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Ep. 60 Doors and Corridors - De Profundis
102 Plays4 years ago
On todays episode - Helena and Claude continue their exploration through Helena’s mind in search of answers...
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Transcript
Confusion and Introduction to the Adventure
00:00:00
Speaker
If you're confused, imagine how I'm feeling. Where was your brother's arm?
Setting the Stage: Helena's Mind and the Maze
00:00:31
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop. We are a live play 5e D&D podcast set in the magical world of Aerith. My name is Mark. I am the Dungeon Master. We are currently knee deep in Helena's mind. Claude and Helena ended into a mind to save her from whatever is happening in there. We've entered into a bit of a maze so far. We've come across Sebastian Sleekard, her brother, and her dad King Leopold Sleekard II.
The War Scene and Battle with the Undead
00:00:56
Speaker
We also came across a book
00:00:57
Speaker
on a plinth that set the world away and Helena did what all good adventurers do. She touched the book which transported them both into an all-out war where we find ourselves deep in the territory of the undead with a recognisable tower in the distance the two players ran towards it fighting off incalculable numbers of the undead upon the way. She also saw her brother shouting for her to go and stab the book, stab the book
00:01:23
Speaker
She ran towards these massive doors Helena did with Claude following close behind in launching a couple of AOE spells at the same time. They came across these massive, massive doors of the tower with swirling energy above it in a massive circle. These huge 50-foot doors. Claude.
00:01:39
Speaker
There is no undead around you. The doors are in front
Confronting the Portal and the Onyx Reaver
00:01:41
Speaker
of you. You hold a dagger and this book that says the world away upon it. I'll just, uh, yeah, sort of brush past and almost put an arm near Helena to sort of say, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. And then I'll just kind of ram into the door. I'm going to ram. That's not like full power. It's like an accelerated push. It's kind of like... Not like a batman ram, like a Toy Story style. Yeah. More like Aragon entering in the mediums of levels. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:02:05
Speaker
they open and they creak open and what you both see suddenly doors swing slowly with the weight open and below you is this within this tower it seems to be almost be like a TARDIS it seems bigger on the inside now than it is on the outside but there's nothing above all there is is below you see this monolithic chasm deep and wide filled with groans and screams of these weird ethereal figures crawling up and out crawling up the dark jagged fire scorched walls of this rift
00:02:36
Speaker
Deep below you see a huge shimmering portal where these ephemeral souls seem to be coming from. You both recognise Helena only from the very distance in the black-mouthed mines, Claude from the now two times you've come across them, these portals which seem to allow these undead creatures. But this is on a scale unfathomable. This portal is the size of like a football pitch.
00:03:05
Speaker
It's huge, this is huge. What do you want to do? Can we see the lightning, the colourful lightning storms?
00:03:15
Speaker
When you look up, you just see darkness above you. You can't even see the outside of the walls of this tower now. You just see the darkness above you. But as you look back, you can see the undead starting to make their way out and you can see everything still going. I'm just going to give you... Could I do... This is the worst person. Could I, looking at their dagger, try and put two and two together and figure out, is this the Onyx reaver? Because Onyx is black and we know it's a dagger. Give me a history check.
00:03:44
Speaker
Minus one modifier here. Oh, what an actual 20. Oh, that's a 19.
00:03:52
Speaker
You very quickly look down. This is a dagger that's used for combat. This is a dagger that is used for symbolic gestures, kind of like the acorn weapons, but the things the queen holds, they were the symbolic items of an ancient cause. This dark, dark stone seems to form this dagger and it's made of stone as well. It seems to be also wrapped in a kind of metal that goes around the hilt and then also up to the blade a little further. Old ornate dagger used for some kind of
00:04:21
Speaker
Oh, exactly what I'm saying. He also looks like a flick knife. Yeah, I'm going to stab you up, bitch. Save your album. Get the girl off. Yes, you very much, you're almost certain, Claude, and you're not very certain about a lot of things, but you're almost certain that this is the onyx reaper.
Return to the Maze: Vision Implications
00:04:36
Speaker
And then you also remember back to when Kelsan spoke about what you needed back in Evershire. You remember him speaking about what you needed to stab. You needed to stab some kind of book of faith or book of religion
00:04:49
Speaker
one of the major religions and you remember again you're old enough to train so you're 19 that's pretty damn good you remember the faith of Miksawas for the reason for the Great Flame all the problems that happened in the past technically they would be one of the major religions and you can make two and two together this book doesn't look good something feels demonic and
00:05:12
Speaker
and otherworldly about it. The cover of The World Away seems to ring a bell. You don't know where from, but you start to put these things together. The energy from the book, the room it was in, the plinth it was stood on, all these things start to fly at you and yes, you assume you now have the tools in front of you. Okay, I'm just gonna panic. Do it!
00:05:45
Speaker
the book you let go of it as they both become incredibly hot all of a sudden into the abyss and it starts to fall down and fall down and fall down and before you can see it land you look up to your hands and you see this black start to in effect and move slowly up both your hands moving up further and further as it gets to your elbows you start to feel a cold start to enter into your body and... Do you want to see this happening? Do you want to see it happening? Does it cast great restoration on her straight away? It pushes it back and then starts moving up
00:05:53
Speaker
Put the pointy in the book! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!
00:06:15
Speaker
I'm trying again. Pushes the back and then just burning the spell slots. And it goes up again and comes in even to the top of the shoulders at this point. It's up to the shoulders and suddenly as the book reaches the bottom there's this pulse of energy, a kind of a warm radiant energy and suddenly the smell of rosemary returns to your nose again. The cold starts to take over your body slightly and as you look down you see the portal flicker and suddenly it disappears all the ephemeral souls disappear and suddenly your vision goes dark.
00:06:43
Speaker
and your hand is reached out and you pull your hand back and you can see the plinth smoking with this book now burnt to a cinder in front of you as you are back in your mind, back in the maze.
00:06:58
Speaker
and you're stood next to her, you still feel the damage of her back. I'm probably just slumped down onto the stone floor, taking a few deep breaths, looking at my hands, trying to figure out where this, what this black, trying to figure out where did it go, how did it get from being black and smoked or, you know, however, the cold running through it and to just, to just leaving me. There's a really nice picture there of like Claude with glowing hands.
00:07:22
Speaker
pressing into Helen Hill with his like jet black hands. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or like Voldemort and Harry Potter's wand that's going back and forth. Yeah. Oh God. Lord, what was that? What did I do? I don't know, but you sorted it out. We're not in that place no more. We're back in the first place with the dark whispers with the nice smells. Well, where were we? What happened? What did we destroy?
00:07:52
Speaker
I think, I think we destroyed a great big portal and that portal was bigger than the ones we've seen before. But was that of the past or was that of the present? There was the Citadel and I don't understand how it was once there but years ago and it didn't, it doesn't look like that. It was none of my memories. There was things that I didn't, how could I have created them? I'm so confused.
00:08:21
Speaker
If you're confused, imagine how I'm feeling. Where was your brother's arm? Oh, that was an injury thing. War thing. You'd have to ask him when you meet him. Again. I will. Why did... They were so violent. There were so many of them.
00:08:44
Speaker
And we didn't destroy them all outside of the gate, so I don't know what happened to them. Did you see what happened to the outside of that place that we were in? Once your arms went weird, I just focused on him and then poof, we're here. Thank you, Claude. I think you had Onyx Reaver. I think that was that dagger. The daggers? Yeah, it was Onyx Colored and it was like, you know, a ceremonial thing, not an actual weapon.
00:09:12
Speaker
So that's what we were looking for or you were looking for. Why did I dream of it? It makes me think that maybe we saw the future and we saw the moment that we might
Navigating the Maze and Personal Visions
00:09:22
Speaker
have sorted the Blight. Surely not. This is a dream as we've sort of established. Yeah, but it's what I dream about is ending the Blight. Maybe it's something that we hope for. But now we know what it looks like.
00:09:39
Speaker
We know that there's a big... Where did it come from? I was... Yeah, well maybe we get it. Maybe, maybe we were going to get it before we had to go into your mind. Yes. Maybe we were gonna get it and in the future what we saw was a vision of you and I making sure that we did the thing with the knife with the Onyx Reaver and the bookie book. Wow. And Robin won't be best pleased. But maybe that was the future and maybe you were in the blight.
00:10:09
Speaker
I quite think that's magical. But we're not back to reality. This is still in my mind, so we still haven't achieved what we should do. Well, why don't we get out of this maze and then we can try and find our friends. But if that was a vision of the future, why was it only me and you? I don't know. Where are they? I don't know. I won't be touching that again, though.
00:10:39
Speaker
No, is the book still on in that chamber? It's now just a smaller pile of ash. And is the plinth and pedestal around it got the same charge energy that had before? Is it like all our dormant? No, no, it still has that charge feeling of energy in the room, yeah. I'm gonna just scoop up. This is the other thing I wanted to find out. I'm gonna scoop up some of the ash that's there to see that if we do escape somehow that ash still
00:11:08
Speaker
If that ash comes with me as well, you physically can pick it up. I'm going to make a little space in my pocket and I'm going to just leave the ash. But the dagger is nowhere to be seen? The dagger is nowhere to be seen. And the book is not. Since you dropped them, the
00:11:26
Speaker
this world, this place. But if we dropped the book, how can it still be here? Maybe we haven't found it yet. Maybe this is just ash from all the deadies that you destroyed with your flailing. I saw it was very impressive. Claude, do you think if that blackness had engulfed me, I would have died? Yeah, but I wouldn't let that happen. But what if you couldn't have stopped it?
00:11:55
Speaker
I know a guy he deals with people who are dead probably if I prayed and gave another eternity of servitude I could get you back I hope a little bit I wouldn't want to put that on you or your face I serve your family and you did I always will
00:12:20
Speaker
Okay. I'm here in your dream. That's beyond the call of June. Yes, I can't argue with that. Have you seen many nights in your dream? No. Dream about that fancy fells drop? No, I'm here. I suppose you're right. I will protect you. I don't know why, I don't have an answer. Here you are.
00:12:42
Speaker
something happened to me a long time ago and I stopped being a regular person what takes people's heads off for an occupation and I started being very interesting things would happen to me. Well shall we continue with the maze and figure out how to get out of this hellhole? I think that's a wonderful idea. Although I'm quite happy being here then I
00:13:09
Speaker
more so than I was at the other place that we were just in. I thought that this was terrifying when we first arrived. At least we'll know what to expect if that was a vision of the future. We'll know what it looks like. We'll know what that flashy red lightning means. We'll know to go to that place that has name I can't pronounce but it doesn't sound like... it sounds like Old Sleek Guardian. Sven-ya-na.
00:13:39
Speaker
We know that that's a place that we might be able to find it. I don't like to think that it was the future. Well, it wasn't the past. I know. I think it's just all sorts of ideas built up into one, maybe. Maybe. Maybe we've created it together. I don't know how. Maybe. But I'm going to take it as a good sign. OK.
00:14:07
Speaker
I think if we take it as a bad sign this place will get even scarier. And cautiously and probably not really taking in everything that Claude's saying and not truly believing it either because she doesn't feel very positive about it. She's going to get up off the floor and peer into the north and just round the corner of the north and exit to that little room that we're in. No problem, wait!
00:14:34
Speaker
Princess. What? What if we just ended the plight? Then I think we'd take back, you know, we'd return to reality. I don't think we'd still be here, Claude. Whether this might be... What if it just happened? What if the plight literally just finished at this moment? I don't know. Hmm. I don't know.
00:15:01
Speaker
This is a pointless conversation, Claudo. We've got to get out to see... Yes, let's get out and see if we did end the blight. Well, we need to see where our friends are and... Yes. And figure out how to move forward. Yes, let's hope they're not jumping off any more clips without us. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah. I got dark. Anyway, I said that. What, what, what, what? Let's go. You see the doorway, and then you see the entrance of the hallway to the north, and you see it...
00:15:29
Speaker
By five feet, there's a wall and then you can take a left turn. The left turn seems to almost match up back to where you can, you've kind of figured that bit out. So it kind of loops back on itself and points this part of the maze, funnily enough. And the doorway, the hallway in front of you, they're just the same thing as five feet and then you can go left or right. What would you like to do?
00:15:50
Speaker
We're peering. I see we're peering. Yeah, we're peering. See, I was going to go... Sorry, can I just ask if this here is a doorway? Just to the right, north of the plinth. No, that is not. That's just a little bit of design that I put on the... Okay, so I'm going to continue north then.
00:16:08
Speaker
And I'm gonna go right. Yep, because left is a dead end. And as you look down to the right corridor, it seems to stretch on quite a long way. You have two larger entrances on the north, one that comes across you first and one last, and then two to the south that come second and third. So you've kind of got two to the north, two to the south. You can kind of walk up here if you want to do that first.
00:16:33
Speaker
those or you can just pick one and go for it. Are the noises back again? Yes, yes. Sorry, the noise of the whispering, the sea shanty has returned and the smell of rosemary is strong as well as the smell of lavender and this weird acidic smell. Every now and then but for no apparent reason it seems to end up right through your noses at different times. I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna take a walk on the world there. I'm gonna take a walk right to the end of that path and peer in to the both the north and the south points just to see
Emotional Revelations and Memories
00:17:03
Speaker
how they look. OK, and as you look down each of the corridors, you notice one to the north, both of them to the north seem to connect. OK. But also carry on to the east once you've gone north. The first one to the south ends in a dead end, about 20 metres further down. The second one goes off slightly longer, further off into the distance out of your vision that you can see with your torch. But it does seem to open up on the east side slightly further down, but you can't quite see what that does. As you take that north turn, you hear a rumble
00:17:33
Speaker
both of you in the ground starts to shake slightly and it grows and grows and suddenly out of the darkness to the east, the doorway to the east, sorry the hallway to the east that you can't see, but no you can't see because I've just shown you it, that bursts through what at first seemed like rocks but very quickly you realise they're not rocks, they are heads. Each recently severed, each
00:17:59
Speaker
anger, guilt, betrayal, anger, resentment and calmness start to pile off these faces, each of them rolling on towards you. Helena, you recognise none of these faces. Claude, you recognise all of them. You recognise all of these. These are the heads of Claude's work in the sleepguard. Your conscious and dream start to kind of cross over. This is something that, Helena, you are seeing, but this is Claude. This is Claude's
00:18:25
Speaker
they're almost three deep almost you have to literally come up to the knee kind of wade through them and it kind of fills the area you're in quite quickly but from nowhere in particular that you see to fill the space and you can feel the weight on your legs as you try and pull yourself around them. What do you want to do?
00:18:42
Speaker
Is that... I mean, that's Nigel. Yeah, you can see Nigel and you cut his head off. I think that knows the deserter. I think that there's a few Drowak horns, yeah. Do you notice that it crossed the border to the north of Drowak into Silica, which is a punishable offence by death? Yeah. So, Helena, although it's quite shocking because it wasn't something that she expected,
00:19:05
Speaker
to happen. She's seen dead bodies before. She's seen severed limbs and possible heads and all sorts of things within her time. So she is going to just hold her breath and wade through and ignore Claude's mumbling to the heads that are on the floor. Sure. And you're going, are you going to be covered? Yeah, I'm gonna, yeah.
00:19:29
Speaker
As you always get through these, and they do seem to end rather abruptly into a couple of teetering heads, as you're about 10 feet away from the end of the heads, as you kind of knee through one of them, knee on them to move out of the way, it kind of rolls over and you recognise this head. You see the small face of a gnome, blistered with scorch marks and an expression of pain. This is Folly's head.
00:19:51
Speaker
I'll go to pick it up, but then drop it again. Yeah, and it feels real, it feels heavy, it feels like a head and it thuds back down onto the others. Yeah, so she's sort of, um, and she'll sort of clutch at her chest and step back into the wall. What is it? It's, it's, um, it's, it's Folly. Where? Uh, it's... Are we out? It's his head. Oh. And she'll just point at Folly's head. Oh no.
00:20:19
Speaker
No, I don't understand, Claude. You didn't kill him. We didn't execute this one. No, he wanted to kill me. I don't know what to do. I do. I do. I do. I'm going to pick up very delicately. I'm going to place my thumbs on the temples and I'm going to speak with Dad. Oh my God. OK.
00:20:41
Speaker
The eyes roll from back in the head, forward and round, and it looks at you for a second, the face of anger which disappears and then... Hello! Folly! Hi-ho! What are you doing here? Yes! Very good! Folly! Why are you dead? Congratulations to you too! Thank you! Why are you dead, Folly? What? Why are you dead?
00:21:07
Speaker
What? You're dead. Congratulations. Thank you. I don't know why. Why are you dead? And the eyes roll back into the head as it remains back a skull again. I think it's our mind slash my mind playing tricks on us, Claude. Just put it down and we need to move on. As you do that and you're kind of looking away from Claude, you realise that a few more of the heads around you, you recognise.
00:21:35
Speaker
You see the head of Robin, bruised face, black eyed, an expression of anger on his face. You see the head of Karstam, signs of torture can be seen on his face. The tear marks running down his cheeks through the bloodstain that adorn them. And he came across the solemn expression of a dragonborn head deep in the pile right at the end. The scars and deep blue eyes that match that of Drago. His expression is calm and almost at ease.
00:22:02
Speaker
Sorry, do you want to do anything with those hands? Are you going to do eyesight? No, I think I was going to scoop them up. I can do all their voices here. No, please don't make me laugh. There is an alternative universe where I pursued lengthy conversations of well, if you recall what we just had conversation, dialogues.
00:22:18
Speaker
If you will. I will just start to scoop up all the ones. No Charlie. Do you want an investigation to have a look for it? Yeah. Do you want to give it a roll for investigation? We've got everyone else but Charlie. And you and I. And Elthea. You and I aren't there. I wasn't looking for myself. Yet. Maybe that painting will drop shortly. Yeah, I'm looking for Elthea and Charlie as well. Okay. Twelve.
00:22:45
Speaker
You look around for Elphor's head and it's nowhere to be seen. You remember back this style of hair, this brown hair, and you try and look for that in amongst the heads and you turn if you ever know, and you're like, oh, I've been on there and you notice another one, and you try and explain to Helena who just looks a bit gassed that you're collecting the heads of your comrades. No Elphor head, but further back in the room where you'd come from, you do see a small tuft of orange hair.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, to be sure. Yeah, you pull it up and it is indeed the head of Ty. Her eyes are closed, her face is expressionless. Suddenly, the eyes open and it's this deep, deep, kind of pitting blue eyes that she has. They open and I'm out.
00:23:33
Speaker
opens in a second and as you kind of shake back in shock of this, all the heads just disappear almost as if totally gone. No ash, no smoke, no nothing. Just disappear like it was never there and you're left in this empty corridor. All the five heads I was holding. All the heads you've collected gone and all you can see now is this lengthy corridor off from where you've been in a small 10 foot by 15 foot space that was once filled with the heads of your friends and of your past is now totally empty again.
00:24:03
Speaker
Claudia, I told you, it's messing with our minds. It's not real. Yeah. We need to press on. It's trying to taunt us, and I don't know why. Let's get out of here fast. Yes. I've had enough of seeing my friends without heads. Well, you saw them. You saw their heads. You didn't see their bodies. I've seen enough of seeing my friends without their bodies. Yes. I do miss Robin's shiny legs. Ooh.
00:24:31
Speaker
She's gonna ignore that comment and just run on. And as you get to the end of the eastern corridor, you turn the corner, it moves to the south quite quickly, 15 foot, and you're at another dead end, there's nothing there.
00:24:40
Speaker
So she's quite angry now because of what's just happened and it was quite traumatizing to see people that she knew and not have a reason why they were there. She's gonna sort of push the wall a little bit, just really quite annoyed, and then turn back on herself and run quite frantically now past Claude, down to the south, and keep running to the south. And not even peering in, she's just gonna turn to the right
00:25:09
Speaker
There's a small alcove there on your left, actually, as you run down, so it's to the east, this alcove is there. And as you come round the corner, and you are, you're huffing your puppy out of it, and as you come round the corner, the sun just pushes you both back, and for a second, a number of visions quickly pop through both your heads, and you both see these. Maybe you don't both know it, but you see these.
00:25:31
Speaker
For some reason, you both see, you're both there very quickly. The image, a painting of Helena when she was younger, you again know it, you don't recognise it, you know it. Stood with two males either side who are a bit older, you assume these are both the brothers. Helena, you recognise it as Lucian and Sebastian stood out the side of you, Lucian standing tall and rather athletic even at a young age. To your, over your left shoulder and Sebastian, you're kind of holding on your knee, on your right knee, kind of showing your family line there.
00:26:01
Speaker
quickly the painting erupts into flame and through that you see the palace in Goldview where your family lives and resides you see ahead of you figures fighting guards family friends of yours that defend have defended your family for years you sprint past them and kick a door and you see a four poster bed the bedroom of your parents and you see a body lying in bed you run over to it and reach into your pocket pulling out some orange crystals and
00:26:31
Speaker
which you crush into your hand and in an instant literally stuff your face into your hand and sniff deeply and you then instantly fall to the ground at the foot of the bed. That image quickly peels away and Claude you've seen it from almost Helena's point of view as well you've been there in her point of view watching this take place. You're suddenly in a prison cell you're not sure which one of you this is and your stats opposite a
00:26:57
Speaker
a Tiefling that looks like he has a leprosy. His skin has literally fallen away and he's smiling and laughing with you as you say something funny slaps his knee and then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a jar. And in that jar seems to be this swirling energy and you recognise the style of energy as the same creatures that were trying to get out of the rift.
00:27:20
Speaker
within this jar and he points to it and points to himself and puts it back in his pocket and lets out another raucous laugh before lying back down in his bed. You can see his kind of decaying skin, yellowed eyes, teeth and nails, like he's dying almost but he seemed incredibly upbeat and then back on his bed and fell asleep.
00:27:40
Speaker
The image then shifts a third time and you see a mountainous range that you've never experienced before, that you've never seen before, and you see this creature stood atop the mountain, lightning-cracking meteors flying in overhead red.
00:27:54
Speaker
see in the distance and seem like lava falling from the sky, but you can see trees and life and mortal realm around you, this creature with black, dark, total jet black skin, ancient armour, huge suede sword fighting, you can't see their faces but fighting someone, fighting good.
00:28:16
Speaker
fighting good in some way and he's laughing at this as it's happening as he swings up and slashes across the throat of this creature in front of them and the image disappears again and suddenly you're back in the small alcove space. So you've just come back in from that series of visions there's three very quick visions that you both experienced at the same time the first one of your mother and you this
00:28:42
Speaker
orange powder, rocks firstly crushed into a powder and ingested. The second of the, gosh, I forgot about the prison cell with the tiefling laughing, the yellow skin and teeth and eyes. The jar of energy. Jar of energy. And the last one, this dark kind of jet black creature stood on a mountain fighting off these people that seem to be nearby and cutting one throat before laughing violently. Were they humans?
00:29:09
Speaker
You could make out humanoid shapes and couldn't see anything else. Your vision was more upon this creature. Have you seen them? Have you seen it before? No.
00:29:25
Speaker
So you just come back out of that and you're back in this small space again away from that vision, the corridor leading to the south. And again, it's kind of taking you back slightly a little bit out of breath as you kind of regain your senses again, back into this goddamn maze.
00:29:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna rub my face. Um, Claude, did you just see what I saw? I saw something spooky. Was it your memories? I don't know. Or what did you see? Um, I saw your mother. So that wasn't your memories, I saw my mother too. I saw a man in a prison cell. Yes, I did too. I don't know who I was looking through the eyes of though. It wasn't me, it wasn't a memory that I've had. Maybe they're someone else's.
00:30:12
Speaker
What were then this black creature on top of a tower or something fighting a group of humanoids? Did you see that too? I saw that too.
Symbolic Choices: The Blight vs. Family
00:30:23
Speaker
What is this place that's making me think about these moments that probably aren't even my own memories? Could there be moments that could be? Well, hopefully. What was this orange crystal?
00:30:42
Speaker
that was in the image. I haven't seen anything like that before. Could that be the keltrad? This is what you're looking for. Keltrad. Keltrad, yes. Yep. Plants. You're looking for it. But I thought it was a plant and I didn't expect it to be in the shape or the form of crystals. Maybe it is a plant.
00:31:06
Speaker
I was told it was. Shall we continue? Let's get out of here. We don't have any answers yet. It's hard to think when there's still so much darkness ahead. I agree.
00:31:17
Speaker
Okay. Would you like me to go first? Or do you want to go first? I will go first. Okay. To the south. To the south. To the south. As you head down to the south you see a ten foot wide gap to the east of you to your left that you could enter into. Or the corridor continues down to the south. What would you like to do? This is draining me, Claude. I'm frustrated and I'm angry. I don't know which way to turn. Let's just get out. Heads or tails? Heads.
00:31:45
Speaker
I'm going to... That sounds bad to say now after the experiences that we've just had, Lord. Still, I'll go with it. I think maybe I'll just become immune to it after 30 odd years of decapitation.
00:32:05
Speaker
I suppose you have. It's just like tying up your boots. What was the outcome, Claude? Oh, I haven't flipped a coin yet. Heads, we go left. Tails, we go right. Even says heads, tails. So that's odds. Heads with the left, tails with the right. Odds was tails. We're gonna go south.
00:32:23
Speaker
Okay and we'll keep going and I've got a bit more of a pace in my step again now. As you walk past the doorway to the right you do see a little bit into it and you can see a pathway leading through the room seems to open up slightly there and you're moving south down past that and you see a small doorway to your right and the path stop further ahead and turn violently to the left so to the east.
00:32:45
Speaker
Are we going closer towards anything that's making my sense of smell more intense, or my hearing more intense, or is it all the same? Could you give me a perception check, please? Hello. 12. Nothing seems to really change from what you can experience. Okay. Keep going, Princess. I'm gonna keep going with some pace. Right, down to the south, you turn the corner to the other way, and it's a dead end.
00:33:10
Speaker
Well, shit. What about this door? Sorry, it's not a doorway, it's a hallway, another entrance. Oh, to the west. To the west, yeah. What about that one? There you see a small bit of a passageway that again turns left and right, going kind of back towards the central portion of this area.
00:33:28
Speaker
I think we should go back to where we were. You don't think we should investigate this further, this pathway? Not yet. The stuff we didn't like was sort of that way. Why don't we just go back to the open room? Okay, yes, I'll follow you. Thank you Princess. So you're going back to the previous space you passed? Yeah. Open space.
00:33:52
Speaker
And you're going inside. Yeah. As you do, you enter into a large room. This is almost the same size as the previous room, which you have the plinth in. The majority of the room is empty. There is a hallway leading off to the south, one through the room to the east. But then looking south, you notice something odd. You see, as you look up, a ladder.
00:34:10
Speaker
that seems to go on for about 30 or 40 feet upwards. Upon that is a kind of platform being held by rickety bits of wood, and upon that seems to be a second kind of level, almost like a mezzanine level, if you could have a mezzanine in this maze above you. You can't see anything apart from that, you can see the wood seems solid, the ladder seems solid, but you cannot see what is upon it from where you currently stand.
00:34:34
Speaker
Am I climbing it or are you? I'm quite heavy and clumsy. Would you like me to go first? No, I'll go. You check out the north. Okay. So I'll climb up the stairs and the ladder. Claud, as you check out the north, you come to another den.
00:34:52
Speaker
What are you doing after that? Are you staying down? I'm just going to keep my body spot there and just come back and keep an eye on it. You pull yourself up the tall wooden ladder to the platform that sits about 30 feet above you but as you get closer to the top the ladder seems to continue to stretch and every rung you reach for there seems to be another one added as you keep going further and further.
00:35:14
Speaker
as I can imagine from that inhalation of breath, Casey I can imagine she's getting rather pissed off at this whole thing and you can move a little faster, move a little faster and finally you do manage to actually get grab a hold of those cords that top realm that seem to keep eluding you and you pull yourself up after what seems an age. You see her seated humanoid stood sat sorry he seated seated humanoid sat on this small
00:35:41
Speaker
Again, these etchings in the ceiling, high above. So, sorry, is he sat on a stool or something? Sat on an old wooden chair. Okay. An old wooden chair. He has jet black skin. He's got yellow eyes, ancient armour, and a single pauldron from one shoulder. A crown of razor-sharp black horns, jet-like from his skull. He sits cross-legged. There's one leg over the other, not cross-legged like a child-like. One leg over the other, like you would in... I don't know how to describe it. How do you describe that?
00:36:11
Speaker
they crossed over the other in a very kind of like laid back kind of way. He sits legs crossed leaning back on an old wooden chair and he has he's leaning his kind of wrist on a long black sword that's waved has a kind of wave to it and you can see along the tip of each side of this waved sword some kind of liquid seem to always drip down around the edge of this blade towards the
00:36:40
Speaker
to the sword. Behind him you see two blood-red doors and the whispers return. He seems to not fill the air almost as he sits there. The face is staring at you as you make your way up the ladder. I've seen you in a vision. I've seen you for quite some time. What is it, Helen, a sleep guard, that you most fear?
00:37:10
Speaker
I suppose I'm fearing you quite a bit at the moment. I don't know who you are. I've given you no reason to fear me. Have I? Or have I? Sebastian. Your brother. It's funny where the mind goes at times of trouble. No, I am not your brother. And Claude, you hear it echo down Claude. Hello!
00:37:41
Speaker
What happens when you defeat the Blight? What purpose will you take? Do you really think Akiva will have much use for you once the souls of the dead are returned and he gains back the power of a god? Why would he need a mortal? With such blind ignorance and faith, faith, faithness echoes down to you. Well, that's up to him, Mr Master. He makes throws.
00:38:09
Speaker
And you can't see this, but you see him kind of silently laugh and shake his head. Princess, see you chatting to up there? You can join me if you like, Claude. Don't like the look of that ladder. I don't know who it is. He's guarding doors. Why don't you ask him his name? What is your name? How best to describe to you my name? I could just give it to you, but there's the fun in that.
00:38:38
Speaker
He thinks for a second and he twists the sword he has in the ground and he spins it from the pommel and moves his hand away as the sword continues to spin. So he crosses his hands and places a finger on his chin for reaching out and stopping and spinning, resting his hand back on it again. He pulls up the sword and runs his fingers along the edge of this long, I mean it's a long sword by any other. You realize now this creature isn't normal sized. He's about nine, ten foot tall.
00:39:07
Speaker
runs his fingers along this shaped, waved blade. My name is Grazet. And if any of you needed to write that down... Oh, how can you spell it? I've got it somewhere, I'm sure. G. R-A? Yeah, then apostrophe. Z-I-T. Z-T. Oh, Z-T. Okay, great. As he says that, you suddenly hear a scream from behind one of the doors
00:39:42
Speaker
It's your mother. Why are you guarding the door? You have a choice to make Kellen a sleep guard, one that only you will know. The sands of time slip through your fingers and you will not have the speed to help both your mother and fight back the Blight.
00:40:00
Speaker
you're going to have to make a choice. Oh! I'm supposed to help you give you enough time to make that choice. Please come up Claude and he claps his hands to get a hunt instantly. You just appear in front next to Helena directly up there. You've been yanked up all of a sudden next to him and you see the same figure. This jet black skinned creature sat down on this wooden stool with a massive sword.
00:40:26
Speaker
Thank you, Grazle... Grazle... Gris-tit. Gris-tit? He just smiles at you in all your attempts to see... Grimblum! Shh! Scrimsh! Thank you, Grimsh! I didn't much like the idea of that laddery-do. You're welcome, Claude. Do you live here? No. Inside Helen's mind. Who would want to? Not me. We think we've seen the end of the Blight.
00:40:57
Speaker
Did you put that there? He kind of reads his hands up in shrugs, rests his hand back on his sword. So what decision is this I'm making? Two doors are behind me. Each one represents the choice you will make, the choice you must make at some point. This will not happen now, but represents what you will perhaps choose, if unless you change your mind.
00:41:24
Speaker
What I'm getting at, I don't know, is that I'm bored of going round in circles. I like controlling things, and at the moment we're being very indecisive, so I'm, how can I say it, hurrying things along slightly. To the door, to the blight, and he gestures to the red door on your right, his left. Or, to your mother, he gestures to the door on your left, where you heard the scream. As I said, these doors are not but symbolic.
00:41:53
Speaker
They will not actually follow through with your decision, but you must know it's one or the other, and I do really love a mortal decision. An interruption of black smoke after a second. This creature, smoke ash, and the groans of hell itself seem to emanate from this gap in space. Disappears, leaving the wooden chair just rocking on its legs for a second before they leave the wooden chair stills itself.
00:42:21
Speaker
and you'll laugh at these two doors on a wooden chair. Are they still blood red? They are still blood red. They're not covered in blood, they're just the... Like a burning colour? The redness of blood, a deeply red colour, both of them. Still surrounded by these etchings with markings, blue light shining through, the wooden boards beneath your feet, the smell of rosemary and lavender. You have stood there. Two doors. The door to your right. The blight?
00:42:50
Speaker
The daughter that left, your mother. Claudia, if I don't choose my mother... Well, okay, first things first. This is all inside my mind. It's not real. I can't... I can't think of this logically because it's not logic. No. But if I... If I thought that I wanted to save my mother... Well, I hope to think that I would have found that path already. I feel that the blight is...
00:43:19
Speaker
Probably bigger, and if I defeat the Blight, then maybe my mother will be saved anyway.
Emerging from the Maze: New Beginnings
00:43:24
Speaker
Yeah. What he said about it not being a decision you make now, but it's like a warm-up to the decision you're gonna make later, I don't agree with it. What do you mean? Well, why don't we just make a third door? Well, you get both. How do you do that?
00:43:48
Speaker
You think a bit more about it. You learn a bit more about it. Normally involves asking Robin and Drago a bit. Folly has a little chipping. Car stands probably out of something somewhere. But, I don't think you've got to pick it. But we haven't got friends here at the moment. I can't wait to know how much to be seen. So, where is our path?
00:44:17
Speaker
that very annoying grizz tip he he said there's only two doors but there might be a third door somewhere else and it might mean you know you've got to think outside the box a bit like you know make your own path that sort of saying i understand and with one look at both of these doors and the longing to touch them i'll take a deep breath
00:44:47
Speaker
and walk back down the ladder and walk away. Okay and you're at the base of the stairs now quicker to get down actually you feel the middle of the way up this grass that was toying the view making the ladder continually go up higher and higher as it is only 30 feet off the ground. You do reach the base and you see the whole way to the north which
00:45:09
Speaker
Claude had gone up and then the gap to the east which is also available and also you have the pathways back you previously haven't looked at. Let's go through the eastern pathway. As you go through the eastern pathway it's a wall directly in front of you and an option of north or south. Let's go north. In the north you walk all the way up and I imagine you'll probably do this in silence comes to a dead end. Goes all the way up.
00:45:35
Speaker
to a dead end. As you turn the corner to the dead end, half expecting maybe to see another family member turn up who has nothing. Okay. Let's try this south. Yeah, she's just going to keep walking to the south. And again in silence. All the way to the south. Yeah. As you get all the way to the south, you come across a small alcove. Are you both going down there?
00:46:00
Speaker
yeah and as you come into that small area you have a little look around and it ends again in two dead ends and as you turn around to make a decision and look at each other all of a sudden from the wall
00:46:12
Speaker
But also from a thicket and some trees, which seem to have just appeared from the wall, these four ghouls jump out at you, Claude instantly reminding you of your time first meeting the master and being dragged. And they kind of pass through you almost like an ephemeral
00:46:34
Speaker
ghost of some description, that exactly the way it replays over and over in your mind, or had, replayed over and over in your mind when it first happened, and that quickly disappears into nothing. And did I see that happen? Yeah, you see it. Did it go into a certain direction? It came from the north into the south wall. Okay. I'm just gonna go check the south wall so I like it. But can I press against the south wall? Is it just solid stone? It's not like...
00:47:08
Speaker
It seems to feel solid like rock like you'd expect it to feel. I thought that might be you It's just a very scary thing You know, you never know you never know We missed a door though. Should we check the door to the north? Let's go back
00:47:27
Speaker
You mean to the east? The east now, yeah. There's a pathway there, it's a 10 foot wide and as you peak round the corner to the south, it's a dead end to the north, it continues over quite some time with a double gap to the right to the east. After you, Princess. I'm just wondering if we should go back to the doorway that we missed. It's up to you. Before we press on, I feel like we might be coming to the end.
00:47:56
Speaker
Well, if you want to get out, we can, but if you want to find out more, we can. No, I've changed my mind. We need to keep going. Let's keep going north. Are you sure? Yes. And as you approach that gap in the eastern side, you come across another very similar door to the door that you entered through, just the silhouette, almost like an anti-silhouette, so everything's dark except for this white silhouette of like an arched doorway that seems to be there.
00:48:26
Speaker
Stood there. What's he, princess? You find a third door. And Helen is just going to walk through it? Wait for me. Darkness. As you step through, you hear a crack of rock and the sound of falling debris behind you.
00:48:50
Speaker
As you turn, you see a sand-coloured entrance collapse and all of a sudden this sense of blinding sunlight hits your face. You can hear wind, you can hear, you can smell other smells apart from this now obnoxious smell of rosemary and lavender. You see what looked like some kind of entrance collapsed down behind you that didn't really look like where you'd come from. The sun is beating down on you as you wince.
00:49:15
Speaker
As you turn back to face the way you were looking, you see the figures, the backs of Drago, Robin, Follingtonne, stood in front of you, staring up and away from you. The sun is suddenly blotted from the sky as this shadow crosses its path.
00:49:32
Speaker
That's all we're gonna leave it. This week's episode of the fellowship, of the tables, and all. Thank you very much for joining us on a bumper episode of Eric's adventures through Helena's mind. I hope you've been just as baffled as I am. I know what I'm doing. As these guys are and I have left plenty of food for thought. Thank you so much for making us a party. Every day a week we appreciate the hell out of you.
00:49:55
Speaker
I'm not taking the piss here. Maybe I am a little bit and if you do want to follow us on Twitter you can do we've got a kind of Groin We've got a group Twitter you can follow us at fellowship table and you can follow Danny at Total party thrills Casey at you the concrete and you can follow myself at
00:50:21
Speaker
Oh, you can follow everyone else, so you can follow CS, if you remember. You can follow Will at... Natural20Will. You can follow Darren at... Darren page 06. Because one through five is taken. You can follow Ian at... iRolledA1. You can follow Callum at... TheD20Gamer. And you can follow me at HastilyRolledDM. And until next time, guys.
00:50:49
Speaker
Yeah.