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Ep. 39 A Lunatics Return – De Profundis
181 Plays4 years ago
Follow us on our Twitters - @FellowshipTable
Intro written and produced by Joseph McDade - https://josephmcdade.com/
The Fellowship Party Twitter Pages:
- The DM/Mark - @HastilyRolledDM
- Drago/Ian - @IRolledA1
- Folly/Callum - @TheD20Gamer
- Princess Helena/Casey - @unicorncrit
- Carstan/Will - @Natural20Will
- Robin/Darren - @DarrenPage06
- Claude/Danny - @totalpartythrlz
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Transcript
Introduction and Recap
00:00:00
Speaker
Yep, there we go. Good. Don't be shy, get it in there.
00:00:31
Speaker
Hello 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 world of Aerith. My name is Mark and I'm the Dungeon Master and I just ate some Chinese food for the too many weeks in a row. And also with us for today's episode, we have Ian who plays the Dragonborn Barbarian Drago. I do think listeners actually start tuning in to find out your daily weekly diet. Now, I think that's part of it's like, oh, what's Mark been eating this week? Let's find out.
00:00:59
Speaker
One day I just won't eat and I'll really disappoint everyone. This week I've eaten nothing. Dust. Just dust. Dust. What up? That kind of week. We've got Darren who plays the human fighter rogue Robin. Holy flight of the navigator Batman! We've got Danny who plays the human cleric Claude. Bonjour, Coot-n-Turk, comestas. Oh, we're going on the globe. I love it. We've got Callum who plays the gnome sorcerer Folly Fizzlebang the ninth. Hello, hello. Will who plays the human bard Carstan.
00:01:26
Speaker
I'm just excited to be here. And Casey, who plays the human champion, Helena Sleepguard. Greetings, chums. Now we've got everyone here. Thank you for joining us back into this very exciting episode halfway through a deep, deep, deep dungeon crawl. If you remember from last week and the week before, we've entered into the Blackmouth Mines, which is out the back of Blackmouth, the town of Blackmouth.
00:01:48
Speaker
We went down and we came across some rather nasty, flamey things. We had a bit of a rest there. We took a right turn down deeper into the mines and a right turn into what seems like some ancient ruins.
00:01:59
Speaker
Upon entering
Portal Magic and Lucian Blightbane
00:02:00
Speaker
this ruin we came across a large room with a plinth on it. There was some discussion around that. We then passed down a long thin corridor with a pit down to the side where we came across quite a number of these very strange half skeletal half scorpion giant scorpion creatures. There was a long fight that ensued and we entered into two rooms right at the south of that.
00:02:22
Speaker
one room which had a bit of money and a bit of gold in it with a silver dagger which shared the handle of the dagger we found outside of the black mouth mine as we were searching for who killed that guard out front and had a very specific dark wood and we found a similar dagger of that wood so we know we're in the right kind of place. Leaning on from that we found another door just to the side of it
00:02:43
Speaker
where there was a single book and if you can remember this book had a bit of information about someone trying to decipher some runes that were in this book and it was kind of saying he was unable to do it now but was kind of passing the book on to whoever was the owner after that.
00:02:58
Speaker
Upon looking at this book, Folly picked it up, and if you remember at the very end of the episode, he started to... some kind of stock magic arcana, we're not really sure what it was, something started to overtake his body as he formed basically a small shimmering portal, similar to that that we saw at the death of Shader when the creature was opening the portal to another realm.
00:03:18
Speaker
But looking through this portal, we saw a long table of chairs upon the side, a grand dining room appeared before us. And at the end, there was a very confused looking human man who stood up and stared straight into it for a few seconds before it all closed up. And if you remember, Claude and Helena would have recognized that as Lucian Blightbane, who is Helena's brother, who is currently fighting on the front lines against the Blight at Spirit Monde Redoubt.
00:03:45
Speaker
Upon that finishing and the portal kind of slamming shut all of a sudden, Folly was forced to roll twice on the wild magic table, luckily only giving himself haste for a minute and then also giving him I think another buff, I can't remember what it was now. I got it, it was an additional sorceress point.
00:04:03
Speaker
That was it, yes, super useful. I was hoping to turn you into a part of the plant, but it's never going to be my luck really, is it? And that's kind of as full. His hand's still stuck to this book as he's just trying to let it go into his backpack. His hand's still smoldering, turning to the rest of the party in the small room in the middle of this dungeon after just opening a portal to a different part of sleep guard.
00:04:27
Speaker
We find ourselves in silence yet again with the low shimmering light from Claude's light spell, filling the room as the faces all look and turn towards Folly. What the fuck was that? I don't know. Well, I just don't know. I've never seen anything quite like that. Are you okay?
00:04:50
Speaker
I'm fine, but I can't seem to remove this book. It stuck to my hand, and he's going to be holding it, his hand facing the ceiling, just kind of shaking it off, but obviously without much success. Was that a portal that just opened? I think so. Did anybody seem to know the person that was inside? Quite scary looking. I've never seen him. I don't know what it was, but that was dangerous stock magic.
00:05:20
Speaker
Well, I don't know if I'd call it stock magic, but it's unusual to say the least. That was your brother, Princess. Thank you. Yes, it was. That was Lucian. Lucian? Bright pain. Yes, thank you. I don't know what the message is sending. What do you think should be our next move? Can't you reopen it, Folly?
00:05:47
Speaker
he will indeed attempt to try and reopen the book try and do another portal okay okay no problem so as you after this as this conversation goes on the grip that's kind of stuck
Debate on Magical Artifacts
00:06:01
Speaker
on your hand holding this book starts to lighten slightly and you realize you can actually pull your hand away it seems to almost be like
00:06:08
Speaker
rigor mortis that your hand kind of gets cramped into that position on the book as the energy of this iconic thing whatever it is seems to overtake your body so yes you can indeed open the book up as you open up a very very similar feeling starts to come over you similar to what you had last time almost a draining of your body of your soul entering out of you and into this book
00:06:29
Speaker
As you feel what normally would be your wild magic, iconic ability from you as a sorcerer, would pour out of you, this seems to instantly drain you. As opposed to passing ale from a barrel when you take the cork out, as opposed to just tipping the barrel up altogether. That's like the amount of your energy just gets drained yet again.
00:06:49
Speaker
all right give me a roll an arcana roll just a straight arcana check please he is determined to fuck you man did you just be allowed for blood natural 20 oh shit wow he becomes a god as you do that you turn to face the bed
00:07:13
Speaker
which this book was laid upon. And as you do so, you... I was only ever going to give you this on a 20. Shit. As you do so, you start to just feel your essence start to leave you again, and as you look forward, you don't control where this appears, but it doesn't appear where you want it to. You want it to appear just in front of the bed. It appears at a really awkward corner position. Imagine on Portal. Is it Portal? Yeah, where you just fire and it hits a random corner.
00:07:40
Speaker
It hits the corner of the floor and the wall to your right, to the north of your wall, and kind of forms a really awkward, an awkward image right there, almost like a mirror that's been bent. But yet again, that image is of the same room, a different distorted angle, and you see the same man, but he's moved,
Exploration and Strategy in the Mines
00:08:00
Speaker
his sword is being left to the side, he's run down to the other end of the room, and he's looking fervently around. He suddenly spins around and sees the same thing again.
00:08:10
Speaker
And what he does is he quickly just reaches down onto the table and grabs like a mug or something and throws it towards this gap. And as it comes flying out towards you, it hits you square on the head, breaking your concentration and the portal instantly closes up again. What you notice when you look on the floor is an ornate silver goblet, which upon closer inspection, Folly, you'd know this of a goblet of royalty.
00:08:43
Speaker
He saw us. He did. And he was able to give us something as well. He saw a gnome just appear from some sort of portal and threw a cop at his head. But why is there a portal to him? It doesn't make any sense. Folly, are you controlling where you put that portal? No, I mean, it seems to have some form of its own
00:09:08
Speaker
um intelligence about itself but I believe I can not channel it but I believe I might be able to work with it it's clearly some kind of well portal spell um that seems to have a few uses but yes are you choosing to put it into Lucien's room no no the portal just keeps opening there I've never met this Lucien Lightbane did you say he would like him
00:09:38
Speaker
I mean, I'm sure I would, but we'll discuss that later. Sorry, I'm a bit confused when Tali steps forward from the back. Who's Lucian the light being? I have told you about Lucian before, Tali. Oh, is this your best friend again? My best friend and also the princess's brother.
00:09:57
Speaker
Oh, right. Is he a real person, Claude?
Creature Threat from the Chasm
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah. You just saw him. Yeah, of course he's a real person. What sort of question's that? Thank you. I don't know. All that stuff that comes out of Claude's mouth is made out of bullshit, so I just thought maybe it was, you know... I don't tell lies. Well, this isn't. It's my brother. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you, Princess. But going back to the porkley, in...
00:10:18
Speaker
Surely if the portal is opening to Lucian Blightbane, that would imply or suggest that this book, or whatever it's controlling it, is somehow linked to Lucian, or somehow focusing its attention on Lucian. We need to take this book away from this evil place to protect him. Can you get your hand off that book, Volley, now?
00:10:41
Speaker
Let me give it a try. He's going to attempt to pull the book away from his hand. Yep. And you manage to pull the book away after a couple of seconds. You do manage to pry the book out of your hands. Could you make a constitution saving throw, please? A disadvantage twice. 22. 22? Yeah, that's right.
00:11:07
Speaker
How? You've got your older 16. I have a plus six modifier on my constitution. A plus six modifier? You add your save modifier, you don't add your constitution modifier. It should be, if you look at your character sheet, it's in a separate section called save and phrase. Yeah, I'm looking at the saving throws, plus six, because I'm proficient in constitution as well.
00:11:28
Speaker
So as you have, as that happens, you pull the book out of your hand, you have this overwhelming sense of bleakness overwhelm you and you feel like white haze starts to lower over your eyes like you're going to pass out. But you manage to just about shake it off ever so
00:11:48
Speaker
likely at the last second, shake away this haze that falls over your eyes, and then manage to hold it together. But you're not in the best condition. You are conscious, which wasn't going to happen if you didn't roll that well. But you're conscious, but you are not in the best state. Using this twice, this book twice, has really, really drained you of your arcana and your kind of general energy. Yeah. Follow you, OK? You look a bit peaky.
00:12:18
Speaker
I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm good. I just think this book is best left alone for now. I'll look at it again later. Yes, I suggest you put it away and let's make our way through the rest of this. Yes, quick. Don't let Robin hear it. I'm guessing you just took a swig there of some sort of drink. Sorry, did that come through? Oh yes. Sorry.
00:12:44
Speaker
you might want to pass that around i could do with something strong yeah um follow i mean do you think the books because when you've tried to put the book in your backpack then bad things happen do you want one of us to take it from you or i'm not taking that don't give it to robbie i i don't think it's best
00:13:01
Speaker
anybody else have it. It seems to have reacted to me and I believe I can still deal with it. I have a question. He's my best friend and he's the princess's brother. Should one of us have it? Let me just see if it'll do anything this time and carefully he's going to basically put the book back in his rucksack and see if it starts to react again.
00:13:27
Speaker
And as everyone waits tentatively, staring at this backpack, expecting something to happen, nothing happens. Okay, I think we're good. Let's move on. I'd rather not linger. Princess, did you recognise the room that your brother was sat in there? You might be the best person to pinpoint his location. I... Do I?
00:13:55
Speaker
you don't recognize the room you recognize him you recognize the armor
Confrontation with Eraqas
00:14:00
Speaker
he was wearing that was battle his battle armor that's the armor he would wear only in the context of battle you don't recognize the large chain boat you can assume it's at his posting but you cannot tell for certain you don't recognize the room this doesn't look like obsidia this doesn't look like the capital this looks somewhere else it didn't look as big however you
00:14:26
Speaker
You recognised his armour and his sword. Okay.
00:14:29
Speaker
I can say that I didn't recognise where he was. It was obviously a place where he's staying. I only recognise his armour. It's battle armour. He seemed pretty keen to close that portal. Maybe it's because he didn't see the person he recognised. Maybe next time the portal opens, if we have Claude or the princess be seen through it, then that way maybe he won't throw things at us. That's actually a good point. Well, we don't know what he saw on the other side.
00:14:58
Speaker
He saw a gnome. We don't know if he did see a gnome. We only saw... He threw a cup at you. He threw a cup at your head. I would want to throw a cup at your head if you appeared out of the ceiling. There was much magic in this world, Drago. He could have been an illusion and he could have been seeing a demon through the portal. Exactly. It seemed that he was quite paranoid, his behaviour. The first thing he did was throw that cup.
00:15:23
Speaker
Actually, he threw a cup when he'd armed. He could quite easily have put through something a bit more malicious than the cup. I agree with Robin. I'd say this is just a mirror, but... Could I have a look at the cup, please? Yes, yes, yes, of course. Folly will go grab the cup and basically chuck it over the claw.
00:15:42
Speaker
I'm going to keep the cup like it's a teddy bear and make sure that no harm comes to it. I'm going to be checking it over for any coded messages. I'll be doing a little spit shine and rubbing with my sleeve. Oh nice. Could you give me an investigation check please Claude? It's been a while since we've had Claude do a spit shine.
00:16:03
Speaker
The last time didn't you put a hex on something? That was brilliant. That was just amazing. I did that. I also just rolled a nine on my inspection. You're looking at this cup. You're certain it's a human cup made to be drunk from. You also know for certain that it did contain a liquid and there's still dregs of that liquid at the bottom.
00:16:30
Speaker
Can I taste the liquid? You can indeed. It tastes like wine. I spit it back out in disgust. Wasn't milk? No, it was that alcohol thing. That's a shame there isn't any more. Shall we look at moseying on? Yes, I believe there was a route we didn't yet take. And, you know, we haven't yet discovered whether we've defeated everything that was in these mines. Mark, I'd like to do another eyes of the grave to see if I get any more undead pings.
00:17:00
Speaker
Okay so from your location that's a 60 foot radius isn't it? Yes. Within 60 foot you get no pings, not a single ping except for the haze you got previously because it hangs over everything.
00:17:12
Speaker
Okay, thank you. It's worth noting that a man's life is at stake here. A man that we now know was incorrectly accused. I think we should return to the surface as soon as we could. Yes, but we need to make sure we've got the... At the moment, all we have is a knife that looks just like the other knife. We perhaps need more evidence to convince people. We need to be sure that any danger in this mine is gone as well. We might even be able to find the actual people that did this.
00:17:40
Speaker
And I'm sure if we make sure these mines are clear, it will endear ourselves to the locals and perhaps we can sort out what's happening here. Wow. Could you imagine that, Robin? Us being endeared to the locals. Well, that would be something, wouldn't it? That would be a first. I also believe that whatever is at large here, if they want us to find my brother, then something else will be on the way. There will be another portal or another sign, another
00:18:05
Speaker
Well, Claude's our best bet of finding what's down here or if anything is left down here. Perhaps we should move back on ourselves and head in this... You shouldn't insult a princess like that. She's far more capable than any of us. We should go back to the shrine room of Vashani. We go back to the shiny shrine room.
00:18:26
Speaker
Vashani? Not for Vashani, not for Vashani. What room was it? Vashani was our big bad from the previous day. Oh my god, sorry. What on Pho Pa? I'm so sorry. Tiryani. Tiryani, yes. Same ending. That was it. Just before you start setting off Kastan, you've got very, very high perception, I remember correctly. You would have been able to glance over this mug as it was kind of tossed over to Claude.
00:18:51
Speaker
You would recognise it instantly as one of, or it seems to have ornate angles and lines and drawings made upon it, which is very similar to that you would notice and see from Obsidia. You would know it as a piece of crockery that would be used in Obsidia. Excellent. Thank you very much.
00:19:13
Speaker
And so we're making our way downtown, trying to tear behind it. Walking fast, faces past. I'm not carrying it on. And I'm homebound.
00:19:29
Speaker
Alright then, as we're using Roll20 for this, grab your figurines and you want to give me a shimmy back into the room with Tyrioni's plinth. As you go past, you see the piles of ash next to the two broken pillars and a pit where you fought those weird scorpion undead beings. You see the chest in front of you as you take the left-hand turn through a door into this small room. Now, we did check this door previously and if you remember that
00:19:58
Speaker
Robin had checked the door and the door was unlocked. So as we move back free, Robin will just take Folly to one side and just offer him this giant gargantuan bow and say, could you keep this in your bag? I want to keep it, but I don't trust to use it until I know what it is and what it does.
00:20:19
Speaker
Yes, yes, of course. Just put it in the bag. And he actually asks him, because Folly is still feeling a bit exhausted from the book at this point. So he just gestures to the bag and says, put it in. And Robin will do this very awkward kind of, not sure how I do this, as he tries to navigate this massive bag that's on Claude's back and just kind of like trying to stuff something into the sack. My bag? Folly, sorry, I said Claude's. And just
00:20:49
Speaker
Yep, there we go. Good. Don't be shy, get it in there. Are we putting lots of things in the backpack? No, you aren't putting nothing in there. You stay away from it. So, once we've got to the door, Karsten would sort of approach and go, Princess, do you want me to check to see what's on the other side, just in case there are any more enemies?
00:21:10
Speaker
but you're not armed well no i think it's a good idea princess he's an idiot i mean um do you have a light that is a torch i can give him one and a castle no i've cast light on karstan's head
00:21:29
Speaker
The first thing I was going to do was listen at the door first and just see if there's anything I can sort of peer through and see. You've now got a bright beam of light coming out of your forehead. Fantastic. We did turn on all the lights and we put the statue on the plinth so it could be that everything's lit up. It could be, but now you're glowing. We don't know. If you walk in first then, Karsten, we're right behind you.
00:21:58
Speaker
Okay, Mark, I'd like to listen at the door first. Oh my god. Just open the damn door. Give me an investigation. Oh no, perception check please. I can't believe we have a group of people waiting outside of a door trying to listen to it. 26. You do not hear anything in the current vicinity through the door. You can hear some echoes far off in the distance with a roll like 26. Far off in the distance, but you can't discern whether or not
00:22:27
Speaker
That's what, you can't understand what it is basically, but you can't hear anything in the nearby vicinity for probably about 50, 60, 70 meters at least. Okay. Karstan? Yeah? I think you're meant to knock. Oh my god. We're just meant to go through the door. I'll do a drago, and drago's going to... Hold on, you can't just take my character. I'll do a drago.
00:22:52
Speaker
I'm just going to use his acting ability, mimic Drago, and kick the door. Could you give me a strength check, please? Yeah. This should be interesting. I would have gone for performance. Gonna be rubbish. Just a straight strength roll, yeah? Yeah. Five. No, as you do that, Will, would you like to describe to us how you fail to open a open door?
00:23:19
Speaker
That's why I listened at the door. Yeah, I'm sorry, it unlocked the door. Okay. Do you want to describe how you failed to open it up? So he took off some sort of limbers up and raised himself to his height and sent himself. His face goes all frowny like drago's and then he charges up to the door about to kick it and all of a sudden he stubs his toe at a jutting at rock and then he's hopping on one leg whilst in pain.
00:23:43
Speaker
Brilliant. See what I mean? He is an idiot. Right, just let me past. Can we move on? I was going to say, this is getting tricky. Helena will barge past, cast down into the, into the room. Thank gosh. What you see in front of you is a, about 10 feet ahead of you is another door. The passageway though does move off to the right and goes off until it hits a corner that seems to go off to the left. From there though, you cannot see anything else.
00:24:14
Speaker
Are the walls still lit up by the torches that were lit when we put the statue on the plinth? Correct, yes. It is still lit up from when you put the statues on the plinth.
00:24:24
Speaker
Okay. Robin's going to go up to the door and with much more speed and efficiency and drawing on his wiles as someone who's stuck into buildings before, he's going to do the same as Karstam, but just do this very efficiently and without a fuss. Go up to the door, I'm just trying. Yep. Perception check, please. Robin, not you too. That's a 19.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yep, and you can hear that this room is enclosed and that you cannot hear any sounds coming out of it. Can we knock now? Any sign that the door's locked? You look at the handle and you have a quick play with it. I won't make you a roll for it because obviously Robin would know. The door doesn't seem to be locked, no. Okay. Um, I will just have a quick glance just to make sure there's any, no sign of any traps on it or anything like that. And then all I feel... Do you want to give us a roll for investigation? Yep.
00:25:20
Speaker
Uh, 24. Yep. This track doesn't seem to be trapped in any way, shape or form. Nothing you can discern. Okay, I will open the door. I open the door and you see a small room inside that seems to have a door off to the right and in front of you there is a broken pillar.
00:25:34
Speaker
which seems to have been supporting the middle beam of the building and then two beds off to the side you can discern from this the amount of dust that is currently residing on these beds an area of rest for some of the miners or some of the builders or someone from quite some time ago
00:25:50
Speaker
There is nothing else in the room after a quick check around. You can see these beds are ornate. It's made of a very similar wood to that that you would expect to see from the... you saw from the dagger previously as well. So you can put two and two together and just send that this wood's all coming from the same kind of place. There is a door off to the left though that has yet to be explored as well.
00:26:11
Speaker
Okay, I will do the same again. Okay. A very quick kind of feed, just all those checks that I've just said. Listen, investigate, and then potentially open. Okay, no problem. You very clearly hear on the other side, you hear the breathing of the low humming of Karsten as he's singing a little melody, and the frustrated kind of puffs and puffs of Helena and a clinking clank of Claude's armour.
00:26:35
Speaker
as you realize the door opens back into the corridor you've previously been in so it kind of makes a bit of a circular attempt to this room with a single pillar in the middle of the room so the passageway has kind of led you around on the southern end of the passageway is blocked off there's nothing else further down that way though this corridor does continue off to the left hello you lot did you find anything in that room i was going for the the entrance to the next room
00:27:04
Speaker
No, I was talking to Robin and that lot that just come through the... More architecture of the same sort of timber that we've discovered throughout these mines, nothing else. So, Karsten would have wandered back into the room, Mark, and given it an investigation, and just had a good search of the room just to see what you can find.
00:27:23
Speaker
Yeah, give me an investigation check please. I rolled a 17 but my passive is 22. Okay, I'll take the passive. I assumed you would have walked in anyway and what you notice again is that these beds are 75 to 80 years old in terms of when they were last used and selected. The pillar broke sometime after that. You can tell from the dust layering is different but this pillar was a central pillar. It was holding up part of the roof. The roof has started to come in slightly
00:27:47
Speaker
But it's bowing. The stone above it is bowing in rather than breaking in. There seem to be other wooden pillars along the edges that seem to be holding up other parts of this. So the place seems structured. The room seems structurally sound. You can't find anything of use. There's nothing out of place. There are no obvious or interesting cracks or crevices in this room.
00:28:07
Speaker
Does the pillar look like it was... Has it fallen down through wear and tear and pressure from above? Or is it that it was knocked over? Good question. This pillar seems to have been broken in two from the centre. It's laying in two very equal sized pieces on the floor. Right. Guys... And he sort of calls back. This pillar looks like it was deliberately knocked over. Oh, that's okay then. I thought the building was going to collapse. The cave was going to collapse.
00:28:37
Speaker
I mean, the ceiling is looking a bit dodgy, but... Are you saying that we need to be protecting ourselves right now, Carson? Well, put it this way. I wouldn't like to meet whatever can split a pillar like this in two, apart from perhaps Drago, who could probably do it easily. Let's move on. Helena, take the lead.
00:29:00
Speaker
As you look down the corridor, you notice it splits north and south. Western corridor splits into north and south. There are two choices of alleyway you can go from here, north or south. Which way do you want to take? Helena would like to take the north. I don't mind if anyone wants to be different. I don't mind splitting.
00:29:24
Speaker
Does Mark mind splitting? Oh, I never mind a good split. What you notice going off to the north, you do have a quick look down to the south and the passage seems to continue off down to the south some distance.
00:29:37
Speaker
What you notice to the north however is this passage seems to end off to the left where when you take a step you see a broken bench that's been flipped on its side in a large pile of rubble where a bit of this wall seems to have collapsed quite some time ago though. You do notice on the right there is another door a wooden door which stands ajar it is slightly open and the passage where it does kind of arc round to the left out of sight.
00:30:02
Speaker
At this point, Castan especially, anyone who has a passive perception higher than 18 would have heard this. The sound of running water you heard earlier suddenly becomes a bit louder around here. Does anybody else hear that? Hear what? It sounds like a waterfall or something like that. We must be getting close to the source of those vibrations. Folly, are you fucking around again?
00:30:30
Speaker
No, no, no, it cannot be this time. Listen, I can see an entrance just to the left of what's in front of us. If I go and check that out, does someone want to take a look around this broken bench? Is there anything worth investigating in there? I'll do it. You want to investigate a broken bench, Helena. Well, I don't know if someone might be there or... I think at this point... I don't know.
00:30:58
Speaker
I think at this point it could be more what could have caused it to break. As Carstan has said, clearly something breaking things in this mine and well, we're not 100% sure what it could be. I'm sorry. I'm just getting frustrated. Let's, yes, do what you gotta do.
00:31:19
Speaker
OK, I will inspect the bench to see if there's anything that perhaps he flipped it over, was looking for anything. What could have potentially done it? OK, Robin, give us an investigation check, please. 26. You notice very clearly on the underside of this bench it seems to have sat neatly against the wall.
00:31:39
Speaker
Firstly, you knew that the rock around this area, which comes from the part of the ceiling and part of the wall just in front of this bench, has fallen on it. But then you can also see that some creature that's strong enough to lift it and the rock lifted it up and flipped it. You also notice very clearly scorch marks. So whatever has done this has clearly decided to try and move the bench for some reason. Maybe they were looking for something and they're not particularly fussed about
00:32:08
Speaker
being caught looking for it, because there's been no attempt to hide what they were doing. What's more concerning though is that, and I'll just highlight that to the rest of the party, scorch marks, whatever this is, it's crawling fire. Could it be those creatures that we defeated in the big room? It could have been, that's not a bad shout. Let's keep looking. I think we need to be on our best guards. What do you see in that door there, Helena? What do I see in that door?
00:32:38
Speaker
That's a very good question. Are you opening the door? Go ahead and open the door. Is this the door that I'm right next to? That's correct. The door just to the right. That's right. And you're going to open it? Yeah. Do I need to roll for anything or nothing? No, if you're just opening it, you're just opening it. No problem. Just opening the door. Oh, thank God. Someone with some sense.
00:32:58
Speaker
I can see a friendship burgeoning. You see the door opens and you're into a very, very small room. On the wall, you can see a couple of stands where probably mining equipment would have been hung up.
00:33:11
Speaker
However, where you would expect to see mine carts or ore in some kind of small storage room, the floor for a large part of this room is missing. And all of a sudden, that sound of rushing water you can hear has changed as you approach the edge.
00:33:29
Speaker
of this large break in the ground you notice it go down deeper deeper deeper deeper deeper deeper deeper all the way down what seems like miles down but at the bottom you can see the glimmer of a light
00:33:45
Speaker
You can see the light, a light, sorry, deep blue shimmer right at the very bottom. And you can see figures. And very clearly now you're starting to put two and two together here and realize that sound of rushing water isn't water at all. But the sounds of something or a multitude of some things down there. Okay.
00:34:10
Speaker
So I thought it was just some mining equipment, but part of the floor's missing. You could probably get in here. I'm not sure how stable, Lou. The ground is. Something is definitely beneath us. Draggo just edges past Helena and looks down the hole and sees exactly what you've just described. Have you got darkvision? I see nothing but blackness.
00:34:36
Speaker
I thought you said there was a light down there, my apologies. I thought there was a light too. There is, but does anyone have darkvision? Yes, I do. I've got it thanks to my goggles. I have natural darkvision. Not that it's any better, I'm just saying. Brilliant. As you two look down, you two only can see this.
00:34:59
Speaker
you can see this goes down for quite some distance probably a mile and at the bottom of this you can see the outline of a portal this looks similar to a portal you would see from the basin wind swamp you can see a figure standing in front of it this isn't a mirror image this is an actual portal
00:35:17
Speaker
and you can see pouring out of this portal more and more and more figures you can only assume the worst and you can only assume that the noise of water isn't that but these creatures and the amount of number of the number of these creatures is causing the sound to sound like rushing water so putting two and two together you'd probably discern that the amount of creatures down there is vast
00:35:47
Speaker
We have a problem. We have a very big problem. I mean, I could have told you that. Can someone explain? Do we see concern on your faces, Folly and Robin? Do you remember? If Folly quite possibly would have gone white at this point. I would have then looked at Drago and said, you remember what we encountered when we lost Shader? Yeah. But much bigger. Bigger how? Quantify? And then there's hundreds of them.
00:36:17
Speaker
Perhaps you could enlighten the rest of us who weren't there with Shaidar? Yes, tell us more. We encountered these portals that routinely and continually spat out creatures from wherever it is these creatures come from. From what I can see down there, this is doing it a very alarming right. That's not water, it's whatever that thing is spitting out. It's an army.
00:36:47
Speaker
Maybe we should go let the stocky blow up the mountain. In hindsight, that's not a bad idea now. Actually, yeah, that's not a bad idea at all. Why if the people who have leaked more die? That's a fair point. I'll just leave that out there for everyone to quietly consider and stuff.
00:37:08
Speaker
I mean, what was that again? I didn't hear you. If we doubt to do something, Claude, then everybody will die. Well, there's still a bit more to see on this level. What if we see all the mountains? Surely the dead will be buried underneath it and trapped?
00:37:26
Speaker
Well, I don't claim to be much of an engineer, but if you blow something up what's underneath something else, often the thing on the top also falls. Is this undead that we see? This is an army undead. I mean, when you say the Blight, I assume that's what you mean. Well, I remember our first fight when I put a back wall of fire.
00:37:54
Speaker
I think the people down there would possibly put that battle to shame. Are they the same folly? That's what I'm trying to discern here.
00:38:03
Speaker
I'm assuming they are the same as those creatures that we were fighting. They're the dead ones, not the shadow creatures with the claws and everything. They are, but they seem larger and they seem other creatures as well that Robin or Folly you never would have seen before, not in your deepest, darkest nightmares. There are these things coming out in all different shapes. These aren't the same fast-moving skates you saw at Bleakmoor. These are larger. As Folly said, these look
00:38:32
Speaker
ready for a war well what do you recommend we do we can't just stand here well we explore the rest well like like Claude says we still got some areas to explore here maybe we can find a way down that doesn't involve jumping down this pit does someone need to stay here keeping an eye on these things i don't think that would do anything stay they look like they've been here for a while i don't think they're climbing out of this hole right
00:38:58
Speaker
No, Castan, you keep an eye on things for us, yeah? It's amazing how you've been able to ascertain that, Castan, without actually seeing them as well. Well, I'm just judging by what you've described to us, Robin. It is quite a deep hole, I would say, Castan's probably right on this. Let's explore more. I don't really want to be near the hole of death on my own.
00:39:21
Speaker
Let's all stick together at this point. Clearly there is great danger in these tunnels and I think splitting up and leaving anybody behind right now is not the best idea. I agree. With any luck we might be able to solve this thing. Can I see what's over here to the west?
00:39:43
Speaker
So you're looking, you left the room and you're moving around to the edge to the western part and you can see the room again curves off around to the left. There's a pillar in the middle and as you move into the space it seems to be a big O with a large, large pillar holding up a big portion of this corner of the room up to hold this part of the dungeon up, sorry dungeon, this part of the mine room up.
00:40:08
Speaker
along the walls you can see this room is very very empty you can see bits and pieces of cutlery almost in one corner in particular you can discern this is probably an area where miners used to eat perhaps but apart from that most of the furniture has been removed from that area is it still lit up?
00:40:27
Speaker
Yes, everything seems to be lit up in this area. I'm just kind of doing it bit by bit for you so I don't give away stuff as we go. There is a passageway down to the south, though. Is that where you want to be going? Yeah. Yeah. Drago's going to take out Dengon's deception and just hold in his hand as he's moving with the group here because his dragon sense is tingling. Drago. My dragon sense.
00:40:58
Speaker
should we all be bearing arms i just think if we saw if robin and folly have seen a portal that opens up to a horde of undead yeah i'd say we all need to be on our guard okay and if you uh zoom out on roll 20 you can see there's only one corner left to explore claud it might be worth you seeing if there's anything immediately dangerous nearby that's a good idea
00:41:28
Speaker
That would involve me actually walking into the danger. I think Robin means the ping, the dead thing. Yeah. I can't do it that often. I tried doing it a couple of times a minute ago and all I saw was little stars. OK. I think I'm at my limit today. Then perhaps we should proceed stealthily. We could just shout. Well, there's way too many of us to do stealth. Also, you've heard me walking. I go clankity clankity clank.
00:41:59
Speaker
Very accurate. Do we wish to scout what could potentially be down here? Oh god, and Jaga just walked forward. Yeah, I would, Jaga. Okay, and as you walk forward and you walk to the south, you see a very, very strange situation going on below you.
00:42:15
Speaker
what you see is a large room and the wall to your right so the southern western wall seems to change from regular stone to broken masonry looking down into this room first thing you notice is a number of broken pillars you see these strange candles seem to adorn the space and these candles are black
00:42:42
Speaker
in their in their wicks and they're black in their wax but the candle light coming out of it is a deep deep orange a deep orange and magical orange almost which gives the room a very strange glow the room opens up but has another pillar in the center of this room holding this portion up but sections of this seem either unfinished or torn away looking deeper into the room further south you see two bookcases
00:43:11
Speaker
Both of these bookcases have these same candles upon them. You notice in the middle of this space, a large table with also two candles upon it and another plinth behind it. Looking past that nearest to the most southern bookcase, you see a body lying on what seems to be a makeshift bed.
00:43:33
Speaker
behind that and against the wall which is in the corner of this area you see these four large intensely hot intensely bright creatures of flame flailing and slow sorry flailing but slowly reaching and grabbing large portions of this rock
00:43:55
Speaker
and carefully laying it down almost moving in slow motion but almost not making any sound at all as they slowly pull away machine-like pulling away from this area. That's a new one. I really don't like where this goes.
00:44:17
Speaker
Upon taking these creatures in, their light seems to shadow on another figure that stood in front of them, nearest to you, nearest to this bookcase, looking slightly over it towards you. This tall, slender humanoid lifts its head and looks directly at you. You see the gaunt, almost skeletal figure and face of this man-creature thing you've seen before, this necromancer that stands before you with a high collar
00:44:45
Speaker
and dark, dark red eyes and a slight grin pulls over his face as he looks directly towards you and smiles and you know this face to be that of Eraqas that you met on the Ozran Islands that Claude you've been searching for all this time and as he looks over to you
00:45:06
Speaker
He lifts one hand up, he looks down towards a book that's in his hand, clicks his fingers, and this wall of ice starts to rush around him, almost blurring his figure from within. And as he looks up towards you, one hand starts to glow a deep, deep green colour. That's where we're going to end this episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop. He's back, back again.
00:45:37
Speaker
So I'm right in thinking Claude doesn't know what he looks like. He's just going on the name. So I don't know that this is Eric ask. I don't recognize his face. Okay. It's only me and Drago who would entirely entirely. Don't forget about Charlie. Never forget about Charlie.
00:45:53
Speaker
I'm a little bit stunned there before I complete the end there. Shit. Okay. Awesome. Well, damn. Get my hype back up. That was great. Love that. There was a lot in that episode, Mark. Whoa. Whoa. Thank you very much for listening, everyone. We really appreciate you tuning in and making this part of your everyday week. We hope that you're well and safe wherever you are and that your loved ones are safe too in the strange, strange, strange times. Thank you for tuning in.
00:46:21
Speaker
If you wanted to follow us and keep up to date with all things podcast related, hell, D&D related, and at this moment in time, Final Fantasy 7 Remake related, you can do so at our collective fellowship page on Twitter, which is at the fellowship table. And if you wanted to follow us individually, please, please do. You can follow me at iWorldA1. You can follow Will at... Natural20Will. You can follow Casey at...
00:46:48
Speaker
Unicorn crits. You can follow Darren at Darren page. Oh you can follow Danny at at Total Party Thrills you can follow Callum at the d20 gamer and you can follow our Brilliant DM. I need to come up with some more adjectives to describe you mark at I didn't know what you're gonna say ads hastily rolled dm until next time guys