Tales from the Stinky Dragon - C03 - Ep. 34 - From On Hyra - Return of the Bling

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Brutaliteam revels in the remnants of a failed ritual and decided what to do with the Fire Opal of Fireballs. Support us directly on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/stinkydragon - get access to ad-free episodes, bonus content like Stinky Dragon Adventures & Second Wind, our patreon-exclusive discord, and more!Check out our new merch at store.stinkydragonpod.com ! Follow us on our socials at https://linktr.ee/TalesFromTheStinkyDragonCast: Gus Sorola, Blaine Gibson, Barbara Dunkelman, Jon Risinger, Chris DemaraisWriter/Editor/Composer: Micah RisingerProducer: Benjamin Ernst Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Oh, hi there, listener. Gustavo Sorolla here with the cast of Tales from the Stinky Dragon podcast, and we're about to set the record for the quickest D&D session. Everyone roll initiative. I got the highest roll with a 19. I moved 10 feet toward the listener and say, hi, I'm Barbara Dunkelman. You should listen to our show, Tales from the Sninky Dragon.

It's an immersive D&D actual play show with a fully voiced cast of characters, plus sound design. And then I finished my action with a high five. Go ahead and make a dexterity check. That's an 18. Oh, that's a good high five. I rolled a 16 on initiative. I walk over to the tavern piano. I play a sick song and say, hi, I'm John Rysinger.

Wow, do you hear that? Tales and Stinky Dragon also has its own original score. It's like a movie, but for your ears. All right, yeah, go ahead and roll a performance check. That's a tune. Not your best job. I promise the show's actual music sounds really good. Okay, me next.

I moonwalk up to the listener. What's up? I'm Blaine Gibson. You should really check out the show. It's funny, heartwarming, and perfect for everybody. I'm talking D&D veterans, people new to the genre, old people, babies, everybody. And then I do a backflip. All right, roll an athletics check.

That's a net 20. Okay, that leaves Chris. Hi, I'm Chris Damaris. Please subscribe to our podcast. And then I draw my sword to attack this. Put the sword down. Put the sword down. Get them, do it.

Get them. Now it's your turn, listener. Subscribe to Tales from the Stinky Dragon wherever you listen to podcast today. Zippity-dudah, all you Zanka, clink her way into the Stinky Dragon and ingest our latest infusion. Absorb matter-of-fact. It's a mixture of metallo-milk, slam-a-meal tea leaves, cleaning clothes, release energy extract, and top the dismantling of cinnamon.

One absorption of this kinetic cup, and you'll be kicking brass in no time. Previously, our adventurers were drenched in dredges, but quickly closed in on a clear path to the dredged den. They overheard an ominous exchange between infernice and a druidic dredch about the pursuit of the Pathfinder. Finally, B-Team backed up a resurrection ritual into reverse and are now putting their heads together with Neo. Round up a refreshment and let's resume this rink recollection. Hello, everyone. So the Sticky Dragon, I'm your dungeon master, Gustavo Sorolla. And I'm going to hit our four players with an arrow.

Yay. I have an arrow. What happened in the micro machines, guys? He's still alive? What's he up to? Oh, yeah. Who? He's also the Federal Express guy.

He did the Federal Express commercials way back in the day, yeah. I feel like I just woke up in the middle of history class. What are we talking? What is micromachines? Micro Machines guy? What was the arrow? Who? Do you all not know micromachines?

On Google. Micro Machines. are we that old? Are we micromachines old? Anyway, thanks for listening, everyone. I don't know. That was that. Micah knows what micro machines are, and he's young. I'm going to go in the corner and, like, decay to, like, a pile of dust and bones.

Micah writes, he knows micromachines. It's the Matt Damon saving Private Ryan mean right now. Listen, we're so old, the whole gist of these toys was that they were small cars. It was tiny. That's it. They were little hot wheels, but they were small. Yeah, like hot wheels, but, like, tiny. and the guy in the commercial would talk real fast.

That's it. That's all. Looks like Mario. So I learned. Anyway, this week's our question is, why is Gus so old and will he be dying soon? Yes, he will be. It's me, Tov.

I mean, the average human being lives to about, like, I don't know, 78, 79 years old and doing the matter on how much he got left. You're telling me not to get a mortgage, Doug. You're telling me, do not get a new mortgage. Let's just say you're past your midlife crisis. That's for sure. All right. Everyone,

this week's error question is, do you think your parents are proud of you? Why or why not? And that was submitted by Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker. Everyone going to roll a D20. Let's see how this shakes out. Rolling. Seven.

Oh, 12. Oh, 12. 12. Yeah. Oh, 18. 6. So 18, 12, 7, 6 sounds like the order we are going in. Do you think your parents are proud of you?

Why or why not? 18. What was that? Doug, take it away. That was Doug. It's me, Barbara Dunkelman, playing Doug Boone, the artifice or bug bear. And, you know, unfortunately, Gustavo, the answer was no. I'm pretty confident my parents are not proud of me. You know, we were raised to be pretty vicious, you know, going into battle, fending for ourselves. And Doug was never really a violent guy. And so I never really made my parents proud in that sense.

But, you know, maybe someday they'll come around when they realize, like, what I do is also important and also impressive and needed in society. But until then, yeah, there's also a lot of other things that happen that I don't think they'll ever be able to forgive me for. So not a great start to the episode here. Really, yeah, this is a, I'm glad you rolled that 18, Doug. It's, uh, ooh, working things off on a high note. That's the tone of the episode. Tugging on my collar here. Is the toilet seat left open?

Do you keep lights on at night? What did, what did you do to your father? The fridge was left open, yeah. Oh, unforgivable. Yeah, you should keep the AC at 73. There's a little too... Too much power being used. No, I'm kidding.

All right. A dark potent of things to come. Portent. Portent. Not potent. Amuse Bouch. I'm a dumb dumb, using the wrong word. Amuse Bush.

I don't think the Amuse Bouch joke is a stinky dragon joke. I think it's a our business joke. It will be. Come a sneaky dragon joke now that we explain it. John used the word of Moose Bush in a meeting and then Blaine could not stop using a Mooseboosh in a meeting. Because he'd never heard of it before.

If I was a Pokemon, my new name would have been a Mooseboosh because that's all I could say for the rest of the day was a Moose Boosh, a moose bush, a moose garble for this campaign. A moose boosh, welcome to Canon. The greatest present in the world I could get, like, as a 10 or 11 year old, would be like an amoose bush of micromachines.

It'd be like a... They are just like a little... They're like a little taste of a hot wheel. Thomas Edison used to visit little Gus in his house. It's like a warm wheel. You would have liked it, Blaine, I think, for my 10th birthday. My parents rented Predator and like all my friends came over and we watched Predator on VHS.

It was awesome. It was best birthday ever. My two friends who showed up, we talked about that for like the remainder. We still talk about it, how awesome it was. Anyway, 12. Who had a 12? John. Oh, that was John, yeah.

It's John. Hi, I'm John. and I play Natty Wonder, who is a drow warlock drag queen mother. And not to step on what is clearly a traumatic part of Doug's, you know, story and what makes Doug Doug, I don't, I don't, I feel bad following up with that by saying, yes, I do know, my parents are proud of me. Well, look at you, Daddy. That's why I didn't want to bring it up, because it just felt like, look at me. I'm Natty Wonder. My mama's love me when I walked out of the door to head to the army.

They literally said, we are proud of you, Natty Wonder. My life's perfect. It's not a competition. I'm happy for you, Natty. And I make sure to pass that on and tell Gigi anytime I can. I'm so proud of him. Oh, good parent. So yeah, there's nothing funny there either.

It's just my God. I got proud parents. All right. It's good to see that. We have the Yin and the Yang here, the opposing forces. I think I'm the only yang. I think there's going to be a lot of yens in this group. If I know their stories.

All right. Who's next? I think next was a Tov? Am I right? That's right. Hello, I'm Blaine Gibson, and I play Tollv. It's me, the male thaumatic barbarian level six. And I have to ask a clarifying arrow.

I'm just going to shoot a little dart back at you. Which parent are we referring to? Are we talking about ironclad or the other one? Maybe the one you can remember the name. Bourne? Bjorn, Bjorn. I like that he had the question ready, but not the details. He's like, oh, I'm going to ask that.

But I don't remember. I'm not going to bother look up the specifics. Where do we go with both? Because the question says plural. Okay. So I think you can dive into both of those. The reason I didn't know Bjorn's name is because I called him dad. So, you know.

That's why. Good safe. Well, I know Bjorn would be so proud of me. I mean, I cooked fish. and I took on his legacy and carried his skin on cool adventures and wore him all around and everybody loves Bjorn

they see that big orc guy and they go, that's a good man right there. If you could see the smile on his fate, oh wait. Wow. Wow. So yes to Bjorn and for Ironclad, I couldn't give two toots. You know, I think, I don't know, like, I'm sure he's disappointed

that I'm not his like main guy anymore but I'm sure he's also like happy because I'm out there like rebelling against him and he's all like yes oh I am a Sith Lord yes you go I kill you you kill me so much fun yeah

Tol thinks he's the main guy kind of main character complex going on here that's good to know tell me I'm wrong tell me I'm wrong I would have to ask Ironclad let's get him in your story special guest

you're all Ironclad let's ask you in he's here Bjorn will have things to say to this. They're coming out of his mouth right now. Mama, blah, blah, blah. All right, thanks, played. And last up, the genesis of the question, Gunther.

Yes, I'm a level six fighter. And I will say this, when my parents died, they were very proud of me. Oh. Why do you say it like that, Gunther? But when they were alive, they were not proud of you. No, no, no. Only when they died. Yes, they were proud of me when they were alive.

And they were proud of me when they died. If they were alive now, I do not think they would be proud. I'm asking because you state that tragic event on an upsyllable. When my parents died, they were proud of me. Like, are you, Gunther, do we need to talk? Did you kill you parents? That's kind of what it sounded like. They were proud of how I killed them is what it sounded like.

No, I did not. I did not kill them That was John talking Gunther didn't hear that okay Oh I was just saying I think it I when I think back to

if they were proud of me in that moment that makes me feel happy that they were proud in them proud of me but it makes me sad that if they were here now

they may not be unrelated question How many toes do you have Gunther Enough why Do you have six or 11 Come my eye on you Six or 11. I have the proper number of toes.

Okay, okay. Six, got it. It's evading the question. No, that would be very confusing. We all have six toes and then another four. So technically you're correct. Oh. Doug with the, or Barbara, with the technically correct.

That's where my typecast comes in. Yeah, the best kind of correct. Exactly. Does 12 have toes? Yeah, but I mean, let me see. Well, I have. Do you have little, little digits? They're like little digit.

mechanical digits? Yeah, I like my Thermotech foot is toes, but, you know, it's like Bjorn's skin is kind of like loose socks sometimes or gloves, you know, when you're putting them on and then they, you know, the toe socks and then like one slips into the other one so it can be a little, you know,

like my pinky toe might be flopping around because one of my Thermotech bones isn't in it? Wait, does that happen to you blame? Ah, it's the worst. You've worn toe socks, right? Yeah? Yeah. I hate toe socks.

Oh, toe socks as in like, okay, now I get it. Yeah. No, I've not worn toe socks. Gossero, for you, did you ever wear those naked footwear, like the toe shoes? Oh, no, no. Okay. Those give me the hebi-jeebies for some reason.

Oh, just thinking about it, like my toes being separated. Didn't James wear those for working out? Yes. Probably. Yeah, he did. Voice of Bjorn. Yeah. Voice of Bjorn.

Your father, you remember. Yes, he's yours. All right. Thanks, everyone. Appreciate the insight. Let's never speak of toe shoes again. What an amuse. Bouch to this episode.

Yes, yes, yes. So stupid. You know, my toes are actually called micromachines. That's good, it's good. That's the stinger for the end of the episode. Okay. Whenever I get my first inspiration dice,

it goes directly to blame for that one. Yeah, the greches begin trying to swarm you and grapple you, but you use your might to push them away and shove them to the ground. and make me a perception check tool. Okay. Sorry, it took me that long to find where the perception is.

It's always the one that's hidden away. That's a 17. It's hidden in that alphabetical order of your text. That's alphabetical? Yes. Oh, God. Guys, did you know? Who are you going to tell me?

Oh, my God. That's incredible. This is our job. Incredible. As you shove the dretches to the ground, something catches your, your eye in the western pile of rocks by the, by the pool. A glinting blue-grey metal.

It's not just a piece of metal though, it looks like a head? Tollif, you look down and see what appears to be the head of Neo amongst some of the rubble here. Dear brother, how are you? Make me a perception check. Oh my god, I hope he's not dead. Please don't be dead, Neo. Speak to me, Neo! 13. 13.

The head has definitely seen better days. It looks like it's been mangled a little bit and beaten up, and it seems like it's almost inert. There's barely any, I don't want to say life, but barely any power flickering behind it. Oh, dear. Could I take a look at it and maybe try to tinker with it to get it to function? I'm going to need Doug's catchphrase before you do this, Barbara Dunkerman.

I can figure it out, guys. There we go. Brings me life. I could figure Neil out. Tollve would be very concerned. It would be like, of course, anything, anything, please help. If I need to lend my parts. C3P.O.

Just to continue setting the scene, Doug, absolutely you can do that. But just to continue setting the scene, there are additionally some remaining dretches in the room that were not killed as part of combat. Yeah, so just setting that. So you all aren't entirely long. We're not in combat, but there are just these, what were enemies, a little bit.

a while ago still mingling about the room. Are Dretches intelligent, like, can they speak? I think they were described as green gorillas. I don't know if they said anything before. They did not. However, they can speak. They do not speak common. And they are very, yeah, like Barbara said, they're described as greenish gorilla-like

Undarians. They're covered in fetid pustules and boils with gnarly curled claws and fangs, and they're armored with plates of blue-gray metal. And as you look around at them, they all raise their hands as if in surrender. Would you say, it speaks? Oh, oh. It speaks.

Sorry, it's a stinky dragon adventures reference. Oh. I was like, what is that? That sounds familiar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate that show and I was like, woo. Gus's German characters going, it speaks. Check out Stinky Dragon Adventures and my terrible German accent over at stinky dragonpod.com.

Impeccable, German accent. Impeccable. I'm like Michael Fastbender and Inglorious Bastards. I grew up on a mountain That's why my German accent sounds A little different and a little weird Than what you would expect Yeah, it's a little unusual

So they're putting their hands up in surrender you said They're just raising their hands and looking around nervously They don't speak common Correct Do we know what they speak? Probably abysel Okay, Gunther speaks abysel So

Let me deal with Doug first Because Doug or Barbara slash Doug said They wanted to go Try to take a look at Neo's head Yes, please Yeah, what do you do for that as an artificer? Do you have like a tinkering ability or? Doug goes up and starts singing,

what's in your head? In your head, zombie. I had, let's see. Had to finish it. Barbara actually sing the entire song of zombie if someone brings it up. Listen. You have to get to the title.

Yeah, yeah. I have my quirks, and that's one of them. I love that. Learning thing. I do have, I believe, tools. You have the manual. That manual for it.

I feel like I would just kind of open him up in the back to see the wiring or maybe any sort of like electrical parts and maybe use my history or intelligence to Tinker.

I do have Tinker's tools as well. Yeah, you have Tinker's tools and I will say just to kind of describe to the rest of the party in the audience. The artificer has some abilities that don't necessarily apply here, but I can see

like having some overlap, right? Like you have repair, which you would use on your defender. Yes. You also have magical tinkering, which is like you use that to augment abilities. And you've used that in this campaign as well. And I feel like these aren't explicitly something you would use in this scenario, but we'll modify. We'll say, you know, you have knowledge of the way these things work and you're able to kind of figure it out, so to say.

So. I can figure it out. Thank you, Bush. So why don't you make me, what kind of check? should we call this? Let's call this a survival. No, no, no. Make a, that's not Arcana, but I feel like it would be like that. Like intelligence? Like history. Yeah, make an Arcana check, just because it is intelligence-based, and I feel like that's what we're going forward. And it is kind of like

a magic technology. Okay. It is magic technology. That's true. God. Ten. Do you want to get an inspiration die? Would that help? Maybe. Yeah, do it. I give Barb my inspiration day. All right. Okay. Arcana, once again, yama, yama. Not 20. for a 24. Hey, he's fixed. You look at it and you know that this kind of technology

that appears to be powering this head is radically different than any technology you've worked with, not only saying that it's more advanced, but it's just an entirely different foundation of technology. Okay. Like even the basics that you would expect are radically different when you pop open Neo's head. You are able to confirm that it is not,

for lack of a better word, dead. There is still power in it. just needs to be reattached to the rest of its accessories in order to regain function. Okay. All right, well, good news, Tov. Your sibling here is not dead. Ooh.

I just got to maybe reattach him, maybe to his body. There might be other pieces missing, but we could try that first and see if that works. Well, I see that on these, like, Undarian fools, these dretches that they're wearing blue armor, that could be, like, pieces of my brothers. So, like, maybe we should come. command them to take him off.

We could gather up all of the pieces and reassemble him. Yeah. And they seem to not really, like, want to fight us, so maybe we could just ask nicely. Don't through justice sort. Please give us your armor. Do you say it in common? Abyssal.

Abysal. What does that sound like? Oh, you just put something up there at the end there. Are you down with the sickness? That was funny. Hey, Gus, you're funny. You know what? Stop.

Gutter pulls out his rapier, points it at the dretches, mutters in abyssal at them, and they begin nervously removing their pieces of metallic armor and placing it at their feet. As they're doing that, you know, you're holding the rod of the fire opal of fireballs. It seems like the fire opal at the end of the rod just kind of comes loose and falls off of the rod.

Uh-oh. And skitters to the floor. It begins rolling around. I try to catch it. Don't want to get it away. Bomb ball. Yeah, make a dexterity, we'll call it a saving throw. Cool. Perfect, because I have advantage on those. That's a 19 and a 6. 19.

Okay. Yeah, it falls off of the rod, but before it's able to hit the ground, you do that really cool thing. Normally, no one, yeah, no one's watching. No one saw it. Of course. The Opel falls off and almost hits the ground, but you reach down and catch it just in time,

and you look around excitedly to see if anyone noticed. But Doug and Gunther are looking at the dretches, Natty's eyeing the pool with Giggy And nobody saw that really cool thing you just did The other day I threw my keys at Eric Bedore And he caught them in an impossible catch And it was like five minutes later I was like I should tell him that was really cool

Because you never never never No one ever sees that cool stuff No one ever sees it yep And now everyone knows because you told the podcast Eric is a hero guys Everyone always sees when you trip on something dumb Or when you you know bang your head on a door Or something no one ever sees the cool things

So you're able to catch the fire opal before it hits the ground. And while you're holding it, it burns super hot. Mm-hmm. I see. And you take a little bit of damage. Okay. You catch it. It's much like in Red as a Lost Ark picking up the staff headpiece.

It starts burning at your hand, singing Bjorn's flesh a little bit, doing seven points of fire damage. Is that raging? You probably were from the combat. Yeah. You were raging, yeah. But does that fire damage, does that affect it? I thought it's only like piercing damage.

Oh, yeah. Good call. It wouldn't. Gee, thanks, Barb, golly. That's the Council of Barbarians. Hello, yes, it's me. Council of Barbarians here to guide you straight. He's right.

Cheat. This is helpful. You should only be here when it is a boon to me. I'm sorry. But here's a boon. It's right there. No, I don't get it. No.

Get out of here. I don't know. I don't know anything about being a Balbanian, shall we guys? I'm getting out of you. Bye-bye. Bye. So the dretches are removing their pieces of metal and laying them at their feet, and the fire pole falls off, but you catch it, Tov, and it begins burning your hand a little bit. It's a little bit of an ouchy.

And as you're holding it, looking at it, you hear, like, a gurgling sound. A glurble gurgling sound? Glorble gurgling sound. Like, from the gym or from, like, the goo oil stuff? No. I'll tell you what, Tov and Natty, make me perception effects. Okay. Oh!

17. 13. Nice, nice, nice. Both of you notice that the pool of boiling oil isn't as boiling as rapidly as it was before. It kind of quiet to a simmer, and the level begins lowering in the pool. And you see it emptying out via the drain in the northern end of the room. Uh-oh. That's probably good though.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is the horn still there? still there? What a great question. No, it's not. The horn is still there, and the level of the pool slowly recedes and goes down, exposing more of the head and the body attached to the horn. Tov, Tov, put the open back on the stick.

I want to rush to do that. I want to see if I could click it back in, Lego style. Come on. Make a... I'll give you the choice. Make a strength or dexterity check on that. Feeling strong a day. Strength.

Six. Oh, God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He cracks it in half. Oh, inspiration died, like you. Yeah. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Ha, ha, I roll it again, and I get a 13.

13, okay. Perfect. That's exactly what I needed, I think. Yeah, you managed to smash the fire opal back onto the top of the rod. It's not the prettiest. It looks like maybe you broke it a little bit. It's a little splintered, but it's holding. And you look at it, admiring your work, very proud of yourself.

And then... You smell something. Oh, who did it? It's not giggy. It's something. On fire? A toll's hand, maybe, a little bit. Is it the staff?

You look down and you realize that the dredge druid has spontaneously combusted. His body is laying there now burning. This room is weird. Yeah, I'm gonna stomp him out. It's okay. I shall protect you. Somewhere a volunteer firefighter crosses his arms and nods approvingly. You're doing it.

You're starting to believe. Yeah, you begin trying to put out the fire on the body of the dredged druid. But Natty, you're focused on the horn and the rest of the being that is being exposed in the pool. And out from the pool clambers a very haggard-looking, oily and deformed version of the baron. With one horn atop her head. She looks around, stumbles seemingly in a daze, then suddenly lights on fire and disappears. Oh, perfect. That's how she died the first time. And that definitely wasn't like an, was it an illusion that we were seeing?

because I know we tried to touch the horn earlier. You grabbed the horn, Doug. Yeah, and it was like I felt it, right? You grabbed the bull by the horns. Yeah, you pulled on it and you saw part of the head. Ask the dretches. Did that just happen because the summoning did not complete? Yeah, failure success, yeah.

Also, you got to give it to us in infernal. Beautiful. Beautiful. You're responding. Roughly translated Gunther, they say, I don't know, that was his job, and point at the body that is being stomped out by toll. I'm just like both feet on it now, jumping on it like trampling.

Hey, everybody, John here, and I know some of you all have dice goblins in your life that you got to get a gift for this holiday season. You know you got to get them dice, but you don't know what kind of dice they want or which ones they already have and you're just tired of trying to figure out this weird problem.

Well, take a breather. I got a solution for you. All you got to do is go to heroforge.com and get them a HeroForge holiday gift card because, see, you can take the guesswork out of all this by letting them design their own dice. You know, HeroForge, they have 3D printed dice that they use the same process as HeroForge's color printed minis.

And anything from HeroForge can be added in the dice maker. It can then be rotated and see. scaled within the dice for perfect placement. You can choose number size and color, choose from all polyhedral dice shape options, regular or excel dice. You can let them go crazy with their dice and you don't have to figure anything out. All you got to figure out is go to heroforge.com, get them a holiday gift card and problem solved. Again, that's at heroforge.com. So, to recap what just happened, the fire opal fell off of the stick.

So it detached from its original place. When that happened, the oil, it stopped bubbling and it started to lower. You then put the opal back on the stick, the druid dredge he caught on fire, and the oil kept going down, and out comes, you called it the baroness. A deformed baron? Or baron? Like a shambling, nearly dead, kind of oily and deformed version of the baron. Okay.

Maybe I put the battery in wrong. I put plus to plus and minus to minus. And now the thing that was casting it is on fire and the thing that was receiving it is not on fire. I believe that the spell was not complete. So they were trying to revive the baron. And then because they did not, the baron goes boom. Yeah. Natty uses her shape-changing ability.

to don a plaid hat and a raincoat and goes to investigate the dead baron's body. Ooh. Well, disappeared, did it not? The dead druid dretch. Wait, where's the baron's body? It disappeared. Oh, it disappeared.

Okay, yeah. The baron, or some might say the oil baron, spontaneously combusted and disappeared. Barbara keeps giving, like, the one-eye, shocked wink. Then instead, I want to, like, Ace Ventura. it and get in can is the is the pool empty pretty much yeah can i get in there no i wouldn't recommend that natty why well just in case it comes back we don't know what triggers it and that might be ouchy i mean you go you do it but i'll just i'll leave my hand here if you need to jump out and grab

someone real quick okay okay yeah let's have a safety let's have have a buddy system okay dugs you're kind of leaning over the edge with your arm outstretched just in case natty needs to escape and then Natty goes down into the pool. You can just hold me by my wig and you can just pull me up because that thing's on there solid. Oh, I would never mesh with your hair, Natty. I know better than that. Yeah, Nettie gets in there and just, I don't know, tries to see like if there's anything to be seen in this empty oil pool. Make me an investigation check. Investigation is plus one, so that's 16.

You poke around and look through the pool, which is the pool itself is still actually very hot because it was just filled with boiling oil not that long ago. But, you know, it's bearable. It's not like you're going to take damage from it or anything. And you look around and you see a drain where you presumably all of the liquid went out to. And it looks like it connects to be a cutoff to that drain in the northern end of the room. And looking around, you see various, make me an Arcona check as well. I can do that.

15. You see what you presume are various, or the remnants of various reagents, like magical reagents. bits of special wood, bits of ivory, bits of herbs. And amongst it all, you found a rather larger gemstone, Paradet gemstone. It looked like it's from the ring of an NFL thing. No, it's a character from Stephen Universe, you idiot. Dummy. Wow.

I knew Blame would back me up on that. I knew Blame would back me up on that. I do love this to see the universe. It's pretty hefty. You hold it in your hands, and you think it's probably worth about 500 gold pieces. Oh, wow. I know someone who needs that. Looks directly at Natty.

Oh, I was going to say, like, who? John looked confused. Natty, you have no money? Yeah, but Natty doesn't care about money. Don't spend it all in one place. Natty'll stow that away. I've got to write that down. 500 gold peridot.

Okay, so I found stuff that just confirms we've stumbled upon a ritual. Where are we? Why are we in this building? To get the Thumbite brothers and sisters. We're in Soros. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, we came in here and that Druid was having a conversation with Infernes. Yes. Yes. They were saying that they found the Pathfinder. They stormed the gate in one week.

Pathfinder is near. One week to storming what? They were storming something. The, the Hira. Gates of Hira? The gate. Did we hear what this dread druid was doing? What they talking to in first? Did we hear anything else? Yeah, would that have been like V-O that we wouldn't have heard? The last line the dredge druid says is, Let the ritual of resurrection begin. Okay, so this was... Wait, so... Resurrection. How did we leave the Baron?

Does anybody remember how we left the Baron? I thought she was like all, like, fried up because Gunther and Tov tried to melt her wooden armor with some molten lava. Yes. You don't draw me into this. I was just a bystander. That's right, because you guys were... You guys were puppeting the Baron's dead body.

Yes, yes. Okay. Yeah. Very realistically. It's true. I was a little convinced, to be fair, the acting was on point. They even had her accent down pat. Yeah.

So we interrupted this ritual. So the resurrection didn't happen. That's why I think the baron went poof. Yeah. Likely? I wonder if it was like a, like, they were actually like, if they had remnants of the baron and then they were going to reincarnate her that way. I want to talk to Tov.

I want to talk to Tov. Yes. I wonder if they had like physical parts of the body that was left over, which there probably wasn't a lot, a lot of ashes, if I'm being honest. Or if they're like, can just summon a being based on its soul, you know? Like, do they have to have like... Yeah, yeah. Is it, do you need the ingredients of the body?

Well, it's clearly this, this fire opal you got is imperative to this process. Because the druid was using it when we came in and when you broke it, It stopped the process entirely. I think that's what happened. Yeah. What if I put Bjorn's skin in the pit and we bring back my papa? You know what? I've watched this movie called Pet Sampeterate.

Nothing bad can happen. I love that pig shell movie. Right, Captain Grumbles. Oh, I don't have my beep anymore. You don't have the beep! No! Say a bad word, Gus. Say a bad word.

I mentioned that in our watch party this other week where we had you doing the beep sound effect for him. And I was like, oh, we just changed our equipment. And Gus doesn't have the beep anymore. So he's just going to have to swear on the show. Yeah, Michael will have to beep it out. That feels really weird saying that in this recording. I think we've got some stuff. We've got to figure out, is there anything else we want to accomplish in this room before we head back to Neo's body?

Why did you need these points to the head? Thumb attacks, and what did you do with them? Shiny protection. Where is the rest of them? They point at the pile of metal on the ground. Okay, can we gather all that together? Yeah. And ask the team.

Any questions for these goofballs? I don't think we can get any other information out of it. They're so stupid. They didn't know, like, and the main guy, the Necromancer one, Druid, is done, so. Should we check the body before we go? I mean, I stumped on it pretty good. Yeah, but maybe has some.

Something in the pockets. Okay. Before we leave the room, I also want to check that pile of the metal and stuff like that to see if there's any parts I could tell that go with Tio. Okay. Well, that's coming with us, I think. Yeah, yeah. I just don't know how much it is, if it's, like, too much for us to carry or if it's just, like, small pieces we could take. You should be able to carry it.

Okay. So just to summarize, you're looking at the body to see if it has anything. Who's doing that? I'm on top of it literally already, so I will do it. You'll do it? Yeah. And Doug, it sounds like you are collecting metal pieces. Is that correct?

Sure, yeah. And Gunther is still talking to the dretches and Natty is still in the pool or is coming out of the pool? Natty climbs out. Okay, it's hot. He's pretty hot in there. Can I have some, where the fireball thing came from, if they know? We know where that came from.

Where? Because there's missing from town. Yeah. My church. Oh, that's right. That's right. Sorry, sorry, sorry. You're good.

Big laugh. Gunther laughs. Ha ha ha ha ha! And pokes one of them. They begin backing away. Like they're very slowly, not very slow. Deakily trying to just back out and leave the room. Okay.

You'll get out of here or else and speak not of this. They turn and run away. They turn and run away. And tell it furnace we said... I don't really ticker off. I'm sure they're gonna get right on that. Okay, yeah, they turn and run and leave the room here. Toll, if you're taking a look at the body, make an investigation check.

You got it. Use them robot eyes. Look at eyes. Zeep, zoop, zeep. 15. Scanning, scanning. Robocop. Scanning.

Scanning. It's just told saying that. Engaging eyes. They're watching you. You begin looking through the body and, you know, it doesn't have much in his robes. I think it seemed like the main thing that this druid was carrying was the rod, which you have. But you do find a small gemstone in his robes. small gemstone in one of his pockets.

Oh? It's a transparent yellow-green gemstone. Seems very delicate. You're surprised it's still in one piece because it looks like it's ready to crumble to dust. I did stomp pretty hard on it. Do you want to know what kind it is? Make an arcana check.

Oh, magic gemstone. Ugh. Five. Okay, I'll tell you what. Toll, you've cracked me so consistently up. Why don't you make me a medicine check? Okay. Oh, 14.

You think that this is some kind of medicinal aid. Oh. toll. It's so dusty because it's intended to be crumbled and applied to an ailment. He turns it over and he sees the words Ricola. I guess I'll stow that away because I don't think we have an immediate use for it, but it does sound like important. Yeah, I'll say metagame-wise, if you crush it in your hand or like on your body or something, it clears a condition. Oh, cool. What do I call this thing? Emergency. It is the crystal barrel of clearance.

I've got a crystal barrel de Maris. Hey. Sorry, and then I have a follow-up question because I found a thing called the cube of concoctions. So while we're talking about meta stuff, do you know what that does? The cube of concoctions. Where did you find that? When we were doing the left path, right, you know, like, either way and all that. Yeah, I found it then.

Oh, nice. It's described as an ice cube made of unusually colored gems. Metagame-wise, you can use this, you can place it into water, and it turns water into randomly flavored potions. Oh, cool. It's like a... Crystal light. I wonder what the purpose of that would be, like, game-wise, if anything, or just for funsies.

Well, the potions would probably be potions, so he doesn't know... Well, I said flavored, so I don't know. I don't know if it has effects. If we have, like, a boss's fight coming up, then I'll just, you know... Yeah. Crush one back. Roll the dice. Yeah.

Is there anything else in this room or can we go put these robots back together? They have names. You can't remember your dad's name. Don't get on me. His name is dad. Papa. Do we figure out a way to transport that fire thing? It seems like it's adhered to the end of the rod.

It's not super secure, but it's holding. Okay. All right. Let's go back to Neo and Tio. Thank you. There you go. Before that, I want to ask Gunther and Doug to make me wisdom. You got it.

One of these things is not like the other. I only rolled a 10, so... Oh, no! I rolled a one. Cool. Oh, two, technically. Yeah. Because it's got a plus one.

I'm sorry, Gus. No, no, it's fine. I'll leave it at this, okay? Doug, don't you find it weird? Don't you think maybe drains all connect to each other? Well, yeah. Like, they all meet up and go somewhere together, right? Yeah, one would presume this, and this drained out. Where else have we seen another place where this could go? But there was the drains that we crawled through back to the temple

where Nati's tongue became two. Or there's also maybe the river that is full of this oil stuff. Maybe a drain there. Dio and Tio were in the drain system. Yeah, but they were in like a, like it was like a whole separate room, right? They weren't like in a pool, correct? They were out. There's a sauna drain.

I know that. That's what we came through. Yeah. They were out by the riverbank, right? Yeah, they were at a riverbank, correct. Yeah, that was, we saw the blue-gray metal in the sauna drain, and that's what led us to Neo and Tio. I guess what would be the purpose of following where this drained?

You don't have to. Is it large enough that a person could follow the drain? Also, did the body of the Baron disappear as in, like, poof? Or, like, it actually went through the drain to disappear? Yeah. Poof. Oh, poof, okay. Like, as in, like, a strong toilet, or it just ceased to be...

What? I don't know. I don't know. Like, was it where we flushing it, or... Yeah, you know those, like, like, like, There's some toilets where it's like, and it like sounds like... Yeah, like an airplane.

An explosion went off. Yeah, put pneumatic system. Yeah, like that. Yeah, the body just disappeared. Like, yeah, ignited, in flame, and then just kind of vanished. Yeah, I forget who asked, but yeah, you think you all could fit in the drain. All of us? It's pretty big, yeah.

Well, maybe Natty, maybe you had something going there by going in there. Let's go. Let's check it out. Maybe we should just follow the drain. Yeah. Let's go. Oh, gosh. Blue, blue.

I'm just saying, if something hot touches this for, I'm going to ignite like a fireball. What's your marching order going in here? I'll go first. I'll go last. I'll go third. Second. So Natty Tolv Gunther Doug. You all take a look at the drain and, you know, after some back and forth, after some discussion, you decide to head on in.

Natty, make me, since you're at the front, why don't you make me a perception check? Happy two. 17 plus three. Dirty 20. 30-20. You lead the party through the tunnel, which seems to, or I should say the drain, which bends left and right occasionally, kind of winds around, has smaller drains connect up to it that are piping in water and oil and various other foul-smelling liquids, and eventually you exit the drain at the riverbank, not too far upstream from where you encountered Neo and Tio.

Oh, okay. Short cut. Yeah. As much easier. If you went back the other way, I was going to ask you which opposite directions left right, went in order to get in here to find your way out. That would have gone so well, Gus. I'm so sad you didn't get to see that opportunity. Otherwise, then we would have to play the card game all over again. Oh, God.

All new visitors. Oh, no. Oh, new wonders. Zat Bona. Get ready for more wonders. Batzana, the quacks. Could I take the head of Neo and try to attach it to the body that I assume is still in here? Yeah.

You all saunter on over to where. Natty runs. Natty runs faster she's ever ran in her life. Natty runs. Natty Runder. Natty Naruto runs to be the first to get up to Neo and Tio. You walk up and Tio, of course, spies you first. Oh, you're back! And Doug, I presume you take Neo's head and begin trying to tinker and help it. Neo's hands seem to be getting in your way as you're trying to reattach his head.

Okay, listen, help me help you. Okay, buddy, I'm trying to get this back on. and if your hands keep getting away, some finger might accidentally get in there or something like that, and you don't want that stuck between your neck and your head. Is that a threat? Polve would come in to, like, calm him down and hold his hands through the process.

Oh, that's very nice. Taking inspiration, I blink. Oh. Your brother was here with you. He's holding your hand. New data. Gus likes genuine moments of sincerity. New data point.

New Lord dropped. Okay, yeah, so you're working on. on Neo and reattaching Neo's head. Gunther and Natty, what do you want to do? Gigi has grabbed Tio's head. Who's the other head? The other one's Tio. Tio is just a head that is missing a body.

Gigi has grabbed Tio's head and is rolling it back and forth between Nadi and him. Be respectful. Don't do that. That's my brother. He's playing with your brother. It's his uncle. Oh, I'm going to be sick.

Okay, Gigi, put the head down. Don't act like I'm the crazy one. Roll me a four-sided dye, John. Good Lord. Here we go. Classic Gigi moment. Gigi licks the head. Gigi eats the head, Gigi.

Gigi poops on the head. I love all the ideas, thank you. Poor. For, Gigi somewhat dejectedly puts the head down, but he doesn't know what it is. He puts it down upside down. So Tio's head is now standing upside down on the riverbank. Very good, Gigi, very respectful. Giggy, make it right.

And Gigi, Gigi gives him a little kiss. Doug, since you're working on Neo's head, make me, what do we say earlier? Arcana? Yeah, make an Arcana check. Arcana. Doug sounds bummed because that doesn't seem like a dog thing. Okay. Nine.

I mean, I have a plus four. Arcana, she's not my highest in terms of like my various intelligence stuff, but yeah, just a nine. Wouldn't inspiration die? Would that make you feel better? No, I mean, you don't have to give that to me, Tov. You earned that all on your own. Yeah, but I mean, this is my brother, you know? Could Tov just help? Could Toll just help? Ooh, can I help? What?

Yeah, why don't you make an Arcana roll as well, Tov, to assist? I guess I have had to do, like, some form of maintenance. That's a one. Well, actually, you know what, I don't need your help, Tov. You just keep holding your brother's hand here. As he says that, one of his ears just falls off. It's like an Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator trying to fix the Robert Patrick Terminator. Totally different platforms. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, yeah, it's more complicated, you know, like you saw earlier, it's a little more complicated than you're used to. It's going to take you a little while to reverse engineer it and then try to connect it all. Like earlier, you were having difficulty. because you didn't have all of the connections. Now you have them all. It's just a matter of working your way through it. So it'll just take a little while to get through that.

Yeah, you got it. You can figure it out. While that's going on, Gunther, what did you do with all of that metal you collected? I mean, I think me and Doug had picked it up and stored it. Can we start putting it together as best we can? I'm a little busy here with Neo. Yeah, Doug's preoccupied, but you can start trying to do that

if you want, Gunther. You do have a smithing back. Okay. We'll say it's like trying to fit together a complicated jigsaw puzzle. So why don't you make me just, I tell you what, roll a D20 and add your proficiency modifiers. If Gunther reveals that he made it back in his own image, so it's just a frog-sized robot. That would be awesome. That's not great.

Seven plus proficiency, so ten. Ten. All right. Not the best, but not terrible. You're making slow progress trying to put it all together. Tio chimes in every now and then. what you're doing, giving advice on how things fit together and where things go. It's like Chewbacca putting back together C3PO backwards.

It is. It's just non-stop Star Wars references here. These weren't your favorite siblings, right? Like, if we don't get these ones right, there's ones that are more important. No, I don't love all of my siblings equally. Not numerically? Come on. No.

Doug, after several minutes wiring together Neo's head onto the body there's like a large spark and then something seems to change and Neo's head pops to life But he's only speaking in Spanish Adios meo

Is this working? Is this working? He gives a little knock make sure it's like on there stably Oh yeah This seems to be working now? Neo, how do you feel?

I felt better, brother. It's unusual down here. It's good to see. I'm so glad that you're back, and thank you so much, Doug, for fixing my brother. I give them both a hug. Oh, yeah. Wow, my first hug. It's not your first hug. Don't get out of here. From 12, geez, right? Definitely. No, I had to resolve something. It was getting tense and I had to hug it out. I remember that because I said, I will not take it. No for an answer. We've done a group hug.

I know that. My first hug of the day. There you go. What happened to you and Tio? I mean, was it the, I guess it was the dretches, right? But what were you guys doing out in these parts? You see, we were fleeing from ironclad, and we were rafting down the river. We got away, but then we were stuck into oily river.

Then we got ambushed by these dretches who stole all our parts. We went to the town for help, but the locals accused. us of stealing something, some kind of fire oval. So then we had to camp out across the river, but due to power shortages, our memories began fading. Okay, well, we have your head back on your shoulders, and then we're going to reassemble Tio's body, and we're going to get you right as rain, okay?

Also, Elvis says hi. She didn't say hi, but I ran into her, and I'm assuming she would say hi. Oh, how is she doing? Is she still in one piece? She's doing great. She lost her leg, but we got it back, and then now she disguises herself as somebody else,

and now she's off on another adventure. It seems like you've done the best of us, brother. Oh, that's so kind of you. I wouldn't, you know, stop, I'm getting bashful. I mean, you're mostly in one piece. The rest of us aren't. Fair, yeah, that's true. Have you seen any of our other siblings since, you know,

we all escaped ironclad? No, but we were hoping to come across more siblings. We were heading to a safe haven, and we think they may have additional siblings joining there. Oh, where? A place called Copia Convent to the south.

We're supposed to be... Oh, we know where that is. We talked to the lady. That was like episode one or two. I talked to them. Is it Princess Chess who told us that? Yeah. She's from Copia Convent.

How do you know that Copia Convent is a safe haven? It is a known place of refuge. And there have been rumors saying that they will offer sanctuary that we can trust them. It is a safe place. Oh, very good. Well, then if I run into more siblings on my quests, then I shall send them that way.

Oh, yes. Could I call over to Gunther and say, Hey, do you think you found maybe Tio's body parts in that pile of stuff? They're putting it back together. I look over and there's four arms. I think Tio now has a super long tongue. Yes, that looks good, yes. You've taken some, you know.

Some liberties. Some liberties with the design. That's interesting. I don't remember him being that short, but... Oh, well, you... How old, maybe younger? They were... What?

Maybe they were younger, and that's why they're so short. No, I mean, maybe, I don't... I don't know. I think they look good. Well, their feet are like three times as big and they're squatting constantly. You look over and Tio's grabby flies out of the air and shoving them in his mouth.

How's it coming with Tio? It's, you know, he's, obviously you don't have all of the parts, but, you know, you fashion together a bit of a torso and an arm and the pieces are coming together. It's getting there. Doc, can you help him out? I'm afraid he's going to make my brother into a frog robot. Yeah. I could help here.

You're doing a great job, Gunther. Let me just help you look for some pieces here, you know. Because, you know, you got a frog body, so you might not be as familiar with, like, you know, Tolv's type of anatomy or... That is true. Anything like that. That is true. Could Doug help assemble what he thinks the parts of Tio's body missing are? Yeah.

You know, you get there, Doug, and, you know, of course, like any puzzle, you got to start with the corners and then work your way in. And, you know, once you explain this to Gunther, it all kind of clicks, and you all are able to get to figure it out. And you begin making rapid progress, reassembling Tio. While that's going on, Nio has an aside with you, Toll. Oh. Hey, Tolf, there is another rumor we heard. Go on, tell me. We've heard tale that Ironclad is indeed not our creator, and that we were created by someone else.

Yeah, no, I think that that sounds about right, because he doesn't seem too smart. so I think he would rather, I don't know, manipulate and use existing things than create his own. He only knows destruction, so it doesn't seem like him to create. Yes, absolutely. We were hoping to find further leads to let us know who indeed created us. See. Well, maybe as we find more of our brothers and sisters, we can create a network, and then, like, you know, find who our creator was and what our original purpose was.

because I don't think it was being on a ship with ironclad and, like, doing terrible things. Yes, we were hoping to find more data at Copia Convent that can lead us to an answer. Very interesting. Okay, so then other than that, once we get them assembled, then really all we need to do is return the... Fire.

Yeah, the fire gym and fireballs to the town. Fire Opal. Fire opal, fire gym, whatever. Opal's gems. It's type. Yeah, after several minutes, Doug and Gunther, you're able to reassemble Tio. And yeah, it seems like more or less the correct orientation.

Who's to say what the correct number of arms is? Yes. Listen, I've done to base it off. I've never seen him before, so. I think you guys put his right cheek on his left butt cheek. Oh, whoops. Yeah, you're right. You're going to sit crooked. That kind of looks good, though. Gives him a little sashet.

I just had an idea, and this might require a retcon if you guys are open to it. But maybe as a way of keeping in connection with his brothers and sisters, Tov can swap out apart with each one of them. It could be like a small thing, like a little piece of plate armor or a digit or something like that. A tow! A tow. It's just so that there's like something like multicolored.

That way it's like it's like our way of showing that we're back together in some form or fashion, even if we're separated by great distance. So it's like a physical representation. So like, I'm just trying to get your intention here. So if you run into another sibling, you can show proof of having met the other siblings? Exactly. It's because, you know, we're all distinct colors and configurations.

So it's like I've seen Elva, I've seen Neo, I've seen Tio, and then here are the parts that represent them. And then they can do the same if they run into our brothers and sisters. That way we can kind of keep track of who's where. I think that's really fun. Yeah. Neo and Tio, I know you just got your bodies back, but would you be interested in just maybe some?

Swapping a single part. You know, I already have some elver pieces. So we could, you know, do that as a way of just showing that, you know, we could still be together in some way. Do a little trade. Maybe something a little more, you know, significant than a little trade. But sure, yeah, what Gunther said. Do a little trade.

Make a little love. Get down the night. These are my siblings. I don't know why you're singing that inappropriate song. Doug just misses music. It's been a while since he's got to listen anything. Don't get me started on missing me. We'll have a jam session later.

Natty needs to find an instrument or something. Oh, yeah, brother. I think that's an excellent idea. What parts would you like to swap? Let me see. I guess Neo, I shall take a forefinger and Tio. Let's swap out like a collarbone. I don't know. Something still, something like that. Sure.

Yeah, you begin working at the various pieces and unattaching them, them, reattaching them, swapping them out. And yeah, which finger? Left index. Left index. We're going to write this down. It's a good one. Okay.

And then I would also want to do like a recon because Elvo was missing leg pieces. So maybe there are some components that we had to swap. Because we also found like another one, you know? So like maybe like a kneecap. Yeah, kind of helped that out. You could also maybe request it via Raven. She has communicated with you and you've communicated with her in the previous episodes. Yeah.

Cool. Now whenever I pick my finger. I will think of you, Neo. Or pick my nose. Pick my finger. We're not there yet, but we'll say once you get back to town here in a little bit, which I presume is your next stop, you'd send a raven to Elva.

What would you want it to say? Elva, I found Neo and Tio. They were in disarray, but we reassembled them. As a way of keeping track of all of our siblings, we are exchanging components. Here is a piece of my leg. Please send something back in return so that I have proof of your life. Okay.

Love, big, big, slash little, slash your favoritist brother, tall. Favoriteest. Which leg are part, are you saying? Which part specifically? What part did, let me see. I know that they were missing. Left leg? Missing entire left leg, yes.

Cool. Yeah, I'll do that. Left leg, please. Great. That's fun. I like this. Yeah. Because then by the end of it, I'm going to be like all multicolored and it'll be like all my whole

family's on me. It's like you have genetics with this. Yeah. Ah, you have your brother's collarbone. What is the next step here? What is the plan here? You all have pretty much reassembled Neo and Tio. What are you all doing?

Sounds to me like we should go to Copia Conference. Well, I'd like to return to fire open first. Oh, wait. We should do that, and then I guess you have sent to Neo and Tio. Well, where are we geographically? Because weren't we heading? We were going to... The ruins?

Wait, hold on. Let me pull my notes. Are we're at the ruins of Rizene now? No. You all had taken off east from Fort Endridge. Copia convent is close to Fort Endridge, so it's behind you now and you've passed it. We're at Boiling Bluffs. Correct. You're at Boiling Bluffs, and presumably your next stop was Sky Blue Falls Prison as you make your way to the front.

Right, right, right, right. Sorry, I was confused because I listened to an old episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're heading there for safety, so that's good. They can head there. We should keep heading forward. Yeah, I agree. And we also need to make sure that we bring.

back the Fire Opel. That does do that now. Yeah. Yes. Also, yeah, that kind of like exchanging of components and stuff is like, I think, like a good, goodbye for Neo and Tio as I let them on to the next part of their journey. How do they look, by the way? Did we get the majority of their components?

Are they like... Yeah, they seem pretty much back to normal. Not 100%, but pretty good, like most of the way there. You know, there is some wear and tear. They get ready to take one step and everything just falls apart on the... Very cartoonish. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, they would bid you farewell and continue on their journey as they were doing. They know where they're going. They just got sidetracked by this attack. So they bid you farewell and tell you to take care. Very sweet. Goodbye. What a beautiful family moment. It really is.

I like this new, like Pokemon card game that I've got going with the body parts. It's fun. Got to get them all. I wish they told, you know, like, just hold. his siblings close. I think he is there attached to him. No, I... Cunter!

Cunter! Oh, sorry. Thing? I understand, Doug. I mean, it physically is good, but emotionally. Of course, Doug. I value and cherish every moment with my family. So you all are heading back to

the temple? Question mark? Yes. I want to see my fiery friends. With your tongue. Yeah. You all leave the riverbank and head back into Boilin Bluffs proper itself and head over to the font of the fire eater where you wore previously, which is what Natty is alluding to. And do you remember who you're looking for there? It's a good question.

Flack? There you go. Take an inspiration dot. Wow. I didn't even remember that. I didn't either. I just wrote it down. You just looked at all the names you had written down and you picked one. No, I mean, like I said, I've actually got a pretty good system in my notes now. Although I've been slacking on the last couple of sessions of my highlighting, but it's right there. We went to the temple, Flack the gnome. It was a fire. master with the kindlekin priests. He's a balding gnome. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris is like, give me, give me. Okay, yeah, you walk back into the temple and you find after searching around for a couple of minutes, you're able to find flak. Hey, flack attack. We've got your fire opal. Woo! Boop, boo, boo.

It was all intact the whole time we had it, too. Nothing bad happened with it. Or no mistakes were made with it either. That's right. Yeah, he kind of furrows his brow a little bit and looks at Doug. Wait, so do you or don't you have it? I don't understand.

Is it okay? Yes, we do. Y'all, silence is an option sometimes. I'm nervous, okay. Yeah, and I motioned a toll to hand it to him. Pah-b-da-da-pub-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-ha. And I give it back. That was very nice.

You had a lot of fanfare, you know? That's very, I, like, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Wow, yes. He has a puzzled look on his face as you pull it out and present it to him. And he takes it from you, Cole, and grabs the, he just kind of under his breath mutters. What is this garbage?

And takes the rod off of the opal and throws the rod away on the ground. Yeah. All right. I was like, did we bring him back the wrong thing? Wait, so he can handle it without it being burning? Yeah, it seems like he's totally comfortable holding it. Cool. Yeah, the Firemaster.

Gigi chases after the stick, by the way. Does he drop the axe in favor of the stick? No, you can just grab with his mouth. It's a dog. Like a dog. Like a dog. He's fetching the stick. He still has that axe in his mouth.

Or in his hand. That axe has been all over the place. Oh, thank you so much. This means a great deal to the Kindlekin. As a token of our appreciation, we could lend you a relic for your journey. Oh, is this like a one for me, one for you kind of one in one out kind of thing? Exactly. The library.

Well, not usually, but yeah, we'll make an exception. After all, you are a member of a Kindlekin, Natty. Yes, I am. Thank you very much. Well, what kind of relics you got? You got like an assortment or is like just one? I could show you, follow me this way. Love to. He turns around and begins making his way over towards the reliquary.

Okay. Is this like bones of saints or you got cooler stuff than that? That's pretty cool for a religion to have bones of saints. I mean, that's pretty neat. It's a little weird to me. It's pretty metal. I recently learned total tangent, and I'm going to keep this very quick. I recently learned that the remains of the conquistador Hernando Cortez are in Mexico City.

Really? Interesting. Yeah, it's really weird. Because they want to keep an eye on him. I guess he was actually buried in Spain, but then his remains were sent back to Mexico. And it's like in a, I read this article, it's in like a dilapidated church. And I think it's attached to a hot. hospital has been there since the 1500s, and nobody wants anything to do with it. It's like a forgotten, disregarded relic because nobody likes him.

Yeah, no, these histories, one of the histories of biggest butts. Right, so it's really, really weird. Anyway, there's a great article in New York Times about it, if any of our listeners are curious. Why don't I just burn it? Burn it. Okay, so you walk into the reliquary, and you see an ornamental glossy black box that rests on a plinth, and it's marked with ancient ruins. I don't think you all came into the reliquary your first time here in the temple.

Flack makes a B-line for the glossy box and opens it up. And inside you see a couple of relics. And he says, These are sacred to us, Kindlekin. But we can allow you to borrow one if you wish. Borrow. Yeah, borrow. One for each of us?

Let's keep it to one. Is it the flight logs? Is it the P2 breedouts? No, black box down. Nice, nice. There you go. Black box. How many relics are there in there?

There are four total now that Flack has placed the fire opal fireballs back in. Okay. Could you maybe describe what each of these like does? He seems very proud. Having hope in this box and pointing out the various relics that are in here. He says, gather around, gather around. These are the relics from the fire eaters' first manifestation. Can you believe it?

Right here, we got the Clause of Commandments. What does that do? You. These grant you the blessing of casting command while holding a claw. And so it, I guess, has three uses? Yeah. However, it burns to ash immediately upon use. Okay.

How we supposed to return it? Yeah. You know, collect the ashes, bring them back here. Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Next to it is a scroll, and he points at that. This right here, this is the scrawled scroll of scorching. And this looks like a black.

I can scroll with burnt edges. It smells tasty. It's got script written on it in Draconic. Mm. Any of you guys read Draconic? No. I wish I did. Sounds like a cool language.

It sounds like you could really milk that as like a joke or something. For like a whole campaign. It's like a fire spell or something? It's a scroll scried with the divine words blessed straight from the fire eat. It also leaves a burnt taste in your mouth. And if you speak or eat the source, scroll, scorching rays hurl from your tongue.

Cool. What if you got three tongues? Question mark. Three times the burn. However, there is a downside. Your tongue is burnt for the rest of the session. So if we eat it and to return it, how, um... You'll figure it out.

Oh, God. I don't know if I want to put that in my mouth if it's been used before. We'll make potatoes with the excrement, and then we'll bring those potatoes back. Yuck. Over here, we got the scales of Scrine. And it's two huge reptilian scales. They're charred black and they glow dull red. You hurl these into flames for a truly eye-opening experience.

You toss them into a fire, and the scale opens as wide as a reptilian eye. And you can see and hear, the fire eater for a whole five-seven. seconds. Wow, a beeper. Wow. I know it's hard to believe, right? You can even speak with a god. We've done that a few times already.

What? No, you're lying to me. Well, not the fire eater, though. No. Or have we? No, we haven't encountered them. Okay. The sea drinker and the fire eater are in love.

Yeah, so maybe the sea drinker would like that. Yeah. I was going to say, maybe that would be a good bartering tool. And finally, this last one, you're familiar. familiar with the fire opal of fireballs. It's a blazing fiery red translucent gemstone, the size of a grapefruit is constantly steamy. Legend tells us this is a single teardrop shed from the fire eater herself. Be careful though, it's incredibly hot.

Burns to the touch, it'll even damage you if you're not prepared. While holding the gemstone, you can cast the spell Fireball. I don't know which one of these is the most... I mean, Natty, it's your call, right? Yes, this is my church. Bless up. Bless up. Amen.

Yeah, I'll go with the scales of scriming. That seems the most mysterious and interesting. Oh, okay. You can add that to your inventory, I believe. Okay. I'm thrilled for the moment we throw it in the fire. I'm like, hello? Can you hear us?

Yes, hello, can you hear me? Hey, what's up? Five seconds over. Over. Dang it. It'll be even worse than the Sending Stone. Oh, and Flack. Yeah?

I wanted to be very clear that if at any point you guys were under the impression that some robots were the ones who stole this, it was a bunch of dretches. Really? Specifically, this Druid one. And maybe you could clarify this. He was, or they, I don't remember what they were, but they were trying to use it on a pool of boiling liquid to resurrect an Indyrean that we had fought previously and possibly murdered.

Oh, most troubling. Where did this go down? In the mines. In the mines? In the mines? Oh, this warrants further exploration and discussion. We have Kindlekin down there right now, exploring the mines. But this information that can help us run. root out what's actually happening.

Also, if you could like pass the verd around because I think that there was a misconception, the Thomatex, those robot guys, totally cool, totally chill. They're actually really nice and misunderstood. Uh, okay. Good to know. Yeah, I'm just saying.

All right. Yeah, you know, just saying. Okay. Yeah. So if you see one, don't give them any trouble. You know, let them go their way. In fact, give them five gold coins. If you see one.

Five gold coins? Yeah. Yeah, they're very cool, very chill, very groovy, yep. That's right. It's good luck. It's good luck to give them five gold coins. That's, yes, culture. Sure, make sense.

Flack would hand over the scales to you, Natty. You're the one taking him, right? Yeah. And as he hands him over, he leans in close and whispers something into your ear. I'm going to slack it to you, and it's up to you. You can say it to everyone or not. It's up to you. Then he pulls away.

Then he goes back closing the glossy. black box that's resting on the plate. Okay. I understood. Understood. I turned to my teeth. A tale. A day later. A day later. Kindlekin business.

Cool, core. Vink, vink. Okay. Is there a place we could rest? Certainly. As a member of Kindlekin, you're welcome to rest here with us. We got cots set up for you, priests, and visiting travelers. Okay.

We could probably use a long rest. Oh, is there like a friends and family discount that we could get as friends with Nadi here? Are you kidding? You brought back the firewall blow fireballs. You don't have to pay anything. You're welcome here. Hey, cool. Oh, wow. He leads you to another room that is filled with beds. Got cots with woolen blankets for priests and visiting travelers. And there's boxes of sent candles set up. And a couple of the beds have travelers packs by them. As in they're occupied? Yeah. Okay. Oh, God, it's a hostile. Start it.

Flack leads you to some open beds. You can rest here. Yeah. Okay. Could I look at one of the travelers packs real quick before we go there just to see if there's any like lute insignia on it or like anything that would indicate it's maybe familiar to us. Yeah. Not looting, just looking. Just looking, yeah, not taking.

Make a investigation check. Property of Infernes. What? Oh my gosh. Eight. I can't roll well today. What's you looking at, Doug? Apparently nothing.

Ah, let me see. Can you see that? I don't know my glasses on. Maybe that's the issue. Now he rolls a 17. You take a look at it, and it's a very plain leather bag. It doesn't seem like there's any really identifying information on it. Hey, Flack, who these bags belong to?

Let's see, some of them are Kindleken priests, and some of travelers. People, you know, coming on pilgrimage, come view our relics in the reliquary. Perhaps you heard of it. Oh, okay. Any of them, Thomatex? Thormotex. Oh, you mean the metal people? No, no, they were stealing our fire opal.

That's what we thought, at least. And, no, we just ran them off. Right, right. But what happens if you run into a Thermotech going forward? Give them five gold. Five gold. Oh, great. Okay.

You're such a quick learner flag. Good job, just making sure. Awesome. And very friendly. Be friendly. Got it. Okay. That's very good.

This is very good. Okay. Maddie takes a long rest. Yeah, you all can take a long rest here if you want. Oh my gosh, a long rest. I didn't think I'd see the day. Do you do a trance. Humana, homana, hama, hama, hama, nah.

I mean, Natty does that too, but. You're going to do a steering contest while we trance? I guess. Giggy never blinks. Oh. Hmm. He's just got dust and dirt on his, on his eyeballs. He's just, he's just wide-eyed all the time.

I'm moving. Yeah, you all rest and you feel refreshed. Ah. Uh. I suppose we should head to our next destination, right, team? I suppose, oh, Sky Blue Falls? The prison? Yeah.

That sounds good. Yeah sure we could go we could go see later flag see later have fun and then I want to as we're like leaving town I want to turn a corner take off my dorn head and then go back and be like hello I'm a thomitech hello what's this place money please do you really want to do this yes I do it I know do it okay okay yeah oh wow wow this is a lovely village you have here As you're walking through boiling bluffs, doors to houses and businesses closed and windows pull their covers shut. You make your way to the temple. And out front, Flack is directing some acolytes who are making repairs to the exterior of the building.

And sees you, make a perception check. Okay. Oh. Ten. Is something bad going to happen? I don't care. Either way, thank you for doing this. You see what appears to be a look of horror come across his face, which is then, like, stifled.

and like a very fake artificial smile comes across his face and he comes out with handouts, treshnesses. Welcome, friend. Can we help you with something? Thank you. I'm just passing through. What's up with this place? How are you?

Oh, this here, this is a temple, the font of the fire. Oh, wait, here we go. He reaches into his pocket and rummages around. Oh, nuts. I'm a little short on gold. Here's one gold piece. Why don't you take that And feel free to

Move along, you know Just keep going Oh, so generous of you Do you guys have a place to stay Where I can just, you know Yeah Yeah People like you

Yeah Absolutely All right Wow This flat guy is really learning quickly I love it Well I won't take up much of your time I was just passing through

So thanks for the gold piece All right Hey, let your friends know that we are friendly, and we know that you're cool in our books. All right, let your village know that I'm not to be afraid of so they don't have to slam the doors and the windows shut. It's cool. I'm cool. See, hey, give me a hug. Come on, give me a hug. Oh, okay. It's a very stiff, awkward guise. All right, see you later, Flack. I mean, stranger.

All right, see you later. Wait, what? That's exactly what? what it's like when your grandma meets a drag queen for the first time. Okay, yeah, you rejoin up with the rest of the party. Bjornhead, back on. You all depart and begin making your way over land in the direction of Sky Blue Falls Prison. While you're traveling, the boiling oil cliff sides

give way to wintry fields with occasional dusting of snowfall. Gunther, as you all are walking, you see two eagles perched on a tree that has only a few leaves on it. And as you stop to consider the beauty of the scene, the leaves fall off of the tree. Do I recognize them? Is there just something of significance of this to Gunther? It just stands out.

Like, it's a very beautiful scene. And it's very unusual that this tree is there with the Eagles, because there doesn't seem to be any other trees around, just that one. Can I wave at the Eagles? Yeah. Hello. You give them a wave, and it doesn't seem like they notice you or regard you at all. They're staring into the distance.

And their leaves fell off? Yeah, of the tree, not the eagles, of course. Can I look at the leaves and see if there's anything significant? Like all the leaves of the trees or just like a couple little loose ones? Yeah, there weren't very many leaves on the tree and they all fall off. Maybe it's the wind. It's kind of wintery and cold here. Yeah, you approach the tree, Gunther, and as I get close, the eagles take flight and leave.

And you begin taking a look at the leaves that are on the ground. Make a nature check. 14. Yeah, you take a look, and it seems like nothing out of the ordinary. They're the correct leaves for this tree, and they're here. Maybe the other ones that felt before already got blown away by the wind. It is a little windy. And look at where the eagles were looking at,

like maybe from where they were perched or see if they were looking at anything in particular. It's hard to tell, right, because eagles have their eyes a little differently than we do as people. I should say their vision is very different than what we experience as humans and humanoids. So it appears that they were maybe looking in the direction that you were walking towards or that you're going to

if you had to take a guess. You feel like you've done this before, Gunther. You have an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Gunther starts to sweat. Frog sweat. Googling, do frog sweat. Do you recognize this area maybe since I know, like, this Skyblue Falls prison is where you broke out of.

Maybe you've been, like, brought past this tree before? Yes, it feels familiar. What if we go somewhere else? I mean, should we just keep walking? Okay, I guess so. Are you uncomfortable? No. Yeah, you seem totally normal to me.

Is it just because the birds? Is it just the birds? Well, I don't know. I like birds, generally. Gosh. No. Neither did your last character. All right, you get an inspiration die.

That's really good. I already got one. I'm good. Taft out. Yeah, so I guess Gunther will continue forth kind of reluctantly. Okay. After traveling a little longer, in the distance, you see a building rising on the horizon. And you get closer and closer, and it looms larger and larger.

And you see it's a prison tower that of stacked cells that appears to be in the middle of an icy lake. There's a localized cloud that hails over the tower frequently. And the watchtower circles the lake in the prison on railway. The watchtower is on a railway and it's moving around. That's pretty cool. Sorry. The imagery of that is really dope. Like it's like the prison and then the watch tower is going around it? Yes.

I love that. It's awesome. The tower is in the center of the frozen lake. The prison is in the middle of it. frozen lake. Is it on an island or is it just like on the frozen lake? It appears to be built into the frozen lake. Oh. I can't get over that imagery. If I say if I encounter that in a video game and go whoa. Well Gunther and she's we're here. How'd you get out so we can get back? Yeah, reverse engineer. All four of you make me a perception check. 15 16 14 16. Wow those are all really good roles.

This is a tight grouping. You're asking Gunther, Natty, you're asking Gunther for information about how he broke out and how he can get back in, when all four of you at the same time notice a humanoid in the middle of the lake. It appears to be a brawny halfling in a striped red jumpsuit hopping between sheets of ice floating on the frigid lake. He sees you all turn around and calls out to you four. Hey, you, hey, where you going? Come over here.

The name's Candu Cody. As you can see, I'm in a bit of a... And with a splash, the halfling is snatched into the ice. Lake by blue curved claws without a trace. Should I not have bothered writing his name down? Shortest-lived patron name ever. Should we go try to save him? Maybe we can find out what that's all about in the next episode of Tales from the Sneaky Dragon.

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Some of our friends voiced NPCs in this episode and listeners who interacted with us on the Stinky Dragon Discord had NPCs named after them. We have Tio, voiced by Will Earle, at DND underscore Shorts. We have Neo, voiced by Adam Baird, at Gruff Tech.

We have Flack, named after Flakes, voiced by Micah Risinger at mica.risinger. And finally, Can Do Cody named after Cody Bickford, voiced by Andrew Blanchard, who is at Andy underscore Blanchard. Thank you, friends.

Thank you for providing such wonderful VEO. This week's arrow question was submitted by Gunther Boot Kiss Windbreaker. I've heard that name before. Sounds familiar. This episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon was produced by Ben Ernst and Micah Risinger, written and composed by Micah Risinger,

and edited by Alina LaCorchick. Tune in next time for another thrilling episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. It is known as a place of refuge, and there have been rumors saying that they will offer... What is the word? They will offer... Sanctuary. Thank you. They will offer sanctuary. I was seeing a Homer Simpson running into the church. And I was like, what does he yell? that Reverend Lovejoy's like, I regret ever teaching him that name.

Or like the hunchback of Notre Dame. That's what I think about. No, Simpsons. Not classic literature and stage play. Simpsons always. Yeah, the Simpsons.