The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Ethersea - Episode 29

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

Cambria's Call: Part Eight Following an unexpected encounter with Amber's sworn foe, the Coriolis arrives at Cambria's deep sea dwelling. Devo, Amber and Zoox whip up an unconventionally stealthy plan of attack.Additional music in this episode: “A Month of Dust” by Schemawound http://schemawound.com/; and “Harbor” by Kai Engel http://www.kai-engel.com/. Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Previously, on the Adventure Zone Ethersea. We come here with the information of where to get more phytoplankton and the origin of the salo. I think of Blank Bay. Oh, fuck, yes. Yeah, we can teleport in 100 feet. That might help us to get in without a lot of calamity. This is good. We do the salvage call.

Kodier, you're going to take your ship and you're going to follow them. you hear Amper Sand 5 say, hey, I'm here, so don't be scared of me. The lights on the Coriolis flash off of a golden ship. The first thing that you see is a body. They are wearing a padded jacket. There is a large table at the center of the room. And at the very center of it, a small black sphere. You feel the hairs on your neck stand up and feel this like very slight wave of nausea.

Somewhere very nearby outside. Something is watching this attempted salvage job. And it is waiting for the moment to strike. You are in the presence of a lot of, another blink shark. We're done. We're done now. Everybody back to the ship.

We are done. We are leaving. Now. But I don't have to... Blank sharks. Okay. We are leaving. Get back to the ship now.

Well, now, hold on. What is the... Is the blink shark? I understand. This is bad, but you deal with this. You get the blink shark. We'll get to the table. I don't like to.

Okay. I just do. Like, I avoid it if I can, right? I'm not an airbag, right, in case of emergency. I guess the metaphor is good. I'm like an airbag, but I'd rather you're not getting the wreck. Let's go. Okay, but Zook's is still over there and we are still...

Get him! Well, okay, but also... While this conversation is going, Amber's like rooting through the ship finding every, like, sharp thing that she can find. So she's grabbing, like, she's got knives. She's looking for other knives. that she's like hidden. Yeah.

I feel like she's reaching like up above, you know, the Amber's place like, uh, wainscoting. Right. To find the knives and she's duct taped up there. Here's what I'll say, because I believe you got a Nat 20 on your, your perception role, right?

Uh, your senses are so honed and so like weirdly extra sensory at this point that you know, the blink shark doesn't know that you know it's there. Did that sentence track for you? Yes. Okay. So basically, the blink shark thinks like, ho, ho, am I going to watch and follow and wait for the right moment?

And you're like, you know, you know that that motherfucker's out there. You've done this enough times. You know their patterns. Right, exactly. Well, why don't we just, we'll tell this big baby, biggest baby, excuse me, to, I don't know, shoot it? It's a big. No, no, no, no. They're too maneuverable.

they'd never be able to hit it, not from that distance. Yeah, fine. You're not wrong. God damn it. All right, I'm firing a depth charge. Whoa, okay. Woo! In the meantime, Zooks, we probably should hurry.

I'm sawing away as fast as I can. Oh, I believe it. You're doing great. All right. Depth charge. So, this is positional. I'm willing to say that, like, because you have the sort of strategic advantage here, you are able to fire this thing off.

I think we've only talked about depth charge being something that you can drop, but we can... Well, we have it geographically settled on where this thing is, right? Yeah, that's fair. So, yeah, you can get a depth charge in this thing's direction. The good thing about depth charge is it would be hard for this thing to avoid it because it fires in a 60-foot sphere. Perfect.

What do I roll for that? I think they have to roll a dexterity saving throw, or I guess a speed save in order to get away from it. So I will do that. And if I'm absolutely getting the drop on them, that feels like with disadvantage, right? I don't know that. I mean, the thing is they would see a depth charge coming.

I don't know that it would be like a instantaneous. If you were using a cannon, you definitely would. But I think that with a depth charge, it would just be a regular roll against that. Okay. So. 4D10 plus 6 force? Jeez.

No, that is not going to do it. That is a 10. Okay. You just sort of close your eyes and know where this thing is, and the depth charge kind of just follows. And maybe the blink shark is so focused on you and where you are at that it does not even see this bomb coming toward it. and when it detonates, you feel the blink shark's pain as it is caught in the blast. So I want you to roll 4D10 plus 6 force damage, and then because you are a ship, and this is not a ship, this is a sea creature that is smaller than a ship, it is going to do double damage.

That's 38 times 2, which is 76. Fucking hell. Amber don't play around, Griffin. Yeah, Jesus Christ, she sure doesn't. You just see the explosion in the water, which is like that just basically a cool big bubble appearing and then sinking back in on itself very quickly. And the blink shark is not there when the bubble clears.

Amber whispers to herself, "'Tell your friends.'" Yeah. Uh, you... This will be hard for them to do and they are dead. It's a, it's a, I said to myself, okay? It didn't, it didn't require commentary. Sorry, was it under your breath to yourself or like in your head to yourself?

Well, I mean, it's like under my breath. Are you gonna talk about your incredible hearing? Well, yes, uh, you see, I have powerful senses. It's a figure of speech. Let's get Zooks and get out of here. You hear, uh, the Coriolis tone wheel, go off and then you hear Kodira's voice resonate through your ship and she says is everything okay down there because something just exploded

it's just Amber doing me doing my thing got another one okay do you require backup that is why we're here no I don't require backup I'm Amber Grey yeah all right will you actually will you radio back to uh to Uncle Joshie let him know chalk another one up Um, yeah, like, yeah, hold on one second. You hear, like, a codec ring in the background and hear their conversation just barely muffled. Uh, but you do hear Uncle Joshy say, That's what Joshy's talking about. Tell her that's one.

Tell her that's one more on the board. Tell her she's in the lead now. She says, he says you're in the lead. Yeah, I figured you've been in the lead. Okay, well, I guess let us know if you need something. And the, maybe another damn. Well, you still have one more. We have one more.

Yeah. Okay. Zooks casts a spell. Okay. Zook casts summon beast. Summon beast. Zooks cast summon beast and he summons up a sawtooth shark. Okay.

And has the sawtoothed shark. Because this is the fucking Flintstones. Hey, I got to see it's a living. I'm going to use it. And he instructs the sawtooth shark who, whose name is molar and he starts sawn away as Zooks is cutting away at the cables. Okay. Why don't you roll, what do you think?

Sight a hand for this with advantage. That is the sawtooth shark bonus I will give you. Okay. Do you think when the sawtooth shark showed up, he was like, oh, my buddy Zooks wants to hang out. Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess I'll use my face. I've got to work.

Yeah. To cut these metal cables. Okay, that is a 13 for molar. Okay. You have advantage. You do have advantage. And an eight. Okay.

I think all this means is like now you don't have this threat outside anymore. It takes you a while to get through these cables, probably another couple hours or so. during which Coderre continue Yeah man I mean it's you are trying Not to break this thing Essentially

Now wait how many hours Because the salvage claw Would have to speed it up A little bit right I mean the salvage claw Is applying pressure And pulling it outward But you you looking at all of the cables down here

You get the impression That if you just like hacksawed through this thing It would be irrevocably fucked up Like you were trying to be A bit more careful than that Regardless you have done three bad roles In trying to remove it So it takes a good long time.

But eventually you do saw through the last cable. And very quickly, it is sort of ripped out of the floor of the bridge here. And the cable starts to slowly pull it back out of the hominine ship and back towards yours. Okay. The sawtooth shark looks at you expectantly. Like, no, no what, boss? A tip? Follow.

Can you follow? I don't know how long you exist. Oh, gosh, I could have put that a little better, couldn't I? What? What does that mean? Huh? Nothing. Nothing.

I can't wait to get back home and see my kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to say, I still think it's really fucked up that when you create them, you create them with memories of kids. It is fucked up. It says here, concentration up to one hour. Great.

Okay. I'm going to get on board this big thing here. You follow us as fast as you can. It's gone. It lives for one hour. He outlived his traditional lifespan by one additional hour. So he had a good long life as far as summoned beastial spirits goes. At the end, he said, I go with a smile on my face hole. I think you can just go ahead and say a shark has a mouth. He does have a mouth. Okay. All right. You follow the table. It is reeled back into the cargo bay. of the Coriolis. And you have brought back your hall, which is, again, a jacket with gold epaulets, a sigil of old sort of benevolence worship, the flare launcher, which you'd think would be easy enough to install in the Coriolis and make use of, and this weird table with a sphere in it. Congratulations. That's a lot of, that's a lot of loot. I think he wants to give the jacket

to Amber. Okay. Because, I mean, Deva already has it a brand new jacket, right? Yeah. We got to spread those jackets around. And it's got some branding on it too. This feels like a captain's jacket in Amber.

I was the captain after all, so I am willing to relinquish my claim on the jacket. I agree. How many sleeves does this jacket have? Just probably the usual amount of. Yeah. Well, I would just think, and if we had to make accommodations

for, you know, the extra arms. No, they're spiritual. Spiritual. It's fine. They're spiritual arms. Amber, look. Check it out. Wow.

Look at this. It's one of those like puppy jackets. Hell yeah. And it's got a starter jacket? What do you mean? It's, I don't, I just have always heard. Look, it's got epaulets, right? Appalettes.

Yeah, look, it's got epaulets on the top. Hell yeah. This is very like Sean John Circa 2011. I feel like that was very much that look. Here, take it. It's for you. Hell yeah.

Thank you so much. This is radical. Hold on one second. Let me just. And she gets out her knife and she cuts the sleeves off. Hell yeah. Yeah, look at that. But not the epaulet.

You left the epaulets, right? No, I left the epaulettes and I just cut the sleeves off. I got to have, I got to have ranging movement. If my arms are covered up, I feel all bound up, you know? Yeah. Hell yeah. And this is sweet, though. Thank you.

You're welcome. I can't wait to see the fan art. And this is for you, Devo. It's some sigils. Oh, yeah. I did want to take a look at these, yes. I think they're called sigils. No, it's sigils.

My mistake, I'm sorry. And he seagulls? Urchin, can you put this flare thing in somewhere? Urchin is never where you want him to be. Urchin says, Yeah, I mean, it might take me a little while, because I have to cut some pretty big holes in the ship. And is that something you all want me to do while you're on the ship? Because it could.

I'll be honest. You might die. Yeah. Yes, maybe we wait on this? Y'all ever have the bins? Mm. No. Nasty stuff the bins.

Oh, please don't get that topic started. We're going to have everybody talking about. I've seen men turned inside out. You have? I don't want to talk about it. Oh, God, sorry, O'SRnerner, I did not mean to touch on this. Amber or Zooks, would one of you drive? I would love to take a look at this table.

Go for. Can I drive? Yes? Oh, that's fun. That's fun. Awesome. Devo, you take the sphere, I guess, is what we've described as the control apparatus for this ship. Why don't you roll plus speed?

plus ship speed. We'll just to see how smooth this baby goes for you. Okay. Amber kind of casually, like, acts like she's leaning on a doorframe, but is actually, like, fully bracing herself. That's five plus five, so that's ten. I mean, this ship immediately, like, goes down and it just sort of scrapes along the bottom. Again?

Of the trench. It's in reverse. put it you have to put it in drive oh yes the ship the ship takes uh four points of hull damage oh this is fine everybody makes mistakes okay uh all right i do love too that that happened and still the biggest baby is like

you guys good like what the fuck is happening down there you're gonna be fine on this very important mission right uh what armor were you wearing before amber There's something weird about monk armor, right? Yes, that is what I was... Unarmored defense. While not wearing armor and not using a shield, your AC equals 10 plus decks modifier plus wisdom modifier.

Yeah. Okay. Um... I mean, I wouldn't count this as armor. No, no, no. Yeah, this is just a jacket with some... Why don't you... Plus one to intimidation.

You think that's what it does? No, you, you know what? Why don't you roll Arcana? Okay. One of my mini neutral skills. Six. Yeah, you can't. You'll figure out what this thing does later.

You've just torn the sleeves off of it. Like, this thing is not a, it's not plate mail. You do not feel necessarily more protected by it. But it does feel, it feels very nice to have it on. That's well I'll say. Okay. Devo, what do you, how are you sort of looking at this table as the ship starts? it's moving again. Well, I guess first, like, looking for any kind of carvings or sigils in that.

I want to do an arcana check on the sphere. I mean, like, if this was used by an benevolence-based ship, right? I mean, definitely there's a mechanical aspect to it. We had to go through all the cables. But it's got to have a magic thing to it, right? Like, that's benevolence's whole deal. Yeah. So why don't you start with an arcana check then? While you are doing this, ampersand is also kind of like, giving the table at once who we're trying to figure out. 11 plus 5 is 16. Okay.

The sphere you recognize, not from real life, but from studies about benevolence. The Church of Benevolence, the original sort of sect that was built around this vestige that shared the gift of magic

with the rest of the world, was so like sprawling and so protective of the things that they would discover about magic, that they had essentially like their own kind of internal spy network to ensure that the secrets never really got leaked. That sphere that is in the middle of this table is like one of the main tools that they used in that it could be encoded with certain magic or certain information that would be like virtually impossible to, penetrate. Looking at the table, you can tell that it is some sort of display that is not functioning right now because it's been severed from whatever sort of power system was powering it. But putting those two things together and based on the fact that it was sort of

the location of it, right? It was right in the middle of this bridge. You get the sense that this is some sort of like navigational apparatus, like a, like a, a map or something, but whatever was at the heart of it, sort of providing the map or any sort of data to it is this like ironclad thing that is super, super locked tight. So wait, it's ironclad like it's encoded or is physically locked out? Okay. It is, it is encoded in a way that like you, you know about these things. In a billion years, you could not figure out, like you could not decode it yourself.

Well, now, hold on. Are you sure? Because Diva has done a lot of studying of these, like, ruins and sigils and shit. This is Fort Knox. This is like, if the data that was inside of one of these things leaked out to anyone, it could expose enormous vulnerabilities to the church. So this is not like a treasure chest that is locked. It is a black hole that is just impenetrable that, you know, would take some incredible specialist magic stuff to get into. Now, does this device have a name, or can I make it up?

You can, I guess you can make it up. Okay, I'm going to call the floating sphere a wisp. A wisp, okay. And the people who used it were whispers. Oh, I like that. Oh, that's fun. Can I talk to Amperstam then real quick? Sure. Amper sand, what do you think of the odds that you could get this, you know,

powered up? I don't know what it is. And also, I'm not really an engineer. If this was like a big dead fish or... Oh, you are more of a bio person, huh? Yeah, I'm a biologist. I guess I don't really talk about it a lot because my job's pretty boring.

Oh, what? No, come on. Thank you. That was very nice and very polite. So, no, this is above my pay grade, but it looks fancy, huh? Yes, this is fancy as hell. This is like a pretty, I would say, very high up benevolence, and by extension, hominine stuff.

This is not from our parish. This is like core benevolence church. Yeah, but like where did it come from? Because hominine's pretty gone, I thought. Well, not so gone. I mean, this, I mean, this ship, it has technology like this. It has, that is not ancient. This is not an, this is not an old ship that we have just come across. Well, we should probably tell someone about that. Yes, this does seem like some things that, at the very least, we should tell Zaboy are. For now, though, do you want to focus on, I guess we should focus on.

Savings the City. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get back to that. Hi, I'm Janet Varney. And just like you, I survived high school. And we're not alone. On my podcast, the JV Club, I invite some of my friends to share the highs and lows of their teen years.

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Learn how you two can be a functioning adult after the drama and heartbreak of high school. Every week on the JV Club with Janet Barney, find it on maximum fun. Or wherever you get your podcasts, this is a judgment-free show. Speaking of getting back to that, it is a short rest of the trip

as you all reach the end of this kind of ravine that you have been navigating, and you reach the huge drop-off down into this, this cauldron at the bottom of the sea. And still like, you know, several kilometers away from the city, you can see it. And it is not like how it looked in the memory. It is not this like, the intention that was maybe sort of applied by some kind of city designer is like fully, fully gone. on because it's not just this huge central hub with all of these sort of radial avenues splitting off of it. It is just sort of one big bubble now surrounding the temple that is at the middle.

The makeshift houses that were once sort of covered by the bubble stretching outward are, most of them have been like collapsed back down into the ocean floor beyond the point of like recognition. And similarly, like all of those glowing streetlights that were providing the atmosphere there, those are also all gone. The temple itself, though, the bubble that is surrounding it is much larger. So there are a few houses sort of in proximity to, to that central temple that are still there, but they are, even from where you are in the water, like, you can tell that they are pretty, pretty collapsed, pretty ramshackle. The temple itself, too, like, there are, are a few antechambers that you can see, you know, from above have just been collapsed in.

So even though it's been, you know, about 25 years since the memory where you saw this thing, it looks like things have just fallen the fuck apart here. Make a, I guess everyone make a perception check. A not 20, baby. Fuck. We can perceive the hell out of stuff, Griffin. Yeah. I got a 15, if that matters at this point. I mean, it does.

This natural 20, everybody's talking about. I got a Nate. Okay. I got a rock. Wow, fuck. Okay, with a Nat 20. I love that Griffin never anticipates us rolling good. Like, every time we get a Nat 20, he's like, fuck, really?

Ugh. Okay. Basically speaking, he should be looking for, like, a 10. The Nat, I mean, you've gotten a lot of Nat 20 perception roles, which just means I have to describe a lot more shit. Oh, I see. That's the problem. Oh, man, I got to be detailed.

The worst. If you roll like a Nat 20 hit with an axe, I'm like, wow, the axe hits so hard. But with a D20 perception, I'm like, the arraids everywhere. It's not an aesthetics role to be fair, right? Like, you don't have to tell me about the smell on the wind or whatever. The feng shui. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. The temple has this sort of dome-like roof over it. You can see that there are small cracks all around that. roof and sort of sticking through them are what look like tiny like grubs or tindrels of some sort that were not there in the memory they are those are new uh you can also notice that there's no people there are no uh you know clone people that are down in the city instead what you see are vaguely sort of sea creature-esque shapes

that are all the same shade of dark green. They look like they're on patrol outside of the temple and down sort of the small parts of the streets that are covered by the atmospheric bubble. And they are very, very fucked up looking. One that you see is like a big barracuda that is maybe half the size of your ship, only it's upside down.

and there are like crab legs coming out of it, causing it to sort of skitter across the ground. And there are maybe a half dozen of these things sort of on patrol outside. I think with an Nat 20 perception role, like you get a pretty good map of the city before you sort of get into a range where anything might be able to detect you.

And I'm assuming you're coming in like dark here, right? The Coriolis doesn't have as like, Oh, yeah. Silent running is the technical team. Yeah, cool running. Okay. Then, yeah, that's the situation. Do we not have also, we have the advantage of our memories, right, that we, Phineas' memories of the Y'all share?

For sure. Like, you all. So, I mean, I know things are collapsed, but is it safe to say that the same general layout? I mean, the same general, you know, layout. Yeah, definitely. The city is the same. Yeah, I think you all have a. a huge advantage in that, like, you know what is going on inside of there, or at least

you, you know, for the most part, you do. The one last thing, there are some, there were those, like, big tanks that almost looked like water tower tanks that surrounded the central building in the temple. A couple of those have collapsed in as well, but there's one that is still sort of standing behind it. Is there still a bubble around everything, or is it all flooded? There's one huge bubble around. the temple now. Just sort of like everything has been consolidated to protect it. And is it still kind of doing the breathing thing that it was doing?

If it, I mean, maybe, but it is like much more faint than it was when it was all sort of spread out a bit more. And none of those guards that you mentioned on patrol are outside of the dome. These are all inside. They're all inside of the dome. Yeah. The dome. Outside of the dome, the pressure, the water pressure is so intense that it. Like, nothing could, like, really survive out there.

Well, um, okay. It seems to me, um, if we're going to do the blink in thing, right? And there's cracks in the temple. We get over the temple. We look down. We see, like, oh, there's some phytoplankton. Pop-pop, grab, pop, pop, pop, pop, we're out. And then boom, boom, boom, blow up.

Why does it take two pops to get in with three pops to get in? It's harder. Because you're carrying the phytoplankton now. So it adds that extra pop. It's a five-pop job, as we call it. It seems like as good of a plan as we're going to get. I mean, did you account for us getting killed? I mean, when that definitely happens,

because these are bad boys that looks like and they're probably not going to love us grabbing their plankton. Yeah. So you're thinking like six pops? Well, yeah, one pop for our like internal organs popping out all over the floor. or like somebody spilled a damn jar spaghetti. And your eyes. Your eyes would pop.

Not me. I have eye holes, but your eyes probably for you. So we say, maybe not. Who has the fish eyes? Amber? Yeah. Yeah. I can see everything all the time.

It's exhausting. Yeah. I guess that's our best play. Okay. So pop-pop-pop-pop. The third pop's optional because that is the one where we're murdered. So if we could avoid that, it would be. Okay.

So pop-p-pop-pop. Pop. Pop-pop. I love that. Okay, great. Is this good? Can we use this instead? No.

Oh, how are you making that noise? I'm smacking my mouth. It really hurts. Yeah. That was violent. That's the finger out of the mouth. Oh. Let's go.

Let's go. Okay. So now we can only blink one person at a time, right? Because it is a blink bay, I think if you all want to like Star Trek it, that's fine. I think that that is a acceptable thing. And Amber Sand is going to remain on board to recall. Is that the plan? You tell me.

Okay. Ambercent, here's the deal. You are going to monitor the bay. And here, take my shell phone. Okay. And then if you see any of the guards moving into, like, they're like, oh, break time. And they go.

No, just tell us. Oh, and then we'll kill them. Yeah. Sure. If it goes south, you have the big baby just, yeah, just destroy everything. Wait, is this like a big hero moment where you're like, if we have to be sacrificed and the biggest baby blows us up while we're still in there to save the city? Like, is it one of those or is it one of those? No, but if we're our...

I mean, let's hope not, right? Yeah. If we're already dead, then... And they can blow it up. Okay. But, yeah. Because we won't care. Yeah.

And if I recall you all to the blink bay, but you come back as one sort of, like, six-legged, like, creature begging for death. Mm-hmm. That won't happen. Because if we come back, we'll be one at a time. Oh, okay. Because we'll be so victorious. I see. Yeah, we'll want to do a victory lap.

Okay. It'll be a pop. Victory lap. All right, cool. Let's do it. Let's go. Let's do it. I feel great about this.

I love this. Okay. We gear up. Get ready for what was once a stealthy invasion, but now it's just showing up in the middle of town, right? No. What? No. That was not.

No what? No. We're going to stealthily pop down to the middle of the temple. We're going to grab what we need and get the fuck out. Okay. And then. Stealthily, it's really important that we keep saying that. Because that makes it true.

Yeah. Well, I just don't want dad going. and they're thinking the plan is like, what up, motherfuckers? Give me their final plate, yeah, I remember the plan exactly. I shoot everybody with my crossbow with no provocation.

I will say, I don't know, maybe there's a disconnect here. The cracks that are in the top of the temple are not like huge enough for you to be able to see through and thus like put shit down in there. It is like these tendrils

have like pushed their way up like, you know, worms through the dirt. But this is not like you can, get a clear angle on the, you know, Cambria's chamber in the middle of this thing. So, like, you could, you could blink down to the roof. You could blink down to anywhere that you can see, but you can't blink down into the building. But it has to be something we can see. It can't be something we remember. Yes. Like, we couldn't try to blink down to site. Okay. It's in the description. Okay. Um, so do you all think we should blink down to the roof or should we try

I'd pop a hole in it. Well, is they definitely going to notice that once they? Well, we can't

get munitions through, can we? I mean, maybe. It's just a bubble. I mean,

I guess it is just a bubble, but seems like that could have some unintended consequences. Do we see any,

like, like an entrance to the temple that isn't guarded, or is it just like, that's locked down? The collapsed, like,

ant chambers? Maybe there's a, you know, know, a way in through there, but it's hard to see. Also, like, there's not stationary guards in front of this door, right? There's just some weird seed creature slime monsters that are just walking around the remnants of the city. So, you know, it's not impossible that you could get in there unseen. It would just be, you know, a stealth role.

Okay, here's what we do, right? They're, you know, walking around, what's over here, what's over here? We wait, there's no rush, and then when we see our window, pop, we pop down right by like a door or maybe into the collapsed chamber of things there. We go in, right? And then once we've got it, we wait for ampersand to say like, hey, another window. And then we pop up right back up. I love that plan. Yes?

I love it. Yeah. Yeah, let's go for it. Stealthily. I have plus three stealth want me to roll I think it would have to be a stealth role like right? That's ultimately that is your goal so if you want to say that like Zooks is the one

watching and waiting to signal when to go that can be a Zook stealth role that would keep you all from having to make a group stealth role which is usually what you would have to do in this situation. Yeah I think that were Amber what's your stealth that's a fine question not bad No, it's plus two. Okay, yeah, but Zook is highest.

So, yes. Okay, Zeus, on your marks. All right, Zooks, you can see through a porthole in the blink bay, and you can see these creatures sort of milling about the city, and using your keen sort of ranger senses, you wait for them to be basically as far from the door into the temple as you possibly can. And whenever you're ready,

let's see how good your timing is. Big roll, big roll. Hey, you're going to do great on this, too. I gave you a Vardic inspiration. Oh. Oh. Okay. So I have advantage?

No, you get to add, what is it, D-8 now, Trout? D-8, yes. Yeah, one D-8 to your role. That's a 15 flat if you want to... 15 plus... one 16 uh okay

with a 16 ampersand he sees you nod and hits a oh I think it'd be more than a nod it's kind of he's kind of hunched over he's looking down and then he dramatically points

like you're like pistol pointing okay uh and you you don't even hear the sound of like the switch being flipped you just hear this incredibly loud as you all disappear from where you are standing in the blink bay and just suddenly are standing in front of the temple. That's the first pop.

The sound you make reappearing also makes a fairly loud popping noise, but... That's the second pop. You are able to tuck your way into the temple before any of the creatures outside can see you. We avoided the third pop. Good going. Okay. We got three pops left, voice. You all are inside of the temple now and it is just falling apart.

The canals that like the algae were feeding into this building and going down into like the cloning areas have gone dry. There are splatters of hardened green goo just everywhere. You get the impression that like these. These clones or whatever beings that like Cambria was producing just kind of stopped working after a while. And that is what is left of them. And the dual staircases leading up to the level that Cambria's like chambers are one of them has like collapsed completely. But the other one is leading up. But there is nothing else.

There's nothing else in here. You basically have a clear shot into the chamber. The doors into Cambria's chamber are open, and you can see, like, actually quite a bit of light shining out of that room and into this foyer area. You do not see any of the spheres of phytoplankton. You should go in, right? Stealthily? Do you stealthily? I mean, it's worth a shot, right?

I have a real bad feeling that Cambria already knows we're here. This might be true, yes. I don't know. It's just my gut, but I got pretty good guts. What if we tiptoe? I'm just going to walk forward. Okay. All right.

I mean, are you trying to sneak into Cambria's chamber, or are you just cruising in there? Hmm. I just don't feel like we're going to get one over on Canberra. I mean, like, that's my gut feeling, and I guess that's the bet that I'm taking, right? Like, yes, I guess that is the bet that I'm taking. All right. Amber cruises on up the stairs. the other following?

Devo is going to try to maintain stealth. Okay. So not going directly in. Oh, I love this. This is a two-prong approach. Okay. And Zook's what you do? Let's be honest,

Devo ain't maids for face-to-face combat, what with his sing and all being his main use, his main weapon, or speaking, rather. Zooks, what are you doing? is kind of between the two of them and it's just on high alert is on super high alert all senses blazing

okay a matter of fact I am going to cast primeval awareness that sounds cool sounds cool I don't see this as a spell that you oh have no aberrations celestial's dragons elements the rules boys with the old

You don't have this spell. Guzzy, guzzie, guzzly. It's a feature. He can do this. It is a feature. Yeah. Okay. Well, you can use it to sense whether any aberration, celestial, dragons,

Elemental's, Fae, fiends, or undead, are present within one mile of you. It doesn't reveal the creature's location or number. So I'll go ahead and tell you, yes, and then don't waste the dispels. Like you saw them. It is here. You saw them, right? You know shit's, shit is around. Okay, he's on high alert though.

Okay. You look really cold, but like, let's just go in. I mean, I'm going in. Cambrian knows we're here. Remember, they said they know everything. Like, let's just walk in. We're not going to get a sneak attack in. Okay, but they're very big.

And, I mean, you are right. Yes, yes. Okay. Let's present confidence. Uh, uh, uh, I love that. Okay. Yeah.

Huh. So you guys are just cruising on in? Yeah. I think now that we're past the guards, we made the, like, we're in, you know what I mean? We avoided any kind of, like, fight with, as you said, a barracuda with crab legs. Yeah. I think it's time. Yeah.

We've won. Yeah, we've won. All right. Yeah. We're very cocky going in. No. Hey, confident is not cocky. Okay.

Well, I beg to differ. But you all go up the remaining staircase and head into the doorway into Cambria's chamber. And this room is so different from the memory. The light that is in here, it is so much brighter. The first thing that you see is one of those spheres like you saw in the streetlights in the memory. Only this one is much bigger. it's about two feet in diameter. And it is dangling from the ceiling

sort of wrapped in thick chains, almost like a overhead lamp just shining all around this room. The rear wall of this room, the one that is facing the remaining tank that you saw outside, there's now like patches of aquamarine sea glass looking into whatever that tank is.

And behind it, there are just these wispy lights drifting around, just sending flashes of light all around the walls of Cambria's chamber. And at the center of the room, there's a faint light shining up from the mound on the floor. But the mound itself is obfuscated because also sitting in the middle of the room draped around themselves in a sort of towering core. is Cambria. But they are not looking like the vital, sort of intimidating presence you saw in the memory. Their flesh is gray and sagging. Most of their frills hang kind of limply.

And some of their frills are pushed upward through the ceiling and are holding this, pile upright. You get the sense. And that is the stuff that you saw poking through the cracks, just sort of dangling Cambria like a marionette. And standing just in front of this massive worm, leaning against it almost, is a figure whose face is unmistakable in this well-lit room. It is Phineas Call. Are you sure it's not Ona? You're positive. Positive.

Okay, okay. And Phineas looks up at you, and as Phineas moves, Cambria kind of undulates also. And he says, It worked then. The transformation was a success. And he looks at you, Devo and you, Amber. And he frowns. And he says, a partial success.

I still sense vulnerabilities. Those can be addressed. And then he looks at you, Zooks, and he cocks his head. And as he does so, Cambria, cocks their head. And Finia says, but this is not my work. What are you? Well, I'm a new... I am a new creation.

I am something new. I will tell you if you tell me what you are. When he says that, Devo gives him, like, a thumbs up, like, nice, yeah. Very confident. That was good. Finney is... Takes like a step forward and then like second guesses himself and takes a step back. And it's just peering at you.

And he says, I am Phineas Kahl. I am Bertrand Bay. I am all of them. One. And life undivided. How did you find me? You, um, if I may. Um, and Devo.

looks to Amber and Zooks for confirmation, if I may. This is very interesting. Basically, the, pardon me, the actual Phineas call, we shared his memories, the memory of this place, we came here. All of that, very, very cool. But I think maybe we need to get to the point. you are doing this thing. Appreciate you are putting out whatever this transformation is. You look at my gills.

You look at the ambios eyes. You say, oh, my work. Great. We are going to need some of this phytoplankton. And however, we can undo this transformation. And then we need to be on our way because the city where we live is suffering from this thing. So whatever you can do to help us would be greatly appreciated.

Finia smiles and says, So your city still stands. Yeah, yeah, we're doing fine. Like, it's not perfect, but we're doing fine. Hmm. I'm trying to tell how much Amber means that. Well, why don't you roll a persuasion check? Not my strong, certain.

16. Nope. Two. Finneya smiles and says, I find that very hard to believe. You say you are suffering because of my gifts, but it is only through that suffering. that your kind can survive in this world. Um, Devo steps forward.

I, sorry, I have to differ with you on two points. One, you cannot call it a gift if it was not asked for or offered. You imposed this on us. This is not how a gift works. and second, your understanding that strengths comes through suffering, this is not the way. This is not an acceptable pathway for us to move forward. I see.

So rather than accept what I have given to you to survive, and thrive in this ruined world, you would choose death. When Phineas and Ona came here, I have no idea what Bertrand's whole deal was, but you called Phineas, your child. You saw these creatures, all creatures, as your descendants. Is this correct? of course and you feel that's the only way they will survive

and thrive in your words is to do things your way is this correct in a manner of speaking well and I'm sorry to be so blunt but you do not look so good oh that's good

make a uh geez Intimidation, maybe? Could Zooks make a nature check? First, let's resolve these in order. Okay, all right. I think this is intimidation, right?

Like, you are trying to catch him. Well, I think it's more just, like, not necessarily intimidation, so much as it's just, like, straight-up observation. Yeah, sure. So I would argue insight or persuasion, because those are my strong suits. Well, yeah, okay. I think insight, right? Like, you are, yeah, I think it. sight is a fair point, right? You are making an insightful

observation and trying to figure out like how he's responding to it. As a 14 plus 8, a 22. Yeah. Phineas is unfazed by this, but Cambria is not.

And a couple of the tendrils that are sort of suspending it from the ceiling just like drape downward slowly like a ribbon like falling. and the coil is now kind of slumped over a little bit more, and Phineas looks down at the ground and says, It is only right that a child should survive their parents.

Yes, absolutely, and I think from what I have studied and what you have experienced, that happens through change and evolution and growth. Is this correct? And that is what I offer. No, no, no. This is what you force to do it your way. This is not gross. You are not letting us choose.

Zooks, go ahead and make a nature check. What are you trying to nature? Let me ask you this. Okay, here's what I want to do, and you tell me what I want to communicate with Cambria without Phineas being involved. Could I use it? I should speak with animals with that? go ahead and roll a nature check if you want to tell what the relationship between these two are.

I think that is the best that you can do from where you're staying. Well, that's 22. That's pretty good. Okay, with that, you notice that Phineas is attached to Cambria. You saw it for like a split second when Phineas tried to walk forward earlier. there it was like the flesh there's flesh between them that stretched out slightly and then sort of recoiled back into cambria so this is not phineas call talking to you is what you are assuming this is cambria using a phineas puppet okay I think everybody intuited that besides me yeah um did you have something choose I yeah I like I was just curious about seeing that fucking phytoplankton. Yeah, it is, it's hanging overhead.

It is this two foot wide diameter sphere that is chained up and hanging from the ceiling. Refresh me. Is this like the scientists theorized they could create a cure if they had some of this, or is this like magical? We need like, I eat it. No, it's not a cure. We need the phytoplankton for the air filter. There's one living phytoplankton left doing all of the air filtration for the entire city.

Got it. Yeah, so we don't have a cure, huh? No, there's no cure. I just have wide eyes? What? I just have, like, differently set eyes forever? They're not differently set. They're just fish eyes.

Okay, but like, what if I don't want them? Well, then maybe we should keep talking to this big giant god being and see if you can fix your eyes in my neck. Okay. you see Cambria the worm lift its head up and some of those tendrils that were just sort of like holding it go slack. And this is the most movement you've seen out of the worm like this whole time. And the Phineas sort of entity looks up at the head as it rears up. And now you are just sort of hearing Cambria's voice and Phineas's lips aren't moving. And Cambria says,

So you would prove to me that I am unnecessary. You have outgrown my gifts? Well, as you said, I am a child, and that is what children tend to do to their parents. So yes. Well, that's for sure. Yeah, I think I've got it done. And with that, the head lives up even higher.

And Phineas takes a step forward. And the tindrals holding Cambria up all snap back down. And it's almost like Cambria is inflated, almost like Cambria is flexing in a show designed to impress you. And as they do so, Phineas begins to grow. grow and change also. And then Cambria lowers their face down toward the three of you. And with a voice that reverberates around the room, they say, so be it. Maximumfun.org. Comedy and culture. Artists owned, audience supported.