Why, yes, luminary Zoobeard Rubyfist, that's
the perpetrator. That's the seemingly wonderful
human being that is not on our Discord, not on
our Instagram. I bet they didn't even leave us
a reviewer rating on Spotify or Apple Podcast
or whatever thing they're using. Yes, yes, you
may do what must be done. And everyone else out
there, thank you so much for being a part of
our community. Zoobeard Rubyfist will not be
visiting you, thankfully. And have fun. on the
Del Prado Manor has ended in success for the
Angel King. The Mighty Pig Man has been taken
into custody, and some reports say that a number
of others have been rounded up by the surviving
party angels that took part in the fight. It
seems that Eastman's Manor has burned down during
the struggle. Many civilians never seem described
it as a beacon of change for the city, burning
at the apex of the hill. A surprisingly optimistic
take, considering the ferocity of the fight.
A fight, I should add, that had indeed poured
into it. the Old City. A number of residents
of the city, calling themselves the Revolution,
have triumphed over the force of Marfil Armored
Guard that had been on their way to a back of
the forces on the top of Uprouchon Hill. In other,
even more incredible news, many claim that all
those taken by the Serenite Illness have made
a full and complete recovery. A miracle, this
night. And as this night continues, as the night
of remembrance continues on, one must wonder
what other miracles are coming our way. Gentlemen,
I'm freaking out. I'm still freaking out. How
come you're freaking out? Because it feels to
me right now like this show is ending. And it's
not. It is decidedly not. There is a lot of story
left here. But man, I mean, this has been around
half of our show. Like our second season, if
you will. And we are pushing into our season
finale. We're so close. And I'm freaking out.
I don't know. Yeah, I mean, the Sansatian arc
is so huge that... To know that it's finally
coming to an end soon -ish is pretty cool. It's
pretty crazy. It's unbelievable. I mean, like,
I did not have nearly as ambitious these ideas
as they became when this arc started. Like, I
just, everything sort of molded over time, became
more and more over time. And now I cannot believe
what's already happened and what is going to
happen moving forward. So excited, in fact, that
we just dropped mics on our drinks. Can you just
say we dropped mics on our drinks? That's a weird
way to put it. Crisis averted. We dropped mics
on our drinks. We toasted the mics. The mics
have been part of this journey, too. They've
got us through San Satyan. Well, now microphones
smell at least a little bit like bourbon. That's
good, right? I mean, there are worse things for
mics to smell like. Thank God it did not. get
into any connections just on the outsides. Um,
but really like super fast, like two second,
um, no preview sort of thing. If, if you've listened
to the show at this point, you know that when
we wrap up an arc, we usually reach out and ask
for questions for our unzipped things. So, uh,
start to start to chew on those. Oh my God. Still
got a few weeks, but dude, I was thinking about
that today and you beat me to it. We're going
to do a big one for this arc. I mean, like, yeah,
I think we haven't done Unzipped since just after
God's Breath. Right. Half the show ago. Get ready
for a three -hour Unzipped, folks. Yeah, I'm
sure everyone will watch that. Oh, yeah. They
will watch it. Or listen to it. Whatever. Watch
this. Hey, hey, put that away. Put it away! It's
a family show. It's not a family show. Steven,
I believe, before we proceed with the action.
Mm -hmm. You had a little something for us. We've
got mail. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't
you fucking... Nope. Nope. Wrong one. We got
it. Nope. We're almost there. Mail time! Yes!
It's mail time. It's been so long, I forgot which
pad it was on. It's always the last button. The
last place you look. Sorry. Go ahead. So this
comes to us from D. A .K .A. Danger Rumpus. Danger
Rumpus. A .K .A. Danger in the Manger. A .K .A.
our very own Rochelle's DM. Yes, Rochelle's DM.
I heard he's amazing. I heard he's an incredible
DM. She speaks very highly of him. This is an
honor. So we got a little, actually a large note
here. But the front of, dispense to any players
you see fit. Okay. Thanks so much for making
such a fun podcast. And sharing it with all.
the pants people out here. Thank you for listening.
I don't want to read because this is awesome
and fantastic. So we're going to enjoy, we're
going to enjoy that a little later, but let's
see what, let's see what he sent us. Oh, what
are you giggling about over there? Oh shit. Jack
Daniels, Tennessee, honey whiskey. Oh, and one
is a normie. So we got a little bit of a grab
bag. Oh, he's got... Oh, my God. They're all
labeled. Got it. All right. It's the night of
dropping whiskey. Oh, okay. Excellent. I think
everyone's are... Here you go. That one's for
Jeremy. That one's for David. Oh, my God. This
is... Okay. Okay. Potion of not my damn problem.
Mine is a potion of now wait just a damn minute.
I've got the same one. Now wait just a damn minute.
Excellent. Oh, God. That is beautiful. Thank
you. Thank you so much. I now regret that we
just poured a glass, Jeremy and I. Guys. He's
going for it. He's cracking it. He's going for
it. He's going for it. He's cracking it. He's
going for it. Wait, where's my phone? Master
of the craft. This is going on Instagram. Don't
put it on Instagram. Oh, come on. Really? Oh,
it's going. I don't have to if you don't want
me to. I cannot drink alcohol. It tastes like
medicine to me. Yeah. But for you, I will toast.
Oh, my God. I will. Oh, gosh. Hang on. Bums up.
Two story. I don't know. Oh, God. Well, that
was. Oh, God. I look. He chases whiskey with
a rock star. With a rock star. That is possibly
one of the worst things you could chase whiskey
with. Oh, no. Oh, man. You all right there, buddy?
Oh, that is horrible. This is awful. My tongue.
All right. D, thank you? No, that was a treat.
Honestly, thank you. That was wonderful. Oh,
thank you so much. That was very nice. I can't
wait to dig into your letter. You know, we wanted
to open it while we're recording. So I'm excited
to read that later. I'm excited. I really want
to check that out. And now I'm going to like,
I'm going to hold on to this for, I don't want
to say a rainy day, but when I really need that
potion, I'm going to have it. Hell yeah. Hell
yeah. Oh, you know what? What's that? Mine's
going to be a potion of greater healing at some
point. No, as soon as I feel like, now wait just
a damn minute, that's when I'm going to drink
my potion. My D potion. All right. With that
awfulness out of the way. Even D can't save us
now. We are marching towards the end, gentlemen.
Are you ready to start that march? Yeah, I guess
I was ready as I can be. Let's hop right back
to the Resignor Peaks, staring down over the
borderlands, down, down at the city far below.
Hop back over to Jules LaRoche, Crispin Dubois,
Dance Macabre, a .k .a. Gabrielle Cortez, other
way around, I think that's how that works, and
Miskin. Jules, you are, we're picking up right
where we left off before the combat we just had.
Yeah, it's been weeks for us. Yeah, Jules, you're
staring down at this. You see, like, lights in
the city. It's hard to make out from far away,
but looks like at the very apex of the hill,
something burning? From here, it's hard to say.
And your senses aren't keen right now anyway.
You're woozy. Everything blurry. You feel so
sick. I think you stop here for a moment to just
kind of gather your breath because you're pushing
yourself so hard, Jules. But this march, it's
been indescribably tough. I think as you're standing
here looking down at this, knowing that you need
to push further, I mean, you have miles, hours
to go. We're just after 9 o 'clock right now.
I think dance approaches you. You can feel her
there, like, waiting. You can feel something
building. Words she does not want to say. And
finally she steps up beside you. You should stay.
I will save the child. Crispin will come with
me. No. Jules, you cannot. You will die. You
will be in our way. In your state, you'll get
us all killed. Do you trust me? You asked me
the same. In the town. In Mirpazul. Do you trust
me? I am. She's staring at you, and there's that
stubbornness behind her eyes setting in. And
you can tell she's about to argue back. The words
are about to bubble up. And then she stops, and
her eyes widen just a little. Because this close
to you, this high up under the light of the moon,
I think even she can see the moment when your
skin becomes less pallid, more full. When the
circles beneath your eyes begin to clear away,
the red rims sort of turning to white, the shivering,
the constant shivering dying out in an instant
as in a wash over, you feel amazing, better.
Serenno is gone. It's gone. As this happens,
my lute pulses with light. Huh. What color? Blue.
Hell yeah. We've been over this. Okay, that's
true. That's fair. That's fair. In the sort of
wake of this blue light, I think everyone's eyes,
Misk and Crispin, you all turn to see Jules,
who's standing taller, stronger than ever. And
as I take this in, as you guys all realize what
this means, Dresden, Ramin, Jean, they did it.
They did it. I didn't mention Blanche because
no one knows you exist yet. I think that's probably
the way she likes it. I'm not going to take that
away from her. They succeeded. Sarah, no. Gone.
The thing destroyed. You have a chance now. And
I think you should see, like, Dan smiles at this.
I knew it. I knew it. I mean, would not let me
down. Oh, I knew it. They did it. As you stand
here upon this peak looking down at this, knowing
what's coming and knowing what's already transpired,
I think a fresh sort of vigor fills all of your
bodies, your souls, and everyone here is going
to level up to five. Oh, baby. Level up. Level
up. So you guys knew about this beforehand, obviously.
I'm not surprising you with this. You figured,
I mean. Everyone else got leveled up. Not going
to take this party and say, nah. So you guys
have done your level ups. And once again, we'll
do a little round, the table talk, what you got.
But I will start, just like last time, with the
sidekick. Yeah. Cool. This is actually a pretty
interesting one for me. I've been making her
simplified monk stat block myself. And monks
typically get stunning strike at level five.
But I had my reservations about giving that to
a sidekick. I really, really don't want their
abilities to overshadow yours in combat. That's
how Jean and Chester, that's how they've been
built so far. You also hate the monk in our other
campaign. No, no. He's amazing. Stunning Strike
ends a fight. All the combats I came in are built
around when Stunning Strike lands. Get that Stunning
Strike to land. Burn those... What are they called?
Legendary resistances. Right. And get that Stunner
Strike to land. Yeah, it's amazing. And I want
the sidekicks to feel more like hired help than
full player characters. So it's just really good.
I mean, it should be better than Jules. It should
be way better than old Zebulon was. Gosh. Jeez.
Rude. So in lieu of that, I had a different idea.
And I think this idea fits the character even
better. Because ever since... Your encounter
last night as you've traveled through the mountains
all day today, both up and then now down. I think
Dance has been thinking a lot about the pooch.
She's been thinking about his near supernatural
reflexes. His ability to move away from harm
in a blur. An ability that, as a dancing luchadora,
she covets. And reflecting on this, I think Dance
has figured out how to do it herself. So level
5 Dance will be getting the rogue ability. uncanny
dodge. As a reaction, she can take half damage
from an attack that hits her. That definitely
fits the character. Simple, perfect, fits the
character, keeps dance alive. I think that'll
be very helpful going forward. That's where dance
is at. Which of you gentlemen wants to go first?
Finger on my nose. I went first last time. I
don't mind going first. I'll go first. Jules!
Want to start with HP? Yeah, let's start with
HP. All right. All right, what are we doing?
D6, D8? Do you roll dance as HP? I do not roll
side. I do average side. Okay, cool. Yeah, just
easier. By the fifth level, I should have figured
that out by now. So I'll preface this with saying
at the beginning of level five. Yeah. I currently
have 19 fucking HP. Yeah, so level four Jules
has 19 HP. That's awful. Actually, while we're
on HP, let me say. That's the beginning of level
five. Right. Dance also, of course, gains a higher
proficiency bonus. So she has higher hit to hit,
saves, all that stuff. Sure. At fifth level.
And her HP is currently at 28. So just so you
know. All right. Here we go. Just to make you
feel bad about your own. Let's do it. Four. Four.
Fuck me. That's right at the middle. It's middle.
It's average. 23. Now we'll plus your con bonus.
No con bonus on Jules. Oh, Jules Roche. That's
why 19 HP. That's why. Yeah. Okay. I mean, should
I just leave right now? You should just stay
in the back line right now and all his in forever.
There's a little guy called the Tough Feet. You
might want to look at him when you hit level
eight. Just put it out there. Okay. Level eight.
You're talking about like four years from now?
Yeah. Yeah, a couple years. God damn. Jules,
what other things did you get at this level?
Yeah. I got another third level spell slot. Third
level! Yeah, buddy. That's awesome. Good stuff.
And what spell did you pick? I ain't telling
you shit. What spell did you pick? I ain't telling
you shit. Although, this is a gentleman's game
of trust, and I'm trusting that you did not look
at my sheet after I... I never look at you guys'
sheets, to be honest. All right, he has every
ability and every right to, but then it's just
like he's got too much other shit to look at.
You think I have that kind of time? I'm addicted
to World of Warcraft now. I got no time. Oh,
God, don't even. Yeah. No. Yeah. Just stop. It's
a good time. I'm glad you're having fun. Been
down that road, David. It's a long, long, long,
dark road. It's like my sixth animal addiction.
I go back to it. Anyway, back to you, Jules.
Back to you. Is that it? That's it. Is that what
you want to say? That's okay. All right. Third
little spell slot, 23 HP. Not too shabby, Mr.
Jules LaRoche. And we'll find out what that spell
is perhaps a little later on in this night. Crispin
Dubois. Crispin Dubois. What's up with you, Crispin?
Let's do HP. I'm just pulling my phone up real
fast because I can't remember if level four Crispin
had 41 or 42 HP. Just obscene. Just absurd. You're
a druid. You're a caster class. Why isn't it
loading? 41, okay. Well, yeah, I mean, that D12
at the beginning for Barbarian helped. That's
true. And I think it's just been really good
rolls. He's got super high con, so. As a caster,
you're a pretty front -lining caster. You just
turn into a big old doggy. Right, and he's got
an 18 constitution, so. Let me find my D8. I've
done my roll. Four. One. Oh, all right. So that's
that. And speaking of the tough feat. Crispin
took it. Damn. Crispin took the tough feet. Oh,
damn. Yeah, so we go from 41 to 51 with the tough
feet plus the eight. Come on with this. Yeah.
Come on with this. Crispin has 59 HP. There you
go. Let me just change the entire encounter real
fast. That is absurd. Thanks. Anything else go
on this level? I have a little something for
you. Speaking of absurd, we'll get to that in
a minute. No, nothing new. You know, I think
one or two new spells. I got a new cantrip. Let
me see. I can maybe save the cantrip. That'll
be fun to hear later, I guess. Okay. All right.
So that's pretty much it. I mean, 59 HP, that's
not nothing. It's not nothing at all. Yeah, but
that's it. It's a lot of something. That's not
it, though. Oh, okay. I also, real fast before
we move on, I still need Zebulon's charisma item.
Crap. I forgot about that. Okay. Just assume
it's at 12. Okay. Yeah. I'll try. Okay. I can
add it in a minute. But that's not everything.
Crispin, as you've traveled through the mountains,
you've thought a lot about Miskin's story and
about how it connects to your own. This child
he mentioned, this Paul, the powers he wielded
in the mind were akin to your own, right down
to the sounds of thunder. This title of Mazir
Drakon is a title that you must also share. There
is something inside of you that can tap into
a power beyond your understanding. The power
of this Drakon. We mentioned before that the
term Drakon has been translated into many different
things in your studies. Spirits. Ancients, storms,
serpents. What if all of those translations are
correct? You imagine this great fossil that Paul
tapped into, given Miskin a chance to escape.
And you start to imagine, too, that perhaps a
similar fossil resides deep in the earth, beneath
the swamps of God's breath. And imagining this,
you're on the road to understanding your power.
So I have given you... A bonus feat. And it is
a good one. I thought I was going to get like
a spell or something. No, let's hop. Hell yeah.
It's a rabbit pun. Let's hop over to your sheet.
Get it? He's a Haringan. And you'll see I've
given you a special feat called Mazir Drakon.
Essentially what this does is I've given you
a cleric domain ability called Divine Intervention.
and sort of reflavored it. In times of need,
you may use an action to call upon the spirits,
these forces you can feel, to assist you in some
grand, incredible way. And when this happens,
we're going to roll a D100. If it is below your
level, a miracle will occur. Oh, jeez, okay.
In certain locations, I will double this. Okay.
I will double your chances, essentially. Once
you use it once... If it succeeds, it takes seven
days for it to be able to use again. If it fails,
I think it takes one day for you to try it again,
or long rest or something. Okay, yeah, it says
long rest here. Okay, there you go. So it's basically
an oh shit button that probably won't work, but
if it does, we're going to have a lot of fun.
Yeah, it's an oh shit button with a five or,
best case scenario, 10 % chance of succeeding.
Yeah, exactly. All right, cool. I'm into it.
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Keep it in mind. It's going
to be important. Okay. All right. And with that
all said, let's move this group along. More time
passes, the night deepening as you push towards
the foot of the mountains. Now, as you hit the
ruined farmstead, the dried blood of the family
that had taken Miskin in, and you turn out towards
the borderlands beyond this place, it is about
10 o 'clock p .m. You have... Around an hour
to travel to hit the cave. And from what Miskin
says, it's rough going through the cave. It could
be slow. There will be checks to determine how
long it takes you. At midnight, the ritual will
begin. You know how long this ritual takes? Could
be moments. And round stuff could be lost. Transformed.
You have two hours until then. It could take
you perhaps that long to reach the place you
need to go. I'm looking through, trying to see
if I can figure out any beast to wild shape into
that's going to help us. But again, we're sort
of at that issue where there's so many of us
that... There's three now. One of them's a child.
I think before you carried... Oh, sure, sure,
sure. Arhalon went off to die on his own. Right.
You have to go die on his own and eat some people.
Don't worry about him. So just a reminder, he's
off distracting and pulling away and essentially
culling as many of the human element there as
possible. Out in front of this mine, there are
a number of human guards Miskin talked about.
They're not inside where you're planning to sort
of backdoor into, but they could get called upon
as reinforcements if they're not dealt with.
Arhalon has moved to deal with them as he is
too large to sneak in the back. Right. Jules,
I can... I can wild shape into a war horse and
that'll get us there a might bit faster. But
what do you think? Anything to get us there quicker.
All right. Say no more. And we're going to go
ahead and use that one of those slots. Okay.
Wild shape into a horse with, let's see, 60 feet
of speed. So that makes things faster, I think?
Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely. I will need
you to neigh for me. Best I can give you is a...
That's pretty good. That works. With that sound
ringing across the screen, we see our heroes
galloping off into the borderlands, away from
the rugged mountain terrain. You can now run
free, little horsey. Big horsey. Big horsey.
About a half an hour passes. 10 .30, and you
reach the place. Miskin's kind of pointing you
out. He's pointing out different places ahead.
He's like, I remember that. That stone right
there. Keep going. There, there. Towards that
strange cactus with the two heads. Keep going
there. And he's telling you everything as you're
kind of moving forward. Something he remembers
when he was kind of in a haze running across
the desert away from this place. Just keep him
know, because he wanted to come back. He wanted
to find help. Find you, Jules, and come back.
What's so strange about that cactus? It's got
two, two, look at it. Look at those strange flowers.
I don't know, they're weird. Survival tip. It's
a helix cactus. That was a thing we mentioned,
helix cactus petals. It's cool helix -y. Cool.
So survival tip, if you want to remember your
way back to some place, instead of remembering
landmarks along the way, you're supposed to periodically
turn around and remember them from that perspective.
Yeah. Shut up. I don't know if that's a true
survival tip or not. Sorry, I did mean to derail
this whole thing. you reach a fissure in the
ground. Something very small. It is just like
this, like, sort of open crack, sort of surrounded
by nothingness. Somewhere to the west, you know,
the town of Hollow stands somewhere, like, you
can see where this sort of slopes into some canyons,
and from what Miskin says, there's, like, some
ruined buildings, a small, like, totally desolate
ghost town that's been taken over, a number of
Luroshgar sort of hiding amidst the ruins, and...
Just inside that town, this great iron gate sits
towards the back, and this gate leads into the
closed -off mine. This is where, in this first
open chamber, Zavar has his lab, where he performs
his dark experiments, where, likely, Serapio
himself, he isn't this part, but Serapio himself
was changed initially. His monstrous owl form
was born, and now you can find a different way
in. It's going to be a tight squeeze. I think
Dance is looking down at it and just says, I
am going first. Jesus, challenging. Just glaring
at you, waiting for you to say something, Jules.
He'll allow this. Just nods. Crispin reverts
back to his shape, his regular shape. You want
to shove your horse body in there? No, I don't
think the horse body will do that. It definitely
won't. If everybody pushes on your ass, you might
be able to squeeze in. and dance as a small -sized
creature, I might be able to maneuver a little
quicker at the front. She's like, like, starting
for a really long time to think about this. Fine.
You're right. You go first. But I am behind him.
Just points to you again, Jules. Jules winks.
As you are preparing yourself to move down there,
sort of wind picks up, and on it, I think, suddenly,
you... hear a sound. Locke screams on the wind,
and somewhere behind them, just a... You see
light flares up somewhere in the distance. Arhalon
has made his move. He is fighting now. Crispin
speaks a few words under his breath, just wishing
him luck. And you push down the hole? Yep. And
he dives on down. As you move down, you see that
this hole quickly finds a spot of groundwater
as you press down a little ways. It is dark,
slick, and dangerous. You're still close to the
peaks here. You're still close to the mountainous
terrain that's actually not fully desert. So
you're probably catching some of the groundwater
off of the mountains as it's flowing. This is
not going to be an easy climb. Miskin warned
you that he was battered from his journey through.
He barely remembers his time in the dark, and
it is pitch, pitch dark. So first things first,
how do you guys want to see? Yeah, I was just
looking through. I was like, wait a minute. Can
Crispin even see? No. Well, hold on. I think
everyone here does. Only Miskin here has dark
vision. Oh, excellent. Great. Yeah. Well, what
do you have on you, Crispin? Hold on. Do you
have a weapon? I have light. Oh, perfect. Oh,
yeah. Just pull something out, and I'll tap it,
and it lights. Yeah. I'm just going to say he
pulls something out. I don't know if he wants
to hold his great club out, but... That's pretty
cool. Yeah, can we just generically say that
he pulls something out that lights? Because it
says I can light an object, not a creature. He
pulls a penny out of his pocket. Penny. Perfect.
Jules taps the penny. All right. And it's a 20
-foot radius. Sweet. Of dim light. Oh, no, no,
bright light for 20 -foot radius, dim light for
an additional 20. It's enough that you can all
see as you push forward. Yeah, yeah. Great. Okay,
cool. So he's taking the lead, and you can all
see as he goes and starts stepping down, the
light sort of shining. I don't know if you attach
it to your head like a headlight or something
like that somehow or stick it yourself. But,
yeah, you're moving down into the dark. As you
guys move, I'd like you all to roll me. We're
going to take a combined check and take the sort
of average rather than the middle roll here.
I want either survival. or athletics. Either
you're going to cleverly find the right spots
to move to, or you're going to just grit your
teeth and push through and try to keep your footing.
This is going to be rough. You're squeezing,
you're slipping, you're climbing down rough patches.
It's an easy choice for me. One's plus one, one's
negative one. It's a little bit of a harder choice
for me because one is plus seven, the other is
plus eight. Plus seven with athletics, Crispin
also gets advantage. Wait, are you raging? Or
is that always? I think it's always, and I can
figure out why if you give me like a minute.
That's crazy talk. Squat nimbleness. Oh, to escape
from being grappled. Shit. Never mind. Okay,
I saw the little green A and I got excited. Hey,
burn a rage on it. Crispin gets really mad when
he almost slips off a rock. No, he's not grappling.
Unless being in this cave is considered being
grappled. You shut that shit right down. All
right, fine. I'll just do survival then. Almost
dropped it. 16 plus 8. You're fine. 14. 14? 14.
Give me another one. It's a plus 5 athletics
for dance. 21. 21? Okay. Not the worst average.
Yeah. Miska has a really rough time. but we're
going to move with essentially what stands between
21 to 14. That's going to be above 15 DC. Nice.
Average. So as Miskin's having, you see he starts
to slip and stumble immediately. I think like,
I think you and Dan sort of both grab like one
of his arms or kind of, kind of helping him down.
So as Crispin moves ahead, giving light, sort
of clearing the path, you survival, right? Crispin.
Yes. You're calling out, like, you know, which
trails to take, which rocks to grab, which ones
not to touch. And the two of you, Dance and Jules,
are able to help Miskin down so he can help you
find your way through. And with that, you reach
the place you need to go to in 30 minutes. We're
staying at 11 o 'clock. An hour before the ritual,
you guys crushed it. Front fucking row. I'm trying
to make a joke over here, if you don't mind.
Piping down a little bit. Sorry, I'll give you
the room. What I said was early enough to get
a good seat. Oh my gosh, take a button. You're
not getting a button. I remember having those.
I burnt them all. You did. You're never getting
a button again with that attitude. Holy shit.
You work your way through the tunnel until you
hit a point. Where, like, as you're sort of shifting
through, you have this sort of long, narrow passage
where it's, like, just barely wide enough to
fit your bodies sort of through. You're shimmying,
you know, side by side until you push out into
a larger, open chamber. About a little over five
feet wide. Which feels amazing compared to what
you've been dealing with. Squeezing through this.
And you realize that you have entered the mine
proper. You are pushing through. Miskin sort
of leading you along. I think he stops before
you get too far and says, we're close now. He
gestures to the coin, the penny that is shining.
Pennies aren't even a thing. You just said a
thing that I might find in my human pockets.
I don't care. He points to the penny. Call it
a piece of gold. Yeah, he took out a silver piece.
You said penny. It's a copper piece at least.
Okay, well, I didn't want it to be a gold piece
because then I know you'd be like, ooh, roll
for, you drop it. You drop it. You lose your
gold piece. He points to it and says, we're coming
on soon. They could be around. Do you want to
sneak up on them? Well, I don't know how we're
going to sneak without being able to see. I can
lead and call out, but it'll be pretty tough.
So you said to you guys, if you keep the light,
I can try to like, you can, we can sort of work
through the dark to see if you can get closer
or, well, you said we are, we're not weaving
anymore. We're in a wide open, sort of like wider
open, sort of five to 10 foot wide. It's kind
of varying, but you are in a mine tunnel, which
means you're closing, closing, closing, closing
in closing. Okay. On the lab. Damn. I wanted
to, I wanted to clues in on it. Well, Still dealing
with that alcohol taste. I'm drunk. Chris is
going to pull something out of his bag. What?
A little one foot long rod. And he's going to
hold it horizontally. And he's going to speak
a command word and cause it to grow to a length
of at most 10 feet. This is his pole of collapsing.
Oh my gosh. I forgot about this. Miskin, if you
hold on to the beginning of the pole, you can
lead us through. Don't you also have the... Horn
of Silent Alarm? No, the pole of Immovable Rod.
Oh yeah, I do have the Immovable Rod. He's like
a pole guy. He's a rod guy. I'm actually now
looking. I don't know if I ever put the Immovable
Rod in his equipment. It was there. I didn't,
but I know it's there. I just have to do it.
We both have a little bit of homework to do.
I have to do Immovable Rod. You have to give
me Zebulons. You can't tell me. Okay, what are
you doing with this thing? Man, we literally
just could have used a string, but I had to make
it fun with the item. Dude, it's fun as hell.
So you're just using this to kind of feel out
the way as you go? No. So Miskin's going to hold
on to the beginning. He's going to be at the
front of the line, and we're all going to hold
on to it like a hand railing. Sorry, I'm drunk
from D, so I couldn't. All right, so you're here?
Got him. You got him. Okay. So you're going in
dark, and you begin to move forward. A short
bit of time passes, maybe 11 .15, when you feel...
Hang on. I don't like that. You feel Miskin suddenly
just stop. Just dead still in the middle of the
darkness. It's so sudden that you probably feel
like... You sort of shuffle, you're probably
forced back. And I think you can feel just a
slight sort of tremor moving down the rod. Go
ahead and roll perception. Fuck. Just a 10. That's
a 19. 19. Actually, Crispin, your passive is
probably outrageous. Yeah, it's 18. Okay. Oh,
no, sorry. Yeah, no, I was right. 18. That is
truly outrageous. 18, 19, both of you immediately
catch it as he stops, as he sort of shakes. I
rolled with him. He rolled a 19, actually. You
can hear somewhere ahead sounds of like scratching,
sounds of rock, sort of rubble moving. And you
hear like a... Something throaty, growling and
grunting with effort. And it seems to be moving
something ahead. A creature in the darkness.
Miskin is not moving. He is frozen where he stands.
Crispin doesn't even dare breathe. Yeah, same.
I think Jules is kind of frozen. I think the
thought is, you know, maybe we can wait for it
to pass unless Miskin says something else. I
think you hear or feel like Miskin sliding up
the pole. He's sort of holding on to it. He's
sort of moving with it very carefully. Try not
to, like, make any sort of moves that could disturb
the ground beneath him. I'll roll for it. It's
fine. And you feel him suddenly, like, in front
of you, just there in the middle of this blackness.
I think he's more whispering. Biscuit's smart.
So I think he tries to whisper very, very quietly
towards Crispin because Crispin can hear particularly
well with his harring on ears. Right. Crispin's
probably right behind him as well. So you're
picking this up very clearly as he just says,
It's our step ahead. This is the place where
Paul brought down the wall. We're almost at the
lab. But one of those things. I think it's on
this side of the wall trying to dig its way through.
Do we know what he says when he means one of
those things? When he told you the story of what
happened, he talked about these undead creatures,
pale skin with sharp teeth and long, reaching
tongues, just these horrifying monstrosities
with some intelligence that serves Zavars as
kind of like lab servants and lab rats here.
Zavar himself is also undead now, from what he
says, boasting of the benefits of having a heart
that does not beat. Based on what he says, you
guys could roll checks. It would be a religion
check to figure out what undead creature this
is. Yeah, let's see. Why not? I just got a plus
zero, but... Why not? Let's see if we can get
some info. Just a six. Just an eight for jewels.
You don't know. Goddamn. Let me look through
my stuff here. But you at least know that that's
what he's talking about. One of those creatures
is on this side. At least one. And as you're
here, you had really high perceptions. There's
just one. You can only hear one. It is digging.
And as he speaks, it becomes more clear to you.
It is digging through rubble. It is probably
about, I think it's around a bend. You can hear
the echo kind of bouncing off. Those really high
checks. The bend's about 30 feet ahead of you.
And then from there, about 20 feet. to the left.
This creature is digging through the stone. How
deep through the stone does it have left to dig
would we be able to figure out with Miskin? He's
trying to dig through the stone. He'd have to
move close enough to peek around the corner and
see. What in the hell? Do you want to do that?
You can move closer. I'm trying to think about
this. I don't see any way that we're... gonna
get through this thing other than just attacking
it, right? Miskin, there's no other path to take,
is there? This is it. Paul made sure of it. It's
how I got away, but this thing must have been
trapped on this side. It's probably been digging
for days. Well, uh, are they particularly dangerous,
or could we dispatch it easily? I don't know.
I... They're dangerous for me. They've got...
long claws and fangs. They were, um, they were
gonna eat me and Paul. Can you get me in a straight
line with it? Oh, that's pretty cool. Wow, I
like that. Okay. Okay, I'm into this. Line me
up with it. Tell me when it's straight in front
of me. I don't have to be that close yet. Alright.
I think he puts the rod down and you feel him
take your hand when you're ready. Yeah, I'm thinking
slash hoping that Crispin can do this real quick.
I don't know. We'll see, I guess. He's leading
you down the way, but it's still like stones
lying in the ground as you get closer and closer,
perhaps thrown back by this creature as it dug
its way through. As you touch them, it's hard
not to scatter them. We're going to make stealth
checks. Me and you, we're going to take the median
check again. Okay. I hate this. Stealth's not
great for this little guy. I'll need a little
check. Does he have a race thing that makes him
stealthier? He does not. Okay. Crit my pants
on the stealth check. It's not very stealthy
with crit all over your little paragon behind,
but Crispin pulls it off. Just walking. Quieter,
quieter, quieter. There you go. Cut that. That
was so gross. It softens the sound of the stone.
It slides across the floor. It's awful. It's
horrible. We're the worst. We're the worst. Miskin
actually got an unnatural 20. Oh, okay, sweet.
So you guys are super stealthy. You're just fine.
You're pushing forward, pushing forward, dancing
jewels. You can feel them moving ahead of you.
And you sort of loop around. I think you're pressing,
you can feel like a wall around beside you as
you're kind of pushing around it and sort of
turning sort of south and west towards like a,
you know, down a narrow pathway. And Miskin kind
of gets behind you and lines up your body. You
can hear very close now. I will get back. Clattering
of stone. And actually, as you hit this point,
I think a stone has moved. And you can feel,
like, something very high up is moved. And for
a moment, you can see, like, this clawed hand
as this violet light shines very dimly from the
other side, just through a crack at the top of
this wall, as it's slowly about to, like, it's
about to move into the next room. You can feel
the stone sort of clatters down, and the hand
disappears as it moves away from that light.
You saw a glimpse of this thing just before you.
Miskin's poised you towards it. You know where
it is. What do you want to do about it? Cast
fairy fire on it. Oh, shit. So each object in
the 24 cube within range is outlined in a color
of your choice. And any creature in that area
when the spell is cast, oh, yeah, is outlined
in light. I think I just said that. I didn't
say that twice. If it fails, oh, sorry. The first
was object, not creature. Each object was outlined.
I don't care about objects. Creature, when they
fail, a dex save. Okay. First things first, you
get to decide the color of this, correct? Yeah.
I'm going to give you something because it's
a really cool, clever idea. You said violet light.
You saw violet light from the other room. You
realize if you color it in that same color, it
will not be noticeable that another light is
shining beyond this side of the wall. That's
great. It just makes sense. Hell yeah. In fact,
you know what? Nice. Really cool plan here. Excellent.
Take a button. Excellent. Really cool plan here.
You're going to be giving that back to him in
about 10 minutes. Seriously. This thing is going
to roll a check. I mean, I'm not going to roll
a check. I'm going to forfeit it. Oh, really?
It does not know you're here. Why would it save?
Okay, sure. It's digging. It's totally unfocused
on you. Because you passed your stealth so well,
getting above a 20, it has no idea you're there.
It's a decent check anyway. So this thing is
suddenly... Outline in this sort of vile light.
I think its hand stops as it looks at it. You
can see this, like, gross, pale, like, skinny
creature. It looks like it might have been a
human body, but now its ears are sort of sharpened.
It has this, like I said, this sort of dead eyes,
long teeth, long tongue as it sort of reaches
out and looks at its hand. The tongue is sort
of lulling down, swaying beneath its chin. Just
this hideous monster. I think it slowly turns
its head around to look to you guys. Roll for
initiative. All right. Ooh. I'm going to maybe
ask to retcon something because I should have
done a bonus action before I cast Faerie Fire.
I'll allow it. It's also fun and exciting because
it's the new cantrip that I took for level five.
Bonus action candy rip? Bonus action shillelagh.
Oh, dude. Yeah, buddy. That's solid. Bonus action
shillelagh. On this beast of a druid? Yeah, man.
Yeah. 15 for initiative. Jewel's got a 19. Dances
at a 22. Holy crap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So really
quick for anybody who isn't super familiar with
Shillelagh. Basically, it changes my great club
from a plus 7 to hit and a 1d8 plus 4 for damage.
It ups that to a... plus 8 to hit, and 1d8 plus
5 for damage. That's amazing. Yeah, so right
now it basically just makes it a plus 1. And
it's a magic weapon, so you get through defenses.
That's huge at this level. Okay, we're going
to start with Dance. Dance is just before you,
Jules. You're about 40 feet down the tunnel,
so you're not quite at this fight right now.
Okay, well, I mean, her speed is 40 feet, so...
So 40 feet ahead of you. I'm actually going to
start lighting this up so you guys can see what's
going on. Okay. That's where the... turn is so
okay i can't gush about too much yet because
you can't see the whole map but this is i think
a masterpiece by rochelle i i made a little shopping
list i'm so stoked about this map right now you're
looking at a little snaking tunnel that moves
down towards a wall um What Dance sees, basically,
as this happens, and you see those two jewels,
is suddenly where Crispin and Miskin went, a
light sort of pulses out from deeper in the tunnel
around a corner you can't see. But at the corner,
you see, lit by this violent light, you see Miskin
and Crispin standing before it. Crispin's weapon
looks, what should they look like? Is it, like,
growing, like, flowers and nature all over it?
Exactly. It's, like, vines and flowers. It's
so cool. So Crispin's Gray Club has sort of,
like, come to life with some sort of verdant
foliage. You can hear, like, a sound. This thing
is turning around to face. You can make your
move. You cannot see how far away it is from
you right now, Dance, but in 40 feet, you could
reach the point where you could see it. Oh, yeah.
I mean, that's her plan. She's running up as
far as she can. She hits the 40 -feet point,
and she's looking at it still a short ways away.
Now, reminder that Dance has the ability, if
you defend a key point, to move to dash as a
bonus action if you want to get some attacks
in. That's right. But that's going to be a key
point. Right. She's up at the wind. Right, right.
Oh, wait, never mind, never mind. I didn't double
move. I just regular move. Okay, never mind.
Yeah, no, that's the plan. She's just fast as
hell. Yeah, she's going in. Okay. Key point down.
She has five key points, a little five, so you're
down to four. Yep. But she blasts around the
corner. You feel like the wind pick up on your
fur. Christmas Dance just weaves around you around
the corner, moving up to this thing, and just
starts. What's she doing? You're keeping track
of these, right? Yes. They're in my brain. You
don't have that ability to on your phone, unfortunately.
Yep. I got it in my brain. All right. She's going
in for a strike. Okay. This undead creature almost
launches back in surprise as its form just...
whirls around the corner, flies up to it, fist
poised, and just goes in for a hard or a punch
in the spiky, gross jaw. Quickly and quietly
dance. That's going to be a 24. That is going
to hit for sure. That's a five. Okay, five damage.
Yep. Not bad. Two on the die. Its head just snaps
back against the stone. It's like standing on.
You can see like now in the light that this roll
pile reaches almost near the ceiling, but there
is that small crack going into the next room.
It's been digging for a while based on the stone
kind of cut off to the side here, but it's almost
through into the next room. And you can kind
of hear something on the other side, almost like
an electrical current, a whirring. So even the
sounds of this fight, as you get close, you realize
are being drowned out by something beyond here.
Dance hits him hard, and that's going to be Jules.
All righty. Shit. You're pretty far away. I know.
Stealth checks wouldn't you be any closer, so
it's not bad to be this far away. I know. I'm
just going to go the 30 feet I can go. Okay,
do you want to double move to get all the way
up to where you can see it? I'll, like, half
double move to get to the 40 -foot mark. Hell
yeah. But he's not going to get in any closer
than behind everybody else. You can see, Jules,
as you move up, you can see Miskin as he sees
this thing. Like, he always acts so damn tough.
and just their memories of what happened to him
here. He's, like, terrified. And you can move
up right beside him. I think your presence there
just, like, immediately begins to calm him. Yeah,
I don't think he moves up right beside him. I
think he comes up right behind him and kind of
puts his hand on his shoulders and just kind
of gives him a little squeeze of reassurance.
You can feel the trembling just die out beneath
your hand. Good. And you look ahead and you see
just Dance has just punched this thing in the
face. So you're seeing that. Jules is blushing.
Wish he'd punch me like that. Oh, God. Crispin,
you're up. All right. Crispin's going to move
up to the side of Dance here. So he's coming
down this short little hallway. And he's got
his great club held with both hands over the
top of his head. He's this big gray club floating
behind him as this small -sized creature runs
with these little padded feet. He gets up to
this guy and takes a swing. 18 on the die. That's
a hit. This thing is not armored. It's wearing,
like, maybe rags. Nice, yeah. 12. Oh, my God.
You come down on this thing with a force. You
can feel the magic pulsing out of your club,
this nature magic, this life. It shrinks away
from it as it's crushed beneath the weight. It's
still up, but it is barely alive already. Not
bad. I'm going to go now. And you seem like a
pretty good target because that hurt. That's
fine. It just reaches out with its claws and
tries to rake at you. And it misses with a 10
on the die. Okay, sweet. Darn it! Just like a
ferocious monster, just cornered and scared.
It lunges out, its claws go to hit you, and you
just sort of easily weave back and away, and
this thing goes wide, and that's going to be
dance again. I think you see it like in this
moment, so everyone's turning and trying to climb
up. They're all piled, so and so are scattering
beneath it. They're just trying to reach out
through that crack, reach towards it, try to
warn somebody, try to do something. And as it
turns back to dance, her turn is happening now.
All right. And she's going for it. Oh, shit.
Is it 21 to hit? Yeah, it's going to hit. Oh,
yeah, it's going to hit. Only for four damage.
Okay. Then she's going to take her bonus action.
She cracks against this thing with her first
attack. It's just smashing up the stone. It's
still up, barely. Its hand is reaching. It looks
like it might be at one HP. You're not sure.
It's trying to slide its hand through the crack.
She's going to swat the hand away with one hand,
and with the other hand, bonus action second
attack. Holy shit. It's a 15. That's going to
hit. Fuck yeah. Oh my god. Max damage, that's
seven. Is that more than one? Hold on, let me
check. Describe the kill. Yeah, I think, you
know, I'm going to amend this a little bit. Rather
than swatting the hand away, she's going to grab
its wrist, yank it to the ground so it kind of
pulls its whole body further, like, face down
to the ground, and then just pummel the shit
out of it. Just now, Prince of Body, this is
how we do it on San Satyan, and just... Boom,
boom, boom. Like a half sword of grapple. His
head just caves in. Just like full ferocity.
And yeah, you just see like... The head is just
pummeled. And this creature is dead. You wait,
wondering perhaps if the sounds of that combat
were noticed. But all you hear is that same electric
whirring in the next room. And somewhere in the
midst of it, you just hear like a... I just think
it's... Isn't it so funny that we always show
up, like, right in time for the evil cackling
laugh? I love my cackling laughter, man. Come
on, don't take this from me. I'm sorry. Don't
take this from me. Isn't it funny we show up
right in time to see Steven's ponytail? I don't
think it's funny. I think it's majestic. Those
moments are majestic. There's a crack going into
the next room. You could look into it. Yeah,
Crispin wants to hop up with his little... He
can see his little ears first, and then his head
pokes up, and he falls down. You poke through
the crack. I'll give you this much. You peek
into the room, and the only thing you basically...
You look in. You see, like, this wider cavern
lit by this violet light that seems to be emanating
from two main sources. One... Further in, you
need to get a different angle. You need to get
through the wall to see it. There's a brighter
light from there. But as you stare in here, just
south of where you are, you can see this great
fossil peeking up from the stone floor, just
the tip of this black curved bone. And it is
glowing with this violet light. There's like
these strange, like almost crystal cables. They
remind you of the ones you saw in Aurora Town
that are sort of... wrapped around this fossil
and sort of running across the floor towards
that circle. Sorry, I didn't say that word. Towards
some other form of light deeper into the room.
Perhaps empowering it. And you think of what
Miskin said about Zavar using the latent power
of the fossils as they grow in. And there's sort
of the ambient magic sort of brings them to higher
power on this night, especially at the turn of
midnight. which is fast approaching. You also
see in this room as you peek in, there's like
a small table off to one side with a few like
alchemical regions on it. And maybe some like
weird, like it's pretty scattered mess of like
papers. There's also another one of those ghouls
standing against, sorry, one of those strange
undead creatures. I'm drunk. Standing against
the wall. Here, have some more. And just kind
of poising up against the wall, looking towards
the source of greater light and towards the source
of laughter. That's all you see. You realize,
you sit here, it would not take much work to
open up at this point. Like, you could probably
dig through pretty quickly to open up a way to
slide in. This ghoul was almost through. I mean,
there's really no other way we got to go through.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Crispin's going to start to
slowly and quietly try to dig through. Okay.
I'm going to say this area is, the areas on the
corners of this room, around where this wall
is, I'm going to say are not quite as well lit.
In order to get yourself through, you don't need
to make a huge opening, just enough for you to
like slide out. I'm not going to require stealth
checks for this. This room is loud and there's
a lot of stuff going on that's very distracting
to the residents of it. What I would like is
an athletics check to see how quickly you can
move this rubble. Time is still just around 1115,
maybe close to 1120. Oh my God. Bad time to roll
a two on the die, but it's a plus seven, so.
Only two of you can get in there right now, so
Jules or Dance could assist. It's too tight for
three people. I'm guessing Dance has higher athletics.
Dance looks at you like, hey, me. Yeah, I know.
That's where I'm going. Let me go there. She
wears the mask. No, Jules knows. In this relationship.
Sorry. Yeah, Jules knows. Oh, yeah. And that's
a nine. It was like three millimeter cracked.
It's your choice, man. Yeah, three millimeter
cracked. Use whatever's more. All right, it was
19. 19, okay. Yeah, sorry, I was spacing. I'm
drunk. So Crispin, you said you rolled a what?
Nine. Nine, okay. Nine, 19. What's that like?
14, somewhere in the middle range? Yeah, unless
you're just counting dances to help action. Let's
call it 14 minutes. oh wow okay it's a good thing
we got here oh it's a good thing we got here
and it's time to get a good seat so yeah so you're
digging oh okay so you're digging through the
rubble uh it's probably just like sweat dripping
down your face as time is passing. That ghoul
in there is still within sight where it could
look over your direction, potentially see. And
it's probably just nerve -wracking as you're
very carefully moving stone by stone. Jules,
you're probably down at the bottom of the pile
as they sort of clatter down. You could grab
them so they don't make too much noise. And Miskin
helping you and all four of you together. Just
the minutes tick by as the hole opens bit by
bit by bit. And then you find out. You can slide
through. You realize all four of you could potentially
slide in and push into the room beyond. Time
is past 1130. And as the way opens up, mixed
with the laughing, mixed with the whirring sounds,
you begin to hear some light sobbing. Round stuff.
She's just over there, just beyond the corner
where this pulsing light is at its strongest.
All right. Crispin wants to sneak through so
he can see some more. I will say this. When four
people enter this room, it's going to be very
hard to not be noticed. We'll roll stealth checks.
Do you all want to go in together? Or do you
want one person? It's going to be tricky. Do
you want to go in together or do you want to
go in alone ahead? I think the kids should stay
here, right? I want to help. I think the best
way you can help is to stay out of the way. He
looks to you, Jules. He wants to help. But your
word is the final authority for Miskin. Miskin,
I trust your timing. You'll know when. And I
think despite it all, you just see he smiles.
A little bit of that, like, sureness comes back
to him. Right. A little grittier in his voice.
Yeah. Okay. I'll know when. And the three of
you push on. Yeah, I'd like to push on. I'd like
to push on. along the edge of the wall here and
walk by the fossil. Well, as you, so let's first,
you guys enter the room. All three of you, Crispin,
you step out. You start moving towards the fossil.
Yeah. Dance slides out next. I think she takes
the other wall, kind of like creating sort of
a barrier as Jules, you're the last one that
slides through. I need stealth checks from all
of you. Come on, buddy. Come on, buddy. Hmm.
Dirty 20. Jules got a 10. Well, Dan's critter
pants. Critter leotard. Okay, that's actually
really cool. I will say... I actually will say
this. I was going for individual checks this
time, so that 10 Jules did was not going to cut
it. No, I know. But Dan slides down next to the
wall, Jules, you go out, and as you kind of slide
out, you're about to stumble down the wall, and
as you start stumbling over the rock, I think
she just catches you. superhero, like, fireman
style. Oh, man. And, like, gently puts you down.
It's all just super silent. That crit just paid
off. That crit, that cripple dance saved you.
And you're looking at the full room. Allow me
to describe what you see. Holy shit. Oh, look
at that in the middle. The fossil looks really
cool. The fossil looks so cool. Holy fuck. This
whole room looks amazing. Yeah. We are spoiled.
Dude, we are so spoiled. You're looking out into
this grand chamber I mentioned before, the fossil,
the desk. Now you can see what lie beyond it,
further to the west. About 40 feet away, maybe
35 feet away from where you entered this room,
you can now see this like 10 foot wide or so
magic circle that pulses with this violet light.
You can see where those cables sort of whirl
around the edge of the room, moving in towards
the circle, and this... These swirl with this
magical light, which seems to flood and illuminate
all these glyphs that surround this circle. You
kind of stand in the dim light at the edges of
the room as you're taking this in. You can see
that they're sort of beyond the circle against
one of the walls. You have a table, again, just
scattered with notes and various sort of like
dark things, like a small, like some weird chests
and boxes sort of lined up against the wall by
it. You can see... Can you see the huge iron
doors jutting around from the side? Yes, you
can. From your position, you look down. I'm trying
to see what you guys... You tell me. Look to
your position. As you guys move in, you can see
that around the bend and to the very southern
point of the room are these great iron doors
that you know lead outside. As you stand here,
you hear no sounds of combat or anything outside
those doors. Maybe they're soundproof. Or maybe
it's already over. To the north of this room,
on the opposite side of that door, you can see
there's a couple of branching tunnels that move
up with cell doors placed in them, just barred
cell doors. You cannot make out anything within
them, but you hear something thrashing from one
of the cell doors, the further one to the back,
that you can't make out anything deeper there.
Mentioned before that illuminated by this glow,
a ghoul stands against the wall a short ways
into this room. And beyond this creature, you
see Zavar standing within the ritual circle.
Roundstuff stands beside him, shackled by her
ankle to the ground at the circle's center. I
think as Zavar is kind of like standing over
her, Roundstuff's eyes are facing you. And she
looks to you. And you can see how the fear in
her eyes gives way to hope, to joy. And then
is buried again by a new, more powerful fear.
A fear for you. Another ghoul lingers just behind
her, standing over her small form. You see all
of this. What do you want to do? You have a moment
here. Now, the longer you're in this room, the
more likely it's going to be that you're going
to be seen. So, we'll take actions as they go.
We'll roll more stealth checks as they are needed.
When you perform any sort of aggressive action,
stealth time's over. Yeah, I... I don't know
about you, Jeremy. The only thing that I want
Crispin to do before we get into it is I want
him to touch that fossil. That fossil? Okay.
I think, yeah, for the immediate time, if that's
what Crispin's going to do, like Jules, while
he knows what he's here for, he also recognizes
the situation and he's not going to make a move
until it's right to make a move. Okay. Get ready.
I'm going. Go over to that wall, and then I'll
jump on him. Crispin moves towards the fossil.
You can feel that sort of power innate in you
growing as you get closer. Your hair's all standing
on end, and that boiling rage in you is starting
to get hotter and hotter as you approach this
thing. Is the rage in you, Crispin? Or is the
rage channeling through you? A question I think
that you've asked yourself so many times, and
you're getting closer to this thing, and you
feel it so hot. As he moves, you feel Dance's
hand on yours, Jules. You look in, you see Zavar
as he stands over round stuff. He's like etching
things down into the circle, perfecting the sort
of runes that line it. You can see this boorish
creature, this man that you've hated your entire
life, this man that put you through such hell.
You can see how he's changed. Even in this violet
light, you can see how pale he is. You can see
his own sharpened teeth, his own elongated tongue.
You can see he himself has become one of these
undead things. Changed himself the way he wanted
to change you. The way he wants to change her.
Crispin, what are you doing? Crispin is going
to go into a rage. Oh, shit. So you scream really
loud. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what happens.
Yeah, yeah. Scream super loud. You feel this
rage. I love this, too. It's forcing through.
You feel it, and it's like gritting your teeth,
trying to fight against it, and then you just
go with the flow. Let the damn break. And then
wild shape. What are you shaping into? Oh, yeah.
What are you doing? Yes. What is that? Yes, I
know. I see what you're doing. A giant toad.
What the fuck? Crispin. I wasn't expecting that.
Wild shapes into a giant toad. All right. This
is a move. And that literally is his move. Okay.
That's an action. Or actually, well, yeah. Can't
do anything else. Okay. I didn't see what you
were doing there. I was going to say, I was like,
I don't think I showed this to Jeremy. No, you
didn't. Nope. Nope. You are much more noticeable
now. Yeah. I'm going to say you each have an
action before this happens. Like, what happens
happens. That was your action. Jules, what are
you doing? Fuck me. I mean, it's a good move.
You're ready to go. You're Rage, you're Wild
Shape, you're ready for a fight. I mean, you're
already in Rage, so you want to, like, make a
move now anyway, or else you're going to lose
that Rage. Hold on. Sorry, what'd you say? I
was saying this. I mean, it makes sense, though,
because you want to make a move very fast, or
you're going to lose that Rage. Right. If there's
monologuing, we'll just kind of hand wave the
monologuing. So, yeah, if we're... I just don't
have any moves left this turn. Yeah. Okay. I'm
going to Bless us. Okay. All right. So, yeah,
I'm going to Bless Crispin. Dance. And Zavar?
Yeah, exactly. If you're really thinking about
this, you should just do it. I'll give you a
button. Well, on that note, I'm not within 30
feet of Ron's stuff, right? Or am I? No, I think
it's outside of 30 feet. Just barely, 35. Okay,
so it's going to be Crispin, Dance, and myself.
Okay. So that's a d4 added to attacks and saves.
Crispin turns into a giant toad. You stand there.
You sort of let this magic flow out of you into
everybody else as they kind of feel this strength
surging within them. Is Dance going to make any
moves? Or is she going to sort of stand for it?
She's going to ready. Okay. In action. Okay,
so she like kneels down. So she gets ready. I
think you see her just kind of like sort of enter
into a runner's stance. She's about to just charge
deep into the room. Looks to you as the strength
pours into her. Let's do this together. Jules
gives a nod. And just as she's about to take
off, as like all this happens, so the light from
you casting the spell, Crispin's sort of transformation.
I think the ghoul in the wall turns towards you.
And you see Zavar does as well. And he just looks
up and the sort of like shock enters his eyes.
And he looks towards you for a moment, sees the
three of you standing at the ready. And you see
how he's just like just over around stuff, like
sort of this sort of dangerous position. But
I think he moves away from her, like his hand
sort of like turning away from her, turning towards
you. And I think you're surprised when what enters
his eyes isn't fear, but just this absolute delight.
He just throws back his head and howls out this,
Oh, Jules, it's really you. Look at you, all
grown up. You're so beautiful. Don't get too
excited. I'm just here to show you how much you
failed. Failed? I've heard reports of your work
in the city. What you did. Connecting with the
Horned Lord. Oh, Jules. Jules, I'm so proud.
Out of you. He's like, you can hear this dry
heaving from his throat. And like you realize
instantly that it's sobbing. He's actually sobbing
tearlessly with this manic joy at seeing you.
You challenge me. Cerise has had her reservations.
But I can see it now. You have matured enough.
We can finally take away that troublesome soul
of yours. You don't need it. You don't need the
limitations of your beating heart. You, my child,
deserve to be free. As he says those words, you
hear that same sort of pounding of something
against metal, against the bars of a cage you
can't quite see down a tunnel towards the north.
His head sort of whirls towards it. His toothy
grin grows. This could be a fine test. I think
he, like, waves a hand out. And you're kind of,
I think you're probably watching that ghoul that's
staying just above round stuff, waiting for it
to, like, move, step away. It actually does,
just charges up towards the north. It's, like,
holding something beneath its arms, some sort
of small box. You don't see what it's doing there.
You can hear the rattling of chains. You can
hear something. Rashing, thrashing against metal.
Zavar just says, Use all of it. My ally in Zinda
was so kind to offer me such a substance. Dose
him with it all. Let's see what this can do.
You hear something opens. It's a sort of frozen
moment as something's moving. Round stuff, sort
of like... fighting against the collar, sort
of looks towards you. You feel that rage bubbling
within you, Crispin. It's just so strong, so
hot as you stand beside this fossil. Jules, you're
getting ready to make your move. Maybe you're
about to pounce when Arhalon turns the corner.
I knew it. Oh, I just figured it out. You see
him just turn the corner. Something's wrong.
Something's wrong with him. His eyes look unfocused.
He looks roughed up, but there's something in
his eyes. It lingers on him, this sort of primal
rage. And Zavar continues, Your ally managed
to call and chase away the entirety of my living
god. He is strong. Arlan sort of turns the corner.
I think he's like, just still lost in his eyes,
looking between you. He sees you, blinking. He
looks towards Zavar, blinking. It seems like
he doesn't know what to do. His teeth gritted.
Do you say anything? Any of you? I don't think
Jules does anything. He recognizes that Arhalon's
gone. You don't know what is wrong with him?
Can I roll a check? Yeah, you know what? Go ahead
and roll, um, call it medicine. Or insight. One
of the two. No. Okay, yeah, he just... Three
on the die plus one. His mind looks fucking lost.
He's still turning. I think he almost, like,
moves snarling towards Zavar. Towards over round
stuff. He sort of squeaks out and kind of, like,
ducks herself down. Zavar just, like, stands,
like, firm and smiling. And for a moment, maybe
you think this is going to settle itself. Zavar
just says, He doesn't know who to attack. His
mind lost to the blood rage. Bye. In my experience,
rage always seeks direction. Monster, your brother
was murdered yesterday. I assume you know that.
Did Jules tell you of the demon that slayed your
brother? Or hold on, just... Kellig! Kellig!
Ah, he did. But did he tell you who really killed
little Zebulon? Killing may have been the arrow
that pierced his heart, but he was not the assassin
that made the shot. Jules. Jules transformed
him. He gave into his demonic power, gave into
his own hatred, and gave it form. And that form,
the form he made, killed your brother. Arlon.
His eyes snap towards you, Jules. And you can
see something in them. Jules. Something buried
behind the rage. You can remember the way he
smiled, that goofy smile before he left. You
can see how far that smile has gone now. There's
hurt in his eyes, so much hurt. You can see a
single tear wells up in his eye, then burst into
a jet of steam. He can see the truth. Then his
eyes narrow. His teeth grit. Fire flickers in
his throat. Charles! You watch as Arhalon's right
hand begins to rise, veins bulging from it, and
trembling reaches over and grabs onto his great
sword two hands. In this madness, in this rage,
Arhalon has become whole again. Zavar laughs,
round stuff, screams. The two ghouls begin to
make their move towards you, and Arhalad, barreling
towards you, Jules, begins to charge. I thought
you were going to try to, like, say something
to him. Wait. Well, I was waiting for him. I
was waiting for a moment that never came. Oh,
shoot. Do I need to say anything? No, we were
just talking, and I was like, and I said to Jeremy,
I said, I thought you were going to try to, like,
say something to him. Yeah, I was going to, but
the moment never came. Oh, sorry. I thought you
were, you didn't seem like you were trying to,
do you want me to take it back and do you want
to say something? He's about to recharge, do
you want to talk? So can we, can we rewind then
back to just before he's charging? Yes, yeah.
Because I want to pull out the recording diamond
and I want to show him Zebulon dying. He would
need to be very close to see the footage, I will
say that. Can I, can I throw it to his feet?
I'm going to tell you this. I think as like...
As these words sink into him, you can do this,
but you get the impression that he's lost his
wits almost entirely at this point. I don't think
he would have the wherewithal to pick up something
thrown at his feet when lost into this rage.
Hearing you may be something possible but difficult,
but I think that would stretch what he would
do. Okay, that's fair. Can I roll for it? I don't
know if you'd be able to hit the DC. Even with
your persuasion. But you can certainly try. Let's
try. Okay. Okay. Let's try. I'm going to throw
the diamond to his feet. The diamond. You want
to see who really killed Zebulon? It's all right
there. Fucking crit my pants. I fucking crit
my fucking pants. And it's a plus 10 persuasion.
Plus twins. That is a 30. That is a 30. Here's
the thing. This will pause him because what he's
going to see is exactly what Zavar said. A shadowy
demon that you created. You did not convince
him that that's not the case. But I think he
does see it lands. You say that and it will pause.
He reaches down. He picks it up. And like, hands
sort of trembling. That's his darkness moving
uncontrollably in and out of everything it can
see. We've had our differences, but I know you
know me. How do I honor this? This may seem harsh,
but understanding the nature of what's happening
to Arhalon, I think this is the best way to handle
it. And it's going to actually pay off for you
in a pretty cool way moving forward. I think
his eyes, I think he just drops the diamond back
down, grabs the greatsword, he looks to Zavar,
he looks to you, and he just... You both die!
But he will still move towards you first. He
steps right on the diamond as he begins moving
across the room. Roll for a ni - Wait. There's
a moment. A frozen time. A presence. A light.
It shines through the cracks of that great iron
door that leads to the outside. You can see the
violent light of the ritual almost retreats before
this new, bright radiance. Arhalon freezes, transfixed
as that light pushes through the cracks like
motes in a swirling mist and forms itself into
a shining orb, hovering off of the ground. It
launches into the cavern, flying to a space just
before Jules. And you do all stare on. it begins
to take shape. It grows and grows until it stands
as a shining silhouette of a human, tall and
broad -shouldered, a heroic -shaped, poisoned
challenge towards the raging half -dragon. And
we can see Danza's smile gleaming white as it
reflects this light, as she whispers tearful
words towards it. Mateo, you came! And then that
light begins to shrink. It pushes down, condensing
into a smaller form. Still humanoid, but not
quite human. The hands sharpen into claws. The
face elongates. Two spiraling horns jut out from
the light. Two tiny waves begin to form on its
back. As a shining light splits apart into a
body made of radiant, painted bone, we are looking
at the skeletal form of a half -dragon. Two sabers
of gleaming bone held before him. It's Zebulon!
Yeah! Zebulon, the forces of fate have given
you one last fight, one last chance to make good
on your promise to Roundstuff, to protect Jules.
You can see her smile, your own light reflecting
in her eyes, in the eyes of every figure in this
room. You are, as ever, the center of attention.
The spark inside you giving form to this strange
new body is fading fast. But you are fully aware
of everything that is happening here. You have
been watching all along. How this is possible
and how you received this spark, we will find
out next week when we finally hear your side
of the story. But right now, your time is quickly
running out. And your own brother stands before
you, towers over you like he always has. You
have to face him now, once and for all. Protect
Jules. Save round stuff. Bring peace to Arhalon
with these goals in your mind. With the eyes
of every figure in this room locked in awe on
you, what does Zebulon the Return have to say?
Now wait just a damn minute. And we'll call it
there! I once said that I wanted this arc to
follow the trail of two separate yet connected
storylines. I lied. There have always been three
stories here. So let me take you all back for
one more flashback. To the endless gray landscape
of the Fugue Plain. To the land beyond life where
the souls of the dead push toward the light of
the beyond. And let me tell you all the last
story of Zebulon Black.