In the Dark

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(CLINKING) Peacocks. This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else. Um, I think they mean us. Oh, s***. Um... (CLEARS THROAT) With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold, Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on Peacock. Coming to Apple TV+ on August 9th. You're the Marine? Yeah. You're the ex-con. Yeah, I did time, but you don't gotta cast aspersions at me. From the director of Mr. and Mrs.

Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. This your first job? I know what I'm doing. I'm late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators. Rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. When last we left our heroes, they were completely decked out with regalia from museumreplicas.com. Let's check in with them now as they polish off the last of the zombie horde. Oh man. Finding those zombies sure was cool.

Yeah, if anyone could have seen that, they would have thought we were super badass. It was cool when you broke three zombie heads open with one swing of your hammer. That time you cartwheeled and sliced four in half was neat too. But now that the zombie apocalypse is over, what are we going to do with our awesome weapons and armor from Museum Replicas Limited? Well, we still have to decorate the new office. Wow! I didn't even think of that, but all of these battle-ready weapons and replicas would make great decorative pieces, wouldn't they? They sure would!

So... the walls are getting kind of bloody. Yeah, we should have cleaned these. Well, we are not getting our deposit back. But we did save the world! Wait, did we kill the landlord? Maybe? Maybe this problem will solve itself. Hey, what's that thing? Oh, that's the wrist chronobulator. This looks super well made. Is it from Museum Replicas Limited? Duh. It's actually supposed to be magical. I gave it to the internet witch and she says now it has the power to go through time and space. Why? Shut up. Just try it on. And she's gone. Well, I am taking her computer. Items from Museum Replicas Limited will probably not allow interdimensional time travel.

Probably. Do not buy for the express purpose of traveling through time. Instead, purchase with the intent of having awesome cool stuff. Use code THERRY_ATTEND to get 10% off your order. That's THERRY_010. Now, on with the show. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason, I'm the Dungeon Master. Going around the table, starting with Rob. Hey, I'm Robert Wiesahan. I'm playing Cassie Drake, Human Warlord. And Jamie. Hi there, I'm Jamie and I am playing Kava-Truvore, Dragonborn Fighter. And Tyler. Hi, I'm Tyler. I play Doran, a Dragonborn Berserker.

And Susan. Hey, I'm Susan. I play Sonya Vine, the Gnome Artificer. And Jake. What's going on, guys? I'm Jake. I play Draconis, Dragonborn Fire Mage. So the last time you and I sat down, you started an illustrious new adventure. To find the Bellavecna in the mountains here. In the Blackrock Mountains. More specifically, it didn't get off to the greatest start. The most productive start. Whatever could you mean? Well, I feel it went great. Okay, let's call it getting to know each other. For sure, I unlocked an achievement that day. Someone did. So you guys have been on the road and it wasn't an illustrious start.

You kind of ran into some boars and then you started sort of fighting with each other a little bit. More specifically, the group started fighting with Draconis. Just a bit. Just a touch. And he did not fight back. I just want to point that out. No, he didn't. He did not. And I gave him sincere support and nurturing, unlike the rest of the party. That's true. And we're going to see if that pays off or not, eventually. I'm not counting on it. That's okay. I don't know. At least you're realistic about it. So, two days you've been on the road now. Two more days since then.

It was the 12th of Thorim. It is now the 14th. And that is continuous travel. The role you guys had before was essentially, it wasn't too bad. And you guys, as a result, have just sort of been coasting along. You've been moving south. And you have reached the point. Joost has given you instructions on where to find this. And judging by the map, you're pretty much at the point where you're going to have to start heading into the mountains. And that's when things can get a little dangerous. If you don't keep your head on a swivel, if you run into some really bad luck, if you don't work as a team.

All kinds of stuff. Who would like to do me a favor and roll a flat d20 to see how journeying is going to go today? I'll do it! Aww. Yeah! Woo! Okay. 19. Rob beat you to it. That's 19. That's gorgeous. I just want to see what would have happened. Okay. Significantly less. Still is a 9. It does feature the number 9. Good job, Susan. Thank you. That's all I was looking for. That's almost a Malchus Grimnus carriage good. So the road here, for any of you who haven't taken the road from Esterholt toward Odysseo before. The road sort of curves in and follows the coastline.

And at a certain point you guys are going to reach a point where it's starting to curl in toward the mountains. And that's where you're heading. Now there's a river that flows north. Which is pretty much what you're going to follow until you get to a path. And I'll tell you what. There could not be a better day to do what you're doing here. The last couple of days have been a little overcast. A little bit gloomy, but sort of threatening to rain the entire time. But not. There's a great breeze coming in from the water. It's great. And today it's sunny but still kind of cool out.

Again, it's fall so it's a great time to do what you're doing. Because the dead of summer in armor? Not fun. But, against all odds, you have had two completely uneventful days. You're continuing to travel toward the mountains here. You're coming up on the city of Odissi. It's still miles away, but you're going to crest around this bank here and the city will come into view. Could you all do me a favor and roll a perception check? Oh my gosh guys, I see everything. For those of you at home, that's a three. That's with the modifier. That's not fun. Cassie didn't do much better.

I have a feeling that Cassie and Cava are both distracted because Cassie is trying to convince Cava that actually, based on how this trip's been going, boundless optimism is a worthwhile thing to have and Cava is just not having it. Cava is just drinking herself into a sleep coma because she cannot stand all of this optimism. That brings me to my...oh go ahead. So Draconis all stuff? Yeah. I noticed that. When I rolled that I was like, okay I got an 18. I want to have Draconis, he has his face pressed up against, is there glass? Can we see outside of our...

No, this is not that nice a carriage. Okay, well... I rolled a nat 20 on 15. Okay, yes, but you're not gonna...it's the shape of a nipple. Like it's not...glass work has only come so far. Let's just say, I don't know, I'm wide awake. I'm jumping, I'm antsy, I'm ready to go. Okay. I'm alert. A couple questions. Before we get to the perception check thing. How has the last two days for you guys been? You're traveling all day long. So you're traveling at least eight hours a day, maybe ten. And you're just kind of grinding along, just kind of keeping up a nice trotting pace.

But I gotta imagine a good portion of this carriage ride is silent. I don't know, would you guys be talking about anything? How have the last two full days have gone? What's been happening? As far as Draconis goes, I want to note that I ripped off a leg of one of the dire boars that we killed. I've been gnawing on that bone quite loudly for a good day and a half probably. Did you cook it or anything? No, no, just been gnawing on it. Got it down to the bone and gnawing nice and loud on the bone. Like a dog? All I've been doing. Not really a... Draconis isn't a party member, he's our pet.

I told you when we killed it. I told you we'd kill it. That's mine. Sorry, when I killed it. I think Cava would probably be staying as far away from Draconis as possible. However possible that may be. I think I figured out how we could make the perception rules play into it too. Sonya would be driving the cart because she feels like it's her baby. So, and then maybe you guys kicked Draconis out and now he's sitting up there with me and you all are in the nipple. But I, Sonya would be driving it the whole time. She wouldn't let anybody else touch it. You wouldn't let me drive?

Oh man. Opposed strength checks? No. As far as the last two days going, I feel like with Draconis mowing on his leg of boar, Cassie is kind of just like... She's staying near him, not so much because she wants to, but more so that she wants to make sure he doesn't swallow his own tongue. And every once in a while she's trying to strike up conversation but she doesn't even know where to begin with him. So it's stuff like, "So, you seem passionate about meat?" How's that? And I would just reply with a "Mmhmm" and not really respond, just keep going at it.

She just kind of cringes as she sits there. Is he sleeping with it and stuff? Like is this like a war trophy? Yeah, I wouldn't say really a trophy, but I don't know. Is it just a junkie and don't rationalize it basically? How big is this? Well it's a dire boar, like a... I was going to say femur but I don't know if dire boars have femur, like the main bone of a... Yeah, I guess so. If it's a leg it would be the size of a small club. Like a decent sized club. Yeah, there you go. So pretty decent size. Yeah, just got it wrapped in my arms and just gnawing away at the bad boy.

Just give me something to do because I'm kinda ADD, kinda like... When I am awake I'm very alert, kinda jumping around, I need something to do so... Chewing on the bone there, gnawing on the bone gives me a little something so I don't go crazy and freak out on you guys. So you're telling me that this boar leg is your Yahtzee? Yeah, I'm doing it for you guys! Yeah, it's how you just keep yourself occupied on the road. Yep. Okay, something I want to bring up, and we didn't really get into this the last time we sat down, but... Draconis obviously needs bloodroot to live.

Currently you have two more hits of bloodroot and one more hit of yarrow, which is the strong stuff. It's sort of a derivative of bloodroot, but off the charts. That's a last resort type of thing. So just to let you know, I mean, couple of days of travel you're coming up on the point where you're gonna need some eventually. Probably within the next 24 hours and it's gonna start hurting. Like that, okay. Good, good deal. Gotcha. I wonder if in-- Oh, never mind. No, good! Oh, no, it was dumb. I was just gonna say I wonder if in theory they've decided to make bloodroot patches to wean people off of bloodroot.

Let's see, perception check. So you're kind of cresting over this hill around this bank, and you're gonna see Odysseia in the distance, like the far off distance. Sonya and Draconis. This place looks just decimated. Picture a major city. And this thing was the pinnacle of opulence. This was the Aladrin kind of just walking up to the table and was like, "Blam, look at that." That is them kind of just giving a big finger to the rest of the world. Like, this is how cities should look. This is very decorated and polished and just streamlined and gorgeous. This huge city right next to the sea here on this huge hill.

And after they disappeared, there was no one to live in the city, so the Warforged took it over eventually. And then the Warforged all pretty much died. About 97-98% of them are dead. So there was no one left to live in the city. Strahd landed there. There was a huge battle. So this place has just been, the shit's been kicked out of it over the last 80-90 years or so. So this once glorious, gorgeous looking city, all these stories you hear about it, you kind of build yourself up. It's like, "Oh man, I can't wait to see this." And it's like, "This is a shithole.

This is terrible." So it's really tough to see over the walls, but you can catch glimpses of these huge towers that have been broken off in half. Huge craters, holes in the walls. The road leading up there is just strewn with Warforged bodies and traps and things and barricades. It is very war-torn and not very gorgeous or interesting, obviously. I like it. So welcome home. And Strahd destroyed this hall? Strahd had a, there were some paladins. There was a big fight there. Yeah, Strahd had a hand in that. There was a lot of damage there. Paladins and Sion and all kinds of stuff.

And again, before that, the Warforged didn't exactly take great care of it. They were just looking for a place to sort of squat. They didn't take a lot of pride in it. They just kind of grabbed it. Kind of like a holiday old house that becomes a crack den. It's just like, it's a structure. It's not like a home. What day is it again? It is the 14th as of now. Huh. Is that March 14th? No, that would be the 14th of the month of Thorim. And again, Susan, I know what you're thinking. Did I see something a few days before? Oh, everyone, everyone heard about it. But again, it's really tough to see within the walls.

So it's still kind of a mystery. It's still, is there anything there? Did it move on? Did you know? Yeah, because there's this black dragon out and about. We're too close to the city for my comfort. Well, that's something I was going to ask you guys. Now, there are people who would pay top dollar for information. There are people who strictly deal in information about what might be going on in that city. Because normally when a dragon that large is spotted, there's some sort of attack or act of aggression that follows, whether it be people acting on the dragon and then the dragon defend itself or the dragon just attacking.

Like obviously the last one was Strahd. So there are people who would pay top dollar just to find out what the hell, where is this thing? Let's get a bead on it. However, you do have a mission. I am not sure if Sonya would bring it up to Kava. Like she probably would have thought about it. So I'm going to roll something just for me. It's just to see if Sonya would do it. It's basically difficulty check, a wisdom to see how wise she is. If I get high, she will not tell Kava. This is just for me. Oh, no. Oh no, what did you do? A seven. Okay. So at some point, Sonya would have thought of this and told Kava about there being a big black dragon in the city and she heard that people want information about it.

And that they're willing to pay for that information? Yeah, that people are probably going to pay for it. Does Draconis know that there's money on the line here? Like who would actually know this about, do we all know this? Well, let's see. Roll a streetwise check. I'm going to do that right now. Actually the party could. Okay, is this something that Sonya would kind of announce to the girl? Oh God, I see. Yeah. Well, she probably would have just told Kava, but it's pretty close quarters. Right. If you're sitting up front with Draconis is what I was thinking.

Well, I was thinking at some point maybe during the next, when we take up camp, like some point during this, it's like, hey, we're heading close to Odysseus. I heard people are paying money to find out about that dragon. So not yet. Do me a favor. Actually, I want the rest of the party. Roll a streetwise check for me. There you go. 15 is good. Yeah, hot dice. Hot dice. 19. For some of us. Yeah, as I say. Cassie is 9. I'm hoping for just one roll that's double digits, guys. Just one. You're saving them for combat if you get into combat. True. Okay. Yeah, you're right.

That's totally, I was doing it on purpose. I, Draconis, oh man. So Draconis, Kava, and Doran are going to, the Black Dragon thing has been all over. That's been news. That's just, especially in places like Esterhold. Again, because they've just, they've just suffered a few dragon attacks. Like that's been a big deal to them. Like they lost houses and some people and all that. It's been a huge focal point there. So when a Black Dragon streaks overhead, when one, Black Dragons are supposed to be extinct. Two, they're never that big. And three, no one knows where it is now.

There's been no reports. People were thinking, okay, well, wherever it's going, when it gets there, we're probably going to hear all about that. And then days and days go by, nothing. So that's, that's a big deal. And Draconis, Kava, Doran, they would know that people, if there are people who would pay a lot of money to find out exactly where that dragon is and the more information you'd have about it, the better. We're talking, you know, exact size. This thing streaked overhead at night. Being a Black Dragon, it's really tough. There's people who exaggerated.

Then you get second, third, fourth hand iteration. It's like, oh, it was the size of a city and you know, just all that. So the more information you would have about it, the better. Can I ask a question? Sure. Would it be more information, more money than what we are currently being offered to get this bell? Well, here's the thing. The bell is a physical solid artifact. And you know, whether you believe in what it's supposed to do or not, you were sent to do that. So someone is willing to pay, someone is willing to pay for that artifact. The information is a little more liquid.

It depends on how well you are at bartering and how much you can convince somebody. It's like, hey, you need this information. It's more you talking like, so if you had a designated speaker for the group who's pretty good at diplomacy or something or hell, even intimidation. Like you could tell it's like, no, you don't understand. You're all going to die if you don't have that type of thing. It all depends on how, you know, how much information you gather and how good you are at selling yourselves. And I have just one question, just one. How much do we get like for the head of the dragon?

Oh, dude, if you can take this thing down. Good. That's all I need to know. New quest unlocked. That one's in red. Like, it has a question mark next to the level. That's how high a level it is. To give you guys a little more information, again, all this is pretty second, third hand and stuff, but there are people giving descriptions of this thing. And it's, you know, black dragons from from what you would know, because I believe we broke this down before they had this acidic, almost like a napalm breath, like this acidic breath that clings to armor and weapons.

And it will eat and erode those things and strip skin from bones, that type of thing. And they are ruthless, nasty creatures that, again, are supposed to be extinct. The last one was Kaelthorn, and that was that was that was killed in the swamp some time ago. And for a black dragon that was male, that was that was pretty big. But the descriptions you guys are hearing to put it in real world terms, this would be the size of a jet like this is like we're talking like a like like a passenger jet. This is a big, big, big thing. Now, are we just riding through here or are we like is this where the location we're supposed to be getting this bill?

Well, basically, you have a choice. Either you continue to ride south, you can ride pretty much right into the city, or you're going to you're going to start to break west and go. So this is our decision here. OK, this is your decision if you were going to make it. Interesting. So only a couple of us know what's going on here. As far as the money that's on the line. Yeah. Everybody but Cassie. Yeah, she was. Oh, that's right. I think Kava would definitely she probably wouldn't say anything about it because she's focused on what she knows she's going to get paid for right now.

But maybe if they finish this quickly and we're driving past here again, she would bring it up. But for now, she's doing this. She's just going to keep her mouth shut. Anybody else say anything? I'd probably be in the same boat. Just don't worry about it now because we got something else we're worrying about. Kind of a bird in the hands worth two in the bush type of thing. Makes sense. OK. Cassie, I have an opinion. Cassie wasn't told about what was going on, right? Well, I believe it was it's like, hey, there's this thing I don't think you'd I think that the check was more for like you.

Would you know what would it be worth? That type of thing. Oh, yeah. She's she's she's not fighting this decision. OK. All right. So you guys are going to start to break west. And again, gorgeous day. You're going to continue to travel up into the point where you're into the mountains and then the path gets a little, little rocky. Very, very hilly. You're going to you're going to chart and you're going to continue to go upward. And it's kind of winding paths, a little precarious here and there. But again, could not be a better day for this thing. The path is well lit.

There is not a cloud in the sky. And the path itself looks desolate, like no one's around. It's great. You'd even expect to hear like some wildlife, something. I mean, worst case scenario, like maybe some maybe some hill giants or drakes or something in this area. But yeah, everything's gorgeous. It's definitely something to write home about. The sun is going to start to dip in the sky by the time you get to where you're going. Again, following your map, Yoast Scouts found this place. Smackdown in the middle of Black Rock Mountains, like the actual mountains themselves.

And he told you where I guess they left a marker for you near this near this cavern. And supposedly they left you a note. And after a while, you're going to find the cavern, narrow it down and realize, OK, that's that's probably where we got to go. And I imagine you guys are going to disembark and kind of stretch and you know that that thing where you have a really long journey, just that type of thing. Now, you could either camp out and and just sort of wait till morning before you before you start your journey into the cave here. Or you could you could check it out now tonight.

Have we had enough time to heal on the road? Oh, from the from the boards. Oh, yeah. You guys are fine. So are we so have we like arrived and are we like right outside the cave? Yeah. All right. Well, so we're like outside of the actual nipple. We're outside the nipple right now. I'd say, yeah. OK. Why would obviously Draconis would have hopped off the front of the nipple or whatever we're riding on the outside and still holding holding his a bore bone, a bore bone in his arm. And yeah, bore bone. And he wants to point over the cave and like, this is it, guys.

Let's you guys ready? Don't I speak up at once? Actually, like Draconis, like, all right, well, let's go. I actually like I actually like the idea that it's canonized that he just like hops out with his bore bone like, all right, you guys ready? And we just kind of sit and stare at him. It turns around and starts marching in. Sorry, I mean, some notes. Do we know how deep this cave is? Do we know? I suspect it might be better to go in on a full night's rest, right? Is that what you're asking or like that? Cassie's asking? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Draconis, like what the hell?

What the hell are you talking about? We just rest for two days. Let's get in there. Let's get in there. Get it and get out. I guess he just kind of looks to the rest of the party to see if that's the consensus. I was going to have her ax already pulled out, ready to go, and she's just going to say, I don't give a fuck. Let's just make a decision. Draconis is going to point here and be like, I like it. Now let's go. Doran's just going to shrug his shoulders and say, sure, why not? Let's go. Sonia is going to be like, as long as you drop that damn bone, all I've been hearing is you chewing on it for the last eight hours.

Please drop it. Because she was sitting right next to him. I bet $5 it says if we get into a fight, he's going to use that damn bone as a club. Instead of his powerful sorcerer magic, he'll count it down. Absolutely. I'm already feeling that. Draconis is just going to like, kind of like obviously ignore and just like, I don't know what I'm talking about. Am I the only one in the party without darkvision or... we're going to a cave. I have lowlight. None of the dragonborn would have them. Yeah. Okay. Actually, Sonia would be the only one who'd be in this cave without a torch.

And even then it would be kind of, yeah, it's not darkvision. Oh my god. If you have it, it'll probably be on your abilities tab. It'll be right on the front page, right on the main page all the way to the bottom. Oh, okay. Oh, near your senses. Yep. Ooh, yeah, I don't have anything there. No one does but Sonia. Oh my god. Sonia will be leading the pack. Right up in front there, Susan. Did anyone remember to bring torches or something? I need to... I have a sword and a shield. I need both of my hands. I'll hold the torch. Draconis is just kind of looking around.

Just kind of like looking around on the ground. Who volunteered to hold the torch? Sonia. Oh, okay. Oh, cool. Okay, thank you. Exactly what time of day is it? Like if you were to give us a... Dusk. Okay. So it's just... Yeah. I'm imagining even if it's the middle of the day, like because it's a cave, it's gonna be dark, so it's something we're gonna have to deal with anyway. True. Ooh. But I'm wondering if like any creepy crawlies in the cave would be awake now or not, but... I have a hand crossbow, so I'm gonna hold it like cops do, you know, with the flashlight.

Ah, the flashlight! Yes! I love that vision. Freeze, bury a piggy! That happened. That happened. Okay. Are we going or not? Let's go. Let's go. Now I'm just gonna point to it and just start walking. Wasn't there supposed to be a note? What? *snorts* *laughs* That's what Draconis is gonna say. Oh yeah, I didn't mention the note. Yeah, before we just go barging in, there's supposed to be a note out front. The fuck are you talking about? A note? Jaskin searches for a note. Right by the entrance of this cave, there's going to be sort of a precarious rock here. It obviously doesn't belong, and it's... yeah.

You're gonna find that right away. It's right by the entrance of the cave, and there is sort of a balled up note underneath of it. I think Cassie found it. Yep, Cassie totally got it. Yeah, she rolled. Yeah. The note begins with the words "Good luck." *snorts* *laughs* There were three scouts originally when this expedition... reading all this you'll get it. There were three scouts originally, two came back. There are several windy paths in this cavern leading to a temple of Vecna all the way at the end. They did not get to the very end of it, they did not get into the temple, but they do know that everything that they've read in their research matches up with the description of where this bell is being kept.

And as long as no one has breached the temple within, which they don't know, that's left out of the message, they have no idea if anyone's reached the temple, the bell should still be inside. Does it say anything about dangers and things they encountered that we might be able to prepare for? It does go into detail about things called Flesh Strippers. These things, and I've given you guys a description of them, picture, actually you know what? Everyone do me a favor, roll a nature check. Wrong character. Can it be history? *laughs* Can I use my other character stats for this roll?

Oh no. Oh, double digits! What would I- Hey! That's term nature. *laughs* That makes a lot more sense actually. Intimidate the knowledge, Jonathan. *laughs* Dang it. Alright, here we go. I was about to say, you're really knowledgeable. Still! Give me the fucking information. Still pretty damn good! It's just Jamie as a person is good at nature. It just has nothing to do with my characters. So let's see, um, Kaba and Doran would know a little bit about, Kaba would know a little bit more. Flesh Strippers picture a cross between a very, very large cockroach. Like, picture something about the size of your abdomen mixed with a silver fish.

Now, these things stick to the dank. They do not, light never touches these things. And what they do is they hide out in caverns and things like that and skitter around. They tend to drop down from ceilings and things and cling to creatures or adventurers, whoever might be in the vicinity. And their bite has this paralytic quality. And while you are very much still alive, they will strip the skin from your body and devour it, leaving the rest for other things that might eat meat. Well, I'm a dragonborn best of luck, Cassie. Why would you make these things?

I'm a dragonborn best of luck, humans. Tender, squishy humans. On here, go ahead. I just had a really quick question. Which temple, what kind of temple did you say that it was? Vecna. Vecna, thank you. Yeah, it's the god of undeath and necromancy. Upon hearing this description of these things, Cassie kind of just edges a little closer to Sonya and says, "So if you don't mind, I think I'll stick pretty close to you. Don't drop the torch." I'll try not to. Cassie nods at her. Because she also has flesh. Yep. Well, everyone had, well okay, here's the thing, yes.

They would have to work harder, but scales aren't really what they're after. They're after that. Yeah. Juicy bush and eat. Yeah, they're pretty wasteful, honestly, because it's not like they're after the meat on your bones. They're just after that wrapping paper and then they leave the rest. So you won't die. You guys won't die. That's fine. Probably can be. You just have no skin. Yeah. Yay, skin buddies. She's walking around the area. Bless us. If anything, she'll get a bonus to intimidate because she'll be skinless. Just walking around like Two-Face, but your entire body is that.

Oh god. Ugh. And like no eyelids too. Oh god. That's the worst part. I was thinking Buffy. Oh, yes. Oh, okay. Anywho, so into the cave, guys. Into the cave. Carefully. Marching order would be whoever has the light first, right? So, Sonia, Cassie. The two littlest people. I'm going to see as close to you guys as possible because if something does pop up, I will be pushing you behind me. Okay. Sonia, Cassie, Cabba. I mean, is it wide enough to walk in twos? In most spots, yes, actually. The corridors are, especially when you first walk in, it's definitely like ten feet wide and then in spots it'll narrow and wind and then it'll open up a little bit again.

It's not crazy roomy, but it is definitely large enough where two people can walk side by side for the most part. I mean, Cassie sees herself as responsible for walking in or near the front of the pack, but if Cabba specifically tries to get ahead of her, she won't stop Cabba. I have a feeling that it'd be Sonia leading the way, Cassie and Cabba kind of staying next to her, and then Doran babysitting Draconis while he's gnawing on a bone. Question. Is Draconis still gnawing? Not at this present time, no. Okay, good. He's just carrying it. Okay. Present time.

Cassie comes to a stop and she goes, "Wait a second. Draconis, I think maybe you should leave the meat, because there's a lot of things in here that might smell it." Well, what happens if I get hungry? Maybe that's a lower priority? We don't know how long we're going to be in this cave, okay? We have no idea. Look, I'm just playing it safe, okay? Don't worry. Don't worry. It'll be fine. Trust me. What part of flesh strippers didn't you listen to? What do you mean? We threw him before, Cassie. We'll throw him again. Would Draconis just not see them as a threat to Draconis so he doesn't care?

Well, to be honest with you, he hears flesh strippers and he's not actually thinking normal. He just hears flesh strippers and his mind goes a different direction, kind of, but doesn't really actively think about it. He thinks, "Okay, this could get sexy, maybe. Who knows? I mean, we'll see how it goes in here." But he doesn't completely comprehend what he just heard. So wait, he thinks you're like sex workers? Is that what he thinks? He doesn't actively think what's going on. He just heard the word stripper and he's like, "Oh, someone might be put on a show." Exactly.

He's not fully thinking about what's going on. To get to the skin, they gotta take off the clothes. That's it. People paid for this. I can't believe that. Okay. I don't know. Okay. No, people paid exactly for this. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. But yeah, that's kind of what, yeah. He's not fully thinking about it. He just heard that and his mind kind of drifted for a second and just kind of like lost it behind. I guess he kind of looks to the rest of the party to see if anyone else will help her push this issue. Can I do an athletics check to rip the bone from his hands and just toss it?

It seems like he's got a pretty decent grasp on this thing, but yeah, let's see. It'd have to be a pretty decent roll. Ha! I'm just gonna swipe it out, move it out of the way before you can grab it and just be like, "Dude, don't even try it." I'm gonna move it and say, "Get your own boar leg, okay? Get your own boar leg." When you kill one, you can get a boar leg. There's not even any meat left on it. All that's left is bone. You can't eat that. It feels good on my teeth, okay? Are we disgusting my bone or are we going in here and getting felled? Oh, we're not disgusting your bone.

Let's keep going, group. It seems like a lost cause. If it makes Cassie feel any better, it's pretty much stripped of any meat at this point. It's true. It's just dripping with Draconis spit at this point. That's true. Okay, I'll do my best to protect you. Let's go. Aw, kid. Oh boy. So, walking into this cave, the sounds of the outside world are gonna start to fade. Sonya's got her torch going and you can see that you're gonna just illuminate these cave walls and you can see where the path wraps around. You're gonna start to walk in here very slowly, I would imagine, just hearing about the types of things that might be in here.

And as you're sort of creeping through, you're gonna reach a point where the path branches off to a few different options. Now, there is a path in the middle and then a path to the right or left. All of them look like they're branching out and heading in separate directions, but there is a mark on the center. There's a mark right there next to the center pathway. Looks like someone sort of chiseled it or maybe took a swipe at it with something and it is definitely a purposeful mark. Where would you guys like to go here? Can we... Sorry, go. I was gonna say, can we listen for noises down the other hallways or look for...

Is there any light? Is there any... No other information? See what's most traveled? That would be... Give me a perception roll, actually. How about... Can everybody roll a perception roll? 'Cause mine really sucks. Yeah, no, everyone. Okay. What? Do we see any bodies with conspicuously absent flesh? No, no, no, no, nothing like that. I would freely give that information away. That's necessary. So Draconis is checked out right now. Yeah, he only got a five. That's not good. He's really into this bone. I'm just looking straightforward. Yeah, I'm not looking side to side.

Oh, man. So Cassie and Sonia. Sonia, more than anyone else. The middle pathway is the most traveled. There are lots of scuff marks and it looks like someone might have been dragging their feet and... Yeah. The other two pathways, they've seen a little bit of foot traffic, but you're thinking maybe someone did like a little scouting, like what's down this way, and then came right back. Whereas it looks like two or three, maybe four people at some point went down this center pathway here. No light. Listening for noise. You're not gonna hear much. Beyond the odd dribbling, it's very wet down here.

The walls are slick and stuff. So everyone's following you hear that "m-m-m" something like that. But no skittering, nothing like that. Looks like the middle one's the way to go. Watch your step. It's slippery down this way. Come on. That's what you say to the party? The whole party? Yeah, yeah. Alright, and you said the mark was... Can people not tell I'm going up a register when I speak this word? Yeah, I was gonna say, I can always tell it's Cassie. I don't know if you said it to the people that noticed or if you said it to everybody. Yeah, go ahead. Now the marking you said is on the left path, right?

The center. The center. Okay, sorry. Okay. Okay, yeah. I'm good. Okay. Onward. Traveling down this center path, it's gonna continue on for a while. And then eventually, there's a drop off here. And it's not deep at all. But the path continues about 30 feet in front of you. But in between you, there is a small, looks like maybe a lake, something like that, that runs through this corridor. So the path is just liquid in front of you to get to the other side. Does it look deep? It looks fairly deep, yeah. This looks like you could definitely go... go ahead, sorry. Can I like grab a nearby pebble or stone and throw it in and see if it goes far?

Okay. Bloop. That, that first of all, just sort of a nice big plop. And then you're gonna watch this, like I'd imagine like the torch is held up near the water and you're gonna watch this just sort of like sink and then disappear. Okay, don't step. It's not just a puddle. How big a cross is it? Like can we just jump over it? You know, this is... hold on a second. I'll bring up a map for you guys so you guys can... Yeah. And if it would turn into combat here, that much the better. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Real quick perception check to the ceilings. All of a sudden, something rises from the lake.

Two birds, one step. That's a good idea, the ceiling. That's a good idea, actually. Can I quick perception the ceiling, Jason? You absolutely can. So sweet. Oh man, these rolls. I'm doing so good tonight. 19 is not bad. I don't know what I'm saying. That's not... It's not bad. Oh, that was you. I didn't know that was me. Just kidding. That doesn't change the fact 19 isn't bad. Yeah, it's not bad. Thanks, Jamie. You're welcome. Whoa. Well, she's the one with dark vision, so if anyone's gonna see anything... Yeah. That's true. That does make sense. So we're on this middle one, I assume.

Yep. You are on the middle one right now. Judging by this map, we messed up. I'm confused by this map. I'm not gonna lie. Okay. Center path. Okay. You're coming in from the top, moving south. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yep. Cool. For some reason, I thought it was left to right, and I was really confused. This is like a real dungeon map. I'm so excited. Oh, yeah, I want to put myself on the map, too. I said I was sticking close to you. I meant it. There you go. I'm actually a little uncomfortable now. That's too close. I still need my space. How close is too close?

Oh, just... Oh, my God. You want to submit your fanfiction to... Oh, my God. So, Kava and Sonia, I... Okay. Did everyone roll Perception, or was it just... I did not. So, I would imagine, like, after looking into the water, like, Sonia would sort of, like, crane upward with the torch. It's like, you know, we haven't looked above us in a while. Yeah. And it's a really high ceiling. Like, it's tough to really gauge, but every once in a while, you'll think you'll see, like, a little movement, but it's tough to see if it's just the torch playing, like, tricks with your eyes.

Oh, fuck. I hate this. But you don't really hear skittering, and you'd think that you would hear that, right? But there is water movement a little bit, so it's kind of tough. It's like, "What was that?" Like, every once in a while, you'll hear a noise, but it's nothing definitive yet. You haven't heard that warning of, like, "We need to go," or something. Yeah. You guys have been walking now for about 30 minutes or so. So Cassie gets an idea, and she turns around, and she says, "Hey, Draconis, you can, like, throw fire, right? Could you, like, try to throw something up there?

Maybe light things up and possibly hit me creepy-crawly things?" Sonia takes a step back. I can try it out, yeah, why not? Eye connection with Sonia and gobble. I'll help you with your running gag again. Alright, so, now, do I have an ability or power for this, or just, kind of, just like a, I can shoot a little... Does he have an at-will that's fiery and ranged? I, God, I imagine you do. Most of my stuff says, like, I breathe fire and, like, that kind of, I don't know about. Right, so let's say... But I am a fire mage, so I mean... Yeah, hold on a second.

Jamie. You just really quickly go... What you could do is a little scorching burst, right? So just, like, pointing your hands at, like, toward the ceiling and just, like, just, just, just sort of, like, flamethrower that general area, which will at the very least let you see what might be up there. It's, it's obviously way more illumination than the torch, and with your party spreading out away from you... Yeah. That's good for two reasons. One, who knows what you're gonna do, and two, they can, like, they, they're not gonna be blinded by the initial light, like, right next to you.

They can, they can really, kind of, like, see it from different angles. Okay. I really hope this isn't a thing where someone who's, like, unathletic at, like, football, like, goes to throw a football and just accidentally releases it behind him on the windup. I think... Like the terrible hand grenade? Yeah. I, I feel like... Okay, he's pointing up. There's very little that can happen. It's, it's, it's... I'm almost tempting fate now, I'm sorry, but I'll just shut up. Let me just use this rod I have. So, uh, I'm gonna... Now, is this shooting out of... Where is this shooting out of?

Um, this would be, this would be the rod. The X, okay, so this, alright, okay. So I'm just gonna, uh, pull it out, just whip it out here. Twiddle it around on my fingers and then point it straight up, straight up, and then I, oh, wait, and spin it back the other way, 'cause I had it wrong at first. And, uh, just shoot out your little, uh, like you said, little, little, uh, little quick, little flamethrower burst up into the, uh, up into the rafters up there. Right. So this is a burst one within ten squares, so this will be like, you'll cast it, and then blam, like just this, this nice, like, ar-, like, it'll, it'll hit the ceiling.

Yep. And then, you know how fire, like, dissipates and, like, spreads across flat surfaces, so it'll just, whoosh, and you, you'll be able to see this. Oh, there it goes. Yeah. Perfect. Right. Alright. Okay. So what's up there? So, everyone, do me a favor, roll a Perception again. This time, give me a, uh, you know what? You're fine, yeah. Oops. Sorry. No, you're good. I was really, I don't see shit. Oh my god. So the light, it's like you weren't used to it, it's like, fuck, like, yeah. Uh, 21, that's good. Holy shit. Okay. Mm. Okay. So, Sonia Cava Draconis. Initially, this, this, this, this flame's gonna go up, blam, whoosh, just sort of, like, flat dissipate, right?

The cavern walls and, and, and ceiling and everything are gonna be really, really, like, shimmery, 'cause the, the light's gonna hit it and everything. And then you're gonna realize that the walls aren't, like, dancing and shimmering because the light's hitting 'em. There's movement above you. So much so that it just looked like the actual, like, ceiling, when in, when in reality, it's just really tightly packed, uh, a tightly packed grouping of insects. Ew. Haha. I feel like we're in the mummy. Yeah. I'm not even gonna do it. So as soon as this- Those little beetles?

Yeah. Little scarabs, yeah. Scarabs, yeah. So, as soon as this, as soon as the, the, the, the flame, like, hits, dissipates, they are going to start, like, in the center, where the, where the flame hits, they are going to start moving out, where it almo- almost as if, like, a hive mind, like, one. And they're going to start to, like, just scurry down the walls and toward you. Ah, shit. Toward me, specifically, or- All of you. Well- Just down the walls, honestly, just getting away from that flame. Can I move away from the wall? Same you. Oh, god, yeah. So, so they're not specifically running, like, at us, they're just kind of get away from the fire, that just, uh- Yeah, these, um, the- from what you guys see, they're much smaller than what the flesh strippers are supposed to be.

These are, these are, these are much smaller. Oh, good. That's great. Still gross. Oh, good, these aren't even the, the flesh strippers. Alright, I, I wanna, uh- Great. I wanna, like, quickly just, like, uh, dart my head to Cassie and, like, yell, "What'd you do?" [Laughter] I didn't do anything, there's bugs up there, look out! Alright, how, how are we handling this situation here, fellas? Uh, well- Do we need to roll anything to start this thing, or- Well, okay. So, what, what is coming towards you is, um, spread out your hand in front of you. That's about the size of what these insects are, and they, they, they, they appear to have, like, uh, these pincey, like, mandibles in front of them.

Very, very, kind of like a flat, not very beetle-like, but just sort of, like, flat, squirmy, like, they, they pack tightly, they almost, it's almost like thatchwork, they're, they're laid up on top of each other, and then once you hit that, it's like, [tongue clicking] Just that, it's almost deafening, the skittering accompanied with them hitting, like, the slick surface of the wall, just, oozing, almost as a, like a river of insects, like, slithering down. I'm gonna throw up. I'm sorry. Nice! So, they're, they are very much making a beeline for ground.

Now, the gamble here is, do you think they're coming for you, or do you think they're just trying to get away? Do you think that they're antagonistic? Will they attack? Question, are they, so they're going towards the, the hard ground, they're not going towards the water. No, not yet. I was just gonna say, part of me wants to just take a nosedive into the water. Fuck. Uh, hmm. Well, we do have three dragonborn with us, and they don't seem to like fire. That's good, true. So... That was one of my ideas, but if we wanted to get across, though. We could make a ring of fire.

Oh no, no, no. Oh no, no. So, also to paint a picture, there are thousands of these things. Perfect. I'm gonna have nightmares later. Now, are they, can we tell, I guess we can't see to the other side of this big thing of water, right? Oh no, you can see the outline of, like, "shore", like you can see where the path starts up again, like you can definitely... Can we tell if they're on the other side too? You're not seeing movement on the other side, it's not, um, yeah. Alright, I just want Draconis just to yell, let's get to the other side, I just want to yell, uh, let's get to the other side.

So is Draconis going to jump into this water? Not right away, I just want to like look back at everybody and just yell, let's get back to the other side. Who's spitting me? Who's spitting me right now? Anybody do anything with that? Who's following Draconis' lead? I, uh, hmm. I think Kafka would wait to see if anybody else is gonna do it before she makes any action, so I'm gonna wait until somebody else does something. I also want to make a cannon that I point my bone to the other side too when I yell that. Let's get to the other side. Point my bone. Uh, Cassie shouts back, "We can't just jump blindly into cave water, let's back up the hallway, back up the hallway so we can think." I just want to yell, "Sure we can, sure we can." Oh my god.

Cassie starts running back up the hallway a little bit. Okay. So Cassie's gonna back up, okay, so just sort of like back up the way you came. Yeah. What's everyone else gonna do? Oh my god, I don't have my wall of flame anymore. I have this really bad idea. Part of me. Part of me. Who wants a meat? Okay, one at a time. I lost my, oh man, I'm so mad about this. I had a really bad idea. Part of it involves the running gag of throwing Draconis and just saying, "Take the lead." But did he just jump in himself? Is that why his mini's there? I did not do that. I don't know who did that.

Somebody moved me into the middle of the water. I did. I thought you said you were jumping in. I'm sorry. Okay. So Cassie just takes off running away, right? No, she moves back and watches to see if anyone's following her and says, "We don't need to decide this while these things are coming at us. Come on, let's back up and think it's over." Anybody else do anything? Sonya looks at Kava and looks at the water and then looks back to Cassie, like asking her, you know, without asking, "What should we do?" I think, oh god, I hate this. Okay, has this taken place in the space of three seconds or are these bugs doing anything while we have a committee?

Okay, here's the thing. I'm going by classic G1 logic here, where a lot of this happens in the span of two or three seconds, where really it's playing out in the meta of ten minutes. So while this is happening, they are still dripping down the walls and everything in the space that, I'd say Cassie having the most raw common sense of the party is just like, "Uh, nope!" And just backs up just a few pages. As horrible as this is, and I really, Jamie does not want to do this, Kava is going to look back at Sonya, look at Draconis, look at the bugs, look back at Sonya and just say, "They're just fucking bugs!" And she is going to jump into the water and start swimming towards the other side.

I think it's, yeah, if she's going to do that, Doran's going to go up to Draconis and just say, "After you!" and then throw Draconis into the water. Alright, give me an athletics check for Doran. Alright. Goddamnit. That... bloop! There we go. Son of a bitch. Okay, so in the span of them deciding, "Okay, fuck, just go!" They're panicking. What's going through Cassie's head? Because I'm hyper curious right now. Alright, fuck you Cassie. When Kava goes in, it's just kind of this, "Are you serious?" look. And then when Doran pushes Draconis in, it's kind of this, "Oh, we're really doing this!" look.

And then after that, she's like, "Sonya has the torch. That's not going to make it through the water." And so she's just like staring at Sonya and just like mouthing like, "No. No. Oh." Do it! Do it! Okay, so Sonya is facing the water, not you. Oh my god. By the way, if Doran's going to toss Draconis in, I too will dive in with him. Okay. So all of our dragonborn are in the water. Yeah, dragonborn are in. Okay, stop it. How deep now? Oh, it's deeper than you. We don't know. Yeah, you don't know. Oh shit. Now the last time you swam, you did a really good job. Let's hope that continues.

Yeah. What about Sonya and Cassie? Sonya is actually going to like look at them and make sure they're okay. Like actually take the extra seconds that the bugs are crawling down the wall and like see if they die. Oh, they're reaching ground by now. Like they're down to the ground. Like I said, they are so tightly packed. Picture it as it's almost an optical illusion. Like the wall itself is dripping down into the ground. Okay. So that's when Doran jumps in. Yeah, like they're reaching the ground now and they're just sort of... If they fire, I imagine Sonya with the torch just doing circles.

That's him, you're back. Well, if they're touching the ground, then she's going to be like, "Fuck it." And then she'll jump in. With the torch? Yes. Oh, there goes her torch. Come on, Cassie, come on. So is she able to keep the torch above water? How does this go? I... Okay, here's the thing. Oh, God. Are you running and jumping in or is this a thing where like you're walking up to the edge and like you're trying to like... Put my foot in the wall. You have the torch at one of us that's already in the water? You have two options. Either you can... Here's the thing.

The Dragon Board are going to need all their appendages to keep above the water. Mm-hmm. The option is that you can just try to jump in as gingerly as possible and not lose that torch. But being a gnome, that's not gonna... You can also try your best to at least throw the torch across the pathway and hope it lands on the other side before you jump. I think Sonya would hang onto it, actually. Okay. But I... Okay, I do want to try to like jump onto Cabba's shoulders. Oh, God. You're fine. Or just grab onto her because Sonya's three foot eight. Right. Okay. Here's what I want to do first.

Draconis, Doran, give me an athletics check. Oh, that's not gonna be good. I want to see... I want to see how well you are at swimming. Doran's amazing at swimming. Yes, Doran's great. I'm not. Draconis is not. I think that's six. So Draconis is going to land in this water and his cloak's gonna get tangled around him and he's just flailing and just like... And I blame this on being thrown. I blame this on being thrown. I picture him still holding onto the bone thinking that's gonna help at some point and just... He's just trying to use that as an over. Yeah, it's just a hot mess.

Kava's gonna jump in and then Sonya is going to jump onto Kava. Sonya, do me a favor. Give me an athletics check. Oh, yeah, this is gonna go great. You got it. Oh, my God. Yeah. Sonya is going to land just a couple of feet away from shore and just splash down. Torch goes out instantly. Kava, give me an athletics check. Wow. So Cassie's gonna be like in the dark. Yeah, I'm gonna describe it. Kava's great. So Kava and Doran are great. Sonya and Draconis not so much. The last thing that Cassie sees are these insects. Are these insects clamoring to get to the ground and they're sort of pulling together like...

Oh, my God. They're sort of just pulling together and they're slowly covering the ground itself. They're closing in on the center like sort of an iris closing. And then you see the dragonborn all jump in. Draconis starts flailing for his life. And then the last vision that Cassie sees is Sonya jump into the water. Torch goes out. Total blackness. Rob! Rob Cassie! Cassie has a decision to make. Yeah. Okay. So we're gonna use the camera flash of memory that I have about this scene to do our best to judge distances. Yes. Here's what Cassie wants to do. Okay. She swears.

She sheaths her sword. And then she pulls her shield in front of her body kind of like a... Almost like a little body board, like a kick board maybe. Ooh, okay. And she attempts to do a running diving leap like forward. Not like to dive down but to dive like flat, like a skipping stone. Like bogey boarding on it? Well, she doesn't want to put her feet on it. She just like, she has it pulled to her chest and she wants to kind of like ride that wave as far as she can after the most athletic jump she can muster. Okay. So... So I've got a running start. That gives me like some kind of bonus, right?

It does. Plus two, I believe, to the athletics check. Okay. And I've got a plus eight. So with all of my might and probably a scream of half terror, half athleticism. Four canon. Before... Oh god. So, okay, hold on. Four canonical purposes. What would be like... What... In a time of crisis like this, like it might be life or death. What's Cassie's version of a swear? Like, what is it like, are we going like, like the S word type of thing or are we going full on F bomb? No, no, it's probably shit. It's probably... Okay, cool. And then just like, well, here we go, you know?

Okay. So yeah, so that's 12 plus two for the running, so 14. All right, 14. Cassie's going to take off. And just as she reaches the point where she remembers, it's like, okay, I'm going to run out of land. And she's going to get ready and take off. She's going to hear the very distinct crunching sound of her boot, just like awkwardly sort like... Instead of hitting flat land, it's like, oh wow, that's like a speed bump, like awkwardly just sort of like crunch snap like these insects blow her boot. And then just take off and jump as far as she can. Yep, yep.

And the adrenaline of that unexpected sound gives her another bonus, which propels her to safety. And she is going to... She's going to leap forward and she'll do her chest. She is going to slam right into the back of Draconis' noggin. And just sort of roll over top of him. And she is now in the lead. Draconis is going to... Be not good conscious. Well, between one of the points where... Do me a favor and roll an endurance check for me, please. Just, I need to know something. But this is... So unconscious. Oh, great. That is going to temporarily stun Draconis, but he's already drowning.

So he's just going to be dead weight now in the water for the next several seconds. Can I roll an athletics check to at least keep him above water? You guys are doing... Here's the thing. I would say that you and Cava are doing so well that you can help your fellow adjacent drowning party members. And just as long as they're not fighting back too much, here's the problem. Draconis is dead weight. That's going to be a little more difficult. Cava will be able to assist Sonya with no real issues. Sonya weighs almost nothing. I'm Brandy. And I think Cava would probably look at Draconis having a hard time.

And then she would look back at Cava and be like, "Eh." And then she'd reach for Sonya. Okay. Fuck that dude. I weigh 50 pounds. Okay. Yeah, that's enough. I'm not tiny. Yeah, you're fine. So yeah, actually, you know what? Give me an athletics check to lift up Draconis here. Because it's going to be... You're going to... Oh yeah, you're good. Oh wow, that's really good. So you guys are above water. You're swimming. I toss him above the water again. Straight on the land. We're skipping rocks with Dragonborn. So you guys have got your party members in tow here. Cassie, I want you to do me a favor.

Give me an athletics check to see if you can swim here. This swimming? Okay, yeah. That's... I'm above a ten. I'm above a ten. I can trade water on a ten. It's not graceful. It's not graceful what you're doing. You're doing it. Everyone swamps like... Like just kind of like, "Oh, oh, oh." I used too many lefts. Like it was just... So you guys are going to start to make your way slowly. Slowly across this... Across this little... This little... This water here. And you're going to hear those bugs. Like every once in a while one will just fall into the water. But you can tell that they're not...

They're not a fan of it. They're not chasing you or anything like that. But you are going to hear that ceaseless skittering behind you on land. Just constantly. And as you guys are swimming... Everyone do me a favor and roll a perception check. I would not do that because I'm... Not Cassie? Is it audio based? Or is it... I mean, Cassie's swimming totally blind. Yeah, no. Everyone's swimming totally blind. This isn't about sight. Okay. Hey, I have low light. You do, yes. So I'd imagine at some point Sonya's like, "We're not that far away from..." Yeah, I'm... It's right there.

You're about to hit it. Yeah, so I would imagine you guys are right about there. Like you're doing it. I would imagine Sonya's right up there. Let's see here. Perfect. You guys are pretty close to shore here. You're almost to the other side. And... Cava? So is Sonya swaying on her... Is that like a thing where she's on Cava's back or anything like that? Or they're just like... It's just like, "No, come on." And just sort of like one hand just like keeping her above. I kind of pictured Cava like grabbing Sonya and then forcing her arms around Cava's neck while Cava swims forward.

Mm-hmm. I think Sonya would have done that anyways. Yeah. So a lot of what you guys are going to hear is again that skittering. It's getting more distant though. You're obviously moving away from them. That is not a current threat. You're going to hear lots of like splashing and thrashing of your fellow party members. And Dorn's going to feel something brush up against his feet. [Dorn whines] [Dorn whines] Whose fucking idea was this, guys? [Laughter] Yours. [Laughter] And Draconis is going to start to come to right about now as Cassie is the first one to reach the other side.

Oh my gosh, climb up. Climb up. [Laughter] And then I put out my hand and like wave it out blindly to try to pull other people up. Right. Do I say anything? In the water? I would probably say something. I'd probably say, "We need to get to the other side now." [Laughter] Just, "Other side now." And Cassie's just yelling, "Come to my voice! Take my hand! Come to my voice!" I would imagine Draconis is the next one to make it. Cassie will heft him up as best as she can. Yeah, and Draconis will sort of like flop up onto land here. Like again, like wet cloak, wet, you know, all you guys are just soaking wet.

And the water is, I mean, pleasant enough in that it's not like slimy or anything like that. It's actually a nice underground spring type of thing. But yeah, that's really not the point. So you guys are going to make it to the other side here. Here's a current problem. Everything in your pack is soaking wet. Which means any additional torches that you have are soaking wet. Mm-hmm. [Laughter] Any food you may have, by the way, soaking wet. Well, everything. Look who the smart guy is now. You have a bone with no meat. [Laughter] Is anyone wearing a hat that we could set on fire?

Possibly. [Laughter] No hat? No hats? Alright. I mean, any fabric Cassie would have on her would be soaking wet at this point too. I'm imagining Rob just sitting there in his chair just smug like, "You see what happened? You see what happens when we just make rash decisions?" So yeah, yeah. Cassie, once she's like, "Is everyone up? Did we get everyone out?" And then assuming there's no one answering in the negative, she kind of flops down and just starts wringing out her clothing. Hey, Jason. Mm-hmm? I have a power called Obedient Servant. I infuse a construct with Elemental Animus and then throw it into the fray to aid your allies.

Can I build one and the elements fire? Okay, break that down for me again. Let's see. Okay, you infuse a construct with Elemental Animus, then throw it into the fray to aid your allies. So... If you could make it fiery, it would say pick a keyword and give you fire as an option, I think. Arcane implement summoning. Or it has a little glow inside it from the magic at the very least. Like I could put some rocks together and then it glows. Hmm. Let's see. Why am I imagining this being like a cartoon where it's like we only see our eyes and it's like, "It's so dark!" And then as soon as we light up fire, there's just flesh strippers all around us.

Oh, jeez. Because I kind of want... As soon as everybody's like sitting there like ringing out stuff, Sonya's gonna go like grab some rocks, put it into like a humanoid shape, like a bigger rock for the head. Here's the body, here's arms, and then... You know what? Here's what I'm gonna do. That's a daily, so I'm gonna let you use it. Yeah. I'm gonna say that it'll have a faint glow around it. So do you know what a glow worm is? Like... Yeah. Growing up? Yeah, like that. Like picture the weakest nightlight, which is like anything adjacent to that, within like five feet of it, like it'll be fairly illuminated, but it'll be a light in the darkness that you guys can definitely follow.

Yeah. The moment it lights up, Cassie goes, "Aw, thank the gods." Okay. Why did you... For some reason, as soon as she said that it's rocks in the shape of a human, I'm like, "Oh, we get to have the rock monster from Galaxy Quest." That's what I'm imagining! It's about the size of a kitten. Yeah, it'll be like this tiny little... I picture rock monster from Never Ending Story. Ew! Like three? I'm sorry, I think three whenever I think of it. And then it sings, "Get your motor running." "Get your motor running, and on the highway." That will aid you in your boss battle against Jack Black later.

Come on! Okay, so, does somebody want to explain why we couldn't have just like walked back a little ways and talked it over instead of hurling ourselves into the dark water, extinguishing our torch, and getting soaking wet in a cave? I want Draconis to slam his bone down on the ground, making like a loud banging sound, and be like, "Oh, you're gonna be the one asking questions!" "Oh no, shoot a fireball up into the ceiling! That's not gonna cause an issue!" We figured out what was up there. "Oh no, let's pick the middle route! Let's not go left and right, but now you're gonna be the one asking us!" We had no more information about the other ones than we did about this one.

And I tried to back us off. I just want to slam the bone down again and just turn away, even though I can't see anything. And what did I hit when I jumped in? I hit something! No, I'm not gonna say a word. I can't remember. That's true, yeah, it knocked me out. I didn't see anything. I don't remember what happened the last five minutes. The previous few seconds are pretty fuzzy for me, honestly. Kava is gonna make an audible "ugh" and she's gonna grab Sonya and continue to walk forth. Like, "I don't give a fuck what you're talking about, let's just keep going." Is the little rock thing following her?

Yeah, it has a speed of six, so it can't keep up with me. Okay, okay, I'm coming! Wait up! Don't! Dark! Dark! And Cassie, like, we panicked. There's nothing we can do about it now, so we just gotta keep going forward. Okay, I know, but in the future, let's not jump when we can buy time. That's all I'm saying. Okay, let's go. I'll keep it in mind. Okay, well, thank you. That makes one. I'll take it. Audible grunt from Kava. Can I get a nature check from everyone? Uh, sure. Hey, Jason, so there's a low light in here now, so I can see. You sure can. That's a 20. Yeah, it is.

We all came out covered in leeches, that's what happened, didn't it? No, we're not gonna stand by me this, it's okay. Oh my god, okay, so, we're Cassie, goddamn. Yeah, rough rolls. Yeah, so everyone except for Sonya and Cassie are gonna know that traditionally, so if any of you have a drow friend, or know drow or something like that, or about their living conditions, the deeper you go in caverns and just underground situations in general, the more dangerous the flora and fauna get, right? It's just, the way, where the drow live is uninhabitable by most people.

They would be considered, it's like it's savage and terrible and you're always on watch and on guard and it's, and you guys are getting a taste of that now. And you're, you're, you're, you're way above where they would live, but the deeper you go and you're gonna notice that this is, it just keeps pitching downward. You're gonna hit more and more interesting stuff. So, continuing on, who would like to do me a favor and roll a flat d20? I'll do it. Jamie's got this everyone. Yeah, I do. What? Very nice. So coming up, after about another 20 minutes of this, and you're going pretty slowly because of the, the low light, you're basically almost completely relying on Sonya to tell you whether something terrible is up ahead.

The good news is, the good news is that after, after this, this little escapade, the most you hear in the darkness is you guys dripping and just sort of like squishing and sloshing and stuff and it's, oh man. Do you know after, like, you're been completely submerged in water and then you just have to keep walking somewhere and like it's, it gets chafey and your feet get kind of itchy. Everything blisters. Oh, it's the worst. So you're gonna, you're gonna get some of that. It's not the best. Now your Dragonborn friends pretty much are barefooted so they're fine with it, but for you, you folks who wear boots, looking at you Sonya and Cassie.

It's not, it's not the best. Getting a bit of trench foot. Yeah, it's not great. You got wet undies, none of this is great. But right up ahead you guys are gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna find a pack. And what it looks like is some sort of like backpack or something like that where someone, someone dropped this, and it might have been in a rush. It might have been. It may have been strategic like okay let's leave that here and we'll get it on the way back, but it is unguarded. And what it looks like is an adventurer's pack. I call a trap. Can we have Draconis poke it with a bone?

Sure can. Alright well Doran's gonna turn to Draconis and say, "Hey, can you just nudge that?" You guys just want me to do everything. Is that, first throw the fireball up, we see how that went. Like fine, fine, you know what, fine. Draconis is just gonna walk up and just shove it hard with the bone. Okay. After Draconis sort of shoves this, the pack was open, it wasn't sealed or anything like that, usually there's like a leather strap or something. You're gonna see a bunch of food rations and stuff come pouring out of this. Some rope and two fresh dry torches.

Yay. Hooray. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thanks Jason. I mean, God. Thank the sixteen. Yeah, that's right. Thank the sixteen. Can't wait for us to soak those fresh torches on the way back. Well then we'll at least be on our way out, that's one thing. Or you might find a more clever way across or actually have time to think about it. We'll walk on that tightrope. Draconis is gonna reach down and grab some of the food rations and shove in his wet pot. Well, we've been walking twenty minutes so I guess it's a little bit drier now, but. It's, yeah, it's still very moist.

Cause it's not like there's a lot of ventilation down here, it's not like it's a. Yeah, yeah, gotcha. Okay. Alright. You guys gonna continue on? So, are we lighting a torch or are we continuing under the light of the little critter before, until that goes out? Well that lasts all day. Or until it dies. Torches would give you some more illumination and it's not like it's gonna go away, so that's more of a backup measure. So, Sonya would grab the torch and then kinda hold it out to like, point it at the three dragonborn, like, one of you gonna take care of this?

Not, not named Draconis? Yeah, just all, cause I know all three of you are dragonborn so, one of you could do it. Firstly, that's racist. I'm not saying that, seriously. I've seen Carver. Offended. Oh my god. It's okay, I can say these things, I have a dragonborn friend. Yes, exactly. If none of them like, step up to do it, Cassie just like, mockingly like, walks up the torch and goes. Oh wait, I don't breathe fire. You're dragonborns, you breathe fire. I like that this trip is slowly turning Cassie into kind of a sarcastic shit sometimes. Yeah. Uh, I guess, yeah.

Is dragonbread like a daily though? No, I think it's more of an encounter, yeah. Okay. Okay, so torch is lit, and, well, that's just, that's just much more illumination. I would imagine it's a little soothing to the party, like at first your eyes are adjusting and it's like, "Oh good, we can see what might try to murder us." That's good. Cassie looks herself over for leeches now. Yeah. I love that this is gonna be the quest that just breaks Cassie. The first one. The blood quest is all it took. Yeah, no leeches, nothing like that. Oh good, okay. And then I will go back to the policeman's carry of my hand crossbow in one hand and the torch in the other.

You guys are gonna walk for another hour. Whoa. We in the deep? Oh, you're deep. And I would like all of you to roll perception for me, please. Yeah, yeah. Watch out. Good golly. All those threes and fours. I got 18 though. Saving the good rolls for combat. Oh great, Draconis is the only one who knows what's going on. Yep. Oh boy. Maybe. So here's what's gonna happen. You guys are gonna be walking for a while. And then... Sonya's gonna feel something kind of slam onto her back. Now, I would imagine that Cava is, uh, is, is, it's Cava and Cassie who would be the closest.

To Sonya. Cassie's not going to notice this. Cava is just going to like out of, out of the corner of her eye, probably like looking around like, and then like, Cava's going to spot this very large insect on the back of Sonya. Right on her pack. Positioned so that its head is, is floating just above the back of Sonya's neck. And there are three like little, this, this pongy like tail kind of like, like, almost like antennae in the back. Just sort of like fluttering. And it is, it is sort of raised in, in such a way that it looks like it's about to either sting or something.

And it's little, it's, it's antennae in the front are sort of like grazing the back of like Sonya's tail. Okay, Sonya, kick. Boom. Hold on a second. Oh, fuck. Get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off. Cava. Yeah. You have a, you have a split second here before this, this insect acts. What would Cava like to try and do here? Immediately kick it off of Sonya. Oh no. Honestly. Okay. I'm just, I'm just going with what she would do. That would be her immediate reaction. Oh God. So here's, I'd like you to try, okay. Do me a favor and roll an athletics check.

Now for that, okay. Part of me wants to, are you rooting for the, part of me wants to see her fail and then it's like I just kick her in the abdomen. So here's, here's what we're shooting for here, right? So with your man, with your athletics, if you get a 16 or higher, you're going to, you're going to kick this, this, this insect off of Sonya here. So that's all you got to get 16 or higher. That's pretty high. Yeah. Good luck. Yeah. That is a 90/20. Ladies and gentlemen. Head clean off. Yeah. Throw that thing across the room, dude. Yeah, it's gone. It's it's yeah.

So this thing is it's going to make this sound like, just like it's, it's almost like, like something grinding or something like that. And then you're going to kick it and it you're going to, it is going to pass out of sight because it is, it is too dark to see where it went. You're going to hear it hit the wall and do that thing the insects do where it lands on its back and then does like rigorous sit ups to try and roll itself over. And then you're just going to hear it like. Okay. And honestly, at this point, Kaga will pull Sonya up and close to her.

I feel like Sonya would be doing that thing where she flails like, Oh God, get off, get off, get off and just like swat at where it was because she felt something land on her and they went. So it's like, Oh God. Is it off? Is it off? Is it off? It's gone. Oh, thank God. Here, turn around. Let me take a look at you. Oh, is it going? I guess it kind of looks, I guess he looks her over for like other bugs or like any bites that it may have made. Yeah, nothing like that. Nothing. It didn't, it doesn't look like it got to do any real damage, but that could have been, that could have been really bad.

Okay. It looks like you're all right. I think Kava got it quickly enough. I'm going to make, I'm going to make a suggestion. Someone else hold this damn torch. I don't want any more of those things on me. Okay. I'll take it, but I'm going to have to throw it to the ground if we have to fight because I need my sword and my shield. Well, as long as I'm not holding it, she'll show it in your direction. Because, because that happened to Sonya, can Doran kind of do a similar thing that Kava is doing, but to Cassie so that kind of the two fleshy humans are at least fairly protected.

Right. That's kind of what I was going for too. It's like, Hey, come, come under my wing child. Don't think anything of it. It's out of necessity. So Cassie like puts her sword away and takes the torch. And instead of like holding her shield forward, she's actually like holding her shield over her head like a hat. Oh, I wish I had a shield. But you got little rock golems that glow. Hey, it helped us. Don't mock me. Yes, I'm not mocking. It was, it was, it was a good thing. Onward. Let's keep going. I don't want to spend any more time in here than we have to. You guys are going to continue for another 15 minutes.

Everyone do me a favor. Roll a perception check. Oh my God. Man, I cannot. Poor Cassie. God. Cold streak. Cold streak. She does her best to make up for it with enthusiasm, but. Cassie is just soaking wet, pissed off and doesn't know what's going on. Yeah, she's out of her element. She's, she's, she's being put to the test. Kava's just Katy Perry-ing it right now. Hot and cold. Sonia and Doran. Again, you guys are going to walk for another 15 minutes and there's going to be a couple of like sharper dips where like you, you're almost going to have to step down and.

You are definitely getting deeper into this cavern. And eventually you're going to reach a large black double door that seems to be almost carved into the stone. It is definitely not from stone here. Like this is definitely, it sticks out like a sore thumb. It almost absorbs the light. Like the closer you get to it, it's, it's kind of tough to see details of it. There are no handles, but there is a keyhole. We haven't received any keys, right? Nope. Can we go touch the door? You sure can. Do I need to roll anything or do I have Jakotus just walk over and put his hand on the door and feel it?

Feel it out. You can just, just feel it. Yeah. I'm going to walk over there and just start brushing my hand across the door. See if there's anything weird on it. Weird about it. Weird about it. I hope we're able to like three ninjas this and that we find out that Draconis has like accidentally gnawed a key out of the bottom. That'd be great. So Draconis is going to take his hand and sort of run it over the door and there, there, there's sort of etched bits, like there's runes etched into the door themselves, into the door itself. And this thing is so well constructed that you couldn't really slip a piece of paper in between them.

Like it, it meets the, it meets the, the, the, the rock wall. Like it's, it's completely level with it and flat and it is, it is just gorgeous, polished, smooth stone. Can I now like put my ear up to the door? See if I can hear anything on the other side, I guess. Do me a favor, roll a perception check. Uh, oh well, I'm not going to hear shit now. Here we go. Uh, 13. That's not terrible. Yeah, that's not bad. You're not going to pick up a lot of like noise or anything like that, but they're, it feels like these doors are pretty thick. So that might be, uh, that might be blocking out sound or, or, or something like that.

But it, these are definitely meant to keep people out. All right. So I'm just going to look back at the party and just, so what do you guys want to do? Cassie kind of searches the floor near the door, holding the torch lower so she can see and just kind of, kind of gives whatever room they're in a quick walkthrough and looks for things on the floor. Aside from the odd like bugs, something like that, and I'm talking like actual, like, like smaller insects and stuff. They're, they're going to skitter away and like centipedes, things like that. You're not going to, you're going to find a key sitting by this door or anything, or even instructions.

Again, beyond the etchings that are on the door itself, like there's, there's, there doesn't, it just doesn't seem to fit here. It doesn't seem like it's, it's, it's definitely not natural. When Cassie starts looking around, Sonya is just going to walk straight up to the door and put a hand on it and she's going to do an arcana check. Okay. Ooh, there's some heavy mojo. I was hoping you'd say that because I get plus four to my thievery to open locked doors when I arcana based. Oh, these are, these are definitely magically protected. The runes that are carved into the doors themselves, that's meant to keep out people who don't have a key.

Can I try to get it open? You sure can. I'll add the plus four and then it's thievery. What? Yes, that is nice. So you guys are all looking around and I just walk up to the door and do something. Open the sesame. So, Sonya is going to fiddle with this door a bit and the group collectively is going to hear this, this, this really like large clicking sound. Almost as if several tumblers are falling into place. And you're going to watch this electricity sort of like dissipate from the door just like, like something powering down. And then the door is going to split open in the middle and start to open.

And these are inches thick. These are big heavy doors. And it looks like if you were to try to just lockpick them or hammer at them or something, you would have gotten a nasty shock. You did it. How'd you do it? It's kind of my special, special, special, I can't say it, specialty. OK. It's kind of my specialty. It's what I was known for back in Brightport. So, yeah, you know, and she can shrug and then look into the room like she doesn't. This is like her everyday life. So just just kind of based off of everything that's happened, Doran's just going to have like a weapon out.

Just just in case. That is just, that is distrusting. All right, you guys, are you heading in? I'm going to look in first. Can I, OK, Jonas, how far can we see in there? Like how far in can we see? Like what do we see when we look in there? Well, going in, it's right beyond the door. It sort of opens up back into it's it's clearly the cavern, but it's it's it's it's very decorated. This was clearly a space set aside for the temple itself, because just beyond that, there is the the seal of Vecna. And we've never we've never published them, but essentially picture picture a circle with with like teeth like that.

This is it is it is meant to look like an open mall. That is that is what the the seal of Vecna looks like. And this is clearly that that's that seal. And you are in the right place. Every sign points to it. So there would be there would be unlit torches on the wall. There would be decorations there would. Yeah, you guys are. All right. Well, I guess Draconis is going to look in there and just kind of look the party and just let's do this and just kind of start walking, walking, walking in. Everybody stay close. Let's go. Even though it's not big, should we try to do a dunge nearing check just to make sure there's no traps?

I mean, it is it is a door that's magically sealed. I can't imagine that the door is the only thing. Yeah, true. I'm going to do it. OK, so Sonya is going to be OK. There you go. So Sonya is going to be your your from this point on, I would imagine after the door, it's like, oh, you're taking the lead. You're not going to be looking. Well, stop doing well. Here's a torch. Go get him, slugger. So walking through this door, you are going to have oh boy, you're going to have Sonya up front. Checking for traps and stuff off the bat, there's nothing that jumps out, there's going to be these pillars sort of erected along the sides of the wall and they there there's these little columns that just sort of run the length of this hallway.

But the rest of it is very much set up like a cavern, whereas a lot of temples are completely furnished and they're they're very ornate looking. This one appears to be more like an unfinished basement type of thing. It's like, yeah, we slapped the pool table down there, but it's a dirt floor. Like it's it's very someone took time and effort. But this is not a place of worship. This is not what this temple is for. And Sonya is going to notice that in between a couple of these columns coming up, there are these little these little nodules that are not on the rest of these columns.

And they kind of jut out from either side. And upon further investigation, she is going to notice that this is very much some sort of trap. Maybe something triggered when you walk by it, maybe. But but tracing it back, you're going to see that it's meant to go off the second anyone passes in between those two columns. Hold up, guys. Yeah, that that's a trap right there. I like that she speaks like a plumber's like, well, there's your problem. It's like right there. Like you're an idiot for not seeing it. I feel like watching Grease after this last time I walked through something like that, the entire dungeon filled with feces, it was ridiculous.

That'd be total over her job in this temple. So is it a situation when we look at these pillars, are these pillars something we walk around instead of between or is it? Well, she's going to trace it back and there's it's not a pressure plate, it's it's you can you can either limbo or crawl underneath of this and be OK. Or she can attempt to or anybody with a thievery check can attempt to disable the trap. Once you see where how it operates, you can you can try and disable it. You just got to be careful not to set it off. I guess I'll just walk up and try to disable it.

Oh, I'm so not used to having a not wise character. So do me a favor. Thievery check. Not like 17. Look at the total. Is it is it an arcane one? Does she get the arcane bonus? Yeah. Plus four. You do. OK, thank you. Which is a good thing. Good, good going. Good going, Rob. I'm just going to ask that every time she is an arcane thing, every time she rolls. Is it an arcane thing? So Sonya is going to again fiddle with this and to go, hold up, hold up and sort of fiddle with this. And those two nodules, there's going to be this this this spark of like this, this inky black, almost like a lightning.

But but instead of it being a bright light, it's just sort of like like squid ink, just. And then it's going to dissipate and just you are you are free to pass through. I have a very important question. How high above the ground is it? Oh, it's it's about like forehead high for OK. I was thinking if I had to have someone like lift me up to disable. Like, yeah, this would be like little stretchy toes. Like you'd have to be like just just like kind of. Yeah. Yeah. OK. But not like top shelf cereal where someone would have to just get it for you. Then we could just walk underneath it.

Well, you could just walk underneath it. The Dragonborn would have a bit of an issue. Cassie comes up to Sonya and says, you're really good at this. Like I said, that's kind of what I'm known for back in Brightport. I've broken into places and I mean, I didn't you tell anybody I did. I didn't. But it's kind of what I did. See, secret safe continuing along. Everyone do me a favor. Roll a perception check. Try to put some spin on this one. See if I can get the dye to turn over more. I got a crit. I got a crit. Wow. Four. Nice. What deity did you piss off? I think what happened is I just I got I got cave water in my eyes and oh, that's what it is.

I'm just I'm developing like premature cataracts. Oh, man. OK. Wow. Everyone except for Doran and Cassie. Looking around, this is going to be one of those things where you're you're looking around and it's it's again decorated and everything like that, but still very much still very much a cavern. Like there's flooring sort of put down, but the rest of these walls just like lumpy and uneven and still like there's water trickling in from places. And it's sort of got a very, very like a cool atmosphere. And that's mainly because you are very much underground.

Some of these some of the ceiling height varies. Sometimes it'll dip kind of low and people like like Doran and Draconis would sort of have to like just not quite duck, but they could feel where it's like the ceiling is like right there. And sometimes they'll just sort of vault and be really high up and up in the air. And you're going to come to a come to a spot where it's this large open area and it's sort of a transitional like transitional place that the next little archway is up ahead. But you're going to notice that there there are sort of holes near the ceiling, like, you know, in the ceiling itself or on the walls next to the ceiling.

And it looks like kind of like almost like Swiss cheese, this particular area. Now, would you tell everybody about that and the rest of the group or is it just sort of like, ah, that's a thing? I don't think Draconis would say anything. So, OK, Sonya would tell them. Sonya would be like, there's holes everywhere. Like, they're all over. Like arrow trap holes or what kind? These are much larger than that. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Sonya would know it's like, no, no, no, not like trap holes. This is much more random and inconsistent. This isn't these are like. They're they're they're just a little too small for Sonya to be able to slip through like comfortably, like she could squeeze through some of these.

But they're that big. So burrowing, skittering critter big. Yeah. Kava, I'm going to get real close to you. I'm sorry. And then she really is going to get like uncomfortably close to you. Oh, gosh. I think Kava would sort of make one of those grimaces with her face, but she's not going to. She's not going to do anything. She's not going to push her away. She understands. So like one of those grimaces where it looks like she's smelling something really horrible. Oh, man. So, OK, this next step, there's like a little archway that leads to the next. There's only one way out of this area.

And yeah, it's it's another little pathway here kind of going in. And it starts to it starts to like it's like a two by two type of width to it. Well, are we in or are we out, guys? We're in. Draconis, can you hold the torch? You want me to hold the torch so that I can hold my sword and shield and then I can go in front? I'll hold the torch. Thank you, Doran. Gives Doran the torch, pulls her sword and shield, starts creeping forward ever so slowly. Head on a swivel, shield up, you know, sword up. Gotcha. All right. Crossing the threshold. Do me a favor. Roll a perception check.

Just Cassie. This is my time to shine. Oh, well, I'm feeling the grit. This is the grit. This is a 14. Double digits, man. Yeah. Yes. I haven't seen those since before you were born. Man. OK, so as Cassie crosses the threshold, like under this archway here and starts down this path. A pressure plate is going to be pushed down. Oh, my god, I rolled a dungeoneering. Oh, that was for the open air. That was in the open air. Yeah, that was for the Swiss cheese. I should be in front. God damn it. And jutting out about ankle high is a large stone block that is going to swing out towards Cassie's leg.

Now, Cassie is going to hear that just like I'm talking just a split second before it happens. And it is going to just miss Cassie's like the ankle area. So after after she like pivots out of the way of this and plants her feet, she's like eyes wide open, like body rigid. And she looks back and goes, Sonia, can you do what you do to make this not happen? I want to I want to jump in real quick. Just I want to say Jesus Christ, can we not let the kid lead? Jesus. Oh, man. Well, she's going to grab you like is your shield above your head like you're doing earlier?

No, no, no. Now she's now she's she's frozen. She's got like basically like her arms are in like just like a 90 degree flex and she's got like sort out shield out and she's just like standing rigid because she doesn't want to step on anything else. Well, she's going to grab you by the wrist and be like, put your shield, put your shield above your head. Okay. And I'll stay up front. Just and I'm going to stay near you then. Okay, done. Done. Because I don't want anything dropping on me again. And do I have to disable this trap or is it like activated and done now?

Oh, no, it's activated and done. It's very clearly like it's like and step over that don't trip. That's basically the biggest thing. Yeah. Okay, I was wondering if it like retracted. Okay. Can you like take a fresh scan though? Just just to get a second over? Yes, I can. So Sonya is going to look ahead here and just sort of like watch out for that. That's a thing. Those two right there. They're just kind of like, yeah. And meanwhile, like, Cassie's, you know how when you like follow someone in the snow and you don't want to get snow in your shoes so you step exactly in their footprints?

That is what is happening. Should be like, oh yeah, there's one over there. Oh, and above us. Yeah, that's one. Oh, oh yeah. And then to the right, if you look right here, you can see one here. Okay, stop that and just tell me what to do. Oh boy, that would be painful. Oh boy, this one would, you know, just mess you up. Not gonna sleep well tonight. It's my dears, I've seen that one before. That's like old school. Do I have to disable any of these or can we just avoid them? Oh no, you can just avoid them. Once you see where they are, it's pretty like, it's not like a, like a, like a leap or anything to get over.

It's like, and I step it here and like, I mean, you'd have to be a real oaf to, to trigger any of these after they've been pointed out to you. Okay. We do have one party member who could potentially do that. Especially if he's at the back, like he might not know exactly where I stepped. I would like to think that the party is just like, hey, doing the thing where you hold two fingers up, look, look, look here, look like in that. Would Draconis heat us? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm awake and alert at the moment still, so I'm good right now. I just want to put it out there on the record, priests of Vecna clearly super jerks, real jerks with the traps.

Well, at least we know there's something good at the end of this. No one puts up this many traps for, you know, crap and every new room. Can you like, let me know and I'll do engineering. Of course I can. I'm going to say that now. I want to do that every time. Good to know. See, it's all about communication. Oh God. Jamie. Jamie, say what you just typed out loud. I said, or I typed out loud, honestly, and I may be tempting fate by saying this, but I'm surprised we haven't run into anything undead being that Vecna is like the God of Necromancy. Everyone roll a perception check.

You guys are going to continue down this long stretch. Are we? Did we say so? Because maybe not. Okay, hold on. Hold on. I don't think we agreed on this. I don't want to put words in your mouth. No, no, no, we're going. I assumed. I am still giving Sonya shield umbrella as we walk. So at the end of this pathway, you're going to come to a smaller version of the door that initially led you into this temple. Again, it is sleek black, very polished, but it's the runes carved into it. Like before, there's still a keyhole. And it's just the the symbol for Vecna sort of chiseled into the door itself.

And it's sort of split between the two portions of the door here. So it's just double doors but thinner. Well, okay. Only because I don't want to fuck this up. That's why I'm asking, will I get a bonus since I opened one of these doors before? Okay, so on top of my plus four. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Should I try and open it? Well, here's the thing. Are you running an Arcana check this time or are you just you just gonna Oh, well, thanks. You're right. I should do Arcana check first. Hey, I'm here for you. No, he's not. Don't believe his lies. Draconis, look at this. 18.

No, 18 is a good roll, right? It's not bad. Well, Draconis, come up here and take a look too. I guess I can give it a roll. Mine's not that high, but. Oopsie, yep, I didn't. What materials are these doors made out of, Jason? This is stone. This is just solid stone. Sonya, here's the weird thing. Sonya's not picking anything up from the door itself. But there is something very powerful on the other side of this door. Turn around. Maybe it's just the bell, guys. That's probably true. What it is. Is she telling us this or is she just. Yeah. Like I put my hand up. I like I go to touch the door and then remember that the last one had that shocking thing.

So I go just like hover my hand above the door and then I feel that and then I will pull my hand away. And I look back to you guys and like, oh, guys, there's there's something on the other side of the store. And I was just going to look at her like, well, you can pick this one, too, right? I could try. Go for it. OK. This plus four. Twenty four. This door again is going to go through the the clicking motion. You're going to hear that click, click, click, click, click again as if several, several tumblers are lining up. And it is going to start to open. Everyone do me a favor.

Roll a perception check. I say weapon out defensive stance. Oh, my God. Come on. Oh, my bad. I rolled two. How did you do that? I don't do double digit perception checks. Apparently, I feel so bad. Like I figured, OK, here's your chance to break away from that. Malchus stereotype of Malchus isn't a perception like nothing like I don't play high wisdom characters. It's just the reality of it at a certain point. Some really cold dice, but also the reality of it. Oh, no. Hey, stop that. Beyond this door is going to be a single room. In this room at the center is going to be a pedestal.

Sonia, Draconis and Doran are going to see a small handheld bell. Picture picture something in the shape of like like the Liberty Bell type of thing. But this is something you can hold in both hands. It looks heavy and maybe made of brass, something like that. And it is sitting alone. Seemingly unguarded. On the only piece of furniture in this entire room, Draconis is going to nudge and be like, guys, you see what I'm saying? Yeah, no, that's the Dungeoneering right away. And almost a crayon. Just saying. Sonia is immediately going to be suspicious of the situation.

And it's just like looking around like that, like checking the archway of the door and like checking the other side. It's like, OK, so the floor drops away, right? And it's just like looking at that. And look, it's like, OK, so like flames shoot out of like cracks in the ceiling or something and nothing. Not going to see any traps that would stand out to her at all. Guys, I don't feel good about it, but I don't see any traps. Throw the bone in. I want to I want to like look back and be like, I think we passed everything, guys. There's there shouldn't be any I doubt there's anything else in here.

Throw the bone in. No, we can use the bone to place where the bell is. That way, there's like some weight system. It'll be fine. Is anybody mentioning any of this? Like, how loud? It's not that clever. You know what? Roll an intelligence check to see if Kava would be that clever. All right. For check. Oh, my God. Wow. Never mind. She is the most clever person who has ever existed. I didn't give credit. I say, remember, you needed a crit. That was a good one to get. OK, as you were saying, how do I initiate this, though? Would it just be a common sense thing to come up like, I can't believe you don't see this?

Probably because she likes to make everyone else feel like the dumbest person in the room. She might know she wouldn't grab it out of his hands, but she might even say. Save the bone. We can exchange it for the bell automatically, automatically thinking that they're going to know what she's getting at. You know what I mean? Everyone do me a favor. Roll an intelligence check to see if you know what she's getting at. Now, how did I don't see the intelligence. It's on the main page. Thank you. Doran, Sonia, they would flop. I got a 10. So obviously I'm clueless.

Draconis and Cassie might have a slightly harder time, like following your line of logic, because maybe it wasn't outlined. OK, I want to look at it and be like, are you talking about my bone? Like, I don't know exactly what she's even trying to get at. She's going to sort of like eye roll and audibly grunt like, of course. And she's going to grab it from Draconis. Son of a bitch, you guys trying to grab my bone? All the innuendos. What does she got to roll? I don't know. Give me an athletics check. Athletics. Yeah, that's my shit. What? 20? I'd say that'd be just enough to grab that bone.

Son of a... OK, so she'll grab the bone. Draconis, Draconis, once we get the bell back, you'll have enough money to buy as many bones as you want. Like, no, no, horseshit. Look, I gave it to you. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not grabbing any of her bones, John. Draconis, I promise this will be OK. Let Cava do what Cava's doing. Yeah, and you also promised it would be a great idea to shoot fire into the ceiling. You saw where that got us. But you cannot judge everything I say on that basis. Is this what it's going to be for the rest of the time we work together?

Yes. Cava, look, my bone, my rules. She already has it. She's going to completely ignore whatever's happening between Cassie and Draconis and cautiously walk towards where the bell is. Sonya's right there with her. She's going to check to make sure that that pedestal isn't trapped. I guess Draconis is going to start following her over. Does anybody... I don't know if anybody wants to do anything about that. I am so ready to Indiana Jones this shit. So Cassie will step over the threshold into the room, but then she'll be like, "Guys, what if when we take the bell, this like snaps shut or something and traps us in here?

Is there anyone who can like brace these doors open?" We can use the bone. Let your coat just go away. How big are these doors again? They're big enough for you to walk by like two by two, like to walk through. Do they open inward into the room? They open outward. Outward out of the room. Okay. Cassie is going to... and it's a double door? Yep. Okay. So Cassie's going to stand by one of the door panels and like put, like basically brace her weight against it in case they start moving when the bell moves. Mmm. Smart. Tava will sort of yell back, "We'll focus on getting the bell.

You focus on getting us out." I think Doran will probably go help Cassie with the bracing of the weight. Okay. Yeah, you take one door, I'll take the other. Alright. Or at the very least both of us on one door. Yeah. Could be, yeah. Sure. So Cava's going to approach this pedestal. Should I check it first? That's up to you. Check it. Yes. Oh no, no, no! Oh no! Don't sound so enthused, Jason. And then Jason pulled off his gentle mask and cackled it. Mwahahaha! As he strokes a white cat. Ah, you finally failed. Come on guys, it's just so perfect. Like the entire time, up till now.

Ah, no. It's fine, it's fine. I'm wise. We better be able to roll some checks to get the hell out of there as soon as humanly possible. Okay. Cava. Yes. Do me a favor and roll a perception. Oh thank god, I thought it was going to be something totally worse. Hey! That's not horrible. An 11 is better than halfway. Yeah, halfway to what? It's better than 50%. You see just about as good as that carriage Malchus has. Right, exactly. So there's an inscription at the base of this pedestal where the bell is sitting. Cava eyeballing this thing. Can't really get a really distinct weight, but it definitely looks like it's got a little bit of heft to it.

Very well constructed, it's got the symbol of Echnil on it. And then lots of little etchings all over this thing. And there's this tiny little hammer that's chained to the base of the bell itself. And it's sort of sitting in this little holder. Picture someone who's displaying a sword or something like that on a mantle. And they have it kind of sitting in this holder. Now, the etching itself, the little inscription. All it says is, "You'll hear my ring when your eyes can no longer see. Though not all of you should make the journey back." Don't ring it. Keep this shit away from Draconis, that's all I am saying.

Let's see what this bell can do, guys. Who's reading this? It would be Cava. Which means it would have to be in Common? It's in Common. It's in Common? Okay. Okay. Is she gonna say this, tell us? No. Well, there you go. No, she wouldn't. What would Cava like to do? Oh, God. Okay. Cava is gonna look towards Sonya, who is with her, with every bit of confidence that Sonya knows what she's doing and that this thing is definitely not trapped. Because she's been such a rock star through this whole cave so far. Oh my God. Oh my God. Cava is going to take the bone and slowly push the bell off with the bone, but like putting the bone where the bell was.

You know what I mean? And with her left hand, she's going to slowly, just as the bell is getting pushed off, she's going to lift it off of the pedestal. Without shaking it too much, right? Without shaking it. And you know what, as soon as the bone is fully down and the weight is down on the pedestal, she's going to grab the little ding-a-lingy thing to make sure that this shit doesn't ring. Okay. Do me a favor, roll a thievery check. No, that's what I didn't want you to make me roll, Jason. 20, 20. I don't even want to tell you what my modifier is for this.

I believe. I believe. Heart of the cards, Jamie. Heart of the cards. I'm going to have all of our energy. Okay. But let me just really think. Are you sure it wouldn't be like an athletics check because she's like moving? I'm pretty sure. I knew it. It's fine. I'm so sorry, everyone. Hey, you have a minus one? Oh my God. What? I've never seen that before. It's an armor check penalty. And the X? Oh no. Kava is going to gingerly as she can, swap out the bell for the bone and then reach underneath of the bell and make sure that it doesn't chime on its own. And she was right.

This thing is, this thing is easily a good like 15 pounds. This is, this has got some heft to it. And then from across the room, you're going to hear a rumble. The doors are going to start to close. And within the room itself, several chimes are going to let out. Oh, there we go. It's almost, it's almost deafening. Like these are big, loud bells. And they seem to be coming pretty much like where you were walking past. They're sort of like lining the room. The room itself is completely bare beyond the pedestal that Kava just took the bell from and the doors are going to get ready and slowly start to close in.

What would you like to do? Fucking book it. Yeah, start running. How far? What's the distance between this pedestal and the door? Oh, you're a good like, like 45, 50 feet away. Like it's not crazy though. Like if you started sprinting, like, yeah. Sprint, let's go. Now, are you guys going to try and hold these doors open? Sure. Well, yeah, until our friends get out, yeah. Right, obviously. Okay. Now again, these are big, heavy stone doors. So this is going to take, this is going to take some effort. I would like you both to roll an athletics check. Thank you. Can I just establish how astoundingly screwed we are if we have to run out of here to sprint?

Because we didn't disable half the traps in here. We stepped over them. It sure did. It's fine. 19 on the face. That's good. So tell me, I don't know. Second chance. I don't know if it's adrenaline. I don't know what's up, but, but Cassie is going to dig in and just like push against this door. And her door is going to start to close ever so much like slower than Doran's. Doran's is going to keep at its original pace as Doran gets pushed back into, into the room slowly. Can I, can I move over to Cassie's door and help her? Cassie doesn't need help, but sure.

Well, you know, twice the strength might help slow it down even more. Right, right. Doran, low center of gravity. Come on. Lift with your legs. Everyone else. What's everyone else's general, like just book it? Like, like cheese it, get out of there? Yeah. Alright. As for Draconis. Super dead if he doesn't run. Okay. So like. As they go to take off, Draconis takes half a second and is still staring at the bone. Oh my God. And, Lundous Ford grabbing the bone before he takes off chasing after him. Alright. I want, I want Sonia, Cabba, and Draconis to roll an athletics check to see how quickly they cross this, cross this room.

Draconis, I want you to take a negative one to your roll. Okay. Okay. Oh, that's good. You're doing great. I rolled an eight. Oh, thank God. Okay. They got a 22, 23. I got an eight. They're cheesing it. They're done. They're gone. So they are going to dig in and just like, Fuck it. And just run. So Cabba's got this bell. Sonia's going to streak across. Draconis is going to lag behind a little bit. So when you get to the door, are you just, are you just running out? Like, is it, is it a thing where you guys are just like, you're just sprinting out and it's, it's Doran.

So it's Doran and Cassie still holding the door. Do me a favor guys. Give me, give me an endurance check to see if you can keep this up. Because you slowed the door enough so that Draconis could get to it and get out. Oh, ouch. Oh shit. You guys are going to start to give here. Like this is, this is not good. Draconis. Yeah. Here's what's going to happen. Okay. They've reached a point where they're going to have to make a decision. Either they, they, they stay just for a little bit longer to see if they can buy you some time if this next role goes poorly or they may have to leave you.

Cause they could get sealed in here forever. Okay. Draconis. Uh huh. Do me a favor. Yep. Roll an athletics check. Sure. And if it's 13 or above, you are going to make it to the door in time. Okay. I'm going to go do that right now. Here we go. And as I'm dropping the die. Come on. There it is. I'm not looking. Oh, 13 or more. I roll a 12. One shot. One, one, one die. One roll shy. Oh, fuck. So Cassie Doran, you're seeing that you, here's the sequence of events. You're watching your friends cross, cross the threshold here. The one door has closed, which means that you are the only ones keeping this door open at this point.

Now you might be able to dig in and keep this door open just long enough for Draconis. Or you might get in a situation where you either get trapped or one of you gets crushed within the door trying to get through it. But you have to make a decision right now. Do you leave Draconis or do you stay and try to hold this door just a little longer? Hey guys. Is Cassie there? Because maybe she runs into the door. Well, I asked, that's why I asked whether you guys run through the door, stop the help. You ran through the door. Yeah. This would all be happening within the course of like a few seconds.

Is it athletics or endurance if I say yes? I would say that seeing that you're sort of losing the battle, this would be a dig deep moment and just sort of try to push back. So I'm going to say athletics. I'll try it. If, if. I'll try it. All right. Yes! Oh! Ah! Good thing that little girl was there. It's okay. Thank God. Rob, you are contractually obligated to say the words. Oh, it's almost a crit. There we go. Guys, you are going to hold this door open just long enough for Draconis to get through and the three of you will be able to squeeze through just in time for the door not to close on Draconis' tail.

It is, we're talking just squeaking by and the door is going to slam shut behind you and seal tightly. The chimes still going off behind you and after a few moments they're going to stop. Draconis is going to look up at Doran and say, "Holy shit, that was close." I think Doran is just going to stare at him. Just angrily stare at him. Do me a favor. Roll a perception check. Oh God. Come on, the door is closed. We're good. I don't like the way he said that. I don't either. Could have easily said, "Hey guys, roll a perception check." But, uh, here's my- Why am I now getting 14s?

I was unable to warm up the dice with my athleticism. Unable. 6. Papa and Cassie are peas of a pod, man, when it comes to these perception checks. Like, "Nope. Nope." You guys are strong- here's the thing, you guys are strong in other areas. Like, you're fine. I was mocking for the perception rolls earlier. You both have nailed it when it needed to be nailed. I hate the fact that these +2 checks are the ones I'm rolling well at, but of course the one thing I'm good at athletics is where I'm just failing. Like, if I want to throw Draconis into a lake, then I can do that, but as far as trying to save people's lives with my strength, nope.

Oh my God. Um... Sonya's gonna hear something. After the chimes stop, and the ringing is just sort of... You ever hear a car alarm go off in the middle of the night, and it's going on so long that you still hear it go on even after it stopped for a second? Because your brain is anticipating the beat of it? So the chimes stop and it's like, "Okay, wow. Holy shit." And you're kind of collecting yourselves and realizing, "We almost died." Remember the big open room you guys just came through? Oh, the one with the Swiss cheese! Yeah. Yeah. All those holes. Yeah.

Yeah. Sonya's gonna hear something. On the outside. From that room... It's gonna sound like... Crawling. And it's echoey and sort of bouncing all around the room. It is definitely coming from that large room that you just exited. And it sounds like it's aerial. It sounds like it's maybe coming from those holes. And guys, I think that's a pretty good time for us to wrap things up for the night. Yeah. I knew it. I wish I got locked in that room. Turns out that's the safe room. Yeah, that's the only room that's safe. You guys did really, really well. Congratulations.

I am glad my dice decided to work when I finally held the door. I was about to say it. Dude, that was amazing. Heroic resistance. That was really cool. Pretty clutch. Yes. Hey everybody, this is Jamie. I hope you really enjoyed that episode. I know that we are having a bunch of fun. If you like the show and you like this episode, please check us out on our website. It's DANDRPodcast.com or you can support us on Patreon, which is Patreon.com/DANDR. Facebook is always a great way too if you want to like and share so that you can get all of your friends listening to the podcast.

That way you'll have somebody to talk about all of the cool stuff that's going on. And hopefully you like it. Thanks guys. Bye. guys bye!