Dice Shame - 2-105 | 'Lost Soul'

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Imagine your best game of D&D. The shocks, the twists and turns, the moments that can’t be caught because you just had to be there. That’s Dice Shame.Join our DM Jo, her husband Harlan, their brother Alex & their best friends Rob and Alex as they experience those unmissable, gut-wrenching, heart-aching, joy-filled moments.This legendary AP releases a brand new episode every Thursday morning at 1:20 am!Content Warning: animal death, swearing, violence, claustrophobiaPart of the Rusty Quill Network Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do you mean? It's too dark for you? I don't know what we're really looking at here. Even when I am gone, I'll be with you. It's all that left just a little circle. Cursed, cursed, cursed. I never would have expected that from her. But I don't think that paper's him. You can still carry his memory.

We've effectively destroyed her. I'm right here. It's a thing between you. What happens if these are destroyed? When you see a dandelion, think of me. I think we just have to move forward with faith, Jack says, as he steps into the darkness. And we hear a, shunk, just fucking falls down to the abyss and he's done. A head rolls out.

Blu, blub, blah, blah. This week, we'd like to shout out. This week, we'd like to shout out everyone who's been joining us on Sunday nights for the Dice Shame group relisten events on our Discord server. We started from season one, episode one, just a few weeks ago. So if you want to catch up from the beginning and listen along with friends, now is your chance. It's been so much fun to relive and remember the early days of the show.

Don't worry, guys. It does get better as time goes on. Markedly. Thanks for hanging out with us, folks. Y'all are this week's MVP. All right. Shall we do this? Yeah, let's play some D&D. Awesome. Red's rovers stand in front of a set of stone doors, the final place that you have not yet entered in this repository. Well, hopefully the soles are behind here, I guess.

And Red walks up to the door and gives it an eye, knowing all the traps that we've encountered so far. Yeah. Can roll an investigation check. That would be a two. Red, you are absolutely certain that not only is this the repository of souls that you've been searching for this whole time, but that it is free and easy for you to enter. This is the door, this is the one, and Red throws it open.

The doors grind on the stone floor as they open, presenting a space before you which appears as an absence of light, an absence of sound. A vacuum space, dark and empty. Even your dark vision is incapable of penetrating these depths, of measuring this room's dimensions. The doorway seems to almost widen, to inhale, apprehensive. Whoa, that's, uh, that's too dark for me. I can't, I can't see into that room. What do you mean it's too dark for you? That's, that's, that's, that's the kind of darkness that, that, that, that, door.

Dorn all of a sudden has this horrified look come over his face. And he stutters and he looks all choked up. And he says, The, the, the, the, the darkness that took my brothers. It was, it was that dark. He kind of stares into the empty room. Don't want, are you okay? Red walks over to Doren.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay, Red. It's just, it's a little horrifying. I don't know what we're really looking at here. What the hell are we looking at here? I don't know. Look, this isn't... Hey, this isn't what happened to your brothers, remember?

Gautier. He's the one who... I know. ...cast something. He was behind it all. This is just... This is just the last step before putting Kralath and the other night to rest. Uh, whoa, whoa.

It's not something. And Red kind of looks to Jack, like... Can we dispel it, or I... I think we just have to move forward with faith, Jack says, as he steps into the darkness. No way. Jack, like, walks past us. And we hear a, shunk, this fucking falls down to the abyss, and he's done. A head rolls out. That's like a kind of a really trippy image.

You know, there's like red and Doran's standing there staring into this dark, the apprehensive, and then Jack just, like, walks through them and walks in. Jack seems to vanish into the room as he steps forward. Come on, Doran, if Jack can do it. I can't. I'm not... And he looks back at Mari and whim. Look, it's okay, Doran, you can do this.

We can go together, Doran. Doran kind of stands at the door, watching Jack have just walked in. He looks at Red, and he looks back at Mari. Mari heads up and goes up towards Doran and carefully puts a hand on his shoulder. It's very wet. sort of soak through whatever fabric is there and she looks into this abyss and is like you know sometimes this kind of darkness this darkness that envelops you like that it's it's not always scary sometimes it's inviting and if you can find the right kind of darkness it almost

calls out to you and sings to you and you know You've got us to protect you. And Mari takes a deep breath, and she walks in following Jack. Wow. I never would have expected that for Murray. Yeah, I guess that memory wipe really gave them a shot in the butt. Yeah, really, that was the most courage I've seen from that. We're not going in there, are we?

No, God, no, I wouldn't go in there. Turn around a seat. Look, we fed them to the dragon. Let's find the treasure. There's like a whole throne over there. Do you want to go check it out again? Magic users can deal with it. Your problem now, nerds.

We'll do it together. Absolutely. We'll do it together, Dorn. I'm right here. And Red throws out an arm to like link. You know, like a little like a walking link. And then we walk forward. Into the abyss.

Jack, for a moment. moment you are alone in this darkness before you're followed by Mari and Red and Doran, you feel and hear it at the same time, a metallic crunch underneath the fine leather of your boots' soles. There's a shifting, uneasy sensation like loose stones. And then you hear Marie's footsteps behind you, followed by Reds and Dorans, the same metallic crunch. Jack reaches down and grabs a handful of the metallic stones and runs them through his hand, trying to run his thumb across the face and determine whether these are coins in some forgotten horde hidden in the darkness. As you gather up a loose handful of these,

metallic items, a single taper candle sputters to life above you. And you realize that you are standing in a dim, wide room on thousands of rings. This tiny moat of light high above you in a sconce of an iron chandelier gently spreads to another candle and each of those light two more the flames spreading out in ray shapes and curtains of tiny fires in the darkness way overhead

above the four of you glimmering off of these rings plain, unjeweled you see in your palm, Jack for the most part silver and gold and some platinum, surely other metals from the diverse gleaming. The chamber is octagonal, and the source of the muted acoustics is now clear. The stone walls are almost entirely covered with paintings and tapestries.

Each of them seem to be telling of the glories won by the knights of the Eternal Order in Kalimvore's name. One large oil painting depicts a company of night. stalking of vampire lord another shows a powerful litch brought to her knees the one that stands out most to you a startlingly beautiful watercolor landscape shows a night tending their horse under an apple tree a freshly dug grave beside them shafts of light cutting through a bank of purple storm clouds on the horizon the only other notable detail in this room is a large altar of some kind, in the middle of the room, around which these piles of rings have been discarded.

Columnar in shape about four feet tall, a single stone step brings its base, and you can see from where you stand, all four of you, that it is a hollow vessel of some kind. Mari walks over to Jack and takes one of the rings out of his hand and looks at it. Give me that fucking nerd. fucking piece of shit hold a hand up to hit them she puts all of them on her fingers and she goes ooh look at these no

cursed cursed cursed she's immediately possessed by 400 ghosts that's too many ghosts she she takes one of the rings out of his hand and she as she looks around the room at all these paintings and she goes it's

it's funny you you live these long long lives and then And all that's left of you is just this tiny piece of jewelry. And you hope maybe, you know, your exploits will be painted and remembered. But sometimes it's all that left just a little circle. And she places the ring back in his hand. Jack lets the rings tumble out of his hand onto the floor to join the thousands of others as he just sort of looks and marvels at all the paintings

and takes a few steps towards the center to this big vessel. Wow. Red drops Doran's hand. This is quite the send-off room, I guess, eh? Red walks over the rings looking around as well, and sort of joins Jack in the center. Well, I guess if they had to stay somewhere for near an eternity, it might as well be somewhere in style. I guess.

My, my. Doran sort of looks around and walks backwards, a bit, you know, looking up towards the ceiling, anything on the ceiling? Yeah, there's just these sprawling iron chandeliers. And is it like tall? Yes, it's a very tall room. It's like really old art galleries used to hang pictures,

floor to ceiling. It's like that, just covered in these beautiful art pieces. And looking around, it's just an octagonal room with no doors or windows. That's right. This ringed altar in the center is the only other item. Wow. He takes a moment to also kneel down and pick up a couple rings and look at them, rolling them through his fingers.

These are old. As you approach this altar, you find that it is a hollowed structure filled with strips of paper. Curled or folded, hundreds, maybe thousands of them. And on each piece of paper seems to be written something small. There's some writing on these, and red reaches and picks one up and reads it out loud. This one says, Elizabeth Witt. I am not afraid of the darkness I never have been. Hey. And he lets it fall back into the altar, and he reaches and grabs another. This one says, Sir Colin,

time is an illusion. Last memories, last, writes, the last thing you'll be remembered? Jack, read that one. Nikki of Rothholm, even when I am gone, I will be with you. Love never leaves. These inscriptions

seem to be written in unique hand. no two are the same This one says Lady Cass Always stand and fight Mari goes over and picks one up And reads

Abril Scarvins Never let a living creature go hungry Scotty When you see a dandelion Think of me Wow, all these tiny scraps of paper have Their names written on them

I guess these were all Knights of Calumvore Each with a little mess You know, things to To remember. This one says Nothing in Half Measures by Sir Toynett. I don't understand. Just enough of yourself to anchor your soul here, maybe.

Wow. Wait, you mean these are the souls? I think I understand that, kind of. Leave a little PCU behind for your soul to attach to. Well, is that kind of what you mean, Jack? I mean, it's just a theory. And Red dives in. And he starts looking for Captain Treneros.

He's got to be here. If this is the souls or what attaches them here, then... And Red grabs one and holds it up. Here, here. Siegel Treneros. For my wife and children that I leave behind. He had a family here. I think you might be right, Jack.

I think these are ties to this woe. Jack starts sifting through the papers until he finds the one he's looking for, Krala. It takes some time. There are hundreds of these. The weight of the realization of the number of people whose ends, you can never know is a heavy one.

And then you do find it, written in a familiar hand, though changed somehow over the millennia. Is that him? Jack's got the paper in his hand, showing the name, but he can't quite bring himself to read the rest of it. What's to say? This is the message Sir Crayloth wrote. Jack says in opus's hand so that Doran can see what it says. to keep the land free for my brother huh

Jackson he's brother his brother and red sort of turns around and shakes his head you know I kept telling myself that we were the epilogue to his story but in the back of my mind I suppose there was I don't know

there was some doubt that maybe Maybe we were the most important thing he ever did, but, and not in a sad way. It's clear that his life was here, that everything that mattered, everything that really was important to him was here. You know, the lesson of history, I think, is the hard part about studying it is sometimes, We may never know. How do you weigh the work he did as part of the Nightstone Four against the work he did as a Knight of the Eternal Order?

There's no way. There's no way to know. We don't know what that time was like. All we know is that he spent it doing good work here, and we can honor that by making sure he gets to go free from here, to go be with. his family and his God and find balance out there, I guess. Doran almost distractedly looks as though he's frantically digging through the slips of paper.

They've got to be here. What are you doing, Doran? Doran, we found Creolel's name. Who are you looking for? They need to have the same freedom that. All these people are gonna get and then don't stop stop stop Red like grabs your hand like the fistful of papers that you have and he like shakes it what who who are you talking about my brothers They're not gonna be in here. They're not gonna be in here

Oh darn. He kind of crumples into your into your shoulder Dorn Dorn. It's okay and red comforts Doren. Dorn, Crayloth, you know, these people weren't like your brothers, Doran. They, they chose to be here. They wrote their names. That's their handwriting. Right, Jack? Yeah. Mari? Yeah. You're right, Brad. You're right. And you guys are trying to finish this journey that Kralath set off. on, but you can still carry his memory. He's still carried within you. And Red, you said the most

important things that he did was all here, but it's not lost on me that the three of you are here as well. And I did not know him, but to him I say the same things that I say to those who I know who have slipped into the waves beyond. Go forth and be safe. What are we got to do here? We've got to set them free. Jack reaches into his pouch and takes out some of the sacred charcoal and incense and things he uses when he goes to commune with the beyond to get spirits out, to create Kieran, to thin that veil between worlds. And he hands one to each of you. I think if we light these and let the smoke carry and let the mortal form evaporate, perhaps the incense will thin the. the world's enough to get them into the arms of Kellenbore.

I really hope you're right, Jack. And Red sees Jack pulling out these incense, and he sort of takes Kraloth's piece of paper from Jack and looks down at it. But then he's gone. Jack, then he's really gone. No. I poke a finger into your chest. He's always going to be in there.

Red brings the paper up a little bit. I don't know. you know I knew coming here that this was going to be it that we were going to let these souls go but now that we're here I don't know if I can this was the goal and I think that

if you walked away now if you put this back on the pile and you walked out the door and we left in a sense you still said goodbye to Kralath but you know that he's still said goodbye to Kralath but you know that he's still here and there will always

maybe be a little bit of doubt that you haven't been able to let go. And in the end, isn't that what we all have to do? But couldn't we just keep him? Couldn't we just keep one? Knowing that he'd be with us? Mari's looking

through all of these pieces of paper. She's kind of almost like running her hands through them loosely. Like when you're near like a quiet stream, sort of feeling the edges of these old, old pieces and trying to almost like see if she can sense or feel any sort of magic or that again that feeling of a breeze coming through an open door that she has been sensing more and more in

the back of her mind since going into this place with so much death in a different way than you know walking by a cemetery or something there's something weird is kind of at the back of her brain and she picks up a piece and kind of, you know, rolls a corner around the end, like in her fingers, trying to almost see, like, what happens if these are destroyed? Quietly, she slips one of the names into her pocket. I just, I don't want to let him go, Jack. It's been so long, and he and I had this connection, this, this life, you know, he, he often said that I made him feel a lot of, you know, he, he often said that I made him feel alive. Maybe if I just held on to it, I could make him feel that way again.

Red. Maybe. But I don't think that paper's him. You don't? If anything, it's just something holding him physical, stopping him from being free, stopping him from following you to wherever you end up. It's a thing between you. It isn't a thing to hold him close. This paper existing is a barrier to being close to Kralath, and that's why we're here. It's what's keeping all of these people here. Trenneros often talked about the pain he was in, being trapped between worlds. Red looks down at the piece of paper, and I suppose above everything else, I couldn't do that to Kralath, and he drops it into the pile. Let's send him home.

And red takes the incense from your free hand check. With a snap of a finger, all of our incense and sacred herbs in our hands, a light on fire. As the four of you drop these lit materials into the brazier, the fire catches almost immediately. Flames beginning to hungrily consume the ancient scraps of paper, and a warm breeze begins to churn around the room, making the candles sputter above you, pulling at your hair and clothing, whipping up and catching

the edges of the tapestries as smoke begins to leak from the altar's cauldron, pieces of black ash and starry red embers climbing into the air. You can't tell if you can hear something else past the wind underneath, and then it's over. Just as suddenly as it all began, the wind dies, the fire, burns through that second last shred of paper, and all is calm again in this strange room. After a moment of silence, Red sort of pipes up and says, Well, if the dragon was meant to guard these, we've effectively destroyed her horde. We may want to, um, skiddle. Yeah, yeah.

Let's get the hell out of here. All right. Who's first? Doran sort of like runs towards where the door would be. Jack walks up to the door and turns around just to scan the room and try and remember every detail before walking backwards back into the other room. Red hangs back in the room as everyone leaves and he's alone for just a moment. And almost with a begrudging sigh, he shakes his head and walks past the center.

Brazier, to a brick on one of the back walls. I feel like it's behind a tapestry. Yes, he moves the tapestry. And checking one more time to make sure everyone's left, he counts the bricks. One, two, three, to the left, three, two. All right, come on, Tremerosue. And he pulls out his ghost dagger, and with the hilt of it, just breaks the stone and the wall and moves the pieces away.

Comes away easily. To realize that it is hollow behind. Okay, fair enough. And he reaches in and pulls out an item. Wrapped in cloth. And without looking at it, he puts it into his bag of holding, turns around, and hedged the darkness to leave. As you come out of the room and back into the room where we are,

Doran's, you see Doran's face with a sudden look of shock and then relief that you come back through. What's wrong? No, I just, ever since that day, I just, I had the worst feeling like you weren't going to come back through that doorway. No, I just, I need a moment alone to say goodbye. That's all. I understand. I'm sure you weren't looking at any secret hidden bricks in the wall. Your bag of holding looks just a little. a little bit heavier than it was before.

Maybe I'll stick my head back in to make sure all those rings are all there and stuff, just in case. It doesn't stop sound, so you could still hear like, tink, tink, tink. There's a small voice coming from the bag of holding going, there's a secret in here. Help me! All right, let's get the hell out of here.

And red starts moving towards the exit. Thank you to our wonderful patrons, Ace. Abriel, Adam Fry, Alicia Andrus, Alison Wright, Alicia Dar, Amanda Nicole, Annalina, Otholagoff, Axel, Bob, Casey, Charles, Clockwork Phoenix, Christopher, Colin Burkhart, Crow, Dippity, Danny, David Shaw, David Shaw, Eldridge Unicorn Aaron Lightning Fisher Fjord

Tau Gareth Bradshaw Haley GPTC Hiss the Movie Hap of the Mox JD Jagger Eska

Ginette Joshua Nance Jury Jasper Cass Keith Kelly Fowles K M Kirk Everin

Levi Lickrot Leader J. Liz. Lorelei Feldman, Manderpants, Merrick's Moon, Misra, Merlin, Mawsey Stars, Melinda Curley, Moon, Mickey, Nicole Gianetti, Oakland, Pandora, Pinch of Peppers, Queen. Red, Regan, Wren, Scottie, Shannon Waldner, Seer of Time, Stab, Sunny, Sray Tegan, tea kettle, Tony Pepperoni, Trin, Vole Control, Waffle 427, Xander Morning Dove, Yami, Zach House, and Zephyrus. Thank you so much. These inscriptions seem to be written in unique hand.

No two are the same. What is this? There once was a man from me. Mark snatches it out of Doran's hand. Give me that. I'm coming home. I'm coming home. Yeah, that's where the fucking

Fasten the Furious sound. This is because Kralov pole water? Like nods. No, but Kralov, since Justin's gone from the podcast, get to, like, CG him in and it looks wonky. Just like, guy, nodding. Oh, wait, these have directions on the back to their souls. Shit.

It says right here. It's a puzzle. Two hours to the west. Fuck. We were supposed to destroy the rings? Oh, God. It's a classic trope to destroy the rings. I can't believe how we missed it.

There were so many of them. My friend Frodo did that. It's from Mazdica, your best friend, you grew up. Protect these strips of paper with your life. Otherwise, the souls will be lost for all of eternity. The undead will rule once again, should they be. Yeah, you guys open the door and the huge rooms. It's just full of zombies.

You know, sometimes you just got to make your own ritual and believe.