The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 10

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

The Trial of Evocation, Part III The four elementals, each piloted by four wizards, enter a melee battle where one team will be eliminated completely. But though the strongest may win, collaboration is fair game . . . and so is betrayal.Royale Theme: “Wizard Disco” by Louie Zong: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/wizard-discoOriginal Music by Griffin McElroyAdditional Music in this Episode: "PULL" by Nctrnm: https://soundcloud.com/nctrnm; "When the Wick is Gone" by The Pangolins: https://thepangolins.yolasite.com/; "Over Soul" by Evan Schaffer: https://www.evanschaeffermusic.com/; and "The Unknown" by Jar of Flies: https://jaroffliesofficial.bandcamp.com/.Border Angels: https://www.borderangels.org 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 Taz Royale, by merging your moats, you will create more complex and, for the purposes of this trial, more powerful material. Those materials will be given life. Yeah, man, but what's the Titanic of the swamps? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And now, fuck yeah, now, as the Titanic sinks, swamper grows in size, forms thick, meaty legs, a huge, wide trunk, big, strong arms and says, I'm still swamper. But now I'm more like swamp thing. All of you are Voltron-style controlling swampist, your elemental in this final battle of the third trial.

Hey, everybody, welcome to the Adventure Zone, Taz Royale, our battle royale season. We are in the heat of the trial of evocation in the last episode. The three of you with your teammate, Scorpo, the giant Scorpion man, built an elemental, as did the three other competing quartets here on the Octave Ziggurat Island. And after quite a bit of experimentation and fusion and good old-fashioned magic,

you all have created Swamp Thing, the beloved character. What's that trap? I was like, Wild Thing, but Swamp Thing. It was kind of an intro song I was working for him. Because if you do two copyright infringements at once.

It cancels out, that's exactly right, Justin. Hey, listen, y'all, that's how Glee. God did it. I would change the lyrics to Swamp Thing instead of Wild Thing. So it's now a parody. I love it. So that's fair use. We're making it safe.

Yeah, that's how weird Albert gets away with it. That's criminal. Let's begin at the very end of the last episode. The three of you turned into swamp material and fused with the elemental that you had created. And while you all have seen sort of any number of unimaginable things here during your time on the ziggurat, in this moment where your bodies are transmuted into this kind of primordial muck and your consciousness is shunty. into the body of this this 25 foot tall swamp thing. You truly realize the the awesome power that the octave possesses. You all feel your consciousnesses latch on to this new form. And in this weird sort of abstract space, you feel the presence of your three teammates doing the

same thing. And for just a moment... What a Scorpo feel like? That's a great question, Travis. In this moment, the boundaries between your minds has become a little bit blurred, and you see flashes of your teammates' memories kind of manifest before you. You all see Rictus standing before some sort of altar, looking very nervous. You see Hellgramette laboring resentfully for his hive. You see Loravith locked into this just ceaseless territorial battle, and you see Scorpo. surviving alone out in the wilds at the very edge of the folds foggy border.

And in this moment, you all realize you could probably sneak a peek at more of those memories if you wanted to try and pry. I leave that up to you. I was like legitimately about to ask if I could look in, but like before you offered the opportunity, I was going to ask to watch Rictus's memories to see if I could spot any weaknesses of his. Okay. Here's how we're going to do this.

Rictus, make a wisdom saving throw for me. This is going to dictate sort of how successful this is, and more importantly, if Rictus sort of clocks that you're doing this. That's a 13 total. Okay. With a 13 total, Rictus, you get the sense that someone poked around in your memories, but you are not exactly sure who. Probably hell, Gramat.

What are you looking for, Loravith? as mentioned I want to see if there's some sort of weakness that is more obviously telegraphed during this moment that Rictus is fixating on something that I might be able to exploit later

or just to understand more I guess about what makes Rictus tick I can tell there's a lot of layers of theatricality there so I'm trying to get a better sense of who he is as a person Yeah, you see a memory of younger, Rick does maybe 12, 13 somewhere in there, getting kind of lectured by his family members, the other necromancers in his life,

about the purpose of necromancy, the strength of it, why they do what they do. And it's very much focused on, like, bringing people back to serve you, and the idea of like the strength of, you know, the power over death and that kind of thing. How attentive of a student does he appear to be? Like, is he really dialed in, or is this like, is he a obligation sort of thing? He keeps interrupting to ask questions about, like, well, but couldn't that also be used, you know, to help or to do this? and that is getting like very much like, well, it could but away.

So engage, but maybe not in the way that they were hoping he would be. Yeah, he's not super on board with the concept of necromancy as a like, this is a powerful tool that we can use to maintain power and that people kind of fear that kind of deal. As you're poking around in Rictus's memory, this part is a little bit confusing because there's a lot of death stuff in his history. There is something present

in his more recent memory that is really, really potent. You feel it a lot more than his other memories. You are able to pick up on the fact that Richtus has been cursed by this statue, this specter of death

here on the Zigara Isle. I don't know how forthcoming you've been about that, Rickus, but I think in this moment, like, when the walls are down, it's not something you're going to be able to hide. Anyone else? I'd like to pry into both of them.

I want to see their proudest memories. Well, let's listen. If we're prying on lots of people now, I thought we were raised this one ride per row. Yeah, I think let's pick one. Just to keep it moving. And listen, I can tell him about it. Listen, that's fine by me.

I don't want to stay. I should have thought. I should have thought to see if I could look at both of them. Well, yeah, no, if Laura was going to pry in hell, then I'll pry in Hellgramut. We'll keep the triangle going. There we go. I want to pry in Hellgramit and see his proudest memory. What makes him feel good about himself?

Roll a wisdom saving through it, Dad. Just so we know how much Hell Gramet sees here. Ah, that would be an eight. Okay, you are unaware that this memory is being accessed. You do need to divulge it. So, Hell Grammet thinks back to a moment when he was just a low, lowly drone and was doing his part. He was one of the feeders in their hive that fed the queen, Larvosa, if you remember, Larvosa. Of course.

And so he sees himself on this one particular day. day. He's just in the line of drones, you know, oh, and they're just doing their drony thing, where they're going up and then dropping some kind of hideous looking stuff down so that Queen Larvosa can yummy down on whatever it is that they yummy down on. And he has this moment of revelation where he thinks this is not enough. This is not good enough. Why can't I be the ruler? Why does it always have to be a queen?

Why couldn't it be a king? And as he... Men's rights. I love it. As he goes walking up and starts going up the side of the feeding... That was a joke. I don't like mince rights. And no one reacted to it.

Thank you, I'm glad you said you clarified that trap. Okay. He You know, after whatever Millennia of the way this thing These things are He takes his little chunk of food And just drops it

Just drops it on the side of the mound And Looks around Everybody reacts in shock And he says Oh sorry Dropped it Hold on, I'll get it

And he goes chasing down the mound after it And then the drones get back in time and they start falling in and when no one's looking at him, he sneaks out and he leaves the hive for greener pastures and to try and fulfill his destiny. And for that moment when he sees that he has broken away

from all those menial drones, he feels a surge of pride in his insectoid hearts. Feel the rain on your skin. No one else can feel it for you. You can let it. I don't know that song. No one. What?

I shouldn't have gone to harm me, man. I would have bumped right up to melody if I had that I was going to be flying solo. Could have been first chair, juice. Oh, man, the rest is the melody is unsupported. Someone like, not unwritten. It's written. How about you, Hellgrammon. Oh, I got to look into Lorbeth.

Don't have to. Yeah, I do. That dingus. The dingus scorpio. Nope. Nope. I'm going to look into Lorvvveth. I want to know

Loravith's most terrifying moment. What scared Loravith the most. That's good. Can you roll a wisdom saving check for me here, Loravith?

One time there was a big old bug landed on his shoulder. Freaked him the fuck out. Ever since then, he's had a real problem with bugs. 16 plus 3, 19. 19. With a 19, I'll say it is up to you

I think you got to give something here. But with a 19, you feel specifically Hell Grammet, kind of poking into your memory. And like, you know that that's what it is because you just did it to Rictus. And you, I think you're able to resist a little bit if you want to not get, like, too crazy specific with it. But I leave that up to you.

19's a very good save. Okay. Here's what you see, Helgrammett. You see a cliff. edge, there's three or four sparse trees that are like sort of lining the edge of the cliff.

And there's a big rock and there is a small Goliath who probably still would have been about six feet tall at this time, but he doesn't look more than eight if he was a human. And you can hear him yelling, please anybody!

Help, I'm lost! Please anyone! And you can see him like staring out of the edge yelling. Please, anybody! Is he calling out over the edge? He's clearly lost. Like he doesn't know where he's at. Aw.

Poor little guy. Please, any. Oh. Well, of course not you. Hell, grab him. Bugman. Bugrat, anyone. But you and the boy turns on you.

And he's speaking like that. Clearly. Oh, see. I'm out. Call me a rather increasingly. convenient moment. You get caught red-handed hell-grammit, and

in that moment, you are a little bit distracted as you feel another... You feel my fucking boot in your chest as I kick you off the cliff is what he feels. It's a sort of... The dream cliff. Yes, it's an... You get it, Griffin.

Abstract thought boot. Yeah. Griffin acts like he's never seen a Freddy Krueger movies, but check his tattoos, man. Yeah. Mine? I have Freddy Krueger tattoos? You have the swimmers strikes on your chest. Why would I act like I don't know? You just have never seen them, Gravian.

She's scared to look. Hell, Grammat, make a wisdom saving throw for me, please. I sure will. How about a four? How about it? As Hell Gramand continues to dominate the dice. Yeah. ABC Blue.

All right, with a four, I'm gonna twist it a little bit. Scorpo is prying into your memory, and it's a very recent one. It is the memory of your first trial here at the Octave Ziggurat, and Scorpo is present sort of in the background of your hive as you make your triumphant return after winning here at the Octave Ziggurat, and have become the latest member of the octave. It is the vision of the future that you saw during the trial of divination. And with a saving throw of four, Scorpo sees all of it, all of it.

The nasty sort of domination that you desire in your heart of hearts, Scorpo is now like infinitely, really intimately familiar with. And you see him standing next to the queen as you sort of tower over her in all of your arcane power. And you guys make eye contact. And then the vision ends and the walls sort of between your minds become distinct once more. And you all are now fully integrated into your elemental, into Swamp Thing. And you can see now, you have some senses now, though they are sort of strange, you feel a certain familiarity.

You can see through its sloppy eyes. Sorry. It's sloppy, floppy eyes. It's super sloppy eyes. Super doper sloppy. You see, you know, this giant, slimy, viny hand raise up in front of your face, but you're not really sure who specifically is making the movement. There's very much a, like, Ouija board sort of situation.

And you also have a sort of, like, telepathic link with each other, which you realize when you hear Scorpo shrieking, Oh, I'm dead. Oh, I'm fucking dead. Fuck. Oh, I hate magic so much. Oh, my God. Oh, fuck.

Oh, God. What happened? I'm dead. No, you're not dead. We're in Swamp Thing. What? We're in Swamp Thing. Where's my body?

Okay, I don't know. Sorry, just to be clear, guys. We're in a Swamp Thing. Yeah, Swamp Thang is how I've been so. Thang. That's really good. I like that. Swamp.

Swamp. Swamp-thang, who is a swamp thing, a indefinite article, Swamp Thing. He's like spiraling. He is freaking out. He is sort of, you can see Swamp Thing now is kind of like trying to ambulate, trying to walk forward, but kind of like slops down onto the ground and like, de-forms and then like pulls itself back up out of the ground. If I, if we are telepathically linked out, I want to try to kind, not. like tell them, but share with them the confidence that Rictus has that the soul and the body

are not the same thing. They're not connected. Yeah. And that they're still themselves even without corporeal body. You know, I like this a lot. Give me a persuasion check. I will say you can have advantage on this just to kind of like get Scorpo. Everybody else seems fairly chill.

Scorpo is the one like freaking the fuck out right now. A persuasion check to kind of. That's a Nat 20, baby. Nice. Instantly. Oh. Oh, okay. Wow.

When you put it that way, I do kind of feel like we are not just our brains and bodies. There's a witness, a silent witness at the back of all of our consciousness. And that's where the self resides. Yeah. That's incredible. Thank you for, you've just changed. With a Nat 20, you've just changed this man's entire sort of existential understanding. And like instantly.

Travis is that fucking Alan Watts YouTube. video, that 10 minute meditation just came out of nowhere, like, this video will find it when you need it the most. Like, the body and the soul are separate it. Okay. Oh, shit. Yeah. So, we're not, we're not in this Voltron style, right? One of us in the leg. This is what I need to understand. Like, actually, now that we, now that are we, yes, thank you, dad. This is the question that I've been, like, hung up on. Am I in a knee? Like, where do, am I, like, the leg man? I think, Justin, now that I've gotten a Nat 20 on this, I think not only do all the characters understand it, but you guys and me understand it too. So I don't even know why you're worried about it anymore. That's a really good point, Chad. Maybe you could explain it. It was a 20. Yeah. You all don't seem to have any kind of like localized like you're in the knee, you're in the arm. But as Scorpo kind of calms down and you guys sort of like start to poke around with what it is like to be in this body, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that you're going to have to come up with some sort of system because all four of you are basically,

in control of this same body. So like as you're as you are trying to sort of figure that out, you all, now that your senses have sort of reactivated, you can see sort of around the island. You can see that those dividing lines between the different sort of elemental quarters of the, of the octave ziggurat have become these opaque walls of of shrouding fog. And the only thing you can see beyond your immediate area is the ziggurat at the center of the island where a clock has appeared in the sky, just like in the last trial, and it is hovering over the ziggurat structure where you can see the eight members of the octave and the aspirants all watching. And this clock has two minutes on it. It hasn't started counting down yet. And you hear Trace's

voice come through into your minds telepathically, and Trace says, aspirants are now in direct control of the elemental you have evoked. You, you, we'll have two minutes to learn how to operate this shared form in unison after we'll start the battle will begin. Yes, Rickness. Oh, sorry, I was just practicing. Okay, to remind you all of the stakes, the last elemental standing will be rewarded greatly after this trial. The runner-up will receive a smaller prize, while third place will receive an even more meager boon. But the first elemental to perish in this battle will take its pilots along with it to the grave. Your two minutes preparation begins now, and the clock starts counting down two minutes until the battle begins

a period of time in which you all can sort of, you know, figure out how to move this body together. I actually have an idea. I actually have what might be a good idea. We'll see. Why don't we divvy up between the four of us? It is four, right? Yeah. County Scorpo.

Like one be in charge of offense, one be in charge of defense, one be in charge of observation in the senses, and one be in charge of healing or constitution or something. or something along those lines. Could I maybe suggest even more rudimentary than that? Legs, arms, head. We'll start there

and, like, Loravith, take the legs. No one, no, listen. No one operates that way. You don't operate as an independent head in arms and legs, do you? Uh.

How could, if we're thinking that way, no, we need to be thinking as one. What number am I thinking of right now, Rick? Say it. Eight. You weren't thinking of a number. That was a trick. It was seven. We're in good shape. I was going to say one, which one minus from eight is seven. There we are. No? Yeah?

What if just one of us did it and the other three can just kind of chill? Or tag team? Voting? We could vote. The time is like half elapsed. So like, I've got this. Wait, I need to check one thing. Yeah. All right. I will myself to cast lightning lash.

Okay. In the same way that I would make it happen in my body. And I'm basically what I'm attempting to do is make something magical happen with the swamp. Like, I need to know what we got. Awesome. Yeah. I'm trying to see if you have offensive. What are you trying to whip?

What are you trying to lash? The air. Okay. Just like in the, you know, no attack roll necessary. You hold out Swamp Things hand and you see in D. You see lightning lash whip out of it. It has not necessarily scaled to this size, right? But you can tell that the magic abilities that you all individually possess,

you can channel through this thing in addition to whatever other powers it might sort of natively possess. So yes, your magic is available to you. You have figured that out. Okay. And we don't know anything about the other element. You do not. These walls have sort of blocked your vision off from seeing them. But in just over a minute, it's going to drop and you will find out. I think between us all, we've got a lot of elements covered.

Like, you know, heat and ice and, you know, other skills, other spells. Let's just go at it. We should lay down in the trees. Okay, I think we should lay down in the trees and let the others fight for a moment. Let's them battle it out. We're hiding in the trees. They don't know where we're around. Yeah, we're us.

Well, here's... When they think the fight is ended, they look around. All the foes are slain and who rises up from the trees? It's us. At the height of our powers. With his telepathic link, yeah. I don't think that this is on purpose, but I'd like to see how much Rictus'

commitment to helping the fire team like he promised. Yeah. Bleeps through to the other. three. Yeah, I think this would be a, this would be a separate check. And I'm going to, this one's going to be quite a bit, I think, higher. Obviously, you got a Nat 20 on the last one, but this is a, a big thing to kind of like subtly push through. So if you want to make another persuasion check, we'll say a, I mean, a DC 18 to like really get this going. Okay. Yeah, at 11 is, I don't think 11 total.

strong enough. I will give you this. As you're sort of like measuring that out, you feel this like telepathic link connect to hasty Jane over on the fire team. And you can actually tell that she has been frantically trying to reach out to you. Make a perception check for me to see how effective you are. How much of her message. 13. Okay, it's like a, like a radio static sort of situation. You're catching like every third word, but she sounds panicked. You can hear her say, this, every once after you all. The other teams came to my, it's, and convinced to gang up, I'll try to interfere, but why did you, you wouldn't work with, why wouldn't you lie?

Oh shit, bad news, guys. I think I figured it out. Go on. I think the other team convinced the other team members of Hasty Janice Party to team up against us. And now she's trying to, like, mess with that. But now it's three on one. We should hide in the trees. Yep.

Hide in the trees. Hide in the trees. To the tower. We should go to the tower. To the trees. It's defensible. It's defensible, right? Okay.

So you all, to understand your plan is to become a swamp and try and, try and hide. My, that is the goal is that if we hide in the swamp, then it is like we are, they won't know exactly where, we'll be in our absolute element. Yes, I fuck, I mean, quite literally, as literally as is imaginable. Okay. Uh, I love this.

With seconds remaining on this countdown clock, uh, all, I think all four of you simultaneously, just like make a move as swamp thing, uh, towards the, towards this like thicket of woods around the, Mages Tower here in your quarter. And because of the sort of like simultaneous nature of the movement, it actually works pretty fluidly. And he, you swamping, dives down into the trees. And just as he did moments ago when Scorpo was sort of like flailing around, just sort of deforms

into a swampy bog on the floor. I am going to need a group stealth check. to see how effective this is before we get into initiative and combat. And this is a, I'll just let you three roll. We'll drop highest and lowest and take the average roll. Okay. Now, Griffin, wouldn't you say that Dad's camouflage care of this year? Absolutely.

Yes, Dad, you can roll with advantage. Yes. Okay. The other two cannot. Okay. Dad, I'll always fight for you when it benefits me. Yeah, for sure. All right, stealth checks around the table, please.

Okay. All right. That's an eight from Rictus. 15 from Loravith. 13. Considering my negative 2. That's really good. Yeah, 13 and if you can get higher than a 15, this is going to be a really good one.

Here we go. Son of a bitch. That's a Nat 1. Okay, so we will take the 13 as the average roll. With a 13, you all sort of, in this form, D-form, you turn into just a pool of muck and you still have like your senses available to you from this like position you're obviously low on the ground you can see sort of the ziggarot and the clock above it through the canopy of trees and you see the clock hit zero and a horn resounds across the island and with that

the fog walls disappear and you all can see the creation. The creation. You all can see the creation of the other three teams. To the east, the fire team, you can see as you are sort of warned by Scorpo during the

last part of this trial, you see a towering tree and it is a pine tree but it seems to be decorated in a wild and colorful sort of fashion. Roll a history check

anyone who wants to. 13 5 I already did it 13 dirty 20 I'm 13 I was one who's doing it He said anybody who wants to

I did say anyone I wanted to And I did it first Yeah right Did you want us all to do it You all could for sure do it Lauravith Alright we'll take dads then

Yeah Hell Gramut With a 20 You recognize it as a Christmas tree This is a Christmas tree And you haven't seen a Christmas tree And you haven't seen a Christmas tree before Christmas isn't like a big thing in the fold, but like, for whatever reason,

you know that that is a, that's a Christmas tree. For us, Earth, you know, reality people, it's basically like the Rockefeller, you know, Plaza, massive, massive three-story tall Christmas tree. It is decorated with bibles and garlands, tendrils of garlands are sort of whipping off of it like tentacles. and it has these two thick trunks at the bottom holding it upright. That's the fire team which has Hasty Jane and Gunk and Dr. Legume and Burger Man on it. To the northeast you see standing before the mountains there in the earthen quarter, you see a two-story ranch-style house and it is standing on two big, I'm going to say bare feet. Wait, bear feet or bear feet?

Like bear human feet. And that's confusing. And you can see that... Just a naked supple human feet. Naked supple, huge human feet. It has sort of two second story windows with lights on and shutters sort of open on them, sort of making a sort of vague eye shape. But this is a living house elemental that, that has.

has been created in the wild fashion that you all know. And to your left, sitting in the lake, the water team, oh, by the way, the Earth Quarter is the sort of American gladiators, raised days, haze and blaze. Of course. And then to the north, you see the water team, which has the gentleman from Wisbury who came and petitioned you at the, at the middle of this trial, as well as Corrigan, Hildilla, and Enigma,

who I don't believe you've met. You can see a familiar sight sitting in the lake. you see the Titanic. You all had a brush with this yourselves while you were building your elemental out and decided against it. And seeing it in this way, you are somewhat regretting that decision maybe

because it is, it's not to scale with the original ship, but it is still significantly larger than any of the other elemental summons here. Swamp thing, the Christmas tree, the house. They're all about the same size. And this is, you know, much larger than the others, and you hear a deafening, threatening horn bellow from one of its stacks across the

sky, and we're going to roll for initiative. Can we shade our thoughts so that poor swamp thing doesn't feel our resentment? Yeah, I think that that's, yeah, that's a kind gesture done. Yeah, okay. Go ahead, guys, and roll initiative for me. independently. You're going to roll independently. Nice.

Nine. Okay. Fifteen. Scorpo has a five. And Swamp Thing has an 11, which, shockingly, is the highest of the elementals. So Swamp Thing is up first. Obviously, you all are in this sort of, like, hiding position if you want to delay your turn and take it once the other teams have, like, started moving. then that is that is fine. The way that I sort of envision this going is all four of you are

sort of in control here, but if somebody has an idea that they want to pursue that not everybody else is wild about, we are going to go in initiative order to determine whose turn it is to pilot the, to pilot the swamp thing. So I guess, hell Graham, we'll take it to you because you got the highest initiative. Are you wanting to keep this hiding posture that you all have taken and then, you know, take a turn once the other teams have come close, trying to, you know, surprise them? Or what is your plan here? Maintain stealth or do something else? Well, I think if we have this mental communication, obviously we've already kind of shared the idea.

Yeah. And, I mean, I don't, I mean, it would be kind of stupid. which is kind of my forte. Yeah, for sure. Okay. No, but I'm, I think sitting back, though, right? I mean, this is what we wanted to do. I kind of see.

How about a perception check? Yeah, sure, you can make a perception check. I really kind of zoom in on what the other ones are doing. Yeah, for sure. Okay. I have Mage Armour. Okay. If we have, like, a turn where we're not doing anything, it's a full action.

So it lasts for eight hours, you know what I mean? That is not a bad idea. What does major armor do, Richtus? It increases. The target space AC becomes 13 plus its dexterity modifier. Okay, that actually wouldn't affect Swamp Thing. Swamp Things AC is already 17. Oh, okay, great.

Not bad. And you're trying to perceive sort of just like get a lay of the land what's going on as the walls fall and everyone starts moving. Give me that perception check. You know what? I changed my mind. Okay. I'm going to do something else. Okay. I'm going to cast augury.

Okay. With augury, you receive an omen from an otherworldly entity about the results of a course of action that you plan to take within the next 30 minutes. I want to see if it'll send us a sign as how well this hiding theory or our hiding plan will work. Okay. My answers, I believe, are wheel or woe, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, wheel, woe, wheel and woe are indifference. And wagon wheel. I will say for you specifically, Hell Grammet, I think you feel, I think you feel wheel. I think you're keeping it wheel right now. You are sharing this kind of like psychic link with everyone, and so they can.

can kind of feel you poking around in this kind of like divine, you know, source of information, this thought space. And so for you, it's like fully wheel. And for, for Loravith and Scorpo, same deal. Rictus, I think for you, it is wheel and woe, because I think you've pieced together that if this works and you hide, the result of this is going to be the other two teams are probably just going to turn on on hasty jane's team the christmas tree yeah and that'll be a bummer for sure yeah but the alternative is you all you know get caught and die yep yep yep yep um okay that is your action we move on next to the christmas tree i want you to roll a d4 for me uh ricktis this is representing sort of your friendship with hasty jane if you get a four on this roll it's 25% chance

she will sort of interfere in the plan that was concocted by her teammates. That's the two, Griffin. Yeah, no. So you all see the Christmas tree run over to the observation deck and tries looking around for you. I'm going to roll a perception check. Okay, that is an 11, which is under the 13 stealth role that you made earlier. So you see the Christmas tree kind of like poking around trying to locate you to no avail. You can hear Hacy Jane clearer now, Rictus.

You hear her say, Rickus, okay, whatever you're doing, keep doing it, stay hidden, but like, what's the plan? Because if we don't team up on you, they're going to team up on us. So, like, what's the plan? Can she hear me? Yep.

If I give the chance, if I give the chance, we'll attack one of them first and not you. Okay. Why did you tell them that you were not going to team up with them. Why wouldn't you just say that you were going to and then not? And then

we could like trick them. Oh, they're assholes. And I got kind of blinded by that, I guess. You hear another voice like Poppins. Who are you talking to? Hey, St. Jane. You hear the voice of Dr. Legume. My flexible

friend. How could you? You know how I feel about the bug man. That is going to be it for the Christmas tree. No, you know what? The Christmas tree flexes its lights and starts shining its lights throughout the wood to try and help the other two

locate you. Next up is the Titanic. The Titanic, you see sails over right to the edge of the lake on the edge of the forest where you all are hiding and is going to start pumping smog

out of one of its smokestacks. This layer of smog starts to roll low, clinging to the ground over the, you know, under the forest canopy, basically settling right on top of where you all have taken this swamp form. Let's get Loravith roll a constitution saving throw. That's a plus five. If you click on the initiative order, swamp thing, you can see all the rolls there and make them yourselves if you would like to.

Do you guys see the character sheet? for sewer thing? Yeah. I got it. Okay. Oh, there we go. And did you use the advantage on its initiative role, Griffin?

Does it have advantage on its initiative role? And I expected appearance. The sewer thing is motionless to start of combat. I mean, he was first in the order. Anyway, I did forget it, but yes, thank you.

Okay, so Constitution save. Swamp Thing has a plus five. Loravith. Can you roll your D20 here? I'm trying to beat a 15. I rolled a 19. Perfect. Amazing. This smog, this like dark, putrid green smog as it rolls over your sort of stagnant swamp form on the ground.

You could tell that the Titanic team was trying to smoke you all out. They did not know that you are a, that you're a swamp thing. Even if you had failed that role, you are immune to poison. So this attack would not have done anything to you. And you hear another sort of like angry horn resounding. Next in the order is the house elemental. It is going to climb over the ziggurat and standing atop the ziggurat is just going to try and spot you all in the woods where you are hiding. That is going to be a...

It has to be it in 18 until. intelligence check, an 18 investigation check to discern that the sewer thing is animate. Oh, yes. So that's another aspect of unexpected appearance. That's rad. Yes. Okay, so with an 18 intelligence investigation check. Let me just, I can actually roll that directly from the guy. Roll. Nope, that is an 11. Again, this house has started to look for you all. And it doesn't seem to be finding much purchase. You can hear some chatter happening over this psychic airwave, but he is pretty far away from you for you to be able to pick it up.

He's not aiming it directly at you, sort of as Hasty Jane was doing. But you can tell that specifically the Titanic team and the house team are starting to really second-guess this plan that they had concocted to team up with the HastyJane's team to take you all out first. Next, in the order, it's back to Swamp Thing. I mean, we still haven't been spotted. That is a good point. Maybe we could do a little, can we do a little inside out

sort of discussion here? Yeah. I would think. Yeah, for sure. I think this would be a moment if we were to sort of covertly snatch one up to truly instill some fear and confusion rather than wait for them to approach.

This is a great moment. Okay, but counterpoint, if we take out the weakest one first and blow the advantage of surprise, why not save that to take out one of the stronger ones? Is there a chance we're the weakest one? No way, man, they have no idea where we are. Oh, right, right, right, right, right, right.

We draw them into our forest. We're on our home field turf. Yes, but they will have the advantage if they begin the attack. They haven't since this yet, right? Yeah, nobody has, nobody, they didn't know what you look like, right? They are all operating at a disadvantage. From their perspective, the walls dropped, and you guys were just gone, and all of their

attempts to find you so far have been unsuccessful. What I want is if they, here's what I'm trying to get to. Yeah. If one of them hoves close enough, I'd love to, like, snatch one of them up, like, really, really kick things off a little bit, get people a little freaked out. Here's what I'm going to say, Loravith. You were next in the initiative order.

You are, it is technically your... Is there anyone near the... Who's near the hand of the... Or no. Who's near the... Yeah, who's near the hand? Who is near the hand of the swamp thing? Yeah, can I do like a luck roll or something?

Is there anything... No, I mean, if you look at the map, you can see the Christmas tree team was standing sort of like right on the observation. deck looking for you all. And so sort of to scale, they are. Has anyone wandered into the swamps yet? No.

Into the forest. Okay, that's what I would like to delay action until someone has decided to do that. Okay. So maybe, while I have the initiative, yeah, I'd just like to give a cheeky little shake of the trees with our foot. Okay.

Just a cheeky little tree shake to see if I can get the Christmas trees attention. Okay, that's very, very good. give me a Hmm Slide of hand, right? You're trying to like Slide of foot.

Slide of slime. Yeah, give me that, give me a slide of hand check. You can either. This is great. I'm perfectly positioned to do this with my negative two from my five, which is three.

Okay. Yeah, I mean with a three, immediately the Christmas tree, which was standing like right over you all in the observation deck, like sees you all. And they are actually next in the order. So I think a result of your failing roll here is you're kind of going to get exactly what you wanted as the Christmas tree is going to leap down.

Actually, D4 roll for me, Rickus? Yeah. The four. Looking for a four. It's a three, Griffin. Nope. Aasty Jane is unable to rest control. And so the Christmas tree leaps down and it's two big.

trunks sort of splat down right next to the swamp and you can see it's sort of garland tendrils begin to whip back for an attack however you did prepare this exact action swamp swamp thing slash justin so what do you want what do you want to do uh how big is it talk to me a little bit about scale yeah uh talking about like 25 30 feet these things uh are if you look at the uh the the character sheet sort of for sewer thing which is what I have based this swamp thing off of you can see that it is huge in the terminology of

of D&D you can also see sort of like the other stuff that it is capable of this guy's wandered in and this is we're never going to have a better moment to pound the ever-loving shit out of this thing like this is we're not going to be able to yeah we could engulf it I think that that's what I want to pounce

and just engulf it with our swampy mass. That is amazing. So sewer thing, there's a few things that are going to be working for it here. If this sewer thing attacks a creature, it can make one additional tindral lash attack as part of its multi-attack action.

So sewer thing multi-attacks. You're going to make two attacks and then a free tindral lash. And then also you can use in golf as part of this action. So you are indeed going to, this is what sewer things do is they hide and then if you step on them,

they fuck you up really, really fast. So this is doing exactly sort of what God intended. So let's get our first multi-attack role here. And it's also, and this is the worst part that is tough. It's like we're not acting in a legally distinct way from the Marvel characters. That's fair. This is very swamping coded actions we're taking here. We are going to do plus eight on this role, mainly attack roll.

On the Christmas tree. Against the Christmas tree, yes. Okay. Trying to be the DC-17. Okay. I'm just rolling still the D-20, right? Yes. D-20 plus 8.

I roll a 14. Yep. That is going to hit. So that is going to do 2D8 plus 5 bludgeoning damage and grapple onto the Christmas tree. Okay. That is 8 plus 5, 13. Okay. Plus 5.

13. And then what was the other one? Do it again. You get two sort of, you actually get three attacks and an engulf on your first turn here. So just another D20 plus eight. Oh, that's a one. Okay, that second tindril, the Christmas tree, like, knows to get out of the way of, and then it's sort of like stands resolute preparing to continue its attack that it had ready,

not knowing that you still have quite a bit of stuff left. So you can use your bonus ambush tindrail lash here. So one more D20 plus 8. You've already got it grappled. 15. 15? Yep, that is going to absolutely hit. So another 2D8 plus 5.

Got 3 plus 6, 9 plus 5, 14. Okay. We're in kind of like kaiju battle mode. So the hit points on these elementals is quite a bit higher than your own sort of squishy wizards. Okay. And then finally in golf. You have grappled successfully the Christmas tree. This grapple ends.

The target has the blinded and restrained conditions. Is suffocating and is subjected to the following effect at the start of your turn, a DC-16 save throw or else they take a fuckload of damage. Also, if you move, the target moves with you, and you can have up to four creatures engulfed at a time. And I think, I don't know if, that would count since this is four sort of like people piloting a big, this is four kids in a trench coat, but, right. I feel like one of these is a fair, like if I can only do four, I feel like one of these guys.

Yeah, they're pretty big. Fair limit. Yeah. Okay. So they are restrained, right? They have zero speed. They have, they are going to attack you. They are going to have disadvantage on the attack roll. They are also blinded. So, I mean, this is, is double-dispyed. disadvantage or thing? Well, you also have the chance, fair play. You can try to make an escape role with a DC-16 athletics check. Yes. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, I think Christmas Tree gets a multi-attack, too. I'm going to do one attack against you all with disadvantage and then try to free from this prison. Okay. That is a... Wow. Double 11. So plus four, a 15 with the disadvantage, which is not enough to hit Swamp Things AC. And then it's going to try and escape with a trying to hit a 16 here.

That is a nine. No. Okay. So what just happened is Chris's tree saw the leaves shaking. Saw the forest, you know, trees shaking where you very unsubtally kicked one of the trees and hopped down. and instantly, as soon as its feet touched the ground, you just went berserk and attacked it a bunch of times and then swallowed it. You know, the whole trunk certainly and, you know, maybe the top

half of the actual piney bit of the tree. And as it tried to attack you with the tendrils, some of it were, you know, they were already submerged and that was not effective. and then the tree itself tried to wiggle out of the grasp of the swamp and also did not work. You hear Hasty Jane's voice come through kind of staticy now, as Dr. Legume sort of picked up on your guy's secret back channel. You hear her say, what are you? Are you all in this? Are you the swamp?

And I can't quite hear anything other than that. Next. Hey, A.C. Jane, it's me, Jiboy, Rick does. We're just kind of playing the hand. We're dealt and, you know, it's not over yet. And just got to keep on, keep it on. Doing our best. Sorry.

Sorry. Okay. Next in the order is the Titanic. Now that this, you know, now that you've revealed yourself, I think the time for stealth is over. And the Titanic is going to dick. Hold on. What? The Titanic is going to dip down into the lake and then launch into the air and come crashing down on top of the two teams that have now sort of merged into one big gooey tree.

So Griffin, you did accidentally say it. I said dig. I just said dig down. I'm waiting to finish the thought. Yeah. And I appreciate that, man. Gross. Yeah. But I do want to say that if the Titanic was going to verb a lake, I don't think you're incorrect.

Yeah. The Titanic would be dicking down. I mean, let's look at the Titanic as a symbol in and of itself, right? Yeah, it's not a freshwater vessel. But he is also. Travis is talking about this is a phallic extension. We can agree. Thank you.

Right. Yes. Of course, the biggest one, the strongest one. Never quite like this. The unsinkable dick. At the first challenge, at the first bit of rigidity, it shatters. Yeah. Because it refuses to change its path.

True to form. Okay. So the Titanic is quite accurately dicking down into the lake. Okay. Hellgrammon. We'll have you do this one. A dexterity saving throw. That's just a plus one.

And you're trying to beat a 15 here. Okay. How about a dirty 20? Wow. Yeah. Dirty 20 is going to do it. the Christmas tree Roll day not one.

But it moves with us. It does move with you. Yeah, that's a good point. How about this? I leave it up to you, Rick this, because technically you would be next in the order. Do you take it with you? You can save the Christmas tree from this attack if we want to.

Okay. 100%. Awesome. Then with the deck save of the swamp thing, you sort of goosh to the side, flooding around the Mages Tower getting out of the way of this attack as the Titanic beaches itself

coming smashing down onto the forest when that happens you hear Dr. Leggium's voice What are you doing? Why did you save us? Because I made a promise and if I can keep it without also getting fucked over then I'm gonna do that

But Hell Gramet's in there with you, right? Yeah, he's not that bad, really. Hello. Yeah. He got me thrown out of a big tower and it was really scary. Yeah, but would you have done that to him

if you needed to? I'll never know. Yeah, you do. Come on. Give me a persuasion check, Rictus. Okay. Okay. It got stuck on the side, but it's a five.

With a five, with a five, you can tell that, you can tell just from sort of like his tone of voice, Dr. Leggium is sort of has come around. And maybe also because you have just, you know, fucked up this Christmas tree pretty bad. Now an alliance with you guys actually seems not so bad of an idea. What was that juice? I'm thinking. I mean, I guess on that note, if you wanted to sort of flex a different, if you want to roll an intimidation. Yeah. No, I, you know, I think a pivot and strategy sounds good to me because we're not, I don't feel like going to be able to do the same trick unless maybe the tree can lure some haters back here.

you know yeah i heard about this great web the spider's really nice yeah come on over he's got ice yes great he that's the saying from old mother goose's nursery rhyme ice cream um so yeah if you leave it here the christmas tree you're going to have two out of the four members of that team sort of working on your side um you see now that everything is kind of like congregated together uh the how comes smashing down, barging in, and swamp thing. It is going to throw open its front door, and from it a just a buckshot spread of furnishings comes launching out in your direction. Richtus rolled that.

Actually, you rolled the last one. Loribeth, roll that deck save for me. It's plus one. Trying to beat a 15. Oh wow, I got 18 minus cheese. These guys, these saves are incredible. Yeah. You, you know, you absorb it.

This just this, you know, huge cloud of end tables and dining room chairs and a credenza comes flying out. It just kind of lands in the swamp and you all absorb it and it sort of like dissolves harmlessly. and that brings us to the top of the order, which is a swamp thing. All the teams are kind of gathered together here now, right? You are all standing in this swamp. You have the Christmas tree, you know, almost fully submerged in your grasp, although two of its members have sort of suggested that they would, you know, work with you. Who had Tree partnered with?

Who was Tree. Tree was going to team up with Titanic and House to fuck you guys up. Because the other three members overruled Hacy Jane. Yes, exactly. I'm going to through, it's my turn, right? It is Ricketts, yes. Do we still have, can I just clarify something before Ricketts asked? Do we still have Christmas Tree physically restrained?

Yes, absolutely you do. Okay, thank you. Oh, so they need to do some saving throws. Yes, you're right. Thank you, Travis. That is going to be a DC-16 that they need to roll, Constitution save. So,

Christmas Tree, con save plus four. That is a 15, which is not sufficient. So they are going to take, uh, Trav, why don't you roll it,

two D10 poison damage and two D10 acid damage. So just four D10. Yeah, just four. Four D10 damage here. Oh, boy. Holy fucking shit, dude.

810, eight nine. 35 points of damage. Oopsies. Yousa. Okay. A 35 is crazy.

Like as we were standing out, we stepped on their brain or something. It was very, oh no, my fond nail never closed. They are just bloodied. So like entire branches and boughs and pine needles are like sloughing off of it into the swamp. And you can,

hear a sort of like psychic yelp coming from the four members of that team. Okay, listen, sorry about that. But if everybody agrees to be cool and work with us, I can help and let you go. You tell me what role this is. You tell me, is this persuasion, is this deception? No, it feels like intimidation. Persuasion with advantage, Griffin, because we did just hurt him real bad. I would give you intimidation with advantage.

Okay, yeah, yeah. But persuasion is not something you would get advantage on after. Okay, yeah. Then I'll take intimidation with advantage. Okay. So 17 plus 1, 18, and 14 plus 1, 15, so 18. You hear a voice say, Burger Man here.

So you're saying you'll let us go and we'll work together? Yeah. Really? Yes. You can feel the tree that you all have restrained kind of go limp a little bit. It stops sort of flailing about and waits to see what you do. Okay. I release them voluntarily and cast Wither and Bloom.

Okay. Wither and Bloom. What level are you casting Wither and Bloom at? I'm casting at a second level. Okay. I'm assuming you are trying to This is like an AOE situation Yeah I'm hitting the house in Titanic

And triggering the heel on the tree Yeah you all have not been hurt at all yet Yeah Okay so what do they need to roll They need to roll a DC 13 Constitution Saving throw Okay I'll go ahead and tell you right now Titanic's gonna hit this roll

Can I clarify something Are we privy to the communications that he has had with Hasty Jane? Like, have we been hearing those because we're also in his brain? Like, we know what the... Yes, I don't think that... Would we weird, if we don't know

what the tree has done, it would be weird for us to not be fighting for me on. You are privy to that for sure. Okay, so Titanic gets a dirty 20. House only gets an eight. So, House is going to take some damage. here. They're both going to take damage. Oh, but... Yeah, Titanic's going to

take half damage. Okay. What is it? 2D6. So, House is going to take 10, Titanic's going to take 5. Okay. And then

Tree is going to heal, hit dice, whatever that is. Okay. House takes 10, you say? Okay. Correct. The house, you can see, like, some of the stucco, on the sides of it, some of like the wood paneled walls

start to kind of like creak and peel off a little bit. I think now that you have dealt some damage to everybody here, you can kind of like tell that the Titanic is clearly outclassing sort of everyone here in terms of

sturdiness of their elemental, but the house and Christmas tree do appear to be like quite a bit more vulnerable. More vulnerable, you would say even than the swamp thing in which you currently inhabit. The Christmas tree is going to heal for 12 points of damage, bringing them back up to out of bloodied range.

Okay, you spew out the Christmas tree. It lands in this sort of like healing field that you have created. You see the house kind of like take a big step backwards as you hit with the spell. The Christmas tree stands up next. to your swamp. Have you all de-form, have you all, like, taken back the form of swamp thing,

or you remain? I guess this is a question for you, Rictus, because it's technically your turn hasn't ended, or have you kind of, like, taken back your elemental form? I would say we're back. Okay.

The swamp. Like, because we, we wouldn't make sense. They know where we are now. Yes, absolutely. They know where you are now. So then the scene is. And when I cast it,

Gervin, just a little flavor, some flowers bloom on his shoulder, on Swampthing's shoulders, too. So, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. That's very cool. then what it is then is the flowers appear on the surface of this like flat bog that had just consumed the Christmas tree that it spits out. And then as the Christmas tree is healed and restored and sort of like plants its trunks next to the swamp kind of squaring off against the house and the Titanic that it had previously aligned with, those flowers rise up as the swamp thing sort of reappears from the muck and takes its form standing next to the Christmas tree in a,

a sort of dramatic two versus two pose. And you hear the voice of the gentleman sort of telepathically ring through your minds. And he says, well now, it seems we've got a fair fight on our hands. Maximum Fun. A work-owned network of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.