Triple Click - Triple Quest, Act 2: Entering and Breaking

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

On part two of Triple Quest, the trio visits the library. Leon and Luther take their relationship to the next level. Bing plays some piano. Key gets into pottery.LINKS:Support Triple Click: https://maximumfun.org/joinJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ 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/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

Hello everyone. Kirk here with the second act of Triple Quest, the three-part Dungeons and Dragons campaign that Jason Maddie and I recorded earlier this year with special guest dungeon master, Matthew Mercer. If you haven't listened to episode one, definitely go listen to that before this one. I mean, live your life, do whatever you want, but this episode will make a lot more sense if you've listened to Act 1 first. This is the remainder of the session that Jason Maddie and I recorded with Matt at our hotel in Los Angeles back in. In June, we recorded the finale a couple of months later over Zoom. And as you're about to hear, Act 2 sets up a lot of juicy stuff for the finale to resolve. So if you finish the episode that you're about to listen to and you can't wait to hear how it all resolves, what happens in the finale, well, you can just go listen. If you go become a member at Maximumfund.org slash join, you can listen to the finale right after you finish this episode.

I actually just finished editing it. It's almost two hours long. between the music, the effects, the editing. It might be the most complex podcast episode I've ever made. This whole project has been a lot of fun. So yeah, go become a Max Fun member if you want to check that out now, or just wait a month. We'll run the finale in the main feed at the end of December

because we really do want everyone to be able to hear this weird and funny thing that we did. Okay, it is time for our heist to get properly underway as Key, Leon, and Bing prepared to breach the magical tower at Thornhold. Let's get into it with Act 2 of TripleQuest. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Shrier. I'm Kirk Hamilton.

And I'm Matthew Mercer, and this is TripleQuest. Welcome back. So picking up where we left off, our heroes, Key, Leon, and Bing have been called back together for one more job After years of an unsuccessful and tragic end to their last thief job, they've been called together to infiltrate Thornhold, a dwarven keep, wherein one of the towers a recently married lady of strange mystical interests.

And as we saw, somewhat shitty persona. Sort of a jerk. Yeah. Threw you out of the keep walls after you had snuck in as merchants and attempted to sell her a bunch of chachis. However, while both Bing and Key have left with the cart, looks like Leon has successfully infiltrated,

and as they await to re-meat at sundown, you hope to find a way to sneak your friends in to indeed complete this heist for the bracelet of the emerald. Ma. All right. So, yeah, Leon's just hanging out until the appointed time. You guys have a little bit more to do, right? Yeah.

So I guess we're on the cart outside, once we're outside of the gates and we're kind of clear of the guards. View, I mean, so we're not going to do anything suspicious, but we kind of take the cart, I guess, to the west, like into the, how clear, like how much clearing is there between the woods and the, maybe about 40 or so feet, not too long. Is there a road that goes into the woods? There is. The road kind of car, it kind of forks towards the fortress

and then continues into the woods. So you can kind of just head into the left side of the fork, just out of sight, and then dish the cart if you want to. Okay. So, yeah, we pull the cart into the woods, and, yeah, D-D cart. And get into the woods. So Bing looks at Kean and says, I know you like to burn things,

and I think it might finally be your moment. Yes. Yes, distraction time. Just sidebar, it's really funny that Leon's the one who had to sleep in a bush tonight, and both of us got out of it. Just say him. Sometimes I think he likes sleeping in the bushes. Yeah, guys, it's like a role-playing as a peasant kind of a deal for him.

I guess so. I gave up trying to truly understand him a long time ago. It goes a lot better if you kind of just go with it. Yeah, you're right. You're right. So Bing sort of looks into the back of the cart and says, What here looks flammable and starts pushing things around and looking around? Well, the wooden crates aren't bad.

The cart itself, I mean, do we really need it anymore? He's like, it's all fairly wet. And he's pushing through underneath the crates and cracks a couple of them open. Have we stuffed, did we go with any hay? Have we stuffed anything flammable? I don't think it was all dirt, right? It was mostly dirt and sod. I mean, as part of your general supplies, you do have, like, lantern oil and things that can still catch in the process.

magical fire, then does that still matter at all? Like I could still light it on fire even with pouring rain? It depends. Fair enough. Things that are like tinder that is soaked will not catch. But oil will probably still catch. Okay. Things that are highly flammable will still catch.

So Bing takes, has kind of guided the cart off the side of the road just kind of within the wood line off of the road. So it's still in view. well, if it started to maybe burn, it would still be in view of the front of the sort of gate of the wall. Okay, okay, so like, just out of the side. Right, just out of the side. And starts kind of pulling things apart

and arranging things so that they might catch fire better. What time is it right now? I'd say this is probably mid-afternoon. Okay, mid-afternoon. So we kind of, yeah, I guess get the cart just enough off the road that it's not immediately visible and set about making it as fire

ready as possible. So our plan is to just push this cart and try to distract the guards with? No, we're going to start a fire out here and let it burn high enough that they'll see it and send some people out. And it'll just have some kind of a distraction. Like maybe some people inside will go reinforce the guards at the gate who come out to check the fire. And it'll just reduce the number of personnel on the ground, which will make it things easier

for Leon and for us to get up the wall, presumably assuming he's able to get to the top of the wall like we talked about and drop a line down to us. Okay, so we're going to need a really big fire if we really want people to be worried enough that they're going to come here. Yes, key. We're going to need a really, really big fire. Okay, but it's not time yet because we have to wait until nightfall, right? So I'm simply vibing for now. I think we should maybe check in on the other wall and see if we can catch some kind of a sign from Leon. That's a good idea. No, we had made plans to meet at night. That was the, but maybe you and I should just look at it and be like, we're sure we know what's going on guard-wise, there's not going to be any weird surprises.

And we don't have to do a whole thing with that. Like we can kind of circle around, I'm assuming, and just sort of check out the wall and do that for the rest of the other. Yeah, and see about how many guards we're going to need to distract. Yeah. So you gauge the patrol as best you can and kind of get a feel for the pattern. It hasn't changed much since the first time you've scattered the space. So you feel pretty confident that there's about a 40 to 50-foot gap

between each of these little pair of at points where guards sit. And there you begin to kind of piece out different sections of small bush and kind of divvits in the open space between the wall and the tree line that you could probably dart quickly when the eyes aren't watching, especially under the cover of night and rainfall. Leon, you have been sitting within the interiors the day progresses. Is there any sort of preparation you wish to do, or we could move to the end of day? No, well, so there's a ladder on the inside that goes right up to the wall.

And then I got my grappling hooks and ropes and stuff. So no prep. I don't want to go out and scout because it's daytime and there are guards around. So I'm just going to hang out until nightfall. In a bush all day. Yeah, that's so boring. I mean, Leon's, he's meditating, he's thinking. He's playing with his cards.

He's got stuff to do. That elvish lineage letting you just focus. Yeah, he's playing Candy Crush, you know. Perfect. Great. As the afternoon comes to a close, the sky grows dark once more. the cracking of thunder has lessened as the day progresses. Every now and you still see a distant flash,

but it's over the ocean, and it takes a while for the low rumble to just make the interior of the courtyard. The tortures and brazers, especially at the top of the courtyard pillars, are all lit in spite of the flames, and you can see the evening portion of the courtyard come to life. Around the time that it feels right,

you can attempt to head towards the latter nearest, to where the tower and the entrance you would discuss would be. Yes. Go ahead and make a stealth check for me. Okay. I'll say with advantage on this because it's also a dark and you have the rain to help. Okay.

Seven. With advantage. With advantage. A six and a seven. Wow. So you, you dart from this bush to the next to behind a section of crates and wait for the moment that the guard patrol is shifting.

through the keep, which causes attention to scatter in opposite directions of the main road that carves through the courtyard. With that, you dart across the main thoroughfare and kind of between where the keep and the tower is. The two guards stationed to the front of the keep do not see you. And as you emerge from the bush about to head to the wall, a voice goes, Oh, well, hello.

You look behind you, you can see Luther's right there. We're like, we thought you had left. Is it just, it's just Luther? At the moment, yeah. Yeah, Luther, I got lost on my way out, and I was hoping that you actually. Actually, I was looking for you, my friend. Me, Billy Frausson. You're still a big courtyards?

I have something to confess to you, Luther. I'm in love with you. What? Make a deception check. 12. 12. He was like, well, we'd just say, met? I didn't think you've talked more than maybe

a hundred words. But you were just the finest soldier that I have ever met. Look, now, there's some funny business going on here and I was not born yesterday. I can see when I've been fattened up to be a stuck pig. So I'm going to have to ask you to be

upfront and honest with me or I'm going to have to get the guards involved. Okay, Luther. Luther. All right. I'm going to drop the act. I cast Charm person. You like, drop the act. You begin, like, moving your hands. He goes for his weapon on the side and loosens his grip.

Well, look, you just have to be open and honest with a friend, okay? I am being open and honest, Luther. That's why I need to get into that tower. Well, that, that one? That big old tower. Why? What do you need in the tower? It's a secret mission, Luther.

And the fate of the world and the entire realms. Is that steak? Who are you, Noel? Now Luther, I can't say that right now. But I can't tell you that it is extremely important for you to help me get into that tower. I'm so conflicted. My entire job is to keep people out of it. But you're so nice.

Hmm. Look, I don't know what I can do to help. Because I also don't want to get fired. My Grams be real, unfortunately, unhappy with me if I get fired again. So, uh, what can I do to help? You can tell me everything you know about the inside of that tower. Well, I've never been inside. You can tell me everything you know about the guards and the outside of that tower.

Okay. Well, there is Janine. Um, he's a big fan of apple pie. Um, he's got a rash on his left side of his shoulder. That's been giving them bother for about a month. Okay. Uh, I was trying to get my good cream for that, but it's apparently not helped it at all. Um, so he's a bit ornery.

And there's Jamal. Big nice, Urquish fella. He puts on a brave, tough face, but he's a bit ticklish, and he's a real bad at cards. That's all I know. Rash and tickles, okay, good to know. All right, thank you, Luther. Now, last thing I need to do is I need you to make sure that nobody sees me go up that ladder and get to the top of the ramparts.

You leaving? No, I'm saying. I just need to get up there and meet my friend so we can get into the tower. Because remember, the fate of the world is at stake. Make another deception. He's going too well. He's trying to do the math in his head and like... The equations are floating out.

He's getting a nosebleed. He's charmed, though, right? He is charm. Yeah, so you have advantage on it. Okay, that should be... I have advantage, okay. Oh, there we are. Oh, oh, oh, 25.

25. He goes, well... Wow. Look, I... I come from very humble beginnings. I've always wanted an opportunity to do something special, to make an impact, a mark on the world. I'm just...

Let me just say, Noel, I've got your back. All right, all right. Why don't you come with me, Luther? You guard the ladder here. I'm going to go up the ladder, and I'm going to let my friends up on the wall, and you guard and make sure nobody goes up this ladder, and nobody sees me.

All right. Thank you, Louvre. Bill Do you. Thank you, Luther. It's been an honor. Okay, so I guess it's coming up on the agreeable. Yeah, it's about nightfall. I get to the wall. I set up my grappling hook, so it's like on top of the wall, and so there's a rope. Is anyone up on the wall? Are there any guards that can see me or anything? There are two guards who could likely see you.

Okay. They're not at the location in the wall you are. They're both kind of at separate points, and they're not in the process of shifting. They're just kind of stationary looking out. Okay. One of them looks like he's yawning a bit. So they're not like super attentive at the moment, but they're not completely blind.

As I'm climbing up the ladder, this should be around the time the fire is getting set, right? So maybe they're distracted or the guards distracted in fire. Very well be at this time. We get over to things. So you've taken this time, you have a flame-based cantrip? I have fireball, for one. You might not want to waste.

But you might have to save that one. I think you have another. I have some other one. I have a fire bolt, which is a cantrip. Oh, yeah, firebolt. Yeah, so what you can do is you can essentially repeatedly hit this. I mean, you could even like firebolt it a little bit early to kind of start drying off some of the wood as well. But keep preventing it from catching.

Is there like a number of times I can use that or I can use? No cantrips as many times as you want to. Baseline, simple magic. I also have a cantrip that's control flames. So I was hoping maybe I could use that to like make the fire look really weird. That's the combination. You can fire bolt the side of it and prevent it from catching entirely.

Instead, you can control the flame and just kind of push it around to dry off all the various wood matter of this cart and the surrounding kind of to prevent it from being waterlogged and have it ready to just go up. And so you're holding it back from becoming an inferno

until you both kind of make eye contact and nod that it's the right moment. As you do, you reverse, you know, all you're controlling the flames you are unleashing them. The flames are, erupt and tear up, licking the bottom of the canopy of the tree line, as it does. The underside of the tree line is not very wet.

It's dense up on top that a lot of the rain is kind of poured through and cascate off the sides to the point where the bottom of the tree begins to catch as well. Within moments, this is not just a cart fire. This is becoming the beginnings of a forest fire. If the rain doesn't help and the people aren't quick, right around this time, as you're kind of peeking upon, one of the guards goes, Hey, oh, oh, what is it, it's the fire! It's the fire!

What are you talking to? Oh, shit! For fire! They both know what to do, they're not prepared for this. So they both kind of like scatter running back and forth. One of them darts down the wall the opposite direction, the other looks over at the ladder where you're currently on. And it goes rushing towards the ladder. What do you do?

The guard is rushing towards me like on the wall. You're the nearest ladder. Oh, right. Oh, man, okay. I duck back down, or I climb back down before he gets to me. And I say, loose a cover for me. And I just kind of like sneak behind the nearest something. Biggest else check for me.

Okay. Come on. Come on. Okay. Yeah, it was 21. 21. You like, dart, you like get to the ground and you go behind the ladder, kind of like using it to hide you as you duck down in the shadow.

The figure, the guard sets rushing down. Fire! Fire! Lands, turns around. Luther, there's a fire! No, everything's fighting. There's no problems. What's the way?

First of us, No, you're d'all. I'm telling you there's a fire! Well, you should take care of that. Salutes him, the guards. Why are you here? And then, like, runs all shouting, fire, fire. And then the guards start, like, shouting off fire. You hear, like, a bell goes, ding, ding, ding, ding.

On the top of the gate. and at the getting gets to open, you see guards kind of rushing out towards it, some carrying buckets. You can see one of the guards is currently maneuvering their hands to conjure some sort of a small orb of liquid in front of them. So they're doing what they can with their, whatever they have their disposal to try and deal with this. But as they're scattering out towards this flame, you can climb back up the ladder, and you're setting the grappling hook and rope off the side. Yep, I'm setting, yep, so they can come climb up. fantastic, easy enough to do, especially with good old Luther keeping an eye.

The two of you hear the bell begin to toll and the shouts from across the way. And we're going to run under cover of night and try to avoid whatever. I mean, the guards are taking a straight shot towards the fire, right? So we're going to kind of strafe around. Yeah, we're kind of just going to get there, but like we're going to get over to that wall, but we're going to try to not be noticed. So we're abandoning the fire. So whatever control flames I was doing, I assume the fire just do it at some of the favorite.

It is indeed. And it is no longer my problem. So we're just heading to the wall. Are we going to make it there without any issues? Well, I need you both to make stealth checks for me. You have advantage on them because they are both distracted and the light and weather is aiding your passage. I got a 14.

14, okay, great. That is not real. 17, great. Yeah. You both dart past. At one point someone kind of glances past, but they're too caught up by the flames and just go back to put their attention

towards the roaring inferno that's gathering at the edge of the forest. You both dart through the mud, kind of like diving down an embankment and then back up as it kind of picks towards the base of the wall. As you both get there, you kind of glance around right as the rope tumbles off the side and slaps the wet stone wall exterior. You both immediately grab the rope, climb up, and the three of you are reunited at the top of the wall. Bing takes a moment to look out over the fire and looks down at key and says,

nice work. I do what I do. What can I say? All right, we have limited time, so we got to get in, get out, bam. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We go down the ladder. We take another, no, I think we took another grappling hook. Can we reach the balcony from where we're standing with a grappling hook?

How long is your rope? About 50 feet? Sure, normal rope size, as one has. You can certainly try. This is going to be at that length, probably a strength check. If someone wants to try and lob it towards that. Bang, you got to. So I'm throwing the grappling hook from where we are across.

Okay, so he pulls up the grappling hook because we only have the one. Yeah. So he pulls up the grappling hook behind him and, you know, spins it up his hat as you do. And takes a very long, underlined throw. Lobbing it over there, roll a D20, add your strength modifier. 11. 11. It connects with the stone of the balcony and then drags off and tumbles back to the ground.

The first attempt was a failure. You have two more attempts before you fear you might be getting attention on this side of the law. Bing kind of just grumbles and pulls the rope and it says, all right, nobody ever gets anything on the first trip. You got this, Bing. You got this. We believe in you. He began spinning it again. You hear he's kind of humming under his breath. And he throws it. Oh, God. That's a nine. That's a nine. It arcs and completely misses the balcony crashing into. the iv and getting caught on the ivy.

You can, like, pull on it and pull some of the ivy free that kind of, like, sends a chain reaction, like, tearing off and causing an element of it to flap downward, which kind of, which slightly breaks the pattern of the ivy, which means there's definitely, if anyone's looking closely, a sign that something's different about the tower,

but nothing yet has caused any issue. Oh, God. I can mend that. If we can freaking get over there, man. Bing is pulling up the rope, says, nobody gets anything on the second try. You start spinning it again You hear he's humming a little louder

Now if one of you wants to help you can You can use your help action Which grants advantage on another person's ability check I would happily do that By this point I'm feeling sorry You can sing along with me Recognize the sign What am I

You just out No you're just described how you help him with the action And then he gets advantage All right then I sing with him All right we're both like And he says And he goes and he throws And I throw one more time.

You got it. You are struggling with this. That's going to be another 11. Another 11. Are you serious? The third throw, you actually do chuck it. Hard enough that it finally arcs up and over onto the balcony. Yes.

And the other side of the rope goes with it. And you're like, oh, I let go with the rope. And you watch as the entire grappling hook and rope is now up on that balcony. I cast Mage Hand. and grab the rope with my mage hand and pull it towards us. That's slick. As you watch it arc over, the end of it stops in the middle of the air, goes hot, and begins to just glide back down to where you are all standing.

Okay. So it, well, would the hook have landed on the roof of the tower? No, on the balcony. Oh, on the balcony. Yeah, like over the rain, basically. So can we all, do we need a check to climb? Can we all just get over it? I think quickly you can go ahead and with a rope, it's much,

climbing the ivy would be a different story. But the rope you all are pretty well, you know, seasoned climbers in your experience with burglary. So one by one, you all eventually clamber up onto the balcony just as the guards, you can see the flames beginning to be doused. It's still going to burn for a while, but

it's now being swarmed. There are now guards who are starting to look throughout the courtyard just in case. I turn back and give a thumbs up to Luther. When the other guards goes, Luther is! Nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong at all. as normal. Being sort of watches

this and says, I know there's a story there, but you're just good to have to tell me later. I'll tell you later. After we're done, after we're out of here, and we're in our riches, we're at the tavern. I feel like I am paranoid enough to mend the ivy with my mending can'trip because I don't want us to be seen. Okay. You glance over the side and use many

the ivy kind of reforms up into the rest of the lattice work. It looks like it'll be fine. We love that. Great call. Great call key. Yep. All right. We try to open the door of the glass doors on the mouth. You approach the doors.

You can just see a little bit in the inside. A beautiful, like, extended, kind of black and gray marbled floor. And you can see what looks to be a staircase in the distance, but you can't make out much more than next. The curtain's obscure it. You go to check the door, and it is closed. Yeah, so Bing is going to check the door for traps

and anything that looks amiss with the door. Great. We can make an investigation or perception check. I'll have advantage because of dungeon delver. Yes, you do. That's cool. This will be, I think I've generally, I think it's good at spotting this kind of thing. Okay, so that's going to be a 19. 19, okay.

It is locked, but there isn't a trap on the door. What you do notice, as you're inspecting it, is this slight movement on the inside of the chamber. And as you glance through the glass amongst the kind of warm, gentle, kind of almost candle and torchlit interior of the room, there is this faint, like translucent. arcane orb that's just kind of gliding around the upper area in a circle. So Bing pulls back and says, the door is locked. One of you can probably get it open. There's some sort of a translucent orb rotating and like it's patrolling.

And I guess it's being able to describe it. If one even wants to make an archa track. I guess Bing saw it first. So maybe you should take it. Yeah, go for it. I can. Oh, no, yeah, go ahead. You both can see.

So that's a 10. That's a 10. You have no real concept of it. So then, so that's not seeing it, I guess. So then maybe if he describes it, I don't know if he's even able to describe it well enough. To be like, is probably magic? All right. So then if I have, I have plus one arcana.

Yeah, go ahead and learn. A hint. A one? A one. Okay. Um, well, so. Unfortunately, no true concept of what this is capable of love or what it can do. It just doesn't look welcoming.

Great. In the sense that it is patrolling the upper area around the chandelier. To be fair, we aren't welcome. Yeah. So being as described where that is and says, can one of you pick the lock? I'm going to cast minor allusion to create like a little critter inside of the glass door and see what the eye does to it. So like a little, I form a little cat that is like meowing its way around on the other side of a glass door.

Okay. as the cat kind of appears and takes a couple of steps, you see the eye as it's passing through. It rotates, and you can see the orb. It's kind of like a sickly green color, like a greenish yellow, with a very, very dark kind of verident forest green pupil on it, almost like it's a floating eye. As it comes around and in its periphery comes to face the direction of that cat,

it kind of focuses and stops focusing on the cat. and then you watch as the bookshelves that line the walls that you didn't see before dozens of books fly off the shelves and pile onto this cat like smashing and bearing what would have been there

there's this heavy just bludgeoning pile of books crammed over it a moment passes before one by one the books pick themselves back up and then return to the shelves where they were and the eye continues its patrol now we know

Okay, I'm going to pick the lock first Without opening it I'm just going to pick the lock for it Great, so go ahead and dexterity check So roll D20 ID your dexterity modifier And your proficiency modifier Since you are proficient with these tools That would be a 12

12, okay You needed a 10 to get this door It's not a very complicated lock At least not at this moment You take a moment Eventually you find the right tumbler It opens up The glass door is slightly open

and you can feel the warm interior air immediately kind of hit your face to contrast to the cold, rainy exterior of the tower. So on this orb, I can use all sorts of illusions to just kind of distract, get the books at them while we figure out how to neutralize this thing. And I do have access to darkness, which just to check how that works. I think it's a race ability. But if I'm going to cast darkness, what exactly happens? So you create an orb of magical shadow. I think it's a 15 foot radius, I believe, 10 to 15 foot.

And it stays in place. It's just wherever you cast it, it stays for concentration, so for as long as you concentrate on it. Or you want to stop the spell. But everything in that orb cannot see. Everything is just absolute darkness. Including us. Yeah.

Unless you can see through magical darkness. Which I think I can. Can you? And looking at the orb, is the orb, does the orb have like, a full view of every part of the interior of the tower? It looks, it's moving fast enough where like there's a window of about maybe four seconds, five seconds, where it might be facing away from you in its rotation, but it's a very small window. Is this a room like within the tower? Like what can we see of this?

It's what you can see. This looks like a parlor almost. There are, there's some simple furniture, some couches arranged, some small tables. Looks like a hosting space. There's a, a, a, chandelier in the center that the orb is kind of rotating around like slimer and ghostbusters. Oh, yes. You can see on the opposite end there is a staircase that descends to a lower floor, and there is a staircase not completely across the way, but maybe about a third across the chamber to the right-hand side that looks like it curves upward. There are two vases that flank the staircase that leads out these like tall, beautiful vases,

nothing in them. and that's kind of the gist of the chamber that you're in right now. Okay. And on the upper floor, like up the stairs, can we see any doorways or anything like that up on the upper level? Unfortunately, no, it's locked off from a ceiling. So it's just like each segmented separate floor of the tower. I see. All you see is the staircase that kind of spirals up and vanishes into an enclosed hall that leads you to the upper floors.

Got it. Bing says, I think we should go up. We got to take out that orb. first. Or we have to get past the orb. Okay, okay, okay. I can distract it with some cantrip. And I could cover us with darkness on the stairs if we guys can both remember

putting it up to see anything. That might be a disaster. Yeah, but we can look at the stairs and remember where they are. We know how to get upstairs. There might be other traps, but we can just keep checking to see if there's any traps on the stairs and fumble our way up. Leon, what's your plan again? I think I can

distract the orb and we just run upstairs. I I think we need the darkness. Okay, give it a shot. All right, I'm going to cast a mage hand to just kind of like lead the orb on a goose chase like in the sky, like the same, following the same circular path as the orb is my mage hand. Okay. As a mage hand, legend, I mean, your mage hand is invisible. Oh, okay.

If you grabbed a book. Can I make my mage hand visible just for the purposes? If you want to, yeah, I'm going to cast a visible mage hand. Okay. As the mage hand appears, the orb rotates towards it, and another. they're like two dozen, three dozen books just colliding in the air where it is, like impacting, not falling or tumbling to the ground.

They're like creating an orb that's crushing where the hand would be. So as that's happening, we can all just run upstairs. You can certainly try. We can certainly try. We go out of stairs. As quietly as possible. All right. So for this, all of you trying desperately to avoid detection by this

as you head towards the two large vases and the staircase that ascends, I need all three of you to make a stealth check for me. All right. This is about advantage because you were in a more lit interior. The right. It's a 14 for me. 22.

22. It's a two for me. All right. So the two of you dart towards the edge where the vases are and kind of head up the stairs. Key, you go running. Technically, it's a seven. I was wrong. It's a seven.

Okay, still. I know it's bad. It is bad, but not as bad. You go running carefully as you can. Your rain-slicked boots, unfortunately. hitting their marble floor. So it kind of squeaks out and you slide and slip for a second.

Catching yourself before like completely collapsing to the ground. But as you catch yourself, you look over your shoulder and the eye rotates towards you and the orb of books breaks apart into a cloud and they start swarming in your direction. What are you doing?

Can I fire bolt at the books? You can, yeah, go ahead and roll an attack. So I roll a 20 or 10? Just roll D20 and add your space. spell attack modifier, which should be on your sheet. Okay, so it's 17 plus 8, so... 25. All right.

That definitely hits. So go ahead and roll damage on your firebolt. It should be 2D10, I believe. There you go. 13, great. So you launched this firebolt at this cloud of books that's just rocketing towards you as it impacts, this burst of flame. A number of the books just ignite in a blast of flame.

there are tattered pages than falling and cascading around you. It does manage to lessen the impact. The rest of them still clattered towards you. And you take four points of bludgeoning damage as you are impacted by the rest of the books that weren't quite fully damaged, but you definitely lessened the impact before they slammed into you.

I'm adding this so I'm now at 18 out of 22 hit points. So this orb is out of reach, right? of melee reach. It's about maybe, I'd say, 10 feet up. People would just hit it with your sword. But the two of us got up already. You guys are at the stairs

and you hear the sound. You're like rushing up and then things have gone wrong behind you. We hear key. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so Bing draws the sword and he just yells out at the orb.

Over here. As you shout that, uh, the orb, boff, over in your direction as well. The, uh, the books.

that are already impacted, stay on the ground. You watch as more come off the shelf, and they both divide going towards each of you. I need you both to make dexterity saving throws for me, please. So roll at E20 and add your dexterity, save it. Then 18 for me. Great. 13.

13? Okay. You needed to get 12. So the books go rushing towards you. You both dive out of the way. You, as you kind of pull back into the hall, it smashes against the stone, and you watch it they recoil. You duck out, It smashes the massive vase that's right behind you. It hits the ground.

You know, as you kind of stand there with the sound, you glance over, the broken shards of the vase reveal a body. It was like in the vase? In the vase. The orb is still, like now it's kind of hovering around and it's kind of still glancing down at the movement of the two of you. What are you doing? Do I have like, I can take like communication, right?

Bing looks back at Leon and sees what Leon is doing. Well, Leon is looking at looks at the body. What is this body? What do I see on the body? In the midst of this chaos, you glance down at the body, and you see a figure that is bloodied freshly, and they are adorned in the recognizable armor of the Thornhold keep guards.

Alive or dead? Very much not moving and covered in blood. Okay. Well, so Bing is kind of at the base of the stairs, Leon, or you're a little further up the stairs, and Key is still over where we first came in. And there's books. Oh, I'm by the vase.

Oh, you're by the vase. So we're all up the stairs. So Bing is just like up the stairs. Yeah. And he goes up the stairs as fast as you go. And we're not doing casting darkness anymore. We're just going up the freaking stairs. All right, here we go.

Yeah, Leon casts invisible mage hand to check in the pockets of his guard and see if there's anything interesting on his body, anything that would, uh, anything, really. Sure. Okay. So go ahead and make an investigation. check for you. 13. 13.

There's a pouch of a handful of coins what looks to be a short sword that was sheathed on them. It looks like most anything else

of interest has either been taken or they didn't have on them at the time. But in the outskirts of casting this in the space, the orb does take notice of you.

I need you to make a dexterity saving for me. The hand, by the way, takes the gold, of course. I understand it, yeah. That's four gold. Cool. 21.

21, yeah. You just dodge out of the way as the book slam and shatter the other vets, which is mercifully empty. Okay. But you dart back up the stairs, and as you all begin to clatter up to the third floor of this tower, you can hear the books resetting and quiet, beginning to take the subterranean chamber.

Bing says, I never did like libraries. All right, we go upstairs. All right. the next floor you come into, while the previous one was kind of like a parlor entryway, this one feels like it is a music hosting room. You see a massive grand piano that sits on the opposite side of the room. Looks like there is a stocked bar that is magically lit across the way. There is, as opposed to the general single set of spiral stairs,

there is a wide, thick set of stairs across on the opposite side of the room that heads up and splits in two directions, like Great Gatsby Staircase. style that vanishes into the what would be the fourth floor above. Here in this room there's like an open dance floor sort of aesthetic to it. This is a place to hold parties.

This is a place to have guests up to mingle and have drinks and cocktails. You can see there's like small statues and brass art pieces that are on displays on small pedestals and kind of carved alcoves in the sides of

the interior. You're also getting the feeling, which is odd, this tower isn't massively wide, but now that you've been in a few chambers, it feels like these rooms are larger than they should be, given how well you've cased the structure from the outside.

So Bing looks across the dance floor. Is the piano, where is it situated in the room? It's not directly in the center. It's kind of put in a corner, I want to say opposite, but almost like a catty corner to the staircase. Okay.

So that the acoustics, the room. And you do see now, just look at the ceiling, it's almost like a domed ceiling. So the acoustics will carry it throughout the chamber, which also probably makes conversation horrible. Please. Because it's kind of whispers and bounces everywhere. And is there the stairs that the stairs keep going up, right?

They do. It gets a piece of room. Right, right, right, right. So Bing makes his way over to the piano and sees if he can detect anything strange about it. Sure, make a perception or investigation check. It's going to be... Or so that's a 13.

It's a 13. piano seems to be a pretty cool piano. It's very well kept. Bing does not play piano, and he just kind of like presses a few keys at random. Ding, ting, ping, ping. Okay. As you do that, in the silence of this chamber,

two of the brass statues, like, shift in your direction. Looking at these, they look kind of interpretive, strange busts, but now that they can turn in your direction as opposed to facing away, they're originally facing the wall, you can see that they have a reptilian sort of expression upon them. And both of them have these marble-like eyes set within the stone.

As they both turn, you kind of glance over and look at them. I need to make a constitution-saving throw for me. Okay, first Bing just really quickly pulls the lid down on the piano. That's going to be... be a 14. A 14. You feel like some sort of magical influence strikes into your body. And for a brief moment, all of your muscles begin to tense. The tendons begin to pull tight. It's almost like something is binding you in the moment. But you are a fairly hearty individual. And you've, you've endured the elements both magically and otherwise a number of times. And you managed to

shrug it off and regain that mobility as they shift back and hear in this still. silence. You gather that maybe noise is a drawing factor. So Bing looks at Leon and Key, and he makes a gesture like silently, and then he holds his hand, his finger up to his lips. And he kind of takes his arms across his chest to indicate kind of binding and then points to the stairs. Leon, yeah, Leon points up. Let's get the F out of here. So he begins to, Being begins to move very quietly and slowly across the floor toward the stairs. Okay. As you drop down and begin crawling, you now have a lower perspective,

and you can see the number of like photons and kind of lounge chairs that are spread through the space. You move past and look and you can see something underneath one of these photons. I guess so I look closer. You carefully scoot forward and you can see there's a red smear across the ground. And leading up to where this is, there's a body that has been hidden beneath this particular futon. Okay, Bing goes over as quietly as he can to investigate further. Okay. This figure is also wearing the breastplate and armored garb of a thorn hold guard.

So he leaves it, doesn't touch it at all, and keeps moving toward the stairs. Okay. The rest do you follow soon? Mm-hmm. Okay. slowly you move across I'm just going to have all three of you roll a D20 for me

okay just don't you're trying to roll four or higher if anybody rolls 17 13 11 great okay so as a troop

with the knowledge and the face tanking of the magical dangers of this chamber you together managed to coordinate a very careful and plotted exit out until you get to the rising staircase that divides in two different directions. It is carpeted across the hardwood base, which makes it a little easier from making any noises you ascend it as well. Stepping forward, upward and upward.

It splits into two pads and then kind of gathers on the fourth floor at this point. What meets you here is a vibrant interior garden. as you step past that split this entire floor is just a botanical garden the ceiling itself is just vines and ivy and there are glass enclosures that contain beautifully vibrant flowers and various exotic plants that you've never encountered

and are definitely not from the Sword Coast of Féren you can see there are planters and flower boxes and they're all just clustered with vibrant and odd, very dreamscape-like plants. You also hear the silent sounds of struggle. Bing, yeah, I think kind of moves forward pretty quickly to investigate what it is. Yeah, try to figure out where the sound is coming from. Yeah.

Okay. You all kind of like shift up around the side, and you can hear it coming from across this room, and as you kind of divide off to one of the small walkways, you can see another staircase that leads up to the fifth floor. And there are two cloaked figures that are currently rushing up that staircase. While a third figure stands there, you see a, like, ebony-skinned elf with a shock of short, blonde hair that kind of comes to an off-kilter-flop point on the left side, themselves wearing also a dark cloak. they have a rapier in each hand,

and they are currently in the process of struggling against what looks to be a moss-covered stone clay-looking humanoid physical entity that is just swinging massive fists towards it. And this figure's like

dodging and trying to hold it off, like looking over its shoulder and batting the others to continue. What do you do? Bing looks at the two of you and says, looks like we have competition. Yeah, can we just ignore those guys and keep on going up? I don't think we're going to be able to ignore those. Yes, okay.

So this woman is fighting, this, like, big moths. Okay. We don't know if this woman. I think we should probably, oh, this person is more, we should probably help them out. Thing has already drawn his sword and attacks the... I mean, I wasn't going to help them, but fine, I guess. Okay. I need you all to rule initiative.

All right. 13. 19. 17. All right. So we'll say, Key could go, I think you have a higher dexterity

than Bing. So we'll go, Key, Leon, and Bing. All right. So, Key, you're up first. As you see, the process of the struggle,

what do you do? I mean, I don't want to help, but I'm being socially pressured, I guess. You still don't have to. I know. I mean, I can.

I can do what you want. I, hmm, okay. So we're, we're a, assuming this elf is somebody we want to help. The elf is alive and the other thing is like some kind of... The other thing is a problem.

I'm going to try to attack this construct. Firebolt, you can't really go wrong with firebolt in my view. So I'm going to cast firebolt at it. Okay, you cast a fireball, a fireball you said or firebolt? Bolt. Okay, yeah. Just a little guy. You got it.

So go ahead and roll D20 to add your spell attack. I think it's plus eight, you said. Something like that. That definitely hits. So go ahead and roll your 2D10 fire damage. This entity has a swinging its massive fist out towards this elf. The elf like dodges out of the way. I think it's partially hit by one and knocked to its knee.

Right as it brings its fists up to slam, your fireball, strikes it in the shoulders, leaving this black and dark char mark across as it does. It shifts around to look at you. And you can see now it is a probably an eight-foot construct made of clay with chunks of stone that are carved on it. Its eyes glow of an arcane blue light. Its face, just this stone-faced set expression

as it spins. And you watch as the stone kind of shifts this kind of liquid clay sort of patterned movement beneath the stone shards as it now turns to focus on you. Do you want to stay put or do you want to move somewhere within the chamber? I want to back up and stand behind Bing.

I've already taken damage today. I don't want to take any more. You got it. Okay. That will then bring us to Leon. Yeah, I'm going to pull out my long bow and fire at it. I guess this wouldn't be a sneak attack because I don't have advantage yet. But for now, I'm going to just fire a shot at this creature.

Go for it. All righty. 22. 22. That directly, squarely hits as it looks over and faces. towards key, you can see that this is kind of clenching, and it's about to lumber in that direction. As it does, your bolt strikes in the center.

And, like, you can only maybe see an inch or two of it protruding as it just dives in deep. As it does, you watch as bits of that, like, thick molten clay kind of like spills out and splashes into a puddle on the ground. It doesn't slow it down, but it definitely left a mark. Nice. My bonus action, I'm going to hide in the shadows. Great.

Go ahead and roll the stuff check for me. All right. 22. 22. You go ahead and dart off into one of the nearby bits of brush with like the outside of a planner box. It's easy enough for you to dodge in there and kind of obfuscate where you might be. The empty doesn't even pay attention to you. It's still focused on key at the moment.

So you're pretty well hidden. All right, Bing, you're up. So Bing rushes toward the construct, which is, I think it's pretty close, right? About how far away is it? Maybe about 20 feet from you. It's pretty close. Yeah. So he covers 20 feet quickly.

And then he yells, Bing his name to enter a rage for his bonus action. Alrighty. So he is now raging. And storm aura is active because when Bing cries out, Bing and activates his, enters his rage state. Everybody feels a kind of a cold snap across the room, or at least within 10 feet of him. And everybody within 10 feet of me gains three temporary hit points. Oh, great.

So his storm aura active, he just, takes a swing with his great sword at this construct. Oh yeah. Bing kind of echoes to the room when you swear you hear that roll of thunder from outside the tower from the storm seems to like underline the shout. Oh yeah. Cool. So the three of you... You hear a voice from the future

so Bing. So yeah, so Mark that you have three temporary hit points which is kind of like a hit point buffer. The next time you take any damage it comes from those first. It's kind of like a little three hit point shield. Nice. Let's go and roll your attacks. All right, so this is going to be,

an attack roll first. Yes. Okay, so that's 24. 24 definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Great source is 2D6. That's 11. 11 points of damage.

Heavy, strike. You swing past the Great Sword. It carves into it. It hits pretty hard. It shrugs off some of it, much like within the bolt in your hit. It's taking damage, but it also seems to be a fairly hardy creature,

not unlike you yourself are, when you are conjuring the essence and strength of the storm. So that first hit definitely leaves a mark, but not as heavy a wound as you would have liked. So I can take a second attack. So he kind of pulls the sword free and swings again. Heck yeah, go for it. Oh, that's a natural 20.

Ooh, okay. Critical hit. First crit of a... Okay, go. So go ahead and roll your dice damage and double what you roll. It's going to be a 16. All right, so the second strike, curves through.

At this point, a big chunk of the stone armor that's built within its clay form and shears off and hits the ground, shattering. A big element of that kind of molten clay also spills with it. And you watch as its other arm

seems to shrink to shift matter over to make up for now the loss of mass on that side. So once again, it's still shrugging off more than you'd like, but each hit is still impacting it. Okay.

Yeah, Bing stays right up close next to it. That finishes your go. It's now the elf's turn, who you saw when you entered, who now watching you all strike this creature, and it spin around and goes, oh, look at that. It is great fortune on our side. Good luck.

And he starts up the stairs after the other two that vanished. The cloak flowing behind them. He is unsurprised by this. The construct now takes its turn. The start of its turn, because it is under its headpoint threshold. Okay, it doesn't have. not go berserk. All right, so the creature is going to go ahead and take its two slam attacks. It's going to go ahead and try and focus to slam Bing first, then rush past to go after Key.

It has no idea really, and Leon is at the moment. So those are its two targets at the moment. Going against you, that's going to be a 17 to hit. What's your armor class? 16. 16, so it hits you. All right, so the slam attack on this is a, it's not an insignificant amount of damage. Okay, that's going to be 20 points of bludgeoning damage to you, but you take half that because you are raging. Oh, nice, okay. So that would be... Only 10 points, and then 3 with the current HP. I get the bonus to that, too, right?

What I'm raising? Yeah. Yeah, so both of you are just meat shields. So... Flushing each other. Seven. Okay, cool. All right, and also I need you to make a Constitution saving throw for me.

Oh, that's going to be pretty good. That is 21. 21. The blow, slams into your chest, it pushes you back, and you hold strong, and as you kind of look at it and smile, and you try to inhale,

it's like... It feels like it stole, like a knocked the wall. wind out of you in a way that you weren't expecting. You managed to shrug it off, but there's something about its impact beyond just trying to leave a mark. And it shakes you a little bit. And right as

it, you kind of take this in, it uses the momentum of the first swing to keep running forward and come after you. You do get an attack of opportunity on it as it leaves your melee. Natural 20. Dang! That's how you do this. Okay, go ahead and roll your dice again. Making up for that grappling guy. Yeah, I know, right.

Big did not like getting hit by that. That's 20 damage. 20 damage. What? As it rushes past, your blade carves into its back and actually gets stuck and you see it goes running, it stops for a second. And its head kind of like,

it looks back in your direction as you pull the blade out and kind of stumble back to catch it from the momentum. Its head shifts back and goes charging towards Key. Yuki, that is going to be an 11th. to hit. Okay. Twelve,

and it just misses you. Beautiful. That's great. We love that. Heavy swing out for you, and you just barely duck out of the way, slow motion as the knuckles just bypass your face, like a lumber tree,

just narrowly missing, smashing your head against the wall. As you kind of pull back and almost stumble off of your heel as you catch yourself as the massive entities, now they're in front of you, and you swear your heel, there's like rumble in its chest down with proximity to be this like, that's going to finish

its go. That brings us back to the top of the round, Kiura. All right. So, I mean, this thing seems pretty strong. I feel like now it's got to be magic missile time, right? I mean, I don't know. Maybe I'll save that. What do you guys think? I'll just do a fireball. Is it close enough that Key can't

get away, like, put some distance between her and it? If you want to make... Because I'm pretty squishy, so I... Much like how you were able to strike it as it left your melee range. If you were to leave its melee range, it would get one attack on you is you do so. So unless you have Misty Step.

I do have Misty Step. You do. Hey. Mm-hmm. So you can do that on top of casting a camtrip like Firebolt if you want to. Okay. So up to you. That seems good. So I'll just cast Firebolt again and then do Misty Step away.

Sure. All right. Let's do that. All right. So go ahead and roll an attack for your Firebolt. So it's a D20. Firstly. That's a 19.

But I add... Plus your whatever. Modifier. I add it. Yeah, plus eight. Foof, rolling out of that definitely hits. So nine points of fire damage. Okay, cool.

So you go ahead and fire this firebolt into it. At near point blank, as you just release it, you see this kind of concave blast crater where the bolt hit kind of the charred black emanating from that space as it kind of takes a minute to resolve that impact. As it pulls its fists up, it gets itself ready to slam down with a double hammer blow on top

as you misty step out of the way and appear, where else in the chamber? I mean, I want to go behind a planter like Leon did because I got to get out of here, man. I had to get away from this thing. This is all Bing's job, and I didn't even know we were going to run into something like this. You got it. So you appear kind of in a cluster of bushes near one of the planters off of the side of the staircase to the descends upward,

kind of nearer beingwithstanding in the middle of that fray. taking that moment to crouch down and hopefully not draw its attention in the moment. That'll finish your turn. Being on your head. Leon is going to sneak attack on this guy. Yes, you can. Go ahead and make that strike. All right.

Is this with advantage? This is with advantage because it doesn't see you. It doesn't know where you are. 14 to hit. 14 is exactly its armor class. So as you kind of go up, you go to aim where you thought it was, and you see that it's moved over there and you watch Key, just vanish and reappear.

and in the confusion, you kind of have to readjust where you were aiming, and you just managed to catch it kind of at the base of where the clave neck is. So go ahead and roll your attack damage with your sneak attack. So that's an extra 3D6. It is. Can I have a couple of your D6s? Oh, yeah, for sure. I have a bunch.

Here, I take two of these. Okay. 16 damage total. 16 points of damage. Heavy strike. This particular arrow, what kind of, carves through the air? barely passing through and around various burn extensions

in the middle of this clustered garden space, and it sinks deep into the chest and emerges part way out the other side. As it does, there's like the piercing of the clay as it hardens around the impact, and the creature kind of like... The head shifts up in your direction and looks over towards you.

You just nod, knowing that. As my bonus, I'm going to hide again. All right, go ahead and roll stealth. You dive back into the bush and begin scattering amongst the nearby planning. 15. 16. Okay.

Good enough. Okay. So you dive into the shadows and the brush, hoping to stay hidden. That finishes your go. Bain your own. All right. Bing realizes he should have been adding two damage to his strength attacks, but that's okay.

Oh, I can do that. I can note that. Okay. Bing is right nearby. He just takes another swing. All right, charges up behind it and strikes. Go for it. Mm-hmm.

So that's a 23. 23 definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage. So six points. of damage. Six points of damage. You got it, okay? And you have your second attack as well.

Yes. This one kind of gleams off the side, not a heavy hit, and you follow it off a secondary downward swing. That's going to be a 12. 12, much better. Shoot. This one sinks in very deepness. The blade is there.

You can feel that vibration on the blade, almost like deep within the set chest of this clay form. There's something holding it together that is causing this kind of weird vibration to your weapon in proximity. You draw your blade free. And I believe that concludes your turn list. You have some of your bonus. No, that's it.

All right, it's now it's go. After that secondary swing, and you are no longer in its range, and it can't even see where you are, Leon. Yeah, like, Key and Leon are out of its periphery. It's just going to spin around. It doesn't even turn, like its limbs just kind of reform in the opposite direction, and it's going to wail on you being. Great.

First strike on you. That's going to be 22 to hit. 16 A.C. Yeah, and 24 to hits. They both hit you. Oh, great. The first strike. It's going to be 14 points of bludgeoning damage reduced to seven.

Right. And, oh, that's going to be 18 points of bludgeoning damage reduced to nine. Okay. So a total of 16 points of damage to you from that round. Okay. I need you to make two more Constitution saving throws for me. That looks like an 11. Okay.

And, oh, a 6. That's with the modifier? Oh, yeah, with my constitution modifier. Okay. The first blow you kind of guard on the side and it pushes you off a bit, your ear rings a bit on that side, as it batters you with one fist,

the other, wham, cracks you on the side of the head, right where the jowls are, the face near the temple as well, like this massive batting ram, as it hits. The ringing fills your mind, and you feel that like, the air being sucked out of your body again. That second hit was for nine points of damage. Your maximum hit points are reduced by nine. Oh, boy. Okay.

So even when you heal up, you can't heal. You're now nine hit points lower than your maximum. Wow. Okay. And that shakes you a bit. The idea that some of your vitality has been siphoned, or who knows how long. But it's redding itself another round of humbling. You're up next. You see this impact have a profound and strange effect on being who kind of grasps its chest and pain in a way you haven't seen before.

What are you doing? I mean, I don't know. I'm scared at this point, so I am going to give a more powerful attack. I'm going for it. I want to do a freaking fireball. I'm going to do a fireball on this boy. I don't know. Why not?

Sure. All right. Let's do it. Let's see what happens. You look at the chamber. You see Bing's proximity to this creature. The fireball is a large blast radius. It's a 20-foot radius.

It will fill the majority of this chamber. So you're going to have to do a little bit of math here. To avoid from hitting your friends, which is an impossible. I'll say go ahead and make a perception or an Arcana check for me, your choice. Okay. So that's a D20 and then I'll just try. D20 and then add one to the other, whichever is higher. Great, 3020, let's do.

All right, great. So looking about nervously, you feel that frustration and you glance up and see the roof of this room is just enough at a height that if you were to strike it in the center and the blasts were to explode out, it would hit the creature and would just barely avoid Bing as long as Bing doesn't jump. With that, you concentrate and unleash this bead

of condensed arcane flame up towards the top as it strikes, flashes. There's a moment of silence before it. Explodes, filling the chamber with vibrant, bright flame. Go ahead and roll 8D6 damage. And, oh.

Yeah, do we? even have enough of those? Oh, yeah. The construct definitely fails as dexterity saving from. All right. 22, 23. 23 points of fire damage.

How do you want to do this? Describe to me how your fireball consumes and destroys this construct. Oh, it's going to destroy it? You've did the final blow. All right, so the little, the embers are going to be like firework-esque, and cascade down and it's clay,

so it's just gonna melt and just be like this gooey puddle of clay that just is on the ground. And I'm gonna be like, yeah! Maybe a little too loudly. I love it, that's great. As you shout, yeah! The embers kind of descending in the creature

kind of falls and boils and coalesces for this odd pile of bubbling ground slop. Gross. The surrounding, yeah, the surrounding, The surrounding vegetation, of course, is incinerated and blackened. Like, a good section of this beautiful garden chamber is now blackened cinders. Not to mention that the sound of the detonation has definitely reverberated and echoed throughout the tower. You swear you hear this distant sound of like an arcane alarm.

It was like, ooh. Bang sort of plants his sword and pulls himself up. He's still a little bit shook. He says, I think they might have heard that. Key feels bad, but doesn't want to admit it, and is just standing there silently. Guys, we got to go. There's another thief party that's now got a head start on us,

so we've got to get back up there. So Bing sort of puts his sword back to his back and begins heading toward the stairs. Yeah, we head upstairs. Okay, you dart up the staircase, like following the suit, as you rush into the next chamber on the fifth floor. Yeah, this would be the fifth floor, I think. You head in there, and this is a brass art decor cluster.

There are multiple pillars with statues and busts all around them. You can see there are multiple levels with small miniature staircases that lead to sitting arrangements. The further in you look, it looks like there is a small laboratory. There are a number of tables with alchemical glass contraptions and odd, like, sparking. kind of magitech-looking devices that kind of light up that portion of the room. There is another, not even a staircase, but a heavy platinum and brass ladder that leads up to the floor beyond. And there you can see there are three cloaked figures that are in the process of battling another one of those like clay stone-based creatures. Right as you rush in, you can see them dealing the final blow to it as it

as a slowly gives out to the floor, begins dripping down the stairs towards the central part of the chamber. You can see a number of these pillars have been toppled and cracked. You can see some of these art pieces have been shattered on the ground. In the air, too, there are these little sparking wisps of white energy, like dandelions got blown in the sky, and they just kind of drift on an unseen wind. Bing drinks the health potion that he's carrying, the potion of greater healing, just as they're kind of going up the stairs and taking in this scene.

Got it. So go ahead and roll the hit points for that one. I think it's a D4. So it's 4D4 plus 4. Got it. I hate D4. They're the worst of all the dice. 10.

Not too bad. Actually, almost to my new maximum HPA. That's right. We go up to the other. adventurers and saying, Hey, Al. As they turn towards you, you can see one of them who

has this, like, bandana mask across their head, immediately whistles and begins to climb the ladder looking down as the other two kind of protect and defend as they're starting to come up themselves. The one of the bottom of the elf that you saw goes,

you know, I appreciate the help back there, but, you know, Bing, what it is, we're, uh, I guess this makes us rivals, right? Bing says, I don't know, maybe we're here for different things. The voice is not going, I don't think that's the case. And you see the figure on the top,

this female formant black leather armor, the cloak over there, the bandana on the side. You can see the horn kind of curled up on this side, the deep red skin and the shock of purple hair. Could it be? You. Biana, you let me die. I did everything I could to keep you from.

How? How is this possible? Shadow thieves seem to have been a bigger friend than my own brother. Bing's sword drops and he's just speechless. You can see, like, you can hear the metal rung of the ladder, like creaking as her fist tenses against it. The two other thieves, you can now see there's the elf there, and the other one that spins around is this kind of rugged-looking halfling with a massive. of like scar crosses, jaw and face that he's healed over, goes, what do you want to do, boss?

I don't know, maybe let them deal with the dangers of the chamber. And she goes and pulls this small orb from her pouch and tosses it in the middle of the room. As it arcs through the air and lands in the center, it shatters the bright flash that all of you can't help but recoil to protect

yourselves. As the space settles for a moment, you see this. one of the art pieces in the middle that was this kind of glass orb that contained this, like, a glowing yellow energy seems to have shattered. And from it, this yellowish sort of ooze

begins to gather up into some sort of aggressive sentience. The other group begins to climb the ladder behind her, and she goes, Well, I guess I'll race you to the top. As she climbs and descends to the next chamber, this massive ochre jelly begins to slowly lumbering your direction. And I think that is where we're going to pick up on our next session. Beautiful.

Yay. Triple Quest was written by Matthew Mercer with improvisational assistance by Jason Schreer, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edited and mixed the show and also wrote and performed the music. It was produced by me, Jason, and Matt. Maddie as always. We were only able to afford to hire Matt to run this game because of the generous support of our Maximum Fund members, so if that's you, thank you so much. And if you'd like to help make it possible for us to do things like this in the future, consider becoming a member

at maximumfund.org slash join. Okay, we've made it this far, but are we ready for what lies ahead? Can we face the future while exercising the ghosts of our past? Find out next month on the grand finale of TripleQuest.