, how far away have they gotten?

Richard (35:38):
They have successfully climbed at this point and they
gave their first, which is thenoise that drew you towards it.
So sorry, you had hope or fearthere.

Karl (35:51):
That attack roll was with hope.

Richard (35:53):
Okay, so they haven't started going yet, they've just
climbed into it and it's exactlywhere it was and you really
only got out of the cart andwalked like a medium distance
over to the other cart okay, sothey're not at a distance where
I'd have to make a check toclose the distance you could
close the distance also.

(36:14):
There's just dead frog in frontof your feet um, okay.

Karl (36:20):
Well, do I know if the frog's skin and or blood is
poisonous to touch?

Richard (36:30):
Go ahead and roll knowledge and you can add your
if you want to spend a hope toadd your Imperial Scholar
knowledge again.

Karl (36:42):
I will use my last hope that I currently have.
Yes, royal Mage, wait, okay.
So if I spend the hope, itgives me the plus two.
Correct, yeah, okay, roll.

Richard (37:07):
I got a 23 with fear.
Not poisonous at all, it justlooks poisonous.
This is some bullshit.
All right, because the roll wasso high, even though it's fear,
and I get a gm move.

Karl (37:20):
My gm move is just letting you know that you're dodging
poison for no reason, becausethe frog looks poisonous back to
you uh, okay, well, I mean, Iam going to, uh, if I can pick
up the corpse, um and uh, carrylike, as I'm running over to the
frog to jump back on my cart.
I am picking up the dead frogand I'm just all about

(37:44):
intimidating these guys andtrying to get them to either run
off or surrender.

Richard (37:48):
So I'm going to say this will be a presence roll for
that.
A presence roll, but I willgive you an advantage.
So you get to roll an extra d6because you are holding his
dismembered body to scare him.
A presence roll, but I willgive you an advantage.
So you get to roll an extra d6because you are holding his
dismembered body to scare him,which feels pretty terrifying.
I'm going to be real.

Karl (38:04):
Okay, 29 with hope.
Woohoo man this, you get hopelike nobody's business in this
game.
That's pretty good.

Richard (38:12):
Frog hands up.

Karl (38:14):
No.

Richard (38:15):
I can't game that's pretty good.

Karl (38:26):
Frog hands up.
Other guy drops a sword handsare up, no one's moving, they
are terrified.
Who do you work for trying to?

Richard (38:35):
pull out my best Batman voice.
Um, my wife took their moneybecause I got fired before Um.

Karl (38:44):
Yeah, uh, I look over at the Goblinoid.
What's your story?

Richard (38:55):
Go ahead and roll.
Presence for me, sorry.
Instinct for me, instinct.

Karl (39:01):
All right, let's go, but I'm not getting the plus two,
only a 14.
Oh, I am getting it.
I'm going to re-roll thatbecause apparently the plus two
was just my modifier 16 withhope.

Richard (39:21):
He stops.
Don't work for no one.
Just trying to make a livinghere with this guy.

Karl (39:28):
Okay, now let's step this back.
The backstory to this campaign,which I think we kind of
glossed over, is that I amdelivering some sort of package
that I'm not allowed to look at.

Richard (39:42):
Correct.
So one of your good friends, anarchivist who runs the city you
come from, has I have a specialassignment.
I need to deliver this packagefrom me to this other archivist.
So you're attempting to go anddeliver it to the archivist in

(40:02):
that small town of.

Karl (40:06):
Hush, the town in the middle of the forest.

Richard (40:10):
Yes.
So you're basically told bringthis, don't open it to the town
of Hush and meet with thearchivist there.
You'll know them when you seethem.

Karl (40:23):
Okay, oh.

Richard (40:31):
Hmm, and these two are claiming to be just regular
bandits setting up a trap tojump nearby pacifiers to take
their stuff Because the economyis rough out here.

Karl (40:43):
Right, yeah, that makes sense.

Richard (40:44):
You feel scary enough that they're probably not like
lying, like they might be, likemisleading a bit, like maybe
they're part of an organizationbut it's not like you're a
specific job.
That part feels authentic, thatyou were an easy mark.
They're not that good to set upsome elaborate trap to trap.
They don't feel elaboratetrappy so much as.
Oh no, this person we tried torob was a mage and my friend is

(41:07):
dead.

Karl (41:13):
I'd prefer not to have any more blood on my hands.
Perhaps you can help me findthe town of Hush.

Richard (41:21):
They just point to the road you're already on and
they're like so, do you want anescort?
Are we free to go?
We good, Hmm.

Karl (41:33):
Well, if this is the main road, I would assume there's
more bandits like you.

Richard (41:40):
Ahead, yes or no look, man, I'm telling you, just us
out here operating on this turf,not a big town, just I wouldn't
worry about it too much.

Karl (41:53):
Hmm, uh, can I?
Would that be an instinct checkto incite them?
Yes, I don't like the word turf, oh boy sticks with.

Richard (42:14):
Fear Varys is some sort of conspiracy.
There's some kind of likemafiosa thing going on.
This is all an elaborate trap.
You're being lured into a falsesense of security.
Long story short, you don't geta good read on what's true or
false.
They're just really hard toread.
The adrenaline's hitting you.
You blew up that frog.

(42:35):
You gag a little.
So it's not that you believe ordon't believe them, you're just
a little overwhelmed.
You're overstimulated at themoment.
But to give you a bit ofbackground knowledge your
character would already have.
So your knowledge is these areprobably Thistlefolk, the

(42:59):
Thistlefolk who take upresidence in the place no one
else dares.
The thickest, thorniestbrambles of the Sablewood are
known for wearing armoredclothing made of tiny polished
stones that have been cut to fittogether seamlessly like scale.
This attire allows them to movethrough the brambled thickets
and blended with the gemstonetrees, because the only
Thistlefolk who emerge from theconclusion of their hidden

(43:20):
villages are often thievescoming to steal goods from
unwitting travelers or sleepymerchants.
They've received a reputationfor being a syndicate of
criminals, but in actuality mostThistlefolk are quite peaceful
and vulnerable, choosing to livewithin the safety of the
bramble for their own protectionfrom large predator species who
stalk the woods looking for aneasy meal.

Karl (43:40):
Hmm, uh, you two should just get the hell out of here,
agreed, and I'll dismiss themand send them off.

Richard (43:56):
They've run, they trip over themselves and they've just
esconded into the, into thewoods.
So all right with that.
For the sake of brevity, thepath leads you further into the
forest until you spot a largestone pillar carved top and top

(44:17):
and bottom.
In ancient Dwarven symbols thisdenotes one corner of the
peaceful village of Hush.
When you pass beyond the stonemarker, you feel a small
sensation like the pop of abubble, and then the sounds of
friendly chowder becomes louder,though the trees of Sablewood
are unchanged.
Here there's a distinctive safeand comforting air, a warm orb

(44:38):
that's almost like a sundial,with a glowing sphere above it
is in the center, making it feelmore like daylight, like you
walked out of the evening into asunrise.
And there's feels distinctivelysafe and comforting the
atmosphere.
A few smiling faces turn to youas your carriage rolls in,
waving her.
Actually, before they wave andgreet, did you bring the

(45:01):
dismembered frog with you?

Karl (45:05):
Uh, you know, I, uh, I was a little bit overwhelmed.
I think I may have just leftthe dead frog on the seat next
to me.

Richard (45:14):
Yes, they cast a friendly grin, but some side-eye
you.
But you do hear lively musicdrifting from your direction
from a tavern at the center oftown.
You know you need to find theWhitefire Arcanist to deliver
the package.
The package not only was fromyour mentor, but was from the

(45:35):
king to your mentor.
Just like the ambiance.
I'm not sure of the backgroundmusic we have going on this
episode for our editors laterwill match the scene, but you're
feeling pretty good about it.
So disregard any ominousbackground music that may or may
not be playing may or may notbe playing.

(46:05):
Um well, uh, I've noticed thepeople side eyeing me.
I'm assuming.
Oh, you most seem friendly, buta few, specifically a few
ribbits frog folk are like whyis there a the?
Uh, you seem sketchier than youwould be without a dead body.
That's a real truth.
You are like why is there a?
You seem sketchier than youwould be without a dead body.
That's the real truth you haveto kind of deal with here as you
look over and realize there's adead body still on the seat.

Karl (46:28):
Ah yes, do they have any sort of temple in here?
Or is it like I realize nowthat I should probably pay my
respects for the vanquishedbandit?

Richard (46:45):
Well, the main structure, you see, is the
tavern at the center of town, afew shops, and you know that,
like this is a land of like oflike forgotten gods, and it's
unlikely you'd find a moretraditional temple.
But it's entirely possible thatif you can find, like the
archivist, arcanist wouldprobably be a relatively revered

(47:08):
figure.
Maybe someone at the bar mightknow, maybe just yelling out to
random people in the street.

Karl (47:21):
I am going to approach one of the ribbits and say, um
hello.
I was assaulted by bandits andI have unfortunately murdered
one of them and I would like topay respects for the dead.

(47:41):
If there's any way I can dothat, maybe you could help me
find a priest or an archivist ofthis neighborhood here.

Richard (47:52):
So this frog, who, now that you've gotten close to, is
actually about as tall as you,sets down what looks like a
thick barrel of ale.
Well, molo just keeps it there.
Yeah, yeah, fair enough.
We don't really have much wayof holy folk around these parts.
I mean, if you want to burythem, I could take you to like a

(48:15):
plot out of town.
I could help, I guess.
Why'd you bring it with you?

Karl (48:26):
I was so overwhelmed by the whole experience I wanted to
get out of there.
I just it slipped my mind thatit was on the cart.

Richard (48:35):
I just it slipped my mind that it was on the cart and
, as you say that, what lookslike a soft-smoking, like small,
almost looks like a humanoidrobot wanders over.
You see a small number ofscratches across its shoulder
and there's a friendly fox baton its other shoulder.

Karl (48:55):
It's like oh, you found a thistle folk, did you?

Richard (49:03):
Yeah, it seems they had laid an ambush down the road.
Oh, that's, that's awful.
Um, yeah, um, I don't think Ibring a dead body to the bar.
Um, and then the older woman'slike come, come, and they kind
of like start escorting you pastthe homes of the village, a
little out into the farmlands,like you see the various crops,

(49:23):
and they begin to cultivate athin layer of glowing blue moss
over the tops of the fruits andvegetables.
They're almost pulsing likeheartbeats.
Oh, and among the groves younotice that the trees have
hundreds of unique faces carvedinto the sides.
They're gem-like eyes peeringin every direction.
And you see one tree taller thanthe rest and it looks like you

(49:46):
see the archivist's home andit's like a treehouse is being
suspended from it, like a fruithanging from a tree, and a
braided rope seems to be wrappedaround and tied down at the
base of the tree like acounterweight and it looks like
a cabin-sized boulders at thebase of the tree, marked with
some symbols, with the ropewrapped around it holding the
house.

Karl (50:09):
Wow, so basically it's like a hanging basket house.

Richard (50:14):
Yes, cool, and at this point it's like Frog looks at
you still like just likedrinking from a barrel of
whiskey they're carrying.
It's like that's probably yourbutt Best bet for rights and

(50:34):
things.

Karl (50:37):
Thank you very much.
I appreciate your help and Iapologize for the inconvenience
I have caused.

Richard (50:47):
No worries, little one.
We've all had days where wejust get overwhelmed Mental
health matters, Like it's cooland the little robot's just kind
of poking the dead body with astick.

Karl (51:03):
Well, I mean, I guess I will go and knock on the door.

Richard (51:10):
You can't.
It's hanging like about 30 feetin the air.

Karl (51:13):
Okay, so I have to like climb the tree to get to the
house, or how do I get to thehouse?

Richard (51:20):
Go ahead and roll a knowledge check.

Karl (51:22):
A knowledge check.
Oh Seven with fear.

Richard (51:31):
So you walk up and be like how the hell do I, hello?
You say quietly enough that noone would really hear you stare
at the rock, you stare at therope, you stare at the house.
You're like, I guess, do Iclimb?
I know, and you're just kind ofgetting a little stressed out.

(51:51):
You can go ahead and mark astress as you're trying to
figure out how you get into thishouse.

Karl (51:56):
Okay, stress marked Uh-oh.

Richard (52:03):
It's just kind of gently swaying there like an
Airbnb hammock.

Karl (52:22):
Let's see.
I'm trying to see if there'sanything.

Richard (52:28):
Okay, I don't you're two friends at this point.
She's sat down like a blanketand just kind of sitting there
each sipping a drink, Just kindof watching you.

Karl (52:50):
I guess I'll start trying to climb the tree All right, go
ahead and make an agility roll,all right.
Roll 15, but with fear.

Richard (53:06):
So as you begin to climb the tree, you make it up
pretty decently high, but one ofthe limbs of the tree and the
branches gently wrap around youand gingerly put you back down
on the forest floor.
Huh, you didn't get whompingwillowed.
Like the branches, rustle yourhair a bit as it returns to

(53:28):
being a branch.

Karl (53:31):
Ah, and this tree has multiple faces, you said, or is
this not?

Richard (53:37):
No faces on this one.
But you do feel the other treestaring you and you actually
notice like reflected in one ofthe gems.
It looks like another froghumanoid in white robes, with a
robe over its head, its armskind of cross and just like
shuffles behind a tree, and thenyou lose sight of it completely
.

Karl (53:57):
Ah Well, um, I uh Not on my watch.
I want to track that guy.

Richard (54:09):
Go ahead and roll the instinct.

Karl (54:15):
Instinct and I get the not on my watch nice, oh, still
only a 15 with fear.

Richard (54:25):
So you're like I'm fearful today so you're watching
amazing like whoosh, whoosh,whoosh.
He seems to be getting enoughdistance that eventually he
leaves your visual range like,okay, he was just kind of
keeping tabs on you, but itwould be a whole.
You're not confident with thatroll.

(54:46):
You'd be able to catch up tohim and successfully like subdue
, this frog who's doing theirmassive vertical leaps from
branch to branch, naruto treerunning style.

Karl (54:56):
Okay, I'm sorry to bother you again, but how do I get to
the house?

Richard (55:10):
She gives a deep sigh and just yells Amarass, what
Amarass, just yells Amras, whatAmras.
And then the house starts,begin lowering itself down to
the ground and has landed.

Karl (55:27):
Okay, so now the door is in a position where I could
knock on it.
Yes, yeah, I am going to gentlyknock on the door.

Richard (55:36):
So as you knock on the door, you see six fingers curl
on the sides of the door frameas it slowly opens.
You see, in the palm of itshands, eyes blinking as you look
at a face that is like acompletely blank face with just
a smile, like a theater maskalmost, with curly arms and
large wings.

Karl (55:56):
I was kind of imagining like a ditto face, but but we'll
see, I guess I'll allow it.

Richard (56:03):
it has a ditto face, yes, okay, anyways, but it seems
to be a seven foot tall mix ofhumanoid and firefly, a humanoid
firefly.
So, as far as you can tell withyour background, the Arcanist
is a fairy and it seems to bemoving in a combination of both
very slow, suddenly jerkymotions.

(56:25):
Her expressions are difficultto read but her emotions are
very clear in her voice, old butspry, as she eyes you
mischievously.
Are you the group Amorous, sentfrom the capital?
Oh my, you're rather late,aren't you?
Can I have your name?

Karl (56:47):
My name is Marlow Fairwind .

Richard (56:51):
You feel a shiver go up your spine.
Come in, come in.

Karl (56:59):
Uh, do I shiver?
Go up your spine, come in, comein.
Do I think I just like enteredsome sort of weird act with this
fairy?
Or are fairies mischievous inthat way in this?

Richard (57:08):
I'm gonna have you do a knowledge roll for that one,
because that's more fairy lore.

Karl (57:16):
Sorry, would I have advantage because of my
well-read?

Richard (57:23):
Well, you could spend a hope to oh wait, well-read's a
class feature.
Yes, yes, you may Advantage.
I am so fearful I got a 26 withfear, so I'm going to just grab
that fear.

Karl (57:38):
Yeah, you've got lots of fear stocked up now.

Richard (57:40):
You had a moment where, if that fairy wanted to, they
could just legally have takenpossession of your name.
They chose not to, but theycould have.
Ooh, so it's like they have theability to word game trick you
into a trap.
They know they could have, andthen they chose not to to let
you in.
You rolled pretty high on that.
Ah, so did you enter?

Karl (58:04):
I will enter their house.

Richard (58:07):
It's surprisingly spacious.
Main room is a crowd of potionbottles, spell books, runes,
plants, small creatures, whatlooks like a regular platypus,
but it's really hard to tell.
It's full, but no one wouldclassify it as messy.
It's clear that if anyone moveda single item, even an inch,
the fairy would know.

Karl (58:30):
Well, so yes, I have come to deliver this package and I
unfortunately was ambushed by athistle falcon, and I was hoping
you could help me pay respectsto the bandit that I killed.

Richard (58:45):
Oh, okay, Well, let's get that in here.
And then the house unfurls likea flower and they gesture for
you to like.
So I'm assuming, when you wentup with your group of friends a
little retroactively, did theyride up in you with the cart or
did you just carry a body andleave your cart and your
precious cargo went down?

Karl (59:03):
uh, I'm assuming that I rode up here with the cart.
I am well trusted to deliverthis package, so I I would not
leave it so far out of myexcellent range.

Richard (59:15):
So as you bring the package in and set it down, the
flower closes back up and theentire house lifts off the
ground.
And then she opens the package.
Inside the package lies amassive stone with a lion's face
carved into it he recognizes asthe keystone of the capital

(59:43):
city gate's main archway.
The arcanist nods sanely as hesees it, saying oh, of course.
To keep this, oh, ominouswarning, she begins to unfurl
her house in again.
All right, well, we must travelto the open vale to revitalize
the ward Ward.
I would highly advise you comewith, as the magic will attract

(01:00:05):
dangerous creatures from thedarkest reaches, and I'm pretty
competent.
You'd be upset if your deliverythat keeps your people from
being swiped out by the wilesstops the snake viper toxin from
turning you to stone andliquefying your organs.
I just feel like they'd likeyou to keep your eye on it and

(01:00:26):
return the package.
But you don't have to come with, it's fine.

Karl (01:00:32):
No, I will accompany you.
It would be best to keep itsafe, and there's safety in
numbers.
So as you begin to leave thecultures of the Thistlefolk, I

(01:00:58):
was hoping you could help megive this poor bandit a proper
burial.

Richard (01:01:03):
Oh, I see they walk up, or more like linger up, kind of
like a Slenderman walk Friskover the frog person, take their
coin pouch, put it in theirpocket, walk away and then, like
a large Venus 5 crab trap, fly,just skunk, shud and eats it

(01:01:25):
Huh.
Well then, thus is the cultureof our people of our people Very
, very well.

Karl (01:01:41):
I'm glad that I would not be angering anyone with this
death.

Richard (01:01:43):
Oh, you have absolutely angered people here.
Have a rock and you're handed arock.

Karl (01:01:55):
Does it look like one of the gemstones from a tree?

Richard (01:01:58):
It looks like they swiped it off the frog.
That is a returning stone.
The small stone can be placedanywhere and will teleport to
your hand under one of thefollowing conditions.
And you pick the conditionSomeone comes close to the rock,
someone very close to therock's dealt damage, a certain
amount of time passes, or youspeak a key word Ah, it is a

(01:02:20):
returning stone.
That is all it does is you seta condition and then the rock
comes back to you.

Karl (01:02:27):
I see Interesting.

Richard (01:02:33):
And at this point, the other frog's like, like we done
here we good.

Karl (01:02:38):
Yes, yes, thank you.
Thank you so much for your help.
I do not wish to cause anyfurther trouble, so I think it's
probably best that we be on ourway soon.

Richard (01:02:48):
They're holding out a mug and shaking it like
expectantly.

Karl (01:02:54):
But they want me to pay them coin.

Richard (01:02:56):
Probably uh, but they.

Karl (01:02:59):
They want me to pay them coin, probably, uh, wow, I guess
.
Uh, I have one coin, it lookslike, so I'm gonna give them a
coin yeah, uh, feel free to markoff.

Richard (01:03:06):
Well, this currency, this game, is more a handful of
coins.
So basically, if you give awayenough little bit of coins,
you'd knock off a handful.
So I'm not going to like billyou for the coin, but if you do
it enough, ah, if you do itenough, okay, so describe your
time traveling with theeccentric wildfire arcanist.

Karl (01:03:34):
Um, hmm, so we are headed to the veil.
She said, right, yes, the openveil, the open veil, um, and
this is somewhere in the forestyes, so you will end up leaving
the town's bubble right, right,right uh, and then it'll be dusk

(01:03:56):
or night time or as we'retraveling, right, yes, with my
last few rolls.
So Marlow is just likeskittishly looking around,

(01:04:21):
startled by sudden movements ofthe archivist, but then still
mesmerized and entranced by theslow, gentle movements that are
interspersed.

Richard (01:04:31):
All right.
So, sensing your disease andthe fey nature of them, so I
first forged these pillars onthe four sides to keep the
village safe from the horrors ofthe night.
I almost died in that ritual asunknown darkness approached,
and I'm reluctant to say morefor fear of angering the

(01:04:54):
forgotten gods that dwell deepwithin the forest.

Karl (01:05:00):
Yes, yes.
Is there power confined to theforest?
How could a god become soforgotten?

Richard (01:05:12):
It's weird when you create, people remember the
creation, but through stories,their own beliefs, spreading
their wills, adding addendums,repurposing holidays and
ceremonies to their new faiths,the old ways just kind of get
lost and absorbs into thetradition of the new.

Karl (01:05:31):
Yes, I can see how some of these, hmm now, yes, I can see
how that some of these forgottengods may become resentful.

Richard (01:05:43):
Yes, and around that moment, the arcanist of Tanai
perks up in a disconcerting way.
This is good, stop stop here.
Yes, now come help me.
I'm old, and she waves herhands and your carriage unfolds
like a flower, like her housedid.
Okay, and she's just standingover the crate humming.

(01:06:05):
Okay, I will need about an hourof time to prepare you all.
Enjoy the night air while youcan, so you get a short rest
here.
You can tend to wounds, clearstress, repair armor or prepare

(01:06:26):
for the path ahead.
Since you don't have one or moremembers of your party to
prepare with.
Had you brought along one ofthese NPCs, I would have allowed
that as a substitution.
So if you declare that youbrought the frog alcoholic with
you, I would let you take twohope to prepare and the frog
alcoholic would just be here forthe seat.

Karl (01:06:46):
Uh, no, no, I, I, I, uh didn't, wasn't the?
The village?
No, warm and comforting, wasstill also kind of disconcerting
.
The customs are unusual and Ijust wanted out of there.
But I think I do want to takesome time to repair my armor and

(01:07:13):
knock off a hit point damage.

Richard (01:07:14):
Excellent, and for my downtime bonus I gained three
fear.

Karl (01:07:21):
So that was my two downtime activities was reducing
or repairing armor and reducingdamage.

Richard (01:07:28):
Yes, do you have an elf ability that has something to
do with downtime?

Karl (01:07:33):
Oh, I, actually I do.
That would actually be Mark ofStress.
No, that's not, I do that would.
That would actually be, uh,marcus, stress.
Nope, that's not the oneCelestial trance drawing you
down.
Rest, you can drop into achance to choose an additional
downtime move.

Richard (01:07:47):
I must be kind before I murder you.

Karl (01:07:51):
Fair enough, uh, so yeah, I am going to reduce my stress
with my last downtime activity.

Richard (01:07:59):
All right.
So as you sit there, meditating, centering yourself, you've had
a very, very eventful day.
Your mind is focused, calm, forthe first time, listening to
the gentle trilling of thecopybara bees, appreciating the.
You're not even sure what thatwas.

(01:08:21):
I think it's like a turtle,pheasant and a bird of paradise
that looks suspiciously like areversed version of the flower,
like the derpiest looking birdof paradise you've ever seen.
And as you're just toning out,you hear Keystone is suspended.
Quickly, surround me.
Surround me.

(01:08:41):
The ritual must begin or I'lllose the pathway.
Hurry.
Her body begins going brighterand brighter as her eyes roll
backwards into her head and theentire carriage lifts a foot off
the ground and you hear aconcoffiny, a concollection of
unearcy, screeches from thewoods as nearby creatures are
alerted to the arcane energy.
Uh-oh, you feel the rumble asfour ancient skeletons emerge

(01:09:12):
from the ground, rusted swordsin hand, disturbedous,
mysterious, like an angry cloud,like a soft liquid, almost
spongy and pink, with mean,almost hard tendrils that branch
off it and stretch like acancer to the forest around it.

(01:09:32):
I'm going to start a countdowndie for this ritual.
I have placed a D8.
You see it in front of you.
The 8 is facing up and it willcount down based on things you
do.
If it gets to 0, the ritualwill be completed.

Karl (01:09:49):
That is all the knowledge you get.
So Sorry, describe the spongeagain.

Richard (01:09:58):
So the weird sponge creature in the distance looks
like almost like if black smokewas a tumor, with spiky spindles
coming off it and the nearbyplants and creatures around it
like withering near it.
Have you seen?

Karl (01:10:13):
Fern Gully Perhaps.
Well, like they have the SmokeTar Monster, I'm just wondering
if that's kind of an aptcomparison.
Yes, okay, smokey Tar Monster.

Richard (01:10:30):
Yes, and the skeletons that are shambling in are about
very far distance right now.

Karl (01:10:36):
And how far away is this sponge smoke monster?

Richard (01:10:40):
It's really hard to gauge the distance with it.
Probably within a medium rangeor so.

Karl (01:10:49):
Okay, so it would be within a far range then.

Richard (01:10:52):
Correct.
So it would be within close, sonot quite very close, somewhere
between close and far.
If you wanted be within close,so not quite very close,
somewhere between close and far,if you wanted to get to it in a
round, you could.

Karl (01:11:03):
No, no.
I want to try my Unleash Chaosspell.
So I make a spell, cast rollagainst a target within far
range and spend any number oftokens.
I only have two, so I'm goingto spend two To channel raw
energy from within yourselfagainst them.
On a success roll, the numberto be 10 is equal to the number

(01:11:23):
of tokens, which is going to betwo.
Then if I want to reuse this, Ihave to mark a stress to
replenish my tokens.

Richard (01:11:31):
Okay, go ahead and let the chaos reign.

Karl (01:11:36):
Unleash chaos.
That is only a seven with hope.
So, as you begin to oh, goahead, I get my hope token for
rolling with hope.
Right, that is correct.
Okay, I get it.

Richard (01:11:55):
So, as you go and you build up the arcane energy
within you, this massive spell,you practice it.
You've read the book.
You've done this in acontrolled setting.
You go to unleash the chaoticmagic and a lemur flies directly
in front of it, hits it, itexplodes.
That was not the target youwere aiming for?
Oh, no, so as it's exploding,you see, the wraith has dived

(01:12:23):
through the ground, has raisedup directly in front of you.
It's going to go ahead and makean attack roll here.
What is your evasion Ten?
So if it meets, it beats.
So it flies into melee andplaces its hand upon your cheek.

(01:12:43):
Describe a terrifying momentfrom your character's childhood.
Marlow fell down a well as achild, okay, and uh was down
there in the dark for severalhours before anyone realized

(01:13:03):
what had happened so as you feelthe hand on you and you feel
the spindle start piercing intoyour flesh, a sense of vertical
hits you as you fall backwards.
But there's no ground beneathyou, it's just falling, falling,
falling, falling, tunnelingdown.
At this exact moment, yourealize this grove has a clear,
empty sky, where there's notrees covering it, and there's a
perfect blue moon above youthat's getting more and more

(01:13:25):
distant.
As you fall downward anddownward, you take
boop-a-doop-boop nine magicdamage Oof.

Karl (01:13:40):
That is bad news, bears.

Richard (01:13:44):
Alright.

Karl (01:13:50):
I think I'm going to tick off an armor slot to reduce that
threshold and only take mark 1hit point.
Tick off an armor slot toreduce that threshold and only
take mark one hit point.

Richard (01:14:00):
Alright.
However, you are consideredvulnerable at the moment, which
I guess the best way I can putit is rolls targeting you while
you feel yourself falling intoan endless pit.
Have advantage until you takean action to try and shake
yourself loose and free of this.
I'm going to then spend threeof my stockpiled fear to have

(01:14:24):
all four skeletons get withinclose range of you as they
approach.
Uh-oh, and for context, wherewere you positioned near the
floating archivist when thiswent down?

Karl (01:14:40):
Um, so For context, where were you positioned near the
floating archivist when thiswent down?
So you described the blue moonabove and the grove, so I assume
the archivist is kind of in themiddle of the grove, correct?
I would say I was probably justlike a few meters off to the
side of the of the archivist inthe first place okay.

Richard (01:15:04):
So, even though you feel yourself falling down a
well in terror, you look overand the skeletons aren't going
for you.
They're going towards thearchivist.
Ooh, the spotlight is on you.

Karl (01:15:16):
Well, I have a spell called reign of blades.
I can spend a hope to make aspell cast roll conjuring,
throwing blades that strike outat all targets within very close
range.

Richard (01:15:27):
So I guess I have to move within very close range you
do, but you should be able to,although you're suffering
terrible vertigo not related, soas you stumble towards them,
they've all taken likefundamental, terrible vertigo,
not related.
So as you stumble towards them,they've all taken fundamental
positions around this flower andthey basically formed a circle

(01:15:47):
around it.
They look pretty frail becausethey're just skellies you know
how skellies be but you are ableto.
Because of where they'repositioned around the flower.
I'd say you can get three ofthem within range, but probably
not all four.

Karl (01:16:01):
All right, so I will roll for my attack.
Roll Ooh a 10 with fear.

Richard (01:16:12):
I'm sorry they're not very durable, but something
about feeling like you're in aperpetual, infinite ball is not
going great for you.

Karl (01:16:21):
Oh, dang, it Okay so.

Richard (01:16:25):
I believe that makes it my go, then Okay, wait wait,
wait, wait, wait, I'm waiting,I'm waiting.

Karl (01:16:32):
So I have this Primal Origin.
I can manipulate magic.
The Primal Origin allows you tomodify the essence of magic
itself.
After you cast a spell or makean attack using a weapon that
deals magic damage, you can marka stress to do one of the
following Extend the spell'sattack range, gain a plus two
bonus to the action roll'sresult, deal double the damage
or hit an additional target.

Richard (01:16:53):
Okay, so normally I would make you do that before
the spell, but I'm going toallow it.

Karl (01:16:58):
Before the spell.
Well, it does say after youcast the spell oh really.
Or make an attack roll.

Richard (01:17:04):
Huh, after you make the roll Sick, go ahead then.
So you're going to add?
I'll just let you know, if youadd two, it will hit all three
of them.
You were close, they're prettyeasy to hit.
I am definitely going to makethat into a 12.
12?
It meets, it beats.

Karl (01:17:22):
Alright, so then I can roll my damage, which is
proficiency d8 plus 2.
And then I can roll, oh man,only a five damage.

Richard (01:17:38):
So five damage Black, black, black as you just cover
them in shots.
Three of them look very injuredand then, as their heads turn
360 degrees around towards you,I'm going to spend a fear to use
their group attack feature.
All three of them will nowcircle you and they'll make one

(01:17:59):
shared attack roll, okay.

Karl (01:18:02):
Roll.

Richard (01:18:14):
Okay, okay, so does 13 meet your evasion, 13 beats it.
Oh boy, so you take four damageper skeleton.
So that's 12 damage coming atyou as all of them just swarm,
you actually I guess it would beyeah, 16 damage, because

(01:18:36):
there's four of them.

Karl (01:18:38):
Ooh, yeah, no, I definitely have to spend an
armor slot to tick that down.

Richard (01:18:45):
So you are swarmed by skeletons.
So I think I'm just going tosit on this last sphere and let
the spotlight go back to you.
Just hold it in my hand, myprecious treasure.
Okay.

Karl (01:19:06):
Well, now that they're all swarmed around me, they're all
within close range, right.

Richard (01:19:09):
Absolutely.
They're all within melee range.

Karl (01:19:13):
I'm spending another hope to AOE, another Rain of Blades.

Richard (01:19:20):
Alright, go ahead and roll your attack.

Karl (01:19:24):
Roll Ooh A 20 with hope That'll do it.
Go ahead and roll damage.
Roll my damage and that's 10damage.

Richard (01:19:40):
So and roll damage, Roll my damage and that's 10
damage.
So, with your 10 damage, as yougo to create this fan of blades
, a series describe how you wipeout all four of these skeletons
.

Karl (01:19:54):
Um I uh, skeletons, um I uh like to think that, uh, I I
send out the blades and theykind of like, uh, curve around
all the skeletons, and then theskeletons kind of like, do I
like, because they think Imissed.
And then the blades come backand like, straight through their
, uh, through the base of theirnecks, and their heads pop off.

Richard (01:20:17):
Beautiful.
I love a good boomerang joke.
It always comes back around,but those skeletons.
The ritual proceeds and you seeme dramatically take my counter
down from eight to four.

Karl (01:20:32):
All right.

Richard (01:20:35):
So I rolled with.
Hope you get another go.

Karl (01:20:39):
So, uh, the uh smoke sponge monster is still
indeterminate distance away.
I would say it's within close,but not very close, because you
did run from it to blast someskellies, Right right, um, if I
take my action to try and um, soI take my action to try and uh,

(01:21:06):
negate my vulnerability yes, soyou describe how you would want
to try and shake it off in thiscase.

Richard (01:21:14):
So, based on what you tell me you do to try and fix
this vertigo, I can then set theappropriate DC for it.

Karl (01:21:21):
Right, right, hmm, how would I want to fix the vertigo?
Okay, so can I put one of theskeletons heads on, like the

(01:21:42):
skull on my head, and then, justlike kind of like, clack my
hands together against theskeleton to try and rattle my
head straight I'm gonna have youroll your spell casting stat
because this feels more ritualand instinct than anything
logical, but but I'll allow it.
I'm going to say the.

Richard (01:21:59):
DC is pretty medium for that.
That feels medium, the not mostlikely solution.

Karl (01:22:06):
Alright, Come on heart of the dice 19 with fear.

Richard (01:22:12):
So you rattled.
You're no longer vulnerable,wearing your weird skeleton
helmet.
If the fairy's eyes weren'tstaring up at the moon gathering
magic, they'd probably shaketheir head at you.
But no one saw this except youand you feel awesome.
Alright, so I'm going to takemy fear and the forest race is

(01:22:32):
going to fly towards you.
It's going to attempt to flydirectly through you by me
spending a fear.
So, oh boy, I make my attackroll here.

Karl (01:22:50):
Seven does seven hit you seven, does not?
I managed to dodge.

Richard (01:22:55):
So as you dodge out the way and this ghost flew through
your body, you have a momentwhere you realize had it
actually connected and wentthrough you, it probably would
have separated your soul fromyour body.

Karl (01:23:06):
You just you've read enough books to know that this
would have been real bad, butthe spotlight passes back to you
, so, as it passes by me, do Ispot anything that looks like it
might be a vulnerability?
And would I be?

Richard (01:23:30):
able to apply my royal mage knowledge to increase my
odds of spotting suchvulnerability.
I will have you roll knowledgebut yes, you can add that to it
To look for a vulnerability.

Karl (01:23:39):
But I get plus two for being Okay.

Richard (01:23:40):
I have to spend a hope to do that, though, right, yes,
yes, you do Okay Roll, but I gota 17 with hope 17 so by
inspecting it you do see thatlike one of the faces on its
like weird tumory body is skullshaped.

(01:24:04):
You almost see like a structureof like angry eyebrows and eye
holes and a nose.
You're like so you feel likethis thing would have been
really resistant to physicaldamage and you feel like that's
the spot okay.
So I'm gonna say, because youpointed that out, any attack you

(01:24:24):
make you can feel free to spendhope, to add your knowledge to
any attacks for the rest of thisfight, to add my knowledge.
Oh, dad, you're that's not royalscholar to things ah, okay,
okay, okay, okay that's what Imeant to say.
Is your expertise now appliesto any attacks on this creature,
because you've spotted aweakness, okay?

Karl (01:24:44):
all right.
Um then, so my Unleash Chaos.
I can market stress toreplenish the tokens.
Is that an action?

Richard (01:25:06):
No, an action typically is anything that requires a
roll.

Karl (01:25:10):
Okay, so I can replenish my tokens.
Yeah, unless it saysspecifically is an action or
requires a roll.
Okay, so I can replenish mytokens.

Richard (01:25:13):
Unless it says specifically is an action or
requires a roll, I'll let it befree.

Karl (01:25:18):
And then I can make my spellcasting roll again and I am
going to spend the hope to giveit plus two, alright, and let's
roll some 19 with fear.

Richard (01:25:35):
Well, 19 will hit it.

Karl (01:25:38):
Alright, alright, two.
Okay, I see now no plus damage,so let's roll these dice.
I got five damage.

Richard (01:25:50):
Five damage is enough for it to take a point of damage
.

Karl (01:25:56):
All right.

Richard (01:25:56):
As combat hunts back to me.
I'll spend a fear as two moreskeletons emerge from the ground
within very close range of youon either side.
Oh boy, and then for my GMaction.
So I'm going to have it just doits regular attack, nothing
fancy.

(01:26:17):
My fear economy isn't thatloaded right now.
I've been pretty greedy, but Ithink an 18 hits you.

Karl (01:26:26):
An 18 definitely does hit, so you will take eight points
of damage.

Richard (01:26:31):
eight points of damage.

Karl (01:26:34):
Eight points of damage.
I gotta spend my last armorslot to reduce that by one, I
think.

Richard (01:26:42):
As you see it, like swipe towards you, you feel it
miss, but it's like you feel itsfingernails catch into
something and you swear.
You see like a spectral versionof a piece of your face get
torn off by its hands.
Ugh, that is no good.
And the spotlight passes backto you.

Karl (01:27:03):
Okay, so you said the skeletons are in close range.

Richard (01:27:07):
Yes, as they're just kind of climbing out of the
ground, one of their headsshaking a bit.
Another one seems to be a frogskeleton.
You're pretty sure you've seenone of those today.

Karl (01:27:18):
And the forest wraith is also within close range.

Richard (01:27:22):
Yes.

Karl (01:27:25):
All right.
Well then, I am going to.
Well then, I am going to spendmy hope to do my Rain of Blades.

(01:27:55):
But I am going to manipulatemagic so, out of stress, to
increase the range from veryclose to close.
Nice Spellcasting roll, oh.

Richard (01:28:03):
I don't have advantage, we'll do it.

Karl (01:28:07):
I clicked the wrong button .
Roll Well, I only rolled aseven with fear, that was.

Richard (01:28:20):
Unfortunately as you go to throw your boomerangs you
thought you did the mathexcellently and they all swing
back around, but a bunch of themjust kind of collide midair and
sadly fall to the ground.
Dang it, oh boy, For my GMaction I'm going to spend a fear
to do that beautiful swarmingattack with my skelly bellies.

(01:28:43):
They're going to go ahead anddo their group attack here, 11?
Does 11 hit you?

Karl (01:28:56):
11 hits.

Richard (01:28:58):
That'll be 8 points of physical damage.

Karl (01:29:02):
Ooh, I don't have any armor slots left.
That's all 6 of my hit pointsmarked.

Richard (01:29:07):
You have 3 options when you're downed in Daggerheart.
Option the first you can letthe seed end be played at my
mercy.
You roll a dice to see if youget a scar that permanently
reduces your hope and your fateis left up completely to me,
which means it's left up tothese skeletons and I am
honor-bound as a DM to let theskellies do their job.

(01:29:29):
Option the second is you can goout in a Glaze of Glory.
You get one last turn where allyour dice rolls are considered
critical successes and then youdie.
And option the third is you canroll for it.

Karl (01:29:46):
I like the Glaze of Glory.
I just, I know I just failed todo this thing, but I really
like the Reign of Blades withthe increased range and just
going out into Blaze of Glory,to like.

Richard (01:30:03):
So, as you choose the Blaze of Glory, what is the
maximum value of damage that cando?

Karl (01:30:13):
1d8 plus 2, so I guess that would be 10.

Richard (01:30:16):
So, as you curve the blades, knowing you're about to
go down, you release the swarmof them.
The two skeletons are crushedinstantly as the two blades meet
in the center and manage to hitthe wraith, the wraith having
been hit once by you,successfully, if memory serves.
Yes, and how many points ofdamage does the blades?

(01:30:39):
Ten that will be enough to dropthe forest wraith down.
So as the skeleton goes, a tickgoes up, the next skeleton goes
, a tick goes up, and then thewraith is struck down.
The timer ends.
The light gathering fills therune stone.
As the flower descends to theground, the archivist sees you

(01:31:04):
bleeding out on the ground, youreyes starting to roll back.
What are your last words?

Karl (01:31:12):
What are my last words?
What are my last words?

Richard (01:31:30):
My last words would be uh, tell my mentor, I'm sorry
the archivist walks over, looksdown on you, gives a bit of a
sigh.
You fought hard.
I I'm not surprised, of coursethe king keeps good company.

(01:31:54):
I'm very glad you were there.
The keystone will need a week,maybe more, and I'll watch it
carefully to ensure nothingcracks or becomes sentient or
anything of the like.
You know how it is.
In the meantime, I ask you torest, to let things go and know

(01:32:14):
that your job is done.
And with those words, you feelmoisture as a plant starts to
grow around you, wrapping youlike a rose in bloom, before it
closes down, chomps in and youcan feel life fade away.
And that is Daggerheart.

(01:32:34):
You did complete the quest.
You successfully beat themission, congratulations.
Welcome to level two.
But also, you are mostdefinitely dead.
You are dead, but just for thelulz.
Go ahead and do a hope and feardice.
If hope wins, you would havegot back up with one hit point,

(01:32:56):
and if fear wins, you would havedied on the spot.

Karl (01:32:59):
Ah, hope won.

Richard (01:33:02):
So, in theory, had you bet on the fates, you may have
came out of that still.
So with that we've hit not thatmuch longer than one of our
normal episodes.
Admittedly, how you feelingthat way pretty good.

Karl (01:33:22):
Uh, that's, it's definitely interesting.
Um, I think some of this ismore so a difference in writing
style between fifth edition anddagger heart, but it was setting
the scene did feel much morelike like whatever was prompting

(01:33:43):
.
You felt like it was promptingfor me to collaborate more with
setting the scene than what,than what D and D would normally
do.

Richard (01:33:51):
I thought that was interesting Because I basically
read all the boxes verbatim.
I worked in a pun or two.
I enjoy my platypus joke thatin a forest of fused animals,
how could you tell if it was aplatypus?

Karl (01:34:02):
Right right.

Richard (01:34:04):
But I basically wrote this as is, and I will say, when
running for a single player,one, that I get a fear and I get
an action is a little rough.
Yeah, however, like, did youend up leveling up your
character or did you just runthem at level one?

Karl (01:34:21):
I just ran them at level one.

Richard (01:34:23):
So, running it one on one, I'd say it worked because,
like, if we think about thedifficulty curve, you could have
won that fight.
Yeah, yeah, I definitely couldhave won that fight.
Yeah, yeah, I definitely couldhave.

Karl (01:34:36):
I mean, the difference between life or death was you
missed with the boomerangs andthe skeletons came back and
stabbed the shit out of you yeah, I, I had some pretty, uh
pretty fearful roles that timethere was there was quite a bit
of fear on, like uh fear in arow.

Richard (01:34:51):
So yeah, so for context , the adventure would have ended
with them like giving you aheads up that there's a spire
you could go explore.
You did end up asking onequestion I wasn't prepared for,
which was more about the bandits, but they had a little like
supplementary file and I wasable to look up who the bandits
were oh, so they actually didhave information on who the

(01:35:12):
bandits were.
Yeah, the chunk about theThistlefolk I read verbatim,
okay, and then I had toretroactively like I got lucky.
I got lucky when it said thatpeople think they're an
organization but they're not,because I gave this full
monologue about that and thenfact-checked and was right.

Karl (01:35:36):
Definitely monologue about that and then fact checked and
was right.
Um, definitely, I guess, ifcompared to dnd, like low level
dnd also feels very um like uh,scrappy I guess, but the level
of hit points and the damagethresholds it's, it definitely

(01:36:07):
felt like I was in danger at alltimes.
I only have like six hit pointsand I'm always going to take at
least one if they hit me.
It definitely felt like I wasin danger at all times.

Richard (01:36:14):
I was like I only have six hit points and I'm always
going to take at least one ifthey hit me.
Well, what's funny is there's acouple parts where I realized
after the first fight that I waswrong, that if you hit between
the thresholds they take adamage.
So there's a couple parts inthat first fight where they
should have went down a littleearlier.
And there's also a glitch.
So I opened a tab to keep trackof my creatures, right, and I

(01:36:34):
didn't realize it.
But one of the tabs was uppingthe threshold numbers.
When I was upping the hitpoints from, like, some sort of
literal glitch, okay, so it'slike I'm like fighting with the
frog and it's like the frog hasfour hit points.
The frog has five hit points.
I'm like, oh no, instead oflowering its hit points, I was
raising its max.
Yeah, this frog should be dead.

(01:36:56):
But to be fair, there'soriginally three ambushers and
one commander.
So I'm like, all right, Ireduced an ambusher at the start
because that just seemed likethe thing to do.
And it did say use theambushers to keep the party's
attention while the thiefattempts to steal their carriage
.
And I love that, because I lovefights that aren't just whack
with a stick, but there'ssomething else going on, right.

(01:37:19):
And it's like at the start youcan make the Strixwolf lower its
head and wag its tail, make itrun away.
You can fight it, but if youfight it the pups just run away.
And there's one where it howlsfor support and calls in its
partner.
And that is where, like, theroles really start and like

(01:37:43):
there's a bit where, like Iadjusted the roles because you
suggested doing the thing before, like the rule book prompted me
to do it, because it was likethey have a text for see them
coming and a text for ambush.
But it's like when the momentfeels right or one of the above
scenarios trigger it, as the pcwho seems like they're paying
attention, to make an instinctrole, and you're like, oh, I'm
gonna do an instinct role andinvestigate this.

(01:38:04):
I'm like, oh, okay, you're justgonna do it sweet, and I really
try to keep up with the gemmotif throughout, because that
was the first thing youdescribed uh, yeah, well, like I
said, the sable forest is likesable eye, sable eye trees and
the dead frog body.

(01:38:25):
So I did reskin one of the npcsin the town to be a frog because
I thought it'd be funnier thatis funnier because the origin.

Karl (01:38:34):
I should have taken you up on the offer to have that uh,
the frog there with me.

Richard (01:38:38):
That probably also would have won me the fight so
the frog was actually awild-born dwarf, as written, and
was an older woman with a thickbeard carrying a barrel of
arrow, and I'm like that's thefunniest one of this list of
NPCs to be the frog.
It's like it says, if the PCsapproach, she wants to know if
everyone's in the party, and itwas like going to ask about

(01:39:01):
their weapons and things likenow.
And then the staff below islike ask about the Thistlefolk.
I'm like that's also funny, soI'll use that one.
And there was okay.
So the things you didn't end updoing is the tavern had a couple
npcs in it and there was anoptional festival where you guys
could have came during a party.

(01:39:21):
Ah, yeah, okay.
And there's like there's a goodnature arm wrestling,
competition, a stone paintingclass, a marketplace full of
trinkets.
If you were playing with yourpartner this week, I probably
would have used the mini games,but that's like pcs on pcs make
that much more interesting,right, right.
And then you would go to thetavern and then they tell you

(01:39:42):
the arcanist is busy, but youcan go visit them.
Like okay, dead body is as goodexcuse as any to visit the
arcanist okay.

Karl (01:39:50):
So I mean, the only thing, uh, that I didn't use, I don't
think you know, the only featureon my character sheet, uh, I
think, is the um well, the quickreaction, marcus stress to gain
advantage on a reaction roll.
I mean, I didn't read the rulesin depth, but when and how do

(01:40:19):
you use reaction rolls?

Richard (01:40:21):
That's a good question, Because reaction rolls, to my
knowledge, are built intomonsters typically.
So there's things that I'll say.

Karl (01:40:30):
So they're more like a uh saving or saving throw from dnd
to compare yes.

Richard (01:40:36):
So it's like, okay, the wraith didn't actually have one
.
I'm surprised it didn't, forit's like memory delve, which I
love.
That, by the way, the ask theplayer to describe a terrifying
moment from their childhood.
It's just a good line of text.
To be on an attack, yeah, yeah,like that just made me happy.
But yeah, I think the onlyreaction role I think is if you

(01:41:00):
were ambushed, I think therewould have been one and okay,
I'm just like checking theadventure right now, because it
really wasn't that many pages,although it no one year d of us
I have to say each additionalplayer probably adds an hour to
the session.
Like I'm probably going to beefit up a bit for my session on
the weekend and then, like,increase the number of mooks a

(01:41:21):
bit, but because of how theaction economy works, I really
don't have to adjust it by much.
Yeah, because with less youjust got to attack more.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, I'm not seeing a ton ofreaction rolls so it didn't come
up.
But yeah, it would have beenwritten on stuff to make a

(01:41:43):
reaction roll.

Karl (01:41:50):
Right.
So reaction roll is somewhatequivalent to a saving throw.
And then you just there are noreactions.
But you get way more actions,especially if you succeed in a
long chain of successes.

Richard (01:42:00):
I guess.
Yeah, I think the warrior classhas a feature that lets it make
reaction rolls.
That is just straight up.
It gets attacks of opportunity.
That's its thing.
So there's some characterabilities that might get it too,
and then yeah, for this fight.
It basically said like if theplayers are being overwhelmed,
have things attack the countdownor instead.

(01:42:22):
And how the countdown workedmechanically is, every time the
arcanist is hit, the countdownwould go up one, and every time
you kill an enemy it went downto kind of like describe how the
fight plays.
How'd you feel about that?
Because it's weird for me, it'smechanically weird that I can
spend sphere to summon skeletonsfor you to kill so you can win
the fight faster.

(01:42:42):
Also, it had two wraithsoriginally and I went no, you
can fight one, um, I thinkoriginally, and I went no, you
can fight one.

Karl (01:42:54):
Um, I think that is interesting.
Uh again, um, having played andran a lot of dnd.
Um, there aren't that manyencounters written, as is from
fifth edition that I played.
Uh, where there are alternativeobjectives to combat, and I

(01:43:17):
appreciate the big timer counteras well as giving players
obvious ways to interact withsaid counter.
I think that's.
I think that's good design it isa little bit mechanically weird
that you can just summon moremooks to help me succeed, but

(01:43:39):
you also do summon mooks whichcould also end up being terribly
bad, such as when my characterdied.

Richard (01:43:45):
Yeah, it's interesting because, like I read the ability
of it's just spend a fear tosummon two additional skeletons
and I'm like my first brain waslike, oh, that could win the
fight faster, like that isabsolutely what killed them 100.

Karl (01:43:58):
That is the turn that killed you for sure well, like I
said I, I had a lot of uh,mediocre roles.

Richard (01:44:07):
I think the funniest one is so the vulnerable
condition was actuallyvulnerable until their next rest
, as written.
But the rules say that, like alot of things, can give
temporary conditions and thenthe condition will have a DC.
You beat to clear the condition.
I'm like, okay, even if Iwasn't like trying to make it
like you're not going to get toa next rest, so I'm not just

(01:44:28):
going to leave you vulnerablefor the entire fight but also
for just like rules as written.
I think I would always likegive players, if they want to
spend their turn, to not bevulnerable.
I kind of enjoy that.
Their examples are scramblingto keep your balance caught off
guard magically and feeble.
I'm like, no, you're justfalling down a well while you're
fighting and then the thepass-through action is just mean

(01:44:53):
Because on success you passthrough pushing their soul from
their body, making themuntethered.
They can't act again until theritual counter ticks down.
If the entire party'suntethered, they all mark two
hit points to get their souls toreturn to their body.

Karl (01:45:06):
Ooh yeah, that would have been pretty savage.

Richard (01:45:10):
Also it says here if a pc ever marks their last hit
point, they make a death moodfor the purpose of quick start
adventure.
They fall unconscious untilthey're healed or the danger
passes like no.
So what would have happened ifyou just chose to pass out?
You would have woken up, thegem, the stone would have been
broken and the monsters wouldhave been murdered by the

(01:45:31):
arcanist.
So the ritual would have failedand he would have then murdered
the shit out of them and savedyour life.

Karl (01:45:42):
Okay, so this is.
You sent me a picture of theforest wraith, how'd you like?

Richard (01:45:48):
my description of it just being a horrifying
cancerous forest tumor monsteris pretty accurate.
Yeah, I'm not going to send youa photo of the skellies because
there's no reason.
They're exactly what you'reimagining, although I did make
my arcanist way sketchier thanas written.

Karl (01:46:07):
So here's what it looks like.
Oh oh yeah, that's not sketchyat all.

Richard (01:46:13):
And I'm like but the description where it's like you
can't read its face but you canhear its emotions, like yeah,
I'm going to go full Pan'sLabyrinth on this for no
particular reason, because yougave me that eye imagery and I
want to use it later.
I want to use it where I could.
Right, if the trees are staringat you, I'm going to ham that
up.
Right right, but yeah, glad youhad fun.

(01:46:37):
I have no idea how well thisepisode's going to do.
It ran a little longer becauseI was fully intending it to,
because we did a recap afterward.
Yeah, but what do you think?
Would you run this game at yourtable?

Karl (01:46:52):
I would definitely be willing to give this a try.
Character creation seems fairlystraightforward.
The general mechanics seemfairly straightforward.

Richard (01:47:06):
I mean, there's one thing I ad hoc.
That was kind of odd though.
So I'm pretty sure you can justapply your experience to
attacks if it makes sense andyou're like I roll this to find
a weakness.
I'm like, ok, I'll give yousome info off a stat block and
then remind you of a thing youcould already do.
I think I'm pretty sure you canjust apply your experience to

(01:47:29):
attacks if it's thematicallymakes sense, but I'm not
actually certain.

Karl (01:47:33):
Yeah, the experience is probably the thing that was the
least clear in the rules to me.
I would have to reread that andsee what it is, because, like
you say, it's kind of like theskill system but kind of not.
And then, as we went over atthe beginning, they're like
purposely vague but specific.
So, yeah, you absolutely couldhave added it to attacks.

Richard (01:47:58):
There's no rule that says you can't, because an
action role or reaction role islike an attack role is an action
role, yeah, ok.
So what's funny is like in thebook they're like examples
include backgrounds likeassassin and blacksmith,
specialties like acrobat,gambler, healer phrases like
jimmy can.
But here's where experience iscool.
So say you lived through thisadvantage to hit level two, you

(01:48:22):
write a new experience that youwould write based on what
happened to this adventure.
So what would you have writtenyour experience to be, had you?
Let's say that the archivistresurrects you for the sake of a
happy ending.
It's not what happened, butlet's pull a disney and change
the ending and put you in childprotective services instead okay

(01:48:43):
, um, so let's go through thatyeah, let's go through the
rigmarole of what would happenif you hit level two, which I
think you can pull on your sheetif you click the character
builder.

Karl (01:48:59):
Uh, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Uh, I don't see how to levelthis character sheet up.

Richard (01:49:07):
Uh, there's like a little like circle-y thing in
the top left corner and you canclick on like character builder
there maybe.

Karl (01:49:13):
Characters Daggerheart.

Richard (01:49:17):
And if not, I'll pull it up and just read it off to
you, since I'm more familiarwith this and like this entire
adventure's free off their site.
Like you can just download andrun this adventure.

Karl (01:49:28):
Edit character Level let's go level two.
Adventure Edit character Level.
Let's go level two.

Richard (01:49:35):
So first, it would be a new experience, right?
I know what I would recommendas your DM, but I'm curious to
see what you would think offirst.

Karl (01:49:47):
I see.
So create an experience,increase proficiency, get level
up options.

Richard (01:49:56):
And it's cool that you just pick your favorite two
options on the list.

Karl (01:50:01):
And then domain deck card.
Okay, that's actually one otherthing which I guess, if you're
playing in person, it makessense just have a deck of cards
and you're like, yeah, these arethe things you can choose.
And then you choose tar cardsand build your loadout.
Just reading the rule books Iget it, but it also seems

(01:50:30):
superfluous.

Richard (01:50:31):
Well, it's interesting because it's like in person.
I see the logic and on thewebsite there's literally just a
slot on the character sheetwhere you can just write down
what the feature does.
So if you skip out the cardsand just write down your
AnswerS3 community domain card,you absolutely can do it that
way.
They also have an onlinecharacter creator where you can
put your character's artwork onyour character's cards and then,

(01:50:51):
like I think they're planningto expand that you can have your
custom cards printed.
So, like I like it because it'sportable rules, right, like for
character building for asession, because they have
really extensive session zerosand just I do think just handing
people it than trying to pass abook around.
It makes sense if you'replanning to run session zeros in
person Hmm, people with thantrying to pass a book around.

(01:51:12):
It makes sense if you'replanning to run.

Karl (01:51:13):
Session Zeros in person.

Richard (01:51:17):
Hmm, but I can't see the like you don't?
It's like a way of them beinglike here's our feats.
I'm like, yeah, the feats areall just in the book and you can
just write them down on theboxes, on your sheet, if you
wanted.

Karl (01:51:26):
Hmm.

Richard (01:51:30):
But I digress.
Also, the rulebook has fullDelicious in the Dungeon rules.
They call it Beast Feast andit's just rules to have the
Dungeon Meshier campaign.

Karl (01:51:42):
Well, I think, with that, we should probably call it a
night.

Richard (01:51:46):
Yeah, I don't think we get a random question this week,
Actually I will ask you arandom question.
Random question.
Think we get a random questionthis week.

Karl (01:52:00):
Actually, I will ask you a random question, random
question after this experience,what class would you play if you
were to make a character forthis game?
Oh um, rogue has always been myfavorite, so I probably
actually want to try rogue nextum, would you keep the throwing
blade spell, do they?
Have that same domain, becausethat was a sick spell.

Richard (01:52:13):
Yeah, so they get the darkness domain and I think they
get the stabby domain as well,where you got the darkness and
the magic.

Karl (01:52:22):
I like the blade spell that would be on a rogue yeah.

Richard (01:52:28):
Awesome To prove a point on their Discord server
because I always pop in.
People are like I want to makea new class for a Gish.
I'm like actually the rules forthis game you could just give a
sword to a wizard and I built awar wizard that was a melee hit
stuff build and I'm like that'sdefinitely what I would play.
Is this wizard who just pullsout a cloud sword and starts
beating you?
Who's high status strength?

(01:52:48):
Yeah, starts beating you?
Who's high status strength?
Yeah, all right.
So thank you for everyone whotuned into this special episode
and let us know if you want meto make carl play more ttrpgs on
stream in their entire daysyeah, I mean, let let richard
know, uh, because I'm not theanalytics dude, that's.

(01:53:10):
That's richard, I mean to befair, if anyone actually sends
you like a letter, we would dothe thing like if you ever
received a communicationsuccessfully from a fan for how
much harder we've made that forthis world we would do the thing
if I ever successfully receivedcommunication but happy gaming,

(01:53:32):
happy D&D and happy not givingWizards of the Coast money as
they send mercenaries afterpeople.
Bye, bye.
Legal disclaimer Don't sue usWizards, don't sue us Critical
Role, don't sue us Daggerheart.
We don't have money.
Bye, bye.

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Daggerheart: A One-Shot Adventure Through the Sablewood

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