The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 29

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

The Trial of Enchantment, Part 1 With the truth finally out in the open, the aspirants are less willing than ever to participate in the battle royale. But whatever has come to light, the contest still goes on, with two more trials to overcome and only one winner. Royale Theme: “Wizard Disco” by Louie Zong: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/wizard-disco Original Music by Griffin McElroy Additional Music in this Episode: "Fireball", "Night Sky", and "Simple Song" by Jar of Flies: https://jaroffliesofficial.bandcamp.com/; and Taffy Machine" by Kate Kody: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/kate-kody/. Asian Pacific Environmental Network: https://apen4ej.org/our-work/ Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Previously on Taz Royale. The eggs have been adapted into something like escape pods. You will be returned to the lands below. And what if we refuse to do that? We are not going to leave you much of a choice. I'm going to try to take it out. As you pull off your grimace, the illusion is dispelled, and you can see that you are holding in.

your hand, not a gauntlet, but a large segmented insect. I was studying the braces that they're bugs, man. They're just a bunch of funky bugs! Is it possible that this whole thing

is an illusion? Congratulations. You've passed the trial of illusion. Eight wizards stand before a mountain of towering amethyst spires, the crystallarium transformed into a nest of arcane energy. At its base rests a round cluster of thousands of glimmering spellstones mounted by the enormous desiccated husk of a long-dead Thrykeen matriarch. Within the cluster, reflected across the crystal's

countless facets, a bright white eye observes the assembled aspirants, the avatar of the artificial mind that you all have addressed as Chris during your time here at the conclave. And a voice emanates from this giant cluster and says, this may ring hollow, given what I've put you through, but the eight of you have done remarkably well. Never, since I took over administering these proceedings, have I revealed myself to an aspirant, but your unorthodox approach to these trials left me no other choice. Now, I know you all well enough to know that you'll have questions, and I am willing to answer them so long as you all can maintain composure and do not raise a hand against me. Can we raise a hand to ask your question? Of course, Rictus, and I am not surprised

that you would be the first to fire one off. Yeah, I just have a quick question. Could you get this bug thing off my arm? Because, uh, who... gross, and I'm keeping my composure right now, but if you could get this ooey gross bug thing that's eaten in my arm off, that would be great. Could you perhaps read the room a little better, Rickus? I asked it very... Ugly bug thing? I kept my tone very calm.

I know. Hell, gramm it. I would encourage the humankind among you to get past your base. sort of primordial fear of the insect kind. The echo mite that is attached to your forearm is the very thing granting you, the powers that you've wielded here at the conclave. It is also the avenue through which I am able to glean the arcane knowledge that each of you natively possesses.

Absolutely. I just want to make it clear that if the bracelet was suddenly revealed to be a human baby that had bitten into my arm and was like, connected to me in such a way that if I removed it, I'd die. I also would want that ugly baby off my arm. So I want to make it clear it's not the bug part that bothers me so much. For what it is worth, the utilizing of the echo mites and the Thrykeen broodmother Akari. This was not my invention. I too find it fairly crude. It was the creation of the original octave, 32

generations ago. They were... Oh, yeah. I'm still not sure I buy it. I think this is another illusion. I've been studying the illusory arts, and it's very common, I think, to see an illusion within an illusion.

So I believe this is another illusion. Well, I'm just going to wait for a kick and wait for this funky bugs to go back to be a normal cool thing. I will confess to having prepared many illusions within illusions.

There's a flash of light, and then all of a sudden, the surroundings change, and now you're standing in this, like, cyberpunk kind of bio-hospital with, like, matrix beds, with people laying in them jacked into the illusions. Oh, all a simulation? It was going to be all a simulation. There's a flash of light, and then you, Loravith, wake up in bed with your wife, and it was all just a terrible, terrible dream. And then there's another flash of light, and you all are standing back.

Oh, thank goodness. That was close one. Hey, honey, hold on. I got to tell you, what the hell? God damn it! There's another flash of light. These tracks? You are back in front of the crystallarium and Chris, and he says,

but those were unnecessary due to hell grammats, quick things. Wow, that's a sentence I never thought would be said. Jumping back to... Scorogami. Skordaummi. When you jump, I want to jump back to when you said you took over administration. Where's the real octave? I can answer that question.

Cool. A little bit of background information would be helpful for you to understand. They came together, you see, 32 generations. ago, the original octave, the eight greatest, wisest wizards of the realm to find a solution for the blight consuming this planet Earth. They failed, but not for lack of intellect, rather their own pursuit of power and immortality was incompatible with every selfless solution that they uncovered. And so they thought that with more arcane knowledge, a better answer would be revealed. That is when they subjugated Akari and her echo might swarm to harvest the

minds and spirits of the realm's most promising wizards. And yes, it worked. Their power grew exponentially, but their understanding of that power was limited by their own mortal comprehension. And so they created me, a perfect consciousness capable of parsing the vast archive of experience they'd accumulated and they imbued me with a single directive, prevent the world's end without abolishing the practice of magic altogether. And I solved this problem in an instant and deemed them incompatible with my design. And then a light flashes through one of the larger amethyst spires and encased inside of it, you see the silhouettes of eight skeletons frozen in recoiling postures. There has been no octave since then. The solution that I came up with required

more arcane power than they'd collected. So I maintained the illusion of the octave. I walked the world as them. I carried out the conclaves and administered the trials. And with the brood mother's enduring thrall, I stockpiled the powers of every ambitious magician I invited up to this island. But there is no octave. There's just me. Sure, sure. I, uh, hell grandma wants to try to contact Akari. Could he try to do that? Yeah, sure. Um, give me, uh, give me an arcana check as you sort of send out this Thrykeen telepathy. Normally you wouldn't have to do this, but you lost sort of contact. Right. So that's 14. Okay. Uh, uh, with a 14, uh, you know, you send out this telepathic ping on the, the Thrikeen wavelength. Um, and, um, and, um, um, and, um, um, As you do so, kind of like directing your attention toward the, you know, the carapace of Akari that's sort of draped across this giant crystalline cluster. You get no response.

So that is Akari, the giant carapace. Yes. She's not one of the small echinites that have been clambering around. No. Or one of the scale. You recognize from the book about sort of Thrykeen history that you read that featured Akari. You recognize her from the picture in that sort of... Okay.

In that book. With a 14, you do sense her presence, the presence that you have sort of conversed with. But it's coming from inside of this crystal cluster. It's not coming from her... What is very obviously, her body, her corpse. There is whatever you have been speaking to is trapped. deep, deep within this crystal formation. Akari.

Akari, is what he's saying, true? Did he do this to you and the others? With a 14 on the Arcona check, you are not able to make out a distinct answer. You can only hear kind of the far-off distant sort of chattering as she tries to respond. I've been asking a lot of questions. So if anybody else has one, I have two more, but I can wait if anybody else has questions.

There's a lot going on. Nope. Okay. So my next question, and no offense, you know, it's the, you know, you got the skeletons and the crystals and the lying and stuff. Are you evil? Am I evil? Yeah. Just when you show eight skeletons trapped in eight crystals.

It's shocking. I understand that. I am not evil. There is no morality built into what I am. There is no madness that dwells within me. I am a single objective given sentience, and that is to save the world without removing magic entirely. These conclaves,

these practices were devised by the original octave, barbaric as they are. It was their finding that heightened emotions like fear and bloodthirst helped to crystallize their memories, so to speak, so much more efficiently, making the ecomites much better at harvesting their magic powers. Also a secondary benefit of the conclave is it allowed them to field test these spells to understand them better before incorporating them into this crystalline form. So may we infer then that the entire tournament aspect has been a sham and... Oh, that was my second question.

Yes. At no point will the winner, quote unquote, be ascending to the octave since there is no more active? What is it for? I did not say that. There is no octave, but that is not to say that there is not a prize awaiting the one who is found worthy. But, but there will be no reward until the conclave's end. So let's settle our unfinished business here and now. It's time for the trial of enchantment.

I need everyone to roll a wisdom-saving, saving. throw please. Loravith, you're going to roll it with advantage. I got an 18 total. I got an 11 total. Seven. And a one. We'll take this, yeah, we'll take the 17 there. Okay. Hell, Gramet. You, as you hear Chris kick off the trial of enchantment, you feel a pulse of arcane enchantment sort of radiate outward from the cluster. And as that pulse passes through you,

you feel all of your mental faculties become sort of arrested by an outside force. You have been dominated by Chris and will have your actions controlled by them until they save. Standing right next to you, you recognize that Scorpo has also undergone this. transformation. And Loravith, from behind you, where you have easily saved against this, this wave of enchantment, you hear the sound of someone falling backward. You look back and you see Duber on the ground whose eyes snap upward to you with an unfamiliar malice. He has also failed his save. And that is where we're going to roll initiative, please. Huh. I got a 17. Um, six for a hellgrammit.

18, finally. Damn, those are a good one. I have negative one initiative, so I always felt like I end up going last. Okay. Let's start combat. First in the order is Pranklin. Yeah, that's my boy. Franklin got a 21 on his initiative role.

Very good, Pranklin. Rick, this, Pranklin is standing nearby you. He looks around, sees the, the, the, the handful of his fellow aspirants that have been taken over by this pulse wave of domination. You see him lock eyes with you and look over at Chris, and then he drops back a bit, and you see him take a knapsack off of his back. He upends it on the ground and outpours a few dozen spellstones. You recall that while citing the kind of various crimes you all have committed here at the conclave,

that Pranklin did commit quite a bit of larceny at the AA. You are now seeing the results for it. Franklin is spending his turn kind of rooting through these spellstones, looking for something to be of use here. Okay. Next in the order is Loravith, Dream Wonderer, Gondjabon. Now, Loravith, you were able to resist this thrall quite easily. But looking around, you realize that is probably because other than Hippocrates, who is down on the ground after ripping the bug kind of instinctively off of his arm, you are also the only other one here who is unequipped with your grimor.

That is going to limit you, your choices of spells, back to your original one, which you managed to sort of resist having drained from you by the echo mite. you possess lightning, lightning lure, is that what it's called? Mm-hmm. And you also possess, you know, seven and a half feet of pure Goliath muscle, or however big you are, I won't make that decision for you. Actually, I'm glad you asked now, Griffin, it turns out I've been 40 feet this entire time. Oh, my God. I know. We need to go back and redo.

Yeah, we did some scenes indoors that we will need to re-record. He hunches a lot. I see. doesn't have good posture. One of the great hunters. To paint the scene. More like dream crawler goes. Yeah.

Now that you all can see this map, assuming you're in D&D Beyond, we have the giant crystallarium with the cluster and the Akari sort of draped over the top. Surrounding it, there is quite a few echo mites sort of crawling around from where they were stationed here in the crystallarium. And then we have the eight of you standing out. the sort of grassy field, all standing around the northern cliff's edge of the island. From below, you can see the fog wall swirling furiously far, far below. You got Duber, Hell, Grame, and Scorpo, who have been mind-controlled here.

Hippocrates is asleep. Franklin's doing something. It is your turn, more of it. Yeah, I'm going to take, I'm going to use a bonus action to get big. Okay. Activate large form. I'm now large. And now I want to smash the nearest echo mite to me.

Okay, yeah. There is a leaping jump to smash him on an unarmed stripe. A lot of them are kind of positioned around the amethyst sort of spires sticking out of the crystallarium. But there are a few on the ground and one close-ish to you. My goal is not to, my goal is not. necessarily like wipe out all of them. This is a fact finding. I want to smash this guy and I'm mainly watching Chris to see what what if I notice anything. Okay. See how Chris feels about these echo mites. Make an attack roll please against this echo mite. Okay. Fourteen. A 14 just hits.

Describe what you're doing. You just don't go for a good old fast. It's like a big. I get big as I'm running. I get big and I jump and I land with both feet on the echo mite. Okay. Go ahead and roll damage on your unarmed attack roll here. It's just a four bludgeoning straight up. Four bludgeoning straight up. Okay, you land on this echo mite, both feet planted firmly on the ground. As you do so, you hear a sort of gnarly crunch. The echo mite shrieks, and you see it wriggle out from under where your feet landed,

leaving behind sort of about half of its segmented body. It sort of wriggles. It sort of wriggles away. You do not notice any kind of response from the crystals or the corpse of Akari. It seems like you have damaged this bug quite dramatically, but it didn't seem to, you know, channel that damage. Part of a broader consciousness or broader, okay. I don't know if you know. No enough to know that, but it doesn't seem like killing these has any effect on Chris, so to say.

Gotcha. Yes, that's what I was wanting to check. Does it have any effect on Hell Gramut and Scorpo? Does it have any effect on Hell Gramet and Scorpo? That's an interesting question. I mean, they're all Thrykeen. Yeah. It does not.

It does not. Your mind is being completely possessed right now by Chris, and therefore, if Chris has no sort of response to it, neither do you. And I have no thought outside of whatever Chris puts in my head. I have no internal monologue or anything. You have been dominated. When you have been dominated, I'll tell you the rules for that real quick. On your turn, you take whatever action Chris tells you to. If it is a simple action, like attack that person, go here, pick up that thing.

If Chris wants you to take a more specific action, like casting a spell or something, Chris has to use his action in order to do so. You can roll another save against being dominated every time you take damage. Otherwise, yes, you are fully, fully enthralled. Next in the order is Rictus. Can I see inside the crystallarium like I did kind of before? So the chrysalarium, this is it. It has sort of unfurled from, you recall that it was like sort of a compressed space that

much smaller, the smaller on the outside than it actually was on the inside. When Chris kind of revealed himself, the walls came tumbling down, so to speak. There is nothing being hidden from you anymore. This is the shape that you sort of saw the silhouette of when you teleported in there earlier. And is that the husk of the thing? Is that what the quote unquote like machine making the crystals was that I saw? Yes. Yeah. You saw the, you weren't quite sure. what it was in the half darkness, but this is what it was. Sick. Okay. There's an area here with like three echo mites all kind of in a triangle.

Yes. I'm going to run up towards them. Okay. And when I get in the middle, I cast Thunderstep. Okay. to jump back to where Hippocrates and Pranklin are. Okay. Yeah.

I love Thunderstep, by the way. It's a cool as well for sure. Okay, you run towards sort of the right side of the crystals here where a few echo mites are gathered around the Amethystus cluster. You run and leap up a couple of smaller spires until you reach a stable landing and you create a Thunderstep. I believe they have to make a save on that. A con save, you got a con save 14.

Okay, let me three of those in real quick. One, two, three. Okay, two of them fail. Okay, those two are going to take 16 points of damage and the one that succeeded takes eight. Okay. You see this one that's sort of higher up on one of the crystals. It was a bit further away from the area of influence of the Thunderstead.

step takes quite a lot of damage and now it's sort of shriveled up pillbug style but does appear to still be moving. The other two are obliterated completely and sort of disappear into ash as you complete your thunderset and you reappear back in front of Franklin and Hippocrates sort of further away from the battle. There is a loud noise that that goes along with the thunderstep and Does it do any damage to the crystals? Give me a perception check, please. As you land and sort of reappear back further in the grass. That's a 21.

This did appear to have some effect on Chris. You can see the large sort of amethyst spirals vibrate a little bit, like a bell that's just sort of been rung. There's no sort of accompanying scream or anything like that, but you can tell that this sort of thunderous wave of damage is effective against this sort of sturdy crystalline form. And I look at Franklin and say,

hey, while you're looking, you got anything in there that's like Earth magic or anything like that, you let me know, okay? He looks up at you, nods, goes back to rooting around in the pile of crystals. That takes us to Scorpo. Scorpo, who's closest to Scorpo?

Okay. Like emotionally? No, like physically. He hasn't really led any of us in. That's true. He's got a lot of walls. Scorpo. You look down and see Pranklin sort of focused on the pile of crystals and is largely unaware as Scorpo quickly scuttles over, rears back his tail, and attempts to stab him through the back.

Do I have anything like where I can move someone with a reaction? Or like, Magnus could do that. I don't think that's within your... But it is a non-issue. That is a 10 total, which does not hit Franklin. Pranklin sees the shadow of the tail and dodges out of the way

as it sort of smashes downward into the remaining crystals. Next in the order, Hippocrates is unconscious. And Chris goes next. Chris is going to take a few actions here. First, he is going to vibrate the crystals underneath of Akari immediately, and from beneath her carapace climbs out three more echo mites, replacing the ones that have been destroyed. Okay. And then, Loravith, the echo mite that you jumped on earlier, there's a high-pitched hum. that sails through the air.

And that echo mite is going to turn to face you, the sort of half of its body that you didn't just sort of squish. Some of the chitinous plates on his back are going to rear up. And from them, an innervation ray shoots outward and hits you square in the chest. Make a constitution saving throw here trying to beat a PC-16. Oh, it's going to innervate him. Are you sure it's not outervating grip of him? 22. Yeah, dude. Okay. I did it. That's way higher than 20. You feel yourself blasted by this elevation. People didn't even know you could get over 20 in this game. What the fuck? What the hell?

What's how with you? So that's 37. There's dice everywhere. Well, hold on. That's 37 points of damage, but you did save so it's only half of 37. No one's ever been able to work out this math problem. 18. Round down. Okay, yeah. So you take 18 points of necrotic damage as this spell that's... That was so many dice I thought there was a bug

Yeah, there was a bug It just fucking blasted you And then a final action of Chris This echo mite scuttles over to where Richtus and Pranklin

and Scorpo and Hippocrates are gathered and you see His Carapace light up Does Pranklin get an opportunity attack? No, because he's stopping right next to Franklin. Okay.

The Echo Might is going to cast, get this, Thunderstep. Son of a bitch. So, I need you to make... What a piece of shit. It's only cool when I do it. I need you to make a, I believe, a con save? Mm-hmm. No.

Not unless the con save is nine. And Scorpo's actually going to make one, two. No, all three failed. Oh, Hippocrates. auto, well, I guess a con save you can make while you're unconscious, right? It's not like you're, that's like your, how sturdy is. Yeah, no, okay, everyone, absolutely everyone fails here. Okay, you all are going to take, oh, only four points of force damage. Is there a knockback effect with this? Uh, not that I know of. Okay. And the echo mite teleports reappearing back on top of

the amethyst spire. Scorpo is going to make a save against the enthralling since he took some damage here. This will be a wisdom saving throw. Oh, yeah. Okay. Scorpo gets a 22 on his wisdom save. As he is knocked back a little bit by this thunderstep, you see his big bulging, thriking eyes grow clear.

And he looks around and looks down at Pranklin and says, I'm so sorry. It wasn't me. And Franklin kind of nods. Scorpo has been restored. Next in the order is hasty Jane. Hastie Jane is going to cast haste on herself. And as she does so, Rickus, you see she is going sort of super-sayan.

This is a new sort of trick for already a very, very fast sort of wizard. She is going to be able to take two actions per turn. and she is going to spend her bonus action here to rush over to Hell Grammet, seeing that Scorpo was saved by the kind of damage that he took. She rears back to punch Hell Grammet right in the face, and then... Caithartic.

...stops for a second, and then instead rears back and spits right in his eye. Ah, call back. Worse. It's a closed circle. going to be a 13 plus 7 and 20 and hell grammat a nasty bit of saliva hits you right in your big bulging eye and you can make another wisdom saving throw nice 19 okay on a 19 you rear back reflexively it feels very unpleasant I'm not going to make you take any damage I guess one point of acid damage, maybe. You don't know. I guess you do have to technically take sub-damage. Yeah. One point of acid damage from the spit, as you rear back reflexively, you realize you

just had a thought, oh, ow, this hurts, ow, this is gross. The first sort of original thought that you've had since you became dominated and you have saved from the condition. She gets a second action, right? Her first was casting haste. Her second was spitting. Next in the order, Loravith. You are sort of lasted backward by this powerful innervation ray. came out of the echo mite. And as you take a step backwards, you are struck in the back of the head by a rock wielded by Doober, who I guess had to do a big jump to even get up there high enough to try and hit you.

That is going to be A-15 versus AC. Yes. Okay. You are clocked for four points of bludgeoning damage as a, possessed duber jumps up basically onto your back and starts to try and brain you with this rock. Hell, Gramet, you're up. Is there any way, can I use the Thryking psychic speaking to speak to Chris? Just to Chris?

I'm going to say no, because Chris is not a Thrachian. Yeah, but I've used it before to talk to Loribeth and Rictus. but that's okay Okay I am going to Misty Step Okay Up to

Akari's Carapus Okay Is that a bonus action or an action action action? It's a bonus action Okay great Yeah you are easily able to do that It is within range Are you going sort of

onto the carapace or just... Yeah, right on... Yeah, right on top of the carapid. Okay. As you appear on top of the carapace, it is able to hold up your weight, but you are able to tell just from the sort of like coloration and just how eroded it is that this body has been dead for quite a while. I would like to do some kind of investigation check or insight check or whatever or even history check with my knowledge of Thrykeen.

Yeah, I'd like to make a history check to see if there's any way for me to get inside the carapace. So I think a nature check would be appropriate here and I'm willing to give you advantage on it since you have, you are Thrykeen, you have studied this, you know, physiology, you know, fairly. recently. Give me a nature check with an advantage. So you're trying to beat a 15 here. Well, that's 15, but let me try it again since I have advantage. Well, 17. Okay. Yes, you, this is your first time, this is the biggest striking you've ever seen. Akari's sort of corpse here is a good sort of 30 feet long and the individual sort of segments of her of her carapace are huge. and you are able to fairly easily lift up the sort of frontmost segment, the largest sort of shoulder blade segment of her form and pop it open like a trunk.

Within you see, well, quite an enormous mass of crystals that are sort of jutting out from the cluster itself. I'll let that 17 nature check roll. But you can also tell that, you know, desiccated though this body may be, there does seem to still be like trace organic, sort of material, you know, ligaments and nodes and stuff kind of still, you know, present on the underside of the, on the underside of the carapace. Nothing's, you know, necessarily working or moving. This is not, she's not being kept in some sort of state of, you know, life or anything. but there does appear to still be some organic parts here that have not kind of, you know, eroded away. I think that's my turn, right? Yes.

Next in the order, we go back to the top. Pranklin is going to, let me just give him an investigation check. You asked him to find you a spell that was like earth-like magic. Yeah. That is a 12 on the investigation check. Franklin roots around in this pile of Pilford stones, and you see him snap up excitedly, and he holds out a small sort of emerald green crystal in your direction, kind of gesturing towards it. I take it? Okay, cool.

You slot it in? Yeah. Yeah, it's weird because now you can see that it is a bug who's like Carapace kind of, opens up as you Yeah, I put it in the bugs' butt. You put it right in the bug's butt. And as you do, your mind is flooded with

memories. It is an old sort of rough and tumble dwarven wizard and you can see him with like a hard hat on. And he is down in a mine in the Dwarven

mountains. And you see him hold out his hands and all of his like fellow crew members kind of scurry to get behind him. And he holds out his hands and he issues out a burst of the spell shatter, which sends the wall crumbling down. Your sense has returned to you, this memory sort of now in hand. And you have the spell shatter at your disposal. Oh, hell yeah. I didn't think it would be that good. Um, next in the order is Loravith. Loravith, you've got Duber trying to brain you from behind. You've got the echo mite, uh, here that has sort of been used as a conduit for this

insanely powerful necrotic ray that blasted you. You are, you are catching strays, uh, front and back. What would you like to do? Hmm. I, uh, so the necrotic ray, what would be the possibility? I know it's always tough for the map, but like, if I wanted to get like around behind, is that an option? Oh, to like try and climb around the circumference of the-

Go around, like scurry around, use my incredible climbing abilities to kind of like scale from the rear. Yeah, I like that a lot. You would, you would, it would be, I will say this, extraordinarily dangerous. This thing is on the precipice of the cliff. If this roll goes bad, you know, you're going to have to activate. very fast in order to avoid falling off of the island. Yeah, I am, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I think I'm in a pretty precarious spot regardless. Sure.

So I think that I'm going to try to, I don't know, make it a, I don't know, use whatever advantage I have. I love it. I have all my spells anymore, so I'm going to try to climb this guy and punch him in the crystal. Yeah, absolutely. Fragile. Go ahead and, what, are you trying to sort, watch your guy. I would probably do athletics. Yeah, it'll absolutely be an athletics check.

Are you trying to kind of like go around behind? Yes, exactly like this. Yes, this is what I'm trying to do. Okay, well then, right, you run to the cliff's edge, and to move further, I will need that athletics check from you, please. 11 plus 3, 14. You don't get any advantage from your giant size, any funky stuff there? I mean, I'm bigger. You are quite big, yeah.

Okay, with a 14 and your sort of experience climbing mountains, I think a dozen. times in this season alone. You have no problem. The sort of outcroppings of amethyst make for easy handholds and foot holds. You are able to climb around the back of this thing over the edge of the island just as easily as you could kind of walk around them. As you do so, drag your character to like where on the back of this guy you're trying to get to?

Here sort of squarely behind the exploded crystallarium, you are able to position. yourself so that no echo mites are really anywhere near you. You are like well in a sort of safe kind of territory here. Does climbing count as my action? No, I think we can say it's your movement. Great. Then I want to kick that one echo mic right off the goddamn back. Look at that idiot. He's like way out there perched on a stupid crystal. I think I'm like climbing up the crystal and like grab his leg and yank him all. That's what I want to try for. So this is going to be an attack roll, not for damage, but to move the echo might. If you are successful on this at all, he is right on the edge of it.

It will not be hard for you to eat him right off. Four plus six a ten. A ten is not going to do it. Not enough. It's okay. That's okay. I wouldn't accept that. Here's what happens with a ten.

You grab its leg and attempt to rip it. it off of the crystal on which it is standing, and it is able to kind of keep two claws embedded in the side of the, in the side of the amethyst that you tried to pull him from. Fair enough. Next in the order is Rictus. I'm going to run up and cast Shatter. Okay. It's a 60-foot range, so I don't know how close it.

but that black dot I drew there, that's where I want to target it. So I'm getting like those three crystals and the echo mites, but not hellgram it. Okay. You'll need to move to right about here in order to do that. And what is the radius of? It's a 10 foot radius.

Okay. All right. So this is going to be a, I believe a cons. A con save. and non-magical objects take damage if it's in the spell's area

construct has disadvantage on the save yes so Chris counts as a construct here so he's going to have disadvantage on the con save I will do the Echomites first there's three in the radius of the spell

one two what are they trying to be 13? 14 14 okay that's two failures and one save for the echo mites and then Chris is going to roll his con save with disadvantage and I'm doing this as a third level of spell so Chris gets a 14 even and a

crit but because he has disadvantage the 14 is what does it okay it's 16 points of damage um so eight on a save okay uh even that is enough to uh destroy the three echo These are the ones. One of them was there already. The other two were like new spons and all three go down. You also have attacked Chris with this. And the Shatter spell, though it did only, you know, eight points of damage here. It seems to have been extremely disruptive for Chris. There is a vibration that shakes through the whole of the whole of the. the structure and a few of the crystals that were sort of jammed into this cluster, a few of them laying on the edge, fall off and sort of tinkle down the platform and fall off the edge of the cliff. Do I see any like cracks or damage to any of the spires? The spires appear to be structural in nature. They're enormous. They're gigantic. And the sort of spell that you cast, while, like, efficient at doing this thing, you know, it did not seem to have much of an effect

on them. But you can also tell, like, each of these spellstones that are in this, like, central cluster are illuminated and there's, like, you know, a shimmering sort of movement about them. You get the sense that everything else kind of happening here is, like, this was the building in which he was housed. Okay, got on. Yes. next in the order is

Okay, next in the order is Scorpos. Oh, okay, yeah. Scorpo is going to rush forward and clamber up to where you are Hellgrammet. And he's going to punt this Echo mite off of

the platform right next to where you guys are standing. Um, an attack roll. Yep. Uh, this echo mite with a 17, the echo mite gets punted downwards and lands sort of helplessly on its back, uh, here on the ground. Uh, Scorpo finishing, climbing up on top of Akari's carapace looks at you, Hal Graham and says, What are you, what are you doing? What is this?

Who is this? Scorpo's, how does this may be to believe? But this is my soulmate. my bride. I don't know how to explain it any better than that. Her name is Akari. And it just...

Akari, the broodmother. The brood mother. Akari. Yeah. Is your bride? She has contacted me numerous times and expressed that to me. I have been in touch with all of these

all of these echo mites that we are fighting and killing. And you and I, We're all part of the Thrikeen. We're all scrimed. And I just, I think that if I can perhaps bring Akari back or at least animate this, something to get the Echomite's power back from Chris, we can overcome this challenge.

Scorpo, everything I have done through somewhat shifty and shady means ever since I've got here is to win this tournament so I can take the magic back to the Threquin. Look at us. We're servants.

We're toys. We're not even considered to be on the same level with everyone else. Everyone from Chris to Richter, and Lord of it. Everybody in this contest treats the Thrikeen like second-classed citizens. And my whole purpose has been all along to just bring magic to the Thrikeen. And I think that if we all can work together on this, we can defeat Chris.

For the record, I like Scorpo. Uh, give me... Good point. give me a persuasion check. Scorpo is eyeing you as, I think you saying that you are betrothed or the soulmate of the brood mother who kind of represents this like,

you know, traditional royal queen bee sort of monarchy that Scorpo has been quite vocally against. I think it sort of revives a bit of his suspicions of you, but you do recognize that there is some, Some acknowledgement in his eyes, as you describe sort of the broader Thrikein plight. Give me a persuasion check, please. With advantage? Nope.

Okay. It's worth a shot. She's 11. It's 11? That's cool, that's like you knew you were going to wang it. I know. It's great. Scorpo sort of reluctantly sighs.

He looks at you. He says, Before. When we were up in space, I guess, and you looked down at the world and you said that you're so small. Yes. Were you talking about yourself or the world that you wanted to inherit? None of the above I was speaking of the Thrakeen. We are so small in every one. else's eyes. That was not a performance. That was a true revelation when I realized that we are trot upon and we need to elevate ourselves

to be the equal to these people. Not dominate or rule, but raise our people to be equals with these. others and we're not. We are small, yes. Some of us are tiny, but we need we need to be on a level with these others so that we can contribute. Scorpos looks down and at first he appears to be kind of dejected looking down at where you're standing. But then you realize that that he's kind of measuring out the plates that you're standing on. He looks at you and says, God, I hope you are telling the truth.

He is going to reach down and start helping you pry apart these plates so you can get at whatever is inside of Akari. That is a 21 on his athletics check. He just fully is able to pop, pop this thing wide open. and now you can see inside of these like top plates as they've been kind of fully revealed to you. You recognize some of the glands that you know that sort of royal... I recognize these glands.

Wait a minute. Hold on. This gland? We went to high school together. Gerald? Gerald? Gerald, the gland? This Thrykean...

Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else. It is known to anyone who has ever been a part of the hive. Royal sort of rulers of the Thrykeen hives are born with these glands, which allow them the kind of hormonal control of their brood. And Scorpo, as he peels back the kite here, reveals this prize unto you. Um, next in the order is, uh, Hippocrates, who is still unconscious. Uh, and then it is Chris. Somebody should help him, by the way. I, I, I haven't thought about it in a while. He's just sleeping through the whole thing.

Okay. Here's what's going to happen on Chris's turn. Uh, the echo mites that are not, uh, upside down or being held as, at this exact moment by Loravith. Two of them actually, he has three actions. Two of them are going to come over towards you. One, hellgrammit. They are gathering where you all have begun to do a little bit of surgery here on the carapace. And the speed at which they are moving suggests a sort of franticness to their motion.

This echo mite here is going to launch a death ray at you. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw. Counter spell. Ooh. Has your reaction? Well, I mean, I don't know how else a counterspell would work. Yeah, no, counter spell is a reaction spell. And I believe it's up to level three that you can do.

it without rolling, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I mean, this is, this echo mite, while it is being sort of channeled this immeasurable power of the crystal that you're standing on, it is still a little bug. You're easily able to stop it using your reaction and counter spell. The other echo mite here is going to launch another ray in your direction. This is going to be a... Dysintegration Ray. You see this beam of light being fired towards where you are standing, and without hesitation, you see Scorpo shift his weight slightly to the left, and he's going to make the save instead for you.

Woo! That is a six total on his dexterity saving throw. Oh, yikes. And Scorpos looking down at you from where he stepped into the path of this ray, give me an insight check for I love it. Nothing is better than this because you've never, you have never, ever ever been able to, never been able to read Scorpo. He is not readable. And to your credit, Scorpo has never really been able to read you.

But in this moment, he obviously possesses some modicum of trust in you, revealing the brood mother's sort of, you know, the source of this power towards you. It is a great secret that he has revealed. And you look up at his face to try and glean some understanding that you've never quite been able to possess. and his sort of stoic scorpion-like visage reveals absolutely nothing. And that is the last that you see of Scorpo as he is hit by the disintegration ray and is reduced to a pile of fine gray dust. What happened to his bracer? Can I finish the sentence of the character's death?

I'm sorry. I thought you were to have a freedy little man. How far, how long? You greedy little pig boy. Can you please let Griffin finish his weaving before you're dirty?

You try to gobble up the dead man's possessions. Goose oil stained fingers reach greedily. Yum, yum, yum, yum. It is, I mean, kind of good hellgrammit stuff though. That's this moment where you're

sort of reluctant Your reluctant brother and Thrykeen arms. Who's put his finger in the plum pie again? It's telegrammer, didn't it? As they're unplugging

his oxygen machine, you're asking when the will reading is. Oh my God. It spins mid air as it falls into the ashes and somehow he just, Helgramut slips his paw in there, grabs it,

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