The World Below - The Farthest Gate, Episode 2

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello, friends, and welcome to another single serving tabletop adventure from Queens court games. I am Aaron. I use he him pronouns, and tonight I will again be your story guide as we dig down deep into the dank, dirty dearth for the world below, a game of exploration, horror, and survival by Onyx Path Publishing. Now, this story is being told in sequence, so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, if you don't recognize any of these people from a game, you might have been able to. [00:00:30] Speaker B: See them somewhere else. [00:00:30] Speaker A: That's fine. If you don't know what they're doing here on this channel, stop right now. Go to YouTube, go to your favorite podcast app, type in Queen's court games, the world below, episode one. Then you'll be able to watch the first episode of the theory and get some critically important context information about the. [00:00:46] Speaker B: Characters, all that kind of stuff. [00:00:48] Speaker A: Now, we are all kind and patient people, so we're actually going to pause our recording right now and then just wait for you to come back. Send us messages in chat when you get here. How long do you think we. [00:01:05] Speaker C: Couple more seconds. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Welcome back. See, don't you feel way more informed now you've had a chance to meet all the characters, you have a much better picture of what is going on. Now, with that in mind, let's continue our story. We return to Mudtown, so named because a town, and also it is muddy. And in this case, the mud, has been turned up quite a bit by an infestation, an invasion, a cataclysm of rats pouring into the city from the soft, soft earth. Now, thankfully for the people of Mudtown, thankfully for the market of Mudtown, thankfully for the grain stores of Mudtown, for different, I hesitate to say intrepid, because a, it's a cliche, and b, I don't think it entirely applies for adventurers. Brackets, generally end brackets, were on hand to solve that problem. In a matter of speaking, mess was made, crisis was averted, but debts were incurred, and Jett, captain of the Mudtown guard, saw fit to conscript you into restorative service. There are still problems in Mudtown. They need more supplies. They know where they can get them. They don't want to go get them. That is why you are here. For reasons varying from knife enthusiasm to lack of anything better to do, the four of you did agree to go on this journey, past eleven sealed gates and into a citadel forgotten by time. Possibly cursed, possibly haunted, definitely dangerous. And that is where you will go. They did, thankfully, give you at least the benefit of a good night's sleep. Night being a quasi concept in a world where there is no sun, but nevertheless, you will awaken at the appropriate time, perhaps well rested, depending on how well you slept, perhaps well fed, depending on whether the people you have shacked up with are the generous sorts or the more leave it to yourself sorts. But those are details I will leave to you, because at this point in the adventure, I'm going to use the assignment die to pick who wakes up from first and then gleefully hand the narrative over to you in the future. I should have the assignment by ready in advance. [00:03:47] Speaker B: That is a four. [00:03:48] Speaker A: Which brings us to Montgomery. Now, Montgomery, two things that we know about Mudtown. Well, there are more, but there are two in particular. One is they actually are really big into hospitality. No matter how high born or low born, no matter how wealthy or poor, everyone gets a place to sleep, everyone gets food to eat. Now, what does your experience of that tradition in Mudtown look like? [00:04:13] Speaker C: I think for Montgomery, he probably would have gotten a contact through one of the marketers, whoever he traded with, try to find someplace to go. Wherever he was pointed to was probably, like you're saying, a welcoming of sorts, almost like a. Not an Airbnb hostel. So probably a place kind of full of people, but also, you know, it's encouraged to help out within the residency while you're there. So Montgomery would have, you know, relaxed, had his sleep, woken up somewhat early, just because that's what he's used to doing. Saw that his. The people who took him in were probably preparing some kind of breakfast. He would have asked to help out with that, you know, done a little cooking and just kind of settled himself preparing for the day ahead. Yeah, he just would have gone through, like, his daily routine, kind of supplemented whoever he's helping and cooking for, as like, oh, yeah, I'm used to this. You know, I kind of actually thrive in this kind of environment and just kind of enjoyed himself and settled himself. To prepare for the day ahead. [00:05:32] Speaker A: I would like to add a little narrative spice to the sauce that we are cooking. Not every roll in the world below has to have huge consequences. And big steaks, you can actually just use them to determine small flavors in the world that you don't want to do by way of narrative fiat. So, in this case, I'm going to ask, would you consider cooking broadly? Would we call that science? Would we call that artistry? Would we call that culture? [00:06:04] Speaker C: I think for Montgomery, it's probably culture. Cause he can cook, but he would tend to lean towards cooking. What he normally cooks for his family, so he would probably bring in part of that to whatever meal they had. So kind of like, you know, when, um, when your southern auntie comes to visit and you're used to mom making pancakes a certain way. But the way she makes pancakes. [00:06:35] Speaker B: What. [00:06:35] Speaker A: I learned mostly from those interactions is that you have to pretend the pancakes are terrible, lest you open up a huge bag of family drama worms. Worms don't come in bags, do they? It's irrelevant. This being the case, then, Montgomery, will you make me a cunning and culture role? Sure. [00:06:53] Speaker C: Culture and cunning. Oh, those are actually really low for me. Uh, six, seven, and ten. So two hits? [00:07:09] Speaker A: Two hits is fine. Uh, then I went really well. Is there a particular recipe from your family that you were able to introduce these people to? [00:07:22] Speaker C: It is a type of mushroom fungus porridge. It looks really heavy, but it's deceptively light. It fills you up, but it doesn't weigh you down and gives you a little bit of. A little bit of pep in your stuff, a little bit of energy for the day. [00:07:42] Speaker A: Imagine this being the exact speech that you've given to the people who are kind of looking at the bowl like, and you're just like, no, it gives you. It looks heavy, but it sits light. And on two hits, I will call that a resounding success in the kitchen environment. You are a hit. [00:08:01] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:08:01] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:08:02] Speaker C: It's a pleasure to serve. [00:08:06] Speaker A: Ah, but alas, your reservation has a pretty strict checkout time, both enforced by the host and also by a particularly stern, jet clad jet. So it will only be a matter of time before you are expected to head out towards the gate. The gate to the city that is now you don't leave alone. And we're still using the world below initiative system. So who is the next person. Person to arrive bright and early, ready for adventure? [00:08:38] Speaker C: If she didn't arrive before me because I feel like she gives off that bit of vibe, I would say vivain. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Honestly, narratively, if we want to say that vivain is there waiting for you, I am fine. Bending chronology in that sense. Vivain, the choice is yours. But before we can answer that question, how'd you start your morning? [00:08:57] Speaker D: Yeah, so I think Vivain was staying with some guild members. I think that's pretty traditional for people who are sent by the guild to a particular area. There's sort of an outpost that the guild puts up, and you stay there. And I imagine that she actually probably did not get to sleep until pretty late. I imagine she was going rifling through the guild archives or whatever sore excuse they call a library here, and pulling out relevant reference works and things that she might need, books that she might need to consult on this, the trek to the farthest gate. But, yes, I think she typically takes a lot of pride in being punctual, and for her, being punctual means being early, because you are actually late if you are on time. So I think she is absolutely there waiting for you when you arrive, Montgomery. And she still has that sort of air of, like, her foot is sort of tapping, you know, she's. How long is it gonna take these people to show up? Sort of vibes that you're getting? [00:10:01] Speaker A: Run with that scene. I'm here for it. I'm just gonna watch. [00:10:07] Speaker C: Seeing you there, I would slither up. I don't know what to call it just yet. Hi. Hey. Good morning. [00:10:17] Speaker D: Good morning. Not especially. But you're on time, yes, yes. [00:10:28] Speaker C: I try to be as punctual as I can. [00:10:33] Speaker D: We have slightly different definitions of what punctual means, but you are on time. How was your sleep? [00:10:42] Speaker C: My sleep was as good as it could be, given the circumstances. Uh, how about yourself? [00:10:50] Speaker D: Oh, I didn't do much of that. I mean, a little of it as much as necessary, but I did a lot of reading, which is how I prepare, so I feel prepared. Do you feel prepared? [00:11:01] Speaker C: Yeah, as prepared as one could be. Um, I will say not to tell you what to do, because I would never tell you what to do, but good move. It is good to get a good amount of sleep. It's always good to prepare. But, you know, if you don't sleep, you're not going to retain as much as you could. Just throw that out there. [00:11:24] Speaker D: I mean, that is, scientifically speaking, sound advice. I suppose there is a fine line to walk between them. Sometimes you err on one side or the other. I like to split hairs and walk right down the middle, which is get enough sleep. Not the most sleep, but enough. Are you. You're a chaosist, unless I'm mistaken. [00:11:51] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, chaosist. I mean, I don't, like, super study it, but I know enough to get by, to get me through my means. [00:12:01] Speaker D: Where did you study? [00:12:04] Speaker C: Oh, you know, here and there. Kind of study through the world itself, if that makes sense. [00:12:13] Speaker D: Ah, I see. So you. You stumbled into it. [00:12:19] Speaker A: He's a rhoda scholar. Yeah, different fellowship. [00:12:24] Speaker C: A scholar of life, as the bohemians say. [00:12:29] Speaker D: Yeah, I think vive processes this for a moment. [00:12:35] Speaker C: I think Montgomery is also processing this. So I think there's just a moment of just nodding at each other. [00:12:44] Speaker A: Well, you can't have a thick silence without it being interrupted. Vein, it falls to you, a very actually important decision, because not only do you get to decide who comes boisterously into the scene to interrupt this measuring of souls, but then also who's going to be late. [00:13:09] Speaker D: Hmm. Actually, I want to put this to the table. I think. Is it more interesting if we double down on tourmaline being last and therefore even more irritating? Vivain. Or does that play the beat too hard and we should swap it up? What do you guys think? [00:13:32] Speaker E: Go interact with people you haven't interacted with. I'll bring up the rear. [00:13:38] Speaker D: Rad. [00:13:38] Speaker C: There you go. [00:13:39] Speaker D: Okay. Delightful. Love it. So, in that case, I will pass the baton to Stan. [00:13:47] Speaker F: Stan was honk shooing until the last possible second. They were trying to just. What a knock on the door. She's like, what? What is it? Oh, leaving. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Then she goes down and just, like, grabs as much food as they can. She's like, I'm not gonna sit here and eat this. [00:14:10] Speaker D: Bye. [00:14:11] Speaker F: She just leaves, like, legs of meat and, like, a stack of bacon. She walks over, grease just dripping down her arm. [00:14:18] Speaker E: Just. [00:14:20] Speaker F: Am I interrupting something? [00:14:21] Speaker A: Gonna be hard pressed to find pigs in the world below, so do not ask where that bacon came from. [00:14:28] Speaker F: It is mystery bacon, possibly beetle bacon. Beetle bacon. [00:14:36] Speaker D: You heard it here first. Yeah. Vivain's eyes. You see her eyes just, like, give you a once, like, a vertical once over, taking in just the full effect of the dripping grease. And she says nothing, but she's looking at you. [00:14:55] Speaker F: Then's just gonna also give a once over to be like, last time I had someone looked at me, I had to chop its head off and turn it into a stew. [00:15:04] Speaker D: Oh, well, I do hope that's not my fate. I don't think I would taste very good. [00:15:10] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:15:13] Speaker C: Anything can taste good if you season it right. So. [00:15:16] Speaker F: Thank you. [00:15:17] Speaker D: Are you a culinary expert? [00:15:22] Speaker C: Not an expert, but, you know, I just. I cook a lot. So you. You find ways to make something good for all palates and tastes? All 25 of them, but, yeah, 25. Oh, yeah. Got a. Got a big brood waiting at home for me. [00:15:42] Speaker F: Damn, I thought my 13 siblings was a lot. [00:15:45] Speaker D: Oh, you're a father. [00:15:48] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Where are my manners? I'm sorry. I didn't. I didn't say that. Yes, I am a father of 25. And you see Montgomery pull out this little kind of look like stacked stones. Like, stacked stones. And he flicks it, and it just falls. And what you see is a bunch of little stone tablets with very realistic carvings and paintings of all his little rudelings. He just plops it out like, ah, so you see here, this is my oldest. Uh, this is Monty Junior. Uh, this is Mary. Uh, this is, uh, Maurice. He is. He is a troublemaker. And then we have Marcus, uh, with a. With a c. Uh, mark with a k. Mark with a q u e. It just goes on until he is interrupted. [00:16:43] Speaker F: Then we'll not interrupt this. [00:16:45] Speaker D: I think the thing is, like, studying each of your, like, children's faces, like, in turn, and names, like, she's, like, committing them to memory. I think what she does, like, she presses you on, like, a detail about each of them. Like, she wants to associate, like, what is Mark with accused main interest? Like, do you have a sense of, like, Montgomery junior? S, like, career path and life. [00:17:10] Speaker C: And Montgomery will very enthusiastically answer all those questions. Yeah, Monty Junior, he is. He's headstrong, but he knows exactly what he wants to do. He's gonna not quite go into the family business, really. A little more stationed at home with the guild there. I think he wants to. He's got lofty goals of wanting to run the guild. And, you know, I'm very proud of him. [00:17:32] Speaker E: He. [00:17:32] Speaker C: He might actually make it happen, but I kind of want him to. To experience a little more, uh, than just be hunkered down with the gill. But you never know on his way up there, he'll probably have be set off on a lot of. A lot of quests that should open up his viewpoint a lot more, I think. [00:17:49] Speaker F: So any of them want to be hunters, smiling ear to ear? [00:17:56] Speaker C: I got five. Maurice Mitchell, Michelle Morgan, and Moriarty. Those five. Oh, boy. They. They are already hunting things three times as big as them. It is insane how good they are at. It's a little. It's a little scary. They, you know, they take a day, go off on their own and go into little crevices and, you know, chaos. Help them. They're good at it. They're really good. I'm just afraid one of them's gonna get eaten. [00:18:39] Speaker F: I've been eating before. It's not the worst thing in the world. [00:18:43] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:18:45] Speaker D: Just cut your way out, like, on the way down. [00:18:47] Speaker F: Like, it's preferred when you're in the throat part because, like, there's a lot to go through. But I've cut through a stomach and some abs before. It's fine. [00:18:55] Speaker D: But the acid. How did you avoid in the stomach? [00:19:01] Speaker F: I didn't. Took a while for all this to grow back scar tissue is tough. [00:19:09] Speaker D: Wow. Color me impressed. Thank you. [00:19:15] Speaker A: There's one question I want to circle back to, because you said they're like flat rocks that have come out, and I'm imagining something that's maybe the size of a credit card in real life. So how detailed are these portraits? [00:19:30] Speaker C: The older one? The portraits of the older ones are a lot more detailed. Detailed because they've been worked on and refined over the years. Ones of the. Of the younger ones, especially the newly hatched ones, are a lot more rough in terms of detail. And part of that is because they change so quickly that there's no need to, like, go fully, fully, like, detailed with it. [00:19:56] Speaker F: They shed every week. [00:19:57] Speaker C: Features have it, like, really come in yet, so just kind of, like, have, like, a basic understanding of their looks, knowing it's gonna change. So it's like, okay, don't, don't, don't. Don't worry about getting too detailed. But the older ones, they're pretty much set in, so they're defining traits, how their scales look even kind of. It's not colored, but even you can kind of see there's a little bit of shading with some of the more detailed ones. You can kind of see their. Their scaling pattern a lot more. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Sten brings up a good point. I had not considered that. Antiseans do shed their scales. [00:20:36] Speaker B: Right? [00:20:36] Speaker A: They would have to which raising children. I don't know myself, but I am told that, like, a teenage boy's bedroom acquires a certain aroma and now imagining that with also, just, like, the shedding. [00:20:50] Speaker F: So I assume Montgomery would keep, like, their first shed, then the rest, because they shed, like, every week or so. Real snakes. [00:20:58] Speaker C: Anyway, so it's like the first shedding is bronzed. [00:21:03] Speaker F: Yeah, exactly. [00:21:04] Speaker C: Hanging up in my office back home. [00:21:06] Speaker F: 25 pieces. [00:21:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:08] Speaker A: The book doesn't have anything to say about this, so I'm going to accept all of this as canon. And if Matthew doesn't like that, then it's his problem. Well, then. Then this, we imagine, is the scene that Tourmaline arrives at fashionably late. Not obnoxiously late, but fashionably late. So what's keeping you? [00:21:34] Speaker E: Pretty much nothing. Tourmaline knows that everything will happen when it's meant to happen. Nothing will happen too soon. Nothing will happen too late. There is no need to rush anything. And so they're making their way downstairs, chatting with some. Some ghosts, maybe some living people. I mean, who knows? Spice it up a little bit. Grabbing some food, probably offering some fortune or a little bit of advice to the person. They grab the food from as an equivalent exchange sort of thing before heading out the door, just lazily munching on some food. Not a care in the world, as they walk up to everyone and they give. They give a wave as they. As they see Stan and everyone. Morning. [00:22:26] Speaker D: Oh, look who decided to finally join us. [00:22:30] Speaker E: Yeah, what a great day. [00:22:36] Speaker F: It's a time. [00:22:39] Speaker C: Looking forward, you know, good beginnings, good endings. That's what I always say. [00:22:43] Speaker E: Yeah. Did you guys sleep well? [00:22:48] Speaker D: No, I slept the required amount. [00:22:54] Speaker C: I slept decently, thank you for asking. How did you sleep? [00:22:58] Speaker E: I slept great. Thank you for asking. It is so good to see you guys again today when there are not rats overrunning us all. Oh, um, by the way, I don't think I've actually properly met any of you. Uh, my name's Tourmaline. Um, I use they them pronouns. May I ask who you guys are? [00:23:23] Speaker C: Tourmaline. Tour ma will remember. Nice to meet you, Tourmaline. I'm Montgomery. He him again. Pleasure. She's out. The hand gives a little. There's a. It's a shake, but it's also a little bit like, of a wave. [00:23:41] Speaker A: There's gotta be a special snake shake. [00:23:46] Speaker F: Stan goes and enthusiastically starts shaking like Sten. She's a nice to meet you. [00:23:52] Speaker D: And I think Vivain is like, pointedly sort of looking over your right shoulder. But she will give you her hand. The vain. She her the pleasure. Yeah. [00:24:08] Speaker E: Lovely names, the whole lot of you. I am so excited to be working with all of you. This is going to be amazing. Everyone's eaten where we're all ready to head off. You guys get it? [00:24:22] Speaker F: Got some beetle bacon if you want some. [00:24:26] Speaker A: We don't know that it's beetle. Be careful. [00:24:29] Speaker E: Also, they haven't seen their death yet. That's fine. [00:24:34] Speaker A: I think it's. I think that's the only far sider rule, right? Like, you can see all the futures you want, but it is forbidden for you to look into your own for that reason. [00:24:44] Speaker E: I think Tourmaline's broken that rule. I don't think Tourmaline's told anyone they've broken that rule, but Tourmaline's broken that rule. [00:24:50] Speaker A: I think it calls on that question of, like, a free will and predestination that, like, the future you see is if nothing changes right now, and then when you are staring into the future constantly, then you're just making weird decisions. It gets out of hand, at least with kind of neuroses. That's my head canon for it. We can run with that or else throw it away. But I think it'd be really, really weird to be able to constantly see where your life was heading. And then how that would affect, like, your decision making process. Right? [00:25:16] Speaker E: I can't share where their life goes. [00:25:20] Speaker A: Riding that train, wherever it goes. [00:25:23] Speaker C: That would be tourmaline's reaction to that. It's like, you know, looking in the future is bad. [00:25:31] Speaker B: Oh, very well. [00:25:33] Speaker A: Well, if you are expecting a large send off, a parade of some sort, it is not going to happen. The world below is many things, but it is very, very busy to remember that the, aside from folks who already lived beneath the surface, your relatives and ancestors, you've been here maybe two or three generations. There is still a lot to learn, a lot of adaptation to happen. Like we, Montgomery can tell you, we're still figuring out what we can and can't eat. So there's not a lot of time to devote to marching bands or ticker tape parades, right? So that said, there will come a time where the conversation dies down and it's just time to leave. With no more fanfare than that. Now, Mudtown is in a cavern. It is less defensible on the rat front because of the soft earth. But for things that cannot burrow so hard. They have to enter through one of a dozen gates that are built a bit hobbit hole coming to mind. The big round tunnels with round plug. And then some kind of gate or door in the middle of it. And that you will exit out voidward for what it matters, onto one of the main roads. The cavern beyond that gate is an immediate and stark departure. From the semi structured civilization of Mudtown. As you walk past the threshold of the city's main interest entrance. You are immediately enveloped by this aura of quietness, damp darkness. There is no natural light from a giant sun. If it isn't made by humanoid hands and doesn't exist in nature, then there is no illumination. And there is enough coming from the guard huts and stuff a few torches on the wall. But once you get past that, it becomes dark immediately. The air is also noticeably cooler. The caverns are always colder in that way. And without the animating heat of so many bodies to fill up that cavern of Mudtown space, the temperature drops precipitously. You continue to step forward, every every breath accompanied by the faint scent of earth and moisture. And there you are, into the world below. Now you exit. It's a bit of a ramp down into a very wide tunnel. And vervain would be the first one to tell you that this wide natural passageway is the Ferris road. Ferris as in iron? Not as in wheels. Those haven't been invented here. The Ferris road is one of the few routes of any serious length that seems to survive the shift and sway of the calm season more or less intact. Yes, pathways change from time to time, and no map is entirely accurate. But for better or for worse, you can count on the Ferris road to carry you from the old gates of the surface down to the deepest parts of the well in 90% accuracy. There are stalactites hanging like jagged teeth from the ceiling, the occasional drip of water coming down from something wet above, landing on your shoulder, giving you that it's about to rain. And you get that one single drop in your hair that just hangs. [00:29:02] Speaker B: Leaving. [00:29:03] Speaker A: An echo to come through the cavern, accompanying your footsteps. This is a busy trade road. You notice. It is not busy, and there is currently no trade. [00:29:24] Speaker C: Is that. Is that strange for the time that we left? Like, maybe gets busier later on? Or is it noticeably, like, eerily vacant? [00:29:36] Speaker A: It is more vacant than usual. Time is a strange thing because there's no circadian rhythm. Like, for some people it's just like being a baby. You sleep until you're hungry, you wake up, you eat, you go to bed when you're tired, you repeat until you die. [00:29:52] Speaker C: Others. [00:29:53] Speaker A: The crystal city, of course, had magical means to maintain some semblance of timekeeping. And in other places, there are flora or fauna that maintain it. But, like, if you think time zones are a problem in our world, like, go to the world below, so there's always some kind of travel happening. It is strange that it wouldn't be happening here if you cannot intuit, which is fine. As players, I'm happy to take. Maybe I would do cunning and empathy would probably pull it off. I would take their arguments, paid for other stuff. That's the one that I would go straight with. [00:30:33] Speaker E: Can I give that a shot? But can I also use my keen hearing to see if I can hear anything? [00:30:41] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. Two different roles. But for the purposes of not going crazy, we will keep them together. Your keen senses give you an enhancement, I assume. [00:30:56] Speaker E: I'm gonna go make sure of exactly what they do. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Sounds like the kind of thing that would give you a plus one enhancement. [00:31:07] Speaker E: Each dot in the thesis grants an equal level of enhancement to roles. Using that sense. [00:31:14] Speaker A: There you go. [00:31:18] Speaker E: Seven. Six aces, seven hits. [00:31:21] Speaker C: Okay. [00:31:22] Speaker E: Including the enhancements. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Well, there is nothing to hear except for your own self. But the reason is pretty obvious to you that rumors move fast in the world below. And when survival always rests on a razor's edge. Rat plague? No, thanks. I will stay out of Mudtown until I know for sure they don't all have some weird disease or the second rat coming has not arrived, that whether or not mud town is safe, people are going to wait and see. [00:31:59] Speaker D: Think of someone who has absolutely no empathy at all. Vivain completely misses this cue. No idea. I think her nose is very much in her, like, map book. Like someone walking down the street with a phone in front of their face. Basically that vibe. And she's basically like, you know everyone. You should feel very lucky because this book has a map version 978 79 6.1. Unfortunately, we can't use seven 1.2 because I'm actively drawing that. But this is otherwise the most up to date. [00:32:37] Speaker C: Wow. Awesome. You are a very well prepared individual. [00:32:42] Speaker D: Thank you. I like to think so. [00:32:47] Speaker E: You're doing great. I am sure it will come in very handy. [00:32:55] Speaker D: I think she. She, like, then, like, has a, like, very belated realization of what all of y'all have already realized. Is it just a little quiet? [00:33:03] Speaker E: No one's here. [00:33:05] Speaker D: Oh, shouldn't, shouldn't there. Isn't this a. She consults the map again? Yes, this is a. [00:33:16] Speaker C: You know, the rat problem that we dealt with the other day? I think others know about it now. [00:33:24] Speaker D: Oh. [00:33:25] Speaker C: Staying away until they're sure, you know, there are no more rats or no second coming of rats. [00:33:33] Speaker D: Yes, I suppose that's sensible. [00:33:37] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:33:38] Speaker D: More room on the road for us. [00:33:41] Speaker A: The quiet paranoia of your existence. Like people generally can take risks. Not everyone has syntheses or theses to fall back on. Not everyone can wield chaos. If you are in ordinary person in an unordinary world, then you wait and see on the rat front. [00:34:02] Speaker E: Out of curiosity, are the dead also avoiding this road, or did they not care of the plague that does not affect them? [00:34:11] Speaker A: The dead come in many, many different flavors, depending on where you are in the world below and how close you are to various cardinal directions on the world below. But one of the key things that the text will tell you is that the dead, some are talkative, some could give a shit. So it is not. It's possible to force them to speak. It's an ugly process. [00:34:36] Speaker B: It can sometimes go wrong. [00:34:39] Speaker A: But to your original question, like, no, there are dead wandering these tunnels. Then they don't care about the rapt plague, undead rat plague. Let me know, then we'll talk. But were the rats undead? No. Then why are you telling me? Right. [00:34:54] Speaker E: Tourmaline will. Will look to everyone. Don't worry. Even without living people, we're not going to be alone on this trip. The dead are everywhere. You don't have to worry. We'll always have company. [00:35:09] Speaker F: Could be worse. [00:35:11] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:35:12] Speaker D: The dead. Do you speak to the dead? [00:35:16] Speaker E: Speak to them, tell stories to them, hear stories from them, see them. Yeah. [00:35:20] Speaker D: And they talk back sometimes. [00:35:25] Speaker C: Hmm. [00:35:26] Speaker E: I don't like people because they are people. Well, some are rats, amongst other things. [00:35:31] Speaker D: But yes, I have to admit that could prove useful. The dead can go places I assume that the living can't. [00:35:40] Speaker E: Would imagine so, yes. That's why I'm so excited to go down here. We get to talk to new dead. Dead I will have never interacted with before. And there's a whole, whole city of them that we might be able to discuss. And this is going to be good. [00:35:57] Speaker F: Great lightning trip for all you guys, huh? [00:36:00] Speaker A: Okay, this I want to drill in on because tourmaline is saying city of the dead cannot wait. Like, oh, my God, so many corpses and, like, people trapped in purgatory to talk to. [00:36:11] Speaker B: That is amazing. [00:36:13] Speaker A: And I do the three of you share this enthusiasm for possibly infested with undead? City. [00:36:20] Speaker F: Ends fought worse. [00:36:27] Speaker A: It's fine if the answer is yes, but I'm just curious. [00:36:31] Speaker C: I think Montgomery is not disbelieving because you know how life works and how, you know, undead works, but it's more like he's hearing it from an excited child. So he's not like saying, yes, that's right, or no, that's right. He's just more like, oh, okay, that's awesome. Yeah, tell me more. Continue. Yes. [00:37:00] Speaker D: And I think vivain, interestingly enough, is looking at tourmaline, like, speaking passionately about something. And she has a very sort of mixed, like look. This reminds vivain of when she gets really deep and nerdy about her own scholarship. And she's like, there's a similarity. Oh, no, there's a similarity. Oh, no, there's a similarity. She's processing. [00:37:27] Speaker A: I have to go take a shower now. Well, yes, the roads are empty, but the world below is full of other things, other activities, other creatures, other wonders. Some of them are dead. Many of them aren't. And as you pass the second and the third and the fourth side passage, and there continues to be no real sense of movement or any kind of life, you arrive at the fifth side passage. This is where Jatworth have told you your journey truly begins. And even were it not for her instructions or the vane's navigation, the crude attempt at signage carved into the rock will definitely give it away. You do not need to make a culture roll to understand what it says. There is an ornate gate with skulls above and below. [00:38:27] Speaker F: I think for flavor, Sten would have been, like, touching the walls on the way to, like, ignite them a little bit, and they would fade, like, a couple feet behind everybody just to illuminate a bit. And then when she got to the sign, it would just glow, just. [00:38:40] Speaker B: Oh. [00:38:43] Speaker F: Okay. [00:38:48] Speaker D: I think Vivain will point to the skulls. Can you talk to them, tourmaline. [00:38:56] Speaker E: If they're being possessed? [00:39:01] Speaker D: And what do you think? Do those skulls read possessed to you? [00:39:06] Speaker E: Tourmaline's gonna give it an actual shot. [00:39:09] Speaker A: I'm gonna be 100% with y'all. I thought I. In my head, I. The skulls were carved into the wall, but I like your way way better that there is a carving of a gate and then two skulls of indeterminate origin. That is way cooler. But for the question of possession, no, these. These skulls are not currently occupied. [00:39:30] Speaker E: Probably it'll, like, kind of. Kind of get in, kind of. Does anyone. Are you in there? Do you want to. Do you want to talk? And will then take a second? Listen, not possessed. [00:39:46] Speaker A: This question's for me. Was Vivain asking honestly or were you just taking the piss? [00:39:51] Speaker D: You know, I think it was a bit of one. A bit of two. I think she was like. She very much, like, was sort of teasing tourmaline, but at the same time, I think she was very curious. Like, she. She. When she learned someone has a new, like, a specific expertise or skillset, she automatically wants to test that expertise and skill set. It's just kind of in her blood and also learn things from it. And she's like, if they had been possessed, then I could have learned things. [00:40:18] Speaker A: Excellent. [00:40:19] Speaker E: Okay. [00:40:20] Speaker A: That's just from my personal clarity. Well, yes. Here your journey begins. I presume that if this is a warning, which we don't know, it could just. Could be like, welcome to the skull gate. We call it that, ironically. But regardless, we'll be heading in that direction all the same. But something curiously missing, that for there being a skull gate, we've only got two skulls, and we don't actually have a gate. In fact, for a road that ostensibly leads to some ancient readout of tremendous value and power, the passed away looks pretty tight, actually. [00:41:03] Speaker C: Like, how tight? [00:41:07] Speaker A: You'll eventually have to walk single file. But it doesn't look. It's not the whole way, but at least for the next ten or 30ft in front of you, there's more information to be had here. I suppose if someone would take cunning and science, probably the most appropriate you can do. [00:41:28] Speaker D: A cunning in science. That sounds like vivain. Yeah. So cunning in science will meet fixed eye. That is two tension, so. Or successes. [00:41:54] Speaker A: Well, wonderful news, because the difficulty was three. So especially well done on your part. Yes. [00:41:59] Speaker B: One of two. [00:42:00] Speaker A: Well, there are three possible logical explanations for this. [00:42:02] Speaker B: Right. [00:42:03] Speaker A: One, there was never a gate here. Or the gate's in the wrong spot. [00:42:06] Speaker C: Right. [00:42:06] Speaker A: They put the sign too early. Two, someone tore down the gate and replaced it with something else. Seems unlikely. We don't know how to work with those metals. They're very, very heavy, and it's generally a bad rule in life to just go tearing. It might be like a load bearing gate. [00:42:20] Speaker B: Right. [00:42:21] Speaker A: Third gate's still there. Something else has moved. And that is when the light bulb in Bovain's head will go off, because the calm shifts many things. And as you are examining the science angle, the different strata around your tunnel, it has collapsed inward. This is unstable earth. There was a. Not a properly large landslide, but whatever road tunnel existed here, the sides have collapsed down inward. In theory, if you dug 10ft or so in each direction, you should be able to find a gate. But that is why you do not see one now. Interesting in a historical, academic sense, perhaps more relevant to your interests. Because the earth is unstable. [00:43:11] Speaker D: Yeah. I think Vivaid will relay this to the others and she will also flip open to the part of the map that this is specifically germane to and start scribbling some adjustments and amendments accordingly. [00:43:27] Speaker A: What is the International Cartographers guild symbol for unstable tunnel? [00:43:34] Speaker D: That's a great question. And it's definitely a little wibbly wobbly line. Like. It's like, you know, actually, I think two little whipples. [00:43:44] Speaker A: And so how do you distinguish between unstable tunnel and underground river? [00:43:49] Speaker D: Oh, that's easy, because unstable tunnels are blocked with two straight lines on both sides, and river is just more winding and less, like, wibbly in frequency. [00:43:59] Speaker B: Got it. [00:43:59] Speaker A: Taking notes? [00:44:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:02] Speaker A: The vein updates the map and explains to the problem here. Just by looking down it, it looks like it gets wider, maybe 30 or 40 yards ahead of you, but you don't know if that's, like, permanent or if there's just like, a bulge in the tunnel. [00:44:20] Speaker B: Who's to say? [00:44:25] Speaker C: But do we feel this is still the correct way to go to continue on our journey? [00:44:33] Speaker A: This is the most direct way. It is the correct way and the most direct way. It's the world below. There could be a hundred ways to get there. This is the one, you know, of. And it is the one in front of you. [00:44:44] Speaker C: Okay. Then, presented with all that, Montgomery would turn everyone and be like, all right, gang, what do we feel like doing? Do we continue on straight, or do we try to find a different route? [00:44:56] Speaker F: Stin just pulls out her drill, just like I'm prepared to dig if needed. [00:45:02] Speaker D: I mean, the gate, in theory, should be achieved within points, both sides. [00:45:10] Speaker F: But. [00:45:10] Speaker D: The earth is unstable, so we might want to be careful how much we dig. [00:45:16] Speaker C: Toormally. Any. Any thoughts? [00:45:21] Speaker E: Well, yeah, I mean, we can go down this path and potentially dive via cave in. Be fine. Can continue on this path and not dive via cave in and get on our way. We could go down another route and maybe get there without having to deal with the cave in. Or maybe we get lost for an eternity and we never actually find where we're going. Yeah, we have all good options. [00:45:47] Speaker F: Those are the good options? [00:45:49] Speaker E: Yes. [00:45:51] Speaker A: Talk to people who are buried all the time. They don't seem to mind. [00:45:56] Speaker F: I like these odds. [00:45:59] Speaker E: I like you. [00:46:01] Speaker A: Tourmaline is correct. Mechanically, those are probably the three ways to handle the situation. You can take the. I don't want to say the word risk, because then you'll be like, oh, the GM said risk, but I mean, like, literally to say risk to go down a dangerous tunnel and head straight forward. If you are interested in finding an alternative, alternative route in, always a possibility. Or you could die in a cave in. [00:46:26] Speaker C: All wonderful options. Yeah. Doesn't sound like we have any objections to going straight. Before we go, is everyone good? Do we need a snack break, anyone? I gotta use the bathroom. Are we. We good? [00:46:42] Speaker D: Break? [00:46:44] Speaker C: Well, yeah, you can't. You can't go on an adventure without snacks. We could have a snack break now, or we can have a snack break after the danger. [00:46:53] Speaker F: Celebratory snack break. [00:46:55] Speaker D: What does one do during a snack break? [00:46:59] Speaker C: You. You have a break with snacks. This is gonna sound very. How do I say this bad, but do you know what snacks are? Am I just assuming too much? [00:47:19] Speaker D: I. I don't know if I've ever had a snack. I mean, I have. I eat food, obviously. Is. Is a snack just a small amount of food, but at a not normal time. [00:47:36] Speaker C: I mean, snacks can be a small amount. They can also be a large amount, though. We try to stay away from that. [00:47:44] Speaker D: Why don't you just eat a meal then? Well, a meal more efficient and economical, right? [00:47:51] Speaker C: Sure, but you only have so many meals out of a day. But when you're working and traveling and you burn off calories, you get hungry so little snacks, kind of refill fuel you, you know, so you can both physically and mentally continue strong throughout the day. [00:48:11] Speaker D: Fascinating. Someone should patent this. [00:48:18] Speaker A: Not sure. Intellect. I'm not sure. Intellectual property law is. Is that sophisticated in the world below. But I can go back to the text and check. [00:48:27] Speaker E: Yes. [00:48:27] Speaker A: The question remains, are we heading down the. The precarious yet you can walk through this big enough tunnel, or do you intend to find a different route? [00:48:38] Speaker C: We're going down the tunnel. [00:48:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I can go first. [00:48:40] Speaker F: If there's something man eating on the other side. [00:48:44] Speaker D: And I, in case it seems too dangerous at any point, we can always back out. And I'll find us another route in my book because it is very up to date. [00:48:53] Speaker F: I can't always dig. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Well, my apologies to verbain. That will not be necessary. That as a sten goes forward, it is claustrophobic. It is a tight fit. Eventually you have to, you know, you can feel the. The crush on both sides of you. It's not especially awful. [00:49:13] Speaker B: The dirt is fairly loose, but closer for comfort. [00:49:16] Speaker A: But then you'll have the privilege of the first view that as you crowd through, you end up breaking into the. [00:49:28] Speaker B: Other side, that little, that little bulbous. [00:49:30] Speaker A: Moment, and you will come to a halt. Because it is not just the blackness of a small tunnel opening, it is the blackness of a gigantic cavern opening, probably 50 meters, spherical, strange, in all directions, like someone had just taken an eyedropper and put it through the earth and pulled out one specific droplet of the world below and taken it somewhere else. You might be asking Aaron, story guide it's pitch black. How do I know the dimensions of this cavern? And I will say, ahahaha. It is not pitch black, for that is an assumption you have made. In point of fact, it is covered on every surface with thick layers, like a carpet of bioluminescent lichens. And that the. The pulse of air that comes in and out of the tunnel has them waving a bit like. Imagine a carpet of fireflies just kind of back and forth along this, again, entirely spherical. That's weird. Chunk of the cavernous area. Now, lighting situation aside, the tunnel that you pop out of appears very much like someone just bored into the center of this. Imagine, for just for no reason at all, a cantaloupe that someone had just bored directly into the side up. And then you have a sense of the situation you find yourself in. Except for the purposes of this example, the cantaloupe is 50 yards in diameter. [00:51:09] Speaker F: Do I see another entrance exit, like. [00:51:13] Speaker A: Across or around lighting level is not that good. Um, there are various parts of the tunnel where it's. It's, like, splotchy. [00:51:21] Speaker B: Where the. [00:51:22] Speaker A: The carpet of light kind of fades out here and there. Uh, but is that an entryway to somewhere else? Is that just some dead lichen? [00:51:30] Speaker C: Hmm. [00:51:34] Speaker F: Stan's gonna do, like, a quick loogie of what looks like almost like hot lava, just. Just for flavor, to try and send some light over. But she can't spit far enough, so she's like, all right, guys, it's glowy in here. Nothing's gonna eat us. I don't think she touches it to see if it starts, like, eating her finger. [00:51:58] Speaker A: It does not eat your finger. No, but, yeah, okay, they don't eat us. Do be careful what you touch on. That said, just one more thing I want to put out that the ledge that Stan finds themselves on is big enough that the four of you can stand not comfortably or roomily, but you can kind of be all there together. There's no one stuck at the back. Like, I can't see, mom. [00:52:20] Speaker B: Just free. You all know. [00:52:23] Speaker F: Tight fit, though. Don't fall. [00:52:31] Speaker E: Yeah, we'll move up. We'll take a look along with Sten, and we'll. We'll kind of, as tormlin goes up, they pause, they move back. They make sure the vane and Montgomery are kind of in front of them. And then they keep going forward. [00:52:54] Speaker D: I think you hear Vivain, like, who is. I think maybe one of the last latter people to emerge from the crevasse. And I think she's saying, like, glowy. What kind of glowy is it? Is it, like a shimmery glowy, or is it a bioluminescent glowy or. [00:53:12] Speaker F: Definitely not shimmery? I would definitely say this looks more bioluminescent. Shimmery is more like the glass and the stones that we find. This is definitely some kind of living inner glow. [00:53:24] Speaker D: Living inner glow. Got it. [00:53:26] Speaker C: If I look at it, can I. Can I discern, one, can I discern if it's a fungus? Two, can I discern if it's poisonous or not? [00:53:42] Speaker A: For that, intellect and survival would be the two things you're looking for there. Survival deals with the natural world, and intellect is your factory call. So have you seen in a book or heard in a story about this kind of thing and then compare that to your survival rolodex. [00:53:59] Speaker C: That's gonna be six day. Oh, my God. What is that? I can't read my die. [00:54:14] Speaker E: I think that's five. [00:54:16] Speaker C: One, success. Wait, no. Two. [00:54:21] Speaker A: Two, unfortunately, still. Still quite. Not enough. I mean, there is a lot of fungus in this world. There's a lot of lichen in this world. I mean, even in. In our world, there are mushrooms that look very similar despite being on complete opposite ends of the lethality spectrum. You haven't heard. It doesn't leap straight to your brain like, you know, you see a black widow, and it's got a very distinctive feature, so it's not on that list. But when you start getting into the subcategories, it gets messy. [00:54:51] Speaker C: Gotcha. In that case, yeah, I look at it, I'm a little confused. Like, I don't. I'm not familiar with this. I'm kind of gonna lean in a little bit, get kind of get close to it, but not, like, not sniffer or lick or anything like that, but get kind of close to it. And then I'm just gonna say, hey, how you doing? I'm gonna see if I can communicate with my fungal communication. [00:55:22] Speaker B: Oh. [00:55:23] Speaker A: This poses a question that I don't know the answer to, which is, are lichen enough, like, fungus, for that to work? And I know who I could ask this question, but the RP geeks are not around to help me out. But rather than get into a debate about the taxonomy of various slimes, fungus, and stuff, that is fine. The fungal communication, I suppose, would give you a. Just a kind of a soft whisper, right? The way when it's speaking with the dead, when speaking with animals, there is not a presumption of communic. Like, they don't speak English or underworldian, whatever the language happens here to be. But that said, for lack of a better word, the vibe is okay, right? Imagine if you were to talk to a fungus, and then it just said, like, yeah, man, it's totally fine. [00:56:20] Speaker B: Come on down here. [00:56:21] Speaker C: It'd be great. [00:56:21] Speaker A: You'd be like, I don't know about that. Or if you talk to a fungus, and it was just like, yo, bro. [00:56:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:56:26] Speaker B: Like, come on, we're just having a. [00:56:27] Speaker A: Cool fungus party, right? [00:56:28] Speaker B: Okay. [00:56:29] Speaker A: Like, you can still be suspicious, but that is a better vibe, right? [00:56:32] Speaker E: I'm sorry, did we. Did we just beat two fungi? That is just a stoner. [00:56:36] Speaker C: And. [00:56:37] Speaker E: And beetlejuice. [00:56:38] Speaker A: I wasn't going for beetlejuice. I was going for, like, really, like, 05:00. Shadow, New Jersey guy in an alley. [00:56:48] Speaker B: So beetlejuice. You know what? [00:56:51] Speaker A: Fair point. Yeah. So if the spectrum is, like, the first one, dangerous mushroom will kill you. Second, dangerous mushroom will expand your senses, perhaps at an inopportune moment. But the. I don't want to say natural, because nothing down here is natural by definition. It does not appear hostile or dangerous or likely to kill you. That said, I don't know if fungus can lie in this game, so you'll have to take my word for it. [00:57:23] Speaker C: Okay. With all that in mind, the actual skill says it allows me to use a reflective action to glean two pieces of valuable, if vague, information of the surrounding area. Since role of leadership or survival action with a minor complication on a success, the story guide will provide two facts about the immediate area. So, like, my initial, like, hey, how you doing? Was to kind of see if it responded. And then the actual skill is to see if I can glean those two, those two facts for sure. [00:58:06] Speaker A: You're being polite, so that sounds more like presence than manipulation. And I will take survival seems more likely than leadership, I feel. [00:58:16] Speaker B: But if your leadership is higher, that. [00:58:19] Speaker A: Also works for me. [00:58:20] Speaker C: I survive a list. So survival. And what was the other one? [00:58:24] Speaker A: Presence. If you're being nice, it's presence. If you're being kind of a dick, it's manipulation. [00:58:36] Speaker C: Should not be using that. Die. Two, two hits, eight and a night. [00:58:45] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll call that right on the money. Well, in the text, does it say that you ask questions or that I. [00:58:49] Speaker B: Just give you things? [00:58:52] Speaker C: On a successful roll, the score guide provides you with two facts about the immediate information. [00:58:57] Speaker A: Okay, so two things. One, I'm gonna continue to prove why I don't do voices, is that if we've established that this fungus is neither from Jersey or coastal Oregon, the fungal voice here would be significantly higher pitched because this is younger. Whatever colony this is, it has not been in existence for any significant length of time. I do not know the lifespan of fungus. I'm sure there's a fungal bloom, some that's been around for 10,000 years, but in this case, we are talking, like, only one or two seasons, so it's incredibly new. Second piece, to the extent that fungi have accents in the world below, it's safe to say that this fungi is not from around here. You know what like, New England fungi sound like, and you know what southern fungi sound like, and these are not mud town fungi. The tenor and the timber and the energy is not of this layer of the world below. [01:00:10] Speaker C: Interesting. Okay. I would turn back to the group, and especially vivain, because I feel like she, like this would be useful to her the most. But. So this group of Lycan seems to be very young. I know we're familiar with thing with, you know, tunnels changing and whatnot. This seems to be a very new tunnel or area compared to everything around it. It's kind of what I'm getting the vibe of. [01:00:48] Speaker D: Fascinating. I think the vein does a sort of logical deduction puzzle in her head about how that could have happened. I think she sort of comes up with the possibility, well, that could have happened during the comcast, and therefore these fungi were newly grown. And this explain, you know, the fact that this tunnel is new explains that. She also comes up with the possibility that something came through here and brought fungi that are indigenous to a different part of the world below through this part. And they have been growing since that happened and produces several other sort of possible explanations. But that is. That is her analysis. [01:01:32] Speaker C: Okay, well, I don't see anything that's immediately causing us danger. Should we continue exploring? [01:01:44] Speaker D: Did it say anything useful? [01:01:47] Speaker C: Mainly just that it was young and new. That was most of what I got. [01:01:53] Speaker D: Does it want to come with us? [01:01:58] Speaker C: I feel like this type of life form loves to branch out. I think if we walk through, we'll get enough spores on us to fulfill that want and need, so we should be fine. [01:02:14] Speaker D: I think Vivain gives you a authoritative nod. [01:02:19] Speaker C: All right. Unless there's anything else someone wants to do. Should hit the old, dusty trail. Keep it going. [01:02:28] Speaker A: Well, to hit the trails, going to require you to find one, because you are in a perfectly spherical hole in the world. [01:02:38] Speaker B: So how do. [01:02:39] Speaker A: I was trying so hard to think something else. There's a question of how you will descend to say safely, or say nothing of safely, but in a controlled manner, given that it's slick with lichen and also on an incline. [01:03:01] Speaker E: How far down is it? And is it, like. Is it just. This incline would be kind of slippery, kind of annoying to get down. And there's not, like, a lot of danger on this incline. Or is it like a. Ah. If you go down this and you fuck up, you're now just rocketing towards your demise. [01:03:21] Speaker A: It's a bit more. The second one. When I said 50 meters in diameter earlier, I was wrong. I meant 50 meters in radius. So you are about slightly above centerline. [01:03:31] Speaker B: So if you just decided to wile. [01:03:34] Speaker A: E. Coyote off the side of this thing, it would be a 150 foot parabolic, like, you know, one quarter of a circle rocket slide towards the bottom. To put it another way, there were slides with this design of this size in Pennsylvania. There was a water park that had one, and they had to close it down because it killed two people. Do with that information what you will. [01:04:00] Speaker E: So Tourmaline will pull out their length of rope, and we'll sort of flop it onto the ground and find everyone. I have this. It'll help us get down there. [01:04:17] Speaker C: Wrap. [01:04:17] Speaker F: It around her arm of hide. Nice and just like. All right, descend. [01:04:26] Speaker A: And so we arrive at an interesting mechanic for the game. In addition to standard roles, where you just have one thing you want to do, and then teamwork roles, where two of you are attempting the same thing so you both roll the same pool. We've talked about mixed actions, and now we talk about staged actions, where there are several things that need to happen in rough sequence, and we determine how they go. When you do a staged action, each person has their own individual test to take, but the task succeeds or fails as a whole, based on everyone's contribution. So in this case, there are two broad actions that are happening. There is one, Sten, who is performing the role of human or not human. Rat anchor. Ratman anchor. Holding everything securely. And then there are three of you, as I understand it, correct if I'm wrong, who are descending towards the bottom of this spherical hole. Now, it's in my head in the cavern, right? Which means I will need. [01:05:39] Speaker B: Let'S call. [01:05:39] Speaker A: It from sten, stamina and athletics. As you see, how long those biceps can hold out. For those of you climbing, that would be might and athletics, going to take a lot of upper body strength to correctly hold yourself and make that descent in a good way. Now, I will tell you the mechanical rule. If 50% or more of the group passes, the whole group passes. So, math wise, only Sten, who I assume can pass it, and one of you gets lucky enough to pass it, it will proceed as follows. However, there is a complication on the tasks for those of you who are currently climbing, because that lichen is slick, it is terrible footing. Part of the challenge is punching through it to actually have your boots get purchased on the rocks below. So if you take a bad step, then it's gonna get real slippery real fast. [01:06:47] Speaker B: Fast. [01:06:49] Speaker A: It's a minor complication, so not the worst thing in the world if it fails. But that means the difficulty of two with a one point complication is what you are up against. [01:07:02] Speaker C: Okay, can I. Yeah, this should work. This is just my whole character build. So I would like to use my thesis. We're in this together. When things get difficult, people get disheartened. You know, the right things to say to raise their spirits on reflective leadership. Action. Any characters you address who aren't suffering from negative status effects gain that inspired status effects for the dictated action. So, like, before we go, I would be like, okay, stencil. Instead, we're relying on you. Yeah, but I have faith in you. I've seen you move. I've seen you. I've seen those muscles and actions. You're good. You got this tournament. Leave a vein. I don't know how great you are climbing. I know I'm shit at it. It's just, you know, look out for each other, and we'll be fine. We'll be great. We got this, guys. We got this. So I'm hoping this will help us avoid certain doom. [01:08:06] Speaker F: Hell yeah. I got athletics and stamina. [01:08:11] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:08:12] Speaker F: That is four dice. Yeah, we got this. Oh, hell yeah, we got this. Sorry. That is two tens. So, yeah, it's four successes. The other was a six and a two, but that is still four successes. [01:08:31] Speaker A: I have enough for one trick to spend. [01:08:35] Speaker F: Let's see what tricks to open up. [01:08:38] Speaker A: While you figure that out. I see faces on the other side of the screen. So. [01:08:43] Speaker E: I had a dice full of one. I had one dice to roll. [01:08:48] Speaker C: I rolled ten. [01:08:54] Speaker A: It's all good. You can buy off the complication as well. [01:08:58] Speaker D: Okay, so in that case, the enhancements don't apply. I fail. It was a six. [01:09:04] Speaker C: I, Montgomery, what was might and athletics, correct. [01:09:09] Speaker B: Yes. [01:09:10] Speaker C: Okay, so I got one hit. [01:09:13] Speaker F: It was might, but it was stamina. [01:09:15] Speaker A: You had to do a different one. [01:09:17] Speaker F: Oh, okay. Okay. [01:09:19] Speaker C: Actually, question. Do I, can I inspire myself? Do I get anything? [01:09:27] Speaker A: The keyword there is, uh, is going to refer in the text back to whether it is you or another. There should be some kind of thing that happens. [01:09:38] Speaker C: It says any characters you address. Can I address myself? [01:09:45] Speaker A: I don't feel like that's the intended use of that power. I. Mel Gibson does not give that speech in Braveheart, so he feels better. [01:09:54] Speaker B: About what he's doing. [01:09:55] Speaker A: You know what I mean? [01:09:56] Speaker C: Right, okay, that's fair. That's fair. [01:09:59] Speaker A: So then just one hit, which puts us in a position where luckily, yes, you have passed enough collectively, because tourmaline succeeded and Sten succeeded, to have the staged action work out, the complications are still an issue. So because you succeeded, yes, it's fine. You're not going to take any damage. [01:10:25] Speaker B: Right. The complications are very rarely like. [01:10:26] Speaker A: And also you. Right. That's. There's not a don't be a dick rule written down, but there is definitely the intent of you. Don't pile on super high difficulties with also complications. The complications should not just do the thing that was going to happen if they failed. [01:10:43] Speaker C: Right? [01:10:43] Speaker A: So if you fail, if you failed your strength roll and then tumbled down and took one damage, the complication should not also be take one damage. But something does have to happen, and in this case, it is going to be a status condition, because, sten, you did not eat it, you did touch it. And the tingle on your finger is, is going to be the initial indication. Montgomery, you were not able to correctly identify what, in the language of the crystal city archives would be called the stinging. [01:11:25] Speaker B: God. I had it written down. [01:11:27] Speaker A: It is a stinging fungus known for being incredible painful to get on your skin. So tourmaline feet, boots, safe, fine. The vein, Montgomery, a little bit of slippage, make it down okay, but not before you've exposed some of your skin on this and you end up with the status condition of agonizing. [01:11:55] Speaker C: Uh, another question. Uh, sorry, just I feel like this is the episode that I get to use all my stuff, or at least ask about it. So I also have a thesis. Heightened immune system. Constant exposure to the clay in your home settlement has given you oddly resilient immune system. Gain enhancement equal to the dot purchase. It's like between one and three. And I chose one to resist disease. Intoxicants and poison. This benefit can stack with other diseases. Synthesis. [01:12:30] Speaker B: That is incredibly convenient, having, like, you know, thick antisyan skin, of course. But also I would like to believe that part of that immune system comes from having to be the first one. [01:12:41] Speaker A: To taste everything you cook. [01:12:44] Speaker B: I'm actually imagining a situation where it's very much like there are things some people eat and they think they're amazing, and I eat them, and I think this is the spiciest thing in the universe. And that is probably the experience Montgomery is having. But that said, the. It took the. Not the audacity. That said, there was a bit of. [01:13:10] Speaker A: Trepidation, but by virtue of skull, of. [01:13:14] Speaker B: Bicep, of dad voice, and a history in the crystal caverns, we have managed to safely traverse this little bit of danger. Now, not going to make you do that again on the way up. That violates one of my core GM tenants of just make them roll until they fail. It's just not. We. We have conquered this. I feel like we have more interesting things to do than figure out how you have accomplished this, but also in reverse. So we will say that our party arrives at the other side of the cavern. Yes, the road is indeed. [01:13:46] Speaker A: Whatever created this void just literally plucked. [01:13:50] Speaker B: A bunch of stone out. So the road you are on continues on the other side, and there so shall you arrive. Obviously, we have to keep walking. Unfortunately, we are also humans possessed of thirst and bladders and the desire to stand up. So we are going to take a quick ten minute break. While I suspect our party also takes a quick ten minute break, we will rehydrate. They will slough the slime and gunk off of their boots and make sure they didn't drop anything on the way back up. We'll be back in ten minutes. [01:14:21] Speaker A: Hope to see you then. [01:14:23] Speaker B: And so we return. Did everyone get things cleared up? Nothing left in the boots. You've shaken everything out of your soles and so on. [01:14:32] Speaker C: We are good. [01:14:34] Speaker B: Wonderful. [01:14:36] Speaker D: Ready to rock. [01:14:38] Speaker B: Oh, no, you get. You get one and then I'm marking it down that you just used it. Well, of all the things that you will see now, in addition to the cavern behind you, the first gate harder to find, the second one much easier to find, because whatever landslide has happened there has not proceeded forward. Now you see again, crudely etched into the wall a similar sigil. This one, three skulls, two on top, one underneath. Unlike previously, you will not need vervain's geology knowledge to determine the location of this gate because it is plain to see. Now, one small detail about gates that when you imagine a gate, pieces on the side, big swinging bits in the middle. Right. Like universal gate, it is generally not good if the actual swinging parts have been knocked down. And you also don't need to make a science roll to see that these were knocked towards you away from the citadel that lies on the far end. They don't appear bent or broken. It doesn't seem like someone crashed a large pack animal into it like that. More. If you imagine a fence and there's been a strong gust and it knocks down that way as naturally as a knocked down thing can be, but knocked down nevertheless. And stretching ahead of you, yet more. [01:16:13] Speaker D: Cavern. [01:16:17] Speaker E: I see no reason to stop as of yet. I mean, the creature obviously isn't here at the moment. [01:16:23] Speaker A: So. [01:16:25] Speaker D: Yeah, I think Vivain in the back of her head is remembering. Oh, yeah, those. Those lichen come from somewhere else, and they're relatively new. But I think she's filing that thought away and proceeding. [01:16:36] Speaker B: That is a problem for a different guild. You are not the lycanology guild. That is someone else's department. Vivain strikes me as someone who believes very strongly in the specialization of labor and compartmentalization of responsibility, responsibilities, different domain expertise. Yes, but we proceed forward. The cavern walls here, smoother than in the past. You've experienced all kinds of tunnels in the world below. And some of them look carved out and chunky. This is something you can google, but the difference between, like, the way a limestone cavern or a granite cavern tend to erode away. There's all kinds of cool science behind that. We're not going to get into it now, but using that language, this appears more like a magma tube where you have very smooth stone on the sides in a. In a kind of winding, serpentine fashion, an antician fashion, I suppose, is the length we would use down here. It's not especially corkscrewy. It's not trouble to walk around, but you can see how it yaws to the left and to the right and how it pitches up and down as you go along. It is not a straight, smooth path. Chaos helped. [01:17:49] Speaker A: The people had to take a cart through this road. [01:17:54] Speaker B: That said, you will proceed forward. You can walk two or three abreast, three uncomfortably too fine, presumably with the vain nose in a book making the details. Montgomery, keeping an eye on the kids. Sten charging forward with not so much a care for what you stumble into. The one I can't place is tourmaline, because I see it as equally valid that you are next to Sten, eager to see what the world has for you, or just lounging in the back, kind of following along. And I don't know which of those is more true. [01:18:31] Speaker E: Caroline's probably up with Sten having a lot of fun winding their body through, over and around things. It seems more like they're on a vacation than anything else. Sometimes their eye catches something that may or may not be there for other people. Maybe they have a little side conversation, but they're just having fun. [01:18:50] Speaker B: I mean, it's good to be able to make the boast the best of a bad situation, right? And if you're being forced at Sword point to go investigate a fallen citadel, then at least you can do is have a good chalk along the way. Well, you will have to raise your voice on that talk as you approach the next little encounter, because the sound of rushing water begins to fill the cavern. And as you follow the road, we had just talked about erosion, which becomes acutely relevant because on your right, there. [01:19:22] Speaker A: Is a jagged, like, ripped. [01:19:26] Speaker B: Someone took a bite out of this wall and a fairly wide, I'd say five or ten foot underground stream pouring through it. It's washed out whatever road used to be here. [01:19:38] Speaker A: If there was a road, it's kind. [01:19:39] Speaker B: Of cut a path down. It's not moving so fast that you have to worry about it. [01:19:42] Speaker A: You could ford it safely. [01:19:43] Speaker B: Oregon trail. 100% chance. Don't worry about your wagon. However, there is a larger, the other cavern, completely spherical, this one more oblong, egg shaped. Honest to God, the first thing that came to my mind was like a submarine sandwich that is especially lumpy. Long, long, long, about two or three people tall. And then the water having come down along the side and then washed up around, kind of forming a big bow shape, a very elongated sea before it cuts back down underneath and heads somewhere else. For those of you with an interest in mycology, there are gigantic mushroom stalks about the size of an elm tree in real life, sprawling out these big fungal. What is the top of a cap? That's the word sleeking for. I almost said head, but mushroom head is not what I'm talking about. Almost like a little forest glen, all of those things fairly natural to find. But it is the wagon, I suppose, that will draw the most of your attention at first, because there is a wagon overturned on its side, its contents spilled out amongst the nearest mushroom. And then just beyond that rushing water sound. Something a bit like a whimper. Tourmaline. We know you have acute senses. You could identify it as human. I'm gonna say it's gonna sound mean. You know what a human in pain sounds like. I don't mean it's your fault. I mean, you've been around them. That is what you hear. [01:21:27] Speaker E: Emily's gonna take a lesson for like 2 seconds, and then there's someone injured not too far from here. And is it. Is it relative? Would it be relatively simple to get there, get to that person? [01:21:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:41] Speaker E: As soon as tourmaline lets everyone know that someone isn't, like, injured, they're making a beeline towards that direction. [01:21:50] Speaker B: We'll let tourmaline start to head in that direction. I understand. Bavaine. [01:21:55] Speaker A: You have a bucket of dice, so. [01:21:56] Speaker B: Rolling does feel superfluous because the pool that you would have to roll is fairly high. I will just tell you. And perhaps Montgomery would also notice this. But how did the wagon get here? [01:22:09] Speaker D: Last time I checked, wagons didn't climb walls, so, yeah, that's a little odd. [01:22:20] Speaker A: Strange indeed. [01:22:23] Speaker C: How, uh. How loud is this area right now? [01:22:27] Speaker B: The water rushing is. It's not deafening. But if you wanted to raise your voice. Sorry. You would have to raise your voice to be heard. Not. Not yelling, but a good howdy. Like the kids upstairs. You called them down for dinner once. They didn't come down that second. [01:22:43] Speaker A: Dad yell. [01:22:43] Speaker B: That's about how loud you're getting. [01:22:47] Speaker C: Okay. Before I think Tourmaline took off. I think my immediate reaction would be to see if there is other things in said area. Maybe not making that noise, maybe lying in wait for someone to check out that noise. [01:23:10] Speaker B: Cunning and survival would be useful here. And in point of fact, Sten, if you wanted to make that tourmaline for. [01:23:17] Speaker A: Your sake, you're going ahead, I assume. [01:23:20] Speaker B: Not blindlessly, without regard for personal safety. You could also make that role happy to take that from anybody. If you are, then live your character's best life. That is fine with me. I'm giving you the option if you want to take it. [01:23:34] Speaker C: I'm sorry, you said it was cutting in what? [01:23:36] Speaker A: Survival. [01:23:37] Speaker C: Survival. Thank you. [01:23:38] Speaker E: I would take that tourmaline will not. [01:23:42] Speaker D: I think actually Vivain will. What if the spirit of curiosity compels her and this wagon seems like a puzzle as to how it got here. So I think she heads to the wagon and will make this roll. [01:23:55] Speaker B: It's very important for me to know where people are when you make this, because heading towards the wagon is something that I need to keep track of. That sounds ominous. It is. Pretend that you don't know that. [01:24:06] Speaker D: I don't think she's currently made it to the wagon. I think it's just obvious that she's. [01:24:10] Speaker B: Like, walking that direction, heading in that direction. [01:24:14] Speaker F: I got two hits, rolled a ten. The rest were not. [01:24:20] Speaker B: That is not gonna do it for this case, unfortunately. [01:24:23] Speaker D: Well, luckily for a lot of people, that was six hits for me. So I've got, I would say, clear the bar. [01:24:33] Speaker B: Indeed. Then I will give this to Vivain as sharing the spotlight around. Yeah, it's weird that it's here. And as vivain, you make it a certain distance forward and tourmaline makes it a certain distance forward. It's also weird that the wagon happened to be carrying literally nothing but unopened tomes. They look moldy. They look unread. And next to that, some kind of occult artifact. The sigils of dead gods. That's incredibly odd. And the oddness meter continues to spike, and that is when you remember the existence, one of the many things that lurks in the world below that you would probably call by its true name but everyone else refers to as a mockery. The mockery is an insatiable monster. It is a shapeshifter that can take the form of literally anything and decides what it wants to be based on the surface desires in your thoughts. Prey gets close. Once it is close, the trap springs. [01:25:53] Speaker D: Yeah, I think Vivain halts immediately. [01:25:58] Speaker B: This presents a pickle for you. And we're like, time is slowing down, right? We're going into that matrix. Like, if it's a movie, like, the camera gets a little blurry, and then you just hear the heartbeat or the clock ticking. Because makrades are clever and they are sentient. If it thinks the jig is up, then it's not going to be like, oh, well, I guess next time. So you need to be very careful how you share this information or what you do to get the advantage on what would ever happen. [01:26:29] Speaker D: I think this feels like Vivain knowing what a mockery is and having clocked it, would know that. And as such, I think she. This almost feels like a test of composure or performance. How much can I convince this mockery that I am totally clueless? So I think she, in a very exaggerated voice that, like, the others would know. Does that sound correct coming from Vivain? Oh, my God, guys. Oh, my God. There's treasure here in the wagon. Can you believe it? How lucky we are as it, to have come across such enormous treasure. We should really check that out. And her eyes are saying, no, no, no, no. [01:27:25] Speaker F: I'd like to assume Sten would have caught that from all the hunting they've had to do. And, like, can take a hint. [01:27:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know that the failure on the role, to me, would indicate that one or two things. Either you didn't recognize the mockery or you. You don't know what they are. And I think it's narratively more interesting if Sten has never encountered one but understands it's dangerous. Apologies for the GM fiat, but it's very fun. If Sten is like, there's a problem, I don't know what it is, but I'm excited. [01:27:58] Speaker A: Right? [01:27:59] Speaker F: Oh, yeah. She's fought so many things that it was the first time that they've seen them before. So this is just another thing that she'll have to figure out to fight for the first time. [01:28:09] Speaker B: Everybody wins. And then Montgomery and Tourmaline, you hear vervain. Not vervain ing very well. [01:28:19] Speaker C: I think Montgomery's first. The first thing he does is just kind of stops and turns and looks at her and kind of cocks his body. I was gonna say head, but it's a snake. So, like, kind of makes like a. You like, I am very confused. You've never sounded like this before. I think that's what. That's what he would initially do, not knowing exactly why she's acting this way. So you just kind of stop and be confused. [01:28:55] Speaker B: When the party stops moving, you can hear now the cries getting louder that, oh, no, this person is clearly on death's door. Somebody, please. Yeah. [01:29:10] Speaker C: They just. [01:29:11] Speaker B: They were sorry. The way more. Way more convincing than I was. The mockery is a significantly better actor than me. [01:29:18] Speaker C: I think Montgomery would be one confused at that. And then hearing the cries, his dad alarms start going off, but then he has another dead alarm that, like, wait. I don't know this person very well, but I know that's not how they act. Why are they acting like this? So I got multiple dead alarms going off. Like, oh, no, my child has reached that age where they're just confusing to me and I don't understand anything anymore. So still confused and still kind of stuck in place. [01:29:50] Speaker B: It seems like everybody is. Is waiting on your lead before. [01:29:54] Speaker D: Yeah, I think she heads up. Like, she heads back towards the others, but she very much is still vocalizing, don't come this way. There's nothing here for you. She wants to give the mockery a sense that there is conflict in the. She wants to claim the treasure for herself. And so she's continuing on this illusion, but as she uses that as an excuse to get close to everyone. And when she does, she, in a way, whisper, that's a mockery. Dangerous monster. Don't want to mess with it. We can't let it know that we know what it is. We just have to outrun it. I would not advise fighting it unless you guys want to, but I think we just need to get past it. [01:30:38] Speaker F: Fight it another time. [01:30:43] Speaker E: So, given that, I'm thankful for one thing in this moment, even though tourmaline is not with everyone else, because they did start moving before everyone else, they do have the keen hearing. So, thankfully, I don't think it really matters in that regard. But tourmaline will. Tourmaline may not have a brain cell, but tourmaline with the farsighter is very wise on how people behave and on how to act in accordance to that. So they will make a show of giving this, like, big sigh and, like, turning themselves around and looking towards vengeance, like, you just want to hug everything for yourself, as always, and they're going to start making their way back. [01:31:45] Speaker D: I think Vivain totally latches onto this, like, line of performance, as always. So rich coming from you. You just want it for yourself. I am a season adventurer. I deserve treasure like this. And as she's, like, doing this, I think she's, like, giving motions like, come, come on. We need to keep moving slightly imperceptibly towards the side of the cavern that will allow us to continue. [01:32:12] Speaker B: The intent is to sneak around it, which I appreciate, the key decision or not the key decision, but the key indicator will be how long can you. [01:32:22] Speaker A: Keep the ruse up? [01:32:24] Speaker B: This makes it an opposed role, actually, between collectively the group and the mockery. I love the direction you've taken because this turns into a performance of such that falls under artistry. I will allow you together to pick. Maybe cunning or manipulation are both appropriate. This is a teamwork task. Uh, so you'll get to roll together, um, and add your. Your hits and such up, because that is a big pool for all of you. It would only be fair to let the mockerys also do a teamwork action on the off chance one of them manages to detect you. Uh, because if one does, they're gonna do that thing like in all the black pod people movies are gonna point and scream, right? So it's the four of you versus the of them. Let's see how it pans out. [01:33:31] Speaker F: I got two hits. I only had two, so I'm very thankful. [01:33:43] Speaker D: Four hits for verbain. [01:33:47] Speaker C: Zero for a Montgomery. [01:33:52] Speaker B: And so that was how many for you? Vivain? [01:33:54] Speaker D: Four. [01:33:56] Speaker B: So that gets us to six. Nothing from Montgomery. [01:34:00] Speaker C: Let me see. Nope, still here. [01:34:03] Speaker B: And then tourmaline. How about you? [01:34:05] Speaker F: Two hits. [01:34:06] Speaker B: Two? Oh, I wish that that was a bigger number. [01:34:10] Speaker E: Sorry. [01:34:11] Speaker B: It is a nine and a ten, but is a ten in favor of the mockeries? However, I will give you the advantage of having made it far enough that very easy to sprint past this. [01:34:24] Speaker A: What? [01:34:24] Speaker B: You realize it starts to go wrong when you're having this really elaborate fight about keeping it all for myself, but also, like, not actually getting any closer. And like, oh, it's good. But that's. That's that little thing inside the mockery brain. [01:34:37] Speaker A: It says, like, hey, what you see is. [01:34:44] Speaker B: The body. It's a human woman. But we never got close enough to figure that out. Actually starts to inflate and puff up and then the skin splits open, not in a gory way, but in an unfolding to reveal this tentacled monstrosity that stands up. So if you're imagining a squid, you're most of the way there. The limbs are very squid like underneath, and it's got a big, like, cloaking body such that it could envelop whatever was it decided to eat and then fold it up inside. The size of it does not match the size of what you saw. Human woman, five, 8150 to 170 pounds. Fully tall. Mockery, eight or 9ft, several hundred pounds, depending on how much tentacles weigh. And then, when it breaks its disguise. [01:35:42] Speaker A: So do the other two. [01:35:43] Speaker B: The wagon and the assorted goods, each being their own thing. Later on, we will talk about how the mockeries, having read your surface thoughts, found the things that all of you were interested in. There was someone in danger. There was knowledge and truth. Treasure. Gotcha. Well, it didn't get you, but it might yet. So you've made it far enough that if you wanted to, you could. I mean, if you want to fight them, that is entirely your prerogative. Have a blast. Make a blast. You can sprint directly to the cavern exit and continue on the road. You could go to the river, see where it goes. It's flowing in the right direction. Hopefully it goes. Goes that way. More dangerous, less likely they will follow you. If your intent is to run directly through the tunnel, you will have to find a way to stop them from following you because they can also fit in the tunnel. I'm sure there's chaos magic that could help you do that. You have someone whose literal job is digging options on the table. [01:36:53] Speaker A: But first decision. [01:36:54] Speaker B: Are we fighting or are we running? [01:36:57] Speaker D: I think the vane votes for run. [01:36:59] Speaker E: Yeah, running sounds good. [01:37:03] Speaker F: Stan wants to fight, but she's not. [01:37:09] Speaker D: Save it, Sten. There will be opportunities. [01:37:11] Speaker B: Oh, and this is nice because it means you are, I think, you see the three of you running for the exit, and Sten is like, oh, hell, yeah. Get in the drop out. [01:37:20] Speaker F: And it's like, oh, what? [01:37:22] Speaker B: And then has to start running as well. Then let's do this. Because you passed. I will have just. We won't do a roll for your, like, a might and athletics roll to see how fast you're running. We can presume that it's happening. I will give one of them the chance to catch up on you, to create a sense of urgency. Maybe it gets close enough that it changes your plans, but we'll set that at a difficulty of three because you did make it pretty far into the process. And I really like the exaggerated acting of like, no, it's mine. And I'm rewarding you collectively for that. It's going to use its. Sorry. Yeah, secondary. No, it's primary pool monsters in this game, they have a primary, a secondary and a desperate pool. [01:38:12] Speaker A: They are labeled. [01:38:13] Speaker B: So in this case, the primary pool for a mockery is discern desires, change shape and hunt. This falls under hunting. So it gets that. Oh. Oh, no, no, no, no. Well, on eight dice, it managed zero hits. So you see this thing starting to, like, tell you what happened. It wanted you to be on the road, that would have been easy, but this place is full of the fungal tree stalks, so it's having to crash around those. [01:38:47] Speaker A: It is large. [01:38:48] Speaker B: You had a head start so that you've made it to the tunnel. Now, the second question. How do you close the tunnel? [01:39:01] Speaker D: What is the. [01:39:02] Speaker F: Ben would immediately just start stabbing into the. To kind of, like, try and collapse it with her drill. [01:39:08] Speaker B: You had a question, Vivain? [01:39:09] Speaker D: Yeah, I was just gonna say, what's the environment like? Does it look like there's lots of other boulders or, like, things that be. [01:39:16] Speaker B: Useful still in, like, the magma tube kind of stuff? I'm not a rockologist, so I don't know how it works, but I've been using a very. Not granite that's further down deep, but it is a smooth hewn stone. Sedimentary in nature. I don't know what those are like. [01:39:30] Speaker A: Is it slightly? [01:39:31] Speaker B: Could be. So is stone. It is not granite stone. It's not marble stone. Something at what? Schist. That's a real rock. Cool. Maybe. [01:39:42] Speaker F: But there's a big enough boulder in front. Sten probably would just try to pull it in front if she didn't have enough time to stab at it. [01:39:49] Speaker B: Yeah, nothing there. And that's why it will be digging, because the cave is eroded out and then the tunnel is again like a magma tube. So, Sten, you have a tool that. [01:40:00] Speaker A: Is built for digging. [01:40:02] Speaker B: More than happy to let you collapse this tunnel. If anyone else can think of a way to contribute or wants to help along, you don't need a drill. You could come up with something and tell me how you are helping. Happy to hear it. [01:40:16] Speaker D: I'm happy to use chaos to try to weaken it to make that easier. [01:40:21] Speaker C: Excellent. [01:40:22] Speaker B: As always. The way then this. Sorry, was someone gonna say something? [01:40:30] Speaker C: Montgomery will. He'll be, like, right there next to him. If the mimicries are getting too close, he's kind of preparing a flash. So if they get too close, he will throw that to buy a little more time for the digging. [01:40:47] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:40:49] Speaker E: Normally it's helping with the skull on the other side. [01:40:53] Speaker B: Helping. I like that. Wait, you brought me to the digging contest. That's on you. [01:40:59] Speaker C: Look at this. [01:41:02] Speaker B: Well, then, in doing so, we arrive at the last kind of test in the world below, which is an extended test. So they are obviously going to try to interrupt the process. You are going to try to complete the process, and this takes more than one turn to accomplish, so we're going to do that together real quick. I'm going to go make sure I remember how to do that. So this functions a bit like the teamwork tasks we talked about, where you have collected numbers of success. [01:41:31] Speaker A: It works a little bit like the staged results. [01:41:34] Speaker B: Right. We are going to talk about it, I guess, in series of four events, narratively. Right. We say that the vein starts by trying to weaken the rock, which Sten will try to then collapse, interrupting that we'll say after Vevain gets the rock down. That is when the first tentacle comes slashing around. That'll be a very small challenge because. [01:42:00] Speaker A: It was far away. [01:42:01] Speaker B: Then, as Sten is digging, that's the most dangerous part, because they have to be stationary, they have to be hands up, and then that will be a more difficult encounter. That means tourmaline and Montgomery, you can jump in here with your preferred method of helping out, but we'll resolve them in that order. And then what the dice tell us, we can interpret. Does that sound fair? [01:42:27] Speaker C: Sounds good. [01:42:28] Speaker B: So off we are to tether wild chaos. Vayne, do you remember how to do that? [01:42:34] Speaker D: Remind me again. [01:42:38] Speaker B: So you're gonna have to decide and affect an area, a duration. There are several different options that you can pick from in terms of, essentially, spices to add to the chaos sorcery soup. So why don't you can describe to me what you're looking to do, and then I can give it back to you in terms of, well, this is what you've described. Does that sound right? And also the difficulty of it. [01:43:07] Speaker D: Absolutely, yes. So what vivain is trying to do here is weaken the rock that sten will therefore be using to dig, so that it is not quite so difficult. You know, when you start digging a hole for the first time, you usually hit, like, really packed, you know, soil, etcetera. And it takes a while until you get going and you get to the loser stuff. So I think what she wants to do is make that faster. And as a result, she is really going for, like, the molecular level of the rock. I think she's trying to sort of, like, break bonds between molecules, which doesn't disintegrate the rock completely. But I think it is like starting to pick apart on the elemental molecular level, these sorts of ties between electrons and things. [01:43:51] Speaker B: Okay. And then a follow up question. Is this something you're going to do from a fairly safe distance, or are you comfortable getting into the mix of it? [01:44:01] Speaker D: I think she's going to start fairly far afield. She knows as well as anyone that she doesn't take big hits well, but she is not averse to, if she needs to get closer she will. [01:44:15] Speaker B: All right, then we end up in a position where the range component costs one, because you're doing it from, like, if you're right up close and touching it, there's no extra difficulty. But the second you get into the medium range band, that add one for the area effect, that would add one difficulty. If you were gonna just have a little bit of help, or two for a medium amount of help, or three for, like, Stan really only has to flick it. [01:44:45] Speaker D: I think she's here going for probably about a medium amount of help. [01:44:49] Speaker B: Okay, so that would add two in terms of the area effect. The damage effect works the same way. The harder you want to hit, the further it goes up. And then finally, what is the strength of the advantage you're giving? You can convey one enhancement, no cost at all. If you wanted to add two enhancements, that's two extra difficulty. [01:45:17] Speaker D: I think we're gonna go with one just because I think we've already built this up to a weta three challenge. [01:45:22] Speaker B: So, yeah, so four total to add a one enhancement to Sten's roll. I have faith in your dice. Let's see if it happens. It does come with the complication, as. [01:45:33] Speaker A: All wild sorcery does. [01:45:37] Speaker D: All right, here we go. Right, radical. How many successes is that we're looking at? There's another one. Good amount of them, it turns out, as is expected. Seven. [01:45:57] Speaker B: Seven. Many, many, many more than four. You can use the extra three to purchase Strix. [01:46:04] Speaker D: Yeah, would love to do that. So I think it's going to be important here to try to. Is this something because I'm focused on the rock, I can't do something to complicate for the mimicry creature or. [01:46:19] Speaker B: Yeah, you can complicate the rock because. [01:46:21] Speaker A: It is your target, but, yes, I. [01:46:23] Speaker D: Don'T want to complicate the rock. I want to make that easier. So I think assistant is a good use of spend here. Allow a single ally to overcome the same obstacle without any hits or any additional hits. So that is something I will spend for. And then, let's see. [01:46:43] Speaker B: So for that, that would be things like earlier, if we were doing the climbing test and you got those hits, you could let someone else essentially climb for free. The assist action lets someone do the thing you are doing without paying, paying the cost. [01:46:58] Speaker A: So they could also do the chaotic sorcery. [01:46:59] Speaker B: But I don't know if it works on tethered. [01:47:02] Speaker D: Does that work for if, like, for instance, if I were to drop this or something were to happen to it, like, Montgomery could come and do that also because they are also a chaosist. [01:47:13] Speaker B: I honestly can't have no idea cause. [01:47:16] Speaker D: That was sort of in my head what I was lining up. But if that's not possible, I will spend my point. [01:47:22] Speaker B: We can say that it is true for our purposes because one, we're allowed to, and two, everyone here understands that we're playing our own game. So ruling on the field. Yes. If we're wrong, then we just won't let it happen in the future. [01:47:35] Speaker D: Cool, sounds great. And then, so that's two of my spend. Could I use bolster here? Does that help? [01:47:48] Speaker B: One on bolster gets another momentum in the pool, which means you have five as a party now. [01:47:54] Speaker D: Cool. Love to accrue that momentum. [01:47:58] Speaker B: Describe for me visually what it looks like when vivain fractures rock at an elemental level. [01:48:05] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, certainly her usual kayabaka like sorcery that kind of flows through her whole body and turns her purple and it's loud. I mean, at this point they're not snow, so I think that's not a problem. But equally, it is a violent show of violet light and it happens pretty quickly and loudly. It is basically her focusing the chaotic energy coming, flowing through her as though she were its conduit and just like blasting pure, raw violet energy up into the rock. And what that's doing, you don't see and notice effect, but it's basically like exposing something to a lot of uv light, instantaneous for like a really long period of time. It's breaking down those bonds on a level. [01:48:54] Speaker B: Important point of light part is actually going to be very, very bad. People's dark vision, you know, when you're in a dark, dark room and then someone like, turns a cell phone on. [01:49:02] Speaker A: But it's like that, but it's like. [01:49:03] Speaker B: A cell phone made of magic. So not blinding in like the normal sense, but definitely a blinking moment as the vein lights up, literally the room. So the next thing that comes in is that first little bit of tentacles you can hear, like the sloshing sound of it. Honestly, what comes to mind for me immediately is like if you've ever heard someone like, well, if you've ever had jello and dropped it from a sufficient height and you hear that splotch sound, that's the sound of every single footstep hitting. And as it gets closer and if you're staring at it because you cannot help but look at oncoming terrible things, you can see that like stringy, salivary, like pre digestive kind of goo on it, it's not feet, but where the feet would be. Where if it had feet. As it comes closer. So it's like a squishy, walking in mud kind of sound as it starts to lunge forward. Now, primary pool being eight dice, it's going to attempt to reach in, swing wildly, and grab someone. As I understand your positioning, Sten is the closest. The vein is fairly far away. Tourmaline is fairly far away. [01:50:25] Speaker E: Tourmaline was right by the entrance because Tourmalino is trying to be a line. [01:50:28] Speaker B: Of defense between Roxanne and then Montgomery. [01:50:34] Speaker C: Tourmaline is probably midway close enough that he could throw the flash if needed. So not, like, right up there, probably just behind them. [01:50:47] Speaker B: All right, so then the three people who it could reasonably make contact with would be Sten. Tourmaline in Montgomery, but Montgomery less so. [01:50:56] Speaker A: So let's, uh. [01:50:57] Speaker B: Because, again, I am. This is just a me as a DM thing. I am the worst person in the world at picking who gets hit with a thing. I always feel bad no matter how I do it. [01:51:05] Speaker A: I feel like I'm targeting somebody. [01:51:07] Speaker B: I'm so worried that you're like, you just hate tourmaline. You're always doing it. [01:51:10] Speaker A: I know. It makes. [01:51:11] Speaker B: I like what I'm playing is, like, I can't kill the wizards when I'm the dungeon master. [01:51:15] Speaker A: I feel so, so bad. [01:51:16] Speaker B: So it's always a bit random with me. [01:51:19] Speaker A: Let's say it like this. We'll use a d six for the. [01:51:23] Speaker B: Three of you, but Montgomery will only be on a six, and if it hits one of the other numbers, we will give that, like, three of the dots of tourmaline. Since you are in front, then say, four or five is sten and six is Montgomery. [01:51:35] Speaker A: So that way, everyone's got a chance. But it's weighted fairly closely to your position. [01:51:39] Speaker B: Does that sound fair? [01:51:40] Speaker C: Sounds good. [01:51:43] Speaker B: Well, then that is a one. So, yeah, there's magic. You can hear the rocks cracking behind you, and then it doesn't have eyes, but if it had eyes, they'd be staring beetle directly at you. This is the first attack of a round, which means you have the opportunity, nay, the obligation, to roll your defense. That is just your stamina. No other skill. Just your stamina. [01:52:12] Speaker E: Real quick, which one was that again? I've already forgotten. [01:52:16] Speaker B: Stamina? [01:52:18] Speaker E: Yes. Stamina. Which person? [01:52:20] Speaker B: Oh, you. [01:52:21] Speaker A: Sorry. [01:52:22] Speaker E: I thought so, but I wanted to check. [01:52:24] Speaker B: You said which instead of who, and I was like, I don't understand the. [01:52:27] Speaker E: Question, but, yes, I will endeavor to do better. Semantics next time. [01:52:40] Speaker B: I also could have sworn that I had said it, but it's possible that I didn't say your name anyway. [01:52:44] Speaker E: I did not say my name. [01:52:45] Speaker B: Making an interesting face. [01:52:48] Speaker E: I am yoinks. [01:52:51] Speaker B: Okay, so you, zero successes on your stamina. [01:52:55] Speaker E: Zero successes. Okay. [01:52:56] Speaker B: The good news is you always have a minimum of one. Your defense can never be lower than one one. The bad news is it is hunting and it has a lot. [01:53:08] Speaker A: I guess the other good news is. [01:53:09] Speaker B: That the worst it can do is one damage to you. Depending on also tricks. We'll see. Good news so far. Good news so far. Worse news, medium bad news. So your defense is one. [01:53:31] Speaker A: It rolled three hits. [01:53:33] Speaker B: So it does make contact with you. That's going to be one injury before any extra hits are spent. Anytime an attack connects with someone, it's always going to be one injury at minimum. It does not have enough to go any higher, so it's going to have to spend its two tricks on another way. And it is going to choose in close combat to spend one on establish grapple. So tourmaline is now wrapped up in the tentacle. When you are grappled, the only thing you can do is engage with your opponent in that grapple. [01:54:19] Speaker A: So you can try to break out. [01:54:21] Speaker B: You can try to reverse the grapple, like in an MMA way. The only way to escape the grapple is to you break out. You reverse it or someone else gets. [01:54:31] Speaker A: You out of the grapple is going. [01:54:34] Speaker B: To spend a second one to on faint so its next attack will gain a plus one enhancement. Now, that turn happens before you, so feel free to go now if you want to try to get out of it. [01:55:06] Speaker E: Cool. So good news for me is that one injury was taken by the armor. [01:55:12] Speaker B: Nice. [01:55:13] Speaker E: So I am thus far. Okay, so I wrapped up in this tentacle thing. So you mentioned the like, pre digestive stuff on its feet. Is that all over its body? [01:55:26] Speaker B: What would be more interesting for you. [01:55:29] Speaker E: I'm thinking of this like a pineapple situation where it eats you back because Tourmaline's about to bite it. [01:55:34] Speaker B: Yeah, let's do it. [01:55:37] Speaker F: Cool. [01:55:38] Speaker E: So torling is going to try to bite it. [01:55:40] Speaker B: Oh, love this. [01:55:45] Speaker E: With that. I'm assuming that's close combat, but yeah. [01:55:49] Speaker B: For want of a biting skill, we will have to go with close combat. And it's always so close combat is always might and close combat. Unless you have the skill that lets you use finesse. Uh, that's how it be. [01:56:07] Speaker E: Okay. [01:56:10] Speaker B: I'm expecting sten to rescue you, and if they don't, I don't know what. [01:56:13] Speaker A: To do for you, bud. [01:56:18] Speaker E: I just once again, rolled the only way I was ever gonna get a success on that. I have one dice. I rolled a ten. So I got two hits on that. [01:56:26] Speaker B: Two is good. It's defense is only one. So you get. You have one extra success with that success. It takes a damage. And because you are grappled, you can break out for one. [01:56:41] Speaker E: I will do that tourmaline to describe this in the most tourmaline way I can. Tourmaline gets grappled. The armor takes the hit that tourmaline was going to. So they're, like, mildly inconvenienced. And if anyone's looking at their face, they give this creature just a, like a why. And then they rear their head back and just bite. And I'm assuming they bite. There's a moment that the mimicry is like, why? What? This is not how this works. And Tourmaline just slips through back onto the ground. [01:57:18] Speaker B: It's a hundred percent what I was imagining. Just like the what? The fucking bites before enough of a to let you picture a slurp sound as well. [01:57:31] Speaker D: Cause I just picture. [01:57:32] Speaker E: Yes, very much so. [01:57:36] Speaker B: That gives us to Sten and Montgomery. The two of you have the chance to act. So it really doesn't matter which order, because the next thing won't happen until after tourmaline has extricated themselves from the situation. So still possible to collapse the rocks and skedaddle. No need to. [01:57:57] Speaker F: Cannot do anything until they are behind me. I cannot collapse it with them outside of it. [01:58:03] Speaker B: A small piece that just applies to everything. You get a reflex action, which is kind of like your bonus move or whatever. The game does not care a too terribly much about movement, speed and things like that. So more than happy to say that tourmaline gets grabbed and then before it can even, like, yeet them back. No, Yeet is to yoink them back into the cavern. The bite comes in, and then just like a little slippery snurson just. And then it's on their way. [01:58:32] Speaker E: It's the most knee jerk reaction thing. It's. You are grabbed. And. [01:58:40] Speaker B: Monty, you'd said you were going to, like, the Flash grenade was the plan. Is that still working out for. [01:58:48] Speaker C: Yeah, you know what? Like, it was so quick of being. Of seeing. Especially for Montgomery, seeing another Ntia being grabbed kind of triggered his worst nightmares. But then seeing tourmaline just like, bite run was like, oh, yeah, that's probably how they would handle it. So he'll throw the Flash after Tormund is out the way and then skedaddle back. [01:59:17] Speaker B: All right, remind us and anyone who cheated and didn't watch the first episode. What the Flash grenade does. [01:59:23] Speaker C: Cheaters never prosper. I have to tell all my kids that while they're young, afterwards. I don't care. Flash. The caster condenses ambient chaos into a bright flash of light. This creates an overstimulating area effect and day status effect within close range of the caster until the beginning of the caster's next turn. She would have ran up and then ran back. Yeah. And the caster and their bomb mates are unaffected. [01:59:51] Speaker B: Right. Which is good that we have bond mates. So then. Yeah. So tourmaline, you are. It's a bit like a magician that doesn't have the timing down right, because you disappear, and then there's the flash of smoke and light, as opposed to the other way around. Sten. It falls to you to make it fall. You can see the creature, this hideous, like, high pitched streak out of its. It's not literally a squid. There's not a. Like a pendant. My brain keeps going there, but it's making that slurping, angry monster sound as it reels backwards from this, stumbling in one of the ones. This is your window. Can you be the big damn hero? [02:00:35] Speaker C: Oh. [02:00:35] Speaker F: She so badly wants to run and stab it in the face. But he knows that the proper way to save everybody is to make sure it cannot get anybody. So what she does is she grabs her drill, pulls a little knob, and revs it, and the drill begins to spin. And you notice that parts of it begin to glint, and you notice that there's actually black tulle diamond on it. So she uses that to be able to drill quickly, and she just jams right into the side and splits around. [02:01:03] Speaker B: So that will be a might and athletics roll. [02:01:09] Speaker F: Right, that is six for me. [02:01:11] Speaker B: I got a good feeling about this. [02:01:13] Speaker F: I love you. [02:01:15] Speaker B: I hope you're talking to the dice. [02:01:16] Speaker A: Right, like, I didn't. [02:01:19] Speaker B: I've never. [02:01:20] Speaker F: I love you guys too, but I've. [02:01:21] Speaker B: Never heard someone be so grateful, like, you can do this. Oh, thanks. I love you. [02:01:26] Speaker D: Thank you so much. [02:01:27] Speaker F: Because I'm really grateful because I got two tens and a nine and then a six, a seven, and a four. But. So that is still five successes and. [02:01:35] Speaker B: A plus one enhancement for your tool, which is well in excellent of the difficulty. So it all works out quite well to plan. Minus the one little hitch. The rock has been sufficiently weakened. Tourmaline escapes. Montgomery makes sure that everything goes according to plan. Peak dad. Defensive reflexes. And then Sten brings the tunnel crashing down. Behind you, and you can still hear the screeching and the squirming. It's muted on the other side. There's the clatter of rock as you can hear it trying to kind of probe through and find something. But eventually I realize that that will be to no avail. It will have to search for other prey. [02:02:21] Speaker C: I think, immediately. Once, like, we're in safety and not in danger of more collapsing tunnel, Montgomery runs over to Tourmaline. And not going by any sense of a personal space is just, like, checking them over, like, lifting their arm up, creaking their. Their neck to make sure there's no, like, burns or cuts or nothing. Like, are you fine? Are you okay? Are you okay? You're. [02:02:49] Speaker B: You're. [02:02:49] Speaker C: You're fine. You're fine. Good job, kid. [02:02:54] Speaker D: The Thane is standing off to the side a little bit like her arms crossed, but I think she, like. Like, locks, gazes with tourmaline for a minute and goes, well done. [02:03:06] Speaker E: I'm not used to getting praised for survival. This is new. [02:03:13] Speaker C: Survival is important. She can be praised for tomorrow. [02:03:18] Speaker E: I. People tend not to care if we live or die. [02:03:25] Speaker B: So. [02:03:28] Speaker E: This is weird. New. I'm fine. [02:03:32] Speaker D: If it makes you feel better. It's not so much about your survival as it is about your skill that you exhibited. Quick thinking. [02:03:39] Speaker E: See, that's. That's more typical. [02:03:43] Speaker F: She nods vigorously. [02:03:45] Speaker D: She nods vigorously. [02:03:48] Speaker E: Thank you. Thank you. [02:03:51] Speaker C: Well, I'm praising you for a survivor. [02:03:53] Speaker E: I appreciate it. Tourmaline is not used to people being so forward, so affectionate sort of thing. And so, as Montgomery continues to praise them, they start moving on down the corridor. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Appreciate it. And they're just slowly slithering away. [02:04:23] Speaker F: Yeah, no problem. It was just a lot of effort. It's cool. [02:04:29] Speaker A: You did amazing. [02:04:32] Speaker C: We were just about to get to you. You're just you. You superstar. [02:04:38] Speaker E: Plus, I get it. [02:04:40] Speaker B: I was waiting because I was like, you forgot about Sten. [02:04:45] Speaker C: No one forgot about Sten. [02:04:48] Speaker F: She wasn't gonna get faked. [02:04:51] Speaker D: The fain is like, you have much skill with the rock digging. [02:04:57] Speaker F: I can do a lot of things with this. [02:04:59] Speaker B: If we ever digging, if we ever wondered who the favorite kid was, we've answered that question today. [02:05:06] Speaker C: No, there aren't both favorites. Just sometimes someone needs a little more than others. [02:05:13] Speaker F: Well, extra love. [02:05:15] Speaker C: That's what happened in this particular moment. [02:05:18] Speaker D: I think Vivain will. She has read about a gesture that shows gratitude and support, and she holds up her hand like this towards Sten. But it's, like, very tentative. Like. [02:05:33] Speaker F: Sten gives the most aggressive high five, probably, like, way too hard. Like, just because she's used to high fiving other hunters who are just trying to go full force. It probably just stings a little too much on her hand. [02:05:45] Speaker D: But luckily, this is probably Vivain's first actual high five. So she's like, that was cool. [02:05:53] Speaker F: Stink of success. [02:05:55] Speaker B: One small administrative note for you. Tourmaline armor refreshes at the end of a combat scene, so it can only block so much damage in a given fight. But it is not the case that it fills up once and then it's useless until you repair it or replace it, right? So keep that in mind. Then. The walk continues getting progressively darker. Moving forward. The fungal cavern was gently illuminated, the lichen cavern quite bright, all things considered. But now, especially having cut off the light behind you, you find yourself in that still darkness of the world below. It's never comfortable, but it's also not unexpected. Every single one of you, at some point in your adventuring career, has ended up in that pitch blackness of an unfamiliar place. I know that Montgomery can echolocate, so walking through the dark, not a problem for you. The other three of you, I don't think, are as blessed in that regard. So someone's going to have to be a little torchy, I think, is the thing. [02:07:15] Speaker F: Ben is just literally a torch. [02:07:20] Speaker B: Then this is fun because we have Stan leading the way with a self extinguishing napalm trail kind of on the wall as you continue to walk forward, have not done an excellent job of communicating how much time this has taken. The up and down adventure in the cavern is one thing, and I feel like I gave you the wrong impression about how close that was to the next encounter. But in point of fact, you've been on the road for the better part of six or 7 hours at this point. Continuing to press forward is definitely possible, but exhaustion kills just as many people in the world below as do monsters and cave ins. So most, most prudent would be to stop, make camp. You could press forward a little longer, but not so far that I would say you'd arrived at the next narratively important event, because I can see how much time we have left in the recording. That said, let's fast forward to the next most interesting thing, which is your first camp together in the world below. I'm going to divvy out some creative responsibilities again. You have found a place that is sufficiently large for you to form a campsite. You don't have to line up your bedrolls in the tunnel. And you can presume that there's not, like, the poisonous fog in it or another. You know, there's a. Oh, my God, you found an inn. And it's a mockery again. Right. So with those things said, I'm going to ask each of you in turn to add an element to this cavern that describes where your campsite will be made. And as is true of all things, I will randomize this responsibility. First one falls to the vein. [02:09:17] Speaker D: All right. Fact about the cavern, I think this cavern, it's interesting. There is a very persistent but natural sound, like the sound of water dripping off of a stalactite. Drip, drip, drip. It's almost metronomic or metronomic, almost like you could kind of keep. There's a beat, or like, it marks sort of the passage of seconds, the passage of time in a place where it's otherwise very hard to orient yourself. [02:09:52] Speaker B: Excellent. Then who gets the next job? [02:09:56] Speaker D: Right, I will pass this to Lex. [02:10:04] Speaker F: I think this cavern, there is these bugs that are very small and cute, ladybug like, but they, like, glow and, like, disappear. So it's not like a consistent light or enough. You just see them kind of crawling, then just beep, beep. They're just little guys just hanging out. [02:10:33] Speaker B: And can we. Yes, and that. And say that when they glow, that is when they are corporeal, and then when the light goes out, they're actually disappearing, either invisible or to another dimension, perhaps no one knows. Again, not Vivain's department. And then they blink back into existence somewhere else. [02:10:53] Speaker F: Heck yes. [02:10:54] Speaker B: Awesome. So we've got a dripping metronomic natural rhythm and some flutter buys. Who gets the next call? [02:11:05] Speaker F: Gotta give us one to dad. He's been stressed. [02:11:12] Speaker C: Let'S say, kind of piggybacking off the dripping. There is a kind of a small, like, not even toddler size pool of water that's coming up from underneath and steaming a bit. So it was a nice little place to freshen up in and wash your hands and, you know, not be absolutely filthy before you go to bed. [02:11:44] Speaker B: All water in the world below is mineral water of some kind, or under, so good for your bones. But also you get that Fiji water taste like that silica kind of taste in it as you scrub. And you freshen up your canteens and such. And then last detail on the list, Vex. [02:12:08] Speaker E: I think there is a nice blanket of, like, soft moss because we have described this place as being very damp. There's a lot of water, whether it being dripping or from, like, a natural, like, spring hot spring source. And so I imagine there's a nice lush blanket of moss across the floor that makes the steps and maybe laying on it just a little bit nicer than it might normally be. [02:12:32] Speaker B: I like that. Being the storyteller, I can add one more. I will say that there are exposed ore veins in ribbons along the side. So if you let your eyes kind of squint and glide a little bit, you get this scintillating pattern between the darkness of the rock and then the brightness of copper. And then, yeah, we'll just say it's coppery. So you get that greenish kind of shimmering, raw copper sense in the low light of these. Are they blinking out of existence? Can we not just see them? Are they small or just far away sense of that? And actually, I think what we've created now in my head is a bit like the lagoon from the Little Mermaid, where you have some natural rhythm. It's fairly damp, there are bugs being cute, and it's kind of quiet. I like this. But that is the truth about the world bullet. That it is hazardous and is dangerous. [02:13:28] Speaker A: But it does provide, especially to those who are worthy. [02:13:33] Speaker B: And you cannot help but feel worthy after the day that you have had. Right. For folks who were thrown together at the last minute, you have not only, for the most part, actually kind of saved the city. Right, like that could have been so much worse. You have also managed to stumble together to immediately clear your way out of what is actually quite a toxic and dangerous cavern without succumbing to any of the pains therein. One of you, by virtue of your diet, the other three by talents that honest, I don't think you knew you had. Of course, Den is strong. I don't think anyone in the world had the vein pegged for a climber. And yet you survived the other side. And then, through wisdom and through strength, and through crude but effective geological engineering, you managed to elude one of the world below's most cunning and dangerous predators. So a respite in this refuge, in fact, is what you deserve after a long day of travel. We each have our own routines and small comforts, of course, on the road, but they are important. Now, during character creation, you are each asked to pick two trinkets or small objects of personal value that are important to you in the world below. And I am going to impose upon you the obligation to reflect with that object on the day's comings and goings. Going back to the assignment. Die. This falls to tourmaline. [02:15:15] Speaker E: Tourmaline. When settling down for the night this time, pulls out two items that actually go together. One item is broken off. Just a piece of something. It's something or like. And they sit down in front of them, and if you look close, you can see little bits of, like, detail into it. And after a little bit, you can understand that it's a piece of a statue that they have with them. And in their other hand, they take a set of bone casting dice and, well, casting bones, they're not dice. And they take them and they shake them in their hands and they cast them out in front of this piece of the statue as it is their way of communing with the gods that they grew up with, as that statue piece is a piece of one of the ancient statues of the nameless gods. If they were to be asked, they wouldn't even know what God it was, what that God did, what the God's name was, nothing about it. But the God's presence. The statue's presence is a comfort to them. And as they read the bones, it seems to provide them almost a soothing message. And they relax from the day's events. [02:16:39] Speaker B: I will invite you to choose who comes next, but I will then interject a bonus surprise into the occasion. [02:16:48] Speaker E: I am going to toss this over to Montgomery. [02:16:52] Speaker B: Montgomery. Then I am saving your trinket for later. Because what I want to know from you is, as you witness this, what does it tell you about tourmaline? And you can do this either just to you and me, as a secret. If it's bad news or if it's nice news, you can take it in character and let them know yourselves. [02:17:11] Speaker C: I'll take it in character. To me, it kind of. So from the very first moment I saw this person and the memory seared into my brain of the rap blender seemed like this person was so aloof, so uncaring that, you know, anything and everything just flowed through them and over them. And seeing what they just did along with, you know, they're. They're hesitant of getting a genuine compliment. It makes me think that this person is. Is not uncaring, just so in the moment that that is truly what they care about is whatever is in front of them. It's such a pure and almost childish view of, or not view, but a state of living. Of course, everything reminds me of kids, but for Montgomery, just seeing this, it reminds him of his own childhood, actually. And meeting people who went through the same line of work as him with the fungus and just learning from them and them teaching him how is, you know, fungi don't try to kill us or consume us or give us food or give us poison. They are just. And it's kind of how he looks at the world. The world is just the world, and we mold how we survive in it. And for him, it look, it feels like Tourmaline has embodied that to a degree Montgomery would never think was possible. So it's impressive to him. [02:19:26] Speaker B: And how does that manifest in the moment that the bones are being rolled and you saw the face they made when they were doing it? Like they're having a good time. [02:19:36] Speaker C: Right. I think for a moment before focusing on what Montgomery needs to do, he would just kind of, for once, not entering their personal space, but gets a little closer and just kind of admires what they're doing. And very much this is like the father overlooking a child. Just like in wonder and amazement of how they view the world. A view that while Montgomery can understand, Montgomery is way past being able to be that one in the moment. So just kind of admiring what's going on then. [02:20:25] Speaker B: It's a very proud dad watching the children play. But not to infantilize the very serious act of. I don't remember what it's called when it's bones. I know with bird feathers. Like oneiromancy, it's some kind of mansi. Bonomancy is not what it's called, but orthomancy. Orthomancy. Ortho or osteo. That was the two I should have gone with. But yeah, as the osto. [02:20:49] Speaker C: Sorry. [02:20:49] Speaker B: The orthomancy occurs. Well, then, Montgomery, I will ask who between Sten and Vivain? Do you want to hear a trinket story from? [02:21:00] Speaker C: Let's go with Vivain. [02:21:05] Speaker D: Right. Well, I think the trinket we haven't heard about of Vivain, because one is her grimoire, where she draws maps and does her scholarship. Although I think she has made several entries this evening. I think there is a diagram of a snack she has tried to create a picture of a cheese wheel too large for snack. Question marks and measurements. Cantaloupe, snack, check. Watermelon. Larger. Does largeness cancel out snack potential? She's, like, listed sweetness, savoriness, as categories crossed out as variable, since there were both possibilities. Denseness, exclamation point. Pasta, heavy filling, not snack. So those are some of her entries. She's also sketched the high five. There's a force calculation based on Sten's mass relative to the force generated. And force equals enthusiasm. Or are high fives always strong to be further studied? But I think as she is doing this writing in her grimoire, you catch the sight of. There's a necklace around her neck that dangles as she leans over. It's this bright shard of sapphire. It's from the crystal city where she's from. And it is something that's dear to her. You can tell because of the fact that she hides it underneath her clothing. It's not ostentatiously displayed as part of her attire. It's close to her heart, it's close to her chest, and it's this bright, cerulean blue color. It almost reminds you of what once was called the sky. [02:22:40] Speaker B: Ah, the mythical sky from the before times. Well, then we turn to sten as you go about the beginning of your nightly business. There is a flash of a strange color in your eye. Not something in the cavern, not some kind of magic, but a blue. Unlike most of the blues in this world, there's no deep blue ocean. Caverns are always dark, and you get that nice, rich and royal flash of color coming from the vein. What happens next then would probably just. [02:23:15] Speaker F: Blink back a few times and just look at her. [02:23:18] Speaker E: What is that? [02:23:21] Speaker F: That's amazing. Does it do something? [02:23:26] Speaker D: Oh, and I think she almost, like, self consciously, like, she has a gesture to try to, like, tuck it back into her robes. But like, this. This bell has been wrong. You've seen it. I think she, like, holds it forward. I actually don't know. It might once have done. It's very, very old. Do you want to see it? Yeah. I think she, like, undoes the clasp and, like, hands it over to you. [02:23:57] Speaker F: She's gonna hold up this very blue, very cool looking stone. Just, like, looking through, trying to catch a glimpse behind some of the floating, disappearing red lights. And see, just as she see through it nails it a little bit. [02:24:13] Speaker B: We know that sapphires do exist yet in the world. [02:24:16] Speaker E: World. [02:24:16] Speaker B: But there's something special about this one that merits the fascination. What is that? [02:24:25] Speaker D: Vivain, as you were looking at it, always the teacher, ever the scholar, to give you additional context, to be that little voice of intelligent czech history in the back of your head. It belonged to an adamus, archon of the crystal city in the days before the calamity, or so my father said. He is a museum curator. This used to be in the collection. [02:24:52] Speaker E: Wow. [02:24:53] Speaker F: That is amazing. She, like, hands it back now, feeling like she shouldn't be holding onto it. [02:25:01] Speaker D: But I mean, you definitely do not see, like, any kind of sense that, like, Vivain was, like, hesitant to hand it to you, but I don't think she. There's no embarrassment or sense of like, this is a different level for her. This is just a domain of herself. It's a part of knowledge just like anything else. [02:25:22] Speaker B: I got the impression that at a certain point in the explanation, Sten realized how expensive it should be, and he no longer felt comfortable holding it. [02:25:32] Speaker F: I've broken less expensive things. [02:25:37] Speaker B: And then. So the night continues, at least until a meal is served up, I presume by Montgomery. Rations unpacked, rehydrated, stirred up, made as palatable as possible. Comfort is hard to come by. On the road to the world below. You can only pack so many things to take with you and every single extra pound of gear. Gear is one more little twinge of exhaustion, one more thing to follow around. And that is how the remainder of the evening plays out. For a given value of evening comfort is hard to come by on the. [02:26:17] Speaker A: Roads of the world below, but you. [02:26:19] Speaker B: Know that you've traveled them before. The food is sparse, made in this case, more appetizing by Montgomery's exceptional cooking skills. The nights are usually darker. You don't want to set gigantic fires that attracts the wrong kind of attention. But it's warm from a latent elemental heat that radiates from sten. And it has to feel on opposite ends of the spectrum, a little comfortable knowing that no matter what happens to you, the vain will have probably read a book about it and tourmaline will have seen it coming from the future. There is something disparate and strange and unintelligible about each of you. I think it's obvious by now we have established you do not see the world below in the same way, but nevertheless have arrived with an overlapping set of worldviews and talents that makes this journey just a little bit safer, at least until in the middle of the night, one of you will be the first to wake when a loud clicking sound, chitinous and large, wakes you from your slumber. But that is in the business, what we call a cliffhanger. You will have to come back next week to see, hear, have described to you what this thing is. And until then, I will introduce you. [02:27:55] Speaker A: To the frustrated, flustered, or eager. [02:27:59] Speaker B: I don't know which direction the emotion is going right now. Cast that I have brought with me. They are excellent and in no particular order as tourmaline. They are vex somniarized. [02:28:13] Speaker F: Hello. [02:28:16] Speaker E: You can find me everywhere. I've actually. My name is weird and no one else has taken it. Yeah, you can find me on a few different streams around and you're about to find me on a few more, and otherwise, you can find me here. [02:28:30] Speaker A: You cannot sleep on the fact that. [02:28:32] Speaker B: We'Ve done intros twice where you're like, I have ferrets, and I'm like, prove it. [02:28:35] Speaker A: I don't believe you. [02:28:36] Speaker B: And now there's one here, and you're just pretending they don't exist. [02:28:41] Speaker D: He. [02:28:42] Speaker E: He got a little boo boo, and I didn't want him running around, so he's here. [02:28:47] Speaker B: What's his name? [02:28:49] Speaker E: This is Dionysus. I call him Dio. [02:28:52] Speaker B: Aw, Dio, you're adorable. I'm not going to segue with adorable. [02:28:58] Speaker A: Into this next person because I feel like it would overstate the strength of our friendship. [02:29:02] Speaker B: They are monsters, Gummer. He they are. [02:29:05] Speaker A: Garrett. [02:29:06] Speaker B: Garrett. [02:29:09] Speaker C: I can be adorable. Yes, I am Garrett. You can find me at a couple different places, read my columns over at black nerd problems, listen to our podcast wherever you find podcasts at the vintage anime podcast, and look for me on YouTube, airbearstare, where we look at cartoons and a lot of different things, hopefully more recent things, once the writers strike or not the writers strike, because that was thankfully taken care of. The actors strike is taken care of. [02:29:39] Speaker B: If you need something struck and taken care of, actors are a good choice. So is Sten. Sten, people want to see you strike things, but not here. [02:29:50] Speaker A: Where do they go? [02:29:51] Speaker F: Oh, especially if you want to see me strike things. Hello, I am smallbirdlex. You can find me at small bird Lex and small bird art. And if you want to see me play level 20 barbarian fighter. I have grappled a dragon. I have killed a spider goddess in one move. One move. One. She was dead. My DM was like, I have to give her a second health bar. It was hilarious. But anyways, you want to see me. [02:30:15] Speaker D: Be bonky and strong elsewhere, check out. [02:30:18] Speaker F: Sir Pfeffer's channel on Saturday nights 08:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and Phoenix Oaki to be a Sus wizard at 09:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time or ten. Time zones are weird. [02:30:30] Speaker B: Sometimes the lust for power makes every wizard a sus wizard, at least as I understand it. Isn't that right, Vivain, who is also Marisa? [02:30:40] Speaker D: Oh, of course. Hi, everybody. I have and will continue to be Marissa, the most critical of kittens, who goes by critical kitten most places on the Internet with a variety of punctuation. I'm an editor of books, ttrpgs, and video games. So if you have one of those things and you need an editorial eye. You can check out my work at my website, www.mariscores.com. I can most frequently be found on the Manapot Studios Twitch channel where I play the vancean librarian Keery von Hollingsworth on the award winning Invisible sun actual play the Hole in the world, which is currently on hiatus but will be back in the new year every other Sunday at 04:00 p.m. Eastern time. I'm also a regular on Flights of Fandom, which is Tuesdays on the same channel at 08:00 p.m.. Eastern, a show where we create improvised fanfiction with beloved IP using our favorite tabletop games. Right now we're sticking to books, comics and games due to the ongoing strike aforementioned. But check out this month's stream, which is from bat to worse, a curse of Strahd game where the cast are Strahd's employees and truly tired of all the paperwork, admin and the same dirges to to saying day in and day out. Check it out. It's a blast. [02:31:49] Speaker B: You had me sold on the concept right there. I was hoping for a moment that it would be Strahd, but set in like the office kind of setting and that's a whole new thing. [02:31:59] Speaker E: Swirl. [02:32:00] Speaker D: Great. [02:32:02] Speaker B: Well, don't go watch that until you're done watching this because one the world below is a pretty fantastic game. I think we can all agree once you get done meat of it, I. [02:32:11] Speaker A: Think I love the world. [02:32:13] Speaker B: I love the variety of the kind. [02:32:16] Speaker A: Of things you can do. [02:32:17] Speaker B: As you can tell by my face, the players have a huge power level compared to what I'm normally working with. So like those theses and syntheses are always on. If there's not a spell you want to cast, you can just make one up. We will not get into it in this series, unfortunately, but there's an entire like settlement building aspect to it so you can make a choice as to campaign frame. Do you want to be adventurers going out into the world below, or do you want to have a home that you bring the world below back to from episodic adventures? A whole lot going on there in a way that is flexible for GM's and flexible for players and lets you do things like be immune to poison, just decide to dissolve rocks with your mind, speak to the dead and the gods of the dead. And also just like who needs a flashlight? You just have fire all the time. You can find that Kickstarter ongoing. I think by the time this airs, literally right now, help them succeed, help them hit their stretch goals. Help them make make them feel good about having had us play the game for you. These are all things you can accomplish by heading over to the link here in chat or in the show notes. [02:33:25] Speaker A: To go check out the world below kickstarter. [02:33:28] Speaker B: If you would like to hear other things, you can find Merrin in words. Occasionally I give GM advice. Mostly I just complain about how I should be writing m and I'm currently not. But if that interests you, that's where you can find me. More likely you will want to hang out at Queenscore RPG on Twitter or Queen's court games literally everywhere else. That's where our schedule is coming up. That's where we announce shows like this. Occasionally we'll reach out for friends asking for suggestions for games to play, people we should talk to. You could be that friend. You could be that person. If you follow us and see the message like it's really in your best interest. I shouldn't have to sell you this hard about it, but here I am. Also, if you think that sell was hard whole point we're getting to the Patreon part. As is required by Internet law, $5 a month can get you all kinds of things, including behind the scenes videos, original art. We are thinking actually kind of hard about sending physical merchandise to people. We have a goal up. If we get enough, you will get a literal postcard in the mail with art on it and I defy you to go find somebody else who is doing that on Patreon. Like come on. And that's us. That's the story. Come see more of it next week, same time, but about 3 hours ago. Until then, bye for now.