D&D is For Nerds - Barovia IV #39 Ghoul Comma Explosive

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

The Explosive Ghoul is identical in nearly every-eth manner to their regular cousins but with several notable exceptions: Abyssal energies: what has been identified to power the ghouls has been “supercharged” extensively to such a point that the Explosive Ghoul gains its name and upon destruction will combust and release said energies at high degree and far reach. This can clearly-eth be seen-eth on thine Explosive Ghoul in its somewhat bloated-eth stomach and through its-eth eyes-eth which will instead of being white show through to the planes abyssal (red as it is speculated that the colours of thine abyss are on the average). Thy-eth savvy hunter should-eth k-note that thine Explosive Ghoul should be seen to be-eth smarter than thy average bear (or ghoul) and shall not indeed fall for the same tricks as thine non-explosive cousin. When thine Explosive Ghoul is slain one should be well away lest they become caught in the fiery (and venomous (here-eth venom shall refer-eth to the effect of creating more-eth ghouls (here-eth ghouls shall mean explosive ghouls) on thy savvy (or should I say unsavvy!) death) as the normal ghoul is (which-eth is to speak that the conflagration is neither fiery nor venomous but rather necrotic)) conflagration. Unfortunately, dear reader and savvy hunter I must confess that I was lying to you at the beginning of this here entry as the Explosive Ghoul is not terribly similar to thine regular ghoul. As thine Explosive Ghoul also should be known to be rather tougher than its counterpart and also know that it can belch the very fires (poisonous) of the abyss at thy savvy hunter which have all the treacherous-ies of its venomous attacks. Aside from these incorrections though I was not lying but rather telling the truth as the Explosive Ghoul does have all the same weaknesses and strengths besides!If you're still wanting to pledge for the Jarren's Outpost Board Game you can right here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Though you see no water for miles around you, you are, like me. Nonetheless, maroon. We are castaways in this terrible bad dream, somebody decided to name Barovia. To switch up the metaphor, we are imprisoned. And the fog is the bars of our cell and our jailer is Baron von Straud. As far as I can tell, there's no way to escape other than possibly by dying. Maybe by being eaten by a wolf, let's say. Gull explosive.

I say turn to look at everybody else. You are interrupted. You see as a small mushroom cloud appears over the tree line. Oh my God. You swear.

You swear. Language. Gretchen says to you. Sorry, I saw I saw, um, yes, you're right. I apologize. Why did I swear, Adam? Yeah, Adam.

Because you saw, a mushroom cloud in the distance. Oh, okay. All right, you know what? Fair enough. Did you see that? She cranes around and you realize you didn't see with your eyes. You sensed the mushroom cloud over the tree line.

A large detonation has just occurred, not close enough that a human could have perceived it, but close enough that you, Hector, could have perceived it. There was, it sounded, it looked like an explosion or something. You didn't see that? Okay. I pointed the direction. How far away are we? Like how many, like, clicks, rides?

After, as the detonation dies down, it flared in your other awareness. And as the detonation dies down, you realize you're going to need to properly tap into it if you want to understand how far you are. Oh, all right. That just seemed dangerous Yeah, it's good to know Just for your own safety There was, um Hang on

I'll, I'll tap in to I'll flex her muscle Oh yeah I just feel I don't know Is Adam like keeping track Yeah

I just feel like he might be I feel like every Hector is evil points One more I feel like every time You use it I yeah I feel like you've used it

Yeah Three or four times He got rid of trumpet You used it You're using it now to look. You looked when you were in the church. There was a couple times back at Rayville. I'm not like, I'm very just, in the back of my mind, I'm aware that this is not something that I should be doing.

But I do know where it was, like in direction. Yeah, you know the direction, yeah. An explosion, you say. Yeah. Yeah, I need to tap. I can't just be like, we'll go that way. Yeah, you got to know what it is. And, you know, with a muscle, every time you use a muscle, it gets stronger.

stronger and you know Oh yeah Adam You make your awareness Through the lands of Barovia Through the Slavitch woods There's a little break where the road Is and you just your awareness

Neatly hops over that break Stretches a little bit closer to that Crater and then You sense As Pip standing At the edge you look down into the crater and you see what looks to be maybe several Vistani family units

have been massacred in this hole. You see the detonation was created with abyssal energies and dying to abyssal magic is not a quick or a pleasant experience. You see a few corpses here that there would be maybe 20, 25 people here total. You can see that this was once a Vistani family. campsite. It is no longer. A ghoul got in and... Yeah, an explosive ghoul got in and destroyed the entire family unit. Like I said, sorry, there are several family units here. You can see they have been absolutely massacred maybe to a person, but not all of them,

not all of them are dead yet, but they do not seem long for this world. Okay, I... Is it, is it me? Yeah, you may act. I... There's no ghoul around, though? The ghoul's like detonated into the Hector? Yes. You sense Pip standing at the edge, Pip swearing as he looks into the edge,

and you vaguely, you can watch as the light dies in those Vistani. And you also sense as several more explosive ghouls slowly approach from different directions. Fuck, can I... Pip, scanning, you see too late, and combat begins.

Okay. Could I have acted? How? I want to be able to try to scream at Pip to either run or to look up. What was about to happen is you weren't necessarily about to be surprised by this, but the ghouls were about to be basically on top of you as combat began, which for explosive ghouls. But you don't want that.

Not ideal. Instead, what happens is you almost like two pips exist for a brief moment. The pip where that happens and then a separate different pip where a terrible wailing scream. Can I maybe, instead of a scream, but in, it's still in Hector's voice, just gets your head on straight and a direction of where the ghouls would be. Well, yes, that is what happens. You say that, but it is a terrible whaling scream. and the role is to make it legible for Pip. Oh, okay, I see.

So you can issue forth this horrible scream. Yeah. The role is, yeah, the role is basically to make it legible and also to not cause Pip to have to roll against fear effects. Fair enough. Okay, okay. The power that you tap into is not designed for this. You're trying to use a, let's say, a machine gun to chop down a tree.

You can do it. But it's going to be messy. That's not really what this thing's made for. Fair enough. Fair enough. A terrible, horrible wailing scream issues forth over the Slavich Woods. And Pip, you hear Hector's voice in that scream calling out, Get your head on straight, look to your left.

Pip, look to your left just in time to spot as a few more ghouls, reveal themselves in among the tree line. The ghouls are, there are, you can see they're a mixture of human and dwarf, or, well, they were once in life. Weird. They stare at you with hungry, cruel, and intelligent eyes. You realize, had you, had your good friend not just alerted you, you 100% would have been, like, trapped, unable to escape.

You now have, you can fall back. If you want. They stare at you with, yeah, like a hunger, an all-consumer hunger. You can see that there is not a hair on their head, though they once may have been. And they have these distended, awful pulsing stomachs, which drag on the ground in front of them. Gross. Their eyes, their red eyes, bathed you in a soft light, which are shocked you didn't notice before. and you can see they have huge bloated purple lips

which they are licking in anticipation of a delicious meal. Okay. Let's go to initiative. Wow. Why are they all dwarves? That's what I want to know. Dwarves and humans. Oh, right.

Still. A mix. None of them are close enough to attack, physically at least. So instead, you see as a few of them, oh, you hear, by the way, scattered, you've lost sight of your companions, but you can hear on either side. of you screams of horror and you watch as some of those ghouls, all of them, start beating their

own bellies. At first you're not sure. There's like a rhythmic drumming that happens. And at first you're not sure if the drumming is the point. But then you realize they're forcing themselves to vomit. Oh my God. They spew. Yeah, you've played Left for Dead too, right?

Yeah, yeah. You know the spitter? Is that what it's called? They spew a awful. file in your direction. Out of, I'm going to say that you can currently see six, but you can

tell that there's more. Okay. Out of the six that you can see, three spew towards you. Okay. Oh. Fuck, dude. Critical hit and regular hit. God damn.

Dude. God damn. What are your hit points right now? Oh, you're full hit point? Yeah. Is that for real? It's for real, dude. I've just been that love to. I've been that love.

Yeah, I think this is for me. Don't make that noise. It's just got a good title, that's all. Okay, so for the range, yeah, for the critical hits, sorry. Your options are, your options are Big Boom or Heroic End. Hey, let's pick a big boom. Are you sure? A little bit.

Surely there's not a bad, there's not a critical hit cut that kills you, right? But a heroic end though. But if we've been running that risk every critical hit from an enemy of just outright death? Big boom. So, this attack will throw you backwards, dealing extra damage, depending on... No, backwards. They attacked you from deeper in the forest. Right.

No, but aren't I looking over the lip of a pit? Yeah. Oh, sorry? They're on the outside of... They're not behind you, so they're going to... So if it hits you, it'll go... Unless it hits you from behind. Yeah, yeah.

So you can imagine... Sorry, I've probably, because I haven't described this, you've been... Probably, you've been moving further into the forest. Yeah. Only a little ways, but there is now a crater that you are standing in front of. And from... Probably like the other side of the crater

And on either side of the crater Yep, yep, yep, yep, no worries, I'm across it now You are going to be thrown backwards And depending on how far you get thrown, you will take extra damage. You will also be knocked prone at the end of this. Cool. But, no extra damage. Hey, that's good.

Just the regular damage that this deals. What was heroic end gonna be? Yeah, out of curiosity, Adam. As a curious fella. Maximum quadruple damage? Jesus Christ. If this attack kills you, all allies who can see you have advantage on their attacks for a D10 rounds. Oh, fabulous.

That's always been there. That's terrifying. Maximum quadruple damage would have been 4, 8, 12, 16 times 4. It's 3264, which wouldn't have killed you. Yeah. But it wouldn't have been fun. No, it wouldn't have been fun. That is correct.

God damn it. So instead, oh no, would have, sorry, I forgot to add the, you. Yeah, it would have killed you. This attack instead deals 12. So much damage. 18 points of damage so far. That's not bad. Maybe I won't hit anything when I go flying back.

It's not like that we're in a forest full of trees. Sharp rocks, stumps. Okay. You take 18 points of poison damage. Oh, poison damage. And you need to make a saving throw versus. is being blinded. Oh, do I?

You... Koss? Okay, thank God. Then you need to make a saving throw or be paralyzed. Oh, do I? Oh, do you? Could I...

This is... Okay. Hey, Adam. Sorry to, like, maybe throw a little something in the mix a little bit right now. Can I, um, take all incoming damage

for one ally this round? Get behind me? Yep. Yeah. If you're willing. The Slavich Woods, you know how when people are trying to explain, like, faster than light travel. One of the classics is, like, they get a piece of paper and they fold it. Oh, yeah, yeah, they do the loop.

Yeah. Can become the same spot in time. You don't know. Well, you actually, from the voice you heard before, you couldn't probably assume this is Hector. Yeah. Hector's in my head somewhere. You watch as presumably Hector folds the Slavage Woods in a similar way. in a similar way

that that piece of paper gets folded when they're explaining that scientific idea. Yeah. Hector? Yep. You take, what did I just say, 18 points of poison damage. Uh-huh.

Which you are not immune to. And then you get thrown back... It's all right. I'm on a horse. It's fine. You get thrown back 15 feet off the horse. Oh, my God. Taking a further 15 points of damage.

So 15 and 18 points of damage. And that was the critical head. Oh, yeah. Oh, and then you have to roll versus being blinded. You pass. And you have to roll versus being paralyzed. Do you have anything for constitution saving? Surely I can help you at here, buddy.

Is every roll- Anything? I was going to say, is it, is it, um... It's a constitution's saving throw. Is it, is it a non-magical attack, Adam? This actually is a non-magical attack somehow. Could I gain resistance to the damage from a non-magical attack? You can gain, that'll half the damage, but it doesn't help with your paralysis.

Oh, yeah. That might be good for the damage and the paralysis. Yeah. The game of Yu-Gi-Oh, remove one condition. Nice. Nice. God damn, dude. So, you take a total of six.

16 points of damage instead, which, uh, forgive me, drops you down to 43. Okay. God damn, dude. You are low. And then the other one hits you, Pip. Mm-hmm. I cannot do it again. Don't, you didn't need to do it once.

Not even here or you're self-sacrificing. You take 14 points of damage from the second attack. Okay. And then you need to roll versus being blinded. Fabulous. You guys are really good at not being blinded. Then you need a roll against being paralyzed and you pass. Fabulous.

You are neither blinded nor paralyzed. Okay. Wonderful. Good to hear. All right. So what did I just say? How much damage? 14 points of damage.

So that drops you down to 72. Yeah. Plenty of hip points. I'm healthy, dude. Healthy as a growing ox. Hector. It's your turn. Right.

How far away are they? Daze. Oh, yeah. I can tell Gretchen to, like, actually know. Gretchen is the third person to swear. Yeah. Language. They're in trouble.

Gould exploding. Do I know what they might be called in a manual? Have you ever... Well, they're a bobman. I believe so, because we fought ghouls before. It's just ghoul explosive. Oh, and one more thing. Sorry, on their turn, they throw up

and then they start sprinting in your direction. Sorry, you are aware of this if you're keeping this awareness out. They're fighting ghouls. Explosive, a lot of death. Hang on. Explosive what? Gules, I get up to my feet

and I try to stagger to the horse. As you start staggering to your horse sector, you hear, but a pa-pah-ba. There's a bunch of ghouls I would like you to kill. Okay. All right.

Hector's evil points. Ten more. Ten? He's controlling a vampire. Are you kidding me? Fair enough. No, he's right. Do you have anything for an intimidation check?

Rerol anything? If you roll anything at work? We roll anything, maybe. You got a knot one, my friend. You don't want to do that. Trumpets will be on you like, wide on rice. You, um, you, so, Hector, you can do this, but it will require, I'm just going to check that you're cool with this. It will require you to, this is less like snapping at an animal and giving it an order, and it's more like snapping at an animal and giving it an order.

And it's more like snapping at an animal and pulling on its lead. Okay. This is you. willingly and knowingly controlling a vampire. Oh, shit. Okay. But you can do it. I can do it.

Just letting you know that's you doing that. No, so, but like, if I don't, he's going to attack me, presumably. Yeah. Yeah. And also, now, explosive ghouls. I think Pips in immense danger right now, yeah? You are aware that there's 12 of them in total. Yeah, and I'm like, I think Pips, like, he might die.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I yank the chain. Fuck. Trumpets turns into a flock of birds and flies at an incredible speed. All right.

That will be your turn, Hector. That's okay. You can see six to attack you. Okay. Now, my first question, Adam, is how gull venom. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

How quickly does that turn someone into a ghoul? They need to be killed. Yeah. So when you die, if you've been attacked by a ghoul? What I'm thinking about is the 25 Vistani in the crater. That's what's been on my mind the whole time, Adam. The first thing I was going to do is get in there and end their miseries and they didn't come back. But now I know they need to be killed to goolify.

I also need to check if they've been poisoned or if they were killed by the abyssal damage because it needs to be ghoul venom that brings them back from the dead. It's like seconds after death Fuck Okay And the six goals I can see None are on like my side of the crater They're all over the other side of the crater

No some of them are on the other side of the crater But some of them are Flanking well none of them are on the other side of the crater now Actually sorry they're all sprinting towards you I would say two were directly opposite the crater And both of them like zombies in a fast zombie movie threw themselves into the crater tumbled down it and started sprinting towards you

the other ones are making the way around the Vistani camp flammable? A lot of what has been flammable has been set fire too but... That's good. Goals don't like fire. That's true. Can I... This is fucking crazy but can I... The ghouls are coming around the side of the crater. Can I run into the crater?

Uh-huh. And then immediately breath weapon what's left there to try and I'm resistant to fire, that's fine. I'm going to try and set the remains of the wagons, of the campsite, of the clothes, and the corpses as well,

because they're about to die and come back as 25 extra goals that I don't want to have to deal with. So can I turn this into a, or at least attempt to, turn this into a bonfire that I'll just be in the middle of? You can,

I believe you can make a breath weapon in place of an attack, and you get two attacks. I get two. You can do two. Earth weapons, absolutely. Do they come back as explosive ghouls or regular ghouls? It's not worth the risk.

No, I'm just curious. I would guess regular, but I don't know what makes a ghoul explosive. They come back as an explosive ghoul. Okay. I don't like how Adam before said intelligent. Yeah, me neither. It's not even in Emmanuel. The Emmanuel entry's annoying because he keeps saying they're not like the regular

ghouls, except they are like regular ghouls, but they're not like regular It's very hard to read. And now I'm thinking, like, are these even, like, are they, are they from Borovia? Are these from a different place? Like, a certain Bortchun place. The fact that some of them are humans and some of dwarves is weird to me. Because there's no dwarf population in Borovia. Any dwarves that are here are here accidentally.

So why is there a conflagration of dwarves? Is this a mining team that got lost? I don't know. I'm thinking these are people from, yeah. Orchia and coming through I don't know man I'm scared These people that came in here

Either way I rush in And you start breathing flames And try and make a little bonfire The two Are you attacking the ones That are definitely standing And sprinting towards you The two that tumble in

I'm not attacking any ghoul You're just going for the corpses I'm going for the corpses I basically want to put myself At the center of a bonfire Because that'll kill the Vistani beneath me so they don't come back as ghoul Or if they do come back as ghouls

They come back as ghouls on fire, and it's going to be bad for them. And then the ones on the outside of the crater are not going to come for me. Because they're scared of the fire. You start kicking up some pretty serious flames. Okay, fuck you. There are bits of wagon, wood, bits and pieces. Yeah, things that didn't get burnt the first time that are catching now this time. You start making a fire that is starting to catch and starting to spread.

Hector, you are aware of this fire burning its fire. burning its way around the crater, you could feel as some of what you thought, even you thought were just corpses, start struggling and trying to make their way away from the fire. Oh, God. Okay, okay, cool, wonderful. The number of ghouls goes from 12 to 16 to 18 to 28.

28 ghouls. Yeah. All explosive. If they all go off at once, That will be like a nuke. The concentrated abyssal power. Okay. The ghouls, Hector, start thrashing and kicking up dirt.

You can see, PEP, some of the gul, some of the corpses start getting up and crawling away from you. But not all of them start crawling away from you. You, like, feel elation as you watch as they burn and they just thrash in place. Fuck, yeah. Hector, you know what's actually happening, and you start. start panicking. Oh, no. Oh, God.

Oh, you idiot. Then, your good allies. Okay. You, Hector, yep, clock the number of explosive ghouls going down from 28 to 27

as Keening baths one of them in flames. Pip, you just distantly there's an explosion. Cool, cool. You can see, Hector as well as Iona and Elaniel They can't see any they don't know what's happening right now

They're like trying to find anyone else in the group But everyone's been kind of separated Tiny and Cribut are also acting together And Tiny is kind of being swarmed From several different sides They, the ghouls quite clearly want to get up to him and explode And he, anytime they get close enough He lashes out sending them flying

the entire time, Cribut is just whispering words of encouragement. And then Muriel is circling above as a bird, searching for trying to just corral everyone. You can see her trying to get Iona and Elaniel closer and closer to the rest of the party. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Great. Okay. And then it is the ghouls' turn. Oh, good.

Hector, the ghouls that are near Pep, who he thinks, He is smiting. Continue their little plan. Yep. Pip, you watch as some of the ghouls fall over and the number of ghouls goes down from 27 to 22. Okay, that's pretty good. You kill five newborn explosive ghouls. Okay.

But the ones, and there's now maybe six just in the crater with you. Yeah. Those six just start, they don't go into the flames, but they're just standing at the edges of the flames. looking at you. That's bad news. You are surrounded by a ring of fire and then a ring of ghouls. Okay. It is Hector, your turn.

You also perceive as trumpets being forced against its will. Trumpets is being sent as birds towards this fight, I suppose, on your side. Cool. Okay. How far away is that? Trumpets is making really good distance. trumpets can get there very quickly and maybe you can get there very quickly

but Gretchen can't come I don't like the sound of that nor do I my friend nor do I nor do I can I no I don't want to don't become

I look into that I don't want to look into that I don't think that's for you right now I don't need that in my life the situation's not dire enough for you to become miss I don't know that right now I just know that you're in danger

and oh my God Oh, let me give you the specific danger, I guess. I was trying to hide it from Jackson. So some of the ones that were in the flames were smart enough to realize that if they dug a little bit deep, the fire wouldn't touch them. And they're fine. They're just underneath. And they are presumably waiting for Pip to fuck up and get a little too close. And then they'll explode.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm aware. Okay, okay, okay. So in terms of if I got on the horse inside of riding there. Days. Days. Days. Okay. Trumpets has got it. I don't really want to...

Okay, is there anything else I can do? Trumpets is an animal on a leash, and I'm letting you know, while you have control of trumpets right now, you are aware that's not a permanent... You literally... This is the second time in like a couple hours. You've had to crack the whip at trumpets. Oh, yeah.

But I feel if I have to... Look, if I jump in it and start gliding there myself, that he's also going to divert attention away from trumpets, and you might slip, but I'm worried. Don't drop her in the middle of the thing and go and then let go of the leash. Big Keating are going to be so confused. So confused. What?

And then also I don't really want to leave Gretchen here by herself. Why not? Come on. Do it. Is there anything I could do from this far with the awareness of, like, try to, like, help out. But you can't. I know what I'm saying? I'm the woods, right?

So can I use that to give. either get the wolves or use that to kind of corral people using the trees. Like, what can I do? You can control the wolves if you want. Yeah. Wolves are easy to control. You don't even need to make a roll. You just need to spend your action controlling the wolves.

They'll do what you want. They obey you as they would obey strong. And I don't lose control of trumpets if I use the... No, you don't lose control of... Extrumpets is kind of like... The whip has been cracked and trumpets you can... They'll leave on autopilot. Yeah, yeah.

But you don't, you get the impression. I just don't want to get too distracted and not pay attention to the Trump. Yes, is what I'm saying. It's, imagine you've got like a very vicious dog on the end of a lead. And the dog, it just, this animal wants to kill. And you have the lead. You have some level of control. And it's dangerous because the lead tethers you to this animal.

But it also gives you some control over the animal. All right. That's great. Well, then, well, the wolves then. Go for the wolves. The wolves. They're a beautiful trained animal. Beautiful trained animal.

Yeah, if I can, I don't want to leave Gretchen alone, but I'm like, let's start heading that way. Yeah. And get on the horse, if I can. You won't be able to get on the horse if you're pulling wolves. That's okay. I was just going to start making the way there very slowly, but mostly I'm going to control these wolves. Okay. Pip?

Yeah. What the fuck is happening? You hear wolves. wolves too some kind of all out assault from strad on the party hector knows about and tried to warn me off

Pip, it's your turn okay how many ghouls or like how many bodies that I suspect of ghoulified six oh sorry there's six standing yeah but in terms of the bodies on the

on the ground they all seem to me no you think you need more fire fuck okay and there's not, I'm kind of out of stuff to burn, right? You're not out of stuff to burn, you just haven't, you, you're like putting as much flame as you can. Yeah. But you can't cover everything in a round. So you can keep going if you want, but I think you're running out of flame breath.

I have one flame breath left. Yeah, you do like a cordon of arrows, but if you, you, your cross. With your crossbow switch into fire? Or is that like two friends? I could, but cordon of arrows is also, I don't know how useful it be in this, because it's like they go up in the air and attack when someone comes within the range of them. Essentially, like, making a centric. Yeah, right, right, right, right.

If I were to get these, because I imagine I've just, like, set them on fire and they're, like, kind of spread out. Yeah. If I were to get them together in the middle to, like, build a pyre, would the flames grow higher and the heat increase? You can't reach any, with your hands

unless you want to go through fire. Yeah. You can't reach any bonoble material. I'll do that. All right. I'm resistant. I don't mind. Well, yeah, you could, like,

go over and grab, like, bits of wood and stuff like that and make a, Yeah, I'll do that. All right. I will start building and... Hector, you watch his Pipp steps on a ghoul landmine. No, don't do that. You step into the flames and at first you think,

maybe you're not immune to fire. Then you realize... I'm like, where's the nearest wolf to try to, like, you know, to lunge at you to push you out the way? I'm like, the wolf lunges. I'm like, why the wolves are attacking me? Kill the wolf. You step on an explosive ghoul,

which had been hiding just underneath the flames. It explodes in a burst of blood, guts, and anything the explosive ghoul may have eaten. Okay. You need to make a dexterity saving throw. You pass for half damage, and let me just figure out what that damage is. Fuck.

Well, now I know they're in the ground, I guess. Yeah. 8, 16. Jesus Christ. No, you're 20... No, this will be hard. Oh, that's true, actually. It's 12 points of damage.

Okay. It's like out of a war movie, you step, you hear the fantasy equivalent of a click. Maybe as I step in the like ash and dust, I see the two red eyes open up. Yeah, yeah. Oh, fuck! There's like the teeth just like, yeah. Jump. Oh, fuck.

You roll backwards as dirt and sinew and blood and blood and, a lot of other animals that this thing has eaten get turned up into the air. Oh, fuck, they're in the earth. Oh, fuck, they're in the earth. You hit the ground? You could try that again if you want. You still have plenty of movement left.

Okay, fuck. There's presumably not another one where that detonation was. Well, that's true. Okay. I know that that area is safe. Just letting you know, though, and the other ghouls haven't yet had a chance to capitalize on this.

But that detonation killed the flame in that area. Okay. There's now a gap in your circle. Okay. Do I spend this turn trying to identify where the buried ghouls are, or do I spend it reflaming that? I'm going to, with my crossbow, not my breath, which is probably not going to be as good, but it's better for like a kind of a delicate shot. I'm going to fire to try and refill that, because they're flaming arrows. I'm going to try and refill that bit of fire that's gone, staying where I am.

You don't do a perfect job? but you do create some flames where that gap had been created. Hopefully enough to make them reluctant. Your crossbow bolt, the way it works, when you fire it, that's when it explodes with the magical energy that you have imbued the bolts with. You see, clear as day, as the ghoul's eyes widen a little bit and clock what your crossbow is capable of. Okay.

That's good. Yeah, but can they eat magic? Is it anything they can do? That's bad. You don't know if they can eat magic, but you can, You, they're intelligent enough to be like if we get rid of his crossbow. They are aware now that the crossbow could deal fire. Yeah, okay.

Interesting. You don't know. I don't know what they're going to do with that information, but they, you don't know if they're like an oh no or, mm, delicious. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. If it's, yeah, anyway, that was Pip your turn. It is your allies' turn.

Okay. With help from wolves. Hey. Pip, you hear distantly, four gulls go, four explosive ghouls are destroyed. Okay. Hope there's a safe detonations I'm hearing.

Between Keening, firing bolts of fire at them. Elaniel with her bow now is in the fray as well. As Muriel has kind of like circled the wagons as best she can. There's a pretty thick concentration of the explosive ghouls

near that crater. So they're still cut off from Pip, but the rest of the party with Tiny in the center fighting or battering back anyone who gets too close between Elaniel being Bard-Buffed by Iona Tiny being barred-buffed by Cribut

and Keening just being pretty good at fire magic. Okay, okay. Muriel keeping Overwatch. Trumpets is soon to arrive. And it's the ghouls' turn. Oh, fuck. Oh, God. Two of the ghouls attempt to belch it you, Pip. Okay.

Hit, hit. Fuck. Poison, streams of poison launch themselves through the flames at you. Mm-hmm. I got nothing. I got no Yu-Gi-Oh card to save me here. I got like a re-roll a saving throw or attack roll for an ally. Yeah.

Use you your appropriate modifier. If that will help, I don't. I don't think so. The first one deals 10 points of damage. Oof. Oh, fuck. And then you need to make a saving throw versus blind. Do you have anything for a dexterity saving?

I do. We roll with advantage. Thank God. You're not blinded. Oh, God. Always good. Now, paralyzed. Do you have anything for a Constitution?

Is it a saving? It's a saving throw. Can I roll it for him? Roll a saving throw. Let me show you how. Roll a saving throw using a saving throw using a saving throw. using my appropriate modifier. I think I'm better.

I'm better with advantage X-Nam. I imagine you would be. Still fails. I can triple my proficiency bonus. You triple his proficiency bonus? Oh, you're not profite. Neither of you are proficient with prostitution saving throws. I am.

Oh, you are? Oh, that's right. Sorry, I haven't updated for that. Yes, if you triple his proficiency bonus, and he rolls using it. Somehow, as you're about to get, like, a wolf comes in and, like, steps into about to hit it. Let me show you how.

And then you're like, no, wolf, like this. No, this is how you're doing. Triple your proficiency bonus. The second one deals 15 points of damage. Fuck, dude. You're on 35. Okay. Dietl, deedle.

At least you're not paralyzed. Save versus blind? Oh, it happens again? Do you have anything for a dexterity save? No. Fuck. You're not paralyzed. Okay.

That's fine. This is fine. The poison, as it sails through the flames, the first one buffets you against your chest and down onto your legs. You feel it sizzling and burning. The second one, you turn, you flinch in pain, and the second one hits you from your chest up into your face. Both of your eyes are burning out of their sockets, and you bring a hand up to your eyes. While that happens, Hector, you're the only one. who sees this as one of the other ghouls gestures at Pip and a ghoul darts in between the little gaps that still existed and then races for Pip's crossbow.

Fuck. Pip, you feel as hands, strong, powerful hands wrap around the crossbow and you know what it is because it's gut bumps up against yours. Disgusting. Horrible. You need to make a athletics or... acrobatics check to prevent yourself from being disarmed. All right. You are...

Do you have... Parabatics or athletics? Yeah, you're not... It's the same modifier for either one. Pip Mandarin is disarmed by the ghoul. Have a chain on it, though? Yeah, it's strapped around my body.

But, I mean, they can slip it over my head. Actually, you know what? No, no, no. I would have given you them advantage to not be disarmed. Yeah, it's wrapped around my body. You're struggling, you are not disarmed. No, okay. We're struggling now with this ghoul. Okay, I thought, like, he throws them as an arc, as it's just like the chain goes thought.

Oh, right, right. That's right. Is it a chain or a sling? It's a sling. It's a sling. It's one of the, we've brought it up before that was one of Duraq's first lessons is have it on you because if you fall unconscious or you fall over or whatever, it's going to stay on your body. So it's saddened on to me. Well, that's, it saved my ass multiple times.

And maybe we'll see if it saves your ass this time, but it's, it's sad on to me. It's still with you. Currently, yeah. Hector, it's your turn. Can I direct as many wolves as I can to helping Pip right now, either the ghoul that is wrestling with or the ghoul that gave the signal? You can. I'm letting you know they are real.

So the wolves could be directed to help the rest of the party or Pip, both of whom need that help. Okay. Where's trumpets? Trumpets, she's about to land on the next turn. So the next time I'm talking about the allies, trumpets will be among them. Okay, okay. Well, there's a lot more, I mean, there's, I mean, I care so much about Pip.

And there is a lot of allies there that are also... Yeah, I am by myself. And you are by yourself. So, but also you could send Trumpets to me instead of the party. It's up to you. You've kind of got two, for the next round. You got two possible ways to help. Will the wolves get to Pip at this round? The wolves? They will act. They'll act this round, yes. Okay. And could they get the Pip this round? They could, yes. Yeah, okay. I'm saying the wolves. All right.

Okay. Send in the wolves, Adam. End in the wolves. That will be your action again. But with Gretchen's help, you have enough movement that you can get up onto the horse. Yeah, I like to imagine that, like, either just, you don't really... If Gretchen helps you get up onto the horse, would you help Gretchen get up onto the horse? Sorry, please go on.

Yeah, I would help Gretchen get up on the horse. Ew. Gross. Sorry, please go on. Yeah, like, yeah, just like half. Kind of not really there, but kind of there. You're like, we just need to ride this way. I'm doing all I can.

Thank you. All right. Can I ride, um, yeah, can you, uh, basically, can I ride with you? Yeah, you can ride with me, Gretchen says. Yeah, just lead the, very unaware of what's happening. I'll explain everything later, just. Gretchen, can't grab the horse. Gretchen could tell that something's going on.

Yeah. Even though she doesn't know what's exactly happening. She helps you up onto her horse. Thank you. Thank you. The two of you start. You probably need her to not go at a full canter while you're focusing on this. Yep, that's fine.

And, yeah, we'll lash the horses together. All right. We're not going to get there in any way, shape. Yeah, you're not getting there today. It doesn't matter. PIP. Oh! Wolfs 2.

Okay, the one that I'm wrestling with, that's got to be my main focus. I'd like to grab its head and flame breath, like, directly onto it. Okay, cool. It's right in front of me. Let me cook this motherfucker. It passes, but

because it's vulnerable to this, it would take half damage, it just takes... rather than taking double damage, it takes full damage. Okay. It's fine. A U. Deal... 11, 18 points of damage to this explosive gore. Tell a fella. Yeah.

When it dies, if it dies. Do they blow up on death? I mean, probably. Just curious. Just examine it here being curious. If Emmanuel was easier to read, I'd know that. Where's the fun in that? Heise or lows, Pip?

Let's go lows. Loz? Mm-hmm. All right. So, I am revealing. Okay. That highs is a goat. All right.

Let's change to mids. It's always better to change. Always better to change. All right. The ghoul does not, refuses, I should say, to let go of the crossbow. Okay.

Damn. Well, the multi-hop problem doesn't always work. It doesn't always work. Because I feel like I say more and more. Yeah. So maybe I've got to stop swapping. That's what I'm hearing. All right.

Then it is your allies's turn. Okay. Without the wolves' help? Oh no. No, they're able to keep their ground. Keening watches, you see Keenning watch the wolves leave and then he starts bringing out the big guns. You, Pip, from where you are, it feels like the flames intensify as Hector, you see Keening

draw a line in the dirt around the group and as he draws the line, this huge wall of flame. erupt. Keening builds a house made out of fire. Fuck yeah. That's awesome. You can see it's taking them, it takes, it's an effort for him to keep it going, but it keeps the ghouls at bay. You watch us two ghouls are consumed by the flames. Nice. And then the wolves descend, the wolves that you sent descend upon Pip. Pip, you hear snarling and snapping teeth. I'm struggling to get that crossbow to kill. You're blind as well. I don't know what's going on. As your eyes are no longer available to you, your other senses become keener and you feel for a brief moment in the snarling and snapping, you feel like you hear,

is this a nightmare? This has to be a nightmare. The wolves are, the wolves fighting the ghoul, the ghouls easily outclass wolves. They're slaughtering wolves The ghouls are either belching upon them, burning them away, picking wolves up and tearing them in half, but there are so many wolves

that they reduce the ghouls' number by one. Okay, okay. So down to 15. Pip, you feel a distant, not distant, sorry, you feel a very near explosion as the wolves take out one of the ghouls and you hear,

I don't know what is happening. And finally, Before we return back to the ghouls' turn, Pip, you hear, I imagine that's like a drop of, like, ice in my veins. That's like pushing Pip to the brink of madness. What started as a simple ghoul by the side of the road has snowballed into like a who's who of Pip's old enemies. It's like a full-on mental break for Pip.

Yeah, I don't know what is happening. I think Pip refuses to believe that what he's heard is trumpets. All right. It's the ghouls. The ghouls have it, ladies and gentlemen. You continue to struggle with the ghoul in front of you, which, sorry, you get advantage on this. Check. Come on.

Okay. You both kind of fumbled this one. Both of you start slipping and stumbling in the dirt. But you manage to keep control. Well, not control, but you managed not to lose the crossbow yet. And while that's happening, three goals this time open up on you. Oh, fuck, dude. It hit.

Okay. Okay. That's fine. Whatever. You can't be double-blinded. Exactly. I'm already blind. Honestly, to get paralyzed, be great.

Then I'm just, what can they do other than hurt me physically? What can they do except eat me maybe? Yeah, I don't know. Turn me into a goal or something. Yeah, turn me into a goal. Pip, you take 22 points of damage total. Jesus Christ, dude. You're on 13.

You were at full... I was at 70 at the beginning. You were full hip-in. No, 86. Yeah. You're in 86? Yeah. 86.

Well... All right. No need to roll for being blinded. Mm-hmm. That's good. Do you have anything for two different constitutions? I do not. Adam.

Pip, you feel... As you're splattered once again with this poison, you feel as it seeps into your veins anywhere the poison touches you you feel your body locking up and freezing Okay Okay cool all right I need okay

Do you have anything sorry you're about to No I just gotta see very funny What's gonna happen on my turn And it's gonna scare Pip harder So it's good Pip yeah The crossbow is gently Taken off your body

Oh no Fuck And then the ghoul throws it into the woods Okay Fuck. Fuck. Okay. I see that, yeah?

Yeah. Okay. You're aware. And it's your turn, Hector. Okay. So, okay. I mean, Trumpets is here. Yeah, right.

Trumpets has arrived. Trumpet has arrived. I sent some orders. Several wolves. I'm going to try to drag Pip away. He's surrounded by flames. That's fine. You can order the wolves to do that, but a bunch will die getting to him, and then they will drag him through fire.

He's a, he's, he's, I'm resisting. That's fine. But I do, okay, all right. Okay, okay. I don't want to lose, I don't want to lose that many wolves. All right, I want to grab, wolves to go and find the crossbow. Okay, they can do that. Yep, to then bring it to, no, we're still paralyzed.

Find the crossbow, keep the crossbow safe. Okay, they can do that. Okay. Don't give the crossbowl. Yeah. It seems weird. You don't even if trumpets can use the crossbow. That's what I mean.

That'd be strange. How many ghouls are written? No, there's one ghoul around. There's six. Four. ghouls left. Sorry, 15. 15 ghouls left.

But there's one gole around, basically. The one that threw the crossbow. Yeah, there's one right next to him. That's, all right. I need to either get the wolves to drag PIP out or the, or the wolves to drag the gul out.

And, okay, a bunch of wolves, get the crossbow, a bunch of wolves to drag that gul out of that fire. And then trumpets. Trumpets will come in and clean them up, hopefully. Let's have trumpets start cooking.

Okay. I'm so sorry, can you give me that plan again? Sorry. A bunch of wolves to go secure the crossbow? Wolf secure the crossbow, yes. Another few to go and drag that ghoul that's near pip out of the, out of near pip. Basically to drag that goal away. And then for trumpets, to also assist pips, all those ghoul that are around pipp.

Okay. Assist with. Assist with the calls that are around pip. The ghouls. So if you want to give any orders to trumpet Trumpets is here to help But if you want trumpets to do anything specific That requires pulling at the chain

I did say to Trump I just want to kill ghouls Yeah that's fine All right that's great that's great That's all I want If you need, yeah If you just want like anything more specific Than that basically At this moment in time

There's only one ghoul that's really going after Jack Yeah I pull the chain Yeah Hell yeah There's more. That's, they're spitting on you. They're spitting on me.

They've been, that's really been causing me the most problems. So we're, do you have anything for an intimidation check? Oh, fuck. This is kind of important. If you lose control. Oh, no. He's, what have you done? Is it a strength base?

No, it's a charisma. I have a strength base check. I got nothing. I can roll my initiative. I can rerol an attack. I missed. I can use Vatic gaze to sense magical ores. Can I cash in four cards?

You know what? Four, four good boy cards. I'll trade that in and I won't say, I won't give you a re-roll, but I'll say someone comes to your aid. Oh, so it's like something fortuitous happens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't like how he said that yes, but he did.

He seemed sarcastic. I think I got a laugh last. I say that while laughing. But I think it's true. I think I'm listening back to this. I think I chuckled too much. You are a chuggler. It's true about you.

You're a chuzzle-lown. I do. I do, I do. You're a chuckle hound. Yeah, I feel like it detract. Anyway. Okay, I'll, I'll, yeah, look. Yes.

I'll tell you. Four, the four good boy cards. Yes. Some help. All right. Something good happens, Adam. The lead. the lead goes around.

Trumpets goes taut and then snaps. Trumpets as a flock of birds has landed dead center of the crater reforming next to PIP. And when Trumpets reforms, and you give that command, you draw the lead tight and it snaps, Trumpets looks at PIP hungrily.

And then as Trumpets is about to lunge, forwards. Pip, you hear the sound of a swarm of birds landing next to you, forming into something. Fuck, dude, it really is trumpets. You hear, and then time pauses. Trumpets launching on one side, the ghoul staring at, because the ghoul is right. You're either going to turn into a ghoul or a film. This went so bad. The ghoul tearing at you from one side, Trump, it's about to sink her teeth in you on the other side.

At time pauses. For everyone except you, Hector. Hector, you can't act, though. There's nothing... Like, you could maybe, like, look around or move around and that sort of stuff. But there's no action that you can perform. A warm, comforting presence wraps itself around you from behind. And you hear...

As if he were there, you can tell he's not physically present, but as if he was present, you feel Hector. Okay. There's a few things running through my head when he said he, narrowed it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But not by much. Yeah, that is. That's true. You feel Strad, Strad's presence behind you.

Yes, Stratter. This is a null muscle for you. I did not intend for you to try so much, so fast. Truth be told neither did I. I did not think he would run into the crater. Thought he was a seasoned monster hunter. He stepped on one, you know. These creatures, and maybe you feel a sense of irony of strad.

He's referring to trumpets when he says these creatures. These creatures are strong. willful. And you feel his hands slide down your arms, wrap around your hands, and together you hold the metaphorical lead. Strad Hector. Let me show you how.

Thank you. This is all very new to me. And together you pull at trumpets as lead with Strad there showing you Trumpets breaks Time starts again Trumpets Midleap is

jerked backwards As you reassert control As Strat's presence draws back as he recedes Returns to Castle Ravenloft You hear Hector Always remember If they will not bend

Sometimes you need to break them All right. That was your turn. What did you want trumpets to do? Well, I get help. You wanted trumpets to specifically focus on ghouls that are attacking Pip. That's correct. Okay.

Pip, unfortunately, you can do nothing for your action, but at the end of your turn, you get to roll to recover from the paralysis. Is the paralysis a poison? It is a poison effect. Can I use protection from poison? Is that a spell? Yeah, it's one of the spells by air. Does it have under the spell components?

Does it have V or S? It has both. You cannot cast that spell. I cannot speak or move. Yes. Good to do before, I reckon. Yeah, they would have been smart at some point. Oh, well.

But at the end of your turn, you can roll to resist or to recover from the paralysis, which you succeed. You can't act to this turn, but the paralysis ends. Cool. Time to die. I'm still proud. Yeah? Sorry? I'm still blind, yeah?

Yeah, you're still blind. You can spend an action to recover from that, though. Okay. Well, we'll see. Okay. You hear from behind you... I imagine my heart is going a million miles an hour. Hector, you watch his trumpets, leaps from ignoring the flames, almost as if they don't really affect her.

She leaps from ghoul to ghoul to ghoul. In a turn, she kills three. That's good. Very briefly, while that's happening, trumpets, you feel her hands on your shoulder and just gently in your ear, what the fuck is happening? And then trumpets continues. The ghoul in front of you isn't just, actually, no, I guess you aren't aware that the ghoul is killed. But Hector, you watch, trumpets grabs and then.

punches with birds, sending that ghoul flying backwards, such that when it detonates, it's far away from Pimp. Fuck. And then, unfortunately, Keening loses control of the firehouse. One of the ghouls sprints through a gap, and you hear a distant detonation, Pip. Okay, but I've been hearing them the whole time. So I can't really determine what's it? good detonation and what's a bad detonation. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Hector. Yeah. The formation is scattered. Tiny is not able to get there in time. Cribut is blown off Tiny's back and lands in the mud a bit away from where the house is dying down. Keening loses all control over his spell. The flames gutter and then completely go out.

Keeneing is blasted backwards. You see him land bodily. as well, and then you feel the rock underneath his head crack into the back of his head. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, fuck. Tiny and Elaniel

both brace and manage to hold their stance against the detonation. And you watch as Iona just behind Elaniel is staggered backwards a couple feet, trips over, and lands on her back. You can see she streaked with damage as the abyssal energy.

seep into her skin. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She tears at some of the abyssal energies as they're settling, like flames that are slowly dying, and she throws them off herself. Elaniel looks around and then scrambles her way over to Keening, picking him up and trying to get him moving. Tiny does the same with Cribut, who is lying very motionless right now. Oh, fuck.

They're both lying motionless? Yes. You can see Keening is bleeding from the back of the head. Okay, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck, fuck. It's the ghouls' turn. How many ghouls are left? There are, well, one of them just detonated.

There are 11 ghouls left. You watch Hector. When is it my turn? You watch Hector as six more of the stani corpses rise. Okay. You're back up to 17. I'm assuming my fire's out, too. The fire is slowly starting to gutter out, yes.

Okay. The ghouls begin attacking trumpets as well, but they're not able. to do their trumpets is immune to the poison outright. So unless they're able to physically attack trumpets, she isn't taking any damage. And the ones that do manage to swipe at her, she's resistant to their claw attacks anyway. Trumpets fights like a dancer. And the entire time, she is singing like she's a, it feels like a play as she moves. As she bounces from one ghoul to the next, she seemingly impervious to the damage, but leaving a wake of detonated

ghouls behind her. Two ghouls, belch. At, Pip, miss, critical. Okay. Pip, that one doesn't count. Whoops.

Okay. Whispers of doom or core blimey, governor? Are you making these up? You've got to go colblyby. Govny.

You develop an accent. Completely different to the one you had before. Permanently! Okay. No, that's great. That's great. I know exactly what I'm going to do with this on my turn.

Okay. Pip, you take 14 points of damage. That is going to reduce you to zero. Can I use tireless, which is an ability I always forget I have? Which gives me 1D8 plus my wisdom modifier a temporary hip point. please. I will say you did this on your paralyzed terms. 1D8 plus your WIS modifier. You get an extra 9 temp hit points so you burn through those immediately. Reducing it the damage though to 5. So you are on 8 hit points.

You should do that more often. I should remember I have it truly. You're here often. Yeah. Yeah. That is true. All right. Oh, yes. So, Pip, you are slammed in the head. All of the belch hits you full front in the face. You need to have rolled versus paralysis.

Of course, dude. Why, of course. You pass. Okay, thank God. And you are not paralyzed, but as the sheer impact, Pip, rattles your brain. Yeah, yeah. I think the sheer.

amount of concentrated trauma happening to me is rattling my brains. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Mm-hmm. All right, that was that was the ghouls' turn. Okay. And Hector, what would you like to do?

Their ghouls are back up to 17. Trumpets is doing a good job, though. Trumpets is doing a great job. Yeah, Gouls are up to 17. Trump is doing a great job. You're almost paralyzed, still blind. Yes, I am still blind. You have no crossbow.

Keeneing's bleeding out Krippett's bleeding out Who knows how many I tell Gretchen I need to I need to leave for a moment Can I give I give I give directions of where to go

Just letting you know Just in case this affects you in the future Or this affects your decision Because I know you don't I know Gretchen is an important part of your psyche right now You are just traveling through the slagely So you can give her directions and Gretchen is definitely enough of a woodsman that she can navigate, but you are leaving her alone in the Slavish woods.

Are we in the Slavish woods or are we on the road near the Slavish woods? You're in the Slavish woods. Because you were making a B-Len. You were making a B-Line. She can navigate, but she will be alone. I won't be gone for long. Gretchen, it's a hand on your shoulder and not knowing what's happening still, but understanding that you wouldn't leave her unless it was important,

Brechen says, go. I want to just get as there as quick as I can right next to Keening, and I want to cast Healing Hands. You could do that this turn, absolutely. You hear Elaniel scream at your appearance, but then you are next to Keening and you're casting healing hands. 44 healthy. Fuck.

What do you get that from? Warlock? Being in Esmere. Oh, cool. Hell yeah. 44. All right. Keening.

Get back in the fight. Pip is in trouble. Hector? Get back in the fight. Pipp is in trouble. Keening rolls over and gets to his feet. Okay, cool. As he gets up, he picks up his hat, gives it a little flick and puts it on his head.

All right, all right, all right, all right. Cool, cool, cool. That will be your turn, Hector. Okay, and commanding strike. What's near us? Near you? There's four ghouls near you coming from different angles. They're unpurposely trying to create, trying to encircle you, basically.

Can I commanding strike? It's four for Keening to use an attack. Sure, absolutely. As a bonus action. As a bonus action, you point to one of the ghouls and Keening following your gaze, he lowers himself into a shooting position, kind of, not like kneeling or anything like that, just gets a little low. And then he quick draws his own hand.

fans his thumb and three bolts of flames leap striking the ghoul it detonates immediately you're down to 16th fantastic I'm action searching fuck this hell yeah rock on what I fucking have right now

okay cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool all right action search already um let's see here what can I do okay I can I can uh I can do if I shatter How many can I hit? If you shatter.

You could only hit one. That's not good. Pretty spaced out. Okay, cool. All right. I will then... Algic blast or... No.

Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. What's the nearest, I guess? How many near me?

There's three in this little clearing that you're in. Okay, cool. If I was to use a spear at distance, would that be a number of? to distance myself from the blast radius? No, not from what you've seen. Okay, cool. And if, uh, all right, Aldrich Blast.

All right, you fire an Eldrick blast. I think you fire two. I think you do. I was just like, if one doesn't kill, if one kills it, they're the next one. But if not, then both at one. Double on one fellow. Your Eldrick Blast shatters one of the ghouls, forcing it back a couple steps, but it does not break the ghoul.

Okay. Okay. That's fine. You see from the hold that you made in it, abyssal energy is leaking into Borovia. You feel the foul corruption, even for a place like Barovia, pure hells is something else entirely. Okay. Can I use a fainting attack to give advantage for that attack? Sure, yeah.

Just to try them. Get them fucking dead, dude. You hit a second time, but you don't. don't deal a critical. The second strike blasts it a bit more. It's bloodied, badly damaged, but it's still standing, unfortunately. The ghoul is leaching abyssal energy out. You can see its angry red eyes staring at you, and you know, on its turn, it's

going to charge intending on exploding next to you. Yep. That's great to hear. That's great to hear. Is there anything else, Hector? I thought I can do this turn Pip, you are not paralyzed But you are blinded

You're not next to you You can't sense anything next to you If you want, you can get the muck out of your eyes So if I have a good boy card that gives me a spell Vatic gaze So I can see or it lets me sense magical oras But I need to be concentrating Can I attack while concentrating?

Yeah, you can attack while concentrating I would like to use my good boy card I like to imagine as I was hit by the acid I fell on my ass and my like alchemist's case just like kind of sprawled out next to me. And as part of that vatic gaze for 10 minutes, I can detect oras. And then in the mental prison of Pip's mind, Pop pushes him out of the way. Out of the way, Pip squeak. And then I would like to reach into the like my alchemical ingredients sprawled around me,

pick up two four-mean eyes in my hands for deforming magic. just start swinging. You pick up the four-me-in-ey-eyes, and as you get back to your feet, you feel something nudging against your thigh. Yeah. Touching down, you can feel two things. Yeah.

Your crossbow and the wolf that is holding it for you. I think Pips has sort of a mental break, so I pick up the crossbow, swing it around my shoulders, but I'm not interested in using it. Okay, yeah, no worries. That's fine. Yeah. Thanks, dog. Thanks, pop.

And then I'm going to, yeah, run over with my vatic gaze. With your vatic gaze, the abyssal energies that are fill, or that fill these creatures, make them like fucking beacons in a black wasteland. All right. I would like to run over to one who just slam the formian eye into the head of one of them, just squish it like squeezing an orange on a juicer onto its head. And then the other one right into the breadbasket. You start battering, clobbering another. Fuck off! Leave him a fucking load! He's out of it fucking tough! All right!

You start battering one of these ghouls. Fuck yeah. Oh, fuck yeah. It's your allies' turn. Oh, gosh, darn. Elaniel is, you can hear distantly, Pip, are yelling. Fuck off, leave him alone! He's had it really rough for the last couple. fucking years, all right?

I want to use a fucking crossbow with his fish to do the job. I want to just be staring slack, George. Like, I've seen a lot of stuff happen in Borovia. What the fuck is this? Just, what happened to him?

Elaniel, looking in that direction, has like a puzzled expression in her face, completely unaware of who's making this noise, just aware that someone, a potential ally is nearby, and you see she starts sprinting in that direction, firing flaming arrows into a ghoul in the way. She plugs the ghoul a few times and then it gets closer enough, runs up the ghoul,

leaps over that ghoul and keeps sprinting in Pipp's direction. Iona bringing up the rear runs past with her loot in both hands, crack into the side of the ghoul's head. hit as the ghoul hits the ground Iona jumps as the explosion launches her a bit further along Tiny

sprints towards that's another ghoul down Tiny sprints towards one of the other ghouls that you guys are fighting and then with a final punch that ghoul gets thrown backwards and detonates against the train

knocking it over Cribbit who is lying very still on the ground is scooped up by Keening, who probably Iona was initially going to tend to cribbit, but then Keening gestures for her to follow Elaniel. Keening scoops up cribbit, cradling him in one hand, and then starts backing up, once again also towards the crater, firing at the final ghoul in this clearing and looking at you, Hector, like, come on, come with me.

All righty, already. He smites that. Oh, that would be the ghoul that you were fighting, actually. You, um, oh yeah, you and Keening firing Eldrick Blast and fiery bolt both down one more ghoul. And then it is the ghouls's turn. Am I wolves doing anything? Oh, the wolves, of course, I forgot. And trumpets.

Oh, yeah, of course. Trumpets, trumpets focusing on the ghouls that are fighting, Pip, that ghoul in front of you gets picked up and thrown. Yeah. Do the formian eyes, because I use them to deform magic, which I know that I'm not using them in any alchemical way whatsoever. Yeah. But when they're squished into the heads of the, or when they touch the ghouls, do they have any effect on them at all? They overcome the ghoul's damage reduction. Well, hey, I'll take it.

That ghoul that you're fighting gets, ba-da-da-da-ba-ba! Gets picked up and thrown. Cheers, darling. Trumpets, Hector, you watch, moves through that crater and takes out another ghoul. The wolves together, the pack of wolves absolutely massacre these ghouls. You are running out of, you have killed all of the wolves in this section of the Slavich Woods, but in exchange, they have whittled the explosive ghouls down to five. Pip?

Yeah. Or should I say pop? You feel as wave after wave of abyssal energy washes over you From the different detonations Then it is the ghouls' turn There's only five of them left And they attempt to flee Okay

Hector, it's your turn You can feel the ghouls receding, trying to escape Can I, how far away are they from me? They're... Maybe only a hundred feet, but they're in tree cover. So you can't physically see them. You're just aware of them through your connection. All right, all right, all right.

Well, in that case, I'll just direct. I'll direct trumpets after them. And if I can, oh, I always forget it's an intimidation. Yes. Not 20. Get a good boy card. Nice. Get a good boy card.

and trumpets is going to go to ensure that they don't get away. Excellent. I'm sorry. I cannot stay long. I want to look at Cribert. Is he breathing? Crippett. You make a medicine check.

Crippet is dead. Can I grab Crippett's body? Uh-huh. And I want to get out of here. You leave with Cripit? All right. That's your turn. What can I do to bring him back out?

Adam. We'll get back to that in a moment. Pip, pop. Yeah, lucky I'm not Pip right now. Your turn. Right. Can I see the fleeing ghouls? Yeah. All right. I'd like to use this good boy card hot and cold to change the kind of damage I do to fire. And then I would like to once again reach into the alchemy pouch and pull out some like, I don't know, I'm sure I have something in there that makes my hands burn. You have some, I'm sure you have some, what was it, the essence, the essence of elemental. Yes. Yeah, yes. some essence of elemental, just dig my hands.

You crush that in your hands and you feel your hands burst in the flames. Point at the fleeing ghouls. O, where the fuck are you going? And then I'd like to run after them, leap on top of one and just start strangling him with my hands. You pop its head like a fucking champagne cork. It detonates beneath you. You're not 100% sure that it didn't want this. Yeah, well, look, Pip's not in the best frame of mind right now.

But you nonetheless reduce the number of. by one, you're just going to have to tank a bit of damage. You pass the saving throws for half damage. Okay. Pip-pop. Yep. Everything goes black. Can you do that thing? You can do it again, yeah? I don't believe so.

Do it as many times as the LISD modifier. Well, I'll tell you what. Oh, can't I? Then I'll do it again. Wait, what's this? I can do it as many times as my Wismuth? It says an action. Ah, okay. My action was strangling the goal to death. Yeah. You are but, sorry, what was I going to say? Actually, both of you for good role playing, draw a good boycott each As a good fight

Okay Did, just the good buy, is it something that can help? Unfortunately Joel, if it's something that helps No, no, I don't know Oh, yeah, okay Yeah, how much, how much points, how much damage you take? He took, oh, I didn't, uh, I just realized it was way more than

It was like 19, it was 93 points of damage And if I take that, do I get that halved? If you take it, no, it's not halved. Oh, well, oh, I see what you're asking. You would need to make a separate save. Yes, I'll take it for PIP. Another piece of Hector. You've popped through the formian eyes that you're seeing.

You watch the curvature of the Slavich Woods get fucked up as Hector takes this damage for you. Hector, you make the saving throw. So it was 23 halved. You take 11 points of damage. You're on eight hit points. All right. That was Pip Pop's turn. Each of your allies's turn.

Pop, you feel... Yeah. No, you see. Sorry. Oh, no, you just feel. You actually don't see tiny. But you feel something big. I don't know if you're aware.

Yeah. I don't know if Pip Pop is aware of what Tiny is. Not really. Pip would know Tiny lands next to you and then starts wailing. Elaniel and Iona arrive on the scene and you can just hear, twang, twang, you every now and then, from both Tiny when Tiny uses his, the natural key, his natural magic within him, every now and then you see these little flashes of magic.

The same with Elaniel, they're like flavored different colors. You see, it feels like Almost like watching a Picasso painting Materialize and dematerialize You watch little bursts, little patters of magic And then you can hear Iona singing distantly You through Iona's singing You recover

16 headpoints Oh nice. Nice. So you're back up to 24. Nice. And, Hector, are you still keeping your awareness? I suppose you are because you just saved. Yes, I'm still keeping my awareness.

I have a question. Yeah. So, what do I know about healing magic? I know I no longer have it. I have a little bit. I'm remnants. Yeah. The closest thing that I can think of right now

that is potentially a very powerful healer is Tarpos. Tarpos, through her druidic powers, is probably the most powerful healer. you're aware of. The archedrood of this place I am aware of. I make a beeline to her. Okay. We'll say as the party,

but with wolves and with the wolves and with trumpets, as they destroy the last of the ghouls, and Iona helps you to your feet, pip pot, you appear in front of Tarpos. Tarpos looks at you, not startled like Iona was, and Keening, but looks at you like she knew this was always going to happen. She reaches out.

I can't. I hand her cribbit. Save him. Do what you can. Please. Can. Please. Do what you can.

Okay. You understand as well as she does. While she knows the proper rights to perform to, to bring Cribut back. You also know, both of you know, that there is not, you can't, normally, you can't bring someone back without a cost. And to bring someone back in Borovia,

the cost will be terrible. Bring him back. I will pay the cost. Okay. I bring back. Need part of you. Maybe big part. You really need to go.

What part do you need? Need, uh, Is same part connected to land now? You need that. Like river flow two directions. One to strad, one to frog. Okay. I need to get back.

Hugo, just need this part to stay. Okay. Yeah? Okay. Can take, she says. She reaches out a hand. Can I get back to Gretchen if she take? Do you ask her that, or are you kind of questioning yourself?

I ask her that. Yeah. I guess like I can get back to Gretchen if... You are like a fork in river. You go both directions. You can get to Gretchen. Okay. You take.

You take. Okay. Hurt for one moment, then never again. Tapos reaches into your chest and doesn't grab your heart but grabs a thread of your soul and pulls that back out. You feel, Hector, your soul leaving you through where... Strad bit you and through where Tarpos is pulling it out of you. Your soul stretches and warps in a terrible way.

And then you don't feel pain from your soul ever again. You'll be okay. We'll use to stitch soul back to body. Thank you. I then run back. Well, you leave Tarpos. You're next to Gretchen again. Gretchen, again.

swears. She was not expecting this. Language. As you leave, you feel Hector, imagine that your soul is a sweater. And your soul does not just represent, it's not

just like your immortal being. It's also your connection to humanity, shall we say. It's like connection to humanity, the gods you believe in, all of that kind of stuff. How thread bear is mine? Don't answer.

When you give a thread of your soul to the gods, because the gods are everywhere, they do not need to go far. But when you give it to more and more and more people, even if the gods are everywhere and they don't need to go far, slowly the thread, slowly the sweater becomes unraveled. And cribbit, out of all the entities you have given your soul to, Cribbits is the one that unravels you the most. Cribbit is not everywhere.

And while you love Cribut and while this sacrifice was born out of humanity, it costs you a lot of humanity. More than Strad, more than Vampier, more than Eileen, more than Pena. You're the soul, the sweater of your soul, comes so undone in this act. And in that moment, you completely forget, having disconnected, having for a brief moment at least, lost your connection to humanity, you forget that trumpets could kill so many of your friends. Fuck. And we shall say that the, apart from just losing a bit of your humanity, we shall say that the cost of bringing back, Kribut, is that trumpets, pip, pop, wheels around on you.

having killed all she can kill of these ghouls she cannot eat she looks to the thing that she wants to eat unbeknownst to you all of this unbeknownst to you Hector you look at Gretchen as she says is everything

okay? No no they they want to take on strad and I want them to take on a butcher and but I don't think they could

do either. They almost died to goals. They're all so weak. We're all just so weak. I must save them. I have to save them. I need to save them. I will, I will save them. I will save them. Whatever it takes. To keep them safe and alive, to keep them safe and alive, I... to keep them safe and a life. I will do anything. Far away in Castle Ravenloft. Stroud smiles.