Cloudfall | 49 - Slaughter, Rinse & Repeat
Last time on Cloudfall. Eren snapped out of a pleasant dream to find themselves in the midst of a miserable climb back to the clouds, and they're not even halfway up. After hearing the bells of lore chime out one more time, the party took a moment to collect themselves, to check-in and reflect, which always seems to cause them to level up. Their campaign through the castle was filled with more of that vibrant pink light showing visions of the past and the greed and cruelty of King Hail. They also encountered doors that open up into open air, a lounge full of expensive wine and drugs, a palatial pool empty of water but full of fae critters, and a formerly fantastical atrium with elegant aqueducts.
Tim / GM:But that's where they ran into more changelings, and something was different about this group. They were less feral, less aggressive, and more organized. For some reason, extremely anti Aaron. Finally, they arrived at the Castle Peaks, which they've now discovered is entirely disconnected from the giant stone spire that makes the rest the climb back to the clouds. The ruined rooftop is practically packed with a riot of ravenous, raging mage hungry mad lad shadows looking to squeeze the weave out of anything that makes so much as a somatic gesture.
Tim / GM:And also, smile brings back. The permanent cloudy night sky sheds only a dim red light barely enough to see by as you step between the toppled stone columns that used to decorate this pavilion. You're on the rooftop of the withered palace of the Autumn Court, a massive circle with enough space to host a small village, and in a way it does. A village of insatiable violent husks of formerly devoted subjects. They're lurking out from behind every crumbling stone wall, from every dark corner beneath the broken skeleton of the castle peaks.
Tim / GM:There are three important things that have come to your attention. One, an arrow was just shot down from the split in the stone spire overhead harming no one. Two, there's a small splash of pink light not far from you where nothing seems to dare to go. And three, you are surrounded by hundreds of shadow husks, Smile grin among them.
Speaker 2:Because he like died.
Tim / GM:Correct. He was kicked into the mire.
Speaker 2:So now he's
Hannah / Eryn:Shadow grin. Shadow grin. What do they call in Heartless. Heartless. The heartless.
Hannah / Eryn:Thank you.
Tim / GM:I refrained from that joke four times writing this.
Thomas / Guy:Guy extends his hand and a key blade forms. The
Speaker 2:great key blade of Lotus.
Tim / GM:You hear a voice from beyond. Mickey. Don't worry, fuckers.
Tara / Journey:We're gonna
Hannah / Eryn:get sued so bad.
Tim / GM:What's up, nerds? Alright. With that knowledge, roll initiative.
Hannah / Eryn:No. My
Speaker 6:friends are my power.
Tim / GM:Okay, guy. Why do
Speaker 2:my boys roll for initiative?
Hannah / Eryn:Erin. Nine.
Tim / GM:Journey. 25.
Hannah / Eryn:G.
Tim / GM:Guy. 19. Doran. 9.
Hannah / Eryn:Pop. A lover's nine. A lover's nine.
Speaker 2:Six. K. Lover's 14
Hannah / Eryn:is plenty to glee.
Tim / GM:Lucky.
Hannah / Eryn:It's bad when the DM says that.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Am I lucky or are you lucky?
Speaker 7:Tim's gonna roll a 100 times here.
Thomas / Guy:You did say hundreds.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Hundreds.
Thomas / Guy:And that's time.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yep.
Speaker 2:That'd be such a boring episode. It's just dice sounds. This is our ASMR episode.
Tim / GM:Alright. Last we left off, Doran had noticed Smile I believe brought it to everyone's attention. Yep. Journey. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Starts with you.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I'm gonna cast Hunter's Mark on Smile Grin.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Tara / Journey:Can I just get a mental map of the distances here?
Tim / GM:It's probably over a 100 feet to any edge of this giant circle that you're on. Huge pavilion that you're on. Directly above you, it's about maybe 25 feet to kind of get into that stone split in the the rocks above you Okay. That's hanging down.
Tara / Journey:How close are Smilgrin and his cohort?
Tim / GM:Smilgrin is actually the closest thing to you. He is standing on a broken spire, kind of higher than everything else, maybe 15 feet from your group. The rest of these husks are a little farther than that. They're all kind of encircling you, giving you a wide berth right now as they're kind of encroaching towards the party.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I cast Hunter's Mark on Smile Gren, and then I'm gonna attack him. Mhmm. Just to get things going. Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:And I do have a feat because of my Ranger subclass, dread ambusher, so I can take a third weapon attack. Nat 20 on my first hit.
Tim / GM:Oh. Yeah. Smile grin. Not
Hannah / Eryn:again. You can't win with him.
Tim / GM:Roll another d 20 right away.
Tara / Journey:Okay. 13.
Tim / GM:Next episode.
Thomas / Guy:I'm I'm his brother Jim Graham. I have the same abilities.
Tim / GM:I'm immune to critical hits.
Thomas / Guy:So three?
Tim / GM:22.
Tara / Journey:22 for the first hit. Second hit.
Hannah / Eryn:Woah.
Tara / Journey:Is a 26 to hit.
Tim / GM:That hits.
Tara / Journey:That is nine damage.
Tim / GM:K.
Tara / Journey:The third one oh, terrible. Use your inspiration if
Hannah / Eryn:you want it.
Tara / Journey:Nine to hit?
Tim / GM:No. There's nothing. One? K.
Tara / Journey:It would have done extra damage too, which is a bummer for me. Not a bummer for the Smelligrin. Yeah. I think I will just try to put myself between the Mikey and the Poppy of the group Mhmm. To try and keep being Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. Guy is up next and Aaron.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's gonna ready that glaive thing
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:You got? Mhmm. That I think is a bonus action?
Hannah / Eryn:Yes.
Thomas / Guy:Looks up at Smile up at the pillar, sees Journey get her attack off, and Guy's gonna charge directly at the pillar Mhmm. With the intent of Toppling. Knocking Smile Grin off or straight up taking out the pillar. Okay.
Tim / GM:Uh-huh. Are you going to attack the pillar or just kind of body check it?
Thomas / Guy:I was thinking body check. I guess if I like do a whole sword swing that would probably do more damage.
Tim / GM:Kind of taken it two different ways. It would be a high athletics check or kind of a damage threshold that you'd have to hit.
Thomas / Guy:I'd feel good about the athletics if I felt inspired to do so.
Tim / GM:You should have inspiration though. Or no, you didn't drink.
Thomas / Guy:No, I was only one who didn't drink the wine.
Tara / Journey:So Drink
Tim / GM:when you can, kids.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. That's a lesson. I don't know. I always think you charge. I think that's cooler.
Thomas / Guy:I'm gonna do the athletics check.
Tim / GM:Okay. Looking for a DC 20 on this.
Thomas / Guy:18, I think.
Tim / GM:Alright. For that guy, I'll have you take no bludgeoning damage. Body checking this column. You all see Smilogren stand and kind of adjust his balance as this column does wiggle a little bit, but does not topple. You can see that it's been weakened.
Tim / GM:Anything with the bonus action guy?
Thomas / Guy:Can I lob lob a spear at him with the bonus action? Yep.
Tim / GM:Yeah, I'll do that. Cool.
Thomas / Guy:It's probably like a 12 to hit.
Tim / GM:That does not hit. You're you're brand new, can't fault you for that. You all hear this kind of as the bracelet turns into a silvery spear and goes flying towards Smile Grin, missing him and straight back to Guy. After that, it's Aaron.
Hannah / Eryn:Are Doran and I not at the same time?
Tim / GM:You are. You're both at nine.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Tim / GM:But you have the higher decks.
Tara / Journey:That's true.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. How far away is the mountain top?
Tim / GM:About 25 feet or so up.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, it's pretty close.
Speaker 7:Mhmm. Okay. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:And then the waterfall, is it falling off the side of the tower? Is it falling into a pool?
Tim / GM:It's falling from the dead center of that stone spire above you. There's a split like a crevasse Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:In the
Tim / GM:rocks up there and it's just pouring out of that crevasse as if this thing were full of water.
Hannah / Eryn:Where's the water landing?
Tim / GM:Right now, it's actually like eroding like a little divot on the rooftop where it's been splashing down for perhaps hundreds of years.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. And then could Aaron tell where that arrow came from in any sort of way? I can do a perception check or whatever you want
Tim / GM:the only place it could have come from based on where it landed and its trajectory, straight up that same crevasse.
Hannah / Eryn:And can I see anything in there?
Tim / GM:Just darkness kinda disappears?
Hannah / Eryn:So my spider hat does say, I can climb on anything. Yes. Can I climb on waterfalls? No. Pure water.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. No. I would argue it is something.
Tim / GM:I I mean, if it was like the salmon hat, sure.
Speaker 7:There's a lot of people sitting on shop trips. So Yeah. I'm sure they have
Hannah / Eryn:salmon hats.
Thomas / Guy:You're out of you're of spider hats?
Hannah / Eryn:I already used
Thomas / Guy:Take the salmon hat.
Tim / GM:My friend got a spider hat.
Hannah / Eryn:You have
Speaker 2:anything The salmon's hat.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Aaron wants to get up there.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:I have an idea. Aaron's gonna start tying a rope to across the boat trying to figure out a way to get up to that mountain range where the arrow shot down from because once they get up there, they can start Aaron's gonna try to start doing something like that.
Speaker 7:Okay. Doreen comes in with similar initiative. I see what you're going for. I can get you up there.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, yeah. I think there's something up there. I don't know. I need to it'd be a great spot to shoot stuff from too. So.
Speaker 7:Can you just make sure Can you grab me? I know you can spider climb, but
Tara / Journey:I can't, so. I'll try.
Tim / GM:This is reverse twilight.
Hannah / Eryn:It is.
Speaker 7:It's a
Tara / Journey:spider monkey.
Hannah / Eryn:You're the Bella to my Edward. It's so romantic. Great.
Speaker 7:Great. Okay. So, yeah. If Erin readies their turn, I will go next and then use dimension door.
Hannah / Eryn:I'll ready my action.
Speaker 7:Yep. Okay. Looking up at the waterfall area, I'm like, I know Aaron will catch me if they can. Yeah. I wanna just look for any place that maybe has like any sort of like outcropping that I can maybe just like land on if it if all goes bad, so.
Tim / GM:Give me a perception check before you go. K.
Hannah / Eryn:Can I help him since I was trying to go up there too and looking?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Doran will say you have Aaron's help. You can take advantage on that perception check.
Hannah / Eryn:Great.
Speaker 7:23.
Tim / GM:Very good. Yeah. Looking up there, if you get high enough up there, there are no platforms, no real handholds. You can see a bunch of slick rock up there, but you do see a mesh of like dangling vines and moss that looks very thick and quite sturdy.
Speaker 7:Okay. Alright. Here we go. Yeah. I'll cast a spell.
Speaker 7:We'll fall into that and I'm gonna try to land in those vines. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm gonna try to help hold him with my spider hat ability and sort of cling to the vines on the wall with one arm. Yes. And then grab Doran by the other.
Tim / GM:Aaron, you can cling to the wall without a check. No problem there. Doran, I want an athletics check from you to see what you can do on your own first.
Thomas / Guy:Why do why is why
Speaker 7:are athletics so important to
Tim / GM:yeah. Hey, twelve. Cool. Aaron, you look down and you see Doran reaching up and grabbing at shit and tearing vines as he slips away. Make a let's do a dexterity check.
Tim / GM:That could be athletics or acrobatics to grab him.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god. Finally, acrobatics.
Speaker 2:I'm good at that one. Only for you, baby.
Hannah / Eryn:21 to grab Doran.
Tim / GM:Easy. You reach down with the spider's foot and Doran reaches up and grabs it and it's so sticky. And you just kind of like yank him back up to the vines.
Tara / Journey:Oh my god.
Tim / GM:The two of you are just hanging out while your party gets slaughtered below you.
Hannah / Eryn:Is there any sort of rocky kind of ledge weir sort of
Tim / GM:There's no real ledge like hang yourself by. You're gonna have to climb into this thing Okay. To find any kind of ledge to to stabilize on.
Hannah / Eryn:Don't try to move yet.
Speaker 7:Oh yeah, I'm staying right here. To finish my turn, can I still use bardic inspiration?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Bonus action?
Speaker 7:Yep. Yep. And use bardic inspo on guy. Mhmm. That's range 60 feet.
Tim / GM:Sure. Like, after you've already left combat entirely, you go, you got this guy.
Speaker 7:Yep. Exactly. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:So that was Doran's action. So did I use my action?
Tim / GM:You have not used your action. Great. You used some of your movement to grab shit.
Hannah / Eryn:Yep. I'm gonna try to make a perception check with advantage, my future sight.
Tim / GM:You give guys yourselves advantage.
Hannah / Eryn:Future sight for my Ganymede. Oh, yeah. And I'm gonna actually try to future sight to see if anything else is gonna be coming down this waterfall, first, our safety and also like where did that arrow come from?
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Is kind of what I'm
Tim / GM:For sure.
Hannah / Eryn:Trying to figure out. So yeah. The check is a 15. Correct. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:So I got 20 six.
Tim / GM:Alright. Erin, you are no longer in this moment, you were a moment ahead. When you look all around, you see Smile grin atop that pillar, and you see him dive for Poppy. You look up into that cave, and you see a woven tangle of vines being thrown down lowering towards your party.
Hannah / Eryn:As I come back to the present, I'm gonna grab my what the fuck are they called? Talking to Poppy.
Speaker 2:Echo bell.
Hannah / Eryn:Echo bell. Gonna I'm grab the echo bell. It's your poppy talkie. To my poppy talkie. And say, Poppy.
Hannah / Eryn:Poppy. Yes. You gotta move. Smile grin's coming for you. Why me?
Hannah / Eryn:Because you're weak and small, but you're strong on the inside and he doesn't know that.
Tim / GM:Hey. Thanks
Speaker 2:for the heads up.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Bye. Oh, okay. Okay. Bye.
Hannah / Eryn:So technically, that's my bonus action, but since I did so much, I feel like I can't also shoot something right now.
Tim / GM:No. You're you still have an action.
Hannah / Eryn:Alright. I will shoot Smile Grin k. From up here. 21 to hit.
Tim / GM:A hit smile again.
Speaker 2:He's neither smiling nor grinning at this point.
Tara / Journey:I think we've made that joke before, though, like, what's his alternate name is
Thomas / Guy:More like frown scowl.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Frown scowl. Yeah.
Tim / GM:See that damage.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, okay. 10 damage.
Tim / GM:On Smile Gren? Mhmm. Well, shit. My boy. Oh, that's right.
Tim / GM:You guys mixed up your initiative. Doran's turn is already over.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. This is true. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Mhmm. Which means it is Smile Grin's No.
Hannah / Eryn:No. Okay. I tried to warn you, Poppy. Because I have prior warning, can I, like, react?
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think he'll have like disadvantage here.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. They're cowering.
Tim / GM:He is going to proceed. I mean, Eren saw the future. If nothing happened to Smilogren, he's going to proceed. Poppy, he dives at you.
Speaker 2:Shield spell.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, is that a reaction? Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Cool. Just let me hit you.
Hannah / Eryn:No. Just let me hit you one time. I'm so tiny.
Speaker 2:Do you actually want to hit me?
Tim / GM:We'll find out. Well, he's gonna take disadvantage because he knew this was coming anyway. As he's jumping through the air, you see his claws melt off of his hand. Those bismite claws that he keeps on him, they liquefy. And he puts his hands together overhead, and you see a gleaming scythe like a sliver moon dropping down on you.
Tim / GM:With disadvantage, he rolls an 18.
Speaker 2:Oh. Oh, it's MeatZZa Pizza.
Tim / GM:Mhmm. Because with shield. With shield? Yes. 18?
Tim / GM:Yes.
Speaker 2:Fuck. Pizza pizza.
Tim / GM:The fatal pizza. Finally. Poppy, this is gonna hurt.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy's dead.
Tim / GM:I know. I know.
Speaker 2:Don't kill me.
Tim / GM:I finally hit with Smile Grin. You guys just make me feel so bad about it.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, you're hitting Poppy. You're hitting Poppy. Everyone hit
Tim / GM:Poppy. She's the most consumable of you.
Hannah / Eryn:It's like,
Speaker 2:I mean, I am delicious.
Thomas / Guy:She was she was his very first target back on lore.
Tim / GM:That's right. The one that got away. I need some more d eights.
Speaker 2:I am also the one that killed him.
Thomas / Guy:I'm Yeah. You did.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm so scared, Poppy. Don't die. There's no way he can do enough damage in one hit. Right?
Tim / GM:That is 22 piercing damage.
Speaker 7:And let's just call it there?
Tim / GM:Yeah. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw.
Hannah / Eryn:Why? Do you get any bonuses for being by a guy?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Give yourself plus four now.
Hannah / Eryn:Four. It
Thomas / Guy:used to be plus three. And yeah, I boosted my charisma and so strength.
Tim / GM:That's it.
Tara / Journey:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Nice. So I'm adding four.
Thomas / Guy:Smart.
Speaker 2:Yes. Mhmm. 19.
Tim / GM:Sufficient. Very well. The the blade certainly gets you. It does pierce through that shield, and it hurts, but doesn't go as deep as a wound as it could have.
Speaker 2:Oh, I hate this guy.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Smile grin is then going to let's see here. Have him sprint across the floor and go for journey. Poppy, you barely understand what's happening as he's upon you, and as quickly as he's there, he is gone. And you hear him kind of sprinting away on his Bismite claws reformed onto his hands as he moves towards his journey.
Speaker 2:And I can't opportunity attack because I use my reaction for shield.
Hannah / Eryn:Yep. True.
Tim / GM:Next up is Poppy.
Speaker 2:Poppy did not like that. Yeah. And Poppy remembers that she killed him with the ram ring
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Last time. So she's going to do it
Hannah / Eryn:again. Okay.
Tim / GM:It's highly unlikely that you'd be able to knock him off the castle if that's what you're going for.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. But I still wanna pop him.
Speaker 7:Yeah. 3. 3. Oh my god.
Speaker 2:That's 11.
Tim / GM:To hit? Mhmm. Does not hit. Alright. Then Small and wily.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I'm still flying.
Tim / GM:Yes.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna fly up to the crevice.
Tim / GM:Sure. After launching the Ring of the Ram, was that just one charge in there?
Speaker 2:Yes. Oh.
Tim / GM:You do you do go flying back a little bit. You all hear this as as Poppy just blasts herself backwards. See Out her kind danger. You see her kind of catch herself mid flight. And Poppy, as you resume flight and start going towards that crevasse, you can feel the fingertips of husks behind you that are reaching for you, grabbing at you.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna kick my little legs
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 2:As we're going.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Give me a dexterity save. Do I
Speaker 2:not get the bonus anymore? Because I'm A
Tim / GM:little too far from guy at this point. Okay.
Speaker 2:Oh my god.
Tim / GM:And Oh, Poppy. Poppy, you go to take off again and you feel one of these husks has grabbed you by the pants, by the skirt, and is holding you down. Whatever you what are you wearing right now?
Speaker 2:A little dress.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Grabs you by your dress, yanks you down. No. Yeah. You're having trouble flying right now.
Tim / GM:And the more it drags you down, the more husks are suddenly upon you. Help. It's Mikey's turn. Mikey's trying his best. You see a fire bolt whiz through the air, but it misses.
Tim / GM:It goes wide. He's trying to save you, Poppy, but he's too nervous to actually hit you. His shots not quite landing.
Speaker 2:Mikey, it's okay. Keep try you can hit me if you have to.
Tim / GM:Okay. Are you sure?
Speaker 2:I can take it.
Tim / GM:Next up is the husks. They
Speaker 7:have a turn.
Tim / GM:Okay. Starting now, everyone who is still on the ground is surrounded. That means you have nine targets on you. Sorry, eight. If we were playing on a grid, every square around you would have a husk in
Speaker 7:it now. It's like Minesweeper.
Tim / GM:Yes. Except all of them are eight.
Speaker 2:One round means like all of us goats. Right? So I still have my shield.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. As the husks begin their assault on Poppy, I think I might machine roll this. Poppy, what is your AC right now?
Thomas / Guy:Roll these very fast.
Speaker 2:I don't wanna tell you.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's 18.
Tim / GM:Okay. That is only two hits among them.
Speaker 2:It's still a lot.
Tim / GM:You take a total of 10 bludgeoning damage, and I need you to make a Con save real quick. DC 10 on this.
Speaker 2:Eight. Jeez. Thorne?
Tim / GM:Poppy, you lose a level one. Poppy, you lose a level one spell slot. No. As they consume your magic off of you.
Speaker 2:Help.
Tim / GM:That was rough. I apologize. Journey.
Hannah / Eryn:Uh-huh.
Tim / GM:You are surrounded by husks. Love it. What is your AC? 14. Oh, no.
Tim / GM:Wow. The rolls are 12238199610. That is two hits. K. One crit.
Tara / Journey:It's only fair.
Tim / GM:Wow. Lucky, lucky, lucky. There's only eight bludgeoning damage. K. Con save DC 10, please.
Hannah / Eryn:Wow. That's smart.
Tim / GM:Poppy's getting eaten and she's like,
Hannah / Eryn:man, I'm journey. I'm literally anyone else in this party.
Tim / GM:Alright. You pass as well. Or sorry. You pass. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:As opposed to Bobby.
Hannah / Eryn:You pass away.
Tim / GM:You pass away.
Speaker 7:You pass away as well.
Tim / GM:I'm so sorry.
Tara / Journey:You Guy. Pass
Tim / GM:Hi. You're getting husked, my friend.
Thomas / Guy:Husk me.
Tim / GM:Husk me like a corn. What is your AC? Like a Husk me like a corn, papa. Now? 19?
Tim / GM:Yeah. We had 20. Thirteen, sixteen, eleven, eight, six, fifteen, 15. One hit, which is
Speaker 6:Wow. A
Tim / GM:Five bludgeoning damage on that one.
Tara / Journey:That was a crit?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. My god.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Yeah.
Tim / GM:A con save d c 10. Poor favor. 14. That passes. Finally
Thomas / Guy:You're make Mikey do it.
Tim / GM:No. Oh, actually, yes.
Tara / Journey:No. Huber and Mikey should go in their shells and stay there.
Tim / GM:They will go in their shells, actually. Within their shells, their AC becomes 20, and that is no hits on Mikey.
Speaker 2:Oh, my
Tim / GM:And no hits on Huber. 6111361791512.
Thomas / Guy:That's our boys.
Tara / Journey:It sounds like you're speaking in another language when you do the numbers fast.
Hannah / Eryn:No. He's doing the auctioneer voice. I can't do it.
Tim / GM:I'm gonna say, nineteen twenty, it's critical hit. Okay. Kinda bobbed on at the end there. And he got a
Hannah / Eryn:critical hit.
Tim / GM:Alright. Huber is going to come out of his shell just a little bit. He is going to Love that recite bull strength on Guy. Aw. You see him open a jar and kind of listen to something and then say a thing and Guy, you are instilled with full strength, which I believe gives you advantage on all of your strength checks.
Tim / GM:That brings us back to the top of the round with journey. But right as we do, you all see a giant woven blanket of vines and and thick moss just kind of a throw down from that crevasse, almost reaching down to the pavilion, giving you all the opportunity to climb up. Go ahead, Journey.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I'm definitely gonna try and hit Smile Grin again. So I'm gonna pull back my bow to light it up using my bonus action. That is a dirty 20 to hit.
Tim / GM:Hit Smile
Tara / Journey:Grin. And that is one d you have my d eight.
Tim / GM:I do.
Tara / Journey:That is seven piercing. Yep. And then it's gonna be two radiant damage doubled to four. K. And to each adjacent creature.
Tim / GM:Cool. Yeah. Very cool.
Speaker 7:Alright. Interesting
Tim / GM:thing you discover there, Journey. Everything up here hates radiant damage. That much I think you knew going in. Mhmm. Here's what you didn't know.
Tim / GM:These husks, old as they are, they get touched by light. You see them dust Oh. Immediately. Doesn't take much. And looking closely, these things are withered.
Tim / GM:You'd expect that they've been starving for six hundred years.
Tara / Journey:Interesting. I don't think I have anything I can do about that. That's interesting.
Tim / GM:When you're ready to yield the floor, it's Guy up next and then Aaron. Okay.
Tara / Journey:I'll just do my second attack. Eleven to hit.
Tim / GM:On Smile Grin? Yeah. Does not.
Tara / Journey:Okay. I'm gonna use my movement to start heading towards that netting.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I'd say you could use just about 10 feet of your movement to get to the netting. You're gonna suffer some opportunity attacks in the way, moving through this throng of husks.
Tara / Journey:Okay. That's fine.
Tim / GM:K. You said 15 was your AC?
Tara / Journey:14.
Tim / GM:14. Pretty brutal little journey that you just took your journey. We had six attacks on you. We had a fifteen, nineteen, eighteen, one, fifteen, twenty.
Tara / Journey:Love it. It's great.
Tim / GM:That is 18 bludgeoning damage k. As you make your way through here. And you should make a con save, d c 10. That
Tara / Journey:is 12.
Tim / GM:You pass, you feel your magic being drained away from you, and you just grab it on its way out, you go, nope.
Tara / Journey:I would also like to encourage any of the any of my allies that I pass to follow me. Okay. As I am kind of clearing a path.
Tim / GM:Like the wave cutter here?
Hannah / Eryn:Yes. Alright.
Tim / GM:Guy, it's on you.
Thomas / Guy:A little recon. How is Smile Grin looking?
Tim / GM:You look to Smile Grin in the dim red light here. If you didn't know any better, you would say he's bloodied.
Hannah / Eryn:How
Tim / GM:do you know when a
Thomas / Guy:red cap is bloodied?
Hannah / Eryn:Smell it.
Tim / GM:Oh. Oh, I do. It's his blood. You smell red cap.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, he's dead. And Poppy's Poppy's like further away. Little bit. Like got knocked way back. Right?
Tim / GM:And got grabbed by shadows.
Speaker 2:I I have a plan. I'm good.
Tim / GM:You look over towards Poppy and she's getting swallowed up by shadows and you just see her smiling and like thumbs up.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I got a little thumbs up.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Alright.
Speaker 2:Don't worry about me. Worry about your own self.
Thomas / Guy:I would like to, I guess, position myself between Smile Grin and Poppy just to protect her a little bit. Okay. And then go for some sword attacks.
Tim / GM:Smile Grin again? Yep. Okay. 22 to hit. Oh, yeah.
Tim / GM:Wipe that smile off his grin.
Thomas / Guy:I'm definitely adding a smite to this one.
Speaker 2:Wipe that face off his face?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Wipe that head off his shoulders.
Thomas / Guy:Just 10 damage for the first attack, but then I'll do
Tim / GM:the smite. Okay. It's not a holy smite by chance, is
Speaker 2:it? Well,
Thomas / Guy:it is divine smite, but I always, for flavor, never like it's never felt right that a guy would be doing radiant damage. Right?
Tim / GM:Well, But I mean, light is light.
Thomas / Guy:I mean, if you're okay with it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It's really the down to the brightness of it. Okay. I knew a lot of those weren't words, but that's okay.
Thomas / Guy:Well, I mean It's like a green flame smite. Exactly.
Tara / Journey:And what do you what if you think of it as emanating from the weapon, not necessarily emanating from guy? I
Thomas / Guy:like that.
Tim / GM:Tars look at me just like suggesting it to Thomas and then pitching it to me like, is that okay?
Tara / Journey:I'm helping tell a story.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. That's great.
Thomas / Guy:It's only five extra damage Interesting. From the smite. K.
Tara / Journey:But it doubles.
Thomas / Guy:So 10 and then five radiant.
Tim / GM:Very good.
Thomas / Guy:And then I will do a second attack. 21 or 22. Yep. 15 damage. Can I do a second smite?
Thomas / Guy:Why not? Right?
Tara / Journey:You can do it again, but you have to spend a spell slot.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Wow. Okay. Fine. Spells are for chumps.
Thomas / Guy:Hey.
Speaker 2:I thought you respected me.
Thomas / Guy:Well, that's 10 smite damage. Alright.
Tim / GM:Oof the. Oof. Yeah. Doubled 20 even? Wait, that one got doubled to 20?
Thomas / Guy:Well, I rolled 10.
Speaker 7:Okay. So it's 10 right now.
Thomas / Guy:I haven't been doubling it. Sorry.
Tim / GM:Guy, you bring your sword up to your side after swinging down at Smilgrin in this kind of mad frenzy with your sword bursting into green flames with every swing. And as you draw it up now, you see Smilgrin still crawling towards you with those bismite claws outstretched, kind of staking them into the ground and then pulling himself towards you. And why is he struggling so much to get close to you? And it's because he has now been separated from his legs. You see a black smear behind Smile Grin as he tries to keep up with you while you back up.
Tim / GM:He's still looking at you dragging his torso across the floor going, Before losing his breath and stopping.
Thomas / Guy:I hope that's the last time we have to kill you. And then Guy's gonna make his way to the net and be sure to step on his head on the way.
Tim / GM:We got some watermelon foley in
Speaker 2:here. Gallagher.
Tim / GM:Alright. Guy, you were actually not close to Journey. So as you walk towards those vines, you're gonna take a fuck ton
Speaker 7:of attacks. Okay.
Tara / Journey:Sorry.
Tim / GM:He's not. +1, 0121341010. Who's up next? Ting, ting, ting, ting, ting.
Speaker 2:Smile Grin's dead, so I think it's Poppy. Right?
Tim / GM:It's No. You said it
Hannah / Eryn:was Aaron after Guy. Oh,
Speaker 2:come on. Yes.
Tim / GM:Guy and then Aaron and then Doran and then Smile Grin and then Poppy. Alright,
Speaker 2:Aaron? Can
Hannah / Eryn:I tell where that net dropped down from?
Tim / GM:Directly above you. Yeah. Practically like hit you in the face as it came down. You're just like
Hannah / Eryn:If I do my Ganymede eye perception check up there
Tim / GM:Do you have dark vision?
Hannah / Eryn:No. Then no. Okay. But I see the fighting going down below as well and I'm just wondering if it seems like any light is making these shadows cower and be Correct. That's vanquished.
Tim / GM:Flash of pink light on the ground. Nothing would go anywhere near it.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Aaron's gonna try to throw a bomb down there.
Tim / GM:Very good. One of your incendiary bombs?
Speaker 7:Yep. Cool.
Speaker 2:Oh, great. Yeah. Throw a bomb.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm just gonna throw a bomb down there.
Thomas / Guy:Vines are flammable. Right?
Tara / Journey:That's most of us still down here. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
Tara / Journey:Cool. Cool. Cool.
Speaker 2:We've all taken damage too.
Thomas / Guy:People aren't flammable. Right?
Tara / Journey:Throwing your
Tim / GM:bomb into your friends. Aaron's looking down like, yeah. Yeah. I'm not down there. So, yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Just trying to help.
Tim / GM:What? Wait. Oh, nope. Doran's not down there either. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So
Speaker 2:helpful, Aaron. Hold
Hannah / Eryn:on. Let me look at the what the bomb does. I put it in my thing. It go boom. No.
Tara / Journey:It go boom.
Tim / GM:Would it hit four targets or would it hit nine?
Hannah / Eryn:No. I think it hit nine if you're doing I the Minesweeper like that. Mentality.
Tim / GM:Cool. Okay.
Tara / Journey:Honestly, that's such a good way for me think about the grits in D and D. Played so much Minesweeper as a kid Yeah. Which is super dorky. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. I am just gonna try to throw it sort of at the base of the net, maybe, almost straight down.
Tim / GM:To like clear it out a little
Hannah / Eryn:to clear it out around the base the net. Okay. So, what do I need to roll? Just an attack?
Tim / GM:I think you need to roll Let's do a ranged attack to like place it correctly kind of thing.
Hannah / Eryn:So, this is to throw it. 15.
Tim / GM:Yeah. 15 is plenty. And based on your position, you practically just have to drop it to get Yeah. In our position. Rolling up ninety twenty here.
Tim / GM:We had seventeen, ten, eleven, fourteen, ten, one, eleven, nine, two. So, only one?
Thomas / Guy:I think it was two saves.
Hannah / Eryn:Two. Two saves?
Tim / GM:Yeah. And then, what was the damage on that?
Hannah / Eryn:Three d six fire
Tim / GM:damage. Just to know, but we know what's gonna happen.
Hannah / Eryn:10 fire damage.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You drop this thing and you see it bounce once on the ground and when it bounces it gets about head height again attracting the attention of every nearby husk as they turn in to look at it. Two of them are smart enough to turn away, the rest of them you see evaporate in this burst of light and black smoke. It kind of draws your attention to these vines that have been dropped down. Everybody sees these.
Tim / GM:Everybody knows the way here. They also see that there's a clearing now. And it's Doran's turn.
Hannah / Eryn:No. I have a bonus action. I'm gonna bonus action future site again and see if I can see anything else that's gonna happen in this area.
Tim / GM:I do need you to choose a target.
Hannah / Eryn:I'll do can I do up where the stuff came? Yep. That's fine. Okay. The stuff up in the sky.
Thomas / Guy:Target is up.
Speaker 2:Up in the stuff.
Hannah / Eryn:18, so that wins.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You actually do not see anything. However, unfortunately, there's nothing coming from up there.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Tim / GM:Nothing to be afraid of if that means anything to you.
Hannah / Eryn:Nope. That's great.
Tim / GM:Next up is Doran.
Speaker 7:So it's too dark to see up.
Tim / GM:Up there. Yep.
Speaker 7:I will try to concentrate and see if I can use my Ganymede hearing.
Tim / GM:Yeah. And just
Speaker 7:My initial thought is this seems like a helpful thing, Annette, getting dropped down. But I I just wanna see if, like, I can hear anything happening up there.
Tim / GM:Sure. Give me a perception with advantage. Oh, okay. Sure. I have to roll?
Speaker 7:Yeah. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Like, But you give me these things, Tim.
Tim / GM:You're gonna make me roll like one of these players?
Speaker 7:Yeah. 20. Not natural. Great.
Tim / GM:As you guys are climbing up or at least holding on to the cliff and the vines here, Aaron, you see Doran close his eyes. Just like start to control his breathing for a second as he listens in. And Doran, you hear a little bit of splashing going on up there. Something is moving in some thick puddle of water. A moment after that, you hear do you speak Sylvan?
Tim / GM:No. You hear something strange?
Thomas / Guy:You hear talking? In your neighborhood.
Tim / GM:You hear talking in a familiar language that you heard, you know, not twenty minutes ago downstairs in the atrium.
Speaker 7:Could I get a sense of the emotion behind the voice?
Tim / GM:Concern. Concern. Concern and uncertainty. There there you heard two voices going back and forth in a whisper. I
Speaker 7:think we may have friends if we play this right. I say to Erin as I open my eyes.
Hannah / Eryn:Erin just points up with a question in their eyes.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Anyways, do I was that an action
Tim / GM:or I would call it a bonus action.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Mine says it's a bonus action Yeah. For the ability.
Speaker 7:So Poppy and Guy still need to get to the net?
Tim / GM:Yeah. They're not far though. Less than 20 feet.
Speaker 7:Less than 20 feet.
Tim / GM:Poppy might be a little farther out. Great. Okay.
Speaker 2:I got it.
Speaker 7:I'm going to try to basically entrance everything in between the net and Poppy and Guy. Yeah. And Yeah. Because I think Journey's already made her way close. So, yeah.
Speaker 7:Trying to drop that spell in that area. It's a 30 foot cube. Yeah. So it should cover a decent chunk of area.
Tim / GM:Okay. And that's concentration. Right? You like keep it going?
Speaker 7:Yep. Okay. Concentration, one minute. Wisdom save, DC 17. Alright.
Speaker 7:I don't know how it plays with husks. Yeah. Aaron,
Tim / GM:you see Doran looking down at this area. He's kind of, like, sussing out, like, how much area he has to work with, how many targets he's gonna need. And then you see him do something that you I don't know if you've seen this before. He did it once with the red caps and maybe once before that, but Doran casts out this mesmerizing pattern of colors as if he took a dotted constellation in the sky and just twisted it so that they're all leaving light trails. And you see the husks all look up like the fucking claw was coming for them or something.
Tim / GM:And they don't care. Not a single husk is charmed by this because they don't have anything to be charmed. What they do care about is the presence of light.
Speaker 7:Okay.
Tim / GM:As this pattern goes off, you hear this awful shriek from every inch of this place. You feel shadows rushing away from you. Poppy, you're at the edge of this. The shadows won't go much farther, but they're still on you. It's your turn.
Tim / GM:The vines are cleared out in a 30 foot radius. Go ahead, Poppy.
Speaker 2:Poppy, under a pile of husks. Thumb up in the air. Looks up. Mhmm. Casts Misty Step.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:Hey. And then keeps flying. Great. Good idea. And I can
Speaker 2:cast it at will because I'm FeyTouched. Alright. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Easily done. Especially right now.
Tim / GM:Yes. Nothing to fight against there. The husks all fall in on each other as they're trying to like crush you, topple you, and mangle you. They kind of like spill over each other, some of them into that hypnotic pattern and you could just see them like scrabbling trying to get out of that.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to cast create bonfire where I was.
Tim / GM:Nice. As an action? Amazing. Poppy. I love this.
Hannah / Eryn:I love this.
Speaker 2:So I set myself on fire and
Tim / GM:I like
Hannah / Eryn:She's like, get toast.
Tim / GM:Teleport away. Poppy becomes like a rocket and leaves a bonfire in her place. You all see as these husks are dog piling to destroy Poppy, they're just throwing themselves on the pyre one after another. Just the plumes of smoke every single time.
Speaker 2:Can I do a little witch cackle?
Hannah / Eryn:A la holly?
Tim / GM:Can you?
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know. Now you gotta do one of your poppy catchphrases. Your swears.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 2:hold on. Get burnt.
Speaker 7:Found that in
Tim / GM:your notes? Yeah. Ready to go dig in for
Speaker 2:that one? I have a list of catchphrases and cuttings.
Tim / GM:Sure. Sure. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:You're fire now.
Tim / GM:Can't wait to bust that one
Hannah / Eryn:out. Alright.
Tim / GM:After that, it is Mikey's turn. Mikey is at the bottom of the vines or close to it looking up going, oh, pretty cool. Oh, Mikey. Oh, no. There's really nowhere for them to go, nothing for them to do.
Tim / GM:I think Journey and Guy probably have a few on you still. Okay. But not as much.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, great. Good.
Tim / GM:We're gonna go with Journey first. Okay. Much reduced capacity here, only four attacks.
Tara / Journey:Oh, they're gonna attack me? Yeah. Oh.
Speaker 2:But but I'm not Poppy.
Tim / GM:That is seventeen, eighteen, ten, eleven.
Tara / Journey:Two hit.
Tim / GM:A total of 11 damage. Okay. And a Con save.
Thomas / Guy:You can get plus four probably.
Tara / Journey:Yes. Oh, I haven't been doing that.
Tim / GM:24. Fine. Alright. We're just gonna skip over guy because I already rolled his and fuck me. There's nothing in there.
Tim / GM:Max of 17. That's nothing. Right, guy? That's nothing. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Nothing gets through guys armor. You, again, I'll hear this like ping ping ping ping ping ping.
Speaker 7:Can't believe we hit played a whole campaign and none of us wore armor.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It's pretty good, isn't it? So nice.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Alright. Husks, it is on to Huber. Huber walks up to Mikey and says, come on Mikey. Oh, yeah. Okay.
Tim / GM:And, you see them grab onto the vines and begin to hoist themselves up. Not great climbers, these two.
Speaker 2:They're turtles.
Tim / GM:They're really struggling with it. They you're not sure if they'll be able to do it themselves.
Speaker 7:Like, turtles get tangled and stuff though. Sure. So they're they're gonna be in the vines.
Tim / GM:Right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're they're in the vines.
Speaker 2:What? Is this like a turtle specific
Speaker 7:Just like in the oceans and stuff.
Tim / GM:You all look down and Mikey has like a six pack plastic ring on his Yeah. He's like,
Hannah / Eryn:John, I'm you're great.
Speaker 7:We're gonna get him up. It's gonna be sad, but
Tim / GM:Alright. That is the end of round two.
Hannah / Eryn:Three hours later.
Tim / GM:Three hours later. Alright. We are back to journey.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I guess I'll shoot Smile Grin and then get on the vines and start climbing.
Tim / GM:Smile Grin's dead.
Tara / Journey:Oh, yeah. That's right.
Tim / GM:It's cut
Speaker 7:in half.
Tim / GM:You can still shoot him. You can actually hold on. You can still that was unfair for me to take that
Hannah / Eryn:from you.
Tim / GM:You can shoot Smile Grin
Tara / Journey:if No. No. No. I would instead like to help Mikey and Huber climb the vines and climb the vines.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Normally, would take half speed at this. I'm gonna say you can move a maximum of 10 feet per round while you're also helping them. Okay.
Tim / GM:But there's really no threat right now. You're in the pretty lights. Okay. Guy.
Thomas / Guy:Alright. To get over to the rope, I'm gonna use my Ganmeade action. Use a bonus action to smell fear around me from the shadow creatures.
Tim / GM:Fair. I think they're afraid of light. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:In that case, Guy's going to levitate over to the net right over their heads.
Tim / GM:So I'm so happy you did this, Thomas. You all see Guy's flames kind of double, start to include these little purple flares as he becomes a little something else as he smells fear. Guy, you're able to levitate. I keep imagining Darth Vader. Vader.
Tim / GM:It will never not be Darth Vader for me.
Thomas / Guy:That's fine.
Tim / GM:But yeah, doing little float jumps. You're just trying to get up as high onto the vines as you can?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. And then like scoot over the the little creatures so that they Yeah. Show an attack. Okay.
Tim / GM:Easily done. Guy is on the vines. Aaron, you're all out of threat right now.
Hannah / Eryn:But we're still in initiative?
Tim / GM:How long does your hypnotic pattern last?
Speaker 7:Up to
Tim / GM:a minute. Okay. You're out of initiative for a minute. As long as that holds, there's no threat.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Poppy, you need to keep going. Go up higher, climb the vines as quick as you can. You too, Doran. And then I'm gonna try to just spider quickly down since I can climb really good.
Tim / GM:Yes. And I'm twice as fast as you can walk, you can climb.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. So I'm gonna get behind everybody and be the last person and I'm gonna be pulling up the bottom of the net as everyone goes ahead and like helping trying to help push them up. Okay. But I'm gonna try to pick up the bottom of the net as we go.
Tim / GM:Bring it up with you? Yep. For sure. You're still safe in the hypnotic pattern there. And we'll give you this, Aaron.
Tim / GM:That pink light is not far from you. It's within safety.
Speaker 2:Dip a ear in. Don't look at me.
Tim / GM:Dip an ear in.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm gonna pick up the Doran echo bell since he can hear the one that goes to Doran. I'm gonna throw it into the pink light.
Speaker 2:Sacrifice that one.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Tim / GM:K. Alright. You're pulling it up with you. You all see it kind of, fold as Aaron drags the net up, so that if any of these husks were to try to climb afterwards, they wouldn't be able to. Nothing else can get up after you now.
Tim / GM:Mikey and Huber struggle their way up. I keep boosting them. Yeah. At times, when you have to, like, go higher and, like, get a hand and then, like, drag them up and then go back down for the next one, that kind of thing. And Doran, you start to get a sound feed all of a sudden, and you're just hearing King Hale on the top of the roof here.
Tim / GM:You hear his voice echoing, and he's just kind of contemplating to himself. You can tell right now he's alone up here. You hear him say,
Speaker 6:what is this, really?
Tim / GM:Looking down, can see just a small phantasm of pink light. In that little splash, can see King Hale standing by himself, staring at his own hands. And he looks around, he says,
Speaker 6:what is within my grasp?
Tim / GM:You see him throw his hands out to either side and begin to lift them slowly. You can't see what's going on in the world around him, but he's under great strain and he starts to scream. And Doran, there's this kind of feedback that is like hurting your ears, like almost like psychic damage level of loud and painful. And Doran hits you,
Speaker 6:this is it. This is
Tim / GM:the birth of the clouds. Cataclysm is happening all around him. You can hear the rumble of island sized chunks of land being raised out of the ground. You can hear this lake being created as the earth is ripped from the ground and formed into a stone spire above this this castle. And when it's done, this place is transformed.
Tim / GM:You know it to be true that this place was obliterated, covered in holes, and left to wither. And King Hale stands there breathing heavily. After manifesting what he wanted, you hear him say,
Speaker 6:what? What are you? Speak. Don't come any closer, you speak. I'm speaking a language I can understand.
Speaker 6:Listen up, blue eyes. You got one second to tell me what the fuck you
Hannah / Eryn:Frank Sinatra killed him.
Speaker 7:I kind of like pay attention again and realized I had dropped the hypnotic pattern spell and like, oh, shit. Okay. I'm good. Everyone's like almost up at this point. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You see Erin climbing up about halfway carrying the rest of that blanket of moss and vines with her on the ground. You see all those husks have pooled in like an ocean.
Thomas / Guy:Are you with us, Doran?
Speaker 7:Yeah. I I I think there are people up there. I think they dropped the net to help us, but we should probably greet them.
Speaker 2:I'm way ahead of you.
Thomas / Guy:Beyond God. Copy. Copy
Hannah / Eryn:that. I like cup. Beyond guard cup.
Speaker 7:What an enduring nickname.
Tim / GM:Yeah. What? Cup. Cup. Alright.
Tim / GM:Y'all heading up?
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Cups leading the way.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, cup.
Tim / GM:You ascend through a split in the rock with cold water pounding down on you and nothing but a few dangling slick vines to hold onto. And as you crest over the top of the cliff wall, you see a vast reflection in the darkness. The waterfall here is pouring from the edge of a docile pool, and the smell of wet wood and fresh plants and musty earth suddenly reminds you of what being alive feels like.
Thomas / Guy:So surely, this must be the final tower of our journey.
Tara / Journey:I don't understand. I thought that that doorway up was the last thing. How much more do we have to climb?
Speaker 7:It's different this time. We're not alone. There's something I have to share with you all though. Thank you, Aaron, for sending an echo bell in there. I could only hear what was happening.
Speaker 7:It was King Hail, and during the formation of the Skylands, he was doing it just with his pure power. He mentioned something about someone with blue eyes approaching him, and there was a gasp, and that's where it ended. That creature that you saw on lore, it seems too uncanny to not think it's similar.
Tara / Journey:So it's been around for that long.
Thomas / Guy:Could it also be seeking the death of these fey lords or was it only seeking power?
Tara / Journey:What difference it makes for us?
Speaker 2:It we know for a fact it's more powerful than King Hail then.
Thomas / Guy:More powerful than the one who lifted the sky lands into the clouds?
Speaker 2:I I'm scared.
Tim / GM:For context, you're all sitting with your elbows up on the edge of a pool, essentially, like a swim up bar. You're not in the water. Your legs are dangling in open air, but the next move here is to hoist yourself into this pool and just kinda roll into the water.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm flying. I'm not doing that. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Well, sploosh.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Anyone wanna play mermaids?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I I climb up.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah. Aaron dives in.
Tim / GM:The water is cool, but not shockingly cold. And it's actually slightly warmer in here, a little more humid than it was outside. The sound cast in here feels muted and relaxed. And even in this darkness, you can tell that this place is vast, almost the size of the Ring Light Stadium back on Backsea. And amid this intense dark, you only see some glimmering reflections, but you can tell that there's a shoreline in here somewhere.
Hannah / Eryn:Is it like inside a cave, it feels like?
Tim / GM:Yeah. This whole thing is like one giant hollow tree, essentially.
Thomas / Guy:I moved toward the shore, I guess.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Whoever
Speaker 2:dropped the nut, thank you.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I'm gonna try to just climb out of the water and dry off a bit.
Speaker 7:I I am kind of leaning over towards Aaron. They were speaking, think, Sylvan. Is that
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I mean, I don't speak it, but my my parents did. So I kind of recognize it a little bit.
Tara / Journey:You said they were speaking Sylvan?
Speaker 7:Yeah. If you wanna say something comforting, it might be a good time.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I can I can try? I mean, it didn't go great last time, but I can try again. And, I'm gonna call out in Sylvan. Hello.
Tara / Journey:We mean you no harm. Thank you for helping us.
Tim / GM:And there's not much of an echo in here. You'd expect it to be intense. But again, with all of this soft flora in here, it's all kind of muted and padded. When you call out, you don't hear anything. No response.
Speaker 2:Does the air taste like anything?
Tim / GM:It tastes good.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm gonna let Fable out of or what is it called? Not a cat.
Tim / GM:Cloudkip.
Hannah / Eryn:A Cloudkip. I'm gonna let the Cloudkip out of the bag and say, I'm sorry about that.
Tim / GM:Cloudkip's out of the bag.
Hannah / Eryn:Sorry about that, but it was for your own good.
Tim / GM:Wow.
Speaker 2:I meant to taste the air with Ganymede.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah. He said it.
Tim / GM:Literally, Ganymede just tells you it's good.
Thomas / Guy:I don't know. This smells like a trap to
Hannah / Eryn:me. No.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you that it tastes really good.
Speaker 7:I'll let Ollie out too.
Tara / Journey:No. Stop.
Speaker 7:And set him off. Oh.
Tim / GM:You all just hear Ollie like fly off into the night.
Speaker 6:Just like disappears.
Thomas / Guy:It's all we've ever wanted.
Tara / Journey:I have a question before I do something. Would you say that this is a mountain?
Tim / GM:Oh my god.
Thomas / Guy:He said it this tonight.
Tim / GM:I did. I did describe it as upside down.
Tara / Journey:Because it's upside down doesn't mean it's not still a mountain.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. But now we're in a cave.
Tim / GM:A hanging mountain cave.
Tara / Journey:Great. So I would like to cast primeval awareness.
Speaker 2:Oh my god.
Tara / Journey:2¢ if there are any aberrations. No. Celestials, dragons, elementals, fey. Yes. Fiends or undead No.
Tara / Journey:Within six miles. Just fey. Just fey.
Tim / GM:Well, I mean, within six miles Other than That actually works against you. Yeah. There's fiends, there's undead within six miles. Yep. Above?
Tim / GM:You don't know. It doesn't say. It
Tara / Journey:doesn't say where they are.
Tim / GM:So you're getting a ton of false positives for the range now.
Tara / Journey:Great. Thanks.
Thomas / Guy:Two can play in that game.
Tara / Journey:I just wanna know if there's any fey nearby.
Hannah / Eryn:In this room.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Essentially, in this chamber.
Tim / GM:In this chamber. Yes.
Tara / Journey:Okay. I I don't think we're alone in here. I think you're right that there's some people here, but the best we can do is just be prepared.
Tim / GM:After you've all made it to the shoreline here and now that you're making a little less splashing noise, you see some lights in this room. As that calm settles in, you start to see a glow. You see an amber light, and then a bright yellow, and a soft blue. They're scuttlebumps, and they feel safe. Just like the ones you saw in the cave on lore, these scuttlebumps are now illuminating this entire cave, and good god, it just keeps going.
Tim / GM:You can see this glow illuminate all the way up in this place and it actually disappears into a mist after about a mile.
Tara / Journey:In the glow of all of these creatures, Journey looks down and sees that her clothes are absolutely shredded Yeah. From all of these Attacks. Creatures attacking her. I think up until this point, she had been, like, doing her best to stitch closed all of the, like, rips and tears for her leather armor. And I think just looking at it now, it's like there's no way.
Tara / Journey:She looks around to see if there's a spot that she could possibly change.
Tim / GM:As in privacy or as in solid ground?
Tara / Journey:Privacy slash solid ground.
Tim / GM:Privacy is a little harder to come by. You're in a sort of mushroom forest right now. Okay. There's a lot of, like, ferns and stuff, so you could actually probably hide yourself pretty well and a heck of a ferns.
Tara / Journey:I just wanna tuck myself away a little bit Yeah. And then open my pack and pull out some new clothes in a backseat flashback. Oh.
Tim / GM:There you go. Excited.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Shop. Keep. Shop. Keep.
Tim / GM:Journey, you're back on Backseat, and fucking nothing makes sense here. You've been wandering the streets in these back alleys that you thought were storefronts, you get to the storefronts and turns out they're hotels and some of these are eateries. And one of them is actually a barber shop, but you thought it was an armor place and you just got turned around. But suddenly, there's this glimmering gold door right in front of you, and it's just calling out to you.
Tara / Journey:Might as well try. And I knock on the door.
Tim / GM:As you try to knock on it, the door whips open such that your hand never contacts the door and you hear, what took you so
Hannah / Eryn:long? Come
Tim / GM:in. Come in. And she takes your hand and just kind of like slowly pulls you in.
Tara / Journey:Oh, okay. Alright.
Tim / GM:A couple of your friends already stopped by and they got some good stuff. Not to say everything's picked over, but what can I do you for? Sorry. It's Journey. Right?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. You can call me Journey.
Tim / GM:Perfect and beautiful. I've seen your crystals. I've seen everything you can do. Everything you can do.
Tara / Journey:Oh, okay. Well, glad to meet you. I'm is this a store?
Tim / GM:Of course. It's a store for heroes.
Tara / Journey:Oh, okay. I guess I'm I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, but I've been feeling a little out of place.
Tim / GM:Sure. Okay.
Tara / Journey:And a lot of the stuff here has kind of been about wearing different clothes and
Tim / GM:That's absolutely true. Is that what you're looking for? Is it just some clothes?
Tara / Journey:Well, I mean, I don't know if I can make it make sense to just get clothes for the sake of having clothes.
Tim / GM:Of course. I understand. You're gonna need something a little more substantial.
Tara / Journey:Right. I I do need something that can withstand a little bit of a beating.
Tim / GM:For sure. For sure. She's got her back to you now, she's bringing you through these aisles of clothes and there's barely enough room to really walk in there between these aisles and you see her turn a sharp corner and you kinda lose track of her all of a sudden. Her muted voice is coming from somewhere else and you're suddenly lost in a labyrinth of fabric.
Tara / Journey:Excuse me?
Tim / GM:You hear a bunch of rattling and metal plating falling all over. And all of she walks out in a full suit of plate armor head to toe complete with helm and great sword. She says How about something like this?
Tara / Journey:I'm not really the to where
Tim / GM:She like swings down the sword.
Tara / Journey:Uh-oh. I mean, I I'm not really good with that sort of setup.
Tim / GM:Are you sure? It's pretty bad ass.
Tara / Journey:I'm I do a lot more, I don't know, bow and arrow stuff and
Hannah / Eryn:Alright.
Tim / GM:Alright. She you see her just kind of like shake and all of the armor falls off. And she's just like in her underwear continuing to like walk down the aisles. Oh my god. She dives through another bunch of clothing and just pops out the other side in like this wedding gown kind of thing.
Tim / GM:This white, bright, flowy thing, she says. This actually has got it's kind of like a mini mage armor all the time. It's not a ton, but it's a tiny bit of AC. Look how pretty. Right?
Tara / Journey:I mean, I'm sure it's lovely. I I think it's a little bit conspicuous.
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah. I suppose. This was Mabel Maybys thing from a couple years ago. She's pretty, you know, white and floofy.
Tara / Journey:Sure. And, yeah, it's real flashy.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Less flashy. Sure.
Tim / GM:You know what? She reaches up and pushes over a rack of clothing and you hear this
Thomas / Guy:as
Tim / GM:all these racks fall over. And in the back of the room, standing on an armor wardrobe, the only thing left standing looks like scale mail, but it's made of black leather.
Tara / Journey:Oh.
Tim / GM:These triangles all layered over each other. She says, most of the time, scale mail's kind of in between y. Right? It's a little noisy. People don't like that.
Tim / GM:So we got our scales from not metal, and that's what worked out here is these are nice and quiet. See, you're not gonna be making a bunch of noise. You're not gonna be ruining your little stealth missions.
Tara / Journey:Wow. It's so well made.
Tim / GM:Indeed, it is. This has got some high influence fashion in here. You know, Phenom Green actually had a hand in this one.
Tara / Journey:Oh, really? I I mean, I'm I've met him.
Tim / GM:This little maker's mark right here? That one there, that's Phenom Green? That one there, that's Holly Hyacinth? That one there, that's me.
Tara / Journey:Well well, isn't that just amazing? That's I mean, collaboration from a bunch of artists. Right?
Tim / GM:And it can be yours.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Well, thank you.
Tim / GM:Well, I am gonna need some money.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, of course. I
Tara / Journey:don't know what I was thinking.
Tim / GM:The going rate has been 200 for the rest of your friends when they came through.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Tim / GM:But I'm thinking of cutting you a special deal. Oh. You're a furball, right, from the forest? I am. I'm gonna sell this to you for 250 gold.
Tara / Journey:What? Well,
Tim / GM:because I thought I could get away with it, but you're a shrewd business person, I can tell. So 200 gold pieces it is.
Tara / Journey:Okay. I'm not sure I understand how to I I've heard a little bit of haggling. I think I don't think I did it right, but I appreciate
Tim / GM:it. But neither did I. So
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I hand over 200 gold.
Tim / GM:One more thing. These scales, we couldn't exactly get dragon scales and frankly, that would be a little, I don't know, intense for what you're looking for. This is actually made out of leather from gross, but displacer beasts. If you get hit by something, you might have a little window of opportunity to not be in that place anymore.
Tara / Journey:Well, isn't that just neat? Thank you so much.
Tim / GM:You turn around, and she's gone. In her place, a white dress falling to the ground. You look off on the corner of the room. You see two feet underneath a curtain.
Tara / Journey:I hope I hope you have a good rest of your day. And I wander out.
Tim / GM:Alright. Now that Journey has fully driven these clothes until the wheels fell off
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:She finally changes. Yep. And this is why she never put on the armor before.
Tara / Journey:Well, that and also it was not I mean, it's it's hard to change a look when you've had a look for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. She was a little nervous about it. But, yeah, this last time she just can't.
Tara / Journey:She can't wear this anymore.
Thomas / Guy:The new action figure wasn't ready yet.
Tim / GM:We'll find a cool name for the Displacer scale mail.
Hannah / Eryn:K.
Tim / GM:That is 14 a c plus decks. You do not have disadvantage on stealth. When you are hit by a melee attack, you may use your reaction to a teleport up to 15 feet away. Cool.
Hannah / Eryn:Dismail. Dismail. I'm trying to
Tim / GM:Call me dismail.
Thomas / Guy:Displacer bracers.
Tim / GM:Oh. If only they were bracers.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Was trying to think of male puns. Mailing things. Okay. I'll think about it more.
Tim / GM:Alright. Journey comes out from around getting changed again and she is totally spruced up. And where the hell was this all this time?
Speaker 7:Are those the beasts pants?
Tara / Journey:What?
Speaker 7:Oh, what you're wearing.
Hannah / Eryn:Wow, Journey. You look hot.
Tara / Journey:Oh, thanks. And she's doing that weird thing when you put on something that you're a little bit uncomfortable in and you have your arms out too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah. A little akimbo.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. It's like wide stance and arms out too much. I don't know. It's a little tight.
Tim / GM:She's adjusting stuff and you keep hearing this like.
Thomas / Guy:Guy reaches his finger out to poke the armor.
Speaker 2:May I? Of course.
Thomas / Guy:Fine craftsmanship.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Back when I got it, I don't know. I was thinking about returning it. After I got it, I was so excited, and then I was a little embarrassed. So I just kept in the pack.
Tara / Journey:But Phenom actually had something to do with this, and now I'm like, is is that good? It's probably fine. Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, he wasn't trying to, as far as we know, betray us or anything.
Hannah / Eryn:Right. Mhmm.
Speaker 7:I don't hold anything against you in Journey. It's fine. Okay. It's just armor.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Yeah. I don't really have much of a choice either. My other clothes were shredded.
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron's kinda gently like punching you in the side just to like test out how firm it is.
Tim / GM:Every time He dies poking from the other direction too. Yeah. Two two people are yeah. They're just like testing, playing, poking. But every time you touch Journey, you see this tiny little ripple of soft purple around her.
Tim / GM:And Guy, you poke a little bit harder and harder, and eventually you give her like a little bit of a punch on the arm, and you actually see Journey's shoulder just kind of like fracture into like little VHS like split lines. As she gets the opportunity to teleport away from you to save herself from harm.
Hannah / Eryn:That's cool.
Speaker 2:Wow. Yeah. No. This looks really cool on you.
Tara / Journey:Thanks.
Speaker 2:And and leather should loosen up as you wear it. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Yeah. I think it'll be okay. I'm gonna make sure I keep it oiled and stuff. My my old leathers were just, I think, too old.
Tim / GM:I like that you put on this leather armor soaking wet. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, that's how you stretch it.
Tara / Journey:I did a good shake
Hannah / Eryn:off. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:What do you think, Gus? Any thoughts?
Tim / GM:Guy, you kind of go limp and let Gus control for a second and Gus crosses your arms and then Gus walks you around Journey in like a little circle. And Gus kinda like raises a finger and does a little swirl in the air and he points out the shoes. And Gus is right. The shoes don't match the armor.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, sorry Journey.
Tim / GM:Are you wearing shoes?
Tara / Journey:I'm not.
Tim / GM:That's why.
Tara / Journey:Yeah.
Tim / GM:As you're on this shore surrounded by all these beautiful ferns and these exotic plants that are bursting out from every inch of this place, you also see a bewildering variety of mushrooms here. From small common puffballs and toadstools to softly glowing clusters of amber orbs. And finally, see massive white caps draping a skirt of graceful tendrils like a willow tree.
Hannah / Eryn:Is it a willow tree?
Tim / GM:Mushroom that looks like a willow tree. It's a white dangler.
Speaker 2:But that's what they
Hannah / Eryn:call door.
Thomas / Guy:Behind the bath?
Hannah / Eryn:Wow. So sorry.
Tim / GM:Poppy, there is just something slightly unsettling about this place. And it's the way the mushrooms are placed. There's completely different varieties all growing over each other, kind of on top of each other, and you see one mushroom about Guy's height that seems strangely bent at the midsection, as if inspecting something on the ground. Beyond that, you see two arching stalks coming from that body much like a pair of arms. You see slitted gills on the stalk of this mushroom.
Tim / GM:In between those gills, you see unmistakably a pair of eyes.
Hannah / Eryn:You know, I think they might have humanoid mushrooms in this place. What? Well, hold on. I'm testing a theory. Can I arcana check it?
Speaker 2:Sure. Okay. 19?
Tim / GM:You can tell many of the mushrooms in here have magical qualities to them, especially those amber glowing ones. Can tell there's something about that.
Speaker 2:Are there any that don't?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Plenty. You can tell a lot of these are regular, you know, flora around here, regular mushrooms. But these larger ones, certainly, something magic about all of them.
Hannah / Eryn:Wow. I'm hungry. I could really go for some mushrooms. Guy, let's chop this one down.
Thomas / Guy:Highly unusual, but if you think this would be good for one of your foodstuffs.
Hannah / Eryn:Guy, I think there's a person hiding in that one.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, hiding inside the mushroom.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know what I'm doing. Someone else take over. Alright. Here
Thomas / Guy:I go smelling again. I rolled a 10.
Speaker 7:I still got a bardic inspiration.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a good use for it.
Speaker 7:Smelling the mushroom, people.
Thomas / Guy:Let's call it an 11.
Hannah / Eryn:Cool. I'm I'm so imagining him just like getting really close and sniffing it, and then all of a sudden a face appears and start sniffing him back.
Tim / GM:Guy, you get right up to this mushroom and you start sniffing at it and the rest of you can see this mushroom is slowly standing up from bending over and Guy is just kind of moving with it unwittingly.
Thomas / Guy:It smells like a classic mushroom, Poppy. I don't know if you're onto anything here.
Tim / GM:As Guy turns back to talk to you, you all look back at that mushroom and you see the two mushroom socks on the side start to raise their arms in a big old shrug.
Hannah / Eryn:See, that's what I'm talking about.
Thomas / Guy:Oh. Oh. Hello, sir. Have you smelled any mushroom people around here?
Speaker 6:You hear, no.
Thomas / Guy:See, Poppy, I just don't think Wait a minute.
Tim / GM:Constitution saved from each of you. Oh. All of you. This is a DC 23.
Tara / Journey:Oh. No. Failed.
Speaker 7:Failed. Constitution? Yep. '14. '21.
Thomas / Guy:Well, let me see if I can roll a 10 on this I
Hannah / Eryn:got 17.
Tim / GM:No. It's a one. Journey?
Tara / Journey:15? Yeah. Not not not
Tim / GM:Was that adding guys four? Mhmm. Yeah. Alright. The last thing you all remember seeing is a puffball mushroom being thrown at the ground and exploding into spores.
Tim / GM:And then another and another and another and it's sleep time. And I think that's where
Hannah / Eryn:we'll end it. Good night.
Tim / GM:Good night, everybody. Good night, everyone. I'm Tim, your GM.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm Hannah, playing Aaron.
Tara / Journey:I'm Tara. And I'm Journey.
Thomas / Guy:And I'm Thomas, I'm Guy.
Speaker 7:I'm John, I'm playing Torin.
Speaker 2:I'm Maggie and I play Cubby Pembawan.
Hannah / Eryn:Share the
Speaker 7:show with people you love and we'll see you next time.
Thomas / Guy:You're listening to NPR.
