Worlds Beyond Number - WWW Interlude #2: The Clearing

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

To hear this episode and its mind blowing conclusion, ya gotta come and join us by the fireside, on our Patreon.There is an idea, buried deep within every human being, that says "Anywhere I can go, I should go." And so we climb mountains, we sail oceans, we plunge into pitch black caverns, every time with the confidence and entitlement that comes from the idea that we are fundamentally welcome in the world.That idea is wrong.There are some places. There are some woods. There are some glades. And in these places, we are very much unwelcome.Happy Spooky season, kids. Heads up, there's more gore than usual in this one.Starring Lou Wilson, Aabria Iyengar, Erika Ishii, and Brennan Lee MulliganProduced by Taylor MooreEdited and Designed by Brian Flaherty of Many Sided Media. For more of his award-winning sound design, check out My First Dungeon and Bitcherton wherever you get your podcasts.And featuring an original score and live saxophone performance from  Joseph David Spence, with additional vocals by Maddi Albregts, Coryn May, and Joseph David Spence

forest, by the potency, sense which it touches, the smell of moss, fern, flower, the smell of life and death, fully intermingled in the haze of pollen, and it blows stirring up the power of the forest itself. Sunlight does not reach and yet is reflected green off the far canopy. Rays of the sun can be seen but not felt in a forest this ancient and primeval. In this forest is the place where we will now see for the very first time. I would like each of you to describe a feature of this. place deep within the forest. I want you to tell me about something that can be seen here within the forest

that would immediately strike the heart of an onlooker to let them know that this place was sacred, almost beyond words, a place so meaningful and profound within the forest as to arrest the heart of one who would stumble upon it. Within the forest, the darkest depths of it. There is a place for all of the trees in that glade have branches that stretch straight up towards the sky. Fuck you.

We have been and I saw a tree like that. It's right outside. And Bray was like, nope. Yeah, no. I didn't see anything. And if there's any spirit watching, not a snitch. Not me. I use it for content.

Many of the branches near the bottom reach, stretch outwards towards the other trees around them. Because that's the most appropriate word for these, because they stick just straight into the branches outreaching. So it is this odd effect of an almost cube aura. or sometimes like bars. Oh, that's bad here. Goes upon rows of grid-like patterns in this place. It feels unnatural because the organic nature of the way that trees bend and move and twist and twirl is so foreign here in this geometric. glade.

We see the bars of branches moving out at angles that we are unused to seeing uniform turns of right and left as though here in this place the forest had left

the natural mathematics of organic life and instead sought to describe with their growth itself some different facet of the universe that most full would say it was not given to the trees to understand, as though in this place they had conspired to share the secrets they had rested from the minds of mortals.

High, high are the branches in this place. What else do we see within this place to connote its sacredness? And a sacredness that has been described already as somewhat unnerved. Not something you see. The way the wind moves through this place. the ferns and moss that grows here has like a very like reedy and hollow element to it. So depending on the way the wind blows, it's like moss, certain kinds of moss grow on the north sides of trees. But like there is a like cardinality to the like lower plant life here. And as the wind whips through this forest, there are different pitches of sound. that kicks up. It is a very low drone. Occasionally, like, before a storm hits the outside of

this forest proper, you can hear, like, the tones rise here, and it sounds almost like a, like, high-held note or a shriek. And I think along with that, the wind always smells deeply of water, like clean fresh water, but there aren't a lot of visible water sources here. Like there is no babbling brook that you know is just around a bend or in like a little glen or opened area. But you smell water all the time and you hear the wind. Branches move and conspire in strange pattern, but in certain secret places where you're where the glade begins to fade into the forest itself, certain curvatures open,

circles within the straight branches that move and reconnect, pieces of punctuation that nevertheless hang at the outside of the glade and create an aeolian instrument, an instrument played by the wind itself. The notes have either harmony in one moment or dissonance or discord in another. But the dissonance follows a pattern. If it is a note that strikes the ear as ominous, uninviting, a sour note, a note of unwelcome,

then it is a note played with all the intention that the wind can muster. What else do we see in this space that marks it as sacred? On the forest floor, there is a crowd of mushrooms so dense that they would seem to be the floor. They are individually capped, but of slightly varying sizes and shape, but all kind of in a hue, kind of ranging, ranging, ranging from a light, like greenish, blue. kind of to a bluish purple, depending on their elevation from the forest floor. But it is dense and thick, so much so that if anyone were to step into the space,

an impression would be made. And we see, in fact, that within this mode of mushrooms, not a fairy circle, for indeed the interior of the space is choked with mushrooms. It is filled as though this herd, this flock of these beings were all here in this space, listening to the music of the wind being played for them. No footprint, no scratch of beak, no marring of jaw or fang marks the mushrooms in the center of this place. I will ask only if there is any sign that an artifact of the world of mortals has been left here.

If your answer is no, then it is well taken. But I ask now if there is some trace left here if mortals have ever found this place. Or if they have, have they left anything here. here to mark their presence. Look at the trunks of these trees. You can see never iron, nothing like, nothing sort of dug and smelted, but there are like rotten and rotting bits of rope

and like wooden steps built into the trunks of the trees to connote that like people used to live in the branches and never walked on the ground here. Ancient steps covered in moss, whose fixtures attaching them to the trees have long since been swallowed up by the trees themselves. These steps are ancient. Perhaps once there were charms hanging from the ropes

that are now moss covered and rotting, but whatever those charms were made of was neither stone nor would, for they are long gone. It is a sorrow of the world of mortals in the passing of long centuries that those gifts, those amulets, those charms, those talismans made of fabric and of wicker, of growing things, pass almost immediately into the forgetfulness of time and history, into the wind and see a place that exists beautifully hidden. It is regarded or not.

It is beautiful that it merely exists. And I want you all to take a moment before you describe to me each a person that under no circumstances should ever be here. You see flitting along, hovering sometimes as low as four inches off the ground or as high as the canopy. Something black, white. It's a drift, a wisp of smoke. No, but it's not as clean and elegant as smoke. It's something a little oilier, a little smog. It looks like smog, but what is smog doing out here completely detached from any mechanism that could have possibly created it?

But if you look closely within that smog, smoke, dirty smoke, you can see a little face around. Yeah, deeply unsettled, but... They are small. out of place. There is a word that they have been referred to by already in their time in Umura. A demon

drifts towards the clade flitting up and down hither and yon. What other companions do we see approaching this glade deep within the forest? You see prowling

with a collar around It's like incredibly thick neck. It looks like just an oversized Rottweiler. It's not a wolf. It's not a like natural dog of this place. It's something that like has been bred carefully by human hands over generations to be a guard dog. And clearly with the collar on it, it has an owner somewhere. But it walks forward.

I think it looks up at the little gray smoke as it drifts around and goes, get down here. And you know that it is a familiar for a witch that is nowhere in sight. Erica, now that they have been addressed, what is the name of the oily, smoky spirit that now has been barked at and commanded to come down to the forest floor? The spirit looks down, directly down, and says, oh, but, okay, I thought for sure that I'd be able to see something. And from up here, I bet we can. I'm sure of it. As sure as my name is Puffs. The name of the massive guard dog that we now see patrolling the forest floor below.

Well, I was going to do a silly name, so now I got to think about it. Bevan. Growling in command, the spirit of smog returns down to you. Puffs. Beholding the forest around you, the moisture of the air clings to your body. You can feel pollen and even some larger sort of drifting vapor. It's all mixed together here. The forest is an organism.

it is breathing. The air in this place is not clear or distinct. Have no illusion that if you do not touch the forest floor, that you can avoid the forest touching you. The rot, the haze, the fog, the mist, the pollen. Everything in the air in this place is still somehow alive. Lou, coming up behind these. servant creatures, a familiar, and a spirit not of smoke, which can occur in nature, but of smog, which cannot.

Who else do we see approaching this glade? Doing his best to stay hidden in the shadows, wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and a kind of tight red leather outfit. we see Aiden Grutcher, Demon Hunter. And we see that I think Aiden has almost no awareness of his surroundings or like where he has ended up. It's just eyes on prey, crouched low, has been working more to stay silent and stay unseen than he has been aware of the environment he is entering.

Coming through the space, you strike an imposing figure, a wide-brimmed hat, a red leather outfit. Walking down the street of a large city, you cut a terrifying figure. Sitting in the back of a tavern, smoking a pipe, one would wonder what troubles you had seen before. Sweat pours down your body in the humidity of the forest, seeping into the red leather out. fit, that after many days travel in your seven-league boots, the moisture that has collected there, you feel intense shooting pain as the wrinkles in your feet split open as blood comes through. These boots are impossibly expensive, incredible traveling boots that split on one of their seams long ago as you sunk into some quicksand, and now that leak in the shoe has caused one of your feet

to split in blood. You can feel like the sting of forest material in the boot. And all of these artifacts of clothing you have, this leather outfit repels knife attacks. It is an incredibly useful garment that is slowly killing you with each passing day in this place. Looking up ahead, you spy the dog, Bevan, in this place. And you have on your person a small scroll of contract as well as a game that was given to you by your employer in this space who has provided you with your companions here. And the game is a small tablet with assembled tiles, almost like.

Majong tiles, but arrayed sliding in grooves almost like a puzzle, like a slide tile puzzle in this space. That heavy clay apparatus rests in another one of your bags, and you know that that is a way to contact the mistress of the dog that you now see ahead of you. As you approach these companions, You know that you are not far off from the glade you are seeking. What do you do as you approach and get closer? Are we there yet? Are we close? I taste the air.

It's different here. It's nice. Erica, please, if you would look up the stat block of a smoke method. Bevin tries to like taste the air like puffs and then catches a little bit of new blood and starts like sniffing at Aden's boot. Stop. Get off. Don't nudge me.

Stop. Are you bleeding? Yes. Stupid forest. It is hot and I am uncomfortable. I want to amend this is Abeven has a little dog backpack on. You can put your, you, why are you wearing so much? What?

Just take it. off. Take what off? My clothing? Yeah. Of course, now the dog is asking me to take off my outfit. All right. I know.

Oh, excuse me. Bevinny is asking me to disrobe. I'll stay dressed. Thank you very much. All right. Bleed to death in your weird thing for your paws. Whatever. Just keep sniffing.

We will go ahead. and if you want to take a, I think it's, it might just be, I think for a big dog is, we can do a wolf. We'll do a wolf stat block. And then for Aiden,

Lou, how badass is Aiden Grutcher? I think his, it's a lot of charisma. It's a lot of like, the vibe is immaculate. Yeah. The vibe is perfect.

Yeah, yeah. I think he's pretty badass in his element. But it's like, go hunt a demon. in the forest. Deep, it's like, I don't have like a second outfit.

I don't have, his ability to adapt is not ideal. Please take the swashbuckler monster. Yeah. Stap block. That's, yeah, you're no joke. Armor Class 17,

hit point 66. Let's go. Take swashbuckler, yeah. As you approach, I'm going to need a perception check from Puffs. 17. Go off Puffs.

Puffs. Puffs, give me a, A wisdom saving through our DC12. Oh no. 14. Go off, puffs. Distantly in the forest, puffs, though not so distant as it was before you embarked this morning from your last campsite, you hear music being played something. The chords of music have meaning to them, even if humans cannot hear.

or appreciate them. But everyone knows what it means to play in a minor or a major key. Everyone knows what it means that some music gives a feeling of sorrow or loss or some of joy and triumph. How these vibrations removed from sentiment or intention do yet somehow mean something. Why do the sounds mean the things they mean?

Why does the music that now plays on the wind unforced by human hand or mind give you the feeling that you are already doomed? Sir, are we sure we want to keep going

this way? If this is the way to the prey, then this is the way we'll proceed. Well, yes, but I'll So it's got a real doom-like quality to it. You think Aiden Crusher backs down from danger? Never. In fact, we move toward it.

Ah, my feet. And Aiden's going to start trying to walk forward. Hell yes. You continue to march forward. Amongst your gear, Aidan, you have a bunch of these. You had this little clay tablet, but you haven't had much need to use it Because Bevan, in your mind, you actually hear the voice of your mistress, the witch Corrilla of Morantus. Your mistress is a powerful witch who lives her life as a witch in hiding.

not for reasons of being, shall we say, in danger, not living in a place that views witches as dangerous. She is instead a noble, an aristocrat, and simply keeps her witchcraft hidden because it is less becoming than her first identity, which is as a landed, powerful and wealthy woman. Her voice in your mind conjures images of a peach and coral swept stone balcony overlooking a beautiful rocky seaside of warm, sun-drenched cliffs, the place that you have spent most of your life as a familiar. And you hear her now speaking out to you.

Bevan, are you indisposed or can you receive a missive from your mistress at this point? time. Bevin stands like super still and I think the only like the obvious signal that Bevin is in communion with his like mistress is that his little docked tail is wagging really hard. I'm good. How are you? I'm in the fort. I can talk. It's fine. We can talk in our heads and this is so good. You don't smell like blood at all. I bet you smell really good. How are you? Listen. Listen, Bevin. Keep focused on the task at hand. I'm listening. I'm listening so good. I'm so good at listening.

Mr. Crutcher, is he near to the site? Is he near to? Um, we're near the... Puff says we're near the site. I don't think we're near the cre-he. He might die first. His foot is... He has a bad foot. It's not going good. You should be here. Should I come to you? I can come to you. And then we can do it. And he just sits. You, you are inexperienced. Make me regret my selection of familiar. He just kind of lays down, does sad dog underlook.

Mr. Crutcher must be given every advantage in this regard. It is of the utmost importance that he be successful. Mr. Crutcher knows what he is after. See through it that he is given every possible advantage. The spirit that I bound to his service. Is it executing its duties admirably? Yes, ma'am. Very well.

When Mr. Crutcher has sight of the field and he feels that it is advisable, let him set the first beacon that the rear train may come and establish camp there. And, Aidan, you know that about like a day's, travel behind you, not able to travel as fast as you. And also just for sort of your own...

Aidan works alone. Aidan works alone. Aidan doesn't love these two companions he's been given, you know? There's about a half dozen or more professionals behind you. One of them is a guy that you really don't like, who is a local kind of guide to the outer edges of this forest. True fucking asshole, dope, moron, just constantly telling you. your business. And there's several people that have come from Moranthus at the behest of the

lady Correlia who are basically here. You would know them. They're not warriors. They're not people that are like here doing what you're doing. They're actually just, to your knowledge, like, butchers and taxidermists who are traveling with a lot of like supplies. A lot of their supplies are about what happens after you do your job. But if things, go haywire or wrong, they also do have, like, water and additional food, or if the creature proves hard to find her pinned down, they have some certain, like, magical gear that, they, there's, like, basically plan B and after is also what they're bringing up in the supply train, but they are, they were supposed to be like an hour behind you, and they've fallen a

full day behind you. Corrilla says, The spirit, it is serving Mr. Crutcher well. Yes. Very well. I shall check in again in a few hours. Does Mr. Crutcher need anything from me? You see, Aidan Crutcher is like about 20 feet away from you, just walking slowly and stealthily,

just talking to himself. It'll be me, Aidan Crutcher, Slayer of the Crown Panther. It is I. Agent Crutcher, Slayer of the Crown Panther. Nothing that you can give, Tom, man. Is Puff's making that noise out now? Aidan doesn't realize that it's Puff. Aidan Crutcher.

Oh, that's you. Oh, yes. Not bad. Keep it going. Aid. Crutcher. Sleger. The crowd.

Now we got it. Ma'am. I promise. Very well. Contact me, Bevin. Only if something deviates from the plan. You've been a very good boy thus far. And you see that the connection severs.

I love my mom so much. So, Aidan, as you begin to approach in the direction that Puff's sort of seen this, I would love a constitution saving throw, D.C. is 11. Can I give him the help action? Yes, you can. Can I deny it? Yes.

Because Aiden Crustra doesn't need help? Yeah, as? So describe the ass, Bevin comes over to try to help him. Yeah, Bevin's just going to come over and just do the, like, dog lean against a leg just to give, like, some moral support.

It's fine, Bevan. I'm fine. As you see me continue to hobble for the other. That's a five. You continue to move forward in this place. You're sweating so much. You begin to, like, taste copper in your mouth. and you see that your foot goes into what you think is going.

You're so tired of stepping in this, like, bad sort of like slippery moss that's all over the roots of the tree, that you decide to go deeper down in between the roots where the moss is a little bit less because you're tired of just slipping and falling down and fucking over it. And in one of the deeper portions, your foot goes into what you think is terra firma and this rock just fully drops and your foot drops into a two-foot hole swarming with insects. Swat them off.

They go off as fast as you can, but you see a bunch of them have bitten you as you've stepped into their hive and have to rush farther away. On that failed Constitution saving throw, you get, it takes a while, but you get to the edge and you see of mushrooms.

in the center is about as wide as a Coliseum, and the trees surrounding it are so massive that it is one of the darkest parts of the forest it can be, meaning that with all of this space in the middle, the branches overhead reach so broadly and vastly that even in this massive and enclosed space, you still cannot see direct sunlight. You can see only dappable,

brightness of some layers of leaves that have received a little bit of the light of the sun above. When the sun sets over this forest, it will be dark in a manner that you have only ever seen in like the deep subterranean sewers of your home city, like adventuring through pirate, like catacombs in that place. The wind blows through and as it does, you watch in the... this vast cavernous glade move and swirl like the snow within a snow globe. The wind comes in, but none of the material here is blown away. The forest is so thick and rich with life that anything that came into here would be bearing

as much pollen and haze and matter with it as anything that would leave. So instead it just swirls and collects enriches. this fog, this measma of the forest itself. You look in and see the rotting staircases built into the trees and the strange geometric patterns of this place. And as you behold the glade for the first time, climbing over a root of a tree that is truly almost like a small hill to get up the trees are this massive here.

You hear a pop of a stitch in your right boot. I look down. Your thigh, sort of right above your knee, which is where your boot ends, normally there's a little bit of a gap so that the sort of the tops of the boots

can jauntily swish as you walk. Your thigh has swollen to the point where it has filled the top of that boot and your calf, which you now can, as you look and you can start to, but now that you've stopped walking,

You look down and your boot is splitting along the seam from how much your leg is swelling. Oh, God. Wow, the impressive gains, Mr. Crutcher. Puffs, that is not the case. I'm going to take out my knife and cut the boot open. Great. Give me just a proficiency check, like a tool of proficiency checks. This will just be dexterity plus proficiency.

Difficiency, we'll call it, is 14. Proficiency for you, I think, should be a plus three. Yeah, that's what it looks like. Dxterity plus proficiency? Yeah. 14. 14, exactly. Amazing.

You managed to cut the boot off without further injuring yourself. And this, like, expensive, beautiful boot comes off. You look down and see that this was one of the ones that split, that the soul had come off in your travels. And it looks, you see several of the crushed insect. that got inside, and some of them died with their fangs in your leg. And that's where the abundance of venom, what should have been a stinging bite, instead they got in, got crushed, and just kept injecting venom into you for the past, like, 20 minutes of walking.

When the boot comes off, your leg fully swells up, and you can see at the base, the infection is bad, and the sort of the sting, the swollen leg is bad enough. But looking down at your foot, the splits at the blood. is coming from where it's just trench foot, just the constant moisture in your feet has sort of cracked them open as they've wrinkled too much. There's a little bit of moss or mold in one of the cuts in your feet. And that has been hurting you all day. It does not hurt at all right now. Oh. Bevin's mid-piss and just looks over. Oh, you're taking your clothes off. No, it's the stupid fucking forest, the insects.

It's the venom of... Your legs, man. This doesn't look good. I'm going to... I'm going to try. I don't have any skill in medicine. But there's part of me that I'm going to run my knife over the moss. Okay.

And if it's not just on top, I'm going to try and cut it out. Okay, give me a medicine check. That's wisdom? Wisdom, yeah. All right, that's a plus zero. It's a five. You are basically looking at it.

Do you think that on a five, do you think that he would not get all the way in there? Or would he be overzealous in getting in there? I don't think he would be overzealous, but I think that there's like a, it's, I'm, I'm poking. I'm really trying to get this. I don't understand why there's moss on me that won't come off. Yeah. Maybe there is a little zealousness.

So I think that you get in there. And as you cut, I think the lack of pain really sort of terrifies you. You're like, that should hurt. This should hurt. I'm putting a knife in my foot. And you also know that feet are incredibly sensitive. So for one, to, like, be numb is kind of freaky. the moss and fungus goes deeper into the cut than you were anticipating,

but you do manage to get it all out, but in so doing, it's like victory. It's like lancing a boil. You're like, yes, thank God relief. Like I got the shit off. And in doing so, you look, and there is a just open, kind of large hole in your foot. You've cut way too much meat out of your foot. Bevin?

The backpack. Oh, yeah. Bevan goes over, like lays down. I'm going to see if there's any medical supplies that was in this little kit. Yeah, you do. You see there's some bandages and other stuff like that. You can bandage yourself up, no problem. Evan eats one of the crushed bugs.

Hell, yeah, you eat a little crushed bug. How do you get to fish the legs? I spit out the legs. Puffs and Bevin, as Aiden is doing this, you sort of patch yourself up. What are the two of you doing as Aiden takes this sort of long moment? I think, Aiden, even in this moment, just the breathing is hard. hard here. It's not even hot. It's so humid that you can't stop sweating. It's, you know, the temperature, it's maybe like, you know, like 78 degrees out here. It's not, it's not like, oh my God, it's a hundred degrees

Fahrenheit. It's like, you know, like coming up on 80, but just the moisture is so thick that as you're applying any effort at all, you're just puffs and bevin. As Aden is dressing. his injury. What are you doing in this moment? Bevin's only good at two things, and it's making holes in people and being around weird magic. So can I do some sort of check to try to figure out what's going on on

Aden's leg? Go ahead and give me... I think this would actually be either medicine or nature. Okay. If you want to... Let's not make it nature, because I have a minus four to int. And we can say that you have a 10 to int as a familiar.

But I do think that like, are you looking for not an academic understanding? Are you looking for a like intuitive understanding of this? Yeah. It's just the like, Bevin has strong pack, like pack tendencies and it's like, okay, injury, but is this like magical or is it just sort of like my friend, he wouldn't use the word friend.

I would use the word best friend. My best friend is making more holes in his body, can I just like lick it and fix him? Or is it a magic problem? And I need to call my mom. She doesn't like when I call her mom. Actually, I drift back down and I'm taking

a look at it too. I know poison. That's pretty much one of the only things I know. So I think maybe you're looking at what he thinks? You think it's just like... I think he's dying. Okay. I think he's already dead. Oh, no, no, no. He's already dead.

Yeah, you can make noises after it. Like the What are you saying? What are the two of you talking about? You. Just pretend to be a normal dog. And I'd like to assist with... Yeah. Okay, you give the help action.

Thank you. It went from a 17 to an 18. Um, uh, wait, what was I rolling? I think if you're trying to get a deep academic understanding, you are rolling an intelligence check. But if you want an intuitive understanding, you can just make like a, insight or perception? Let's go perception based off

of smell as I snuffle his like weird bad foot and that would be a 22. On a 22 perception, right, this is a skill that doesn't give like deep academic insight. But on that, what you can get

is the perception of Aden's body. Aidan is a powerfully built imposing figure. He's got rippling muscles, He's got this sort of armored stuff on. And rations got powered through a long time ago. And the main thing is there's still food left,

but Aiden got out way ahead of the rest of the party. And so it was working off of a canteen of water. That water has gone. And I think, you think, Lou, Aiden is smart enough to know not to just drink water off the ground here. Yes. So Aiden just like doesn't fuck with the forest to begin with. But he's been walking all day without.

drinking water. So there's a degree of like, you're like, well, I'm not a doctor. I can't diagnose this injury, but his leg is deeply swollen. All his blood is rushing there. He's been eating less than we did at the start of this. He hasn't had water all day. You can see kind of like salt crusted around his brow from like sweat. And I think on that perception, you don't know what magic moss does, but you do know that Aden like has early heat stroke. Yeah. Then Bevin's going to start scratching. Bevin's got a little, like, dog water bottle attached to his little backpack, and he's going to start clawing at it to, like, try to disconnect the carabiner,

and then nose it over to Aiden. What's that for? You, you're thirsty? I don't drink dog water. Aiden's going to light a hand-rolled cigarette. I'm going to bite it out. out of the air. I go over and I go,

come on now. You said you were quitting. You said you were going to quit. Yeah, I know. Just after this one last job. Look what you're doing. What? What I'm doing is what I do best.

Die in the forest? No, hunt monsters. Oh, we're here. We're here. Can you please have some, Look, it's kind of thick for water because of my spit, but it's water. And you're going to fall down and die. Do you actually, you light a hand-rolled cigarette.

Yeah. As you do that, does Bevan really like snatch that out of his hand? Yeah, 100%. Cool. As it touches the forest floor, it's much too humid for like a wildfire to start here. And then puffs, do you go to take a little puff? Oh, yeah. Brennan's going through everything we just did.

It's like, are we actually doing this? Yes. Yes, indeed. Read. Hey, read my tone. You know what I'm saying? Read my tone. Puffs, as you take a little drag of that,

it moves into you, and I'm going to need perception checks from everybody. Yeah. 21. 21. Five. Seven. Bevin, as Puff takes a little drag on the cigarette, Puffs immediately looks healthy, like more full body. Kind of nicer.

But you notice that when Puffs did that, the wind stopped. You know when you're swirling milk into like, or when you're swirling like a mixer into like a coffee or a tea, and you suddenly change the direction of the spoon and it creates a little moment of chaos? Yeah. All of the swirl of the pollen and mist in the massive glade has a moment right when Puff takes a drag of the cigarette

that it swirls. and you just get this feeling that something is aware that you're here. In the middle of, like, trying to get you to drink dog slobber water and for you to stop smoking, even though it makes you much healthier, Mevin is a guard dog and immediately, like, gets low, hackles raised, and just starts growling. All right, I'm going to get the other boot off and pull out my rape here

and kind of get behind Bevan. They're in for it now. Evan's into this music. Eden, you have this little beacon. So you have a moment. You guys square up. Nothing happens. You spend as long as you want.

want to spend tense and ready. Does it feel like we have a moment? Or like, like, I just made it like a seven on a perception check. But does it feel like, like Bevin is on? Yeah. But visibly, nothing is changing. No, the dog just went crazy. Okay.

Yeah. I'm going to. I'm going to. I'd like to stay ready. Stay scanning and reach down for the tablet. You reach down for the tablet and pull it into your hand, no problem. You are now looking at the glade from a distance still. Like, it's probably another like five, ten minutes to walk to get to the actual last line of trees and where the mushrooms start.

But you pull the tablet out and you see it sort of clack in your hands. I'm going to slide it into places that would allow me to communicate with the witch. And suddenly the tiles begin to move almost of their own accord, and the shape produced sort of. of in points of the symbols and characters on the tiles, creates the face of the witch. And the opening is the sort of the tiles meeting as the movement of a mouth as it moves in the sort of tablet that you have been given.

This is... Mr. Crutcher, a welcome. Would I call her... What would I call her? Lady Carrelia. Lady Carrella. My lady. We've reached the monster's layer.

Time is of the essence. Sorry, I'm just fine. Time is of the essence. I have received some information that we may have limited time in the forest. However, it is crucially important that the beast be seen. Communicate to the rest of the group. I should be by an hour behind you. They will not be necessary, milady.

I can take care of this. Mr. Crusher, the heart of the panther is what I require. The heart of the ground panther is. And as we agreed, you will have the heart and I will have the head. You can have the head. That's fine. But understand, Mr. Crusher, that you may not have time, I believe. You see that there's a pause and the tiles fall flat for a second?

And then come back. Sorry, Mr. Rush, time is the essence. Make us make a signal to the party behind you. Oh, they're about a day away, my lady. I don't think they'll be able to see. Why? Yes, they've fallen behind. They could not keep pace, my lady.

But do not fear. You've hired the greatest. Which, uh, what country are we in? Or space? Larger space. Larger space? Uh, you are... I guess they're like, what would, what, if I've, if I've,

Yeah, as Ursulah is the strongest man in Silbering, Aidan Crutcher is the greatest monster hunter in... We'll call it, you come from a coastal region known as Taladir. My lady, you've hired the greatest monster hunter in all of Taladir. You need not worry. You will have your heart. All right. You do not have time to wait for the...

for the other party. Retrieve, retrieve the heart as fast as you can. Once you do so, return with it once. All right? Worry not. Aidan Crutcher, slayer of the crowned panther, will do his duty.

All right. And you see the tablet goes slack. You behold a glade. You have this... Bevan's at the mushroom line has done like the slow, like, guard dog stock to that, like, edge. Puffs has been sort of like in the background of like, you know,

when somebody sort of ducks into the background of a call and like, Hey, I'm here. This is, everything is going exactly minus all of his injuries. Aiden does feel good about this setup. Bevan first, then Puffs. Aidan's wish would be for a bit of height. Is that are there, do you describe maybe stairs or some sort of structure that might allow him to climb above the mushroom,

kind of at the mushroom line, but higher into the trees? Correct. Aiden will take that path, looking to Bevan and nodding, and really limping the entire way. Once Bevan gets the nod from Aden, Bevan's going to scratch at the front of their collar

where, like, a tag would be, but there's nothing written there. But there's, like, a thin beam of, like, kind of like orange light that connects from Bevin's collar to Aden's hand as they like, it's not like a physical tether that like stretches and goes taut, but there is now a connection as Bevan goes into like fight dog mode. You behold the glade. Aidan, you get up onto some of the sort of rotten moss covered steps,

get up high enough to find some distance. How high up the tree do you go? Like, it's probably. by the time the stairs make a full rotation, given how wide the trunks of the tree are, it probably, you can get up like 40 or 50 feet just moving from one side of the tree around the massive trunk to the other.

I think he maybe gets about, he gets up and then maybe makes it 10, 15 feet and it's completely out of breath. Great. As you could... He cannot breathe, feet are killing him. Like, stops and tries to make it feel tactical. Yeah.

But it's purely. He is not able to continue at any confidence speed. You go up, like, you can still see the beginning of the staircase around the curve of the tree, but you're there. You're breathing. As the hours go along, give me another constitution, say, of difficulty 14. Oh, buddy. Do you want help? No.

Okay. Five. Oh, God. Without water, the adrenaline crash with the swollen, leg, you take a level of exhaustion. Disadvantage on all skill checks? Disadvantage on all skill checks. And you are crouched for a while, just looking, waiting. This is the part that you're good at. You are a monster hunter. As you are crouched, you realize you need to kind of shift position

because your left ankle is really hurting. You've just been crouched for so long. As you shift, You hear a loud pop in your right ankle and feel nothing. Aidan is not going to look down. Yeah. Because he knows if he looks down, that could be the advantage that the enemy is looking for, but is going to use his free hand to try and touch that space. And make you describe it physically. You have been walking barefoot for a moment.

As you've been walking through, you... The bandage you put on, you laid into it. You were not sparing putting this bandage on. It was thick, but, you know, it had a deep pad of gauze. When you put the gauze on, the gauze got soaked or the sort of pad got soaked. When you wrapped it, the wrapping was dry as a bone until you started walking on the forest floor. But you were keeping to the dry parts of the forest floor of the best of your ability. So, you know, the outside of the gauze may have been damp.

But by the time you get to the stairs, you're not walking on moss anymore. know you're walking on this sort of old rotted wood, you touch a hand down and touch the bandage, just the top of the bandage, the injuries on the bottom of your foot. The top of the bandage is soaked. And as you pull your fingers up in the now fading, diffused sunlight, at first, you know, with the quality of light being this low, it looks black, but you know it's the dark red of blood. on your fingers soaked through in the bandage. I think as the blood becomes, like, things are not good,

and thus, if you can believe, things are not good. Aidan is now going no wait, time to push, and is going to be looking to find eyes so that he can initiate us becoming the aggressors in the situation. While that was happening, what were Bevan and Puffs doing? So after leaving the audience of my lady, I drift, I think towards the glade near as I go, sort of letting some of the spores and things kind of pass through me. A whistle.

I'll start to whistle just really lightly and gently in tune. with the music that I've been hearing. Give me a performance check with advantage. I'm a swammy on this. I don't think I have a purpose. I don't think you have a bonus. On a 19, you whistle a beautiful song, and the wind begins to move you through this massive glade,

and you begin to pass through the air, and lost in the music and reverie, it is too late before you notice that you have passed through one of the openings of the branches of the tree as it plays its own song matching to yours, and you vanish into dark branches

as you hear approaching you, though it remains still and you are the one that moves. What are you doing? Do I see that? No, you don't see it or hear it. I don't see anything.

Okay. Bevin is doing the slow prowl circumnavigating the outside of, like, the glade. But if Aiden's intentionality is like we have to press the advantage, like, if you feel that, I think between that, like, tether, Bevin's going to immediately, like, speed up, start running and start barking loudly. Like, we're going to draw it out. out. Okay. So as soon as you see the bloody hand, Bevin,

you're like, something's wrong and you start barking. It's less of like something's wrong. It's more of a Aiden says now it's time to orb. Aiden feels, now it's time to push, and Bevan goes, great, bait the thing. Yeah. Actually, I think as you will get to that moment in a second, Aidan, what do you do to communicate to Bevin that it's go time? I think if you'll allow some kind of torch

or some kind of flame, Bevin is going to produce that light in a flame and raise it high in one hand with his rapier and the other. The sun is almost set. Do you do this before the sun is fully set while it's getting dark? Or do you wait for it to be fully dark? I am not waiting for it to be fully dark. Great. You just get started.

Puffs, as you move through space, you move through hidden circles within the geometric branches. The lines contain these umbershers where the wind can pass and create these whistling notes. As you move through, you have visions. Early chimneys brick, the beginnings of industry. A little spirit birthed from choking noxious creosote, up through the chimney, birthed out and grasped in a hand with sharp. and beautiful pointed fingernails crusted in rubies and diamonds

bringing you to bear as the first spirit born of the nascent power of her industry. Move through this space and suddenly see yourself surrounded by tiny little ghosts, spirits of mist and vapor. They look at you,

fully rendered in persona with hands and fervous. with like in the flickering of smog that you have features and a voice and character. And you see that they are just but wisps that seem to almost like cyclops have but a single opening that renders their eye and another opening underneath it, almost colons rendered in bits of vapor. But one as an eye and the other as a mouth opening almost like sea creatures feeding. You see some strange cousins. of yours hidden in the dark branches,

and they appear en masse as the sun sets. As night falls, they become visible regarding you. You feel that you still have a belly full of smoke as well from the earlier drag on the cigarette. Oh, cousins, I'm puffs of Talladeer. I come with friends. It's a pleasure to make your question. and I blow out a little smoke ring.

Of an offering. You blow a little smoke ring and roll a little smoke ring and roll cigarette, something half between nature and artifice. You see that as the ring moves, all of the little mist spirits around you seeing this little smog demon. Look, their one eye each goes wide with admiration. And they begin to go, and little circles of pollen and vapor come as a chorus of vapor rings joins your smoke rings as they begin to twirl and dance going up. And as they dance, two powerful lights appear slitted and pupled as of a massive cat that goes, Six legs is a massive striped panther crowned with curling rams horns

that roof around this massive head It's got a square jaw like a jaguar Huge bone-crushing jaw Massive eyes the eyes gleam Not casting visible light but luminescent As though it sort of subtly glowed like algae on the deep sea floor or some other thing given to announce its presence in this place. Its pattern of stripes crosses horizontally along its back, ending in series of dots that

sort of stray from the edge of the stripes covering a cream-colored stomach. Even here in the night you can see as a spirit yourself that the stripe is like a deep, a cream stomach, but a sort of fur-wise. You see it moves towards you. I'll go, I've never met this part of the family before. You must be the panther king. We're here for your heart, your majesty. It means you have a lot of extra

hardness on your head, so nobody's getting in through there. I don't sigh there. Not just any human traveler. I'm here with Aidan Crutcher, the greatest monster hunter in all of Taladier. Because of this illness. Aye. The Crown Panther whips his head and sees fire.

And hears the barking of Bevin and looks as night begins to touch the glade. You've moved farther off in the forest. You see he goes, no, no. And you see it begins to rush. through the branches and rushes past you. The little vapor spirits swirl around in confusion and disarray.

What do you do at this moment? I'm turned around in a quick little whirl and, whoo! I shoot on after him. Oh, yes, that's them. That's them. You see that the panther leaps through the branches and covers, he moves from one to the other,

and it's just enough that you can see there's a distant break of the fading sunlight in some leaves. It was just enough that as it touches the panther, he vanishes and is suddenly five trees back from where he started, as he cannot touch the daylight. He goes, no, no. Oh, don't worry, don't worry.

It's just them. He might be lighting up another cigarette. Bevan and Aiden. Yeah, you light the torch. What do you do? Come out, you foul beast. And I'm going to give it a second, hoping that we've, I'm waiting a second before I do.

jump down to see if just the noise and the fire bring something to bear. You do not see anything after a moment with the fire. Then I'm jumping down into the kind of mushroom field. Bloody bandaged foot breaks the fragile necks of the mushrooms in this glade for the first time since the dawn of time. in all of the long years to come this will be the most significant thing Aiden accomplished in his life

You land in the clearing, the mushrooms are broken, your blood stains them I am going to need a constitution saving throw. Okay, fine. Fine. Suck it, I just leased you. I'm helping. Hell yes, four and a seven for an eight. He got you.

Great. You land, your blood sinks into the mushrooms of this place. As it does, the wind picks up tremendously, leaves the size of, you know, shields begin to fall from the trees above. Twigs, branches, a branch hits you on the side of the head, spider web across the face. As you land here, you take that step, You look and see the broken mushrooms, your blood staining them from the bandaged foot.

As it does so, you feel a sudden, sharp, sour feeling and cough and thick gobs of blood come from your mouth over your face. As you can see the edge of the clearing that is now in night, at the edge of the clearing are hundreds of women, children, in spectral light. Their mouths are open and cavernous without teeth, and instead small growing mushrooms inside, where their eyes would be, are open, shadowed caverns with small mushrooms inside.

Where their hearts or stomachs would be are small caverns with mushrooms inside, and they hold lanterns of fairy light and begin to wail and mourn. As night spreads across the clearing, you look behind you and see the crowd emerge cutting off your exit from the glade of mushrooms. And the spirits of these beings behind you cannot wail. Their lanterns shattered. their bodies broken as all of the spirits

assembled at the edge of the glade wail and point to the fact that the spirits of their loved ones are shattered behind. Aidan is going to raise the torch above his head, spit more blood as he attempts to talk. Oh, great. Beast, I am your doom,

and I'm going to step on more mushroom. I will not, you will not frighten me. Bevin, you're barking at the edge of the clearing. Have you entered the mushrooms yet or no? Are there ghosts in front of me now? They're appearing, there's still the glade is large enough that you can see the light fading. If you run fast to where there's still the edge of daylight in like a hemisphere of the glade,

you can run across the mushrooms to get to Aidan if you want to. Park it. And I, like, I, like, I was like, leap into the mushroom field. You leap past the ghost into the mushroom field. I try to bite a ghost. Just do the like air snap

of a dog with a sprinkler. Like, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha. Yes, you go to bite a spirit. Go ahead and give me a, give me a constitution saving throne. Oh, 13. Great. You go to bite a spirit.

It turns to look at you and you die instantly. I'm sorry? You look and see. Hey, I'm sorry. You look and see Bevin attack a ghost. The ghost turns to regard it as Bevin's teeth sink through immaterial translucent light. The light silently goes out of Bevin and he is a dead animal.

We'll have to stop there for now. But dear listener, if you'd like to hear the rest of the clearing, you certainly can. Come join us on the Patreon. Have a seat with us by the fireside. This month we got a ton of stuff happening on the fire. I mean, look, there's always good stuff happening on the Patreon. But this month on the fireside, you can hear the rest of the clearing. They recorded a video.

We did the remix competition judging. If you don't know what I'm talking about, how you're going to like it. Just trust me. Just do it. And there's a lot more coming. The Wizard of the Citadel subclass we are releasing this week on the Patreon. Then we have the level up behind the scenes. session between the arcs and the characters leveling up.

Then on October 8th, I think, we're even releasing a little bit of a map of the Shroud Mountains, a major location for Arc 4 coming soon. All these things and so much more, we're dying to share with you here by the fireside. Come to join us on Patreon. See you there.