Dice Shame - 60 | 'Waiting Game'

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

As the party arrives at Shadowtop Cathedral, they find themselves with a bit of downtime... 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.

I gotta say there's like a lot of subvers in this episode so far. Orin, hold it back, hold it back. Points for trying. Red always gets points for trying. Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. I win. Oh, is that why they call it Shadow Tom? Oh.

I can show you two thousand entrants. The team awesome boys. Team awesome boys. When you close your eyes, don't you see it still burned into your retina? Last time you guys tried to open this thing, it nearly killed you. My familiar ran off with a dark red wizard. All right. Jack was right to that one.

Welcome back to Dice Shame, Episode 60, Waiting Game. MVP this week goes to Mosey, who's been hanging out with us on Discord and Twitter. Thanks for joining us, Mozy. Are you a fan of this show and looking for a kind, active community? Check on our Discord. Not only is it jam-packed with amazing people, but we also have weekly community games, live streams, and special events such as a holiday gift exchange. Stop by, say hi, and stay for a chat.

You can find the link on our website, www.org, dyeshaimpodcast.com. All right, should we do this? Let's do it. Woo! Do you guys think you're getting smarter over time or dumber over time? Dumber. Smarter. Dumber, for sure. I think I'm starting to question the smart and dumb mean anything more over time.

So dumber. So, yeah. I'm becoming smarter, but I'm just applying it less. That's fair. You're becoming more sure of yourself. For me, it's the opposite. It's the more I know about something, the more I realize I don't know about it. Like, the more granular, the detail gets, the bigger the picture gets.

But the older you get, the more confidence you have in yourself and the more you argue how wrong you are. That's true. More stubborn you get. Well, I mean, I've been putting all of my stats into perception. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's how you statted out your own human body. Yeah, that's good. Man, that'd be cool.

It's a self-assessment, really. And further to what Harlan was just saying, you know, the more I know, the less I care, right? So the more I know, the less I care. And selfish you get. The more silly. No, I just think I'd become more silly. I'm like, whatever, you know, like, okay, fine, there's so much to know. I've barely scratched the surface.

And you as adventures have barely scratched. the surface of this world. I'm looking right now at a map of Fyroon and man, we got we got a lot to look at, a lot to see. Although we've done a good chunk of it, to be honest. We have. It's only been a month. Yeah.

It has. Like we've been all the way down from nightstone to water deep, golden field to Amphel, up to Crip Garden and now up to the high forest. That's a pretty good spread. But I agree with what Joe's saying, you know, there's like a lot of areas that are just not explored yet. You can always do more. You can.

And there's always cool, cool things to learn about fairies and phase spiders. You know, who knows what's going to be around the next bend? Phase centipedes? Phase centipedes? What's around the river bend? You approach a bend. There are phase centipedes. Roll for initiative.

No. There's just phase of all the animals. Phaex. Phae Loth. Phyloth. Phyloth. Roll for Faye initiative. From your vantage point on the slopes of the lost peaks,

you can see a grove of taller trees, their crowns waving above the other foliage, to the north of you. Some of the trees are still in possession of green leaves, and you wonder if this might be Shadow Top Cathedral, the place you've come so far to find. Late afternoon sunlight carves golden beams through the trunks and branches of Shadow Top Cathedral as golden leaves fall slowly.

through the canopy. It feels warmer here and humid. The ground is carpeted with soft star-shaped mosses and tangles of ivy crowned with purple berries. Knee-high flame-colored fungus with wide-brimmed caps and brown gills stand in clusters at the foot of giant dark trees whose massive trunks and limbs must weigh thousands of pounds, crowned with lustrous needles. The strange smell of a nearby hot spring meets your nostrils mingled with good earth. The grove is a mystical place, made even more so by the thread of flute music that reaches your ears. It echoes around the space, acoustically similar to its namesake. So we have Red, Kralath, Doran, Jack, Oren, and B.

You guys are leading your horses into this grove. Yeah, and I think Red takes the lead as his tradition. He sort of turns back to the others and he's like, I think this might be it. I don't know. Do I get the impression that this is Shadow Talk Cathedral? It seems like it. I thought it was going to be at the top of something, or in the shadow of something, or a cathedral. It's not properly

named, I guess. Yeah. And I dismount True Stephen, tie him up next to a branch and stretch. Pretty nice to be here. Yeah. See if we can figure out who's playing that flute. Yeah, that's what I'm interested in. Krayloff has his tambourine kind of flushed at the ready.

I love the idea of Kralat sneaking up with the tambourine in hand. I have a disease, and the only cure is more tambourine. Yeah, and I guess I would probably turn to Oren with the most ears of everybody, and I say, Oren, can you hear in the direction of that? He just points. Cool.

I think it's over there. Sure, I suppose we head that direction. Yeah. You know, I can get it. It's not so much a cathedral in real life, but look at the way the canopy is. This thing's on. It almost is a natural cathedral in here.

Isn't it beautiful with the music? Wow. But there's no like stonework, right? No, there's no ruins. Like the trunks grow up and then outward to support these vast, dark canopies of leaves. And again, it's strange. These are green leaves.

The season, as you know, it's ook tour the rotting. Largely outside of the high forest, the leaves are, if not off the trees already, at least shades of brown and orange. So these are not like fur trees. They're more maples and things with like big... Combination, but yeah. Cool.

Is it fair to say that then the trees that are taller in canopy and still green, they're just like a different type of tree than the rest of the forest? Yeah, they're actually called shadow top trees. Oh. We all simultaneously. Oh, is that why they call it shadow top? Oh. Dorn gets there, but always after the others.

So we head forward and see where the playing is coming from. As you move into this hallowed glade, you see a creature sitting in a shaft of sunlight by a pool of clear water. His back rests against the trunk of a willow tree, its tiny yellow leaves carpeting the forest floor around him. The creature wears a crown of marigolds draped askew over one of his curled horns, naked to the waist, and he's playing a set of shiny wooden panpipes.

His lower half is that of a beast, distinctly goat-like, with feet ending in clove and hooves, one of them idly tracing boroughs in the pond water as he plays a mournful melody. Look, Stephen, it's one a half you. Ah! His eyes meet each of yours in turn, and he nods at you in welcome, but continues to play the pipes until the song reaches a natural conclusion, and he closes his eyes for a minute, seemingly savoring the echoes as they disappear into the trees. And Kralov hushes everyone down.

And he gestures to Oren. Just like very, very seriously all of a sudden, he gestures to Oren. Flute off. Gives him the thumbs up and gets like really excited. It's an old school flute battle. Throw down, motherfuckers. Just insinuating to just get in and start making music. Maybe I'll roll a performance check.

Let's see how... Cast guidance on him. Is there like some call and answer? Just don't use the haunted pipes. So Oren pulls out his flute and he starts going for it. Tweeley, twoo, and whatnot. The creature looks up from his pan flute. Oh, hello there.

The cathedral doesn't see many visitors. Mm. You're playing is lovely. Our friend here is a very talented musician as well. and I hope you don't mind. I wanted to hear what the two of you could create together. I'm Green Whistle.

Who are you? The name is Doran. Doran Iron Fist. And Doran approaches and sticks out a hand, a big burly hand. He takes it and shakes it. His hands are surprisingly soft.

We're just passing through. Well, not, no. We're actually here for here. We're passing through the woods behind us to get to where we're standing now. And now we want to be here. What kind of creature is this? He's a sater.

So he's like a half goat, half dude. Oh, right. With two goat legs? Two goat. Be pretty fucked up if he just had one goat leg, one human leg. No, I mean, like not four. It's not like a centaur. Hey, you buddy, my name's Red.

This is my friend, Trayloff, and this is Jack. Nice to meet you. And that's Orrin and B, and that's my horse. And I start walking off like his to describe the horses, but like no one's following. It's your Red's voice trail up. And this is my horse, true, David. Yeah. And just Krayloth turns and watches Red, walk away, and then with a big smile, he turns back and says,

you'll have to excuse him. He's very friendly. I have to say your playing was absolutely beautiful, maybe tinged with a bit of sadness, though. Thank you. Well, I do this a lot. Play music. You say you're here looking for a tree? There's many trees here. Trient. It's sort of a long story. Airglass, the druid, I guess, created a friend of ours, Liferless, who's in Goldenfields. And after the giants have been ravaging the land, we sort of got pointed in the direction of Shadowtop Cathedral to maybe find someone who could help us. Well, I don't know anyone named Air Glass, but this is, cathedral belongs as much to me as any of you, so you can make yourselves at home. What a beautiful place. This isn't, uh, you know, special. water. This isn't sacred water or anything. I can swim in this. He's already starting to take off

his boots. He laughs at you. He's like, I'm naked. Not that I know of. And you hear Red's voice like coming back and he's like, turns out that the imps was then both of them. And that's basically how we ended up here. And yeah, so that's the whole story. Top to bottom. That's awesome. Dawn and I'll be swimming. And like Red is already taking off his stuff too next to door. Oh, look at it. It's steaming. It looks warm. It's very comfortable. And there's a couple of splashes. It's especially warm next to Doran. Doren, why is it so warm next to you?

Are you under a vent? There's just bubbles. Oh, no. Hey, right, come over here. I want you to feel something. Oh, Doren. Kralath steps up and says, yeah, the name of this place, Shadow Top Cathedral, it's, well, it's not like any cathedral I've ever seen.

Does it have religious or spiritual associations? Yeah, I think it does, yes, for some. For those of us who worship gods of nature, I can see the connotations. Doreen kind of swims up and he spouts a little bit of water out of his mouth as he emerges from beneath the water. So do you come here often, you half-goat person? Seder.

And red emerges as well. Green whistle, I think I had from over there. Um, yes. I mean, fairly often, as of late, for sure. It's nice this time of year. It stays warm. Say, what's wrong? You look kind of morose. Ah, it's nothing. Can I roll inside? Sure. 22. Yeah, he seems pretty sad. Oh, but he doesn't want to talk about it. No, he's like, he's keeping it under wraps. Red has learned enough from speaking with Jack to know when not to prod, but not when to tell other people.

And he turns to him, he's like, this guy's definitely upset about something, but he doesn't want to talk about it. And then he does a really loud wink to Jack, like, uh-huh. Well, he's trying. Points for trying. Red always gets points for trying. He's always putting his heart into everything 110%. Cool. And then, yeah, I think I get out of water and dry off.

And I don't know, I'll probably make some busy work of myself. Jack, while they're swimming, Jack might sort of try and say to green whistle. So really the whole story is, I guess, Liferless was this tree who was animated by, by Airglass, and I guess he also knew Turlang, was it was another tree of a same sort of lineage who might be up here and be able to point us in the right direction, I think. Any of those names mean anything to you? He sort of throws a hand behind his head and is like scratching the back of his neck. Well, old Turlang, yeah. Oh. He should be along at some point. Oh, excellent. That's really good. The oldest one I know in the forest here. Wow. So,

depends on how long you care to wait for him. But he always ends up back here eventually. Can I make a suggestion? Yeah. Please, yes. He's got kind of a foul temper. Don't get the old grandfather any more worked-ups than he's likely to be when he sees you.

Doesn't like outsiders too much, you know? That's a great tip. Is there any way that we could be on his good side? Yeah, what can we do, Red says? He's like scratching a tree with his, like, nails. just like a cat would do. I mean, not that. I don't do that so much.

Sorry. The spore tree on the inside just like, ah, oh, that's screaming. Come on, that tree's been itchy for centuries and no one scratched it. And now someone comes along. It's just like, ah. Yes, you're getting beneath the bark.

So you guys hang out? Yeah, let's just wait a few days, I suppose. Yeah, I have no problem waiting here. It is absolutely stunning. Can we camp here? Or is that on? Please. Yeah. Oh, this is a beautiful glade. Lots of room for as many of us as they're like to be here. So I can show you a spot where you could camp if you want. That would be wonderful. I always love camping in the glade. So this maybe gives us a moment. We've reached here. We can't go further. Maybe it's time to take stock for a minute. Yeah. Everybody. And just like we don't have a destination anymore. We can just be in a spot. That's not so bad. Doran's like clean and comes back in the same clothes, but looking.

cleaner. His hair is like brushed. Did you wash the clothes at all? Let's say I wash the clothes and I come out wearing undergarments. Doesn't have a towel. I think, you know what? I think I'm going to do a little bit of scouting around while you guys hang here. Keep it safe and I'll be back in, you know, maybe 20 minutes or so. And I'm just going to go do sort of a wide circle around, see what I can see. Absolutely. That's what I do. I'm a ranger. Very good. Yes, you do. Keeping an eye on things. Ultimately, I do want to climb some trees. I'll just sort of do a wide circle around just to, do some scouting and rangerly stuff. Red, as you climb these huge trees, you are afforded just a gorgeous view of the surrounding

forest, the colors and everything. From all sides, it's just trees as far as you can see. It's a massive, massive piece of land. A lot of trees around here. All right, well, I better head back. So a couple of days past, what does everyone do? I mean, you get real familiar with the glade. it's gorgeous around here. Jack, how do you spend your time? So, yeah, Jack spends, I think a lot of

his time a little bit apart, trying to just sort of take stock. He's reading a lot, he's got a lot of new books, and I think he's writing a lot in his own journal, trying to, like, pick apart his thoughts of what led him so wrong with summoning this devil before out of fear and what he will and won't say to Kieran when he gets back. But thinking there's probably no other place that is going to be as safe and sacred to find a familiar spirit again. I think he's going to go and try and summon Kieran. Cool. Oh, neat.

Yeah, I'm picturing this time when he summons Kieran, he's going to bring Kieran back as a tressum. But instead of as a celestial spirit, bring them back as a Faye spirit, sort of infused with the feel of Shadowtop Cathedral. So maybe their fur is a little shaggyer and has a kind of a feathered pattern to it and some other kind of, like, fairy sort of flourishes to them.

So you perform this ritual. You burn the requisite incense and herbs. Mm-hmm. You know, create your ritual circle and all that jazz. Spell Casty jazz. And Kieran steps out of the fire. Familiar to you but strange somehow from this imbueing of a fay spirit into their form. And they just look at you, the same blue eyes as ever.

Hey, Kieran. It's good to see you. Where were you, boss? I was lost for a little bit. Something dark came when I called you last time, and I didn't shut the door on them fast enough. I'm sorry. I've been lost. Yeah.

I thought maybe you didn't want. me anymore. No, that's not it. It's been a while since that happened and I was really afraid of this conversation because I care about what you think and I know I did things that I'm not very proud of and I'd want to disappoint you and but I was lost without you and I missed you. They walk forward on their little padded feet, feeling the material plane once again, existing in a body. Sort of walk around, sniffing the ground a little bit. Where are we? Shattered Hopper Cathedral in the high forest. Finally.

Yeah. Well, you'll have to fill me in. Absolutely. Yeah, I, let me tell you everything. And we do. I think, yeah, there's, you know, fill them in everything about Grud Hog and the walkover up here and how we, yeah, how we saved the day and we're heroes for a little bit. But then also the baddestness of Kralath and I at Nooner's Hold, fucking schooled those hunters. And you notice that Kieran is a little bit distant.

Doesn't curl up in your lap maybe the way that they would have once before. It's like a little bit hurt. I will. Oh, and then I'll show them all the cool books I've found. Oh, yeah. And with that, like, you know, there's a reason that this Faye spirit, this being felt called to you in the first place, you share this intellect, this love of all things arcane and esoteric. And so Kieran sits on one of the pages of the book and is like reading along with you a little bit for some time. We settle in to read The Magical Wonders of Nethril, a collection of interviews with Nethri's archmages who discuss their studies of ancient elven magic.

It's very relaxing. Kralath, how do you spend your time here waiting for this awakened tree? I'm actually picturing Krayloth spending a lot of time at the camp and hanging out with Doren playing chess. We gathered a bunch of like... Actually, I have a dragon chess set. Oh, do you? I do. I do.

Okay, so we set that up. You guys have played together before, actually. In the early episodes, we talked about how, since both of you are military, men, you're both familiar with this game and you're like, try out strategies against each other. I love it. I love it. I'm just picturing us at the campsite, just sitting quietly, moving a piece, and then, mm, yeah. And all you hear is that.

Good move. And then I picture, like, Red just jumping in and knocking the whole thing over accidentally. Sorry. I think canonically, when Red plays, he comes up with his own rules. Yeah, that's right. Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. I win. Play again.

And Doran, chess, obviously. Chess, as well as I go around mending bits of armor for everybody. Oh, okay. So you take care of people's things, you know, maybe see to the horse's tack and saddles and whatnot, just being, you know, practical. You're a pragmatic sort of dude. Tightening things, re-sewing bits here, you know. We've been in battles, and, you know, there's obviously. links that are going to be busted and straps that are going to be stretched and ripped.

You set up like a little workshop. Yeah, cool. Red continues bees training, bringing her throughout the woods and showing her little traps and hunter tricks and things like that. Because despite his silly nature, he is still a very talented and cunning hunter, though it would seem otherwise. Additionally, on the downtime, I want to spend some time trying to uncover what these four unidentified potions that we got from Icewindale are.

It was so long ago and we put them in our bag and I feel like there's a moment where red sets everything in his bag out, you know, sort of dusts it off and puts it back in the bag of holding to make sure everything is sort of accounted for and exchanged properly with the parties. But there were four potions that we never found out what they were. So you find that the four potions are potions of resistance for acid, cold, fire, and force. one of each. I let everyone know, but we'll keep them for now.

Yeah, so a little bit of everything. A combo pack. Starter set. And then in the evening, he pulls out the wooden puppet theater and puts on little shows despite not really understanding the hows, but he still stands behind it

with his fingers, and he's like, and this is another thing, and gets quite good at it, I think. That's a level of performance that Red probably could master because it's sort of dexterity with all the little fingers

and stuff like that. That was the puppet theater that we took from Grudhog. And I kind of envision that we've not just been sleeping in Liam's tiny hut now, but we have like a proper encampment. You know, there's a section where Doran's setup is.

There's like, there's a desk sort of that I've made for Jack of like, you know, a piece of wood that we cut, Oren and I. And Kralat's got like a full cooking station. And, you know, everyone's sort of got an actual area to themselves.

So not only has this time been good for the party sort of to rest, But it's also been really nice to be independent and have our own space, which we haven't gotten to have in Liam's tiny hut, or really since we left water deep. We haven't had the ability to just stretch apart. After all that stuff that Red does, at one point, maybe the second day there, he walks over to Jack. And now that Kieran is back sort of says, oh, hi, Kara, nice to have you back. That imp was a real, Jack. Thanks, Red. Jack, I wondered, I've been rolling something.

over in my mind, and I wanted to get your thoughts on it. Basically, I don't know about you. Ever since you and I tried to open that puzzle box, it's been on my mind, and I want to try to give it another crack, especially since we're waiting around here. Do you want to try and crack it with me? I don't know, Red. It's kind of scary. I know, but I also don't get the impression that what it left on us is going to leave me anytime soon. I don't know. have you felt it, but during those times, it's, it's lingered over me. When you close your eyes, don't you see it still burned into your retina? Like, I, I can't stop looking at it. I think I got distracted staring at that box in my mind when I was, when Egg Lap appeared. If we're doing

it, we got to, we got to do it in the right way. Well, what do you propose? Maybe there's some sort of protections that Kralath can conjure to help us, like this thing, that thing's evil. And we got to treat it as such. I agree, but I think it's a risk worth taking. Kralath is cooking at his cooking station, humming away. His little kitchenette. Hey, buddy. Oh, hey, you're just in time.

I'm just about to finish this mushroom. I guess it's kind of like a soup. I've been thinking about something lately and mentioned it to Jack, and I think we want to try to tackle that puzzle box again. Now, I know it was a risk. neither of us want to enter into it in the same way we did. That is the point of what we are doing here, learning from our mistakes. And I say that eyeing both of them,

the idea is that whatever is inside or whatever information that might give us will help. Jack, you agree? I mean, I don't know what could be in there. I'm haunted by it, and I think red is too. Solving that would feel like getting a chain off my shoulder. Okay. All right. Well, let me just finish up here with dinner. And why don't you grab the others? I'll dish us up some meals and we'll get a full belly before we decide exactly how we're going to go through with this. Okay. So after we've eaten, after dinner's ready, Kralov goes into the center of the campsite and he brings over Jack's desk and he places it down in a circle of chairs. and he places the puzzle box in the middle of it and sits down equidistently around the others.

The last time you guys tried to open this thing, it nearly killed you. Jack, what can you tell me about this thing? I know that we investigated it awfully, thoroughly last time, and whatever it could do didn't seem magical until suddenly it was, and it shook our brains to the core. anything that could help if that does go off again shield some of that mental anguish i don't know if there's any guidance or protections from that you might that you can think of well for my two cents last time we did it i don't think both of us needed to and i know that you're hesitant and you've been through a lot

and i know cradle off you don't want to step into this but i will happily take on the burden of whatever this might hit at us. Well, anyone here could do this. Are you sure you're the best for the job? I mean, no offense, Red, and I know you're eager to get your hands on that thing. But it seems to me like this is something that someone who is familiar with magical objects

and has the most experience with investigating this sort of thing would be best for. So I will say that since Red and Jack have both performed this investigation once, before, the DC will be slightly lower than previous because you have already performed, you know, the longer

that you spend on a puzzle, the more likely you are going to be able to solve it. So you can factor that into your figuring, if you will. Red, if you want to take a crack at it, you're welcome to. Doran, what are your thoughts on this? I want to know why we can't just smash it open. And I bring my axe aboard my head.

Do it Gimli. Or an hold it back. Or hold it back. A break or a splitter. Do you try to hit it with the axe? No. Okay. We're going to do this, but we're only going to try it once.

If this thing nearly kills one of you again, I'm holding on to it, and we're going to get rid of it the first chance I can. Does everyone agree? I think that's a good idea, but agreed. If we can't do it this time, we have to get some help from someone else. Jack and I started this together. We'll end this thing together. Okay.

I think there's that glint in our eyes that's sort of the shared thing where we're looking down at the table and it's reflecting back up into our eyes and there's that shared reflection that gleam from the damages thing did last time. Yeah, we stand on either side of the table and put our hands on the puzzle box.

Doran drops his axe and pulls up his sleeves. Ready to do whatever needs to be done should something go horribly wrong here. Yeah. And Kralov is going to cast aid as a level four which is going to give Jack and Red 15 more hit points. Cool.

And secondly, he's going to cast wording bond on Jack. Awesome. And then, finally, as the final touch, he's going to cast guidance on Jack as a cantrip. And Red summons Stephen for emotional support to stand there and watch. Emotional support, go. So Red and Jack, the two of you spend an hour in fervent concentration. And I'm imagining actually Kralath, your powers are being occupied throughout this entire hour because you continually have to cast guidance on Jack being that this lasts an hour.

So it's a cantrip, it's not expending all your spell slots, but you are sweat is beating down your face at maintaining this spell throughout the course of the whole hour. Red and Jack, you work together in total concentration for an hour, just engrossed in this puzzle box, trying to figure out. You're holding this six-inch cube in both hands. So I rolled a purple dye and a red dye. The purple dye came up one. No! The red dye came up 19, the same thing I had before.

Oh! And I got a four on the guidance, bringing me to 30. Nice. My friend, with a DC-30 investigation check, you open this box. Fuck yeah. I'm just going to say, if you are that cruel. You needed one more point. The two of you managed to touch the different components of this puzzle box in the correct order, slide out a panel, press a button, turn a small key.

in the correct sequence of steps. Finally, at the end of this hour, and as you open the box, this electric charge discharges out into the sky, something that you know would have gone into your bodies if you had opened it incorrect. We're okay. We're all right.

We're holding on. Don't drop that key, though. You've got to keep the tension on it. I got it, you bastard. You do your part. Inside this puzzle box, there is a single wooden coin carved on both sides with the image of a goose painted with gold powder. Really? What a waste of time. I'm kidding.

Do I recognize it? You pick it out? Yeah. Grab those tongs, Doren. Yeah, Doren picks it up with the tongs. just like a hot coal out of the fire. It's about half again the size of a gold piece, so a little larger than a gold piece.

I'm going to cast Detect Magic. It's not magical. It's a mundane coin. I drop it into someone's palm. Is it an art object? I mean, it's painted with an image of a goose, but its purpose is not artistic. Can I read the beast on it since I am a kindred saint?

No. Goosey, what do you want? Yeah, I think, I think Jack and I both, like, touch it a little bit, see if it does anything. Mm-hmm. It doesn't do anything. It's non-magical. Would history or arcana or religion help me put a name to this goose, this hard goose?

I don't think so, but Jack, this rings a little bit of a bell to you just from context of you being nobility. This looks like maybe a gambling token, like a poker chip. You know what I mean? Something that someone would use as a wager. You don't recognize this symbolism, but the way that it's painted, you know, you know how when we see something that has like checker mark around the outside and it's like the right color and whatever, this to you says token, gambling token. Looks like somebody was making a legal bet.

Interesting. This was in the Humphrat household. Maybe there was a wager. Maybe this token's redeemable value is something. think of great importance to people. It would have to be, right? Because it seems like a awful lot of protection to put on a thing if the wager wasn't of any.

Is the puzzle box reusable? Yeah. So now that the two of you know the sequence of steps to use, you both can activate and hide things in the box at will. Cool. I'll put the open box in the bag of holding now that it's sort of, you know, disarmed. I've got the ledgers from the house. Maybe I'll see if there's any big bets or, you know, anything that,

that lines up with a large sum of something or gives us a hint to figure out if we can figure when they got this coin or what. Oh, yeah. That's a good idea. Doran leans in and sniffs it and takes a quick taste. Is it real gold, Doren? It's gold. Yeah, that's real gold. That's good to know.

You go through the ledgers, Jack. You spend an hour leafing through checking diligently for any detail. There's nothing. Nothing mentions a bet or a wager. And as we're sort of cleaning up and moving away, I sort of talked to jack i got an odd thought what if what if someone tries to find this if they cast some sort of locate object spell would they be able to track us well my understanding of the particular type of

magic for your bag over there is the contents in the inside are not in this plane of reality yeah so i think that is a step in the right direction towards foiling things although certainly leaving it in the box that we can now open and shut it is probably not a bad idea. And Kralov puts a hand on both of your shoulders and says, Good job, boys.

That went well. Thanks to your guidance, Kralov. Would have never done it without you. Doren, before the coin goes back in the box, he sketches down the image on the coin. In Doren's mind, when Jack said that it was something

to do with maybe a gambling chip, Doren now starts to think of any place he's been where there would have been a goose as the mascot or emblem called a yeah thank you an emblem and following suit red will make sure he looks it over as well we did an investigation roll on it and all that stuff yeah yeah yeah you guys have learned nothing else that is possible for you to learn currently and then we'll put it back in the puzzle box nice you guys wait here for three days three days stretch on interminably green whistle is there the whole time i feel like the third day

Doran's like, okay, maybe we should just leave because this guy might not show up. Look on the bright side. We didn't come here like a whole week earlier. I mean, frankly, a bit of downtime, a bit of washing ourselves as much needed. We wanted this. Remember, Doran, how much of blood you had in your beard? Maybe you want another bath, Doran. Have you thought about another bath? Yeah, it's only been a few days, but you need one. Hey, listen, I already had one the first day we got here. It's only been three days. Double dipping, you know, what they say. We haven't done anything yet. I've got no blood. on me to wash off. So it's like mid-morning on the 8th of Uctur, when you see Green Whistle again,

you notice that he's been playing a little more like somber music as of late, but he kind of has been staying out from underneath your feet. And eventually he ends up coming up to you, Doran. Is it somber like someone died or somber like my girl left me? I mean, it's hard for you to know what's what kind of somber music sounds like to a sater, Jack? Fair. I don't know. I was just curious about like,

are we country music? Are we like funeral dirge? It's very beautiful, but it's not a dirge. Is it like a Water Davian country music? My dog left and my truck died. No, it's like, My familiar ran off with a dark red wizard. All right.

Jack was writing that one, but my tree friend got chopped down. All right. So they come up to me? Yeah, Greenwell. comes up to you and he's like, Doren, I've been watching you and your friends over the past few days. And I just have to say that you seem like really good people. Well, that's, that's very nice of you to say. And I look over at my companions. And I kind of watched what they're all doing and like in their own, their own little ways. They're kind of all concentrating on their own thing.

Not red. Red's just waving. Yeah, except for red. We pan across. So Jack is like sitting at the desk that Red made for him. He's doing some reading. Kraloff is busy in the kitchenette that he built. Maybe there's some nice smells wafting. He's like whistling to himself and then Red is just staring straight at you like, hi, Bob! Waving. You know, I'm proud to say that I think we are good people. Yeah. You know, we've done our fair share to kind of go out of our way to save a few folks here and there. I mean, we're no heroes by any means, but we certainly try to.

do right by the people that we come across and Doran is blushing. Well, yeah, I am a bit blushing. And Green Whistle is blushing too. He kind of drops his eyes and he's like, I have kind of a favor to ask you. Tell me, what can we help you with? And he puts an arm around and he starts kind of walking the Seder into the fold of us. You know, he's like, the, what's his name, Greenleaf? Green whistle.

Green whistle? For fuck sake. It's not. Greenleaf here. wants to ask us a favor. And I told them that, of course, he has our ear. Come now, Greenleaf. What?

Hi, Greenwistle. I'm just trying to find where I started the writing. You talk whenever you feel comfortable, green tongue. Take your time. There's no rush, Green Whistle. Just have a seat by the fire there. I'll bring around some stew for you. Do you eat goat?

I mean, do you eat goat? I don't know. Do we eat sater? I mean, only the upper half. Here's an important thought. I feel like when Doran blushes, he doesn't blush anywhere but on his bum cheeks. Can we make that canon for some reason?

I don't know why. I just feel like it makes sense. Oh, that's true. Yeah, dwarves blush only on their bum. Like, I picture there's a, there's a version of his history where, you know, someone asks him something and he's bathing. He's like, of course. And then the camera pans down to his bum and it's going bright red and showing that he's lying.

I'm picturing the copper tone bottles, the logo. Also, I think I think Doran just has the most gorgeous. just a little like when he wants to be vulnerable to you guys and he's blushing he just like pulls the side of his dwarf pants down just a little bit he's like see I'm embarrassed well that's that's the part of like if you were picturing this as a movie how do you know doran's blushing at what point are they like conveniently a dog pulling on his we're swimming and I'm like yeah you got a great looking beard and he's like oh and his little bum just goes red as he's like waiting in the water gorge he's just like yeah anyway did you find it I was yeah I found it sorry

A few months ago, I fell in love. I came here to Shadow Top Cathedral to just part of my walkings, you know? When you travel in the forest, you see the sights, and it was getting cold, and anyway, it doesn't matter. So I came to Shadow Top and I was playing the flutes. I followed echoes of my music. I heard some kind of echoes, and I discovered a cave system. nearby to hear, sat there and was playing some music by myself, enjoying the sounds of the flute, and then I was joined by a song, soft, clear, beautiful music. I've stayed by the cathedral ever since,

and I fell in love. This music, it's a creature who makes it. We are worlds apart, but we are destined to be together. Tomorrow is supposed to be our wedding day. But alas, the cave system where we met was collapsed. Just a few days before you came. I found a different entrance into the caves, but I was set upon by a terrible beast. And to my shame, I cowardly retreated.

What kind of a mate am I, to so easily abandon my love of the fear? So I play the flutes, soothe my heart and my ego. And I see you. You are heroes. And I think maybe they can help me. Of course we'd help with that question. Not only do we have nothing to do, that's such a great story.

And you shouldn't feel embarrassed, green sleeves, because some of us are more, you know, you're talented in playing beautiful music and, you know, showing what's in your true heart. Whereas I prefer to crush bone and spill blood. You know, that's where my true talent lies. And I couldn't play music like you. You shouldn't feel embarrassed about running away from danger.

If you don't mind me asking Green Whistle, what instrument did your beloved play? Oh, would you like to hear her? Why, yes, I'd love to. Very much so, yes. follow me and he leads you through the trees. Cool. Have you ever seen them Green Whistle or have you only heard them? He sort of avoids looking at you and he's like, I know it's not how things are done usually.

Honestly, no judgment man. It's a weird world out there. If this fulfills you, I'm all for it. No, I've never met them face to face. It's kind of like a pen pal. An online dating situation. Online. Don't be disturbed by that at all. I mean, in my culture, that happens all the time. We call it blind dating because you literally cannot see far enough into the darkness. But you know they're there, and you know they care.

And Don, and you know a thing of two about, you know, we're not going there. Loving somebody no matter what? Going there, Red. We're not going there. What do you mean? What? So Green Whistle leads you through shadow top cathedral, you know, a couple hundred meters away. the caved-in entrance to the cave system is hopelessly blocked with rock and shale.

Even so, it's a magical setting for a blooming romance, as the exposed face of the cave entrance is fringed with indigo lichen and dry sweetgrass. The pale grasping limbs of ancient sycamore stretch up endlessly into the air. For a while, Greenwistle plays his flutes low and longing. And then, in the echoes of your mind, you hear a beautiful and strange voice, charm in harmoniously. It's sweet and alien, this telepathy. But it melds perfectly with the sound of Green Whistle's flute,

and the instant he hears it, you see a look of adoration cross his features. Wow. I don't think I've ever felt or experienced something like this. I sort of look towards the others, and then towards mainly Jack. Yeah. Explain it. Yeah, sweet alien telepathy. That's my favorite kind of alien telepathy.

Have I run across any writings about sweet alien telepathy in my studies that I might have some insight? There's that song. Sweet alien telepathy. Roll a history check. Would love to. How do you feel about 19? 19 is great. Jack, there are many, many, many creatures that communicate primarily through telepathy.

red experienced one in the bowels of grudhog for example I mean you know that there are many different kinds of creatures that would communicate this way and you've certainly read a lot about them it would be impossible for you to pinpoint which one this would be based on the timber of a song but this doesn't strike you as something that is impossible more just unusual Nervously Red sort of looks towards Krayloff, and he's like, Kray, Krayloth, come over here. And he, like, pulls him aside.

I felt something like this before. In Grudhog, that creature with the three legs and the gaping moor, it spoke to me the same way. The same way? It's saying to you? No, well, no, but it came into my brain hole. You don't think it's the same thing, do you? Well, uh, I doubt it's the same type of beast, but, uh, you may be right. there might be something that, uh, yeah, well, there's something a little suspicious about

this situation. I do agree. I kind of picture us all huddled. You know, we're not bringing green, green, green whistle. It's green whistle. Doran just kind of pokes his head into the huddle. What are you all talking about? I, I also chime in listening to you fellas, and I say, well, who's to say it's not just a trap? You know, I mean, maybe, maybe whoever's playing the music is actually some sort of beast like, uh, like reds, you know, that, that scared. thing in the basement of the... Maybe poor green whistle is being tabaxi-fished. Baxi-fished? There you go. Took you a second.

Too you got it. Cat-fished? Oh. Oh. There you go. You're just on fire today, Red. You really are. There are a lot of creatures that communicate on this brain wavelength. And some of them are pretty scary, but I want to believe in love.

I want to make this happen. Me too. And this poor Sater has been heartbroken almost already. And Jack can't stop thinking about the distance between him and Taurin and what communicating in this wavelength would be like to this person he loves back in water deep and just thinks, let's bring these two together. Well, I think at the very least, we should definitely clear the cave and get there first. If we find out it's some horrific creature, then we can end it and tell Greenwistle

whatever sort of lie we want so that he still believes in love. But regardless, I think it does make them a little. sense that we see this thing first. You're a romantic, Red. Does anybody ever tell you that? Are you kidding? I want love for this little guy more than anything. I don't want to spare his feelings.

Could you imagine if it is the thing I saw in Grud Hogg? I don't want him to go down a tunnel and get eaten. I'm saying let's just make sure it's safe first. To preserve the essence of love. So how do we go about doing that? I'm so romantic. It's okay. It's okay.

I've literally said I love you like three times, at least in your life to me. Let's focus on the task at hand. Jack is right. We've got to clear this cave first before we can do anything. That's what I said. Green whistle puts his pipes down and he's like, I can show you to as an entrance that I found. You found another entrance?

Please do. That's what I was saying earlier during all of the exposition. Oh, I see. I can repeat it for you. When the adventure was set up for us. Right. Okay. But that's where the scary beast was, right?

Yes, yes. I see. That's when I was set up. It was this snake-like creature. Can you describe it from my friend here? I'm picturing, like, Team Corpse Hunters, you know, this is kind of a... I thought you're a corpse inspectors. You got promoted.

This is a weird hierarchy. I do think Jack might now really be considering himself. He was made an honorary member of the Knights of the Order. But there's like this point of him that he might, like, he's waiting for a chance to add that to his list of titles and things he might call himself after, like, he got this fucking lovely metal from another world. Like, Jack kind of thinks he is one now. Magician, Nobleman, Night of the Eternal Order.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Doran and I are part of team awesome guys, awesome boys. We're team awesome boys. Team awesome boys. I'm picturing Jack, drawing it out. Oh, yeah. Drawing out, like, the features doing kind of. I think it's even, it's even more like in this illusion between his hands,

trying to, like, recreate the, like, forensic. sketch, like, draw this? And Red, Red has his back to U-2 with Doren with a similar minor illusion, but so much worse. Like, it's like a, it's like a comic Sands version where it's like kind of like a big, like happy-faced head and like a snake. He's like, you know, and I think this is probably what it looks like. It's got at least 60 billion legs and, you know, probably 50 horns. We got this door. Team awesome boys.

And what's that over there, Red? In the corner here. That's a tree. Oh, this, well, that's it. He's just through a tree. Well, I wanted to, you know, I wanted to bring life to the scene. a little bit of, put some for scale. Yeah, it's a tree for scale. It's smiling.

Team awesome boys on three. One, two, three. Team awesome boys. Green Wissle's like, well, I don't, I can't see in the dark, so it was all kind of a blur. But I went into the cave system and I have to go down quite a long tunnel. And there was, something fell from the ceiling, this snake creature. from the ceiling. You mean you went in there alone?

How do you know they weren't a predator? I mean, come on. This is what we're always trying to tell the youth of today is to avoid these. Have you never been in love, Doran? You do stupid things when you're in love. Oh, trust me. I know what stupid things can be done

when you're in love. Like what? But I'm not getting into that right now. And I turn, look at my three companions. And I turn back to Green Whistle. I'm just saying you have to be careful of predators, especially when you're, you know, dating people that you've never seen before.

Red's right. It could have been a tabaxi fish. It's true. Who's to say it wasn't, you know, something else? They have plays dedicated to this in Waterdeep called To Catch a Predator. That's right. Where a nobleman comes in and tells them to sit down and he's like, I gotta say, there's like a lot of subverse

in this episode so far. I'm really liking it, you know, we can make this into something educational. So while Greenwistle is like describing this creature to Jack, and Kraloth. Red, you hear a voice in your ear, this like clear, sweet voice. And it says to you, tell me, is my beloved a creature of virtue? Oh. And like, it's perceptible to those who would be

looking at me, which I imagine is only Doran right now, because I do think Doran and Red have like sort of broken off. Definitely the less intelligent of the group. They feel very insecure about not being sort of smart enough for the other two. So I do feel like Doran and I are trying to play into this to feel like we're just as important. So I kind of looked at Doran and I'm like, tap into my

head like, I think I hear. And I'm going to, can I answer back? Yeah. I think at first he does. Of course he. Of course he wait. Of course he is. And I answer her back. Or it. Is he as wonderful as he seems? And then now

without the strain of like saying it out loud, Red says, oh, he's wonderful. He's a gorgeous, kind person who seems to care an awful lot about you. What are you, and who are you? We are a bit nervous. We want to make sure that he's being safe, using protection. We agreed to meet for the first time on our wedding day as proof that we care not for each other's physical forms.

which I think is sweet. And I don't at all think that it, you know, true love doesn't exist. But some cultures, yeah, I guess, yeah. I understand and I want to honor. At this point, Green Whistles finished the illustration with Rob and Kraloff. Probably Jack and Kralov. The division, though, it's, the difference is so thin. Who's Rob?

Who the hell are you? Did you know I'm actually a wizard from another world? Who's talking? Um, did you want to see if you know what this creature is from description? I mean... Yeah, what do you want for that? I'm a smart guy. I'm going to ask you to roll nature with disadvantage because you got a sketch from someone who was essentially blind, but kind of...

Blided by love? Mm-hmm. 21. Hey, 21's pretty good. Yeah. I'm a nature man. It's pretty clear after Greenwistle describes the sound of a snapping beak as a... well as a serpentine form, that this is probably a grick.

Grick. Yes. You know that to be kind of a medium-sized creature, it's got tentacles, it's got a snake body, and it's got a beak. And they like to, they're kind of ambush predators, and that's what you know about gricks. Doran, go peek over them and see what they, see what they found out. Just go look over it. It's like a snake.

I feel like Doran's like looking over Jack's shoulder, describing it to my minor illusion, as we sort of like try to puff up ours. Oh, you're like cheating on your test? Yeah, yeah. But it has four tentacles. Okay, five tentacles. Greenwistle looks up at you with hope in his eyes and he's like, do you think that is it, can you deal with it?

Is it too strong? I know that I'm asking a lot of you. It's just another creature in the under dark. Tunnels around here. If you need to get by it, we can get you by it. I believe in your love. Thank you. If there isn't anything else, Greenwistle, then why don't you take us to the second entry first, and we'll make our preparations there?

He does, yeah. So he takes you another couple hundred meters away. The roots of an especially large fir tree clutch rocks eroded of earth, rope-like. Sprouting from the crevices between the rocks, tiny lemon-yellow mushrooms erupt in little bouquets. a distressingly small hole in the ground leads deep into the darkness. That's an awfully small hole in the ground. That's tight and... Distressingly small. Kralath kind of glances over to Red.

Who like swallows nervously and like dabbs his forehead and looks to Doran. So who goes first? Team corpse hunters or team awesome boys? I feel like it's well balanced after all Doran lived underground and I hate it and you two are sort of somewhere in the middle. Well, I'll tell you what, we've got to keep an eye out for this, this grick, but, and as Doren's speaking, he pulls his axe from the sheath. It's not just this grick we need to keep our eyes out for. It's whoever he's fallen in love with that we really need to be careful about because let's be honest here. And I'm looking around at each of you. It's not the first time we would be facing someone that isn't necessarily who they appear to be. I agree. We got team awesome boys and we got team.

Corp, whatever. Let's do this. Oh, a spooky hole into the earth. Can't wait until next week. Thank you once again to our shamers and great old one supporters, Christopher Ryan Evans, Mitchell Cardwell, Charlie McBroom, and Merlin. See you soon. Hey