Eternal Lies 16: Warm Welcomes

0:00 Daniel's Dread Tales is a show for grown-ups. It may contain adult language and adult themes. Please check the episode description for content warnings. Last time on Eternal lies. With a curious character in their custody, the gang set to work extracting information from him to mixed results. While Reginald's enhanced interrogation tactics proved fruitless, Cullen's basic human decency in Flask Full of Nectar resulted in new information not just from their captive, but from JB as well, who revealed his time in the cult's clutches had given him an enduring craving for the stuff. Once Sir Rome started talking, they parted ways with a letter of introduction to some local allies in Kaluli and the investigators ready to hop aboard a company train.

0:45 Sand and mouths weren't the only thing waiting in the desert however, as our noble crew soon came under attack from camel mounted marauders escaping by the skin of their teeth. Thanks to Kearns mastery of vehicles, the investigators made their way onward to Iron Point. The dye is cast, the pact is sealed. May God have mercy on our souls. It's Daniel's shred tales. Make sure this dye is all. Stuffed up you are next episode. Yes. Well, I was saying that you guys got shot up. Yes, speeding into the sunset or whatever time it is.

1:27 Yes, as the train continues to go forward and the you see these marauders, bandits, whatever they were, disappear over the horizon, let's check in on each of us, shall we? Named pronoun and how much blood you lost. JB Fox He him fair amount. It's not fatal, but J BS definitely taken a bullet and is looking worse for wear. Frank Kearns he him extremely sweaty, extremely sooty looking fine. Sticks the shovel into the pile of coal. Starts performing first aid on JB. Reginald Killworth, he, him and I probably lost the most amount of blood out of everybody from 2 bullet holes. That's fucked up.

2:13 Yeah. Colin Kane. He, him. I have lost most of my blood. I am not graceful at all about it. It's like, oh, oh, God, there's blood everywhere. Slap my chest. Oh, no. Hauling myself through the train cart Reg. It is first aid. Yeah, both of you are on like death's fucking door, aren't you? Still in the positives by 1, you think? Yeah. I mean, you're still, you're fine. I mean, you're not fine, you're clearly not fine, but you're mechanically you're not suffering anything yet. OK question here, how long can I leave the train on the tent? That basically how long can it keep running itself before it starts needing?

3:08 I don't. Make your drive. Machinist Difficulty. 3. I don't have anything to spend. Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like you spent all of it trying to help us escape from bandits, which was pretty bad ass. Fuck our older one. You're not sure? OK, you know what? I'm still, I'm still OK. We can save the first aid for us to until we get to like not in a moving train. Mr. Kane and Mr. Kilsworth over there don't look too good. I suggest you head over to that car and check on them. Yeah, I'm going to do that. Come into the car, I'm doing first aid on Reds.

3:51 I alright, hopefully we got the same kind of blood. What were we saying about hepatitis? Alright, take one of these and come in the morning light the fused. Well, that's not a cigarette. Oh. My God no. Holy shit I can't leave you alone for 5 minutes. So OK, I got it. I'll spend 4 points on that. Four points to give him eight points. OK, this is not a truly like situation. You can just spend the points. OK, eight points for Reg.

4:34 OK, I'm going to take a long nap now. My blood is so sticky. Keeps me cool though. It is very hot. Russell is currently miming smearing blood all over his face. Oh no, I'm I've got first aid points. I feel like at the very least he shouldn't be at 1, so I'm going to spend 2 first aid points to bring him up to A5. Well, I feel much better. Why am I covered in blood? Oh right, the bullet wounds. Yes, the bullet wounds. How's Kearns? Did he make it? Yeah, Kearns is all right. He managed to get us out of there and both me and him took minimal bullet wounds.

5:18 How minimal? I mean, you know, if I had to write it on a scale, I'd say I'm like 4 out of eight. I'll spend another point on you. You got to get these patched up or they'll get. Do you have another point to spend? I got two more well. One more going to double back and check up on Kerns and just see how you're doing in general. Someone needs to check on Kay. How's she doing dead? Still dead? Yep, still looks. Still dead again. At least I think so. Holy shit, why would you say like? Smash cut 2. Meanwhile, this is another stability. Done, done, done. Fuck hand rises up out of a pile of quartz. Yeah, no, it's.

6:03 A hand detached from a body, A hand and not much else. Oh my God, am I saying? It rises up from the nectar in the like underground sewer area. Sorry, what the fuck were we talking about? I believe you were going back to the car. Yeah, while Kearns is minding the train, I'm just going to spend a point of first aid, you know, just to give you a little back. Oh, that's that's mighty kind of you. You don't look so good yourself. Let me hear it. Let me put a Band-Aid on you or something on that. If. You spend one point on me, I'm back to full. Literally just put a Band-Aid on you. Whack.

6:48 Anyway, we're good. For the moment, it seems the team is largely OK. Well, your driver is in ship shape. Yeah, so I'm going to make sure that we get to where we want to be, huh? That sounds like a good plan to me. All right, the train journey continues. Chugga, chugga Choo, Choo. It is ultimately an uneventful journey. After what happened, you arrive at what is called Iron Point, which is the end of the rail line. I keep wanting to say Iron Deep. No, not the iron, Deep iron point as your train was approaching. It was not doing this stealthily. Obviously it's a train, so there's a collection of curious villagers watching the train arrive as you are coming in. Understandable.

7:44 So how many points of stealth would I have to spend in order to make this a stealthy approach? We're in a train, dog, we're in a train. What are you talking about? Trains are the stealthiest. As the train is approaching the stop, they're actually children who are running alongside the train tracks. Now that's adorable. Yeah. And very dangerous. Yeah, yes, yes. I'm not denying that. But yeah, but as to 30s, we're OK with that. You see that there is a small village, looks like it's about based on the map that you had before and also just sort of looking out.

8:25 About two miles South of here is the village of Kaluli. We just got into a train gunfight. I think we can walk 2 miles even if it's in a. Desert it is in the evening, but not night yet. Oh, so this is like the only time it's safe to walk in the desert? Yes, actually. It's also gonna be super cold. It's gonna get cold soon, but it's not cold yet, so we can still work with this. How long does it take for four men to walk 2 miles? I've heard this one before. None. They're in a boat. Thank you, Russell, very helpful. If you're doing like a, you know, like a brisk walk, probably 40 minutes to an hour.

9:08 Turns give me a piggyback. Yeah. I could do that. Don't do that. You don't have to do that. Pardon me saying so, Mr. Cain, but you don't look too good. I still got first aid to spare. Would you? Would you like me to heal you up some more? Nah, save it for later. All right. In the meantime, I could probably give you a piggyback. No, that's fine. All right. I'll walk. I'm a big boy. So you are, Mr. Cain. So you are. As you are approaching the village proper, you are greeted by a collection of adult men. There's about seven of them who approach you.

9:49 The vibe is not aggressive, but it is curious and a little bit cautious. Understandable. Probably they don't get tourists often. No, no, considering that they the train had not run for years. Yeah, not often at all. Do you say anything first or do they get the first word? I Hello, We are the Americans. Oh, no, don't do this. Let's let's try shuffling through a through a few languages. I try like, you know, Italian. Not really working. You know what one of them speaks a little bit of Italian. Not a great amount of Italian. It'll have to do.

10:31 One of them said something to you in French. Do any of you speak French? Little dog. They don't have German. Mr. Game Master, Yeah. Could I roll some preparedness to have like a dictionary on me or like a conversation book? Okay, for what language? Let's say French. Why not? You know what, sure, do you have any unspent language skills? Cuz you can also just like give a point of language to yourself. But yes, you can make a preparedness role if you would like. But looking at your sheet here, you have two language points that you have not used to establish a language yet. Now you don't have to.

11:14 You can keep that floating around, but it seems like it might be the time to use that. Fine, I speak French. I happen to speak French. OK. Oh yeah, make sure you write that down on your character sheet. Yeah, what's he saying in French? He says hello. It's been a long time since anyone is use that train line. We weren't expecting visitors. Yeah, I I can see how that would be surprising, Sir. Yes, yes. What brings you to our home? I translate basically to yeah, the smarter people. Oh well, you gotta leave me out like that. You were not mentioned by name.

11:58 This is a self report. Do I still have that NPC energy? What brings you to our village? Well, how do I put this without sounding like a crazy person? We have business near Dalo. Yeah, we've got business near Dalo. And I feel like that was the wrong thing. To say like when that is said, one of the men who just hears the word dowel, not the one that you were talking to like shakes his head and says something in afer saying that like you know you do not, you do not want to go to dowel.

12:40 When he says that, does it feel like is they're going to try to prevent us from going to Dalal or is it like they're going to strongly suggest that we don't go? They're worried for you. They're not going to keep you from going. They're just like, you don't want to go there. We're also looking for two women, one's named Moho and I forget what the other one's name was. Mathai Mathai. Yeah. Do you mention those two people? Yeah, sure. The bad target, he says. How do you know those two women? We meant an acquaintance of theirs. This all sucks. I feel like we're going to get our throats slit tonight. I feel like that every time we go anywhere in any of these games, so I guess I shouldn't be too worried.

13:25 I do want to make it clear, these guys seem there's nothing violent about these guys. These guys do not look like the throat cutting type. That is reassuring. They're not hostile, they're just confused because we've blundered in as we do. That's kind of why I asked in the beginning, like whether they were gonna stop us or. Yeah. Were they just, you know. Yeah, They're just like, don't, don't go there. It's bad. Yeah. Mm hmm. I should note the village itself is an Ethiopian village in the the dunes. It's relatively close to an Oasis, hence why it's, you know, here. Yeah. Extent. Yeah, the people here are like, you guys haven't had a ton of experience in Africa before.

14:13 From my understanding, you would be more familiar with this, like if you were looking at a National Geographic or something. This seems like, oh, these look like those sort of people. Many of the women are walking around bare breasted, which is, you know, it's fine. Let's not be weird about it. But that's just sort of to give you the idea of how different of a culture this is. There is some brick around, but it not all of the buildings are. But with that, some are built with more natural materials. There's about like 300 people living in the village for much you can see here. Everything seems to be like a chill, well functioning village. Yeah, so.

14:53 They're wearing native garb, traditional Ethiopian garb, which is not much to be perfect because it's so goddamn hot. Understandable. Yeah, yeah. So we met a friend of Mahoho and Matai. He directed us towards those ladies. Yeah, we met him over in Oh right. We didn't put down its name. It's just labeled Motherfucker on the map. Marissa Fatma. Yeah, that place. Yeah. Oh well, I suppose we could try to find them. You have a message from him. We do. I produced this message from JB's pocket. That's right, I'm a magician. It's. Like, how the fuck did you do that? That was really impressive. Well, you look like you've seen better days. The desert doesn't look like it's treated you well. Correct.

15:43 We were shot at. These are dangerous times. They most definitely are. I don't want to impose on anyone, but I don't suppose you have a place? We could also rest for the night. Yes, of course we could give you some hospitality. Anything outside of that we cannot give away for free. I'm sure you understand. Oh, of course, of course we will not impose as as much as possible, you know what I mean? Edge you wish to go to dowel. We do. It's probably best if we don't say anymore, except to Mathiah.

16:24 Yeah, the rest. Has private business. One of them just sort of gives the sciences. It seems to be muttering something under his breath which you're pretty sure needs fucking white people. I figured it was I I figured, yeah, we probably have been getting that a lot this arc. And you are led to a area where a family welcomes you in to one of the dwellings here and you are given some space to stay for the evening. Awesome slumber body. You are once again in a safe location. Nice. Which means you can recover because you've already had one of those. In this sort of Arc, you're going to get one skill you can fully recover.

17:10 OK, I'm getting my first aid back. Maybe you pick something different because I probably have more first aid than anybody else. OK. I should probably get my driving back, huh? Probably, yeah. I'm gonna then get all my psychoanalysis back. Oh, there you go. Which? Definitely a good idea. Boy, I wish somebody else had that so I wasn't stuck at 1 stability. Stability Status No. Just like real life, huh? Just like real life. And I will allow you to say that you are all not suffering heat because you are near an Oasis and you're able to rest a little bit here.

17:57 Yay. And once we go back out, it's going to be a problem. But. Yeah, you're good for now. That makes sense. Do you guys mostly just collapse and then wake up the next day or are you going to try to go out and talk to people? Now that sounds like a great plan to JB. Everybody else is free to do as they like, like the JP is clocking out. Thank you and good night. Collin's big on collapsing. Yeah, I think Reg is taking a nap too. He got a little bit more lead in his diet than he wanted. Yeah, yeah, now that we're all .05% more bullet than we were before. Collin's going to collapse as well unless Kearns wants to do something. I don't know buddy system.

18:40 Boy, no, I'm just going to try to stay up as long as I can because my arms are still itchy from last night. Yep. Yep, Yep. Yep Yep, but I probably end up falling asleep too. It was a taxing day. God, was it ever. You have the same dream. How lucid am I? Like can I interact with it at all? Here's what you could do. You could try to make a stability role to interact with your dream. Wow. Difficulty. 5. Do I lose anything? If you spend points, you will lose those points. Yeah, but unless I spend something, I don't lose anything if I fail. Probably not. No, you won't. You won't. I'm just going to say, please don't be wishy washy when it comes to a precious resource.

19:27 Yeah. Precious Yeah, I only have 4 stability so I'm just going to chance it. OK. All right. No, no. A natural one for both of the roles you've rolled so far for this session is. Hopefully that just means you're burning all your bad luck now and everything's going to go great from this point forward. Yeah, let's choose to look at it that way. Yeah, I wake up in cold sweat again, screaming. Awesome. The team chooses to ask no follow up questions because we get it. Yeah, sure. Oh, it's really charring waking up to screaming every morning. JB just sleeps through it now.

20:10 Yeah, no, JB absolutely sleeps through it. It just blends in with the rest of his dreams. What would you like to do on this lovely day in the village of Kaluli? Well, I think we should definitely track down our contacts. Maybe they've got breakfast we can have. I did specifically say we would try not to impose, but I guess food is a little important. We have money to buy food, right? Yeah, what? What use are they going to have for American dollars though? We probably, like, brought rations, right? I mean, there's no way our guide wouldn't have.

20:53 Can I roll preparedness to say we brought rations? You have food, Yeah. You brought food with you. You brought food with you. OK, thank God. In fact, your guide, who again left you before you got on a train, seemed like a crazy thing. He was just like you guys, have fun. Turns out he was smart for that one. He had you bring, as you were going to the stuff, some gold to trade. Perfect. Yes, like a small amount, but just to you know. Enough for room and board, shall we say? Yes, so to speak. Well, this is nice and cozy, yeah. I say as I itch my arms until they bleed. Oh.

21:39 OK, you are offered food by the people there. You don't need to pay for it. They're gonna offer you some food. Yay, hospitality. You're getting some ingera, which is sourdough fermented flatbread, which is like one of the big parts of the Ethiopian cuisine. I'll admit that sounds pretty good. Yes, and some vegetables as well to go along with it and I think probably some goat meat. Yeah, here, let me show you one of the meals of my people. We call it a Taco. No, no, maybe don't. Maybe don't. Do. Not just. Wait, are you Mexican? No, I'm American, OK? Oh, that.

22:21 Are tacos a thing in the 30s Like you know, I have? To assume. Quote UN Quote tacos. I It looks like Sooty created a Mexican restaurants of New York City projects here. My Google says that tacos were first introduced to the United States in 1905. So it's yes, but not necessarily New York. Colin has encountered tacos. He does not realize that they're from Mexico. Okay. Gotcha. My goodness. All right, anyway, I feel like there was something else we had to do in Kaluli beyond meet with our guides, but not our guides.

23:02 They're not going to, he said. They'd approach us. You are going to need some guides, not necessarily these people, but if you intend to go across the desert once again, you're going to need like guides and camels and stuff. OK, Yeah. Like you're not going to just, yeah, you're going to need to hire somebody. Well, we'll, we'll get to that when we get to that. You are approached though, by one of the women that you were told to keep an eye out for. I because of the like the tattoo, yeah. Right. One of the women who introduces herself as which one should it be? Doesn't really matter.

23:47 Just confirmed Dan thinks women are interchangeable anyway. Yeah, that's me. That's it. Daniel hates women. Mathai approaches you and says in English. I really wish you wouldn't be bringing up our names to the population of the village. Yeah, it felt like a mistake as soon as we did it. I apologize for my friends. Well, I used to have a teacher of sorts who told me to take chances, make mistakes and get messy. It's a fair idea. You are outsiders. Why do you know of us? I pass along the message. She reads it. Oh, if you're good enough for Jerome, I suppose you are to be trusted. No wonder he didn't want to tell us his name. Didn't he say what to call him Jerome though? He.

24:40 Did say to call him Jerome, Yeah. OK, yeah, yeah, maybe you forgot, but I remembered that man's name anyway. Well, you seek to go to the site of the eating pit. It's long destroyed, but if you'd like to see it, feel free. We would, and we'd also like to meet with the man Airs, who lives, from what I understand, not far from the site. That may be a little more difficult. He does not speak to us anymore, or anyone for that matter. I know he's in the desert somewhere. I mean, he must go from Oasis to Oasis if he tries to survives. Lives in caves, perhaps to the north of the old dig site. That's a wrinkle, but.

25:45 There's a series of caverns, the halls of Olaf Wok. Perhaps he could be there. We don't go there anymore. The winds are too harsh and really it's just too hot. There's nothing out there. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, it's named after an old God that was once worshipped, I believe, but that's nothing that we're really concerned about. There's no evidence of that God being real, unlike the horrible things that we saw and. What do you call those gods? Well, they're not gods, they're the eating pits. Fair enough. But we've been able to keep them at Bay for now. How?

26:28 You know of more than this one at De Lal? Well, no. The one at De Lal was destroyed centuries ago, but we were worried that the expedition would dig it up, so we destroyed the entire expedition by unleashing the seals. So you're probably not going to want to hear this. Jerome was skeptical. But. No, I read it in the note. You're saying that there's more? Yes. Yeah, yeah, there. There's definitely more. Well, this one should be dead, though perhaps it bears another look. The bigger concern is that the people of Dalal, we have not been able to get there.

27:10 But I've heard some strange rumors of what's happening in that town, and I fear they may have come under the influence of one of them. They may be trying to create a new one. Oh no. These cultists are so fanatical. I don't know much about the village myself. Our numbers have dwindled. I fear that we are not as powerful as we once were. But perhaps you could talk to some of the other men who have travelled near that village. They might be able to tell you more. All I could say is this. Be careful. Of course. That's decisively the plan. We also have something we might be better off leaving in your possession.

27:51 It's a flask of nectar. What flask of nectar? I forgot that I don't know what nectar is. No, it is the substance that the mouths create. We don't know how to safely get rid of this or. If it even can be safely disposed of. We'll keep it secret and safe. Yes, this bears investigation. Oh, I feel so relieved that it's no longer in our possession. Tell me about it. Yeah. Now this Ayers person, when was the last time he was seen again? I've lost track at least three years ago. Oh my. North of the old dig site, you say? Yes.

28:34 Now your friend Jerome LED us to believe that this Ayers person might have a mouth on him. Oh, he has a mouth on him. Yes, absolutely. More than one or just the normal amount? No, a secondary one on his belly. What, That's not supposed to be there? But it is inactive. This is why I maybe caution you to speak with airs. He has purposely cut himself off from most other humans to allow the mouth to weaken. I look over to Reg and Colin and JB and I go it's just a Catherine mentioned an Airs.

29:15 I believe he might be important. He's definitely important. Unfortunately, we have a lot of questions for him. Yes. Well, if he's willing to speak with you, he will find you. Wait, he will find us. Isn't. That going around. Well, if you go to look for him and you find him, which you may if he's doesn't try to hide from you, he can answer whatever questions he wishes to answer. I would ask that you don't treat him like you treated Jerome. He mentioned that in the note, didn't he? Oh yeah, he did. I'm still so sorry about that. I sort of go stone faced and I say as long as he doesn't go stalking us.

29:58 I have nothing to feel bad about. That was a huge misunderstanding. Everything's fine. Oh, would you look at the time? I have to be somewhere else anyway. I've got all my sense trouble back. Bring it on, motherfucker. I wish you luck, and if you have experience in more directly confronting these things, perhaps you can go to dowel and see what you can see there. Well, but before we do, I think I'm going to go around town and talk to people like she suggested, use some oral history and hope that there's somebody who at least passingly knows a language. I do.

30:41 OK, oral history is one of them. I need another skill to go along with that. So you're able to collect stories, but to make the people talk to you, you're going to need to use. Explosives. Another conversational skill. Streetwise a bargain? I do have Bargain. Intimidation. Bargain could bargain would be more if you're trying to hire guides, which you are going to need to do. You are going to need to hire guides to take you to where at least the dig site. Maybe dowel all? Right. Do you have reassurance? I would say oral history could work. They're a little hesitant, but with some reinsurance you'll be able to get it. I I don't have reassurance, but I do have streetwise and flattery.

31:23 Somebody else could come with you, though. Yeah, somebody else could come with you. That's true. We could teamwork this shit. Take Colin. OK, me and Colin will go around checking for stuff like that and Kearns and Reg, you guys do whatever you'd like. I'm not your mom though. We should find a guide at some point. Maybe that put that on the docket for somebody. Oh, I thought that's yeah, we were doing. Oh yeah, that's a part of it. Yeah, 'cause you have bargain. I do a bargain, so I'm going to do that and try and find out more about Dalo. OK, so the bargain is going to be reasonable enough that you're trying to put together the services of a guide with camels for everybody and food and water and the other sort of sundries. Yeah, that would be needed for this. When they ask you where you're going though, and you mentioned that you're going to the dig site near Dalo, people are. Reassurance, yeah.

32:18 The reassurances needed to make them be like the tribe that now lives in Dalol was once nomadic, like most the Afar tribes are. In fact, this village is made-up of several different tribes. It's sort of a stopping point because it's near an Oasis, but many tribes come in and out of this city that you're in right now. Dalol is have stopped moving. The people, the Dalites, Dalilites and the whole extended tribe now lives in Dalol and no longer travels along with the sea isms. This is seen as entirely deviant, both morally and logistically.

33:01 Deviants, you say? What an odd idea. Yeah, nuts. Do you have any other questions about the Dalolites? Any tips for staying cool in this desert heat? Try not to overwork yourself. If that's a good one, that makes sense. Drink electrolytes. Bring some Kool-aid along. Yeah. The only other thing you hear about the dollar lights is that they worked for the mining company. Many of them worked for the mining company and in fact were then assigned to the dig site later on in the 1924 dig, though, yeah, now they don't work there anymore because obviously that isn't there. And again, this isn't a place where they do much of anything it seems anymore. For time, the people at Dollo would trade here at Kaluli because it is sort of a minor trade hub, but now none of the dowel tribes been engaged in 80 of the trade. That place has taken over by the cult big time. And then also the person saying is not that we'd let them in, you know, after what they're up to. Explain further please.

34:05 What sort of things are they up to? Look, I told you, you don't want to go there. Leave well enough alone. I don't know why I need to explain things more than the fact that it is a bad place like this guy seems confused about. Why do you want to burden yourself with this knowledge? This is a bad place that should be avoided. Therefore, why do you want to learn about it? Well, it's in the job description to take care of bad places. Yeah. You might need to make an investigative spend to get this. Would spending a point of reassurance count? Yes, it would. Who's spending the point? I don't have reassurance so.

34:45 Oh, I thought you were asking because you were spending. No, I thought the whole reason you came alongside me was because you have it. I do have it. It's flattery I don't have. I have flattery. We complement each other. Hello there, Boils and ghouls and non booed Aries. Daniel Strad Tales is a free podcast and it will continue to be a free podcast. We can and have been doing this without any payment because we're in it for the love of the game. But would the show sound better with a real editor?

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37:45 Is it a mouth? You need to promise not to share this with anyone else. Go on. I travelled close to the village in recent years and there's a few things wrong with that place. I, I don't know, I just, I had dreams after I went there, just disturbing ones. Dreams where I chew off my own limbs. I keep having them over and over again. One night I woke up and discovered that I'd bitten my own arm hard enough to make it bleed. He shows you a pinkish scar, his teeth left in his deep brown skin.

38:30 Yikes. That is why you should not go to that place. Well, if it can be at all avoided, I think probably we will. I have a feeling Kearns is going to love that place. Yeah. All right, but also bargaining. You are able to put together a small team of guides. Would you like to bring one guide which you could just do or you could bring 3 guides with you, but you would need to spend some of your money. By that I mean literally your. Credit rating, Yes, I've got credit rating. I can. I can burn. I'll get it back eventually. Yeah, OK. If you want the best prepped expedition that you could get for the people that are here, especially if you're going towards Dollo which people don't really want to do, it is going to be a 2 point credit spend. Oh God.

39:20 All right. Yep, I can do that. I'm just going to need everybody to spot me for meals for a while. I got you back, JP. OK, Pat. Pat. All right. Pat. Pat, Pat, Pat. Pat. This is appreciated. My goodness. So how many guides are we bringing again? 3/3. Guides How many camels? Everybody gets one camel. Yay. 7 camels, eh? Yeah, that's a lot of camels. No wonder I had to spend 2 credit rating on this. Each of you is going to ride on one and then also while you're right, you don't want to share them because some of the other stuff the camels are carrying is going to be like supplies and stuff. Yeah, that makes sense. The three guides coming with you are going to be Malaku, Sisse and Tessima.

40:10 Sweet, I've got a great icebreaker joke. All right, so if worst comes to worst, we're eating Tessima first. I suppose that stands to reason. Why is that? Yeah, I just, I just chose one of them at random, OK? It was a, it was a, it wasn't very funny. And presumably everybody is staring hatefully at JB. Yeah, no, whereas Colin takes you seriously. Oh no, I regret. Oh my God, everything. Nods dourly. Each of these men are experienced desert traders, guides and whatnot. They promise to get you to where you're going safely. They tell you it's going to be very hot though and to prepare accordingly.

40:52 Gotcha. Not hot. These guys all seem really competent. I take it back. We're eating Colin first. There you. Go or made it go around. Each one of them is a large, muscular man in their late 30s, and they appear to be triplets. Well, these guys turn on us. We don't stand a chance. That is, if they guess, or even if they were to just leave you out in the desert, whatever, you wouldn't be in trouble. So assess honesty. They mean it when they say they'll help, right? Yes. Absolutely. OK. However, when you do mention that you would be going to dowel, they said they would set up a camp outside of dowel. They would not go into the.

41:37 Village proper. This is probably smart. Yeah, that makes sense. Let's us make an approach more stealthily, as we often do. Or try. Yeah. Well, the approach is generally stealthy, it's just not the execution. Yeah. DSX style. We plan to be stealthy, our plans just very frequently go to shit. Yeah, I do find it quite entertaining, the vast difference in the carefulness of our preparations and the carelessness of our plans. Yes. And I should also note by the way, we're sort of hand waving over this.

42:17 We just had that very easy conversation. These have not been easy conversations with the people here, not because they're afraid of you or whatever, but just like culturally you are not in Kansas anymore. You know what I mean? Like you're about as far from Kansas as you could possibly be. There's just been a lot of miscommunication and whatnot, but they are willing to work with you so. Hey JP, this guy's never heard of Dick Tracy. Probably for the best. Maybe I should save that guy before Colin starts info dumping. All right. I think we can, unless there's anything else. I don't want to belabor this so I want to maybe hand wave this into you leaving, but is there anything else we want to do in the village? I mean, if there's anything Mr.

43:08 Killworth wants to do. You said that this was kind of like a minor trade hub. Yeah. Reg. Is going to be looking for somebody who seems to be selling cloth, yeah. Do you have? Bargain. I don't have bargain. OK, you can find somebody. Yeah. What kind of coffee are you looking for? Something semi cheap. What Reg's plan is, is he's going to start the process for drawing out a hyperspace gate on it, leaving off the stuff for the origin. Interesting. That's not smart. OK, OK, I see.

43:49 What that's that's the idea. I think you could get a large enough piece of cloth with a little bit of trading. I don't think you need bargain for that. And maybe you could just bring somebody who has bargain with you if you would like. Hello. Yes, yeah, I think you could get that and start trying to put that together just like before, you know, before you go to sleep, I guess. Yeah, pointing it at Iron Point rather than right in Oh. OK. So the thing that you were setting is you wanted to be able to get back to the train. Yeah, basically an escape route. I I highly doubt that they would appreciate us popping out in the village. That might cause some friction.

44:35 Yeah, Yeah, it might. We're we're. Weird enough as is. So to start working on it is going to take some work. Yeah. So firstly. Yeah, OK. If you're doing this before sleep, I'm assuming we're all like in one room, right? Yeah. Yeah, you find that Kearns is staring at what you're doing very intently, and he sort of nods at the bizarre symbols that you're tracing and goes, that's the teleport magics, right? Yep. Mr. Killworth, I for a second you see on my face that I kind of really want to apologize, but instead I say I appreciate the work that you put in, Mr.

45:22 Kilworth. And for my part, I'm I'm going to try to do anything to make sure that she didn't die in vain. That is the plan. I turned to the wall. It's like in. My bed all. Right. All right, I'm going to need you to cast the spell then, because you need to prepare it beforehand. It's a difficulty 5 stability test, so it can be reduced if you know about physics. I don't. OK. And in addition to the test, it's going to cost to stability or for health. If you were to do for health, you would lose one point of health rating permanently. Yeah. Reach for points you spend. I I'm gonna spend 2 on the roll.

46:06 I didn't need to spend 2 on the roll and then spend the other two in order to basically start the casting of the spell. You now have a gate ready to go. Using an already created gate cost 1 stability in addition to any costs or sites or threats at the destination. Fair enough. Well, I mean, there shouldn't be any threats at the destination. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. I bet it's fine. Colin would like to pick up a weapon. Ah at the training post here. If at all possible. Like what kind of weapon? Well, I've got scaffolding and explosives, so the only real weapon I can think of is some sort of power fist that explodes on the punch. Oh yes, power fest, right?

46:55 Of course. Well, let's see. Nope, nobody has power fists. Dang, should have got one back in New York. Yeah. I feel like you still would have run into some troubles with that, even in New York. I also think you're about 40,000 years too early. Shit. I know they got those that fall out. That's not 40,000 years from now. Yeah, start to say it depends on what what power fist you're talking. I think the ones that explode or specifically fall out. Yeah, yeah, It's just, I believe it's just a shotgun on a fist. Man, which in theory you could make today you. Shouldn't well, if you wanted to keep all your limbs. You have the craft skill.

47:37 There you go, you're about 40,000 years too early. Fair enough. But like, even just like a basic handgun. So I've got something even though I absolutely don't have the skills to use it. They're not selling guns here. What about knife? Yeah, you get knife. Shit, I'm just as good with a knife as I am with a gun are. You gonna duct tape a knife to your hand? That's a great idea, JB. Oh no. Knife was a Kimbo trying. To think if you could get like a brass knuckles or something. I could, I could give him my chain, the chain that I have. Oh, it is suitable for scuffling, I'd argue.

48:18 No that as soon as you are using a not your fists and hands, it becomes a weapon skill. Well, is there anyone around who can graft adamantium onto my bone claws that protrude from my hands? I've got 2 preparedness left, let's see what I can do. Reg hands Collin his brass knuckles that he's been carrying around for a while. Yeah. Oh wow. Friendship, man. Thanks Reg, I'll put them to good use. Here we go in the corner on page 61. Blackjack's brass muscles saps rolls of quarters, Schillig's tucked into the 1st and similar sorts of life preserving gear do -1 damage rather than -2 As for a normal fist attack, using them in a test of scuffling, not weapons. There you go.

49:10 Yeah, so there. Yeah, some brass knuckles. Again, That's not a gun, but they don't have guns here for you. Well, it's better than throwing dynamite at everybody. Yes, because you're going to run out. Yeah. How much have you listed how much dynamite you have? Well, we had a bundle from the church guy and then we had a little bit from the construction site. A bundle and a little bit. I portioned it out so everybody has at least one stick. Let's say you have a dozen sticks of dynamite. Oh, I was thinking way lower than that. Let's go with a dozen. Then, well, we. Let's go with a dozen then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, kind. Definitely GM. Yeah, let it not be said that I am not occasionally generous. If that weren't the case, we probably wouldn't have the dynamite in the first place.

49:59 Yeah. Or a flamethrower. Wait, that didn't go too well. You shouldn't have had the flamethrower. The next time we see our characters, the camera has a wide shot across the dunes as Then we see each of you on a camel as you go over the desert. All. Right, everybody do your best Camel noise. No. Am I Am I the only one that's riding here? Probably. This may be the case. Yeah, JB isn't riding the camel so much as clinging on to it for dear life. Yeah. Reg is not doing anything. Colin is somehow C. If you would like to make a writing role for me to be just in general, not given the seasickness that sometimes camels give you. Nope.

50:50 As I described, I have seasickness. Wait, is that is that a one again? Yep. My God, what's the difficulty on that? Difficulty. 3 Reg is feeling slick. Miraculously, JB's OK. I'm going to throw up for you cable. Kearns is doing just fine with A5. OK, here's what's going to happen. This is a day of travelling in the desert heat. Each of you are now going to move to level 1 heat, except for the two of you who are feeling camel sick. Those people are going to move to Level 2 on the heat track. Amazing, yeah. Who? What? Oh boy, here I hand you my canteen of water. Got to replenish those fluids.

51:38 Thank you very much, Ken. Did you just fucking throw up into the canteen, you motherfucker? Jackass. Reg pulls out what he thinks is the best here for an upset stomach whiskey. Reg. Is wrong for the record. Just want to establish that. I. Guess I can't say that for certain because I don't drink, but that just feels like common sense to me that Reg is wrong on that one. I mean, have you ever gotten drunk when it was stupid hot? I have. It is not fun. As this is going on, a thick pawl of flies rises from a jackal's body laying ignored on the ground. After your day of travel, I would like to note here there are ways to deal with your heat because you are still in the heat.

52:34 Like you're not in a really nice place, you're still in the desert. Difficulty 3 plus your heat track level. First aid or medicine can reduce your position on the heat track. I will spend a point for both me and Reg, One point each. So here's for Reg. There we go. Let's better. OK, so that's a 2 + 1. That's a three. That is a failure. So not much better. But yeah, I succeeded at rolling the dice. Yeah, would you like to roll another die? This one's for Colin. Yay. Well, somebody's doing better, at least. Colin takes care of himself a little bit. Sorry, I guess involvement on you Rich.

53:15 I guess I can spend a point because I've got medicine so. OK well I've got one point of first aid and like I'm arguably the most tanky guy here so I just want to see if you're going to need help at all because my my instinct is to take care of other people 1st and then myself. Maybe it'd be better if we just each take just take care of ourselves, since each of us only has a point to spend. OK. So this one's for me, that's a success, OK. Yay. All right. I failed. OK, looks like JB is the most able to deal with the heat. If you spend a whole day resting you could reduce yourself on the heat track, and if you spend a point of first aid or medicine in a Oasis or something you could go back to 0.

54:11 Question because of I was looking at the outdoorsman skill. Would I be? Able to use that to help mitigate some of the effects that I'm feeling. OK. I will let you spend a point of outdoorsman. I'm 100% OK with that. OK, I'll let you spend a point. I don't get the opportunity to use that skill very much. Does anybody else have Outdoorsman? I do. And Reg, you have a couple points of outdoorsman, right? Yeah, I have like 4 points. OK. You are outdoors. I would suggest nobody spend all of their points of outdoorsman. It's all I'm going to say. Yeah. Oh no. I sense trouble. The one so. All right, next day of travel I'm not gonna have you roll for the camels.

54:56 That was just sort of a one time thing. But each of your heat is going to go up by one who has the highest heat. Then that's gonna be Colin, I believe. I'm at 2. So it's going to be you and Reg are going to be at 2 I believe. Who do you think's more affected by the heat? I think Reg is starting to deal with it with the outdoorsman. OK, tell him. Feels terrible. He has been throwing up nonstop. That can't be good for you man. You see that he is definitely suffering. You, my friend, have never been so hot in your life. Absolutely. Your clothes cling to your body, no longer even wet. All sweat has long since evaporated from the husk your body is becoming.

55:43 Blinking your eyes no longer lubricates them against the dust, so you leave them closed for long moments, forging ahead blindly listening for the camel's footsteps. Guess I'll just die then. Can I use my one point of endorsement to help Colin? Not yet. OK. Your head pounds, your bottom aches, even your hands are stabbed with sharp pains and your friends notice that you in the heat. Maybe there's a madness to it, or something have taken a huge bloody bite out of the fleshy base of your.

56:25 Thumb. Well, this jerks you back into a little bit of a sense of awareness, and you have a lump of warm, wet flesh in your mouth and a rivulet of blood running down your forearm. How's it taste TM? Irony. This is going to require you a three-point stability test. This makes sense to me, yes. I mean a difficulty for loss of three. Gotcha. OK. Everybody else loss of two all. Right, that brings me down to 2. Who's ready to see JB snap like a Twix bar? Never mind. Hey, I miraculously passed.

57:07 JB has yet to snap like a Twix bar. Sometimes you're just hungry for hands. Currents has seen worse. OK, yeah. So we're all fine. I I mean, Colin's not fine, but we're all fine. Who put this in my mouth? You need Colin, you suffer a point of damage. Oh, that makes sense too. Yeah, yeah. And you are going to suffer a + 1 increase the difficulties of all tests involving your hand, which of course was your dominant hand that you took a bite out of, all right. So Colin just got nerfed. Hey, Colin, don't you put in your mouth. Now can I use my point of outdoorsman to help him? We have reached the end of the day. Is that a yes?

57:55 Yes, you may, Yes. OK, do I roll or do I just spend the point? I guess I, I guess I could be generous. You could spend a point of outdoorsmen to to reduce it by 1. OK. I shall do so. I think the way it looks is where are we staying? Like, just like straight up in the dunes. Yeah, that's all you can do. Yeah, I think the way it looks is I give him my blanket and I make sure he's as comfortable as possible and like as warm as possible in the in the cold because the temperature difference can do stuff to your body. Yeah, not much else I can do. If you'd like to spend outdoors, midpoints or make similar roles like we did before, you may. If not, we will continue for one more day of travel, right I? Should maybe first aid my hand?

58:42 Yeah, I'll make one more spend. What, what sort of penalty does Colin takes to his stuff? Oh -1 to hand stuff. What? Yeah, he's still got -1 to hand stuff, but where? What's your heat level at? Just went up again. You she spent a point of outdoors, but to make it go down by 1. So it'd be down to 1. OK. It went up and then it got reduced again. Yes. OK, so 2 still. Something. Yeah, the rest of you are also probably floating around 2 I believe in terms of heat. I spent so I should be back down. OK, gotcha. I have nothing to spend. OK. I spent everything I had on Colin so. Now.

59:26 Keeping my first aid points in case we need them. Someone. Told me I'm going to narratively first aid. Refresh my first aid. I don't actually remember who. Probably K. Yeah, K did it. K is dead. Whoa, that's freaky, JB. Don't speak I'll of the dead. I will haunt your asses. OK. Cool, did anybody else hear that? Does it hate the hallucination? Kearns scratches his forearms. Kay shows up as a fucking forced ghost. Jesus Christ. Little did the mouth realize that once she was exploded, she would rise more powerful than ever. Your next day of travel.

1:00:14 Yes. Your next day of travel is going to take you to Dalo Village. Your guides tell you that they are going to not enter the village proper, but they're actually going to travel a little bit past it to the east where they know what Oasis is. That's smart. And they will wait there for. You sounds so lovely. No, we might find something in the village that that will ease our suffering. They think they got spas there. I very much doubt it, Mr. Caine. Yeah, I wouldn't. Call in due stability heat stroke a. Little out of it. You have reached dowel. You noticed, without having to make a sense trouble check that as you were approaching you were being watched.

1:00:59 There were people with binoculars that noticed you as you were approaching. How many? Just one man on a camel. OK. Dynamite No. As you approach the village, it looks not too different from Kaluli village. Both have a few permanent buildings made of salt blocks supplemented by tents in the native style. But there are a lot of tents here. It seems like this village is larger than the vibe you were getting from the people who were describing it back in Kalui. That suggests to me that it has grown bigger recently.

1:01:43 They said that there are about two dozen people lived here. You see that there are at least two dozen individual tents here, and a tent would have a household of people in it. Yeah, this ain't great. You're guides travel 1/4 mile to the east of the village. They refuse to go in. If you were expecting them to be interpreters, they are uninterested. I figured. No one runs out to meet you as you approach the village. You think anyone here speaks German? Only one way to find out. OK, I I the vibes here are bad. Colin is not so out of it that he runs to work the village, so they couldn't doubt. Well, that's good.

1:02:30 I would like to establish something before we go too much further. That's kind of why I was waiting before we went any further in case people wanted to say anything, yeah. Before we parted ways with our guides, Reg would have asked you what's to say why not? If he could get a a piece of twine, like strip of leather, something off of him, sure. OK, cool. It's getting tied to the corner of the piece of fabric that Reg bought. So you could hang it up and then jump through it. No, you think too small, Daniel. OK. I'm going to let you have fun with. Daniel of Daniel's thread tails.

1:03:14 Because I have an idea. Great. Why do you think me and Damien were talking during the break about how irresponsible Damien is with magic? Can confirm. So as you draw closer to the village, you see that there are several dozen people of all ages and genders assembling near the edge of the town. They look at you but are silent as you approach. No words are spoken. Great. As you're looking at the people here, one thing seems to be consistent amongst all the people here. They are dressed in the traditional garb of the people like in Kaluli. They they look just like them except for the fact that many of them are bandaged, especially on their hands and arms. And where they are not bandaged, many have scars. Many are missing at least a finger, a few are missing hands or feet.

1:04:16 This applies to both the adults, the teens and the children. Now you think they got scars under those bandages or mouths? Only one way to find out. I'd rather we not find out to be honest. Hey you. Guys. They all are staring at you silently. Should we ask them to take us to their leader? Are they getting in our way? No. Do we just March on past them? This is terrifying. Oh, sense trouble. OK, so I'm going to need you to make a roll. Sure, that's my difficulty. 3. I feel like I should be able to beat that on a diet, but I know I can't. I will spend a point. Nope.

1:05:01 Wow. I will give you no information on this sense trouble check. That doesn't mean that there is trouble or there isn't trouble. I'm just going to say no information is gained. God yeah, this all seems fine. Let's go check out the eating pit. Fuck. Can I roll sense trouble? Sure. Please do. OK, same difficulty. Yeah, imagine if I roll A1 as well. Hey, I'm going to spend one point. Oh thank God, I. Did not need to spend. I roll the six. OK Kurds, obviously this is bad news. Like this is kind of unsettling at this many people.

1:05:44 If they were to try to get you, you would not be able to fight them off though. The fact you were on a camel is useful though as you go into the village proper your camel is also getting a little bit upset. Oh, I figured we would like park the camel somewhere and just. Like, that's kind of what I think, yeah. You're going to park the camels at the edge of the village. As I'm walking through, I have my shotgun just casually slung over my shoulder. But none of them seem like they want to attack you. In fact, it seems you are expected. Yeah, I'm going to casually lean over to whoever's closest to me and I'm going to say it seems that we're expected.

1:06:27 Well, where are we going? Who's waiting for us? Colin addresses the crowd. The crowd does not understand what you are saying. We're the Americans. Oh. Stop it. I think they they figured that out. I can repeat the same in French. They don't understand that either. However, several of them are motioning and pointing for you to go a certain direction. Perfect, that's basically what I was waiting for. Yeah. All right, let's stay on the camels. Maybe that way we can escape quickly if necessary. You're gonna have to get off the camels when you get into the village. And also, yeah, if they down the camels, it's a pretty long way to fall, Yeah. And also there's a chance that the camel will land on us, so. Yeah, OK, this is bad.

1:07:18 You are LED into the village and as you pass by while some look up at you with a little bit of curiosity, then go back to their work. Eventually a fair number join what turns out to be a procession towards the salt block building in the center of the village. When? I was a young boy. As you walk, you do notice that many villagers are hurting themselves, cutting themselves with small blades, bits of glass, or their own fingernails or teeth. No one seems to be a perturbed by this.

1:08:00 In fact, village elders will sometimes give a nod of approval when they see somebody doing that. Reg is going to nonchalantly make sure the safety's on his pistols are not in safe mode. Shotgun on my shoulder. Yeah. Anyway, don't mind. Knife. A boy no more than 14 steps out from the crowd and steps up to you. He offers a small rusty knife in his open hands. His eyes look generous as his lips peel back at a grin of blood stained teeth. Oh yeah, sure, Slash.

1:08:40 What you you slash yourself? Yeah. OK. The knife was rusty. Everybody's doing it. That's tetanus. We'll deal with that later. If you slash yourself only a little bit. Just a little bit, yeah. We're not going to have any specific actions, though. Make a note of perhaps tetanus later on. Where do you slash yourself? Like on your hand. Side of the hand not. Palm side of the hand, say one that you had bitten part of your thumb off of off of. Yes, I I think these things are kind of related, OK. Mr. Kane, are you all right? Just seemed like the thing to do. Seriously. I think the heat might be getting to me. Oh, you think? As you reach the building, 2 villagers precede you in, each drawing their hand across a block of salt in the door frame. It's which many shards of glass have been embedded. This draws blood, and you see that there are dried blood stains on this brick that extend nearly to the ground on the side of the door frame.

1:09:44 Nope. Going to going to pass on that one. I'm going. Yet no, Reggie is not going to follow you. There's no consequence for not doing it, though the people were maybe expecting you to. Is there a consequence if I sort of discreetly make the sign of a cross? No. Good, I do that. God's got no power here. It helps me. It helps me feel better. Yeah, the building itself is rather large. There's definitely a room behind the one you are in, but you are in sort of the outer room of the building. It has 2 chambers though, but the doorway to the next chamber is obscured by a hanging cloth that leads deeper into the building.

1:10:33 Sitting in the middle of the room is a woman who appears to be in her 30s, neither old nor young compared to the other women in the village. She wears A shawl wrapped around her torso. I don't know if this is makes you feel better or not. She is covering her breasts. Well actually I should note she's covering her breast. You can tell from the outline that she only has one breast. Holy shit. This is Renee reacting, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, I'm, I'm with you there, team. Is she like actively bleeding from where the missing breast used to be? No.

1:11:13 OK, OK. That's good. Yeah, Ish. Besides this woman sitting in the center of the room serenely and the two villagers who preceded you into the room, there is a very old and frankly grossly mutilated man who sits on a stump of some native wood. Both of his eyes are gone, he has hollow sockets gaping where they once were. Both of his feet have been severed and his entire right arm is gone at the shoulder. This man speaks a small bit of French.

1:11:54 OK, I am at a loss of what to say so. He says I am Hapty. Thank you for coming. I look helplessly at Reg, to be honest. It's like, what do we make out of this? What's he saying, Kearns? Oh yeah, I translate. Obviously I translate and like look helplessly. Quite the welcome. You later first. What's this all about? Sit, sit, sit. The chairs aren't sharp, are they? They're not chairs. Oh, OK. I sit Criss cross applesauce. Does everyone sit?

1:12:37 Oh, not Neil, as you might think of it, but to go down on my knees. OK. Yeah. Yeah, Red will. Take sit. Sit on your knees. Kind of. There you go. The woman says something in affer to this man. He translates it. The wind is pleased that you have come to us. The Wind JB Rich, What do you make of this The. Wind from where? Again, difficult translations here. Stumble translations. The agony on the wind.

1:13:23 Thanks for listening. Daniel is our keeper, Renee is Franklin Kearns, Nathan is JB Falk Damien is Reginald Killworth and mixing, mastering music and playing Colin Kane is Russell. Our album art is by Train, the Tee Time Witch and our main themes by Claire LW. We have a Patreon now where you can kick as few bucks if you want to help with costs, but you're under no obligation to do so. The next episode is up there in a very raw state, and there will be more to come as soon as one of us finds the secret code that makes Patreon make sense to us again. Thanks for listening and until next time. I do not envy the decisions our editor has to make.