D&D is For Nerds - Fall from Grace: The City #4 A Suspicious Setup

Episode Date: September 26, 2020

D&D is for Nerds Art Competition:We have several copies of the Wardlings Campaign Guide & we want to give our top arty types a copy! Prizes are as follows:First place: WCG + 1 year King subSecond place: WCG + 1 year Hero subThird place: WCG + 1 year Champ subFourth place: WCGTo enter, follow us on Twitter or Instagram and post your best art piece inspired by D&D is for Nerds. Make sure you use the hashtag #dndnerdsart so that we can find you! Entries close Sep 30, winners announced here Oct 9. Best of luck, and happy creatingSign up to our newsletter here. Join our facebook group here.You can now physically send us stuff to PO BOX 7127, Reservoir East, Victoria, 3073.Want to help support the show?Sanspants+ | Shop | TeesWant to get in contact with us?Email | Twitter | Website | Facebook | RedditOr individually at;Adam | Cass | Tom | Jackson | ZammitTheme music by the wonderfully talented Mia (AtomicCupcakes). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sands Pants Radio, Australia's dumbest podcast network. Before she strapped me into my screen-proof bed each night, my mother used to whisper to me, Adam, D&D is for nerds is holding another art competition. Three lucky people are going to have the chance to win a copy of the Wardlings campaign book. For years, I never really understood what she meant, but now I guess I do, since if you enjoyed the lovely little adventure, Trouble at Farrowind Farm, then do I have news for you. Just create any art inspired by something you loved or hated on D&D is for Nerds and post it to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag DNDNDRDNerdsArt to to enter if you find yourself social media scared like myself then you can also

email your art to sanspantsradio at gmail.com entries close september 30th and winners will be announced on october 9th good luck and don't forget the hashtag dnd nerds art on a related note once she was done brushing my teeth, my mother also used to sing my favorite song. Dear little one, your friend Handsome Tom has turned the auticus adventure into a novel. If you loved Jackson, going griffin mad, then just go to our merch store. Boy, if only I knew how prophetic that was. To purchase a physical copy, ebook, or even both in a bundle, just head on down to sanspantsradio.com and click the link for merch. Now, on to the show. Once, many years ago, when the sun still shone brightly, there lived a brave and cunning adventurer named Sir Jordan Grace.

Having just saved the town of Ampwick from the great and terrible Necro Wizard, he decided to celebrate with his good friends and companions. But, unbeknownst to him, something terrible was awakening deep beneath the earth, and his time in Ambwek was far from over. Welcome to episode 4 of Fall from Grace, part 2, The City. Previously... Then you have swarm of cranium rats. Ah, this is sounding right. How is there a page for Illilith? This is more evidence to my Emmanuel the Monster was written by 50 people over years. They are insidious masterminds that harvest entire races

for their own twisted ends. Four tentacles snake from their octopus-like heads, flexing in hungry anticipation when sentient creatures come near. And then the guard you were talking to says, just don't tell them I sent you through. I wouldn't. They step aside.

Have we checked any of these people for brains? I guess we wouldn't think to. No, you haven't. I know you wouldn't. Well, now it's on my mind. You know, it's really dangerous. What is? I know what's coming.

I'm just goofing. A lot just happened then, Zen, but dangerous. What is? I know what's coming. I'm just goofing. A lot just happened then, Zen. But the coroner is gone. That is going to be a problem. I'd like to start in the dust on the floor, mapping something out. Like, maybe Ampwick, if it's political. Captain Anded leans forward in his unconscious state,

and you hear his mouth opens and he makes that noise and then his ear begins to move. It's sometimes referred to as an illithid tadpole. A brain slug. Crack open my lady's slipper journal and begin writing. But instead of transforming the creature

it takes control of the creature. Okay, cool. Alright. What was that about? Just a concerned member of nobility. Zinm. Alright. What was that about? Just a concerned member of nobility. Zinmalin turns around and asks no further questions. I say that with exactly the same tone as said in bed. After inspecting the

body of Lady Enel's brother, you get back to the lightning axe. And Sir Richard Ware and Thudu are also there. How was your day, I say to them. Maybe as I sit down at the table everyone's at and Thudu are also there. How was your day, I say to them. Maybe as I sit down at the table everyone's at. Thudu shakes her head and says, There were no leads that we could find.

That's a shame. We searched around. Doesn't seem like anyone really knows anything, unfortunately. That's fair. I relay everything we discovered. Things are heating up, gang. As you're having the conversation, so Richard Ware, maybe you talk about the lonely illithid.

And so Richard Ware notes that in his and Thudu's search, they came up with no, like, there are missing persons, but none that are suspicious. Yeah, okay. There might be a couple of missing persons, but they're, like skipped town yeah yeah it's a medieval city it's hard to keep track of everyone yeah none of them seem like anything untoward every every single missing person within town can kind of be accounted for okay as as in like someone who had a lot of debt and they probably left to another town or someone someone who had, like, a mistress or something like that

and they've probably run off with the mistress. That sort of stuff. Well, at the table, I'd like to be like, let's establish... I mean, if everybody's up for it, let's try and establish a timeline. Okay. So a month ago, NOMA's trading company arrives. That's probably our first point in in in our timeline correct who says well i would say it's uh wasn't it a little bit more than a month only a couple days though that's true okay

yeah a couple days month and a bit the gnomish trading company arrives then we start to get disappearances or or murders okay so the who was the first to go? The first, clearly the most recent, but previous to that. Was it Lady and Elle's brother? He was among the first, but he wasn't the first. Okay, there are still some we don't know about as well. Yeah, the first to go was Jane. Cool. Jane was a professional.

So, like, someone who worked a trade. Sure. Okay, so the NOMA's trading company arrives. Jane murdered. Okay. Then several other people murdered. Lady and Elle's brother. So we have a series of murders after the NOMA's trading company.

The first murders are in the castle pier that's right castle pier grand market nobles village the inner part of the city yeah then they start spiraling outwards you get ones in the north market you get ones in the fake castle farthing okay the artist district the armorers village and the south gate market it doesn't seem like there's any noticeable pattern to these does it they definitely get further every kill is a little bit further from castle pier hmm that's interesting okay the armorers village is by far well not by far it's the furthest one out but by like a slight margin probably yeah okay okay the armor is village where where that kill was was very close to one of the two south gates so one of the actual exits to the city is it trying

to leave maybe hmm where says maybe it's uh hiding in a building right here in this very building who do shakes her head general and says a building in here, in this very building. Voodoo shakes her head. Zinrolin says, a building in the building, of course. Well, it must be in the city somewhere. I mean, like, there's just no way to figure out from this pattern, because nothing's centralized. I mean, I guess it's kind of all centralized about

about Castle... Castle Pier. Castle Pier. Really? Hmm. Hmm. Well, tomorrow I'm going to head down to the docks. You're all welcome to join me. I'm going to chat to some people about the Gnomish Trading Company. Do we know much about where the Gnomish Trading Company,

like, how far-reaching it is? Do you know what I mean? Like, what's our base knowledge of the Gnomish Trading Company? You know that you've seen them around Kandor like they're big yeah they're the closest this medieval world has to like a like a megacorp yeah megacorp basically they're typically considered very nice people yeah they're very industrious they're gnomes yeah they've never they've never really been implicated with anything unpleasant. You know that they hate slave trading. They refuse to deal with anyone who even deals with slave traders.

Okay. You know that they do a lot of business with the dwarves. They do a lot of business with Kandor as well, but a lot of business with the dwarves. Then some business with the elves. The elves don't typically like the products produced by the nomish merchant company but yeah they're they're very they're very far-reaching they go all over another question just just out of curiosity do i know what if there would be any political

implications to say a member of house grace marrying a member of House Enel. House Grace is a very old and proud lineage. You come from like people who have had the king's ear for years. You are maybe kind of distantly related to the king, like a third or fifth cousin maybe of the king. Yeah, sure. So you're like a very big, important, noble house. Lady Anel comes from a less reputable house.

It's also technically a foreign house. Her house is very close in a lot of ways, closely tied with Blue Beach rather than with Kandor. And especially with her half-brother, there's been a lot of scandals and stuff like that controversy she would definitely be marrying up yeah your house is probably a lot richer but her house in blue beach is a lot more important yeah okay cool all right no good to know just just curious you know that well you may be if you're trying to rationalize things a little bit as well, you know that Blue Beach and Candle are trying to be a lot more friendlier recently.

Okay. Because there's like a big unification push. Cool. So you know that if you were to marry or you, if you're, like I said, if you're trying to justify things. Just thinking thinking you know a marriage between lady and l's house which is a very important it very important strategically kind of important it could be yeah it could be seen as a very good strategic move the king might even praise you for it wow that's uh that doesn't sound too shabby at all.

All right. And, hey, Glass Slipper and Glass Rose, come on. Cool. Well, in that case, I guess after we kind of discuss it, figure out a timeline, I suppose it'll be time for bed. You head back into your beds. You have a restful sleep that i will mark on your character sheet one restful tally them up tally them up how many have you had over the course of the adventure the next day rolls around after a a nice meal you i presume head towards yeah head towards the dogs

yeah all right is everybody coming with me? I would say so. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think everyone. There's not much else. Like, Thudu and Sir Richard Ware are kind of tired of hitting dead ends right now. Yeah, look, fair. You can tell that Richard Ware as well is kind of itching for a fight.

Maybe he has like an expression that you do not like. That he has an expression where he's like, I need to spill blood one way or another every week. Otherwise, it's no good. That's his expression. He has that tattooed on his chest. Those exact words. That's such a long tattoo. It's mostly hidden by his chest hair. My God. Those exact words. That's such a long tattoo.

It's mostly hidden by his chest hair. My God. He's like Gaston levels. Oh, yeah, I imagine. It is thick. As I'm walking, maybe I'll be like, after this is over, it'll be nice to have maybe some kind of adventure, not in a city. Do you know what I mean?

So Richard Ware nods. I think I'm getting a bit sick and tired of all the grey, he says, gesturing to the buildings around you. Sure enough, this city is not that pretty. It's been a while since we've fought, I don't know, say a giant in a meadow. You know what I mean? Doodoo nods. You can see she's got like a faraway look. Maybe remembering a time that you have fought hill giants. And you can see with that faraway look, maybe remembering a time that you have Fort Hill Giants. And you can see with that faraway look, she says almost to herself, yeah, Giants would be fun.

So much body to hit. Good. Cool. We'll head to the docks. There's still construction going on around that headquarters or the headquarters west. No, no, no, no. Headquarters W. A big sign on the inside building.

The outside building has maybe selected by someone like less gnome a more reasonable name on the outside gate but then the inside building has west sorry merchant west yeah yeah cool merchant w sorry yeah fuck oh god how embarrassing so you are you going you're gonna like sneak your way in again are you just going through the front just go through the front door like we're just going to speak to a visceral, right? Oh, she doesn't work here. She works at the Harbour Master's office. Okay, but this... Well, you know what?

I might... Maybe I'll try to... Maybe I will head to the Harbour Master's office, actually. All right. So you go instead to see... I just don't know how involved the gnomes are. All right. Maybe I'll explain that.

Maybe as we approach the thing, I'll be like, wait, no, no. I don't know how involved the gnomes are. Let's head and speak to Evisceral. Richard Ware just makes like a mmm sound. And you can tell that he- He made the realization and was like, good, a fight maybe. Yeah.

So Richard Ware clearly wanted to pick up a gnome and shake it. You head instead to the Harbormaster's office. Eris Arell is a busy, busy woman. She has multiple, like, she is surrounded by, like, helpers, assistants, PAs, that sort of stuff. And they are constantly, like, they grab a sheet, look at it, speak to a person, give it to her, speak to her. She signs, she makes decisions she's like it's like watching a spider in the middle of its web constantly pulling in lines and pushing out lines oh she has a a narrow face with an auburn hair and brown eyes she wears modest garments

but you can see that a large holy symbol that shows a sun and moon on it dangles around her neck maybe i'll turn to thudu and be like it's gonna suck to interrupt this uh miss aurel can we have a moment of your time she gestures and two assistants part so that you can come in on one of the strands she's like a god. You come in. She, in between making decisions, looks at you and says, how can I help you? So, I'll try to be quick, because clearly you're quite busy. You're

aware, obviously, that the NOMA's trading company came in about a month and a bit ago, and that there have been a whole bunch of disappearances in the city recently. I was just wondering if there was anything notable or interesting about the NOMA's trading company setting up anything that happened during that time. She's doing all of this in between. Imagine every second sentence. She turns to someone else, makes a quick decision, turns

back and continues as if there hadn't been an interruption. So powerful. She says back to you, I would say that I've dealt with many a norm. No. Yes. Yes. No. I've dealt with many a norm no yes yes no i've dealt with many a norm before in my time i would say that of the norms i've dealt with they are possibly the most boring and obnoxious norms i have yes no no no no yes yes i have ever met in my entire life okay they i would say seem quite normal to me and all of their business dealings have been no no no no have been up front and pretty you know on board they like to keep everything they like a lot of paperwork and they like a lot of handshakes and meetings no yes yes no i would say however okay that they probably

since moving here have seemed a bit depressed, maybe. No? Yes, yes. Okay, sure. Is there a gnomish ship or vessel still in the dock? There's quite a few, yes. No? No? No. Okay, have any of them been here for about a month since arrival?

Oh, not really. Yes, there have. Oh my god, thrown. There's pretty much perpetually been a gnomish ship in dock. Okay. Wait, do you mean the same one? No. Yes.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, oh, no. In that case, no. There's never been one ship perpetually in dock. No.

No. Yes. But there have been multiple ships comingually in dock. No, yes. But there have been multiple ships coming in and out, sometimes the same ship. Thank you very much. I turned to Thudu's end and Dickie Ware. Any questions you have while we're here? Thudu steps forward and asks a bunch of questions

about the gnomes and how they've been acting. And maybe hearing about the depression stuff to do ask specifically can you tell me how they're depressed yeah well i would say no no i would say that they they've seen less amicable or personable since they've moved here themselves i'd had to deal with them they They've been my liaison. No, no, yes. I wanted in blue. They've seen, they've seemed very, like they've traveled here for shorter trips to speak with me and they've sent a lot of letters and they've always wanted a lot of paperwork, very detailed, very signed.

And they pretty much perpetually want to go out for a drink of some type. Okay. When they're here, at least. Except when they've moved here, I assume that they're quite sad least except when they've moved here i assume that they're quite sad to be no no no that one in pink the other one in blue they've wanted to not really speak to me directly so much or hang out with me so much i have to assume that it's

because they're feeling sad do they do they do they often come out of the gnomish trading company building? No, yes, yes, no. She says to you, the final no. Okay. I'd like to turn to Zin, Thuddu, and Dick and see if that has struck a nerve with them as well. Zinmalin obviously seems suspicious of the situation. When you look at her, it says, I've never known a gnome to not want to go out.

Every single gnome I've ever known has been the most annoying person I've ever met, I say to Zinn. Richard Ware says, don't know what you're talking about. I'd like to look at Richard Ware and then look back to Zinn. This is very strange for gnomes. I love a gnome, Ware says. You're wondering now if he's referring to a drink called a gnome does richard wear know where we are that's the question well thank you very much for your for your time um varel um yeah i think you've given us some pretty valuable information

you're very welcome it was a pleasure meeting you. Those were two different conversations. Rightio, we'll let you get back to your work. All right, we'll head back outside. You slowly retract from the spider's web. Noam's not leaving the building. Come on, I say to everybody. That's going to be either where our illithid is or where our illithid is changing people.

Do do nods. Yes, I would say so, probably. I would say it's definitely worth a look. Maybe a very cautious look. Yeah, I don't think we want to jump in swords blazing right now, or straight away, but certainly, although when I was running from the guards earlier, I did have a look in the building, and I didn't see much, really.

But nevertheless, let's investigate in some capacity. We'll make our way towards the Gnomish training company, HQ. You arrive out the front gate. There are workers still about. They look at you curiously. Maybe we'll just, like, walk past. And then while we're kind of- None of them stop you.

Yeah, well, well yeah but if we stand out the front oh i mean it may maybe we should like walk past just to give it like a sweep and then when we're out of earshot come up with a plan oh i see sorry yeah you walk past the building stop at a street corner and just loiter for a moment yeah so i mean one option obviously is that we head in i just say say, hi, I'm here. I'm Sir Grace. This is Sir Grace's companions. We're just looking for any information.

We're just, you know, about the disappearances. We're just talking to everybody. We just get a feel for what their reaction is. Ware nods, but you can see that he's, like, tensing up. Maybe Richard Ware somehow has, like like a sixth sense for a fight like his muscles tingle a little bit when a fight is coming close it's not like a fight that he causes yeah it's like he just knows yeah like how like how someone someone's knee might get might start feeling pain or dogs start barking before a hurricane yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Richard Ware's muscles tingle before a fight happens.

And he says, kind of like thoughtfully, but also you've never known Richard Ware to be thoughtful. Do Do Nods and says, I would say that we should be very, very careful. Yeah. Keep our wits about us. And maybe not, maybe even plug our ears. That is not the worst idea. Xin Mulan has a moment where she's like, that is stupid, but then she considers things

and she's like, hmm. Maybe. What have we got to plug our ears with? It'll be quiet. Do we have any wax, like from arrows or anything? I don't know if wax goes into the creation of an arrow. Thank you for your kindness.

I meant for candles. Yes, sorry. Oh, fantastic. Sudu does have, not wax, but she has candles. So you could fashion something out. Maybe we'll just fashion some earplugs, basically. Yeah, alright, so you could fashion something out of it. Maybe we'll just fashion some earplugs, basically. Yeah, all right, cool. You fashion some basic kind of earplugs out of your...

out of some candles, then Thudu... Maybe you just tilt your head to the side and Thudu melts a little earwax in. It's a bit painful, but, you know, I think it's also supposed to be... Oh, no, you're supposed to put the candle in the ear. And then pull it out, yeah. Yeah, that's a thing, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's also supposed to be, oh, no, you're supposed to put the candle in the ear. And then pull it out, yeah. Yeah, that's a thing, isn't it?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Once we're all done, I'll be like, look, this protects our ears, but not our noses. So, I don't know, just be able to look at it. Richard Ware puts his hand on his nose and pinches it. Okay. He looks very pleased with himself.

I don't even want to... That's fine. All right. We'll turn around and we'll walk into the Gnomish HQ. You get through the gate in the wall without too much trouble. When you get to the front door, however, there's an armed guard standing there. You didn't see him here the other night.

He looks... Well, he looks a bit impressive. He's wearing plate mail. So there's been some money put into this. The plate mail bears the insignia of the Gnomish Merchant Company, but he himself is not a gnome. He's a human. It's a mercenary, possibly. I give him a nod and just try to walk past.

What's your business? Well, we're adventurers. And we're investigating the disappearances that have been happening in the city and the murders. We're kind of just speaking to everyone. We know there have been some incidents here on the dock. And NOMA's trading company building is in a pretty good location for seeing anything suspicious. So we're just coming inside to talk. You're Sir Grace, he says?

At your service. We've been expecting you. He opens the door and lets you in. That's no good to hear. I'd like maybe turn around like wide-eyed to everybody and then just walk inside. They look a little, not wide-eyed back at you, but there's like an understanding between all of you

that there's a tension now yeah cool as you step inside this room is divided into two spaces basically two offices one of them looks like it's the office from multiple people and the other one looks like the person in charge's office so the office that is used by multiple people is currently only being staffed by one gnome who is sitting with his back to the window exactly as you saw him the other night writing on pieces of paper i hope he's moved in that time yeah well he looks actually to be in the same position as he was last time do you pay him much notice he doesn't look up when you i'll glance into like i'll look into the room but not i'm not going to go in or anything okay oh wait you haven't entered the building no no no no it's in uh oh they're two built okay yeah so there's two rooms one of the rooms is like an office space with multiple desks

yeah for multiple people but there's only one gnome staffing any of those desks cool there's another room the door is open yeah you can see, and it looks like just a single desk, a single person's office. Okay. That is unstaffed. There is, however, a gnome standing in the doorway who addresses you as you come in. But also of importance, you see that there are eight other mercenaries standing around this room. So here are your options as you enter the building you can pay attention to the gnome in the doorway you can pay attention to the gnome at the desk or you can pay attention to

the mercenaries or actually fourth option you can pay attention to your allies let's pay attention to that gnome at the desk all right you look over at the gnome at the desk he looks like he is wearing literally the same clothes as the other night he is wearing his hair is like in the literally the same position he looks like he has not gotten up you also spy that there's a piece of paper in front of him he is writing on the piece of paper but it's just like scribbling it is not gnomish it's not a language you don't understand he's just drawing on the piece of paper like loops over and over and over again that's no good all right thean hey what's up mr susan it's a pleasure to meet you i've been your host but you can just call me mr susan twice okay mr susan twice, that's it. A lot of people get caught up on that.

They call me Mr. Susan, Mr. Susan. It's just Mr. Susan twice. Please, Mr. Susan, Mr. Susan was my father's name and his father before him, and then it ended. Or I should say that's where it began. He laughs. I give him a polite chuckle. Well, we were just wondering if we could ask you a couple of questions of course please would you like to come into my office all right now you get

an opportunity to look at a second thing okay let's look at those mercenaries all right the mercenaries all have one hand. Not all. It's not like they don't look like they're all being the one person. Okay, cool. They're all in slightly different stances with slightly different holds. And maybe you know enough about combat to tell that all of them have slightly different techniques. Yeah, sure. But all of them have one hand kind of like loosely at their side and another hand lightly gripping the hilt of their weapon.

Got a lot of security, I say to Mr. Susan twice. Don't want any break-ins. I suppose that's fair. All right. So, oh, did you say that to him twice or did you miss say his name? I said Mr. Susan twice, didn't I? Yeah, no, no, no. I mean, do you say that twice

and say his name wrong? Or do you say it once and say his name right? Say it once and say his name right. Alright, cool. You enter his office. Please, let's leave the formalities behind and let's

leave your compatriots behind. I want to have a conversation one-on-one okay i'd like to turn around and look at everybody zinmulin zinmulin fixes you with a look that you've never seen before fear oh no maybe well thudu seems tense but kind of like just ready for anything. Richard Ware has, he's like looking at the mercenaries and you can see that there's a wiry smile on his face. Maybe as I turn to look at them, I'll, damn, my spear would be on my back,

not anywhere that I can like gently brush against it to be like, hey, look, get ready for combat. But I'll give everybody a look that I'm sure after years of adventuring together, they can understand is like, hey, look, get ready for combat. But I'll give everybody a look that I'm sure after years of adventuring together, they can understand is like, hey, there's a ticking clock happening right now and it is definitely counting down to some violence. All right. So you go into the private room.

Yeah. In the room, the gnome sits down opposite you at the desk and gestures to a seat in front of him. That's it. As you step into the room, you feel the door close behind you, but no one put their hand on the door and did anything. You turn around and you can see behind you, like in where the door was,

there is a strange looking creature. You can see that it has pushed the door closed with one of its tendrils. It's not an illithid and you are startled by its appearance. It is this creature. Oh my God, what? Okay. It hovers in the air. It is this creature. Oh my god, what? Okay.

It hovers in the air. It looks similar to a creature you've only heard of called a beholder. But it has maybe more tentacles than that. And its eyes are all misty white. We're going to go to initiative because it sees you seeing it. All right. Cool pains. Oh right. Cool pains. Oh, no.

Oh, no. This kicked off so much quicker than I thought it would. Well, if you hadn't seen it. Yeah, look. This would have been fine. And it would have just come up behind you and tried to eat your brain. If only I'd had worse eyes. All right.

Grace, you're first. Okay. It seems obvious that it is like lunging forward for an attack, yeah? When it spots you spotting it, yeah, it definitely clocks you looking at it because you were a bit, hmm. Actually, if you want, I would allow you to make a deception check as your action to pretend like you were shocked by something else, maybe. Yeah, okay, sure. Sure, let's do that. You get a negative one to deception, so all right.

No, you spend your action pantomiming surprise. Okay. But unfortunately, the creature definitely clocks you. How did the door close by itself? The creature levels one of its uh it it has tentacle the tentacles beneath it do not have eyes attached yeah but the tentacles above it each end in like a glassy eye it levels one of them and it fires fires yeah a beam of energy i mean oh okay a beam of energy comes out of the eye and strikes you or at least attempts to strike you god damn you feel some energy trying to overwhelm your mind but you

manage to fight it off then another one tries to shoot at you oh no oh dear you feel it trying to overwhelm your body this time and And then finally, a third attempt. It assaults you with psychic and physical energy. Maybe I back up against the desk as it's happening. You feel it all washing over you, but you manage to resist it. The creature is quite clearly trying to incapacitate rather than kill. It's the mercenaries' turn. They can't tell what's happened just yet. And now,

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So Richard, we're bellowing a screen. Yeah. you hear Sir Richard Ware bellowing a scream. Roar! You hear the telltale sign of a head hitting the ground. Rolling around and coming to a stop. Richard, you champion. Unless that's his hat. Voodoo's turn. With a terrifying, not terrifying,

no, it's a bit surprising. So with a terrifying crunching sound, the door between the two rooms comes off its hinges as Thudu kicked at it. To try and get it in the dead center, she had to jump up off the ground and land both of her feet in the center. What a champion. So she's prone, but as she gets up, the door clatters to the ground then it is zinwalyn's turn oh come on zin you're so weak come on zinwalyn stands in the doorway quite clearly trying to

get away from the mercenaries who have all drawn weapons but standing in the doorway kind of puts her next to the creature she looks at that and you can see absolute terror on her face. She raises both of her hands and throwing them down until they touch the ground. She screams out in a language you don't understand. Two simple words. There's a booming lightning sound right where she is. And then she appears next to the gnome. Hell yeah.

That creature where she. All right. So where she was, that explosion ripples outwards. And you can see that it pierces the flesh of the creature. The creature takes 15 points of damage. Fuck yeah, goes in. The creature takes 15 points of damage. Oof. Fuck yeah, goes in. It would be knocked prone, but it is immune to that.

It is floating, it seems. Actually, when she does that, she reaches out for your hand. You can take it if you want. Sure. Oh, will that move me away from the creature? Yeah. Yeah. No, I feel like I'm about to go next so all right when she reaches out for your hand if you don't grab it yeah she just slams her hands onto the ground

and does that cool then it is the gnome's turn the gnome uh while with zinwa lin standing next to her tries to sock her he swings but misses her completely then Then it is your turn, Sir Grace. What's the thing that Richard Ware always has tattooed on his chest? I need to spill blood once a week at least, otherwise I get antsy. Maybe under my breath, I'm like, I need to spill blood at least once a week, otherwise I get antsy.

Then I'll leap at the tentacled monster and try and impale it with my spear drawing cinder you launch forward using one hand or two uh let's go two all right i'll try and sort of impale up you strike it yep twice you strike twice the first time you spear it you deal what you deal 13 points of damage, getting it kind of directly in its middle eye. Then drawing the spear out, you stab again, trying to get it in the same location, but the creature turns so that you stab it just next to the eye instead.

You deal another seven points of damage. No worries. And then it is its turn. It reaches out with its tentacles and tries to grapple you. Oh, no. That's a critical hit, my friend. Oh, dear me. Who's healed?

For the next 1d6 rounds, you must make a DC 14 constitution saving throw when attempting to move five feet or more. On a failed save, you fall prone. Oh, gosh. Okay. Okay. Look, just be glad it didn't double the damage because, wow. Oh, boy.

How? Okay. You take 14 points of damage. Oh, boy. And you need to make a saving throw or you are grappled. Yeah, you are grappled in its tentacles. Then, oh, and you need to make an intelligence saving throw.

You pass the intelligence saving throw. As it grapples with its tentacles around you, you feel it channeling psychic energy into you. You can tell that, once again, it's trying to overwhelm your mind. It still doesn't work. Somehow you have an iron will. Giving up on that, it instead trying to overwhelm your mind. It still doesn't work. Somehow you have an iron will. Giving up on that, it instead drags you closer underneath it. And you see in the middle of the mass of all those tentacles,

directly underneath it, is a beak. It shoves your head into that beak. Fuck. You take a further 10 points of piercing damage. That was its turn. The mercenaries take their turn. There are fewer of them now. Cool.

Great. As Unky Dick has beheaded at least one of them. Miss, miss, miss. Miss one hit richard ware takes three points of damage you hear laughter in the look grace's you gotta get up pretty early in the day to get one over on grace's companions so richard ware says that's not how you break an arm you hear a scream this is how you break an arm. You hear a scream. This is how you break an arm. Oh my god. You hear the telltale sign of an arm hitting the ground,

disconnected from the rest of her body. Holy shit, Richard Ware. My fucking goodness. Thudu barrels into the room. She looks at you and looks at the creature. Let go of him him you ape okay sure she casts spiritual weapon she prays to the gods and a floating spectral weapon

appears on the other side of the creature so that she's flanking with it so both her and the spiritual weapon attack cool the spiritual let's say war axe strikes the creature dealing it four points of damage and then through do oh no critical miss oh no on rebound, your weapon bounces off the target and strikes you in the face. Take the weapon's damage and you have disadvantage on your next attack. So Thudu's mace strikes her instead, dealing six points of damage to Thudu, and she'll have disadvantage on her next attack. She is, however, fine. Like, she's got a bruise on her nose.

So she's okay. Yeah, she'll be fine. Then it is Xinwulin's turn zinwulin standing next to that gnome draws out of her cloak it seems she draws a ball of fire which she throws directly at that gnome point blank range into the gnome's face. At point blank range, the ball of fire strikes the gnome dead in his face, dealing 14 points of damage. The gnome's head combusts until it is nothing but a blackened cinder. His head has been burned off his body. The gnome collapses. Points in.

And you hear scuffling on the other side. You think the other gnome is maybe trying to attack Ware. The writing gnome? Yeah, yeah, the one that was writing. Maybe you see through the doorway, you see Richard Ware staggering around with a gnome on his back. The gnome has the quill in his hand and is stabbing it into Ware's back. Oh, my God.

He's going to have a weird ink tattoo now. That's crazy. I'm gonna have to play Connect the Dots with this tattoo later, Ware says. In years to come, Ware will tell ladies that it is a constellation. So Grace, it's your turn.

I would like to, first of all, second wind. Alright. Just to get some HP back. I believe you only, first of all, second wind. All right. Just to get some HP back. I believe you only get 1d10 plus 5. Yeah. It doesn't, it should really, I don't know. I would prefer it if it was like, instead of plus 5, it became like 2d10. Yeah, me too. That'd be much better, but hey.

Look, 10 hit points back is nothing to sneeze at. I'll take it, yeah. Bonus action as well. So, hey. All right. What do you want to do? Do I, okay okay you can't use your spear in a grapple anymore you could start just punching it off this clacker but you yeah

you can't use your could i use any items from my backpack you can fumble about with your equipment i would allow that yeah do i think that if i trapped it in a net that would incapacitate it or is my net like are the holes too big or the holes are definitely not too big to catch it i just have a net is it restrained i would say yeah if you could catch it in the net i would say that it would have to let go of you as well okay well maybe with with as it like clamps its beak onto my head i reach wildly into my backpack pull the net out and fling it over the top of it maybe even pull it down unfortunately you don't lose the net but when you throw it up and around

it oh wait no you can do this twice oh you have two attacks yep sorry you try a second time all right so the first time you try to throw and grapple it in the net the net just doesn't go over it properly maybe because of its eye stalks it like the net kind of bounces off yeah sure grab them so you reel the net back in throw it again and on your second attempt you manage to cover pretty perfectly the top of this creature the eye stalks go through all of the holes and then you pull it down like it was a hot air balloon um am i out of the grapple you are now out of the grapple it has to release you because it is restrained restrained means that its speed becomes zero

attacks against it have advantage and its attacks have disadvantage and then the creature gets disadvantage on dexterity saving throws can i action surge you can i would like to action surge and whap it into a wall all right like a basketball in a net critical hit yeah and uh just a regular hit for the second one all right so that is probably bludgeoning damage wrap on the knuckles doesn't make sense but it is just double damage which is kind of what you want so i'm gonna'm gonna let you choose. Okay. Wrap on the knuckles, which doesn't technically make sense, but it's double damage, or stunning blow, which is maximum damage,

and the target must make a DC 12 constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target is stunned. Which would you prefer? Let's go stunning blow. You deal maximum damage would be only five. Okay.

So you only deal five points of damage, but it needs to make a constitution saving throw. It passes. Unfortunately, your second attack is still a hit though. You've done 10 damage. Just throwing it into a fucking wall. Great.

Leaving a terrible stain. I imagine on the wall. I would describe this as similar to having a bag of struggling rats that you are slamming into the wall. That's bad. At least it's restrained. That means everyone else can kind of get it. Yeah, everyone else is going to be fucking

its day. Alright, so it's going to try and just burst out of there with a strength check. It fails to do so. You see the tentacles try to push their way out but the tentacles are actually not that strong most of the damage it deals is by psychically destroying its enemy's mind so it actually just doesn't have a lot of room for strength there i would like to as it tries to break out, be like, not today, fucker. It's the mercenaries' turn.

There's one less of them again. And they try to attack where? Hit, hit, two hits. Unky Dick takes 17 points of damage. You hear him bellowing in pain, genuine pain from the other room. And then he calls out saying oh wait does he have oh god i've not been using his powers properly oh man you hear unky dick screaming in the other room in pain and then in pleasure oh no you can tell that he is fighting

he is launching an all-out war. Unky Dick has quite clearly stopped caring about whether or not he gets hit. He just wants to smash some fucking skulls. Great. All right. Critical hit. Oh, boy. You see, Unky Dick, with greatsword in one hand, he lobs another fucking head off.

hand he lobs another fucking head off and then with his other hand he grabs one of the mercenaries by his crotch lifts him up and then squeezes the man's crotch oh no you can see the crotch plate the plate of metal that sits there crumples buckles and bends in unky dick's hand oh my god until you hear two little holy shit the man screams you think could be heard across the entire city when richard way lets go of this man he collapses on the ground not dead not dying just incapacitated completely he's just holding his gee whiz what's left of him wow that was the eunuch maker the classic classic richard where attack so thudu thudu's spiritual weapon gets a critical hit and it is spell storm triple damage it for a brief moment turns into three weapons all of which slash down for 24 points of damage hell yes then thudu she is disadvantaged but also advantage so she just makes a regular attack unfortunately i think that's a miss damn oh no it's just barely a hit sick

you bring the creature back around like you're you're aiming to make another swing into the wall and as you do so as you bring it around you put it in perfect range for thudu who lifts up her mace brings it down on the creature and you hear a sickening crunch as you are pretty sure thudu lifts up her mace, brings it down on the creature, and you hear a sickening crunch as you are pretty sure Thudu has cracked whatever skull the creature might have in the dead center of its body. You see, out of what might presumably be an ear, a yellow liquid starts pouring out. The creature stops hovering and hits the floor. Then it is Xinhua Lin's turn. There's still combat in the other room. She fires another bolt of fire at the gnome on Ware's back.

She burns the gnome off Ware's back. You hear him call out from the other room, Cheers, love! What a great team we are. The gnomes are all dead. So, Grace, it's your turn. You can still hear combat in the other room. Well, I'll head into the other room.

There are five mercenaries. They're all ten feet away from Ware because none of them want to get close to him. Ware is covered in gore. That's so good. His and others. Maybe, yeah. Can I get any of them with my spear? Sure.

Can I reach them? Yeah, cool. Well, I'll just I get any of them with my spear? Sure. Can I reach them? Yeah, cool. Well, I'll just start attacking one of them with my spear. Your first attack is a miss. Your opening move is a miss. As you try to spear him, kind of dead center in his chest, he lowers a shield and it bounces off that. Then reaching backwards, you kind of make like a long,

wide arcing blow going around his shield, spearing him in the side between plates of armor you hear him cry out in pain you deal nine points of damage downing him as you pull your spear back out blood starts pouring out of his side heavily and with lots of flow to it he collapses forwards dead hell yeah and it's the mercenaries turn i reckon they give up they are just mercenaries that's fair they drop their swords and back up against the wall please one of them says maybe the one who was guarding the door when you arrive we're just mercenaries hey none of us of us expected this. Feel free to leave. Oh, you just let them go?

Well, maybe it's actually probably worthwhile questioning them, so I don't say that. Richard Ware slowly calms down. None of them want to approach him. While we let Richard cool off, I'm assuming none of you, I mean,

I have to imagine the gnomes were fairly tight-lipped about what's going on here, but you knew you were guarding something. We were just here. They told us that we were gonna have to maybe kill some people. Okay. And were we comfortable with that? That's all they

said. Then they armed us. Okay. Well, but you were inside. You saw what was happening here, yeah? Looked like some operation of some sort. Then they armed us. Okay. Well, but you were inside. You saw what was happening here. Yeah. Looked like some operation of some sort. I don't know. Okay. They go in and out of that office a lot.

We weren't allowed in the office. He says, gesturing to the one that you were led into. They see people there sometimes. What kind of people? Could you give me names? The guard captain. Yeah, that makes sense. Who else?

Ryan Claimsalt. Okay. Cliamsalt, sorry. Ryan Cliamsalt. You know Ryan Cliamsalt is the owner of the Axe of Lightning. Okay. Okay. Anyone else?

No. Someone, some other person. Like, I don't know. She was a priest. I don't know her face. We're not local. I, yeah. A priest.

Big silver holy symbol. Do I know who that might be? No, you don't. Do I know what a big silver holy symbol might be if i can't place the priest many clerics in the human pantheon oh do you ask about it yeah it was a sun and a moon i think okay gnomes and patio sure all right well get a good boy card for finishing the fight hell yeah well if there's nothing else you can tell us. No, that's it, I swear. Probably smart of you to get going, make yourself scarce.

They, without picking up their weapons, just scarper. All right. Okay, well. Turn to everybody. That's, I mean, we knew something like this was going to happen. Xin Wulin kicks one of the gnome corpses, the charred gnome corpses, and says, we should better be quick about this. Yeah, you're right.

I'm going to go into the office and just start searching through drawers. Maybe I'll click at the, that's a bit rude, maybe I'll point to the strange tentacled creature. Zinn, if you could slide across my copy of Emmanuel the Monster, if you could get on identifying that, maybe the rest of you explore the building, see what you can find. I'm going to look through this desk.

I've heard of this creature before, as Invalin says. I actually, I know what it is. I take back Emanuel de Monster. It's called a mind witness. It's a rare creature, but if a beholder can be stunned and brought safely back to the brine pool of an elder brain,

the illithid home. If they can bring it back, there's a long and complicated process to turn a mind witness into a beholder-like creature. It's not exactly an illithid, but it is in a way of their kind. It's not as intelligent. in a way of their kind. It's not as intelligent.

It serves... They serve mostly as, like, guards or obedient slaves. So would it be incorrect, or would it be not incorrect to assume that this is not where it ends? No, I would not say so. This is just another symptom.

Illithids create these creatures, and then they serve them. Sure. Great. Illithids create these creatures and then they serve them. Sure. Great. Well. Kind of great. We have made a step in the right direction. All right.

So if you're talking about the solitary office. Yeah. Here are things to search. Sure. There's a desk. There's two bookshelves. There's a bed. And there's a bed, and there's a big... Actually, let me roll for this.

All right, so let me add to the list a chandelier and a carpet. Oh, okay. Well, first thing... And of course, the corpse of the gnome. Yeah. Which I will also subdivide into smaller sections of arms, legs, head, and torso. Well, head is ash, but yes. Well, first thing I suppose I'll investigate will be the desk.

Okay. Searching through the desk reveals only official-looking documents, just above-the-board sort of stuff. You are not a very... Well, you are a learned man, but you're not very versed in the ways of a merchant. Yeah. You... I was about to say, you mostly make your money.

You don't make your money. No. You were born into money. Absolutely. I'm privileged. You don't really understand how operating a business works, so you unfortunately really can't find anything out here. I'll then look in the bookshelves. Both of the bookshelves contain some general books just as in like books probably for

entertainment to read to enjoy you can see that those books look undisturbed definitely no one has been reading for pleasure there are some books that are like official looking ledgers and stuff like that they also look kind of undisturbed it looks like the bookshelves are mostly for show which does strike you as a bit weird i feel like this whole room is for show this whole operation um i'll i'll look at the bed next the bed is completely undisturbed just okay i suspect it as much i don't think this well i was gonna say i don't think this room is reels in but that's not quite what i mean i don't think anybody lived here i'd like to the chair where that gnome was sitting at is it just like stinky like oh you try to work out if someone's been sitting there yeah you can't tell okay all right i'll have a look at the gnome's body okay oh what part do you want to search first let's go torso torso you find stuffed into his

breast pocket correspondence with a wife back in zemjada the dome's home homeland sure the correspondence is for the most part unopened and there's like a month's worth of letters she maybe wrote twice or every two days most of them are unopened they're just stuffed into his breast can i open the most recent one i assume you go through all of them yeah yeah but the most recent one maybe seems like slightly concerned yeah slightly concerned she says in her writings uh you you don't write back very often i thought we promised that when you got there we were going to write once every day but you've been writing maybe only once a month and then there's like like a plea like your daughter

misses you okay okay i um i'll put that back in his breast pocket and well i can't close his eyes but i'll look at his legs just to see if there's anything of note there his boots you turn i'll get a good boy card you roll to 20 hell yeah you bring up one of his boots his boots are covered in mud and little fine rocks you can tell you maybe geology is like a pastime of yours in the quieter hours you can tell that some of these rocks are from deep underground there's like volcanic magma type rocks stuff that does not you would not find walking about especially in the city yeah but also around the countryside here he has been underground i'd like to then my eyes dart to that carpet And I lift it up Lifting up the carpet

You find a recessed And semi-hidden trap door I'd like to like stand up Hands on my hips How's everyone feeling? Thudu and Sir Ware are wounded But while Ware Nods and says I'm ready for another fight

Thudu says If it comes to it I think I could handle this. Yeah. Okay. Well, I relay everything. Maybe I even hold up the shoe. Look, as a young boy, obviously I had a tutor at the manor house, and one of the things, a subject that I did not enjoy,

but which has burned into my mind is geology. And these rocks, these rocks are not from around here. These rocks are from deep under the earth. They're volcanic. I gestured at the trap door. I think I know where the adventure leads. How about we take an hour,

recompress, we sort everything out, and then we head below. So in your short rest, how many of your hit die would you like to recover? Uh, I might as well use... What's my HP on? You're on 30 out of 44. Oh, I'll use

maybe... What are my hit die again? They're D10s, yeah? D10, yeah. D10 plus 2 for each die. I'll go 1. Just 1. You recover 6 hit points. I'd like to... Maybe I'll get it my, well, in this hour, I get up my copy of Emmanuel the Monster and I'll just start like circling relevant information

and what have you and jotting everything down in my journal. After a short rest, maybe at some point town guard show up. They, there's, I would say actually, yeah, Lieutenant Line shows up with two other members of the town guard yeah she says is everything okay i explain what happened here we we were just in i had my suspicions like i said yesterday and so we came in here and pretty quickly it kind of turned to combat and bloodshed i gesture to the tentacled creature in its net and then i gesture to the trap door would you like a hand

if you're willing she nods i'll leave the two guards here to back us up but i'll come down with you and hopefully the five of us are enough yeah well they should be she turns to the guards and says if we're not back in 10 minutes tell people uh yeah go get reinforcements yeah yeah yeah that sounds about right that stone how deep does it come from do i think 10 minutes, tell people, yeah, go get reinforcements. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds about right. That stone, how deep does it come from? Do I think 10 minutes is too little? Depends, but 10 minutes might be too little, yeah. I'd be like, maybe give it an hour.

All right. She tells them to wait an hour instead. Situations like this, digestion of the trapdoor, typically lead to, you know, it's always hard to gauge. Okay. Looking about, she says, she comments as well, were there only two gnomes? Yeah, there were.

My understanding is that three were here. How recently? It was all in the official paperwork for the gnome. When we had the discussion last night, I checked on their paperwork, and their paperwork says three people to run this place. Well, my money is down there, I point to the trapdoor. There's also the possibility that it could have fled, you know?

Maybe, maybe. If the NOMUCH trading company did come here with the intent to just act as a mercantile institution, which I think they did, this seems like an unexpected bump in the road, if you will. So maybe that one gnome just didn't want anything to do with this, or he's deeper in it than the others, and he's somewhere below there.

A shrug. I'd like to go over to the chapter and maybe turn to the rest of the party and be like, ready to save the city? Richard Ware gives you that wiry smile that either means that he's happy or he's about to kill.

There's a lot to that. Thudur gives you like a less sinister looking smile and a solid nod. Xin Wulin doesn't smile, but that's her way. She just seems, like, certain and confident. All right, open the trapdoor.

You head down into the depths. What mysterious and deadly encounters await Grace's companions in the depths? Find out next time on Fall From Grace Part 2 The City. Thanks for listening. If you want to help support this show and all the other shows on the Sandspans Radio Network, just

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