The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 19

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

The Trial of Conjuration, Part II The duels to the death continue with the arena fighting back as much as the wizards. But will they work around these dangers or use them to their advantage? Royale Theme: “Wizard Disco” by Louie Zong: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/wizard-disco Original Music by Griffin McElroy Additional Music in this Episode: "Languid Dawn" by Blear Moon: https://blearmoon.bandcamp.com/;  "Skin Writhes Anxious",  and "III" by ROZKOL: https://rozkol.bandcamp.com/;  "When the Wick is Gone" by The Pangolins: "Night Sky" and "Simple Song" by Jar of Flies: https://jaroffliesofficial.bandcamp.com/; https://thepangolins.yolasite.com/; "Haunts" by Triple5 Here: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/triple5-here/'; and Moulds Sun" by 10 Echo: https://10echo.bandcamp.com/. Border Angels: https://www.borderangels.org/our-services.html 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, you have all either chosen or been assigned your opponent, and against them you will do to the death in an arena specifically designated for you. I work for death. Okay. Well, that seems like it would give you an advantage. He gestures to the graveyard that you are now standing in front of. What did you do? I can't say anything. Is this you or is this the bogs?

Don't worry. It's all part of my plan. Don't worry. The bumps. Trust me. You've trusted me so far. A sea beast, Lord of it. This other tentacle bows at you and then loops down into its portal and vanishes.

Look, he's dead. He died of shame. Grickhar, that'll be you. Dying of shame. Welcome back to Taz Royale. We are in the throes of a hot and heavy trial, a duel between friends. The Fates. A duel of the Fates.

And thank you, Daddy. Yeah, that's cool. It's just so explosive. We're going to have to put copyright. It is an explosive tune. Yeah, we will get struck for how good and accurate it sounded. We are in the middle of this duel, the trial of conjuration in the last episode, the three of you, came to your battlegrounds at different points scattered across the island of the octave, Ziggarat. You have chosen your dueling partners, Loroeth, against his old friend and rival, Gracan, Hellgrammet.

up against Dr. Lagume, who he was going to get to featherfall him off the island before a bunch of bugs attacked him. And then Rictus is up against the gentleman from Wisbury. He set a diabolical trap in the last episode. And the last thing that happened was Loribeth absolutely shredded a giant tentacle that grabbed him and attacked him, which was very, very impressive. Which brings us all the way back to the top of the order. First thing that happens. Can you start the map again? Did I know?

Oh, of course I will. Of course I will. Beautiful. Okay, the first thing that happens is the spectral sphere has expanded inside of the graveyard battleground, where the gentleman and rictus are currently embroiled in battle. The next thing that happens is the enormous tentacle that is still emerging from beside the bridge next to where Gricon and Loribeth are battling is going to keep attacking Gricon, whips down a heavy tendril at him and hits him.

He smashes down into the bridge as the tentacle catches him by surprises. He's sort of stunned at the incredible blow that you landed against the other tentacle. He takes 12 points of bludgeoning damage. Griffin, just a random question. Is laughing at someone's goofy ass a free action? Yeah, you can laugh at someone's goofy ass. We have, I think, established the president that Goofy As Laughing is

encouraged, welcomed, and will, no charge, free of charge. I didn't know you're into that sort of thing, Braham! Shut up! Next up is Dr. Legume. Dr. Legume also was blinded

in the last round by Hell Grammott's color spray, some burst of magic spray. So he's having a tough, He's having a tough go of it. What he is going to do is he is going to cast Thunderwave to try to thin out some of this crowd of insects. Now, normally being blinded, you would have disadvantage on an attack. This is not an attack.

This is a con save that you, Hell Grammet, and all of the swarm of insects are going to need to make, please. Very well. That's the seven's not going to do it. A seven is not going to do it. Only one of the swarm of insects failed the save. So hell, Grammet, you are going to take four points of force damage, and you're going to be pushed back a bit in the water. Does Thunderwave knock you prone to? If you Thunderwave in water, does it knock you back?

Wow. That's a really good point. They are pushed away from you. Okay. Oh, and all the other creatures here, all the other insects are going to take half damage. All right. Then we have, the gentleman has gone into hiding. Yeah, classic. You would recall. But he is going to make his move. No, I mean, he's going to have to make an attack roll here. Let me see. He has disadvantage because he can't see anything.

He doesn't know where the hell I am. Well, he knows you're in the cloud somewhere. He's attacking the darkness. Yes. 11 does not hit your AC, does it? No. No. Okay. You hear something metallic fly, you know, a good 10 feet off to your side and collide with a gravestone and cling down to the ground. Next, in the order, all the swarms of insects are going to come after Dr. Legume. That one's not quite able to make it. That one isn't either.

But two of the swarms of insects are going to attack and one has disadvantage for being blinded. and misses the other one, crits. Dr. Legume is going to take a little more. Jesus Christ. Okay, Dr. Legume takes 10 points of slashing damage. You can see Dr. Legume as he is being swarmed by insects. He is in incredibly bad shape. The large and sort of new imposing form that he has gained

by training under the waterfall as long as he has is, it looks quite. quite pitiful right now as he's being kind of devoured and screaming in agony. Next up is Rictus. Uh-huh. Do I know where the thing was flung at me from? You know what? Give me a perception check to see if you can spot his high because he did take an action, I think, with the cloud of darkness here. Wait, a 14 plus 1B4 for my secret stuff.

So 15 total? Okay, let me roll his stealth check. No, that does not beat a 15 yet. You can see him now. He is slightly cowering behind a gravestone just off to the side of your cloud of darkness. You get the sense that he knew it would be a bad idea to wander into this darkness cloud

and just start sort of attacking blindly. And so he is just off to the side of it. Okay, great. I am going to move up and with my bonus action command Beauregard to also move over. Beauregard is holding this lamp of darkness, right, that is projecting this field. Okay. So that we kind of move simultaneously. So I'm still hidden in the cloud, right? Okay, you can move the circle so I know where Beauregard ends up. Okay, and then where are you moving to?

And then I'm going to run up and attack the gentleman with my sword. Okay. The darkness here is going to grant you, I believe, an advantage. Correct. I will not be able to see. And so you are going to have, yeah, advantage on this attack roll with your cool magic death sword. So I guess it'll just be a D20 plus six because I don't like have it in my attacks. Yep. The first one is a five. Oh, yeah, five. So that's not going to do it. No, but you have advantage.

13 plus 6 and 19 Yeah absolutely that's gonna hit Sick So five points of damage Okay I just haven't melee attacked with him This entire time Yeah this is Rickta's first hit

And how's it feel man Pretty good I bet Okay is that it for your turn Yeah I use my bonus action I use my move I use my attack Yeah so you swing this this death blade down

and through the darkness it is kind of tough to get a good hit on him but you know you have slashed his right across his arm quite deep you hear him yelp in pain and though you are sort of occluded by this shroud of darkness he is more aware of where you are at this moment

the enormous tentacle moves on its own that's crazy whoa what's going on I actually scooted him and scooting him back because I was trying to know my cone. He's unmoved. All right. And you've got a cone. I'm excited to find out what that cone's about.

I'm doing some measurements over here. Okay, cool. Next in the order is Gricon. Gricon. Oh, that's perfect, actually. Forget the cone. You didn't see anything. I want it known.

No, I'm changing my choices now. Now that I know about the cone. Conononononically. I'm not going to let you just fuck me. No, no, no. The con doesn't know about the cone. Griffin knows about the cone. Gras got a mental cone in lure of his head.

I don't want to skip over the fact that I think Travis just had a great pun. Cononical? Did you say cononical? I did. I did. Thank you, Dad. This is the kind of energy we're missing on my brother and my brother, and me.

No one's over there to catch my glorious bon mon. I've been saying that for like 12 years. Okay. Gracon pinned under this enormous tentacle that just attacked him, holds out a hand and forms a fist. When he does that, the railing off to the side just behind you, Loravith, is ripped off of the bridge. He wasn't going for a pound? He wasn't going for a pound.

No, he wasn't going for a pound. Rips off of the bridge and flies into the side of the enormous tentacle, which is going to take 11 points of piercing damage and rear back releasing Gricon. Hell Gramet. I'm really curious to find out what Hellgramut's doing here. Well, so is he. So you said that Dr. Legumis lost his featherfall concentration, right? Yes, you are no longer under the benefit of featherfall. So if you were planning to jump off the side of the island, then that is a bad idea.

I'll tell you right now. I'm going to take a big swing. Okay. I am going to try to use cloud of daggers to try to knock the swarms off of him, off of Dr. Legge. Okay. So you're going to, sorry. Just want to, sorry. You're going to be real careful.

What does that mean? Super-duper careful, just very carefully use a, sorry, was it a cloud of daggers, you said, to get to, to, to carefully, very carefully. Very carefully. Excerpt. To hit, just to check, tiny bugs. Just the tiny bugs with the daggers, right? Right, they're swarming all around him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to throw them in such a way that they encounter the bugs, but don't encounter Dr. Well, to his credit, I mean, if he, if, if, if, Hell Grandma knows anything, it's bugs, right? Yeah. Okay. What level are you casting this spell at? It's either second or third.

I think I'm going to cast it at third. Okay, mark off that spell slot. And this actually has no immediate effect. This will, when a creature starts their turn or enters the spells area for the first time, they will take the damage. So please remind me. I'll put actually a giant, actually it's a five foot by five foot cube. Cube, yeah. Which, you know, if you did it sort of die.

Yeah, all these insects are swarming on him. So put him right at the center of the cube. Yeah, if you put it right about here, you will get all but one of the swarm of insects, and Dr. Legume might get a little bit of it. Okay, cool. That is there. Anything else? Do you want to move away from the edge of the island out of the water?

Do you want to use your move action? No, I think I want to... Smart. Smart. Don't let him shake you. I think I'm going to call out to him. Okay. Yeah, that's a free action, right?

Watch out for daggers! Doc, be careful. Be mindful. You're not listening. You're not listening. Concentrate. Thanks for clarifying. He was screaming out the bugs now and not the daggers yet.

Well, he's blinded. He hasn't noticed the dagger. What's cut? I'm trying to get the bugs off of you. Trust me. All right. boy howdy next in the order is

Laura Vith I bet a cone's coming show me that beautiful cone papa yes I'm gonna I'm gonna do a cone here if I have to move I'm you know

I'm kind of gonna scoge over here to get a good triangulation of this if need be I don't think I'll need to do too much here I am going to cast a color spray in a cone on these gibronies. Okay.

What is, let me, color spray. Yeah, why don't you look that up on drawing this great, big, beautiful cone? Well, with color spray, you launch a dazzling array of flashing colorful light. Each creature in a 15-foot cone originating from you must succeed on a constitution saving through or have the blinded condition until the end of your next turn. Yes. Interesting. Okay, so Constitution Saving Throw from first the Tentackle.

The Tentacl crits on its save. Gricon. Is not a con save, you said? It is a con save, yes. Okay, he has a plus three. What's he trying to beat here? My spellcasting modifier. Okay, he only rolls A3 plus A3.

six is not going to do it. So he is blinded, I believe. Yes, that is correct. Okay. All right. You see Gricon, as he is temporarily kind of mixed up with this other tentacle, getting back to his feet, you launch a spray of a beautiful, brilliant, prismatic color that envelops the tentacle and Gricon, and he says, Oh, what? No fair! That's cheating! It's not, I don't think. That, no, I clarified several times. I believe no holds bond was the phrase, and I specifically.

The tangicle doesn't even have eyes. And thus it was unaffected, as you can plainly see. I can't plainly see anything. Look at you. No vision quick wit. I love it. All right. Next in the order.

The spectral sphere, back to the top, is going to expand another five feet. It's getting quite large now. The spectral sphere is there's only kind of like a, it's right in the middle of the battlefield. There's only sort of a narrow path you can get around this thing. Pretty soon it's going to cut the field of battle in half. And then in another few rounds, it's going to completely consume it. If you touch it, it is so bad for you. Okay, got it.

It is a swirling mass of the unquiet dead. Okay, next in the order, the enormous tentacle is going to slap down on the bridge, make a wet, sad sound and then is going to sweep across the bridge. I need you and Gricon to make dexterity saving throws, please. Gracon, with his disadvantage, rolls a critical failure. Ah, beans. The number you're looking to beat here is a 13. Oofa, Oofa.

Oh, man. Okay, so a huge, wiry tendril slaps down on the bridge, sweeps across, you see it connect with Gricon and start very quickly dragging him across the bridge. Before you can delight in that, you don't realize that its arc continues to sweep over towards you. It smashes you and Gricon sort of right next to each other here on the close side of the bridge, and you both are going to take two points of bludgeoning damage. Two ones on the damage roll, yeah. It just kind of, you know, like when you wind up a towel and like slap someone's butt.

It's just about that bad idea. Yeah. Okay. Can I get ready to comb? I think the tentacle kind of like the color spray. I think the tentacle is like, his heart wasn't in it because it was so delighted by my fireworks show that I did. Yeah.

That sounds. Yeah. Okay. Next up is Dr. Legume. Dr. Legume is going to start his turn in the cloud of daggers. Thank you so much, Travis.

So that's going to be 4D4, actually 6D. D4. Wait, really? Mm-hmm. Okay, he's going to take four. Six D-4. Six D-4. Do I need to roll that? No, man, I mean, I just did.

If you think you can beat 15 on 6D4 dice, you're welcome to roll it yourself if you'd like. You know, I suppose that is your prerogative. Dad, you knew. I feel like you knew. I feel like your brand used to be that you're a bad D&D player, but I think it may be time to face facts that you're a bad person. You know what I mean?

Like you just do these mean things. And it's not like you don't understand the rules. It's like you do understand the rules and you're like getting some stuff out. Yeah, because I think you're crazy like a fox here because you made this plan with Dr. Lagoon. and I think you'd not only been fooling Dr. Lagoon, but also us. That feels mean. That feels especially.

And tragically, maybe even yourself a little bit, I would say. You want to kill him. You want to kill Dr. Legume. Those are all very interesting observations. All right. So you have rolled a 16, a 16 on your damage roll, which is impressive. One more than 15. You from the creek where you are standing, this stream that is flowing over the edge of

the octave cigarette. You stand and you see Dr. Legume back up against a tree sort of climb up bright red circles around his eyes where you dazzled him just a few moments ago. As he stands up, unaware of these daggers that are swirling around him, you see him hold out a hand. And as he does so, some spectral feathers begin to swirl around it. And he, before he can get the spell off, a dagger flies through and slashes him across the arm. And as he turns to find out what happened, another six daggers plunge into him. And you see him stand stock still and fall backwards over dead into the swarm of insects. The swarm of insects are just going to descend on him.

And before you can see anything else, you hear a loud horn, chime, a chorus of bells ring, and you have defeated Dr. Legume in your duel. Next in the order is the gentleman. Rictus. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw, please. You got it, boo. 13. I don't get my bonus on that, do I?

Yeah. Okay. I think it's on all of your checks, so that would include. Ah, plus three, 16. Okay. You feel a strange but somewhat familiar sensation, as you've undergone it a couple times now. It is a quieting of the world, and you can see this faint, transparent sphere emerge from the gentleman.

And as that happens, you feel your body begin to slow, your heart rate begins to slow, and you feel time stop in a localized area around him. However, with your 16 Wisdom Saving Throw, you are able to resists. Is this the effects of the spell? And so you are fully aware as you hear the gentleman step through the grass around the gravestone next to where he was hiding. And you see a faint light emerge from his hands. And with that, he is going to use his move action. He's going to move over toward where the land. is being held by Beauregard, still kind of unable to see. But that is going to be his turn.

Next up are the swarm of insects. They're just going to keep snacking down. That brings us to you, Rictus. Okay. I feel like this is something we've tried. I feel like this is something we've talked about a couple times in the show. And I can never remember where we landed on it. Can I do a targeted attack to like try to do something? Give me an example of what you. you're thinking about. I want to chop his arm off. You want to chop his arm off? Yeah, I want to swing for like his elbow just above his grim war. I want to take his arm off. If you want to have that effect, right? If you want to lop his arm off, it will need to be a much higher role than just beating his

AC. I think, yeah, you're just going to need to roll a bit higher. His AC is a 12. I'm going to say if you want to have like that specific of an effect, it's going to need to be a 16. versus his AC. You do have advantage. Mm-hmm. So that is thick. Okay, here we go. Now, he's going to be so surprised. If you hit.

Oh, that's a 14. Not sufficient. And that is it 22. Uh-huh. Okay. Which arm are you attacking? The one with the grimire on it. Okay.

Give me your damage roll, first and foremost. And I'm going to roll a con save to see if this goes, like, clean through it. Nine is the damage. Okay. You swing down your death blade onto the gentleman's arm on his grimoire. You are unable to cleave all the way through. You are unable to chop off his arm. But you hear him shriek in agony as you sweep down onto his extended arm where he was about to stab Beauregard thinking that you were him.

Give me a perception check, please. A perception check. That's 13 plus 5 plus 2. 20. Yeah, oh, wow. Okay, with a dirty, very dirty 20. I would say when the numbers are coming from multi, like three places, that's like the dirtiest 20 that you can get.

Yeah, man. It's got tons of olive juice in it. It's like crazy in here from a sonic perspective. There's a swirling cloud of darkness and a nearby. swirling cloud of ghosts and the time has technically stopped in this area and the gentleman is screaming behind all of that when you swing down on his arm. There's another, you hear like almost an imperceptible, very tiny voice that is kind of shrieking alongside the gentleman. Next in the old He would say he's very surprised, right? He's extraordinarily surprised, yeah. So do I get like an extra

thing on him? No. I mean, you have advantage because of the cloud of darkness. Okay. I'm going to move... Okay. To a round behind Beauregard. Okay, cool. And I'm going to have Beauregard,

who the gentleman can't see and is dark, move so that... Oh, okay. You've created a Vindy... diagram here with the nasty ghost circle. Yes, I have. Okay, very cool. All right.

Next in the order is Gricon. Loravith, Gricon, is going to stand up, kind of breathing a little bit heavy, and he is going to take position here, putting you between the enormous tentacle. And he says, I wanted to finish the fight with this sea beast before we engaged in our long overdue combat. but well, I guess this will have to do. Sorry, Gricorn, I'm over here. Over here, big fella. Thank you so much.

This will, this, okay, this is going to have to do. He's going to roll with disadvantage here, as a bolt of lightning shoots out of his extended grim mar. This line of lightning is 100 feet long, and five feet wide. Oh, it's actually a deck save. So this is, he will not have disadvantage. This is just you making a deck save.

Yeah. Doesn't seem weird. Doesn't seem right, does it? Just a little bit. Okay. The Enormous Tenticle does area. Okay, that saves. The enormous tentacle does not.

However, you are still going to take damage here. This is a big one. This is a big, nasty third. level spell. So we're going to roll 8D6 here. Oh boy. Or is it 68? It's 8D6. Potato potato. Yeah, that's, that is 33 points of damage as this bolt of lightning shoots, just kind of like arcs off of your shoulder leaving a deep sort of burn there. As you are kind of recoiling in the... He doesn't take the full 33 though, right? You do not take the full 33, you are going to take 16 points of damage, Lurva.

You are sort of recoiling from this pain when you feel something drip onto the crown of your head, and you realize looking backwards that the enormous tentacle has been completely split in half, long ways, and sort of flops down dead into the water. Leaving just you and Gricon. Gricon's going to actually roll to save on blinded. What was the spell that you cast on him? Color spray? Yeah.

So, yeah, actually, he does not have blinded anymore. It only lasts until the end of your next turn. Yes. Which has not happened yet. Right. So he is still blinded, but now it will be over when it's... Okay, gotcha. Okay, well, next to the order is Hellgrammat.

Hellgrammit. Dr. Legume is dead. Very, very, very dead. Oh. You still do... In the arms of the angels. It does seem like you have not... been, like, released.

What you were told before this trial began is, like, once you defeated your opponent, you would be freed from the battleground. He's a feather-fallen angel now. Maybe it just hasn't happened yet. But as of right now, you are just kind of in here alone with this swarm of insects. Did anything happen? Was there like a bell or something? Yeah, a horn?

There was a horn and a bell. There was both, actually. Both. Okay, that's pretty good. Did his picture appear on the screen? That has not happened yet, no. Nor have you seen the, like, you know, Jim in his gauntlet, you know, go flying up towards the crystallarium, which is also sort of what happens. I think Helgrim is going to cautiously approach the fallen form of his dear friend, Dr. Gim.

That's a stretch. Okay. Okay. His dear associate. He'll be like, that'll be like, how did this have, how did this have? happened. Oh, no, only this could have been prevented. And maybe he's not even sure he's dead.

Maybe he's just, you know, going to check and see. So I think he's going to draw closer to Dr. Legume. You always think of cloud of daggers as a victimless crime. You don't stop thinking of the repercussions. You do still have this cloud of daggers up. Oh, well, I won't check. Dad's walking through it to prove it can be safely navigated. I'm sorry.

No, no, it's easy. You just do this and this and this and they don't hit you. Whoa, whoa, ho! You dead dumbass. Okay, the swarm of insects are actually, I forgot to resolve this because they were in this space on their last turn.

They all take 14 points of slashing damage. You weren't. So as you approach, actually, one of the swarm of insects is completely shredded, completely torn apart. Totally ripped. Three are heavily, their numbers are heavily decreased. Still as like the, you know, their fellow bugs are being just torn apart by this cloud of daggers,

the others seem completely, I don't know, not interested in that fact and instead are still kind of partying down on Dr. Luggeen making sure that they are dead. That is what you see as you approach. Could I try, I'm going to try something. Yeah, please. You tell me how it would work. That's how this game goes. Dad finally gets it.

Dad gets it. Now, Dad, if you can figure out the rolling part, dude, we're got a stew going. I'm going to try to recall my swarm, which I cast through infestation, remember? Okay, yeah. And also try to suck up the other. That makes the other. That makes perfect sense. It's like he's firing up the Dyson.

Yeah. He's going to suck up. But he just sets it to suck up bugs, and he's hoping that the magical be confused. All bugs? I like this idea. Why not? Hey, I like this idea a whole lot. Because presumably some of his bugs were killed by his own fucking knives.

So there's going to be spare bug space in the spells memory. In the chamber. Yeah. Make a wisdom saving throw for me. Please. Please, hell, Grandma, make a wisdom saving throw for me. Please make it.

17. Incredible. You do, you recall your bugs. You've done this many times before. I'm going to just delete Dr. Lagoon because that's what these bugs have done. Sorry, one more roll from you. Give me a

perception check. And you are, looking to beat a we'll say 17 that's what you rolled in your wisdom just see if you 15 okay um you see the bugs that you conjured and they they returned to you and as they sort of do they they you know the the flying bugs kind of disperse the more terrestrial bugs just kind of burrowed down into the ground but the other storms of insects that were conjured here as the kind of danger in the trial of conjuration, the ones that haven't been torn apart by the daggers.

Are you leaving the cloud of daggers up, or have you... Nah, I'm not. Okay, the cloud of daggers is... They're dispersed. Vanishes. The other bugs swarm up towards you. There's, I mean, quite a few of them,

a nice sort of shallow carpet of various insects. One insect in particular, sort of skitters to the front of the crowd. It is a small centipede. I say small, actually. Smaller than you, but quite large for a bug. It is roughly 18 inches in length. And between its sort of plates of its chitin,

you see shards, very narrow slivers of crystal. that have emerged from its shell. It crawls before you and it lowers its head, lowers its antenna in a way that suggests a bow. And as that insect does that, so do the other swarms, literally just bowing down before you. With the wisdom saving throw, you have done and this very good perception check, you hear a voice called. out to you in your mind and the voice says my bridegroom do not despair do not throw away your plight we have come to aid you in this contest you are the one we have been waiting for for so long A long-term serious relationship.

Did you say bridegroom? I know what you seek, Helgrammot, and I am the one who is destined to grant it to you. But you must earn this right. You must show me You are capable of what I know you to be uniquely capable of.

I shall await you at the end of the conclave. With that, the swarm of insects skitters away, including this one sort of long, flat centipede with the crystals all over. It's sort of plated back. As it approaches the wall, the barrier surrounding the edge of the eye, island here kind of disappears, releasing you and granting you victory here in trial of conjuration. I'm going to let that perception check that you rolled earlier roll here. You see that centipede stop as the rest of the insects skitter away in a line, and it looks at you and it says,

you must be very cautious though my bridegroom they can hear and see everything any conspiracy you concoct with your fellow players you must be very very cautious or they will hear it does a little circle on the ground here sort of wildly kind of flailing around kicking up leaves and debris. Wait, wait, what is your name? You chase after it to call and it skitters away with tremendous speed

and you see it burrowed down into the ground right next to the crystallarium. You are left here, standing in this clearing in the woods by yourself and you look down. Just a bug in love with a centipede. Mm-hmm. You look down and you see where this centipede was kind of flailing around and kicking up some of the natural kind of debris here on the ground.

You see faint traces, lines of light etched into the ground. You look down at that light and clearing away some more of the brush. You see a message. And that message is in your own handwriting. It's right here on the edge of the woods facing. The crystallarium. That message reads, Thrykeen inside.

Hmm, hmm, hmm. All right. Boy, the initiative order list is much smaller without all those bugs and Dr. Legume on it. That brings us to Loravith. The tentacles have been slain. Gricon is in... How are you doing?

I mean, Gricon was in worse shape than you. He is still blinded. actually until the end of this turn. Great. But you have been very, very heavily wounded by this lightning bolt that just sort of passed through you. Yes. I feel very bad physically. Yes.

It is your turn. Yes. I am going to, I don't have a lot of really clever ideas here. I'd like for this fight to be over before I am killed, though. Yeah, good, sir. Yeah, thanks, man. Dad and I have been talking a lot about some. ways we can improve.

So I'm going to use just to shove, I'm going to attempt to shove him off the bridge. Okay. And I'm going to angle

for the gap that was destroyed by the tentacles. Okay, great. I love that. You will have advantage. You will have advantage on any attack you do

on this turn only because you have advantage on attack rolls against blinded opponents. Right. Okay. And so I will do an unarmed attack.

Yes. Onarm strike. Rules. Shove, rules. I wrote them down. Shoving. You make a athletics check. Yeah. The target makes a strength or dexterity saving throw instead of an opposed check. Okay, yeah. So that's the streamlined rule. So it's DC plus it's 8 plus strength plus proficiency. So what is that? What is he trained to be here? So 8 plus strength is it's a strength bonus, right? So three and the proficiency bonus is 3, 6, 15? Yeah. 15. He's going to roll here with disadvantage. He did save on one. He does not save on the other.

In fact, he crit fails on the other. So you position yourself like, Hearish. That is just enough space for him to be pushed to the edge. He gets to make a deck save before he plummet's over. This will also have disadvantage. I mean, both of those suck shit. You see him take a step back, kind of in surprise. He has these bright red circles around his eyes, too, where you blasted him.

But after you take his action, that effect fades. So he is able to see you. I wanted him to be able to see me as he falls down. Yes, he sees you a look of shock and also kind of pride on his face. You see him plummet over the side of the bridge. This bridge is about 20 feet over the surface. of the water. You can also, looking down, see quite a few rocks in the water that are kicking up

rapids that sort of lap around the supports of this bridge. And all the daggers that Dad dispersed. And all the daggers that dispersed and he just let float into the water. In my head, in my head, Canon, when Gercan did his 100-foot lightning bolt, it just barely got Mr. Dundra Langeum in the ass. Just like, it curved around, wanted style. One last. Yeah.

Okay. With all the wasps. He is going to take, okay, he takes 16 points of bludgeoning damage after he falls off the edge of the bridge. He plummets and lands down in the water. This should happen at the beginning of his next turn, but I'm going to do it now so that I do not forget about it. He's going to be dragged by the current of this water towards the edge of the barrier. He actually is going to go underneath the bridge. do not see where he ends up.

Pooh sticks. As he is pulled underneath. You're playing poo sticks with your old rival Gricon. I don't know that anyone else calls it that. Okay, next in the order is the spectral sphere, which is going to... Oh, by the way, as soon as he's out of sight, I'll give a butcher's round to see if I can make a visual on my son. Is he, okay? Is he fighting near me or...

I mean, give me a, I don't know, give me a perception check to see where he is engaged. duel with Pip, who is basically David the Noon. 18. Okay, cool. You are not able to see your son with a check of 18. What you are able to see is from the woods to the southwest, near the mage tower, actually, you see the peak of the mage tower. But you see another sort of sharp conical object reaching up out over the canopy of the trees that they are battling in. It is a bright green sort of felt-covered cone, and you recognize it as the hat that Pip is wearing.

You feel some faint trembles in the ground as you realize that Pip has enlarged himself significantly. You can't see where your son, duber sweetly is, but you know that this evenly matched battle that you assumed he was engaged in may not be quite so evenly matched after. Let me clarify if I understand in the rules right now, as I understand them, he is not dead and I am still stuck here, right? As far as I know. Yes, there is still this like endless barrier of red light that has emerged around the battlefield in a rectangle sort of surrounding it. Okay, got it. Yeah. Okay. If you wanted to move towards his direction, you could do that right now.

You assume you're standing roughly over where Gercan is under the bridge, but you can't see him. I don't know. I kind of used my move action to position myself for the throw, to be honest. I mean, you have more than 30. You have actually 35 feet. Okay, if I ducked over the, I just don't want to get close to the edge. Honestly, I'm fine. Sure.

Okay, that's totally fine. I'm not trying to trick you. I'm trying to figure out if you want to spend your action doing something. Okay. I know. No, I mean, I kill, I best at Gricon. I kicked him off the bridge. I mean, I feel good about this current thing.

I was just trying to get a sense of current thing. Dubers. Ah. That's really great. Really a lot of good jokes today. Next in the order is the gentleman. Now, one issue here, Rictus, is you actually can't see into the cloud of darkness now that you are not in it, right? You are not holding the lantern?

Why wouldn't I be able to see it? Because it is the lantern that is granting you the ability to see through the cloud of darkness, right? Yep, you're right. The wielder of the lantern can see through the darkness unimpaired. Yeah, so you can see only the, only the clavarkness. I'll give you a chance here. Roll a perception check with disadvantage, right? You made this thing.

Maybe there's a chance that you can kind of see. So that would be 19 and 14 plus four. So a 23 or an 18. Wow. Okay, yeah. With an 18, you see the gentleman with a wicked grin on his face, holding his injured arm. He is going to approach Beauregard, approach the lantern, where he's kind of triangulating

where he thinks your position is. And he holds out his bloodied grimor wielding hand and a cloud of darkness swirls around it. He reaches out and jabs his hand forward. as he does so, you hear him immediately shriek. Beauregard, as the circle of the spectral sphere expanded, was standing right at the very edge of it. The gentleman plunges his hand into the spectral sphere that you can see sort of illuminating this cloud of darkness from within.

And I think the cloud here that you created, the cloud of darkness, as he sort of reaches forward to try to blast where the lantern is, is I think the lantern has been consumed by the spectral sphere. And as that happens, your lantern disappears, Beauregard disappears. All you see now, as the cloud of darkness disappears, is the gentleman whose arm, as he pulls back, now ends at the elbow. You loosened the lid of that jar, him plunging his hand into the spectral sphere with this kind of ruse you developed. That was enough. He steps back, blood sort of just pouring out of the sleeve of his very fancy tunic.

And he just kind of hits a gravestone here. He is very, very, very, very badly injured. And that brings us to you, Rictus. So I'm going to approach the gentleman. Okay. You have mastered time, but I have mastered and partnered. and partnered with death. But if you allow me,

I can try to save you. He looks at his arm, his eyes wide. He seems like surprisingly calm, which like, I don't know, someone in your position has probably witnessed death quite a bit before. You recognize this as shock. He is in shock.

But there is something else also kind of going on here. Give me an insight check, please. An insight check? Yeah. Eight plus ten plus four, fourteen. You look down at the gentleman, you make him this offer. He is in shock. With a 14 insight check, you can see as he looks up at you, he is surprised.

But he also, he seems very confused. he says, who, where, where, where are we? What have you done to me? What have you done? You're the gentleman of Wisbury.

We're in a tool. I know that. What is happening? Oh, you touched a death sphere. Where are we? The conclave. We're doing a test for the octave? he is trying to sort of crab walk backwards away from you.

He is not doing a very good job of it because the arm that was holding his grimroar has been consumed by the spectral sphere. You see, I'm not going to make you roll, it is quite apparent from where you are. You see in the distance a bright red light coming from around where all the residences are located. From that red light, you look over,

you can see it is from this giant kind of of enormous bonfire that is sort of emerging from this kind of podium surrounded by these crystals by the by the residences. From it, a 10 foot wide column of flame shoots up into the sky. And then it arcs like a rainbow and comes crashing down into the battlefield with you. Give me a dexterity saving throw, please. Okay. Nat 20. Holy shit. Yes, back-flips. You do a fucking backhand spring. You're the ham brothers over here.

You flip away as this column of flame smashes down, consuming the gentleman. And it just lasts for a few seconds. And then you see it sort of stop at the source. And the rest of the column dissipates. And the gentleman is gone. Has been deleted. from the conclave.

With that, another chorus of horns and bells chime. There's quite a few of those going on right now as a few of the other duels wrap up. But just as quickly as it appeared, the spectral sphere kind of bellows out a little bit and then shrinks back down and vanishes, as does the red barrier surrounding you as you complete the trial of conjuration.

In rage, Rictus takes off for, I guess the zygorot is where I would expect the members of the octave to be, right? Okay. Yeah, he just full-blown sprints. Okay, you take off towards the octave zigerat. That is going to bring us to Gricon. Okay, Gricon is going to reappear and grab on to a... support strut of the bridge. He is going to make an athletics check here. This is plus five to try and

climb back up. Yeah, that is a 21. With his 21 athletics check, he is basically going to use his move action to climb back up onto the bridge where you are, Loravith. As he does, you can see he is battered, he is bloodied, as are you from the damage that you have sustained. You know, damage that you've stain in this battle. He kind of catches his breath, looks at you, and says, play proposal. Perhaps the remainder of our battle could be more marshal in nature. I know that represents a bar that I suppose would be being held, but I feel like maybe it would be more satisfying in the end. What do you have in mind? he walks over and punches you right in the face

uh yes that is a 25 versus your AC just hits and you take four points of bludgeoning damage okay uh he punches you across the face he uh says if you remember this is what it used to be like for all of this arcane frippery

it's your turn lower of with. We're just going to focus us for a bit until we get through this duel. 17. Yeah, you rear back, roll damage. Four. That's four points of bludgeoning damage. You rear back, you answer right back, you punch Krakhan right clean across the jaw. You hear a crack as you send him reeling backwards.

Hill giant, hills tumble, a knock him prone. Oh, okay. Yeah, you just punch him so fucking hard. It just like knocks him to the ground. Yeah, okay, awesome. He spits out, and spits out some blood off to the side. Yeah, awesome. Down goes Grecond.

Down goes Grecond. He looks up at you. He spits out some blood. He laughs, and he says, I help him up. Fuck yeah. You help him up. He spits out some blood. He says, I apologize.

I said that you had lost your competitor's instinct focusing so. squarely on your magic boy. But clearly that is not the case, is it? He rears back. He swings forward. That's 23 versus your AC. Another four. Another max damage.

Roll, you are punched right in the fucking eye. And it is immediately starts to swell up. It is your turn. Does Justin's old man Irish trainer step in to cut him? Yeah, right? Rick. 22. Holy shit.

Yeah, man. Another max damage roll. Jesus Christ. Holy shit. That's four max damage punches in a row. Okay, you fucking club him again. And he goes down again with your hill giant strength. You punch him down.

No, I didn't use it that time. I want to save one usage in case I need it for later. Okay, great. I'll get three every long grass. This is still just a normal punch. then he goes back and cracks into the barricade the the railing of this bridge you hear it crack and sort of splinter behind him and he looks up at you and he says did you mean it what you said about ensuring the boys victory in this kind of life I'm not sure honestly Grecon I've been working through a lot of stuff emotionally so much of it is mine games with you anymore. I'm not sure the end of the truth begins.

He rushes forward. He swings his big, meaty fist right into your gut, and that is 22. And you are going to, if there's another form and a free, okay, that's just one. That's just one point of bloodging damage. He is seething, and you see sort of like blood almost foaming through his teeth as you were just beating the shit out of him, he looks at you and he says, this, this is why Laura Vith Dreamwanderer Ganshobon, this is why you fear getting lost in the woods. It's your indecision. Um, is it my turn again? It is. Uh, grapple. Okay.

20 What's the new grapple rule? How can they change all the goddamn rules? I know that's actually just... I said that I was going to grapple before I looked up what the fuck that even means. So let's see. It's when you combine grape and apple together?

Sure, yeah, got it. It's pretty good. It's a type of unarmed attack. Yeah, so... So the attacker has... Yeah, okay, so you... All right. Attack the target.

Yeah. The grapple attacks. the target. Yeah. Fucking, this is the worst. The target's speed becomes zero and cannot increase, preventing any movement or actions reliant on mobility. Target also suffers disadvantage on attack roles against any target other than the grappler, reflecting the difficulty of striking the enemy while restrained. Furthermore, the grappler can drag or carry the grappled creature,

but every foot of movement costs the grappler an extra foot, making it less efficient to move with a restrained target unless the target is significantly smaller. Okay, so you are just replacing the damage from an unarmed strike to a grapple. Okay, you have grabbed onto him. As you grapple him and you have him school. I think you've got to succeed in a check is what I'm, you have to, succeed on a strength or dexterity savings throw. You choose which.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean, clearly he's going to do a strength save here. Okay, so he's trying to beat that 20 that you rolled? No, I don't think I should have. I rolled an attack roll, which I don't think I should have it. I think it's just the same number of 15. Yeah. Okay.

He gets a 12 on his safe. So he is grappled. As you grapple him, you realize you're kind of holding him up a little bit. You're kind of keeping him up on his feet. Yeah. Now it's his turn. Okay. He is going to headbutt you.

15, yeah. Yep, that's a 21 versus your AC. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That is three points of bludgeoning damage. He catches you, you hear your nose break as he cracks his rock hard Goliath forehead right into you. He is too winded, I think, for a response here.

Great. I am going to try to smash his head into the railing. Okay. 15 plus 621. Yeah, man. Absolutely. Absolutely. That is a hit.

Oh, my God. You smash his head into the railing. Which side of the bridge are we talking about here, right side of the road? Uh, probably near the gap just because it's more dramatic. Okay. Yeah. You spin him around and slam him headfirst down onto the railing on the side of the bridge. And as you do that, you kind of like step back recoiling just from like the impact of this.

It shatters off another segment of the railing, which falls into the water and floats slowly under the bridge. Krikan looks up at you, dazed, teetering. right by the edge of the bridge and laughs coughing up sort of a spurt of blood as he does. And give me an insight check, please. Awesome. Two plus one of three. Two. I roll a two.

Yep. It's about right. How is Lora Viff feeling in this moment? You've defeated Gricon. You know this. You know that he is finished. This is your lifelong sort of rival who you all have been kind of working towards this thing to some degree for a while now. The thing you never understood about me, Gricon, the becoming a father of an adult man didn't make me weaker.

It made me stronger than you could ever know. I give him one big kick off the bridge. Okay, make an attack roll. 17 plus 623. Yeah, obviously. Here's what happens. You kick forward into him. He reaches out and grabs onto your calf, kind of just holding himself up for a moment.

He smiles. He says, If you want to protect the boy, protect the with it. Loravith, there is no reason to fear the wood. because the woods end. You cannot get lost in the woods if you pick a direction and keep. And he lets go and splashes down into the water. And before you see him float out from the other side,

you hear the horns and bells sounding his defeat. Oh my God, and look in my, and the camera pans. to my hand and oh my God it's his gym I got it while he was hanging there holy shit

what a what a cliffhanger Griff God you're good no I want to hear how you say it I'm sorry I got it

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I want to hear paint the picture Griffin paint the picture is the gym

still warm from his body is still warm is there blood do I lick like wipe his blood of it you do it

you look down at your hands where you were holding him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As he floats, bloodied out over. Enough about him. Towards the river, the barrier disappears. Come back to the gym.

You watch his body drop off over the edge of the island. You look down to where you were holding him by the calf, and you are holding his dirty, nasty boot. Damn, you become. Even at death, you've found. Maximum Fun A Worker Own Network Of Artist-owned shows

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