Cursebreaker | 9 - The Crystal-Cursed Cavern
Last time on curse breaker. On the second day of our journey to Childress, we had to part ways with Mazzie and Henry and turned our attention to a darker adventure. In the heart of the mountain, we followed a stream to a cliff's edge, which master Snack decided to jump from. A scuffle with Emery resulted in the rest of the party following snack down the cliff, and while our heroes survived the great fall, Emri is nowhere to be found. As we explored the caverns below, we found a dead kingdom of skeletal dwarves.
Tim / GM:When Tivio returned a missing finger bone to the skeleton sitting on the throne, they introduced themselves as Mumble Dundas the 5th, the last king of the mountain. When you presented that bone finger, it kind of, like, magnetized to the incomplete skeleton and attached itself, and he was, like, thrilled. He immediately remarked that he was whole again and and, he's just kind of standing before you and he's saying, where did you where did you find this?
Speaker 2:I it was in a collection of cursed objects held by an evil man who was torturing a town and we took it.
Tim / GM:He, he holds his finger close to his eye as if he could really see anything out of his eyes, or his eye sockets I guess. And, he he just says, I'm I'm thrilled. I've I've I haven't felt this good in years.
Speaker 2:Was your finger cursed? Are you cursed?
Tim / GM:Wasn't cursed. It was just stolen from me.
Speaker 2:So it was not dispelled to find you again. It just wanted to find you.
Tim / GM:Seems that way.
Speaker 2:But that is good to know.
Maggie / Poppy:There's a lot of skeletons talking to each other at this moment and it's kind of freaking me out. How are you all like moving? What's happening here?
Tim / GM:Well, I assume you felt something. Right? Since you've come into the tunnel. You felt a a pulling That's why you're down here, no doubt.
Tara / Journey:Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yes. I see. He feels it. Of course. You feel the pulling, telling you to go across the bridge, Yes.
Tim / GM:How do you know? Because everybody feels it sooner or later, the pull. What's down there exactly? I'm afraid to tell you because I don't want you to seek it out.
John / Doran:Seems pretty good then.
Tim / GM:I promise you it's not. There's something down there and it promises to be powerful, but it's nothing but trouble. When my men started to feel it, all of my diggers, all my people, my whole kingdom, They started to feel the pull, and and they started digging for it. They started volunteering for double shifts and triple shifts. Digging for it night and day, and they found it.
Tim / GM:Now, what am I getting all sentimental about
John / Doran:it's so good to see people. Good people. Last time
Tim / GM:there are people down here they stole my finger bone and I'm not too thrilled about it.
Speaker 6:No no no go back. What did you find?
Speaker 2:What is it?
Tim / GM:We will have time to talk about it over dinner. You are staying for dinner aren't
Speaker 6:you? You can't eat your bones.
Speaker 2:I would love to stay for dinner. I'm so glad to make so many scallops in France.
Maggie / Poppy:But how are you moving? I mean I'm kind of used to bones because my friend here but there's a there's an alive thing inside that that's moving the bones. So I really question this, and it makes me scared because, this feels like necromancy.
Tim / GM:It's not necromancy. It's, more of a curse, really.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay.
Tim / GM:But,
John / Doran:A curse you say?
Tim / GM:I feel like I'm among friends seeing, your friend here. Oh, what what is your name, sir Skeleton?
Speaker 2:Oh, my name is Tibio Fenmer and I am so glad to meet you.
Tim / GM:Glad to meet you. Mumble Dundas, but you can call me Mumble. I I was serious about dinner of course we can't eat but you can.
Speaker 6:I don't trust it. What how do you have food? How is it still good? Why do you have food?
Tim / GM:We used to have a thriving kingdom down here. We know how to feed ourselves.
Speaker 6:You are clearly old bones, and I don't trust that your food is still good. It's cursed food, isn't it?
Tim / GM:Well, you don't have to take me up on my offer, I suppose.
John / Doran:That's not being a very gracious guest, Dooley. Let's try the bone food.
Tim / GM:You guys can see at the bottom of the stairs kind of where you came from into this throne room that there are 4 other skeletons that you had seen before, all kind of anxiously looking up the stairs, and when you look back at them, they look away as if they had they weren't looking at anything in particular. Said, I'm afraid to say we're down to a bit of a skeleton crew here.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh my. Oh my.
Tim / GM:But we'll get you served up something nice. Just, have a seat at the long stone table. Just go back down the hall and take a lift.
John / Doran:Can I use that one, the skeleton crew?
Tim / GM:I suppose he
John / Doran:kind of sees
Tim / GM:you, like, writing it down and he says, I suppose just give credit where credit's due.
John / Doran:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 6:Can I vibe check this guy?
John / Doran:Yes, you can. Thank you.
Tara / Journey:I thought
Maggie / Poppy:you vibe checked him when we walked in, but maybe not. I don't remember.
Speaker 6:Why am I so bad at this?
Maggie / Poppy:You stopped vibe checking.
Speaker 6:7.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I literally feel like that happened. Last time, I made it was for a different check, like, a different person. There
John / Doran:were a lot of vibe checks last year.
Tara / Journey:I've never succeeded in that check. It's okay.
Speaker 6:I have rolled under 10 every single day. Terrible Doug of character. I just don't know.
Maggie / Poppy:Or
John / Doran:she just, like, everywhere it really goes, there's a bad vibe.
Tara / Journey:She's just She's skeptical, and she's just, like, whatever.
Speaker 2:Now, let's at least see if
Maggie / Poppy:I have alcohol. That's always safe.
Speaker 6:I have my own, but I'll sit with you.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Holly's will go down the hall. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Mumble says, we've had plenty of time to ferment a whole bunch of different things. Here. He, gestures down to some of the skeletons at the bottom of the stairs and he says, Marcus, why don't you show them to the table and get them set up? And, you see one of the 2 guard skeletons that was at the front, kind of, raises his hand and then gestures you guys to walk toward him. And, you follow him?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Okay.
John / Doran:Oh, yeah.
Tara / Journey:I am just, like, traipsing down the stairs, skipping down the hall. And this place isn't, like,
Tim / GM:you know, it's it's cold and dark, but it's not necessarily inhospitable. It's, like, pretty well kept and, you know, it's swept clean and, you know, there's not, like, rotting awful things everywhere.
Maggie / Poppy:How, how is the space lit?
Tim / GM:So there's this there's this blue glowing moss everywhere.
Maggie / Poppy:You said that earlier, our last time. Yeah.
Tim / GM:And it yeah. It's it's also kind of burning, but it the light is still pretty dim, so it's very, like, moody in here.
Maggie / Poppy:Is it like you said it's blue? Yeah. Okay.
Tim / GM:So they, lead you kind of back down the hall where you came from and they take a left, and you pass by a a huge circular stone door that's set into the wall, and it's got a big square, keyhole in it. And you had seen before that Mumble had a large square key around his neck, and you just pass by that without comment and Marcus says, you can all get set up over here at this table.
John / Doran:Thank you, Marcus.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Marcus. It is so good to meet you as well.
Tim / GM:We'll have something delicious for you in just a few minutes. Be patient. It's been a while since we've had guests.
Speaker 6:It's a long stone table. Yeah. I would like to sit with my back to the table, so I have my eye on the room.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Is there moss in this room?
Tim / GM:A little bit.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Holly wants to while they are waiting for the food, she wants to inspect the moss more closely, just to see if she can, like, identify it. Is like magical thing that she may have used in the past.
John / Doran:So
Maggie / Poppy:it's just a is that a knowledge
Tim / GM:Knowledge nature. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Knowledge nature. Okay. She's very curious about any magical, like, natural things.
Speaker 6:Mhmm. So
Maggie / Poppy:oh, not good. Not good nature nature nature nature. Wait is nigh wisdom?
Tim / GM:Nature intellect.
Maggie / Poppy:Intellect. Wait.
Tim / GM:Sorry. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, I see. Only 11.
Tim / GM:Okay. This is probably something you haven't seen before. You're not much of a cave dweller.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. I'm gonna, can I I'm gonna touch it?
Tim / GM:K. It's, it it's like it's a hot, like, hot steam, like, the flame feels more like steam than anything that actually hurts you. So even though
Maggie / Poppy:Even though I'm touching the moss part?
Tim / GM:Yeah. So so there there is like this golden flame that licks up kind of every now and then and that just feels like warm steam.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, I see.
Tim / GM:And then the moss itself, it's like it's like, like a piping hot, like water bottle kind of thing, but it's not so hot that you can't leave your hand on it.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna conduct a series of small tests.
John / Doran:I feel like I'm more confused about
Tim / GM:it after.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna take a little scrap of paper out of my pocket and just see if I can burn it. By holding it.
Tim / GM:The paper doesn't burn.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna hold a piece of my cloth of my, like, dress. Just the sleeve over it and like try to like lay my arm in it.
Tim / GM:You can see like the wrinkles being worked out of your sleeve.
Maggie / Poppy:Cool. This is amazing. Holly's like just derinkling all her clothes because she's, like, gross on the last few days of travel. I'm gonna try to, take a patch of it Okay. And put it in my pack.
Tim / GM:Sure. When you put it into your pack, you notice that, it stops burning after a while. Mhmm. And that it it goes from, a dull blue, or sorry, it goes from, like, a bright glowing blue to sort of, like, a pale whitish blue that's not that's no longer burning.
Maggie / Poppy:That's an interesting specimen. I'll just save this file for later for more research.
Tim / GM:Cool. Yeah. The, you guys can hear some, skeletons, behind, a closed door, like a little ways away. And, they're like frantically, like, running around in the kitchen, like, shouting to each other. They're they're like they sound very excited to, like, have guests in the first place.
John / Doran:What else do
Tim / GM:you guys do while you wait?
John / Doran:There's no skeletons in the room with us?
Tim / GM:No. No. No. You've been kind of, like, left on your own.
Speaker 6:I'm getting up.
Tim / GM:K.
Speaker 6:I'm going to the door. We can hear them behind.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 6:And I am pressing my ear to it Okay. To listen.
Tim / GM:You hear really quietly, one of them just goes, just do it, just do it, just do it. And then you hear another one go, okay, okay, okay, here I go. And, the door kind of like opens with you like right up against it. And you hear, oh, sorry. Didn't see you there.
Tim / GM:Sorry. Sorry, weird. Took so long. Would you have a seat?
Speaker 6:Do I have to?
Tim / GM:Nope. And he walks right past it. He, he puts this closed, silver tray that he's holding with one of those big, domed lids on it. He sets it on the table and he opens it up and there is an upside down rat skeleton that is garnished with a bunch of, like, broken up mold. And he says dinner is served.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, dear.
Tim / GM:How do you guys react to that?
Tara / Journey:Oh, no. Tibio is thrilled, doesn't understand that this is food and thinks that it is, just a skeletal offering. Something something between art and a toy. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:And, Like a wishbone.
Tara / Journey:Just it's just like a like a like an art installation. Okay. And he thinks that they don't understand French and that's why they said bon appetit. And so he says, oh, for this rat. That is so exciting.
Tara / Journey:And, he animates it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It, it flips over and starts kinda acting like a rat would, sort of sniffing around the table. And, he he says, okay, didn't see that coming. And then, you hear some, like, snickering and giggling from inside the kitchen again. And, you see 3 other skeletons and they're being like,
Maggie / Poppy:they thought we were actually gonna feed him a skeleton.
Tim / GM:And, they just start cracking up, a moment after that. Go ahead.
Speaker 6:Ahead. I glare at them from the doorway.
Tim / GM:They they kind of file out one after another, and they they bring you, freshly cooked, fish, like actual fish, and lay them out on the table, along with some mushrooms and some, like, grilled lichens with rock salt. And so it's actually like a fairly appetizing meal that they put together in almost no time. But they lay it out all on the table and, what becomes of that skeletal rat?
Tara / Journey:I just kinda let it roam. Okay. I let it do its thing. I'm not trying to control it. I just animated it and then let it do its own thing.
Tara / Journey:Yeah.
Tim / GM:It it begins its new life.
John / Doran:Well, this is a little more like it.
Tim / GM:And, all 4 of the skeletons are standing around the table, and they're like within, like like, 30 inches of you, like, watching you eat. And, like, they're just kind of, like, nodding. And, like, they, like, keep looking at each other, and they're just, like, nodding and watching you, and they seem to, like, really focus on your chewing, and every time you swallow, they look at each other, and they're like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 6:Is this some weird kink thing? I'm not consenting. Willy, please stop.
Maggie / Poppy:Do you just it's okay, Willy. Like, they just probably are excited to be with the living again.
Tim / GM:You got that right. And, Mumble walks back into the room and, he sits at the head of the table and he looks at his skeletal friends and he says, says get on with you. He's like quit freaking him out. But yes, you're you're right. It's been a long time since we've been able to enjoy food of any kind and it's nice to watch it happen.
Maggie / Poppy:Who would have ever thought? Holly is like eating and neatly like cutting off her fish and eating and she's like I really feel for you, I really do.
Tim / GM:And, you can see the skeletons are like intentionally looking away now when
John / Doran:you guys go to, like, actually
Tim / GM:put a bite in your mouth.
John / Doran:Snek is looking very closely at Holly and, not using utensils, but using his talons to,
Maggie / Poppy:like, cut his food very neatly and
John / Doran:then skewering it with his nails and eating it.
Tim / GM:He's learning manners. So to fill in the gaps from earlier, we're cursed, more or less. About 8 years ago now, we started feeling that pull. And like I said, my all of my miners, they started wanting to work. They started wanting to dig all day and all night until they broke through and they found it.
Tim / GM:And what they found was bones. It was a skeletal dragon. It was curled around this white glowing crystal deep in the mountain.
Maggie / Poppy:The The
Tim / GM:like how the Farkin stone.
Maggie / Poppy:A skeletal dragon, was it just a whole entire dragon, like, all one piece? Just protecting the stone?
Tim / GM:Well, it was just put together. Curled around it like a dragon hides their hoard, but it was just one crystal.
Speaker 2:That is amazing.
Tim / GM:We thought it was, you know, just another monster, like you see every day, but eventually we learned the truth of it. As my men, my people, my kingdom, they kept trying to to get to the crystal, day in and day out. Even though they knew it was impossible, they knew it was claimed, they kept trying, and they kept dying.
Maggie / Poppy:Was the dragon, like, alive when you found him?
Tim / GM:Not at all. It's bones. What killed them? Not eating, being near the crystal, starving to death.
Speaker 2:What was preventing them from finding their way through the dragon skeleton?
Tim / GM:They couldn't defeat it. The dragon wanted it more than they did.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was animate then?
Tim / GM:Incredibly animated. It breathes black ash that'll melt the flesh off your bones.
Speaker 6:This all seems very unreasonable.
John / Doran:So as far as you know, the dragon's, still down there.
Tim / GM:Oh, I know it's still down there.
Maggie / Poppy:How do you know?
Tim / GM:We can hear it. Every now and then, you'll hear it shriek.
Speaker 2:And does so they are still ghosts.
Maggie / Poppy:We heard it shriek when we jumped down the.
Tim / GM:I'm warning you now, if you let this crystal start to pull on you, you're gonna end up like us. The crystal doesn't let you die. It makes you want it forever.
John / Doran:We can be immortal then.
Speaker 2:Oh, so this is not a life.
Tim / GM:He looks down at snack and, all the skeletons in the room looked down at snack And, Marcus walks walks over to you behind your chair, and he says, trust me, friend. There's nothing glamorous about him mortal. I'm not Irish or Scottish. I just decided to put that on right now.
John / Doran:There's nothing glamorous about that accent.
Maggie / Poppy:I have a question for you, mumble mumble done Dundas, mister. You know that I noticed the door that we walked by to get here, and the little square key around your neck looks like it could go on that. I mean, I just was sort of curious what you guys are all still guarding here.
Tim / GM:That's our vault. That's where we keep our wealth, our
Maggie / Poppy:riches. I see. Is that how you bought this excellent fare?
Tim / GM:No. That's, thanks to Marcus and my chefs.
Speaker 6:What are you doing with it? With what? Your wealth.
Tim / GM:There's nothing to do with
John / Doran:it. Okay.
Tim / GM:It just sits.
Maggie / Poppy:Were you always bones or, is this something that occurred?
Tim / GM:Oh, no. I I passed away, I think, about 60 years ago now. The dragon appeared about 80 years ago. So, 1 by 1 my kingdom, died through natural causes or at the anger and wrath of the dragon made of bones or any number of other things, but we're all gone now. All of us.
Tim / GM:None of us are still living, but some of us are still animated. My fear, my my my heart breaks every day for the miners that I lost because they're dismembered, they're pulverized, but they're still animated. Nothing will free us of this curse. It doesn't matter how far we disassemble each other, we're still here.
Speaker 2:There's souls that are trapped down there with the dragon?
Tim / GM:I believe so.
Speaker 2:Are they still digging?
Tim / GM:Many of them are still trying to get to the crystal.
John / Doran:But if this curse were to be lifted, you well, I guess you'd die. You wouldn't exist anymore.
Tim / GM:He, looks around the room and he says, I think you're right. And I think most of us are pretty okay with that at this point. And, there's a couple solemn nods around the room.
John / Doran:Oh, that's heavy, man.
Speaker 2:My friends, we must help these people. They are trapped.
John / Doran:Yes. We must kill them all.
Tim / GM:He says, oh, no. What? I've I've watched far too many adventurers come down here just to hear the dragon shriek and watch them all get turned to ash.
John / Doran:Listen, I'd love to help, but I think a bone dragon is a little outside of our, weight class, you know?
Tim / GM:Besides, I'd need someone who's got experience with getting rid of mage or curses.
John / Doran:Wait a minute.
Speaker 6:We we know people like that.
Speaker 2:We we do know a couple of curse breakers. Miss Veronica and
Tim / GM:the old guy. If Mumble had eyebrows, you would see them go up a little bit, and he says, as much as I'd love to take up your offer, I I can't risk anybody else getting wrapped up in this.
Speaker 6:I mean, you have nothing to lose.
Tim / GM:I don't, but they do.
Maggie / Poppy:It's true. We have a lot to lose. And we also have to get to Tildry. So how do we get out of here, mister Bumblebee?
John / Doran:Holly, before we get too far. We have a lot to lose, but we have a lot to gain as well.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm doesn't really sound like it's Snack. Unless you want to end up like a skeleton forever.
John / Doran:Preferably not. Not a skeleton, but he has this door that's full of all these awesome things behind the door. Right? With that key. And I point to his key in his chest.
Tim / GM:Well, yes. We do have quite a bit of, awesome things behind that door, but, we've also got some not awesome things.
Tara / Journey:Not rad.
Tim / GM:You see, Not all of us got on well as skeletons. It takes a lot of positivity every day to kind of keep your head about you when you're just a skeleton. And, well, some of us fell to madness.
Speaker 6:So they're in bone jail.
Tim / GM:That's a pretty lightweight term for it, but yes, their their minds are gone. They're lost to darkness and they they scrabble day and night against that vault door trying to get out and back to the crystal, but I I can't let them.
Speaker 6:I'm so sorry. I mean, what would happen if they did go back?
Tim / GM:I just I can't imagine.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, if
Speaker 2:if they were allowed to go back, they would just be lost on air and any solution would be harder to implement.
Maggie / Poppy:Digged into dust or destroyed by the dragon's black
Speaker 2:Their souls would still be trapped and if there was someone who came along and was able to lift the curse, they would have to go physically toward them.
John / Doran:But if the curse is lifted, the skeletons in the vault won't be an issue.
Tim / GM:Correct. I assume we will all just be finally laid to rest.
John / Doran:Snack must use your restroom. Where is it?
Tim / GM:He he looks up at Marcus for some reason. The privy. And Marcus shrugs and they say, the wing that had all of the lavatories, fell into the cliff a few months ago. You'll have to just go off the edge.
John / Doran:I'll just go back to the other corner I used last
Maggie / Poppy:time. Sontra.
Speaker 2:That is that smell.
John / Doran:Oh. I need to go to the little boy's room too. I'm gonna fall asleep.
Tim / GM:Very well. I
Speaker 6:don't trust them.
Tim / GM:Tibio, tell me about your bones.
Speaker 2:My bones are ancient and they're handed down from my family generation to generation. They have been imbued with great power and they have great meaning to me and my family. And we
Maggie / Poppy:No. You were doing good.
Tara / Journey:And then
Maggie / Poppy:I Holly, you asked wait. As you were saying that, Holly, is like she's like nodding along and she's heard the story a few times now and she's been like whispering under her breath like, I'm handed down from generation to generation. To And so she's just, like, saying the story along with Tibio. So I have
Tara / Journey:I have a story for each bone. So I I say, oh, do you want
Speaker 2:to know their individual stories? I can tell you. I can tell you. This finger bone came from the great female guardian of many generations ago and he slid a dragon and he, fell asleep in a forest and then he never woke up and they found his bones many years later, but they had, good good healing. And this elbow came from, my aunt.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 6:These are all from different beings.
Speaker 2:Yes. Well, some of them are from the same person, but never right next to each other.
Speaker 6:That is very cool, Tibio.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I think so too.
Maggie / Poppy:Where are your bones from?
Tim / GM:These are all original. Marcus leans down and says, I've traded up a few times in my life. See these? These are Shannon shins. They are much longer than mine.
Tim / GM:I need a little bit more mad vert, if you know what I mean. Got myself some of Shannon's shins. Shannon doesn't mind, do you Shannon? And there's like a skull on a shelf somewhere and she goes, no.
Speaker 6:I I don't wanna be here anymore.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't see how we could break the curse ourselves, but I think that maybe we could find someone who knows how and come back.
Speaker 6:Or we learn how
Speaker 2:And come back.
Speaker 6:And come back. Yeah. Because those tattoos are pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I think they would age you greatly. That was what the curse breaker said. That if you remove a curse, it takes it takes some of your life.
Maggie / Poppy:The suicide spell.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 6:I forgot about that one.
Maggie / Poppy:According to Bert's notes here, Bert, thank you.
Tara / Journey:We have copies of Bert's notes.
Maggie / Poppy:There are 3 steps to destroy a curse. King Mumble. I don't know if you've heard this before. Never. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, we learned this on the road. We're great adventurers now. But you have to feed the curse. It's attracted to life. So, yep, check.
Maggie / Poppy:Did that one with your with your flesh? And then we have to find the source. It's usually an item. So in this case, it's probably that crystal, right?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Crystal. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Probably that crystal. Okay. And then, okay, step 3. And this is where it gets a little crazy. We gotta destroy it by overwhelming it with the suicide spell.
Tim / GM:That does seem a little strange and perhaps a little strangely simple, but you did make me think of something.
Speaker 2:Yes?
Tim / GM:We don't necessarily need to defeat the dragon, we just need to destroy the crystal,
Maggie / Poppy:Mhmm. Right. Yeah, theoretically.
Tim / GM:Well, my thinking has been stuck in that we'd never be able to destroy the dragon. We just we just can't. As of yesterday, we're down to just me and the 4 of us. And Shannon's head. Suffice to say, I appreciate your good intention, but, if you leave today, there's no coming back.
Speaker 2:Why?
Tim / GM:Well, the the dragon's been a little, intolerant of us lately, and it's been destroying more and more of the castle. There's little left of it. The bridge was destroyed yesterday. Wait. Can't even get over into the mines.
Maggie / Poppy:Wait. Wait. Wait. The dragon leaves its lair and comes here to attack the castle.
Tim / GM:Whenever we provoke it, whenever we make any kind of attempt to better our situation.
Maggie / Poppy:That's it.
Tim / GM:To know.
Maggie / Poppy:That's it. We just need to get the dragon out of its lair, and then we can get to the crystal.
Tim / GM:I see.
Maggie / Poppy:Unless it doesn't bring it with it, does it?
Tim / GM:No. No. No. And and it doesn't know you're here either.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, heist. Crystal, heist.
Tim / GM:We just
Speaker 2:If we could go while the dragon is distracted and destroy the crystal, we could break the curse.
Maggie / Poppy:We could be curse breakers. Molly's holding the notes.
Speaker 6:To figure out how to overwhelm it, though.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, we can just figure that out when we get there. Yeah. It's worked well for us so far. Has it?
Speaker 6:I mean
Maggie / Poppy:We can overwhelm it with love and friendship.
Speaker 2:Do you know anything about the crystal, Monsieur Mambol?
Tim / GM:I've seen it just one time. That's the closest I ever got to it, was the entrance of the cave, the chamber. It's a huge, spherical, dome like chamber with a a pillar in the middle of it. That's where the dragon sleeps curled around the crystal. And that's where he keeps it, sort of embedded in that pillar in the center of the room.
Tim / GM:It's high up, difficult to get to. It's, about the size of a watermelon. It's a big sucker. Snack and Bert. So you guys have had left.
Tim / GM:What's what's how's that gone? You guys left
John / Doran:the room. So Snack left first, and I don't know if he's noticed that Bert is coming as well yet. Mhmm. So Well, are
Tim / GM:you trying to be hidden or are you not?
John / Doran:I mean, I wanna see what Snack is doing, so I will stay try to stay hidden.
Tim / GM:This is episode 2 in Burt tailing Snack.
John / Doran:Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. It didn't go well last time.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, Snack, where are you heading to?
John / Doran:As soon as I can get out of, sight, Snack will, start making his way back towards the bridge.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So you, you plod through the pool and all the soggy pillows out there, and you make it back out to where the bridge is destroyed. And so what you're looking across is, like, a 50 foot empty open air span, and it halfway through that, at about the 25 foot mark, is a pillar that used to support the bridge that's still standing.
John / Doran:Snack, reaches into his lamp and pulls out the dowsing rod item. And he's, he's mumbling to himself quietly, it's gotta be around here somewhere.
Tim / GM:Yeah. As you pull out the dowsing rod, it refuses to go any other direction than directly across the bridge. You can't you can't even, like, once you orient this thing, you can't pull it away from that direction.
John / Doran:I see. Well, it might be, I don't know. I should have companions around for distraction, perhaps. Mister Dragon, Mister Snack, it seems you missed the lavatory. Oh, Bert, yes.
John / Doran:Well, I figured, I like I like peeing on pillows. So that's I came back here, and I start peeing on one of the pillows.
Speaker 6:Oh my god.
John / Doran:Well, when in Rome
Maggie / Poppy:Wait. This brings up a very important question. What kind of pants does snack wear?
Tim / GM:Do you wear a Is
Maggie / Poppy:he just is he just have himself out in the open air all the time? I know he's a cloak. Loincloth. I know he's a cloak.
John / Doran:He's got a cloak, and I think, in order to be in towns, he did have to compromise and wear a loaning cloth. Now that we're in the underdark though, he may or may not. He probably doesn't have it on anymore. So just cloak.
Maggie / Poppy:Also, does he fold up his little loan cloth and put it in his pocket of his cloak for later? Or does he just rip it off and these are very important questions.
Tim / GM:He left at the entrance of the cave. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:It's finally free.
John / Doran:Bert is a respectful one pillow
Maggie / Poppy:Right. Away from it.
Tim / GM:It's pillow in use, empty pillow,
John / Doran:pillow in use.
Speaker 6:Yes. Pillow etiquette.
John / Doran:So, it's just us boys. Yes. Yes. Just us boys. Beyond a snack, are you still feeling that pull across the bridge?
John / Doran:I It's okay. A little. Just a little bit. Yes. But we must we must procure this crystal life.
John / Doran:I feel it. It's it's called to us, and I think it is part of the grand plan, if you will. Now this dragon poses quite an issue though. I figured some of our other allies could perhaps, distract it, and then you and me you and me could secure the crystal. Mhmm.
John / Doran:Yes. That's an intriguing plant, Snake.
Speaker 2:For us.
John / Doran:But you know that that crystal seems pretty dangerous. What do you think what do you think you wanna do with it? I don't know. I was going to ask Genie, perhaps, but with you around, I don't know if Genie likes talking with you, so But the only time I saw your friend, the genie, is when he cooked up that octopus at the docks. Yes.
John / Doran:Yes. He did do that. That was a new one. He has not done that before. Do you think he could do something similar with the crystal?
John / Doran:I suppose I could, maybe I could I could ask him. I'd take out that lamp, and I, nervously, eyes dart back between Bert and the lamp, and then We're done. We're done painting now.
Maggie / Poppy:Alright. Yeah.
John / Doran:I didn't check, shrug my shoulders, and then I will, smack the lamp on a rock a few times.
Tim / GM:Just a moment.
John / Doran:Sometimes he takes a while.
Tim / GM:And then he, you see kind of like just his head poke out, so he's got like a long wispy neck. And he's kinda looking out at you and he says, master snack, how can I be of service?
John / Doran:Hello. I'm Engelbert f f Witherspoon, a friend of Mr. Snacks.
Tim / GM:Yes. Engelbert, I am familiar with the voice. Very good to meet you. Snack?
John / Doran:Yes, Genie? What is this? Oh, Genie. We were just, bonding together, us boys, and, we were hatching a scheme, if you will. Here, I'll set you on this pillow.
John / Doran:This silhouette. Yeah. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:That's it.
Speaker 6:Is it a clean pillow?
John / Doran:Yes, it's, between
Tim / GM:the pillow. It's the unused one.
John / Doran:Genie, this is our plan. Bert and I will did you hear about everything? The whole, crystal, the magic dragon, skeleton, and all the undead dwarves?
Tim / GM:I caught enough of it to understand. Yes. It seems like a big curse. That octopus was delicious, but, let's say it took a while for me to digest. I think I could handle another one, but you've got to get me a rest after that snack.
Tim / GM:What do you think, Bert?
John / Doran:Well, I'd love to know more about you at another time, mister G. But,
Tim / GM:and I, you, mister Engelbert, perhaps you would let me peruse that notebook of yours.
John / Doran:Oh, by all means. But, well, it's a little better one once it'll be published. But, well, anyway, so you're saying you don't think you can absorb or destroy the crystal the way you did the octopus?
Tim / GM:I can try, but, when it comes to devouring curses, there's a limit. Like, all magic is delicious, certainly. Yes.
John / Doran:Certainly. Curses are delicious, but let's say a bit spicy. They
Tim / GM:take a toll. I can't do too much spice in too short a time, but I'm up to try because frankly snack hasn't fed me anything else.
John / Doran:Noted. Well, just so you know, it it's sounding pretty dangerous for me and Snack.
Tim / GM:All for the course.
John / Doran:I guess so. Alright. That's enough time, Genie. Thank you for talking to Bert.
Tim / GM:Are you ashamed of me, Snack? No. I
John / Doran:no. Not not at all. Genie, I just saw you're talking to Bert a lot, and, you know, like, we just haven't talked much. So perhaps after this one,
Tim / GM:Bert just has a lot of interesting things to say
John / Doran:Does he?
Tim / GM:That he hasn't said before.
John / Doran:He's got a lot of Yeah. He does write down a lot of stuff. Who knows what who knows what's real and true, but Bert, I
Tim / GM:I hope to learn
John / Doran:much more about
Tim / GM:you, and then, Bert, I hope to see you again soon.
John / Doran:Says says you, Bert. Yep. Bye, Jeanie. Thank you. We should maybe go tell the others about our plan.
John / Doran:Right? Oh, yes, I suppose.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, we're here. Hi.
Tim / GM:Okay. I mean, yeah. I assume you guys
John / Doran:were walking
Speaker 6:back in
Maggie / Poppy:the Yeah. We were
John / Doran:like Oh, don't step. Careful around
Speaker 2:those pillows. Oh, mister Snack, we were thinking that maybe Genie could eat the curves.
John / Doran:What gave you such an idea?
Speaker 2:Because he ate the other curves.
John / Doran:Great minds, Tibio.
Speaker 6:It's a pretty good idea. It's like something Bert would have thought of, probably.
Maggie / Poppy:I believe I thought of it first.
John / Doran:Eugenia is my friend, and yes, he said that he would do this for me. That we might be able to
Speaker 2:Oh, you already talked to him?
John / Doran:Yes, of course. It's a good idea, and I came up with it first. We we we do need to figure out this dragon, though.
Maggie / Poppy:We need to get the melon crystal from the crystal melon stem in the mountain.
John / Doran:How are we gonna distract the dragon though?
Tim / GM:How did all these pillows get out here? What in
Maggie / Poppy:the hell is going on?
Speaker 6:Don't,
Maggie / Poppy:Pulls on it.
Speaker 6:Don't step on them, I guess.
Tim / GM:Seriously, there's gotta be 600 pillows out here.
Maggie / Poppy:They're so comfortable.
John / Doran:That's amazing count. Yes. Exactly 600. He just, like
Tim / GM:His eyes, like, dart around the room. 600. Holly, like,
Maggie / Poppy:twirls around and then she flops onto a pile of pillows.
Tara / Journey:Dry ones, I hope.
Maggie / Poppy:She doesn't know. Questionable. She has no idea.
John / Doran:We we pointed we pointed out the bad pillows.
Speaker 6:Yes. Aren't they all floating in water?
Maggie / Poppy:No. A lot
Tim / GM:of them are, but a lot of them are mounded on top of it.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Tara / Journey:I have a question that I meant to ask a while ago. This seems to be death magic y.
Maggie / Poppy:Mhmm. Yeah. And as
Tara / Journey:a necromancer, would I have any familiarity with that or any knowledge of this sort of curse?
Tim / GM:It's not necromancy in that they were reanimated. It's it's that they were disallowed to die. Okay. So they were it's yeah. So if you were if you would were to come in and try to, like, necromancy the bones, they were gonna resist you because they still have their own will.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Tim / GM:So if that was gonna be your angle, I was just gonna say that the the bones, like, refused to respond to your magic because they're not unwilling bones or whatever.
Tara / Journey:They didn't die.
Tim / GM:Right.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. They're just they're they're not redead, they're undead.
Tim / GM:Right. They have they have not yet crossed over into your realm. Sure.
Speaker 6:Okay. Do you think having undead distraction might be more useful than live distraction in case of death rays.
Speaker 2:We, Monsieur Mambo suggested that the way that they usually summon the dragon by accident is by trying to change their circumstances and maybe he could do so again and have his people do the distracting to remove the dragon.
Tim / GM:I think if we make a big enough show pretending like we're about to come out there and steal the crystal from the dragon, he'll try to preempt us again. I think we just have to make a lot of noise out here. I just, don't know how.
Speaker 6:I'm pretty good at that. Is there
Maggie / Poppy:a way to get back up to the cavern we came from following the stream? There was a group of minstrels that we
Tara / Journey:were traveling with. Do not use them as bait.
Maggie / Poppy:No. But, like, we could say you're gonna come perform a concert.
John / Doran:That's a good idea.
Maggie / Poppy:For a special affair for the king under the, cavern, under the mountain.
Speaker 6:I was thinking I just cast Thunderwave.
Speaker 2:Couldn't we just because another cliff breakage by casting spells?
Maggie / Poppy:I mean, guys really didn't seem to like those minstrels, so I just was trying to help out.
Speaker 6:I mean, I hate minstrels. I hate bards, but I don't want them to die, I guess.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, no one's gonna die. Okay. I'm tied
John / Doran:in a sand boat. I don't understand this position. How could you be in that state?
Speaker 6:Not wanting someone to die?
John / Doran:We don't have to dwell on it. I just don't We'll we'll
Speaker 6:come back to that.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. That's a lot to unpack, Snag.
Speaker 2:Snag, you can What? You cannot like someone without hating them.
Maggie / Poppy:I mean, really, just look at these guys. Not dying is almost a worse punishment when you think about it, Snack.
John / Doran:Oh, interesting. Yes. True. So we should leave these minstrels to, entertain themselves with their noises. Yes.
John / Doran:It is much worse fate.
Tara / Journey:Tibia is disturbed by this line of reasoning. He wants everyone to be kind to each other.
John / Doran:I also wouldn't wish the fate of an undead never dying group of minstrels stuck here in the game.
Maggie / Poppy:On any living room. Good point. Good point. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:On the dragon even.
Maggie / Poppy:I think I think the dwarves I mean, they can't die. Right, mumble? So I feel like that's the best course is use your people's destruction. We go in undercover. The dragon doesn't know we're here.
Tim / GM:I think that's a good assessment. Okay. And and, your name, miss, Halfork?
Speaker 6:My name is Uli.
Tim / GM:Uli. As much as I appreciate your offer to make noise on this end, you shouldn't be here when we do it. Chances are the dragon's going to be successful in whatever it wants to achieve tonight.
Speaker 6:Right. There's not a lot of you.
Tim / GM:Right. And so, what I'm saying is, this is more or less our last chance, so The suicide spell. I think it's fine if we make the noise and the dragon comes here and whatever happens to us, happens to us. But as long as you succeed, everything will be fine. Right?
Speaker 6:Will your key be destroyed by dragon fire?
Tim / GM:It probably not. I'm sure it'll just scatter me across the across the pool here. Well, who knows what that even feels like, but.
Speaker 6:I mean, you lost a finger, so that, but bigger.
Tara / Journey:That all over.
Tim / GM:He doesn't seem too excited about that, and he says, but, yes, I the key will be intact, and you'll have earned it at that point.
Speaker 6:Yes. We will have. Sorry. I know I'm being selfish, but you have no use for it. So
Speaker 2:Miss your majesty Mumble, I would like you to know that your sacrifice has great meaning, and I would be honored to collect some of your pounds to take back to my people.
Maggie / Poppy:That's, a little much right now, maybe. And Holly looks, like, nervously at the King Mumble.
Speaker 6:Give us your riches and your bones.
Maggie / Poppy:He,
Tim / GM:there's not much expression in Mumble's face, or his, you know, skull. But he, looks towards the infinite dark above him, and then he looks back at Eutibio and he says, a strange request, probably more than I've ever heard. But, given the circumstances, I'm up for it.
Speaker 2:Wow. At that at that point, your sorrow will be released and you will be free and so will all of your people. Your sacrifice will have great meaning.
Maggie / Poppy:I guess in a cool way, it's a good way to share the story through Tibio.
Tim / GM:As much as I could hope to do as a king, I think. So then, this gap, it's pretty significant. I hope you all can fly. You seem like the magic type. Of course.
Speaker 6:How
Maggie / Poppy:high is
Speaker 6:the gap?
Tim / GM:50 feet.
John / Doran:That is an issue.
Tim / GM:We don't have a lot of resources to help you. We'll, we'll wait for you to get out of sight by about an hour or so, and then we'll start making noise.
John / Doran:Now we need we need a plan to get across this bridge.
Speaker 6:Can can one of us fly?
John / Doran:I can fly.
Speaker 6:Okay. I have a 63.3 Foot. And 3 16ths foot rope.
John / Doran:Perfect.
Speaker 6:So we could
Tara / Journey:Tight rope.
Speaker 6:Make some yeah. Tight rope or, like, army whatever not army crawl. I don't know what it is when you're hanging under a rope.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah.
Speaker 6:But if someone could secure it across
Tara / Journey:Sloth mode.
Speaker 6:Sloth mode.
Speaker 2:Nick, you can tie that rope over and secure it for us, and we can come with you.
John / Doran:Of course.
Speaker 6:Do you know how to
Tim / GM:tie knot? Of of course.
Speaker 6:Okay. I I I would have assumed. I just wanted to make sure.
John / Doran:Okay. I
Speaker 2:Can you show us the knots that you will do?
John / Doran:What?
Speaker 2:Can you show
John / Doran:us? I do not need to perform for you to you. That that would be fruitless and pointless at this point. What would I tie it to?
Maggie / Poppy:Tie it to my arm. Holly, like, pull her arm.
Speaker 6:We do have to secure it on this side.
John / Doran:I do not want to waste all my time, not energy right now. I can of course, I can tie it. Don't worry.
Maggie / Poppy:Alright. You tie it on this end and show us your stuff, and then you can go ahead and fly.
John / Doran:Snack, and you have to bring that rope to us. No going after that crystal yourself. Just like we planned, Bert. Of course. Yes.
John / Doran:Alright. I, reached my arms out, like, wide for, Uli to give me the 60 odd feet of rope. 63
Speaker 6:and 3 and 3 16ths feet. Alright. I don't know what I wrote. There's a lot of numbers. Here's the
John / Doran:rope. K. So, yeah, I just kind of, wrap it around myself and then cast fly, and, I definitely hold my, cloak out to imitate wings as best I can and fly across.
Tara / Journey:Attach it on this side first?
Maggie / Poppy:He just flies away with the rope.
Speaker 6:It's like when you, shoot an arrow with a rope on it and forget to grab the end of it.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Yeah.
John / Doran:So as I'm taking off, you grab
Speaker 6:Yeah. I'm like, oh, shit.
John / Doran:I, like, spin around in circles and unravel.
Speaker 6:Circle? You
Tim / GM:just start, like, careening through the air before you kind of correct yourself and, and land on the other side. You pass over that pillar in the middle, which does not look very stable, to be honest. But you make it to the other side and touch down there. And, what do you what do you wanna tie it onto? It's there's not there's there's no, like, vegetation or anything.
Tim / GM:There is maybe, like, an old, like, brick pillar that might have once been a lamppost or something. But it's pretty big.
John / Doran:A brick pillar?
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Are any of the fixtures of the old bridge still over there?
Tim / GM:Yeah. That's pretty much all all that would be there is this one pillar.
John / Doran:How, like, rough is the ground too, I guess? Is there? So there's, like,
Tim / GM:there's, like, paved brick path where the bridge used to, like, connect into the the side of the cliff there. So if you can imagine the surface of the bridge, like, you know, smoothly transitioned onto the continuing road that led deeper into the mine. But since that's crumbled away, some of these bricks are sort of angled downwards and splitting apart and sort of falling off the edge of the cliff. So it's it's pretty, like, destroyed, but it's like it previously worked stone.
John / Doran:I'll just go with the pillar. And what I'll do is I'll, wrap the rope around a few times.
Tim / GM:Mhmm. You've got you've got, I think it's, like, 6 feet of rope on the other side.
Speaker 6:I want to, if there's not enough slack, to enlarge the rope. I assume it would get longer also.
John / Doran:Yeah. I think so.
Speaker 6:Okay. Yeah. I'll just just do that.
Tara / Journey:Just girth up the rope, I guess.
Speaker 6:I hate this. It only lasts for a minute though, so
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, shit?
Tim / GM:Snack guys are going to wrap this rope around the brick pillar. You see 2 thing or you you notice 2 things at once. 1 is that there are other kobolds on this side of the bridge. Oh, yeah. 2, the rope that you're holding onto suddenly got extremely heavy and is dragging you back towards the open pit behind you.
Speaker 6:Never mind.
Tim / GM:So you are, being dragged towards the edge and a bunch of kobolds are walking out towards you and snickering. And one of them is holding what looks like a slingshot in their hand.
John / Doran:Get away from me.
Tim / GM:And, they move a little closer to you. You can see that all of these cobalts are in different states of decay. Some of them have some bones showing, some don't, but they all kind of look down at you and do that.
John / Doran:Very funny. You are the ones that are gross. And I, shoot another blast at one of them. And I'm starting to forget that I'm holding the rope, and I kinda start letting it slip a bit.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Uli, you can see this from the other side, just barely at the edge of your dark vision, that that snack is starting to slip off the cliff.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna message Snack, because I can hear the Kobalts on the other side. And I'm gonna say, Snack, tie the rope.
John / Doran:Genie, not now.
Tim / GM:Alright.
Maggie / Poppy:Zach, it's it's not Genie. Because I you can message me back.
John / Doran:Oh, can I?
Maggie / Poppy:You can reply in a whisper.
Tara / Journey:Oh, nice. Yep. Alright.
Maggie / Poppy:I can reply in your head, but you can you have to say it out loud.
John / Doran:Okay. So, yeah, I I am confused, especially with all the chaos going on. Yeah. So I,
Maggie / Poppy:Snack, it's Holly.
Tim / GM:What?
Maggie / Poppy:Tie the rope so we can get over there and help you hurry.
John / Doran:Alright. I, stopped casting blasts, at the Kobolds, and I, attempt to fly since I still have that available and try to, like, just wrap around and try to attack it.
Tim / GM:Give me a a strength check with advantage.
John / Doran:17?
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. So it's it's really tough for you to, like like, hold on to this rope and get it across your body enough that you can kind of lean on your power of flight. But you, yeah, you you, like, superhero, like, they hit the gas and, get get past this pillar enough that you can wrap the rope around once.
Speaker 6:I'm actually worried that the spell won't last long enough and it'll just, like, yoink some stuff around. Yeah. I'll let it happen. We'll see.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. It's secure. Is it and then she's gonna message Snack again, like, it's secure. Right?
John / Doran:Of course. It's tied.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Let's go.
Tim / GM:Okay. Snack, once you kind of, like, proved yourself with that, like, flying and tying the thing on, the kobolds, like, kind of turned into each other, and they all, like, scattered across the stones. They're they're kind of, like, hiding behind surfaces right now, so they're nearby, but they're afraid of you. Good.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly will hop on the rope first. Okay. And she's gonna start going. Do I have to roll anything?
Tim / GM:It's fairly easy the way it's set up. You can actually just kind of shimmy yourself across without any
John / Doran:Thank god. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Yeah. I scoot across.
Tim / GM:Okay. Are you guys gonna wait for Holly to make it to the other end before anybody else gets on there?
Speaker 6:I think everyone should go as fast as possible, and I'll go last.
John / Doran:Okay.
Tim / GM:Alright. So the order is going to be Holly, and then
John / Doran:I'll go.
Tim / GM:And then Bert, and then
Tara / Journey:Tibio.
Tim / GM:And then Uli.
Tara / Journey:Yes.
Tim / GM:Okay. When it when you are all on the rope, you hear a huge boom coming from the poolside where, like, where the castle is. And you see, Snack, that one of the cobalts had peered over the rocks again and it fired that slingshot, which seems to be enchanted in some way to make the the missile sort of detonate on impact. And so where you might have expect expected to see a rock kind of like hit stone and fly away, there is a an impact and sort of a a burst and a bang that echoes down the chamber.
John / Doran:I want that slingshot. So
Tim / GM:so, yeah, you all kind of, like, stop and, like, look back at the at the poolside and, maybe double your pace a little bit. So Holly, being the brave one, gets on to the other side, first and is able to secure herself.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, I made it. Snack. Snack. Good job.
John / Doran:Yes. Thank you.
Tim / GM:Bert, just as you're gaining the strength or the courage, whatever, to, to swing yourself onto the other cliff and off of the rope, to kind of dismount from this thing, it's taking you a second to work it up. And all of a sudden, you feel the rope start to kind of vibrate. And, you feel a sort of tension in it as, the rope begins to shrink back to normal. So So that
John / Doran:was like I like
Speaker 6:squeeze my eyes in concentration to try and keep the spell going.
Maggie / Poppy:Give me
Tim / GM:an arc arcana check. We'll see how long you can keep
Speaker 6:this up. I'm proficient in those. Alright. Please, for the love of God, roll well. God, 11.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Is that okay?
Tim / GM:Bert, what are you gonna do in reaction to that? This rope is starting to wobble and tighten, and it sounds like it's gonna snap.
John / Doran:How far am I across so far?
Tim / GM:Like, you're you're literally, like, at the cliff. There's just, like, another couple feet, but you have to kind of, like, swing down and, like, almost jump, sort of, to get onto the actual cliff. It's just a scary dismount. Heesh.
John / Doran:Yeah. I'll do it. I'll jump.
Tim / GM:Okay. Give me an, athletics or acrobatics. However you see
Maggie / Poppy:that. 17.
Tim / GM:Alright. Yeah. So, Bert does one of those landings where he's got his feet together and his arms kinda go out there. And, he's perfectly fine on the other side. What you see though is that, I believe Tibio is not too far behind you, but Uli is maybe only halfway across and she has stopped and she's concentrating on the rope.
Maggie / Poppy:Does Holly, I'm guessing, notice because she sees
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Bert jump and land, and she's like, oh, no. And she's like, Ollie, what can I do? What can I do? Keep it keep it big. Oh, wait.
Maggie / Poppy:I can do that. Holly, hold out her crystal, and starts concentrating, and she casts enlarge on the rope because she is a cell 2. So, and she can make it last for up another 30 or another minute. Okay.
Speaker 6:Should it be like a quick transfer or something?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. So 2, 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 6:And then I'll drop it as sizzie.
Tim / GM:You guys hear the rope kind of flex, and you can see some of the stone chip away on the pillar that it's tied to as the rope rapidly, like, shrinks and pulls in and then expands again and gets heavy. And, Uli, I need a strength check, because this rope just suddenly kind of, like, whips itself and and forms sort of a sine wave as you're being toggled up and down.
Speaker 6:Oh, that's good. 19.
Tim / GM:Alright. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Uli's a a big tough person, so she's able to hold on to that thick rope as this thing gets jostled up and down and you just kind of wait for it to settle. But you can't wait too long because the spell's only got another 40 seconds on it.
Speaker 2:Go. Go. Go.
Speaker 6:I think I'm scared of heights also now. I mean I may not have been before.
Tim / GM:There is an infinite blackness beneath you. None of you can see it at the bottom of this thing. So as you're kind of passing, near, like, just past that half way point, another missile comes out of the darkness, ahead of you and smashes into that central pillar that used to support the bridge, and there's this huge explosion right behind you. I'm not gonna make you roll for it, because that just seems like too many rolls to for this to end. But suffice it to say, that pillar is destroyed, and, these kobolds have given their position away.
Tim / GM:So snack, you've just been, like, watching the darkness, like, I want this slingshot. Yeah. And you see, a kobold with, it's it's all of its skin is worn away on its face, and so it just has a skull for a head, but it has a scaly body otherwise. And it's, it's raised up to shoot 1, and it sees that it kind of missed its target. It's going like and it settles back below the rocks.
John / Doran:I run after him.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So all of you see is Snack, like, just rip off towards this thing. And, you pull yourself up over this little rocky ledge, and you see it kind of laying prone and, waiting for another opportunity to to pop out and shoot somebody.
John / Doran:I'm actually gonna stealth up and try out my new sick looking dagger.
Tim / GM:Okay.
John / Doran:Yeah. And, yeah, I'm gonna try to sneak I don't know if I'm, like, does he see me, or, like, am I afraid No.
Tim / GM:He was hiding from you, so he didn't even know that you saw him.
John / Doran:Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just gonna try to stealth up behind him, and then try to stab him.
Tim / GM:Okay.
John / Doran:18 for stealth check. Oh, yeah. You beat him. Okay. Yeah.
John / Doran:So I come up and actually, if he's holding the slingshot with his hand, I'm gonna try to chop the arm with the the bones.
Tim / GM:Okay. I'm gonna
John / Doran:try it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So you you sneak up behind him and, you know, his body is, like, pretty withered and decayed. So when you bring this, honking knife down on him, you just snap this in you and take it off at the elbow. And so you've got the slingshot and the arm.
John / Doran:Thank you. Thank you. Bye now.
Maggie / Poppy:And then I grab him and I'm gonna try to throw him off the cliff.
John / Doran:Jesus. Yeah.
Tim / GM:As you start talking to him, he just turns in you and goes and, you're gonna try to throw him off the cliff?
John / Doran:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Alright. That's gonna be a contested grapple.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Does the arbalest come to
John / Doran:a disadvantage? Yeah. Oh, you're right. Oh my god. Okay.
John / Doran:He does. Let's see. Contested grapple would be 18. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. His disadvantage brought him down to a 16.
John / Doran:Oh, man. Yeah. Okay.
Tim / GM:Okay. So, he I mean, he's he's de armed. And so he goes to, like, grapple you, and then he's, like, depending on his other hand to be there. And there's just nothing to grab with. And, and you just kind of, like, chuck him off the cliff without anybody ever knowing.
Tim / GM:And you just come back with a slingshot.
John / Doran:Alright. Yep. And I, whoop, like, right into my lamp for later. So I don't know if it's actually magical or where that was coming from, but yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You guys can all hear some kobold feet scampering away kind of in every direction. And, Uli, you you make it to the other side of the cliff finally.
Tara / Journey:Just to interject, when Tibio crossed, when he got to the cliff, his skeleton legs lifted up on their own and, like, the feet were placed on the edge of the cliff and then the skeleton just kind of, like, rolled up.
Maggie / Poppy:Like a Jacob's ladder.
Tim / GM:Yep.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Just amazing. Yep.
Tim / GM:That fluid anatomy is pretty useful.
Speaker 6:I can assume that the dragon's gonna be coming from wherever we're heading. Yep. We need to hide.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Made it all safe. But, yes, I agree. We need to hide, Uli.
Speaker 6:Are there places to hide or what?
Tim / GM:There's, there's really, like, scant opportunities to to to conceal yourself out here. You'd need to travel a little further down the path, for any options.
Speaker 2:I think we should hurry because the go bold shutter thing, I don't know, it exploded and I think that might alert the dragon to our presence.
Speaker 6:I would like to cast alter self
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 6:To make myself look like a kind of a zombie kobold.
Tim / GM:Okay. You're gonna be smaller then? Yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah. So, you can transform your appearance, decide what you look like, height, weight, facial features on your voice, hair length, all of that. And it lasts for an hour. You can be a member of another race.
Tim / GM:Okay. Cool.
Speaker 6:Your none of your stats change.
John / Doran:Alright. Yeah. So little little Kobold, Uli, I guess.
Speaker 6:I'm a big Kobold though.
John / Doran:Big Kobold Uli.
Speaker 6:Because I can't change my size size for a while.
Tim / GM:Class or whatever? Your size class? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Tim / GM:So you're still a medium cobalt. Yeah. Yeah. So you're you're you're kind of like
John / Doran:a like a almost like a dragonborn kind of in between. Yeah.
Speaker 6:I just wanna, like, blend in a little bit.
Tim / GM:Snack, what does that feel like?
Speaker 6:Hey, I look like you a little bit.
John / Doran:And we will talk about this later.
Speaker 6:This is appreciation.
Tim / GM:Oh. Not a
Maggie / Poppy:We're going there. Okay. Holly's gonna roll a perception check while people are messing around Okay. Of what's ahead. She doesn't she's the only one that doesn't have dark vision too.
Maggie / Poppy:So I can't see very much. But is there any blue moss around here?
Tim / GM:Yes, there is.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Cool. So a little bit of light. Natural one.
Tim / GM:How did you, like, sneak out that detail before the perception check? You were, like, about to roll a perception check and you're, like, is there a blue mask? And I'm, like, yes. Wait. Shit.
Speaker 6:Just for being able
Tara / Journey:to see She was already shaking the guy. She's, like, just stare in passing. Is there a blue mask?
John / Doran:So I hit him? Yeah.
Speaker 6:Like, rolled a natural one. I rolled a natural one. Oh, my god. Natural one.
Tim / GM:You know, it's like something bad supposed to happen, but it was such a voluntary, like, out of the blue kind of thing. It just makes sense
Maggie / Poppy:to us.
Tara / Journey:You run into a pillar. Yeah. You just throw it. Something.
Tim / GM:Careful, Holly.
Maggie / Poppy:Man, tibio. How do you keep these things safe?
Speaker 2:Well, when they don't have skin, they don't hurt so much.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, interesting.
John / Doran:Let's hope we don't find out.
Tim / GM:You all do notice, that blue moss is here. It's only sometimes, is it lit. It's not very often. Most of the time, it's just it glows like a really, really, like, pale powdery blue. So you can see it in the darkness, but it's barely giving off light.
Tim / GM:When you, continue down this path, you all start to see a lot of spider webs.
Speaker 6:No. I
Speaker 2:hate spiders. Why do you do this?
Tara / Journey:Sorry. Why though?
Maggie / Poppy:Because they're a low level monster, frost to find.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Adventure fodder.
John / Doran:They didn't say anything about spiders.
Tara / Journey:Why couldn't it be lizards?
Tim / GM:Lizard webs. A fish. Fish webs. The path that you were on was sort of this big open expanse, that was sort of almost like a flat plateau of stone, which actually leads into another more contained, like, cave tunnel now. And it's in this tunnel that you're seeing all of these spider webs.
Tim / GM:The the path has become somewhat narrow before it opens into a large chamber with a high ceiling. There are natural stone columns that reach up into the darkness. Again, you can't see the ceiling in this chamber. And before you are 3 mine shafts. They're labeled, with dwarven, ruins.
Tim / GM:Those of you that can read it, you can just see that it says shaft 1, shaft 2, and shaft 3. But across all of them are these thick webs that have a bit of a purple sheen to them.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, it says chef 1, chef 2, chef 3. So that's not very useful, is it? Also, I know Dervish. Hi. Hi.
Maggie / Poppy:Hi. A lot of my customers back in Tildry, I just felt like it was useful to learn.
Tim / GM:I need perception checks from everybody. Oh. Love that. I'm
Speaker 6:so bad at these.
Maggie / Poppy:This is
Tara / Journey:my first time rolling today.
Speaker 6:11.
John / Doran:21.
Maggie / Poppy:Also, 11. 12.
Tim / GM:7. Wow. 21.
Speaker 2:Snick.
Tim / GM:Let's talk. That's it. So 21, you notice Snick. Shaft 2 has, kind of in the bottom right corner, there are a couple, like, clean cuts in the web, where where something has, like, passed through it. I guess you get everything.
Tim / GM:Okay? So you also notice a, a a lump on the ground that is totally wrapped up in webs, and you notice, movement, high up in the ceiling between the stalagmites or stalactites and columns on the webs.
John / Doran:Everyone keep your heads up high. There's something above us. I have found something down here. And I go towards the lump on the ground. Mhmm.
John / Doran:I take out the dagger, and I'm gonna try to cut it loose. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Holly looks up.
Tim / GM:You all do and don't see a spider. Snack, as you're investigating this lump, that turns out to be, the deceased body of an elven person, it's really just another skeleton. This one doesn't seem to be animated. It is wearing a, a chain shirt, which is extremely clean and lightweight. And it also has a a crimson cloak that smells of sulfur.
Tim / GM:Your your treasure hoarding instincts are telling you these might be magical items. Okay.
John / Doran:Given the circumstances, I'll, look around and I I think to ask Bert to look at these, but then shove them into my lamp instead for later.
Tim / GM:For those of you that heated snacks warning and are watching upwards, you do see the shimmer of these webs as something is pulling on them every now and then. And you can just see a little glint of light from some of the burning moss in the other room. And then you hear, what's up? What is all this now?
Speaker 6:Oh, no.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, it it talks? This is a new level of gross.
Tim / GM:As it comes into the light of the haunted candles, you can all make out this strange creature that has the body of a spider. It's got a large abdomen with 8 legs, but sprouting from that abdomen like a centaur is the torso of an elf, a dark elf, with long hair and sort of, it's, it's very thin in its physique, but it's also what you might call chiseled. It's got, like, a strong jaw and, like, nice abs and a good complexion and it's, like, long, clean hair.
Speaker 6:So so it's hot spider.
Tim / GM:Hot spider.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, no. It's hot. It's
Tim / GM:it's kind of like a emo kid hot spider with black hair. Sebastian.
Speaker 2:Spider elf.
Tim / GM:It, crawls down from this column and says, well well well, what is all this? Fresh, fresh food.
John / Doran:Hello, sir.
Tim / GM:As he sort of, he doesn't come too close to you guys. He's staying in the columns and sort of moving on his webs, but he looks down and he says, oh, very fresh and they're still living.
John / Doran:How did I get so lucky?
Speaker 2:So we are not for eating. You should let us be. We are here to break a curse. Oh.
Tara / Journey:And I'm still tucked behind Uli. I'm just, like, peeking out from behind her back.
Tim / GM:You wanna break a curse?
Speaker 2:Sir, if we break the curse, more living will come down here. And you could eat them, but don't just.
John / Doran:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Well, I'm not interested in breaking any curses. I'm interested in, getting a bite to eat. I'm also a little interested in news. You look like you're all kind of fresh from the surface.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, look at here, we have a a verified, bona fide news reporter. Well And she pushes Bert onto the spider.
John / Doran:Thanks, Holly. Happy to help in any way that's not eating related.
Tim / GM:And, hold on a second. And, he, now that he's, like, on the webs maybe 10 feet from all of you, still kind of suspended in air, he takes a few long strides. And, Bert, he's suddenly just above you. He's on top of you, and he's moving past you, over you. And he's staring straight down at snack, who's staring straight up.
Tim / GM:And he says, Snack, I never thought I would ever have to see you again.
John / Doran:What? Oh. How do you know my name? What are you, creature?
Tim / GM:Oh, Snack. It's been a long time, hasn't it?
John / Doran:I I suppose so. I Snack, gets up and tries to give an actual look at him now that he's not obsessing over the items he just got.
Tim / GM:Oh, 'tis I, Snack. Lysander. Remember who you and your friends bullied mercilessly until I retreated into the Underdark? Lysander. Just because I listen to different music?
Tim / GM:Just because I like to be in the dark music?
John / Doran:Me me me me me music. Your own band? That's all you listen to? Your own music? That's what real music was, Zach.
Tim / GM:You still don't know. And he runs up in the webs up higher in the columns away from all of you.
John / Doran:I thought we were in danger there for a second everyone. Allies, this is fine. We just have a wet noodle that may wrap around our legs as we're trying to deal with this dragon thing.
Tim / GM:He says, oh, oh, times have changed, snack.
John / Doran:No. Why are you dry now? You're a dry noodle.
Tim / GM:And, you hear some rummaging, and then all of a sudden, you guys just hear a thunk as a corpse, like, lands, like, right between all of you. He says, how's this for wet noodle? And all of a sudden, you hear, dunk, Dunk. Dunk. Dunk.
Tim / GM:Oh. As he's cutting corpses loose from his webs
Speaker 6:Oh. Up high. Come on, dude.
Tim / GM:Wet noodle, I've got a higher body count than you'll ever have.
John / Doran:We'll see about that. I've killed more than him. Right, allies? Right?
Speaker 6:Oh, totally.
John / Doran:We cannot be bested by him. Change of plans. I don't think we can deal with this dragon thing anymore. We must put a stop to the sender. So here
Tim / GM:it is. Either I'm about to get a 5 course meal, or you're gonna tell me a story that I haven't heard that's so good that it tides me over until the next stupid adventurer wanders in here.
John / Doran:No. We're just going to kill you. Right? Well, I'll take a stab at that story thing.
Tim / GM:Sing it, no man.
John / Doran:I'm not much of a singer. Just a story you haven't heard, Okay. Okay.
Tim / GM:Thanks so much for listening. I'm Tim, your DM and your genie.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm Hannah playing Holly Hyacinth.
John / Doran:I'm Thomas. I play Engelbert f f Wisherspoon.
Tara / Journey:I'm Tara, and I play Tibio Femur.
John / Doran:I'm John. I play Snack the Cobalt.
Speaker 6:And I'm Maggie playing Uli.
