Episode 29 Welcome to Necrovahn

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
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(01:10):
everyone is talking about caninefinance.
Let's play some D&D guys. Finally, it's been waiting.
Everybody's open. Fuck.
Wrong game all. Right, all right.

(01:33):
This time we're finally going tobeat the DM guys.
No. I love that I've been recording
this. Hello everybody, and welcome to
another exciting session of D&D 721.
My name is Mud, and you all justheard what I get to deal with
before the start of every show. I'm going to encourage Yamez to

(01:54):
keep that little tidbit in the beginning of this episode here
today. Speaking of Yamez and the other
wonderful players that I have for our campaign.
Wonderful players, why don't youintroduce yourselves?
Hello everybody. Go ahead every time.
Time. Every time.
Whistles Tolton playing braggingnear the Humboldt.

(02:16):
It's been a. While but I'm ready to see what
new adventures await. So hi, I'm Arcturus playing
Nokomis Whisper Wind and we're going to go on a little
adventure today. Hey everybody, Yama is here
playing Pebble again. I'm psyched to be back.
I know it's been a while since we've done a campaign episode,

(02:38):
but let's go. Oh, you're muted?
Yeah, because you're next. I said I was going last.
Oh, all right, well fine. What was Skittles playing?
I believe Thea. It's been so long I don't even
know my character anymore. But I'm glad to be back and I
can't wait. And I'm over here playing

(03:00):
Narloween, a seventh level artificer, and I have missed you
guys. It might not seem like forever
for you if you're just listeningto the playthrough, but it's
been a few weeks and I've missedbeing Narloween.
So happy to go on some more adventures and entertain you
fine people. You guys are making me feel bad.

(03:20):
We've had a number of community games.
We've had some really fun two shots that came out in the last
few weeks. And in the midst of all of that,
I will admit I have been in the process of selling my house and
moving. So all of these delays are
largely my fault. So like everything else, I take

(03:41):
responsibility for that guys, but we are.
Back. Hey, we keep trucking.
Yep, we are back. We keep trucking.
OK. Well, with that guys, we are
back and we are we have put the extra double official close on
the Silver Moon arc. The today's episode does take

(04:02):
place in the I'm going to say the a couple of weeks after
where we lost last saw our heroes in Silver Moon after the
riots and Rena Silver Moon, NAR Lewin's mother expressing how
much she loves him and is proud of him, but that she really

(04:26):
thought it was probably time forhim and his friends to leave
Silver Moon. And that's where we are.
All 5 of you lurch heavily to the left in the chairs you're
sitting in, the five of you all sitting around the captain of
the ship who sits at the head ofthe table named Todd.

(04:50):
Todd is a seasoned air man, and he just casually leans with the
lurching as a storm rages outside the airship that all of
you are on. There's a few other hands of the
crew that are sitting around thetable with the five of you.
Everybody is sitting for dinner,and Todd takes a stab at a piece

(05:13):
of meat on the table and he waves it at the five of you and
he says so. N Necrovan, What in Mortivas's
name made the five of you choosethat to be your destination?
Well, I don't think I'm feeling very light and airy and Silver

(05:37):
Moon. It was a riot in all the worst
ways. So let's go venture into the
darkness and sulk. You got puns.
You got puns, my boy it. Is like an.
Airy. We're up in the air right now on
my ship. It's very airy.
And a riot. We're having a riot.

(05:58):
I heard. You.
Too soon. I'm only here because I've heard
that the Necrovan has some greatfood.
I don't know. You mean great?
Rocks. There's no black pudding on this
table, right? No, there is not.
Hey, as long as we don't encounter any Thunder and

(06:20):
lightning while we ride these waves, we should be good A.
Crash of lightning shoots acrossthe sky outside the port
windows, surrounded by a boom ofThunder that rattles the boards
and windows of the airship. Damn it, Brett, it's hard to say
something. As long as there's no Thunder
wave, we're good. Somebody.

(06:42):
Got it. Yeah, the Air Master, Todd, he's
slowly chewing on the piece of meat, looking at each of you,
and he says so. Do we have anywhere specific
we're hoping to go? Not that I'm taking you there.
Soon as we reach the northern E most corner of North Necrovan,

(07:03):
I'm dropping your asses off. Can you take us to the southwest
corner then? Absolutely not.
You take us to the main castle. Also absolutely not.
Oh. Will you land or do we have to
jump? Well, that depends on the
weather, boy. He laughs heartily.

(07:24):
Did are there any of Torque's jet packs on the ship as like
parachutes? You know, like as emergency
devices. Yeah, yeah, you know what?
Let's go with our first roll of the new ark.
Go ahead and give me a luck check whoever wants to do it.

(07:46):
I do. Well, we'll let Pebble do it.
Yeah, Pebbles feeling lucky. What does if she fails?
If she fails, I might forget to cast Feather fall out her.
Oh, that's a 10 middle of the road.
OK, somebody else roll. Is it just a 20?

(08:10):
Yeah, just AG 20. Got a 15.
Yeah, there is a single one singular single use prototype of
torques on the ship. I see it's on the ship and look
at Bragg and say hey, you ready for another fight?

(08:31):
Now we can go over to it and investigates, see what he can
glean more information. Maybe he can build one of his
own one day. How about Brad looks?
Over and slips it on. Brad looks at it, robs his head
and walks away from it. When it comes for ulcer eyes.

(08:52):
With a with A10 nerluene, you know Torque just continues to
wow you with the ingenious contraptions he comes up with.
One day I'll be as cool as toy. That ain't today, though.
With that, you all continue to enjoy your dinner.

(09:12):
You've been on this airship withthe Air Master Todd for several,
you know, probably a couple weeks at this point.
You know the the trip from eastern Most Valstrad, the
continent where all of you were on with the pirates, and after
you defeated the evil bark, it was a short trip across the
ocean to the islands of elves. But traveling SE, Todd and Rena

(09:40):
Silverman both expressed that itit would probably be best not to
travel over the top of Valistrad, the main continent,
just because there's so many different factions within the
Empire who might see an airship flying overhead as something
hostile. So everyone agreed that you

(10:03):
should stay to the coastline, stay on the ocean, traveling
along the coast towards N Nekrovan.
To which Todd has said not just at tonight's dinner, but
multiple times, that he would not set sail at all into the
land of the undead N Necrovon, other than to drop the five of

(10:26):
you off. And with that, the day finally
arrives. When you are approaching N
Necrovon. Outside on the upper deck of the
airship, the wind is whipping. There are storm clouds in every
direction. You would have swore that

(10:49):
earlier in the day the sun had risen and had gone up like
normal. And as you continued S into
Necrovan, the sky just continuedto grow dimmer and dimmer in
this almost twilighty kind of shroud, even though logically,
you know it should be the middleof the day.

(11:12):
And the wind and lightning are whipping and rocking the ship
from side to side in a way that has Todd holding onto the wheel
with another one of his deckhands, trying to keep it
steady together. Whatever this storm is, it's
obviously much more serious thanany of the other storms that you
travelled through before. As he's shouting orders to the

(11:32):
other men and over them Maelstrom, he does shout at the
five of you standing by the railing.
And he says, well, it's as we expected.
We're not going to be touching down in Necrovan today.
But if you all want off, we got ropes, we got scrolls of
featherfall, whatever works for the five of you.

(11:56):
Pebble dawns the backpack on thesubject.
And how far are we? How far down is the ground?
How far up are we? You know, he he's trying to kind
of come in low, but he's having to dodge some of the craggy
rocks of the shore, large swellsof the ocean that are crashing

(12:17):
up, as well as the driving rain.You're probably about 100 feet
up off the ground. OK, OK.
Is there enough for a scroll foreach of us or you know what?
You know what? They've got squirrels to hand
around. All right, Yeah, I guess I'll
play it safe. It's up to you guys.
I guess. Yeah, I'll definitely take a Rep

(12:39):
and a scroll. You know, just in case I fall
from the rope. Sure.
Yeah, I figured Pebble would grab grab a scroll and wait.
Can she? Can't read a scroll, can she?
I don't know, can Pebble read? Yeah, Pebble can read.
OK, well, using a feather. Fall.
Swell, but. Pebble, being a barbarian, would

(12:59):
have to do an Arcana check to successfully use the scroll.
It is very much outside of your class.
I'm just grabbing a rope and dangling down until we touch
ground. All right, well each of you,
however it is that you decide you want to leave.
Todd just smiling. 1 great big gap toothed smile as he's trying

(13:23):
to hold the ship steady in the wind and the rain waves.
One arm at the five of you bidding you farewell from his
ship. Pebble, we'll just start with
you. How's Pebble getting down?
All right, well, what I do is I grab an end to the rope, tie it
off, grab the other end, toss Todd a copper for the ride or a
gold piece for the ride, and dives off holding the other end

(13:46):
of the rope. Give me a slight of hand check.
Sir, that'll be a 3020, good Sir.
Somehow, despite the wind and rain and everything else, you
flick that gold coin perfectly. Todd catches it out of the air,
bites it once and tips his hat at you.

(14:07):
If you're going down the rope, Iam going to ask you to give me
an athletics check. Sure.
Let's see oof 15. Mild rope burns between the the
wet rope and the the long slide down, you know, Pebble you don't
really like rely too much on youknow, trying to wrap the rope

(14:29):
around your leg or trying to like belay yourself, you know,
by wrapping it around your waist.
You just go down with your handsand just very, very barbarian
style you you just squeeze your grip to slow yourself down, but
you reach the bottom functionally unharmed.
Yeah, she gets down to the bottom, Pats her pockets and

(14:51):
pouches. Make sure she's got her, you
know, a little detached nose picker, you know, and.
The the sparkle. That she lost in her fight with.
Bertram Yeah, just making sure Istill have it.
OK. After.
After. Watching Pebble go down,
Braggrenier is going to use his song of creation and make a rope

(15:14):
ladder. OK, yeah, give me give me an
athletics check. It's a a much lower DC to
succeed. That's a 10.
Thank God it almost stopped on A6.
With with A10 braggrenier, even a with a rope ladder it it takes
an embarrassing long time you make it down unharmed, but it it

(15:38):
takes you a long time to climb the 100 feet down the ladder in
the storm. It's quite a fine.
How are you? How are you doing, Pebble?
Hands are a bit sore. But.
Otherwise I'm good, solid ground, nice and safe.

(15:59):
Nothing can hurt us here. Yet you have to say it.
Go ahead, Nakomis. How how's she getting down?
Oh. We're totally gonna wild shape
into a into a crow. Fantastic.
Yeah, getting through the winds of the storm again.
It's a very easy athletics checkas a crow.

(16:21):
Go ahead and fly to the ground. Let's let's just make sure
nothing crazy happens. 13 Yeah, you know, the the wind is
absolutely pummeling you on the way down, not whether that any
birds choose to fly around in, but same as the others, you make
it to the ground unscathed. And whether you choose to stay

(16:43):
in crow form or not, that is up to you.
I'm going to stay in crow form for a little while longer.
Nice. Alrighty.
That leaves Thea and Narloin. Who's going next?
I'll go. Another wing's going to grab the
rope and a stroll of feather fall and tie the rope around the
steel defender like a little harness and shove him off so he

(17:07):
can flap his wings as he's goingdown and cast feather fall and
blow them the. Steel Defender goes over the
edge with a uncharacteristic squawk as you kick it off the
edge. Very much a flightless bird.
It's definitely like 150 lbs of Med, yeah.
Yeah, just plummeting to the ground.

(17:28):
So you're, you're going down therope.
Go ahead and give me that same. Athletics role.
No, no, no. I'm riding to seal the Fender.
He just has a rope like a harness and I'm I'm casting
featherfall. OK, OK then if you're are you
casting featherfall yourself or using one of the scrolls?
Us casting it with the scroll onboth of us.
Got it, Thea that that leaves you.

(17:50):
That was great. Yeah, I also grab a rope and a
scroll. Going to use that nifty rope
ladder to to get down as well. But I also want to make sure I
cast with the scroll just in case.
OK. Well, my bro, let's.
Just we'll keep it the same athletics.

(18:10):
OK, I got a nine. With a nine Thea you do slip off
the rope ladder, but thankfully with featherfall active you're
you're able to the The wind carries you a little ways away
from the ladder and from the ship and from where the others

(18:32):
landed. But thanks to your featherfall,
you do reach the ground in a slightly splashy, muddy landing.
But with that, all of you are onthe ground, out of the airship.
All the ropes and the ladder getpulled back up onto the deck and

(18:52):
the ship in this wide arcing turn sets its rudder and sails
heading northwest again into or out of the storm, heading back
towards the Isles from where they came.
And the five of you are on the ground officially in North

(19:13):
Nekrovan. The the ground beneath your feet
you're you're on this kind of marshy briny beach.
There's patches of some old scraggly twisted bindweed,
there's deep marshy puddles. Everything is really squelchy

(19:37):
and muddy and the rain continuesto just almost Dr. sideways on
the five of you, but you've got an entire continent in front of
you to go and travel is the namedoing.
That history check, see if I remember ever going through
these lands. Yeah.
Go ahead. 18 What do I know? So I'll, I'll say it's up to

(20:01):
you. If you ever ventured into N
Necrovan with an 18 history, youknow that it's.
I'd say I've never been here, but I've read books about it.
Yeah, that that would definitelymake sense.
You know, there's by and large there's very little reason to
travel from the Empire into North Necrovan, the southern

(20:25):
stretch of the Empire. Coincidentally the same land
that Devon the Grin claimed to be from the outskirts of the
Empire is a very kind of barren and kind of high desert kind of
place. And then it turns marshy and wet
as you go up over the mountains and down the other side into

(20:47):
North Necrovan where all of the ocean swells that that weather
hits the mountains and rolls back on itself into N Necrovan.
And in this land, you know that it is a place of the undead.
You know that it is a land that is ruled by Vampire counts who

(21:11):
are often very, very much at warwith each other.
They all control armies of of undead, be it skeletons and
zombies and other undead creatures.
And even with that, there are still some villages and towns
even of mortals and humans of all variety.

(21:33):
Or not just humans, but you know, all of the different races
for whatever reason. Some people either born in North
Necrovan or have traveled there for some reason of their own
there. There are people who live in
these places and despite being mortals, the vampires, if

(21:56):
tyrannically, still allow mortals to live in their land.
They're just taxed very heavily and very poorly treated by the
vampire Lords. But a lot of times people are
trying to scratch out a living. They try to go unnoticed.
One thing with an 18 that I'll tell you as a extra tidbit,

(22:18):
people who live in North Nekrovan, unless they are born
and raised in North Nekrovan, often times more often than not,
they have fled Valstrad for somereason.
Either they're criminals, or maybe they are dissenters,
people who don't like the empireand the control it wields over

(22:42):
the nation and continent. And so sometimes there might be
pockets of people who have left,choosing to live in the land of
the dead instead, and maybe making little homesteads and
trying to, like I said before, go unnoticed and live in peace.

(23:04):
I relay all this information andthought speech to to the group
and as Has anyone been here before?
Does anyone know much of this place?
No, I've I've heard people, someof the merchants talking about
wanting to do a trade route here, but the only thing I know
is vampires. They give me the heebie jeebies.

(23:27):
They make me feel weird things. OK.
We have helpful feeling things. Anyone else?
It smells like sulfur in the air.
Yeah, a little bit. There's there's some of those
like. I ate a lot of eggs.
I'm so sorry, damn it. Yeah, there there's, there's

(23:48):
definitely just kind of that sense to it.
You know, there there's in, in the wet and the marsh and
everything else and the dim light.
There are. You bet there there are like
some ground geysers that, you know, give up this kind of
putrid stench that like bubbles up out of the marshiness.

(24:10):
I don't know. I'm just picturing the old woods
from Princess Bride. Yeah, I'm, I'm picturing like
high tide in July, you know, or low tide in July, I mean.
Yeah. You know all rotten, rotten
plant life and well, I'm I'm not.

(24:31):
I'm not sure if I I don't. I've never been here, but I
can't remember if Devon ever talked about it.
Woman was junior. Never in any great detail.
Devon would not have. He he really was trying to carve
out kind of a criminal empire inthe Empire proper.
He he never left the Empire for North Necrvon.

(24:55):
Yeah, Frank's very limited in his worldly knowledge.
I will say this, you you weirdlyfeel at home.
This place seems right guys. Thea you?
You get a little bit of that feeling too.
Yeah, My, my, my head is, is kind of like, like what Bragg

(25:16):
said. It kind of feels right.
There's a small part of me stillthat that is, you know, where
Pebble is at. Where?
It. Doesn't feel right but
definitely leaning more towards the OK.
I'm kind of cozy right now. Well, with I've never been here.
I've never been here. Got it.
Well, the five of you make your way traveling through the day

(25:41):
relatively uneventful. You, you, you do.
At some point the wind and the rain does stop.
You do have an opportunity to set up camp.
The the night goes uneventfully.You're, you're really kind of in
the coastal area. And the following day, as you
continue your travels, you do start to see some signs of

(26:07):
organized agriculture, like you're seeing long rows suddenly
with wispy green sprouts coming up through it.
It's still flooded and wet and marshy, but whatever it is, it's
growing up out of the water. And off in the distance you do
see a number of small hovels. Let's.

(26:29):
Go check it out. Well, far be it from me to judge
someone for living in a hovel. Let's go see if these people
have, you know, any idea of whatwe what we're about to walk
into. Like, you know.
Nicholas is still in crow form and I'm telepathically talking
to the team. Nicholas would like to get an

(26:50):
overhead look of this hovel. Yeah, go ahead and give me a,
we'll call it perception check with advantage as you're flying
around it. I got a 17. 12 and 12, OK, yeah.
Nakomis. You, you fly around and what
what you can see with a 17 is you, you what you don't see are

(27:12):
any people. You don't see anyone out in the
fields, you don't see anyone tending to these rows and rows
of flooded crops, you don't see smoke coming out of any chimneys
or anything like that. It it looks like a ghost town
pun. Can I, can I pick one of the

(27:35):
wispy plants that's growing in the marshes?
I'd like to see. I'd like to see what they're
growing here. OK.
I would say give me a either investigate or nature, your
choice. Both of them are plus zero, so
I'll investigate. Oh, and that gives me a 16.

(27:57):
I'm just curious. Yeah, you you're making your way
through and it really it just looks like kind of brown grass,
like it, it looks like tired andlike even though it's flooded
and it should have plenty of water, something about it like
the plants just don't look that healthy.

(28:18):
But with a 16, I'll say to the best of your knowledge, it's.
Rice. All right, Pebble eats it.
Taste sour? OK, guys, the rice has turned
sour. Nobody's been here in a while.
I think the harvest is long past.

(28:38):
If anybody else would like to doa nature check or anything else
like that. Yeah, Brad.
Brad will train Pebble in examining the surroundings.
Yeah. With all Bragg's knowledge of
nature, he got a 12. Yeah, you, you don't know why

(28:58):
the rice would be sour or wiltedlooking like this.
I mean, it's, it's a plant sitting in water.
It should be fine, right? Are we all just planning to turn
at this? I don't know.
It's up to you guys or you can approach the little village.
It's up to you. I I think we should get headed
to the village. I just wanted to see what the

(29:19):
plant was like, what they, what they were harvesting here.
And then it's sour tells me thateither there's a blight on the
land or, you know, nobody's beentending these crops and they're
over, over ripe. You know, that's all I was
checking was to see. Yeah.
The same if you're 16, you're not seeing any grains.
It's not that it's like past harvest.

(29:41):
It's still early. Oh, OK, so there's got to be a
blight then. Yeah, I say.
We head over to the little village.
Do we all want to go on right now or do we, I mean, I can put
up a, a campsite, we can wait the night and see if anyone
comes out. I hope we're going to
investigate and take a look. Yeah, I'm walking to the

(30:03):
village. Yep.
Yep. Can I?
OK, yeah, I was going to say can.
I can't speak with animals on the Comus, but that'd be a a
waste of a spell slot that I don't have.
That's up to you. You.

(30:25):
Know she could speak with us. Telepath.
Telepath in our head. Whoa, are you having a stroke?
She can speak with us, Telepath that she could, she could
thought speak to us. Is everybody going in?
Yeah, I'm, I'm going in. Yeah, I'm going in.

(30:47):
Everybody give me some investigation checks.
Cool. I got a nine.
I got a Nat 19. I got a 14.
Low in I'm getting low in checking for footprints kind of
thing. 17 OK. So.
So with that Nikomis with your 17 and in bird form, you do you

(31:15):
and Nara Lewin kind of move in together.
Everybody like checks, you know,through the village, everything
seems abandoned. It's open windows, like there's
no glass. It's it's like log cabin style
with, you know, mud mortar and all of the hovels and little log
cabins are empty. Nara Lewin and Nakomis you do

(31:39):
spot one that has a glow in the window and Pebble with a 19 you
you get there first before anyone else and you know would
Pebble like knock on the door looking through the window, what
what would Pebble do? I think Pebble would knock on
the door. She ain't, she ain't, she ain't
afraid or or anything, you know.Yeah, as as you knock you hear a

(32:01):
voice call out. Don't have anything worth value.
We're here to rob you. Oh, well, that's a relief.
Well, if you were, there's nothing here but you've.
Been having trouble with banditslately.
Oh, we have trouble with everything.
Can I can I slip a a gold piece under the door?

(32:22):
Just sit and say like hey, we'reliterally Julie.
Just want some information here take.
This. I'm a good face.
No, just coming. I I.
I push the door open and go in. OK.
Or is it a? Hole.
It's. Not opening, guys.
It's not opening. You got to pull.

(32:45):
Oh, this couple pulls the door and goes in.
Yeah, I'm sorry I never got thatfixed, Pebble.
As you lead the way in the others, you guys can choose to
follow Pebble in if you want to,or continue searching more of
the village. It is up to you.
But Pebble, as you walk in, you do see a little old lady who is

(33:06):
sitting in a very rickety Wickerrocking chair.
And she's old her like, hanging slack skin, large jowls, droopy
eyes, gnarled fingers. And in her lap, she has a

(33:28):
newborn calf and she's running back and forth and she's got a,
you know, skin bottle of something that she's feeding the
calf with in her lap. She's so precious, we must
protect her. Oh well, you're just a child.
What are you doing here? I'm not a child, I'm fully

(33:49):
grown. I'm walking in with Wiz Pebble.
You just. Don't want to get in trouble.
No, but the way that he just described this person gives me
the heebie jeebies. All right.
Well, the happen is. You're just a fox, lady.
OK, my friend tells me that there's vampires in this land.

(34:10):
Are you a vampire? You have to tell us.
That's the rules. Do you think I'd look like this
if I was a vampire? Fairpoint, do you have any hard
candies in your purse of? Course.
Fantastic. May I have one?

(34:32):
She. She looks at her and says.
Whale there, right over, right over there.
I I I take politely take 1 and Iput it in my pouch.
OK, Yeah, you you got one. I eat it.
Oh no. Oh, Pebble.
It tastes like it might have oneday long ago.

(34:58):
Tasted good. There's a hint of sugar, but it
is so old and it's just just right for Pebble Rock Hard.
Stomps right down on it. Well, you need.
To. If you're if you're gonna eat
that candy, little child, you need to make sure you wash your

(35:20):
teeth after. Even then, grown-ups have to
clean their teeth now and then. She gives you this big toothless
smile. She does not have a single tooth
in her mouth. So she's very clearly not a
vampire. Otherwise.
I end up like me. Oh.

(35:41):
My God. Is anybody else going into this
Hut? Halloween cast guidance on
himself for perception and continues walking down down the
path with his seal defender. Yeah, there.
There's kind of the main road down the centre.

(36:01):
Yeah, go ahead, brag with. With our track.
Record. I think I'm going to follow an
Halloween, OK? You guys find a couple members
of the Thieves Guild, Do you want to get them executed?
What does the Thieves Guild steal?
Out here, Nikomas, what are you up to out of the Hut in a

(36:31):
window? Nikomas is is actually going to
stay out in the air, kind of circling around the Hut, just
looking for danger. Sure.
Go ahead, give me we'll we'll we'll just do a new perception
check for that 16. Yeah, it's it's really eerily

(36:52):
quiet again. Nothing in the fields, no people
in the village. You're you're not seeing
anything. And just piggybacking off of
that Nokomis and brag, you guys continue searching.
All the houses are empty. Like there's still stuff inside
them, but there's no people. Now Louine does a perception

(37:14):
check on each each house that hewalks into to see if he sees any
kind of spellbooks, any kind of poems, any information.
Yeah, give me an investigation check.
I said perception, but that's a Nat 20.
Yeah, what you're doing is investigating Nat 20.
You look in each hovel thoroughly and you know beyond a

(37:40):
shadow of a doubt you're not missing anything.
These people barely have bucketsto piss in the inside of.
Every hovel you look into there might be a small hearth.
Some don't even have that. Some just have like a circle of
rocks for a fire. Like maybe 1 hovel.
One of like the slightly nicer houses might have like a small

(38:03):
oven in it built into like the side of the log cabin.
Things like that. No books, no libraries, no
scrolls, no tomes. Everything that you find is, you
know, some of these places have shovels, some pickaxes. 1 hovel
has a very moderately sharp scythe in it for like cutting

(38:30):
grains of rice with a Nat 20. You do find one hovel where you
look under a mattress and you find a pouch that's got a bunch
of red leafed kind of looks likeweeds in the pouch.
OK, I will add the pouch for bread and leaf weeds to my
inventory and make my way back to Pebble because I've found

(38:54):
nothing around. Yeah, I'm going to follow and at
the same time I'm going to relayeverything we found to Arcturus.
As as the rest of you approach the hovel with the old lady, her
eyes get wide as more people walk into her hovel and she

(39:15):
goes, oh, there's. That's all I.
I I know them. OK, OK.
Are these your friends, dearie? I'm not a child.
But you look like a child. Abel, stop running away from us.
What? OK.
Well, I'm I, I want to do an inside check on this very old

(39:39):
lady. Yeah, go ahead, Gen.
Insight check. Dad, why am I rolling sixes all
night? I got an 11.
It was this old lady sitting in her Wicker chair with with a
calf in her lap. I, I want to ask her as as a few
questions. I, I hand her the gold piece
that I was slipping under the door, you know, like this is

(40:01):
kind of for your, for your help.But what I want to know what
happened here? Where'd everybody go and.
Hello to me. I can't give you any change for
this. Change.
I didn't ask for change. I'm giving you I I earned this
with my job. I'm an adult.
Oh well, you must have a very impressive allowance.

(40:24):
Job. Where's the nearest town?
Gabby Lion. You're the.
You're the inner child. No, he's going to go ahead and
do a perception check. See anything Seems a miss in
this house or about her. Yeah, go ahead.
It's about to be a miss. What was that perception?

(40:47):
What does a 27 give me? Yeah, 27.
Jeez. Yeah, she is living in a old log
cabin. It is an old toothless lady with
a calf in her lap that she is weaning on, probably like a
sheepskin bottle that has some milk in it.

(41:08):
The calf is bleeding every now and then and she is one of the
lucky few that has one of those little ovens built into the side
of her log cabin. She has a purse on the far wall
that has some old rock hard candies in it and as you look
closer you can see her eyes are very Milky.

(41:31):
She is very nearly blind. That's why she thinks I'm a
child. I'm in a thought speech to
everyone, say I don't think there's much for us to learn
here. Yeah, me there.
Well, she she. Rocks back in the chair and she
says. Well.
Since you're you're paying me a whole gold piece, I might as

(41:54):
well tell you all a short story about what happened here.
Oh boy. Nikomas flies down.
Nikomas flies down and purchasesherself outside the door on the
window sill. Rise a bird.
Hey, no. That's our friend.

(42:15):
Oh, OK, you got some strange friends.
How can you see that's a? Bird Dad's a child.
A fox lady. Pebble walks out the door.
And a bird. Oh, you don't want to be out
there at dark, child. Foul times.

(42:37):
Foul times have fallen onto thislittle village.
All the people, they just went and lost their faith.
They decided that all Mother Salaros, Demira, Sylvesa, they

(42:58):
just decided none of them were worth praying to anymore.
And so they all just got up and left and they went down to the
temple that's part of the old world.
They said they were going there to renounce all the gods, and
they haven't come back. And it's just been me, old Annie

(43:19):
Burke here with the newborn calfand not much else.
We've been sharing this sheepskin of milk here for the
last several days. She looks at you, Pebble, and
she, with a clawed hand, starts to hand the gold piece back to
you and says, you might as well keep this child.
I got no one to trade with and Ican't eat it.

(43:42):
It takes the coin back so. I really was a short story.
She she to peb Pebble thought speaks to the other.
She goes there's a baby cow here.
I haven't seen any adult cows. Did this lady give birth to a
cow that said that? The thought speak.

(44:03):
Oh. My God.
I asked her aloud. Where?
Where's the rest of your cows? If you want, we could butcher
one for you and tell you got something to eat that saves you
the energy. Oh, that's a sweet thought of
you. But no, all of the men of the

(44:23):
village, they took the cows and the goats and they, they used
them to carry what little thingsthey had down to the temple.
They were talking about making sacrifices to drive out all the
gods. Seems like backwards logic to
me. But we're kind of a backwards
people. They don't know any better.

(44:44):
I don't. I don't suppose that the you,
you, you 2 dads and your pet foxand little daughter and pet crow
were planning on going to the temple, were you?
Which direction is the Chapel? Oh, it's just South of the
village. Pebble pulls out her freaking

(45:05):
finger and starts sucking on it.She's frustrated.
Well, wouldn't be a good. Idea for us to go down.
There with our young child. Ever watch out?
For the pacifier in her mouth. One of you dads better follow
that child outside. It's dangerous out there.

(45:25):
Narloween motions to the steel defender and the steel.
Defender. Steel defender pursued Pebble.
That's a that's a mighty fine looking dog you've got.
I didn't see that there. You must you know what, here's
here's some of our some of my rations, you know, and, and let

(45:47):
me, let me tell you a story for your story.
And I, I'm going to perform the song I bark for since there's
not much going on. She also seems a very religious
woman, so. She takes the rations and begins
to gum on them very greedily andgratefully.
Got a 20 on that performance. You, you got it 20.

(46:12):
Yeah, 15 I'm. Sorry, I was going to say that's
not what I see. I lost audio, I didn't go blind.
I wasn't sure if you shot a new deception check.
On you or what? I said we were going to beat the

(46:32):
DM. We're going to do it, damn it.
With a with a 15, she kind of taps her foot gumming on the
rations, eating them as you tellthe story of bark.
And she laughs cackling at the end of it.
And the the cow in her lap bleats and she says that's,

(46:53):
that's a fine story, young man. You know, we we have a similar
one about our favorite worm named Corvath.
Now we're getting somewhere. I'm.
Interested. Can you?
Can you tell? You any of that?
Oh, about about Corvath. Yeah, tell us.

(47:15):
Tell us your religion. I told you bars.
Well, mine. Yeah, you, you all, you all
praise some little good Berry thing, OK.
I mean, we don't, we can't grow good berries down here.
The soil just can't support it. Oh, you're asking me who I'm Oh,
we, you know, we, we have the temple down, down South of the

(47:39):
village and it's. It's where we go.
And there's a couple other villages around that also grow
rice and red weed. And they go to the temples and
they they pray to whichever God it is that they need to for the
time. It might be All mother, or they
might pray to Demura, the the earth daughter of fertile soils,

(48:03):
though she's not she, she doesn't exist in she don't she
don't come down around these parts.
But they sometimes will also pray to Thaleros, you know, the
God of the harvest, the Lord of the sheaf.
Sometimes, though not as often, they might pray to Sylvesa,
goddess of the gentle weathers. Oh, yeah.

(48:26):
Or. Oh, I was telling you about our
favorite worm. Our favorite worm.
Corvath. Yeah.
He's he's the eater of rotten mold and blight.
He's the one that, you know, protects the crops from anything
that might try to eat them before we do.
He's a worm. You.
You get that, right. Like you've seen worms before.

(48:48):
Well I've I've fished with worms.
I'm assuming you're not talking about those though.
Are. You talking about the worms with
AY the ones with wings? No, no.
Oh no, young man, No, I'm I'm talking about the the ones in
the ground. Oh, so you are talking about the
ones I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah.

(49:09):
But you know, you got to be. You don't go to the temple and
tell Corvath you need worms for fishing that that might get you
drowned. Oh.
That's usually where the worms are going in the water.
Well, we're all we're all food for the worms eventually.
Some of us sooner than others. I pulled out my writing case and

(49:34):
I say, can you, can you tell us where the nearest towns are?
And I'll, I'll write it all out and where this temple is.
And if we find any of your, any of your people, we can have them
come back. Oh, I'm afraid my people might
be gone. They've been gone for several
days and they, they went to the temple and yeah, sure, I I could

(49:56):
tell you where some of the othervillages are, but I think they
also went to the same temple. Oh, all the young men just
started beating their chests andtalking about how all the
problems are because of the godsand not because of the vampires
or the cursed soil or any of those things, and they all blame
the gods. So they went to the temple to

(50:18):
renounce them all, and that's why they're all probably dead.
I will draw a map as she. I'm assuming she explains it to
us. Yeah, pulling, pulling out some
papers and and trying to draw itout like she she says, well, OK,
if we're here. And then she points at another
place on the map. She's like whale, if this is

(50:40):
North and South, well I guess you know, the other village
would be about over here and then another one and she's just
tapping almost randomly different parts of the paper.
Can I give, can I give her that bardic so it's a little bit more
accurate? I mean, yeah, she's, she's all

(51:01):
nearly blind, but yeah. Oh.
OK, no, I'll save my bardic then.
Says I just don't get out much as I used to, you know?
We could really use someone to look after our child on the
road. Is there anywhere you need to
go? I say it loudly and I'm standing
near the window. Pebble stomps back in, reaches

(51:25):
her, you know, walks over to thebag of candies, grabs the can,
grabs a whole pistful and says I'm not a child and walks back
out. Oh, she's a colicky 1, isn't
she? She She points at Narluena
Braggrenair. She says if you gentlemen aren't

(51:46):
careful, your daughter will be spoiled.
What's on the ways are like we're doing our best man, but
it's it's tough out here for couples like us.
I don't know. Anything about that, even in
old, you know, cursed lands likethis, that's not a strange
thing. Well.
That's not what I meant, but. Just kidding.

(52:07):
You you wouldn't. Get it?
It's it's hard raising raising aPebble.
Have you ever had a kid eat rocks?
Only if you count my candy. We don't.
We don't count it. I know I got no good right to
ask it, but both, both of my sons and my grandson and my

(52:36):
granddaughter, they all went to that temple and I don't expect
to live much longer here by myself, but I'm at peace with
that. But what I'm struggling with is
not knowing whether or not they're alive or not or maybe
they're still at that temple andI got no right asking the lot of

(52:58):
you. But if you are willing to go and
maybe change their minds and send them on back home, well, it
might just save everybody's lives.
What are their names? Well, there's Jim Senior, then
there's regular Jim, and then there's my grandson, Jim Junior.

(53:24):
And then there's my granddaughter, and she's,
ironically, she's Jimmy John. I expected you to say Jimothy.
Nope, Nope, Nope. That's the young lady who lives
in the next village next door, and we didn't want folks getting
confused. I can see the confusion there.

(53:45):
Yeah. And so, you know, my boys Jim
and Jim and my grandson Jim Junior and my, my granddaughter
Jimmy John, they're all down at the temple.
Well, we'll do our best, but Jimmy, crickets.
Would you look at the time? Oh, is that a joke?

(54:05):
Yeah. I shoot my myself out.
Hey, NAR NAR. Hey Tabble do your.
Bag say anything useful? But it is useful for candy for
your appetite. Want a candy?
No thanks, little one. Punches him in the balls.

(54:29):
I can make it a tack roll. Does a 10 hit you?
No, no, just stands up on his tippy toes and goes like.
Swinging a miss. Brad sees new exchange as he
walks out and says man, my tip toes wouldn't have saved me

(54:51):
there. The the old lady, she as all of
you are kind of filtering out. She waves and she says, well, I
hope to see you all again and hope I'm still alive when you
return, Papa. I would like to leave a couple

(55:12):
couple days worth of rations. I'm assuming we stocked up.
Yeah. Yeah.
You would have plenty. I will.
Burn a first level spell slot topure wounds on her to see if it
helps her at all possibly. You cast it and you know, she,
she looks, you know, she perks up a bit.
She looks a little healthier. And she says, oh, that that's

(55:37):
nice. But it is not a restoration
spell of any kind. She, she's not nothing is, you
know, reversed. She doesn't get younger.
Her eyes don't get better. She she Pats your arm.
She says thank you, young man. I wish I could do more for you.
We'll, we'll, we'll save Jim, Jim and Jim.
Well, I appreciate it. And if if Jim Jim, Jim Junior

(56:02):
and Jimmy John are being, you know, uppity like that daughter
of yours, you, you just tell them Annie Burke misses them and
hopes they come home. Don't.
Worry. We'll we'll make sure they know.
Are you guys traveling for the temple?
She did mark on the map roughly where she thinks the temple is

(56:22):
South of the village. Yeah, I think that's the main
purpose was to find out where togo next.
I would like to show the map to Nokomis.
No, the purpose was absolutely to have a little old lady make
fun of you, Pebble that. That was the point of this whole
encounter. I.
Would like I'd like to show the the map to Nokomis and ask, hey,

(56:48):
can you can you, depending on how long your transformation
lasts, can you stay up there while we walk and kind of
correct our force depending on if she was?
Nicomas nods in in crow form andthen accidentally shits on your
shoe because I can't control my balls.

(57:11):
Well, you got to do what you got.
To do. I lift down and say, well, at
least they're not those fine leather boots that were stolen
from me and gnarly wings. Homunculus will hitch a ride
chasing after Arcturus, zigging and sagging.
Yeah. So I'll say, Nakomis, go ahead

(57:32):
and give me a, let's call it a survival check as you're kind of
trying to like map the land based on the very poorly done
map that she kind of was outlining for you.
You're kind of just going South and seeing what you see.
I got a. 15 yeah, OK with a 15 you're you're kind of circling

(57:52):
around. You're doing kind of wide
circles traveling southward. The homunculus is kind of
zigzagging along under you and you, you do with your row eyes
spot off in the distance a placethat looks not quite like a
church. It almost it, it's kind of

(58:13):
strange, even from an aerial view.
It almost kind of looks like thean entrance to a hallway that's
sticking up diagonally out of the ground.
And you have a pretty good feeling that you're in the right
place because there's a number of packs and some different
things. And you do see some old
campfires outside of an entrance.

(58:36):
Do you investigate it more yourself or do you go back to
the group? I'm going to investigate it more
myself, yeah. Go ahead and give me an
investigation check. I rolled an 8.
With an 8, you're, you're prettysure you're on the right track.
You're you, you know that this this seems to be the temple.
And you, you can see some vestiges of belongings outside.

(59:01):
But as with an 8, as you fly in you do see the door to the
temple is bricked up like it. It looks like just it.
It does not look like there's anentrance.
Hey yo, you can edit that out Yamas.
Ebbles bricked up. OK, Nikomas notes that it looks

(59:30):
the entrance look closed off. It's rather curious why that
would happen. Getting weird suicide cult vibes
for some reason but she is goingto fly back to the party with
this information. Does anybody do or say anything
before approaching the entrance?What time of day is it?

(59:52):
It's really hard to say with theconstant Gray sky, the constant
twilight. How, how long do we feel like
we've been walking? Can we make a check on that?
Yeah, you've been walking several hours.
If you guys well see you camp upand take a long rest outside,
the answer is yes, you could. I don't know if anyone needs to

(01:00:16):
recover anything like spell wiseor just in general, but there's
more. So if if we're vampire land, we
want want to be cautious of nighttime, daytime delineations.
The old lady did warn you guys several times not to be out at
dark. Yeah, that's why I was trying to

(01:00:36):
say like, is it getting dark? It's still Gray out, but you
know that you, you have a you have a feeling that when night
comes, it gets dark fast and hard.
Well. I say we've been walking for a
little bit. If, if no one disagrees, we

(01:00:57):
could we could set up camp here and as a good soccer, I can I
can form a Hut and just to be sure we're not in there when
night falls coming out and did nothing, I think that would be a
good call. Am I cast divine sense too, as
you're you're doing that? Well, I'm going to save the Hut
until until it does start to getdark.

(01:01:17):
For now, I feel we're just pitching tents and collecting
firewood or whatever. I'm still going to cast Divine
Sense and then I think, I don't know, maybe do an investigation
of the area where in. Yeah, could you read divine
Sense for everybody? As an action, you can detect
good and evil until the end of your next turn.

(01:01:37):
You can sense anything affected by the hollow spell or know the
location of any celestial fiend undead within 60 feet that is
not behind total cover. I mean, I can use that feature
three times per long rest. OK, with that, you're getting
little pings of evil kind of in all directions.

(01:02:02):
But from from what you know of Necrovan and from, from your
conversation with Narlaween about the land, that's not
totally uncommon. But with like the the land, the
ground itself almost seems, you know, you can't really call it
the ground evil, but that it it it's got a very cursed land kind

(01:02:25):
of vibe to it. But outside of those like kind
of general aura of unease comingfrom the mouth of the temple,
you get a stronger sense and wave of an evil presence.
OK. So instead of doing an
investigation check with that, maybe I can do a little prayer

(01:02:47):
to Bashaba and ask if she knows anything about the temple or.
Yeah, go ahead and give me a religion role.
Jesus fuck got 8. My roles are so bad tonight.
With an 8. I'll give her a flash of genius.

(01:03:08):
OK, what is it? What does that give her?
Flash of genius that just adds 3to the role. 11 OK God, that's
so, so middle over the road thatalmost makes it harder.
Thea you you you put up a prayerto the shabba and.
Wait wait, I apologize, I was muted.
I was trying to say I'd give hera bardic as well.

(01:03:28):
OK. I myself because I was messing
up the mic. Gotcha, what does she roll for
your bardic? Right, 1D8.
OK, so we're currently at an 11.Got an 8 to 19.
Damn. Oh yeah.
What a what a way to turn a 2 into a 19 people.

(01:03:51):
Yep. Did she even use a left point?
She did not, no. Well, as soon as you said blast
her, genius. And then he chimed right in.
I'm like, I thought I'll leave it.
Yeah, OK, 19 at at first, you know, your, your prayers to
Bishab is still feel a little like weird in your mouth.

(01:04:13):
They're they don't they don't quite come out naturally the way
the prayers of your childhood did, the ones that you studied,
the ones you repeated, the ones that you learned, the different
different sects and templars andchurches that you were a paladin
for, right. But even as you start to kind of

(01:04:33):
see say it, you see a chunk of your shadow on the ground in the
dim Gray light wiggles away fromyour own shadow.
And with a 19 you, you know for certain that is Beshaba leading
you somewhere as it kind of slithers across the ground and

(01:04:54):
off off into an isolated place just outside of the camp.
Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna file. OK, as as you, you make your
way, it's kind of like a, a small divot down a, a little
crevice. It's not like a hole in the
ground or like a, a Cliff face or anything like that.

(01:05:15):
It's just kind of a, a sharp down incline.
And you're away from the rest ofthe group, and the shadow kind
of slithers out around you, circles around you once, and
then it forms up directly in front of you in the shape and
form of Beshaba. Beautiful.

(01:05:37):
She reaches upward and she stretches and she goes, oh, it's
so much more comfortable here inNecrovan.
A girl can just really stretch out up here.
Yeah, you, you look good. You look horrible.

(01:06:00):
Thanks. She reaches out and she cups
your chin with between her thumband finger and she says, well,
my little kitsune, what do you need?
Well, I was curious about that temple down there and what's,
what's, what's going on? Like why is it blocked off and
why are people going down there and, you know, anything?

(01:06:23):
She kind of like licks your yourchin away with her hand and
turns away from you and she tisks saying some some temple
from the old world dedicated to all of the upper pantheon and
the local folk peasantry gods. But there's something about it.

(01:06:46):
And she's kind of looking off towards the temple and she says
that's there's something about it that's just really drawing me
in. There's something about the
temple. And she snaps a finger and she
looks at you on points and she says there's a vacancy to it.
I'm not quite sure how or what, but there's something about the

(01:07:08):
temple that's partially empty asshe begins to melt back into
shadow, her eyes bleeding to black and her mouth stretching
downward as she returns into a shadow form.
You hear her say. But whatever you do, make sure
you do it in my name in there. You know I will.

(01:07:32):
With a snickering laugh, the shadow rejoins your shadow, and
her presence is gone. All right, I walk back and
relay, relay that to everybody. Also, the way you're doing that
is totally giving me Mother Gothel vibes from Tangled.
I love it so much. I don't.
I don't think I've watched Tangled.

(01:07:53):
I don't know who that is. It is all right because it's
perfect for me. Anyways, that's.
Because you've got a godson, nota goddaughter.
Right. Don't she so Lala or that?
So Thea tells us all the about this and that there's the there
seems to be an opening in the Pantheon down there.

(01:08:13):
Pebble perks up at that and sayspraise bark and she gets ready
to, I guess, break down the entrance to this damn tilted
hallway. Pebble yeah, go ahead and give
me a investigation. Before you break it, how are we
going to spend the night? Outdoors, why don't we go

(01:08:36):
inside? She said.
It's dangerous outside. I have, I have my Lehman's Hut.
Nothing can enter that. As the two of you are arguing
about that Pebble as you approach the entrance on foot,
the stone. I got a nine by the way.
OK, yeah. Even with a nine, I don't know.
Anybody want to turn it into a 27 somehow?

(01:08:58):
I mean, go ahead. No, save your stuff.
Even with a 9 Pebble, as you walk up, it's tilted up out of
the ground and you can see that like some very crude stairs have

(01:09:20):
been built that go from the ground up to the entrance.
And as you're looking at it, as you approach, the stone blocks
that are walling off the entrance begin to fold away from
each other. They begin to twist and rotate
in on themselves, opening a doorway down into the temple.

(01:09:42):
Guys, it's like Diagon Alley. Diagonally.
It is definitely diagonally out of the ground.
Whatever reference Pebble just made, I have no idea what that
was. You're a wizard, Lando.
You. Know like from the move to
Laplands. Wednesday.

(01:10:05):
Down there. Hello, Sake on the candies, OK.
This is a Harry podcast. Thank.
You very much. Nikomas turns back into human
form just to laugh. Yeah, Nikomas, your your laugh

(01:10:28):
like Harry's on the wind. It fills the space.
Hey. Nikomas, while you were flying
around, did you see any animals you you've never seen before?
Surprisingly, no. It's this land is kind of barren
of everything. Well, well, guys, do we want to

(01:10:50):
go in, It's the door opened or do we want to camp out here?
My concern is night time but. But inside is not outside.
If it's dangerous outside but not inside, then we can go
inside and not be outside in danger.

(01:11:12):
See you here and urging in the back of your head that says what
are we waiting for? It's time to go.
Let's go. Let's get in there.
Pebble walks through the door. Neither we.
Thomas doesn't think this is a good idea.

(01:11:32):
Pebble as you as you go in firstyou do see that there are it, it
is slanted downward at the same angle that it seems to be
jutting up out of the ground. And you, you can see that like
some roughshod, like chisels have been put into the floor to

(01:11:52):
try and kind of give some like stepping steps and grips that
allow you to to kind of like watch.
It. Yeah, yeah, to kind of like make
your way down. Yeah, I, I, I let them, I let
them know. I, I, I say, hey guys, gravity's
normal in here. Is everybody going in or is
anybody hanging outside? I can't.

(01:12:15):
I can't. Let my child to go off alone.
I was going to say I can't. I can't split the party, but the
steel Defender is definitely going to be taking up the rear
and kind of staying by that entrance.
Inside the entrance or outside? Inside.
Yep. Anyone else?
OK. Splitting the party team, is

(01:12:35):
that really on the team? The the healer used to follow
the party. Yep.
Cool. As the last of you make your way
in, the steel defender bringing up the rear, the entrance behind
you remains open. And.
You make your way down and you can hear some like fervent

(01:12:57):
whispers down the hall and you can, you can't see the large
room that it opens up into, but it it does flatten out at the
bottom and you know that there'sa larger chamber at the bottom.
Pebble, if you are in the lead, what?
What would Pebble do? We got to the bottom of this
large chamber. Yeah, like if there's anything

(01:13:19):
you want to do before you reach the bottom.
Oh, before. I reach the bottom.
That's up to you. We all have dark vision, so are
there any torches or anything like that?
You you do see that there is thedim glow of some light coming
from the chamber up ahead. OK, So what I'd like to do,
since we're on a slant going down into a chamber, I'd like to

(01:13:42):
like, you know, get low, like I,you know, real low and kind of
so that I can see into the chamber before anything in the
chamber can see out. You know what I mean?
You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
So like as you do, you can see that it's a large, the kind of
like a large antechamber. And there is a clutch of a few

(01:14:08):
dozen people who are kind of sitting in little pockets and in
tight circles. Some of them are pacing and
walking around. There is a good amount.
You know what? Why am I doing this?
Give give me a perception check.With advantage 'cause you

(01:14:29):
already started. Yeah, go ahead with advantage.
Oh OK, that'll help because the first one was a 2, second one
was a 17. OK.
There's a stench of blood in theair.
There's a kind of a foul smell of, you know, for lack of a
better word. There's the smell of shit, piss

(01:14:52):
kind of barnyard smells, but youdon't see or hear any animals.
What you do smell is the burningof like dung fires, like shit
that's been lit on fire to give light, giving up some pretty
putrid smoke. But as you're looking into this
chamber, you're seeing that the people gathered around, there's

(01:15:15):
a lot of straw hats, a lot of overalls.
Several of them are, you know, there's packs and some different
things in different parts of theroom.
And with that role, you also seethat these are probably the
farmers and they've been here for a while.
Like they've been stuck and havehave had to rely on, you know,

(01:15:40):
the doors still open so. So with with that role, you you
can surmise that they they probably have not stayed here
like this by choice. OK, so if it's a bunch of
villagers, Ragnar is going to look for a protet of three men

(01:16:04):
and a woman. And to help out, I'm going to
call out this Jim. Yeah, yeah.
I'll enter. OK you walk past Pebble and you
you enter into the space and youcall out Jim and you see three
and or 4 heads. I'll turn at you simultaneously.
And someone shouts, is, is this,is that it or are you, you?

(01:16:27):
Is it it, or is it you? And all the people start
standing up and scrambling together, shoulder to shoulder.
And they're looking at each other nervously.
And some of them are pulling outlike little daggers.
Some are pulling out like, you know, paring knives or one has a
sickle. And they're all looking at each
other nervously. And they're looking at you
nervously. And they're like, no, no, no,
that's not one of us. Before, before it gets any

(01:16:50):
farther, I'm going to say Annie Beck sent me.
Old. Annie Burke sent me.
Oh. We've got some of her candies.
One of them swings the knife in your direction and says that's
impossible. Annie Burke is here.
And as you look you see a withered old lady looking at you
and she says, hi Jerry, I don't think I sent you here.

(01:17:13):
I've never met you before. I'd like to take one of the
candies from Pebble and I'd liketo persuade them that someone
that looked like Andy Burke sentus.
Would anyone else like to do anything with with this
information I've given? Yeah, I want to do a perception
check and see if this one is at all different from the other one

(01:17:36):
and if I notice any differences,OK.
Give me that. Give me that perception check.
Nat 20 + 5. Kovitz. +2 so a 27 with Nat 20.
OK, you see a few things at once.

(01:17:58):
Fuck me, you You see a little old lady who's smiling and
waving, and you see a number of people, including the four heads
that turn Jim, Jim, Jim Junior, Jimmy John.
And you see other villagers and everyone is bristling.
They have knives or rocks or sticks in their hands, and

(01:18:21):
almost all of them are waving them at the group of you.
But sometimes they're also like,brandishing them at each other,
and sometimes they're sticking together.
And then sometimes they're breaking apart, nervous of each
other. And the aunt, Annie Burke, takes
a step forward, and she goes. Well, how?

(01:18:43):
Did you get in? Here we all been stuck and as
you look with a fucking Nat 20 for a 27.
And just. Just the 25 the the 1D4 doesn't
count anymore. OK.
Oh well, that changes everything.
Yeah, OK, You don't think shit with that.

(01:19:08):
You're you're looking and you see this Annie Burke has very
clear blue eyes, not Milky, no cataracts.
Does she think I'm a child? Well, why would I call a grown
gnome woman a child? She's a real one, guys.
She's the. Real 1.

(01:19:31):
You've got to answer her mouth as she's talking and see if she
also has the same gummy teeth. She opens her mouth and like as
looking at her, yeah, her, her. She has no teeth in her mouth.
There's, there's a, there's a fake one of you up there that
thinks I'm a child. They all brandish their weapons
at each other. Before I do anything else, Thea

(01:19:51):
Nokomis anything the two of you are doing.
Nope, I'm just trying to observethe whole situation.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, 'cause he had a really good role there, so
same. Every everyone's brandishing
weapons at each other and one ofthem says, well it's only ever

(01:20:16):
taken the form of one of us, never 5 at once.
These must be new people. And another person takes a step
forward and they say, did how did you get in here?
We walked up the stairs, the door.
Opened. Several of them began clambering
forward at the same time. They say the doors open.
I don't know if it's still open.With that Annie Burke begins

(01:20:42):
chuckling and she looks around at the others that are gathered
around and she says, well my dearies, I suppose this is gone
about as long as it can. And she begins to stand upright

(01:21:04):
and she stands at her full height and her neck begins to
elongate and stretch, possibly long.
And the other farmers all begin shrieking.
And before one of them could do anything, the long neck with
this skull like head at the end snaps downward, biting out the
jugular of one of the gems. And you hear the voice.

(01:21:27):
Go ahead. So much fun as it's chewing and
chomping down one of the gyms, clutching at his throat, falls
to the ground, blood pushing. I go into a rage knowing that
that the freaking one that actually viewed me as an adult
isn't real. As as you do, the neck shrinks

(01:21:52):
back down as everyone's screaming, everyone's running in
different directions. And this is a large crowd of
people. There's like, you know, 364045
people here plus the one that's on the ground bleeding out and
Narlawine with that Nat 20. As you look around, you do see
off in one corner of the room, there's actually a pile of
corpses there of other dead bodies that have been piled up.

(01:22:15):
And the villagers are screaming and pushing each other.
Some are brandishing the weaponsand one says we got to make for
the door. And they all rush at the five of
you in full speed, all of them running for the hallway to the
entrance. And you lose sight of Annie
Burke. Halloween calls ahead to the

(01:22:37):
steel defender to block the door.
Block the entrance and nobody can get out.
So I I'm going to tell you the the steel defender's not quite
wide enough to stop dozens of people pushing into that hallway
at the same time. As they rush towards us, Brad
Grenier is going to, for the first time in front of the

(01:22:58):
party, release his Necrotic shroud please.
Read for everybody what that does.
Well transformed creatures otherthan allies within 10 feet of me
and must succeed on my charisma saving throw or become
frightened until the end of the next turn.
I'm doing this to kind of slow them from running into us and
trampling us in the enemy getting away.

(01:23:20):
OK. So the the crowd is all rushing
for the entrance, crowding the entrance and trying to push the
steel defender and each of you out of the way.
Oh, it's already passed me. Well, they're, they're running
towards you. So the The thing is, I'm not
going to roll for it. I'm just going to say it
succeeds. They're already terrified, but

(01:23:40):
the problem is, is they're they're afraid of what's behind
them and they're afraid of what's in front of them.
And all the panicked mind can think to do is run.
So some people run in One Direction, some people run for
the entrance, others are shouting to make, you know, get
out of the temple to escape. And as all of this is happening,

(01:24:02):
we need to do 1 little thing here as a group of players air
with me for just one second. So effectively what happens here
is all the people pushing, shoving, you know, brandishing
weapons. It it becomes just a maelstrom
of bodies in every direction as they're trying to escape.

(01:24:26):
The creature that looked like Annie.
Someone's shouting Jim, Jim's dead, someone else's crying.
Like just just people like in Black Friday, mass panic, like
people being trampled by each other.
So First off, I need to send some DMS to each of you.

(01:24:50):
There's 1-2. This is something that I'm going
to tell you right now. You need to keep to yourself.
I would like to hear 5 acknowledgements.
You understand that you have to keep this to yourself.
Acknowledge Nerd Bird. Yeah, salvage, not you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Acknowledged.

(01:25:12):
One of you knows what I copy pasted to you.
The rest of you in in the panic and the pushing.
Some people make their way to the hallway.
Someone shouts, the door is open.
All of them are running, and youhear a voice say.
It takes the form of your loved ones.
It takes the form of someone youknow.

(01:25:33):
Someone else shouts. It taunts, it teases.
It's going to kill us all. They're all running and pushing
and shoving, and finally the five of you find that the entire
crowd has pushed past you and they're all clambering down the
hallway, screaming and yelling, running, scared of you, scared

(01:25:54):
of the monster, scared of everything.
And the five of you are left standing there and in the
hallway, out of sight as it tilts upward and up the incline,
you hear a voice of Annie Burke say, Well, since the temple's

(01:26:14):
empty and I was able to move in,well, just killing the five of
you wouldn't be any fun, now, would it?
Of the five of you, one of you knows who is the doppelganger.
This is easy, we just punch everybody in the balls until the

(01:26:35):
doppelganger doesn't react or something.
I. Don't have balls you?
Got 2 on 2 on your chin below your shoulders there.
Don't look the doppelganger trying to attack us.
I'm just boulders. The five of you look around and

(01:26:55):
it's just the five of you standing in here.
Where's Anna Berkeley? There is no Annie Burke.
Well. One of you's not really you,
it's. Not me.
It's where the doppelganger would say.
No. Is it you?
You have to tell me. Everything the doppelganger

(01:27:16):
would accused of. All right, all right, all right.
I tossed Pebble of Rock. Pebble, how many fingers you
got? 9 I mean I got my nose picker
over here in my in my pouch and she waggles her nose picker.
She grabs the rock, catches it and chomps on it.

(01:27:40):
I want to do an insight check and see if if the rock actually
broke. Yeah, give me an insight.
That's a dirty 20. Dirty 20 You you hear the you
hear the rock crumble between her teeth.
However, having witnessed what you just witnessed seems pretty
feasible. This creature could break rocks

(01:28:03):
with its jaw. Nobody can break rocks like I
can. I love rocks.
Now that we want to do a check and see if anyone's got piercing
blue eyes. Yeah, go ahead, do an
investigation. Does anybody let Nara Leween get
close to them? This is bad because I I do have

(01:28:27):
blue eyes, red hair, blue eyes. That means that.
One Nara Leween. For the life of you, you thought
everyone had brown eyes. Mommy has green eyes.
Not I I sent you something. Let.
Me read this uh. Oh, I'd like to.

(01:28:49):
I'd like to insight off the if. I walk up to Narloween to let
him check my eyes. What color are your eyes brag on
here? I am in my necrotic trout so my
eyes are inky black still not brown.
Definitely. No, that's ongoing because I'm
transformed. Oh, oh, oh, I see.

(01:29:12):
So I walked. To him, creatures other than my
allies within 10 feet of me mustsucceed on our curse.
We're saving thrall of 14 or become frightened.
I punch Brad in the balls. That's actually.
I don't know how that. Would work with the
doppelganger. Because they can attack roll
all. Right I.
Want to get one of you guys in the balls you.

(01:29:34):
Are raging. Yeah, yeah, rage to it.
It's a 24 to hit. Why are we punching me in the
balls? Because you look different, you
obviously a monster. So that's a 66 damage to to brag
the Rainier's balls. Brag How do you respond?
Pebbled isn't running away in fear.

(01:29:55):
I'm. I'm handling some things in DMS
so. OK, OK, I lift down that Pebble,
a tear rolling down my cheek. And I say now, if I was evil, do
you really think I'd let you do that?
And I'd like to persuade Pebble that I am me.
But do you look like a monster? Role of persuasion, that's a 23

(01:30:21):
Well, it's that's pretty convincing and.
That beats my passive insight. This this is.
A new thing that happened to me during the fight with Devon.
Do you not remember my wings showing up momentarily?
Pebble reaches behind her to herbag and feels Devon's head in
there. Excuse me?

(01:30:44):
Yes, Pebble has Devon's head in her bag.
OK. I just, I just wanted to make
sure I heard that right. Yes, she feels it in there.
And and she thinks back. She's like remembering back to
that fight. And she does remember something
happening with Bragg, and she does Bragg.

(01:31:05):
You are you? You what did what?
How did we meet? We met where I made this flute
and I pull out my flute. OK, guys, Bragg's not a monster.
He just looks like one. I'm sorry for punching you in
the balls. I feel like I look.

(01:31:27):
Glorious with my new wings. I don't know what they mean yet.
But. Dia, you're awfully quiet over
there. Steve's trying to figure out
what to do. Pebble steps up to Thea and
says, All right, I'm punching you in the balls now.
Wait. I have an idea.
Everyone. Why don't we just?

(01:31:53):
I have an idea and we'll go withmajority rule.
What's your idea? I cast zone of truth.
OK. Could.
Everyone. Please make me Dexterity saving
throws, uh. Oh.
I got a 10. Is this an effect that I can

(01:32:14):
see? I got a 610 is a fail, 6 is a
fail. 11. Wait, 11 is a fail.
I technically got a 12. I got a 14 but I might be able
to throw with advantage. The DC.
Was I have an advantage on? OK, I don't need to roll with
advantage but. Yeah.
I saved. So everyone who saved you are

(01:32:40):
going to take half damage. Braggrenier.
As the spell comes out of your hands and you begin to cast it
like like arcane, dark bolts of energy begin crackling between
your fingers and the spell literally backfires in your
hands, blasting outward in everydirection.

(01:33:02):
Very similar to the effects of afireball.
He is the monster. Wouldn't hurt myself if I was
the monster. If you passed, you took 10
points of damage. If you failed, you took 20
points of necrotic damage. Not me, that because I'm rage.

(01:33:24):
I'm resistant to necrotic, so I take half, right?
I'm often resistant to necrotic.So I take 5 points of damage.
Yeah, cut in half. Yay, my armor.
Yeah, Nokomis, your armor seems to almost absorb some of the
energy and then like expel it asyou know, benign arcane wisps of

(01:33:48):
energy. And Braggrenier, you're just a
little evil now. So it's it just doesn't hit you
as hard. Your skin absorbs some of it,
but that's. Would you do that for Bragg?
The spell does fail and I'm justgoing to meta game for you guys
a little bit. This is a puzzle and we're not
just going to ruin it with one spell.

(01:34:09):
Sorry I'm. Not going to ruin it with Pebble
punch and seep flu in the balls.Who is the quiet one?
I mean, we get all these thoughts, speech.
Nikomas has an idea for thought speech.
Nikomas would like to telepathically tell everyone to

(01:34:29):
raise their hand in three seconds.
Count silently and let's let's figure out who doesn't raise
their hand in three seconds. Are we ready?
321 Raise your hand. Up.
My hands up. Everyone raises their hand.
OK. Well, I guess the doppelganger

(01:34:51):
has our thought speech inside. Check.
I'm the slowest person all. Right, Nikomas, give me a
wisdom. Check.
I could just use perception. Yeah, only a nine.
RIP. You don't know how, but the
doppelganger's on to your tricks.

(01:35:12):
God damn it. Can I just go back to punching
people in the balls? Absolutely.
Pebble. Help us tumble Pebble, If you're
doing that, I just need you to do it.
Roll it. Make attack rolls.
All right, it is to be somethingthat they trigger something.
Everybody line up, punch y'all in the balls and ask you

(01:35:34):
questions. Call Call this ball punch trivia
with Pebble hard bottom. I'm gonna punch you in the
balls. Pebble.
All right, so, yeah, you you sound like you're you're
volunteering. You're volunteering.
I want to punch you. In the balls first.
I go up to the theater. I punch her in the balls.

(01:35:55):
Making it it's. A 13 hit.
Oh, I have no balls. I'm.
Punching you in a damn. Balls.
Oh. Oh, that's nineteen hit.
Yes. Oh, the balls.

(01:36:15):
Roll damage. For bludgeoning damage.
I think she's the monster. As you say that, you hear the
voice of Annie Burke laughs coming out of the walls.

(01:36:36):
And as this is happening, the walls inside the antechamber
begin to twist and rotate, and you see the as you're all
clambering and casting spells, recovering from that blast, and

(01:36:57):
you are punching each other in the balls.
The entryway to the hallway thatthe farmers fled through bricks
itself shut, and the room you are in is slowly twisting,
rotating bricks and you all notice the room is rapidly

(01:37:17):
getting smaller. Everyone give me some quick
perception checks. That's a 20 13.
Brag you're you're the one to notice whatever's happening.
It's being caused by the doppelganger and there is a door

(01:37:39):
across the room and the room you're currently in is rapidly
shrinking. Guys, there's a guy over there
we could make for it. OK.
And if I was even, I wouldn't tell you guys that.
And I run towards the. Door.
Pebble is still trying to punch everybody in the balls.

(01:38:02):
Brag. As we go, I'm going to throw.
Well, no, I'm not, Never mind. All right, now, Pebble.
Pebble runs with Bragg keeping an eye on whoever doesn't run.
Gnarly Wing goes for the door, but also calls out for the steel
defender to make some noise fromthe hallway.
Steel defender is was in the chamber with you.

(01:38:24):
I'm not going to separate you from your defender.
Oh, I wanted to be separated. That's why he stayed by the
entrance. Oh, OK.
Well, yeah, your steel defendersby the entrance, then you he, he
can't. Be surprised and he's not
exhausted. You you hear the faint squawking
of sounds of your steel defenders.
You're running away from it, towards the door across the
room. Guys, the entrance is the other

(01:38:47):
way. I don't know where this door
leads. Brag with with your 21.
You're the one who gets there first.
The walls are now only 10 feet apart from each other as they
continue to twist and rotate, the stones turning on
themselves, grinding inward, almost like a giant shredder
that's compressing in on itself.As you reach the door, the door

(01:39:08):
is locked, but it rattles in thehinge.
And I'm gonna Pebble. I'm gonna yell at.
Pebble. As Pebbles running out, I'm
gonna say it's locked mash into it and I'm gonna give her a
Dick. I cannonball into it.
Give me an attack roll with advantage.
She also has the. Bardic not a OK.

(01:39:31):
Just don't roll in that one. Why did you say that?
Why mud? Why did you say that?
He gave you advantage. 2022 Do Ineed the bardic?
No you don't. Pebble goes head 1st through the
wood door, shattering a hole in it that's just large enough that

(01:39:52):
everybody could crawl through. I was going to say, I
immediately turn around and unlock it or whatever.
It is locked but handle doesn't move.
OK, well, if everybody can crawlthrough.
Get on, come on. As I I post up under the hole
that I made and as people come through I am punching them in
the balls. So let me know when you guys are

(01:40:15):
walking through. Some attack.
Roll that's. Yep.
If I die by four hit points. Nick Nick Comus is walking
through the hole. 19 on the Comus, 66 damage Who's next?
Nick Comus, I mean Narloween flies through.

(01:40:38):
God damn you have me saying the wrong name now.
OK, another 19. Girl damage.
Another 6. No, I can't see any.
Reactions. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I I cast shield and so it's a + 5 so it does not hit on
my 21. OK.

(01:40:58):
Who's next going through the hole?
Take a note. Yeah, go on.
I go through. I didn't I.
Go through as you. Try as I go.
Through. As I got through, I, I, I say, I
say, Princess, you don't have tohit me again.
You already punched me once. I.
I I I purposely I purposely missand look up waiting for the last

(01:41:23):
person. OK.
How? How do you respond to the the
name Princess? 23 hits, Princess.
I grin. I'm like, hey, brag and I just
do a little flick. Who was the last one through?
Was that Thea? I.
I was saying I was running through anyways and then Bragg
must have jumped in front of me.I don't.

(01:41:44):
Know I'm sorry I. 23. Hold on real quick, real quick.
This is important. Thea give me an insight check.
17. Ragrenier did push himself in
front of you at the end of the last one through could mean
being crushed by the walls. The heck?

(01:42:07):
Thea, as you are scrambling lastone through the hole in the
door, please give me a Dexteritysave as the twisting stones
begin scraping at your lower half and legs as you're wiggling
through. 18. You feel the twisting stones
grinding behind you, your legs scraping and being literally in

(01:42:31):
the process of being crushed as you are pulling your way
through. With an 18.
You do pass, you only take half damage.
You take eight points of crushing damage as well as
whatever Pebbles about to roll as she punches you between the
legs as well. Sticks damage.
Jeez, Pebble. I it, it's an unarmed strike.

(01:42:56):
It's flat damning. Yeah.
I I have no control over it, youknow.
Thea you? You take what?
What was it in his half? So that was 8 + 4.
You take 12 points of damage as you're the last one through.
Because Bragg pushed himself in front.
Yeah, I'm a little, I'm a littleupset.

(01:43:16):
What does Thea do? Thea, I don't know, I I want to
do some kind of deception check on fucking everybody right now.
Like they're trying to lie to them.
No. It's what you mean.
Yeah, I guess I don't want to lie to them.
I just, I want to know if they're lying to me.

(01:43:37):
Yeah, that's insight. Yeah, well, for one, I kind of
want to smack brag in the face, right?
Now no for it. Make an attack roll.
That's a 19 hit. Yeah.
OK. Sorry, damage.
I look at it and I say I was first to the door.

(01:44:00):
I was waiting for Pebble to break a hole and now Roline and
the homeless jumped through. Everybody's about to get slapped
in the face because I was right behind you all.
Right. I'd like to.
I still want to do my insights. Yeah, go ahead.
Fuck. Can I can I wait, can I can
Ioffer the help action because Iwould like to do the same thing

(01:44:21):
as as I punched everybody to kind of made their reactions.
Because she's also kind of doingit on you.
Yeah, exactly. I I'm not I'm I'm not going to
get. 1:15. You know.
I just do one or like do I do one for everybody or?
No, just one is fine as you're, you're looking at everyone, you

(01:44:42):
know, tensions are high and everyone seems to be saying what
they would say. Nakoma, since you have not
participated in any of this going on, go ahead and give me a
quick perception check. She got punched.
I certainly did. You're you're.
Yeah. The only one that has not taken.

(01:45:06):
I I rolled an 18 for perception.I'm just keeping things moving
for pacing sake, Nokomis as as they're inciting and punching
and slapping at each other, you notice that you are in a small
circular room. The walls are not moving,
thankfully, but in the center ofthe room is a candle on a

(01:45:29):
pedestal, a thick black wax candle with a curled knobby Wick
at the top. And there is a very different
the door that you all just crawled through, the hole that
Pebble cannonballed through. The stones have clicked shut,
sealing itself behind you, similar to the entrance was when

(01:45:52):
you first approached the temple.The way behind has sealed itself
shut, even if you were to destroy the door behind you.
And looking forward, the next door is different.
It is large, it is circular, similar like it's, it's a round
shaped door, kind of like a, youknow, like a, like a Hobbit
door, like think Lord of the Rings kind of.

(01:46:14):
It is built into a stone frame and the rest of the walls are a
similar brick. And the pedestal has some
different shapes and arcane movements on it, like etchings
into the stone, very old world kind of stuff.

(01:46:37):
But as I mentioned at the beginning, at the center of the
pedestal is that thick, tall, black unlit candle.
I'm gonna catch shrewd craft andlight the candle with a small
flame. Could everybody please make a
Dexterity saving throw? What we got to stop casting
spells? I yell as I'm.

(01:47:01):
I want to, I want to be, I want to be specific if you're casting
it on the candle, right? Yeah.
Yeah, OK. 5. That's a fail.
I got a 16. That's a pass.
So everyone failed except Pebble.
As the as you cast your druid craft on the candle, the Wick

(01:47:24):
catches fire, and then the flameon the Wick gets bigger and
bigger and it begins spinning and rotating and a fireball
explodes from the candle. Everybody's gonna take some
damage. Give me one second here.
I believe Fireball is 66. That sounds right.

(01:47:46):
I should really know my spells ahead of time.
Everyone who failed takes 21 points of damage.
Pebble for succeeding, you take 11 points of damage.
And then haft again 'cause I'm raging and.
This is necrotic. Or this is flyer damage.
Damn. This is.

(01:48:08):
This is literally so as that happens, it explodes outward.
Everybody give me an insight check to see who who cast what.
Now these fucking rolls. I got a 10I.
Got an 11 nap 20 + 2 I. Got.
I got. 4. Narlawine you also you were not

(01:48:30):
in the the process of being punched in the balls and and
things and you, you saw Nokomis walk up to the candle to light
it and as an artificer, you knowyou, you, you did pick up on
they just cast a simple cantrip.They did not cast a third level
fireball, but Pebble Nokomis. Like Nokomis, you're you're not

(01:48:51):
sure what you did, but Pebble, Brag and Thea.
As far as you can tell, Nokomis just cast Fireball in the room.
What'd you do that for? I did not.
Dress fireball in the room. First of all, I need to lessen
some damage on myself, so I'm casting a second level absorb.

(01:49:14):
OK. So that's going to be -12.
You maxed out six and six. OK, Yeah, you, you absorbed that
12 points of fire damage. And So what was the total amount
of damage that we were taking? You failed, so it was 21.
So 21 -, 12. Basic math nine.
Yeah, you you take 9 points of damage then.

(01:49:36):
I'm going to lift around to everyone and I'm going to say if
I wasn't me I couldn't do this and I'm going to animate little
brother and have him start floating around.
Give me a performance check. That's a Nat 20 baby or a 26.
I mean that that little antenna flute dances around perfectly.

(01:50:01):
And. A stellar performance by
Braggrenier. I would also.
Like to heal myself but I'm worried about killing everyone.
No, I'm worried about killing everyone.
So I know he's absorbed his elements worked, but I don't
know if that's a spell. You guys, I've got potions if
you all don't want to cast any spells.

(01:50:23):
I don't want your potions. I'm going to lay hands on
myself. OK.
So I want to do an arcana check to see if there's something
besides us that's affecting everything going on.
What if none of us is the doppelganger?
That sounds like something a doppelganger would say.

(01:50:45):
You're the only one I haven't punched in the balls.
You did well, you failed to punch me, but I've taken damage
otherwise. Can I do the arcana check?
Yeah, go ahead with an Arcana check.
While he's doing that, Pebble iscracking her knuckles and
getting ready to walk up to him.I would.
I would also the sticks and I'm doing a flash so 19 for the

(01:51:05):
arcana check. I'd like to pass out paper to
everyone and a little bit of charcoal for everyone to write.
With OK, hold on, hold on. Let me let's let's.
Let's. Resolve the Arcana, check
Narlawein. There's absolutely something
else at play causing things likecertain spells to fail and self

(01:51:30):
destruct the the walls to, you know, turn into cheese graters
grinding in on themselves in theprevious room.
Like there, there is a arcane force at hand.
Absolutely. That can't tell if it's coming
from somebody or coming from outside the group.
You cannot. I mean, you're, you're catching

(01:51:51):
all kinds of arcana coming from different people.
Nokomis with the druid craft, Thea casting lay hands on
herself, that's giving off arcana.
Bragrenier animating little brother, that's giving off
strong arcana. But Arcana's, Arcana's Arcana,
you're not really able to, you know, you're, you're recognizing
these are spells that they're casting.

(01:52:13):
I, I will say give, go ahead andgive me an intelligence check on
top of that Arcana check. Just a flat intelligence.
Yep. That's an 11 that was so close
to a net 20. The God that's so middle of the
road. With an 11 you know that the
thought speak worked before. With an 11 you don't know for

(01:52:37):
certain if the doppelganger has or does not have as it manifests
whoever it's taking the shape of.
You don't know. Does it?
Does it learn their thoughts? Does it learn their their?
Can it read their minds? Is the real person like tied up
behind the walls somewhere else and it's drawing information out

(01:52:58):
of them? With an 11, you don't know how
the Zanesh meet part worked or isn't working as a way to try
and determine who's the doppelganger.
You, you're, you know, between the, the monster and the walls
and the fireball and everything else and you know, Pebble
punching everyone in the in the balls.

(01:53:20):
You. You can't.
Quite everyone yet. We've all taken damage, Pebble.
You need to stop hitting all of us, otherwise you will be hit
back. OK, so.
That's what we're going to need here.
What we're going to need here isa bit of wire, a bunch of Petri
dishes, a flamethrower. We're going to have to cut
everybody and and and put blood in the Petri dishes.

(01:53:42):
I have a mud question since I was standing next to the doors
everyone went through it. Did everyone roll for fear or
whoever needed to roll for fear today?
That was resolved and no one is running in fear.

(01:54:03):
Go ahead, face their own wisdom.Check.
So they did OK give. Me, Give me a wisdom check
that's a. 17. There's a real chance whatever
this creature is, it might be immune to fear.
OK, I'm going to pass out paper to everyone and I'm going to

(01:54:27):
tell everyone to write down. Not to think about it if they
can help it, but write down whatthey what we saw in the red
tent. And once everyone is done, I'd
like us all to show our papers at the same time.
I almost feel that I need to write roll a intelligence check

(01:54:51):
to find out if I can actually write down because she can write
just like not super wordy. One second.
I mean it's. It's not super wordy, it's.
Give me, give me one second. Give me one second.
OK, yeah, I gotcha. I know how to do that.

(01:55:13):
One minute. Either littered.
Or not. No picture.
Picture. There you go.
Yeah, your dad's can hang it on the wall.
All. Right, Each of you, you can go
in whatever, whatever turn you like.
Who? Who would like to go first?
Oh, oh, I want us all to share it at the same time.

(01:55:33):
Well, I mean, you guys can't alltalk at the same time.
Yeah, I hold up mine and it saysfuck, I can't remember the
names, The Chained 1, the Crippled God, and fuck, I can't
remember the names, no. No, no, I was Raven, for I was
looking for the Crippled God. Yeah.
OK, who's next? Yeah, mine turns over and it

(01:55:55):
says Crippled God. Here my paper says Crippled God.
I love it, Nakomas. My paper says Crippled God as
well. And as Nakomas speaks, I share
with the group. I saw the spell to light the
candle. The fireball didn't come from
Nakomas. Yeah.

(01:56:16):
I mean, you're, you're able to say definitively it was a trap
that came out from the candle. Yeah, so I I convinced the group
that I don't think the Comus is the doppelganger.
I promise you I can't cast Fireball.
I'm not that good of a wizard. I'm not sure which one by wizard

(01:56:39):
artificials could also cast fireball.
It's a wizard. Yeah, that's.
One of those potions. Here you go, it's just a gate.
The potion. Yes.
No, it's just a regular potion of healing removing them from my

(01:56:59):
inventory. I'm not even going to bite with
myself. That was in that one.
I think it's a healing potion. I'm going to drink it.
That is. What is the health benefit from
that? It is a regular healing potion
that is 2 D 4 + 2 if it is. If it is in fact a healing

(01:57:20):
potion. Do I roll 2 D 4 + 2 to heal
myself? Mud you're you're using an
action, so you just you heal that much.
Yeah, so that's 10. You heal yourself.
Oh. OK I I heal 10 so it would heal
me. Yes it did.
Would anybody like to do some investigation checks like on the
candle, the pedestal, the door? The Commons would also like to

(01:57:43):
use a portion of. Feeling.
OK. There you go.
I'll give you. I'll give you 1.
Would you like an? Investigation check on it.
No, I have my own. I don't need to investigate
anyone else's. Thank you.
Oh. OK, I'll investigate the
pedestal. Yeah, give me an investigation
check. 18. On one side of the pedestal, you

(01:58:06):
see the candle lit. You look at another.
Oh, Nicomas, You also get the full effect of the healing
potion. You don't have to roll for it
'cause you're doing it with a full action.
Oh, OK. So you also get 10 or what?
Yours would be 8 yeah, 10, two yeah, 88 and two Thea.

(01:58:28):
So one side you see a flame on the candle, On the second side
you see just the pedestal and nocandle.
On the third side of the pedestal carved in, you see the
candle on the pedestal but cut in half.
And on the fourth side you see carved into the pedestal.

(01:58:51):
Image of the candle on the pedestal, but it's melted down
flat and it's just a a like flatmelted candle.
Well, my brain hurts now. It's a lot of visual of candle.
Lit missing. Cut in half, melted.

(01:59:12):
OK. Well, they don't know what to do
with that I. Think the answer is time.
Is is that a? You know, is that?
A reference to Of men and Bunnies.
Well, no, but yes, but no, no. Like OK, so the candle is there
not lit on one, then the next one it's lit.

(01:59:36):
Huh. Do you say time to the candle?
I yes I lean over to the candle and say time.
You hear the voice of Annie Burke say wrong.
Oh well, I'm out of my ideas. Did I miss something?
Was the the candle A. A.
A Riddle? No pebbles A.

(01:59:56):
Riddle. It's a Riddle to me.
What? Do you guys want?
To do it was just an idiot. I want to punch.
I want to. To punch freaking gnarly win in
the nut. He didn't.
Like he. Didn't get a tackle.
Hit the punch yet? Something might happen if they

(02:00:16):
reach zero hit points. It's hard to say, but you know
there's also a real cancer trying to sabotage you all.
There's a 12 hit. It doesn't, and knowing is kind
of annoyed at you, but knowing is going to kind of like shove
you away like you're an annoyingchild, his child, his daughter,

(02:00:36):
and he's going to investigate with the thieves tools to look
for some traps, figure out what that candle was.
Sure. Give me give me an investigation
check. Can I assist as I am proficient
with thieves tools as well I am proficient in them.

(02:00:58):
Yeah, I would take the help action if you need, if you know
anyway. So it's going to be a 12 + 6 for
an 18. OK.
And and tell me again, what are what are you trying to
investigate? What are you trying to glean?
I'm trying to figure out what the traps were like why?
Why the candle became a fireball?

(02:01:18):
So between your investigation and Nokomis using druid craft to
try and light it, you know that lighting the candle seems to be
a trap. You so just just investigating
the pedestal similar to what Thea did you're you're not
getting anything new. You know, there, there's the

(02:01:39):
candle on the pedestal and there's the other three images
carved into the four sides of the pedestal, one with it cut in
half, one of just the pedestal with the candle missing and one
with the candle melted down to aflat plate.
I'm not really sure what, what else to give you beyond that

(02:02:01):
using, using your tools and, andyour check like you.
I'll, I'll, I'll also tell you that you were definitely picking
up that the candle is in some way magic.
I slapped the candle in the house.
You you cut it in half. What do you cut it with?
I'm. Gonna hatch it.
OK. Everybody please make me

(02:02:25):
Dexterity saving throws. Zach must have his headset on
because I just heard him say Goddamn.
I'm I'm fucking dead. I got a nine with advantage.
I rolled 2 sevens. I got a 16.
I got only. I rolled A7.

(02:02:45):
I am dead. How many hit points do you have?
Both of them. OK.
Well, let's I had 14. I regained.
I rolled. Back on the.
Hack. Well, you know.
OK, give me one. SEC.
Someone had to. Give me one SEC.
That's what it is, OK. Yeah, I just kept here, God damn

(02:03:09):
it. As I'm getting hurt.
The the candle. I know.
Cut in half exploding outward from the candle is the spell
Sword Burst. Everybody has to make the
Dexterity saving throw and on a fail you are taking 3D6 damage

(02:03:35):
so that. Is what was the the the pass?
Got to be a nine, right? Only not a one.
Well Narloin, you passed with a Nat 29 is a fail, 7 is a fail, 3
is a fail, 16 is a pass. OK.
OK, so the sword burst with three D6, that's 14 points of

(02:03:57):
damage, and if you passed that'scut in half to seven and that is
slashing damage. OK, seven damage.
OK. 1. And that one doesn't do extra
damage, right? As much as I want it to, no.
OK, so 1400. Nakomis.

(02:04:17):
Nakomis is down. Yeah, Nikomis collapses.
Nikomis is down. Did we kill the appelganger?
I am going to be an investigation check.
Not, I said the little brown fly.
Yeah. 22 I. See Nikomis is.
Bleeding out of 14. Pebble Nikomis is bleeding out

(02:04:38):
on the floor. I'm gonna healing hands Nikomis
for 3/4 hit points. Nikomis you with a gasp.
The gaping wound stitches itself.
It stitches itself shut, itchy and painful.
And Nokomis, you open your eyes and you see it's brag healing.

(02:04:59):
You give me a insight check. OK.
Gotta stop meeting like this. You you see that?
It's Brag Grenier healing you, not the paladin or the barbarian
with all the potions. I.

(02:05:21):
I I literally just used almost all my laying hands on myself.
Which is how much? Did you feel me for?
O3D4 you got to roll or do I have to roll?
You roll it. You're.
Casting it. I do also have cure wounds, it's
a one D 8 + 2. You have 6 health?

(02:05:41):
Yeah. Cutting the candle so as as this
happens and everybody like is recovering from the sword burst
blasting out from the candle. Nara Lewin.
You turn and look and the candleis back on the pedestal just
like it was before. The fuck?

(02:06:03):
What's the No one touched the damn candle.
What's the order of the images again?
I'd like to look at them again. Sure.
I mean it, it depends on which way you walk up to it, right?
I mean it's got four sides, 4 images.
I'm going to start. I'm going to look.
Can I investigate the room and see if there's anything like the
starting of a mural or anything around or anything that

(02:06:26):
indicates the starting side give?
Me an investigation check. And I'm going to give myself a
bardic with that. So that is 18 + 150.
So says 16. 15 + 1 for 16, OK, as you're investigating the

(02:06:46):
walls, you, you specifically said the walls looking for any
kind of clues. Yes, you do see in a couple
places some of the stone bricks in the mortar between the
stones. There are very, very small holes
and with a 16 as you investigate, definitely looks

(02:07:08):
like something would shoot out of that hole.
I would like to point that out to everyone and say stay out
from in front of these. They are as you're
investigating, they they circle the room.
Oh, how low do they go? Do they?
Do they as everywhere going to get hit?
Floor to ceiling. I.

(02:07:32):
Like there's a chance that you could pass and dodge, but you
know, it's, it's yeah, everywhere in the room.
Like these, these holes are aimed everywhere.
All right, so the order that youread them in, it was lit, cut in
half, missing, and then melted. That sounds right.
So I guess I'm going to light. Your what?

(02:07:58):
Your what? Brett no Lewin looks at Braggart
and goes, I think these are all things that if we do to the
candle, the candle goes boom or bye bye in some way, shape or
form. I don't know if we're supposed
to do these things in some order, or if we're just supposed
to avoid doing these things to the candle, then this candle

(02:08:18):
literally cannot be touched. Might be a good idea that's.
What I said don't touch the Denton candle anymore.
Are the walls closing in outsidethe room still?
Not this room, no. No, no, in the room we can't.
It's sealed shut behind you. There is so the door across the

(02:08:41):
way all. Right, well, I'm going to.
I'm going to let everyone else think of something and I'm going
to cure wounds myself. OK, go ahead and roll that.
I did a fourth level Cure Woundsand I'm getting 17 health back
and because of that, because of that working, I'm going to third

(02:09:03):
level Narluene no Nokomis, Nokomis, that's 21 health for
you. Holy shit.
OK. Thank you.
I don't want to die before we get attacked again.
What would you guys like to do? I think it might be making sense
to go out the door. Would you like to investigate

(02:09:25):
the door? I would love to dirty 20.
Yeah. So it is a circular door.
It is round. It's kind of like decoratively
adorned and leafed. But there's no writing, there's
no messages or anything like that.
And you do see that it's on likea rolling track, and it does

(02:09:48):
look like it would recede into the wall to the right if it were
to roll into the wall. Did I perceive any traps there?
Nope, because I didn't explicitly say that I was
investigating. What I would tell you, I would
tell you no. With a dirty coin, you don't see
any traps. I vote we.

(02:10:08):
Leave this room and keep thinking of ways to figure out
who the doppelganger is, if it is any of us.
Bragg wants to remind that the whole room is a trap.
He got up. Bragg Grenier is saying that.
But Narlawine, you didn't see anybody trapped me here at the

(02:10:30):
door. I hope to leave in the room
anyone with me are. There any other candles in the
room? Nope, just the one in the center
on the pedestal. Have we tried destroying the
candle? Yes.
Narlawine did try like cutting it in half.

(02:10:51):
And I tried lighting it. I tried lighting it to like burn
it down. That also did to that also
killed us or fireball this. Did we try taking it?
That has not been tried yet. But one of the images is a bit
missing. Yep.
Yeah, don't do that. And don't take the candle.
OK, so I'm going to go ahead andinvestigate the ceiling and then

(02:11:16):
walk out the door. Do I see anything on the
ceiling? Greg has been already an action
to a new. Investigation check.
Net 20 + 3. Jesus.
Absolutely there are spikes on the ceiling.
All right, let's get the fuck out of here, because I think
that removing the candle from where it goes shoots the arrows
all around us, and I think that trying to melt it so it's flat

(02:11:38):
makes the spikes go down. So I'm leaving this room.
I wish you all the best of luck and I open the door.
Everybody, the doppelganger is leaving us.
The door opens. All right, let's go.
I'm leaving. Bye.
I, I, I, I'm not letting these people out of my sight.
I've I've already walked out with Darlene.

(02:11:59):
Yeah, I mean. Me and the homunculus have
zoomed out of the room into this.
New hall. I must die in that room.
Fuck that candle. Are we sure we don't want to try
the ball punching again? Yes, crowd of mistrust,
disinformation, and a temple dead set on killing all of you.

(02:12:23):
You exit the room with a trappedcandle in the center and walk
through the perfectly unlocked door to the next room, side
eyeing and wary of each other. Not sure who the doppelganger is
yet. Or maybe you are.
You might have to, It's up. I don't know what you guys

(02:12:44):
think, but with Pebble narrowing, the Comus, Braggoneer
and Thea gingerly making their way out of the room and into the
following hallway, that is wherewe will end this session.
I. Snack rubber on the back of the
head. Are you sure there's no plan for

(02:13:05):
a Thunder Waves? I my my finger pops out of my
nose and I reach down and grab it and say hey.
That's a 2 brag. You hit Pebble a little too
hard, you do one point of damage.
But I was trying to hit her. That's backwards.
She's the Doppler, yeah. With that everybody, thank you

(02:13:28):
so much for listening to this very entertaining dungeon crawl.
We are D&D 721 and you have beenenjoying the perhaps
misadventures of Bragger, Near the humble Narloween, the Comas
Whisper, Wind, Pebble, Hard Bottom, and Thea Silvius.
My name is Mud. I am the dungeon Master.
With that, everybody go ahead and say goodnight to the good

(02:13:50):
people. Goodnight people.
Goodnight everybody. Thank you.
If you're the double hanger, go last.
I'm thank you everybody for listening and enjoying and, and
partying with us. I I I'm trying to talk so that

(02:14:10):
nobody else gets a chance to talk, because everybody.
The doppelganger give the most boring farewell possible.
I'm pretty sure that the DM is the doppelganger.
So now the ween would like to Thunder wave goodnight to
everyone. Pyro says be well and trust your
friends. Trust your friends.

(02:14:31):
I just wanted to say that mud made me afraid to cast healing
spells for the first time ever. So talk about trauma.
That was the. Thing we'll have to get into
that and the bulls and bears, but farewell everyone.
Yes, everybody have a good night.

(02:14:54):
Yes, I still need to edit all the bulls and the bears up.
Yeah, everyone have a good night.
And now I'm realizing I used my only fourth level slot on the
ear wounds. And and you went last.
Last year. Did go last.
I don't know what you're talking.
About who had the most boring pharaoh that's.

(02:15:16):
Probably me. Oh.
I, I don't if, if we're going bythat, I'd literally don't
remember what. Wait, I wrote Tedley.
So. Peddle You technically haven't
said goodbye. You were.
Just talking about Thunder Wave and have a good night.
No, no, no point. Pebble has not technically said
goodnight. I did.
I said goodnight. I said thank you everybody and

(02:15:37):
goodnight. Y'all have a great one and I'd
said that already. I don't have to play back the
recording. I I thought you were just, you
were just talking so that nobodycould talk.
He specified that. Well.
With that, we will pick this up in our next session.
Everybody, thank you so much forlistening.
Thank you to the players and thank.
You, I'm going to shuffle. I'm going to shuffle the
goodbyes. I'm going to editorially shuffle

(02:16:00):
the goodbyes. So nobody really knows.
If you are listening to this andyou think you know who the
doppelganger is, be sure to say so in our telegram.
Get involved in the conversation.
And while you're at it, be sure to check out d&d721.com.
That is our website where you can catch all the latest updates
about our project, about our NF TS coming soon, as well as our

(02:16:23):
event calendar. If you enjoy stories and
adventures like this one, or like the episode that actually
released today, Part 1 of Men and Bunnies, get involved in the
telegram, Say hello, raise your hand and tell us that you want
to play in a game like these with then.
Again, if you if you guess if, if the listener guesses the

(02:16:44):
doppelganger puts it in the chator the cop.
Better yet, the comments of the Spotify, if a player guesses it
in this on the comments of this episode when it finally is
revealed, I'll give somebody a a, a prize for that, you know,
like. I'll give somebody 25 bucks
worth of Ethereum. Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, we'll. Hook it up, we'll.

(02:17:05):
Hook it up if you guess right inthe comments of this Spotify of
this. Guess per person, so be sure to
create 5 different spotifys, follow like and subscribe with
all five of them and make 5 different guesses.
All righty, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us
tonight. Have a good praise.
Bark. Praise saying that I miss

(02:17:27):
saying. Praise the chain one.
Praise. Bark.
Praise somebody. Praise somebody.
In the water bones in the mire, Every day is hung, Every night

(02:17:56):
you pray for fire. Welcome to Nekrova, where the
dead don't sleep. Welcome to Nekrova, where the

(02:18:21):
mortals lead. Welcome to Nekrova.

(02:19:14):
What is that coin? And you pay with your bone.
Welcome to necrobat. Don't sleep.

(02:19:39):
Welcome to necrobat. Mortals, we welcome to Necro.

(02:20:23):
Welcome to Necrover. The swamps won't forget you.
Your grave won't remember you. The night we'll devour you the
beasts, we'll make meals of you.In the end, you won't be you.
And when you finally rise up, only Necrovan, we'll accept you.

(02:20:46):
Welcome to Necrovan when the death don't sleep.
Welcome to Necrova. We're the mortals we welcome to

(02:21:15):
Necrova. Welcome to.

(02:21:47):
The.

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