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Ep. 45 Countdown – De Profundis
101 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 Character Set-Up
00:00:00
Speaker
Come on man, woo it. Whenever I hit a nature check I think of the nature boy and I'm expecting you to go woo!
00:00:33
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 homebrewed world of Aerith. My name is Mark and I am the Dungeon Master. And also with us for today's episode, we have Will, who plays the human bard, Karstan. When life gives you lemonade, roll for initiative. We've got Ian, who plays the dragonborn barbarian, Drago. When life gives you lemonade, roll for initiative.
00:00:58
Speaker
We've got Darren, who plays the human fighter rogue Robin. Rilton, Tilton, Batman. There'd be dynamite in that mine cave. We've got Casey, who plays the human champion Helena Sleepguard. Hello. We've got, nice. We've got Danny, who plays the human cleric Claude. When life gives you initiative, roll for lemonade. And we've got Callum, who plays the gnome sorcerer Folly Fizzlebang the Ninth.
00:01:24
Speaker
When life gives you lemonade, set it on fire. Amazing. Fair. Darren, you didn't get it. Yeah, Darren. Sorry, I didn't get it. I didn't know it was a thing until Ian caught on, but that was glorious. Ian and I have this silent, invisible communication thing. Silent, invisible something.
00:01:44
Speaker
I'll sign invisible you. Ooh, careful.
Potion Brewing and Combat
00:01:47
Speaker
Right, on last week's episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop, we brewed a potion with Yenna, who was a stocky within Blackmouth. We also then talked to Kennard, who was the leader of the Blackmouth, well, he's a fill-in leader of the Blackmouth Rangers, and worked our way from there down into the mine.
00:02:04
Speaker
the mine where, you know, ran into obvious combat with these weird fire creatures that reappeared in the mine area to get underground, to pop this bomb, to blow the entrance, this portal, to another plane which is spewing forth these undead.
00:02:22
Speaker
And she just screamed down with the magicarium and sprinted off into the cave in front of everyone, rather endearing to Drago. And the party there had to kind of keep up with her and kill off the creatures as they came. They made very, very quick work of them with a number of banishments and turn on deads. Quick, making very annoyingly quick work of these baddies. And they ended up getting to the base of the mine where they first found Julia and fought Eraqas only a day or two ago.
00:02:49
Speaker
and Jena just dropped this bomb, no sorry, Karstana just dropped the bomb and the head of Eraqas down the mine. Is that right? As they just disappeared into the ground and we ended with a thud as the bomb hit the ground. The bomb seems to disappear down below the murky depths. The undead continue to pour from the purple portal which seems to emanate a magical glow up the hundreds of feet to where you all peer in.
00:03:18
Speaker
There is silence, and then that thud. The portal remains open. The bond disappeared from sight. Seconds pass into minutes. Yenna breathes in and out heavily, and shuffles from one foot to the other. She waits. She looks towards you all. Now, I never said it was perfect.
00:03:48
Speaker
I did warn you that suddenly, you see a small red flame erupt from below, causing a small wave of energy to pulse up from below in the depths. Yenna's attitude changes in her flash. Hah! Told you! I'm the best stocky that ever lived! But seriously, we've got very little time to get out of here. This whole dungeon will collapse if everything goes to plan. She flicks her white hair from her eyes and a smirk stretches across her face. Now.
00:04:16
Speaker
Who's up for cheating death?
Dungeon Escape
00:04:18
Speaker
And we're there in a flashy turn to start sprinting out of the dungeon. We're going to go straight into it with a massive skill challenge to get you guys out of the dungeon. Can you all roll for initiative, please? Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. OK, did anyone get 25 plus? That's what I like to hear. Did anyone get 20 plus? 20. Oh, Robin at the top. Thank you very much, Robin. 15 to 20.
00:04:45
Speaker
I got 18. Anyone else in 15 to 20? Oh, wow. Rolling like I normally roll. This is great. See you on the other side, Robin. Did anyone get 10 to 15? 14 for Claude. Anyone else? Good lord. This is amazing. Five to 10? I got six. I got seven. Oh, my god. Six, seven, and eight. Wait, who got eight then? Was that Helena? That was Helena, yeah.
00:05:15
Speaker
And he was seven? That was me, I rolled a one. Wow. And Oli right at the bottom. As always. Well I think that's fitting for that given what's going to happen. He got left behind trying to get through the fight so now he's going to get left behind as everyone's running away. I mean it's not like you've got the slowest walking.
00:05:34
Speaker
No, he doesn't. He's got a decent pace. He's got short legs. I feel for you, man. I feel for you. So I'll just stop seeing a little, and then I'll explain. So actually, I'll explain first. This is going to be a skill challenge. I'm going to run it slightly differently than last time. We're not going to go in an initiative order, and I'm not going to ask you what to do. I'm going to give you certain events that happen.
00:05:51
Speaker
and either one of you or all of you will have to make a check to pass it. It doesn't have to be something you're proficient in. This is just the skill I say, so it will be this is a perception check or this is a history check or intimidation check, whatever it is, I'll give you it. I won't tell you the DC on it and then we'll kind of play it out from there.
00:06:12
Speaker
If there are things that happen and you want to make a change, you say, I want to do this, of course, just shout out, get involved, and we can make other roads up for that. I've got, I will always have something kind of planned to fill in the gaps, but that's the way we kind of plan. It's big. I mean, I've got 11 of these bad boys, so we'll see how we go. Okay.
00:06:28
Speaker
Dust flies up into the air blocking your field of vision slightly as this wave of red energy firstly hits over you. She started making her way from the area and what you will do as a group turn and start heading down the long corridor aiming towards where the statue of teriani is to the stairs then to the arena you were in then to the corridor then to out that's your route that's where you want to go you want to get out of here so you've got this dust fine dust dries your mouth and your throat
00:06:54
Speaker
You turn the corner to this long corridor and a crack appears in the ceiling above you. Suddenly, half of the corridor ceiling comes loose and falls. Can everyone make a perception check, please? We'll start the top of here. We'll go with Helena. What'd you get? 10. OK, thank you. Claude? 20. Robin? 12. Folly? Natural 20. Oh, Drago? Critical 20. Carstan? 26.
00:07:19
Speaker
Okay, lovely. You all managed to see this large piece of masonry come loose and fall, and you all hold back a second to let it fall before running over it. You feel the ground begin to shake and shudder. You can feel the dust start to fly up, small bits of rock, and the brickwork on the side start to come loose and fall onto the ground. You hear a massive crack in front of you.
00:07:40
Speaker
And as you take that left turn to the corner to where the statue of Tiriani would be and to the stairs, the ground beneath that final room with the statue has fallen into the vast nothingness of the abyss. The pillar nearby has fallen, creating a bridge between you and the stairs to the exit. Can everyone make an acrobatics check, please? And we'll go in that same order again. I'll give you a minute. Am I rolling disadvantage against these? You are. Bollocks. You're still exhausted, aren't you? I've got one point, yeah.
00:08:09
Speaker
Okay, we'll go the same order again. Helena? Sorry. Yeah, actually, we'll just put them in. I'll put them in initiative order. It makes sense. I've got this initiative order. The reason I've got you in that is because I've got some built-in things that says, number six, this happens. Or number two, this happens. And I didn't want to assign it to character. So the initiative would've decided that. So I'll just go, Robin, what'd you get? 17. Lovely. Drago? Seven. Claude? Dos. Helena? 15. Castan?
00:08:39
Speaker
15. Folly? I rolled a 12. Lovely, thank you. As you all start to cross across this fallen pillar, in the center of it is Drago and Claude, and both of them, Drago starts to slip and fall. Claude, you reach out an arm to try and hold him up in doing so. You slip as well and start to fall. The two nearest people to that are Helena and Robin. Could you both please make dexterity saving throws to see if you can grab them before they fall?
00:09:08
Speaker
Fuck, what happens if they don't? Uh, Helena got 18. Thank you very much. And Robin? 20, not natural. Thank you. So, Helena, you managed to grab the rough of the neck of Claude as you stood behind Claude. I've made you walking in initiative order. And you yank him back up, almost one-handed onto the side, even in his plate-mail armour, really showing off your strength. You managed to plop him back on the right track.
00:09:30
Speaker
Robin, you hear the slit from behind him, from Drago, and he managed to spin around and grab a hold of his satchel, pretty much, and swing him back up in front of you, on to the pillar, almost like a Legola spins around the horse to get on it. Thank you. The air becomes thick and musty in your mouth as this taste of sand or dust or old air starts to really infect your lungs and into your nose as well.
00:09:59
Speaker
You reach the top of the stairs and you look over the massive cavern, which did have all these enemies and housed two of your previous battles. Just as you get up there and you're overseeing the situation, a stalagmite comes crashing down as you get your bearings. Could you all make a dexterity saving throw, please? Okay. As we approach the top of the stairs and the stalagmite comes crashing down, cast and you at the last minute, you get about a second's worth of dialogue in. Is there anything you'd want to say?
00:10:29
Speaker
as you see the stalagmite come crashing down towards you. You're the only one that notices it's coming in. You're the only one about to move out of the way. Don't watch your heads, everybody. And just as you say that, bang, it comes crashing down. Because you did let them, you managed to shout out to them, though, because you already got 27 for that. They do manage to half dive out of the way, but everyone apart from you takes some damage from this. So everyone, you're going to take 15 points of bludgeoning damage as this big stalagmite comes crashing down into you. So mark that off.
00:10:59
Speaker
Oh, shit. But none of you failed badly enough to be trapped and pinned underneath it, which wasn't an option. So you all just took some kind of falling debris as this. I mean, I'm talking it's big. It's a big bit of this, the whole place is collapsing. So you managed just you hear cast down and just managed to get enough out of the way to not stopping, you know, stop instant death and pinning to the ground here and being trapped under here forever. But
Post-Escape Tensions
00:11:23
Speaker
you're all free. You managed to get back up, you're bleeding slightly, you're shaken up, but you're fine.
00:11:28
Speaker
You look around the cavern. The falling debris has changed the landscape of this space totally. As you will start to make your way off, you turn around to see Yenna's eyes darting wide open and white. She's frozen to the spot. Can I make a strength check and just throw it on my shoulder? Yes you can. Then that's what I'm gonna do. 16.
00:11:49
Speaker
Okay, you massively, you go over to her and she's just frozen to the spot. You quickly hook her up onto your shoulder and she's a dead weight, but light as anything, you manage to put her on your shoulder and you can start making your way out. No time to freeze, we gotta go.
00:12:02
Speaker
Drago, just on the back of that, could you make a perception check, please? 15. Okay, a falling piece of the cave starts to come down directly above you, but you manage to quickly whoop back off to the side and start making your way further out towards your following cast and following the rest of the party out towards it. Further up ahead, as you start to make your way, the route that Kastan has given you, Kennard is in the mix, he's round, and a falling piece of the cave hits him, square on the leg, he screams out in pain.
00:12:30
Speaker
the people who are probably closest to the others, Robin, Claude, Helena, and this piece of masonry has fallen on him. He's pinned underneath it now. You've got two choices here. You could either use a sleight of hand to free something, to get him out, or maybe athletics to lift the boulder, okay? So, uh... I think, yeah, Claude will instantly go. Helen, do you want to join me? Helena, help me. Help me get Kenny out of his boulder situation. I'll help you, I'll help you. Do you want to go for athletics with advantage? 21.
00:12:57
Speaker
Awesome. That's just enough. It was a very high DC for that. Cool. You both managed to grab a stylist and lift it and he starts screaming out as the weight is released and he managed to pull him out and he is, he's all right. He's still, his leg looks not too bad though actually. He was just pinned underneath it and he kind of puts some weight on it and falls. I think I'll scoop him up and carry him fireman style.
00:13:20
Speaker
Cool, so you've got him up over your shoulder. You're carrying the NPCs for me. Thanks, guys. So here's one of my first randomized picks here. One was Robin Robin. As you wait for Kennard to be freed, the column supporting the roof to the cave begins to crack, and a large piece of masonry falls towards you. Can you make a dexterity saving throw?
00:13:40
Speaker
Natural 20. Oh, it's DC at 19 as well. Very nice. Thank you. As this large piece of me almost silently falls towards you, you managed to step back at the last minute and dexterously you and Castor managed to turn the corner around this piece and start working your way out.
00:13:56
Speaker
the slowly deteriorating cave has blocked the route out and now there are two new holes that where your entrance should have been that now in front of you uh folly as you'd probably be up near there now would either of you like to make a nature check nature to see if you can get a sense of smell from the way out and go for folly uh okay come on man woo it whenever i hit a nature check i think of the nature boy and i'm expecting you to go
00:14:25
Speaker
uh 17 damn follies are one of the birds i have a plus two on nature oh i almost had a plus two i thought you'd have a higher one not for nature folly is a is a man of the man of the city anyway folly has a big nose
00:14:42
Speaker
what you do is you manage to just get a sense of the air being fresher as you manage to pass by these these situations quite unscathed. You come across the entrance a second or two before the others do. You hear the crack of Robin sidestepping a large piece of masonry and you're just staring at these two entrances before you can see just over the corner a little glimmer of light in one of them and suddenly you remember the time of day that it currently is and how the light would be hitting this part of the cave and you go oh brilliant and you know that's the option to go down.
00:15:10
Speaker
You start making your way as a group, carrying Kennard, carrying Yenna up and out of this crumbling cave hole that has formed. The air becomes thick with dust. You cough and splutter and struggle to see your feet. Helena, you're separated from the group slightly. Can you make a perception check with disadvantage to see if you can have any sense of where they are? I've got two natural ones in my bag. I am rolling shit tonight.
00:15:36
Speaker
Okay. So I liked Helena as well. That was good. I enjoyed it. Helena, you're going to take 12 points of bludgeoning damages as you're kind of groping around another piece of the seat, the roof falls and hits your right arm, really quite badly damaging it and 12 points of bludgeoning damage for that. The rest of you, what I need you to do, one of you needs to pass a perception with disadvantage. Okay. So could you all roll perception with disadvantage, please?
00:16:01
Speaker
Matt, I would like to spend a luck point on this to offset the disadvantage. No problem. And what'd you get? I'm really glad I did that, because that's 17. 17? Thank you, Drago. 15. This with disadvantage, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Lovely Claude. I got 18 on my first one, so... Claude? What did Drago get? 15. Claude got the same.
00:16:18
Speaker
Hey twins they are. Twinsies and Helena. Yeah I'm quite happy about that because I've got a solid three. Jesus. Nice okay so um the three of you again managed to bring yourself to your senses again and you managed to you know where each other are and you can lead each other out of the cave and the three of you make it out of the cave. I'll drop Kennard and I'm gonna run back into the cave.
00:16:41
Speaker
okay is anyone else so uh castan and folly you'd have seen them come out the gate again caked in dust and mud and mud and sand i can't even speak now and helen is still inside she hasn't come out helen you can't see a thing you can't tell which direction you can feel one more but you can't feel the other you can't see the entrance you can't see the way you've come it's just this rumbling okay and your perception is gone totally
00:17:06
Speaker
Karstan and Folly, you've seen them come out without Helena, you've seen Claude throw down pretty much this body and then started running back. Is there anything anyone wants to do? So Karstan will... I'm going to go for one. Karstan will be like, Helena! And suddenly dash in after Claude, and then once I'm in there with Claude, I will want to do something else with a spell, but I'll let Folly go.
00:17:30
Speaker
Sorry, just before we can do anything, those of us who have just staggered out of the cave, are we even aware that Helen is still in there, or are we just... Yes, you're all aware she's not out with you, because you're rolled above 15. You're aware that she's not with you, but I think, Claude, you kind of rolled off instinct, turn around and go straight back in. Karstam would have noticed straight away, he's got his passive perception or so on anyway, he would have noticed something's wrong almost instantaneously.
00:18:00
Speaker
Now this mountain, just to give you some context, this mountain is shaking and rumbling. And like you mentioned earlier in an earlier episode, Claude, you move people away from the city to make sure that you are out of the kind of blast radius of this. Yeah. So, um, just the rest of the weekend, we've got, we've got, we've got Helena inside. We've got Carstan going in afterwards, as well as Claude. Oli, did you want to do something?
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, Folly is obviously aware what those two are going to be running back in to do. He's just basically going to quickly mumble to himself and actually give haste with some Sorcerer's Points, so he's going to cast haste on both of them. They're twice as fast to help narrow everything or navigate everything. And they will get advantage on a dexterity saving throws now as well. Fantastic. Cool. Brilliant. Anything else from anyone else before we go back into the cave? Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm in the cave.
00:18:51
Speaker
I think Robin would just be coughing and spluttering, and we'll have seen these people dart past him, and won't have had time to process any further than that. Just to be that... Oh, sorry, I was about to say, where's Talia, but I forget, she never came in with us. She didn't come in, yeah. She's too busy taking care of the locals, man. Yeah, I'm sort of like, oh, God, we've forgotten Talia. Drago would put Jena down and just go, are you OK?
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't think everything changed. I didn't know what was going on. Yeah, that sounds like an explosive expert. No, I know the explosion. We need to move away from here. We've got people still in there. We'll stay out here until we know they're safe. But it means it might land on us. You can go, by all accounts. I'm not stopping you. At that, I am going to point his quarter staff at Jena and say,
00:19:46
Speaker
You are going nowhere. If we are going down, you are not going nowhere. No, Folly, let her go. You don't want her... You don't want her death on your conscience. Let her go. I can live with it. Your help might be needed to get people out of there. People you actually care about. Let this one go. Folly's still pointing at the quarter staff. At the moment. She's not moving. She's staring at you. Folly, seriously. There's bigger problems than this.
00:20:15
Speaker
Drago has the right of it, Folly. Let her go. Folly really doesn't like this. Folly just leans into her. You'd better run quickly. And on that she quickly reaches into her satchel and smashes down a potion of haste at her feet and literally disappears like a lightning bolt away and into Jarry's last stand around the corner and she's gone.
Regroup and Emotional Assessment
00:20:37
Speaker
We pass back over to the group that have gone back into the cave. The walls are crumbling beneath you here. And can I just get you both to make dexterity saving throws with advantage as you are both now hasted to see if you can dart your way in through and past this fallen debris as you make your way in. That's a 19 from Claude.
00:20:58
Speaker
Okay, thank you. 27 from Castan. Thank you very much. And Helena, can you make a perception check with disadvantage, please, while you're there? Just see if you can find your way. I was also going to do something once. No worries. Yeah. That'll be a 13. Thank you. No, we still haven't got a clue. Go ahead, Castan. So once we're in the area where Claude is attacking and Claude starts trying to find Helena, I'm going to cast Faerie Fire.
00:21:23
Speaker
Okay, lovely. Just explain what that does again. So each object in a 20-foot cube within range is outlined in a blue, green or violet light. And any creature in the area is also outlined if it fails a dexterity saving throw. So essentially,
00:21:39
Speaker
Unfortunately, it's one of the things that you can't willingly fail. So if Casey, if Helena makes a failed dexterity throw, she'll be out on the hand, but also more importantly, objects and everything else around it sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius to try and make it easier for us to see. So it's all objects and creatures, is that right? Yes, so I assume potentially the rubble might also, and the walls of the place might glow.
00:22:06
Speaker
Mmm, okay. Yeah, absolutely. So do you need to do anything to cast that or does it just what is cast and do? Just an action. Just an action. If need be, Claude and Helen need to make a deck saving throw? No, I willingly fail. You can't. I think you need to roll for it, unfortunately, unless it says. But what does cast and do to cast it? Is there anything in particular he needs to say?
00:22:28
Speaker
No literally he I think he runs in there and goes let there be light so it's literally a verbal command and literally this then as he says light like it's almost as if these little dancing sparks burst from his mouth and go around. Cool so could you both make dexterity saving throws please? What is the DC for it Will? DC of 17. 17. I've got 15. I've got 17. So you don't see the outline of Claude next to you?
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah, what happens though is in that 20-foot area is dust, the thick dust starts to illuminate well and starts to offset your vision where you should be able to see a clear figure of what you assume is Helena. You cannot make it out as the dust seems to be bouncing back light.
00:23:19
Speaker
cast down your general incredible perception, namely through your eyes and through your ears, have been shimmered and broken by this rumbling building by the lights in your eyes. And actually, it's working against you. Your high perception is working in a situation where it's not helping. Everything's kind of blurring and all in your face. You can't make anything out. And that's where we're at at the moment. So we'll run this system. Yeah, absolutely. Go for it, Claude. I was going to say, roll for it as you want.
00:23:47
Speaker
So I'm going to use the sending spell and commune directly with Helena and say, princess, look to the light and I'm going to cast daylight.
00:23:58
Speaker
Okay. Wow. So what's, what are we waiting for? 60 foot radius sphere of light at the entrance of the cave, or at least where Carstan and I are stood. And then 60 foot additional past that is dim light. So essentially making a massive beacon of light in the space, which yeah, 120 foot should be, should be able to find us our princess, I hope.
00:24:18
Speaker
Okay, so you hear the voice in your head, Helena, and do you see this light? Could you make a perception check, please? Not with advantage, not with disadvantage, because they're offsetting each other. Can you see this light? No, I cannot. I rolled a 2. Okay, no, you do not manage to see the light. Could you make a dexterity saving throw, please, Helena? I did like Helena as a character. Yeah, fuck, man. 14. You take 12 points of bludgeoning damage.
00:24:43
Speaker
as another piece of masonry is you're up looking around for the voice hits on you again. Guys back over to you or run this is just almost like round now. I've got a timer going. We are going to have a live two minutes to get Helena right before this thing collapses. The time starts now. Karstan, we're going to you first. Is there anything you want to do? You can use any skills. You can do anything you want to find this woman. I will use...
00:25:08
Speaker
I will use performance to try and you project my voice to try and get Helena to come towards us and try and hear my voice. Okay, it's time for the bagpipes. No, no time to get them out. Yep, roll that with disadvantages. We've got this deafening noise now filling the space. The rumble of the mountain. Oh man, so I got a 19 on my performance.
00:25:35
Speaker
Okay, so that passes. You've managed to absolutely boom. And what do you say? It says, Helena, keep coming towards the sound of my voice. Just keep crawling towards me. Okay, thank you. Claude, over to you. Okay, I'm going to head... I'm going to... I'm going to cast Death Wardle on myself and Karstan, and I'm going to head slightly ahead of Karstan, and I'm just going to shout from within this massive sphere of light I'm standing in for the princess.
00:26:04
Speaker
okay lovely give me a what do you want to roll for that i'm just shouting don't help cast and like give us a gotcha sound location and then yeah that's no problem so we've got light and we've got sound now and again it's overwhelming in this space but helena back over to you give me a perception check please to see if you can make make heads or tails of this it's a 10 that's a 10 okay that's that's me to be luckily that's what you've been needed you managed to see this light off in the distance and managed to start making your way towards it could you also make a dexterity saving throw please to make sure you're not going to trip on anything on your way
00:26:35
Speaker
So 13. Perfect. You managed to, you're literally sprinting your full pelt here. 15 seconds left, full pelt into the hands of Claude. And all three of you managed to turn 11 seconds as you start to run out, as the cave starts to collapse in behind you. And just as you dive out, that is the coughing you would do. So you dive out with three seconds left on the timer, as the cave collapses in front of you, as Google starts beeping in my ears, as that falls in front of you. Whew, shitting out. I didn't think it would be that close.
00:27:05
Speaker
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Are you hurt? No, I can't see, but just give me a moment. I'm going to visit all the three injured party, Helena, Kennard and Jena one more time and give them all a gentle healing. Jena's not here, she took off.
00:27:24
Speaker
I'm just going to visit Kennard and Helena in that case. Draggo, fuck it, you can have a D4 of healing as well. Everyone gets six points of healing, that's why it's shortlisted. I'll take it. Six points each, enjoy.
00:27:37
Speaker
And as you break out into the burning morning sun, you see the residents of Blackmouth far off in the distance standing up on and up, staring up at what is happening. With the deafening crack as you turn around, the closest mountain would sit snugly
Trust Rebuilding and Return to Town
00:27:52
Speaker
behind. Jerry's last stand seems to have split into two with a large crevice opening up between it. The ground continues to rumble and suddenly both crumble in on itself. Silence fills the air once again.
00:28:06
Speaker
And just as breaths of court and healing spells are given out, an almighty wave of red energy comes shooting out of the cave mouth. Could everyone make an athletics check, please? Piss. I'm going to use tides of chaos on this. OK. I'm going to use my final luck point. I'm going to use nothing. I'm going to have to take it on the chin. This is everyone. We'll go down from the top down. Robin, what do we get? So pre-final luck point, natural one.
00:28:35
Speaker
Post natural luck point. 20, not natural. Okay, thank you. Drago? Eight. Thank you, Claude. Natural 20. Wow, you're matching Robin there. Helena? Like she planned it, 17. Lovely, Karsten? 22. Thank you, and Folly? Three tides of chaos, natural one. Post 18. Nice, thank you very much for that. So,
00:29:04
Speaker
As this wave of energy comes shooting out, you all, despite it, gets knocked to the mud. However, Drago, Helena... Oh, that's it, actually. Follow you, meet and beat the DC. Drago and Helena, you take 26 points of psychic damage, and you are both deafened for one minute. She's been blind and deafened within the last 15 minutes. So you're just deafened? Oh, yeah, yeah, you've been both.
00:29:34
Speaker
We still got the dust and stuff in your eyes, so you still can't, until you wash that out, you can't see that, and now you're definitely, this wave of sound, this cacophony of sound comes bursting out of it and causes it. The others managed to quickly, dexterously move themselves out of the way, but given everything that's happened and the, this is the weight of everything, Drago, from the exhaustion and Helena, through what you've just been through, and the fact that you can't physically see, you had no chance of getting out of there and taking this as the second wave of energy comes out.
00:30:02
Speaker
And the silence falls, finally, as you think that might be it. And the mountain hasn't collapsed on the town. The cave looks absolutely decimated. There's no way in, really, from your point of view. And you can see right at the top, the whole interior of this mountain has collapsed in on itself, now forming two much smaller peaks. You assume this thing is kind of filled in from the top down, filling the gap beneath the mountain of the black-mouthed mines.
00:30:31
Speaker
Robin. Claude's gonna just go down on one knee in front of Drago and Helena. Neither of you look very well. If you can hear me, don't listen to what I'm about to say. And I'll whisper an infernal into the amulet and I'll cast Lesser Restoration on both of them to restore their hearing. Oh, thanks, man. And all of a sudden... Like a deaf guy.
00:31:00
Speaker
All of a sudden, your sense of hearing, you've still got that ringing in your ears, but that kind of... The numbness starts to subside and you're left with that ringing. Robin. Drago. Tally, can you use your animal sight thing? Is she okay?
00:31:18
Speaker
I asked Neera to come back to me if Talia was in danger and Neera's not returned. I can only use Neera as sight if she's within. No, that's okay. So everyone's hearing accounted for. I'm a bit dizzy and confused.
00:31:34
Speaker
Everyone here? Everyone okay? That was a bit... Yeah, and Karsten will pluck out his water bottle, take a quick swig to sort of wash out his mouth, and then he'll sort of pass it towards Helen and say, Helen, a quick wash your eyes out with this. This will help.
00:31:53
Speaker
And I'll sort of palm the water skin into her hands to help her so she can sort of wash the dust out of her baits. Why that Baywatch scene carries on I will slowly get to my feet and make my way to the edge of what I assume is this cavern in the ground and see if what I can see when I look down if there is a direct view of a portal or any decimation of it or if it's just a series of rubble on top of each other.
00:32:23
Speaker
You look, Dan, can you give me an investigation check, please? I will join him. I'm not the right person for this. I will join him just to offset his disadvantage. Okay. Yep, roll. Do a normal investigation, please, then, Drago. 15. You look at the entrance of this cave to the Blackmouth Mines.
00:32:44
Speaker
And what's substantial about it is the weight you can tell of this rock. This isn't just a couple of boulders stacked on top of each other with gaps for air pockets. This is a mountain that has collapsed on itself and as such is compacted.
00:33:01
Speaker
everything around it. You look up at the top and peak of the mountain where it used to stand and where it is now and you can ascertain it's dropped probably 500, 600 feet in height, which is a substantial height, something you might think matched up to the depth below the dungeon where Arrakash was found. You don't know for certain because obviously you never do, but from that you could make the assumption that the
00:33:30
Speaker
The rock from the top of the mountain might have been able to reach the base of the portal. Well, guys, I'll give that stocky credit. She knows her stuff. Seems like everything's been closed up for now. Is there any sign of the portal? No, but I can't speak to the undead like you can. It might be worth running one of your god-like
00:33:59
Speaker
techniques. I'm... I'm at the most weary I have been since we have known each other. I don't have anything left to give today. Maybe another time we can come up this area just to give it a quick scan, but it seems to be... I mean, I think it's gonna hold. She's done a good job. Canard walks up next to you. Sorry Robin.
00:34:28
Speaker
We should move away from here. I don't know how safe we are And you cannot here's that just have your shoulder and he turns to you as you're investigating the front of the mine and says I I tend to agree but You know knows her stuff and I she's done a solid job on that you think of the damage We just took on the outside of the mine. Nothing could have survived that Nothing not even the undead
00:34:55
Speaker
I've let someone die by my blade before and they've come back to life, I'm just making sure. No, I understand that, Rago, and I appreciate everything you did for me and Jena within that mine. I'll never forget it. Now.
00:35:11
Speaker
We should get this away, really, just to make sure I have my men check over to make sure it's structurally sound and won't unfallen us in our sleep or anything. But I don't know about you, but I could do with a drink. I agree. But don't forget we had a deal. We scratch your back. You give us information on the Onyx Reaver. I hope you haven't forgot it. I haven't forgotten that. And for what you've done for Blackmouth, I'm not going anywhere.
00:35:37
Speaker
okay let's uh come with me first round was on me and he started to walk hobbling off slightly towards uh the center of town what do you guys want to do first question robin would ask is he would go i don't recall or remember what she said that she was doing but julia anyone know where she she's gone she wasn't in there with us was she you mean yeah oh julia sorry no i mean held back this wasn't her fight
00:36:04
Speaker
I think she helped Tali with evacuating people from nearby. That's good. In the adrenaline of getting that thing into there and then getting out of there as quick as possible, I couldn't remember whether she was accounted for or not. Helena, are you going to be OK to walk? Yes, I think so. I don't want to touch you, but do you need a carry?
00:36:33
Speaker
No, I'm okay to walk for now. Just making sure. Yeah, I'll let you know if I need a hand. Fair enough. She's just going to be quite solemn. She'll be a little bit shaky. And I think that she's, I mean, she's probably more scared than she'd let on. And I mean, she was on her own in there trying to find her way, scrambling around panicked, you know,
00:36:57
Speaker
hyperventilating a lot. She couldn't see, she could barely hear anything. Everything's just been a little bit of a blur for her. So she'll hang back a little bit, but she will say to Claude and Karsten, thank you, both of you, for getting me out of there. Sorry, I don't wish to get emotional. I just didn't think I was going to survive that. It was my...
00:37:23
Speaker
Job wants Princess to make sure you are always safe. It's a job I've never stopped doing. Plus, I mean, it's what friends are for, isn't it? I suppose it is. Thank you, Carstan. It's no problem, Your Majesty. I don't know how to repay you, both. Your taking a breath is thanks and payment enough. Well, I'll get around in. How about that?
00:37:53
Speaker
Ooh, I like that. As long as I can have a bed quite soon, I could do with a lie down. I assume we're walking and talking at this point, just slowly making our way down. We are, that's correct, yeah. Folly. How are you doing? No, no. That sounded so dodgy. No, not Jerry. I ain't Jerry from Friends.
00:38:25
Speaker
Oh, that's ruined that for me. No, no, no. Would you like to reword that? No, I'm going to let it stand because you know exactly what I'm talking about. Folly is going to be quite restrained at first.
00:38:52
Speaker
They're just going to look up, obviously, to Drago. We were very lucky to get out of there alive. That stocky nearly killed us. Well, agreed, but she also did her job. You can't... You can't judge her for her reactions. She could have helped more. She was more of a hindrance in there. We may as well have just took it without her.
00:39:18
Speaker
We had each other's backs, and that's the main thing. We used her to get the job done, and we'll use this situation to go and close the portals elsewhere as well. And who's back did she have, Drago? What if Helena wasn't able to make it out of there? What then? What would you have said about her work then? That wasn't my concern. My concern was that you were turning on her and not focusing on Helena. Take the situation in hand first.
00:39:48
Speaker
deal with the problems after. Helena should have been your first portacool, not Janna. Janna. You might not have seen it, Drago, but she was. And I'll take care of the other stuff afterwards. That's on news. I'm probably going to wander off. Well, he's actually not going to be able to keep ahead of Drago, so he's going to slow down just so Drago goes ahead. Fair enough. Drago's not going to lingo. He'll move on at his normal pace. I will let Robin will just say to Drago, you know,
00:40:18
Speaker
Thinking back to when I first met you, he's at times much like a very, very, very tiny version of you, and I find that quite premiering. A very, very tiny version, yes. But we don't need two of me in this party. No, you won't catch any argument with me on that score. Needless to say, he has a dark edge to him. He threatened me the other day. Oh, did he?
00:40:43
Speaker
This, actually it was this morning. Folly said he'd kill me if I did a bad thing. Now, kill you in the same way that maybe you drunk milk when he wanted a beer, kind of gonna kill you or... No, I believe that he wanted me to stop breathing. He didn't kill you. That's quite serious. He didn't kill his name, did you? No, I just hung out with Eric Ast. He's quite an angry little gnome, isn't he?
00:41:13
Speaker
Well, look. For someone who likes to experiment with stock magic, he seems quite adverse to others doing so. Robin, if you were really on the bad end of stock magic, you would also see things the way that me and Foley do when it comes to stock magic. Oh, stock magic is bad.
00:41:35
Speaker
Agreed, but then I think most magic's bad. Far be it from me to judge someone from getting angry, but I don't like the idea of threatening each other. We've already been through that once before, so if any of you receive any more threats from Folly, can you just let us know? Yep, I will start to tally. Okay, we need not say any more about it or bring it up to him, but... Okay. No, we'll just carry on.
00:42:05
Speaker
As you start to make your way deeper into the town, it's silent as everyone had been evacuated. And at the far side of the central quarter of the town, you see a line of people all stood up, all facing you as you start
Plans for the Onyx Reaver
00:42:19
Speaker
to approach. And in front of them, with their back to you, is a small humanoid figure.
00:42:25
Speaker
From the back, you very much recognize this to be the profile of Tali. And as you get into earshot, you start to hear what she's saying, and these people are all watching her as she talks, and you kind of catch it at her mid-speak. The destruction would have been catastrophic. Their selfless act to save this humble place should be sung from the rooftops and written in storybooks for decades to come.
00:42:51
Speaker
The townsfolk mumble to each other, their faces looking credulous as this strange girl stood before them. Look, their deeds are erm... And she turns round and sees you all there. Notes, Carstan, Carstan! A little help explaining why we broke their mountain? Our deeds are beyond words, people, but we have successfully
00:43:16
Speaker
put the blight upon the back foot we have drawn a line in the sand and said here and no further and we will defeat it could you give me a performance check please cast down yes uh 22
00:43:32
Speaker
You see the murmurs from each of them kind of nod a little bit and one of them pipes up. Yeah, but why do you have to destroy the mountain? Well, we actually have a song about it and our bard, he can explain it all to you in song. Isn't that right, Karsten? I mean, the people want what they want. I mean, the mountain had to come down. Beneath it there was a portal.
00:43:56
Speaker
And so we chose the best course of action was to bury that portal beneath a mountain of rubble and seal it forever. Could you give me another performance check please, Karsten? Er, 29.
00:44:11
Speaker
They continue to murmur and a couple of them start to vociferously nod. There's still a couple at the front with arms crossed across their chest. This is the whole village, the whole town pretty much out there. There's a good like two, three hundred people stood there. There's a few guys right in the middle with their arms crossed and one woman in particular stood there looking up at you with their arms crossed with eyes like daggers.
00:44:29
Speaker
What was below the mountain? What was coming out of the portal? You still want to explain why he had to destroy our mountain and poor all our lives at risk. Dead themselves would have overrun these lands. They would have battered in your doors and butchered everyone if it hadn't been for us. I'm going to cast Thaumaturgy on cast and so he sounds three times as loud. Could you get another performance check please with advantage as you are now three times the volume.
00:44:59
Speaker
Yes. Oh God. Uh, 16. Wow. With advantage as well. Okay. Well, luckily that was the DC for it. So you managed to meet the beats. Oh, you yell this and you don't expect the full montage to come on. So your voice is suddenly lifted incredibly loud and you don't really know what to do with this. You got to bring your voice up and down. Everyone looks a little confused as to why you're suddenly shouting. And one says, why are you shouting? Oh, it doesn't matter anyway.
00:45:26
Speaker
hero hero hero bard bard bard bard and they start chanting bard bard bard and everyone bard bard bard bard bard starts joining in and they all start clapping down and after a while of clapping a couple of them come up to you and start shaking your hands and say thank you thank you thank you for saving i thank you i would love to i just lean into drago and go this is a town for the morons isn't it
00:45:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not shaking anyone's hand either. And then Drago looks to the fourth camera and winks social distancing. And then it looks back at Robin and just goes, let's go and get a drink. Guys, we need to make everyone needs to take a bow. Everyone bow in front of the audience. Come on, it's what you have to do. And Drago's walking off towards the tavern.
00:46:19
Speaker
Is there anyone else bowing? Yeah, Helena will bow like a little bit like, she doesn't really want to but she will. Sorry, is, what's his chop still here? Kennard. Kennard. He's stuck behind looking, yeah, confused. Is he looking back in anger at the mountain?
00:46:43
Speaker
Nope. Not at all. Maybe. Oh, very nice. You forget already. I forgot. Maybe, Karsten, you could credit Kennard for the work here.
00:46:58
Speaker
without but people people listen to me listen to me and they all stop and kind of oh the bard's speaking again bard bard bard and they all start moving back in their position he's speaking shh shh everyone quiet everyone quiet shh a very important shh shh everyone quiet everyone quiet the bard's talking shh sorry bard continue there is a very important fact that we must not forget
00:47:21
Speaker
without the heroic and brave and strong leadership of Kennard, who has successfully steered Blackmouth through this potential tragedy, nobody here would be standing. And what this act actually shows is how if Sleetguard bands together, we can defeat the Blight.
00:47:52
Speaker
and silence falls across the entire group as they look, taking in what you've just said. And you had them all, you know, untenter hooks until you mentioned about the kingdom coming together again. No one wants to be the first to start clapping. Claude will. Claude will start clapping. And then we'll also clap as well.
00:48:18
Speaker
They don't like that because they can see you clapping and then the clapping stops and the woman on the front steps forward and turns to the rest. The little boy is right, you know. We need to put aside our differences for now.
00:48:37
Speaker
The rangers should go to Lucian. They should join the front. These people have shown us that if we do stand together, like the young little man boy said, we can be stronger as one kingdom for now and then we can air our grievances with the king another day.
00:48:54
Speaker
if the blight's below us there the blight can be anywhere and we need to band together and with that everyone bursts into a plaud and everyone starts chancing the name cannot cannot cannot bard bard bard but cannot cannot and ends up being can't can bard can bard can bard over and over again uh canard looks incredibly embarrassed by this oh fucking hell i'll be back in oh jesus christ i never wanted this where where's james when you need him fucking thanks very much for that bab you know
00:49:24
Speaker
Right, should we go to the pub then so we can get the fuck away from all this? Please! Karstan, you are amazing! How did you get them all to shout like that? Um, I think sometimes it's with when you use words sometimes you have to say the right things because within each of them they were all probably thinking what I was saying but they needed someone else to say it sometimes. I just want to say that
00:49:53
Speaker
that was great and could you do that everywhere we go because the last place we went they were miserable as balls well you see what i've come to discover
00:50:11
Speaker
Claude is that I think what I want to do is I want to try and write a song about how brave Sleetguard has been to stand alone for so long. And I think that Sleetguard needs to learn that it can hold itself with pride when it compares itself to all the other kingdoms. I hope the word cast down appears in that song. No, it's not my place to put myself in that kind of song. I'll put it in. How do you spell it? C-A-R. How do you write?
00:50:41
Speaker
And then the Helena is just going to come in between them and say, Kastan, well done. And she's just going to put one arm around Kastan and one arm around Claude, and she's going to say, no, shall we get that round in? Yes, I think Claude's probably going to want some milk. Yes, come on. And we make our way back to the pub.
00:51:06
Speaker
friends, the two brothers who now have a booming full pub of people as everyone wants to be around these saviors of Blackmouth. It's a loud, rambunctious time, but you manage to secure yourself a nice-sized table in the middle of the room. People come up and just pat you on the back every now and then. Drago, a little boy comes up and says, yeah, well, then, and pats you on the leg and walks off. And most of the time, they leave you to yourself as you're sat around this table. Kennard gets the first set of drinks in and puts them all down on the table in front of you.
00:51:35
Speaker
I said, right, before we get down to this, firstly, I want to thank you for everything you've done here. You've made a massive difference. And given that we can't find Jamis anywhere, you did me a solid thereby name dropping back there is well bad. So thank you very much. I've talked to the people and I've talked to the Blackmouth Rangers. And the first thing we're going to do is we're going to put aside our call for independence.
00:51:58
Speaker
I've seen the extent of the Blight now and the danger it poses to not just us or Blackmouth but everyone across the kingdom and across the realm. I've pledged the Blackmouth Ranges to the cause and I'm sending over 250 of the best Ranges I've got to Goldview on a ship onto Spirit Monroe Dote to join Lucian Blightbane on the Eastern Front and to victory.
00:52:22
Speaker
Now that's the first thing I can do. And I know a lot of you aren't from Sleepguard, so that might not mean anything. But what I can do is, and you look just just to drag out, I can scratch your back. I know of the Onyx Reaver. I don't know as much as Jamis knew, but he's been missing for days now. I'm still waiting on some callbacks to hear if I know where he's gone. But I know of the Onyx Reaver, the black blade surrounded by these orange crystals that we came across many years ago.
00:52:51
Speaker
They're up in the Scale Road Mountains to the north of here, across the hazardous mountains. It's a shame James isn't here, he knew the exact location, but I remember well enough, I was much younger then. We always thought it was just a cursed blade, you know, it's in the Galilean Hollows. Three or four days hard travel from here, up the Scale Road Mountains to the north.
00:53:15
Speaker
Now, I would say we head off now and get away from all this attention, but look, you can't find it on your own. I'm coming with you and I'll lead the way and I'll get you there. But can you just hold on till tomorrow? I'm waiting on two more messages to come in from some of the outlying lands to see if they've seen James because he'll be a real help in this if we can find him. What do you say? Where did James go?
00:53:41
Speaker
No one knows. One night he just disappeared, they said. He just walked out of camp. No one saw him after that and he didn't leave any messages. He left nothing at Jerry's last stand. Nothing to me. I've known that guy since we were kids and he just walked out and since then... We'll need to leave at dawn.
00:54:04
Speaker
Absolutely, it's the best time, the weather's clearest then, to get up the mountain. And you're gonna lead us to the Onyx Reaver. Can we ever lie in? No Claude, this is quite pressing. I'll take you to the last known location of the Onyx Reaver. I know where it is, I know it's near the Galanin Hollows. To get there though,
00:54:24
Speaker
I'm not gonna lie, it's not easy. So if you need to replenish your stock, or you need to buy anything, or bring anything with you, it gets fucking cold up there. And I'm not talking just a couple greet, you know, a bit of snow. I'm talking any points at the window towards the mountains.
00:54:40
Speaker
We're going to the peaks to get over this the quickest way possible, or it's two weeks worth of travel. It's going to be hard graft. These paths are thin, hazardous. I've lost many good man up there. And the last thing I'll say before I leave you to your lovely evening, guys. There are rumors.
00:55:00
Speaker
of people jumping off these paths because they listened to the mountains. That's all they say. I listen to the mountain and then they jump. I don't know what that means but all I can say is when we're up there and I'll remind you of it in the morning, of course, don't listen to the mountains. Noted. Thank you for your help. We'll look to get ready at dawn tomorrow.
00:55:26
Speaker
And he kind of stands out, well, if there's nothing else you need, I'm going to get him to lay and rest. Sorry, Drago. Thank you. Sorry, Drago, did you sneeze? No, I said good day. Get out.
00:55:38
Speaker
Get out. Get out. You're done. We're good. You can leave. Shit. So harsh. Fucking hell, right? No problem. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. Dragga was fine. And he leans over to the bartender. Next few rounds are on me and the bartender says back, no, they're on me, actually. He saved my brother. And then another man across, he goes, no, they're on me. He saved my life. And everyone starts just shouting up. You've basically got free drinks for the day, pretty much as much as you want.
00:56:02
Speaker
Can I kind of shrugs at you? Well, I'll see you at first light. Meet me at Jaddy's last stand. That's where we'll head off. The path is just behind it. We'll do. Remember, don't listen to the mountains.
Conclusion and Acknowledgments
00:56:16
Speaker
And then he walks out of the doors, leaving you to yourselves and darling. And on that note, as you all turn in to take in the events of the day,
00:56:28
Speaker
That's where we're going to end this week's episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop. Thank you very much for listening, everyone. Thank you for the really amazing work, you guys. I loved that episode. That was great. That was tight. I was exhausted from that skill check. That was a great episode. Good pacing. Good story. Good characters. GG. Well played, everyone. Successfully dealt with the Blackmouth Rebellion. Done. And we didn't lose any characters this time.
00:56:52
Speaker
No, and oh God, Helena, Helena, when I set the time, it's all be plenty or two, one perception check and they'll be out. Literally when I was calling out at times, that wasn't a lie. That was, that was exactly two minutes from start to finish. We can, you can time that. Yeah. No, I was panic. I was literally panicking and I could hear, I could hear you going, Oh, I was like jumping up and down in my chair. Like, Oh my God. I love it. You put the reality of actual time in it and suddenly it changes the pace of it all together.
00:57:20
Speaker
It's amazing. That was awesome work, mate. Thank you everyone for listening in and making this a part of your everyday week. We hope you enjoyed this week's episode. We all certainly did. If you would like to follow us and keep up to date with all things fellowship related, you can do so on our Twitter page, which is at fellowship table. And then if you wanted to go one step further and follow us individually, you can do. I'm at iRoller1, Casey's at
00:57:46
Speaker
Unicorn Crit Danny's at Total Party Thrills Darren's at DarrenPedge06 Callum's at TheD20Gamer Well is at
00:57:58
Speaker
Natural 20 will. And our, well, happy birthday, new aged name day was yesterday, and I'm trying to make it a tour thing right at the end of this episode, even though actually I've already advertised it on an episode that was a long time ago, so this makes no sense because we recorded in advance. DM is at... I used to leave old DM. Until next time, guys. Farewell!