Shadowdark! The Corsairs of Anon-Thuun Ep6

A player returns... A player is absent... Union has his hit points reduced to naught again... The characters find out what the mysterious red eyed lady has been doing all this time... A theological discussion is had...

#ad&d #Shadowdark  #OSR #ttrpg #actualplay #rpg #Dnd #oldschoolrpg #limithron

This series features the wonderful RPG Shadowdark by Kelsey Dionne and The Arcane Library!  for more info on this game visit https://www.thearcanelibrary.com

Now that we have finished recording this tale (new episodes coming soon!) I am happy to report that this adventure uses a wonderful battlemap produced by the good folks at https://www.limithron.com  If you like Pirate themed maps, adventures and games (Pirate Borg!) for your RPG enjoyment, check them out!

Visit Lazarus Games' eBay store for retro gaming goodness!  https://www.ebay.com/str/lazarusgames

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

This week on retro rollcast. Union, you take another point of damage, and you are still paralyzed. That can't be good.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

I very carefully light my torch.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Okay. In the second round, you're you're distracted slightly by something bumping into you.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

I whispered Marco in your ear. Yeah, that's not worse. You're talking about an existential dread in the dark in a room full of water with tentacles. Just hearing Marco.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Just another Saturday night.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

And I'm unmuting our friend who has joined us again this week. How are you doing, Sean? That's how he's doing great. That's the sound of a monster being opened. He's getting geared up like a little bit. It's my second one, so you've been warned. Oh God. Oh, we're warned all the time. Fire. But you were absent last time. This time we have another absence from one of our original players. Brian, aka Doc is not with us uh this time, but he will return in the future. And we are back. And uh Sean, you play a character named Aaron. A Aaron, yes. Yeah, we've made that joke plenty. I'm sure you have. And last time you were uh you were passed around, let's just say, amongst the rest of the players here to use as they saw fit.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

I see you all chuckling. Not he was used.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

But your character is he comes to full consciousness as he is hit in the face with a wall of black water and pummeled backwards, and you find yourself spluttering water out your mouth and nose and other assorted orifices. Wow. Orified that took a turn. I have assorted orifices, apparently. But over the last several hours, your brain is like very foggy. It feels like you're that Iran has been like manipulated by by unseen forces. Or seen for the water. And you haven't been you haven't been quite yourself. But the wall of cold black water wakes you up. And that's unfortunate because in amongst the wall of black water is the horrific stinging tentacles of something. And for a split second, as you come to consciousness, you hear shouting of your compatriots, but then everything goes dark. And that's where we start this episode. The characters have opened up the door that had been cocked into water tightness by the fish people that you ran into earlier. Wait, there were fish people? Yes. Vaguely, you recall vaguely in your recollection that there are fish people and a strange mage and a dark crystal.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

I thought that was just a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

But it all kind of jumbles all kind of jumbles together in your mind. You don't really know what's going on. You just know that you're scrabbling for purchase under the water and that you are in immense pain.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

And to be fair, even had Sean been here, he still wouldn't know what is going on. All right. Okay. Come on. Does anybody think he'd remember? Honestly.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Sorry, GM Sean is dying. You killed him is dying. Woo! Because there's so much truth in that statement.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Administratively, we need to roll our session initiative for Shadow Dark this time. So everybody roll me a D20, add your DEX modifier. Or subtract it. A natural 20.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

You go first. Minus two. 12. So 18. 15. You have a minus two decks? 15.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Okay. Wow. We would roll with 18. Hey. Um. But you're still high. Oh, yeah. You're still the high roll. The high roller. So we will start any sort of initiative for narrative play with Rodney and his character. Dirk Wiggins. Dirk. That's right. And then we move to Iran and Union and then Naria. Now, when we left, Dirk, you are actually you were standing like around the corner. Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

I was just around the corner that I wouldn't get hit by any of these.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

So you would braced yourself against the wall. The water had come up to your waist, but you were still on your feet. Right. I have a question. Who actually opened the door? I believe that might have been Roke. Perfect. He's not here, so yes, it was. This is gonna sound bad. Edited this last night, but I don't remember actually who did open the opening of the door. All right. But it was the decision to open the door was a pre-planned and premeditated act that the entire group agreed to.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

I assume someone had to go up there and pull the tar-soaked rope out of the gap and everything to get it open.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

But we we did pull four.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

But it still wouldn't open. We had to force it, I believe. Yeah. I was there and I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

That brings us up to our next question. Is the last time Sean was absent and we uh we did what we did with his character, I gave you guys the option of doing what you will with uh with rogue, our our age. So what was the consensus, though the final decision as to I I think if somebody dies, we just give them rogue.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

I think we'll no pass him around like we did with my character last time. Okay. What is the method then? Right. Yeah. I say it's roll highest, so Sean never gets a chance to play him. Wow. Bring it. Let's go. High roll mage. All right, high roll on what? D10 or D20. D20. All right. The best die ever. Oh, we're gonna roll right now? Right now, bitches. Mine. Three, six, five, four.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

God. Remember, remember you don't have to run faster than the bear. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Oh my god. The gods are smiling on me.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Well, keep it up that way. This is like Sean's revenge. Right. No, but hey, that's he's gonna roll great today. Here we go. You can see that gleam of determination in his eye. Right. That's just the second monster kicking in. But anyway, Rogue's standing right next to the door. You're standing around the corner. Naryaf, you and Iran are spluttering to the surface of the water in immense pain from the stinging tentacles of the Portuguese man of war television.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

You can see their billowing gelatin structures above the water for the brief second until your torch went out. But Union had not surfaced. That sucks. This is I don't know if you can call this necessarily combat, but it is definitely definitely a situation that is combat-like. Survival. So we're gonna roll with session initiative for this. Dirk. Alright. You see all this go down and then the world goes black.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

I believe I might have actually been the one carrying the torch. I can't remember, but it got dark and I have a torch. So I'm going to attempt to pull a torch out of my backpack along with my flint and steel, and then light it.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Oh, never mind. Otter style.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Floating on his back. I don't have any flint and steel in my backpack anymore. That was lost in the ocean. Wait, what?

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Oh, okay. So you're pulling out a torch and fumbling around. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have flint and dark in your pack.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

Yeah, but it's like a two-foot long piece of wood. How hard could it be to find out? Okay, so that's what you were doing. Okay, hold on. Does anyone have flint and steel? Somebody does. We lit torches last time. Neither of these two character sheets have it. Do you have a crawling kit? Does it say crawling kit? No. You guys didn't buy the crawling kit? No. No. It might not have mattered if they had. But I have flint and steel. Okay, so one person.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Okay, but it's he's fumbling around in his back. You hear some rustling over in the corner. Splash replash. You you come to be. You're spluttering water. You're in pain. What are you doing? It's dark.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

Do I have any concept of direction? Probably not. Not really, no. No.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

And I am not touching a wall. But I will determine which cardinal direction you're facing in. I'm I'm trying to get to a wall.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

I'm swimming a direction.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

You're facing up.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Right. I'll make sure my head is above water and I'm trying to get to a wall. So I'm swimming a direction. Whatever that direction happens to be. Straight left or back? Straight. Okay. Because I don't know which.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

I'm assuming I got washed away from the door. Okay, it's more painful in that direction. You take another point of damage and make me a con save.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Moving forward is always painful.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Ain't that the truth? A con save. I forget, is this a roll over or roll under? Roll over. Roll high, add your bonus. Natural 23. So yours rolled a natural 20? I did. He did. Wow. Look at this. The winds are changing.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Okay, so you feel the stings of a thousand tentacles. And I like it. But determination kicks in fueled by existential terror because you don't know what's happened to you for the last few hours. And you're a little freaked out. Dark water, tentacles. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing. And you ru you like rise up out of the water and because you're moving at a good clip, right? Yeah. Leather armor. He's pretty and the water is like waist deep at this point, but you run to get out of the pain of the tentacles. That's fair. And you smack straight into a lava rock wall. That was the goal. There you go. Union, you are paralyzed.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

That's an easy one to try.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Drool a bit. So you can't do really anything except drown. But you can experience all of it. I can drown. That's the best.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

The pain.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Naryaf.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

The world is dark.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

I'm lighting a torch.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Okay. So we are the water is shallow enough we can stand.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Yeah, it was only five feet even behind the door. It's rushing around you. Yeah. Okay. The force of the water coming in is what knock you off your feet. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yep. I get up, I stand up, and as I'm standing up out of the water, I grab my flint and CEO, hit the torch in one smooth motion, and rise up holding the torch. That's optimistic.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

That is that is very optimistic to the point where that might require a dex check. I like the descriptiveness though. Yeah. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

It's good. Four. So what actually happens? It wasn't a one.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Don't drop the flint and steel, dude. But I would I would say you you have the torch in hand, but you weren't able to. Flint and steel is not a single motion sort of way of lighting a torch.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

It's definitely not a one-handed thing either.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

It looks good in my head.

SPEAKER_03 12:12

I can't imagine not being able to sit the torch down to do it, let alone doing it when you're in moving water. You're right. The whole torch under the arm. We're gonna have to start practicing that at our next adventures training session.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

I agree. You have the torch in hand and you're in your flint and steel, but you have not gotten the torch lit as of yet. So they're not but you guys do see the sparks light up the room just very briefly as he's striking the auto light torch? Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

No.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

No.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

Okay. No. You don't just press a button, it clicks. Magnesium, they just air lights. Why don't you invent that?

SPEAKER_02 12:48

And from the direction of the open door, you hear some shouts and some flapping of feet. Many feet.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

Flapping open door? Flapping feet. Yeah, the door you can just open. Fishy people. Like flap. How deep is the water that's rushing over my waist at this point? Right now it's about waist high.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

So waist high is moving pretty quick. Yeah, you can't see it, obviously, but you can feel it around your is it rising or falling?

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

It's moving.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

For all we know, it'll keep moving forever. We don't really know. Right. Pollo. Where's Narjoth and Union? Hey broke. They're. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

I can't even see you. You guys can verbally respond, and you hear responses back from everybody off and Iran.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

What about rote? Because he was totally skipped. It hurts. Sean got the character sheet and didn't do anything with him.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Yeah, rogue probably should take a point of damage.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Alright. You don't have a lot, if I recall. Yeah, that's one sixth of his input. That's it. That's more than I had. Now we're equal. Well, Dunion has something terrible, three or something, don't you? No or less. Oh. Fish food. Alright. Everybody was on a rope, right? So we couldn't have got washed out of the room. No. Were we all on one rope? I was on a rope. Yeah, everybody was on a rope, man. We were all doped on a rope. Give us some credit here.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

We're tied together.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Yep. We're tied to the corner.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

You feel the rope around your waist as you.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Alright. So I start following my rope to the to each section, like to up to the corner, right? That's where I am. I never got moved because I never failed any rolls. So I'm right there at the corner. And I know that right in front of me was the door. And at the door was rope and must miss them in union.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

So I'm going to try pushing forward in that direction, completely blind, based on just the spark I saw a minute ago. Okay. Through the water. Where did we anchor the ropes? To the ground. Where? By the door, by the corner, and then in the other side.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

So if the room is this square, rectangular piece of paper, the door is in the top right corner of the rope or of the room. Okay. There's an opening down here in the bottom right hand corner of the piece of paper and an opening down here in the bottom left. We put one spike by the door and another spike in the corner, which is where I believe your character may have been. And my character was down here attached to this spike by the corner. And I can't remember if anybody else was here with me. So when the door was opened, everybody had at least one point that they were attached to.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

Okay. So mine was around the corner, so I have to go into the room to attempt to find anybody. So we probably all got pushed towards where your bottom hand is. Or over here, right?

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Because there's two exits from the room that the water can be flowing toward. Gotcha. So my I want to find everybody so we can get the hell out of here.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

So I'm going to move back into the room and hope to find at least one person. So we weren't like on the same rope in sequence. We may not have been, but I if I recall. I think we had multiple ropes. We did. So I can't just mull on the rope.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

But you're all attached to a spike in the center of the floor. Right. Somewhere on the floor. Oh, we are?

SPEAKER_03 16:05

I don't remember if it was the center. That wasn't on his diagram.

unknown 16:08

No.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

Look, he edited it last night, so he'd know where the spike was.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

I'm going by three or four weeks of memory. And there was a lot of trauma in between then and now. So I'm having a hard time remembering.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Alright, that's fair. But yeah, you would hammer the spike into the floor, and that's what the ropes are anchored on. Okay. All of them?

SPEAKER_03 16:27

Because I know I put one right by the corner where I thought I did. We had three different points. Okay. Yeah, I was pretty sure we had three points. And somewhere there is a drawing that we put all of this information on, I believe.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

But that's irrelevant.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

I'm moving into the room looking for anybody. There you go. That's my entire You can't see shit.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

No, I know.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

That's why I'm using my legs. And as you move into the room, I'm tentacled. What direction of the flappity sounds con. So take a point of damage and make a con check. This is a role-playing game. You'd think I would have a pencil with me. It's in my bin. You need a spare one? It's over there, probably in my bin. Con check coming up. Yes, there are several in your bag. Twelve. Alright. I don't know if that's enough. And you said take a point of damage, correct?

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Correct. 12 does make it. So you are not paralyzed. You're just in pain. And if you're running in that direction, you bump into Naryov. Marco! Ouch. And again through the open door, you hear shouts and movement. Yeah, we gotta get out of here. Aran, you have just run into the lava wall and you hear things happening behind you.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Behind me. Okay. That's where the flappity flap is coming from.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

But you're you seem to be, right now you seem to be free of the stinging tentacle. The tentacle is.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

And the tentacles I just hit were directly behind me-ish? You moved through them. Oh. Scratch that idea then. Gonna follow the wall in what I believe to be the direction that would take me towards the door.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Okay. You believe that would be moving to your right.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Actually?

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Is it? You don't know. It's dark. See, I'm thinking it would be left. If I came face into the wall, it would be that way. Yeah, you were. Then go left. There's walls in all four cardinal directions. I'm going left. Following the wall. You're going left. Yeah, that's right. Okay. Whether it's right or not, I don't know. I'm just guessing. It's left.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Alright, so you make your way left along the wall. How far are you moving? Maximum.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

I'm just I'm shuffling, trying to find the door.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Okay. As you move in that direction, it seems the sounds from the room recede. And you think you've chosen worked yourself about twenty or so feet. Okay. In a direction. And if the sound is dim. The wrong direction. In in in your right ear.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Okay. Then I'll reverse course next turn, I suppose.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Union, you take another point of damage and you are still paralyzed. That can't be good. Noff.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

I very carefully light my torch.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Okay. And in the second round, you're you're distracted slightly by something bumping into you.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

I whispered Marco in your ear. Yeah, that's not worse. You talk about existential dread in the dark in a room full of water with tentacles. Just hearing Marco.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Just another Saturday night.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

All right. The uh the torch sputters to life with a little bit of smoke. And you can see yourself, you're standing like in the center of the room with Dirk right next to you in your grill. Where is everybody? Uh moving around. On the wall next to where the where you see the door is, is Roke standing there, eyes wide with fear and in mute horror. And horror, yes. You don't see union, and you don't see Aaron. Ah. Because I'm a sneaky hobbit. But you could you your action was lighting the torch this round? You do have movement. Do I see in the center of the floor? The water is rapidly receding. So it was around your waist, but it is rapidly draining out. And you can see that the jellyfish seem to be going in two different directions. They're going around to both of the other exits of the in the direction of the other exits in the room, but one of them is just stuck on top of something in the center of the room.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

I'll ignore that now.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

It has a union.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

I hit it with my mace.

SPEAKER_03 21:00

I burn it.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

I move over to the jellyfish in the center of the room to see what I can see.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Okay. That's going to So here's a question.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

That's going to hurt. Ouch. If you fire a magic whistle at a jellyfish wrapped around a person, magic missile always hits, right? So there would be no risk of hitting the person. No. Correct. Are you taking roke's turns? Yes. Okay. Roke is going to cast magic missile at the jellyfish. Okay. And I've not cast spells using this system, so how does that work?

SPEAKER_02 21:34

You need to roll a check, I believe, with magic missile specifically, you get a bonus to the check in addition to your. Oh yeah, it is an advantage. And you it's an int check, so you add your intelligence bonus. So plus four. And the DC is the is ten plus the spell level. So seventeen. Okay. That should do it. You cast a magic missile?

SPEAKER_03 21:57

And it doesn't have damages or down. I think it's a two. Two points.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

The uh the blue color of the sails of the jellyfish turns a gray and it deflates. Deflating is good.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

It killed it.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

But I don't know if any of you have ever encountered a dead jellyfish before.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah, on a each.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

They still hurt. Yeah, they do. In other words, that ain't. But you have killed the jellyfish. Good job, Rogue. You north and beyond the open door, you hear the sounds of both booted and flapping feet coming in your direction.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna end up going to that door and reclosing it. And then with the cock. I was gonna say we stuffed tarso group into the cracks.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

I'm gonna I think I seem like all we're doing is doing this door.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

You got any spikes? Anybody got a spike? Rogue spike spike.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

You're not even in the room. Oh yeah, rope's. Yeah, Rogue's actually closest to the door. He already did a thing. Do you have a spike? No. Oops. But it is your turn, Dirk. Yeah. Yeah. That's I closed the door.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

Hey, the blacksmith's hammer is still laying on the floor along with whatever's left of the spool of caulking.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

Yeah, but that doesn't help me because I need a spike. Re-cock the door. I'm not gonna recock the door. That's another style. There's a spike on the floor. I know, but I can't get it out. Somebody's got a spike. Otherwise, I'm just gonna hold it for now. The door opened in towards us, right? The word spike forced itself closed again. What's that? The door opened in towards us. Yes. Is there actually even a door left? Yeah. Okay. Alright. I force it closed and stand there and hold it until such a time as somebody brings me a spike.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

So you're closing the door and bracing it.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Yes. Okay. Aran. I dig through my pack and produce a spike.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Okay. You're not anywhere around these folks. I'm not torchlight in another room. Oh, I went out one more time.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

Once it comes in, yes. Great. Okay, I'm gonna head for the torchlight.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Alright, you can move into the room and you can get with these guys in a turn.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Just call me Caroline.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

And I you can use your action for the round and because you would hear him yelling for a spike.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

So as I'm moving toward the torchlight, I'm fumbling for a spike. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

So next round you can do whatever it is there. Union U. Throw it at him like a knife. Feel the first ability to actually move your seized up muscles. Going to attempt to swim out from underneath the spikes. Underneath the stingy. Okay. Make me a Dex check. Twelve. Who can tell? Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

With a bonus? That's with my bonus.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

So you are able to, and it still hurts, but you are able to pick your way out from under the jellyfish without incurring an additional point of damage. And I'm no longer drowning. And are you getting yourself to a wall or are you heading back? I'm swimming towards the light. Okay. Alright. At your feet, uh up out of the water, very disheveled and red, welted up, and union, swollen. Like grabs, like grabs onto you and uses you to pull himself, pull himself up.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

I scream.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

It's quite a horrific sight.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Never heard a high-pitched scream come out of a man like that before. So I attack the creature that out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

But it is your turn.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Do you need healing? I'm pretty sure he has one hit point left. So I'm going to cast a spell of super healing.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Super healing. I don't think he needs super healing.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

No, just cure wounds.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Give me a band aignatic. At second level, you have three hit points. Wow, you rolled like ass, huh? His con is terrible.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Which is also why he failed to save. Your maximum? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Which is why when he was hit by the crab thing, you went night in a hurry, and your death timer was minimum because he got a minus to his con.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

Somehow we still managed to keep him alive. Don't mess this roll up there, Naroth.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

So I seek healing from my God. Oh. Oh, geez. It's good. That's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Oh, it looks like a four from here. I don't know what else this man does, but this man makes spellcasting rolls.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Nothing else. Yeah. That's I feel much better. He also makes SharePoint websites. Sadly, I do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

There's not a lot of difference between an almost dead union and a fully oddly functional union. They really look almost the same. He could actually die from tripping on something. He could fall out of his chair, cut himself short. That's why he has a beard. The fact that I'm still alive is somewhat impressive.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

That is amazing. Do I still get movement? You would still get movement. Oh, we've got movement. I would like to move towards the door and try to bolster it as well.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Okay, so you're both trying to hold the door shut. Okay. Till I get a spike.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

All right. Roke was preparing to cast another spell if the jellyfish wasn't moving. But now that it's dead, he's going to look for other threats. Those two are leaning against the door at this point, right? Union technically looks like a threat. Yeah, but he knows what he looks like. Okay. So now that we have light, if there was no light, there probably would be a problem. But we have a torch. So Roke is going to go throw his incredibly strong self against that door as well.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

I got it, guys. And whenever I picture Roke, I actually picture Doc.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Right in a robe. I picture Doc in a brown like burlap robe with a couple bandoliers and belts and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Do we have a torch timer?

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Yeah, I got it running. The moment you hit go, I hit go.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

But a heavy thud hits the door from the other side. Get that spike! Spike the door. Come on now. Let's hurry it on up.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

The door's name is.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

So we're gonna do an opposed strength check. Either of you can roll it, but the combined strength bonuses of everybody holding the door will apply. You mean zero?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Zero. But would we get a plus one for each person?

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Yeah, I'll give you a plus one for each person.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

That's very heroic. A plus two. We're so heroic. I don't know. You've been rolling so why would I Yeah, that's a six. Your candy dice are not sweet. Not I don't know. They're caustic.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

So the door gives it just enough. It's not messed up. And you see a mailed arm wedge its way in into the room and attempts to you're still holding the door shut up. Does it have flippers? But they've got the door open on uh you know enough. Right, it's cracked. And and he's trying to jam it open on the side arm distance. Correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

All right, and a new round and where's the spike? I couldn't I I I got washed away. Okay. No more excuses. I'm coming back. No more where are you not there yet? He's in the room. Throw it here! Alright, I throw the spike at him. Okay. Come on. Ninja style. Underhand. Alright, decks check. Is this where you roll low or high? I have no decks bonus, so it's a 13. Okay. No, he throws it in your general direction. Alright, do I need to make a roll to catch it? No. Okay, good. I threw it at the bottom of the door so it just wedges itself in there and just.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

So you see the spike coming and you're able to you're able to grab it. You're still trying to wedge the door shut, and you see this mailed arm.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

I was gonna run up and try to actually pound it in, but he wanted me to throw it.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

I set it in spot right now, and I just hold it, and I trust that when he hammers it, he's not gonna break his hand.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

Now while I'm leaning on the door. Now there's an arm in the room with That's all right. I can't fit a body through the door if you can just get an arm in there. Besides, you can chop off arms. Alright, your turn. I'm gonna try and chop off the arm.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Okay, so you're gonna you're going to attack. Alright. It's going to count as a attack with covers that's going to give them a plus two to his eight.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

This is where my dice betray me. Oh, no doubt about it. Right. I have absolute certainty. It's only a betrayal if it's unexpected. Because the risk here is of missing horribly and hitting any of them. So anything good would be unexpected. Oh wow. That's unexpected. Alright. That would be an unnatural 20. All we gotta do is crap on his dice enough. The force melts the spike. Or maybe I just need to take a week off. Then you can shit on my character for a week and then. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Roll me damage.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

A mere four points. Is that with your plus three strength bonus? Oh no. You didn't translate that down here. Honestly, do I need to six points? See when I write it though.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Okay, six points of damage. I gotta wake him up. You hear a scream of pain on the other side of the door.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Is it a human scream or a fishy scream?

SPEAKER_02 31:16

And the arm disappears, and you see a gout of blood. Nice in the room, and you guys are able to slam the door back shut.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

Is it red blood? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

It is red blood. I will attempt to make my way towards the door as well.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

Has the water completely receded or was still in like foot of water? No, yeah, the water is helpful.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

The water by this point has completely receded out of the room. So it's just wet. Okay. And the jellyfish are gone. Except for the one, the dead one then slaying in the middle of the room. Aside from the dead one. I can live with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Yes, I will make my way towards and throw my meter. Here, spike this in. I will oh where's the hammer? On the floor. Yeah, on the floor. Okay. That did not get washed away, I'm told.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

So you're grabbing the hammer? I will attempt to grab the hammer and I will attempt to hit the spike and not him. Okay, and this is definitely a stressful activity. Make me a Dex check. Stressful spike hammering. Oh one.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

I've passed the torch, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Alright. Robbie, the hammer is wet. You go to pick it up and you grab the spike and you put it in the crack in the door, and you rear back to hit it with the hammer, and the hammer slips out of your grasp and fall and flies backwards. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

I go and get the hammer. I'm hearing the Benny Hill theme song in my head right now.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Alright, so you can you can go and grab the hammer.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Can I get the hammer and come back and put the stake in all ones?

SPEAKER_02 32:46

But he's still holding the stake in place. Oh. Spike. Spike stake. Yeah, it would be a spike.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

A stake wouldn't do very good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

And he's holding the stake.

SPEAKER_04 33:01

Yeah, well, I had my hand up there holding it, and I was wincing, waiting for the hammer to fall, which is not coming.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

Waiting for the one, actually. That didn't have the same negative effect. I think I could try the hilt of my sword.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

It's close enough you can make an attempt. I want to attempt. Okay. What do I roll? D20.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Dexterity. Yeah, but checks. With your mace? Is that what we're doing? That's a five. Man. Apparently, dexterity is not our strong point.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

You give it a couple of taps. It's partially seated in there, but it's but it's not fully in. It's not going to hold.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

Perhaps you could just push it in. So it's in there like the nail that you just push in before you start hammering. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

And there's another even heavier thud on the door. And the spike goes so. So you're not holding on any more UR. I'm sure why not? And a run you are. No, because you can't. No, I just hacked the arm off. Oh yeah. It's the two of you, so you get a plus one on a strength check, whichever of you two would be. Roke was helping too. Oh yeah, Rogue. I'll roll the strength check.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Alright, because you're going to succeed this time. The guy with the plus three strength bonus might join holding the door soon.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

A natural 20. Oh wow. Okay. You Bryce, you don't even feel that much of an impact this time because you're ready for it. And the door doesn't budge. It stays in place with the three of you wedged up again.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

Actually, opens the door a little so that their hit misses and then closes it. It's like my kids fighting. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

As a stone door, you probably don't hear much beyond it if it's closed.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

We are back around. Ignore. We still haven't hit the damn spike in, correct? Correct. He has the hammer. You have the spike. Can you just hit the damn spike in already? Holy god. We gotta start. They're gonna start flanking us soon. Don't read the can. Never read the can. Go ahead. Hit the spike. Waiting. Alright, so you're yelling encouragement. Yeah, yeah, you got it. Got your team members. Whoever has a hammer, feel free to hammer this in. A run. I can use the hilt of my sword. He's got a hammer. I don't have a hammer. You don't, but he does. Okay, then grab the hammer. Assuming the guy with the hammer is going to actually hammer the spike. Since I'm the only one that actually has a strength bonus, I'm going to help brace the door. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

Alright. So you're wedging yourself in there. Alright, Union.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Give me the hammer. Hammer.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Try it again. Okay. Give me that.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

Give me that.

SPEAKER_02 35:39

Says the guy who threw it.

unknown 35:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

This time. Okay. So you get the you get the spike pounded in. I think it'll probably hold.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Praise be. You're pretty sure. I guess we'll see. Right? I have another spike. Yeah, we got three in the floor. Maybe we can have time to pull them out. But also remember, we could be getting flanked right now. It's not like this is an enclosed dungeon here. We don't know where this room goes. For all we know, you can come around and be here in three minutes. I mean, we know because water. Like one would assume there's not an easy egress from there to here because this was holding water. You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? I would like to think that. But water.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

They got here quick.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

Yeah, because that's this ceremony on the other side of the door that we wanted to disrupt. They were all competing. They're all worshipping the jellyfish when this happens. We gotta go back in the other direction now before they beat us back in this direction.

SPEAKER_03 36:43

And we'll meet them halfway in the room of gems. There's a room of gems?

SPEAKER_04 36:48

There's a lot of weirdness here that you might not remember.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

It's all hazy. It is.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

There's a good statue gems. There was a bad room of an evil wizard guy, and he was like torturing people and sucking their life energy? No, yeah, we killed that guy. Okay. And Red is over there digging in a hole somewhere in the very back corner of the entire complex. Who knows what's going on there? And then there's a big room with two statues that represent two different aspects of deities or something that have gems for eyes, but don't, because one of the gems actually is in his pocket right now. And the other one is missing.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

I am literally going to take the last like half minute, and that is going to be the intro to this episode. Because that is the most epic recap. Roke doesn't have anything. I'm not setting it down. It's entirely accurate, but it's the most epic recap.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

It was three weeks ago, four weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Lucky I remember that much. All right. Okay, you had pounded in, Nariov, it's your turn. Do I have enough time to grab another spike out of my pack? Yeah, you can go you can grab the other spike out of your pack.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

Here I take spike and try to pound.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

I have a spike, and my strength bonus accounts for all of you helping him hold the door. Right. With my brains and your strength bonus. So why don't you guys go reclaim the spikes in the floor? I can do that too. And the ropes. Because we don't have a hammer to take them out with.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

Yeah, you're all still kind of roped together.

SPEAKER_03 38:16

Yeah. Yeah. We'll get there.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

First we've got to get the right one. Alright, so you are this is less stressful because there is a spike there, and they were able to successfully hold the door. So you are able to pound the second spike in. Door secure.

SPEAKER_03 38:29

Knew I could do it. Right. Now go get the other spikes. Now we can get the other spikes. And make sure we're not having any more company. We've got to start untying ourselves so when company shows up, we can run. We're not like you get to the end of our rope. Literally. I untie myself.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

If you hear another couple of thuds on the door on the other side.

SPEAKER_03 38:48

Any flapping coming from the other orifices?

SPEAKER_02 38:50

It's a stone door, so you it's very hard to hear anything on the other side of it.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

The other orify in the other door.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Are you going somewhere where you might be able to hear such a thing?

SPEAKER_03 39:01

No.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Okay. And we can put this back into like group narrative play. So what are we doing now?

SPEAKER_04 39:08

Alright, so we need to. I'm gonna take my rope off of my waist. I don't care about the spike. We all do.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

And I'm gonna go stand right at that corner where I stood when the floodwaters came because I know that's the way that goes back into the big room that had the crab strosity in it. And then remember when you fell into the pit of water? That I do remember. That opening right there. That's one of your last coherent memories. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

Other side on that room. Yeah. He had crab poisoning or whatever. Yeah. And the other side of that room opens from like this goes to there. Okay. So the other way goes to that same room, I believe, but it goes a different direction to the same room. So we're all disroping. But I want to go down there a little bit in case somebody starts coming down this way because they know exactly where we are.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Disroping. For the people in the podcast, I just hurled a luck token at Aaron. That's showing for making a disroping joke. I'm easy. That's funny. I'm painting mine. Alright, so you're disroping.

unknown 40:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

And uh you're not worried about the spike in the floor, you're not gonna spend that night. Okay. All right. Rusty guys?

SPEAKER_03 40:16

Yes. No. That would be what? I'm just looking at my phone. You're disrope. You're disrope. Retro low cast luck token. I am attempting to dis detangle myself from all this BS. Okay. How hard would it be to pull the spike out of the ground? Giving Sean a 3D printer is dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

It would probably take a bit. You have a hammer. Yeah, but the hammer isn't necessarily designed for removal. It's more corrupt. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Why don't I try? Because I have You can't ignore it.

SPEAKER_02 40:43

What are you using other than your big manly hands? Pull on the rope?

SPEAKER_03 40:47

Like pull laterally on the rope to loosen it and then pull the spike out.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Alright. I think that would be okay. Yeah. Give me a strength. Now this is where I'll roll extra. Roll? That's good. What'd you get? 19. Okay. All right. So you're able to. Maybe I can add my strength bonus. You pull it to open it up, and then you're able to wiggle it out of the and you now have the. In the meantime, there's another couple of thuds in the door. We should probably head back to the gem room at this point.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

I agree. Or do we want to know we don't touch the gem room? It says the gem room and rope goes. Gem room. It's a good place. Oh, yeah, that was definitely a conversation. I'm sure it was. That is Doc's nature. No way he didn't try to get some of those gems. No, he didn't, at least not openly. Yeah. You don't get the other statue out.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

You get the feeling in that room that you shouldn't be touching the gems because there's a holy feeling in the room, if I recall correctly. It's a good feel, yeah. It's a good feeling, and I think the good feeling would be very much disrupted if you tried to steal the gems.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

Like it would mess up the feng shui. Or maybe. The good feeling is you should take these and use them for orphanages and other charitable donations. Not a lot of orphanages on the desert island here. I thought feng shui mean to put your husband's stuff in the garage. Literal translation, yeah. Or somewhere not visible. Right. Move your husband's stuff somewhere where you're in the room. Or yeah, organize your husband's stuff out of the room. Yep. Or there was one other door that we never went through, correct? Yeah, there was a couple doors up here that we never went through. But we just spiked it shut.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

I don't know. So completely different memory. I have the advantage of having listened to it, and it's been a little bit since we played. So the unopened doors so far were actually there's only really one. And it was in the room with the uh with the awful crystal. Oh. I thought there was okay. So you went through three of the doors in that room, but you didn't go through the one to the south. Gotcha. So that's the door you haven't gone through. You don't know what is beyond the passageway that red is trying to remove rocks to get to. And there actually was a corridor in the big underwater pit room that you didn't go down. What's red? Red is the girl. It has red eyes.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Okay. The girl? No.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

No what? Don't remember the girl. It was that's been like a month and a half since you played this. That's fair. She was the girl that washed up on shore with you guys that the captain had that never talked to anybody and just gave you angry looks so like everyone in my life.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

Wow, you don't even remember that you said that the first time. You get a tingly feeling. Yeah. That's not surprising.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

You tingle when you touch her, too.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

Yeah, it's more than a tingle. It hurts. It's uh there's pain. It's a searing pain, and your vision is filled with rivers of blood of but not blood, but fire. Burning blood. Rivers of fire.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

So can we get back to the ritual room and see if there's anybody left in there? And then see seal them off in the passageway. We got any spikes left? Yes. Yes. All right, let's go. To the bad feeling. We've averted one disaster. Why not avert another? Don't we have to create another to avert it? We will.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

Oh, you don't.

SPEAKER_03 44:10

Yeah, you have little faith. From one disaster to another. That's a problem. That's called adventuring.

SPEAKER_04 44:17

We had a disaster to start this entire thing when the ship was wrecked. That was one disaster.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Right, this last 24 hours has been pretty rough for you guys. Right.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

Yeah, fantastic. We haven't even rested yet. There is that. We woke up unconscious on a beach and we haven't even rested. Speaks for our epic endurance or resilience. Or desperation. I've only died once.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

I suggested it last time, and you all accused me of trying to lure you into a random encounter. Yes, you totally were. Trying to do that.

SPEAKER_03 44:51

You were rolling your dice in your hand already. So we're going to work our way back through the sewage room. Yeah, you guys want to rest? Yeah, exactly. I think you offered us to rest in a room right by the sewage room. I'm not sure I'd pick that place to rest. I'm not sure that's where you are.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Okay, but what are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_03 45:09

Back to the ritual room area. So we're going to we're going to work our way back to the ritual room, see if whether or not we're going to be encountered with anybody, and see if we can actually seal them into that passageway, if that is indeed the passageway they're in. Does that make sense? Okay. Okay. However long that's going to take us to do that. Because we think they're coming for us, and we're going to stop them. Correct. And who's holding the torch? I have the torch. He has the torch. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Okay, so you slosh your way. Which exit out of this room are you doing? The one you originally came up to get here the first time, or are you doing the one we left through the first the first one in the circuit?

SPEAKER_04 45:48

Correct. Yep. Where we end up on the other side of the large room that had the pit in it. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

All right. And in as your torchlight, as you go back down into the big room with the pit in the middle of it that you can't see because it's underwater. Do you see the blue bottles, the mighty sails of the blue bottles are in the middle of that room? It makes sense. Yeah. How much water is there? Are you still ankle deep in water right now? You're still, yeah, it's like about a foot and a half. Not enough for them really to swim at us.

SPEAKER_03 46:20

No sneaking.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

And as you make your way back towards the other areas of the dungeon, you see one corridor off to the west that you didn't go down the first time. And you come up to the area with the pile of uh awful ammonia smelling stuff. Yes. With the light up above. And further on you come to the room where that's lit with daylight and glittering gems and coral structures. And that's where you get out of the water and you get onto the sandy, rocky.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

And from that room, that's where red is down to one quarter off. And there's no sun in that room. That room is it is actually.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Yeah, there's sunlight up ahead that's reflecting off of all of the different. It's very, it's extremely beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 47:13

It's very beautiful because it is coming through water. If we're gonna rest, we're doing in here. We tried. Yeah, didn't work out. Did we try? We he wanted us to. Oh, we were like, we're not doing anything, the GM suggests.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

And then off to the east is the corridor leading to what you remember as the crystal room and the other. I say we No, never mind. I was gonna say let's take a break here. So the north is the passageway going up to where you left Red. Right.

SPEAKER_04 47:42

I think we should go give a quick check on Red and make sure she hasn't released whatever demon she's trying to unleash.

SPEAKER_03 47:49

I feel like we should rest, but right after kicking the Hornet's nest is maybe not the best time.

SPEAKER_04 47:53

I think that you are wise in not resting after kicking the Hornet's nest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:58

Now's the time to keep moving. Plus, we want to know if Red found whatever it is she's looking for because it's either good or bad. There's no way it's neutral.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

Rivers of blood is probably bad for us. Rivers of fire are probably a little bit better, but not by much. No, I'm going rivers of blood is better than fire. Depends on whose blood it is. Depends on if you're immune to fire or not. This is an existential problem. We don't have to deal with this right now. Bloods and fires. Let's go up to find.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

I want to go find Red. I want to see what she's doing. I do too.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Okay. So you head north and it's strangely quiet. You don't hear the any sort of motion as you're heading up. No rocks hitting the ground. No rocks hitting the ground.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Red.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

Anything. You get into the to the room where the passageway was, and that she is sitting lumped up against one of the rock walls. Large pile of rocky debris in the center of the room. And she is there, eyes closed, slumped up against the wall. And at her feet are three of the uh the corsairs. Dead. Curved swords. And they seem to be lying in in different spots on the floor, sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling. I searched their cannons. And on the other side of the on the other side of the room is a very wide-eyed member of the crew. He's been trussed up in ropes and manacles. And he's got wide eyes, and he's staring, arguing.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

Okay. You're saying the crew from the ship we came in on. Yes. Okay. Okay. Let's go free him. Okay. No. Does Red appear to be alive or dead? Is she breathing? Go check. I'm doing a visual check, not touching her teeth touching. From those distance, from distance you can't tell. Go check. Now you gotta go touch. Kiss the princess and wake up, Cinderella. Yeah. You're the healer. You go touch. Okay. I'm looking for a sword. Mine got very low away.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

Yeah, there's they're like cutlasses. So you would count them as Scimitar, probably. They'd be short swordish. Short swords. Close enough.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

Good enough.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

But yeah, you can grab a curved cutlass. How many do I can I find? There are three to match the three. I will take all three of them. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 50:25

Alright. Never gonna lose a sword.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

In case you throw one into another watery pit. Exactly. But you forgot. You still got two.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

He can put one between his teeth and have one for each hand. I got one for the other. The guy in the corner. Okay. I'll free him. You guys go free him. Go cut his findings. What about the manicles?

SPEAKER_02 50:44

I thought he's trussed up. Manicles are down around the feet. No. But he's trussed up, and you're able to free the somebody give me that hammer. The ropes. What are the rest of you guys doing? Because that's going to take some time.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

I'm checking on red. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

Checking on red.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

I'm looking for cutlasses. Is there any keys or anything like that on them? Is there anything else on them other than cutlasses? Good question. I'm looting the bodies.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Good question. Very small rocks. Pebbles. Stalling for time while I hit the random table.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

Software will take care of it. It sounds like it out.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Okay, between the three of them you find 19 gold. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Relatively wealthy pirate scallywag fellows.

SPEAKER_02 51:32

And sorry, this isn't probably very riveted listening.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

No keys, loot tables.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

The one of the cutlasses you find appears to be a very fine, possibly elven make. That's my primary weapon.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

It's an elven cutlass. Detect magic. Elf pirates.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

That's sure or whatever. Nario, if you you come up to red, the woman that you know is red. Yes. And you do see very ragged breathing indicating that she is still alive.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

She's breathing. I didn't touch her. But I try to heal her, but I have to touch her.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

You have to touch her to heal her.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

That's bad.

SPEAKER_03 52:20

You saying she's evil? I'm just going with the odds here.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

I'll try to heal her.

SPEAKER_03 52:24

Okay. Make me a check. I'm gonna watch and see if he blows up to 19 again.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

Okay. Does anything happen when I touch her?

SPEAKER_02 52:33

You your eyes filled with visions of fire.

SPEAKER_01 52:38

I heal her for seven.

SPEAKER_02 52:40

Okay. Doesn't seem to do too much. It doesn't really work. But she does stir eyes open for a second. And then they close again.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

Does anybody have any more mundane?

SPEAKER_02 52:55

And you can see the her fingers and fingernails are raw and bleeding.

SPEAKER_03 52:59

Yeah, I'm guessing there's some of the some corsair under those nails. So the place she was digging at.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

Oh yeah, there's lots of blood on the hands. Is that now exposed? Or she's made a lot more progress since the last year.

SPEAKER_03 53:14

She didn't get all the way through, but you feel that. She must be close. So these guys came up behind her, and the crew member that was of ours that was tied up was where was he? Like, how did he get here? Why don't we ask him? What go ahead? In the meantime, I'm gonna start pulling rocks down. I want to see where this goes. Okay. I feel there's something important back there. And uh hey, just as a curiosity, maybe we could take those manacles and put them on old red there. Go for it. I'm not doing it. I'm just saying that. Well, I guess the real question is did we find a key with which to open said manicles? We did not. So you're gonna use a hammer. Because then the only option is to take a spike and a hammer and break the chain.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Or that fine elven sword.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

No, but could I pick it?

SPEAKER_01 54:06

Could I pick the lock on the yeah, you can give it a shot.

SPEAKER_03 54:09

Sure. A thief picking a lock. Inconceivable.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

We're used to using that word. That'll be uh normal difficulty. Okay. Did you get a dex bonus? Yes. So 12. Okay. You get out your picks and tools, and the lock is not complicated. You've picked manacles of this sort, locks of this sort, and all the time. And after just a little bit of effort, it becomes and he's still very fairly incoherent. He's gasping and hey god.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

Hey God, most of us. Most of us. They're doing terrible.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

I'm not gonna slap a guy, but remember the way.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

Who is she? Who is she?

SPEAKER_03 54:54

It's anybody got any liquor? Fresh out. Did the Corsairs they look like the liquor tote types? Union went through their pockets looking for loose change and didn't find anything like that. No flagons of rum or anything stereotypical. No.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

Okay, Narioff, you want to do anything before we get to No.

SPEAKER_03 55:15

Okay. Alright, I'm just I'm starting back on the wall again. I think with four people here doing the work, I think we can make it pretty quick. Wait, you want to open this up? Yes. Yeah, man. We haven't seen a way out yet.

SPEAKER_04 55:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:29

And besides, look, not gonna lie, he's got one gem for the eyeballs. I suspect that the other gem is through here. What will it do? Don't know. Okay. But I know it goes in the big giant statue. Crazy River of Fire lady was trying to do this. So do we think completing it for her is a wise choice? Yeah, because the statue with the eyes that's missing, like the gem he has, that's the good guy statue. There's a good statue and a bad statue in case you didn't know. How do we know that? Because they're like, if one picture was Jesus and the other was the devil, you'd know. And you'd know that Jesus is the good guy in this city.

SPEAKER_02 56:10

One that's ugly. This is a cleric talk.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

But if I was trying to create a trap for somebody like you, that's exactly how I would do it. This would be an elaborate, overcomplicated trap to do one. Why do you play Dungeons and Dragons before? I don't play Dungeons and Dragons. I'm trying to solve the mystery right here. The mystery is who doesn't play Dungeons and Dragons. Okay, what's the mystery? The mystery is two statues facing each other. I don't want to answer that question. Facing the same direction. And we want to know what the eyes do when they're attached back to the statue in the good God. We want the good god statue complete because this temple requires balance. This yeah, this temple is of a neutral balance. He's a clerk, too. You're gonna listen to that clerk or this clerk? They're trying to I don't usually listen to any clerk. Well, there is a problem that you got. I don't think that's a problem. It is a problem. Yeah, they're trying to tip this place to evil versus neutral. So you're saying this was a temple to neutrality. Yes. And they are tilting it in the evil direction, and we need to restore the balance so that evil doesn't try. Why would a temple to neutrality have a statue of any god, good or evil? God, it's almost like you don't understand religion.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

It's almost like he wasn't here last time.

SPEAKER_03 57:28

So it is a thing, yeah. There's always good and evil. Yeah, what happened when you need to bring balance to the force? Go back to sleep in Iran.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

That was good. That was it worked out.

SPEAKER_03 57:37

You were a lot less disruptive last week.

SPEAKER_01 57:40

Yeah, you were.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

If they are going to continue removing rocks, I'm going to add guard on the doorway. I don't know. I just said this. I feel like Crazy River of Fire Lady, you don't want to be parallel to her ideals. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 57:55

I still think maybe you're making some assumptions about her morality that you don't know. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 57:59

All I know is bitch is crazy. And she's dangerous.

SPEAKER_04 58:05

I think the second part is true. The first part, we have no evidence to prove that.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

And before you go saying she did this and this, okay, touch her. Let's remember what we were doing. You want evidence? Touch her. I did.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

River and fire, right? Actually, I misspoke. There's no blood. There is only fire. Fire. Still. Both are bad. The blood is just on her fingernails. Okay, so you begin moving rocks.

SPEAKER_03 58:31

I'm moving rocks before I get sent to.

SPEAKER_02 58:33

Who is helping him?

SPEAKER_03 58:35

I'll help. Okay. I'll put as they're removing them, I'm putting them back.

SPEAKER_02 58:38

Actually, you moved a lot of these rocks.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

Yeah, you did that. You were good.

SPEAKER_02 58:41

Wait, what? You were good. You remember hauling rocks out alongside. She's very familiar all of a sudden. You don't know why you feel differently about it now than you did a few hours ago.

SPEAKER_01 58:52

We move one, he puts two back. We move one, he puts two back.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

But anyway, after a couple of minutes, and you're guarding the door, and you can see. Do you go over to where the big room was with the pillars and the statues? Or are you staying in this? I'm staying in the and guarding the entryway of this. That's the only way in or out, right? There's the way you came up from the choral room, and then there's the passageway going over to the gem room.

SPEAKER_03 59:19

To the big room with the pillars and the remember stealing any of those gems out of the statues on him? He did not.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

No, it was a discussion, but it didn't happen. Okay. Oh yeah, is Rogue doing anything? How'd Roke guard the other rooms?

SPEAKER_03 59:31

He's trying to remember if he stole the statues out. He's stealing gems.

SPEAKER_04 59:35

I think based on what I'm seeing hearing out of Sean, it might be time to roll to see if Roke is still in his control so he doesn't start stealing gems with them.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

I can't do it. I'm just trying to play it like the player would. But he didn't. No, he didn't. He didn't that time.

SPEAKER_02 59:52

You guys did that last time as well. You a lot of you were a devil's advocate for a whole lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 59:56

So have Roke guard the other entrance. Okay. I will guard one, he'll guard the other. I will guard the one coming from the statue room. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:05

That's most likely where we'll have some kind of uh after a couple minutes, you remove a rock sort of towards the top, and you see nothing but blackness beyond.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:15

That's encouraging. Yes. We're through.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:19

And what has Red been doing this whole time? Still recovering from her fight? This is all still shut up.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:25

Breathing, breathing raggedly, not moving. All right. I keep pushing things out of the way until we can get through over the pile of rocks without a huge amount of difficulty.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

Okay. And you can clear in in just a minute or so after that, you can clear enough that one of you might be able to wriggle through. Or at least stick a torch in a torch in.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:44

I know who does that. I put a torch in.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

There you go. Okay. And you beyond, when you put your torch into the room, you see a circular room hewn from the volcanic rock. In the center of the room, rising up is about a five-foot like recreation of two volcanoes. Like rivers of fire. Like the island. And you can see glyphs emanating out on the floor of various gemstones. You can see red gleam off of the floor tile in your torchlight. And on top of that of the main volcano is a dark greenish crystalline structure. Is it a good guide to the colour? Just sitting on where the caldera would be on the volcano.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

Crystalline structure.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

And in your nightmares, you know that you've seen a crystalline structure like that before.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:41

When you say crystalline structure, you mean like a miniature building? Or just crystal formation?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:47

Like a starish formation of crystals growing out in the city.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:50

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:51

So the green crystal structure was the there was a green crystal structure in the room of the suck the soul out of the guy. That's where we killed some kind of wizardly fella who flew. And you may have done something to influence that fight. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:06

Yeah, I think he might have killed the guy. Yeah, he might have killed the guy. He might have shot him with a bow or something. You have a bow? I have a crossbow. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:13

You definitely shot him with a cow. I used it a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:15

Is it all coming back right now? No. Not even a little. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:18

Anyway, so yeah. We killed like a crab guy and a fish guy, and then in that room, then we decided that that crystal, green crystal thing was evil because didn't you touch it?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:28

Somebody touched it or I got an ooky feeling off of it. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:31

So now you hit it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:33

So this is not a tie-dye temple.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

Was that what killed me? No, the the crab guy killed you. Okay. Well, okay. But some somebody hit it and their arm went numb.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:43

But it was a green crystal, much like the green crystal on top of this volcanic mockery. All right. What we just unearthed would not be at first assumed to be a good guy structure. Maybe a bad guy's structure. Possible. I think it needs more study. Maybe we should go into the room and look around. Go for it. I'll weigh down here. Okay. Okay. I go in.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:07

And after I go out, you can you clear enough to be able to do that. Let the theologists do their thing. Easily out of the room. And yeah, it looks like the room is built around the volcano. Which it in along the wall other like volcano related carvings in the volcanic rock.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:26

And there were two volcanoes on this island, right? Correct. A larger and a smaller.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:31

This in the center looks like those two volcanoes. Right. It's a maca. You're underneath right now. And the one has green crystal structure around it. Right. The main caldera of the big one has and you don't think it fits. You don't think it's supposed to be there.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

Pick it up. Makes sense. All right. Pick it up. So it looks like it's a not pick it up. You're not in the room. Shut your hole.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:53

So that's your that's the little voice inside your head. So the green on top of it looks like somebody added it after the fact. Is that what you're insinuating there? Pick it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:03

Alright, so we could that would fit with the rest of the temple being desecrated.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:09

And taken over by the green stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna take my mace and I'm gonna just get under that green thing and push it off the top of the volcano.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:19

So we think the temple of the volcano gods is good or neutral, is that where we're at? Neutral. Neutral. Volcanoes are neutral because they're totally natural. And they're fiery. And they don't care one way or the other. Very neutral. Volcano's gonna do a volcano thing. It's going to. Whether you want it to or not. Mount St. Helens is doing right now. Yep. No kidding. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:41

We're safe, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

Yeah. Yellowstone, we would not be. Right. If you when yellow. No, I'm pretty sure we're in the blast radius. We're in the ash falling. Poison rain. Nothing's gonna blow up at Yellowstone in our lifetimes. It's gonna go sometime. That we know of. In a million years, maybe. Nobody really knows. Tomorrow. Who knows? It could be tomorrow. It could be a tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:03

It's probably not going to live without a lot of warning.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:05

The problem, the reason Yellowstone hasn't blown, is because we haven't thrown red into it yet. It needs to be. So once red gets thrown into the volcano here, then it will erupt. And that is my worry.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:15

That's how paranoid this player is.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:17

He has poked the green crystal with his mace.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:20

I'm lifting it up and off of the top of the. You feel like something reaching out to you and tearing at the underpinnings of your soul when you do this. Use the force. But you are you're able to move it a little bit, but it would require a fairly stout effort to by me or by multiple people. Do you touch it?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:40

You've moved it by yourself, but you don't feel you can hurl it off from the top. Saint Tyragnus will always keep my soul safe, but I do need some help here. So what do you say? You got it. Nargroth.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:52

Let's push.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:53

Together. For the good gods. What do you use? We touch it. So I'm gonna start stacking the rocks back up.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

You're gonna seal them in here. You and Rogue are gonna retire. You just undo the rocks from either side.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:10

Push them over.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:11

I use my shield. We could possibly remove the rocks from this side.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:16

All right. Are we able to move the green crystalline structure off the top of the volcanic model?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:23

Two people. With the two of you? Yeah, you feel you probably could. Or you're going to.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

Yeah, we're going to. Taking my shield. Don't touch it. I don't know. Okay. I don't have a shield.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:34

With a heave and an effort. You both know better than me. You push this crystalline structure and it falls down the far side slope of the five-foot tall volcano. What kind of noise does that make? Noise does the island make. The crystalline arms shatter as it rolls over and comes to a rest. And a greenish mist definitely stacking the rocks from where this ends. But as soon as the caldera is free. Oh, I know what this means. Every single one of you feels way down under your feet a rumble. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

Way to go, guys. Oh, yeah. We're on it now. Start the time. And was the goal to destroy the island? Was that what we were shooting for?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:26

We're shipwrecking on the five-foot-tall volcano, pulsing red light coming down the sides of it and lighting up the Red's gonna kick your ass. No, this is what Red wants.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:37

This is what she wants.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:38

And then in the other room, you see her, she's still slumped against the wall, but her eyes open and they are glowing.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:46

So you guys can't see this in podcast land, but Sean just did this roll his eyes back into his head thing. It was really fucking creepy.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:54

And that's where we'll pick it up on the next episode of Retro Rollcast.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:58

Thank you for listening to this episode of Retro Rollcast. Please check out our social media, and we will see you next week. This has been a Retro Rollcast production.