Hello, friends. I just want to reiterate that
we are in the horror arc now, and there are going
to be some scary moments, and there might be
some adult themes that aren't appropriate for
everybody. So be warned, and enjoy. Guys, we
are running our first Fantasy Pants giveaway.
We're giving you the chance to win a full -body
custom D &D character portrait. of your D &D
character done by a real portrait artist, and
it's really simple to enter. All you have to
do is tag Fantasy Pants anywhere on social media.
I don't care if it's an Instagram story, an Instagram
reel, a Facebook post, Facebook, do they have
stories? I don't know. We're also new to TikTok,
so all you have to do on TikTok is follow us
there. You don't have to like or tag anything.
Tag us on Instagram or Facebook. Follow us on
TikTok. That's it. And you'll be entered for
a chance to win. Hello, friends. Just wanted
to add on to what Stephen was saying about the
contest. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday,
April 26th. So you have until then to tag us
on Instagram, Facebook, share us all there, and
follow us on TikTok. Thank you so, so much. And
without further ado, here is episode 29. I promise.
For reals. No more intros. An attack by a dead
hand. Brought back to life by the rattles' cursed
land. On cradle -laced shore, their pursuit did
reach end. As they soon came upon an unfamiliar
friend. Lady Dre's mask broken, and Oren's as
well. Coliseum revealed, and his tale he did
tell. Investigations have shown. And then crawl
from the lake into a monster they follow with
their lives all at stake. And they march. Oh,
they march. I got to give you props for that,
man. I saw you writing that at the bar like 30
minutes ago. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was crazy.
That was a rush. Those are awesome. I really
like how they come out. Yeah. Cool. I'm glad.
I'm glad. Fucking solid. Because I don't spend
that much time on them, honestly. I'm so conscious,
I just kind of rush through them. Man, oh man,
here we are. Really getting the horror in this
horror arc. Really hitting that feel. It's getting
scary. Every time we start to play, I get genuinely
uneasy feelings. That's good. That's good, because
tonight, we're going to crank the scary up just
a little bit of a notch. Before we get to that,
gentlemen. Yes. You guys have something you want
to talk to me about. What was that? What was
that all about? Oh, I'll let Stephen take this
one. Oh, all right. Well, it's going to take
me... He's got the goods. It's going to take
me a second to pull up the Instagram poll. Quick,
Jeremy, sing. Fill the time. Deck the hall. Explain
for our listeners what you're showing David here.
Okay, so they are showing me a poll taken of
you, the pants people, on Instagram, and you
have... over when we decided that Letterkenny
is better than Friends, to which I say, nay,
pants people, nay. Now, one of these is a cultural
landmark, and one of these will be forgotten
in two years, left to the dust of time, and that
one is Letterkenny. That went different than
I expected it to go. I'll admit that culturally,
Friends is more significant than Letterkenny.
All right, cool. That's all I have to say. So,
moving on. Let's get started. But so is movies
like The Room. I haven't seen that yet. Don't
diss The Room. It doesn't make it good. You can
be culturally significant and less good. Okay,
but while The Room is not good, it is fantastic.
Right. So can't Friends be fantastic? Now, I
have a lot of fun when I watch The Room, and
I have some fun when I'm watching Friends. Friend
of the show, Hungry Familiar. from Instagram
who made a map of the ugly coyote for us. She
reached out to me when she saw the poll mentioning
Letterkenny. Turns out her, I don't know if it's
her sister or her cousin, but somebody in her
family worked on the first two seasons of Letterkenny
in like the art department or something like
that. in the the background you know because
all the like flyers and poster boards and stuff
like that that all has to get made by the art
department so there was a lost cat poster up
a couple times in the show and the cat that was
featured on the last cat poster was her cat the
very hungry familiar that's so cool that is wild
so did they find the cat did they find the cat
uh You'll have to watch to find out. Damn it!
Damn it! So we have like, what is it, like three
degrees or four degrees from Letter County. David.
That cat is famous. David, you have no legitimate
excuse anymore. This case is closed. Well, now
I know the plot of the show. I have to watch
it. This case is closed. Our community demands
it. The plot of the show is that a cat is missing.
I will... I will see that through. If they don't
explain the missing cat in the runtime of this
show, I will find you, Stephen. I'll find you.
Cool. All right. Great. I'll find you and I'll
kill your character. I'll see you at work tomorrow
morning. Speaking of reaching out, so actually
I've mentioned before Paul Metzger. now friend
of the show, Paul Metzger, who has a shop on
DMs Guild, and he makes a lot of pretty cool
stuff. He's the father of the Chester, John Franklin,
and Pepper stat blocks in his Sidekicks Essentials
PDF that I bought. And I reached out and was
like, hey man, thanked him for the PDF, told
him that we've been using it, and that it's really
helping to showcase how awesome sidekicks can
be when utilized well in a game like this. He's
the coolest guy. He actually sent me a bunch
of other work of his for free. Credit it. And
just give me a check to let me look at it. Nice.
It's awesome stuff. Sweet. We have some really
expanded lists for sidekick stat blocks. And
I think it's kind of become a staple of our little
show here. And I'm really excited to see more
of these stat blocks, more of these characters
being built. Because we've seen how far they've
come. These little sheets with numbers with these
characters like Chester, John Franklin, and the
like. It's amazing. Wow. Yeah. Thank you, Paul.
Thank you, Paul. That's awesome. Super cool.
D &D community is the greatest community out
there. It's so cool. Just really, really cool
folks all around. Well, now I can't wait until
one of our sidekicks dies so we can use all this
new stuff. I can make that happen. I have it
on good authority that everyone hates Chester,
so we'll start with him. Okay. Whoa. Whoa. Sean
Franklin, everyone loves that guy. Massively
popular. Hell yes. So, anything else, gentlemen?
I think we covered everything. I'm ready to play.
Yeah. I'm very, very excited for this night.
I'm going to try out something a little bit new,
a little exciting, a little interesting, and
maybe even a little dangerous. Bring it on. Well,
before we can get to that, let's cut back to
your journey to the rattle. There it is. Some
time has passed. since you've left the shores
of Cradolace Lake behind, heading north. Now
you are moving off -road here, so you've cut
through this farmland, what was once Cradolace
Farm, reached the heavy wood on the side, and
as you were preparing to move into that wood,
unfortunately, the wagon would not be able to
carry you any farther. So that was unfortunately
left behind. Proclaiming reward, bid farewell
to it, vowed to return, but there is something
here to see through, and so Ward was willing
to make that sacrifice for now. Now we stand
where morning is finally coming upon this dark
night. Slowly, you see, the sky begins to burn,
the sun rising. You can't quite make it out.
Amongst the trees, you can see it slowly creeping
into the mist -filled skies above you. The dark
and scary night has ended. You see, at this point,
Orin, Kully, the man you're here for, is riding
upon the only remaining horse. Exhausted. Well,
you guys took your long rest and had a nice,
pleasant wagon journey through the ribbon to
reach the rattle this prior day. Koli did not.
He bolted here. And did a short reprieve at Cradolace
Lake as he waited for you. When you came upon
him. But he is exhausted. And so Ward swiftly,
after a lot of convincing, finally got Koli to
take them out. And he is leading you up a man
on a mission. Eyes blazing. And you guys move.
Trees part. and you see an open field ahead of
you, much like the one you've left behind. But
there is no massive pool resting quietly in the
middle of this one. Instead, you see somewhere
at the top of a hill, in the middle of this land,
a small stone home. Thick black smoke rising
from a chimney, a line against that burning sky.
You see, off to the sides in this field, there
are some dilapidated barns. Torn down with age.
Broken wood. The remains of pens. Fences just
destroyed by age. This was once a farm, but seems
to no longer carry that... Shit, what's a word?
Give me a word. Moniker? Is that the word? I
don't know. Fine. Carry that moniker. Well, no,
I don't know if that's the... No, that sounds
cool. We're doing that. That's what we're doing.
As you move on to here, Reclaimer Ward speaks
up. All right, we made it. That's Uncle Polder's
farm. Well, once a farm. Long ago, it got torn
down a while back. Family moved to the ribbon,
to promise. It was hard making a work out here
in the rattle. For some time, no one did it.
Only just now, these farm packs have started
moving back out here, setting up. But... Uncle
Porter here, he doesn't run a farm anymore. He
just lives out here in this old home. Good fella.
Really knows a rattle. We make it to him, might
get some information. Well, uh, yeah. We can,
uh... Let's go visit your uncle. Heh. Not really
my uncle. Might call him everyone's uncle. He
just likes the name. Now, as you've traveled,
you've seen some... signs of that sort of activity
you saw before, the sort of burrowed holes into
the ground. One, or many, many small ones that
occasionally pop up again, like little gopher
holes, and then a short while later, after you
see some tracks, fingers in the muck disappearing
once again. And every once in a while, in the
middle of all these, you see another one of these
huge holes. Part of the reason the wagon could
not carry you is the ground has become rough
and uneven where this trail has been dug. Cutting
straight north. You see those tracks again. Something
moving. Something with many fingers digging into
the mud. Something not moving naturally. Writhing.
Shambling. And it's big. I told you human size
before, but... No. As time goes on, as you see
more of these holes, you're thinking... Bigger
than a human. Size of a cow, perhaps. A bull.
How many of these holes are we seeing? Only one
that size, and it seems to be basically just
every once in a while it seems to have crawled
up, scrambled across the surface for a short
while, and then dug again. And there are smaller
ones that tunnel up and down along with it? Yes,
along the side. There's many, many smaller holes
as well. How many's many? How about you give
me a survival check? Oh. Um, well, I didn't,
I can't count holes, apparently. Are we doing
survival checks all around? Sure, anyone can.
Actually, I'll roll for Orin as well. Nope. I
got a 16. 16, okay, yeah. Orin's too driven.
He can't even look with his two on the die. But
what you're looking around as you're seeing this,
you're clocking maybe somewhere between 20, 25
holes, other paths. Oh, wow. Okay. Oh. Gotcha.
Yeah. Some of them branch off, though, actually.
As you're going in, you see a few of these things
almost start to skirt away from the main. Actually,
give me one more thing, too. With that 16, you
get the impression that whatever this is, it's
not digging very fast. It's been a slow journey
across this land. Are any of these branching
off in the direction of... Uncle's, what's his
name? Uncle what? Uncle Polder. Uncle Polder.
The entire set is moving in that direction. Oh,
okay. Uncle Polder's place is due straight north,
basically, of Cradle Lace Lake. And somewhere
shortly north of that is the farm pact on which
Kiana apparently works. So, I don't know if we're
necessarily visiting. Uncle Polder, or maybe,
hopefully, saving him. That's a good point. Let's
go see, maybe he saw something. He doesn't even
look at you. His eyes constantly facing forward.
Not looking at the house. Not looking at the
road. Looking at something he can't see far beyond
it. Staring into the dark. You guys step onto
the great open farm. Or once a farm. Now dead.
Inactive for many years, it seems. And you begin
to cross. As we're walking towards this cabin.
I'm sure the party is somewhat stretched out.
Zebulon wants to find a quiet moment with Jaune
and just ask him, Jaune, I want you to keep Cully
close. Don't let him out of your sight. I don't
know if he's going to run off again. Just keep
an eye on him for me. Could you do that? I mean,
I shouldn't inform you. He is on a horse. I can't
chase a horse. Yeah, well, I mean, sort of like
if he runs off with the horse, somebody will
be there to see him run off with the horse, and
you can sound the alarm. You could put me on
a horse. It really doesn't feel like it's my
say who gets to ride the horse. I'm just saying
I'm, well... How you born? No, no, it's fine.
It's fine. I can walk. In the mud. My fine new
boots. Fine. Very well. Do you want me to tie
the laces tighter, or? No! Don't touch them.
You'll mar them. Yeah, he nods, and you see he
shambles a little closer to the horse. It's kind
of at its side. But he's also just like, he's
been very quiet, very angry. It's a long... Kind
of gross journey through rough ground. He's not
in his most highest total spirits this evening.
Or morning, I should say. You guys begin to move.
You're crossing this farmland, that stone building
ahead getting a little closer. A little closer.
I want everyone to roll a perception check. Oh.
I got a seven for Jules. 13 for Zeb, just a 7
for Jean. Let me do a quick roll for the NPCs.
And that's a 21 for Chester. Oh, hell yeah. Chester,
my man. Hell yeah. He's coming in clutch on those
the last two episodes. Perceptive little bugger.
Mm -hmm. You guys are moving. And then you see
both Chester and Proclaimer Ward stop in the
tracks. They start looking around. They glance
at each other, glance towards the ground. Hey,
guys, you feel that? The ground's shaking. The
ground's shaking. What? Oh, no. And Ward's eyes
go wide. Coley's horse stops as he pulls in the
reins, white knuckles, and looks at Ward, who
looks at him. And in unison, they just say, or
whisper a word, just sheer terror. Boulay. It's
Boulay. Boulay. We gotta run. Run. Now. Run.
What's Boulay? What's a Boulay? And as you say
that, 60 feet behind you, something massive erupts
from the ground. You see this large, shelled
reptile, this massive, massive maw opening. These
eyes, tiny and yellow, and this huge head glaring
at you. It's got these gigantic claws made for
burrowing, and you see these claws for it as
it rips out of the ground and... As its feet
touch down, you begin to shake. The ground shakes.
And without a moment's notice, this thing begins
to charge. All right. And here's how this is
going to go. We are running, essentially, a chase
sequence. I've got some new mechanics for this.
Oh, my God. Now, given the way Cully and Oren
reacted to this, Cully and Ward and Oren and
Lady Dre, reacted to this, you know this is not
something you want to turn and face right now.
Alright, looks like we're running. Yep. So let
me give you some quick information on how this
is going to go. There will be no initiative roll
for this. All this action is going down at the
same time. Each round, you're going to roll an
athletics check. Now, this check is basically
going to assume you are using the dash action.
Which means, unless you want to take a Penalty,
probably disadvantage on this check. Jules, you're
going to only have bonus actions available each
round to potentially utilize. Zebulon, however,
has cunning action as a rogue, which means you
can use your action, essentially, to give someone
the help action, give them advantage on their
roll each round, or dash to give yourself advantage
on this roll. You also could take any other actions
you can think of, because your bonus action is
being used to maintain fast running speed. The
boulet has higher speed than you. So it's going
to go, it's going to get a nice little bonus
to its rolls. The riding horse that Orin's on
is going to blow everyone else away. So that's
one thing that I can say is you don't need to
worry about that. As this is happening, you see
that horse takes off, is running. The amount,
the bonus it has on this roll, or every roll,
it's egregious. I'm not even going to bother
rolling for him. He's gone. He's out of there.
Okay, good. Excellent. Don't have to worry about
him. So it's going to be Jules, Jean Franklin,
Chester, Zebulon. And proclaim reward. Feet on
the ground. Moving. So here's how it's going
to go. This thing starts off 60 feet behind you.
Basically, depending on your rolls, you're either
going to drop or gain distance against this creature.
If you fail by 5 or more, you're going to lose
20 feet. If you fail by less than 5, you're going
to lose 10 feet. If you succeed by 5 or more,
you're going to gain 20. If you succeed but not
by 5, you're going to gain 10. Understand? Yes.
Okay. Yes. So keep in mind, anything else you
could do creatively with your bonus action or
your action to help your people out here, because
this is going to get a little scary. You see,
I have a counter on the top for rounds. And with
that, let the chase begin. Everyone roll an athletics
check. Jules got a nine. Okay. Uh, Zebulon got
a 13, and Jaune got a 5. Um, jeez, yeah, like,
even if I use the help action, that's only going
to give him what? An extra 2? Is that how that
works? No, help is an advantage. Oh, okay. Yeah,
then I'll use my bonus action to give Jaune advantage.
Okay. And that's just a 10. Okay. 10 for Jaune.
Chester got a nat 20. Holy shit. Excellent, Chester.
Yeah, Chester faster than the horse. I'm going
to move to the very end here. It's going to stay
at the very end of the range, which is about
100 feet out. As this thing begins to move on
you, as we go through the first round of this
chase, Chester gets ahead 20 feet. Jaune still
falls behind 20. He's now 40 feet away from this
thing. Zebulon, you stay exactly where you are
because you matched the boulet with a 13. Okay.
And Jules, you're ten feet back. Ward also falls
ten feet back. So now Jean Franklin's in the
rear as this thing is moving. Digging through
the ground, just destroying the land as it goes.
We're going into round two. Give me those rolls.
Jean! Jean, catch up! Jean! Why did I stop exercising?
All right. I'm going to roll for these guys and
then see what I want to do about it. All right.
That's an 18 for Zeb. 11 for Jaune. All right.
So I'll goad him again and give him that advantage.
Yes, that's it. You're doing it. You're just
ahead of him, goading him on. Jaune, that thing's
going to kill you. Come on, Jaune. All right.
Well, the first roll was a... 14. Okay, that's
Jaune? Yeah. Okay. I'll ask next round, maybe.
Gave him advantage. Are you going to do another
roll? The other roll was lower. Oh, gotcha. Okay,
great, great. So, unfortunate. Not too, too bad,
though. With a 14. Jaune's going to fall another
10 behind. He's only 30 feet away. Zebulon, you're
so fast, you full -on turn around, and you're
skipping backwards as you're goading him with
your hands, trying to get him on. Jaune's trying
so hard. He's got this big, bulky turtle shell.
He's literally a turtle. He's just trying so
hard. Jules got a 13. 13. And Chester got a 16.
Okay. And Zebulon. I didn't catch yours. 18.
18. Great. Okay. Chester falls 10 behind. He's
slowly kind of losing a little bit. Zebulon,
you stay where you are again. Jeez. Oh, no. That
means it's really bad for John. You've actually
matched this thing twice. John does fall behind
by 14, right? Yeah. He's fine then. He's only
staying at 30. Oh, okay. And Jules, that puts
you behind by another 10. Jules, you're 40 feet
away from this thing. Jaune is 30. You have three
rounds to go. What can you... So you said this
thing is ripping up the ground as it runs. Yes.
So, like, is it underground? It's actually, like,
it's halfway. Like, it's kind of, like, plunging
in and out. You see it's making these massive
leaps in the air and crashing down, up again,
crashing. And, like, I'll tell you right now,
if it gets within 10 feet of you the following
round, it's going to make a leaping strike at
you. And you do not. want to get hit by that.
Okay. Um, so I'll, I'll say what I want to do.
Then David, tell me, tell me if this works. Um,
so like you said, turned around sort of backwards
facing, uh, the group running behind us in the
bow lay, uh, Zeb's going to shout to his friends,
uh, guys, uh, watch out. Don't, don't step on
these. And he's going to use his bonus action
this time to lay down. Okay, or use your full
action, because your bonus action is your run.
Oh, okay, sure. Then, yeah, I'd rather do that.
Okay, so you drop your caltrops. That is interesting.
I'll give myself a negative on this. Okay, excellent.
I was hoping you'd give us something. That's
cool. That's cool as hell. You're sacrificing
an item for it. Yeah, hell yeah. I love that.
You're closing into halfway towards the actual
farmhouse on round three here. Ward has also
fallen back as well. Is this farmhouse going
to save us from this thing? As you get closer,
it looks like heavily reinforced stone. Oh. So
it might be what you need. Here go the rolls.
Natural one for Zebulon. Okay. 17 for Jean. Okay.
Seven for Jules. 14 for Chester. I quickly do
my ward. Okay. On this round. Ward stays exactly
in place with an 18. That's another 18 for me.
Jules has pulled back a little farther, now by
John Franklin's side, 20 feet away from this
thing. As it's jumping, destroying the land,
jumping, and just now, as you use your action,
it's going to touch us caltrops on this next
turn. As a bonus action, Jules is going to cast
Bardic Inspiration on John Franklin. Holy shit!
Damn. In this situation, he would not do it on
himself. Wow. Wow. Pretty selfless. Okay, okay.
You cast this on Jean Franklin. Your lute lights
up. You blast him, and you see he kind of starts
running a little faster. He looks at you, and
he's got this look in his eyes of just, like,
gratitude? Mixed with concern because he sees
that you're struggling just as much as he is
now. He just gives you a sweaty turtle nod. Do
turtles sweat? Maybe turtles. There we go. Turtles
sweat. He's your turtle, so he sweats. It's a
humanoid turtle, so we're going to pretend that
he sweats. Zebulon, with your natural one, I'm
going to move you back 30 feet as you stumble.
You're looking at Jaune, you're trying to egg
him on, and you hit a root. You go tumbling down.
You manage to catch yourself, but you've lost
30 feet. You're now 30 feet away from this thing,
just ahead of Jaune and Jules. Next round, what
I'm willing to do, because I think the caltrop
thing was really cool, he hits it and kind of
flinches back for a second. I'm going to give
him disadvantage on this athletics check. Oh,
excellent. That's great. Still is a good bonus,
but this might be enough because if he clears
any closer to you in the next round, we're going
to have a problem. Yeah. I just think it's right
on you, and you are close to the farmhouse now.
You're close, but you've still got a ways to
go. Let's make that chase roll. All right. Before
I even roll, I'm going to give Jaune a button.
I'm going to give Jaune advantage. Okay. I'll
take it. All right. Shit. All right. I'm going
to roll for Jaune first. All right. John got
a dirty 20, so I'm going to keep that. Not going
to use his bardic inspiration. Let's see how
Zeb does. Yeah, I'm going to keep it. That's
a 14 for Zeb, and I'm going to use my cunning
action to give Jules advantage. Oh. Jules, come
on, man. We can't get any closer to this thing.
I'm trying. I'm trying. Come on. Just follow
me. Let's go. It's a 20 for Jules. And a 16 for
Chester. Fantastic. Jules and Chester are both
going to move 20 feet farther. Chester's now
80 feet. Fully in a safe zone, pretty much. Jules,
you're now 40 feet away. You're moving. Steven,
if you don't mind giving me those numbers again.
I just rolled something, and it kind of rattled
me a little bit. But hey. Go ahead and give me
those numbers real quick. Zeb got a 14, and John
was a dirty 20. Okay. Let me show my hand. You
both get 20 feet ahead of this thing. This last
-minute spurt pushing you as you move, move,
move, feet pounding. This thing rolled a 1. Oh,
my God. I haven't rolled that good. I had a plus
8. I've rolled pretty bad this whole time. Was
that with the disadvantage? That was because
of disadvantage. Oh, man. Excellent. The initial
one was going to be an 18 plus 8, which would
have been awful. Yeah. So this thing basically
hits the calotropes and straight up just kind
of, like, screams out, almost peels away. As
you see, like, the calotropes all just, like,
it jumps down into the ground, and they all get
taken into its mouth. And they literally cover
its tongue. It's a big, wet, reptilian tongue.
It's, like, just, like... hungering. It's just
like hanging out there and it rips into its tongue.
It screams and stops for a half second and just
kind of turns and pounds again. Take that, you
big bug. Yeah, you tell them, Zab. Proclaimer
Tungsten Ward also rolled a one. Oh, no. Okay.
Oh, shit. I think there's still time. You begin
to make moves. You are pounding next to them
away from this thing, but you see You see Ward
falls and drops 30 feet behind you with a natural
one. Oh my god. On the top of this last round,
Ward is 10 feet away from the boulet. What the
fuck are we going to do? I think as Ward falls,
as you move on, you just hear a voice right beside
you for a brief second as you're moving past
it just say, Ah, shit. I wish I could have heard
it. The part of the song they'll write about
me. And you guys are moving. As you move into
this last round, you are fully in the clear.
You are all far enough away this thing cannot
reach you. And as you reach the door, and you
see Oren already down, pounding onto the door,
opens up ahead of you, and you see you have a
way in, the face of an old bearded man, peeking
out. And you look back. As Tungsten Ward stands
and turns towards the boulet. And you watch as
one mighty leap. I'm going to roll a dex save.
I'm not going to roll damage. Because there is
virtually no world. Ward looks back over their
shoulder with one last little smile. Rainbow
scarf. blowing in the wind. As this monstrosity
leaps down, its maw consumes them. Gone under
the ground. And you all make it inside. Door
slams shut. All right, we're back. We had to
take a minute. Zebulon pounds on the inside of
the door. Shit, no, shit. And he opens the door.
Hey, what are you doing? Zap, don't be stupid.
And he goes out to the hole where the thing went
down. Are you fully sure? No, you said it. Well,
it's down and gone. Right? I mean, if he sees
it there, he's not going to go there. I'll say
this. approach the hole, even before you reach
the edge of it, you feel the ground begin to
shake as something is moving up. He's giving
you a chance here. Okay. He's giving you a chance
here. I understand. It somehow knows you're up
there. Okay, sure. All right. So I'm assuming
he got not far from the door. As you step over
to the hole, though, something does sort of blow
out. You move over to the hole. You hear, you
feel this shaking, and something seems to...
Blown by the wind out of the hole, right into
your hand, you catch a rainbow scarf. As the
door slams, you can hear the something blasting
out of the earth again. A pot -bellied old man,
broad -shouldered, and just generally very rough
and tumble with age. Big, white beard. Just,
what in the hell? What in the hell are y 'all
doing? You damn near scared the shit out of me.
Oh, man. Oh. I don't have that much food. I can't
take you. I can't take you off alone. What's
this horse doing in here? The horse is just up
in the corner of the room. Like knocking over
some shit. What the fuck was that out there?
A belay. You ain't know what a belay is and you're
hearing the rattle? Oh, my. They don't come this
way. They don't come this far to the east. Not
often, but... This one's been hanging out around
here for days now. I can't leave. I've been trapped.
Eating what I got for store, and now you're trapped
too. We're in the middle of the field, and it's
hunting here. That kind of pushes Ebulon over
the edge. I think he puts his back up against
the wall and slumps down, and a couple of frustrated
tears come out, and he pushes his face into the
scarf. What the fuck are we going to do now?
Cully, what are we going to do? And Cully just
staring out the window. Very small window set
in the masonry. Doesn't look at you, doesn't
blink. Land sharks, they call them. Land sharks.
Nasty. I didn't think. He's right, they never
come this far. Not to the east, they're farther
out, but... Shit, shit. They're drawn to seismic
activity. They think they're hunting something.
They felt it. They felt it move through here.
That's why they came. They're looking for whatever
left that hole. Those holes. Shit. I should have
figured. I think Jules is going to come up right
behind Kali. So how do we kill this thing? We
ain't going to kill it. They're monsters. Apex
proud of those here in the rattle. Nothing kills
a boule. Wiping his eyes. It's not possible at
all. They're strong. They got armored shells,
and they're vital. And they're deadly. You saw
what it did out there, that leap. That's how
they kill the prey. Come down from above, crashing.
They bludgeon them to death while they tear them
to shreds. We can't go out there again. It's
been here for days. It ain't moved. I don't know
why it's held up here on this land. Well, we
can't stay in here either. No, we can't. Kiana's
waiting for us, and that thing moved by. I think
actually at mention of a thing, you see this
old white -bearded man kind of looks over at
all of you. Wait. What are y 'all doing here?
Anyway, what are y 'all chasing? Through my land.
I don't know, it's got a bunch of hands and it's
crawling and digging and we're just following
him. Points to Cully. Hands. And the farmer walks
over to his fireplace still lit. The room is
honestly with this masonry and the weather, it's
not even really wintertime here. It's uncomfortably
hot in this house. He goes to his fire poker
and lifts it up and you see... Sitting on the
edge of it, pierced through the palm, is a severed
hand. So you know of these things? This one came
the other day. I've had my fireplace lit since.
Middle of the night, I was woken up. Something
big came to my door. I heard pounding, pounding
against every bit of wall. Like many hands knocking
and scratching. And then something on the roof.
This thing fell through and I stabbed it through,
but I lit the fire. A couple more fell into it.
Hands moving on their own. And something big
with them. And it spoke. It spoke in my mind.
With a child's voice. A little boy looking for
his friend. I held out. I think it moved on.
It couldn't get through this house. It's reinforced
stone. Even these bullies have trouble getting
in here. But damn it, I ain't never seen anything
like that. Zebulon's really, like, too shocked
at this point to do anything but just take in
this information. Like, he just watched Ward
die. He's trapped in this house. And as if that
isn't bad enough... Now there's a frickin' mind
-speakin', hand -crawlin' little boy. Rootin'
tootin'. Rootin' tootin' little boy. Scootin'
along. Rootin' tootin' scootin'. I don't even
know what to say. I don't even know what to say.
Well, yeah, that sounds like what we're chasing.
I don't know how we're going to continue chasing
it, though. Why didn't... You said the boule
was hunting that thing? Macaulay speaks up. Whatever
this thing is, I doubt it's good for food. Whatever,
my... He's like, especially after hearing a little
boy's voice, he's... His eyes are just wide and
broken. He's still just staring out that window.
But these things, they... I'd like to hunt things
underground, too. If it felt something move by,
if it came upon tunnels. It might think something
big is coming back to eat. Maybe it's looking
for a mate. I don't know. I have to believe it's
connected. So how... I mean, can we fool this
thing? We obviously can't wait it out. Like,
what do you guys know about these boule? There's
gotta be something we can do. This is your land,
like... You guys are the locals. Normally we
wait for them to pass. It's always been that
way, but this one stuck around longer than any
I've seen before. We can't wait here. A couple
days. That's all I got for food now. And with
all of us here and the horse, well, we're going
to be eating that horse. Horse. He suddenly backs
away into the corner and knocks over some dishes.
So, uh. When this thing's on the ground, does
it hear us? Or does it feel us? No, no, it doesn't
have much going for hearing, but it can feel
the ground. I believe, from what I understand,
from what people have told me, they can sense
tremors about 60 feet out. I'll take the horse.
I'll take the horse, and I'll draw it out. Why
don't we just, like, throw something? We don't
need to take unnecessary risks here. We'd have
to throw the horse. I don't think we're going
to fool this thing with a sack of potatoes. I'll
take the horse. You guys run. North. I'll come
back and meet you. We've seen it. The horse can
outrun this thing. Easy. We just saw it. Everyone
looks at you. Chester, Jean -Franklin, Oren.
And pulled her. I want to get closer to that
hole anyways. I... Ward had that diamond. Holy
shit. I want to see if... Maybe they... Dropped
it. Is that why he got me so fucking stupid sometimes?
Because I don't want to die in this house. No.
Hold on, hold on. Look, I... I ain't gonna stand
against that, because I need to go, too, and
get help. If I want to get this home back. I've
been trapped here for days, and I need to go,
but... Listen, if you're gonna do this, you're
really gonna risk your life. At least stay the
night. I can make whatever I can make for food.
You can rest up before you move on. This thing's
just gonna get further and further away. Yeah.
It is. And Orin's just gripping the wall, hands
like... Right. That's going to be your choice.
You guys can take a rest here. I've got to say,
from the first moment you said we were trapped,
my brain went, oh, you need a rest, don't you?
You know that just beyond. I mean, I'm full HP
and I've only used two spell slots, but I don't
have any bardic inspiration. You hear Oren just
like still look out the window and you realize
the window he's looking out is facing north.
It's just down those trees. Just be on those
trees. And they can't chase us through the trees.
Once we hit them, we'll be fine. We'll get tangled
in the roots. It won't bother. She's there. Kiana's
there, and I... I'll defer to you guys, whatever
you think is best. My judgment ain't good here.
And I ain't looking to get you killed. Well,
it's up to you, Jeremy, because Zeb's ready to
go. Zeb will go now, or... I mean, he's not gonna,
like... He's not going to, like, fight you to
go now, you know what I mean, if you need to
rest. It's up to you. There will be consequences
for waiting, but we'll also gain some utility
back. Remember, Jean Franklin's also down a lot
of his healing, too. He'd get that back as well.
Yep. And right now, Orin is, or Koli. Let's sit
with Koli for this arc, because he's currently
in Koli features. dropped all of his disguises,
the hat's still on his head, but he is egg -sausted.
He's definitely taken at least one level of exhaustion.
If you keep going, there'll be a second one.
All right, well, it sounds like... Okay. Old
man, we'll help you get out of here. Call me
Uncle. Everyone calls me Uncle. Uncle, we'll
help you get out of here if you let us rest.
I think it's too dangerous. To go on looking
like we do. As you come to this decision, see
Coley just slumps against the wall, completely
defeated. He wants so, so badly to go on, but
he knows more than anyone that it's folly. As
he sort of falls down, legs stretching out across
the floor, back against the masonry, his head
just hunches down into his hands. You hear him
just crying softly. Zebulon, you still have the
rainbow scarf. Polder sees that. Oh, no. A friend
lost was a proclaimer. I don't know if we were
quite ready to call Tungsten a friend, but, um...
Yeah. No, not Ward. Oh, hell. That's a damn shame.
Hey, hopefully they're with the Covenant Guards
now. Persistent one. I am. Hey, I'll fix you
guys something to eat. Just take it easy here,
all right? I know it's hot in here, I know, but
after that hand fell down my chimney, I ain't
risking turning that fire off. Haven't burned
my furniture. Ran out of wood earlier today.
That's okay. I kind of like the heat. And he
muscles away into a small sort of kitchen in
the back. I think Jean Franklin actually approaches
you, Jules. You, uh... You could have died. You
used your magic on me. I could feel it. It's
what you do for people you care about. Did you
have to make it weird? No, I... Look, I... I
don't do this often. Zebulon, you help too. Come
here, come here. Both of you come here. Stand
there. Nope, too close. Back up. There, fine.
No, no, hang on. One, two, come on, three. Thank
you. Thank you. There. You're welcome. He just
turns away. He walks up, storms to the other
side of the room. John. What? What? Not asking
you to say anything you're uncomfortable with.
Just want you to know we're in this together.
quickly turns his head away again, but you manage
to catch that slight, total smile on his face
before he does. As he kind of moves over, almost
like he's inspecting the masonry on the wall,
but very clearly just not wanting to show his
face for a moment. I'll take it. Chester's been
quiet. He's found a small seat, one of the bits
of furniture that have not been burned yet. He
just dropped down in it and, like, holy shit.
I think Jules goes over, sits down next to him,
and he doesn't say anything, but I think he kind
of puts his arm over Chester's shoulder and kind
of grabs his head and just pulls his head into
his chest. Chester doesn't say a word. He just
sits there quietly. His eyes that were opened
a little too wide before now close, and he just
sort of rests. You think about it. I mean, he's
been through a lot on the streets of Tythos,
but... This is different. This is nothing like
Tythos. I think that's where Jules falls asleep,
too. Maybe some hours later, you're woken up.
I'm not sure. Zebulon, do you sleep now? Yeah,
I think Zebulon's definitely getting ready to
find a little spot to cozy up, but... He wants
to talk to Cully for a minute first. So he walks
over to Cully. Cully's hands, her face still
buried in his hands. And sits down next to him,
quietly. Cully, what are you going to do when
you find him? I don't know. First time I came
out here, I vowed. I'd never get anyone else
killed like this again. And now Ward... What
do you think he is, Zebulon? Is he still my boy?
He has a voice. He spoke. It's him, isn't it?
It's Cully. He's not the Cully you knew. How
do you know? Look around you. Look around us.
There's hands. What does that mean? I don't know.
And what of Kiana? What's he going to do to her?
I don't know, but maybe it's not too late for
Kiana. Do you understand what I'm saying, Cully?
What do you want me to do? I don't want you to
die. You're going to kill him again, ain't you?
I don't know. He was a sweet boy. You never knew
him, and I wish you could have known him. He
was a sweet, sweet boy. Could barely kill a bug.
What is this? Is our land so forsaken by the
gods that sweet boys become monsters? I don't
know what's happening here on God's Breath, but
let's just focus on what we can control. And
actually, as you say that, you do hear him say,
it's not to you. It's quiet. Almost under his
breath, just... It ain't just God's breath. What
do you mean it ain't just God's breath? We got
a bad here. We got the worst, but... Soon all
the world's gonna be like this. What is it? What
is this? The network doesn't like me talking
about it, so I never mentioned it. But they know
when I know. Planar absorption. The theory of
planar absorption. And Debulon, your mind flashes
back to the fall of the sapphire as you were
in the control room. Asking about what happens
when you're gone. What's causing this. In Ariat.
Imagine that. It could be. Anything could be
there. The theory of planar absorption. You remember
hearing this line before, but having no context,
no knowledge of what it could mean. Well, it's,
um... I'll tell you, it's been a minute since
I studied any planar inclusion, or... But, um...
What does this mean? Our world's broken. We're
not supposed to talk about it. Apparently it'd
be too much panic if we did. Well, we might be
too dead to panic pretty soon, so I'd kind of
like to know what's going on, if you don't mind
here. No, I'll tell you, I'll tell you. It's
just why I can't speak on the network to it.
The speakers won't have it. It'll be shut down
faster than you can believe. They're afraid of
it. Hell, I'm scared as hell. It might be what
happened to Tithos. They won't say. But our worlds,
they are broken. They're slowly being absorbed
into the planes that are supposed to feed into
them. The elemental planes. The outer planes.
The mirror realms like the Feywild. Shadowfell.
Says that with a bit of a snarl. It's the very
doomsday Sholay tried to stop. All those years
ago when she founded the Citadel. It was happening
then. And it slowed. Way slowed when this idea
was awakened. The world's connected. But it didn't
stop. So, doesn't Xolay know how to stop this,
then? I don't think anyone knows. I don't think
it can be stopped. Why are there these monsters
here on God's Breath, but Tithos just fell out
of the sky? Tithos are strange. Now, most of
the worlds have just one plane that they're...
More connected to, right? For Tithos, it was
the plane of Earth. That's why their gem trade
was so bountiful. They made out well. Apart from
the occasional zon that came a -knockin' in those
mines. But, hell, Tithos did good. Most worlds
got it worse than that. But, what happened? I
mean, I can't understand. How? All I know is
Tithos is gone. Taken in by the King of Gloom,
perhaps. I don't know. They said that the folk
there are dead. I don't know if they know it,
but they sure as hell couldn't reach it. No matter
how plain of magic they used, the speakers and
those they hired could get through to Tithos
like it's just gone. So what's going to happen
to the rest of the world if this keeps going?
What's going to happen to God's breath? What's
going to happen to all the other worlds? I can't
speak to much. I just know what I've heard, but...
In God's breath's case, sooner or later we're
all going to be in the rattle. Every bit of land
and sea on this world. Covered in mist. Smelling
like blood. And filled with monsters. Nightmares.
This is just too much. Yeah. And Cully just kind
of turns away from you. and buries his head in
his hands again. Zebulon just lies down on the
floor and tries to get some sort of sleep. Before
long, you hear snores from Cully's side, from
Chester, who's still, I imagine, leading up against
Jules. Jules sleeps as well, and slumber takes
you too, Zeb. And you are awoken. Some time later.
Outside, it's full day. Looks like mid -afternoon.
And you wake up to the smell of fresh eggs. Sweet
cornbread. Plates are handed out to each of you,
and you eat quietly with Polder. And that's done.
The rest is done. And Coley's eyes are blazing
again. The horse is given some feed, a couple
carrots. From the dwindling store. And... The
door is once again opened onto an empty field.
You rest on a hilltop looking down over this
land and somewhere far to the north. You see
thick wood. Just abruptly standing. There's a
line of trees. The finish line. Zebulon, you...
The horse steps out. Imagine, like, right onto
the stone patio very carefully. You're leading
it. From the front of the house, Zebion looks
over to the hole where the boulet dove down.
Is there any sort of, like, shimmering glint
in the grass? Roll me a perception check. All
right. I feel like it would be stupid to use
a button on this perception check. That's exactly
why I'm going to do it. Well, the button helped,
but it's still just a 10. Now, what might help
with that is I'm actually going to give you guys
each a button for some fantastic RP just there.
All right. That feels better. That was some good
stuff. I'll take it. That was good stuff. Thank
you. I'll let you use it before I reveal to getting
it back. Jingle your jar with me. That sounds
nice. That sounds nice. Not bad. You're going
to want those because you're almost there. With
a 10, I will say a 10 is the minimum you had
to get, so that's fantastic. Not far down into
the hole, as the sun is beaming just above you,
you see a glint of something. It's probably about
10 feet down. Lodge into the dirt on the side.
Looks like it got pushed that way. Okay. What
do you want to do? Okay, so here's how it's going
to go. I'm going to get on, and I'm going to
ride. That way. And Zeb points towards the hole.
Wait till I get, wait till I get like, I don't
know, 100 feet out. Wait until this thing starts
to follow me. And then you all run that way.
And he points north towards the trees. So imagine
you stepped out very carefully, moved to the
hole, looked down, saw that. And I mean, you
would have been at the hole, so you're going
to go back and ride. Oh, I thought you said the
hole was like 60 feet away. I assume you walked
to it because you looked at it. Because you wouldn't
be able to see 10 feet down the hole. Yeah. Then,
oh, he grabs it. All right. Let's quickly recontextualize
here. Okay. Are you leading the horse to the
hole? Is the horse nearby? What is everyone's
position if you're going to go for this thing?
Yeah. Zebulon walked the horse with him. To the
hole. Very carefully. Very carefully. He wants
to reach down and try to grab this glinting object.
You have to climb in. It's ten feet down. And
you are a one foot tall lizard. He's five feet
tall. I don't care. Still one tenth of a Jeremy.
Okay, yeah. He's going to climb down. Climb down
the shifting hole. You walked your horse across.
Everyone else is lined up at the house. I want
a stealth check. And now that you're in the hole,
I want it with disadvantage. With disadvantage?
Oh, damn it. Well, since we changed up how things
were going, I missed my opportunity to cast Bardic
Inspiration on you. You can still cast it. If
you want to cast it, I'm not going to say you
didn't. Yes. Okay. Golden mode around you as
you're climbing in. Basically, it's almost like
I want two checks, one for walking and one for
going down. That's why I say disadvantage. Oh.
Yeah, so it's really just two separate stealth
checks, but you're making, you're rolling 2d20.
All right, well, I just used one pretty silly.
This one has real serious consequence, though.
Yes. So if you use your body conspiration die
on this roll, for an ability check, it can be
rolled again. It can be rolled twice. Oh, so
I just gain advantage. Yes. On the Bardic Inspiration
die, not on your D20 roll. Oh, that's cool. So
you get advantage on the D6 as well. Oh, gotcha.
That's awesome. Okay. Wow, I love that. All right.
Then I think Zebulon's stealth is high enough
between the plus seven for stealth and the Bardic
Inspiration with advantage on that. I think I
still need to use a button. I can't. Roll this
with disadvantage. Well, here's the thing. It
was technically supposed to be like two different
checks. I just wanted to lump them together.
So the button would be... Yeah, well, fine. I'll
go with it. I'll go with it. Because I did say
disadvantage. That's what I said. Okay, well,
let's stick with it. I mean, we can do whatever
you want to do. No, that's fine. This is diplomacy.
Diplomacy. You're sacrificing a button. That's
a big sacrifice. No, I'm saying, let's talk about
this. Dude, I'm going to be so pissed if it's
just like a piece of pottery or some shit. Oh
my god. It's a pair of glasses. I'm actually
just going to stick with this die. Alright, so
one roll. Plus seven. Plus the d6. Here we go.
Alright. Nine plus seven is sixteen. That's a
one. Let's re -roll the d6. Okay. That's a six.
So that's 22. 22. I'll make my perception roll.
That was worth it. Yeah. Because this thing is
waiting. Percepting all around. You climb down,
reach out, pull the diamond from the dirt and
the soil. And it is the diamond. Worth it. There's
no other sign of clothing. Maybe just a couple
shreds down a little lower. but Ward looks like
they were dragged deeper in or just consumed
whole, almost fully, and you climb out. Hops
on the horse and starts to ride away. And this
time you are intentionally grabbing attention.
So you pound past the hole, everyone watching
from the doorsteps getting ready to make their
own run. Bardic inspiration gone, button spent.
Diamond in hand, Zebulon pockets it and gallops.
And just as you're passing by the hole, just
as you're really letting these shockwaves enter
the dirt below you, this thing bursts up just
beyond where you ride. And the chase begins anew,
and we'll call it there!