Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites, like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies, like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow.
Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first call your parents to say I'm sorry, and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. ♪
Rotatoes here, we are the beginning of the end. That is right, episode four of arc six, part one today. So excited for you to listen to this and I'm here once again to ask you that if you are enjoying the show and you would like us to continue doing it,
please just take literally like, I don't know, 20 seconds, 30 seconds and drop us a review on whatever podcasting app you're using because it helps us so much to find new rotators and spread the word of the Rotating Heroes podcast. We really, really appreciate it. We want everyone to, of course, hear the adventures of Sago Glug and Nance and...
It's just, it's a, everyone needs to hear this, right? Surely you can agree with that. Everyone needs to hear this. And as always, if you don't want adverts or things like that interrupting your listening experience, or if you want to listen to each episode in their full and original form and not in this part one, part two, where you have to listen to me at the beginning of every episode, then of course the place to be is the Rotating Heroes Patreon, which you can find a link to in the description below. And you can listen to an extra, what, like, like, five,
five arcs right now. You can listen to an extra five arcs right now. Crazy. Head over to the Rotating Heroes Patreon if you can. But if not, hey, listen, we love you so much for being here. We appreciate you for being here and I'm very excited to be delivering you arc seven next week. And then, on to my arcs! Ah!
I can't wait for you to hear them. I hope you enjoy them. I'm definitely not nervous at all about all of you hearing me DM on the show because Zach does such a great job. And I'm... Whatever. Anyway, I'm going to stop rambling. Take it away! Pass that. Welcome back to the Rotating Heroes podcast. I am joined, as always, so far, for the ultimate time by the heroes of the sixth arc. You know, we've done...
Middle, left, right, middle, right, left, left, middle, right, right, middle, left. No, we haven't. Have we? I don't know. We're going to do whoever feels like it first will introduce themselves. How about that? I'm purposely punishing you for not making a decision.
I'll make the decision, the hard decision of, you know, of the podcast host. You just heard them punishing me. The man who just bested his rival and poured butter all over him. We have Sago Gleg, a.k.a. Dan Lippert. Dan, how you doing? Hey, yo, baby. What's going on?
I mean, keep eating. Keep eating, my man. I wish I had said to him after I bested him, don't keep eating. Don't keep eating? Yeah. Never eat again. Never eat, something like that. But that's okay.
Uh, what's up, my man? Not much. I'm just, I'm excited to see this last hurrah from, from the arc six crew, you know? Um, do you feel like Sago is feeling more confident now that he has defeated his rival? Oh yeah. I think that moment was a big turning point.
Yeah. I mean, huge turning point. I mean, the realization... Sometimes it takes your enemy to say something to you to make you realize when was the last time you ate toilet. And I think he really is like, you're right. I haven't been the old Saga of Glug. I haven't eaten toilet. And now he's like Don Draper season four hitting the pool every morning. You know?
sobering up got some good pitches coming hell yeah well sago we'll find out how those good pitches go uh next up uh we have a man who his aura was crucial in his his friend's fight against his rival save the day you gotta you gotta have your friend's backs in these in this world in every world even and it's a person that i think has my back we have grant o'brien
A.K.A. John Daffodil. I do have your back, Zach. Well, thank you. Listen, if there's ever anything you need, and I mean this, if there's ever anything you need, please don't hesitate to reach out. Can I have $9,000? Yeah. Do you really need it?
Okay. If you really need $9,000, yeah, I can make that happen for you. Yeah. Yeah, I do. You have access to $9,000? Yeah, I could make that happen. That's a big ask for me. I will say. Okay. You should say it's a big ask for you. Yeah. Because...
As someone who has a Kickstarter going right now, you don't want to go around saying I can give up $9,000 easily. I can connect you with $9,000. That's nothing. Let's just say I just got big access to about $40,000. Here's what you do. Just tell everybody you're making a movie. It never has to actually happen. And then the person that I owe $9,000 to, we have Nance Ray, a.k.a. Allie Beardsley. Yep, that's me. And don't worry about that. That's nothing to me.
Oh, okay, great. I still need it. It's one-tenth of that. If you really need it, I can... It'll be... That's a big ask, but I can probably come through for you. So if you really need it, let me know and I will help you. I actually believe that the most that I could get you is $2,500. Okay. And that would ruin my life. Okay.
That would actually ruin my life, but if you really needed it, I think I could do that. That is such a funny thing to say while you're giving someone a lot. I would have to fuck over multiple people. This is ruining my life. Here you go. This is ruining my life. Yeah, I need it.
Okay, great. Here you go. Zach has the Amazon page for these really fancy roller skates opened up. Yeah. I need it. They glow in the dark and they glow in the light. Barring ruining anyone's lives, let's continue on a journey where we're going to hopefully ruin a bad guy's life. Does that make any sense? Great segue, bro. Yeah.
Well, let's get into it with a little recap. Last time on the Rotating Heroes podcast, our heroes picked up the pieces in a little coffee shop near the parade. They were trying to follow the lead of where this Saltbreaker assassin may have gone. And in their discussions, they decided to check out the Del Shamps mansion on Aurora Avenue and talk to him about what he may or may not know about this party at Roland Volk's house and see if there are any other leads about the Saltbreakers.
After staying at the coffee shop for a while, they headed on over where they talked to Dan Delschamp and he revealed that Roland Volks is in fact a pretty nefarious character, but also owns a lot of businesses around town.
Dan Delsham also gave them the tip that any captain or boat captain worth his salt, no pun intended, would know where to find the Saltbreakers. So Nance knew to go to Yerath Squalldancer, her previous captain's boat, to help track down the Saltbreakers' lair. From there, our heroes hopped aboard a fan boat, newly named the John Daffodil. I forgot.
That's good. And headed off to the Saltbreakers' cove. From there, they had to stay in the pirates' good graces while asking important questions about what was going on with the Vulk's family and who this assassin was. Eventually, after the Saltbreakers revealed that Nathan Nosher was also there, Nathan Nosher, of course...
Sago Gleg's rival and the new boyfriend of his long lost love, Fiona, faced off against Sago Gleg in a...
foodie fight. The pair ate disgusting food after disgusting food while battling out until Sogogleg stood victorious. From there, they found out that this assassin was a former Saltbreaker who broke away from the team and also found out about a secret passage that could get them into the Volkslayer. Our heroes now race off towards Aurora Avenue to crash a feast. Okay, so...
You all have been speeding along in this fan boat. Eventually you get closer to Aurora Avenue where there are these nicer houses on the water. It's kind of like a Gatsby feel from this side of looking out on the water towards land. Like it's just these big mansions on the water. You see what must be the Volks Mansion from the back. It's this massive estate. You do see that to the left and right of it are also pretty big estates that you see...
You see the one on the left looks like it has this dock that the Soul Breakers were talking about, so it might be the way in. Amazing. I guess we should stop playing Aurora Avenue and quiet down. Yeah, yeah, right. If I could find Aurora Avenue.
No, things won't be better. Yurth is sort of skipping and dancing. We're like, wow, Yurth really rocked out to that one. Yurth, Yurth, Yurth. We got a quiet down now. Awesome singing, though. Pretty awesome, right? Really awesome. I like, it was kind of, you're like guttural and you really nailed it. I've been told I have an amazing singing voice. Yeah. I like the hair kind of over one eye. It looks cool on you. Yeah. I got some hair since the last time we talked.
Yeah, I mean, I didn't want to point out that it was clearly a purple wig, but... I used to date a woman that has a recording studio, if we want to maybe lay that down one time. Are you for real? That's right. She has... She converted... She owned a duplex, and then she came into some money when her grandparents died, and said, I don't actually have to have a tenant back there. What am I going to do with it? Well, maybe I'll put up a little recording studio. Awesome. And it ended well? Our relationship? Yeah.
Probably ended well, right? Well, I wish I wasn't basing this on a real relationship of mine. Yeah, so did it end well? No, it didn't, and it might have been my fault. I'm not a very good boyfriend. I get scared of things with permanence. I'm John Daffodil.
Okay. Wow, John D'Apidil and the Peter Pan complex. John D'Apidil's going to be young forever. There's no need to make decisions for the future. Nothing has consequences. You guys, if we get close to this dock, I can maybe, you know, I'm still in my limber state, kind of stealth around and see if the coast is clear and let out a little bit of a bird call to let you guys know that you can come up.
Does that seem like something that we would need to do? Absolutely sick. I'll put on the trolling motor and just kind of pull in slowly. If you guys, if you feel like that, I'm, they call me Squall Dancer, so I think I know a thing or two about a bird call, if you will. Oh, great. All right, well, you keep that trolling motor going. Can I ask you a question? Mm-hmm. Do you use that sword on your waist ever? Actually, you know, I don't.
I picked up this sword when I was... On my boat. Yes. And it's so cursed that I had to lay in the sun...
for multiple days to try to break the curse. Oh, yes, I remember. That's what changed your voice. Yeah, that's what changed it. Can I see it? He is a cleric. Yeah, he looks at it. Yeah, definitely. I take the sword off of my waist and I hand it to him. Be careful, because it really is cursed. He takes his staff and points it at it. You hear sort of like a seagull screech from it as he kind of scans it. He's like, there's...
Seems like whatever you did broke the curse on this. What? Wow. Oh, my gosh. Getting extremely sunburned was all you needed. Oh, my, that's crazy. Do you need some aloe? I definitely, I would kill for some aloe.
He pulls out some boat grease. Okay, I might just skip it on that. Yeah, I forgot what boat I was on. Yeah, no problem. Oh, yeah, our other boat. My other boat's full of aloe. Yeah, I'll tell you the truth, all of you guys. I've really enjoyed our time together, but I can't stop fantasizing about taking an ice-cold shower and then putting aloe all over my body and falling asleep for hours. You've been handling yourself very well. Thank you. Yeah, everybody.
every bit of my being hurts. No sleep until our chili cook-off. Oh, great. Chili cooks pretty fast, right? Yeah, definitely. So, Nats, you take off towards the stock. The boat pulls forward silently to the stock. Make a perception check and then make a stealth check. Perception...
And you guys can all make these perception checks. Six on my perception check, so I'm not gonna...
Looked good. Oh, nat 20! Nat 20. Before I... Got knocked. Yeah. Pooled it away. Sago, you have this sort of post-besting your rival clarity, and you look out. I've bested my rival. You're looking around. I have such clarity. You see, you're scanning kind of where these mercenaries and stuff seem to be. You don't really see any outside of...
at first glance, but then you do notice that near the door there is one guard watching. It seems like it's been pared back as things get closer to the... The side house. Yes, the side house. So I relay that. Great. I'm in full kind of like... I'm kind of like bent backwards almost in like a back handspring, kind of like the person from like The Ring. And I'm walking and I'm going, I'll make sure the coast is clear. I'm nimble. My God. And I'm just...
Is that better than just sort of crawling? Don't worry, guys. I'll see if there are guards. I wonder what the benefit is to being upside down. She kind of looks like, she's doing pretty good, but also at times looks like a drunk girl in high heels. With her hands. Can I ask you real quick? That's such an effective image. Yeah.
I took about I lost about half my hit points in that eating competition. Have I had a chance to rest or get any of them back? Also, you can use the rest of your hit dice to get the rest of your health back. And John Daffodil has Lay on Hands to restore 25 hit points. Yes. Well, right now he's doing a short rest, so you can save that for if you need it in the future. It definitely will come in handy. I'm going to save that in case I need it in the future.
future. Oh, that's so smart. Do you know if that also repairs my spell slots at all? I don't think you get your spell slots back. I'm not sure how many you've used. I've used a pretty good amount in that one, like half of them. Okay. So you roll those hit dice and you're back up to full.
From there, Spider-Man, upside down creature. I'm trying to upside down kiss everybody in the rain. Spago, Spago, Spago. Come closer. Take my mask off. So you put the Saga Greg mask back on. You're taking your own mask off of my face upside down? Just to the lips. Saga. Before you do this, you're like, wait.
Carl is there. No! He's like, Carl. There's something I wanted to say before shit gets real. Carl's not my real name. What is it? My name is Carter. I got nervous and I said Carl instead of Carter. Oh. When my freaking celebrity, one of my favorite famous people said, what's your name? I didn't know what to say and I said a slightly different name. And you actually said a slightly different name. Instead of Carter, my name's Carter. All right, Carter.
And did you have like a big piece of news to tell us or was that the news? Is your last name actually Vaults or anything like that? No. You were invited to this party or have some special powers or anything helpful for us? I can throw down.
You can throw it out? Yeah. Because we fought some pretty weak jesters earlier. And I believe they broke your nose. And you. But you still haven't really repaired. Yeah. Yeah, it's just later that same day, so I haven't really been able to do much with it. Well, listen, it was a really cool meeting. Yeah. Yeah. It was so, honestly, thank you so much for letting us know that your name really is Carter. It's so good to meet you, though, and I hope you have a great rest of your night, Carter. Cool. Yeah. Yeah.
He starts sneaking next to you. Carter, do you mind if I talk to my pals real quick? You can stick around. Oh, cool. I've loved having you around as part of the conversation this whole time. It hasn't bothered me at all. But right now, could I have a quick private conversation with them? Yeah. All four of us?
No, maybe just us three. You know what? You could hang around. You could hang around. All right, whatever. You know what might be helpful is we've got that one guard there. Mm-hmm.
Carter could kind of cause a distraction or try to get, you know, get the guard's attention. And that would be really helpful and like really cool for me. Carter makes a run for the door and we see what the guard does to him. Yeah. You got it. Carter just starts running. You see Carter go, make way.
And this guard turns around and just punches him in the face. He goes down. Right in his broken nose. Nat 20. No! He kind of just crumples to the ground, unconscious. The guy just shrugs and just keeps standing there.
Alright, so we got some valuable information. We knew the guard would punch somebody running up. The idea was he would distract the guard for us to get in. The guy was like, and starts dragging Carter in. Oh, perfect. Scram. Yareth jumps in the water.
Come back. Scram. Scram. Hey, come back. Come back to shore. John Davidoff climbs a tree. No, I mean scram all in the same direction. Oh. Good. Follow me. All right. You guys run towards the door. You guys can make a group stealth check. So everyone make a stealth roll. Nat 20. Oh my God. Good. Nat 20. Four. Eight.
Do you want Yareth to come? Oh, lucky point? Yeah, I'm going to use a lucky point for that just so we can actually get this. 10. Do you want Yareth to come with you, by the way? Do I know how kind of powerful he is? He's like a level four cleric. It's going to be hard to sneak already three people in.
I'm not very sneaky. We could have him kind of like wait by the boat. Yeah, would you mind? Yeah, I'll hang out by the boat, yes. Now this might sound crazy. The bird call we were talking about, maybe if we sound a bird call, Yurith, you could plan some sort of distraction, like you could set the boat on fire. My boat? Set John Daffodil on fire. Yeah, set the John Daffodil on fire.
Are you struggling to close deals? Cold outreach is wasting the time of both the buyer and seller at every stage, especially when sellers are using shallow and outdated data. Your organization can overcome these challenges with technology that translates comprehensive, high-quality buyer data into real-time insights.
These deeper insights empower sales reps and teams to adopt the habits of top performers, which leads to better outcomes, like more pipeline, higher win rates, and larger deals. We call this deep sales.
And we've built the first deep sales platform with the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Right now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a 60-day free trial at linkedin.com slash trial. That's linkedin.com slash trial for a 60-day free trial. Let LinkedIn Sales Navigator help you sell like a superstar today. Just go to linkedin.com slash trial and get started.
Okay, it's time to commit. 2024 is the year for prioritizing yourself. Begin your new smile journey with Byte, and you could start seeing results in just two to three weeks. Just order your at-home impression kit today for only $14.95 at Byte.com. Byte clear liners are doctor-directed and delivered to your door. Treatment costs thousands less than braces, plus they offer financing options, except eligible insurance, and you could pay with your HSA, FSA, or
Get 80% off your impression kit when you use code WONDERY at Byte.com. That's B-Y-T-E dot com. Start your confidence journey today with Byte. Set the John Daffodil. Now, the boat, right? Well, that's right. He's looking at you with like fire in his eyes. The boat, John Daffodil. You set the John Daffodil on fire if you hear a bird call. Can I set anything else on fire? Yes, definitely. Not my brand new boat? How about this very tree?
Okay. The one that the John Daffodil's in? Yeah, exactly. So don't set the John Daffodil on fire. Set the tree that the John Daffodil climbed in. Uh-huh. No, no. You don't set the John Daffodil on fire. You set the John Daffodil on fire. Oh, it's this little Daffodil we all have been calling John. You're very small. You climbed a Daffodil? I'm a dwarf. I'm a gnome. Oh.
Oh, God. All right. But really, though, my great-grandfather was named John, and this was his daffodil. So when we make the call, set John's daffodil on fire, okay? Got it. Great. You're giving away your great-grandfather's daffodil? It's hard to give away John's daffodil, John daffodil, but I think it will be worth it. We don't want to lose the John daffodil. Sorry, I can't hear you over the waves hitting the John daffodil. Don't set John's daffodil on fire. Set John daffodil on fire.
I got a little daffodil over here. Oh, my God. Anybody want some? Could you put a little daffodil on mine? You eat John, right? Or you eat toilets. Take that daffy dill off my John. Oh, my God.
- That daft deal. - You see sort of a bright light emanate from the building, some sort of ritual. - No! Fuck. - No, never mind. So he's gonna hang out here unless-- - All right. - Yeah. - Or is that, is our stealth check totally fucked? - So with that nat 20, I will say that that was enough that this one dude, I will roll for him actually, see how he does.
Not great. He, yeah, you don't hear anything and you are able to sort of sneak in. So you all head into this house. It is really weird and it's good that you're sneaking because it feels very echoey on the inside because like there's like some chairs and stuff near the front, but you realize as you get in further, it's like really empty. Like no one lives here. It's just a shell. It's sort of a shell. Okay. Make perception checks inside. Come on. Big money, big money. 14. 16. 15.
tight spread. You see that there is a door to some sort of basement. There's a little bit of a light coming through and you hear this like clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp. The clumps? Yeah, you hear the... You're Eddie Murphy's... Oh my god. No! No!
Yeah, it seems like that guard just entered with Carter. He seems like the guard just entered with Carter? That's heavy. Oh, we gotta go help him.
That's where we have to go anyway, though, right? It's an underground tunnel. It's like we're... All right, we're going to go explore, and if we happen to help Carter along the way, so be it. I do want to help a fan. Yeah, he was... I don't take a ton of blame for him eagerly running at the front, but I don't want him to be fully killed. I guess we open up the door and we go downstairs. So you guys sneak on down. As you...
Do this. Give me one more stealth. Group stealth check. These fucking Irish dice are not... 13. 17. 5. 13 and 17 are high enough that you continue to sneak down these stairs. You hit a point where you hear these noises. It sounds like someone grunting, like trying to lift up a, you know...
that is completely, you know, a knocked out person and put him in somewhere. You peek around the corner and this guard is trying to like put Carter in just like a box, essentially. Like he doesn't seem dead or anything like that, but you see this one guard there who doesn't see you guys. Okay, yeah, I attack. Can I Fury of Blows in a way that will knock the guard out? Like that kind of like neck-centric hitting? Yeah.
You have a couple of things you can do with those, right? I'll also say, like, if you don't want to use up a thing like that, you guys all get rounds. Oh, great. So you can, like, triple attack this person and not use your shit. Love it. So everybody just, like, roll an attack on this guy. Oops, sorry. 26. 17. Hits. 15. And I get an extra attack. Yeah. Yeah, you can roll your second attack, Nance. Okay.
Alright, everybody roll damage at once. This dude just like really con- it's like this like, almost like a coat check room. Yes! We're killing him, unfortunately. That's uh, we each rolled sixes on ours and I had seven of mine, so that's uh, 13. And my extra attack, five. This dude just turns around and just gets smoked by all three. Uh, this like,
He you notice when he turns around he does have that pale complexion of the like cultist jester like people that you saw earlier Can I put on all those clothes?
He has the pale complexion. He's not dressed like those guys. Oh, I don't care what he's wearing. You don't want to be with stupid anymore? You're in this coat check room and there's also some nice suits in here. There's sort of this formal attire hanging up. You're looking through it and you see a bunch of different sizes. Incredible. Nance starts to get ready in a hurry and
really formal it's like she's really tall but she still wants to wear kind of like ill-fitting clothes so just like kind of a large droopy suit kind of a um talking heads yeah yeah exactly that looks even more intentional than her hers looks kind of like talking heads and then like days later without washing the suit that's what do you ever see that animated show clutter
No. It's sort of like an alien that lives in a pile of clothes. Oh, cute. Kind of runs you through this sort of just like loose clothing. Yeah, exactly. Like E.T. in a hoodie. Yeah. John Daffodil sees a French courtesan, like almost exactly what you'd picture Thomas Jefferson wearing. And he puts on like a long green velvet coat and leggings and like little stripper shoes. Just like Jefferson.
Little buckle shoes. Long velvet coat with curly shoes at the bottom. I mean an elf. All right, fine. North Pole elf. Sago, there's some stuff your size. Sago is looking through and sees a suit, and right on the inside it says Johnson. Johnson.
And he looks and there's like a call sheet from Hobbs and Shaw and Ballers. And it becomes clear that this is the suit that fits Dwayne the Rock Johnson perfectly on Ballers.
And Sago puts it on and it's that great cut blue suit, white button up, no tie. How's his butt look? Butt is fully framed and juicy as hell. Your tail popped out. Let me see that call sheet. I can't believe how far down on this call sheet I was. This is unbelievable. I was in Hobbs and Shaw. Roll a deception check. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Nat 20. Yeah, yeah. John Daffodil had a part in Hop to Shaw, and you're pretty sure you remember it. I definitely remember it. Yeah, you were good. You were really good. I'm actually a really good actor. You kind of carried that soda fountain scene. Yeah. Yeah.
He's inceptioned a memory into my brain. Yes, the classic Hobbs and Shaw soda fountain scene. I can't wait to rewatch it tonight over some chili together. You can tell stories about all your scenes. There's a lot. There's a lot to tell. Well, you are down here and you see that that guy's toast. Carter's like kind of stirring like, did I kill him?
Uh, yeah, dude. Can I knock Carter back out? Uh, yeah, you just punch him lightly in the face and he just... I'm so sorry, baby. What's his nose look like? Oh, no. I tried to aim away from the nose. It was a forehead punch. Look, his nose looks like a baseball glove. Blusted? Oh, no.
No. It's like really dried, like, blood. It's gross. Oh, I feel really bad for him now. I pick him up and put him over my shoulder. I'm really splitting the field on this. No, I'm sorry. He's got to come with me. I pat his butt on my shoulder. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, let's go. Let's go, my guy. Let's fucking go.
We gotta leave this. I'm so sorry. I feel bad for the guy. You turn the corner and down in these caverns underneath this house, there are torches lighting up to just a straight up wall. As you approach this wall, yeah, make insight checks. Or insight investigation. 11. 18. 22. Oh!
18 and 22 are pretty high. Nancy, you're kind of focusing on Kerry and Carter. Yeah, let's go. He's shifting his weight a little bit too often. It's hard to keep up. 18 and 22 are pretty high. I think on the 18, you would notice that these torches are kind of blowing. There's some sort of draft going on.
And on 22, I think you would notice, John Daffodil, you're a little over to the ground. You see that there is this hole in the wall. You looked into this hole and pretty far back, like 20 feet or so, there's a little rope hanging down. It feels like, I don't know, if you had like... Can I fit through the hole? You're too big. Okay. But if like, I don't know if there's some sort of...
Nance, make an insight check. 16. Okay. I have an idea. Yeah. As a rock gnome, I have tinker abilities. I wonder if I can, and I can construct tiny clockwork devices. I think I may look around for things. How long does this take? Can I guess, does it have something to do with my cursed sword? You're like kind of looking at your sword, but in this pouch to your left, you feel cream just like. Oh.
Cream, baby girl. Cream looks at it. Cream, I need you to, it's going to be kind of scary. It's kind of like when you get an MRI and you just have to not think about it for a while. You're going to go down this tube. You're going to take a chomp at the end of that rope and then you're going to back up because there's no room for you to turn all the way around. Back up, back out of the tube. Cream looks at you. Make an animal handling check with advantage. Okay.
Alright! That is a 14. Cream just wriggles out of the, like, you know when you hold an animal that doesn't want to be held anymore, jumps down, perfectly fits through this tube, waddles in. Like, you think that maybe there was normally a guy standing on the other side that pulls this thing, like, that you can just see from here, or someone uses some sort of magic spell or something, but you see Cream bite this rope and...
And then pull on it until you hear a catch and this big stone door slides to the side. Cream! Who loves you, baby? That's one hell of a dog. Then John Daffodil comes running back up. Okay, I found some tools.
One is clearly a log of shit. Let's get to work. Claps his hands. Shit goes everywhere. Oh, gross. In your, what is it, green velvet suit? That's right, yeah.
The call sheet in one hand. The Hobbs and Shaw call sheet in one hand, and a log of shit in the other. You'll be able to see my name, but there's something brown all over the call sheet. At the very bottom it says, dude, like, 86th. John Baffinale. Yeah, so you are able to sneak through this false wall, through a tunnel,
that's lit by torches. You don't, you hear something way in the distance, but you don't see anyone here. As you move forward through this tunnel, you eventually find yourself in a hallway where people are milling about like,
It doesn't seem like security is at this spot right now. Okay. It does seem like people who are really drunk, like partying, like there's like a bathroom near here or something. Do they have like gaunt faces or do they just look like party goers? These people look like party goers. They can blend in.
They're dressed really nicely. Like, they look kind of similar to the people who are at the Ship Shape. They don't look like cultists. Yeah. Okay. As you, you know, like, you see some people, like, looking around for bathrooms and stuff and just, like, chatting it up, but, like, really drunk, sloppy conversations. There's also, like, some tables with, like, old drinks on them. There's a couple of masks around. These people are all wearing sort of masquerade masks. Like Squid Game.
Yes, like Squid Game. Like Eyes Wide Shut. Which is based on Squid Game. That's right. And you're looking around. There are guards around here, but they're not necessarily focused on you guys. Everyone grab a mask. I put a mask on Carl. Can we like lay him down and make him look like he's had too much to drink or something? Yeah. My name's Carter. Thank you, Carl. Thanks for reminding me, Carter. Okay, put me under the table.
I put Carter on the table. I put Carter under the table and then I lay a coat over his face. Carter just slumps there. It doesn't look out of place here. I
I think John Daffodil thinks he belongs at society parties anyway, and so he very easily just grabs a mask and picks up half a drink off a table and starts trying to work the room. And would we say he's done mask work and is kind of...
Picking an archetype here? Yeah, you put the mask on and you look at it and you let it speak to you and then you put that mask not on your face but on your spine. And it affects your spine when you do mask work. And so John Davidoff starts walking with a limp based on what this mask is giving him.
And it's like, it is college acting class limp. It's like, okay, this guy. He really wants you to know he's limping. But also sometimes forgets. The leg switches back and forth based on which direction he's walking. You see John Daffodil seems hurt for some reason. John, are you okay? Oh, I'm not. I was wounded in the war. The
The Great War. This is a wound I picked up when I was fighting. I remember this scene from Charles and Shaw. Charles and Shaw. I wasn't. That's the movie I was in. That Charles and Shaw commercial. I was in Charles and Shaw. Or wait. Carter starts going, Charles and Shaw. And law. Yeah.
You see that the party kind of keeps going into this, into the main drive. Like there's like a little step up. It's almost like a concession area of like, you know, like a big, like the Pantages or something where like, there's those like big wide steps that go up into a different area. That's like kind of like a,
also has like a greater architecture to it. It doesn't feel like very small. It feels sort of grand, but you can follow that way up to sort of the main level. Here, you see that there is clearly more security outside that's like guarding it from the outside. And there are security kind of looking around from different places. But there's this sort of main doorway. You see that outside though, that's where they were checking for invitations, et cetera. So you've bypassed that. Yes.
And we look amazing, and we've got our little masks on. Let's get to work. So you guys walk into this main great hall of this place. Cthunk, cthunk, cthunk. The sound of the steps. Unnecessarily limping. You again see these rich upper crust people that were like in the VIP area of the ship shape, um,
everyone's really hammered. But as you walk into this room, it's like essentially like Harry Potter, great hall, like big four long tables, uh, where all these people are sitting down at a feast. Not only is there food covering all the tables, there is piles of food just everywhere.
decorating the room. Outside of where you can sit, there's just like stacks and stacks, almost like a cartoonish level, like gold coin Scrooge situation of food.
It's so unnecessary. It's so pointless that like it strikes you definitely as really weird. And as the room continues on, you see that there's this sort of stage where there's another long table where Roland Vokes and some of his cohorts, people who don't look that fucked up to you, they actually don't look fucked up at all, are sitting at a long table. There is some sort of silk covered frame behind them.
As you enter this room. Silk-covered frame. Like they're going to reveal something. Yeah, like something is being obscured right now that they want to reveal. Or if they shined a light on the other side of that, they could do some very cool shadow work. I'm sure. That's... Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to do some? It's called a scrim. Excuse me? Did you ever see John's shadow show, Alligator Talks to Dog? No, I haven't. The finger puppets? He's pretty rudimentary. Finger puppets. That's...
A little reductive. No, it's not finger puppets. They're characters that are created through light and hand. Oh, through light and hand. And so, as we're here, it has occurred to me, I've gotten so caught up in just chasing the person that caused all that chaos at the farmer's market. What's our goal here? I think, John, and I don't know if you're with me on this,
We should each fill a bag with the ingredients that we're going to need for chili now while we're thinking about it. We just do a little grocery shopping around the perimeter of the room. Well, and you know they're going to give it to the staff if we don't take it. They don't deserve it. I hate you so much. Forget about that.
Make... There's so much food here. It doesn't necessarily look spoiled or anything, but... It would definitely spoil. It's not to be eaten. It's truly decoration. Okay.
Make a perception check to see if you see any ingredients that you need. And I'm going to say on a good check, over like a 25, you would find two things. Over a 18, you would find one thing. And that DC will get lower. But you can only make one check right now. 23. Nance, there's some turkey meat.
All the things to have to put in my bag with cream. She's going to muck and eat all the turkey meat. All right, whatever. You did a good job. Deli turkey meat? It's round turkey. It's sliced turkey. It's like in The Wrestler. There's somebody running like, you can't.
Yeah, yeah. You see some staff person is just making sliced deli meat and throwing it onto the pile. That's their job. It's like a buff 42-year-old, but he looks 58. This is perfect part of the plan. I need to fill Cream up with some other food so that when I'm putting the ingredients in there, she won't be tempted. All right, so I take a really fat stack of sliced turkey meat and I feed it to Cream. Pan.
Pandemonium. Cream start eating it. What'd you get? A three. John, you find, you don't find shallots, unfortunately, but you do find on a three, just some banana peels. Put these in your bag. I don't have a bag. Put these in your bag. But what if it poisons cream? Oh, boy. All right. I stuff the banana peels in my bag and I pet cream and go, please don't eat these. I just don't know.
No, you had a lot of turkey. I stuffed more turkey in her little mouth. Everyone here make an Arcana or Insight check. A dirty 20. Let me know which one you made as well. Insight, 21. 11 Insight. But if we needed Arcana, I could have an 18. I was a 20 Arcana.
Tony Arcana? I think that, I think you're good. Insight check, you see people are like sloppy in a way that's like almost like they've been gassed or something. Like people feel out of it in a way that's like, it doesn't feel right for this many people to seem in like a weird stupor. Looks like Studio 54 back in the day. Can I roll to see if I think he's actually ever been to Studio 54? No.
Okay, that's a nine. Yeah, roll a... What are you rolling? A perception or a deception? I'm rolling deception. Well, he's rolling a d12. Let's start that. Ten. You did ten and you rolled a nine? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe he has been. Yeah, it seems like it. That's what you would get on that insight check is like something's off with the people here at this party. And again, everyone up on that dais doesn't look fucked up in this way. On top of that,
That Arcona check, looking out at this crowd, looking at the table to the far left, you swear that you could see like almost like scent lines coming off of the people and flowing through the air towards this covered doorway thing. This like covered object. That's the table that is like the sober people are sitting at, you're saying? No, just like one of the tables. One of the tables, we see scent lines coming from the door.
It is a magical aura, but that looks like a scent line, I would say. Right, okay. I relay that information.
I think we should follow that. I'm trying to decide if John Daffodil would have enough wits about himself to try and protect, to pick up on, like, there's something going on with these people. Is there a way to protect ourselves? We don't know enough yet to know what would protect us. So I think we just have to follow it. I think on this insight check, you'd also realize these are pretty much, you know, from your dealings with Carter, people in this room aren't built like you all are.
You know, like they are more susceptible maybe. And on top of that, you look at the drinks in their hand, you look at the food in their, in their plates and stuff. You think something about this is creating this. I'm lucky I'm stuffed. Cause I would have eaten food right on the way in here. And they're, they're gorging themselves and they're drinking. They're going for it. Oh, okay. Okay. So nobody, cream. Can I check on her? Is she drunk? Yeah.
Cream looks like, oh no, my baby. Wow. I drugged my baby. Eventually you hear like a ting ting. And even though it's just one man's glass at the front, you feel everyone turn to see this person. It is the Lucius Malfoy looking motherfucker, Roland Volks. He stands up, clears his throat, pale as he could be with a little smile on his face.
He looks up to the sky at the idea of this goddess.
and above all else, feast on the energy present in this room, and rise up to take this plane from those who would, from those who do not know what it means to live life to the fullest. The great feast is upon us. Gorge and drink endlessly, an endless bounty from which you shall begin your reign. Rise up, children of Gula."
"Rise up and take the world that belongs to you." As he does this, this sort of silk flies off this frame and you see more visibly now those threads of magic just like pouring off those people who are eating, but they're not really conscious.
- Where are those fumes kind of going to? - Going straight to that gate. As he removes the silk from this gate, you see this frame, it looks like there's some kind of object underneath it, but what you notice on the outside of it is this sort of fleshy construction of it. Like there is something over it that is like almost alive looking and pulsing made of like organic matter.
Within the center of it, though, this like kind of wispy, magical energy that's coming off of people is kind of coalescing into like sort of a spiral. That's why they all look so sunken faced. They've been giving their energy to this.
- Perhaps. - Perhaps. - Perhaps. - Okay. - You see, as this happens, the people at that table who all looked pale though, they start eating on purpose. Like they feel like, it seems like they know what they're doing, but they're doing it anyway. Roland Vokes is not doing it.
He is sort of just standing there, letting it all feed into this thing. That light is becoming brighter and brighter and he looks at it and he's like, "Oh, it looks like we have some uninvited guests to our party." And I look at one of the zombie-like guys near me and I go, "Roll a deception." 23. Okay.
Get him out of here! Garth takes this guy out. This stupor guy just like gets dragged off. But I think we have other guests as well. He's still looking at you. I'm unclear if he was invited yet. Why are you here? What has brought you to this place?
- Well, let me go. - This is sort of an exclusive party. - Yes. - Can I see? - I gave you the floor 'cause I thought you had something. - Is your leg? - Oh, it's a hand. - We are the entertainment.
Perhaps you recognize Sago Gleg. Famous... Take off my mask. Famous television personality. Dressed like The Rock in Ballers, taking off a plastic mask of his own face, Sago Gleg reveals himself to the crowd, who is just eating. Sago Gleg, is that you? Yes, yes. And it is also I, John Taffadil, here to enter... Did you hurt your leg?
Oh, in the war. Which, like a pretty old war by the way you're dressed. Yeah, there was a kraut who came to, who blew up a landmine right near me. You know those krauts. I know it's a salty language to use in this day and age, but back then, that's how we talked. He just like, looks at you like, okay. Listen, to borrow a phrase from Saga Glareg,
Let's all keep eating. And he watches as everyone continues to keep eating. And you see this energy become more and more visible as these people continue to gorge himself. And Roland looks out at you all. He holds up a hand. It glows with some energy. And he's like, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Let's all roll initiative. Do I see if the dull champs are here? Yeah, they're here and they are eating.
In fact, make a perception check. Yeah. 17. Is that your perception check? Yeah. You see one on the fourth table over a certain hippopotamus woman is eating. Oh, my gosh. Oh, Fiona. 14 was my perception. John Daffodil. Um...
You're looking at it and you're like, is that a former student of mine? You're not sure. It seems like someone that maybe you had chemistry with. A former student that I had chemistry with. Struggling so hard to think of somebody that got that role. Exactly. I was like, this old eccentric woman who really took you under her wing. Oh, let me take this back. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
John D'Avito, you see... I'll tell you what I'm looking for. Yeah, who are you looking for? I'm looking for DJ Dwayne The Rock Johnson, who's at this party. Yeah, on a 14, there is this rather large man who I guess took off all of his clothes. He did think it was an orgy. Yeah.
But he's just eating. He's like having a good meal. Not fucking or anything. Dwayne! A guy looks up. Can you believe it? Here we both are again. He has sort of this glass-eyed magic effect on his face and does you an eyebrow raise? Hey.
Talk about, do you smell what they're cooking, huh? He does not see. He raises the other eyebrow. We go back. Oh, yes. You see these people that you know to be generally sort of innocent. Is there anything, is like cream, is energy coming off of cream? Cream looks like he's okay. Okay, good. For some reason, whatever is affecting these people and the amount that they are gorging them out, the way that they're positioned is,
It was just a little deli meat. Yeah. Okay. I rolled 19 on my initiative. All right. You can't imagine what Grant rolled. What? You can't imagine which dice. I rolled a 90. I rolled a four. Roll initiative. 90. Eight for me.
At the top of the initiative, you see this pulse of power being pulled towards the gate from everyone. You see this sort of like green crackling light in the center of it glow and kind of shimmer and sort of change colors to be a little darker and become more of like a purple. It feels like it is whatever's happening, they're feeding off of the people here.
Thank you so much for listening to the Rotating Heroes podcast. I hope that you are enjoying Arc 6 with Zach Oyama as your DM.
Ali Beardsley, Dan LePert, and Grant O'Brien. If you're enjoying the show, please take a second to leave us a review. It really helps new rotators find the show. And of course, if you are in desperate need of more Rotating Heroes content, if you want to hear more of these incredible hijinks, if you want to hear the latest episodes, if you want to get the arc box where we talk about the episodes, then there is only one place to be, and that is the Rotating Heroes Patreon, which you can find a link to in the description on the show notes below.
below. But until then, we shall see you next week, Rotators.