yellow and drop color
The ancient dwarven Forge Spern's body erupts in a cloud of ash collapsing to the floor.
The chain once again just ching ching ching ching ching ching ching down to the floor
before it lands with a final clunk, the hook now resting in a pile of ash.
The war hammer falls to the side clanking to the floor harmlessly in front of you Rootmore
and the smoke begins to dissipate. After a few moments in stunned silence waiting if any more
danger arises around you, you find yourselves now in this cavernous Forge room alone. The smoke
begins to clear aside from that bellowing from the Forge behind you in the northern part of the room.
But the threat at least for now seems to have been quelled.
Scarab runs up to Tricky and forcefully snout to snout places his head against his head
and his eyes closed.
Even now as you all stand here gathered around the ashen corpse of this thing,
the chain still emanates whispers the same you've heard throughout the halls just the ash.
I don't like it in here. Uh, see if you dropped any cool shit and we should get out of this room and
forge each other up. The Forge is still burning?
Correct. The Forge behind you to the north of the room is still burning, still billowing smoke.
Are there are there any buckets around any any crates anything that could hold water?
Just the quenching barrel. It's quite big, huh?
Correct. It's easily your size as far as height is concerned and probably about root more around
while using familiar metrics. Hey, this may be foolish, but could you help me guys
help me move this water barrel over to the Forge and this fire?
Root more wants to say yes, but then he's having like second thoughts about it because this was
originally Torag's area that he knows of. I don't know about the depths of this area, but as far as
Okay, well the two of you will each hoist this barrel. Go ahead and give me uh
Athletics? Yeah, let's say an athletics check.
Uh, the slow the low rolls persist into this week. That's a
16 for tricky a 24 for scarab.
It's a natural one. Someone like goes to lift it up and then her like metal
fist like scraping against it and she's like, ah, I will come up. He sees that happening. He's
going to roll to help. Okay, just a hole through the barrel. Yeah, she's like, she's like trying to get
it trying to like position her fist under and it's like pinching her skin on the edge of the
gauntlet and she's like, just keeps yelling pivot 13. I don't even assist. Well, between the four of
you as awkward as it is and surprisingly scarab, you feel like you're the one holding the brunt of
the weight between the four contributors here. Tricky bleeding out awkwardly slide and shuffle
this barrel all the way to the north part of the room and you hoist it up between all of you and
you're able to dump it into the molten contents of this forge. Immediately, there's a loud hissing
followed by like cracking and splintering sounds as the metal hardens and splits from its heat
and the smoke is very quickly replaced by a white plume of steam that quickly fills the room. Not
unlike the fountain room that you found very early on on this floor, the room is then heavily
obscured in this steamy outpouring, but you can feel the temperature from the forge has drastically
reduced and so while the steam fills the room, you feel that the content of smoke has also
dramatically decreased. What about the uh we still hearing as much of an intensity from the
whispering voices? Yes, it still has not changed and it seems to be solely emanating from the
hooked chain on the floor. Next to the ash pile are both the hooked chain and the dropped great
hammer. Jasper has to go poop. He does that when he has to go poop just walks around.
It's like he forgets how to poop and he's scared. What's happening to me? You just keep on moving
the boxes. I have tabs. I've been keeping tabs on where you keep the boxes. On top of the fridge is
ridiculous man. Which boxes? Wait they're pooping a box? What else you guys want to do in here?
Yeah, Rootmore, like you said, he wants to see if there's anything cool in here. Sure. I'll take
inventory on all the weapons finished or unfinished. Yeah, so among the scattered works, if you could
even call them that at this point, many of them are warped and twisted beyond their original intent.
Like a sword that's curved way too far beyond a usable form, like snaking almost, or a shield that's
like dented in the wrong direction. Everything is kind of like a little off from what it should be,
not so much usable. You imagine if you maybe gathered up all of the scrap you might be able
to sell for a small amount, but it would be heavy and unwieldy. I think he ordered everything from
Timu. As far as what's around the anvil itself, there are three things of interest that stand
out to you. First of all, there's the war hammer wielded by the dwarf. There's this like whispering
chain and then whatever work that the dwarf was working on when you came in. Rootmore bends down
to start picking one of these things up, but then he sees Monet's gauntlet and he pauses. Is there a
check we can do to see if these things are cursed? Sure. Go ahead and give me... Wait, you don't want
to be a hammer hand? Come on, brother. Notice it's a truss scar. Rootmore hammer hand. You, yuck.
Fair question. That's fair. That's a fair ask. I guess they could be cursed. I mean, this guy
himself was clearly cursed. What's the check? He's looking it over now. Yeah, I'm double checking.
Better not be a cultism. Well, unfortunately, it is going to be an occultism check.
Maybe a religion check. I'll take religion, but it'll be a higher DC.
Next. Could I use my mercantile lore in the knowledge of special weapons? Because that's
where I put his mercantile lore, his weapons of interest. Would that... And this is one... This is
a big maybe. Would he be able to tell if it had been altered? Do you have any form of detect magic
or anything like that? I've identify magic through arcana. I'll take an arcana check at a higher DC
than religion. Just give it a shot. I've got 29 religion. Forget about me. Wasted word. 20 occult.
Okay. 29 is pretty good. Going over each of the items, the warhammer is a plus one
warhammer. It doesn't appear to be cursed in any way. In fact, it seems maybe not something
that the Forgeburn made himself. It seems to maybe even predate him. Or maybe it was his before
he came to be as he was. The object he was working on, on top of the anvil, is a rather curious
looking shield. It seems to be flattened out and has some form of mechanism. Almost like the front
of it seems to be made of a series of interlocking parts. It's very curious. Not like any shield
we've seen before. It doesn't appear to be cursed, although you're not quite sure as to the true
nature of the shield itself. I would like to do a crafting check. And, you know what, yeah go ahead.
We'll take that first. 25. Okay, scarab. If Rubemore were to hold the shield out to you to examine,
as you begin to look over and you see its series of interlocking parts, this like segmented nature
to the shield you denote on the back, hidden beneath one of the handholds of the shield,
is a trigger mechanism. Following the trigger mechanism along you can see there almost appears
to be some sort of like detonation rigged up to the shield. As if the wielder of the shield might
be able to sacrifice the shield itself to cause a conical explosion in front of them. It's a blaster
shield. This is an exploding shield. Wow. Some of the same mechanisms in this, in crystal. He holds up his gun.
It is a magical item. It's a wooden shield with a hardness of 3, HP of 12, a break threshold of 6,
and if the shield is destroyed or for an action, you can trigger the shield, causing it to explode
dealing 4d6 piercing damage to each creature within a 15 feet cone with a DC 19 reflex save.
My brother in Toraq, take this. Wow. That's pretty cool. Are you interested?
You wanna use your one good hand? No. No I'm not. Your right hand is free, correct? Yes. Yeah.
And then as far as the chain goes, with a 29 on religion, we'll say between you and Scarab looking
it over with his knowledge, this is a plus one striking flaming spiked chain. Wow. However,
yeah. However, because you rolled so well and only because you rolled so well, you have heard,
maybe in your conversations with Monet or maybe you saw it at the library or maybe you'd heard of
it before then, knowing that this is something that sometimes happens to your peoples. The chain
of a forged spurn is often referred to as a soul chain. You know that if a creature is killed with
a soul chain, that it has the ability to wrench their very soul from their mortal corpse, trapping
it within the chain for one thing, thus making it a sacrilegious and unholy weapon. That could've
been you, Rude Boy. But beyond that, you also know that any creature that would wield a soul chain
would have to resist the sheer will of the spirit that inhabits it. Otherwise, they would risk,
at the end of each day at sundown, the spirit possessing and controlling their body.
Oh wow. And if you're wielding it, can you have this thing on your person? Can you like have it
in a bag? Yes. This is just, this is undeniably potentially a cursed weapon. Yeah, it's beautiful.
Don't touch it! What's it worth? Ah, good question. A soul chain is a level six item
that does not have an associated value. In fact, you imagine, due to the rarity and nature of it,
those who normally come to find them and possess them do not remain themselves long enough
that should you be able to find a merchant who is interested in such cursed curios,
you might be able to fetch a very high price. Oh yeah. So therein becomes the crux of
being a plus one striking flaming weapon. Very strong. Two of your damage dies plus
one D six fire damage. Plus a better chance to hit. But it's evil. There comes a risk. Right.
It's evil. Mom, dad, don't touch it. If nobody minds. Scarab will pull out a little burlap sack
that he's got on him and swipe that baby up. Filthy. Wrap it up real tight and tell somebody
it's something it isn't. See how much money you can get for it. Ruin somebody's life. Sell it to Zach
Bagans. Yeah, yeah, there's a soul inside. You gonna buy it or not? Maybe more than one. Yuck.
Probably could have been us. Could have been us. Could have been us. Yeah, we can also,
we can also rip off that plus one. What is it? Plus one striking. Yeah, if you want to touch it,
reach in the bag, touch it. Plus one. And a fire rune as well. Plus one striking flaming
spiked chain. But because it's cursed, I feel like you'd have to remove the curse first.
No idea. Unless that's just other media. We'll figure it out. We can just take it to a merchant
and see what happens to him. Because either way, Scarab kind of just wants the cursed chain,
but if we get those babies off, no problem, then he still has his artifact and that's a flame rune
and a plus one. That's it. Yeah, so some things to think about. Plus one great hammer, exploding
shield, and plus one striking flaming spiked chain. Really, really cool. Also, RuneMore,
you don't have to tell them it's cursed or you don't want to. That was your information.
No, he already said it. Certain things you just can't let go of. Filthy Luka.
Should move back to another room. Patchy tour up. Yeah, even now standing here,
the steam and smoke begin to fade, leaving you just in a now cold and dark forge.
Good enough room as any. Don't like the whispers.
Well, now the whispers come from the bag itself.
Oh, so we're just going to be here. Silently whispering along with you, Scarab.
Well, as far as that goes, is there any water still left in the tub? We dumped that whole baby.
No, it was necessary. We can quench the flame. I could just toss this somewhere. Who knows,
it could come in handy. Scarab, perhaps hearing too many whispers, holds onto the bag a little longer.
Yeah, let's sit down and route mark and roll some heals, some treat wounds.
Anything else going on in here? I think that's it. We spent, I think, an hour and 20 minutes.
Did, uh, Scarab, did you need any healing? He's down a little bit, but it's five,
it's five, unless you have like a real, a real little guy that's not going to...
I mean, it only takes 10 minutes.
Okay, yeah, that's fine. And in that other time of, uh, in that hour...
Spend the time making some bullets?
Yes. Wonderful, beautiful, ready to rock.
Okay. Seeing as how it's been roughly nearly two hours, not quite,
you now find yourself in the room completely cold, devoid of smoke and steam.
You're feeling emboldened a bit more shored up than you were before.
And to the northeast is that staircase leading down.
Also, Rootmore, I'm curious, are you planning on wielding the shield or are you going to hold off?
Yeah, he's, he's wielding it right now.
Okay. Uh, if you need to look that up, it is just called, you found it, beautiful, never mind.
Beautiful, never mind. Okay, then I can close that.
Seems cool, seems like you're supposed to have it break, so I mean, fuck it.
It's pretty cool.
Yeah, it's pretty, it's perfect for Rootmore, I know he doesn't want to hold it.
I'm, I'm fully aware.
Oh boy.
So, what would you like to do now?
Ready, gang.
Ready as we'll ever be. Things are different now, we have tricky.
Let's get it over with.
We do. Tricky.
As you make your way to the northeastern part of the room, you work your way down the same staircase
that Scarab scrambled down in the last fight.
Moving north down the stairs, you find yourselves on the landing of a staircase that veers suddenly
off to the right. However, the stairs only go another three or four steps before completely
dropping off, leading to a unfinished, craggy end of this hallway that appears to open down below.
If you're to peer over the edge of the stairs, you can see large stalagmites and stalactites
forming on the top and bottom of this cavernous room below you.
It's probably about a 12 foot drop.
This is where they were keeping the butcher.
If I'm looking at the right spot.
Different part of the map. I haven't revealed it to you yet, because it depends on whether or not
you hop down or not.
Oh, okay.
As far as, as far as I know, it's a good spot.
Okay. As far as, as far as the map would go, it'd be off to the right.
What I'm scared, but curious about is,
there's stairs that just break off and then there's a room that just looks like a cave.
Or does it look like a room? Like a built place?
It looks like some sort of cavern.
It's just weird for the stairs. Does it look like there is remnants of more building?
It's almost like- Where this stuff broke?
It's almost like stairs were beginning to be built down into an area before they realized
it opened up to a lower chamber.
In fact, looking from the stairs down, you can see there's,
there are like connected structures below the staircase that you could like kind of
clamber down if you wanted to.
In fact, I'll go ahead and do a little reveal here.
Hey, uh, sorry I haven't asked, but is either of you guys a wizard?
You can see the section on the right now, the map I'm on, I moved y'all there. It's on the right.
I know magic.
You like this place up. Is there any reason to go in here?
I mean, this must be the second entrance they've been using, but I don't know how
they've been getting up and down.
Oh, you can see looking that there are like stalagmites and stalactites.
Some of them still connected forming columns that go from ceiling to floor.
It almost looks like they've been shimmying up and down.
Wow.
Are the stalagmites and stalactites blackened in some spaces because of the oils from their
hand because you shouldn't touch the walls of a cavern?
Absolutely.
Nice.
There's scaly lizard oils are all over them.
Yeah, don't touch the walls of caverns.
That's the biggest ask from Scarab.
Yes, cobalt have been coming through here.
Not big boars and dwarves and one-handed people.
You surveying the area, you think that
Tricky might be able to do a series of hops and jumps on various bits of
like craggy rock to make his way down.
There's a small amount of rifts to it, but if you were careful,
he should be able to hop down with relative ease.
And should, you know, the worst come to worst, it's only a 12-foot drop.
So not death.
Yeah.
You guys up for it?
Mars touching all the cave walls right now.
Walk through our caverns.
Turn back.
No, yes.
What does stalagmite and stalactite mean? The resulting formulation or
formation is called a column, pillar, or a stalagmite.
I didn't know about stalagmite.
I did say columns though.
Wow.
I figure if a rope isn't necessary, we just climb down.
Yeah, you could probably make your way down through the series of handholds and crags.
It would be from your position.
You think a relative ease.
If a weak and miserable kobold could make the climb, then I imagine you could do the same.
You guys should go first just in case things get hairy.
Monet will jump down.
She can't climb down.
She got...
Doesn't she have cat fall?
Oh, do you want us for a jump?
She does have cat fall.
Yeah.
So you will take one point of damage.
What does she say?
Monet, as you leap down into the cavern...
Oh.
I wouldn't say it was a leap.
I'd say it was a storm.
...as you fling yourself helplessly into the dark below...
I'd say it was more of a hop down sort of situation.
...as you hop to your doom, you dive head first.
As you turn your back to the to the cavernous room and fall backwards.
She does have dark vision.
I would also like to let you know that this section here has been exposed.
You were pinging out and that...
Yeah, I know.
That was me trying to do the polygon reveal.
It was being really dumb.
I mean, there's nothing there.
It's a little hole.
We just poke your hair.
It's just rock.
And above the tiny hole that says,
Abandon faith all ye who enter this tiny hole.
That's the hole to hell.
And it's so small.
Okay, Monet, you leap down.
Okay, Monet.
She's crouching because she just landed and she's slowly standing up as she's waiting for the...
Gigantic stalagmites fill the floor of this 12 foot high yawning cavern.
They nearly touch tips with the stalactites that descend almost an equal length from the ceiling.
In the cave's northern portion,
a crack in the ceiling leads to a distant fiery glow.
Sorry, this is giving way.
You can see above you.
The hole that you jumped down from.
There's no longer a fiery glow.
But I see my friend's face as being like,
You jumped.
One thing to note is the room that you've jumped in is littered with small animal bones,
as well as the odd kobold skull here and there.
Everything from small rats,
ROUSs, as well as kobold skeletons kind of litter the floor in this room.
Folks, if you are not familiar with ROUSs,
I will direct you to watch Princess Bride.
That's it.
Rodents of unusual sizes.
It is rodents of unusual sizes.
Frankly, I don't believe they exist.
I will direct you to watch Princess Bride.
Okay.
One of these days, I never think about it.
Or you could just go punch some rats and fall out.
You should.
To the northeastern portion of this room,
you can see that the cavernous room kind of narrows down into what looks like a corridor or tunnel.
Rootmoor.
Go ahead and give me a perception check.
Do any...
Rootmoor, what's your vision like?
Dark vision.
Okay, yeah, we're all dark.
We're all darked up.
There's a natural 20.
Natural 20.
Which amounts to a 29.
Baby, baby, baby.
Okay, on the southern wall, nestled among the rocky crags,
round about here, yeah, for your reference.
Nestled among the rocky crag wall of this cavernous cave,
there appears to be something that is not in line with the rocky formations.
No, this is more angular, more curved and smooth.
It almost looks like...
Well, thinking back, the closest thing you could think is it reminds you faintly of the gargoyles
above Charro's Vade's tower.
And here instead appears to be some kind of nestled, stony-looking creature,
reptilian in nature but winged with its wings draped over its shoulders
in gentle repose resting along the back wall.
Made out of stone?
Apparently.
Okay.
The coast is clear except for a gargoyle that's quite suspicious.
I'm going to shimmy down this.
Well, he's been shimmying down this whole time.
Go ahead and give me a athletics check.
Stone steady.
Please, Bale.
Oops, got an athletics check.
Very good.
Let's see.
11.
I saw it bounce.
I saw it bounce and then slow roll.
That did not roll.
That just bounced.
Big heavy metal die.
Catch me.
Catch.
Oh, Monet, I'm falling.
That was an 11, you said.
Monet's looking to the south like this.
With her fist to her forehead.
400 pound dwarf falls on you.
As you stare to the southern corner of this room,
trying to make out more of the features of this stony edifice on the face of this cliff wall,
cavern wall, pardon.
Routemore suddenly clashes to the ground behind you with a loud bang
as his metallic armor rings out against the stone wall and on the stone caverns.
Monet's going to go shh.
Jesus, Routemore.
And he looks up shh.
In the direction you stare at this stone creature,
its eyes suddenly shoot open, giving off a light, almost ghostly ice-like glow staring in the dark.
Ew.
Oh my god.
Errrrm.
Did Gargoyle say that?
There is a distinct creaking and screeching of stone on stone as this large reptilian creature
unfurls its wings slowly and clambers down the wall before it stands on a rock in front of you,
high above you, probably about eight feet up on this rock, glaring down,
its eyes glowing in the darkness.
It's...ROWSER.
Uh.
Sir Daniel Fortescue!
Somebody's gonna understand that.
Can I do a...
Somebody will get it.
Can I do a knowledge check on it?
Yeah, go ahead and give me, uh, Arcana.
It's me, Sir Daniel Fortescue!
Medieval?
I've only s-
I don't know.
I don't, I actually don't know.
PlayStation.
Classic PlayStation game everybody should play.
Arcana, you say?
Yeah.
That is a 22.
Do you like that?
That quick math is real quick.
I'm proud.
Very nice.
It's real fast.
Wait.
And then I said, it is a 22.
That's how fast it is now.
Well, it's no edit right there, y'all.
You should edit it with so much time into it.
Just a whole conversation, just a whole conversation.
Just put in a bunch of ums and uhs for like five minutes.
Evil, evil, evil.
It's a real quick math.
Yeah, that was very fast.
No matter how I might edit this, it was pretty quick.
And I'm sorry, what were you willing for again?
Arca- I just-
Arcana.
Correct.
Okay.
Do a knowledge check on it to see if I can figure out what this thing is.
This is a gargoyle.
Most definitely.
A creature of stone.
Let me look up a specific for you.
Okay, something you know about gargoyles.
Although gargoyles tend to roost at religious sites, they eventually will gravitate towards
the gods ethos and frequently become followers of the very gods they kind of form around.
Other gargoyles will reconsecrate crumbling temples to their own gods.
Most of those will uphold their tenets towards demon lords or lords of other devils or
you know, bad stuff.
So maybe not Toraq.
So maybe not.
Yeah, so-
Still worth that question though.
I wonder-
Like what if he's like an old guard?
Listen to me.
Yeah.
That'd be sick.
I wonder if this-
Maybe this guy could be a worshiper of that like demon that-
The vampire demon?
Yeah.
Something else you know about gargoyles.
Two things in fact we'll say because of your role.
They are immune to bleeding as they are not of flesh.
And they are incredibly durable with physical resistance due to their stone-like skin.
As far as I've gathered he could follow any of three gods.
One of them would be really good for us and that's at least likely.
Toraq.
And so Reglosaw become my mule.
My name is Monet.
Ah I'm Rootmaw Redmain he says as he slowly stands up.
Rootmaw.
Just don't spit.
Don't tell me what you're saying.
Don't tell me cause it hurts.
Has the gargoyle regarded everyone?
He's not regarded you, Scarra.
I think that Monet would turn around and or like do like one of the one of these you know and say gargoyle sometimes take the take the
religious beliefs of the temple that they're in I think that you could kind of Ixnay on the foreg.
The oregte.
Oh that's pretty cool.
What god do you worship?
No I said shut up Rootmaw!
Rootmaw I must know.
Ixnay.
What god do you worship?
The first god.
What god do you worship?
The first thing I said to Rootmaw was don't talk.
Don't speak.
I know just what you're thinking.
I got a cool song stuck in my head I wasn't paying attention.
That did a number on everybody at the table.
Everybody takes psychic damage.
So please stop explaining.
I'm no psychic damage Monet.
No you're the one that did the damage.
Nice.
Okay so Monet introduces herself to Ziggaboo.
At your introduction his head cocks.
Quizzical for a moment trying to take you in and regard you for what you are.
You are not like the others.
Why are you here?
Your war wants to speak.
Quiet Rootmaw shut the fuck up.
I got some extremely terrifying mad.
I jumped down because the stairs are stopped.
Pardon?
She's very good at talking.
You know what?
Let's test that.
Go ahead and give me a persuasion check.
I know you're not trying to persuade but give me that.
So here's the deal.
She doesn't have anything in diplomacy.
She has a plus zero to diplomacy and intimidation.
She's just talking.
What?
I'm just going to keep listening.
Give me a flat anyway.
I'm asking for it even if it's on drain.
That is a 16.
Wow.
Jump down because the stairs stopped.
That's why I'm here.
She's capable of lying.
I would have been down here if I would have also come down.
Do you bring tribute like the others?
What kind of tribute?
Food.
Flesh.
Sure.
I'm going to reach into her bag.
Sip the hunger of Regulus the rock devil.
Yeah, should pull out a rash.
Can I roll a recall knowledge on that?
You can try.
Regulus the rock devil.
What am I adding?
Arcana.
Are you playing something from that thing that none of us know?
Yeah, that's the gargoyle.
Wait, from what?
From medieval from PlayStation 1.
Oh yeah, I don't.
Sir Daniel Fortescue.
He's a skeleton man that doesn't have a lower jaw.
If I was going to be a man of culture, I would have done the fable root of gargoyles.
Or it would have just been the really cheeky cockney English.
And that's the idea, like medieval is very much a comedy.
Good call that a shot.
I love it, man.
I don't even remember what I was rolling.
For Regulus the rock devil.
Arcana.
15.
She knows that skill.
That is a 26 arcana.
Not a name familiar to either of you.
If it's a name, it has to be either a self gained or locally attributed title.
It's just like an old produce box that's been melted away and just makes those letters to make his name.
That's what it is.
He has a name, he's known as Regulus the rock devil, but it's not anything that is so well known or powerful to evoke any memory out of the two of you.
Monet will pull out a ration and toss it towards him.
Oh man, that's a week's worth of food.
I know, I've got two more.
Oh now he gets it.
I understand.
Trafficking with psychopaths.
Couldn't give me a diplomacy check on that.
He has a 12.
He very quickly scampers down the rock he's on.
And I want you to appreciate the gravitas of this.
This is a figure who stands roughly about like six feet tall.
And easily twice as wide if factoring in all of the wingspan.
As he scrambles down the rock, he passes over your offering and gives it a hefty sniff.
You can almost hear like a whistling as the wind moves through rock.
Just as quickly as he goes over it, he stands above it and he stands back up on two feet.
This is not the offering I require.
Be this food I prefer when it bleeds.
He will stamp a taloned stony foot onto your ration, squashing it in all directions.
That's a bummer. I mean I already got rid of it.
Are there any corpses back through the latest rooms that are worth...
I think they were all undead, right?
I don't know.
Not from where you can see.
Like from where we came from it was just all undead.
Probably not what he was looking for.
Because just scared of being still up there.
If I could go grab something I don't think so.
No, I mean the nearest corpse he would have been all the way back in the chapel.
Yeah, well I don't have anything like that.
All I have is what I gave you.
So that's the best I can do right now.
Are you stuck down here?
I thought I told you not to speak for him.
When he thinks you got it like on lock...
Brother is ruined!
You just strike at him.
Stuck?
Reglos is not stuck.
Reglos is he who creeps in the dark.
The one who melds with stone.
The one who crushes blood.
You.
You are stuck.
No, I mean I clearly see a way past you over there.
And then we can go back the way we came.
Not necessarily stuck.
Who do you want?
What do you want me to reflex save there Rootmore?
Alright.
Well actually I just...
I don't know if you meant to throw your shoe at me.
But anyway.
31.
Are you serious?
That is just good enough to note.
That as you blink in response to his words.
You blink just in time to see a blur of motion moving.
And before you open your eyes again you're already like starting to follow it.
You move your head to the right and as you open them.
He is standing at the opening to this cavern.
In a blink of an eye he has moved from the southern end to the northern end of the room.
Blocking your egress.
Pretty swift moves.
Who do you follow?
I don't think we should bring religion and politics into this Rootmore.
Oh Mone.
Clearly see he's not going to let us leave.
Are they going to become friends or are we going to kick his ass?
I mean you didn't even ask if he would let us.
Roscoe's a waffle house.
It sounds like you're making a lot of assumptions here.
Can we?
Yes.
I am.
He's not good.
Just don't tell him about Scarab.
Make sure you're hiding.
Scarab.
Lay down up there.
He doesn't see you.
He does a rocky face.
Just fucking literally standing right above the guy.
Yeah.
Mone also did say that there was a sketchy gargoyle.
There's a sketchy gargoyle down here.
I have come to learn that in blood there is power.
Rhaeglos now demands blood as with Lorkhan.
Blood for blood.
Nice.
Alright, he's gonna die.
I called it, you vampire boy.
I mean yeah, the blood talk.
Regardless if he was like, ah, for desnit.
Bro, with the blood.
We can't.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Well, we can go look for blood.
That is plenty.
I need only to seize it.
Roll for initiative.
Yep.
We were, we were.
Wrong button again.
Here we go.
Scarab, just stay up there and just shoot down.
From the northern part of the room I don't think he can see you.
We're gonna put you right there, Scarab, on top of a pile of rocks.
That's just so you can see where your stairs are.
And you might, I think you'll be able to.
He might be like, lightly obscured, he'll get a partial AC cover from, just from the stairs you're on.
But you should be able to shoot.
Here we go, he's right in front of you, Rootmore.
Ooh.
Alright, Scarab, what'd you get on initiative?
Get away.
Not, not great.
Seventeen.
And Rootmore?
Thirty-one.
Wow.
Monet.
Twenty.
And for him.
I, Rootmore, you're first.
You hear the squeak of stone on stone as his talons begin to slide forward and dig in.
He's ready to lunge.
But you're ready.
Here I was looking for a range spell this whole time, but luckily you came right in front of me.
Fish a swing!
Nice.
Let's go, baby.
Don't forget, you got your dailies back.
You know what, I'm gonna use it to re-roll, because that was really bad.
Roll the two.
Yikes.
Come on.
Give me something, give me something spicy.
That's really spicy.
Thirty-two to hit.
Ooh!
Almost a crit.
Oh my god.
Good to know.
Regular hit.
Oh my god.
Damn, gotta roll pretty, gotta roll pretty high for them crits.
Good, I mean good, that's how it should be, I guess.
Twenty bludgeoning damage.
Nice.
Your hammer collides with his stony skin, sending a spray of dust and fragmented rock.
And even though it cracks his rough exterior, you feel like not all of your force was able to go through.
Maybe the hammer bounces back a bit as it collides.
Ooh, that didn't feel very good.
What else you got?
Oh yeah, he's like resistant to physical damage.
Yeah.
But do magic cut through?
Do magic, it doesn't level it out, necessarily.
Not unless the weapon expressly does magical damage.
And he's immune to bleeding.
Yeah, we're just gonna do a regular strike this time.
Damn.
Nineteen.
Miss.
Yeah.
With your second swing of your hammer, his tail lashes out, wrapping around your arm as you bring it down,
able to stop your swing, and he rears back an arm to swing at you.
Oh.
Terrible roll, natural two.
That's gonna be a miss.
Good.
His other claw will do the same, swinging at you.
Let's hope for a one on this one, boys.
A three.
Wow.
Even worse.
Good.
Bob and Whee.
Really good at reflexes.
Boy, you're gonna get an opportunity here, because seeing that you're able to deflect his claw attacks,
he suddenly hunches down to launch himself into the air.
You see he's about to move, and so you can make an opportune strike.
Oh, thank you.
Wait, wait, wait, we're not done, I still have questions.
Stay down here.
Beanpole, beanpole.
Twenty-five.
That's a hit.
Oh, baby.
Hey, hey, hey.
A, C, 23.
Seventeen, bludgeoning.
Landing your hammer in the same place as before, on the chip's shoulder, you send a chunk of him slicing off,
just scattering to the floor below.
He grimaces in pain through his stony visage before he leaps ten feet into the air, and his wings unfurl, supporting him.
He is now almost touching the ceiling.
He is flying above you, and he hisses, food for reglos.
And it is Monet's turn.
What?
He said food for reglos.
Oh.
Was that a sausage?
I thought you were doing some draconic language again.
Huh, come again?
He's giving me, what's the snake king's vibe from Elden Ring?
Welcome to the family.
Oh, that's, I don't know.
Yeah, what is it?
I was asking Matt specifically.
Don't ask me, don't ask me, it's been too long.
Come on, Matt, on the spot, you're a real fan, right?
I'm a real fan, but also I'm riddled with that ADHD.
Yeah, I don't remember either.
Frick.
And I'm not obsessed like those other fools.
Suckers, suckers, I did that shit without the ads, bro.
I did that shit without the ads before things were done, done changed up.
Now I play with ads because I don't have time.
Whatever his name is, that's the vibe, oh, Rykard.
Right, yes.
Yeah, so he's giving me that vibe, so that's why I did the voice the way I did.
I used that fool's sword for a long time.
Yeah, good sword.
Anyway, he is now up in the air, Monet, it is your turn.
You see this stony, demonic-looking gargoyle hovering above you.
What do you do?
Monet is going to channel her elements.
Bro's stone.
And then Monet will summon a whirling grindstone.
Question, is your grindstone going to be able to hit something that's 10 feet up?
Question, for you, before you make that choice, is it going to be able to hit something that is 10 feet in the air?
That was awesome.
It was a really good sound effect, it was just a little premature.
Been waiting.
I'm trying to, I know, but I'm trying to be like, hey, maybe don't, because if it can't reach, then why do?
Uh-oh, you know it would be sick, but I'm not going to do it because I don't want to get cursed.
Look, you just take that soul chain that's going on, get him with it real good, and then throw the end of the chain into the grinder.
Oh, dude, that would be sick.
That would be pretty crazy.
I'm trying to get cursed.
Wrap it around your Beyblade and fucking let it rip.
Let it rip!
And then it fucking hooks us.
Everyone in the room dies.
Um, probably not.
I'm going to say probably not.
So, never mind.
She'll do a two-action elemental blast instead.
That was a 22 to hit.
That is a miss.
Yeah, it's a 23.
I knew it!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that's it, that's her turn.
Alright, Scarab, you're up.
Homeboy's floating.
Yeah, as this thing is now closer to the ceiling of the room that you're not in, it's even harder to see it.
You can still make a shot, you think, from where you are, but you're probably looking at a plus two to its AC.
Good, because what I was going to do in the first place, I'm going to hunt prey, just...
which is going to cut that down, so it's going to be a normal shot.
So one action, hunt prey.
Second action, reload weapon.
Or actually, instead of just a reload, he's going to do the Raccontours reload,
and he's going to throw his voice into the other, like, off of a corner in the cavern.
I love it.
Over here, loser!
And fire.
So that'll be a...
Oh, well, yeah.
A roll for it, I guess.
Yeah, you're rolling against my Deception DC.
Perception against your Deception DC, or are you doing Deception against his Perception DC?
I think it might be that way, because you're doing the thing to him.
Yeah, do a Deception check against his Perception DC.
Yeah, okay.
So I'll tell you right now, DC 22.
Ah, 20.
Damn.
I don't know.
Nah, it's fine.
It'll be...
Either way, I have reloaded Scared Fires.
Natural 20.
Oh my god, dude.
There's a Rhino.
Rhino!
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
Big magic!
Okay.
Don't forget your Deadly's and all that.
Yup.
Poor guy.
Can I get two Friendship Detents?
Did you get a Marty?
Nice.
Jesus.
And like Scarab's gun has just been holding back for some reason, it launches off with
the power of the gods and does 45 damage.
Wow!
Jesus.
It's a triple damage crit.
Well...
As soon as this statuesque gargoyle launches into the air, ready to swoop down at your
friends, you take aim and you fire.
And it goes through the statue face of this thing and immediately sends a shower of stone
down on your friends below as it explodes.
Jesus Christ!
So much for Reglos the Rock Devil.
So much for offering.
I'm a loser.
Offering!
For me?
And Monet adds him to her channel now.
That was like some dwee!
He has pieces of his face on you.
Sick.
If you could just like wear his face, that'd be pretty cool.
He's just swirling around her and her massive elements.
Cool.
Freaking nuts.
Wow.
How do we get down from here?
Anyway, what were we doing?
No kidding.
Anyway...
I'm bored.
Just egging coming out.
Oh, you're bored, huh?
Wish you wouldn't do that.
I don't bother me.
I get my fun elsewhere.
I just want to let you guys know that because you dealt with the Forge Spurn, that was officially
the end of book one.
Oh!
We beat book one!
Wow.
Oh, no way, dude.
You were way past that, but that was the last bit that you had missed from book one.
So you came back and you wrapped it up.
TPK!
That was the end of book one.
TPK!
There's no way.
No way, book one.
That's crazy.
TPK.
I know.
Good lord.
That's insane, isn't it?
Maybe not.
Scarab was not built for that room, period.
That's a tough one.
That's a hard one.
It's one of those where you have to avoid it, but also if you're the DM, it's like, well,
why wouldn't you do this on turn one?
It's brutal.
What's our experience after that fight in this?
I think we're level seven.
No, not quite.
You know what?
No, Matt, we already...
You guys are really close to it in level six.
Oh, son of a bitch.
Cool.
Really close.
I'm going to level up to eight real quick.
Start punching rocks in here until we level up.
So...
I wish, man.
No, I don't.
The game wouldn't have made it this far.
As you find yourselves now in this now empty cavern, the scattered remains of Reglos shattered
on the floor.
Who?
You still have the matter of getting...
You're so disrespectful.
Sorry.
I'm used to it.
I'm used to finding...
No, I'm just saying to Reglos, not to Cody.
Don't cut a motherfucker off, whatever I want to.
I was being disrespectful to Emon by saying that.
Emon is super respectful and he cares for his friends deeply.
I was dick for dick.
Emon is respectful.
Ruemore is not.
Ruemore is a problem.
He starts a lot of fights for Oli guy.
You have to kill that butcher.
I want to be the butcher.
That's what religions do.
They start fights, man.
I heard the butcher was evil.
I should not play religious figures anymore.
Yeah, you've done that a lot.
Am I supposed to subjugate the weak-minded and kill the unholy?
Emon's got stuff he's working through.
Let him do it.
If you don't believe in what I believe in, you have to die.
That's just how it is.
That's why I'm friends with Emon.
Fair dinkum.
Not enemies.
Not related.
Just friends.
Hey, man, at a certain point, friends is all that matters.
This guy needs friends.
Anyway, you find yourselves in this now empty cavern.
It's laden throughout with these columns and stalagmites and stalactites, but not a whole lot else seems to be here.
From where you are, Rootmoor, looking a bit to the north, you can see now what looks to be one of those toad-like creatures that you had encountered earlier that has been disemboweled and laying almost in an offering-like fashion.
Be wary. Be undead. Just in case, there's the ones we killed earlier, too.
Emon, I will stomp it.
You're right, you're right, you're right. Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Scarab's got to get down. What's the role?
Pretty easy athletic check to climb down.
So just don't, you know, as long as you don't give me a one, you'll be able to make your way.
Give me three of them.
Did you get a one on the first one?
Yeah.
Okay, well.
Tricky, Tricky Natural One.
Pretty, it's not that bad because you don't take damage after 10 feet and then you take the distance. So you're going to take two points of fall damage.
It's embarrassing as hell.
That is true.
So.
All right, Tricky, just.
As the other two are admiring Scarab's amazing shot, he mounts his boar proudly and begins to clamor down before a rock slips out from underneath Tricky, sending the two of them spilling down into the cavern below with you guys.
Right arm over the back like a family guy does. All the classic bullshit.
All the things I love to heap.
God damn it. Here I am on the ground again. He murmurs to himself with his arm behind his back like a family guy fall.
Scarab, you should have been here. This guy just exploded for no reason.
Scarab says pissily as he stands up.
What's it looking like guys?
Anything cool?
Not in this room.
It really wasn't worth us falling.
Nothing happened in here.
It's boring.
A whole bunch of nothing.
Great echo though.
I guess it exploded into pieces.
Never mind. It's just swirling around her now.
What are we going to do? What can we do?
Quick perception. See what's in this room.
I'm curious. What's he doing just in here alone? If he doesn't have like an altar or something or a hidey hole.
I think that Monet would like to do a perception on that space that he was in before.
He said that it looked similar to the gargoyles on Charvarros' tower.
His was the shape that was similar to the gargoyles on Charvarros' face. Vane's tower.
Would that lead Cobalt-like Scarab to believe that those gargoyles too could be sentient?
Could be.
Yeah.
Sure. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder.
It's just like why though?
Nothing concretely gives it away.
Concrete.
Yeah. I got it.
Did you see the stamp in the gargoyle? Was it the same brand? Then you would know.
Yeah. When you see one sentient gargoyle, it's hard not to think that every other gargoyle you bump into is going to be sentient.
We're all just scratching the backs of our necks right now. Just, are you a gargoyle?
In that respect.
Table, are you alive?
Yeah, dude. Going to a room full of mimics, you're going to question everything.
I mean, yeah, we do keep facing stuff that's kind of such. Yeah.
Search this room. See if he has a...a stash.
You do note at the southern part of the wall where he was first seen, there does appear to be a mass of trinkets or some such.
Woo!
But sifting through it, it doesn't seem to be anything of particular value or interest to you.
Some of the things that you see are like...
Crash!
Basically, a lot of it is like maybe kobold armor or shoddy kobold weapons.
You do see several of the like shards of obsidian that you saw when you first came in here, although these are a bit different.
While the others were like rough-hewn kind of like chopped segments, these have been like polished down almost into like a mirror-like state.
They're very pretty to look at, but you know as a merchant that they are relatively worthless.
You know who would love this?
They've got worth here though.
Oh, Jacques.
Yeah.
I wanted to ask about these obsidian shards because they seem obsessed with them. They're taking them somewhere.
We just never found it.
That's the thing. They have value. We need to take them.
It's just exactly why I feel like we've missed.
When you first came down here, you remember that there was that big statue that you couldn't really tell what it was,
but you thought maybe it was meant to be like a torag statue or a droskar statue, but it had been like hacked away at the base of it.
Hard to tell because all dwarves look the same.
Yeah, exactly. Especially when they've had like most of their facial features hacked away by kobolds.
That's what I've heard.
They were using... some of them were being used as like sling bullets for a minute in the beginning.
They were like shooting them, although they missed horribly and they were just shattering instantly.
And like while they're very sharp, they're very fragile, but they were just like hauling these rough-hewn chunks.
And then you do remember that like there were three of them trying to haul a big slab of it in the very first room,
but you guys dealt with them beforehand.
Oh yeah, haven't seen none as refined and polished as a few of these at the foot of this cave wall are.
Is there... and pardon me. Pardon. I just feel like I'm not smart enough to connect some dots here, so I'm gonna try and play the game.
Is there another check that it can make on this stuff to see in what relation it might have to this uprising of zombies?
Is there a check I can make that would be like, why though? Why this?
You could make a crafting check on them just to maybe get a better look at them.
Because they don't seem like... I feel like there's probably stronger stuff that they could use.
I could craft a crafting check as well.
Screw it.
Scarab's like just really scratching his head on them.
Oh boy, and they don't stop.
Mine stopped.
Don't stop coming. Don't stop coming. Don't stop coming. Don't stop coming. Don't stop coming.
Dang. 13.
Yeah, I mean, looking these over, the only thing you can note is that they've been polished to a point to where they're like smooth discs.
Almost like a... maybe like a magnifying glass, but rather than looking at something closer,
it's almost like they've been polished into small mirrors.
In fact, looking over one, even in the darkness, you can kind of make out the bare reflection of yourself.
Something you wouldn't notice in like the rough-hewn cut ones that you'd seen earlier.
Scarab gets a silly idea in his head. He wants to take one of these shards,
and he's got that bag with the chain whip in it, like hanging off of Tricky.
He wants to hold it near that and see if anything changes, any sound change.
He wants to know if these might be part of the gateway to all this happening.
As you do, there's no discernible difference.
You can still hear the muffled whispers coming from the bag. Nothing changes.
Yeah.
So it seems that whatever these are important for, if they're important, is not related to the chain.
No telling. I just don't know why they would fixate on this.
There's a reason, and it starts by going down that hallway.
We continue.
Scarab would like to take some with him, just in case.
Go ahead and add three polished mirrors to your inventory.
What's the order you guys want to go in down this hallway here?
Rootmore could go first.
Come on, eh.
And then Scarab in the back.
Good luck, you two.
Goodbye, Scarab.
Goodbye.
I'll build camp.
Cool big room. We're moving into another cave.
As you move your way up this northeast corridor, it's a bit narrow.
So Tricky's kind of squeezing along to try to fit.
But as you go, you can slowly pick up another sound of ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting.
And as you get towards the entrance where the hallway begins to open up,
you can see there's a large cavernous room strewn about with rubble and other debris.
There are kobolds here working along the northern, western, and southern walls,
as well as a few scattered in the middles working on the stalactites.
And they're mining hard at work, each of them swinging a pick with one in the middle who seems to be shouting orders at each of them.
Find more shiny good good for the king.
One of the kobolds scampers up, offering him some form of rock that you can't quite see.
And the authority-filled kobold swiftly backhands him, sending that rock scattering.
No! Shiny good good! The king needs gold.
I wonder if the shiny, is the shiny good good the shale that we've got?
But they're literally looking for gold?
No, that sounds like gold.
Yeah, they all seem busy at work, and the kobold in the center of the room is facing away from your tunnel.
Hey, Roombor, before anything happens, shh!
Come on!
Shh!
Shh! Shh! Brother!
Do you want to take the lead on this one?
Hold up.
Okay, so they're screaming about gold. They're toiling away. Do they look... scurbs?
There's about eight kobolds in total, seven of them mining away, focused on what they're working on.
And one of them in the middle, parking orders.
These dudes are alive. They're living.
Correct.
What's Monet looking like?
What's she looking like?
Yeah, because Scarab...
Keep this in mind, because Scarab understands how things are, and he hears live kobold speaking.
Scarab immediately gets Roombor's attention and hush whispers to give time for Monet to assess the situation.
Yeah, Monet's doing some math in her brain right now, and she's looking.
She's looking.
You're looking for a good spot.
I'll show you what she's looking.
See, because... I know in some world, there's...
That's what she's looking. Look.
Yeah, that's pretty badass.
Yeah, because there's always that part of my brain. I don't think Scarab would necessarily be thinking this,
but I'm just like, is there a diplomatic way we can get through this?
But these aren't just normal kobold. They've already shown that they're...
Yeah, we've already tried multiple times.
Oh yeah, we're public enemy number one.
It's way past that.
So, on those heels, I was like, is there some way I can mess with them?
I mean, we could walk in and start trying to talk to them and meanwhile be positioning.
Do you want to try and talk to them?
I could try to get their attention so you guys could position.
Yeah, because I mean, I've showed you guys what I'm thinking.
As soon as I saw it, I'm like, hmm? Okay.
I can't believe I was thinking about using a level two spell on that.
Whatever the hell that was we fought in that room. I don't remember the fight, honestly.
Spoiler alert! I still have eye boogers from the yawning I was doing.
That was pretty wacky. Fellas, I got an idea.
I'll save it for when Caddy comes back.
Okay.
Okay, guys, the only way out is through.
Step aside.
And once I have their attention, make your places.
Sounds good to me.
Scarab and Tricky are going to slide out through the cavern past their friends.
As Scarab exits into the large room, he has his award thing in his pocket.
Or in one of his bags.
The Hellhound Fang, actually, the one from the cave up top.
He's got it in his hand.
Well, he's got his pistol in his left hand, and he's just holding it up into the air.
And this Fang in the other.
And he's going to smash it on the wall.
Not necessarily smash it, but to get a good thunk.
He wants to make some noise as he's walking in.
And before anyone can turn their attention to him, he's going to begin screaming in draconic.
Scarab! Reworks our swapping tenures!
Laireth today's quota!
Vermin! Are you lowlives even near half of today's quota?
Hmm, interesting. Give me...
So, hold on. What does the claw do again?
I don't think it necessarily does anything. He's just using it.
He wants to be dominant. He's on the back of his boar, and he just wants to look dominant.
Yeah, give me a deception check.
Ooh-hoo.
I'm going to throw my pee-pee in on this one, because I have to.
Good Lord, I've been rolling so bad.
I'm ready for anything to go bad, but it would be nice if this worked.
Beautiful.
It's going to be a 29.
Oh, yeah.
Immediately, everybody's pickaxes stop.
So the clicking in the room comes to a halt, and all of the kobolds stare in your direction.
The pit boss turns around to look at you, too.
And there's, when they all turn, you see a genuine look of fear.
The pit boss tries to hold a modicum of composure, as he does, but even then, you can see,
if kobolds could sweat, his brow would be sweating.
All the while picking up on this, because Scareb's still a kobold.
He's terrified right now. All of them are just as scared of this situation.
Everyone's a chicken right now.
But Tricky is going to keep walking.
Tricky is making a line all the way to the other end.
The waltz of dominance.
Can Monet sneak behind Tricky?
Yes, give him a moment of silence for the roll.
Do you like the rollerbladers on buses?
Okay, I'll give you a roll in just a second.
Actually, you know what? Go ahead and give me the roll now.
I might use my session peepee for this.
You use yours, too? Okay, go for it.
Peepee's in the pot.
I'm glad I did.
Nice.
Your mouth went full open before you said nice, so it's probably pretty good.
My first roll was a one.
The second one was a natty 19.
So that is a 25.
23, sorry.
Scareb makes the noise with the fang against the wall.
Everybody falls quiet, and everybody's looking at you, and they're shocked for a moment,
and then you can see all of the workers kind of shrink away.
They try to make themselves look smaller, and they avoid making eye contact with you.
And the one in the middle looks at you, confused, back to the other workers,
and then back to you again, and you can see Concern falling over his face,
and he very timidly approaches you.
Whoa.
My lord.
We are fervently digging for the king, but gold production has been slow.
I forgive me, of course, for my impudence, but I do not recognize you, lord.
Scareb reaches back into his bag.
He puts the houndstooth back in and pulls out one of the...
I'm just gonna call him Shale, because that's how I imagine them.
Oh, one of the polished mirrors.
He's gonna pull out one of those and say...
What good are these, if this is all you're finding?
What good can the king make of it?
Good old Captain Ygritte have been relieved of their duties.
It's me now. Befomb Dad.
Hmm.
Oh, hey, what is he saying?
He does it back to you.
Good lord, I took the time to learn Dwarf, and maybe you could just get a little intelligence on your next level up.
Monet goes...
Hiding behind a tree.
I should have done that, too.
Sorry, for those of you...
Monet did a shush-shush-shush.
Monet, as Scarab begins to make his show, walking into the room, you're able to sneak behind Tricky, hovering close until you feel Tricky begin to turn towards the center of the room to address.
And in the moment that he calls out to everyone, you take the opportunity to sneak past, and you are just quiet enough that nobody seems to notice as you slip into the northern tunnel.
Nice!
Just waiting beyond the room, looking back on your ally.
That's beautiful. That's so cool.
Scarab, as you produce the polished Obsidian with your declaration, you can see any who were looking in your direction immediately have a look of abject horror and immediately turn their gaze away.
Aside from the one in the middle, who appears just as horrified for a moment?
My lord, be calm, Dad. Please. Forgive. Forgive.
Forgive poor Lekmek. He did not know that you were in service of Lady Varigma.
Hold on, I'm gonna need the names to write down really quick.
Lady Varigma, this is new. This is new info.
Lekmek is the name of this sort of a...
I don't even know, Foreman of the Cobalt here.
Okay, well, I have L-E-K-N-E-K.
Correct. 100%.
He says Lady Vrygma, which is spelled... Sorry, there's a lot of scrolling involved here.
This is a new name.
Correct. It is V-R-E-G-G-M-A.
Lady.
Lady Vrygma.
Lady!
Lady! Pretty lady!
Lady Vrygma!
So curious. This is scary. This is like, we're learning some real... This is real stuff now.
I put six question marks behind her name.
Good, nice. Let's see the appropriate amount.
Has there come word? Are we to perhaps delay our search for gold? Does Vrygma require more obsidian?
Skerab's gonna lean in.
Still walking, mind you. Like, Tricky...
Parading through.
Like, slowly following this man as Tricky saddles up behind him and stops for a moment.
I love it. So are you dismounted now? At this point, you've hopped down?
No, still on. Just leaning real hard.
Like a fucking guard through a vacant town.
That's great.
Like, acting like a real asshole. He's playing the characters he's seen in his spaghetti movies.
And for what reason do you think they would stop wanting gold?
Oh, a thousand pardons, my lord. I did not mean offense. I know that Merlok kept the man's gold as an offering.
I merely assumed. Pardon me, my lord, for the assumption. I...stupid, stupid!
He begins striking himself.
I merely assumed that when you produced the polished obsidian that perhaps Lady Vrygma was running low.
It would make you happy to continue with this? The obsidian?
Whatever would make my lord happy, my lord. If Vrygma requires obsidian, then at once we will take it.
But of course, we would never shirk our duties to Merlok. He wants the shiny good-good.
Scarab puts the obsidian back in his bag, and with his free right hand puts it on a fellow's shoulder.
And for what purpose did the obsidian serve?
Roll me deception.
Scarab says with his eyebrows...what would you even call that?
Furrowed.
Super furrowed, but he wants to give...
Expectantly.
Yeah, he's definitely like, just tell me, but also he wants to play it as if...
Like you're testing him.
Oh, do you know what the fu...yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Quizzically, I think is a good word.
He says as the obsidian misses his bag, falls to the ground, and crashes, with a natural one on the deception.
So he's like, and what use did she have for this?
Hmmmm.
Just don't forget how good he's been doing.
No, no, no, I'm not gonna play it that way.
Everybody's sweating in this room.
What is your Will DC?
Will DC? 21.
21?
So as you go to put this away, and it slips and falls to the floor and crashes, I like to imagine Scarab not even looking up, just still straight into the guy's eyes as it smashes on the floor,
but without looking away.
I just dropped the china, didn't I?
And Lekmik hesitates for a moment, staring down at the shattered piece for a moment, and he looks even more nervous than before.
Scarab reaches into his bag, grabs another one, and throws it onto the ground.
Nice, nice.
And continues walking.
What was the original question? It's just what they're for?
Yeah.
And then in that moment was like, oh shit, throw another one to show he, I don't even care.
Yeah, assert the dominance.
Lekmik at this point falls to his knees at the second one.
Like, he's in abject horror watching, and he's basically bowing before you.
Lord Baphomet, please, if the obsidian is not of the quality that Lady Vrygma needs, perhaps, perhaps the kobolds need to be whipped more,
so that they might find the most beautiful and precious and reflective obsidian for Vrygma.
Please forgive thus far we have done only our best, but in ignorance, in pure ignorance, I assure you.
How far can Scarab be into this room right now?
He would like to stop.
You can parade this room as far as you'd like.
Feel free to move.
Scarab would like to stop here.
In fact, as you move your way between the kobolds who are mining, they skitter out of your way.
Straight up just seem to shuffle and shy away, giving you as wide a berth as possible.
Even, I keep forgetting his name already, Lekmik?
Yeah, even Lekmik moves from his central position of command out of the way to kind of like give you a wider berth.
And he, you know, he moves forward a bit in order to continue beseeching you, but he's very, very passive and very timid about it.
Scarab is going to turn back towards the room, ding his, ding his weapon against the wall.
Vrygma had but one order.
For you and your lowly scales.
Cease production.
You're worthless.
Leave the mines.
And in this moment, he wants his homies to set the hell up because this is going to be a fight.
Okay, go ahead and give me another deception check.
Whoa.
Rupemore's going to ready in action.
You're going to bop that boy if he moves?
Yeah, check this out.
Rupemore's around the corner, but he's right next to where the other one of the covalts had skittered back away from where Scarab was moving through the room.
And so in doing so, backing away from Scarab, he unknowingly put his back right in the reach of Rupemore.
Tickle tickle.
What do you say to a maximum of 33?
Natural 20 on the die.
Whoa.
There is a moment when you say to stop production that.
And he has crazy in his eyes.
He's expecting a fight.
Lekmek's brow kind of furrows almost in disbelief for a moment.
But, my lord, what should become of the rest of us?
Are we to be offered?
Scarab begins to raise up and stand upon Tricky's back.
His eyes go white and he speaks.
You will go to the hungry mountains and you will serve the true Cobalt King.
I'm gonna need a big old persuasion on that one.
Natural 20.
What?
Oh my god.
Amazing.
Yes, finally.
Wow.
None of this was supposed to work.
In their abject terror of you, Lekmek questions no more.
He at this point will not even look up to you.
His eyes only meet as far as Tricky before they stop.
And he, bowing, faces back and says.
So you say.
So it shall be.
Lord perform that.
Men, after me.
Up the well.
They one by one begin to make their way past you to the southwest, vacating the room.
And if you turn and look you can see now the barely smoldering corpses of zombie Cobalts left behind from earlier.
As they one by one climb up, him waiting at the bottom, ushering each up the rope.
And they make their way up and out of the cavern.
Oh my god.
Wow.
Oh my god.
Holy shit.
Matthew, that's a peepee, my friend.
Oh my god, thank you.
Holy crap.
That was some next level.
That's a lot of lucky RP, a lot of good stuff.
Let me make sure these are the right ones.
There you go, golden one for you, boy.
Thank you.
Wow.
Holy jeez.
The
Lord's
eyes
go back to their
golden normal and he looks at you guys with immense surprise.
That wasn't him for a moment.
Wow, that was fucking crazy, man.
How are you gonna know what you're saying to that?
That was fucking awesome.
As you kind of let this bravado fade away and you let the breath out of yourself and shrink down from him,
you realize you were just in a room with seven potential enemies.
You know, cobalt haven't been that much of a threat so far, but still seven potential enemies.
And the kind of the gravitas of the situation washes over you for a moment.
But you realize that your your reptilian cunning was able to show forth and you were able to dissuade your foes from action.
Not only that, but to eventually, potentially persuade them towards your family's cause.
And as that relief and realization watches over you, as the two of you look into the room and see exactly what had unfolded,
each of you feels like
this is just meant to happen.
Like this is your battle, you were meant to be here and yours is the task of thwarting the evil in this place.
And each of you levels up.
Level six!
Holy.
Hell yeah.
Wowzers.
Holy crap.
And that's all the time we have for this week.
Wowee!
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There he is.
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Am I? Do we have a comment?
Yeah, on YouTube we have a comment for episode 39 of the Cobalt King.
I hired babies.
Babies!
From a nurse.
Leave a comment. You hired babies.
Special babies.
That's the name of the episode.
This is from Nurse Ratchet.
And they said, they said, I love the thumbnail.
The thumbnail is, it's AI Rootmore just sitting at a table throwing a fit.
The AI Rootmore are always fantastic.
It's perfect.
We do it for goofs and gaffs, but like doing the AI thumbnails, it's easy.
But also, it does take a lot of time to filter out and find the ones that are really appropriate and really funny.
If you haven't seen them, go check them out on YouTube.
You can see just the thumbnails themselves, even if you don't watch, that's fine.
But if you want to listen again, why not assist the podcast on YouTube?
But yeah, some of them are so incredibly pertinent to the episode. It's great.
And until we can really do the art ourselves, it's a good way for you guys to know what we're getting at with these characters.
Speaking of the YouTube, go check it out. We have videos of us playing games.
I just uploaded all of the episodes of Monster Prom. Monster Prom is finished.
It's a fun series. They're real silly.
Yeah, we're all very drunk, having a good time, RPing as people trying to date monsters.
Please remember we were drinking. Whenever I'm embarrassing, remember I was drunk.
Ignore Matthew slurs. He didn't mean it when he was drinking.
Also check out Emaud's YouTube channel, Bambi Drama.
We've got some fun videos on there and Matt has begun doing some YouTube videos as well at Sweetboytoshio.
Sweetboy with an eye.
With an eye. Sweetboy with an eye and Bambi Drama with no eye.
But yeah, keep leaving us comments. We love the comments. They're good fun.
You can also email us at thecursedcaravan at gmail.com.
And any questions, any comments, we'll read them on the podcast.
So do that. Thank you. Oh, thank you.
But also, all of our contact information is in the description.
Thank you for being a travel. I'm the Cursed Caravan.
Thank you.
Bye.
Let me clear my throat a little bit first.
Alright, I'm good.
I'm good.
Is the ancient Dwarven forge spr-
Sorry, you can't whisper.
I can't breathe.