Cursebreaker | 41 - A Caw to Arms
Last time on curse breaker. In the cold dark of night, we began our descent into the gates of the underworld. Turns out Tibio's grandmother has a keen eye and called me out as an escaped spirit the moment she met us. Well, it's true. I am one of them but that doesn't change anything.
Tim / GM:We also discovered that Tibio's parents are gone. They're no longer in control of the gate and we're here to find out why. There's no telling what trials lay ahead, but we have to press on. Tibio must succeed. For the second time now, snack has invited everybody into the lamp.
Tim / GM:The first time was just to show you all around a little bit, and the second time is to actually get some rest.
Maggie / Poppy:Do we all have our own rooms now?
Tim / GM:You do, actually. Oh.
John / Doran:Come, companions. I wish to show you your lodging.
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. Yes. And yes.
Tim / GM:Tibeo pops into the lamp last, and, Tibeo, you had just seen a glimpse of Tonberry.
Maggie / Poppy:It's okay, Tibeo. I'm sure they have a bidet somewhere in the lamp.
Speaker 4:No. I'm not looking for Not the donkey. No. No. The toy that I'm looking for.
Speaker 4:I saw Dunberry.
Speaker 5:Well, that's not good, probably.
Speaker 4:I saw judge Dunberry out there just before I came in here.
John / Doran:Oh. Oh, no. You can't see him. He's dead. Oh,
Speaker 4:that makes sense. And, I don't know how long do you have before he
Thomas / Guy:goes to the land?
John / Doran:Did he look happy to see you?
Speaker 4:Not very. I just got a glimpse, but I cannot imagine that he is thrilled.
Speaker 5:I mean, like, he's dead still.
Speaker 4:That does not mean he is not dangerous, especially here.
John / Doran:He saw us come in here?
Speaker 4:Oh, definitely.
John / Doran:Are we safe in here, Snack? Well, not really. But if we're really quiet, we might be able to hear him approach and, attempt to do us harm.
Speaker 5:Uh-huh.
Tim / GM:You all, like, wait and listen for a quiet moment and hear absolutely nothing. Perfect. Genie comes out of the purple door, and he's got a tray of cookies. And he says, fresh baked. What what's going on?
Speaker 4:Dunberry is out there, and we are all in here.
Tim / GM:Oh, spooky. And he goes over to you, Tiffany, and he says chocolate chip, and he, like, holds them up to you.
Speaker 4:Oh, thank you.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly steals a cookie off the tray.
Speaker 5:These, are they real cookies or are they genie cookies?
Tim / GM:It's actually the best of both worlds. They taste great, but they'll disappear after half an hour. Zero calories.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly's got her cheeks full of cookies, and there's crumbs all over her face and melted chocolate. And she's just like
John / Doran:They're shaped like dragons too. So yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:These are really good, Grady. Thanks.
Tim / GM:I don't suppose you could all get any rest, really, if you're too worried about what's out there. I wouldn't concern yourself too much. We're safe in here.
Speaker 4:He cannot take the lamp, can he?
Tim / GM:No. He looks at snack.
John / Doran:Yes. Of course, he can. But, if he does try to do his harm, we'll all escape and, people to attack him then.
Tim / GM:If you all really need to relax and actually take a nap or something, I've, set up little rooms. Nothing grandiose, but, you know, private at least.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Wait. We each have a room in here?
Tim / GM:Well, it's, yeah, sort of.
Thomas / Guy:Dear, Genie, you've had done yourself.
Speaker 4:Snack, that's so amazing. Thank you.
John / Doran:Yes. You're welcome, Tibby. It would be wonderful if if we would have been able to buy more supplies and, but I have shared what I what we can.
Tim / GM:Here, Tibia, let's, show you to yours. Okay. I think in, like, the I I guess whatever you'd consider the north side of the the lamp main chamber to be, shows you, 5 doors there, Snacks being the one in the very center, and then, you're all kind of on the outside of his. He opens the door on the right and shows you Tibio's quarters, which are, it's it's pretty spartan, not exactly, you know, well adorned. It's not decorated, really, but it does look comfortable.
Tim / GM:He's got a lot of, like, pillows in there, and then he's got what kind of looks like, like an armor holder. But Jeanne explains, this is for your skeleton. If you wanted to leave it standing up,
John / Doran:you can just kind
Tim / GM:of rest an ear.
Speaker 4:That is wonderful. Thibeo tries
Speaker 7:it out. He trots his skeleton over there and then hops out of it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It just kind of, like, hangs itself on this, this big hook, and it can kind of stand up comfortably there. He says, I got a couple files and stuff if you needed to spruce it up, but might not be everything you need.
Speaker 4:This is wonderful. Thank you.
Tim / GM:He does the same thing and kind of shows each of you your quarters, opens Bert's door and says, we've got a writing desk and I've got a bookshelf, but I didn't know exactly what you were after, so you might have to populate those yourself.
John / Doran:No problem, Jeanie. This looks better than my dormitory.
Tim / GM:And, Holly, there's no way I could have outdone your actual workshop, but, I've got you a work table and a reading chair. I hope that's enough to get started.
Maggie / Poppy:Looks good. Holly cast fireball on the works table surface to see if it lights on fire.
Tim / GM:There's, like, a little bit of a dark singe, but it's fine.
Maggie / Poppy:Awesome.
Tim / GM:Uli, we've got a very safe room for you. Safe. He he opens up an extra heavy door, and it like like, you can hear, like, an air suction when he opens up. And there's, like you can see an extra, like, plate and padding on the inside. And he says, it's whatever you need it for.
Tim / GM:And, of course, there's, like, a bed in there, but there's also a punching bag in the corner. And there is a hand drawn portrait of Dave.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh my god.
Speaker 5:I kind of, like, sneak it off the wall and shove it under a pillow.
Tim / GM:Do with it what you will.
Speaker 5:These aren't the, and I pick up a pillow and I, like, sniff it. These aren't the same pillows. Right?
Tim / GM:I mean, we did a lot of work to get the mold out.
Maggie / Poppy:Cool. I
Speaker 5:I'll pull up my own. Thank you. This is great.
Tim / GM:And, snack if I might. I just wanted to show them the king's quarters.
John / Doran:And that's my quarters. Right? Of course. Yes.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Opens the, much larger, much shinier door in the center, And it is a slightly larger room. There's no bed in here, but there is a pile of gold coins.
John / Doran:Yes. There's kind
Tim / GM:of, like, strewn on the floor.
Speaker 5:Oh my god.
Tim / GM:There are crew there's, like, front and center is this large, like, papyrus poster of, like it looks like a child's drawing, but it's clearly depicting Uli and Snack, like, kicking ass together. There's also drawings of, like, the entire party, and then there's a big line on the wall, and then there's drawings of like Joe and Tonberry on the other side of the line. And it seems this is where snack determines friends and enemies. And you can see that the Emery picture is extremely crumpled and has been moved from side to side multiple times. He also has a list of his weapons on there.
Tim / GM:It says knife, but it's crossed out. And then it says new knife. And then it says rock, and it's crossed out. And it says slingshot, genie, zappy bolts. And then at the end, sort of written, like, at an angle, it just says kindness.
Maggie / Poppy:Aw. Kill them
Speaker 4:with kindness.
Maggie / Poppy:Smack your lair is gorgeous.
John / Doran:Oh, yes. And here you.
Speaker 4:Snook, I have a question.
John / Doran:Genie, one second, Tibial. We need to call this the lair now.
Tim / GM:The of course.
John / Doran:The master lair.
Tim / GM:Yes. The master's layer.
John / Doran:Yes. Yes. Sorry. Yes, Tibia. What was it?
Speaker 4:This money on the floor?
John / Doran:Yes. Come sit down it with me.
Speaker 4:No. Okay. Is this money?
John / Doran:Well, it being the master's lair, Tibio, I think that
Speaker 4:funds?
John / Doran:I think that, Tibio, I deserve a bed as well, and this is where I sleep.
Speaker 4:Sure. Okay. But it is not all your money.
John / Doran:It is all my money. Is this some sort of test to be all? Well, you know, these aren't really our beds either.
Speaker 4:Sure. But what if we need to spend the money?
Maggie / Poppy:You know, honestly, it's the best use of an inanimate object used to signify wealth until we actually need it. So otherwise, it'd just be sitting around doing nothing. At least it's serving a purpose.
Speaker 4:I guess if I think of it like a bank, may okay.
John / Doran:Do you sleep in banks? I don't understand.
Speaker 7:Starts, like, shaking his head and is, like, glancing back to try count it a little bit and then moving along.
Tim / GM:Jeanie shakes his head and he says, no. No. No. Banks do much worse things with your money.
Thomas / Guy:So, do do you have a room, Janie? Do you sleep? What's what's the whole deal?
Tim / GM:Well, I have my private quarters. I don't need to sleep anymore, but, I do like my privacy. But he, like, kind of tilts his head towards a large purple door on the other side of the room.
John / Doran:I would love to not have to sleep anymore.
Maggie / Poppy:Where's the bathroom?
Tim / GM:He kinda looks around the room and he says, I knew I forgot something.
Maggie / Poppy:I promised Tibio a bidet. You know, he's from Memoir. They use those there.
Speaker 4:I don't know that Memoir is the only place that has
Tim / GM:Genie's looking at a snack trying to reconcile how a donkey helps you go to the bathroom.
John / Doran:Snack has got 2 hands up open palmed.
Speaker 5:When they mentioned bidet, I just wanna, like, check-in.
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah. Yeah. You, you're not able to zoom right into Dave right away, but you can see that dot still. You can tell he's alive.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 5:That's reassuring. Uli, are you okay?
Maggie / Poppy:Are you okay? You kinda
Speaker 5:Oh, yeah. No. I was just thinking. About who? No one.
Speaker 5:Mhmm. Uh-uh.
Maggie / Poppy:I saw you put that picture under your pillow.
Speaker 5:I didn't put it there. I I don't know where that came from. Later.
Maggie / Poppy:That's okay. It's a good spot for it when you need it quickly.
Speaker 5:Okay. Whatever, miss bang a dude everywhere we go.
Maggie / Poppy:I mean, that is my middle name. No. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 5:Holly bangadood.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly Bangadood Hyacinth. Bangadood?
John / Doran:Bangadood to you. Like a
Thomas / Guy:fucking fuck.
Speaker 5:Uli is blushing and, stomping away.
Tim / GM:He looks at the genie looks at the 2 of you and says, corners, friends, corners, and kind of, like, ushers you off to your own rooms. So, yeah, you guys can roll your hit dice to regain those.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm not hurt because I avoided danger like a good wizard.
Tim / GM:Like a good wizard, don't risk your neck.
Maggie / Poppy:I was trying to do the same
Speaker 7:shit. It was immediate. My brain was still going, like, avoided danger.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Like,
Speaker 5:how's your friends take the hit? Yeah.
Tim / GM:Like a good wizard, stand in their back. When you all come out, fresh faced and well rested, Genie kind of greets you 1 by 1 and offers you a hot towel when you step out of your rooms.
Speaker 4:Aw.
Tim / GM:Thank you. But he has you gather around the center table, which previously was just for Genie and Snack during intense conversations. So Snack, you've got a tip as to what this might be about. He has you all sit down and says, I feel like I owe you a little bit of explanation. As Sacra pointed out, gesturing to Tibeo and his grandmother, I'm dead.
Tim / GM:Right? You understand that? I once was a person who lived not around here, but I lived, and I'm gone now.
Speaker 4:Basically, what my grandmother said was that the curses that we are seeing come through are the spirits of the dead.
Speaker 5:So they're ghosts.
Thomas / Guy:They've traveled here through a break in the weave. Right?
Speaker 4:Yes. And they are like ghosts, but they are more present.
Speaker 5:Poltergeist?
Speaker 4:Somewhat, I would say. Yes. And
John / Doran:And quite powerful.
Speaker 4:Genie is one of them.
Tim / GM:That's fair to say. Effectively, we are ghosts. Some of us have a little bit more of who they used to be than others.
Speaker 5:And that is why.
Tim / GM:Well, to be honest, it it all has to do with how much time you spend in, well, in the dark, I suppose. And for me, that was very little time. Let me back up.
Speaker 5:You're probably wondering how it got here.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:I was a student of a great wizard. His name was Mojariz. But in a lot of ways, you all know him as Orzo, the king of Vindorn.
Speaker 5:Oh, fuck no.
John / Doran:Wow.
Tim / GM:So here's what happened. I just I wanted to be helpful. I wanted to learn magic, but I wanted to be helpful, and I thought he had the right intentions. I helped him research his magic, which he said was all about learning about the cycle of life and exploring death, not as a scary and morose thing, but as a natural conclusion. I also learned that he lost his family at some point, and I thought that might have something to do with it as well.
Tim / GM:He wanted to contact them. But things went too far, obviously. I know now that he was trying to secure immortality, and perhaps more than that. He'd figured it out, though. He cracked the code.
Tim / GM:He'd found a way to get back from death by tearing holes in the weave.
John / Doran:Are you saying all of this started up in Vindor?
Tim / GM:No. But all of it did start with Orzo or Moja, I suppose.
Speaker 5:And you're saying that you helped this happen and didn't tell anyone until just now.
Tim / GM:Well, I helped him with his research, and then one day he disappeared, and I went looking for him. I found his private journals, and I found out what he was really doing. And I felt an obligation to put a stop to it.
Speaker 5:And then he killed you, and you came back?
Tim / GM:No. I he, looks kind of sheepish for a second. He says, I killed myself. I had to chase him. I couldn't let him get away with what he was trying to do.
Tim / GM:I knew everything that he did. I I walked into death willingly, and got right back out of it.
Speaker 7:Wow.
Thomas / Guy:It's the
Tim / GM:only way I could keep up with him. But I I'm not anything as powerful as he is, and I realized that too late. That's why I've been trying to suck up as much magic as I can with the help of snack. But even then, I don't think it's going to be enough. But maybe, all of us together, maybe that's enough.
Speaker 5:How do you propose we stop this? We have to close it somehow. Right?
Speaker 4:We must repair the weave. We must close the the veil between life and death.
John / Doran:I think tibia will be able to do something here.
Tim / GM:That's what I was hoping.
Speaker 4:At least part of it stung the major wound.
Maggie / Poppy:Wait. Aren't you cursing snack kind of right now?
Tim / GM:No. I've never actually bonded myself to Snack, just to this lamp. And if I were to move into Snack, it might infuse him with incredible power, but it would also give me control over him, and nobody wants that.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. But when we
Speaker 7:Yeah. We all look at snack like nobody wants
Maggie / Poppy:that. Then what sort of connection does snack have with you?
Tim / GM:Well, we have an agreement. He gives me mobility, and I lend him my power. Wow. It's easy for me to access magic and do pretty much whatever the hell I want, but at the same time, I can't really get around.
Speaker 5:So, say we succeed at closing this gap, what happens to you, and what happens to Snack?
John / Doran:I become a powerful dragon.
Tim / GM:That was the deal. Yes. Yes. And I I'm not sure what'll happen to me. It's not important right now.
Speaker 5:I just think it would be nice to have a contingency, I guess.
Tim / GM:Well, it doesn't matter how many gates we close as long as Orzo is still out there. He's going to keep tearing them open.
Thomas / Guy:Is Orzo still alive, by the way?
Tim / GM:Barely. He's a puppet. I don't know if he's actually still alive or not, but he's completely under the control of Moja.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, I understand.
Tim / GM:Moja's cursing him to high heavens. However, I don't think anyone in Vindor knows what's going on. They just saw a sudden shift in their king and their whole city went terribly downward.
Speaker 5:So Vindor wasn't always a hellscape?
Tim / GM:No. In fact, it was a kind of a a sunspot, really.
Maggie / Poppy:While Jeanie has been telling his story, Holly's been playing with some of the cookies that were left out after our nap. And, she was, like, reenacted the scene of the king of Vindorn, like, being evil with his servants with cookie pieces and, like, the dragon coming in and just absent mindedly making a scene out of chocolate chip cookie crumbs.
Tim / GM:Just like putting putting a bigger cookie over the king of Vindorn?
Speaker 5:Yep. He is the biggest cookie.
Tim / GM:But that's it. I promise. I That's the end of the, honesty downpour. I I have nothing else hidden from all of you. That's my whole story.
Speaker 5:Vibe check. Wow.
Maggie / Poppy:Every time. No faith. 16.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Jeanie seems earnest and sincere, but he's also scowling at you right now.
Speaker 5:Because I'm squinting at him, looking looking him up and down.
Thomas / Guy:I appreciate you coming clean to us, Jeanie. That couldn't have been easy.
Tim / GM:Mostly, I was a little afraid of snack getting, Emreid.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. It's an honest concern.
Speaker 7:Tibio slaps his thighs with his hands and says, welp.
Speaker 5:No. Your bone hands
Speaker 7:or your
Maggie / Poppy:gnome hands?
Speaker 7:Bone hands or gnome hands?
John / Doran:Thigh bones?
Speaker 4:If we want to face also, we must first face what we are dealing with here.
Tim / GM:That's right.
Thomas / Guy:There's one more thing I was thinking about. Well, now we know these curses aren't really curses at all. They're ghosts or spirits. So are we still curse breakers?
Speaker 4:Oh, how are we ghost buster? Yeah.
Tim / GM:We got there.
Thomas / Guy:I'll tell you one thing. I ain't afraid of no ghosts.
Speaker 5:Who you gonna call? Curse breakers.
Maggie / Poppy:Alright. He
Tim / GM:says, I think Tibeo's exactly right. None of this changes what's about to happen. I just wanted you all to know. But for now, there's a task at hand. He, stands up and smooths out Tibeo's hair, like, without consent.
Speaker 7:It springs back up immediately.
Tim / GM:Yep. In the exact same shape. He gestures to the spout of the lamp, and he says, destiny awaits.
Maggie / Poppy:How do I get out of here? Holly walks up to him and he just sucks her out.
Speaker 5:How do I get out
Tim / GM:of here? Snack can show you the way out.
John / Doran:We go like this, bop, and then we all appear on the ground. Yeah.
Tim / GM:You appear outside in that same hallway again. There's no Tonberry now. It's just an empty hallway.
Speaker 7:Tibia was, like, frantically looking around to make sure that he's not behind us.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, it's just like the feeling when you go to get a napkin to kill a spider, and then the spider's gone?
Speaker 5:Is this a straight hallway? Because I'm imagining it curves.
Tim / GM:You are looking straight at a wall right now, and then the hallway goes off to your left and right, and you can see that it curves gently like this might be one giant circle or something.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay.
Tim / GM:But these walls, are sort of this perfectly smooth, silvery, almost water like texture where you can see these kind of vague ripples in them every now and then. Your reflections are also very strange. They kind of lag behind. So you can see yourself in them. Sometimes your reflection is extremely blurry.
Tim / GM:Sometimes it's quite crisp. Sometimes it's not really showing you at all. It's just showing something you remember seeing.
Speaker 5:I would like to touch a wall.
Tim / GM:Okay. Uli kind of walks forward to the wall that's standing in front of all of you and
Speaker 5:Poke poke. Alright.
Tim / GM:Gives it a little poke. When she does, you see this ripple form and kind of distort everything, and then when the ripple settles, you can see a very young Uli. You're seeing this all from 3rd person perspective, almost like a movie, but you're all watching Uli just screaming and screaming and screaming, And you can see you're in Uly's childhood home that you've all seen. They're at the dinner table, but all the chairs are pushed back. And Uli's sisters are hidden in the back of the room, and Uli's brothers are standing up with their arms out trying to calm her down.
Tim / GM:And Uli is screaming and screaming, and you see her let out a thunder wave, and it just blasts her brother's back. And you see Dora stand up and grab her by the scruff of the neck and drag her outside and throw her in the shed and lock the door.
Speaker 5:I am moving my arms, like, in front. Not nothing to see. That wasn't anything.
John / Doran:So this is this is reflecting in the wall? Yeah.
Tim / GM:You're saying? Yep. And all of you can see this happening.
Speaker 5:I don't know what that was.
Speaker 4:Oh, Uli. I am so sorry.
Tim / GM:Uli, you, like, slap the wall a couple times to try to get that to go away, and it scrubs out what they're seeing. And then a second later, you see Uli, in, like, kind of like a like, in the forest, in some woods, But she's among some other, like, scrappy looking people eating garbage, essentially, and living out of tents. And then, like, she tries to cover that up again, and you see, like, she's, like, beating the absolute crap out of some random person. She's sitting on the docks of lamplight alone for hours at a time, it looks like.
Speaker 5:What's on that wall? Maybe there's something I, kinda shove Snack into a wall.
John / Doran:Nah. I I touch a wall.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Snack, like, gets pushed into a wall, and there's a big ripple behind him. And when that ripple settles, you can see the face of a a Boullette. Boullette? I never
John / Doran:know how
Tim / GM:to say that. Boullette?
Speaker 7:If it's double t e, it's et.
Tim / GM:Et. Alright. Bulett, jumps out of the earth and comes down right near snack and devours a wagon that is right near snack, and then it goes back into the ground. And you continue watching, and you see Snack is in a dark cave sort of environment. And you can see 2 other kobolds, a little bit larger than Snack when he was just a baby kobold.
Tim / GM:They're pinning down a third kobold, and they're pulling its teeth out. And then they just pick up the cobalt and throw it off a ledge, and then they start walking over towards snack laughing.
John / Doran:What the fuck? We had very similar childhoods with you.
Speaker 5:I wouldn't go that far.
Tim / GM:You can see another flash, and Snack is being woken up by kobolds, and they start peeling his scales off. They there's one near his tail that they just start ripping up and then pull it off and throw it away, and then they start on another scale and start ripping it up and pulling it away. And Snack tries to scramble free, and they just pin him down and laugh in his face. Mhmm. And then out of nowhere, a dragon claw just sweeps through the scene and rips those 2 cobalts to pieces and leaves snack prone on the ground.
Tim / GM:He's just fine. But you see these other cobalts are just shredded and consumed, and the dragon walks away.
Speaker 5:I don't think we had similar childhoods.
John / Doran:Well, it was a little darker in mine, in a couple of ways, I suppose.
Tim / GM:It gets weirder and weirder and faster and faster. At one point, you're watching Snack walk through these dark caves. At one point, you're seeing Snack open a large stone sarcophagus and this creepy strange figure that Tibio almost It looks familiar. Maybe that vampire that fed you soup once is crawling out of this sarcophagus, and it's chatting with Snack as if he's just sitting in a bathtub. And the last thing you see is this pinhole of moonlight shining down on a lamp.
Tim / GM:And you see Snack approaching it, and it cuts out.
Speaker 4:Snack, that creature.
John / Doran:I feel like I've told you before that I, yeah, I met a vampire and I helped it come to the surface and
Speaker 4:I it
John / Doran:was very nice.
Speaker 4:I don't believe you have, but I have also met that vampire. He he gave me soup.
John / Doran:He did not give me soup.
Thomas / Guy:Has everyone met
John / Doran:a vampire but me?
Maggie / Poppy:I've not met a vampire.
Thomas / Guy:You're in Vindorin, like, 2 days ago.
Maggie / Poppy:That was a vampire?
Speaker 5:I've never met a vampire.
John / Doran:This is very fun. Bert, your turn, and I try to push Bert into a wall. Can
Thomas / Guy:we do some sort of roll against each other? I don't think so.
John / Doran:Athletics, I got a 20. Wait. 19. Sorry.
Maggie / Poppy:Gotta watch Johnny. He likes to cheat.
Speaker 7:Sounds like that's my lowest roll I've ever made. 19.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, jeez.
John / Doran:Can I use my, tail lip to just kinda, like, make sure Just
Tim / GM:take them out a little bit?
Thomas / Guy:I mean, I'll I whatever. I'll touch it. Okay. You probably have
Maggie / Poppy:one of these planned
Tim / GM:for everybody. Right? Yeah. We can say that that Bert grazes it, and maybe we don't see the full picture on the first one, but you catch the end, the tail end of this first scene of, Sid clearly is standing proudly over Bert, and, you can see that he's been, like, watching Bert so that Bert is on his best behavior, but he is in this high peak of a tower, and you can see sunlight coming through this crystal shining down onto this large marble book. And you can see Bert kind of getting closer and closer to the book, and you can even hear some echoes in that room.
Tim / GM:And Bert is looking at the book, and he's starting to read off of it. He's saying out loud what he's seeing on the book, and everyone in the room stops and looks at him. You can see all of these people in the room. All these sort of They almost look like monks. They're so devoted to what they're doing there.
Tim / GM:All of the monks look at Sid and then back at Bert, and they see Bert orating what he's seeing in the book. They look incredulous. And then it cuts completely from that scene, and you see 2 gnomes that you've never seen before. They look affluent, perhaps, a little bit older than Bert, both of them. 1 of them sporting an incredible mustache.
Maggie / Poppy:It's Bert's dad.
Tim / GM:You can see they're talking about something that's quite tense. They mentioned something, and then Burt looks anxious. And then he keeps saying the same thing back to his parents, but you can't tell what he's saying. And he's just repeating it over and over again, and then finally, you catch this little echo. He says, glitches?
Thomas / Guy:Why?
Tim / GM:The last thing you see is this bright green glow coming from their eyes as it cuts out.
Maggie / Poppy:Woah. That's dark.
Thomas / Guy:That was that was a little intense.
Speaker 4:Or, that what was that?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, that at the end there was that was my parents. They're dead now. They're long past. They they got into some stuff they shouldn't have, and,
John / Doran:I mean, that story's done.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly pats Bert on the shoulder, like, kinda comfortingly comfortingly. Wow.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Tibio goes up to Uli and just says
Speaker 4:All of that was your pest. It does not need to haunt you.
Speaker 5:I mean, it doesn't really. Not anymore.
Speaker 4:Good. Because you are with us now.
John / Doran:Yeah. This, this is just a distraction for what we're here to do. Right?
Speaker 4:Oh, yes. We should keep moving.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Let's go. Yep. Let's go. Keep going.
Speaker 5:Holly?
Maggie / Poppy:I don't need to see anything here.
Speaker 5:That's interesting. Let's go. We all shared our past.
Maggie / Poppy:I mean, you guys already know a lot about me. I just grew up in Tildrey. Nothing else to know about. Holly's backing up, and she trips. I got to the wall.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. And
Tim / GM:just a little bump. You immediately see a much younger, similarly cheery version of Holly, in an academic setting. You just see her raising her hand and then raising her hand again and raising her hand again and raising her hand again and raising her hand again. And then you see her with a sash, denoting that she had graduated with honors, standing in the front of her class or reading a speech, and then it cuts immediately. Holly is wearing what looks like almost a burlap sack, walking through an alleyway holding her sister's hand, and she's trying not to cry.
Tim / GM:You see Holly sitting at an outdoor eatery, some super cheap place where they can just get soup, and Holly is just watching Ivy eat. And then you see Holly fixing Ivy's shoes, mending them herself, and then putting Ivy's shoes back on. And then it cuts, and you see Holly's a little bit older, and you see Holly fixing Ivy's shoes again. And it cuts, and Holly's older still, and you see Holly fixing Ivy's shoes, but there's no material left to them. They're they're done for.
Tim / GM:There's nothing left in those shoes. And you see Holly digging around in the trash for materials, and she makes shoes out of these materials, a discarded apron that she found. You see her working in a basement and somebody throwing materials down at her and Holly just smiling back up the stairs. And then you see a door opening, and Holly's standing in the threshold, Keys in one hand, Ivy's hand in the other. The door swings open.
Tim / GM:Holly lights an oil lamp and smiles at Ivy. Holly gestures inside, and Ivy runs in ecstatic. You see Holly shaking hands with Mina, with Benjamin Plank, with Margo Bingo, and you see her opening the door to the store.
Speaker 4:You got her,
Speaker 5:Tim. Hannah's
Speaker 7:actually crying.
Maggie / Poppy:I just love my sister so much.
Speaker 4:That was
Speaker 7:very cute.
Speaker 5:Ollie pats Holly on the shoulder.
Speaker 4:Oh, you did it. You did it.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. It's hard to relive those memories. It wasn't a good time. But, man, I want some soup now.
Speaker 7:I think I'm just being intentional soup.
John / Doran:Tabio, I think you're exempt. You'll probably be facing your own demons here soon enough.
Speaker 4:It is probably good to start somewhere, and
Speaker 7:he puts his hand on the wall.
Tim / GM:Okay. Tibio's is unexpectedly brief. You do see a couple of images of Tibio slightly younger, happily holding up a pair of slippers that he had found in the hollow of a tree. You can see him talking to squirrels and deer and swimming with fibula in the stream, and it all starts to distort when you see 2 other older gnomes writing skeletons, and it gets a little messy, and then it just goes back to Tibio's face staring back at himself. But the reflection looks a lot more concerned and a lot more uncertain than Tibia was showing right now.
Thomas / Guy:So they were in a tree,
Speaker 4:Oh, yes. It was, the salve of the century that the squirrels took them.
Tim / GM:Bert, looking towards Tibio now, you can see Tonberry down the hall. He's so slowly walking towards you, and he's looking right at you, Bert.
Maggie / Poppy:Bert, what is it?
Thomas / Guy:Your honor.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly whips around. Oh, fuck. Ghost ghost ghost spirit.
Tim / GM:You can all see Tonberry's spirit down the hall, and he it looks like he's walking in slow motion. It's so agonizingly slow that he's walking towards you. He's saying nothing.
Speaker 5:The snail.
John / Doran:What's the matter, Tom Berry?
Thomas / Guy:You're looking a little, dead.
Maggie / Poppy:Now is not the time to taunt, Bert. We don't know what this guy can do.
Speaker 5:Taunt
Speaker 7:Barry. Don't taunt the Barry.
John / Doran:We've seen what he can do, and we lived through it once. Barely.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. With the help of a whole town.
Speaker 4:Is is he stuck? Is he slow? I don't what is he doing?
Maggie / Poppy:Well, you would maybe know this hallway better than any of us, Tibia. What is this place?
Speaker 4:I have never been here. I don't know exactly. It seems to be memories are the best.
Tim / GM:Well, maybe
Thomas / Guy:we can just walk around him.
Speaker 7:Do I have any legendary knowledge of this, historical knowledge of this, please?
Tim / GM:So this is where people who are not ready to let go get to review their lives and make peace with things.
Thomas / Guy:Okay.
Speaker 4:This is a sort of lobby?
Thomas / Guy:This is like the place they say where your life flashes before your eyes.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You you would look at your life and think about the things that happened and find a way to let go of it all.
Maggie / Poppy:Mhmm. Well, that makes sense why Tonberry's here. He probably has a ton of shit he can't let go of.
Tim / GM:Bert, you look back up at Tonbury, and maybe while you all took your gaze off him for a second, he made some distance. He's now maybe 10 feet away from your group.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, okay. Stop right there, mister.
Tim / GM:He's still walking in slow motion towards you.
Maggie / Poppy:Bert, do something with spirits.
Thomas / Guy:Do something with spirits?
Speaker 5:I don't know. You you blast all those skellies and all that.
Speaker 7:Tries to walk around, Donberry.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Tibia, you just kind of sidestep him and walk past.
Speaker 7:I, throw up my arms like, I just walked past.
John / Doran:I wanna try to circle around him
Thomas / Guy:and see if he's, like, focused on me.
Tim / GM:He his head does follow you, Bert, as you walk past. Tonberry is suddenly directly in front of you, Bert, and you see he has one hand in the air, and he drives it downward. And you see this blurry thing shatter the barrier between life and death and stab you.
Speaker 7:Bert.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. I didn't expect that.
Tim / GM:24 to hit, Bert. Jesus.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. The well, yeah.
Speaker 5:I swear your dice are weighted for these encounters.
John / Doran:I think the bosses are just good now.
Tim / GM:So you hear this shattering of glass, and suddenly, something is just stabbed into you and removed immediately. And you feel hot blood trickling down your shoulder a little bit. You take 17 piercing damage as Tonberry just essentially teleported a arcane blade into your shoulder.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, okay. He means business.
John / Doran:Eldritch Blast.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Go ahead.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly, is, like, holding on to Bert and just, like, in shock of what's going on.
John / Doran:18 Okay. 23.
Tim / GM:23. Oh, that that was your 22
John / Doran:attacks. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Those would both hit. However, the first one goes through him. Tondre looks at you and disappears.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, where'd it go?
John / Doran:I vanquished to this foe, Bert. Are you okay?
Speaker 5:Been better. Can you, can you heal yourself? Do you do you need a bandage?
Maggie / Poppy:Shit. Polly has a handkerchief on his wound. Is there, like, a piece of glass sticking out of him?
Speaker 5:No. No. Okay. Bert's usually the one who, like Does the healing. Does the healing.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Instead of healing myself, I'm going to cast dispel evil and good on myself.
Tim / GM:Okay. What's your angle here, guy?
Thomas / Guy:A shimmering energy surrounds and protects you from fey, undead, and creatures originating from beyond the material plane.
Tim / GM:Copy there.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh. That's all of them.
Thomas / Guy:For the duration, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead have disadvantage on attack rolls against you.
Tim / GM:Nice. Says here it gives you protection from home brew mechanics.
Maggie / Poppy:Can we, like, go down the hallway?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Yeah. Let's let's go. I I can I'm okay, I think.
Tim / GM:It does seem more and more like this hallway is 1 big long circle. Long circle? One big circle. Mhmm. You eventually hear a voice before you see anything, but you hear someone saying, I can't find my Maisie.
Tim / GM:Fuck.
Maggie / Poppy:I know that name. No.
Speaker 4:It's Henry Muldrip.
Thomas / Guy:No. It's the mom.
Speaker 4:Oh, no. It's Henry Muldrick's wife.
Tim / GM:That that was the save of the century.
Maggie / Poppy:I love how much that cracked him.
Speaker 4:Wait. Wait. Wait.
Thomas / Guy:This is like absolute tension. Name?
Speaker 5:Yes. Lies Hold on.
Maggie / Poppy:Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
John / Doran:Ash?
Tim / GM:Ash?
Thomas / Guy:Got it. Three points, Gryffindor.
Speaker 5:Hi. I'm Ash. And now that I'm dead
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. I'm Ash.
John / Doran:You wish to see Maisie the small child?
Tim / GM:You hear an echo back. They took her away from me.
Maggie / Poppy:Can we see anything?
Tim / GM:Yeah. If you wanted to, you could move forward in the hall a little bit to see her. And you can see she just looks like a normal woman, long, dark hair, somewhat thin.
John / Doran:I can bring Maisie here. Why why
Speaker 4:not? Not.
John / Doran:I'd reach out for the gavel.
Speaker 5:Not. No. Snack. No.
John / Doran:How dare you not let do you wish to see your daughter?
Speaker 5:I grapple his arm.
Maggie / Poppy:I grapple. Snack, you can't make a child come to the area of undead.
Speaker 4:Snack, don't you dare be easy to this place.
Speaker 7:Snack, no.
John / Doran:I don't understand.
Maggie / Poppy:It's not safe.
Speaker 4:This place is dangerous.
Speaker 5:This is death. We're not in the mortal world right now.
Speaker 4:It is not worth it. We can talk to her. This is no place for a child. Alright.
John / Doran:Fine. I put the cable away.
Tim / GM:You can you hear Ginny muttering from a lamp. She'd probably be fine.
Speaker 5:I'm not ready in action
Speaker 7:against snack. Yeah.
John / Doran:I'm sorry, sad mom. We decided we don't.
Speaker 4:Oh, man.
John / Doran:We decided you are too dangerous to see your daughter, so we cannot bring what?
Speaker 4:Ma'am, is is your name Ash?
Tim / GM:That catches her attention. It looks like she was almost stepping into the wall, but she stops and looks at you.
Speaker 4:I just wanted to tell you. Your daughter, Maisie, she's okay. Henry is taking care of her.
Speaker 5:Holly. Yeah. Don't you have some footage with Maisie on it in the storoscope?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Yeah. Holly, fumbles in her pocket and finds the historic scope and pulls it out and, clicks through it real quick to find us all swimming in the waterfall. Immediately, Uli's naked butt pops in, and I'm like, fast forward a little bit.
Tim / GM:You gotta see this.
Maggie / Poppy:And, you can see I think it was everyone was swimming, but, Maisie and her dad, Henry, swimming in the waterhole. And that's when Maisie found the gemstone in the underneath the waterfall too.
Speaker 7:So as she's showing that, I'm, saying, like,
Speaker 4:Maisie is back in guilt play with Henry, and and she's going to school, and she is learning magic, and she is doing wonderfully. She is so happy.
Tim / GM:She looks kind of dumbfounded when she sees this vision of Maisie, but she looks up to you all and says, can I see it again?
Speaker 5:Yeah. Just skip past the flood again.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly plays it back, against the reflection on the wall.
Tim / GM:She kind of reaches out at the at the vision as if it would give her anything, but she kind of, like, reaches out to try to grab it, Maisie, and nothing comes of it. And you can see her fall into despair a little bit.
Speaker 5:She misses you a lot, but she is living.
Tim / GM:She kind of, shakes her head a little bit, and she just says, Maisie, no. I'm sorry. Maisie. And you can see her skin is starting to change a little bit.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, no.
Speaker 4:Miss miss Ash, it was not your fault what happened. It's not your fault. And you should know that Maisie is fine, and she would want you to move on.
Tim / GM:She looks at you, Tibio, and what you say to her seems to grab her attention every time. She says, who are you?
Speaker 4:My name is Tibio Femur, and I'm the guardian of this place. I have let it go for too long, but now I'm here, and I want to help you move on.
Tim / GM:Can you?
Speaker 4:Of course.
Tim / GM:I want to.
Speaker 4:Just know that your daughter is safe. She's safe and happy, And you can be free. You you can rest. You do not need to worry about her anymore.
Thomas / Guy:I I should also say we freed her from the same kind of curse that afflicted you in life.
Tim / GM:She breaks her gaze on Tibio to smile at Bert for a moment. Thank you. I do feel and she closes her eyes and kind of rests her head on the the forward mirror wall. And you can see her kind of sink into it a little bit. And then she just sort of slips into the wall.
Tim / GM:And when she does, you can see another ripple, and you see some of her memories. Mostly, actually, what you're seeing is the fight against her. You see magic being lobbed, and then the last thing you see is this thin white line racing across the scene and just breaking through this scaly, draconoid thing that she had become and destroys her. And then you trace back that beam, And now standing before you is Veronica Venus.
Speaker 7:Yay. Oh, sure.
Tim / GM:And she looks around and says, you're all so familiar.
Maggie / Poppy:Veronica? Ronnie, it's us. Holly. Holly Hyacinth.
Thomas / Guy:The curse breakers? I've got your tarot cards.
Tim / GM:She sees those
John / Doran:I got blood on them.
Tim / GM:Yeah. She sees those in her eyes kinda go wide, and she grasps for them but can't touch them. And she says, I know you. I know all of you.
Speaker 4:You saved our lives, and the lives of everyone in Tildry,
Maggie / Poppy:and many others besides.
Speaker 4:You are a hero.
Tim / GM:Maybe. I feel old. And she, like, looks at her own hands. She says, what is this place?
Speaker 4:It is an in between place between the living and the dead.
Tim / GM:How do I go back?
Speaker 4:You do not go back, Ver Chanukah. You move on. You finished what you needed to do in the other world.
Tim / GM:I don't understand.
Speaker 4:Veronica, you died.
Tim / GM:She just kind of looks like she's not really hearing you, and she just kinda turns around and starts walking down the hall again.
Speaker 5:Veronica. She stops. You saved my life.
Tim / GM:Oh, Lee.
Speaker 5:Yeah. That's me you remembered.
Tim / GM:She fades away, I think.
Speaker 5:In, like, a passing on kind of way or, like, we miss?
Tim / GM:More like a Tonberry sort of way where she just kind of flickers
Speaker 4:out. Oh, we could spend all this time here trying to help all of these spirits move on, but we cannot stay here.
Tim / GM:So in terms of the dungeon atmosphere that you're in, what are you doing to advance?
Speaker 7:Walking in a circle forever.
John / Doran:Yeah. It's it seems to be we're moving and
Thomas / Guy:not really getting any more.
Maggie / Poppy:After walking around for a while, Holly, is, like, rifling through her bag to see if she can find anything to help. And she pulls out Sal,
Tim / GM:the cat
Maggie / Poppy:statue for a minute, and she starts petting Sal to see, to talk to him.
Tim / GM:He wakes up and he says, this is very different.
Maggie / Poppy:Hi, Sal.
Tim / GM:Am I dead?
Maggie / Poppy:Well, that's a good guess because we are in this tunnel of never ending death space. He
Tim / GM:he chills out a little bit, and he says, feels dead. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Have you ever encountered anything like this before? Any tips?
Tim / GM:This is very new to me. I I don't remember any of this. It's, quite dreary. However, I wouldn't mind if I didn't see this place much.
Maggie / Poppy:So this is where Tibio his family helps the dead, come and go, I guess, or mostly go.
Speaker 7:Mostly go.
Maggie / Poppy:But the Fermer family, have you ever heard of them?
Tim / GM:I have not. I'm afraid to say outside from our beloved Dybio.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, it was worth a shot. Okay. Well, I'll let you sleep now so
Speaker 8:you don't have to be
Maggie / Poppy:in this awful place any longer.
Speaker 5:I have a theory. This is just one big circle. Right?
John / Doran:Seems that way.
Speaker 5:The only way people are getting in and out is by moving on, confronting their past and accepting it.
Maggie / Poppy:Mhmm.
Speaker 5:So I think we have to move on.
John / Doran:Like how Jeanne did, I can get my traps and if we need to do this.
Speaker 5:Not not like dying, Snack. Mhmm. Like, looking at your past and this is hard for me. It's like feelings stuff.
Speaker 4:No, Uli. I think you are correct.
John / Doran:I hear you, Uli, but that's a lot easier said than done.
Speaker 5:You're telling me
Thomas / Guy:We all saw some of the baggage we carry on these walls.
John / Doran:What's a lich, Bert? That's been bothering me.
Thomas / Guy:Just like a big skeleton guy.
John / Doran:Why did that come up in conversation with your parents?
Speaker 5:Yeah, Bert.
Thomas / Guy:Like I said, they're they're dead. They were killed by a lich. They tried
John / Doran:to make some deal and and they're gone now.
Speaker 5:I'm sorry.
Thomas / Guy:What was this deal? Well, the deal was to become liches themselves, I guess.
Maggie / Poppy:Can I go through it?
Tim / GM:It does feel solid to the touch. It's almost like a a strong repelling magnet, where if you push extremely hard, you can feel it give a little bit. So this wall is not exactly material.
Speaker 5:Well,
John / Doran:what about the outer wall? Is it the same thing? Or
Tim / GM:No. I think the outer wall is actually opaque, probably stone. It's just this inner wall that shows you this mirror image.
Speaker 5:Can I go back to my reflection?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Wherever you touch on the wall, it'll summon back up.
Speaker 5:Okay. And I'm gonna, like, breathe in deep and just try and really take in what I'm seeing
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Speaker 5:And acknowledge it and accept it and, like, close my eyes and just, like, shove my face against the wall.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Bloody nose. Yeah. Smoosh.
Speaker 5:Like a slow press, but, like, focusing more on, like, yes, this happened. No. I can't change it.
Tim / GM:You you immediately know you're on the right track because your forehead sinks into this thing a couple inches. And but that even that revelation kind of startles you and pulls you back out of it, and it's gonna require, like, full concentration to do this.
Speaker 5:Okay. I propose we all go sit in our own separate spaces with no distractions.
Speaker 4:No. Oh, okay.
John / Doran:That's probably the best way
Thomas / Guy:to tackle this.
Speaker 4:Let's stay a little out of arms, Creech. Everyone should see each other. Sure. Yeah. Snek, do you understand what we are doing?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
John / Doran:I'll stay here with Uli and you all. We will spread out then.
Speaker 5:We can, we can hold hands if you want, if you need that support. No. Okay. Snack is too grown up for friends, I guess.
Tim / GM:So you all spend some time kind of pressing against this wall to get the memory started, and then you just sort of watch your loop again and face down what there is to see. Those of you that are near each other can sometimes hear a little bit of what's going on, not that you can see anything. And so Uli, being that you're quite close to snack, every now and then you can hear, small snack, small snack, and then you hear, like, a thwap thwap thwap thwap thwap. Small snack. And then you hear the familiar voice of Lysander, and you can hear Snack, like, making fun of Lysander.
Tim / GM:You can hear Snack saying, small Lysander, so we can puny.
Speaker 7:Oh, the cycle of abuse.
Tim / GM:And just like that, Snack and probably Tibio can hear a door shouting from Ollie's memory, saying, like, you're not coming out until you're done. You hear me? You're never doing this again. You're gonna ruin our family.
Maggie / Poppy:Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Tim / GM:You don't hear much coming out of Tibio's at all, but you do see Tibio get very sad. You can tell probably what he's looking at is something that he's still struggling to accept. Holly, I think you're the only one that hears what's going on in Bert's, but you can hear unfamiliar voices to you saying, you can still visit. It's not like we're gone. We're just different.
Tim / GM:It's not it's not changed. And you hear another voice say, anytime you're ready to accept this, you just come and find us. But until then, we're just going to go on living our lives. We can't orbit around you forever. And I think the first person to pass through is probably Holly.
Tim / GM:I think 1 by 1, you all start to filter into the other side of this, until it's the 4 of you, sans Tibio, staring out into this abyss. You enter into a massive open chamber like a cathedral, where every surface is made of bone. You're on the outer ring of this circular chamber and in front of you is a sheer drop into inky black. It's the same story looking upwards. In the center of this chamber, there's a large column protruding out of the darkness like an island and on that island is a great arch.
Tim / GM:Looks like it's made of 1 solid vertebrae. Inside that arch, you can see impenetrable shadow. And at that moment, Tibio takes a step through, and you can see his face is just wet with tears, and he's just, like, ruddy cheeked and bleary eyed.
Speaker 5:I just pull him into a hug kind of sidearm thing.
Speaker 4:We did it. We got through.
Speaker 5:Yeah. We did. We're all very strong and brave.
Speaker 4:Yes. And and we are going to get through all of this.
Speaker 5:I know we will. We have you.
John / Doran:That's right, Tabio. Catchphrase.
Maggie / Poppy:That's right.
Tim / GM:So the last thing that stands in your way is this large gap between you and this central island.
Thomas / Guy:Like a big pit?
Tim / GM:A big pit. That kind of intimidating darkness where it just gradients into nothing.
Speaker 5:How far away is it?
Tim / GM:The island? Mhmm. Maybe 50 feet out from where you are.
Maggie / Poppy:I do have I do have feather fall, but I don't know if that pit actually has a bottom tibial.
Speaker 7:So this is a pit? Yeah. In front. So it's a circle and there's a pit and then there's an island and there's the arch.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yep. You guys are, like, on the outer rim.
Speaker 7:Tibio takes 4 heavy breaths and then steps off the ledge.
Speaker 5:Holy shit.
Tim / GM:Smooth. Okay. Alright. Yeah. The bones rapidly assemble beneath your feet.
Speaker 5:I don't think that'll work for any of us.
Speaker 7:They seem to was, like, doing a balancing act. Like, oh, didn't know if that was gonna work.
Tim / GM:They seem to remain after you move, creating a sort of bridge between the rim and the island.
Speaker 7:After yeah. After that initial step and pause, I keep moving forward with growing confidence as I go along.
Tim / GM:Just stops working at some point.
Speaker 7:Wile E. Coyote style, I walk along the empty air for a minute.
Speaker 5:For my curiosity, can you explain why you did this?
Speaker 7:So It's
Tim / GM:a letter from your parents. Right?
Speaker 7:Yeah. So in the letter from my parents, there was a poem at the end.
John / Doran:That said read it twice.
Speaker 7:It said read it twice, and then Tim underlined it. And, I mean, the the gist of the poem is that I just gotta fucking go for it.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 7:Yeah. The main message is have courage, keep going, go for it.
Speaker 5:Jump off a cliff.
Speaker 7:Jump off a cliff.
John / Doran:Snack will try this as well.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Snack, you sidestep that bridge and take a step out into darkness, and you just plummet.
Thomas / Guy:Jesus. How far
Tim / GM:do you wanna let that go?
John / Doran:I will open my eyes after I can't take the second step, and, I start to fly. Okay.
Tim / GM:About how far are you gonna let yourself fall?
John / Doran:60 feet. Okay.
Tim / GM:I'd say maybe at about the 60 feet mark, your your dark vision allows you to see that there is a bottom to this. The second ocean of bones that you guys have seen in your life.
John / Doran:Oh.
Tim / GM:Just infinite bones down at the bottom of this pit, it seems. About a little over a 100 feet down.
John / Doran:I will keep going down.
Tim / GM:Keep going down? Yes. Okay. Yeah. It's a fairly simple landscape once you land down there.
Tim / GM:There seems to be all sorts of creatures' bones here, even some as large as a dragon. You can tell?
Thomas / Guy:Snack. Are you okay?
Speaker 4:Snack.
John / Doran:Snack is fine. I'll be up shortly.
Speaker 4:Okay.
John / Doran:Alright. I'm gonna grab one of the a smaller dragon bone. Okay. Unless there's, like, a literal dragon skull.
Tim / GM:You can't find a skull. You can see, like, the kind of the ass end of a dragon that's been buried into the bones.
John / Doran:And you can Nice.
Tim / GM:Take the very tip of its tail.
John / Doran:K. And then I'll, just pocket that and then fly back up.
Tim / GM:Okay.
John / Doran:There is a bottom. It's covered in bones.
Speaker 7:It's gotta be huge. Right?
Tim / GM:The very last vertebrae might only be, you know, the size of a solo cup.
Speaker 7:Okay. Welcome. Okay.
Speaker 5:Can I try and put any weight on the bone bridge?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. You, like, kind of, like, rock back and forth to make sure it's gonna be steady or at at the very least, not fall apart after Tibio has stepped on it. Yeah. And it seems to be holding probably permanently.
Speaker 5:Okay. I run. I book it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You you catch up up to Tibeo at least and are right behind him. Okay.
Speaker 7:That's the correct Ninja Warrior method.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. You just have money. Yeah. Yeah.
John / Doran:I'll cross too seeing that it held someone of Uli's size.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Holly will cross after with Bert or right afterwards.
John / Doran:Okay. Snack flies over.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You all make it despite your varying methods.
Thomas / Guy:I'm really proud of us for not taking 20 minutes to cross that castle. Yeah.
Tim / GM:When you get onto this island, you all hear the tiniest flapping of wings as you see a raven, flutter into this room, kind of just through an opaque wall. It, flutters through the wall and over the gap and onto this island, and it perches on that archway. There's a little bit of a rumbling going on here, and a lot of the bones are starting to clack and shake. And then you see some of them start to assemble. You see some ankle bones and some tarsals and shin bones form and then a rib cage and a skull, and it's a gnome.
Tim / GM:And you hear, it's so good to see. It's so good to see you, Tibia.
Speaker 4:Do I know him?
Tim / GM:You may not recognize me because you've never met me, but my name is Austeo. I am your great great great grandfather. Oh,
Speaker 4:it is it is wonderful to meet you. I I've heard so much about you. You are in our history books. You are in our archives. Why aren't your bones in our archives?
Tim / GM:Well, someone needed to stay here, and that's me.
Speaker 4:Oh. Well
Tim / GM:I kind of started all of this, for our family at least.
Speaker 4:How wonderful.
Speaker 5:Did he marry into the family? I'm just wondering why he's not French.
Speaker 7:The French married into the family.
Tim / GM:We've talked about it before. I can only do so many variants of French accents.
Speaker 7:It's very it's very hard to not let French sneak into German. That happened this.
Tim / GM:That's sacros.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh my god.
Speaker 7:Oh, man.
Tim / GM:Tibio, I wanted to let you know what's happening now, here, this has never happened before, and it's not your fault.
Speaker 4:Oh. Oh. I I thought it was that I was not here.
Tim / GM:Well, the gate does need a guardian, so maybe the recent things that have been happening on the surface could have been your fault, but, no. The inception of this is unprecedented.
Speaker 4:I see. Is it because of, the events in Windhoorn?
Tim / GM:I regret to inform you, I don't know much of anything that's happening up there, but look here. And he gestures to the archway. And focusing in there, you can start to see it's this infinite black. It kind of looks like the surface of water and light breaking that surface and some kind of glowing luminous ink is spilling into this blackness. There's this kind of energy coming from somewhere else.
Tim / GM:The more you focus, there are hundreds of these things, maybe thousands of these pinholes, these little tears and leaks all over this blackness.
Speaker 4:Can't can't can't can't bear. Is each of those a a curse? I'm sorry. A a malevolent spirit?
Tim / GM:Not a spirit. He, looks in there again with you, and he says, each of those specks of light you can see are tears, unintentional. They weren't there just mere months ago. Something is creating these.
Speaker 4:Oh, things can come through them?
Tim / GM:Correct.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, Moja, Orzo might be creating the tears.
Speaker 4:Oui. But how could he do such damage here from where he is?
Tim / GM:Well, every now and then we'll see something move through. It's it's big, Tibio. It's, scary to us even.
Speaker 4:I see. Do you do you know how I can repair it?
Tim / GM:Well, you've gotta finish your ritual, haven't you? Your test?
Speaker 4:Yes. I do. I am almost just too late. Because we've been through a lot already.
Tim / GM:Oh, I'm afraid to tell you it hasn't quite started yet. Your representative is waiting for you, and he, like, jerks his head to the top of the archway.
Speaker 7:Oh, and I I make eye contact with the raven. I give a little nod.
Tim / GM:The raven nods at you.
John / Doran:Hold on a sec. What happens when Tibio completes this test?
Tim / GM:Here's the thing, the underworld needs to be sure that they're putting their faith in the right person. Our family has been in charge of this for a long time, sure, but they still need to make sure that each individual caretaker is up to the task. They need to see strength and cleverness, and above all, willingness to participate in this. They can't have someone who's unwilling to be a guardian.
John / Doran:And to be a guardian means what exactly? Are they gonna be trapped down here forever?
Tim / GM:No. They just need to respond to events like this. And hopefully, completing this will put Tibio in a much better position to do so.
Speaker 4:And this would be the first and many steps toward fixing what has happened in Bindorn and dealing with that. I think it is similar to what we are trying to do as cross bikers.
John / Doran:Okay. I'll allow it.
Speaker 5:Thanks, dad.
Tim / GM:Sounds like you're all ready then.
Speaker 4:I I know that it has been a tough journey, and I want to give you one less chance to turn around if it if this is too much, but I would like you all to come with me.
Maggie / Poppy:Of course. We can do that? I mean, how many times are we gonna get to go to the land of the dead and come back and talk about it?
Speaker 4:My parents said in their letter that I should not go alone.
Thomas / Guy:Well, lucky you.
Speaker 5:Alright. I trust you. I don't trust myself a little bit, but I'm in. Thank you.
Tim / GM:Osteo kind of stands up and looks around at at each of you, and he says, best of luck. Seriously, good luck. And his arm falls off and then he kinda smiles at Tibia and his other arm falls off and then the rest of them just collapses into the giant bone pile beneath him. And then the raven on top of the arch takes flight. It does a lap around this pinnacle, and then it flies straight into the archway.
Tim / GM:You hear that rumbling again and all these bones start to clatter and shake and some of them begin to rise again. The first thing you see is all of these tiny needle like bones that are forming in this large horizontal tableau, and it doesn't really make sense until the last piece floats into place. An enormous raven composed of bones stands before you now, practically doubling the size of the arch that it's perched on top of. Looks down at you and gives a silent screech as it opens its mouth wide and spreads its wings.
John / Doran:And a health bar fills up the top of the screen.
Tim / GM:Thanks so much for listening. I'm Tim, your DM and your genie.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm Hannah playing Holly Hyacinth.
Thomas / Guy:I'm Thomas. I play Engelbert FF Wisherspoon.
Speaker 7:I'm Tara, and I play Tibio Femur.
John / Doran:I'm John. I play Snack the Cobalt.
Speaker 5:And I'm Maggie playing
Thomas / Guy:Uli.
