Tales from the Stinky Dragon - Tavern Tales - Maze Rat Pack Ep. 02 - The Sky Blind Spire Part 2

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

The Maze Rats traverse the final floors of the Sky Blind Spire in an attempt to unlock the mysterious treasure waiting at the top. 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!Follow us on our socials at https://linktr.ee/TalesFromTheStinkyDragon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Savings may vary. Eligibility and member terms apply. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Kindest regards to all you Rickaloo. Slink your way into the stinky dragon and throw back our latest thirst quencher. Miscontru Blue Crew Brew. It's a mixture of indigo bye-bye tea leaves, agave vermilion vermin syrup, and not maybe nutmeg.

One slurp of this sneaky sipper and you'll be...wait...where did you go? You were just here. Anyway, previously our adventurers ventured into the tower of the late wizard Dittar and all in search of the missing son of Murin. Little did they know that simply stepping through this spire is an entirely different story. Literally. Can this pack of rats reach the end of their maze?

Or will they reach the end of their days? Draw yourself a drink and let's dive into this dank drama. As soon as you pull it away, an immense, phantasmal door appears in the middle of the staircase and outsteps a large, looming spectral figure. Its penetrating gaze fixes squarely on Muffin and immediately begins gliding menacingly towards her. That I did expect. What do you want to do?

Could Muffin, as she's making eye contact with the thing, slowly put the jar back into the offering of the statue? Yeah, you put the flask back in and it still approaches you further. It doesn't look like it's moving quickly towards you, but it is zeroed in on you heading in your direction. Wow. Muffin's dead, guys. Can I help?

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I go down to the same statue that Muffin's at, and I take my vial of acid that I've had this entire time, and I put it with the offering as well. Something that you brought on your journey with you? Yes. Okay, as you do that, you kind of walk in step

with this floating spectral figure, and it sees you and bows its head towards you and says, I see, you're on the path. That's right, I'm on the path. Um, may I proceed? Are you going to the altar? I was just on my way to the altar. Anywhere might be fine, said altar.

Where are you going? I must stay here, but if you are going to the altar, that is at the top of the tower. Right. Can I take my friend with me? Is she going to the altar as well? She is totally going to the altar with me. Yes, altar. My pupil will be thrilled by this. It's saddened that D-Tardin all could not finish this path. Oh.

This makes me sad too. It really does. Tear right to the eye. Yeah. That's the guy who quote unquote fell. Yeah, big fan of him. What do you wanna do? I reach out and grab Muffin's hand

and walk to an egress out of this room. As you're doing that, Muffin grabs one of the charge back. Oh my god. You're taking one of the offerings right is it supposed to be stuff we take or is it we need to leave stuff we asked that you offer offerings not take off right well I didn't know if it was like a give-it-take kind of thing that leave a penny take a penny kind of thing you're just taking you're not giving them I just wanted to see the brand I put it right back you know the same kind of stuff we got at

home so yes yes as you do that the spectral figure reaches out behind it and a door appears behind it it opens ominously into blackness where mark that be lean to zero 14 14 is elsewhere what we skip a few levels actually this special figure points to the east 14th this way okay this door leads to the after. What? Well we should do the after after. Perfect. That sounds about right. Yes. So you're gonna leave the vial there little muffin right? Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

You're gonna leave the vial there right muffin? My hands are clean. Vial's there. Hands in pockets as my mum always said. I ain't got no pockets. I'll put them in your pockets. Okay, thank you. As you put them in the pockets, this spectral figure says, By the way, if you ever need help in this staircase again, my name is Esme.

My name is Big Benny. It was a pleasure to meet you, Esme. Yes, for future reference, it's nice to introduce yourselves to people. Right. It usually is. So, if we want to summon you, we just say Esme? Do we have to say it like three times or like what? How do we do that? That'll work. Okay. Okay. Hey, I think we should get out of this bleeding room and get to number 14.

Yeah, 14. Yeah, 14! Esme backs up into this doorway and just like stares at you as it's entering this doorway and the doorway closes and disappears in front of you. So what's the cheese, mate, with Esme? Nice, nice. You wanna move towards 14?

Yeah. Yes. So you all exit this staircase, room 13, and head your way east towards room 14. It's a small room that branches off with stairways leading up and down. In the center of the room is the number 14 on the ground. What do you want to do? Yeah, you want to take that stairway to heaven?

Yeah, no, no, no, that's the wrong room. The zeppelin, see? Yeah. I don't know if anyone in human existence has said that sentence before in that kind of dialect. Lad Zeppelin, yeah, so yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's a classic.

Yeah, we gotta go down the stairs, down the stairway to hell, see? Down, yeah, east of here. Yeah, it seems like the next number is 15 if my math checks out, so that would be down the hall? Yeah, down the hall, down the stairs. Benny points to Muffin and goes, this one seems smart. Let's go with that. I think 15 is next. I went to school one day.

For a whole day? Whole day, yeah. How did you make it through a whole day of school? That's amazing. My brain is so wrinkly right now. I just went to school hard knocks, see? Benny elbows up to Billy and goes, is the brain supposed to be wrinkly?

I don't know. Yeah, if Eric says so, then yeah. All right, y'all descend the staircase down several, almost like two flights, it feels like, to the room 15 you see on the floor, but it's almost don't find it with all the refuse and garbage that's strewn about on tile. Yuck, see?

As you're walking in, apart from the dire smell that you're taking in, you also see these enormous flies that are buzzing around. They're huge, like way bigger than they should be. And they're kind of buzzing around all this, like detritus and kind of notice you and like shift around as they kind of see you and they're looking at you, like kind of feeling you out. Why is big flies?

How big are the flies compared to rat people? Like, are they birds to us? Bigger than that. OK. This room that has filled with refuse, are there any other features to it? Like, is it just a standard room that's filled with refuse are there any other features to it like is just a standard room That's filled with refuse and flies. Yeah as you look up you see that there is a Shaft it's a very odd Dynamic and perspective though. It feels like it's cone-shaped like it's getting smaller as it reaches the top

Oh as it reaches the top so more like a pyramid. Yeah, so that's conical Would you say it's the width of like one or two of us? Like if we went, if we hooked arms back to back and put our feet up on the wall and climbed, is that something? Ew. That might be some like sticky gross walls though. I would say that if you try and do that

and put pressure on the back and try and climb up that way, it will be a really far reach on the back and try and climb up that way, it will be a really far reach on the bottom, way more than it is at the top, obviously, but as you get to the top, you're not sure from this angle if two of you could fit through. Oh.

Like it's really hard to tell how narrow it is at the top. It's really far. Do the flies fit through the hole? From here, it doesn't seem like it, but again, you're like 30-40 feet away, and for some reason it seems even further. Could I approach the flies? Yes.

Okay. They start buzzing. Benny walks up to him and he goes, Hello, fellow vermin. My name is Benny, Big Benny, to my friends. We are trying to find our way through this tower. Do you perhaps know how we might get past this room? Unfortunately, I do not speak.

Wait, I have a mask! Can I understand them? Or can you speak, Fly? You put the mask back on? Yeah! Okay, you put the mask back on and suddenly you can start speaking fly. What? No way! Jeff Goldblum! Ahem! Ahem!

Hello, fellow vermin! My name is Big Benny. How are you doing? Well? How... How could you hear us? From our perspective, do we just hear Benny going... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz with so much lavish materials. It's thinking their terms. It's home. It's home. What is above home? Not home.

We're really getting a lot of this guy. Try another fly. Is there... Thank you, Moffat. I appreciate the suggestion. Is there perhaps one of you who is your leader? Leader? Uh, he starts looking around, kind of like looking at the other three flies in this room.

I like the idea of a fly looking around, that like the whole body is just moving. They have like necks. And they start like buzzing each other like, I'm not a leader, I'm not a little, I follow through and now you follow me. OK. Are they big enough that maybe Muffin could utilize them for flying power?

Like strap on and fly away? Yeah. Or like a jet pack kind of thing? Yeah. I'm pretty delicate and small. I'll say it's completely possible. Will they let you is a completely different matter. Right, right, right.

Okay, so we are trying to get up to no-ome above you. Understand? I don't understand that. Okay. My friend here, her name is Muffin. Would there be a way for us to ask a favor and you take Muffin up to be a way for us to ask a favor and you take muffin up to the old up there make a will check this is gonna go great you yeah yeah

muffin is just seeing Big Ben okay rolling for Will. That's only a seven. As soon as you say muffin and point at muffin, that one buzzes straight towards the girls. Muffin and starts like trying to like nibble on muffin a little bit. It tickles muffin. I don't know what to do now.

Much like a cowboy trying to break a wild horse, I'm gonna jump on a fly and try to ride it. Oh God. Okay, tell me what your approach with this is. In what way are you doing this? Once that one fly is distracted trying to eat muffin, I'm gonna walk up behind it and then just try to jump on its back

and see if I can hold on to it and like Try to pull up. Do you perhaps give us a yee-haw? Yee-haw. There you go. Welcome on into the stinky dragon Okay, yes Since you're not trying to will this thing i'll say it's more like a strength check that you're trying to wrangle this thing Into submission typical does I try to go with diplomacy hinnie goes for violence. it's more like a strength check that you're trying to wrangle this thing into submission. Typical Gus, I try to go with diplomacy, Hine goes for violence.

That's such a Gus move. That's just how Gus solves all of his problems, even in real life. My will roll is actually better, but since we tried will and it didn't work, hey, let's try the other way. Where there's a will, there's no way. There was no way.

Two D six? Mm-hmm. And you said strength, right? Correct. Nine plus one, 10, that's a will, there's no way. There was no way. 2d6? Mm-hmm. And you said strength, right? Correct. Nine plus one, 10. That's a 10. Yeah. What are you, you just grabbing onto it?

Is that what you're doing? Or who are you? Yeah, and I'm gonna like try to like find a way to see if there's like little hairs on it where I can like pull to try to get it to go in the air. They do have little hairs on them, right? Yeah, absolutely. You grasp anything you count on

where would be the neck of this thing and for some reason this fly like completely eases like it was meant to be written and kind of like waits for you to to take the lead. Okay yeah I pull uh pull up let's go. You hear a trumpet in the background like da da da da da and then you just like take off up this wall. And as you're getting higher and higher, it's getting narrower and narrower. And you're concerned you're not gonna be able to even fit

with you in this fly through this hole at the top. Is that a fat joke? How far away does the hole appear to be from where I am when I start to worry about this? I'll say the exit to this is probably like 10 feet away. You're getting really close. While he's thinking about that, what are the rest of you doing?

Watching in absolute awe. Yeah. I was hoping that someone would have rope and we could just toss it down and climb up that way. Like boss, Eric, rope. I'm not there. Eric's really far up there now. Yeah.

Billy's holding back to see if someone else makes it up even before he tries to wrangle a fly. Okay. Yeah, I think we're just all watching to see if it works. Yeah. Okay, cool. You know. So what do you want to do? In that case, I'm gonna try to ride it out as long as possible.

Then if it seems like it's gonna become too narrow, I'm gonna try to jump up. Yeah, you are. For the hole off of the fly. Billy's trying to hold his arms out until he's following just below, like trying to make sure he could catch Billy as you're kind of like making your way through this garbage getting closer to the wall to make sure you catch your boss Roll a d6 for me. Yeah, you got it. Okay. Here we go. D6

That's a four as you're kind of rummaging your legs through this trash, you come across a coin. Ooh. It's a silver coin, and it's like bigger than a plate you would eat dinner off of. Whoa. Silver coin the size of a plate. But it looks like a coin that's maybe been like the opposite of shrunk. Enlarged? Yeah, enlarged.

Yeah. Does Billy see any like coin slots like on the front of a like a pinball machine or anything? You look around for coin slots. You don't see any. It's really odd. Yeah. You wish there were though.

Okay. It would make sense. Yeah. I'm rich. So. Well, that's only one coin there. Yeah, but it's huge. It's worth a lot.

Jump back to Eric. Eric, you're getting closer and closer and you're just kind of like getting ready to leap off of this fly at the chance you need. And the fly below you is starting to get nervous. Like you think maybe it doesn't like leaving home and it's also getting close to this hole and it's concerned that we're not gonna make it. So it starts like kind of wobbling.

What are you gonna do? I guess at this point is when I need to make my leap either straight up or to the wall, whichever seems more likely to be made. Do you have anything on your person you wanna use to help make that happen? Yeah, thinking or getting ahead. I have some iron spikes that I picked sure I would use

to either like hold into the wall or to like try to grab up near the hole at the top. Absolutely, okay. I have two iron spikes. Okay, yeah, if you pull those out, I'll say you can make a dex check with advantage. Okay. Whoa, be dexterous.

I think this is really a cool idea. Would you call those like pitons or pythons? Pitons. I hate you. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay, that's a... So we just recorded the second win for that Infant Eye episode.

Oh, did we? and I forgot to bring that up. I will forever be corrected on the pronunciation of P-I-T-O-N. Who knew? It's P-T-O-N even though it's spelled P-I-T-O-N. It's the weirdest pronunciation for a word that shouldn't be that way. So I rolled a five, a six, and a one. So that's an eleven.

Eleven, yes. You leap off of this fly as it kind of starts nose diving away from the hole above you. And you latch onto the edge of this seemingly cliff side, but it's stone, stonework of a wall. And you kind of see the edge at the top. And you think you can probably pull yourself through, but it'll be a tight squeeze, kind of like through

a vent shaft. So the two options I have here is I can either try to tie a rope to these spikes and then drop it down and make it easier for everyone, or I can try to pull myself up and try to go through the hole. Based on what I'm seeing here, which one seems like an easier option of the two if I had to choose between the two of them? I actually see no reason why you couldn't do both. Okay, in that case, I'll try to tie a rope here

and then drop it for my friends below, not my friends, my traveling companions below. What? And then try to pull myself up ahead. Okay. Do you think Billy heard that and his heart broke a little bit? Oh.

So yeah, you tie off the rope on one of the pitons and then you kind of pull yourself up the last bit. I'll say that since you rolled so high with the deck check, you don't have to make a check for that. You get to the top and you climb the rest of the way. Is that what I hear? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

We will resolve that in a second. The rope falls to the ground and the three of you have a way to climb this thing now. Ladies first. Yeah. And she points to Billy. Oh, oh, oh, yeah, curtsy. yeah curtsy and then I climb up make a strength check with advantage strength check so that's all three dice plus my

modifier right yeah you got this rope that's been thrown down to you whoa triple four that's eight nine mmm I'll say you start climbing and you get about halfway and your foot slips and you're having a hard time getting your footing, but you're still holding onto the rope. Okay. It's this coin. It's just so heavy.

It's really slick and sticky in spaces. And it's hard to tell which is which when you're climbing. Yeah. Should I, should I drop down and then give it another go after someone else or. It's up to y'all. What do you want to do? You see, you see your friend kind of starting to slip and fall. What do you want to do? Guys, guys friend kind of starting to slip and fall. What do you want to do?

Guys, guys, I'm falling. Guys, boss Eric. How would we like help that though? Push my butt. You got inventory if you want to look through there or if you got anything creative solutions you want to do. You want to talk to the flies more. Yeah.

Can I, I have a war hammer. Could I perhaps like golf swing up and help Billy up? Oh, my God. That's how Billy died. As you pull out your war hammer, you kind of look at Billy and Billy starts to look like a nail. Yeah. Nice. We stare at or like a ping pong ball that I can just kind of send back up. Croquet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, croquet. All right.

I'll say if you you, you can kind of push this garbage up a little bit and give you a boost to get a little bit higher. What'd you call me? And if you want to try and swing at him, go for it. Yeah. I will say that he'll probably take damage unless you roll really high above a 10 is what I mean. Because like it's a hammer, it's hitting him it's it's gonna hurt yeah big Benny why are you holding your hammer and looking at me like that if you get anything like above a ten you won't cause damage we'll say okay doc you'll never believe how the Warhammer got up there is a million of

one shot normal roll yes because you've not really done this kind of thing before that's what you say. Okay, it's fine. It's fine. We got this, Billy. Billy, we got this. Okay. Oh, rolled a five and a six.

That is 13 with my modifier. Wowie zowie. All right. You kind of angle it in just the right way where Billy is expecting it, like he's ready to kind of boost up off from his butt, And you swing and hit those cheeks. He was presenting Is that what we're saying? He was Yeah. Okay. tail out ready to go. And yeah, you get boosted up I'll say like

another 510 feet up this rope and like you're you're maybe like 15 feet away from the top now. Okay, you're welcome. Thanks, Benny. So I'm 15 feet away from the top. Yeah, and you see the same thing. It's very conical. It's getting really tight at the top, but you do see some pitons where the rope is slashed onto. Oh, thank God. Okay, I'm going to grab onto those and maybe either use them as footholds while I hold onto the rope or just kind of support my way as I continue up. Yeah, I think you could totally do that. You managed to grab, get a handhold on each one

and like squeeze your way to the top and you find your friend, your boss. Oh, boss Eric, so good to see you. Yeah, that's a good boy. Come over here. Yeah, yeah. All right, what does Muffin and Big Ben want to do? I hate this so much.

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I think Muffin watching that happen, she's almost tempted to ask to be helped the same way. Like sans rope, just like hit me with your war hammer. I think she's just gonna try to straight climb. Okay, she got dex right? Yeah. Yeah, you start moving your way up to this garbage heap and roll a d6 for me. Just one d6?

Yeah. Yeah. Five. Yeah. Yeah. You step on something and it makes like a like almost like a gong kind of sound. And as you get your foot like away from it, you realize it's a giant brass bell. So we had a giant silver kind of coin plate looking thing and now a giant brass bell. Yep. Have we seen these objects before or like regular sized before?

Maybe in your life you have but regular size but at this tower you've not come across these things. I wonder if there's things like falling from that hole. Like I guess would these things seem like they could fit through the hole at the top? You kind of like size it the best you can and like it doesn't make any mathematical sense. Hmm. Because like I'm wondering if these are coming from somewhere. Could I look at the bell? Sure. What do you want to discern about it? See if there's any like markings or writing on it.

Sure. You kind of feel your way around and clear off some of the dirt and grime and you come across some words etched like hammered into the top of the dome and it says lunch time. Uh oh. You know I am thinking how there's a bunch of flies down here. Maybe this is like where the food goes? Maybe. I hope it's the food. Like at the cafeteria when you put your tray in or scrape all the trash off.

Benny's looking at that bell with his hammer really hard. Could I maybe before climbing up just like rummage around a little bit to see if there's any other items kind of under here? Absolutely. Yeah, as you're rummaging around, you start seeing other items in the garbage, but something else tracks your attention more in the garbage. You see footprints that are like actively walking through this garbage right now Impressions in the dirt and grime and you don't see anybody in front of you Yeah, could I like as I'm tracking the footprints try to grab whatever person or or creature

This might be in front of me. Sure. Make a dex check nine. plus two. Eleven. Eleven. Just put the bell on top of them. So you see these footprints in front of you and the bell's right there, and you kind of launch off the bell and grab a hold of something in front of you that you can't quite get a vision of, but you know it's there. And you see the rustling of fabric

and you're squeaking and like squirming around. Can I try to pull their clothes off? Oh, all right. Like if I like because I know because I think we know about the fabric at this point, right? Yeah. Like these creatures are invisible and so they're probably wearing some type of invisibility cloak or something like that. Pull the robe.

Do you just grab it and pulling? Is that what I'm hearing? I think I would pull like upwards. Up? Yeah, sure. So you try and like grab a hold, whatever this fabric is that you've, you've got your hands hold of and you throw it up and you find a rodentia that is shock and odd at you finding it. You can see me. I sure can little man. Now where's the rest of your clan? See me Now where's the rest of your clan now muffins whispering is creepy

It starts like backing up if it's back to the wall like kind of scared of you And then it pulls out a knife it's a very crude knife it doesn't look actually, but it is a knife nonetheless. What are you gonna spread me on some toast? Don't come any closer. I'm just here for the silver. Silver? I mean, the silver. What are you talking about? There's tons of it in here.

Okay. Points out like the giant silver coin. There's silver right there. What's your name? My name's Balthazar. Balthazar. By any chance Balthazar, are you a part of the Reikalu game? That's pronounced Reikalu, but yeah that sounds about right.

Now listen, I wrote it down on my paper and I didn't know. I didn't write like phonetics on it. You don't look like you stayed in school for more than a day. I've never been in school. Do you work for Patease? Pestis. Once again another name that sounds pretty different. Pestis, yeah.

Okay. And are you responsible for taking our friend, Vol? He throws the knife at you. Could I dodge it? Yeah, I'll say you make a dex check and I'll make an attack roll and we'll see which one gets higher. I rolled an eight.

He rolled a four. He misses. Yeah, he tosses this knife, but it's like, it doesn't seem like it's very hefty either and he doesn't, he wasn't really prepared to throw this thing. It just kind of whiffs past you. What do you want to do?

Uh, choke him. Lightly. To where he can still talk. Lightly? That's such a Canadian way to approach combat. Well, I don't want to kill him. I might have information. It's like you caught yourself being too violent and your Canadianness came through. Kill him politely.

Alright, do a strength check. Okay. Seven. Seven, yeah. You grab a hold of him, but maybe like you still have a lot of grime and slime on your fingers from all the garbage and stuff you've been touching, and he kind of slips right out of your hands. But he's up against the wall, he's trying to like eye his solutions and seize this rope and grabs hold of it. I mean, yeah, sure, go on up. Can Eric and Billy see what's going on do they know that this is happening? You tell me when you get to the top are you more concerned about the top

or the bottom? Since Eric is up there he trusts his boss so Billy's like more concerned about getting the others up here. Okay yeah you you kind of look down and like. Because I could just shoot this guy off the rope. It seems like everybody at the bottom is bigger than they should be. Oh, like they look like they're giants down there. Weird. Easier targets. I mean, could be. Can I try to grab a Balthazar? Yeah, Balthazar is like grabbing hold of this rope and getting ready to climb.

And you you're going to try and grab what? I have manacles. Nice. Bracelet bracelets. Gum gum? No, I ain't no gum gum. These are manacles. Not boyacles. No. I was thinking the same thing.

Ew. Can I like lock him up or try to restrain him with them? Yeah. Actually, could I like, since he's trying to climb up, could I just manacle his legs, like his feet? Absolutely, you can.

That's what I'm gonna do. All right. He starts getting his hand hold on it and he starts climbing up and you're going for his ankles, like his feet. Absolutely, you can. That's what I'm gonna do. All right, he starts getting his hand hold on it and he starts climbing up and you're going for his ankles, right? Yeah. Now pants him! The man ankles.

All right, make a dex check. Eight. Okay, you get one on, but the other one kind of slips off as you're trying to like chain them together. Just as good, just as good. I grab the one that is not on him and I just pull. Okay. He's gonna make an action real quick

to see if he can get further. And he doesn't have strength, so he has a four. So he fails like, he's like feeling the anchor way down and you grab ahold of him. And what are you gonna do? Try and just pull him all the way down and you grab ahold of him. And what are you gonna do? Try and just pull him all the way down? Yeah. Could I try and like ball and chain him

to the, like into like the trash? Good God. Make a strength check. Yeah. That one's only gonna be an eight. You do it and you pull him off the rope, but it kind of lands on you and knocks you and you both get like knocked into the garbage as well. Okay. So now you're kind of scrambling around in this detritus. Muffin, get him! What are the two of you at the top doing?

Well with me, I know Billy was looking down and more concerned with the bottom. I think Eric would be more concerned looking at the top. Like in Eric's mind he's already done everything he needs to do to help people up. He would drop the rope. You don't need to help anybody. Right. The rope's there. It's on them to come up now. So I would be, Eric would not be looking down. Eric would be looking ahead. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Gracious.

I can fill you guys in on what's happening up there. You enter a messy hall split in two with bones littered about. There's a large cooking pot over on the side with a fire pit underneath. And there's these like sleeping mats that look like they're made of hay. They look really rough. And then, of course, there are giants, maybe like four of them that you're starting to count out. And this hall that's split in two, there's two different numbers, 16 and 17 on the ground. Maybe they're just really small people. And we're looking at them from a weird perspective

and they look huge. How many vials of poison did you bring? You got enough for everybody? Eric's fresh out. Oh no. Do you recognize any of them? You actually do. You recognize one of them is sitting by the fire

and has this green stain across its chin. It's like nursing it, trying to like fly into its twin next to it. Uh oh. I'm so glad Eric went up first. I'm so happy right now. Oh my god. We'll deal with this later. What are we doing with the balthazar? What's going on down there? We all decided to run away from this giant and Gus is like, I'm gonna go and give him poison. That wasn't Gus Gus that was Eric.

Billy who's looking over the edge uh called down to his his friends down below and say should I take the shot do you need help shoot him so he shouldn't keep this guy alive right to get more information out of him or what do you think you can live with an arrow in yourself for a bit. What do you think? She's asking, uh, Balthazar. You want to know from him if he wants to stay alive? Yeah. Yeah, that's a great idea. I love it so much. Okay, then you better listen to him down there because I got my crossbow trained on you, dude.

Yeah, we want information. You look really small up there, though. Well, you look really big and easy to hit from here, so... I guess it's a matter of perspective. I never thought of that. Yeah. So what do you wanna do? Should we try to get some type of information out of him

or should we just continue on? I feel like I don't care for his information and just want him to not be able to attack us anymore. You have him already chained. You could chain him to something to make him stationary so he can't join his friends or something. Is there anything for me to attach the other manacle to in this room? Sure! There's a pipe on the wall.

That's... it looks like it's big enough, like, to be able to... or small enough to be able to lasso a chain link around. Then I manacled that other end to the pipe, and I turned to him and I go, You wanna play a game? Oh my god! Uh... and I go, you want to play a game? Oh my God. And I say, you stay there, kite. Steal his cloak. I don't think I'm going anywhere. Yeah, I take his cloak and I give it to, or Muffin has the cloak, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I pulled it off of him. Yeah, Muffin keeps it. Okay. I mean, it's a little cold in here. Could I put the cloak on? Yeah, you can put the cloak on. Okay. It's on me now. As you put it on. Muffin? Yeah, exactly. Muffin.. Okay, it's on me now. As you put it on.

Muffin? Yeah, exactly. Muffin. You look around and like, Muffin is like hard to find now. You see like footprints where Muffin should be, but it's almost like Muffin's not there anymore. Benny, I'm right here. Muffin, what was that?

I'm wearing the cloak. Oh, that tracks. Don't tell Billy or Eric. I kind of want to, I kind of want to surprise him. Yeah Billy you look down and Muffin's not there anymore. Okay. Guys I think we lost Muffin. I like that I love pranks I'm a big prankster.

Won't you get on my back and I'll climb us up. Yeah yeah yeah okay okay. Muffin hold on to the back of Benny. Okay I climb. Alright like what's his face in Princess Bride? Princess Bride. Yes, you make a strength check and I'll say it won't be advantage or disadvantage

because you're just pulling yourself up with someone else on your back. Let's double fours with a two, 10 even, 30, 10. Yeah, you start climbing, you see that below you, it seems like you should be further away from it But it looks bigger below you and you see that this Rikalu, you know Rodentia is still down there chained and linked but that seems like from out of perspective they're getting bigger but you're at the top of the

Conical shaft is getting smaller and you finally reach these handholds of these pitons and you pull yourself up I'll hold on to them. So then Muffin can get up first. Since you said it was like small enough that it couldn't be like two of us. Yeah. Okay, Muffin climbs up. All right, yep, you climb up and then what?

And then I go behind Billy and I tap him on the opposite shoulder. Yeah, boss, what do you need, Eric? I like the picture that my back is to him. So like Muffin's between us and we're not facing each other at all. I tap both of them on the backs. Eric, you playing pranks on me? You guys both look at each other and you actually can't see each other for a second.

Where'd you go? Oh, looks like the room is just there, but like it's like some kind of shadow, some play of tricks, like there's a phony mirror or something like that. Oh, you know, I hate pranks. Get over here. I pull myself up. Okay. You all enter this hall filled with giants. Yeah, like I said, you have four of them.

Some of them are hanging up by the fire. And then there's a few like kind of resting or sleeping that kind of thing. And there's a bunch of bones and clutter on the floor. Yeah, luckily they know better than to mess with us anymore, see? Yeah. When you say they're giants,

does that mean they're probably too heavy for us to like push? As you're looking at them this time, they look different to you. The first time you saw them, the head was too big to come through the doorway. The body was too big to come through the doorway. And now they look large, like larger than you, but they aren't like building sized or room size. They're more like just really tall and big people, like maybe 10 feet or 15 feet tall. Are we in Alice in Wonderland?

Muffin in Wonderland? That's interesting, because the creature we stabbed in the eye, that was the giant that we thought or tried to stab. Yeah, tried to stab. Yeah. In fact, he's here. He's by the campfire. Yeah. So Muffin's actually here, guys.

What? Where? No, she's not. And she's actually got a cloak on that she might be able to get past these large fellows with. Oh. I died. Muffin!

I died. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm alive. I'm just wearing one of the clothes. So we can do something like we did in the bird room. You know, maybe, you know, looking at the map. If you ran through these rooms, I think you can maybe draw their attention so that we can also enter the rooms that we need to go to. I also wonder if maybe it's gonna sound mean. I don't know if these things are hostile other than the fact that one of them tried to growl at us before. But maybe we should just push him over the edge. Oh my God, that's murder. I love it.

As y'all are talking amongst yourselves, you kinda see one of them by the fire start sniffing around. Protentia. I think the hole's too small. See, we gotta make a break for it. Whatever you say, Eric, I'll follow. I'd be down for running.

I mean, I'm invisible, so I feel kind of confident. Stakes are super low for you, Muffin. I say that to the wrong area. I'm not looking at Muffin, but I think I'm looking directly at Muffin. Could I maybe sneak across and do a bit of reconnaissance first while they're kind of more hidden? French stuff.

Absolutely, you can. Oui oui. I'll say you're walking gingerly across this floor. You almost step on a bag like a sack of silver coins that are just kind of spilling out onto the floor. There's a ton of them. It's a rather large treasure trove. Do you keep going or what do you do? Yes. You press on and kind of ignore your instincts to grab all this silver and you move forward towards the edge of the room and you see

Three ways out of here one to the north west and then east east heading towards room 17 Okay, you said this room is just like full of these beings. It's like three or four Yeah, they're they're mostly migrated to the east side towards room 17, but there's one that's kind of near the silver that is sleeping at the moment. Oh, sleeping. Okay. I go back and just relay this information to the team. Okay. What do you guys want to do? Should we just do a good old stealthy?

Yeah. See? Yeah. Whatever the boss said, I'm there with them. If anyone finds us or gives us guff, they get the dagger in the eye. Oh my gosh. All right, I'll say Muffin, you don't need to make any kind of checks for this, but the three boys need to, and I'm going to take the lowest one, and that's going to be what the group check is. Well, actually, I'm going to take the blueprint that I have of the map, and I'm just going

to hold it in front of my face. I love it so much. There's a headless rat walking by. I will give you advantage if you- Yeah! So John gets advantage and Blaine and I roll just 2d6. Dex checks. Dex checks, three, four, one, rolled an eight.

Rolled an 11. I got an eight. All right, so you guys make it about halfway through the room and you're just eyes, maybe they're drawn to the silver. Maybe you've recognized that giant is kind of giving you like putting on edge and you kind of like bump into each other as you're trying to shuffle along this room. Yeah, I couldn't see your face.

And the one that's by the fire looks up and like sees the three of you standing right in front of them and starts getting up from their seat and moving towards you please please don't get up i'm gonna point at him and yell yeah you stay seated down or i'm gonna i'm gonna mess you up again see yeah you remember me they look confused on their face like they recognize you but you look different for some reason and uh go and make a will check. Yeah, cause you're much bigger probably. Yeah. I don't think I'd recognize a rat if I saw it again. You recognize a rat if it put poison in your mouth.

Yeah. I guess if it also talked like an old bugsy, like a mobster. I rolled a nine and I have a plus two on will, so that's 11. Whoa. Oh, you got will. Yeah, will's my thing.

Oh. It starts to put it together like rat, rodent, poison, no. And it starts backing up and trips over the fire and falls to the ground. Like, kind of awakens the other three giants around them, and they start looking up. Perfect. And trying to see what the cause of the ruckus is.

But they're in the other room, and they don't see the three of you yet. Benny speaks up and goes, chase it! Chase it! That's exactly what I was gonna say. And just runs for like the room to 17 and the exit out of 17 as best he can. Okay, yeah, you make a dash for it

and head towards this other exit to the east. Same, that's definitely what I had in mind. Make a break for it and make a run. I'm gonna do the same, but for me it's pretty easy because I'm completely invisible. Yeah. You kind of see them coming to you immediately. Like you're probably first in line at this point. Yeah. Billy's going to run, but then he's going to see all of that silver. He's going to stop and he's going to say, Oh, pause. I look at all this money. There's got gotta be at least 30 pieces here. That's a biblical references. And that guy, Murin, Murin?

Murin. Murin. He did say we could keep all the silver, we want all the treasures, right? That we found. Certainly did. Could I make a grab for any stuff and just keep running? Or is that gonna totally trip me up?

If you wanna try and grab them, you'll make a dex check, cause this is a risky situation, it's not that you can and grab them, you'll make a dex check, because this is a risky situation, it's not that you can't grab them, but if you roll low, something may happen to you from the giants. Do it, do it, do it. Do it, do it.

Go for it, Billy. I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna take all this money. Yeah. All right, make a dex check. We'll split it 90, 10, see? Yeah, what? 90 for who though? That's eight plus two, 10.

Nice. You get 17 silver pieces and just a- Wow. Oh, fast grasp of these bags and start like making your way to the door or are you gonna grab more? No, I'm gonna call it good there. All right.

You can add 17 silver pieces and then you start heading towards the east and out of the giant hall here. The four of you make your way through this patch and see on your map and head into a small room labeled 18 on the floor. There's a strange thing happening to the north that you can't quite make out but judging from your experiences thus far with the fabrics you think it has something to with this blueness again. That. That was good work, Billy. You gave me 15 of those silvery.

I'll let you keep two of them. Whatever you say, bossy. I don't know what you say. Hey guys, just letting you know I'm still here. Wait, wait. Who said that? Who said that? I don't know.

If this room to the north maybe has more fabric that you guys could use and do what I'm doing. Super sneaky. I do like stealth. And then also to the east is a egress that branches off in several ways. Can we try like poking or prodding at that northern passage that seems like weird, like the fabric? Yeah. You want to use anything in particular?

I guess I'll use my dagger and kind of like poke at it. Billy just raised his hand. I was looking at my character sheet. Yeah, you start like poking out where it looks like it's a wall to you, but you keep poking in it, like pushes in like it's fabric and stuff like that. Cotton, fabric of our lives. I keep thinking the same thing. We spend way too much time together, all of us working together.

I'm going to try to grab at it and see if I can pull it down. Sure. Yeah, you reach out your hands and you immediately feel fabric again. And if you want to take your dagger or try and scratch away some fabric, you totally can. Yeah, I'll see if I can cut away at it. Roll a d6. Okay. That is a 3.

You get 3 feet of this fabric. Oh. Oh! That's a nice little cape. And once the fabric is gone, what is exposed behind it? Like, was it hiding something? You see, yeah, another egress, another corridor heading north and it's actually a familiar corridor.

It's the same one when you first entered that you heard the stomping of giants. We still was like it was the smell of smoke was coming from it as well if I remember right. Yes, exactly. So you would guess that this would go back to the first room. I guess the smell of smoke was the fire that the giants were around, maybe. That's what you surmised, yeah. Yeah. It's all connected in the circle of life.

Can you imagine if we went through that side first, the smoke side? Oh, God, we'd be lost. I wanted to. That was my initial inkling, was to go that way, but I'm glad we didn't. Bad times. Can I try to take some fabric as well? Is there any left that I can... Absolutely it's a big section of this wall that is kind of like obscured for you. Yeah if you want to do the same thing just roll a d6. Okay so I'm a boss do it now I want to do it. Eric's my hero. I won't tell him that but I think he knows. Two? Yes you

get two feet. Okay. Should we proceed along the numbers? Yeah, let's do it, see? You want any cool fabric though? You can look invisible! Yeah, like me. He's got tons. He uses it for the best use.

He hides his space, see? Good one, Boss! So you guys see on your map that you can go south and then take a right going west and you would hit 19 if that's the room you want to go into next. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all head that way. You recognize that south on this hallway is the same staircase where you met Esme and have these altars and statues, but instead you take a right and go west into room 19. Before we get into 19, I yell down, I go, hey, Esme, we made it over here. Hey, Esme!

Remember me? You see a door appear in the middle of the staircase and it kind of creaks open just slightly and goes, hey, and then closes. Okay. That's my friend. She just goes, yeah, boy. Ba-ba-boy. That's my friend. She just goes, yeah, boy. Bye bye, boy.

So y'all enter this sparse room with two windows to the west. They both seem to be on the third floor looking out south. And then there's one more thing that you kind of notice in the corner of this room besides the number 19. And it's this small tattered coin purse. Can I pick it up? Sure. Yeah. You want to look inside or just hold on to it? I'd tattered coin purse. Can I pick it up? Sure, yeah. You want to look inside or just hold on to it? I'd like to look inside. Okay, you open it up and you see one coin.

This one's a normal size coin, it's not a plate. It looks different from most coins. It's not that like the Sigillon is any different from the currency of this land, but it just, there's something about it, the sheen of it. Maybe it's it feels nice in your hand. Like, I don't know. It's just like you don't want to let go of this thing. Okay, guys, I'm going to I'm going to hold on to this for us. If anyone notices any like, you know, as my buddy Billy there said,

like a Bitcoin slot or something like that somewhere. Let's keep an eye out. Got to watch out for those. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And the only exit is the way you came in and all the sparks have followed you thus far.

Cool. Yeah. Let's backtrack, go back out to the east, hook a left, back up a little to the north, and then hook a right to the east. Yeah. You'll follow your map and you head towards room 20 and another sparse looking room with two windows again, but this one has a set of stairs to the south.

You find a bottle is kind of hanging on one of the windowsills. Hanging? Sorry, sitting on one of the windowsills. He's chilling, hanging out. Hanging out, that's what I meant. And this is in room 20? Yeah.

Empty or full of something? Yeah, it is full of something. Actually, I would say it's not actually completely full. It looks like it's been slightly used hmm just don't drink it because I previously found a bottle of acid so that would be bad news bears I'm pretty thirsty though that's looking pretty good it doesn't look like the acid it looks yellow this No. Okay, I want to drink that. Yeah, it's free Mountain Dew, see? Free Mountain Dew? I do love Mountain Dew. Chug, chug, chug, chug.

Oh, you guys. Can I give it a whiff? Yeah. Yeah, you reach out to grab it and you can drink it, sniff it, whatever you want, but you also notice there's a label on it. Labels are for losers. Yeah, I should probably read it. Reading is for nerds, see?

Just drink it. Yeah, reading is for nerds. We'll look after. Real rats just drink what's in mysterious bottles in towers. Aw, shucks you guys, you guys are such pranksters. I'm gonna read it. Aww. You read it and it says,

Potion of super strength? And there's a question mark at the end. Oh my goodness. Just urine guys, nothing to be seen in here. I'll pocket that. Okay. question mark at the end. Oh, oh my goodness. Just urine guys, nothing to be seen in here. I'll pocket that. Okay. Actually I'll share with the group.

Guys, it's a potion of super strength. So if I want to be as strong as Benny, maybe I'll take it. But I don't think we need it right now. Why'd you lie to us then? See, can I trust you? Well, I told the truth. Yeah, I don't know. You said it was nothing, see?

You got caught in a lie. Yeah, but you guys are goofing with me so I'm goofing back it's this what friends do right mr. Eric just gaslighting Billy so you guys are in this room there's two windows at the top there's a couple of egress is to east and west so you find in your map it's places you've been before the only place you haven't been yet and this hallway is down south on this staircase. All right, let's make our way downtown. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da.

You head down the stairs and you reach room 21. It's a sparse room again, more of these windows and a set of stairs and then the room is 21. There's one thing that's odd sparse room again, more of these windows and a set of stairs. And then in the center of the room is 21. There's one thing that's odd about this room. There's no way to go other than the window. Especially. As you look out the window, you see that you're high above on the tower, facing the east. And you notice that it's starting to get actually a little bit dark outside.

Maybe the sun is setting opposite of where you're looking. And also about this window, there's blood on the windowsill and a small tooth. Another tooth, like the ones we dug up? Yeah. I guess I'll grab this one and put it in my pocket, take it with us. We seem to be teeth collectors now.

Okay. I'll look at it first. Does it seem like the other teeth that we undug? It seems like it could be the same timeframe of like look and feel of these other teeth. Like obviously a different tooth, but could be from the same mouth, could be the same species. You know, you're not sure. I'll pocket it. We probably should have looked in Vol's mouth.

Yeah. Smarter rats would have done that. We didn't look, right? No. You opened the helmet, but you're more focused on the map. And he's all the way back in the first room, which at this point is I mean, it's not that far back to get to. Yeah, we're too busy beating the snot out of him.

Oh, yeah. Could we go through the back through the the fabric doorway that they cut off of and go check on his mouth? Do you want to go back or do we want to keep going forward? See, because we go to 22 and 23 and we're back there. I mean, ultimately, what we're going to learn is whether or not this is his mouth. Do you want to go back or do we want to keep going forward? See, cause we can go to 22 and 23 and we're back there. I mean, ultimately what we're going to learn is whether or not this is his teeth, which I don't know if that's like vital to a puzzle. I'm always Mr. Eric, you know, wherever he goes, I follow.

I'm like a shark. No neck, can't turn back. I don't know what that means, but yeah. I guess we'll just save it for the end when they get back to the beginning. All right, yeah, it'd be a good reveal for the end. It could also be like a fly instead of a shark. I'm not sure.

Maybe these teeth are just like the Riddler trophies in like the Batman games where they're just collectibles, you know? You solved my puzzle. Yeah. All right, where do you want to go? Make us out the bloody window, right? Yeah.

Seems like the only way forward is down. Yeah. Yeah, so you see there's a chain dangling out the bloody window, right? Yeah. Seems like the only way forward is down. Yeah. Yeah, so you see there's a chain dangling out the window. I'm assuming someone wants to start climbing. I'll go first this time. Oh, brave Benny. Okay, yeah, you start climbing down and it's not too hard.

Go ahead and make, just for kicks and giggles, a strength check at its advantage. That's only, That's a nine. Nine, you make it to the bottom and where this thing is nailed on the window still starts to like come up a little bit and unhinge a little. Can I do like a repel move where I just push off the building with the chain

and swing into the window on the fourth floor? Yes, I'll say if you don't do well, there could be serious repercussions either for you or the chain being no longer usable. Do it, do it, do it. This feels like a worthwhile stunt. Yeah, this feels like a word. This feels like we, all I'm hearing from Micah

is you should totally do this. Yeah. Go for it. I got the opposite impression actually. That's what I heard right right Billy and and Gonna be a deck check. Yeah, that's fine. Hey boys Decks with no advantage or death of the advantage is no advantage. No advantage. Okay, you sure about that? I won't need it. I won't need it.

I'm just gonna really get these dice mixed up. Ready? And... Ha ha! Ha ha! Ten! Dirty ten! Oh, nice, nice. Eat my rat shorts! The hinge that this chain is linked to starts bending away and at the last second it clamps back down as you swing back into the window

and you go through the opening. Yeah, and I tuck and roll. All right. And I yell, clear! You swing and you tuck and roll into this room and you recognize, actually you don't recognize this room but someone else might. You come through the window and you're covered with books

and scrolls and table. Oh, the study! The nerd room! Yeah, we did tell Benny about the study. There you go. So you would recognize it from the description before? Benny is horrified of this room. Yeah, so you see, Benny just kind of took action and went out the window, but you see,

I've got another rope here, and I think this could have helped us and made things a little easier, see? Yeah, so what are the rest you're gonna do? I guess you could use that as a rappelling thing so if one person stays up top they can have the rope wrapped around the other person that's climbing down just as a safety precaution. Yeah yeah yeah. I'll say you guys kind of anchor this rope down you have the chain still it's not quite as sturdy as maybe the rope is but with those two things and you guys being careful, you three easily are able to descend down this into this next room into the window. Wow, this is a cool room. I've never

seen it before because I was waiting in that hallway. Is this what school's like, see? I've been in this room, there's a lot of books, that's all I know. So you said there's a table with some papers? Yeah, there's like a dozen tomes as you're kind of like glancing across all these papers. You see the word castromancy over and over again, K-A-S-T-R-O-M-A-N-C-Y. And there's a hundred torn sketches of like, what looks like blueprints, similar to the one you have, but they're torn about, there's notes marked through them,

there's like things in the margins. And one thing that you do notice that's common in all of these is this 24th room. And you don't see that on your map. Wait, so they all have a 24th room, but our map doesn't. It doesn't actually have the room itself. It just has that in the notes, 24th room. All right, so that's a two, what's his name?

T. Tardinal. T. Tardinal. T. Tardinal. Yep. You got there. T. Tardinal. That was he didn't finish. So he didn't get to the room 24. Do we know where 24 is? It's not on our map. I've got an idea.

Yeah, me too. Boss, you go ahead. You go ahead, sir. I think we need to count all the windows, see? And we need to see there might be one that doesn't connect anywhere, you see? What? Every floor has four. There might be one missing. Well, he did fall, right? So maybe he was trying to reach the 24th room or look for it or something.

So maybe it's... Yeah, you're onto something with the windows. So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. In room 20, there are two windows, but they only have one symbol saying where they're going. Same with 19. Oh, really? Dang it.

So those match up. There's still more books and tomes and stuff if you want to keep looking for any more information. Can I look through them? Sure. You kind of peruse through some more buried books and paper that you didn't see initially in the glance. And you see something written in the margins

in a hand script. It's no longer like been stamped around or like maybe officially plant on this paper. And it says the words drowned lover. Velen is a name that you keep seeing over and over again. Velen? Yeah, V-I-L-I-N. V-I-L-I-N.

It's some kind of like poem you gather. Like it's not very good, but it seems very heartfelt. I think I'm onto something. Oh, yeah. I am totally lost. No, no, no. I got something. I got something.

Okay, go for it. Never mind. No, never mind. Did it go? Is it gone? It came and went. No, it wasn't. Well, I thought I found the missing floor, but it was 5S.

It's just real small on the map. And I don't know, don't ignore me. Maybe is there a sixth floor? Oh. I'll also point out that you guys realize you're still in 22. We need to go back to 23. Yeah.

Maybe we should go to 23 and then try to figure this out. Yeah. And if we go through the window here in 22, it'll take us down to- 3E? 3E. Which would be 23.

Yeah, as you're looking at the window, you realize that there's more blood on this window sill. Did he like fall and just like knock his head on all of these windowsills? Well, maybe he was looking out of 5E and fell down. He had a knife in him. So I think he got stabbed somewhere and then was climbing down. No, Vol did. Right. We're talking about Vol?

Talking about T.Tardinal. I was talking about T.Tardinal, how legend is that he like fell. Yeah. But I think like it's possible he was, he fell by like looking for something or got pushed. Did 5e have the window? Did that window have blood as well?

It did. That's the one you came down. Why would there be blood at the top? Did that window have blood as well? It did. That's when you came down. Why would there be blood at the top? This is wait, I thought this tower only had four floors. There was five. Five. Five floors. So top floor, if we look out 4e window and look up, is there anything above 5e? Look out 4e and you're looking up past it? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, we're like in room 22 and we're looking at the window that I flew in.

You know that there's a top of this tower. There's no flew in. You know that there's a top of this tower. There's no more rooms, but you know there's a top of this tower. I think we gotta go up there. Maybe that's the altar that Cheesemay, nerd. No, Ees-may. Es-may. Es-may was talking about Cheesemay.

I heard Cheesemaster and I was like, oh God. No, no, no. Okay, let's go to 23. Let's go to 23, we have to do that first. Yes. All right, so you all go out the window, kind of similar to what you did before, and start to descend down into 23. You make it inside, and that's where you see this blood still spilled on the floor, but no longer a full corpse. And then you see a window to the north, and it's off the fifth floor.

I just want to check real quick. We still got our orbs above us, right? We didn't lose those. Oh, thank God Okay, so if we stick our head out of that north window, so we're looking down the south direction of the fifth floor Yes. Yeah as you guys are looking out this window you hear Three sets of footsteps coming down the hallway and they stop right at the threshold of this room Are you still wearing your cloak? Yeah. I know I am. Could I like listen to see if they are saying anything?

You are listening and you hear breathing but you don't hear any talking. And all you hear is chomp. That's the most horrifying thing ever. Like a weapon being cheap? Drawing of a weapon. Maybe they're just like swapping out the Game Boy cartridges. This tower just got really creepy. Yeah. And then you hear something fall on the ground that clatters and it's the manacles that you had before.

Uh oh. We get our deposit back now. Let's roll initiative. Oh no. Oh good lord. We should have. We should have killed Balthazar. Is a 2d6 for initiative? 1d6. 1d6. 1d6. 1d6. I'm just gonna go with Barb. What did you roll, Barb? Oh, you sure you don't wanna go with Blaine? I got two scissors!

She held up a finger. No, I went like this. I got a two. You got a two? Okay, I got a six. So these creatures are gonna go first. These? You suspect these are the Rikolu,

if you had to guess, and you already heard a unsheathing of something. First one goes for Big Benny, and you see this obscured kind of warping of space lunge out at you, and at the last second, you instinctually like definitely jut out of the way to the left, and you hear it kind of like just nick your fabric,

and it's some kind of metal scraping against you. Next one. This time you hear the stretching of fabric and fibers and it sounds like almost like a rubber band stretching. Eric, you hear something whiz past your head like a rock or a bird flying past you. That's right. See, that's a warning shot.

Get out of here. And then last, Billy, you hear another thing whizz past your head as well. And they just don't seem to have you zero. So now it's your turn. What do you guys want to do? I have a potion of strength. If I was to take that,

could I use the effects on that on this turn or would it have to be until the next time? Absolutely. Okay. Then I'm going to be like, boss I've got you. And I'm going to chug the potion of strength and then draw sword and shield and just hack it. The area I'm assuming where they are just based

on the weirdness and the, you know, vision blurriness. Yeah. You drink this potion that's yellow and you read the label again, like as you're looking out of the bottle, emptying and it says super strength and you're both label again, like as you're looking out of the bottle, emptying, and it says super strength, and both your arms become enormous, like gorilla-sized arms, and they actually weigh you down, and now you're like almost upside down,

like a handstand, with like how your arms are just so heavy, but you feel like you can throw or punch anything if you can get your arms up. Wow. Okay, then I wanna see if I can get your arms up. Wow. Okay, then I want to see if I can get my arms up and just start swinging, just start at these cloaked figures.

All right, make a strength check and I'll give you advantage. Yeah. We're gonna call him Billy Big Arms, see? Yeah, Billy Big Arms. Shoot, that's a six and a two, that's eight plus one, nine. You feel a connection as you start helicoptering these massive arms, these biceps around,

and you hear it connect with like some kind of bone cracks and you see something fall to the floor and the cloak that was covering it is falling off of it and you just see this bloodied rodent just staring blankly at you now. Oh cool. Ross, I killed one for for you one shot. Yeah, good job. It's like the brother from umbrella Academy Oh, yeah, I get compared to that guy a lot actually the actor from the Netflix. Yeah, let's keep going. Who's next? I'll go I they can't see me right cuz I sell the cloak on correct

And they don't have any like special abilities to like see people in the cloak. You don't know could I try to flank one of them, get behind them, and take my two daggers and stab them in the back? So let me ask you, if you can't see exactly, you can guess where they might be and they're kind of in this doorway, how do you think you'd get around them? Ooh, that's a good point. Ooh, instead actually, I have a lantern and oil. Oh God.

Could I take some of my oil and like throw it onto the ground? Absolutely you can. And then what do you want to do? Like keep going with that idea. Well, I don't know if I could use my lantern, but I also have a tinderbox. Yeah.

And I kind of want to light it up. Yeah. Okay. Are you going to light it at the same time? Are you going to toss one and then hopefully toss the other like what's the mechanic here? Essentially my goal is to like make this oil flame up. Yeah on the ground potentially like burns them Let's do it make a deck check and we'll just say it's a it's a flat decks check not advantage disadvantage That would be a 11 actually yeah

Yeah, you managed to get it what you think is like if there's one on the ground like it seems to be covering the Left side of this doorway you think there's two other ones and you toss it in kind of towards them immediately hits the ground and Judd out from this oil and start filling the the doorway with this like red hot licking flames And you start hearing like screaming and like they start backing up a bit. Do we see like their cloaks or something? And or like, are they on fire now so we can actually see the flames? Yeah, like catching them on fire.

You still don't see them, perhaps, but like you see where they should be now. Like kind of their outlines in the fire. OK, and that's probably my action, right? What did you roll again? An 11. You see one of them fall to the ground and is like trying to like douse themselves, but they can't do it in time and they kind of fall over. But they're not unclothed, but you see that there's smoke rising from the ground from this lifeless corpse.

Okay. And there seems to be one left after that happens. There's one left. Okay, that's my turn. Way to go, muffin! Who's next? I guess I'll run up with my dagger and try to stab at the area

wherever the final one appears to be. Sure. And I'll also say like, you guys don't have to go like one at a time. You can do things together if you want. You want to stab together, Benny? Benny, you want to do a stab? Yeah.

Could I, like, if you can stab them, could I then like use, I have a shield. Can I use my shield to like push them into the fire even more? Yeah. Or back into the fire or something like that? Cast them into the flames! Yeah, you totally can. Let's do Benny, you make a strength or dex, I'll leave it up to you.

And then Boss, I'm gonna ask you to do just an attack. Yeah, see? Nine. Yeah. Five. Nine to five. You guys look at each other and you're like, we got this. And like you start lunging forward,

but it's just like the flames are too hot. And you're like, oh, this is actually harder than I thought. And you're like dancing around these flames. Oh. Billy, you messed me up. There's one more. I'm so sorry, guys, I'm sorry. Ooh, this final one is like really upset at all this

and starts screaming out like, you killed my friends. And like starts lunging towards Big Benny and you see this knife come out you, like it's clearly like not no longer cloaked by this blue fabric anymore and lunges towards you and you see it stick you in the arm. You see it stick in your arm and it's gonna be really hard to move that particular arm,

but you don't take any damage at this point, at least right now. Okay. Adrenaline. Where are we with initiative? Are we back to another initiative roll? That's true, actually we didn't roll. I'm just gonna say it's y'all's turn now. Okay.

Then I would respond to such a transgression. Me too! Muffin sees this injustice and takes both her daggers and tries to stab. Yeah, you all four can do something together if you want. Let's gang up on him, beat him while he's down, and Hulk smash! All of us, not Benny! I've still got, I got one hand that can use it and I have a one-handed axe, so I swing that around. Okay, you can make an attack roll.

Billy, if you want to do another advantage, strength, and then whatever else the rest of you want to do. Attack. Similar to Muffin, I'll go in with Dagger. Nine. My attack is 12. Okay. Oh, I got a 10. Okay.

Eight. Okay. Hey, you're the brains, you're the brains. You all four take this thing down and like tear it to shreds, really, is what happens. Yeah. And it falls into this ashy heap of rodentia and there are no more enemies to be dispatched you have cleaned my rat maze yeah we did it but there are flames that are still clinging onto this room and starting to spread on the floor uh that's my bed have i got

a water scan or anything like that uh no there's. There's a lake outside. See? You can use the lake. Ha ha ha ha. And just a reminder, there is a window to the north that's on the fifth floor. Should we try to go up to the top, topity-top roof? Yeah, if we look out that window to the north and we look up, is there a way to go up and into something that is a new room? There is a chain dangling down. What? A d-d dangling down. What?

Dangling down to us? From above. Okay. From above, yeah. What do I do with this knife in my arm? Could Muffin take it and yank it out real quick? Totally can. That's what they always say.

Yeah. Whenever you get the knife stuck in you, you gotta pull it out immediately. It's better to be kind of injured than to try to climb a rope with a knife in your, so blood starts kinda oozing out of your arm, and like, you can feel it again. Like, you could probably use it again, but you do get damaged from it. What's my damage? It was one. I have medicine with me. I have three medicines. Could I give any one of the medicines?

Absolutely, you can. I lost an HP and I got it back. Yeah. Boss? Are you injured, Boss Eric? Nah, I'm good. I'm tough. See? Yeah. Killer. It's like that scene in Kung Fu Hustle with the throwing knives where he accidentally stabs his partner

and then pulls it out and puts it back in. Love that movie. That's a great scene. Let's climb up that chain, see? I'll lead the way because I got these big alarms and I can help you guys up. You go, big arms Billy. You got it boss. All right You lead the way and start climbing out onto this chain

And as you do you you see it the the Sun is almost completely set this the sky is starting to dim The moon is full and casting beams that are glistening off these chains you climb further and further and further until you reach the top and you come across an altar. There's a table that looks like it's made for some kind of offering or ritual that you're not sure what it could be. Esme was right. You do realize that... Oh, oh, oh, oh!

Sorry, you have more to say, Micah. You do realize that your spark is still above your heads, and I'm assuming all of you climb up there. Yes, I climb up. Muffin, didn't you find a special coin? I did. Should we get asmah here just to watch, or just hang out, or just do it ourselves? I say just go for it. Do it, do it, do it.

Muffin looks at Eric and goes, I got it. Yeah, do it, do it. Muffin looks at Eric and goes, I got it. Yeah, do it. You're the one talking about fun and a friend, see? So I'm just gonna make sure, give you the encouragement that you need, see? She puts a thumb up to Eric and then she takes the coin out and puts it on the table? Alter. Alter? You pull out the coin and you try to put it down, but it doesn't leave your hands.

Sticky hands! I guess I'm going with this. Muffin, let go of the coin. I'm trying! Make a will check. I was waiting for that. Seven. You don't want to let go of the coin. Why would you?

Muffin! Something's compelling me to not let go. But as you approach this altar, you see that the spark over your head starts falling in front of your face and kind of, it's almost like if it had a face, it looks at you in the eyes and then enters the altar and the altar starts glowing with murky light. Oh, maybe it wasn't the coin. I think I need Eric to tell me to do it again. Do it, do it. Is it the coin or is it the light?

I'm confused. What does the light in the altar look like? It's almost like water waves if you're looking at light underwater. You see these lines kind of washing across the table. What's happening with the lights from everyone else's heads? They're still a few steps behind you, so they're still hanging out above their heads. I'll approach.

Yeah, let's all approach the different sides of the altar. Same thing, all your sparks kind of come out in front of you and in front of your faces and then move forward into the altar and the altar becomes even brighter and brighter. Before you know it, lightning starts striking in the air. Everybody make a dex check. Oh, no. That is a six.

Eight. Nine. Seven. The eight and nine are fine. The six and seven you're gonna take six two damage and seven one damage. I'm down to two. And the weirdest thing is that the lightning didn't come from the sky. It came from the lake.

Whoa. Like it shot out and kind of arched right for you all. What we do now? You hear a voice emanate from the altar. What is your wish? Our wish is for you to return the life to Vol. I don't know what we're actually trying to wish for. I mean that would be nice, yeah. It's a very noble wish. As you finish saying that, Muffin, you hear like, way down in the distance, YEEEAAAHHHHH! Hahahaha!

What do the other three of you want to do? Do we get a wish as well? What is your wish? Oh cool, we all get a wish. Oh yeah, happy day! I wish for another kitty. Every campaign. The cat lady of the group.

I am, thank you very much. I will take that title. A tiger appears next to you. It's a big kitty! And it starts purring, affectionately. Hello, I will call you Muffin. Wasn't your other cat also called Muffin? That is correct.

I find this offensive. Everybody make a deck check again. Uh oh. Do we need to get out of this lightning room? I might die. Ten. Thirteen. Okay, that was a ten.

Six. Uh oh. You're gonna take two more points of damage. Eric falls to the ground. Oh no! Lightning strikes Eric in the chest and he's grown into the parapets of this tower on Lifeless. What do you do? I want my wish!

I want my wish! I wish that my adopted dad, Eric, was back alive! What happens? What happens, Eric? My eyes pop open and I see glowing light around my adopted son Billy. And I have my two giant arms. Come here, give me a hug, papa! Oh, come here, son. Eric, make your wish. We need to get out of here.

We've all heard of bear hugs, but you've never seen a gorilla hug like this. Yeah, from a rat. Yeah, I wish I was respected as a legitimate businessman, see? You feel something appear like a piece of paper in your pocket. Oh, I pull it out and look at it. It says Eric, tycoon and master of all business.

Yeah. One day this will be your son, see? Let's get out of here now. That's my dad! As that's happening, Muffin goes, Esme, Esme, Esme. Oh yeah. Esme appears and a door opens before you just in front of the altar.

Yes. Put us in! Muffin runs for the door. Chase it! I run, I run. Yeah, you are running for the door. Same, same, same. Do not wait for lightning.

You guys start running through the door and clouds start sparking with life all around you and the lake starts emptying out from water. Just as you close to the door, the whole tower explodes with light and water and floods the island below. Luckily, you're on the edge of the lake on the other side. It's a shame Vol had to die twice. Yeah, I was gonna say, where's Vol?

You see Vol is in a rowboat, like just trying to get out of there, but he's stuck in a waterless lake now. Oh no. I knew me rotten boat here was gonna be a good idea. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Great call buddy, great call. Our tale moves forward into the future.

Vole has returned to his father safe and sound and wiser than before. He heeds his father's wisdom much more, now having a second chance at life. Murin is a rodentia of his word, and then some. Upon hearing the report of your heroic adventure through the Spire and what you've done for his son, he doubles your promised bounty and rewards each of you with 100 silver pieces. The fate of the Reekloo gang remains a mystery, particularly because it's unclear how devastating your dispatching of the three blue-cloaked Rodentia was to their faction.

However, word has begun circling throughout the region that Pestis, their leader, is looking for the foreview, this maze rat pack. The lake that surrounded T'Tardnol's tower is henceforth permanently dried of all water. From what few clues you unearth from the spire and its secrets, it seems the curious cast romance that was cast upon the structure has fallen dormant since its destructive demise. But what of its connection to the lake, or this perplexing path of sparks? Perhaps the door to that enigma shall be unlocked in due time. What becomes of the four of you with your new found treasures, magic, and granted wishes?

I slowly expand my business empire and corner the market on cheese imports and exports across the land. Very good. What does Billy do? I pay for a prosthetic finger for my friend Muffin if she wants it. Oh. And I try to follow in my papa's footsteps as a legitimate businessman

Penny would you obviously the one thing you would do with this kind of a Money injection he buys a farm and he turns it into a animal shelter for Cats and they're all named often. They're all this is it's called muffin land farm and he turns it into a animal shelter for cats. And they're all named Muffin. They're all. This is, it's called Muffin Land. I can get behind that. What about Muffin?

Muffin happily takes the finger that her friend Billy acquires for her. He gave you the finger? Yes, unfortunately. So used to it. She attaches it to the hand that already has five fingers. So that's four and six now. Perfect super hand. I think that, you know, she's not one to settle down anywhere.

So she, you know, lives her life on the road and I think waste away all of her earnings gambling. That's the life. Classic Movin, the best story to end on. And this concludes this tale of the Skyblind Spire. But is this the last we will hear of our Maze Rat Pack? Or do the fickle fingers of fate have more in store for our furry friends? Perhaps you should become a patron of the Stinky Dragon Tavern to find out.

Yay! I should have kept the money. Did you know that you can directly support the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com slash Stinky Dragon? Become a patron and you can get your name shouted out like these lovely folks. Lucas Copley, Victoria, aka rattlesnake50, Alicia Hockenberry, Glenn Stacey, Jacob Whitzel. These patrons directly support the show and get ad free episodes, access to our patron only discord server, bonus content like Second Wind and Behind the Screen and much more.

Again that's patreon.com slash stinky dragon. We can't thank y'all enough for your support that lets us make this show. This episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon was produced by Ben Ernst and edited by Mike Reisner. Hey, that's me and Kathleen Arnold. I know her. A special thanks to Michael Prescott

for letting us use his written module. Want to run it on your own? Check it out at triilema.com. That's T-R-I-L-D-M-M-A dot com. Head to Patreon.com slash Stinky Dragon for all things a stinky. And tune in next time for another thrilling episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. you