Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Dungeons of Quandary: The Final Door Part 1
13 Plays10 months ago
The Dungeons of Quandary are self-contained adventures filled with puzzles and Mysteries!
""Curiosity Seekers, welcome to my humble home. You've come in search of a treasure that you desire but in order to receive it; you must solve my conundrum. Can you brave this new reality I create for you and figure out my puzzles?
People live trapped in an ancient dungeon with a portal that brings in new people and supplies. Four camps lie in the dungeon, which do you think will be the most helpful in your escape? So far no one has managed to find a way to escape but they know that the key lies with the portals that lay dormant around the dungeon.
One of the camps found an ancient prophecy in a book that supposedly has them believing that they are close to escaping. Yet it may be possible that they do not have control over the right gate. Can you identify which gate is the correct on and how to activate it?
Go now to the Dungeon of the Final Door, and when you believe you have solved it activate the door. If you succeed you will return to me. Fail, and you shall wander the fog of memories for all eternity."
First Archway Puzzle.
Exploring the chamber will reveal that the blue and red etching on the archway in elvish runes.
nepo I llahs enorht eht ni elgnuJ eht fo gniK eht fo egaugnal eht ni drol flesruoy gnimialcorp yb ylno
Players:
Mr. Baca (Babu)
Mr. Bluejibbles (Lerion)
Lion5kmr5k (Arlen)
DM:
Erthoscreations
Themesong composed by Thedungeonmaestro on tiktok and Instagram
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Dungeon Problems
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome my friends to another Dungeon Problems. Today is a Dungeons of Quandary. The little mini-series of dungeons that are puzzle-centric that I trick my friends into playing.
00:00:16
Speaker
by telling them, we're gonna play D&D and not tell them that will be fully puzzles.
Meet the Adventurers
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm ArthosCreations, or Ben. This is my podcast, and today I have three wonderful guests, one of whom you'll recognize when we get there, and one of them, two of them you won't recognize unless you stalk me online and somehow watch Ghibli Jam's YouTube channel, and then we'll have a talk about boundaries and all that.
00:00:43
Speaker
Starting off, today we are joined by the one, the only, the Mr. Lion 5K. Mr. Lion 5K, who are you? Where can people find you if you want them to?
00:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to find me, I occasionally stream on Twitch at Twitch.tv slash Line 5K Mr. 5K. If I stream sometimes, I'm pretty irregular with it. I need to get better. I am playing a High Elf Rogue by the name of Arlen, and it gives it a rogue to be more specific. Ooh, which is perfect for puzzles, because you'll be curious.
00:01:26
Speaker
And then we're also joined today by Mr. Bluegibbles. Mr. Bluegibbles, do you want people to find you? And if so, where? And who are you playing? Just don't find me. I'm Bluegibbles. I'm playing a Larian of the Silverwing. I'm a Wood Elf Monk, Way of the Shadow. Wait, we have two elves?
00:01:51
Speaker
Oh god, oh god. And then you'll recognize him from the previous Dungeons of Quandary. For some reason he played that one and wanted to come back. We have esteemed Mr. Baca. Yeah, yep, yep, I'm back, you know, just like my old hometown judge kept calling me a repeat offender, but anyway. Who are you going to be playing today?
00:02:19
Speaker
I am playing Babukun. You can call me Babu if you want. He is a human, and he's a lively sort of character. He's a bard. Wonderful. Great. All right. Well then, let's see if these three can solve some dungeon problems.
00:02:59
Speaker
Sure amounts and never grows And wins are to the spider Darkness fills up empty halls And turns an endless fighter What we're here for is mysteries But puzzles yet unsolved So sad secrets lost to history As dungeon problems solved alone Dungeon zone
Challenge in the Throne Room
00:03:25
Speaker
problem zoo, puzzle zoo, solve them all dungeon zoo, problem zoo, puzzle zoo, solve them all
00:04:01
Speaker
You have made your way to the demi-plane of quandary. The hidden doors that you have tracked down through the realms open to admit you to is realm. Stepping into the strange world you find yourself in the throne room of the spirit quandary.
00:04:16
Speaker
a floating chair of marble covered in an elegant pillows, hovers in the air on a dais. Behind it is a row of bookcases stuffed with ancient tomes. The spirit quandary sits on their throne, opaque eyes looking down at you, as you can't tell what lies underneath its cloak. Trying to guess what the spirit is in itself is a mystery that none have solved.
00:04:43
Speaker
Looking to your left and right, you see the other brave adventurers who have made their way to this puzzle. They've come in search of mysteries, puzzles, and solutions. Each one has a goal they have in mind, a prize they wish to claim. Curiosity Seekers, welcome to my humble home. You've come in search of a treasure that you desire, but in order to receive it, you must solve my conundrum.
Factions and Prophecies
00:05:12
Speaker
Can you brave this new reality I create for you and figure out my puzzles? You, Arlen, what is it you seek? I seek the knowledge to purify the corruption that has taken hold of my homeland. And Baba, the only human of the trio, what do you seek? What most people want. I want my name in all.
00:05:41
Speaker
of the history books. History can always be remembered, but will you be good or bad? And last but not least, Larian. I seek knowledge, all knowledge. Interesting, interesting. Knowledge is a blessing and a curse.
00:06:06
Speaker
Well, if you can solve my puzzles, you can have what you seek. People live trapped in an ancient dungeon with a portal that brings in new people and supplies. Four camps lie in this dungeon. Which do you think will be the most helpful in your escape?
00:06:27
Speaker
So far, no one has managed to find a way to escape, but they know the key lies with the portals that are dormant around the dungeon. Supposedly, one of the camps has found an ancient prophecy in a book that has them believing they can escape. It may be possible that they have control over this gate, or maybe they don't. Can you identify which gate it is and learn how to activate it?
00:06:57
Speaker
Go now to the dungeon of the final door, and when you believe you've solved it, step through the portal. If you succeed, you will return to me. Bail, and you shall wander the fog of memories for all eternity. And in front of him, a black portal will open, and you'll just see him beckon towards it. I think Larian would step up first.
00:07:26
Speaker
march through really regally. Alan will adjust his coat, then walk on through, following. And Babu will just look around like, yeah, let's go. As you guys step through, describe what your characters look like, because you watch each other walk through the portal. Oh, Larian doesn't watch anyone.
00:07:56
Speaker
But he's about six feet tall, red hair, olive skin, elf, very regal. But you can tell he's a monk. He's like just because of his garb. And that's pretty much it. Just defining features. There is long red hair and olive skin. Uh, Babu is
00:08:25
Speaker
very tall, very broad shoulder. He sees about 6'6", like 240 pounds. He's got a rapier tucked on one side and a shield on his back. He is wearing a large
00:08:48
Speaker
Quite flamboyant, like bright blue. What's the material I'm looking for? Not suede, but sure, let's call it suede. Long jacket, long coat with bright buttons and stuff on it. And then Arlen, what does Arlen look like?
00:09:15
Speaker
Arlen has sort of almost sort of dirty blonde hair. These sort of very gold, yellowy eyes, long pointed ears. Sort of wearing sort of like a suit with like a harness over it. Then has like a long sort of coat over the top hair. Seems to be smoking from some sort of pipe and sort of tucked away under his coat. You see what appears to be some sort of crossbow and a couple other little bits and pieces like a magnifying glass sitting there as well.
00:09:46
Speaker
Dapper. Dapper. Her luck shines. You step through this magical doorway and you find yourself in a massive chamber. Behind you is an opulent marble archway and this black portal is closing behind it.
00:10:13
Speaker
You stand on a small, blue stone stage with a corpse to the right of you, the man having been extinct- extinct- extinct- ah! Exa- he's been cut open! That motherfucker's been cut open! There are stone steps that lead down to the floor of this chamber, where four individuals stand, as if waiting for you.
Osrium's Proposition and Prophecy
00:10:43
Speaker
There is a young girl elf in elegant blue robes wearing the trappings of a mage. Another elf as well. This girl, you can't quite tell if she's a girl or a boy. She seems androgynous. They seem androgynous. They wear white robes. Then a man in resplendent silver armor stands next to them.
00:11:13
Speaker
And then Lyonin. Lyonin? Why does fantasy names have to be so goddamn complicated? And he stands leaning against one of the walls. There are four doors out of this chamber. Each one of these individuals stands closest to one of the doors. The man in the silver armor is going to step forward and say,
00:11:42
Speaker
Three newcomers at once? That is... interesting. You. Do you want to join with me and my warlords? We are the strongest of the factions. We will control this dungeon.
00:12:02
Speaker
And then the elven girl in the blue mage robes is going to step forward and say, no, no, no, no, these simpletons, these simpletons just don't have the power or the brains to grasp of what we can, the artificers join with us and we can definitely get you out of here. We're oh, so close. I step over straight to her because she's wearing the same color.
00:12:30
Speaker
It matches, see? It's Kismet. You're already wearing our colors. The other elf is going to step forward and go, no, no, you, you shall join the worshipers. All shall worship before our Lord. We have the most power. And the final, the Leonin, he's just going to look kind of bored and say, well,
00:13:00
Speaker
If you don't want to die, we'll help you out. We're the herbalists. Yeah, you're going to need our help eventually, so you might as well join us now. We heard that someone here has access to a ancient prophecy. Which group among you is that? Give me a perception check.
00:13:30
Speaker
First roll of the game. Or at you know, an insight check. Oh, son of a. Sorry. I was right. This is not the same thing anyway. 26 natural 20. Dan, natural 20 for the first roll of the game. Setting the standard. You look over and.
00:13:58
Speaker
The Leonin looks a little confused. And then the Alvin androgynous person, there is something between their opaque eyes that just catches your attention as they look at you, wondering how you got that information. Knowledge always finds me, dear. I'm going to walk over.
00:14:29
Speaker
If I believe, if I believe that's the person I'm looking for, the group. They will look at you and go, I, we, the worshippers, if you prove yourself to us, then we can help you escape. We know the way. Our Lord shows us everything.
00:15:01
Speaker
I'm a bit skeptical, but... I will still walk over to them, towards them. And I say, if you aren't fools, you'll come this way as well. It's actually a fellow. Probably leading us all to our death here. What's Bat Babu doing?
00:15:31
Speaker
Bob was looking at you like, you're going to, you're going to follow that, that worshipper. Like that's, that's a cult. You know that, right? Prophecy is knowledge, friend. Prophecy is knowledge. Like that person is like brainwashed. You can like hear it in their voice. What a means to an end. I'm not joining their cult. Yeah, you probably will by the time this was done.
00:16:00
Speaker
What happens happens I Guess I'll well, this is gonna be fun to watch Let's go and I'll follow with them you hear the other three leaders of their factions begin to grumble as They go through their doors that belong to their faction
00:16:27
Speaker
This strange, white-robed individual goes through the northwestern door, beckoning you to follow them. As they walk through, you'll stop immediately.
Inter-Faction Tensions
00:16:39
Speaker
The door leads to a hallway that splits in just two separate directions. They are going to turn to you and go, I am Osrium. Welcome. Welcome to the worship of our Lord.
00:16:55
Speaker
Prove yourself and we shall share our secrets with you. But if you do not prove yourselves, our Lord shall devour you. Please, you have free reign. Talk to the other members of our faction and they will be happy to help you. We must have control. We will always have control.
00:17:25
Speaker
And they are going to go up the kind of northern direction, leaving you in this hallway that splits both ways. Before you go. Yes. The prophecy. Where can we hear more? If you prove yourself, I can take you to our Lord. But.
00:17:54
Speaker
How do I know you're not a trick sent by those cunning warlords or the artificers? Prove yourself. Are you a fool? You watched us come through the portal. I do not take kindly to be called a fool. I know more than you ever will, little elf. And it's like leer at them. And then walk away.
00:18:27
Speaker
Seems like he'll just let anybody in here, so, you know. I mean, look at me. I don't belong here. Obviously don't belong here. Blue against white? No, I don't wear white. Larian's just fucking staring up at you. Fucking six, six giant ass.
00:18:57
Speaker
So there's the way to the north or the way kind of to the west. Which way do you guys want to go? What do you think, Inquisitor Man? Well, we have to earn, they said we have to earn their trust before we can learn anything more about this prophecy.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yes, but I'm a bit skeptical about meeting their lord. Yeah, that's... Has the elf already walked off by this point? Yes, you did hear a door close to the north. Well, perhaps we go to the west, was it? That you said that was the direction? There's the west and the north, yeah. Or you could leave this faction, go try and talk to another one.
00:19:56
Speaker
I'm just the god of this world. You're in control of what you do. Please, Lord, what shall we do? Do I. Are there any other sounds around in this chamber that I can hear from either directions or is it just silence? Give me a perception check. Go on, make him roll one.
00:20:20
Speaker
You'll see. 28. God damn. God damn, like what is up with these rolls? That was a low roll too. No, that was an 18. I rolled a 18. I have a plus 10 to my perception. Damn. Expertise. All right. You, you here.
00:20:39
Speaker
coming from the door you just entered you hear something moving behind that door and looking down you see a shadow underneath the door thing as if someone's at the door right now
00:20:56
Speaker
And then from down the Western Hall, you hear someone grumbling, just a soft kind of voice going, this is taking too long. I just want to go already. Why won't Oserum let me do it? All right. That's worrying. This sounds like an ambush. Anything from the northern?
00:21:25
Speaker
Way or no? You hear another door close actually. Coming kind of from the north. So, multiple doors from the north. And the north was the one where I had the person in it. Yeah, that's where I was from. Okay.
00:21:43
Speaker
So they went to the north, so there's multiple doors up that way. Behind us, there's movement, and it looks like someone's behind the door that we just came through. And then from the western hall, there's grumbling, saying, this is taking too long, why won't Ocean let me do it? Where do we want to go? I think we let the big man make a choice. I'm all for
00:22:10
Speaker
getting the hell out of this religious cult thing and going through a different portal because somebody dressed in white talking monotone like that. That's there's something wrong there. You like faith, my friend?
Exploring the Dungeon
00:22:28
Speaker
Oh, I don't I don't. Faith, faith like. Sometimes you must brave evils to unlock truths.
00:22:41
Speaker
Well, I mean, look at it. We're all we're all going through the same dungeon, right? Like this, this, this thing we're in, supposedly we're one of these, I guess, people are here to help us and guide us a little bit. Is that the general feel of how we all feel about this? About the cult of the dungeon. The whole, the whole dungeon, I mean.
00:23:13
Speaker
Hold, I'm looking at it this way. They said if we don't prove ourselves, their Lord is going to devour us. And that means that if we don't prove ourselves, we're probably dead already. Do you want to have two bad things happen to you? You're going to die, and then some Lord's going to devour you? I'd rather just die and be done with it. What are our alternatives here?
00:23:42
Speaker
We were told by the spirit, God, that these people have a prophecy, that these people are the closest to escaping. Where should we start? We could always just try, get more information from these worshipers. Yeah, I mean, the information is right. We could join Scadetta afterwards and join another faction, we could try. It depends if they let us join them.
00:24:14
Speaker
Can always go to another faction and be like, yo, those people batch it crazy. Enough of, not these guys. My experience with anybody that, uh, bows to a Lord, be they physical or otherwise is that they'll pretty much do anything.
00:24:43
Speaker
to get what they need. And that probably includes, you know, using people like us to get what they need and then just toss this to the side. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe not. Help us for helping them. You don't know. All we know now is they said that they're the best out of everybody.
00:25:12
Speaker
And wasn't it the warlords that said that? Yeah. They said they were the best fighters. These guys said they have all of the power, which if they have all of the power, why are they still here? Good question. All I know is they have the knowledge.
00:25:41
Speaker
Let's go ask some questions then. Do we want to go to the west or the north? Yeah, we can go to the west. North, we follow in that person we just talked to. And west is where the- The west sounds fun. Yeah, someone's grumbling about not being allowed to do something, I suppose. Well, let's go poke them and see what they're grumbling about. All right. Let's just work down the western hallway then.
00:26:06
Speaker
you walk down the western hallway and as you open up this door you see another door immediately ahead of you and then the chamber turns the corner a little bit and you see a northern door out of this one by that northern door is a statue of an elven warrior carrying a glaive its face has been disfigured by what appears to be acid
00:26:35
Speaker
At the statue, kind of trying to repair the face with a chisel and a hammer is a tortle. A young tortle girl. And she's grumbling under her breath. And as you guys kind of approach with your passive perceptions, you can hear, how long am I going to do this grunt work? Oserum said that she'd allow me to be unwell. I just want to meet him. That's the only reason I joined these fuckers.
00:27:09
Speaker
Who's this? I'll just step forward and say, nice to meet you. I can't really tell if you're young or old. I've never met a tortle before. I've heard of you, but anyhow, who's this person you speak of that you want to meet? Oh, are you new worshippers? Are you here to join us?
00:27:41
Speaker
We are here. Oh, I'm arena. I guess you have heard I'm, I'm trying to meet with unwell one of the board lords. He's a tortoise like me. Have you have you met him? No, we barely just walked in Austria. Oh,
00:28:09
Speaker
brought us here and said, go talk to people. So we're talking to people. Well, yes, I'm Arianna. I'm probably the least... I haven't been here that long. I was hoping to speak with Unwell. If you
00:28:32
Speaker
If you help me meet with him, I definitely will be appreciative. And, you know, Osiram is always saying, those who help the collective help themselves or something like that, I'm not really sure. They keep offering me this thing called Kool-Aid, but I really, I don't really want to drink it.
00:28:59
Speaker
So yeah, I guess, you know, welcome. Yeah. And if you scratch my shell, I'll scratch your shell. And who, who again is unwell? Oh, he's a, he's one of the lieutenants for the warlords. He's one of their kind of high ranking. I just, I just want the chance to meet with him. I've heard so much about him. Why didn't you join the warlords then?
00:29:30
Speaker
Well, their their leader is kind of scary. And they also their leader, Dorino, he's kind of pompous, a little kind of an asshole. And then the second in command, apparently, is a real tight ass. You know, he apparently wants to kill everyone and take all the power for himself. And I'm not about that. You know, I'd rather not fight. I'm not a fighter. I'm a lover.
00:30:02
Speaker
Why why do you want to speak with unwell so much then? Oh, I've I've just heard a lot about him. You know, he he's kind of a legend. Great wise turtle. You know, that's just want a chance to speak with him for a minute or two. It's been a dream of mine since I was yet a but a young turtle hatching from my egg.
00:30:31
Speaker
You've wanted to be born as an egg. Well, no, when I hatched from my egg, my mother told me stories about him. It was like the first thing your mom told you about is this warlord named unwell. Yeah. That's kind of, I guess, is that like part of your culture?
00:30:53
Speaker
Oh, I'm just a big fan, too. Like, does she have posters of him on on her wall holding like these machine guns with his red bandana around his head? What's a machine gun? Oh, well, you know, you you would know if you were. Yeah, I guess you could say that she was obsessed. You know, yeah, these are kind of a big deal. Been hearing about them all my life.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, just want the chance to meet him. Can you you're new? I mean, they I can't really talk to the warlords, but if you're kind of new, maybe maybe you'll get the chance to talk to them. You haven't been tainted by the corruption, as they say. That's what the others say about our our faction. They they're probably not wrong there.
00:31:51
Speaker
I mean, how long have you been here? Oh, I've been here for about time works kind of weird here. Like we don't really have the sun and the moon. We're just in a underground dungeon. So I think about I think about three weeks. Have you ever wanted to leave in those three weeks? Oh, yeah, I've popped over to the herbalists before. They're very nice.
00:32:20
Speaker
You know, I didn't think people would be more lovey-dovey and feel the connection than us, but they... Well, they're all dating. They're all married. So I guess it makes sense that they love each other, but... Why didn't you come back here? Oh, well, it's just...
00:32:41
Speaker
I heard that the other members of the Worshipers have said that they're very close to escaping. I figure if they get close, maybe they'll share that with the others and I'll get the chance to talk to them well. The Artificers and the Warlords don't get along too well.
00:33:04
Speaker
And then the herb list, everyone gets along with them because they make potions and brew stuff and grow food as well. They're besides the main portal, which delivers our slop, as we say, you know.
00:33:21
Speaker
So it was either these folks, and they're all right, you know. Harad is a little crazy. Osram is just a little crazy. Zarek, Moraine, Sekyat, Ignar, they're all a little kooky, but they're nice enough. So they're all a little bit crazy. Yeah, but who isn't really? I don't really...
00:33:50
Speaker
define myself as crazy i got some quirks but i wouldn't you know join a group that collectively i think the majority are crazy true maybe i'm a little unhinged too then yeah teach their own quiet do fights often break up between the warlords and artifices or has it not gone that far yet uh
00:34:19
Speaker
There's only been one fight since I've arrived. And luckily it stopped pretty, pretty quickly. Supposedly Unwell managed to stop the fight. He's kind of a pacifist, which is ironic because he's part of the Warlords. But we think it's kind of only a matter of time before the Warlords say, screw this and try and kill everyone. But we hope it doesn't come to that.
00:34:52
Speaker
As do we all. Well, I don't think this is getting us anywhere, guys. Perhaps we should move on. We will see about getting you an audience with this unwell.
Harod's Offer
00:35:06
Speaker
If the opportunity arises, that that would be very greatly appreciated. You know, I just really want the chance to say, hey, I've heard about you all my life. It'd be really cool.
00:35:21
Speaker
This person's not your father, is it? No. Hm. Are you curious to be? Well, if this one of those is wise. Lirian and Arlen, you can both tell that they are live.
00:35:45
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Oh, yeah. Bobby, what's your passive insight? My in my insight or my passive perception? Insight. Insight is plus four. And I'm proficient. This passive one. That would be 14. Oh, no. And you're proficient. I'm proficient in insight.
00:36:13
Speaker
If you want me to do a check or if you're just looking for passive, I have a 12 passive perception. This should be a test. Your passive insight would be 14. Cool. All right. Wonderful. Beautiful. All right. Well, you all can tell that Ariana is lying at that answer.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they, heroes, heroes are dad. So you're really here to meet your dad. Like you want to meet your dad. Yes. Yes. I, yes. My mother's told me a lot about him. But what reason are you lying? Like.
00:37:00
Speaker
Um, well, I mean, I, if Osram learned that, you know, unwells my father, maybe they would, you know, kick me out or something like that. I, I just, I don't want to, I don't want to get around the dungeon, uh, because then, you know, I want, I want to meet unwell and explain and hopefully start off on the right foot instead of being like, Hey, I'm the daughter you didn't know that you had. And also the.
00:37:28
Speaker
like 200 other siblings that I have because turtles have a lot of eggs at once. That can come as a shock. It really can. I want to ease him into it. That is fair. Well, what was your mother's name? I just remembered sea turtles have like hundreds of fucking eggs. Are you sure that it's going to be that big of a shock?
00:37:57
Speaker
Oh, I mean, the warlord, he's a warlord and. You know, just from what I know of people going around and warring and, you know, doing that. Profession. They tend to. Get around a lot if you if you catch my drift.
00:38:22
Speaker
History fact, that's why the Mongol Empire was so powerful because they got around a lot and pretty much like... I'm not trying... I don't want to downplay the, you know, you want to meet your dad, but I'm not certain he's going to be all that surprised that he has a daughter that he hasn't met. He might be surprised that she's here though. Well, I mean, yeah.
00:38:50
Speaker
I if if I had a daughter and I was trapped in some dungeon down here and then they just randomly showed up, then yeah, that would. Yeah. You share these like features of the of the face with your with your father. Yes, I've been told I have his wrinkles and you look and she has like 12 neck wrinkles. I'm going to whip out a piece of parchment paper.
00:39:17
Speaker
Get them. I'm pretty sure I took painting supplies. And they're like, please allow me to get a portrait. All right. Give me a sleight of hand check. In case we meet the man. Give me a sleight of hand check. I'm just making sure I actually have painting supplies. Am I proficient painting supplies? I am. I am. Can I say I grabbed painting supplies? I meant to. Sure. Yeah. All right. Sweet. So sleight of hand check. Yep.
00:39:50
Speaker
17 for that one 12 plus five All right 17. Yeah, you do a pretty good this Ink it'd be a quick. It'll be quick. Ah It starts to bleed a little bit, but like ink bleed not blood bleed I'll be fucked up. I stabbed her in the eye with my paintbrush Well
00:40:15
Speaker
Thank you so much. If there's anything else I can help you with, you know, just come find me and I would love to speak with my father. Please, please don't tell the others, though. I don't want that getting around yet until I'm ready. We don't trust these people anyway, so I don't. Does your Lord have a name?
00:40:45
Speaker
Or do you just refer to them as your Lord? Um, I don't know it. And I don't think the others really do. We all call them the Lord. I, I've heard him speak through the door at the bed chambers. Uh, that is to the North, the other passageway. Uh, but only Oserum is allowed to meet with him. In the bed chambers.
00:41:10
Speaker
Not in no, no, there's in the bedchambers. There's, there's another door. I'm sorry. That was, I apologize that I made that kind of confusing. No, we don't, we don't just all get some into the Lord's bedchambers. It's not that kind of call. I swear. It was becoming more interesting at that point, but now I'm still not interested.
00:41:38
Speaker
so uh so there's a door that continues west and a door that goes more north yep which door do we want oh ariana wanna through the two doors where do these lead
00:41:52
Speaker
Oh, well, that door up to the north leads to kind of the summoning chamber. Osiram and Harrod, they can do a little bit of magic. They'll sometimes summon spirits and stuff to kind of talk to them, see if they can help. And then the west leads to the archway chamber, where we suspect a portal can be summoned and also the library.
00:42:22
Speaker
And you repeat that about where the portal can be summoned. Oh, oh, you're new. I'm sorry. Kind of each of the factions have taken over these places. And we have one of these archways that we believe that a portal can be summoned if we could just solve it. And Osiram believes that's the way to get home.
00:42:49
Speaker
but they're not 100% sure. I think the Herbalists have one archway as well. The Artificers have one archway. And the Warlords have two archways. That's why they think they're the strongest, because they have the best chance of having an archway that summons the portal to go home. But... I'm going to be honest, you guys all have no chance in my mind. And two times zero is still zero. But luckily we're here.
00:43:20
Speaker
Do the Alphases not have an archway? No, they have one as well. Okay. Can you lead us to this archway? Sure. I can lead you there. I'm not going to go into the library. Her rod is right there and he kind of gives me the creeps. But I can lead you up to the archway chamber if you'd like.
00:43:50
Speaker
Is there a way we can avoid this Herod? Yeah, he's in the light. There are two doors. There are two doors. Very well. Lead the way.
00:44:00
Speaker
Follow me. And she'll lead you through the door to the west. And as you guys enter that hallway, the hallway turns sharply in an L shape. There are several small bookshelves that are against the wall. And it's kind of cramped for you guys to go through. You're kind of like, brushing up against the dusty tomes. You catch a couple glimpses of like, old books that you are like, wow.
00:44:29
Speaker
sniff in the mouth for knowledge you and she's like oh be careful those books there's a lot there's we gather some of the arcane stuff as well so just be a little careful with those books they're kind of fragile
00:44:48
Speaker
And yeah, just I wouldn't suggest reading them unless you know some arcane lore just because they say that there's some stuff inside there. She leads the way to a large doorway and opens it.
00:45:06
Speaker
And then inside you see a singular archway of stone against a far wall and etched into the stone are designs of blue and red. And then before the archway lies a throne of stone.
00:45:29
Speaker
Who? This is going to be the dumbest question I feel like I'm ever going to ask, but I have to ask who here reads Elvish. I think you do the two of my language of this. No, two elves. No, I don't speak Elvish. Sorry. So you.
00:45:57
Speaker
You recognize that these designs are in elvish characters. You can't quite make out exactly like what the words are. It seems kind of like gibberish. As you look at these elven characters, you realize that it doesn't quite make sense. It says Nepo, Ai, Laius, Inuhut,
00:46:25
Speaker
at knee l gnu j at vu are not gonna read that all. If you're listening to this, you can find it in the show notes. If you would like to try and solve this puzzle yourself, please pause now. If you've unpaused, maybe my players have solved this puzzle. But
00:46:54
Speaker
The strange writing is an elvish before you. I am fluent in elvish. Are you? Well, as a bard. Yeah, as a bard. As a bard, that makes sense. I just want to point out that I did, as a human bard, beat the two elves in translating this text. Oh, you translated it.
00:47:24
Speaker
Dude, I don't read backwards. Well. Get good. What does it say? Only by proclaiming yourself Lord in the language of the king of the jungle in the throne throne, shall I open. A riddle. Hmm.
00:47:52
Speaker
There is a Leoden here. Do Leodens have their own language? Yes. Interesting. Perhaps we should pay the herbalists a visit. Perhaps we should. You guys solved that already. We've been looking at that archway for weeks and we've never solved that before.
00:48:19
Speaker
Well, of course, little one, you are a total. Not everyone can understand the elegant language of elves. Oh, that's, you guys are so smart. You are going the right way for a smacked bottom, big man. I just laugh. We need to know how to say something in Leonin.
00:48:50
Speaker
That's almost one of my fairies. I would be curious to see whether or not the archers also have...
The Mystery of the Missing Pages
00:48:58
Speaker
Maybe this is one long sentence and the other archers have other bits of the sentence maybe, I don't know. Or I'm just making stuff up. It could be. No, you could be on the right path here. Could I do like a history check or something to know if like, like what the king of the jungle is? If it's a lion or if it's another kind of animal?
00:49:19
Speaker
give me give me a history check because like obviously i think it's a fucking lion but i also know that lions actually live in the fucking savannah and not in the fucking jungle and my character does not seven
00:49:37
Speaker
Well, you know, all the children's stories, you grew up hearing a song. I obviously can't speak Elvish, so it loses some of the meaning, if it's not sung in Elvish, but in the common tongue it typically goes, in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.
00:50:03
Speaker
And that usually refers to the king of the jungle, the lion. So yeah, that tracks. It never did make sense to me because tigers live in the jungle, but lions. Well, it could also be. That fine gentleman, we've all heard of. Tarzan. Yes, I'm not sure. The jungle.
00:50:34
Speaker
No, it was not. He's my king. I can see why. Get down on your knuckles and you would bear some resemblance. You have a very similar physique and flex.
00:50:59
Speaker
You've got clothes on, right? So it literally it looks like nothing. Is there anything else to this? Oh, it rips a little bit. What'd you roll? Did you roll an athletics check? Yeah. Let's see what you get. An athletic or an acrobatics. Athletics to flex. Acrobatics to flex. You're very bendy. I'm flexible. I rolled a 12.
00:51:29
Speaker
Um, you can see some definition, uh, but he does not rip his clothing. Did you just like lift your shirt up and like flex your abs at us? Like, yeah, check this out. Um, so we're, we're still in front of them, like the archway. Yeah. Is there, is there, and if I had like sort of walk up and sort of like, just have a bit of a look around to sort of wipe bits of dust off, whatever, is there anything else on the archway at all? Is it just that text? You're just finding that text. Okay.
00:52:04
Speaker
Now that I've seen the archway, I'm quite content to leave. Forget the prophecy. We need to know more about these arches. Perhaps we should go try speak to the herbalists and see if they'll show us their archway.
00:52:24
Speaker
So as soon as I said, I was like, just to keep a straight face, maybe they didn't. Um, they do have a library here. We, the Ariana told us about, we could. Yeah. I can consume knowledge for days. We could, um.
00:52:51
Speaker
Ariana's going to, the door's still open to this chamber. She's just gonna point across the hallway. Yeah, that's the door to the library. I think her rod is in there. Yeah, feel free to look around, I guess, in there. What are the chances this horod makes us drink the Kool-Aid? It won't make us do anything. Well, try, I should say. What don't you like about this horod?
00:53:19
Speaker
He's just always looking at everyone else kind of like... Like prey? You know, it's kind of like... I am no prey. I will say this might be a little controversial, but, you know, being a tortle, having been born in an egg, you wanty always kind of give me this heavey skeevies. You wanty.
00:53:49
Speaker
Yes, he's a you want to I don't, I don't like no, I don't drink tea. I'm gonna keep that dead silence in after that joke. I'm just gonna keep the dead side. You know what, I'm actually just going to insert even I'm gonna have three minutes of dead silence after that joke.
00:54:17
Speaker
Fuck's sake, beautiful. I'm gonna steal that. You can't just ask a man if you want tea. Alright, well. Perhaps Herod might be able to help us out a little bit more, maybe, we'll see. Yeah, he's second in command here. He's kind of in charge. Kind of. Well, Oserum's in charge, but they kind of keep to themselves, you know.
00:54:49
Speaker
spending too much time in the Lord's chambers, I see. Yeah, they do spend a good amount of time in there.
Confrontation with Osrium
00:54:56
Speaker
Oh, I bet they do. Well, let's go check out this library. Do we want to meet this Harrod? Well, be able to give us a bit more information. I'll catch you later. Let me know if you can get me a meeting with Unwell. I would really like it.
00:55:18
Speaker
Yes, we appreciate your help and do not drink the Kool-Aid. Okay. Definitely don't drink the Kool-Aid. Bye. And she's going to walk down the hallway back the way that she kind of led you. All right, let's go to the library. All right. You guys crossed. Big man, you went to first. All right.
00:55:47
Speaker
I'll open the door and walk straight in.
00:55:52
Speaker
and inside you are hit by the musty smell of books and the smell of ink that pervades this chamber. You can see three-foot bookshelves filled with leather-bound books. An ornate desk sits against the wall filled with writing implements and tools. In the center of the room by one of the bookshelves is a yuan-ti with green and purple scales. As you open the door, he turns to you and goes,
00:56:22
Speaker
Yes, new recruits. Welcome. Welcome. I am Harad and you are? I walk straight up to him and I was like, we've been told about you, Haran. Thank you for having us. That is Harad. That is Harad. Harad. There's a D at the end.
00:56:49
Speaker
And his tail comes suspiciously up. Herod, okay, Herod. Thank you for having us. Are you new recruits looking to join? You look so strong. Tell us what this is. We're supposedly joining. It is the worship of our Lord, the one who will help us out.
00:57:17
Speaker
of this God forsaken dungeon. I thought you were going to end it there. The one who will help us out. What a handy guy. So the one who is this one. Your God. Give me a persuasion check. Oh, yeah. Yeah, please stop it.
00:57:45
Speaker
I do not believe he is a god, no. Gods often give their worshippers power and I do not gain spells from him. Osuram only tells us of the wisdom that he brings forth and we have learned some arcane powers from him.
00:58:11
Speaker
But Oserum will not reveal all. Those few who have met the Lord have died. I've heard his voice while I sleep, and I believe he wants me to be the one to lead us out of this dungeon, not Oserum. You are new to this place, and Oserum has no reason to distrust you or trust you.
00:58:39
Speaker
If you help me kill Oseram, I can get you out of here. My lord will share the secrets and I will not hoard them like Oseram. If your lord wanted you to lead, would he not just tell Oseram? I do not know what Oseram is told or not. All I know is that
00:59:09
Speaker
Oserum keeps us here. Supposedly he knows the way out, but he will not reveal it. He says we are not worthy yet. Well, you say all that have seen your Lord have perished, have died. Um, wouldn't your Lord just kill Oserum if he wanted you to lead? Oserum is powerful. I think- More powerful than your Lord?
00:59:38
Speaker
I don't... I do not know. My lord has whispered that Oserum holds a power over him with an amulet. I've heard he's whispering... Could we not just steal the amulet? That is true. You could do that, but it's more fun to do a little bloodshed, is it not? Is it, though?
01:00:01
Speaker
I hate getting my hands bloody. There's a very large difference between murder and theft. Don't think of it as murder. Think of it as self-defense. He has not harmed us. He's harming you by keeping you here. They're keeping us here? He's keeping us here. He must know the way out.
01:00:30
Speaker
But he chooses not to share it because we are not worthy. I don't know what bullshit. What have you done that tells us that we should trust you? You just are here saying go kill this person because the Lord said I should be the one in power. And yet you've done nothing. We've barely met. You've done nothing to prove that we should trust you and go murder somebody for you.
01:00:57
Speaker
You know, you are not so wrong in that. I understand the wisdom of that. Very well. I will help you a little bit. And he is going to go over the desk and pull a book out from one of the shelves. And the wall behind the desk opens up. And there is a chest behind it.
01:01:23
Speaker
And he'll pull out from that chest. He pulls out a wooden wand. And he says, this is a wand of binding. I believe it will best suit you, Mr. Bard. I'll take the wand. Hey, look, guys, he's trying to buy our loyalty.
01:01:53
Speaker
Any drinkers cannot buy my loyalty. I crave knowledge. Information. That is exactly what I offer you though. Ostrom will never share his knowledge and I can share... I can share all we've learned and all we will learn. I'm gonna insight check him. Do I believe that he would if we helped him? Sure. Give me an insight check. Oh god, please fucking roll good.
01:02:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's all right 22 You believe that He wants to escape and He will do anything in his power to escape and if that means sharing knowledge with others And working with others to get his goals. He will do it
01:02:54
Speaker
Curious, but I do trust this person on a certain level. I believe he would do whatever it takes. But what knowledge can you offer us now? Prophecy, we heard, tell that you're people. No.
01:03:26
Speaker
I have also heard that rumor. Oserum and my lord protect that prophecy. Supposedly it is the answer to which portal is the one to get us out. You say your lord talks in your sleep. Why does he not give you any information? Because Oserum is still alive.
01:03:52
Speaker
But when I finally have the power to kill Othram with your help, I will prove myself worthy. I'm just going to, Lorraine's just going to walk over and start perusing some books on the shelf. Sure. Give me a investigation check.
01:04:21
Speaker
I wouldn't say he's looking for anything in particular, to be honest, but anything relevant. Three. You are no Arcanist. These books mean nothing to you. Are you? No, I'm a monk. Yeah, I'm a monk. Wave the shadow. Most of these are arcane lore.
01:04:50
Speaker
Any books that specify anything about the archways at all? Not really. About the what? The archways in here or no? Give me a intelligence check. Just a straight intelligence check? Just a straight intelligence check as you begin looking. A dirty 20. A dirty 20.
01:05:16
Speaker
All right, you begin we can see each other's room. Yeah, we can see each other's roles. We want to see about. You will find a book. And as you begin.
01:05:36
Speaker
looking through, you see that there is a page about the archways, their construction. And it talks about some of the different places the archways could connect to. And then you get to the page where you think that specific archways are going to be kind of listed and where they connect to, and it is ripped out.
01:06:03
Speaker
And as you are kind of frustrated by this, you look in the back of the book and there's actually one of those little like library slips at the end of it.
01:06:21
Speaker
And you see, you know, it's been checked out by several of the worshippers. And there's also the last person to check it out was the name... Serona. Serona? Serona.
01:06:51
Speaker
How do you spell that? S-A-R-O-N-A. Sarona. Sarona, not Zaraena. Yes. Sarona. That may or may not have been the song that was stuck in my head while I was writing this. Dan, Dan, Dan. Uh, Harod, who is this Sarona? Oh, that is one of the, uh, one of the herbalists.
01:07:21
Speaker
She sometimes will come in and ask to borrow some books. Are you the people with the most substantial library down here? Yes, I do believe so. The artificers sometimes will ask to borrow books, and I'm surprised about that. You would think they would, but mostly they craft. Tinkerers by nature. I only ask because a page of this book appears to have been ripped out.
01:07:52
Speaker
But no, she defaced one of our books. That bitch! Well, to be fair, anybody could have ripped that page out, not just the last person that checked it out. That is true. I will not start the war with the herbalists today. But.
01:08:17
Speaker
Starting at the bottom of the list of people that checked it out and moving upward would probably be the most logical. Starting for the most recent. Yeah. Cause some of these people, you know, how old is this book? It's relatively old.
01:08:37
Speaker
He's like, yes, we found some books here when we first began to settle these tunnels. Other books we have written at Oserum's teachings that the Lord has taught us. All right, well, I don't think we can murder Oserum just on your word immediately, but
01:09:06
Speaker
Certainly I will think about it. Yes. I appreciate your discretion in this matter. I do not want him... I do not want them knowing quite yet my plans. We will... we'll do some investigation. Thank you. Before we leave...
01:09:34
Speaker
The language of the king of the jungle. What would you say that is? If I had to guess, I would guess it is most likely Leonin. But would you not argue that Leonin live in savannas?
01:09:58
Speaker
I can see that, but unfortunately, history is rife with inaccuracies, and idioms tend to reflect history, not empirical fact. Very well. Yes, we all know that the history was written by kings, which we also know they're the dumbest people ever.
01:10:27
Speaker
Well, I wouldn't say that right now when we're going to see somebody who is the king of the jungle. King shming. I don't believe that was his name. Come now. All right, let's are we going now? I do not know.
01:10:56
Speaker
We have a couple options, I suppose. We could go investigate the herbalists. We could, we could go to the North and try get to the bedchambers, but maybe not yet. Might be a bad idea. Uh, we could try realistically, we try go to any of the other factions. Right now we have two leads for the herbalists. It might be a bit difficult because they want to kill everyone.
01:11:27
Speaker
Well, I have a theory about that also. The worshippers and the warlords. Oh, no, it's the artifices. Never mind. Artifices and the warlords. Hey, Herod, do the worshippers and the warlords get along? We have no reason to fight them now. It would just end in the pointless death. But we could obviously take them if we needed to. Hmm. Okay.
01:11:58
Speaker
Do you mind if we borrow one of your chosen worshipers as a diplomat, maybe a translator, as we make our way over to the warlords to investigate there?
01:12:19
Speaker
I believe Ariana said that these people were corrupted according to the warlords, and they probably wouldn't take that very favorably. Yeah, I don't think they would let others. We might be able to go in freely, but not the others. We can... They don't have to be wearing these white robes. Oh, why not? I like the robes quite. You would.
01:12:48
Speaker
I'm sure you could get Ignar a sec yet to go with you. We spoke with this young portal earlier that I believe would do great. Ariana? Ariana, yes. Do you mind if we take Ariana with us? Sure, yes, you can take her with her, with you.
01:13:17
Speaker
Very well, very good. Hey, do we want to try to go to the Worlds first? Do we want to go over the first? I guess that's the decision now. I personally don't really care. But we do have two leads for the Herbalists. But there could be a Leonin also in the...
01:13:42
Speaker
in the warlords. Leon had the herbalists and there's a page missing from this book which was last used by an herbalist. Yes, the Leonan is the leader of the herbalists. Wouldn't it be quite foolish if like every gate was like meant for one faction but they just all had the wrong gate?
01:14:11
Speaker
Uh, maybe. That would be quite funny. I probably go to the herbicides first before anything else. How many people that think so highly of themselves could not be that stupid? Well, there isn't much diplomacy. So big man, where shall we go?
01:14:41
Speaker
Well, we're already here. Let's go poke our head in the door where the serum is and just see what's in there. I mean, we should at least see what we're walking into.
01:14:58
Speaker
I mean, they never, they, they walked away from us and said, you know, basically choose which way you want to, if I can go, they didn't say we couldn't follow them. So they should go gather trust. And then they would show us. Well, well, I will just say right now that I have ways to get around if need be locked doors cannot bar me. They can't bar me either.
01:15:25
Speaker
Well, they might be able to. Maybe. Depends on what the door is. But if you can't do it, I'll just knock it down. Why should I borrow this token? Why are you so strong, Bard Man? Yes, you may. You can borrow it. Just make sure you fill out the library card information in the back so we know. And put it in and it opens up.
01:15:51
Speaker
and they'll ask for the card. Thank you very much. Now we have a record of who asked for it. You basically just sold your soul to these people. Where would you guys like to go next? I think we're going to go poke ahead in where a serum is.
01:16:20
Speaker
Cautiously though, while we're here, just scope it out. See if he's in his room.
01:16:26
Speaker
As you guys walk back through the chambers that you came, you pass through that chamber with the disfigured elven statue and you see a giant minotaur with red fur at the statue trying to repair it. You pass by and go up to the north and to that small northern door and you open it.
01:16:53
Speaker
to a very simple bedchamber with five worn beds. They are in disrepair and barely look like they've been slept in. There is a door just above you. And you hear chanting coming from behind that door. If we do it really like quietly, can we check if the door is locked without like notifying anyone inside? Give me a sort of hand check.
01:17:23
Speaker
Very slightly. Just want to do it really, really calmly. Fourteen. Fourteen. It is locked. And we hear what type of chance they're doing. We're going to understand. Give me a arcana check. What? Yeah. Can anybody roll that? Yeah. If you all like to listen to the chanting. There's no tunnels right there.
01:17:51
Speaker
3020. When T two 17 plus five nice Jesus Christ. Now caster would you like to? What? Which is a muscle car, sir. You unfortunately have no idea. I'll say you guys barely have an idea of what is being chanted. It
01:18:18
Speaker
You hear words mixed in, what languages do you guys speak? Elvish. Common elvish, goblin and thieves can't. Um, abyssal, common elvish and infernal. Um, I don't hear what's happening, but yeah. What languages do you speak? I speak elvish, sylvan, deep speech and celestial.
01:18:45
Speaker
Wow, wide variety. You hear in abyssal because you speak abyssal, you hear some words sprinkled in like protection, seal, stuff like that. Is there a keyhole? There is not a keyhole.
01:19:11
Speaker
Would I be able to, like, from trying the door, would I be able to discern if it's, like, barred or if there's, like, a latch or something? Give me a... Oh, Lord. I guess an athletics check? An athletics? Yeah. Before you mess with the door, we want to make sure it's not, like, trapped or anything to stop people just trying to mess with it.
01:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just more trying to like go from the feeling that I got when I tried to open it, you know, like was it did the did it feel like the whole door was being like when I tried it or was it just like a little bit check inside check to see what you felt inside yourself.
01:20:01
Speaker
21. 21. When you tested it a little bit, the door handle itself was not locked. When you pulled it a little bit, you felt like there was... Oh, it's like a knob. Yeah. You felt like there was something kind of... You saw like a little crack of light for just a second, but there appears to be something barring the door. Is there light like underneath the door? Just a little bit. Can I drop down onto the ground and look underneath it?
01:20:30
Speaker
When I closed? Sure. Can I see? A dexterity saving throw. You should have let me check the door. Natural 20 for 28.
01:20:50
Speaker
You bend down to look at this kind of small crack at the door and suddenly a tentacle comes whipping out and tries to grab you on the face and it disappears. As you roll away, the door begins to shudder a little bit as Ocerum phases through and goes, you are not permitted.
01:21:18
Speaker
to look upon our lord. And that is where we are going to end for this week. I would like to thank my three players for joining me on this adventure, Mr. Baka, Mr. Bluegibbles, and Lion 5K, Mr. 5K. The theme song was written and produced by the Dungeon Maestro on TikTok and Instagram, so go check him out.
01:21:43
Speaker
If you enjoyed listening to this, please leave a review if your podcasting app allows you to and tell your friends, spread the word about it. I would really love to get this podcast kind of off the ground because I've been having a wonderful time doing interviews and doing kind of the actual plays. So it would mean a lot for me if people could just spread the word about it. I'm ArthosCreations, you can find me on all social media as that.
01:22:09
Speaker
and then please return in two weeks when we do the second part of the Dungeons of Quandary, the final door. Thank you so much for listening, have fun, do your best, and I believe in you.