Last time on Crown of the Kobold King, our heroes gathered information in Falcons Hollow
and also more questions about what is going on in the town.
After an awkward visit in the Rogue Lady brothel, they venture into the forest towards Droshkar's
Crucible.
Halfway there, they rest for the night, only to be disturbed by a zombie kobold.
Our heroes reach the Crucible in the morning with no sign of the large warg.
The statues in the area had plaques written in dwarven, but nobody understands that language.
They decide to check a guard tower and exterminate a large spider.
Our story continues now.
Now, that you find yourselves in this dusty room, next to a dead spider surrounded by
ancient looking crates covered in cobwebs, though recently smashed, there is a brickety
staircase to the side that leads further up the tower.
What do y'all want to do?
Let's fumble around in these boxes.
Yeah, definitely want to look around the boxes.
What's in the boxes?
15 perception on the crates and ore barrels.
It's higher than me.
Higher than me.
Holy shit.
Copcorn, as you look over the crates and barrels, most of them are just in ruins.
It looks like they've been recently looted.
The only way you can tell is that the obvious time-worn exterior has exposed chunks of shattered
wood.
Looks like something came through here, smashed through the crates and barrels, and probably
took everything they could find within them.
As you look around the room, you see that rickety staircase and you notice that there
are more than a few of the plaques missing.
The thing almost looks like it might collapse just from breathing on it wrong, but at the
very top you can see what looks like a platform that itself seems to have some crates and
barrels.
Lift me up.
Put me up there.
You sure?
I mean...
Search.
Don't breathe on it.
Just don't breathe.
All right, I'll hold my breath.
I'll pick you up.
Picks up Scarab and put some, as high as you can, probably still on the stairs, but trying
to pass anything dangerous.
Or if that's too complicated, we can just have one of us just walk.
Up-ies!
Okay, so you're holding Scarab up.
Scarab, you're gonna try to grab onto the stairs and pull up and be about halfway up.
Go ahead and lift yourself up and give me a flat check.
No acro or athelette?
Flat check.
Ooh, how a 13 do for ye.
As you grab onto the staircase and begin to pull yourself up, you hear the wood creak
and groan and you hear an alarming snap, but the stairs seem to hold.
Dust, rumbles, and fetters down below.
As you pull yourself up onto the staircase and you're able to quickly scramble up to
that platform.
Perhaps I'm too heavy with my pig, hence the pig.
Yeah, so if I'm up there, I'll definitely go into crouch mode, be in sneak in case there
be any more spiders.
It's a very small platform and you're near the ceiling of this tower.
There are small windows that allow you to see out over the courtyard and there are,
I would say, half a dozen crates and barrels here assorted, although many of them seem
to have been rotted.
The windows themselves are not covered more just like portholes and so the weather has
gotten in and kind of worn away at some of them.
Although one of the crates in particular does appear to be in comparatively good shape.
Yeah, party willing, I would like to scope out this whole area as safely as possible.
I guess it's less about sneak and more about watching your footing.
No.
Run.
Just kidding.
I'll allow it.
I will say that the section of flooring up top is far sturdier than the stairs.
It seems the stairs were probably not the strongest when they were constructed and time
has only done its thing.
For damn sure.
Yeah, I'd like to look through it.
Okay.
Through the stuff and afterwards look out those windows.
Peering over the crates and barrels, two of them, one of them has all but disintegrated.
You can see the wood is like laden with holes.
The other one has a large crack at the bottom with a gross blackish stain left behind as
if it once contained some sort of liquid that has long since drained out.
Another of the crates has its lid opened, left that way in position and the wood itself
is thin with rot and time and you can see what you assume to have once been some sort
of grain or food that has by this point reduced to dust.
But there is one crate off to the side that is low to the ground.
It's kind of like a long short box.
Long box.
And that one itself seems to be, although aged, it is intact.
Hmm, baseball cards.
Yeah, definitely want to...
Is it big enough to like just pick up or small enough to pick up or just open it up?
It's probably about two to three feet long, maybe about half to a foot wide and the same
tall.
Hmm, check for traps?
Sure.
Oh, 23.
As you give the box a once over, you do not detect any traps and you also don't see any
locks.
It appears to be any simple latch to open.
Yeah, let's open that shit up.
Okay, as you open the box, you appear inside and you see a very old moth eaten cloth that
seems to be wrapped around something.
Unwrap the cloth.
Before you is a short sword.
You can give me an appraisal if you'd like.
I would like to.
Fancy.
Not incredible.
Twelve.
Twelve is enough to see.
No ordinary short sword.
This one appears to be made of cold iron.
Oh, cold iron short sword.
This is no good in my hands.
I'd be happy to sell it later if no one wants to use it.
He's going to throw the sword down to you guys.
I rolled it.
No, he's going to hold it by the blade and pass it down.
Handle first.
Fancy.
Any other goods to look through up here?
It doesn't look like it.
He would like to do a scan through the windows to see if there's anything of interest now
that he has a bird's eye view.
Sure.
Let's first look out from the fort.
Okay.
Looking out, you can see very much the direction you approach from, just kind of like a wide
open field that then gives way to the forest beyond dense copse of trees.
You don't really see anything that stands out.
You might see the odd movement of a deer moving between the trees or a bird taking flight,
but nothing that stands out.
I guess.
I'm sorry if this is too much, just getting into it.
What?
Does this seem like a lookout tower?
Is it more just?
You would think that this was probably a guard tower, especially given the stores of what
may have been rations at one point, the arms that were left by, they probably would have
had somebody up here keeping an eye out.
And looking over the courtyard, anything interesting aside from what we've already seen?
As you move to the other window, you denote that in the northeastern corner of the courtyard
that the wall has either been smashed or has lost itself to time as it is degraded down
into nothing more than a pile of rubble, you kind of see like the barest hints that maybe
something has started to give way roundabouts here.
Like there is some sort of way it looks like you might be able to go in if you would like
to go in a way other than through one of the two doors in the courtyard and reaffirming
the things that you saw before from above, you get a better idea of these like creature
made paths that are here.
It seems that whatever cobblestone or stone that would have been in this courtyard has
been like long overgrown by grass, but something has been moving through consistently to create
these like swathes of dead grass that create obvious paths.
Yeah, that's man.
There's just always more questions.
Zombie cobalt, regular cobalt, people being dragged to and fro, like what did this?
Is this just time worn or did somebody take this place by force?
And is that who we're dealing with?
Either way, Scarab's gonna come back down.
Okay, as you step back onto the staircase, I'm gonna need another flat check.
Careful.
Catch me!
That's a six.
Jacques prepares to catch him.
Colonel's looking at the short sword.
Wow.
Jacques stands there with his hands open like, oh, oh, oh, oh, or his arms open.
So as your head turns from the open window overlooking the courtyard and you move back
towards the stairs, you plant your first small scaly foot on the step and the wood again
groans and dust begins to fly again.
And then you take another step and another step and then you hear a crack as the stairs
begin to fall and you begin to plummet.
Jacques, go ahead and roll me a, let's say, athletics to catch.
Natural 20.
Wow, dude.
With grace.
Yes, finally.
With grace and ease, you catch him like a pillow and peer away, but above you, the rest
of the stairs begin to collapse and fall on both of you.
I need the two of you to roll me a reflex save to avoid the falling rubble.
Ten.
Nineteen.
OK.
So Jacques catches Scarab and just immediately just shoves him away.
What's happening?
What are you all doing?
Just slowly the whole thing.
What's going on?
Scarab right after Jacques catches you, the entirety of the stairs begins to collapse and
wood and stone falls down on the two of you.
Jacques, you see this and realizing you won't have enough time, you turn down shielding
Scarab from most of the blow as you begin to try to run away.
However, a large chunk of stone and wood clobbers you in the back for 14 points of blood damage,
sending you sprawling forward and impacting Scarab on the floor for seven points of bludgeoning
damage.
Jacques is unconscious and dying.
Oh my God.
Lay on hands.
Oh, actually, no, he's not.
He's at one HP.
OK, still, regardless.
Ouch.
So much damage.
Lay on hands.
How much?
Six points.
I'm going to use a resolve to get my statement up.
Yeah, so short rest, everyone.
Sorry, I got heart palpitations.
Yeah.
So what a start.
Yeah, I don't I don't even know how to.
I'm I'm so not not I wasn't expecting this to happen like right at the beginning.
I don't even know how to like role play that happening so fast.
He's just he's just standing there waiting and catches scarab and is crushed, crushed
almost to death.
And I don't know.
You just get up, dust yourself off.
Let's go look at other stuff.
Come on, then things for the help.
Yeah, that was wild.
I can't breathe.
It's dusty.
I almost died.
Yeah, we've all been there.
Well as you stand among the dust, plume and rubble, it seems there's not much left in
here for you.
Yeah, I happily walk outside of this disgusting building.
Yes.
Yeah, let's leave.
So you make your way back out into the courtyard and you find before you three now paths of
entry to the west.
You see a large set of double doors, old and creaking on their hinges partway open to the
north is yet another door singular also in equal disrepair through time on its hinges.
And then there is the route that scarab saw to the northeast above the rubble and through
what you presume to be a destroyed wall.
Who wants to take a risk?
I already had my fun.
I'm not sure what else to do.
Did we already look at that statue?
Yeah.
Yes.
If I remember correctly, there was a placard beneath it in a text that none of you recognize.
Yeah, it was Dwarven.
Could we possibly do like a society check or something to see if we remember anything
about like a Dwarven fort or something?
Yeah.
I think we can do that.
24.
When the two of you were speaking in town, gathering information, you would have heard
talk of the old Dwarven monastery, the guarding place of Droskar's crucible.
And the cobhorn, you would have remembered in your conversations with people that it
wasn't always called Droskar's crucible, but the name itself has kind of faded into obscurity.
So you don't remember anything beyond it hasn't always been called that.
But both of you do remember that Drueingar, the Dwarven gentleman who went looking for
Droskar's crucible, this is what he was looking for.
Or at the very least, you remember this is pertaining to what he was looking for.
Guys want to hang out for 20 minutes?
Yeah, I've got no focus points.
Wait, so what would you be doing?
Just refocusing for two focus points.
I could sit and take a rest.
Is that something everyone can do?
Yes.
You can when you take a 10 minute rest, you can either do four stamina or four focus.
And it's one per?
Yeah, 10 minutes per point.
Take the 10 from us using a focus point.
I already did that to get my stamina.
So we already all of us already spent 10 minutes.
So it's going to be 30 minutes total.
I mean, you guys could poke around and stuff while Colonel sits.
I'd like to assess my wounds.
Yeah.
Even if we are cheating.
Good for us.
No, man.
No.
I mean, Cody can stop us at any time and say some old guy.
Yeah.
Right, Cody.
Cody can stop us, right?
Right, Cody.
You have all you can do whatever you need to.
We're fucking done here.
No, no.
I need perception checks around the table, please.
Twenty two.
Seventeen.
Twenty seven.
Baby.
All three of you notice as you sit here in the courtyard, resting and recollecting yourselves
to the south beyond the opening, leading back from whence you came.
You see those two wolves circling the perimeter of the monastery.
They have not yet noticed you.
Quickly.
We should go inside.
Yeah.
You want to go to the north door or the west door?
West north or northeast?
Northeast.
There's a break in the wall.
You want to leave?
No, it looks like it might lead back in.
We could try the north door, but.
Don't want to be seen.
It doesn't matter.
We need to go quickly now.
Okay, we'll try the north door.
The door.
Colonel, we'll try to open the door.
As you quickly make your way within the interior of the building, you push aside the old time
rotted door and then slowly move it back into place.
You find yourself in a long hallway to the east that seems to end in some form of statue
at the far end of the hall, the wall behind it blown away by some form of time or destruction.
To the west, you see the hallway curves off to the side, but you also notice two doors,
one of them on the north and then one just beyond it, also leading to the north before
the hallway curves to the south.
To directly across the hall from you is a yet another door next to the dwarven statue
heading north.
Let's open a door.
Yeah, let's get out of this doorway so they don't see us.
Go to the first door.
Okay, so there's a door here to the northeast.
There's a door here and then just beyond it is another door.
And then the hallway curves to the south this way.
This is the mentioned statue and there's a door again just right next to you there.
I think we should go through that door.
Yeah.
Since it looks like there may be a way out.
An exit plan.
Check for traps.
Plus three, Cody.
You do not detect any traps.
In fact, there is barely a door here.
The door itself almost seems to have been blown in half and as you approach and look
beyond the room or chamber rather seems shattered.
Much of the outer wall and ceiling have been completely blown out of this room.
It has very tall vaulted ceilings above that that still remain cast in shadow.
It seems almost like it would have been if you were to hazard a guess some sort of study
at some point.
Yeah, let's just do it.
Does it look like it was blown out or blown in?
It is hard to tell because it looks a bit of both.
You have rubble and stone on the interior and exterior of the room.
No cannonballs or nothing laying around?
No, not that you can see.
There is a lot of rubble in here though.
Are there any other doors in here or is it just out?
No.
What you can see is some old shredded tapestries on the wall to your left or to the west rather.
The northern and eastern walls have been blown out almost in entirety and so the warm light
from outside is spilling in.
The ceiling seems to have been vaulted, curved at one point of which a portion of that is
gone as well.
But it is curved enough such that there is still an air of darkness in the room.
Not that it is dark, just you can see obviously the area that you're in closest to the keep
is still somewhat in shadow and the rest is slowly bathed in warm light.
Much of whatever else was in here appears to have been buried by the rubble.
So you're saying we need to get all the rubble out of this room to see if there's anything
good in there.
So I was thinking.
Start digging.
Shock would like to take a look at the tapestries.
Sure.
Give it a once over and see if there's anything cool in here.
That is a 16.
On the wall next to you there are or were three distinct tapestries.
Two of them appear to have been torn down long, long ago as the weathered remains of
them are barely more than tatters.
There's one that remains in the middle though it is heavily damaged by the passage of time
and the exposure to the elements.
You do however see a faint outline of what appears to be a fist holding a hammer.
Can I do religion check?
Yes, absolutely.
Not.
You're not entirely sure.
You imagine it has something, some sort of like dwarven implication given the hammer,
but beyond that you're not entirely sure.
These dwarven gods are so rudimentary.
Hammer.
Colonels digging around all the trash heaps looking for anything valuable.
Go ahead and roll me a perception check.
Me too.
13.
20.
As you begin moving the various sized stones out of the way looking for things, you're
not really seeing much.
You find maybe like the remains of what would have been maybe a destroyed desk or a broken
pew.
And Scarab, while you're trying to do your part and move things around as well, you feel
something wet drip onto your snout which causes you to look up in time to see a swarm of bats
as the clattering of corn cob moving rubble disturbs them and they descend upon your group.
Please roll for initiative.
Here we go.
Hey, what's that up there?
Here we go.
Quick, Krill, get out of the way!
Oh, sorry.
Roll the natural 20.
Very good.
Give me a moment.
Me too.
I'm just shitting on my biscuits right now.
For 23.
Shit, no, my biscuits.
Rabies.
All right, Cupcorn.
23.
Scarab.
29.
Damn, dude.
Jacques.
12.
Scarab, you are quick enough to react in time and notice as the swarm begins to descend,
they are currently 20 feet above you in this 15 by 15 room.
What do you want to do?
Get as far away from them as I can while still being able to make a shot.
Sure.
So, yeah, wherever I was, I'll move 10 feet to be further away and still see them.
Okay.
You can move 10 feet to the east outside of the building if you would like.
We'll just consider that.
Oh, right, because we are in the open area.
So, yeah, definitely do that.
So I step off that way and...
That's your free action movement, right?
Yes.
That is my pistol arrow skill.
Yeah, don't know how well this is going to work, but I'm going to fire at them.
I'll shoot my gun.
It's a good thing those wolves are deaf.
All right.
Need a silencer.
That is going to be a 16 to hit.
16 is a hit.
This is going to be three piercing.
As your shot flies into the crowd, you see you hit squarely one of the bats that make
up the swarm, but it's like a drop in a bucket as many more take its place.
Nice shot.
I kind of want to get away from here.
Yeah, one more action to reload.
Final action to run back 25 feet.
It's going to run like 20 feet outside.
That'll be it.
If it influences your decision at all, we're counting north is y'all's side.
This is south, east, west.
Okay.
So you'll run like 20 feet to the east.
Jacques is your turn next.
They're still 20 feet.
No, I'm sorry.
It is cob horns.
All right.
The swarm is 20 feet above you, descending fast.
Oh God.
Colonel's going to draw his sword.
He's going to cast shield on himself and then he's going to just shield to plus one to AC.
They're weak to bullets.
I saw it was a good shot.
And then he's going to use something I haven't used yet.
So just hasn't been enough time, but since we have since it's high in initiative, he
can do it.
He's going to use something called arcane cascade.
Oh, you divert a portion.
So the requirements are use your most recent action to cast a spell or make a spell strike.
So he casts the spell shield.
You divert a portion of the spell's magical power and keep it cycling through your body
and weapon using specialized forms, breathing or footwork.
While you're in the stance, your melee strikes deal one extra damage.
Damage increases to two.
If you have weapon specialization, three greater.
He drew his weapon, cast shield and went into his arcane stance.
He is done.
All right, popcorn.
The swarm begins to descend upon you and as it gets closer, you realize it is a large
swarm of vampire bats.
A cloud comprising of 15 feet of swirling vampire bats that sends upon you and you feel
them begin to scrape and flap against your body.
I need a reflex save.
You got this.
Don't forget your shield.
Shield doesn't do anything for this.
Second time I missed the die tray.
13.
You feel the sting of many small fangs and claws as they scrape upon your exposed flesh.
Drawing small amounts of blood, you take one point of piercing damage and you feel that
blood begin to trickle down as you take a persistent bleed as well.
It happens again as they continue to envelop you.
Attempt to dodge again.
15.
Two more points of piercing damage.
Scab!
Shoot it!
I'm trying!
I can't move!
Jack!
It's like I'm in a dream!
Help!
I'm trying to punch but I can't move!
It's shock, popcorn.
You say to your father-in-law currently enveloped in a cloud of swarming bats.
Yes, he does.
He can't say your name right when he's excited.
He's very excitable.
But it is your turn, Jacques.
Help me, Chuck!
Jacques turns around and sees a swarm of bats on the Colonel and...
Now's no time to play!
They're peeing on me!
Somebody save Carhorn!
My implement!
Carhorn!
Jacques pulls from inside his cloak out his implement and will attempt to exploit vulnerability.
Yeah, every time.
That's because I have to look at it every time.
I can never remember.
Okay, exploit.
I'll get it someday.
14.
Knowledge check.
First character that I actually really get to use their specific will work.
A lot.
Every time.
You are able to determine through your knowledge of Esoterica that swarms in particular are
weak to area and splash damage.
Scarab, is there any way that you could make your weapon spread?
I'm talking like Scarab.
I'm only level one!
We could buy you a shotgun.
The greater area that we're able to cover with these bats, the more likely we'll be
able to kill them.
I have one attack move!
I'm just letting you know what I know.
Take your time!
Aaaaaaah!
A Scarab will pull out his...
He will pull out his silver longsword.
Brabies!
Turn it so that it's flat and we'll take a step up.
That's his turn.
Scarab.
Free action, look around, make sure there are no enemies behind me.
I will fire directly at Cobcorn, hoping to hit at least one of the bats as well.
As well.
I'm firing to the bats, let's go!
Son of a bitch, this is bad.
I've rolled 420s today.
Wow.
That was a natural 20?
Yeah, lucky 7.
Yes, finally!
Lucky episode 7, what do we got here?
That doesn't really work.
Can't nail a group of bats in place.
Would love to.
Nail them to Cobcorn.
With a hammer and enough dedication.
How about this, how about this for spread.
Oh, oh watch out!
Don't point that at me!
Can't make the shot spread but I can time it just right.
Bow!
I can only imagine this hits several bats.
Roll for damage.
We're going to do a triple damage on this boy.
Hell yeah.
As these bats get cured.
Or roll once, roll once triple it.
Nope, roll three times.
Okay, good.
Triple your modifier.
Those are technically the rules for Pathfinder but we like to roll nice.
You have both, both options are in there, you can do either.
Oh, I thought it was just roll once and then multiply it.
Alternate rules my boy.
That is going to be 13 damage and they are slowed.
Okay.
As you aim your pistol at the swarm of bats blocking Cobcorn, you pull the trigger and
it just clicks and nothing happens.
So you pull back the hammer and you click again, you pull it back and you click it again
and just as you begin to lift it, it roars and a gout of flame shoots from the edge of
your gun as the bullet rips through the air and like a tiny fireball slams straight through
several bats.
Cool, sending screeching, burning bats to the ground and the swarm itself scatters in
a moment of shock, disoriented by the sound echoing throughout the chamber.
Yeah, he's scared and doesn't even notice that this happens because he's like what's
wrong with my gun?
Starts banging on his gun a little bit, uses another action to reload it.
Dragon fire!
We're going to shoot again for the final action.
We're going to shoot for 20.
Damn close.
Good lord.
It's going to be 18 on a die.
We're going with a 26 to hit.
My god.
It's a SACE!
Shoot at bats!
Of all the things that could be landing hits on, it's bats.
26 is a critical.
Woo!
Oh hell yeah.
Ten piercing.
God!
Well, two fours.
As your second shot rings out, many of the bats fall to the ground dead, blood dripping
out of their ears from the multiple concussive shots bouncing off the walls.
The last few of them scatter and fly off and you are out of combat.
Woo!
That is exactly enough damage.
Beautiful.
I've got you, car horn!
Hell yeah.
A great use of my knowledge.
Very nice.
You didn't need to do that, I told you.
They're weak to bullets.
Simple.
You thought I was joking.
I think I'll keep my sword and my implement out this time.
That's a good idea.
Clearly with the wolves coming.
Now that you mention it, roll me a perception check.
19.
No, 18.
Eight.
24.
Jacques.
No, you don't see anything.
You're still inside the building.
Do I hear anything?
Scarab, from where you are, you do see the two wolves.
They are kind of like, loping, headed this way.
Run or fight.
That was pretty wild.
We're still level one.
The wolves are coming.
We either move into the building or take them here.
Yeah, all we have to do is close the door.
They can't open doors.
We're outside.
I know, it's dead inside.
Let's go, go, go, go.
Start running down the hallway.
I would like to quickly scamper inside.
Before you do, Copcorn, you're going to need to take one point of persistent bleed damage.
You gotta touch yourself up.
I don't think that stops.
You can roll for it after this, right?
You can treat wounds to staunch bleeding.
My flat check did not get it.
We'd have to take time to do that.
That's two actions to stop bleeding.
Is there a treat wound?
What is it called exactly?
The one that actually gives you HP back, that takes ten minutes.
Treat wounds is ten minutes, but you can do administer first aid, which stabilizes or
stops bleeding for two actions.
Okay, Jacques could attempt to do that real quick.
It would be, do you like Copcorn's turn now?
So you are able to choose what you're going to use your actions on if you want to.
He doesn't have healer's tools or anything, so he can't do it.
Okay.
So then I imagine you'll just run up to Jacques and then Jacques, you can do that.
Oh, he got bandaged.
It hurts.
Natural one.
Oh, shit.
I mean, it landed on my, on my pee pee.
Would you let me roll it again?
It landed like part way on my pee pee.
Yes, please get everything out of your dice.
I took the pee pee out.
I was going to say like, critical failure.
He immediately takes more bleed damage.
It's not good still.
It's not a one though.
I have a feeling he shouldn't heal.
You're not that kind of doctor.
No, he's not.
He's really not.
I think we have enough data by now to know.
Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a doctor.
He is a doctor at Nessotirica.
Yeah, that's an 11.
Shit.
Okay, so.
I mean, it's good that I still failed because I'm, you know.
We'll just stay in initiative while you continue to bleed.
Yeah.
Which means it is Jacques turn to move.
Yeah.
You have one action.
Move.
To go inside.
Okay.
Yeah, you make your way inside.
It'll go back to Scarab next.
Scarab would.
You have healer stools.
No.
Help.
It hurts.
Stop yelling.
Scarab's going to reload.
He's going to tell Pig to run into the hallway and then he's going to run into the hallway
himself.
And both of you were able to make it in in time.
As you go, Copporn, you start to hear the Bay of Wolves.
And it is your turn.
Colonel's going to follow everybody.
And are they, if they're inside, does he have enough actions to run in and close the door?
They are on the eastern exterior of the building.
So if you make your way back into the hallway, the hallway is open on the far eastern side,
but there is a statue there at least blocking view.
And the wolves are coming up the southeastern side.
But could we, could he put like the broken door, like blocking the doorway again?
Oh, absolutely.
Okay.
Remember that door is basically half a door.
Yeah.
But I mean.
The statue has an open wall.
Yeah.
It's something instead of just an open doorway.
We're just a couple of kids hiding from raptors in a kitchen.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
So where is everybody else in the hallway right now?
Yeah.
Okay.
Everybody else is about right here.
I'm pinging it on the map.
The wolves are about right here and they're making their way up to you.
This wall is open.
This area is open.
Shit.
So he'll one action step inside.
Second action.
Try to pick up the door.
And put it back in place.
And just kind of wedge it in there.
Okay.
And then his third action.
He'll do the other door.
Close the other door.
The southern one?
Yeah, the southern one.
Okay.
Very good.
And I'll roll my flat check.
Go ahead and take the one as well.
Did not get it.
Ah.
Didn't know I'd go out like this.
That's it for Colonel's turn.
Jacques again.
Can I attempt to administer first aid again?
Yep.
Hell yeah.
It's a fail.
Shit.
And he...
Lay on hands won't do it?
No.
It won't stop persistent.
I thought magical healing did stop bleeding.
I looked it up.
It doesn't.
Like others can do like help actions to reduce the DC to 10.
I can do that.
I'm just...
I'm not trained in medicine.
Maybe Jacques with your last action you could do something to aid.
So when I roll a flat check it's DC 10.
Uh yeah.
I mean I think as he's trying to administer first aid he's probably just like taking bits
of like...
Feathers.
Yeah like whatever he's got in his bag.
Any like cloth type stuff like a bag that has herbs in it, emptying it out, shoving the
bag in like his open wounds.
It's not working.
Rubbing herbs on it.
We'll also say that you dedicating your entire turn to trying to help even though you were
failing the first aid is enough to lower the persistent DC on Cop Cornstern.
But it is Scarab's turn now I believe.
Scarab you're back in that hallway again.
Uh I would like to aid if I can.
Okay.
Um roll to aid.
Would I do a medicine roll?
Or...
I believe so.
It says...
So what I'm saying is if you're... if the magical healing restores you to maximum HP
it ends persistent bleed.
So if your lay on hands would take you to max HP then it would stop the bleed.
But he might not have taken any HP damage right now.
He might just be chipping his stamina.
I mean technically I am down one HP.
So if you did lay on hands it would stop your persistent bleeding.
Once you're healed to max HP you're not bleeding.
That's what I'm saying.
Okay.
Well then I'll hold my action.
Uh then we'll just go right to Cop Corn then.
Go ahead and take your one bleed again and you can do your check if you'd like.
Unless I can aid for this.
Uh I'm counting Jacques using their entire turn as dropping the DC to 10 so do a DC 10
flat check.
DC 10 flat check.
Got it.
You are no longer bleeding.
Neat.
And just in time too.
Because you can hear the wolves in the chamber next to you sniffing about.
Door door door door door door.
Quickly this way.
Um Jacques will sneak.
Oh check for traps.
Sneak and check for traps on the next door.
And Jacques is like looking down the hallway prepared with his implement and his sword.
Wow guys this is exciting.
Shut the fuck up.
Cop Corn be quiet.
Keep an ear out.
One of those doors is open.
Oh boy.
The door in front of you is a jar.
You do not detect any traps.
You do not hear anything coming from within.
Is there a closed door and an end in a jar door?
The door closest to you is just the one that is a jar.
There's another door just beyond it.
Right here.
Which is also a jar.
Okay okay so they both are.
Yeah go in.
Yeah I'll open this door.
As you make your way inside you find yourself in a small room.
Old cobweb covered racks and armor stands still fill much of this small chamber.
What must have once been a well tended armory is now devoid of its arms and armor.
After they uh hurry into the room Jacques wants to look around to see if there's anything
to block the door.
You could easily move either one of the shelves or an armor rack or something like that in
front of the door.
All right I'll close this door.
Cobcorn as you begin to close the door you hear the scratching of claws on the stone
from the hallway you just came and you can hear the like huffing and puffing of the wolves
as they're running down the hallway.
Close the door.
You close the door and you begin to move a shelf in front of the door.
Anna will help you with that too.
Just in time to hear the scratching at the door as the wolves are trying to get in.
Well it's like this is it this is it we're done.
Can anyone speak with animals?
Nope but I can perceptify this room see if there's anything cool.
While we're in here might as well.
Roll me a perception check Jacques.
The shelf you moved seemed to have some odds and ends underneath it.
They appear to be several bolts.
Perhaps whoever raided this room long ago in their haste dropped some on the ground
that rolled beneath the shelf.
He will pick them up.
Okay.
They are rather strange looking bolts.
They have a like frosted bluish white head.
Give me those.
Hold on.
Can I do like a con check or appraisal or crafting.
I'll detect magic.
An eight.
You're not sure you just know that something about them is special.
Somebody else could take a look.
They're weird here here here.
I'll look at them too.
You said crafting.
Mm hmm.
23 there you go.
Better than me.
You recognize it immediately.
It's freezing ammunition.
Oh crossbow bolts.
Two of them.
Arrows.
Bolts.
The description for it is this chilly ammunition is dark blue and cold to the touch.
When activating freezing ammunition hits a target the target must succeed a DC 19 fortitude
save or be slowed one for one round by the intense cold.
If they critically fail they're slowed one for one minute.
Wow.
What's the difference between freeze ammunition and freezing ammunition?
Why are there two different?
I don't know but it is freezing.
One of them is 28 gold the other is 25 gold.
Both level five items.
Wow.
Why?
You can cut this part out because I'm just asking why the fuck would they do this?
No idea.
I was also going to say that because itself like they are flavored as bolts in this but
they are just ammunition I would allow you if you would like to repurpose them into bullets
if you just spent a little downtime.
I do my plan is to someday also use a crossbow and or bow.
I do have arrows so.
Okay.
If you'd allow me to shoot them out of a crossbow unless.
You can absolutely shoot them out of a crossbow.
Unless you want to make them bullets.
Yeah they're bolts by design.
I was going to allow you to repurpose the tips essentially to take the tips and turn
them into bullets.
If you wanted to do a crafting check for that I would let you do that.
Do that in camp or something.
Yeah it's like a conversion thing or you can keep them as they are there are two of them.
Gotcha.
Hell yeah.
Let's rock.
While Jacques is well I guess the two of you are looking those over so Cobcorn what are
you doing?
Crap probably looking for another way out of this room which there probably isn't we're
just trapped in here.
It is a rather small room there are windows in here but they are very small and very high
up to the ceiling almost as if their purpose was more for ventilation than for lighting.
He'll just he'll just listen at the door to see if the wolves are still there or if they
moved on.
A seven perception.
You still hear them.
It seems like they're you hear like rapid sniffing low growling like they're growling
back and forth to each other but they seem to just be circling.
You almost hear like one of the sets of paw prints kind of like going away but the other
one is clearly still there and it's not long before you hear the other one coming back.
It's almost like they're trying to figure out where did you all go because the sentence
here.
Boy how high are these windows?
Just like in the last room actually sorry slightly lower than the last room the ceilings
in this room are 15 feet tall and the windows themselves are at the height just below the
ceiling and they themselves are windows is a generous term they're not much larger than
say a cinder block.
Are there any cracks in the door that I could maybe take a look at these wolves?
Not with a big shelf in front of it.
Maybe we just sit here for a second see if they leave maybe 10 minutes.
Scarab is going to get on one of the shelves across the room from the door and line up
a line up a shot and wait.
Well this isn't I have a question.
This obviously isn't how my exploit exploit vulnerability is used but could I do like
a nature check to see if I can figure out anything about the wolves that I could maybe
use my esoteric knowledge to produce something from my esoterica that will make them want
to go away.
Yeah try for it I think it would be difficult because the most knowledge that you know of
them is that they are wolves you don't really have any personal information on them but
I'd let you shoot for it.
Like maybe do like a nature check for the wolves like obviously I wouldn't be able to
do my esoteric check because I need to actually see them to do that but do like a nature check
and then an esoteric check to see if like I know of anything that I have on my person
that could like deter them.
Go for it.
Anything is possible.
It's 12.
But not for you.
I've been rolling pretty bad.
Yeah I mean maybe it's the panic of hearing them just beyond the door but nothing comes
to mind that you could think of nothing you could know about them personally that you
could use to shake them.
Scarab you were climbing up on one of the shelves.
Roll me a perception check.
Nine.
Something in the room feels a bit off.
Maybe like a slight breeze that you shouldn't be able to feel because the windows are so
much higher above you.
Want to take 20 and dig around?
Is that what you want to do?
I'm gonna ask a question and Felicia and Emma both look down.
I didn't realize that was a question.
We all have to be in.
Yeah yeah yeah.
I mean I've Colonel's gonna refocus or not refocus but uh get his stamina back for 10
minutes if you're taking 20 minutes.
Yeah Jacques would help.
Shake one of these walls loose.
Okay as you hop back down the shelf and the two of you begin to look around.
Yeah so Jacques will like on with the point of his long sword just kind of like scratch
at the walls see if anything comes loose if he can see any light through the walls.
Yeah I don't see any central AC units.
There could be a hidden door.
Check the corners.
Listen.
As you begin to methodically search the walls and poke at them you make your way towards
the eastern wall of the room and in the eastern corner Scarab again you feel that breeze of
air and Jacques as you're poking at the wall with Scarab it gets stuck.
Jacques will tug at his sword and look at Scarab.
It's not normal for stone.
Just then.
No I'm kidding.
As you pull your sword free you realize it got wedged in a crack.
As you place your hand on the stone you realize it doesn't feel like stone at all.
Feels manmade.
Particle board.
Shove a fist through it.
As you push the door or the wall rather a door is made apparent a hidden door that leads
into a chamber to the east.
Well that's lucky.
Wow.
Yes yes yes.
We're still in danger.
The other door is open.
What do we have here?
A latrine.
A hidden chitter.
Are those beds?
Or toilets?
Looks like beds.
It's possibly a prison.
You find yourself in a short corridor to the right of you in the south is a wall of bars
that hold four rusted doors each containing a small bed within cramped cells.
On the headboard of the beds inscribed is each of our names and a death date.
Wow.
Let's try opening these.
Colonel goes to open one of them.
Open one of the cells just the nearest one to you?
Yeah.
As you move to the cell door and begin to open it you hear a chilling clack clack.
As the rattling of time worn bones begins to rise from the cells themselves their eyes
glowing with an insidious pale yellow glow.
Roll for initiative.
Oh okay.
Hello.
All sorts of weirdos out here.
Here we go.
Wow.
Oops.
I'll let somebody else go first.
What'd you get Scarab?
13.
Cop corn?
7.
Junk.
9.
I did better than you.
Wow.
Guess you're supposed to go before me.
I might pick up incredible initiative if it's available.
Skeletons to the left of me wolves to the right here I am.
As these short and stocky skeletons begin to rise you see the one in the cell in front
of you stand up clacking its bones into place before it begins to reach a hand out to you.
You hear at the end of the hall a cell door open as yet another one.
Unlocks the door and begins to shamble towards you.
So unlocked the whole time you could have left.
Why are you still here?
Oh no.
Oh no no no no no.
Its bony feet clack on the ground as it shuffles up behind you when it reaches out a hand.
The one in front of you begins to shamble forward as well and opens up the cell door
and as one hand wrenches the door backwards the other one lunges forward and attempts
to claw at your face.
22 to hit.
Oh that's a hit.
It's a bad time when Cody's the DM because he always rolls really well.
Three points of slashing damage.
Ow.
He's just a smooth liar.
Very good.
Uh Scarab.
This world of my creation.
Um let's see.
Yeah.
This is what we're gonna do here.
I'm going to flee.
This is what we're gonna do.
Scarab's going to command animal and send pig through Cobcorn's legs behind the first
skeleton that came out.
Alright triggering two attacks of opportunity.
I'm just kidding.
It's possible.
They don't have A.O.O.
You're good.
It was a risk I was willing to take for some reason.
And then pig is going to strike at that skeleton.
Twenty to hit.
Twenty's a hit.
Yes.
It's gonna be six piercing damage.
On the bones.
So busy in here.
As pig makes its strike, its tusks awkwardly jab into the bony recesses of the skeleton.
It can see that it chipped one of the bones but it doesn't seem like it was a very effective
attack.
Yeah for sure.
It's probably no good.
I'm no good here.
Whatcha got?
Scarab is going to fire at that skeleton.
Good lord.
He needs some milk.
Twenty seven to hit.
That's critical.
Geez.
Yes finally.
It's gonna be twelve piercing damage.
The skeleton's head explodes.
Seven yellow wisps in the air where its eye sockets had been as the rest of its body crumples
to the floor.
Good pig.
Yeah, Scarab's gonna stay right where he was.
I don't know if this... probably won't... now they're mindless this won't work.
I'm just gonna reload.
That's it.
Alright, Jacques you're up.
Jacques will turn his implement to the skeleton in front of the Colonel and attempt to exploit
vulnerability.
That is a twenty two.
Alright, we'll buckle up.
As far as immunities, it is immune to death effects, disease, mental, paralyzed, poison,
and unconsciousness.
For resistances, it has cold five, electricity five, fire five, piercing five, and slashing
five.
It also has negative healing.
Colonel heal them, heal them!
They need help!
They're dying!
Okay, so...
Or they need help, they're trying to live?
His amulet begins to glow a soft blue light as he anoints his blade and he will swing
at the skeleton with positive energy.
Go for it.
Oh, how anointing.
That is a twenty three.
That's it?
It takes six damage.
Positive.
Slashing.
The blue radiant light goes throughout the skeleton's body overpowering the light of
yellow flickering in its eyes before it falls motionless to the ground.
And he will move to be between Korkob and Pig.
And that's his turn.
Cob corn, you see the two skeletons fall and you hear the shuffling of a third in the
cell next door.
What do you do?
Oh boy.
Also, sorry, really quick.
What's your damn term, M.O.B.?
I'm so sorry, as he was finding out all of the stuff about the skeleton, you just see
like a soft glow coming from the goggles of his mask and he says everything that Cody
said in Cody's voice.
Weird.
That's creepy.
Yeah, Colonel will cast shield on himself and the gate still closed.
Hey, with this one, try to keep the lights on.
If we can sell a glowing skull, we can fetch so much gold.
Not a bad idea.
Take it prisoner.
I would love to have that in my esoterica.
So the gate is right here.
Yep.
So Colonel will ready an action for his last two actions.
OK.
As you prepare yourself, the skeleton shambles forward.
It crashes into the gate, sending it flying open before stumbling out before you.
And it swings a claw at the first thing it sees, which is Jacques.
Or he does that activates Colonel's action to attack him when he's in range.
Perfect.
He will swing his Yuhandau for an eight to hit.
Eight does not hit.
Well, damn.
Yeah.
And actually, it does not get to make the attack because it had to open the gate.
So as it moves towards Jacques, you just see this thing rear back with one of its small
bony hands as Copcorn swings the Halberd wide.
And it is Scarab's turn.
It's too agile.
They're quick.
Look, I know this is stupid.
I know it's a quick.
Sorry, this is real dumb, but I thought it would be.
What a cool visual if a skeleton in this situation ran at the bars, shattered through them and
then reassembled on the outside.
Yeah.
How scary.
Yeah, totally.
Just see 1000.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Jasper.
Yeah.
I mean, really, all I got is a shot.
It's fire.
It's far away.
Do it.
17 to hit.
That's it.
That shot went off right when he dropped his die.
I know Jasper looked back because he dropped his die and it looked like he looked back
for the gunshot.
For piercing.
Yeah, nothing flashy.
He's going to reload and fire again.
16 to hit.
16 hits.
Hell yeah.
He did it again.
I need a taller die tray.
Five piercing and that is it.
You see both of the bullets lodge into the bones of the skeleton, but it seems unfazed.
Oh shit.
That's all I got.
Good luck.
Jacques.
Jacques will raise up his long sword and bring it down onto the skeleton if he hits.
And misses.
He will try again.
Get him.
An 11.
Miss.
This bony guy is so spry.
One more try.
19.
19 to hit.
Hell yeah.
Yes.
No, that's not right.
That was a lie.
Little curious.
That was a lie.
I'm sorry.
Minus 10.
Nine.
Yeah, he's a miss.
Damn.
Cob corn.
Colonel will cast shield on himself again.
He will go into his arcane cascade stance and he will swing his sword.
Come on.
Sword?
Yeah, his...
His hwandao.
14 to hit.
Because you were flanking with pig, 14 is a hit.
So it's flat footed.
That's actually more damage as well with the arcane cascade.
That extra one damage, right?
It bumps it up to extra...
Yeah, normally it's one damage, but it bumps it up to plus three damage.
So it's plus seven regular damage and then I die if I can find it.
Crushed.
Nine slashing.
I know I wanted to die too, Haisel.
Wolves are outside.
Quickly.
Haisel.
Your slice cleaves the skeleton in half and falls to the ground and before its eyes begin
to flicker, its jaw unhinges and in Dwarven you hear a solemn whisper.
Tora!
As the eyes begin to whisper away and fade to dark.
Did anyone catch that?
I know it said something.
Roll a religion check.
Can I do that?
Sure.
Are dragons religious?
Ten.
Not today.
I kind of poke around with religion.
Try that.
18?
18 is enough to know it called out to Torag.
Torag.
Dwarven god of toil.
Makes sense.
Torag, Torag, I think I've sold some aprons with that hemmed on the side.
With little loops to hold hammers and such.
The three of you find yourselves standing in these long abandoned cells, Dwarven bones
scattered on the floor beneath your feet.
What do you want to do?
Search these bodies.
Search the bodies.
Okay, as you look over the three that you fought, you find nothing of interest.
The bones are barely clad in old, rotted tatters of clothing, but they don't seem to have any
possessions on them.
Maybe we could take the bones themselves and give them to the wolves.
That's a good idea.
Doggy want a bone?
There is also a fourth cell at the end of the hall that nothing came out of.
Check the beds, check under the beds, check the walls to see if there are any hidden stashes.
Yeah, that's really weird how these holding cells are hidden.
Yeah, are there windows?
They're not.
Yeah, didn't think so.
As you make your way cell by cell to check under the beds, on the beds, all that, you
don't find anything of interest inside the cells themselves other than the very, very
old stains of what you would imagine to be human waste and blood that are all over the
floor, the mattress that have long soaked into those.
But as you make your way towards the fourth cell at the end of the hall and you look inside,
you see another skeleton, but this one appears to be in sort of like a peaceful pose on the
bed.
It's laying face up with its arms crossed over its chest.
As you approach, the first thing you notice is that the skeleton appears to be wearing
a time worn and stained dress, but it is torn in such a way that you can see the skeleton's
exposed rib cage, which has been partially broken as two large mushrooms have grown out
of it.
You also can't help but notice that her fingers laced over her chest, one of her hands bears
a ring.
Mmm, this girl would like to try to pry that ring off.
Yummy.
Chalk would like to do a nature check on the mushrooms next.
Go ahead and roll me that while I look at this ring.
It continues.
What'd you roll?
An eight.
Well, given that you've seen them before, that is enough to recognize these as more
iron bloom mushrooms.
Two of the six you need to grab.
Okay.
And Scarab, as you look over the ring, it is a simple golden ring that appears to have
a large red gemstone that is set into the middle of it, and it almost seems to sparkle
with an inner fire.
I definitely want to look into that.
Yeah, go for it.
What kind of roll?
Crafting?
Yeah, you can do a crafting.
Crafting or arcana?
Mmm, ten.
Yeah, you're not really sure beyond the fact that something in this gemstone, it's not
a trick of the stone itself.
There's something magical at play here.
Anybody have an eye for what this could be?
Look at it.
Roll, roll, please.
Try my crafting skills on that ring.
Tell me so I can sell it.
Eee.
14.
That's gonna be good enough, right?
That's good enough.
What did you roll, Matt?
I didn't roll shit.
I rolled an 18 arcana or crafting.
18 is enough.
This is an ancient magic item, one that is known as the Ring of Torag.
This is the Ring of Torag.
I'm just gonna give you a rundown on the fun things.
It has a magical ability for one action to interact once per round with the requirement
that you are taking persistent fire damage.
You call upon the ring to put out the flame and its magic attempts to bring the fire under
control.
This is especially effective assistance against persistent fire damage so you gain an immediate
flat check to remove the persistent fire damage and the DC decreases from 15 to 10.
As a reaction, in vision, once per day, if you are targeted by a fire effect you can
use the reaction so that the ring's red gemstone flashes with light granting you resistance
5 against fire and a plus 1 bonus on your AC or saving throw against the fire effect
targeting you.
The effect ends as soon as the fire effect is resolved.
Wow.
Fucking cool.
So if you're on fire, spend an action, get an extra chance to put it out.
If somebody's trying to hit you with fire, reaction, improved AC and fire resistance
against the effect.
Or roll for it.
Yeah.
Do it.
Same.
You gonna roll, Maddie?
Oh yeah.
That's good for anybody.
That was 17.
Eight.
Three.
Well, I'll take that.
I first thought it was to give it to you, but it would be good for any of us.
Also, it's worth 60 gold pieces.
Wow.
And, Jacques, you're gonna go ahead and take them mushrooms?
Yes.
Okay.
So that puts you currently at 8 out of 12.
Colonel's also gonna grab a few femurs.
Get some bones and walk over back to the door and...
Well, hold up.
Don't open...
Don't just open up the dogs.
I'm reloading, I think, if I haven't.
Okay.
Also, like nothing like...
What happened here?
Why are they here?
Why are they sleeping in here?
Who chooses to sleep in behind bars like this?
Who chooses to be in a jail?
Why is she wearing a dress in prison?
Before we leave the room, could I do a medicine check on her body to see if I can tell how
she died?
You could try, but you do estimate it's been so long that there's not much aside from examining
the bones themselves.
Well, yeah.
I was kind of wanting to see if it was like if her skull was cracked or if it looked like
her ribs were chipped or something.
Go for it.
Natural 20.
Hey.
I'm annoyed.
She died before me.
Yes, finally.
Because it's just weird that she didn't become...
Why did everyone else get up, but she didn't get up?
Yeah.
Okay, so looking it over, you can't determine an immediate cause of death.
You assume that she must have passed either in some form of relative peace, given her
body's position, unless she was placed that way posthumously.
You also surmise that the mushroom was growing out of her chest was something that would
have happened after death.
It doesn't seem like that's what would have killed her.
The bones themselves do have several hairline fractures on the arms, on the back, maybe
even a couple on the skull.
So it seems like the body itself was probably treated fairly roughly.
You might even go so far as to assume that maybe these prisoners were being tortured
in some way.
That would explain why it's hidden.
I guess none of these are the guy we're looking for.
Let's go.
Let's leave.
Yeah, Colonel will listen at the door to see if the wolves are still there.
Roam your perception.
It's a natural one.
Yes.
4-4.
I think we'd all probably be listening at the door to see if they're there.
Oh, they're gone.
I should have had you roll secretly.
Yeah, they're gone.
I rolled a three, so that's a ten for me.
Pretty good.
You're gonna drag me into this curse?
Well, I just...
Natural 20.
19 for a 26.
Yeah, as you all listen, each taking a turn, you don't hear anything.
It's very quiet.
Well, can't sit in here forever.
Hand me one of those bones.
Sure, where you go.
I think Jock would also just take a bone for himself.
Okay.
You know, just in case.
Who knows?
Good thinking with this.
Oh, thanks.
Any specific bone you wanted to take?
One of hers, one of the bodies on the floor, a skull, an arm.
I mean, one of the skulls of the three y'all fought got shattered.
I think he would want to take a finger bone, because it'll be easy to keep.
Maybe the finger that she had the ring on.
Okay, cool.
I don't know if you want to label it as such, but a female dwarven finger bone.
I feel bad taking these bones, but I don't want to die.
I mean, they're dead, and they won't miss them.
Yeah, it's not really the point, but I'm going to open this door if you guys are ready.
I'm not, go ahead.
Alright.
He's going to hold his amulet and his sword.
Is that really necessary?
Was that a door or a rubber chicken?
I was going to say, after you're done cooing, can you open the door?
She really doesn't want to go out there.
I'm going to open this thing, alright?
That's one inch.
Ready?
No, I'm not, no more.
So you slide the bookshelf out of the way, and you open the door.
What do you want to do?
The opener of the door.
No doggies?
Yeah, he'll walk into the hallway.
Left and right.
Give me a perception check.
Scarabs on the other side of the door waving a femur through the door for him.
15.
Nothing.
It's pretty clear.
We continue.
Yeah, poke my head in this open door or a jar door.
Maybe throw a bone down the hallway so if they do come back looking, they'll be distracted?
Yeah, I guess so.
I've got a couple.
I'll throw one.
Yeah, I'll leave one here since we're leaving.
I don't want to throw it and make a lot of noise.
Where's here?
This is where he's standing, right in the hallway.
You can set one down.
Set it down next to you and immediately it gets bounced off.
Just then, from above.
Okay, so you're going to make your way into the next room.
Yeah, this one to the northwest.
The first thing you notice about this room is that the door is hanging off of one of its hinges.
The lower hinge has been damaged so it's kind of precariously suspended from the other hinge.
But as you push the wobbly door forward, the first thing you are hit by is a horrendous smell.
It's the stench of wet fur that hangs heavy in the air.
Close the door.
The room before you looks like it's been lived in recently.
Nod, bones litter the floor and there's tufts of gray fur under-scattered all over the place.
You notice an old stone desk that sits in the middle of the chamber.
It's scratched and cracked in many places.
There is a door to the west, or rather an archway with no door itself, that seems to lead to another room.
Something's living in here.
Maybe the dogs.
Take a step inside and check it out.
What's that little box over in the back of the room?
Oh, the box. Sorry.
Oh, that's me. Right. You're talking to me.
I am the game.
It almost looks like it might have been used to store something at some point.
It's been partially smashed and you see a good amount of that tufted fur kind of sitting in that box.
It looks almost like it's been used as a makeshift bed.
Oh, cool.
I'll rummage around there, see if there's anything cool.
Yeah.
What about the two of you?
Can I do a check to see if this dwelling has anything to do with our big warg friend?
Sure.
Yeah, can let you know.
You can do, uh...
Based on the fur and or tracking.
I do not remember if I hunted prey on it or not, but I will.
You did. Go ahead and give me a nature.
Seventeen.
Oh, actually, that would be a 19.
As you examine the fur, it looks to be more like common wolf fur.
Can handle that.
The other thing I would do is attempt to see where they would enter from.
Is it this door here or is there another like windows, broken walls?
You don't know what is through the archway in the western part of the room,
but you could guess based on the damaged hinge of the door you just entered in
that it's likely they like brute force their way through the door and that's kind of how they do it.
This could be a way.
Made their own doggy door.
Yeah, just wanted to know which exit to be looking at.
Yeah, I think Jacques will step in and just keep an eye on the door,
close the door behind them and kind of brace it.
Yeah, and then I'd be happy to look around the room with Cobcorn.
Cobcorn, what'd you get?
Twelve.
Nothing much of interest here.
Some slobbery bones, still wet, are gnawed like right around where that box is.
And aside from that and a collection of floof that's been discarded,
you don't really find anything else.
Yuck.
Stanky.
Yeah, just smells like wet dog and rotten meat in here.
It's hot as hell too. It's gross.
This is also a room with no windows, so it's kind of just no ventilation,
just dank, wet, gross.
Did you find anything of use?
Oh, of use, no.
Well then let's go.
Clearly some animal's been staying here.
Very true.
Try this other door on the west.
There's also the large desk in the middle of the room.
I don't know if you caught that on the description.
Oh yes.
I'll dig through it if there's anything to dig.
Let's poke around.
Yeah, as you pull open the stone desk's grating drawers,
it is mostly empty, save for a few scraps of ancient parchment,
old quill and writing supplies.
And as you continue to rummage through the drawers, go ahead and roll me a perception check.
24.
Nice.
As you open one of the drawers, you notice a very subtle shifting on the bottom of it,
like something might not be in place like it should be.
We got false bottoms, people.
False bottoms.
Ask for the BBL and you shall receive.
I'm going to touch it.
Okay.
As you find the latch for the false bottom, it gives way and you reveal a secret compartment.
There is a...
The bottom lining of this drawer is lined with a luxurious velvet,
and it holds a rather ornate looking hand axe,
a small pouch which jingles as you pick it up,
and a book.
Hello.
Yeah, we're gonna...
Scarab digging through the stuff is gonna hand the book towards Jacques,
and he's gonna look at the axe himself to see if it's anything special.
What'd you get on that crafting check?
A five.
Let me see that.
Capcom, please. Please, my eyes. My eyes.
Natural one.
That's what I got as well.
Can I help with that?
Yeah, let me see.
That's hot!
Why is it so hot?
Stupid. Why are we looking at this?
There's nothing in this room.
Ouch.
It hurts when you touch it?
Yeah, it does. Okay.
I got a natural twin.
A natural twin.
Oh, nice.
Yes, finally!
That's not an axe, that's an electric eel. Put it down!
Put it down!
You notice that the hand axe is of exceptional dwarven quality and make.
It is carved with intricate symbols,
and you recognize that it in fact is set in with a rune.
It is a plus one hand axe.
Ooh!
Hot damn.
Nothing special.
I didn't think so.
As for your question on the book,
the book itself is a old worn leather bound book
with the embossed symbology of a archway or hearth
that is lit with a flame in the center.
Is this Droskar's personal stash?
That's what's inside it?
That's the cover of the book.
As you open the book, you notice on the inside cover is an inscription
written in dwarven.
And the text itself is also in dwarven.
I can't read this.
It's in the dwarf text.
Ah, piss, we'll take it to town, we'll take it to town!
Such ugly handwriting.
Agreed, but it's worth something to someone.
And scarab that jingling pouch contained ten gold pieces.
Oh, I ate that.
Hot damn.
Swallowed that one down into my belly.
Um, yeah, do you want the dwarven hand axes?
Would it be good for you?
I mean...
Would it be good for you?
It would be good for me.
Take it.
Yeah.
I need some hits.
There's your slashing.
I already have a slashing.
Yeah, but it's plus one to hit.
Also, plague doctors look sick with hand axes.
It's true.
It's a thing.
It's a look.
It's a vibe.
Yeah, oh yeah.
You can throw that too.
Yeah, I think it's better for you.
It'll give you a little range.
Oh, true.
It could just be what you do.
Yucky!
Twelve damage.
Critical hit.
I'll take that plus one rune on it, though.
No.
Yoy.
No.
Breaks in half.
Takes a rune.
What about hatchet?
Yeah, it's probably a hatchet.
You know, this is a translated from first edition, so there's going to be some discrepancies.
Go ahead and Jacques, while you're looking the book over, give me a crafting check or,
if you have appraisal, either of the two.
And the other two, give me a perception check.
God damn it.
Roll another one.
Roll the four.
I'm getting like threes and fours and twenties.
You got four total.
Thirteen.
Okay.
Jacques, you're not really sure how much, but something about this feels like it could maybe be valuable in the right hands.
Which was that?
Huh?
Which was that?
The book.
The book might be valuable, you think?
Or it could be worth nothing.
You're not really sure.
We'll figure that one out later.
As for Scarab, while the two of you continue poking around, you hear the by now familiar sound of claws tapping on stone.
Something seems to be approaching the room.
Scarab has his bone readied and is approaching from the hallway, we surmise.
He would like to scamper on into the next room.
Okay.
Sneakily.
Slow scamper.
What about the two of you?
Where are you going?
You just see him crouch and start walking away.
Come back.
Jacques would follow Scarab.
The same way he did in the forest, but he ran behind a tree.
He's going to follow him.
Did y'all go into the archway right here or back into the hallway?
What do you think?
You think we're going to go to the hallway with the wolves?
It was a trick.
It just depends because Colonel will close the door we came from.
Jacques already closed it.
Okay.
Cool.
Colonel will follow you guys.
While you guys were looking around the room, he was bracing the door.
Nice.
Hiding from these wolves.
Turns out they're just a couple golden retrievers just walking around.
Trying to show us their puppy.
That is the funny thing though.
I mean, depending on how strong they are, but we're like, get away from the wolves and fight all of this other stuff.
It's so stupid.
We'd rather fight them.
Like skeletons.
It's funny.
It's just goofy.
I like it.
Look, we have a mission here, okay?
A mission is stay away from the wolves.
Okay.
So as you make your way through the archway, the first thing you notice is the smell of wet fur is still heavy in the air.
Although you also detect a distinct earthy smell that is also in this area.
There's faint light that comes down from gaping holes in the roof.
You notice a toppled pillar and looking up, you can see a once supported part of the ceiling.
It has long since crumbled and shattered on the floor.
On the west end of the room behind the fallen pillar, you see the beginnings of a descending staircase that go to some sub level.
They never finished it.
Yeah, yeah, it's just the beginnings.
They got like two steps in, you know, they kept going one step forward, two steps back.
Yeah, so a quick look around this room and then guys want to delve into the deep.
Give me perception checks.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Happy.
We still had four more to go.
Twenty two.
Scarab, you follow your nose to that earthy scent and it leads you to a patch of large black mushrooms in the corner of the room.
As I get big and eat some all.
I'm hungry.
Oh, before we forget who's keeping track of that ten gold.
I, so I'm not.
We're doing like I got you.
Scarab.
He's the one who has the pouch.
It's deep in my belly.
Swallowed it.
Yeah.
No, but yeah.
I got it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I got it.
Yeah.
We got 18 gold silver and two copper.
Yeah, scarabs gonna be like Doc, Doc, Doc, Doc, Doc.
Come, come.
Yes.
Yeah, I'd like to do a check on this if I can.
Yeah, go for it.
Nature.
I will as well.
I'm not going to help.
Ten.
Eight.
Once again.
Jesus.
Both enough to know that these are the same iron blue mushrooms you've been looking for.
In fact, they are the final four you need.
Beautiful.
Let's leave them here just in case.
No, you can take them.
My roles, all right.
My roles.
I had my natural 20.
I had a three, a four, a 20, a three, a two.
I'm filled with luck today.
Nothing's going to bring me down.
Definitely not anything bad going to happen later in this episode.
Stay tuned.
We've been doing pretty well.
Stay tuned to see what terrible things happen to me.
Stay tuned for the most mundane episode of everything going right.
Except my roles.
All right.
How are you guys doing?
Not bad.
The listener.
Oh.
We weren't talking.
I'll just go fuck myself.
Well, you might have to.
Filmy, put it on our Patreon.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear.
Well, I hope that turns out better for you.
So, Copcorn, while they're looking in the corner, what are you looking around at?
Oh, he's just going to glance at the pillar.
I mean, it's not-
Give it a side eye.
Yeah, it's not like I'm sure it'll be Dwarven writing, if anything.
So he's not really interested.
He's going to walk to the beginning of the stairs and look down and see what he sees.
Okay.
Go ahead and roll me a perception check.
Seven.
You do see something.
As the stairs descend down into darkness, you see something shifting in the black.
Oh.
Like a large mass of something wriggling up from the depths.
Pizama, pajama, pizama, pajama.
Someone's going to get that.
It grows larger and larger, two glowing red orbs slowly open.
Wow, Jacques, I'm well scared of a game like that.
Well, well, well.
You should have left when you had the chance.
You need to tell me what your will DC is, mister.
How good is it, man?
Plus five?
Maybe.
So that'd be a 15?
15.
Maybe.
He critically succeeds at demoralizing you and you are frightened too.
You used your pee pee.
I didn't even roll or anything.
I mean, you could use it against Cody.
I was trying to say it, but I didn't.
That is bad.
Well, it's not the worst thing, but it's pretty bad.
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
Lose actions.
I brought a couple bones for your dogs.
Nope.
Why did you not heed my warning?
There's trouble in town.
We're looking for Droskar and there's a lot going on in town.
The Lumber Custodium is horrible.
Tell them about the sick people.
And there's people are innocent people getting sick.
We came here for help.
Why did you come here for help?
We wanted to speak to you and also the mushrooms.
The mushrooms apparently help with the sickness.
And I know you have issues with the Lumber Custodium as well.
We were hoping that we can talk about this.
Yes, talk.
Talk.
Why are you really here?
You hear the click clack behind you as the two wolves come up to the archway.
They both lower their heads and they snarl.
Speak.
You happen to be Droskar?
Okay.
Here's the truth.
We don't actually know.
We are just getting little pieces of a story.
We're looking for a dwarven man named Druengar.
And we heard that he was last seen trying to find this here place.
So we are looking for that man.
That dwarven man.
That's it.
That's why.
That's why we're here.
We have no...
The mushrooms.
We also needed to get mushrooms.
So that was...
We did get them.
Thank you.
That was quite convenient because we also needed to come here to look for the...
Oh, boy.
For the dwarf.
And then we found the mushrooms, which was nice.
It was very nice mushrooms.
Found some other...
Anyways, we're looking for a dwarf named Druengar.
We're not here to take any of your things or threaten you or try to hurt you.
Don't know that we could.
You're very scary.
But we are trying to just understand where this man went.
Have you seen him?
Too late for him.
He's been taken below.
No, enough.
The only way you'll get down there is in your graves.
I need lunges.
Roll for initiative.
Ah.
And service.
Here we go.
I got a bone for you.
Colonel Thro's bone.
Here we go.
Into his eyes suck it.
Fun fact.
In the Skeleton fight, in the Initiative Tracker, I had them each labeled as Jaboni.
This is not good, by the way.
Huh?
I know you guys know, but this is not good.
Oh, this really sucks.
Someone in here, what are we supposed to do? Just die?
I hope not.
This is our only lead.
It's not our fault we haven't leveled up.
Well, we've fought some-
I'm just kidding.
So many things.
I've almost died like four times.
Hello.
Every time.
Yeah, every-
Every time one of us almost died.
Every session we've played, I've almost died. I almost died last session, too.
Oh yeah, just stairs.
I was like, no you didn't.
Yes I did.
Forgot about the stairs.
Most lethal enemy of all.
Scarab, what'd you get?
23.
Nice.
Jock.
25.
Wow.
Cop corn.
6.
Not as good.
No.
How fast can you guys run?
I mean, we're surrounded.
The wolves are coming from the other side.
The wolves are faster than us.
That's what sucks.
I only have 10 HP. My character's gonna die.
Yeah, we're all gonna die.
Bait.
Hope not.
So we're running, right?
I don't know that we can.
We can try.
As the titanic wolf lunges, its jaws collide with you, cop corn.
17 to hit?
Is cop corn still frightened, too, after that conversation?
Yes.
That is exactly it.
Damn.
Jock, you see Colonel, as this thing's running at him before it hits him, he's looking at you, and in his eyes you just see, run.
The massive jaws wrap around your plated shoulder, and as he begins to squeeze, your armor gives protection before you hear a loud crack, and one of the fangs snaps through for five piercing damage.
Okay.
Yep, nope. Yep, nope.
Five wasn't bad.
Five is half of my health.
Yeah, I mean, I was expecting, like, to immediately go down.
He still has two attacks.
You are also grabbed.
Okay.
But it's going to release you and then try to bite down on you again.
Oh, it's a big one. 27.
That's a crit.
That's 25 points of piercing damage.
Yeah, Colonel, let's auto.
Run.
And he collapses.
Jock.
Jock's going to run, I guess, 75 feet past the wolves down the corridor.
Okay, so before you've reached the end of 75 movement, you come to two options. You can either take a right veering out into the courtyard, or you can head northeast through the ruined room.
Does the ruined room lead out into the forest?
Yes.
He'll go all the way.
Okay.
So one space back and that's where you are.
Scarab, you have your 10 feet of free movement as well.
Oh, how terrible.
Oh, how awful.
Yeah, I definitely move 10 feet towards the exit.
Towards getting away from here.
We did not wish to fight.
Only to help.
And find my cart.
Scarab's going to run 50 feet out.
Call back to pig and have pig run 60 feet.
Okay, 50 will put you at the C11 mark.
Okay.
So it's basically five feet away from the door that Jacques ran through.
As far as I can.
Pig would be able to make it to where Jacques is.
Yeah, I would do that.
Oh, and as I'm running past the wolves freehand, free action drop the bone that I'm holding.
Seeing an opportunity of weakness, one of the wolves lunges further into the room, followed by the other as they both surround and begin to tear at corn cob.
Oh, shit.
They...
Let me make sure they can make it through your armor.
AC 15. I've got unconscious and dying everything turned on.
You take damage twice between the two attacks each of the wolves are able to do.
So...
So, Colonel...
As he goes down, his eyes do not come off of Jacques.
I even said fucking Jacques. Jacques.
His eyes stay on Jacques and when he sees Jacques run out and the wolves come to him...
He smiles and he dies.
As he went down on a crit, he was already at dying too, and then he got hit two more times.
The two of you from behind hear a tremendously loud roar as the warg shouts out in anger.
You idiots, after them!
Before he whips corn cob's body into the air and devours him whole.
Jacques.
Run 75 feet towards town.
Ain't scared by the legend you do the same?
Yeah.
Yeah, I can only imagine they go back into town and don't even say a word to each other.
No, I think that they'd get out of the woods and Jacques would turn around.
Like, searching the forest for corn cob.
I'm so annoyed that I'm saying this and his name is corn cob.
Actually, it's cob corn. I say it wrong.
I say it wrong too.
Sorry, but looking for the Colonel.
Corn cob's his first name.
Just searching for any sign of bright color in the dark forest and without seeing him for minutes,
he just sits there and he just falls to his knees and he just stares into the darkness
and just sits there staring and sits there.
You both run and you run and you run and you don't look back.
You sprint between the trees as the brush whips by you.
The day slowly fading into late afternoon before you find yourself on the edge of the logging camp.
No wolves behind you and no corn cob.
You