Welcome back to Fresh Matters, where we discuss matters of freshness. I'm the grossier here with Kat from Metro. Kat, your produce is impeccable. We have high standards. We... Meat is custom cut on site to my very delight. Yep, it's important that we... And the baked goods? More like baked grates. Fresh in store every day. So at Metro you would say fresh. Matters? It does! Find fresh meals and deals at Metro!
Welcome back to Fresh Matters, where we discuss matters of freshness. I'm the grossier here with Kat from Metro. Kat, your produce is impeccable. We have high standards. We... Meat is custom cut on site, am I very delight? Yep, it's important that we... And the baked goods? More like baked grates. Fresh in store every day. So at Metro you would say fresh. Matters? It does! Find fresh meals and deals at Metro!
I've known many evil places in my time, but this realm, called Barovia, is among the most dangerous. A man could drown here, though he wouldn't need any water to do so. This place is ruled by a man, no, more a creature actually, known as Strahd von Zarovich. It is said that anyone who can slay him will be set free. If they don't die in the attempt, of course.
Borcher's coming. Hector, I see no difference. I don't think this changes much. No, it doesn't change much, but you don't see the difference between what that place is and this place? I think I'd rather fight them both. Yes, I'm not saying not to. Oh, okay. Why does everyone think it's just... If Kandor is to deal with the Borcher problem, fantastic. And then if we are to deal with the Barovia problem, even better. Don't forget, Tarpos meeting when she cleanses the last lodestone. That's the cue to kick it off with Borcher. Hopefully, at the same time, we'll have the forces to decapitate both our problems in one go. She's dumb.
We need to raid the castle. Don't kill the civilians that are there. We would never. I just don't know anymore. Fuck. What a thing for Hector to say to Pip.
Keening and Gretchen ride off. I'm glad I'm behind Eleniel, I imagine, on the horse. Glowering into her back. I don't know. Are you with him? Oh, God. I don't want to be with Hector. We're fighting. I think I would have gone behind Eleniel intentionally. Because we're frosty right now. But Eleniel doesn't let me on the horse. That's what I'm thinking. No, she lets you on the horse. That's just bullying. She doesn't let me on the horse. Oh, boo-hoo. Oh, my God. What? I suppose I should fill you in on what we've been up to. Yeah.
It's just fully staffed. Yeah. There's children. Right. We're not going to kill kids, Hector. Have you ever seen me kill a child? No. Maybe a puppet. Okay. Yeah. I mean, sure.
You weren't in. Right. Gaslighting me? What kids have I killed? Do you really want to kill that werewolf? Yeah, because they're fucking werewolves. Oh, you're still hacked that from so long ago. I'm a changed pip. I let it wash over me. It's not what I expected. There's families there. Everyone says he's a monster. And he is. Monsters can...
You know, often, I would say, monsters get what they want by being beguiling, by presenting something nice and comfortable. You know, he wants many ways to manipulate. I mean, say what... He already has. Apparently he wants out. Who doesn't? So while we've been apart and then I'd go into everything we've done. Is there anything I omit? I'm trying to think. Probably not. I mean, probably some stuff I gloss over. Like some stuff just like we defeated the king of the druids. You know, we met a unicorn. Go over all that. I say, yeah, that was in the trees. Yeah, the alabaster. Who was a horse? I go over like, yeah, yes, we went back to Valakai and they...
really want me to be their burgeon master, but I'm not particularly interested, that I have to, that I've been given the quite onerous task of rehoming the Dusk Elves. And maybe I say as much that I intend to take them to the Ironwood Forest, you know, which is where you grew up. But also in the Ironwood Forest, yeah, it's a good, I mean, yeah, it's as good a place as any. I mean, it's still quite down south, which is... Who knows what that would be like? I mean, we did the math on it. There was no other safe place. You've got to pick somewhere. I agree. It is a good place for them. You sense them before you see them. Druids emerge from the forest. There's maybe a hundred of them, you're not sure. Quite a few. And they are accompanied by twig blights, needle blights, larger, all different types of moving, evil, horrid trees. And then... I thought that, you know, once she took over, she'd...
but make them more aesthetically appealing? No, I just thought that maybe she wouldn't go with the evil trees, maybe go with the good trees. You know what I mean? I don't know. I don't think there's good and evil trees. I think there's just trees. Oh, they're evil. No, no, I'm wrong, actually. Yeah, these are inherently evil trees. There are evil trees. Yeah, but these are Barovian trees. Yeah, we are in Barovia. Don't forget that. Good point. Speaking of, though, in addition to the evil trees, there are two good trees. Whoa. Treants. What did I say? What did I say? You also step forth out of the forest. You maybe recognize... See, good trees. That's what I'm saying. That's what I mean, though.
You recognize the lead one as one of the giant oaks that bore you down from the Gacchus Mountains while you were fighting the tree blade. They are carrying between them a litter, a throne of sorts. And sitting on the throne is this... Well, it's... No, I suppose it is a throne, I guess. But it's not a throne designed for a person to sit. Instead, lying upon the throne, you see a Barovian cornucopia.
You can hear the... of the many meat bees. And there's berries and vegetables and fruits, but all of them of a Barovian nature. Underneath, you see the engineer with... Well, you see what's left of the engineer. One of his arms is whole and intact, apart from the... Both of his hands were already mechanical. That mechanical hand is still as it was. One arm is fine. But then his other arm is the... What do you call it? Sleeve. Thank you.
The sleeve of his other arm has been stitched up and pinned up. And you can see that arm on the mech is hanging a little loose as well. You can see this is a pretty recent injury. Like, it's still weeping a little bit of blood. Sitting on that dead arm of the mech is Cavendish. The mech, by the way, all three of them, the engineer, Cavendish, and the mech, they look like they've been through the wringer. It looks like someone put them in a giant washing machine with a shit ton of pennies and set it on max spin. God damn. They're kind of ruined. All three of them are pretty fucked up. Then...
As they see you, and Cavendish gives you a bloodied smile, like you see one of his teeth is missing and he gives you a little wave. Behind them is Gorob, Lushan, and Tarpos, who are also a bit bruised, battered. Well, Tarpos looks mostly unharmed, but Tarpos is still a little bit wounded. Gorob and Lushan look pretty wrecked as well. They come up. Gorob and Lushan call out, We saved him! We saved the little frogman! But at what cost?
I have a sigh of relief and then eyes go really wide. What do I know about what happened with Kribbit? Because I was a bit checked out. As Pop, you remember this. Kribbit was lying prone on the ground, very probably dead. Suddenly someone who probably was Hector was there and then they were both gone. Okay. Well, as I see, as I mentioned the little one, my head and eyes glanced at Hector like kind of another, like, what did you do? I just, he was dead. I gave him to the only person I knew that could save him.
Tapos and Gora Blushin step aside and standing behind them, stepping forward, wearing a very tight, because he is no longer small-sized, very tight kribbit's clothes. You see, Hector. It is, as you knew him before, a full-blooded Azimar Hector. What the fuck did you do? Hector, peep, I return.
Does he seem happy to be alive again? He walks over to you. He's not wearing shoes because he's little... Is he Kribbit-sized? No, he's Hector. He's exactly like Hector, but he's wearing Kribbit's clothes. I guess it's like... I guess looking into a...
Cruel mirror. You've got to stop messing around with stuff like this, Hector. If I didn't, he'd be dead. What would you do to save the ones you love? Yeah, I don't know. This is sort of beyond the pale. But are you okay there, Kribbit? I am doing well. Yes, this one is still Kribbit. Okay, well, that's good. How do you feel about your new form? He's fine. This one can make wings now. Pretty cool. But eggs taste weird now. Yeah, you should cook them. But you can fly. Yes. But Kribbit already did that today.
Yeah, it's... Cavendish, who is now climbing down off the mech, he explains, and you can see he has this like an excitement, like a child's excitement about him. This is quite clearly something... I mean, it's fantastical for you, but for Cavendish, this is something... Yeah, this is something extra. Cavendish, who the very idea of a druid is kind of a novelty to him, he says, yes, so the way it was explained to me, and he says this top officer standing right there, but he's so excited he explains it. Because it was your soul, the reincarnation spell brought him back as an Aesimar.
The appearance is probably not random either, Topol said. And it's very fascinating to watch. He does the wing thing you do, but he keeps doing it. I love to make the wings. Now I am the one above. I can eat below me now. Used to be this one had to eat only what lived underground, but now I can eat things that live on ground. It was like a very sad smile. It was a very straight, like, yeah, it's an experience. And some birds. Bird is weird. He didn't pick the feathers out. You'll just...
They didn't pick the feather's tongue. Strange. Doesn't do a thing. No, you really should cook this. No, sometimes you vomit. If not good, stomach, tail. Good to see that you're alive. I keep giving pieces of myself. If I die, don't bring me back. Do not resuscitate. So I would say, due to just the size of your party, you, Hector, would note...
I don't know, actually. I can't remember if we have decided if Hector has been in, like, an army before. Or any, like, large procession of people. I think he definitely talks about, like, going on, like, expeditions, I would say. But I don't know, like... I would say... Yeah, I reckon, again, he's very inexperienced, very young. I would argue, like, you know, he's done the whole Squire thing, and maybe, like...
15. Like, probably, maybe a little bit bigger than what the sharp shot companions were. But, like, if they're a paladin training, those kind of things, oh, there's this ogre we've got to deal with, you know, that kind of stuff, like, sure, but I think it would be small scale, right? Well, with, there's not, like, a terribly lot of druids following Tarpos, but there are enough that both of you, and I think, Pip, if you have any military experience, it would be in much smaller... Oh, yeah, I think I've, like, I've been around armies, but I don't think, you know, you would call it, like... Like, before, I guess, the, um, what happened a few years, a year ago, yeah, because you always, like, the sharp shot, I imagine it would be, like...
a company or an army would be like, we need a specialized force. Absolutely. And so you're a very small unit as part of this large unit. Sharpshot companions typically get used as skirmishers. They are part of a larger army. Smaller skirmishing units. Anyway, neither of you, I guess, then, have much experience with this. But the laboriousness of so many people needing to stop, make camp, start again, and move means that you lose basically a day to just preparations and the druids setting up a camp to then take it down that night. And imagine...
kind of this almost eye-opening of like, because you've probably heard the expression before about how a camp marches on its stomach. Yeah, yeah. I just like, you know, you have that as a, you know, oh, in the back of my mind. I believe Elf Pullian said that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, but seeing it, because again, it's like, heck though, he's like, you know, again, big game. Like, you know, big picture situation here. It's like, well, we need to probably mount some level of an assault if we ever make it back to like home and be like, if there's an army, we got to feed them. And just like, I think probably spending a lot of the time noticing that and maybe just kind of like taking a mental note and seeing
I guess how Tarpos reacts to it, how Pip reacts to it, how... Well, I guess because I've, again, like, as part of the Shark Shark Companions, we've been in skirmishes before and, like, kind of part of an army, but not part of an army. I feel like I just fall into that pattern. You know, like, setting up camp and stuff like that's all pretty... Not rote, but I'm like, oh yeah. Yeah, maybe seeing how Cavendish reacts to it. Because he's, like, military. And from my perspective, future military. Although...
A little glimpse of what he's done. He is Tom Clancy's future soldier. See how he is, I guess, reacting with it all. Well, looking around the camp, you can see, first off... Maybe the weight of a proper military campaign feels a little heavier when it occurs to you as you're watching the druids set up camp and prepare themselves to stay the night. You can see the druids obviously have a much easier time living off the land than a traditional army would. You watch as, maybe in horror, I don't know how you feel about this, as using their connection to the nature, a druid lures a deer close. My mind went certain places. Let's see what happens. And then slits the deer's throat.
The camp can eat. Oh, okay. That's not what I thought was going to happen. What did you think was going to happen? I thought they enticed the deer to come over, and using some sort of druidic magic, they just basically make a hovel. Like a beef deer? No, like a house. Using the ribcages, making this weird, awesome-looking tent. That's awesome. I'm sad that's not what's happening. I'm like, fuck. That'd be cool, man. I wish I'd thought of that. No, they just slaughter it for food. Okay, that's good. That's fine. With the number of druids you have, it probably happens a few times with a couple different animals. But yeah, they move trees using wood-shaped spells.
they divert water from like maybe a nearby little stream so that there's a like a stream that runs kind of through the camp almost. I hate to ask this. How does that make me feel? Oh, good question. It's hard to describe, I suppose. Are you connecting to that? I don't want to deliberately, but I'm guessing like if it's in like that kind of like a little bit ambient, kind of like innate woman in time to kind of like...
have that weird connection. It's a very distant sensation. If you're not like actively tapping into it, you're not, you are not enough of the land to innately feel these things. So it's a distant sensation, but it feels a little bit like your flesh is shifting, but not in an uncomfortable way. Okay. I guess I'm starting to maybe understand Tarpos a little more about the whole, you know, it's the land, it doesn't matter really who's in charge, this is this, this is that, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm kind of, I guess, all right. Getting a feel for that. Getting a feel for it. All right. And then to beyond that, Arnold...
Ignore me. I forgot I said that. The engineer. The engineer, you watch as his mech goes around helping where it can. The engineer himself sits in near the center of camp. There's a big bonfire there that's been prepared. And near that bonfire, maybe using the heat from it to assist in his preparations, you can see that he is making himself what is clearly a new hand. One of his hands, as I mentioned before, has been... Well, his arm has been torn away. And he is constructing... You can see it looks similar to... Because he was missing both hands when you first met him. It looks like he's constructing a second hand. But this one would...
basically be an entire arm instead. He uses a small hammer, like a jeweler's hammer almost, and you hear just as he slowly works. Aleniel and Iona are sitting not too far away from the engineer. You can see they're just sharing a quiet moment together. Iona is maybe kind of, you can see she's dozing off a little bit and she's leaning against Aleniel as she dozes. Vastriel, not here. Yeah, fair enough. What about Tiny? Tiny's with us and Kribbit is with us but as me. Well, yes. I think I'm just...
what little army training I have is probably, like, you know, I'm remembering it. I'm at least remembering working with the Sharp Shot Companions. So I'm doing my best, I think, with Tiny, I guess, shadowing me, to just, like, get people digging latrines, to get people setting up tents, to making sure that, like, you know, people have their equipment in order, that kind of thing. You see that the druids appear to kind of have this down pat a little bit. And from both of you watching John Cavendish walking around, you get the distinct impression he's kind of already been drilling these troops a little bit.
Okay. You watch Tarpos. Tarpos wanders around also in a leadership capacity, not in a military one, maybe more as like a spiritual leadership capacity, going around and speaking to the different druids. And you can see she has some sort of, like, each druid she knows personally, and she seems to have some sort of relationship with them. And in the same way the tiny shadows you, Pip, Goroblushin shadow her. You can see in there...
tan bark armor they follow behind awesome uh kribbit is probably in his tent he seems shy oh okay that's cute i i guess at a certain point i was like there's a few things i'd like to do but like i guess what i would be going to kribbit if he is in his tent just kind of checking in on him and maybe just i guess one i get the selfish reason of like a forloin like forloin forlon yeah reason it's like looking at i guess this weird carnival mirror yeah of what was as well as I guess the non-selfish thing of being like, how is he adapting to being an ASMR? And also wondering if he's hearing any gods. Because that's an aspect of the problems of ASMR sometimes, is the screaming in your head. You open the flap to Krippit's tent and catch him looking at his own reflection in a mirror, prodding at what was once your features. God. Hello, Krippit. Hello. How are you doing? Just came to check on you. See how you're dealing with your new body. This is a setback.
But not a terrible one. Kribbit, maybe now, this one can enter towns and people will not be like, monster, straight away. I think to a few towns and I keep my mouth shut. Yes, yes. It depends who you are. They will go with you for a different reason. Kribbit like being a bit bigger now. Now ones who eat kribbit must be bigger. And kribbit can eat more ones. Yes, as I've said before. Just make sure you... I don't think you have said this before. I definitely have. Right, yes. I don't think we have the same...
Stomach as you're used to. No, disagree. Egg just as good. Yes, it's just you're eating the shell. Why? Shell is where all protein is. Why waste egg? Fair enough. That is definitely not where the protein is. He doesn't know. He's not a nutritionist. Yeah, that's true. Neither am I. Shell keeps yolk safe. Shell keeps crickets safe. That's more true.
I guess I take him through some of the innate abilities, I guess, of an Azemir. You see he has no ability to do those. Do you have a connection to the divine of any kind? No. Oh, okay. He can't do any of the spells that you do. But you can do the wings. Yes. This one liked the fly. But you can't do the... Right. Interesting. Can you heal? Any little bit of... He looks over at an egg that you see... Well, the shell of an egg that you see here. Somehow you could just...
imagine crack and then yolk straight into open mouth. He puts his hands out as if he's trying to heal the egg. Nothing happens. Right. Interesting. But you have the wings. If you have any problems adapting, I'm sure I can help you if you need it. What? Kribbit, in the way I am right now, scratches his chin. What do you think is...
fun to do in this body. Well, what did you do for fun in your old body? Cribbit liked to throw tongue out that thing, let tongue stick, get stretched tongue, then tongue come back. Right. We can't do that. No. No, we cannot do that. I guess if you like the... Cribbit liked to be upside down sometimes, holding onto ceiling. Can't do that now. No. Flying fun. Anything else? I guess, I mean, you can climb, but you can't stick to things. I guess it's very similar to... Oh, being limited.
Kribbit thought he'd just not know how. No, it is a brief moment, so do not fly too high. I also learned that problem. Just like the tale of a person who flew too close to the sun. Astronauts. Yes.
I knew that would get you. I was going to say Alphacus. I've not heard of astronauts before. Right. What do you do for fun? Well, I guess, I'm trying to think of the frog body. I guess, you know, like physical activity, stretching, doing kind of calisthenics is something that... Kribbit writes down the word calisthenics. I'm like, I don't know if we did it for fun. It was just a thing we had to do that kept the body dimmer and strong. Kribbit feels like this one must now be more active in story. Right, yes.
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No, no, not at all. Oh, come with body. Natural. I guess so. I don't really have a desire to be a protagonist, no. I'm not entirely sure what you mean, Chris. This one, confused. Did that one forget or lose protagonist's desire when new body? Or did that one never have protagonist's desire? What do you mean when you say protagonist's desire? Well, this one, he says gesturing to you, this one is faithful, important.
When he says faithful, you don't think he means like destiny? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. To be honest, I've never had that before. I thought I maybe with... You tell this one, this, and he gestures all around you. Coincidence? Maybe. I mean, if it wasn't for me, I'm sure somebody else would have done it. This one, he says pointing at you, walking on street. Yes. Regular day. This one busy. Must go to work in, I don't know, a boring job. Baker. This one must go to bakery. Yeah, okay.
On street, little boy, you pass, sitting in street corner. He cry, big tears, boo-hoo. What you do? You're late. Is he by himself? Is he by himself? I guess I will go over and see if his guardian is nearby. This is protagonist behavior. I think this is just a good person behavior. That's why we differ. That's why these ones differ. So you would go to big country? This one would write down that one's story, but this one's storyteller. But now maybe me thinking this one must be protagonist like you. So you want to help? Not saying that.
Perhaps it is maybe innate. I do not know. I honestly didn't give it much thought, to be honest. Just innate part of that one's nature, he says, as if kind of answering his own question. I guess by your definition, yes, I suppose so. Well, this one still wants to write story, so maybe this one says write story. I think that is for the best. I agree. I think that is for the best.
There's part of me that I could easily... I could tell him some things that I've experienced, but I don't want to, because then I'm just going to be sealed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talking to Kribbit, dude, it's like talking to anybody in this party. It's annoying. But it's in a cute way. Yeah, oh, he's adorable. Much enjoy this. The Gaurab would love it any day of the week. Oh, absolutely. Or Tarpos. Or Tarpos. Tarpos is annoying, too. That's very, very true. Yeah. They're all pretty much up there. Yeah. A truly forced family. Yes, yes. Well, I'll let you get on with it. Good luck. I say these words as they're falling out of my mouth.
Good luck exploring your body. He nods, not picking up on that. Didn't mean it to me. This one will continue to explore body. He says, turning back to the mirror, he begins to prod his features again. As I leave, I'm probably muttering. I'm like, yes, when he discovers his penis. Oh, boy. You leave, Kribbit, not discovering his penis, but trying to pull at his tongue to see how long it can get. Similar action. Right, okay. Are we stopped down for the night? Yeah, yeah, you're bedding down for the night. Okay, cool. I guess at a certain point, I'd like to...
Yeah, chat to the engineer and I guess hopefully the engineer and Cavendish as one. Sure. By the time you get over to the engineer after this, I would say Cavendish is probably done with setting up the camp. And Pip, same with you. I think I'm just hanging out with, I think I'm rudely using Tiny as like a sounding board. Like talking to him, but really only talking to hear myself talk, if you know what I mean. Tiny.
if you have stopped moving Tiny sits maybe found like a smaller campfire amongst them and I've like sat down to like warm myself and I think I'm just talking about what happened to Kribbit I think I'm just being like I don't know if it's because he's an A's mirror I don't know if it's because he's corrupted in some way but I mean I and I'm not saying Tiny that I would have let Kribbit die of course not but to transform him like that and then on some level it's narcissistic let's be honest You know, on some level, you know, I imagine, and he would never admit this, but Hector's got to be loving this in some small strange way. You know, sort of, I mean, you know, it's not as though there's enough of him around or he's not important. And also, you know, I mean, what does this mean for the sort of like the cards? You know, is Krivet his own man or is he some kind of extension of Hector now? I mean, I don't know. I think that's just the kind of thing I'm going over chatting to Tiny about. His little cold insect eyes, you know? Yeah, he stares. He has eyes for no one but you with his, yeah.
black shell-like eyes. He stares at you and you see nothing but your own reflection with him. Yeah. One way or another. Talk about narcissists. Yeah. As the night progresses, Pip, Tiny, you notice is making like a low humming noise. You get the, not the impression, sorry. You believe his, his like wings are just very quickly and in very short measure vibrating. Do you need to go somewhere? Is that what that means? Or are you sleepy? I don't know. Bugman. I don't, I don't know though. Is everything okay? You can, you can, I obviously can't say anything, but.
Nothing? No response. Well, it's got nothing to do with me then, I suppose. Vibrate away. If it weren't for that buzzing noise, you could easily assume Tiny to be made to be an obsidian statue. Maybe they just need to stretch. Maybe that's what it is. They get all cramped up inside your back and you need to let them out and vibrate. I mean, fair enough. I do a big yawn. I need to stretch too. I get it, yeah. Could be keeping warm. At one point, one of the druids comes past with a little wooden tray and food for you. Thank you very much.
I like take some and start eating it. The druid awkwardly leaves one kind of looking up at Tiny, like expecting Tiny to have a response and then leaves a little tray in front of Tiny. I don't know what you eat, Tiny. I mean, have I seen you eat? Have I? I don't think you have. No. Well, what does a bug eat? Other bugs? Other bugs. But then I suppose I'm sort of like a dragonborn, you know, and I'm not eating gold or whatever. The druid wanders away and you have like a, is conniption the right word? When Tiny suddenly...
It's not actually a huge... It's because Tiny has been so still for so long that all Tiny does is turn its body to the west and you nearly die. Oh my god. Is that wrong? Tiny stands up completely and takes, not leaving the camp, just takes a couple steps to the west.
I'll get up as well, I guess, put my plate down and go stand and look in the direction he's looking. Try to see if I can make anything out. It's a strange but very familiar noise. You hear a rolling noise of rain hitting leaf, and you realize a rain cloud is about to engulf the camp. Ah, okay. Well, I guess I'll start trying to round up everybody and get everybody in their tents and get everything that will be damaged by the rain inside. Storm coming! I say, there's a storm coming! Round up everything you want to keep dry. Get it in a tent. And I'd say the same for everybody else. Get it in a tent. And let's put more logs on the main fire so that it can stay nice and lit.
All right, people, you know, the camp, it's not like a flurry of activity. A rain cloud is not a huge deal. And in Barovia, it was kind of a little expected. So the rain cloud hits. Usually Tiny has not moved at all. But when the rain cloud washes over the camp, Tiny does lean a little bit back and you see rain cascading down its huge carapace. I guess, is it drinking? Cooling down? I just will never know unless I learn to speak bug, I guess.
It's like yelling over the rain to Tiny. I'm going to bed, Tiny. I'm going to get in my tent and out of the rain. Carry on, and then I'll go find somewhere dry. Meanwhile, Hector, you find by the bonfire, the engineer, and Cavendish. This is a few moments before the rain cloud hits. Oh, right. I see you've lost your arm. I jested to the engineer. He grunts.
So you've had experiences with Borja, yes? His hand flips around from the little hammer that he was using to, I don't know if you remember this, but the hand that he still has is mechanical and can change between a bunch of different... It's like a no mommy knife, sorry. It changes to a little power drill and you hear vroom, vroom, vroom. Ooh, it tears my lips to do that. Vroom, vroom, vroom. The engineer is saying this. I was trying to give you a clean one. Forget it. I can't do it. Sorry, what did you ask? You're very familiar with Borja.
Yes? It switches around to something that I don't need to do a lot of noise. That's like a wrench now. Did she put the... I described the heart device that was on me. Did she do that to you as well? Nope. Do I describe it? Is his coldness, is that just him being him or is he a little bit shitty? Yeah, that's what I want to know too. That's a good question. I'm intrigued. You do pretty well on this check. So you dimly remember the first time you ever met him, while a fight, while a full combat encounter took place, he was continuing to work on his little project at a desk while you were fighting. You get the distinct impression that when he's working, he's locked in right now. Gotcha.
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Right. I turn to Cavendish. Cavendish, you see, is smiling and he says, he gets a bit like that. I like it. I appreciate it. You know, traveling companion. Yes, I can imagine. Can imagine. How have you been since you last spoke? I suppose better, he says. It's been a mostly quiet trip here. Not a lot of resistance. I wouldn't even really call it resistance. More just the incidental nature of Brovier itself. A question to ask you. You were in the Roy Conch Gerd, yes? Yes. What did you do before you came to Brovier?
Well, as I said, I had a few jobs. I worked as a sailor, then as a, well, a pirate, I suppose. I've been a farmer. You left the Roy Conjugator to become a... No, I didn't leave the Roy Conjugator to become a sailor. No, I left it to become a... I was briefly an accountant. Right. I wasn't terribly good at it. So you joined the Roy Conjugator, then left to become an accountant? Yes. And from there you end up as a pirate? No. A few jobs in between accountant and piracy. I was...
Worked very briefly. I would say maybe literally a few months as an accountant. Then I became a farmer for a little bit. A quiet life. And some issues with family forced me, forced my hand. I couldn't, I didn't want to live in any major cities. Where's that? My family are big.
My father was, of his day, he would, I don't know if this is a term you would use, but he was a titan of industry. I kind of shake my head, but like... You're like a titan of industry. You're probably like a monster. Yeah, yeah. But then I guess I'm like, I like, again, the experiences that I've experienced, like the being oil for a hundred years, I like to think that...
Welcome back to Fresh Matters, where we discuss matters of freshness. I'm the grossier here with Kat from Metro. Kat, your produce is impeccable. We have high standards. Meat is custom cut on site to my very delight. Yep, it's important that we... And the baked goods? More like baked grates. Fresh in store every day. So at Metro you would say fresh. Matters? It does! Find fresh meals and deals at Metro!
Hey, it's Kat Nat from Kat Nat Unfiltered. You know what matters most to us when cooking for our families? Freshness. That's why we always choose Metro. Their produce is hand-picked, their bread is baked in store, and their butchers custom-cut meat to our exact needs. Freshness is the thing that can make a simple meal simply amazing or turn an ordinary bite into an extraordinary night. At Metro, fresh matters because fresh changes everything. Find fresh meals and deals at your local Metro.
I don't remember everything. No, I would say absolutely not. Like there's glimmers, there's glimpses, there's bits and pieces. It's like broken imagery, but I'm like kind of grasping as a concept. No, I don't think I would use the term, but I understand it. It is like when things are moving along. Yeah, so you owned a very big company. Right, right, right. Like the electric company. Yes, not as big as the electric company, but certainly someone you wouldn't want to compete with or just frankly couldn't. Right, right. Anyway, yeah. So I had a...
I guess you'd say, of falling out with my father and with my family at large. They felt dishonored by me. Why? Why is it? You've talked about me asking. Well, because of the first career change. The Roy-Konj guard is a very prestigious position within the military. And to give it up for an account... Well, yes, it's not. Why did you give it up? You said you were the...
Again, looking at his age, where he is now, he still wears the uniform from time to time. Going from being part of this military unit to being an accountant for a few months to then going on being a sailor and a pirate. And then here in Barovia. It's hard to gauge, but I'm like, how many years am I imagining is going from Roy Conjure to, I guess, not all the time in Barovia, but being in Barovia? The shirt, which is the only thing that he... Oh, well, no, sorry. He does have his full uniform. You're correct. But the uniform... I'm very good at uniforms. That's canon. Okay, well, I'll give you advantage. The shirt, which is how you identified him in the first place, you can see that while it is well cared for, the shirt has been something he has consistently worn. His full uniform is probably not something he wore since he was in the Roy Conjugar. You can see it's still like... But he kept it all that time. I guess the glimpses, the imagery that I got of him...
in kibosh is that a very very like a much younger cavendish yeah he would have been he would have been a teenager at the time oh no a bit old sorry early 20s early 20s okay and he's currently like 50s 60s okay so like a few decades past yeah yeah okay just wondering like how recent was that yeah yeah but anyway okay so yeah okay i asked the question like yeah why was the uh career change yes he he seems sheepish in the answer and then that at that point you hear pip yelling across the camp rain there's a storm coming or at least rain everybody pack up let's try and keep things dry Hector, Cavendish, as soon as you hear Pip calling out, Cavendish is also a flurry of activity. And you lose him as he is helping people set up for the rain squall that is coming. I don't know if squall is the correct term. I don't know if it's a squall if it's on land. Could be. What's a squall? Squall, I believe, is like a kind of rainstorm at sea where the waves are going to get high. But that's based on pretty much nothing. Well, let's keep it to rainstorm. You lose him in the commotion that he is setting up for the rainstorm. As slight as it is, you lose him nonetheless. And by the time the rain has hit...
The engineer, you see he has thrown a little leather cloth over his work, and he turns around and he says to you, I made it. Oh, you made the device, right, sorry. I designed it, I made it. Just staring off at the rain, not feeling the cold, my own little mind somewhere else, I made it. Oh!
Oh! Oh! If you have any remaining pieces from it inside your chest, I can remove them. I don't know. Let's get out of the... Can we go? Yeah, let's get out of the rain. He turns to his little mech, which takes two steps over towards you, reaches out one of its arms, and...
it sometimes uses a shield that shield kind of like a I don't know how you would describe kind of like one of Captain America's shields in a later MCU movie where it like expands out from like nothing yeah I was like kind of like when a sci-fi door dilates kind of stuff it does the little amus dilation yeah yeah yeah the shield unfurls itself and acts as a little umbrella shielding the two of you it's very impressive It's really a simple mechanical mechanism. No magic required for this. Right. I unbutton or I take like, you know, you can examine me, sure. I don't know exactly what remains, to be honest. You, it's a strange sensation. He, the engineer, without any anesthetic or anything, he opens you up.
You don't know if the engineer knows your condition and knows you won't feel this pain, or if he just didn't care. Either way, the effect is the same. He opens you up, you get the sensation, you can still feel hot, cold, pressure, those things, as the engineer begins working on you, but you don't feel pain. This may be a very strange sensation. You can hear tinkering noises as the engineer slowly removes pieces of metal from within you. I guess it was taken out in a pretty steep, haphazard way.
As he's concentrating, so I'll save any chit-chat questions after he's done, to be honest. At a certain point, the engineer gestures at his mech, like with his arm, or with his hand, but much larger, like mech size. A little arm stretches out from the center part, and he starts indicating with the stump of his right arm. He starts indicating with it so that it does jobs for him as well. Okay, okay, okay. At a certain point, he retracts that, and then to finish everything up and to re-close the hole.
You see a second arm comes out. This one is holding that. I think you've seen this already. It's holding what is a wizard's head. A bellows powers through the wizard's lips. And you hear the spell False Life being cast. Except instead of temporary hit points, it just reseals the hole that the engineer made. All done. Thank you very much for that.
You see the engineer looks at, you know that kidney-shaped metal tray that people put, like doctors, when they're taking stuff out of you? He looks at one of those, which is full of metal shards. Metal and wood, maybe as well, shards. He looks at that and gives a little wry smile, the most emotion you've ever seen him show. What cowboy did this? Hipster. Now that, he says, handing the little metal tray to his mech, which puts it somewhere away inside it. Now that is the scariest thing I've ever heard.
Welcome back to Fresh Matters, where we discuss matters of freshness. I'm the grossier here with Kat from Metro. Kat, your produce is impeccable. We have high standards. Meat is custom cut on site to my very delight. Yep, it's important that we... And the baked goods? More like baked grates. Fresh in store every day. So at Metro you would say fresh. Matters? It does! Find fresh meals and deals at Metro!
Hey, it's Kat Nat from Kat Nat Unfiltered. You know what matters most to us when cooking for our family's freshness. That's why we always choose Metro. Their produce is hand-picked, their bread is baked in store, and their butchers custom-cut meat to our exact needs. Freshness is the thing that can make a simple meal simply amazing or turn an ordinary bite into an extraordinary night. At Metro, fresh matters because fresh changes everything. Find fresh meals and deals at your local Metro.