Legends of Avantris - Curse of Strahdanya | Ep. 34 | Malediction: Part 1

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

The Azran Expedition comes face to face with Strahdanya's closest allies, while the fateful wedding creeps ever closer.   Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/EX6murOtB64?si=BVIcPm5o2znsWivY

You're back in the catacombs of Castle Ravenloft and listening to Curse of Stradania, a legends of a ventress podcast. Last time, the Asran expedition decided to delve deep into the bowels of my home to rescue my prisoner of honor, Master Jentecki. Moving on to the crypts, they did not steal my dead brother, but instead stole just about everything else. But now that my brides and my Escher have cornered them in the Cowboys' Trekkers, alone in the dark, they may regret lying to their host.

This episode is brought to you by our generous supporters on Patreon. We now also have a merch store where you can browse more than 20 amazing adventress themed designs. You can buy a shirt or become a patron yourself by following the link in the show notes. We are eternally grateful for your support. With that out of the way, let us proceed with Chapter 17, Malediction. You find yourselves hearing the sounds of what appear to be vampires, threatening the life of an innocent, in your haste to save the innocent.

Shepherd runs straight into Stradonia's tomb, activating a teleportation trap. The rest of you are able to rush in unhindered by the trap, having just activated a second prior. As you look on to four people, all of them towered over a wriggling form you're unable to truly see what it is as they threaten to feast on it

is they bring its flesh towards them you yell out they all look at you smiles alight all of their faces Shepard you find yourself standing at the bottom of a pit

the dirt beneath your feet is slightly damp. Moss aligns the walls as you look all around you. Coffins line the entirety of the area stretching all the way from you towards the back. You can't even see where they stop at this point. As you look up, you can see that you are in the pit of the tomb that you had entered with Clayton as you were inspecting all of these crypts. Oh, hells. And as you move around, you hear it before you see it, the creaking and the rattling. As one of the lids begins to slide open,

and you begin to see a form rise out of it, an axe at its side, this is a creature mostly of undeath, something you have never seen before but have heard tales of. A white begins to rise out of the coffin, as yet one more begins to. to slide open. And then another is the sound is cacophonous all around you. Every single one of these begins to open. But it doesn't stop there as the wet ground beneath your feet begins to shake. You see one skeletal arm wrench up from the ground and grab at your ankle as skeletons and whites

all in front of you begin to rise. I need you to roll for initiative please. Him or all of us? Just him. Oh, God. And then we will deal with this for a second. We'll give back to what you guys are doing. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my God. Don't show my my God. Oh, no. Oh, no. I'll tell you, I told him that the way he

survives is that he doesn't miss. He gets really high in initiative and he does a fuck ton of damage. So I get a 25. Golly. Okay, that's what you got. Golly.

Golly, Shepherd. Well, guys. But you watch as the tops of the coffin slide off and 15 whites begin to rise, all of them turn and look towards you as nearly 50 skeletons clamber their way out of the earth in front of you mixed in with all of them. 50? I think it was 1-5. I think she said 15. Oh, fifth D. No, T.

F-15. Do I get to go first? Yes. There's no. Oh my God. Bitch, you better run. You look, you feel as the cold stone, the back against your wall,

you're looking up nearly 25 feet above your head as these shambling skeletons and whites begin to make their way towards you. Their eyes flash red is they are looking for flesh. And you are all alone. all alone. What do I want to do? Damn it, nothing's ever fucking easy. I hope Garrison the dock

is seeming through and I hellfire. So that's going to be a DC-17 Dex saving throw from all of the whites and skeletons. Oh, God. Seven of the whites pass. So I'll take half of 33, which I believe is 16. And then

the ones that fail will take 33. And then with my bonus action of the dust and the bone dust begins to fade a little bit, I will use my bonus action to Hunter's Mark. Yeah, Hunter's Mark, one of the closest whites. And that is my turn, as there is really nowhere for me to run.

With that, you look around you as the dust begins to settle, these creatures begin to shamble over you, and you reach down for redemption. You pull it out, and you let loose a rain of hellfire. You spray blasts of force energy.

directly at all of these creatures. You watch as skeleton after skeleton takes the hit and falls, their bones sinking into the earth. All 50 of the skeletons completely annihilated in its path. Every single one of the whites able to hold on

just long enough as they begin to make their way towards you. A significant amount of them are their bones and bodies are hanging loose. They look severely wounded, but they are still hanging on. Do we hear that one? Come on.

Oh, yeah. So with this, the rest of you immediately hear the sound of Shepherds' hellfire raining out. It echoes out from somewhere far beneath you. You can almost feel it rumbling beneath your feet as you hear the screeches, the almost the unearthly screeches and wailings from the creatures that are falling at his feet. And you listen for the sounds of his painful cries, but they do not come yet. As these four vampiric entities begin to rise and look up at you, one of them, the one wearing the skull mast, looks directly towards you, Clayton. Oh, look at you, pretty thing. What are you doing? Shepard?

What a shepherd? Here you go. She's wounded, and you see as she looks down, and you see a small woman. She can't mean more than 21. As she is, her arms are wrapped around her. Her face is lifting to the side. She looks unconscious. Blood slightly dripping from her mouth, two wounds on the side of her neck. You look so smart. Come, come here. Help her.

She needs you. And I need you to roll a wisdom saving throw, please. Whiz, you say. Yes. Yes. 15 15 you look you stare between her and this in this gruel on the floor and you feel it as your eyes gloss over for a second you start to blank yes i am intelligent i'm not a medicine man but i might be able to help her as you feel compelled to move forward yes i can take a look professor what are you doing i'll walk up it's not safe Professor, it's not safe. Stop.

We don't know where Shepard is. Can I try to stop him? I'm sure he's fine. You can in a minute. As Shepherd, oh, fuck, okay. You watch as these creatures continue to shamble towards you. They have a speed of 30 feet, so if you can move them all 30 feet forward.

So his back is against the wall. His back is against the wall. Maybe like, so one tooth, I can be surrounded by five of them. Yes. And then they can all go. get sort of just start like piling it around. Good luck, yeah, Brie. I may have, I may have

overestimated my abilities. We'll see. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there we go. If I can punch a hole through most of these on the next round, it'll be all right. Well, you've got another hellfire. Yeah, right, exactly. Are you adding that D6 that you get to it

or the only applies to melee attacks? Yeah, the ability is. And so, how am I can't see, but it looks like one, two, three, four, Five. Yeah, five. The endless day of range. So,

I hope not. So. The first one is going to miss both of its attacks. Oh. The second one is going to attempt to hit with its long sword and miss. It's going to attempt to drain at your life with its second attack. Very good, very good. And that is going to be, yeah, 15.

What's your AC? 18. Okay, yeah. Good call. I was a 15. The next one's going to do the same. thing and it is going to hit with its life drain as a DC 13.

So these will be both long swords. Both of them are going to hit. Both of them on the third one are going to hit. What's the range on life drain? The range on life drain. Like, shut the fuck. Maintain GameState. This does not say

to be fair on this card. It just says like a de-mentor but it has to be like I could literally right in front of you. So you can look it up for me, Mike. If you don't mind. Sheppard is going to be like that girl from the ring. This is ridiculous.

Six points of damage on those two hits from number three. I need you to make a constitution saving throw. I actually need you to make two of those. Okay. Han is not like a good one. So the only range attack is a long bow. Your life dream is a merely like that's up. I thought, I thought so.

It's going to be probably one fail, one pass. I got a six and a 20 something. Six and a 21. Yes, so you are going to fail one and pass one. You're going to take 16 damage from one of those hits. Not the life drain. This is just, this is the last guy that hit you. And then 14 more damage, and now I'm going to do the life drain.

So six, then 16, then 14? No, so it's 16. Oh, yes. The first one was. six, yes, six, sixteen, and fourteen. And then the life drain. Okay, this is bad. Yeah, this is good. Is the life drain a spell?

No, it's one of their ability. And you are going to take eight points of necrotic damage that reduces your max HP. By eight. By eight. Just do minus eight. And that is.

their turns because those are the ones If you're on desktop, you can track our health live on the D&D Beyond Overline. Mike, I'm going to choke you out on. So, you, Shepherd, you find yourself being surrounded by these whites as they climb on top of you, pushing

redemption away. They begin to claw at your skin, tearing away at you. You feel as one of their claws sinks deep into you, and you feel it suck out your life essence. Is it breeze in deeply? some of the life that you gave it. Yes.

For one of the hits, I'd like to Helisremuque. Okay. It does fail. So we'll say number one. Or you can let me know which ones are around you. Let's call three. We'll call three right there. He'll take 12 plus three is 15 points of fire damage.

All right. And then my Hellasabupe is gone. It's average. You let out this burst of energy. channeling into your teafling heritage as you're taking in all of this pain as you feel your lifeblood being sucked from you and you let out this burst of energy you watch as it sears one of the whites in front of you the flesh melting from its face as it looks at you its eyes a pearly milky white as its jaw drops open it looks like it's incredibly wounded the rest of you are watching as Clayton slowly moves towards he looks in trance, they all turn to each other, giggle between each other, and smile. As you move down to touch the woman,

they begin to encircle around Clayton. Yes, take care of her, smart one. Yes. Do I see his eyes gloss over? I'll take good care of her. I wonder what the rest of you are doing as I do this. I was trying to stop him, but I don't know if I had time to. Yeah, so what would you like to do?

I'm carrying Jentecista. I want to try to body block him as much as I can, because I haven't put it down. I would say you could move in front of him and it's not going to prevent him from moving around you. So when I would have seen his eyes, but you can say something to him. Are you, are you, are you, are you else, professor?

Why are you moving towards them? This is dangerous. His girl is threat. Where does Shepherd go? He's not himself. You need to go find Shepherd. Wake up. And yes, you would notice.

I would immediately this shepherd disappears and I hear blam, blam, blam, blam, blah, blah. I am going to. And then at this point, you now begin to hear, He's not screaming. Shepherd is not that type, but you can hear the grunts of pain as he's wincing against it.

Just the gutteral sounds that inevitably come with your flesh being rendered from your body. And it echoes up against his will. I am going to cast sending. I'm using it with a fourth on this bell's luck because I don't have been able to third. Because I use it all on sending.

And I will say, Shepherd, where are you? Are you well? Are you in danger? You can respond to this message. It doesn't cost me anything to respond. No. No, it does not. The grips are fucking clips!

The fucking grips! That's it. That was supremely unhelpful. I think Shepard is, and then I'll see Professor walking over into the thing. And she's surrounded by vampires. They have looked at him. They see that he's coming over.

They've all smiled at each other, and they begin to start to surround him as if they're going to block vision using their forms from you. just before you do that what did you want to do kelsey well i was before he got over there i was okay so we could say he's walking okay yeah so once i would have pulled at him and seen that his eyes were were glossed over and he wasn't in control of himself um i would have opened my mouth into like a shape of a scream but the sound would start to radiate um out in front of me surrounding the vampires

so it would sound like just an ear piercing like ah um and i would cast some uh synaptic static how does that work? So I choose a point within range and cause psychic energy to explode there so each creature including the girl unfortunately has to make an intelligence saving throw. If Derek is watching, he's going to be very jealous.

You're walking there, I will say you're not in it yet. Kana got in your way, which prevented you from getting there in time. She wasn't able to hold you back, but she was going to prevent you. Oh, Shandke's a mad by the last. You're lying, babe. Hold it together, master. Clold it together.

I have to put you down in the muck here in a second. The masculine form of these creatures, he seems to be able to resist it, as all three of the feminine forms begin to put their hands up to their ears, and they all look at you as they bear their fangs and they let out a loud scream as they're trying to shake off the noise that's now thrumming through their eardrumbs. Tell me what it does. So the save is an 18. If they pass, I'm sorry.

So if they fail, they take 8D6 psychic damage on a failed save or half if they succeed. And if they fail, they have muddled thoughts for one minute. During that time, it rolls a D6 and subtracts the number rolled from its tack rolls and ability checks, as well as its constitution saving throws to maintain concentration. Target can make an intelligence saving throw at the end of each of its terms. It's like a buffed bait. kind of. Bing.

Okay. Good. Yep. So tell me what damage. What's the damage? And then I'll have what's her face roll concentration. It's a fireball. It's huge.

Derek has been waiting to use the shift for forever. And I think he had the last episode of BDO and he got let him resisted. He hasn't stopped talking about synaptic stack for weeks. 34 if they failed. Okay. And then half as much if they pass. Or if they pass, yes.

You watch as the girl, you can still see her. She's lolling there. Her eyes occasionally fluttering open. As this lets out, you watch as the three feminine figures are clawing at their hair, at their ears. The sound is excruciating to them. The masculine figure seems to be able to persevere through it, but he's looking around frantically between all of you,

between all of the women around him. And then I have to subtract to D-6. You watch immediately as Clayton shakes his head. His senses overcome him. She's unable to keep the charm up on him through to static as the small girl begins to cough up blood, and then her body goes limp as she falls to the floor. Shepherd.

Professor. What happened? Have you snapped out of it? Yeah, this. Who are you? Who is that? Shepherd. Oh, fuck.

You feel this tearing into you, and you know that your time is short. If you do not do something, what do you do? Um, so I am going to use the other, I'm going to use the other hellfire, but my thought process is since it's a cone,

it probably only hits these nine, as these guys would probably too wide away. I would say it wouldn't be able, it wouldn't be able to hit the two on either side of you, but I would say it's able to hit everything else in front of you. You're being very generous. You can move it. So the idea is it's like you wouldn't be able to turn this way and be like,

but you could spread it out in front of you. Yeah, with redemption almost smoking from the heat of the previous hellfire, I quickly holster and use my free hand to then fire off the hellfire with judgment. So it'll be another DC 17 saving for all. Yep, Dex. Yeah, Dex. five. This nine is 14. Ooh, plus 12 is getting 10. Plus 10, it's pretty good. Not bad. Not bad. Four than lifetime, right? Four, three more. And it's 17, you said? Yeah, DC 17, saving throw death, saving throw.

You got more. You're a tragedy. I need you. I have two more rules. I need coffee. We don't have coffee back. Come to take in there. Master, I mean, I'm sorry for calling you by your first name, all right? Insulin.

You quickly holster redemption as you pull out judgment and you begin to let hellfire rain across all those that you can see in front of you doing. It's 36 for a pass. 18 for a fail. 36 for a pass, 18 for a fail. Or the way around. Yeah, whatever. If they fail 36.

They take the full amount of 36. If they take half, they take 18. What? Look at all these chicken. Look at all that's a second. I really like that. The vine. I remember what Vine exists?

You ever vine? The Vine was the greatest thing to ever happen to the internet. No. Boopers. You let loose the reign of hellfire. You watch as white after white is blasted into smithereens. There are now five remaining, one on either side of you, and the two in front of you. These two or these two?

Does it matter? It doesn't really not. It's all the same. Yeah, no, one, two. So, yeah, one more. Yeah, only five. Only five, one. One more.

Oh, Christ. And with that, well, I'm in a bonus action. I'm in a bonus action slayers, probably the same one that I hunters marked. We'll call it number three. Okay. That's a good call. That's my turn. I can't move or I'm going to take, like, double attacks.

I just kind of stay and try to bear it, as they say. The one of them is going to make both of its long sword attacks against you and miss. The other one on the other side is going to make a long sword, and I need you to make a con saving throw. The long sword's going to miss. Question is, is it number three that's making me make this con saving throw? It is. All right, I get advantage because of my slayers pro.

Oh. Okay. Very nice. I guess that was a good choice. So that's going to be a 17. 17 passes. So that's two down. Then the next one is going to

do two of its longsords. One of those is going to. hit. So I haven't taken any damage yet. Correct. This is the first one. Only one hit, so there are only... 11 points of damage.

The next one, I need to make another con saving throw. Actually, make two, because the next ones are going to do two. And then both of those are going to hit. You can twist. We have 13 and 16. Do a twist? Let's twist the 13. Both of those pass.

Oh, shit. There we go. Okay. It's low. A monster. like that is going to probably. 11 for the first long sword.

Or for the next long sword? Yeah, as you say, it's 11 and 11. And then 13 for the next one after that. All right. All right, I'm on. You feel as even though you've let loose all of this, you have,

you're holding strong against all of these creatures, but they are overcoming you. And even though they're only five left, it feels like so much more alone in the bottom of this pit, a pile of bones surrounding you. Clayton, you feel your mind come back to you. As you look forward and you see as the girl drops to the floor, the life draining from her eyes, you can faintly hear the sound as you look back towards

Victoria and you can see her eyes glossed over, her mouth opened the scream, not coming from her throat, but reverberating just slightly in front of you, too far away for it to affect you, but you can still hear it, that ghostly, ghastly, shadowy screen that she's letting loose from the shadow powers that are innate in her body.

As you look around and you realize you've been overcome by the charms of the vampire, you see, as they're all looking around, the three women frantic, the masculine one kicks the body of the dead girl as he reaches over an attempt, to shake the girls around him, what do you choose to do?

We need to find Shepard! Who do you want to say? I'm going to just try to run back and just fucking leave these. If they seem stunned, I'm going to try to turn in Find Shepard. You're running? I will turn and attempt to run,

and I'll say, shine your lantern or something! And I'm going to turn and try to, did you tell us, did you relay the crypts? Can we see that she's dead? The girl? I've had a chance yet. My bad.

I was like, no, she's dead. And so... And you would also hear. You'd be able to hear everything that was happening. I will call out as the... Shepherd is in one of the tombs. He is in danger. I presume he was less than helpful. And I'll reach into my cloak,

and I will pull out the symbol of the morning lord. And I will say, be gone creatures of darkness even in this dark place. The sun's still shines and cast daylight from it. Very nice. Great.

And we will pause there. As you turn to leave? Yeah, I'm trying to run out. You turn to leave. As you turn and you run out, you step on the same plate. Step-up step on. And as you go to walk forward, you expect to see the rest of the catacombs

in front of you. But they're not there. The trap has reactivated. As you find yourself staring face to face with. the Shepherd. Where once a white had been, redemption pointing directly in its face.

You now see Clayton standing the rest of you. You immediately see as a white pops into existence exactly where Clayton had been. It looks around at all of you, but does not make a motion to move into the tomb as it like the other one that had appeared there when Shepard disappeared begins to hunt and roam the halls of the catacombs.

So I switch places before. I need you to roll furnish. Oh my God. Where did the professor go? I ruled a one. I'm a very surprised. Six. How could you have not been so smart

to not step on this bloody tile? That's only funny. I'm not that perceptive, Gawford. I'm intelligent, not wise. So you roll a one? And all they, all sex, too. Oh, my gosh. What a nightmare.

With that, the rest of you, that is what you see is, Sarnax, you hold up the sigil, and radiant sunlight begins to pulse and undulate around you. The shadows of these vampires you see appear on the wall behind them, and it's almost as if a trick of the light. As you see them shriek back, though their actual forms don't move, as the shadows themselves begin to let out a horrifying image of a scream as they begin to run up and climb along the walls. And almost instantly, even though they are distrable. and confused by the synaptic static. You watch as they all turn and follow their shadows.

They dig their claws into the walls as they begin to climb up and over you. They're looking down at you, bearing their fangs, screaming in this horrific manner as you watch smoke rise and billow from their bodies as the sunlight tears at their plescent skin. I will hold you in that spot when we move back to the tomb. God! You find yourself staring at Shepherd. Can I put the techie down at this point? Sure.

Okay. You're still alive? I can't hold you anymore. I'll mention not to put you on the track. And I will be pulling the tile on the floor and lean him against the wall, away from the vampires. Shepherd, what do you do? What the fuck? Professor, get the fuck down!

And I'm going to immediately, it's my turn. I'm at the end of the swing to number three that is fucking marks the slaves. I'm only going to make one attack. Okay. Because I think he's, just see what happens. You have a good feeling about this? I fucking crush the shit out of this guy. It's like a 34.

That misses, yeah. They have a really high. Yeah, I don't believe that for a second. He's the 19. Do you re-roll two? No, no, no, no, not on this character. So that's going to be 12, 13, 14, 21 points of damage to wait number three. You tell Shepard to get down and you immediately rotate your your weapon, point it directly in to the face of this white as it's bearing down in you,

and you blast its skull from its head as bits of rotting flesh fly from it. You watch as the rest of its form crumbles to the ground dead. Is this your... That's the one. So then I'll immediately swing 180 degrees to attack number eight twice. I will say attack once. Okay. Nice. What's the pull is? That's a 20 to hit. That hits. Guy on plus 14, a hit.

Yikes. Yikes. Five plus seven is 12 points of damage. I'm really closing what we do. You swing around, let loose another blast and send this one to back to its green juice. And then one more attack on number, we'll call it four. That's going to be a 24 to hit. That hits.

10 points of damage. You let loose the last blast and you watch as it begins to crumble, but you see that even though it's almost there, a bit of it twitches as it reaches out to swipe at you and it's going to go. It still is barely alive. And so there are three of them that are alive.

Two of them are going to attack you. The other one is going to turn and attack Clayton. There's only... Show me two left. There were five left and you kill... I switch plates on them. Oh, you're right. So we'll say that this one's gone.

The other ones all had the same hit points, so I'll just get rid of this other one over here. So there's only one left. And you know what? I'm going to roll out? Okay. Two left. Two left.

I need you each to roll a Constitution safety. Shepherd, that one misses. My concateners are 20. Is that one passes? So you take no damage as its long sword. The one that you had almost felt is unable to, to find purchase on you. The other one does hit on you.

My condo's 16. That should be good. You take eight points of damage from the longer. My hat. Clayton. I'm going to try to go. I'll just shoot straight up into the air

and then the beams will come back down of arcane magic and the land on each of these guys. I'll just do one on each, then we'll see where the last one goes here. That might not hit. Uh, their AC is 14. Uh, so five damage on the first one. Uh, nine damage on the other one.

Okay, you watch as the one that was barely hanging on. You let loose a blast at it, and it falls to the ground down. And then one final arcane bolt will fly out of my finger towards the last one standing. 20, yeah, it is. Another nine damage. It's just a little fan. You let loose all three of your arcane blasts. One of them is able to.

find purchase and decimate the white. The other two are still holding strong. The rest of you, watch as these creatures begin to skitter above you. Victoria, you feel it before you see it. As you look to your shoulder and your pale white skin is marred with a droplet of blood. And as you look up, you see the gaping mouth of one of these women as she smiles down on you. She looks at you for just a moment. You can see the madness in her eyes from the synaptic static, and she says, you'll be one of us soon. We await you.

And she slowly, as she begins to skitter out with the rest of them climbing along the ceiling. Are you guys going to do anything? Are you going to lock them down? And we await your demise. Shepherd, should I be, should I run after it? Shepherd, Sonax, God damn it. Should I run after them?

They are simply the same letter of the first. I understand. Not the time to correct me. Now is not the time to be chasing them after strange vampire. hired in the catechooons, when two of our party members, one of our party members,

Professor, tell her. Professor, two of our party members and have nowhere to be seen. What is the girl? Do you mean the one? Yeah. I run over to the girl with them scattering away.

I'm just quickly like picking up and checking for a pulse and see if I can. Allow me and I'll walk up to her. And I presume it's very obvious that she's dead, but I'm going to check her vitals. I will say, yes, you can both roll the medicine check. You were saying? We have known, like, how long between Shepard disappeared

and how long professor disappeared? It was pretty quick. Less than a minute. Less than a minute, okay. Six rounds of combat. Six rounds of combat. Okay, I just, I couldn't remember when you disappeared versus when we got into. It was one thing, one right after the other.

I ran and got down. 21. You feel, you run over and you grab her as things. begin to quiet, you can still hear vaguely echoing throughout the rest of the catacombs, the sound of blades. And you hear as Clayton yells out, as both Shepard and Clayton are talking, you can't make out the noises. You're not sure whether they're in the same place, but a sense of calm overcomes you as these creatures leave the room that you were in, the tomb of Stradanya von Zarovic, as you reach down to scoop up the body of this young girl. You feel it glimpe in

your arms. It's already beginning to... to lose temperatures, it feels slightly colder than you would expect. And you place your hand to the temple. You wait, you wait, but no heartbeat comes. She's good. She's good.

I will bleed for her later. Shepherd, okay. You look out as Clayton rains down his arcane blasts. And they are hungering at you. What do you do? I'm going to attack. I'm going to start by making one

attack on number four. and see how it goes. I'm just going to make for your attacks. That's going to be a 19 to hit. That hits. That's going to be 11 points of damage. Okay. And then I'll attack one more time.

Okay. That's going to be a 25 to hit. That hits. That's going to be another 11 points of damage. You pull out judgment and redemption. As you look at Clayton, you look around you, the decimation that you have caused. Clayton showed up,

but most... Most of the work had already been done. As you look at him, a slight smile on your face, as you don't even look to these two entities as you let loose one blast and then the other, and they both drop to the ground dead. I'm in a holster judgment and redemption and basically, like, stumble forward into the professor.

My clothes are torn. I'm visibly bleeding. Oh, God damn it. I'm glad to see you. How the fuck you get down here? The trap must have reactivied, but we have to get back there. There are three vampires and a girl that, or four vampires and a girl that's probably dead. Stop.

There's no fucking way out of here. I mean, I got a rope, but we ain't climbing up unless we can fucking get back up there. Shepherd, I'm disappointed in you, and I grab your shoulder in a dimension door out. I want to calculate. As close as, as I think I can triangulate. I would say, roll an intelligence check. take damage if you fuck that up? Yes. Yeah.

Sweet. Roll an intelligence check. Because you were, you were looking through the tombs well enough. 15. 16. Yeah, you were looking through the tombs well enough. You were documenting as you went,

and this was one you had seen. So you, I would say, are easily able to look up, see what you had seen, connect the dots. We would have been three tombs down, four over fourth row over this way. Oh, exactly. As you touch Shepherd, and you dimension door directly in to your circle of friends.

Oh, God. Oh, my God. You're right. I was, I was in the fucking, what the fuck is going on here? Are you all right? I think it was that plate there. Don't step on it. What do I see, like having been slumped back here?

As you look in, you see a white pass by the door. It doesn't look in. It seems to be patrolling the hallways now. You're inside of the tomb. Love that. You, I will actually read Sraganya's tomb description. Oh, because that was all theater than mine. It was for the map, but now we are all actually in this room.

Black marble steps descend to a dark tomb that has a vaulted ceiling 30 feet overhead. The essence of evil permeates the very air. The smell of freshly turned earth is here. Settled into the dirt on the floor is the shining black coffin of finely waxed wood. The coffin's fittings are of brilliant brass and the lid is closed. South of the coffin are three gloomy alcoves, an iron lever protrudes from the north wall east of the tomb's entrance, which you can see would activate the portcullis, but it was not down. And as you look around, you can see that the furnishings are lovely in here. It's beautiful, well-kept. Their candelabras lining the walls, the candles in them burning a nice, bright orange glow.

And though they are slowly dwindling, you can tell that with the wax that's dripped down the brass that many candles have replaced. them in the past. So I don't see anyone other than the dead group. Nope. She's not, she's not, we've lost her. I killed her, to be precise. Yes, Victoria made quick work with her. It wasn't your intention. Fuck! All right. Is everybody all right? Does she match the description of Mad Mary's daughter? You can look. I'll get down and I'll look at her face and help them. You roll a perception check

at advantage with the health con. I forgot that Mad Mary existed. For a long time, episode two. Wow. A long time. Oh, how far we've come? 15. Matches the edge. You look down at this

girl. You hold the back of her head in your hands as you look into her eyes at the shape of her cheekbones. You do not see anything that would make you think she was related to Mad Mary. So why the fuck you kill her?

I didn't mean to, but the professor was overtaken and I had to do something. Wow, what? Like vampires, there were four of them here. You saw them before you went. He didn't. Oh, you did not see them before you. The teleportation plate is literally the plate right outside of the door. Fucking

To go. They were about to feast on. Where the fuck they go? I cast a spell and it scattered them. Like, like, I Or are. They feared the sunlight. They did. And I'll turn it off and put it in my room.

Do we know where the fuck they are now? I hope, though. If I helped. Well, that's good. I'm glad that both of you helped. They just scatter into the bats? They shrieked into shadow, pursuing their own shadows. Did we see them, like, crawl out the door?

Yes, they crawled out of the door and into the undulating mass of bats that are in the ceiling. The bats are in here too. Not in the crypt. They're outside in the main area. Fuck. All right. All right.

We don't have to worry about that for the moment. But fuck. You look. You're all right. I'm all right. I'm all right. I'm glad you're okay. Thank you.

I'm glad you all. Fucking all right. The fuck was that shit. Some sort of teleportation trap. Can you fucking detect that shit and make sure it doesn't fucking happen again? I suppose I could. It just takes 11

minutes. I'm going to guess you fucking fell into it. You didn't come find me the way you wanted. Well, I didn't expect it to be reactivated. I came to find you and I happened to step on the exact same plate you did and it seems to just reactivate every few seconds. I may suggest

that we use this time wisely before we have to convene with Sergey. Maybe we search her to him if we can't. I think that's wise. I'll help. And I'll lay the girl gently back down, close her eyes, walk over to her tomb and take a look at.

It's like silver. It was like very polished. It's a black wooden coffin with brass. It would be silver. So we'll investigate the room. You investigate the room. And aside from the candelabras around the outside and the tomb itself, there doesn't seem to be anything else here.

You attempt to move the lid and it will not budge. Oh. I want to lap her Coffron and see if there's any words or anything written on it. It's just complete, solid blackwood. It's beautiful. You can tell it's well-captain-wap-in-wock-clean. I'll step over to Shepard and place a hand on his shoulder.

I'm, like, leaning up against the wall, like sitting down with my back up against one of the stone walls. You seem weary, shepherd. I'm all right, I'm a little beat up. Where did you go, and what did you see? we fucking saw it. There was a fucking pit, and there was some fucking gray...

I fucking ended up down there. There were about 6 billion fucking whites, and I fucking won. That's all that fucking matters. Do you recall that crypt that had all of those closed coffins? Yes, I do. That was the room we were teleported to, and when I got down there,

there were many bodies of skeletons and zombie-looking things, and all of the coffins were open. And I ain't fucking dead. And he's alive. Here he is. Well, I'm very impressed, Shepherd. Truly a chosen of Garek, and I class cure.

Cast cure wounds on you. Oh, not bad. Not bad. 11 plus 5 is 16 points of healing. Oh, I can go all goddamn day. At a second level. Let's do it, baby. I just, like, spit some law on the ground and wipe my face off.

Thank you, Sarnax. Of course. God, that's smart. But we should take an opportunity to rest, perhaps even return to our quarters. Who knows where those foul creatures of darkness have skittered off to? I mean, fuck, the sun's got to be coming up soon, right? Yes.

Shardanya may be returning at any moment. Do you think she sleeps here? I do not know. How do... You could not open the two. I'm not able to... It might be magical, Doc. It just seems like I'm trying to push on the lid and showing that I can't left it.

I'll help as well. Let's all try. All right. All right. I presume that there's a protective spell if this is the resting place of the countess. While they're doing that, I'll ritually cast as I can't imagine. Okay. I need you to roll a strength saving throw. Or not strength saving throw. A strength check at advantage. And you could add your proficiency to conness, that's your big help. Just kind of needs to.

That's pretty good. So you said an advantage with proficiency that would be a 26. With the help of your friends, you're able to find purchase underneath the lid of the coffin, and you are able to wrench it open.

Snapping what appears to be a lock on the inside. And as it flips open, you see that there is nothing special. outside of plush red satin sheets, a tufted red pillowcase, and one single blood-red rose.

I've been hanging out with you for far too fucking long, sarnass. I want to burn this fucker. I would normally agree with you, Shepard, but the countess has shown us a degree of hospitality. It would be unbecoming to incest. and I presume there could be dire consequences, even if we tried. Don't tell me you're going soft on me now. I have a feeling that things cannot be dealt with in this castle by mere burning.

I think the only person fit to look inside and be in Victoria, feel it is not my face. And I'll back away from that. Oh, does that ominous music begin to play? We at least discovered one thing in this coffin. Evidence of our tampering. And I point to the program. I will, I'll stick my head in the coffin.

I'm going to lean down and investigate through the sheets and try not to disrupt it too much, but I want to just see if I can find anything within there. Okay. Roll an investigation check. I don't think I might anything. I've got a two. You are, you're caught off guard by the, by the silkeness of the satin, these sheets.

It feels so soft. You begin to imagine resting your head on them, gazing into the eyes of Stradanya von Zaravich. She slowly runs her fingers through your air. You're caught off guard by your daydreams as you prick your finger on one of the thorns of the A small drop of blood drips onto the satin pillow meles in with the dark red of the color.

No one notices as you look down at the tiny little pink mark on your finger. You find nothing? It's nothing. I don't know. You'd let me know when I would be defest or what did you find? What would be fucking go? Shut the fuck on,

Fonex! The Barney song when they take it's out of the box. I don't remember. You cast your detect magic. And as you make your way around the room, you notice that there are actually three tiles outside of this room that seem to have conjuration magic that you imagine to also, the other two to also be teleification paths.

They are the ones that are strewn directly outside the room. How do I show you? I'll show you. One of this man? Hold on to me a second. I think I have a catacombs there. I do. It's basically

So this is where her tomb is It's this one, this one, and this one. So anyway, you would attempt to leave the catacombs You would hit one of those paths. You also notice that in the three alcoves At the back of the tomb itself, the one on the right and the left side also have conjuration magic attached to them.

The middle alcove seems to be devoid of magic at all. And that's all you do. discover. There's conjuration magic here and here. What does that mean? What does that mean? It means that what does that mean? That's a problem. It's probably

what does it mean? Teleportation magic as well. Damn it. Professor, I'm a racher, not a fucking wizard. You're all idiots. It means that you would be conjured or something else would be conjured somewhere or someplace or here. Is the, did you say the school of magic

for the teleportation pads? It's conjuration. Okay, got it, got it, got it. It's likely all teleportation. Perhaps that's how she gets in. She teleports from somewhere else to here. Can you get rid of it? I could, but again, I don't want to leave evidence about tampering. I look at the broken lock.

Carter and I both can use it and we look at the broken lock on the fucking thing. The problem. And then fix the lock repairs. Okay. Yes, it would. All right. Tush. we should close this

gently. I think you're supposed to close it first and then fix the lock. Well, I'm hoping it's one of those things where it automatically once you unlock it and then when you put it back down and like automatically lies. You're like to your key. Yeah, and then it's like, oh no, my keys are inside my coffin.

What now? No, I have my spare. Okay. I will walk over and I'll just try and blow it. You were easily able to close it. You can hear it as it clicks in the place. going to be able to jump over? Well, the...

That goddamn pad. I'm going to mark a red X on each of the pads with percent press the digitation. Avoid these, and just, can you see the outlines? How big are the pads? Let's just hop over them. They're five feet. Five by five.

So, yeah, you have to make a five-foot jump. Oh, huge. And if I end up back... And if I end up... Yeah, cool. I mean, so I'll use the lever to see if I can open the port callus. The port callus is already open. Then I'm just going to see if I can make a simple jump over the north,

that direction most spot and just see if I can hop skipping or jump over. Okay. Roll athletics or acrobatics, whichever you choose. What is the jump rule, right? It's your strength score in feet. Oh, I guess. There you go. But it's multiplied by something.

But, yeah, I would just make it. It's probably more of a, yeah. If I roll, there's a much more chance that I'll fail, as opposed to just being able to jump X number of feet. Well, I think that it's... Strength is not my shit. Long jump is... It's five feet.

I'll jump, I can jump five feet. Without moving. Make it out. I couldn't even jump off. What do you know? It's fucking garbage. Plus acrobatics. What's that?

Are you kidding me? It's a 10. Okay. You're not proficient. Not an acrobatics or fucking... Athletics. Athletics is a fucking plus zero. Because I'm saying, what are the jump rules?

because I should be able to just fucking jump five feet. I'm looking up jump room. Unless Nikki wants to teleport back down the bone dust. Which is fine. You don't know where the other two pounds go. Fuck! I don't know.

I don't know the one that I think I know where it goes. No. Don't throw Jentechi avi. Dekhi is still progroom on the side. Oh, no. I think it's your strength mod or three plus your strength mod. Look, if I'm like a level, fucking

16 epic hero? You're level 17 now all of these days. Oh, wait. If you're gonna tell me is a level 17 epic god warrior that I can't jump five feet when Andy can jump five feet

I can break a leg and jump five feet. Oh no. It's your strength score. Oh. Holy shit. Yeah. That doesn't make any sense.

You can't let me jump 10. 11. I'm skipping a jump over the fucking thing. Yeah, sure. And I do a sweet spin move in the air and flip off the professor while I do it. Did you move 10 feet immediately before the jump? Yeah, I would say with that, I don't think any of you could fail this except for Jentege, who is unconscious, so you will need to figure out what you're going to do about that. What do we do with the dead girl?

She's dead. Do we just leave her? We should give her a proper send-off as it is our fault that she has perished. Should we reconvene with Sergey with her? Maybe we can bury her somewhere. I don't feel comfortable burying her next to Stas for Gondas. Perhaps we can take her to the mansion and transport her humanely. And perhaps we should also, it may be wise to bring Gene Tecki there as well.

I think you're right. As less fun as that would be from me. Thank you so, barely. Thank you so, barely. I've loved it. level now. Oh, no. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And who else is on there? Mr. Shifty Kloak, who was our guest on the League of Legends while you guys? Hello, hello. I'm sub-myself, but I hate this stream.

Oh. Oh. Rood dude. I kid. I kid. Oh, I get another thing. Yes, I would very much like to get Jentec for safety.

Perhaps, Professor, do you think will be wise. Yes, I believe now would be a proper time. I'll open up. Magnificus. Please, take him down. You open your crate, and you

immediately hear, oh, are you home already? I want to tell you, hello, and you see her little head poke out. You see Arabel's head poke out. She doesn't fully come out, but she looks at you. Did you know that you have, like, a really extensive library? Of course I do. I'm a wizard. That's kind of my thing.

I'm reading a book about the birds and the bees, but it's not actually saying anything about birds or bees. I'm going to need you to explain this to me. Well, then, not quite now. Maybe enough time. I will finish reading it then, but I have a lot of questions. Oh, right. Well, read as much as you'd like. Oh, why are you in a creepy-looking tomb thing?

Oh, my gosh, is that a white? I'm going to go back inside. Be safe and tell you. would be down in the second. I will pick up Tentec and I will follow her down. No. No. No.

We're going to take you a safety now, Master. Please hold on. I've seen a dungeon for two years. I promise, Master, this is not a dungeon. This is safety. I wish you on a cushiony bed. I'll set up your favorite little fountain in the corner with a

I'll let you borrow my calligraphy pen that you give with me back in Inari Nauril's That's just twice Huh? Okay Oh God And he doesn't pull down the stairs

You don't know Oh my God I carry her down the stairs After Arabelle And I explained to her Like the literal Birds and the Bees Back home in Inari

are about the bees are very thick and fluffy and this is what they do for flower to flower and I will just what are we talking about pollination okay like that's really cool but I just don't know how to make honey because I asked I can't remember his name I think it was prudence I asked him to go and to make me a beehive and now there are lots of wild bees in the other room and I don't want to open the door because when I did I got stings by one of the bees And so I was starting to read the book on how to do beehives so that they could make honey because I want to, oh, I'm saying this really loud. I want to make a jar of honey for Professor Clayton when he comes back to the house to thank him for letting me stay here. But now the bees are angry and I don't know how to feed them.

Okay. Well, are the bees all over the house? Well, yeah, in most rooms. So I hope he's not allergic. But okay, I will show you where he's going to sleep. Oh, I'm allergic. I... A bunch of her, through...

A bee problem. Of this new time! We need to at least be infested from there and have... The pool will also do. Yeah, no, that's okay, too, but like if you sleep in water, you'll die, so no, we're not going to the pool. Anyway, let's go. And so she shows you, and you do notice that as you look, there are bees on occasion, buzzing around, sitting on lamps.

None of them sting you, but they seem to be coming from somewhere. I do. My very best, having been in the fields of Anari, and we probably would have had a couple of beekeeping hives kind of away from the city to just remain calm and just like comfort Gentekia. He's groaning in my arms. And if one lands on me, I just kind of do you. Do you bring me every pet of me? Nah, man, price that shit's up 400%.

You're five. I got your epipede. They actually lowered the cost. They kept the cost of epipan. The state of Minari. So I was able to afford you an epiped. Okay, so, like, this is the thing, too. So, like, here is the room he can sleep in.

The bed is already made. And, you know, if you light a really big fire, the bees don't like the smoke. But once I start coughing, I have to leave. You are smoking the rooms? Yeah, because the bees don't. don't like the smoke so they leave the room, but then once the room gets really smoky, then Arabel has to leave the room, too. So...

The bees. Well, right. And I will, uh, I will, like, set Jentecchi down on, like, an armchair and make sure there's no bees on it. And then I'll, like, go through his covers and just kind of slowly open them and kind of, um, help a couple of the bees out that I find under the pillows. Yeah, you do that. Just like, just like gently on, like, on the pretend window sill that are, that's here looking out. Yeah, it looks beautiful. You can see from the window. It looks to be the coastline of Brieg and it's beautiful. But you know, if you were to open it up, it would be simply the wooden walls of the case. But from here, the illusion is lovely. So I make sure the bed is clean

and then I pick up Jentecchi and I lay him in the bed and I tuck him in and I turn to Arbel and I said, Arabel, this is my master, Master Jentecchi. He is very, very hurt and has been in a dungeon for the last two years in stradine's hold. Please take good care of him. He is very weak and has taught me much about

I will play doctor with him then because I have the case now in a nurse outfit so I will use the wacky-neet thing on him to make him feel all better. Two hours later, and Ducky has no weak else. I know that

the wacky-mey thing is what you need to do if someone is sick. And oh, I could put the thermometer in his butt. Do not do that. That's what you do with dogs. You put that weird little stick in their butt and if it turns red, you know they're going to die. I understand Ardwell.

My master of 20 years is not a dog. But I appreciate your... Just don't put anything in and around his butt hole, thank you. Yeah, okay. That's fine. I've learned a lot about the butthole in this book about bees and bears. I see. Bees and sticks do the long or near the bottom. Okay, shorter, all right.

As for the bees, I may have some suggestions for you. And so I, like, kind of tuck Jentecian and I lead her out of the room. And just for, like, 15 minutes, we'll just go in the kitchen. I'll hang up, like, I'll get some towels wet and I'll hang them up, like, around the house so that the bees will kind of swarm to them to drink from them. And then I'll, like, set up little, like, bowls of, like, sweet juice or something for them to drink out of, to help kind of keep it confined to certain areas rather than them all

flying around all over the place. Conachar is taking a while, and why don't we continue if she talks about it? She's in a case. We're just going to go, and she's putting like sugar water off. Kana, sure is taking a long time, perhaps we should have sent the dead girl with her. We'll just stay in your ass girl.

We haven't done anything with her yet. I thought, Stelvin, weren't you going to take her? a town or someone was. No one volunteered. I'll take her. To do what? To have her safely ensconced so we can travel without her impeding us. In a random fucking crypt here? Is that what the plan is?

I'll carry her. No, we're going to carry into the mansion in my case. Oh, dear, Garretton. The Azvana State. You hit your head. My God. Yeah, I hit my head. I hit my arms.

I got eaten by whites. I'm not exactly fucking happy right now. But I'll carry the poor dead girl wherever the fuck you want. No, no, no. I'll do it. Thank you. I think that's fair. Magnificose. In the case, I'll open back up to the mansion.

I'll scoop her up and carry her down into the mansion. You walk into the mansion, and just as you enter, you see a swath of bees fly by you as they head down the hallway directly towards a large vat of sugared water that Kana is putting on one of the side tables. As you watch, is there around them, Arvel's looking up at all of the bees and wonder. You are for real like a bee whisperer. This is so cool. Oh, and watch this, and I'll take out my flute.

And I'll, like, play a slow, like, a high-pitched tune. Ouch! It'll hopefully sound nice. Ouch. Oh, sorry. And I'll just put it away. That's like a really loud noise for a hallway. I play it quite often.

You're going to disturb the bees. Do you know what happens when you make them mad? Well, I'm trying to make them happy with it. Look, and she shows you her arm. She's got like 15 bee stings. Oh, no, Aramette. It's like really bad. Don't make them mad.

Okay. Do you like me to put some mice on that? No. She'd bandage it and put some ointment maybe on it to reduce the swelling? No. But I see You like some ice cream

Yeah Okay Oh hi Victoria What are you doing in here Why are you can What's that This young girl Not anymore

Yes that's right She needs place to rest Okay But there are bees in every single room, so... That's okay. I guess she won't feel it. Go get ice cream.

You should probably go back and do whatever you're doing because it was so much more fun in here before you ruined it with your dead people and you're really sick old man. Don't do it, Mike. You must be just sitting in it. I'm still like meeting up against the stone. It's like with my hat on. I'm just leaning up against the stone wall

unless you're telling me to go somewhere a fucking else. Did I ever tell you the story of King Akantamun? Let me stop you right fucking there. I got a better one. I believe I recall you picking up some sort of

a staff. If you could maybe describe to me in great detail the way that you gripped the staff and the more explicit and vulgar the better, some people who are watching us might get some gifts. But if I'm not,

if I'm not rightfully disgusted, then who am I to say? Are you saying someone's watching us right now? That's exactly what I'm saying. As we speak. I thought we were presuming that the countess was very likely watching us. At all times.

Would you like to grip the staff? No, I'd like to tell you, I'd like you for you to tell all of us how you gripped the staff. We were already there. We both, we all know. I would like to hear it again. Did you forget? Did you hit you?

Well, I just held it like this. Are you sure that's all you did? Shepherd, I do. You didn't see it shining in the crypt light. You weren't enticed by the way that you might have done a little monum if you know what I mean. I do like to do a little monoom. I grabbed a shepherd as he has his hat off. And I stay under the shepherd, follow my finger.

Stop. Stop. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Professor, all I'm saying is that there might be any of my finger. is that there might be in it for some other people. If you were to give me a vulgar story about that staff.

Well, I mean, there's nothing really vulgar about it. It's just a rod. I'm saying that you would like me to grip the rod here. I just want to hear about how you did. I don't understand what you're saying. Well, that's really a shame. I strongly advise that you allow me to take a little cat. It's fun.

I just thought that maybe, you know, there's probably going to be some disappointed people. That's all I'm saying. Not a big deer. It's fine. I need a drink. Ah, my head. It's fine.

Don't worry about it. We're good. We're good. So should I put the rod away then? Where the fuck are the women? So I'm going to find an empty room somewhere and lay this girl. You do. There are rooms easily enough.

I'm finishing my bagel. I'm going to just kind of sit her down on the bed, close her eyes, and kind of cross her arms. you know, over her and I'm going to begin to pray to my God over her and kind of taking like the sharp side of my prayer beads, I'm going to slice my palm in prayer to her and just kind of place my hand on her heart and praying and apologize to her. In doing that, I will use a charge of my beads

to regain a spell slot through. What's a God? Suffering of the broken God. You do that. So you need to roll your... die to see what spell slot you regain. Ah. Three, I get a second level spell slot back.

Very nice. Daly. I'll be waiting outside for her. Sorry for killing you, lady. Arbel's standing out there as well, and she's like tapping her foot. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to get ice cream because I got stinked by the bees.

Well, once Miss Victoria is down, who will get you some ice cream? I'll return. Okay. Why do you think Shepard's so obsessed with how I grip my rod with my magic fans? I'm just confused as to why you won't regale us with the story. You were talking about old king's sewing fuck, and nobody gives a fuck about that. People often want to be titillized, if you know what I'm saying.

Well, I just, I grip it magically. That's it. That's all you got for me. Well, I suppose that I looked at the knob at the top. and oh, that one? Oh, the one where I gently inserted the knob into the slot. Please tell us more. And there was that magical explosion of something. I can't go.

A long time ago, it was at least ten minutes. But how did it make your feet? Oh, it's made me feel very nice. Very nice indeed. Oh, that's it. Just very nice. What? What's happening?

I have no idea what you're doing. I'm trying. I miss something. I miss some. Oh, look, all I'm saying is once a plot of time in adventurous history, somebody asked a certain dwarf what it was like to grit the ganges great fucking war ham. I knew what you were now. And all I'm saying is that there might be something in it for somebody else. If the professor would regale us about a story about the time he polished your knob, real good while we're waiting for the ladies.

Oh, well, then yes, I polished the knob vociferously. You know what? I am shocked, a palm disappointed. But for vociferously, I think we might be able to do something. Shepard, I perhaps I could regale you of a tale as well. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is that a story too? I do, I do.

Thank you, Andy. And so once there was a little bee, do you see the little bee over here? It is buzzing. I don't know, do I? Yes. There's actually a little bee there because one flew out. when the case had been opened. Yeah, all right.

That is apropos. And then it was in this field. And then do you see the bee? Yeah. And then went over to the field nearby. Yeah. Okay. And I'm really intently, like, looking at your eyes.

The ones are going over here. Now then it was got to fly up to a tree. Yeah. And then it was down to the ground. Store's not very good. And then all kind of like squinted. Well, then he got eaten by a sparrow because that is the circle of life, and they lived happily ever after the end. No one was dead.

I believe I believe Shepard is fine. Professor, I've read that a strong smack to the head can cause undue aggression. Oh, look, Victoria's back. Weird. She came out of nowhere. Inappropriate sexual suggestion. Yes, well, he did seem quite be tough when I. Found him in the tomb.

And with that, you are able to make your way out. Arabelle gets her ice cream. You have laid the two sick folk to rest or dead folk to rest. She's real sick. She ain't coming back. She's taking a long rest. And so you are, you have now joined together still standing in Stradonia's tomb. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon.

Become a patron today at patreon.com. slash Legends of Aventress and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, shroud over salt marsh. You can also go to The Crooked Moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition. And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. Thank you for professor for letting me lay down my master. Yes. Is everybody all right?

I do have to admit that you have a bee problem and it was very poor ventilation. What? A bee problem. I don't understand. Perhaps she's referring of my wonderful bees story. Oh. It is anything but a problem. Shepard was very entertained. And your story was anything but wonderful?

No, but I must insist there are hordes of bees. I think Arabelle was trying to be. trying to learn how to be a beekeeper. They're flying all over your rooms. Oh, she's telling you tall tales. Let's go. I saw them with my own eyes. Professor, there are quite a lot of bees. I don't know. Where are the bees?

Everywhere. That's quite right. Everywhere. Everywhere. I don't see a single bee. Oh, no, there's one. Yes. Probably. I hardly doubt that be bees down.

I still attempt to fucking jump over the fucking thing. 30, 40 minutes ago. Oh, yeah. I jump over the fucking bag. You do, you do. I need you to roll D2. Let me know if it's heads or tails.

Oh, no. Evens are odds. Evens are heads. Tails are odds. Odds. So tails. Okay. You jump over and as you look, you see the white coming at you,

but he turns and heads down another one of the hallways. He seems to be patrolling. I'm going to move up a little bit. Everybody just be careful. Watch out for the fucking. Red X, I've presiditation the last 6,000 years. I walk for it. In the last 10 minutes, I'll jump over.

You'll say you're all easily now that you're not encumbered by bodies you are able to leap over. We'll go to where we believe Sergei, well, you go towards the middle where you remember that you were planning to meet him. Just as you see, he is

cresting over the stairwell up from his parents' tomb. My apologies that it took so long. for me to air out my thoughts with my parents, but what we plan to do here is something that I could not find the words to say. But you all, you look like hell, shepherd. I got a little beat up.

It's all right. There's a lot of fucking danger down here. Yes. But we're all right. Are you okay? I am fine. Physically. Emotionally, I am exhausted,

and I think I could use a night's breath. if we could find our way to whatever room my sister has decided to put us up into. It's the fucking easiest way back. We should find the little Mongol. Yes, we should find Clarence. What was his name? I don't think it was Clarence. It wasn't Clarence.

It was ridiculous, Professor. Jarvis? No. Jumbo. No, certainly not. Is everyone below you just that unimportant? You can't even remember his name. What was his name?

You remember his name. That's unimportant right now. Cyrus. Cyrus. That's right. Not jumbo. It's Cyrus like Silas. Of course I remember that.

It's in this moment that you hear the clanging of armor loud. Oh, boy. As you can hear something is running in your direction. As all of you turn to look and you see your revenant friend running directly towards you, Sir Clutz. Just you're holding a skeletal arm in his hand. Oh, the fell knave. Sadly, I could not save your friend, Shepherd.

He lays the arm down in front of you. Hey, he is... I'm right here. Then who is he? Beats the fuck out of me. Did you go down on the crib and fish one of those out? I killed like 50 of them. I did, friend.

Yes. So you did nothing. I brought you to the remains of your friend. You try. Very well done. Admirable. So it's a klutz, yeah. What task do you present before me?

Well, I hear there's a very bad bee problem in the mansion. So maybe you take care of that for me. I will do just that, Frank. And he bowers in front of many bees down there. So you're going to open the case and let him down there? I'm going to open the case and let him down.

Before you go down there, if you walk in a room that looks like an outback steakhouse, you stay the fuck out. Oh my God. Just this. This perhaps may be the first time... Good day. Good day. Good day. We will need your services later.

Good day. And he begins to make his way down the stairs. Bees, I will be your bane. And then he walks on the door. Do we just witness Professor haunting his own house? That's an interesting way to put it. We can't have him clanging around behind us the whole time. It's absolutely right. I feel he'd give us away in an instance.

So I think that just... Let's keep it. He'll be fine in there. Hopefully. Hopefully, yes, yes. Anyway, we should go find our friend Cyrus and have him lead us to our rooms. Perhaps we can also put Cyrus in the mansion as well. All the other characters are not related to me.

But this knight has sworn his filthy to us. You are awfully trusting, Professor, to let a ghost that we've made. 15 minutes prior into your home where there are children, a sick old man, and a corpse. I'm sure to be five bees. And bees, of course. We need all the help we can get. So next. That is your, that is a risk that you must take.

I'm sure to be fine. I turn around and I start walking towards, uh, down this hallway back where I feel like we would remember where we saw Cyrus. I would say you, it's easy enough for you to make your way, uh, to back, um, to back track. You pay attention to the different areas that you had triggered traps and things as you make your way back up the stairs and into the room, back into the adjoining guards room, down the hallway and directly towards the room that you remember to be the room that Cyrus had lived in. The door is shut. The rooms around you are quiet. You listen. You hear a faint sound of rustling.

coming from his bedroom. I'll knock. Cyrus. Busy, busy. Two minutes. One minute. 30 seconds. Ten, ten seconds.

And you, wait. All of a sudden you hear the door open, and you see Cyrus standing there. He is now wearing a, it looks like it's sewn together pieces of cloth, and a rough approximation of a night coat, a hat on his head that looks to be part top hat, part tricorn hat, and part barret

that he's fashioned together with a tassel of mixed mashed threads on his head. He has a long pipe in his mouth. Yes. The mistress. He bows for you. I was laying my head down for sleep. I can see that. Lovely dressing gowns. Oh, this old thing. Thank you, mistress.

Yes, it does look old and more. Thank you, Liz. Repulsive isn't it as well? Cyrus, can you take us to a bedroom? Oh, to your room. To your room. Yes, Cyrus, take you. You follow then.

We will, thank you, yes. Second, actress. And he turns around, he leaves the door open. You can see his room is in absolute shambles as he moves towards the side grabs a large lantern not nearly as large as shepherds but um...

Yeah. Codagh, please. But it's not nearly of the same make. You can see that it is carved to look like a ribcage. The candle inside of it made of some kind of fatty wax is slowly burning.

As he lists it, you can smell almost like burning hair, burning flesh emanating off of this lantern as he holds it out to you. It will be dark. We must go as he begins to move and make his way out of the room and towards an open hallway. You will follow. You will stay closest. All grab hands.

Follow Cyrusius. Yes. Follow. Is this required? Well, I have my case. I have my life. I'll set in the back. Let's all go to the lobby.

Let's all go to the lobby. I grab my hand. I could, but then I have to let go victorious hand. Why are you being weird? I've seen the case float before. Yeah, but then if someone snatches it away, I might lose it. Oh, I might shoot them? Well, they might be like a quick little ghost that runs away with.

Sorry, I get some spots with me. A professor doesn't want to hold my hand. Very well. Sheppard, yes. You're both holding something, so give me a damn hand. You can hold my hand. I choose sarnax. Sheper, you can hold my hand whenever you care to.

Thank you. Who will hold my hand? Well, no, I got the other one. Oh. It's fine. You bring up the rear, make sure we're good. Okay. Then it's me.

Then it's Sarnax. He's got the lantern. The professor has the case. He's got Victoria's hand, and Victoria's got the weird-looking manga folks' hand as well. Why do I think I need to hold his head? You got old. I think he requests it.

That's what he asked for. Oh, I see. I will just keep my weapon. Are we all good? You begin to make your way across the hallway. It's dimly lit as you follow behind Cyrus. And then he opens a door leading down another dark hallway. You can see at the very end, a spiral staircase, beginning to ascend higher up into the castle.

You all begin to move forward. as you reach the middle of the room, all of you step down and you feel the floor, almost buoyant is it jolts down for a second and Cyrus looks at all of you. Going up, I need you all to roll a constitution, saving throat. Oh, God. As all of a sudden around you, you feel the floor move

and you look as out of the floor where, unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't see. There are these small indentation where bars shoot up, out, encircling you, trapping you in this small cube overhead. You see there's one small opening as this thing begins to shake and begins to rise.

As it begins to gain speed and speed and speed, you are definitely going up. Eight. Con? Yes. I fail. 29. 18.

17. 18. Just me. You begin. you begin to look around you and panic as this thing begins to move and rise. You're on some sort of rickety elevator as you're being risen up

and all of a sudden, smoke begins to fill the room. You begin to breathe it in. You start to feel lightheaded. Whatever this is is overcoming you. All of you are able to shake this off except for Shepard. You fall unconscious. I need you all to roll for initiative.

Oh, okay. You kidding? No. What? What? The food. Wait, wait, wait, so I'm at zero hit points? Did you pass out?

No, you're asleep. Okay, okay. So you're unconscious. I just want to make sure. You're not holding your hand. Oh, man. I like drop to my knees and my face slaps across the stone. I'm out cold.

And I need you to hold for initiative as well. You watch as the walls rush past you. Shepherd is asleep at your feet. You can feel this thing moving beneath you. There is nothing above you. Just solid moving stone beneath you. And we don't, we see nothing. You see that actively.

Oh, you also notice that you also watch as Cyrus falls completely unconscious. Oh, I know. Ooh. Did he, did we just get bamboozled by this primitive creature? No, I don't think it was his fault. I'll bend down and shake Shepard and try to awaken him. All right, you were able to wake, oh, you were able to wake Shepard. But that is your turn, Clayton.

Get up, get up. I'm going to grab, uh, Cyrus, and I'm going to shake him awake. You do that. Where are we? What are you done? I'll just yell at him. He looks around, and he is, he is monstrous. Where are we?

He actually goes before, he actually goes before Sarnax. And Shepard. What the fuck? I'm looking through my spell list quick to see if there's anything that I can do. I don't think there is. I don't need shit here. So, fuck, I'd like to start looking around the elevator to see if there is a place where this smoke is pouring out. If there's anything distinguishing about it, like, I want to take a deeper at the elevator.

Not great, unfortunately. Do you the 10 or higher? It was a 17. Oh, not great. Jesus Christ. You look around and you see that the smoke appears to be billowing up. Over the side, you feel at the walls. They're slick with moisture. There is just a hair between whatever this thing is that you're on and the walls.

There's not enough room for anything, but this mist to pour out of. As you feel around on the ground and you notice it, there's a trapdoor in the very center of this floor. If I haven't used my action, I'd like to see if I can open it up. You... Let me make sure you don't have to know anything more. No, you, because you see it, you can. can you are able to open up.

You open up this trap door and you look down and you see that you are standing on top of a compartment. This compartment has a stone floor. The porticole is that rose up as you rose up. It's connected to the sides. It's like a cage suspended along this shaft as it's heading straight up and you are standing directly on top of it.

That is your turn, however, Kana. I see him looking down in the trap door. I want to run over to see if there's any controls that I can leverage or pool or anything like that. Perception check. Probably lack character. Nothing going to happen.

Perception would be a 19. You look around and you see no controls. Do I feel like we're all barred in? We can't get anything out. You're not barred in. So you saw the porticullis raise up. Okay. And then as the floor lifted up,

it went past the bars of the porticolor. which seemed to attach to the underside. So for all intents and purposes to make it as visually realistic, or to make it as understandable as possible, you're essentially on the top of an elevator. On top of those.

So there's an elevator that is shooting straight up and you were standing on the roof of it. Shepherd found a trap door on the roof. You can look down into the elevator, but you are standing on top of it. Is it my turn just to look to see if there were controls? No. I can keep helping.

So a perception. check, you get a free one of those or an investigation, but then you have an action. I can see that he's opened the trap door. I'm going to see if I can jump down or like, look first to see if it's safe to jump down and see if I can do anything inside the elevator. I will say you can look into it and see that there doesn't appear to be anything into it. You can use your turn to jump into the elevator as opposed to being on top. But it looks safe that I can look just as safe as being on top of it. Yeah. But there's a floor. At least there is a floor. So I will, I will jump down into the end of the shaft. You do that. It is Cyrus's turn. He looks around at all of you.

Yes, go up, as he also jumps down into the elevator. I'll... Sarnax. I'll look at him as I... Is it a full turn to get in the elevator, right? Yes. You better not be trying to kill us, creature, and I'm going to jump in. Okay.

Begins to shake and ascend even faster and faster and faster and faster, Victoria. What are you going to do? I'm going to gather my skirt. and jump down. Hey, Clayton. I'll be the same. I'll fall behind. Shepard. And then seeing everybody make it in safely,

I'm going to do one-depth movement, slide in and pull the thing called behind me. Hey, you do that, Kana, it's your turn. You're inside of the elevator, inside of the elevator. As you watch Shepard do this, he pulls it down. A mere split second later, you feel as the elevator slams into the ceiling

where you had just been, if you had not found the trap door, if you had not jumped in, who knows what would have happened is your body smashed between the top of the elevator and the floor above you. The entire thing shakes. You're lurched forward.

You feel sick to your stomach. As Cyrus writes himself and looks all around at all of you. Yes, go up. Did you know that was going to happen? Cyrus. Tell us now. What is doing.

Fucking so mad. Did you do that on purpose? What? Yes, take you two room. Ride shaft up. Sarnax, I'm going to break his fucking jaw. Why, I help get here fast. Could take stairs, take hours.

Perhaps. There's shaft. There's five. I, Kaz Zone of Truth. Yes. And it's a DC 17, that 18, saving. He fails. I'll, uh, perhaps,

you will answer my good friend Shepard's questions. I'm going to I'm going to snatch him up by the ear. Ouch, out! Ouch! Out! Out! Ear! You know that was going to fucking happen. Ouch! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Go up! Go up! Ouch! You intentionally put us in danger. No! Ouch! Ouch! Go up to room! Ouch! Upon hearing that, I'll let him go. Why didn't you put us inside of the elevator? Can't get inside elevator except room on...

Except door on top, have to get on top to get in. And you just fell unconscious because of the gas. Oh, sleep gas. Most time not get Cyrus, but this time did get Cyrus. Fuck! You could have died, Cyrus. Hurt very, very bad when elevator snaps. Have you been hurt by the elevator before?

Yes. You're saying that this sleep gas is a common, a baked-in feature with this elevator. Yes. for what purpose I don't know I like it so had we all fallen asleep we all would have been crushed against

Oh yes it would have been for bad Blood runs down the shaft in pain That would have been some end of the campaign I'm fucking Cyrus No more surprises There was no surprise You want to go to room

I take you to room Fuck! There are any more surprises like this that we can expect? Many. Can you show us? No. Well, can you please just lead us to our rooms? You choose now.

You go up or you go out. Excuse me? Yes. We can go farther up. You go out. Where are our rooms? Up or out. All right, hold up.

I'm assuming we're not in any kind of a time crunch. So it's all just... Crunch. Poor choice. Regardless. It's not a lot. Thank you. I don't think I want to keep

heading up once. I agree. Just based on whatever the fuck that device was that we saw way in the fucking basement. Well, device, what device didn't make the pain? I wasn't talking to you.

Sorry. Thank you. Which device were you? Welcome. The one with, the one with, the hourglass and the sand and the riddle. Did you get hit in the face by horseyman?

Sorry. I wasn't talking to you. Sorry. But did you get hit the face by the horsey men? I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It mentioned something about even higher and up high, and I don't think we want to go there yet. We should get some rest before we are best, and I agree.

Correct. So how did we get out? Well, if you'll excuse me, and I take one step off the elevator, elevator. You do that. With my hat off, and I make a grandiose motion for the rest to follow me. You're going forward.

I say, I want to stop Cyrus before he leaves the zone of truth, and I want to ask him, where has the mistress Shadanya gone to? Mistress Shredana goes wherever she pleases. She does not tell Cyrus. Who does she tell?

No one. Who else? works here. Everyone that's in the castle. Who is everyone else? I don't know names. Kama, perhaps this may help us. I'm all drop, Zona.

We should probably not presume we can get any answers from this pathetic excuse for life. You can get lots of answers from me. I'm just not informed on the castle. I make sculptures of bone. Let us all retire. Let us all retire for the evening. I have jiggling keys. Kiss.

I'll follow Shepard out of the elevator. You step out of the elevator and you find yourself in a room, a rectangular square room. There appears to be nothing here. Walls on all signs, no doors, no windows. You can feel the cold, dank air spilling up out of the shaft below. and you know that should the elevator move down, that that's the direction it would go. And there'd be a dark shaft there leading deep down

into who knows how far. But from where you're standing, all you see in front of you is the opening of the elevator that got you here and three stone walls. What do you do? Well, I'll admit I might have been a bit hasty. Well, let's take a look around. I will investigate.

Someone help me, please. Oh, cool. I will be able to get the room. Do you? Are you going to tell me what you got? Oh, should I make a roll? Yeah, of course. It's not like we're playing a game.

Well, I just don't want to presume that I need to make a role. Let's see, skills. It's pretty good. Uh, investigation. Pretty good. That's a 28. You begin to feel along the walls. and on the northern wall

you see the faint outline of what appears to be a door hidden within the brick I thought so there's a hidden door right here and I'll kind of feel around how do we trigger it I just try to push on in or

I look for a handle you look for a handle and you see none Cyrus how do we get through the store magic I'll try knocking. You knock and you hear that there's a hollowness. You knock there and then on another,

you can feel there is an opening here, but the motion of knocking doesn't seem to open the door for you. Are you able to open the door, Cyrus? No, I've never been in there. Is this entire castle going to be A horror show of parlor. Yes. I could have shown you that, Sarnax.

Yeah. Give me some time. I'll ritually cast a tech manager. You do that. You can tell that there is some kind of secret door here that seems to be that seems to be able to be opened, but it would require the use of a knock spell.

I'll give you that. Well, I haven't learned all my spells from leveling up. I could learn that one, but that seems like quite a waste. four spell scrolls that I didn't write down what spells they are. All of that, see, flat cheek. Let me see what... Cyrus, with a proper use of leverage and force,

could I cause the door to break free? Do you think you could? I could certainly try. Yeah, but you would fail. Magics. I could try this. I'll go to spell magic on the door to see if that... You cast to spell magic.

and you feel around, and it doesn't seem to have the effect you were looking for. Oh, shit. And these are our quarters. Well, no. It also sounds like we could go up, but I just didn't want to. I got a bad feeling about it. Call it what you will. He said he hasn't been this way, so perhaps we are on the long track.

It does stand to reason that the high-born... would like to keep honored guests high above the lowly and the decrepit working staff. I just... I love quipets and tea. I believe she did say that our quarters would be in a tower as well. Yeah, I'm just worried about that damn hour class. That's all. But if there's nowhere else to go but up, then I might as well just lead the way, I suppose.

I'll sit back on the elevator. Okay, you do. All of him. Everyone cover your mouths. I'll take it like a handkerchief out of my coat pocket or whatever. I'll put my helmet over. Okay. So what are you going to do?

Lacey. Well, uh, oh, Cyrus, you might take us up? No, you go up. Excuse me? Back through the door. You go up? Do we just say the word? And it will take us that way?

I think we need to climb back through the door. For you were you say a thing and it happens. It's a magic elevator, isn't it not? No, it's a mechanical elevator. How is it activated? With the levers down below. Who activated it to start with? You did by weighing a lot of weights.

I'll reach up and see if I can open up the trap door. You open the trap door, and as you look up, you expect to see a solid stone wall, but you're met with a handle of yet another trap door. What the-fell? Fuck, and I'll try to jiggle that one, too. You jiggle the knocker of the trapdoor. And it is not locked, as it comes open easily. So, Rax, get over here.

Yes, Shep. Yeah, get on all fours. For what purpose? Just do it. No, I don't think I'll be doing that, Shep. I'd, like, grab him and I, like, push him down and, like, try to make him, like, kneel down. Do you need a boost? Just get down.

I'm going to step into my hand. Damn it, it would have been cooler. the other way and I'll like pull myself up and try to go through the track. That's good. You come to a dark landing 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. A cold draft of wind rushes down the spiral staircase at the north end of the east wall and whistles mournfully through the room before streaming down the stairs to the south. An ornate square rug covers the floor to the south set into the west wall is an ironbound wooden door with a wooden trap door set into the floor, which you are now standing on, in front of it.

Hanging on the north wall above the trap doors, a framed portrait of a stunning, well-dressed woman with a serene yet penetrating gaze, which you look at and can tell that this is Stradania. This had to have been painted far before she'd succumbed to vampirism. There's life to her cheeks, a warmth of a faint smile. I'll basically lay down on my chest and reach back. down through the trap door and say, yeah, I know that was kind of mean. I just wanted to see if you do it.

Send everybody up. I'll pull them up one by one and I'll get you last. All right, Sarnax? Sounds good to me, Shepard. I'll boost up and... Start trying to pull them through one by one and help them up through the... You help everyone up. And lastly, you're looking down at Cyrus standing there in the middle of the room. He looks up at you. I will not go. I will stay and wait in case you need me. You're not, Cyrus. Are you not permitted to enter these nice quarters?

I can, but the mean one drinks from me. Who is the mean one? The pretty one that's mean. That's ominous. Is that someone else or is that's true on you? I would never say something like that about. Mistress, did you? No, no, mistress.

is good, mistress is kind. He starts banging his head against the iron bars. I immediately try to pad his bang. You're upstairs in the trap door. Cyrus. Yes, Mrs. Yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Does the mean one live up here?

Yes, they all live up here. One day you live up here with them. Ah, fuck. Thank you, Cyrus. You stay here. Goodbye. Good night. Good night.

We'll see you again. I wonder if he means it to be one of the four we saw. One of the other bridesmaid, too. Yes. Possibly the one that wore the attractive looking skull mask. All right, let's just keep our what's about us. Be careful. We're not alone, we know this. Yes. Let's continue.

Is there only one way to basically go down the hallway, right? There isn't. There are three ways to go. You are standing. You're standing in an open room. There is a plush carpet on the floor. or in front of you. On one of the walls, the wall to the north,

you see the large portrait of Stradonia. Directly to the side of that, heading north is a spiral staircase ascending up. To the southeast, you see a spiral staircase heading down. And directly towards the west, you see a door that leads into a room. I hate to say it, and I don't even know what the fuck I'm going to say here.

That's fine. The problem is... Because that's north of it. is the television. If danger lurks behind every fucking door here, and we just got to find a place to stay that's safe, how are we going to know that we found our rooms, or we aren't just squatting somewhere random?

Perhaps there's like a welcome car that says the Azraan Expedition, maybe we just find rooms to sleep in. Well, my point is we got to make a decision about that, professor. I'm fine with the latter. as long as it's safe, but we can all get a good night's sleep. Perhaps the door in front of us is the first logical option. While I don't disagree, we head down, we might see what was stopping us from that blocked magic door.

Not that I'm looking to go explore and I'm looking to find a safe place to lay my head for the night. Let's just see what's on this floor. If it doesn't look promising, we can choose another direction. I'm going to kind of move my arm around in a circular motion, rub my shoulder, and say, all right, if you say so. And I'll put one hand on judgment and say through here, and I'll looking at the professor. Yes, let's continue onward, and then we can choose another floor if we need to.

Try the handle. Try the handle, and you don't fully try to open it, but just enough to grasp as to whether it's locked or not. You can tell that the door is not locked. I'll open it a crack and stick one teethling eye. Let's see what inside. You scan around the room. It gets booked down immediately.

Just as you do so, thunder shakes the tower. Heavy beams grown under the weight of the ceiling. Three ornate lanterns hang by chains from these beams, each casting a dim glow. The curved west wall is fitted with three windows of leaded glass and steel latticework. A bookcase sits on the east wall behind. two doors. Plush, over-stuffed chairs and couches are placed about the room. The fabric has faded

with age and the patterns it depicts are nearly gone. And lounging on one couch is a handsome young man whose attire while elegant is worn and faded. He's shrouded in shadow. You can't get a firm look onto who or what he is. There is no movement from his form. I relay this to the guru. Like in a whisper? Yeah, oh yeah. Is he alive? I don't know, is he? Can I cannot tell? Does he look at?

From where you are and how dark it is, it's hard to tell. There's no movement from him at all. All right. I don't think he knows they were here, but... Perhaps we should close the door. You give me the word. I'll... Why don't you sneak in and get some more information than come back and tell him?

Professor, we'll keep an eye on you. He's not well. And if he spots me, then I just shoot him. No, you say hello, who are you? We're looking for our rooms. Perhaps. professor should just walk in and do the same. No sneaking required.

All right. I'll put my head back on the. I'll open the door. And? Excuse me. Hello. Could you provide some assistance to us? We seem to be lost.

You say this as lightning strikes yet again, and you see as the form rises from the couch. kicks one leg over the other as he slowly stands up. He flips the cloak back behind him, and you hear a slight laughter as he peels back his teeth and you can see sparkling white teeth one fang on either side. Well, it took you long enough to get up here, don't you think? Does this gentleman look familiar? He does.

Oh, God. He appears to be the masculine member of the four vampires you saw. on Stradania's tomb. You know, if you could just turn to mist like those of us of importance, you would have been here. But, an hour ago. Who the fuck is this guy?

My name is Escher. Come in. I've been keeping your room warm. Oh, Escher, it's a pleasure to meet you. We didn't get your names down in the catacombs, but... No, you didn't ask either. No, it was an interesting experience. your meal earlier was satisfactory?

It was sufficient. Well, we should sleep in this room right here. Well, if you prefer to recline on couches for the evening, then sure. If you'd like to retire to a bed, try the door on the opposite side of the room. Where are your friends? Here and there, doing what they do. It's not my job to keep tabs on them.

it's important you know that. I won't keep tabs on you either. At least, not after I tire of you. Have you already recovered from the horrific burns of sunlight, creature of darkness? You look at him and you see Roll an intimidation, Jack, you are so pieces of it. Jesus.

Yight! I'm not your fucking hour, I mean, I probably don't have proficiency at all. I have a lot of proficiencies. That'll be a 17. You watch as his face visibly cracks

as he moves towards the shadows a little bit. Tis, tisks, is that a threat? No. Simply asking if you were doing well, it'll kind of just move my arm a little bit and kind of just show

the symbol of raven kind. He, like, he hisses. It's an audible hiss as he shrinks back towards the couch. We're not playing games tonight. I wouldn't dare harm those that Chodanya finds to be so important for the ceremony is coming soon. And I don't think she would be pleased to find you harming a hair on my head. Up until this one showed up, I was quite a proud. eyes in her eyes.

Yes. I suppose that's over. You laugh. Oh, yeah. Sorry. My fault. Is that rude? Are you jealous? Jealous. For the first time in a while, you're not the most attractive one in the room.

Oh, that's funny. You'd be surprised. Not many people call me attractive. And I like, I like tap a horn. He is quite reviled in some places in the world. Easy now Well in Verrovia Are you fit right?

Why don't you take a seat? I've lacked companionship for a while I will And you see his eyes light up For just a moment I will put a hand that was on redemption More on my hip And I will saunter on over

And plop myself down on the couch Take my hat off and kick my boots up I'm sorry Well this is what we're doing then eh Yes You watch as he sinks down next to you. Awkwardly close. You can, where you would normally with anyone else,

you would feel the warmth of their body, but he is pure cold. His form, his rock hard eight-pack abs are nearly chiseled from stone. His blonde hair hanging down just slightly past his collarbones, slicked back at the top in his eyes, almost ice-like piercing gray. Oh, no, I was going to save that seat for sure. There, no, no, that's fun.

Take seat, friends. Let us enjoy the evening. I have news. All right, just right over here, and I'll motion to the empty couch. Yes. All right. This seat has taken.

I'll put my hat down. Yum. The rest of you? Little stuff for everybody. You thought Nikki was only going to hit on Kelsey? Absolutely. not. Now I only get some days.

So I'll sit down as well. What is your news? The preparations for the nuptials have come along tremendously. Tomorrow evening, promptly at 8, you are to be wed.

Yes. Oh, I sense reluctance. Should I let the lady know? Absolutely not. It's none of your business. going to be one of us soon. Should I take that to mean that you're a former mate? A current mate.

Current mate. And how that? Of the four? Soon to be five. Unless she tires of one of the others. Let's see. Does that happen often? Oh, you would know better than anyone.

You met them. didn't you? So the Countess is married to all four of you. In so many words. Well, that's very lovely. I'm sure your ceremonies were all pleasant, just as victorious is sure to be. It will be a grand affair.

The dress is quite lovely. You will be ravishing. And as he says it, you see as his fangs protrude just a little bit more. one of the wife and the bride that we saw in the crypt. What of them? Cast off. Boring. That would be my gift to you on the eve before you to be wed.

Stay interesting or suffer the same fate. I suppose I should thank you, but I find you quite vile. I'll thank you for that. Do you look forward to competing for the Countess's affections? Oh yes, it's quite the game. Is it? One I've never lost. Yet?

He looks at you and he meets his eyes with you. Yes, maybe so. And do you think this one, this boring husk of a woman, could challenge me to Stradonia's affection? No, she doesn't have the fire. passion of others I've seen traveling with you and he looks over at Shepard. Now one, that's a little harsh.

Let's, let's be cordial, if you will. Oh, I was. If you'd only known what I'd wanted to say. Fair enough. Two, maybe you could perhaps escort us to our rooms sooner rather than later. As you can see, and I am like,

I point to my clothing, I'm like torn up and scratched. I could use a little rest. Oh, I could smell you before you touched the door. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Oh, you've bled all over your face. Yeah, I... I'm sorry. Oh, don't do that.

And it's all cleaned out. Well, you've ruined the fun. If you want to go to sleep, the door is there. You need no escort from me. But if you find yourself lonely this evening, you have but to call my name. Does Stradanya not become a being of jealous rage if you were to indulge on that base impulse? No, she would watch. I see.

Is this common Borovian culture? It's common for her. I see. I believe that Victoria will likely be well suited for such an arrangement. A bride unlike any other. and a bride, unlike any other, should not be rushed into marriage. I request we have an extra day to prepare spiritual. Well, you can attempt to ask the countess, but it has been prepared.

The invitations have been sent. He would ask her to call them on, to call them back. I believe You would risk incurring her wrath I want to take out the invitation That I got and I want to see if it has a date on it now It doesn't Nah, I want to be those in-laws

Show up and cause a tussle here at the big day But We're all on a truce right now You said you weren't going to harm us And we're not here to harm you No But I have already harmed the truth

Dave. If you insult the countess, who knows what she may do in her wrath? And I wouldn't want to see her arm a pretty little hair on that yet. Well, nobody can, uh, you know, blame the bride, I suppose. So, I'll deliver the message if you like, he's with you. Oh, okay. I rolled for him. I just don't say anything from him unless he needs to. Got it. I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything. No. Does he seem bothered Escher by Sergey being with us? Like, has you looked at him at all? They've looked at each other, but he doesn't seem bothered or intimidated by him at all. Or attracted.

Oh, he looks like he's attracted by every single one of you. He just sets the sights on Shepherd. Well, I'm the horny one. Mr. Horny boy over there. You. Tustia. I'll deliver your message to the countess. but I make new promises on her behalf. In the meantime, we'll recline out here if any of you need me.

And what was your name again? Escher. Great. Shepherd. I know. Yeah, I figured. He grabs your hand and he slightly runs, his fingernails are long and pointed towards the tip, and he slightly runs the middle finger along the pulsing vein

at your wrist. And you feel the shiver run down. And for a second, it almost looks as if the vein itself is split open by the sharpness of his fingernail, but it's a mere illusion as he lingers just too long

on your hand before he lets it go. Good night. And I'm going to put my hat on and I'm going to start making my way towards the other door. Well, curtsy and not a hurry, but make him away. I'll follow the back, probably. behind, Sergei.

Good night, my good man. Thank you for letting us know we can discuss the exact timing of our arrangement if we need some kind of extension spiritually or otherwise. Perhaps. But if

an adjustment in planning to draw the wrath of the countess, perhaps you'll advise perhaps Victoria will simply not be ready to be the bride that she can be. You may tell her that waiting can make the passion stronger.

You see as a smile alights his face. You may be a worthy of home indeed. I will send this message. Good night. I'll step forward as I'm leaving and I'll turn and I'll stop and I'll say

I'm curious. Does sunlight hurt as much as it appears to. Yes. Good. Then I'll walk out. You make your way

towards the room. You open the door. You open it. You look in. A large bed sits in the very center of the room. It's four corner posts supporting a black canopy trimmed with gold tassels. Several comfortable divans are placed around the room. There's a banded door in the west wall and a smaller unbanded door in the east wall.

the one that you walked in from. And as you walk in, you begin to see the sheets on the bed move and unjoined. You hear the faint whimper and cry. What do you do? What is that? What the fuck? I'll step forward and lift the sheets. As you step forward and lift the sheets, you see one nearly nude feminine figure,

and as she turns and moves towards you, the skull mask on her face is visible. another one of the bride lays here. The white satin sheets that line the bottom of this bed are completely soaked in thick blood as you see her drain the last bit of life from a young, 20-something-year-old man. Oh, fuck! She wipes her mouth, and she looks up at all of you.

You've come. Let's play. I'm going to have removed... It's an instinct. I'm going to remove judgment from its holsterer in holding it up. Oh, he wants to play rough. Professor, why the fuck are we holding back against this shit? Now blow your weapon, Shepard. Fuck, fuck!

How is your dinner? I like it when they hurt me first. Delicious. Were you hurt to your liking? You could have been better. Well, we were told this was all room. It is. I was warming it up for you. I see that. Thank you.

What is your name? Valenta. Victoria. They think you're to be my replacement. But she would never replace me. Was it? I could show you if your friends wouldn't mind giving us some privacy.

Or, actually, that one, the one with the glasses, he can stay in help. Help with what? And actually, no, that one too. The scaly one, I've never had one quite like him. Yes, the three of you. Stay in help. It's greedy, greedy, greedy.

I'm afraid my entire being radiates with the light of the sun. You would be turned to ash and be even more easily replaceable than you already are. That does sound like fun. We could give you privacy with Victoria. You would like... Excuse me.

Yes, I would. If you would care to. No, Professor. I think that we should gather as a group. If you've finished with your meal, perhaps you can leave the room to us. Can I keep him? The professor.

No. My meal. Please take him, yes. Thank you. Thank you, dear. Can we get a change of sheets? Sure. And she begins to pull the body away from her.

She holds it tightly to her, and she's smaller than the other ones, significantly shorter. This man had to have towered over her by at least six or seven inches. As she pulls him to her, her strength is more than you would expect. She slumps him over her shoulder, and she nuzzles into his neck. You're so much more charming. dead. Let's go play, baby. And she turns and moves

towards the door. Have fun changing the sheets. I'll see you tomorrow for the ceremony. Bye-bye. And she slowly walks out of the room. Good night. This is Valenta, right? Yes. And then this is Asher. That was Asher. Oh,

cool. Is he looking elf? He's like Lestat. Oh, yeah. Cool. She's vile. Why are we just letting this foot? fucking happen. They're literally just murdering people in front of us, and we're just letting them do it.

And we're going to... We've gone when we walked in, Shored. I'd be happy to waste both of them, no problem. We're just going to start killing people? People! Sarnax! Come on! No, these are purely monstrous. They are vile, wicked. Horrible abominations and affronts to the gods themselves.

but the professor has a point. Yes. We will kill Shredania. We will burn this entire castle to the ground, but we will do it when the time is right, when the fates align. It's right. We have a higher course here.

It has taken every ounce of my willpower to not burn it all or attempt to immediately. Fine. Fine. And I sit over here on this sweet little, I don't know. Devon? Yes. And I take up only one spot of it.

Cross my legs, and I throw my hat next to me on the floor. And I run my hand through my hair, and I just look, frustrated and exhausted. Professor, could you perhaps clean the bed up? Did you do that? I could, yes. So I'm not just to use presiditation to make it as clean as, the whole room as clean as it can't be. I will say it takes you about 10 to 15 minutes to fully clean the room with presiditation, but you're able to do it. Thank you.

Do we know what time it feels like right now? It was so dark out with a storm. I would say you'd have no idea. It would be nearly impossible until the exact time, but it is you are feeling exhausted. It is late. You had left from Madam Abbas in the early. early afternoon, you travel to the castle, everything that you've done, it is getting late and you are definitely tired. Should be expressed?

You can't decide how we want to handle tomorrow the following day. What is our plan with the charade? Our plan is we need to catch Trudanja off guard. We need to wait until she is... happy, overjoyed, not prepared for a fight. She won't be in her battle gear. She'll be in some dress to be wed. And I hope that's long before she plunges those teeth into Victoria's neck.

Yes. She hopefully won't have her sword on her. She will not be ready for a fight. Let's assume that she is and that she's listening to us right now. What that? Then we deal with her. Yeah, I mean, then we don't get any better time. It's just, it is what it is when we deal with it.

Exactly. We, I don't know when the fates exactly want us to kill her. I don't know what destiny has in store for any of us. But we do know that the cards say we will kill her in this castle. Well, in the throne room specifically. Yes. Yes. And one of the other item in the spire?

The crystalline heart. We'll have to look first thing in the morning. We need rest, though. Do you still have the key? I do. You didn't ask what? No. It seems as if these vile concubines

are just mere playthings to be used and discarded. They seem only meagerly more respected the mongrel folk. thus is the will of the highborn all of this this wickedness that entrenched every surface, every face

within this castle. It makes me uneasy. That actually raises it. Reminds me of a question I've wanted to ask you for a little while now. How much fire did it take to burn all this stuff? It would require an act of God, this kind of stone. It would need to be dragons fire from Garrick's himself.

Something a weak mortal such as myself, even as his vessel, produce. I was afraid the answer was going to be too much. Perhaps in serving him, he will see this as a high cause and come to your aid. Perhaps. I do not know how, but I have seen it in flames. The castle burning, stone melting. I prayed and prayed and prayed. But I do not know how to bring this about. And even now, this darkness, the curse on this land, the curse on Barovia and Castle Ravenloft, I feel as if it clouds my, my thoughts. Well, regardless, whether this place burns or not, we need to break the curse. We need to end this cycle.

And that's our goal. If that ends with Ravenloft still standing, then that's fine. Hopefully... But our only plan as it stands now, Professor, is to kill Shredaania and then figure out of the rest. We know that killing Mr. Dhania, will do us no good. We know that there is, if this speaking skull is to be trusted, a blood queen.

That's why we need to explore the rest of the castle and learn how we break the curse. We're not going to have much time. Do you think that there's anything to be learned from the other ones? Escher took a particular liking to you. If there's anything you could gather from him. What? We have to use every advantage we can get in this castle. The small one I find quite psychotic, but the other two, perhaps they're more reasonable they could be spoken with.

She loves her electric skins. She will enjoy seeing them shimmer in firelight as she burns away and turns to ash. But I think that is not a terrible idea, Victoria, as much as it sickenes me to say those words. the creature, the amalgam, was useless. But this strange consort, perhaps it does have information about the curse. Perhaps in throes of passion or moments of intimacy, Shredaania is more divulging about the nature of her terrible existence. What do you suggest?

I suggest. that perhaps you may be able to speak more with the horrible vampire. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. If you think for a second, I'm going back out there to talk to him, and you think that I'm going to leave myself vulnerable, and I'm not going to do something about it, and then you're all going to get mad at me when he ends up dead. You're right. We shouldn't risk it,

because if we kill him, this whole thing's off. would be thrown in the crypt and brutally tortured and murdered. It's likely true. I think Shepard can keep his instruments holstered for an evening. Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you? I would hope so that you would have the restraint. You all alone with Escher.

You would up whip out your pistol. There's two. Terrified. It's more of a colloquial, royal you sort of thing. Sorry, so you don't have that good of a grip on the English language. It's real cavalieries quite good. Common language. Which is surprising.

We never really talk. Doesn't matter. Let's move on. When one is attempting to spread the word of Garex and treachery and treason to the masses to all of the races, not just my own kind, you must have a grasp on the common tongue. Well, that's neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is, you want me to talk to him, I'll talk to him, but I'm going to do it in the morning. Doc always said, another good happens after midnight.

Sounds like a wise, man. Yeah, smartest I ever new. Well, if that's what you're comfortable with, then I think that's fine, but I think we've seen here that they've been discarded, at least somewhat up in this tower. There may be resentments that we can take advantage of. Just have to be clever. I think so. Perhaps tomorrow, then. before we go to bed, we should probably check

to see what's behind this door right here on the other side. Actually, before we even make a move, I was going to suggest I was going to suggest maybe someone can help me just take a look under the bed and under these, the carpet,

just in case there's any more trap doors, I think she might be playing games. Yeah, we'll give it a once over, for sure. But to your point earlier about taking shifts, I hate to say, but I don't think she's going to try anything funny. I think this is one of those rare times where they're not going to harm us. Otherwise, they would have. And so be it if they want to try.

But look, we'll take a shift if you want. I want you to be comfortable. I want everybody to be comfortable. I don't want her sneaking up on Victoria in middle of the night when she did and she was dead. We need to be cautious. All right. She got past my defenses and couldn't attack in the moment. She held her sword in my throat.

and I was helpless. I don't want that to happen again. Fair enough. Yes. That is wise, Connor. I'll drop to my knees and start patting the floor. Roll an investigation check. I'll say with advantage because you're working with your friends to do so.

Conno, are you checking under the bed for monsters? Spooky skin. Is that cock or tonight? Yeah. I'll re-roll this one. Five and a four. Great. investigation

that'll be a seven not great you completely do not see the ghost you you inspect around the room and you feel like you do an adequate job you don't find any signs of

trap doors or secret entrances or anything of that nature it seems like just a dilapidated old room that's been adequately cleaned by Clayton nothing I can see under the carpet But, okay, I think it's fine. Do we see this other door here? Oh, we do.

Yeah, good. I open the door. Are you sure? Yeah. All right. That's a Nikki fake out about everything. I know, I know. The ultimate troll.

This small wood-paneled room reeks of mildew and has a 10-foot high ceiling. Iron hooks line the walls. And hanging from the back, the very center of the south wall, is a beautifully white embroidered and beaded wedding dress. The veil hanging down from the back is long,

pools on the ground around it. Sarnax's lantern illuminates the room. You, looking at it, you're able to see that it nearly dances in the light. It's beautiful.

I'd quietly say to Sarnax. I don't. I'm not familiar with this. gal with the customs back in the way to assume that you're virgin. I think that in this instance it is probably more of a symbolic very well

I don't you know you can just come out and say it if you want God's damn gosh Miss Victoria I apologize for the burst. Quite all right. Would you like to try it, huh?

Good golly, Miss Molly. It looks lovely. It's beautiful, but I think I'd rather not try it on just now. And it's just the dress and the street. I will kind of just like run my hand down. I don't know if there's a sleeve or something, but I'll just touch some of the fabric.

You walk forward and you begin to run your hand down the sleeve. A lot of spider with sex you in. It feels The lace is so delicate and intricately and intricately constructed. The satin beneath it is the highest quality that you imagine you've ever seen. And as you get to the part where your hand would slowly dip out of the bottom portion of the sleeve, you watch as the arms begin to rise up on their own. A haunting music begins to fill the room as the dress itself,

lifts up off the hook. It takes the position of a dancing partner, and it begins to spin and dance in the room in front of you. Oh. Perhaps we should leave it. I wish I was more surprised than I am. Does it look like it's been worn before? It does not.

It looks brand new and constructed to suit every curve of your body. Well, putting a hole in it isn't going to solve anything. It's just got a great one. problems, this would have been an excellent time to burn something. Yeah, yeah, well, you said it yourself. We ain't doing that. Yes. I actually think I see

a thrift store price tag. Delvation Army. Let's be investigating. So when I'll look for the price tag. No matter what happens, though, Victoria, when you look at this dress, do not say yes. Oh, no.

opposite of what they normally suggest. Do I have the answer to that question, or do you already know the answer? I'm so happy to have you at my day off. Oh my God. Do not say yes to that, Chris. Let's leave it for me. I'll back up away from it and just kind of close.

Are you saying yes? I'm saying nothing. For what it's worth, Victoria, I don't think you need dance last. I'm sure you're very capable. Thank you, Miss Connell. Can you hear us? Fine dress.

It continues to dance. Though there is a moment as you speak that it seems to stop for a second before it continues. I want to cast, detect magic on it to see what kind of magic business there is. What is the type of, why can't I think of the name? name. Transutation. Thank you. Transputation magic. Well, it's just transmutation magic. It's not like you'll explode putting it on. It will be teleported somewhere. Shepard. Yes, I believe the professor is attempting flattery on a garment.

I'm growing worried for the person. I am not sure of his mental wellness. I give a literal devilish smile. And sent all right well enjoy have a lovely evening anything else are you trying to shake the hand of the dress oh Professor I don't believe that it can hear being Italian

I'm being very Italian now it's a district of Golteca I thought you can breathe on my mother's side I'm just I love the gabagoo I love the gabagoo The galamara and the mozzadalas, they're delicious.

I'm going to back out slowly and gently close the door. The music slowly fades away. Where did it come from? Where did it go? It's now gone. What is happening? It's awful. Going on here.

Thank you, Andy. Yeah, yeah, I'm with it. I'm there. that's what happens is it finally safe for me to just like rest my eyes for maybe like three minutes? Yes, I'll take first watch are you sure? Yes.

You can wake me up for last time. I'm just getting up early. All right. I will take second watch. I'll take last watch. I'll take the one in between. I think I think Shepard had already offered for last watch. Oh, sorry. So would you mind taking third? So I miss

The bride to be can get her beauty rest. I was supposed to say, yes. You should take no watches. Gonna need it. Well, that's very kind, but I suppose I do look like shit. All of my case, and I'll take out some silver wire and a tiny bell, and I'll start hanging it up around the room. I'll say, terulrum, and I will cast a alarm.

Cool. Around the room. Okay. Don't do that. You're afraid the dress is going to trigger one of them. one of those alarms I don't think you can get out of the room

I think that actually might be wise if you can include it in your you know magic business well I'll just if the dress walks in here I'd like to be alerted to that that's my point that's my exact fucking point

you're so worried about this garden size God you gotta be kidding me I just well I don't need to include things that I want to be alerted about I just need you all can pass through freely.

But if a... Why are you picking on me? I'm not picking on. I'm not the magic guy. All right? All I was saying is I want to know if the dress comes out of the goddamn closet. That's it. Well, you're trying to scoom me on WISB. I'm not trying to school you

on anything. Gods! Why are you so difficult? I'm not difficult. I'm just trying to cast the spell. I'm trying to hang up the silver wire and it's very difficult. You're done to me. You are going to be the death of me. I'm sorry.

I swear it! I swear it! Fuck! Go to bed, Sheppel! I will! And I lay down on the floor on this whole thing, and I very angrily slam my hat over my face

and kick my legs above the other side, and I go to bed. You do that? I think it's been too long since Shepard has had a cup of cowboy coffee. I'm still fucking awake, sarnax! He just needs a little nap. He'll be fine.

Does your species not fall asleep instantly as well? No! No, I don't. And I appreciate it. if you can't get down while I'm trying to fall asleep. All right? I've known you for God knows how many fucking months now. I'll keep it down, Shepherd. Thank you.

I'll keep it down. Well, all of you should get some sleep. I'm taking first watch. I immediately pass out. He's snoring loudly. Since Shepard has had a cup of cowboy coffee. I whispered. I'll walk over to the corner here,

and I'll, like, lean up against it, kind of behind the door, but not against the door, just so I can't keep watch, and I'll, like, nod off the other than corner, seeing that most of the space is taken. Oh, yeah, we'll find a place.

I'll put my lantern down, and I'll slither up around it. I'll just kneel down and pray a little bit by the, I guess, by the side of it. Who's getting in bed? You were. We were saving it for you. Yeah.

It's a big bed. That's a king-sized bed. You could all fit in it, and, hang out well you can it'll be the levy's bed I will struggle

to sit with all my armor on the bed and I will just kind of and I kick my soap back under the pillows you feel as coming gets into bed the entire thing completely sips down I'm sitting down you bounce up and you almost

you almost lose your prayer beads is this you jostle about, but you grab onto them. As you hold on to them, she begins to start to shift and shake, and you're bouncing this way and that. But she finally settles herself down and you are both in the bed. I'll just pray a little bit, clasping my beads in my hand, and I'll just kind of press my thumbnail into the scar that's healing on my hand from previously, and then I'll go to bed.

I'll reach out and hold her hand throughout the night, just in case I feel her, like, bleed my side or get pulled. want to kind of sense that and try to have that wake me up if you were to leave. Okay. You have a... I'll hand back. You were doing first watch? Yes, I'll wave my hand over my case and say, scriptorum, and the case will float up and open up

kind of backwards, and a little ledge will appear out of the case, and a little quill and ankle will pop out, and I will inscribe spells during the two hours and watch. I need your roll a perception check. Oh, no. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck I'd go. Oh. That's pretty good.

He seems, please. 27. You get about 45 minutes into your watch. You are dipping your quill into the ink, tapping it on your tongue, spitting out the ink, and then writing. That would be disgusting. It's a joke. You're transcribing your spells, and you're humming to yourself,

almost keeping in tune with the sounds of your companions snoring away. They quickly find sleep. It has been a long day. And then you hear it. Noise coming from the closet, the room with the dress. I slowly turn around. Fine dress? Is that you?

Fine dress. You're very fun. You stare at the door. It's closed. You hear some shuffling. No, you shut up. Who goes there? Everyone wake up. Do we all wake up?

I'm going to rush over and open the door. You rush over and open the door and you see clambering out of a trap door embedded in the floor of the closet. Four Berovian witches. I need your role for initiative. We do. I don't know. how else to say this? My castle has witches. Of all the guesses that our protagonists would have expected, they probably weren't expecting that. Will it finally be ambushing witches that

doom the Ahran expedition? I certainly hope not. That would be very anticlimactic. Either way, find out in the conclusion of Chapter 17 of Curse of Stradania, Maladiction. In the meantime, If you wish to watch Legends of Aventrists tell similar stories of Dungeons and Dragons every week, you can follow us on Twitch. You can also enjoy our many campaigns on YouTube, shop it at merch store, support us on Patreon, and join our community on Discord. All links are in the show notes. We welcome you to our Aventrists family.