134 Dangerous Secrets

Our heroes seek to ally themselves with a Black Dragon...

Episode Transcript

(00:21):
Hello, and welcome to Attackers Opportunity. This is your DM Michael. I'm
sitting around a virtual table with someof my friends and we're about to play
some D and D. No,Mike, all right. When last we
left off on our heroes, theyhad completed the general rituals of Burial silver
Thrust, a dwarf and companion brieflyin their party that had faced off against

(00:44):
an achromatic lord in the past.After that, they spent a little bit
of time shopping. And while shoppingwas happening, there was also a bit
of chaosa investigation going. Some questionswere asked of Octavious Trigg, an agent
of the Council of Sini Sma.There was I mean some people would consider
it torture. I believe it wasat twenty eight to Tickle with threats of
the situation of the tickles, andafter a time Octavius spilled his guts to

(01:11):
try to make the tickle torture stop. In all of this, he revealed
secrets about Maive's past, where perhapsher grandparents are still alive and that her
father perhaps lied to her. Herevealed information to Moonbeam about how with the
favors that she owes to others thatyes, you can perform services, but

(01:33):
sometimes you can barter your way outof them if you have the right information.
Dickie also learned some of his ownhistory, or rather the history of
his family, and the whole partylearned a little bit more about the automata
sort of mechanized soldiers and laborers ofthe country of Sinisma, who seemed to
actually be empowered by sole fragments ofpeople who are put into these mechanical bodies

(01:57):
to power them. If you're adoctor who fan thing sort of cybermen,
maybe a little Dollek kind of peacein there, just for a frame of
reference. Valik also had an interestingencounter with one of the high priests of
the dwarfing god Morden, in whichthe priest to Morden wanted to lay a
blessing on Valik, but some sortof feedback you might say, hit the

(02:19):
priest, causing him to go abit catatonic and start muttering things under his
breath about avatars and champions and beingunited. And the party also found out
quite a bit about potential other locationswhere corruptions are seeping into the water or
other creatures, other places of poweror issue are both on the Eastern continent

(02:40):
and perhaps elsewhere on the Western continent. However, the Eternal Dragon several episodes
back had given them a quest todeal with some of the corruptions on the
eastern coast, so it seemed likethe party was headed in that direction.
However, to get there they neededto find some kind of transportation. So
fortunately Captain Blackfang, may sort ofadoptive older brother, his pirate ship was

(03:00):
in the port of Knos after afew days of waiting. Oh, I
suppose I should also mention Octavia's Triggtold Meave that perhaps there's some darker history
with Captain black Fag, so atthe end of the last episode, may
have had perched herself on Captain blackFag's shoulder and said that we need to
talk at time. Ah, littleone, there you are again. Ah
good, good. I hope thatyou and your friends would be able to

(03:22):
board the ship quickly. We've offloadedour cargo, made a pretty penny at
selling some shall we say, cheaplydiscounted goods. Yes, and we are
preparing to set sail. We'll beready to pull off in about half an
hour. All of your friends aboard. Are they? Oh? We are
now, I believe Wait, holdabout he's busy with the stands. Oh,

(03:43):
dick, he's signing autographs. Ofcourse he is. He offer me
all right, I'm here I tothrow someone on the water. Think.
I think with all of that wehave him most of me. Excellent.
So shall we off to total DragonIsland again? Yes, as soon as
possible do A quick head counters everybodyhere. Octavious Trigg is there. He
is a little herky jerky in hismotions of walking. He does have a

(04:08):
guess laid upon him where he hasto be a true and stalwart companion and
think nothing of self harm. Ithink faithful and stalwart. Faithful and stalwart
doesn't mean he has to be happyabout being with all of you. He
just you know, can't kill himselfto end it all, to get out
of the punishment that he fears awaitshim once you all reach Cinisma in the
future. Well, he tried toescape on No, I can't remember.

(04:30):
He will get hurt if he triesto do anything outside of the gais command
basically, and we said that wasthe gayest man. Can he leave or
is it for him to stay withit, so you will act as a
faithful and stalwart friend to me inthe Platinum Ring, with no thought to
self harm. You said act,and we didn't say anything about him overhearing
stuff and passing on right. Nope, So when you get a second,

(04:54):
we have to all get together andspeak. Have you also met our new
friend Octavious? He is in ourcompany for the time. Man, he's
my man servant slash guide, right. I would not say anything untoured around
him, though, just be justbe a little careful. He's very chatty.
Captain black Thing's head kind of turnsand starts to almost measure what kind

(05:15):
of man Octavius is in all ofthis. He's certainly getting odd messaging from
all of you. And after amoment he almost dismisses Octavius out of hand,
turns back to amaving, goes,oh, well, in that case,
come come with me, all ofyou. We will have a drink
before we set sail right less anddrink, and with that he will guide
you into the captain's quarters. Allof the furniture in here is kind of

(05:36):
bolted down that way with the shiprocks in stormy. Whether the tables don't
go sliding one way or the other. There are grooves in the table where
you can actually like set your plateor set your cup so that there's a
little bit of protection around it sothe plate won't go sliding. As well.
The room as much as you sawlast time that you were on Captain
Black Things ship a little bit ofmess and clutter, but generally in place,

(06:00):
it seems to be a case ofoh, Captain Black Thing pulled this
out, looked at it for afew minutes, set it down, and
maybe he'll go back and I lookat it again, or he'll clean it
up before the ship gets off intorougher water. We we're going to leave
Octavius with somebody. I was gonnasay, we can just like send him
to like get or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, volac will stay
with Octavius. Volkes in fact beenlike hovering around Octavious because he's blue and

(06:27):
Joe blue blue. You'll find outwhy later. Don't kill him, Okay,
no, you don't do that.Sorry. Maybe Octavius needs some rest,
I'm not maybe you know, yes, And if Octavius chooses to rest,
polic will watch over him. Infact, when Octavious like gets some
food and we like drink Bolos theone like offers him more from his own
portions. Well, Octavius did goa few days without much in the way

(06:48):
of food and beverage, so Bolcnursing him back to help seems appropriate and
keeping with Ballex mindset. So theother four of you then are in Captain
Blackfing's quarters, and after pulling outa bottle and boring a few cups of
wine, and one of them isa bit smaller for Moonbeam, a little
closer to it stands probably as tallas Moonbeam does, but it's at least

(07:11):
smaller than the mugs and steins thatthe rest of you all have. He
lifts up his goblet, offers alittle silent cheer, and takes a sip.
Goes all right, then, Sowhere are you all off to this
time? What new misadventure do youhave? Well, it would seem we
need to return to the shatter Dials. Yes, you're joking, right,
I truly wish I was the ShadowDials all myth? Oh, buddy,

(07:34):
I don't believe there's anything that's amyth anymore. I mean, if they're
a myth, then I'm a blacktrack. Can I roll insight the look
name gives, Oh bad, hereyes dilate, just do like the cat
black real fast at it. Ohyeah, and then right back into place

(07:54):
and just okay. Obviously not amyth, so hold on. He wanted
to roll in side on something onCaptain Yeah, okay, at what particular
moment are you when he goes,but they're okay and they have to sign
and beyond. Also, val itlooks like you rolled a medicine check there

(08:15):
a moment ago I did so.Valik has been meditating. I'm contemplating tickling
and the effect that it has ona human body and using it as a
form of torture a monster, wellsomeone to torture them. I'm tickling pretty
sure. Stimulation nerves, yes exactly. Pale learned it and has decided that,

(08:39):
you know, that's a still stimulationof nerves. It is unpleasant,
unwanted, so it is definitely torture, and he now feels very guilty about
being party too bad. Watching youtwenty Dirty twenty, he seems to genuinely
believe that the shadowed aisles are maybeyour cat eyes, and shooting a look

(09:03):
at Dorian seemed to go unnoticed byCaptain blackfan does he react in anyway in
that moment. Do you want toroll an insight on him? Sure?
I mean Dorian certainly does fans justenjoying the show. Well, that's a
force. That's a fuck off.No, it's okay. She did look
away from him. That's an eighteenfrom Dorian. Nice. He seems to

(09:24):
have no reaction when you say,well, if that's the case, then
I'm a black Dragon. Seems haveno reaction. He's remind me whether do
I know he is or do Ijust suspect he is. Octavious Trigg has
told you that he is because Octaviou'sTrigg was attasked with finding information about ways
of remaking the spell Cloak and allthat as part of the Council's deal with

(09:46):
Girard arch Major Girard as they referredto him, and for that, knowing
that one of the items that wasneeded was the scale of a black dragon.
He was researching that information and hecertainly believes that he found evidence improve
of Captain Blackfang being a black Dragon. He has never met Captain Blackfang before
in person. And it then dependson whether you trust Octavius's information is good

(10:09):
or not. The person your ownhistory with Captain Blackfan, right, so
I'm not going to push that.It would seem that my father may have
some input as to where the shatteredisles maybe, so any idea where he
may be. Well, he looksoutside through the porthole for a moment,
looks the sun, thing, well, if the Turtle Dragon Island is where
I think it is right now,he's at a tavern. Of course,
he's been pretty much at a tavernsince the news of your death reached his

(10:33):
ears. I never claim to bedead. When did she die? The
ship you were on went down,debris was found, some dead bodies were
foul, but not fine, notyours truth. So that's an assumption.
Yes, I can't fault that logic. But you've also now had what almost
a year since the ship went down, to tend a message you were on
Turtle Dragon Island. I could havepointed you at the tavern your father was

(10:54):
probably at, and you did nothing. You in fact asked me not to
tell your father that you were rude. Dicky, do not make assumptions about
my family. Sometimes it's best tostay hidden. I said that she was
not your family. Again, littleone, I can't fault your logic on
that. My father should know better. He should know that I can survive
something more than a small crash.And if he wanted to sit there and
assume that I'd been dead the entiretime without trying to reach out himself,

(11:16):
that's on him. He knows whathe did wrong in the first place.
It is not upon my person,nor is it my fault that he made
the assumptions that he did. Littlesistood your life with your sets of decisions.
I can only say what I haveseen of the man. Well,
and I think it's time for areunion. Well in that case, who
he will shovel off and make away from children Dragon Island? Yeah?
Well, then, how much moreof this wine do you have left for

(11:39):
you gallants? I'm gonna need it. Just reaches and immediately just starts drinking.
I think that will be all Fredrian, Yes, that's ten for me,
none for you, ten for me, none for you. I will
have. You will, however,refill moonbeams like thimble. After most of

(12:03):
the bottle is gone, he willgo near the front door of his cabin
and he'll pull on a string,and a moment later, one of the
cabin boys opens the door slightly.Captain Black Fang says, bring up the
good barrel, and a few minuteslater a sort of half keg size barrel
shows up with a spicket already tappedinto it, and it is brought in.

(12:24):
Two cabin boys kind of carry itand then set it on one of
the table ends, and then theydepart. One of the little let's see
what race shall I make them?I don't know, but now I really
want wine. We'll say. Oneof them is in ericcra and probably pretty
young. You see that, likeone of their wings is maybe it's either
perhaps a birth defect or there wasan accident of something, and one of

(12:46):
the wings is much smaller than theother. And he like looks at you
and he sees, you know,the half elf and to back SI and
a human, and then he seesthe pixie and this look of like the
beak drops open like oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,
and the other Kevin boy kind ofgrabs him and pulls him out of

(13:07):
the room. They do exist.I do believe in fairies. I do.
Clapping starts happening. Yeah, Istarted to glow more. The outside
of all of that reuniting and familyand go into mythological places. We have
an awful lot of more information aboutthe end of the world. Yes,

(13:28):
end of the world is bad forbusiness, so what can I do to
help well, So that's Octavious thatwe brought with us, was hunting down
a couple of different things and hadall sorts of information. You can tell
us. Honestly, I trust everybodyin this room. Are you a dragon?
His head cocked to the side asthough a dog hearing an unusual noise,
because you think I'm a dragon?Logically no, but at this point

(13:48):
logic doesn't really make a sense anymore. I don't know where you're going with
this one, little sister. Oneof the things that is going to be
needed for the end of those worldsare black dragon scales. So dragons that
may exists are in danger and wehave to keep them safe. Everybody roll
a perception check and may have canadd in an insight as well. When

(14:11):
he sis nice, it's an eighteenfor perception and in eighteen for insight,
that is an eight perception for Dorian. Oh, come on, flashbacks of
the party the other night, justlike, oh god, no more,
why oh no? You know whatDorian puts on his glasses. Damn it.

(14:31):
It is not a visual cue.Honestly, it's a scent. Who
is it? Fire? Is itwould? Burning? Was number for perception
eleven, So mayven moonbeam. Younotice a sudden sharp smell in the room.
I don't know if any of youhave ever spent time in a swamp.
Oh my god, yeah, andthat like fetted bog rot smell.

(14:56):
Yes, suddenly a whiff of thatshow Parpley hits your nose slat years,
Yes, Dorian and Dicky. Aftera moment you do get a oh,
well, that's that's a bit ofunpleasant odor. What's that was gonna make
it smell like flowers? After itsposition? And may with your eighteen insight

(15:20):
as well with the line of youknow, black Dragon need to be protected.
Black Fang has this moment of almostabsolute stillness, like almost like he
suddenly became a painting for a moment, like there was no wreath, there
was no little weave as a personwho just kind of standing there and they
sort of move a little bit thatthere was nothing, as though it was

(15:41):
just the an image paused in frontof you and then resumed. She leans
forward, very very very quietly,preferably so that only he can hear.
But isn't a room full of run? Is that a yes? He turns
his head as you've leaned in towardshim, goes, do you really want
me to answer that question? Ina voice very different than what you have

(16:02):
heard before? I believe that does. She sits back and takes another drink
of wine, puts it down.So that's the update. How are you?
His right hand on the arm ofthe chair starts clacking a little bit
as he rolls. You know,it's the pinky two middle fingers pointer,
that kind of just rolling click.He does that two or three times and

(16:22):
sits up a little bit straighter,and a lot of the almost perennial good
humor that he has had has droppedaway, some of the artifices of all
of that. And he goes andhe looks each of you four intern since
Alex in the other room knows yourealize I have killed for far less than
what you have insinuated here. Well, that makes a lot of sense.

(16:45):
Realize now, which is right?Dorian gets up and checks the door to
make sure nobody's listening. But atto the end of the day it's me.
It's still me, and we cameback to you very specifically for protection
our own and yours. It's informationthat you would need in any of your
own plan, would need to knowas well. If there's anyone else left.
They're already far too close and we'vedone everything in our powers. Time

(17:06):
we get some help. We speakof the Necromanca lord. He's the one
that will be hunting you. Ihave felt, seen, known other threats
against me. Why do you thinkI spend time on ships with well armed
pirates who are loyal and paid well, who know not what they serve,
so no one else knows. Again, I have killed far more, far

(17:26):
less than what you've insinuated here.I understand there's no one else in your
confidence. Not on this ship.There are but a handful of sentience that
know my place, and one ofthem has the trade. Your Gloria knows
you all have information that you shouldnot. So I am left with the
choice of either trusting you all killingyou all where you stand. What have

(17:49):
we ever done to you to makeyou untrustworthy? The only reason I have
not killed you yet is you,little sister. You, over the years
have proven at least in amiable presenceand your father are much quieter than the
rest, which is why I've beenable to tolerate you to the best.
All right, the necro answer Lordis hunting me for the black Dragon scales.

(18:10):
That that is the threats that youbring my way. Oh, we
don't bring it. We destroyed oneof his artivas. He's trying to replace
it. And this is how andthat is how he will bring about the
end. And this isn't the firsttime. He's tried, got very far
before, but people knocked him down, I remember, And now he's getting
that power back again. What doyou remember? I mean, I was
alive when he was rising in thefirst place. I was not in this

(18:36):
form at the time. Of course, that's a valid question, though,
what do you remember of that time? What I remember most is after he
was defeated, so much energy,so much power was released that the hillsides
of what is now Tavaha burned forweeks. The ground kicked up. What

(18:56):
was once beautiful forests and rolling planeswas filled with jagged stones, burned trees,
and very little life. That centuriessince, some of that life had
returned. Some of the Gablin tribeshad staked out a meager existence. You
all of course know about them.That's else's trying to help them. Every

(19:18):
few centuries, it seems some nearworld ending calamity raises its ugly maw.
But then there's always a few ofyou who think themselves heroes, that the
world to status quo. I've knownme too long to think that I would
ever consider myself a hero. Areyou insinuating that it would be better if
we didn't save the world, Well, destroying the world is bad for business.

(19:41):
Yeah, the world is destroyed.There's no sea. No sea means
no ships. No ships means notreasure to be had. Where you just
seem to be so negative about heroes, we're setting the world to status quo.
Almost every one of my dragon brethrenthat I have met over the millennia
of my life was by quote unquoteheroes hashtag natal heroes. Remind you,

(20:03):
that's all we have said since wewalked into this room is that we only
wish for you to keep on drawingbreath. They give us more like a
sword as opposed to heroes, andso far you will notice that all of
you are still drawing breath. We'redefinitely dragging ally. He takes a moment,
and he stares at Dorian. Dorian, give me a wisdom saving throwing.

(20:26):
I mean he's a fine looking statimanA little back. You good?
Oh, I wrote a natural one. Wow, it's almost like you want
him to take over your mind.That's a five scream directly into it.
Yeah, thanks a lot. Afterafter a beat, he looks at Moonbeam

(20:48):
and starts to stare at Moonbeam.Moonbean, give me a wisdom saving throw.
Yeah, hell yeah, I gota nap. Twenty plus ten is
thirty. You feel this almost waveof energy rush out to you, and
maybe your time in the Fay Wildhas even given you a little bit of
sense of this there is. It'snot straight telepathy, it's not mind control,

(21:14):
but it is an almost reading anenergy that is touching you, interacting
with your or your power, yourenergies, and you get a feeling as
though it's trying to find your shapeof your personal magical energy source, mindset,
soul itself. Fun. I feellike it feels very warm to her,
so she as soon as she feelsthat, she'll just kind of like

(21:36):
flit up, maybe like a footin front of him, just smiling.
This actually makes a lot of sense. Because Dorian is at this very moment
not trying to hide anything that makesperfect sense. And after a moonbeam flies
into his face for a moment,he will turn and he will look at
Dickie. Dickie, give me awisdom saving throw all the times to have

(22:00):
the paladin with us? Yeah?Oh no, why is my wisdom zero?
Okay, it makes sense for Dickie, Dicky, that's right, Dandy's
unite. Would you roll five?Same same as me? Dandy's Unite?
No, No, I don't thinkyou understand. I rolled the five one,

(22:22):
I have four zero. So,after a brief moment at Dicky,
he looks back at May and doeskind of a slow walk to his chair
as though pondering, sits in hischair for a moment, kind of leans
back, one hand on the edgeof the table, the other brought up
to his chin, stroking what littlebit of stubble exists, and goes,

(22:48):
well, if I am dropping artificesin front of you, may dropped the
artifice of your name as well.Yeah we've heard it. But are you
still keeping secrets after you want meto reveal mine? They cannot? All
right, Trey, I will saythis. Your friends are surprisingly simple lot,

(23:08):
but there is not a great dealof deception in any of them.
Moonbeam holds her cards a little closerto the chest than most, but I
imagine there's very good reason for thatfrom a fae. Well, did your
hair starts to burn a little?Honestly, that's partly why we keep her
around. If you are dropping all, then I shall as well, other

(23:32):
than form what i'd hate to ruinmy ship by growing to my full size.
Now, at some point, Iwould truly love to say that even
amongst dragon kind, I am unique. I was born with a twin,
and my twin and I have theability to not just through magic perhaps try
to telepathically communicate with someone, orread someone's mind, or command their existence,

(23:53):
but I can also sense the emotionsof those around me. Now,
I appeared into the emotional essence ofyour friends as I would long ago peered
into yours when you were but achild, and I see that they are
trying to do their best. Noneof you directly meet me harm in this

(24:14):
moment. So you wish to protectme. I wish to protect myself.
You wish to stop the necromancer Lord, and the best way for me to
protect myself is to aid you inthat that would be so helpful. Yes,
I will get you where you aregoing. I will get you to
your father if you wish to speakwith him about the shattered aisles of yours
a name that I have heard before, but no one that I've ever met

(24:38):
has actually been able to say thatthey have seen them, all set foot
on them. And should you needmy assistance, you can call on me
and I will offer what aid Ican. But you must all swear enough
to tell another soul on this.So that's well. Not to tell another
soul about this. She just turnsto Dickie and her eyes dilate one more
and once more. Not single soul. We don't write it down, We

(25:03):
don't tell the tale. I putmy book away. As far as we're
concerned, dragons are still a myth. Yeah I've never seen one, so
yeah, yes, yes it is. It can be known that dragons,
black dragons. I am a dragon? Is what must not be told?
How will you? I don't evenknow you have? Bet Is he always

(25:23):
liked this, Freya? Yes,certainly not the conversation I thought I would
be having today, No, notthe one I wanted to have. I'd
rather sit here and just drink.At the end of the day, I'm
still Freia, and you're still mybig brother, and my eyes nothing has
changed. And he takes deep breathin, lets it out, and a

(25:44):
change again comes over him. Abit still the same look, but suddenly
that jovial manner is back. Itgoes well. I suppose if we're all
going to drink, then we shouldgrab another round. I was your tall
blue friends. Shouldn't he be herefor a glass of wine? We can
go ask him, But I believehe's watching after our companion, who might

(26:04):
actually be a good addition to theboat if you need another set of hands
that you can control at control hishead again kind of turns a little to
Moonbeams, like, what power doyou have over him? Moonbeam is very
very powerful. I just convinced himto stick around as our friend for a
while forwards. Companion that said linefolding probably wouldn't be a bad idea,

(26:27):
or if there's anything you can doto check on him, whether or not
there's some kind of tracking device.Also, we need to some point redo
his non detection span every eight hours. Yes, no problem, and you
probably would have recast it before youleft. The Silver. You're maybe three
hours into the eight hours. Atthis point, there's plenty of I have

(26:48):
alarm. Thank you for listening toAttackers of Opportunity. We really enjoyed making
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(27:08):
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