Eternal Lies 30: Cloudy With a Chance of Betrayal

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. Following an extended conversation with the Francisco de la Vega, the investigators set to work interviewing candidates to be the guides in the treacherous Yucatan jungle. While they settled on experienced local Guillermo Castillo to lead the charge, they brought along the American Rick Luke to provide support for the more archaeological aspects of the mission. With that settled, Kearns bumped into an old dead friend, Colin traded A memento for a soggy tome, and the cohort began their trek into the jungle.

0:43 The die is cast. The pact is sealed. May God have mercy on our souls. It's Daniel's tread tails. You're definitely. Dealing with you today, aren't you? Motherfucker. Anyway, you know I have a little loopy this Friday. OK, so all right, from your location to the site of Chichen Joel, it's going to take you about four days. At least that's what I've got it. Did you think it was going to be shorter or longer? Shorter, but I I really didn't have any idea how long it would take. Yes, yeah.

1:25 The map is pretty. Map is very pretty actually. Yeah, people, a lot of people have taken the very nice pictures of the Yucatan. Do you guys remember who your guide was? Nicola. I remember, I believe explicitly Rick Luke was not your guy. I think you were explicit about that. He was a partner. We brought him on as a scientific advisor of sorts, yes, and got a different, probably more competent guy to be our actual guide. Pablo Garza. Yeah, that was it. Yes. No, Garza. You didn't hire Garza? No, yeah. Garza was too afraid. You didn't want to hire him.

2:07 You hired Castillo. Yeah, guess where I finished up editing for today. And you're going to be heading into the jungle. He has brought several porters with him to help carry all the supplies with you. You're also bringing what you have on you. Is there anything in particular that you guys feel you need to bring with you in addition to like the stuff that Castillo would be bringing? You know, like water and tents and stuff like that? I already said that, but walking sticks for everyone. OK. Backpacks that are easy to just take off in one second because if we start sinking, first thing we do is we dispose of the backpack. OK, quicksand proofing smart.

2:57 Yeah, I'm definitely bringing along a machete for vine cutting things. Bug spray. OK. I was maybe just asking like, you're not bringing like a huge crate of TNT with you or anything, are you? I didn't think you were, but I just wanted to check if there was any like really big things that you were bringing with you. No, like other than I'm scared that we should be. I don't think you really should, but I for you guys, I never really know. That would be unrealistic, Daniel. I will bring the Blood Ravens the chapter of the Emperor zoom space. Marines. I. You know what their battle barge is in another system at the moment.

3:38 Fuck. Every time, yeah. What skill do I have to roll to hide my Tommy Gus Tommy gun up my butt? I don't think you need to hide it up your butt. It would be conceal I believe is the skill you would use. Right. Oh, I've got a point in that. Yeah, I can help out. Yeah, yeah, I believe you could just carry it with you if you would like. Yeah, I don't think anybody's going to rat you out. Especially when it has been firmly established that there are violent bandits in the area. Fair enough in. Fact having the gun out might be a benefit because they might be more wary to strike if we are clearly armed and dangerous. And since it's a Tommy gun, I don't think they would rat you out.

4:29 I think they would damn dirty rat you out. But. Don't you mean they rat tat tat me out? That's. True. No, I think you'd be doing that to them. Yeah, I don't think I'm bringing anything big, at least nothing that I couldn't potentially roll preparedness for. Got you. The same thing I can think of. OK, same here. Good walk and stick in one hand, Tommy gun in the other. What do we have for bug spray? Probably something really fucking poisonous. Oh yeah. Is it asbestos? No. Straight up fucking asbestos, Yeah.

5:11 No, that's for fire proofing. Yeah, unfortunately asbestos is slow long term poisoning, not immediate kill everything in the area poisoning. Well, so was most of makeup in that era, so. Indeed. I figure I figure maybe some some sort of cream you rub on your face. We definitely got some mercury. Now there you go, Hanneman. Stay off mosquito and insect repellent. This is something that you could know if you have outdoorsman, you have outdoorsman. I have 4 points in Outdoorsman. OK, then you definitely know even if I, Daniel Fernandez, do not know the kind of things to bring. You might even know a natural remedy to use to keep them away. I do actually citronella.

5:55 OK, there you go. That's what they put in wasp propellant candles and shit. I feel like I've heard wild onions keep them away as well, but I have no proof of that working or not. The Wilder the better. Anyway, point is, we're set for bugs, we're set for quicksand, we're set for bandits, we're set for vines. Let's let's go exploring. OK, And you head out into the jungle. It is hot, extremely hot out here. And Mug. Unsurprisingly, it's a jungle. Your truck is, at first, relatively easy. You're headed on roads that are well maintained and whatnot. As you get to the thicker parts of the jungle, however, you stumble across a yellow pickup truck just sort of stuck in the mud.

6:57 How long has it been there? Looks like the elements have taken a toll on it. It's been sitting here for a while as you are looking at it. Your guy chimes in, says it's probably from the other expedition. All right, check the glove box. Would you be using, say, evidence collection? Sure. There is not a lot of anything in the truck. It actually looks like it was probably looted of anything valuable. That makes sense. Other bodies. There are no bodies. There are shallow boot prints around it, but you're not going to be able to make too much out of that because it's mostly been damaged by the right. You're not going to be able to track it. Another set of tire tracks, however, is nearby, showing that there was another vehicle on the area. But you actually, as you're following it, you see that the rain swept it away over a Cliff.

7:55 What a way to go. And Jimmy, they were traveling in basically the direction that we were traveling. Exactly. Yeah, this is, this bodes well. There are some dangling wires there. Mechanical or electrical repair? Do either of you any of you guys have? Yep. I do. I have both. OK, couple handy guys over here. Yeah, the mechanically inclined lovers here are noted that they're dangling wires. Somebody was trying to hot hot wire this thing but they must not know how or weren't trying very hard. We might know how. You could hot wire it if you would like. It has been in the jungle for a while. It's not in great shape.

8:39 More importantly, this is probably where you would need to leave your car anyway as you would be going the rest of the way on foot. OK, so this might be something useful for coming back. Absolutely. That's good to know. What if we Hotwire it and leave it so if we need to leg it, we can just come back to the truck and well, leg it? Well, you don't need to hot wire things in advance. In fact, you can't super hot wire things in advance. It's like when the wires go together, the car starts up. Yeah. So you'll be able to come here when you get back. You don't need to do any work in advance. You need to just stick your head under there, connect a couple of wires, and you'll be good to go. See.

9:20 That's the classic example of a discrepancy between character knowledge and player knowledge, because Renee has no fucking clue how any of this works. And now you know how to hot wire a car kindness you. Know the vague principles of how to hot wire a car. Well, I know that. I know now that you don't do it in advance. Yes. OK, then fuck the truck. Let's keep going, yeah? Castillo is sort of eyeing you guys while you're looking at the truck and is like, we should get moving, put some miles behind us before it gets dark, yeah. Fair enough. Yeah, from. The looks of it, the last group left their cars there for a while. They haven't been back.

10:00 Someone came through and messed with one and they rain washed the other one away. So good chance that truck won't even be there when we come back anyway. It's. Possible it? Would be handy to drive back, I suppose, says Luke. Yeah, but I don't know if we could all fit in that truck. No, I don't. Think we'll have to, she says. Nobody dwell on what he meant by that. We all know what he meant. Nobody. Dwell on that, I just. Clapped him on the bag. That's the Spirit. Your outdoorsman skill, those of you who have it, I know Kearns has it. Did anybody else have it? I should. Have but no OK. Great am I?

10:41 The only outdoorsman. Yeah, I think so. Ouch. That's. Why we hired a guide. You are. Moving along a trail. This is not a game trail. This is something used by humans now and again. Maybe not with great regularity, but this is a human made trail that we're on. This is a human made trail we're on, maybe not with great regularity, but on occasion. Thanks. Kearns, you're so knowledgeable. I try to be useful. How do you? Learn something like this Kearns experience. I'm also extremely good at pulling things out of my ass as. You are talking about your ass. You run into a ominous stone marker on the path. No, an ominous stone marker.

11:30 It's. About 9 feet tall and overgrown, it's like a Sentinel made out of vines. What makes? It ominous Dan let's. Take a look at it, shall we? What sort of skills do you think we could use to understand this? Oh, counting. Anthropology or a cult? Both make sense to me if it's a cult in nature, but if not then anthropology. I'd. Say use machete at first to clear off the vines, Yes. That too. That too I. Would also like to take a look at it using archaeology. Gotcha. Oh, I've got. Geology we can. Do the everybody else's first. OK, so anthropology, after you take some chops to it, shows that the carvings are Mayan like. You see warriors in cotton armor standing on the backs of decapitated Mayan bodies, snakes Slytherin forth from their open necks.

12:29 The warriors are holding severed heads up towards the top of the marker with apparent pride. You're able to recognize sort of all of these symbols here. Like you would sort of get the vibe that like, I think somebody's being killed here, but your knowledge of Mayan sort of culture and whatnot allows you to identify that a little bit more. Archaeologically. You could tell that this marker was once taller. A portion of the stone has been broken off of the top, which is actually probably whatever was depicted there was what the warriors were holding the severed heads up to. Using my mouth skill, would I know that that's where the mouth might exist at the top of the thing? I'll I'll give you this, this does not feel like the mouth stuff that you've seen.

13:17 Before there's usually. Not a lot of snakes involved in the mouth stuff. This seems like a different sort of deal now. At the top seems to be where a mouth would be. You are correct, but your skill makes it feel does it. It doesn't seem to quite line up with the stuff you've seen before with the bounds. Oh. Would this potentially be Quetzalcoatl? Could be. Well, no Quetzalcoatl. Well, I don't know if you have anthropology, but anybody who does have anthropology would know that Quetzalcoatl actually isn't really revered in the Mayan culture. They're revered more in the Aztec culture, which is further or western.

13:59 Guillermo sort of rolls his eyes and says, It's an old artifact I use as a path marker. It shows we're on the right track. It's, it's just keep moving. Oh, that's. Right, it says. Guillermo was here, here, right here. Meanwhile, Rick Luke says, oh all right, and he gets out a piece of paper and starts taking a rubbing knot. This is this exactly what I I I recognize this from description of the book I read. The Jewel would post these on their borders to warn against the the Maya. I'm going to be able to, and I'm going to learn so much as he takes the rubbing. Like garlic for a werewolf, you're. Able to make some progress and then night comes, you set down your tents and you rest for the night after a a sizable walk of a day.

14:52 Just taking watch I'll. Stay up late reading my new wet book. Oh, you do have a cool new wet book. Cool. Wet. Book. Oh man, such a cool wet book didn't. The last time we looked through the wet book, it made everybody like, do sanity checks. Yeah, but you already made those checks for. Skimming it. I was like. No, I'll check this out later. You guys have fun with the sanity checks all? Right in that I'll. I'll leave you to your wet book then. Is it still wet? Yes. A day later, fantastic.

15:33 Yeah. So you want to pour over this book? Yeah. Absolutely. Great. That's gonna. Cost you 3 stability and one sanity. All right are. You 3 sanity, yeah. You however, gained a point of Cthulhu mythos. Doesn't that remove another sanity I'm? Going to have included that in the sand, OK. I will say I am now shaken this. Book is all about the liar from beyond. Perfect, yes. Exactly, and in fact two things. One, you are going to be visibly shaken after having read this book. However, you did learn a ritual.

16:16 Here it's contact and bind the liar from beyond. OK. You could summon an aspect of the Liar from beyond to you. It's going to involve get more stability. Insanity loss. A stability test of four and you have to spend one hour drinking nectar 'cause. I'll have to get a whole bunch of nectar like a keg. Yeah, at least that's what it seems to be. You could learn more about it if you want to by spending a point of Cthulhu Mythos, but you just got that point, so maybe you don't want to use it right away. Oh. I had one from the rift of the MA I believe. Oh. OK, so this. Brings me to 20.

16:58 Congrats. Well, if you would like to spend a point, you can learn more about the ritual. That feels like something for tomorrow night. OK. Hey, Mr. Kane, what you got there? Wet Book. Don't look at the wet. Book It's fucked up. It's too. Late JB. I looked at the book. What's in it? Wet. OK, can I like gently take the book and put it away somewhere? I proffer it with shaking hands. Oh boy. Colin, buddy, you should not have read the wet book here. No. Come here. Go sit by the fire. Some soup will do you good. Yeah, you just still are thinking about the book. It's maybe the most upsetting thing you've ever read. It's a collection of imagery and handwritten accounts from the medieval era to the present.

17:50 It's a grotesque sort of scrapbook, remembering Colts and individuals. It's the kind of shit that would actually have, like, maybe even shocked at Cavarilla's 1924 cultists. Like, this is a fucked up bad book. And like the pages stick together. Gross. What were they doing with this book? You know what they were doing with this? Book. I touched it. We all touched it. We all touched it. Yeah, can. They like rub my hands with some anti antiseptic or something. I can't. Believe people are only making this connection an episode later, yeah. I figured we all knew that it that was the reason the book was sticking together.

18:34 I don't know when. They knew Kearns didn't. This is the first time I'm seeing it. That's a good. Point. To be honest, Nathan assumed it was pus or something so. Oh, Nathan, it might have. Been nectar too. That's sort of sticky. Don't like the book? You see, that's really bad for me specifically, so I'm going to operate under the assumption that it's not Nectar. But you'll just keep holding on to this book then, huh? OK, who? Who's holding on to the book then? Kearns, you said you were going to take the book. I'm not holding on to anything. I'm going to put it away somewhere. Oh, there you go. Oh yeah, just. Gonna shove it like one of the packs that yeah porters are carrying so. Hold on, that makes sense, not.

19:18 Maybe not in the in those packs. Hey, yeah, it's. Up to you, I'll shove. It in mine OK? Well, I can't tell you what sort of horrible dreams you might have. Maybe you're having lovely dreams. There's no particular prophetic dreams that come to you this night and your next day you begin your journey. My dreams are disconcertingly cheerful. To be perfectly honest, I was worried about that. I don't do very well with dream stuff. Yeah, your dreams sort of stopped when K passed. Anyway I. Don't want to think too hard about it. Smart. Smart, the thing.

20:00 That you made me start thinking about is the fact that this storm that's blowing in today seems baffling. No storm was supposed to be in this area for paint. It seems unnatural. The jungle itself is trembling. The following rain. The trail turns into a muddy rivulet. All of the water is hearing cold, almost weird. And it's impossible to see more than 10 or 20 feet ahead of us. That's bad. Preparedness for raincoats and rubber boots? Sure. Spend or roll difficult. People. I would like to have a rope and lash myself to current so I don't get lost.

20:44 It's not. Necessarily a bad idea for everyone to be in close proximity, but being tied together feels like a quick way to die by quicksand. Or to pull. Some other quicksand. Not if it's me sinking. I'm pretty heavy and I haven't got. Guillermo, as the storm continue, says it might be a good idea to make camp. What it might be a good idea to make camp. It'll take a little longer, but we need to wait out this storm. What and? Rick says don't listen to him, he's crazy. Come on, let's go.

21:27 What? Rick, remember? Not the guy I. Do have points in a cult? Is this storm supernatural in nature? Not. Opposite, if that makes sense. All right. There's no like chanting on the wind or anything. You know, if you would like to continue through the storm, you will need to make athletics checks Difficulty 4 If you would like to stay, it's going to add length to your journey and you're also going to be miserable in a rainy camp. Your call I. Vote misery. I vote push on. Well, we hired the guide for a reason, Kearns. He says we should set up camp. Maybe we should set up camp.

22:09 Yeah. I'm all for listening to the guide on this one. Except I'm we're all saying this very loud because it's cacophonous. Yeah. What? What? What? Turn down for. That's a good idea, JB. What? Yeah, maybe we should set up Cam. All right, fair enough. OK. I need somebody to roll me AD 6 I got. This three the storm. Continues for five fucking days. What? OK, so we have to push on now. You can never tell when you're rolling a like something for flat luck whether you want high or low. Sometimes you need your most blessed player, and sometimes you need your most cursed.

23:02 I will say this, morale is low, yeah. No shit. Preparedness for whiskey. I don't think you even need to roll for that. Yeah, pass it around. Collin looks real hard but ultimately does not drink. Part of it regrets it. Good for you friend. Is there anything in particular you imagined you get up to in the horrible storm? Well. At the end of Day 2, Collins says, well, I can't imagine it's going to last much longer. So I guess before we move out tomorrow, I'll learn a bit more about that, Richard. Did you want to spend the point of Cthulhu Methos on this? Yeah.

23:46 What's your magic so many secrets possibly fun been reality. It just knows your mind is not. What awful ramifications does doing that have It's. Just a spam. Oh, OK, yeah. I will tell you this, while the ritual you've learned from this book says that you will summon and find, it only really does the first part. It feels like the stuff about finding it is actually kind of a, well, a lie. Yeah, I figured there'd be a. Couple of those in there, yeah. That makes sense, but you are absolutely positive that you could summon an aspect of the Liar from Beyond to you like right now. Well, you need some nectar, but if you had some nectar you could do. 5th night, Collins being miserable for three more days. He's like, you know what?

24:37 Fucking tomorrow I'm gonna fucking do it. So I I. Think at some point before Colin gets to that point, Smalls is going to be going around like over this week talking to everybody in the group and like essentially doing his job of being the group psychologist. Oh, that. Actually might be a useful thing to do, especially for our shaken book reader. Yeah. So I think one of the things specifically that Smalls is going to do is going to sit down with Colin and have a bit of a talk about how he's feeling and how he's doing. So I would like to try and restore some lost stability point handy.

25:27 To have a therapist around, I guess, yeah. I'm going to spend 6 in total, so it's going to give you 4 back. OK, Hey, doc, I'm just going to give you a hint like this is probably good because he was already in the fucking negatives and we haven't even gotten to the site. There's going to be a lot of people who need therapy, so be careful with you. You might want to hold on to those points. Yeah, you might be seeing some. You're going to see some fucked up shit. Love seeing fucked up shit. Yeah, I have 4 points. That I can use to snap people back into lucidity. It's fine I think. As we huddle together for warmth, I'm just going to ask, Jbi saw you were reading some architecture. Do you like architecture? Yeah.

26:09 Yeah, it's, it's an interesting subject, honestly. When this whole bullshit is over, I'm going to take you to to Spain. Do you want to fly with me to Spain? Oh yeah, no, yeah, that sounds, that's actually sounds really lovely. I do have to tell you, though, as a writer, I'm legally obligated to warn you that that's what dead people say in stories before they die. So let's both not die and then go to Spain. Yeah, I would love to show you Barcelona. There's this this architecture who is either a genius or Mad Men or both.

26:53 It's it's fantastic. It's really pretty most. Architects are both, so yeah, that sounds lovely. Yeah. Just cut to another scene in a fascinating villa or something. Somebody's just in a echoey hall. Where is the washroom? I didn't know we were doing Family Guy style cutaway gags, but sure, honestly. I thought it was going to be some sort of buttress comment. God, we don't. Go, Sir. Christ, I will spare you the rest of the miserable rain. I think we will Fast forward to the rain eventually stopping. The trail is still extremely muddy, but you are going to be able to move forward.

27:40 I actually I should have asked you this in the 1st place. What is the order that you are walking in? I'd. Imagine currents in the front guide. First. Well. Yes, the the guide is leading the way. I mean of the four of you. I'm in the front, JB behind me then. Probably Smalls, then Colin to bring up the rear. I'm all right being 3rd or 4th or smalls. I was. Going to say smalls is probably in the middle somewhere. All. Right I'll. Be up in the rear just because I I'm still muttering to myself. OK, rain. Great. We're going to make athletics checks in order of marching orders, so first Kurds has to make an athletics check difficulty for I'm.

28:24 Going to spend one point. OK, very nice to spend. Cool you are set JPI need you to make an athletic check difficulty for. I'm going to spend 2 now. I'll spend one point I failed. Hey there. Listeners, did you turn in for a 24 hour extra live stream last year? If not, here's just a few of the things you may have missed. So if you'd like to see more of that and also help some kids out at the same time, TuneIn starting April 17th. Watch the discord and or the show notes for more details. Hey. Everyone, we here at Daniel's Dread Tails have a Patreon now. It's got multiple tiers in everything.

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29:46 Thanks for listening and back to the show. OK. Great. That'd be not great. But other people are not going to need to roll JB. You take a step and the trail sort of collapses underneath. Not into like a trap pit or anything, but you just start rolling down in like a sudden little budslide can. I fuck fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck. Can I react fast enough to launch forward to try and grab him? No, I summon the. Lawyer from beyond? No, that takes an. Hour of drinking back to enchanting. Right, so probably wouldn't help here. No, no under. What circumstances would it help?

30:28 I don't know, let's find out. So you. What you. Bang into some tree trunks and huge boulders as you go down the hill. You take AD 6 -, 1 damage. I'll roll it. I'll roll it. Roll. It OK, not a one. Well that's that's half my health bar, so I take 4 damage, presumably because I smacked several things in the middle of this mudslide. And you slam into a creepy looking idol at the bottom of the hill. Joy. Can I roll after him of? Course no. No, no, no, no, no. Roll well. Slide whatever, like a controlled sort of slide, OK.

31:12 Rick also is going to jump down to help as well as they are both going to go down. Guillermo sort of looks down and says, yeah, get them, get them out of there. I will find something to secure a rope to. OK. That's smart. I think smalls would probably go to help as well. It's. Going to be a difficulty to athletics check to make it down safely I'll. Spend a point, yeah. I. Will just spend a point of athletics. Rick is going to spend a point of athletics as well while. Everybody's coming down this idol that I knocked into. Does my knowledge of anthropology or a cult help me at all? Well, it appears to be almost identical to the previous big stone marker that you saw.

32:02 However, the top portion has not broken off of this one and you look up and you see a broad frog like mouth with razored fangs reaching down with a grasping tongue to devour the offered heads. Fuck and the. Body of the creature sort of roils upwards in a bunch of mounds of distorted and gluttonous flesh that. Sounds like the mouth we all know and love. I will say the mouth that you have seen have looked like fucked up mouths. This looks like like it's a razor fanged mouth but it's not full of like disgusting teeth that are like some are dying and like all over the place.

32:45 These are just like razor sharp fangs. It's animalistic, not eldritch. Wow. Well, it might be eldritch, but not still. Eldritch. Not in the same way that the Wire is. Yeah, it's interesting. It's a different. Flavor of eldritch. Interesting, you know. Coke to the Liar's Pepsi Eldritch. Classic. While this is happening, can I spend the two points in first aid? Absolutely. Yeah, I'm going. To do that which gets you back to full I. Appreciate it. I think I hit my head on a rock. You're so squishy, it's. True, it's true. I'm a writer. Why did I think this was a good idea?

33:28 Oh my God, I was hired to solve a basic mystery. How the fuck did I end up here? You're OK, I'm right here. Yeah, no, I'm good. I'm good. Thanks. Just, you know. Are you are you OK? Rick, I'm good. You look you. Look good. You look good. Come on, I'm good. There. He is, He gives you like a pat on the back. There he is. All right, I. Have no idea how to feel about Rick as a person and he. Looks up at the statue and sort of gasps as he sees the thing at the top of it. Wow, that's I don't. I've never seen anything like that before. Do you realize what this means? We might be the first outsiders to see the God of the Joel in nearly 100 years, Guillermo come down and see this.

34:16 Guillermo sort of calls down and says I'm good. At the very least, you should get a rubbing of this one too. It's. All the way at the top. Come on, give me a boost. Give me a boost, God. Against my better judgement, I do give him a boost. Someone help Nick grab one out on that statue and get back up here. Now you come on. Is it attached to the ground? Yes. It is. No, it's. Like deep in the ground. With that he says, let's get going, I guess. Oh boy, after all that rain, I was starting to lose hope. But this is still aren't you excited? I look, I I'm sorry that you got hurt, but look at the discovery that you found.

35:05 Big old mouth statue. At least I like your moxie. Yeah, I. Throw down a rope, presumably having attached it to something on this end, yes. Yeah, that's. That's probably the safest and smartest way back up. Yeah. Ever tried to climb a mud Cliff before? I have. It's not fun. Yeah. It's. It's not great, yeah. Thankfully this one isn't really steep or really far. You didn't fall like super far, you just get some stuff, but a rope would definitely be necessary because it's a goddamn mudslide. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all. Right. Are we ready to go? Says Guillermo. Yeah. Looks like it he's. Already started going without you really even responding I. Forgot this guy's a bit of an asshole.

35:47 A bit of a chip. On his shoulder, yeah. Look, we're wasting time. I don't want us to run out of food. I packed some extra food, but the storm was not what I had planned. We were. Only a day out, we could have gone back for more. Hey, where are you going? You're able to try out through the. Logistics of that. Who do you figure we're going to have to eat first? I hate to say it, but definitely Rick, yeah. Rick. Spent athletics points to get down. You got a lot of those, huh? Well, I suppose you already started butchering me. Shit.

36:30 I mean Jesus. Christ. I could have left you there, OK? Yeah, of course, no man left behind, just parts of them there was. A mouth on your arm. What did you expect us to do? Hey at. Least you still got your right behind, left right. No man left behind. Oh, I I get it. I get it. That was left. Arm. Mr. Wiggles was going to be my friend. OK, yeah, we're setting up camp. We're setting up camp in. Fact as you're getting down for the night, if you would like, you know what it's not even required. You don't need to do it if you don't want, but if you would like, you should make a sense trouble check difficulty for three points. Spent I'll.

37:12 Just roll it since yeah, that's the one. I'm just going. To spend the 33. Yeah. OK, so two people see it coming and two others do not, OK. Well, the two people who see it, one of you notices that Rick is gone. The other one of you notices that Guillermo is gone. What the fuck? They were just here like. Other tracks. Yes, there are tracks in the bud going. The same direction, or two opposite directions, or whatever opposite. Directions. OK, Guillermo took his crew. No, the crew is still here. Oh. Why would they do that? What happened does.

37:53 He do this often. I ask Guillermo's men. They have. Not really know. It's like Guillermo's an expert. Yeah, so where the hell did he expertly fuck off to? Well. You have a couple of options, like do you want to like yell, like, hey, where'd you guys go? Like you could do that. You could try to go out in the jungle, try to find them like you know, I don't know if you want to do both of. Those sound like terrible ideas. What do you think? Smalls, I am not skilled at finding somebody in a an environment such as this, so I would not be the best to go out and look. However, it really, if we're, if any of us are going to go out and look, it should be for one or the other of them and we don't know which one went in which direction. As you were saying, they went in two different directions, correct.

38:44 Oh. Right. OK, Yeah, the men are still here. I mean, presumably they were wearing different shoes. Was. Anyone paying attention to the to the to their shoes? What? Skill would be paying attention to their shoes, I. Guess forensics I could. Give you forensics for that, yeah. Oh yeah, actually this would be what you would use forensics for. Yeah, I know some stuff, yeah. OK. So you see, you're able to tell that one of sets of boots is guillerbos and one of them tricks. And it just looks like they walked off. No signs of a struggle. No, no. Just looks like they walked out into the jungle. Walked. Or ran, walked. Were they? Going to take a shit or something. Well, maybe they're shitting as fast as they can. I'm.

39:27 Never going to live that down. I can go look if you want me to. I tell the party. Yeah, I. Was going to say, at the risk of rushing, you need to decide if you're going to do something about this or not. So it sounds like OK Kurds wants to go look. I can volunteer, OK? Are you going to be safe over here? I feel like I feel like you shouldn't go alone. I. Think I Will Survive? Oh you fucking better man, Better off. If you are going that at least one of the other one of us goes with you, yeah. I was going to ask one of the Guillermo's men, actually, I. Would say it would be better for one of us.

40:08 Well. I'll go, I can't sleep anyway. Keep. Thinking of the book, I don't want to read any more of it, but I sort of do OK. Yeah, Colin should go with you, OK. Yeah, let's take a walk, man. Yeah, right. And at the first sign of trouble, you 2 come sprinting your asses back right here. Roger, Roger. All right. We're looking for Guillermo, I think. Guillermo. 'S a professional. If anybody's in danger of not making it back, it'll be Nick. Yeah, Rick Guillermo's our guy. That's. Why we need him more than Rick, Yeah. I mean, you guys could split up and look for both of them. You would like that, wouldn't you? We're not doing that.

40:50 I think Guillermo should take priority, yeah, but. You're not with us well. That's just my opinion. Do whatever you want, man. All right? Rock, paper, Scissors I. Think since I don't have an outdoorsman I'm following currents either way or we. Could rock, paper, scissors? Sure. Let's do that, no. I'm going to need both of you to make stealth checks difficulty 3. Oh shit. Do I have that now? Nope. Difficulty 3, yeah. Which? Means I'm at a -1, correct? Yes, that is a three. Nice. And rolled a file, succeeded. With style OK. Do you see Guillermo is talking to someone a shadowy I'm.

41:36 Sorry. What was really funny? Nothing. You see Guillermo and then Russell mime jerk by the. Way, just real quick, back at the camp, you see Rick walk back into the camp and go to a tent. That's good. OK, OK, Now we know what Rick's been doing. Yeah. Unrelated to the thing, Russell was just Miami. I'm sure I'll. Go interrogate him later. But first your guys's scene. OK, who's? He talking to. You can't really tell it's a shadowy figure. In fact, it seems that you see them at the end of their conversation and that figure slips into the jungle shadowing. Like. Disappears into thin air like no.

42:19 Just like into the trees and stuff. Are you going to shadow them? Yeah, I'll try. And track down a shadowy figure. OK, I might just stay with Guillermo. Works for me. I don't want you to go alone in there, Drama. It's going to be a difficulty 5 to trace the shadowy figure as an. Occupational benefit I may spend disguise or shadowing after the role 2 to one when focused and not contested. Would this be such a instance? Yeah. I guess so. All right. Perfect, I'm going to. Spend difficulty 5. I am not shaken anymore. I will spend 3 points. For this so you. Don't need to spend them yet, right?

43:01 Or you're going to spend some of them now and some of them later. Yeah, I. Could roll like a 1 and I probably wouldn't want to roll or want to spend. I see what you said. Yeah, I see what you said. OK all. Eight points to pass. That's a six. OK, do. You have outdoors with Scout, I do. Not I do. But I only have two points in shadowing. If you were the same person, this would be easier, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much the story of this campaign. You. Follow the man for a little while, you realize that this is definitely a man, and it looks like he is carrying a rifle slung over his shoulder, and you hear him muttering to himself in Spanish. I speak.

43:43 Spanish beautiful. It's mostly just swears and he doesn't. Have outdoorsman. Either do. Hear him say something else though. Goximo Gochimo. Goximal, goximal, goximal. OK. So it's definitely a different word than we've had before. Yeah, no. Is a name that you heard. I think you saw it in maybe one of the letters. Yeah, yeah. OK, so it is. The same word it. Is the same word. Yes. And that was the name that he had. The fucking wife, That guy. The idiot. Brooks. Yeah, Brooks, that is the name that Brooks said that the liar has the. Idiot with the wife is how I will exclusively be referring to him as now on.

44:28 However, you sort of make a noise as you hit a branch after some time and he runs off into the joke. You think he may have seen you actually, but he does not turn to confront you. Instead, he just runs. I will flee blindly into the jungle hoping to make my way back to camp. Dude. You didn't have to describe it like that. You could have said, I make my way back to camp. You make. It back. There you go. See, it worked out good. Now, Kerns, do you say anything to Guillermo, my first? Instinct is to confront him, but I don't do that. I will see what else he's going to do, I mean. He just walked back to the camp, OK. Cool, I do the same. I am. Suddenly feeling very unsafe on this journey.

45:11 You said you. Wanted to talk to Rick. Is that right back at the camp, Yeah. Yeah, just casually. Hey, man, I saw you were out. Is everything all right? What happened? Yeah, I. Had to take a leak. Assessed honesty he's. Telling the truth, OK. Well, at least that's someone who is all right. Sorry, man. Just, you know, never hurts to be too careful. You have a good night. Yeah. Good night, that is. Presumably we already shared what we found out with the group. Yeah, OK. So that's bad, right? Yeah, it's. Perfectly natural to need to pee, you know. What I'm talking about Colin. How many men does Guillermo have with him there? Are five forks.

45:56 Yeah, Currents can take him. I probably could at that. That's probably. True, Actually, yeah. But I don't know if I should. I didn't assess honesty when I when I asked. Guillermo does that often. You didn't. Talk to Guillermo, did you? Did you want to talk to Guillermo? No, I see the Porter. Yeah. Oh. Yeah, the Porter. Yeah, they didn't seem to be lying to you, OK. Well, that's good. I mean, I'm just paranoid enough to like be auto assessing honesty on everything, yeah. Honestly, that's fair in this adventure. So. What? What are you? What are you gentlemen want to do? Well, Well, I.

46:36 Think we should confront him? I think. Too, I mean. I will follow your gentleman's lead if that's what we're going to do. I. Don't OK, on the one hand, confronting anyone is inherently dangerous. But if he leads us into a trap, that's equally bad, arguably worse. Probably worse. Probably worse. Yeah, but if he knows that we're on to him and we don't confront him, that's still bad. So you. Rolled your stealth checks effectively. He did not see OK. All right, so I don't. Want to be let into a trap? The same. Here maybe it's. Another ancient secret order that's. Possible, but well. I'm going to let one of you gentlemen to start the conversation.

47:22 I tend to be a bit ham handed about it. All right, I'll take a nice gentle touch. Hey, fuck ass. Oh my God. Oh my God. Let me sleep. We should be getting to the site tomorrow I hope. Just go back to bed, I mean. To be fair it I'd I'd also be pretty surly if I was woken up with hey fuck ass. Do we have a problem that's? Yeah, I don't know. Do we do? We you know what? Who are you talking? To in the jungle, yeah, OK. We're going for it, all right. What? It Oh OK. How did you look? I went out to pee and one of the locals came and confronted me.

48:05 He's trying to scare us off, saying something about a an evil God that protects these ruins. And I didn't want you worry about it. I didn't bring it up. Assess. Honesty OK how do I break he's a. Fuck ass, he actually. Went to shit. He was going out to he's lying. Yes, OK. Lovely. We can get granular with this but. He. Is telling part of the truth? Should. I punch him. He's trying to hide something from you about what he said, OK? All right, I will go reassurance then. And if it's specifically about that man, I'll be like, no, no, there's no need to hide anything from us. We're among friends and paying you quite well.

48:46 Look. It was Exposito, a guy from the last Oh shit. Yeah, no wonder he slipped me so easy. He. Wanted us to turn back, did he? Give a specific reason why or just threats. He was just. Kind of a threat. I don't know if he was a good guide for the last group, but don't worry about him, we'll be OK. And Guillermo Pats a revolver that he has on his weights. I can handle him and anything else that might come our way. Is that a? Gun in your pocket or Oh no, it's a gun, No. It's a gun. It's definitely. A gun. Yeah. And, you know, I, I, I do hate to do this, but assessed honesty again. Was that the complete truth this time I mean. No, he's not telling you the complete, of course. Not it's all right.

49:30 Ancient secret order involved. It's It's OK. You can trust us. We're cool. He. Raises an eyebrow. It says. What are you talking about, honestly? Can't turn around without tripping over an ancient secret order, you'd be. Shocked how often it comes off assess. Odyssey, he's perturbed at you bringing up the idea of a secret order. He was not expecting you to say that. Perturbed. Like he's really angry that I caught it so quick or perturbed. Like that's a really fucking weird thing to say, man. Unfortunately, it's unclear. Yeah, that makes sense. Question Will this man respond to intimidation the only. One way to find out, I think you. Would probably need to spend several points of intimidation to get anything out of this man. Like 3 points.

50:13 Yeah, this is. One of the reasons we hired him. Yeah, he is unflappable. About streetwise, No, no, no, no. Streets here? Unfortunately, no. That's fair, Doctor Smalls, Anything I've. Got nothing at this point. Look, if you want me to, I could stay up on guard. I'll keep an eye out I think. We should continue on honestly in the. Morning. We don't want to move through the jungle at night. I don't want to lose any of you. On that we are agreed. Yeah, get. Some sleep, Guillermo. OK. Let's all get OK. Who's going to stay up to watch him? Me. OK.

50:54 I'm an author. You think this is the first all nighter I've pulled doing something inherently painful? Oh no. I've never doubted you. Yeah, I'm going to fall asleep next to you. It's like on the ground. I have to imagine the camp is not the most comfortable thing in the world. Unfortunately with all the rain and stuff, it's going to be hard to stay awake. I need you to make it difficulty for a health check to stay awake all night. As in. Spend health you could. Spend health Yeah, I'm. Not going to do that. I've got a 5050 shot. I should have done that. Oh. No. I I do not succeed. I need you to make a difficulty 6 sense trouble check. Oh, OK, if I burn all five of my sense trouble points right now, I can just succeed.

51:42 Might. Be the time to do it I'm. Going to burn all five of my sense trouble points to succeed. OK, you wake up to a whispering sound as you realize that Guillermo standing over you whispering something with a machete in his hand that he has raised up about to bring down a neck. Wake me up. Wake me up. Yeah. I yell to wake everybody up and I go to stab him first. I mean, you spent the points, Yeah. You could stab him, make make it back on him, Yeah. OK, spending two points of weapons and I'm gonna stab him. Is he using my machete or do I still have my machete? You have your. Machete, yes.

52:22 OK and so D6 plus one for roll for damage. I do for damage and yell to wake everybody up. He. Swears and obediently turns and beats feet. Runs into the jungle to the South. I have. Athletics out of the wazoo. The moment I'm on my feet, I'm following, OK? Great you also. Have a gun, although we might want him alive, I don't think. I'm asleep with my gun. Honestly, no, that's. True, that's true. It's OK. The direction where we, where we're going, where we traveling South in general, you were. Not no. OK. To. Chase after him. It's going to be an athletics difficulty 6 because it is nighttime.

53:06 Oh, it's. Still nighttime? Yeah. It's still nighttime. Yeah, I'm going to spend. 3. I will also say if you would like to spend a point of outdoorsman, you can notice something. Oh yeah, totally you. Got this fam? 6. Nice. OK. And yes, I am spending a point of outdoorsman. Do you? Notice that he is sinking and zagging through the woods, popping up on rocks and fallen limbs like he's trying to avoid patches of brown. Oh. Shit, well park where it is. I do the same. Because you are doing that, you are going to need to make another difficulty successful. Annex Jack. The difficulty would be lower if you weren't trying to park work. Yeah, that's fine.

53:47 Yeah, but. Then there'd be the chance for crap, yeah. And definitely safety first on this or maybe. It's land bounce, that's what. I thought or quicksand. I mean. Land bounce or crap you guys? Have an elementary school or impression of how much quicksand he sets in the world? Back it's ever been. To. Be safe, Dan, I mean. OK, it is the 30s and you know quicksand is 9 at that point. OK, A. Nine. Yeah, you catch up to Guillermo I. Grab him in a Big Bear hug, OK, and try to restrain him. Not so fast.

54:28 He is going to shoot at you once, OK? Yeah. What's your hit threshold? 4 OK, he's going to spend three of his. He doesn't have a ton of actual firearm points. He only has 6, but he's going to spend three of them to make sure he hits. OK, you take 5 all. Righty how? Sort of a You sort of tank it and go straight to him I. Pummel his face into the ground. OK. Make a scuffling check I must. Spend the two points OK. Cool roll your damage. Oh no, you're not damaging him. You're just trying to grab you have got him there you. Go no need to run, we can just talk right buddy? He says right you son of a bitch. I fucking drag him back to camp.

55:14 So. While the chase is going, Smalls would have had his rifle in his tent with him. As he hears the yelling, he's going to like, poke out of his tent with his rifle. Do the porters look like they're being aggressive at this point in time, or are they like they're? As confused as everybody else. OK, I'm. Going to keep an eye on them without trying to look threatening, just essentially be like out and about just kind of watching what they're doing. Anybody. Else doing anything in particular or should we just have Kurds drag Guillermo back to the camp or should the conversation with Guillermo take place where the porters aren't in earshot? I will say Rick Luke is up and about saying what's going on, what's going on, just. For flavors, Colin fell asleep on his stomach with the book in his bag.

55:59 He is woken up on his back with the book open on his chest. Oh boy. God. You. Filched it out of my backpack. Huh, that's. In character that that is in character, yeah. But JB does just take a moment to explain to to Rick what happened and to try and get his ass to calm the fuck down. He's. He tried to kill you. I'm gonna kill that motherfucker. Have at it. No, no. No, we need to find out why you tried to kill me and then we can kill that motherfucker. I am way too used to this kind of thing, aren't I? Yeah, look what the cat dragged in well.

56:40 Well, well, if it isn't the motherfucker himself, Nick. Can I have tied him up? Sure. He's not saying anything. He was silent the whole time. OK. How many points of intimidation you said right? Now, as you have tied him up, one point will be enough. Actually, you don't even need to spend a point, just intimidation right now will be enough. You don't need to spend a point. I will. Spend 3 points of tickle. I didn't that doesn't don't do that bad to. Take yourself so seriously when you're being tickled, isn't it? Oh. Boy, OK, Do you want, do you guys want me to do it?

57:22 Yeah, you got. This man OK? Rick is part of this, by the way, Rick Luke is not going to not be part of. This. Yeah. No, I figured. I figured I'm. He's the best trying to keep. Him cool. I'm. I'm trying to keep Rick cool so he doesn't do anything stupid, OK? I unceremoniously dropped this motherfucker on the ground by the fire and I just sit down next to him, get my big fucking knife and a strap and just start sharpening it right in front of his face. No one who does not Revere or impress Gullick's ball makes it out of Kitchen Jewel alive, and I don't think you'll find it too impressive. Why not?

58:13 He. Smirks slightly and says nothing else you heard. My friend, he asked why not. Yeah, I could grow some intimidation. Yeah. It's that role. It's just spend. And I'm just going to tell you, you know, from your knowledge of, like, a divination here. He's not saying anything else. This guy is. This guy's a cultist of some sort. And cultists, Yeah, some cultists suck and will give up everything. This one seems to be more of a believer. That sucks. Believers are hard to work around. We can go through his shit though, yeah. Totally. Yeah, let's let's go through all of his stuff and see if we can find anything. I'm going to use evidence collection to go through his stuff. All right, I'll watch our prisoner here put rest. Do I find anything he has?

59:01 Mostly just stuff that a guide would have. Nothing in particular that seems too crazy, except for a small what would I describe it as? Penis. A pendant. Of sorts that he has at the bottom of his bag. And I will tell you this, you may have noticed there's a weird symbol that I put near the top of the the map screen here. Yeah. I did notice that, yes. It looks like that for the listener. It is a the frog headed monster with the tongues that was eating everything at the top of the monument. It looks like that, but like a stylized version. We'll post a picture on the discord. Now I were describing it, I would say it looks like a board squid.

59:51 It does kind of look like a board squid, that is true, yeah. But. I I take that and look at that yeah, I wouldn't probably because it's obviously connected to the the rock we found the statue. Would I get anything any new information from using my skills at this or would it just? Or is it just? It's like it's clearly connected, like it's clearly venerating the same deity, and it's the deity that is venerated at Chichen Jewel, which you gotta assume is this goximal, Yeah. So. So you are a worshipper of Goximal.

1:00:35 Is it an ancient secret cult order? Yes. I assume you your family has been like this for generations. Some people. Pronounce it wrong and baby the person who charges podcast has said it wrong but it's golchimo GOL golchimo. You're saying it wrong. It's stupid gringo of. Course I'm saying I, I, I lean in real close. Of course I'm saying it wrong. I can't blow my cover. Did Dan just die? Maybe. I, I, that was a gasp from me. I did not expect that to be a thing. You would say that, OK, I'm going to need you to spend a point of these, the two points of deception there. Is no deception skill.

1:01:22 That would be. A reassurance, actually. Sorry, I have reassurance. Yeah, yeah. So you want me to spend 2 points of that if you? If this is a thing you want him to believe that you are part of this cult, you could do that. OK, yeah, I, Jesus, can't believe I'm doing this, I said. I've been leading these fools on for days. They don't suspect me at all. But I need, we need to bring them close to the site. I think our God wants sacrifice. We need to get them as close as possible. And I?

1:02:03 I whisper all of this in his ear. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here, but I didn't. Francisco, tell me. When you go in deep as cover as I have, you can't even alert your leaders as to your actions. You understand? No. But OK to fool your. Enemies. You must fool your allies. Yeah, I. I don't understand the purpose of this. Why would Francisco need me to lead you into a trap if you're leading them into a trap? I don't completely know the way. My goal was to get them interested and to get them to the site, but my knowledge of this area is limited.

1:02:50 I've been away from home for too long, my friend. You're really white. I was adopted. Thanks for listening. Daniel is our GM, Renee plays Franklin Kearns, Damien plays Donovan Smalls, Nathan plays JB Falk, and Russell plays Colin Kane, in addition to mixing, mastering and music in the episodes. Our album art is by Trinity the Tea Time Witch, and our main theme is by Claire LW. We have a Patreon at patreon.com/dread Tails and we do a live stream the last Sunday of the month. You can find links to these and other things on the link tree in the show notes. Again, thanks for listening and until next time.

1:03:33 That is iconic. Did I just hear Jenna drop his mic? You know, it's on an arm, but I did sort of hit my head against the mic as if I was just sort of doing a head desk thing. Look. Everybody's, you know, everybody else has had their big, you know, I'm going to drive. I'm going to do something to fuck over the GM. I've never done this before. This is all new for me. You're. Nailing it. Thanks. I Have we reached a stopping point? No, we have a very stopping point.

1:04:15 No, honestly, you know what I think you saying have we reached a stopping point? Is the funniest possible stopping point we could have. Because I need. To figure out what's going to happen now.