Shadow Over Gauntsmouth | New Player D&D 5e One-Shot: Part 2
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Welcome to Legends of Avantris. Professor Aswad steps in and tells you all to shut the fuck up, Aswad! Oh no! I think I see ruins! Oh, we found it! Oh, this is a first! Thank you for pointing it out to me, even if you didn't say it. I can see it now! Wait, there's bits of... Oh, that is ancient dragon bone. This is ancient metallic dragon bone architecture. Ah, you almost had craw.

Have you in what sense? *Muthafucka* Cross, surely, although you are... you are a chromatic in scale, you must be able to appreciate the historical significance of- Oh, it's much deeper than appreciation. I'm glad that we're on the same page then. I mean, the city of- I can't believe I keep forgetting this fucking name. Nozari. Nozari, the city of Nozari.

was an incredible port thousands of years ago. It is the fleet that crushed the dragonborn, the black dragonborn fortress. Of where, of where now is what we now call Underdrow Island. Professor, I know this is the culmination of what you've been looking for, but

I also, I don't know if you can see it yet, but the path ahead seems very treacherous. I don't think we should rush forward with the ruins ahead of us. I lean in a little bit closer to the professor and say, No, please, professor, lead the way. I will lead the way. There is so much undiscovered history there. If we had not known about these flowers, no archaeologist would have known.

would have been able to look at that expanse of unpassable marshland. We are probably the first to ever get this close to Nozari. Are we at the ruins then? You're starting to get closer and closer. All of you now are seeing bits and pieces of what seemed to be a city sunk into the swamp. I look Ji right in the eye and I say, "Please, please, follow the professor."

I fly five feet off the ground. You do that? No. Okay! You follow as you see, as you begin to start passing bits of columns, collapsed walls, these stone bricks. You make your way through this long, winding path as you realize that this was a massive city that stretched across well into where is now this marsh.

And as you make your way through the path, the clusters of stones start to get more and more and you're to see the actual foundation of the building. As you continue to make your way through, you see as you make your way back towards the sea cliffs, something emerging in the distance as the marsh dips. The dark gloomy clouds almost nearly conceal the sun.

You see up ahead structure where the marsh dips and nestles up against the sea cliffs and Professor Azran's eyes widen. He says, "Ah! There! That is where we're headed. I believe everything I know. That is the center of the city and it believes that we are heading directly towards it and we may be able to even arrive without being swallowed up by the marsh." Kra thinks as long as the professor goes first, Kra's ready.

Oh, this much? It's been no trouble at all. I'm ready to march away then. I can sense that you're feeling a little bit frustrated, and I might have some words that will help you.

If we do face that foe there, you can know that you're avenging the lives of all those black dragons that were slain due to this city. The only way you're getting there is with the leadership of the professor. Miss Willow, you again prove to be the most wise of all of us. Thank you. Quite literally, yes.

I'm thinking 20 wisdom is a little bit, right? That's right. Professor, no challenge has stopped us so far, and none will. And I believe that we will be able to uncover so much lost history. I mean, to learn more about their ancient practices. And I do know that there was an incredibly powerful female bronze dragon that led this fleet. She called herself the Rising Tide.

And it is told in legend that she was the one that dealt the killing blow of the horrible, vicious black dragon, Bok Raghul, the putrid doom.

And she was the one that brought him down and allowed for the fleet to land on the island undisturbed. Why do you use such language? I was literally going to ask you the same question. We've all tried to help you, and I've tried to quell our copult friend here. But you try his patience with every word you say. You know how he feels about the Black Dragon fleet. You can choose your words a little more carefully and try to show a little bit of respect to those of us that are leading you. How?

I don't mean to offend, I apologize. Professor Azran, he looks genuinely regretful. I apologize, I just, I'm, I'm just, this is just historical knowledge, it's a settled history. I don't know what horrible, dark things have been done, but I won't hold my tongue, I apologize. I just, I just, when I think back of the such incredible battles and

and great civilizations that I would never be able to experience. It fills me with sorrow and I wish I could learn more than I know I'll ever be able to learn in one lifetime. - All Kra asks is that you lead the way into the ruins. - I will, I will, I will go first.

Oh, that sounds lovely. So this Bakragul, does it have any kind of kin that still lives? No. No, no kin. No kin at all. I believe that Bakragul was slain and his lair completely destroyed. I don't know if he ever had a consort. There's no historical record that shows any offspring. On YouTube, watch Legends of Adventures episode 10 to see the tomb of Bakragul.

And you can also see his offspring on the show. Which I hate so much. Wait, is this the action of offspring? Watch the episode. I guess we'll find out, mate. As far as we know, no. No, there's no offspring. No, there's absolutely no. There's so many records of Buffy ever bearing children. And I must say, with the power of that black dragon, we are all better off now.

That foul creature never spawned. We are better off! We are better off! Are we at the ruins now? You are approaching as you see this structure kind of rising up. If the rest of you continues to try to provoke Kroll, I'm not going to help you in these situations. Who's trying to provoke the Drakidraks? You know how to do it.

I'm not trying to provoke this guy. I would just like to meet a black dragon in glorious combat. That's right. We'd like to test our strength. Ah, gee, you mispronounce being eaten. I'm not sure you misspoke, but I'll get your meaning. I don't think I misspoke.

No, no, no, no, Krah's not very good. Krah does not understand common, but Krah definitely misunderstood what you were trying to say. Hey, the black dragons are anything like the green. They'll go down like a sack of potatoes. They're not. Well, it seems like they might be.

They're all dead, so... Let us go. Brag for killing a sick green dragon. I'm sure that elsewhere there are plenty. I'm sure there are powerful black dragons out there. Kronos. Kronos, they're close. In the ground. There's no historical evidence or proof of that, but maybe, I hope to maybe discover that at some point. But for now, let us stay on our path.

Our path is not with the black dragons of old, but with the bronze. If it's true that this Kassagos is nearby, we may be able to meet this good natured, and he may be able to help us and bestow upon us some sort of boon. Could you imagine to meet a dragon? I would very much love to. Professor, you should let me go first. No! No, no, no! No, let the Karaki go first! I have some experience.

Some more experience than these two. This-this-this large creature- He slain two green dragons! No, no, no, no, no, he has not done nothing but speak ill of the dragons! No, he does not go first! No, I say he goes first! This Karaki which translates to "ranger" for you folk that can't speak lordly! This Karaki-

He's led us this far. Blast me, no! And he looks like a dragon himself. He can lead us to the dragon himself. It does make sense that one that looks like a dragon would be the first to encounter the dragon. I think that checks out. I think that checks. He looks like a dragon, but he's not like one, no! Well, sight is the first impression. Vectus, what do you think?

Master Ventus! If he wants to go first, we should let him go first. Master Ventus is always right! Well, if we all agree, Vos, please lead the way and do what you do best. Even the Stasi agrees. Master Ventus, no! No!

We can't let the professor go first. We're protecting him. That's right. That's what we've been paid oaths going for. All right, so...

I'm gonna use primeval awareness to detect if there's any aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiend, or undead within a mile of me. Did you literally name everything but dragon? No, it's just a dragon. Okay, I was gonna say only shit.

That is the most worthless skill ever. None of those things are going to be in the dragon lair. I guess I'm going to use a spell slot for this. You do. You need a spell slot to use a dragon lair. Yeah, just no. I have never used, so if you watch our campaign called the Feywild, I'm a part ranger, and I have used it many times, never to any effect. No, because you always, are there any fey around me? Yes, you are in the Feywild, Greco. Oh, a new fey!

Oh, there's a lot of fowls in general. Your brain is assaulted with information. Get your diet in! Sorry.

Please make use of primal awareness. Use a spell slot. Yes, you cast a spell. It's just as I sensed them. Does it have a range? A mile. So as you approach, you place your hand on the soft soil of the marsh and you channel your

experience with Dragonkind, you think back to your... to the days in MechBat, where the great wars of dragon and dragonborn, and you've seen and you know what the effects of dragon are. And you channel the power of nature, and as

You center on yourself. You feel the presence of a dragon. 1,050 choose words. But none of those other things? Wait, you sense what? All of them? Or just, I thought you choose one. No, it's... It says I sense all of them, yeah. It says whether... It says, as an action, you spend one ranger spell slot per minute per level of spell slot to sense whether any...

But would he be able to distinguish between them? I guess that would be my question, right? It's just every time Grickler's used them, there haven't been anything but fire. Like between you and the dragon? I don't know. That's what I'm asking. I don't know. Doesn't reveal the location or number of them.

So you would know the type, for sure. But what if there's more than one type? Are you able to distinguish between them? You'd basically be able to say, like, I sense that there are dragons, fae, and unblend here. But you just don't know how many. So not where they are. I know they're within a mile. Apologies. I was thinking of the Revised Ranger, which points the direction and it's only your favorite, which is why I was confused. Apologies. So you channel.

You sense... Got it. You sense a dragon. It's clear as day in your mind's eye, however, you get an additional presence. And it's very clear that you also sense the foul presence of fiends within a mile. Only if he tells us. You may choose to or choose not to divulge that information to us. Okay, um... Yeah, so I'm gonna obviously tell everybody in the party that

There's at least one dragon. You don't know a number. You don't know a number. But I know that there are at least one. So I know that there's one. There could be more than one dragon. Are you saying this at last? Yes. How would boss say it? Come on, Karagi, spit it out. Perfect.

What have you found? Professor, I'm sensing dragons in the area, but I'm also sensing the presence of something darker. Some fiends. There are fiends present. Fiends? Dragons, you say? Professor, lead the way! Wait, hold on, G. You and I have slayed a few fiends in our travels together, isn't that right? We've slain quite so many things.

I've lost track. Oh, let me update my folks. Can I track the dragon? Check your grudge book, Bargrim. I would say, if you want to track. Dragons are my favorite enemies. I get a bonus to tracking them. How does that work? Survival check. Do you have advantage on survival checks because of it? Advantage on survival checks. Roll another die.

And a seven. Oh boy. Not great. Not great. I didn't say I was good. I just had advantage. Thirteen? That's not bad. Thirteen. As you feel the power with that knowledge that you have, you start to look for the signs and you realize that where you start to kind of track and it seems like the direction of where you think a bronze dragon might be is towards the sea.

directly near this stone structure that you're approaching. Yes. You're heading in the right direction. So we're heading back towards the sea. You're heading back, so you've gone out, and now you're heading back towards the sea as where the marsh dips in in elevation. Would have been hidden to anything except for those in the sky. This remnant, huge, massive stone structure that is made of the same stone as all of the...

the structure's poking out of the swamp, as far as you can see. And it's towards the cliffs that this large structure is. And it seemed as if that'd be, if you were tracking a dragon, that would be in the direction. All right. So, fiends, you said. Fiends. What would they want? What would they be fiends doing in a dragon bone ruin?

Well, whatever it is, we've killed them all. Isn't that right, lads? Things are no challenge for us. That's right. Well, Pogrim and Willow, keep your guards near to your hearts. We will need to call on them. I hope we shan't have to call on Foltus. I believe that with your power, all of you will be fine, but we cannot turn that now. I wouldn't begin to even entertain the idea of calling on Foltus. I don't believe that he's...

A true god. I don't... I think it's something much darker. And it's not... it's not the kind of thing I'd want to bring into something like this. Jun'tia is the goddess of life and rejuvenation and if she wills it, we will succeed this day. Master Vint is staying near Willow. I agree. And you see there's a little... there's some fear. And he seems to be a bit resolved from that comment. Well, let us go. We must not turn back now. The long line of Azrans will not end this day.

There's so much more I must learn. And you make your way through as you then dip down as the marsh almost slopes down towards the sea as this large stone ruin ahead of you gets larger and larger. And as the long, tall walls seemingly still holding its structure, nearly miraculously, after the thousands of years that it seems to have passed since it was built, you see that the

Path of Flowers leads directly to a stone archway with a heavy stone door. And we'll move the map. Oh, fool! So is this as intact as, like, let's say, the Green Dragon Temple from Session whatever? It's more intact. Oh, wow.

I would say it's more intact. Here? Right there. Are we moving? No, no, that's it. No, you said don't move that stuff. Oh, yeah, that's it. Well, just the doorway. Just the doorway. So, look, it's a mini-stone. The door is closed, so... So the door is closed. To the right and the left, you see these strange stone pillars rising up, and they seem to be surrounded by rings.

of these strange polished stone that actually is coated in, it looks like bronze, and the bowl by each of them also coated in bronze. As you approach you see that there are strange letters carved into the archway above. Professor Azran is looking up at it. This is a first. We are discovered. We are discovered for the first time in modernity. Do you understand the historical significance of this?

I can't say that I do, but we're here. Krah, Krah, can you read those words? Nah, Master Ventus, I'll try! It is a narcotic. You can read them. What does it say? It says. Well, can Krah read, though, is the question. I can read your chronic, yes. Thanks, Willow! I'm making a toast to say that Krah is a manic. It's a fair question. I'm kidding.

You've got like negative fours. I don't know two languages. I'm going to silently look over the runes as well and read them, but not tell anybody. Okay, so both of you see this. Just so I know if he's lying. Got it. Because I don't trust this little lizard. You do that. And so you read and it says, only those truly bronze of scale may enter.

I turn to Mastroventus and I repeat exactly that. Only those... what was it? True of bronze of scale. True of bronze of scale may enter! Bronze. Didn't they say it was a brass dragon that was living here? No. He's brass. He's brass. The dragon is bronze. Gotcha. Some bee dragons? It's hard to keep track. I can't think of any bees. All my fear is that if we don't have some kind of bronze dragon born with us, we're not going to be able to enter these gates.

That's impossible. We won't let that stop us. These are ruins. Can we just walk around the door? It's like a cave. It's basically a cave, right? It's heading downwards. So it's heading downwards and you're seeing that there seem to be the remnants of this large structure. It seems to be the remnants of a temple. Solid stone walls. Very, very, very thick. As it rises up above.

What do you think that means? Can anyone sense magic to see if there's a conjuring or a spell on the door? I can detect the magic, yes. Let's see. Oh! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Look at this, Kazi! Being used to it again! So take ten minutes to cast this ritual, because we're not in a hurry. So you get basically a free spell to see if you can detect magic. Take the time to do it, right? Just tell everybody it takes time. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, it'll take me about ten minutes. I can detect all the magic on this door. Within 30 feet of me. 30 feet of you. So you see Ventus glow with his green, and you actually sense a strong magic coming from the door. And it seems to be from the School of Transmutation. As you also get a magical sense from the pillars on either side of you.

And that seems to be of a... evocation. Oh fuck. Okay. So I would reveal that to the party. The door in... Transmutation. Transmutation. The pillars have evocation. I'm not sure what any of that means. Can you translate...

I cannot. Transmutation is something that changes one thing into another. Evocation is damage magic. That's like fire magic. So you would be able to say that evocation is dangerous, right? It's something we want to watch out for. Yeah, so we probably shouldn't touch the bronze columns. They might be dangerous. Wait, wait, Master Ventus! You don't mean to tell Kra that you can't disable this? The greatest rogues who ever exist!

Worse than all the traps, I would think a Scazi like yourself would be able to disarm whatever traps lie in way. What did you call me?! I didn't call you anything, I called him a Scazi! My apologies! Sadly for us, that's not one of the spells that I prepared for today. I can't dispel it, even if I tried. I can't dispel it either. Let me see if I... I don't think I can dispel it either.

No, I cannot. Do you think that we must do something with these pillars to gain access? The pillars seem dangerous. I don't know if we should be touching them. I got evocation magic off of that. Perhaps we could look at the pillars without touching? How does that sound? I'd like to look at the pillars and see. Yeah, I would also investigate the pillars. Yeah, make an investigation check with the armors.

Terrible. Or no, no, he makes it, I'll help him. I got an eight. That's a roll advantage. I got a nine. A nine. Is this the fourth time it's been just one? You take a look.

at these... It's only plus one? Or is it Arcana? No, it's Investigation. You rolled a four. I got a plus five on Investigation and I rolled a four. Well, it was an advantage. The first roll was an eight. No, it was a three. Oh, I thought it was an eight. So, you take a look and it looks like these strange copper... or strange brass platings. Or bronze platings. Apologies. On these pillars. Look like they...

It's been well preserved and they kind of hum with this strange magic to them. It looks as if that they would be able to possibly conduct electricity. And you look down as well and it seems as if the base of each of these pillars is... there's a little bit of a gap in the opening as if they can maybe be able to be moved. But that's about what you get.

So we can move the pillars. That's all I got. They can be charged by electrical energies. What you gained?

Yes. Yes. There's one you said. I do believe that. Electrical energy. That would follow along with what we know about the bronze dragon at this point. I'm certainly no stranger to electrical energy, but I can't promise anything. Well, who can make electrical energy from the innate power? I mean, I don't think I can. I can do it. I can do it sometimes. I wield all elements. I can make electricity.

Oh, you can't, you know, you know what, Birdie, I don't think I've seen you make electricity yet, go on. Roughly how wide is that? What is that? It's ten feet, and it's huge. Ten feet tall? Ten by ten. Okay. Out of character question, you can actually produce electricity?

I have a spell. It's not like a cantrip. No, I'm just saying, well yeah, of course you can. You can do whatever you want. I'm just curious if you can actually produce electricity. I have a spell called Thunder Wave that generates a... That should be... That would be thunder. But you also know that Braum's Dragonborn are related to thunder as well. All I can say is, I can do it. Well, it's thunder. I mean, I don't know. Why don't we draw shards? How does that sound?

Crawl laughs at all of your puny brains. Well, I trust that G could make a fine bit of lightning with Thunder Damage. Whichever works. I think that there are two pillars and two people that claim they can do it, so why can't you do it simultaneously? That's a brilliant idea. Why does one have to go above the other? No, no, no, it's not about anyone being better than anyone else. I'm just talking about, what was it, lightning? True lightning is all I'm saying.

I think the little lizard thinks he can do it. Let him try. Yeah, let's let the Dracidras flail if he can. What's the distance between the two pillars? Ten feet. Yeah, ten feet. Only if you want. Only if Master Vint might tell me. Can we move them closer to each other? No, no, no. They're very, yeah, they're very close.

This is stuck in the dirt! So this Thunder Wave is not lightning, is that what you're saying? I don't know, the spell would say what kind of damage it is. I believe it's force, but I could be wrong. I believe it's thunder damage. So it would be thunder, but it would not be lightning. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, it's not lightning, huh? I don't... Kra does not presume! Kra only hopes to help! I say you give it a try. I know it's potentially not gonna be lightning damage.

Well, if Master Vint tells me to try, I suppose I'll give it a try! Go on, let's see what you got! I cast Dragon's Breath on myself at a level 2, because that is what it is. I get to choose the element and I choose Lightning Damage. It is up to a 15-foot cone, so I cast... I breathe Lightning on both of the...

I'd like to stand within the cone and absorb elements. No, no, no! Gee, get out of the way! It's dangerous! No, no, it's not dangerous. I can absorb elements. And I'd like to do so. Are you going to do that in character? What are you going to tell him in character? Just in case it doesn't work, I'll absorb a portion of your power and wield the lightning on the other pillars.

Kree says, "Your funeral!" And he shakes his voodoo doll and says, "I'm sorry! It is not what you asked!" But casts Dragon's Breath on himself and makes an attack in lightning damage. Okay. How much damage? I can roll.

- Go on and roll. - It's 4d6. - The crozari's gonna stand right there. - It's 4d6, Dan. - 4d6. - Get out of the cone. - Oh my God. - So it's gonna be 15. 15 lightning damage. - So I take half. - Well, yeah, you can roll, yeah. - So seven. - So you can dodge it. - So yes, it is a dense absorb, so I take half.

But you could also... Oh, do that. I have to take it to absorb. Well, no, you'll take it either way. So, yeah. So, dex would be 15. Half of... If you get it, it would be half and then half of half, right? So, roll your dex check. You're good. Golden. Over 15. So, you're taking half of seven. Yes, you take half of seven, which is three. Three points of lightning damage. And a wheel of lightning.

And it's a 15-foot cone, so plenty of... Professor Asgore, everyone step back. You do not want to be injured here. And you see Krah touch his chest, and you see crackling all around his mouth. And you open his mouth, and a zap of lightning shoots out. A great yap. As a breath of lightning energy shoots out of his mouth. It's both of the pillars...

who stands and he channels his magic elements and absorbs the power of storms. And yet, you literally do this. How long do you hold that for?

Till my melee attack. Till your next attack. Fuck! And you absorb the power of lightning as well as the pillars. It hits the bronze plating and it's as they glow with this crackling blue light. And you hear as the doors start to open. As both pillars glow with lightning and they start arcing like basically stone crazy Tesla coils. And

Gee, would you look at that? The Dracidra's did something of value! That's a very good draw, very good. I'm pretty sure it was my channeling of the lightning that really cemented its effect. Oh, you channeled it through to the door, is that right? I believe so, yeah. Well, thank good, thank Clangor and Silverbeard you were there. I'm glad you were the one to enable the opening of this door. Forward to your inevitable devouring.

I look forward to whatever beast thinks that it can. Drakidras, let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen a dwarf jump 30 feet in the air? Finally being frustrated with the continual bickering, Willow turns and walks off into the sunset, leaving the party to die. Professor Azran steps in and says, Well, let us please all steal our senses.

Who knows what we'll encounter in these ruins. Thank you so much, Krah. I do what I can. Maybe we can discuss Krah's payment. We'll add that as a bonus. No, in all fairness. Okay. Krah, I do believe that

You could do with a little extra payment, so you can have my portion. I'm no need of it. Oh, no, no, no, Miss Willow! Where I come from, this kind of money is not. It does me no good. No, no, no. I'm a lady of the harvest. Miss Willow, you are a greater citizen than I am. You may split it with Vint, and the two of you can go on your way afterwards and find that dragon you so longed for. Miss Willow, you must take care of yourself. You take care of Krah!

Kra wants Willow to take care of herself! I won't be able to take care of Kra forever. But this is a way that I can send it along with you. I agree, you're owed oath gold. I mean, you've made an oath. I have no idea what you're saying. You've made an oath to the Professor. He owes you the money. And with that, I'm able to give it where I choose. I would never question where you were to give it. But just letting you know that he owes you the gold in your name.

If we make an arrangement that you would like to give your share to Krah-- No!

- Kra and Ventus, and if Kra won't take it, I would like you to give it all to Ventus, 'cause I know that you'll continue to care for Kra. These days are numbered. - Kra will never know! Miss Willow, to die, no, no, no! - I won't die. Shantia will not allow it. - Master Finch, no, you do not allow Miss Willow, no, no! - I do kind of agree with Kra. You do deserve the money. - We'll talk about it at a later date. - You are keeping the party alive. - Now is not the time. - Upon the service rendered, we shall have a discussion

And I will pay whomever our lovely Willow decides. As... Guru Sunk. So are we ready to enter? Because I want to prep us a little bit here. Well, I'm ready. I hope you all steal. What do you suggest for us? I'd like to cast Pass Without Trace on the entire party. How long does it last? An hour. Okay. Okay.

Question. How long does time pass outside of combat? Normally. To your decision? Yeah, whatever the deal is. Well, right. So the idea is if we're doing things, you can say, hey, how long has it been since X? And I just basically just pull something out of my ass and that's what it is. 30 minutes! It's not a sentence, right? Okay, yeah. Welcome, Sean. Welcome. I like your waving kitty.

That's quite adorable. Are we stealing through these ancient ruins? I think we should if there are fiends about. Quiet. Hurry up, this only lasts for an hour. So everyone makes a stealth check. I roll a disadvantage. I roll three fiends. Oh, Crah! Crah's very stealthy.

31! Do I roll this advantage? No, no, just you roll it, you add your stealth, and you add 10. 32.

I rolled a 14. Holy fuck. I rolled a 3 plus 1 and his Plants Without Trees gives me a whopping 14. Oh, Barbara. You've never been one for subtlety. No, I've never taken kindly to the stealthy tabs, but this time I will attempt my best. The cloud will be noticed by no one.

Except for Master Vint. Willow, you folk are a burglary stealthy trap, is that right? I resent that you'd say that about me. I've never been a thieving kind at all. Oh, I don't mean a thief. I mean, he's the scuzzy. I mean, you're just naturally very scummy. I feel like I should be offended. No, no. So yes, use the translation. Translate everybody's self checks. 32.

14. skazi means thief 19. 19. i'll take it total that's your total checks yeah 27. 34. 31. wow as the doors of this massive ruined structure you're not sure what it is stand open uh professor is all i need to roll he does fine he gets plus 10. he does fine he does fine he uh the pressure's like oh everyone's

that all fiends and dragons about allegedly. Everyone... I will say in the back, keep an eye out. Let us make our way. You make your way into this long, narrow corridor heading downward. You feel dampness in the air as you enter the corridor going down. You hear the slight dripping of water as condensation drips as the corridor goes downward in darkness and engulfs you.

How dark? What? How dark? It is getting pretty dark. It is the natural darkness. Not magical dark. No, no. Basically without... So I didn't mean to stop you. You're indoors as you make your way and you start to see your eyes and just... I don't know who has natural dark vision.

This guy right here. As a changeling, I would think you might. It would tell you your features and traits. I believe... I can't see a single thing. I mean, Craw and I do. I believe everybody else does not. You see Professor Azran reach into his briefcase of holden and he pulls out a torch. He strikes some flint and tinder and lights it.

The torch lights up, providing light. Well, I may not be much in a fight, but I at least can provide you some light so you can see what we're up against. Oh, that's right, Bium. He can't see in the dark. Let's get a little bit more. And I mimic it into my palm.

my palm. But it control flame and top palm. Oh, you, it sub-fire jumps from the torch to G's claw. Yeah, claw. As you basically have two torches making your way through. And let us reveal a little bit more. You make your way through. Yes, it could, yes. It could. I mean, it's up to the DM, right? What? Well, the fact that we are using an open flame to see could ruin our passable attrition. So let's just use one guy for now?

But you guys literally can't see, right? So the question is, is it better to see or be discovered, right? You know, it's up to the DM to answer Hazard's question. What's going on? So in the spell Pass Without a Trace, it does enshroud us in shadow, so that probably helps mute the light a little bit, but

It's really up to the DM to decide based on our stealth rolls what would be nice. It's also visibility. On this map are we just walking down? Are these squiggly walls? Those are all walls. It's rough ruined earth. It's just like he's a phenomenal artistry. And I mean it's deliberately rough and ruined. He's very good. No that's a penis.

No, that was like a mud trail, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's a front mask. So, you make your way and you see a narrower, smaller, a smaller door that seems to be made of stone plated in bronze ahead of you. A small handle with a large keyhole is before you.

As Cranstar Azran holds the torch and G has his flame. Oh, sorry. And it seemed to be a very simple stone door. And that's right here. Yep, just push it a little bit. There it is. Can we move up to it? Well... We are, we are. Just to say... We just need to find one guy for now.

Ventus, why don't you check this door again? This place seems to hold many secrets. Blast, Blaster Ventus, just be careful because it's known that these tombs might be...

Dangerous. And because you are an arcane trickster, you can pick locks using your mage hand. That's right. We've seen this Skazi invisibly use these tools from 30 feet away. It was very cool. It is very cool. You've got to give it up for Master Ventus. Oh, I agree. He's very useful. I would like to pick the lock with mage hand. Okay. So you're going to... Everyone get back.

And you all get 30 feet back as Vintis, uh, waves his hands and a glowing green hand appears. It looks like a dog's paw, a brown dog's paw, with black spots. In a couple of the fingers are some snacks and it's hard to read but it says "Soo-bee" "Stab-bee" "Treats" "Some kind of treats"

And instead of like, like, zoinks, man! And is that a scoop? As he grabs these jewels and it makes its way towards the school. Will you let us through for a Scooby Snack? Holy fuck. And then Professor Azran drives away in the mystery machine. And it's Pontiac. No, he's a Pontiac. No, it's Ford Fiesta. Oh,

I drive my mother's Ford Wingstach. Fuck. I hate everyone. Make a dexterity check and your proficiency. Because you are, or whatever your picklock. Dex plus proficiency. Is it doubled because of... He's detecting traps first. It's an investigation check first. So you're making an investigation check. Okay. That's pretty good. Very good.

Uh, 24 for investigation. The door seems to be locked. As you're investigating this wall and you feel with your innate magical ability, you feel like this is trapped. Magically or...? Uh, it seems to be a combination of magical and mechanical. Mechanical, okay. Okay, so I would warn everybody, we need to step back 30 feet and continue to unlock it. Master Ventus, please be careful! We're 30 feet back, we're good.

I raise the earth in front of us, giving us a shield. Okay. So you do that. So you raise your just enough so that Ventus can see. But all of you can duck down behind. And I'll raise my great throng in the world. You hear... My throng. Is that what you call your prince? You like it if it was, but no, it's my shield. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

While our party is dissolved into nothing. Make a pick lock check. 8 plus what? Dexterity? No, for lock picking you should dex check. Plus proficiency.

12 plus what? I don't know how many proficiencies. Plus, how much, what's your dex bonus? 4? 4. So 16 plus proficiency is 3. Yep. So 19. 19. So, you see, the, uh, you see this green hand with Thief Tools, uh,

inserting the tools and it's working with incredible dexterity. This magic hand is working and then as soon as these thieves will enter you hear a "Zzzz" as lightning shoots out directly in front of the door which would have zapped anyone that tried but you're able to get enough, you're far back that it has no damage as you hear the door unlock and your mage hand floats back.

Master Vinzis, that was amazing! Well done, Skazi! Thank you. I knew there was a reason we kept you in mind. Well done, well done! I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-

I mean, the door's not too heavy, yeah. This is the short answer. I just don't know what the door weighs and what you can push.

I mean, do you have a weight for the door in mind? I mean, if it's made of stone, it's more than five pounds. It's stone, it'll be more than five pounds. Right. So the question is whether or not his mage hand can push more than five pounds. I don't think it increases the strength. It doesn't. So as your mage hand goes to grab the handles on it to move it, it seems to be a bit heavier, but your mage hand, you know, is more dexterous than it is strong. And you can do that on bonus actions.

Okay. So, Professor Azran says, Gee, would you mind lowering this so we can get by? He taps the massive stone wall that's in between you guys and the door. I walk up to the stone door and I push forward with control of the earth and it grows. The stone crumbles. That magic is so cool. The earth crumbles and it's all of you in front of the door. He says, well,

I suppose I'll do the honors. Right here. He grabs the handle and he turns it and this large, you hear a grinding stone as it opens. And you see, and you hear, as soon as he grabs it, he stops. As you hear this low, guttural voice coming from behind. He stops. From behind us or from behind? From behind the door. Low, guttural voice. Did he speak?

What language does everyone speak? Draconic and Common. I speak Eric, Cochrane, Oran, Common, and Draconic, actually. I speak Common. No way. Dwarvish and the foul languages of the greenskins. Oh, and Undercommon. I can grow be. Undercommon. I got... You can speak all languages. If I cast it right. I got Draconic, Common, Elvish...

Giant and Primaria. And I have Halfwing and Sylvan. I have Common, Undercommon, Elvish...

Nomish and another one. Is the death metal band singer behind the door? It's none of you. None of you understand the language. It's actually Rich singing in rock band. None of you understand the language.

As it seems to be chanting. Holy fuck! Gnome-ish, elevation under common. Fucking abyssal. And he holds it. Could be. Or fiendish. I don't know what that means. What do we do? I'm stage whispering now. What do we do? Does anyone understand what they're saying? No! No, Krah does not know what's happening! Willow, you said that you could understand any language. Is that right? I mean, that's true, but I wasn't prepared for this. So I didn't take it today when I was praying to my goddess.

NoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I don't chug away from any challenge. I mean, he could go first, but I'll come up behind him. He's looking for a challenge.

Show me your moves! Did you stealth roll like 40? 32. Oh yeah, wait are we going off the stealth rolls that we had? Oh, yeah. Wait! I'll go first. No, no, no, we voted for Voss to go first. Voss is the Karaki.

The translation of "He's the Ranger" is what I'm saying but in my dwarven tongue. Let me know when I need to translate it in any moment. I think I should check this out. We wanted him to go first in the event that he was encountering a dragon. Because none of us understand what's being said.

It's probably not a dragon! Speaking Draconic! So we only hope that Vaas gets here, I mean, goes to check out what happens first! But I'm very stealthy right now! But gee, we need your tea! But, well, that's true! Have you seen this firebird stealth through the wilds of Kakyoin? I only just- I sneak up, open the door, and slide in, because I'm a halfling and I have no fear.

And Professor Azran barely notices you nudge. He's holding it. I can walk through space with someone larger than me, so I just walk right between his legs. So you walk right between his legs, and you kind of just nudge it open. He doesn't even notice. As you walk in, and you see a circular chamber ahead of you. Okay, let's move it. On either side. Hold on.

I believe in the Birdman as well, Rose Moss Pocket. You see a chamber. Four large pillars seem to hold up this space. The whole thing is dripping with moisture. At the center there is a large pedestal. Atop what seems to be a stone structure that seems to be fit for holding armor? You're not quite sure. On the walls

You see great carvings and basterlys all around of great draconic shapes, both dragon and full dragon and dragonborn. However, they seem to be completely besmirched and ruined by marks of blood and strange black markings. Horrible writings all over it. At the center of this room, on either side of this pedestal, you see two creatures. Oh, fuck.

They are fish-like in appearance. They are large. Would you say night fish-like? Not night fish-like. Merlot. They are fish-like in appearance with long slithering bodies coiled beneath them almost like eels or snakes.

They don't have legs. They don't have legs. Like Nagas? They raise...

They're not going to fall. As they raise their hands, chanting, as their hands glow with this horrible, smoky magic, and above them, a smoky cloud appears. I see you being very focused on this. But I get the idea that these are the fiends that he was able to sense.

Why don't you make an arcana or religion check? I would say both would be fine. Black smears I fathom that were deep in the ground. Well, no one besides Willow's there, right? So we're still bickering. Oh, God.

Bigger, bigger, bigger! Wait, where did that grumboon go? I would say with that, you would get the sense that these are not fiends and being from this area, Oh shit. in this general area, you would probably recognize these as marrow. Oh shit. As what? Morrow. Do I know what kind of creatures they are? A monstrosity.

They're monstrosities, they are creatures from the deeps that are very, very evil. They're very much not fiends. However, there's a very fiendish look to all the markings that are desecrating this chamber. And there is a very fiendish energy to the magic and a very fiendish sound to the language that they are chanting. I'm just going to kind of, um... Are there any, like, boulders? What did you say?

Sound to the language. Speak the sound of the language that they're speaking. Are there, like, any boulders around here that I could, like, slide behind? There are large pillars that you could creep behind. Yeah, so I'm gonna creep behind that and I'm gonna use my halfling, um...

Naturally stealthy and I'm gonna hide behind it. Make an additional stealth roll. It's one size larger than me. I still think that I should go first. Natural 20! Also 24. No, plus 10. I'm not within 10 feet of you, so...

30 feet. Oh, it's 30 feet? No, 34 still. If I'm within 10 feet of him, right? Within like 60 feet or 30 feet. That's fine. We're all here away from him. 30 feet. So you're within 30 feet. Okay, so they are all chanting. As they do this, you hear from a noise come from the cloud above them. And it's

horrific droning buzz that seems to be emanating from this as the smoke starts to coalesce. I'm just gonna watch them. I would also like to run into the room. Okay. Like stealthy behind this pillar. Got it. And I would like to know if I- How are you gonna RP that? Yeah.

How are you going to repeat that? So who's going to go first? You don't see me. You don't know her, man. You don't know she likes. I think that it should be me. So time out. If you're making a decision, you have to make a decision based on you do not know that she's gone. Because you didn't notice. Which is fine. You can do what you want to do, but don't do it based on what she's doing. Well, the door is open and I can hear the noise. No, I opened it just slightly and snuck in. And she's small. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm only three feet tall. You're allowed to try to do the same thing, but you don't know that she did it. Does anyone see Willow?

You haven't noticed she's gone. But I can look around. At any point, I can notice she's not there. Only if you're actively looking for it. Is there any reason that you would be? Well, if you're actively engaged in conversation with this smelly dwarf... I'm a falcon bird, Eisenstein. I'm just saying. There's a difference between meta knowledge and what you're looking for. So the thing that's fair, right, is that he wouldn't have necessarily noticed her...

But he might after a certain amount of time. I would say that. When I just said, hey, who would go first? He might look around and notice someone's gone. It has to be rationalized. That's what I'm saying. I think that's fine. I think that's fine. Yeah. I feel good about it. Yeah. You want to roll a perception check?

- I would say, yeah, make a perception check and we'll see if you notice. - I would have said that my passive perception would have made me notice that she was missing. - Your passive perception is lower than what my stealth was. - Right. - Gotcha. - Yeah, she's super stealthy. - 30 something. - 22. - I would say that you would, with everyone there and you're all looking, trying to figure out what to do, that you would notice that someone is missing from your party. - Yeah. - Yeah, I would say that. - So is it happening? - Yeah. - Who said Nisqazi first? He's old sneaky like.

I'm very sneaky. I'd like to get in there and potentially see what's going on. Okay. I want to see what's going on. Okay, then give us the signal and let's go. Do you alert us to the... Guys, I hate to break this to you, but it's just the three of us out here. I think everyone else has gone into the space. Six of us. There are five of you. Six, including Professor Asher. It's just...

Can't count. What was the number? Six. Klaue's not good at math, but seven minus one is six? You two are in the room. No, he hasn't left. Only Miss Willow is missing. He's about to leave. He's in the room. He's about to have. Wait, you're saying that we're missing one? We are indeed missing Willow. Where did the Grumboldi go?

Always forward, never backwards is what the ancient ones always say. So I imagine she's being the one. You better get on it and make sure she's okay. I'll wait here. I'll wait here. Cut me down and save me. Namaste, Vince. Please be careful. I'm going to sneak in. Okay. You see the same thing. These fish-like creatures, these marrow, all chanting as the buzzing, droning, it's louder. Say it louder. I got 36. 36. As you sneak in, they don't seem to notice you. 46. No, yeah, 36. 36. Sorry.

Yeah, I can do math. So you go to the other pillar. Yeah. Okay.

And you don't necessarily see her because you're focused on your own thing. I want to look at the walls of the markings and see if I recognize them from Necromancy 101 and Anzu. Did you say Necromancy and Anzu? A form of love is... Not to you, Bagram the Smelly Dwarf! To Bagram, that means nothing but rudic. This seems to be wholly different than all the things that you had seen. Holy or holy? Holy.

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You can also go to thecrookedmoon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. You see the same thing as the droning buzzing is louder and louder and then he says, well, well, well, I suppose you should go join your friend. Um, gee, Bagram?

Shall we like always? Well, I think that they can probably hear you- While they're talking, I just wanna go right in. I think that they can probably hear you breathing from out here. You- Well, the energy's a trillion-year dimension, dude! Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I forgot. You should probably stay out here and protect the professor.

Well, the stealthier types make our way in. Balls you've already gone in. Yeah, I've already gone in. Oh, well. Are you going to fight or are you just going to hide? I mean, you've got a stealth. Do I have to stealth check again? Oh, yeah. Anytime that you make... Well, up to you. Depends on what you're trying to do. If you want to just barge in, barge in. I'll walk in and just kind of check out the situation first. So stealth again.

That would be a 9 plus 8... 5 plus 10, so... I forgot Pass Without Trace is pretty fucking busted. 24. Yeah. You manage to go in there, and what do you... and it goes like, "Go, go, go, go, go!" Barghrim! I forgot how that works! Once more unto the breach, old friend! Alright, let's do this! And I'll throw the door open, and it's not trying to like... not throw the door open, but...

After you, friend. And I will follow G out. Don't mind if I do. Making a disadvantage stealth check. Oh, another three. Okay, 14. As you do this...

You finally hear as the door flies open, the massive cloud above them starts to materialize. And where the cloud once was, the buzzing is louder and louder, echoes around the chamber. As you then see a figure appear and materialize from this horrible smoke.

It's this large, buzzing, insectoid creature with a long, pointed proboscis flying with these horrific four massive wings, large, bulbous eyes. And it seems to be this horrific, demonic taint around this insectoid creature. I'm immediately going to cast Magic Circle directly around it. If it is a fiend, it cannot leave the Magic Circle for ten minutes. How long is the cast time on Magic Circle?

Do you also have to have vision? One minute. So I'm gonna immediately start doing that. Okay. Okay. So he's trying to do a minute. So he's trying to do a minute. And so... Do you have to have vision on it?

Yeah, I can peek out from behind the rock. So as you do this, you're all getting in the room. After a minute passes, the magisterial whistle, it lights up and all of these creeps are surprised by you and your roll for initiative. They are surprised. Oh, fool! Wait, is that an advantage? I got a natural one, but I'm a halfling, so it doesn't matter. 17 plus 2. 17. 17.

Okay, so hold on, hold on. I rolled 12. 20 to 25. Oh, I rolled 12 too. Is it just, but it, what? Oh, so it's an hour actually. It's just plus five, right? Yeah, it's just 17. Okay. 20 to 25, anybody? 20. 20, so Crawl is first. 15 to 20. 17. 19. 19 for Vaz. And then G. Wow, very fitting song. Yeah, very fitting. Name that tune. 10 to 15. 10 to 15. I got 15. 12. 12.

And then, Vindis, what do you get? Seven. Seven, okay. They're going to go. Professor is staying back. I'm going to roll for the Marrow. They are going to get a hot 11, which is lower than Bargrim. Monstrous 1, and then I'm rolling for the Chasmain. Who's dead first? Dead first is Craw. Yeah, we just can't see who's there. That's Craw over there. Yeah. Well, I just saw there was a paper. I forgot who it was. You got a 19, G? 17. I got a 17. Vaz got a 19. Vaz got a 19. 19, okay.

as this demon is looking like this. And it is droning loudly and loudly. It's so horrific. And it doesn't like, it doesn't contain it. It can't leave. The magical, like, it can't leave. But it's not like, it like totally closes in, like totally neutralizes it. It has a 10 foot radius, 20 foot tall cylinder of magical energy centered on a point on the ground that you can see within range. Glowing runes appear wherever the cylinder intersects with a floor or other surface.

So it depends on how tall the ceiling is. When you cast the spell, you can elect to cause its magic to operate in the reverse, preventing a creature of the specified type from leaving the cylinder and protecting targets outside of it. Okay. How big is the... It's a 20-foot radius. It easily encircles it. Can we attack into it? You can, but you attack at disadvantage.

Okay. So the magical circle... So basically we're just taking him out of the fight. We wouldn't know that we attacked this advantage. Correct. Yeah. So a magical circle with glowing rooms. However, you're able to hear the whole droning of this creature. Okay. Easily encompassed. It doesn't affect the other two because they're not of the type that... Craw, you are up. I'm still... I'm not in the room. So I turn to the professor and I say...

Ah, farewell and adieu, Professor. I must find my master. Head to the room. Please do. So I'm going to head five feet in. And am I able to easily see there's no obstruction? Yep.

So then I'll move 5, 10, 15, 20 next to Vint, and I will say to him, Master Vint, I found you! Hang on tight! And I cast Haste on him. Okay. So you channel the black draconic magic, and suddenly, Vint, you feel the incredible quickening magic of

of your companion and you have haste? Okay. Boss, you're up. Yeah, I will be happy to tell you. We'll get him, Tiger. Alright, um... Oh, you're this horse. Yeah, so let it fucking rip.

But it doesn't have to be any-- So what is the magic circle of flesh? Is it clearly a barrier around this? Yes, it is clearly a barrier. So sound is able to pass through it. It's magically-- it's magically-- We can visually see it. Yes, you can visibly see it. So as this buzzing, however, you're able to hear it. And so it's so horribly cacophonous and vile, you need to make a saving throw. A what saving throw do you need to make? Vazgas? Yes. Vazgas. A con saving throw. Constitution. OK.

Seven plus three, ten. Ten. That passive. And you hear it and you're able to seal yourself. It's so maddening and awful. But you're able to shrug off just barely this horrible droning. I would like to use a bonus action to cast Ensnaring Strike. Got it. You do it. You channel this nature magic and vines wrap around your glaive. And I'd like to attack the...

what are they called? Marrow? Marrow, yeah. The number one on the right. So you gotta run up to them. Nope. Longbow. Oh! So you pull out your longbow. So it wraps around your arrow and you pull out your longbow and you fire. Okay, so for hit, we got 16 for hit. 16 hits on... Yes, it does hit on the barrel. Okay, and for damage I get 1. 8...

Seven damage? Seven damage, the arrow fires and it pierces into the mirror. They all turn to you, completely surprised by this, as this massive demonic insectoid creature is looking at you angrily. Now I'm going to... On number one? Number one is what you hit, yep. Yeah, I'm gonna run... Which are their numbers? Are they on there? One, two. One, two, and then boss. Bigu boss, yeah.

I'm gonna go here to the left side and use the second attack on the other one. Okay. You're gonna use your glaive? Yep. Okay. So the arrow flies in and he's making a strength saving throw, right? On the armbow? For the... For number one, right? Yeah. It gets a strength...

It's gonna be 20, so it succeeds. If vines whip out around the arrow, it means to rip out of them as it tries to penetrate. Okay, make an attack. How is it gonna work for him switching weapons? Oh, he just has to drop them, right? You have to drop the longbow. So your longbow has to stay here. And that means you cannot switch back to your longbow until you pick it up. Either way. Okay, you crit. That's a crit. And then... 10...

So you just can't switch back to your longbow unless you pick it back up. So you've gotta give it up for the natural coin. Ayyyy. So we have 7, 8, and 13 slashing damage. Bye Ross, thanks for hanging out!

So we got... Thanks Rose! Crits never miss unless you're a cleric of the grave and then the DMHP. So we got 14 damage on the grave. 14 damage as you shoot one and you drop your longbow and run up with your glee and slice into it. On to number two. Okay, so we got... The one on the right's got what? Six damage or eight damage?

And the other one's got 7 damage. 7, 7, 14? Okay, 14. Yep. Okay, with that, it is their turn, but they are surprised as they are unable to act as you burst in on them. G, you're up. Bargrim, did I ever tell you that they call me the furious phoenix of Yulan?

No, I don't think you ever did tell me that, but that sounds badass as hell! It does! Well, let me show you why! And I cast Agonazar's... I'm sorry, I cast Phoenix Punch. There you go. Agonazar's... well, Phoenix Punch. Phoenix Punch. Um...

And I fire off a Flame Phoenix from my Taloned Fist straight down... How many feet? 30 feet? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, yeah, it's all... Each creature in the line must make a dex saving throw. The middle one's at disadvantage? I don't think for saving throws, no. Nope. It's just if you try and do melee attacks against your disadvantage.

15, 16 on number one, 15 on the demon, and then a 19. So they all pass. They all pass. So you see G who run up and he punches for flame, spirals out of his flaming fist, and you hear the cry of the phoenix, shoots over.

Phoenix Punch! Phoenix Punch! Max damage was 10, so I think everyone takes 5. Everyone takes 5 damage. The fire swirls around and these flapping wings fire forward as they take 5. However, it still scorches this demon, but the flames do not seem to be affecting this quite as much as you would expect. Who's the... that's the middle guy? The boss is the demon? Yes. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, with that, it's Willow's turn.

I am going to cast Spiritual Weapon. Got it. Hell yeah. As a bonus action, and I'm going to try and cast it into the sphere, which means after all, Charisma saving throw to see if it can get in there. Got it. And it's not going to. So what is this, small fizzle? It's totally not...

No, no, it doesn't. Yeah, that's just a 10. It's just nothing can get in there except for things that are magically conjured or like a teleportation in there. So does it just appear outside it? But to do it, yeah. So it'll appear here instead of in there. So you see a glowing orange autumnal-looking scarecrow holding a scythe appear, and it swings in. It's not able to get through this magical circle around the buzzing demon. However...

It manages to slice in toward the Marrow. So it's going to make its attack against that guy. Not yet, Matt. It's going to be a 14 to hit. 14 to hit on the Marrow? That does hit. Barely.

And that's 9 points of force damage. Okay, as it slices Anne, this creature lets out a guttural roar as he gets sliced on number 1. 9 points? Got it. And then I'm going to cast Toll the Dead on him as my action. Okay. And he's wounded, right? Yes. Can you make it with some saving throw, please? With saving throw, that will be... 6.

Okay, he fails. You hear the tolling of church bells and bells ringing in the harvest, and it tries to cover his head as blood starts to pour out of ear holes. 18 points of necrotic damage. Jesus Christ! Got it. Okay. Bargum, you're up. Alright, is there enough room to run past this pillar without having to go around? Like, is there a spot here?

I would say probably not. Get rekt. Whoa, whoa! Follow me, does it matter, does it? I would like to run up and attack the... So first I would like to cast Shield of Faith on myself. Yep. No, actually what I'll do, instead of that I'm going to cast Hunter's Mark.

Got it. On number 1. And I will go in for 2 attacks. You channel the power of your Hatred and Fury onto this Marrow. So the lower one, the first one hits. The lower one is a 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 to hit. 12 to hit on the Marrow barely misses. Okay. So I hit for 1, and so I roll a d6, and I roll a d8.

So six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve damage. Twelve damage, your metal slices into this mirror. Twelve on number one. Yep. Okay. It's looking... Oh, no, you cleave into its chest. Oh, shit! And it falls to the ground dead. Well, okay. I'm saving my stuff, then. Wow. Jesus. Okay. Okay.

That's it? That's it. Okay. There are now the large demon is surprised as well. Vengeance, you're up. You were hasted. Yes. I would like to make two attacks on number two. You do that. One being a sneak attack. So move up first. Sword or bow? Bow. Got it. You pull out your bow. Oh, as long as you're in a loss, it's fine. Sorry.

I misunderstood what you were doing. We got a surprise round. It's a surprise round. It's 25. 25, yeah, that's easy. I made a sneak attack, and then 22 on the attack. You're unseen attacker, so you remember your advantage. Oh, so if you're unseen, then roll advantage. So roll again for the first one. Okay, no good. And roll again for the second one.

Okay, that's fine. As long as you want to roll though, you can get that crit. So the first one has sneak attack damage. Yeah, so 3d8 plus my... Or 3d6 plus the 1d6 of R. I'm hiding, so should I be an unseen attacker? 11, or 12, 16. That's for attack rolls. Yeah, I'm talking about my total damage. And then roll again. I'm kidding, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

I mean, I can see why. 25 total damage? 25 total damage. The arrow, you find a weak point in this, uh, in this marrow, and the arrow flies in. It hits it. It is looking... It's looking rough. Is anyone after Vintas?

Oh. It's my turn? No, not... Oh, that two, both attacks? Yeah. Okay. So you fire, bam, bam, and as it's looking very rough, blood is pouring out of this creature. Cry her out. In the holy fire of despair! And I cast Fireball on number one. Okay. You do it.

- Deck saving throws. - Is it disadvantage? No, so it's a deck saving throw for number one and number two. If I cast it here, Voss is spared. - But you're not. - Oh, no. Yeah, Bargrim's gonna be in it, being it good.

So I'm gonna cast it here. I think he's spared, right? Bargrim's not, but Vos is spared. Well, I don't like Vos, but Bargrim's getting the heat here. Oh no, so 17. Dex is 15. Should've casted it on me. I got elemental resistance to fire. Yeah, well fuck off. That's gonna be tough. Well, it's one or the other, right? Well, if it's directly on hand... You can cast it like that. That's fine. Okay.

I don't care, one of them is getting hit, right? That's fine. There's no way to not hit both of them. That's fine. I got a 22. You pass. Two creatures? That's gonna be two... That's gonna be 12... Plus five is 17, plus six is... I'm sorry? 23. Okay, then I'm gonna... Just remember these were threes and fours.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to keep the six. I'm going to spend a sorcerer point. I'm going to reroll the two, the two, the one, and the three. Okay. Can I borrow a d6?

So it's gonna be 18, uh, plus 8 is what? 24. 26, 26. Plus 4 is 30. 30 points of damage to these two. And, uh, half to Barbarian. As the marrow gets completely incinerated, however, the demon passes and dodges a lot of it, and it seems to be resistant to fire.

- Oh, right. - It takes a quarter of that. - Well, I hit him with my Phoenix Punch. - And he was resistant. - A quarter of that is 13 and a half 15 is eight. So it is eight points of damage. - Wow, holy shit. - You round up for damage? - You round me up. - You round me up. - 37. - Seven. - So yeah, nine.

And I spent a sorcerer point to do that. So the fireball erupts out and it seems to be buzzing angrily. Oh, actually, also make a con saving throw, please. Me. Alright, ain't gonna be good. I don't know how long I'm gonna know, either. 12 plus con is... Oh, plus 5, 17. 17. So you've managed to... It's only got more efficient. ...buzz more buzzing, as it is buzzing really crazily. Vaz, you're up.

Alright, I'm gonna cast Hunter's Mark on the main guy. Yep. And then I'm gonna... This is out of here, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah, for now. Wait, what is that? That was the range of my fireball. Oh. Just to measure up who's getting hit. I thought that was the... Oh, that's you. Yeah, that's me. And I'm gonna... Can I hit him from there? Yeah. Yeah, okay, so I'm gonna... Yeah, because he's in the prison. Yeah, well, I'm gonna do it again anyway.

So I'm going to attack him. At disadvantage to roll twice and take the lower. 11. Plus what? That's plus... Plus your bleed. Plus 9, so that's 20. Yeah, should be good. Okay, and I'm going to roll for damage. That's a 10. 10, okay. And I roll an extra d6 for the hunter's mark.

Which is a 3, so 13 damage, first hit. 13 damage for the first hit. That hits. Okay, and then I'm gonna go for the second hit. So disadvantage again. Yep. We have 4. Oh boy. And 14, so 4 plus 11. 11 to hit. 15. 11 to hit. 15. 15. 11 misses, but 15 to hit. Oh. No, it would be 11. 11 to hit. It misses, however, as you swing in the magic circle, kind of giving resistance against your blade. I need you to make a constant aiming throw, please.

Okay, that passes. You may have managed to react against it. Okay, Vaas, you are up. Can the creature roll against that or is he just trapped in there? Just trapped in there.

Provided he is of the type, right? Yeah. They're only at 3 damage. Monsters 2 is the bad guy. It keeps him from being able to do whatever melee attacks he might do as long as we stay out of his range. Well, Monsters 2 is just the big bad, right? Yeah. This is a whole lot. So, can you remove Monsters 1? Okay.

And so it begins to drone louder and louder and louder as it just blanket the whole room. Everyone make a con save here, please. It's the only thing that Krah's good at. Can I borrow a d20? Oh no! Krah rolls a 2, which is a 7! Which means I have to maintain con strength for your haste. With this, you need to roll it harder. You can't just walk it like that. If I fail, you will lose your next turn.

16. 16, 11 passes. 11 passes? It's usually a tenner bet. I got 11. I got 14, Mike. 14. So, you see Craw, the droning overcomes you, and it's so much, you fall unconscious.

No way. Wait, what do you mean like zero hit points on her? No, no, no. You fall. So what happens to my concentration? Instantly fail? It drops. Yeah, it drops. Luckily, Magic Circle's not concentration, so for an hour he's still in there. Yeah, but Reed loses his turn. I feel bad. What, you lose your whole turn? No, because I hasted him. So I lose concentration, which means he is exhausted on his next turn.

Oh, yeah, so you fall unconscious when you're buzzing. And, gee, you're up. It would have been nice if you got more than one hit in with it, man. I'm sorry. I got two hits in. Oh, demon! Wait, did that happen to you just the end? Just me. Oh, I thought you were saying you had all of them. No, no, no, no, no, no. Just me. Gotcha. Just me. I rolled a seven. And by that I mean I rolled a two. What about the professor? He's outside. Yeah, he's not in the door. Gotcha.

Oh, we open the door. Did we close the door back? You go back and it's closed by itself. Yeah, so when the spell ends you can't move or take actions. Can I fly like this way? Can I be here? Yeah. You can. Like through here? Yeah. Just go fucking down. You fly forward. You can fly around. Oh, demon! You have caused my... my small friend Krah to fall unconscious, but...

I'll pay you back with the energy that he gave me earlier! Is it magical sleep? And I hit, uh... Uh, it's a magical... It's... You're unconscious. You're not asleep. Okay. Alright. And so you can be woken up either with damage or by someone waking you up. Got it. Avenge Crawl with the lightning he gave me in the doorway. Okay. With my corner saps. What? Disadvantage? I don't hate that at all. I ain't mad at ya. Wait, what? Oh, two? Okay.

Oh, because... 1. Natural 1. Or 2. Which is an auto-fail. And I would have yelled out to you that you don't want to be in his range. Like, the entire point of the Magic Circle is so he can't move towards you to attack. Or suck your blood or whatever. If you're next to him, he can still get you. No, I'm just saying you can move out of the way of him. You can back up again. Yeah.

- Do I say an opportunity hit here? - Yes. - Can he not come out? Can he not attack me out of the door? - He can opportunity attack you, he just can't follow you out. - Oh. So if you like ran up to him and ran away, he would get an attack by opportunity, he just wouldn't follow you. - So if you had the ability to disengage as a bonus action or something that would help you, if you don't, you just have to stand there and probably be attacked. - Okay, well, all right. Realizing that I was not capable of piercing this shield, I back up one space.

Opportunity attack? So if you went up into that attack... Yeah, I went up to him. So he's gonna shoot at you towards you with his proboscis as he is going to hit you. As it spears into you, stabs into you with his proboscis, it is going to deal. Oh lord. Is he disadvantaged though? No. 150 damage. I hope not. So I don't know if you knew this, but at any point in time you take more than twice what your current hit points are, you die instantly.

Just so you know. 14 points of piercing damage as it sucks into you and you're gonna take this much of the crown. Max plus current. I don't die if they just do my hit points? No, you fall unconscious.

And then 11 points in a chronic damage. Jesus. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your blood. And it drains your horrible sickness overcome you. But if you take your magic from your current attack. Oh wait, can I not cast a spell as a bonus action? It depends on if it's a bonus action. So if you want to get in the rest of your attacks on it, because you already took the bonus action, that's fine. Then you didn't want to back away. That's fine. What? What? So if you wanted to, if you can't bonus act as a spell, and you want to finish out your turn doing the melee and all that, that's fine.

Well, I mean, I already backed up and took the damage. Well, let me just... I think the spell is just a spell. Wait. It'll tell you 1A or 1BA. It's 1A. Yeah. So how many attacks did you get on him, Mace? Just 1. So you still have 1 attack that you... So essentially what you should have done here is you should have done your first attack, your second attack, and then you could bonus attack.

And then you back off. I think we can say that you can add those attacks. So, because you... It's not like you would have known that. That's the entire point of us teaching you, right? So get your second attack and your bonus attack. Then you move back here. The damage you took stays. We're just doing the attacks afterwards. Does that make sense? Yeah, okay. So get those attacks out of the way so you get your full damage that you should have and wouldn't have done. Alright. So I'll second attack. Oh.

Five. Plus what? What's the plus eight? Twelve? It barely misses again, so you can then get the punch in. Bonus action. Ten. Eighteen. Eighteen, that hits. Okay. So, this hits with an unarmed strike, which is 1d6,

plus bludgeoning, but it also triggers the lightning that I had built up from Krah's lightning breath. So, what of bludgeoning? Eleven bludgeoning and one lightning damage additional. Okay, so as you punch in, it zaps this creature, and it's doing a little bit of extra damage, and you punch it, you manage to get away, and it ends up draining your blood, and then with that, as well as...

Extra damage on light. I am going to... I was actually wrong about my magic circle. Because it's not a teleportation or extra dimensional travel, I can put my thing in there. So it is going to be in there and it is going to turn. Con saving throw. Wait, d20? 11 doesn't hit him, does it? Or not 11, 13? It's not.

Bigger. Ten. Ten. You barely managed to resist the droning. And then I am going to cast... I'm going to cast a healing word on Shenolda. Okay. Shuntia be praised. And I'm going to throw some healing at him. Got him. Yes it is, dwarf prick. Yes it is.

And he's gonna get 10 points of healing. You need to throw a 10 point if you wanna kinda hold that when he gets back to the bathroom. I love him. Okay, so you say as a bonus act, you say a little prayer to start the tale. Yeah, go. Okay. Is that it? Yep. Okay, make a constant aim throw for me please. Barbarians, you're up. 13, I believe. 13, that passes. You resist the horrible drooling of this demon. I can't say I have a specific grudge against giant demon flies, but I hate demons.

I transfer Hunter's Mark and I get a... Wait, what? Ten for the first attack. Ten for the second attack. It misses. You swing and swing. This magic circle is disrupting her attacks. I would like to, so live, ten, fifteen. And remember, it's already used as a reaction, so it can't opportunity attack you. I'll still stand...

Okay, with that it's Vince's turn. Oh, con saving throw. Unfortunately, Vince loses his movement and action for the turn. Okay, so you feel exhausted from the magic dropping on you. Can you make a con saving throw please for me? DC's 10. She healed you for 10. You're good. Okay, yeah, you feel totally fine. You barely notice the droning of this feather demon. Crawl, you're up. I'm unconscious. Consist, make another con saving throw.

Nine. Nine. You still are unconscious as you can be woken up. Oh, that's it? Yeah. How do we wake him up? Can we walk up to him? You have to use an action to shake him or do damage. Okay. Vaz, you're up. Shoot too many? Maybe don't. You're up, Vaz. I'm going to use Slayer's Prey on the...

I'm going to channel your monster slaying abilities. Then I'm going to attack. Okay, you do that. So, 5...14? 14 misses, unfortunately. And I'll target him with a second attack. I'm just exhausted. I haven't fallen asleep yet. I'm exhausted.

That would be 15. 15 barely hits. Barely hits? Alright. So I roll 1d6. Interesting. 10. And 2d6. This is very fairytale. It is fairytale. It's literally 10 damage. 10 damage. As your, I believe it's fairytale, as it slices in, glaive slashes its flesh, blood kind of splatters from its horrible... Did you roll a disadvantage? Yes. Okay.

I'm sorry, that's actually wrong. He should be rolling at disadvantage against us. So I can either put it around us, and then things at disadvantage attacking through it at us, or I can put it on him, and it still protects us, he just can't move. That's okay, Willow got a little confused. Sorry. Wait, we should be rolling at disadvantage? No.

He should be rolling at disadvantage against us. The Magic Circle still protects us, is what it says. Is that my first hit? Roll... We rolled two. The first roll for it was like a... No. You can't get near the circle. No one can get near the circle.

So I roll for another damage, right? Yeah. Okay, so I do... We'll get the two we're learning. We're learning all this now. So we get ten, and then on top of ten, I do another... So I can either put it on odds, or I can put it on a fiend celestial or... And if you want to get in there, you have to use magical means. So he could miss these steps. But it's considered an interplanar, so you'd have to roll a constitution save to see if you can get in there. Otherwise, you can't even get in, and he can't get out.

And so he is able to hit Bargram and he's rolling a disadvantage with his proboscis. So he's going to- He still hit me. What? Oh, you're saying he's attacking you. He's attacking you. Alright. Alright. Disadvantage though, right? For him to hit you. He's just in that team. I know that misses. Don't apologize for fucking you guys. And manage to block it with your axe. Okay, that's his turn. G, you're up. My Azkazak, you mean.

You're Oz Kazak. Jindra. Uh, okay. Uh, let's give this one more shot! And I go up to him.

Oh, whoops. And you are not disadvantaged. Yeah. Oh wait. Not disadvantaged this time. Mikey. Yeah? I didn't add my extra damage to him. What do you roll for my life? Would've been 12. Got it. 12 extra, so I did 25 instead of 13. Okay. He's looking fairly rough. Plus 12? Do you have a class? He also can't charm, frighten, or possess any of us. Two separate attacks. Each one is plus 6. Gotcha. Hit him the first time. 18 hits. Okay.

Quarterstaff. Eight. Eight damage. Follow-up hit. 25. Eight again. And my unarmed strikes. 24. And it's a d6.

Seven? Wait, uh, yeah, seven. Seven. He is barely hanging on to life as you smash him twice with your quarterstaff and kick him in the face. He's looking very rough as he's trapped by this magical circle looking very, very, very close to death. Can I spend a ki point and hit him again? Okay, you can. Definitely hit him.

How would you do this? How would you do it? I don't think, I don't think. What is it? He's like flying? He's like this horrible buzzing mosquito fly. But also trapped like a rabbit cage. Let him have it man, just your wildest imagination. Seriously. I'm just thinking.

Yeah, is it okay with fire? Whatever you want, literally. Just do it. Say it. So I hit him the quarterstaff the first time. I flip it around, put it on my back.

sliced through him for that second hit. And then the last hit, after he's like staggering a little bit, I take a sip of tea, and I breathe fire onto him. Fuck yeah! You are smashing him, smashing him, smashing him, and this circle, he's trapped. He's looking angrily at you, as this horrible fiendish creature has been completely nullified by the gods. And you- he's a sitting duck in this demon, and you smash and smash, and you're like,

Put it back, and you see fire erupt around the town and flames incinerate. Although he is resistant to fire, it doesn't matter as flames incinerate. This is the horrible droning drops and this creature falls to the ground dead. Can we take a minute to talk about how fucked up it was from 30 to 7 points of damage? That's all I want to say. That's nuts.

Wait, what happened? When I fireballed his ass. I got 30 points and the engine went to 7. I was like, okay, cool, man. And then I'll fall asleep. I'll take a nap. No big deal. Crawl, nap. Right before I hit him with the flame breath, I say, Did I ever tell you guys about the time I learned this move from the Dragon of the West? And then I drank the tea. Oh, I think you did. That was a good one, though.

Fucking savage. Alright. And Yurita quiet returns to the chamber. And crawls. Should someone wake up? I would have immediately run over. If it was my turn next, I would have run over and shaken him. You awaken to the flowing red locks of a halfling looking over you, shaking you away. Miss Rilla! Well, good morning.

I fell asleep! Miss Willow, are you okay? I'm alive, aren't I? I didn't take a single lick of damage. I'm very grateful. Master Vince! Master Vince, are you okay?

I'm like crawling over exhausted still. Craw has not used that spell before. And Craw apologizes for the inconvenience, Master Vint. It's all right. I was behind the pillar. I also took no damage. I'm sorry. Welcome back to the land of the living, Craw. Thank you, G. Thank you. Maybe if you have some tea to spare? Oh.

Oh, yes. I brewed just for this moment. Who's a hell of a drug is it? I could use a bit of caffeine. Everyone their own. Everyone their own. Asran, you hear a door slide. Is everything alright? No, please, Professor, come in. We still insist that you lead the way.

Oh, very well, Krah! Of course I would love to come in! And he enters in. Professor Azran opens the door and pulls it shut behind him. As he looks around, he sees the corpse of the two Marrow and the insectoid demon. And he says, gods, what's happened here? Well, we killed everything. Let's continue. Oh, Azran, let me tell you, it was no challenge at all.

Let's continue. If we're going to continue, are you guys going to argue for another 15 to 20 minutes before we leave the room? Do I once again have to sneak ahead? Was it 15, 20, or somewhere in between? I think it was probably 10 to 12. You know, gee, I think you probably were on that. It's possible. You know what?

I think it was 15 to 20. You know what? I think I slightly disagree, so I'll grumble about it for the next hour. Grumble, grumble. He pulls out his book of grudges and writes Eric over. Oh, why is Grudging and Sarah over? He said 12 to 15. I think it's 13 to 16. It's going in the book of grudges. And Professor Azran steps up.

and he looks at the chamber and he sees all the bas-reliefs of these draconic figures all along the walls and he sees, you see a number of closed doors directly ahead onto your left and to your right. He eyes them and he sees that, you see that all of the walls have been defaced by these horrible markings. Blood and this strange black, horrible writings. And he looks up ahead and there's a strange pedestal right next to the

corpse of this bug demon. And he steps up. He can't go in there.

Towards it. I'm just letting you know you can't touch it because of the magic circle. It's a 20 foot diameter. Is that fiends or can human always go through it? Once I put it, it's there for an hour. So even though he's dead, you still can't get more than... But doesn't it only block certain types of creatures? No, you can either trap a fiend in it. Or block them out. But once it's there, you can't get into it. So if I had put it around us...

then a fiend can't, or well, anybody technically can't hit us. Or maybe it's just a fiend. I think it's a fiend who can't hit us. How do we kill it then? Nothing, we have to wait an hour for it to go away. No, no, no. How did we kill it? We can hit through it, but you can't walk into it. I will read it to you. He approaches it. I think she could drop it though. It's not concentration. Okay, there you go. So once I cast it, it's there for an hour.

So to get in...

We got our boy. We got our boy, Krah. That is if I did it in the normal version. I did it in the reverse, which means if we were to enter the cylinder to get him, we would have to do it by magical means. Why did you explore this ancient armor within the barrier? What? The ancient armor within the barrier. The only one that can reach it. You think Krah can pass through Mistwillow's

A barrier? I have no idea, but I'd love to see you try. If you try, if you try, go on and give it a try. So, from what I'm reading it, I will say that it just prevents the fiend from leaving it. It doesn't prevent human always from getting through. Crosses get fucked! So, because it's specifying fiends. I cast it in reverse, but not regularly. So yeah, it's reverse as in... Which means that whatever is inside... Preventing a creature of the specified type, fiend, from leaving the cylinder. Yes. So it doesn't prevent people from getting in.

I'm saying, so the reverse, which is the three things, where normally it'd be the creature can't willingly enter, it becomes we can't willingly enter. So the idea is that you can either protect yourself from fiends coming in, or you can prevent a fiend from getting out. So it's all targeted, I'm just going to say that it's targeted, it's towards fiends, it can prevent either a fiend from getting in, or a fiend from getting out. And so, that's my understanding of the magic circle. Either way, it doesn't matter.

So Professor Azran steps up to the platform and looks, and you now are starting to kind of, the calm returning over this chamber. As the, you see that there's a pillar that's at the center that seems to be a resting place for something that is, to be something to be rested on top of it. But there is nothing there.

It seems to be in the shape of a... So it looks like there's an altar. What was it? In the middle. Wasn't there armor there when we walked in? It looks like a place where it may hold armor. Oh, okay. As you look at it, and it looks like it's a place where a helmet might reside. And as you look at it, you see that there is a number of writings all along the strange pedestal.

that, uh, that up and down, and I guess you both would be able to read this. No! Draconic? I can read Draconic. There's three of you that could read. It's in Draconic. It says that here lies the Eyes of the Abyss, a great relic that had brought the destruction of many metallic dragonborn ships. This is not okay. I'm gonna put that somewhere. You mean it? No. Trash?

I will, I can read this, correct? Yeah. I will whisper that to Mastavent and, is it okay if I let Miss Willow know? Yes, yes. And then I let Willow know the same thing. And I whisper it to her. Okay. I do. So you now know this. As Professor Azran is looking at this pillar and he's jotting things down. I'll calmly explain the writings to the group at large. Okay.

So you're saying that there was a helmet called the eyes of the abyss? If these writings are to be believed, there was a helmet of the abyss that caused great reckoning to the ships of... Of these bronze dragonborn, yes. Of these bronze dragonborn. In what way? How could it possibly take down a ship with a simple helmet? Our query is as good as mine.

Well, there's clearly no helmet here, so perhaps we just move on. There are three doors out of this room. There are, there are, yeah. What do we think? Do we just continue onwards? Does anybody have a helmet they'd like to put in there and see if anything happens?

I've almost never been any friend of mine. It only slows you down. I have no helmet. I'll take off my helmet and I'll put it in to see if... You take off your helmet and you rest it on the top. It seemed that whatever this helmet was was considerably larger than your dwarven head. And it just rests on the top. And nothing happens. It doesn't sink onto the... It just rests on top.

Do Inira heads seem big enough to fit a helmet of this size? I would say that the closest one would probably be... make an intelligence check at advantage. 15 or... 18 plus 2... 20. You get the sense that it's probably in the shape of Vos's. It seems maybe a little bit larger than his, but that would be the closest. Too bad I'm not wearing it.

And Professor Azran steps up and he looks around at all of this. He has his sketchbook open and he's wildly jotting down notes. He seems to be sketching everything that he sees. As he is looking, this seems to be a chamber where an incredibly powerful artifact was stored after some climactic battle. As he's just jotting down feverishly,

Can he read the runes around the room? Can he read Draconic? Or the- it's not Draconic. The runes aren't what the room is for. Like carvings and stuff. Like in the wall. Just like drawings in the wall. No, carvings. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, they're basically, yeah, they're bas-reliefs, which are these incredibly elaborate murals telling the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. And, um, directly...

You see that it's all, they've all however been just marked up in these strange writings of these horrible markings and this horrible language that none of you can read. Alright. Ezran, this is your journey, your search, you know the most about this temple. We have three ways out of this room, where would you like to go? Ah, Krah doesn't want to be presumptuous, but Krah agrees with G.

Professor has his right and should lead the way! Well, I mean, I assume we have three separate options here. He goes up to each door and they seem to be the same make and style. The one on the left, the one on the right, and the one directly ahead. As he is jotting down furiously and he looks and there are, there is a number of marks across each of the doors.

And one says to the left, "For the holy." In Draconic? In Draconic. The one directly ahead says, "For the arcane." The one to the right says, "For the private."

I would ask, are there any markings to determine which door is for what? Like, does this door go to the bathroom, does this door go to the... Like, I don't know what those markings say, so I would be asking, is there any markings saying what these doors lead to? Oh, seems very cryptic to me. Are you realizing what he's saying? What do our drachy friends say?

I begin to survey the room, inspect the doors closely, Azran not seeming to have a clear idea of where he would want to go. We have three options out of here. Left door, the door over here, seems to have an inscription around it that says, For the Holy. Oh, that's like me. That is like you, Bargum. And Willow. Willow, correct. And as you say that, I'm already starting to walk down.

Center, before we choose any. The center... She's gone. Are you gone? The center-most doorway for the arcane. And I'm going to hide behind something in stealth, so I'll tell you what that is. And the doorway over here for the primal reeds above it in Dracomi. Is there anything on the doorway we came through? Like the same kind of inscription on the doorway we came through? That does not seem to have anything. It seems to be a general entrance to this chamber.

Well, perhaps we go down the holy door, the holy path, in case... I guess what I've known that you would have left. Perception. Yeah, I said, like, as he said that and looked towards the holy thing, you would have seen my little half-body trotting down the hallway. You see her trotting as the... Because it was once I got in there that I did myself. As the door opens and you're trotting down the hallway and you see a large...

Heavy door, stone, but it's cracked slightly open. What was your stealth roll? 22. 22. Dang. So you are creeping down here. I'm going to slide into the cracked door and see what's going on. Can we just reveal all of that? Those two pieces of paper should be enough. I think once you're fighting, you lose Pass Without Trace. I don't think you've maintained that. I know I used something else. Roll Concentration, yep.

Well, I don't know, I think even if you are on the effects, if you make an attack, do you lose it? No. Well, you lose the effects of it, but as long as you're still concentrating on it, we could then stealth again and do it. But if you use another concentration spell... Yeah, I did. You did? Okay. So it's dropped. Prayer Slayer? Slayer Prayer?

Slayer's Prayer? What? What spell did you cast? Either way, you walk down this hallway, you slip into the door, and as you step forward, you feel that there's this shimmering light, despite there being no light source. And you feel a sense of holiness wash over you. It's not the same kind of feeling that you feel when you pray to Shantiyah.

But as you step in, you see ruined, crumbling... I don't have darkvision. Correct, but this light seems to illuminate very faintly. This room is a shimmering light that kind of makes the whole room glow. And this deep into a ruin like this, you would not expect it.

As you see that the light is not quite silver, not quite gold, but a strange platinum would be a color that you would use. As you see ruined pews and benches and places of worship. As you see once again more reliefs, smaller than this one. As at the far end you look to your left and you see a large altar. A figure sitting, resting on it. A large head.

Draconic shape. This beautiful metal plated in this statue. And directly above it is one of the reliefs. Something glints and catches your eye. One, two, three, four. Almost shimmering like sapphires. Four blue gems in the bas-relief.

directly above this Draconic head statue on the altar. I'm gonna go straight up to it, completely ignore the gems and the bas relief, and just start making an altar to Shantiyah around it, like, pulling that out of my back, my pack with, you know, different things, and I'm just gonna sit in there and pray. Okay.

You do that. Is it a helmet? Or is it a head? I didn't catch. Is it a head? It's a statue. Oh, yeah. So it's not like a helmet. But this is what he described to her. So you're not in the room. Well, yeah. Just so I understand. Totally. I just wanted to make sure that you weren't asking about this altar. You were asking about that one. Right. Okay, cool.

I'm on the same page. And so you pick out things like fruits and vegetables and some little gourds. Yeah, some gourds and that kind of thing. You place it around and you feel like this is an incredibly holy place and you take the opportunity to immediately try to channel with your god here as these gems glint above you.

That's what I'll do. Okay. So meanwhile in the room, I'll say, Looks like the room key went down the hallway. Shall we all go and assist her? Nothing's ever spoken to me quite like the primal forces of the elements. So this doorway over here draws me, but...

I don't think we should split up. This place has not been kind to us so far. I agree. I was going to agree as well that I don't feel that I need to be going down the holy. I should be going down the arcane. I agree with Master Vince. While I am concerned about Miss Willow, I do not feel holy.

But I mean, I think that should we really split up at a time like this? There are demons afoot, or some kind of fiends, and strange fish creatures. These are just woods carved above the door. You don't have to be holy to go in. Unless you do, Vint, would you care to explore the arcane natures of these doorways? Master Vint, that may be a trap. Just be careful.

The trap to detect magic on the doorways? That seems like a good idea to me. I'm gonna detect magic on, uh... The Arcana doorway? As the wise ones say, always detect magic on the doorways. Something Felix forgot. It's just...implacent.

so 20 20. yeah uh so as you uh you're you're gonna get it can you sweep all doors yeah got it so as you are sweeping your detect magic uh you feel a lack of glow around the holy and then on the next one the arcane it pumps and it seems to be evocation the next one you arrive at

Nothing. Prime of the primal. There seems to be nothing there. You do, I will say, you do get a latent sense of residual magical hum from all of the etchings on the large bas-reliefs all around the room. But nothing powerful enough to really denote a school of magic. Okay, so the two side doors, I didn't get any magic from. But from the arcane door, I did get magic from, which seems kind of apropos. Arcane.

Well, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with heading through the holy door, then. Why don't we follow our comrade and stick together? I won't leave Miss Willow alone, so I'll follow. All right, let's go. I'll stay here. We go down there. All right, your funeral. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!

Someone needs to guard our backs. As we all cross the threshold, though, Kra very carefully sticks one foot across the threshold to see what happens. Okay. You step your way into it. Your toe, you're expecting to erupt into holy fire, and you do not. Ha ha ha ha.

Cross coming! And you see Willow. She is kneeling in prayer, at least currently not paying attention to you. As she's surrounded by fruits and gourds and vegetables and the like. And you arrive and you see that there is... We can all go in. You see the same, yeah. And Professor Azran is looking around and saying, this is remarkable. Just to find a structure that's still standing and...

and has so much still preserved is completely unheard of. And he is marking everything down as he follows him. He seems to be barely paying attention, just kind of mindlessly following as he's jotting everything down and sketching. And he arrives at the... You all arrive and you see the same thing that Willow had seen. Willow.

So we see a draconic head statue? You see a draconic head statue resting on the altar. It seems to be made out of stone but plated in some kind of shimmering platinum-looking metal. And you see the ruined benches and pews and stone slabs where individuals might come and worship. And you see a number of bas-reliefs all around the side. Is the professor with us? Yes, he's right behind you. Correct. Yeah.

Do any of these... Is there any draconic text on the walls that we can see? Beyond the bas-reliefs. It seems as if there is no text on here. But however, as you investigate, you see that there is a story being told along the walls of this bas-relief. And it starts directly ahead of the alternates.

As Professor Azran finally blinks and he gets a lay of this room, he walks up and he sees the four glimmering jewels. And he immediately makes his way towards it. And you can see that there's some cracks along the side. And it seems to be a little loose. As he walks up, and you see that there is a figure.

There are the shapes of these dragonborn figures. Humanoid and draconic. And they seem to not have the features of a bronze or a brass like Vaas. But have curved dark horns similar to Krah. They seem to be black dragonborn. Wearing a helmet by the sea cliffs as massive dragons.

Draconic turtle looking figure erupts from the sea and every corner are blue gems like glinting sapphires. And Professor Azran is looking up at it with wide eyes. He says, "This is incredible." And as you get a chance to look around, you want to make whoever would like to make an investigation check to see. I don't want to make an investigation check, but while no one is paying attention, Krall wants to take one of his daggers and try to pry a sapphire out of the wall.

Make a dexterity check. Well, make a sleight of hand check to see if anyone... It's very high up. Or not very high up, but high up for you. Well, if it's... That's fine. I mean, if it's within feasible reach... If I can't even reach... No, you would not be able to reach it. Then never mind. Yeah. So it's, like, probably at, like, this height for a person of... Okay. So you'd be below it. Got it. And... What was the check? Oh, perception? Mystication. Oh, no, I don't care. Eighteen? Eighteen? Eleven. Eleven.

Eleven, okay. So as you look around, you see a story start to unfold. You see a city, and it starts to start... Do I also see it or just him? I would say that he kind of guides you through. Oh, okay. You see a story of a city, a dragonborn that looks similar to the one with all of the gems, black dragonborn, in a swamp with low-hanging boughs, committing dark rituals.

and eventually in their grasp is this helmet with four eyes. And you see that this was used to call forth great dragon turtles out, and these massive creatures from the elemental plane of water would emerge forward and destroy entire fleets of the enemy Dragonborn, prominently the bronze. And then it shows a great bronze fleet

with several bronze dragons, perhaps adult agents. Oh shit. And a massive battle. Thousands of dragonborn, dozens of dragons, dragon turtles, all dead. But a massive ship destroyed and shattered. The helm, the Eyes of the Abyss, recovered. You see that the helmet and its gems separated, stored away so it can never harm any people.

dragon-born chromatic or metallic dragon one fleet ever again and it is in this holy place of Bahamut where no evil can tread sanctified ground where Bahamut watches over eternally so do we get do we get the impression that this temple is the guarded is guarded by Bahamut yeah that's where we are that's a little the chamber that you're in okay well uh does this sound familiar to you professor this whole story of

Dragon war and dozens of dragons and hundreds of thousands of dragonborn dying. I mean, I've heard of many great battles but one that matches this description I may be able to place but I'd have to research all of the great naval battles of the thousands of years of Draconic history. I don't know about this battle but

But if this helmet and these gems are capable of summoning the dragon turtles from the great elemental plane of water,

I don't know anything of them except that their fury and power is terrible. And we can never allow them to erupt into this plane again. Krah should not be in this chamber. Krah will go wait in the main hall by the altar. And I'll slowly back out. I fly up to the gems and see if I can eat them out. Make a dexterity check.

Is it 16? 16. You fly up and you put your claws into them and you try to nudge and it doesn't seem to budge at all, the gems. However, the slab itself, the bas relief that it's on seems to nudge a little bit. And Professor Asher puts up a hand. Hold on! This could be a profound archaeological importance. Give us a hand! Everyone! All right, all right, of course!

I hope my Talon's in and Bargrim grabs my feet, if that's a height thing. I will help in any way that I can help the Defensile. Asran reaches down from the bottom and tries to dislodge. He has some of his tools and he's gently sneaking this metal tool up behind where this stone slab was fastened.

Like taking the whole basrelief, the whole slab. And let me support you if I can. I want to support the weight of the basrelief if he gets it off. Okay. I would say whoever else is assisting, could you please make a dexterity check? Me as well? Yeah. I'll do one. 20. Okay. 6. 8.

You manage to, all of you work together, it looks like it's going to fall, and you manage to catch it. As you're all holding this large bas-relief slab, these four rubies glimmering, or sapphires, glimmering and glinting in a strange platinum light all around it. You see the professor open his briefcase.

And he closes it, opens it again, and there seems to be this huge space. As he holds it open, as you all grab it, "Here, slide it in here. I'll be able to research it at a later date." But we don't have time. With these horrible demons, these fiends, these creatures, we cannot allow them to take this. As you say, and I will help him put it in his briefcase. Okay.

So you help slide in the slab into the briefcase, it disappears. Does it have the gems on it? Yeah. It's got the four gems? The four gems are on it. And it slides in. He closes it, and then opens it again, it looks like his normal briefcase. And he closes it. Again. And he says, "Well, we know that there's foul business afoot, but I feel like we cannot stop. We must find additional secrets here." I agree, uh... Do you think this... is there anything else of importance in this room?

I'm not going to look around and see if there's anything else worth watching. Jeez. Ten. Ten. You look around and it seems to me that those four sapphires were really the only thing that was the important thing here. I'd like to walk up to the skull and try and lift it on the altar. Okay. You do that. Make an athletic check. Nineteen. Okay.

It says plus zero, but if it's a strength check, can I use my dexterity? No, no. Oh, just a strength check. So 19. So you heave this statue, the head of the platinum dragon, up. And I would say at this point you realize this is probably a statue of Bahamut. And you're able to heave it up. It is very heavy. Made of solid stone and plated in this beautiful glimmering platinum. You're able to lift it.

Is there any reasonable thought that I would think that this could fit on the thing in the other room? I would say that it looks like something that's meant to hold a helmet and it seems to be missing. And this thing seems like it is more of a statue. Unrelated. Unrelated, yeah. I just let it drop. Okay, you place it down gently.

You see that? Just to flex on him, you know? You place him down gently. Had to do it to him. And Professor Azran says, this is incredible. He's sketching the entire rest of the room. And he looks around and says, there's a reason why these demons were here. These Mero were here summoning horrible creatures. That's right. Oh, do you think they're anymore? I don't know.

I'm still drawn to the Arcane Door, so I want to go back out. I feel like we've got what we needed here. Why don't we go on? Has anything happened in the main room or I'm just sitting there alone? I've been there with you. I sure hope there are more. The first couple were no match for us. I think I was in the other room when Krah came back. I would immediately ask him what happened in the other room.

Okay. And then I would describe the baster leaves that we saw and how there was a depiction of the war and the dragon turtles and the difference between the different types of dragons and say basically, "Kraak, Kraak did not belong in that room. Kraak came back here." I would tell him exactly what I saw. Yeah. So you do that and the rest of the group comes and joins you and Professor Azran is looking around and sketching and he says,

I think I have everything we need in this temple of Bahamut. Just as a point, I'm gonna ask somebody else, just 'cause I don't trust Krah, just to make sure the story checks out. Uh, the professor fills you in on everything. It all syncs up. I'm, uh... yeah, okay. I wanna push through this door. Okay. Dark angel. As you, uh, place your hand on it, it hums with energy, it seems to be locked.

As you're unable to open. And I will step back 30 feet and use Mage Hand and try and unlock it. Okay. Once again, I raise an Earthen Shield in front of us as well. Just in case. We're all huddled behind. Yeah, huddle us behind. Oh boy. Seven, ten. Ten. What are we doing? We're not under duress, so you can always try again. As it...

You hear a loud rumbling and the lightning strikes out from the ceiling. What's the radius on that? You're far enough back that nothing's happened. 25. But it seems as if from your approximation that this mage hand doesn't seem to be... It's not hitting the same kind of tumblers that you're used to from the other door. It seems as if there's some other...

some other reason that this isn't working. Vint, friend, are you struggling with the door? There's no shame. Don't you dare insult Master Vint like that! There's no insult, Grr. I'm merely asking a question. This door is different than the previous door. The tumblers are different. There's some false sets.

And I need to get through. Can you just try again? I'm gonna try again. Okay, try again. Eleven. It seems that the lightning continues to shoot down again. I'm gonna try again. Okay. Can you just keep trying? We're not under duress. I mean, there's no reason to pray. So, even though it's working, you finally feel like you have it, doesn't seem to quite do the trick.

You feel like, and once again, it shocks. There you go. So I can't pick this lock. Master Finch, what do you mean? I look at the door to see what I believe it's made of. Okay. Make an investigation check. I mean, there seems to be some magic in here that's preventing me from unlocking this door. Nine. Not that I can't unlock it. As you look at it... We will figure it out, Master Finch. You see that there is...

It's made of that same heavy stone that the rest of this temple is made out of. Okay, I walk closer to the door within melee range of it and I place my talons on it and I attempt to sense the earth within it to see if I can sense the lock and use move earth to unlock the door. Does move earth, is it unworked earth?

I believe so. Look at the spell itself. And it will tell you what kind of earth that you can move. Because if you take earth and you make bricks out of it, then you can't move that earth. Because it's been worked. I got you. Plus the door or the lock is probably not made of earth. Yeah, my guess is the whole thing is stone and then there's some sort of magical locking mechanism, but that is meta knowledge. I'm guessing outside of the game.

As far as I know, you're not a metal blender. Yes. Yes, he hasn't gotten that far. That's what I said, as far as I know. You choose a portion of dirt or stone that you can see within range that fits within a five-foot cube. You can manipulate it in one of the following ways. And one of the ways is you can cause shape, colors, or both to appear on the dirt or stone, spelling out words, creating images, or shaping patterns.

So that sounds like you could draw on the stone to me. And I can change the tumblers to... You can certainly try. Or just remove the lock in general. Yeah, I can shape it out of a lock to no longer... Well, you can try. You can try. That's the beauty of D&D. So what are you going to try to do? I'd like to put... Like, press my palm to the door, sense the elements...

of, I'm guessing, earth in the door to see if I can unmold the lock using earthbending. How much health you got? Boss, how much health you got? Right now? Total? Total. Eh, 58. That ain't enough. That's all I'm gonna say. I'd like to see if I can effectively render the lock useless.

Like, it could, like, bar its ability to lock us from opening the door by unmolding it. By changing its shape to not a lock and, like, mud. Can you read the spell one more time? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to make sure that this is 100%. I mean, it was not, like, you choose a portion of, uh, choose a portion of dirt or stone that you can see within range and that fits within a five foot cube. You manipulate it in one of the following ways.

And the middle one... So the first one is if you target an area of loose earth, you instantaneously excavate it, move it along the ground, deposit it. The second one is you cause shapes, colors, or both to appear on the dirt or stone, spelling out words, creating images, or shaping patterns. So I would say that as you try this, you're able to make the surface of it.

start to change very slightly. But as it's roughly hewn a stone door, you're unable to change the nature of the lock. Okay. Professor Azran looks and says, well, there's that door over there. This is the private.

Hi, that's a good idea. I mean, you're all about the primal elements, aren't you? We don't... We don't need this stupid door. Let's go to the next one. Add this door to your book of grudges. Oh, you're a... Bargum, I don't like it. Let me add that to the damage crew. And then I take the book off my belt. Oh, door. I know the door is set. I do...

I go to the build that Constructs. It's impressive there's more than one door that you are crushing against. Oh, believe me. There was a vault door that wouldn't open and there was lots of gold inside. There was another door that was keeping out some grubby that...

Somehow the luck got picked and no one knows how and countless dwarves were slaughtered. Anyway, this dwarves going in my book of grudges. All right. Perfect. I'd like to go in this door. Okay. The primal one? The primal one, but I want to be very wary for like Indiana Jones style traps, like rolling boulders and arrows shooting off of the wall. Okay. Make a perception check, please. Okay. Okay.

Are you standing next to the door? Well, yes, you go up to it, yes. I got four. I'm not perceptive. So, ten. Oh, may I? May I? What? You don't sense any traps. You don't. You don't. All right.

I've been there. Alright, I'll go in. Okay. So as you try to listen, you don't really hear much. As you press your hand onto the handle and it opens. You hear, as Mr. Azran's eyes widen and the door opens and you hear the rumbling of thunder.

And you see flash as you push ahead and you can remove all that. Wait, how much? Like this fur? Okay. Okay. You open and you see, you look inside this room. And the door's not even locked, no.

Not this one. Not this one. This door is blown in the book of brushes. You look ahead. This door is okay by me. And you step inside and it looks like you hear the sound of thunder. You see the flashing of lightning. You hear the lapping of water. And as you step in, you see a chamber that seems to be very natural. It looks like a natural cave. And up above you, you step inside and you almost feel the

the gust of wind. You feel like there's storming clouds above. You hear the flash of lightning above as you look over to your right. And there is the lashing of water, almost looking like the sea, thrashed about like you're in the middle of a great storm. Well, I'm not in there. But from what you described, the ground is solid. This is a raging storm.

The whole ground is solid, but it seems like in this strange natural pattern. Is it raining? With a strange, it does not seem to be raining. Okay. It just almost seems like you're the sounds and sights of a storm, but it's kind of similar to the faint, the platinum light that was shining in. It seems like this strange magical sense over this chamber as well.

Well, I'm not one for the primal elements, but I'll trust my good friends the Karaki and the Krosari and I'll follow them through the tunnel. Gee, you better not be leading me astray. Oh, the elements speak very loudly in here. I love it. Can you control them? Perhaps to our benefit. The elements are very intense in here.

Normally, yes, but probably not now. I will have her look around the room to see if there's anything of value in here we can discern or use. Make a perception check for me. And Willow, will you make a religion check at advantage, please? All of us make a perception check? Those that are in the room that wants to look around, yes.

Seven. Seven. As you're sitting there praying to Shantiyah, you feel a warmth inside of you, well up. It seems to be shimmering down on you from this platinum light. You feel like there is, you look up to the altar, and you feel like there is a glint

of the sunset at harvest time on this platinum plated statue and you feel like Shantia is telling you that there's some kind of significance to this head. The rest of you. Is she still back in the first room? The whole room? Yes. I imagine that you're still staying there. Yeah. And you do that. So what was the percentage of everybody? I didn't go in the room either. Oh, I didn't go in the room either. Okay. 14. 14. 16. I'm proficient. I'm proficient at it.

Yeah, that already added that. No, that's... wait, does it? Yeah. Did you roll? Whatever that number is, is what you add. So that already includes your proficiency. But if it's sight, you double your proficiency though. Wait, that doesn't include that? For his feet, anything that he's looking around for, because he's an air coke grub. Why wouldn't it include the number?

Because it's only for sight. So if it's anything else, listening or whatever. It's like ears or... You do your brother. Fourteen. Fourteen. And what do you get, boss? Twelve. Sixteen. Sixteen. So the... And what do you get, sorry? Fourteen. Fourteen, okay. So you're all looking around and both of you don't really see anything. However, Bargain...

As one flash of the strange lightning above you cracks, you see a glint of something beneath the water that, through this churning sea, is it? Cool. And you see a glint of something just catch in the flash of the lightning. My good friends, if you would look with me, I believe there's something glinting down there in the water. Do you see that as well? Oh.

Bargham, I do believe you are correct. I see it now that you've pointed it out. Well, I'm glad I put it there. Thank God I rolled a 15 or higher yesterday. You're the DC! I'm such a finger-sartiff.

I'm guessing I hit it with a 16. I'm not much of a swimmer with all of this heavy armor in my Azkazak and my throng, but perhaps you two could dive in and collect whatever's shimmering down there. It might be of archaeological importance for the professor. Professor Azran steps in. As he's sketching fevers, how is this even possible? There's a

And he cowers at one of the crashes of thunder and the arcs of lightning across the sky that do not seem to ever reach beyond the ceiling. Seeing Professor Azran walk into the room, I'm going to turn to Master Vint and say, Master, do you mind if I go take a look? Sure.

If you feel like you want to, yes. So I want to just kind of sheepishly follow Azran but not go all the way through, but seeing him go through I want to get closer to the hallway. In the doorway? Yeah, like there. That's perfect. Because I want to like, I'm following him but I'm not on, like with him. Vintas, real quick, could you please, I want to say that since you're staying in the room and you've been looking around, could you please make an Arcana check at advantage from your time investigating this door, please?

Come on, motherfucker! Investigation 15. Arcana, right? Arcana. Also 15. Okay. So, um... As you go in to join them,

You are stepping, you realize that you tried to come stand back, but as you're getting closer to this door, Vint, is now that all of the chatter and bickering of your companions is subsided. Only Willow and Vint is really enjoying the quiet now. As you step forward, you realize that on either side of this door, on the floor, there's a strange flash of the stone. You place your hand down and you feel like there's an illusion.

on either side. And there's an illu- on either side, there is a circular, illusory indentation. Not much deeper than probably about six inches. Each of them seems to be circular. And you've realized on either side that there's an illusory stone floor on top of each of these indentations. You now join the rest of your compatriots that are in this chamber.

I might have something that can shed a little more clarity on what's in the water without diving into it in a lightning storm. I knew you had the tools to deal with this, Boogie. Are you sure you don't want to dive in? I walk up to the water's edge and I cast Shape Water, which allows me to change the opacity of any liquid I can connect with to make it completely clear. Do you have to touch it?

Please say yes. What's the range? I probably have to... Please say yes. I mean, it's 30... Wait, wait, wait. Range is 30 feet. Oh, fuck. Oh, no, I mean, that's a good thing, guys. That's a very good thing. I mean...

Yeah, it's just 30 feet. But then I can manipulate within a 5 foot. Then that means you can stand back. You stand back. So you don't have to stand around the water. Unless you want to. I would have gone to the water as an elemental. Totally. I would have gone to the water's edge. I would have Tai Chi'd the shit out of this thing. So you Tai Chi. You see Anji slowly moving.

moving his talons and his wings with the ebb and the flow. With the ebb and the flow. And like a water bender, you see his hand glow in the swirling water as his hand finally reaches out and the shimmering darkness of the water below suddenly becomes crystal clear. And all of you see the bottom of this chamber thrashing about the ocean. You're able to see a glint as the lightning flashes.

bright white pearl. However, it's inside of a beautifully sculpted statue of some kind in the shape of a huge giant clamp with a that seems to rest on the bottom. Do we all see this? There's only four of you in there right now. How deep does it look? It's 20 feet deep.

Alright, so well done, G. I knew I could count on you. Why don't you just dive right in there and collect it? I think I've seen you swim once or twice before. Not well, as I'm an aerocobra. But stupids love to duck all the time, aren't you? Basically a duck. Oh, you make a strong argument. I've no counter to the duck comment.

You're really bringing me around, I think I'll just have to think about it for one more moment. Yes, okay, I'll dive in. I'll be right here by the water just in case any kind of beastie comes out of it. Just, just be ready. There's no way this can involve me. Tell me what you're doing. Can you tilt the mic a little towards Tyler, straight at Tyler, please? Boom, right there. Here we go. Let's get him. Get him up.

And G dies. One can only hope for the easy snacks. One can only hope. Roll for death. Is it too late to take Water Whip so I can secure it apart? Yeah, it is way too late. It is way too late. What are you doing, G?

I've got my own rope if you'd like to just hold on. Oh, you have a rope? I do, I've got a whole explorers pack. You've been holding out on me? I think. You've had a rope this whole time? Perhaps, you know what? That one time we could have used the rope to great success. You hadn't said nothing?

Have you gone into the water yet? No, well, no, not now. No, I have not gone into the water yet. I got an action that I'd like to do. Okay. I want to pull out one of the two troll heads I had from the beginning. Okay. If the troll heads come back to really help us out, I'm going to lose it. I want to throw it into the water.

Okay. You throw the troll head in the water. It lands with a splash and it gets thrashed about in these rough, churning waters and you see a wave erupts and just washes the troll head. Just back out? Yeah. It was bobbed around as if you threw a...

Does it disrupt or change the clarity of the water that Mace has? As long as you're maintaining the spell, it maintains it. Once I pass it, it's changed. For an hour. It actually says specifically that it has to remain changed for an hour. Unless otherwise stated, I guess.

I pull the rope out, tie it to my waist, and I'll hand G the other end and I say... At this point, Krah has gone down the corridor and is peeking around the corner and watching this travesty about to unfold. G, before I throw Krah into the storm as if compelled by a chat, if that was a thing...

Tie this around your waist and I'll take good care of you and I'll just pull you out if anything goes wrong. How many hit points do you have? I've got plenty, don't worry. No, no, no, the number. Out of character. You wouldn't know that. I'm just saying. As I go back to stand with the professor, just in case like... No, he's standing way back, almost like up against the wall. He's like...

I'm going to go back with the professor, but as I do, I pull G aside and I say...

Don't forget the head. Okay, I tie Bargrim's rope around my waist, which the other is tied to your hand. It's tied to me. It's tied to you. And I say, Elements, guide me. Did you mean elephants? No, I don't mean elephants. Oh, okay, my fault. I mean the elements. And I dive into the water. Elephants guide you.

Okay, you see G leap up and dive in the water. Can you swim actually? Like any other, like anybody else. Not like super well, but I'd assume like some sort of diving bird. I'm gonna need an athletics check for this. Kingfisher. Like a duck!

Well, that's a great roll there, Maze. I'm not winning any swim contests. You're not in a swim contest. Well, yeah, we're saving that shit. So, three.

You see G dive in and G you feel like you're a master of the elements as you dive in you spread your wings and the water is so rough you get smacked against the stone wall and you're gonna be taken.

Holy fuck. I did it. Wow. Five points of bludgeoning damage I rolled, uh, real horribly. I see, it sounds like you rolled a lot of dice. Yeah, no, a bunch of ones. Use your magic, G! This is ridiculous! And you smash, and you, you're, as you walk up on Bargain Street. As the water careens me towards the earth, I make a very soft wall, and I just collide with sand and take five points of bludgeoning damage. Also, you can cut that in half. Oh, wow.

Oh! If it's soft sand, yeah, if you have that ability, I would say that would be fine. Well, I don't know. That's just why I only took... I don't think I was gonna use the sand. Oh, okay, that's fine. Fine. We'll say fine. We'll say fine. That's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, as... Uh, G washes up on your feet. Well, that was not a good idea. Well, uh... Would anyone else like to try, or should you try again, buddy? From the back corridor, having watched all this unfold, you hear a soft voice...

"Here's some triagab!" "Oh, Drakizar, are you... are you... oh, not Drakizar, you're Drakidraz!" "Drakidraz, are you giving a try? Are you from the swamps? You can swim, surely?" No response. You hear nothing in response. I mean, I'm literally, like, peeking around the corner. You might be able to see me. You can probably see me. Yeah, but, like, I'm not responding. It's like... You're Muttly from Wacky Race. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um...

Alright, well, um... What about, uh... You're kind of a primal type, aren't you? I bet you can swim! I bet he can swim too! Before we go any further... We... Why... We know that there's a pearl down there. Why are we trying to recover it? It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the helmet or the sapphires or the great elemental dragon...

It's just a pearl. Wait, did he get the troll hit back?

No, that already washed up on your... That already washed up on the ceiling. The troll head was there the whole time, right? Come on. Shouldn't have put any faith in you the first time. Do it! I'd like to take the same troll head and throw it towards the ceiling. You do that. It gets zapped by the lightning. Okay. And it falls down as a horrible business. And it's just gone. Okay. No, it's there. It's just a horribly rotting, fried... You smell fried troll flesh. Ugh!

I'm gonna keep it then. Okay. Why would you do such a thing? We shouldn't go up there. I had no plans to, did you? Well, he jumped in the water. Well, why don't you try jumping in the water? Well, I had no plans to do that. Well, then I could use the jumping in the water plan! Alright, Kroll, why don't you come on out and why don't you try to jump in the water? No response.

All right. Can we... How big is Kraw? Oh, I'm tiny. I'm like three feet tall. Can we toss him in? I'd like to walk up to him, try and grab him, and then come back to the water and toss him in. You can. It would require a strength check. Mine is minus four. I'll strength check before I throw him in. If you allow it and all of this passes in my favor, I'll tie the rope to him that's on Bargum's other body. I would say if you see him coming, you could just bolt in the other direction.

I'm very angry. So it's up to Mace what he wants to do, what anybody wants to do, but I am just, I am literally poking my nose around the corner. I want to walk towards the doorway and say, oh man, that water thing really did not work out. I'm going to casually just, whoa,

And then grab Krah. If you think that would work. So I would say that if Krah saw G walking towards him, he wouldn't suspect anything until he saw a quick moment. But keep in mind, I have a high net.

So why don't we do an acrobatics contest? You're more than welcome to try to grab me. You're stronger than me, but I'm quick. Yeah, I'm quick too. I'm an Eric. Heads up. Acrobatics. You're lucky that's one of the ones I'm not proficient in. Okay. Well, that's what I am. Seventeen.

14 plus 8 and I am proficient. So you are faster than I am. So you may grab me. Do the thing that you do on your dog when you want to grab it. No! No! Master Fint! Master Fint! I'm screaming. I come running. The shit that I try to do on Dagny when she has something in her mouth. No!

It's going to be okay. We just really need to try and get this. And I think I can throw you hard enough so you rock it straight in the bow. And then Bargwin will rip you back out. It's like fishing. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it.

I secure the rope around Krah's body. You do that. And as hard as I can muster, all the strength of the elements course through my body. Hold on, hold on. Alright, I'm sorry. I wanna stop G here for a second. And I wanna direct Krah specifically to tell us why he doesn't want to go in the water. Or if you don't tell us why, we'll throw you in. I think that you're already just gonna chuck him in.

Well, you can ask your question. Yeah, I'd like to ask it. So you're just gonna restrain me against my will as a free creature? Uh, gee, he seems to want us to go in, but he seems to not want to go in himself.

Kra, would you care to explain? Ah, it is true! I would really love to hear this! And I throw him straight into the water! Alright, so my only question would be... My only question would be... And you may answer as the DM any way you want. I will, I will. How much time would I have to react between being tossed and hitting the water? I would say you would probably have maybe two seconds.

so you'd have your reaction you have your you would have a react you reaction is not good enough no i don't have spells that i can cast as a reaction no i would say that you would have it's he's throwing it i would say you wouldn't be able to use an action as you're and you've been grappled this whole thing is like an uh six seconds all i need is a bonus action yes

Easy have it. As soon as he lets go of me as I'm flying through the air, I Misty Step away. Okay. And I pull out my knife and I begin to cut the rope from my waist. As soon as you Misty Step, the rope just falls. Oh, even better. Yeah, yeah. So I appear from here 30 feet away. And by that I mean back by Master Vint and I start screaming and yelling, Master Vint, Master Vint, they tried to kill me. Before he starts screaming, I just see him disappear. Well, buddy, you just killed him, I guess. He's gone. He's gone. Oh, no, there he is.

You hear Cosmo echoing through as Walt says, Why would you do that to me? I really thought it was going to work. Let it be known I had nothing to do with it. He did hold the rope, though. I may not trust him, but that was a bit extreme. Well, why don't you dive into the water then?

Let's not be rash. Come on, Karaki, let's go in. I agree, but Vos, you look like you're quite the swimmer. You are very strong, and the strongest of the whole party. That's right. You're stronger than Bodrim, I would say. Well, let's not...

I would say he was a stronger swimmer. No, he certainly didn't. Perhaps the strongest swimmer. Also, fuck all of you for that bullshit. That's all I'm going to say. I tried to stop it. Maybe, maybe. But if you didn't like my answer, you would have been like, Tulsa, maybe. Yeah, no, he just asked a question. He didn't try and stop it.

You would know that I wasn't actually trying to stab you. But I know you as an asshole! Anyway, you fucks. Meta-knowledge man on... Okay, who's diving in? Who is diving into the water? Not me. Buzz?

I can't swim. That's fucking bullshit. You need me to walk in and... Alright, alright. If Grog can just misty step out of my clever agile traps at any point in time, I'll just try and dive back in. Can I just walk up to the water and mage hand the pearl? It's

You would be able to reach in and you see this green shimmering hand with this crystal clear water and you grab onto it and it seems to be heavier than five. Okay, okay.

Just checking. I'm gonna go back to the other door now. How about this? Try again and combine your bird-like agility, fly in the air, and do one of those dive motions that I've seen so many people do. Like a pelican. Like a pelican, that's exactly right. Oh, the only thing I'm worried about is a very intelligent friend.

Vaaas! But, um, when I heard all this screaming and all this- It's absurdly loud. It's echoing. I would say the moment I heard it, I would have walked in. I want to walk directly between, um, G's feet and immediately start swimming towards the pearl. Okay. You, uh, you see, uh, dive in. Make an athletics check for me, please. No! I throw the rope.

I don't take it. 11. You manage to not get smashed against the side of this thing. However, it's too strong for you to make your way through as it seems you manage to end up back just sitting as this wave kind of washes you. You know when you kind of get hit by a wave at the beach and you get washed back a little bit? I'm honestly not quite sure why the professor brought all of you with him.

you're all a bunch of scaredy cats it's not like it's that bad it's just waves it's just water Willow you just tried to go in and got crashed back onto the shore I didn't get crushed I didn't take any damage I'm perfectly fine I'm a tiny little hustling I weigh maybe 35 pounds I've already dove in was crashed into the rocks underground and spit back out onto the shore from back again the same corner the same corner you see a little black snout poke out from around the corner

Krah believes that Willow is most brave. That's it. Are you questioning my bravery and my strength? Krah has been questioning since day one. Jay, hold this. And I throw him the other end of the rope and I start trudging down.

I raise earth knowing that I could never support Bargrim's weight and I tie the rope around the rock so that I'm just created on the shore. You do that. Bargrim! The rocks under the water! Wise ancient sayings I'm always telling you is a real thing. Don't go in there. Did he dive in and his whole suit

He's literally like, like weighted down by his water walking in a spacesuit. Is it a slope? No, he just, you just drop off. So he, yeah, he's just, is there a slope or is there a, it's straight off. Then I got it. I just remember an athletics check. So advantage.

I also run up to the edge of the water and use control water to try and comet where he went in. Okay. I will say that that's part of the advantage. Okay. For sure. 19. 19. Oh, baby! My boy! There he is! You see, Bargain, reverse psychology.

You literally just jump in, he sinks to the ground, and your beard is floating all over your face as you literally fire to the Caribbean, walk along the ground, and you see directly in front of you this statue of a beautifully carved massive clam with a pearl inside.

I'm going to go reach down and pick up the whole thing, the whole clam. It's been nice knowing Bargroom. At advantage.

Natural 20. Gotta give it up. 27. You heave and channel your dwarven strength and you lift up this whole statue of this clam. How the fuck are you gonna get to the surface? Oh, I got him. Don't you worry. Don't you worry. You were just worried about being able to... And you pick it up. It's in your clutches. I'm gonna start walking while still grumbling towards where I jumped in.

You do that. How long can you hold your breath? That's a great fucking question. I use control. What? While grumbling? Number of minutes equals your combat power. Yeah, while grumbling? Are you not spending air that way? I use move earth to push the pillar I've created backwards to raise the rope out of the water so I don't have to lift him. Okay. I would say you do that and you make one more athletic check, please.

16. 16. So you see G get down into a sturdy horse stance and punch forward and this pillar of rock that the rope is tied around slides back and you see a huge splash as a drenched Bargrim is dropped onto the ground holding this large statue of this clam.

Well, this wouldn't be the first time that cry was wrong. The rest of you shards are worthless. And Willow, you see how brave I was? I'm going to look directly at him and I'm going to say, is there a reason that you need the pearl or did you just do something stupid for no reason at all? No, I'm well...

That's what I said before we do it for the second time. That makes my beard tingle with self-doubt. You know, I assumed it was of archaeological importance. Professor, I just read. Is this of archaeological importance? I'm going to turn to the professor and say, he seems like an idiot. You're kidding me.

"Oh, that makes my beard tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my beard tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that makes my bed tingle so down!" "Oh, that

- Of course it's of significance, I think. - This is the ancient MacGuffin. - Oh, of course, this is the, it's the back wand. - The Guff wand. - The Guff wand. - And the N-Wand. - Okay.

Bring him down. Bring him back. I need to... Center. I need to recover. Okay. Sorry. As Professor Azran steps up and he's sketching and you see these wide swoops as he makes the grooves in this large clam as he leans forward and begins to note, ah,

inside the shell of the clam and you look and you see a number of markings who can hear can read primordial or one of its dials. One of us can. I can read all elemental. Is that primordial? Yes. I can read all elemental dials. So two of us. Yeah. Just you and me? Yeah, I specialize in primordial. I think.

If you have the language, you can read it. Right. There's a difference between the language and having it as like a thing. So just double check your languages, but yeah. Oron, which relates to all elements. It's one of the dialects of Primordial. I think just the two of you. So both of you can read it, and as you see that the Professor Azran is sketching in as he's looking at these markings, and you realize that this clan is made out of this beautiful bluestone.

And as you look and you read, it says, "This is of the elemental plane of water itself. May the power of the plane that brought the eyes into existence keep it protected." Say? "May the plane that brought the eyes of the abyss into existence also keep it protected." So, here's the eyes behind the sketching- Shhh! Ugh!

She understands. She comprehends. So this pearl thing is still inside the clam statue? It is fastened very firmly, it seems, inside this large clam statue. And you see that it has a circular base. Can I dislodge the pearl? Make a dexterity check. While he's doing that, I'll... Would it be dexterity or strength for that one?

I think dexterity usually for that sort of thing. Make a strength attack. Are you trying to dislodge it with a tool? No, just brute force it. Make a strength attack.

While this is all happening, I would just like to use my Pearl of Power to regain a spell slot. Okay. Because it takes an action. Yeah, you chain a lot. 14. 14. You try to heave it out, and it seems like... And you get a little zap as you try to rip it out, and you're going to enjoy five points of lightning damage. As you try to rip it out, you get a little slight zap. I care for it. While this is happening, I explain... Ugh!

I tell them the inscription on the clam about the elements protecting the helm of... Of course, of course. The eyes of the abyss, yes, of course. Gee, I couldn't have said it better myself. What the fuck? You could not have certainly, Professor. So let us get into the antechamber and we can reconvene.

And he immediately leaves and he goes towards you. Ventus, what have you found out? I'm putting both of my hands in the illusions.

You do that and you see Vintas. Would his arms be wide enough? Probably not quite wide enough. It's the door, right? I would say you'd barely be able to reach. You see his hands halfway disappear. His hands literally come off the ground. Master Vintas, what are you doing? Oh, what's up guys? He's going to change the way he brings his arms along.

I don't know that's how that works. He'd make himself a taller man. You mean the human over there, the simple Oomgee? Master Ventus watching you do it! I just wanted to see what would happen.

Can I feel anything in the-- What are you doing, regular non-arm-stretching human? I was seeing if there was like levers in there that I have to pull at the same time to get the door open. What are you doing? Why didn't you just... Master Ventus ask for help? You guys seemed busy.

We were very busy doing important archaeological work, it's true. I was teaching Bagram how to fish. That's right. I feel like a killing fish at this point. Yes, yes. What have you found in the dirt there, sir? It's very smooth. That's all I got. Oh, nothing else of importance in those weird illusory ground circles around the one door we can't get through. Oh, okay.

Master Vindis, you surely must have something up your sleeve. Can I make an investigation check on the inside of the illusion? Sure, yeah. It's pretty good. 21. 21. As you investigate it, you look around and you feel like it's this perfectly smooth stone base. And as Bargrim heaves this statue of a clam, you see that the base seems to be the exact same size and shape.

As this indentation at the base of the clam. Okay. And the dragon head was also circular. At the bottom, yes. I think we need both of the statues to open this door.

Master Vint, you are truly a genius. Oh, wow. You really are my beard no longer tingles in self-doubt. This is exactly what I was meant to do. And I will place the clam into this seeming illusion. I can't wait for Miss Willow to give you more self-doubt. Bye.

Bargrim and Vaz, if you come with me to the Holy Room, I moved that statue once on my own. I think the three of us could bring it back here and place it in this circle. Wait, did you tell us that? Yes. Okay. We could place it in this circle to...

to activate this. I can't wait until the dumb one trips and falls with it. Now the best part is they're all wondering which one is the dumb one. Without hearing that second part, which one is the dumb one?

So I hear the first part, but then he was for the second part. I didn't hear the second part. Which one was, who's the dumb one? What do you think he means? Professor Azarad means Dowson. I think I have an idea what you mean. As he's sketching out. Does he mean me or...

Bargrim, I don't think he means you. I'll have you know my intelligence is great. I've studied all the great grudges of history to recite them

From memory right now, quiz me. Go on and quiz me right now. What is the greatest grudge in history? Oh, I can't choose one greatest grudge. There's at least a thousand greatest grudges. All of you can have one. Pick one and quiz me right now. Prove my intelligence. What is the greatest grudge from the Draconic and the Troll Wars? Oh, the Draconic Troll Wars. Well, let me tell you, that was one. I would like to challenge you.

I'd like to challenge Bargum to a contest of intelligence. By playing rock, paper, scissors.

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