Thank you. And welcome back to Beginner's Luck,
a D &D podcast. And the question arises, is it
still a D &D podcast if we use a different system?
I don't know. We'll find out in the future. I
am your host, Larry. I'm also the DMGM, and I
am accompanied by my players. Starting from the
top. Hello, it's me, Bella, again. Nice to see
you here again. I don't know why I said it again.
Fuck me! Well, already we're in straight for
the F. That's your one. Hi. Hi. That's all you
got to say for yourself? No apology? Nothing?
I'll apologize at the end. Never apologize for
being you, Bella. Never apologize. That makes
it sound like it's an insult. The demonetization
has hit hard. If I was saying that to Larry,
however, no, I'm joking. Well, accompanying Bella,
we also have... Hi, I am Robert and I play Gorda
Sevrok, the Draconic Sorcerer. Hi, I'm Avia and
I play Raynor, the Elf, the Bard. Very good.
And those are our three players. And as always,
I always have a question before we do begin.
And the question for today is... If being part
of a spy espionage organization, what would your
codename be? I feel like Addy's nickname would
be Aftershock. Aftershock, huh? Why is that?
Assuming that she has the same abilities as what
she currently has, there will definitely be some
tools in her arsenal which will definitely leave
some kind of effect afterwards. Okay. All right.
So you'd be a field agent? You think Annie would
be a field agent? Maybe not necessarily front
of line field agent, but maybe she'll just create
gadgets that others can use. Okay. If she is
called in, then she can do like the bigger things.
All right. That's interesting. What about Godard?
I think with Godard, it's interesting. I think
I'll probably go with... probably his codename
would probably be something like uh gorgon as
a cruel joke from his companions by the fact
that he can't turn people to stone like his appearance
says all right yeah i could see that is he a
field agent i'd say he probably is yeah in another
world where he actually has a backbone and has
oh okay thrown into that kind of life I would
say Gordar does have a backbone. I mean, he's
willing to... Well, he's forced it currently,
but... I'm like, well... He didn't really have
much of a choice. Okay, and lastly, Raynor. Raynor.
He would probably go with Goldeneye. Oh, okay.
A very classic sort of codename. I like that.
Why Goldeneye? Well, hmm. Goldeneye. See, the
thing is, I have had a lot of girlfriends, and
we've tried this kind of play before, and...
Okay. Okay. And, well, that was one that always
comes to mind, but obviously it's whatever the
safe word is, depending, you know. Goldeneye's
the safe word. That's all kinds of words. Whoa.
Okay. Whoa. Okay, that's good to know. Good to
know. Everybody take note of that. Safe word
is Goldeneye. Okay. Does Reina have that gold
member? Ooh. Which is a movie we should all watch
as well, by the way. But watch this first. yes
yes okay uh i'm glad that i got all that out
of you if you guys are curious what about our
the little mouse friend leather bound his code
name be leather wow you got that that was so
quick i thought about it i've been thinking about
it if he had because i was afraid that you guys
would ask so i would have to think Annie begs
you to change this nickname. Annie begs you to
change this nickname. It's bringing back some
memories for her and she just can't look at Gimble
the same anymore. Memories? Leatherbound, as
in books. Which is something that... Oh, yeah,
books. Yes, that's exactly what we all thought.
Hold on a second, was that a different meaning?
There's a different meaning to leatherbound that
I don't know about? Hello? Is this a... I don't
know what you're talking about. Is this a Gen
Z thing? No, it's exactly what we thought. I
need to know now. Put it in the comments. Table
Talk, Table Talk. Everybody, everyone, please
enjoy this episode and tune in later for Table
Talk where we explain to Larry what Latherbound
could also mean. I don't know if we can explain
it on the podcast. That is something that's the
aft. Yep, and move to romance music and then
come back. And with that, With that, we go right
into the recap. The city's guard swarmed our
party in an instant, causing the party's plans
to be abruptly disrupted, whilst Raynor's condition
began to stabilize as more and more of the city's
radiant glow bled into its possessed form. After
a brief and relatively uneventful scuffle, Gorda
assumed the disguise of a Dragonborn guard, while
Terranor cast invisibility over himself, Annie,
and Gimble. Cloaked and unchallenged, the group
slipped through the conveniently unsecured front
doors of the House of Commerce. Inside, they
located a full map of the building and ascended
a long winding staircase to a pair of grand double
doors, the unmistakable entry to the Mayor's
office. Candlelight flickered against the velvet
curtains, and an opulent golden dragon head mounted
above the chamber stirred to life. It interrogated
the disguised Gordar before dismissing them outright,
forcing the party to abandon the office and investigate
the building's basement instead. Below, they
discovered a tangle of valves and tubes, far
more intricate than the city's pristine exterior
suggested. A massive crystal dominated the room.
within which the red silken woman's physical
form was sealed. She called softly to her herald,
coaxing him closer, pleading for release. As
Raynor approached, the flow of gold reversed,
no longer feeding him, but pouring into her suspended
body until she broke free. The devil revealed
her true monstrous form, towering talon and dripping
menace. She offered Raynor a new bargain, though
his existing shackles remained firmly in place.
Her command was simple. kill the city's mayor,
and she would offer us favor at a later time.
Reyna obeyed. The terrified mayor met the bard's
dagger, and as the devil departed, she drained
the city of its soul and color alike. Lights
dimmed. Buildings crumbled. What remained of
the once golden metropolis was nothing but husk
and dust. Reyna's choices clashed violently with
Gordar's convictions, their conflicting ideals
echoing throughout the ruins and through the
newly formed mountain of gold left behind. Annie,
largely uninvolved and unmoved, urged the group
to leave. With little reason to remain in a devastated
city, the party turned away from the wreckage
and made their journey back to Briar Rose. And
we are back! If everybody can please roll me
initiative. Yay! Oh boy! What did everyone get?
So, um, if any of our listeners recall last episode,
Annie rolled, I believe it was a zero for initiative.
Today, Annie rolled a nat one. Oh. Progress!
Okay. I am so proud of you, Annie, on your journey.
You've come so far. And one step closer to the
end, if you will. Only 19 more sessions. Oh,
man. Gordar got an 18. Okay. Raynor got an 8.
All right. Okay. I see. I see. So let me just
paint the picture once more real quick so you
guys remember. You were traversing the forest,
not the crystalline forest, but a part of it
which is now all proper trees. And you hear a
familiar roar above your head as the undead dragon
once more flies over you and breathes this blue
flame upon the trees. And with this blue flame
spreading across the forest, you see... undead
begin to rise from the dirt where the flames
were you see all manner of undead rising from
it and are heading towards your direction so
that's the last thing that you guys saw and you
see now how far away are they from us like as
they're like stumbling up 20 30 feet away from
you you see one of them now uh a few of them
begin to notice your presence here. And a few
of them are beginning to charge towards you.
One of them leaps towards you, Raynor. And you
see this one, this skeletal figure is brandishing
a sword, which now takes a dive towards you.
Now does... I think they've seen us. A 21 hit.
Yes, it does. Okay. I want you to go ahead and
take four points of damage. And now another one
as well, just behind this one. It's going straight
for you, Annie. Same thing with this bones and
rotted flesh just hang off its ribs, its old
clothes just ragged, hanging there. Oh, great.
More things to deal with. Does a 15 hit? Unfortunately,
yes. All right, why don't you go ahead and take...
Oh, that's nasty. Nine points of damage, please.
That's not good. Love hearing that from a DM.
Oh, that's nasty. Gordar, you're up. You see
two of these... Undead figures jump onto your
friends. You see two more off the distance. What
are you doing? Ew, that is not okay at all. No,
no, no, no, no. The pointer and ring finger flare
out into the beads that turn into fangs, and
with a twist of the wrist, they turn into, rather
than poison, into fire. He holds up the diamond,
flicks it into it. I'm going to cast Chromatic
Orb at second level. at the skeletons in the
distance okay i haven't approached yet uh as
a bonus action the the snakes are going to flare
up and um the whole medusa crown is going to
activate um all the snakes or the girls are going
to flare up as well and his eyes are going to
go like that completely green cool um as get
advantage on this attack innate sorcery as i
use innate sorcery yes That's going to be a 24
to hit. You most definitely hit with that 24.
All right. And because it's level two, it goes
to 4d8. So it gets hit for 21 points of fire
damage. Okay. And it's rolled two eights. That's
right. So it bounces to the next target. Sure.
Go ahead and do the next target for me, please.
And that's a... Natural 20 for a 27. Okay. So
you are going to decimate these two from the
distance. Why don't you go ahead and paint me
a picture of what it looks like as you cast your
Chromatic Orb. I want to draw the critical damage.
Yeah. What is the damage on that critical? That's
a 38. Okay. All right. Go ahead. Is there a third
target to bounce towards? You know what? Since
you asked that, there most likely is. Since you
asked. Since you asked. I just want to see. Amongst
the two that you fired that orb, you see a larger
skeleton just rising from the flames. So go ahead
and do it to the third target, please. Okay,
so that's a 19 to hit that target. Yes. You hit
it. Not a critical, unfortunately. And that does
17 points of fire damage. So as this, the helix
fire fangs hit the diamond, they just... ricochet
outwards at a faster speed which then it's as
if the diamond itself empowers and makes the
spell grow in size as it helixes like missiles
collides with the first one instead of running
through its stomach bouncing off into the two
fangs splitting off and going hitting two different
targets the smaller one also being like eviscerated
by the fire and the big one just taking it Okay,
so you've taken out two of the undead from a
distance, hitting a third target, which is just
coming out from the flames as well. It is looking
pretty big and tall compared to the others. And
amongst the blue flame, you see this particular
undead has flames wrapped around it as well,
but not the same blue flame, but a fiery red
flame. Is there anything else you'd like to do?
Oh, that one's fire. I probably shouldn't have
hit it with fire. You see the flame in rage in
it. I think I made that one mad as I turn and
see my two friends being leaped upon by all those
things. Yes, that's right. You see... That is
going to be my turn. Okay. And just from around
the corner, you feel something... leap towards
you and you see a hand just grab you by the shoulder
a disembodied hand now trying to go straight
for your throat she's gonna try and like swat
the hand away just reflex yes try as you might
we'll see okay so what would that be strength
so this This thing that is trying to grab onto
you, this disembodied hand, that is a 13 versus
AC. Okay. So what am I rolling? Your AC, does
it hit? Oh, it does hit. Okay, so 13 hits. So
this hand tries to choke the life out of you.
And you're going to take two points of damage.
Dammit! And with that, Raynor, you take a look
and you can see as this undead hits you with
its blade, you look to see that Annie is now
being assaulted by this hand that seems to float
in midair. And in saying that, you now see two
of these hands going straight for you. You see
this one goes straight for a slap to the face.
And does an eight hit? It does not. You nimbly
move out of the way as the hand that tried to
slap you just goes past your face. And the next
one is going to make an attempt to grab you as
it rolled a seven. That also doesn't hit. Also,
Mrs., you see these two hands that just land
just near your feet, about a foot away from your
feet, and you see them begin to, like, scurry
away from you. And I would say now that both
Annie and Rainer, you see Godard cast his Chromatic
Orb, and you see this large skeletal figure of
the distance that is inflamed, that is now...
walking towards the three of you in such menacing
fashion. And Godard, he's heading straight for
you. We can talk about this. Hi, my name's Godar.
I didn't mean to... I mean, if you like fire,
then that's perfectly fine. I just gave you some
more fire. As you are trying to reason with this
thing, you see its flame that it... Oh, it's
flame, sorry. Its sword that it's brandishing
is also a flame, and he's going to take... I
would say, as he's walking towards you, you see
him... swing the blade as a fireball begins to
go straight towards you from his sword. Uh -oh.
I'm in danger. And that one is a 23 to hit? That
does hit, yeah. Okay. So this fireball that he
had fired from his sword hits you square in the
chest, and you'll be taking four points of damage.
As he continues to charge towards you at this
point now, his pace has quickened, and he's trying
to close the distance, and as he approaches you,
he swings his blade towards you. Oh, I just got
these clues. Why would you want to put the...
Oh, sword! Yeah, as he swings his sword at you
with his increased speed, does an eight hit.
It does not. Okay, he does not hit you and misses.
And you are now faced with this skeletal figure
stands before you at least seven, eight foot
high. And you can now feel the heat that is radiating
from it. The flames are beginning to dance and
coalesce through its entire body. No clothes,
if it were once had clothes, but a complete skeleton.
Flames where the eyes would be, and it is gunning
for you. Raynor, you are up. Okay. How far are
these things from Raynor? So you have one that
is within combat range towards you, one of the
undead. You have two more hands within combat
range of you. We can say the one that's... With
Annie, they're about 10 feet away. And we can
say that the one that is with Gordar, about 15
feet. Okay. So the one that's the closest to
me, would you say it's within like 10 feet? 5
feet? Oh, it's within 5 feet. Combat range. Okay.
Can't use that one. Yeah. Okay. Raynor is going
to... kind of look towards Gordar's issues. And
he's just going to be like, he's done the most
damage. He needs help. I can help. As he uses
shatter. Cool. Okay, we haven't seen this before.
So let's see how this plays out. First, tell
me what shatter does. So shatter is a loud noise
erupting from a point of my choice within range.
So that's 60 feet. And they have to do a constitution
saving throw, taking 3d8 thunder damage on a
failed save or half as much damage. Okay. Okay,
so this is going to be a big bang attack, if
you will. And where are you targeting this shatter?
he's going to be targeting it as close to that
creature as possible without getting into Gordar's
circle. Oh, interesting. So you're selecting
a point. Let's say you're choosing a point. Yes,
behind it. Okay. All right, that's doable. All
right, so what does this look like? Okay, so
Raynor is going to be like, okay, I haven't used
this in a while. I haven't thought about it.
It's going to be hard. So remember to focus,
focus. And then he's just going to loudly kind
of just whisper, like loudly whisper into his
hands. Oi, you. As it kind of echoes and then
comes back from that side as a point makes that
loud. As that oi, you reverberates again. Okay.
Oi, you reverberates throughout the air. It did
fail its con save, so go ahead and give me the
damage. Cool. That is 12. So with this loud,
thunderous oyu, was it? Rings in the air. You
can see it had made some form of effect upon
this thing. And just off the distance as well,
you're beginning to hear chimes. And followed
by these loud chimes, you can hear shattering
from the distance. Broken glass and just crashing.
Okay, is there anything else you want to do?
Yep, he's going to use bardic inspiration. And
he's going to look at Annie, who is being choked
out currently. And he's going to shake his head.
Oh no. As he's going to put his hands up in like
a finger gun kind of position. It's like, go,
go, Annie. Annie, you now have bardic inspiration.
As you are getting choked. That doesn't help
me. What do you want me to do? Gora, you feel
a tap upon your shoulder. Oh, Rainer, it's good
to see you. Oh my goodness. As you turn around,
you see a hand. A disembodied hand just floating
in mid -air, tapping you on the shoulder as it
tries to sock you one. Oh my goodness. Why is
there a hand? And that would be at eight versus
AC. That doesn't hit. The snakes bite out at
it. Yeah, so it makes an attempt to knock you
right in the kisser as the... tendril snakes
bite at it, completely missing your face as it
lands on the ground and it's now scurrying. They
stumble back a little bit. Oh, thank you, girls.
Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. Thank you.
And totally not last within the initiative round.
Just so happened to roll a one. Annie, you're
up. Way to rub it in, I guess. All right. Okay.
It could have been a negative one if you still
had exhaustion. Not helping, Rob. Not helping.
Annie's a bright side, though. Could have been
negative one. You know what? You look on the
bright side of life. No, no, no, no. Screw all
of you. Alright, so... Oh, no. Oh, no. She casts
cannon. Blows everyone up. Yeah, honestly. So,
um... I should have done this as soon as the
hand came onto Annie, but I kind of forgot about
it. So... Is it too late to have a reaction to
the hand that's choking her? Yes, it's most definitely
too late. Yeah, okay. Alright, so using her action,
she's going to stop attempting to take off the
hand for now, outstretches her left arm, and
creates a cannon from the ground. So let's just
do that. So, while... While this thing... This
disembodied hand is choking you. You take a brief
moment to bend down and create a cannon. Just
going to straight up do that. And bonus action.
She's going to make the Eldritch Cannon do...
Oh, what's it called? Why do you never want to
open for me? There we go. She's going to use
her bonus action and ask the... Ask? Command
the cannon to become a force ballista. Dear cannon,
would you so kindly become a force ballista?
Today's not my day, okay? Leave me alone. Cannon
becomes now force ballista and making a ranged
spell attack originating from the cannon at one
creature or object within 120 feet of it. On
a hit, the target takes 2d8 force damage and
is pushed up to 5 feet away from the cannon if
it's successful. So she's going to aim that cannon
at the closest creature that's nowhere near her
teammates. So you mean the skeleton that is before
you? Yes. Okay, so go ahead and roll that for
me with disadvantage. Man. Well, it's a ranged
attack and it's within melee range. That's a
17. Other roll was 21, so that's a 17. So you...
Your cannon does this using its force ballista
fires at the undead that is closest to you. And
it most definitely hits. So go ahead and give
me the damage. Yay. Okay, that is five. Five
force damage. And it is also pushed back, correct?
Yes, it is pushed five feet away. Okay. So as
your cannon fires at the undead that is closest
to you. It makes contact. The force pushes it
five feet away from you. Is there anything else
you'd like to do? Can she now react or is that
too late still? No, nothing's happening to you
right now. She's being choked. Apart from being
choked, but that's... You can't react. It happened
earlier. All right, yeah, no, that's nothing.
So you can move. I think she's going to walk
backwards away from the horde of skeletons that's
making... their way towards the other two. How
far are you walking backwards? Seven paces? Eight
paces? Ten feet, sure. Paces? Sorry. Okay. Paces?
I'm like, what? Screw you. What system are you
reading, girl? I'm so fucking... I'm sick, okay?
My brain's not thinking. Annie has her own system.
My brain's not thinking too well, okay? Leave
me alone. It's combat, okay? We're playing D
&D, she's playing Dungeon World over here, seven
paces. Alright, so I'm going to quit this podcast
now. No, no, no, we need the female. We need
the female, please. We need the token female.
We need the male. Oh, please, there's a diversity
hire. You can find another one. We can't. We've
been through seven. You've been through seven?
What? Oh, hold on. How come I wasn't present?
Yeah, so who's turn is it now? Alright, so. Raynor,
the skeleton, the undead skeleton before you.
As you've cast your shatter spell, you see this
undead take advantage of that brief moment and
is going to take a swing at you. And does a 12
hit? It does not. Okay, unfortunate for him and
he misses. You're a skeleton, you can't hit.
Annie, the one that you've blasted away five
feet from you and you've taken ten steps back,
you see it drop its sword and you see it pull
out a bow from its behind and it's going to fire
an arrow at you. From his behind? Behind. Oh,
great! I'm gonna take a moment here, Annie. Oh
no. Oh no. What? What? Why? What? That's a 25
hit. Oh! As it rolled a... As it rolled a critical.
Oh no! Astronomically so. Um... Okay. Okay, I'm
not emotionally prepared right now, but that's
fine. This is fine. This is not fine. So the
arrow goes flying and hits you just on the shoulder
and you're going to take six points of damage.
Okay, you made it actually sound like it was
going to be way worse. Okay. It's just a short
bow, man. It's just 1d6. Being a crit, it's just
2d6, really. Wow, wait, so 2d6s and it rolled
a six? Yeah, and it's also a plus three, so.
Whoa. Oh, wow. There's where your luck went.
Wow. Okay, I have nothing to worry about. All
right, gentlemen, carry on. He's going to die
of tetanus in three days. You have a hand just
by your feet, and you have this big fella reeled
back for a brief moment from the Oyu. Um, okay.
Gordar is seeing the large looming skeleton coming
towards him and like the hand behind him. He's
going to kind of like dash push himself, like
not actually dash, but like dash sideways, taking
attack of opportunity to get out of their melee
range. So it's going to try and swing its sword
at you. Can I say? No. It was this close, this
close. to it being a crit. This close. This close.
So close! I saw it there, it was on the 20, and
then it just cocked over to whatever it was,
but it's a total of 6 to hit. That does not hit.
Lucky you. Okay, continue. Flash to another lifetime
where Goldar gets bisected. Alright, go ahead.
is going to like dash to the side and then um
well if you like fire change it up a little bit
and he's going to uh pointer and ring finger
again the initial green fangs and uh with the
twist the wrist turn into like icicles and he's
going to um cast chromatic orb at first level
uh using ice against the flaming skeleton attack
with advantage it's a 26 to hit That will most
definitely hit. And you said ice? Yes. It melts
away. No, I'm kidding. Cold damage. Sorry, cold
damage. Sure. Correct with the terminologies.
And there unfortunately are no doubles. So 13
cold damage against the flaming skeleton. So
it does not bounce? No. Okay, so you've used
your movement action. Is there anything you want
to do for your bonus? Is there anything you can
do for your bonus? That is all I am going to
do. He's going to move about 10 feet away from
this thing, just trying to, like, slowly get
distance while, like, not turning his back to
it. All right. Stay away, you mangy beast. Ugh.
At least you don't smell. I've burnt all that
away. Annie, this undead. claw on your throat
is going to try and squeeze harder oh boy all
right what did it get does a nine hit a nine
does not hit okay so you have been trying to
when you got shot by that arrow you're still
continuing trying to swat and get this get this
uh disembodied hand off you. You manage to grab
it and throw it to the ground and it's now just
jittering around you. Rainer, those two hands
that were around you are now going to go for
a dive. One straight for your throat, one's going
to try and grab onto your arm. Okay. So the first
one is a nine. Doesn't hit. Okay, that one blobs
it completely. And the next one is going straight
for your throat. And does a 17 hit? Cutting words.
What is cutting words? So I'm going to use cutting
words. So basically, I'm going to use my wit
to supernaturally distract, confuse, or otherwise
sap the confidence. So anything that does a damage
or attack roll, I can take a reaction to expend
one of my bardic inspirations. and use that to
reduce its number. Okay. And how much reduction
will you be doing? So it's a d8, so I just roll
a d8 and see what I get. And then hopefully that
will be good enough for 5. So 5 minus its attack
roll, is that correct? Yes. So the total would
be 12 now. Doesn't hit. Okay. So Brandon is going
to be like... Hey, I'm not into the same thing
as Annie. Leave me alone. Excuse me. All right.
Let's just sit on that for a second. Just a brief
second. As you cry this out, Gardar, you just,
you turn your head from that comment and you
look back at the flaming skeleton as... A fiery
bolt is hurled towards you. You see this, you
look and you see the flame going straight towards
you and does a 21 hit. Did it happen? Yes. So
I want you to go ahead and just take three points
of damage as it now begins to pace towards you
with the sword once again. And it is now face
to face with you as it brings down its sword.
Again, what is with you and burning my clothing?
And does a 15 hit? It does not. Just, like, ducks,
and then the girls take a half a second to duck
again. So that swing, you, like, duck. Perfect.
Reiner, you are up. Okay. These things don't
have minds, do they? Do you mean the little hands?
Yes. With an intelligence of minus three, I would
say no. Okay. What about the skeletons? I would
say they have some form of intelligence. Okay,
so there was one skeleton that was attacking,
right? Yes, there is one within melee range.
Okay. He's going to use Dissonant Whispers on
him. And what, pray tell, does Dissonant Whispers
do? So, it's a discordant melody in its mind,
and it must make a wisdom saving throw. Otherwise,
it takes 3d6 psychic damage, and must use its
reaction to get as far away from me as possible.
Unsuccessful, it takes half as much. So it needs
to make a wisdom saving throw. Yep, a 15. So,
does a 2 do it? Yeah, it'll take full damage.
Go ahead and do the damage for me, please. That
is 13 damage. As these words and whispers begin
to coalesce around this undead creature, you
see it step back. As you did say that they have
to move away, right? If it has a reaction. Yeah,
alright. So it begins to step back one step at
a time and it... falls apart and it is now dead
skins even better okay is there anything else
you'd like to do i'd like to use my another bardic
inspiration and give it to gordar as he kind
of looks at gordar and kind of puts his hands
in like a gun motion as he goes go go gordar
Perfect. Now, does Annie still have her bardic
inspiration, or can you only assign it to...
Yes? Yeah, both. Okay, cool. All right. Just
a refresher, what can we use your bardic inspiration
for? Attack rolls. Just attack rolls? If you
want to use an attack roll to do any D20 tests,
so skill checks, anything like that. I don't
think it's saving throws or constitution, but
yeah. Gara, as you duck down to avoid the swing
of the sword of this guy that's on fire, you
see just off the distance the hand that had tried
to grab you. You see it basically running towards
you and leaps with its fingers going straight
to your face. And does a dirty 20 hit? It does
not because I use shield. Okay. So describe to
me what it looks like as this hand approaches
your face, like a face hugger. As it jumps towards
him instinctively with the Medusa crown, you
see like the flare from all of the snakes and
then a faint shimmering kind of just like, Best
way to describe it is like a very thin sheet
of stone just quickly covers and then stops the
hand and then disappears. Does it have a color?
It's kind of gray -green, kind of semi -translucent.
Cool. Just quick, yeah. So the hand just bounces
off your shield. It lands on its proverbial back,
I suppose, and then corrects itself and is now
ready to leap once more. With that, Annie, you
are up. You've managed to pull away that one
hand that was choking you. There is a skeleton
about 15 feet away from you brandishing a bow.
What do you do? Okay. How far is the hand from
Annie? Melee range. Melee range. Okay. All right.
Annie's going to order her cannon to switch over
to flamethrower and cook the heck out of that
skeletal figure. Okay. All right. Considering
it is five feet away from it because your cannon
had not moved. This is a bonus action, correct?
Correct. Okay. With the flame cannon, they need
to make a save, don't they? Yes, yes. Each creature
in that area must make a dexterity saving throw.
All right. I'm going to say... How big is this
cone? Is it a cone? It is a cone. It's 15 foot.
15 foot cone. I think only the skeleton would
be hit. Sure. So it will roll a dex saving throw.
What is the DC? 14. So does a 7 make it? Does
not. Okay. Go ahead and give me that. Give me
that damage roll of flame, please. That is 13
fire damage to the skeleton. So your cannon bursts
this flame directly onto this undead, this skeletal
figure that is brandishing that bow. And you
see the flame almost consume this thing. And
it is now dancing and writhing onto this. And
it looks like that you've created another flaming
skeleton as it's taking a few steps towards you
with all this fire that is on its smoke. And
step by step, getting closer to you, you see
it just fall into a pile down on your feet. Lovely.
You now also have an action. Okay, with that,
so in regards to Annie, where are the skeletons
that are currently attacking Raynor and Godard?
Are they within 15 feet or so? 60 feet at least?
No, so, well, yes, within 60 feet, yes. So the
one that is engaged with Godard is probably about
20 feet away from you now. And the one that is
engaged with the Rainer is about 15 feet away
from you. Okay. All right. Annie's going to take
her rifle and she's going to aim it at the skeleton
that's currently after Godar. Sure. It will be
at a disadvantage. That's okay. Let's try it.
Because you have a hand just there who might
try to grab for your gun. That's fine. Still
have the Bodic Inspiration, so if something does
happen... Yes, you do. Go ahead and fire that
rifle off. All right, let's roll to attack. Okay,
does an 18 hit? That's with disadvantage. Yes.
Okay. Yes, it most definitely hits, so go ahead.
You see, as you aim your shot and you take aim,
you see the hand just try to grab onto the rifle,
and it's... Trying to pull the rifle down as
you try to maintain your aim and you fire. Give
me the damage run, please. Even with the hand
going for the barrel of Annie's rifle, there
is a bit of shaking, so the damage is only a
two. Okay, you do make contact, but because of
the hand that is grabbing the rifle, yes. You
do make contact, but it is not as good as you
hoped. It almost just winged it. Yep. Is there
anything else you'd like to do? I'm really reaching
for it here. Can Annie try and step on the hand?
At the moment, it is clutched onto your rifle,
so I will say no. Not even if she tries to shake
it off? Nice try. You're shaking. We'll say at
the moment you are trying to shake this thing
off. Okay. Gordar, you are up. You slightly know
you hear a gunshot not too far from you and you
see it wing this flaming skeleton before you.
What do you do? I don't think there's much point
trying to reason with this thing. I'm just going
to pointer, ring finger, and I'm going to cast
Sorcerer's Burst at this thing. It's in melee
range with me, correct? Yes. Yep. So it is just
a flat roll. And that's... I... I am concerned.
The last two sessions I have rolled really well.
Gordon is going to die in the next three sessions
from just nat ones. I rolled a 23 to hit. That
is most definitely a hit, sir. I'm scared. And
this one's going to be cold damage. Damn you,
Rob. I'm going... The dice give us and the dice
take us. I'm going to get my dues. That is seven
points of cold damage. Okay. Is there anything
else you'd like to do? uh and that is all i am
going to do yes at this point he's kind of freaking
out and kind of like trying to keep an eye on
how it's attacking and what's happening but is
starting to get a little overwhelmed yeah so
it's reeling back here and there with every shot
it takes, I guess, from you and then from Annie
and then from Rainer, the shattering, if you
will. But with that, Annie, you're shaking this
hand off your rifle and you're swinging back
and forth as the hand begins to crawl across
the rifle and it's going to link for your face.
Okay. All right. Well, let's see if this... Little
thing can grasp at any space. If it does, she
knows what to do now. Does a seven hit? A seven
does not hit. Okay. So it misses you entirely
and goes over your shoulder. Now, your reaction,
does it work for any attack or does it have to
hit? It has to hit. Okay. There we go. And it
is now just past your shoulder and is now behind
you. Oh, that's... That's nice. Raynor, with
the crumbling of the skeleton that was before
you, you still have these two hands that are
just coming at you. And once again, they're just
going to leap and they're going to try and grab
your arms to pull you down. The first one leaps
towards you and it grabs your right wrist as
it begins to try and pull you down with all its
strength. There's a 23 hit. yes it does uh it
should be noted that with that 23 it was a crit
yeah oh not that exciting don't get your uh don't
get your panties in a twist because it's only
a two points of damage okay oh my god okay i'm
terrified because you're rolling so well with
crits yeah and then so bad with damage thank
god oh well everything everything has been very
subpar it's like nine eights eights, nines, and
on the occasional like 16, 17, and then there's
been a few crits, which is great. But I want
a crit with the big guy. That's the thing. Yeah,
that's the issue. That's the thing that's terrifying.
So the second one is going to die for your left
wrist. And does a 21 hit? Yes, it does. All right.
Take an additional two points of damage. And
now with both your arms basically restrained,
they're both trying to pull you down. So it's
getting to be a bit more difficult to do anything.
You're not completely restrained, but they're
both like trying to pull you down. Yadar? Yes,
so amazing and benevolent and lovely DM. Not
so benevolent as a blade comes down straight
towards you. Not just once. Another. But twice.
So the first swing comes down and does a 12 hit?
It does not. Great. That's perfect. And it's
going to go for a secondary slash towards you.
And does an 18 hit? It does hit. Okay. As the
first swing... You've avoided it just by the
skin of your teeth, but then not knowing another
one was coming around as it hits you on your
side and you're going to take 11 points of damage.
Oh, that's a heavy hit. You hear something akin
to like a snake's kind of like guttural like
hiss as him and the girls are screaming from
this just embedded into his side as that like.
Takes a lot out of him. Them, sorry. And you
see, as you've taken this hit, you see now Gimbal
charging forward towards you with a dagger in
his hand. And he's going to try and stab this
skeleton creature. Seeing you, hearing you in
pain, Gimbal rushes forward and he goes, I've
got this! He was doing so well before. There
was such good development. He was learning. Yeah,
he's learning to fight. No. You see Gimbal just
charge forward and he yells, as he's got this
dagger and he leaps up the air and he stabs this
thing on what looks like into its shoulder blade,
its flaming shoulder blade. And you see the dagger
just stuck in there and he's now kind of... What
do I do now? As he's, like, hanging off this
skeleton. You idiot! And flames are licking him
in the face. What is Gimble doing? Let's go and
get out of here! Gimble probably sees, like,
Goddard's face in the full, like, Medusa face
kind of thing. Straight on for the first time.
Because he's seen, like, the battle, like, looking
at him during this, just telling him to piss
off. flames are licking his face. So Rain, you
are getting pulled down by these two hands. What
do you do? Do I need to make a saving throw or
anything? It's more flavor, if anything. It's
not a real mechanical. So both hands are kind
of being pulled down right now. Yes. He's going
to try to do... a front flip and try to chuck
those things up in the air. Okay. Go ahead and
give me an acrobatics roll. Let's say the DC
is going to be 15. If you get 18 or higher, something
interesting will happen. Okay. Let's hope for
the best. 16. Okay. So... You do, just as you
say, you take this backflip and you just fling
these hands off you. And you land about 10 feet
back. So they're about now 10 feet away from
you of where they landed. I will say, I will
allow this to be a bonus action for you. So you
still have your action. I'm going to use cloud
of daggers on it. On the hands? On the hands.
Awesome. Go right ahead. Now, tell me what exactly
this is and then describe to me what happens.
So, Cloud of Daggers is you conjure a spinning
daggers in a five -fit cube centered on a point
within range. A creature in that area takes 44
slashing damage. It also takes, if it enters
a cube or ends its turn there, or if the cube
moves into its space, a creature only takes this
damage once per turn. So this remains in the
field, am I correct? Yes. Okay, perfect. I'm
going to cast on it. And I don't see that they
have to do a saving throw. I think they just
take it. Yeah, it doesn't say anything. It looks
like that they just take the damage. Yep. Okay,
go ahead. Roll me that damage on those. A good
buff. Yeah. 11. How does this look like when
you've cast this spell onto that point there
where those two hands are? So as Raynor does
his front flip, his dire kind of comes out of
its sheath a little as he kind of grabs it and
then throws it towards the thing. As you can
see, those blades psychically kind of duplicate
into like a circular kind of motion as it forms
a cloud that kind of spins and starts ripping
everything in that area. And rip it. does rip
it does like a blender as the two disembodied
hands are just torn to pieces you can almost
hear that whirring noise like a blender it's
a and this thing these things are now in pieces
you see a lot of the flesh just fly up and a
finger lands on your shoulder from all the But
you most definitely got them, which is awesome.
Oh, that's gross. Wait, what the hell is going
on over there? Godar, taking that hit, the hand
that is before you takes advantage of the situation
and is going to try and grab onto your leg. Does
a 19 hit? A 19 does not because I use shield.
perfect so again this very same hand from earlier
is diving towards your leg and it it is repelled
by your shield as it once again bounces off and
land on its back this don't god i didn't see
it too easy road with the wounds but the girls
who are constantly looking at all different angles
they're the ones who focus this energy from him
thank you thank you so much girls Annie. Okay.
All right. So you have a hand behind you and
you can see the flaming dude not too far from
Gordar. It's in his melee range, but you don't
see the other hand that is by Gordar. Perfect.
And just double checking, is Gimbal still hanging
onto that skeleton for dear life? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
It's the skeleton that's upon Gordar as well.
Yeah. Yep, okay, great. He's yelling, I got it!
I got it! Let's go with him, you idiot! Completely
ignoring what's going on with Gimble for a second.
Yep. Annie's going to look over to the hand that's
on the ground and she's going to aim and shoot
at the hand with her rifle. Disadvantage, please,
as it is at point -blank range. Yep, I figured
as much. I hate my life. Can Annie use her bardic
inspiration to re -roll that? You add a d8 to
it. So roll a d8. Yes. So what did you initially
roll? Seven. All right. Now go ahead and roll
me that bardic inspiration, please. So that is
a six plus three now for the bardic inspiration
added one d8. Which is somehow worse. Taking
aim at this hand, it almost mockingly jitters
from left to right left to right in a real quick
fashion and you fire completely missing it and
you fire again and missed it and fire again and
you're missing it and it's almost dancing before
you is there anything else you'd like to do oh
and she uh commands her cannon to go over to
where the hand is and flame the shit out of it
okay So that is a dexterity saving throw for
the hand. Okay. So go ahead and roll me the damage,
please. Okay. That is seven fire damage to the
hand. Okay. So with sheer frustration as you're
firing again and again at this hand as it's moving
back and forth and with your words of enough,
your cannon gets itself within position as it
spews out this flame just on this one tiny hand
on the ground and you see the hand catch on flame
and you know how spiders die? It flips on its
back and it curls up. And you give a sigh of
relief knowing that you had finally defeated
this hand. She swallows hard and she turns back
to where the main fight is. Gordar, injured and
hurt, you have this big hulking skeleton and
a hand upon you, gimbal hanging for dear life
as flames lick his face and him proudly cheering,
I got it, I got it, as he says, as he's swinging
back and forth, side to side. What do you do?
You imbecile, let's go over it and get away from
him. And I am going to... I'm going to hit the
bloody rat. I'm going to his jaw unhinges and
a hissing kind of... Best way to describe it,
like, parcel tongue kind of voice comes out.
And I'm going to cast Command upon the skeleton.
Interesting. Okay, go on. And you hear the word
Halt. It's like, Halt! So what that does is...
The Halt command. It needs to make a wisdom saving
throw. DC 16. And if it fails on its turn, the
target doesn't move and takes no actions or bonus
actions. Okay. And is that ongoing or is just
for its next turn? On its next turn. And that's
it. So you're not going to like the results.
I will tell you what he got. Which is a 22. And
I just need to show you as well that. I did roll
a crit. Oh my god. I had to show you guys right
there that... Larry, I want to weigh your dice.
I want to test this properly. So... What? Just
to let you know that I am not budging dice, I
want to show you this is my third crit this combat,
I think. Third or fourth. Something like that.
So. The dice giveth and the dice taketh. This
is what happens to Gordar for rolling too well
for two sessions. You make this command and for
a brief moment, it's as if it had made purchase
upon this thing. Your words have reached it.
And it turns its head with its... empty eye sockets
with flames within and looks directly towards
you Gordar as it with its free hand reaches on
his back and he grabs Gimble and Gimble shaking
and going let go of me and he swings and throws
Gimble towards Annie oh my god Annie does a 18
hit. Yeah. Okay. So I want you to go ahead and
take eight points of damage from impact. And
you see Gimble hit you square onto the chest.
You drop your rifle as Gimble also falls down
and he just falls down to the ground and he goes,
ow. Gimble, what? As he... Is there anything
else you want to do, Gordo? Cry. Okay. As you
are now weeping, you watch this thing with its
left hand grab Gimbal and you see him toss Gimbal
towards Annie. It now brings its sword down towards
you as you are in tears. So close to a napkin.
Sir! It was so close! Sir, stop! Stop it! Get
some help! There's an 18 hit! It needs some milk!
Uh, I am going to use a level 2 spell slot to
cast Shield, because I don't have any level 1s
left. Um, it does not hit. Okay, great. You're
the shimmer. As you're seeing, like, the... Like,
like, it's taking every little bit of him now.
He's losing all... both his uh hp as well as
his uh magical essence as it's just like the
last resort of both him and the girls just like
trying to protect them see that shimmer that
just comes before you and it the blade this flaming
sword just bounced right off it it's like the
the sound of when something collides is as if
something's like heating stone yeah like the
the crackling of stone as the shield comes up
and then like ting and then it fades that's cool
Gimbal wearily gets back up his feet. Ow. Ow.
Ow. Ow. That hurt. Ow. Raynor, you are up. Okay.
How far is Gordar from the skeleton? We can say
about 15, 20 feet away from you. Oh no, you've
moved back. So about 25, 30. Okay, cool. Even
better. I'm going to use my magical action to
teleport the cube to it. The cloud of daggers
towards it. Okay. And how big is the cube again?
Cube is five feet. Excellent. Go ahead and roll
me that damage as you teleport this cube of daggers
just whirring in a blender -like motion onto
this creature. I'm so glad. Kimball moved out
of the way. Well, he didn't move out of the way.
Six points of damage. Okay, so you teleport these
blades. Godar, before you, you just see all these
whirring daggers now beginning to spin and cut
into the bone and flame of this thing. It is
essentially... tearing it into pieces you're
getting shards of bone flying towards you and
as it's beginning to become into these pieces
you can see the flame almost build up as the
skeleton itself is beginning to shatter the the
flame builds and builds and in that brief moment
of building. I want you to go ahead and give
me a dexterity saving throw, please. It has the
self -destruct? Oh, shit! Yep, that's valid.
I rolled a six. Okay. You got bardic. Oh, I can
roll bardic. Wait, does bardic inspiration work
for saving throws? Yes, it does. What is your
bardic dice? Eight. D8. It becomes a 12. Okay,
so you see the blades whirring and the flame
growing, and in that instant, there's a bright
flash and a loud boom as it explodes. You see
the flame. Annie, Rainer, you see this flame
engulf Gordar. And it spreads across in this
radius around him. And Gordor, I want you to
take three points of damage. Do you see the hand?
Okay, so that's not too bad. Luckily, you did
make the save, so. It's hard to say. His clothes
are, like, badly burnt and scindered, but it's,
like, the remnants of the shield that has, like,
caused him to save that dexterity saving throw
just, like, took a chunk of that damage. You
see the hand that remains as well crumbles up
and there's nothing left in this field but the
few licks of flame from this skeleton and then
the blue flame from whence they came. And from
that we end the combat. Gordar just falls to
his knees holding his wound in his side. And
he rushes over to Gordar and casts Cure Wounds.
Okay, go ahead. But you have only a brief moment
of respite as you're beginning to hear moans
and groans coming from the flame. Does anyone
else hear more things? I think we need to go.
We need to go. We need to go. Raynor is going
to grab... Raynor is going to grab Gimble. Like,
just grab him. Maybe we'll talk about this later.
My chest. Yeah, shut up. Let's go. And you hear
the chittering and rattling of bone. And I want
you all to give me a group athletics check as
you guys leg it. How much HP did I get? 10. Okay,
thank you. You know, adrenaline is one hell of
a drug. 17. Perfect. I have a negative one. What
have the rest of you got? That's 15 for Annie.
Five. Rainer, you're struggling a bit considering
that you're carrying Gimbal as best as you can.
But because the both of you, because it was,
there was two successes. I'm going to say that.
Yes, you do succeed of leaving, and you track
back from where you came from, looking behind
occasionally, and you can see an entire horde
of undead just rising from the blue flame. And
you manage to reach back to where you first made
camp, just at the treeline. Mm -hmm. And we are
never going back into a forest ever again. All
trouble seems to stem from forests, it would
seem. Can I just quickly ask, is Annie's cannon
following her, or is it left behind in the forest
at this point? We can say it was following you.
Okay, great. Let's keep going. I don't want any
more things to find us. Being back here in the
same spot where you had made camp, what do you
guys do? You do hear the occasional... Let's
see if we can get around this forest. It's best
we don't enter. We'll be quieter out here. I
don't want to say it, but I think it's best if
we go back through the crystal forest. Are you
sure? If they follow us. then it will make noise,
and then we will all blow up. At this point,
I don't think it's worth backtracking and trying
to find another way around. Let's just go through
it. We've already done it once. I'm sure we can
do it again. Gimbal pats himself. Sorry, can
I get a little description of the situation again?
Sorry, my theory of the mind -brain isn't great.
That's fine. We decided to cut through the forest,
right? That's correct. Is there still a way forward?
Yeah, you can still continue following the tree
line if you wish. So behind you would be where
the crystal forest once was. And you decided
to cut through this forest because it was no
longer crystal. But there is still tree line
and it still goes on, but you don't know for
how long. I think it might be better if we just
continue forwards rather than backtracking. And
just keep an eye out for anything moving within
the forest. Give it like a 10, 20 foot berth
at least. But we should probably move quickly.
You see Gimble like just pat himself down. Decisions,
decisions. Which way are we going? You. Gimble.
What was that? I was trying to help. Gimbal,
there is a time and place for everything. And
was that not a time to fight? It was not your
time to fight. Well, we all came out unscathed
and unscratched. Gimbal, I will cut your toes
off if you do that again. You see his toes go
into his little bootsies? If I didn't notice
you were there in my pain, I was about to blast
that thing with a large magical force. And if
I didn't see you... you would have been heavily
burned. He is quite right. I was only trying
to help. As, like, you see singes on his whiskers
and singes on his face. Gimble, by you trying
to help, you put yourself into more danger than
you thought. You put us in danger as well. Did
you forget that our lives are in your hands?
Kicks a rock. Head down. Shoulders slump. I guess
so. If you want to help next time we're in the
camp, get a crossbow or something. Gordar is
right. You are better off trying to save yourself
from a distance than entering melee combat. But
I hit the thing. You hit the thing, but in so
also endangered yourself and Gordar and me. And
Raynor as well, but you weren't directly involved
with him. What? No. It sounds like you guys care.
As he kicks another frog. Hey, Kimball. Yeah.
Do you see that little pain you have right there?
Right there as he kind of pokes at it? Yeah.
That one? See how it hurts? Now, could you imagine
if... Did you see what I did to those skeleton
little hands? They went into a blender. Really,
like, looked like it hurt. I did see it. But
I believe you. Well, there was a little blender
situation, and you would have been in that blender
situation. Do you remember this painting if he
pokes again? Now imagine that, but with death.
Does that sound fun? Sounds fun to me. Not fun
at all, but sounds like trying to help. He pokes
again. Your job is not to help us. Your job is
to guide us. Now tell us how many days we have
left. We've been gone for... What's it been?
Two, three days now? We have a good at least
four days at least. What do we want to do? Okay.
I think we should continue along the forest line
and walk and talk. Walk and talk. Let's go. All
right, all of you, keep walking. All right. As
the designated leader, Annie, why don't you go
ahead and lead us into a break? All right. Everyone,
just stop. We need to see how much we're hurting.
Take a breather. As in a podcast break. We're
going to have a word from our sponsor. I know.
Right now. Shut up, Larry. That's your job, not
mine. Why, hello there, dear beautiful people
of Antilly City. It is I, Ephraim Featherheart,
here to give you the latest in all the news.
An escape from Blackhold Prison? Blackhold Prison,
a structure that stands tall off the coast of
our fine, fine city, standing for centuries even
before our fine city had founded its roots. With
the discovery of its ruins, it was later repurposed
into the prison we know today. Blackhall Prison
has had a long reputation of being the final
stop for the worst of the worst, such as the
infamous Bloodletter, or even the charismatic
Evelyn the Seamstress. Now, the prison has a
long reputation of being inescapable. and its
long history as a prison not a single soul has
ever escaped. However, recent sightings and a
word around the South Shore that three prisoners
have indeed escaped, seen arriving at the docks
accompanied by none other, Mademoiselle Glimmer
Delacroix herself. What, pray tell, does the
Delacroix have her fingers in this time? Who
can say? We had attempted to bring this information
to the head of the Delacroix family, only to
be ushered away by their manservant? What exactly
are they hiding? If the trio are not affiliated
with the Delacroix, then what dastardly deed
will these three commit? And what does this mean
for you and our fine city? This we do not know,
but we rest assured, here at the Antelope Gazette,
we have our eyes and ears everywhere, and we
will bring you all that you need to know in the
near future. It is I, the voice and eyes for
you all, Ephraim Featherhart, signing out. With
zombies and all manner of undead at the heel
of your feet, you decide to continue on to the
treeline in hopes to find a new way around. Annie,
taking the charge, I want you to go ahead and
give me a survival check, please. Yep. Can I
give the help action as Gordar is now being aware
of the surroundings? Sure. So you would get advantage
of the survival check. All right. Not great.
Seven. Okay. So you, there isn't a lot of recourse
just by following the tree line. It takes you
a few hours till eventually you reach the end
of this tree line and it's a bit more of an opening
and you believe that you can travel northwards.
from here in hopes that you will once again end
up at briar rose you take this you take this
clearing and you go right ahead through it you
enter this area as you're continuing on and with
the tree line now fading to your right and here
as you're moving on you notice that It isn't
as muted. There's now some colors somewhat returning
to the land here. A bit more green from the grass,
a bit more green with the trees. The dirt, you
can see the color of mud. And an occasional bird
flies past you. And nothing unusual about the
bird, too. Seemingly very normal bird. A red
bird. And you continue to march on, and Annie,
I want you to roll me a d8, please. Okay. Advantage,
disadvantage, none? Just a flat d8, please. Three.
So as you're marching through this place, the...
Those who are magically inclined, you feel the
magic in the air. It's heavy and oppressive,
but not like before. It is, while you feel it
all around you, there's almost a sense of positive
energy to it. And on occasion where color once
again loses itself, you go past from... you can
see from a distance you can see a river and as
you're approaching closer to said river you now
notice that this river itself is red and it is
very vibrant compared to the muted colors all
around you and the closer that you get towards
the river you now see that it's Almost like a
river of blood. And all around the river, you
can see just hands sticking out from the river
itself. All through it. Occasionally, you look
and glance. You think some of these hands move.
But you're not too sure. Nightfall is approaching.
So these hands are like stagnant as if they're
like tree branches, like in the water, just sticking
out and the water's going around them. That's
correct. Is that right? Yes. Okay. That can't
be good. No, that is a very unsettling sight
for sure. Nightfall's approaching. What shall
we do? Hang on. And Annie's going to get her
rifle and she's going to try and poke at the
hands, see if anything happens. Okay. You poke
at the hand. Give me a dexterity check. Oh, boy.
That already means something is going to happen.
Okay. You have to beat a 17, please. So that's
a two. As you use your rifle to poke at this
hand at the riverbank, immediately the hand grips
onto your rifle and is now beginning to pull
you in. Okay. No, no. As it's pulling you in,
you can now see the motion of these other hands
around beginning to form around the initial hand
that had pulled your rifle. Go ahead and give
me a strength check, please. Oh, my God. Can
I sorceress burst the hand? Yes, go ahead and
do a sorceress burst. With that strength check,
can you please give me a... You just have to
beat a 14. Okay, strength ability check coming
through. You now see, go ahead and do your sorceress
burst. You now see also that those other hands
that are congregating around that one is now
beginning to try and grip the rifle as well.
So that strength ability check was a nat 20.
Okay, go ahead and give me that sorceress burst
as well. It's a 10 to hit? Yes, you must definitely
hit with that one. It's just going to be seven
points of poison damage. Okay. So, Annie. You,
with all these hands that are gripping onto your
rifle, trying to pull you in, you manage to free
your rifle. You wrestle it away from these things
as you pull back. And then the hands are now
trying to reach at you just at the edge of this
riverbank. And the sorcerer's burst goes off
and hits one of these hands as it... flails back
and dives back inside into the river. And then
you see the rest of the hands, they slowly all
move back and go back into its stationary position
throughout the river. I think it might be best
if we throw things or use cantrips at range rather
than touching things from now on. I don't like
it out here. Maybe let's just move on from here.
I don't think this is... No, this is not good.
Let's just move on. Just a moment. He casts dancing
lights to create little torch lights that are
glowing orbs that are hovering as he kind of
hovers one over the hands to see what they would
do. The hands don't react, but with the dancing
lights that are over the river, You can now see
through the thick liquid, which you can only
assume is blood. And you can see under it and
you can see a multitude of flesh. A connecting
flesh with all these... arms sticking out from
it you occasionally see faces here and there
you see a mowing jaw and you don't know where
it starts or where it ends and it's like just
a worm like thing that snakes it's snakes itself
on the uh on the riverbed under the water that's
gonna haunt me That was a mistake. Guys, we should
probably move on. I would say that it is handy
to know, but that will not leave my dreams for
many a night. Let us continue. I'm feeling a
bit ill. Indeed, let's go. Yeah. I have a way
of making myself feel better as we walk away.
I'll just tell it to myself. It's fine. Kimball.
Yeah, he has his notebook open as you call to
him and you see that he is drawing exactly what
he can also see from the river itself. And he's
like making notes. Annie, you decide to take
a direction northwards once more and go ahead
and give me another survival check as the night
draws near. Okay. God, I will continue to help.
Sure. And roll that once more for an advantage.
Yep. That is a 17 for the survival check. Thank
you, Gordar. Isn't that pretty over there? As
you say, isn't that pretty? The closer you get,
you see a statue. Almost like a landmark of sorts.
And you approach as the closer you get, you see
that it's a statue of a dragon. And before the
statue itself is a road, a cobbled road. And
whereas the road normally what you're used to
is about 10 feet wide. This road is at least
like a super highway. It is absolutely wide.
And this statue that is before you. powers over
you standing at like 50 feet a dragon stands
stands proudly and on its hands it it holds uh
it's stone but it is in uh in the shape of wooden
sights and in one direction it points briar rose
and in the other one It points to... Oh, what
was the name again? It says Vlash. Vlash? So,
Vlash. V -I -L -A -S -H. Night is now upon you,
where the expectation of stars in the skies but
are not present. You know it is night because
it is slightly darker. Here you can see again
the colors slightly muted apart from this statue.
The statue made of stone. You can see greenery
that is wrapped around its legs. Very vibrant.
A few occasional white flowers that have come
into bloom. This statue, what kind of condition
is it in? Is it chipped and weathered and worn
from rain? Or is it pretty new? No, most definitely
weathered. Okay. So a lot of the minor details
have worn away. Yes. And what about the road
itself? Does it look like it's been recently
used or is it a newly paved sort of thing? No,
your best guess, this is one of the main roads
that was once traveled. So it is now cracked,
this piece. You see life essentially claiming
back what once was. You see grass and weeds growing
through the cobblestone. I don't know why we're
just standing around here. Let's just go back
to Briar Rose and be done with this. Well, I
mean, it is quite a, um, dominant figure, don't
you think? It's a statue, I don't... We just
came into contact with another dragon. It's not
exactly, you know... A bit terrifying. Yes, but
do you honestly think that a dragon would be
at Briar Rose, where we're supposed to be residing?
And do you want to go on the other path, where
there is possibly another dragon to possibly
take care of? Well, no. I was just looking at
the statue. I wasn't saying we should go down
the other way. I'd prefer to go back to Briar
Rose, of course. Alright, well, I'm going. You
guys can follow if you want. You continue on,
and just off the distance, for the first time
in a long time, you hear signs of life. A howl
echoes through the air as you continue to follow
the road towards Briar Rose. It's now getting
darker, and it's a little harder to see at this
point. Occasional... hangs in the air. How far
do you think we are, Annie? Um... It's getting
a bit dark. Look, I'm... I'm actually not sure.
But we're on the path, so let's just... You might
want to double our pace, then. Yeah, let's just
keep walking. The sooner the better. Hopefully.
If there are any nearby, like, cracks of, like,
twigs or anything like that, Gordar is... He's
holding his dagger and is going to cast light
upon it. but is not casting it right now to not
be a beacon okay so are you going to trek onwards
during the night or are you going to take some
sense of respite well if we can hear them it's
like a double time to get there yes so you said
we could hear your sounds so okay annie you don't
know exactly where you are you've taken a path
untrodden for a very long time this was not the
way that you had all traveled you had taken a
completely different route so you are unaware
on how long it might take you to return to briar
rose all you do know is following this road will
lead you to briar rose and occasionally now as
you continue to traverse You're seeing more life.
You'll see just at the dead of the night, a few
rabbits run across the road. Though strange that
these rabbits are far larger than what you're
used to seeing. They're like the size of a Rottweiler
hopping across the road ahead of you. Does it
look like there's anything? Uh, wrong or different
about them aside from their abnormal size? As
far as you can tell, they just look like regular
rabbits, but just the size of Rottweilers. Them,
them big bunnies. I mean, we could take one for
food, if you'd like. I mean, that would exert
a lot of energy. We don't have a lot of time
or energy right now, I think. While I would...
love a hearty stew, I think we need to get back
as soon as possible. The longer we stay out here,
the more chances an undead dragon or skeletons
or monsters or cancer are going to take us. Speaking
of which, everybody, please roll me a d100. Damn
you, Larry! Impeccable timing, you slimy b -word.
Gorda got a 52. And he got a 40. Raynor got 22.
The size of these rabbits are big enough for
a mount, basically, for Gimble. That's how big
they are. So Gimble could ride these things.
You see a clutch. Would clutch be a correct word?
Of rabbits that... had gone just springing across
the road you can see the more trees onto your
right into where they had hopped to and you just
continue to trek on are you going to trek on
sorry i miss i don't remember you're going to
trek on throughout the night is that correct
uh well we heard you said that we heard like
signs like the village like the briars right
Or do we not hear Briar Rose? We just see signs
of life? No, so you're seeing signs of life all
around you, like with the howling. Oh, okay.
But where Briar Rose is and how far it is, you
do not know. I haven't seen any light or anything.
We're in the middle of a forest. I don't know
what to do. Well, the more... We can figure it
out some other time. We're all injured. Let's
just rest. What are we going to do? We're going
to trek on to the darkness? Annie's going to
try and listen intently. Can she hear anything?
Go ahead and give me a perception check. That
is an 18. Throughout your venture here through
this road, you're hearing wildlife. Again, the
occasional howl of what seems to sound like wolves.
You can hear skitter scatter. Along the tree
lines on your right, the occasional hoot hoot
of an owl. And you're beginning to feel raindrops.
Just a sprinkle, a shower. Slightly getting heavier
still. And it is once again raining blood. Oh,
that's just great. Okay. Look, I would rather
rest and get some kind of respite for our efforts
back at the forest, but I don't trust the fact
that we can suddenly hear life when this place
was supposed to be barren. Neither, but this
rain's coming down pretty heavy. We might want
to try and find some shelter of some kind. And
hopefully there's no creature in there. Um, do
we... Do we have a tent that Sasha gave us, or
is that gone now? Just a sleeping pack, no tent.
I think it might be best if we try and find either
some thick brushes or a cave or something. I
like the idea of a cave, but what are the chances
that we could find one? We better start looking
while we continue on. Well, we should start marking
trees. Fair point with that. Marking trees? Why
would you do that? So that we don't lose the
path. Oh. Do you think we're walking the same
route? Probably not, but who's to know? Even
though we're walking just one direction. What
was that? Gimble? Just an occasional cry. From
the tree lines. Yes? That wasn't you. He's tightly
tethered to Rainer. No. As he's trying to shield
himself from the rain. Did any of you hear that
too? Of course we did. I heard it. Okay. God,
I really don't want to be here right now. Let's
just walk and just keep our eyes out for anything.
Yes, let's just... Keep going, and if we find
something, we find something. If we don't, then
we just need to get there as soon as possible.
The longer we stay out here, the more chances
we're going to get eaten in our sleep. I don't
like that noise. Let's go. When you're with this
noise, what kind of, like, is this, like, an
animal noise? Is this, like, a cry from a person?
Like, what kind of noise is this? It's an animal
cry. You don't go ahead. I guess give me an intelligence
check. Intelligence? Ha. Can I take my D100 roll?
I rolled a 9. I rolled a 14. I rolled a 21. Being
city folk, it is not a sound that you're all
very familiar with. However, Annie, you... It's
not super familiar to you, but you think you
do recognize it, and it's a cry of a deer. Okay,
I don't like the sound of that because it means
that there could be some predators nearby, but
I think it's a deer. You know, those four -legged
cute things that hop around in the forest in
fairy tales. Those things aren't real. What?
What is a deer? Goddard, you know it as venison.
You prestigious... Goddard wouldn't realize that
that's what venison is. Yeah. He has no idea
what this creature is. You think this man would
know what a cow is? You hear rustling rustling
through the brushes just ahead of you Annie,
you now see coming out of the brush antlers and
you can see this now deer you realize it's a
deer is coming through the brush The dagger is
up, lagging it. Yeah, so from what you last remember
what a deer looks like, the head is definitely
there. And it looks like there's two of them
that is peeking out as it just moves forward.
It is larger than what you remember. And as this
two deer peek out, you realize that it has two
heads, one body. Looks at the... four of you,
and you see instead of four legs, it has six.
And with the antlers upon its brow, you see ridges
of bone, I guess, along the back of its head,
heads, and running to meet upon its back as it
continues on. Okay. Which one of you three are
good with animals? That's an animal? Not that
thing. Uh... I don't want to get anywhere near
it. Gimble, you're an animal, right? Go talk
to it. Why would you send him? He's going to...
If he dies, we die. And I am not an animal, excuse
me. Yeah, that's super disrespectful. Um, actually,
technically all of us are animals, Gimble. Oh,
God. One of the heads now face... You guys. Oh,
that's sick and wrong. Most definitely sick and
wrong. As the one head faces you, you notice
that the skin around its jaw and mouth are not
present. And you just see the rows of teeth.
And normally where the flat teeth that it would
have in place of where. If it would have incisors,
it is quite long and sharp. God damn it. I knew
it. Sorry. As you were describing it, I was picturing
it in my head. I'm like, please don't. But yeah,
no. Okay. All right. Annie's going to be so shaken
and so terrified that she kneels to the ground,
whips out her rifle, points and shoots. Okay.
Interesting. Fire away. You sound surprised.
You put a demon deer in front of us. What do
you expect? Does the 17 hit? It's a demon deer?
I don't know. It looks like a fucking... A cryptid
you fucking see in the forest. Okay. So, what
did you get? It's a 17. Go ahead and give me
a damage. And where are you aiming? I'm just
going to try and aim for... Like, the head that's
looking towards them. Because as soon as she
saw that face and, like, the bony jaw, that was
it. Nah, she's done. Okay. Six damage. You aim
your rifle at the head that is looking towards
you and your comrades. You fire a loud boom.
Bullet flies straight to its head as you see...
This one head that you shot at flops. The other
head, which seemingly looks like a regular deer,
panics. And then begins to, I guess, trample
and scampers off back into the tree lines, back
into the brush and runs away. What? The actual?
Beep. Did you just beep? As you fired it, you
hear the birds from all around. What? No. Sorry.
Whatever you... That thing in your hands just
made a very large noise. I think we should probably
get going ASAP. I don't think we should stay
here. I agree. That probably wasn't the smartest
of my plans. Let's move. It's a valid plan. I
highly thank you for this. Thank you. Let us
go. Gimbal, you're still here? I've got him.
Everybody give me... I understand that you're
going to look for some clearing or some cave
inside the... Yeah, we're just continuing along
the pathway and keeping an eye out for any kind
of shelter. The three of you, go ahead and give
me a survival check. Um... I, Gorda, Master of
the Wilderness, and Knowledge of Everything,
rolled a natural 1 for a 2. Perfect. Come on,
Annie rolled a 17. Reina rolled a 9. So as you
continue along this road westward, you can now
begin to see... Well, you saw it at a distance.
A small mountain range. And as you're approaching
closer, traveling along this road, there are
trees now beginning to form here onto your right.
And you believe if you can... Just veer off the
main road and as you suggested, mark trees along
the way so you don't get lost. You continue into
the thick forest towards the mountain range.
It's taking you maybe about an hour or two till
eventually you come at the edge of this mountain.
And with a short glance, you do eventually find
a cave. You see the cave mouth, but nothing more.
Okay, um, I think I see something up ahead. I
hope that's a cave. Okay, let's just go. Be away
from the forest for a little bit. Gordar is going
to pull up his dagger again and cast light as
the greenish white light. so let's do flood the
area light streams through inside this cave and
you can see that the cave continues on beyond
your light the reference is 20 foot bright 20
foot dim yes so the mouth of this cave is about
uh it is about 20 feet wide and 20 feet high.
You can see the edge of your light, but you see
no wall or an end to it. You can only assume
that this cave continues on. That is quite deep
of a cave. What are the chances that the cave
just goes deeper and it's not an actual maze
inside? Well, why do we need to go all the way
in? Aren't we just... Trying to rest? It's more
to know that we are safe and we're not going
to have some large creature run out from around
the corner in the cave that has a nest there.
Okay, well, Rainer's going to cast Dancing Lights
for those four torch -dim ones, and he's going
to try to send it as far into it as possible.
How far can they go? 60 feet. Up to 120. You
send your Dancing Lights forward. And you can
see it zip far until they're nothing more than
like little tiny specks within your vision. And
as those lights stream through the cave network
itself, a plume of bats fly out. Almost engulfing
you, but it's hundreds upon hundreds of bats
that just fly out of the cave. Well, if that
explains the smell. And there's a distinct smell
of guano. Yuck. I think that's bird poop. What
the hell was those things? They're birds? No,
I think those were bats. Like... Oh, I actually
heard that, um, their, uh, their, uh, feces are
quite good for a certain spell. But, uh, I don't,
I don't know that. Lost resort, please. Lost
resort. Okay, um... Alright, let's just hope
there's no vampire figures inside. You all do
know... Well, at least Annie, I think you would
know that there is a large... Back in Antili,
in the city, while you were around, there is
a large bat colony farm, which they use to harvest
guano for fertilizer. How do you guys feel about...
shoveling bird poop. I'm not an entire fan of
that. Why? Or just any of this. And she points
to, like, the ground where all of the waste is.
Yeah, so, you know, because you did mention the
strong smell, you look down onto the ground,
which what you first thought was mud, but is
actually guano. Um, well, I... I don't... I'm
just going to, you know... Find a spot, maybe?
I'm not going to sleep on that. This waste right
here is actually quite... My clothes might be
burned, but I don't want them soiled, too. This
waste is quite valuable. How valuable? There's
a giant market for it in the farming industry.
Okay, and you've got my attention. I'm just saying,
if we get... You're going to be hauling guano?
You guys are going to be hauling guano? I'm just
saying, if we just want to pocket a few handfuls,
it could bring us some profit and even help out
Briar Rose in reestablishing itself. How much
is the market price? I haven't been in the market
for some time, but can any recall what the previous
market price was? It isn't so high because there
is an abundance of it. But you definitely know
that it can be used at Briar Rose if they were
to begin some form of agriculture. It would be
of value to the reclamation of this land if you're
starting at Briar Rose, so most definitely there.
Listen, while I don't remember the market price
of guano, It could just still be very useful
for Samson if he wanted to start some agricultural
farming. Make a living. He could reimburse us
for it as well. Fuck Samson. You can shovel this
yourself. Alright. She's gonna pocket a few.
You can fill your pocket or your bag, but I'm
not touching this stuff. Suit yourself. I might
have fallen from my high perch, but I've not
fallen that far. Oh, please, you're not that
much better than us. You see Gimble begin to
step into the cave. And you're now seeing him
do gestures with his hands and whispering. And
you see the guano clear, just in a section. I'm
sleepy. I'm going to bed. And as that section
clears of Guano, he lays out his sleeping bag
and he makes himself comfy. Fair enough. Gordar,
just so you know, Gimble also knows prestidigitation.
Yeah. Yep. You see Gorda, like, go to speak up
and be like, hmm. Do you need me to do that for
you too? No. I don't need you to do anything
for me. Okay. Tension rises still. We need to
talk then. It was hours ago. What do you expect?
Just as the two of you are, like, bickering,
Annie snaps her metal fingers and there's just
another rectangle. That just becomes clear. Right
behind where Gimble has planted himself. Enough
space for you? Am I correct? Just space for you?
No, for Gorda. Annie's not done yet. Okay. So
there's enough room. Okay, so Annie steps into
the cave and you clear a section. Enough room
for the rest of you, I suppose. Gorda, before
stepping on that... area. He's just going to
take off his boots before he steps onto the clear
spot. Fair enough. Leave the boots in the guano.
Thank you, Annie. Are you guys making a campfire?
On poop? It's a question that I am raising to
all of you. No. Flammable. Let's discuss watches,
please. Annie will go first since she's still
shoveling some guano. Okay. You're shoveling
with prestidigitation. Yeah, just one gloop into
the bag of holding. One more gloop into the bag
of holding. Oh, okay. All right. Oh. Your bag
of holding? My personal bag of holding, yes.
Gross, first of all. But okay. There's been some
grosser things in there. How much of this guano
you're collecting? Not much. Just maybe four
gloops. Five gloops. Okay. All right. Take note
of that. What is your measurement system? Sorry.
In my head, I'm imagining just like... It being
picked up and it's like still dripping as it's
like flown into the bag of holding. How many
liters do you think it is? Um, well, she's aiming
for 10. I want to say maybe she's only about
halfway. I can say you've dolloped about seven
liters of Guada. Yeah. All right. So you're taking
first watch. Who's taking second? Um, Guada probably
can't sleep too well. So he's probably going
to take second. And lastly would be Rainer with
third. Okay. You all tuck in for the night. Annie
remaining to stay on watch. Annie, I want you
to go ahead and give me a perception check, please.
Okay. That is a 12. You still continue to hear
wildlife just outside. The occasional hoot hoot
and the occasional howls. You recall deeper into
the cave that Raynor had set off these dancing
lights and it was four pings, wasn't it? Four
balls of light, is that correct? Yep. You can
just see it off the distance and not knowing
just how far and deep this cave is. Four orbs
of light. Tiny little pricks. Almost pin pricks.
Four of them. No, wait, five of them. No, wait,
six. What is... No, it's four. Wait, what? What?
So she sees this at the back of the cave? Supposedly?
Yeah, at the... down towards the cave. You see
four dancing lights. The spell hasn't dissipated.
No, it's six. Not yet. Okay. Eight, actually.
You squint your eyes. No, it's four. Okay. Annie's
going to maybe take one or two steps inside the
cave and just try to take a closer look. Only
one or two steps, Larry. The range of this thing
was... How much was it? 120. 120 feet. So, those
two steps, you're only 5 feet closer. And you
just see... And how long does this last, if you
don't mind me asking? Well, it depends. If Raynor
is resting right now, it wouldn't have gone at
all. It requires concentration. Okay, I see.
So, eventually, as you take those few steps,
they all disappear. Alright. You squint your
eyes once more. No, it's still there. Four of
them. Maybe I'm just tired. And he's going to
go back to where she was sitting before, taking
watch, and she's just going to keep her eye at
the back of the cave. Sure. Go ahead and give
me a d4. Okay. I was also going to say something
else, but alright. What are you going to say?
Was going to say Annie's going to cast alarm
a few feet away from the group, but not so far
from them that if anything approaches them, it
will sound off audibly. So is this alarm encircling
your little encampment, or is this at a particular
end of the cave? It's circling where we're sitting.
Okay. Alright, okay, perfect. So I'll just cast
that. Alright, give me that d4. Okay. That's
a one. You still... As the night continues on,
you still see the small pinpricks of fall lights
off the distance deeper into the cave. You occasionally
hear animals once more from the outside, and
the rain continues to fall quite heavy. The familiar
blood rain. As your watch comes to a close, you
go ahead and you wake up Gordar. And he's going
to perk Gordar awake. What? What? What? It's
just me. It's just me. Calm down. Okay. See,
like, the snakes are, like, starting to, like...
They, like, flared up and then have come back
down and, like, are, like, hugging his head.
Sorry, girls. Yes. It's fine. They're protective.
It's my turn. Yes. Just one thing. Back inside
the cave, the lights that Rainer made earlier,
they haven't gone away yet. And I think they're
growing in number, but then it goes back to the
normal four that he set. I don't know what's
going on, but you might want to keep an eye.
Kordar, you look down to the cave where Raynor
had sent his dancing lights. It's just darkness.
Okay, thank you. I'll keep an eye on that. I'm
off to bed. Get some rest. Yeah. Thanks. And
she plops to the floor. The clean floor. Okay.
Okay. Uh, okay. Go ahead and give me a perception
check, please. And also a D4. Having a little
look around, like, our, um... Oh, actually, going
into his little backpack. He's gonna pull out
a, uh, a caltrop. Sure. and is going to um just
a just the individual small caltrop is going
to cast light upon it and try and throw it as
far down as possible so if anything does come
up the cave you should be able to see it okay
give me a dexterity check please so that's a
16 so you've managed to toss this uh this caltrop
35 feet And it's just glowing there. So it's
like 20 foot bright, 20 foot dim. So we are bathed
slightly in like the dim light. Yes. A greenish
light. So if anything does decide to sprint up
here, you should be able to see it clearly. Unless
it's invisible. And perception check? Yes, please.
And a separate D4. The perception is also a 16.
Perfect. And a four on the d4. You see Annie
flop down into her sleeping bag, and you've tossed
your little light off the distance. In every
hour, he'll toss another one when the light expels.
Sure. Nothing of note that rain continues on
outside. Again, the occasional animal cries here
and there. And with a 16 of perception, you swear
you could hear chains, rattling chains just deeper
into the cave. Nope, don't like that. Like, it's
very faint. Very faint, but it does sound like
rattling chains. He's, uh, he's not leaving this
little group. It isn't a constant. ringing in
uh of this uh chain you'll hear it now and then
very faint it's clearly off the distance and
it rattles occasionally quite jarringly louder
than what you normally hear then it stops then
silence few hours go by then occasionally you'll
hear the faint jingle jangle of that chain once
more you your watch is now over and it is time
to wake rainer he um carefully and slowly like
goes over to rainer and starts like lightly giving
him a bit of a wake -up shake rainer okay oh
um Hi, uh, it's, um, it's your turn for a watch.
Um, I will warn you, uh, I think something might
be in this cave with us. Um, Annie was telling
me about your dancing lights that continued past
your, uh, allocated or normal casting time that
it lasts. Um, and I've been hearing chains. My
light? What? Those little lights you sent down
into the cave? Yeah, they shouldn't have been
going. Well, according to Annie, they continued.
Oh, okay. You look deeper into the cave, Rainer,
where you had just sent them, and four points
of light. Those aren't mine. Cool. I've been
hearing chains. I'm going to cast light and throw
a cantrip down there as far as I can one more
time, but it's only going to last another hour.
Please don't head down there without us. Yeah,
I'm not suicidal. I won't do that. Okay. Good.
I'll try and get some sleep. Not sure how well
I can sleep now, knowing that stuff. Good night,
Reiner. He kind of snaps his fingers and casts
Press of Digitation on him to make him clean.
On Gordar? Doesn't say anything, kind of just
curls up. Reiner, I want you to go ahead and
give me a... Perception check, please. And also
a separate D4. The perception check was 10 and
D4 was 1. Take a brief moment and you look out
to deeper into the cave and you see your dancing
lights, four of them there at the distance on
exactly where you had placed them. The rain continues
on outside quite heavily. Occasionally, again,
just random animal noises from outside. An hour
passed and the light from Gordar's light caltrop
had faded. And you are here in this stark darkness,
apart from your six dancing lights over there
at the distance. You pay attention, you keep
your ear open. Is it magical darkness? No, it's
just regular darkness. So, can Raynor see into
it, given that he has darkvision? It is very
monochromatic, and the range of your darkvision
is 60 feet, I believe. Is that correct? 120 feet.
Okay, so you look beyond this monochromatic cave
wall. You can see as you peer, there may be areas
where it's... What's the word? Not converge.
What's the opposite of converge? It breaks off.
It curves off. There's certain areas. Clearly,
this is... cave that you entered leads into a
network of caverns. You look beyond where you've
placed your dancing lights where four of them
are aglow and nothing. Just the lights. You see
lights. You see the cave wall slimy. And you
can see the guano that covers most of the cavern
floor. You squint your eyes once more to try
and perceive anything more. But you see nothing.
But you hear chains rattling and shaking deeper
into the cavern. Another hour passes and nothing
more. And something startles you. First, you've
gotten used to the noise of the chain coming
up here and there. But something takes you by
surprise and you just hear a deeper into the
cave as it echoes. Bounces off the cavern walls.
The chain rattles. That's not good. Well. I could
wake them up. And we could deal with this. Or
I could let them sleep. And we could deal with
it later. Both are good options. It's only just
making a sound? You contemplate of what to do
next and wonder what would be the best course
of action. And you hear the moan once more, but
this time louder. You hear the... Does it sound
like an animal? No, it sounds very much like
a person. a person but it is louder now and louder
still and even the chains clink and clank and
you feel a cold brush against your shoulder and
there the visage of a well you're not entirely
sure but something that is covered in chains
cloaked blue and purple wisps about it. The feeling
of cold upon your shoulder. You feel an immediate
dread crawl down your spine. As that is where
we're going to end it. You suck! I don't like
it. You're terrible. I don't like it. I don't
like it. I should also mention as this thing
holds you the four dancing lights that you thought
were yours is also spinning around yeah just
a quick thing just a quick thing does annie's
alarm spell not do anything not for this thing
what the fuck no no no no I like how Rob's face
is like pulling his cheeks down in sheer horror.
Don't like that. And goodbye, everyone. Everybody
say goodbye. Help. I just wanted a good night's
sleep. This is too realistic. Help. Bye. Bye,
everyone. Please. Please. Good night, Mrs. Alkmonik,
wherever you are. Wait, is this creature Mrs.
Alkmonik? And welcome back to Table Talk. Let's
go. So. How are you guys? No. Thank you. No.
How are we all feeling after that? Hey, Larry,
I'm going to send you the. I'm going to send
you the bill for my therapist. How are you feeling,
Rainer? How are you feeling? How are you feeling,
Zen? I'm feeling alright. It's just a ghost.
Just a ghost? Yeah, it's a ghost. It's a creepy
deer. Nothing wild. Nothing wild, he says. Just
means I got a... We'll ramp it up. I'm just going
to ramp it up a little more. That's it. Ramp
it up, baby. Zen felt nothing, so I got to ramp
it up. I didn't say I felt nothing. I just said,
yeah, it's neat. All right. Highlights. What
are some particular highlights that we have from
each and every one of you, starting with you,
Bella? Sorry, I'm still trying to get over the
fact that we entered the cave and I'm only just
now realizing what the mass amounts of guano
were leading to. And I think it's the same thing.
I hate you, Larry. What do you think it is? What
do you think it is? This could also just tie
in with my highlight. It's just the description
of everything going wrong in the cave. But I
think it's holding some kind of... What is it
called? Aracocra? Or like some kind of bird monster
thingy and it's just pooping everywhere? Okay.
We've been told that they're bats. Why do you
keep going bird? Because Wano is bird poop, isn't
it? No, it's bat poop. I was told it was bird
poop. That is my mistake. This session is not
my session, you guys. Earlier you said bird poop
and I'm like... Listen, I'm sick. I'm sick. My
brain is tired, okay? Like, I... My highlight
was just the cave, okay? Finding some safe haven
away from the deer, away from the undead, away
from the crystalline forest, okay? Like, that's
done. Cave. Highlight. Okay. Oh, I've traumatized
her even more. Oh, yeah! And you did the hand
thing. I mean, you brought back hands. And you're
going to Japan too, so. Yeah. And you did the
hand thing. You did the hand thing. You're going
to Japan. Are you going to go feed the deer while
you're in Japan? No, I did that last year. You
know that area where you get to feed deer? Are
you going to go do that? Are you going to see
one with two heads? No, no, no, no. I did that
last year. I'm done with deer. I'm done with
deer. No, you can do it again this year. No.
Take pictures. Those things are aggressive. Those
things can be aggressive. Yeah, it's true. They
headbutt people. They hunt you down. If you go
to the island, they don't. They're very timid
and you're not allowed to feed them. But the
ones that are on the main island, they hunt you
down. Yeah, that's true. I saw someone get headbutted.
Crazy. Yeah, they do. Okay. For me, I think...
There's so much just... world horror happening
right now and a lot has happened in a very short
amount of time i do like the river um the blood
river with like the flesh snake underneath it
with the hands and stuff um i think there definitely
should be a rule going forward don't touch things
throw something at it like the amount of times
we have been fucked over because uh we've gone
to like ah oh now it's crap just okay we're gone
um throw something at it. Just throw something.
Hey, I did a step, I did a step above that, okay?
I poked it with something else. But you need
that thing. Don't poke it with something you
need. Okay. Okay. Noted. Noted. And if it took
it, you would have been screwed. I could have
made another one. Or at least just keep throwing
your cannon at it. You can keep making that thing.
But yeah, it, oh, the... The fact that he was
just targeted at the beginning by that flaming
skeleton, that sucked. But it was fun. It's just
the world. Exploring all this horror world. It's
given me so much Elden Ring, fucking Bloodborne
kind of vibes of just... There's just horror
everywhere. No matter where you look, you're
going to have nightmares. and just exploring
a lot more of that and seeing that outside of
just like the like quote -unquote safe havens
yeah like little like towns and stuff so but
also like even then it's not that safe it's not
jeremy um you will mentally scar me for the rest
of my days um but yeah just exploring that kind
of stuff and i'm also still liking the whole
like bit of amenity between you know Reiner and
Korda. Yes. This giving the cold shoulder was
a nice little touch. Alright. Avia, what about
you? What would the high level you be? Probably
gimbal attacking would be pretty high up there.
And then him kicking rocks afterwards. Because
I could collectively see everyone just going,
oh god. Yeah, I did like that. I did enjoy that.
I was thinking to myself that moment, like, Gimbal,
I know Gimbal is hiding like he normally does,
but I've been trying to sort of develop him in
a way where he kind of grows alongside you guys.
Not a good thing. And yeah, well, and he's like,
oh. Godar is my friend. He's in trouble. What
do I do when my friend is in trouble? He sees
you all as friends. And he's just like, and that
leap in the air was so funny to me. But yeah,
I'm glad that you guys enjoyed it. Is there anything
else that was a particular highlight for you?
Probably the hands. thing as well that was pretty
neat just based on like the description that
came in my head oh yeah it's really really cool
i the deeper you get into metushia the more things
get i suppose uh because you guys were initially
closer to the edge right where the wall is and
like the deeper you are the more i like the deer
I didn't get to mention, like, the one deer with
the exposed teeth without the flesh around here.
I was going to say it didn't have any eyes. Of
course. And then the other head, the other head
had four eyes. I completely forgot to mention
that. But yeah, I like how you shot it in the
head and then it just, like, it's now just flopping
as this thing. Yeah, that was so effed up, dude.
Oh, God. Yep. It's like a dodo. That's how they,
like, one of them goes to sleep and just flops
around while the other one runs and is awake
and then just, like, alternates. That's even
more scary than the deer itself. That visual.
Yeah, honestly. Oh, yeah. That deer's fun. terrifying.
Follow -up question on that deer. Because one
had such strong, sharp teeth in its jaw, but
no eyes, and the other one did have four eyes,
does that mean that other deer head didn't have
a mouth? It did. And it was also flesh -covered.
It did not have exposed incisors, though. Okay,
got it. Damn. But yes, I particularly enjoyed
this episode. I... enjoy bringing a little more
spoopy horrific things it's what you're good
at dude closely oh man and just like yeah the
cave the whole cave thing with the rattlings
of chains the reappearance of the dancing lights
and the hate that there are certain red button
There are certain red buttons I'm not going to
be pressing, and that's one of them. By myself?
No, thank you. Nope. And that bistic... The water
isn't that dumb. I was going to... I'll talk
about it next time, but I thought it... Never
mind. Oh, man. Something I can talk about next
time. But yes. I have to laugh. So, the joke
I made about, like, uh, about guano being, like,
a, uh, a thing for, like, some, like, really
powerful spell, it's the material component for
fireball. I figured as much, yeah. Yeah, it's
used for fireball. Well, it's a good thing Annie
got some, just in case. It's like, that and sulfur
is the material component for fireball for, uh,
nerds. Yes, if you use components for your spells.
Yeah. I like how Annie collected some of that
guano, at least seven liters of it, which baffles
me because now I'm just like picturing all the
other stuff that's inside the bag of holding
getting covered in guano as she's like shoveling
these guano into the bag of holding and this
big open space in this bag, like her other objects
sort of like floating and meandering about and
just... all this gore just getting all touched
by it that's fine she's got fucking prestidigitation
it took me like four years to figure out how
to say that properly and still most of the time
i fail that i had to i could only say the word
because of dnd Prior to D &D, I could not say
the word. Prestidigitation. Prestidigitation.
I still don't think I say it properly. Hmm. Presto.
Don't hurt yourself. Go on, try again. Pesto
pasta. Okay. We got a pesto pasta in there. And
I think that's where we're going to end this
table talk. With the pesto pasta. Thank you very
much, folks, for listening. I hope you guys had
a good time. And I hope my players had a good
time. We will see you next time on Beginner's
Luck. Say goodbye, everyone. Bye. See ya. Bye.
Bye -bye. Good night, Mr. Suckmanic. Okay. I
don't look forward to Rob's job right now. That's
all right. I'm going to cut it and then make
it go into like romance music for like three
seconds and then cut back. I need to know. I
did not. Okay. Like leather bound, as in like
tied with leather, like BDSM gear. Yeah. I was
thinking leather -bound book. Leather -bound.
I thought I was so clever. I thought I was so
clever. And there's just, like, Gimble in a gimp
suit right now. Not Gimble in a gimp suit. He's
already wearing a leash, dude. I thought I was
so goddamn clever. I thought I was so clever
with that, man. We're like, yeah, he's got that
book. It's certainly leather -bound. Why couldn't
his nickname be Quill? Couldn't it have been
Scholar? Oh, Quill's a good one. Yeah, Scholar's
alright. This is all going in, by the way. You
have to draw this, Larry. Leather bound.