Dice Shame - 34 | 'Like a Moth to a Flame'

Episode Date: June 4, 2020

The party stumbles into an unforeseen enemy within the mansion... Comedy, action and a whole lot of shaming come together in Dice Shame, an Actual Play Podcast of Storm King's Thunder by Wizards of the Coast! Join our GM Jo; her partner Harlan, his brother Alex & their best friends Justin and Rob as they tackle the daunting world of Faerun in this legendary adventure module! Dice Shame is a podcast that welcomes its audience to the gaming table. Like the games they play at home, they try not to take themselves too seriously. The show aims to be entertaining, inclusive, and irreverent, while still taking the rules (somewhat) seriously. Join us every Thursday morning for brand new episodes available on all major platforms including; Spotify, iTunes, Google Play and more! If you haven't checked it out yet... what are you waiting for?!? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's pin this sucker Careful, that's an antique Hopefully it doesn't explode As long as we're claiming things, do you mind? Don't let them speak ill of Orin, Krayloff. Is there a problem here? What the hell even was that? Coming upstairs and yes, it's dangerous

But it's also just a house. This red flame burnishes from within. Doren, are you okay? Yeah, I think I tripped something. Darn you, Moradin. Welcome back to Dice Shame, episode 34, like a moth to a flame. MVP this week is Mike Argueta at Pick Overlord on Twitter. Thank you so much for the kind review, Mike.

Thanks, Mike. With the COVID pandemic still going strong, we wanted to take a moment to tell you about a board game cafe right by us that we love and are excited to share. Critical Hit Gaming Lounge. And yes, it is as cool as it sounds. Traditionally, Critical Hit Gaming Lounge is a board game cafe. However, they're also a hobby store selling Warhammer, Magic the Gathering, and a myriad of other awesome games. They're also an event space for games, a lounge for people to relax, and a kick-ass place for people to play D&D with their own organized groups. Yeah, it is a really cool business, and more importantly, they are really cool people.

So check them out. We highly recommend. I heard they also offer ethically sourced meat now, which is very cool. All right. Are we ready to do this? Absolutely. You. How's everyone doing today? Do it fantastic. Thanks for asking.

Did you guys know there's a Dungeons and Dragons movie? With Marlon Wayne? Oh, you've seen it? Years ago. It wasn't memorable enough to actually remember. I think mostly what I remember is there, I don't know, Dragon Magazine was still being published at the time and so they did a big write-up in it to convert all of the things in that movie

to like items and stats and spells and stuff for the game. To actual D&D. Yeah, it was nonsense, but I remember that a lot. That's a lot of work for a fucking terrible movie. Well, we were talking actually about playing D&D the movie. Oh, boy. That's a whole. D&D, the game, the movie, the game.

Right, right. Where you get to play like just the worst. worst depiction of a dwarf in all of cinema and then make that into a movie gomly yeah of course and then you got to make the game into the movie d and d the movie it was bad was it based on a campaign at all no it's no no no it's nonsense it's i don't think anybody who wrote it or did anything and it loved d and d at all there's like there should be dragons and a dungeon i guess and fantasy whatever there's a beholder in it yeah okay yeah it does nothing it just it's on screen for a minute and they're like oh, beholders. And then one of the guys

throws something off camera and the beholder gets distracted, follows the thing off camera and you never see it again. I'm hoping, and I'm glad that we haven't run into a beholder yet. I feel like this house of all the places we have been in could hold a beholder. Do you think so? It's dark, it's damp.

Who know? Well, at least we know how to take care of it now. Just throw a rock. It's true. Distracted. And then forget it was ever there. So where are we? We're standing. The last thing I remember is Jack waved his hands. and a million imps blew up. Oh, we shattered some imps to smithereens. You did.

This was all you. Wow, it's a team effort. I wasn't even the room. I remember running into the room and being like, what the hell is going on here? Yeah, Doran took most of the... How is Doran doing? Health-wise, says the cleric.

I've got 27 out of 72. Ooh, reverse numbers. Oof. Not great. It is no good when the wizard has more health than the fighter. Let's kill the wizard a little bit. Wait, hold on.

Hold on. Hold up. Did you use your second wind? No, I use my action surge. I haven't used my second wind. I don't think there's anything in the room, right? Doran, you are standing about 10 feet into this dark dining room. There are some chairs that are carved to look like devils.

A fireplace largely dominates the western wall. And behind you stands Kralath and Red and Jack all just kind of peeking beyond. gond you into the darkness. Doran, are you okay? I'm going to run over and check him. Oh, I'm fine. Doran is covered in shards of glass and old wine because Jack had shattered the wine cabinet. A tragedy.

And we've been drinking. So I'm licking my lips. Doren, you don't look so good. You don't look like you're at your usual strength. Let me take a look at you. What if we just took a short rest? Yeah. We could do that.

Could do. It's the middle of the night. It's about 2 a.m. Yeah. Well, where's the person that's here trapped somewhere? Oh, right. Well, I did detect a humanoid on the second floor. Well, we should go find them, shouldn't we?

Now, hold on a second. I walk over to the chairs and say, Jack, do you recognize any of these creatures? They look kind of evil. Devilish, for sure. As you guys are chatting, Doran walks over and sits down in a chair and starts picking out the shards of glass from his face and from his arms and doing a little bit of self-care as far as band.

Andging wounds and whatnot. For sure. Self care is pulling glass out of your wounds. The people who used to live here, do we know anything about them really? Only way you can derive from context clues. If you like, you could probably roll an insight on something in particular if you had any kind of specific. Yeah, I mean, it strikes me as very strange that there's fay and, you know, demonic imps and blood imps and all of these rabid creatures. that could be brought in from another plane, and here we have devil chairs.

There seems to be a connection there, and maybe the owner of the house has more info. I'm definitely going to do an insight check. Sure. On the chairs, I guess, in particular. On the chairs, on the furniture, on any photos, I'm basically looking for magic users. Okay. And I got a natural 20. Oh!

Whoa! Nice. Jay Man. On the liverless dyes. Beautiful. That dice has been treating you pretty nice. Really, really well. I really like it. So you cast your eyes over the contents of this room.

A couple of things occur to you. First, obviously, these elegant, high-backed chairs are carved in such a way that you would feel uncomfortable to sit in them as a man of the light yourself. You imagine that maybe whoever has until lately owned this home may have invited people over here to display their way. wealth and power that this dining room was meant as a show of, of some kind. Doran's just sitting there picking glass of his like feet in this high back chair with like devils perched on the corner. Completely oblivious. It's a chair.

You're sitting there. That's right. That's right. Doran's otherwise occupied. Kray Loth, it also occurs to you as you're standing near this broken wine cabinet. You smell something that isn't wine. Sort of intermingled in the scent of this rich burgundy smell of good wine. Threaded through that smell, you do detect something wrong.

And with your natural 20 in insight, it occurs to you that one of these bottles was probably laced with some kind of poison, that the people who live in this house may have kept in reserve in order to poison someone maybe who they were having over for dinner. Wow. I don't think that there were good people who lived in this place. What makes you think of that? Krayloff? And I lean on one of those, like, giant fucking demons on a chair. Just like really, I love the idea that we're in this room that's so clearly painted as evil. And for some reason, Doran and Red are, like, kind of oblivious to it. It's a classic esmodious style on those chairs there, inspired by what they say that great archdevil looked like, you know.

Is that what that is? What it looks like to me. Well, needless to say, I think this. that we should take a break. I know that there is someone upstairs who might need our help, but chances are if the demons and imps didn't get to them by now, they probably won't since we've cleared out, hopefully half of them. I agree.

After all, Zulkin was in here looting and had time to run all the way back to town, get us, and come back here, and the person's still alive. So, yeah, I think we have a little bit of time. And as you guys look back into the parlor, Zulkin has his back to you and he's just finishing rolling up that tapestry that he had been interrupted in looting. Thanks, Zulkin. And I walk over and I take the tapestry from him. I think we'll decide how we split the loot afterwards, right? That was the whole deal? No, it wasn't. And I try to take the tapestry from him.

He tries to pull it back out of your grasp. Yes, I think it'd rather was. Careful. That's an antique. No, it doesn't. Kralath steps up behind. Red, his body like looming and just like glares down at Zulkin. Is there a problem here? Yes. Just like I've got Red's back.

Yes, there is a problem actually. Kralath, my friend. When I sent you that letter at the inn to tell you about this wonderful opportunity, we had discussed looting this home together. And Red seems to think that all this property is de facto his. I think you were the one rolling up this tapestry.

Yes, of course. Finders' keepers and all that. Right. Well, why don't I hold on to it until we split up the loot? Uh, sure. Why don't I just hold on to your bag of holding until then? No. That's not going to happen, Zolkin. Now, the way I see it is, we've come in here, we've helped you out. How many imps have you killed so far? No, no imps? Hmm. Well, I think it's fair to say that the people who've done most of the work should get most of the prizes. Does that sound... Unfair to any of you?

Not to me. Doran's pulling glass out of his face and he goes, yeah, maybe you should shove your face in that glass cabinet there first, Zulkin. And then you can get some of the stuff that we're gathering here. Zulkin takes a few steps back and drops the tapestry red. Careful. He looks between the four of you and then back at Oren, who is skulking around in the hallway. And he says, well, I think I see where this is headed.

And I don't much like it to be frank. I thought we were going to be able to strike a deal well between us all, but I think you mean to deal me out of this hand. Listen, we've got a lot of trust to regain here, Zolkin. And it's going to be a bit of a hike for you, I'll be honest, after Nightstone. How about we make a deal officially here now? More deals. What do you guys say?

What do you propose? Of all the loot, we take as a team. And I think you'll agree that I was instrumental in your finding this place in arriving here in the first place. I want a quarter share. If you could have done it yourself, you would have. You would get nothing without us, so I think... Regardless.

A fifth... Sorry, a sixth, Orrin's on our site. A equal share for every person. I think we can all agree that your halfling friend is doing very little. Hey, it's instrumental to us succeeding here. Don't let them speak ill of Orin, Krayloff. Look, this guy was rolling up a tapestry behind our backs. I think he was trying to sneak off with it.

All I wanted to do was make sure that he wasn't going to take some loot and run. Fair enough. I think if I hold on all the loot and we show it to everybody, that yeah, at the end, Zokin can have his share. I'm not trying to stiff him, but I also think he's trying to stiff off. Wait, what is it,

uh, or us? Us. He's trying to stiff us. The Tabaxi's saying, I have to agree with you, Red. I assure you, Red. I had no intention of stiffing you. I could hardly walk straight with this tapestry rolled up, and on my back, was merely trying to take care of the details while you managed to sift through the glass towards your dwarf friend there. So what you were saying, it was obviously my misunderstanding,

is that you were just taking this tapestry and strapping it to your back while we moved forward through the house to fight more enemies. Yes, I think I should hold on to the tapestries, and let's put it to a vote. This is a democracy. I vote. We hold on to it. I agree. And at the end of this, we divvy it equally. One six. Agreed. Jack, Kraloth, Oren? I mean, I just really want to take a look at everything before it leaves here.

This place is full of some really fascinating old stuff. I mean, we'll find a fair way to split it up later. No, no, I don't think that's a good idea, my friend, Jack. I think we should decide on the way that we split the loot here and now. Zokin, for all of the things that we may have disagreed on in the past, I promise you. We don't have any interest in shouldering you out of any cut that is fairly yours. trust us. Ultimately, if this is meant to rebuild that trust, let's make this step one. I just look down at my hands and remember that moment in the rain where you and I were trying to

save Kralas' life and it's like, yeah, we'll make sure it's fair. He takes a step toward you red and grasps your hand, shakes it firmly and says, well, I'm glad we could come to some understanding. Me too. Magic items are ours. Let's go. Now with that said, there's an asterisk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exempting any magic. Before I let go of his hand too. If he doesn't even hear it, he's just like, yeah, no problem. And Doran with a thud, both feet hit the ground, and he stands up, a studious, and says, all right, let's get moving.

So, did you take a short rest one hour? Yes, I rolled 55 on my six deep tens. Yeah, and I'm going to round up all the loot and put it in the bag of holding. All the tapestries, the vases, all that kind of stuff. Classic. Which we can list and sort out later. The rod we found this morning. Yes?

Pull it out. Let's... Oh, right! He pulls it out. You hear all these vases fall in. It's all right. It's all right. This is something.

I picture the bag of holding being like a very, like, if you fell in there, it'd be like a very, very neatly stacked room with tons of shelves. And actually, it's really exciting too because if you guys, when you ask, you're like,

what's in here? You peek in and you see it's like so neat. Like red has like hopped in there and sweeped almost. Look at this stuff. Isn't it neat? Something's a sum. What's a fork?

Um, yeah, I pull. out the big giant rod, literally, and lay my hands upon it and say, Al-A-Kazam! Yeah, and I think Jack puts his hands on the rod and channels some arcane energy into it and tries to locate the nearest object made a better. What does it feel like when you successfully locate an object? It's just a sort of certainty. It's this like, this knowing feeling of where it's just like there's something, and you know when you've lost your keys and then you remember exactly where they are, he knows exactly

where this thing is. He can, like, sense the direction. the distance, you know, he's just got it laser locked on. There's a large amount of it upstairs. Jack's eyes go wide and a lot of like eager to spend the rest of this hour like, oh, I might leaf through this diary of a sad servant or I might, I might, you know, spend a lot of time. And now he's just anxious to get moving.

As soon as he's pulled the rotter, he's like red, there's a lot of adamantine upstairs. Let's go! And we have established that adamantine is like a valuable. Well, Doran would know it well because it is an exceptional metal to forge with. Really? I hope they're just ingots. You know, to be honest with you. Yeah, and I think we should head to the stairs and begin ascending. I'm ready to fight.

Me too. Let's do it. So you head through the double doors of the dining room back into this dark hallway. And there is a staircase ahead of you. It's polished dark wood. And it leads up to the second story of this villa. So there's a drafty hall that these stairs lead up to. There are unlit lanterns hanging from the rafters here.

The hallway stretches in an east-west fashion. And so on the northern side, we have the large staircase. And then there are two doorways leading off on the north side. On the south side, there are also two doorways. And then one to the east. Which way do I sense the adamanty? It's coming from the southeast. Jack, which way are we heading?

We're trying to get south-east. It's going to be through that door on the east there, I think, and then we've got to find a way to head a little bit further south. Makes sense to clear the first door anyway. I nod to Doran. Absolutely. Let's do this. I'm going to move up and into the hallway

so that I am farther from the door, but have a good point of view for when they open it. Doren turns the handle and actually gets on one knee, So he's shorter. And he turns the handle and swings the door in slowly and then peers in. You reveal a rectangular room that smells of powder. Smells like powder. You see a vanity with a stool laid in front of it.

There's a folding screen, obscuring part of the room. There's a black wardrobe in the back corner. A door leads north and a door leads south from this room. Kralov taps Doren on the shoulder and gestures up at his eyes and points at the wooden partition. Jack's feeling a little complacent because this isn't a dungeon. This isn't like a weird crypt door or something. This is like just a fancy house and he's very comfortable in fancy houses. And so there's a moment of like coming upstairs and yes, it's dangerous, but it's also just a house.

Yeah. I nod at Kralop. And as we move in, Jack moves in with us, we flank this partition and peer around it. Doran, you get a good look at three wooden chests as you pass by. They're just to your right side as you flank this wooden partition. The partition itself has got this bird of prey image on it that's kind of flashy. And the wardrobe behind it is made of glistening black wood. Kralath, you kind of have to squeeze past the vanity table with a mirror and you catch a glimpse of your own reflection as you move past it.

There is nothing on the other side of this wooden partition except for this wardrobe. So Doren kind of looks back and he makes a very obvious shaking his head like nothing's there like a nice slow shake. What? Jack, did you say you were also moving forward into the room? Yeah, there's a moment where Doren and Kralath like pull off their like soldier, clear the room kind of move. It's sort of a weird contrast for Jack. But after he sees them go in and make a little space, he's going to walk up to the other door to the south and open that one. Okay.

I think Red will follow him too and back into a corner opposite the opening door. Again, just a fire over his shoulder should something try to swing at his head and take it off. Yeah, no problem. I'm protecting my buddy. As you move into the room, Oren from back in the darkness, whispers, good luck, Mr. Red. Thank you. How very cute.

Yeah, I'm watching Jack. Jack, you open the door and you look in on this square room. There is an oak writing desk on the far corner that's angled to face the doorway. There are some candlesticks atop it. There are three bookcases pushed against the walls. There's a wrought iron spiral staircase. that leads up from this room and on the corner just to the left of you on the east side there's a suit of black plate armor cool holy oh it's just a suit of armor this looks to be the adamantine that you had expected to find oh cool the armor is the adamantine

it's a lot of adamantine a full set of armor yeah i think jack jack sort of gives one of those like whistles that I can't do just to like, whoa. Yeah, exactly. I think he tries and fails. He really wants to come off cool in this moment, and it's just like, whoa, look at that. Trying not to get too distracted by it,

he sort of walks into the room and makes space for everybody else to come in and point to the suit armor. As you enter the room, the suit of armor turns its helm towards you, Jack, and this red flame burnishing. is from within and animates it into motion. Everyone roll initiative. Uh-oh.

Carlin, what did you get for Red? 21. Kralov? Four. Rob, what about Jack? Ten. Doran? 18.

Doran, Zulkin tied with you for anish. Did you want to go before or after him? Uh, I'll go after. So, top of the round. Red? Sorry, do I have eyes on this or no? You do not. Okay.

Oh, right? is gonna move to the corner of this room and I think I'm just gonna ready in action and I'm gonna say, see if you can draw him into this room and I'm gonna aim at the door and if he shows up, I will fire. Totally, so you like jump down off the chest, bust your way past door and knock over the screen

that's like impeding the view and set up right in front of the wardrobe. Exactly. Aiming your bow through the doorway where Kralov is standing. Yep. Next, it's Zulkin's turn. He's going to pull back out of the room

and he's going to, as he retreats a little bit into the darkened hallway, and he draws both of his scimitar and his dagger at the same time. So he's going to ready an action. Flank him through the balcony. I think when we approached to the top of the stairs, there was a door that, I assume, led to outside because we saw a balcony at the house. Yes, yeah, the southern door leads to this little balcony. So Zolkin...

Yeah, so I'll tell Zolkin to head out there and flank around this. creature so that we have sort of two opposing signs. Yeah, he draws his weapons and he puts his back to the door leading to the balcony and he gets just a little bit out onto the balcony into this dark, cold night air. Doran, it's your turn. You see your companions move into action. Red draws his bow. People start yelling. And Doran shockingly says, what? The suit of armor came to life? Yeah, the one made of Adamantine. I should have known. It's such a great metal to work with magically. Holy moly. I know. Doren moves into the opposite corner of red.

And so he's standing right next to Craylaw in the open doorway, hoping that if these guys move in, I can be right there. If they pull back into this room, then I can take the first swipe, the classic axe through the stomach of whatever it's coming through the door. Acts through the invisible stomach. So I ready my action, which is going to be swinging my axe. So this enervated set of armor comes to life, and it's just the heat is just roiling off of it in waves. Jack, as you stand in front of it, it puts its gauntleted hand to its side and pulls out a long sword from a sheath.

It's wicked and hooked. There's no need for that, friend. It's going to swipe at you. Whoa. Twice. All right. That's only an eight. That'll miss.

Oh, really? And a 20? I try and duck out of the way and do not make it. It's going to hit you 12 slashing damage. Ouch, wah-wa. Back to where I was before we rested, down to 30 hit points. It's your turn, Jack. How do you respond to this terrifying injury?

Well, how tall is the roof in here? The ceilings are about 10 feet you would guesstimate with your mental ruler. Perfect. Enough that I'm going to grab my orb out of my pouch and hold it out and just sort of spin it in my hand in a way that sort of spins backwards, creating some lift, trying to levitate the suit of armor up against the roof. So yeah, I need a constitution saving throat versus my spell save of 15. That's a 20, dirty. Bummer. Yes. You try to levitate the creature and as your orb spins, it picks up bits of paper in the room, and you see the creature's feet lift four inches off the

ground, and then it resolutely returns back to the ground. Seeing that that's not going to work with that big, like, clang as it comes back to the ground, I try and like squeeze through the doorway past Kralath into the room to the north where red is. Okay, it's going to make it an attack of opportunity against you? It's a dirty 20. Oof, do it. Five damage.

Ouch. So non-committal. Slashing through the back of my leg as I'm diving out the room. That thing is nasty. Kralath, it's your turn. You see this creature take two nice chunks out of your friend, Jack, who fails to cast a spell and then rolls out of the room. Yeah, and I step aside as he runs past me, the creature's blade slashing at his back. and holding up my shield

and I pull out my mace and I back up a step so that my body is guarding Jack fully and I'm going to ready in action to attack this thing when he walks through the room.

Let's pin this sucker. Okay. Red, it's your turn. We're luring it, so I think I'll probably just ready my action. Zulkin bursts into the other room. Orin, tell Zulkin to stop. We're luring the creature enter into this room.

Okay, okay, Mr. Red. Then I will just ready and attack for when he enters into the room. Okay, so Redd continues to strain against the tension of his bowstring. Building up power. Wub, wub, wub, wub. Salkin's turn, he heeds your direction. Red as the more seasoned fighter, probably, comes back from being in the hallway to stand between Kralath and Doran, further shielding Jack from attacks.

And he's got his scimitar out ready to do damage. He's going to ready an action, I think. Should the animated armor come within five feet of him, he's going to try to strike him. Next up, Doran's turn. I'm going to continue to ready my action to swing and hit this thing. I'm doubling up my readies. It's really eerie, Doran, as you look into this darkened chamber,

because the glow from this creature is emanating from the corner and as you hold your breath and hold your acts above your head waiting for this armor to come in, you hear it clank, clank, clank towards you through the doorway and as it bursts into this dressing room, everyone's going to get a chance to take their readied actions. We'll start with top of the round. Red, you get a chance to fire an arrow at it.

Brilliant. This thing has not taken any damage yet, correct? not. Pretty light attack. That is going to be a 26 to hit. You hit? Nice. Eight damage. Now, I have an extra attack.

I ready my action. When I attack, I can attack again. Multi-attack is an action. Yeah. So, yeah, you can make both of your attacks. Get it. And this time, I will get to do Colossus Slayer if I hit, because it is damage now, I'm assuming. Do the thing.

13? No, that misses. I mean, your arrow hits the armor, but it just clangs off doing no damage. Bummer. Okay. Uh, next person with a ready to action, uh, Zolkin is going to try to stab the armor. Zulkin sees the arrows just whizz by his face. Ah!

Ooh, I rolled a 19 and a 17. Nice. Good job, Zulkin. So I'm going to hit twice, one with my scimitar. Nice. That's a maximum damage. Wow. So he takes 15 damage.

Nice. Dope. Beautiful. I'm going to roll once more for my dagger. So sling. Sling, two hits with a scimitar and a miss with a dagger. Doran, now you get to use your axe, if you'd like. Yes.

And Doran comes down on the creature's head with a 26. I thought it was a stomach slash, but yes, that hits. Well, it was originally. But then you described it with my axe over my head, so I thought, I'll just go with that. Yeah, why not? Because that's my first hit doing seven damage. And then I'm going to do my second attack. So it kind of looks like a jab with the point of my axe with a 19 to hit.

Yeah, that hits. Doing 11 damage. Finally, Kralath, you also get to take your action. What do you do? Yes, I swing my mace at the walking metal thing. And I get a 22 to hit. Yeah, you do. Seven points of damage.

Well done. What chink? That's two. teamwork right there guys. Yeah, nicely done. The creature's head makes this like bell type sound as your mace clangs off of the helm and it raises its spiked long sword up over its head with two hands, Kraloth, and tries to bring it down on you. I try to bring up my shield in time. One is an 11 and one is a 21. Oh, the 21 definitely head. but the 11 does not.

Okay. So he hits you once with this vicious attack. Oof. Eleven slashing damage to you. Ouch. The onslaught is just relentless. He's moving forward into the room. Jack, it's your turn.

So you see this creature just come in. Everyone lets loose with everything they had stored up. Jack's a moment behind everybody else and getting an attack ready for this thing. But he's on his back foot, back up against the wall. And it's time for a little bit of that, you know, magical jazz he does. He gets ready. You can see these missiles of force conjuring the air around him. And he throws as much extra power as he can at them, giving them, I'm going to use a third

level spell for magic missiles to get five of them. And then I'm going to throw the extra first level spell in there with my alchemical casting to give him some extra force damage and try and blast this thing with a whole bunch of missiles of force. Okay. Roll for it. 18 damage from the first one. Mm-hmm. And then 34.

As your missiles slam one after the other into this armor, your eyes widen in surprise as absolutely nothing happens to the creature. Damn. Watching each one just sort of bounce off this thing as if nothing's going on. Can I sort of get a sense of like, can I rule out what this thing is, what it's doing, how it works? Can I sort of roll in our Canada to get a sense of what the fuck? Certainly. I'd like to roll for what the fuck. Yeah, what the fuck, please?

19, so 29. It's definitely immune to force damage. Yeah. What the fuck is this thing? Tell me about animated armors. It's a construct. This is not your standard suit of animated armor in any way. You would probably not want to be dealing any poison damage to it.

It's definitely got some damage resistances to anything that's non-magical. Yeah. it's got blind sight so even if you're around the corner it still knows exactly where you are so i i heard force and poison damage were no good is there is there anything else that i i would know about like what is particularly effective if anything it's got no like damage vulnerabilities and our force and poison the only things i i would imagine it's immune to you probably wouldn't do necrotic damage either great great yeah it's also going to probably have advantage on saving throws against your spells.

So that's probably why it felt like it didn't really have to levitate when you told it, too. Certainly didn't help. So Jack's back is against the wall. He threw everything magically. He had it this thing, and it's the second spell that's just bounced off it.

And so he's like, Red, those magic arrows going to come in really handy, but I would be really concerned for anybody's attacks that weren't magical. I got this guy stunt, Larry. Why have I never created anything magical? Darn you, Moradin. Krayloth, as you feel,

the air of these magic missiles passing, just skimming your body as they like curve around you to get at this armor that you're sort of obscuring. And you see the explosions that are just these missiles blasting at the armor and doing nothing. You hear Jack's words ringing in your mind. Yeah. What do you do? I say, thanks for the tip, Jack. That should help. Red, Get ready. You know what to do. Bone ready, buddy. And I begin to channel path to the grave. Nice.

Yeah, whatever attack hits it next, he's vulnerable to it. Cool. Red, it's your turn. You see that familiar magic being cast by your friend. I reach into my new quiver, Fair the Beyond the sea, and I pull out one of my magical arrows, and I knock it. First, I'm going to use my bonus action to cast Hunter's mark on this bad boy. That'll give it a 1D6. I'm going to do 1D8 damage regularly, and I'm going to do 1D8 damage regularly, and I'm going to to do another 1d8 because he has been wounded, I'm assuming. I'm also going to use my inspiration to roll with advantage.

Ooh, okay. And I'm going to make this a sharpshooter hit. Let's see it happen. Smile for me, you motherfucker. Here we go. The old one, two. A natural one. Oh, come on. And a 19.

Nice. Yeah, that hits. 25 damage. And it is vulnerable, so you double everything. So that is 50 damage magic. Wabam! So Krayloth just showers this creature in radiant sparks as you create your path to the grave. And Red, you take careful aim at this creature with your sharpshooter abilities,

and the arrow sinks directly into the mouth of this helmet. And the creature just sort of like, Ruh! And starts shaking more and more and more, and then... It explodes, and this like shrapnel from the armor just lodges in all places of the room. Oh, man. Amazing. That's really good teamwork, guys.

Yeah, I'm alive. Between Jack's knowledge and then Kralov's application and Red's skill. And Doran was there, too. And Doran was there. Red hops down from, I'm assuming he was, like, standing on a chest. Didn't you say there were chests over on this side of the room, actually? You were actually standing right in front of this wardrobe. You had knocked down the room divider screen.

Screen! In order to get in like this advantageous position tactically. But yeah, there are three chests in the north end of the room. There's a vanity on the south side of the room. Doran's just kind of mind-blown at what he just saw. That was incredible. What the hell even was that? The armor itself was enchanted, Doran.

it had with an awful force. I don't know how they did it. Holy moly. And he looks down on the ground and in front of him, there is a chunk of the adamantine. It ricocheted off my axe and it landed right on the floor at my feet. Yeah, it's like hot to the touch. Steaming, yeah.

But it's about fist size, maybe. The size of my fist? Like a nice big fist? Yeah. Don't worry, Doran. The metal is quite cool. Oh, it's fucking hot. I think I want to cast Detect Magic.

Red, as you cast detect magic and look around the room, there's a faint glimmer coming from within the jewelry box that is atop the vanity. Yeah, Redhead's over and checks the vanity. So there are six bottles of fine perfume within this vanity. There's a silver hairbrush inlaid with lapis lazuli, which I recognize from Minecraft. Probably more than 100 years old, if I had to guess. I mean, if Doran had to guess, yeah, he would probably estimate to be more than that. than a hundred years old. But geologically.

Jack, you might like that silver hairbrush I can see over here, over there. Oh, yeah, I'll look at it in a minute. I think Jack's still sort of standing back to the wall, processing everything that just happened. He's still bleeding from a couple of sword swipes from this thing. There's like a smoking chunk of adamantine in the wall beside your head. Yeah, just like an outline of it.

He's barely escaped alive. Just a little shook. Inside the wooden jewelry box, you open it and the blinding glare of this magic comes from within, you find two potions of healing in thin crystal vials. And then aside from that, there's a pearl necklace and a platinum cameo shaped like a winged cat. Kraloth is a little out of breath. And he puts a hand up to his forehead that has a nasty slash on it. But it could be worse.

It's mostly just cosmetic. And he kneels down next to Jack and says, how you doing? buddy, you're going to need some help with that wound? Yeah, I wasn't prepared for that. You know, there's a moment where it flashes between. I realize there's very little I could do to stop that thing. I had none of the tools I had for all my magic were going to help me. I'm just glad you're okay.

Yeah. Don't want you dying on your birthday. And I'm going to cast cure wounds as a level one on Jack. Oh, thank you. The blood stops seeping out of the wound in your side. That's better. Jack, he gets six points of health back. Nice.

And we'll search the chests on the north side of the room. The chest on the north side of the room contain shoes, some bridal gowns, some seasonal hats. Nothing terribly valuable if you're not a fine-looking lady. Yeah, Red definitely puts a hat on Doran. Good. We're kind of a hat. It's like a big floppy sun hat. Here, Doran, this will look perfect on you. Doran pulls the hat off. He's not amused.

And he looks back at Red, though, and he says, here. And he passes the adamanty, and he says, Next time we have some downtime and a forge. I will show you what I can do with this. And he hands this large chunk of adamantine, plops it into the bag of holding then. Everyone's starting to sober up and feel the effects of like early morning. And so we're now moving to that grumpy phase of like post-drinking.

Yeah, tired. A little dehydrated. A little headache coming on. What's in that room? And Doran moves towards the door on the north side of this powder room. I hope it's coffee. And it opens the door and swings it open without much care. Okay.

This is a larger square room. There's a four-post canopied bed with a shroud around it. Ooh. There's another freestanding wooden privacy screen. A claw foot cast iron bathtub in a corner with a fireplace. It's apparent that the dumbwaiter also comes up to this room. What an idiot. There's a door in the wall.

And there is an iron chest with a padlock on it. Do you see anything with your detect magic in that chest? I'm not too sure. I can't tell if it's metal. All right. Well, keep an eye out for traps. Doran walks up and hacks at the lock. Should I roll for this?

Yeah, you'd roll. With a natural 20. Whoa. Nice. Ha! Yes. Nice. The lock is cleft in twain.

and it falls to the ground. The chest is now unlocked. And I open it slowly. You find a couple of things within this chest. There are three thin black covered books. There's a leather bundle and then a darker leather, slightly smaller bundle. There's a coin pouch inside and then a set of Pipes.

Hmm. All approached, are any of the items glowing magic? Yeah, the pipes appear to be glowing with magic. Interesting. Like pipes as in musical pipes? Yeah, like a pan flute sort of situation. Cool. Yeah, I reach down and I pick up the pan pipes and I say,

these are magical. Yeah, and while Red's doing that, I was kind of already on my knees and I started to unravel the larger leather band package. Mm-hmm. Because there's two, right? One was smaller and one was larger. Yes, a larger one and a smaller one. So, Red, you take the pipes out and examine them.

Doran, you take a look at this larger leather satchel. As you unfurl it, you are immediately struck with a sense of familiarity. These are calligraphers supplies, similar to the ones that Jack has been using to help teach you cartography. Interesting. So it's worth about 15 gold. There's some fine parchment, some ink. quills of different sizes and different ink nibs. Collegopher tools. Interesting.

And then I'll keep these if you guys don't mind. Go for it. And then I open up the smaller one. As you lift the smaller leather satchel out of this chest, you notice this almost imperceptible rise of the bottom of the lid. Uh-oh. And then you hear a faint sound. Uh-oh. Red, Doran, and Kralath as well, please make a con.

Constitution save. Oh, no. 23 for me. 14. Three. What's going on in there? I had a click. Okay.

Yeah, I think I tripped something. Red, you take 18 poison damage as you inhale this huge whiff of poisonous gas. And you see this radius of gas just emerge like a cloud from the chest and hovers around in the room. What do you do? I run away. Yeah, so you leave the room. Anyone else? Distracted by the cloud, I'm going to forget the dumb waiter, and I'm going to leave as well.

Oh, geez. I'm really sorry about that. And I don't... Did you fight? No, it was a trap. Are you okay? And I open up the smaller package. It's probably just a wait or something, isn't it?

No, it's a set of vials and needles that you're not. not able to immediately identify. So you hang out in the area of effect of this cloud? No, there's nothing else, right? I just grab whatever's left in there and leave it. Coin pouch and three black books. Oh, that's right. So I grab everything and leave the room. Make another con save for me, Doran, just as you spend some time collecting these items, unwrapping this other kit. 16. You're fine. So Doran, you are clutching all of these items and you rush from the room holding your breath. Medically.

Yeah. You have your arms totally full of books and red, I think you took the pipes, but that's it, right? Yeah.

But I do. I'd come out with my arms full and I say, okay, I'm going to keep the caligrapher's tools. And then, you know, one by one,

the things are removed from my hands. You know, Jack takes the three books. Red takes the coin purse. Sure. Zolkin is like, uh,

as long as we're claiming things, do you mind? And he reaches toward the smaller set. Uh, that was wrapped in leather. The vials and needles? What's in there?

I'm not really sure. And I do hand it to Zulkin. Looks to be a set of, I think this is poison. Well, maybe you should try drinking it. Yeah, I'm fine if he wants it. So you have some books. You have some magical pipes.

Doran's got his hands on the calligraphers supplies. And they go into my pouch. Zulkin called it on the poisoner's kit. The coin pouch, that's about it. Well, let's keep moving. Let's take a look at these. other two rooms on this floor. And then I think we should ascend that staircase that was in the

room with the horror. Sure. So everyone moves back into the darkened hallway. Jack, you have your hands on these slim black covered notebooks. Did you want to take a peek inside? I do want to just take a quick look to see if they've got a title or what's inside, what language it's in, if I can even read it? You can't. You can't read it. What? Do I recognize the script at all? Like, is it in letters I understand, or is it entirely? Or letters I recognize? I'm not sure if you would. I've got just the spell for this later. So this long hallway has two doors that lead to the north,

and there's one that leads to the south. The two doors to the north reveal two similar bedrooms. So the one that is farther west, I guess, at the end of the hall, is a drab, dark room that contains a bed. There's a wooden chest, a side table, a fireplace, etc. It's just a bed. What's in the chest? Inside the chest, you find some apparel that would fit a slender person cut in a feminine style, and there's a signet ring.

It's gold, and it reads, stone hearts never bleed in little runes all along the perimeter of it. I'd like that, if I could. In the center bedroom, I guess, it's a little bit smaller. You find a very similar array of furniture, and inside the chest, there are some. some garments that would fit a larger masculine person. No jewelry here. The door leading to the south reveals a nicer, larger bedroom. It's dark. There are curtains covering the windows. It contains a bed, an iron chest, a claw-footed iron bathtub, and a fireplace. Now, Red, I think your detect magic is still active. You detect no magic in this room.

The chest, does it, oh, oh, does it look like the key? that I found would fit in this chest. Yeah, the large chest doesn't really have a locking mechanism that's external to the chest, but there is a keyhole. Brilliant. I will, yeah, perfect, okay. Now red, I am resilient to lots of different poisons if you'd prefer me to try this one. Oh, right?

And I put the key in Doran's little hand, and I stand next to him. All right. Ready to run for the door. You might want to step back. And so Doran does, he unlocks the chest and opens up the lid. This large chest is otherwise empty apart from a cube-shaped item. It's about six inches on each side. And Doran reaches in and sort of making the face like,

is it going to explode? Picks up the cube. Nothing explodes. Okay. And so you hold a curious item in your hands. And so holding the cup. curious item, I turn towards Red and I still making the same face. Here you go, Red.

Hopefully it doesn't explode. And I take it very nonchalantly and I just take a look at it. Red, this cube is non-magical and for its size, it's surprisingly heavy. Something about it terrifies you and intrigues you. In fact, when your paws close around it, you are filled with a dark sense of dread. A mysterious object Thank you so much once again to our great old one Patreon supporters

Kellyn Holman and Christopher Ryan Evans Thank you friends for supporting us And please consider joining our Patreon to support the show And gain access to our exclusive show malevolent It's Spooky See you next week Yeah