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. We'll be right back. And he
waits. Oh, he waits. Knock, knock. Anybody home?
Who's there? No, it doesn't work now that we
have the space in between. You say, and he waits.
Oh, he waits. I said, knock, knock. Anybody home?
Why? Well, we got to restart this now. Take it
from the top. Just do it again. No, because then
it's fake. Just do it again. No. All right, Steven,
follow it up. What do you got for us? Probably
stop. Do it stop. No, just so the listeners understand
what the hell is going on. Right after he finished
the intro song, I was going to say knock, knock
anybody home. But then Steven paused because
he had to check his phone. So it makes no sense
jumping back into it. Neither of them got what
I was doing. So on to Steven. Steven. Steven.
What have you got for us? Well, I wanted to talk
about our little pre -show dinner. Oh, it was
so delicious. Yeah. Better than corn. Better
than corn. We made a hominy casserole that we
threw up on the Instagram. I went to our Shaw's
here. That's the local sort of grocery chain.
To try to find hominy. In this backwater burg.
In this backwater town. We didn't have hominy.
But don't worry. Our friends from the south sent
us some. Wait, what? Rochelle, sound pukey girl,
mailed us hominy. So damn cool. You're kidding
me. The hominy that I use to make that casserole.
I had no idea. That's awesome. Yeah. Oh, my goodness.
And you want to know what else she sent us? What?
I do. All right, let's go. What is this? She
returned some very special items. What? Something
that our listeners may not know is that Rochelle.
What is happening? Is a Episcopal priest. And
Rochelle. You're. Blessed. Fucking with me. Our
dice sets. Oh my God. Take a look at these bad
boys. A couple of weeks ago. Okay. You know,
if you win now, you know, if you win now, you
are cheating. This is a big asterisk over everything.
Give me those. I'm going to unbless them. Give
me five minutes in the bathroom to be unblessed
so fast. Jesus Christ. All right, so our previous
dice are going into the dice jail. There you
go. Yeah, a couple of weeks ago, I sent a package
down to Rochelle with, among some other things,
our dice sets. And during Holy Week, Rochelle
put them up on her church altar and gave them
a good old blessing and sent them back to us.
So now, hopefully, fingers crossed, toes crossed,
sign of the cross. Basically, David, you're fucked.
Honestly, like. It could not be more fitting
as you are about to walk into an encounter against,
I would argue, the most unholy thing I have ever
ran in any campaign. I would argue that we can
make it a little more fitting. A little more.
What else do you have? Stop it! First, let's
show the other wonderful wares. Yes. What? Like
the many a dice sets that she gave us. What'd
she give me? Nothing. Damn it. She actually was
like, hey, I just realized there's kind of like
nothing in there for David. Yeah, you know. So
Rochelle is what some people, including herself,
would call a dice goblin. So we got lots of dice
like these. We'll post a picture on Instagram.
Look at all those. Oh, dude, check out this set.
Let me see that thing. Oh, those are gorgeous.
Let me. Ooh. Yeah, I forgot exactly what they're
made of, but they're one of those UR wizards.
The die are all clear. They look like ice cubes.
What are these? Beautiful dice. Dark. Beautiful,
wonderful dice. Oh, my gosh. I get it, though.
Jules is going to be killing NPCs with those.
Nobody wants to give me the D20 that's going
to kill these characters. Oh, you want to see
a banger D20? Let me see a banger D20. We have
the D20. Holy shit. You want to describe this,
Steven? It's been nicknamed the Red Dragon. What?
Yeah. Let him see it first, and then we'll...
Oh, my God. So it is... I mean, it's not a super
chonker. It's a little bit bigger than... There's
a dragon in it. Yes. It's a hollow metal die
with a dragon on the inside. That is one of the
coolest D20s I've ever seen. It's going right
in my dice tray. Oh, shit. We let him touch it.
Oh, shit. Give me five minutes. You'll never
use that dice again. Take this back. Take him
back. They are now on our side of the table.
Well, I'll tell you right now, my dice were a
present from my darling wife, my Norse foundry
turquoise gemstones. The power of love will smite
you. I think we decided that we're not going
to give you the red dragon. I don't need your
red dragon. I have love on my side. What do you
have? I did think about it. Oh, we got these
ones, too. What's that? Oh, those are pretty
real cold ice look to them. Okay. Right, right.
All right. You know what? Bring armies and armies
of your dice. Let me get chopsticks. What? Explain.
What is happening? I have been building up this
surprise. For literal weeks. What is happening?
It's a show tonight. What are you on for a banter?
Oh, don't worry. I got it. I've had it for fucking
months. I'm Steven fucking Rodriguez and I'm
so cool. Okay, we have our tools. Steven. What
are you doing with chopsticks? Steven, explain.
Yes, elaborate. We have one more surprise. Why?
What is happening tonight? Pants people, are
you turning against me? We're going to bless
Fantasy Pants Studios right now. What? We were
sent a vial of real life holy water. And if it
doesn't burn my skin off, we're going to use
these chopsticks. Don't let it touch me. To bless
the studio. Oh, you're the first thing, my man.
No, don't do it. No. Oh, no, I'm actually fine.
All right. It's going to be real funny when I
kill you both. Yeah. Wait, Stephen. Stephen.
You need some too. Oh, thank you, thank you.
What are you doing? These winged wafts are just
spraying water all over the tech, all over themselves,
all over me. Nice thing about using a chopstick,
we can make this stuff go far. Oh, I know, I
know. We can make this go far. For the entirety
of Fantasy Pants, this will last us. Does it
expire? That's a good question. Well, Rochelle,
despite your betrayal. You're still a damn fine
map maker. I love your maps. Thank you so much,
Rochelle. This was one of the coolest things
I've ever seen in my entire life. Yeah, really
and truly from the bottom of my heart. That was,
yeah, really, really cool. Absolutely wild. I
am nervous now that I am now going to have the
worst rolling streak of my entire life. There
was a joke somewhere in the conversation about
adding holy damage or something like that. Hell
yeah. There is no universe. I mean, fair. Fair.
That timeline does not exist. But damn, this
is cool. This is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, this
was wild. It was fun to do. Well, you know what's
not going to be fun to do? Stepping into this
house knowing full well. What's coming for you?
We're not going to do that quite, quite, quite,
quite yet. First, I want to take us on a little
journey through time. A short jaunt, one might
say. God, that was really short. The thing I
made disappeared. It does it sometimes. There
we go. We open up in the rattle. See a light
mist on this afternoon. Blue sky overhead. Not
this afternoon, but it's very early afternoon.
Maybe 10, 11 o 'clock suns. Still low in the
sky, still climbing. Breaking through the foliage
above. Shimmering across the ground. On this
old road. A familiar road. Heading towards Cradle
Ace Lake. We see along this road. Three travelers.
We see Coley Sr., looking much like the man that
travels with our heroes now. Though his face
is less wrinkled, his eyes more filled with youth
and life. See his full lips crack open into a
white grin at every hint of bird song or glistening
web he sees in the sun on this day. You can see
his frame is much more filled out, very athletic.
is evidenced by the huge pack he carries easily
on his back. And of course, you see that same
straw hat perched easily on his head. He looks
back nervously to a child just behind him. A
young boy. Cully Jr. Despite similarities in
their appearance and their faces, they really
couldn't be more in opposition to each other.
Cully Jr. is small -framed. breathing hard on
this trail. His eyes are nervous and darting
to every shadow off the path. You see his clothes
are much too large for him, sort of hanging off
of him as he moves. And sort of around in the
side of him, we see a young, young girl, strong,
built, adventurous, with a smiling face, just
like her uncle, smiling at everything. We see
Kiana. Small raids spilling out from a head wrapped
in a red cloth. Clothes rough and ripped and
covered in mud. She's climbing happily over every
stone or downed tree off the edge of the path.
Where Junior carries no pack, Kiana seems to
be bursting with all this survival gear. She's
just going on. Come on, come on, Cody. You can
do it. And the boy's just... Okay, are you sure
about this? This is the rattle, right? It's...
I mean, it's supposed to be scary out here. What
if there's direwolves or the like? Keanu kind
of looks at him, shakes her head disappointedly,
and we see Senior kind of turns around to his
son, breathes out this kind of long sigh, and
gets real low to the ground, crouching. Hey,
hey, hey, come on now, boy. No need to worry,
right? You got me with you, and I've seen these
past time and time again. Now, Cradle East Lake
is scary. That's what they say. But I find when
you see these places in person, they're really
not that bad. They're just stories. And that's
sort of the point. We see where the stories begin.
See the humble origins. It's never like what
they say. Like solving a mystery or disproving
a lie. You'll come to like it, I promise. And
the boy's just kind of like... He nervously nods.
Listen, listen. I know this is a lot. And I promise
when we get back, we'll take a little break from
these little adventures of ours, alright? But,
I mean, we gotta see it. Look, son. If you ever
get scared, you just take my hand, okay? If I
ain't right beside you, you take Kiana's hand.
You take your cousin's hand. We're a family.
And we can get through anything together, alright?
You remember that? All right? Boyd just nods
nervously. All right. Now come on. Crayley's
Lake is waiting. I think it's going to be a fine,
fine day. And we pan away. You don't deserve
any gifts. No. You're an asshole. You know? I'll
take it. We pan away from that to the present.
Where night has set over the farm pact that we
know that Kiana has been working on. Where we
know that small boy, he's awaiting. Somewhere
in this farmhouse that you are just now stepping
inside. Now I want to direct your attention to
roll 20. Because I think today we're going to...
Step away from theater of the mind for a moment.
Get into this dynamic lighting so you can really
look into what it is you're exploring. I said
it before. We have this 50 by 50 foot farmhouse.
Really not something huge. Amongst the other
houses, this is the biggest. They are not large
buildings. And you know they were built fast
to capitalize on what potential land, the potential,
what's the word? Growth. Soil. Planting. Give
me something. Farming. Farming. There we go.
Okay. It's a harder word than you made it sound.
Damn it. You made it sound hard. Cut all of that.
No. Damn it. You know, like, with the potential
farming that can be done here, they had to, like,
move quickly, build these houses fast, find shelter
as quick as they can out here in the rattle.
And so, like, it's a pretty rickety little building
you're stepping into now. As a door opens out
into this long hallway. I'll tell you what you
see. You see, stretching out before you, this
hall has three doors. One to your immediate left,
one to your immediate right, and then one further
down to your left. You also see that on the right,
the hallway curves and drops down at a 90 degree
angle. Which you would imagine leads to the front
door that you passed over. When you were exploring
the exterior of this house. So there could be
more doors. More rooms. You know what's in the
first two rooms. You saw through the windows.
The room to your right leads into a sort of destroyed
living room. Where you saw this strange sort
of like hundreds of handprints moving around.
And almost like a whirlpool like storm design.
Around some central image that was covered by
a sofa. But you thought there was something there.
Just need to push things out of the way to get
a look at it. And to your left is that kitchen
where you saw four figures standing silently
right in the middle of the room. And the way
they were standing, if you open that door, you'll
be looking right at them and they'll be looking
right at you. Now, I want to have another Uncle
Polder situation where I completely forget about
an NPC. Until episode's halfway through. What's
happening with the horse right now? Percy the
horse. He's not going in this house. Because
that's ridiculous. Don't even try, Steven. I'm
not going to want to try. Don't do it. Is Percy
tied up or do we just let Percy go? Percy's tied
up outside. Okay. Percy's tied up outside. Here,
one last snort and whinny as you move in. Zebulon
and John Franklin, you are the front row here.
It's always about 10 feet wide. You can stand
next to each other as you move in. Where do you
want to go? I also need to say this. It's getting
dark outside. Zebulon, you can see what's happening
in there. Nobody else is going to see much soon.
Okay. Not unless you find some way to get some
light. So the door to the left. Which is the
door that we saw the swaying zombie people through.
Indeed. Which way does that door open? Hmm. One
moment. It opens out. Out towards us? Out into
the hallway towards you. Okay. Sweet. So I'd
like to prop something against the door to keep
it locked and shut. Is there anything nearby
that would fit the bill? The hallway is entirely
empty of furniture. You looked into the living
room. There's stuff in there you could use for
sure. Okay. Does it look like any lock on the
door? No. So Zebulon will step up to this door,
put his foot against the bottom of the door,
and brace his shoulder into the center of the
door. Guys, go get something to block this up
with. I'll hold it here. All right. Stand by.
Stand by. And Jules is going to pull out his
rapier and cast light on it. Oh, okay. For light,
I touch an object that is no larger than 10 feet.
Until the spell ends, it sheds a 20 -foot radius.
And it sheds bright light in a 20 -foot radius
and dim light for an additional 20 feet. Yeah,
whatever buffs you've got, now is the time, I
think. You know what? It's funny. I actually
already had light on you, so I'm glad you did
that. Because I had it still from the... The
battle in the third trial on Suzunko. So I just
looked at your token like, oh, here he has Lightcast
on him. Perfect. Wonderful. Thanks for doing
that. So, yes, and then I'm going to go into
the living room. Okay. Do you want me to move
you? Yes. Can you move up to the door of the
living room? John Franklin steps right beside
you, and you creak open the door. I think I'm
going to stick my rapier in first and then kind
of poke my head in before I go in all the way.
Okay. As your light shines into this room, you
see what you saw before. Okay. Yeah, furniture
haphazardly arranged, pretty much falling apart.
Looks like some kind of struggle. Stuff is, like,
all over the place. But you see a couple small
chairs. That would be perfect to slide under
that doorknob outside. Sweet. I'm going to go
and grab those, or grab one of them. As you step
in, you do see there's that larger sort of sofa
lying. over the center of this floor mural. You
couldn't quite make out before. You can move
it and see what's under it. Real quick, John.
John, can you help me out with this? What? How
do we push this? Right. Yes. Sure. He's looking
around nervously and steps in the room. That
hand in the window is gone, by the way. The one
that beckoned you in. Just gone. John moves over
to the sofa, grabs one side. And I'll say, you
guys have no trouble. You pick it up, slide it
off, and you see in the middle of this swirling
pattern, also painted on with this red mud, is
a depiction of two children. One, a young girl,
is reaching out for the other. Small -framed
boy who is being dragged into water by large
hands. Scrapes in the muddy image form the name,
Cully. The art style is very familiar. Just the
sort of realism of these faces. This was Kiana's
work. Holy shit. Then I guess I'll grab the chair
and bring it to Zeb. As I'm handing it to him,
I say, Zeb, go and check that out in there. Okay,
what's that? Zebulon goes in to look at the...
Slide the chair under the doorknob? Yes, that
first. Okay. Yeah, sorry. I meant to imply that
that happens first. Just make it sure. Just make
it sure. Or as we're doing it. I'll say at this
point, like, Coley's stepping in now. He's going
to follow Zebulon into that room, and you guys
move into the mural. You see Coley just staring
down at it. God. I should have believed her.
I should have believed. That place. Evil. And
he just walks out of the room back into the hallway.
Damn. I really don't want to use my first roll
with these new dice on a dumb perception check
in a room that probably is empty anyways. Right.
So I'm just going to say with my nine passive
perception, does Zebulon pick anything else up?
Anything useful? Anything curious? No, you don't
see anything else in there. Just the downed furniture,
painting on the floor. What about with a 12 passive?
12 passive still. Okay. I don't think that's
worth a die roll then. Yeah, I think you're right
in this very specific instance. Yes. All right.
Well, I guess there's nothing to do but go deeper.
Kali, you're going to have to stay behind us.
Let us lead the way. I'll be right behind you.
If it comes down to it, Cully, what are your
capabilities? Have you ever been in a fight before?
Not for a while, but I can do a thing or two.
And actually, you would have noticed this already.
He does have, he is armed. At his waist, he does
have like a scimitar. I do believe that's the
first time you've ever mentioned that. It actually
is, yeah. He hasn't really been involved in any
combats, but he does have a scimitar at his waist.
I think we just have to slowly move in. Yeah,
I think it makes sense for Zebulon to take the
lead. He's going to walk around the corner here.
All right, you walk around the corner. You see
another door leading into that same living room,
hugging that same side of that wall. And then
right across the hall from it, which would be
to the right of the front door, which you now
have your eyes on. Okay, yeah. So I can see the
door we just came in behind me. The front door
is now in front of me. You have the full scope
of this building from where you stand, and you
can see there are four rooms total. Four doors.
Okay, and two we haven't explored. Two you have
not explored. I guess, uh, eeny, meeny, miny.
This one? And Zebulon walks up to this door and
looks back at the party for confirmation. Jules
gives a nod. Zebulon knocks on the door. You
knock on the door? Only a perception check. Here
we go. First roll with the new blessed dice.
Let's see how we're going to start. It was a
ten, so tweener, but minus one for Zebulon, so
just a nine. You don't hear anything. I think
at that point, Jules comes up behind Zebulon.
If Cully's following, Jules puts his arm out
behind him to hold Cully behind us. You go first.
I ain't the fighter you two are, but you let
me know if you see her. What if a state she might
be in? You let me know. Oh, you'll know. All
right, let's do this. And Zebulon just grabs
the door handle and opens it all the way. Everyone's
gathered outside this door. Sean Franklin beside
your side, Zebulon. Chester's kind of taking
up the rear, looking around nervously, eyes just
comically wide. You open the door, and you're
looking at a dining room. You can see immediately
there's another door into that same kitchen.
Hugging the wall to your left. See, it really
sucks being terrible at lefts and rights. You
don't understand. I have to do the finger thing,
the L on my fingers every time. Really? I have
a thing. I cannot do them. I don't know what
it is. It's probably because I'm so handsome
and smart. You see a long, plain table, a wooden
sideboard, and several chairs lie shattered on
the floor. The debris is streaked. With crimson
stains. Zebulon's going to take one of the dining
room chairs and prop it up against the door to
the left, which is the second door to that four
zombie room. Yes, you slide that into place,
blocking off the door to the kitchen. As you
look around, you see that there's still the one
strange in this room. I will give you this. Like
I said, the furniture, the chairs, all destroyed,
thrown around. That table is still standing fine,
and there's actually a tablecloth draped over
it, hugging all the way down to the floor. Oh,
I don't like that. No. Zebulon's going to, with
his sword in each hand. Hold on, guys. Wait,
hey, no, wait. Don't do that. You don't know
what I'm going to do. You're going to do something.
Yeah. All right. Room's almost clear. Jules puts
a hand on Chester's shoulder. We got this. You
feel he's trembling. And with the tip of the
sword, he's going to grab like a corner of the
tablecloth and yank it off. Scuttling sound.
You see a hand, a couple hands actually. A board
is, like, almost, like, lifted off the floors.
One of them jumps inside. One almost, like, the
board slaps down in a rush, and one hand's kind
of, like, struggling, trying to, like, open the
board to get in. You see, like, a floorboard
loosened and a hole disappearing beneath the
house. Not a large hole, just small enough for
these small, singular hands. The one you're looking
at, Zebulon, just turns towards you and very
familiarly points a finger. To the kitchen. So
everyone stabs it. Give me an attack roll. Holy
shit. Natural 17. Oh, that's going to hit. Nice.
You don't need to roll for damage. It's impossible
for you not to kill this thing, so just describe
what it looks like. Just sword, hand, through
it. Into the floorboard. Right into the floorboard.
You can hear more almost like panic scuttling
beneath the floor as your blade pokes through
the board just a little bit. Dirt moving, something
digging down below. All right, guys. Well, the
hands went down under the floor, but they want
us to go in the kitchen. Are we going in the
kitchen? I don't want to go in the kitchen. Not
yet. Not just yet. Not just yet. So Zebulon pushes
the table out of the way, opening up that spot
on the floor. Maybe we can rip these floorboards
out, see what's really down there. All right.
Got your back? Do we want to clear out that other
room first, make sure nothing's going to come
up behind us? Well, we know there's zombies in
one room. I was kind of guessing that there'd
be maybe zombies in the other room. That's a
random thing to think when we just cleared out
two empty rooms. But okay. Well, my thought process
is there's a way forward here. There could be
loot in the other room. All right, let's go check.
You can get this one. It is not in my nature
to skip a room in the crawl. By all means, friend.
Okay, let's go. And Jules is gonna... Break through.
Push through everybody. I'm just going to go
check the damn room. So you're going down to
the last room you haven't seen yet. Yep. I'm
going to open up the door and stick my rapier
in. Chester's right beside you. I think Coley
is going to hang out in the hallway between both
of you, sort of keeping an eye on the hall, watching.
Stick your rapier into the room. And you're looking
at a bedroom. Can I roll investigation? Absolutely
you can. First roll. With my blessed d20. That's
a 17. Okay. These rolls are going pretty good.
Yeah, we're doing all right. We're doing all
right. You peek into this room. You see it's
actually surprisingly well put together still.
It looks like the only room not touched and wrecked
and destroyed. The furniture all just as it was
left. The bed neatly made. You see there is a
desk on one side of the room strewn with art
supplies and like a little pile of scraps of
paper. And with your 12, you pick up those papers.
You're looking through them. 17. 17. Oh, yeah.
With your 17. I was like, that's considerably
higher than 12. It really is. You start looking
through, and you see repeating images at first.
Hands, lakes, wide eyes looking up through water.
Eyes with handprints for pupils. And as you're
moving these, shifting them out of the way, you
get down to a pile of images in the bottom. Despite
being in the bottom, these ones look newer. And
at first, it just looks like landscapes. It doesn't
really look like much to you at all. What strikes
you suddenly is how familiar these landscapes
are. And you realize the first image. That was
the coast of Cradle Ace Lake. Looking north,
a POV shot. The next image. Somewhere in the
woods, you vaguely remember the downed tree in
it. Again, looking and moving north. The next
image. You see the farm. Polder's Farm on its
hill. Next image. You see the old road heading
into the farm pact. Next image. You see the farmhouse.
The one you stand in now. I thought you were
going to say something like, you see an image
of the five of you. Yeah, I was like, what are
the hand motions for? That's where I thought
you were going with that. That'd be pretty fucked
up. Yeah. But it's strange. I'm going to take
these drawings, fold them up, put them in my
pocket. Okay. Stick them in the back. You also
notice with your check, you're 17. Thank you,
Michelle. There's a chest against the wall. You
realize it's unlocked. You open it up. Yes, I
do. Reach down. You pull open the chest and you
see overalls. I put them on. You do actually
feel like if you reach in, there's actually like
some weight to them and there's like a sort of
bulging pocket with a number of like plain rings,
wedding bands, formal jewelry. Could be worth
some money. Plus two denim overalls. Holy shit.
All right, I'm going to take this stuff. Okay.
You count 13 rings in total. You don't know what
they depraise at yet, but. Can I roll a check
for the rings to see if they might possess some
sort of power? Arcana. Do you have detect magic?
I do not. It's a 12. You see no arcane script
etched in the side of any of these rings. They
look plain. All right, I just pocket them. And
that's all you see in this room. All right, well,
we're going to start ripping up the floorboards.
All right, I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming.
And Zebulon and Jaune try to get fingers under
that loose floorboard, see if they can pull it
up. Hell yeah. I'll say, as you guys are stepping
out of your room, Chester almost looks calmed
by the fact that you just pilfered some rings.
It's kind of like old style, Tytho style Jules
and Chester antics. Yeah, I don't think Jules
has thievery on the mind here. He's just more
like... That's just second nature. Yeah. If he's
got a handful of gold rings. I'm just going to
pocket it. I mean, I fully intend on, you know,
if after all this we end up selling him, like
it's, you know, zebs in on this too. Oh, yeah.
Potentially Cully, depending on... Hey, I stole
gold rings from maybe your daughter's bedroom.
Here's some of the money from the sale. No, no,
no. I mean, more like I think he's going to have
a moral... He's going to let Cully know he has
them at some point. Oh, wow. I mean, they belong
to his family. I just don't know if I want to
stir anything up at this moment, which is also
why I pocketed the drawings as well. Hell yeah.
So the two of you step in, and just down the
hallway in the dining room, John Franklin and
Zebulon begin to tear up boards. Come up pretty
easy. Slide them to the side, and you're just
looking down a number of, like, golfer -sized
holes, just straight down. Looks like maybe seven
holes. I guess you can't climb down there, so
whatever that big hand thing was, I don't know,
maybe it's not. Jules, it's not here. I'm coming,
I'm coming. All right, I'm back. I'm back. What
do y 'all mean it's not here? It has to be here.
He's here. I can feel it. Well, I mean, unless
you can find a different secret tunnel network,
this is all I got. Cully's in here, looks to
the kitchen. And he says, he thinks about for
a second. Actually, let me roll a check for him.
A natural one. He doesn't say anything. All right.
Let's go home. Clearly ain't here. So, Jeremy,
let me tell you what I'm thinking. My thought
is to take Cully on the porch around to the window
and see if he recognizes anybody. That's an idea
I had not thought of. And I like it. Okay. I
don't think we should split up. I agree. So I
think we should all go. I'm not going to bother
with the map for now, then. I'm just going to
move every token outside. Just move them all
back inside. So you all gather up in a group.
Step outside. Wave hi to Percy. Hey, Percy. Percy's
doing fine. Percy's okay. Move around to the
back. Cully looks in the window. No. No way.
I ain't seen these folk before. Y 'all ain't
in there. Do you think now would be an appropriate
time to tap on the window? Sort of. I would rather
instigate something outside of the house than
inside. All right, Cully, well, stand back. And
Zebulon draws his bow, knocks an arrow, and aims
it. Whoa, hey, what are you doing? You're gonna
hurt those folk. They must be farmers from the
pact here. This would be the central house where
they come to eat. Kiana must be their cook. Ain't
gonna kill those folk, are you? They were farmers
from the pact. Kali, look at them. You don't
know this is permanent. What if Kiana's got those
red eyes? You gonna kill her too? Zeb, I was
just saying knock on the window. Knock kill them
through the window. All right, well. Zebulon's
gonna use steady aim. I'll hold here if you guys...
I mean, you can give it a shot. Maybe let me
knock first. You think you can reason with them?
I don't... Let me knock first. I mean, we have
to get in that room, apparently. And we know
from Promise that these guys are going to attack
us. It's them or us. Unless you want to go tie
them up, Kali. I don't have that much rope. Let
me tell you something. What might call me the
expert on luminaries? I know my heroes. That
ain't heroic. Y 'all want to be luminaries? Y
'all want to be popular? It ain't just about
the mortals. You don't do this. Kali, I'm trying
to survive and make sure that you survive and
make sure that Kiana survives. I want you to
roll me a persuasion check. Holy shit. Still
so blessed now, Dice? Eighteen. Oh my god. Sounds
like it. You see he just, like, his anger begins
to fade. Like in his lips. Alright. Shit. Shit!
Alright. I... I'll do anything to put this behind
me. I won't like it. But I'll keep my mouth shut,
whatever you do. Just get Keon out of there alive,
that's all I'm asking. Zebulon turns over his
shoulder and looks at Jules. Jules? You're really
gonna let this happen? I mean, I get it, but...
Fuck off, David. I'm having a hard time seeing
another way to go. Like, we gotta get in that
room. I suppose. Zeb... We have the legal stance
here. They would be dangerous. Self -defense.
The laws would agree with this path. I will not
stand in the way. Chester. Jules. We trust each
other? Of course, yeah. Through anything? Yeah.
Anything. Yeah. Seb, do your thing. Shit. Alright.
Oh my god. Well, I mean, what do you want me
to do? You want me to talk to them? Do your thing.
I'm not the asshole. You're the asshole. Zebulon
shoots his arrow. Holy shit. Let me show you
what you see in that room, actually. Is that
going to change my mind? I'm putting you in the
room so you can see what you're hitting. You
see there's four targets. There's one. They're
all kind of like lined up in sort of a box in
the middle of the room, just standing there.
There's one closest to you. Blocking the way
to the others. You fire your shot. Give me his
aggro. Can windows just break glass? Can windows
just break glass? Can arrows break? You know
what I meant! I'm guessing so. The thing with
D &D is I always assume it's like, if a movie
can do it, then we can do it. Right. Perfect.
I mean, it's also not like modern day glass.
It's sugar glass. For stunts. My guess is this
glass is thinner than the glass that we know
of. Yeah, that makes sense. 24. Go ahead and
roll damage. Max damage, nine. Right in the back
of the head. Spray of blood. Just all over the
heads of the others in front of them. And the
body drops. And as it drops, you see three figures
turn in your direction and smile. I want you
to roll for initiative. Oh, my God. All right.
Now, I will put everyone on the map. I wasn't
expecting this. Everyone's outside. All right,
Jules got an 18. I'm sorry, 19. And Chester got
a 4. Zebulon got an 18, and Jean got 7. Very
well. With a 19 then, Jules, you're going to
start this off. Behind Zebulon, you're looking
into this room. You see his figures are smiling,
and... immediately just brandishing weapons like
they can find at the tables nearby. One snatches
like a butcher knife. One snatches just like
a carving knife of some sort. They're just grabbing
what they can, bladed objects, and it looks like
they're about to make a move towards the door.
What do you want to do? I think at this point
I just want to ready an action. Okay. So you're
holding strong, waiting. I ain't going in there.
Hell no. Hell yeah. Watching those porch steps.
Zebulon, that's you. All right. Zebulon's going
to knock another arrow. I said that he used steady
aim last time. I didn't take two rolls this time,
though. I am going to do steady aim and roll
with advantage. Nice. 21. That'll hit. First
six damage. With that, you see one of these figures
holding their weapon, looks up out the window.
You raise your bow and arrow about to strike,
and they just say, they look over your shoulder
a little bit, just say, There you are. I see
you, Cully. Cully, see me. I'll be waiting. This
is all your fault. All your fault. All your...
And your arrow, whoosh, right through the eye.
Okay, so I probably didn't need to roll sneak
attack damage then. No. Okay. Let's make good
jobs. Yeah, these things are easy. As easy to
kill as the hands. We just need to get them out
of the room so that we can go in there. Because
they're just innocent little farmers. Yeah. This
is wild. I am a bit flabbergasted. This is crazy.
No, I love this. That's what horror does. It
forces hard decisions, and I think that's amazing.
Right, but this isn't even really a hard decision.
I'm imagining myself watching a horror movie,
and this party of adventurers is in the middle
of an unfamiliar world, in the middle of an unfamiliar
country. They've been chased by all these horrible,
evil monsters, and they know that there are whatever
these zombie things are in the room that they
have to go into. I mean, you're not wrong. Yeah.
But you're also with, like, Jules and Kali and
Chester. Chester was the only one who stood up.
Cool, we tried. You talked him down. Hey, wait,
no. I told you no. Jules told you no. Jules said
I just wanted to knock on the window. And I did
steady aim, and I said, if you want to knock
on the window, go ahead, but I'm going to hold
this. And then we had a discussion, and Jules
shifted. Zebulon just, I mean, like, that's,
Zebulon's force of will just talked everyone
into this path. Um, what happens now? It's on
you. Bloody claws. Speaking of blood, you do
see, of course, the telltale shimmering blood
in these figures' eyes, not falling out, just
kind of a liquid pool. So you know that they
at least have that going on. So that's your turn,
Zebulon? That's my turn. With that, one of these
figures runs to the door and tries to open it.
Can't. I'm going to make an athletics check to
try to bust the door down. Oh, you see the door.
caves in just a bit. The chair scrapes on the
outside. Looks like they'll need one more good
hit, though, to break it down. This figure's
just kicking that door. You crack the window
open. This other figure's going to step up towards
the window, just obscuring your vision, bloody
eyes staring out at you, and just smashes the
glass. I'll make a small check to climb out.
Yep, that'll do it. So they just heave out of
the window, landing in front of you, and it goes
to strike. with a kitchen knife. And misses with
a nat 7. Awesome. Weaves. You easily just kind
of dodge out of the way. This figure's standing
before you. That is going to be Jean Franklin.
All right. Jean Franklin's going to step up and
swing at this guy. 14 to hit. That'll do it.
John Franklin steps up, and he just raises a
spear, goes to plunge it in. He says, like, I
am sorry, but this is self -defense. I will see
that your family is compensated. And just stabs
in. All right, I see you miming with two hands.
So that's a D8 instead of a D6. One hand, never
mind. Here's a shield. All right, fine, D6 plus
one. Minimum damage, only two points of damage.
So they just kind of weave back, almost like
him, almost being hesitant. The weapon kind of
turns in the last second, strikes the shoulder.
Damn it! And they just smile, a bloody smile.
That's Chester. Can I see the map? I will say
this. He won't do it. He won't do it. Not this.
You look, Jules, you look at him, and you can
see in his eyes, his eyes are swimming with tears,
hands shaking. He can't bring his weapon up.
He's trying. He wants to be strong for you. He
can't do it. Can Jules walk over and grab his
short bow? You just reach over and grab it? Mm
-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I'll call that your reaction,
but they'll see they're coming out in your range.
And now that this other one is down outside the
window, do I have line of sight to the one that's
trying to open the door? No. You'd be pretty
much right where Zeb is in front of the window
to see them. Okay. Well, okay. So in that case,
I think I am just taking a short bow, but more
as a reassurance. You don't have to do this.
I'm not going to force you. He just nods in tears,
being this trickle -down, freckled cheeks. Top
of the round. Man, am I a villain? That's you,
Jules. Like, not Zebulon. Is Steven a villain?
So now Jules is going to go around to the side
of this thing, next to Zebulon there. Okay. And
he's going to go in with his rapier. And do nothing
with a four. It misses. This one's wily. Spear
takes a shoulder. Rapier takes nothing as it
weaves to the side again. Barks at a... Actually,
you know what? I didn't roll for Kali. Okay,
I put him in the initiative this turn. First
turn he was hesitant, but now he sees they're
attacking. He's going to be initiative from here
on out. That's Zebulon. All right. Zebulon's
going to put his bow down and draw his swords
and... Go from there. Okay. Just 11 on the first
sword. 23 on the second. Oh, the 23 will hit.
10 damage. What's it look like? Not going to
give you the satisfaction. You cut this person
down as they just turn towards Koli and he gets
a laugh. Come on! Cut him down. It's me again.
You hear a crash from inside. And you know the
door has burst open. Athletics check. And I'm
calling out my actions. You just kind of see
like a figure poking around the side of the building.
You hear feet clomping along the deck. Someone's
coming your way. The last of them. Racing mad
towards you. Holding a fire poker. And now it's
Cully. I think he's just going to position around.
He can't quite reach them, but he steps up to
the stairs, draws out a scimitar. Can you hear
me, son? Are you there in those eyes? Come on
at me. Come on, boy. I ain't scared. That is
going to be Sean Franklin. All right. Sean Franklin
is going to step up next to Kali with his spear
drawn, and he's going to... Hold his action to
strike when this guy comes in range. Okay. And
Chester? He doesn't do anything. He just watches.
That's you, Jules. What would it take to use
Chester's shortbow? Shortbow is a simple ranged
weapon, so I believe that means you could use
it. Okay. With the same to hit and everything?
Yours is going to be based on your dex. So dex
plus proficiency. Okay. So it's a plus two to
hit. That's a 17. Give me damage. That's a four.
Okay. You hit. It strikes into them. Isn't quite
enough to finish them as they run shambling.
Actually, that's going to be Zebulon first. They're
moving. Zebulon, you go ahead. What are you going
to do? Yeah. Zebulon will pick his bow back up
and shoot at him. Okay. You move over beside
John Franklin. Coley, John Franklin, Zebulon,
Jules, all lined up at the base of the deck.
The bottom of the stairs, this last figure, charging.
What do you get? With steady aim, I'm going to
take another roll, actually, because that one
wasn't it. Okay. I don't think that one is either.
That's 11. You fire. It raises the shoulder just
over them. And that's them. It's the last figure.
A burly, bearded man comes roaring down the stairs,
runs right up to Coley, triggering Jean Franklin's
action. You may take your spear attack. Just
a 10. He blocks it, like almost parries it with
his fire poker, and goes to strike at Coley.
Completely misses. You see Coley... Very swiftly
pulls his scimitar out and very skillfully swirls
it from him. Basically knocks his weapon away.
And it's his turn. And this man is open to attack.
That is a miss in the first attack. And a hit
in the second attack. So he does actually strike.
You can see Koli's fast. Two blows very quickly
with his scimitar. And with that second blow,
the one that does connect. Quick sprakes, and
this figure drops Poker down into the wood. As
this figure flops down on the stairs and just
rolls down them. You watch the blood in their
eyes run down the side to their face as they
stare up towards the sky. Under the moonlight,
you stand. Fog rising up, covering the house
before you. The last body is lying on the stairs.
You know the way into the kitchen has been opened.
For you, and you know it is empty. I will say
this, though. When those figures dropped, they
did reveal one thing. One last door in the kitchen.
A door hugging the left wall for you to walk
in from the main door coming from the hallway.
All right. Zebulon stows his bow and withdraws
both his swords. Well, let's finish this. And
starts to move towards the kitchen. As we walk
over, Jules is going to hand Chester Shortwell
back. You reach out, and he's not reacting. He's
just staring at the window, at the body dropped
in front of it. Hey. Huh? Don't have a change.
He takes it. We got to do this. The others are
waiting for us. From here on out, it's self -defense.
Right. Yeah. He just slings his bow over his
back and follows. One last wipe from his sleeve
over his face. Do you all move into the building?
Yeah. Yep. I imagine you all just move into the
kitchen. Straight into the kitchen. You see a
room torn apart, pots and pans scattered everywhere.
Next thing you know, there's rotting food streaking
the floorboards. Footprints hit it where these
folks had run over it. And you see a door to
your immediate left. Last door unchecked. All
right, is everybody ready? I think we're as ready
as we're going to be. Let's end this. No one
else gets hurt. All right. Zebulon opens the
door. You open the door, and you see a small
pantry. It literally has been completely ransacked.
Large cupboard standing open. You do see there
is a trap door on the pantry floor, already open.
You see a ten -foot -tall ladder descending into
a darkened, cold -storage cellar below. Immediately,
a stench of rot strikes you. Something else,
too. Something farther off. Humming. A woman's
voice. From somewhere below. Zebulon turns over
his shoulder. I guess they keep the harmony down
there. What? Way to break the tension, Zeb. Oops,
I meant to say harmony. Of course. All right,
Zebulon climbs down. You're climbing down? Okay.
Climb down into the pitch blackness below. You
stand in this cellar. Shelves bearing root vegetables
and other foodstuffs line the walls around you.
And the south wall has partially collapsed, Narrow
tunnel. And yes, there is harmony. Score. Thank
you. You're not getting a button for that. Pill
for some of that. You hear that humming coming
down from further down the tunnel, which you
can see moving down about 30 feet and then snaking
off, curving into a different direction. Do we
get the map? Oh, scroll down. I'm on the... Scroll
down! All right, well, that was hardly like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Delete the map. Yeah. Why would
I think it was on the same page? I don't give
a shit about your opinions. Yeah, apparently
not, because I'm wrong all over the place tonight.
You see how it curves just ahead. You know how
long this tunnel goes, but you can see that there's
hand marks, claw marks all over the walls. Whatever
dug it. It's pretty big. It's a very familiar
-looking tunnel. I guess I can go first. You
know I'm right behind you. Yep, and, uh... Thank
you, Jules. And Jean? Yes? You stay close to
Kali. He's what we're here for. Kiana's what
we're here for. That's her. I know that's her
voice. You stay behind us. I ain't staying far
behind. Just behind. I'll keep him safe, I promise.
I need him alive, too. As Zebulon grabs the last
jar of hominy off the shelf. What are you doing?
All right, well, let's go. God. And start to
move forward. All of you begin to move down the
tunnel. Zebulon, you can move fine, but I think
Jules, Cully, John Franklin, even a little bit
Chester has to crouch just a bit. It's probably
a five foot or so. But yeah, you do have your
light shining out leading the way ahead so everyone
can follow. But you see that up ahead, Zebulon,
as you move. Turn around a curve. You see another
curve. And it looks like a chamber that opens
up, dug to be a bit larger than the rest. A chamber
beneath the house. Probably right beneath the
floorboards that you saw those small goblins
dropping down into. And as you move here, you
start to hear that humming turn into singing.
If you don't mind, Jeremy, you cue up the Awakening
song. Another claimed. A boy who took his father's
name. Curly with Kiana went to play. Rattle's
maw did grin that day. To water's edge led by
a fool. Swallowed by the hungry pool. But reunited
all will be. Hand in hand with a loved colleague.
And you step into this chamber. The ceilings
around you are dug out to be about 10 feet up,
maybe 15. Some open space to move around. You
see other tunnels snaking off, little gopher
holes. But you don't see any of those hands crawling
around here, no. Just two things greet your vision
in this. About 40 by 40 foot chamber. You see
a woman standing right in the center, looking
at you, singing the song, eyes shimmering red.
Woman in overalls with features that look like
Cully's. With a red bandana tying, her black
curls, her black braids, some spilling down around
her face. She looks... Emaciated. Dark circles
under her eyes. Mouth open slightly as the song
ends. And you see where her right arm hangs down.
A bandage covers her wrist over the stump where
her hand would have been. Bandage. A dark brownish
red. Filthy. Her clothing, filthy. You guys are
stopped in the tunnel. Coley behind you is, What's
happening? Move out of the way, I gotta see!
But you do see, as I said, two things in this
room. Just beyond her. Tucked away in a little
alcove in the back. On the opposite side of the
room from you, you see a pile of a rotting Slick
and bloated and black. Hands look like their
nails are sharpened to points. Just a pile. Lying
on the ground, unmoving, just... What do you
do? So far I only have one idea, but it's not
a smart one. What's that? Well, I see you scrolling,
so I'm hoping you come up with something better
before I have to say it. If you hesitate too
long... I'm going to force an action here. So,
yeah, I don't have any ideas. Jan, grab the girl
and get out. You'll need to move out of the way
for him to get out of the tunnel. Right now.
Holy shit. Zebulon, Jules, and Koli stand in
front of him. Yeah, Zeb's going to walk kind
of halfway up to stand ten feet in front of Kiana.
I think Jules is going to ready himself next
to Cully. If Cully tries to move toward Kiana
or tries to move to get in front of Jean Franklin,
Jules is going to grab Cully by the shoulders
and hold him up against the wall. Okay. You guys
step out of the way. Jean Franklin begins to
move out. The second Cully gets his eyes. On
his knees. Kiana! Kiana! Wait, wait, wait. You
grab him. You push him up. Give me an athletics
check, actually. Opposed. Just wait. Just wait.
Tweener. What do you got? Thirteen. He strolls
past, tries to kick, and you just manage to get
your arm around him just right, and he even gets
a wall. No! Kiana! Just wait. Kiana! Just wait,
wait, wait. Jean breaks past your group. Zebulon
staying in the front, just behind him. Koli up
against the wall. Jules holding them there. Jean
moves over to Kiana. Goes to wrap his arms around
her. His spear is sheathed. Shield on his back,
on his shell. Goes to grab. And Chester at the
entrance of the hole, just looking out into this
opened way. And you hear a voice. Not Kiana's
voice not a Vocal voice not how loud not echoing
to this chamber, but echoing through your minds
all of you Me and Kiana have been waiting for
you. Jean -Francois is grabbing Kiana and she
starts, ah, no, no, no. Just like screaming,
trying to fight him off. No, hey. I'm going to
let Athletics check for them too right now. Give
me Athletics check, Steven. See if Jean can grapple
her. Just an eight. He goes to grab her and there's
something so fierce about her. She's just like.
Kicks up and hits him. He stumbles back just
a little bit. His hand's just barely not reaching
out far enough. And she scoots away from him
and back towards that pile, back towards the
far wall. That voice continues. I'm so glad you
came. There's something I mean to tell you. I
want to tell you. And that pile begins to rise
up. Limbs spreading out. Like many legs of a
spider. Hands start to reach out from this rotted,
bloated pile. Fingers working towards you. I
want to tell you I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm
scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. So,
so, so, so. This figure begins to move towards
you. And we'll call it there.