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C3 Episode 2 Ghost in the Valley Chapter One
488 Plays4 months ago
Nyx has assembled her crew to track down an artifact, but can it really be that simple?
This episode is brought to you by the generous donations of our amazing Show Sponsors: Laura Pickrahn, Irene Viorritto, Darrell DeLaney, Charles Compton, Deviouspoptart, Nastasia Raulerson, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Rebekah Gowman, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Jerry Theuns, Mark Stanley, and Shelby Johnson.
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Transcript
Introduction to Eberron Renewed
00:00:04
Speaker
correctly with the coach
00:00:08
Speaker
or D20 radio, your game is roll.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play podcast set in the Eberron campaign setting. I am your game master, Eric. I'm Mia. I'm Phillip. I'm Madison.
Session One: Campaign and Characters
00:00:36
Speaker
And I'm Jeff. And welcome to another episode. Everyone, what happened last time? Nothing.
00:00:44
Speaker
Yes, this is the very first episode. We had our session zero. Hope you all enjoyed that. And now we are kicking things off with our series of introductory adventures ah to bring you all up to speed on the various player characters and how they came to join the lighthouse. Kind of a little prequel of the campaign, a prologue, as it were. That's the word for it, not a prequel, because this isn't a full piece of media.
00:01:09
Speaker
So, and we haven't done yet, so there can't be just do it in an order. Okay.
Nyx's Background and Heist Plan
00:01:15
Speaker
So, uh, this time we are going to be introducing Phillip's character, Phillip. We got a bit of your character introduction in session zero, but would you like to give us just a quick brief overview of your character and what the adventure, like the the starting point of the adventure is at work.
00:01:34
Speaker
upon Sure. That's the word I was looking for. I'm great with words right now. Nyx is a tiefling. She is a a plain touch tiefling tied to the plain of Shavaroth and in 13 age parlance her class is demonologist though she's not really aware of that at the point that we're picking up. She is a runaway from the Tiefling Enclave of Relicor in Nation of Thrain, and since running away from there,
00:02:11
Speaker
ah She's become a part of the black market that thrives during the continent-spanning military conflict that's going on and works with various crews of miscreants and criminals of all kinds acquiring and smuggling ah valuable goods. In this adventure, Nix has become aware of an extremely valuable artifact that is vulnerable to theft. And so she's assembled a crew of criminals that she finds reliable with the intention of liberating said artifact from its current owners. Indeed. Philip, did you have an idea for where the artifact is, like what part of the world we are venturing into? I'm going to have to leave it up to you or I can. I have put no thought into that at all. OK.
00:03:04
Speaker
Well then I'm going to pick the most interesting option for Nyx and say flame keep. Sure. Which is in three, which is a place that Nyx does not want to be, I would imagine. Definitely not in flame keep. It's a theocracy they don't like. They don't like demons demons or demon people.
00:03:20
Speaker
What are you talking about? They set aside a whole village for human people to live in. Yeah, you have to concentrate them in. They put a bunch of paladins there to just help and, you know, help. Yeah. And train and. Yeah. Just make sure that nothing got into the village. That's why the walls there to make sure nothing gets in harmony. Yikes. Anyway, let's introduce the rest of the heist group that is hanging out with mix for this job.
Meet the Heist Crew
00:03:46
Speaker
ah So Jeff, do you want to kick it off? Right. His name is Tucker. And he used to be, I mean, tell me what is a mid tier political position that would be in Flame Keep or in Thrain in general, just like a, it's like a c Senate of Flame Keep that's, he's a former politician.
00:04:02
Speaker
There would still be bureaucracies even though it's a bureaucracy. Sure, of course. Not everybody's a person in the cloth. yeah i mean Like an older one. Something that had to be elected. That's that's what matters. He is a former, not disgraced or anything, just kind of term-limited out and realized that he only had one skill and the next best way to apply it was conning and chicanery.
00:04:26
Speaker
Cool. Given the fact that now they're lobby does I failed to ask this prior to getting you on the air, so apologies to the three of you controlling NPCs. But given the fact that you all do go into dangerous situations, ah what is Tucker's weapon of choice? Like does Tucker use like a hand crossbow to stay at a distance? Like what, when, when things go bad. That's exactly what I was thinking. I think, I think Tucker has a small crossbow and likes to be behind Nick's.
00:04:49
Speaker
if things go pear-shaped. Cool. To protect her, of course. Of course, right. Cool. at Mia, would you like to introduce us to your NPC? Yeah, my NPC is Dravon. He is a yellow... Oh, what is the dragon spawn? And he is... He is the disgraced fighting performer, or layman's term, a wrestler. And I guess his preferred weapons, I would like him to be...
00:05:19
Speaker
Yeah. His bare fists. See, I want to be unarmed. We might give him some, some brass if we need to. Nice. Love it. Cool. Do dragonborns have claws? Can they do a piercing ah melee attacks? ah yeah yeah Yeah. That's pretty dope. Claw attack. Sorry, dragon spawn. I don't want to yeah bring down the weight of wizard's copyright on it. Cool. Madison. Mine is Ellora. She's a halfling. She was orphaned as a child and became a thief and her weapon of choice is throwing daggers.
00:05:49
Speaker
Nice. Hey, orphan twins. High five. Oh. Sad high five. Two orphans in a D&D group? No. It's too few. It's remarkable. Only two. Yeah. Cool. Okay.
Heist Begins: Planning and Approach
00:06:00
Speaker
So yeah, Nix has collected you all to go get this totally cool score for an artifact to sell and get a big take on is the plan.
00:06:09
Speaker
and we're going to drop you all in media res you all have found the location that nyx got for the artifact it is a i think you were told it was being stored underneath a a large home in flamekeep so you you all are basically looking at the uh the storm cellar doors behind the the house that lead down into underneath the house ah you all do not see any apparent anything apparently blocking you from entering the doors are shut but you can just try yanking at them if you want but yeah what how would you all like to approach this i mean it can't be that easy can it in
00:06:51
Speaker
In my experience, we should try. It would be very silly if it was that easy and we make it more difficult. I'm not pulling any doors open with what I did. Tucker is old. He turned landed out because he's an old man and he but is it like is it like like dashing old? Like is he going old? Like Hugh Grant and now he's in his villain phase. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Awesome.
00:07:14
Speaker
So he kind of, he looks to Dravash. Doesn't say anything, just looks over there. I always have to to do it. So, Dravash, are you going to yank the doors open? I'm, I'm ripping the door open. All righty, then.
00:07:27
Speaker
I suppose it's too late. Tucker would put his hand out and say, let me, and then would do some sort of check for a booby track. It sounds like it's too late for all that. So, and just a heads up for everybody listening. This is the first time any of us are playing and or running 13th age. So bear with us all as we attempt to do this. Well, I guess for lack of better way to put it.
00:07:52
Speaker
So I am going to need a check from Jervis to yank the door off. So this is going to be a strength based ability check. And basically the way that the skill checks work is now that I have given you what the ability, the relevant ability score is. You can try to apply one of your backgrounds, just pick one and say, I'd like to try to apply this. And if I think that that is a valid use of your background, I will say yay, or I will say nay. Okay, so I'm just going to roll a d20. Yes, but before you do that, is either your background's relevant to yanking the door off of its hindies of course his his fighting performer, he's going to do it with flair. Okay. It's not going to do anything else. Just with flair, flexing the muscles, making sure we we're in the spotlight, which we really shouldn't be, but you know. What do you think we're doing? So I'll accept that for a plus one to the check. So just for the audience with these NPC characters because I didn't want to make the people controlling them build whole other characters. We are just using a kind of level zero template for these characters.
00:09:03
Speaker
But the standard array for 13th age is 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, and 10. So at any point when I'm asking for a particular skill check from one of the non-player characters that are present on the heist team, Nyx is the only player character present. ah You all can declare which score in the standard array makes the most sense for your character to have there. And then we'll apply the modifier at that point. So.
00:09:28
Speaker
Having said all of that, Dravash, your strength, where on the standard array do you think Dravash's strength would lie? 17 max 17
Entering the Heist Location
00:09:39
Speaker
okay so with a 17 strength that means Jervas's modifier is a plus three then you get a plus one from your background and a plus one from being a level one character so you have a plus five to this check i hope i biff it say 17 plus five i'm not the math person 22
00:10:02
Speaker
Nice. So yes, you are able to, the hinges rip off with style. I mean, how how does Dravash rip off a door with a flourish? I want him to to really grab the handle, flexing, flexing that bicep on there, look back at the group, yank it back as hard as possible. We all we all are very obviously watching. You can see in his expression, there's like a slight a twinge of worry that something magical is just gonna like wreck him, but he's not gonna let it show. He's not gonna let it go through. It's all about that pride in the show. So. Love that. Love that. Cool, so. That silence is scary. Yeah. Scary flipping through the rules for traps. Get out of my brain. it's Like, so if a trap happens, bacteria would help a lot. I'm explaining the the skills as we go. Since I don't know anything.
00:10:56
Speaker
No, you're good. So the the door rips free, Gervache. As it comes flying back, you see, you feel it propelled a bit more like, oh, really strong until you feel the hot air and the orange glow rushing up towards you as a moat of fire shoots out of the the doorway. So I am going to make a roll against Gervache's physical defense. Boy, what a way to kick off a campaign. That's the natural 20. So amazing. Wow. what What happens with the natural 20 in 13th age, Eric? I believe it is just double damage, but I'm double checking right now. Special attacks and effects. Maybe yes. Roll double damage or deal double damage if you're not a lot of things you don't roll for the damage. So you just multiply it by two. Oh, right.
00:11:58
Speaker
So once again, because these are NPCs, we don't have a fixed amount for hit points. So I'm just going to be tallying on my end. And I have a value for each of the characters based on their backgrounds. You're going to let us know when we're dancing. I'm going to let you know what your state is.
00:12:13
Speaker
um
00:12:20
Speaker
Okay, Gervache, you take 16 points of fire damage, which, so you all just see column of fire shoot up around Gervache. Can I, I want to, I want to have them turn around, do the show man, hand him this, and just be like, nothing like a little toast in the morning, right? He's just, his front is just scorched, singed. Amazing. Tucker's just so thankful he's not mad. He's like, oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, we all have toast for sure. Yes, no, absolutely. We all have toast. Wonderful. All right, so the door is open. Once the glow of the fire dissipates, you see a stone staircase leading down into the darkness. You do see about 20 feet down the staircase does switch back and you do see a faint glow, like a bluish glow. You can't see the source because the light is obviously coming up from further down, so.
00:13:16
Speaker
That's what you can see from above. Nyx will dart across the alley now the doors open after probably pausing for a while after pausing for a while to see whether the sound of a fireball exploding drew any attention. And once, once things are incongruously quiet again, she will slip across the alley and over to the door and take a few steps down the stairs. Okay. Alora is going to follow and just warn, you know, there's always more to it. It's not going to be this easy.
00:13:47
Speaker
There's going to be something else. You better be careful. to you Wouldn't be expensive if it if it was easy. Awesome. Okay. So we have Nick's then Ellora, who is taken up third in the group, so to probably tough guy in the back. Yep. Yes. I was going to say, okay.
00:14:04
Speaker
At Allura's warning though, Nyx shifts a little bit and this black metallic scaly armor starts to run down her her left arm all the way until finishing in a, what is this, essentially her her hand turning into sort of a metallic ah scaled claw and shifts to advance down the hall
Navigating Traps
00:14:30
Speaker
with her with their armored side forward.
00:14:32
Speaker
I love that. OK, as you all reach the bottom, the little landing before the switchback, I'm going to let ah Laura and Nix give me a wisdom based check. So, hello Laura, and my yep, go ahead. Can my background as a black marketeer add to this?
00:14:59
Speaker
Sure. So Ellora for wisdom, where on the standard array of 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 would you like? I have score i had Cool. Love that. Okay. So you have a base of a plus two to this role and would you like to try to apply any of your backgrounds to it?
00:15:21
Speaker
thief thief. Yep. All allowed. So you get a plus two from that, a plus two from your wisdom and then a plus one for being a first level character. So you have a plus five to the role. Okay. So I just rolled 12. So I have 17. Nice. What'd you get? I rolled a, I rolled a 10 for a total of 13. 13. Okay. So Nick's is walking in front. Just as you all are reaching the landing, Nick's, you don't notice anything, right? Oh, Laura, you notice a pressure plate that Nick's is about to step on.
00:15:50
Speaker
watch out, look down. Nick's just immediately stops. Like she, she's, you bring Elora, you bring Elora along, you listen when she says stop. So Nick's like, as soon as, as soon as Elora says something, Nick's just freezes in, in motion and looks down to identify what Elora is pointing at before she moves in case she's snagged on a tripwire or something. Yeah. And once having seen it, she'll carefully withdraw her foot back. So as not to, not to trigger it, how,
00:16:19
Speaker
How much of the space in front of us is it occupying? It would be very precarious to try and make your way over the landing onto the rest of the stairs without triggering it. So it it would be a check either way to try and avoid it or to have somebody to try to just disarm it. What would to disarm a trap ping off of in this system? Dexterity.
00:16:42
Speaker
I'm out. That's my that's my lowest. I'm an old. cause We just step back even more. Like I could neith I neither jump nor pick this just straight up. I mean, moderately dexterous. I don't know. I don't know if Allura is more dexterous. Nyx would have a plus three to her dexterity modify to her dexterity roll. You know, a plus two. I'd have a plus two.
00:17:03
Speaker
Okay. And then 15 plus two. Yes. Yes. And then but also so add to that oh and one for your level. Yeah. Oh, okay. So I'd have a plus five. Yeah. Sounds like Ellora is better than better at this. All right. Well, I rolled a, what is that? I can't see a three. So okay not doing great. Okay. Ellora, as you,
00:17:31
Speaker
Okay, as your as you're trying to disarm this pressure plate, you feel something click and you realize, due to your experience with traps as a thief and stuff, that this is going to do something to the second set of stairs.
00:17:46
Speaker
in about 10 seconds. And so if you all want to be able to not deal with it, you need to move now and rush. Okay. And I scoop up and just rush. i mean laie d Yeah. She just says, run, just run. Yeah. Nick springs forward.
00:18:04
Speaker
Okay. I will do what I must. And Girash, do you attempt to scoop up Allura and probably Tucker, the old man? Yes. Do you all fight that? Or do you just resign yourself to accepting it? I will let, yes, I will let Girash pick me up. Absolutely. So Nix is rushing down these stairs and behind Nix is just this yellow dragonborn with a half leg and an old man under each arm.
00:18:24
Speaker
running after so as you all time reach the bottom of the stairs you see as you look back all of the stairs flatten immediately but in between like where the seam is for all the stairs uh like knives shoot up to where, as you're sliding, the blades would be, a cheesebader yes. So bad news, but kind of helpfully knocked that hard to scale back up as long as you avoid the slicey bits. So yeah, getting out of here, isn't going to be a huge issue. Getting down would have been very, very bad. So.
00:18:59
Speaker
cool you all have reached the bottom of the stairs what you see around you is a 30 foot by 40 foot room that seems to have a certain amount of signs of life to it you see a few bedrolls scattered around a large dining table however the dining table is covered with dust it's the bedrolls are not though so it's clear somebody has been here and made camp here but whoever was here to dine or use like the
00:19:30
Speaker
the actual furniture bits around the room has not been here for some time. So you see a large dining table, a relatively large armoire against one wall with wooden doors that are shut. You see a like shield with a couple of swords hanging on the wall over a large fireplace. And there is a large rug that at one time would have been very fine and expensive, but due to the ravages, the time is frayed and disrepaired has holes.
00:19:59
Speaker
But there are three bedrolls with some packs next to them, but nobody that you can see in the room with you. There are two doors, good sorry two doors one directly across from you all where you came down the stairs and then one to the left.
00:20:15
Speaker
Is it possible to infer the the purpose of the people who have been camping in here? Like, is this an air raid shelter? Is this are these guards? Are these other other thieves who have also stuck in here? Give me a I'll take a intelligence or wisdom check.
00:20:34
Speaker
Well, intelligence is better, if not good. I don't have ah really a good background to go with this, so I'm just rolling. Oh, that's a six total? Okay. There's some backpacks here. There are. There sure are.
00:20:48
Speaker
amazing I think Tucker would like to inspect the armoire specifically for maybe a trick opening. He thinks if there are other valuable things hidden down here, perhaps. Okay. Yeah, totally. Nick's result of your check though, the lack of details is rather suspicious and probably means that they are people that.
00:21:09
Speaker
are not here frequently which probably indicates to you there are fellow thieves that are also here for the thing that you got to lead on so time is of the essence someone else is here to try and get what you're after the fact that they brought bedrolls and we didn't bodes ill i I like to think that we work fast. All right. You're investigating the arm walk. Yes. I will take intelligence or wisdom.
Exploring the Haunted Room
00:21:34
Speaker
Okay. I chose 15 for wisdom. Okay. And do you have a background? I don't think I can, I can switch one of my backgrounds into this check. Yeah. Okay. What'd you roll? Plus two, right? So a five. Plus one for your level. So six.
00:21:49
Speaker
I swear we have been a successful criminal organization. I say, friends, I'm under the impression they kept clothing here. Anyway. I see why you're not working anymore. I turn limited out. We've been over this so many times. They wanted me to go again. I wanted to go again. The city wouldn't let me. Of course.
00:22:05
Speaker
It's okay. Calm down. It's okay. Yeah. Tucker, as you are looking through the armoire, you don't find any kind of like latches or anything to indicate that there is an additional doorway to go through here. do You do however ref find a letter indicating that whoever was here before is convinced that this, this space down here was terribly haunted. If we've worked together, do I know if anybody has particular fears or sensitivities towards ghosts? Cause if so, I may not share that out loud. Otherwise I would say all of it. Okay. I think that I let Nick's know then I was like, so people have been here before pretty sure this room's haunted. Don't know what it means, but I, like I said, definitely close. We're in there once. Where are we going next?
00:22:52
Speaker
Here I thought it'd be a forest. I don't get it. Read a book. Oh, so there's two doors? I mean... Yeah. One straight ahead and one to the left. Can we tell which way the... The other thieves went. Yeah. The other thieves went. Intelligence or wisdom? Okay. 14.
00:23:12
Speaker
Okay. You are relatively confident that the most recent group went through the door that was straight ahead. The most recent group. How many X, how many, how many would be thieves are we talking about have come through here and met at Grizzly? and it It seems like within a wide margin, the most recent group to go through straight ahead. The door to the left has not been opened in quite some time.
00:23:36
Speaker
What's it smell like down here? Musty. Okay. Not visceral? No. Well, they went this way. So assuming the information was good, and no one's gone this way for quite some time.
00:23:48
Speaker
um
00:23:51
Speaker
It's your prize. I'm following you. It's our prize. I will open whatever door needs to be opened. I suppose it would not be a bad idea. Wait, check. What is checking for a booby trap? Is that a wisdom?
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah. it'd be most I'll take a look again. I don't know that my background will help with this much, but you're not physical traps. Aren't what politicians are adept at. I rolled a natural one. Hell yeah. Amazing. You were checking for traps. It's the worst thing you can roll.
00:24:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I was. I'm guessing I don't see any or I'm really convinced there's one there. Well, there's one there now. As you're examining the door, Tucker, you notice that there are in the wood grain, you notice something that you reference back to the writings that you found in the armoire. And there is reference to an accursed door that consumes souls of anyone that walks through it. And so ah you didn't mention that. Yeah. If I had read that in the letter, I would have been much more careful about inspecting this tower. Okay, so Tucker turned around and he's like, nod this one. Look, see, and he and he does whatever he needs to do to convince everybody that Nick's was probably right. And we should really go through the other. but Right. The dead ahead one is the one that is not accursed as far as I'm concerned.
00:25:13
Speaker
Right. No, I thought you were checking the one that was dead ahead. Which door were you checking? I was, I was, I guess I didn't say in my head. I was thinking I was going to check the one that yes, that Nick's was saying we should go through. So that one says, so it was the dead ahead. Yeah, right. Sorry. Yes. So, you know, I don't think, I don't think he says, I think he says this, perhaps the fact that their bed rules are still here might be an indication that they did not have good Intel and perhaps we should try the other door.
00:25:40
Speaker
Who's, okay, ah and I know this is a very like cerebral question to ask, like four brand new characters, three of whom are not actual characters, ah which amongst the high school is the biggest reader of the group, of like fiction, like just reading for fun, if any of you? If none of you. I'll take that, sure. If importantly, Philip, do you want Nix who's gonna stick around to be a big fan? Sure. Because if not, one of us will take it. Okay. ni Nix, Nix, yes, Nix enjoys, enjoys fiction. Give me an intelligence check. 13.
00:26:10
Speaker
Thirteen. Yeah. No, you're just. Yeah. This door is a curse. It seems like Gordon Tucker's Intel. All right. Well, the other one then. OK, so the door to the left. Are we going to try to open it or are we going to check it or what are we going to do? i'm I'm not rolling again. I'm going to be a hard rule. Hold on to me. He's still a little sinched. So he's going to check. Did you just roll for fun? See and roll another one.
00:26:37
Speaker
No, i rolled I threw a dice in disgust and rolled a 20. All right. So checking a door, that's wisdom. So what score would you like from the standard array to be that for girash? You have 15, 14, 13, 12 and 10 left. It's going to be 12. 12. So you get a plus one and then another plus one from your level one status. So plus two. That's 11. So 13. 13.
00:27:02
Speaker
You are reasonably confident that there are no traps on this door, but it is locked. You can try to rip it off its hinges or you have a thief. That is true. I believe you've, I should let Allura try to open the door. Okay. Allura, it is a dexterity check and then your thievery can benefit you here. So one plus five total.
00:27:22
Speaker
Awesome. If we are bested by this lock, I will destroy it. Hey, 21. 21. Awesome. Nevermind. Yeah, Elora, it is like literally child's play. You put your picks in and it seems like magic that you just tap them and the door swings open. You all get a rush.
00:27:39
Speaker
of very stale air hitting your nostrils once again the store not been open in a long time and you see a it's almost like a stone pathway leading from this door and there is gravel on either side of it and the hallway that looks before that like for you is arch shaped so it's a curved ceiling that comes down straight on the sides and it curves to the right so you can't see the end uh it curves up ahead but that is what you see before you that's peculiar
00:28:17
Speaker
Is this place lit? Yeah, I mean it's a party. you say It's raging. It is dimly lit, so there're there' you can see once again a faint glow at the end of the hallway, but you can't see its source.
00:28:32
Speaker
It's a curve, you say. Not an angle. Yes. Like a not a right angle. Is this a standard adventure where I might have ball bearings in my pack? Sure. I think I would like to take one and huck it along the wall, the far wall, so it'll curve with it. And that way we can kind of listen to hear when it stops. If it hits a wall, if it's very long, if it carries some bushy and gushy, we can hear all kinds of fun things.
00:28:54
Speaker
I didn't do this to be an anti-ball-bearing trap, but I did say that it's a pathway with gravel on either side of it going to the wall. So a ball bearing would not roll along the wall, unfortunately. Well, a bowling ball would. So I pulled my bowling ball. It's large enough that the gravel really isn't an issue. A beach ball, even. That sucker rolls on sand. Yeah, I was in Aldermen. So you'd roll like four feet. It's no inertia. Well, you certainly couldn't hear it, that's for sure, if it waited around the corner.
00:29:19
Speaker
Fine, then I don't roll a ball bearing. That's a good idea. I just happened to describe an environment where it wouldn't work. You absolutely did. What if I hug it against the wall and we just see if fit how far you just want to see how far Tucker can throw something. I see your game. I want to make out how far Tucker can throw something. Yeah. Is anybody walking down the path or are we investigating or we, what are we trying to do? I feel like we should look at this more carefully. Cause I can't think why, why you would arrange the path this way in a cellar.
00:29:52
Speaker
It's, and I'm, I'm,
Discovering the Underground Garden
00:29:54
Speaker
I'm, I'm sorry. Now I just want a clarification. It's wall to wall gravel, or it's solid in the middle with gravel on the edges. There is a walking path with gravel on the edges. Gotcha. Gotcha. That lock was too easy to pick. We definitely need to check first. Was it too easy for you? Well, it was child's play, so. I really would. I'm inclined to step into the space. Start walking down the path or just step through the threshold.
00:30:20
Speaker
through the threshold okay I can get a better look at what what's going on. I've already been scorched. yeah yeah Jerash does look like Mary and Pippin after they set up the fireworks in Fellowship of the Ring. Jerash, you take a step through the threshold and crescendo of music, nothing happens. I scared it off. I mean, I suppose it's possible. It's simply a weird decorating choice.
00:30:43
Speaker
And I step through, I follow, I just step through as well because why not? All right. Laura reluctantly follows. So with Girash in the lead, Girash, if y'all are walking along the path, as the curve resolves and begins to open up, you see the, the gravel flanked path.
00:31:01
Speaker
lead you to a small underground it it seems to be like like a small garden slash like private park kind of thing like it's but it's horribly overgrown it has not been tended or curated at all and like there's a stone bench that the grass and vines have grown up over there's a large tree that obviously has not been trimmed at all the breaches are starting to bow under the weight of the leaves on it and you see a stone fountain with no water running through it. Are we under open sky? No. So there are like bluish stones. It's like a domed ceiling and there are bluish stones emitting faint blue light that gives it a very kind of twilight night timey vibe down here. Interesting.
00:31:56
Speaker
What a sap display. I would never let a city park get this bad, that's for sure. I guess the Knicks will sort of walk the perimeter very carefully to see whether this really is just a just a curiosity or if there's something more menacing about this place. there Is there any thing that looks like it might have been a placard or memorial thing that is overgrown that we might be able to brush off, like it just a plinth or something?
00:32:23
Speaker
ah Give me a wisdom check. You got it. Switch around. Come on, guys. I do think that if there's one thing an alderman could could ah recognize, it's a memorial plinth. So I'm add two to that. Nice. okay yeah So that the, I'm sorry, it was a wisdom check? Yeah. That's 17 total.
00:32:41
Speaker
Cool. And you're adding the plus one for being level one. I am just making sure that's a smart move. I'm dumb, but I gotta remember this time. It's a new system. You're not done. Two things can be true. As you're walking around Tucker ah through more of the central area, looking for some indication of.
00:32:56
Speaker
a memorial placard or just some kind of dedication. ah You do find something that was to the left-hand side of the stone bench, but very much under what seems to be years of vegetation and overgrowth that you have to, with your foot or some other means, clear away. And you find a plaque that says, for Lyra who loved all things green. I consider this for a moment.
00:33:23
Speaker
and I turn to Nyx and I say, this treasure, these valuables, they were not of a sentimental variety, correct? No. Okay, what's... We appear to have stumbled upon a memorial for...
00:33:36
Speaker
I have to assume a young girl. Perhaps this was a meditative spot for the owner of this place. All right. Nick's. as you Is that what I gather? i I mean, yeah, as much as you could possibly be expected to gather. Nick's, as you're walking the perimeter before Tucker reveals this to you you, you're not noticing anything particularly sinister. You do spot as you're looking around, you do see a break in the stone wall a bit further ahead. It seems to be, you know, if if the entryway that you all walk through is like six o'clock on an analog clock this is at like the two o'clock hand okay kind of in relation to where you walk through you say a break a doorway not it is something intended to walk through yeah i'm sorry is it open or is there a door it is an archway that is just open okay a girash allora are you all doing anything in particular in the garden
00:34:31
Speaker
At the mention that this could be for a young girl, I want Dravash to just go ahead and and clean one of the benches up just a little bit. Oh, okay. Alora is just kind of wandering around, seeing if there's anything she can spy that's sinister. Okay. Give me a wisdom check. What do I have? Do you add one for your character and did your background? Background is Steve. Does that? Yeah. and accept Okay. Okay. 11.
00:34:57
Speaker
11, you notice the, the fountain as you're walking around, you don't notice anything horribly sinister about it. You can tell that there is some older religious iconography. Like you can tell it's religious, but you don't really know enough to know what, but that's, that's the best you can tell is that probably this space was also not a place of worship necessarily, but a place of reverence to some degree.
00:35:25
Speaker
Okay. So Nick's just spotted the path forward. Yeah. Nick's, Nick's wanders over to the, walks over to the archway and looks down at what what am I seeing? So you see a, there's still gravel on either side of it, but rather than being like a paved pathway, it's actually stairs that are descending. Goes further down over here.
00:35:45
Speaker
Does it have more pointy things? Not currently are the, the gravel is the gravel also stair stepped or is the gravel smooth? Okay. Um, currently it's just stairs. It seems like if this is what Tucker says, this does not seem like the kind of place that you put death traps. If you come here to remember someone lost.
00:36:14
Speaker
that That feels right, shall we? And there's no other like hidden, overgrown entrances or anything like that. It's just the one. I would need to check to see if you could spot any hidden entrances. It would be wisdom in nature. I will check. Okay, just gonna look around, please. No, I promise, don't worry, don't worry. This is the math portion. So I have the plus one for level one and then plus one for the 12. Yep.
00:36:42
Speaker
wisdom. Okay. So that's a, that's a, I rolled 18. So that's a 20. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. You find, so there are sections of the wall that are covered in thick vines that have kind of like crawled up the stone and stuff at a giraffe. After you've cleaned off the bench, you spot one of these large sections of vines. And as you approach it, you find ah that, that it is not attached to, it's it's attached to the wall up above, yeah but you can feel air flowing through the vines in front of you.
00:37:12
Speaker
Can I claw through it? ah Yeah. So as you grab the vines and we get to pull away, you find yourself looking at, it looks like a little nook that also has a small doorway leading off of it. This would be much more like the nine o'clock if we're looking at it top down, like a analog clock. So in the little nook.
00:37:36
Speaker
You find a satchel with some, the bag seems to be newish. This seems to be what may have been a dead drop or something like that, where something was left for somebody to pick up. Picking it up now. It's mine. Okay. You, are you looking into the bag? I'm going to alert that I have found something that there was another, a small area. Okay.
00:37:57
Speaker
And I'm going to hold up the bag and give everyone half a second to process and give me a response if I should look into it. And then I'm going to open it. There goes our half second. You see that there are a few books in here. That's written in a variety of languages. Give me a give me a intelligence check. You don't really have a background related to religion, which would be the relevant kind of background. So.
00:38:28
Speaker
So intelligence is 13. Okay. So you go plus one. Okay. No, that is, that is, that is a whole four. I'm going to, I'm going to take the bag and I'm just going to go over to Nick's and be like, um dlexia and but hand it off and like walk away. Very disappointed. Yeah. Nick's will, Nick's will sort of.
00:38:49
Speaker
leaf through the the around leaf through the books, but flip through the books in the bag to see what what they are. have Yeah. So giving a quick just cursory glance next, you can tell that these are books from a variety of religions related to various instances of the sovereign host, Dark Six, Blood of Voll, Silver Flame, even. But these are all ritual books like they're for different rituals around the religion. There's nothing else somebody will pay for these.
00:39:19
Speaker
Of course, a little moment money is mentioned, but it sounds good in noise noise. I'm just give me what what are your backgrounds next? ReliCorps runaway. Shavarath touched.
Missing Book Mystery
00:39:31
Speaker
Escaped sacrifice and black marketeer. You could use black marketeer for this. I need an intelligence check. Sorry. Rolled up onto my keyboard on its side. That's good. Plus one plus two 20. Not natural.
00:39:45
Speaker
20. So you can tell holding the bag as you look through the books and stuff that the dimensions of the bag like I'm trying to think of a good equip like when when you've taken a textbook out of your school bag and you're holding your bag like you can tell that something's been taken out of it just based on like how everything's sitting in the dimensions you can tell that there was another book in here that was removed.
00:40:11
Speaker
So like based on the size of the bag and kind of the way the books were settled in it, that yeah, a book was removed from this bag after it had been sitting for a bit. Was there another book on the ground over there by chance? You did not see anything, Girash, when you looked in the back. No, just a bag of books. There's something's missing from here. There was another yeah was another volume, I think. There was only this this satchel, it it was overgrown, so.
00:40:40
Speaker
someone a long time ago probably would have taken it and left the other one behind. Do they look like they've been sitting here for a long time? They they look, the bag does not look old. Yeah. Bag's awfully clean. Huh.
00:40:55
Speaker
okay Uh-huh. Nyx will, I guess, sling the satchel across her chest and and under her cloak. and did you tell It was just a little, just a little alcove. It didn't, like, go back.
00:41:07
Speaker
I was going to ask you, Ross, did you tell anyone about the opening in there that led further back? No, he's really upset about the books. He's going to books can be money. drlosh I don't want the book. The problem is you are trying to turn the money back into books. Yes, I agree with you on that. Just my share. But I think there was something else adore a pathway. I got distracted. There is something there. i' I'm just going to go back over there.
00:41:37
Speaker
Nick will follow Dravash over to see what there is to see. So unlike the other openings that you've encountered, this one seems to have been more of an excavation than an intentional architectural choice. The stones in this alcove have been pulled away from the section of the wall, and it's clear that somebody has dug through the the dirt to get to this point. And so it's it's kind of tight but it is walkable and it does snake downward. You said somebody dug through the dirt to get to this point as in this someone dug their way out into this room or or this had been covered by the years of neglect and someone dug through
Excavation and Suspicion
00:42:22
Speaker
to open it. The just because this would be something that would be easily the the digging is recent it it is more recent than the rest of this room that you are in.
00:42:34
Speaker
Yeah, but I guess does it look like an entry or an exit? Like does someone dig into the room or out of the room? Somebody, somebody dug like the the stones and everything were on the wall are laying in this room. Like it looks like somebody dug to get into this room. Okay. Why? And then it goes down. So somebody dug up into the room.
00:42:56
Speaker
does that mean that it's wild Where, mean where did they, where were they? obviously It feels like every place here has a hallway. Where could they have been? The other path, the other path went down. So there is, there is more below, but Tucker says, well, if, if we have two points of egress and both lead down, I'd like to take the manicured one, please.
00:43:19
Speaker
And who would like to take the path that Nyx found? Fits that out. I think Dravash would chime in and just say if they had, if they were forced to dig their way out from down below, we should be careful about what is down below if there was no other exit out. That is fair.
00:43:37
Speaker
Elora agrees. Just like that. Elora agrees. Just like that. So we're taking the stairs rather than the dirt path. I think so. Okay. I mean, I'm happy to be told no. I just, that's how Tucker, you can watch. I don't think I can fit in it physically. It would be tight, but Girash could wriggle through. If anything were to attack you in there, you would be impeded. And protect us from the blast. Alright, so we're headed down the stairs. So you all turn and begin to descend and we will find out what happens next time.
00:44:12
Speaker
so Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the conversation surrounding the podcast and the start of the new campaign, you can check out our Discord, the link to which is on all of our socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. We also have a YouTube channel, youtube.com slash the Deep Pantheon, where I post TTRPG related videos that you can check out over there. And Philip's going to plug something now. but We also have another YouTube channel called The Laughing Tree, where we have another actual play called Kyber Shars, The Eric's a Player. I am the GM. And that campaign is just wrapping up. Go check it out. Okay. We also have a Patreon, patreon dot.com slash the gate pantheon. If you want to financially support the shows in any way that you're able to do so, you can do so over there. Or you can buy some merch at the gate pantheon.com. Mia, do you want to plug your, your socials and stuff for your art?
00:44:59
Speaker
Oh, I didn't know I was doing that. Yeah. You can tell me no. I feel like I'm on the spot now. Now I'm going to get hunted down. and So I have my art Instagram. It is hitman.tutorart. I like the game, but it is not the game. It is an anime reference, but yeah, that's all I can just draw stuff. Yeah. All right. Thank you all so much for listening. I've been your game master, Eric. I'm Mia. I'm Phillip. I'm Madison. Jeff. We will see you next time.