Stories with Dice
Stories with Dice is an actual-play podcast where a fellowship of everyday gamers explores fantastical worlds, distant futures, and parallel realities through tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) from Free League Publishing, Chaosium, Modiphius Entertainment, and more.
Over the years, we’ve told stories around our virtual table in the worlds of Tales from the Loop, Pendragon, Mutant Year Zero, Star Trek Adventures, The One Ring, The Electric State, Forbidden Lands, Legend of the Five Rings, and Symbaroum. Going forward, we’re focusing on a smaller lineup of games, giving us more opportunities to return to each story sooner. As campaigns reach their natural conclusions, we’ll add new stories from the worlds of Twilight: 2000, Vampire: The Masquerade, The Walking Dead, and more.
We’re not voice actors, professional entertainers, or trained performers—just friends from around the globe sharing virtual dice, stories, and a laugh or two as the game unfolds.
Stories with Dice
Juniper Song Episode 3: A Forbidden Lands Actual Play Podcast
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The Folk Vandals Club arrives in Ravensong, a village where echoes of a forgotten past linger beneath the warmth of newfound friendships. There, the band performs their first concert beyond the familiar bounds of Juniper Song.
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This is Juniper Song, a Forbidden Lands Actual Play podcast from Stories with Dice. If you're enjoying our actual plays, please subscribe to Stories with Dice so you'll never miss an episode. Don't forget to rate and review us. It really helps others discover the podcast. Follow us on social media to stay updated. You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode.
SPEAKER_02Scott! Hello. Ahead, hello, how are you doing? I'm good. I thought I'd just stop with you for a change instead of the other sit up a bit. Indeed. Tony, how are you doing? Hello. I'll go. Are you looking forward to this session? I am. Yes. Because, you know. Marco, hi.
SPEAKER_03Hello. I'm hearing an echo. Well, that can't be good. It's faint, but I'm hearing it. But let's just proceed and Okay.
SPEAKER_02Hopefully. I don't know why. I'm gonna just check my other mic's not on and it's not. Yes. So last session you decided to molt murder murder a uh a Russ brother in cold blood or warm blood in this case. I wouldn't I wouldn't call it murder. It's it's subjective to whoever's doing the poking with the very large spear. And one would say to whoever is being poked. This is also true.
SPEAKER_03He's a Russ brother, he deserved it. Well, that's cool. Well he is and he had and and Ed showed me his image. He had a creepy skull mask, so tell me you wouldn't have if he showed up with a creepy skull mask, you wouldn't have been happy that I dispatched him.
SPEAKER_05He wasn't wearing a creepy skull mask. Was that an image that you showed us before? An image of what he looked like? Oh, in that case we changed my opinion.
SPEAKER_02What he looked like. See? That is an image of him. That is not what he looked like when you met him.
SPEAKER_00Okay. When you met him? This sounds ominos. Are we gonna meet him again?
SPEAKER_02Well, you did meet him, and and now he he just wasn't looking that way because he wasn't in his ceremonial garb, he was just in his travelling kit.
SPEAKER_03Right. What I'm saying is that's what that's what these people look like. Their ceremonial garb is creepy, evil shit, so fuck him, and glad he's dead. Okay. Well, somebody to death.
SPEAKER_02That's gonna be our next hit. His body is floating away, but his camp is still there. I guess we'll start the session there. You three well, two and a half of you is looking at Gray. So like, what?
SPEAKER_03Whatever, he was a Russ brother, he deserved to die.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna check his camp. We should have asked him first. We don't know this person. You just killed somebody for no reason whatsoever, Gray. I had a perfectly good reason. What was the reason? He's a Russ brother. That's not enough reason. We didn't know this person. Do you know what a Russ brother is? It's really nice to us. He show us what they Yes, and we saved you from them, but that doesn't mean that this person, this specific person, was gonna do anything to you. He seems like to be presumption. Whatever, I'm checking out his camp.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, as he kind of like won as you wander over to his camp, you can see there is what's left of the embers of a small fire. There is a a bedroll that's laid out on the on the ground, but there is also a backpack. There is some water and some food in the backpack. If anyone wants to take said food, it will increase their die by one. Just out of curiosity, is there any fishing equipment? Is there any fishing equipment? Well, he told us he was going for fishing. Yep. You look through his fishing equipment, and surprise, surprise, you do not find any fishing equipment. So that's heck to begin with. What you do find in his in his backpack is a skull mask made of a rusted metal cracked mask, and I will share the artwork again. It basically is all cracked and rusting, and it kind of is like a faceplate, which you'd be able to put on robes. There is also chains which look like they go on manacles, and there are some dark red and yellow robes all kind of like situated in the bottom of this rucksack. But there does not appear to be much of anything else. There is a flail on the floor, and there is also a scroll case, which is also on the floor. I will open the scroll case. Okay, you open the scrollcase and it looks like there is a bunch of parchments and stuff inside. Can I read them? You can indeed. Can you read? That's what I'm asking. Yeah, you pull them out. Yeah, you can read, I guess. What's your what's your wits? My wits is five, my lore is zero. Yeah, you can read. It looks like it is a a bunch of confessions from people. Yeah, multiple multiple confessions from people. Is what you can read. Confessions about what? Yep. About how they are well let's have a look. One of them is one about not being able to have brought Rust into their life. One saying they followed the protector in in error, and so they felt that their life should be forfeit in sacrifice to rust. So there's a lot of that.
SPEAKER_03I burn it all, I throw the fucking mask into the river. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Hurdon, Henjuan, do either of you want to do anything else?
SPEAKER_00No, I just let him because he seems to be needing to bent his anger. So I'm just I will just let him do whatever in a case. Sure.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah, you do that. You you burn the um the uh the parchment scroll. It doesn't take much in the embers to the either.
SPEAKER_03I take it, I take his food, I burn all of his supplies, throw the mask into the river. Who wants the flail? Does anybody want a flail? No.
SPEAKER_05I will probably brain myself if I try and use a flail. Alright. I'll toss the flail in the water. I will pass. Thank you very much.
unknownOkay?
SPEAKER_02Toss everything in the river, burn what you can.
SPEAKER_00Probably thinking about this in a pretty you know practical way, we probably should make sure that the other brothers don't find anything that can link to us. So I kind of approve of what you're doing.
SPEAKER_05We I think we need to just just just discuss the elephant in the room here. And there I know, yeah, you your rationale, entirely legitimate. However, we can't just stab everybody we meet. Russ brother or no, because next time there might be like other people around to see it, and you know, things like consequences. And I don't like consequences because they tend to hurt.
SPEAKER_03There wasn't anyone around. If there were, I wouldn't have done it. You think I'm an idiot? Can you guarantee he's dead? Yes. Have you seen the body? Yes, it sank. Have we? It sank. And there was a lot of blood.
SPEAKER_05This is true. Just hope this doesn't come back to haunt us. Seems that seems silly. Why would that happen? Should we go and check out this river someplace? See if we can find a very, very stiff drink and then someone's play some music too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's not mention anything about this when we get to the other town, Ravensong. Just keep it between us.
SPEAKER_06Yep, same thing.
SPEAKER_05No, we don't want to tell nobody how we killed the mendicant holy man is probably a really good idea. Yeah? He's not a holy man. We don't know what faith these guys in Riversong follow.
SPEAKER_02They might be old Raz brothers, yeah. Good point. Cass says uh I understand great, I understand. She kind of like plats you on the bat and kinda like says Yeah, no, I I I've got your back, she says.
SPEAKER_03At least someone in this band has my back. He was quick. It's all their fault.
SPEAKER_05They're fine. Don't get me wrong. We'll have your back in a fight, but if we don't have to fight, that would be kinda awesome as well. In a fight like that, you know I'm always behind you. At least six feet behind you.
SPEAKER_03I know, I know Biradan, I know.
SPEAKER_00Well, anywho, I will lead the way.
SPEAKER_02Let's move on. Okay, let's move on. So you you kind of step maybe well, there's a road that obviously goes across the on this side of the bridge, and that road matches up with a road that heads northeast, southwest, and it follows kind of near to the river. Not not right next to the river, but but near to the river. And so it kind of follows in the direction down towards the mountains. And I assume you are going to wander in that direction along the road?
SPEAKER_03Yes. The echo is gone by the way, so weird. I don't know what that was all about.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, so you uh you're gonna make your way following the road, which is again much like the other road, it's kind of old stones and sort of like shingle, and it hasn't been used for a long time. There's loads of weeds that have grown up on it. Yeah, you make your way further south and you follow the uh follow the river on your left hand side as you head towards the mountains in the distance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that seems the right path, so I guess it's easy to follow, no? It is really easy to follow. Then you need to run.
SPEAKER_02You well lead the way. If you want to lead the rain, you can have an extra plus two.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so modify your plus two.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just make sure you don't kind of like get yourself into too much trouble. Looks so and eight.
SPEAKER_02Okay. That should be a day. And you got one success. Yep, it is pretty straightforward. It doesn't take long to kind of make your way along the road, and again, it's pleasant enough this afternoon, and you make your way through the plains. You're basically following grassland, and the road kind of winds through the sort of like undulating grassland. Every now and then you get closer to the river and then you get away from the river, all the while heading towards very large mountains in the southwest.
SPEAKER_00Which we know these mountains, right? Because they're also to Juniper song.
SPEAKER_02Indeed. So this is just like the the extension of it. Yeah, you make your way for the rest of the early part of the afternoon, and you don't seem to meet anyone, and you keep going until lo and behold, you go through yet another hex.
SPEAKER_01Yay! Hexing. There was much merrymaking. We are hexing. Move us. Okay. There you go. I've moved you on the map.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You're making your way through the map, and you come across a palisaded town. Let me give you a quick description of this lovely town as you get towards it. So you're pretty much following this main road. You've got the plains either side, the for uh the the the the mountains and the hills behind the town. As you're making your way towards the town, you can see in the um in the distance. Hopefully you can all see this this time. Very cool. Settled on the windsweat plains, not far from the river, you can see a beacon of survival amid the shifting grasses and biting winds. The wind is like whipping up here. There is a palisade made of thick timber reinforced stakes. It creaks against relentless air currents, and there is a a lot of coreing noises as soon as you get closer, and a whole bunch of ravens basically fly out from the actual uh palisade, making an almighty sort of racket as they as they kind of like fly out. And as they do that, not long after, you can see a couple of heads appear above the palisade where a small gatehouse stands, which is where the road is going to the main road does go past the village, but the the gatehouse is sort of facing onto the road, and there's like a small path that leads onto that onto that village. Behind you can see the mountains and the beginnings of hills and just in the near distance.
SPEAKER_03Is there anyone at the gate of the palisade?
SPEAKER_02There's no one at the gate. The doors are shut, or the gates are shut, but you can see two people's heads sticking up over the over the parapet of the palisade. And one of them looks over at you, and you can see he has a um bow in his hands. And um he hasn't got the bow raised or or aimed at you in any way, but he he looks down and what are you doing here? Could you all please make a roll, please, of scouting? I probably can't, so I don't even bother rolling. Okay, cool. That's fine.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, I have roll, but it doesn't appear.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yours yours has appeared. Yeah, there's no second chance, it's just uh a passive uh roll. Yeah, you can see the guy shouts every goes. State your business.
SPEAKER_00Hello, the people of Raven's song. We are a merryman of troubadours that could be very happy to be singing for you tonight. Right? We are the Folks Vandal Club, best you've ever seen. And I turn around, you know, kind of show my troop. Yeah, you show them they're behind me, I guess. Because I'm leading the way, so I'm like I I try to, you know, make it like very fancy showing.
SPEAKER_02Hey, play the gambling. Catherine's like, what? She kind of grabs her tambourine and kind of does that kind of jing, then kind of looks at you in disgust.
SPEAKER_03You're losing points with the lady. And I see that.
SPEAKER_02The guy kind of goes, go get Halvar, and he says, wait there, wait there. And he they both disappear off of the other ring. And um how high is the palisade? It's about eight and a half, nine feet. Well, it's not particularly high. It's not a massively high palisade.
SPEAKER_00Is that a meter?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's not very much called. It's like what, three meters, three and a half, four metres? Yeah. It's enough to basically keep out anyone who or or the creatures and stuff, rather than a concerted attack of a large force. It's not really meant for that.
SPEAKER_05Or the massive invasive prowess of four members of a small rock band.
SPEAKER_02I think it's fairly to say that you're not getting in there. The door opens, and you see a broad-shouldered, silver-haired gentleman come walking out at the same person you saw that was on top, and he comes over and says, Yes, you are My name is Anduin from Juniper Song.
SPEAKER_00We are on the other side of the river, and you know, since now we felt like it was a good moment to start our touring, you know, we we you know you see we are kind of performers. We decided to start exploring these fair lands and to get to know our neighbors to show them our progress in singing and playing. And we thought, you know, that could be nice. It could be nice.
SPEAKER_02He looks to you and says, You have weapons?
SPEAKER_03I do have my knife. Yes, we must protect ourselves. He looks you up and down. We also have five musical instruments.
SPEAKER_02The loot strums again, probably finer than our weapons. He says, Juniper song, you say. I've not heard of junipersong for a very long time. We thought that they they had they had been perished in the blood mist. Well, like many others. Who knew? Well, why did you come in? Neighbours, he says.
SPEAKER_00Do they look weird? Like can we tell if they have anything that can give them off from Rust Brothers or something like this?
SPEAKER_02They do not appear to be looking Rust brothery. They do not appear to have any kind of stuff that looks Rust brothery. There doesn't appear to be any like broken metal, there doesn't appear to be sort of any images to Rust or Hime or anything like that. Okay.
SPEAKER_05I mean that that is a much smaller town than Juniper Solid. Ours. It is indeed.
SPEAKER_03Shall we burn it to the ground? I only jest. You say that now, but you know, it's still early in the session, surely. I love how Scott shot me them dagger eyes when I said that.
SPEAKER_05He's like, he's like, I will fucking kill you. At least at least wait for them to prove that they are all evil, right?
SPEAKER_02And sticking spears through them. Well, he says, come on in, come on in. As he kind of like ushers you in, you can see that there is a large building sort of towards the centre of the town. You can also see there is a small blacksmithing's shop, maybe. But what makes you kind of suddenly feel much better is to the north part of the village there is a small copse of juniper trees. Tony, you know that these are the same species of juniper tree that grows in juniper song.
SPEAKER_05Can I can I make a door check if I've heard of Ravenwood Village Riversong Village? Well, why didn't you do that? You sure have done that before. I probably should have, but I was too busy watching the guy who was telling us get stabbed through the chest with a spear. It tends to distract one from one's, you know, other professions. Let's see. Ooh. That's pretty good. I'll take that.
SPEAKER_02How many successes are that, sir? Three successes on the lore roll. Okay. Something twigs suddenly by looking at the juniper trees that are here and thinking, oh, what do I know about it? So somewhere you heard a story from town that before the blood mist and before Juniper's song was sort of like settled, you think that they that there was a large sort of town or or dual city that went across from where Juniper's song is across to Ravensong. The name of the you got three successors, the name of the town or the name of the the city was called Hymere, and for a long time you think that the that in the sort of like pastures around Ravensong and so and around uh Juniper Song, you have all those old sort of like structures, and you think that this maybe from a very long time ago would have been one city, but it would have been a massive city, it would have been a large city, which you can't quite comprehend because it would cover like two hectares worth of or more of city.
SPEAKER_05But we haven't seen like we haven't seen ruins or anything like that on our way over, have we? It's no you haven't.
SPEAKER_02It's very much been like plains and and it is plains, there's some forest, but mostly undulating plains. Yeah, so you you think that's the case and and you think in the back of your mind it has something to do with the juniper trees and the legend of of the spirits of the juniper circle. So that that kind of like swing swings to mind, and you think or you kind of surmise that Ravensong and Juniper Song probably at one point when the city or whatever happened to the city, they became two towns or two villages. I mean, this is definitely a very small village. I mean, calling it a village is probably very kind to it. You reckon having a look around town, there won't be more than 50 individuals here, maybe two, maybe three families at most, and some of the buildings that you see here are empty.
SPEAKER_05Looking at the but the people who are here, do they look healthy? Do they look sickly? I mean, do they look inbred? Because if you've got four or five families and they've been isolated from the world for you know two, three hundred years, it's probably not going to do great things for the gene pool.
SPEAKER_02No, you imagine that they are very careful about who they breed with, but there's only so many that you can have. But they're not all like kind of you know, six-eyed 27-toed people here. It's you know.
SPEAKER_03This is my brother Daryl, this is my other brother Daryl. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Clearly, they've obviously had some interaction with the outside world, but almost all of them are human, I think. Let me just check my notes. I think they're all human. This is where I'll find out that no, they're not. Yeah, they're all humans, and they all look like they're older landers. The uh so Halvar says, um, please, please come to the longhouse, and sort of like towards the centre of town, there is a large three-story stone and wooden structure which looks a little bit different to the other structures that are around. There are clearly it's a different style, and he takes you to the sort of like large longhouse and he ushers you in. You can see a long fire pit in the centre of the actual main room. It just looks like maybe two rooms downstairs, and there are lots of tables around the edge of this large fire. There is also what looks like a mezzanine which overlooks the fireplace, and you see stairs going up into the uh into the upstairs. You can see that there is that the wood is old and it's really dark and really, really heavy wood, presumably why it has not failed for however many centuries it's been around. Uh it looks like it's been maintained quite well. There are various old pennants sort of adorning the walls of this of this large vast chamber. A lot of the pendants look like they're almost threadbare and worn through. Some of them have got some colours in them, but most of them have kind of been worn through time. A lot of the pennants have some form of tree or foresty kind of motive to them.
SPEAKER_00Can we think that these pennants are kind of heraldry or something like this? Or the people who work here, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Probably from a very long time ago.
SPEAKER_00Do we recognize do I recognize anything from also Juniper? Like common ideas. This do we have this in junipers? You do not have this juniper song.
SPEAKER_02No, you don't have that at all. There is, you can definitely tell that on some of the pennants there are definitely juniper trees of various different ilks, but it's difficult to tell without having to like take it down and do a proper study of it. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, you you could easily say a whole hand for them look like they come from the same sort of heraldry, just slightly different. There's probably about 30 or 40 of them, kind of like plastered around the town. The um the mainland hall. And it appears this is where a lot of the people are. There are some kids, there are kids running around, families and halvosses. These are the, and he kind of looks over at you, the folk vandals club.
SPEAKER_05The folk vandals club. It's more of a it's a bit more dynamic, less, less pausing between words. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, they said they were going to perform for us, which is really nice. We haven't had anyone a minstrel or or anyone come here to do this for a very long time. So we're really grateful, aren't we, everyone? And they're like, yay! And they're all kind of like, yes, that's really nice. And they all kind of like some of them clap, some of the kids are kind of like wandering over to you. Definitely people are looking at you, Marco. They're kind of like, one of the kids like, but what is it, mummy? A growl. She hides behind the the mum, the mum says, That is a wolfkin. We haven't seen them for a while. The little kid kind of comes wandering over to you and goes, Hey, you're a bit like one of our dogs. And the mum like grabs the kid, like pulls her back and goes, That's rude. What is your name? She she basically ties her hair back.
SPEAKER_03She says, I am Tilly. Tilly. Hay is for horses. Do I look like a horse to you? No. I look like your doggy. A little bit. You can scratch me behind the ear. She looks at her mother.
SPEAKER_02Her mother's like, Oh my god, he's gonna rip her arm off. Um she kind of shrugs her shoulders and then scratches you behind your ear. My back leg starts thumping. And she she smiles and giggles. And then everyone kind of like breaks the ice and like, okay, that's fine. Yeah, they're more than happy to like settle you in. They have a room for you if you want to stay in a room. They've got some food. Obviously, if you're gonna play for them, they'll happily give you food and drink. They don't really have anything else really to give you. They can maybe do some trade. If you've got some damage to like iron item, the blacksmith could probably do something for you. Other than that, that's pretty much what they can make an offer you.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so we probably let us leave our stuff in this room, and we will be happily playing for you. What do you think, guys? Right on, cast, great. Let's go.
SPEAKER_05This place looks great to me. I mean, thank you, thank you for the offer of hospitality, and uh we look forward to repaying you with song later on this evening.
SPEAKER_02Well, we look forward to it. A couple of other people kind of like, you know, come and have a look, you know, they want to sort of look at the wolfkin. They also kind of are very interested in sort of like talking to you and want to find out about what's going on. There is a a woman that kind of like wanders uh sort of like this wrinkled old lady kind of like wanders over uh with like thick open burn braids in her hair. She comes wandering over to you, Anduin, and says, A uh fellow druid, it's nice to see you.
SPEAKER_00Are you the hello? Uh are you uh druid of the town?
SPEAKER_02I am indeed. I am the the spiritual uh leader of this small enclave. Very well. Are you the only one? Uh it is just me. I care for the uh for the uh the circle and I obviously oversee all the kind of healing that is required from the town. She kind of like holds, you know, she points to a bundle of dried herbs and stuff that's in like a sack on her side and says, Yes, I I I kind of do all those those other things that we should do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I introduce myself. My name is Anduin from Juniper Song.
SPEAKER_02Yes, we we kind of got that. She says, I'm at a Waymore. Nice to meet you.
SPEAKER_00Nice meeting you. Let me know if you require any help on your circle or any other thing that a fellow druid might help you, seeing that you are all alone in this town.
SPEAKER_02She says, um, well, this is fortuitous because I dreamed of your uh of your coming. Raven was very kind, as did Nyalistra. She she came to me and told me that you were coming. So Tony, you know that Noalystra is the name of the spirit from your village. Transportation. And she says, We're very grateful for you for you coming and and and just being here in you know in in in in a tough time.
SPEAKER_00Indeed. Indeed. Well, let me know if you need anything or if you need me to bring getting a message back to our town. We would be heading back after performing for you, fellows.
SPEAKER_02Well, that would be lovely, yes. I mean, if there's if there's something we can do, I mean some kind of trade perhaps, maybe your your leader can speak with our leader, and that would be really helpful. We certainly can arrange that. Be great. She wanders off and sort of like starts speaking to the others, and what's um what's Beridon gonna do?
SPEAKER_05Beridon is just gonna walk around and enjoy being somewhere new to draw inspiration from. He's gonna listen to you know people having conversations about people and places that he doesn't know. And because this is this is the first time in his life he's been in a place that's inhabited by people that aren't people he's seen every day since the day he since the day he was born.
SPEAKER_02It's amazing! Yeah, it it it is it is crazy, right? It's you you you kind of like wander out the longhouse, there's a rough sort of like handful of buildings, a small sort of cops of juniper trees. But other than that, you know, while it's going non-descript, it is very new. And so, yeah, you kind of look around and yeah, you kind of drink it all in. The weird thing is that you that the the only thing that's really bothering you is the fact that the ravens are sort of like circling around as you wander around and they seem to be peering down, and you kind of get a sense that they're watching you as you walk around town. Not that it takes very long, there is essentially one road that goes through town with uh, you know, maybe 10 or 12 buildings on.
SPEAKER_05It's just he's absolutely baffled by just how incredible it is to hear other people speaking. And just to just to dr just he at one point he literally just sits on a step, on like a wooden step or kind of like a or a boardwalk, and just and just stares watching people going about their daily business.
SPEAKER_02So as you do that, the thing that you realise that when you look up onto the top of that three-story wooden structure, there is a large, massive raven skull that's actually just under the eaves. You didn't notice when you kind of like when you walked in, but as now you're taking a tip taking a step back and looking up, you can see this large skull. The skull must be the same size as a large table, but there would probably sit six or seven people around. So it is a very large raven skull.
SPEAKER_05Wait, so the skull is the size of so it would have been a huge raven. Huge raven.
SPEAKER_02And it's kind of and is it is it's kind of suspended above or uh uh or up on or up on the wall, or is it where where the eve is, on the outside of the building, it's kind of like right in the corner where the two roofs meet, and it's just there. And you didn't see it when you kind of like wandered in from town. It's only because you're taking a step back and looking up at the um thing, you kind of like look up and you go, oh, there it is.
SPEAKER_05Is it is it the kind of thing that might be a sort of a temple to Raven or a shrine? Could well be. Could well be. I mean, it's the longhouse that you're that they're ever in. Oh, okay. And has it thinking thinking back through sort of what Berodon knows through his study of law, does that sound like something that was a common thing? Yeah, are are stories of giant birds No, you've never heard of them.
SPEAKER_02In that case, he's gonna look at it and just The most common thing, so the the myth of creation is that when humans came from across the land, they were they were basically driven here, and the protector was essentially brought here on the wings of a giant raven. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Well that's certainly a giant raven. Berodon is going to he's gonna have any artistic skill to draw or sketch it with. But he's gonna sort of commit the commit the view to memory, and then he's gonna sort of carry on his walk around the village.
SPEAKER_02Cool, yeah. It doesn't take long, as I said. It's really nice to be there because it's new and it's different, and you speak to people that you've never spoken to before, but I say it doesn't take long to to make your way around. And then once you're done, I guess you kind of the shift kind of ends as it were, and it kind of goes into the evening shift.
SPEAKER_05Actually, what what what's he's walking around with? Well one thing he would like to just walk through the standard juniper trees. Okay, well, while you go and do that, what's Grey gonna do?
SPEAKER_03While that is going on, is it possible for Grey to find a quiet little tree to sleep under?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_03Before the performance?
SPEAKER_02Yep, to the north where the where the junipers are or to the south where there's just like a small cups of trees? The the junipers. Okay. And what's Angie would do?
SPEAKER_00So they left well, I drop all my crop in the room. Uh we'll probably go and check the you know the druid circle and all these things. So for me this is perhaps the most interesting thing to do, seeing that you know I've you know.
SPEAKER_02Well handling, you all seem to be drawn to the juniper trees.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I guess I don't know if I would go with better than or we just per chance.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you probably probably per chance, yeah. You probably will just, you know, through chance you kind of get there. Okay, yeah. So grey, you kind of like go and find a nice big tree that's sort of like there, you think, yeah, that's what I it's got a nice bit of cover. You can smell the the juniper bark and and the and the and the leaves, and it's a nice it's a nice place to to sort of like bed down, essentially. In the meantime, Andrew, and you're kind of like wandering through the the grove of trees as you see sort of like the form of Grey kind of like trying to find a good spot to sort of lay in. And you also see Beridon making his way over to the centre of the grove.
SPEAKER_05We're all gonna assemble and go into the grove together?
SPEAKER_02Apart from Grey who's just having a bit of a a nap. Yeah, you two basically wander.
SPEAKER_05We can see where Grey's snoozing, can't we?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's kind of like not too far from that from the centre. Okay, Cass is not with you. Cass is kind of sorting out her kit and ding some other stuff. Yeah, she's gone to the blacksmith, why not? Okay, yeah, so you kind of make your way to what looks like the the centre of the the Juniper punk circle. And there is indeed like a little stone buried half in the grass, and it's at a slight angle, unlike yours, which is raised and sort of like it's all got sort of bridges and stuff on it. You can see that what looks like the the one one side of the sort of plinth has kind of like fallen in, so it's kind of like slid down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I just wanna check at the trees and kind of get uh a reading on how old they are, you know, kind of trying to see how how old this town is. I mean, okay. Just just just bear with me. It's just you know, I'm kind of interested in the trees and kind of wow, is this been here for a while, this circle, you know? But I'm wondering, you know.
SPEAKER_02I mean the trees definitely feel quite ancient. Make it make a survival role for me, please, Tony. If you've got a herbalist, yeah, yeah, get a plus one for herbalism. Well, that will be one. They've definitely been here, probably as long as your trees have been. There's just not as many of them, it doesn't have a a as large a sort of growth. But as you kind of like start to sort of touch the trees, you do get like there's a sense to feel like it feels like home. You do you always get this feeling when you're kind of learning trees anyway and and in nature, just by the nature of what you do. Yeah. So I mean obviously if you want to if you want to feel like you want to cast a spell or do something you can do, alternatively you kind of just you just feel that sort of vibe coming from the trees.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm just fine. I just wanted to commune a little bit with the with the circle and kind of get a feeling of how old is this. And for me, the trees are perhaps the most important part.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. You get the sense that they are as old as yours, and there is a familiarity in the in the tree and the touching and just the shade that it provides and the protection that it gives you. And the sun continues to sort of like set as you spend sort of like the late afternoon, early evening here in the grove. It's a very nice place to nap, Marco. Why know the the anger and stuff that you felt from before floods away from you. And uh, you all, if you've you're gonna basically spend some time here just relaxing, you can be treated as if you've rested. But feel free to take a rest. Which then brings you to the evening.
SPEAKER_00Time for our So Beredon. Well well yeah, well, we are there, I'm asking Beredon. So what song should we start with tonight? Whether you reckon should be a good way. I mean, these people seem that they have gone through harsh times. I think we should try to avoid any sad song or and try to be very abity and you know jump around that we can float my way, and you know, you perhaps you can, you know, bring them some happiness in this evening.
SPEAKER_05I've got uh I've got a little number I've been working on the sort of speaks of where we come from. It's a nice rapid little uh is a nice rapid little beat. It'll get people moving, dancing. Start to spread word of where we're from, maybe drive more people to come and seek it out, come and listen to our songs.
SPEAKER_00But how do we kind of think about the Jupiter Jupiter tree? Juniper trees, sorry. The Juniper trees are in there? Perfect, perfect. I like it, I dig it. What about Master of Puppets? We could just go with that one, just lead with that straight off the bat. What about the one about the stop stop killy kill? I make a joke. I mean we are alone, I guess. I guess, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I I haven't had time to work on that little masterpiece yet. And doing that as soon as I as soon as I sit and have you know a few minutes with some parchment to to write about how wonderful it is to brutally murder travellers on the road. I I'm sure I will not be lacking for inspiration.
SPEAKER_02Well, you uh you kind of set up, they've kind of like made a little stage on the side for you. It appears the entire village is here in the longhouse. They are have crowded around all the tables, you have a packed audience, it appears. You've all been given some very nice what tastes like juniper wine, which is what they have, and a lot of smoked meats they have here. So juniper wine, smoked meats, and some good music apparently. So, Berodon, would you very much like to make a performance role? Now, does Anduin and Grey have performance?
SPEAKER_03No, we don't. Okay, we do not. No, I do not.
SPEAKER_02Okay, I'm just gonna have to look at Cass whether I put care of performance to her. No. Okay.
SPEAKER_05If our tambourine player is the second most hands-in musician, I would last so much. But I do have drums. I do have drum.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you can have plus two scott to your performing role. Awesome.
SPEAKER_05So Veridon steps up and drums his loot. Good evening, Ravensar!
SPEAKER_04Ah, the Folk Vandals Club!
SPEAKER_05If that's actually what you can do on a loot, I don't know, I've never played one in my life. I don't think you can, but I quite like it anyway. I'm like doing a drum roll on my drum. There's a hardcore tambourining going on from Cass on the side.
SPEAKER_04Gather ye close by the half stone's red gleam, and I'll sing ye a tale from a land of a dream. Where moonlight grows thick and the willows grow long, there's a village of peace a cold juniper song. No banner of war ever shadow the skies, no steel broke from the hush where the meadow luck flies, the river's warm sweet, the nights are so still, that time seems to sleep in the arms of a hill. The houses are thatched, the cobbles well worn, with gardens of time and of silver leaf corn, and deep in the glade by the old standing stone, the wind sings a tune in a voice not its own. Down through the mist rise the low bleaks of sheep, and Smith hammer's time for the baker stairs deep. Jordan laugh loud when the fox clubs go tall, and wind in the juniper trees call us all, The cider and sun come the bright harvest moon, and fiddles that wake in the warm savings tune, tales that tread it for pipe smoking cheer, and the stars leaning close just to bed a year. The forest nearby keeps its secrets in shade, and none of them forget how the village was made, by hands rough with labor and hearts full of grace, by keeping the old ways in honouring place, so under his rest went over where it belongs, when it passed through the fields of old Juniper song, some hind the roots in the breeze in the throng in the soul of a village called Juniper Song.
SPEAKER_02And kind uh you could have an extra dice for that as well.
SPEAKER_05Now I need to actually actually find my uh use your willpower. I don't know. Add three dice. Okay, don't you? So I like it. Performance plus three dice.
SPEAKER_00There you go.
SPEAKER_02And yes, you spend a very good number of hours playing your songs to the town of Ravensong Village to much success. Yeah. Thank you very much for that, Scott. I that that was cool. That won't happen every session, I promise. I was not expecting a song. I I like it, I like it a lot. It's definitely something we've never had here. Of sort of dice, and you know, thanks. That's really cool. I love it. People are very happy with you. You get rounds of applause, you have made them very, very happy. The evening rolls on, you imbibe quite a lot of Juniper wine, you drink or eat a lot of very nice, tasty smoked meats, and you'll go to bed feeling actually very happy. You've kind of played to an audience you've never met before, so it could have gone either way. You are full, you are well imbibed by alcohol, and you have a roof to sleep under, and you don't have to think about you know staying on watch or doing anything like that. So next morning you kind of wake up to the smell of breakfast. There's sausages by the smell of it being cooked on the hearths. You're welcomed with some tea and some sausages and some bread, and they're all sort of like still a little bit kind of up there and giddy with all the kind of the enjoyment that you brought to the town. And yeah, that you know, what would you like? They're they're happy to kind of help with anything that they can. Is there anything particular you're after? What would you like?
SPEAKER_03Crispy sausages. They can easily give you crispy sausages, not a problem. Whatever the equivalent of coffee is and the Raven Lands. Like some tea and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02There's some they've actually got some juniper belief teas. Okay. Sausages and tea sounds great. Sausages and tea in the morning? Maybe a few eggs. Yep. Anything. Well, what's your plan for the day? What are you gonna go back now or are you gonna you're gonna carry on exploring?
SPEAKER_05I mean, you've got your maps over over your breakfast, you know, you've got Does the town have any inst uh sort of instrument players or anything they could be considered a band?
SPEAKER_02Uh they do not have a band. There is one guy that does actually play, and his name is Where is I? Where's my dude that plays? His name is Where is my dude at? My dude is Cordle. He is a uh a wiry gunner with scarred up knuckles. He's got a half-busted chain vest, scavenged from from fallen from fallen foes, and he plays an instrument. He plays sort of like uh looks like it like a chunky violin, maybe a bit of a chunky fiddle, that kind of thing. That's what he plays. So he's like your only competition.
SPEAKER_05Not so much not so much competition, but like would he be interested in playing with us a little set in the morning or or at some point coming to Juniper Song and playing a set there?
SPEAKER_02He'd love to do that. So he is one of the local hunters that goes out and fetches food for them. So in the evenings he'll he'll he he dabbles. He's he's not like a full-on musician, but he you know he dabbles.
SPEAKER_05I I'm just thinking, if we're if we're gonna be meeting other musicians in our travels, the first sort of post blood mist music festival in Juniper's song.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's that's that's a potential. Yes, Cordill in that case will absolutely happily Yeah, if you I mean he asks for details to your village, so he asked for directions to help you get there, whereabouts is it, and you'll obviously be able to like trek there and back if you want.
SPEAKER_05Now, this is something we'll have sort of probably spoken about whilst we've been. Walking. What's our policy on telling people where our village is? A nice, quiet, not particularly well defended village.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't think these people are very dangerous though. But that's why I didn't want to say anything to the best brother. I would say we shouldn't say much. I agree.
SPEAKER_03I don't think we would go around broadcasting our our address to every stranger we met.
SPEAKER_05So how do you let him down gently? What's happening? As soon as we come back, he can come back with us. Okay. And we'll you know we'll we'll make arrangements and plans then.
SPEAKER_00Okay. He'll wait for you to come back. I think what we should do is perhaps go back to Juniper Song to bring news of Raven Song and try to see if we can establish a relationship between the two towns. I mean, seeing that we seem to be fellow and these guys probably need some help. I mean the I mean the Druid already wanted to establish communications with our leader, which I don't know if it is. So you know, I think we should we did this. I think it's gonna take us perhaps two more days to go back, or perhaps faster if we chop chop. And I think it's it proves that you know to our town that we survive and we can do it again. I think we need to spread you know our fame.
SPEAKER_05I know it's a scout large for her. Is the mayor?
SPEAKER_02No, the mayor is Sylvie Thorn. She's obviously happy to sort of go out and look for new villages if that's the case. She has always kind of as have a lot of the mayors in the past, they're happy to try and do that as long as it doesn't impact the safety and well-being of of the town. I mean, you're lucky enough that even though there is a main main road that does kind of like go through the middle of Juniperstone, you have not seen anyone on that road for as long as you remember. You kind of imagine that maybe looking at the map that you have, the natural body of that massive river probably keeps anyone from the north from coming across the river. The mountains to the to the side are obviously, meaning that you're not going to get anyone coming through the mountains and the mountain passes, and you've got the shroud of the forest, plus the blood mist that's in there, so presumably no one's coming to you. So once you kind of get across the river, and now you know that there is a way to get across that river, it could open up travel to and from.
SPEAKER_05Should we head home then? Once you've breakfasted and got all that stuff?
SPEAKER_00No, I think so. I think it's better to leave in a on a high note than repeat and fail.
SPEAKER_05We've got to come back this way if we're gonna go around the um around the mountains to the whaler's hole anyhow. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00What it would be good to be before to ask before we leave is to know if they if they know of other ways to cross the river. I don't know if asking I can ask it through it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00I will try going and asking if it win like uh if she knows any any legends or anything about crossing, I don't know, whatever she knows.
SPEAKER_02She says here what do you mean, crossing the river to the south?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um I'm wondering, you we came and I take out the map, I show her where we came through through the bridge, and I show her look, we crossed through here, but the bridge was destroyed. We were lucky enough to be able to cross using a ferry that was built by somebody. But I'm wondering it's in your south. You build that. What what purpose does it have?
SPEAKER_02We've only recently built it so that we can start exploring further south. And in fact, there is a there's uh there's a um a cops of um hazel trees that we used to uh to sort of use in construction of and she points to sort of the sort of like willowy kind of like leaves that they use for sort of the buildings.
SPEAKER_00We saw that and I saw that you they were recently cut and properly groom.
SPEAKER_02Yes, we've been doing that for for a little while.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so um I gather that you don't know of any other crossing.
SPEAKER_02Make a uh make a roll for me. Can you make a inside?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's gonna anything to add or just straight roll? Just a straight roll.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she felt like she gets a bit cagey when you start asking about you know kind of start asking about these different crossings and stuff, and she says there is. There is another crossing further up into the mountains.
SPEAKER_00Can you tell me what hexagling is it dangerous? Because it seems to me that you don't want to speak about it.
SPEAKER_02It's part of our um our tradition. You can go, but you have to be silent. If you make a noise, you potentially could wake the beast that lives by the crossing.
SPEAKER_00What would be that beast?
SPEAKER_02There has been there for as long as we remember a family of trolls. And if you make any noise while crossing the river, you'll you'll wake the trolls.
SPEAKER_00And did you use that crossing or do you never go that way?
SPEAKER_02It has been a very long time since we've used that crossing. In fact, before my before before I was born, and so we don't go there very often. But there is a way, it is where the confluence of the river narrows, and there is a short bridge across.
SPEAKER_00I see. Is there is that the same way to cross the mountains and to go to the other side? And we're going to cross the mountains.
SPEAKER_02Why we've never crossed the mountains? I'm sure there must be passes, but you'd have to you'd have to find the passes. We've never crossed the mountains.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Well, perhaps we will not go through them this time, but it's good to know. Good to know. Thank you so much. I will go to my town and I will speak with our leaders to see what we can establish. Is there anything that you might need?
SPEAKER_02Well, I suppose we we care we we can trade in in smoke beets, we can trade in raven feathers, we can trade we can we we trade in uh we do have some corn, which uh we have been doing on the plane. And obviously we have Jupiter wine that we could potentially trade in, which you know that because you've you've already got cheaper trees anyway. But they're sort of like the main kind of things. But they don't have a huge amount. All the stuff they have is just enough to subsist on. So the stuff they gave you last night meant that they'll probably be slightly without food. Or they'll have to make it last a good luck. Yeah. Okay, well, you know, we'll take it again. Okay, absolutely. They would love they would love to have some kind of trade between the two.
SPEAKER_00So we thank her and it has fair work until next time. Hopefully it's done.
SPEAKER_02She leaves you with that. Gray want to do anything before you leave? No, no, no, no. And Peradon?
SPEAKER_05No, Peridon's happy.
SPEAKER_02Cassie is also very happy. So you would like to go home, would you?
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, on the next morning, which let's see what's like. Again, another pleasant morning when you leave Ravenstone Village. It doesn't take you long to go up that road. By the time you get to mid-morning, you get to the ferry. The ferry is there, you have to kind of get yourselves across. But between all of you is not a problem. Now, what do you want to do with the ferry? Do you want to leave it on your side or do you want to let it go so it'll flow back down to the other side?
SPEAKER_00No, and now we're saying we are coming back, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes. It also means that there will be a rope from the ferry across to the other side. So if they want to, they could try and really pull and okay, that's fine.
SPEAKER_00We know, but that's why I don't care I I I think it's fine to leave it here because if they need it can pull it back, but we can push it if we need it.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Might be worth chatting to one of our engineers back in the back in the in Juniper start to see if we can work out a way of doing it from both sides.
SPEAKER_02No way with David, yes. Well, here's the interesting thing. You leave first thing in the morning, or more or less first thing in the morning, by mid-morning you get to the bridge and you go across the ferry. By early afternoon, you're back in your northern pastures, and before you know it, just before evening, you arrive back in Juniper Song. So actually, when you know where you're going, and it's not that far. And so by the evening, as you arrive in Juniper Song, you kind of walk down the path, past the trees, through the pastures, and you can see Juniper Song lay down in front of you, just sort of like over the hills, it kind of like gently rolls down the hills, you can feel the smoke coming out of the villages, and you can hear the bustle of people getting ready to go about the evening business as uh sun starts to set in a very another pleasant evening in the Raven Globes.