018 Dungeon Descent: Secrets Unveiled and Battles Anew

Last thing I have mentioned was you guys were, you cleared the last room of the dungeon and found a hole that leads lower. Yep.

Sure. And Fauna is a wolf spider. Fauna is a wolf spider. Yeah, so. Oh my god. Meriwether poked at the flintower and it collapsed.

I mean, I usually am the one that fetches things. that you just found it looked weird and you were oh hello i did not want to do that yeah i don't have too many notes this time because we were mostly just clearing out all the, hostels yeah and i keep forgetting to do my homework so that i signed myself, what was that i need to add a spell since we leveled up but two two weeks prior, from the last time we played because I wanted to look at the spells because

I always complain about not having anything up close and I haven't done that yet so we're just going to roll with it hmm, I will die on this hill, apparently. You know, when you're next level up. Right? And then I'll forget to do something else, but that's okay. Is this the last time you play a caster? Probably, yes. It's not my forte. Because I feel like you're really good at knowing when to do things.

And I feel like I'm picking the right things. It's just I don't know how to layer them on top of each other to make them really beneficial or impactful. And we're still also only level three. Yeah.

I like just punching folks and getting instant gratification. So. Gotcha. But I'm trying. Don't know how successful I'm being, but I'm trying. I mean, you guys all play Strangely. Right. Wow. What do you mean Strangely? Yeah, what's that supposed to mean? No one's like a defined tank, and the ones who are tanky will sometimes hide in the back. You don't love me? You or Becca, who will stand there and melee things, while also being Druid, who can shake you.

Okay, I see what you're saying. we don't fit the stereotypes yeah like a ranger can tank or a druid is often a tank a sorcerer not often a tank i think mike picked wrong things for us, unless he did this to me to try to get me to play something different i didn't really pick these for you guys you guys picked you kind of picked a ranger for me kind of the chickens, this was based off of conversations a long ago yeah you kind of picked a sorcerer for me.

You did pick a sorcerer. I let you pick what kind of sorcerer, but long ago, you had said, I think I'm going to go sorcerer. I think it's because I told you what a wizard option was and how much more complicated a wizard was. Yeah, I didn't want to be a wizard. So my options were a wizard or a sorcerer. I kind of want to be a wizard next. Consider that much of a choice. Being a wizard is hard because you want to spend all your money on learning new spells.

Yeah i've played balder's gate with your wizard my wizard's always poor in balder's gate because i know like every spell available and we're only in act one yeah didn't she play a wizard recently yeah yeah my furball wizard what was his name remember he didn't want to kill kids today Hmm. That was a... No. Oh. It's on the tip of my tongue. I had Freya's character sheet up and not Mary was, which is a problem. It was... Not Chim. That was my monk. Chim, chimney, chimney, chimney. Where is he?

Belvalor. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that was Belvalor. He was my wizard. And then I played a wizard that was... A hot goblin wizard the one time in one of her stories and then i've played i think i played a different wizard oh i played grom the lucky i don't remember groma the lucky he had a fork and he was in here for that one he would he was a conjuration wizard and he would summon a fork that was his thing,

And now we're going to be going on five years of this. Well, with me playing with you guys in a couple months. I mean, we've been playing for... Since 2017, do you think? We're approaching year seven, yeah, because we first played with your brother that very first Christmas we were together. 2016, right? That was the first Christmas we were together. Yeah. So eight years then. Well, we started our table in February that year, I think. So 2017.

February 2017. and so it'll be 2025 soon and that'll be eight years eight years crazy so was it that fall in 2017 that i started playing with you then it might have been 2017 or 2018 because we played with bj and his two friends for a while but i don't know how long probably not a year so maybe and then i think when they couldn't play i joined i did play with bj yeah yeah and frank right, a little bit oh yeah you are sort of well she's been here since basically, saga and jeff left and then

bj kept playing was jeff the one with the pirate girl yeah yeah it was super for fun notes so i could tell you when this document started oh my goodness yeah so five years and i still act like i know nothing when i created this august 22nd what august 2017 so i must have started that fall with you guys it was when selena did campaign and i was rosy.

Yeah and i was yeah i peeked at that one was corporal uh he was a cleric yeah yeah that's well you peaked yeah peaked on your first story that's i don't think i'm ever gonna top that one because now it feels derivative stories i mean it's hard to create new stories because i think about like there's times i want to go more this direction there's times i want to strengthen my ability to like describe things and then i get distracted and stop doing that and then there's,

I mean, I also, like, I did a lot of prep work for that, and I also used a lot of homebrew. I do almost no prep work. I fly by the ceiling, my pants on the justice. We go somewhere. That's how I play. You're shocked at that. Becca. Yeah. Yeah. I came up with an idea. I think I know how to incorporate all your characters in this next scene. You guys are getting into. Oh wow. And it's because Kayla took a couple of weeks off. It gave me time to think. Oh gosh, darn it.

Are we in trouble i will be that's not the reaction i wanted to hear once again i'm going with i will be so for a cozy fantasy just be prepared for a little you know trigger warning a little shame the big bad is going to shame me though it's going to what us shame i'm not shame Goodbye. So, like, use Shane. And, yeah, closely Shane. Like, tell you how you're bad in some way, according to them. And their observations. Well, that's sad. I will not be held responsible for any tears as a result of

this game. It's all on him. So, anyways, you guys see this hole in the room? Did you guys enter the hole? I don't remember. It just collapsed. Okay. Yeah, that's all I've written down is that we noticed it was sunken and it's collapsing Yeah, so the floor has collapsed in that area Can you remind me which room we're in? Do you remember? You were in room 11 Right, ours aren't numbered I think we were just about through all the round rooms, right?

I think you were in one of the bottom rooms That seems familiar to me I just can't I gotta, there it is. The very bottom left room is room 11. So you're in that room and that is what collapses into the room you're entering, which lucky for you, the room you were entering, if you make a perception check for me. Everyone or just. Yeah, everyone's good. If you're entering the new room, make a perception check.

I need to remind myself i keep let me check that i keep my stats on these i think or it depends because it's wisdom i think yes it's my stat yeah i believe wisdom you keep with i think it's wisdom intelligence and charisma you keep yes okay yep so i'm using mine here just double checking.

18 24 15 Okay, so as you enter this entry, you see the east, to the east there is an archway well it may not be east anymore this kind of flipped from where you guys came in but I'll refer to it as east based on the map but technically like the corner of, you're entering the corner of this dungeon section and it's connected to the corner of the one you're in but it's the one you left is like the bottom left corner and the one you're entering is like the top left

corner of the map i'll show you because there's a stone sarcophagus sitting in in the west side of the room and someone has scrawled a basic map of the dungeon on the west wall and so i will send you the map of the dungeon you are in the top left square room top left square room Yeah.

So very top left. Got it. So we're like falling our way into another dungeon, essentially. Kind of. This one's a much smaller one. Same kind of situation where it's, what do you call it? Definitely looks like it was created by dwarves, you know, cause the, the stone, is it's flagstone and the masonry is very well done, but it seems like it's been abandoned for a while based on the dust.

And it's been it may have been rebuilt many times since it was abandoned it's relatively warm but the illumination is kind of shadowy at best it's like dim light every so often from like a candle or phosphorescent fungus probably doesn't matter because i have blind sight and dark vision anyway right and so the only doorway to this room is just an open archway and there's a, sarcophagus in the room that does not look like it's been touched in a long time and so

there's a map on it yeah like someone drew in the dust a map i'm going to chitter at it and try to mimic with one of my legs like drawing this map onto something to see if someone can draw it since i obviously cannot uh you two give me wisdom check intelligence check i don't know. I'll intelligence check for you wisdom check for you because you've deciphered her language spider language before so we'll go off of experience if that's better for you,

I prefer intelligence. Okay, go intelligence. Thank you. Oh, 19. Okay. I just had a 12. Yeah, with a 19, you can pretty much figure out again what she's inferring. No, implying, and you're inferring. You can infer what she's implying. Okay. So are you going to draw the mat? Sure. that or i guess tie a piece of chalk or charcoal onto the spider leg, no i prefer to draw the map okay that would be a horrifying sight.

Okay so you draw the map i am a little afraid um i'm gonna carefully approach the sarcophagus, and just make sure that it hasn't opened recently? No, this has been undisturbed for quite some time. Okay, okay. Even the drawing of the map on it, like there's a different layer of dust in it than what's around it, but it's a layer of dust. So like, you know, when you've shoveled the driveway once and it's continued to snow, right?

So at some point in the past, somebody has wiped it clean, but it's been a while. Not wiped it clean, but like... Drawn in the dust, and then more dust has accumulated. I see. So, like, this is, you know, someone writes, wash me on your car, but you continue not to wash it to the point where even wash me is dirty. Just a little less dirty. Yeah. Yeah. Discernably less dirty than the rest of the dirty parts. But still dirty. Yeah. Yeah.

Was that door open or closed it's an archway so there is no door it's just an open arch i'm gonna peer down the hallway okay you see like 15 feet down the hallway slightly turns to the right well not slightly it turns at a 90 degree angle to the right okay so there's nothing else in the hallway i'm going to hold up a leg as in like weight and i'm going to use spider climb to go upside down on the ceiling and I will go down this hall quietly to see what's around the bend. Okay.

It's not a very tall ceiling, but you are able to do this and you go down or you see, as you start to approach the corner, you see that south, you turn south around this corner a little bit maybe and you see another archway and within that archway in that room you can see give me a perception check because you're gonna be looking at it from a little angle and if you go any closer i'm gonna have you roll off stealth check 30 20 okay dirty 20 you know you hear four voices coming

from that room and you can see like two small shapes. Do you have dark vision? Yes. And blind vision. How long, how far is your blind site? Blind sites 10. Okay. So you don't see anything blind site wise, but dark vision, you can make out at least two small shapes in that room. You're about five, 10, 15, 20 ish feet from them. Okay. I will skitter back across the ceiling. Okay.

And let them know. I'll kind of like tap twice and point down the halls and hope that they get the idea that there's two bogeys down the hallway. Remember, you heard four voices. You saw two. Oh, heard four. Sorry. I'll tap four times then. But I'm going to do it very decisively, so it's not like I'm trying to get their attention, but like counting.

So like those horses that count, yes like winston not like winston i'm just shaking my head because winston, do i need to just see if i give me an intelligence check this time i'll give you advantage on it okay you'll get normal intelligence and you start getting better at him yeah it's probably wise 10.

Let's put this one away for him 17 you can there's either four or two creatures down that hallway wait a minute wait a minute wait a god darn minute i can message people so i'm going to just message becca or, fauna and ask her what in the world's going on i guess since her wisdom and intelligence remain she would be able to speak in her head, non-spider then i will describe exactly what it is that i saw when i moved down that hallway so she

saw two small creatures and heard four creatures i'm because i want us to remain quiet i'm going to then message flora what fauna just told me i forget that i had.

I'm gonna give a real shaky thumbs up, this is not not my idea of a good time and then fauna just sees the shaky thumbs up because i'm just can i like do mental pictures no you're whispering well message is a whisper i'm going to describe the shaky thumbs up okay you're describing the shaky thumbs up to fauna okay unless you have minor illusion if you have minor illusion you can do simple pictures no so, So, she just kind of gets, hey, it's a shaky thumbs up sort of message and reply.

Okay. So, what are you guys doing?

I feel like if a spider went in there first, it would immediately incite problems. I guess I'm the strongest. I will start quietly going down the hallway. I will quietly follow. I will be on the ceiling and quietly follow as well. Okay. But in front. Give me a stealth check, everybody. So, Mike, question on how this works. So, I was trying to interpret. Okay. Okay, so stealth for me is plus two. I don't keep my dex. The spider's stealth is a plus seven. Do I use the spider's stat for that? Yeah.

21. Okay. 24. 18. Okay, yeah. You guys seem to be able to stealth your way about. As we approach, I'm going to just kind of take in the room. Do these creatures look angry or sleepy? They look like they're... What's the word? Like in a huddle-ish situation? Make a perception check for me. Fourteen. They look goblin-ish. One looks much more aggressive than the other three. I am going to gather my swarm of celestial chickens close and step into the room and say, hi, guys, how's it going?

The aggressive one turns towards you and jumps out with its javelin towards your face and yells towards the others something that you don't understand. And the others will start to, like, get close with their, what do they have? Scimitars. Whoa, whoa, whoa, just coming to say hi. No need for that. No, hi, why here? Say hello. No. Visit. No-lo. New friends. Wait, what? He said hello, he said no-lo.

It should have been hell no who are you name's flora i almost said fonda, the name's flora just kind of visiting checking things out saying hello making new friends this is not a place to visit why not not yours that's why we're visiting not yours to visit Who's is it? Mine. Yours? Mine. Who are you? You always know we asked for names. I know, I know. You had three weeks. Yeah! He had three weeks to come up with a way to attack us, but not for a name. That's the wrong one. Okay, let me see.

Here we go. His name is Kroc. Croc. I mean, croc. Croc spelled. C-R-O-K. Well, like I said, I'm Flora. This is my friend, Merriweather. And I kind of gesture behind me. I don't know if Fauna is visible, so I'm going to pretend she's not. I have some other goblin friends, you know? Me too. And he points to his three friends. Oh, who are your friends? You don't need to know that. You don't want to come up with names? No, I can come up with names. He's not. Okay.

I know I don't need to know, but how can we be friends if I don't know everyone's names? Who says we want to be friends? Oh, I was hoping we could be friends. Make a charisma percent persuasion check. Ew. 14. Okay. And where are we going to go against persuasion? Go against insight. I'll just roll it against. I'll just do a straight roll. You said 14? I rolled an add 20. Yeah, he's not open to becoming friends at this time.

If you don't want to be friends, would you mind if we just kind of scooched right past you into the next room? What do you give me for it? I pull out one of the magic abyssal chicken eggs. Can I hold it out? He looks to his companions. One. I think that's all I have. Hmm. Oh, what else you got? I don't have a carrot. You asked. That's ground fruit. Once again, you asked. Everything's a vegetable. Oh, don't you know vegetables don't actually exist? Yeah, everything's a vegetable.

Oh, yeah, I guess that's true. And everything in VeggieTales is a fruit. Sorry i'm trying to find my inventory that's okay the veggie tales theme song it's going through my head right now.

One of the goblins leans towards him and goes or says something in goblin and he says shut up worm. To his companion, but he says it in common. I will pull out a giant centipede leg and offer that with the egg. He looks to his companions, says a little something and got one, and turns back and says, we'll accept for this way. If you come back, you pay again. Okay. If you come back. If? If. What's down there? for the if. You didn't pay for that knowledge.

I'm going to use message and message phantom floor and be like, should we offer up some of the coins to figure out to see if they will tell us what is down there? I... Or are we just going to be surprised? Can I shrug my shoulders? Because I can't really answer you? Oh, you can message back. Oh, can I? Yeah. I always mix that up with something else. I believe I'll double-check. I mean, if you want to. Yeah, it says, I don't know if we'll get anything super useful.

I feel like goblins don't really always know what's up. Also, you guys would know that I had three eggs left. So I have another egg for the way back. These were my last three eggs for the dungeon, because Korndob is tired. Can I get celestial chicken eggs? I gotta try that next time I stop. Hmm? What? My celestial chicken swarm. Oh. Well, I have no idea. I've not tried it. Yeah. I'm gonna try it, though, so you better be prepared. Okay.

What would a celestial chicken egg look like? That's a question for another time. So if you feel more comfortable trying to get more information, you can try. But I don't know if it's worth it because either way, we're going that way. I've seen the look and fauna's eye. Yeah, no, I'm good then. We're going to be surprised. All right. So I'm going to move past them and be like, enjoy. See you on the way back. Yeah, be prepared today. You got it. Cash only.

No, they don't actually take cash only. It's just like, make sure you have something because credit is not accepted. Okay, so I'll go through the arch. Okay. And about 10 feet in front of you is a locked door. I'm going to listen at the door first. Your favorite locked doors.

Maybe a perception check. for some reason you saying locked door over and over again it's just making me think of the locked tomb trilogy which i have not read but everyone says is amazing but no one can actually figure out what it's about it's really confusing but it's really good apparently i got a dirty 20, okay how can something be fun and confusing because if i get confused while trying to read something then i don't consider that fun every single person

i've seen read these books is like, I had no idea what was going on the entire time, and I loved every minute of it. I don't know. So you notice the door's locked. Doesn't seem to be that complicated of a lot, and there does not seem to be any sounds on the other side of the door. This wasn't the dungeon that we had a master key for, was it? Was that a different dungeon? That was upstairs, I think. Who has the key? No, that was a different dungeon. That was a different dungeon.

I think it was a different dungeon. and mixing them up. Yeah. Unfortunate. Does anyone lockpick? I don't think we do. Also, I'm a spider. So I'm very useless right now. I can put my mandibles in and see if I can do anything. Last time I let Fauna use some of my weaver's tools and she does. So I can go ahead and try. What are you going to try to lockpick with? I'm going to look through my bag and see if I can see anything. Let me see if I have anything.

Oh, I have a tinderbox. Yeah. That's mostly just like a, it makes sparks. Yeah. Yeah. That's about it. But if there's two little pieces, can I just try shoving them in there and going? I have titans. Do you want a python? Sure. Whatever I can use. Can she use a python? She can try. It's going to be disadvantage and it's usually dexterity for lockpicking and you do not get proficiency. Oh, yeah. I could try a pipe and I have a plus four. I have a plus four too. Oh, okay. Go for it.

Just let me know if it breaks so I can take it out of my inventory. 17. Somehow you're able to get this thing open. Yay. Somehow. I'm 17 with disadvantage. That's crazy.

What the hell? All right. I don't hear anything. So I guess go ahead and open the door and I'll gather my chickens close again and prepare to send them if needed. Yeah, and I'll walk you through the door first. I said I'm not walking through the door first. I learned my lesson on that. Okay, I'll open the door. Okay, you open the door. I'm looking in. You notice there is a tile mosaic of foolish carnage that covers the floor and rusting iron spikes line the north and south walls.

Like on the walls? Yeah. Okay. Oh, this feels like a trap. Can I look for traps? Yeah. I'm going to look for traps. Give me a roll. Investigation? 23. Okay. The, on the south entrance to the rail, so you're coming in from the west. on the south entrance, that door is definitely trapped. And one of the likely there is a trap trigger in this room that would be like, what do you call those things? Push plate or whatever?

Pressure plate. Pressure plate. One of the floor tiles is a pressure plate and you could probably figure out which one. Okay. So I can figure it out. I figure it out. I'm going to point it out. Try it. Okay. Do I want to try and what? I heard her too, Salim, and you're all going crazy. I'm going to point out what tile I think is the pressure plate. And I'll say, let me go first. But I'm not going to move yet. I want to see what I can see in that mosaic.

If there's any hint of like information that might be useful or if it's just like a history or something. It's just like a ugly, like gruesome mosaic. Okay. And then what about this thing in the north? That the north entry support colors, wooden port colors. I'm going to avoid the tile I think is a pressure plate. Oh, wait. Maybe that's an archway. Let me double check. You are a... No, that's a portcullis. And head toward the portcullis.

You're going to go through the archway and head... You're going to wait. I'm sorry. I'm going to avoid the pressure plate, or what I think is the pressure plate, and head toward the portcullis. Okay. You head toward the portcullis. It looks heavy. Okay. I might need some help with this. Just avoid that tile I showed you. I'll go over and help. I'll walk over on the ceiling. Smart. Smart spider. I didn't check the ceiling for pressure plates. That's true.

I don't think many things expect something to be coming at them across the ceiling. How strong is a giant spider? Plus one. Which is better than me, which is a minus one. That's true. It's also better than me with a zero. So can we work together to try and lift this corkullis? Yeah, you can give it a shot. It's pretty heavy portcullis. So if we work together, how does it work? You would roll with advantage or strength to check. I have a plus zero.

We all have plus zeros for strength. She has a plus one right now. So why don't you do the roll? I can hit it by wrapping my legs around and trying to start to heave up. With advantage yeah 19 not quite enough oh man it like comes up a little bit but not nearly enough to even wedge anything under it how thick is the wood how big are the holes are you what are you trying to do like squeeze through it or play my options like they're port colossi holes they're Like this big.

So like five inches squared. How thick are the beams? Like maybe three inches. And they're like two or three inches thick. Just start stabbing it with my dagger. Okay. Stab. Stab away. I have to roll. Yeah. Yeah, you have to roll. To hit? Yeah. 30-20? Yeah, you hit it. this don't take a while yeah probably eight okay 11 yeah that probably hits it six okay so that's a total of 14 okay.

12 yeah eight okay so that's total of 22 so it's splintered that one you stab through one of the holes oh whoops, 16 yeah that is 6 28 it's not looking very strong right now 5 23, 5 so 33 so it starts to it basically gives way in the middle area, me to slip through now yeah like the the it's pretty ramshackle at this point is that a word yeah yes it's pretty pretty flimsy you can like almost push it i'm gonna splinter it more,

as much as i can to see if i can get the spider through and i'm gonna get through yeah i mean it's broken you can you've you've destroyed the door the portculler hopefully that wasn't a bad, Yeah, it's true. And I'm going to walk forward and peek around the corner. Okay. You hear a scratching sound in the corridor. I'm going to lean back really quick and go, There's something up there that's scratching. I'm going to move across the ceiling to get close enough to see if I can tell

what it is. I'm going to move stealthily. Double check how difficult this random encounter yes I think we're still beat up from the last thing we fought I have 27 out of 28 I have 12 out of 17, don't go in the front.

I don't like playing something so squishy yeah there's supposed to be this many of them and this many of them Did you just kill us? We'll see. Oh, goodness. It is. There's only three of us. We're only level three. And we're all very squishy. Okay, if things feel sour, here's the plan. We're going to run back to the room with the other guys. Avoid the pressure plate. Hope those guys hit the pressure plate.

And if not, hope that the other guys that we got through will just help us fight oh yeah because they seem so helpful yeah but if they're also being attacked by something i think they would at least do something they'll probably call us dumb for breaking the door but we don't need to talk about they don't need to know well you can't hear me say that something was dangerous enough you would think that they would give us a warning like hey don't open the door i don't think they would i

don't think they would well you know we can blame them this is all their fault they told us don't open the door or if they would have told us that we wouldn't have opened the door i mean i'm gonna weaken the encounter just a little bit much appreciated by a little bit i mean much more but you hear scratching and you year footsteps approaching. I'm guessing there's nothing to hide behind me. Down a narrow hallway. I'm going to step back through the portcullis. Okay.

You're going to step back through the portcullis? I want to be as far away from the sun as I can be, whichever direction that is. Okay. I'm not stepping into the room, though. Okay. Into what room? With the stakes. Okay. So you're at the portcullis. Okay. And you're in the room, or where? As far away from the silence I can't be. That would be back the way we came. Then, sure. How far back the way you came?

Not past the door that we unlocked. Not super far, but maybe hiding a little bit behind the door. Which door? The door you came in, or the portcullis she broke that she's standing in front of? The portcullis. Okay. And Becca, where are you? I am going to be on the ceiling again, maybe right above the cork list so I can see when they come through and evaluate what I want to do. Okay. So what I'll warn you as the spellcaster, you have one on the floor and one above the one on the floor.

You're not going to be able to fire spells through them. Okay. Okay. That is a crossbow, too. I just needed to. You're not going to be able to fire anything through. Typically, when someone's in the way, you're not going to be able to fire through them in a five-foot square hallway. She's in the way, but she's small. But there's a giant spider above her. That's okay. I can sit and be patient.

Okay. I don't know what else you want me to do. I'm just letting you know the limitation before we get into any battle. Okay. If I yell, doc, just like. So any final preparations as you hear the footsteps approaching?

Tiger well i guess it's already out yeah and i guess i'll pull out a brass bolt i've got lots of chickens corndog's not ready to fight so it's just going to be the other chickens i'm just going to check something more real quick okay yeah all right well they does not have aoe spells, you don't have what aoe area of effect like i said i need to pick a pick some spells.

Because i forgot i didn't do that until i looked at it i was like whoops because i thought i did it last time gotcha okay so you guys have pulled out your dagger and your crossbow, are you preparing actions or are you just pulling out your weapons i'm just pulling it out something yeah okay so around the corner a bunch of humanoid type people in robes, and they are aggressive roll initiative 17 8 12. Okay so 17 8 12 um or um okay So, Flora, you're going to go first.

In front of you is a dude with a dagger in his hand, ready to attack. How close in front of me? Right in front of you. Like melee now? Yeah. Hmm. I should have backed it up more. How many of them were there? Four? You wish.

The guy in front of you who has dagger there's one that looks like him and there's six others that look, slightly different and they're carrying scimitars and I'm going to cast hunter's mark on him slash at him with my dagger, dirty 20 yeah that hits that's 7 from the dagger and then the swarm will swarm, will deal an additional 6 damage nice okay so that's your turn, okay it's his turn he is going to what does he want to do I could be mean I could do lots of things ooh that's okay.

To cast a spell at you oh wait i hunter's marked him yeah i didn't roll the hunter's mark three sorry three so okay so he's going to cast a spell at you i need you to make a, wisdom saving throw seven you fail you suddenly feel like what's the word paralyzed, as you are being held up magically. Does Paralyze make your spell drop? It's concentration. Why don't you go to Petrified? Paralyzed. You should have the condition Paralyzed. You should be able to see it on your thing.

Oh, when you have the Paralyzed condition you experience the following effects, you have the Incapacitated condition. So I think you lost your Hunter's Mark. Your speed is zero. You automatically fail strength and dex saves attack rolls against you have advantage any attack roll that hits you is a critical hit if the ticker attacker is within five feet of you.

Okay so he has cast that spell and that is his turn finally used hunter's mark yeah it's gone, sorry i don't know what you are sorry you seem really uh pleased with yourself fauna it's your turn all right is he within say five feet of a wall with where he's standing yeah i just want to creep down the wall and knock it off the wall and bite him i have a five foot reach on it yeah yeah that's fine does a 14 hit him just barely oh thank goodness that is seven piercing and And he needs

to make a con saving throw. Probably passed. Dance beat in 11. 16. Okay. Even so takes four poison damage on a successful save. Yeah, he's not looking great. Is the thing that he casts at me concentration? Yeah. Oh, and he has to make a concentration spell twice, I guess.

First one he definitely passes. is second when he also passes okay oh i guess i'm in melee now so i would have to disengage in order to move away so i will stay here okay and then meriwether it is your turn you if you fire through your friends there's a good chance you hit her and it would be an auto crit please don't hit me.

Oh i can't really do anything then can i because if i You would probably have to get up on, like be right behind her and you could probably fire over her head because the giant spider is no longer in the way, but, bowl yeah okay but you'd have to be basically be close close without being in melee range so you'd be right behind her so you're like 10 feet away from the guy can i talk when i'm paralyzed probably not i don't think so i was gonna say i could message her she can't whisper back

because she's paralyzed that's weird i don't have to actually like whisper to respond okay so I will do that. I have an idea and I can't share it. 13. To that. Just fair to that. I will take it. I'm not picky about it. 8 damage. Okay. He is deceased. And I'm free. You are free. Okay, everybody back through the locked door, okay? I have a plan.

Uh i uh listen what's the locked door the door we came in gotcha i i will message you in my head and say what is your plan draw them into the room and activate you can't message her in your, because that's an action you already took oh you can speak out loud i'm not going to answer out loud okay yeah that's why i wanted to message message is an action it is not a free action, as you're casting the spell if you have enough movement to get back now,

once i get over there i'll share how far away is it from where you're standing. 15 feet to get in the locked door 20 feet to get past the locked door yep i'm done where are you going we're following her instructions she said go back through the locked door okay so you're going back through the locked door how far back because remember you cannot stand on the same square.

There's only so many squares in that hallway. I, let's make room just make room for the two of us like and the spider so back towards like the archway towards the goblins sure if that gets us where we can both be in there then yes okay okay, so then after you is the other guys and they're gonna advance towards fauna and but because they can't really stack up on each other in this narrow hallway but only the first one's gonna to be able to attack and it's going to attack fauna

that's probably gonna hit that is and it's the spider's uh armor class for this right yeah dirty 20 yeah that's gonna hit okay yeah i rolled a 17 out of the spider it may take you out of the spider that's gonna be six slashing damage Yes. So hold on. So I had three left. So three carries over. Yep. On it, correct? Yep. Got it. Okay. Okay. They can't do anything else. Flora, it's your turn. Do I need to disengage? No, they're not close enough to you right now. Okay.

Then I am going to go back through the door. Thank you. Lean against the wall to make room for fauna to get back and can i prepare an action you're going back through the portcullis or through the locked door i already went through the portcullis back toward where marijuana is so what i want to do is hold an action to throw one of my eggs at the pressure plate once all six five however many of those guys once all six of them enter the room and are between the spikes.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. So I'm holding that action. Okay. And then it is Fauna's turn. And by throw, I mean slingshot. Did you let me know what the plan was? Once I got back to you, yes. Okay. Fauna, it's your turn. Okay. How many of them are on me now here? One is on you. There are six of them. Okay. So you could either disengage or you can try and kill one. Fauna, get back here. What's their orientation? I'm looking at, do I want to try to use Thunderwave?

Oh, yeah, they're in a straight line. There's six of them. So I could potentially get three of them with Thunderwave. You can see, like, yeah, three of them.

Because it's 15 feet from me. Okay, I might do that So I'll cast Thunder Wave Okay, that's a deck save And they make con saves Con save, I'm gonna guess they failed Yeah, a 9, So you're willing to draw all of them in one Yeah So 8 Thunder damage and they get pushed 10 feet away from me, And then since they're no longer in melee with me I will back up to where Flora is Okay, so they don't look very good at all. Nice.

All six look like they took that damage uh the three of them definitely did the three okay just checking if they were like somehow connected because i know you said they looked like different so no yeah they're they're the same monster but yeah that's i'm just making sure that's what you made and not that there was like some sort of weird something around yeah no they're not like a swarm or it's an hp okay mary whether it's your turn um i'm just going to.

I mean i guess i can do a cross cross not from where you're at too far away they're they're around the corners then i can just hold my action until i can get a what you're gonna you gotta tell me what the action you're holding is and what the trigger for it to happen is somebody to get into my line of sight holding my cross okay you're gonna shoot someone with a crossbow if they come into your line of sight yes gotcha okay of an enemy not not not the spider

friend Oh, okay. Well, she's no longer a spider. Yeah, I'm now Fauna again. And Fauna, you ran back to the log door? Yes, to where Flora was indicating she wanted us. Yeah, you can just get there with 30 feet. And then after you, after Mary Weather, go the six dudes. And so they got Blaston back. Three, okay. One, two, three. That's 15 20 25 30 so, like three of them four of them enter the room and two are still outside the room but you can blast you can shoot one okay um.

Actually no they're probably all in the room because when you thunder waved them you kind of shoved them into the same space Space. Seven. Seventeen. Seventeen. To hit? Yeah, that hits. Sorry, I thought I got the wrong dice. That's another ink. Okay. Yeah, the first one that walks into the room gets crossbow bolted to death. And then five more are standing in the room, and you're going to have to make a rel, I guess. I said it was a slingshot. Okay, you're going to shoot the pressure plate.

I'm trying to think whether you disadvantage, she's trying to fire past one of them. Hi. Hi. I never know what to call a 10. So no disadvantage? No disadvantage. Oh, Mike does give us food once in a while. Oh, no. Not one. Oh, no. Oh. Well, you weren't shooting past any of your friends. I was gritting my teeth there, hoping. No, I wasn't. I was shooting into the room. I made myself at the edge of the room. Yeah. So. Guys, if you can hit that pressure plate with something, please.

You are... Yeah, it's just going to be wasted. Yeah. And that last egg I needed to save for our passage out of here. Okay, Fauna? How far away is the pressure plate? Probably about 15 feet. If you step... Okay. I'm going to try to thorn with it. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to, like, duck off to the side and make room. Mm-hmm. Eighteen. Yeah, that'll definitely hit it. I can't believe I not won that. It's because I blew on the die. Probably. Well, it sounded like you were about

to spit on the die. You weren't. I did not. You definitely did. Okay, you definitely hit it. The pressure plate goes off. The door slams shut in front of you. You hear the portcullis try to slam shut. Was it broken? I thought it was already shut. Oh, the portcullis? Yeah, it was down. That you broke? It was down. I thought you were like permanently broke it though. Yeah, it's permanently broke. When was it up? You hear it like crunching. Okay. As it's like trying to lock in place.

And then you hear panic. And... I don't know how long it takes these doors to close. Probably. Probably about two rounds. So you hear panic. And... Slips through the broken portcullis. You hear more panic. More panic. Next round, you hear screams. More screams. One more thing slips through the portcullis and more screams. I feel a little bad, but they did come after us first. So probably two of them escaped, you would assume.

And you hear the door start to open back up the trap undo reset and the door in front of you opens back up and you see four body five four bodies four bodies so like three people died, she killed one and then three more died and two seemed to have escaped okay because your math wasn't nothing there so the first the big bad guy he's not actually the big bad he's he died by the portcullis. He died by the portcullis. Then there were six in the room. She killed one, so there were five left.

And she escaped. So there's three additional bodies. Yeah. This feels a lot less cozy. I kind of feel bad about this one.

Yeah, I don't know. But what were we going to do? I mean, they died off screen, so that's cozy. They died off screen! The door was closed. I don't think you know what that word means. Sorry, guys. isn't that what makes cozy mystery murder mysteries cozy that people die off screen, he just not what makes it clear from somewhere else maybe if we hadn't heard all the noises okay they were muffled sounds. I still feel bad about this but i feel like it was genius too that bore with myself.

Oof. Well, are we still in initiative? Oh, yeah. Okay. So, it's your turn. I'm going to take out my feather. Okay. And I'm going to tap one of the celestial chickens on the head. Okay. Three times to make eggs. Okay. Maybe. I hope. Hi or what? Hi. You get one egg, and it's glowing, and it's like kind of spectral looking. I don't want to eat this egg, but also... Okay, I'm going to move back into the room. It's like, as you move it about, it has tracers.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm going to move back into the room. Mm-hmm. In line with the portcullis okay you see at least one dude standing there breathing heavily, surrender now and i'll aim the slingshot at him he looks like he's about to run it's not his turn so i can't tell you what you can't run if you look he's got he's gonna run i'm gonna move closer, outside of melee. And I'll stop there. Okay. He's going to turn the corner.

How is he looking? Like, is he injured at all? This one? This one's not injured. Okay, then I'm going to go ahead and hit him with the egg. Okay. 16? Yeah, that's it. 10? Yeah. How does he look? It looks like his head just bounced off the wall and he is on the ground. Is he dead? No. Because this is a magical egg. But he's knocked out? Yeah. Oh, they don't have much, do they? No. Oh. They have nine hit points each. Do I see the other guy? He would be around the corner.

Then I am going to use my swarm and have them carry me ten feet forward. Okay, so you're at the corner. You can now see the other guy. Okay, that's all I can do. He looks terrible. He's basically crawling on the ground. You should just give up. Never never why did you attack us mine.

But croc back there said that this place was his, you hear like expletives and then croc's name, so okay then they don't seem to be on the same team necessarily and if they are they don't care for each other they like section off the dungeon and they each own a part of it? Mm-hmm. Boy, this shame is going to work real well on me, isn't it? I don't know. It depends how much they can witness of what's going on for you now. Or how well.

Training you. So that's your turn. Next is Fauna's turn. All right. How far would I need to move to be able to see this creature in the corner? As if would my movement get me not, I don't want to be in melee. I just want visual. You could probably get there with your full movement. Okay. So I would like to do that. And then I'm going to fire Bolton. Okay. 16. Yeah, that hits. He had one hit point. You can't knock him unconscious. I rolled a 10, so. Hmm. No, we said magic can't kill.

Right. But, like, that would be his hit points plus what he had left. So, if this was, like, a player character, 10 would have dead deaded him. I'm dead. But because I made the rule that magic doesn't kill right now. He's lucky. He saved his life. Yeah. Okay. You're out of initiative. Can we check the bodies? Yeah, you can check the bodies. Checking bodies. There's like six scimitars. And I can't remember what the other guy had. He had a dagger. And, you know, some cult cloaks.

Some stuff that we possibly want. Anybody want a scimitar or dagger? Does the dagger look special in any way? No, it's just a typical dagger. I don't think I need a dagger. I'm going to look for a different weapon when I get back to Old Dave's. Do you think Old Dave would want any of these in trade? Is it worth putting in our bags? I don't know. We can try. All right, I'm going to shove them in my holding, my bag of holding, to see if we can sell them to Old Dave. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Do we find anything else on the bodies? no they never really got much do you guys feel bad about that because i feel bad about that i mean they did come at us well it's great. I was pretty non-graphic for what actually probably happened in that room. I know, but we could hear the screams. Yeah, well, they got needle sandwiched, so I don't know what to tell you. Did I just ruin the podcast? So Flora's having a real tough time right now. I guess we continue onward.

Okay where are you going i mean we should see what's down that corridor there's a room, well i know it doesn't seem ideal but it was them or us you know that that's what's, going on yeah you try to get them to stop multiple times some people just don't know want to quit were they people some things just don't know i'm asking the dm what what was under the robe were they like human yeah they were human oh they were cultists it was a cult fanatic and caught

this was there any kind of like symbol saying what it was a cult of not that you would No, not anything anyone's really like, this is not a prominent thing. This may be like some ragtag people from a cult got holding to, or recruited to do something that had to do with this dungeon. Maybe like it's not, there's been no signs pointing to a cult as the big bad or anything like that. Like that's not, they were just enemies.

Just a place that they could hang out, essentially. Yeah, they might have been recruited to be here to do something, but it's not life. You haven't been seeing points leading to... What? He's dreaming.

Hope this be the problem yeah you haven't seen that like the cult is anything significant it may just be like an ancillary or tertiary aspect of who they were they just may be here doing a job or something okay well i think we should go all the way to the end of this hall and just see what's there okay i agree man let me tell you being a spider was awesome yeah great and i'm I'm going to start walking down the hall, watching for traps.

Yeah, there's no traps in this hall. As far as you can see, you get down to the end of the hall, and it's a door. It is. I want to take one of the potions of healing that I'm holding on to. Okay. Just before we get too, too far, because I'm down to 11 again here. I don't know. They're, what, 1d4 plus... 2d4 plus 2. 2d4 plus 2. Wait, that doesn't sound right as I'm saying it. Yeah. Perfect. That helps a little. Okay.

Do I hear anything on the other side of the door? Yeah. What do I hear? Metal ping-ing. You guys hear that? Can I listen? See if I can hear it too? Yeah, you can hear it. It's pretty loud. That doesn't sound great. No, I wonder what's on the other side. Hmm. Famous last words. Mm. Mm-hmm. Is the door locked? Nope, it's open. You guys ready? Yes. Let's do it. I'm going to push the door open just enough for me to peek through. Okay. What do I see?

A man hitting something on an anvil. Which way is he facing? Away from you. I'm going to quietly close the door. Oh. And turn back to my friends and be like, so there's some guy in there hitting something on an anvil. He's not facing us. What do you want to do? I feel like he wouldn't appreciate being snuck up on. But then again, nobody in here thus far has been so, like, too friendly. Yeah, I don't think anyone's really wanted to make friends.

So i do not know if we should just go in guns blazing or if we should just be nice, i mean we can try talking to him first i suppose it doesn't hurt right yeah.

I guess i'll go first okay what are you doing i'm gonna open the door okay and you're like call in the other door yeah i'm cautiously behind both of them are you looking into the room i will be looking into the room though you notice your father what is his status like tied up no he's working iron on a anvil he owns a horse farm so you could assume he was a farrier to some degree Uh-huh. So he knows how to work. And I know you don't know why he's here. Uh-huh. But you see your father.

Boy, all the emotional trauma to me, Mike. And that's where Will stops. What? So why is he here? Oh, I haven't been taking notes. I got too caught up in what I've done. Thank you.