The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Ethersea - Episode 4

Episode Date: August 12, 2021

The Gallery Job: Part FourAs one crisis interrupts another, the Dreams of Deborah's plucky crew must weigh their priorities. A Brinarr precariously teeters on the brink of death.From now through the end of September, we’re posting episodes weekly, starting with this episode, right here, today! Join us for the start of a new adventure in the undersea metropolis of Founders’ Wake! For more info on this new setting, give a listen to our Prologue mini-series (or our special, abridged recap!) to hear how the Ethersea first took form. 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, you escape the turtle with a yum nut. Fire! It's not my boat! But now we're all in it. So it's our boat! This is our boat now. We call dibs on this gallery. And we have double dibs. Let's send Guthrie over.

I am going to go over to. Welcome aboard. I'm Emery. Beck, Skittles, you keep an eye on our guest here. Me and the Brian Arl go, look at the cargo hold. all carry out whatever he figures is the most valuable stuff you got and then we'll go our separate ways. Zooks and Amber, you all aboard the bridge see the tail end of this ship just vanish in a huge explosion. And following this trail of red yum nut odor, you see the giant monster turtle who is swimming toward both of your ships

with terrifying speed and intent. You had just succeeded in your first dog fight with another ship. I don't know why they call it that. I don't like it. I don't either. I don't think they call it a dog fight if it's two boats

fighting. A dog fish fight. A seal fight. We could say a fish fight. You had a fish fight in the water with the corsair barge and you soundly defeated them. You were let aboard by Emery, the captain and his first mate Beck, and their

second mate, an octopus who I named Skittles? Can I say the sad thing, and maybe this reveals a lot about me? I could remember that the octopus's name is Skittles, no problem. Could not remember the human's names to say my life. Yeah, and Skittles was the name

I thought of spur of the moment, so I need to stop coming up with these names ahead of time. There was an explosion in the back of the ship when, uh, that, that Devo, you and Guthrie went aboard to sort of trade with them. Guthrie went in the back with, uh, Captain Emery and there was an explosion. And Guthrie came out a bit singed. Uh, and Captain Emery is dead as discovered by Zeus, who hopped in the water, as is going to be his custom, it seems. I got nothing else to bring to the table right now. Except that you can't be killed. I get some cool stuff after I level up.

Look out. And we'll get, we'll get there. Uh, uh, you. Uh, you. You're not. Uh, you're, uh, you. You. You're You did recover a scrap of a great work of art by the artist Sable Corrissol from the devastation. How much are we talking? Like, if this was the Mona Lisa, at what point of her face would it be ripped and a half? Hmm. It's more like Starry Knight. That's about the level of, like, masterpiece you have just found destroyed at the bottom of the ocean. You heard it here first, folks.

Griffin thinks that Starry Night and Mona Lisa are not on the same. level. Now, stay on the line to see if he thinks Starry Knight is better or a Mona Lisa is better. Stay tuned for our power rankings of all the paintings that we know about. We've already blazed through two. We've got another two to two and a half coming up of paintings that we know of. So we're going to, uh, we're going to say that the only part left of this would be like the TARDIS portion. Right. The only did the TARDIS portion. Right. That's right. I was a painting.

Art history major, Clint McRoy. That just leaves aboard the ship. Amber Gre, and Amber, you are in the bridge witnessing this devastation. You were sort of left here to keep guns trained on the Corsair barge. But now a larger threat is looming just over the horizon as the Monster Turtle or Monster turtle or Hurtle, as I like to call. It has... Hurtle the Mons Turtle. Hurtle the Mons Turtle.

has chased you all down and is currently charging towards you destroying the sunken debris as it moves in your direction. And let's start there. Amber, you've just noticed this looming threat. What do you do?

Huh. That's a hell of a thing. I want to roll. I think I want to try, let's call it nature. Okay. I would like advantage on it.

I bet you would. Because I know a lot about sea creatures from my previous work as someone who fought bling sharks psychically. And I feel like my plus zero in nature does not reflect that level of, you know. To counter that, we already have somebody on the team who's very good at nature stuff because he knows about this weird mutant ocean that you all. all live in now. So I am not going to grant you advantage on that.

Now, Griffin, a counter argument to your counter argument. Okay, this is good. I love... Justin is specifically speaking on, I would say, raging, see creatures. And you can't tell me there's anyone... There's no reason to think that I would know about the Monster Turtle, because Griffin did establish that none of us were familiar with anything like this. So I would not have...

There's no reason to think. Why are you arguing against me? That's a counter-counter point. I represent the listener here. I just want the best entertainment. experience. Here's what I'm going to do instead. I want to do a,

let's call it, I want to search for something on the boat. What would we call that? Investigation? I guess, yeah. I want to try to look for, here's what I'm looking for. I want to switch

that, I want to look for a switch that does flares. Okay, flares are like an eye. them in the game that ships can be equipped with. I don't know if you can find that, but you could find some way to, I mean, the ship has lights and, you know.

I don't know how anything in the ship works, so, like, I would be just as likely to press the button that does flares as not. So I would like to roll to see if I can deploy flares. Or does it not have flares? Is that what you're saying? It doesn't. It does have some weapons that would probably accomplish

about the same thing that I assume you're going for. Yeah, I guess so. I don't want to attack it. I do want to distract it. Okay. So are we consider ourselves in ship combat right now? We are not. Okay.

We may get there, depending on what happens in the next few minutes. Okay, so that's what I am trying to do. I'm going to take a shot with the, let's call it. How's your perception? Plus three, actually. I'm going to try the depth charge. Okay. But no, no, no.

Slug launcher. Slug Launcher, that's what I want, with a not aiming at it, just trying to distract it. Okay. One thing I'll give you, let's just say that that little thought process happened in character. You went to the depth charge first, and you saw actually on a display

that there were no more depth charges, which is curious because there were two of them when you set out and you've only used one. Weird, okay. And you move on to the slug launcher. I guess just make a, I mean, I guess just an attack roll. Are you just trying to aim this to the side of the charging turtle?

Yeah, I mean, it's an attack on, attack the darkness. I'm attacking the, you know, the air near the turtle, but not a turtle. All right. Go ahead and let's see it. Roll a D20 plus six. 15. Yeah, I mean, that's 15 is sufficient to miss a giant turtle. A 15.

15 gets it done. Okay, this turtle was charging at you, and you saw it starting to rear its head back, and this white sort of like thunderstorm that was forming in its mouth that you saw before when you first escaped it was starting to boil up. But as this slug launcher fires off to the side of it and strikes a big fallen rock formation in the distance, it sort of distracts the turtle just in time that it turns its head and this storm diffuses. So it doesn't hit you with that. However, it does slam into the front of the Dreams of Debra just with its hard shell.

And that is a sound hit on the Dreams of Debra, which is going to take 29.0.9.0.7. of hole damage. Oh boy. Okay. So we're down to 80. We're at two-thirds, if anyone is curious. And we will pick up over with divo Le Ma. Devo Le Ma'a.

You are aboard the... Devo LeMayne. Devo LeMayne, you are aboard the Corsair Barge with Beck and Skittles and a partially unconscious Guthrie. As the turtle slams into the Dreams of Deborah, the accordion tunnel that is connecting your two ships starts to make a pretty gross groaning noise and you start to hear some water dripping into it. In the door, the both can...

How far separated are we? Are your two ships? Yeah. I would say just sort of accounting for like, you know, the width of this barge, I would say maybe like it's 20 feet or so. Okay, great. But like something that you could make in a sprint, right?

Yes, you could make it in a sprint. It's maybe difficult to rain now that it's a bit wrenched up. But yes, that is the situation. You've also got Guthrie laying on the ground now, and he's got, like, a part of his, like, coral is, like, actively a little bit on fire right now. And Beck is kind of panicking. I have no idea what this is happening,

but Beck, Skittles, get to, And I can't believe it's called this, but the dreams of Debra, it is the ship, our ship, get to our ship now. And Skittles, you seem like a robust young octopus man. If you could help me drag Guthrie into the dreams of Debra, I think that things are going very bad, and we need to move. Skittles nods dutifully and wraps two tentacles around Guthrie's arms and just like with all the remaining six tentacles just like races through the accordion tunnel aboard the dreams of Deborah. Beck is not moving. Beck seems to be having in just a full panic spiral right now. She is looking like outside. She just saw this huge turtle.

She says, what, what, what was that thing? Did you, did you all attack our ship after we told you that we surrendered? Why would you blow us up like that? Beck, look at- Where's Emery? Something happened. We do not know what yet. But there was damage in the back, right?

There is no damage to our ship. If you come to our ship, I promise you on everything I know. No, we will not hurt you, and we will do everything to protect you. She looks to the side. She's still kind of jittery, and she ducks down and grabs the sword that Emery had dropped earlier when you all sort of disarmed him. And she says, I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what you just did to buy ship. We did not do anything to your ship. I promise you this.

Look in my eyes. You need to trust me now. or you could get hurt. And I do not want this. We have just met, and I only know like seven people. Make a persuasion check for me, Devo. Ugh, an 11. Hmm.

Okay. With an 11, she puts herself in the door to the accordion tunnel. and like sword out pointing at you. She says, I don't know you from Adam. You're going to tell me what happened to my ship and my captain before I let you get back into your ship. Do you understand me?

Absolutely I do. The truth is, I have no fucking idea what has happened to your ship. I was on board your ship when it happened, and I understand that everything points to us having done this, but I did not do it, and I know Emberra and Zuchs did not do it. I'll tell you right now, the person I do not trust is Gassuri, but he is also on fire, and that makes it hard for me to believe that he did this and set himself on fire,

and I do not know where Emery is, but my worry is that if the cargo holds was blown up, that he may be dead. she lowers the sword and rubs her temples, pushing her glasses up on her forehead. And just as she's about to say something, there's another loud groan of protests from the accordion bridge behind her. And then there's a snap, and then water shoots into the bridge where the two of you are standing. Zooks, you are standing on the sea floor near the destroyed cargo hold

of the Corsair barge and you have just seen the hurdle the monstertle smash into the front of the dreams of Debra and I think just through the accordion bridge you saw an octopus dragging Guthrie unconscious into the dream of Debra. What do you do? Do we know how much damage

the dreams of Debra has taken? I mean, numerically, yes. Okay. It's still, it is still, you know, operable. Okay. What about the accordion? Is the accordion bridge still attached? It's tough for you to tell from,

I mean, it's tough for you to tell from where you are. Zooks, swims, or jet propellers or whatever it is he does to travel through the water as quickly as he possibly can to secure the accordion bridge to the Corsair ship, because I assume it's loose, but still attached? Yeah, it is.

So that's, that is what you are, that's what you are deciding to do. Okay, why don't you, okay, yeah, you,

roll to like swim over there right you are able to get up there pretty quickly we really need to decide on how Brian are moving the water uh but you I have I have an idea but now's not the time to bring it right you you you're moving through the water is not the time no no no no let's save it until we're all napping well yeah so we're not moving through the water that I don't see how it was going to come up organically okay how's this coral generates oxygen so you just shoot you thunder fart your way up into I think I think maybe through his feet maybe just to make it a little bit more. You mean he goes by feet farts?

It goes by feet farts. All right. Farts propel him. Do it again. Try different. You see bubbles then, like a sudden stream of start shooting out of, not just your feet, but out of where the tunnel is supposed to be connected

to the corsair ship, which you recognize as, you know, decompression. It has become unsecured. And you zip up there, to try and secure the passageway, I guess? Maybe even hold it in place. I mean, I realize I'm, I mean, he's not going to be able to stop the water.

I don't have. Oh, damn. A flex seal. Why don't you, I mean, this is just going to be a strength check. I think strength, he's just going to try to hold it in place. Yeah. And I'll tell you, it's going to be a big one, big strength check. So let's see what you got.

Okay. How about 22? Yeah. How does 22 rock your world? 22 rocks my world pretty good. All right. Describe what this looks like. He footfarts his way, zooming through the water like...

Can we just say propels? It's a cool moment. He propels himself through the water like Jason Mamoa and goes up and spots the place where the most bubbles look like. they're escaping from it and just kind of clamps onto whatever edge that is and tries to seal it as best he can to give to get Devo and the rest of them a chance to cross the accordion bridge. Okay. You do that. And surprisingly, this stream of bubble stops.

This bridge is mostly flooded and you can't really see inside the Corsair barge to see how bad the damage is in there. I have one thing to do. Okay. Please let me. Yes. Like a bridge under troubled water. Okay. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

That's it. Yeah, that was great stuff. You can't see inside the Corsair Barge, you see how bad the damage is in there, but you believe you have secured a route of exit for anybody who is still standing on the Corsair barge. However, you also look up in time to see that the Turtle is several hundred yards away from the ship now,

having sort of completed its charge and is slowly coming around again for another attack. And that brings us back to Amber Greene in the bridge of the Dreams of Deborah. Amber, what do you do? You see this, by the way. You see Zook's like Superman style, or end of Spider-Man too holding the train sort of together. And you also see the turtle rounding for another attack.

Jeez, okay. So what is he holding together? He's holding the accordion bridge connecting your two ships. Damn, okay. I really don't want to fight the turtle. That's an interesting fucking vibe. Whoa, I got it. I got something I could try.

Okay. I'm going to fire the salvage claw into the other ship. to see if I can find purchase there and create some tension that it'll buy Zooks a little bit of time. Okay, cool. So you race down into the cargo hold where the salvage claw is.

When you get down there, you see an odd site, you see an octopus dragging an unconscious Guthrie into the cargo hold as well. And he looks up at you like, I will deal with this in a bit. And he drags,

him over next to a wall and kind of props him up and is sort of tending to him. And you grab the controls for the salvage claw. There's like a little display there. And yeah, why don't you, I don't even know that you need to roll for this. These ships are stationary and right next to each other. Maybe to sort of reel in the salvage claw in a way that you're hoping to sort of keep these two ships pulled together would take. take a, let's say a fairly easy strength check.

So why don't you make a, why don't you make actually an athletics check for me? Okay. Because reeling this thing in, it's like, you know, reeling up an anchor. You're trying to do this fast and you're trying to do it. 12 plus four. Yeah, that is sufficient. Zooks, you feel all of a sudden just sort of a weight come off you as the ships are now drawn together a bit more.

You are definitely still responsible for holding this, this bridge together. but it is not, it doesn't seem like it's going to tear your arm off anymore. As you see the salvage claw, shoot into the side of the Corsair barge, grab hold of some of sort of the, the loose, you know, metal beams that have been destroyed in this explosion and just grabs him and pulls him inward. However, you, now you're not in the bridge to see this anymore, Amber. you just hear a noise-like thunder directly overhead. And Zook's, I mean, Zooks, obviously, you see it very well, as the hurdle just bathes the dreams of Debra in what appears to be just a white thunder cloud. That hits the ship for 11 points of Dan.

damage. 69 left. Nice. Oh, nice, nice, nice. That wasn't even, oh, God, fate is so good to us sometimes. And you, you know, look away for like a minute as this bright light shoots up. And when you look back, it appears that the propulsion system, these two like big turbine jets on the back of the dreams of Debra, that electricity has not left them. They appear to be damaged.

And the turbines for the ship are damaged. Devo, you are like almost concussed for a second. And in fact, when you look up, you see Beck is face up in about two feet of standing water on the bridge. But for some reason, the accordion bridge has not been sort of destroyed. You appear to be able to manage to cross that, maybe not. at running speed, but something is holding these together that you can't quite see. Oh, yeah, Diva's going to grab a hold of Beck.

And is, one, first, as he's like pulling her, he's saying, everything is going to be okay. I'm going to get you there safely. We just have to be brave and not worry. And the thing is, Diva is freaking out. Right. because he cannot swim. Oh, that's not great.

Yeah, being cloistered and raised by the church, they never taught him to swim. Well, let me add another hiccup. As you approach this accordion tunnel, it had this trail of lights illuminating your path as you made your way onto this ship. It appears like the lights have lost power. So it is almost pitch black in the tunnel. Well, that doesn't bother Devo at all. As he is pulling back, he touches his own coat and whispers. And his coat begins to glow with light.

Oh, okay. And so his entire coat is glowing as he pulls back through the tunnel. Okay. make an athletics check just to see if you can make it across in sort of one turn here. Oh, thank God, it's an 18. I have a plus zero to athletics. That is sufficient. You are pulling back across this tunnel with your illuminated coat. And in fact, with your illuminated coat, you look up as you leave the Corsair barge and you see Zooks like fucking hulking out holding the tunnel securely to the ship. Oh, sick.

Then Devo also are looking there, says, Thank you so much, my friend. And Grant's Bartic inspiration as Devo's eyes glow slightly blue, the same blue as the prestige. And he, that the magic flows from his lips on his breath as he thinks Zooks and imbues Zooks with just a little bit extra power. A little bit extra juice. Okay.

I'm being up to great. Yeah, basically how that works, Dad, is you can add a D6 to ability check, attack, roll, or saving role. You can do that after the role, but before knowing the outcome. Yeah, then Devo, you dragging the unconscious form of Beck through the water, pull her all the way through the tunnel, and the hatch into the dreams of Deborah slides open. and Amber now you see Devo and Beck just comes sloshing into the ship as all of this standing water pours into the cargo hold of the Dreams of Debra

and sort of spills out into the moon pool. Zooks, you have just... Oh, with that happens, there's one more thing I want to do. Yeah. As soon as Devo does not need his illuminated coat anymore, he kneels down next to Beck and says, you are very brave and I am very proud of you. and cast heroism on her.

Okay. Which grants her some temporary hit points, which will hopefully make her feel better. It's only three at this point, but I'm only first level. Come on. And it also is going to keep her from, it's going to imbue her with bravery.

Okay. Because I know that this is going to probably be a very scary event for her. Thing to wake up to, yes, for sure. Okay. Zooks, you just saw very clearly the illuminated form of Devo, cross the bridge that you were just holding together.

And, you know, you had to look away for a bit while the turtle did its attack, but it is in the distance, hasn't quite rounded around for another pass yet. What do you do? Zooks releases the accordion tunnel. Okay. Let's go of it. And can I let it, can we assume it would rip free? Oh, yeah.

Like, as soon as you let this thing go, because it has. sort of pressurized a bit again now, it's going to be a bit violent when you let this thing go. Okay, so the, give me a status check on the Corsair ship with the regards of the level of water in it. Is it completely flooded now? As soon as you let this bridge go, it will be, yes. It was already about half flooded. I mean, D, D, D.O had to swim through, so. Okay.

Zooks swims into the Corsair ship at top speed. And tries to get to the bridge. I mean, the bridge is what you would go into. The bridge is immediately right there. You can do that. Yeah, you can do this. There's a blast of air as you let go of the bridge, but you're, you know, we'll let that. And I would assume the water rushing in propels him even faster.

Sure, yeah. It sucks you, sucks you right into it. Okay. Now what? He's going to fire the weapon system if he could figure it out of the, The Coursier ship to distract the monstertle. Okay. It's an old gambit from Star Trek.

Sure, sure, sure. Fire on the enemy. Star Trek don't end with my dad being killed by a turtle. We call it the Commodore Decker. Remember that episode. What's saying. Remember how disconnecting the saucer used to be a big deal in Star Trek, and they did it one time, and everybody was like, holy fucking shit,

these guys done did it. And then like every other. week. They're like, just go ahead and slap that bitch right off. We're good. It's fine. We'll work it out. Throw this pizza. Let's go. Chalk that pizza. We don't need the legs. That's the trick. Nobody knows what they're there for. We're all in the saucer. We're finally doing a Star Trek podcast. Yeah, it's happening, Dad. Match Fun has not four, but eight Star Trek podcasts. The weight is over. Okay, so you find the controls for the broadside cannons. They are very obvious because they were, let's say, aftermarket parts, and you believe that you can use them.

The sensor for the Corsair barge is damaged, so it is inoperable, but that just means you will not get a modifier on your attack roll. It'll just be a flat D20 roll. Are you trying to hit Hurtle the Monster Turtle? or are you just trying to make some noise? I think he'd like to hit it, but I think if he just fires it and distracts it, you know, to attack the Corsair ship instead of attack poor suffering, Deborah.

Okay. Oh, long-suffering, Deborah. All right, let's see, let's see that just flat D20 roll then. As we've established, it's not a difficult role to not attack a turtle. Well, it didn't hit it, it's a five. A five is pushing it, though.

Okay, here's what I'm going to do for a five. It very works. And Devo and Amber, you see through a porthole sort of facing that accordion bridge as it snaps when Zooks releases it. You see the cannons fire from the Corsair barge. And just for a second, you see sort of Zooks through another porthole in the Corsair barge. and then you see the turtle come crashing into the barge. And this half of this ship is much smaller than the Dreams of Debrae. So when it hits it, it obliterates it.

And Zook's Ugo-Tumbling ass over elbow, I don't think that's the turn of phrase. As the remaining body of this ship goes sort of rolling down the seafloor, And Zooks, I'm going to say you take some damage here as you just sort of are knocked all around the bridge here, which is fully flooded at this point. You take, wow, seven points of bludgeoning damage, which is significant. Down to six. All right. That leaves back to Amber. Oh, I'm sorry.

No, you say how many points? Seven. Okay, yeah, down to six. Amber, we're back to you. Devo, Beck, Skittles, Guthrie, all safely aboard the dreams of Debra, which has been slightly damaged in the last sort of Thunder Cloud attack, and the Corsair Barge has just been knocked, knocked away like Canisota kicked down the road. And our propulsion is out of order? Yes. Was the orientation of the... Are we still connected via chain?

Yeah, the chain is still connected. That is a good question. I think that the bridge is like gone at this point, but the chain is still secured. I think when it got knocked away, you saw the like winch that you had, you know, turned to keep the ships connected, got like ripped out of your hands. But it is, it is, there's still some tension there when you try to pull it a little bit. Is Beck still unconscious? Yes. I gave her three hip,

I know, Amber. Where is the, where is the turtle? The turtle is on a sort of, it's moving away from your ships. It's been sort of like, you know, coming in for a strafing run and then going a fair distance away before turning around and coming in for another one. So right now it's just attacked the Corsair barge, and it is heading away before making another round trip. Devo is going to immediately as soon as he's in, by the way, look at Amber and say,

This is Skittles. He is a good guy. This is Beck. She is very capable. I'm going to go up to the bridge and, I don't know, try to steer away or fire guns or, you know, whatever. All right. Sorry, where was it? Skittles.

And Peevo's already running for the bridge. Oh. It's nice to meet you. Skittles, how are you holding up? Wow, this is two arcs in a row where we have characters that only speak in bubbles. Well, why don't you give me a fucking hand? And she starts trying to push the yum nut back into the ocean. Okay.

Uh, I, as we've established, I think this is not difficult for you. athletics-wise, but it is... Especially when I have my friend Skittles with you. Unlatching this thing, though, from where you have secured it and pushing it into the moon pool is going to be a constitution check for you to see if you can handle just this pure spicy flavor of the yum nut. Okay.

You did heal. Okay, there's not a chance that you might die from pushing a nut into the ocean. Do you remember on Taz that one time that Justin nutted so hard in the ocean, he died? Remember when Justin nutted in the ocean? It was so stinky and funky. It killed him. He breathed in his nut smell and it died.

It killed him and hurt his friends. He rolled a new character after four episodes. It was fucking weird. Weird season. Yeah. People say that if his character hadn't huffed those funky nuts, she'd still be alive today. Let that be a lesson to you. kids.

That's the legend at least, but that's what they won the P-Body for, because the speech, the final speech issue was claimed by Yum Nut Fumes. Roll a constitution saving throw. This has all been a very fun buildup to this huge chunky nut rip. Let's see. This chunky Tim. This, this un... Can I, can we establish right now?

Yeah. Ten is the least funny. if you're doing a comedy adventure D&D show, 10 is the least funny role. Yeah. Like that's actually the worst. I would any day take a three or an 18 over a fucking 10. Okay.

You, as you sort of like rip off the bindings that you would like attach this yum nut to, you know, a stable piece of the ship, that crack is again exposed. And it just like just spits that bad. flavor in your ear and your face and your nose and your mouth. And it's like breathing hot fire. Great. And you take, wow, five points of spicy damage. Damn, that's a critical, that's a critical hit from that nut. Five points of spicy nut damage. Good job, nut. But you and Skittles, who is also

like making a, uh, face managed to push the yum nut into the moon pool. And with a splash, it drops down and it's a bit buoyant. It rolls up. the hull of the ship and is just kind of like now just floating away from the dreams of Debra. What do you do after you push that nut in? I have collapsed on the floor of the ship and just say nuts. Great, great stuff. God, that's good. Devo, you are aboard the bridge now of the Dreams of Debra, the wreckage that used to.

to be the Corsair barge that Zooks is still on, is in the distance attached by the chain. The hurdle, the monsterl, is rounding. You don't know if he has seen. You can see, actually, you saw the Yum Nut float away as it passed through the moon pool and the cargo hold. So you can see exactly what Amber has just done. What do you do? Is the turtle, the, excuse me, hurdle still coming at us? Yes.

Okay, so Devo goes to check the weapons. Sure. Getting ready to fire something. And I think because it is the most powerful, he would probably go for the depth to charge as well. Yeah, you also see that it is not. How close is the turtle now? Is it getting pretty close? We can say it's in firing range if you were trying to hit it.

Okay, great. Then he's standing there looking at the weapon. weapons, but he has not fired the weapons yet. So he kind of panics for a moment and instead looks at the turtle and begins to whisper. Oh, wow. And his eyes get that little glint of blue again as he sprays in his mouth. And he's going to cast dissonant whispers on the turtle. Interesting.

Hmm. And the turtle's going to need to make. a, a wisdom saving throw. Okay. What does the, I know, but I'm maybe somebody who's listening to, what does dissonant whispers do? I'll tell you in just a second. Uh, no. That is an 11.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, that fails. So you're going to take 3D6 tag of damage, but more than that, you're going to move as far as your speed allows away from us. Why? Because the whispers are so dissonant? Yeah. So, I mean, it's not much. It's only seven points of damage, but the moving away was the important thing.

A turtle is like, I think that shit's whispering at me. Oh, I do want to, it just nutted out my nut. They knotted out my nut, and it whispered some real funky shit. Yeah, dropped a funky nut, and then it dropped a funky, fucking verse right on me. Yeah. He's dissing it, and I had to go. He talks some mad shit about my mama. Now I gotta go away.

Hey, did anybody else hear that shit play the dozens? Right on me? Right on me? I gotta go. Brutal. Yeah, it's the weirdest thing. This monster turtle seemed to be coming in for another pass with that lightning breath. But it just kind of like shakes its head at the last second and that that white cloud just disappears instantly. And it like peels off and sort of with all four flippers like swims away from the ship.

a bit and seems confused. You have more or less sort of stopped it in its tracks. It doesn't seem like it's taken notice, though, of the liberated Yum. Oh, it should also be noted after that. Devo kind of checks his little spray, his atomizer, and it is empty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Zooks, you are, I think, struggling to hold on to consciousness. you are on the bridge of the

Corsair barge and everything's all fucked up in topsy-turvy you can just kind of make out the dreams of Deborah is not where you left it but you can see a chain extending out into the out into the expanse of the waters which has now become like very murky

very cloudy as you know, detritus has been sort of kicked up from the seafloor. And there's just none everywhere. Yeah, that's gross. What do you do, Zooks? Zooks dives back into the water.

Okay. Which, with the water, recharging his still armor, kind of gives him, it doesn't heal him or anything, but kind of helps him to focus. Infigurates. Infigurates him.

And when he does dive in, he sees the yum nut and kind of figure, but originally, I thought he would say, oh, God, the yumb nut fell over, and I'm going to put it back. But I think he pushes the yum nut towards hurdle the monsterdle. Oh, wow. You know, guys, I'm starting to think we should have just left that yum nut there.

You know what I mean? You guys ever think about that? It's almost like you rolled a six. But look at all these experience points were getting. Yeah, sliding doors, huh? Okay. Zooks, here's what I want, from you, Zuchs, I want an animal handling role. Maybe the first animal handling role since Magnus talked to some wolves back in episode like two of balance for me.

And just a friendly reminder, you have Bartak Inspiration whenever you want to do this. I know, I know. That's why I'm so excited. And plus three on animal handling. That is a 9 plus 6. Well, no. You have to roll a D6. One?

Yeah, the Bartik Inspiration is you roll 1D6. And add that and add that to your total of nine. Six! Oh my God! That is exactly what you needed. I can't believe it. Okay. Seriously?

Or you put me on? It was, in my head, it was a DC-15, and you just managed it. You swim forward with the, you describe this. This turtle has just been sort of like stopped in its tracks by this psychic assault. And it is, it's like belly is facing you, and it sort of cranes its neck down as it sees you swimming towards it and gets another blast. of that thunder cloud ready. How close? When he first plunges in the water,

his intent was to try to get back to the dreams of Deborah, not knowing that the engines are out. But then when he sees the yum nut floating around in all of its yumnoughty goodness, he course corrects, zooms towards the yum nut and just starts, it's very buoyant, so it doesn't really take that much strength.

and just starts pushing it towards hurdles, open, stormy mouth, hoping that it will see. And all the time he's doing that, his close contact telepathy, he's just saying over and over again. It was touch telepathy. I know, I know, but he is underwater. Okay, sure. Okay. I think it can pick up on your body language.

Let's just say that that's what it is. Okay, you're sitting your button in an apologetic way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You've rolled over to show your soft underbelly. Correct. You blink your eyes slowly as you bring the Yum Nut over to the Hurtle the Turtle. And in fact, as you get close enough, it doesn't even see it.

This just red trail is emanating off of the cracks in the Yum Nut shell. Once that reaches the turtle, its breath extinguishes, like instantly. and it cranes its neck down at you and seems to be like passing judgment almost. How good is your nut? And then it leans its head down and very gently grabs the nut in its jaws and then swims backward and seems to stop again and looks at your ship and looks back at you and then turns and slowly swims away. Say it, girf, say it. I mean, I guess you're sorry. solved you I gave you a puzzle it was going to be a puzzle about like a corsair battle

and then you guys change it with your actions into a nut puzzle with a turtle and then it was also a turtle puzzle my two puzzles collided it was we used netural thinking yes that is that is yeah sure we thought outside the nut yeah um thought outside the nut thank you travis yes and let's let's actually stay with you zooks you you managed to get the turtle to swim away. I assume you return to the dreams of Debra at this point?

Um, I don't know. I think he, yeah, but he's not moving. I think he's really beat up and I think he's going to take a little breather or laying there just floating in the

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Myers. You can find triple click wherever you get your podcasts and listen at maximum fun.org. Bye. So we're a bit in the aftermath of this battle. Amber, you blacked out by the terrible onslaught of spice from the Yum Nut. And in fact, Skittles is now sort of watching over you and Beck in like a corner of the cargo hold here. Devo, you. You are up in the bridge, just watching this turtle swim away, making sure that it is actually going. And, Zooks, as you return to the ship and come up through the moon pool, you see this scene first. you see an octopus tending to one of your friends who is unconscious and a girl that you've never seen before.

And as you make your way out of the water, you hear movement behind you, and you turn to see Guthrie. And he is pretty banged up. He's pretty scorched on his head coral. He had some, like, leather armor on that is also, like, pretty blackened at this point. And he, uh, stands up and is sort of weakly, uh, walking, uh, over toward the recall pod at the far end of the cargo hold. What do you do? Wow. Okay.

Goes over to Guthrie. and says, do you need a dunk? Do you need a dunk in the moonpool? He says, I need a lot of things there. Zooks, it has been a much longer day than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, I think you're on the right point there. So, does that mean no on the dunk? You don't want to dunk?

I'm going to be okay. I think your friend over there is pretty banged up, though. You may want to go tend to her. I don't know who that is. I thought you were my friend. Yeah, I'm your friend. I'm okay. I'm talking about Amber.

She was over there, and there was something, she did something with a nut and just to block right to the ground. So you may want to keep it. I couldn't see Amber behind the big octopus. Yeah, you should go check on her instead. Hey, Griffin. Yeah. Can I, as soon as the turtle is clear, Devo would sprint back down there.

What would I roll to see how quickly I could make it? I mean, hmm. Oh, wait, we have communications, don't we? Yes. Okay, yeah. As soon as the turtle's clear, Devo grabs the comms and says, if anybody is still conscious in the cargo hold grab Guthrie and do not let him get away

Guthrie now just kind of like size and puts his hand at his side and you can see under a flap of his still armor he has his hand on a grip of a of a weapon. And he says, oh, man, I wish he didn't just do that. I really wish he hadn't just done that. Zook throws his net over him. I think we're, let's do a, let's do an old Wild West quick draw.

Okay. Let's both make a dexterity check. as you try to throw your net over him and he tries to draw his crossbow. Dexterity check, not saving throw. Not saving throw, dexterity check. So you'll add plus three. And I will add, oh, that's better be a good one, Dad. That is an 18 total.

That's a 10 total. You go to throw your net over onto Guthrie, but you are just a, a, a, fraction of of a moment too slow as he draws a hand crossbow and puts a bolt right in your chest zooks uh and hits you for eight points of piercing damage zooks is dead no well he's not dead it's knocked out zucs is unconscious uh ouch and he He goes in the recall pod and with the hatch still open, he says, yeah, word of advice, if you catch someone in a lie, you probably shouldn't trust anything else they ever have to say for the rest of their lives. And he shuts the hatch and the recall pod shoots down through the floor of the cargo hold and you all watch it zip away.

back toward the city of Founders Wake. Then Devo, I guess you, now if you want to race into the cargo hold, you can do so. And you get there and it is a, it's a bloodbath. You see Amber and Beck starting to come to a bit as Skittles is tending to them. Amber actually make a Constitution save, Amber. We'll see if you can, you can fully snap out of it. What happened old Amber? What happened here?

You got nutted. backed out from this from powerful nut damn you're right you're right you're right the nut didn't feel that powerful that's fine you're yeah you're you are awake uh in fact the sound of zooks falling to the floor and the recall pod uh disembarking um is is enough to wake you up uh and in fact you wake up about the same same time that devo uh barges into the scene uh and you both see zook's unconscious with a crossbow bolt sticking out of the chest of his his coral armor Jesus. Okay.

I, Devo, is going to immediately be lined Zooks and do a medicine check to attempt to stabilize him. Okay, doctor. Yeah. That's what you're supposed to do in D&D, I think. Yeah. Not good. Four total. Yeah, that's quite bad.

You go to help him and then you realize that you're a priest without a lick of human medical training, let alone Coral Brynard medical training. I think Zooks make a death save for me. That's a flat D20 roll. I kind of imagined Devo actually stepping on the bolt. Yeah. Does this help? That is a crit one. I think that's two failures.

Hold on. Luck, why have you forsaken me? You never had luck. Yeah, if you make a death saving throw and you roll a one on the D20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20, you regain one hit point. So, Zooks, you have jumped from two out of three failures

required to kill you. Okay, okay, okay. All right. Amber, you're, I'm going to say it's Amber's turn. Yeah. Yeah. All right, you weird. son of a bitch, it's time to wake up.

And I jam my yum nut fingers right where his face would be. Okay. Are you, okay. We haven't, I don't think he has smell. I don't think we've established if Zooks has sense of smell. We only recently found out he's got the ability to do fart blasts. But you know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And apparently shooting

him in the chest matters. We got to follow our own rules. There's a hole for that. So. There's a hole for that. I'm a hole for that. I'm going to give you a medicine check with advantage here as you're essentially using smelling salts to try and stabilize it. And Devo is like, this has to work. You could do the Samba. And grants Bartik Inspiration. Yeah.

Really stacking the odds in your favor here. You need to. I would love this. So this is a, so what is Bartic Inspiration? You can add 1D6. It's not a magic spell that. It's a feature that you can do, I believe, three times per little rest. So this is your last of the Bartic inspiration.

So I can add 1D6 to whatever I roll. Correct. All right. By its side, either this works or two-way split, right? Pound it? No, too soon. Lean me hanging, all right? We can do it down low.

Oh, wow, that's a 5 plus 3. Well, you have advantage. Yeah. Oh, fuck, yes, 20. Okay. Yeah, you can save that Bartig inspiration with a 20. I mean, with a 20, you see, Zooks was starting to bleach.

Zooks is like... 17 plus 3, but what for the record. His, like, coral had started to lose color. It hadn't gone quite stark white, but, like, it was certainly starting to drain out. But as you jammed that strong Yum Nut, spice into his smelling holes, that fading seems to stop and the bolt is loose enough for you to remove it.

Well, hey, Billy Ray, I'm going to head down to the old smelling hole if you want to go. And Zooks, you have stabilized. You're at zero hit point still. You are still unconscious until you all can find a way to heal Zooks, but you will are no longer required to make death saves. That may be the closest we've gotten. If he had messed up that medicine role and you had failed another death save,

that would have been a series wrap on old Zooks. Well, he would have to bring in Tukes, his brother. Tukes, yeah. Okay. You all are out. Thank you, Amber. You all are out of danger here. The damage that was sustained by the dreams of Debra

was largely superficial, save for the damage to the engines, but we're out of combat now, so given enough time, you all managed to fix the propulsion systems aboard the ship. Beck comes to also, and Skittles is just kind of keeping her company up in the crew quarters, because she is still very shaken up by what happened. Also in the crew quarters is a still unconscious Zooks. Devo, what do you... the conscious people aboard this ship doing?

So is this, what, long rest, short rest? What are we looking at here? I mean, are you piloting, are you going home? So this is the question, right? It's like when they were fixing the thing. Yeah, I think if Zooks is stabilized enough that we're not worried about it. I think Devo would help fix. And then, yeah, Devo is going to start piloting the dreams of Deborah back on to port.

I got to get some help for Devo and I don't know try to kill Guthrie Maybe that might be more of a long-term goal Sure Amber what are you doing aboard the ship during this This return trip

Um Taking a shower Yeah Get the yumb nut off me please Yeah for sure I don't actually know the rules For like if you can take a long rest When you're unconscious

No it says the character must have one HP at the beginning of a long rest to gain any benefit from it. So, yeah, you're just out. You are just unconscious, Zooks. Yeah, for the whole return trip home. And it is a slower trip out, right? Like, you had a series of beacons and maps and a bunch of intel from Guthrie to help you all get out here. And to make it back safely, you just, you take it a lot slower.

So you're not going to have another wild encounter on the way back, but you are certainly eating into your 48-hour deadline as you make your way back home. And the long rest gives diva a chance to make more of the atomized press. Yeah, yeah, it just, yeah, it recharges. And, Amber, you can heal back to full also. Okay, you all are approaching the city now. I would say after about a half days travel, you are tired, except for Amber. Amber, you sound refreshed as hell.

Yeah, for good. For real good. And you, let's say you have gathered in the bridge. Beck is there with Skittles. And Beck says, so if I'm not mistaken, this isn't y'all's ship. No, and if I am being completely honest, at this point, I have no idea whose ship it is. Yeah, so we're probably going to be in trouble, right?

I mean, we can just say that Guthrie did this... Will people believe that Guthrie did it? Do we know Guthrie's last name? Do we know if Guthrie's his real name? Shit. Y'all are new at this, aren't you? Yes, yes, yes, yes. It's kind of making real hard to track down.

as you all are debating this, a huge, just like black metal ship that looks like a proper combat submarine shines a blinding bright light into your viewport here. And a voice comes on over the tone wheel. It doesn't even like give you the option of whether or not you answer or not. It just forces its way onto your tone wheel, and you hear it say, By the authority of the chaperones, this vessel is ordered to follow us into docking procedures with Founders Wake. Any deviation from docking procedures will lead to your instant destruction. Do you understand? Yes.

Yeah, Kappa. Okay, are you following this vessel? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, fuck yeah. So I assume we- Hey, Gryphon, are you stupid? Didn't you hear the part where they said they'd blow us fucking up?

A turtle just whooped our ass. Yeah, we're post-turna whoop. So I assume we fixed the engines. Yeah, that was a while ago. Okay. Okay, you all... Well, I'm unconscious, so I would... Yeah, he didn't know.

That's fair. Yeah, man, he wasn't there, but lay off. He's had a rough day. He got shot in the chest. That would be a great character. Dad should always play characters that have been briefly roused from unconsciousness. Yeah. So what's happening?

They're explaining? It would explain away a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You all then float up under the mushroom-looking base of Founders Wake up through the gills, and you dock not in spot J-117, not at some remote parking spot here. You are front and center, parking right in front of the bluespan brokerage, and your ship comes to the surface alongside of this black submarine. And just as soon as you breach the water, you hear footsteps above you, and then a hatch opens.

And these people wearing these very tight-fitting, like, black armor suits with these silver masks with what looks like one big red glowing eye that you recognize as chaperones of the biggest baby, hop aboard the ship and begin sort of sweeping the deck. Well, that's nice of them to clean up. In just a flurry of activity, you all are brought out onto the docks. And you're not restrained or handcuffed, strangely enough. You're just all brought out. Zooks is placed on a stretcher. You see him brought out alongside you. And some of these chaperones begin tending to Zooks, attempting to revive him.

Amber and Devo, you two see a man, just a big dude wearing what appears to be like a Hawaiian shirt-print jumpsuit, and he's wearing these big bright gold glasses, walks by the two of you and gives you just the nastiest look. Just the nastiest stink face that you've ever seen. But he is carrying what looks like a bottle of very, very, very. very old wine. And he's walking away from this big, just like, muscular dude wearing a long-tailed black suit holding a clipboard. You actually saw him as you were getting off the ship.

This dude gave this man wearing the Hawaiian print jumpsuit, this bottle of wine. And he gives you all just the stinkiest face. And then he walks past you and sort of places a hand aboard the hall of the dreams of Debra. And you hear him say like, and he climbs aboard. And this dude wearing the black suit walks over to the two of you. And he says, Job well done, fellas. Well done.

You're part of the men in black now. No. I need you and your friends to follow me. I'm here to bring you to the curator. He owes you an explanation. Culture. Artist-owned. Audience-supported.