Cursebreaker | 52 - Big Trap Dragon Mountain
Less time on curse breaker. We spent a lovely morning in lamplight looking out over the bay and sipping our tea. Though our future is uncertain, it was obvious that Vindorn is where we needed to be. Holly served up another turbo portal and we spent some time in Hogwild before getting back out on the road. Now as we search the smoldering ruins around the mountains, a refugee reaches out to save us from certain death.
Tim / GM:Or he's going to eat us. The area that you're in is a sort of canyon almost, where the left side of the mountains actually overhang. And underneath that kind of overhang is where this firbolg is leading you into the dry brush. And he says,
Speaker 2:you must follow with me. It's it's deeper here. It's safe.
Speaker 3:It's so nice, to help the Skobolds. Yes. Yes.
Speaker 2:Why are you all out in the bright sunlight?
Speaker 4:Lost our home. It's burned down.
Thomas / Guy:Very sad. Very sad.
Speaker 2:I hope I'm not leading you right back towards danger if you're fleeing from this mountain. We like danger.
Thomas / Guy:Danger is all of our middle names.
Speaker 2:Consider me substantially confused. Also, you can call me Kevin.
Tim / GM:And, he leads you further into the mountain. You now enter into a narrow chamber that a few of you have to actually hunch down in to crawl through. But it widens out into a large cylindrical chamber that goes down pretty darn far in a sort of spiral, that you can walk down, scoping out this place. You can see maybe 15, 20 other, people, kobolds, furbolgs, some humans even. Maybe people from that burned village, seem to have all accumulated here in this little refugee camp.
John / Doran:From a snacks perspective, is are furbolgs, like, commonly down here? Or
Tim / GM:No. You guys don't really, like, interface. And so it must be that, like, their habitat was destroyed, hence they're in the mountain. But they are they are not cave dwellers.
John / Doran:I'm curious.
Speaker 7:Excuse me. Are you all, trying to stay away from the dragon?
Speaker 2:We've done a done enough job avoiding them living here. He does not have a presence at night, so that is when we search for resources.
Speaker 4:Yes. Dragon sleep time.
Thomas / Guy:Where did he go at night?
Speaker 3:Yes, munch. Excellent question. Where are the dragons at night?
Tim / GM:It's, it points vaguely upward
Speaker 2:and says, it rests in the caldera, but we dare not go.
Speaker 3:Yes. Knowing brave enough to take on the dragon, Nacy.
Tim / GM:It avoids your eyes and sheepishly kinda looks around. He leads you down to the center of this chamber at the very bottom, and there's a a pool of fresh water that he gestures to that you can all rest and, and drink if you need to. Let me get a perception check from everybody.
Speaker 3:Yes. Bear's having it.
Thomas / Guy:Alright.
Speaker 8:Oh, shit.
Tim / GM:Bread is my fault.
Speaker 9:15.
John / Doran:18.
Speaker 8:9. Mhmm. Dirty 20.
Tim / GM:Okay. 15, 18, and dirty 20. As you all come to stop by this shallow pool at the bottom of the cavern here, there's a cross legged figure that has a large blanket over its shoulders, and it is staring at a wet cave wall. And it You see its chest kind of rise and sink as it breathes. But other than that, it looks completely stationary.
Tim / GM:It's a rather large figure, and something about it looks familiar even from behind.
Speaker 10:Tibbio makes his way over. He's trying to not speak as much as possible. He knows that he's gonna give the shit away because his accent and his
Speaker 8:I think we all did
Speaker 10:inability to be sketchy.
Speaker 8:I think we all did telepathy before we came out here too, so we can still do telepathy telepathy. That's it. Mhmm.
Thomas / Guy:So I
Speaker 8:think we can all talk in our minds still.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm. Yeah.
Speaker 10:I'm gonna head over to that figure.
Tim / GM:Okay. You kind of get to its side enough that you can see its face in profile even with the blanket over its head a little bit, and you see Dor, though he looks a little different. He's got some burns. He's also missing his eyebrows. His eyes look glassy, and he looks broken, and he's just kind of staring forward.
Speaker 10:In my mind, I call out to everyone.
Speaker 9:Everyone, Dore is over here. Uli, you must come.
Speaker 10:And then I'm gonna go over to Dor and kneel in front of him and, give him a healing word.
Speaker 8:So from Dor's perspective, a random kobalt is coming up to him
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Speaker 8:And trying to heal him.
Speaker 10:Yep. Okay.
Speaker 8:And then 4 more kobolds come over.
Speaker 10:3 Okay. HP.
Tim / GM:So you, I suppose you actually don't have to touch him for this. So you grant him a healing word from a safe distance and Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 10:I just kinda kneel in front of him trying not to be intimidating at all.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Tim / GM:I think you see his eyes flick from the wall to you for a second and then back
Thomas / Guy:to the wall. He barely acknowledges what just
Tim / GM:happened, and then Uli kind of steps into frame here. Dor,
Thomas / Guy:I
Speaker 4:know I don't look like me, but it's Uli.
Tim / GM:He turns to look at you.
Speaker 3:Hey.
Speaker 4:What's going on? Why are you here?
Tim / GM:He's, like, looking straight at you in your eyes, and then you seem, like, shake his head. And then he, like, looks back at the ground.
Speaker 4:I speak into his no. He wouldn't like that. Oh, I might get him to react. I message him. Okay.
Speaker 4:Door, it's Uli.
Tim / GM:You see him take a deep breath, and then he abruptly, like, reaches out in front of him kinda towards Tibio and grabs a rock off the ground, and he just starts smashing himself on the forehead over and over again.
Speaker 4:No. We're not gonna I grapple him.
Speaker 10:I help. I hop up and grab his arm.
Tim / GM:Okay. Let's have both of you give me a grapple check.
Speaker 8:Holly, in cobalt form is smashing, picks up another rock and, like, starts smashing it against the cave floor. Like, yes. Yes. It's rock smash. Like, to just, like, look like we're just having a good old time over here.
Speaker 8:Nothing to see, folks.
Speaker 4:Is it just a strength?
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Snack, help me. Smashbox. 14.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Uli, you're able to, restrain him pretty effectively. He does not seem to have any of the same fight that he used to.
Speaker 4:Dor, stop. Stop hurting yourself. What happened?
Tim / GM:He's, like, staring right into your eyes, and he just says Holy.
Speaker 4:Yeah. It's me. Just I just I'm in disguise, but I'm still me.
Tim / GM:He looks at Tibio, and he says, holy.
Speaker 4:That one's Tibio.
Speaker 9:I'm I'm Tibio. I'm sorry, Dora. We are in disguise. We are trying to fight a dragon. Are you okay?
Speaker 9:Where is Ilya?
Tim / GM:He, looks around a little bit more, and he sees Snack in there. And he just kind of, like, looks at the rest of you and looks back towards Uli, and he says, I lost them.
Speaker 4:Lost how? Like, lost track of? Or,
Tim / GM:We were we were coming up the trail north towards Vindorn, and it descended on us. The dragon? The people who found me. These people. And he gestures towards the cavern and says, they found me in a footprint that was a foot deep.
Speaker 4:That's a, pretty Bigfoot.
Tim / GM:My horse burst beneath me. Okay.
Speaker 4:Ilya?
Tim / GM:And he says, yet I survived. And he drops his blanket, and you see this huge empty space on his back where a death ward tattoo used to be. Well And the grim realization comes when he says nobody else made it.
Speaker 4:No. That that can't be right. You you just lost track of them. Illya's fine. She she fights.
Speaker 4:She's a fighter. Right?
Tim / GM:He doesn't even blink, but you see his eyes just water.
Speaker 4:Did no. No. No. It's fine. She's fine.
Speaker 4:We'll find her. Right?
Speaker 9:Yes. I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out. Let's just make sure that Dora is okay first. We can talk more about it later.
Speaker 4:She's fine. She'll be fine.
Speaker 9:I'm sure. Yes. Of course. I had telepathy to Bert. Bert, can you provide any more healing?
Speaker 9:I'm not very strong at it yet. It I did not do very much good.
Thomas / Guy:I don't know what he can do. I think he's physically okay, but he just lost his sister. I don't know how I can help him.
Speaker 9:I see.
Thomas / Guy:Maybe he just needs time, and we need to we need to look out for Uli too.
Speaker 9:Is is there a way that we can send him home?
Speaker 4:I But not ready.
Tim / GM:You see him start to, like, tremble, like, really shake, and he says, I I I can't go back out there.
Speaker 9:Okay. Okay. So okay. Dora, you will stay here, and,
Speaker 10:I take off Ronnie's robe, and I put it on his shoulders.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 10:So he is not gonna have to eat or drink for
Tim / GM:a week.
Speaker 10:He can just survive.
Tim / GM:Tibia, you become hungry.
Speaker 4:I did not know it did that.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Mhmm. About that time you hear,
Speaker 2:it's not much for eating, but
Tim / GM:it's He, holds up a couple of loaves of obviously hard bread,
Speaker 2:and he says, it's for sharing if,
Tim / GM:you need it.
Speaker 3:Yes. More for, hot rocks.
John / Doran:Yes. Of course. Well, we we already brought some food. I think we are okay. You may have some as well.
John / Doran:And I cast, create food and water. Mhmm. So, I'm gonna try to do this behind my robe cloak and, just make £45 of food, 30 gallons of water.
Tim / GM:Any specific, like, type for meats, grains?
John / Doran:I mean, he likes bread, so it's all bread.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Tons of bread, and then, I don't know, maybe there's, like, a little pyramid of sausages that roll onto the floor there. His eyes kind of go wide, and you you see a couple other refugee kobolds, like, peer over the edges of this kind of, like, spiral that leads down. Kevin looks up at all the hungry kobolds, and he says, not re re
Speaker 2:master action. This is precious resources.
Tim / GM:And you you hear a kobold drop down into this kind of central area, and he's, like, holding up both of his hands.
Speaker 2:And he's like, please, please.
John / Doran:Snack sees this coming and, goes over and just starts throwing bread bread around the room. Okay. So Yeah.
Tim / GM:Fight. Perfectly according to plan, you see the kobolds disperse to corners instead of going after the main supply in the middle. Okay.
John / Doran:Yeah. So I think everyone is we're fed.
Thomas / Guy:Snack, how often can you cast this one? Are we good?
John / Doran:Cast? Yeah. Yes. We're fine. I can do this whenever I want.
Tim / GM:You throw a loaf of bread, and it kind of skips across the ground, and it disappears behind 2 overlapping walls that hid a little entrance to something deeper within the mountain. Snek will investigate this. Please roll an investigation check. That's not great.
Speaker 8:Holly's following Snack because she still wants she's just copying everything he's doing still
Tim / GM:because she's
Speaker 8:having a lot of fun being a kobold.
John / Doran:Yeah. 11.
Speaker 8:She's an investigative too.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Yes. Walls. Yes. Nap
Speaker 8:20. Wow.
Speaker 3:Oh my god. Right.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Snack. You are, like, getting back into your cobalt senses, investigating, like, the darkness here and getting up close to the rocks to, like, look at signs of travel and what creatures may have been coming here, what this pathway was used for. And then Kobold Holly just points to this large, very obviously man made stack of rocks that just escaped your notice entirely. But snack, you recognize a rock talk, a sign left by kobolds for other kobolds.
John / Doran:What does this rock talk say?
Tim / GM:It is a tall stack of rocks that is leaned precariously on a stick like it could fall at any moment. This signifies that there are traps within.
John / Doran:Excellent work, Holly. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Woah.
John / Doran:Excellent work, Snatch.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I forgot to.
Speaker 10:Anything snack can do, Snatch can do better.
Speaker 3:This is very true, Tibio. Yes.
Speaker 10:No. I didn't say this, Tibio. I should've.
Speaker 8:Wait. We can redo it. It's okay.
John / Doran:This, this right here, Snatch, it, of course, you already know this, but this indicates that, future traps lay ahead.
Speaker 8:Oh, traps traps are and, Holly is standing really straight, like like she's in school for reciting, a poem or something she memorized, and she's saying, traps are for friends and enemies.
John / Doran:Yes. Yes. Yes.
Tim / GM:Why don't
John / Doran:you go ask, Munch to see, what he sees ahead?
Speaker 3:Munch.
Speaker 8:Holly runs off to find
Thomas / Guy:her. Yes, Snatch.
Speaker 3:You must come and see this thing. A surprise we found.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, I love a surprise.
Speaker 8:Yes. Holly's gonna teleph to everyone and say, hey. Come over here. We found something on this wall. I found something, not snack.
Speaker 8:Thank you.
Speaker 4:Lily has bread that she's not eating and just is smiling really wide. What, yes. Yes. What did we find?
Tim / GM:Emery Kobold comes up behind you guys, and he's got a sausage on each claw.
Speaker 3:And it's just like
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. What did you find?
Speaker 3:It's traps. Right right, Zach.
John / Doran:C minus. What? Snatch. It's fine. We don't need to practice that, but, yes, be careful there, our traps head.
Tim / GM:Snack Beyond That Rock Talk is an additional one made on a smaller scale, but it is one large rock circled by many, many small pebbles. This signifies a great dragon dwells here.
John / Doran:I will relay this information. This is where the dragon dwells, apparently.
Speaker 4:Great. Let's go.
John / Doran:But he lives here? Well, somewhere this direction. Yes. There's traps and the dragon.
Speaker 3:Oh, we did learn that he loves traps.
Speaker 4:Yes. There's no reason to sit around and think. Let's go.
John / Doran:Well,
Speaker 9:at Should we I mean,
John / Doran:Tim, where are you going?
Speaker 7:Should we stay and keep an eye on the
John / Doran:let's let's do this in our heads, maybe.
Speaker 9:This is snug. I do not like doing this voice. It hurts very much.
John / Doran:We're all by ourselves. We really don't have to do that anymore.
Speaker 8:Holly says in our heads, hey, come around the wall here. We can be alone.
Speaker 4:Yes. Bert, maybe just tell my parents where to find him, and and then he'll be fine. Everything's fine.
Thomas / Guy:Is that going to send your parents up here to get him? That sounds dangerous.
Speaker 4:Well, he are we I don't wanna just leave him here.
Speaker 8:I think he's okay for now. I mean
John / Doran:Yeah. What if I, let B'Day keep him company?
Speaker 10:That's actually really sweet.
John / Doran:Bidet loves to talk about death at night. That's He's his
Tim / GM:Maybe not then unless he Like a therapy donkey.
Speaker 10:And he died.
Speaker 8:Oh, he
Speaker 4:can't talk to him. Yeah. That's fine. Oh.
Speaker 8:Even better.
John / Doran:Yeah. I'll be right back. I go over with, my lamp and try to covertly have a donkey fall out of it.
Tim / GM:It actually doesn't take much. I think the smell of the sausages by itself, like, is enough. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Tim / GM:There's just
Speaker 3:a weird dunk.
Speaker 4:Crumbs left by
Thomas / Guy:the fry.
Tim / GM:He knows there's crumbs left out there. So yeah. Bidet slithers out of your lamp and plops on the ground. And then he says, is this my new resting place?
John / Doran:Let's not talk about, that bidet. Let's let's be a little more optimistic, door. I am Snack the Kobold, and, I am beseeching thee with, my donkey bidet.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry. I'm here for a snack.
John / Doran:Bidet, this is Dor. He is your temporary master while we go fight a dragon.
Tim / GM:B'Day says, so be it.
John / Doran:Dor, anything to say to B'Day?
Tim / GM:Dor is in the midst of eating. He holds out one greasy hand, Bidet gives it a lick, and Dor looks at you and just nods. Wonderful. B'Day? Oh, I have a choice?
John / Doran:No. I was going to give you another command.
Tim / GM:Oh, yes, master.
John / Doran:I lift up Bazir. B'Day. I think, Thor here is down a sibling and is quite upset. Try not to speak of death too much and, keep him warm.
Tim / GM:Okay. Well, I know some pretty good jokes. Perfect.
John / Doran:Okay. Perfect. Yes.
Speaker 10:We all walk away in
Thomas / Guy:the streets.
John / Doran:Can you tell me one first before it goes?
Speaker 4:There's a donkey screaming at him.
John / Doran:Tell me what tell me what are the jokes first. I'm gonna cheer them with the rest of the party here.
Tim / GM:What do you call a what do you call an immortal donkey?
John / Doran:What do I call an immortal donkey?
Speaker 10:I was gonna say ass from the past.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's better.
Tim / GM:It, it ambles towards door and just kind of, like, wraps its big stupid head around door, like, right around his shoulder, and then just, like, gives his neck a huge lick.
Speaker 9:Oh.
Tim / GM:And you hear Dor just go Yeah. The tiniest exhale Mhmm. Of enjoyment.
John / Doran:And, Dora, just, for safety reasons, I want you to have this. And I take out one of the bear traps.
Tim / GM:He, he, like, holds it in his hands, and he, like, pries it apart so it's, like, almost set completely. And then he kinda feels it spring back closed, and then he looks at you, and he just gives, like, a big approving nod. I'm like, yeah. Okay.
John / Doran:Alright. Keep a day away from it, though. Farewell.
Tim / GM:As you're walking away, you just hear, thank you. Alright.
Speaker 8:Aw. But they found a friend again.
Tim / GM:You rejoin your little family right in front of that, cave entrance.
Speaker 4:Alright. Let's go. Everything is fine, and we're gonna get through this.
Speaker 9:Uly, I am sure that we will find Illya. I am sure. As soon as this dragon is dispatched, we will be able to look for her in in yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure too. I'm totally positive about that.
John / Doran:Uli, if, your sister is
Speaker 10:She's not.
John / Doran:Not well, just speaking hypothetically, I'm sure I could find another immortal donkey, and perhaps you could have that one. It seemed to help Dua quite a bit.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
John / Doran:It's almost the same as a sister.
Speaker 4:Thank you, snack.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Are we out of the side of the other Kobalts? Yeah. Bert's gonna get out his book and write a quick message. Dear Ilya, you said you owe me 2 at this point, so it really wouldn't be fair if you were dead.
Thomas / Guy:Let us know. Sincerely, Bert.
Tim / GM:You see message received.
Thomas / Guy:Oh. Uli, I think we are gonna find your sister.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah? Are you yeah. You sure?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. For real.
Speaker 4:Oh, thank god. I didn't know what I was gonna tell mom.
Speaker 8:She really needs to stop pretend dying all the time.
Speaker 9:Yeah. Maybe it would be good to tell your parents that Dor is alive and we know where he is and that Ilya is alive and we are working on finding her.
Speaker 4:Probably. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. You want me to to write your parents?
Speaker 4:I mean, I can't. So Yeah. I
Thomas / Guy:will do that.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Thomas / Guy:Can we just say I did it? Yeah. That's fine. Okay. Great.
Tim / GM:I was gonna say I don't think we've even, like, used their names before. Masha and Ben Dear mom mom and
Thomas / Guy:dad Yeah. But not that
Tim / GM:Yeah. Mom and dad. But not my mom and dad, in parenthesis. You all begin down this tunnel, and it slowly gets a little bit more narrow until you're the tallest of you are sort of half hunching. When you pass the last kind of tangent that would have sent you into some other direction, some other dead end Snack, your senses are coming back to you.
Tim / GM:You're kind of cave way finding. It's quite easy for you to choose the path that goes further here. In this tunnel, it's exceptionally easy because it is the tunnel that is gusting at you every now and again.
John / Doran:I think we're getting close. We will soon, maybe be closer to the dragon. And,
Tim / GM:You hear an uneasy silence and something droning really low in the distance, just kind of constantly, endlessly. You also smell fire smoke and dead rot kind of intermingled. Like like actual dead
Speaker 4:dead things.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
John / Doran:Is this like a normal smell in places like this?
Tim / GM:In parts of it. Yes. Yeah. You're all walking down this tunnel for about a minute, and then you feel a sudden rush of air. I need everyone to make a strength save.
Speaker 4:Oh. I still 9. Alright.
Speaker 10:9, 1, and
John / Doran:13. I
Speaker 10:got that. 9.
Tim / GM:Alright. 9, 1, and 13. Oh my god. That one's coming in dice too. Do not fare so well.
Tim / GM:Each of you take, 6 bludgeoning damage as you are tumbling backwards over stalagmites that are sticking up out of the ground. Some of them get, like, lodged straight into your spine, as you're no. Sorry. They don't stab through you.
Speaker 3:Jesus. They poke
Tim / GM:you real hard in the back, and it hurts.
Thomas / Guy:Ow. What was that?
Tim / GM:Oof. Snack. That was the trap. The trap goes every minute.
John / Doran:Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. This trap goes off every minute. We must be more careful.
Speaker 4:Wow. Snack. Thank you.
Speaker 9:Yes. Snack, I thought you were going to warn us more effectively.
John / Doran:Well, I figured it was obvious that there was a trap here. So
Thomas / Guy:what, what can we do? We just need to hold on to something when the trap goes off?
John / Doran:Yeah. When when the air is blowing, you just kinda grab onto something, be safe kinda like this. Yeah. Just follow my lead. I hope this won't happen again.
Tim / GM:It might have escaped your mind to even mention the trap because in a lot of ways, the mountain is the trap. Every minute, the trap fires off. The trap reaches for miles and miles through this mountain. They are all interconnected, and they all function off of a single connective point. But it's sort of weird for you to live in a world that doesn't have a trap counting the time, because every minute for your entire life, you would hear this thing go off, and you would hear screams, and you would hear rushing and water and bones and fire and spikes and iron and arrows.
John / Doran:Yes. A beautiful passage of time in the in the caverns here. You must realize that every minute this, happens and, just pay attention next time, of course.
Tim / GM:I need a strength save in all of you.
Speaker 8:I'm gonna cast enhance ability.
Speaker 4:17.
Speaker 8:19.
John / Doran:9. 12.
Speaker 8:I'm gonna give myself bull's strength, which gives me advantage on strength checks.
Tim / GM:K.
Speaker 8:And my carrying capacity doubles. I've never used this spell. Holly grows some buff arm muscles, and her thighs roid out, which you can't see that because it's under her dress, which is under her cobalt disguise.
Thomas / Guy:Layers.
Speaker 8:Lay layers. So advantage on a strength check. Mhmm. Well, that was good. 19.
Tim / GM:Alright. That would be Snack and Bert actually do not succeed this. The 2 of you are thrown onto stalagmites for 4 bludgeoning damage each.
Speaker 4:How long does Bull's strength last? An hour. Nice. Maybe the smaller of us should hang on to the stronger of us.
Thomas / Guy:Snack, I was following your lead, and it happened again.
John / Doran:Yes. Well, there you forgot one of my other lessons. Don't trust anyone.
Speaker 4:Except for your friends, and I take hands in my hands. I take Tibeo's hands and Bert. Hand. One hand, not
Thomas / Guy:Can I, like, cast guidance on myself every minute?
Tim / GM:I think so.
John / Doran:Okay.
Tim / GM:The, ground starts to slope down a little bit, and the ceiling rises at the same time. And eventually, you come to a narrow rope bridge that is kind of suspended by little spikes in the wall that have been tied to the planks of the bridge. It is of cobalt construction, which is to say it'll disintegrate at any moment.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, boy.
Speaker 4:And the buffeting trap still goes in here?
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're you're still on a single narrow tunnel.
John / Doran:Yeah. Let's wait for the trap to go off. Wow. They repaired this bridge. It's alright.
John / Doran:Great.
Tim / GM:The wind gust comes. And, I'll give everybody, actually, I'll just give everybody a pass on this one since you're all just sitting there bracing for it.
Thomas / Guy:Woo.
Tim / GM:Yeah. The gust comes and goes, and that leaves you one minute to cross this bridge. Who's going first?
Speaker 8:Holly runs across. Holly
Speaker 4:Holly, you have a a broom you could fly on.
Speaker 8:Oh my god. My broom. I forgot about it.
Tim / GM:Holly runs across.
Speaker 8:Okay. Holly runs across, but then she remembers she has a broom halfway k. And then she tries to hop on the broom instead.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Holly, you get about halfway, and, you hear a kind of snapping noise, and the bridge kind of leans a little bit more to one side than the other. And you hop on your broom and finish off the rest of the journey there. For the first time, you all see Holly as a kobold, hop on onto this old straw witch's broom and, yeah, just kind of flies right down the tunnel at the end of the bridge. Perfect.
Speaker 8:When I fly around my broom, Sal just, like, hangs off the front of it with, like Hang
Tim / GM:in there, Sal.
Speaker 8:The hang in there cat face. But he's, like, comfortable. He's fine. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 8:But he just was, like, yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Snacker flies across. Perfectly safe. Who's next?
Thomas / Guy:Alright. Boy, the 3 of us should really learn how to fly.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Can I carry anyone with vibrio?
Tim / GM:You can carry a small folk. You can carry Bert or Tibio.
Speaker 8:Holly zooms back, and she picks up
Thomas / Guy:Bert. Okay. Well
Speaker 8:Here we go, and she flies us back across.
Speaker 3:Here we go.
Thomas / Guy:Do
Speaker 9:you want to go first, or should I?
Speaker 4:We could go together. I could dimension Doris.
Speaker 9:Okay. That works even better.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Let's do that. I don't surge.
Speaker 10:Wonderful. Yes.
Tim / GM:Okay. Pretty simple process. Well, you've been through this a few times. You grab Tibeo's hand and slip through the dimension door to the other side of the bridge.
Thomas / Guy:Alright. Brace for the next trap.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You all wait for another gust to go, hunker down for 30 seconds or so, the blast goes, and you continue on. I need perception checks from each of you.
Speaker 3:Perception.
Thomas / Guy:19.
Speaker 10:8. 7.
Speaker 8:16.
Speaker 4:7.
Tim / GM:Okay. So this half of the table, that'd be Tibio snack and Uli. Pretty close to the same time, discover the gimmick with this next section. There are a couple of water runoff holes in the ground here, almost perfectly circular, about the size of a grapefruit, some of them, others about the size of a watermelon. Most of them about 15 feet deep, some a little shallower.
Tim / GM:The 3 of you, have fallen into these holes, maybe one leg, maybe both. And you are just now starting to discover that there are very much alive rats in these holes, and they are extremely hungry.
Speaker 4:Awesome. Yeah. Love that for us.
Speaker 10:My skeleton is in the hole. True. Just a thought.
Tim / GM:You you do not experience any biting at this point, but you do notice the wiggling and scurrying against your stuck legs.
Speaker 10:My bone dog barks.
Tim / GM:Yeah. My dogs are barking.
Thomas / Guy:I
Speaker 4:don't I don't like this. No. No. No. Get me out.
Speaker 4:Get me out.
Thomas / Guy:What are you guys doing in there?
Speaker 4:Help. Help. Help. Help. There are rats.
Speaker 9:I think there are some sort of features.
Speaker 10:Yes. Rats may be in the holes.
Speaker 9:Oh, one
Speaker 4:of them is trying to get out my pants.
Speaker 9:Oh, yeah. Oh, no. No.
Speaker 10:Come out. And I, use my spines and bones to give her a hand.
Speaker 8:Can I see any rats, or they're just hidden in the holes?
Tim / GM:If you look down into the holes, you'll see a few of them have live rats in them.
Speaker 8:Holly Holly is gonna fly around in her broom, firebolting into holes.
Speaker 10:K. Jesus.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You guys are working on a winching ooolly out of one of the rat holes. Meanwhile, Holly flies up and down just kind of, like, carpet bombing this area.
Speaker 10:Oh my god.
Speaker 8:It's like whack a mole.
Tim / GM:Yeah. These
Speaker 8:are with Firebolt as my whack. Firebolt is a cantrip, so I can just keep casting it.
Speaker 4:They have all their little feet. All the tails.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Tibio, you're able to extract Uli from that hole. And when you do, you see that there are 2 rats just hanging onto her clothes as she's being pulled up.
Speaker 4:Why has this always happened to me?
Speaker 10:I I reach out and gently pluck them off of her. I'm gonna be nice to the rats. I I I mean, Tibia doesn't assume that any small creature is bad Yeah. Off the bat. Mhmm.
John / Doran:Mhmm. Flee, verminor will scorch you. I yell at at my foot that's stuck in the hole.
Thomas / Guy:Bert, Bert's gonna peek in Snack's hole.
Speaker 2:Woah. Yep.
Tim / GM:Got it.
Thomas / Guy:Yep. You got rats in here. That's your problem. I'm gonna get I'm gonna word of radiance to them.
Tim / GM:What does that say?
Thomas / Guy:It's a holy AOE.
Tim / GM:Oh, damn. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Con save.
Tim / GM:The rats look up at you, and they're just like, you can't take away a free meal. What the hell? Nat 20.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, those rats are fine.
Tim / GM:The rat the rat rises from the hole, its eyes dripping with black shadow, staring at you, Burton. It says, we will not be stopped by the likes of you.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Okay. Sorry.
Tim / GM:It goes back in the hole. Now about that nibble.
Thomas / Guy:I had
Speaker 10:the the rats that
Speaker 9:I plucked off of Oolion going, you're going to have a nice day if you go back in the hole while you feel long. Have a good one. See you later.
Thomas / Guy:Snack, I've decided to be a good kobold and betray you. You're on your own.
John / Doran:Wonderful. Delighted.
Speaker 4:That's a sign of true friendship.
John / Doran:Am I still stuck? You're still stuck. I'm gonna try to pull my foot out.
Tim / GM:Give me a strength check with disadvantage to pull yourself out.
John / Doran:5. I
Tim / GM:you begin to struggle.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna reach for his hand.
Tim / GM:The rats make an attack with 16.
John / Doran:Oh, that's gonna
Tim / GM:hit me. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Alright. And there's 30 rats. So
Tim / GM:Yeah. Mhmm. That is one piercing damage, and you need to make a con save.
Speaker 10:Oh, no. Are they toxic rats?
Speaker 4:Just rabid.
Tim / GM:9. Okay. Snack is poisoned.
Speaker 10:So I helped Uli out, but I didn't get myself out. So I'm gonna do that now also.
Tim / GM:Okay. I need strength at disadvantage, and then Uli is helping snack?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna pick him up by the scruff.
Tim / GM:Okay. I just need a strength. No. I think you can just get him out by yourself.
Speaker 4:Oh. Yeah.
Speaker 9:Uli, I think one of my toe bones is stuck in a crevasse. I'm not sure.
Speaker 4:Alright. Here. And I, like, scoop them up by the armpits. Scalipits.
Speaker 10:Hang on
Speaker 4:to your bones.
Tim / GM:You, Tibia, you kind of, like, slack in all of your bones to, like, slip off of you so you can more easily come out of there, and they reform as you're set back onto the ground. Perfect. Tibia is more liquid than anything these days. But, yeah, you're out of your rat hole as well.
Speaker 10:Wonderful. Coming out of my hole, honey. I'm feeling just fine.
John / Doran:I hate when this happens. I think we should, fight the dragon a a different day. I don't feel great.
Tim / GM:Snack, you are clammy and sweaty, and you have disadvantage on strength, dex, and con.
Speaker 4:Do you, do you
John / Doran:need anything?
Speaker 4:Some ginger ale?
John / Doran:Do you see any, cave moss that they usually eat that when this happens?
Speaker 4:I have good moss.
John / Doran:You have good? What's wrong with the
Tim / GM:cave moss?
Speaker 4:That's all I have.
Tim / GM:Okay. Here's some good moss.
John / Doran:I'll try it.
Thomas / Guy:This is better moss.
John / Doran:Okay. Yes. I would eat some of this.
Speaker 4:Which I don't think tastes bad to him anymore.
Tim / GM:That's right. It's, you know, edible. Bitter but edible.
Speaker 8:Liv mas.
Thomas / Guy:Does that cure does that cure poison?
Speaker 4:No. No.
John / Doran:I feel so much better.
Tim / GM:Good for you, though.
Thomas / Guy:Snack, now that my betrayal is complete, I I guess I can help you out a little bit. And I cast a lesser restoration.
Tim / GM:Woah. Little bit of a Lester there.
John / Doran:Thank you, Bert.
Thomas / Guy:Feeling better?
John / Doran:Yes. I feel, almost 100%.
Thomas / Guy:That's bad. Nah.
Tim / GM:Or it's like an a minus.
John / Doran:Wonderful. I one moment, please. And I go over to the hole, and then I
Thomas / Guy:oh, yeah.
John / Doran:Just, like, breathe fire into the hole, and it, like, shoots out of the other ones nearby. That's perfect toasty.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You
John / Doran:used to I always wanted to do that.
Tim / GM:You see, like, rat fur, like, like, fly up from the other holes as these interconnected things are scorched to a crisp.
Thomas / Guy:Hey, how long has it been since that last air trip?
Tim / GM:You realize that the air trap is even worse here because the air trap is accompanied by a water deluge. I need everybody to make a strength save with disadvantage.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. No problem.
Tim / GM:As the water and air pipe.
Thomas / Guy:Natural twenty and a 19.
Speaker 10:I rolled twos both times.
Speaker 8:I rolled 2 threes.
Speaker 10:That's incredible. 21.
Tim / GM:Okay. With disadvantage?
Speaker 4:I had a 14 and a 13.
Tim / GM:Snack. How'd you fare? 6. Okay. So we got snack.
Tim / GM:5. Holly and Tibio, are actually pushed back into the former area.
Speaker 4:Into a rat hole.
Tim / GM:Actually, it would be the bridge plummet. Oh, crazy. Some of the water kind of like rushes over to that and almost falls off the edge there, kind of pushing you all the way back. I need an easy dexterity save from the 3 of you.
Speaker 10:Natural 20.
Tim / GM:Nice. 11. I
Thomas / Guy:got a
Speaker 8:5, but I just don't know how this is working with my broom situation. Is it, like, full on water?
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think you, like Just
Speaker 8:got caught in a wave?
Tim / GM:I think you were knocked off of your broom. Okay. Yeah. Okay. None of you so poorly that you were thrown off of the cliff, but you're all kind of sent back to that, and we'll have to walk over the rat holes again.
Thomas / Guy:And that was an easy save.
Speaker 8:The broom is just fine with Sal now by by itself. Sure.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. The broom catches back up
Speaker 3:with you and
Thomas / Guy:kind of offers its services again. Watch out for the holds this time.
Tim / GM:Just a a actually, give me a dexterity check to kinda quick hop over these holds and get back to your party.
Speaker 9:12. 24.
Tim / GM:K. Oh. Snack. The, owner of these mountains. About halfway through, you've fallen so that both legs are in 2 separate houses.
John / Doran:Was it 12?
Speaker 10:The last time he was here, he was a very small kobold.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Much more nimble.
John / Doran:As we're not quite adjusted. I'm just gonna be flying again.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You can you can raise yourself out of those holes to fly again. And Holly, obviously, you can just skip to the end with your broom.
Speaker 8:Yeah. And then she's, like, being like, snack. Come on. We have places to be. You're doing this again.
Speaker 8:You gotta be doing it on purpose.
John / Doran:I am doing it on purpose. I'm showing you all how to not do this good.
Speaker 8:Mhmm. Mhmm.
John / Doran:Now you know. Thank you.
Speaker 10:Race you
Speaker 8:to the next room.
Thomas / Guy:Brilliant, master. Perfect.
Tim / GM:Holly, as you move into the next room, the hallway kind of chokes down to a little portal that you have to kinda step through awkwardly. But when you come into the next chamber after that, you notice that there are these webs everywhere, kind of dull purple in color, unlike anything you've ever seen. It almost looks like cotton candy strung from wall to wall, but they look old.
Speaker 8:Holly sniffs them.
Tim / GM:They smell old.
Speaker 8:Like dust?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Like dust.
Speaker 8:Holly licks it. No. I'm just kidding.
Tim / GM:Holly eats all of the webs before anyone steps foot in there.
Speaker 8:I'm just kidding. I'm gonna burn them. Holly, steps back, and she puts a hand out for Uli who's coming in next and says hold. And then she goes, pew pew pew pew and shoots a bunch of fire bolts right in a row just around the room to burn all the purple web.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You shoot off the first fire bolt, and what comes out is a smattering of sparks.
Speaker 3:From me?
Tim / GM:Uli, as you're stepping through, you can see Holly say, wait a second, and then she holds out a hand and goes but you're just seeing these little, like, sparklers that last barely a quarter of a second.
Speaker 10:Wow, Holly.
Speaker 8:What the hell? Impressive. Holly, like, shakes a hand, readjusts a crystal ring on her finger. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Just like,
Speaker 3:what the hell?
Tim / GM:Crystals are out of alignment.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. What's going on up there? Trying out a new spell, Holly?
Speaker 8:My magic's not working.
Speaker 4:Oh, how how do I feel?
Tim / GM:You're not quite in the room yet. Do you wanna be?
Speaker 4:I'm gonna put a toe in.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You have a similar feeling to when you step inside the ring of silence.
Speaker 4:Well, it's been real. I'm just gonna go. I'm not going in there. So see you.
Speaker 8:Is my broom still fine with me?
Tim / GM:It is rapidly descending. It is barely hovering off the ground such that part of it is always touching the ground, but the other part of it is always just kind of lazily spinning in a circle, just sort of drifting in place.
Speaker 8:Holly goes back out of this room.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Can I do some sort of arcana check on the webs? Yeah. 21.
Tim / GM:So, yeah, with that, you can conclude that definitely it's the webs that's causing this. You can also tell that the webs are weak in comparison to what they could be. The magic in them seem as dormant, almost dead. Whatever's stopping the magic here.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. It's definitely coming from these webs. Do do you recognize these at all, snake?
John / Doran:Do I recognize these?
Thomas / Guy:That's our snack.
Speaker 2:Do you recognize
Thomas / Guy:I don't
Tim / GM:know. You recognize This is
Thomas / Guy:so stupid. Just trying
Speaker 4:out a
Speaker 3:new product. Product.
Thomas / Guy:Today, the role of Snick will be understudy.
Speaker 10:Ernie the dinosaur.
Thomas / Guy:Why do we all just hug?
Tim / GM:That's a really good Barney. You gotta be Barney next time.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no. Okay, Tim.
Tim / GM:Snack, you recognize the size of these webs and the patterns in which they're weaved, but you don't recognize this color or this effect that they have. Is it dryder web?
Speaker 2:Yes.
John / Doran:This is a it's a big the the dryder spider people. Yes. That's right.
Speaker 8:Wasn't that your friend?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. That loser we met back in the cave.
Speaker 9:Lysander? Lysendo.
Thomas / Guy:I
John / Doran:feel sick. You said friend? Why why would you get that impression at all?
Thomas / Guy:Because
Speaker 4:you betrayed each other.
John / Doran:That's true. Yes. Are we friends?
Speaker 4:And you knew each other?
John / Doran:We did know each other.
Speaker 4:You said you loved his music.
Tim / GM:Are we afraid of these? Oh. Emery from the back of the room.
Speaker 10:The Goatman.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
John / Doran:How did you get across our pitch?
Tim / GM:You all you all keep, like, moving past these traps, and then Emery's kind of there by back by himself, like, okay.
Thomas / Guy:And he
Tim / GM:just kinda, like, figures it out on his own schedule and then catches up with you.
Speaker 10:It's like cut scenes where, like, all of us adventuring, like, struggling, like, helping each other out, and then it cuts back to quietly.
Tim / GM:Carefully stepping over the bridge, carefully stepping over the rat holes, swimming
Thomas / Guy:through the water.
Speaker 4:Them a little cheese.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Earlier, you guys got blown back, like, right to where Emery is, and you didn't even notice.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Is that
John / Doran:one of you? He was dangling off the cliff and we were just like, oh, that was close. And then we kept going.
Tim / GM:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker 10:Oh, Emery.
Tim / GM:He's like, so are we are we just not going forward? Or what's what are we doing?
Speaker 8:Oh, Emery, you're not magic. You go in there.
Speaker 4:He is very attached to something magic and gets very sick when he's not.
Speaker 8:Yeah. The sword could still cut this web maybe, though. It's still a sword.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. We can cut our way through here. We we gotta keep moving, Uli. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:Alright. It's his funeral.
Tim / GM:You got webs to cut? Oh, a dunk. And he, like, moves past all of you guys. He, like, moves into the next room, and you hear, like, shing.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But Here
Tim / GM:we go.
Speaker 4:Is cutting them gonna do anything? They still exist.
Thomas / Guy:Just to
Speaker 8:get past
Thomas / Guy:them. Well,
Speaker 8:he seems to be having fun at least.
John / Doran:Has it been about a minute yet? Or
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I grabbed some gnome hands Okay. Knowing full well that something might happen.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Because of the choke in this cave and the fact that you guys are on the safe side of the wall, you do hear the wind gust go off, and Emery just comes sailing back through that hole and just gets jettisoned into this room through that tiny little focus point. The rest of you are fine being on the safe wall. But, yeah, you see em Emery go ass over a tea kettle, and the sword gets stabbed right in the ground between his legs. And he looks up at all of you, and he goes, that was cool.
John / Doran:I want to join. I take out a dagger and then go and start cutting webs too. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. I'll start, brain goring the webs.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You, as you step in there, you all feel, mundane. Definitely, you feel low energy and, like, the extra part of life has been sapped away from you. However
Thomas / Guy:Bert too?
Tim / GM:Bert does not. Okay. Bert feels fine.
Thomas / Guy:You know, this really isn't too bad. I don't know what you guys are complaining about.
Speaker 3:Man, shut up. I'm gonna
Thomas / Guy:I'm gonna sacred flame one of those webs too.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:My god.
Speaker 3:That was excellent.
Thomas / Guy:I don't
John / Doran:know what character that was, but
Thomas / Guy:I don't know.
Speaker 8:That was the post like, the best
Speaker 10:Uli. You.
Speaker 8:I love that.
Tim / GM:Bert launches a sacred flame into the webs and snack. You're cutting at them, and Emery has got his great sword out, and he's cutting at them again as well. This radiant flame, however, hits kind of near the ceiling where these webs are masked up in the corners of the ceiling, and it burns downward rapidly, and it just kind of engulfs this whole room. Oops. You all just kind of, like, turn to leave, and by the time you turn, it's already over.
Tim / GM:And sure, it singed your clothing or something, but they burned so readily that this room is just completely clear now. Nothing to worry about.
Speaker 9:Is it safe now? Can I come inside? I did not know where to go in there.
Speaker 4:Yeah. They're gone. How's the magic feel? Nonexistent still?
Tim / GM:You can still feel a sort of pressure against your magic.
Speaker 4:Same amount or less?
Tim / GM:Much less. You could cast if you really had to. Just might be weakened.
Speaker 8:Is there a pathway out now?
Tim / GM:Yeah. There's a pretty clear way forward here. You're actually starting to, descend a little bit again. This comes to another tight choke point to the point where you all have to crawl on your belly. Oh.
Tim / GM:The ceiling is maybe 1 foot from the floor here. So you have to, like, suck in all the way and just hope it doesn't go wrong, hope that the mountain doesn't descend an inch on top of you. Eventually, the floor drops out in front of you. You are all on your bellies, kind of one in front of the other, shimmying through this narrow chasm. And below you is a raging river that follows, directly in line with this path.
Tim / GM:Mhmm. It's about a 20 foot drop into the river, and you can see the way continues ahead of you, but there's no ground beneath you to support the journey.
Speaker 4:So we have to cross the river.
Tim / GM:Yes. There is no bridge here. There are stalactites on the ceiling.
Speaker 10:So it's it's a tunnel, and then the ground is gone, and it's a river, and then it's a tunnel on the other side.
Tim / GM:Yep. At the same height. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Why is there no bridge here, Snake?
John / Doran:There used to be a bridge.
Speaker 8:Holly zooms around the room and tries to see if there is anything investigate to see if there's anything that could help.
Tim / GM:Yep. Give me, investigate with advantage. K.
Speaker 10:Oh, wait. We're supposed to look around in dungeons?
Tim / GM:We gotta stop feeding you guys stuff. You gotta learn how to play D and D.
Speaker 10:Oh, man.
Speaker 4:You haven't been feeding us. 11.
Thomas / Guy:We just have a bunch of bread.
Tim / GM:That's fine. I'll just swallow it. Holly, you see nothing of interest.
Speaker 4:Can I look harder?
John / Doran:Can so so Snack, like, grew up in this. Yeah. Maybe it took a little while, but it's starting to hit home. He's getting his, cobalt legs again. Perhaps something clicks for him.
John / Doran:Do I recognize this river?
Tim / GM:So you know that this this river is bad. It's a killer. Usually wasn't a problem to cross because there was a bridge here. This was also I didn't think of a funny Kobold word for it, but this is a pretty common, like, graffiti room. A lot of writing on the walls here.
Tim / GM:You know that not all of the writing is in draconic, though. Some of it is actually in Elvish and Dwarvish.
John / Doran:Oh, I recognize this place. We should probably stay here for a moment and read some messages. It's quite funny.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yes. They call this environmental storytelling.
John / Doran:They yes. Of course.
Speaker 4:I can't read any of this.
John / Doran:That was my thing. What they done never mind. Bert can read it.
Speaker 10:Yeah. He's
Thomas / Guy:Bert would like to investigate the graffiti.
Tim / GM:It says try butthole. No. It's a
Thomas / Guy:path ahead.
Tim / GM:Graffiti and Elvish says, Little River, don't expect so much from yourself. No one expects you to rush all day, take a moment's rest, and swell without guilt in your leisure.
Thomas / Guy:Oof, else. Alright. Let's try the dwarf one.
Tim / GM:The dwarfish one is just a word that you're trying to think of the ambiguity for, but you can't understand any other definition than the word one.
Thomas / Guy:Holly, that one, does it say one? Yep. Oh, by the way,
John / Doran:if you fall into that river, I think you die, if I remember correctly.
Thomas / Guy:Well, I don't know what that dwarf one means.
Speaker 8:It might be just with the one minute thing, you know, where it all goes off.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, sure.
Speaker 8:What's the other stuff say?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, some, some hippie elf stuff about little river, don't work so hard. You're working too hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Take a load off little river.
Speaker 8:I love that poem.
Thomas / Guy:I thought I thought I actually read it. Word for word, Bert.
John / Doran:I thought we killed all the elves that were down here.
Thomas / Guy:We're just gonna read it. Out
Tim / GM:loud. The river sort of slows.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, I can talk to rivers.
Tim / GM:The water level begins to rise until it almost meets the edge of the tunnel that you're at, and the water becomes completely calm and still.
Thomas / Guy:I say we cross this pretty fast. Yeah. Let's go.
Speaker 8:Holly flies across with her broom.
Tim / GM:And and Ray catches up and dips in. Yeah.
Speaker 4:With bones?
Speaker 8:You can have a bone boat. Do float. Okay.
Tim / GM:Holly, you have to, delicately weave between the stalactites on the ceiling here and the surface of the water to get across. There's enough room, but you'll have to go about as slowly as the swimmers. Okay. The swimmers, feel a little bit of a current moving against you. And, when you're near the end of this, the dwarf word makes perfect sense as the water level starts to go off or starts to sink right after the trap goes off one more time.
Tim / GM:You can decide amongst yourselves, but I need an order in which you're going to exit the river.
Speaker 10:I would have been near the end.
Tim / GM:So last or close to last?
Speaker 10:I would be close to last, if not last. I did say swimsuit.
Thomas / Guy:Everyone to go. I would be probably first. K.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Not to be that guy.
Tim / GM:So we'll say Bert and Uli get up without issue. That leaves, Holly is kind of in a different predicament altogether. Snack, do you think you would be in front of Emery or behind him?
John / Doran:In front of Emery.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. I
Speaker 10:would have let Emery go ahead of me.
Tim / GM:Okay. So polite. The, water level begins to sink as the current becomes more intense after a few of you have gotten out, snack. As you're lifting yourself out of the water, you notice that it's you had to pull yourself up a couple feet to get out there. You look back and see that the water is now visibly rushing away from you, the way that the river was going initially.
Tim / GM:You can see that Tibia and Emery are being pushed back in the current.
Speaker 8:Bert Bert, read read the poem again.
Speaker 4:Don't fuck. Halo, river. I cast telekinesis in front of them. Sorry.
Tim / GM:Emery goes, don't forget about me.
Speaker 4:I wanna scoop them. But you you do your thing. Yep. I'm just holding them.
John / Doran:I say it.
Tim / GM:Bert, give me a, history check to remember the verbatim incantation.
Thomas / Guy:I never took that feat that's, like, you remember everything Team 1. That you read. Yeah. I probably should. That's gonna be a 20.
Tim / GM:Oh, well. Yeah. So you see Emery and No.
Thomas / Guy:Sorry. It's an 18.
Tim / GM:Oh, you see Emery and Tibia. Yeah. They they both go, kind of tumbling backwards, through the river. The water gets more aggressive such that it starts kind of bobbing them both beneath the water's surface.
Speaker 4:A scope? Yeah. Both of them.
Tim / GM:If you had to focus your effort on one of them, it
Speaker 9:would be.
Speaker 8:No question.
Speaker 3:Let me finish.
Tim / GM:Well, say, Tibia, you scooped out of the water. No issue. He's just dripping into the river. Gonna need you to make an arcana check to save Emory.
Speaker 4:15.
Tim / GM:You've got kind of a split focus now as you've got Tibeo suspended in midair, and the current is pulling harder and harder on Emri. He's reaching out such that you can grab his hand and hold him there, but you're struggling to pull both of them back in.
Thomas / Guy:Don't be such a bitch, River.
Speaker 10:Little bitch, River, don't work so damn hard. I'm gonna reach out with one of my spines and grab Emery by the wrist.
Tim / GM:Nice. Okay. Yeah. You feel Emery, like, slowly slipping by the second as you, your three spines combine to form one 15 foot long extension, that Emery is able to grasp onto. Uli, you can focus your efforts on Tibia now that they've got a hold of each other.
Speaker 4:And I just drag them in a line.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You've got a firm hold of them. As you pull harder and harder, you feel the river is actually easing up again, and the water level begins to rise as Bert nailed the incantation on his first try. You're able to, pull the 2 of them back onto land, and, Emery dramatically sputters water as if he had been drowning.
Thomas / Guy:Nice save, Uli.
Speaker 4:Thanks. Tibia, I'm so glad you're alive.
Speaker 9:Yes. And also, Emery, we managed to get him out as well.
Speaker 4:Oh, good.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, great. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I slap him very hard on the back to, like, get water out of his lungs.
Tim / GM:He looks at you and says, when I was down there.
Speaker 3:Nope. Uh-uh.
John / Doran:Beneath the waves.
Speaker 4:We're not doing this.
Tim / GM:Hey. Wait wait up. Stands up and moves along with with the rest of you.
Thomas / Guy:Let's hope there's no more elfish poetry on the line.
Tim / GM:You follow this, stone cavern until on your right is suddenly this elegant brickwork archway that leads into a real ass dungeon. Is it elegant? Elegant. So elegant.
Thomas / Guy:Wow. Look at how elegant this is.
Speaker 8:What a fancy archway.
Tim / GM:Snack, you are looking up at the big stairs. These are very big stairs. The spacing between the stairs is actually comfortable for a human, but the there's a lot of stairs here. It climbs a good distance up the mountain. These stairs are also heavily trapped.
Speaker 4:Can I vibe check?
Thomas / Guy:Sure.
Speaker 4:Stay open.
Tim / GM:They're elegant. Elegant stairs.
Speaker 4:These are really nice stairs.
John / Doran:Have I been up these stairs before?
Tim / GM:A long time ago, probably. This was a place where you would play as a child, and then you wised up and were old enough wise enough not to play here.
Speaker 8:Holly's gonna investigate and look for what's the rope thing that pulls you up at the ski place?
Speaker 4:A ski place?
Speaker 8:A tow rope. Holly's gonna look for a tow rope
Tim / GM:k.
Speaker 8:Or a chateau with wine. I'm
Speaker 3:just kidding.
Tim / GM:I think you mean chalet.
Speaker 8:Is it chalet? What's chateau?
Speaker 4:Chateau is a
Thomas / Guy:It's a house.
Speaker 10:Chalet is the, like, lounge where you go to drink instead of ski. Chateau is the house that you live in in the mountains.
Speaker 8:It's a Okay. So they're both mountain related.
Speaker 4:They're both shelters, and a chapeau is a hat.
Tim / GM:It's like a mountain for your head.
John / Doran:It's like a it's like
Thomas / Guy:a chalomay.
Speaker 4:A chalomay?
Tim / GM:A chaperone.
Speaker 3:Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 8:I got a I got a 5 for investigation.
Speaker 3:We're gonna
Tim / GM:have to take that again. There's a lot left.
Speaker 4:I say leave it.
Thomas / Guy:Jesus. Then we have
Tim / GM:to leave the whole chateau thing. Yeah.
Speaker 8:I said
Speaker 3:chateau. It was good.
John / Doran:Snack's gonna look for shallots.
Thomas / Guy:You find shallots.
Tim / GM:You found Jean's shallot in the staircase.
Speaker 10:Tibia was gonna look around for traps, specifically.
Tim / GM:Yeah. And, Holly, what did you actually end up doing?
Speaker 8:Holly was investigating for a tow rope or some sort of thing to bring her out the mountain.
Tim / GM:And what'd you get?
Speaker 8:A 5.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Okay. Tibio?
Speaker 4:You're sitting on 1.
Speaker 10:22.
Tim / GM:You better start believing in toe ropes, Holly.
Speaker 3:You're on 1. Sorry.
Tim / GM:It popped into my head. I I was sure to leave a nice cut there for the 22.
Speaker 8:I was looking for something for my friends. I should clarify that. Not just for me.
John / Doran:Okay. Yeah. So Snex's like, hey, everyone. There's and then everyone starts doing their thing.
Tim / GM:Discovering by by triggering all of them. Tibia, with a 22, you find the first kind of trap here. A section of these stairs, about 2 feet by 2 feet, when you press down on it really hard, it springs up with incredible force, and it would fling anyone on it backwards down the stairs.
Speaker 9:Everyone, watch out for this thing. It's it will bounce you off of the stairs. Go around.
John / Doran:Oh, there's traps up here?
Tim / GM:You turn to look at the ceiling and you can see that there are, like, like, bones stuck in the ceiling from people being jettisoned at the at the
Thomas / Guy:rock table.
Speaker 10:Yikes. Tibio goes around it k. And carefully, like, gestures everyone around it very assertively.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm. I gotta admit, this one seems kind of fun, but I'll avoid it. Okay.
Speaker 10:Fonendolli does not, and Tibio points to the ceiling.
Tim / GM:You all hear this distant, And the trap goes off in this room. Everybody roll a d twenty.
Speaker 4:We got 1 of those. Down the stairs. Do we add anything?
Speaker 10:Nope. Please? Nope. 8.
Speaker 4:8.
John / Doran:2.
Speaker 9:10.
Thomas / Guy:15.
Speaker 8:19.
Tim / GM:Tibio, snack, and oole. Found some new spring boards.
Speaker 10:I'm on the shit end of the table. Sorry.
Tim / GM:I need a, DC sorry. I don't need to tell you the DC. Give me a wisdom save, the 3 of you. This is to notice the springboard and time to move off of it.
Speaker 4:I would like 2 tides of chaos, my role, to get advantage. That's not any better. Mhmm.
Speaker 10:8. 16.
John / Doran:16.
Tim / GM:Incredible. Okay.
Speaker 10:Just kidding. 18? Because I do have proficiency in wisdom saving throws.
Tim / GM:Snack and Tibia are fine. You step off of your plate. You feel a little bit of a rattling beneath you, and you move off of that square. Uli.
Speaker 4:Hey. Does anyone feel that?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Uli, you are you are jettisoned, down the stairs.
Speaker 8:What about Emory?
Tim / GM:I don't think you quite hit the ceiling. We'll get to Emory.
Thomas / Guy:But when did Uli learn how to fly?
Tim / GM:Not as bad as it could be. That is 7 bludgeoning damage as you hit the stairs and continue to roll. The next trap, Bert with a 15, you fall into this category. Boulders drop from the ceiling and roll down the stairs.
John / Doran:That seems bad.
Tim / GM:Bert, I need you to make a dexterity save to get out of the way of the boulders before they destroy your body.
Speaker 8:Gnomes are dextrous.
Speaker 10:Can you guide yourself?
Tim / GM:15. Can you guide yourself?
Thomas / Guy:Well, if you allow it.
Tim / GM:I think you guys have gotten used to the rhythm of the traps here.
Thomas / Guy:16.
Tim / GM:Well done, Bert. Bert.
Speaker 4:Was it a matter of 1?
Tim / GM:Bert graciously sidesteps this kind of stream of boulders. It's actually not very wide, but they are suspiciously spherical as they roll down the stairs, kind of thumping stair after stair. Bert, you just barely save your skin. Let's see if Emery survived, because he was in the same category.
Thomas / Guy:You know, we should not have had Tim get Elden Ring. Yes.
Tim / GM:You know that thing when somebody who cares for you is driving and they slam the brakes hard and they put their arm out to stop you from falling forward Mhmm. Emery actually reaches down to, like, help you, Bert, to save you. You don't need it. Oh. But he does, like, put his arm down to protect you.
Tim / GM:And then immediately, he, like, pulls it back. Cute.
Thomas / Guy:Well, thanks, Emory.
Tim / GM:And finally, Holly, up on the broom, you are doused in water pouring from the ceiling, that is also rolling down the stairs.
Speaker 8:I'm always so wet.
Tim / GM:A strength save from you, Holly.
Speaker 8:It's a Nat one. Oh,
Speaker 4:no. Oh, no. Cool.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Holly, you are knocked from your broom. You sail all the way back down the stairs. You are at the very beginning of this room. That's that's really all that does, actually.
Thomas / Guy:So Uly and Holly are back at the beginning, kinda? Yes.
Speaker 4:I'm okay.
Thomas / Guy:These stairs are pretty tricky.
Speaker 9:Snug, is there something at the top that just, like, turns all of them off? What? A button or a lever that just turns all of it off.
John / Doran:Why would we do that, Tibio?
Speaker 9:So that you could take a break from the traps.
John / Doran:But then anyone could come and sneak up on us.
Speaker 7:But then
Speaker 9:you would turn it back on once you were done.
John / Doran:I don't know. We never got to the top. I don't think.
Tim / GM:In the midst of your conversation as Uli and Holly are getting back on their feet, Bert sees a dot of white light in the middle of the staircase digging to widen.
Speaker 4:Oh, shit.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, oh, hey. It's one of those portals of someone coming to kill us.
John / Doran:Is that
Thomas / Guy:part of the stair snack?
John / Doran:I don't recall. No. That's a new one. Yes.
Speaker 4:Do you need us up there?
Speaker 9:As soon as you can. Yes. Probably.
John / Doran:Yeah. I need you to
Thomas / Guy:we need you to do that thing where you close the weave, and it's very complicated.
Speaker 4:Cool. Okay. Coming.
Speaker 10:I'm gonna attack the dot.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. Nothing has quite come through yet.
Speaker 10:Yeah. I just wanna attack it to not let it gain strength.
Tim / GM:Okay. For clarity's sake, I'm gonna have you all take one, like, surprise round effectively before this thing is in the scene.
Speaker 10:I'm gonna cast Rhea Frost, making a ranged spell attack. Natural one. Damn. Fuck.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You go to cast Raya Frost on it, and this might have happened anyway, Tibia, but as you're casting on this dot, you can see your ray of frost is bending almost like light through a black hole that when it gets close to this dot, it actually kind of, like, arcs into a sphere and then spirals into the dot. It's just sort of eating all of it.
Speaker 10:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Hurry up here as fast as you can. I think I can block it. I'll slow it down. I'll draw an ingress ink line around it.
Speaker 4:Okay. Awesome.
Tim / GM:You do so.
Speaker 8:You guys, we dealt with this before. We can try to close the tear. And then Holly I'm guessing we're kinda close together now. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 8:Holly wipes out her eyes and tries to see the weave. Mhmm.
Speaker 4:And then Holly comes up behind me and does the ghost thing
Thomas / Guy:with her.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Holly tries to guide Uli to help close-up the weave.
Speaker 4:Can we do that with the ingress going?
Tim / GM:You'd be able to, like, interact with the thing inside of the ingress ink.
Speaker 4:Okay. So I'm going to make big, stupid, clumsy stitches with my hands.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Holly can see the gaping tear in the weave here, and it was a it was a fast and ugly affair. This thing literally just kind of burst through with full force. This spirit seems to know what it's doing much more than the last one did.
Speaker 4:I can see the spirit, though. Yes.
Tim / GM:It's starting to emerge. Yeah. You see a dwarf face.
Speaker 4:It's crowning. God.
Tim / GM:You see a dwarf face with chains in its beard and murder in its eyes, and it is busting through the weave to try to exist here.
Speaker 8:Tibio, didn't you didn't you know a song or or something to banish him? There's a little guy coming through.
Speaker 9:All I did was push on him last time,
Speaker 10:and I'm gonna reach out with my necromancy.
Tim / GM:I need an arcana check from Holly and Uli. And then Tibia roll a one as well, and yours will replace one of theirs.
Speaker 9:Just like last time.
Speaker 10:This is our very cool combo. Yeah.
Speaker 4:30 20.
Speaker 10:Doesn't my role have to
Speaker 4:replace one of their roles?
Tim / GM:No. Yours is a support role.
Speaker 3:That's good.
Speaker 10:Yeah. We'll leave my secret.
Speaker 8:What was yours? 17.
Speaker 4:Oh, nice.
Speaker 10:Studio trips on the stairs.
Tim / GM:Your effort was strong, but not complete.
Speaker 8:Snack, can't you do anything? You're a curse breaker now.
Speaker 4:Get back in there.
Tim / GM:The spirit has pushed its way through, and you see this dwarf now floating inside the circle of ingress, staring at each of you, literal flames jetting from its eyes. This thing is furious. It is looking for a target among you, waiting for the ingress ink to die.
John / Doran:Snack do something. That's what Holly said. I I Eldritch Blast, The dwarf.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Alright.
John / Doran:We got a 18 and 18, 26
Speaker 4:I forgot
Tim / GM:how much
Speaker 4:damage he does.
John / Doran:And a 22 to hit.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Those all hit.
John / Doran:Okay. 35 41 damage. K.
Speaker 3:Oh, we're
Speaker 10:gonna stay we're gonna actually stay back here and snatch him and go find the dragon by himself.
Speaker 2:Alright. Alright.
Tim / GM:Smart ass. So I think the eldritch blast explodes, the ingress ink. Regardless of which way you're going at it, that much force is gonna cause it to shatter, freeing the spirit. You do see that it is instantly bloodied, as it bust through.
Thomas / Guy:My ink is.
Tim / GM:So I think that's been everybody.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Has taken at least one action here.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, sure. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I'm going to declare official initiative if y'all don't mind real quick.
John / Doran:20 upstairs.
Speaker 10:I do, in fact, mind.
Speaker 4:Natural 20.
Tim / GM:Wow. The, bad guy also got a 20. So
Speaker 4:Like, a natural 20? Fuck. The fuck? How do we is it Uli v ghost?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Oh,
Thomas / Guy:it's by Dex, isn't it? Like, whoever has the higher Dex.
Speaker 4:13 is my Dex.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Cobra's got your beat. Cobra? Sorry. That's his code name in here.
Tim / GM:I don't know why.
Speaker 4:I don't know why. It's not like he's a total badass or anything.
Speaker 8:Are they cute, cursebreakers? I like how Tim comes up with with code words for his enemies just in case.
Tim / GM:Named himself Cobra.
John / Doran:But he doesn't have donkey jokes prepared.
Thomas / Guy:So I
John / Doran:don't yeah.
Speaker 8:And then when we ask
Speaker 4:you for names, you're like, Kevin.
Tim / GM:God. I only got the twenties. What did everybody else get?
Speaker 10:Hannah got 8. 17. 7.
John / Doran:I manufacture 20.
Thomas / Guy:I roll a 17, and I'll go 4th.
Tim / GM:Alright. First up is the trap goes off. Oh, Emery's here. Hold on. Initiative.
Speaker 10:Oh, Emery.
Speaker 4:I was literally gonna cast Ghash's form on him so he could follow us.
John / Doran:Yeah. But Oh, nice.
Speaker 4:Be nonexistent for most of it. Just bubbled.
Tim / GM:Yeah. We actually go
Thomas / Guy:through this.
Speaker 3:Come on, fart. Let's go.
Tim / GM:Uli is up first. The gate has been closed, for your information. You guys did successfully seal the gate. However, this thing is still here to kill you.
Speaker 4:Uli is going to kill it.
Tim / GM:You just might.
Speaker 4:I'm just gonna magic missile it. I'm a magic missile at a second level. Eleven damage.
Tim / GM:Okay. Each little bolt, does seem to impact it. You see it kind of, like, shifting from side to side as if someone's just like punching it in opposite shoulders, and then it seems to regain its footing. It then charges at Uli not to destroy her, but to inhabit her. Oh.
Tim / GM:This dwarf spirit with chains in its beard begins to float towards you, and then it accelerates faster and faster. And it dives towards you as if it's going to tackle you. But instead, it just comes after you with its arms out as if to choke you, and it tries to settle inside of your body. However, you're able to put up your arms and brace against it in a literal grapple.
Speaker 4:Okay. Is that to contest it? Yes. It is. Strength?
Tim / GM:Yes. Or dexterity if that serves
Speaker 4:you. No. My strength is real good right now. K. 16.
Tim / GM:When this thing charges at Uli, you all see these spectral white hands reach up out of Uli's body and grapples against this spirit, and then you see Uli's arms catch up with her own spirit.
Speaker 3:Cool. Woah.
Tim / GM:The she's grappling against this thing, and you see it force her arms down to her sides. And then it presses its forehead against Uli, and it merges with her. No. You see Uli turn to the rest of you and say, there we go.
Speaker 4:There we go.
Speaker 2:Snack, it
Tim / GM:is your turn. So Udi is possessed
John / Doran:to get someone unpossessed. Snack thinks he gi eldritch blast. No?
Speaker 10:Generally, that's what you do.
Speaker 4:That is what Snack does.
John / Doran:Oh, you have betrayed us. Just kidding. This will probably help. I'm gonna get that dwarf out of out of you.
Tim / GM:I just see Snack aiming his fingers.
John / Doran:Let's get that dwarf out of you. Got a 13 for the first attack.
Tim / GM:Does not hit.
John / Doran:20 for the second.
Tim / GM:Okay. 15
John / Doran:for the 3rd. Does not hit.
Speaker 10:He's
Speaker 4:got better AC than me.
John / Doran:14 damage. Okay.
Speaker 4:Am I taking it or no?
Tim / GM:You also take 14 damage.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Tim / GM:Uli, you are kind of knocked sideways. You all see the spirit kind of, like, spill out of Uli for a second and then rejoin her. It is not enough to shake it out. Anything else, Nick? Nope.
Tim / GM:Bert.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Bert casts command on cobra uli.
Tim / GM:K. It's so weird that I said that
Thomas / Guy:out loud. That's a wisdom saving throw.
Tim / GM:Wisdom save gets a natural 20.
Speaker 7:What the fuck?
Tim / GM:What was the command word?
Speaker 2:Eat? It says no.
Thomas / Guy:Alright. Alright.
Speaker 4:Am I aware of this thing inside of me? Yeah. Is there any way to, like, mentally fight it?
Tim / GM:On your turn, you can take a a fight against it. That fight gets harder and harder each turn.
Speaker 9:Okay.
Tim / GM:Who's closest to Uli right now? Snack.
Thomas / Guy:For my bonus action, I will send Book over to protect Snack.
Speaker 9:Okay.
Speaker 4:Aw. Did you name it book?
John / Doran:Its name is book.
Tim / GM:Snack. The book comes flying towards you. Its page is just, like, fluttering back and forth, and then it stops on a page that just says hello in big text. And then it, like, flutters close to you. What is this?
Thomas / Guy:I'll show you how cool books can be, snack.
Tim / GM:It is Holly's turn.
Speaker 8:Holly.
Tim / GM:Holly got a 15.
Speaker 8:He's gonna fantasmal killer that dwarf guy in Ooly's body.
Speaker 10:Holly got a 15.
Speaker 3:Holly got a 15.
Speaker 8:Yeah. I'm gonna cast Phantasmal Killer to tap into the nightmares of a creature.
Tim / GM:K. It's got some pretty vivid nightmares. What's the save on that?
Speaker 8:Wisdom saving throw.
Speaker 4:Do I also get them?
Tim / GM:Yes. Dwarf boy got a 3.
Speaker 8:Yep. That fails.
Tim / GM:Yes. It does.
Speaker 4:Would I personally also have to make a save against that?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Pretty much whatever happens to this thing is gonna happen to you too.
Speaker 4:What is it? A wisdom? Mhmm.
Speaker 8:11? That fails.
Tim / GM:Okay. Welcome to your nightmares, Lee.
Speaker 8:Okay. Yeah. So Okay. So you're now cursed with the nightmares. You are the nightmare wizard.
Thomas / Guy:Uli is standing at the altar with Dave and Pemri.
Tim / GM:Oh, no.
Speaker 4:And the band says, you have to
Speaker 3:choose. Yeah.
Tim / GM:We will kill the other one. And the priest is burnt.
Speaker 4:You have to choose.
Tim / GM:Alright. Tibio, it's your turn.
Speaker 10:I'm so excited. So I look at Uli, and I
Speaker 9:say, don't worry. We're going to take
Speaker 10:care of this. And I cast spirit shroud and a bunch of spirits kind of pop into existence. Like, they're flitting in and out of this reality without a gate. They're just kinda, like, getting pulled in by my magic
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Speaker 10:And flitting all around me, and they're just little, like, gray clouds that are just going
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think you all hear the subtle fluttering of wings, actually, as you see little birds flit in and out of existence.
Speaker 10:And then I turn to Cabruli Mhmm. And and I say,
Speaker 9:hey, you big Mimi. Get out of there.
Speaker 10:And I cast vicious mockery.
Tim / GM:Nice. Okay.
Speaker 10:And it does a wisdom saving throw.
Speaker 4:Do I also have to do that? Yes? Yes.
John / Doran:13.
Speaker 10:That fails.
Speaker 2:Alright. 11.
Speaker 10:That also fails.
Speaker 4:K. I'm gonna die. Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:We're all hurting Uli. Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 10:1 d 4 psychic damage and has disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes. It takes another 1 d 8, and I'm gonna do radiant damage in the hopes that that's gonna expel the invader.
Thomas / Guy:For sure. Goddamn it.
Speaker 10:Okay. So it is 5 psychic 5 radiant.
Tim / GM:Okay. Tibeo finishes a vicious mockery, and then you see Uli start to shake her head from, like, hearing these words. And she, like, clasps her, like, hands on her head and starts shaking. And then kind of asynchronous from Uli's head shaking, you can start to see the dwarf's head shaking, and then it shakes and shakes until the 2 of them have shaken apart. And the dwarf is standing there, like, clasping its hands over its head and kind of rocking back and forth.
Tim / GM:It is effectively incapacitated. It is Emory's turn in the initiative. So, Emory raises his sword. You hear him whisper a prayer. It glows golden, and he brings it down on this spirit.
Tim / GM:It hits.
Speaker 4:Please tell me the boy eats souls.
Tim / GM:And you see it split in twain. You see there's an a radiant effect to his great sword. He splits the spirit, and sure enough, you see the child spirit reach out and grab the two halves of this thing and just absorb them.
Speaker 9:Emily, have you reconnected, with your
Speaker 10:and I, point up in the air.
Tim / GM:His eyes are glowing golden, and he, looks back down towards you and he says, no.
Speaker 10:Okay. Never mind.
Tim / GM:His eyes kind of return to normal and you see his sword sort of cool down, and he says, faith is a funny thing. You can have faith in just about anything. Doesn't have to be a deity. Then he kind of gives a sword a little flourish.
Thomas / Guy:Amen, brother.
Tim / GM:He points at bread and he goes, he gets me.
Speaker 8:We saw your boy. Did he eat the other spirit?
Tim / GM:Sent him back or absorbed him. He looks at either side of his sword, and he says, to be honest, I don't know.
Speaker 8:Wow. I'm glad we brought you.
Speaker 9:Uli, are you okay?
Speaker 4:No one no one's ever
Tim / GM:Oh, shit. Hey.
Speaker 4:No one loves me. No one loves me. No one loves me.
Speaker 9:Uli, it's okay. No. No. No. No.
Speaker 9:Don't touch me.
Thomas / Guy:Don't touch me. Don't touch me. We're here. It's okay.
Tim / GM:Uli, Bam. It goes off. Yeah. Not the trap, but The your nightmares.
Speaker 4:Nightmares. Yeah.
John / Doran:Can you turn that off?
Tim / GM:I think Holly can dismiss it. Yeah.
Speaker 8:At the end of your turn, you can know she can I can turn it off? Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But y'all were distracted.
Tim / GM:Yeah. She's just not willing to.
Speaker 8:Yeah. I'll drop it after I hear Uli crying and screaming in pain.
Speaker 4:Thank you. A 2 whole HP.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Holly drops the spell, and Uli, you're still a little bit shaken.
Speaker 8:Sorry, Uli. Uh-huh.
John / Doran:I can't believe you called Uli a big meanie, Tibial.
Speaker 9:I was not talking about Uli. You know that's snack. You don't need
Thomas / Guy:to be food.
John / Doran:Uli, but, well
Speaker 9:It's not funny. You see how upset she is.
Thomas / Guy:Uli, are are you okay?
Speaker 3:Ow.
Thomas / Guy:I'm gonna heal you. Okay, Uli?
Speaker 4:Okay. You guys hit pretty hard.
Thomas / Guy:Thanks. Bert Kess heal on Uli. Heal? The spell heal.
Speaker 4:Is that, like, super high level?
Thomas / Guy:You have 70 more hit points.
Speaker 4:70? I don't even have 70 total.
Tim / GM:Uli, your eyes kind of white out as you stare straight up and the ceiling rips open, and you see a massive bearded figure, like, spread the world apart and lower its face down towards you. And it gives you a little, like, raised hand because high five.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Tim / GM:You give it a high five, and then your vision clears, and you realize you were just touching Bert's book.
Speaker 4:Very cool.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yeah. I'll tell you all about it later if you want.
Speaker 4:Oh, Bert. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:How how was that? Do you feel better?
Speaker 4:Yeah. I feel great.
Speaker 8:Can we get going? I'm a little worried about, you know, the whole trap situation.
Tim / GM:Bert, as the book returns to you, you see the last couple words being written in there saying, and though Holly was incredibly impatient, Uli was just fine.
Speaker 8:There's traps.
Tim / GM:Through enough struggling and effort, you are able to ascend the rest of the big stairs.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Pretty good idea of what to watch out for here. The boulders, the water deluge, the springboards. A few of you might fall a couple times, but nothing enough to hold you back forever. What you rise into is another break in the cave wall.
Tim / GM:This place has kind of collapsed, and so you have to take another detour back into the actual caves. What you see here, Snack, becomes familiar. This is stuff that you saw on the daily when you lived in these mountains. You are very close to your homeland. This area is called the dead flush.
Tim / GM:As you're rounding a corner here, you can see this massive pile of thin bones and grime and, like, algae and general filth. You can see there's actual refuse in here, garbage and litter and broken things. Among them, dead bodies of all sorts, all sizes, and again, just hordes of small bones.
Speaker 9:Oh, yuck. Snug, is this where you lived?
John / Doran:Yes.
Speaker 9:This is a terrible way to treat your dead.
John / Doran:Hey, Tibio.
Speaker 9:Hey, that
John / Doran:This is my home.
Speaker 9:Yeah. Look at this. Look at all of this garbage. What are you doing?
Tim / GM:Tibeo. Tibeo gestures at a pile of garbage, and when he gestures, it just kind of, like, starts to shutter and disperses, and you realize it wasn't a pile of garbage. It was a ball of cockroaches.
Speaker 9:Oh. And
Tim / GM:they all just burst apart and run a different direction.
Speaker 4:Snack, maybe Maybe he has a point.
John / Doran:No. Just a couple of days ago, Tibia, trying to talk about killing Bert's parents and now criticizing my home. Look, This is where I'm from, and I was excited for y'all to come here. Now I'm now I'm not.
Speaker 4:I'm happy to be here.
John / Doran:Sneck has his arms crossed and is facing away from everyone.
Speaker 4:There's no bloodworms here. Right. Everyone's everyone's hometown has its issues.
John / Doran:It's it's everyone's got quirks. Right. Yes.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. My hometown tried to kill us all multiple times.
Speaker 4:Right. So true.
John / Doran:Yes. Yes. Anyways, this this was my cousin over here, and I don't remember who that was.
Tim / GM:You, looking around this room, you can all see, like, piles of eggshells, and you can see, like, obviously, infant cobalts are stacked, like, by the 100 in
Speaker 3:here. Sad.
John / Doran:Yes. This is this is where the babies fight. It's really, the babies fight. Right.
Speaker 9:Oh, Snook.
Speaker 4:Survival of the fittest?
Tim / GM:Yes. Of course. Snook, something you're not used to. There's actually been a blockage in this. As you, round another corner, you see that this tunnel has been entirely blocked by bones and other debris, but it's causing the water here to slow to a trickle, leaving a lot more of this high and dry than it used to be.
Tim / GM:In fact, there's a plateau. And from that little plateau in here, which is above the water level, safe and dry to actually spend some time on, you can smell fire smoke coming from that area. In fact, you can see some firelight.
John / Doran:Interesting. It appears we may not be alone.
Speaker 3:Good thing. We've been practicing being cobalt so good. Yes.
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Back in back in cobalt mode.
Tim / GM:And then you hear, Black,
Speaker 2:Small snack? Come back? Uh-oh.
Tim / GM:Thanks so much for listening. I'm Tim, your DM and your Genie.
Speaker 8:I'm Hannah playing Holly Hyacinth.
Thomas / Guy:I'm Thomas. I play Engelbert FF Wisherspoon.
Speaker 10:I'm Tara, and I play Tibio Femur.
John / Doran:I'm John. I play Snack the Cobalt.
Speaker 4:And I'm Maggie playing
Thomas / Guy:Ooly.
Speaker 8:Hey. Hi, friend. How are you? Thanks for stopping by. You know, we'd really love to hear from you.
Speaker 8:You can rate and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to this awesome podcast. Don't forget to tell them Holly sent you.
