Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Curse of Strahd Ep. 4: Death House, Finale
39 Plays6 months ago
After almost a month off recording, we got back to it this weekend, and finished out the legendary Death House. No rust needed to be scraped off, but some blood-soaked blades certainly did...
In the first 3 episodes, our party survived encounters with poltergeists, ghouls, wolves and wriggling beaky blinders. They've delved deep into the basement, or rather, a dungeon, with finesse, courage, and a healthy pinch of luck. When the chanting from beyond the hall beckons them closer, a party member makes a decision that reveals a new side of himself, and in turn, sheds some light onto the truths of his companions.
This one's a doozy, folks. This is why you're here, this is why we play Dungeons and Dragons.
Buckle up, because it's about to get pretty...fucking...brutal...
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Final Episode Housekeeping
00:00:03
Speaker
Hello, all you ghosts, ghouls, goblins, welcome back. It's been a minute on our end since we have recorded. So up top, we're going to get some housekeeping. This episode should be our final episode in the death house in this adventure, Curse of Strahd. So before we do that, let's just go
Character Hit Points and Past Session Recap
00:00:26
Speaker
around the board. And ah how is everybody before I give a little recap, what's everybody's Uh, HP at. You want to go first. I'm sitting at a steady full 16 maximum HP. Currents current 16 ready to rock. How's it feel? I feel I honestly feel pretty great. I haven't gotten hit, right? Like you've only gotten barfed on a bunch. I'm elusive. Trust you got barfed on.
00:00:56
Speaker
would Didn't we get exploded on by the by the by the bursting guy up ah upstairs I pulled the I pulled the letter out of the guy's hand and I've I hit my head But I think that's all I got on me. I think maybe I didn't get barbed on um Did you ever read that letter Yeah, we did. I can let me go back and look at it. It was like his um his last note Said, watch out for my big barf. Here it comes. Yeah, it's right here in the ah info and loot section. Oh, cool. And then, oh, love that. Yes, that is right.
Game Dynamics and Character Traits
00:01:34
Speaker
um What about your spider? Because you have a spider familiar, Vesrak, the drow, archmage. What's your spider's HP at? Is it two? Yeah, spider's at two HP here in my notes. Which is, I believe, is full.
00:01:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah, elusive, the elusive, the elusive duo guild tank. Yeah, we're a constantly getting knocked down and getting up again. um i'm I'm a real chumble womba of the group, right? Yeah, it's it's that it's I think it's mostly that you, Kyle Beams, are playing a rogue, but you have the heart of a paladin in real life. Yeah, yeah, it's a problem okay. It's a problem. I'm i'm kind curious and I'm bold. You know, it is what it is having health seven. But. I should have to hit dice left. So that's nice. Cool. Um, what about you, Mr. Roy Halovich? 16 current HP out of a 22 total. Um, can't remember where I lost my HP, but probably just getting chipped away by something. Yeah. I've just been poking you with all bagger. That's raw. I keep like touching the back of my neck. Like what is that?
Recap of Past Events: Daggerford & Werewolf Problem
00:02:48
Speaker
What about you Valerius?
00:02:49
Speaker
Uh, 17 out of 17 currently. Wow. Max, nice. And hey, ah correct me if I'm wrong, Valerius, but wasn't the last thing that happened at the end of last session you, uh, viscerally describing how you show lately quarter staff, watermelon, Gallagher. Oh, yeah. It was yeah his said exploded like a tomato. Was that it? I think that's what happened. fruit i remember Yeah, shock. Lots of. numberss In our graveside chat, just being like, wow, he was like, I don't have much battle experience. And then heads are exploding. Yeah, I feel like. Yeah. Well, he's kind of into it. He wasn't really an adventure, but this he's kind of into the lifestyle. I think you're like Huey in the beginning and every episode where he just gets coated like head to toe in something's guts, blood, teeth, bones, et cetera. Jizz Jizz. Yeah. Yeah. He does get just on probably.
00:03:47
Speaker
That's fire. That's fire. Well, as we left off last time, this ah unnamed group of adventurer, which may be something that if you have an idea, write it down, you guys should maybe start talking about
Adventure Supplies and Magic Weapon Discussion
00:04:01
Speaker
that. um That's always fun. ah Met up in the town of Daggerford individually, where each approached by different factions to, quote unquote, solve a werewolf problem. There have been disappearances. Shout out, Jimmothy disappearances around town to the east um in in ah some woods to the east of town. Each of those factions, by the way, gave you guys stuff. So just don't forget about those things um just in case you need them. Just remember that you have, I think, some spell scrolls or something other of that nature.
00:04:43
Speaker
Some of you have spell scrolls. I think somebody might have might have a potion or I think gil you took that potion. Yeah, I drank that potion, I think, after I got knocked down by ah one member of the Beaky Blinders. Yes, that's right. I do know that you guys have there are some other potions floating around. I think that's right. I think you have a potion of heroism. I do. I do have a potion of heroism. The Lord of the Lions. True. As Iraq and um Roy, you guys might have Some spell scrolls. Or a scroll of a scroll of magic weapon, which if you wouldn't mind putting the description of that, I didn't write down what it was. I just write to wrote down the item itself. Yeah. If you have that description, I'll put that I'll put that in ah in our own thing, but I will read it currently for all of our listeners. Magic weapon. Do you spell?
00:05:39
Speaker
It's a spell I know it makes your weapon magical, which means, you know, sometimes you can't attack certain creatures won't take your damage if the tax not magical. um It makes your up to an hour. You touch a non magical weapon until the spell ends. That weapon becomes a magic weapon with a plus one bonus to attacks and damage. Beautiful. Yeah, we love that.
Haunted House Exploration Begins
00:06:05
Speaker
so yes so could be could be super helpful valerius you said you had a spell scroll yeah i have a scroll of remove curse nice and that does pretty much what it sounds like and then um vesrak i know you have a spell scroll sounds like you're you're trying to save it to learn it but
00:06:25
Speaker
You do have it, right? Yes, I have a scroll of Burning Hands. Vesrak would love to put it in his spell book, but hey, smoke him if you got him. I'll use it if I have to. Fun built in thing for Wizards for those of you listening is that if a wizard finds a spell scroll and it's of a type of spell that they can learn ah when they're of that level, because I think Burning Hands is level two. oh So it might be next level. He could spend some gold to learn it and put it in his spell book rather than having to choose when he levels up his character, which is fun. ah But each of you were approached by a different faction to take care of this werewolf problem. You headed east into the forest. Mists surrounded you. You fought off some wolves. You saved a dog named Lancelot who's been with you ever since. And then as you continued to head east, you came across this
00:07:20
Speaker
a House that you've now found out is absolutely a haunted house. um There were these children out front um That asked for your help defeating a monster in the house and that their baby brother was still inside And do you guys got the baby brother's name, correct? I Was it walter Walter? It is Walter. Yes. Just didn't want to say it if you didn't I forgot it's been a bit it's been about a month for those of you listening so ah The Bay brothers inside. There's a monster you go inside you find these two kids bones Rose and Thorn you have scoured the house you found the father ah hanging in the bedroom um You found the old nurse maids ghost attacked you in the attic You've made your way all the way to the basement Where it looks like there was some cultish sort of activity going on lots of beds and cots like that just
00:08:18
Speaker
cool eye patches that Gilman found. Widely gross though. I think the overall theme is gross. Definitely gross. You found some robes. um You started to hear some chanting. He is the ancient. He is the land. He is the ancient. He is the land.
Ghostly Chanting and Cult Discoveries
00:08:36
Speaker
After having just recently as we pick up underneath the house in this variable, let's call it what it is. dunge
00:08:48
Speaker
underneath this house, more of a dungeon than a basement. You find yourselves having just defeated four ghouls, standing Lancelot with you. What was your spider's name again, Vesrak? Uh, Istra. I S T R A. I S T R A. I put a name plate on there for you. You stand all, uh, you know, banged up a bit. Um, you came from the North here. You see that there is a hallway that goes to the East. There's a hallway that goes South Bezrak that you're currently standing in breath from this battle. And you hear this chanting. He is the ancient. He is the land. He is the ancient. He is the land coming from further down in the house to the West. There are some stairs by Lancelot heading down.
00:09:46
Speaker
What would you guys like to do?
00:09:51
Speaker
Well, I think for the most part, I'm struggling. I'm hurting. This is like the third time getting knocked down in the last 24 hours. um I think I need a little break and I see this this table with some long benches at it to the north. And I'm just going to go over and take a seat at it.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah, you go sit down as you sit. Make it just a general luck check for me. Roll me a D20. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's over. This house sucks. There's spikes on the seat. It's a six. The wood is definitely rotted as you sit on it. It creaks and like you see ah there was like a little hole in it that somebody had stuffed food in maybe years ago and you see worms and maggots. crawl out underneath your leg as the ah bench of this table bows underneath you. And I'm like, I don't know what I expected. And I go and I just sit and lean against the wall instead and hope the wall doesn't crumble. Yeah. the So the the bench held up. You can definitely sit on the bench. But the wall. Yeah. But it's gross. You don't sit on the bench if you like necrotic damage.
00:11:13
Speaker
What'd you wrong your luck check a six guess what you friggin died No, um no you're you're chilling you sit on the floor now ah Surrounded by these old they're dusty bones on the ground As Gilman goes and sits against the wall. What are the rest of you doing?
Strategy and Rest Decisions Amidst Threats
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'll come over and join him honestly. Yeah, I OK.
00:11:48
Speaker
I'd like to walk up to Gilman and i'll I'll take out my potion of heroism and pass it over to him. Of my own volition, I assure you, not ah not because of the pretense of Brian's warnings to recap our own inventory as a group. I'll take the potion of heroism, this like blue liquid with like a cork top vial, and I'll pass it over to him and say, hey man, you're looking pretty bad. This might perk you up a little bit. I'm feeling pretty bad, and I hope this tastes like Glacier Freeze.
00:12:27
Speaker
Oh, OK. So you would know you guys would know that a potion of heroism, which is a rare potion ah in the little ah bottle, it looks like a blue potion with that is like bubbling and steaming as if it's boiling. And you know that after drinking it, you would gain 10 temporary hit points that would last for an hour. and during that same duration, you would be under the effect of the Bless spell. The Bless spell allows you to roll a d4 and add that to your attack rolls or saving throws. Yeah. Sick. Love that. I appreciate that. thanks ah Thanks for looking out for me, guys. um do we Do we want to try to rest here for a little bit before I chug this guy and we go find out who the ah who the ancient is and who the land is and whatever else they're chanting?
00:13:17
Speaker
I think that could be a good idea. We could post up here for quick sec, catch our breath. Cool. Yeah. So I think we would try to do a short rest. Um, and yeah, I would probably just spend some time petting Lancelot. Yeah. Lancelot comes over and as you start to take this short rest about five minutes in Lancelot starts to growl as you hear.
00:13:48
Speaker
footsteps. Oh shit. Massive footsteps.
00:13:57
Speaker
Coming from the same place as the, uh, where the chance we're going. No, you, you get the sense that these footsteps are upstairs coming down. What the heck? Who is this? Uh, you don't, you don't know who it is, but it does not seem like a safe time or place to rest. Maybe it's Jimmothy. Maybe he's upstairs. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Big Jimmothy. Oh, God. All right. Well, looks like we just got a hot footed, folks, and I chugged the potion. Okay. No, stop. You're going to keep yourself a brain freeze. Brain blast. Jimmy Neutron.
00:14:39
Speaker
That's a fucked up kind of potion. it It looks like it's boiling, but then you drink it and it's so cold, you get a brain freeze. Honestly, dude, liquid nitrogen looks like it's a boiling. Brian, that's the cost of heroism, baby. Yeah. The extra fucked up of the brain freeze damage was the same temporary hit points that you get. So just immediately gone. You're under the effects of the Bless spell. You're also under the effects of the Bane spell. Yeah. Six, six, eight. Um, so you get, yeah, you get the sense that it's not safe. You can't, I'll get, I'll put it this way. You can stop and rest, but you get the sense that it's not necessarily safe. Yeah.
Exploration and Spider Familiar Scouting
00:15:24
Speaker
All right. but it It is your call. That is just me letting you know that, uh, stopping to rest of any kind may come with, uh, consequences. Yes. All right, guys. Um,
00:15:40
Speaker
It's a little, uh, it's a little spooky in here. I think the best thing to do is move forward. What do we what do we think? Let's do it. We're ready, baby. All right. You still hear this faint chanting. You saw there were a couple of different ways to go. I mean, when you were in that hallway, there was, you know, it's sort of a T section intersection for those of you listening. Um, you know, they're in a room to the north and there's a T section intersection coming off that room. And you can go in that hallway left, which, you know, goes to the stairs that go down to the chanting right or down. East or south, I guess. I think no more detours because the last time we took one. Someone got their head exploded by a quarterstaff. True.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i'm I'm the sneakiest, but also I am
00:16:39
Speaker
the most commonly caught out in my sneaking. I can send. So why don't I send Istra, my spider out first, like in our marching orders or whatever. So that way that you don't get hit, Gilmond, and it can also give you potentially sneak attack. She could give you a sneak attack. Oh, yeah, sure. That is true. OK. You are sending. Istra in which direction? her ah ah Did we, as a group, do do we want to go towards the chanting, like to head west down the stairs? ah yeah i think Yeah, I think so. Okay, I'll send, I'll have Istra kind of come up and... I think it's this way, I'm pretty pretty sure, right? I think we go we go down first. We go down? Yeah. This way? Oh, then this way?
00:17:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So by the way, when you guys say this way, just make sure that you for those listening try to narrate which which way that is. OK, I want to go that way. Great. Oh, perfect. Perfect. I went ahead south and then down this border and then we'll head west. You said it's really muffled there. Yeah, cut out there a little bit south and then west. Nice. Hey, you head south. Istra, you see Skurries away from you south. Goes down these stairs. And are you seeing through Istra's eyes? No, she's just she's just going first. I'm not gonna... Unless somebody wants to carry me.
00:18:26
Speaker
All right, who's going after the spider? I'll go after the spider.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah, I'll follow extra. And then I'll go, I'll go last.
00:18:47
Speaker
I'll turn the music down. I'm just the music has been really low on the I know it might sound a little loud, but we're doing it. But in the. In the all of the episodes, if you listen, you can't hear the music at all. So I'm trying to compensate for that a bit. um devil's advocate with the music right i mean i'd rather all of us just have to talk a little louder than it was just hard to hear you um oh i'll turn my mic up yeah i mean my mic is like on the waveforms at least my mic is like the lowest of all of us to be yeah i would i would kick it up uh a good like 15 20 percent is there a volume setting between learning and so
00:19:31
Speaker
oh Is there is the music? Can you set the music like between where it was and where it currently is? Maybe in the moment mid sesh, I cannot. OK, gotcha. But I will I will look into that after all good. um Yeah, so I would follow istra down just, ah you know, she's a she's a spider, so she can be a little further ahead and I'll follow a couple probably like 10, 15 feet behind. Cool.
00:20:02
Speaker
All right, um Tommy, I cannot hear you clicking.
00:20:08
Speaker
um
00:20:10
Speaker
All right. All right, let's do it. I'm all I'm all ears. What's the plan? Let's cruise. All right. um I will be following Istra. And then, Tommy, you said you can't move while you're warded into Istra, right? Yeah, I look over. and He's not. You're not working. I am not working. I do look over at Valyria. Valyria gives a little sigh and just puts his arms out. He's ready. And I will warg into Istra. OK. And Valyria, he does a trust fall. Do you catch him? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can't catch him. I'm ready for it. He's like standing on top of the table, falls an extra like three feet. cool
00:20:54
Speaker
I fall through the table with the icky bugs. Nice. I also think, I think technically in D and&D when you work into your familiar, you are just aligned it and deafened. Yeah. You could still walk and just like hold on to Valyrias if you wanted. I don't tell Valyrias that. That's so funny. He's still learning. So actually, when I work, I lose all functions of my legs and I just I need to be carried. So funny. you ah You hear a distant, distant voice in your head, Vesrak, that just says that do you just hear a woman very distant in your head sigh.
00:21:40
Speaker
That's what it said in all the books. It says you you have to be carried while you work. No, this is actually how we do it in the Underdark. That's right. That may not be how you do it on the service, but it's definitely how we do it on the Internet. For short sure. For sure. For sure.
00:21:59
Speaker
All right. It's the equivalent of faking being asleep when you're really little to get carried into the house and get home. That's exactly what I'm doing. All right. So now working into Istra, she will now take the lead. All right. I got to look at this spider's ass this whole time. God damn it. God damn it.
00:22:27
Speaker
All right. As you head to the west down the stairs, you look north and you see that trap door that you guys had found last time, the north and to the south, you see the stairs continue going down. Yeah, we'll head ah we'll head south down this corridor and then we'll we'll head. Oh, it goes even further down. So we're we're descending deeper into the depths here. And you round the corner, you had even further down and you I've moved your token now. OK, if you zoom out, you'll see where you are.
00:23:08
Speaker
I've moved all three of your guys's. I'll keep moving Istra down the corridor here. Cool. And I am following. Are you on the ground, the roof or what? like I'm skittering on the ground. Okay. I don't want you guys to lose track of me. I want you to keep staring at me. Yeah.
00:23:31
Speaker
I guess I have to keep, I'll move, I'll keep heading down further and further down the stairs here. Okay. Oh, I'm blocked here, Brian. Ah, let's find doors. Ancient enemy. What can I say? Spires have doors.
00:23:49
Speaker
um Do do do. OK, so let's see real quick if there is a door here. All right, as you head down the stairs, you hear this ghostly chant emanating from this room. here's the h heres the lie And do you see, um, there is no door in front of you. You do see in this room, but there we go there are some things on the ground. There are like items, random assortment of things all over the ground in this room. Um, this looks, uh, you hear like a dozen or so voices chanting still.
00:24:42
Speaker
getting a little bit louder.
Strahd's Letter and Cultist Speculations
00:24:44
Speaker
Um, and as you go into this room, Israel notices that there is a, uh, two ways to go south. One is that a tunnel you see right here and the other is right over here. You see that there is a tunnel that slopes down at like a 20 degree angle into some murky water and then ends at a rusty portcullis. Oh, that's my favorite bar. Interesting. The rusty portcullis. I'll have Istra climb on the roof now um to stay out of the water and she'll um go down towards like the portcullis area. Cool. And then, yeah, the rest of you, as you're in this room, the floor is like littered with stuff, if any of you want to take a look.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely would. um Go ahead, Roy. And as you're kind of looking through stuff, I'm going to approach you and I take this longsword off my back, the Rosethorn family longsword. And I think you should have it. Oh, wow.
00:25:56
Speaker
Cool. Yeah, I'll take the sword and all. Yeah, it's just a normal longsword that I took from the first floor of the house. It was above the fireplace. Considering what you did for the for the kids, I think it's probably something appropriate for you to have. Thank you. Yeah, and I'll make like a little ah makeshift loop on on my pants to sort of put the, be able to sheath my sword, even though it's not gonna be sheathed. It's still gonna be very much out, just hanging by my pants. It just cuts the pants. Yeah.
00:26:28
Speaker
Yeah, so this long sword has a windmill sort of cameo worked into the hilt of it. And then the there are ornately sculpted ah vines, flowers and ah like nymphs all in the handle leading up to the hilt, which is a windmill.
00:26:53
Speaker
Wow, OK. ah Anybody in this room who would like to can make a perception or investigation check or just like this because you're like almost like you're wading through trash as you walk through this room. 15 for me. And I start by looking at this dagger shaped object in the northern alcove.
00:27:16
Speaker
OK. Oh, Natty 20. Oh my God. That's right. He's looking. I'm looking. Nice. Yeah. When you guys roll, make sure to announce what number you get for those listening. I'll give a little perception while I'm carrying. That's I don't know. We need to like make sure it's like a baby Bjorn or something for this 15. Nice. Um, so. Let's roll. Hey, let's roll for Lancelot. How do you guys say? I think so. Let's see what he sniffs out. We see a lot. What do you see, boy? but when ah He has a plus three to his perception. He's going to smell because he's he gets advantage when he's smelling. I swear, bro, if he finds a fucking bone and that's it. um He rolled a twenty one. He rolled in. Wow. He's nuts.
00:28:13
Speaker
So we'll go. um I'm going to handle yours last Roy as yours. What you find is going to be the most important thing here. ah Gil, you go and you check out this dagger up there and it looks like it's a knife carved from human bone. Righteous. So speaking of bones, Lancelot didn't find the bone. You did. Classic. A nice car from human bone. And this is a functional dagger. ah Should you want it? But yeah, it is it is made from human bone. You can tell it's it's it's a human's bone, not a animal's. Yeah, I'll take it. When you do that, you see ah a flicker of your shadow somewhere on the wall, like turn its head towards you as you pick it up and give you a thumbs up. Oh, hell yeah. I give it a thumbs up back. um Trev, there's a lot of stuff in this room since you didn't necessarily specify an area. Why don't we roll for it?
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, me a three, six, nine, twelve. Roll me since we're on ah roll 20 and we can do weird numbers. You want me a one D 13. A seven. OK. a
00:29:31
Speaker
um You find this then it looks like a wand. which I think is why it is interesting to you. Um, but as you get a closer look at it, it's a fully desiccated frog oh go to a stick. My God. Yeah. So like almost like, I don't know if you guys had dissected frogs in high school, but, uh, you see a frog cut down the middle. opened up and then that opening wrapped around, but backwards. So skin. Oh, my God. Around the edge, the end of a stick. And then you see that ah some small parts of its intestine were ah cut and stretched out. And that is what's lashing it to the end of the stick.
00:30:20
Speaker
I am. That is like the gnarliest thing we heard so far. Yeah, gross. I'm horrified when I'm going to find with a natural 20. That's a dead children. Fucking old news to desiccated frog. You've gone too far, Brian. ah That's pretty gnarly. um You see that Lancelot does have something in his mouth. Uh, that he has picked up and turns around and it looks like a really long finger that has been obviously severed from whatever hand that it was on. There's still some skin on it, but the skin is like, um, sloughing off as it's in its mouth. Um, it's a long bony index finger with like warts on it.
00:31:12
Speaker
and Lancelot sort of ah tilts his head to the side, Gilmond, as if to say, you do you want this? No, no, don't eat that. That's that's not kosher. That is absolutely not not what you want to eat. but i When I say food should be a fall off the bone, that's not at all what I mean, Lancelot, okay? ah Why don't you go ahead and make me an animal handling check? Yeah, sure. That's gonna be a nine. Let's drop it. Drop it. Don't. So he he he walks over to you with a nine and drops it at your feet as if to say, all right, you said you want it. You can have it. You want it. That's all you. I like I like touch touch the side of it with my right boot and just kind of like start trying to push it underneath something or like into a wall. Yeah, you you push it underneath a. ah There's a. um
00:32:10
Speaker
There's like amber resin on the ground ah that is sort of loose and you sort of like push it under that. Sure. Yeah. um Roy, you find a letter. And with a natural 20 perception, I'm going to say this letter you can see on the page are dried Uh, there's dried tears with a natural 20 on this parchment. And it's written in a beautiful cursive handwriting. And as you start to read it, you hear the voice reading it to you in your head. So as you, you, you open this Roy and you read it, it reads.
00:33:12
Speaker
My most pathetic servant. I am not a messiah sent to you by the dark powers of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however of many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writhing in my earth. You say that you are cursed, your fortune spent. You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a bastard son. Cursed by darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness. I think not. Immortality? Your arrogance offends me.
00:34:09
Speaker
I am not your former lord. I am not Osiris. I much prefer you as you are. Your dread lord and master. Strahdvonsalovich.
00:34:23
Speaker
Oh wow. Jesus. And I will put that in your little beep. That went pretty hard. I don't know. I think I love that. So we were right about the. Nurse, our man, our man was getting it in. Yikes, that's true.
00:34:47
Speaker
I'm a bastard son. While that was happening, you said Istra was heading south to this portcullis, yes. Yeah, she's like climbing on the roof because there seems to be water on the ground, so she'll transition. She'll transition up.
00:35:08
Speaker
um And you can hear through Isra's ears, correct? Yeah, I can see through her eyes and hear through her ears. Do spiders have ears? What a question. What a Google. Spiders don't have ears, but they can sense vibrations and sounds in other ways. OK. All right. So she said she's aggressively sensing vibration. She senses these vibrations, which is is it Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch? As you all still hear this chanting getting louder, he is the ancient. He is the lad.
00:35:43
Speaker
um All right. And where's history going? and Beat goes hard.
00:35:48
Speaker
She'll just ah scout a little bit. She'll head into the Porcosi room. Okay. And that's the Is it closed? Is it like down or is it? Make it, why don't you, as you go through it, why don't you make a perception or investigation check for this whole room? Including the Porcellus. Okay, from the spider. um
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah, plus zero. So it'll just be a flat d20 roll for Istrel. Cool. 16. um The portcullis ah is... Let's see. It is lowered. So it's not a door. So poor colors is there's no like place where you would see a lock. Poor colors are raised as the spider enters the room. You see this right next to you on the on the west wall looks like a wooden.
00:36:43
Speaker
um a Wheel half embedded into the wall. You get the sense that wheel is used to raise the poor colors. Um, otherwise it would just need to be lifted, uh, using strength or athletics. Um, as district gets in the room. Yeah. You see that there are this, uh, walls on each side. There's a feet, the stone pillars supporting the ceiling. Um, there is a.
00:37:16
Speaker
breach in the south wall that um you see the the breach in the south wall leads sort of into like a dark cave, like ending of the wall. You know, it's not like it it continues on heaped with refuse and garbage, much like the things you saw in the past room, but like times 100 murky waters cover the floor and then in the middle of the room stairs. um lead up to this octagonal dais raised above the water.
00:37:52
Speaker
OK. He is the ancient. He is the lion. Do I get the sense that this is the room where the chanting is coming from? But I don't see anybody in it. What do you make me an insight to check using the spider's step block? Is it insights intelligence, right? I think is it is it wisdom? Somebody with a character you'd open, let me know. Oh, insight is wisdom. So another zero roll from a flat D 20. Here it comes. Nine. um Yeah, you're not sure where it's coming from, but it is, ah you know, louder in this room, although the spider can't hear it. It's the the vibrations have gotten more intense. OK, I'll just I'll have extra move to above the dais on the roof. OK.
00:38:45
Speaker
And I'll just, I'll just leave her there. So I'm just going to leave her in the middle of this room, like about the dais, just so I could see the entire room. And then I'll work back into Bezrak being carried by Valyrias. Um, nice. You, okay. So you as the, okay, cool. Yeah. You you go, you you go to the ceiling, work back. You guys are in that room.
00:39:19
Speaker
At this point, Lancelot now has um a folded cloak in his mouth with his head turned to the side. This time he's looking at you, Roy, and you know that this cloak is made from ghoul skin.
00:39:41
Speaker
Like the ghouls you just killed upstairs. he's he's is He's looking at you as if he said you love this. That's so gross. That's so gross. I'm going to say ah no. No. You make an animal handling check for me. Make a what? An animal handling check for me. No problem.
00:40:06
Speaker
Yeah, 19. So as Lancelot puts this ghoul skin cloak down on the ground and you all turn away from it, You at the last second at the corner of your eye see coming out of one of these little alcoves in the wall, a small creature made of shadow with a big smile, big white eyes, big smile. I'm almost picturing. Did you guys did you guys ever watch Disenchantment? Yeah. Yeah, I did. Yeah. um ah Yeah. The I forget what the demon's name is.
00:40:44
Speaker
that hangs out with being an elf. Oh, but the one of the. Yeah, that guy. yeah It's you basically see a guy that looks like that. The same shadow creatures that you've been seeing. Right. Come out of the alcove in the wall. Grab the ghoul skin cloak. Look at you. Its mouth opens five feet wide. It stuffs the ghoul cloak in its mouth and it closes it and then retreats back into the.
00:41:15
Speaker
Those guys with you? Yeah, don't worry about him. That's just the the shadow creature that lives with me. that He lives with you? I'm kind of familiar, but yours is just a little grosser. I point at gil Gilman and Rygo. You guys both have shadow creatures living with you? I give you the like, you don't know. hands Hands up on my shoulders. I look down at his shadow. ah his His shadow is doing the same thing. As you look at Vesrak and he says that, Vesrak's eyes, for the first time, nictate instead of blinking normally. Nictate is when ah a creature's eyes blink sideways. Oh, from right. Hey, that's a nice ah Scrabble word.
00:42:05
Speaker
Oh, that is safe. Put in your pocket. Use it for later. Yeah, absolutely. So as that happens, you know, that's a Vesrec also something ah dark and nefarious is in him as well. I don't know what you're talking about as the three of you look at Valerius and Valerius, your hand with the ring, your right hand. Uh, I think it might be my left left hand. Yeah. Left pinky. Your left hand is currently up in the air pointing south towards the portcullis. He's just not paying attention to it. Hey, what's up with your arm, man? It's been raised for 10 minutes. You got a string on that thing? Are you puppeteer?
00:42:52
Speaker
Don't worry about it. Uh, I'll, uh, Say, you know, we can go the port coast route or there is this other way.
00:43:04
Speaker
And I'll go down here and I'll peek around the corner. OK. And Roy, did you read that note to everybody? um Yeah, yeah, I would have read that out.
00:43:17
Speaker
Yeah, my first question would be like, what is an ozibus, ozibus? I'm not ozibus. I much prefer you as you are. what Who is that? Has anybody heard of that before? Can I do like a history check? Yeah, you guys can all do history checks. Or whoever wants to, if you don't care. That's a five. I'll do it because I read it as a seven. That's 14 from Ezra. Well, 15 from Valerius. So none of you recognize that name. However, Valerius. As you do not recognize that name. Your finger that your ring is on as Roy shows this page delicately.
00:44:11
Speaker
Uh, moves like touches the page where the word was side this is and delicately moves across as if like a blind man reading reading Braille.
00:44:26
Speaker
Just on that just on that word. As in a in a show of recognition. Gotcha.
00:44:44
Speaker
Interesting.
00:44:47
Speaker
And I mean, who the fuck is Strahd von Zarovich? Your dreadlord and master? That guy sounds cool. and did they Did they like try summoning this guy? And then are under the impression that they summoned him, but he's just like, what the hell are these people doing? Yeah, I mean, it says, however many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you've tortured in your dungeon, that's where we are. They are trying to appease him, so is this guy? Let's see. It's like he's like a savior, kind of. Like they're trying to curse.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah, go for it. Oh, yeah. I was going to say they wanted him to come, like, save them from whatever situation they're in. Lead you on a path to immortality. I like that cursed, cursed by darkness. Of that, I have no doubt save you from your wretchedness. I think not. I think that line goes so hard. Yeah, this guy fucking rules. We got a poet in our midst. Yeah. Immortality, your arrogance offends me. I am not your former Lord. I am not Ozibis. So maybe Ozibis, how'd you pronounce it, Brian? Yeah. So with a 15 and a 14, the one thing I will say about that is that you get the sense that Osyibis and Strava, those are both proper nouns. Those are both people's names. Okay. So oh side but you don't know who that is. That is, ah it is, it is the name capitalized to, to represent the name of somebody. Interesting.
00:46:35
Speaker
Well, names are powerful. Well, maybe we find this this altar and that on the off chance we get the chance to talk to someone that's in there. We could ask them what's going on here. Why they care so much about Strahd von Zarovich. You think there's going to be a lot of talkers in here, man? I mean, this place is riddled with Potentially people like us. I mean, I just gesture to everything on the ground. We got desiccated frogs. Even the frogs aren't spared, man. They kill the frogs. They did. And I did do some terrible things to the frogs. I look at Lancelot and I'm like, you're OK. You're going to be just fine. okay Nothing's going to happen to you. You're going to be perfectly fine. Look over here. He was licking the desiccated frog stick and stops. Looks at you. Stop Lancelot cake. Be cute. Not gross.
00:47:31
Speaker
No, I, you're right. And I do think that there's going to be inevitable bloodshed, but on the off chance that we get to talk to someone amidst the chaos, I want to find out who these people are. I respect that. I didn't see anybody in the room, uh, with the portcullis. So it doesn't look like we had questioned anybody from there.
00:47:58
Speaker
OK, well, then unless we want to investigate anything more in these these alcoves, which we absolutely can. um Or I mean, this door has not been passed through, so.
00:48:14
Speaker
You know, are you going down this this other route south or are you not? Yeah, I'd like to investigate just to make sure there aren't any creaky floorboards that might make noise or collapse and have me fall into a spike pit or something like that. Cool. And make an investigation check for me. Yeah.
00:48:34
Speaker
And that's ah a nat 20 as, uh, as Gil sharpens his resolve realizes that, Hey, you know, there's something, there's something deeper afoot here than just some people chanting. There's, there's Lords, there's masters, there's, you know, there's, there's some, some strangeness afoot. You're, um, On a natural 20, first of all, you know that the chanting is not coming the from this room. It is coming from the other room. The one where Istra was? Yes. You also see your shadow ah detaches and you see it moves further in. Interesting. all ah I'll follow it.
00:49:19
Speaker
You follow it in and you see it's in this.
Portcullis Room and Tactics Discussion
00:49:25
Speaker
it is a It's like a prison. This was a prison. This was there were um there are skeletons shackled to the walls in the alcoves here. ah Bones litter the floor ah Rusty shackles remain but you don't there's no creature that even has any sort of skin left on them besides one All the way at the southern end of the room where there is a man That with a natural 20 this looks like a pirate ah with a big pirate hat on the on the back end of the room a big gray beard and
00:50:03
Speaker
um And you see your shadow is trying to take a ring off this guy's finger. But interesting.
00:50:15
Speaker
um So I can just safely move to the bottom of the hall here where I am. Yeah. Yeah. you're You're fully safe in this area. It is a prison that is the last time it was used. You get the sense was for this. This man, this pirate, this old man, big gray beards, ah you know, you know, and he's dead a while, been dead a while, but there's still some skin left to his corpse. OK, well, then I'll use my my shadowy mage hand to um assist my my actual shadow in removing this ring from the man's finger.
00:50:49
Speaker
Cool. You remove it. And as a learned ah purveyor of crime being a member of the Zhentarim, you know that this is a it's a gold ring worth 25 gold. OK. Yeah. All right. We'll take some money while ah Gil was doing that. The rest of you, Vesrak, Roy, Valerius. What were the three of you up to?
00:51:17
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, I just watched, uh, watch our boy disappeared down the hall. It seemed like he was on his, uh, his own mission, but I'm going to walk back around to the other side.
00:51:31
Speaker
Um, so this is, this is, it goes deep into water. How deep is the water? Oh, you don't know. I mean, you can't tell without getting in there. Can I can I walk up to the very edge and try and put my long sword down into the water, see if I can touch the bottom. Yeah. So as you do that, it is going the the stairs, it's the stairs or the the slope, I guess is a 20 degree angle down into murky water that ends at the rusty portcullis.
00:52:07
Speaker
As you put your sword down, you know that the floor around the portcullis is submerged around two feet of murky water. It seems like it might go deeper than that, but right where the portcullis is, the bottom of it is only two feet under the surface of the water.
00:52:31
Speaker
OK, and then this mechanism over here. um Do I just turn it to lift up the ah So the mechanism that Istrasaw is on the other side of the portcullis. Oh, it's on the other side. It's right over here. So Gil, you're still over there. I'll hit you in a second. There's still more with your natural 20.
00:52:53
Speaker
um Well, what do we think? Do we want to go go down this way? Maybe get on the other side of this thing here? It seemed pretty clear ah for me. I didn't see any anything suspicious, but... Yeah, um b Brian, can I take a look in this room for like a something like a spell book really fast? I didn't get the chance because I was warned in the history. Yeah, making an investigation or perception check as that happens, Gil, ah you've just taken the gold ring. Are you heading? You're heading back towards the party.
00:53:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'll be heading back towards the party. Cool. As you do, you notice that there is a door, a secret door. Right. To the east. Interesting. um You can see it. I'll walk up to it and hold my ear to it and see if I can hear what's on the other side. Cool. As you do that, roll me a perception check. Vesrak. Twenty two perception, looking for a spell book, looking for something mystical, magicky. I'll say with a twenty two, you know, for certain there's no spell book here. There are a couple mystical options for you. There is a. An eight inch diameter varnished orb. That looks like it was made from the eye of something, something big. Oh, I love an orb.
00:54:29
Speaker
um I will also say mystical. There is a. um
00:54:38
Speaker
This this amber on the ground, these chunks of amber are exuding a aura for sure. There is a there is something ah magical about them. And then I will also say that you notice a. um
00:54:58
Speaker
ah You see a small mummified hand that's like yellow with sharp claws. That's on ah a loop of rope. At the end of a loop of rope, there is this small mummified yellow hand with sharp claws. That sounds super icky. Not going to go anywhere near that. I will grab the orb, and i and if I can, I'd like to pick up some of the amber. Is it like in shards? Is it like in pieces? Like, yeah, chunks. Yeah, I'd like to kind of collect them and kind of put them in my like component pouch or just like a little bag. Cool.
00:55:35
Speaker
um And my perception check was a 10. Gotcha. um You listen to the door and the only thing that you notice is that the chanting that you're all hearing. He is the ancient. He is the land is louder on the other side of the door than the side that you are on. OK.
Chanting Room and Sacrifice Debate
00:55:57
Speaker
Um, and can I wait there for like a minute and just try to suss out like how many individual voices I can hear or would that just fall into the same perception? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I see weights there for a minute. Vesrak, you grab this, this thing, making a history check as you grab it.
00:56:20
Speaker
And that's a 15 for me to listen, to try to discern how many voices are on the other side. It'll be a 14 for the history. Um, this is the, the eye of something, uh, and it's something not human. The eight inch diameter varnished orb made from something's eye. I bet you don't know exactly what. Super soon. Okay. I'm going to keep that. I'd rather I more eye guy, not, an not an icky hand guy, more of an eye or guy. Yeah. I mean, orbs generally, um, something worth pondering upon. Oh, absolutely.
00:56:54
Speaker
um As they were doing that, Roy, you were checking the portcullis two feet underwater. What about you, Valerius? I'm literally just hanging. I'm kind of peeking into this room just to see what else I notice, whether in the water or on that little octagonal platform. Okay. Yeah. You see that there is more to that room than Istra saw, but you'd need to get in the room to be able to fully discern. Cool.
00:57:23
Speaker
And, uh, Roy, did you want to, as you were standing? Um, yeah, I want to try and, um, lift up the port thing just with my hands, even though I'm not much of a strength guy. Cool. I'm kind of strong. You do have a, you and Valerius both have inspiration from saving the children. If you would like to use it, you can. or you can save it. Gotcha. And that's a D four. That's just that's just a whole other role. Roll twice. Oh, um, um, as I let you know, this is an athletics check. You can decide after you roll once if you'd like to. Okay. Yeah. I'm just going to give it the old, you'll college try here. Would I be able to get down? Is there room for me to be able to help in some way? Yeah, it doesn't look like, yeah.
00:58:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say you can you guys can squeeze side by side and each kid get in there. I know I'm on that's why the tokens take up the whole thing, but I'll give you the little like help action if that helps. So oh ah you do have advantage anyway, right?
00:58:33
Speaker
So eight and eleven. Nice. So going back over to Gilman, does you've been listening at the door? um Gilman, do you hear? That there is ah with a 15 perception check, there's about a dozen or so right around a dozen voices, Gilman. Oh, chanting. He is the ancient. He is the land. And you also hear the port. You hear it from the other side of this door, the sound of a metal gate being lifted slightly and then hitting the ground again as Roy and Valyrias. It was not enough.
00:59:16
Speaker
Oh, geez, they're trying to lift up the gate over there. Do they stop chanting? No. OK. He is He is the. Fuck. OK. I want to. Close is is there like a gate to this cell here? um It looks like maybe at one point there was, but there isn't any longer. These are all open. They're basically relying on these shackles to keep the prisoners in place. I see. um All right, then I am going to look around for anything I can use to try to like walk the door from is the door open. I guess I couldn't tell if it opens in or out.
01:00:04
Speaker
Right. So it's a it's a secret door. So it's actually just part of the wall. And you get the sense that if you just push on it, it will go slightly forward and move to the side. ah I see. There's no there's no lock. So there's no way for me to like stop it from being opened. All right. um Then I'm going to probably try to rush back towards the group hearing the hearing them try to move the portcullis. Cool. So Vesrak. Valerius Roy, you've been in this room. You guys just tried to open the portcullis Valerius and Roy and it would not budge. I'll I'll step out of the way because I'm a super weak boy.
01:00:49
Speaker
um Hey, guys. I found a door um back that way in a jail cell, a bunch of cells in there, a bunch of bodies, a recently dead pirate guy, um and you guys see like a new gold ring on my finger. um And I heard you guys open the portcullis, but I got the vibe that there's at least a dozen chanting, I'm i'm just gonna call them cultists because that's that's what we've got here, right?
01:01:22
Speaker
Um, there's four of us and six, if you include the spider or the dog, uh, and 12 cultists. Um, it's a little, little spooky over there. I think we should be careful with making some additional noise. Didn't seem like they were distracted by the polar colors being raised initially. So maybe they're focused on something else. Yeah, I'll also say Roy and Valeria, since you guys are kind of side by side, you just tried to lift the poor colors. You're looking through and vsrek you were you were through the eyes of Mr. You don't see anybody in this room. Do I see any other openings into this room? It's like through this gate. ah You make me a perception check.
01:02:15
Speaker
Wait, do I get advantage because we're in the house? Oh, that's right. Rose. Yeah, buddy. Yes. Yes. Um, yeah, make it that advantage. and That was 16 and this is 15. I you don't you look through and you don't see you you get the s sense with a 16 as you sort of scan the room from the other side of the portcullis you don't see any cultists in that room you know that with the 16 you're hearing what Gilman's talking about that the chanting is the loudest it's been in the room in front of you in the room beyond the portcullis but you don't see anybody in there
01:02:50
Speaker
Uh, with a 16, you're doing a little bit of math in your head, a little bit of, uh, architecture in your head, the door that Gilman was talking about. It's definitely leads into this same room. So you don't see another entrance into this room or another hole or anything, but you get the sense that the door that Gilman found probably goes into this room. Gotcha. Well, yeah, then in that case we should, uh,
01:03:20
Speaker
sort of go around, I guess. Yeah, we go around and we go through that door and then we're right in there. So the question would be, if we open that door and we get 12 eyes on us, or 12 eyes, 12 sets of eyes. Oh my God, they're all cyclops. They're all cyclops. Could you imagine? Oh, geez. A cult of cyclops is chanting. Oh geez.
01:03:51
Speaker
Then maybe there's a world where we could set up some kind of like kite strategy, some trap, I don't know. yeah Yeah, I was just going to say that. We could probably maneuver these boys um in a certain way that makes us so we can isolate some fights as opposed to fighting everyone at once.
01:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, at least try to separate some of them.
01:04:21
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe a I mean, if we lift up the portcullis and it closes behind us and we have no other route through besides the portcullis or the doors or some but other potential exit within this chamber, right? I think we should try that door that you had mentioned, right? Yeah. and Yeah, it just sounds like they're right on the other side of that door. Right, and I'm letting you know, Roy, with a 16 perception, you're looking at where he you guess the door is, and you don't see anybody on the other side of the door. Gotcha. Well, then, yes, let's ah let's head over there. I'm going to tell them that I don't see anything, and we should just go check it out for ourselves. All right, let's do it. I'll show you guys the way.
01:05:14
Speaker
i ah I'll call Istra back. Actually, I'll just... Yeah, I'll call history back from the room and I'll just tell her to follow us. Cool.
01:05:31
Speaker
There's the door right there. You kind of got to press into it to open it, I assume. Well, are there any holes in this door? Is there a gap? Can I look underneath to see if I see any? No, it's pretty flush. Gotcha. Alright, well I'm gonna look back and say, I'm ready, ready yourselves. I'm opening this door. Yeah, I pull out my bow.
01:06:00
Speaker
And I will open the door. Okay. You open the door. He is the ancient. He is the land. He is the ancient. He is the land. He is the ancient. He is the land.
01:06:25
Speaker
The chanting stops as you enter this 40 foot square room. Oh shit. The smooth masonry walls provide excellent acoustics. Featureless stone pillars support the ceiling, and a breach in the southern wall leads to a dark cave heaped with refuse. Murky waters cover most of the floor. Stairs lead up to dry stone, the stone that you're currently standing on, this ledge that hugged the walls. In the middle of the room,
01:07:00
Speaker
In the middle of the room, more stairs rise up to form an octagonal dais that also rises above the water. What Isra didn't notice is that a blanket of mist is rolling off the top of the dais beneath the altar. This mist behaves very similar to the mist outside the house, the mist that enveloped you all.
01:07:25
Speaker
Rusty chains with shackles dangle from the ceiling directly above a stone altar mounted on the dais. The altar is carved with hideous depictions of grasping ghouls and is stained completely with dry blood. On top of this altar, you see a small white bundle
01:08:03
Speaker
It resembles the size and shape of an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. It's fucking Walter.
01:08:19
Speaker
What do you do? Oh my God. Say my. It's true. How did you not notice any of this? It's true. What the fuck, man? Oh, my God. Let's say from where you were positioned outside the portcullis, Roy, you didn't see it either. One year 16 perception check, but upon entering this room and the chanting stopping. These things being impossible.
01:08:56
Speaker
Okay, well I'm gonna step to the side so everyone else can come in here. All right, I walk in. I'll walk in with Istra.
01:09:12
Speaker
i Do I see anything in the water? Any sort of movement in my in my my natural instincts being from the forest and putting my my head to the ground and listening for animals? Please, anything? um Why don't you go ahead and make me an investigation or perception check?
01:09:38
Speaker
Still with advantage? No, this will just be straight.
01:09:43
Speaker
as the the the children have never been in this room. ah The water looks like it's still just two feet deep. The same it was where the portcullis hit when the ledges that you're on and the central dais look like they're five feet high, so three feet higher than the water surfaced. The ceiling looks it like it's about 16 feet high, so 11 feet above the dais and 11 feet above the ledges. So if you're six foot tall, only five feet above you, um the chains dangling from the ceiling are about eight feet long.
01:10:27
Speaker
And what is this pile of rubble down here? Uh, yeah, with a 14, it looks like the stuff that was in the room to the north, how there was just like random shit trash. Um, there is a ton of that in this room, uh, in there. And it looks like the water in that section, in that little cave goes deeper than two feet.
01:10:59
Speaker
Okay. So from where I am right now, it's 20 feet to the altar where the ah bundle is. um
01:11:20
Speaker
i'm I'm worried to touch it, but I know that this this is probably Walter in here. This is probably the ah the baby. And if they stop chanting, either they're about to finish, they did finish, or they're waiting to finish. um And so I'm going to step forward towards the portcullis over here. yeah And with the mage hand cantrip, I want to send my shadowy mage hand over to try to open up part of the bundle and in confirm what's in there.
01:12:02
Speaker
ah your mage hand goes over to open up the bundle and moves pieces of that swaddle and there is no baby. There's no baby in there? Okay. um
01:12:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's fucking weird. From where you're looking, from all the way from over here, you just see the hand move the swaddle and you don't see. Okay. so Nothing in there. You don't know. Yeah. The hand can't look. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Can the hand pick up the swaddle like fully? It's only able to lift anything, um, under 10 pounds. Right. So that would have to be a pretty newborn baby. That's what I'm saying. If it can pick up the swaddle, that means there's nothing in it. But if it can't, that means there is a, you know what I mean? True. Just because it's like a way to check without being able to see it. Yeah. Can I just try to take the the swaddle itself? Sure. Yeah. Your mage hand takes the swaddle, which is like cloth up. And as it does, it lifts it off the dais. Something, something falls out of the swaddle and clatters on the a stone altar.
01:13:22
Speaker
OK, and the mist is kind of obscuring our ability to see up there, so. This mist rolling off of this dais, I take a step forward into the water. OK, that's only two feet deep, so boots in your ankles. I take another step forward into the water towards the dais. OK. Let the rest of you guys, what are you guys doing? I'm just I'm going to stand back and watch with my bow drawn
01:13:54
Speaker
Subdeserving from the corner of the room I'm also gonna go to Do we think Should I try and open this And maybe for like an easy escape yeah, if need yeah, can I try and turn this I Assume this is the mechanism that would open that portcullis. Yeah Yeah, the this wheel, this wooden half wheel, and edit in the wall.
01:14:33
Speaker
Yeah, you can absolutely. you You begin to do that, and it starts to lift out of the water. if I'll start doing it, and as it's lifting, if I let go, does it drop, or is it like one of those where you turn it and leave it? That's where it sits. You see that there's a latch okay on this, so whenever you get it to the point that you want, you can latch it. Cool. Yeah, I would just do that high enough that we can all, you know, get through and latch it. Cool. Valerius is doing that. ah You see that Lancelot goes down, gets in the water, is making its way counterpoint to Gilman's. What about you, Roy? and vtra What are you guys doing?
01:15:13
Speaker
Yeah, like I said, I'm just standing in the in the bottom corner. Kind of just have I have my bow drawn just watching carefully what everyone is doing. I'll send ah Istra on the roof again and repositioner above ah the dais to help Gilman. And then I'm going to slide to the northwest corner to stay out of a try to stay out of the fray. OK. And my heart's actually racing as I take another step forward onto into all under the towards the altar. Okay. Gilman, as you step onto to the altar, Lancelot counterpoint to you, you all in this room full of silence, almost feel like a jump scare in a movie as the minute your boot touches the altar, Gilman, the chanting,
01:16:14
Speaker
rises once more as 13 dark apparitions appear on the ledges overlooking the room. ah There's one right next to you, Vesrak. One right next to you, Valerius. One right next to you, boy. There's 13 all along these ledges around the room. As these dark apparitions appear, each one resembles a black robed figure holding a torch. But the torch, the fire on each of these torches is black and seems to draw light into it. It is sucking the light from the room and where you'd expect to see faces in the cowls of these, you see voids. And they begin to chant as the room starts to shake.
01:17:08
Speaker
all of their voidless faces staring at the center of room the at the dais. Gilmond, you see on this altar where there once was a swaddle, you see laying there having fallen out of the swaddle, a rusted, serrated dagger painted red with dried blood as the chanting resumes one must i One must die. One must die. One must One must die.
01:17:49
Speaker
When begins to shake. What do you do? hilarious at this moment, the poor colors is is fully raised as you look slowly to your left and see this voidless faceless Cultist with a torch made of black flames sucking the light into it chanting one must die One must die one must die I I look around um I look at I look at all the guys and I'm standing here at this altar surrounded on all sides by these by these things and I'm I'm not I'm not sure what to do um
01:18:36
Speaker
I look at Istra on the ceiling. One must die. I mean. And then I look down to Lancelot.
01:18:56
Speaker
And I have my eye keened in on my shadow and my shadow.
01:19:07
Speaker
gestures violently with its own dagger at the dog that's followed us through this entire place. Oh! My sweet boy! And I slit Lancelot's throat with the dagger. Okay, so as you... Where should I put this guy? He'll go... i Work with there's one there's there's a one less square now. They have to be backed up against each other like this Okay, so the rest of you Hearing this chanting you see Gilman on the altar um Begin to look from the dagger on this altar to Lancelot as Lancelot starts to whimper um What would you guys like to do in this moment
01:20:04
Speaker
Was he a shadow figure? You you actually slid. He's about to. he' is he's He's narrating a bit ah a bit in front of what I'm narrating. yeah He's looking at the dagger to Lancelot. Lancelot starts to whimper and you see Gilman begin to go reach for it. The serrated dagger.
01:20:29
Speaker
There's got to be another solution to besides killing Lancelot. Got to be. Yeah, I feel like if we if we honor their requests, we're just continuing the cycle. The cycle continues. Valerius is probably too spooked to this thing popped up right next to him. And if it's jump scary, ah the way you described it, he'd probably freak out and seeing all the light just being sucked out, he would probably instinctually cast Word of Radiance. And shout out, Paula, and see what happens.
01:21:09
Speaker
cast word of radi and Um, and it blasts all around you and you see this thing next to you, uh, not be harmed. And that's these in that moment, you know, that these apparitions are, uh, they're here, they're present, but they don't pose these 13 shadowy cultists themselves. Don't pose a threat. You cannot touch them. They cannot touch you.
01:21:42
Speaker
You see Gilman beginning to reach for it. Vesrak shouts. There's got to be another way. Roy shouts. We're just be continuing a cycle. Gilman grabs the serrated dagger. Arm pulls back. Run up and try and smash the altar.
01:22:10
Speaker
Um, like, like the stone altar that he's grabbing the dagger off of. Yeah. So this'll be, this'll be your last movement before Gilman slips. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I want to try destroying the altar and whichever. I don't think I have any like.
01:22:29
Speaker
crazy way to I'd probably like used all of my body weight in the quarterstaff to just try and run at it and like throw myself silver quarterstaff first into the altar and just try and like, like break it off of Yeah, the pillar kind of Cool. We can call that either an athletics check or just like an unarmed strike. Or if it's if you're putting your quarter staff, we could do a quarter staff attack as well. Whatever you want. Yeah, if you're down, I'll attack with a quarter step if you're down. Cool. um Yeah, I would like use that first as a way to like.
01:23:10
Speaker
with two hands on it, you know, like out in front of me to like push into it and then let my body's weight like follow behind it. Kind of a quarter staff moving in slow motion towards an alter a hand with a serrated dagger moving slow motion towards a dog. Roy, what were you saying? I have an idea. Um, so I have control over my
01:23:44
Speaker
Hold on, hold on, let me read my... my thing.
01:23:50
Speaker
Time slows, Fizrek, as he reads his thing. What are you doing in this moment? Wait, wait, wait! What if... We gotta... What if we... is it What about... What about... What if we... I don't know... Don't kill the dog, come on man! Okay, okay, okay, okay. Is that that what you want to be your your final act? That's right guys is the dagger goes towards this dog. what What about what do we what if we kill a strike and always re summoner? She showed she gets it. Well,
01:24:31
Speaker
I have the serrated dagger in my hand looking with cold determination like you haven't seen me have before. Is this, is this, is this Gilmond? Is this the real Gilmond Graves? Can I, can I look at Gilmond? Is there anything like wrong with him? No insight check needed. Uh, there's nothing wrong with him. What the hell man? This guy's fucked.
01:25:01
Speaker
Um, but it is, um, Valerius swinging his quarterstaff, slow motion, Vesrak shouting out termination, uh, horror in his eyes. One must die in slow motion. Roy, you are the last action here before I resolve all of this.
01:25:26
Speaker
Can I control my shadow creature? I used the action to gain to to influence the presence, guiding but the watchers for one hour. Can I like call out to him, call out to this creature and like bring him to me? Yeah.
01:25:51
Speaker
And I was going to say, Gilman, wait, let let me do this.
01:25:58
Speaker
I think in this moment, if that's what you like to do, that's not going to be enough. He is mid swing. This is all happening simultaneously. As I resolve all of these things, his swing will go forward. Is there something that you'd like to do?
01:26:21
Speaker
Sorry, Roy, could you speak up? um Roy, um ah that that his swing will go through.
01:26:31
Speaker
So ah you you talking at this point, we are beyond that. Gilman moves too fast. He didn't consult you. He grabbed the knife. He swung it. So unless you have an actionable thing that you'd like to do that we can resolve, ah this will go through. Can I shoot the knife out of his hand with an arrow? Now we're talking, baby. Fire. That was the last thing that it could have been. All right. So here's what we're gonna do here. i think we're goingnna I think what's the best way to best way to resolve this is you're gonna make a targeted strike on a weapon. um so If you make a targeted strike on somebody's body, the AC goes up by five. Jesus. So as he swings the dagger,
01:27:26
Speaker
towards Lancelot. I will need you to make Gilman. What's your AC? My AC e is 15. 15 plus 5 means you're going to have to hit a 20 on your bow attack. And then what's the damage your bow does? 1d8 plus 3. 1d8 plus 3. I'm going to say you need to, when if you hit the dagger, you need to do more than four points of damage to knock it out of his hand. So first you need to hit it and then you need to not roll a one on that D eight.
01:28:05
Speaker
Okay. And you do have advantage left from Rose. What do I have? Oh, the inspiration. You'd like to use it. If not, you as, as I see Gilman shouting, don't do it. There has to be another way. Nothing seems to be working. He seems locked in. I focus in on the knife and the vision, my peripheral vision kind of goes dark. It sort of starts, um, uh, like flickering with sort of spectral darkness, similar to how the creatures that surround me do. I'm going to take a deep breath and I'm going to shoot my bow.
01:28:56
Speaker
at the knife. The minute the bow leaves, o it whips. The whips out and this split second, your shadowy creatures across the room coming to you, you slow motion, quickly pull, let it loose. As you let it loose, you hear a baby's cry from somewhere within this room. as you hit the dagger in his hand. But the question is, do you roll a one on that damage or do you roll above it?
01:29:37
Speaker
Nine damage. Let's go. Let's go. Save that dog, which is a six. So you rolled above it. So that's not you don't take that damage, Gil. That is just that knocks this dagger back out of your hand into the water. OK. um Valerius you at the same moment attack the altar and enroll that attack for me You dirty 20 It hits the altar. You see the altar crack slightly but not move. It is stone on stone is built into this dais. So it cracks slightly. um Some dried blood flakes come off of it as Vesrak is yelling, the chant continues, one must die.
01:30:27
Speaker
and Gilmond in this moment, you go to slit Lancelot's throat, whimpering tail between his legs. It is the bow through the mist hits the dagger out of your hand. What do you do? I look back at, um, at Roy and my eyes look crueler than they have before. We've had a good rapport so far. Um, and I reached back down for the knife. So that knife flew back into the water, but you have plenty of knives on you, including a bone knife that you just picked up in the other room. Yeah, I guess I'll take the the bone knife from out of my ah my chest bandolier of knives, and I'll make an attack on mine slot. Okay, as he does, Valerius, Fezrak, and Roy, what are the three of you doing?
01:31:20
Speaker
Uh, do I get the sense that this altar is like breakable after enough, or is it like this is going to take more than what I have on me kind of thing? Uh, why don't you make a, you know what I mean? Yeah. Make an insight check. Okay. 23. They, the altar is ceremonial, but not functional. Okay. got So it would, it's more of an a front and a middle finger. to destroy it, then it is mechanically um doing anything. Okay. Okay. We can, you can resummon Istra. Let's kill the spider.
01:32:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to try to draw. Gilman's dagger is already going. We're back. We're back to slow mo here. Oh no. We're back to square one. Can I have Istra like drop on Gilman's hand? And like try and get the spider out? Either try to get the dagger out or like try to just like get in the way of this swinging. Oh, so it's so that it hits Istra and not Lancelot? It's a total... Get down, Mr. President! Get down, Mr. Lancelot! Get down, Mr. Lancelot!
01:32:40
Speaker
I love this. This is where we're ah for as much as we've been running this whole thing by the book, we're in a very fun land right now. So I'm going to call as extra drops. You command issue with your action, extra drops to attempt to intercept this attack. And I will say this will be a targeted attack from extra. So extra will need to meet a 20 to intercept this attack. ah oh no but but She's willingly trying to get hit by it. No, dude. Okay, so what do I, okay. What do I, do I need to roll the hit? Yeah, with Isra. All right, plus four. God, I've never- Spider time, spider time. Isra, baby, let's go. Wait, so what's the DC? 20, still. It's a targeted strike, trying to get right in where the dagger is. Okay, do you have anything that you,
01:33:38
Speaker
Want to do to do? Can your shadow do anything to inhibit this or? No, no, I'm just gonna, I'm focused on one single task right now. Whatever anyone else does is is up to them. Okay. Istra drops down. All right. D20 plus four. a Save your friend, Istra. Save Lancelot. Come on.
01:34:08
Speaker
And anyway and what is that what is the damage that District e can do with this it's with this attack? i 1d1 piercing plus 1d4 poison. 1d4 piercing plus 1d4 poison? Yeah. All right. I'm gonna need you to roll that. And that the damage just has to be higher than, ah we're gonna call it three. You have to roll more than a one and a two. Okay, so there's one D1, so that's just one damage. It can't be it can't be one D1, I think it's it's one D4. Is it not? It says one D1. Yeah, here, let me set it to you. That doesn't sound like the correct stat block. Yeah, I'm now thinking that this is not the, I wrote, it's a
01:35:03
Speaker
Spider from the. No, plus four to hit. Oh, yeah, one D1 piercing damage plus money for poison. OK, so what we're going to say is just just roll me that D4 poison and you're going to want to not roll one. OK. Don't call the lightning, Brian. Brian. Oh, i think you could do about that or. I'd say in this moment, if Roy wants to use his. Yeah, yeah. Inspiration if you want to. I'm just worried that this is all going to be like Ryan is just letting us play this out and none of this means anything. It definitely means something. Yeah, I'm going to give your companion is about to kill a dog. And they're saying one must die and he's about to kill one. There are obviously there are consequences one way or the other. And you're at a fork in the road, whether you listen to these one must dies or not.
Lancelot's Death and Emotional Fallout
01:36:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Roy is obviously not thinking that. Roy is seeing Gilman swing a dagger at this dog that has been, that we saved and has been faithful to us ever since. um And I'm gonna talk to Rose in my head, be like, Rose, please, please help him. Okay, so if that's you using your inspiration, Tommy, you can roll into the D4. Oh, no. Come on, baby. It's true. Save Lancelot. i love oh my god Okay, so some important information here. As the first dagger gets out of your hand, I imagine Gilman sort of dropped into a knee, pulls the bone dagger, swings it at Lancelot, Istred comes down, is impaled by the bone dagger, immediately disappears.
01:36:55
Speaker
Istra is immediately unsummoned in this arcane proof of magic as Istra is a is a familiar. And as Istra, in that one second where you've killed it and the chanting is in between phrases, it resumes. One must die. One must die.
01:37:21
Speaker
Where's the baby? Can I see the baby? He cannot, no. ah ah But the chanting did not stop at the killing of... I would say Lord did my blade as a spider is not going to steady era to slow the hand of a Zhentarim rogue. ah And the blade continues through the land spot. Okay, so Gilman's taken another swing. So we're going to keep doing this. I'm not going to let one person's action decide what the whole party does. So as Gilman, the extra comes down, takes that one, that one hit just barely saving Lancelot. The blade goes through, but there's a spider at the end of it and Lancelot sort of pulls back at the last second and it doesn't i deliver a killing blow, but does nick him and extra poofs. Gilman brings the ah dagger back around to finish the job.
01:38:13
Speaker
and we go back around again. if i If I keep shooting daggers out of his hand, he's going to run out of daggers eventually. It's a war or it's a war of attrition. How many daggers do you think a rogue has in his little pockets? I will say now that Ilmond has sort of dropped down to Lancelot's level bone dagger out and he's in the mist, I'm going to say he also has partial cover, so he's going to be a plus two added to that A state. is no longer a DC-20, if you try to shoot it out of his hand, is a DC-22. I'm just gonna... I'm sick of this shit. I'm gonna jump down into the water. Can I make it to him? um This is, I mean, you tell me what you wanna do and I will let you know. I wanna tackle Gilman to the ground and and ah restrain his arms. Okay, that's what you wanna do. Valerius, what are you attempting to do in this moment?
01:39:15
Speaker
I don't know. yeah i love each other i don't know yeah I have like no idea what I like could do, but like one of my things does take a spell slot, which is my last spell slot. And so part of me is also like, if the dog dies, I can use that spell slot to get the dog back, or I can use it to try and prevent the dog. You know what I mean? But it feels like if the dog's gonna go down and yeah, this is you also, you're looking at a dog. If a dog gets hit with a dagger, it's not rolling death saving throws. It is dead.
01:39:45
Speaker
And NPCs don't generally roll death saving throws. Oh, oh, oh, right, right, right. Yeah, and, I mean, a dog has four hit points, I think?
01:39:57
Speaker
I mean, enough to where if it gets hit, it is... It's it's dead, dead. Does it look like... Gil's looking all, like, uh, like, crueler and stuff? like out Like, he looks uncharacteristic of what he normally looks like, correct? not um Not supernaturally so. I think you're just seeing a different side of Gilman Graves. You are not seeing Gilman Graves be possessed and do something out of his own free will. You are seeing a man who works for
01:40:36
Speaker
a group called the Zontarum, sometimes called the Black Network, a crime organization, do what he believes must be done in this moment, even if it is, ah you you recall back to the ghost of the little kid trying to hug Gilman and him saying, fuck that and stepping out of the room. ah There have been moments where Gil has shown that he is, you're not you're not traveling with a, you know, a baker. Right, right.
01:41:11
Speaker
I'll let you think on it, Vesrak. Roy begins to charge towards Gil. What are you doing? In an attempt to assist Roy, can I use a cantrip dancing lights as like one, it says I can combine them into one bright light, and I'd like to essentially flash bang Gilmend. Okay. Dancing lights, Roy's ready to tackle, hilarious. Being too stunned to do anything is also awesome. Yeah, I'll do that. Fuck it. that's I mean, this is not... I'm not helping at all, unfortunately, but... Yeah, maybe just shot don't think all of this as you're a schoolteacher, you know? Yeah, yeah. You're... I assume Valerius loves dogs. I do love dogs. yeah There's been ghouls and ghosts and little children, swaddles where an infant should be, but instead there's a bloody dagger. What the fuck? No, you know what? Actually, that's I do fucking love dogs.
01:42:10
Speaker
You know what? You know what? You know what? I'm a dog guy. You know what? I do love dogs. I'm going to do something about how much I love dogs. Can I try and tackle the dog out of the way? Yeah, so. While Roy is running this way towards, you know, I want to try and tackle him that way. I love it. So as that happens, this is, this is potentially the final times people are tackling people and all that's happening. We're going to do something very fun right here. We roll initiative. And the initiative tracker, by the way, wasn't working for my sesh last Tuesday. So it might not be again. Oh, Valerius and Roy get 19. So Gil. God damn it. God damn it. Twenty three. Ezra. Cold and ancient.
01:43:06
Speaker
Oh, there is so good. There is nothing for me to say other than, is there anything any of you can do for your initiative before? Because if not, Gilman's action resolves first.
01:43:24
Speaker
Dude, I would have had to roll a natural 20 to even tie Gilman. How the fuck? Wow, what? What is your initiative? It's only, it's a plus four. I'm a rogue. I have high decks. Mine's a plus three. um man Yeah, right tough. ye Yeah, I got nothing. I really anything I can do. I mean, Trev, the only thing I can think of is you're the only one left with inspiration. I'd have to not 20 that thing again. You know, save it. um I think I'm going to save it now. All right. I will say Vesrak from your point of view back in the corner.
01:44:02
Speaker
Lights go off within this fog, almost like war or like when fireworks go off behind clouds. As the dancing lights come up, you see a silhouette of Gilman's bringing the bone die or bone a bone die. That's mine. Bone knife around and Gilman. How do you kill Lancelot? As quickly as possible, right through the ears into the brain.
01:44:33
Speaker
One hit. Done. Nice out. Hands are up. Right through the head, Lancelot falls as Valerius. You grab Lancelot's body and fall into the water on the other side of the dais. And Roy grabs Gilman and falls into the water over here. ah The tackle successful ah just a bit late. And Roy, you see Two tears falling down from each eye. I'm just going to look at you and say, what the fuck is wrong with you? One must. It had to be done. I'm sorry.
01:45:26
Speaker
Silence fills the room. I dropped the dagger. and just lay down in the water. The filthy, filthy water.
Encounter with Strahd and Barovia's Warnings
01:45:40
Speaker
Yeah. I let go of him and I stand up and I walk away.
01:45:47
Speaker
Walk away, hilarious, holding the dead body of Lancelot in your hands.
01:46:03
Speaker
You there, Trev? Yeah, yeah. You guys, I'd say regardless of the shock that happens in this room, there is nothing left down here. You are able to piece together that Walter was sacrificed.
01:46:29
Speaker
And the house Death House has been appeased. Jesus, I look into the water for the ceremonial serrated dagger. Yeah, I think at this moment, no role required. You do not find it fucking crazy.
01:46:56
Speaker
ah Then I rinse off my own dagger. And I put it back in my bandolier and I started walking out of the room. I think while he's rinsing the dagger off, I think Valerius would walk over and try and smack the shit out of him with his quarterstaff.
01:47:29
Speaker
I wouldn't resist. Yeah, I'm not gonna make you guys rule actual attacks and damage rules, I think. if If you want it to happen, it happens. If not, it doesn't. Why did that have to happen? What would you have proposed? Just listen to him and ah appease the house just like that. You didn't take two seconds to think about what could happen. I saw it in your eyes. As soon as they started chanting it, you didn't think twice. You wanted that dog to die. I didn't want that dog to die. You didn't give it a choice. You didn't give us a choice. Would you rather me have slit your throat? I would have rather you took two seconds to think about what the fuck you just did. Rather than just act on a whim and listen to these things. What was going to happen? What was the worst that's going to happen if you didn't kill that dog? Do you even know? You have no idea what was going to happen if we didn't kill that dog. Well, were we all just going to drop dead? Maybe nothing would have happened. You listened to those ghouls and you took action without thinking.
01:48:26
Speaker
Now he's dead. Sometimes it's better to do a thing than live with the fear of it. What does that even mean? You just got to go with your gut. Deal with that. That is what your gut was, is listen to these ghosts telling me to kill a dog. I've almost died from far less gnarly things out there. I've almost died from wolves. Any of us could have died from them. Thirteen fucking ghosts chanting at us in the mansion.
01:48:56
Speaker
They couldn't touch us. They were ghosts. They were apparitions. They couldn't do anything to us. You took zero seconds to find that out and you wanted to kill the dog. He walks away and just goes over the dog. I'm sorry. I just... No, you're not. I'm not convinced that you're sorry. I'm not convinced. I'll know it when you choose something different next time.
01:49:25
Speaker
Your left hand, Valerius, as you went back to the dog without you even noticing ah had unlatched and is holding the collar with the name tag of Lancelot. Oh, shit. OK.
01:49:49
Speaker
um can i I'll look it over again. I feel like we've probably looked at it before, but i can I just like do a little investigation check to see if I notice anything other than Lancelot or just what was on it? um Yeah, you don't notice anything. It looks like a handmade ah etching on a golden collar. So the collar looks like it's worth money and the etching of the name of Lancelot looks like somebody did it by hand. okay Other than that, it looks really well made. The leather's nice, which makes sense given the fact that the actual name tag is made of gold. But yeah, just just the writing of the name Lancelot looks like ah potentially whoever's dog this was just etched it in there rather than having it be engraved.
01:50:40
Speaker
Okay, got it. The handwriting doesn't match. if i It doesn't match any of the letters either from the dad or from that ah the letter that we just found that Strahd von Zarovich Letter any of these letters that we've seen does it match any of the handwriting that I've seen so far No, ah but you can make it what you make an insight check for me 14 I think your best guess might be
01:51:14
Speaker
that whoever's dog this was died.
Burial and Reflections on Journey Ahead
01:51:20
Speaker
And since the dog was, you know, on your way here, yeah, potentially died. Oh, OK. Got it. out Got it.
01:51:40
Speaker
I continue to make my way out of the room. Yeah, I'll say this. I mean, ah however much time you guys choose to spend down here, nothing new happens. No new information comes to light. The ah shaking has stopped. The chanting has stopped. The ah house at this point seems to be at rest. And you find, uh, nothing new in this house in general, except for if you wanted, if you want to just go and investigate and start opening up like drawers and cabinets. Otherwise you have put to rest the souls of Rose and Thorn. And that doesn't seem to be much else here for you.
01:52:32
Speaker
Before a boy leaves the room, can I ask him, uh, or like, we shouldn't leave Lancelot down here. Let's, uh, let's bury him upstairs. I agree. Or let's, let's get him out of here. I'm gonna, I'm gonna walk over and I'm gonna pick up, pick up Lancelot's body. And as I head towards the door, with Valerius and Vesrak behind me, I'm going to turn around and I'm going to say to them, you know, I'd like to think that those four people at the Happy Cow Tavern picked us because they saw the good in us, in the good that we're able to accomplish. But I wonder how they're going to feel when they find out that they were wrong.
01:53:32
Speaker
you head up as you as you head out basically I mean in the in the the dungeon there are um where you laid the kids to rest there were other sort of I guess sarcophagus is probably the wrong word to use but like crypt what do you what do you call when people What's that called? this Like a cloister? I don't know. Game of Thrones when they all the all the family was buried underneath. Oh, mausoleum, mausoleum. Yeah, it's like a mausoleum down here. And there are given the fact that the dad hung himself. Don't know where the mom is. There are open caskets if you'd like to leave Lancelot in one. Just options. I don't want to bury him in this house. Yeah.
01:54:21
Speaker
I don't want to contribute to the death that this house has grown. Let's take him away. And, uh, is there anything else you guys would like to do in the house or is the intention to leave the house? The intention is to get outside of the house for me. I think I'm, I'm done in here. Yeah, I don't want to be here anymore. Yeah. Likewise. Hey, shut up, kids. If you head outside, exit the house out the front door and the mists start to dissipate. And you finally see this city, a county country before you as the mist dissipate.
01:55:17
Speaker
All to the east, you see from where you're standing on this road, this windy road where this house is, you see down the road, there is a plethora of towns interconnected by roads as far as the eye can see with no mist to block your path.
01:55:37
Speaker
Tall shapes loom out of the dense fog that surrounds everything. The muddy ground underfoot gives way to slick, wet cobblestones as you guys move along. Do you stop somewhere on the side of the road to bury i want ah Brian, if possible. Well, I got a question for you before I would actually do this. Would, as a school teacher with my, what is my, what would my view on the afterlife be? Like obviously there's a like a respect to be had for burial grounds, you know, and like having a family buried next to each other, but I would be heavily contemplating finding a way to light a fire and like burn the whole house down. Sure. Unless I got the sense of like,
01:56:31
Speaker
Okay. The family that it is buried here deserves to like that, even though their souls may have moved on, you know, they're the resting grounds deserve to not be desecrate. You know what I mean? Like, is it worth burning this house down that could, that has caused so much pain and stuff? You know what I mean? Specific requests that I don't think necessarily religious texts would cover that. I think that's just sort of a preference call. Right. I guess I would. But yeah, if there was a way I would probably light something on some grass or a match if I had one outside of the house and just hold it and turn to the rest of the party and just say, give me a reason not to.
01:57:16
Speaker
No reasons for me. I think you should do it. Yeah, I don't say a word.
01:57:25
Speaker
Cool. Yeah, I would I would drop the match and do whatever I had to do to help that whole house catch fire. The house catches fire. I'd blast a fire bolt into it just for a little emphasis. Helping helping to get that started. The house starts to catch fire and you you guys leave. Do you do you intend to bury Lancelot on the road?
01:57:58
Speaker
I think we should find a tree to bury Lancelot under somewhere nice and quiet where he won't be disturbed by crows or werewolves. Yeah, I like that. I agree. As we were lighting the house on fire, and we start to walk away, Roy is going to linger for a little bit longer than everyone else. And as he's sort of watching the house go up in flames, he's holding his bow, kind of lightly rubbing the rose with his thumb, just like thinking of Rose and thinking of the kids and hoping that they are in a better place now. And then he turns to walk away. Walk away, burning house behind you. You find a tree. Are able to bury Lancelot.
01:58:54
Speaker
As we bury Lancelot, I'd like to take a little vial out and kind of take a little bit of his blood, put it in the vial, and then dip some of just one drop of blood into an open and empty page into my spell book. Don't worry, Lancelot. I'll help you serve the spider queen.
01:59:20
Speaker
Maybe we will get an actual spider, Lancelot, one day.
01:59:28
Speaker
You bury Lancelot and move east towards this place that you've heard about, this place to the east, hidden in the mists.
01:59:51
Speaker
Tall shapes loom out of the dense fog that surrounds everything. The muddy ground underfoot gives way to slick, wet cobblestones. The tall shapes you see are village dwellings. The windows stare out from pools of blackness. No sound cuts the silence, except for a slow clap that you start to hear.
02:00:21
Speaker
From a man in the middle of the streets, the silhouette can be seen.
02:00:35
Speaker
Alas, you've escaped Durst Manor with your lives intact. How amusing.
02:00:44
Speaker
The fog clears and you see a pale, handsome man dressed in regal garb with a smile and posture that denotes the confidence of royalty. Behind him, you see a black ornate carriage is parked on the street, drawn by two horses. The full moon peeking between the clouds. A castle, silhouetted on the moon. Like a lance piercing the sky.
02:01:20
Speaker
Forgive me, I seem to have forgotten my etiquette. Introductions are in order. I'm Strahd von Zedovich, son of King Barovitch and Queen Ravenovia.
02:01:33
Speaker
These are the lands of Barovia, of which I am Lord. I make it my business to meet each and every soul in my domain, no matter how insignificant.
02:01:48
Speaker
Introduce yourselves as I have. He looks at you, Vesrak. Vesrak Banevale.
02:02:01
Speaker
follower and acolyte of Loth, the Spider Queen.
02:02:07
Speaker
Uh, he looks at you, Gilman. The name's Graves. Graves, in fact. That's the whole thing. He totes his head and says, how's your father? Uh, you see me like physically recoil at the thought. Not good. Dead. Well, I guess, yeah, good. He looks at you, Roy. My name's Roy. Roy Halovich. Roy Halovich. And he looks at you, hilarious. It seems like you already know our names. Why do you want us to introduce ourselves? He smiles. Test of honesty.
02:02:58
Speaker
Want to know if you lie about any details or were reluctant to share your names with me. He snaps his finger and a man emerges from the carts carrying a basket. I must say, you look awfully drained after escaping Durst Manor. Consider this basket a welcome gift to Barovia, your new home. My dear Rahadin, please give my guests the gifts." Do you see this elfish man?
02:03:36
Speaker
walks over but stops about five feet away from you all covered it in blood and don't look like the type to maybe be super receptive. Currently places a basket in front of you all. You can see in the basket. There's bread, cheese, a couple bottles of wine and you see that there are four ah potions of health in them. Would there be some, uh, limp biscuits in there from the Durst manner? You know, this rod and you see turns nods, maybe bows even turns and goes back in the carriage. And shrod says, well, that should boost your spirits. Trust me, you'll need it. I'll be direct. There's no leaving Barovia.
02:04:27
Speaker
Therefore, make yourselves comfortable. Perhaps we'll meet again. If you survive long enough, there won't always be a dog to kill to save your lives.
02:04:40
Speaker
Turns, enters this black carriage and it rumbles off into the night. Camera pans. We see, four of you standing on the middle of this road as color drains from the picture. It starts to rain washing the blood from your guys's head and hair down your faces, the ground becoming muddy again, the mists resuming heavier behind you than in front of you. And there seems only one way forward.
02:05:23
Speaker
And that'll be all for this episode and the finale of the Death House. who Not only that, gentlemen, when you finish the Death House, you're level three, baby. Oh, let's go. Let's go Let's go. You know, given what if you what if we were doing XP and the thing that leveled you up was killing Lance a lot? I mean, in a way it was. ah Yeah, I mean, I guess so. I will. um I will share some stuff with you guys.
02:06:04
Speaker
Real quick, before we leave here and also maybe we just quickly talk about a Vess rack. You've already chosen your subclass. Correct. Yes, I'm a blood magic wizard. And ah Gil, you get to choose yours at third level, correct? Yes, I do. And I will be going with... Well, I was going to go inquisitive, but now I'm just wondering, like, geez, is there...
02:06:37
Speaker
I don't think about it. out Yeah, I'll think about it for a yeah moment. You've got a long time to think about it. He's got like 10 minutes. um ah Trev, you already had chosen yours as well. Yes, sir. Night. Correct. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Night domain. And um Mr. Roy Halovich, you finally get your subclass. Yeah. And what subclass are you going?
02:07:09
Speaker
Um Do you know I I have to look at the name. Okay, it's the the beast master one beast master one So I will say, as we end this episode, you're all on the road. It's black and white. It's raining. Blood is and dirt is draining from your guys' heads. You see, Roy, your little critters. Far off. One in the trees with a big smile. The same one who ate that cape. Now looks like he's wearing it. Maybe looks like he's the leader of these watchers. And he looks at you and smiles. And, Roy, you look.
02:07:50
Speaker
In the woods. And you swear you see. Ready to be beckoned at any time you choose. As you look into the forest. You see Lancelot. Oh. I will see you guys next time. Oh, yeah. Bye bye. Bye.