Last time on Cloudfall. The entire island of lore started quaking and rapidly falling apart. The pressure was on to find out what happened to the miners and what's happening on the island. As the island continued to shake and crumble, Erin and Poppy got split up from the rest of the party. With nowhere else to go, they ventured into the mines together.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party had to find an alternate route into the mines through tower 13. After fighting their way through a nightmare shadow moth, they're on their way to meet up with the rest of the party deeper in the mines. Alright. So I think we are still in Tower 13. That would be Guy, Doran, and Journey.
A little cunning gnome named Engelbert FF Wisherspoon had just helped you out of a bind by pushing this nightmare shadow moth one level deeper into the tower, isolating it so that you guys could destroy it, and, that fight had just wrapped up. Bert had come down the stairs to kind of see that the deed was done and is now, standing before the 3 of you, kind of dusting off his hands for a job well done, looking over the remains of that shadow moth. He says, man, I couldn't be more grateful that you guys all came when you did. I don't think I had much more in me. I'm pretty tired.
How long have you been down here, little man?
Hard to say. I can only see that moonlight up at the top floors. Less than a week, but a few days?
I think Hubert said something about a gnome going in there a while ago.
You're assumed dead, I believe, according to the Tortles.
That's a new one. Cool.
We're happy to find only one skeleton down here.
Oh, no. There's a bunch more. I promise.
Any more of those giant moth things?
No. That was the only kind of baddie in here Okay. I think.
Well, we are in a hurry. I think our friends are in imminent danger. But, I feel like I should ask you about this skeleton, and I point over at the one that we sort of looted. Do you know any anything about this? Whoever it was, they had, a bejeweled mace and, this necklace.
I held up the mace.
We're just curious what we're walking into here, if if you know anything.
He goes, wow. I I did not think you guys were gonna go for that. I mean, a bejeweled corpse?
What do you mean?
Who who would do that?
Seems like a slam dunk to me.
Well, no. I get the appeal, but you'd you'd think, like, obviously, that's gotta be, like, a trap or something. Right?
Well, oh, a trap. Right. Well, something in us just compelled us to, take a closer look. Other than that, we also have a companion that would have grabbed it anyway. So we were, in a way, looking out for our friend.
So rude.
You're not here.
Journey's confused. I don't understand. I thought the man was dead, so he didn't need his stuff anymore.
Well, yeah. It just seems a little obvious, doesn't it?
That he left it behind because he's dead?
He looks up at the other 2 of you and he says, it seems to be a cleric of Gond? If I had to guess, I would say he probably made that mace himself.
So wait. Are you saying that because there's jewels on the mace that I can't use it?
What? No.
Jewel's a tool, isn't it?
He's just kind of superstitious journeyed up. I don't worry about it.
No. I think danger's over. Right? You got it off the skeleton. I don't unless it's cursed, which it's not.
Why would you bring cursed items into the history of cursed tower?
There's probably a lot of good research here. I mean, where else?
Curses are more of a long term concern. I think the island falling and our friends being in danger, we should probably get on with that.
Mister, can you tell if that necklace is cursed?
He, squints at it real deep and kind of, like, shwiggles his mustache side to side. That tickles.
Shwiggle.
Sorry. You're touching my neck a bit with that big bushy mustache.
He backs off a little
bit
and goes, oh, sorry.
What the fuck?
No. Not cursed. None of this stuff is. Not even that. And I thought that was cursed for sure. I mean, look at it. He, points down the stairs, and you see a skeleton collapsed in the stairs going down to the next level. This skeleton was wearing a robe, and it is near a staff that is on fire. It's not cursed. I don't know. I don't know what to tell It's not cur it's safe. I mean, it's on fire.
Is it trapped?
I mean, your guess is as good as mine, but
Do we take that too? I don't understand. We gotta go.
Yeah. Yeah. We're plugging. We might need that.
We must return to the mine, but what will you do? Will will you come with us, or do you need to return to the surface?
No. I'm not going any deeper. I gotta go talk to Hubert.
Say, before you go, Engelbert, I, I'm a little scuffed up. Would you mind, you said you had one healing spell to
spare. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Might as well get that out now. Here we go. And he plants both hands on you, and you regain 70 hit points.
The fuck?
That that's more than I have. So
You explode.
Are there any leftovers?
I am a god.
Tim's last John.
You do almost kind of break a sweat with the intensity of the healing magic that's being poured into you.
Let's go. You're very healthy, Dora.
Yeah. There's not that many stairs. That's I'll I'll race to the bottom.
Before we go, mister Wisher Spoon, just so you know, I I don't know. It is Huber. What's that? It's Huber.
The turtle guy?
There isn't a t at the end.
They don't like t's on this Skyland.
He he might get mad at you if you say Hubert.
Yeah. But, yeah, that's not a name, hu Hubert. I know. I know. I know. My name isn't Engelber.
I don't know. Silvia, y'all have weird names anyway.
No. Thanks for letting me know.
I think he was just looking for an air of sophistication or something. It's, you know
maybe you're better off if you address him as pal
or buddy. I'll give that a try.
Thanks, guy. You're welcome, Bert.
Journey's walking down the stairs.
Bert's going up the stairs.
Guy, I think it's I think you're up. Do you want that, flaming staff thing?
I don't know if I have a use for it, but it's pretty neat.
Yeah.
I mean, if you don't want it, I I'll take take
it, but I will pick it up.
It is on fire.
The whole thing's on
fire?
The staff is on fire. Yep.
I'll pick it up.
Okay.
1st dice roll.
What is happening?
Yeah. You hold on to it kind of curious as to how this doesn't burn you when you're holding it, you know, being a magic item. Yeah. And you take 4 fire damage because it does burn you.
Oh, I dropped it. Oh, it's hot. It's burning. Okay.
Well that one's still yours and then Journey's up next. So yeah.
As you guys are coming down the stairs here, Journey, you actually, kick a little stick on the ground, an ornate little stick near that wizardly corpse that begins to roll down the steps, making a clacking noise along the way.
I, do a little hop, skip, drag up to it and stop it with my foot.
Yeah. It's a very simple, dark wooden stick, a wand. It's got a simple brass kind of collar about a quarter of the way up. It is inscribed with yeah. It's got an Elven script on there.
Can I argue something quickly?
Okay.
I would like to argue.
Uh-oh.
I know Sylvan. Sylvan is the precursor to Elvish. Would I have some possible understanding of what the Elvish could be? I'm thinking, like, I know Latin, so maybe I can read French a little.
Yeah. You can tell that what is on there is an activation phrase and that this has to do with knowledge.
I see Journey trying to read the script with a finger moving across it. Mhmm.
And I'm flipping it upside down and then back the right way.
No. You you had it right.
Oh, Yeah. It looks it looks kinda like what I'm familiar with, but the I don't know. The letters are a little curlier. I don't know.
Yeah. I I can read it in a while.
Okay. So the wand simply details knowledge of magic. And the activation phrase is to point the wand, and at high volume, you utter, what are those?
Oh my god.
I relay this to Journey.
Oh, neat. I guess I'll take this. You said I was next, Rhett? Yeah. Alright. Let's keep going.
Well, let me take one last stab at this staff. Guy's going to, kinda reach toward the the staff, but, stop short. And a cold wind will start to blow a little bit as he casts, chill touch.
Oh, cool.
And a ghostly skeleton hand will reach out and try to grab the staff. Cool. Maybe seeing if it will put out the fire.
Is that a chill touch mage hand combo?
Yeah. So the okay. Cool. I like that. The ghostly hand reaches out and grabs this thing, and where it does, you see it go down to kind of a glossy black ash. You can see kind of like the cracks in the wood where this thing is, like, charred through, but it also seems sturdy and permanent. This thing is not being destroyed or disintegrating. That's just its natural state of being, but you're able to grab the staff there.
Okay. It's
not completely put out, though, and it seems to be rekindling itself over time.
Now what? Journey, do you wanna maybe maybe we should use that wand on this one. I hate to leave it behind.
Oh, I thought maybe because it said what are those that it was for something specific. Do I just point it?
I think you can use these as much as you want.
Alright. Guy, can you put it down maybe?
Oh, yes. Make sure you aim true, Jeremy.
I I point it at the staff, and I go, what are those?
You did this to us, Tim.
No, I didn't. You see the flames flicker, just momentarily on the staff and, Journey. Your mind is flooded with knowledge. This was one time called the hot rod. This staff, by nature, is always on fire until it attunes to someone, then it's no longer on fire. It creates a bonfire when it's stuck on the ground, and it also has, 5 charges of usage per day. You can use 4 of those charges to conjure a fireball.
What? 2 of
them to conjure burning hands and one to conjure scorching ray. The fuck. Single scorching ray.
That's sick.
We should not have this cool of stuff yet.
I'm out of a job. Yeah.
Hey, guys.
We're gonna get all this really cool shit, and Poppy and Aaron are gonna be dead.
That's what
There goes my create bonfire, my control friend control flight.
Control friends.
Control friends.
Oh, shit. I shouldn't have told you that.
That's pretty sweet, Kai.
How long does it take to attune to this?
You can do it over the course of a short rest.
Maybe we'll just leave it here until our maybe you can carry it, I guess.
I, I feel like we should be in more of a hurry. Our friends may be in danger.
But I
really wanna know what this necklace does.
Oh, wait. Do I point it at the necklace too?
I mean, we can do it while we're walking too. Right?
Rad, I can walk and talk.
Yeah. Yeah.
Necklace turns out to be nonmagical. Dang it.
A necklace.
However valuable, probably.
I mean okay. So kill touch is a cantrip. So can I, like, use it by doing it?
Yep. Just spam it. Yeah.
It's fine.
Cool. I will do that using it as a light source also.
Okay. Yeah. The 3 of you continue on your way and make it to the very bottom of tower 13. Meanwhile
Erin and Poppy are dead at the
bottom of the ditch. Erin,
go on.
Look at how cool stuff, though.
Our friends will come.
I'm so hungry. Was fine knowing
you, I guess.
It was fine.
Erin, that's mean. I said it was
fine. The
2 of you are still sitting in the Bursting Urchin room, this sort of dead end with this huge hoard of spiky balls kind of covering up the dead end. You had just had a close encounter with supposedly Philip J Collins, although Aaron revealed him to certainly not be Philip J Collins. In fact, the creature that probably murdered him. Poppy, you kind of watched in horror as this creature, this Philip J Collins, sucked the magic out of the bismite on the walls and left the cave through that gaping open hole. It must have some way to fly because it's gone.
It it left. Right? Like like, we're safe if we if we get up?
Just hold still. Erin's gonna do a quick, investigation of the room. I don't know if investigation is the right
Yeah. Give me investigation. K. 5. Bad. Yeah. You kinda walk out to that, open maw of the cave here, and you get a little nervous being that close to the edge of what had just been, like, disintegrating before your very eyes.
Poppy, I I don't know where they went. I think it's just not safe here. We need to try to find a way out.
Right. So, so we go further in?
Erin nods at Poppy and helps them up. Wait. Were you on the ground? Yeah. Yeah. Helps pop you up.
Okay. We got I mean, if it left, then we're probably fine to keep going. Unless there's more of them. We don't know. Yes. Well, what if there's more of them? We'll fight? Yeah. Okay. Alright. Follow me. I'll take the lead.
I think I think I'll take the lead.
So cute, cute, though.
Aaron starts walking ahead of Poppy leading the way, down the other path, the other tunnel track.
Yep. You move down that darker path, and around the corner, you find more dead bismights, these orthogonal spiraling squares of silver metallic crystals. You see large, large bismite crystals, bigger than you've ever seen, either of you, like the size of the rolling pin itself.
And it's all dead?
It's all dead. It's all silver. Maybe the slightest tint of pink to all of it. A dull rosy pink.
Well, this is probably why the island is falling out of the sky.
I need a perception check from both of you.
17. 16.
Nice.
You'll love to hear it. You can both hear this distant tapping. It's completely consistent.
Do you think that's the water drip?
The one that was recorded with the tortles.
I mean, it sounds familiar, but there was a lot going on.
Yeah. I I think that was the echo bell that where we heard the cry of the person that fell. I mean, they had a 100 of them, so So that that means that there's probably
bodies right right there. Right?
Yeah. But I, I think we should investigate carefully. I just don't think we can be in this cave much longer. I'm gonna push forward, slowly and cautiously and try to be stealthy and just follow the sounds. I mean, I'm assuming the cave kind of just goes one way.
It, it actually expands a little bit here so that it's less of a sort of linear tunnel and more of an open chamber to explore. This is one of the rooms that they had hoped to find good bismide in to mine out. As the 2 of you move forward, let me first get a stealth check from both of you.
I don't know if this will affect it, but I am closing my eyes and holding on to the rope. Oh my god. I don't wanna see whatever it is.
19. 17.
Wow. Jeez.
Poppy, beat me.
Closing your eyes
is all you need.
Yeah. To be selfie. Poppy turns invisible when she
That makes sense. He's floating. I got my levitate boots
on. Nice.
Oh, yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah. You're just kind of, like, literally a balloon.
No foot noise?
Yeah.
No foot noise. Okay. Mhmm.
Just a moment after crossing into this chamber, you can see the glint of water, and you can see an echo bell hanging from a string above a small drum where the water is dripping down.
Is there a body anywhere around?
You kind of expectantly scan the room, and you do see someone sitting with their back up against a stone wall. They have their arms up in a kind of defensive position.
What do they look like?
They're dark and a little far away.
I'm so scared right now. Hannah the player is terrified right now.
Aaron is trying to decide if they should approach the body just knowing that there's deceptive creatures in this cave. Mhmm. But Aaron knows that if they go back to the group and they didn't, the job wasn't finished. So Aaron's gonna finish the job. Poppy, just stay here. Be quiet. And, Aaron unties the rope and walks up to the walks up to the dark figure against the wall that they think is the dead person.
Poppy's got her fingers in her ears and she's humming.
Erin punches Poppy.
Don't put it. Mhmm.
Go ahead.
Aaron, you don't even realize how slowly you're approaching, and it's really just dragging out this process.
Can I see anything? I'm so scared.
As your eyes kind of adjust to the darkness, you do see the shape of a man, unmistakably. Seems to be frozen in time, holding his arms up defensively as if protecting himself.
Hey.
You. No response.
I'm gonna poke them with the end of my crossbow.
Which end? The pointy end.
It's not loaded. Okay.
But, yes, the pointy end.
You poke him. You poke this dark figure, and thinking that maybe he was wearing clothing or armor in that spot, you find out that all of him has been turned to an ashy gray. Where you touch begins a chain reaction of disintegration, like watching a house of cards fall apart from the bottom up.
Aaron gasps and jumps back.
As you see his arms disintegrate away and his torso begins to turn to ash and dust and sand, You can see the face of Philip J. Collins, except his eyes are missing. No.
No. This fucker. No.
I have literal chills. I'm gonna barf at Chillsbury.
Timmy, don't listen to Paul.
Ezra's eyes. You're the one who can handle it. So sweaty.
Erin, you rapidly back away from this corpse as it turns to sand.
Yeah. Erin is scrambling backwards, like, terrified.
Should I should I open my eyes?
Poppy, stay away. Stay away. Back up. I don't know what that was. I've never seen some shit like that. Holy fuck. What happened? What I don't see anything. We need to get out of here. I don't know what that was.
Taking in more of this room through the light of your headlamp, just kind of frantically looking around, you immediately see another body. This one is not ashen. It's just brutalized. Its head is caved in. It's holding a mining pick in a sort of attack position, but it's probably Pharah.
This is this is terrible. I Erin's gonna try to search for some sort of way out of this cave, not the way we came, but if there's another path.
Sure.
They're gonna try to tie themselves back up to Poppy real quick too while they're scrambling.
Okay. As you're getting ready, the 2 of you, Poppy, you see it first. You can see the light of a headlamp in a pit about 40 feet away.
I Aaron, do you see that? What? I think there's an a a helmet Down
oh, I see it. I I
I don't like it here.
Do you think they're
alive? I'm gonna go with no, probably. Fuck. Hello?
Poppy, even glancing for a moment, you can see a person with a neck so thin, having been pinched reduced to almost nothing. Definitely Marty.
Uh-uh. I don't that's probably not people don't have necks like that. Right? No.
I think we've seen enough. Come on. You start walking, pulling Poppy along. K. Can I find an exit?
You don't. I mean, like, this chamber leads to another smaller one, and there doesn't seem to be much more to it. You can find a couple of areas where it looks like some of the recent quaking has caused rubble to fall. You can't tell if it's been like this for an hour or for 10 years, but you can't find a way out of this place. Meanwhile, back in Tower 13, the 3 of you are just now moving into the basement floor.
There is a little bit of standing water. You can see as soon as you came down here, a light went out, and now it's dark down here, so you'll need a light source if you don't have one going. Oh, I guess you do.
I got a flaming rod.
Yes. You do. You got a hot rod. I need
do you?
We're all, like,
pressed. I need an investigation check from each of you.
There were supposed to
be Do I have to
investigate? Oh.
Can I only perceive?
Yeah. You can perceive. Okay.
We got 18.
16.
What do your frugal guys see?
15. It would have been a 9 had I investigated. So that's where I'm at.
Wow. Okay.
Yeah. It's bad.
Well, it's not all that hard to see, so I'll say all 3 of you see it. Guy and Doran are like, yeah. That's the plaster seam in the wall where we need to break through to get there. And I guess Journey's like, moisture came from this direction once. So, yeah, you you all are aware of this large, plaster seam where the wall was once open and has been since kind of bricked over and remortered.
Who has those blasting caps?
I think we left them with Aaron.
Figures.
Perhaps I can
Smart of us.
I can try to break through here, Doran. Hold my flaming staff.
You could set it down there. That's fine. Oh, yes. Okay.
You set it down, and the moisture on the ground here has it kind of steaming and sizzling, and it sort of rolls into a puddle and
cool. I
take it a couple steps away from it. Actually, I get closer. I wanna hear that again. Lean down.
That's accurate. That sounds like like my electric kettle. It's like it. Alright.
Guy will go to town with his pickaxe k.
On that wall. After Guy makes a dent, I'm gonna go up with a pry bar and help.
Cool. Let's take a little pause there. Guy Okay. You start hitting the wall with your pickaxe give me an athletics check 22 alright couple mighty blows You're taking out, like, chunks at a time. You can see the plaster just kind of chipping away in sheets, and some of the bricks are starting to give way as well, but with each continuing strike, this room becomes brighter and brighter because among the standing water on the floor is a good handful of bursting urchins.
That's perfect.
Guy, you guys stop.
One more blow out.
What? Stop for a second. Those lights in the floor, they're the the urchins that Poppy and Aaron were talking about. It's the same thing.
And they explode. Right?
Right. So don't stand on them or near them.
Can we throw something at them and then clear out the rest of this door?
Well, you can pick them up. Just don't smack them.
Were they reacting to my tunneling?
Yeah. It seems the noise was kinda pissing them off.
Why don't I throw my pry bar at them, and then maybe they'll explode the wall out?
Why don't we pick them up and put them on the hole?
Oh, right. Yeah. That's even better. Okay. Yeah. You can do it, Journey. You've worked with them before. Right?
This seems great. This seems great, and I
love it.
Well, I can help. My armor should offer some protection.
Why don't
Nobody sneeze.
Why don't y'all just take a step back, and I'll try and pick a couple up and put them against the wall?
Guy takes a heavy step back.
Wait. You're trying to explode the wall with urchins? Yeah. Oh, my fucking put the smart people in the pits of despair. My intelligence is
minus 1. Oh, my Yep. Yep. Yep.
I'll need a, sleight of hand from you, Journey.
What if it was animal handling, though?
Oh. That's a strong argument. I like that.
What if Skye also did an animal handling Stop.
To help? Okay.
No. You you totally could too.
Give me that dieback, though.
13.
Thank you.
Thank you
for the inspiration. That saved me.
That's a 15. Okay.
Journey, you pick 1 up by a single tendril, a single spike, and move it towards the plaster seam on the wall and set it there. Kind of as you're turning, you lose your footing a little bit and almost drop it, and Guy kind of stabilizes you and helps you move these things over. Before long, you've got almost all of them piled up right before this plaster seam.
Thanks, guy. I think we got it.
So I hit them all with a pickaxe and they explode.
I think the noise itself will do it. I don't think it's a good idea to be close to them when they go off.
Yes. Probably not.
I'm gonna move these any jars that are around and move them really far away Okay. And, stand behind something. Okay. I think we're good.
Alright. I could shoot an arrow at it, but maybe the pickaxe will do it on its own.
Why don't we get a safe distance and you try the arrow?
Alright. I suppose. Sure.
Give me an attack, but probably the easiest hit of your life.
Okay.
And there's water leaking through the wall at this spot?
There's just standing water in the basement floor here.
Okay. Yeah. So it's not like we're releasing a river?
No. Yeah. There's there's not enough of a, like That's
what I thought.
Break. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
I dropped it.
That's what you're supposed to do. At 20. Alright. Yeah. You it's like, I don't know, shooting an arrow through a koosh ball.
Like, what do you want from me? Okay you nail this pile of spiky glowing blue orbs and you hear the first needles kind of hit the walls down there and then like a chain reaction just one after another you hear almost like a hard hail or rain coming from outside, but you just hear all this little tick of these spikes hitting the walls as these things explode not the concussive fiery burst that you were hoping for So when you come back, this room is just dripping with blue glowing venom, and there's a bunch of dead urchins in a pile.
And no hole in the wall?
No hole
in the wall. Yeah.
Those aren't sentient, are they? Mission accomplished.
So I remember
when I was a kid, one of my cousins told me that they would do a big explosion. Maybe they weren't being fully honest with me.
I'd say maybe you didn't shoot them hard enough, but it looked pretty good.
Yeah. Maybe,
Either way, the urchins are no longer a threat. Well
Well, maybe I should continue whacking.
Alright.
Here I
go.
With a single strike guy, you feel the pick pierce through into the next chamber, and when you pull the pick back, it begins to pour water into this room.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
We're doing really good.
Guy, puts his finger in the hole.
Yeah. There's like water gushing out to either side of your finger as you
just Yeah. He keeps like
Yeah.
Putting his hand over
representation of our, whole experience. This guy.
It doesn't take long for the wall to fully disintegrate and bust out into this room, bringing with it a deluge of broken concrete and water, but it's not infinite. It's just some standing collected water. You're all about waist deep. You'll have to bend over to go into this tunnel, but you can move forward.
Guy grabs his flaming staff. Okay.
Yeah. It stays out for a little while now being thoroughly soaked. Alright.
Who wants to go through first?
Jurnee, do you wanna take the
mic? What? Yeah. I'll I'll peek around the corner and see if there's anything in the other room. Yeah. Journey does a little sneaky sneak into the next room. Bow in hand, arrow in hand, nothing drawn.
You travel about 20 or 30 feet down this narrow hallway, and, again, there's, like, broken rubble on the floor. There's kind of, you know, spots of sand. In places, this tunnel gets so narrow that you literally have to suck in to kind of squeeze through the floor to ceiling distance that's allowed here, and it just seems to continue. You don't want to get too far away from your party before checking in with them, but it seems like this is just a straight tunnel.
Yeah. Just it just keeps going on and on. It's it's pretty tight, but I think we can get through.
Let us continue onward then.
Do we wanna check-in with Erin and Poppy?
Yeah. Hey, Poppy. Poppy?
Tell her to stop making that noise. It's kinda scaring me.
Poppy. Oh, dear, honey. What's going on? Nothing really. It's just really scary down here.
Well, you gotta gotta keep your wits about you. We're headed toward you. We found a tunnel.
Well, we found all the dead people. Oh. Then we can't there's, like, no
way out? We're digging to you. We broke through the the doorway to get in, and and we're gonna make our way to
you. Erin?
Hurry. Please hurry. Does Erin still have the blasting caps?
Yeah. Yeah. I got them.
Well, where would we even what if we came in and, and, and there's this, and there's like a pit and, and dead trees.
Try and see if there's any spots where you can maybe find a tunnel. Don't try to get through them, but just see if there's anywhere that there is an obvious tunnel behind some rubble. Okay.
We'll try to look. Thank you. Mhmm. Stay safe.
We gotta hurry. They're losing their flipping minds.
The 3
of you continue crawling through that narrow tunnel. And, Guy, for you especially, it can be a real challenge trying to get your armor through this. Eventually, it does widen out so that you can more or less walk again. And then the island starts quaking. The 3 of you are in a narrow, claustrophobic chamber.
The other 2 of you are more alone feeling than you've ever been in the chamber with the bodies, and stalactites are starting to fall from the ceiling, and you hear this almost rain like sound of stones falling all around you.
You're in. Poppy,
I don't wanna die. When it's our time, it's our time, I guess.
Damn. That's really not comforting.
I mean, I didn't think I'd go like this. That's for sure.
A huge boulder crashes right between Poppy and Aaron, actually severing that rope that was between them.
Poppy, hey. I'm okay. I don't know how long, though.
And the floor falls out beneath you. Oh,
come on.
Fuck you.
And we wake up from a terrible dream.
It's a serious rap
on Aaron and a puppy.
Goddamn it. Roll new characters.
In the narrow tunnel, the 3 of you are waiting are waiting for a complete collapse to be crushed under under here. There hasn't even been a moment of conversation since the quaking started, just nervous glances. And then the ceiling collapses above you. But it was only a couple inches thick. You can hear the whimpering cries of Erin and Poppy not far away.
From above us?
From above you.
Do you hear that those pathetic cries?
I don't wanna die. I'm so young.
It's Poppy. Poppy.
Guy.
It's me, Guy, your friend.
Are we on the same level now?
Yeah. You guys are on the same level, although a lot has changed. After this rumbling and quaking, when the dust settles, you're all pushing chunks of stone off of you and testing for permanent injuries. You each take a deep labored breath, and the air in here is pleasantly warm and soothing to breathe in. With all the collapse and the newly discovered ground here, you're standing in dark ruins. You can see this amber light that turns on followed by yellow and then a bright blue. Bismite?
Are we dead?
What is this? What are all these colors?
Not bismite and not dead. You see, shuffling around this area as soon as the dust settles and it becomes quiet again. You can see these bulbous glossy creatures scuttling about About the size and shape of a hard hat, these little round crab like creatures. Their shells glow, causing this whole chamber to illuminate.
I start smacking Erin on the arm. That that's the thing I saw. How? What? Before with the and I thought it was a helmet, and and we couldn't pick it up. Oh.
The thing I was like, who cares about that?
Yeah. That thing. Okay.
Jenny, you'd blink the dust out of your eyes, and you recognize scuttle bumps.
They're scuttle bumps.
Right. That's not a totally made up thing.
Well, what isn't made up?
It's fair.
Scuttle bumps are, essentially horseshoe crabs. You ever seen those before?
Mhmm.
But they glow when they're calm and they feel safe.
And these ones are glowing?
Yeah. All of them.
Everyone, I if you're all alright, if you're all alright, I think we're all alright.
Yes. Look at all this cool stuff we found on our way here.
Ow. Can we see the dead bodies that fell with us?
No. This this room, this chamber has changed greatly. You probably fell some 12, 15 feet to kind of combine with this new chamber.
And the dead bodies are nowhere to be found? No. Well, Guy, we only found terrible things, so, this isn't really a good show and tell moment, I would say.
It was awful. We saw a pile of dust and then we saw, someone with a really thin neck, and then there was someone without a head.
So all 3 of them are?
I think so.
Yeah. We think it was the mining crew.
Ugh. All I got was this dumb stuff. That sounds cool.
You guys don't understand. I saw a body just disintegrate in front of me. I haven't seen something like that before.
Journey reaches out and puts a hand on Erin's shoulder.
Erin jumps away at the touch.
It's it's alright. You're safe now.
No. We need to get out of here.
We're still stuck in the caves.
Yeah. But look, the the crabs all around us, you see them?
These are dumb crabs. Why are they calm? We just had a cave in.
What are they called again?
Scuttle bumps.
Scuttle bumps. Dorn would never be so mean. Are you really Dorn?
Poppy ads me.
Guy, tell me something only you would know.
I've burned everything I've tried to bake.
Alright. It's them.
No. But look. I know I know y'all have been through something really terrible, and I'm sorry. And we are gonna get out of here. But these scuttle bumps, they glow when they're calm, when they're safe, and that tells me that we're in a safe spot right now. It's it's gonna be okay. We're gonna get out of here.
What else do we need to accomplish? Do we need to figure out if the skyline is going to plummet from the sky because all the bismite's gone? Do we need to deal with this old man figure that you saw?
Well, he left the cave,
And he can look like anyone.
So the Tortles? We gotta we gotta tell Hubert.
We have to warn them.
Hubert. Wait, who has that one?
Yeah. You do. Yeah.
Huber.
Poppy.
Yeah. We're alive.
Good.
You guys might not be though for very long. Oh my god.
Give Poppie.
Excuse me, Poppie.
I was talking to him.
Huber. Poppy, what
are you talking about?
Fine. You can talk to Poppy.
Guy gives Poppy a thumbs up.
I give it back to Poppy.
Thank you very much. That was so rude.
What were you saying? What do we need to do?
Well, the the guy, the murder man. I don't really know.
The murder?
Guy murdered someone.
No. Guy didn't. Sorry. That was a misnomer. Not guy.
I did murder a creature.
Yes. That okay. Here. Fine. You talk. Alright.
Hubert, there is some sort of creature that can change forms. I I feel like you should, connect with everyone on the sky land to make sure all the turtles are safe. And if you do feel in danger, I hate to say this, but Kree might be a good option if you have to face this this force. Whatever it was, it it killed the 3 minors. Aaron and Poppy were able to find them in gruesome ways, I've heard as well.
Yeah. They were really good, though.
Yeah. We're still dealing with, some unstable, caverns here.
The 5 of you are alright.
We're okay. Same with, Engelbert f f Wisherspoon. I believe he's still at your service.
So Indeed. I incredible. I we'll we'll look for him. Of course. Immediately.
He may be of help.
Yes. We've sustained some damage to many of the towers. Some have collapsed entirely I'm afraid. Do you know if this is over, this rumbling, quaking?
From what I hear the bismite has been depleted by whatever this creature is. What? Depleted? Yes. Impossible.
It's really not it's all silver.
We overheard the miners saying this earlier too. What? I don't know how much is still here, but
we had time. I I will see it for myself soon, not now.
May not have time.
Doran, this is grave news. Return, please, as quickly as you can. Perhaps none of us are safe on this island.
How are we in now? Do we go back through the tower?
Shred is still working on, finding a way to repel from the cliff side to bring you all up. He needs more time.
We can make it through the cursed tower. The cursed tower? Cursed history tower?
Yeah. Cursed's a little archaic, but yeah. Sure.
Yeah. We we have a clear path that way. Is there anything you want us to check on still? Just get back here safe, please. Alright. I feel like I
Yeah. Bye.
I'm gonna hand it back to Pop.
Oh, yeah.
Goodbye. Goodbye?
Oh. You hang up.
Okay. Okay.
I can still hear him breathing. He just he doesn't get it.
It's fine.
Put it in my pocket.
10 seconds later, you hear like a
Aaron and Journey, kind of while they're on that call dealing with all those shenanigans, the 2 of you are looking around this chamber. It is unlike anything else on the island. It is absolutely immaculate Aside from the small areas of collapse, you can see elegantly curved marble columns that are holding up these broad archways. You can see mosaics and carvings around this area, this villa that show people and forest creatures, fae creatures, and they're all eating and dancing and drinking and singing and getting down to a pretty serious degree of detail.
And this would I know that this is Faye?
Some of it probably strikes you as being definitely Faye, but the the kind of centerpiece to all of this are 2 large rectangular pools of clean water. And between those 2 pools is a large statue surrounded by lush plants that don't seem like they belong down here.
This place is strange. Why is it down here?
How are those plants growing in the dark?
I don't know. This shouldn't be possible. Maybe through some sort of magic fae magic, maybe? I'm gonna head towards the statue.
K.
Aaron looks into a pool out there, reflection. Yeah.
The pool you're looking into, Erin, the water seems to have kind of a pinkish tint to it, although it looks extremely clean.
Do I see myself?
Yes.
Aaron just, changes their nose to turn up for a second.
Okay.
And
then turn back down to where it was.
Okay. He's doing a little changeling finesse.
I was seeing if the reflection follows what I'm doing.
Yeah. And it does.
Okay.
Journey, looking at this statue, it is a nude figure of a man who is holding both hands over his middles, to kind of censor himself.
Is it an elven man?
Journey would actually know that it's not exactly an elf. It's called an Elidrin. It is a a fey humanoid, very closely related to elves. Elladrin are essentially fae elves. Phenom is also an Elladrin.
And I and I recognize that
Yeah.
When his disclaimer was gone. Clock that right away. Yep.
Okay. Interesting. I wonder how this is down here.
Why was this man sculpted to not have any clothes, Johnny?
Art?
Do you use your wand thing?
Oh, I suppose. Yeah. I can trap. I take a couple steps back and kind of, like, try to encompass both pools and the statue mentally. And then I go, what are those? So good, Tara.
You hear. What are those? It's it's my testicles to be honest.
What? What did you learn,
Journey? Hello?
Here's the thing. I've I've had a very long time to think about this, and, well, I think best way to approach it is cards on the table. I am inside of this statue, and I have been for a long time. I, I think the best way to get you to agree with this is if I tell you my intentions. I want to live inside you.
We
can all hear this. Right?
I'm all of you can hear this. Yes. I made the big oopsie whoopsie about 500 years ago in this very villa. I wanted to live inside the statue so that I live forever and experience all the parties around me, but then the party stopped.
Journey looks down at the wand in her hand and then smacks it a couple times.
Yeah. Nothing really wrong with the wand. Doran,
I don't understand.
This is very, like, obvious what's going on. What are you confused about?
Classic man wants to live forever, turns into a party statue.
Party goes away. Yeah. It's really that's how it goes.
Statue.
Gets it.
Man, what what's your name?
You can refer to me as Ganymede.
I'm about mister Mead.
Okay.
When you say live inside you Yes. For how long? Forever?
Probably, yes. Forever.
And you're trying to live in all of us, each
of us Yes.
At the same time?
It's a perfect situation. You see? Almost never people come down here because it's completely sealed up. It's an old cave. That's my fault. But my mission throughout my life and my afterlife or whatever this is, is to party. And to party hard, day and night, is what I do. I want to continue to party but there's no party down here. So I want to party inside of you. Okay?
No.
How many of you are there?
It's just me, just the one. But you could say I know how to party better than anybody else. So, I will give each of you one of my incredible senses. There's 5 of you, right? I've got 5 incredible senses. Well, 6, but we'll have to let go of 1.
What, what what are they?
Well, of course, my my sight, my hearing, my feeling, my tasting, my smell, and my sex, but we'll have to leave out the sex.
Well, we
could keep
that one and skip the smelling, maybe.
No. Let's keep the smell. Why does he get to choose?
So so you're asking to be a part of us, and we each get one of your senses, and that's all the power you have over us?
Well, I'll be able to, lend my incredible senses to
you. What do you get?
I get to keep leaving. I get to experience and to sense something other than 63 degrees and humid.
Do you get to see everything we do all the time?
No. That's an important caveat and I'm glad you asked.
I assume only the person with his sight would, right?
This is correct and only when you consent to it. I will I will inhabit an object that you own.
Yeah. Consent seems fine. I'm good with that.
And when you contact the object, we will share senses.
So you wouldn't live in our our bodies, you'd live in something we own? Correct. But you just wanna be along for the
ride? Bingo.
If if we do not party all the time, does this create a problem?
No. Of course not.
What is partying to you? Is just live in partying?
Partying to me for 500 years has been 63 degrees and scuttlebumps.
That's another weather report.
Any experience that you can provide me outside of that and improvement to that, I'm in.
Well, you're in for a treat because we're traveling.
Perfect.
Hold on. Is this a Fae bargain?
Wise. Yes. Yes. This is a fay bargain. If you choose to do it, you have to do it.
I would like to make an insight check on this Do it. Being.
Aaron will also do an insight check. Squinty eyes. I should be. Natural 22.
Yes. 15.
K.
It's a 22, actually.
Oh, yeah. Great. Aaron's a good judge of intonation. She's had to see through a lot of liars in her days. That's right. She would know. And there's nothing deceptive about what he's saying. In fact, he is scrambling to divulge as much information as possible. Journey, you're kind of stuck on the point of, if I were in this situation, if I were a naked trap statue for 500 years, how would I petition a group to get me out of this? It's probably something close to this.
Alright. Well, what's the contingency like? If we decide that this is not what we want anymore, can we pass you off to someone else, or is it forever and ever until we die?
We can make that part of the bargain. You can pass on the item.
You'd be attached to the item, and it would be safe.
Alright. Yes. I would split my soul into 5 pieces, probably not a big deal, and I would live inside those 5 objects instead of 1 statue.
I mean, I don't have an issue with it.
Alright. If we do this, we have to put some boundaries. We have to put some protections in for us because a a fey bargain is really easy to get all twisted up in. I I wanna make sure that you can't have any measure of control over our bodies or our minds.
Oh, this was the rules, lawyer, that I hear about. I have no control over you. I will send you stimuli. I can improve your senses. I can see farther than you can see. I can hear more than you can hear. I can taste really nice.
I like that
one. Well, give us a second, and I, kind of gather everybody. What do what do y'all think?
I say we do it like it's gotta
suck being stuck in a cave.
I do feel bad for him, and I've I've had dealings with the fey before, and they're not always malicious. There are quite a few fey that just wanna experience.
They're people just like us.
Well, I'm yeah.
We're all different, and we all come from different backgrounds.
Mhmm.
And we all do what we need to to survive. Mhmm.
Even though he's telling the truth, I don't like the idea of some entity always with me.
I mean, he's only gonna be with you until the skyline falls to the ground and gets crushed.
And he's gonna be in an object. He's not gonna be with you with you. And if you decide that it's not something you want, he said that it's okay to pass him off. And if that's part of the Faye bargain, he has to stick with it too. It just it doesn't just affect us.
There's still something that feels I don't know.
Well, maybe maybe we just help get him out of here and pass it
along. It does seem highly unusual, but, Poppy, if you're in favor.
I think having a super extra sensey tongue would be cool.
I think if we can negotiate a little further, we should probably get the sex one in the mix too. Right?
I'm sensing a little bit of hesitation.
Hey. We're doing a little group huddle thing. Let us finish. I'm I'm just curious as you know, just to make it more
Torin, what do you what do you think that could be? I don't know what it
can mean. I I can't even, like, picture what that means. How is that sense?
Trying to do after this?
Dawn, you are an engaged man.
Aaron puts their head in their hand and just like, oh
my god.
So then so then it doesn't matter on performance guy? Is that Oh, well
Aren't you a bard? Can't you lie your way out of things?
He said we don't get to choose which one we get.
I don't. But then there's a chance. So
Does Dorn bark inspiration himself beforehand?
You can't bark inspire yourself.
You can bark inspire your partner though to please him more.
Yeah. Well There
you go.
That's so slow. Ask for it. Yeah. It's like, excuse you.
I'm getting a sense based on this conversation, you guys are coming around
to this.
Right? Can we get this in the mix?
You all are so willing to take what's offered without worrying about what they want in return. And I know you're asking the questions journey, but I just still feel like I don't know. We just met this person literally 5 minutes ago.
Are you physically and emotionally tied to everything you own?
No? Okay.
Hey.
What? You can give a shirt away or whatever.
Yeah. But he's, like, inhabiting us and splitting his soul into an object.
It's not quite weird. I get I I get where you're coming from, Erin. It's it's complicated with the fae.
Okay. Is soul splitting, like, a problem that we should be worried about here?
Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it.
I say we give it a shot.
I think if we put all the protections in place, then we've set ourselves up for success. And if if we don't appreciate this experience and we don't wanna continue it, we have a way out that's safe. I think this fave being is desperate.
Wait. I have one more question. Can you help us get out of here? We're a little stuck.
Perhaps I can. Perhaps I can sweeten the pot. I can get you out of here. Yes.
The part has been sweetened.
Do you like sweet things?
Yeah. We should probably make sure that
all the turtles are safe.
And And if Aaron doesn't wanna do it, we can always, give one to Pudge or, you know
His name is Pinch.
Pinch? Sorry.
Pudge was his brother.
Oh, scrunchies. Oh my god.
I stepped on him.
Oh, no.
I'm glad your friendship was able to overcome that.
It was a tough one.
I I think we need to make a decision. Either way, we need to start getting out of here.
Fine. I'm willing
to let
the I'm willing to let the sex thing go.
Yes. Yeah.
Oh, since Doran's willing to let the sex thing go, I think.
Fine. We'll keep it. Yeah. No. Jumanji, we are we have decided.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
Ganymede, please. Ganymede. Yes. I do I do like Jumanji. Perhaps we'll change it.
We're willing to settle if you throw all 6 senses in the mix and bring this to the surface.
No. Candymed, I apologize. As long as the protections are in place so that we can give this up freely, if it is not something that is to our liking, and you have no ability to control us mentally, emotionally, physically
Check.
Spiritually?
Spiritually?
Check.
And you can help us get out of here.
Big check.
I think that covers it.
I'm in. Lay it on me.
Alright. Are you all ready? We are ready. Here we do it. Oh, sorry. It's actually going to take, like, half an hour. Is that okay?
Oh. I guess we don't really have much of a choice anyway.
Do you need total concentration while we
not really. I just have to rip up my soul a whole bunch. Right? Feel free to enjoy these pools. They're quite nice. The pink pool. It, we that's the after party pool. It, make you healthy, make you recover. The blue pool, it's a pre party pool. It gets you spiked up. It gets you ready. In game terms. During a short rest, the pink pool will will restore an additional 3 d 6 HP. The blue pool will restores 3 spell slot levels.
Blue pool for Doran.
Blue pool. Blue pool.
Oh, golly's blue pool.
Guy's gonna take a dip in the pink pool
Okay.
With his fire stick.
Okay. Fire stick goes out.
We're doing a short rest. Can you attune during a short
rest? Beautiful.
Can I use my chef feet during the short rest?
Yeah. Give people even more HP.
I can prep food during a short rest to regain additional hit points as well as gain temporary hit points.
Is is, Poppy gonna make food in the pool?
Like, on the edge of the pool, I guess.
I'll put my feet
in. Yeah.
That that is actually all it takes is to dip your feet into the pool so you guys don't have to get soaking wet to enjoy the benefits here.
Aaron, has full HP and doesn't have spell slots, so I'm not gonna use a pool.
Okay.
I think all my damage was self inflicted. Wow.
I would say then, Aaron, moving about outside of the pools, you stumble upon a bottle of clear glass with a silver bracing and filigree. It's still corked, and it's got wine in
it. Ganymede, is this yours, and Aaron picks it up?
Sorry. What? I was just rending my soul in twain. What were you saying?
Oh, sorry. I can leave you alone.
No.
It's good. Oh, yes. That's my bottle of wine.
What?
It, it fills back up every time you cork it.
Oh, just wine?
Yes. But the quality increases the longer you leave it corked, of course. Aged wine is better. But that's why I call it wine because it lasts forever.
Cool.
Do you want it?
No. I can't drink it.
Okay.
Aaron pockets it.
It's, anything else during that short rest?
I'll attune or attune to this rod, I guess.
Okay. Yeah. I will give you the full item for that a little later. But, again, it's 4 charges for a fireball, 3, 2 charges for burning hands, 1 for a single scorching ray.
And how many charges does it have?
5.
Okay. And those are forever charges, like
You don't know. Can't.
Oh. Oh. I wanna take out the owl statue.
Okay. Oh, shit.
Journey.
Yeah.
Could could you use your wand thing again and see if that does it?
Oh, Yeah. I also, do I get any feeling about this wand and how many uses it has? Or
Nope. Not yet.
Nothing? Yep.
Alright. Can you I guess you can just hold it out, and I'll just kinda aim it at you.
Okay.
What are those?
Journey, your mind is filled with knowledge. Owly, the owl statuette.
I mean, Dorn, all I got is Owly.
Is that its name or something?
There is no activation word. It's not a button. It's not blunt trauma. It needs tenderness. The other fact you get about this is that it is slightly sweet.
Dorny, you just gotta be kind to it.
K. I'll more gently put it back into my, backpack.
Why don't you
What?
Keep it out.
Okay.
Also, it's sweet.
Oh, I can't wait to meet it.
Journey's gonna let that go.
Maybe maybe he wants a bath too, I guess. I'll just kinda put its feet in the water next to me, and then just pet it and look around nervously.
Interesting. When it contacts the water, you see a little bit of you see a little bit of bubbling where it touches the water.
Can you do the foley for that?
It's the same noise.
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. I think
you got it. Journey wanders off.
Just petting that's head.
Alley, Not getting much here.
It seems like you like baths. I know there's bird baths I hear about. Do you like seeds? K. Poppy.
Yeah. What's up? Hey.
This is Owly. Do you mind just looking after it for a bit?
Oh my gosh.
Or yeah. Maybe yeah. Okay.
Where did you get this?
I bought it.
And you want me?
Well, I just figured, you know, just pretend it's real.
I don't know what to tell you. I've never taken care of a
bird before.
You turn some dough into, like, a a living creature?
Well, I mean, yeah. Okay.
Just give me a few minutes.
Okay.
I'm gonna sit and, like, concentrate and try and, like, think magic into it.
Yeah. His name's Owly.
Oh, thank you. That's a really dumb name, honestly.
Give me an arcana check. 18. Damn. With such a thorough arcana check, you learn that you know nothing. I mean, you know that this transforms into something, but you don't know how to do it. What does come across, though, is when you set this thing down or when you take your hands off of it, your fingers are sticky after touching this thing.
I lick whatever's on my fingers.
Yeah. You taste it, and it's sweet.
Darren, is this a candy owl?
No. Are you sure?
No. It comes alive for sure.
I'm definitely gonna lick it.
You hear?
Yeah. It's candy.
It just made a bird noise.
Obviously. I know. I just
looked at it.
Give it back. Why are you licking my
Well, it activated. Put it in your mouth.
That'd be stupid. Okay. Okay. I lick it. I lick it.
World's foremost confectionery mage.
Oh. You here at the second lick.
That is really sweet. Oh my god.
I wish
I stick the fucking owl in the bathtub. Tempered. Tom Keter. I am compelled to lick it a third time.
Free. Yes. I was
hoping that's what it was.
A glistening owl, like it's almost made of gemstone, bursts from Owly, the owl statuette. You can still see the little dings and chips on its face where its previous owner had violently tried to get it to activate and it never did. Turns out it just needs a little bit of tenderness. Owllie does a great spiral around the room, dropping, shard like pieces of rock candy as it does. It circles back you, Doran, and, just kinda perches and looks down at you.
How do you do? Owly, is it? Who? I'm Doran.
Yeah. Oh.
So, I'm your dad now. Do you speak common? Uh-huh. Journey Journey, where are you?
Journey is, like, 10 feet away, rolling on the ground laughing. Oh, Doreen, I'm so proud of you.
Why?
I figured it out.
Well, thank it's all thanks to Poppy.
Poppy is shoving rock candy in her mouth
right now. I'm gonna cast speak with animals. K. Hi there, Ali. Ho. How are you? Oh. Yeah. How do you how do you feel about, spending time with Doran here? And, yeah, he seems to like you.
What is he saying?
Do I
know what he's saying?
No. No.
He's not a real animal? No. Well, is there anything that you're able to do aside from just being sweet and alive?
It, like, holds out a wing and shakes the wing around and rock candy falls out of it?
Sure. Can candy. Is there any anything else?
It kinda, like, flaps both wings to show that it can fly.
That's pretty neat.
You know who's gonna love this candy owl, the turtles. Oh.
You cannot you cannot give it to Mikey. He will eat the entire thing.
And, is there anything in particular you're trying to do? Just happy to be here.
Ask if it feels pain when we look at. Oh.
It it's not a real animal. No offense.
Doreen, I think he likes it when you lick it.
How do we make it stop? All of your services are no longer needed. Nobody likes rock candy.
Oh, no.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but it's true. Oh, no. Can you do any other candy, I
guess? Uh-uh.
Well, since you don't wanna be a dad anymore That's
not what this is.
Owl, you can hang out with me.
No. It's I still own him. I bought him.
Can anyone really own a candy owl?
Okay. I'm gonna pick up the rock candy. Poppy, if you really want this, you can have Ollie. Otherwise, I think it'd be a great, gift to
Absolutely not. You can hang out with me.
Oh.
Is there something in your mouth?
Oh. Uh-oh.
Ally?
Ally? Drop it.
I'm just gonna go pick up this rock candy near you. Jump at them.
Look.
So I got my hand, like, on its, wing and I like, pulling its beak open, like, give me that.
You pry its beak open and, you see it almost looks like jade, but it's like a little, orb, semi transparent in its mouth.
Take it out.
When you do, Ollie stops moving entirely and becomes a statue.
Oh my god. Just like fuck.
Like a huge yeah. Like a large owl statue.
Did did did I just
Did you get what?
I put it back?
It looks at you
like, are you okay?
Uh-huh.
Okay. No more secrets. Sorry about that. Who? What was oblivion like?
Uh-oh.
Uh-oh. Alright. I go back into the pool, and I don't talk to anyone. Just licking a rock candy.
Okay. And that is 5 pieces. Jesus shit. That was painful.
I'm sorry, Ganymede. I think we changed our mind.
No. What? But but it's
I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.
He's a funny one.
Wait. I thought we agreed to 6 with the sex 6.
Yeah. I'll come clean. I lied about the 6. Oh, okay.
Sorry, Dorn. I tried.
Sorry, Ganymede. Thanks. Are we ready? For real this time.
I am ready.
I think so.
I've got some ideas, but I don't have all the plans figured out, so here goes something. Here goes. You first. Doran. The statue just explodes. It crumbles to pieces, and you see this kind of, like, light start to ricochet around the room, and then it misses you, Dorn, entirely. And it actually hits Poppy, and Poppy falls over. Poppy, it knocked one of your echo bells clean across the room. You hear the voice kind of disembodied now says, Aaron's all resistant. How about this?
And, Aaron, you feel something in your pack get struck. Journey, a ricocheting light similarly crashes into a very specific dedicated pouch on the side of your belt. Poppy, strapped to the side of your pack, a ladle gets crashed into by this bolt of light and guy. There's one last ricocheting bolt of light in this room, and it just stops right in front of you. A little hovering orb for just a second, this wispy, smoky, vaporous orb, and then it moves slowly towards you and says, I didn't plan this out very well.
All I've got left is smell and this guy can't even smell.
It's true. I was I was hoping for smell. Do I get smell?
Maybe. I guess we'll have to see if it even works if you don't have your own smell if I can give you the smell.
Do it.
Okay. Here I go. I He crashes into you. Oof. Specifically, into your great sword. You hear the voice say, we're going to have to make some adjustments. Okay? Everybody else is readily equipped to handle this, but you are not, so I need to make a modification. Yes?
Yes.
Here it goes. 3, 2, 1. And you see tiny little vents open up at the base of the blade on your great sword. 3 on each side, these angular little slots. And you hear It's not so bad down here. It's nice. Can you, smell what I'm cooking?
Guy hesitates for a moment and then starts sniffing. And as he does sniff with his nose, I think the the sword also
Yeah. You you guys can all hear the sword sniffing for a guy. And, guy, you've never smelled anything in your life. As far as you know, you don't know what this is like, and it's it's incredible to be able to sense something without touching it, without seeing it, without even being near it necessarily, to be able to get a sense of whether it's dangerous or enticing, it's incredible, and it fills you with so much emotion, and it's also triggering your memories. You see flashes, You see armor.
You see cavalry. You see mud. You see bodies getting stomped on. You see a town of happy people trying to get by, trying to make the best with what they have, and that's just from smelling a musty cloistered cellar. Who knows what else is gonna jog your memory out there?
As for the rest of you, Poppy, your ladle was crashed into. A little spiral motif has worked its way into the center of the scoop. Journey, your stone that you brought with you, the stone to mark the home of your tribe. I mean, your name is Journey. Your mission is Journeys to find new home.
Wherever you place this stone is supposed to be the new home of your people. The stone has also been inhabited by Ganymede now. It's your touchstone. Doran, nothing of yours was struck. However, Poppy had something of yours, an echo bell given to you by Rune.
It belongs to you. That echo bell has now enchanted to have powerful hearing sensitivity. And Aaron, so resistant to this process at all, an item you'd kept hidden so far, a copper bangle, had been enchanted to improve your sight. Pretty straightforward. These powers will grow over time, but to begin with, guy, you always have advantage on perception checks involving smell, poppy taste, journey feel, Doran, hearing, Erin, sight.
Cool.
You said advantage? Permanent advantage. Okay. On perception checks involving
that sense.
And for the final part of the bargain, I will get you out of here. Yes. Of course. Over there. Well, I I can't really gesture anymore, but the glowing spot where you can see more of the blue lights at the end of the pool. Mhmm. That stone circle there, that's actually a door. And before you ask, no. I can't open it. I mean, I was a statue before so of course I can't open it.
But it's hard to open is what I meant to say. It's even harder when someone's holding the door from the other side, which is the case.
Whom is holding the door?
You see, I wasn't always so, glamorously dressed. When the statue was made, I had armor on, but there was some kind of rust bug in here and the armor ran away from me. And now he's hiding on the other side of the door. Is he friendly? Very friendly. He's my best friend. However, he's not going to come back in as long as the rust bug is still here.
So we kill this rust bug and
And the door will open, surely.
Oh, where's the rust bug?
Right over there. And you all just kind of like look around.
Perceive it
with a sense?
Yeah.
But it's easy for you guys to see this floor to ceiling column of stone. At the base of it is a bunch of rubble where you can see some skittering. Poppy, you actually see it first. It's about as tall as you, maybe a little shorter. It's got a red brown plated carapace layered like an armadillo or perhaps a croissant.
Reflective yellow eyes set above jagged mandibles and an always open mouth, its antennae are fragile looking copper feathers. When it shakes these feathers, it corrodes metal at a sort of alarming rate. You see this small rust monster begin to crawl forward.
That's that could be really, really hard on my kitchen.
The Rust Monster kind of perks up. You see it look directly in the direction of Guy, and it takes a curious step forward.
I don't like the smell of this.
Aaron, from your bangle, you can hear Ganymede saying, Oh, wow. The rust bug had babies. Oh, jeez. And then you see it, the brood mother.
Oh, good. Oh, good.
That'd be good. Come on. Good. Good.
Steps out from behind the column and stares at Guy, and I think we'll end it there. Oh. Fight. Thanks everybody so much for listening. I am Tim, your GM.
I'm Hannah playing Eren. I'm Tara, and I play Journey.
I'm Thomas. I'm Guy.
I'm John, and this time I'm playing Doran.
I'm Maggie, and I play Poppy.
Thanks everybody so much for listening. We'll see you in the next one.
Did I mention my armor's favorite wood?