SPEAKER_01 0:27

Welcome to Something Dark in Davocar, a symbol actual play from Stories with Dice.

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SPEAKER_00 0:59

Hi, and it's our first episode of Simbaroon, Something Dark in Davaka. I have with me, as always, my trusty co-host, Marco. Hello. And I am joined by Charlotte. Hey. Tony. Hola. And Kitty. As he raises a glass of whiskey, which I'm very jealous about. So, last session we kind of had a bit of a character generation. We kind of discussed how they how the how the characters knew each other. We kind of put some stats down and kind of got a general gist of what how the characters might interact. So this is gonna be our first session. I thought I'd start with just giving you a very brief outline because I know that some of us haven't played or don't know necessarily the background behind the world of Simbaroom, and I'm gonna give you a very short whistle stop tour of what it is. If any of you have read any of the books, then that would be helpful. If you haven't, then this is pretty much it. So, the history. A while ago, a couple hundred years ago, there was a um a world called Alborator, or at least a kingdom called Alburetor, which was doing well, you know, sort of these Alborators or Alberatans, they lived in relative Armali-ish. And over a number of years there was a kingdom next to theirs called Lyastra, and something happened in Lyastra, the Albarean didn't really kind of know what was going on, but at some point Lyastra declared war on Alburetor. When the kingdoms clashed, they realized that the people that they were fighting were undead, or dragouls as they call them in Alburetor. And it was it was quite hard, a hard one to start with. So the Alburators who died on the battlefield, were very quickly risen to fight alongside the other undead, which was obviously a problem for uh the people who Alburetor. This war lasted quite some time, and it turns out that there were some Dark Lords, well that's what they got called, the Dark Lords who were running the undead who wanted to essentially take over Alvarez. The king and the noble classes obviously decided to defend against these Lyastrons, these undead, these Dark Lords, and in doing so, they used all the powers that they had, the various magics, the sort of like dark energies they had, the they called on their gods to help provide them with the power behind their mystical abilities, and slowly but surely this long protracted war caused the lands around Alborator and Lyastra to darken, get corrupted, and every time that happened, the Lyastrans got a little bit closer, and the people from Alboreto were being pushed further away. Eventually, the Dark Lords captured uh and killed the well, killed the king and captured the new queen, Queen Corinthia. She was captured and taken to their main headquarters, and the the current church at the time, one of the there were multiple gods, and the essentially one of the gods was chosen to sort of like lead, I suppose, and be the main god that Alboreto sort of followed. This god was called Prios. At that time, Prios was the god of the half, the home, sort of of love and renewal, that kind of thing. But this this the new Prios that came from this war became the god of fire and thunder and essentially brimstone. A whole sort of like the church kind of around it kind of grew up, but with the power of that new Prios, they managed to rescue the Queen and essentially destroy a lot of the Lyastron at Andilami. But the land around them was being corrupted, and so the Alboretors needed to go elsewhere, and so they looked towards the north, the Titan Mountains. And so this was sort of about 20 odd years ago. The Queen and all the nobles travelled across the Titan Mountains into Ambria to find that it was populated by another group of humans, now known as barbarians. The new Ambrians decided this was their land, and so they very quickly went to this large capital that was that was in the middle of the plains and wiped out the barbarians there. They then took that capital as their own and made it into even more of a capital than it was. They then moved further north, all the while cultivating the land, civilizing the people that were there. I'll use the word civilizing in inverted commas because they felt the best thing you could do with the land is to get rid of all that nasty sort of like, you know, nature and trees, and turn it into good things like farmland and curated gardens and homesteads and places to put livestock. They did that all the way up until they got to a massive, massive forest called Davakar. Davakar is not like the standard forest they kind of came across. It seemed more mystical, the trees were bigger, the wildlife more vicious. Inside of Davacar, there were ruins from an old, old civilization. They came in contact with barbarians, the various clans that lived within Davacar. It turns out the Ambrians found out that these barbarians lived in sort of like a a bit of harmony with the lands and with the elves that lived within that forest. Apparently, according to them, a long time ago, the humans that lived up here prior to the Ambrians turning up had created a pact with the um the elves, now called the Iron Pact, that anyone who moved into Davikar would not disturb the old ruins, the darkness that lies within. And the barbarians for many years continued to do such a thing using what they called taboos, not going into certain ruins, not doing certain things, and they lived in fair harmony with the with with the world of Davacar. Then came the Ambrians, who went, nay no, actually there's ruins and stuff in there. What do you mean there's like riches and gold and various other things? Sure. Why don't we have a go at taking that? Which obviously upset the balance of things, which put them into conflict with the barbarian tribes and the the elves, which were very bare rarely seen. Along came with all that came some border towns, one of them being Thistlehold, which is where you are it. Thistlehold about 20 odd years ago was just a small tiny pokey little fort and has since grown into one of the busiest and biggest wilderness towns along the Davakar border. It is run by a guy called Mayor Nightpitch, and up here in Thistlehold, things are a little bit more relaxed. Let's just say that the Ambrians generally are quite a xenophobic folk. They're quite elitist, they are colonizers in the possibly best/slash worst way. Where if you're not an Ambrian, you're pretty much a second-class citizen. They came across some other various races that they'd never seen before. Ogres, goblins, changelings, more on that later. Up here in Thistlehold though, Mayor Nightpitch realized that with the amount of goods coming into Ambria from Davakar, that actually being a little bit more relaxed about those sorts of things, was really good for business. And as such, Thistlehold became quite a melting pot of various different races as well as different beliefs. A mixture of the barbarian totemic beliefs and the Ambrian beliefs in Prios. Of course, you couldn't really do very much within Ambria, even Mayor Knight Pitch, who had the special decree to create this almost like a city-state in Ambria. And so the Queen and the various noble families got their hands on Thistlehold and have a sort of small purchase within Thistlehold itself. Thistlehold has got a thriving black market community, a thriving normal community. Trade comes backwards and forwards, mostly through people going into Davakar and coming out, but obviously there's a support network that sits with the various fortune hunters, the witch hunters, the beast hunters that kind of use this as a base. And over the last 20 years it's grown more and more. As such, it is 21 years since the founding of Ambria and the moving from Alborator into this new land. There's been some significant changes. One of those things was well, essentially too much stuff kept coming out of Davakar. So the Queen and the Queen's Legate put a special law in place to say if you wanted to go into Davakar, guess what? You have to buy a license. If you get found within Davakar without a license, going into ruins, holding mystical items or treasure, well then you'll have to pay a fine, andor at worst, get stuck into prison and/or summarily killed. Depending on how you react to the Queen's Rangers and those that sort of support the the at least the first few miles of of Davikar. Now I believe we have Aurelius, you are a noble who has made your way to Thistlehold, and you have employed Phaeon, the cellsword. And in doing so, you are chasing something. You are chasing a a legend, as it were. Along with that, you're probably going to be in need of someone who can take you into Davakar and at least kind of keep you alive in the wilds of Davakar. And so there are multiple guides that you can find within the various places in Thistlehold. You've asked around, and someone has pointed you in the way of a barbarian who is well known within Thistlehold, who has come and gone into Davikar and led exp well led expeditions, but has kind of like helped expeditions, and so you've kind of like tracked her down. And in fact, you have a meeting with her later on this afternoon to get her in your employee. You also have another person who has joined you, I guess, to a degree, and it seems that you had a letter arrive while you were in Thistlehold, not long after you arrived, in fact, and that letter was from your your family, whoever your your family head would be. I'll let you decide. You can come up with some names and some background, and you can throw that at me later. That you'd be joined by someone else. And you'd be joined one second by a gentleman by the name of Ambrosia from another family who you were going to work with. They didn't say much more with that, and it was going to be pretty straightforward for you to to work with them. And you also are going to meet them a little bit later on if you haven't already maybe had a conversation via letter. And so that's that's the plan for a bit later on this evening, in fact. Which brings you to the wonders of this world for today. Because we're sort of like gonna be doing this quite sandboxy, I would very much like one of you to roll me a D12. And in fact, kitsy, seeing as it's you that's uh new to us, why don't you make a roll d12 on on the dice dice ball? A three. Amazing. Thank you very much for that. So it is early summer, so the the the the weather is warm, it's longer days, which is quite nice. The forests are sort of a vibrant green, the people are out in the streets, the vendors are out longer, the traders are out longer, so everyone is actually in good spirits. It's been a long time since there's been any kind of like creatures or abominations coming down from the woods towards towards Thistlehold, and actually, overall, it's it's actually a very, very nice time to be in Thistlehold. There is currently a sort of early summer festival which is which is taking place. So if you look at the map, you'll see that there is a number of plazas that are around. Toad Square is the main kind of plaza that has the salons of Cymbal Room, which are a collection of various different tap houses, taverns, that you can find all sorts of things. Whether it's good company for the night, some good drinks, whatever it might be, this is the place to come. And so a whole selection of vices are theirs for you to be to be found. Antiques Plaza, which is the one sort of towards the centre of the of the city, is exactly as it says. It's the place where all the antiques are sold, where the the black markets are, where novelty stores are, there's also a number of guilds and sort of eating and drinking establishments. Within that, there's a whole load of trades that have been put in place, and there's lots of kids and families all eating, drinking, looking at a lot of curiosity, there's a lot of curiosity come out. If you can imagine the sorts of stuff you might see in, say, Egypt or something like that, where there's a load of those little Tutankhamun figures, or it's essentially that there is a lot of people selling a lot of stuff as genuine stuff from Silverim. And you're pretty sure when you look at the bottom it's made of wood and not gold gilt that you kind of are being sold as, but no one seems to mind. A lot of the nobles, a lot of people who travel to Thistlehold come specifically to the antique plaza so they can come back to their home further further in Ambria and go, hey look, I went to the I I went to Davakar, and this is what I bought. Here you go, here's your little trinket. So there's lots of that sort of thing going around. You're gonna meet at the witch and familiar, Aurelius. Now I don't know if you're going to take Phaeon with you or not.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm paying him, so he bet that it'd come with me.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

I mean that, Phaon.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

I guess I have a query for you. How much are you paying, Phaon? That was gonna be my question.

SPEAKER_05 15:59

I mean, as less as I can, or as little as I can. Typical Ambrian and typical noble. Let's say that we have an arrangement in which I pay you enough to come with me, and then I would allow you to take part of the treasure. I'm not interested in gold or silver. So are we talking like like how much stalar are we talking? Oh no. Well, what they're like, I mean now Ed, how much does it cost to buy a slave?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Well, to buy a slave, it's it's it's not actually that expensive. But I'm not I'm not a slave. But unfortunately you have to pay for him instead.

SPEAKER_05 16:41

Good and services, let me check.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

So essentially one shilling a day for an average bodyguard, it's fair to say he might be a bit better than an average bodyguard.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

No, so it's probably up to the GM, but it'll be a shilling a day. That's that's standard fare. And and shilling a day will basically so in regards to sort of like Marco's life. If you were kind of like staying in a place and you were just sort of like living there, you're kind of looking at half of that on your bed and two meals a day. So essentially you're making five or tags, which is alright, it's not the best pay, but you're there basically for the percentage of whatever is found, because then it will go into the fan art if you've got some really good stuff. So, yeah, so uh Tony, you make a note of how many shillings you might have until you decide that you've run out of money.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

You're lucky you don't have to pay me, that'd be two thousand a day.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Uh and obviously you'll have to negotiate something with with Charlotte's character for that. But he's a noble, he has he has deep pockets. I hope so. There's a lot of nobles that do not. I hope for his head. So yeah, so you're you're in the wonderful world of of Thessald. It is a walled town. The majority of the buildings are made of wood. There are a couple of buildings that have got sort of like some stone foundations, but the majority of them are sort of like wooden two stories at most, sort of like structures, apart from a couple. One is the the the stone towers of Audomagica, which is about five or six floors, five or six stories high, and you can see that throughout the city. There is also a large stone column, and at the top is what they call the beacon. I talked about a place called Toad Square. This is this is Toad Square, which is essentially a large, weird-looking skeletal toad that's in the middle of the town.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

You Ambrians are weird.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

There's this lovely, it's a very nice picture, of the multiple buildings that are that are around with this large beacon in the distance. Yeah, it's uh it's a it's a it's a it's a nice town. It's quite enclosed because it's all all wood. And so you're rubbing shoulders with multiple people. Okay. Where are you staying, Tony? Is there a you want to stay at a particular inn or are you kind of just staying wherever is cheap?

SPEAKER_05 19:23

I think I would stay closer to the to the forest. I think on the saloons of Simbaurum.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

It's fine, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:32

I mean, I don't know how expensive it is, but it looks like a fair place.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

That's a tavern though.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Do they have so there are some there are some inns and rooms like nearby that you can go to. Obviously, there's a there's a whole list of things that you can potentially stay in.

SPEAKER_05 19:48

But let me just have like a like a bed tool.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah, so some of the some of the s salons have sort of like some sleeping arrangements above. They're not like they're not amazing, and and and that's fine because you're not sort of like unless you're I'm not very picky.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

I'm a noble, but not picky.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Not a picky noble, I like that. I mean that's probably gonna help you with paying all the people that you're gonna have to pay off, right? Okay, that that makes sense. So we are you're staying just in a small place called the Merchant Garden. That is the name of the uh the small eatery. It's sort of like a bed and breakfast kind of place. They offer sort of rooms by the uh day but also by the week, and they usually sort of like have people there that come and stay sort of like for a week. Usually it's sort of like people who can't necessarily pay the bigger fees from the other larger inns and taverns, and that works out perfectly fine for you. And in fact, let's just say that you've paid up front for you and for Feon for the next week, just to keep it nice and straightforward. And in fact, you've got your own room and you've also got another room that has three or four beds in for any kind of retinue you decide that you might want to have. Okay. So as you make your way through the bustling town of of Thistlehold, you're making your way across town to the western side of city to the witch and familiar. All the while thinking, right, I'm gonna meet this person, and then later on I'm gonna meet this other this other noble, thinking about the stuff that you have searched. Now I'm gonna make you do your first role for the day, and we'll kind of go through it. So, on your character sheet, you will find that you have a bunch of abilities. One of those abilities is Law Master, and I believe you have this as novice. Just to kind of uh say that this is the sort of like information you've managed to glean, depending on how well you. Roll, uh, you require to make a cunning test, and that will give you an idea of how much information you've managed to pick. So if you make a cunning test by clicking on cunning, which you've really done, you need to get under your cunning. The simple system for the Simbaroon is you take your stat and you have to roll underneath it. There'll be bonuses on the code.

SPEAKER_05 22:22

No, you got a 13.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

You got a 13, which is under your cunning of 15, I believe. So you're quite a smart cookie. And you manage to go through a bunch of information. You've been to the Order Magica, you've kind of been to the Queen's Lagat, and there's got like a library there, there's a library in in Thistlehold. There's quite a few places that store a lot of this information, and a lot of people make a lot of bit of money getting that information for fortune hunters, witch hunters, and the like. And as such, you have got the following. You found a bunch of fragmentary legends preserved in the Order Magical Library attributed to an old magister called Aurelis of Old Berendoria. So O-R-E-L-L-A-S. And they come from a place called Old Berendoria. That's B-E-R-E-N-D-O-R-I-A. The following account is drawn from the three damaged vellums which were recovered near the ruins of Lyastra. Their provenance is uncertain, their accuracy questionable, and their implications deeply troubling. They are preserved here for the benefit of future scholars and with the hope that none will be foolish enough to seek this tower described within. Just up your alley. And the legend as recorded is as follows. In the twilight years of Simbarum's dominion, when the forest whispered rebellion and the earth itself grew restless, Queen Lindria sought mastery over the very skies, for she believed that no empire could fall so long as its enemies were watched from above. It kind of goes on to say that she and some people that were loyal to her spent a lot of time with the various creatures of Davakar and the end of the reign of Simbarum or Simbar to create a weird hybrid. The hybrid creature was said to be swift as storm winds, silent as snowfall, and loyal unto death. Their eyes saw through illusion, their cries carried warnings across leagues, and their talons could tear bones through bronze. But the legend grows darker. When the Queen's paranoia grew, too, so did the Hermons. The beasts were driven to exhaustion, the handlers to madness, and in the end, the sky and the creatures themselves rebelled against her. Under a moon villa a moon veiled in ash, the creatures turned upon their masters, and the tower was sealed with a final command. That no skyborn servant abandoned its queen. Some claim that this was north of the river. If I show you a map of Davakur, let me take you to that, you will see, and I've handily given you a little token that is all yours to move around as you wish. You'll see that you are by Thistlehold, which is this little map here. Each one of these hectares that you see is roughly a day's ride on horseback. Once you get into Thistlehold, it's probably two days' walk to get through anywhere. And you will see that there is a large river that kind of bisects the lower half of Davakar with the central part of Davakar, and that is the river Aonor. Now, according to the rumours and all the text that you've managed to find, that if you were to travel directly north from Thistlehold over the Aonor, and traverse about four or five days northeast, that is where in a veil you will find this tower. So you're kind of looking potentially almost in line with Malima, which is a town, sort of like a week's travel to your to your east. So that'll give you a rough idea of where you need to look. That's your that's that is what you found. That kind of gives you an idea of where you might want to go, how far you want to go, and who you might want to get.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Am I with am I with Aurelius?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Uh you are with Aurelius, yeah. When he kind of goes through all this I don't know, would you would you would you hang around while he's kind of spending days going through libraries and stuff?

SPEAKER_02 26:40

I mean he's paying me it he's paying me by the day, so if he told me to come with him, then I came with him. So I guess it's up to I guess it's up to Tony.

SPEAKER_05 26:48

Yeah, I don't know if I did this before hiding him. I would say this is probably something I probably I did before. And then once I found it, my understanding could be that uh I found out part of this perhaps previously, either in my you know, family's house, library, or somewhere else. And then that I specifically came here uh looking for more information, and this is when I went to this Orlow Magica place. And then once I found out about this, and then is when I would start probably looking for you know my retainer. So the first one would be Fion. I probably wrote back to my family or my family because knew that I was around and put me in contact with Ambrosia. So I would say it doesn't make any sense for me to pay for him before I'm clear on what they need to do.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

That makes perfect sense. Sorry for it.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Spoken like a true businessman. Meanwhile, Schiffen.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

You are in Thistlehold. You've been here multiple times, you know it well. You said that you came from the Diver clan, which is actually the closest clan to Thistlehold, and your clan actually works quite well with the Ambrians. There's an uneasy sort of like piece currently where you will work with them and you try your best to kind of teach them that they need to leave stuff alone, but your sort of like clan leader understands that actually by going against the Ambrians, it's gonna probably be worse for you as a clan than it is just working with them. And so you let them pass a couple of times with a few things, but but again, you know, it's that sort of start to ingratiate yourself with the Ambrians, make some sort of like trade, and actually your diver clan is doing fairly well in regards to sort of the relations that you share with with the Ambrians.

SPEAKER_06 28:52

Go along to get along.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Yeah, exactly. And I would imagine that you probably work within your diver sort of like area, that's where you kind of take people and and work, probably either out of Jacar, which is a large city on the coast of the of Lake Volgama, uh, or out of Thistlehold. That's probably your two places that you kind of work out of. Agreed. And currently you're in Thistlehold. Indeed, you are in Thistlehold searching for someone, and frustratingly, you're not particularly getting much at the moment. But you understand that you just have to keep persisting and asking the right people the right places and and kind of like you know, in the meantime, you have to obviously work. I'm guessing that you're not super rich, and obviously, bribing the right people to get the right information requires some coin. Sometimes it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. So you are actually staying at The Witch and Familia, which for anyone who knows anything about Thistlehold, is a place to go if you want to kind of get that barbarian feel for those people who are travelling to Thistlehold. The Witch and Familia is a guest house that sort of stands out amongst others. It's got a whole bunch of what do we call it? There's there's heads on the table on the table, there's there's all like big sort of blankets, there's very small low tables, there's cushions, there's ferns, there's moss, which kind of adorn this three-story sort of wooden structure. It almost feels fake, but it's actually real, sort of like fern and moss that you can sit on. It's probably the whole, hey, you've never seen a barbarian in your life, but would you like to come to the Witcher Familia and get an idea of what barbarian life is like? I mean it's the sort of place that you would expect in America and I guess in Canada, where there is that whole native experience. It's that kind of thing. It's actually run by a couple of barbarians who, by all accounts, are doing very well with this whole barbarian experience for people who don't. And actually, there's a few of you that use it, especially those who are they're both from the same clan as you, who are rent quite cheap rooms for people of the same clan to do that. And actually, on a good day, it almost feels a bit like home, especially if there's no local, there's no sort of like visitors, you know, and there's a bunch of locals there. And then they kind of drop the act a little bit, and you kind of get a little bit of a taste of home within within Thistlehold. Which is where you are, and you're going to be meeting this Aurelius who's uh apparently been asking around for you, potentially as a as a job. You're on relatively good terms with Alamol. He's the he's the person who works here. And so he's got you down, sitting down with some, I don't know, what's your drink of choice? Usually Barbarians drink a thing called stut, which is kind of like a dark brewed ale, but you may well be different.

SPEAKER_06 32:01

Nope, that sounds good. As I would do every time I see him, he'd be asked in any news. And I wouldn't have to give any context, he'll know exactly what I'm talking about. The particular person that I'm looking for, but there's a shake of the head, no, afraid not.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

But he's got his his best people out looking for the information you require. One day, one day. One one day, one day. But in the meantime, you sit back and relax. I mean it's it's it there there are there are a number of sort of uh visitors here who are obviously enjoying the menu of sort of like smoked venison, a couple of jaccar legs, a whole bunch of really random sort of like things you would expect uh to get out of Davacar. But they're generally keeping to themselves and actually being relatively quiet for the minute. But it is still early. You imagine as it gets into evening it's gonna get a lot busier. When our wonderful noble Aurelius, along with his companion, comes through the door. The uh the owner. I don't know if you know them, Aurelius, you might probably not have actually come to this location. I don't know if it's a sort of would you sort of like look into barbarian stuff, or would you kind of just stick with the Ambrian sort of things?

SPEAKER_05 33:22

Ambrians, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Okay. So this is all new to you, so there's sort of like the all the stuff that's around the kind of the look of everything, you just like alright, okay, this is a bit much, isn't it? But you kind of go into this tavern with all the kind of like rugs on the floor and all the moss and the ferns. They don't have like specific tables, there's like long sort of like group tables that people are sitting at, or they're just sitting on the floor. There's no chairs, there's there's there's very little chairs or anything like that. And uh you kind of wander over to there is like sort of like a bar in the sort of corner. There is a young lady who's sort of like manning the bar, and she sort of like looks up at you and goes, Sir, how can I help you?

SPEAKER_05 34:08

Good evening. I'm looking for somebody.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Sure. It's not the kind of established we have, she says, and she sort of leans forward.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

No, no, not that kind. I'm looking for a guide. Okay. Thinks it might be called Shofin. Or something like this, you know, I'm not very good with these barbarian names.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Yeah, I understand. She's over there, and she basically points to a lady. Could you describe yourself, please?

SPEAKER_05 34:41

Uh, okay, I thought it was me.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

No, no, no, no, no, no. You you you describe yourself, Tony, and then I'll get it.

SPEAKER_05 34:49

Yeah, uh okay. So I I'm well when she points Shofin, then I will just move forward. And what you see is a tall, middle-aged man. Probably I'm I would say I'm well dressed, even though I look like a half, you know, the my clothes are not super. It looks like Kevin Costner. Let's just let's just get that let's just get that out the door right now. Okay, it's sexy Kevin Corsner. No. Well, anyhow, my face, I mean, I had it covered with uh with a kind of a cloak a little bit, and now you know it's it's uncovered, so you see, yeah, somebody who is probably between 35 to probably 40, what you know, white hair or white t-shirt, and you can see like he has dark brown eyes, like very deep. Somebody who seems to have lived a lot, and probably with harder looks. And probably somebody who spent a lot of time behind a library and reading books. And I mean he's well trained. He even though he is not particularly muscular, you see that he's strong or feel like he's strong. And his clothes with light armor. I don't know if I'm wearing, probably I still carry my sword, I guess. On the time.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

You still carry a sword in with a with a sold that's not a problem.

SPEAKER_05 36:07

Yeah, probably I didn't have my my shield with me, but I probably have my my sword and I'm wearing still my light armor with me. And you see that it's well crafted and well maintained, and perhaps some nicks and dents, but in general well. And I walk with a decisive walk, somebody who looks who has lived in privilege, and you know, he just goes forward like this belongs to me.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Sure. Okay. Charlotte, can you describe your character, please?

SPEAKER_06 36:36

Yeah, sitting down, you can't really see my height, but uh, you would see a woman in her late twenties with red hair, maybe not as red as was in the picture, more like a gingery coppery color, with steel blue eyes. She's wearing like clothes that you would expect out in the forest, like hides and and whatnot, with a cloak over her shoulders and a food fur-trimmed hood. Aside from that, you can't really get much else as she's sitting down, but uh as she hears her name from the front of the inn, she kind of looks up and looks at those who are asking about her and uh just waits to waits for them to come over to her before making any move.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Okay, um, and uh following uh following Aurelius is Marco. Can you want to describe your character?

SPEAKER_02 37:29

He looks like an elf, but not quite fully an elf, right? Like almost half-elfish. I don't know if half elves are a thing in in this world, but okay. So if if if half elves were a thing in this world, he would that's what he would sort of look like. He's a changeling, he does not hide his nature. And he's wearing some sort of some some like I forget what the armor is, Ed. Light armor, is it? Medium armor? Medium armor, yeah, yeah. It's medium armor.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

A lacket kind of armor and that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Yeah, and he has a cloak and he has a shield on his back. And he's using he's he's holding a long s a long spear, and he but he's sort of just sort of using it as a uh a walking stick at the moment. And he's got long, sort of chin-length, sandy, blonde hair. So that's he can give it to you.

SPEAKER_05 38:25

Yeah, I will just you know, just walk and I'm guessing I imagine that there are some chairs in front of Shofin, and I will just sit down without even asking, and I put my arm down. Classic Ambrian. I say you Shofin?

SPEAKER_02 38:46

I am. Aurelius, I I believe her name is pronounced Sheofin.

SPEAKER_05 38:51

Look at you. Well yeah, I'm sorry, and I look at you, Shofin. Yeah, I'm not very good with these barbarian names.

SPEAKER_06 38:59

No Ambrian is.

SPEAKER_05 39:01

Yeah, I just don't answer. I heard that you are one of the best guides here in Thissel Hall. Is that right?

SPEAKER_06 39:11

I'm not sure if I would say one of the best, but I do know my way around the forest.

SPEAKER_05 39:16

Very well, very well. What are your references?

SPEAKER_06 39:20

My what?

SPEAKER_05 39:21

You know, where you've been, what you've done, enlighten me.

SPEAKER_06 39:27

I don't know if there's really much that I can say. I try and keep my clients' information and whereabouts discreet.

SPEAKER_05 39:38

That's a good answer. I like it. And then I get closer. The matter I wanted to share with you is about travel north of Thieselhold and I look around. No one's taking any notice of you whatsoever.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Okay, fine. You're like, uh the few people that are here are well and truly in their own kind of conversation. They don't even care that you've turned up. They've not even looked at you.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

Yeah, yeah. I'm lean and I'm leaning on my s on my spear, and I just I interrupt Aurelius and and I say, What my employer is trying to say is that he wants to go into Davakar and he's looking for a guide. I can do that. Are you looking for anything in particular? He's quite wealthy, by the way.

SPEAKER_06 40:25

Good to know.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

Well, I pay. We'll talk about the pay later. I look at your feeling. Like, why don't you get perhaps something to drink and then give you I don't know, to the Orlex? What what are they called? Postings? No. The other one's a chip one. The Ortex. Yes, so I I give you, I don't know, some Ortex. Okay. Just g just get some drinks, please. For for myself? For all of us, if you don't mind. What am I, a bartender?

SPEAKER_02 40:58

No, but uh would you mind? Yes. May I sit down, Sheophan? Absolutely. Thank you. And I take a seat. And then I'll if if there's a waitress or a waiter or something, I'll like.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

There's sort of like this young lady who kind of like catches your eye.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

I'll call her wave her over ale for the three of us, I suppose. Sure. She goes off.

SPEAKER_05 41:21

Yeah. Yes, the place I'm looking is and I get closer. It's called Abiari of Queen Landria. Have you heard of it? I've heard the name before, I believe. You encountered this place on your pebbles?

SPEAKER_06 41:41

No, I can't say I have, nor have I known anyone else to actually come back from there.

SPEAKER_05 41:47

So is it still hidden?

SPEAKER_06 41:50

Possibly. But just because I haven't heard anything from people who have come back doesn't mean people have tried or have not tried.

SPEAKER_05 41:57

Do you think my understanding is like it's four days northeast of the Ianar. Have you been in that area before?

SPEAKER_06 42:08

I have been all around, between here and Jakar and Malima and every place in between. So I must have been in that area at least once or twice.

SPEAKER_05 42:20

It's so somewhat familiar to your guiding skills.

SPEAKER_06 42:26

Of a sort.

SPEAKER_05 42:28

Well, could you be in that case I could be interested in hiding your services?

SPEAKER_06 42:34

Alright, may I ask why we're going there first? Sure.

SPEAKER_05 42:37

I'm interested in learning more about that location, those ruins. I heard that it contain important knowledge of this Queen Leandria that I would like to uncover. Of course, any treasure we find, you know, gold, silver, whatever. You know, it's something that I would be quite happy to share with you, and you know, I'm only interested in the knowledge, not of the uh treasure.

SPEAKER_06 43:05

Alright. I think I can help you out. My fees are three shillings a day and 30% of whatever is found. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 43:12

You heard I was one of the best. I would say uh 1.5 shillings could be alright, and 40% of the the other 40% is for this fion.

SPEAKER_06 43:23

Make it two shillings and forty percent. You have yourself a deal.

SPEAKER_05 43:27

Very well, very well. But you better be good.

SPEAKER_06 43:30

I will not disappoint. Guess you're gonna find that out, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:35

And this this queen, this queen of the Avery, is it a is that queen an Ambrian person? No. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

So this would be a queen that would have been around after Simbal, which was probably between it's difficult to tell, between 600 and a thousand years ago. Prior to the colonization, okay. So way before the colonization, way before then. Cool. Even before we be. Before, if you listen to the rumors that Davakar was really around, there's loads of different sort of reasons as to why they think Davakar is here. Definitely, there is a lot of ruins that say that since obviously the ruins were destroyed, that's when the forest kind of came up. So it might be that even before then there wasn't a forest. So it's just and the way it's you you know and you've heard specifically from the barbarians that the forest itself is not quite natural. But then no one ever really can tell you why or how, they just tell you it's not natural. Right, so while you're having that conversation, Kitty, so Ambrosia is obviously agreed to meet at the Witch and Familia during sort of like the the latter part of the afternoon, and you have made your way to uh the said place right on the far edges of Thistlehole, and you have made your way to the Witch and Familia. You probably don't know it, you probably know it purely by reputation, and uh you uh make your way in.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Rosh makes his way in, and as soon as he does, I imagine he attaches the attention of quite a few people standing at two meters tall and weighing around 94 kilos, which is about six feet five and two hundred and seven fucking pounds. He probably has to duck underneath the door aid to even fit in. He's wearing a full suit of what is clearly exquisite quality plate, which appears to have an almost red shine to it, and wordably enough, his helmet is still on his head, despite the fact he's walking into an establishment. He walks straight to the bar carrying an extremely large backpack strapped to the gills of things, looking like someone who can spend several days out in nature, and just basically tosses onto the counter a total of seven shillings and just goes wine, the acceptable kind, and a block of cheese.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

The young girl that's sort of like at the bar somebody, sure sir, I'll I'll I'll I'll get that. Feel free to take a seat, I'll bring it over.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

He uh kind of looks around to see if the person you're supposed to meet is here. So you recognize this based on description given a description.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

Yeah. Now, Tony, do you have anything showing that you are a noble and that you have a noble house? So a lot of them might have a tabard, or there might be some kind of symbol or something to show that you are that, or would you not have that at all?

SPEAKER_05 47:03

Probably, yes. But I don't know if a tabboard or if uh like a pendant or something that shows where I'm from. I mean, I don't know if it would be very visible, but yeah. I mean, in any case, my clothes are of good quality, even so you probably can tell in this place that I'm a different one.

SPEAKER_06 47:19

Very much so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Like not flashy, but not he has like a bullseye on his back and it says colonizer.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

Okay. Yeah, so Ambrosia, you can you definitely see Aurelius sitting with what looks like a barbarian woman, and and clearly this cell sword or or or bodyguard, sort of like sitting down with a spear sort of like propped up against him.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

Yeah, and Ambrosia approaches the table, does not seem intimidated by the bodyguard even in the slightest, and just grabs a seat, sits down, and I imagine the chair is like not happy right now.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

Yeah, so it's it's these like large, it's these large sort of padded. In fact, it's quite difficult for you because it's not really chairs, it's like this really almost uh low cushion-y sort of like fur. So you kind of like sit, and obviously you have to sit cross-legged or whatever in the plate armour. It's kind of just you know, it looks awkward and it's weird because you're quite large. But when you're sitting down, you're still towering over the others, they're like By all means, friend, have a seat.

SPEAKER_05 48:36

Look at you, and he probably see that you'll you know, you have your tabart or your indication that you are from the house.

SPEAKER_03 48:42

Uh yes, no visible indication on him, probably for his own safety. But given the armor he is wearing, you can probably discern. Yeah. So I could look at you. Oh, Rose here? He looks down at you and gives a curtain nod.

SPEAKER_05 49:01

That would introduce you. This is Pion and Xiofin.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

He looks towards her and then just goes, Look, I'm gonna be frank here. It is best to overdress. It is less safe for me to be wearing something more appropriate in the setting than it is to wear this. Alright.

SPEAKER_05 49:29

My family told me that uh we were going to meet and that you have also an interest in the forest of Davocar.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

My family does. They have an interest in keeping you alive for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_05 49:44

Okay. I appreciate that you wanna help me out. We were just discussing the final arrangements for the trip. We might perhaps leave tomorrow. Tomorrow is fine. The sooner I get out of this town the better. Would you be ready?

SPEAKER_06 50:04

Yeah, I will have everything in order to leave tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_05 50:08

Do you think that we need to bring anything special for this trip? Uh you know, it's I've been around, but never inside Davo Car.

SPEAKER_06 50:18

I'm gonna have to. Well, armor, weapons, rations, water, anything that you feel that you might need, bedroll. I wouldn't recommend any pack animals. The Davocar can get quite dense, and there are a lot of creatures out there that might see them as a snack.

SPEAKER_05 50:39

How many days do you reckon to reach Ianor?

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Why don't you make a cunning roll for me, please? What? Meet me or No no no, Charlie.

SPEAKER_06 50:50

Go from uh uh like just to see how long it would take to get there because like Yeah, just go right there. I've been uh I've been out there enough that this is like second nature. Like to get to the river itself?

SPEAKER_00 51:00

Yeah, so I mean it's it's probably about it's probably to get to the river is probably gonna be sort of like three days because there's some some really good trackways and stuff that are quite common. Uh essentially anything south of the AR has basically been mapped and routed, and so there's a lot of sort of like ways in and around, so you that's not a problem. North of the AR it becomes a little more tricky, and especially if you're going to where you need to get to, you reckon 12 days in total to get there.

SPEAKER_06 51:30

Yeah, so like I would just tell them like about three days just to get to the river, and then from there up to where we're going. You said you had an estimate of what four days? Yes. I would double that.

SPEAKER_05 51:44

Okay. In that case, I might have to buy more rations for this trip. Well, it's gonna be the main issue.

SPEAKER_04 51:53

Not care, it's three days worth at all times.

SPEAKER_06 51:56

Yeah, don't worry too much about a lot of extra food while we're out on the trail. I will do my best to hunt for us and make sure that we're well provided for. But any additions that we can bring along will be helpful if game is scarce as it can sometimes be.

SPEAKER_05 52:18

They're proving to be very useful. Perfect shoffin.

SPEAKER_06 52:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 52:23

So 5 a.m. tomorrow.

SPEAKER_06 52:25

5 a.m. What method of time is this? An hour past sunrise.

SPEAKER_05 52:33

At dawn, I mean, sorry.

SPEAKER_06 52:35

Five bells. An hour past sunrise. Meet me here. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

You're probably better off going to the north gate rather than the west gate.

SPEAKER_06 52:46

Yeah, fair. Yeah, an hour, an hour past uh sunrise, and we'll meet at the north gate.

SPEAKER_03 52:51

Umbrush is she slowly looks over at the woman, the bartender.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

Yeah, she's kind of like comes over, she gives you a nice bottle of wine, a glass, and a sort of like smile, and then wanders off back.

SPEAKER_03 53:07

As she wanders off back, he looks at her with the cheese.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

Sorry, sorry, sir. Yes, I I sorry, she seems very flustered by your presence. She wanders about the back, comes back with a particularly large wedge of cheese and dumps it down with some bread as well. She says, Ah, it's got the house. Uh and then she sort of like wanders off.

SPEAKER_03 53:28

She gets to knot. Um, you didn't see like Ambrosio let's his face play, and when he does, there is most likely his bandages or use a grapher on his face. Have you been wounded? And looks at you and just goes, Let you say vod.

SPEAKER_04 53:45

I've been scarred in a way, and I do not wish to draw attention to it. Understood, my friend. I made no offense. No offense taken.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

After about half hour or so, one of the sort of like people who work there asks if everything's okay, is there anything you need? Very quickly, sort of like, is does that cursory sort of thing you get in restaurants just as you're about to eat some food?

SPEAKER_05 54:11

Yeah, yeah. I will probably pay for you know show fee and fee on to eat something and you know the drinks that we ordered, and probably just prepare for the for the next day.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

Yeah, they'll cost you five all tags each. My character is just eating the cheese and the wine and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 54:30

Yeah. You have some food. Do you gonna have any kind of banter between yourselves? Are you pretty much just it's pretty much business that's you know, you're having a chat, talk a little bit about like you know, what you might need in Davacar, the kind of things to look out for, that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_05 54:46

Yeah, probably that's what uh I already started asking, Shoffing, what they needed to bring, what are the things that we can expect on the way. And I'm just curious, it's probably my first time going there, so anything that's helpful. I've read I've read a lot, but not real thing.

SPEAKER_06 55:04

Anything that I feel that they might need and benefit from, I uh I'm assuming that I would know an outfitter here in town that I'm in good with, so I would probably send them there and tell them, tell them I sent you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

You get a small discount, yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, you kind of thankfully they seem to have got the majority of the stuff they need, as far as you're aware. You know, you talk about sort of like the like you said, you know, the food, the water, make sure you've got plenty of that, make sure you've got some something warm, something cold, you know, some uh some either sort of like a good bedroll, something like that that will kind of keep you warm. Obviously, you said the whole thing about weapons and armor and stuff which they've all seem to clearly have. It looks like to you at least, they all look like they can handle themselves, which is probably helpful. The only thing that you're probably missing is now this is up to you whether you choose to do it or not. We don't need a license. Okay then, that's fine. In which case, we won't worry about the license. Okay, cool. Well, unless there's anything else, we will cut straight to the next morning. Um so yes, next morning you wake up, you have sent people to to get whatever equipment we may have. So I'd no well, look at that. If you want to kind of like equip your character during some downtime, feel free to do that. It's first thing in the morning, it's thistlehold is waking up, the large beacon is lit still, it never seems to go out. As you walk through Toad Square, there's a few people sort of like starting to go about their business going off to work, and the gates are wide open. The sergeant is standing at the um the gate, a sergeant you know well, sergeant Halvin. He's like an older he's an older guy, and he's he's one of the sort of like the more experienced sergeants on the in the town guard. He sort of looks at you and says, Got another group? Got another group? They uh look like they can head themselves? I sure hope so. He look he he sort of like leans down towards you and says, First time they've been to Davaka? I believe so, yeah. He looks at you goes, Morning lads. Good morning, sir. Says, uh, good luck. You're in good hands with this fine lady here. She's usually comes back with most people. So you should be alright. He smiles. Do I hire her?

SPEAKER_06 57:43

For the record, none of it has ever been my fault.

SPEAKER_00 57:47

That's what they all say. Well, down the world's unforgiving place. It is, it is. He kind of like waves his hand towards the north. There's about 150 metres or so, and you can see that there's a load of cleared trees. There's lots of small, small sort of like saplings, which all seem to have been cut down. It looks like it's a constant battle to keep Davakar back at least 150 metres from the town gates. You leave the wonderful enclosure of Thistlehold as you make your way out. There is a large, essentially, path, which is sort of like lead straight into Davakar. You can see 150 metres in front of you through the odd little bits of sort of like mist that sort of hangs within the within the trees, Davakar waiting for you. You can see the odd sort of like bird flitter out amongst the trees, and you start making your way towards the wonderful forest of Davakar.

SPEAKER_06 58:46

I recommend you uh look up and take a look at the sky because this might be the last time you see it for a while.