Episode 375 - The Sorrowful Man

Our quest to make Skud the greatest Bone Card Champion continues! Hopefully the Sorrowful Man is cool and chill. Maybe the nickname is just a cute nickname since he is super nice? Maybe?

## **Story**

### Long Story

The party, along with Doug Rubble, heads to The White Flounder to relax after their bout of near death last ep. Doug tells them that he's family members with the Sorrowful Man's promoter (Gerth Stoneslab), and he can get them in to fight with him. After a long rest, Toby explains to everyone that he has created clones of them, that they will transfer into upon death. There's talk of Skud's dog, Squelch, and a reference to a cool and mysterious Wiki writer named MisterRed. I (the Wiki writer, MisterRed) am not sure what this is in reference to, so I'll just ignore it. It is worth noting, however, that Squelch can be brought back to its undead self if anything were to happen to it, so it seems like Skud would be able to just... constitute Squelch wherever he went? It's unclear. Toby also references Erynn Colleen and Marlamin Windlore, the two greatest still-alive characters in Greetings, Adventurers history.

They head to the Arena, which seems to be made of marble. Much fancier than the rough hewn rock that constitutes the rest of this place. A Dao named Bobby Boulder leads them up through the 4 floors of this building. Due to a misjudgment of the Dao, Lahni believes they are being led to a torture chamber, and Rowan in a precisely exact judgement of Lahni's body language, figures this out too. They, in turn, tell Toby, who creates a fake Toby to go into the room before the rest of them do, while the real Toby stays behind. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the room is not, in fact, a torture chamber, but is, in fact, the office of Gerth Stoneslab, as promised, in fact. Sitting behind the desk is a large Dao, who invites them all into the room.

Gerth Stoneslab seems to be a cordial dude. He's Doug Rubble's cousin. They get down to business, discussing tomorrow's Earthstomp 42, and Skud's enrollment in the proceedings. Gerth is reluctant to accept him, but then Skud shows him the badge he earned from defeating Jilling the Bonehammer. He's still unsure, so they fetch the Sorrowful Man himself to ask if he would be willing to fight Skud. And in he strides...

The Sorrowful Man is wearing a wooden mask with etched tears coming down from the eyeholes and a frowning mouth. I imagine that it looks a bit like a Korok face from Legend of Zelda. He seems to be Elven of some kind, and is dressed in a "fur rough", no shoes, and stained overalls with no shirt. He looks around... and suddenly jumps and runs out of the room! Through the window! Gerth is surprised by this, as much as anyone. Lahni books it after him (through a different window of course), and sees that this guys is running incredibly fast. Almost as fast as she is, maybe faster...

She takes off after him. Unfortunately, things don't seem to be going her way, and she gets tripped up a couple too many times. This results in him nearly getting away. At the last minute, Lahni makes a very wise guess as to who this person is.

She calls out to her brother Lonny.

She yells out that they are staying at the White Flounder, and gives out her room number, but he only responds by saying that she can't be here. Then, he escapes into a crowd. Lahni *The Ring*-style crawls back up into the room with her friends, and tells them that that was her brother. Gerth is confused, but clarifies that the Sorrowful Man has been here, and been Champion for about a year, and he arrived with Master Alder. The party convenes in private to discuss just what it all means. They decide to stalk Lonny. They are then met by Bobby Boulder, who claims to be friends with the Sorrowful Man, and tells them some of the things that SM told him. SM was frustrated that his plans weren't working, and that he was planning on going to the Night Zone, a very dangerous place. It's a zone of darkness, and people go there when they're over everything and "don't want to be around anymore". They attempt to bribe him to reveal more information, but he has none. He does tell them where to find the Night Zone.

### Short

After their success with Doug Rubble, the crew heads to the Arena in Jörldin to meet Doug's cousin, Gerth Stoneslab, who is the Sorrowful Man's promoter. He is reluctant to give them permission to fight the SM, so they bring him in to ask him himself. As soon as he sees Lahni, he takes off running. He's fast. Faster, even, than Lahni is. She pieces together that this must be her long lost brother Lonny! Unfortunately, she's unable to catch up with him, and he gets away. She returns to her friends and they learn via Bobby Boulder that Lonny has been feeling depressed lately, and considering going to a place called "The Night Zone"...

## **Trivia**

* Michael confirms that it's been about 6 months since they met up with Skud/Lahni, so their clones are ready
* Lahni is still wearing the gimp suit, which is terrifying to think of
* The Sorrowful Man trained under Master Alder, Champion of the Unova region
* Perry Pebble and Bobby Boulder were named by Pat Edwards, he of Doug Rubble fame. Those were two of the other names he was considering naming his character, and ultimately decided on Doug Rubble
* Lahni's brother had previously been spelled Lannie, but in this episode it has changed to Lonny. This is confusing, but we can get through this together, you and me
* Lahni thinks that her mother is the one who named Arkensaw, while Toby does not believe this
* Lonny lives here in the Arena

## **In This Episode...**

### **Cast and Player Characters**

* Michael DiMauro - *Dungeon Master*
* Tim Lanning - Toby Treacletart
* Jennifer Cheek - Rowan Grey
* Mike Bachmann - Skud Derringer
* Nika Howard - Lahnik "Lahni" Caplain

### **Non-Player Characters**

* Doug Rubble
* Bobby Boulder
* Gerth Stoneslab
* Perry Pebble
* The Sorrowful Man

### **Locations**

* The Elemental Plane of Earth
	+ Jörldin
		- The White Flounder
		- The Arena

### **Quest Log Updates**

* [On-Hold] - Stop Tiamat!
* [Active] - Destroy The Orb!
	+ [Active] - Find the first missing piece
		- [Active] - Gain access to the Elite Forge
			* [On Hold] - Defeat Lucious Incendous, Master of the Fire Plane
			* [On Hold] - Defeat Fuckin Gary, Master of the Air Plane
			* [Active] - Defeat The Man of Sorrow/Lonny Caplain, Master of the Earth Plane
				+ [NEW][Active] - Save The Man of Sorrow/Lonny Caplain, Master of the Earth Plane
	+ [On-Hold] - Find the third missing piece
		- [On-Hold] - Investigate the final location
* [On-Hold] - Find Adira Harper
* [Complete?] - ~~Find Lonny Caplain~~
	+ [Nevermind] - ~~Investigate Galanthis~~
* [Active] - Find a way to pay back the Ferrim Pecunia bank of Pelor's Hope
* [Active][Jaeludra] - Investigate the Great Colosseum in Caer

### **Quotes**

**"MISTERRED'S MAD AT YOU!"** ~ *Toby Treacletart*

**"I'm gonna make the Sorrowful Man eat his own stomach!"** ~ *Skud Derringer*

## **Rolls**

* **Recap**
	+ Tim - Nat20 - Bapped - Chooses Michael!
	+ Nika - Nat1 - Reverse Bapped
	+ Jennifer - 13
	+ Bachmann - 7
	+ **Michael**

* **Lahni** rolls *Insight* to see if the guide is going to lead them somewhere nefarious
	+ 13
		- She thinks he is leading them to a torture chamber! (He isn't)

* **Rowan** rolls *Insight* to see if she understands Lahni
	+ Nat20
		- Success - She gets it

* **Rowan** rolls *Perception* upon entering Gerth's office
	+ 18
		- She sees nothing dangerous, but does see Perry Pebble in the room

* **Skud** rolls *Intimidation* to convince Gerth to let them compete in Earthstomp 42
	+ 16+2

* **Lahni** rolls *Perception* as she runs out the window
	+ Nat20
		- She's able to find this guy immediately. He's running very fast

*Skill Challenge with just Lahni begins*

* **Lahni** rolls *~~Survival~~ Streetwise* to parkour her way around obstacles and catch up faster
	+ 16
		- Fail - She falls behind

* **Lahni** rolls *Acrobatics* to run across a carriage that has a stretched curtain to propel herself forward
	+ 28
		- Success - She makes up some ground

* **Lahni** rolls *Performance* to "perform" a bowling move using some cabbages
	+ 11
		- Fail - They are too dense to roll

* **Lahni** rolls *Insight* to see if she might know who the Sorrowful Man is
	+ 18
		- She recognizes some of his features as being rather Caplain-like