Hello Invisible Ears! It's part 3 of our fight with the Mudboils. There were 3 at first,
2 medium sized and 1 big beefy fella. Nix managed to get the 2 smaller ones fighting
each other and the ferocious boulder kept bashing away at the big one, but then it
grabbed me and lifted me up into the air and started squeezing me. Lucky for me that mud
is slippy I suppose because I was able to wriggle out and from then on I kept my distance.
Instead I hurled my sword like a javelin and can you believe it I hit it and it popped
in a shower of mud. But was it all over? Nope. I think Nix thought it was because he dived
into the mud pit and started doing what looked very much like wallowing to me, but - horrors!-
where the big mudboil had spattered down, 3 small mudboils popped up! They might not be
as big but they are definitely as bad tempered. I want to get out of here but Nix is still
in the mud. What's he trying to D&D do do? There's some patches of bubbles coming up,
I don't know where they've gone. Nix look there's 3 more. Oh my word! I think he's
going to, he's quite a nippy little dude, he's going to run around the mud pit but keeping
his distance from the 3 mudboils and he's trying to get to you. Can we just get out
of here? But after Tagk it's the 3 new mudboils. Oh dear. They're going to start making their
way towards you and one of them is going to get an attack of opportunity on Tagk as he
runs around. Got ya. And there's also the boulder at the edge as well which is on the
far side so they're basically going to peel off one each and try and attack. So Tagk is
running around to you, but one is going to get an attack of opportunity on him but they
roll at disadvantage. Careful, Tagk! And he's just... Oh it's so sticky! This is just not
your natural environment. Oh that's good. A 9. Oh nice. A nice low 9. So. We'll have
it. Yeah that'll work won't it? 9. It swings this mudboil, isn't quite close enough. Tagk's
got a bit of speed on him and swipes but misses. In your face mudboil. So there's one is bearing
down on Nix. I've had enough of these muddy marauders. So does a 1 hit? No. Not a sausage.
Right, so just yeah too far away. They're these ones they're like those little dogs that think
they're much bigger than they actually are so he just misjudges there's no point. Little
yappy type mudboil. Yeah a little yappy type mudboil. Second one is going to go for the
boulder, which is still on the side, the little rock that's still on the side of the
shore. Does a 13 hit? No and misses. Great. How's the rock looking? The rock's looking
well hard. Yeah. Yeah very muddy. And then the last one is going to come for Tagk. So
the mudboil would still be rolling at disadvantage because he's dodging. So let's see an 8 would
not hit and neither would a 7. So, wow, these yeah they've only just formed. Everything must
be still a bit blurry for them,they don't hit anyone. They're young, they're naive, they
know nothing of the world! They think they know everything. Yeah, it's the boulder. Go
boulder. Get rolling. At them. Not away. We need all the help we can get. You notice that
it starts to move again as if on a central point and then starts tumbling and rolling
and tumbling and rolling. Curious. And the light starts to build up from inside starts
deep within the rock swells outwards until the whole thing is illuminated all lit up
with this bright light and then there's a sudden flash and... You Nix, you feel this wash
of light crushing over you. Does it smell good? The sniff is good. The sniff is good.
I'll take it in. And it heals you for three five points of damage. Wonderful. I was getting
very tatty around the edges. Yeah your tatters were frayed. Your frays were tattered. Right
I was on four I've just gone up to me top which is seven. Oh, you're looking juicy again.
Oh, green and plump. And very, very muddy. Thank you. I recognize your smell and it is good.
The boulder starts to... you see it turn its head. You're getting a sense of which way
is forward for this little this little stone now, and you see that it's turned its attention
back to the mudboil closest to it. Right. And now it's Nix. Right then, well. I just need
to interject a little bit. Okay, please do. Actually with Nix. Nix has been casting quite
a bit of magic so far in this. I can see where this is going! Yeah. During this fight
so far. Something's surging. Yeah, Nix can probably feel the wild magic charge starting
to build up inside him. So the connection that you have with the magic of Meraki is
very deep and pure. But the barriers that other magic users might face whilst training
and learning how to use all these different spells which you don't have those barriers
and it might be very frustrating to those who are learning the magic, but it does actually
keep them safe. And Nix doesn't. Boring! Yeah. But Nix doesn't experience magic in the same
way as this. They call that proficient. I call that dull! So, I was just wondering what
is it like for Nix when he's been casting magic? Oh man, I think he starts getting a
real sort of flow of almost tidal, on a sort of micro scale. You know his mohawk's crackling
more and his eyes starting to get a bit twitchy. And all this elemental power is sort of surging
up from the ground and from the atmosphere around him. Wonderful. You're feeling this
energy which is, as you say, it's coming up from the ground which is where Nix came from, but
also from every living thing in Meraki. It's kind of like... it's drawing in. It's just your
skin's porous and you're filling up and up and up and the charge is building and it's
got to go somewhere. Yeah. There's like this sort of pulsating sort of wub wub wub. A bit
wub wub. A bit wub wub, yeah. I'm feeling the elemental bass bass lines. Cool! So you're
going to have to roll for a wild magic surge. Now this is if you roll a d20. Nix has it
pretty good with his magic I think. So, I think you know you don't really have the chance
to escape this. You've cast three spells so now something is going to happen. Alright,
yeah, fair. Right I'm rolling my d20. Alright. Alright. I'm rolling. Okay. Are you ready?
11! Okay, so if you could roll a d4. Right d4 here we go. It's a one. Okay you get one
temporary hit point. Oh nice. I'm up to eight. I'll do that as a specifically as a temp.
Oh no. Yeah. There's a box here and everything! Temporary hit points: one, in a box. Oh that felt
great! I think I mean there you are in the mud as well. You're back in your element, as it were
and it's as if you're able to just the the surge building up in you acts as a kind of conduit
between you and the mud itself and you're able to extract the essence of muddiness from the mud
so that it rejuvenates your cells and you are... well, you're feeling pretty good. Oh great! This
is like being back in the swamp! I've been getting soft around the edges being in that log cabin.
You were getting a bit crispy? Yeah, I've had it too good for too long and I need to moisten up. Get
my frog on. Aw! Does Nix ever sort of just sort go up to his nose? Oh yeah - just make some
little bubbles, yeah. Poking his ears out. Is that what you're doing now? No. No. Okay. What's Nix
going to do? I'm gonna with my revitalized being I'm gonna rush forward and I'm gonna shocking
grasp this closest little mud boil. Well that's a good idea shocking grasp worked very well last
time didn't it? Yeah so that's a cantrip. Yeah. 1d8 lightning damage. Yeah. So I've got to hit first.
Okay. Oh no that's a five. No that misses I'm afraid. You're still quite weighted down by the
mud at this point. Every single of my many pockets is just like full of mud now which is great. Yeah.
All my little uh knickknacks and do-wotsits uh had a nice bathe - they probably feel as good as
I do. So it's Tagk to go next and he's just been swiped at, so he's going to turn and he's going to
go for that one with his shortsword and misses. Oh. And then it's the mud boils, so the first one...
that's on you does a eight hit. Nah. And the one that's going for Tagk does uh what's that five hit?
No. And then one's going for the boulder. Ten? No! It's just a mess, it's just absolute...
people are slipping... even the things that are made of mud are slipping in the mud. It's just chaos.
So the boulder is going to go for the one closest to it. Right, we can do this. Come on team.
And misses.
Nix. Right, uh, what am I doing? I'm gonna do shocking grasp again. Yeah. Yeah, keep it Cantrip.
Come on. Seven. Misses. Tagk. Oh I never I never added my my thing on. What thing? My attack bonus.
Oh yeah. Right well that's Tagk doing that thing - he was trying to get his short sword out
of the scabbard again. He's got the short sword out the scabbard this time and he's gonna go for
a mud boil ...19! Nice. So that would be a 23 so he hits and that's, um, he's very good actually.
Oh one plus three points of damage. Oh that gets it. Nice. Yeah that's only a little one. Boom.
Right, mud boils's go. There's two left. There's a one that's on you, Nix. Does a
11 hit. It doesn't. Misses. Um and then the one that's on... I duck deftly out of the way.
...that's on the Boulder, misses and it's the boulder's turn. All right. And the boulder's going to bash at it.
And hits! Yes! Yes and does come on. Four points of damage. You beautiful boulder! That's that one
gone. Right. Yeah it is, it's Nix. All right back to me. I'm gonna do it again. All right, come on.
Eight. Misses. Um Tagk, is um gonna go for the one on you. I think my claw is malfunctioning here.
Seven plus. That's not gonna do it is it. Does it. That hits. Yes. Um, so roll a d6. Six. Splat.
A mighty blow. Go away!
And the final mud boil explodes into a spray of mud. After a bit of a moment and just like...
can I make a perception check just to make sure that nothing's uh. Yeah make perception.
... gonna sneak up on us. No more surprises. Right. Two. Watch out! They could come from anywhere!
From the sky! From the ground! On a two you see something moving in the mud. You dive for it...
Grab it. I'm just going. Get here you. Get here. And as you do so at the same time something grabs your foot.
And then you realize it's you grabbing your own foot.
I'll have you! Ow!
Are you going to stay in the mud? No, I'll get out. I sort of, like, you know, I'll
climb out of the mud and then I'll sort of, you know, I'll rub it around. You know, give my skin
a bit of a moisturize. You know, just wipe it over my face a bit and just let it dry there. Get all
nice and crusty. Quite muddy isn't it? Yeah, don't worry the nice bit is right. Once the sun's like
baked you a little bit. Yeah. You can all peel it off and it's dead crusty. Oh, it's so satisfying!
...Right. Is there anything that Nix would like to do at this point? I would like to uh walk over to
this uh beautiful elemental boulder and I want to take a deep goblin bow and say thank you
beautiful elemental boulder. You honor us. Okay um well I'll roll for the boulder.
Is that six? Six. It doesn't appear to be paying you any attention at all. It appears to be
looking into the mud. Very occasionally sort of moves side to side as you might do if you were
looking. Yeah. For something. Could I uh well, I'll uh talk directly to the uh boulder. You know trying
to use a bit of my uh sort of chaotic magic intuition, if you will. Are you still thinking
that those uh mud malarkeys are still about? Or are you looking for something else I wonder?
You can make an animal handling check. That would be uh wisdom which I have uh plus two. Right.
That only rolls ones! Right. We don't use that one anymore! You're banned. Unless we want to roll
ones. You're going in dice jail! Yes. Judgment is passed. Um. So that's a three. That's a three.
Um, it gives no again no indication of hearing you or engaging with you um but it suddenly just sort
of starts forward a little bit... and then starts to sort of jiggle and move a little bit as if excited...
and you notice that there's some movement in the mud. All right. 'ere, tagk? What? I
think um this boulder's looking for something. Well. Maybe you could try. There's not more are
there? I mean I'm not picking up a lot uh you know. Roll for perception then. Yeah. Tack's got...
Oh, Tagk rolls with advantage because Tagk's got pin drop hearing. Oh well that's brilliant anyway.
So yes what do you reckon? Look! And you follow Tagk's quavering little finger
not his little finger, perhaps he points with his little finger, his quavering little finger
into the mud not far from where the the big boulder is and you see there is actually some movement
and as you watch four and then five small shapes move out of the mud, just little pebbles
oh look at that! There's a larger one, there's a really small one and then there's three sort of
in between... yeah and they're all drenched in mud but they go over to the big boulder and they just
kind of roll themselves onto the big boulder until they're kind of on top. Oh wonderful!
Are those... maybe they got bashed off you in that fight? You fought very bravely, Rock.
It did, didn't it, it was like it was he just kept bashing at that big massive creature. What was
going on with that creature i mean what is... what is going on with this rock what is going on...THAT
is my point, like i'm gonna do a list - my list is what is going on with this rock what is going on
with this mud what is going on... on! Right, what you need, i think, and you know this might be a stab in
the dark, are some answers to ease that fretting mind of yours. I think first of all i want to know
do i need to be running in any particular direction? Let me do another list do i want to be running
that way do i want to be running that way? Well... And as Tagk says that the little rock starts moving...
it's moving towards Tagk. No, no, no! says Tagk. the boulder keeps going. I'll try and uh... Tagk, Tagk it's all right
i've got you. It's getting closer. Just, just be calm, i'll um put my my muddy goblin hand out like uh
you know putting it out there for like a small dog to like have a sniff at so it knows that we're
not a threat. Oh nice, okay. No fast movements, let it have a little sense of you okay? And the boulder
continues to roll right up to him and the little pebbles on top they kind of roll themselves but
they roll so they can stay on top if that makes sense they're rolling and the bigger ones rolling
and it rolls right up to Tagk's leg and stays there and Tagk goes very, very still.
Ha ha, right. And... nothing happens. Now what, Nix? What's it doing? What's it doing, Nix?
It's not doing anything. Let's write a list of all the things it isn't doing
It's not leaving. It's not attacking, it's not attacking, okay, right so. Well well
we'll just let it have its little moment. Yeah, it just stays there
all right maybe uh have a very gentle walk, like just a few steps back, nice and slow, i think. If
it does anything, you've got to go for it Nix, okay? You got to stop it, all right? Let's... i think
we're re all right, let's just see what happens
Alright podlings! Thanks for having our backs in that battle. It was good to know you were there.
how do i know you're there? Well sometimes i just get these knowings, like i've got with this boulder
i just know that it is an honorable stone, i'm sure of it - it healed me earlier remember? But, poor Tagk...
he don't know it yet. There he goes, far from what i would call relaxed. Can you see how Tagk's heels
don't touch the ground? Mine do. I think yours do too, don't they? Tagk's got those ziggy zaggy legs
some creatures have - all the better for springing away. There's a space between Tagk's heel and the
ground, see, and the boulder seems to like that space very much. It's tucked itself under there
and is rolling along quite happily. And look at those five little pebbles rolling with it!
ah sweet as a baby bog lump. I'm starting to get an inkling... an inkling of what this boulder is
and where it's from, have you? But it's time to say farewell for now, marvelous podlings.
As Old Nan would say, 'love what you do what you love!' She frequently talks in circles does Old Nan,
well they're more sort of ovals with lumps and bumps, sometimes it's a rhombus - ever seen a rhombus?
they're incredible! They're also known as a 'goblin square'...