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Lonely TTRPG EP 8 - A Trail of Memories by Black Dragon Dungeon Company
Episode 8 • 13th May 2022 • Lonely TTRPG • Black Dragon Dungeon Company
00:00:00 00:20:29

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A Trail of Memories is a solo exploration game where you play a historian traveling along the trail of an ancient civilization. What sites do you find? What culture do you discover?

You can find A Trail of Memories at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/394494/A-Trail-of-Memories

BDDC logo by https://www.instagram.com/craftyteapotfox/

Music by @DungeonGlitch and can be found at https://gemmedfirefly.com/pages/dungeonglitch-music

You can find us on Twitter @bddc_pod

You can support us on Patreon here



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

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Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Transcripts

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Hello, and welcome to another episode of lonely TT RPG, the actual

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play and review podcast of solo games.

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Today, we are going to be playing a trail of memories by the

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black dragon dungeon company.

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So this is the most recent game to come out of black dragon dungeon company.

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And it is a solo exploration game.

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Now, full disclosure.

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It is my game.

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I did write this, , It is one of the benefits of writing games and having

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a podcast where you play games.

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Sometimes you get to play your own.

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So a trail of memories is a solo journey of rediscovering long lost civilizations.

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, it is heavily inspired by wretched and alone SRD, , which you can

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find@loottheroomdotitch.io slash wretched.

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And it is using the creative comments attribution 3.0 for licensing.

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So for this game, you play as a historian wandering through various environments.

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During your travels, you come across sites and artifacts as

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noted by stars on your map.

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As you come across these sites, roll one D four and draw that

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many cars from your deck.

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Each suit represents an aspect of daily life while each card informs what

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you found after drawing for the site, turn to your journal and write down

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your observations about this culture.

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You can use the provided maps or create your own.

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So the requirements for this game is a deck of cards, a D

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four, and some imagination.

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Now, before we get into it, I want to say, if you enjoy this

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podcast, please hop on Spotify.

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iTunes, give us a, like, give us a review.

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, hit the thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe and leave us a comment.

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I love reading those.

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It is nice when somebody reaches out and says, Hey, thank you for the hard work.

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And if you really like us, , we do have a Patriot.

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The information is down below.

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, currently we are trying to be able to afford an editor.

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, so it would be nice to have an audio editor to make this

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sound just that much better.

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Also want to give a shout out to dungeon glitch on Twitter for.

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Providing the music, , dungeon glitch has a Spotify channel,

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, under a dungeon glitch.

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So if you go check that out, he has said on Twitter that you may use any

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of his music for your podcasts games, whatever, just give him a shout out.

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And so here's that shout out.

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Thank you.

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Dungeon glitch for that now diving on into the mechanics.

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So for the.

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Like I said, your suits are going to represent the various

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different aspects of society.

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diamonds are going to be commerce clubs, military hearts, religion, and or magic

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and spades are going to be agriculture

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and each card is going to represent a certain tool or item that you find.

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So getting into the gameplay.

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All right.

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We got four different biomes.

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So what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and roll a one D four in order

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to determine which biome and I got three.

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So for the different biomes you have forest Plains, mountains, and river lands.

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I rolled a three.

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We're going to call that mountains.

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So I'm going to go ahead and load up my mountain map.

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All right.

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So like I said, we are a historian traveling through a forgotten mountain

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path, as we attempt to find out something about the culture that we found here.

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So before we begin, let's go ahead and shuffle our deck up.

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And let's move to our first potential site, which we find relatively close

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to the opening of this mountain path.

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So rolling a one D four.

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We are going to draw one card to determine what we find at this site.

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And that is going to be the eight of clubs.

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So this is a military site with the eight representing furniture.

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All right.

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So like I said, this is the opening to the mountain path and it is a military site.

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We were finding some military furniture.

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I'm going to say that we find some.

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Field chairs and some cots.

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I'm going to go ahead and say, we find a couple of things.

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We find some field chairs and some cots.

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this appears to be an outpost or checkpoint of some type this

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is the opening to the pass.

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So it would make sense that these people would set up some type of

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military checkpoint at the start.

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So after exploring this checkpoint and discovering that this is an area

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where people would be sent, to guard and spend several days at a time, we

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were going to continue along our path, winding our way through the mountains.

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As we come across our next site.

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And that's another one, for those of you watching on YouTube, you saw that

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bounce off the side of the screen, going from four to one as well.

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Didn't you, who have thought even in the digital age, you can still see your dice.

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So five of hearts, so that's going to be religion or magic, and

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it's going to be a journal scrap.

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So we're going to stick with, we're going to stick with religion on this.

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We're going to let hearts represent religion on this.

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these are not a very magical people.

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these are.

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From what we've read prior to coming on this little expedition,

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to discover some more about them.

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we understand that this is a very low magic, low magic people, pretty focused

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on survival out in the mountains, but we do find the scrap of one of the local

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religious leaders that seems to describe.

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In pieces, some of the ceremonies that the, that the people

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would partake in up here.

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, the ceremonies do, these ceremonies do seem to be ceremonies of protection.

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, living in the mountains is a very dangerous thing.

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Mining for minerals is a very dangerous thing between the narrow paths, the

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cliffs, the wildlife, that also stocks and prowls through the mountains and

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the potential for Cavan and collapsed.

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Praying to the mountain gods for protection would be a very prudent

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thing for the people, but coming across this, coming across this, and this

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means the only thing we found here, this doesn't seem like a very built up site.

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really seems more like a rest area.

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For travelers.

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So either this priest was traveling to, or from an outside region or it

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insinuates that the religious class is more of a traveling class that the

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population does not necessarily support having religious figures in all aspects.

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And that their religious figures would be forced to travel.

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But with these insights, gleamed, let us continue on our way, making our

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way up and over and down and around.

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We come across our next site

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two outstanding.

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We're finding something a little bit more substantial here.

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Let's see how much more substantial

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alright, clubs and hearts.

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So religion and military.

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So for the seven of clubs, that's going to be a building segment and the six

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of heart is going to be a small tool.

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So for the building.

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We're going to say it is a segment of a long rectangular building.

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And based on some of the, based on some of the wear patterns and some of the

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other debris we find in the area, while we can't find anything substantial.

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I'd be willing to hazard a guess that this was a barracks, that this

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was a more permanent place for the soldiers to congregate and live.

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This is further substantiated by the small religious tool, which is

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going to be a symbol of the mountain.

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God.

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, it appears to be a pendant of the mountain.

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God, , you know, something that could be affixed on the end of

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a staff or on a chain, to be worn by the religious official.

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So, while it would appear that some of the priests or some of the religious

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officials do travel, this barracks area at least had a, had a religious

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official, more prominently present, to help minister to the soldiers as

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they guarded the region and the area.

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But traveling on from the barracks, we make our way down and around

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the mountains and , we come across a small little valley basin

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and we get another two.

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All right.

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So 10 diamonds, ten of clubs, so more military and some commerce.

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And so that's going to be a full garment for each.

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We've definitely found something a little more built up a little more substantial.

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this appears to this appears to be a trading post.

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we have found the garments of the merchant class, the people who engage in the

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buying, selling and trading of goods.

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The, they do appear to have very distinct dress, to help separate them.

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, as well as the uniform of one of the soldiers, which appears

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to be an officer's uniform.

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We're going to say it's an officer's uniform.

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I'm enlisted, but we'll let the officers feel important on this

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one for any officers listening in

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congratulations, you get to be important in the fantasy game.

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So we have an officer's uniform and we have a merchant uniform and

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we have a more substantial site nestled in a little valley area.

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So I would say that we've actually found probably one of the main towns.

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I can't think of any other place where these people.

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Have someone more dedicated to commerce than a main housing area.

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And it's definitely well-protected it's definitely well-protected

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because you have to go through the checkpoint to the, at the entrance.

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You have to go through the barracks about halfway through this trail as a whole.

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So you have plenty of military checkpoints.

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So that's probably why the officer's back here lounging in the town

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and hanging out with the merchant.

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But we do have our first semblance of an actual, an actual populated

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area where the people would live, gather and conduct trade.

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But as we finish traveling around our mountain, we come across our last site

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and we get another two.

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This does not want to cooperate with giving me good sites today.

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It's alright You know, some cultures, some cultures don't leave a lot.

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This is a long time ago.

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I would say what we found has been a miracle in and of itself,

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so two and queen of clubs.

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So the two is going to be a fabric scrap and the queen

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is going to be a storage box.

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So for the fabric scrap We're going to go ahead and go with

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a scrap of hard leather armor.

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It's not the full set.

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It's not the best thing that we could find, but it is indicative of some of the

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armor that these people would have worn.

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And for the storage box, the storage box is going to be full of.

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tentage material.

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So fabrics or what's left of the fabrics what's left to the

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poles what's left of the ropes.

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so the storage box definitely appears to be what they would

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bring with them to set up camps, to set up, hasty living situations.

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So based on what we found these people.

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Did have a strong military bent to them.

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We found several sites related to the military.

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We found several artifacts related to the military.

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so whatever they were doing in these mountains, they obviously felt very

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concerned for their safety and put a high priority in their military.

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So that's a, that's an interesting,

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that's an interesting bit to learn about these mountain people.

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We did find some, we did find some evidence of religious practices, so they

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did have a, they did have at least a developed sense of spirituality and some

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functioning commerce, but the commerce does seem to be relegated to the more

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easily accessible secluded town area.

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So again, strong military presence patrolling the area, at the very

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least enough spirituality to warrant.

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Either traveling priests or perhaps soldiers were carrying a prayer book,

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which could be a definite possibility for that first, for that first scrap

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of protection prayers that we found it could have been dropped by a soldier.

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you know, the religious amulet found at the barracks.

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So we do have, we do have a good spirituality, a good military.

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Presence and some minor, some minor trade and economics, , at the very

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least, , some minor trade and economics preserved among their stronghold of note.

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And interesting thing we didn't find was anything related to agriculture.

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So this environment was apparently too harsh for them to do any type of

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real crop cultivation to develop any type of real strong agricultural bent.

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So.

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That would lead me to believe that they imported a lot of their staple foods and

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that they relied a lot on hunting and foraging in the sparse mountain terrains.

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So a very hard and a hardy people capable of walking these narrow trails

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and defending themselves against anyone who would attempt to come in and

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either harass or take what they have rightfully pulled from the mountains.

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So that is a trail of memories.

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So relatively short game, , it's not designed to be that long.

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, Honestly, it's designed more to be a world-building tool.

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It's designed to give you to give you an opportunity to take a look at.

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Try and build up a little bit of culture.

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it could also be used as a GM tool, something fairly

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easy to toss into your games.

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If you have players who are interested in that type of thing, or you want

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them to explore a certain area, or you want to add some exploration

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pieces to it, just some fun, little lore bits that you can toss in there.

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Have the players have the players roll a D four, pull a couple of cards and then let

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the players describe what they find or you describe what, what they find to them at

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the very least, give them the prompts and then let the players say what they think.

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Those prompts mean a nice little, the way to help engage them in the,

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engage them in the world, building and engage them in the lore that

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you're trying to get across to them.

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Again, like I said, you can also play it as a straight game.

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Now, if you are playing it as a straight game and you do want to have some more

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sites in there by all means set up as many exploration sites as you want.

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when I built it, it was more a case of, I didn't want to flood

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the player with too many options.

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But, you know, that also comes at the cost of time, as you saw, it only

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took us about what, 10, 15 minutes to roll through and play through that.

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So yes, definitely a short game as is, but it's also a case of.

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So if you can roll by those sites again, roll it.

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Roll your D four, again, pull some more cards.

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You know, you can increase the dice size to pull more cards.

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The, again, the intent is just to give a little jumpstart to the imagination,

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give a little jumpstart to the world and offer a bit of a bit of quiet

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reflection on some of these things that.

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We take for granted in our society and what that means, what that will mean later

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on years down the line, when somebody is studying us and what we believed in.

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You know, what type of, what type of tools you described fi finding is very

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indicative of what type of tools you think are important to those trades?

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what type of furniture you find is very indicative of what type of furniture

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you think is necessary and comfortable?

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I mean, yes, everybody's going to have desks and chairs and

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something like that, but.

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You know, is there any other type of furniture that you're going to see

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and that you're going to describe?

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So if you like this game, you can get it on a drive-through RPG.

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Just search for a trail of memories or black dragon dungeon company.

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And if you search for black dragon dungeon company, by all means check out

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any of the other games we currently have up there right now, such as our other.

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World-building exploration game surveyors, which happens to be

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the first episode of this podcast.

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So if you're coming to us late and you like this, but you kind

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of want to see what it's like when it is hunky ly exploring a pocket

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world, then by all means, go back to episode one, check that out.

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But yeah, you can pick this up on drive-through RPG.

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It is currently 2 99, so.

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Go give it a look at the very least add it your wishlist.

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I do sales randomly.

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and if you do get it and like it, then, again, please give us a, please

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give us a rating on drive-through so that other people can find it.

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But I have been steel stash, and I want to thank you for joining

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me on this week's lonely TT RPG.