The cold shrine of Saint Vanessa becomes a place of waiting, reckoning, and quiet transformation as the party gathers around what remains of one of their own, unsure what the sacred mountain will return.
Credit:
Bloodstone Logo and Theme (Crimson Crown) by Tony Stephens
[00:00:00] You're listening to a Saturday Night Gaming Podcast, Bloodstone, run by the Game Master, Scott Hibbard. Hope you enjoy!
[00:00:23] Last time, the road to Dustwatch demanded blood before offered passage. You climbed the knife-edged trails of Dagger Reach, black stone yawning beneath your boots, and hungry shapes circling above like vultures made of moonless sky.
[00:00:40] The Night Reach vampires descended from their obsidian purges, 16 of them on silent wings, and what began as an attempt at diplomacy curdled the moment Mike spoke Victor's name. Whatever old wound lies between Victor and his mounting cords, it still bleeds. The attack came like a storm dive.
[00:01:03] They tore through Leia's protective magic and Sybil's wall of withering force, crashing into the party in flashes of claw and shadow. Mike was marked by a burning curse. Greg was staggered by a brutal aerial strike. But the mountain path became your battlefield, and you answered with a kind of teamwork that has become your signature hymn of violence.
[00:01:25] Travelers slowed the world to a crawl, and then fired a fireball through the frozen seconds until it burst against the cliffside in a bloom of flame. Sybil's vines dragged another shrieking predator into the wall where the spell gnawed at it like starving ghosts. The surviving Night Reach changed tactics, stepping through shadow itself to appear among you.
[00:01:55] They swarmed Mike, drawn to him with a strange, almost personal hatred, exploiting the curse already burning in his form. Even so, he answered with sweeping arcs of his spirit blade, carving enemies from the sky and buying the rest of you room to breathe. Sybil's healing magic pulsed through the chaos, steadying the party, while a second spectral wall rose behind the vampires, boxing them into a kill portal. Then Mike chose devastation.
[00:02:24] With nothing left to spend but himself, he released the last of his spirit into a catastrophic bloom of ooze and razor spikes, blasting through four vampires in one savage eruption. Two died outright, the rest were left broken and reeling. But the Night Reach still had enough hunger left for revenge. They fell on Mike all at once, tearing into him before he could fully reform.
[00:02:46] Blow by blow, piece by piece, they ripped him apart and scattered him across the cliffside stones, until all that remained of your healer, your sword, your strange, chrysalis-born ally, was a spray of slime clinging to granite and armor. The traveler ended it with fire. His second fireball roared across the path, incinerating the last of the wounded vampires, and finally sending the survivors fleeing back toward her distant spires.
[00:03:12] Silence followed, broken only by wind and the grim work of recovery. So you gather what was left of Mike, from the rocks, from cloaks, from Greg's pauldrons, from your hair. Greg, ever stepped past him, carried the collected remains, sloshed inside his haunted armor, as you pressed onward along the saint's path. That ancient mountain road, guarded not by soldiers, but by reverence.
[00:03:40] Prayer ribbons snapped in the cold air around the weathered stones of Saint Vanessa, and beneath a carved arch you found a small shrine, candlelit and waiting. There at the foot of sacred stone, you poured Mike back into the earth. And now the mountain holds its breath to see what rises. Are we waiting for something to rise? Uh, we're holding our breath. I don't believe the mountains do. They do? They do.
[00:04:09] What would be the lonely water? So let's decide on the rest real quick and then we'll... Yeah. Yeah. So... So did you guys want to take a ride after the rest of the party has arrived? We're at a shrine. You're at the shrine of Saint Vanessa. Like a saint earth. He says, he says, he says, he says, if we want to see. We are waiting to see if you and Travion have found us with Polaric. Well we have, right? We're all here. We are all here now.
[00:04:39] We're not here. We're not here. He says, we're waiting. You are here. I'm doing that thing where we could possibly... You're supposed to say I am here. You're supposed to say I am here. I thought he just said that. I think he just says we're waiting to see if we want to take a rest. I do want to take a rest. Because I want to forage. Traveler stands with Greg the Armor. Greg the Armor. And...
[00:05:07] Did we start calling you Nightshade or are we still calling you... What does his name mean Jason now? No, you. Oh, me? Is it Jason now? Did we change you to Nightshade? Your name is Jason now? Nightshade's always been her name. My last name's always been Nightshade. I didn't even forgot about it. Who's we? Well, her thing on the thing started showing up as Nightshade. So, it just showed up as Nightshade and we were trying to figure out who that was and then I was like, oh wait, that's me! I forgot what my name was. Alright, then we'll just stick with Sybil a bit. Is his name Jason? No, it was Jason.
[00:05:36] Traveler and Greg... No, we've ignored him. He changed his name so many times. Traveler and Greg and Sybil are staying there. It's old Greg. And Sybil's holding a little jar, a little spell jar filled with Mike. And there's like, wrong my hair? And there's like actually a little hair in there too from when she ripped it out. Wait, it's her hair? So a little bit of hers in there? I like just squeezed all my hair out into this?
[00:06:03] She might have some of her ideas or maybe even her druidic nature. Maybe like a child of the night. And then over the horizon we hear this like... Is it this thing? And then there's a dark hat cresting the horizon. It's train yarn. He's got like a slight limp. I'm pretty sure it's from the arthritis in his hip. But he's coming over the horizon and then right behind him glistening in the light is the bare chest of Ulrich. And he's like...
[00:06:33] As he too is like coming over the horizon. And then Lena's right behind him like, why are y'all being such glory hogs? Why are we behind them? Let's just get over there so we can take a rest. And she starts hitting them with her staff. And then we start taking a rest. I don't really feel like that's what happened. That's what happened. I just narrated it. Can you narrate in like a chicken? We're all here. I didn't beat them with a stick though. And chuck the chicken and put it in your armor.
[00:07:02] That's why they call it choking the chicken. Oh my god. That's exactly what they call it. Oh my god. Yes. I... Yeah. You ever think of Moana the same? Hey, hey. Hey, hey. You and Travion had hunted into a cave of some kind.
[00:07:33] Was it narrated that I was doing anything? I just said it. I know. You're hunting a cave or something. You don't have to cave. On the audio, there was a cave that y'all were in. Oh yes. When we were doing... During the battle. During the battle. During the battle. We got separated. We got separated and y'all were in a cave fighting other vampires. Okay, so we were doing something useful. Yes. Y'all were fighting other vampires because we had gotten separated and y'all were fighting other vampires in the cave. While we were hiding. The cave is nearby. Yes.
[00:08:02] It was near wherever we were at, yes. And then we are now at the meet up point. But it's like Afghanistan. The cave had some wet winding leaves. We won. Okay. Yes. Well what about... What about Ronnie's character? What's he doing? He was with y'all and now we're all in the same place. Yes. We are all walking. I am not beating them. You are leading them to where we are. We're just walking. Yes. We found you guys. But she is ficed up and saying I want to take a rest. Yes. I want to rest now.
[00:08:29] This was a long, arduous battle in this cave and now I would like to rest. And Ronnie's like, I know. I lost my shirt. Again. Does he ever wear his shirt? He puts it on and then as soon as he does his muscles go and rip it. Do they make shirts that fit? Not in others. One loss. They seem like they will. They measure him and then they put it on and as soon as they do his biceps go and it goes and rips it again.
[00:08:56] And then he looks at his twin brother Danny DeVito and says I am sorry. I cannot wear shirts. It's my jeans. It's the Kenshiro effect. Yeah. He's like Hugh Jackman at the closing scene of a Deadpool movie. Closing scene. So are we resting? Oh yeah. Okay. I want to forage. Short or long rest. Can I forage?
[00:09:26] I think we have to decide. Was it short or long rest? Um, let's do, what's the, what long? I guess right? Isn't there a counter that counts down? A long rest recharges everything. Short rest may not recharge everything. Why would we not? Do we have a counter though? Because there's a countdown that shows how long we have until the flight is first to long. If we have a counter maybe not. This is, and also. Do I get a downtime action regardless? Um. We all get healed. Do I get a downtime action regardless? You do.
[00:09:55] You still get two downtime actions. I can forage, so I can forage regardless. I don't care. Y'all think. I just want to forage. I don't think she has anything that has to have a long rest. I need some health and stress. Yeah, but there's seven party members. They'd have to vote. You have to realize though. I need some health and stress. Where are you going to forage? I believe we're on the side of a mountain. Uh, the side of a mountain? It basically just means I roll and I get something when I roll. But it's a downtime action.
[00:10:25] Okay. Now John, Ronnie, and Mayhaps Dan all have long rest actions that occur only if they have long rest. It's an ability. So y'all need to vote on what y'all want, long or short? I'm not in this because I'm literally just being more creative. You're a jar. You're whiskey in a jar. I'm being recreated. His entire long rest is being taken. Yeah. Do you need to heal anything? I heard the metallic.
[00:10:54] Like look and see what y'all need to heal. I'm going to heal. I'm going to heal. But how many? Three. I only have one. Do you have any stresses? How many stresses do you have? I have one stress. So you have stress and health. And health. What about armor? I... Did you even use your kind of... I didn't use my armor at all. He did. He complimented Dan, I think, in order to... Yeah, I complimented the team all the time. I'm doing a team up, yeah. Ohhhh. So John, you have points off both. Yeah. Who else was here?
[00:11:24] Just you? Yeah, I'm good. Where's that cost? So it sounds like... He... How many points do you have off both? Yeah, one's for a long rest. So unless you long brace, you're not getting that back. We need to long rest then. Cause he needs that. I'm also really tired. She needs help. If that matters to anybody. I could get hope though on rolling. I don't have... I mean, if you need hope. Yeah, but I don't feed all night. I got stressed out Shane and he's taken care of. She's spent...
[00:11:54] How many fear does the GM have? If I um... How much fear does the GM have? We can't know that. And if we take a long rest, how much fear would the GM have? One, two, three, seven. What if we take a short rest? What if we take a short rest but for a long period? We need a short rest but for a long period of time.
[00:12:24] Even... So I can still... A short rest, I can still get for hope. If you prepare what two... Okay, sorry. On a short rest, it's 1d4. On a long rest, it's 1d4 plus seven. Let's do a short rest. Okay. I don't think John needs more than that. Well, he has a soldier's bond. Ronnie does, right? Yeah. Right, but... It's fine. Well, she'll just deal with the hope. But what we need you to do is... You can pick two of the following moves.
[00:12:53] So you need to roll a d4. Are you giving me moves after... No, sorry. You need to roll four. Are you a tier four? I'm like a tier seven. I don't know. You're a lot of seven. You're a tier three. Is that my proficiency? Yeah. You're a tier three. Oh, well, it didn't say proficiency. Three d4s and that's how much... It says right there. That was good. Three d4s, that's how much health you get back. Oh, okay. And you can do the same with stress.
[00:13:24] I don't know if I have that many d4s. If we long rested, it would just be automatic. I'll have to use my pick dice. Okay. So please use that. I don't have that many. You can't prepare a time. I'm going to take out one more favor and do the praying. Okay, so use downtime for that. And I'll go ahead and heal my stress. That's kind of the same. How much stress did you have? We're taking a short rest. Oh, yeah. Good. Because it's 1d4 plus 2. 2d8s instead of 4d4s.
[00:13:53] No, just roll 3d4. It's time to math here. Just roll 3d4. Um, Chuck, do you need health or anything like that? 2d8s instead of 4d4s. Okay, do you want to prepare with Laura? I'm going to help me roll. You can prepare together somehow and she can get a true hope for herself. So I need to manifest 4d4s. You'll still get your hope. What are you doing? You said 4, right? No, I'm sorry. You'll still get 2 hope if you prepare with her. Chuck's going to prepare with you.
[00:14:23] Chuck's going to prepare with you. So that's 1% prepared. Are you long resting? No, no, no, no. I mean short resting. What are you doing for your short rest? Short rest? I have 9. Preparing. You got a 9. Hold on one second. Who wants to prepare with me? One second. That is how many HP you can clear. Who wants to plan? You want to plan? Okay, so I'm back to zero. Back to zero. And same with stress. And same with stress. Oh, okay. She's like hang on. I've got this special green stress. So even if I don't have all straight ones, I'd still clear it.
[00:14:53] But, so we're playing both of those. Yeah, I know. We'll let it clean. So you did what? Okay, I'm going to prepare with Sybil. Chuck. I probably should have used it. They're both preparing. They're both preparing with me because I can do it. So she gets four. There's a lot of people preparing with Sybil right now. She gets four. Whoa, whoa. Okay, what else are you doing for yours? Can I? Do you want to prepare? Yeah. So you're preparing twice? Yeah. I'm preparing twice. You're preparing twice as well? They each get four.
[00:15:23] And you prepare twice as well? All right, so it's like four, four, four. Yeah, I'll get four. So Tradion and Ulrich and Sybil are preparing behind the shrine? Why? You guys are preparing the ritual. I can prepare but I don't need to do anything else and there's no one else for me to prepare with. So, I guess I just... Did he already use both of his? I mean...
[00:15:51] Yeah, he cleared the hope to help you. He did yours. What'd you do for you? Oh, HPD and stress. So I'm gonna just forage and prepare more. I cleared it out. Well, he helped me. He cleared his stress and his HP. I just played with my cock here. So he can't actually do anything yet until he reconstitutes? That's right. That's right. The entire rest is him coming back. So I'm just gonna prepare with myself twice, which gives me 2 HP.
[00:16:23] And I'm gonna forage, which I'm doing right now. So you have to... You don't have to spend downtime too for it, right? It's just this... It has to happen on a downtime. I get a luck charm, so I get to re-roll any time. At any point or anything. I'll get you a... Yeah, it's not like an action that it takes up. Oh, I can waste all my dice. There you go. It just happens at downtime. It doesn't take the place of an action. There you go. Got it.
[00:16:52] Let me roll any dice. Did I get my two hopes? Yes. Alright, so everyone should be good on hopes and ready to go. And we have staved off the fear. You get a D4 of fear though, don't you? Yep, we got four. You guys made a good choice, otherwise I would have 11 to you. Right, yeah.
[00:17:22] Yeah. Yeah. You just have to... I can't even notice. That was my thought too. Yeah, this... There's gonna be eight or 11, somewhere between there, you know? Yeah, you can only have one in play at a time. It says it's small. It's probably right.
[00:17:52] So as you complete your rest, as you prepare for the next leg of your journey, as you are currently here, by the way, if you look at the map right here, this part of Dagger Reach. I don't know, we're not. Something fun. I think you need a little more rest. Hell's teeth, I'm over here is where I friggin' am. How close would we should have seen him?
[00:18:23] You're close to Castle Dracula. What stands between you and it... Is some shit that's about to be dead. How are we close at that? I thought we were like way back here one session ago. Yeah. We went real far in one session. We traveled. Yeah, you guys traveled. I have... I don't know what we are. We're up here. We're up here. We're up here. We're up here. And Castle Dracula's here. Whoa. But we still have like three more levels to go before we do it.
[00:18:53] But Dracula's not the end. Don't forget that. Maybe. It's just another step on the... Somebody's doing math. So you're here at Dagger Reach. You die. And here's Sanctum Vale. You got to travel through here, through Grave and Mir- Why am I the only person paying attention to you? And then Castle Dracula. Because when I stood up it hurt. So this is where you're resting before you take that nestling. Wait, where are we? Okay. You're up here in the mountains, Dagger Reach.
[00:19:22] So we have to go travel through here before we get up here? We're not going this way. We're going around. Yeah, there's no path down through there. Okay. You have to travel around. What stands are you around? Sanctum Vale is a town. But like... It's easier for me to see that. Oh yeah, this? You're welcome. Do we know anything about Sanctum Vale? The Sanctum Vale? Or like, do we have any quests there? By general.
[00:19:51] He doesn't have notes on it, so it's okay. Do we have any... You do. I'll read to you. I just meant do we have a quest there? Do we have a reason to go there? You're... No, you're just traveling through. We're just walking. You just have to travel through there in order to get to see the presents. Castle Dracula. So really it's all that is. Sorry for you. This is your own making. It's not even... You're being excited. But...
[00:20:22] For the Sanctum Vale. It's a valley of uneasy balance, where mortal faith and vampiric dominion exist in tense proximity. The land is more fertile than most of Dust Watch, its fields stitched with family farms and slopes grazed by sheep and cattle. Yet every harvest is shadowed by the knowledge that the Dust-born walks from above, and that the Church's protection is more symbolic than the Sovereign.
[00:20:48] At the heart of the Vale is Saint's Watch, which is a tiny stone tower manned by Templars, whose knightly beacon signals defiance more than safety. Around it stretch farms hemmed by Hawthorn hedges and silver charms, and are owners clinging to faith and tradition as bulwarks against the dark.
[00:21:09] And above all of that, that watches the valley is Dustborn Manor, which is a fortress of obsidian and silver that crowns the valley like a sentinel shadow. These are one of the vampire families you were warned about before on Victor. So, that's the Sanctum Vale. Now, Gravenmir... They're the ones that were not... So, the Nightreach were the ones that were the flying bats, and then the Dusk Watch was the family of like aristocrats, correct?
[00:21:39] The Dustborn are the psychics. They did their ones that project illusions and such. Oh, Jason. They screwed your mind. I was gonna ask about that. Yeah. Now, Gravenmir, which was right there between you and Castle Dracula, it's a twin box. One in the Inland Vale and one in the Outland. But do we have to walk through it to get to Sanctum Vale or come around? Can we go around it or over it?
[00:22:07] You gotta go through the Gravenmir right here. It stands between Sanctum Vale and Castle Dracula. You have to pass through it to get to Castle Dracula. But we can't go straight to Castle Dracula. You said we had to go through Sanctum Vale. That's what she said. That's what he said. Correct. That bog is also there along the path. You're up here in the mountains. You're gonna be going down through here. We're going to be traveling up. Oh, we're going to Shepherd's Hollow? I thought you said Sanctum Vale.
[00:22:36] We have to travel to the whole area through here. Oh, it's like the name of the castle. Yeah, this whole inlet right here. Okay. It looks the same inside. So I guess it wasn't true. Yeah. So we need to go around Shepard's, through Shepard's Hollow. Or around it. You know, I just had to go through it. Is it a town? It's a town. Like a town of normal people, not werewolves. What is a hollow? A hollow? What do you mean? A holler? It's a hollow. It means it's a place between two mountains.
[00:23:06] It's a holler. It goes back between two mountain ranges. The typical path that you guys will take, will take you through the mountains here. And then into the Sanctum Vale and the Gravy Man. So, I mean, you can detour to Shepherd's Hollow if you want. It's just the closer that you get towards these mountains right here, the closer you get to the desert. It's like Twin Peaks. Yes. Exactly.
[00:23:35] So, he says that the road kind of goes this way. Right. But we could go down to this town if we wanted to. Before we come up this way. What's the name of the town? This is just the name of the county. It's here twice, but it's just the name of the town. Is it so small it doesn't have any name? It's the name of the area. So, like, we can go through this swampy thing or we can go down to the town and then come up to Castle Dracula. You'll still have to go through the swamp and get to Castle Dracula. It surrounds that entire round. So, what's the point of going to Shepherd's Hollow?
[00:24:05] I don't know. I'm just letting you know what he just said. Right. I mean, like, I'm just. It would be a safe place to rest, but you guys have already done that, so. Yeah. Right, but now you can see it. So, it sounds like we're just going to have to go through the swamp to go through. It sounds like it would be, unless there is something in Shepherd's Hollow that we know about, somewhere outside the reach of what we're doing. I don't think there is. Like, if we got like a letter or somebody coming up to us and saying, Please help me, sir. I've got nothing to do with you, but. There's a side quest over here? Yeah.
[00:24:34] Okay. We did not get a message from the swamp. Unless we get a message or a small child coming through the swamp. Just don't know what you're going to show up. As we walk past, there's a small boy trying to pull this horse out of the... Okay. Well, unless there's a sheep that's like, Can you please tag me back to my shepherd in the hollow? There's no side quest. This is not Skyrim.
[00:25:04] Alright, let's pipe some shit in the swamp. And this is my tactile support. Stop. I'm going to pee now. Well, we'll do that. As you complete your long rest. Oh, we're doing a long one? Or, excuse me. No. No, you said it. It's too late. No, don't do that because then he gets fear. Huh? He gets fear. I don't care. Make a fear. The animators get stronger. We're afraid of him getting more. It just makes it more challenging for us. And challenge is not... Remember how many times we got challenged and Dan died?
[00:25:35] Twice now. He's used to it. Twice now he's died. But he can only die. He can only die one more time. He can only die one more time. He's like a genie. He only gets three deaths. What? I don't care about that. I haven't died. Mike has. But Mike is played by Dan. I've heard it. Does that mean we all can die like two more times? No, he is happy when his characters die. And it just continues the arc. He's a dark god. He's like the story weighs more than your life.
[00:26:02] I think you've missed the part of Danagar's domains. Master of Puppets will hear you scream! Where things need to be destroyed to be renewed. As they rest, you, sir, take a new form. As I do. So why don't you go ahead and describe for us this process from one little drop of slime into what you have now become. So while they were sleeping. Are you growing out like a tree?
[00:26:33] He's like, let him describe himself. Hell's teeth! I'm watching that bottle grow right now. I want to know what he says about how he looks. He's like these. So they basically poured me out into the ground. I planted a seed. Did you dig a hole first? We were like, here's one from behind me. Let him finish! And when I was about the size of a house cat, I put down little slime tendrils into the soil
[00:27:02] and started drinking. So once they poured you out, you just sort of started growing? I started growing. And then once you got that big, you... Okay. And I actually started basically putting down roots to pull out nutrients. Right. And I say that I appreciate the purification ritual. It's bringing me closer to what I should have been if I hadn't ingested all those poisons and the blight.
[00:27:32] I say you're welcome. Wait, wait. We'll slide me forward doing this thing called acting. I thought we were letting him do monologue for a second. Well, I'm responding to what he's saying. It's not a monologue. Yeah, it's a dialogue. Right. Correct. So through the tendrils, I'm able to connect myself more to the natural world, which will
[00:27:59] hopefully allow me to maintain a lot of the same roles that I had when I was acting as the paladin, where I can heal y'all. Right. And I can soak damage. Is this guy, uh, is that what he looks like? But... Mmhmm. Jackson would love this guy. He's got a dinosaur on him. He has a T-Rex arm. Yeah.
[00:28:29] That's a cool painting. And then... Your face is kind of scary, but the T-Rex's face is... The T-Rex arm has a venom top. I kind of shimmer a little bit. Pick a face to look at. And then I take on the form of a large wolf with bat wings. Do you have a picture of that? Okay. A large wolf with bat wings. Are the bat wings the size of bat wings, or are they huge?
[00:28:59] That is a tiny wolf. So it's... Wait. You're silver bolt with bat wings? I can't believe it. He's silver bolt with bat wings. So they're... But they're proportional to your size. Okay. I was thinking... So that I could fly. No. I'm essentially a large creature with the ability to fly. That would be cute. So I am guessing you're Mike. I am. God damn it. You look different every time. You look different every time. You look different every time. Are you Mike O'Risen? Mike O. O'Risen again. The second.
[00:29:29] The fifth. How many times have you... He's not Mike O'Risen. He's like... I'm gonna shift on a little bit. And now I'm an ox with bat wings. Well that's super fly. So it could be Michael Oxfly. You're... You're... My cock fly. Mike who? You're Mike who? Yup. Right. But how many times have you changed your character? Uh... So far this is the third version on character sheet. Right. Cause he was Mike O'Risen and now he's Mike O'Risen. Mike O'Risen. My cox fly.
[00:30:00] Yes. Helicopter! Whatever he was first. I think he was always Mike O'Risen. Michael O'Risen. Michael O'Risen. And then I went to O'Risen. Yeah. Arisen O'Risen. And now he's just... And now he's just... Yeah, he just gave up on Mike at this point. All right. Um... We're walking through a swamp? Is that what we're doing? So... Just like Mike... In this important part with you is you are now... You're taking on more...
[00:30:30] Ethereal. Yes. I can be more ethereal or I can choose to be more solid. Right. Because... I am more of a spirit man. Which... Yeah. I do warn y'all. I feel like I'm getting less physically tied to this world.
[00:31:01] I feel that way. What does that mean? So far I've been utilizing the curse to force myself back into my body. Mm-hmm. And the cleansing that just happened to me whenever I reconstituted this time. Mm-hmm. I don't think that I'm actually subject to the curse anymore. That keeps all of the spirits here. Oh! He's losing his connection to the tree.
[00:31:27] Is that why if you die you die? I know you're connected to the tree. So... If I die again I don't think I'll be able to come back. Well you ascend like David Jackson? Yeah. I was born out of the tree. So... Born out of the tree. Wait, are you sure? It was. He's a lighted tree. That then...
[00:31:55] Eight people cleansed. Now I've been cleansed. So... Because of the shoring. The holy soil. Yeah. Are you sugary? Cut. Are you sugary? I think so. You can put some of me in your mouth in your mouth. No, I'm good. I was just wondering. I would like to try you as a spice. Oh god, it's meant very jam all over here. Well he's not shoving pieces of himself in your mouth or anything.
[00:32:26] No jelly! Is this consensual? How does he taste? Ice cream. If I had a tongue, I would try you. But on the bright side now, I don't have to tear off pieces of me to heal you guys. Well like I can take potions right? That's good. That's true. So do I taste... That's how I've been healing y'all. So do I just put it inside me and slouches around and somehow it heals my arm? It's absorbed by the arm. Armor is magic potions.
[00:32:55] Your armor is you. Yeah. Like it's not like he's wearing armor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like your skin. It's like... You remember that scene in Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail? Mm-hmm. Where they pour the water from the Grail onto the wound? Yes. And it heals them? Yes. That's kind of what I imagine like... He either drinks it and it diffuses through his armor or you can pour it directly on the wound or something. Absolutely. Yeah. And it heals the metal in the same way it would heal flesh. Right.
[00:33:25] Because you're a normal... But he eats like a hamburger, it's just there in his suit. A lot of it. Yes. Okay. Alright. So as Mike has now been reintroduced to the party once again. Yeah. That's what that smell is. So... Does it smell like Gak after you open the package? Did you? No. I kinda wish I had picked up that other ability. Yeah. Or there's a reward instead.
[00:33:54] Well, you'll get a chance soon. It's not one that would have let me summon multiple steens. Oh yeah. So... Wait. Can you take... Can you turn yourself into a horse? I mean... Theoretically, yes. Theoretically, yeah. Can I ride you? As a knight? You can ride him in the battle. I could also theoretically be a horse with wings. That's nice. Can I let Rolf and he fly on this? He actually can fly.
[00:34:22] Now, are you still green? Or do you take on color as well? When I shift... I... I can choose. When you change your shape... Like, what is the level of granularity that you can alter? Like, is it like millimeters? Millimeters? Is it like micrometers? Subatomic? Oh. The reason I ask...
[00:34:49] Is because if you can light manipulate yourself to such a fine degree, you can change how light reflects off of you? You become iridescent? Wait, what are you doing? He's doing something, John. You should stop talking. I don't know what you're talking about. I just grabbed a fear. I was counting my fear. You're just counting his fear. Uh-huh, I don't think what he's doing. I think we need to move on. Turn to it here, Justin, of course, and I'll ride you.
[00:35:17] So, the sanctum veil unfolds before you like a tapestry stitched from fear and stubborn hope. Rolling fields stretch between clusters of family farms, each one ringed with Hawthorne hedges, silver charms, and mirrored posts meant to ward off the things that stopped the night. Smoke curls from chimneys in thin, wavering lines, signals of life clinging to the edges of a province ruled by monsters.
[00:35:45] Above it all, perched on a black ridge like a sentinel shadow, you see dust-borne manor. You feel the psychic pressure of its inhabitants, subtle, probing, curious. The beacon of Saint's Watch burns in the distance, a lone tower's flame flickering defiantly against the encroaching dark. Even here, faith persists, but not as comfort, but as rebellion.
[00:36:11] The road winds through the veil, past shepherds who pause their work to stare at you with hollow eyes of suspicion. The sheep bleat nervously, sensing something in the air, something old, something rising. The wind shifts and the mountains ahead groan like a waking beast. Group roll! What are you rolling? It will be an instinct. Roll. Who will be leading the way?
[00:36:39] I have a plus four to instant. Same. Unless it had been from her hair that was in your slime. Must have been. Hmm. That's not. So I will support and you want to lead? Twelve. It doesn't matter to me if we have the same. I have zero. As long as we're not in low light. I have to get advantage on low light. Are we in low light?
[00:37:11] No. Not yet. The closer you get to Castle Dracula you will be. Oh, I rolled a one. You can wait for now. A nine. Alright, so everybody make instinct rolls. And we're going to see how that modifies symbols. Fifteen. Fifteen. Fifteen? I will let you go. Minus one.
[00:37:46] Sixteen. Minus two. We're at minus one. I got ten. Minus one. Whatever you need, minus three. Add your instinct.
[00:38:19] Minus two. Minus two. Minus two. Minus two. Minus two. Minus two. Minus two. Minus two. But mine was zero. I zeroed everything out. Well you did but then he gave a minus one and he gave a minus one. Yeah. Okay. So minus two. Yeah. But does her roll already count? Or can she roll with experience? I mean we haven't done the whole game. She has done her roll. She can yeah. She can actually spend an experience if she chooses.
[00:38:48] It's a hope but. Because your experience should be plus four. My experience is plus four. The experience would uh. Oh you want to add the same number? No. Okay well that still would cancel out something. It would cancel out the minus two. Yeah. It would make it a zero. Oh that's good. It still wouldn't be that good at all. Have you already rolled? Yeah I already rolled. I've been keeping the count. I'm supposed to wait and roll after. Well I like to keep rolling because I'm counting everybody to my head. Yeah but you can roll with XP if you need it.
[00:39:18] And you already rolled. Okay well I guess it's. What'd you get? Fifteen. A fifteen? That's good. Is that with the minus two? Yeah that's with the minus two. That's with the minus two. I've been counting everybody to my head. Which one's your lowest? Is that hope or fear? Uh that's hope. What's your lowest? Okay. My lowest is fear. But what is it? Five. Do you want to reroll it? Can I? Maybe make it. I have this reroll thingy I can give you.
[00:39:46] But but then it would possibly make it higher and it'd be a success with fear. Right now it's a failure with hope. Okay. I'm fine. I mean I don't know. It's a failure with hope right now. Failing is fine. It's a failure with hope right now. I'm just saying. This is a group thing. Like I mean if y'all want to fail it. Yeah we can. Let's fail. Let's fail with hope. I dig it. Let's see what happens. I got some evasion. Maybe. I can't remember. I think it. You know hope.
[00:40:17] You still gonna hope. You fail with hope. Okay. No the fail part's about to come into effect. Oh. Fail part is different. Yeah. It's a salt fail. Okay. It's not as bad as if you fail with fear. Alright. What do we roll now to get out of. So you press forward through the veil into the bog of Gravermere. Mm-hmm.
[00:40:46] You feel that psychic pressure begin to swell more and more until the pressure is so overwhelming. Everybody gets to mark one stress. Yay! That's all? I don't have to roll anything? Sorry. Nope. Okay. One stress is really not that bad. That was a little stressful but we forgive you. Oh. Great. You get it. See if you even mark it.
[00:41:14] I just didn't mark it. Greg, make sure you mark your stress. Oh no. I'm just going really stressless. And I gain a hope. Sure okay. I'm not. Stress? No. I hope. No. I'm stressed. I marked it stress too. Stress? Yeah.
[00:41:43] I need to rub my cup a little bit. Rub or squeeze? I do both. Oh. Alright. So. The green of the sanctum veil dies abruptly. The path descends into a lowland swamp where the air grows thick metallic and cold enough to steam the lungs. This is the graven moon. A bog choked expanse where the soil is black with centuries of blood and ash. The mist here clings to your skin like damp fingers and every step sinks into mud that feels disturbingly warm.
[00:42:13] The trees twist into skeletal shapes, their branches drooping like morning veils. Pools of stagnant water reflect nothing, not even your own faces. The land is silent except for the distant croak of unseen creatures and a soft, rhythmic drip, drip, drip, drip of water falling from roots that look too much like veins. Locals say that the graven mirror was once a battlefield. Others say it was a graveyard long before mortals ever set foot in dust watch.
[00:42:44] Whatever the truth, the land remembers and it does not appear. As you press deeper, the mist thickens into a choking fog. Shapes move within it. Shadows that slither just out of sight. Some are geist drifting like pale lanterns. Others are not. A low rumble rolls through the mire. Not thunder, not earth. Something beneath the graven mirror shifts as if turning over in its sleep. Instinct roll. Another one group. One more instinct. Yeah.
[00:43:18] What is that? First one? Now you're in low light because of the fog. So, do you want to do it? I might as well do it. Yeah, he's good. Since I got advantage on that. Why did you think you take it off? I think you take it off. I think you take it off. Oh my god. Oh my god. You're so nice. 24. Plus one. 19. Plus two. I got a little. 19 as well. You got 19?
[00:43:48] Yeah. Plus three. Everybody's helping me, yeah. Why do you hate me? And he gets advantage on this. There's still three of y'all to even it out. Yeah, here you go. 12. Plus two.
[00:44:18] It's okay. Yeah, she had it. It's me doing the actual. If you want to go ahead and do your roll. I even need your bonus.
[00:44:48] 17. 17. Plus four. Is there a lower benchmark? Is there a lower benchmark? I think it's a lower benchmark or threshold or whatever. No. It's not. Everybody rolled 15s and 16s. Nobody rolled anything. In 12s and 7s. Yeah, everybody rolled really shitty last time. We're all the 16 and didn't get it so 17 is the threshold. We just expected you to be able to carry us and we know that Mike will probably die if we don't roll well. Well, if we don't roll well with Mike, he's probably just going to make some crazy decision.
[00:45:17] Right now I'm at 24. Without their bonus? With hope. Oh, with a plus four it's 28.
[00:45:46] We do have a tie. We had a success. Both would hope. You do? So, we'll have to sell this one last roll. We're going to do a fate roll. Since there's two of you to decide to leave the party, we're going to have one of you rolled a fear die and the other one rolled a hope die. Oh, okay. I don't have to do a crack good. So, who wants a roll fear or who wants a roll hope? You don't get to. Can I roll? What do you think? No.
[00:46:16] It won't count if you do. Why? Because you're not the one to roll. Oh, I thought you said that anyone could roll. It has to be those two. I'll roll. Okay. So, you roll a hope, you roll fear. Can we have a roll? He's fear. He's fear. I demand it. What'd you roll? Is it higher than two? There is a wall. There's two ones. Oh, you crit it.
[00:46:45] So, we got 11 versus a two. No, no. It's 11 versus a two. What the hell? Why would you say two ones? There's two ones. That's a crit. Well, it seems fear has spoken this time around. So, it does. Two ones, isn't that the same as two? Yeah. You're right. It is. Power of teamwork. They stand together and they're much stronger.
[00:47:14] Team. Team, team, team, team, team, team. Alright. Did you forget to write the plus sign? One in one is 11. What? I told you. Also in binary. Uh, it's gone. Oh, it's just dark. We were plunged into darkness. Oh. No, it's just the dark background. Amazing.
[00:47:44] Because it's foggy. We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode. If you did, head over to our website, SaturdayNightGamingLLC.com for some more fun content. Also, make sure to like, share, and subscribe on all of our social media platforms. I hope you have a fantastic week, and until next time, this is Laura Hibbard with Saturday Night Gaming signing off.