The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 3
Episode Date: July 3, 2025The Trial of Abjuration, Part IIThe wizards collect keys from across the island's many biomes, from the mountain tops to the crypts of the dead, finding both allies and enemies along the way.Royale Th...eme: “Wizard Disco” by Louie Zong: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/wizard-discoAdditional Music in this Episode: "Haze" by Scott Holmes Music: https://scottholmesmusic.com/; "PULL" by Nctrnm: https://soundcloud.com/nctrnm; “Time Travel is Possible” by Schemawound: http://schemawound.com/; "Simple Song" and "The Unknown" by Jar of Flies: https://jaroffliesofficial.bandcamp.com/; "When the Wick is Gone" by The Pangolins: https://thepangolins.yolasite.com/; and "Languid Dawn" by Blear Moon: https://blearmoon.bandcamp.com/.Immigrant Defenders Law Center: https://www.immdef.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
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Previously, in 60 minutes' time, the flames above shall descend,
and only those standing within this barrier shall survive its fury.
Scattered across this island are 48 keys.
With a key in your possession, you shall be granted entry into the Zygrot thereby passing
this second trial.
To the rest, know that while you...
you fall short of your aspiration. Your contribution to this institution will be eternally treasured.
Welcome back. Welcome back to the Adventure Zone, Taz Royale, as we're calling it. When last we left
our heroes, they were in the middle of the trial of abjuration. A great big fireball falling out
of the sky, racing to find keys to take shelter within the ziggurat at the center of this
a floating island.
Richtus, we're going to pick things back up with you.
At the top of the order, in the last episode,
you had run down into a tomb in the island's graveyard
where you found a long bridge over an infinite dark chasm.
You saved a young woman in sort of athletic gear
from this statue at the end of the bridge
clutching a golden key that has been trying to possess your mind.
Right.
And her, she just took flight after you pulled her back up onto the bridge.
Some spit was exchanged.
It was pretty gross.
And you were-
Also very gross.
You were trying to decide what to do here.
Okay, so Rick, this is going to do the most obvious thing
and kick the wall of the cave as hard as he can.
So you are on a bridge kind of in the middle of this gigantic cavern.
I guess you could sort of run back to the entrance to do that.
Yeah.
It's not like you are in a tunnel or anything like that.
Okay, he's going to run back to the entrance and do that.
Okay.
This statue watches you like, what the fuck?
What's this guy doing?
Okay, you make an attack roll against the wall of this tomb.
Okay. Do you want to know why? Are you just going with it?
Well, let's see that in the number and then tell me why.
It's a seven.
It doesn't matter.
Not very good.
I don't know what you're trying to.
Do your best.
I don't know. Yeah, I don't know here if a success or failure works for what I want to do.
He's trying to break his foot.
Oh, all right. Yeah. That is a normal. That is normal.
Well, the idea being he knows that pain, right, breaks.
control, right?
Because he used it to free her from her charm.
Yes, that is true.
And so his idea is here with a broken foot, if he gets possessed, every step he takes
will cause pain and give him a chance to break out of it.
That's really good.
Here's how we're going to resolve this, okay?
If you want to really fuck up your foot, I want you to tell me how you're going to do it.
You kick the wall and, like, I think your body doesn't have what it takes to force you.
itself to injure itself in this way. If you try to imagine doing this in real life, I think you would
probably struggle with the mental aspect of it. You are also still kind of being psychically
assaulted by this thing. If you want to try something else to, to injure yourself or in some other
way enact this plan, you will have a little bit of time to do so. But then I think, you know,
one more failed attempt and you're going to have to be.
another wisdom saving throw.
He is going to, with all of like the reanimation training that he's had to go through.
Yeah.
Right.
He's going to think about as hard as he can try to think of his body not as like him,
but as like sections of a thing, right, the way it would be in putting together a dead body from parts.
Yeah.
Right.
That's pretty fucked up.
Yeah, listen, man, he's a necromancer.
I guess that's the vibe, yeah, for sure.
Okay, let's say this.
How about, I think this would be a, definitely a wisdom role of some sort.
You know what, I'm not going to make you roll to see how effective this is.
I like that.
I think it makes sense.
So whatever you do next to try to injure yourself, I will grant you advantage.
You are in the right headspace.
Okay, he's going to pick up the biggest rock that he can find and lift and drop it on his foot.
Okay.
You find there is like a low sort of almost cinder block style wall on either side of the bridge right by the entrance.
You're able to find one of those blocks that is loose.
I'm going to say, give me a strength check just to see how big a rock you're going to be able to lift here.
Okay, a 16.
16, a pretty big rock.
Okay, you are holding it over your foot,
able to hoist a fairly large block into the air,
and are you real sure about this plan?
Cool.
Guys, Griffin said very large rock,
and dad did not start seeing big-ass rock from Full Moni,
and I think we should do a wellness check.
If we don't send an officer to his house,
we will regret it.
Who knows?
I hear him laughing, but that could be, you know.
I was thinking of an even worse joke, believe it or not.
Oh, okay, good.
He said, biggest rock, and I saw Ziggerot on the map,
and I was trying to figure out a way to rhyme those two.
So I did.
Wow, that doesn't even make any sense.
I know, I know.
No one made you toddle that one out of the dungeon.
That was not going to make the Instagram promo.
All right.
Okay.
I mean, you drop a large rock, and it lands right on your foot.
You take two points of bludgeoning damage.
Oh, okay, great.
And you have fucked your foot up.
You're not sure if it is broken, but it is extremely, extremely ginger.
And as promised, I need you to make a wisdom saving throw now to see if you can resist.
This thing's thrall as it sends out sort of another pulse of this.
mind control. Oh my God. Well, I'm glad I did. Well, I have advantage on it from being charmed, but it was a 10 and a 6.
Yes. Neither of those is enough. You are swayed, and it is like your mind splits in two.
Your mind is as fractured as your footbones. Part of you is aware of what your body is doing.
The other part of you is under the thrall of this statue at the end of the bridge.
and you are going to take a step towards the edge of the bridge very, very quickly.
And as the spasm of pain shoots up your leg, I want you to make another wisdom saving throw with advantage.
Nat 20.
Okay.
Wow.
That's more like it.
With a Nat 20, I'm not going to do what I was going to make you do, which is you regain control of your body and you had some momentum as you were going towards the edge of the bridge.
you sort of at a sprint, but you immediately snap out of it.
And in fact, another pulse of that sort of control magic goes through you and you completely ignore it.
You are going to be able to close quite a bit of distance now.
But your foot's fucked up, so it's not going to feel very good.
Yeah, that's fair.
Listen, he's done a lot of mental training and stuff.
A lot of separating how maybe gross the things.
thing he's doing is from what he needs to do.
Okay.
Let me think.
I mean, movement is guaranteed, right?
You are, I think it is a question of, are you able to get to this key before another
pulse of this stuff comes out and hits you?
So why don't you make just a dexterity check here?
And I like what you're doing.
I'm not going to give you disadvantage.
It's a gentleman's 20.
A gentleman's 20.
Okay.
You are able to reach the statue.
And it is holding a golden key in its sort of stony grasp.
I think you're able to get here.
It is going to emit another pulse sort of in a panic.
One last sort of attempt to get you to leap to your doom.
So make another wisdom saving throw with it.
advantage, please. Another gentleman's
20 and a 13.
That 20 definitely does it.
You look at this statue
and I say, not today, death.
Which is, of course, a quote from one of your
favorite movies. Oh, is it?
And beyond time.
You okay? I pulled something
yesterday, Holland sat around
and now every laugh. I thought
dad did psychic damage to you. Every laugh does
psychic damage to me now, man.
This is what psychic damage is.
It's sort of like eye sockets.
We're glowing with this sort of ominous light.
It starts to fade a bit.
And as that happens, the hand unfurls and releases a golden key into your grasp.
Cool.
I leave.
Just to establish that clearly.
Sure. Next, let's hop back over to Loravith. Loravith, you had just scaled this cliff's face towards a cavern that you had seen after claiming a strange crystal that seemed to grant you the memories of some other wizard, granting you the power to absorb elements. You were scaling this cliff up towards the cave. You were,
a bit slower than the yellow elemental ranger who you saw scale the cliff face run into the cave.
And then after a spout of flame shoots out of the cave, you see her crystal go flying away into the sky and hear the chime of a fallen competitor.
moments later, the other three elemental rangers who were kind of conspiring about how to get this rock away from you earlier, they reached the top of the cliff face.
And the red ranger runs up to you and says, ah, greetings friend Goliath.
I'm afraid we got off on the wrong foot.
I'm Ignacio, the elemental Ranger of Fire.
Have you seen where our teammate, who looks a lot like me but in a yellow sort of color palette,
where she went?
My friend, she has become ash,
and I can't imagine how hard that is for you.
She's, what do you mean?
She was your friend, and now she is unto dust.
It is sad yet inevitable.
He looks around, and then he looks at the cave
and sees, like, scorch marks on the ground outside.
And he's wearing a full helmet covering his face,
but his body language changes in a way that tells you
that he's pretty bummed out.
Can I ask a clarifying question, Griffin?
Yes, please.
Okay, I got this crystal.
Yeah.
And it gave me magic power.
Right.
The crystal that, or the gym or what have you,
that just was like, spawned off of her corpse.
Yeah.
Is that, is there a value to that,
is that the same kind of crystal?
Is there a value to trying to track that down or what's up?
Um, it, it flew like way far away off, uh, into the distance.
Um, yeah.
You are not sure how you would go about tracking it down.
I will tell you this.
Yeah.
If you're, if you're trying to ward me off of doing something in Dungeons and Dragons by saying
there's a lost gym and you're not sure if you can find it, that's going to put it into a lot of
quests pretty early, Griff.
That's a good point, too, um, I will, I, I'll, I'm trying to dissuade me from going to
look for the power gym in the forest.
No, yeah.
I mean, um, uh, clearly I'm setting a, um, uh, clearly I'm setting a,
sweet honey pot.
Right.
No, I will give you this.
You are the first person to have sort of like found one of these crystals.
And so you placed it in your, your grim war glove.
And you're able to kind of look at it and see that it does kind of look similar to the crystal that was already in there.
There was one stone sort of in there.
And when the other crystal flew out of the cave, it appears to be, you know, this bigger, kind of milkier crystal.
like the one that you have set into your gauntlet.
If I known it was big and milky, I would have made a reach for a given.
Thank you for that detail.
You see the elemental rangers sort of conspiring,
and the Red Ranger walks up and says, well, I...
Are we done with climbing?
Yeah, yeah, you're done with climbing.
There's just this cavern, right?
Yeah, all right.
Well, here's why I'd suggest.
Red Ranger, you're a fire, fire user, yes.
Um, yes, I, yes, I can't use.
Well, the thread in there seems to be primarily fire-based.
So it seems to me that you, uh, would fare the best, uh, giving the lay of the land.
Um, make a persuasion check.
Not my strong suit, but the natural 20.
Holy fucking shit, man.
man
Anything for you my lord
literally
So this is what I wanted to start
Do it
This is what I want to start doing a better job of
Okay
Now I want to
Now that I have the 20
Yeah
Now I will
Now we can have a conversation
Right
Okay
I feel that
You as the Red Ranger
The master of all
It is flame
Certainly your best equipped
To suss out
The situation
As my people say
take a butcher's around.
Yes.
You're right.
I don't need to be afraid.
I am the master of fire,
the elemental Red Ranger.
Flames binned to my will
and my foes will be scorched.
I'll be right back, dudes.
And he runs...
I want to prepare a lightning lure
for when the gym comes.
I really am going to make a shot at it.
Okay, you ready and action.
Sure enough, moments after he runs into the cave,
another burst of flame shoots out.
You see the remaining blue and green rangers
take a step back away from the cave mouth.
And then seconds later, you see another one of those milky white crystals
come flying out.
Make an attack roll with your lightning lure.
If you hit, this is going to be a tough attack
because it's a small target.
I'm saying if you hit a 15 or above,
you will snatch this thing.
A 15 on the money.
Jesus, man.
You whip out your lightning lore.
What's it look like?
It's been an episode since you've wielded this power.
It is an extension from the top of my wrist that whips out as I extend my grass.
So it's almost like an extension of my own reach made of a glowing white lightning
that doesn't move obviously at lightning speed,
but it crackles quickly across to the target and wraps around.
Whispy.
Whispy.
Rad.
Beautiful.
You see this white stone.
You had your arms sort of like arched backwards, ready to go,
and as it flies out, you whip it right on the money.
And as you rip it back towards your hand,
you can feel it pulling away,
like as if it is in this thing's like programming to, like,
return somewhere. You can feel a force trying to take it. But as you grab it, that force only
lasts for like a second. And then it seems to sort of acquiesce. And you are able to claim it.
I turn to the nearest. Who's the nearest ranger?
Blue.
I turned to the blue. That looked quite impressive. I know. But I'll be honest with you.
I very nearly missed that. I know it didn't seem it, but I was very, very fortunate.
diodes within a hair's breadth.
The Blue Ranger
is going to just sort of
take a step back, take a step away
from you, and in fact the Blue Ranger takes off.
The Blue Ranger starts scaling back down the cliff, and the Green Ranger's like,
what do you do? Come on!
Don't run away.
Can I have that stone, please?
We were sort of like a team, and
Well, that hardly seems fair, does it?
Look, I just, I really would like the stone.
Oh, I like it a great deal.
If liking is a determinant, then I like it very, very much.
The Green Ranger, again, wearing the helmet, you can't quite make out their expression,
but they stand there looking at you and then kind of reluctantly follow the other Blue Ranger
in climbing down the cliff and out of sight.
Do you slot in this gemstone that you ever hear of?
Absolutely.
Welcome to the family.
You slot it in.
You are fucking Thanos out here with your incredible collection of power.
Hold on.
I got to check Ignatio off the list.
Okay.
As you slot it in.
Hey, I don't know if we got a body count, but I'm taking that one, guys.
Yeah, for sure.
That is a direct talking another living being.
To their death.
Yeah, absolutely.
Put a notch on the old belt.
As you slot it in, you see memories that are not your own, and now you're kind of like ready for it.
It is just like what happened when you slotted in the absorb elements spell.
Only this time, you are seeing the memories of this guy, Ignatio, that you were just speaking to moments ago.
You see him giving to his community.
You see him making great change, helping those who need it.
Talking to his grandpa who's like,
no, some people are going to try to trick you sometimes, Ignatio.
You have to keep your head on a swivel.
Yeah, but then I guess you see it with like earmotes and like,
yeah, yeah, yeah, grams, whatever.
What are the odds?
Yeah, yeah.
And you see the elemental rangers.
You see these four heroes working together to defeat these great magical threats across the land and getting these big lucrative toy lines.
And then you return to your senses and your hands ignite and then deignite.
I don't know what the opposite of that is.
And you have learned this.
Extinguished.
Thank you.
You learned the spell burning hands.
man you're collecting plasmids left and right Jamie no freaking kidding man okay um all right can I
okay I have a like if I have been someone who had been absorbing elements a lot in my life I
would probably already know this but since I'm not this sort of like fire type thing that is
consuming people whatever that is yeah is absorb elements the kind of thing where I'm going to
cast that on myself and then just like go like be okay or no um i think based on kind of what you
remember from the memories that kind of came into you you sort of have a basic understanding of
of how this spell works it doesn't make you immune to like different elemental damage what it does
is it reduces the effect on you um and it also sort of stores some of that elemental damage
mental power that you can discharge with an attack.
So weak.
I'm so weak though.
Currently, I'm so weak.
I would like to here.
I would like, I don't feel like I've given it like a good look seat.
To what extent can I get an investigation off here?
I think that you can certainly make an investigation check.
if you want to get kind of like up close
to try and spy in there
without getting hit by the flame.
You, I think, realize now because you've seen it twice.
Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
I don't have to do that.
Okay.
I want to look at the memory.
Of Ignatio, yes.
Yeah.
I don't have to get close to it.
I want to like, I have the memory.
Absolutely.
I love that.
What's the very last thing I saw before I toast?
These memories are really fresh
and for whatever reason
become a little bit more abstract.
like they hadn't finished, you know, cooking yet.
But you do see the inside of this cave, which at the moment of Ignatio's death, you can tell there's like a little antechamber, a little side chamber running off of this tunnel where the flames shot out of.
And in that little antechamber, you can see a small little alcove containing some lockers.
and there's like a little table in here,
and there's a mostly scorched skeleton in here
with a sort of rusty pickaxe.
You can see that there are actually mine cart tracks
going deeper into the tunnel
that seem to start right about where this alcove is,
and there is a single mine cart
that has been pushed sort of off the tracks,
just sort of off to the side,
probably by repeated explosions.
I think you also know,
know because you've seen it twice that these flames didn't shoot out until someone went into the tunnel.
They don't appear to be happening with, you know. Am I able to tell from Ignatio's memory if this is like,
I could, this is something that could be avoided? I would say from Ignatio's memory, you have a
lay of the land. If you were quick enough, you could probably get into that alcove before the flames hit you.
But the tunnel is like about as wide as this like burst of flame is. There's no.
There's no great way to be able to discern that.
And you also, I will say,
he could not see the end of this tunnel
where this fire was coming from.
But I could, but I would have a,
but I'd have a good shot at making it to the alcove.
Yes.
Okay.
I'm gonna cat, I'm gonna,
then I will cast absorb elements on myself.
So it's actually a reaction.
You actually don't have to cast it on yourself.
It is great.
Whenever you take it.
If I need it, maybe it will help me offset something.
Yeah, for sure.
but I'm going to make a run at the alcove.
Okay.
This is going to be a...
This is going to be a dexterity saving throw.
I think I will grant you advantage on it
because of the kind of like intel you have
from this memory.
I like that play.
So let's get a dexterity saving throw going.
You are looking, I'll tell you above the table,
you're looking to beat a...
A 13.
Okay.
Man, it's really, it's a negative two, though.
All right, here we go.
Well, okay, so what we've got here is a nine.
Okay, you have advantage.
So roll again, and maybe it'll go better.
A 19, minus two, 17.
That does go better.
That's way better than the other way it could have gone.
You hurtle into this cavern,
and you see that you have about a good 15, 20,
feet or so to this alcove off to the left. As soon as you take a single step into the cavern,
you see light at the end of this tunnel, not like in a fun heaven way, but in a fire coming
to consume you way. You, however, are, you know exactly where to go. You saw where you're
supposed to be. You also see the sort of ashen scorched remains of two of the elemental
Rangers, who you leap over before diving at the last second into the relative safety of the
alcove as flames shoot down the tunnel behind you.
Hell, Gramette.
In your sort of unconscious state, you can hear those voices in the distance that you could hear as you wandered into the guard.
following Sweet Powder Keg Kelly before you were both cut down by the triple-headed razor weed.
As you are cut down, you hear those voices in your unconscious state sort of peak in intensity.
And then you drift off.
And then you come to with the extreme.
extremely unpleasant sensation that you are drowning.
But your panic subsides very quickly because you realize you are not dead.
And you recognize the taste of this fluid that is drowning you.
You are being fed a potion of healing.
You are going to take 2D4 plus two healing.
That is 5 plus 2.7.
You heal for seven points of damage.
Oh, nice.
As you come to and, you know, your senses return, you try to move, but you realize that you have been pretty thoroughly tangled up in a sinewy web.
And you have been dragged to safety.
You are no longer in the gardens.
You are now on this observation platform, this wooden deck reaching out over the edge of the island overlooking the gardens.
someone has dragged you up here in this web.
And really quickly, as you open your eyes and come to, you see the party responsible for this.
Standing over you is a seven foot tall tarantula.
And I think Thrykeen come in sort of, they come in many bug shapes and sizes with sort of variable levels of anthropomorphism.
This guy appears to be quite bug forward, just a big hairy spider with pants on.
He also, over his head, you can see a sort of illusory symbol above him, and it is a symbol of a golden key.
And this giant spider says, oh, you're right there, brother.
Yes.
Do I owe my life to you?
Well, yeah.
I know we're supposed to be competing and all,
but I don't know.
I couldn't leave a fellow, Thrykeen, to his death.
At the hand of a plant, it's shameful.
And I wouldn't want that for you.
So, yeah, I did, I brought you to safety after securing the key.
I will remember you when I come into my power
and you will serve at my right hand.
Thank you so much, my friend.
All right.
Kind of regretting, kind of regretting my decision now,
because that was a pretty creepy way to say your gratitude.
And what is your name?
Make some of it.
Well, that is a matter of some contention at the moment.
You see that there's two other people on this observation deck,
and you piece together that these were the three voices you heard arguing right before you were
cut down.
This tarantula says, well, they call me the spider.
And one of the other two.
On the nosy.
One of the other two guys, this bald man wearing sort of simple robes says, no, I'm called the spider.
And then there's a guy wearing like a red and blue kind of like cover all onesie with a
a similar mask and a symbol of a spider on his chest.
And he says, no, I'm called the spider.
So there's a bit of a trademark issue that we've run into.
We're trying to deliberate that amongst ourselves before I heard you being murdered.
But you can call me the spider for now.
Well, what's your handle?
I am Hellgrammet.
All right.
Hell, grammar. I like the cut of your jib.
Thank you.
May I interrupt you just for a moment?
Is that my gold key?
The one that I almost died over?
Yes, it is.
I do owe you, I suppose, a small debt as you distracted the razorweed for long enough by being killed by it,
for me to snatch it with my web.
Well, to be fair, you snatched it from me because I successfully grabbed the Golden Key before I was struck down.
So obviously, your web is a little off here.
Well, as I see it, the moment you died, your right to possess things was...
was rescinded and so it was sort of free free property so I did take it.
Are you Lincoln lawyering me?
I don't know what you're referencing.
I'm just trying to do my best to stay alive.
Well, I do appreciate you keeping my key safe.
Could I have it backwards?
As we evolve as artists, sorry, as we have all this artists, I really like, I want Griffin,
I love the choice that you could make this test season.
where pop culture references are just absolutely lost on these characters.
There is no space.
No silly shit this time, man.
I'm sorry, strange.
I don't.
It doesn't make any sense to me.
How is the lawyer LinkedIn?
Links is for what?
You can tell that this guy wants to get out of here.
Your vibe has been quite aggressive.
He says, look.
I got that potion for free from the apothecary.
I suppose even Stephen, I got the key and you got your life.
I'm going to start making my way back to the Zidot.
Perhaps there is a way.
I could do a favor for you and you could give me back my key.
Here's what I propose.
What if we were to team up and take care of the two pretenders to your title?
I mean, that would obviously help you, correct?
Because you're not really the spider.
Right now, you're just a spider.
I'll let you make a persuasion check here.
He seems uncomfortable with this suggestion.
partially, I think, because you know that you can't hurt anyone else on the grounds unless you are in a designated hurting zone.
But also because I just don't think it is in his nature to murder someone because they have the same name.
But it is a novel enough idea.
So make a persuasion check.
I think if you can hit a, let's say a 17 or above, this idea will take purchase.
Well, it's not going to because I have yet to roll over 10.
Well, this will be your chance.
Nope, it's not. It's a 12.
I'm going to get cold.
There's some nasty-looking customers camped out in the red zone.
I'm going to wait them out just to ensure there's not as much resistance when it comes time for me to make my way through.
I wish you the best of luck.
Yes.
If you're able to find another key, I'll see you in the next round.
I don't suppose the key would open the door wide enough for two of us to squeeze through, would they?
I mean, they didn't say only one key per customer, did they?
I think they pretty explicitly did, yeah.
He's going to, he's going to just kind of walk away.
You are still sort of...
Fine.
Fine. That's fine. Just go.
Go on. Go on. I am rescinding the offer to make you my right hand person.
Deal off. All right. Okay. Let's go.
You can see the other two spiders sort of follow him as they walk away from the observation platform,
leaving you tangled up in goo.
Tangled up in goo. Damn it.
I'm back.
He's back from someone. No.
Uh, rictus, we are back to you. Um, you have claimed a golden key. Uh, and I think it takes you a second to realize this, but, um, as you are sort of like standing here in this dark cavern, you see a source of illumination, uh, above you. And you look up and you see that this illusory symbol of a golden key has appeared above your head, uh, right as you have claimed your own key. Um, the statue appears to be de-actual.
activated and now you are just standing in this chasm sort of alone.
What do you do?
So he's going to hobble his way back to the surface and try to make his way towards the waterfall that a great-grandpa ghost told him about.
Yeah.
To see if the thing is still there.
Because as long as he's not in the red zone, right, he's going to draw attention to himself that he has a gold key.
But you cannot be attacked unless you are in the red zone.
Yeah, nobody can do anything about it.
Yeah.
Um, okay.
Oh, when he gets back up there, are the skeletons still a going thing? Are they still there?
you are able to reach the top of the stairs with some effort your foot is very badly damaged
when you reach the top you are able to kind of one get a breath of fresh air and two kind of get
a bit of a lay of the land those skeletons are not there anymore and the the graveyard appears
to have cleared out quite a bit you're able to see the ziggurat from here as you come out of
the tomb and you can see this like you know these symbols that were floating overhead
denoting time and keys remaining.
A good number of the keys have been cleared out at this point,
and you can tell from the clock in the sky that nearly half of the time has elapsed.
I need you to make a constitution saving throw.
Your foot is very, very badly damaged, and trying to respect that.
Okay, cool, 15.
Yeah, I got a 15.
You are going to periodically, until you get this fixed, like, have to fight.
your, have the willpower to stay upright with a fucked up foot.
Otherwise, you are going to start taking on exhaustion.
But for now, you are able to reach the top and kind of grin and bear the pain.
When you get up here, like I said, it has mostly cleared out.
You do see that young woman in athletic gear still kind of like catching her breath,
sitting on a gravestone.
And she looks at you and says,
a, oh, you got it.
Yeah, I had to break my foot to get it, but I got it.
You had to break your foot to get it?
Yeah, so I wouldn't get, you know, caught by the, like, the charm thing.
That's crazy, man.
That's crazy.
I would never break my foot.
That would hurt so bad.
It made the most sense at the time.
And it worked.
She's wearing sort of like track and field gear.
And when she took off from that,
tunnel she did so with like pretty supernatural haste she says uh well my feet are my business
nope that sounds bad that sounds like i'm i do sort of footstuff for money and that's
we listen and we don't judge it's okay okay that's great um i'm i mean do you know who i am uh no
sorry i don't get out a lot not a big sports oh huh no i'm uh you know jane jane jane
Jane Jennings, hasty Jane Jennings, fastest woman alive.
Yeah.
I'm Ruthis Ravenwood, the fourth heir to the barony of, you know, the breathless fields.
I don't know anything about that, man.
That's cool, though.
I don't know anything about you either, so I guess we're even.
Okay, look, we're not even because you saved me, and I do not like being in people's debt.
So when you think of how I can repay you, please let me know in a timely manner, please.
I'm sorry for spitting in your face.
I do think I can see through the fog of memory, and I do think you tried to do it first.
And so, like, I hope that wasn't something untoward.
Oh, I was trying to break the...
And you did, and you did it, and you did great.
I'm going to go run off now.
I've got to go find another key.
Okay.
Honestly, don't care if it's gold or not.
I never have cared so much about first place, just when I hit the podium, you know, or I'll die.
Okay, good luck.
Thanks.
And she zooms off.
leaving a sort of cloud of dust.
Shaped like her.
Shaped like her in the, yes, full cartoon style.
Incredible.
What do you want to do?
Hobble my way to the falls, please.
Okay.
I'm not going to make you roll again.
The falls are right next to the graveyard.
You are able to sort of reach a little patch of turf next to the falls.
When you get there, you see there is a,
a man on the other side of this kind of lake that the falls are feeding into.
And through the kind of like mist that the waterfall is is kicking up, you can sort of see
him. He is wearing a sweater and what appear to be headphones over his ears. And he's just
kind of like watching you intently as you reach the falls. Are there any like fish in the water?
Give me an investigation check.
16.
13 plus 3.
Are there fish in the water?
No, actually.
There doesn't appear to be any kind of life down in the water at all.
I think with an investigation check like that,
I'm going to just sort of tell you that this island is impossible, right?
It would be impossible for, you know, a waterfall to just form out of the side of this mountain
and pour over the side, this appears to be sort of like artificially, you know, generated in some way, probably by magic.
Yeah.
That feels like a safe bet.
You also, I think with that investigation check, you can see that there is still something shining behind the waterfall in a small kind of like alcove behind it, but you are unable to tell exactly what it is.
Okay.
Are we like equidistant to it?
Um, yeah, you guys are standing basically on opposite sides of the falls, maybe, uh, 10, 10 feet away, uh, from, this is my Moriarty.
Okay.
I, I don't know.
Maybe he's nice.
Um, well, people have never stopped to think that about Moriarty.
Maybe.
Wait, what if he's nice?
Yeah.
We're only getting it from Sherlock Holmes and Watson's perspective, is all I'm saying.
Oh, shit, Travis.
You just got a fucking seven series order.
Yeah.
BBC 4
I don't need this show anymore
Oh my losers
Oh shit Trevor just got adapted to America man
Well now it's true
Starring a British guy
Oh it's back
It's good again
Okay
That is the best thing about
Elementary
Oh Johnny Lee Miller
Finally a vehicle worthy of your talent
Some people say
He's still making elementary
to this day
when Lucy Lure
locked in a bunker somewhere
making seasons
nobody watches
it's just locked in
episodes never go in
episodes never come out
royalties never go in
up the misty mountain
I'm going to
hobble my way
to the falls
I guess I mean
yeah I mean you're right
you are right
on the shore
get to where that shiny thing is
Okay. This will require some effort. You will either have to try to make a pretty heroic leap here or kind of like balance on these rocks, these stones that the falls are pouring onto to sort of get in a position where you can try and get through the water. The water is like, you know, it's a waterfall falling down from quite high. It's not going to like crush you or anything like that. But you do not get the sense that it will be a, you know, a shoe in.
that you will be able to get through there.
But you are fully, fully able to attempt that, if that is what you're going to.
Then I'm fully, fully going to attempt it.
Okay, are you trying to do sort of one big jump here or balance on the rocks or what's your plan on?
Yeah, I think balance on the rock.
I don't think big jump is where he's at right now.
Well, depends.
Big jump.
Big jump would be a sort of athletic check.
And I think going through the rocks would be more acrobatics.
Yeah, strength.
Strength isn't his standpoint or isn't his strength, huh?
But dexterity, like, as an elf, he knows that he's better at, like, balancing and stuff like that.
So I think...
Okay, cool.
I already told you I wasn't going to make you do another con save, so it sucks and it hurts,
but you are not sort of exhausted.
Go ahead and make an acrobatics check for me.
I want you to beat a 15 in order to get through these waters safely.
How about a six?
No, that actually weirdly doesn't do it.
You slip on one of these rocks, and as you do, you kind of get into the flow of the water, which pushes you down into the lake.
And as you're sort of underwater here, you hear a splash, and as you look up, you can see an arm.
You can see through the water.
You can see that guy in the sweater is reaching down into the water to try to give you a hand.
Okay, yeah, I'll take it, Sam.
Cool.
And I've safely pocketed my key, right?
Like, I'm not at risk of, like, dropping it or anything.
Yeah, no, I wouldn't make you drop it up to the bottom of the lake.
I'm not that mean of a damn.
A big bird comes and swoops down and steals it because you didn't say you put it in your pocket.
He pulls you up, and you can see this guy very close.
closely now. He has a very gentle sort of demeanor. He is still wearing these headphones. He kind of pulls you half out of the water, grabs your wrist to try and gain some leverage. And before he fully pulls you up, he looks at you in the eyes and he says, you need to give me your key. We'll jump next to Loravith. Loravith. You have made it into the
is sort of this ready room for a mine
that is pretty shitty as far as mines go.
What with all the fire?
You are standing in this room and have a beat here.
You seem to be safe from the path of the flames.
What do you want?
Okay, I'm gonna poke around and see what I can figure out
about this room.
Okay, give me an investigation check please.
Let's start with a good old investigation.
Okay.
I need answers.
16.
16, really good.
You go through most of the lockers in this room.
They are mostly cleared out.
In terms of like, you know, stuff that is in here that appears to be like salient or whatever.
You can see there's like a diagram actually, like a small map that appears to be sort of functional in nature.
That was a dumb thing to say.
Of course, it is.
It's a map.
But you can sort of tell from women.
He's going to be whimsical.
It's a silly map, like a child's map.
Like a place map.
A child might get at a restaurant.
Like a scavenger hunt for toddlers.
No, it's a real map.
This is a real fucking map, man.
Cool.
Yeah.
And it is of this mine.
You can tell that some parts of it have been sort of like scratched out with red ink,
leaving just sort of like this direct path, this main shaft straight.
forward and you can see sort of a diagram of tracks on the map. So I think looking at the map,
you get a sense for, you know, how far you are going to need to go to reach the end of this
tunnel. And it is a good like 50 feet, which is not maybe as bad as you were expecting, but it's
certainly longer than you can do in a single sort of sprint. Do I notice any other similar
like alcoves or anything like that
that's being mapped out? This, no.
This is the only sort of like
way off of the
main track here.
Is there any protective
gear lying around?
Um, in this room.
Hmm.
The lockers and all.
There's,
with a 16 investigation,
um,
I will tell you,
uh,
there's,
there doesn't seem to be,
like a, you know, a flameproof suit or anything like that.
But if you wanted to make a sort of like makeshift, you know,
barrier or barricade or something, there's stuff in here that you could.
Is there a table?
Yeah, there's a table in here.
There's a table.
There's this upturned mine cart.
There's this skeleton holding sort of rusty pickax.
That is sort of the main context.
I probably couldn't.
Is it, is it, is it, how's the wheels in the mine cart?
They appear to be fine.
It is not on the track.
If you wanted to get this thing on the track.
Can I take it off the track?
Is it, do I have the ability to do that?
It's already off the track.
It's just kind of.
Can I roll it?
Yes, the tracks go straight down the tunnel.
So you can, you would have a much easier time, I will say, rolling it down the tracks.
In fact, if you wanted to get this thing,
down the tunnel, it basically have to be on the tracks because they're running through the center of this.
Okay, I am going to take the cart back up to the beginning of the tracks.
Okay.
And then what I'm going to try to do is run alongside of it and then hop in it and then try to ride it in.
Yeah, man.
So I'm going to ride it in.
You're going to ride it right in.
I'll just crouch down, protect it, beautiful, and ride it on in.
I love that.
Like a level in a Diddy Kong game?
Precisely, Travis.
And this episode is brought to you by the Switch to and Donkey Kong's thunderous rampage.
Coming to you, La and July.
Jesus, it's thunderous rampage.
Yeah, man, watch out.
This time he's pissed.
He is pissed this time, Travis.
I will say he's going, it's a banana nanza.
It's a banana nanza.
does send out a manifesto to all major...
Banana.
Okay.
So, the first thing I'm going to need from you is a strength check to get this mind cart back on the tracks.
I will say this.
If you get a 10 or above, you can do it.
If you get a 15 or above, you can do it so quickly that you are not going to have to dodge, you know, sort of flame as you try to set up this contraption.
Okay.
So, athletics.
Just string check.
Just string.
Oh, that's a 20.
Fuck.
Yes, man.
Holy shit, guys.
These roles today are insane.
Loravits' roles have been kind of crazy for the entire campaign, actually, so far.
Okay, yeah, man, with a 20, you are able to pretty easily lift this mine cart back up off of its side.
It plops down with a satisfying clunk onto the tracks.
And then you just sort of, like, casually take a big step backwards as another.
burst of flame shoots down the tunnel, avoiding you by just a few feet.
I got the pickaxe.
Okay.
You have the pickax.
Don't say that he didn't.
Fine.
So the mind cards on the tracks.
You have the pickax.
You're going to try and get like a running start with this thing and then hop in and take
cover, right?
Yes, exactly.
This, I think, will be an athletics check.
Perfect.
And I think if you can hit a.
You will be able to get in.
It's just a question of like how many bursts of flame
you're going to have to deal with.
I think if you can get this athletics check
with a 15 or above,
you're able to get in the mine cart
before the first flames arrive.
Less than that, you're going to be able to get
the mine cart, but you are not going to have
coverage on this first kind of blast.
Okay.
Let's see if this hot street continues.
That's a two.
Okay, so it does not.
There's one freaking rock in the way
and it kind of like.
The mind cart sort of skips up a little bit and comes off the tracks as you start pushing it.
You are able to get it back on the tracks, but not before this blast of flame hits you.
That is a 19 versus AC, which is going to hit.
And you are going to take six points of fire damage.
Quickly, Justin.
Absorb elements.
I'm going to cast.
I'm going to cast the incredible spell.
Okay.
Everyone's step back.
It is not, it actually isn't that flashy.
It's like, because it has to happen in like a split second, it's just like a little, but you actually can like feel the flames brushing off of your sides.
It is definitely doing some damage.
You take three points of fire damage.
What's that?
It does a 1D6 roll.
to see how much damage it mitigates.
Is how I'm understanding this?
No.
So you have resistance to the triggering damage type
until the start of your next turn.
Resistance is half damage.
Next time you hit with a melee attack,
you can discharge this fire energy
to deal extra 1D6.
Got it.
All right, now I understand.
Okay.
You take some damage,
but you're able to get in this mine cart.
It is going at a good clip.
You can see as,
it zooms down.
You can see another fireball start to form, and it is forming.
Now you can tell the source of this fire.
There is a, what appears to be, a sort of crystalline model of a dragon.
Made of what you think at first is sort of clear crystal.
As you get even closer, and this model is illuminated by these flames,
you can actually tell that it is actually hewn from ice.
You are in the mine cart.
You are going to...
Griffin, are you telling me it's made of ice, but it's shooting fire?
Yeah, man, shit's really, really weird here.
Dude, your brain is like...
Twisted.
Brandon Lee, who, you know what I mean?
Don't say that.
You're twisted, dude.
I will let you make a dexterity saving throw with advantage
to duck down into the mine cart and avoid the next blast of flames.
You were going to get hit one more time before you are able to reach it.
So that first one is going to be, what is, a zero.
Okay.
An actual zero.
That's a two minus two for zero.
Not.
Not great.
And a 19 minus 2, 17.
Okay.
Yeah, man.
You managed to duck down at the last second.
The flames coast overhead and.
You guys everything.
That's what deja vu is.
You just roll advantage on something.
You didn't know it.
Yeah.
You feel like, like, whoa.
That's you tying into the multiverse.
actually.
You duck down the flames shoot overhead.
It is hot and sweaty and somewhat uncomfortable,
but your absorb element spell is still a bit active
before it fades after this next burst.
The mine cart reaches the end of the tracks and stops
and kind of like tumbles off the edge,
and you come spilling out of the cart onto the ground
in front of this big icy dragon.
You can see sort of lodged in its head,
these flames are shooting out of its open mouth
and it appears to be charging up another burst
lodged inside of its head
is a golden key
Am I within reach?
Oh, you're right up on it.
You're right up.
I'm going to cast burning hands.
Okay.
Yeah, give that dragon a taste of still medicine.
No, it's made of ice, dude.
If I can be dead, dead ass with you, Juz.
Yeah, man.
For just, I forgot that you just got that.
But that's
that's very good.
Okay, burning hands. How does that work?
I kind of thought, Griffin, I mean, the credit to you, and maybe there's some subconscious going on here, but it's great design.
I mean, I knew if I gave you guys sort of Mega Man style.
Yeah, about like, this is paying off so quickly, you should be pleased.
Yeah, sure.
This is good.
Okay. This thing is, Juice, this is just going to succeed.
This thing cannot make a dexterity saving throw.
It is an inanimate object.
You are going to roll 3D6 fire damage, and then that number.
will be doubled.
Here we go.
13.
Jesus Christ, man.
Pretty good.
All right.
What is,
you're the one with the power now.
What is,
what does burning hands look like when Lord of it?
They,
it's like,
it looks like a inflammation at first,
and then it just gets redder and redder and redder.
There's no fire or anything.
It just looks more swollen.
Yeah.
And like,
you can see that his hands are,
they're not.
flame or anything, they just look, they're not
in flames, they're inflamed.
Okay, cool. This looks like really irritated.
And then it just kind of like bursts,
like it just like overflows?
No, it doesn't. It doesn't do either.
Oh, you just really hot.
Flames, but they're all inside.
Yeah. That's cool, man.
They're just really, really hot.
Like it's deceptive.
They don't look even that hot.
Yeah, cool. They just look really red.
I love that, man. Cool.
You hold out your swollen,
your swollen gnarly hands that are so hot,
steam instantly starts dissipating as I touch it.
Yeah, in fact, it's more dramatic than that.
This thing was charging up another blast answer.
Let me try again.
Yeah, do better with your description.
Yeah, come on, man.
No, go ahead, Groot.
It, you dissolve.
You're the guy that came up with the fire-spitting ice dragon, I wouldn't dare to presume.
It's a dally in your playground.
You reach out and touch this thing right on the snoot with both hands, and the head just, you send this, like,
like wave of melting right down. It dissolves the entire head. The key clatters to the floor.
The flames disappear. But then it just like keeps going and you like half disintegrate
this this draconic like sculpture of ice. And now that you have sort of melted the front
half of it, the back half loses its balance and falls forward, crashing to the ground in a
a big scattering of giant chunks of ice that slide to a halt at your feet.
And you claim the golden key.
We'll jump over to Hellgrammit.
Hellgrammit.
You've had some time to think about your choices.
You are, I believe, healed up now at this point,
and the webbing that has surrounded you begins to melt and you are able to get to your feet.
you are standing on this observation platform granting you appropriately enough pretty good view of the island and the lands below at the end of this deck on this sort of like overhang going over the edge of the island there appears to be like a big silvery magnifying glass that is at this moment facing outward over the lands below but you you are able to kind of you can see the symbols over the ziggarot you can tell nearly all the golden key
have been seized at this point, maybe half the silver keys and half of the bronze keys have been claimed.
And time is a little bit more than half elapsed at this point.
Okay.
That answered one question.
I was going to look at the giant fireball on the sky.
The fireball's not moving.
It appears like it is not going to drop until time runs out.
Okay.
I want to use the giant lens to, I'm going to assume they wouldn't have put another golden key in the gardens to look at that area around the tower.
Okay.
All the side there.
The woods, I guess that's woods around the tower.
Yeah, rad.
I mean, you, I think you are able to kind of like get on the other end of this magnifying glass and turn it to face the inside of the ziggurat.
You can tell that this was set up to observe the lands below,
but with a little bit of elbow grease,
you turn it to face the tower and woods on the western edge of the island.
Give me an investigation check.
I will give you advantage because you're using a giant investigating tool to do this.
All right.
And that would be 11 plus 3, 14.
and that would be 19 plus 3, 22.
Damn, dude.
Okay, 22 is incredibly good.
You're able to fully survey the tower and the woods.
As you look towards the tower, you can see through windows.
At the very top, almost like a sort of lighthouse,
there is this glass chamber and sitting on a pedestal at the middle of this glass chamber.
At the top of the tower is a golden key.
You can also see through small windows going up the body of the tower that there is a spiraling staircase that runs up the length of it.
And you can see a wizard running up those stairs.
And with an investigation check as gnarly as that, you can see what happens next.
You see as they are approaching the top of the tower, they stop suddenly.
and then they are lifted in the air,
and they are ripped out of the nearest window of the tower
and flung like a rag doll into the woods.
You are able to see the faint traces of some giant,
invisible humanoid shape that is responsible for this wizard's demise.
That is what you're able to see in the tower.
The woods, you can tell,
tell that there's certainly some wizards have gone out in here. It is like the most obscured
part of the island. So I think some of the more desperate aspirants have made their way here
to try and find like the keys that are almost certainly tucked away in in the thicket.
I will say with a 22, you can tell that soaring above the woods are what you think at first
are birds. But as you kind of like focus this lens,
to see them, you can see that these are actually small crystals with wings that seem to be sort of
like flying around in sort of random smattering across the woods. You are not able to see a key
in the woods, but that is what you're able to discern. Do I see where the body landed of
whoever just got snuffed? No, they were they were yeated pretty, I mean, you could
probably triangulate it based on you were watching them it they landed pretty far away in the woods
they were thrown a good like you know 300 400 feet or so okay um hell grammat beats his feet and
makes his way a lot of foot beating in this episode a lot of foot beating yeah um okay you're making
your way towards the tower yeah okay uh you are able to do so fairly easily it is pretty much right
down the stairs from this observation platform. You walk through a very short sort of thicket of
trees. There's a trail leading from this path, encircling the ziggurat at the center of the
island leading out towards the outer boundary. And you are able to reach the tower. As you approach,
you don't see any giant humanoid figure. You are not sure exactly why, but you could kind of get
the shape of it while looking at it from far away through this lens.
Up close, if there is something here, you cannot see it or hear it or sense it in any way.
There does not appear to be anyone else in the tower at the moment.
Would there be any...
No, why am I asking you for advice?
Okay.
That's a totally normal thing to do.
I'm going to make a history check to see if I can sum up any knowledge of what kind of creature.
this might be. Okay. Let me think. Okay. I think a history check for something this big and weird,
like there would probably be some history. Typically, I would want, you know, Arcana or nature or something like that.
But a history check, I think in this case would be. I can do either history or nature. You think
nature would be better? Up to you. I think either one will get you kind of the same result.
Well, I'll stick with my history check. Okay.
Making a history check.
That is a 22.
A lot of 22s.
Okay.
Yeah.
You have heard stories about this.
And I think anyone who is a practitioner of magic who aspires to, you know, join the octave in the sky, kind of knows a little bit about what happens up there, not the details of the conclave, but, you know, stories of their power.
residing on the island is a titan and it is a huge, stocky, powerful, monstrous, sort of man-shaped
entity, and it is able to hide in sort of a pocket of space time as it wants to.
It is a...
Like elementary.
What's that?
Like elementary.
Like elementary did it, how they have their own little pocket universe.
22, I think you know like some lore about this thing, which is that it has a bit of an Achilles heel,
which is that it can't...
It's vision because of how sort of high up off the ground and how big it is is quite bad.
And so ironically, while he is nearly impossible to see, he also...
has a difficult time seeing, you know, small creatures and, uh, and, and humans, specifically
when they are standing stock still. Um, so that is, that is quite a bit that you learn
about this Titan. Okay. And I remember the spot where the Titan showed up on the spiral staircase.
Um, it, it showed up outside of the tower and pulled the, pulled this wizard out. Um, so yeah, you, you, you know where it
was when it kind of disappeared.
Okay.
Am I close to that spot yet?
I'll say it's on the other side of the tower from the entrance.
Okay.
Is there anything like a window?
Well, there was a window because I could see through the window, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
So I am close to the invisible creature.
You assume.
I assume.
So I am going to...
Okay. I'm going to cast infestation.
Okay.
I'm going to make it, let's see, what I did last time.
Mosquitoes? No.
I'm going to cast noceums.
What is that?
You know, the little like gnats.
Tiny little gnats, but they can bite.
Okay.
I'm going to cast them as noceums and send it through that window.
Okay.
In the general direction of wherever the invisible creature where I would have seen them.
But also, I have communion carapace, so I'm going to stand completely still and change the color of the carapace to match.
the wall of the tower.
Okay.
So attacking someone invisible in 5E is sort of half narrative-based,
like narrative-based, you know where this thing is because you did see it just a moment ago.
You are still going to have disadvantage on the attack because you can't quite see this.
But it will have, I will say some effect.
With your chameleon carapace.
Gives me advantage on dexterity checks.
Stealth checks.
Okay, yeah, this is definitely going to qualify as that.
Why don't we resolve that first?
We'll do a stealth check with advantage here.
And based on how that goes, we will.
And to be fair, I'm not really trying to use infestation as an attack.
No, sure.
It's a distraction, right?
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
It is so big.
I think this is a question of like, are these little bugs going to be
able to even get this thing's attention. I would like to resolve that. 17 on your first self-check,
you have advantage, so go to hold that again. We'll take the 17, because that's five.
Cool. You change the color of your carapace, and as you do, you hold out your hand and you produce
a swarm of gnats. You feel like you are pretty well hidden at this point. It doesn't show me
having to do anything to make it effective.
Oh, is it a dexterity saving throw situation, perhaps?
Okay, this giant Titan actually has to make a con save.
That is how it works.
Okay.
So, yeah, I mean, I guess sort of using the rules, like you are able to send this
swarm where you remember this thing being, and it is going to make a big con save here.
That is a 12, which I do.
to make 13.
Does not beat your save.
You see these gnats fly up into the sky.
You made quite a bit of them.
And they begin to form almost like a ring.
And when they do that, you can actually kind of make out there's a part of this ring that kind of gets a little bit blurry where you assume they are passing behind this Titan.
But you don't have much trouble triangulating his position now, actually, because as soon.
as as soon as these bugs swarm and attack them.
A huge circle of trees, about 30 feet away from you,
just like explode as they are crushed by a giant footfall.
You hear a low, horrible groan,
and then you see this weird ripple just in the air and a pop.
And then all of a sudden that blur is gone.
The woods are quiet and still it would appear like you have scared this thing into its little pocket space, leaving you alone at the foot of the tower.
I'm going to ascend the rest of the way up the spiral staircase and get the key.
Easy Tiger. You haven't even gone into the tower yet, have you?
Oh, well, I thought I was. I thought I was. Okay, I understand. I thought that the invisible creature was like part way up the tower.
The invisible creature is standing outside in the woods.
It is huge and invisible.
It reached into the tower to grab that wizard and throw him outside.
Well, then I'm going to really hurry up the spiral staircase in a stealthy way.
Okay.
Those are two sort of objectives at odds.
But you step into the tower.
As you step foot in here, you look around.
You can see that there's just a little.
a bunch of wizardly stuff around here at the ground floor of the tower.
Some barrels stacked with sort of, you know, magical reagents scattered all around.
Save time this season.
We should probably just start referring to wizard type stuff in terms of tonnage.
You know, there's four tons.
There's four tons.
Square footage of wizard shit.
There's two square tons of wizard shit in this, this base floor of the tower.
and you can tell it has these stone steps running along the outer wall,
I guess I should say the inside wall of the tower leading up.
It's about a good 80-foot climb to the top.
If you want to move up there stealthily,
it's going to take you a few checks to do so.
If you want to try to scurry up those steps,
it will take you fewer checks.
I'll, uh, yeah,
I'm going to stick with stealth.
Okay.
Give me a perception check, please.
Since you've elected to take sort of the slower route here, you have kind of a B.
Nine.
Okay.
So that's nothing.
Never mind.
There's a weird.
There's a weird smell.
You can't place that.
Griffin, you've got to get better at asking for perception checks when there isn't anything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe that was an example of it.
We'll never know, right?
Yeah, no, I was just fucking with you, man.
All right, then how about it?
Can I do an investigation check of these barrels and crates?
Yeah, sure.
You go to the crate and barrel, which is the real world shop.
Wow, dude.
That's a nine, too.
Wow.
That's another nine.
There's eight barrels and ten crates.
That's all.
You are, you go through.
It seems to be sort of just like basic spell components and stuff like that.
There is one barrel at the end.
It's quite large.
It's like a 50-gallon barrel.
Is that a lot?
I don't know.
It's like a 50-gallon barrel, and there's no top on it.
It is filled with some sort of liquid that seems to have a pretty pungent aroma.
But you can see at the bottom of this barrel through all this clear liquid is a stone that looks somewhat similar to the one that is set into.
your gauntlet. What do you do?
I'm going to sit on the barrel.
There is no lid on this barrel. I guess you can put a lid.
I know. I'm going to sit on it like a, like a toilet.
Uh-huh.
And use my pincher tail to stretch down into the pungent liquid and get that stone.
Speak.
Speak, speak. Speak of this.
Sit on it like a toilet.
I think if you didn't immediately conjure an image,
then I don't know what to tell you.
I thought it was evocative, powerful.
Okay.
So this is going to be a...
Play that check?
No, you're wanting to do this very quickly, right?
I'm assuming that is why you're using
your sort of like scorpion-like tail
is because of that sort of snapping motion.
I like that.
That's cool.
But it's going to be a slight of hand check,
but for tail,
slide of tail.
Yeah,
slide of tail.
A slide of tail check
to see how quickly
you can reach in
and snatch this thing.
Let's roll that beautiful
bean footage.
Can I use my heroic inspiration?
You don't have that.
I know.
All right.
Slide of hand.
13.
Okay.
What's it look like
when you deploy your...
Actually, you're sitting on it like a toilet.
Man, I'm not sure I want to ask.
I'm sitting on it like a toilet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The tail kind of extends.
Yeah.
Like a claw machine?
And stretches out.
Yeah.
And it takes a lot of effort.
So Hell Gramut is kind of grunting.
Yeah.
Because it takes effort to extend your tail.
Yeah.
It is not one smooth snapping motion, right?
A scorpion tail kind of just does, it's supposed to bend the one way.
when it's cocked and loaded.
So it really, a lot of grunting.
The grunting, it starts as grunting.
As you snap your tail down into this liquid,
you do it real fast, you get it way down in there,
you feel the stone, the pincers close around the stone,
but you also feel a horrible, horrible burning sensation.
Yeah, I kind of figured that.
All along your tail for pushing to you hard.
your tail for pushing too hard.
No, it is
as you dunk your tail into
this liquid, it begins to bubble and
froth up. And
you are going to
make a
constitution saving throw for me. You're going to take
damage. This is to determine if it's half or full.
Looking to be to 13. Constitution
saving.
22.
Nat 20.
Okay.
Nat 20. You pull
your tail out of this liquid very, very
quickly. Unbelievable rolls, guys. Really, really remarkable. You forget the zero earlier.
You snatch this stone out of the liquid. You take two points of acid damage, which is, you get the
sense not nearly as bad as it could have been. And you pull this stone up and you, as you sort of like
take this damage, you feel this burning sensation. You let out like,
sort of reflexive yelp.
And when that happens, you hear a loud pop from outside, and through the windows, you can see the
trees near you.
Russell as the Titan reappears.
Maximum Fun.
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