Probability of Demise

Welcome adventurers to Probability of Demise, the podcast where critical fumbles meet critical facepalms. Join us as we delve into the darkest dungeons, slay the stupidest gremlins, and roll enough ones to make a beholder weep. Forget epic storylines and heroic deeds. Here we celebrate the chaotic beauty of bad roles, questionable decisions, and characters with more charisma than sense.

We'll be your dungeon masters of disappointment, guiding you through campaigns where the only guaranteed treasure is a mountain of laughter, and maybe some psychic scarring. So grab your nat 1 dice, strap on your anxiety helmets, and prepare to witness the glorious trainwreck that is our D&D journey.

Because, in the end, it's Even if your character dies face first into a pile of pudding, at least you'll have the Dice God's permission to laugh your ass off.

Welcome back to Probability of Demise, the podcast that you fell in love with because we fell in love with you first. We hope you find your pod and do all the other cool things. Make sure you like, subscribe, hit the icons, do the tingle tangle dance and pay for a shirt for us. Cause that would be chill as the F word with that.

Check us out. Probabilityofdemise.com. Fibulation? What? Fibulation? You said F word. Fibulation. Fibulation. I don't even know if fibulation is a word. Not after a good look.

That's me! Okay. Well, hello, intrepid adventurers, and welcome once again to Word of the Day. Today, we embark on yet another wonderful quest through the magical realm of vocabulary. Once again, guided by our magical D100, brought to you by Jason. Yay! Da da da da! You know, or if you don't, welcome. Each episode we reveal a word to enrich our adventure and spark us into imagination.

Uh, so gather round, sharpen your minds, you know, prepare your ears, all the things, uh, for our most recent magical term. And today's term is What number? Oh, the number! Uh, 14. What's the number? La la la la la. Uh, the word is Meliorism. Meliorism. Uh, which refers to the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid in its betterment.

And used in a sentence. Despite the dangers ahead, the paladin's belief in Meliorism kept the party's spirits high as he was convinced their actions could make the world a better place. And it's spelled M E L I O R I S M. Meliorism. Meliorism. Thank you for the word of the day. So, let's jump into this session.

In a world where danger lurks around every corner, this brave band of investigators has dared to venture into the depths of a forsaken temple. They're uncovering unsettling secrets and bizarre occurrences that will test their very souls. They've faced challenges unlike any other, from negotiating with a sentient door to outwitting the watchful eyes of the cult's followers.

But their bravery and cunning knows no bounds. With quick thinking and daring disguises, they've infiltrated the inner sanctum, uncovering a room filled with ancient tomes and mysterious potions. But their curiosity could soon be their undoing. A single misstep, a spell cast with reckless abandon, and the enemy has become alerted to their presence.

Footsteps have echoed, grunts have resounded, and our heroes find themselves surrounded? Cornered? In a room with a door closed? Their backs against the bookshelves. Now their fate hangs in the balance. Will they emerge victorious from this middling boss battle, or will this be their probable demise? The epic conclusion Awaits, but only for the bravest of souls.

Join our intrepid investigators on their thrilling quest where danger lurks around every corner and the fate of the city hangs by their meleorating tendencies. Don't miss the heart pounding action, the edge of your seat suspense, and the ultimate showdown. I had to throw my try at the word and I think I forgot which word it was by the time I actually threw it.

So. It was right. You are here. In the room, books, desk, a clock, but not a clock apparently, a safe hidden within that. Unlocked, but you are in danger. There are pounding footsteps. The way Ah, thank you. I would just also like to defend myself in this situation because Why are you defending yourself? All three of you needed to do fudge bars, and all three of you have.

I feel like we've finally achieved true dungeon ness. Fine.

Did you not know that Noct did like a very loud knocky knock sound? The excitement.

That's my favorite part about the excitement of these games. I think I'm going to play into somebody being a little bit silly here. I would like to say Oh, never mind. I guess it does. Audible from as far away as 300 feet. Never mind. Oh, yeah. It's a big boom. Big bada boom. Big bada boom. Seraphina, you threw shut the door.

And you hear,

Hello? I'm coming in. I, I'm coming, and then I'm gonna like, cause I'm still in my disguise, like, dressed like a cultist. I'm just gonna like, wave them to the corner and then open the door. I run and duck behind the, the, the, the, the, the, the desk. I'm going to like, crack the door open. You duck behind the desk.

There's the bookshelf that stands next to the door that you could tuck behind Ulua if you chose to, or you could, um, if she's hiding behind the desk, there's probably not really a room back there. Um, you could try to Yeah, I like how the smaller person took the bigger object to hide behind. Legit did. I don't think my curves are going to hide behind a bookcase, but okay.

I mean, you could come, you could come snuggle up to me. I mean, we could both fit. Okay. I love your optimism. I think you have disadvantage on stealth checks in that situation. You, Seraphina, have disadvantage on stealth checks. Can you be quiet with Oluwa that close? The spring sound that comes with your lady boner will give you away.

Bwaaaargh. So sweet! So, dodging into these locations, Gus, they seem to be Kind of tucked away right now. I'm gonna like, crack the door open and be like, Oh my gosh, what was that noise? I got so scared that I slammed the door. Shut myself in here to hide. A different figure than the one you saw before peeks through.

Your holding the door at a tight space keeps them from being able to truly see anything but the side of the bookshelf. They can only see the wood pl Like, I can't see beyond it at all whatsoever in this situation. Uh, what's going on? You tell me. I don't know. Are you going about the cleanup? Yes. Yes. Well, out of the way then.

I've got things for you. Okay. And I'm gonna let him in and then just close the door behind us. Okay.

Uh, you let him in and he's standing just, just within the threshold of the space.

I need Ulua and Seraphina both to roll stealth checks now if they are trying to stay vanished. Yeah. And Gus, I need you to roll a deception check. Deception! Deception! Disgrace! Ooh. Oh! I love when there's a sneaky one in front of that number. Eleven! Okay.

Nineteen. Twenty two. I thought it was a two, but then I picked it up and there was a one in front of that, too. Oh, that's always a nice feeling. I was like, ooh! Eyeing the room with the, uh, missing books having been tucked into your bag of holding, um, and Ulua or Seraphina. This individual who has like a pale green skin and kind of a large nose, but otherwise looks fairly human, says, Well, uh, I suppose you've been at it, uh, dilly dallying a bit.

Where, where are your boxes? I'm just gonna hold up my bag of holding. Oh, I put them in here. Oh, well, I have to keep going.

It's full, so I have to go get some boxes and come back, but, uh. Yes, yes, we'll hand it over. I can go ahead and get that put onto the, the crate pallet. Um, no, that's okay. I've got it. Uh, I, I was given specific instructions to By who? You know who. No, I would be the who. So who? Uh Lloyd. Lloyd. Say Lloyd. Lloyd.

Lloyd who? I thought it was a convincing name. Mayweather. I will have you roll another deception check. Your first one was not successful, which is why this barrage of questions has occurred. I played Mayweather because I didn't use his real name. No, I failed it. It's a nine. You are not! And they reach forward and they grab for you.

I would like to cast silence. And Seraphina, as they reach for him, you can see Gus's, um, mask of one face is dispelled. Ulua, you cast silence? Mm hmm. Centering on the room, not necessarily on them so that if people come into the room then it'll Like, I think there's, whatever the radius is. 20 feet? Yes. So, this is a concentration spell, so it means you lose concentration on the other one, but we think we already lost that, right?

Yeah, I dropped it. I would like to use my fey presence. And what does that do? Once per short rest, as an action, you can cause each creature in a 10 foot cube from you to make a wisdom saving throw of 15 or become charmed and frightened by you until the end of your turn. It's the same thing I did at the party to harm all those people.

Okay. Okay. Uh, they need a roll. 15. Actually, they don't need a roll. 15. They need a roll of 10.

You suck. Roll at two. You suck. Roll at two. Don't, don't jinx us. You jinx to me. We're great. I rolled a fricking two . Like that's not even fair. . All right. This days a go on TikTok. This part, he even turned it upside down thinking it might have been a five in disguise. No, it's a two. A five in disguise. Five in disguise.

A five in disguise. Three of us, roll 20s. Three of us, roll 20s. They are currently charmed. And they see your face revealed as they reach out and touch you already. Well, what are you doing here and why are you dressed in this way? Oh, you know. And as they try to say that, nothing comes out. Because they've been silenced.

Silenced. has, has everything in the room and their head whips around as they look. They catch sight of Ulua because he cast a spell. Um, I'm gonna, with mouth moving easily, probably mouth right of like, I'm not, um, I'm not, uh, I'm not talking. I'm just gonna

Okay, um, I'm going to, um, I'm going to kind of saunter over to behind Gus and like, um, And As you saunter, he's panicking, pointing at the person behind Gus. But I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, going like, shh, like it's like a secret, like, not that I'm sneaking up. But like, to, to, like, as, as I get behind Gus, I'm just going to, um, drop the silence.

And I'm gonna say, I'm so sorry, I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I, I just haven't seen him in so long, and I just Roll the deception check! Oh, jeez. Oh dear. It's your deception versus this one's insight. I'm gonna give her, I'm gonna try to give her advantage by saying, yes, um, you know, it would really help me out, friend.

If My, my charmed friend, if uh, you know, uh, if you could give us some time. Go ahead and roll it with advantage, Ulua. Okay. Deception. Woo! That's, thank you for the advantage because that was an 18 and a 2. Um. Although you did get the 2 curse. Uh, 24.

I still have the 2 curse. Um. Deception. This is highly irregular. I'm It is hardly the time for this type of shenanigans to be occurring, my friend. And, and with such a, uh, strange Disproportionate I suppose that's considered Not Appropriate, but What is wrong with you? It's a time of running, not a time of Of intercoursing.

Like I said, I haven't seen him in so long. He's been down here. And he's been so busy with all of this that I just really missed him. And I just was going to slip in and slip out and be gone. So I'm very sorry. His head just turns bright red. Slip in, slip out. I have to investigate the situation. So, uh, uh.

Yes, I promise that, that definitely wasn't us. We've been trying our best to, to, to not be a distraction to anybody else at least. As you say this, you are thrown back and Gus, you are taken with her to a time when Ulua, you were trying to get out of a very sticky situation and it was maybe the first time that you saw that true power.

of your lies because it was a pivotal moment in your life. Would you be willing to share any part of that? The first time you lied to such effect that it literally changed the course of your life. I mean, sure. I feel like she sort of has to if I'm also seeing it. Yeah, well, that's fine. Um,

Uh

Yes, and, yes, and, yes, and. I know. I try to tell myself that all the time during this. It's hard.

I guess maybe when when Ulua met her very first John. Um. That

Although he was kind to her. Um. and wasn't, you know, abusive in any way, but was, was very much not what you would consider traditionally attractive. Uh, the way that she was able to lie to him and to herself, uh, in order to make the situation, uh, better for both of them. I guess like it, you know, it could have been, she could have easily fumbled it by letting that affect her ability to do her job.

Is that feasible? As the two of you snap out of that, the door is closed. Seraphina, you were the only one who was present in the room. In that moment, to hear this individual say, Well, we're on high alert now. Clearing out the halls. It's all over. We're heading out.

Does he leave the door open or does he shut it on his way out? It is closed. So when I hear the door close, I'm gonna like, just peek my head up. And then go for the safe.

Your two colleagues, a little dazed, standing there staring at the closed door, trying to figure out what just happened. And you head to the safe and you can see that there's a little fissure as it is open. A what? A little fissure. A little slight crack. Crack. I'll have to put that as my word of the day because I don't know what that means.

So it just means like there's like a small I can just see into it. You can, you can't even see into it. You can just tell that it is now openable. I would like to Check for more traps. And open it. Roll your check.

You open it and that god damn book is in there.

The one from the party.

Traps is that. Okay.

Plus seven.

Dirty twenty. There do not appear to be any encumbrances or other things keeping the door from being opened further at this time. Ah, fling it open quietly. Fling! Catching it. You know, I like fling it and catch it. Moment of capture and release. Uh, and you see a glowing orb.

As I just sidle up next to her and look at her and go, ooh. This glowing orb doesn't look familiar, right? Um, roll a religion check. I'm so religious.

More religious than I think. Look at that.

Eight, wait, is that right, math? Eighteen. Apparently I'm religious. You're uncertain exactly what this is, but it does have, um,

In a lot of theoretical texts that you may have looked at that for your brothers or maybe when you're in the temple or a different temple or somewhere along your course of studies or one of your investigations while you're building a tinkering item that you didn't quite know what it was yet, but you're just tinkering, uh, you recall reviewing a text on what powered the gods and in one of the theoretical descriptions of it.

Was something that you visually go this, this seems to fit those things. Can I

I'm gonna reach to go take it and then I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna look at Ulua like, Hmm, please? You don't have to ask my permission, I just, I just ask that you, Think before you act, and now that feels hypocritical. But, um Well, I'm thinking that I need to ask you for permission before I touch this glowing orb.

Do I know orbs? Maybe let's have Gus also take a look at it. I don't know much. It might be good to have a, a I don't know. I mean, you can roll another religion check if you'd like to, Gus, since that's what you're saying, and Ulua, yeah, you're encouraging this. I mean, I would do, like, I guess I would look at it from a magic perspective, if possible.

Um, so, Ulua, I'll have you roll a Arcana check. Okay, I think it's gonna be good, but, I mean. Gus, with 15, nothing beyond what Seraphina knows. Um. But it's not like, like as a warlock, I would know like what, uh, was it like an arcane focus orb? It's not like that. It is not. It's deific in nature, not arcane in nature.

Okay. 14. Yeah, again, it's not arcane in nature, so you're able to absolutely rule out, uh, true magic. Well, I mean, I would just be prepared for something to happen when you pick it up. Or maybe use gloves. Yes, you pick it up.

Seraphina, roll Wisdom Saving Throw with disadvantage. There it is. Disadvantage. Are you going to join the memory game with your orb of glowingness? I don't know. I'm scared. Okay, let me pull up my thing. Wisdom Saving Throw. Okay. Come on, baby.

Mm, that good one was pretty good.

It's not great, I don't want to say it out loud.

Um, uh, twelve? Okay. Uh, everybody roll initiative, please. Ayo, there it is. We avoided it only to be brought right back. Alright, uh, Yeah. I just realized I never got dice for Ulua. I need dice for this character. I haven't bought dice in a while. I've been good. I have not. Beep! Beep! Beep! Maybe not. Maybe this is Ulua's dice.

Beep! Beep! Beep! It's a natural 20. Do you want to know what mine was? It's a 4, so 24. 11! Hehehehehehehehe. 14. Right? No, 13! Oh gosh, just hold it slow. Oh, my back. Oh, I'll turn around. I feel like that's the second time I got Like, I think the last session or the session before, didn't I get a natural 20 on initiative also?

Yes, when that ooze dropped. You're just a battle queen, ready to go at it. Battle bard.

Yeah, baby! Me! Seraphina. You are transported to a quiet cottage space interior and you're looking at a bunch of cards in front of you. Are

they face up? Face down? Are they in one stack? They're like sprawled out? They're spread out. They're actually in a shape. There's Three stacked on each other in the middle. One just above it. One to the side. One to the other side. And one below it. Almost like a compass.

Um, if I look around this room, are there any other noticeable standout features that like, don't seem to fit in this nice little cottage? Ulua. In front of you, at Gus, appears the faded image of a old woman dressed in rough spun clothes, kind of like a hologram, and she's hunched over, uh, you can't really quite tell her species because of the deep cowl that she wears.

Um, and her voice kind of creeps forth and she says, She's caught in my, in what's left of me. If you hope to save her, bring forth the memories that make you who you are. It's all you can do to feed my diminishing essence and keep her sane while she lasts.

What do you do, Alula? Um Physically, I'm going to drop into like a, a supplicant position. Kind of like a, like a,

I guess like to my knees, but like in a worship kind of. Okay. And then, um, as I'm doing that, uh, the first memory that comes to mind is my parents selling me to a passing merchant. Okay. And then, um, because they had too many mouths to feed. Gus, caught in the loop that you've been caught in with Ulua, you catch this memory as it flows from Ulua.

You don't lose the memory, Ulua, but it is shown before the crone and you see a bit of that spark enter her, but not really her. It seems to flow beyond the hologram to the shining orb that is in Seraphina's hand. Seraphina, who looks like she's not really here. She's a shadow of who she normally is. Um, she's almost tending towards the, uh, holographic esque image of the Crone.

She's more solid than the Crone, but she's, she's tending towards that. And as that comes through, her solidity becomes a little bit brighter for a moment. And Seraphina, your attention goes back to the cards.

Um, I'd like, so wait, there's three in the middle, one a little above that. One above that, one to the east of it, west of it, and south of that. East, east, west, and south. It's like a compass rose of cards. Okay. I'd like to

flip over the east and north at the same time. Flip! Okay. Uh, you flip over two at the same time, and you have two east and north, you said? Yeah. And you have two different memories occur to you. One of your earliest childhood memories, and one that brings you despair. Can you share those two memories of your youth and So one, just one of the earliest, and then one that brings despair.

Not necessarily the most despair, but despair. Okay. I guess the first memory

would be something with, um,

I wonder if it would have something to do with either,

I'm trying to decide if it would be my, it would probably be my dad.

Maybe giving presents out? You know? And I'm getting like a, a bunch of like, You know when you're a kid and you get, like, that really crappy, like, art book thing, and it's, like, really bad paint, or really bad crowns, and, you know, it'd be like that, but for, like, inventing. Like, your very first inventing thing.

You know, at a really, really, really young age. My very first chemistry set. It's not actually safe. You might burn yourself with it, but it's Exactly. It's cool. And then, it just This bear will definitely be receiving the news of my sister's death. Okay. Can I have you roll 2d12s? 2d12s. Uh, 7. You take 7 points of damage.

Yikes! Yow. Gus, you've seen what's transpired and you witness as these two streaks of memory come out. One of a young child, a young Seraphina receiving this gift and then the death of her, somebody who looks somewhat like her, and as these two glimmering memories come and they hit the crone in the back and you see the crone arch her back slightly but she's still hunched and she pulls herself in and she's she Pushes too hard, too quickly, quick, to help her.

What would you like to do, Gus?

Um, I would like to grab Seraphina by the arm. Is she like, she's, the orb's like stuck to her, or? The orb is attached, it's in her grasp, and she seems fairly ethereal. Almost hologram esque as well. Is the orb also ethereal? I don't know. Very much so. It's bright, but it's also So I can't touch her or the orb?

Well, you reach up to grab her, and as you grab her, your hand slides through. She's not fully present in this space physically. Her corporeality is not there.

I want to look at the chron like, help her how? She's touched what's left of mine. of my life, and it's volatile and dangerous. They've siphoned away almost all that is me into their concoctions, and it's too dangerous for a mortal to handle this way. Save her, or we'll both perish.

I am going to

I can't. I need to be able to touch her. I can't help her if I can't touch her. Like, I don't know what

to do. I guess I just like Could you roll an insight check if you're stuck? If you're, if you're, if Gus is sitting there trying to figure out what to do, roll an insight check. Um, roll a six. That does not help me. Like, is she eating these memories? Is that what's going on? Like, they're feeding her? Um

Roll a

Roll a nature check.

Find a new dice, Jason. Let's try this one. Hey, double digits. What's that? Twelve.

Um,

Sorry, I'm just trying to think of a way to add a twelve. Gus has been around for a while, and Gus understands some basics of science. Magical science is kind of a little bit distanced, and the deific nature of things is even more distanced. However, I think as Gus witnesses each memory moved, it can be seen as kind of like photosynthesis in plants.

These memories are the energy, and it's being rebalanced, redistributed. And, it's hard to tell if this is, each memory is a negative or a positive, but it is one thing that has consistently so far done something.

I'm going to, I guess just like sort of try to will a memory at her of, at the crown of, it would be like a, when I was very young, known, uh,

But, um, at least, like, in the culture that I grew up in, like, you're not, like, an adult until you're, like, 30 or 40 or something, yeah. But, um, and he, uh, essentially, like, his father is killed by, like, some sort of animal as they are working their way up to Overton from the Underdark to trade. And he's like left alone in the tunnel by himself.

So it's, I guess it's like a despair memory, but also just like watching his, his father die. And then, um, like sort of just meandering his way up to the surface and then never going back. That's his Um, Ulua, you catch the vision of this, and Seraphina, you do too, but you're not sure where it's coming from.

But it is. It's easy for you to put together the idea that this is a young Gus, and this is a tragic, horrific instance of Gus's life, um, and the Crone looks you in the eyes, Gus, and says, Oh, such a powerful one, but you may have restored the balance for a moment. And then she shudders and turns and she looks at you, Aloha, please.

A question. Do I still remember it after I did that? Yes, you do retain the memory. Okay. What she says, she says for everybody to hear. It's all loud and clear. Okay. The only one who doesn't seem to catch everything is Seraphina, although she does catch the memories. Okay. Um, my next memory I guess that I would share would be when I was sold again by the merchant into the Combshare.

Um, and The fact that, like, there was a feeling of betrayal that, you know, I thought that this was my home, that it was like, he was a parental figure. And, uh, now I'm like, it turns out that I was just, uh, an item, uh, to be used when it was, uh, beneficial. Uh, and like feeling alone. Completely alone and, and having to navigate through this entirely new, uh, culture and situation.

Um, okay, so you pass it along and the crone, you can see even through the holographic space that she seems to occupy, her eyes are pouring tears. You can see that she's crying. As both Gus and you have shared these, um, terrible memories. Uh, Seraphina, you flipped over two cards at once and it wrenched you.

And you're looking at the cards again. And, it's hopeless.

There's no way. It's just death and abandonment.

And I need you to roll a wisdom saving throw.

Can I ask a question before I roll this? Yes, Seraphina. What? Can I see what's on the front of the cards at all? Um, no. There's not really seeming to be anything there. Oh, okay. Am I still at disadvantage? Not with this one, no. Oh, okay. It says Bicycle Standard Playing Cards.

Oh my goodness. They say void on the back because they were thrown away from Las Vegas. Six. Six. Three thousand years ago. You go to reach for the cards, but you can't. It's too dark. There's no, there's no hope here. This is the end of you. Can you roll two d12s? Don't

die. Don't worry, I will.

Jesus. Do you want to die? Oh my god, oh my god. Caught up in the crone's lies. Okay, I don't know where that one went, so. God, that's very sad. Nine together.

Uh, Gus. The crone. Eyes pouring over with tears. Please. Please. Don't you have any happy?

Give her a happy memory, calm fuck, that'll work, gosh. Um, Death is gonna look at her and, uh, like it'll, the memory will go into, um, a marketplace and like, he's at a stand just like looking at fruit or something. And, uh, and he just looks up and across the way there's like this. tall like beautiful human woman and she's tall to him because she's like four foot three or four foot four she's a very short human woman and they make eye contact and like his heart just goes like flutter flutter flutter and that's the memory that's like the first time you saw his wife.

As you'll catch your little momentary glimpse of this memory that Gus offers you can see the crone wipe away one side of her face and it's for a moment younger. Balance, yes, yes, just balance it until I can pull her out of it. Uh, Alouette, it's your turn. Um,

so wait, so she, wait, describe what you just said about it. Like her half of her face is young. It's for a moment becomes young. Okay. Um, I'm going to think about, the first time I met Oksana and how she essentially took me under her wing and was like a life raft in navigating, um, the world of the Combshare and the entertainment district and, um, how it wasn't how she helped me to figure out not that it wasn't just about surviving day to day and I could have a life and goals and dreams.

How would you classify that emotive feeling? Like, if I had to point at the faces, which face would you have? The angry face, the happy face, the proud face, the I mean, hope, I think would be the main emotion behind it. Okay. Cool. Um, Seraphina,

I would like you to roll a d20.

Rolling high is good.

We'll see. See what you get.

Not bad. Am I adding anything to it? Nope. Sixteen.

You catch, everybody is more and more connected through these memories and you all catch Ulua's memory for a moment. That glimpse and Seraphina, that utter despair that you felt a moment ago that kept you from even approaching one of the cards is lifted in this moment. that's it. And you know that right now you can pick another card off the table and reveal it.

Well, I

guess I'll do the south one because I'm from the south. You flip that card over and the memory of your angriest moment bubbles to mind. Can you describe for us Seraphina's most visceral anger that she has ever experienced?

Hit her thumb with a hammer. Yeah. Um.

It would have been after Rodex disappeared and, uh, trying to, you know, do these little, um, uh, like, you know, jobs to make enough money to afford all the things because he was the one who brought in the most money. And not doing what he used to do, because I'm not talented in the same way as he was. And being out of money, about to be out of food, uh, can't get medicine for my dad.

And being in the basement, trying to create something. And One of the kids coming down of, uh, what's his name? It was

Qyzem. Uh, one of Qyzem's kids coming down, uh, and interrupting me at just the wrong moment, which ruins the, the thing that I'm trying to create, and just absolutely losing it, and just destroying. Like, the basement, and everything down there.

This memory flashes through all of you, and The crone seems to, like, be staggered for a moment. But, her eyes are clear as she looks at you, Gus. I think she's got the handle of it. Please, quickly disperse it. Disperse it all.

Wait, who did she say that to? To Gus. Oh, Gus. Disperse it with what? I don't know. Like, can I touch her yet? Um, try again. Is she there? Is she? I'm gonna put my hand out and try that. Uh, your hand passes through Seraphina but gets caught on the glowing orb. I'm going to say, um, Kron may not like this, but I'm gonna cast Remove Curse on the orb.

Like, I'll just grab it and say, like, let her go and just cast Remove Curse. You do that, and the cool thing about Remove Curse is that it, if the object's a Cursed Metric Option, it stays a Cursed Object, but it does break whoever's attuned to the object, and it can then be removed and discarded, they don't have to hold on to it, including in this case Seraphina, and including in this case the Crone.

Yay! We rescued the crone! And the crone becomes a little bit more solid. Collapses to the floor and says, Ah, finally death comes for me.

Seraphina, you are solid. We did not save the crone. Initiative is over. The crone is still currently breathing, but it's the last gasps. If there's anything you would like to ask or say to her, um, and the glowing orb is dissipating. The various components that make it up seem to be spiraling out and evaporating in the room.

So is she more corporeal then? She is at this point. moment completely corporeal she is I'm gonna kneel down next to her and just like take her hand if she's dying like yeah same kind of just to so she's not she doesn't feel alone or anything is there anything we can do to help oh these

these creatures have tortured me long and most of my essence has been Dispersed and torn. I hope that the poisons that they probably undoubtedly unleashed have not impacted many.

And that the breath that they released does not benefit them. Please don't let my breath be to their betterment. What breath are you talking about? The god's breath, it's what they extracted from me. I see. I think we found that upstairs. It was in the room with the vats, it's just down the hall. We'll, uh, destroy it before we leave.

Be careful. The safe ways to destroy it would be in my old library. Or you could catch them if you go down the waterway and burn their boat. And as she says, burn their boat, she lets out a last kind of a gasp, or it's a breath in, and then it's just frail bone and flesh that you hold, dry and desiccated.

And

I'm going to kind of, not like, but, uh, hastily put the limb I was holding down and just kind of like,

Sorry, dead. People dying when it's not self defense freaks me out.

Like when it's not, when I'm not having to defend myself and people just die, it just freaks me out. Sorry. Does she like have anything on her like that could help us? You're going to search her? Yeah. Role investigation check. I will loot a dead god. Really awkward investigation. Uh, 15. Totally not searching a dead god.

Can't loot a god while I play D& D. I mean, valid. I am so excited about this. Uh, you find in one of her pockets a small necklace. With a little emblem at the end. Um, you also find that the, um, what she's wearing appears to be a magical cloak. You're not sure what, but you can, you notice that quickly with your mage eye.

Um, and uh, you also know, looking at what she's got, that there's like a spindle and a bit of, fiber. Which you recognize from seeing other people and maybe even your wife. It's for turning fiber into yarn or thread. It's a hand spinning thing. She's Rumpelstiltskin. Um, all three of these objects seem to be in really good repair.

Um, yeah. Okay, I'm just gonna cram all that in my backpack for now since my bag of holding is full. Okay, and I'll find us an identify spell later Beautiful surfing. I don't die. We need to identify spell

So, what are you going to do?

I am

Going to Go burn the boats Do you think she meant the pipe? I Don't know the waterway to the boat We cut

Except for my charmed friend who, at any point, will probably realize he was charmed and come back. Um, I think our cover is pretty much blown here, so we might have to fight our way down to the boat or to the library, wherever either of those things are.

Now, I know that your characters have been in here this whole time and they have not forgotten anything about their travels in this space. But I know that the people who play these characters may have not had a week between sessions to forget different things. When you came into the main room that had all of the alchemical, uh, past the sentient door, there was the door, the open passageway to the left, which is where you've gone down, including closer, tighter into the left, a very solid looking and forbidding door.

And to the right, another open passageway that you have not explored. In addition, this hallway that you've gone down had an additional passageway beyond that looked to be rougher stone and had that scent and feel of dampness. So just offering that as a reminder for the people who play characters who wouldn't have forgotten where they're at.

I'm wondering, and this would be something in character that Alou would have to figure out on her own, I guess, but, um, I'm wondering if the glowy lights. That asked for help, or somehow, from the Crown.

But Ulua's the only one that saw and heard them. So I don't have the capacity to figure that out. Ulua's the only one who knows anything about those. We also have the option of just going back and letting the guard know what we found.

Well, there is the concern that Ulua raised that the guard will confiscate all of this Wyvern's venom and then It'll fall off a boat somewhere. Do we go down Do we just keep going forward? Do we go back to one of the other rooms we didn't go to? It's the question of how do we preserve

How do we prove that this was here while also then destroying it so that it can't be used? Well, I have a lot of vials. So, if we could put some in the vial, we could give it to the guard and say, See? It was there. And then we can break open all the things and say there was a big fight and during the fight it all got destroyed.

So there's none left, but here's the proof that it was there.

And I look at Gus and I go, is that enough? I don't know. I mean, I have a lot of vials, so I just like start pulling out vials from all my pockets. Just be like, here you go. Yes, but beyond your word, what other proof is there that you didn't have those before we went in? Nothing. Well, let's go continue on and see if there's a boat to burn.

I don't love the idea of all these people getting away.

Even if we were to alert Maximo and his patrols I don't think they could get them, get down there in time to stop them, but maybe we can. We can

try. Okay. I'm gonna go fling the door open. Alright. Oh my god, whee! That was

much slower than I was expecting. It wasn't fast. You feather fall down. Yeah, feather fall down. So you all troop out of the room, across the way is the door that, I don't know if you've actually gone in or not, I cannot remember. We did not cross the way. Across the way. Right, that's the room with the bear rug.

Yeah, we didn't go in there. You didn't go in there. This is the further hall that you haven't gone down as well, where the damp moisture air is coming from. So I leave you with that option. Uh, should we clear this other room? Yes.

I mean, my assumption is if they're on high alert, they're probably not there, but we can certainly open the door. Alright, I'm gonna go like this and hold my hands up. It's like if Eldritch Blast held, be like, okay, open it. And I'm just gonna blast anybody if somebody's in there. I guess I'll open it, which will put me on the other side of the door from them, but yeah.

Uh, you are ready to Eldritch Blast and all you see is thrown about. articles of clothing and materials of hasty packing. Um, what you didn't hear behind the heavy doorways was the speedy, um, packing and leaving that your interaction with the other, uh, cultists, um, predicated that that loud booming noise led to the desire to abandon ship, so to speak.

I assume they, uh, took any valuables out of this room, most likely. There is a bearskin rug.

Um. I'm just gonna look in the bear's mouth real quick. Roll an investigation check.

I don't mean to actually facepalm into my microphone, but Yeah, I mean, that's a That's a seven. Eight. Eight. I do math. You find a note inside the mouth that says, Unbearable.

It's so old that I can barely read it.

Alright, anything else anybody? I can't bear to be in this room any longer. Let's go. I need to take psychic damage, Jesus. Do you want to go to the stone quarter or do you want to backtrack? I think we're going stone. Yeah, forward march. We're gonna bear the burden of burning this boat. And I hope to look to the left corner.

You can make out a waterway or a canal. Um, it looks sewage y, but it is too much liquid to actually be a sewer. That's just the effects of being an underground waterway in a city. Um, so there's a bit of scumminess. Do you continue down? Yep. As you continue down and take the corner, you make out more. You also make out Off in the distance a little bit of a cage situation going on and you faintly can hear some noises.

Go ahead and roll a perception check if you would like to see if you know more. My dice hate me. Would you like to know more? Let's try this one.

That's a nine. No, that is, no. Wait, sorry, no. That's a six. Okay, you know that there's voices. I'll go back to my other dice, at least it was like Pritchfail and not just fail, fail, fail, fail. Larissa also shook her head no, so I'm assuming it was an uninspiring number. An uninspiring number. Four. Uninspiring four.

And Jess didn't even do it. I thought it was just those two. No, I said If you wanted. Perception! Would you have tried to roll a perception check? Yes. To hear what the voices were saying? Yes.

This is perception? Oh, buddy. I'm gonna roll again. I'll take the first one. Uh, 15. Um, you can faintly make out the voices and you can hear that there's kind of an urgency and rush to it. Um, and you hear the words, uh, The explosives will go off soon. We've got to be clear before that.

Gus, having not heard those words, comes and peeks around the corner. And you can make out at the end of a boat. I'm pointing as if you can see where I'm pointing. We got the end of a boat sticking here. And you can see abandoned sacks and boxes that have just been tossed. Some of them have been knocked in the water and are floating around.

But, um, The boat crew is, is peacing out, leaving. I would like to run up, how many of, can I see how many people there are? You can't quite make out any people, you can just see the in, the butt of the boat. Okay, I'm gonna run up to the next corner and peek around to try to see how many people there are. You run up, you peek around, and I ran out of map.

So, you can see here there's a boat, you can see several people arranged around it. Um, and you run up. Would have alerted them except they are all quite busy jumping on the boat in a panic trying to get away. I would like to take out my wand of magic missiles and shoot five missiles at the boat. Oh Jesus Mary Joseph.

Awesome. Roll the damage cause guess what magic missile does? It goes boom boom. In can't miss. Not near it.

Do your people or just like to watch them die?

That's a lot of math for Jason.

Seventeen damage on the boat. Seventeen damage on a boat. It is a wooden boat, fairly small. You can see that the boards are cracked and it is starting to sink. Well, we've done our job. Let's go away. You watch as one of the cultists just jumps overboard and starts swimming. And they are swimming down Putrid Stream.

They're probably going to get the plague, but apparently whatever the plague is, is better than what they're swimming from. Uh, I think I shanked their boat, but they, uh, they will sink, but they seem to be in a really big hurry to get out of here. Now I'm concerned.

Why are you running? You, you know, you heard not us. We didn't

here to share with the class.

the greatest travesty of this group. . Y'all. I'll never tell each other stuff. . You

can't, you can only bring a horse to water.

I would like to maintain that. I do. But ogi, Jess, you did hear the, the thing, what they said, right? Yeah. She didn't tell your friends. You just didn't tell either of us. Wait, I'm so confused. I thought I rolled the lowest. No, you rolled the highest. Oh my god. By a large margin. So then yes, I absolutely share that.

I'm so bad. Boat sinking, people floating off in the distance, Seraphina runs up and goes, Why are you running? Oh wait. Something about an explosive. They shared that there was an explosive back there, which seems very Seraphina ish right now. Is there a way to get out without jumping in the stinky water?

Um, you can make out that across the stinky water there, it appears to be something that leads deeper. Um, but you could also backtrack. Um, do we want to run back? The crone did indicate that there was a safe way to dispose of her, of the dangerous stuff. Um, She indicated, but she didn't share. I would roll.

Yeah. Well, she shared that it was in her library.

Wait, what? I would love for somebody to roll an intelligence check higher than a 14. Jason?

Anybody. Uh,

intelligence. Ooh, that, well, that's a 16 to start. So. That's. Higher than a 15. All these dice are in jail after today. I'm digging out a whole new sets of dice. I'm over it.

Do you have any sixes I rolled today? A lot. Mine's only a 14. Oh, that was the minimum though.

Um, Larissa, what'd you get for your total? Uh, with modifier, which I'm sure isn't, it's just intelligence. Yeah. A whole 17. Okay. I think you're able to plot things through. I, I, I feel like hopefully you've plotted things through. You, you hear Seraphina share that there's an explosion back somewhere, who knows where, uh, you can see that there's this swampy, gross, nasty water ahead of you.

There is possibly a hole that goes deeper down off to the side. Um, but. I just want to point out a couple of things. We know that that one room was full of Wyvern's Venom.

The destruction of which probably means a great dispersal of that same stuff all over the city. Because it's only one level deep. Or at the very least, contaminating all of the underground water supply. So that's kind of a big deal to try to figure out. Personal safety. You can swim down the gross water, you could go down the strange stairwell, or you could just go out the way you came in.

Buddy shared this with Gus, he was not bright enough to intuit it on his own. But we don't see I think Gus was very busy making things go boom with magic missiles. But we don't see where the thing is that they're talking about. We just know it's gonna happen. All you even, all you heard, overheard, Seraphina, was that there was some sort of detonation planned.

Yeah, we could

Worst idea is we could try to figure out how to stop the detonation. While they decide, can I look around the immediate area for what may look like an explosive? Um, there is nothing in this area, Freebie, that is explosive. I think if they're trying to blow up this place, we should go down those stairs.

Like, they're probably trying to collapse it down. We're trying to stop it.

I feel like it just, a decision needs to be made. So I will go, I second that idea. Yeah, this is a very busy part of town. I'm concerned what happens if this temple just explodes. Can I jump across? Yeah, it's across the water, right? Can I jump that? It is across the water. Um, what is the fun D&D math on jumping 10 feet?

Uh, You need a running start. Gus can't jump it. You need a running start and a, and a, and a heck of a roll. I'm gonna run up to it, and I'm gonna Misty step across. You bitch.

Gus runs up and then, just a mist, and reappears on the other side. Um, Seraphina, Ulua. I pull out my broom and I hand it to Seraphina.

No. You are too beautiful to get dirty. And I run and I jump. Roll dexterity check. I think we're going for Acrobatics? Strength? So we're going for strength? Athletics? No, we're doing it Athletic. Nope, you just ran and jumped. To be fair, you could've just I could've just called it back. But Let me, let me be a hero.

Of you beautiful lady. Beautiful lady? What? I can be a hero! That was very good. And I'm doing athletics plus two. Can I, as she's doing that, I guess she goes to do that. Can I cast inspiration? Cast what? Like Inspiration. I feel like she did this so last minute with like, just the surprise. We gotta let it roll with this.

That's fair. So what'd you get, Jess? I probably would have just been still holding the broom and been like, wait, what? 19. 19. You watch as she leaps athletically, legs stretching forward like a hurdler, and she overshoots the mark and lands almost on the wall on the other side. Damn girl. As she does that, Alua's kind of like, she does like a Huh?

And then at the same time like there's a tiny little weird kind of Flutter in her chest and she's like and then she goes Huh? And then she gets on the broom and flies over Okay, so the three of you are going to go down the stairs deeper into The The old temple. Feels like a terrible idea, but yes. A decision must be made.

Hello, Bum. Are you down here? Okay. You all go deeper into the dark. And it is several flights down without any other entranceway or exit. You eventually get to a level where um The District Stairs have changed from refined stone to rough stone and then from rough stone to cut out of a rock face. And you are, do you keep going down as this, these transitions occur?

There's been no doors? Not yet. I'm, as we're going, I'm going to look for evidence of like, that people have been here recently. Like, whether it, depending on if the floor is, if it's turning, if it turns into like dirt to see if there's recent footprints. Uh,

okay. Thirteen. Thirteen. I think initially you could see that there were various tracks and footprints as you were going down, and then they became less and less prevalent. Either the cultists who decided to investigate down here, uh, gave up, or there just really haven't been any cultists coming down this way.

Um, there are different animal tracks and such that you, you catch sight of. You can't quite figure out what they are, but there's some strange hoof, hoof prints, or cloven ish prints as you go down there. Um, and, eventually, uh, if you're still going down, you Feel the earth around you quake as an explosion goes off above you.

Oh, shit. I was Okay. Uh, wrong way, wrong way, wrong way, wrong way! Oh, I think it's the right way now. I don't think we can go back that way.

Is there like, so there's just the, there's just doing camera work, everybody shake the camera a little bit.

So is there, but there's no like draft of air, there's no heat, there's nothing along those lines. It's just the noise. Just the noise. Um. I'm going to say, I don't think We can check. If that wyvern's trying to move up, it's going to be very bad up there. But we can try.

I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine, but I don't think I can walk away. Let's go.

And I'm going to, uh, start going up the stairs. Uh, two at a time. Oh! Coo, coo, coo, coo! Not trudge, not trudge, not trudge! Me too except for Gus that's like one at a time. Little legs! It's like stair stair instead of like stair stair, stair stair, stair stair, stair stair Um, Seraphina are you going up as well?

Definitely The three of you, retrace your steps Peace. Going progressively from the carved, to the rough, to the refined stone, to the very square stones, and come back up at this landing, uh, with the waterway between you and the path you took. Um, and, looking to your left, there's a little bit of an alcove, looking to your right, there's the path that sits way back if you, if you cross over the water again.

Um, can I look at the, the doorway for the way that we came from to see if I see any evidence of like smoke or You mean up the passageway of the waterway? No, from where we came just to jump back across. I, I guess yes. But yeah, the, just the direction that we came from back away from the living quarters of the cult sort of thing where the poisons were kept and everything.

Is that what you Yeah. Back that direction. Yeah. Um, looking back that way. Um, you can't see anything, but can you go ahead and roll a medicine check?

Sixteen. Does this smell like poison to you? Does this smell like chloroform? Uh, with a sixteen you can make out that there's a, there's like a faint haze of a greenish mist that lies just above the water right now.

And it's flowing down the stream. Oh no. The mist is It's very thin and dispersed, but it is kind of just coating, almost like a misty oil slick. Coating the top of this water. go? Like, they swam out somehow, right? Yeah, they were swimming out, somehow, somewhere. I wanna like, try to figure out where the water exits and see if we can block it up.

Um, so looking to the left. down the waterway to where they went. You can see a few bodies in the wreckage of the boat blocking the way. Um, Is there any treasure floating? You can see,

uh, nothing at a quick glance, but you can see that this oil slick of green poison is coated well past what you the curves of the next set of, uh, stone tunnels. And it's clear that from this place, You lose landings and it just becomes a curvature of, um, maybe some old tunnel built over a river, um, and you can't quite make out where it goes without getting in the water.

I feel like this water is connected to the city water somewhere.

I think we should block it. I think we should get in and go block it. Maybe not Ulua. If I know

a spell,

but it's not like currently equipped. Can I cast it as a ritual or not? I don't know as as bards, if that's possible. Bards, spells that you know are all prepared. I'm confused. Can you? She's asking if if she changed spells when she leveled, can she use the previous spells as a ritual? Ones that she does not have are not available to her.

Yeah, I think to use as a ritual there has to be like some sort of reason that you learned it as a ritual. That was, I reckon I agree on a campaign one. Yeah, I mean, so you have all your spells. Um, you do have some that might be ritual based. It's fine. I just, I wasn't sure. We can move on. There are feats you can take to be able to have that possibility.

Oh, that's good. That might be what I did with Asher, because he had a bunch of ritual spells. Yeah. Can you remind me, do we know if the Wyvern's Venom is magical in nature? Yes, it is. That's how Gus was able to see, and how, um, the healer was able could probably see it with my mage sight still up? Or my magic still up?

I'm joking. Roll a history check, let's see if we If you Paid attention to the doctors when the doctors were talking as they were trying to heal people. Jesus fucking Was it two? Is that for all of us? Yeah, anybody who's, who was in that space with a I rolled a four. So, I rolled a two, that's a four.

Seventeen for Ulua. I'm about to like, literally go get different dice. Twenty two. Oh, and Seraphina was definitely listening in class. Gus was distracted by a, um I mean, when, when everybody was trying to heal people, Gus was Being healed. Yeah. By, like, death. Yeah. Uh, so, this actually makes perfect narrative sense, then.

Um Okay, then I would like to, I think I can still, I have one slot left, cast Dispel Magic at the Mist. Well, can I finish the Nope. part that you need to find out about? Nope. Nope. Yes. Fine. I don't want you to waste your spells. I asked for a roll. I don't want you to waste your spells. Okay. Um So, uh, when they're talking about there is a magical component to it that helps it spread through the body.

But the poisons that it leaves behind remain and are not in and of themselves magical. Um, and I think that one of the things you probably picked up from the doctors or listening to the doctor's talk was that people like Seraphina's father, who had had exposure for a long period of time, had a lot of the poisons, but was not as traceable down to the root of where those poisons were and those toxins were because the magical component had, for lack of a better word, expired.

The delivery mechanism is the magical piece. So if you cast a spell, the poisons will still be in the water, but it will not be able to be as quickly delivered. So there's, so just like in your So it's, it's a mist or it's in the water? It's a mist that is becoming like an oil slick over the water. Okay, I guess that wasn't It's, it's a misty oil slick.

Could I, I could maybe, if Ulua lets me, use her broom and I could follow the stream to see where it leads and then we could make a plan of how to stop it.

If you want to take it, if you think it's safe.

Gus, any objections? Nope. So it, it's, I, I don't disagree with

Okay, so I just, I guess I want to understand, I'm gonna take material of what I'm wearing and like, tie it over my face, and I'm going to, uh, before, before I hand the broom over to Seraphine, I'm going to fly back over to the other side, and I'm going to look to see if the mist is coming from where we came from.

Oh dear! Oh no! Bye! I watched the camera slowly run away. It's like, uh, run away camera, chill. That's a terrible idea. Um, sorry, what was that? So, before I hand my broom to Seraphina, like give my broom to Seraphina, I'm going to fly across, send it back over, I'm going to tie, uh, send it back over, I'm going to tie, uh, Cloth over my mouth.

I'm going to go back to, to figure out where the source of the mist is, whether it's from the tunnel that we came from or somewhere else. Okay. So as you may recall from watching the little animation that I did, we had for coming down here, the water was a little lower in that little, um, and the mist has kind of been floating on just on it.

So the, the, the, both the side passages are clear. So you're able to easily. Fly over it to the other side and then as you get towards the entrance way you can see there's like a small trickle of green mist that is slowly trickling down into the water from that initial passageway. Um, since you're on the broom and you can fly above it, uh, you can fly above it and you can actually see down the original passageway with all of those doors for the rooms for the, for the study, for the bedrooms, all that stuff.

You can see from, for the kitchen, I think you can see down and what you see at the end is.

All of those vats

have exploded. They've been damaged by some sort of explosion in that far room. And all of that, uh, potion, the Wyvern's Venom that was contained within them, has kind of flooded this area. Um, it's come down, you can see how it's, It's, this is the escape that it has, is to come to this waterway, um, but there's more of that roiling green mist that you could, um,

I guess you could, you could think you could fly over it to get back into the potion room and see what, like, the whole explosion, or you could go back to your friends and let them know what you saw. I'm going to fly back to Gus, and I'm going to, uh, say, can you collapse into the water? The, the path, the hallway we came in?

Ican'tSeraphina can. You don't have any spells that can collapse. Uh, Seraphina cleared the rubble from the Sticky Beaks Tunnel with her Thunder Spell. Oh yeah! This is kind of the same. You're killing me, Smalls! It was like me? And I turn to her and I go, can you If I give you the broom, can you go It's coming through that way.

If we can block that off, we'll at least Mitigate it poisoning the water supply.

Okay, yeah, yeah, okay. Okay, I take, I take the thing off of my face, I tie it around her face, and then I hand her the broom. Okay. Where, where, where are the Where we came from. Alright. Very limited on our way out. We'll follow the water. Okay. And under my breath I go, Do whatever pretty lady says. Let's go. Wow, okay.

Literally the only thing I can think of. I fly right on over, and I'm a cast a thunder wave. Okay, just let me have a little bit of fun here for a second.

So we watch as Seraphina flies off on the broomstick off in the direction. Crashes in the wall a little bit. To the entranceway here. Is this where you're going to try to cast Thunderwave? Or are you going to go beyond this to, um, down the hall?

I don't know. What did Ulua say? No, she said just the entrance of where we came from. No.

Okay, I want to do this. Using like. My knowledge of tinkering and, you know, experimentation, would I be able to see slash know what the best option would be to ensure, like, the best collapsing that would keep the smoke out? Would it be that area or would it be closer to? Does narrowest point. It's also probably the most over engineered point.

in terms of all of these, um, arches and such. And so as an engineer, you probably know that. Why don't you go ahead and roll a

This would be you really digging into your braininess. Um,

let's just do a investigation check. Investigation check. Find your pod, people. They're mine. I'm keeping them. No sharesies.

That's really good. Um,

25. Is that right? That's right. Okay. 25. 25, 25, 25. Let's pull up the whole list here of what Seraphina can pull off with this. So I think that This first door here is just too structurally strong. And then any further down and it becomes too big of a mess to have to try to blow up. With something as light as Thunderwave.

So as you're like, kind of looking at things, figuring them out, you, you can see that there's some problems with that, um, with just using Thunderwave. Um, you could potentially use some of the, uh, Rubble from within and catapult things around the door area, but that puts you in a dangerous spot if the collapse continues your direction.

I would also hazard Oh no, you rolled a 25, right? So, you do have a creation that you could utilize. Um, if you're thinking what I'm thinking, just leave it behind to do the damage that needs to be done. And you know that it can come back. It can?

Yeah. Are we thinking of the same thing? Are we talking about my, my, my dude, my defender? Yeah. Oh, nice. I didn't know he could come back if I left him. Well, you can revive him using your tools and rebuild, rebuild him. Just rebuild them. I see what you're saying. I'm picking up what you're putting down. Think, think, find familiar, but with tinkering.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So then, I want to find the best area.

But, we still have to figure out Okay, no. One, one issue at a time. Okay. I'm gonna find the best area. I'm gonna cast a first round of Thunderwave.

No. Sorry, go ahead. Are you, are you casting Thunderwave? No. Because you're gonna Okay. I want to Bring out my Defender. Where is he? That's Is he under inventory? No, he's under feats. That's what he's under. So you're still Defender. Yeah. There. Oh, where'd you go? I miss

you so. Feels like it's been forever since you've been gone. Sorry.

Okay, there we go. So, I

Yeah, okay, so I'm going to

I have been imagining my Steel Defender as um, I don't remember what that game was called, but it was that game where you like, rolled, you rolled out like this ball and then it popped into a little creature. Like a little, like a robot looking thing. And I was like, okay. Like a video game? No, no, they were like actual uh pulls that out game into creatures No, what is that game?

It was like a, it was like It was like that game where you had like the top and you would spin Sort of like that kind of combat game but they would like pop open and they were like little like Robot, not, they weren't robots, but they were like, well, I'll think of it, and If anyone knows what I'm talking about, folks, leave a comment.

Because I know I'm not crazy. I just can't think of, it was like a 2010s, you know, early 20s boy, boys game. And it's not Battletops. Um, Tops. No, no, no, no. I don't know.

I'll think of it. I bet Jonathan knows what it is. But anyway, so basically I'm thinking it's like this little ball. And I roll him out. And then he pops out. He's this big giant steel defender. Okay. But that's like, that's the mechanism I brought. I mean, medium sized. Um. Humanoid size. And I'm going to tell him to To jack in the ball.

A jack in the ball's battle orbs? I don't think so. Hang on. And I will command him to destroy the area to ensure nothing can get through. No liquids, no, no wind, no air, a solid blockage. Okay, so you set your steel defender, do you name it? Does it have a name? Um, his name, uh, is, I, of course, I've already named him.

Okay. So, already named him. Um. Begins using its force empowered rend. His name's Hatton. Hatton? Hatton. Okay, so Hatton. begins whacking at the second doorway trying to bring about collapse. Um, The walls don't really take much to hit because they're not exactly dodging. So it's pretty easy to hit them. So there's no attack there, but it is 1d8 plus uh your Um pb for force damage so you're sitting there Watching it bash as it slowly chips away at the walls You know that it's only a matter of time before it collapses this doorway.

Um, perfect. I'm going to

turn around and start to fly back. And for good measure, the literal entrance that we took to get into where the water is, I will Thunderwave that entrance. Okay. Uh, how much damage does Thunderwave do? Uh, it does. Nope, that's not it. That's 2d8. Okay. Oops, I had to roll that. That's not going to do much to solid structures that are not themselves rubble.

Ah, I see. Um, you do see some parts and pieces of this structure chip away. Um, and you hear them flick, and you can actually hear one that tings off the steel of your steel defender. Um, And some of the material just is shattered and such, but it's, this is a stout structure that is still structurally sound.

It is not rubble. It is not easily cleared. Um, but you hear your Steel Defender working away. And it echoes down this tunnel of water and such. Um, and Ulua, you, and. Gus can hear the ongoing of steel hitting stone, which doesn't sound like sounds like something different, but I can hear the noise. Ding, ding, ding, ding.

I hope, I hope. Yep.

Chink, chink, chink, chink, chink. They called it a mine. Chink, chink, chink, chink, chink, chink, chink, chink, chink, chink. The, uh, intro is getting. Worn away, which leaves you with a question to travel down the waterway or back down the stairway.

Or do just hang out here in the sewers forever. I mean, not the sewers. The, we live here now. This is home. Um, I have a question. Is weyburn venom flammable

and test it?

I'm just wondering if we could burn it off the water so that we could swim out without the water being poised. Also, it would probably run back up and blow up the whole temple. So.

Which would probably stop the God's breath and maybe stop leaking out above, but I don't know. This is me talking and not Gus talking. Okay, good. I'm like, is this like, are you, do you want to have the actual conversation in character and like pull up this? Or is this just Jason's ramblings to himself, to the team?

I was just thinking about oil slicks and how technically you could like burn them off, but it's very like toxic. environment temporarily. Um,

should we go? Larissa did inspire me to do a lot of research and thinking, so I'm ready for this.

What did you do? I wish I knew. Should we go back down the stairs or try to purify the water to get out? Purify the water how?

I guess we could wait and see if it clears up once the tunnel's closed, or we could try to Burn the venom off of it, or we could Is it flammable? I don't know

Uh, can I roll a history check to see if I, if it was mentioned at all? Yeah, sure Maybe other people should also roll history checks They won't tell us who I am. Still trying to figure out what that game was called. Nope, I still suck. Well, I definitely suck. Because that's it. I'm sorry. I rolled an 11.

That's like, not terrible, but it's not good. I rolled a 1, so. 14. Um, a 14. You gotta stop being down on your 14s. Remember what level you are. Dude, uh, I rolled terrible. I rolled, rolled a 14. I rolled a one. All right. That is terrible.

All the current conversations you've had around Wyvern's Venom hasn't been as it as a substance. It has been it as a problem and ill. So the properties of just the substance itself have not been under discussion. It would truly be experimentation to discover if it's flammable. I'm going to ask, uh, Seraphina, can I have one of your vials?

Yeah. Yeah. I got plenty. And I pull out like four and I'm like, okay, do you want the one that's skinny on top with, you know, big at the bottom? Do you want the one that just looks like at the doctor's office? Do you want the one that looks like a sexy body? Do you want the one that, and I just like go down the road of all the different shaped vials.

I'm just going to like take the first one that you offered me. And I'm like, Try to dip it down into the water without, like, trying to get too much on me, like, to just fill it up a little bit. Roll a fun Dexterity saving throw to see if you're able to capture Mistyform Wyvern's Venom in a vial. Sixteen.

Beautiful. With a sixteen, you carefully, and only letting the Mistyform of the Wyvern's Venom barely graze your hand, capture just a little bit within the vial. Does anybody have a way to make fire? I don't know if that shit burns anybody. I mean, I have a kit. I do. Wanna see if this burns? If I light a fire, is it gonna set the rest off?

It's in the air. Uh, we could go over into the stairway, maybe? Away from it? Okay.

I We're just Uh, are you just gonna hold it? Uh, I'm just, I'll, I'm gonna like look through my, uh, stuff and find like a cup or something and just like set it on the ground and like inside the passageway where the stairs are and just like dump the violin through it. Look,

I must have a tinderbox but I don't see it.

I, I have everybody, I kind of like mom arm people back. And as far as I need to be to cast, uh, and then I cast Press the Digitation and I essentially spark a flame above, uh, the cup. Like you're lighting a candle. Mm hmm. So this tiny little vial with a very small Top, but according to Seraphina's description, a wider base is no, it's in whatever cup I dumped it into a cup.

Oh, you dumped it into a cup. Yeah. Okay. So this cup with this mist kind of swirling in it and you pointed it in a little spark of your prestidigitation lashes out enough to get a Tender going, to light a candle, and it just fizzles for a second, but doesn't seem to catch fire.

I guess we're taking the stairs.

Maybe it freezes.

That I can't do. I don't think I can do it either, now that I say that.

But, what about this bit of, that's already in the water, it's gonna get out?

Uh, I Much damage it will do when it disperses into the water source. It may be negligible, but I can't say for sure.

I guess fireball. Just kidding. Um. Do you actually have fireball? No. Oh. I wouldn't keep saying it if I did because Rurik would say okay. True. Um. I don't like being predictable. Ha ha.

I wouldn't take it personally.

I've got nothing. So, I'm, I can go down the stairs. I can't fly. I can't. Yeah. I mean, we're not, we're not splitting up. Not at this point. Uh, stairs it is, I guess. Alright. You head back down the stairs, deeper and deeper, until you get back to where you were before. Um. And then you can see below you the truly rough, carved from, uh, bedrock descent.

And it's no longer stairs, it becomes a ramp. And hiking down this ramp, you eventually come to a flattened out area with a cavern opening. But by this time, it's been a really long day. Do you wish to keep pressing on as tiredness starts to overtake you, or do you I

mean, if it's somewhat safe, we should probably rest. Yeah. Should we make camp? We could make camp.

This is why I spent all those years in the Guard. Adventuring sucks. I guess we're sleeping on this rocky ground. Mm hmm. So I'm making a rough investigator's redoubt. place to sleep and rest and hopefully a little bit of protection from anything that might be down here.

We conclude our fun little experiment in dungeon diving. Thank you all for joining us so much. It has been awesome to have you. We hope you enjoyed yourselves. Um, hope you find your pod. Find your pod. Thank you. Buh bye.