Thank you. We'll see you next time. Down a crucial
point, they moved into the second round, a race
to defeat some of the local dangerous Florida
and Fauna, and prepare them for cooking into
a local delicacy. After distinguishing themselves
in battle, their team, The Line, managed to beat
their foes by a matter of seconds, and they gained
a point. Now, tied with their rivals, their team
drops down into a dark dungeon below the third
tent, the true arena for the third game. Here
they must meet their enemies in one last challenge.
With two possible points alive for both teams,
anything can happen in this game of Hide and
Seek. Anything can happen. Anything can happen?
That's terrifying. All rise for His Honorable
David Monroe. Whoa, what is this? Tut, tut, tut,
tut, tut. I walked up. I guess I'm... We are
here today. I rise. Yeah, we rise. Okay, good.
Do you want me to roll for... If you rise, I
walk in. I walk in. Can I roll insight? No, I
go to the stand. What is this? We are gathered
here today to see through the case of Stephen
Rodriguez v. Christmas Music, as promised last
week. Prosecution, Stephen Rodriguez, will you
state your argument in front of the court? That's
what this is about. So... Let's hear it. My case
against... some Christmas music is that we as
a society... I mean, I can't speak for everybody
else. Me, myself. Objection, objection. Go ahead.
Can you speak as a simple country lawyer? Why,
I can. There we go. Let's keep going. I, a simple
country lawyer, do not need to hear the same
Christmas song for over a hundred years. A lot
of the music that we're listening to was recorded,
like, on fucking wax tubes. I don't know, man.
I respect the art and the artists, but at this
point, I can die happy without ever hearing a
Bing Crosby Christmas song ever again. I'm fine
with the songs, but can I at least listen to
something that was recorded within the last,
I don't know, decade? Order! Order in the court!
Defense! I do declare. I do declare you a millennial.
Yeah, totally. I am, for sure. I'll accept that.
Mr. Wolf of the defense, let's hear your statement.
You cannot mess with the sanctity of the holiday
season. It is tradition for a reason. It is the
season. I do declare. So you guys enjoy hearing
the same exact... of the same exact song all
the time on repeat. Not all the time. It doesn't
bore you? Not all the time. You don't want to
throw in a Justin Timberlake every now and again?
Not for Christmas. Didn't he do Christmas songs?
I'm sure he's got to have a Christmas album.
Justin Timberlake got to have a Christmas album.
I mean, yeah. I mean, if it happens to come on,
I'll enjoy it, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But when
I want them good holiday feels. You want the,
all right. See, I'm just going to say I'm sick
of the Mariah Carey song, but I would rather
hear the Mariah Carey song than any of those
other 80, 90, 100 -year -old fucking Christmas
songs. I mean, okay. I will say I do enjoy more
modern versions of the classic Christmas songs.
All right. See, now we're getting somewhere.
That's kind of all I'm saying. All right. I mean,
I can't argue with that. I just want to hear
Rudolph the Red -Nosed Reindeer recorded. After
my parents were born, maybe, I guess. Is that
too much to ask? That's fair. I can truly be
impartial on this because I don't hear music.
What are you talking about? If I don't want to
hear something, it doesn't happen to my brain.
I phase things out. I don't think I've heard
a Christmas song yet. I think David's trying
to pit us against each other before a critical
game here. Oh, teamwork won't be important at
all this session. Not at all. No, no, no, no,
no, no. What's a team? Yeah. Hate each other.
Can't spell Zebulon without team. Shit. Well,
you're in character. That's going on the first
t -shirt. No, first t -shirt. I thought about
this. First t -shirt has to be like a D20 on
a one with like horseshoes around it. Like it's
an impressive crowd. It just says Nat One Horses.
Nat One Horses. I would love that. I'd be so
happy. Steve, you have something you want to
say? I think we've cleared up this Christmas
debacle. We haven't. Still a fucking tied up
knot of nonsense, but hey. Well, we're talking
about Christmas, and I wanted to share, I wanted
to tell you guys about a little recipe that I'm
going to make for Christmas. Rachel and I are
going down to her family's for Christmas, and
one of the things I'm going to bring, they're
doing like a big potluck, I'm going to bring
a loaf of soda bread. Not just any soda bread.
Go on. This soda bread is going to start with
cranberries that I'm going to... infuse with
some sugar and some orange rinds in vodka. I'm
going to do that for about a week. Oh, the result,
the result will be one, a delicious cranberry
liqueur and two cranberries that are vodka infused.
So then I'm going to take these vodka infused
cranberries. Can you finish this? But also as
a simple country lawyer, it would sound so sexy.
I'm going to take these vodka -infused cranberries.
I'm weak. And some white chocolate, some white
chocolate chunks. You break that up. Oh, my God.
And I'm going to bake those into this traditional
Irish soda bread. Holy hell. Yeah. I heard about
this on Milk Street Radio. Big fan. Like to listen.
He's in Vermont. Hey. Oh, nice. Hey. So that's
where I got this recipe from. And I'm hoping
to wow the family. I was going to say, I hope
they don't mind having a total stranger on Christmas.
I'll make you guys a loaf. I'll make you guys
a loaf. I'm coming. I'm coming down. Because
this is going to take a week just to make the
cranberries. So I'll make a big batch of them.
Make a big batch. Oh, hell yeah. And I'll bring
some cranberry liqueur as well. That sounds in.
Incredible, Steven. Maybe I can even get David
to have a teaspoon. So those of you who are out
there wondering why we keep Steven around, it's
this. I like being a home cook. I like being
a home cook. We love it, too. Steven, Jeremy,
any other Christmas matters to attend to, or
do you want to get into this game? I think we
covered it for the moment. All right, because
we're not doing this again until next year. This
is the last, I believe, episode before Christmas.
Do we know that? My heart tells me it's true.
So I know that. So we released 12 this Monday.
Yeah. Yeah. So then this is 15? Yeah. Yeah, this
would be the last Christmas one. Okay, yeah.
Yeah. Well, Merry Christmas, guys. It's been
fun. And the next episode is, at least in recording
time, David's birthday episode. Recording time
the week after that is my birthday episode. So
listeners, he's talking about like about one
or two weeks, the one and two weeks before this
episode airs. This is the end of the, wait, it's
the second one. We're going to confuse the shit
out of the listeners here. Anyway, no matter
what day it is, I hope you're having a wonderful
Christmas time. Have a great Christmas. Merry
Christmas. What? He's trying to make pants people
a thing. I want to make it a thing. It's going
to be a thing. I like zipper heads better than
pants people. Zipper head sounds like a football
thing. We're not football. You don't know much
about football, do you? We're not jocks here,
Steven. The denim degenerates. We're the opposite
of that. I do like that. Denimenerates. I like
that one better. There you go. You guys are in
a cellar. Last we left off, you were walking
over this sort of translucent, thick glass floor.
Tink, tink, tink, tink, tink. Moving away this
crowd. Building up around you as people come
in to watch. Now, this time around, we're not
going to hear the announcements as this game
is starting off. That's what you were told. Because
to go down there, you have to get ready. The
trap door opens. You see a ladder going down
into darkness. There's a very dim light shining
in a corner of that room. A flickering lantern
light. And you move in and you just start. Tink,
doom, doom, doom. climbing the rungs down and
you find yourself in a room. It's about, uh,
60 feet wide by 20 feet long. So pretty wide
looking room filled with, uh, in the corners,
just tons of, of crates just built up in one
side, uh, some barrels, like a big sofa in one
spot, uh, a table. And you see this hanging silk
drapes, um, just kind of here and there all about
the place. It's pretty messy. Some sort of storage
for furniture and for just, like, backup silk
garments. But you know what it really is? Some
kind of arena or some kind of game. You're holding
these two caterpillars in your hands, big, like,
kitten -sized, fuzzy little caterpillars. They're
adorable as hell. I don't know. That sounds really
freaky, by the way. I'm sorry to interrupt. It's
terrifying but also adorable. It's like the animated
spider everyone loves but I hate with a passion.
You know the fucking spider. I don't know. The
listeners know. Sure. These caterpillars. You
got them on you right now. When you choose to,
you basically can turn them and affix them to
a point. When you affix them to you, they're
going to attach with a silk line and they will
not attach again. That line breaks from them
being pulled off of you, from the line being
severed somehow. you lose a point because you
need them affixed to you when you reach the other
side. That's the idea. But you get to choose
who takes them. One person can take them both.
Two different people can take one each. So let's
talk about this line real fast. I'm imagining
that out the back end of a caterpillar, that's
kind of like where it would come out of. I thought
it was the mouth because of Pokemon. Oh, wow.
You know what? I understand what that sounds
like. It's the back end now. That's fine. Well,
I mean, am I thinking about a spider? That's
just what I was thinking about. I mean, I'm not
an entomologist. Hang on, I'm going to roll dice
about it. No, I'm going to... To the ass. I'm
going to telephone about it. Where does... They're
fantasy. They're tuck crow caterpillars. They
might be a real thing, but these are fantasy
tuck crow caterpillars. Fantasy caterpillars.
And it comes out of their ass, Steven. Okay.
The dice have decided with a nine. All right,
I'll leave it at that. All right. So what I'm
saying is, because you seem to be a little...
You were a little hairy about, oh yeah, you can,
you seem like the default was to just pull off
the caterpillar. Yeah. Not just cut the line.
You cut the line. It's going to be a little tricky.
I mean, I mean. It's going to be trickier than
just grabbing the caterpillar. It'll be tricky
either way. Just don't hurt the caterpillar.
Tell you what, if you try to cut the line, you
miss terribly. You're a little one on that bad
boy or something real low. Well, I mean, like
I imagine that you could just like use a finger
and cut like a spider web. Yeah. I mean, either
way, that would work. It's going to be the same.
So let me tell you what this is going to look
like mechanically. Cutting the line isn't hurting
the caterpillar? No. No. But if you miss and
hit the caterpillar, that's bad. Don't do that.
These are Madame Culp's little babies. I think
she was like, as she walked in the room, she
was like petting them. So maybe I'm making this
a little more complicated. Just grab the bad
boy. Here's the thing. You can cut them. It's
going to be the same check. I'll break this down
for you. 12 plus your dexterity. If someone's
holding a caterpillar, that's going to be your
AC. Unarmored AC, we're going to add a plus two
to it because you're grabbing a little thing
off somebody. It should be a little more difficult.
So it's going to be 12 plus your dexterity modifier.
So if you have a caterpillar, that's your AC.
You make an unarmed attack or an armed attack,
whatever you want to do. If you want to cut it,
you just use a weapon. It should be the same
two hit. If you attack lands, you sever it. You
grab the caterpillar. That's the game. You find
your opponents. You make that attack, unarmed
attack on them. You beat that AC number, which
I'll have up for me, and I'll know it for you,
and you get that caterpillar. But anything goes
here. There's no physical harm allowed to be
done between you guys. This is a sport. This
is a game. This is fucking football. But you
can do tricks. You can do magic freely. So let
me understand. It's not so much that we need
to collect the caterpillars, like let's say Zebulon
pulls a caterpillar off of somebody. Like he
can just set it down on the ground and leave.
Okay. You're just breaking the line. They will
not form another line. They're trained to only
create one when you decide that's it. You fuck
up choosing who it's on. Oh, well, it's stuck
on them. I understand. Okay. Okay. Cool. So let's
talk about this room. You drop into this room.
You see this, like this wide area around you.
You see that in. One corner of the room, there's
a single lantern shedding this dim light. I think
the far corners of the room are all still in
shadow because this light is not very much. You
look up as the trapdoor closes. All the sound
above you, gone. Just quiet. You can hear just
a little bit of room noise. There'd be a clock
in the corner. Everything's eerie here. You see
that the dim light of the lantern is shedding
onto a long, like, black silk curtain covering
what looks like the only exit in the room. And
this is to the upper sort of far left of the
room. No, from where you're coming down and looking.
This curtain seems very, very thick. And I will
tell you now, they're going to act as sort of
a blackout curtain. They're going to muffle sound
from outside the room. They're going to muffle
any light. from outside the room. There could
be a full -on light in the next room. You wouldn't
know. These curtains are something else. You
also see, lit by the same lantern right next
to that, there's a little sign that just says,
I think there's a little bell hanging, actually,
right over the door and a sign under it that
just says, wait for the ding. And under that
it says, affix your caterpillars in the meantime
and be ready. Who's going to take these caterpillars?
I mean, I don't think it should be me. I think
I'm going to go be somewhat sneaky. Yeah, I think
the safest bet here is definitely at least the
Jean Franklin over here. What? Me? I don't know
if you know this about me, but I'm not exactly
fast. My armor is impenetrable, but, well, I
can't exactly use it in this one, can I? Well,
what's your unarmored AC? My unarmed AC, well,
that's actually on your page and not mine. That's
totally true. Let me open your shit real quick
so I can cheat. You gotta remember who your sidekick
is, Zeb. Just like open my stuff. I didn't expect
this. I believe it's going to be 10 because I
think he has a straight up plus zero to dex.
Oh, plus zero to dex, yeah. Yes, okay. No, sorry,
12. It's 12 plus zero. 12 plus zero. So he has
a straight 12. What's your dex bonus? Zero. Okay,
and Chester's? Oh, it is Chester's. Plus two.
Oh my god, how is Chester our fucking ringer?
Chester's a 14 in this. I mean, you also have
a high dex. Well, yeah, right, but... But you
want to get out there with your darkvision and
like... I get that. These things will glow faintly
in the dark, but it won't be enough to full -on
expose you. You can still hide. Basically, what
they want to see is they want to see these things
glowing so they can see them from above. That's
how they spectate if people have dark vision,
if people are going into the straight shadows.
They can see, on their side, they can see fully
what's going on down here. You just can't see
back through. It's an enchantment. I still think
the plan that we discussed outside of this session
here. Plans. I mean, we can still do one on Jean
Franklin. Yes. Do you want to do the other one
on Jules? Stick to the same... This is fucking
us up. Son of a bitch. That's a plus two, though.
I know. That's a big difference. I know. That
would mean you play in that Chester role. Oh,
and you... Okay. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah?
Yeah. I mean, if it's a dim enough light where
you can still get around. Right. And he can still
do his thing. Hey, Jules, do I know the plan?
What are you going to tell me the plan? I suppose
we should kind of let these guys in on it. All
right. You want to just, like, fade out? You
want to, like, do a huddle and you're whispering
and it kind of fades away from you guys for a
sec? Whisper montage. Yep. Ready, Jules? Wow,
that's all right. Well, I mean, you know 90 %
of the plans. Well, I suppose that might be a
good idea if you're an idiot, but sure, whatever.
Go on. I'm useless in this challenge anyway.
We really don't have that many tricks up our
sleeve. We pretty much know the plan. All right.
So the plan is Sean Franklin's going to take
one, and Chester's going to take one. So that's
who the... Bad boys are getting fixed too. All
right. What part of the body, just so we can
all visually see, head, shoulders, or maybe like
top of the back are the best options so you can
see from above? What do you think? I mean, is
there a mechanical difference? No. I mean, I
guess just right here like on the sternum, right?
Sure. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that might be
better. So no one can sneak up behind them? No
one can sneak up behind them and they have the
use of their arms to cover it up. And the enemy's
caterpillars are going to be right on their backs,
right? Behind their eyes. Yeah. I don't copy
what you're doing. I like your thoughts. Those
are nice. This is exactly what you promised us
just like 10 minutes ago before we started recording.
Slip David a 20. Put the caterpillars on their
backs. I know where they are actually already,
and they'll stay where I know they are. I have
my own plans, and they are disgusting. Yeah,
I'm really not looking forward. I think we're
going to be. Who brought their car key to the
game? Car key? Anybody? I don't know. Is that
your car key? Whoever it is, I'm about to set
off the alarm. That's what you get when you bring
your car keys into a DMV session. You don't want
to lose it. All right. Any other questions before
this begins? I don't think asking any more questions
is going to help one bit. Okay. I think we just
have to go into it and just see what happens.
I think we've got to just trust our play and
just go. Yep. We're going to the map. Sounds
like a vampire lair. I thought it was hide -and
-seek. It's scary hide -and -seek because your
futures depend on your ability to hide and to
seek, to reach the other side with your caterpillars
intact. And you know how skillful these rivals
of yours are. You know they're going to be out
there, too, making their moves. I want you both
to roll initiative now for both of you and your
sidekicks. Steven, I will let you have the inaugural
roll. In your new dice tray. The first in the
dice tray, yeah. Let me pull up my... Goddamn.
That's just an 8 for Zebulon. And that is a 16
for Jules. Nice. Not bad, Jules. Let me find...
About expected, Zebulon. Thanks. Yep. 10 for
Jean Franklin. Oh my god, I love that. Oh my
god, my initiatives. Nope, that's not so good.
I can't believe I beefed initiative. Wait, what
did you say Chester's initiative was, plus his
dex? Yes. And that's a 17. Damn, Chester, not
bad. Okay, so you actually tied with one of mine,
but you have higher, so you will go before me.
Man, I needed that early roll. Shit. Yeah. Okay.
If I had a fucking button. If only. You're all
kind of waiting. Waiting. Smelling the scent
of faded spices in the air. The air is thick
and cloying here. That tropical heat is just
like really sort of held up in this place. It's
very, very, very sweaty. You're waiting. Somewhere
above you. Must be some kind of noise cancellation
built into this ceiling between, because you
can barely hear the crowd up top. You know they
must be roaring with anticipation, but you can
hear just muffled a... Maybe like a voice shouting
loud. No, no, no, no. Damn it, it's good sound
work. Yeah, it was great. And then... That was
terrible. Hang on. That sounds like a bell? Yeah,
okay. If you say it's a bell. Yeah, you said
it's a bell, so yeah, it sounds like a bell.
It's a weird bell. You hear the bell. You think
it's a bell. Is that a bell? You look and it's
a bell. It's the bell. It's ringing. You know
it's the bell. Do you want to try a bell sound?
Nope. Actually, that was pretty good. Hey. It
sounds like that. Jeremy is the bell sleeper.
This bell is just ringing off its fucking hook.
You don't know what's going on. But the game
begins, gentlemen, and you move. I don't, not
until, like, the end, because... I'm going to
take my moves real quick here. Because crappy
initiative rule. Okay. I've made my first opening
moves. You don't see, so let me cue the audience
on something. This is actually the first time
I've ever used dynamic lighting. in a campaign.
I thought it would be cool. I know we're going
to try to describe as they go into each room
what it looks like, but I want to bring the sense
of tension into the game that these players are
hopefully going to feel as they move through
this dungeon, not knowing where their rivals
could be. I think dynamic lighting really brings
that home. So basically what this means is in
game on this map we have set up for them, as
they move around corners, their light will sort
of show up like so. So Zebulon, for instance,
we haven't talked about this live. So Zebulon
is using the Dragonborn stat block, but he is
technically a half -dragon. Because Dragonborn
are generally considered very underpowered, and
because Darkvision isn't... Basically, giving
them Darkvision will bring them around even with
a lot of the other races. I have given Zebulon
60 feet Darkvision to match with a half -dragon.
It's what they have. Half -dragons live in hordes.
They live in caves. Of course you should have
Darkvision. Zebulon, on your screen, you're going
to see 60 feet of light all around you, because
in this place, you can see this sort of monotone,
gray, dim light where there's darkness. And where
there's dim light, you can see it like day. Thank
Atash. It's very nice. Jules, however, has only
the dim lantern behind him to go by, and the
other members of your party as well can see nothing
in the darkness. You might need to figure something
out, Jules. You can grab that lantern and take
it with you, but the lighting isn't great. You're
going to have disadvantage on perception checks
and rooms. With that dim lit lantern. What are
you going to do about it, Jules? But you'll have
checks. Something. All right, then. I figured
out. With that. On the fly. There you go. See
to your pants. Yeah. We got it. Those are two
pants puns. With that, it's going to be Chester's
turn. He gets up to the door as it rings. He
goes to pull the curtain. He turns around. Hey,
Jules. This thing's kind of creeping me out.
It's like moving around and stuff. The caterpillar's
like. All right, under his chest, tickling his
chin with its front legs. Ah, Jules. Hey, Chester,
I think it's perfectly safe, all right? We just
got to push through this, okay? All right, yeah.
Might be uncomfortable, but we got this. All
right, let's make it quick, all right? Just don't
drop it, Chester. And with that, I think he will
move over to the room. I guess, what do you want
to do? It's his turn. Okay, yeah, he... I have
control of him, right? Yeah. You do have control
of him. Now, in the next room, it's going to
be pure dark for Chester right now. He is going
to move and grab the lantern. Okay. And just
kind of peek through. Great. Let me do a quick
alteration to his lighting. Yep. He's going to
stick his hand and his head through the curtain.
The hand with the lantern. Is he going to be
in the way if anybody else tries to get through
the door? There. Chester has 30 feet of low light
now. So he goes up to the door. Oh, okay. Sweet,
sweet. Yeah, I think he's... Whoa, that's incredible.
Isn't that cool? So go ahead and pull in the
next... Because you're looking through. Go ahead
and move him to the next room so you can see
what you see at the five -foot square. So you
look in the next room and you see another small
room. It's about 30 feet by 20 feet, though with
a sort of diagonal slant down one wall. So it's
very narrow on the edge you're in and widens
out as you go. There's two more curtains in this
room. One to the north. One to the east. You
also see there's like a number of couches covered
in silk in this room. There's like two sofas.
One tiny one for a gnome on like the left wall.
Sort of on the right wall is this big couch,
big sofa. There's an empty bookshelf. There's
more barrels. Just places to hide all over the
place. Now there's this dim light whoosh in the
room casting these dark shadows against the walls.
You have to wonder how fast can these guys be?
Could they be in here even? Tell me. Are they?
Roll a check if you want to see. Now, how this
is going to work is you can roll Perception,
entering a room for free. But if you want to
go and get a deeper look at things, it'll be
a lower DC, basically. But you can roll Investigation
to kind of get in there as an action and sort
of be peeking through some stuff that you can
see. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think Chester's going
to roll Perception. Okay. Give me that Perception
roll. There it is. Nice. That's a 21. With a
21, he looks around. He feels pretty safe. No
ghosts or wink -wink goblins hiding behind any
of these. Hey. Knick -knacks. All right, so as
he's walking in, I'm actually going to move him.
So what, each square is five feet? Yes. Okay.
Can I move him here? Yeah, you should be able
to double move, which would be a toll. Yeah,
I'm going to double move him to the next curtain.
So you're moving up to the northern curtain in
that room. Correct. Let's see, do you have enough
space to, so you start here. Actually, you know
what? You could, you could, with both your actions,
basically you'll be able to move him. Yeah, I'm
going to move him next to the chair here. Okay,
all right, so you're hiding out. Yep. All right,
so he moves into the room. Do you want to try
to like, actually you wouldn't have any movement,
action left to hide, but you're waiting it out.
Good? Yep. All right. With that, our first token
on your side is on the board. And now I'm going
to make a little move on my side. And while I'm
doing that, I want you to make your move, Jules.
Jules is going to turn around, look over at Zebulon,
and say, Hey, Zeb, do some good work with this.
And I'm going to cast Bardic Inspiration on Zebulon.
Oh, yeah, man. As a bonus action, a creature
other than yourself within 60 feet that can hear
you gains an inspiration die, which is one D6.
For 10 minutes, the creature can add it to one
ability check, attack roll, or saving throw.
This can be added after seeing the roll, but
before knowing the outcome. Sweet. So what I
think would make sense is, do you have an extra
die you could give to Steve and put on the side,
like a D6 he can look at and remember that's
his inspiration? Dude, I do that all the time.
I do that all the time. I always forget. Take
this hideous orange die. I want the hideous orange
D6. It's going to remind you because you won't
forget it's there. But this is the hideous orange
D6. Take the hideous orange die and you won't
forget it because that might be crucial. And
that's a shit right there. That's some good ass
support. A D6? That could be everything in a
contest where you just need to hit their AC once
to get one of those damn caterpillars. Ding,
ding. Kitty caterpillars. Yeah, it kind of exploded,
didn't it? A little bit. So that's your move,
Jules? Yeah, I actually have to move Jules into
the room. All right. And I'm good. That's going
to be Jean Franklin. Jean will do a double move
up to this door, I guess. So Jean Franklin goes
in the room. He moves to the eastern door, the
right side door. Now let me touch on something
real quick strategically here. When you enter
this room, you realize there's a door to the
north, there's a door to the east. This means
there's two paths through this place, and you
don't know which path they're going to take.
If you all go one way and they go the other,
boom, they get out with both caterpillars intact
and two points for them. You lose one point in
here, it's it. It's over. So keep that in mind.
I actually think that John Franklin has enough
movement to get through that door. Okay. So can
he do a sidestep like diagonally through the
door so he's like there? No, that's kind of through
the wall. I think that wouldn't quite... You
could just step in the room. You also are full
on in dark. If he goes in there, he can't see
anything. Right, yeah. I don't know how much
it matters. I mean, like metagaming, I don't
know how much it matters because I don't think
anyone's going to be in there. But then in that
case, Jean will just step to the side of the
door and wait for somebody with some light to
go through. Okay. That's going to be Zebulon,
the last one to leave the nest. All right, I
counted it like eight times with a dash. Zebulon
has enough movement to get to that other room
here. Okay, so you move through the main room,
you move out of your first room, past Jules,
Jean -Franclin, and Chester, and go off on your
own with your dark vision, scouting ahead, moving
to the northern door and through it. You enter
a room just filled with tables. You see one big
rounded table right in front of you. You see
a desk on the wall, empty with a few crates plowed
on top of it, silk covering down the desk. You
see another silk -covered couch in one corner,
another empty bookshelf, more curtains draped
in random spots. And you see that this room is
also about 20 feet by 35 feet or so, and there's
only one door leading out. Okay. On the eastern
wall, or one curtain. I would like to bonus action
hide. Okay. Could I hide behind that chair, under
that table sort of thing that are right next
to me? Absolutely you can. I want you to roll
stealth for me. Sweet, sweet, sweet. Yeah, that's
going to be a 15 plus 7. Okay, all right. That's
very high. Interesting. And with that, I'll take
my last... turn here. So while we're in a little
break while David rolls, I feel like we have
to acknowledge there is a barking going on. That
is my wonderful, rambunctious little pug, Danny.
This little Daenerys Targaryen out there. Sorry
guys, you gotta deal with it. She is none too
happy though. We love little Danny. She's like,
be more fair, DM. She just wants in on the podcast.
Yeah. That's all she wants. So, yes, it's acknowledged.
All right. Let me burn a spell slot real quick.
And there we go. What was that? Sorry, did I
say that out loud? Yeah, you did. Strike that
from the record. Jeremy. Object. And with that,
we're going back to the top of the round. Okay.
Which is actually me. Okay, good. And with that.
I get to go again. Zebulon, you have full -on
darkvision. So, you're watching from... Describe
your hiding place again, Zebulon. So, there's
a little round table next to Zebulon and a chair
next to the table. He's kind of crouched down
next to the chair under the table. Okay. And
also there's like a silk sort of drape covering
it, so you're sort of peeking out through that.
Maybe like a sheer. Very nice. Yeah. All right.
The whole room is dimly lit to your eyes, more
sensitive to the night. And even in this dim
light, though, you can see the curtain moves
on the other side of the room, on the eastern
wall, and you watch stupid dragons. Trace is
going to find you. Oh, my God. Trace is going
to take you. No. The goblin Trace meanders into
the room, sneaking, muttering quietly to himself.
He looks around. I'm going to roll a perception.
Ooh. His eyes linger over to your spot at the
table and move past. I wasn't even worried. I
wasn't even worried because I just rolled like
a 22, so. And you watch as he moves over to a
corner of the room, right by the door where you
see there's a barrel, and he gets behind the
barrel and ducks down to hide and wait for you.
All right, perfect. This is great. That is incredible.
Yeah, so you see one of them, and he's waiting.
And with that, it's Chester. I think Chester's
probably... You know where one of them is now?
No. He's going to flank the other side of this
curtain. Ooh, okay. All right. Anticipating that
they're both on the sides of the curtain and
they're expecting Jules to kind of... To lead
the way. To lead the way or make the next move.
Yeah, all right. Okay. Make that next call. Okay.
And that is going to be Jules. Chester just goes
up there and he just kind of looks to you, Jules,
and he doesn't want to make any noise. He just
sits right next to the curtain. He kind of just,
like, puts a finger to his eyes, to the curtain,
and points to you. Shrugs. I'm going to cast
Bardic Inspiration on Chester. Oh, shit. Okay.
Give yourself a D6. Oh, I love this. What does
it look like in this case? Like, he gestures
to you, and what do you do to inspire him back?
I think I... I think I can make my loot glow
a little bit. Oh, that's awesome. I think I channel
my inner emotion to kind of go through the loot,
give it a little flash. Oh, I love it. What's
the emotion? Yeah, I think it's a little flash
of blue. Ooh, blue. A little flash of blue, a
little shimmery blue. Oh. Oh, yeah, that's nice.
There's a little shimmer for you. What does blue
signify? You don't need to tell us. Because we,
the audience, wouldn't know. You can't tell us.
Even Chester wouldn't know. I just thought of
the color. I didn't think of the actual emotion.
I mean, but it's not like he feels. I think he
just looks and he sees that his face is awash
with this dim blue light from your loot. And
he just kind of like, a quick flashback, he just
smiles. And he gains that D6 bardic inspiration.
Give yourself that die. Make sure it's out there
and ready. Because it may be everything in the
rolls to come because this shit's about to open
up. As we move into the next round. But before
that, Jules, you need to go. Yes, I do. And I
am also, I'm going to move up to the front of
the curtain. Oh, shit. Okay. And, oh, by the
way, body conspiration is the bonus action. Yes,
yes. You have full action still. So, as my action,
I'm going to pull up my rapier and cast light
onto it. Oh, shit. Okay. Wow. Yeah. So light.
Let me pull it up here. Give me just how far
range it is. I think it's 20 feet. 20 feet. 20
feet and then it's dimmer after that. Let me
just double check. Light's the cantrip, right?
Yes, it is a cantrip. Okay, so we can do two
spells. And duration for an hour or until I cast
it again or dismiss it. I touch one object that
is no longer than 10 feet. Until the spell ends,
it sheds bright light in a 20 -foot radius and
dim light for an additional 20 feet. You pull
this thing out and you shine this light and the
whole room is flooded with it. All the shadows
vaporize on the wall as this bright, bright daylight
almost enters this room. Chester just like, he's
still... grinning, beaming at this glowing sword.
Jean Franklin actually raises an eyebrow and
just like kind of almost whispers, nice work.
I'm not as dumb as you think I am. And yeah,
you have a fully lit room here. You can see everything
except for what's going on behind that curtain.
And that's your turn? Yep. That's going to be
Jean Franklin. Jean Franklin's going to hold
because just like Chester, he's going to wait
for... Jules to take the lead. Oh my god, this
next round is going to be so tense as everyone's
moving in one way. Alright, yeah, this is all
set up. This is all build up. I fucking love
it. Alright, and that's Zebulon. You've just
seen your foe moving into this room swiftly,
almost as swiftly as you, dashing in here and
immediately hiding. Also as a bonus action. Goblins
can do some pretty cool shit. Also with dark
vision, you imagine, because this room is completely
black. To anyone in this room, they would see
nothing except for the two of you who can just
sit there in the shadows and wait. So what I
want to do is I want to do the classic movie
moment where you toss a pebble and it makes a
noise on the other side of the room. And like
the bad guy's like, oh shit, they must be over
there. And runs over to the corner of the room.
Could I do like a sleight of hand? This is all
antics, baby. I want to see antics up the fucking
wazoo this episode. Do those antics. Give me
a sleight of hand. I like that. Yeah, so I'm
going to try to sleight of hand and I want to
throw, I don't know, whatever, something. Maybe
there's a fucking, I don't know, coffee cup on
the table that I'm hiding under. all the way
into that back corner of the room. Oh, okay.
If Trace chases this, I want him to go all the
way into that back corner. Okay, okay. Oh, come
on, baby. Come on, baby. You have that Bardic
Inspiration, too. Oh. The way it works, I should
tell you right now, Bardic Inspiration. Use it
before I say whether or not you fail or pass.
Right, exactly. Yeah, I don't need it on this
one. Great. All right. Um, cause that's an 18
plus seven. Holy shit. I want to roll. I was
going to, I mean like, I don't think I can beat
that anyway, but I'm going to roll still, uh,
my perception to see if I see through that. That
was like a rock was thrown. So at this point
in time, you don't know anything. You throw that,
you hear something and maybe you imagine it.
Maybe you're not sure, but you feel like something
stiffens in that corner and like be like, grunt.
Okay. Right now, you don't know if that was successful
or not. Okay. So in the action economy, what
did that cost me? Let's call it a bonus action.
Okay. Or an action. Your choice. Okay. You're
a roe. You can do a lot of shit with your bonus
actions. You're not going to be like, you threw
a pebble. That's going to cost the same as dodging,
disengaging, hiding, all that shit. Right. Crap.
Now I'm in the position where he hasn't moved
yet, so I can't move yet. Yeah, he has to wait
until his turn before he can make a move. And
react to this. So maybe I'm going to show my
hand a little bit here to see if I still have
time for another action. And you're going to
have to tell me whether or not you think it'll
work without alerting him. I am the Honorable
David Monroe, Judge of Christmas Music and Dungeons
and Dragons. I am impartial in all things. Except
for heroes. In my beginning... my rogue beginner
equipment, I have a bag of ball bearings. Which
can be spread over, I believe, a 10 -foot square.
Oh, my God. I love it. I'm like, antics are allowed.
And you're like, okay, how about all of them?
Yeah, sure. Why not? Let me just antic the shit
out of this. This can be three stooges now. Do
it. Oh, my gosh. So a bag of ball bearings. As
an action, you can spill these tiny metal balls
from their pouch to cover a level square area
that is 10 foot on a side. A creature moving
across the covered area must succeed on a DC
10 deck saving throw or fall prone. A creature
moving through the area at half speed doesn't
need to make the save. The only downside with
this, we'll make a little bit of noise unless
you roll very high, like you're going to roll
a sleight of hand, so it's going to be tricky
because you're going to roll these out and he
has to not notice them, but I will give you something.
He might make that move. If you want to hold
your action, then you can use this as a reaction
on his turn. If you could say, I would like to
prepare to, if he moves to this point, I will
throw these ball bearings out under him as he
moves. That is totally allowed. It'll cost your
reaction between rounds, but that's not a huge
cost. Do you want to go for that? Yeah. Okay.
Yeah, I do. That's very generous. No, I think
that's by the rules. Oh, perfect. Even better.
Very enticing offer. If you prepare an action,
as long as the thing that you prepare for happens,
which in this case is him moving, your action
becomes your reaction. Okay, great. Excellent.
This could work. I'm looking several moves ahead
here. I will tell you this. You have seen him.
You did not see a caterpillar. I should tell
you that much. I kind of figured that you would
have mentioned it. Great. Especially because
you'd see it pretty well with dark vision and
the glowing. In this room, Jules, as you cast
that light, the caterpillars on Chester and John
Franklin, they're no longer glowing or as noticeable,
I guess, since the light's now filling the room,
which is kind of a nice little perk. Okay. Zebulon,
that's you. You're just, like, under there. You
throw out a thing, and as you wait to see what
he does, you, like, grab this pouch off your
belt, I imagine, with these ball bearings, and
just open it up, hold the string, staring there,
smiling and ready for fucking hijinks up the
wazoo today. And now it is me again, my turn.
And you're sitting there in front of this curtain,
Jeremy. You, Chester, John Franklin, all waiting.
And suddenly the curtain is thrown open. Holy
shit. And this harring -gone pepper steps through,
just looking at all of you. And that's where
this round ends. Curtain closes behind him. You
see the faintest light entering that room and
closing as he bursts out and is, like, standing
there, like, staring around, almost terrified.
But that was all he could do. That's all he could
do this round. I had to move forward. But he
steps in front of you all. Fucking you see him.
That is all that happens. And now we're moving
into the next round where things might just get
a little spicy. And now that we've made contact.
A little hairy. A little hairy. A little greeny
because it's a goblin. I think this test is really
heating up now. Really beginning now. Let's change
up the music. Yes. Yes. Okay. With that, I make
my move. First move is done. Second move happens
now. And the second move is going to be this
goblin. Come on, baby. No whammies, no whammies,
no whammies. You see, just under the table, you
see the goblin go, and he just starts running
full sprint across the room. Hell yeah. And he
passes by your spot. What do you want to do?
You want to fucking throw those marbles? Well,
what I want to do, David. I want to dump the
ball bearings on my space. 10 foot by 10 foot
square. Okay. All right. On my space. Okay. Draw
a little square under this table here. So like
this to start. Can you shift it to the right
by one? Perfect. Okay. So we scouted them out.
The whole area will just stay in front of the
door leading into this room from the room below
where Jules, Chester, and Jean -Francois have
just made contact with Pepper. The door into
this room now is just covered with these marbles
for 10 feet into the room. You've created this
very dangerous terrain for anyone to pass. They
want to go out that way. Very interesting. That's
right. Very interesting move. Covering my tracks.
All right, then. What now, Zebulon? That's actually
not... I was going to say, I was like, I'm up.
So that wouldn't, to be honest, because you chose
the table in the back, so that wouldn't necessarily
be in his path. Is that all right? Yep, that's
kind of what I planned. My plan was not to trip
him up. My plan was to block the door that I
just entered. I want you to roll sleight of hand
for me. Now I'm going to roll perception again
because you do this. He's now full on running.
He might not hear this. I'm going to roll with
advantage. Oh, come on. Just to see if I know
this. You're going to roll with disadvantage
or I'm going to roll with advantage? I'm going
to roll with advantage because this is pretty
loud, so he might notice it. Oh, okay. But I
don't have very high perception, so I think you
might have me beat you. All right, let's see.
I think that's fair. I'm going to keep it. That's
another 22. Nice. Is it really? Yeah. I rolled
a 21. Oh, my God. Oh, shit. Yes. Oh, my God.
Oh, I was like, yeah, I wasn't going to use my
Bardic Inspiration. I saw Hyrule, and I was like,
all right, got him. No, he's so honed on this.
He just runs. I mean, look, this is the thing.
He's so pissed. He was second short on the last
contest of winning it, and in a way, he's the
one that was the slow one on the team. He's the
one that failed. He's so. driven right now. And
like you have been, both of you have been like
making this goblin's life a misery. I needed
like two or three good rolls to really make this
whole thing come together. He books it in that
direction, slides under the table and looks and
he's just like looking around and that's going
to be his turn. And we're moving on to Chester.
So this Haurang gone to see you. He can't attack
yet, but he's standing right between two people
that have caterpillars on them, and he can see
those. But he's still in that moment of shock.
He didn't think you were here. What are you going
to do about it? I have no idea. My gut reaction
I don't think will work, and I don't think it
will work by the rules. No, it would take a lot
of liberty, I'm pretty sure. My initial instinct
is to recreate the heist thing with Jules and
Chester. But the mechanics of Chester and Jules
together at that time were very, very different
than they are now. So here's how that would look.
What do you mean by recreate? I want Chester
to start pulling this thing down with a rope,
but it's not Jules' turn. I don't think he can
do some type of reaction to throw my cloak. Here's
what I could do here. Yeah, going for this, we
can just go for the actual rule set for grappling,
which would kind of be a similar thing, right?
So if Jester goes for a grapple now and succeeds,
you can on your turn go for a push, which could
knock the rabbit prone, at which point he's stuck
at zero moving speed. He can't move, but he's
also... disadvantage on any attacks or anything.
Chester's kind of on top of him. He's just in
a bad place, and he can't get up from prone as
long as he has zero movement speed, as long as
he's grappled. So that's one way we can do this.
Another way is to, say, have Chester hold his
action, and then when Jules doesn't like on his
turn, Chester can use his reaction to follow
up what you do. So both could work. But we can
flavor. If you grapple this guy and bring him
prone, then I'll let you start trying to keep
him down, following it up. The only problem is,
I will say, Grappling is tough. It requires strength
if you want to grab him and pull him down like
that. And he is pretty damn strong. He's muscly.
I mean, you got to do something or else he's
going to start ripping cat cars. Yeah, he's going
to start railing on us, doing something. Yeah.
You can also disengage and get off of him. Start
moving back, but then you're giving the advantage.
You're moving back into place. I'm giving more
space to whoever's behind him. Yep, yep, yep.
Okay. Yeah, I'm going to hold on Chester. Okay.
Chester holds. His reaction is reaction. Now,
what do you want to do for your... What's your
plan? Basically, you'll say, using your action
as a reaction, you're going to say, when blank
happens, Chester's going to blank. So when Jules
does this, Chester will do this, right? You guys
have this unspoken language between you. You
can look at each other, and you both know what
the other's thinking. You can jump on these plants.
When Jules throws his cloak over Pepper, Chester's
going to come in with his rope. And try to, like,
get on him. We're going to try and pull Pepper
down. This sounds fun. What I want to do for
this is I want to give you... I almost want to
say I want to give you a grapple with advantage,
since you're kind of doing this. You're putting
the rope over him. That's going to give him disadvantage
on his... Yeah, it'll give you advantage on your
ability to, like, try to, because he's still
going to be trying to fight you off. Yeah, it's
kind of a two -man grapple. It's kind of like
two grapple actions, right? Right. Yeah, in a
way, yes, yes. Which, actually, I like, because
if you manage to get him, then John Franklin,
who's reasonably strong, I'll give him advantage
on a shove on his round if you want to go all
out on him this round. Cool. So, Chester's going
to help you out. You can roll grapple with advantage
now if you want to go for that. Yeah. Okay. Something
like that has to happen. Sounds like a good move,
I mean, yeah. Okay, so that's going to be an
athletics check on your side. Okay. With advantage.
And I'm going to roll mine normal. Not great,
but we'll see what you get. I got a 15. 15 beats
me. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep. Wait, you didn't
roll with advantage. Oh, roll it again. Oh, shit.
Yeah, see what happens. Maybe it'll create more
design cool about it. No, no, no, we're good.
Okay, so 15. So you, yeah, yeah, that's what
happens. He keeps, before he can react. Cloak
goes over him. You're losing another cloak, I
guess, to these guys. I feel like I'm a little
more confident that I'll at least get this one
back. Right, this one's not an active war zone.
Right. Chester takes the rope and swings around.
He can't, like, do a full knot, but he can just,
like, get the rope around him and kind of, like,
yank it tight right now. So he just, kind of,
like, is moving around, can't move his arms,
and can't see anything. Just panicking, just
struggling, and Jean Franklin smiles. realizing
that he has a chance to move in here. Oh, my
God. Well, actually, though, this guy gets a
chance to try to break out before that happens.
Now, as he's covered right now, I'm going to
give him this advantage to check. Yeah, it's
his turn before Jean -Francois. So Jean -Francois
is about to move in to push, but Pepper's going
to try to snap his way out of it. I'm going to
give him this advantage on an athletics check.
Let's say a DC for this. What was the initial
roll you made? Was it a 15? Yes. I'm gonna say
it's gonna be that, because it's not like you're
not holding him physically, but you've got this
thing. That's what happens. Oh, my God. This
is close. This is close. This is really, really
close. That was a nat 1 on the first roll anyway.
Oh, my God. So he's... And I think he, like,
almost, like, trips. I'm gonna say that. He trips.
Oh, my goodness. Because with a nat 1, he fucking
trips, and he falls to the ground. John Franklin's
getting ready to push, and he falls over anyway,
and he's just like, man, that was disappointing.
And, uh... His turn is freed up. I look over
and say, hey, you'll get your shot. You'll get
your shot. So Pepper's on the ground, grappled.
Chester's kind of, or Jules, you're kind of like
holding onto him now. You kind of got him by
that rope. And he can't move. He can't get up
because he can't move. And yeah, prone and grappled
is John Franklin's turn. So who is grappling
him? Is Chester grappling him right now? Oh,
it's a choose. Who do you want to take the grapple
effect? Maybe the one that's holding him. What
this means is so long as you move, you can only
move at half speed, but you could drag him with
you. It's going to be Jules. Okay, Jules, so
you grab the ropes, and you're holding the ropes
that are keeping this guy down. You could just
drag him across the floor. All right, so I'm
going to go ahead. I think Jules is going to
also lean down and say, Hey, Pepper, you stay
quiet. We'll make sure we take care of you after
this, okay? I don't know what that means. You're
pretty mean. He's probably really not smart enough
to get that he's being bribed. You were pretty
mean before when we talked. I don't think you're
going to take care of me at all. That was all
for show. That was all for show. Oh, really?
Yeah, I mean, we got John Franklin here, too.
It's a good time. He's a dick, though. Not anymore.
Oh, really? He's one of us. Okay. Yeah. All right.
Yeah. So just stay quiet, and then we'll all
be friends after, okay? I promise. Roll Persuasion
for me. You can test it. 22. Well, uh, these
guys aren't very nice to me anyway, to be honest.
I've been hearing they're all assholes. Dance
is kind of mean. Rubbing's cool, I guess. He
seems all right, I guess. He's all right. Yeah,
no, I'll stay quiet. He just kind of goes limp.
He's not the most loyal. Oh, my God. Did that
work? I rolled really low again. Oh, my God.
Your first hurdle's been cleared. So many hijinks.
Whoa. Oh, my gosh. So he's just, like, in the
way of the door. You just, like, lean down, whisper
this. Yeah, all right, great, great. Oh, my God.
So that just happened. Yeah, and that was John
Franklin. John Franklin was just looking down
at this display in front of him and just kind
of shaking his head. Yeah, I'm going to look
over at John Franklin and kind of give him, like,
just a little quiet down motion. Just say, hey,
hey. It's okay. Yes, yes, whatever. Let it be.
Jean Franklin's up now, right? You're up. What
do you want to do? So what I want to do is...
I should remind you of something, actually. Okay.
Jean Franklin can also take that... You know
his reaction ability, right? He is... So I'll
tell everybody right now. Jean Franklin as a
sidekick basically follows a knight. Oh, yes.
So let me... It's called... It's noble sacrifice
when a creature, Jean Franklin, can see targets...
Oh, when a creature Jean Franklin can see targets
an ally within five feet of him with an attack,
Jean Franklin can swap places with the ally.
and become the target of the attack instead.
So, yeah, that's a pretty nifty thing you can
do. I mean, he has the thing right now, so it's
not great, but he loses it. He can defend. Right.
Try to get people out of the way, try to block
for them. Let me once again shout out Paul Metzger's
Sidekicks Essentials on DM's Guild. I love it.
It's great. Sidekicks are fantastic, and we're
using them a lot in this campaign. Thank you,
Paul. Thanks, Paul. Coming in clutch. So what
Jean wants to do is move Pepper. out of the way
of the door. Okay. So, so remind me exactly of
Pepper's condition. He is not prone, but he's
grappled. He's grappled and prone. Oh, okay.
We'll just say, I'm gonna allow this, you know,
he, he basically, you can take the grapple as
your action. I'll let Jean basically grapple
Pepper and then you can move him at half speed
away from the door. Okay. I just want to put
him in, into the space next to Jean. So, I mean,
right now, Jean. Jules and Chester are all making
a triangle around like the entrance of this door.
Pepper was in the middle of that triangle. I
just want to move him out of there. Okay. Yeah.
So that space is now opened up. Yeah. Awesome.
Yeah. So yeah, Pepper walks in the room immediately.
Covered, roped, dropped, like trips and drops.
You whisper in his ear. He goes silent. John
Franklin grabs the ropes and just. hurls him,
slides him across the dirt floor, and he just
settles in the dust beside, just still lying
there. And the way forward is open. One of them
seems to be down for now, but what does this
mean? Does Jaune have enough to ready an action?
So I'll say grabbing him was going, I don't know
if all that, your grapple action. Probably not.
So you would not be able to ready an action.
Okay, that's fine. That's fair. You can still
move. That was only like a little bit. Yeah,
I think moving would be silly at this point.
Okay. I think that's it for Sean. All right,
all right. So, way is cleared. Sean Franklin
is ready to go. And I get to make one more move
here. No, I need to do this. Yeah, okay, all
set. That's my move. And we're moving to the
top of the next round. And nothing happens from
my side of the field. for a first action. Next
up, that goblin's gonna have to make a move now.
You're still hiding, right, Zeb? Wasn't it just
my reaction to put down the... Oh, shoot, you're
right, you're right. I forgot that was a... That
wasn't my move. You're absolutely right. Sorry,
you get to go. Okay, sweet. Still in round three.
Okay. Yeah. You're gonna love this. Zebulon is
going to move. to the other door out of the room.
Holy shit. Oh, my God. At half speed so that
he can pass through the ball bearings and not
need to make the dex save, which I'm sure that
he would pass anyways, but it's not worth the
risk. So with 25 feet of movement, you step into
the room. That is incredible. Zebulon, you burst
open the curtain, and the first thing you see
is about 10 feet away from you. You see Ramin
Russel. You see this room. You open it up, and
your eyes like... are burned for a second. This
room is brilliantly lit. You see an amulet hanging
off Ramin Razul's neck is glowing with that same
magical light that you see in the room with Jules
LaRoche. You step in here and he just stays staring
at you, staying in the middle of the room. He's
right there watching the door for someone to
come in. He just takes a look at you. Ah, you're
Zebulon, yes? That's right. It's Ramin? Yes.
Um, so it seems it's us now, facing each other.
There's no caterpillar in him, by the way. No
caterpillar. And he goes on to say, We shall
see today who the Sunweaver deems worthy to win.
I pray it is us, my friend. If it is you, though,
then I shall be honored to fall before you here
and now. Uh, thanks. Um, hey, where are your
caterpillars? He just smiles a little wider.
Safe. and that's going to be what he says. What
do you want to do? You're in this room. Yeah,
I still have a bonus action, but I guess I can
dash over to Ramin. I'm going to dash and get
up in Ramin's face here. Okay. So you move right
up to him. What are you going to do? He's just
smiling, glowing as you move right up to him.
Well, that's all my actions, so. Okay, yeah.
Wow, so he says that you step forward into the
room, and you and him are face to face. What's
that brown mean? Holy shit. And now we're going
into round four. Five, whatever round. I don't
know anymore. This shit's wild. All right. That
means I'm going to make my move now. It's a really
tough move to make. All right, that's it. Okay,
so one move happens. You don't see it happen.
Time for the next move. The next move is going
to be a little interesting because... In the
room that you're no longer looking into, Zebulon,
the goblin turns around from looking, and I think
he might maybe... Actually, we're going on a
perception check. Does he hear that you went
into the room and are now talking? These curtains,
you didn't really say anything until you went
into the room. These curtains do cancel a lot
of noise. Yeah, you said they were pretty muffled.
Let me see. He does not hear. You move to the
room, go in, curtain drops. He spins around just
as this happens. You do all this so swiftly as
he's distracted, and he's going to get up. and
begin to move. And in that room, he steps on
your trap. Hell yeah. What happens now? It's
a DC, let me double check. I think it's a DC
10 deck save to see if he falls prone or not.
Oh shit. So you just like, the curtain falls.
Maybe as the curtains fall, you hear like this,
like they just like turn and just start moving.
Don't worry about it. I rolled a four. Oh my
god, yes. So in that room here, as he just like
hits it, oh, his feet slide. And yeah, in that
room, kaboom, the goblin falls prone. We'll just
say that for the audience. You guys don't see
this, but the audience looks in that room and
watches this goofy antic happening. Wow. All
right, so he's like at the door almost into the
room with Jules Chester. Jean Franklin and his
ally Pepper, but he falls down before the door.
Can't make any more moves this round. Actually,
no, if I'm going to double move, which I was
going to, then I guess I can try to stand up,
but I can't really do a whole lot. Yeah, because
he falls prone. Half a movement to stand up again.
So I think I can basically make one more step
at half movement, and that's all I can really
do. because I can't really move much more than
that at all because I'm kind of in a really bad
place here. So, yeah, he kind of starts to get
up from the floor really shakily, kind of moves
up to the curtain. He's trying to, like, reach
out. Maybe he peeks through the curtain and just,
like, sees the room and sees what's going on
in that room. He sees Pepper on the floor, but
he's, like, bruised and hurting. He cut his movement
short by a shit ton and really can't do anything
else this round. Love to see a plan come together.
Perfect. And with that, we're at Chester. Chester.
So you said the goblin. Wait, where did the goblin
peek through? He peeked through the northern
door. So not the door that you guys are triangled
around, but the door on the other side of that
room. Yes, yeah. He kind of looks through real
quick on shaky legs. Like into the door that
we're in? Yes, he peeks into the room you're
in. That's what I'm asking. He's right on the
other side of this wall, basically. So if you
want to roll perception, you might see him. Okay.
I'm going to roll perception with Chester. Great.
Room is well lit. I mean, you have a good shot
at seeing this. You know what? Yeah. Yeah. Great.
I'll roll a smidge. And that's 21. Yeah, you
definitely. 21. Definitely catch him. Okay, so.
You clock him. He's. He opens the door and sees
Chester's head swivel over and look right at
him. Okay, so I think I'm going to make you do
something as Chester here. Interesting. Interesting
indeed. I don't know. I kind of want Chester
to run over to Pepper and request that Pepper
helps us get the caterpillar from the people
who weren't so nice. That's going to be a big
request. I know. It's going to require one hell
of a persuasion check. I want it to wait for
Jules. And give you the help action? Huh? He
can help action your persuasion check, which
basically gives you advantage on your persuasion
check if you want to light turn and do it. Oh,
when it's on your turn next. That's very doable.
Yes, let's do that. Okay. You give Chester a
look. Okay, glance over at the Haringan. Chester
smiles. You guys have worked this angle in the
streets, I'm sure, before, turning people over
to your side. I mean, you kind of, you did a
lot of enforcing, I imagine, on Tythos, kind
of keeping your people safe. He was a bad egg.
I imagine Jules LaRoche could turn him good.
He's just a likable fella. So Chester's going
to slide over. And just like, hey, listen, buddy.
Look, I know you're not really against us anymore,
but, like, what if you were for us, huh? Come
on. We got a good side going on here. Jules here,
he takes care of people. He takes care of me.
Jules, what do you say to that, huh? And that's
what he says. He's kind of helping you out. You're
going to get advantage in your next check. Pepper
kind of ears, maybe there's one ear sticking
out from, like, the cloth and one little hole
or something like that, and he kind of turns
to you. Like, I'm interested. And Pepper would
go next. I think he's going to hold his action
and wait and see what you do. He's not going
to do anything yet. So he's holding. What do
you want to do? All right. Jules is going to
lean down and say, hey, Pepper, you know, we
treat everybody with respect in our group here.
With the dignity that they deserve as equals.
And we all reap the benefits together. And once
you're in your family. That's how it goes. That's
how it should be. I mean, believe it or not,
I think I even promised your friend Trace a spot
in our little group too. Are you trying to steal
all my sidekicks? You're making a really convincing
argument. I mean, come on and enjoy your time
for once. The ear sort of like, almost like curls
down a little bit. Almost like it's in thought,
go ahead and roll advantage on a persuasion check.
This is bonkers. 21. It's funny enough, I'm actually
challenging that with somebody else's persuasion
check. The ear slowly curls back up. Oh, what
do you want me to do? You could. We could use
an extra hand here in getting the caterpillar
off these not -so -great people. Well, thinking
about it, Dance is both the caterpillars and
she's pretty mean. So, yeah. There you go. Yeah,
you're right, yeah. You really think she deserves
to win? No, no, she doesn't. Not at all. She
yelled at me. Not at all. Yeah, she yelled at
me when I tripped earlier and knocked her over.
I didn't mean to. No, I know. I got really mad.
I know. Come be part of the light. Yeah. Come
be part of the light where everybody's happy.
The light. Yeah, that's a good name. Yeah. Right?
Yeah. Just as I'm dying, what the fuck is that?
I thought it was a dumb name the whole time.
Thank you. We're on the same page. I just don't
want to say anything because I get in trouble.
No, I thought I was the only one feeling this
way. Wow. My God. This is a match made to be.
Made in heaven. I've never had a best friend
before. Come on. Come on. Let's do this. Sorry.
I just. I can't believe that worked. I didn't
even want to breathe. I didn't even want to breathe.
I can't believe fucking Pepper has essentially
become a cherry delight. Well, I know. That's
the thing. That's the thing. It's like the positive
side. The positive side is it's now like a 5v3.
The negative is for the rest of the campaign,
we pretty much have to take care of Pepper now.
And he starts to try to, and then, I mean, like,
John Franklin still hasn't got him. I'll let
it be a free thing if he wants to release him.
Yes. So Zebulon, is he going to release him?
Yes. Boom. Okay. He lets go. Pepper stands back
up. He's like, get ready. She's been waiting.
She should be coming through any moment. And
he turns to the door to the east that you are
all gathered around. Holy shit. This is working
out. Pretty well. See, the thing is, I have abilities
and skills that make me really fucking good at
this. And you guys went in with your skills that
would never normally apply, like you're... amazing
persuasion and shit, and just started, like,
doing shit so off the walls. Just doing dumb
stuff. I love it. I fucking love it. This is
crazy. Fucking whose turn is it now? That's Jules?
Is this dumb, or is this really big brain shit
that we're doing here? I think it's dumb, and
Dave is entertaining us. This is, no, no, honestly,
this, I love it. I love it. It's so cool. It's
so unorthodox, but, like, this was so stacked
against you without this kind of unorthodox play.
Debulon, that's going to be you. Oh, I get to
go before Ramin. Yes, because you went the last...
Oh, wait. Yes, yes, yes. Ramin is actually...
Okay. He rolled a seven, you rolled a three or
eight. Actually, no. So Jean Franklin, then Zebulon,
and then Ramin. No shit. So, yeah, it's pretty
great. What is... Do I get to decide what Jean's
doing? I kind of forgot that because you rolled
your turn. I rolled my turn ahead, which was
just him kind of moving in there, so I actually
didn't do his turn last round, I realized. Ramin's
turn? Didn't really react to you because I got
excited. I guess it's too late for that now.
I mean, I'll take that boon. There's not a lot
I would have done, to be honest. Yeah, yeah,
this is fine. This is fine. He's chatting. All
right. He's letting things play out. He's played
his part in the plan already, so. Okay, fair.
Yeah, yeah, all right. Jean Franklin. Now Jean
Franklin's going to ready an action. Okay, yes.
To attack whoever comes through the door. And
by attack, I mean mechanically attack. Try to
grab a caterpillar. He whirls back towards the
curtain he's staying just this side of and just
like arms the hands of the ready, gets ready
to strike if someone moves through. I love it.
Hell yeah. Okay. And now it's you, Zebulon. I
mean... We whirl up to the room to the north,
two rooms away from where these hijinks are going
on, a room on their side of the field where Amin
and Zebulon are facing each other now. So, um...
Ramin, this has been... This has been great.
Oh, yes. But cunning action disengage. Okay.
And double move into the next room. Holy shit.
Okay. All right. Which, I mean, Steven knows
is behind Dance Macabre. Actually, no, at this
point, Zebulon knows. Well, Zebulon thinks. There
are two possibilities that Zebulon knows of.
Sure. Either Dance is hiding somewhere in this
room or is in the next room. could be hiding,
could be in plain sight. Yeah, this room's very
well lit where Romina is, so if she's in here,
you have a pretty good chance to see her with
your passive perception. Yeah, so I guess...
That's how it's going to work. As in a dimly
lit room, perception rolls have disadvantage,
and passive perception is at a negative five.
But in this room, you have normal perception
and normal passive perception. So you're looking
around. You can roll for free if you want to
see if she's in here. Yeah, that's exactly what
I was thinking about doing, was just doing a
quick perception check. You're saying this to
him, like, this has been nice, and your head's
peeking around his shoulders, looking around,
just like... This is great, but let me see behind
the couch real quick. Yes. That's not much, it's
11. Okay, same as your passive, I believe. No,
it's not, but it's higher than my passive. Holy
shit, really? Yeah. I'm so sorry. I mean, I rolled
a bad character, so. That's true, true. Zebulon's
terrible. You don't see anything. Okay, great.
So with double movement, I'm going to definitely
get into the next room. Let me count that out.
You just start, wait! As you move away from him,
he turns to kind of like reach out, and he can't
really do much. 30 puts me right here. You just
engage, so he like swipes out at you. dodge right
out of his way, fly into the room, move in here,
roll me another perception check. You're in a
new room. Yeah, I guess so. Oh my god. That's
an eight, so there's not a whole lot going on
there. You walk in this room, dim lit, so you
move through Amin's room. It's this big open
space, a lot of lumber in one corner, some more
covered tables. You move past some barrels, break
through the curtain, down to the south, to the
room next to where Jules and the gang are all
ganged up. You break into the curtain and you
see... Another small stuffy room. You see one
table in one corner. You see a couch in the other.
You see another, like maybe some rolls of rugs
are stacked up in one spot. You're looking around.
You don't see anybody. So he's got some extra
movement. Oh, you do? I've got 30 more feet.
Oh, shit. I mean, if you pick the right spot.
Right. You're basically moving blind. If you
run, you look in this room. Let's say this. You
see couch, table, and yes. There's dim light
for you. It would normally be a totally pitch
black room. Right, right, right. So you move
in this room. You see this couch, table, and
a bunch of rolled up carpets. Let's say you know
in this turn you could run to one of those three
places, and if she's there, maybe you have a
chance. So couch to the south. Table to the northeast
and rolled up rugs to the southwest. Actually,
the other way around. Tables to the northwest.
Never eat soggy wheat. Yeah. But yes, you got
it. I'm going to go to the northwest and hide
behind. Well, I mean, I can't mechanically hide,
but I'm going to go there. Okay. You run to the
table to the northwest, and you're just kind
of, like, sliding up next to it. And you can't
really... So, let's say you reach the table,
but you can't, like, sneak under it yet. You're
just, like, standing at the tablecloth, maybe
hand on the tablecloth, about to make your move.
And with that, Ramin goes this round. And you
just basically see him move into this room. He
can see you where you are. So... So when he walks
in, is the room now lit up? It is lit up. Go
ahead and roll another perception check. Hell
yeah. It's lit up. You don't have a negative
anymore from dim light. You can see fully. Yeah,
never mind. Okay. That's a five. All right. So
Ramin walks into this room. Yeah. Okay. This
concentration, too. Everything is concentration.
Makes it so hard. Stick with my initial plan.
He just steps in the room, moves towards the
center, kind of towards you. I think he'll double
move up to right in front of the door here, but
leaving a space open. And just says, Dunce, now!
And that's the end of this round. Moving into
the, I imagine, final round, potentially, of
this combat. We will see Zebulon, the curtain
beside you, flutters as Dance, Macabre, launches
herself out from the curtain. Now, I'm going
to have to do a couple things here. Holy shit.
So she's going to disengage. She kind of dances
away from you. Just moving. I'm actually going
to have to activate a key point here. I wanted
to save it for something, but I can't. I got
to disengage, and I got to do something else
this round. Yeah, so she's going to only be able
to move 30 feet, but that's okay. We got a plan.
Dashes out of the table. Starts to move to the
south. I think, like, you just see, like, this
brief smile from her as she, like, swirls out
of your way. And, like, the way she's moving,
her feet are so fast on the ground. It's like
this unnatural sort of speed is overtaking her.
And she's, like, weaving this way and that. And
Zebulon tries to reach out, but you disengage
action. Disengage. And I'm taking a step out
of the wind. Dodge action. Oh, my God. So she's
going to step into the next room. And then she
moves up to Ramin. nods to him, breaks through
the curtain. As she breaks through the curtain,
we move from that scene to the other side, and
she steps out next to Jules, Jean Franklin, Pepper,
and Chester just behind them. She steps out into
all of them, still disengaged. But Jean Franklin
gets his reaction, right? Oh. He does get his
reaction. It's not an attack on opportunity.
It's a full -on attack. Oh, hell yeah. So Jean
-Franklin, she steps out, but she's surprised
because she was counting on you guys not seeing
her, not moving. Jean -Franklin goes to attack.
It's going to be disadvantage because I used
the dodge action. Okay. Okay. Oh, he gets a plus
three to hit. Nice. All right, here we go. And
you said I get disadvantage? Yes. Okay. So that's
a 13 for the first roll. So 13 was my low roll.
Okay. All right. Um, so she steps into the room.
She goes to strike out with just a bare hand.
I think, like, as he strikes out, uh, almost
like this magical shield around her just knocks
his hand away. This radiant shield. No way. You
see there's a shield of faith cast on her. Oh,
my gosh. Give me a little bonus. Um, her skirts
flutter as she spins out of the way. reaches
under your hand, Jules, as you might go to strike,
keeping that AO away, and she's going to step
here. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25. Next to this door, to
the north of the room, she has to kind of maneuver
to the upper side of the room in order to snake
down to the bottom, but that's all she can do
this round. Use my key point. Yeah, this ain't
looking... It turned on us real fast. Took a
turn, and it's going to take a little more of
a turn, too, because Trace goes next. Half movement
to get out of the room. He's able to step out
now that he's aware of those things. He steps
through the curtain into the light. So it's gonna
be 10 feet of movement here. Oh, and now things
get very tricky for me. You know what I'm gonna
do? I'm gonna step right here, and I'm gonna
try to shove Jules away. Huh. Try to open up
some space here, maybe. Okay. Maybe push you
down, keep your movement low so you can't do
as much. Okay. All right, so I'm gonna roll athletics
versus your athletics or acrobatics, your choice.
I don't want to say. I didn't roll great. Eight.
Hmm. I also rolled an eight. Oh, my goodness.
I think that goes, I think it's like I said,
a DC. I think if you roll it, you break it. I'm
pretty sure that's the rule. Because, like, my
thing is the DC you need to hit, right? So I'm
pretty sure the ties go to you by rules. Because
I'm setting a DC with my roll, and you're breaking
it with your roll. Yeah, you hit the DC. Hitting
DC means you break it. So he goes in and just
barely, he just walks in, and I'm like, dads,
go! I'll hold them off! And he runs in, and he
just pushes you. But you just kind of weave to
the side, and he kind of goes and strikes out
at the air, and that's it. But now there's another
figure between you and her kind of complicating
things. I should say dances. She sort of swirls
away from you, kind of looks over at you, Jules,
her eyes catching right onto you. And there's
something that wasn't there earlier in this tournament.
There's like a bit of respect to her eyes now
after that last challenge, after being beaten
by you once, after you bowed to her during the
Pepper Challenge. She says, Rune told me about
you. You are from Tytos, yes? Yeah, that's right.
You lost people? Lots of people. I lost someone
there too. Mateo, my brother meant everything
to me, and I will not lose to you, Jos de Roche.
I will become a luminary, and I will find the
storm eye and bring him to justice. That is my
oath, never to fade or falter. Undying justice.
Justice undying. Stop it. It's still not great.
Just flavor. chat there she's she's like dancing
away and yelling this all you and that's gonna
be uh is she moving is she where's she she doesn't
move she doesn't move she's just saying that
just saying that that's it's passing by and says
as a goblin runs in the room uh tries to push
at you you dodge it as you're like hearing this
and then chester gets to make his move to respond
to that action what's he gonna do can he can
i move him right there Oh, yeah, sure. Perfect.
So I'm going to nestle him in behind me. He's
staying defensive. Okay, yeah. You know what?
Hold on. He passes behind you. I'm going to move
him right here, not directly in front of the
curtain. Okay. Okay. Oh, man. I love it. He's
like setting himself either as bait. So he's
basically like, so if she wants to go for him
now, she has to take a step backwards, deeper
into the room, rather than trying to break for
safety. It's real awkward. I mean, just saying
it just made it awkward. That's going to be you,
Jules. Okay. Dance is wide open right now. She's
got a line to the door. So I think Jules is going
to turn to Trace. And he's going to look him
right in the eye. Not angrily. He glares back.
He hates you. Just peacefully. You remember what
we told you in the courtyard? I remember what
you did in the courtyard. Tie me up, push me
down, get me out of my room. Fuck Rune. Come
with us. Look around. Is it going to work the
sixth time? We promised you. Oh, my God. We told
you in that courtyard. That's what we're all
in here for. We're all on board. Holy shit. Holy
shit. We're only missing you. He's like, maybe
he's using a spark sling in there, but he's still
glaring. I'll let you roll with disadvantage
because. This guy fucking hates you. I don't
know why he's the one that attacked us. Me especially.
Yeah, well, you guys have embarrassed him so
many times now. Like, he is just, his whole experience
in this entire adventure has been embarrassment
after embarrassment after embarrassment at your
hands. Like, you have made, I mean, like, honestly,
you were on his shit list 17 times. You're the
most hated people in this goblin's existence.
I think we're going to hit a dead end with the
persuasion game. His family was killed by giants,
and he hates you more. I can at least try, though.
You can try. You can try. Disadvantage. Let's
see what you got. And you say this in dance.
It's like, Therese, don't. She's, like, watching
you. She's glaring at you, too. It's, like, this
intense moment. Now, I just want to be clear,
right? This is, like, not an action, correct?
Yeah, talking's a free action. All out. All out.
Okay. It's going to be a high one. Disadvantage.
He just continues to glare. Never, never. You,
you make Trace look like a fool. And he's just
like raging towards you, hands up and ready.
He's in this to win. He's in this more importantly
to make sure you don't. I'm going to turn away
from Trace. and turn my gaze to dance. And say,
come on, dance. Dance. Dance. Work with us. Hey,
I had to try. We told him that we could make
it famous. That certainly was the strategy. I
had to try. I had to try. It worked once. Why
fucking not? This is Bard 101, you know? This
is Bard 101. There you go. What about all my
charisma? Oh, my God, you're smooth -talking.
Is dance turned on by this? We can ride off into
the moonlight with four caterpillars. Roll for
pheromones? All right, so, yeah, I'm going to
turn to dance then and say, I'm so sorry, and
I know you know a struggle, so I know you understand
why I got to do this. And I'm going to cast Tasha's
hideous laughter. Oh, my God. Oh, no. Oh, that's
so mean. Wow. I forgot you had that. I forgot,
too. You even told me about it. Holy hell. So,
to refresh, a creature of your choice with a
range perceives everything as hilariously funny
and falls into fits of laughter if the spell
affects it. The target must succeed on a wisdom
saving throw or fall prone, becoming incapacitated
and unable to stand up for the duration. What
is the DC for this check? What's your spell save
DC? I think you should roll first, and then I'll
tell you. I want to tell you because I'm going
to roll it in front of the table, and I'm going
to tell you what I got going on. This is a big
fucking roll. 13. 13. Interesting. I have a plus
2 to this save. I need to roll an 11 or higher.
Folks, he's doing this in the middle of the table.
I'll do it in your thing. Let's use the new guy.
Ready? Here we go. Oh, my God. What is it? What
is it? I can't see it. It's in the light. It's
a six. No! No! It's a six. So, you say this to
her, and she kind of half smiles at you. You,
like, whisper this command, and you, like, reach
out your hand, and she half smiles and says,
You will never stop Justice Undi - Justice Undi
- Just - And just falls on her back, laughing
on the floor. I totally forgot that you had that
one. Oh my gosh. You and I were even like, we
were texting about it. Amazing. And like three
times you were like, yeah, but I could use this.
Yeah, but I could use this. And wow. I didn't
think it would come out at a moment like that.
That was the moment. That was the moment. The
funniest thing here is I actually still, for
this round, I have the dodge action active. So
she's prone. So now you basically don't have
disadvantage, but you have a normal advantage
on a normal attack on her. And as dance kind
of goes to the ground, I'm just going to turn
around and yell out, Chester, Jaune, go now!
Oh, shit. And point them through the door. Okay.
All right. Actually, one thing I want to add,
I just looked it up. Tasha also incapacitates
me, which means dodge action no longer works
on her. It specifies in our dodge action if you're
incapacitated, it cancels it, which means you
have advantage against her now. Nice. I thought
that was a little, you were like, oh yeah, she
can dodge stuff. I was looking at trying to find
the rules and yeah, that's what it says. I think
that makes a lot of sense. And then after I yell
for them to go through the door. They're moving
to the eastern door, right into the room Zebulon
is hiding in where Amin is waiting. The door's
dance ran out of. As they do that, I turn to
Pepper and I say, you ready? Oh my God, I forgot
about Pepper. That's right. Hell yeah. Okay.
That's so good. Okay. And Pepper was honestly
kind of waiting in the wings, so I'll let Pepper
move now. So you say that. Chester and John,
they're going to move. It's going to be Pepper
first, actually. So Chester and John are going
to get ready to move. Pepper's going to go first.
And let's see. Pepper is going to nod and just
run up to dance. Say, oh, sorry, sorry, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. I'm on their side now. And just reaches
out and tries to grab a caterpillar. Oh, my God.
This is big. This is big. It is huge. Really
low. Cracked. He bounces off the shield. And
that shield of faith is still up around her.
He goes, and it bounces off. Well, wait. It's
still a spell that's active. Is it? Yes, because
that would be active from... Is it concentration?
Still within range. It's concentration, but not
for her. Ramin cast it. Ramin cast it, and she's
still within range. So, yes, she has a shield.
So he bounces off the shield. And, oh, there's
a thing. I can't do it. And that's Pepper's turn.
That's going to be John Franklin. All right.
John Franklin's going to run through the door.
So I'll put him right in there. Then you can
choose where he wants to go from there. So he
opens a curtain and immediately faces Ramin.
Am I going to make an attack on him or is he
disengaging? What's the plan here? You can make
your movement and then choose. Like, it's like
you can move and then attack. You can move and
then choose disengage. I mean, that seems reasonable.
Yeah, that feels like the move. I mean, if he
can spend his disengage action and move past
him, that's the move. All right, yeah, so he
slides into the room, slides under the curtains,
he sees him, and, like, this warrior training
takes over, and he just kind of, like, stops
short and pushes himself back to the side, very
swiftly dodging around him. And Ramin just reaches
out, can't really quite get him, jump, and bolts
the other side of the room. He makes it to the
other curtain. Zebulon, you're watching all this
from the table. You see your allies are making
their move. What can you do to help? Actually,
it's your turn. Zebulon's turn? Yes. Zebulon's
going to... Ramin's turning around. He can go
after him. He's going to run at Ramin and try
to grapple him. Oh, shit, yes! No way. Yeah,
he's going to latch onto Ramin. Okay. I can do
acrobatics or athletics against your athletics.
Let's see what happens. Wait, my athletics against
your athletics? Is that what you said? Yes. In
this case, you're going to go against my acrobatics,
which is not huge. This guy is not a physical
bro. Come on. Okay. I'm using my D6. Using that
D6. That's just an eight on the die. I've got
a plus zero to athletics. Okay. Okay. It's got
to be decent. It's got to be decent. That's a
six. That's a six. What is that? Which makes
that a 12? No, it's eight on the die. That's
a plus zero. So a 14. 14. Oh, my God. I rolled
a 13. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Oh, my
God. Holy shit. He just fucking grappled Rami.
11 plus 2. He just fucking grappled Rami. You
go in, and, like, as you're going in, I think
Rami's almost slipping away, and you just kind
of, like, think about Jules. You think about,
this is the plan. You have to succeed here and
now. You think about the fucking songs, Ebilon,
the fucking song, and you think about that moment
when those people were roaring applause towards
Jules, and you were there. You were in the moment.
You were feeling that applause, and you reach
out, and you grab him. Rami, get over here. Holy
shit. And he just, he can't move. Moving figures
to zero. He cannot chase after your ally. Hell
yeah. He is grappled. What a hero. Hold on. Speaking
of heroes, Bardic Inspiration. That was the hero
here today. That was. That was the hero. Fucking
high five. Double fives. Fuck. And it helped.
And we remembered to use it. Well, I had the
die. You did. I had the little orange die. That
is the end of the round. We're going into what
I believe to be the last round for sure in this
combat. Dance is up first. She's got to save.
That's right. She has to save. Oh, my God. I
was going to go for it. I was going to go for
it. Okay. Oh, it's rough. I think it's my action
to, like, do this, isn't it? That's only going
to be a... Ten. Nope. She's still laughing. Oh,
my God. Just this one time. Why? Who thought
of that? So stupid. So stupid. Why did they do
it? She's laughing. Laughing. Tears running down
her mask onto the floor. And maybe those tears
aren't just tears of laughter as she realizes
that she has lost. She has lost, very likely,
because now it's going to be Trace. Trace is
the only one here who has a chance to make a
difference. So he's going to do the only thing
he can do. He's going to jump up to Chester and
try to grab his Caterpillar. All right, Chester's
the one that has the higher AC. Chester has a
14. 12 pluses, two decks. I've got to beat that.
I'm going to really quickly make sure I get this
super right. I do have the attacker trait, which
makes me pretty good at this. Here we go. That
is exactly a 14. Oh, my God. It's 8 plus 6 because
of the attacker trait. He reaches out, and Chester,
as he turns to move away, just barely, he grabs
the caterpillar and just, gotcha! And he pull
yanks it off of him, and... You have lost one
potential point, but Dance is on the ground laughing,
and you still have Jean Franklin charging unchallenged
towards their exit. Okay. Now we're moving on
to Chester. Chester's just lost his caterpillar.
Well, hey, what happens when a man has nothing
left to lose, Jules? Chester is going to go in
to Dance. Okay. And try to take hers. Chester
moves around you. We can still win this. Still
within the range of the goblin. He goes after
dance. Go ahead and roll. You know what? Let
me roll one thing before you do this. I just
got grappled. I think it's only fair that I roll
concentration check. I have to roll above a 10.
Oh, for the shield. For the shield. Let's see
what happens here. Well, right. I think that's...
On the table is a con save. I get a plus two.
I have to roll an eight or higher. Five. Oh my
god. The shield goes down. Holy shit. No, no,
no, no. So that lowers the check by two, right?
This works out perfectly because I was going
to keep sending Chester through that door, but
now I have an extra guy to help me in this room.
As he's moving in to go out the door, you see
the shield drops as we're meeting in the other
room. He loses concentration for a second. That's
incredible. No, he turns back to the door, realizing
what just happened, realizing what he just did.
And Chester goes for that attack. Go ahead. Oh,
man. Wait, you get to decide before. Oh, you
also get advantage. Oh, advantage. Advantage.
I'll tell you right now, what you need to beat
is. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't tell
him because he has bardic inspiration. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Good thing. Not a good idea. Thank
you. Thank you. So your higher roll was a 10.
What's his bonus to attack with a dagger, not
with a bow? With a dagger is, I think it's. Plus
two, isn't it? No, it's... Plus four, I believe.
Provision C plus. It's plus four. Plus four.
You're sitting at a 14. I'm going to use my Bardic
Inspiration. Yeah, because I think even if you
get a one, I think... I mean, like, I don't know
what her AC is, but... Yep. I mean, we're going
super meta here, but... Yep. She's moving around
very quickly, even on the floor. She's trying
to, like, dodge. She's laughing, but she's trying
to wiggle out of the way. That's an 18. 18 gets
her. And I'm going to tell you right now, the
14 would not have. Oh, my God. Yes. Yeah. He
remembers the blue light. He remembers you, Jules.
He reaches down, sees that you set everything
up for him, and he grabs a caterpillar off. Silk
rips. It's one -one at this point in time. One
on her. One on Jean Franklin. Holy shit. That's
you, Jules. Actually, no, it's Pepper. Pepper's
going to do another one. Let me do Pepper. Pepper
attack. He's going to try. Advantage. She's...
Turns over as Chester grabs the first one. And
she's, no, no, Mateo. And then Pepper reaches
down and yanks the one off her other shoulder.
Oh, my God. What? Reaches down and grabs it.
Just says, sorry. Dude, we just won this freaking
game. And she's just lying there. I mean, our
characters don't know yet, but we just won this
fucking game. I mean. Her laughter is breaking
into sobs as she lies on the ground. Just sounds
of frustration that this has turned so hard against
her. Pepper's holding the cup. What do I do?
And he just puts it down. Doesn't John have to
make it out, though? He has to make it out. It's
looking bad, though. But Zeb's got Ramin grappled.
He's free for like two rooms at least right now.
I got to say, this is really good timing because
my laptop just died and my phone's at like 4
% and I'm trying to take videos for reels and
shit like that. Let's run through one more round
of this because John Franklin's basically one
round away from home for Ray if he gets through
this next one. He's going to double move and
be there, right? I mean, as long as nobody else
has any fucking ball bearings. Let's see if I
can do anything about this. We're going to reach
the end of this round and I think that's it.
Jules, that's you. What do you want to do? Dude,
it happens every time. I'm sorry. It happens
every time. I'm excited. I think Jules is going
to run over to the door, run over to the curtain,
and just kind of... The eastern side where Ramin
is? Yes. Okay. And just kind of peek in to see
what's going on. You turn a few steps over. You
see that this is, you see it's over here. And
you open the curtain. You see Zebulon is grabbing
Ramin. You realize why the shield dropped now.
Zebulon, you never see him. He left in the beginning.
You haven't seen him since. And you realize he
was secretly the hero behind the scenes too.
Giving you that fucking extra AC. He's just been
off causing mayhem. I'm just going to poke my
head through. No fucking way, Zeb. Hey, hey.
We got this. We got this. Julius, I got him.
Julius, I got him. Hold it. Just keep holding
it. You see a turtle shell disappearing behind
a curtain as John Franklin's moving into the
room beyond, going to the north, getting the
fuck out of here. Fuck, that's John Franklin's
turn. What do you want to do? You double moving?
Yeah, John Franklin's going to double move. Okay,
here's what's happening. We're going to end the
combat right there because it's over. It's over.
He's out of their range. No one can do anything
about him. John Franklin is gone. One point versus
zero points. You could just sort of... So basically,
you just have this moment. Eventually, the laughter
dies out, and she just kind of, like, quiets.
Dude, that was, like, every moment, there were,
like, ten little vignettes where every one of
them was clutch. Like, Zebulon making the stealth
roll. to distract Trace and then making another
stealth roll to drop the ball bearings. Otherwise,
Trace would have been in the room at that point.
David, forgetting Ramin's turn. No, I wouldn't
have done much with him anyway. I know, I'm just...
Yeah, yeah, no, it's true. But they were like,
and both of the Bardic inspirations tipped the
battle. If either one of them failed, it would
have been a total blowout. Even if we just rolled
a little bit lower, you needed a four. If you
rolled a three on that, that would have been
it. Yeah, what was that? You rolled a 14, I think,
and I think you needed a 13 to pass. No, you
rolled an 18, right? Because it was a 14, you
would have had. I rolled a 14. Yes, it was a
14. You had to hit a 15. Okay, so if you didn't
use the bardic inspiration. I just realized something
hilarious, though, and I already said it's over,
so I'm going to go along with it because I think
it's funny. John Franklin breaks through the
curtain and immediately just, ah, ah, ah, as
he's falling and rolling because he's in pure
darkness now. Oh, my God. He's like, rolling
across the floor. He can't see shit. Wait, hold
on. Where's the, did they, did they? take their
lantern? I think when he breaks through the last
room, he can see into that room. The room before
the lantern room. Yeah, yeah. It would have slowed
him down, but even with him slowed down, I don't
think it matters. They're not going to catch
up to him. He can see barely in front of him
as he goes through, and he just breaks through
that last room and sees the ladder up. He just
smiles and runs. and starts to climb. And that's
all we see. We see him just disappearing up the
trap door. Open, open, open. You hear like a,
like some cheering. Now, we cut back to you guys.
You drop Ramin. I imagine you let him go. It's
over. And he just kind of like, dusts off, looks
at you. I think Jules, the curtain's open. He
looks in the next room and sees Dance on the
ground, just like quietly just lying there. She
has like an arm covering her eyes. And she's
just staring silently into her arms, looking
into the sky and not saying anything, not moving.
Trace is just like furious, kicking and whacking
at a barrel. God damn it, damn it, damn it, damn
it. And Armin just turns to you, Zebulon, and
says, well, it seems the Sunweaver has chosen
you this day, my friend. You are worthy. Zebulon
is definitely still grappling him. He's saying
this while being held tight. Like Ramin walks
into the other room dragging Zebulon. Dance eventually
just kind of like, you hear sand scrape as she
stands up. Gets to her feet. Just like one quick
moment. Just slides a bunch of sand and dirt
off of her dress. And without even looking you
in the eye, she just moves away. walks alone
through the door. I think as she passes me, I'm
just going to say, I'm sorry. She doesn't even
look. She's just, all you see is the curtain
closing behind her. Ramin kind of smiles towards
you both and says, You have earned victory this
day. It has been an honor. The light shall always
be victorious. Yes? And Zebulon breaks the grapple
and starts to, like, jump up and down and, like,
goes over to, like, double high five. Jules!
Jules, we won! And he's got both hands up for
a double high five. Chester! What's up, Chester?
Yeah, we did it! Oh, man. Yeah! I was worried
when I lost my caterpillar, but, yeah, you guys.
Oh, my gosh. Oh, and Ramin. And someone's in
the corner watching you guys, like, high five
and being all happy and stuff, and he's just
kind of like, hmm. Well, yeah, so it was. Quite
impressive, I say. Kind of like looks away. He
wants no part of this. What are you doing here?
I thought you were up the ladder. Oh, wait, I
forgot. Straight down from the record. He's,
oh yeah, I have a map in front of me. He's gone.
Whoops. Ramin, you guys really, and he kind of
is at a loss for words and he just holds his
hand out to shake. Hermione reaches out and takes
your hand and you feel this light enter your
body, this warmth from his hands. It kind of
lights up. And he just says, you will make a
fine luminary, Zebulon Black. Thanks. That actually
means a lot to hear you say it. I'm sure that,
I mean, we're not going to see the last of you.
I mean, you guys are going to be luminaries too.
When the Sunweaver closes one door, he opens
another. We shall find that next door, and we
shall see you on the other side. And it's going
to be a great, like one of those double sliding
doors. You guys are going to go through a great
door. Sure. He walks away. Not this one. Not
this door. This is our door. Trace just swearing
and gets up in another movie. He grabs Pepper
and he's like, oh yeah, I gotta go that way.
And he walks with them. It's really awkward.
I'm okay with that too. I am absolutely okay
with that. I'll see you afterwards. I'll find
you guys. Best friends. What does that mean?
No thanks. Don't worry about it, Zeb. I got some
explaining to do. Huh. Well, I mean, it's only
fair. I've had some explaining to do myself before.
So with your light, you guys all move together
through the rest of the way following John Franklin.
You reach the, go through like three or four
rooms. You reach the other side. You climb up
the ladder and you ready yourselves for what's
on the other side. You push open the trap door
and immediately just hear. As you step through
and as your team is fully in focus and as you
see the enemy team has come out on the other
side of the room about 100 feet away. This room
is crowded full of people in the very center
of it. You see Madam Culp and you see the Rune
brothers. And Viarune looks at you two and just
says, or looks at you four. John Franklin's just
standing there waiting for you and just says,
And the winner of the Market Games is The Light!
And everyone just goes wild. Zebulon's got both
hands in the air. Yes, yes, yes. He is pumped.
I want to go around basically here. This crowd's
going wild. We're just going to take turns just
yelling out wild things. Just have fun with me
every second. So, like, you're the crowd now.
You're the crowd. Just like, yeah, Zebulon, Zebulon,
Churros, Churros. Yeah, those guys rock. Oh,
my God, they crushed. Oh, the light. Oh, that
Jules guy's really cute. Oh, wow. Wow. Hi, Jude.
Dottos. I don't know. Not that one. Did I turn
the oven off before we came here? I was really
rooting for the other guys, but these guys are
pretty cool, too. Fire. Good. What? Nothing good.
No, this is a conversation with some people in
the stands right now. Okay, okay. This will just
be a conversation. No, I thought you said something.
No, I didn't say anything. Don't worry about
it. Hot dogs! What's up, dogs? I'm kind of a
big Chester fan. Keep going, keep going. Sittings.
Trust me. Kablooey. Fire! Fire! These guys are
going to be famous. I can tell. These guys, they're
going to be famous. I went to school with that
kid. There's a fire. There's a fire. Fire. Fire.
And everyone starts to go quiet as people in
the bathroom. Fire. Fire. Fire. Oh, my God. Get
out. Get out. There's a fire. There's a fire.
The crowd begins to. You hear it now. There's
a crowd. You hear the crackling inferno. You
smell the smoke. It's beginning to fill the tent.
You hear it. Everyone starts to funnel out the
one door. You push. Out in a stream of people
and you see, just beyond the golden tents, a
raging inferno enveloping a part of the market
and we'll call it there! Jeremy, how well do
you know your neighbors? Because we are in an
apartment building. And David just screamed fire.
Oh, no. Oh, shit. Whoops. Oh, no. Is that a problem?
I didn't realize that.