Alright Podlings, Nix here.
Tagk sent me to fetch wood for the campfire.
He's going to make some of that lovely fish-head stew I like.
Tagk's instructions were a bit like one of Old Nan's riddles.
I've got to GO and get wood... but not go TOO FAR.
But what's too far exactly?
I don't know, I'm just trying to figure it out.
Like there's a bit of good wood just there, see?
But I reckon if I go...
Wooo!
Yeah, too far.
Oh dear, he's still a bit jumpy from our encounter with the mud boils.
We put a fair bit of ground between us and that mud pit now though.
Traveled through the woods a good two hours till we happened upon this lovely spot.
Isn't it beautiful? Sweet as a nut!
A little clearing with wispy grasses growing.
That craggy bit there, scooping round in a horseshoe, makes a lovely spot to tuck into
out of any wind in the night.
Well, most of it... aha-har!
We've tethered the ponies to the branches of that fallen tree and they're munching the
grass.
Very happy.
Right, I reckon that's probably enough wood.
If Tagk wants more, then he'll have to expand my perimeter a bit.
Come on.
Hang about...
Tagk's up to something!
He's pouring some granules from a bag onto the floor.
That's not like Tagk, he don't like waste.
What is it? Llooks like salt.
Very curious.
What's he trying to D&D doo doo?
Hey Tagk, what's going on over here?
Are you seasoning mud?
Just mind your foot.
Erm, no, it's, right...
So I've got this idea, okay?
Right.
So you know those mud things that we were attacked by?
Yeah, those angry squishy mud boils.
Well yeah, I mean what if they come after us in the night?
Well, I think we're alright, it's not that muddy.
You know, they can't really travel around when there ain't mud.
Really?
Yeah, when we fought them in the... they had their own little mud pit which they sort of
sprang from there.
But you know, what if they... I mean they were quite persistent and very very cross
and grumpy.
Oh yeah, they were.
I've not seen them out of the swamp.
I mean the swamp's a very raw sort of elemental magic place where we get... you know...
we get mud boils popping up.
Usually you can just like... they're a bit annoying and you can like... you can have
fun with them just going around.
Have fun?
Yeah.
You can't have fun with them?!
Oh no, no
Those were like vicious.
They were.
Yeah
Yeah, I don't see them that nasty.
Then we get like, you know, walking trees and a bit of living wood going on.
We get some like big fat like loaf-sized slugs in the mud.
Oh my god.
They're great.
They're like really nice ones that you can just like plonk yourself down on.
Alright.
You know, we have a little...
Sit on them?
Yeah, yeah.
They're sort of like, self-adhesive.
So you like stick on them?!
It's a bit like Velcro getting back off again.
Whatever that is.
Vel-croooo!
Yeah, it's a magic spell.
Magic.
Yeah, it's a spell you use to like stick yourself to stuff.
Yes.
A bit like spider climb.
Right, anyway, you get on these slugs, right?
Yeah.
And then we race each other, but they only go a few centimetres every minute.
Right.
So it's like really fun for like two minutes and then you just like get bored and hop off
and carry on with your day.
Pretty cool, eh?
Might, might give it a try.
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe.
Yeah.
It's a unique experience of the swamps.
They sound like they all are.
Pretty much.
Alright, well that's good.
Put these sticks down there.
What have you got cooking?
Well, I thought we'd have some of that fish head stew.
Yes!
I'm refining the recipe each time.
It seems to be coming together quite well.
Right.
Well, you know, I'll have a little look at some bobbing fish heads.
Nix takes a glance in and he sees a fish head and he gives it a little wink.
That's for tea!
I wasn't going to just like dive in, you know.
I see you've got your thing going on here.
You can have that one.
Mad respect to your cooking skills.
I wasn't actually that fussed about like all the seasoning and lardy da, but you know,
you've got skills and you know, I respect that.
You know, cooking ain't my thing.
So I just tend to like bite the heads off.
But yeah, this one, this one right here, it's got my name on it.
I'm watching you little fishy.
You can have that bit.
That's fine.
You're for the hole!
Well, while I'm, why are you having a bit of a cuck up?
A what?
I don't know.
Cook up.
While you're cooking.
Right.
I think I'm going to take a bit of a look at my mechanical talon.
It was playing up.
I mean, I am truly sorry that I almost zapped your noggin off.
What was all that about?
It was just lightning.
Yeah.
Well, it wasn't my finest moment.
I'll give you that.
It's very impressive.
I can imagine it would do a lot of damage if, well, it did do a lot of damage, just not
the thing we wanted it to.
Yeah.
Totally wiped out that tree.
Yeah.
But I'll have a little look at it and see, you know, it's got a bit of a malfunction
going on.
So, Nix is going to roll out his tools, his little leather and fabric pouch, and he's
going to open up the sort of interior and just start examining all the different elements
of his claw, see if there's anything he can do to either make it more efficient or if
there's anything there that he needs to sort of fix.
Okay.
I think while you're doing that and Tagk's working on the stew, you can tell he's trying
to be discreet, but he's really curious and then...
So, is that a bit of you in there?
What, like inside?
Inside?
Where's you?
No, right.
So, the bit of me, I mean, it's all me, really, mechanical or otherwise, but like, yeah,
specifically, like the bit of Gobbo ends just up here.
Like, I've got a little nubbin.
Oh, I thought it was like a big glove.
No, I've got no arm.
Oh! Nix, what happened?
Well, nothing really.
That's just the way I was created.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's no bother.
I've got a mechanical arm, so that's really cool.
That is very cool.
Yeah, so, yeah, I've got my little bit up here, right?
Yeah.
And I made my first arm like when I was like a wee little Gobling.
Oh, that's incredible.
It's very basic, out of bits of wood and like springs and whatever I can find, yeah.
But yeah, I've been upgrading it through the years.
It's a real like passion project.
Yeah, I love it.
So it just joins arm up here.
And then, yeah, I've got a few of these like small crystals that sort of connect and make
a sort of connection up into my body and then it sort of taps into like my...
Are they magic?
Yeah, yeah.
There's a lot of magical elements.
But I mean, a lot of the magic is sort of like through me, I guess.
Yeah.
It's sort of like going into the arm and like connecting like through my body so I can move
it and animate it.
It's like my hide and seeker, Gem then, isn't it?
It's that combination between the person who's using it and the thing itself creates an effect
or something.
That's really smart Tagk.
That's really cool because you're like.
He draws himself up an extra two millimetres.
Oh, it's good to see.
Yeah, because like you must have like innate magic there - to whatever degree - because that
hide and seeker Gem is a connection point to you, just like my little node.
I've got one 'ere look, that sort of a connection point into the rest of my magic system, I
guess.
Yeah, I never thought of it like that, that I was actually like innately magical.
I thought I was just kind of like using the gem like like the gem was a very sort of sophisticated
egg whisk in a sense.
Nix is very, I think he just takes a moment to be like, cool, you know, that's nice and
then he'll sort of get on.
And I think just enjoying a bit more lightness after the battle and after everything.
I think I think tagk as well is quite... he's not as grumpy as he usually would be.
Yeah, yeah, prickly.
That's cool.
So yeah, I'll open up my arm and I'll take a look at all the intricacies.
I feel it's a bit off.
It's a bit off kilter at the moment.
The first thing we need to do is see what happens just on a practical level.
Do a tinkering roll.
OK.
And I think you're plus three.
Oh, five, five.
Oh, no, it is what it is in there.
It's all kind of at the level of your knowledge at the moment.
I mean, you can give it a little bit of a clean and a tidy up.
But other than that, it's like, well, mechanically, it's sound as far as you can tell.
And you'd either need different equipment or materials or get input from someone else
to just push it on mechanically.
Nice.
OK.
I need to find myself some little bits and bobbins.
Yeah.
I've been in nature for quite some time, so I've just got like bits of string.
Yeah.
All right.
But what you can do, though, is have a look at the magical side of it.
You know, following on from the wild magic surge that you had earlier in the day, you've
still kind of carrying some of that residual charge that you feel you could maybe tap into
and just see if it can, you know, create some little alchemy or connections within the magical
elements of the claw.
Yeah.
All right.
Cool.
All right.
So if you want to roll for it'll be Arcana.
Yep.
Arcana.
Oh, nice.
So that's 19 on the dice plus four.
Twenty three.
Wow.
OK.
You know, mechanically, the arm is where it is, but magically, as you are sort of soaked
through with the goodness of the mud that you were immersed in, and then you had a wild
magic surge, which was connecting you to the elemental forces within the mud itself.
And it absorbed through your skin, charged you up with all that gobliny goodness.
You feel the magic surging from you into the magical crystals within the arm, and they
glow with a muddy goodness.
Oh, that feels really good.
And you can tell that there's an enhanced richness and focus between yourself and these
gems in the connection points within your arm.
I think Nix's mohawk is sort of like waving in the air.
Oh, lovely.
Like there's a sort of...
Mud kelp?
Mud kelp.
Yeah.
Lovely.
Like orange mud kelp.
Just waving the little sparks.
Beautiful.
And you can probably see these little connections running through what would be his veins, running
sort of down and around and down his arms, passing through his nubbin to the mechanics
of the arm itself.
I think this will actually be visible, and I think Tagk can actually see this happening.
And Tagk is going to go very, very still, and his eyes go very, very wide, and the ladle
slips from his grasp as he sees these green veins bulging in one side of your face and
down your neck and shoulder.
Nix, what's happening?!
Are you doing that thing again?!
I think I'm oblivious to what Tagk's doing because I'm just like ultra-focused.
It's just like an internal light that I'm just...
Okay, I think you need to roll for a wild magic surge.
Okay.
I'll get my little chart out there.
I am absolutely buzzing.
That's a three.
Three.
Okay, so as this...
You're having another wild magic surge the second of the day, and it's swelling up inside
you, and there's a tremor in the ground beneath you, and then around the campfire.
The flames themselves seem to draw in the power, and they take on a more muddy hue.
They surge into the air in a great shaft of fire that forms a column around a little cooking
pot.
And I think Tagk needs to see if he can jump out of the way, so it would be a dex save.
And he fails his dex save.
And he's going to take...
He's going to take three points of damage.
Oh no.
The flames themselves, like I said, a big column of flame all around the cooking pot,
and it takes quite a while for them to subside, and you can feel the heat coming off them.
Tagk's legged it, he's behind a bush somewhere, and when it all settles, there's just a rather
strong smell coming from the cooking pot, and Tagk comes over, stares at the pot, very
gingerly lifts the lid.
Oh well that's just great!
What are you doing?
What keeps happening, Nix?
I think at that point, Nix just comes to, and he's like, oh, what's that smell?
That's our tea!
You went all bulgy and veiny and glowing and...
Oh, all right, oh, okay.
What keeps happening, Nix?
Your face is all like, sooty.
All black face and no eyebrows.
Yeah, he's sort of patting down his tunic.
I'll give him a bit of an end with that as well.
I'm really sorry about that.
I mean, it felt amazing, but yeah.
I surged.
What is it?
Why do you keep doing this?
I can't help it.
I have a very raw, wild magic ability.
Do all goblins do this?
Nah, nah, some can.
You know, it's quite rare, but we've all got different things that we're good at and special
little gifts, I guess.
But my thing is...
Special little gifts?
Yeah.
I don't know if I can save this.
And he starts going through his flavorings.
Any bits that you want, I'll gladly...
I'll go and grab some mushrooms from around the place.
I do apologize for my random...
No, I don't know if I haven't had enough to deal with today.
It's been a shocker, hasn't it?
It really has, yes.
I mean, I might have thrown a spanner in the works, but you're all right.
There was no great column of fire
When we were fighting the mudboils, that would have been really useful.
You just started looking really, really like...
I don't know, pleased with yourself.
You started looking really healthy.
Yeah.
It's very...
What's the word?
Inconvenient?
Hazardous?
Borderline unfriendly?
Well, yeah, that's all good stuff, Tagk.
You know?
It gives me...
What I'm getting from your reaction is this is entirely normal and could happen at any
time.
And sometimes it will be something that makes you look really healthy and sometimes it will
be something like a great jet of fire leaping up and ruining our tea.
Well, yeah, I'm not going to lie about it.
That can happen from time to time.
And if I get the opportunity, I'll give you a heads up.
I might not because it might be funny, but yeah, I'll give you a heads up, he says under
his breath.
This is something I got from when I was first created in the fungus glades.
Before I found my community and family, this was a gift given to me.
My name actually relates to this.
So you see I'm missing my arm and that's something I've never had and it's something I've never
missed.
Right.
But Nix means like something lost for something gained.
So I always take it that that's what my Elders and my adopted family sort of called me because
you know, I didn't have my arm, but I had this other unique gift like given to me by
the earth.
That's beautiful.
So, Tagk listens to this and you see his face kind of softens and the irritation is replaced
by something else, which is like a surprise and then a kind of a respect.
Yeah, yeah, cool.
We need to do your... the results.
We actually got your results of what happened with your wild magic surge.
So your claw now has... plus one as a magical item to your claw to your mechanical hand.
That's great.
And maybe in the future you can get some input on the mechanical side of things or find some
better gubbins to upgrade it.
Nix will be keeping an eye out for some shinies.
Your damage goes from 1d6 to 1d6 plus two.
Works for me.
[Outro] I don't know, Invisible Ears.
Not only is this stew looking rather burned, I'm a bit singed myself.
This is starting to feel like rather a lot of bother to go to just to collect my stash.
But if I abandon it, then I'll have to start from nothing again.
Collecting the gold I need for Bathanax. She'll not let me back home without it.
Big bossy dragon!
You know what, I'd never dare say that at home.
Perhaps I am starting to get a little braver.
What do you think?
I did manage to defeat that big mud boil after all.
What a day eh?
Well at least we're in one piece.
Come to think of it, Nix is sort of in two pieces isn't he?
Although he did say his mechanical arm is part of him.
I wonder if I'd hatched with one arm whether I'd have been able to make myself a new one
like he has.
Funny, isn't it, how we all have different things we find difficult and easy.
I'm just making a stew and Nix looks at the pot like it's a conjurer's bubbling cauldron.
Mind you I don't think there's much I can do to bring it back this time.
Great jet of flame.
A wild magic surge he called it.
A blooming shock and a nuisance is what it is.
I need to put my cooking spoon down.
Oh thank you very much.
It's that boulder again.
It's just rolled itself under the spoon like a little table.
It's still here that rock.
It rolled with us all the way to camp and just seems to want to be underfoot.
I keep tripping up.
I wonder if it's still going to be here in the morning.
What does it want do you think?
Anyway time to give this stew a go I suppose.
Wish us luck, Invisible Ears... and sturdy constitutions!