Legends of Avantris - Once Upon a Witchlight | Ep. 45 | Through the Hourglass

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

The Krew finds themselves back on the material plane...? Weathering the heat of the desert they encounter danger and riddles within a desert temple...   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/pzbs2lanwbw?si=T-VQdHmPXW9AgDa6

Welcome to Legends of Adventress. I'm Twig, and you're listening to What's the Port of Witchlight? Here's what happened last time. We're clearly not in the same place where you went to sleep. Yeah, I think they were trying to tell us he had enough gold to pay off all our dead. You know, can't see it's coming, can't hear it's coming. It's there for the taken, Kremlin. Inside of this circle is an entire group of Campestries.

You float up above the canopy of trees and directly, into the sky and you begin to look out the entire surface of thither is a clock face. The elder beast of a viridian scale it comes from me. I've seen too much. I don't know how long I'll have. The layers of the clock. You hear upon saying the words, Viridian scales, all of the campestries let out a collective gasp. One, two, one, two, and through and through the vorple blade when snick or snack he left it dead and with his head he went galumphing back as they look around and up into the sky as if they're horrified that something is coming. The job we walked with eyes aflame came wiffling through the tollgy

wood and burbled as it came. Do you know where this circle takes people? No, no. We just roll the dice hide. No, no, no. I mean there's no reason not to try. I just map it all out. Come about back. What do you think? And you hold the wands or sticks above your head and you begin to dance in a circle, you feel a pull at the back of your stomach as you are ripped out of the very circle. Dust and sand billows up around you. You are in the middle of a stone circle. As you look out at an expanding desert

for miles and miles all around you, very far off in the distance, large stone obelisk, jutting out of the sand. The sand swirling out of the sand. around you as the sun blazes overhead. You're standing in a stone circle of mushrooms, carved out of limestone and painted in bright paints. The brushstrokes still visible,

though weathered by both sand and time. Around you, the desert stretches for as far as the eye can see. The only thing that breaks up the monotony of the sand are two large obelists off in the distance that reach towards the sky. The wind picks up, and you are pelted by the grains of sand as if the desert is pushing you back, pushing you away from venturing further.

But eventually, the wind calms and relative peace returns. Sweat beads on your brow and you feel the heat drying out the flesh on your lips. You instinctively yearn for water, but none can be seen. It is just the eight of you, the scorching sun, and miles of sand before you. The eight of us? Oh, that's right, we have the mushroom friends.

You have twig and your mushroom friends. Why did we do that? Yeah, and I'm gonna, because I don't think I did this at the end of last session, I'm going to try to scoop each of our little friends into a big schmason jar with a little bit of water at the bottom and a little bit of sand. The rain is still coming down from my create,

or destroy water. Yeah, yeah, so I'm gonna get some water and I'll poke a few holes in the lid. Are you guys good? Well, I don't know, can we get some of that water that's coming down? It immediately evaporates. Accurate. Regrets, they are alive.

They're 30, flirty and thriving. Thriving. Does my apron act like a, we'll know that there won't be air in the bag of holding for there. Campitry trip to Miami. I'm sorry. Who wants to hold on to these? I shouldn't be responsible.

Why is Mr. Crammy-Logging in Torback? I'll take care of them. I can put them in my peck. I'm going to remove my robe anyway. It's too warm for this weather. Does that mean we can all get naked? Torback's sweaty and damp. Well, I think you can, you know, dress for the occasion. Just don't fucking get naked. Yeah, you gotta remain covered. Alright. Torbuk would probably take off his coat and what he could take off of his shredded horrific shirt and just wear his amazingly awesome striped pants.

Perfect. The two that becomes more visible. You guys can see more of it, right? I don't think they were in the Faye Wild anymore. How do you know that we're not a Faye Wild? Well if this is some like desert area of the Faye Wilde. Wow. Maybe we're in Yon? Oh, that's a good point. Is Yon a desert? We already skipped the...

Well, we were in the... the... the... the...the... And now we're fucking here. I mean, there was a third spot. I ain't never seen anything like this before. It's gone from a platinum run to a speed run. 20%. That's a good point. Thank you, Rosie.

If we are no longer in the Feywild, which is my suspicion, then every minute that goes by would be potentially days in the Feywild. We may have already, just in the last few seconds, lost our opportunity to satisfy any of the deals that we made, help any of the people that we've told to help. There could be years racing past us with every word I speak. God, what are we talking? I hate the Fay Wild.

Can we somehow go back? Is there a way to undo this? We should try to reverse this. We should try to get back using the stone circle, perhaps if we try the same incantation backwards and run the other direction. Does it look like we're in a fairy circle? It looks like the fairy circle that you left,

but instead of being organic, it is limestone carvings. It looks like Necbesian statues. They have like pictographs on them. They are. Ba relief. Yes? I don't know about Ba relief, but I would like to address the DM.

Yeah, yeah, why? I would like to, looking around at the different stone relief symbols, sort of get a sense of if they tell a story, if they feel connected to the magic circle, if they give instructions for returnal to the Faye Wild, if this is perhaps a two-way portal. What languages do you speak? Oh, I speak.

Did we know that we needed eight people to do this? Do we know that or did it just happen to work because they left in? That was not spoken to you, but it worked because they left in. I would say you were easy enough, it was easy enough to tell that they were doing something intentionally. Should it be reasonable to assume that we could try with six and we would think that that would work. Yeah. In my studies, I learned Celestial and Elvis. in addition to common.

Roll an investigation check. Damn. A disadvantage. Yeah. I read pretty good. 15. You don't speak this language. It's not in a language I'm familiar with.

I'll study it for a bit longer to see if I can deduce anything. You do look at it a bit and you notice you notice what look to you as much as you can deduce, like Wands. you do see what appears to be images of people moving wittershins and that it looks, I will say, with a 15, especially at disadvantage, you do notice the constant theme of the moon in high in the sky, about midday. But it does look like the images on this stone circle. depict the way to make it function. I suspect that using the circle is laid out in front of me. And you said the moon in the sky, mid-day. Sorry, not the moon, the sun, the sun in the sky, midday.

Ha-moon. Yeah, not, I just, I have moon on the brain all the time. As that happens, I look where the moon is now. Do I suspect that we're approaching midday? You suspect that the sun has passed midday. Well I see the problem here Frosty this isn't a language at all man this is like children's picture books well yes these are pictures but around it they're bathing then this one looks like maybe he's enjoying a coconut under a

tree that looks pretty good this one looks like maybe he's eating too many coconuts probably a child's label about overindulging yourself I don't think this isn't anything to do with what we're looking for it's expect that you're completely off about all of these. Well, this one's an owl. This one's like a weird odd valk donkey thing. What the fuck is that?

Oh, yeah. That kind of looks like you. Yeah, it does. Spin the image. Anyway, how fucked up, we Frost? Well, we have a choice to make. We could pick any direction to go in and hope for the best.

We could endeavor to tourney to those obelisks there in the distance, or we could wait until midday tomorrow and attempt the ritual again. I could spend those 24 hours trying a few ideas, but I may only be able to whittle it down to a few options. Each day that goes by we'd try another and perhaps fail, and then another and perhaps fail. We'd run out of water quickly.

Eventually we would die here in the desert. Wait, so you're saying we can't go back right now. No, no, I'm making that deduction. We certainly should try. But the fact is, is that mid-date... midday it's passed. We arrived exactly when that pictograph depicts. There's no question in my mind that if we tried now, it wouldn't work. We've got 23 hours and 47 minutes to wait. Oh god. Well, they put all these, like, portals all over the place.

Like, it's got to end up somewhere. I mean, the one that brought us to the Fay Wilde was in the carnival. There's got to be something around. There's got to be some reason it sent us here. Like, some reason they have, like, you know, some crazy magic tunnel that ends up. What the hell would they need to come just to the smack dab in the middle of the desert for nothing? That's interesting. I have an idea.

Does this still work? It's still work over. Yes, I can hear you. Yeah. Yeah, we're coming in, land, clear. I heard that if you're in the desert, you should split it up. I think that what we do is as long as these work,

we each go in a direction, and we just agree to turn around and come back after a certain amount of time, and we see what we find, and that will determine what direction we go in. Where did you hear that? Ah. I heard somewhere.

We're right next to a crossing to the Faye Wild. If we split up, we could turn around and never find each other again. That's very unlikely, Frosty. According to what the Kampari and Soda said, is that we're back on the, we're back in Aventress. Mm-hmm. So there's no Faye Wild Magic here. What, who said that?

Did somebody say that? They would cross back over it. So yeah, the Pixie's told you that the fairy circles would bring you to the material. Oh, so we're dumb. Oh, I have second side, don't I? Oh yeah, I'm crazy. So that explains that.

Oh, yes, you still are experiencing the lingering effects of the spores that creepers seeds in your face, great. You are experiencing that. What's your vision? How far out can you see? I just, I have normal. I don't have like dark vision. Cremie, quick.

What are your crazy eyes seeing? Roll a perception check for me straight. Your eyes are like on top of your head and your ambush platter. I was talking to that squirrel over there. That's another one of the pictogram. Perception, you say? Hey, boomers.

Remember? Mr. Deeds? 16. Oh my God. You. That's a deep cut. That's a good movie. That's a good movie.

As Frost is talking to you about how he is deciphering the images on these stone mushrooms, you look around the desert and you see the way the sun shines off of the sand and the way that it sparkles like gems off in the distance, the way that if you look in certain directions, the heat and the refraction of light can cause it to look like there are pools of water, but you are familiar with Mirage. and they don't concern you as much as the strange glint in the sky that happens every once in a while. As if a bit of light is hitting something and then bouncing back. And it's almost for a second as if you see a star popping in and out of existence,

but it couldn't be a star. It's a light. It's something. And occasionally you'll, in the corner of your eye, when they're this happens, you'll catch what almost looks like a spark of rainbow off to the side, a kaleidoscope of colors that appears for just a split second. Bastral projection. Quarry me, you seem distracted.

There's an elder's holder in the sky. An enchantment in the light. I see it. I look where he's looking. Do I see anything in the sky where he's looking? A roll of perception check? Disvenge? No, just normally. Triple disadvantage. Just the DC for you is different than it. for him.

That's not how this game, ow! How dare you talk back to the DM? 13? No, you don't notice anything. You look up at the sky and it's difficult to see what he's trying to tell you, the sun is so bright and so warm that when you look up, you're shielding your eyes as you look towards

this beautiful blue sky, completely cloud-free. And you look for any signs of rainbows or, flashes of light or refraction or anything of that nature and you see nothing. Don't you see it? Crummy, you're just going crazy, man. That's no light. That's just the sun. No, no, no, no. Don't look directly into the sun, crummy. A flash of brilliant pluralescence. I see every color. Okay. You don't see it?

No. No. We just see the sky. We're in a desert. You don't think it's it? What, Gideon? You don't I don't think it's that crazy winged beast to follow us here? Huh. We try to get away from, you don't think it's like flying around up there, do you? The elder beasts of Ruriting Scale? Oh, gods, I don't think so.

Does it look to say? I think it had more of a nonsensical, musical name than that. Only Kremi was able to see the beast, and till he sees it, I don't think we're in any danger. Oh yeah, wasn't it in the forest? He doesn't live in the desert. It's a forest beast. It's like a star in daylight.

He said it was like zipping in and out of reality or some shit, man. Maybe it can just, I mean, we moved over here from right where we were. He was right not too far away in some kind of shared space. Maybe he just followed us. No, then we die. Is the Jabba Jabba Jal coming? Do I see it moving? You'll see it in one spot and then you'll notice it behind you or off the side.

Oh, no, it's moving all right. Oh, God. Oh, geez, I think it might be stalking us. Do we go towards it or do we go away from it? Or is it all around us, Premi? Tell us to go! It doesn't happen very often. So it's not like you're seeing... So I'm fine, and I was in, ah!

Minutes will pass. Are you sure you fellows can't see this? We didn't experience the spores, Premi. Torbeck is sure that Torbeck doesn't see anything, Mr. Cremie. Dormack is worried about you! Okay, it's fine. I'm just gonna try to ignore it. It's probably nothing important, all right? I don't think we could follow it.

I don't think he's trying to lead us in a direction that keeps moving around, and I only see it occasionally, but it's gone now. Ah! Should you run? Should we run? I don't know. I don't think we can escape it.

My final front response is between. Tell me which direction I'm running, Cromey. I'm about to run it about three seconds. It's too fast. Three, two, one. Stay here, there we go. I just started running. I bolt, I bolt.

Ah! Cremie, I want you to roll another perception check for me, please. Come on, baby. Come on, baby. Oh, oh, 15. Oh, yep. You notice, with a 15, 15 and your truce sight, you notice that it happens less above you and more in the sky along the horizon.

Oh, it's not directly above us. I think it's... It does happen above you, but you notice it more often along the horizon. I'm not sure what to make of this, but... Doesn't matter, Grico's sprinting the horn as fast as tight legs and carry him. Right, goes time. The chipper jaws upon me! Which, funny enough, is not very fast. The sand here is high.

It is not packed down. It is persistently moving with the winds. And the winds pick up constantly and swirl around you. You are moving through difficult terrain. And as much as he's trying to rush through this, it is difficult. He's not making it. He's like, what?

I was like, it's right there. With my 10 foot for each other, so they get up, my his love. It's like walking through the dunes when you go to the beach. Guys, oh, you're right there. Gideon, Torbeck has a question. What's it going on, man? Oh, Torbeck is slightly concerned with all of the sand

getting in Torbeck's mechanisms. Is this gonna be bad? Oh, it ain't gonna be good, I'll tell you that. Can you check Torbeck out, please? Yeah, I can take a quick look at it. I mean, there's not really anything out here to weather treat it, but I'll give it the old, I'll give you the old Goblin College try.

I'll turn around and I'll kind of like squat down and hunch down and look over my shoulder and say, but one of one of Thorbeck's pipes, burrs. Torbeck will bleed out in seconds. No, we got to stop. Well, I mean, you know, the chances of that are happening are like 40%, all right? You're in the, you're in the positive category. It's the lower half, man.

I mean, it's 60% it doesn't happen. Check for roasting! All right, I'm looking, I'm looking. I take you out of my pocket these little, just tiny little, like spectacles that hook right over my ears. And you go, well, let's see what we got here. All right, let's see what I can do. Roll an investigation. Oh, nice.

No, normally. This isn't a tech you're super familiar with, so I would normally give you disadvantage on it. You haven't finished reading the book. You can barely read. I'll twist it. I'll twist it. I would normally give you-

I've had the book for 40 sessions. Have you taken the time to read it? Nah. So I normally give you disadvantage, but because you're using your spectacles and you are working through the book, I'm just going to let you roll on it straight. And what is it?

Disinvestiation? Yeah. I'll step up, I had the old goblin trial, I'll take a look too. Now that you mention it. Yeah, step up here. Goal with the seat. Having Grico look at it with you

does not increase your chance to figure it. Well, good try. It's a good trial, little green. Do you suspect that your blood has been replaced entirely with which light? Okay, all you needed was a 10. So you look at this, and though you're not familiar with this tech or how it works.

I understand perfectly how this works. We can figure this out. Exactly. You check the seals. You check the spots that it is, that these vials are connecting with Torbeck's skin. And you check to see that there is no sign of rusting, that there is no sound of leaking,

that there is no remnants of witch light on the outside of these vials in any way. And then with your spectacles, you get in even closer to see if you see any grains of sand inside of the vials and you see that they are perfectly sand-free. Oh, wow, you're looking good. Like, one last little treatment just to make sure nothing gets in. What are you doing?

Try not to enjoy this, all right? We're just lubricating the endpoints so that, you know, hey, come on, come on. This just don't know sand gets in, all right? Yeah, well... Big you out. I think I've found the problem. Little green. There's a little green. There ain't no problem here, man. No, there's a bunch of fucking tubes all over the bus. That is a problem.

Look at all these tubes in you, Tobin. Don't figure it out. No, no. In the engineering world, we say that that ain't a bug, it's a feature, all right? It's just how it fucking works. Well, thanks, Kenyon. Tormac has peace of mind. You're looking good.

You're not going to die to this thing exploding in the desert. I mean, probably the desert itself, but not this thing exploding. Almost certainly you'll die of thirst. Way, way longer, way, I mean, sooner, before anything like this. I mean, this has dropped down to at least 37%. That's comforting. Oh, and they say that dying of dehydration in the desert is like only the third worst way to die. One or the other.

being torn apart by a bear is number two and number one is is is drowning oh oh and it's being burned alive so it's forthwards that doesn't sound too bad Aged in long scarf did two of those four you can't oh oh yeah I don't know if you know this about me but I'm an impact It's not uniquely qualified to tell you that he died and terrible out. Oh, it took my end-path nations too. That he's done in terrible, terrible.

Only you, Grigold. It was double pain. Oh, man, I can't believe you can impasse someone while you're a giant toad, man. That's freaking awesome. Drowning in the water. Yeah, he was like swamped over the side of that boat. This guy was grinding him up like he's a blender, you know? Like a fainting ninja blender.

I especially know because I'm a Gemini. Ormein doesn't know what that is. I'll pull one of the shmation jars out, and I will look inside them both to make sure that our mushroom friends are still alive. They are. They are. Can you understand to me? Can you speak?

They seem very, they seem like they are recovering from the severe dehydration that they underwent. I'm going to keep you wet and in the shade. Perfect. Can you say something? Can I understand? Do I recall? They hum at you.

But they, you know that they don't speak, they don't have communications. They sing songs and dance in response. They don't seem like they have the energy to dance. But you can see their eyes fluttering a little bit and they hum at you. I will endeavor to sing a song if you would answer some questions. Do you know where we have been spit out? Do you know the connection of the circle you were dancing in and this place? Is there any information that you can convey?

They hum in minor. Hmm. Let's switch. Ah! Okay, well, who see? There you go. Ha! Oh!

What the hell is so scary about that thing, man? Oh, my God. You haven't seen you, kid. Oh, where's your lily pad, Frosty? It's like an evil eye. I have it here. Watching out every move. I'll unfold it and try to like form it

until the tip of a giant sun hat. You unfold it and as you try to form it into a hat, it begins to crack as it dries out in the heat of the sun. Put it back, put it back, put it back, put it back, put it back. I will, I'll take out what water skin I have and I'll just give it a little bit of a drink and then very carefully. I'll cinch it up.

It'll stay here. Hootie. Oh, you've got to put on your sunscreen. I just, I know that it's covered in feathers. It's just cooking oil. Okay. And there's the rest of our water. Drink up, drink up Ho Chi. Whoa!

So hydrated. Do I see anything else on the horizon besides the creepy flashing? No. It's just. And the obelisk. The obelists are off towards the north in front of you. It's not a direction that you have noticed the lights. That's hard.

Well, I don't see a flash into the north where the obelists are. Maybe we want to get away from it and head that way. Or maybe we try your splitting up idea. I mean, I hate to say, but that's not the worst idea I ever heard. Unless we're being hunted by some crazy Eldridge eye that's popping out all over the place. What if he's just waiting to pick us all? Yeah, Gideon's right!

As long as we maintain our faculties, I'm not too worried. That would be a true terror, but until we start to truly, like, lose time, everything seems to be complete, seamless. I remember being in the forest, in the mushroom circle. I remember arriving here. I remember our conversation, with the exception of Cremie, who's under the influence of whatever is happening to Cremi, it's drugs.

We're okay. Yeah, it's just drugs. I would propose that we make our way to the obelisks, and if we can get back here midday next tomorrow, then we may have a shot at returning through the same ritual that we did before. We just need to find a little bit of shade and some shelter.

It's probably some shade under the obelisks, man. Do they go up and have stones that connect over top? They just go straight up in this guy. There are two obelists that just go straight up. Everyone take their blankets. Make sure your head is wrapped. I used my blankets on. Who'd see? Yes, I saw him. I have a second blanket here for you.

Oh, thank you. I can add it to the rim of the hat. You need an extra nice and funny. No, yeah. Okay. Here you're your giant, comically large sunglasses. Okay. Oh. Your son is so bad for children. I'll take my jacket off and I was like hanging over my head. Is this gonna be good enough? You have a hat? No, he doesn't have a hat anymore.

No, he doesn't have a hat anymore. No, you got to go back. You got it back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fral said to, like, weigh some sort of, like, thing on my head, right? Yeah, you can put it under the hat. I guess I could.

Would I get any kind of sense that I'm, I don't feel as bad? No, you feel just as bad as everyone else. I don't know. I was not offering my blanket, but in retrospect, fuck that. It's odd out here. You're used to flame and furnace.

This is, just after midday in the heat of the desert. This is a dry heat. Oh. And this, it's, you've been to, actually, I will have you roll a perception check. At advantage because you are a fire genocci. Oh, don't mind that.

He's 40% fire. I'm at least. Oh, big money. Natural 20. Let's go. Probably for the time. You have been to neck bet before. In your travels, all of you have been to Neckbet before.

When you were originally looking for eventually what you found, but when you were traveling as the carnival, you went all over the place scamming people. Neckbet is a place of old money, ancient money, gold and treasure. And you knew that it was an opportunity to make a lot of coin. Though that didn't happen for you while you were there, you have been there. You've felt the heat of neck bet in the summer.

And this heat is significantly hotter. This heat is different. Wait a second, I remember this place. This is neck bats. And it's way the hell hotter than it was last time. And I didn't like it the first time. Neck bet. That's what I said, neckbats.

No, neck bet. No, yeah, neckbats, yeah. bats, yeah. The desert. What do you mean? It's not even close. It's right there. It's right next to it. In fact, it's so fucking close, negative eight inches away from what he's saying. It's so fucking close. All right. Yeah.

I think your deduction is likely. What was my deduction? Oh, they weren't in neckbats. Well, and it's way fucking hotter now, too. Does anybody get that? We're all here. Everybody remembers it. Well, it's the middle of the day in a desert. In neckbat. Uh, damn it. Uh, neckbats. Nick, neck, neck.

Don't correct yourself. We got to ride the first time. I can't even remember what this place is called anymore. It's neckbats, all right? We gotta stop arguing about the name. It's tearing us apart! I like it goes out. Let's head to the obelisk.

We can get some shade at least in the afternoon and sit under the shade of one of the obelists and figure shit out. There may be other things to see when we get there. And as I said, we may need to return here in 24 hours. Does it look like I can get there in 24 hours and then get back? It's hard to tell in a desert like this,

where you're not on dunes, though you can tell that off in the distance, there are the clear slopes of dunes in this place. Right now, it feels almost like it's plateaued. And as you look out around you, it looks like you could get to the obelisk in 15 minutes or 15 hours. It's hard to tell.

Where is gonna have to try it? Grime, if that light that you've been seeing gets closer or starts to start to create a pattern emerge. You let me know. All right, I'll let you know. Everyone, follow me. Follow Frost. Hey, uh, Mr. King of Hearts. Over. This is Grico.

Grim, Grim. If you can hear this, I'm willing to, you know, let Bargones be Bargones. I know we got off to the wrong. But if you could help us, you know, I'll feel like I will, I would appreciate it. over new standing stone who did. Have we, has he ever? He's not responded to him. He's never communicated with us before through.

No, but you also haven't attempted to communicate with him through it either. Swarth the shell. And you say this and you all listen. The sound of the swirling sands is swirling around you. But there is no response. from the other end. I'm sorry for saying that you look like the kind of guy who would play a guy.

No, it's fine. Thank you so much. You know, I really appreciate all the help if you can hear this. You probably can't, but it'll be just fine. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm telling it, Torbeck is also here. Tollbeck is also here.

Thank you. Oh yeah, good idea, Tollbeck. Crummy is also here. So is Gideon. So is Gideon. So is Hucci. So is Hucci. is Twig, well, she's a bit of a marionette at the moment,

and then we have two new Kampari friends. Companions. Over. Khm. Oh, companions. Kampari. Over. Is that everybody?

They're Kempestries. You walk through the sand. This is a disaster. We're gonna die. You walk, and you are all just walking with just the things over your head? Yeah. We're also doing the special.

A special walk that makes sure that we don't attract any sand dunes, or worms, I should say. That's not a thing. So you walk for an hour. Oh, you're talking about from dunes? I'm like, what are you talking about? We don't want to attract the shy halloo. Yeah. No, I get you.

I thought he was talking about something else. What do you know? It's not in this campaign. Yeah, no, I get it. I get it. It's all right. It's all right. That's good.

I'm not on my game. You, yeah. I mean, you did fuck up royally before the session started. Yeah, it's pretty bad. At least. It was just, it was horrible, and I don't think I'll ever forgive you. But you walk for about an hour.

The sweat is coating your bodies. Your lips are dry and chapped. Your mouths have no saliva left in them. As you look out at the horizon and the obelisk looked just as far away as they had when you had started. All around you, it's the shimmering, shimmering dance of mirages of water.

And though you know in your heart of hearts that those pools of water aren't real, you're so thirsty that you want them to be. You yearn for them to be, and I need you all to roll a Constitution saving throw. Uh-oh. Saving throw. Uh-oh.

That's pretty good. Oh boy, I got an 11. I got a 19. 19. 11. Oof. Could I be endeavoring to strengthen using a cantrip called resistance, which lets me out a D4?

Or should I have that ahead of you? Okay. No, of course you can. Of course you can. Of course. Oh, this is, oh, that's fine. I'll just take it. That's acceptable money. No, it's not.

Don't fucking say that. It's not acceptable at all. Oh, now you're all. It's funny. Fuck. TAM. Oh, those to us die. Who got below a 13?

Three guys on the side of the table. You each suffer from one level of exhaustion. Oh! That's bad. That is. How do you manage that? You go to conditions? No, just to manage your ability checks, that's it.

Okay. You... You don't know, you don't. You don't go to conditions. You feel... You feel the heat soaking into your very bones. You feel the heat soaking into your very bones. The sand is heavy on your legs.

Your muscles. are aching with the energy that it's taking to propel you forward through this. Your skin is sand burned from the gusts of sandy winds that have rushed past you over and over and over again throughout the hours. The tiny shards of glass that make up the sand causing razor-like marks on your skin.

Your skin is red from the heating of the sun, and you feel tired. And still, Crummy, you see this occasional bursts of light off against the horizon. I'm not shouting this loudly, but I still get startled every time. Oh no. And you continue.

Oh, I'm spooked. Oh, geez. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour. And you are still further away from the obelisk that you would like to be, but you do see that they're a little bit taller, a little bit larger and a little bit closer. And I need you all to roll Constitution saving from.

Oh my God. Oh, thank God. And at exhaustion level one, is that at disadvantage? Come on, Elwood. No, no, no, no, save it. Yeah, it's just ability to change. Thank you. Let's go.

That's going to be a 17 for young Twentee. I'm not a twist. I'm not two. 22 for great . I would like one, please. Is that all right if I have one? 21. I'm not shepherd in this one.

I'm already up. I'm already up and up. 15. 21. Anyone get below a 15. Oh, let's go, I'm good, baby. We're good. No? Okay. You have steeled yourself against this heat for a bit.

During the past hour, you have taken some time to utilize a little bit of the water that you had left to cool your aching skin. You have begun to notice the patterns of the wind as it picks up and the sands begin to swirl and you have taken out your bed rolls and created a sort of barricade against the swirling sands

to keep yourself safe during these moments. When it gets too tough to walk, you are leaning on each other and helping each other. And as a unit, you are moving through the sands. And you continue to walk. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour. And you can see now that based on how far you've traveled, those obelisks lead to something.

Directly behind them is a large limestone temple. There is a winding, snaking stone pathway that leads out from it and is a 20 minute walk. Before you reach it, you are so close. close, but so tired, so hot, so thirsty. I need you all to roll a constitution saving throw. Torbenka's ready! Come on, baby.

Let's go. I just did a good roll here. 20. I would like the easy twist. Just one. I got 12. 13. That's not enough.

23? Oh. 20. So the two of you got below 17? Yeah. Damn. The two of you take another level of exhaustion. Our speed is now halved.

Well, actually, you know, my speed is halved. Technically your speed has already been halved. So you're crawling around that, man. You are struggling. I'll move over to Torbeck. I got you, buddy. Come on up here. Torbeck's shoes are full of land.

Yours are the same. My shoes are full of weight. No, you're one. He's only failed one exhaustion. Oh, you only failed twice. Yeah. It's just Dormack games. You know, Uncle Globo lied to me.

Is there anyone who hasn't failed at all? I would like you to roll a perception check at advantage. Oh, come. That's just a little while. It's just a little further, man. We'll get there. The gizmos are heavy, and I'm bald. Don't twist you.

Every time I said it was hot, he'd say, oh, Cricko, you know, it's not the heat, it's the humidity. It's true. It's true. And so every time, it gets you. I fought of a desert, I thought it wouldn't be so bad. This is worse than this hot swamp.

15. Okay. You have traveled three hours to get to this place. Three hours beneath the hot sun. Three hours without water. Three hours being pelted by sandstorms. We're all distracted, uncomfortable, sunburned, dehydrated. dehydrated. And yet Cremie, you are on high alert.

Oh yeah, I am. Whether it's the constant lights that you see off on the horizon, the true sight that you'd been gifted by the Campestries back and thither, or Whether it's something else innate or core to you, you feel like you see more than you expect to. And as you look ahead of you, you see that the two obelists rise

straight up towards the air or towards the sky. Directly between them a path snakes towards a temple, but also towards you. And the sand snakes too. About maybe a five-minute walk from where you are, the sand is moving unnaturally. You look behind you to the left to the right. The sand seems to be fine.

You see a sandstorm begin to pick up off towards the west. And you note the way that the sand moves during that natural phenomenon, and it's not the same. It is an undulation just beneath the surface of the sand, almost as if there's something there at the start of the pathway, guarding it, protecting it. Fethefellas, I'm seeing something again. Okay.

I'm saying it's moving, it's moving, Naturally. Is it the light? That we're headed towards? No, it's nothing related to the lot at all. It's undulating. Like there's some sort of lurking beast swimming just under the surface.

I'll peer closer towards the direction we're heading and see if I also see undulating thing. I roll a perception check normally. How far while he's doing that, how far are we from, like, do we have an estimation? So you were about 30 minutes from the obelisk, about 20 minutes from the start of the stone path that snakes towards the temple, and it's about,

I said five minutes, but what I really meant is about 15 feet in front of that, that Cremie sees the. Once he's resolved, I'd like to try something, but I'll let. 15. With Cremie's direction of where to look and what to look for, you squint your eyes and shield them from the rays of the sun, and it takes a moment for you to stop seeing the image of the shifting mirage and finally able to detect the undulating movement of the sand.

Crime me, that is real. You see it too? I do. See, I'm not crazy. I fucking told y'all. What do you think that is? Something under the sand? The sand could be alive itself. Could be anything. Right, if we think there's some sort of a threat, get in, stable, doorback. And I would like to attempt to consume one of my mutagens

as one of my class features, and I will use rapidity, which would increase my speed by 10 feet, so it would get me almost back to half speed instead of quartered speed. But I would have disadvantaged on intelligence checks. I'm attempting to essentially channel this alchemic witchlight and see if I can use it to bolster my body to regain back up to half speed. I will say you're easily able to do this.

You watch as the witchlight in Torpec's vials begins to bubble and pop, as his body begins to change. And you notice that his legs elongate just a little bit more than they had been before. He's quite a bit taller. And you see a look of confusion, flash across his face for a moment. The effort that your body is going through

to make it change physically is causing you bits of confusion. You feel a little bit dizzy, you feel disoriented, but you still feel yourself. Thanks, Gideon. I might still, Toramek will still use your shoulder a bit. It's all good. But I'm able to, it seems like like I'm able to keep up with you a little bit better.

Cool. I mean, whore. Oh, does that hurt, Jobeck? Does this hurt the Tobac? It's uncomfortable, but it doesn't hurt. Yes. Not painful, but it's not great. Did you mean to do that?

Yes. You meant to extend out your bones and your legs? Well, no, but Torbeck feels like Torbeck can harness it a little bit. No, no, that's good. That's good. Good. Well done, Tovick. Keep working on that. Oh, yeah. That's good. That's good. Well done. All right, I thought we've come too far. I think we just got to keep going. We need to find Shelton. That's the only fucking way. There's some kind of temple. There should be plenty of shelter in there.

If we stay in this heat any longer, we'll be in a lot of danger. This may not be a threat. Try to maintain some form of optimism here. Oh, well. That's a good way to think about it. Maybe it's some sort of friendly, you know. I've heard that there's like sand whales that are very friendly and will help you. Maybe it will grant us a boon if we help it.

I have to approach. Friendly space whale. It's your best mate. No other way but one foot in front of the other. So how are you approaching, just normally? In single file, right, like we've been. I would say single file. To hide on numbers.

And we're continuing to the obelisk, so we're not going around to delay ourselves and suffer the heat. Yeah. Okay. You rally each other. You bolster your energies, and together as a unit, as you do everything, you decide to tackle

this next obstacle in your path, and you move forward relentlessly in the heat of the sun. 15 minutes passes and you can see that this, as you get closer to it, is not a small bit of sand that's undulating and moving like you'd originally thought. This is a huge patch of sand. And you're not quite familiar with things like quick sand, but you imagine that this is maybe what it would look like, though you see no moisture. The way that it moves almost looks like water as it rolls. and undulates and tumbles. You get closer.

You're about 15 feet from it now. Do you continue? It just continues to like, royal? Yes, royal. It's a great word. Does it look like it could be walked around within reason? I mean, you imagine you could,

it is ovular, so you imagine that you could stay 15 feet and try to get around it, that it's going to take a while. This is a large, that the quickest way would be through, but that you could attempt to, yeah. What's its, like, radius looking like? 120 feet. It's a big fucking power.

Or diameter, sorry, would be 120 feet, not radius. Now that we're here, and I don't know if we should walk through it. It doesn't seem to be responding to it. I think that it may just be a natural phenomenon. I'm not much for deserts. Oh, like, the sand's just shifting naturally, like the Earth was doing that, or the wind?

It doesn't seem to be sinking, but it's possible that we would be pulled in by that violent action. I don't want to risk that. A little green, I mean, you're connected to all sorts of fucking monstrosities. You're getting any kind of like, you know, vibe or, like, rumbling in the force? If it is a monstrosity or a monster of some kind, know that I'm friends with all monsters.

Are you, are you amplifying your voice to do this? Are you like speaking louder than you. I will say, Grickle Grimgrin is friend to all monsters. We wish you no harm and we wish to help and become united spiritually. If you, great sand monster.

The sand begins to turn and, more violently. It begins to expand larger and larger and larger. And in the very center, you begin to see almost like a sand whirlwind as a huge hole begins to open up. And then out of it, what looks to be a gigantic cobra. But no, not one cobra, but two, and then three. And as you see its body, propel it

self forward out of this gigantic den or burrow, you realize that it is a single Cobra, but with three heads. I need you all to roll for initiative. Oh! We made a mistake. Oh yes, thank goodness, it is a monster and not a beast. How do we still not have a man?

Is the initiative of a ability check? It is, it is. That's what I thought. It's thought. Oh. Oh, a natural 20 to 14. I'm going once. I'm going last.

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So... So... So... ...24. Jesus. Uh, 15 to 20. 17. 17.

We have... Gricko. 10 to 15. Frost. Gideon. ...tortland. 10 to 15? Okay.

Oh, sorry, 15. Okay. And then Torbeck and Grico, what did you each go? Nine, eight. Dude, what's your initiative? Look at that. Put them in there, basically perfectly. You look out as this creature emerges

from what was clearly a subterranean snake's den, and it rears all three of its cobra heads back and hisses loudly at you, but you notice the sand is still burbling. The sand is still roiling. There is still something beneath the sand itself. As this thing rears up towards all of you, Frost is your turn. I will immediately step forward. Creature, we mean you no harm, we only mean to pass.

We know how to offend ourselves, please. Relax yourself. This does not have to end in combat. But I will defend myself if I have to, and I will put my hands together, and you'll see energy. I would like to hold my action, and if the three-headed cobra snake

endeavors to move forward in a threatening manner or attack one of us, then I will unleash the spell chromatic orb. That's a doozy. Good spell. Did it in. Well, it's time to heat things up. And I, after me in my flame form, the gauges war to life, they spin forward, not kicking into a gear, but they start to tremble as the light on the gauge ignites with a fiery glow.

And, Gideon, what are you doing? Hey, you stupid hodge, you stupid snake sand thing, we got to get right past you, all right? Move on out of the way, or you're going to get moved. And I attack it. Oh, Kieran, no, he's a friendly monster! Oh. Too late, you already did it. I didn't do it. Did I get any sense that it was...

No, get it, get it, yeah. Natural truth. Oh! Oh! I bounce on a feel a little bit. You leg it through the sands directly. Dude, it's going to hold in it. You were standing at the...

You are standing on the edge of the shifting sands, not a foot forward or you know that you would tumble down into this, This undulating mass of sand, but you are right on the edge where your footing is firm as you reach up towards the heads of these snakes and you let loose of flurry of blows You goddamn red, I do it's like the knife fight and you yuhaka show from the dark turnaround Okay, I don't know I need that means Bosphorus Oh You know, oh, oh, oh

Oh God I unleashed the fury of a thousand genocity A thousand and one I'm assuming that's a second natural That was a second natural 20 I'm just gonna put it out there, you know what I mean? I don't even know what dice I roll anymore. I'm gonna dread both of them.

I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna do that. That would ruin your life forever. He's gonna one shot this fucking snake, and it's boo-boo, and one of the heads is gonna be, just caved in. The roiling underneath is actually a gin. Thank you, you free, dude, I might do this.

That's incredible. That's a snake ate me. What's up, Moncle? That's fair. That's hurtful a little bit, but... Oh, that's awful. Oh shit. 13.

23 points of damage. Plus. That's... No, that was, isn't it? You should roll at least four dice. That was four dice. Yeah. That was four to you?

Yeah. Yeah. Two or ones. You... So, let me just make sure I don't plus anything. Take extra. Add strength. At your strength modifier.

Well, what do you mean? Yeah, plus five. Yeah. So I did. For each one. For each one. For each one. So 23.

And then it would also take six damage. Six flame damage. You rolled 13 on 48? So it's gonna take six more flame damage? So it's gonna take one more damage. It takes one more damage. Have you used your bonus action? Well, flame form is a bonus action.

Okay. You rush for you rush for you. You rush for you. You rush forward through the sand and you unleash the beast within and you slam into this thing, punching directly beneath its jaw. You watch as the first head snaps back as you go in with the next hit to the second head, which also snaps back. All of the heads turn and you are directly in front of them and the only one in front of them. So all of the heads are going to lash down on you, and all three of them are going to make bite attacks.

Nice try. The first one is going to miss. The second one is going to hit. Oh. And 16 would miss. Okay, so two of them will miss. I need you to make a Constitution saving throw. Are these normal attacks, or are these some kind

of weird ability attacks? They are bite attacks. They are bite attacks, they're normal bite attacks. I'd like to activate a gauge. I'd like to activate heat gauge one. Okay. And as which head's coming at me that I think is gonna hit? The middle head.

As it's coming down. The one you didn't punch. I lost my train whistle. But you'll see if you can. It's here. It's right over behind you somewhere. Yeah, it's behind the pig. I just saw it in the session.

That feels good. I got a sec. I thought I lost it for like weeks. You see as the gauge kicks in the heat gauge one, the chains rattle and they war to life, as they swing up and they leash around the neck of the hydrant. I redirect its bite attack onto one of its other heads. Nice.

I'm going to cast Bromatic Orp. Listen, why I go Gear Five, I'm going to start bouncing the whole desert shakes. Yeah. Yeah. Also, Gear Five's like, well, 20. So. That one, okay.

You are able to do that. I will next time consider dreading your natural ones. I will cast a chromatic orb as soon as I see it. Yeah, of course. Let me just make sure that needs some. That's gonna be a 23 to hit. Nice. That hits.

Okay. Oh yeah, we'll do it after the chromatic arm. Nobody uses. It's pretty rare. We used it a handful of times. I love holding actions. I do it. I'm gonna do 38 cold damage.

Oh. That's gonna be. Nice. Pretty good. Nice. cold damage. As I turned this into what was rolling between my hands into literally a perfect, like one of those spheres of ice

that you put it at a whiskey glass. With the size of like a softball and I just hurl it with my mind and it crashes into one of the heads or wherever. You do this doing a significant amount of damage. All of the heads rear back and hiss out at you as they are writhing. and moving in a very predatory manner. Their attention still seems to be focused on Gideon,

him being the closest in proximity. You watch as the middle head rears back and begins to make this strange hissing, trilling sound in the back of its throat. You can see this spot on its neck where there's vibrating, and you begin to hear buzzing. Not buzzing, clicking. Like the sound of clicking mandibles.

As you see, six swarms of scarabs spill up out of the undulating sand and begin to move around all of you. They're going to, they have the movement speed. To have at least one on each of you, there'll be two on Gideon. Actually, there'll be two on frost because of the chromatic orb, I think.

That stands to reason. Based on sound and who's making the most noise. They are all going to make their attack, so there'll be two attacks on Frost. No, thank you. That's not very nice. I'm fine. I'm assuming 11 doesn't hit.

It does not. But I'm assuming 17 does. Oh, where's who it says? It does. Grico, that's gonna hit. Where can you grab the team? Does an 18 hit on you, Torbeck? It does.

Do you need a mini? Is it over here? Yeah, it's just the middle. There. Does a 16 hit on you? Actually, no, it is not. Okay, and then a 21 is going to hit on you, Gideon. Oh, 21, yeah.

So there'll be one hit on each of you except for Kremi. Frost, you are going to take three points of damage, and I need you to make a Constitution saving throw for your place. Yeah, sure. Grico, two points of damage and a Constitution saving throw. Torback, one point of damage in a Constitution saving throw.

That will be a 11. Just keep it to yourself for a second. Four points of damage for you, Gideon, and a Constitution saving throw. Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm gonna mess a point. And then I need you to let me know if you have rolled 14 or below. I'm above.

Even with disadvantage, I roll well. Okay, the two of you, you, You take bites from all of these swarming scarabs. They're all around you. Poison begins to seep into your flesh. And you hear the buzzing louder and louder and louder, but it's not a buzzing, it's the chittering of their mandibles, these hungry scarab mandibles as they crawl all over you,

as they fly all around you. You have disadvantage on all attack rolls. Spell and physical attacks. And that is the tricopra's turn. Crevy. Oh God. Do I feel like I can, I guess from a meta perspective,

how many hit points do I think these skeered up something? From a meta perspective, they appear to be minions, but I run swarms differently. Right. Because I'm disadvantaged while they, So we were doing it wrong for a long time, right? If I'm ranged, because they're on melee, I'm disadvantaged all ranges.

Correct, it doesn't matter who I'm attacking. Correct, correct. We made that mistake for years. Whoa, no way. I will not rule it that way. I will rule it that you are disadvantaged on whatever's in your melee range. If you want to attack something that's at ranged,

you won't be at disadvantage. Okay. I guess because it's like, it's like getting all up in your face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If they're gonna have blown my mind. If it makes sense, but I never thought, I would try to shoot basketball. I will consider changing it for the next,

but I, nah. That's how we've always played it, so I'm fine with keeping it the same way. I would be worth that night's man. Wow. I'll be seeing the flashes. I'm so fucking over this and you will see all the obelisk. Are we like near obelisk?

You are about a, you're about a 10 minute walk from the obelisks. You will sort of see our long shadows and all of the darkness that are made. making on the bright sun. Not a whole lot of shadow because the sun is still high in the sky, but you see little bits of it sort of slither towards me just for a split second as it sort of crawls up my feet

and covers me in shadow as I turn almost into a silhouette and then you'll hear ominous jazz start to play very faintly late as neon light start to sort of highlight with glyphs appearing on my skin and clothes. And I will whirl my paint around, and I'll say, from the Baron, and I will shoot two Eldridge Blasts at the Beast. I love that.

At the Big Snake? Yeah. Okay. Okay, I don't know what BAC is gonna be, but some of a gun. That will be a, the lowest is a 14. 14 misses. Okay, and then 21.

That hits. Okay. So I will do. do 1D10, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 points of force damage. And then, I've barely used this feature. I gotta make sure I'm doing this right. And then I gain 10 to HP, that's fine. It needs to make a wisdom saving throw

or else it's frightened of me until the end of my next turn. Nice. Natural 20. Oh, now with that. Good try. Good try. Yeah, that passes. So that's it. I shoot it once. Oh, fuck, ah!

And I'll start, like, swat swatting at the scarab. The Eldritch magic sears into its skin, and you see a bit of neon flash against its scales for a second before it turns to, before it turns to smoke in the heat. And the snake lets out a loud hiss at you, and all of the scarabs begin to, buzz and vibrate and clack their mandibles together,

as if incensed at its anger. Grico. So do I know what this is? I don't know if it's a monstrosity or is it something that I would know? You could roll a survival or nature, I guess, to see what you know about it. 17.

Oh. 17. Oh, well done. What I'm trying to ask, is this something that I would need to fight or do I feel like there's some other way to not kill all these guys? So do you wanna know what kind of creature it is or you wanna know whether you should fight it or not? But I mean, basically, I'm trying to think,

is this something where I'd be like, oh, it's a misunderstanding. I would say it's very clear, it's a monstrosity. Yeah, oh. And it does not seem, wait, what was the role that you got? A 17. With a 17, looking, at this thing, I would say you even take a peek down into its layer. You can see, now that the

sands have parted as it's slithered out, that the entire floor of it is littered with bones. Where it's positioned is clearly beneath the pathway that leads into this temple. I would say it's very easy to tell that this is some sort of guardian and that it is not willing to let you pass. Wow. Sorry, buddy. All right. Oh, I'm sorry, great temple guardian, but you need it to die. Thus is the circle of life. With a little bit of y'ya, and I'm going to go.

With a little bit of y'all, once again, my great froggy myth will appear, my spirit above me, and lash out with his tongue. That's 30 feet, right? Or do I need to get a little closer? You can move five feet, totally good. You're probably okay, though. You're still not going to take an attack of opportunity, So I'll move there, I'll move there.

And I am going to do my attack roll. That'll be a 16 plus a lot. That hits. And then, story for Archer. So that is one D, that's a bonus action. That is nine points of radiant damage. Nice. And then with that it'll be a megaton, a tongue line.

Or actually, no, it'll lash out with his tentacles too. So in a double attack, as I cast guiding bolts on it at a third level, right? Do I get third level quills? Yeah, apparently. Guiding bolts, and so, can I twist that? You can I twist? Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little bit in ya, fate.

Hold on, hold on. 17. Oh, oh, that hits. I'm just kidding, I lie. It is fate, it is fate. Uh-huh, yeah. I think it does, yeah. Yeah, it's AC is 16. Oh.

Oh. 60. Sorry. I was so close with the 15. I didn't read. I didn't think about dame. Salt his banana. Oh, old banana. You know, Spada Man? You, Spider-Man? That's pretty funny. Have you made that a short yet? I guess there's too much context needed. It's sort of a slow burn. That is a five. That was a five. We all saw it.

That is 11, 15, 18, 19, 19. 21 points of radiant damage. As a tongue and the tongue and the ternicons of the frog in the spirit lashed forward to hit it. Now it's kind of glowing with the swirling blue spirit energy. And the next attack on it is advantaged. It does a significant amount of damage as it rears back and hisses.

You see the inside of its throat begin to constrict, almost as if it's preparing to spit. Nice. Torback. Yeah, with that, I'm gonna get closer. My question, though, before me, if I move 15 feet, Rich, can you confirm, if I move here with 15 feet, do I have 10 feet of reach? It's like seven and a half normally as well.

Yes, as long as half of the square roughly is coming by. So I'll take an attack of opportunity from the swarm, if they have that ability. From the swarm, no, they don't. Okay. I'll move. They all go.

My full movement is half, is half, obviously, so 15. And then. So as I prepared- More than speed form. Sorry. Yeah, the speed form gives me basically half my move back, right, otherwise I'd be covered. Having tapped into the witchlights

to increase my movement with my horrific, like, you know, alchemic fleshlights, Torbeck's arms, as a bonus action, will attempt to elongate and the fingers will turn in these horrific bladed fingernails they will like as I activate my magenta toxin. I'll take 1d6 to myself, but it has 1d6 to all of my attacks.

Perfect. Remember who's disadvantaged, by the time? I took one point of damage. I think I'm a disadvantage on attack. No, I don't think you are. So then I'm just gonna make two attacks, and I'm going to pray that I get to be Bash Bros with Gideon and get some crits here.

Your advantage, remember. I'm advantaged? Yeah, the next person that attacks him is advantage. Okay, well the first one will definitely hit. That's a 24 to hit. The second attack will be a, oh, not so good. I'll twist one, I'll twist one, I'll dread it. Oh, okay.

Okay. Then I will only attack with one, the other one we miss, provided, just make, hold on, hold on, just let me make sure it's eight plus six is 14. I don't have, no, I'm not gonna hit seven, I'm not gonna hit 16. Well, you can roll again, you'll just be a disadvantage. That's how I would rule me dreading a twist.

So you get another roll. I'll take a chance. But it's gonna be at disadvantage. Okay, yeah, why not? Roll the birds. Well, there's the Natty 20, but my lowest is still a 23 to hand. Okay. So you still get it, but you don't get a Natty 20.

So I will make two attacks. One, two, three, four, five, 11, 12, 13, 14, 24 total points of damage. Damn. The five of it, if it matters, is, is if in here the rules are fire, but you can rule it as poison or whatever you want, if that matters.

Five of it would be from the toxin itself, the magenta toxin. And that's my turn. Okay. And the shimmering glow now fades as Torbeck has used it to enhance his flaw. You utilize your raw abilities with the power of the witchlight fueling you.

And you do a significant amount of damage to these Cobras. They are lashing about this way and that. They hiss in pain, but they are unrelenting, guardians of this temple as they are. And you continue to hear this strange thrumming sound coming from the insides of their throat as they prepare for something.

What did you get initiative wise? 24. Okay, Frost, go ahead. I forgot to do Hootsie. Can I just have her attack the swarm next to me? Sure. I'm just gonna do both malls. on it. One's only going to be a...

One's going to totally miss for sure. What was it? It was four plus eight. Four plus eight? Four plus eight? Yeah, or no, it was four plus four. Oh, okay. And then she's gonna go with another mall attack.

That's 12. That misses. It's been a hot mess. She can't see through all of the sun, sunblock and the sunglasses and the big hat. Incredible. She's not only saying, She's like, you're doing so well.

You're doing so well. Frost. Can someone do something about these scarves? I'm gonna reach into the mind of the three minds of the cobra. Oh. And I'm going to start to try to twist their thoughts, try to confuse and try to break one of the minds perhaps and cause it to be filled with pain and fear and racking sounds.

I will cast dissonant whispers and it needs to make a wisdom saving throw. and I'm gonna spend three of my beans to empower it and make it a disadvantage. Okay. I think it's empowered. DC is 16. Well, they have a plus zero and I rolled two 16s.

Man. If you don't believe. Oh no, I believe it. Do I have any bonus actions? That's fucking crazy. Does it matter intellect for that? I'm assuming it does. Some spells say they require.

That's all that happens. It's a fireball. It's within 30 feet of me. Yeah, I don't know where it is. I'm going to also attempt to push it and try to move it five feet backwards to see if I can trigger an attack of opportunities from Torbeck and from Gideon.

I would say you would know that you moving something does not trigger opportunity tax. they have to willingly move. Oh, really? Yes, that's correct. That one I did know. Oh. Would you move off of where it's guarding, perhaps?

As a. You imagine it's guarding the temple. Then that will be the conclusion of my term. It, the sound that it's been making amplifies. And all three heads open and spit acid into the air that surrounds all of you in a 60 foot, radius sphere. I need you all to make a dexterity saving throw. Okay.

Still okay on these, I think. Oh, yeah. We're not disadvantaged right there, are we? No. Dex. Dex, I'm huge. Just to say, I'm not. 17. Oh, God. 16.

21. I have a plus nine. 16 might be. Twist it, twist it. Whoa. 16 might be good enough. Dirty 20. I roll the dice.

I got 16. What did everyone get? 23. 17. I had a 16. What did you get? 21. What did you get?

30, 20. Don't you look at me. You know what I mean. I would like Grico, Frost, and Kremie to re-roll and dreading. Oh! That means we got fucked. Damn!

14. What's that? 10? 10. Oh, wow. 10? 13. 13.

Oh my god, this is gonna be like the fucking, fuck, ewes by the man, and we're gonna turn to CGI skeletons from the pumpkin bomb. Turnitator. Those of you that have failed, which is Frost, Grico and Creamy, are going to take 20 acid damage. And you are, your skin is popping and melting. Unless you do something to remove the acid,

you will continue to burn beneath the acid. beneath the ass and at the end of each of your turns. The other two take half damage. Okay. But we don't have the lingering effect? You do not have the lingering effect. Should we take 10? 10 points? Correct.

No. I can do this all day, maybe. Gideon. Oh my God. Let me just make sure this is like, shit. Y'all were just running, you were rolling too high. I just, I had to cut you down a pet. That's the point of the dreads?

It's the point of the dread? No, I fucking love it. The twists and the dreads make this beautiful. I will... I'll start off, well, it's time to clear the way a little bit. And I'll clasp my manacles together and draw a bit of fire into it and explode, like almost in a shotgun blast, a blast of flame in a cone that will shoot out, and ideally hit the Hydra and this swarm.

I'd say that would work, yeah. And that is a, it's a deck save to them. They have to deck save? Yeah. The swarm fails. The Hydra also fails. So they take 3D6. 5 damage.

Do you both? Anything in the cone that fails takes 5 damage. The swarm in a front of you is blasted by this, and it looks like it's barely hanging on. Yeah, wow. Okay. Yeah, that's, fuck.

If you're familiar with how I run swarms, they have to be hit twice. So it's one damage. So like you can hit it for 20, it doesn't matter. It's each hit destroys half of the swarm. Yeah, fuck us up, Nick. Yeah. Just fuck us, just fuck our shit up?

I am. I'm about to. I'll then take a deep breath. Sure, I'm about to. I'll take a deep breath. Breath flex down and action surge. Oh, that's second one. And action surge. And I'll just turn to the Hydra

and try and just throw a bunch of punches into its body again. I guess all at disadvantage, but I'll attack three times. All at disadvantage. Well. That misses. You gotta get it.

15? That misses. Oh, yeah. You don't got it. You don't got it. Come on, man. Come on, come on. 14.

Misses. You can twist. So one on heads. I'll twist one. You're still at disadvantage because that's an innate feature, so. Oh, 18. That hits. Okay.

Here we go. Here we go. I'm a fan. Bang. That one. Eight, and then it'll take an additional three. So 11 points. of fire damage and...

Here it goes. Activate gear too. Let's go, baby. Once again, the chains rattle as steam fires out from my manacles on either arm. They shake and they tremble as they launch out and lash around the body of the Hydra, dealing an additional seven points of fire damage

and has to succeed on a strength saving throw or be restrained for one minute. Ooh. Do you change like a blast? 18. Oh, well. It beats it. So the Shane's last shot attempt to wrap around the body

and the hydrant just inhales deep and snaps them off. You attempt to, you all watch as steam begins to rise out of Gideon. He's activated yet another gear on his manacles. The embers in his hair, in his beard, begin to crackle and pop as the innate fire within him begins to rise. The manacles lash out. They do a significant amount of damage,

but as the chains try to link around the three-headed cobra, it is writhing and jolting from one side to the next, and the chains just cannot find purchase on this thing. It is now going to look down at you, and there are still only two people within its vicinity, or there are two people within its vicinity, but only one within reach,

as all three heads are going to come down around you for their bite attacks. Oh, imagine, and you just a Kaysun fight. We're all in the front lines. A 19, a natural one. 19 hits. And an 18. Two hit.

Okay, so two hit. I need you to make two constitution saving throws. Alright, I'll let twist this one. I'm gonna twist this one. Okay. The first con save is 22. That passes. The second is 13.

13. Oh, that fails. You are going to take 15 points of piercing damage as the heads bite into you, one and then the other. You feel the fangs, you feel that inside of these fangs of these fangs, there is a hollow tube that begins to pump poison into your body as the fangs sink deeper into your flesh.

And you are going to take an additional eight points of poison damage. How much is that total? 15 plus eight. 23. You would imagine that if there were other people in physical range with this, that that damage would be spread out around more people,

but it's common. concentrated on a Gideon. With that, all of the scarabs are going to buzz. There is one on you Gideon. That one is going to make its attack. It is going to fail with a four. There is the one that is behind Yornear, which is I believe Torbeck is going to move towards

towards Torbeck. And that is going to hit. Get back here, punk. There are two on Frost. That one hits. That one hits. 17? Natural 17 and natural 18. There's one on Grico.

11, I mean, oh. 11, because of 11 hit. What was that? 11, no. 11 misses, no. 20 on Kremi. Yeah. So Grico, it will not hit you.

The other ones will hit. I need all of you to roll a Constitution saving throw for me, please. With disadvantage. But on me. Frost, you are going to, oh. Pretty good. Where to go? Frost, you're gonna take three points.

You're gonna take three points? Yes, I rolled a one and I rolled a two. I don't know who saves? They only do one D4. Just kidding. Okay. Why do I think I'm just a decision? Probably because of the exhaustion.

Torbeck, you are, you take three points. Okay. Of piercing damage. Cremi, you take four points. And I missed on Gideon, too, so I shouldn't have rolled that. And then, so the three of you, I need Constitution saving throws. 18, 17.

18, 20. All of you pass. Those of you that were disadvantaged previously are no longer disadvantaged. You passed your save, so you shake off the poison that, or you shake off the buzzing around you that had been distracting you and you feel your full focus come together as you engage in this battle.

Cremie. Hearing Frost shout out, can anyone do anything about these I'm covered in acid, and I'm being bitten by all these scarabs, and I'll say, I've had enough of this. Here in my world now, and I'm going to pull the dice out of my jacket. I'm going to turn my hand over, and they're going to start swirling this sort of like pink and purple and green light as I will toss them out, and they will roll to about here, and they'll sort of scatter into the sand, and you'll all of a sudden you'll see these shableness.

sort of start to grow and pulse. And from this point, within a 20 foot radius, shadow will erupt. So I think we're pretty much all in it, I think. If you're here, one, two, three, four, one, two, one, two, three, four. I think everyone but who'd see. So basically it's this border right here.

And shadow will expand and expand and expand, covering this area and not just shadow, but everyone, you'll look around and you'll see that you're, like almost knee deep in a swamp. It's nearly pitch black, but it's dark. It's almost black and white. You'll hear swamp creatures, the snarl of an alligator, the call of a whippoorwill, ominous jazz far away,

and you'll hear a moan or a growl or various unsettling, almost undead, sounds sort of sloshing through the water, uh, and almost like reality warps away from everyone, and all you can see is, perfection. Is your own existence in the swamp. You are now alone in the swamp. And I'm casting hunger of Haydar and, uh, and flavoring it a little, a little, uh... What the fuck does that do?

We're alone in the swamp? Everyone is now alone in the swamp. We can't see each other. We're all totally blinded for the sake of the spell. But you'll hear, Crummy, and I'll say, fellas, y'all better run. And I'm going to back out of it. What? But what?

Let me see how this works. Yeah, I got to hear how this spell works. I got to know what. Oh, shit. What a badass. Literally don't be an experiment. Literally. Yeah.

That's so fucking cool. No light, magical, or otherwise can illuminate the area. creatures inside are fully blinded. It becomes difficult terrain, so it's hard to sort of move around the swamp. I don't know if that stacks with the sand or whatever, but your half speed. I would say for you, no, for them, it will affect them. So we'll be quartered? No, it's not going to affect you.

A swamp is that sand. Still just half. Yeah. Still just half. Any creature that starts its turn in the area will, there will be a, you know, things in the water. Things in the water that touch you or grab you and deal 2D6 cold damage. Shit. And you have to succeed on a 2D6,

or sorry, on a decading throw or take an additional 2D6 acid damage as the swamp and the unspeakable horrors, maybe a neon will of the west passes through you. Oh my god. This is insane. This is amazing. Yeah. You're in the Meyer of Mastair.

That's my turn. Gricka. So just so I understand. It's at the start of his start? The start of his starting takes the cold damage. Is it magical darkness? Yeah. It's magical darkness.

Can we still make an attack at disadvantage? There's no fucking chance. You are blinded, but you could, yes, you would roll a disadvantage. You would just roll a disadvantage. How far is it? Do I even know? I'm rolling a scattered eye. I'm rolling a fucking scattered die.

I have no idea where the fuck I'm going. That north has won. You take nine cold damage. Oh. We would never have seen you. And then also a next throw. Also a deck save. And then you have to make a deck save.

I'm moving deeper into it. This is wild. Oh, no, no, only if you end your turn in it is when you take the acid damage. So start is cold and is acid. Uh, I am going to move, can I move through the swarm? Uh, yeah, you can move through the swarm. So the swarm similarly is blinded, so I don't know how they would perceive.

One, two. I walk a rain next to the Cove, What did you do? What did you do? What did you roll for a scatter die? I roll the D8. The D8. I just do one is north.

Perfect, perfect. Duke Ellington is playing. Drifting over the swan. Hootie, come to pop for two. Who's like, what the fuck are you doing? She just gets out of it. She was already out of it. Oh, she was.

Oh, yeah. it's almost like she can look in and it's just this black and white swambleacks. Oh my god. I am going to help me big fungus, help me! As I am just going to, you'll hear funky jungle tunes along the wailing jazz, and I'm going to just going to, you'll hear funky jungle tunes along the wailing jazz and I'm going to just cast, I guess I will attempt to just you just cast a healing word on myself and a healing touch. And that's my turn, so I'm gonna be healing.

Make a deck save. I fell. Okay, so, well, you did 10. Okay, so first you took the nine points of cold damage. I think so, yeah. And now you take another nine points of cold damage as a whippoor whale is maybe on a branch above you, and all of a sudden it flutters and it flies like through you,

But as it flies through, you notice it has like three eyes on either side and maybe like two beks. Oh, God. It's about to be so reminiscent. This is some so hereditary shit. Who needs dreads or you've got crummy? This is so reminiscent of the Dark Star missile. Boom, boom, boom, I hate those. So anyway, I'm going to take my, I'll be using my Draconic version for the cure ones.

Torbeck. Your time. I will have, Torbeck and all of his infinite stupidity is still A bugbearer still has like a hunter instinct. I would attempt to make three more attacks on where I believe the Cobra to still be before attempting to heed Cremie's wisdom and run. I'll take the damage first. Oh, yeah.

Eight. Dang. All right, so I'm going to roll three attacks at disadvantage. Then canvas is right. Extra attack and bonus attack. The first one is definitely going to miss. The second one is absolutely going to miss. this, and the third one is 100% 4,000 multi-bazillion percent going to this.

Is that two ones? Yes. Oh, wow, you're a boost. Then I will scatter die. No, it's just magical darkness. And then eight, seven, six. I'm going to run this direction, but I can only go. You like immediately burst out into the bright and sunlight.

All right. So you're out of it. And you were not next to the cobra. No, I'd tip you away. Which is why I missed all my attacks. Okay, perfect. Frost, it's your turn? I'm blind.

But you're out of the thing. Torback is now out of the swamp. And he took all the damage he needed to. Yes, yeah, perfect. Frost, hey, cut, I'm rolling hot guys. Nine, no. Nine damage. Don't roll backs against me, that's all I can ask.

Nine damage. Don't roll max damage. I'm blind. You're blind. But have I. Have I lost my ability to sense minds around me? No. Can I endeavor to find Kremi's mind?

Yes. Do I need to roll for that? No, you are familiar with Kremi and Kremi's mind. You know that he's within a certain range of you, and I imagine you would be able to do this if you closed your eyes, so being in this darkness wouldn't matter. I do close my eyes. I'm confronted with this vision,

and I close my eyes to shield myself from it, and having heard Kremi, what I deduce is that he has cast a spell and that this is a part of it. I feel him 30 feet behind me, 35, and I will endeavor to teleport. I will focus my mind to shift from where I am, 30 feet back. And I will kill him. You're out. Explode within him. And I will pass Misty step and pop! Nice!

Nice! Into the sunlight. Grimy, that was a dirty trick. You told me to take care of them. That's what I'm doing. And I will take what action I need to take to remove the acid that still covers me off. As I wipe myself clean.

Would I have taken damage at the start of my turn? No, it's at the end of your turn for the acid. So you have the ability to use your action to get rid of it. So if you've used a bonus action to teleport, you then you say what you need to to Cremie and you spend the rest of your turn, take whatever bits of cloth that you have to remove the acid from you. And you are, for all intends and purposes, clean.

Why, I say you always travel with a towel. Those of you that are still inside of this illusory swamp are hearing the sounds of the swamp around you. And to you, this is your reality. But this creature is still there, and you can hear the noises as it's making as it is attempting to refill It's acidic sack to let loose another barrage of acidic spit.

It doesn't seem to be able to accomplish the task this round, and it is Gideon's turn. I should take an acid damage. I should take acid damage too. Then yes, please do. Am I unable to see through this year? Right, like I can't see you guys on the other side. Correct.

It just goes in an energy swamp. You literally, it's like a horrible. Oh, so that's so fucking cool. Four? Four and then three for Grico. Oh, thank you. Awesome. And so we can't see me either.

So I'm just still in, I'm in Gede basically right now. Yes. That basically there's a, like, imagine like reality is opened up and now all of a sudden there's a swamp here instead of the Okay. Grimmy, are you sure you, can you undo this? I can undo this at a fucking moment's notice, but I told everybody to run and it should take care of those bug fugs.

So the only person who's removed their acid out of the three of you is frost. Dr. Moondale. Thank you. Oh, Jesus. Gideon. It's your turn. Could you always do this, man? Do the damage.

Do the Gideon damage. Oh, do the Gideon damage. Oh, thank God, thank God. All right. I love what you want to roll low. That's like the best. The kids roll up. I agree.

I agree. I was like, I was toe to toe with this thing. I was landing just like punches into it. I'd like to just kind of like reach a palm out and see if I could press against its butt and if I think that that's reasonable, I'd like to try and just like skirt around it and keep my hand against it and move

as much as I think I can out of the swamp. Find the kidney. I would say you are able to, you don't even necessarily have to touch it. You can feel the heat coming off of this and you're able to stay within melee range of this and skirt around it. He's out of now, right?

Yeah, I don't know. How far does he need to go to get out of it? Yeah, it's like barely here. I'm barely here. Oh, so probably right. Yeah. That's how long. However, as you step behind it, you are now in the roiling sands.

Oh, no. And you immediately feel yourself begin to submerge beneath the sand. You're about waist deep in sand right now. Where are the roiling sands in relation to where I am? Immediately so, basically from halfway through it, all the way behind it is the roiling sands. Where would I have to move to get out of the roiling sands? sense. Not next to it and not on its sides and not on its back. Thank you. That's exactly. Back into the horror fucking swamp, I guess.

You even see some squares there that, right? Um, well. And I would say you would be able to see that. So if you want to change how you would move, that's fine. I'll let you make that choice. But- I'm right the fuck here. You big, stupid, snake, ugly, fucking monster thing. Take this. And I'm trying to throw two more punches at it. As you think, go from its head. Stomach to its crotch. Oh, 18.

By 18 hits. That hits, okay. Seven plus five is 12 points of damage. And I will once again kind of breathe in deep. You'll see the flames all around me. My beard, my hair will kind of like plume out for a moment as I do a little, what's it called? Second wind.

The only person inside the swamp now outside of the monsters is. Is Grico. With that, we'll go back to the other music. Thank you though for the immersion. Oh, that was amazing. Are you kidding? Oh, shit. With that, that is your turn.

That's my turn. You did 12 points of damage and that's it? 12 points of damage and I heal a little as I cast second wind, the flames grow larger on me for a moment. The cobra moves around and being a snake, having blind sight, it looks one head towards Grico, one head towards Gideon.

The other one looks around and it is going to do Grico. Two of the heads move towards Grico, and they are both going to attempt to bite into you. The first one is a 16. Oh! And it misses, I don't know how. I'm Mr. McGoing my way. The next one is going to hit,

and then 18 plus seven is going to hit you, I'm assuming. It does take four points of hold damage. As a sorrow sworn, basically, like, reaches out. You can't see into this space, right? No. Gideon, Grico. You look up as it begins to hiss and rear back,

opening its mouth, exposing its fangs, droplets of acid or droplets of poison, dripping off of the fangs as it lets out a hiss of pain as cold pierces through it from an unknown source. And you watch as its body is not moving as dexterously as it was before. It is becoming sluggish. It looks like it's struggling.

But you are going to take, I need you both to make Constitution saving throws, please. That's from Agway, you dumb, ugly bastard. Grico, you're gonna take five points of damage. Sorry, nine points of damage. Oh, I'm only twice. And you're gonna take three points of damage. All right, not three. Why am I saying three?

Seven points of damage. Seven points of damage. Seven and nine. The con save is 23. Hey, Rich. Con save is, I did. I did the four. Okay. Con save?

23. Both of you feel the fangs as they dig into your flesh and you're going to pump the poison into your body. But you have experienced this before and you are able to shake off the effects as you feel the heat of the venom being pumped through your veins. And that's its turn. He needs to make it safe. Oh, you need to make it safe.

15? That fails. So it's sort of weirdly half in it, half out of it, as a willow wisp of like bright purple light sort of passes through and it takes five points of acid damage. Nice. Did the scarab's good to go? I'm not sure when the scarabs go. The scarabs go now.

There is a scarab on, oh, they, yes, they all have to take. And they all lined in. They also have lines. They all take six points of cold damage. Or I could roll away. Oh, no, the scarves don't. Oh, they don't go? No, they take six points of damage, is what you said?

Six points of cold damage. Every single one of them. Well, they're all in it, so I can roll separately, or I can just. No, that's fine. Number one dies. This is the second time it's been hit, so number one dies. All of the rest of them now have one out of their two.

The swarms have halved. The scarbs that were in them, you watch as they let out these clicking, insectoid shrieks as they shrivel up and their wings stop flapping. They fall to the sands. We don't have a swamped glass will pass through one of them. And they, though half of each of these swarms still maintains its form. They are going to attempt to attack.

Two swarms are going to attempt to attack Grico. And I'm just gonna roll a disadvantage for, they don't. I'm gonna roll a disadvantage for them. a disadvantage for them. If they hit, they'll move towards you and attack. Okay. But if they don't hit, they stay where they are. That one, the first one misses. Second one hits. So one is going to hit on you, Grico. It is, that's not the right die. It's going to do two points of damage and I need you to make a Constitution saving throw for me, please.

One is going to be on Frost. That's a fail. One's on Torbeck. That's a fail. And then one's on whoever's out there in the corner. Well, so they're still in it. So I don't know if you would see Tor. Like what they see Tor. They're just trying to move toward something.

If they fail their hit, they fail. The last one failed. So it was only the hit on Grico that passed. Okay, for it. And so you, and what was your con? Oh, I gotta take the 20. 20. the buzzing does not detract you.

You are still listening to the sounds of the swamp and the cacophonous buzzing of the swamp just intermingles with theirs, and it's not enough to pull your attention away as it is Cremney's turn. So they all die? No. Well, they take deck saves actually, that's right.

I will make one deck save for all of them. I rolled in 18. I dread it. You can't dread it. Divination wizard? They don't take half, they just, they don't think anything? But. Oh, that's a good point.

Let me check. If they take half, they're still dead. But it's also irrelevant because they'll take damage at their next turn. And they're gonna die before they can do anything anyway. So we just remove them now? No, they're not dead. They're not dead, yeah.

Cremie, it's your turn. Cremie, it's your turn. Cremmy, it's your turn. Knowing, sort of having a sense of, I was sort of out of it when I dropped it and knowing that this fellow's here, I'm gonna sort of one and a half to, oh, this is a difficult train still?

Mm-hmm. It's all the sands. How clear of a shot would I have on this guy if sort of the swamp goes to like here? On what guy? Big one. How tall would he be towering over the swamp? I'm gonna say no.

You will be at disadvantage and his AC's higher. Okay. This is high. So I'm just gonna kind of get a sense of where I think he is. And I'm just gonna point my cane out. and shoot two elders blasts. He's going to hit.

There you go. He's going to . Bo, bo, bo, bo, bo. What wasn't a natural one? The first one is going to be a, almost certainly, misses, that is a 10. Misses. That right now?

T? Misses. Okay. And then for, do you have any bonus actions? Probably not. And you are going to take one point of acid. match.

Yeah, I'm so coated. Gricka. I feel the acid burning in my flesh. I'm going to, I'm running in this direction. I'll bump into this day, and then tumble out to this spot. I presume it ends right here, right? It ends, it would end here. Ah! I tumble in time.

No, it's not any better out here, man. Don't come this way. I look up. As I'm sinking in, I'm, I'm, I'm waist, you're your neck teeth in the same. I'm neck teeth as my head, like, ah! And I'm just gonna try to use my action, just get the wipe the acid off. Oh, you also take cold damage. Eight points of cold damage.

That's... Rewind, rewind, motherfucker. Oh, my baby, I'm not dead. Oh, thank God. I'm not dead yet. Well, you might be... Oh, no, you're right. If you get out of it.

I'm using my action. and I will say, but true, it needs healing badly. You'll leave my healing word. You move and you are covered in acid. You are heavily wounded. You are disoriented and the sound of the buzzing is distracting as you step and tumble down

into the undulating sands, finding yourself neck deep in this sand. But the sand itself seems to be wiping away the acid that was coating you. It begins to clump around the acid itself, and you feel the pain from that dissipate. And you don't take damage at the end of it. I don't need to use my action then to do that. No, you need to use your action.

That's how I'm justifying. Thank you. I'm going to just do that and then I will heal with the bonus action. With the bonus action, and I'm done. Torbeck. You said I was out, right? Like I know that Derek drew the line. You're out of the swamp.

This is the sand. Okay, yeah, I know that the sand is gonna, is the roiling tumultuous sand gonna slow me down even more? Yes. That's all the use will get there. You can't get here? I have to just, I have, I'm like quartered movement. You should only be half of them.

Okay, then I can get here and you can hit him. Well, I just want to get 10 feet away, right? Okay, yeah. I'm basically, uh, Torback is still, you know, His hands are dripping with this horrific magenta toxin. He sees that Gideon is, like, sinking into the sand. It doesn't want to touch, he doesn't touch you though. He's scared.

But he wants to help. Torbeck is coming, Gideon! And you will see me make three attacks over you as I'm trying to finish off this snake to the best of my... Oh, yeah, get him, man, get him! Look out for the sand. It's fucking quick! So I will get within 10 feet and probably get into... to this horrific sand.

I'll make three attacks as soon straight up since I'm no longer disadvantaged. Can he see in there? Can he see? He's not in the sand. He's in the. Right, but I'm saying he's outside of the HADAR. Can he see into the HADAR?

The snake is only half in it. So the back half of the cobra is outside the swan. Thank you for rolling that for me. First attack is going to hit with 24. Yeah, that hits. Second attack is gonna 16. 16 hits. Okay.

And then the last. The last one is going to be, come on a 90. So close. No, I'm going to twist it. Twist it. Naturally. So I'll make the first two attacks. No, let's go.

It's going to be six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, plus seven is 19, plus ten is twenty nine, and then the crit will be, unfortunately, just two and sixes because it's the mine off game. I'm playing by the rules. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, to 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 29 plus 13 is 42. 402.

How do you like to do this? Yeah. Oh! Feeling the witch like coursing through my veins, and my limbs are all unnatural long and gnarled and kind of like bending at weird angles, and I have these horrific flesh knives on the end of my hands.

I am rushing to try to help Gideon, and I want to end this as much as I can. Torbeck will dig deep, and with three horrifically deep gashes, pouring as much of this magenta toxin into this creature as he can. He is just trying to shred this beast apart. Bloodsporting back. And you watch as a almost like a madness

overcomes Torbeck. And for a second you see his eyes flash and they are no longer his eyes. It is if something or someone is looking out through his skull. But then you see Torbeck's face return as the bloodlust overcomes him, and he rips scale after scale to a fang and head.

He wrenches his long, gnarled fingers around the necks of these things, and you hear the snapping of the cartilage and bone inside of this snake as he rips it into pieces. You are all covered in blood and viscera by the time Torback is done, destroying these. this creature, this multi-headed creature. And the buzzing is the only sound that's left

for about a moment. As Cremie's magic slowly fades, you watch as the last remnants of the swarms harden and shrivel and die in the heat of the sun. The magics, the death magics that Cremie is imbued with, finally overtaking them. And you are left now, alone, standing 100 feet from this temple.

You're bloodied, you're tired, you're exhausted, you're hot, you're dehydrated. Gideon, you are sinking into the sand very quickly. Grico, you feel the sand begin to spill into your mouth. And you feel that you do not have that much time left before you will be fully submerged beneath the sands. Grico man here. I whip one of my chains towards Grico if I think that it can fit

and I try and whip the other one towards Hootzee. If I would get the sense that Hootze could try and pull us out. Oh, yes, I would say, do athletics or acrobatics. Oh, no one. If I do athletics. And then I'm gonna have Hootsie roll a strength,

strength check to see if she can pull them out. You all saw it was cocked. Am I good or am I also in the sand? Am I far enough away? You were far enough away. Awesome. Bye. Grigo, grab on, man Hootsie, pull us out.

I rolled a 23. Nice. You have, these chains have been a part of you for as long as you can remember at this point. and you use them effortlessly. They're an extension of yourself. As you whip one around Grico, and you're able to drag him through you,

or towards you through the sand, you immediately feel that the sand is starting to harden and stiffen. That now that this creature's dead, that something about the sand is changing, and if you're not quick, there will be no escape for you. As you toss the other chain out

and you just pray and hope, that Hootsie catches it. And you hear, you hear the sound, not of claw, but of beak meat chain. As Hootsie snaps down onto the chain and uses the full force of her owl bear body. And she is a small owl bear, but she is still an owl bear,

and she is large in comparison to most things, and her strength is much, she's much stronger than you even give her credit for. She is effortlessly able to pull you back and pull you from the sand. Were you sailing through the air? As all of you watch, as they're being. You have to literally do tug of war with a tiger.

I don't know anything about that. You watch as you're being pulled from the sand as it begins to level out. And it begins to the hole that the snake had come out of the layer is covered up and filled in. And as a rush of wind comes through, it's after a second, you look around and you realize that had you not just encountered this thing, had you not just experienced all of this, you would never have known that there was a layer beneath the sand. Those of you that are close to it, you put your foot down on it, and it feels like it's packed in. It's not soft.

You couldn't sink into this. and it leads straight towards the temple. As more wind blows through, you begin to see that some more of that winding pathway has been exposed and that it gets narrower and narrower and narrower, as if it's in the shape of a snake's tail. Hootie! That's my girl! Once it becomes totally silent inside the swamp,

I would like flick my wrist and the shadow, almost in an instant back into the dice. And then they fly back to my hand and I put them in my jacket pocket. Y'all doing okay? Oh, yeah. Hootsie, great fucking work. Nice pull.

Torbeck up top, man. Great shot. Ah, and it's horrific just ripping a magenta wishlight and I have this horrific knife fingers. Ah, chest bump, man, come on. He stands up on her hind legs and joins in the trip for a high-dive.

She also chats bumps. Oh, that's what you get for you to get that snacks. That's what I told you, biggest tongue. Get them gains, just like the golfers. And as the adrenaline wears off. Yeah, I would say that like Torex limbs would begin to, like go back to normal, his fingers would turn back into regular fingers and hands, and there would be an exhausted look over him. Oh, good job. Who killed a snake?

The sun beats down on you. You feel tired, dehydrated, exhausted. I freeze a gnarled. And just kind of look at you while I'm like covered in snake blood and guts. You're okay, buddy? Torbik accidentally long scarfed him. I feel good though?

That Torbeck's feeling okay given the circumstances. Boat drinks. Boys in the band order boat drinks. You feel like that? I gotta go where it's warm. Oh fuck, where are it? Oh, it's so warm. Let's get the fuck into this temple, man.

It looks like it's about a 10 minute walk away. Maybe there will be shelter. I mean, at least there's a fucking path now. Everybody do a quick shadow check. Just make sure they're not moving, all right? So like look over my shoulder. Gnami, what the fuck was that? You see another pop of that strange light on the right?

Oh, ah, ah! I hope that's unrelated. Oh, God. That was, uh, I don't, I didn't want to have to do that, but there were fucking swarms of who knows what. It wasn't looking good. Bo-d-d-do-oo-oo. I'm gonna take all of these.

I'm not sharing. I'm not sharing. Thank you, Big Funkish. Oh. Yeah, that was one fucking crazy thing you did, Krami. Holy shit, man, that was awesome. Yeah, apologies for the horrors you. You may have seen him there.

Didn't hurt too bad, did it? Dormaig's having a bad day. All right, come on, buddy. Come on over here. Let's schlep on in there. My speed is back to corner. As long as y'all don't die inside, that's what matters.

So y'all are living. Where the fuck was that, Krimmi? You see, it was. What was in the water? What happens if we would have died inside it, man? I was pretty close. You know, probably would have, you know, the swamp would have cleaned its soul.

The sun is beating down on you. We should get going. I'll explain later, let's go, let's go. I climb on top of Hootty and I grab onto her like, oh, you look so good. Your son hat. We are slower moving though, unless Gideon's like dragging my ass, so it's, you know,

I'm like moving at a quarter speed. And you aren't having this conversation while you're walking. We're walking. It's like a winding path. It winds, but it's not like a huge winding path. It just looks like the winding, the winding tail end. of a snake. And as you look at it, the stones themselves are not placed like normal stones

would be. They're placed like scales. They're smooth. You reach down and touch them, and it feels smoother than you would expect, and not as hot as you would expect. It's still warm. It's strange. It's a little uncomfortable, but it's firm. And you are able to step onto it. And when you do, you feel your ability to move become a lot easier. You're no longer trudging through the sand. Your muscles are able to relax as the firmness of the stone beneath you allows you to propel yourself forward

the way that you were used to. Though you're still feeling tired, that exhaustion that had overcome you has lessened a little bit. Oh, Gideon, Thorpeg is sorry again. Sorry for what? Cut carving the fucking stakes off that thing and not saving the rest for it.

some of us? No, no, it's Torbeck's movement. Torbeck is starting to stiffen up. Also, Torbeck's muscles hurt. It is wild how often we fight monsters with erections. Oh, who said anything about directions? Oh, shit, what are you talking about? I didn't have one, that's for sure. Don't look at Torbek. Oh, man. Let's just get to hell. in here, straighten up.

Oh, man, maybe take a fucking breath. And then, I don't know. You continue to walk. And in your exhaustion, you find a bit of silence as you think about what's just happened and what you're moving towards. You walk past the two large obelists. They're not connected to this temple.

They just are a marker off in the distance of where the entrance lies. And as you walk through it, the sounds around you begin to change. The sounds of the sand rushing past is overshadowed by the sounds of cicadas, croaking frogs, the sounds of the swamp. I just happened to have that prepared.

No way. This wasn't me, fellow. Gravig, please turn it off. Oh, man, all I, Mr. Mr. Grady. We can't last through another one, man. What in the hell is this? And in front of you, you see what appears to be a sphinx

guarding the entrance to this thing. And as you get closer, you realize that's not a sphinx at all. You've seen sphinxes before, though the positioning of this creature is exactly what you would have expected of a sphinx. It's on a pedestal like you would expect of a sphinx. This is a bird, a swan goose, its neck elongated,

like that of a swan, but its body very clearly that of a goose, and it is completely motionless. It stares straight ahead guarding the entrance, this stone square entrance that leads deep into what's clearly an open temple. Behind this you see a courtyard of sorts, But the sounds of the swamp are unnerving doesn't fit this place. As you get closer, the heat of the sun diminishes a little,

and you feel a nice cool breeze, kiss your cheeks, and moisture, humidity. It's still warm, but it's not that dry heat any longer. It's a warm heat. It's strange. It's un-werenged. tanning, but it is a Nec-Bashin temple, if a little different than what you would expect. Gray. Yeah. Are you seeing a swamp as well?

It's, you don't see a swamp. We don't see a swamp. You hear a swamp. And we feel. All you see sand all around you. You see the limestone temple in front of you. Even the courtyard, back behind this swan goose is filled with sand and what appear to be, Nec-Beshen statues, you see the pictographs etched into the stone. You even notice, you can't see it from this distance as you're not right on the swan goose sphinx, but you see that there is some symbol carved into the doorway that leads into the courtyard. Are you hearing a swamp as well? That's a swamp all right, and it feels like a swamp. We don't know how much time has passed here. It tastes like a swamp, too.

Are you seeing a giant swoose? What? Giant swoops, man. You're seeing something around this giant neck? Is it a statue of a... It appears to be, yeah. Cremie. Yeah, I mean, that's probably one of their ancient gods.

I mean... Could the deadline be due? Could this be... Remy? Even here? Do I... Do I, does the swamp remind me of either Agway or of Gede? Yeah.

Sounds that I'm hearing. I would have you roll. And the taste and the smell, right? I've already got my... History. And it burn now? Yeah, I'll have you roll at advantage. You're swamp creep.

Yeah, you know about swamps. Don't give them advantage, make him spend the twiff. I'm gonna still spend the swam. Oh, yeah. Come on. I'm gonna dread it. So it will not be at advantage. This roll will just be straight.

Or it'll be disadvantaged, sorry. Disadvantage. So I can roll again. You can roll again, but you're disadvantage. Instead of just a straight roll, it's disadvantage. Oh my desk. Sometimes you got to roll the hard 20. Diff's right here.

Don't do that. Oh! That's a . No. Hold on, let's see what my pluses. Probably horrible. I mean, there's no way. Two.

You taste the air. You close your eyes and you listen to the sounds. You breathe in the smells. You feel the wet heat of the swamp. And it reminds you of home. It's hard to tell one swamp from another. You've been in hither for so long. It also reminds you of hither.

That's true. I don't know, Frost. I mean, how do you get all the way here? There's no fucking way. If it was the bearer, maybe, but I don't smell any cigar smoke. I don't smell any run. If he is here, this could be the end? Yeah, if he's here, it's the end, I think.

Unless we fucking run right now. What does he get it to do to us? Where would we run? Look, if it is him, let's just try to talk it out, right? I can make a deal with him, and I can maybe get us a little bit more time. I have the things in my back. He's a reasonable man. Yeah, no. Maybe we can trade.

And if we let him know that we'll end with some fucking powerful people in the Fahwild, he might be interested. You know, maybe we can spring his old business associate. What was his name, Phipps or something? Pip? Pib, nib, nib? Yes. Oh, yeah. We have some bargaining chips, so let's not fucking shoot.

Well, what if this comes to blows? Well, we... I can't not afford another fight. There's no blows with the Baron. No, without serious rest. I'm gonna fucking fight to my last breath if it comes to that. Not without water. right? Well, listen, we're in neckbats, man.

We just got to tell him we're on the break of some massive fucking, like, highest. It's old money all around here. You see what I did? Back there? Just imagine that, but he probably, like, at least ten times more powerful than I am. All right. Mr. Crammy,

if it comes to that, maybe we can poke and prod the other. If it comes to it. No, no. You think... Ugh. You're thinking right, Tobek. That's exactly right. You understand? If it's him and things go south, do whatever the fuck you need to do to bring that fella out of you, you understand?

Dormac might need help. All right, what can we do? If we smack you across the face, should we, I don't know, like, pull at your scoff or something? Might be able to overcharge the wit light conduits, like overpumping into them. I don't know if that... Oh, last resort. Last result. Last resort. I think I could probably use my mind to shove the liquid inside of the vial if it claimed that. Ork, I mean, could you just explore his mind and open the door to... I could do both at once.

Last resort, all right? I never, I don't associate him with fucking goose if that's what this is. Oh, then what are we worried about? Well, maybe it's a coincidence. I mean, maybe that's here, but we... Look, just fucking be ready, all right? Ugh. Torbett can't handle much more stress. He doesn't care for geese?

Not that I seen. He's a bit of a collector, though. So, maybe this is just a statue he found. Look. Mr. Guru. Let's... We can talk it out. Don't summon him, man.

Let's just... Proceed, see what happens. Alright? Okay. Somebody else leaves away. Oh, well. Let's move forward. I'll just like, turn it. I'm gonna get another burst.

I'm gonna very closely. I need a little bit more of potassium. Yeah, I'm looking around, I'm watching everything. I'm getting ready. Where are you? Hmm? Where are you? I'm using another good berry.

I'm hanging back. I'm thinking a lot. I'm in the very back. Okay. You begin to make your way towards the statue of this goose, and you see that they're nestled on the base of this statue is a stila. A what?

A tablet embedded in the base with words etched into it. And it is, as you look at this Gideon, it is not in a language that you understand. Is it pictographs? It is not. It's a language. It is a language that you do not understand. Something like that shit I've ever seen before. Frost, you speak this?

Or read it or something? No, read it is the correct word. I'll look at the... I would like you to roll an intelligence check. It's been chomped by a fucking poisonous hydrant. Can't say a woman on thing. Until that banana just now, I was on the edge of death. Just a regular intelligence judge?

We're just handing out bananas. Twist it. I'm leaving the fucking way, man. Yeah, twist it. Twist it. I mean 100%. I mean to know. I'm fresh out.

I'm fresh-out bananas. That's really good. I think you can read it. One more, one more. My vision is doubling. One more, please. Come on, dig deep. I want to know what the plaques is.

Thank you for those bananas, quirk. I feel much better. You're welcome. The potassium. 23. Yes. You move forward. None of you are super close to this thing.

We're keeping your. distance from it. You're about 10 feet as you look and read this steel. It is large. And at first you look at it and this is not a language that you've ever seen. It's a form of writing that looks made up. But as you stare at it longer, your mind starts to put the pieces into place, almost as if you've been given a little bit of help. And you read the words. They are the alpha and the omega. They are still part of the alphabet. But I am the silence.

I am the thing that is when the alphabet is gone. This you will learn from me. You will learn the way of silence, real silence. Silence was here before all things and will be here long after them. Alpha and omega, alphabet, silence. Learn from me real silence? I am the silence. I am the thing that is when the alphabet

is gone. This you will learn from me. You will learn the way of silence. Real silence. Silence was here before all things and will be here long after them. I gave me swoosh bumps. That's pretty funny.

That's pretty funny. We all enjoyed that. Does it mean anything? Or is that? Just some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before you give him a mummy's curse. Do we, would I or anyone, know that sphinxes are related to riddles?

Or is that a- I would say this doesn't seem like it is a riddle. Oh. I think you're right. It's a fucking threat. No, it's a promise. That's crafty. Oh, fuck, you're right.

Do we need to be, that just mean we need to be quiet. Wait, wait, oh, maybe if it's like a warning. Alpha and Omega, silence. What does it say one more time? I mean, just like real, like Cliff Notes. They are the Alpha and the Omega. They are still part of the alphabet.

I am the silence. I am the thing that is when the alphabet is gone. This you will learn from me. You will learn the way of silence, real silence. Silence was here before all things, and will be here long after them. Gosh, I'm going to guess that it's time. Tom for what, Greg, up?

It's not a riddle. Time to eat more bananas. I'm feeling much better, Gregile. With everyone's permission, I'm going to go and speak to the swuth. You can do that? It's just a statue, I think, right? It is a statue. But you are also 10 feet away from it,

so you would have to get closer. to inspect it further, to inspect the stila that's at its base. Well, it says that we'll learn from it, so maybe there's something else that you can figure out. Maybe go around the back, we'll be over here, but you just, you know, tell us what it says. We're going to learn on a job. Good luck, Frosty. And I'll have Hootsie kind of walk up to Frost. It's just behind them, and I'll say,

Deid, don't da, you're my best mate. I guess guidance on you. for a minute, I get all kinds of good shit. I'll walk up and I will cross the threshold of 10 feet and I will walk it directly up to the swoon. You walk directly up to the swan goose and immediately upon stepping in front of it, its wings unfurl and block the pathway forward.

Its beak opens as it animates, though still stone, and you hear these words, do you come here of your own free will? Or do you come by compulsion? I indicate the first one, with number one, looking up to her and I bow. The swan goose's arms do not move as it waits for an answer.

My own free will. The arms furl back around its body, and the entrance is no longer barred from you. As you look up at this stone entrance, you see the carvings nestled into it. And at the very center where the capstone of the stone archway is, you see carved into the stone an hourglass.

You do a great, Frosting! Do we hear that or no? No. Do we see it moving? Yeah. No. No. What does this look like to us?

It looks like Frost is standing there, staring up at the statue. Yeah, you would have seen me back. maybe my mouth move a little bit. Damn. But I would say this easily, he's quiet enough. The sounds of the swamp around you are loud enough that anything that was said you don't see,

and the statue to you is unmoving. Is it okay? Do I hear Cricko? He's yelling, you can hear him. You can hear him. Fronst the I.S. Is everything okay? What do you think he's doing up there?

You think he's just like thinking? Just give him a chance, all right? chance, all right? But you have a feeling in the very core of your soul that the entranceway is open, at least at this point, only for you. Do I get a sense that if I reached out with my mind to communicate with Grico that I would be betraying the understanding that I've established with this guardian statue? Roll. Oh, good question. Roll a religion check for that one. Let's twist that.

You twisty motherfuckuskis. One of the two? It's faded. It's faded. Did I take the higher of the two values or just this one? The higher of the two values. 11. Right on the line.

You are unsure. You imagine with a sphinx that if you knew the answer to a riddle and you snuck the answer to someone else, that that might be betraying the game that a sphinx plays, but this isn't really a sphinx. This was no riddle. This was a question and you answered with truth. And that's what allowed you to be propelled forward in this.

And you don't know if giving Grico then information would make a difference. You just don't know. I will open my arms wide with my body language and bow again and try to just show deference and open. knowing that all eyes are on me. And with that limited amount of a clue or hint that I can give my friends, I'll step forward and into the hallway.

You do, and you find the shade of the archway, and it is cool here in this moment. You feel like you can breathe. There is a mounted fountain on either side of the archway here. of the archway here and a small basin beneath it with cool, crystalline fresh water. You begin to chug and drink

and you benefit from short rest. Holy smokes. I'm gonna see frost drinking and I'm gonna be like sponge valve. I don't need it. I don't need it. And I start running up and or I kind of say, come on let's go drink Uncle Frosty.

He seems to be okay. and we're gonna start, I'll have Hootsie kind of run up. And she'll get a little nervous and start to slow down and she looks up at the big scary goose. Are you trying to just go straight past it? I think that she'll probably start to slow down and kind of wait to see what happens in front of it. What are you doing?

I'm gonna talk with Hootsie. So I'm riding Hootsie. You make your way up to this thing, and as you get within five feet, you watch as it changes. Not in a way that you saw it change for Frost, as its arms, or its wings unfurl and block your path, completely obstructing your movement forward.

And as it animates and its beak opens, you hear, Do you come here of your own free will, or do you come by compulsion? That important you are. We are here for shade and water under our own free will, if you will let us pass. Great goose, statue, sphinx. as you say the words

under our own free will watch as the wings surround its body yet again and the pathway opens for you. You can see Frost standing under the archway as he's gulping down cup of fresh water after fresh water and you can see the sunburns fading from his skin, what bits of skin you can see peeking out beneath the fur. You can see the matted hair that was matted together with sweat and sand

is almost magically writing itself. And he looks fresh, refreshed, and cool and comforted. Aye, thank you, great, Stone Beast. And we'll ride up and she'll just, her eyes will get bigger She sees the water, and I'm doing the same thing. It's like fucking Timoan and Pumba at the Bud Feast. And we just go and just splashing water, and I'm going nuts. Here we go.

Oh, we're so good, Frosty. All right, Ferry. It looks safe. Let's go. Yeah, we're waiting for them. We're walking right past it. Let's go! The story of us going to say. The three of us approach.

The three of you walk up to it. The swan goose's arms unfurl. And it looks to each of you as it says. says, do you come here of your own free will, or do you come by compulsion? I don't, would Kremi think that it sounds anything like, Evorna? No.

I hate to say it, but yeah, this is free will, yep. That's how we're here. Torbeck isn't sure. Torbeck means, Torbeck is on a quest. Torbeck has been thrust into greatness. But at the end of the day, Torbeck is following Torbeck's friends. And I guess Torbeck has nowhere else to go. So yeah, Torbeck chooses to stay with his friends

of Torbeck's own free will. There's only one thing I've ever done against my will, giant swoose, and this ain't it. It seems to accept all of your answers, the wings find their place against its body, and the way is open to you. You're able to find yourself beneath the shade, gulping down water, and you all benefit from a short rest.

Torben wondered if there's a right answer, or if both answers are right, provide, they're honest. You think he just doesn't care? Dormand gets confused pretty easily. You know, some kind of like vestige of an old time where for some reason people were regularly composed to show up here? I mean, or did we just like sign some sort of verbal contract?

We probably just did. We're probably just mystical side of worship or something. Oh, for the people of passion. But why us was? Well, hell if I know, I mean, maybe like Krami was saying, just some kind of ancient god of the desert. you know I don't know why that's woo's you think like that crazy hydra thing but you know well is it a swan or a goose well i think that's kind of the point man it's it's a it's a goose it's a swan goose oh i guess a swan's a goose it's just it's just a way you

differentiate it looks it looks swan-like but it's a goose but is a goose so not really frosty's thing no sorry frosty i know So are we in a hallway or is it like a big open? It is just an archway. It's probably about five feet deep. But you're standing at the entranceway to what is a beautiful courtyard. There are palm trees dotted about this place. You see a fountain spilling out from one of the walls.

And you see that it leads to what is clearly a connected antechamber that leads deeper into this temple, a covered antichamble. a covered antechamber. But in this open space, what you're looking at now, now that you have rested and you have rehydrated and you've provided more water to the campestries because I know that you've forgotten about them as players, but as characters you wouldn't have forgotten.

And so you continue to keep them hydrated and you look out into this courtyard. And what you see is a large statue, a large ivory statue planted directly in front of the door to the antechamber that leads deeper into this temple. It is the statue of a rider, a beautiful white horse, and atop it is a feminine shape, armored, protector, ready for battle. but with the head of a lion as it seems to guard over the next step

into this place the horse is sleek a white destrier I would say you're all familiar enough with horses living in a fantasy world a horse typical for jousting well I feel very refreshed

and I'm thinking more clearly I feel like there's no way we're getting out of this without going deeper into the mysterious temple. I think there's something to learn here. Not just based on this statue and our experiences outside, but the proximity of the magic circle that brought us here. There may be things that we can learn from that we wouldn't have been able to learn in the Fay Wild. We are able to ever return. I think you gotta face our destiny, fellas. Music's playing and someone's come to collect.

I'm not sure if there was a wrong answer to our question, to our swoose friend. Perhaps it was just preparing us to think about what we need to be thinking about as we enter the space. All right, well, enough of this one at a time, bullshit. Let's go together. What do you think? It's carnival of crew. Yeah.

All right? I'm just having to be out of the fucking desert. Two, too. Everyone makes sure their water skins are filled. Oh, yeah. Oh, sure. Oh, Hootie, drink up to you. I shall drink up.

I'll get off. You don't need it anymore. I'll soak a head and wrap it on my neck and head. You have done all of the preparation you needed to do with this freshly flowing water as you step out into the courtyard. And it feels as if the time shifts, You had been, it had been just a little after midday

when you left and you traveled for three hours, you fought, you got to this point. It's been about almost four hours, but as you step into this courtyard, you're met with the light of a bright morning. As you moved towards this statue, and you see that simple, Similar to the swan goose that you had met outside,

there is a stila, a placard, at the base of this. And there are words there that at first you glance at them and it seems to be in that same strange writing, but then all of a sudden, all of you feel them move together into a language you understand and you read, recount the tales to me times three of a troubled past and what set you free. Let's get that one more time.

Recount the tales to me times three of a troubled past and what set you free. Oh, you guys think we gotta talk to another statue? It's not barring our way or anything. Hello? Lion lady. Nice, sculpting. Oh, no. It's very, very nicely crafted. Doesn't seem to be moving.

Are we to tell a free tales? No. My reading of this blank is that we need to tell the same tale three times. I'm not sure that's how that works. Recount the tales to me times three? Tom's free needs to be free tails. It can't be the same one duplicated. But what kind of tale?

Why wouldn't it just say repeat to me three tales if it was asking for three tales? Because it's a mysterious statue and a spooky temple in a swamp desert? You think it'll only listen to stories if you have a... tail. You gotta tell them all, man. Obviously. You have a tail? You can tell one. I was waiting for it. Well, I remember. You're just always wearing pants. Torbeck has a vestigial tail. What the hell does that mean? I don't know you can say that word.

If you gotta ask, Gideon, you don't want to know. I don't have a vestigial tail. I don't have a tail at all. It just means that if you ever want to hurt Torbeck, you just make him sit down real fast. I think it means a different kind of tail. Not a vestigial tale. Like a frost, like a story. Something that we went through, what is it? Something about.

Recount the tale to me times three of a troubled past. And how have you said? Recount the tales to me times three of a troubled past and what set you free. I mean. Torbeck's been through some pretty rough stuff, but Torbett can't remember any of it. I got one. I mean, is anyone else have one?

I got, you know I got one. I mean, I know you got one. This guy, this has got big kids name all over. I got one. Oh, then Tormack's gotta make a step back. Well, why don't one of y'all do it first is to make sure, let's look, you to double check to make sure that it's, that's what they're looking for.

This lady? Well, what do we call this thing? There ain't no swoose. I don't know. Lion lady? Lion lady? I like Lion Lane. I'm gonna be like...

A big lie. You know, respectful, lady, like a brave son, let's dame knight. I mean, she looks kind of like a knight. Yeah. She can see Sir for a lady not too. Dane. Be honest. All right, here, all right, Lady Lion.

It was a long time ago. You know, I was living at home. Me and my pa. When, uh, you know, something. You know, something, swirled over the hills. Gideon, hold on. Is the statue animating?

I'm in the middle of bearing my fucking heart, man. Come on, this is a tense moment for me, all right? The previous guy's going from him. This is difficult. Go ahead. Come on. Palpable. Lady Lion, I mean, come on.

You knew her fucking anything? Frosty wants to know, all right? I'll pause. I'll pause. She is immobile. All right. Listen up, Lady Lion. Alright?

I glance Just like a Quick, almost like shameful glance at Grico and Torbeck Um Something rolled over The hills

But like fucking snow Falling from the sky Man, but it wasn't snow It was ash Horrible Fucking train rolled through They started just

Killing people Eventually creatures hobgoblins fucking came out of nowhere they snatched me up tried to fight back you know they realized

there was something a little more to me more than even I mean I didn't fucking know my head from my toes at that point but they saw something they saw something they wanted and they fucking

they took me back to their train They strapped me in They attached These things to me They racked me with a pain I ain't never felt since Something You get something

Just starts to draw on your soul There ain't nothing like it Anyway I was years in there Years But I was paying attention I was hearing what they were saying I was picking up things here and there

They didn't think They thought it was just some dumb fucking hick and well I was but you know I learned too I learned how to work I learned how to fix things I learned how to change things and I took the the fucking shackles of my imprisonment and I reversed the process instead of it drawing the power out of me into the train it drew the power in it helped me control it well I snapped the shackles right off the fucking walls my hobgoblin fucking prison guard came in grabbed him right around the neck he started shaking I

whispered in his ear that you're not shaking half as hard as your fucking mom did last night I snapped his goddamn neck I walked right out of that train coach and killed a couple more along the way. That's when I came across Cremie. And some time later, there was a lot of fucking bad shit that happened before we got there. Well, that's me, Lady Lion. In a fucking nutshell, prisoned,

10 years of my life, snatched away in my prime, and I don't let anything stop me from having a good time nowadays because, you know, it's just fucking fleeting. You don't have it all in front of you always. You don't fucking know when just a hobgobble. and damn war host is going to show up and snatch your youth away from you, all right? Is that fucking, you know, painful tail enough for you?

The statue moves. The legs of the horse kneel as the knight accepts, as the rider accepts your tail. And as her arm raises into the sky, the sword that she holds at her side, the tip of it, perfectly in line with the sun at the sun at the top of it,

with the sun at this angle and with a symbol of the hourglass on the, above the door to the antechamber, create a perfect angle where the light from the sun hits the tip of the blade and hits the hourglass and you see what almost looks like the falling of the sands of time is you hear a rumbling and the door opens.

We've been free ever since, in that rack, dude. God damn rat. And I'll put my hand on your shoulder. Other than a couple of nats in jail, and crippling dead. Yeah, crippling dead of a sort of prison, I guess. A lot of fucking fade people are having to do stuff. A bunch of bullshit, but...

I never heard the whole story all together like that. Sorry, Gideon. Well, it's in the past. It's a long time ago. And we will get Paul Cole to come to one of your weddings. Just in case... You don't know the whole story. I hate to say this, but just in case, can you repeat that toy?

so that we get three. No, look, the door's open, let's proceed. Is the door like a third of the way open? No, it's open. All the way open. Do we all see it? Mm-hmm. Oh.

Maybe it was just three times as badass as anything you guys were able to tell. I was very touching and disturbing, and Tormick is sympathetic. Thanks, man. I mean, I feel like I'm pretty good at puzzles, especially a word jumble. But perhaps it is foreshadowing

tails, two more tales we must tell deeper into the temple. Let's go find out. You first, Gwen May. I feel confident enough. I'll start walking. You make your way into the antechamber, and as you step inside, the door closes behind you, and you are shrouded in darkness. This room is completely empty.

The sounds of the swamp, spill out into this place even yet. And then you begin to see, almost like a major image playing out in front of you. Shimmering light appears in the room as a young woman take shape, shrouded in black garments. She swears that she has come before you on her own volition and begs for the power to see the future so that she can elude her pursuers and avoid any terrible fate that might await her. As the terror of the unknown, as the terror of the unknown to come echoes around you, a blink later and she turns to a small child. In the dead of night, a stranger crept into a room while her parents were away and absconded with her into the wilds. There she grew up as a

prisoner in a remote cabin, having lost her childhood to malevolent captors who viewed her as nothing more than a laborer. One day, after just reaching adulthood, the young woman took a blade to her captors and escaped the cabin and made it to the safety of a city far from the terrors of the wild. However, the damage had tragically already been done, and tragedy consumed the maiden. She is filled with a desire to share her tragedy with children, especially good children, enjoying a wonderful childhood that she was never afforded. She began to turn the blade that had been her freedom to take the freedom from the children of the city.

This was soon not enough. This was soon not enough tragedy, and the blade began taking their lives. One by one, the maiden methodically murdered one child after the next for months until the local law enforcement finally caught wind. The dread of her fugitive mind was overwhelming as she tried everything to avoid a hanging at the lawman's hand. This terror consumed her, and she fled into the woods, entering a small hut and begging for the abilities to always be one step ahead of the hangman's noose.

With the tones of tragedy and fear echoing around you, the bubbling pot was filled with the maiden shrieks as she is turned into a savoring brew. The horrid presence that stands within this room slurps down the birth of this entity and creates a hag, the ability to grant the future. But in that future, the hag saw her own death and now exists an eternal morning veil with the billing form of theater curtains, forever foreshadowing the tragedy. of her own life and foretold death. And as the story plays out in front of you, the story of the maiden, it eventually begins to shimmer and fade away, and you see that there is an entrance even deeper in.

Another courtyard stands before you, almost the exact same way. But the statue of the woman on the horse is replaced by one of the... red marble, a stout, masculine knight astride. Once again, blocking the path to the next entrance, the head, not humanoid,

but that of a ram. All right. This seems fitting that I go now. What the fuck? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What the fuck? What the fuck is this place, man? I'll pour a lot of small purple leather tube

just like a singular thing pop the top off a lot of cigar slice off the end with the dagger what the fuck was that did I get a sense

that the aesthetic of what she became I haven't seen in the of the it is not of anything that you have experienced yet you have not seen anything that looked like

Oh god. Is that how you make a hag? I don't fucking blame her. A witch's brew? I know nothing of hags. That may be very well how all hags are made. This seemed... Why did it show us that?

I don't know. This was stealing with time. I mean, this has got to be tied to the coven. Was that one of the... Oh man, I thought it was... What was... Future, do we know? Who is future? We know who that is?

Is that... Endlin? Yes. Oh, I thought she was going to be hard. Oh, gosh. That was wishful thinking. Oh, God. Huh. Oh. It's going to be all right, Greg, out.

Just to shake it off. Oh, God. Forgive me. You see... There was the hourglass coven symbol on the way of. And this is not... Just to do with time. This is about choice. And whether one has the freedom of making our own choices,

and whether one has the fate to be doomed or cursed and set on a path, that is intrinsically tied to time. Our past is un-chusable in some ways, even if we make the choices in the moment. in the present, and the future is always freedom, isn't it? So we... So we...

We talked about... To the lawn lady, we said something about the past. But Endling's all about the future. Are we... Well, we're at another fucking statue. There's probably a plaque that breaks it all down. Okay. Everyone...

We've got to keep going. Everyone together? Yeah. Yeah. Bring the plaque. You make your way into this courtyard. and it is the exact same formation as the one that you had left.

Everything exactly the same except for the statue that stands in front of you. The words on the plaque are similar, but different. Recount the tales to me times three of a troubled present and what set you free. Has the daytime of day change? And as you step into,

as you step into this courtyard, you notice that you are no longer in a bright morning, but a red sun beats down on you. As you enjoy the feeling of the daylight hours, just slightly afternoon, you gaze up at this stout figure astride of this horse, and you see that it rides a, the entire thing is made of a red marble.

The reddish gold stallion that it sits astride is an intermingling of mostly reds, but as the sun hits it in certain ways, as you can see, what appears to be a glints of gold in its tail in Maine. So, sheep? Well, it's more of a ram. It has a ram's head.

This is a male sheep, I guess. What nice horns you have. You need to tell a story of the present? No troubled present. I will say for the sake of just clarity, you would understand that a story of the past or a story of the present, something that's troubling you currently or something that's troubled you in the past, both of those would fulfill the requirements.

And what's that as free? Sir Ram had a sheep. Sir Ram. Red Ram. We are in severe debt. We have a very troubled present as our accountant named Reynolds. And Bezell-Callin. You have to tell the truth. all sorts of funds and all of the money that we had made was supposed to have been going to one mr. Remy guru who was a very scary big bad voodoo man and what was once

Cremie's boss Cremie had seemed to miss that part and so somehow got all of us swindled Yeah, sorry, families. And so therefore, the Big Bad Vruder Man will be coming to us unless we can pay him back 10,000 gold pieces. It's like 100,000 gold pieces. How much? 100,000 gold pieces. Oh! Or else we will be told pieces.

we will be turned into horrible abominations in that swamp that Cremie, perhaps, poetically foreshadowed and just killed, I think. No, no, well, I mean, I guess from a certain point of view, this is a really unpleasant death. We have a plan to be freed from this troubled present. You see, there is this old man with giant pumpkins.

Oh, he grew giant pumpkins. And so the mean pumpkin pie. And we made a deal with him. And then there was a man from a certain point of view, giant pumpkins. It was very handsome. And we made a deal with him too.

And then we met a toad woman made a deal with her. So we have three deals deep into paying back on death. And we're going to make with deals. of as many people as possible to pay off Mr. Guru. And we're going to do it all by eventually helping out Zabilna who was done dirty by the hourglass coven,

but you probably already knew that on account of everything else that's going on. And by making those deals and making good on all of them, it's like paying off one loan with another loan, and eventually you'll catch up. Hopefully, that's what Uncle Globo said, until some bad men came and broke his kneecaps. But I always thought it was good advice. He got better.

I just used as a cane now. And between the deals that we find ourselves, we believe that that is how we will find freedom in this troubled present. It takes a moment, but the statue seems to accept your story, as the horse kneels. and once again it raises its weapon high. The light from the red sun glimps off of the tip of the blade

and connects with the hourglass above the door, and the door opens. Well done. Took me a bit to get there, but I confuse myself with how many deals you made. Thank you, sir, Red Ram. Girl, kind of lost the plot a little. We got, we took the scenic route.

We got there in the end. It's even scary when you put it in perspective like that. You're saying it out loud. Yeah, I hate that. I'm having heart palpitations. Hearing it all in order. We hit rock bottom and we picked up shovels. Dormick, that made me the most prescient thing you've ever said.

Dormick has moments of clarity. Oh, man, that was good. If this pattern keeps up, you understand what we have to do next, right? everyone. Oh yeah. No. Yeah. We have to tell another's tale. It has to be about the future. Oh. I got one. I thought it was something else. The conundrum is that.

We have to tell a tale about the future and what set of free. From the future. Why don't we see what it says before we get there? There's nothing bad as if it's spooky is going to happen in this room. Logical enough. Let's go. Hootisans continue.

I'm going to preemptively close Hootsie's eyes as we walk into this next room. If you make your way into the room and the door ceremoniously closes behind you and you are shrouded in shadow. As you acclimate to the sounds of the swamp once again, an image begins to unfurl in front of you. As a shimmering light fills the room,

and suddenly there is yet another echo in the room with you. This time, a middle-aged woman with a needle in her hand, begging and pleading to be a mother and have children of her own. She swears that she is present there on her own volition and wishes to have her anxiety assuaged and be allowed to reproduce to ensure her legacy. In a flash, the woman is young and dreaming of the day when she will be able to have children with a man of her dreams.

She's soon married, but the marriage produces no children. Despite every best effort, the sorrow the couple feels takes the husband's life and leaves the widow distraught and filled with a measurable envy for the parents who have children of their own. Every day she feels her broken line, every day she feels her broken line in the loss of legacy that feels inevitable. This envy leads the would-be mother to a terrible hobby that few could ever imagine.

Under the shroud of darkness, a woman would steal the sleeping offspring of parents deemed ungrateful and butcher them, stitching them into children of her own. Soon her cottage was filled with the perfect, quiet children she desperately craved. eventually it was not enough. The mother rushes into the darkest wood and enters a small hut. With the desperate pleading to have her anxiety assuaged and be granted the true motherhood she overwhelmingly craved, she too is consumed by a boiling cauldron

and drank by the disembodied presence you feel in this room with you. With a horrid rebirth, the newly formed hag, toad-like in visage, finally birthed new life in her own image, as you see plainly before you, the echoes of Bavorn of Lightstraw and her lornlings. Little fucks. You go back and kill her. Oh, he made a deal with that.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cray, this is all your fault. I know, it's all my fault. What happened? We made so many mistakes. Oh, it wasn't her nickname Mommy Lorna? Yep.

Oh! Yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yeah. Yeah, well, nothing we can do about the past. Right, you know, because she's sort of like related to the past, you know. No, she's the present. Oh, fuck, I'm working it all wrong. What you imagine is so far you've experienced

the maiden and the mother, but that the timelines of them are swapped. So you saw the past with what is future, present with what is present, but you figure that you'll see the past with. It's going to the future. The flow of time is passing. All right, let's get this over with. I'll all sort of stumble forward.

You will look out to a beautiful bright courtyard, but as you step into it, darkness descends around you. This courtyard is exactly the same as the others, except for the statue that stands in your way. A writer in black, a tall, lithe masculine man astride this horse with the head of a falcon stands before you on a dark fierce black war horse the sounds of the swamp at midnight surround you you step close to the statue and you read the plaque on the bottom recount the tales to me times three of a troubled future and what set you free now i got one

We want to talk about a troubled future, I think we're in for it, all of us. You know, the good Baron he promises his philosophy and life is a good death, you understand? It's a bird night. It's lovely feathers. It's a nice beak you got. And, you know, he wants the afterlife to be one big party for everybody. And that's why that's awfully, I learned, you understand. That's why I did what I did.

So I made the deals that I made. Because I believe in the Baron, and I believe in his mission. Because when I die, I want to have a good time too. I want to spend my afterlife part in with all the other skeleton, zombies, and ghouls. The problem is that if you cross the wrong person, the Baron, or his associates like Mr. Guru.

That's not the future you get. The fellas here got a little taste of that. Not half an hour ago. Our future, if we don't fucking fix it, is we don't pay Mr. Guru back. And he removes the soul's... from our bodies, kills us in terrible ways that I couldn't even begin to imagine. And then for the rest of eternity, our souls, they still go to get a mild mistake, but we don't

go to bone macabre, no. We don't get to party for the rest of our eternity. No, we go to the swamp, become mindless abominations ripped by sorrow, anger. torment and we swish and swill and splash about in the swamp together but it ain't pleasant and I do not want my eternity to be that. How we get free? To get free of that, we gotta make good on our deal. So all we need is 100,000 gold pieces.

We have a plan. We'll execute the plan, right fellas? We execute the plan. That's right. So we're going to get free of that by, you know, freeing Zabellner, inheriting Madrick's fortune, and returning those 100,000 gold pieces to Mr. Gru.

And I have a few backup plans, and I'm happy to share those with you, Sir Falcon, if you care, but I think that's probably good enough. The horse meals, noticing, seeing the, determination in you, the unrelenting determination to free yourself from the deal that you have found yourself in, feeling that it has, you have fulfilled the promise on the plaque. And once again, it raises its weapon towards the sky and the moonlight catches on the blade and shoots towards the hourglass symbol above the door.

And as you're all surrounded by dark midnight, the door opens. Does that mean the future that you said is going to come true and we're going to succeed? I don't know what it means, Tolbert. I really don't. We better fucking succeed. Do you understand? Yeah, no, no, yeah. No, you've made that very clear.

You all fucking understand now, right? Yeah, yeah, no. We'll succeed, all right. All right. Let's get this over with. Do we get to like party? It was like cool, jazzy skeleton. If the Baron grants you, good enough, yeah.

Anyway, I can share more information about that later. Let's continue. We make your way into the next anti-chamber. The door closes behind you and you're shrouded in darkness. Sounds with the swamp, fill your ears, and eventually you begin to see yet another story play out in front of you. A sudden shimmering light appears in the room and you hear the voice of an old woman begging and pleading for a chance at life again, filled with regret.

As the voice continues to plead, the shimmering light forms into the shape of an old crone with a tattered shawl over her head, faint and translucent, merely an echo that mirrors the echoing voice that sounds so faint and distant, yet ever present around you. She tells you that she is there on her own volition and that she needs her youth back. a chance to do everything over again. The form shifts and changes to a younger woman who felt the pressures of her family and society to marry and have children of her own.

Despite it being the last thing she ever wanted for herself, her bitterness spills over and dictates every interaction with her children, spitting venom with every word and never giving an ounce of motherly love. In the blink of an eye, her children are grown and have become just as bitter and spiteful as the old crone. her children now having children of their own, providing the same cruel parenting that she had exhibited. These grandchildren are even nastier, and the crone is filled with venomous hatred for them, even more so than the now-grown children. This hatred, and bitterness leads to one terrible night where all the grandchildren are staying with her grandmother.

The crone serves them their dinner, but it is filled with the poison that has come to define her entire being. after the bodies of the poisoned grandchildren have been disposed of the crone rushes through the forest and enters a small hut in her begging and pleading with regret of letting her life go by living a life she never wanted she was suddenly within a bubbling cauldron shrieking she turned to sludge and consumed by the disembodied presence that fills this room with you

the brew disappears and you witness the birth of the hag that's more toy than person a baby's bonnet upon her head she would have her youth back forever. I guess that's why they call a granny nightshade. Nightshade! Yeah, like poison. This is a nightmare. All right.

All right. Okay, this is what we're dealing with. I see the trend. I see the through light. Mm-hmm. And you do, because it is in this moment with all of these doors open, that you see the light from the first moon,

or from the first sun to the second to the moon is it hits all along its path and hits at three points along the door in front of you that shaped like an hourglass, an eight, an infinity symbol. And as the lights connect, the door shakes and opens. And before you, you see something you hadn't quite expected. You see another courtyard, yes. but not the same, not filled with sand.

You see a verdant, beautiful courtyard, filled with thorny bushes of blue roses. Filled with the sounds of life, it is gorgeous. There's a fountain off to the side that is bubbling with crystalline water. And at the very back, an arched wooden doorway that looks almost fairy tale-like in its, nature, the door of a castle, like a palace.

This is the kind of place that's made of a very heart's desire. And that is where we'll end the session. Yes! Oh, boy! I wrote it down. You wrote what down? My prediction. And I'm right.

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