D&D is For Nerds - Cult & Roses Chapter 2: The People At the Bottom of the Sea

Episode Date: June 6, 2026

Suspicions are high as Leopold’s Errant Mercenaries begin to investigate, starting with the childhood bedroom of Jocelyn Solverson. Rather than providing an answer, the contents of the room only pro...voke further question. Tyke Baphammer destroys the rooms walls, convinced that a special diary lies within, Ephraim leaves the room entirely to investigate a suspicious lake to great effect (aside from the poisoning), and Sticks stands on a magic rock. As our heroes investigate something is beginning to become clear: the answer, whatever it is, lies deep beneath the waves.If you want to hear more of Ellie Morris and Henry Shields go check out the Hell or High Rollers Podcast!And 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Fairburn Point is a city famous for two things, fish and coal. It is famous for these two because that is all they export, because people born in Fairburn Point tend to spend their entire lives here, and people who travel to Fairbarn Point don't tend to leave. It is also the only major city in the nation of Kandor to not be connected via the King's Road, which is how they prefer it. As far as they are concerned, fish and coal goes out, And in exchange, nothing disturbs their solitude.
Starting point is 00:00:32 Our daughter, our eldest, Jocelyn, two nights ago, went missing. Her room was empty in the morning. And at first we thought she had fled with a local boy, a Eugene. Some lower-class trash, son of a fisherman. Also, apparently, a member of the cult of sail and salt. At first we thought she was just besotted with this boy, a teenage fancy. but perhaps it was more than that. Perhaps it was magics.
Starting point is 00:01:02 We are here to help and we promise we will bring your daughter back in one piece, if not two. One would be preferred, thank you. I'll note that down. One is preferred. One will be the goal. So I will lead you to Jocelyn's room. Okay, great.
Starting point is 00:01:18 He takes you up. Jocelyn's room is pretty typical, you would say, maybe for a girl her age. There's a bookshelf. with a small library of novels. You can see one corner of the room is dominated almost entirely by art supplies. You see like a few easels with in-progress paintings and then a sort of a stack of paintings that have been finished. You can see an unmade bed and you can see a old chest which appears to be filled with children's toys.
Starting point is 00:01:49 Where would you like to begin searching? First of all, does it seem like they've touched it since she's disappeared? Like, can I see evidence that, I mean, I guess I don't. It looks undisturbed. Yeah, I guess I can't see anything. But you're blind, so in order to see all of this, you're just touching everything. In the active crime scene. Just walking around.
Starting point is 00:02:05 I'm getting my fingerprints all over it. Disturbing all the evidence. You can see, actually, as you're, you can tell, sorry, when I said they left it undisturbed, there is probably one change. You can see that someone, presumably Jocelyn, made like a rope out of her bedsheets and threw that out the window. That has been pulled back up. Okay. Okay. So she wasn't kidnapped.
Starting point is 00:02:29 Yeah. She left of her own... Maybe I say this, by this rope, which I hold up, it appears she left of her own accord. Hmm. Okay, I'm going to search... Can I search the room for diaries? I'm, like, trying to hunt down and see if she's written any kind of... Where would a 17-year-old girl hide her diary?
Starting point is 00:02:45 Where would you like to look first for the diary? Okay. I am going to look under the pillow, under the mattress. The bed, you... Like, there's many pillows scattered around the bed. You pick them up, turn them over, you look underneath the bed. You see a, there's a teddy bear dressed as a gallant knight bearing the sigil of Fairburn Point. Charming. That, maybe you, uh...
Starting point is 00:03:10 I take it. I'm about to say, do you tear it open? Of course not. There's no diary eyeing. She just liked to look at that one. Yeah, you pick that up and pocket that. Yeah. You find no diary there.
Starting point is 00:03:21 There's the, what would you like to, while, you know, you're looking for a diary, what would you like to be doing? She's crafty, this teenage girl. She's hidden the diary in the walls. I smash the walls with a hammer. Okay. Going in there. Smart. Smart move.
Starting point is 00:03:35 Smash a hole in, start reaching through. You destroy one of the walls, but find nothing. Floor boards. What about floorboards? Can we notice any floorboard? You. There's also no evidence that there is a diary. Yeah, but there might be.
Starting point is 00:03:50 There might be. I like we've not checked the bookshops. You're terrible. Floorboards. Too easy. You find nothing underneath the floorboards. And, Ephraim, where... Can I...
Starting point is 00:04:03 Obviously, this of everything would be the hardest for me to be able to touch and see. I mean, I have blind sense, but I don't know if that really gives me... I want to look at the paintings that she's done. Okay. Which maybe involves me holding them out and asking the two of you to describe them to me. Oh, yeah, okay, we can do that. You describe there's a bunch of different paintings of... Sorry, a bunch of the paintings of vistas.
Starting point is 00:04:25 You see a nearby... Park, horses galloping, ships at sea. There are a bunch that are of roses in bloom. And then you find several paintings of a young boy. Oh, oh my gosh. He has a rakish grin, short blonde hair, and he, in many of them, is either holding a lute or flowers. Surely this is Eugene.
Starting point is 00:04:49 This looks like a Eugene to me. Well, he is, you know, he's quite good looking, I have to say. Yes, he's handsome. Finally, one of the paintings that you hold up is an unfinished painting of the view outside the window in this bedroom. You obviously can't see this, Ephraim, and sticks, you don't pick up on this, but Tyke, you see something that chills your heart. In an unfinished segment where the lake is being painted, you can see many bodies crawling out of the lake. Whoa, like, in real life? In the painting.
Starting point is 00:05:25 In the painting. Whoa. What is it? Everybody's just gone very quiet. This painting, it shows bodies crawling out of the water of the lake right out there. The same lake that you sensed. The lake that I sensed evil in. And that they were all weird about.
Starting point is 00:05:40 Okay. Oh, dodgy lake. And lakes, I mean, dodgy lake. And this cult of sail and salt. I suppose, you know, because what I think is, well, that's a, there's a, connection to water there and a connection to water with the lake. Though the lake, could I go out to it right now? If you wanted to, yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:03 One moment. This is just a... I'm just a theory. Sir Solveson escorts you. He didn't enter into the bedroom, but he has been kind of like escorting you this entire time. He takes you down to the lake. As he takes you down, he maybe informs you where, he like points to a section of the lake where they found the bar. Oh, not, sorry, section of the lake. Section of the lawn near the lake where they they found the body. Is there like a little dock or something on the lake? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:27 I'd like to go to the end of the dock. This is just a theory this may prove to be nothing. I get down on my knees and I scoop a bit of the lake and I taste it for salt. It tastes of salt water. Oh, okay. I stand up. A salt lake. Well, have you come down with me?
Starting point is 00:06:45 No. I'm in the bedroom tearing apart every painting, every pillow, every cushion, ripping them to pieces. You take the bookshelf off the walls, throw it to the ground, books spill out everywhere. There's romance, there's adventure novels, there's picture books from when she was presumably younger. You're ripping every page out of the book. He's not even looking for anything anymore. You're just ripping them all to shreds. It's just a frenzied attack on the roof.
Starting point is 00:07:11 They are quite good. You, yeah, down at the lake. Look up the windows, books fly out of it. I rest assured, they're very good. We're finding... The methods unconventional. There's a secret message in this room somewhere. Yeah, we're convinced.
Starting point is 00:07:29 Okay. Well, I think I might try and retrace the steps of the princess. So can I try and go out of the window using the same device that she, the sheets? So I'm going to make my way down to you via that and just see if I can detect anything on the way down. It's not a hard check, but I did have to quickly roll just in case you fall. Okay, that's fine. Well, yeah, I'm kind of abstaining down the side of the house. do I see anything that is kind of a clue?
Starting point is 00:07:54 Looking around, what would you see? Good question. You see as, you certainly see as Ephraim takes a little like drink of the water by the lake. Looking around, actually, you know what you do see? Near where Ephraim and Sir Solvison are. Oh, you would be perfect. Yes, you see like a little glint. There's something shiny in the lawn.
Starting point is 00:08:15 Oh, oh, oh, okay, I run over to it. You get down to the bottom. Yeah. You sprint over. Sir Solvison. No, actually, sorry, Ephraim, you see that Stix runs over to roughly where Solvison said they found the body, and you find a dagger. Look, a dagger, a dagger.
Starting point is 00:08:33 Spit out as much salt water as possible because it's probably no good to swallow it. I'll go over and look at the dagger. Okay, yeah. Wow, so what does it look like? Sticks, it is a pretty dagger. You would describe it as ornate. It has an E carved into the blade of it. I was about to say that's my name, but I'm... That's Ephraim's name.
Starting point is 00:08:54 Ephraim, you dropped your dagger. Oh, yeah. Clubs you up to me. Mystery's hole. While this is happening, yeah. Tyke, as you're tearing pages out of books, you recognize dear diary.
Starting point is 00:09:10 Yes. He's such a friend. He reads it. He's writing the diaries. He rips apart. Dear diary and he's ripped all the pages out. And they've all gone scattered with all the other books. Right.
Starting point is 00:09:22 Excellent. Can I read the diary? It's a bit torn up now, but you've found it. Can I immediately read this young girl's diary? I assume when you were tearing, you were tearing from the front back. So you're able to read kind of the most recent entries. You see that she's writing about meeting this new boy, Eugene. And she talks about, like, they go on long walks together, and he plays, like, his lute for her.
Starting point is 00:09:49 He's, like, written songs about her. And then at about two or three months ago, you see that the entries change, and she starts talking about how she, Eugene won't stop talking. Instead of singing about their love, he starts singing about a character called the drowned oracle. Whoa, no. He starts talking about how Ahealia is mad at the world, that there's a rot in the land itself, and that the sea must retake the land. to cleanse it.
Starting point is 00:10:21 Oh my gosh. Okay. And she starts in her journal, she starts talking about how she's kind of like worried for Eugene. And she can still see that he's there, but she feels like she's losing him. And then the last entry is about how they are going to meet for a midnight rendezvous. And Eugene wants to tell her something.
Starting point is 00:10:42 Okay. It's hot goss. Okay. Right. Um, I pocket the diary. Head down. Ab sail down.
Starting point is 00:10:48 Ab sail down. Of course. Okay. Choosing to do this Okay, you have sailed down successfully. Out on the lawn, the e-dagger looking at it as a Eugene. It's got to be right.
Starting point is 00:11:03 I would imagine. So Solvison, who is standing near the two of you, well, I mean, potentially, the squire who was killed, though, master Elias. Ah. Is there blood on the dagger at all? Like even dried?
Starting point is 00:11:20 You find out by feeling it? I go, you smell a taste. Lick it. He's got a high and sense of taste. You lick it? Yeah. Why should I not? You lick the dagger and immediately the world starts spinning.
Starting point is 00:11:34 You sticks. You watch as Ephraim clutches at his throat. Ephraim, you can't breathe. Oh, my God. You are all right. I cast. Do I cast? Can I try and ask?
Starting point is 00:11:50 Watch him dine. It's what you get! I cast Healing Word. Immediately try and heal whatever's done to. You cast Healing Word. So this is not typically, because he's not actually losing hit points, he's suffocating. Healing Word doesn't typically work like this, but I will allow what's called a strained spell, where you need to roll Arcana to kind of convert what the spell normally does into something similar.
Starting point is 00:12:16 You roll, and you're able to, effort. from, okay, not strangled, then, stabbed. Stabbed or made to suck a dagger. Suck the dagger, suck the dagger. I have detect poison and diseases. That's good. Use it. I place it down and like. Shot that out, yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:43 If you cast that, the dagger glows white, hot. There is a poison upon the dagger. There's a poison on this dagger. identify it? Yeah, can I do some kind of... You attempt to identify it and you can't, there's no name for this poison, but
Starting point is 00:13:00 you detect several things about it. First off, the way it works is that someone hit with this poison and it's a it actually doesn't even require a wound touching the blade of the dagger is enough. The poison upon the dagger
Starting point is 00:13:16 when it is, makes contact with someone's body, it magically forces them to need to breathe water instead of air. Oh, my gosh. The effect of the poison seems to be permanent as well. Ever thank you. I've like cured you of this. You can magically cure someone, but aside from magically curing, there's no, like, duration.
Starting point is 00:13:39 I could have carried him around in a little baggy, like my gold touch. Maybe I'm like, looking at the goldfish and, like, clutching my neck. Like, oh, thank God. Will it have the opposite effect on the goldfish? Let's try it out. You don't think it'll have the opposite effect on the goldfish, unfortunately. Okay. Wow, a new kind of poison.
Starting point is 00:13:59 This is amazing. I've always wanted to name something after myself. You should be very careful with this dagger. You'll name it after yourself. Go on. Please do. Yes, it's going to be called stixendium poison. Stixendium.
Starting point is 00:14:11 Yes, I'll write it down now. Lovely. Okay. So no one touch the blade of the dagger. Okay. Or you'll just be wrecked for the rest of your life. Okay. I'm going to wrap it up in a bit of cloth that I have and tuck it away.
Starting point is 00:14:22 I think we're going to keep this thing, powerful stuff. The poison, you detect two other things about it. First off, that it is not of this world. It's not of the material realm. It comes from somewhere else, and you also get the impression that this is ancient somehow. This is like older than time. Whoa.
Starting point is 00:14:44 Wow. This is really, wait, the dagger or the... poison. The poison. Because the dagger poison. That's the way. Okay. So this is, so this, this is itself a clue.
Starting point is 00:14:55 Yes. To some sort of dark ancient cult, I think. I suppose. The salt, saline salt. Your daughter Penelope, uh, I assume she's buried. Penelope has been interred in the family. Cripped. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:09 Okay. Would we be able to? You would speak with the people at the house of the dead. They could help you with that. I, uh, We'll write, give you special permission. Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:15:21 I think that would be our next port of call. Yes. This salt lake. How deep is it? It's maybe 10 feet at the deepest. Oh, it's not a deep lake. Not terribly. Because I was thinking the same thing.
Starting point is 00:15:34 That is in the lake. Perhaps that's where Jocelyn, a great place to hide someone. I'm going to break your game now. Oh my God. I'm going to cast Og's comical door. I'm going to cast one end of the door at the bottom of the lake and the other end over 120 feet away
Starting point is 00:15:52 and I'm going to drain the lake. Cool. Yeah. So it's like putting it like a plug hole, like a sinkhole in the bottom of the lake, just flat door. Odds or evens? Odds. You sure about that?
Starting point is 00:16:06 Yes. You sure? Yes. Okay. The door works. Yes! You place it somewhere. You're clever about it so that the water doesn't just
Starting point is 00:16:17 filter right back in. You place it somewhere out of the way. You open the door and then you drain the lake. So Solvison gives like a not knowing what you were about to do. You drain the lake and you can see the lake bed now laid bare for you to find. What would you like to do? It's very muddy. No body's immediately visible. You have a little search. Not immediately visible. No. Wow, okay. You have a little squidgeridoo
Starting point is 00:16:47 and you while you don't see anything Tyke, Ephraim, you don't find anything sticks slopping about in the mud. Straight in that mud. Immediately, every page upon you is now stained with mud.
Starting point is 00:17:04 But slopping around in the mud, you start digging at maybe like the dead center of where the lake once was and you uncover a stone slab in the center. The stone slab, as soon as you uncover it, you're like bathed in the scent of the sea. Salt air, sea spray.
Starting point is 00:17:25 It feels like you're standing on the beach as you unearth this stone slab. Looking at it, there's nothing marked upon it, but you get, once again, like with the dagger, but this time you don't need to cast a spell to feel it. This feels not of this world, and it feels ancient. Something about this stone is all. Give, come over here, come over here to the middle. Okay, I'll wait a, wait in. Can I, like, feel it for, like, any kind of markings, or is it just, like, a slab of rock?
Starting point is 00:17:55 It's not even, like, a perfectly cut or anything like that. It's just roughly hewn edges. The top of it is very flat, but apart from that, you see no obvious markings or indentations. Okay. Can I, can I, can I, can I clap? Do you stand on top of it? I think I stand on top. realize you were going to do that.
Starting point is 00:18:14 You can if you want, yeah. I think I will. All right. You stand on top of it and for a brief moment, you are underwater, deep underwater. Somewhere maybe at the bottom of the ocean, you look around and it's like black, like shadow upon shadow, but something big swims past and then you're back where you were. Okay, I jump off the rock. Okay, okay.
Starting point is 00:18:39 That's a magic rock, everyone. That is a magic rock. I mean, I figured what happened to you? Well, why don't you get in the sea? I'm not going to do that. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Oh, no. Ephraim, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. That's okay.
Starting point is 00:18:56 Does it seem like, this is a hard thing to tell. Does it seem like the rock was placed here or was here, especially given how old it is, I guess. But, like, is it like somebody in an attempt to curse the lake dropped this in here? or this was here and they filled the lake in on top of it. You... I don't know how I'd be able to know that, but... No, I think, like, patting about at the edges, because it was partially submerged.
Starting point is 00:19:22 Yeah. Submerged, sorry, partially covered. Padding about at the edges, you get the impression of intentionally hiding. Okay. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, interesting. I, well, I turn from the lake to Solverson,
Starting point is 00:19:37 who I imagine is just on the edge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you know about this? No, he says, what is it? It's the ancient magical rock that transports you deep under the ocean floor. Okay. Not under the floor. Not under the floor.
Starting point is 00:19:52 No, he was confused. When he says that he doesn't know about it, that that brings true? Yes, that is possibly the first thing he's told you. That is completely true. Okay, we're winning him over. So are there markings on this rock? No, no markings whatsoever. Okay.
Starting point is 00:20:07 Anyone else want to stand on it? No, no. Oh, there is like an edge to it. I mean, like, no joins in the rock. Nothing that looks like. It's one piece. Yeah, yes, yes, it's one piece. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:19 Okay. Very interesting. I'll get on the rock. You are somewhere deep underwater. Once again, in this brief moment, like, you don't get any idea other than it's big, but shadow upon shadow, something swims by. And maybe because you were already expecting that. because Stix has already told you about this,
Starting point is 00:20:43 you have enough time to like comprehend something else, you get the impression that you are surrounded by people, and then you're back where you are. What did you see? There's people there. There's people on the other side. Not just a big fish. There's a big fish, but there's also folk down there.
Starting point is 00:21:01 Okay. See people. Put it all together. We've got this poison. Yes. That allows you to breathe underwater, forces you to breathe underwater. And we've got people at what looks like the bottom of the ocean breathing underwater.
Starting point is 00:21:14 So they've intentionally given themselves the ability to breathe underwater, and they've gone down there to worship some sort of fish god. Solved. And why did they kill Penelope, I say? They needed sacrifices. Well, they didn't kill Jocelyn, but they killed Penelope. Well, maybe they lured them there and then did some sort of sacrificial thing. I don't know if it's quite over.
Starting point is 00:21:38 This all sounds like that cost. I was telling you about. Perhaps as I said, the temple of Eheelia would know more than I would. We'll go there next. Well, we'll go to the House of the Dead next. Well, yeah, we've got to inspect that body as well. We'll inspect the body. So, yeah, we want to know if it died by drowning.
Starting point is 00:21:54 Yes. Check the body of the, yes, of the guard, but also of Penelope. Body of Penelope was found in the Temple of Eheria. Yes, there's a pool there. She was found face down in the water. Right. So I think we probably know the guard was killed by this dagger, right? Yeah, sure.
Starting point is 00:22:08 Like, that's pretty certain. And Penelope was, so there's some sort of ritual sacrificing going on. Yeah. Yeah. But why? But why? A couple of questions. Well, you've won that, yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:19 But how does Eugene figure into this? Yeah, let's go and see Eugene. And why has Jocelyn not been killed in the same way Penelope has? Perhaps she has. We haven't found her. Maybe we'll arrive at the Temple of Hellier and there she'll be. Yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 00:22:33 The House of the Dead next place? Yeah, I think so. So, as you leave the Solveson estate, invisible eyes, watch. Then, one by one, they close. You arrive at the House of the Dead, or as it's colloquially known, the Chapel of Ends. It's a... The people here worship a god called Aor, who is God of the Dead, he who will judge the dead and send them on to the appropriate afterlife. The Chapel of Ends, it's a very quiet building on the edge of town. There's no grand graveyard here, but there are a few for important people. There are a few... For important people, there are
Starting point is 00:23:10 family crypts, and then many other people get sent to smaller graveyards around town. A large, simple, marble, white marble building stands as the chapel of ends. You can see that acolytes are silently wandering around the grounds here doing business, like attending to some of the crypts or just cleaning or maintaining the grounds, that sort of thing. Okay. Okay. Can we see anyone who looks like they're in charge?
Starting point is 00:23:38 You see no one who looks like they're in charge here. It looks like maybe lower level peons have to do this work. You might want to go inside to find someone important. Okay, okay. That means we're in charge. Yeah. All right. Okay.
Starting point is 00:23:51 An excellent deduction. Can we see what might be the Solvison crypt? Yes. One of them is clearly marked as the Solvison crypt. And you have been given that note of permission allowing you. Only Penelope is in the Solvison crypt, yeah? The guard is just like... Yeah, no, he is not being in charge.
Starting point is 00:24:08 He is currently being prepared for burial still. Ephraim, are you really going to dig up that grave? Well, hopefully, it's a crypt. She'll just be lying there or a plinth. Oh, yes. Yeah. It'll be all right. It'll be fine.
Starting point is 00:24:21 It's in the interest of helping the family. No, that's true. It's in the interest of getting 500 gold. Yes. Well, perhaps. Should we start by? Yes, perhaps we split up. Split up?
Starting point is 00:24:31 Yes. So one of you had to look at the body of the god currently being prepared. Maybe you want to do that. Tyke, sticks. Perhaps you want to go and try and find the person in charge and ask if you can, you know, about the god and about the crypt and about Penelope as well and I'll go and I'll investigate the Solverson family crypt.
Starting point is 00:24:53 Does that sound like a plan? It sounds all right. I do just want to flag. You are an evil old man. Yes. And you have given yourself the task of being alone with a young girl's dead body. I'm not that. I just want to try to be evil.
Starting point is 00:25:04 How evil you are. You're not that kind of evil I'm not that kind of evil All right, God I feel like you trust him Alone with a corpse Yeah, we've been Yeah, we've been traveling together
Starting point is 00:25:16 For a long time I'm a good guy I'm just evil If you know other reason Then if he does anything It might void your contract I can get 500 bucks out of this Okay, yeah
Starting point is 00:25:26 I'll head down into the crypt To investigate One of the Akelytes who's just standing nearby If you present the letter He with keys Unlocks the crypt for you Meanwhile, the two of you enter into the main building. Inside the main building, immediately in front of you, is a statue of Aor himself, depicted as a figure wearing this long black, very classic Grim Reaper style, long black cloak.
Starting point is 00:25:52 And in one scolethal hand, he holds a set of scales, and in the other, a classic scythe. A old man approaches you, introduces himself, I am the voice. at the threshold. Who may I ask is calling? Ah, my name is Styx. I'm a mercenary. And this is my colleague. I am Tyke, Bappammer, worshipper of the great Uncle Bert. You here have a fine temple. Thank you. I have heard of Uncle Bert. Of course you have, yes. Many worshippers across the land.
Starting point is 00:26:29 Sort of runs a cult. Yes, I had heard this. Sir Solverson sent ahead You are to inspect the body of Master Elias Yes Please follow me We have him in a place called the Chamber of Recitation It is where someone's
Starting point is 00:26:50 Deeds are recorded So that they might be presented to AOR for judgment Oh lovely So hold on who's doing what Oh so I'm going to go look wait Well you were going to be talking to this person And you were going to be looking at the body but coincidentally you get to do the same thing.
Starting point is 00:27:05 Okay, great. Okay, fine, great. Great. That's three split is too much. He takes you into the chamber of recitation. There are many stone slabs here. Each of them is, there's a body being prepared for burial on each of them. You can see there are many people wondering about here, casting either spells or preparing rituals, just learning about the person so that they can then present this information to Aor,
Starting point is 00:27:30 who will then judge their afterlife. you are taken to Master Elias specifically. You can see his body, even in death, you can see he's still so blue around the neck that it extends up to his ears. Oh, my gosh. Are his eyes open? Yes.
Starting point is 00:27:46 Can I see if his pupils are shaped in any certain way? That is an incredible question. Thank you for asking. You see, and you are rewarded, not by finding out that his pupils are of a strange shape, But he has a rose tattoo on one arm. It's very obviously a rose in bloom. While you're inspecting his body as well,
Starting point is 00:28:10 you can see that there are in places just like little black abscesses on his body. And if you touch or move them at all, you feel they're like full of fluid. Oh, my gosh. This is quite disgusting. As I just press them. Just so much. Oh, gross. Wow. Okay.
Starting point is 00:28:34 Well, we want to know what that fluid is. We've got to check the fluid. We've got to drain him. Lance that shit. Yeah. We've got to lance of one of the things. Hell yeah. You do a decent job of lancing one of these abscesses without, you know, touching any of this.
Starting point is 00:28:50 This black bile leaks out of it. It's thick and kind of like molassesy. It slowly trails down him and pool. wherever you cut these abscesses. They're not like huge bulbous things. They're quite small. But when you cut them open, you can see they go deep into him. Whoa.
Starting point is 00:29:10 Get Ephraim to taste it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take a little sample. Take a sample. Good idea. Good idea. Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:29:19 Do you actually just quickly check? Yeah. You take a sample, but you don't taste it. No, no, no. I don't taste it. No, everyone's going to taste it. Okay. You might not consent.
Starting point is 00:29:28 Yeah, I might not know what I'm tasting. We'll tell them. We got to taste it. some chocolate up for him. Okay. The voice at the threshold says, there is one thing I would show you. A strange property.
Starting point is 00:29:44 I have never seen this about the dead before. He drags his hand along the stone slab, and there's arcane markings on the side of them. They flare up, and the corpse of Master Elias sits upright. Both of you recognize a speak with dead spell. Okay, cool, cool. cool. Please, he says gesturing to the corpse, ask it a question.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Oh my gosh. Were you killed by Jocelyn? Master Elias's corpse confidently says, I don't. He doesn't remember. He will give this response to any question. Really? What's the last thing you remember? Death. Okay. What's the thing you remember before death? I don't remember. Weird.
Starting point is 00:30:33 Okay. So he's had his memory wiped. Would other corpses be able to answer normally? The voice at the threshold nods, yes, this has never been in. I have worked this many years, this job. I have never seen this before. Well, okay. I mean, I'm also quite forgetful.
Starting point is 00:30:51 It happens to the best of us. It does. I mean, yeah, I say to the corpse, don't feel bad about it. You know, it's fine. And also, actually, I learned earlier that if you forget something, you can act like you're just sad. and cover it really well. So if you do that, it will be good. And I think we'll end it there.
Starting point is 00:31:11 Thank you so much for joining us. If people want to hear more of you, where can they find you individually? But also as a group, where can they find you? So my name is Ellie Morris. You can find me on Instagram. Our show is called Hell or High Rollers. It is a podcast set in D&D Hell, where four villains try and escape from D&D Hell. And I'm Henry Shields.
Starting point is 00:31:30 You can find me on Instagram and other things. Also, we're part of a company called Mollers. mischief theatre operating out of the UK and we do loads of theatre things. Amazing. And comedy. Yeah. Cool. Thank you so much.

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