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Recorded: Oct. 1, 2025 Duration: 4:58:28Space Recording
Short Summary
In a recent discussion, participants explored the intersection of blockchain technology and agriculture, highlighting partnerships aimed at supporting farmers in Nigeria through regenerative finance. With upcoming grant opportunities from Gitcoin and innovative funding mechanisms like quadratic funding, the conversation underscored the growth and potential of community-driven financial support in the crypto space.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Thanks for stopping in Dan today I'm pretty much just playing D&D with my
friends I appreciate you being here and listening in I'm checking out your profile.
I do like people who grow food.
There we go.
I'll invite you to co-host.
I think we're going to invite Dan up to chat real quick before we get started.
I'm sure he wants to share what he's working on.
We'll give him a few moments of our time.
Today is more about having fun.
Thank you. I Can't hear you now
I wasn't talking
I wasn't talking.
Oh, I was like, am I rugging already?
Sorry.
I was just, I was scrolling and doing stuff in the background.
Got you.
I was looking for the stuff I'm supposed to put at the top, but you know, I don't think I got that far.
Got you.
No worries.
I'm glad I'm not rugging.
You just reminded me to log out of my job. Oh, wait, I already did. Ready to play some games. I told Jimmy 15 minutes ago that our space is starting. Hopefully he got it.
that he would join. I'm going to tag him.
Yeah, and if this isn't a good time
for him, we can move the time slot.
We mostly picked it
I think because somebody
just randomly said Wednesday
and they're not even here.
So, you know, it doesn't matter
if there's a better time for him let him know that he can
he can help us schedule it otherwise we'll just have it at the same time every week um
okay that sounds good i just made a post tagging both found and jimmy in because it is also just finally 7 30 my time so we're we're ahead of the game yeah yeah i always
started a few minutes early just because i'm um you know i'm like i want to be ready i want to be
here and also it's nice to just say hi to people for a few minutes before we're like all right now
i'm gonna try to murder you uh So how are you doing today, Matthew?
Doing pretty good.
How are you guys doing?
Good.
We're going to play some D&D or TOT today.
Tell stories, roll dice.
You know.
Cool, cool.
You know, we've got Dan here.
We've got Mr. here.
And they're connected. And i did talk with dan a little
earlier and he's going to be working with uh farmers um in nigeria and so yeah i just want
him to connect with the refi world and you know talk with him a little bit about gibbeth and get
coin grants and that's something you really should take a look at. You can find Giveth and Gitcoin on X here.
Gitcoin has their next round of grants starting in a few days.
Yeah, I was going to say check out the refi rounds.
I don't know if they're going to go in conjunction
or congruent with them or whatever,
but they are having a number of refi rounds
to support their local nodes and
to start more local nodes so if you're working with farmers and like on the ground and you're
doing like regenerative practices um those guys would probably be happy to help you out um i would
say also start with putting information and reporting stuff on Karma Gap, because that's where most of these places want to go look to see what you've got.
And if you have your information in the right places, it helps a lot to actually get the funding that you're looking for.
And I think that that's also a big hurdle is like coming into it.
Coming into it, people are like, I've done all this stuff.
People are like, I've done all this stuff.
I've got all this information, but it's not necessarily in the right place.
I've got all this information, but it's not necessarily in the right place.
So make sure you're putting the information to places that the grant providers want to see it.
Yeah, and that's why it's important to come to spaces like this.
You know, and Jimmy does the tree gens spaces quite a bit.
You know, and like I said, you know, you can just on X, just hit refi and, you know, follow some people.
you know, you can just on X, just hit refi and, you know, follow some people. If you like their
tweets, you know, retweet them, you know, and connect and ask questions, you know. So when you
come to these spaces, you know, you can ask questions on how to move your project forward
and, you know, introduce yourself and stuff like that, you know, because we've got a very strong
refi movement. We need to scale it up into the trillions and trillions of dollars so we've got
a lot of work which means a lot of opportunities and you know you can make money in the for-profits
and you can make money uh while you can you know get grants and quadratic funding you literally can
get a hundred times matching funds so if you had a thousand people giving you a dollar you would
probably be one of the top vote getters and and you could get over 100 times matching funds.
So you get 1,000 from your people that know you or people that like your project, and you get 100,000 in matching funds.
So that's why quadratic funding is extremely important to know about.
And with Tregens, we're going to be doing that in the future as well.
Go ahead, Song. and with tree gens we're going to be doing that in the future as well go ahead song you got something to say speak your mind oh shit
that's fine you gotta go to the bathroom you don't have to raise your hand you
just go to the bathroom you can talk't have to raise your hand. You just go to the bathroom. You can talk to everyone. Sorry, I realized I was muted, but what I was going to say is
sorry, I'm going to switch the subjects. I know we only have so much time
to play, and then Jimmy's got things he's got to do.
So I know that you and James and I,
we talked about leveling up our characters, and I'm
looking at the D and D
sheet.
And I don't know if you have to do that on your end or.
Nope.
You can do it on your side.
if you,
are you on the computer or are you on a phone?
I'm on my phone right now with all this.
Okay.
So I am going to go look at the app on my phone.
Yeah. I'm in the browser.
Okay.
So if you go to your character, there will be...
Let me find it.
Managed character levels, I found it.
Yep, that's it.
It's as managed.
Sometimes you just have to announce what you need.
Like, I know that's very real. There's all the time I'm looking for something
and as soon as I tell somebody I need help, it appears right in front of me.
You know, you gotta finish the summoning spell. It doesn't just work.
I am a level 2 now!
Woohoo! Level 2 wizard!
That's right.
Darkstar didn't get a level up because he's already way stronger than you guys.
Luckily, Darkstar's not like a combat maxi over here,
so he seems like he's enjoying the stories
and he's just not running through murdering everybody because he can, you know.
Yeah, he's been a space holding me for me in my mushroom journeys.
How are you doing this morning, Jimmy?
Jimmy's busy. We can move on to found
I think that he just
rugged again
I mean that's always possible
yeah
how you doing found
I'm good
just got home
having my half day and ready to adventure with you guys.
It's been a pretty good day, pretty productive.
So that's nice.
It is good to be productive.
I need to do more of that in my life.
That's, like, really hard on yourself.
I think from the little bit,
I do know of you.
Well,
I always feel like I should be doing more.
You know,
there's always more that can be or should be done.
You know,
I do all right,
but I feel like I could do better.
And that's, yeah, I think everybody should always strive to do better.
That I agree with.
I've been working on the Tree Gens comic.
And every time I think I have a final draft of what the entire first issue is. There's always a new idea that comes through
either through me or Jimmy, depending on where I'm at. So now I'm implementing the last set of
ideas. And I don't want to jinx it, but it would be the eighth rewrite of it. And it could be the final.
Who knows? That's what I don't want to jinx.
You know, my stories stay very fluid.
Like, I'm like, oh, they don't have to, you know, plot holes are fine.
We have to write the stories over and over again.
So we rewrite the stories over and over again. And I'm like, they all took place.
And I'm like, they all took place.
I'm like, I can't help it.
I'm a perfectionist.
And because of the goal I have with this comic,
I want to try to fill in as many plot holes as there are.
And that's what I've been doing the last week and a half.
I mean I would
I applaud the effort but then I would
also point out that like reality
real life there
are so many plot holes that nobody
questions
like things don't
make sense if you stop and think about
it doesn't matter like
it doesn't change things
very true actually I need to stop taking
things so seriously well and then like if you do look at like the most popular fantasy series
there's always just like glaring problems with like the logics of it and whatever like harry
potter is huge right but like it doesn't make any sense like as far as like
political power structure world structure like if the wizards were that powerful why are they
so afraid of the muggles right like why do they hide from them why don't they rule them
um like baltimore wouldn't have been the only one yeah like
one.
Like,
every small country
in the world would be ruled by a wizard.
You know?
That would be an ideal world
in my reality.
Every country was just ran by a wizard?
Yeah. I'd be one of them.
Guanwu
would be a ruler
of the island country
where
bamboo grows
and is flourishing
everywhere you look. There's bamboo beaches.
Bamboo
beaches.
Yeah, for all the people who need
that, right?
Well, bamboo is great for
building for clothing and panda food it is good for a lot of stuff that is fair
there's also a lot of different species of bamboo so true very true they be used
for a lot of different things um so I was doing Jimmy's level up.
I don't think he, I don't know if he made an account.
He seems like he's having trouble getting up here,
but I leveled up his paladin to level two.
He is a blessed warrior.
He has guidance and light.
He's got magic now, guys. you guys have moved
about 40 miles south
south
east last week
that's what we did
on the map
where exactly
are we now
oh we're in the temple where there's the undead where exactly are we now?
oh, we're in the temple where there's the undead and I want to leave and the paladins want to fight
well, lucky for you, you've got a pretty
strong paladin
apparently he's an expert at combat
though he doesn't remember all of it or know how to use it all
very well. When it came time
to get rid of some of the
undead, he was able to clear some hallways
with relative ease.
Narratively,
your levels are
so vastly different that it
does create
narrative challenges.
But we'll get through it.
I mean, if you guys don't care as much about the combat stuff,
which it doesn't seem like you do,
then it's not as big of a deal.
But combat is definitely way imbalanced
when one of the characters is that much stronger than the rest.
Oh, Jimmy's back.
I'm going to invite him back.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Yeah, okay.
You're back, man.
You guys can hear me now, right?
Yes.
Yes, sir.
We are back on the decent Wi-Fi.
Yay.
James, do you want to tell Jimmy what you just told me about his character?
Or told us about his character, I should say?
Well, I leveled up your character.
So you're a level two paladin.
I gave you the blessed warrior fighting style,
which means that you have the ability to cast guidance and light.
Guidance helps other people do things that they're trying to do.
And light is light, so you can see.
Those can be very useful.
Guidance and light. Amazing.
Is this through power-ups, or how did you do that?
Well, no, these are just the D&D levels.
I had sent you a link for D&D Beyond.
Like, if you make an account, you can manage your own character and roll your own dice and stuff.
That site is hosted by Hasbro.
You know, they have money to build things and run things.
It works pretty decent.
Okay, let me try.
I just checked our DMs.
Where do I...
Wait, where did you send this to me?
I don't know.
I can send it to you again, too.
It's not...
Okay, okay, okay.
Cool, cool, cool.
Because it was a while ago that I think I sent it to you.
It might even be buried in there somewhere now.
Could be.
We chat every once in a while.
Yeah, that do get buried.
I think I must have spammed you a little bit with my pre-sale stuff.
I believe some of it's automated.
I figure you're doing some of it with some copypastas.
It's a lot of copypastas.
Oh my gosh, I've copypasted quite a bit.
The spaces
The pre-sale
The second pre-sale
And then
How to buy a TGN
Yeesh
Yeah
I have
Yeah
I think
I stopped doing this
Like mass DM stuff
But I was like
Treating my followers
Kind of like a mailing list
For a while
And I was just like
Going crazy with it
But yeah Send it to me I'll take a look Take a looky-loo I'll grow through it my followers kind of like a mailing list for a while and i was just like going crazy with it but
um but yeah send it to me i'll take a look take a looky lou i'll grow through it and uh the way we
grow i just tried to copy paste the link and then it just is uh tells me what it is can you click it
yeah and if you click it it doesn't. I don't know what the deal is. Let me do it on my phone, I guess.
I shared it on my computer.
I copied it and I pasted it.
And it's just like Leonard's character sheet.
But it doesn't actually send the link when I copy the link.
Which is weird.
What's up, Songabo?
So, it gave me an option for level two to uh choose what i'm while i'm studying magic i
also specialize in another field of study and um i'm studying magic but then I chose arcana, which is even more magic, correct?
Or is that a little redundant?
Should I do something different?
Magic comes in different forms.
Arcana is generally the study of magic in its intellectual form.
And then there is holy magic who which is through like
religious studies and various things like that and there's also natural magics which is um like
druids and powers connected to the earth and stuff like that um so a general study of magic would
probably be like i'm interested in all three, whereas there are more specific, like, schools of magic, I guess.
Okay.
Yeah, it only gave me arcana as a choice to study for magics.
It gave me other choices like history, medicine, nature, perception.
I mean, maybe I should do medicine, but I'm really into the magic.
I mean, maybe I should do medicine, but I'm really into the magic.
See, the other, like, nature is both natural, like, food chain, like, biology, you know, botany, stuff like that.
But it also would include, like, natural magics and things like that.
Pretty much anything in the world has, like, in this world, there's magic in everything, right?
So, like, if you're like, I study magic, you could be like, I study the magic
of nature. I study the magic of
I mean, you could even be like,
I study the magic of deception.
Or I have magic that lets me
try history.
You know what I mean?
You could
connect magic to anything
narratively.
Mechanically, the game is honestly...
The game is whatever, mechanically.
It's just here is a base for us to have something to roll dice and have some numbers to go on.
But game mechanics and stuff like this can't actually be copyright.
Because people have been doing it for thousands of years.
And whatever you think you figured out and you did new, it's not new.
Very, very, very true.
I chose nature as my studies that I'm learning as a level two.
Because I'm really the mushrooms, and so
it makes sense.
The mushrooms would also be arcana
and nature. The mushrooms
would technically, either one of those
would cover those.
Okay.
Especially more since
because it's sentient, arcana would definitely
be in there. Because it's magic,
the arcana is be in there. Because it's magic, Arcana's definitely in there.
Like, nature, it can be magical.
It can be just mundane, like our world.
Not that I consider our world mundane, but compared to, you know,
exploding tidbits and gloomy trees and stuff.
And undead temple dwellers.
Yeah. Glubby trees and stuff and undead temple dwellers Man I'm stuck between nature and arcana can you
Is there a way I can roll to just decide which one I guess
On your phone there's like a d20 on the bottom left
You can just when you're on your character or, you can just roll it and see the number.
Generally speaking, 10 and below is, you know, fail and 11 and higher is yes if it's just 50-50.
You know.
Okay, so 1 through 10 is nature, 10 through 20 is arcana
I got a one
Nature it is
We're very sure what you should do
Yeah, that helps.
And that's another thing about, like, doing this. I actually gave me a 7 because there's a custom roll.
I don't know.
Maybe I just don't know how to read.
It's a 7, but still, either way.
It's still a 7.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Jimmy is back down listening again
I see that
I thought he got like a cable to make his
wifi better
I feel like he moves around so much
it's hard to
know
what's gonna happen
or what he's gonna need next um
my being in bali my service is always unpredictable whether whether it's my
phone service or it's my wi-fi and we have two no we have three different wi-fi
options through two different companies here on the property that all of us are using.
And there's only like three adults in the property that really use it.
And it's just some days they all don't work or some days like one of them works better than the others.
Some days my service on my phone decides it doesn't want to work.
It's like so annoying.
It's what happens when living in a nation that's developing.
Yeah, I mean, I've always lived here in the States,
but I imagine that there's significant challenges in places
that don't have consistent services.
I'm grateful i have consistency um you know as long as i've got funding i've got consistency
i uh i honestly am missing the states a lot because of what's happening with the
service it was so we actually was like really reliable and then the entire island lost power
because of cables underwater coming from java something happened to them like a few months ago
we didn't have power for like it was a long time and um since then the service has been just whack.
Like, it's not been reliable.
I miss the states.
There's a couple other things I miss about the states, but yeah.
Well, I know that's politically stressful here, and there's definitely some negative things going on all the time.
But I think that's anywhere, really.
Yeah, it is is because that's happening
here there's protests happening on all the islands of indonesia um specifically bali we just had some
massive flooding landslides stuff happening because the rains have been it's supposed to be
dry season and it's been like continued wet season
for like the last i don't know how since march like it's a lot of rain that's not normal so
yeah it's just the floods we had that created the landslide and there was like a lot of damage like
a lot um it was like maybe two weeks ago week and a half at the like yeah
week and a half or two weeks ago things happened it was like right before I had to do visa run
so they're still recovering they're still building one of the bridges that completely went out like
super close to where I live within like 15 minutes from me
super close to where I live within like 15 minutes for me.
Well, stay safe.
I know you can't really account for weather, but you know, do your best.
Yeah. I, I'm in a really good area.
Like I'm in a nice little sweet spot there.
I'm in a little bit higher elevation and I'm in close proximity to a good
supermarket. And so thankfully I'm like literally
like three, four minute, um, motorbike ride from the supermarket. So it's, and no bridges have to
be taken. Just have to, we, the road, there's sometimes we gotta be mindful
of like
big rocks
or boulders
but thank god
that that hasn't
happened during
this last set
of landslides
yeah
just try
to do my best
to not go out
when the weather's
crazy
yeah I mean
that's all you can do
I know here
weather's been a little different
but the rivers are all low which is not great news so just um now hopefully we get some more
more steady rain because when we get rain it seems to just down pour very quickly and then
and then just run off um previous years it
would like rain all day you know what i mean now we just have like a pretty intense storm for an
hour or two and then it's gone um and i think that that time frame changes the ground saturation
um considerably um and like you can see it's changing the rivers.
Because the rainfall, I think we've actually
gotten more rain, but
less of it has been absorbed by the Earth.
that's where we're running into some issues.
And let's go.
Okay, I'm back.
I'm back. You guys can hear me, right?
It wasn't letting me come up.
It was requesting and didn't request. Space being weird today. But'm back, I'm back. You guys can hear me, right? Okay, boom. It wasn't letting me come up. It was like requesting and didn't request and did what it is.
Space being weird today.
But we back.
Yeah.
But you're here, so I think we can drink up.
So, Leonard, what do you think about this ancient sunken temple?
The front was, you know, fairly ornate stone, but old and worn from
time. The first couple
rooms were simple and mostly
bare. Rotten wood
things, you know,
from ages past.
And then you guys
had found a small area
filled with
zombies. There were several
living quarters and a staircase at the end. You guys didn't really go were several living quarters and a
staircase at the end.
You guys didn't really go through the living quarters
or down the staircase,
Found did
go ahead and use some thunder waves to
liquefy some zombies and clear
the path for you guys
using his magical
abilities
that he didn't even
know he had. You guys were just in
danger and lightning exploded and
killed everything.
And Guanwu
is very grateful for that
because I just wanted to go
meditate and
that wasn't an option.
Thanks, Bound. We appreciate you, Burski.
Let's grow Bound. We appreciate you, Burski. That's Grove Bound.
Are we still exploring this temple, or what?
I mean, it's up to you guys
what you do. You guys are basically
where we left off, standing
in a hallway
filled with
zombies that are no longer
zombies.
Just filled with yak.
You're in a hallway filled with yak.
Let's go out of this hallway.
Did we find the source of magic that caused this flood yet in the temple? Because there might be something magical there I want to get my hands on.
Now, at this
point, you guys seem to be in what is
like servant's quarters
that go down into the
basement storage area.
You guys basically
went in through a different
place. You went in through a hole
in the wall, essentially.
And then
the hole in the wall leads you to what are like
servants' quarters. Maybe they were
monks. Maybe, you know, somebody who lived here and probably did work
at the church or the temple, you know, a thousand or so years ago.
Whatever it was. Like I said, all of the
beds and all the things dry rot from age, like nearly to filth and ruin.
You guys, going into what were the living quarters, you can see that these were very simple people,
whoever they were as you look around.
This area doesn't have a whole lot in it.
Maybe a few small trinkets that would have been from the servants.
I'll roll the dice and see how lucky you are.
Nope, there's nothing here.
You got a crit fail.
In fact, somebody gets bitten by a rat.
Oh, no!
Quit digging through the film.
Who got bit by a rat?
I don't want to.
I don't know.
That could be a problem.
It could be.
It's one of the paladins.
They're immune to diseases.
That works out.
I'm curious.
Now that I'm not meditating
and we had to fight the zombies even though I really didn't do much in that. I kind of want to find what caused this magical disturbance inside, so we would have to journey elsewhere inside this temple.
I don't know if those are attached to that, though.
I don't know if those are attached to that, though.
Well, you, from the outside, and just from your ability to know, normally water flows downhill.
So if there's water source, it's probably not coming from the basement.
Though magic doesn't necessarily come, or isn't affected by gravity in the same manner, you know?
In fact,
magic couldn't even affect water. So it doesn't flow down hill anymore.
You know,
like,
so you're here in a temple that you're like,
you know,
common sense says that we should probably climb to the top of these ruins.
But the path,
the easy path ahead of you leads into the basement.
So we're going to have to leave. I don't want to go into that basement
I feel like there's more undead there and I don't want to go
Towards the undead and I doubt that this magical artifact would have been stored in the basement
It would have been stored elsewhere. What do you guys think?
And I'm calling it an artifact because I don't really know what it is.
I don't think that it's the one that the Alchemist Guild has us set to find.
Okay, is there another story to the temple or it's just one floor and a basement?
Well, you guys came in a hole in the wall.
Like, the temple from the outside is ruins overgrown with vines,
and it doesn't really look like there's an easy way in outside of where this water
had apparently filled up this room a few days, however long it took to fill up this room.
But then the wall burst out out and it caused that great flood
that happened down in the farm that you guys explored a few days ago.
As you guys are here in this room, you can see a trickle of water running into the room
like in cracks near the floor. And then when you go down a hallway that's attached to that room,
And when you go down a hallway that's attached to that room, you found what were simple rooms.
They looked like they were lodging for monks or servants of some kind.
And they were filled with the zombies that you would kill.
Now, this servant's quarters goes down into a basement.
You guys have all been in temples and various things.
One, probably even more so.
If this was where the monks stayed, downstairs would be like a storage
area where they would have kept most of their food stocks,
dried goods, blankets, and various things that they'd pass out to the
people in times of need. Maybe even simple weapons if they were to be
arming a militia of sorts.
It would be a storage area. But on the other side of the storage area is probably where they would
prepare meals and cook things. And then there's generally like a serving area, like a cafeteria.
And then the temples change considerably depending on what they're worshiping and what their gods are.
considerably depending on what they're worshiping and what their gods are,
cultural context and things vary.
But that standard formation of rooms,
you came in basically through the servant's entrance or near the servant's entrance.
So you're like, from this side, this is what we can anticipate to some degree.
They're going to have where they sleep, they're going to have where they do the storage,
where they actually prepare meals for whoever else lives here that's you know higher on the the pecking order um like
this is like the servants area that there is some knowledge of like what to expect if you go this
way as far as architecture um now you don't know what actually resides in these rooms that, you know, started, they were abandoned a thousand years ago, you know, or whenever you guys don't really have a date.
doesn't really seem to be
involved in much of the world.
They just kind of grow and sell
food here on these small islands.
People come to explore
the jungles and look for
magical wonder.
But yeah, they basically just have a port here,
grow food, make money
from adventurers.
Like you guys.
As you guys as you guys
probably begin to piece together
this island's economy
as you look from this vantage point
of the farms and the lands
that you guys are
the alchemist guild putting
out missives may
this kind of supports
what the farmers said is like this may just
be like propaganda to make money
like that artifact
like they said it exists
but as you
contemplate this stuff
and you're like
this may not be the artifact
that they're looking for
you start to wonder maybe they don't even care
okay you start to wonder maybe they don't even care.
Okay.
So do we try to explore this temple or do we go
explore the island, you guys?
I think we should explore
temple, try and find
the main religious chamber.
Yeah, that's what I...
That way we could
find this artifact
or mystical object.
Sounds good.
It would be in a place of...
I think it would probably be
in the main religious chamber where they
did their worship or the Holy
of Holies or whatever they call it.
Try to find an altar.
That's the word.
It's okay, Darkstar. I know you're
still getting your memory back.
So you guys are going to continue down
the stairs into this storage area.
You guys had made lots of noise and attracted pretty much everything out of there up into the room.
Terrible news for you, though, as you go into this room.
You see that this room is in ruin and rot um but the terrible news
here is that the temple is not contained there appears to be walls broken out that go into
um like subterranean caverns now there you can also continue down the temple like there's
no monsters in this room it smells terrible because you know it was filled with
this room. It smells terrible because, you know, it was filled with bodies for a long time.
You do see, like, the storage stuff here. You can see that there is, like, a small starting of what
would be a necropolis near where, like, all of the walls have caved out. You can see that battle
took place with whatever came through the wall, as there are some dead zombies here.
But this also means that there's likely more that have gone down into the underground,
and wherever these tunnel systems lead. There's also the stairs that continue on,
or they go up to the other side, which you believe would be like a kitchen or a food preparation area, if its form is true to many of the temples that you've visited.
Can we explore the tunnels after we find the temple altar worshipping space?
That is all up to you guys.
I'm asking
the paladins because I'm not
ready to fight in the tunnels yet.
I'm a pacifist.
I agree with you.
Let's avoid
going deeper in the ground and see if we can find whatever room holds the altar.
Leonard?
Is there something I should roll for that, James?
Yes. I'm going to get you.
Rowing.
Leonard, what do you want to do?
Do you want to find the altar space in the temple,
or do you want to go in the tunnels?
I mean, altar sounds great, but the temple's kind of gross, right?
Well, where we're at, it's gross, because we're in the basement.
All right.
Out of the basement!
To the altar.
James?
You guys continue on.
And up the stairs into what the cooking area was.
This area doesn't have the same foul smell.
It smells more of earth.
At one point, there was food stocks and wood and stuff in here.
At this point, it's just all dirt.
This place didn't have zombies that were
actively living in it.
So, you guys continue
past the cooking
area into what is a
large,
very large. Outside,
it was deceptively small. As you walk into
the dining area, it is
enormous. And there are stone tables that line
up the entirety of it. And
before you appears a humanoid. He
has some weird look to him.
His face is a little bit misshapen.
He has four arms instead of two.
He appears to be a magical servant of some kind.
He greets you with a bow and asks you...
He tells you that the kitchen has not been operational for some time, but
you're welcome to rest here.
Um, if you, you know, he's happy to help in any way he can.
We need to roll to see if we can get information from him about where we can, well, one, what the temple, the people of the temple, like the accolades
and I don't know what else they would be called, what they worship there.
And if he has any knowledge of why the flood source came from the temple,
if he has any idea what happened magically.
Well, he heard a great noise the other day.
He is bound to the dining hall,
which you can see is not filled with filth.
It is very polished and cleaned.
This is the only room he can be in. So's like no i don't i don't really know i heard something
so it was a flood um he just you know he seems to be like nearly sentient and or sentient but a magical servant bound to the dining hall.
So he's happy to tell you about the worshippers of magic. You know, they worshipped the arcane itself.
Many gods use the arcane,
and those here attempted to master it for themselves.
and those here attempted to master it for themselves.
There was a great cataclysm that he has not been told much about.
The few visitors that he's gotten over, he's not sure how long it's been.
The vines grew over the windows, who knows how long ago.
Which, if you'd want to help him out, that would you know be great sunlight in here would be much appreciated
You know
He still seems pretty happy that he lives alone in a dark hole in the ground
He tells you all about these people and how grand they were he He begins to tell you about, you know, customs and festivals and cuisine and anything you want to know.
He is happy to share.
He seems very forthright to just tell you anything and everything you want to know.
So if you have any specific questions, let me know.
Can we free him He's never thought about it
He's not sure
About
His binding
Like
He doesn't know he was created to do this
And he's always been happy to do this.
What does he eat?
Does he need to eat?
He does not need to eat.
He sustains on the ambient magic being funneled into his being.
Oh, man.
So if you free him, he could die.
free him, he could die.
Possibly.
Possibly.
Okay.
Could we ask him
where the relic
of the temple
Because that might be
the source of the magic we're looking for.
Well, he's happy to tell you about several
relics that the temple would probably
have within or around or did at one time.
You know, others have been through and asked about things in the past.
And, you know, he's not in charge of telling people who's allowed to have what.
He's in charge of keeping the dining hall nice.
nice. And, you know,
And, you know, it is.
it is.
So he tells you that
there's a relic room that is well-guarded
by defensive
magics and traps.
That, you know, he's heard
about it. He's
told other people about
it. Other than the temples
of paladins and clerics
that he knew were granted entrance to it, he's never seen anybody he sent there return.
Or who was going there come back.
So he says you probably shouldn't go there, but it does exist and it's probably filled with powerful relics, as the title of the room would insist.
of the room would, you know, would insist. He also says that they bring out various relics for
different holidays and festivals and at different times for different reasons. He tells you about a
chalice of endless water. It was used more as a ceremonial thing, as water can become scarce on
the island, but it's not usually an issue especially once they had
the ability to channel it from magic um but chalices of endless water uh you know which
seems connected to you guys are asking about water um that would have may have not been in
the relic room because it wasn't of like you know awesome powers or anything so there was also a number of um
ceremonial pieces rings and amulets um you know flowery pageantry of the uh clerical order that
they would enhance their abilities and skills through arcane uh and or religious means um
these masters of magics had many uh artifacts you know, that today was, you know,
looking at you guys, he kind of can tell that you guys don't really have a whole abundance of
magical equipment. Your young studies in magic. Again, he seems to be sentient and able to observe
you, but happy to just have company, honestly.
He's happy here, but he's much happier when you're here.
Should we clear some of the vines away and give him some sunlight before we venture to this relic room and possibly risk our lives?
venture to this relic room and possibly risk our lives oh well he says the relic room is in the
basement behind the uh main there's like a large auditorium like i forget what it's called where
you go in and they do like the the speeches the sermons uh but there's like a large gathering
hall uh you're in the dining hall.
Huh?
It's in the basement?
The relic room is.
But if you go through the grand hall where they do the sermons and the holiday festivities and things,
which you can see from, like, he points across.
There's just a large doorway.
He says that room has not been kept as tidy.
He's not sure what happened to the staff over there, but they
either don't exist or are
slacking, and
you should reprimand them.
Does he know where
the altar is to this
temple?
He points at the giant door.
He says, if you look through that doorway, which is, well, you're not with a clear sight, but if you could walk over too easily.
He says, you'll see where there's the temple.
There's the podium with an altar in front of it.
They did, you know, they worshipped magic.
So there was often various types of arcane displays.
And you could, he says, from the doorway
you could clearly see it.
The relic room is behind it. There is
a high cleric's
chambers, and then there's
a few paladins
chambers, high cleric's chambers,
and then there's a
subterranean relic room.
Was there ever a subterranean relic room. Was there ever
a wizard in this temple?
He says
that many of the clerics
would have been classified as
what more recently
Readventures had called Mystic Thurge,
which means
that they studied both arcane and
religious magic, so they were arcane and religious magic.
So they were wizards and clerics.
Like they took classes in both essentially.
Okay.
And Mystic Surge is a subclass from older D&D
that basically when you take a level up in it,
you get the spells from both casting classes.
So like they were all, super powerful mages
who used both arcane, like, wizards and powerful clerics.
That's also why this place is so saturated with magic,
is because they used a lot of it.
Okay.
So, Leonard and Darkstar,
what do you think we should do
after we clear the vines?
What direction?
I can cast an investigation check.
The vines are several hundred feet up.
Like, they're like 100, 200 feet up in the air.
We can't...
Can we cut them at the windows
so he can get light there?
He has no idea. Like, he can't get to them.
Like, he,
you know, he can't, he would have done something
about it. But
he does keep, like, the ones that come
in trimmed back.
But that also encourages them to, like,
grow along the outside of the walls
and, like, encase the outside of the building
more so. And, like, if you wanted to clear the vines, you would probably have to scale the building from the outside of the walls and, like, encase the outside of the building more so.
And, like, if you wanted to clear the vines, you would probably have to scale the building from the
outside.
Oh, I don't want to do that.
I'm a fat panda.
Well, he was just like, you're like,
is there anything we can do for you? He'd let you know.
It's nice to have some lights in here.
You know?
Can I burn the vines
with fireballs?
Potentially.
Without dying
in the building?
There's risks
involved with catching the building
that you're in on fire.
I mean, that's
true.
Okay, let me look for another let me look for another spill one sec
they will say like the roof is like a um a dome and at its highest point it's like 150 feet tall
and like there's windows that look like they used to be like stained glass um and like ornate
now most of them are broken out and it's just shards but there's like vines and stuff growing
in through it um and he just does you know the light doesn't come down like it used to
I could cast Ray of Sickness
on the vines,
which should,
if it hits,
make them shiver up and die.
Okay.
I mean, yeah.
So, Dark Star,
I cast a 15.
I mean, yeah, it's just the vine.
It's not moving.
And it's like a big vine. It's not like a
little dumb one. It's like
legs, you know,
arms, torso-sized vines.
What's up, Saab?
15 to hit
and 19 damage.
How many times...
This definitely clears out a spot
in the windows and light comes in.
There are lots of windows
that you could spend a lot of
spell slots doing this.
So you do
let in some light as some of the vines
shrivel and fall away.
But you
realize that you would need to spend a lot of
time here and like a lot of rests because it takes you I don't know how
many spell slots you have or what level of a spell it is but it would take you a
lot of spells to to get this actually like where the vines weren't overthrown
this area of the building and then you don't know how long it would take before
they grow back either. The jungle does seem
to be pretty ferocious out there.
What's up, Sun?
Can I feed this sentient
servant a mushroom?
You can't
eat. But
we've already been talking to
your telepathic friend.
He is wonderful.
And they are... He's gonna. He is wonderful. And they
are, he's gonna go get a
bowl, and you
guys are supposed to fetch him
some
somethings. Something.
Something you
deem worthy of being
eaten.
Wait, we got a few.
I thought you said, can you clarify? you clarify also reiterates this request the mushroom can
talk telepathically with people without talking to you um and you brought it in here so it could
just automatically talk to this guy through telepathy basically um this guy also is very
magically um attuned so like he was already aware that you had a friend that was your mushrooms and stuff
And he was like, oh yes, you know on to that topic since you're gonna breach it
They've already had a pretty thorough conversation many conversations in the time that it takes him to talk to you
They just think much faster than they speak
He says that his your friend
would like to stay here with him in some manner uh and he would very much enjoy that too um
so basically he's like yeah i want to set up a bowl of stuff for you to grow mushrooms here in the hall. So I have a friend to talk to all the time.
Okay.
Can we give it rules that they have to follow?
Like not eat any undead?
Well,
he doesn't eat.
Yeah,
but the mushroom,
I don't want the mushroom to eat anything undead.
Well,
I think that's why he said you should clarify what should be
provided.
Again, this guy can't leave this room, so
you've got to bring the food in here, regardless
of what it is. Unless something
comes in here, and then he can kill
it, which he has done in the past,
but he does not like
to conflict. But there
are some things that are very
disrespectful to the hall and to the furniture.
As he points to probably a cracked table in the corner, tells you about goblins that came up at
one point. Unacceptable. He welcomed them in, same as you, but then they started being rowdy
and breaking stuff. He asked them to leave and they refused.
So he just had to clean up a giant mess. It was terrible.
So we
either have to rely
on random food to walk in.
Leonard, what's up?
Okay, so
buddy guy can't eat, right?
But can he drink?
Mushroom smoothie.
No, he is
basically an ethereal being,
kind of like a ghost.
Except he wasn't ever alive in any other
form. He was summoned into being
to do this, to be
a butler of sorts.
You know, a servant.
And he's always been pretty content with his life.
Again,
he has no physical demands.
He doesn't eat.
He doesn't drink.
He doesn't,
he likes social stuff,
but he doesn't have to have it because it's not like negative on his morale or sanity for nobody to be around.
Because he's kind of like a construct, only he doesn't
actually have a body. He is just entirely
formed of arcane magic bound into
being, and then sustained through what
appears to be the architecture and
various things here. If you guys want to learn more
about his his being you're gonna have to pass some arcana checks to learn about him or just you know
ask him but he also doesn't know everything he knows what's in this room can we feed the vines
to the mushrooms so then the mushrooms always have food that's safe
for the mushroom to eat that won't cause any major pretty much decomposers they basically
were like anything that's dead we can eat um it's just like and you've you were basically like you
the fear of corruption and it's like okay i'm afraid of
corruption and or poison as you know as that would be and it's like so you help teach me what's
what is essentially like this poison um and you're like don't eat these things he's like okay well
don't eat those but what else is here that i can eat is what's on the mushroom's mind. The mushroom is also, you know,
time has, a little bit more time has passed. It also has matured and it learned a lot of lessons
in the last campaign, if you're the last session you guys had. Remember, it learned about over
indulgence. That giant lizard you guys fought outside, it was on the brink of starvation and
death regardless of what you guys did to it um because it was just
over consuming it didn't you know it killed itself by gluttony uh essentially and the mushroom is
like well i can double in size every day but should i double in size every day? This creates, you know, questions of its being that you guys are, you know, helping guide it to being better.
It still doesn't understand why, like, you just basically corruptions, poison, it'll make you bad.
It's just like, okay, you know, nothing other than your word, but your word is pretty
strong to it still, you know?
And it saw them, and they
seemed to be
gluttonous and overconsuming,
but so was the lizard, so, like,
he knows that that's a bad quality.
Okay. So, okay so we can we can give him a mushroom that he can cultivate because one can turn into many and we can have him feed the you know vines that decompose or anything that is decomposing naturally in the space and anything that,
I mean, no goblins, no undead. So I think that hopefully the, this ethereal being servant
can understand some of the boundaries we have and why.
Also, I rolled an arcana check,
and I got a 17 to find out more about the sentient ethereal servant.
In your observation of it here, you can tell that he is... If you removed him from here or you damaged the building
enough, he would probably die.
He has some knowledge that the ambient magic is
keeping him alive. You notice that the way
that the architecture is built, the way that the room is shaped,
this was all designed by people
who were well-versed
in magic.
You're inside of one
big rune,
like runic spell, and it is his
life. That is what keeps him
alive, is being here.
He can't leave the room. He can't
go other places.
Even if the building is destroyed to a certain degree, he will die.
Like, this building is essentially what keeps him alive and his being in existence.
So no freeing him for sure.
Okay.
Yeah, like, you can tell that they, just even the way the arches are and the way that the tables are laid out, because it's not in a very convenient pattern for servants or for actual function.
It actually seems like it's laid out in a very inconvenient manner as you look around.
But you realize that this inconvenience is done because it is to channel magic and not for the convenience of the people who live here.
Which also is basically, you're like, everything in this place is magically charged to some aspect,
as long as the building remains intact.
Okay.
So, are the mushroom, well, the mushroom that i'm gonna give which i had an inventory of
five i thought but i don't know if i got more because i planted those and harvested honestly
at this point it doesn't really matter you just kind of have them around yeah like i said it can
double in size like every day through like the mycelium network
and stuff and then it just produces mushrooms when it's the right time to and that's the thing
is mushrooms can produce like they they're huge mycelium networks that take a long time to build
but they can create a mushroom overnight you know a couple hours so like if they're if the you're in sense it's sentient it only creates
mushrooms when it's advantageous to itself basically so like it will pay attention to when
people are coming or animals are coming or when you want one you know um but that's also it stopped
letting the animals and just freely spreading because it was concerned about, you know, overgrowth.
Got you.
Okay.
He still has a very wide network of birds and wolves and animals, but he stopped trying to expand it as, you know, it is, and it does become detrimental.
Okay, that's, this is good news.
So, we leave the sentient being, ethereal servant, does he have a name?
He says something that you just can't understand.
says something that you just can't understand.
Okay.
We give him a mushroom and put it in a bowl,
and they can be buddies for the rest of their existence.
And we should venture on.
Good.
So he tells you that there he points you towards the grand hall uh the other way is the main entrance which he believes is collapsed um and then on the other side is like um sparring grounds
and paladin places so he you know whatever direction you guys want to go,
I assume you guys want to go to the Grand Hall
with the altar and various things.
As you guys go through into that room,
you see that most of the pews are made of stone and carved,
also laid out in a fashion that allowed for more than one stage and more than
one podium to present, but there was one podium at the end with a large altar. It is a couple
hundred feet across in this darkened room. This room is dirty and unkept. It is filled with,
you know, what looks like signs of struggle. You can see cracks in the
architecture that have happened over time and from age. You can see that that's probably why
this serbent no longer exists in here, as the architecture itself has been damaged just from time um different roots and plants
have grown through the roof um you guys get to the back area where you can hear what sounds like
slamming and um just unpleasant noises you just zombies. You imagine that these are something of a
similar sound. Like, it sounds very similar where they're just kind of
meandering around behind this large stone door,
running into stuff, knocking what little is
in there around. So, that is the
direction you would probably have to go you also know that this
is the direction that there were paladins and higher level clerics which means that these
people are probably wearing armor of some sort um and some sort of vestments um as they were probably
you know well prepared or well dressed.
I'm a little scared.
Guan Wu is very scared.
He doesn't like to fight.
He likes to meditate.
Dark Star,
what should we do?
Yeah, let's Darkstar, what should we do? Let's go in, I guess.
Who's in the front?
Who's going to open the door?
I think...
Can we roll a check
beyond the door to see what's beyond the door without opening the door?
You can certainly try.
Okay.
Give me a second.
What's Leonard think?
I think we grow and sad, but yeah, it's okay.
Roll the dice.
See what happens.
I got another 17. I got another 17.
So you
try to look through cracks
and this door is well
made. You look through the keyhole
and you can see out the other side
barely anything, but you can
see things moving around.
Basically, they just seem to hit the
walls at random intervals
and they're trying to get out of this hallway,
but they don't know how to use doors.
Sorry, I shouldn't laugh at the misfortunate.
Well, you know, it comes with being dead and then undead.
They don't know how to use doors.
With your perception check,
I'll also say that it dawns on you
that all of these men died
before they hit the field of combat.
They all died while they were getting ready to fight.
They're still...
Whatever happened to these people happened in an instant, died while they were, like, getting ready to fight. They're still, like...
Like, if they were...
Like, whatever happened to these people happened in an instant,
and, like, everybody in this building died at the same time.
Well, that's tragic.
I wonder if Darkstar...
If one of us can open the door,
and then Darkstar can do his battle thing,
whether he wants to do Fireball, or whatever he's got in his toolkit
as a paladin and magical paladin at that i think one of us needs to open the door and then he just
needs to automatically like go into battle i don't know you can you can prepare and hold an action
um i'm gonna say that uh i'm gonna need as you go to open the door for him and he prepares whatever spell he's going to use, it's locked.
Do you either find the key or pick the lock?
Oh, I don't think I have the gear to pick a lock.
Does Leonard have the gear to pick a lock?
I think
that lock is too high up for me.
I'm a terrible guy.
You're like a four and a half five foot turtle.
Fortis.
Fortis.
But yeah, that's...
You can also force it.
It's a strong, sturdy stone door,
but you can try to kick it if you think it's strong enough.
Now, if you kick it, they'll definitely know you're coming.
Can I roll a stealth and that help pick the lock?
I don't want to kick it.
I don't want to alert them.
I mean, it's more of a dexterity check or tools check
if you have the tools for it.
Let me look.
Some people do have thieves tools.
I don't think any of your characters
have thieves tools, though.
And honestly, being that you don't have the right tools to open the door...
I have daggers.
So you probably roll at disadvantage, honestly.
I rolled at 22 for dexterity
Alright, so Darkstar's just like
Alright, it's locked, let me open it
So Darkstar stops holding
his action, opens the door
and then I guess everybody roll initiative
because the zombies all see the door open
and they're excited to get out of this hallway
If zombies
could be excited, I guess
I got an A figured out of this hallway. If zombies could be excited, I guess.
I got an A on initiative.
I rolled a 21.
Oh, you're
lucky with your dice.
What did you get?
Oh, yeah, I got a roll for Leonard.
Leonard.
He gets a
Leonard is ready.
So what do you think you do, Jimmy?
As the zombies rush out of this closet, essentially,
Darkstar opens the door the zombies rush out of this closet, essentially. Dark Star
opens the door and they rush out.
Get against the walls,
make sure they have a clear path
to get GTFO.
You're just hoping they're
going to run past, so you're going to step out of the way.
Did you say they're running out?
Towards us?
They're running out towards you guys, yeah.
Shit.
Found you, got any spells?
I don't know if I have any spells that can help this.
Let me look.
I did a...
Hold on.
A firebolt for 19.
Oh, yeah.
These guys don't have a whole
hit point.
That guy just kind of explodes.
18 damage.
Oh, yeah, that guy just turns into dust.
Like,
no longer that
one is there.
Leonard, I'm going to say that
they don't look like they're going to run past.
They look like
the ravenous zombies.
They're going to try to kill you.
You have a sword you can
stab them with. You want to try that out?
You also have, like I said,
the spells, guidance, and light light if somebody is doing something like
trying to pick a lock uh or jump or do whatever you can give them guidance to help them do better
at it um so in the future if you want to help people do things they're trying to do you can
keep that in mind so one of my daggers
got a nine and the other one
got a 16.
Well, 16 will do it.
Give me the damage.
I got a two.
A two?
Well you stabbed him Right in the gushy parts
He doesn't really seem to care
He doesn't care
Oh no
He is a zombie
He doesn't really feel pain
Does he go down?
Not with two damage
But he does lose two hit points You know Does he go down? Not with two damage, no.
But he does lose two hit points.
I'm not as skilled in battle as a panda, it's very clear.
Well, I think you're also a magic caster, which is, you know, melee is not your strong suit.
Yeah, I need to figure out what spell I can use.
Do these zombies respond negatively to light?
I mean, you guys are in a fairly dim hallway.
I'm going to say that Leonard probably has light, or Darkstar probably has light.
I don't know if all you guys can see in the dark or not.
But yeah, Leonard stabs somebody with his...
Well, he slashes across with his long sword
doing
12 damage.
So as he gets the zombie runs
towards him, he pulls his sword out of his cane
and just cuts its head off like...
Not today.
He tried to get out of his way even.
He tried to.
But you know, zombies, they don't
pass on conflict.
Not in their character.
I feel like I'm useless against zombies.
Zombies are going to start attacking folks.
On you.
It misses as it tries to slam down on you.
You are able to move out of the way of its big old arms.
Darkstar is just getting clattered against his shield. able to move out of the way of its big old arms. Dark Star
is just getting clattered
against his shield
or zombies.
Once, twice,
three times
Dark Star is missed.
He's just standing there
in the front taking the brunt
at the stuff.
Oh yeah, that one's dead.
So never mind. Leonard killed
that one.
So yeah, the one that tried to attack Leonard, he killed.
And the one that attacked
missed, and the three that are trying to get Darkstar
out the door. And then it is
back to you guys.
I just rolled another dagger,
and I got 16, but I only got 2 damage.
Hey, 2 and 2, it adds up, that's 4.
It's looking like it's, you know, got some gaps and gashes
taken out of it.
So you injure it a little
more.
Leonard, do you think you move forward
and use your sword,
or do you think you stay back and use your bow
to shoot the zombies
that are attacking your friend Darkstar?
It's a bow for show.
Bow for show.
So you pull out your longbow
and you shoot him in the eye
take that you darn
zombie
does three damage
hurting that zombie
that's fighting Darkstar
alright Darkstar what are you doing
this turn you got three zombies on you
one attacking your friend Wu
what you got?
Cast a Thunder Wave
for 14.
Thunder Wave just automatically
hits an area. They've got to do
dex checks to minimize
how much damage they take.
As zombies, they are not good
at dexterity.
All of them are going to take full damage, whatever it is.
All the three that are in front of you, the one that's against Wu, you can't hit because it's not in the same direction.
Like, it's to the left, and the other three are in front of you.
Okay.
The damage is 19. Yeah, they just
basically, as
thunderous sound
rips them to pieces, shatters
their, you know, shreds their flesh
and shatters their bones.
It is a gruesome sight, as
these zombies are no more.
Old rusted irons
and, you know, the ruined
plate mails and swords that they were
carrying clattered to the ground.
And then I think it's the one zombie that's fighting.
Woo is going to try to
punch her in the head and bite her.
And it makes it.
Oh. Am I allowed to roll
for a dagger again? Because I did.
Yep. Now it's
everybody's turn again. I imagine you guys just
beat this zombie up at this point.
Yeah, I got a 19
for a hit and a 2 damage.
I don't know why.
So you take this zombie
and it's looking like it's almost ready to go
down and then Leonard and Darkstar just both stab it in the back. you take this zombie and it's looking like it's almost ready to go down. And then,
Leonard and dark star just both stab it in the back and,
it's done.
That's good.
Thanks guys for protecting me.
I need,
I need to get more spells under my belt.
Do you have any recommendations?
Where are you?
Are you a wizard?
I'm a wizard druid with an elf background.
Okay.
Well, as a wizard, you can find spells in the world and just add them to your spell book.
So you just have to look for them.
As a druid, you just learn spells as you level up.
Okay.
Sounds good.
I don't know who...
Oh, Ate's been in the tree gen spaces.
Ate, we are playing a game.
You're welcome to listen and learn about tales of tazzer and james you want to help me here yeah it's uh it's basically we're playing dnd uh in
my home brew setting if you want to play sometime uh get a hold of me uh today's not a great day to
have people coming up and talking about
what they're doing uh just because we're trying to stay on task and jimmy only has a limited
amount of time to actually play games with me um but i'm sure that we would love to know more about
what's going on um and there's lots of spaces that uh like they said you're at the tree gen spaces
please keep showing up and sharing.
Building together.
Please come and play games with us.
We'll talk in the DMs.
We'll schedule times where it's you up here.
Telling those stories instead of these guys.
Thanks for being here.
It looks like Jimmy's having some issues again.
Yep. Yep.
Okay, so have we officially defeated all of the zombies in this room?
All of them that you can hear in this room. Now, you know that the thunder wave is very loud, right?
it's literally sound tearing things apart.
Like, it's literally sound tearing things apart.
So it also damages the walls and the structure and stuff in here to some degree,
because it's a narrow hallway.
A little bit of shaking, a little bit of structural damage.
You have killed everything in this hallway.
You can see that they have some
You can see at the end, there seems to be another closed door.
At this point, it's mostly like rusted ruined but like some metal accoutrements and things in their room
They would have indicated that they were of upper class
Like in the lower classrooms. There was it was all wood
There was mostly there was like nothing left even like the little bits of silverware had turned into rust and dust over time
In here there are remnant remnants of some old things being here and like the tarnish turning into
Just turning into waste over time, but nobody has been in here for a long time
Do you guys want to like thoroughly through this area, or do you want
to keep moving forward?
Oh, that's a good
question.
I want to do a
scan. If there's
anything worth going deeper looking before just leaving the room
all right you can do like if you just want to do like a look from the doorways like a scan
you can give me a uh perception if you want to actually go in and look around
and stuff you can give me an investigation.
I got a 23 on investigation.
All right, so you go into these ruined paladin's quarters, and you see what appears to be a fairly nice, like it's a nice short sword. It seems
kind of out of place because it doesn't
seem tarnished or worn
or like it's in ruin
of sorts like everything else in here
seems to be.
It just seems to be leaning in the corner
below a bunch of other old
like armor and weapons that have all
gone to...
Are you there?
I can't hear you, James.
Is it just me?
No, I can't hear him either.
No, I can't hear him either.
Oh, now he looks muted. Are you there, James?
Are you there, Jay?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So where were we?
You were telling me that there was a short sword that was out of place
because it wasn't tarnished.
It was in the corner and then it cut out.
Okay, yeah, it's just there underneath like a pile of other stuff,
like old armors.
Like it was in a pile of armor and weapons and stuff, but it's just one of them doesn't seem to be ruined.
Can I switch this sword out for a dagger?
I'm sure you can.
Huh?
I said, yeah, if you want to pick it up, you can pick it up.
I'm going to pick it up.
Hopefully nothing crazy happens.
Give me a wisdom save as you grab a hold of the sword.
Hold on, I'm looking for the wisdom.
It is one of your basic ability stats, like strength, sex.
At the top, okay.
Wisdom.
I got a 14.
As you get the hold of this sword, you can feel it try to connect to your mind and fail.
Can I try to connect
with it?
You can choose to fail.
You could be like, okay, I'll let it in.
That's always a choice.
As soon as you are like, oh, can I
connect with it? It's like, yes.
It's like, for fuck's sake, let's go stab some
fucking goblins. Thank God you picked me
up. Let's go, go, go.
Why are we standing still, soldier? Move!
Move! Move!
For being a pacifist,
this is quite the item to be carrying.
It appears to be some sort of drill sergeant slash training instructor.
You could give me an Arcana check or a history check if you are about, like, sentient items and various things.
things.
I got a 13 on Arcana.
Yeah, you...
I mean, this just seems like an interesting item to have found
for the most part. You don't really know.
History check. You've heard of
sentient items in the past.
Usually they are
kind of single-minded,
one-tracked,
from what you know. They usually are
they live
with intent, you know what I mean?
They become sentient,
but they were born in a
world of function, and they
like to fulfill their functions.
Now, you know know just because it's
magical it is basically the only reason it's not rotten and ruined down here um otherwise the
tarnish and age would have taken it like any other weapon uh it uses its own magical properties to
basically keep itself you know from tarnish and ruin. And it has been sitting here for a long time.
I'm going to say you let it into your mind.
Give me a will save as he tries to convince you that goblins are the scourge of the world
and we need to find them.
Give me a second to a will save.
Is that going to be up in the abilities?
Wisdom.
I'm used to playing an older version of the game.
I'm sorry.
That's okay.
Wisdom.
Okay.
Oh, not bad.
I got a 19.
19. 19. You are able to keep this sword from bending your mind to its will.
Now, you can have a conversation or a rebuttal to it,
and it essentially is tempered to your tone as you are its new wielder.
But you know that it will continue to try to influence
you as long as you hold it.
And it
doesn't seem to really have any
real goal other than to find
and kill goblins.
Is it only goblins that it kills?
Or is it going to be good against zombies
and vampires and other
Nazis? I mean, it's a magical sword.
It can stab anybody
okay
it just seems excited about
stabbing goblins
okay
I'm gonna put it in my pack and not hold it
for very long and only pull it out
he won't let you go
he's like no no put me down
no no no, put me down! No, no, no!
He's got attachment issues like my ex. Okay.
Sorry.
I want to put it down. I got a
10. That's not good.
As you go to put it down, he convinces
you to keep it on you.
Keep it equipped. He doesn't want to
go in there. He hasn't want to go in there.
He hasn't talked to anybody in...
He doesn't really have a concept of time.
But the last guy
was forever ago. And he didn't even take me,
that dick bag.
Oh, man.
Are the mushrooms communicating with
this sentient sword?
I mean, you would have to put
them together. It only connects with like
the sword can only connect with what it touches but i guess since it touches to you it could
probably talk to them in your brain which i guess give me another wisdom save as they probably start
to talk to each other and you need to not go crazy that looks a little better i got a 16.
all right so you're able to basically push these guys to the side
and keep your own mind
yours and your life.
Does Leonard,
who's now a tree gen,
or found,
want to hold this sword?
The sword would let you pass it to somebody else.
He'd be like,
as long as somebody's holding him,
he's excited about it.
Leonard, do you want a short sword
that's excited about killing goblins?
Oh, there you are.
Come back.
He's rugged again.
He's at 100%, so I guess Leonard will take it.
Okay. He's at 100%, so I guess Leonard will take it. I don't know if Leonard already didn't like goblins
or not, but now
he's...
Well, let's...
Well, what's the sword?
We're connecting you.
It says connecting.
Yep. Yep.
The space is acting wacky.
What did you say?
That's nothing new.
But yeah, the sword is quick to take up to Leonard.
Happy to meet a brother in arms.
They will take conquest and get rid of the goblins and purge the filth from the world.
I don't know if Leonard already had a predisposition against goblins,
but he definitely does at this point as the sword is swaying his personal opinion.
Also, Leonard needs to
ever, once unequipped the sword,
he needs to pass the wisdom save to put
it down or give it to somebody else.
I'm glad I'm not carrying that sword
anymore.
The sword
is also, you know, happy to serve
its owner and, you know,
stab people as it would and
tell it anything it would know,
though it is a sword. Its knowledge is
pretty limited to this room
and the dude that used to carry it.
The dude that used to carry it.
What happened to him?
He went to fight, and he's pretty sure he died in the hallway.
And, you know, sad about it, but, you know, maybe he would have done better if he took me.
That's all I got to say about it.
So the sword has an ego.
Well, it is a sword.
It is a sword.
It is a weapon.
It's like, I would do better than any other weapon.
Okay, so, seeing how that's all that was in the room, we should continue on.
Are you alive, Darkstar?
How you doing?
I'm alive.
Glad I didn't have to take the sword, though.
Would have probably had a bad influence
on me with my lack of memory.
Oh, that's true.
But, yeah, let's
continue investigating these other rooms.
Well, as you guys were the paladin's
rooms, that's about what you'd find
other than a bunch of, like, rotten,
ruined things. Like, there's
a lot of scrap metal here,
if that has any reason
or function to you.
But as far as useful items, the plate mail has holes rusted through it.
It's not functional.
The swords are the same.
They're basically like rusty shibs.
They would count as improvised weapons at this point.
They're not even true weapons.
They're too beyond repair.
But you could take them as like scrap metal
to somebody if your character wanted to carry it.
But other than that, there's not really much in here.
There's like rotted wood filth,
like dry rotted dust and scrap metal.
The only other thing you found in here that wasn't
was that sword, which is
excited to get out of this room.
It's been in here a long time.
And stab goblins.
Was this the Pope's room?
No, this was the paladins that guard the Pope.
This was like...
His room is still at the end
of the hall, and his door is still closed.
Now, you guys know that whatever happened,
he probably died in there.
And we probably killed the zombie version of him.
Well, the paladin.
Well, the zombie version of him is probably behind that door.
And there's a fair chance he's wearing
holy vestments of various sorts.
So, uh, how do we kill an undead
that's well-protected?
Well, I think the fearless dark star I think
we go towards the door
and I could use
divine smite because that
should
annihilate anything
like unholy even if they're wearing holy vestments.
Okay, so as you guys go to the door, and it opens with ease, it's a dark room.
As you light it up, you don't see anybody in here. Give me perception checks.
Oh, yes. I'll roll for Leonard.
I got a 10.
You don't see nothing.
It's dark enough.
Do I have dark vision? Yeah, I I mean you can see it
I got a 19
19 this room looks like
it was once ornately
decorated you can see a couple
silver chalices and like
a golden urn in here
that have not you know decayed
with the tarnished time because of the fine metals
for the reasons they're so valuable like with the tarnished time because of the fine metals um for the reasons they're so valuable um like it's tarnished but it's not ruined like rot like everything else in
here uh you don't see any creatures though i will say with that 19 you feel uneasy
and like the presence of something undead but not evil and then it's gone
oh boy i hope we didn't let out an invisible zombie
well you can give me a religious or an intelligence check if you want to try to figure out what that feeling was, I guess.
I mean, do you think it was a zombie?
Did your character think it's something else?
Like, it definitely didn't act like any of the other zombies.
I rolled an investigation
To see what found picked up
What did you roll
A 21
Finally
You see found has like a look of unease
So you cautiously look around
The room a little bit more
You see that somebody has been in here,
counting passage of time with marks on the wall,
reading various books and looks like notes and scraps here.
It looks, to very reason,
as you look closely with investigation the candle
uh still hot and smoke a small smoke trail like whatever was in here was just in here
and now it's whatever it's like you're like there was somebody here like somebody who can read and write and like count the passage of time.
I think if it was here and then it wasn't, it's got to have some form of magical ability.
And I rolled Arcana check and got a 25.
You look through these notes a little bit more. You can see, especially on a 25 and that high
of investigation, I'm going to say
you find some
spells to add to your
spell book.
Oh, nice. I was more
trying to protect us. That's
great.
What this also gives you information
is whoever this is can use
magic. So there's a
chance that they became invisible and just walked past you guys out the door once you opened it
oh but it's been counting the time question though yeah go ahead sorry to interrupt if the
door wasn't shut why why didn't it just
leave? Is it something that's afraid of us?
Give me a religion
check.
Or I guess she got a really high
thing and she got Arcana.
It couldn't open the door.
The door is covered in holy symbolage
and holy things. It couldn't touch the
door.
Touching the door would have hurt it and
like you open the door and let it out did we let out something evil
you he can tell it wasn't evil like he had the paladins have innate sense to tell good and evil
whatever the thing was was of a neutral perspective of what's happening here in the world that you live in
now that alone can be deceptive at times because neutral doesn't necessarily align with good
you know what i mean uh and neutral doesn't necessarily align with your well-being in any
manner like two kingdoms at war killing each other in the grand scheme of things is
generally considered neutral. Like, in your world, it would be terrible, you know what I mean, but in
the grand scheme of the universe, man is neutral, man fighting man is neutral, you know what I mean?
So, like, neutral doesn't mean good, it doesn't mean bad, it just means there's a new player on the board who is going to start making decisions.
Oh, that's a little scary and uneasy.
Okay, this is the Pope's room, right?
Yep.
And there is a bunch of, like, spells.
All of them would be
my conjuration and
or... You probably can add
cure wounds to your book at this
point, and you can cast it
as a wizard. You'll have to
homebrew and add it
custom. I know there's a way to do it.
But that's one of those
you would have found here okay i'm putting it in my notes so i can do this after yeah um i don't
i'm not great at using the dnd beyond tools yet there's a lot of stuff i need to to learn how to
use better but i do know we can go in and customize stuff and manage things like that.
But yeah, you would get a
Cure Wounds spell
here that you can cast from the Arcane
schools, which is usually hard to
find, but this is just one of those
places that you would get that.
You also probably
could find, I'm going to say
Cure Wounds
plus one other level one spell of your
choice from either cleric or wizard and it would cast as an arcane spell still
so like this for you to pick a spell off of your normal spell list as well
okay i got that in my notes um but yeah there's magical stuff here there is a few silver um like
water can't canters uh and chalices and stuff. Other than the silver stuff, there doesn't seem to be a lot of valuable stuff in here.
The golden urn.
Can I do an investigation check to see if it's cursed or there's a spirit attached to it?
Yeah, you give the golden urn a look over.
It appears to be a religious idol.
It's gold that has been shaped, but the shape is kind of like amorphous.
You know what I mean?
They took gold, they refined it, and then they made it into the shape,
but the shape doesn't really identify as anything in your brain.
Okay.
Just a big block of gold.
I'm afraid of picking it up, but gold would be very useful.
You know, it could be meltdown.
Yeah, it does look like it's about 10 pound gold idol.
Wait, say that again? It looks like it's about 10 pound gold idol. Say that again?
It looks like it's a 10 pound golden idol.
That's a lot of
gold.
I don't want to pick
it up and then something crazy happen.
But I want to keep it too
so we can use it for possibilities
in either trade or finances or whatever may come along where gold can be very useful.
Should I risk
Picking this up
Darkstar
Yeah go ahead
You know you want to
Pick it up
I'm going to put it in my pack
If nothing crazy happens
And nothing happens
Oh good
You put a 10 pound golden idol In your inventory All right. And nothing happens. Oh, good.
You put a 10-pound golden idol in your inventory.
Now, do keep track of your carry weight.
You know, to some extent, it eventually adds up your encumbrance.
But obviously, 10 pounds of gold, you probably want to keep that.
Yeah.
For real, man.
This has got so many uses.
Okay. If I had 10 pounds of gold in real life, oh real, man. This has got so many uses. Okay.
If I had 10 pounds of gold in real life,
oh my god, life would be easier right now.
But anywho.
Fair enough.
Okay.
What do you think we should continue doing?
Moving on? You also you you with that check i'll say
that you find the trap door that leads to the relic room um would be down below this because
remember it was a it was a defended position behind and underneath the church um so like you
find the trap door that goes to the relic room, which it also looks like
nobody's even made it this far, really.
Like, they basically would get to
the hall of zombies and be like, well, that doesn't
like, you know,
that doesn't seem
good. Let's leave the hall
of armored zombies alone
was what most people decided.
You guys opened that
door, and then you opened this door,
and searched real hard, and found the trap door.
It does look like it's a ladder
that goes down quite a ways into the ground.
I fucking hate ladders in real life,
so Guan Wu's okay with ladders in this game,
because it's opposite opposite me in real life
Well, I'm gonna say give me perception checks as you begin to descend the ladder and tell me what order you guys are in
I rolled a 21 21 and who's going first
21. 21. And who's going first?
I'll go first, I guess.
All right. As you begin to go down the ladder with the 21, you can see that this ladder has, like, false rungs.
Like, not only is it old and aged from right, like, there are also ones that are designed to come out.
from rot, but there are also ones
that are designed to come out.
It also looks like there
are various traps
and things that you
have to disarm along the
path going down.
Now that you see it,
you don't just blindly fall down
a 100-foot shaft and die,
but you're still going to have
to use some dexterity to get through it
to not
fall down a hundred foot
ladder shaft and die.
As you save any of the traps that lay before you
you can attempt to
navigate around them.
I rolled a 17.
I rolled an...
Oh, sorry. You go.
It's okay.
I rolled an 18.
So we're really close.
Alright.
You guys go slow
and do as best you can.
As you guys go down the ladder,
you drop down
several of the false rungs.
Some of the true rungs even crack or break.
I think Leonard is honestly just going to sit at the top
and watch as you guys,
maybe even tie off a rope or something
and try something different,
as he does not think he can do that
with any proficiency.
So he's probably going to guard the top of the ladder
unless you guys need it all.
I got a 20 for dexterity.
All right.
As you guys descend down,
it is over 100 feet down into the ground.
It is dark.
The air feels like you can feel the heat
and the pressure from just being down this far.
The environment is is
definitely different as you guys get down this far you enter into what is not a man-made tunnel
or structure but a cavern system as you look over you see what is another large temple it looks like
As you look over, you see what is another large temple, it looks like.
This one is intact.
It has, like, arcane lights on it.
It has a number of what looks like ethereal beings standing around just kind of talking.
uh i feel like we need to do perception or investigation
wisdom to be able to understand them what do you think
um you believe that these people like the other man seemed to understand you fine
like his name was in a language you couldn't understand but he was able to talk to you that these people, like, the other man seemed to understand you fine. Like, his
name was in a language you couldn't understand,
but he was able to talk to you without
issue.
These look like they're the same kind of
creatures or beings
as he was.
Okay.
Which also
tells you that each one of these things was
created for a purpose
and is happy to fulfill that purpose.
So we should ask all,
we should interrupt their conversation as politely as possible.
Or have they noticed that we're there?
I'll roll for him.
I mean,
you guys,
I mean,
you guys probably have a light with you so i'm sure
it's pretty easy for them to spot you yeah you can see some of them have pointed um
at you and they are and like you seem to have become a topic of conversation
so we uh do what we can to communicate with them dark stuff
If you guys get closer you when they're not talking to you you cannot understand them. Oh
That's so they can talk about us and we have no idea what they're saying
Essentially I Mean but they do have the ability to talk to you and understand you fluently us and we have no idea what they're saying. Essentially.
I mean, but they do have the ability to talk to you and understand
you fluently.
But when they talk to each other, they don't seem to speak
in common tongue.
Okay.
I think we should ask them
to tell us
what the room is and where the magical relics are because if there's
forthcoming and as friendly as the other guy we met uh hopefully they'll be happy to help
uh well as you they are polite ish like they they stop you and they tell you that you're welcome here on the outside of the temple, but they're not going to let you inside.
The relics held within, they need to be released by the ordained
cardinal, pope guy who is here in charge
these all seem to be what are sentient
guards of this building
of this place
they are bound here eternally to keep
these powerful relics safe
and until you do something to prove yourself worthy to them
or get direct orders from the guy who they believe,
you know, should still be in charge,
they're not going to let you in.
Can we...
They're happy to hang out with new people.
They actually haven't heard from anybody in a long time.
Can we tell them that you know their
their head honcho dude uh the pope guy actually died and there's been some magical disturbances
and we're we fight for the good of all
i don't know.
Are you just giving them information?
Or are you trying to convince you to let you in?
I'm trying to get them to let me in.
I'm trying to convince them.
Well, give me a persuasion check.
Let me find my...
Okay.
Give me a second, because it's...
My service is acting wild.
I cast 20 for Persuasion.
Well, here's you, and you sound...
Well, you can roll if you want as well, Song, as you guys both are here trying to convince
him so.
But even on a 20,
he's not really convinced.
He probably rebuttals to you
that your words make sense, like you
want these things, the power to try
to do good, but you
should understand then that their
duty and their need is
now greater than ever. that if you feel that
there are relics of power uh that have fallen into the wrong hands that they would be happy to allow
you to deposit more things into the relic you know reliquary but they're not willing to let anybody
take anything out they're like we're very much on your side on this. This stuff should not be
out amongst the public.
You've got
something. Let's put it in here. What do you got?
You've got the goblin
sword.
I mean, if it's magical
and it's potentially dangerous, they'll take it.
These guardians...
But they also seem like they don't like goblins.
So they're like, that seems right.
You shouldn't like goblins.
Can we
bribe them to let us
Give them a mushroom.
You can give them a persuasion check.
Or you can give them mushrooms.
The mushroom probably doesn't have as much concern
with getting into the reliquity as you guys do.
Again, it's also kind of like, it's your friend,
but it's still pretty neutral towards things.
Like, when you were about to be eaten,
it was like, yeah, that seems about right.
Like, that's what happens to people.
I rolled a nine, and then I wanted to roll again
I got a 20 but nine is me being an honest player. So for my persuasion
Well even at a 20 like they weren't convinced to let you in we're a bribe but they are definitely like now we don't we don't sell
you in for a bribe.
They are definitely like, no, we don't
sell these things.
Now, that idea of
exchange is
possible. Do they like
gold?
They don't like gold. They don't really care about gold.
Now, if you
show them that idol, they might have a different
feeling because that idol is
symbolic to them.
Oh, okay. But as far as gold, they don't care about gold itself. feeling because that idol is symbolic to them. Okay.
But as far as gold, they don't care about gold itself.
So I should ask them about the idol if they know about it.
Well, they would inform you that that is a symbol of their belief,
that that was their representation of what is the ambient magic that exists
in all things, and that would be the lifeblood of what is the ambient magic that exists in all things,
and that would be the lifeblood of what would be their people,
as they consider themselves built after their masters,
which they revere in near-godlike status,
and you can tell by the way they venerate them in their conversations,
and you can tell by the way they venerate them in their conversations,
but they also acknowledge themselves separate, as they are not one people.
This distinction doesn't really, like, it seems like they are willing to accept it,
it doesn't seem like it was forced upon them,
or they were created this way with these beliefs ingrained.
As magical beings, it's hard to say
exactly, but you can definitely tell that they revered their
creators like gods, but themselves as separate
like a separate species. These guys
also have the, you kind of can tell that they have the ability to
construct more of themselves.
So that's also one of the guarded secrets of the Reliqui.
Oh man, so if we try to get rid of them, they'll just procreate and create more of them.
them.
At least enough to fulfill their duties.
At least enough to fulfill their duties.
Could we
ask them if they know
what relic within
have caused
the magical
change of
animals after the flood?
Hmm.
They warned them about
the dangers
of the powers of the magic.
Exactly.
Magic can be dangerous and unpredictable,
and the sages were far greater studied than them.
They do have a repository of information
that they can have some scribes go through.
They can tell you that the last artifacts that were removed from the reliquary
was a decanter of infinite water.
There is also a number of rings and amulets of intellect
that are still out amongst the people that need yet be returned um and like
as he's listing a number of items these items in and of themselves wouldn't create the issue but
you begin to see that like the water mixed with this other magic mixed with this other stuff like
there's different types of amplifiers missing there's the rings and amulets of intellect,
there's the canchers of infinite water.
you're starting to surmise
that whatever this stream is, whatever
this natural flow of water is, is not
a natural formation. Like, it was created
from this magic
being here, and just
untended to. Like, nobody's taking care of
stuff. Like, not here in taking care of stuff. Not here
in this part of the temple down here,
but in the one upstairs
where it was
mortals and people who were
flesh and blood and inhabited it
a thousand years ago.
These ethereal creatures
that have, you know, they're immortal, have
not the same sense of time as you guys,
but it's been a long time since they've heard from their
would-be creators
You guys would inform them that you have never seen anybody that looks like them
Like not even in all of the markets of Cardiff or on the boats or the oceans that you've never ran into somebody who
into somebody who has the same body form facial structure as they do so like they
Has the same body form facial structure as they do
their creators may just not exist anymore like they may have gone extinct
themselves or being hiding or moved on you really don't know as you've never
seen or heard about these creatures.
They, regardless of what you tell them, again, will not let you in.
If you guys
want to wait around, they'll tell you more
about stuff. They'll have people
read books and come back out and tell
you what they've read, but they won't even let
you in to read the books themselves.
These guys are like, nope.
This is our sole purpose of existence
and we're not changing it for you.
Can they tell us what relics
are in there?
No. Maybe with a
very, very high persuasion check, but just
off the face, no.
Let me see what I get for persuasion.
The closer thing you guys get to probably being able to get something out of the relic
is that if you bring them items of great evil, they will reward you.
That doesn't necessarily mean that the items are something that are the most powerful items
or the most coveted items.
But they're like, yeah, if you do something good, we can reward you with something good.
Now, this does sound like you would come in with, like, a very powerful cursed sword, and they'd give you, like, a slightly blessed sword.
Definitely not, like, equivalent exchange, but you're supposed to be the good guys.
good guys um
can i persuade them to tell us
what we need to do ever like right now without having to leave and come back
that would allow us to go in and search for what we want.
that would allow us to go in and search for who we want
Well, they honestly,
as far as anything you could let you in right now,
they don't think that there's anything you could do to prove yourself to them.
They honestly don't even know if there's anything out in the world you could do.
That was the best thing they could come up with.
If you go and get an item of great evil, we'll you something in return and we'll you know put it in the warehouse
um but they that was the closest and it didn't even sound like it would be a fair trade
uh as far as letting you in or anything there's they're pretty set on no like there's nothing you
can do that would be uh of proving how good you are or what your intentions are um now you also
know that this wasn't this religion from all the symbolage you learned all the things you learned
was a neutral religion it wasn't a religion of like good or evil it was a religion that was
solely based on the pursuit of knowledge so like what these guys perceive as good and evil may not also be aligned with
what your characters perceive as good and evil.
They're from a different era in time.
Their religious beliefs are vastly different than yours.
What's up, Sam?
So are these guardians connected to the structure of the building we're in, like the other ethereal being?
Because maybe this can sound like suicide, but what if we try to destroy the room they're in and then go search
their relic.
It definitely does appear
that they are bound to the
relic, but they are also able to
come around some
areas on the outside grounds of it
to some extent. You would have to
basically bring down this
small temple slash shrine
here in this underground cave
to kill these guys like they
don't even have like physical bodies um you don't even know if you could hurt them other than
destroying the architecture that keeps them alive which means that you would have to destroy the
reliquity and then dig through the rubble, essentially. Because whatever, like, from observing the guy above and understanding it, like, his life is funneled through the shaping of the stone and the way the furniture is arranged inside.
Like, literally going in there and moving around benches would probably hurt them more than anything you could do out here.
hurt them more than anything you could do out here.
Can we change the
structure of the room we're in with
these guardians to...
Now, you are in an underground cavern with a hundred-foot shaft above your
head. A hundred-plus-foot shaft above your head. You could
probably collapse this cavern,
but you're in it, for what
that's worth.
That might be suicide.
Found.
Or Darkstart.
Do you have any ideas?
Could we?
You could also turn around.
They suggest you find whatever magic is not being kept to
that's creating chaos and you bring it here so it can be properly kept intended to like that's
what they think you should do when they're ethereal so i can't give them a mushroom
i mean the mushroom again can talk to them.
They're telepathic
and magically attuned.
That also seems like you notice
that these are warriors. They're wearing
armor,
but you wouldn't consider it like
heavy armor.
Like, and again,
they're ethereal, so the armor is just like
show.
So maybe it doesn't matter but you realize that if these were the normal vestments of their military that these
are not people who are great physical combatants they would have used their magical prowess to
defend themselves you know defense offense uh you can just tell from the way that these ethereal beings are
crafted in their creator's images,
or images that they perceived as like military
fashion. This military fashion is very light,
very mobile, very inclined to
just the light attacks, mobility, and magic function.
They also all have four arms,
which they seem to use
with great proficiency.
You're sure that that doesn't hurt
their ability to manipulate the magics
around them.
Dark Star.
I have a question for them.
Can you hear me?
Yes, sir.
Yep.
Okay.
Could they tell us what
killed
all the inhabitants of the
temple, however long
ago it was?
Just so we can know what caused everybody to turn into a zombie.
They don't know.
They have no real way of counting the passage of time down here.
They do know that it has been much, much longer than normal.
And then you tell them everybody's dead. And we're like, well, that makes sense, why
they haven't been here.
Um, they, and, like, they had known lineages, families for generations, because these guys
are, again, basically immortals.
Um, they, they, some sadness, but, like, they expect mortals to die.
Um, they don't know how long it's been. some sadness, but they expect mortals to die.
They don't know how long it's been.
They kind of are letting you fill them in on the world events.
It sounds like it has been
a long, long time if you guys
told them anything of Cardob's Gate
or why you guys were here,
which I imagine took place during
this. You didn't give them anything
like vital information or anything,
but in general, the fact that that city exists,
humans, they don't know what those are.
You know, none of you guys are them either,
but they're apparently the ones in charge of things out there.
So yeah, you're more filling them in on how the world has changed. They have no
idea about the passage of time other than it's been a very long time.
Okay, then my suggestion song is we climb back up and before we leave
the temple
they probably would
they would also tell you that the temple is here
but they would show you that down in the distance
like in the darkness behind you
the cave extends in this network
doesn't end here
that
in the past
that's what you could do without leaving the temple nothing but if you wanted to prove yourself doesn't end here that In the past people
That's what you could do without leaving the temple nothing but if you wanted to prove yourself
There are mighty beasts in the tunnels you can bring back
The hot you know bring back one they have no need of flesh or bone
But it would just merely be an act of bravery and you could keep whatever quarry you kill
You would just need proof that it was you know your hand that slayed it um but again that's not something you
can do without leaving um you looking at these tunnels you could see that they are vast caverns
filled with something very large that is very good at digging um you probably i mean it's
up to you guys if you want to go down in the tunnels and hunt what is a potentially you know
they're slashing animal that's very large dangerous uh but they're like that's something
you could do to just prove you are strong it doesn't necessarily prove that you're aligned with them but good and evil is
perspective to some degree relative um i wonder if there's a possibility that we could
start to go down one of these tunnels and make a beeline and start digging to uh get another access route to what these people are guarding
without no this this temple seems to be offset like it's not built into the walls or anything
like it was actually built with the idea of being a like a defendable position down here and with animals that come
from the ceiling the walls and up from underneath the ground it seems like
they've taken a lot of precautions to protect it on all sides like you see
this area here is kind of like a like a courtyard greeting area but there's one
like that on every side.
And it also seems to have like steps and chambers that go down underground all around it on the
outside. Um, and on the, uh, on the part that is not like built into the ground, you can see that
it is at least 30 feet from any cavern wall, um, giving them ample time to react
to anything that comes out
of the walls,
which you can see has
happened here in the past as there are
corpses of whatever these large creatures
are as you're looking around.
They look to be like giant
beetles of some sort.
And it
looks like they used some serious
arcane forces to put
them down if they ever
come out of the walls and touch the temple.
I don't really want
to go fighting monsters.
Yeah, obviously these look like 15
foot tall beetles.
No, that shit's scary.
Like, I can't even handle cockroaches in real life. Those things scare me.
15 foot ones? No, thank you.
Yeah.
I mean, these people don't appear hostile.
They just don't want to give you what they got.
Happy to take things if you have them to offer.
Again, they just seem to collect and storehouse magic that was deemed dangerous by the church.
They don't want anybody to ever get it back.
That's kind of their sole purpose.
If there's something you deem dangerous, they'll put it in there.
Now, is this church have you shared
lore about this church already with us i apologize um most of what you found in it what like when
you guys went through the church you were in upstairs the giant temple was that they worshiped
magic like it was very straightforward uh everything in the building was designed with the idea to channel magic.
Whether it be to amplify arcane or religious magic.
They don't seem to have a lot of natural magics here.
So I'm just trying to fully understand what they're guarding.
Is what they're guarding evil things or just very powerful things?
Or a combination?
Probably a combination of things.
This church didn't have any symbolage to say that it was worshipping a divine,
there was no holy, good spirits, nothing angelic, nothing even for the sun itself.
Even in references to things that most of the ancient cultures worshipped, they were all underneath the umbrella in their belief that magic, they all use magic.
So magic is the one true god kind of thing.
But they didn't have a full scope of magic, as they only seemed to worship what was arcane
and, like, religious magic, like the gods, the magic that gods themselves wield. They did not
seem to have studies or any severance to natural magic which you would know
is uh not as powerful it's like the ambient magic in nature is not as strong generally but it is
always there uh and they just seem to because it wasn't the dominant one they seem to just kind of
brush it aside uh and it with, instead of a
balanced triangle, they only
got like two points, you know?
So they're into
power.
Whoever
the one that built this.
Whatever they deemed dangerous was
put inside of here.
Like, is all the,
all that they really know.
They won't tell you like what exact items are or anything.
They did say like,
if you thought something was dangerous,
they could put it in there.
Like if Leonard wanted to give the sword,
which you can ask Jimmy,
Jimmy would have to pass a will save to give it to them,
but they would probably put it in there because it could be dangerous.
Like it is encouraging you to go and fight.
And,
you know,
if a child or somebody would pick it up,
like that child will probably die.
Oh yeah.
It could lose control of its mind.
and then we'll go try and fight goblins and,
you know,
and like a goblin could pick it up and it probably would try to persuade it to
stab itself, you know
These guys probably would be able to tell you a little bit more about sentient weapons if it did come up
they would tell you that weapons can become sentient
They would tell you that weapons can become sentient
over time just by absorbing
the natural magics of things. If you guys had
conversations about your animals and your adventures so far, which I feel
like you guys did. You guys were like, oh, we're just going to talk to these guys for the last several hours.
I feel like a lot of stuff came up in that time.
There's not much else to do while you're down here.
I was thinking of bribing them with a sentient chicken,
but I don't know if that would work.
They don't think they can put...
Sentient items are one thing,
because they're technically immortal,
and it doesn't...
I don't know.
It feels different to imprison mortals here.
There's a lot more complications.
That poor chicken did that.
They agree that that could be potentially dangerous, and it might need dealt with, but they don't do, this isn't a prison.
If it's not an item, they don't really want it.
Um, now if you turn that chicken into a gem, bring it on end.
Uh, you know, something like that.
Is there, uh, any stealthy way that I could, uh, just somehow get past the guards and into this?
It doesn't, it really doesn't look like it. I mean, you could always try. somehow get past the guards and into this. It really
doesn't look like it. I mean, you can
always try.
But from a brief observation,
these ethereal beings are
rather perceptive.
They seem to have
a psychic intuition
of where you're going and what you're
going to say.
They seem to be very powerful
as far as magic is concerned um you guys have been here for a while they tend to the grounds
like they live here and there is basically one attendant for each of you uh while you're in the
courtyard area so like there's a guy who literally is just watching you.
Like, that's his job while you're here.
Oh, I'm sure.
Are they telepathic with one another?
Did that get covered?
But you were observing.
You guys are observing enough,
and you've been here long enough to tell that they are.
And that's also where they talk to the Mushroom with great ease.
They actually learn a lot from the mushroom who does like he,
you guys were like protecting,
you know,
give us extra information.
Tell us if danger's coming.
You guys perceive these guys as friendly.
so did the mushroom.
And as you know,
he's not nearly as discerning with information as you are.
And he speaks to them psychically through telepathy,
so their conversations go much faster than yours do as well.
What can the mushroom tell us about these beings, if there's any way that we can get past them?
I mean, as far as your goal, he would tell that you're curious,
you're set on it. He would tell
you that they are steadfast.
They have been here, well, I mean, he's only been
alive, or it has only been alive for
a couple weeks or something.
So, like, for a long time in comparison
to what he's been,
they seem very knowledgeable
about general
arcane magics. They know, and
various religious magics, and how
belief itself can shape
reality in various ways.
They seem to be
you know, basically
he's like, they're going to do their job.
Everything he's talked to them about,
they're curious, they want to learn, they want to know more, but all of it seems to be to the're gonna do their job like everything he's talked to them about everything they're curious they want to learn they want to know more but all of it it seems to be to the goal
to do their job better like none of it has not one of them that he's had you know thought
communications with has had any inclination of defecting or being unhappy here um they all basically live in perfect harmony and if something comes up that there's a
job that needs done or something that needs that they don't know how to do um like or like that
one of them doesn't have time to do it they just create somebody specifically for that function
uh and they're always happy to just do their job. As far as the society
goes, it seems much more
clean and organized than anything you guys have
described to him.
And the animals is just, you know,
crazy. Like, there's no real...
It's just who's strong enough to eat who.
This place,
everybody is designed with, like,
they are made with purpose.
As far as this place is concerned,
he can describe to you, it works that way. And everybody here is made with a function,
and they're happy to fulfill that function, because that's how they were made.
And their primary function is to keep whatever's inside there safe, which they also won't tell him what's in there. He could try to probe minds and to do things, but that would be incredibly rude and near, if not an act of, you know, violence.
Especially amongst psychic communities.
Yeah, I don't recommend and I don't suggest that the mushroom do that.
I don't want to, I don't want that the Mushroom do that. I don't want to
incite a battle.
No, and
even seeing how powerful Darkstar
has been, you question if you guys could
even hold ground against these guys.
I have a question.
the Pope
whose room
through the chapter we came down
did he have a symbol
of office that these things would
recognize?
You can go back up there and look around.
Do you think we should do that some?
I think that's a really good idea.
Since you don't want to kill giant beetles?
I was like, maybe we can fool them.
I think that would be a good idea.
To go up and look for either a spell to control them,
since there are lots of spells in that room,
or a symbol of the Pope's authority,
so they're not as hostile to us.
Yes, exactly.
That's a very good idea.
I'm all about that.
Do we need another dexterity to go back up the ladder James I mean you gotta get past all the
traps again every time you gotta go through here you either got to do that or you can try to turn
them off do you have I mean you're down here at the bottom I'm saying it's probably easier to
give me a search or something here at the bottom of the line and see if you can find a way to
disable them before you try to climb back up.
I guess it's
investigation.
I got a seven.
Please compound me.
I'm loading.
Please compound the traps.
What do you need me to roll again?
Because I was too busy trying to get this to load because it froze.
Investigation.
Okay.
Trying to figure out how to turn off these traps.
Oh, no!
I got a 12.
Yeah, Leonard got a 1.
You guys don't know.
So we have to roll a dexterity
Roll a dexterity to get up this thing, too.
to get up this thing, too.
Yes.
Yes.
Let me go back to...
Now, it's a little easier this time, because you've done it once.
You remember where all the things are
I got a 12
I got a 16
Well lucky for you guys
It's the second time you've done it
So it's a little easier
Slow and steady up this ladder
Avoiding all of the rungs that are trapped
And will trigger your sudden demise
Because you see
You pass the spikes in the walls,
you see the triggers and the traps.
As you get to the top, you see above that there's like a giant stone slab
that is slightly smaller than the channel that you guys climb up.
So one of those traps along there would have just dropped that slab
and killed you both.
You guys, you know, but you get through it just fine. Leonard's standing
at the top, you know,
probably just munching on some lettuce.
You guys have been gone for quite
a while.
Is Leonard in agreement
that we
go look for spells
to control these guardians
or find something that shows that we are authoritarian enough to get past the guardians, like the Pope's sigil.
as round,
you guys look through here,
and you don't find
any particular sigils or anything.
If you remember, you did really well
the first time.
You're going to say that whatever
got through here,
like, you know it wasn't able to
directly touch holy symbols. That doesn't mean
you can't confiscate or
take things inside of,
you know, just like you can pick up a cursed item
inside of a wrapped cloth,
there's a chance that whatever this is had taken
some things of value, including
that sigil, you would imagine.
That's a problem.
What about looking for spells?
Like I said said you can i gave you a few spells um there were level ones that you would probably
understand i'm gonna say that you will not higher check there too there's a lot of stuff here you
can take some of it with you um but to sit down and read a lot of it,
to, like, learn more spells takes a lot of time.
So, I'm going to say you can add
something to your inventory
to the effect of, like,
cleric's notes,
bishop's notes,
something like that.
And then later we can
go over, or if you have time,
like, this place is safe,
but it's kind of gross.
Your character could do it here,
potentially.
But it would
eat up a lot of time.
What do we do,
Darkstar?
I know in a few minutes I gotta go join
the other space.
Oh, we're probably
gonna call it today.
But you guys are down there in that dungeon.
You let my eagle coat. But you guys are down there in that dungeon. I think we'll keep looking.
And when we go down the second time, because Leonard can't come down the ladder,
I think we should tie a knotted rope to make it easier to traverse and avoid the traps on this 100-foot ladder.
Well, I think that's a good idea.
If he needs to go down there, definitely this ladder is not happening for him.
His dexterity is a 9. he's just not doing it sometimes you gotta know your limitations
facts
so you guys can think of what you want to do next week i will also try to put together some stuff
okay
oh and by the way james the long thread you wrote about the story so far was amazing.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, I like them.
Yeah, it was very surreal reading about things we talked about in like a book form.
So it felt like I was actually in a fantasy book.
So that was cool.
Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I have fun. And So that was cool. Thank you.
Yeah, I mean, I have fun.
That's the whole point.
Obviously, hope to make money,
but start by having fun.
Then the money
comes easy.
Yeah.
Actually, I did a bunch of...
I wouldn't say a bunch. I did some market research on, like, these kind of shows, like the D&D live shows and things like that.
And honestly, the ones that have done the best were the people who just had the most fun and didn't go into it like, oh, we're going to make money doing this.
money doing this and i was like well i need to just try to keep that mindset then even if i
And I was like, well, I need to just try to keep that mindset then, even if I start making money.
start making money like uh the biggest and the most famous one is like critical role
and they basically everybody's like oh they went downhill after they became a company trying to
make money like everybody loved them when they were just having fun and recording it and then
they got you know money and made a business. And people are like boo.
Sell out.
No I'm kidding.
I don't really know.
It's just like okay. Well let's just have fun.
And get it going.
That's the plan.
Yeah.
I think that it's.
It's a good.
It's a good route. Because it's something that is inspiring, it's creative, and also we're contributing to good, at least with the Tales of Taz and NFTs themselves.
Yeah, well, and if everybody who likes, comments, and shares the know money money helps me and the cities sadly we all need it yeah living on planet earth
at this time it's just part of life
yep looks like you're a minute late You should head out
Yeah the space hasn't started
I didn't get a notification for it
He's been late for a bit
And based off him
Rugging a bunch I don't know how
Not sure how well the space is gonna go tonight
Don't wanna jinx it not sending negative energy
Just
Just being random.
Just, yeah, being logical.
Well, I had fun.
Thank you guys for coming and playing.
Yeah.
I love laughing, and I get a lot of laughter playing with you guys.
Well, I'm glad.
I know this isn't like,
I don't know, this is just one of those skills that I have.
I was like, I could do this for people.
Everybody I've ever played or hosted games for us said they've had fun, so
I guess I'm decent at it, at least.
Yeah.
Your imagination
is good, because
ethereal guardians that
are very hard to get
past, that's got me
stumped like a problem.
You don't have to solve that problem.
There's a world full of other problems.
Curiosity killed the cat.
That's also like I said,
they were like, we are the solution, not the problem.
You bring us stuff and we keep it from people.
Forever.
Yeah, that seems like a bit of a hoarding,
but because their perception of what's good and evil,
it means that there could be some,
it could just be really powerful things
that could be used for good or evil,
but based off how they were used
is maybe why they well you also got the idea that there were relics of good or like what the church
perceived as good they were just very powerful but you definitely got that sense because you
remember he said that when they had holidays and they had ceremonies, they would bring out stuff that they were like, this is the church's powerful item.
Some of it wasn't like evil.
It was just like you need to keep an eye on it.
You need to make sure things don't go awry.
One of those items was the decanter of endless water, which you assume is just upturned somewhere in the upstairs of this building.
is just upturned somewhere in the upstairs
of this building.
I think that our space...
Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
Nope, go ahead.
I think that the TG,
the tree gen space got changed
because it's saying
October 3rd now
I thought it was for tonight
I definitely don't remember them
meeting may have run long
remember yesterday
oh yeah
it went like almost two hours.
Sometimes it's a game, we can keep playing.
I mean, I'm already at home.
Yeah, I honestly
like
for my birthday, I came into some possession of some
magic chocolate
like in May
and I decided like
an hour or two go to eat half of it
and it's kicking in so it's
probably good that I don't have to run
a tree gen space but I can definitely
keep playing on this
oh now I want some magic chocolates but I can definitely keep playing on this.
Oh, now I want some magic chocolates.
Okay.
James, son, my birthday's in February,
so feel free to send me some magic chocolates as well.
Oh, there's no way I'd be able to send that from Indonesia. I don't even know how.
Like, I must have manifested it. Like, I don't know know how the... I must have manifested it.
I don't know.
Because it's not legal here.
But it somehow came
into my possession.
That's nice.
Yeah.
Anywho.
We can keep playing because the space
Is not happening with tree gens
Alright
What do you want to do
Leonard probably would tell you
If you described him what happened
He's probably not
Overly interested in harassing those people.
300-year-old
turtle tortoise.
Yeah, he's just
like, leave those people be. I ain't doing
nothing to hurt nobody.
Essentially,
if you guys also remember, he'd probably be like,
he's doing the same thing we said we were going to do.
Which was
just to make sure nobody bad
has it. That's
literally all they said that they do.
They don't, you know,
they put stuff in there to make sure nobody has it.
It's not, um,
you know.
Something can't be destroyed
and they're just too dangerous to leave lying about. Or something can't be destroyed and they're just too dangerous to leave lying about
or something shouldn't be destroyed
and they're just too dangerous to be lying about
what do we do Dark Star
can we cast
can we cast some sort of
or what do I have to roll
to kind of track
whatever invisible person was in this room who probably carried off
the pope's sigil because i kind of have a feeling it's important that we find that
that you're like oh that sounds important um you can use the survival check to use tracking skills
Um, you can use a survival check to use tracking skills.
Uh, it's not even magic.
Just look for like footprints, um, scuff marks, you know, evidence he existed.
No, you're not sitting at the desk when you open the door.
Just from the way that, uh, Wu found evidence of like the candle being blown out.
He was there like right before you opened the door.
I got a 22 for survival check.
He was invisible, but he was in a hurry.
His tracks are not covered.
You can see and follow down the hallway.
Muddy, dirty steps.
You know, come out of the filthy room
down into the main room.
It looks like he went out,
tried to go to the main entrance
and saw that it was collapsed
and then turned and went through
the main hall.
When you go into the main hall
or the dining hall,
the cafeteria area,
the trail ends.
The floor has been cleaned.
You assume that it's on the other side where you guys came
into the servants' quarters, you can probably try
to pick it up again.
But you will have to try again.
And at this point, he's got, you know, he's been
on the move for a while, so his trail is
not as thick with the filth once stuck to him.
But the servant that's still here in the dining hall
promptly cleaned the mess that he just found on the floor.
Probably complains to you guys about tracking mud in here.
But can tell us the direction
of where this
invisible person went.
Yeah, it was right where you guys came from
to right where you went.
Dirty little
creatures.
Is this the same servant
I gave Mushroom to earlier?
Yeah, he just gets grumpy when you make messes in the dining hall.
Okay.
He didn't see anybody but you guys, so he thinks it was you.
Wipe your feet next time.
But you guys go right off.
You imagine he went out the way you came in
Well, you guys basically follow him right to the entrance of this thing and like he's out into the world
You guys can continue to follow the trail best you can but he's already got a fair lead on you guys
Oh that feels like that's
very intangible
to find him.
But what do you think,
Darkstar?
Found. found Leonard probably doesn't think you should chase invisible
whatever's
into the jungle
the jungle alone was already dangerous
that's
true
chasing something that's potentially murderous into it The jungle alone was already dangerous. That's pretty true.
Casing something that's potentially murderous into it that we know nothing about
sounds reckless.
So...
Leonard likes to play it safe.
Like, he's a paladin, and he's like,
we gotta do the right thing, but hold on.
Let's not just
rush in there.
It's that wisdom speaking.
Wisdom of many years.
Ugh.
I don't want to make the decision for the group.
Where is Darkstar? What do we do?
Oh, he's off the stage as a listener.
Oh, he probably grugged.
Yeah, that's life.
Welcome back.
Most of the time
come up and say hi if you want.
He's working on the game.
You know, nice enough to
be amazing.
Oh, thank you, Moe.
Oh, we're following one another already, too.
Awesome.
That's real.
Heyo.
Found. Heyo Found Did you hear what
Happened to the invisible person
How he went into the
I didn't hear that
Yeah he's not very
Easily able to be tracked at this
Point so we can either go
On a wild goose chase into the jungle
or we can
venture elsewhere.
You also have
the upstairs
of this place. You guys didn't go through
the paladin's corners, the training
ring. I forgot we didn't
go to the top where the altar is.
Well, you went to where the altar is, but you didn't
go to where, like, through the
whole place. And what you were looking for wasn't
in the altar room.
Like,
you can see it was where they did ceremonies.
They had, like,
presentations, but
there wasn't the magic items and stuff
you were in there. And you went through there, you found
the paladin's quarters and the pope's room with the relicary underneath it but through the
paladin's like quarters and training grounds there's also watchtowers and um like the upstairs
which was mostly domiciles of people who lived here um and like would have been like military stationing uh like barracks and
bunks and stuff like that for paladins generally and you guys didn't even go in like the whole
upstairs or guard towers or anything um which you're imagined that you didn't really find
the source of the water has to be in that section of the building.
Dark Star, what should we do?
Now, inversely, you guys are outside the building again.
You could scale up the outside of the building to try to get to the top of the towers and go in that way um if that seems like it would
be easier in any way for you guys um now the guy who lives in there was like climb up there and
pull those vines off um i'm not saying you want to do that either, but...
I feel like we'd have to have very good dexterity for that.
Probably.
Okay.
So we could either go back in and try to explore more,
or we can go explore more of the island but we didn't and based off what we've
talked about with the guardians that chalice of everlasting water i forget what it's called i'm
sorry it was most likely has endless water in it yeah picture of endless water um do we really want to get that in our hands though is that
i mean you can't know i mean you would know that water can be valuable you would also know that
like this river if you take away this This water source this stream here dries up
like
Now you could do something with it. You also know that it's probably more than just that thing
It seems like there's a collection of magical items that's missing that's here somewhere
And that's one of the items.
Uh, I'm rolling a dice to figure out what we should do, because... I got an 18 which 1 through 20
or sorry 1 through 10 was to
keep investigating
the temple
and the
10 through 20 would
go start looking
on other island
and 18 well
means leave the temple
because we're already outside
you're like where are you outside
we don't need to do any of the things we came here to do
let's go
I love it
oh lord Need to do any of the things we came here to do? Let's go. I love it.
Oh, lordy.
Found.
Are you there?
His mic keeps going off and on.
I don't know if he's rugging.
Well, if he wants to talk, just make some noise.
Nope. No noise.
He must be having tech issues.
Well,
Leonard would probably remind you that the magical water
that is flowing forth from here
is causing problems elsewhere.
it may be wise to find
where the mess is coming from
and clean it up.
I can hear you now.
I'm sorry.
A call had come in.
That kind of killed the
connections.
The last thing I heard was
Song saying
Gerald and 18 are exploring
outside.
And then James just said
Leonard would suggest that we find the source
of this magical water
because it's causing lots of problems downstream.
Okay, so are we climbing?
Can you say that last thing again?
Are we going to climb
climb up the
the vines on the outside?
Jordan thinks you should go inside and take the stairs.
I don't think I'm
dexterous enough to climb the wall
like that.
Okay.
But yeah, Leonard is basically like
we walked, what is it, like 40, 100
miles to the woods to get here.
We should probably do the thing we came here
to do before we leave.
I agree with him wholeheartedly
yeah you guys walked
what was it 60 miles to get here
and then
you were like we're going to figure this out
and then you guys get like part way through
you're like maybe it's not that important
hold on
my old ass doesn't want to walk 60 miles
that way without accomplishing something
first on. My old ass doesn't want to walk 60 miles that way without accomplishing something first.
Okay, so we gotta keep
looking for it. Don't worry
about what I rolled.
It can't be
days through the farmland and through the woods
and up into the stream bed.
But you realize this stream is entirely
unnatural. If you
remove, like I said, you remove the water source,
it won't be there. But there's magic being
unnatural.
There's water having magical properties
and just in general being unnatural.
It's created problems for the farmers.
Obviously the Great Flood and
all the insentient animals.
This water is flowing straight into the
water supply of the whole island. So like, B found realized that the other day when he was looking for stuff uh water sources and
checking it out was that this water flows right into the irrigation ditches which flows right
into the lake and that lake is the whole like basically where all of the people and on the
island get their water from is that lake and like groundwater surrounding it. So this magic is tainting the entire island's water supply. Um, and whatever
that could do is, you know, the unknown of that is potentially scary. You know, you guys were like,
oh, we need to contain magic in case it gets into the wrong hands well just lacing the entire island's water supply
with magic is not good probably he's not sure what will happen but probably nothing good
maybe maybe some stuff good but also probably some stuff bad
yeah we don't want the entire island laced especially if there's like
dinosaurs on it
that are already dangerous
we don't want sentient dinosaurs
or dinosaurs that are twice as big
oh that too
I didn't think about that part
oh shit
it's like the art
the whole alchemist guild quest
Is turned into
You need to save the entire island
From destruction
We haven't searched the towers
You said the watchtowers
What else haven't we searched
With the temple?
Well, you go back into the dining
hall, and then there's the entrance
hall and the main
place where they do the sermons
and stuff at the head.
If you want to come in through the main door,
it'd be through the left. From where you come in, it's just
straight across the hallway, and there's
where the paladins would live and train
It's more like military barracks and like training grounds and like watchtower and stuff
And it's the wing of the it goes up to the second story
Well, you walk over and there's like a broken door you can see out into a courtyard
You can tell that it used to be like uh an arena where like people would fight or wrestle in the pits and like there
would be an audience that would watch um perhaps it was magical competitions you're not sure but
it definitely was like military training-esque area um and then there's a stairway that goes upstairs uh it kind of like you know
turns around so you can't see what's up there um but you can go out in the courtyard which is like
training areas and things or you can go upstairs to the second floor which again you've been in a
lot of temples it's probably mostly residential areas um now from what you've gained in this place is like everybody
who was here pretty much died instantly and then became zombies at some point um
so if people are upstairs like whoever lived here whoever died is like the upstairs is
potentially filled with zombies and things um but if you go through the upstairs
then there'll be access to the watchtower and several floors of that are probably just like
places people would stand and look out you know windows to shoot bows and arrows at it
places to defend the temple had it needed defended um like so because because you're so familiar with temples you have a
prediction of what the layout will be um it's just actually getting uh you know through the area
you imagine that the residential area will be the largest challenge because it's filled with
the deceased of the people who used to live here. Whereas the
training grounds all seem to be
vacated and emptied.
Whatever was in here would have had plenty
of time to get away.
As you guys are standing here
in this...
You've been here a while.
I'm going to roll the dice.
Nine! I'm going to roll the dice. Nine.
Nine.
What are you rolling the dice for?
Just so I know.
Oh, okay.
I'm running the game over here.
Nothing terrible happens.
That's what nine means.
I guess that's the question I meant to ask.
But you did have some unlucky rolls earlier
that set up potential catastrophes,
but none of them have happened yet.
Thank gosh.
Okay.
I mean,
panda self doesn't really want to go
where there's undead, but
we need to explore.
So we may have to
cross some undead.
Now, do you also remember
that they're attracted to sound. You could
simply try to stealth through there.
Though paladins, which would
be Leonard and
Darkstar, are not
notoriously good at stealth.
But, you know.
Can I roll
a stealth to see if I
can make up for their stealthiness?
Well, they also have to roll if you guys are going to try to sneak through.
I got a 15.
Let's hope that Darkstar does very well.
Yeah. Let's hope that Darkstar does very well.
What am I rolling?
A stealth.
A stealth.
Because she casts a zombie.
That would be easier.
You could always be like,
nah, we're just gonna fight them.
Paladin style
yeah is 17.
I almost got a 23.
Missed it by a whisker.
So Darkstar
and Wu are fairly
quiet as they tiptoe up the stairs.
Behind you, there's a
tapping of a cane
as Leonard has to
use his cane to help him get up the stairs. It is not quiet. There's a tapping of a cane as Leonard has to use his cane to help him get up the stairs.
It is not quiet.
There's a tap. There's a tap.
There's a tap.
But it sounds rhythmic
and almost natural and doesn't
seem to catch their
attention.
Though the sound echoes through
the chambers,
it sounds
like water dripping or crumbling stone and nothing that attracts the attention of the zombies.
As you guys make it up the stairs and through a hallway, you hear them and see them shambling about as you dart from doorway to doorway.
You make it to the watchtower's entrance door.
The door is open. You guys go up.
I don't think that zombies are good at ladders, so I think you guys are fine
as you go up the ladders into the...
Actually, let me roll a lockstay.
Just roll in to see how your life is.
Fourteen, the ladders are intact.
Lucky you.
Ugh.
They're old.
But they hold as you go up one at a time of their frail, you know, wooden decrepitness.
You go up to the first floor of this, the second floor.
You guys go up several
floors. Also, just like
remember, when you guys went back outside, you looked at the temple.
It didn't look that big.
And then you go back inside, and it's huge
again. You go through the servants' quarters,
you go up to the dining hall,
the main entrance. The main
hall had collapsed, and there's this
huge courtyard area and this tower.
You guys go up several floors that it just seems,
it just seems like it's way bigger in here than outside.
As you guys get to the top of this tower,
it's not like the top, top, like the roof, but like the top floor.
You guys can see out that you guys are several hundred feet in the air.
And the tower from the ground only looks like maybe a hundred.
Like even the dome on the ballroom looks like it's way bigger on the inside than the outside,
which is a little bit confusing.
But then as you're in here, like you you can see clearly see that from up here you like the ground looks way farther away than the tower did when you were down there uh
if that makes sense to you um which from your natural perspectives it doesn't it is some sort
of form of magic or trickery um on the buildings themselves
on the buildings themselves.
So, you guys go on the top floor of this tower.
You see that there was a battle that occurred here.
There was an adventurer.
They have died fairly recently.
I mean, more recent than the rest of the temple.
If you guys want to actually
take a guess at it, you'd have to probably
do a medical check or something. But he's
been here a while, but not
long enough to be dust like everything
else.
I rolled an investigation
and got
You can see that there
was a fight. There's another
dead zombie up here.
You can look at the scuffle. You can see
that someone,
he also pushed some of them out of the window,
was gravely injured
and then died here
after, like, he
won and then he died.
Like, he bled out here.
This room is filled with, like, the floor is soaked and, like, he died. Like, he bled out here. This room is filled with...
The floor is soaked, and the water has been dripping through the tower.
Everything in here has been damp and rot.
There's a bag.
Just a backpack filled with random items.
Shiny silver things laying here in a pool of water attached to this, you know, would-be adventurer who is now long past.
Shiny silver things laying here in a pool of water.
Are you there?
Me? Yes.
Okay.
Both of you. It sounds like robots. Um, so the backpack seems like it was the source of all of this, uh, flood. Well, magical items in it. Yeah, as you look in the backpack,
you can see that there was
a pitcher of water.
It just keeps pouring out. As you set it up
right, the water stops
to flow. The pitcher still appears
to be full, but it stops
to flow out. The floor
is still sopping wet.
It's still dripping down through the tower.
You see that this is... is still sopping wet, as you know, it's still dripping down through the tower. You
see that this is,
this area is filled,
has been plenty of water damage
over the years that it's been here.
area is filled with, like, algaes,
and there's even little crustaceans
and crabs. I guess
it would be, like, crayfish have eventually, like, moved in.
Or water bugs.
Probably not crayfish yet.
Maybe.
Hermit crabs?
Huh?
Hermit crabs?
No, it's because they would have had trouble getting up here in the tower, mostly.
But, like, there are, like, water bugs that can also fly and swim and stuff.
But, like, there are, like, water bugs that can also fly and swim and stuff.
This place is filled with, like, moss and algae and bugs because, you know, there was a dead body in here as well.
But this is where, like, the water is magical and fouled, technically, by these bodies up here.
And you find what is, you can add it to your
inventory, the decanter of endless
water, you find an amulet
and a ring of intellect
as well as a
staff of
lesser, like
oh, I forget what it is, but it's a staff
that does maximize on low level spells
I'll have to remember the name of it
What's up? You said it so fast staff that does Maximize on low-level spells. I'll have to remember the name of it.
What's up?
You said it so fast.
An amulet and a ring of what?
Intellect.
Yeah.
And then the decanter of endless water.
Yep.
And you said something
but I have a question.
The staff of Maximize. I think a question. The staff of Maximize.
I think it's a lesser staff of Maximize.
Staff of...
I'm taking notes.
Yeah, you just want to write down the magical items you find.
Now, these are all relatively mundane magical items.
Like, these are not super powerful relics.
Like, these were kept in the relicry for, you know, safekeeping and stuff,
but a decanter of endless water is something that is, a lot of people have these.
You know what I mean?
It's not something that's like, oh my god, you're going to topple a nation.
What's up, Son?
What's up, Son?
I rolled an arcana check to see if I could see any other magical stuff that was happening that we didn't get from the first investigation check.
Alright, so you're up here in this room, right?
I got a 24. Sorry if I didn't say that.
I wouldn't say that.
With a 24, you probably noticed that on a perch nearby,
there are, there's a crow who just seems to be very curious about what you're doing.
As far as, like, magical things in the room or things that you see,
that crow is the only thing that really stands out
to you.
Is this
crow sentient?
Are you trying to talk to it?
Yeah. I'm like, or we can have the mushroom
talk to it.
I'm going to say, why don't
you give me a persuasion
check as you try to
talk to the crow?
I got a 13.
The crow looks... I got a 23! The crow looks
at you, Wu. I assume
Darkstar is like, you know,
if you can speak, please speak, my
friend. And the crow
gives you a curious look.
You can tell that it
understands you.
I'm gonna roll
to see if he answers you.
Even if they're 23,
you're pretty convincing. You want
him to talk to you.
He just says you probably shouldn't be here.
Why?
Never seen anything like you before.
Well, then who's he to judge if we're meant to be there or not?
Things he's never seen before die pretty quickly
he's a scavenger
he's just like
you're not from around here are you
kind of
can he tell us how the body
we found died?
No, it's been here since before he was hatched.
Oh, so he was hatched here. Does he hatch before the flood or after the flood?
He doesn't know anything about a flood.
He lives on the top of a tower.
Though, talking to you guys and probably communicating with the mushrooms,
he would be able to determine, after a length of conversation,
that he was here before said flood.
Several seasons.
Did he ever notice an invisible person?
Did he ever notice an invisible person?
No, you are the first person he's ever seen.
He saw you in the woods recently, and he was watching you.
You almost died out front, which was interesting.
A big lizard almost ate you.
He saw it.
Does the mushroom
want to connect with
the crow? Or does the crow
want to connect with the mushroom?
I think that the crow is happy
being himself.
He also seems weary of getting strange boots.
I feel like Song has become a resident mushroom dealer.
Everywhere we go, she's spreading the love and the mycelial network.
But I think we could also tell the crow about...
Was he called Captain Cluckalot?
The chicken leader of the animals.
Just to let him know that there's others almost like him,
not necessarily crows, but other animals he might be interested in getting to know.
There's lots of crows like him.
He's not looking for friends.
He's a hermit crow.
In his statement there, he said there were lots of crows
like him.
He's not looking for more friends.
Okay, so he's not a hermit.
I think I lost you guys again.
Let me leave and come back
Oh no, you're here, I can hear
Oh, okay
What was I gonna say?
Oh, what's the crow's name?
Does he give us his name?
I don't know
The crows probably have names for each other.
Um, I don't know.
So the nameless crow.
His name is, uh, Sir Beek name is Sir Beekman.
Sir Beekman.
Okay.
So has he noticed anything unusual besides us passing through?
No, not that he's aware of.
I mean, of course, you would know that in his perspective
everything that here is normal right like as abnormal as this is this is his normal
so yeah he says everything's been the same for a long time.
Can we ask him if he or his friendly crow or his crow family knows him as an artifact?
A magical artifact.
A persuasion chick to try to get more information out of him.
He doesn't seem extraordinarily giving of information.
The fact that he even told you that there was more crows is something he kind of
let slip to you, but I also reiterated
it to you that that's what he said
because he misinterpreted it a little
bit right then.
He's not loose with information.
He's very much like, I want to know what
you know. I want to know all about you, but I'm not
telling you nothing.
Oh, that sounds like CIA.
No, can I?
I rolled a 14 for persuasion.
I mean,
he's basically like, even if I
knew something, why would I tell
you? Like, what's in it for me? What's in it
for them?
It's very apparent that he's like
this is a very transactional relationship if it's even a relationship and he wants to know
more about you but is kind of unwilling to give more about him or his people freely
i wrote a 20 does that make him more loquacious?
What were you trying to ask him?
I was asking him the same question that Song asked him.
So if they know about an artifact.
So if they know about an artifact.
Now, he would probably tell you that, you know, that's a very vague term.
And that they have lots of artifacts.
And you'd probably have to be more specific.
Okay.
Can he show us Where these artifacts are?
He seems good now
Sounds like a lot of work
Tough customer
Yeah
He's not like
able to do anything to you
but he definitely doesn't seem friendly
he's like can we bribe
him with something to be more open
oh yeah he's
definitely like you could pay me
he'll do whatever you want for money
he just doesn't
it's not just free
he's very much like what's in it for me every step of the way.
And you're like, can we talk to people?
Like what's in it for them?
They don't give a shit about you.
Because, because he's got this type of personality.
It makes me think that maybe I can deceive him or trick him into thinking I'll give him my gold statue for information, but I don't actually give him the statue.
That sounds terrible.
Sentient crows. That's how you do it.
I know crows like shiny things.
That's also what he would probably take, like,
coins or something in exchange. He'd also
take, you know, a lot of other things.
Food, shinies.
You're taking the water away, which, you know, as this room is drying up, as you guys are in here chatting for a little while.
You know, that's concerning.
So we can give him this decanter to tell us information.
I mean,
he probably is like that.
Yeah.
He understands that that's valuable.
He probably didn't really understand
what was going on until you guys picked it up.
Like, shiny stuff.
It's too big for him to carry, though.
It is like a full pitcher of water made of silver. like shiny stuff, you know, it's too big for him to carry though. Um,
like it is like a full picture,
pitcher of water,
like made of silver,
you know,
it's a silver pitcher filled with water.
It's too big for him to carry like,
Oh yeah,
that'd be great.
If I could use it.
Like it's basically,
if he uses it,
he gets to throw it back on the ground.
That's all the more he can do with it,
which again is preferred to you taking it but he wants he's probably not sold on that
He's like the stream helps everybody
Ignore the crow
and continue on.
Ignore the crow
and continue on.
You just wanted an extra look in here.
That's who's watching you. There's a crow.
He just kind of watches you.
You got the idea he's been watching you for days and all of the struggles you faced
he has never once been helpful
or can we ask him
how we could help him
if he shows us where these artifacts are.
Or what he'd like us,
or which,
like how he'd like us to help him.
Okay.
There's a bread cart.
It's all,
like,
town.
It's like,
I don't know,
days fly that way.
He points his wings,
you know,
to the north.
You guys know that that's where the farmers live
and that's where the things, and there's a bread cart.
He wants you to bring that bread cart
with all of the bread
to the temple.
He'll tell you anything you want to know.
But the bread...
Eat all the bread.
How is he going to be able to eat all that bread
before it molds?
He's got friends.
We'll throw a party.
Does he have any friends
that are more giving of information
without us having to drag a bread cart
and go back to everything?
He knew that was what he wanted. He was drag a bread cart to go back to where we came from. You knew that was what he wanted.
He was like, bread cart.
I got a dream.
Okay.
Can we convince him
that we'll bring him the bread cart
after we're done finding what we're looking for?
Are you going to bring him the bread cart?
Is this persuasion or deception?
I think deception
Okay, I'll roll both.
Whichever is higher is what it's
going to be. You're supposed to pick
one and then draw that one.
I got a 20
for deception because I already
wanted to deceive him with a gold.
Okay, and I got an
18 for persuasion.
I'm persuading him to believe the lie i guess so he believes you he's like oh red card it is um he's happy to tell you whatever you want to know in fact it'd probably be easier to make you
talk to somebody who who knows but like But what exactly are you looking for?
More big shinies, right?
We're looking for powerful magical artifact.
Or three.
Not just one.
Three.
I mean, you just found a bunch of them.
Yeah, but they're not that powerful.
For one characters, they're pretty powerful,
but for the grand scheme of things, no.
Well,
honestly
doesn't know.
After all, that's...
Now, what I said earlier is we should just ignore him and continue on.
Makes sense.
But he's sure there's something he can do to earn that bread.
He's sure of it.
He's going to have to do better than that if he wants his bread well I think you guys
realize that this crow
is basically just here to watch
your adventure for entertainment
addressed him so he uses
his abilities to antagonize you to the best of his abilities.
Um, he doesn't really have much of an agenda.
He's literally just the sentient crow that has nothing better to do with his life than to watch you.
Um, now, I guess you guys could give me, like, an insight check or a wisdom check,
since you did try to, like, glean as much information from this guy as you could.
Though, it was tough
because he's, you know,
not forthcoming.
I got a 20 for insight.
You can tell, like, when he said
there are other crows, like, there
is, like, a town
somewhere. Like, he was just very, like, oh yeah, there's lots crows. There is a town somewhere. He was just
very like, oh yeah, there's lots of us.
It was so casual
that you can tell that there are
lots and lots of sentient crows
out here.
So that
means, but crows are telepathic.
At least in the real world,
I think they are.
They communicate with one another, so one of them has to have heard about this artifact.
Well, your thing is, this is just one...
What you discerned from the conversation was the only thing useful you really figured out
was this is literally one guy from a whole from a town like they all might be
agitating buttholes or maybe just this guy you're not really sure uh but you did sense that there is
enough of these guys that it was just casual like why would you think that i don't have friends
like me like the fact that you found a chicken, that's...
Like, he probably doesn't even know what a chicken is, but another bird,
right? He's like, yeah, that's normal.
Like, you guys are the weird
things around here. Like,
you know.
He doesn't think it's weird
at all that he's sentient now
when he wasn't sentient before this
water issue.
Oh, you gathered that he was sentient now when he wasn't sentient before this water issue? Oh, you gathered that he was sentient long
before this. Oh.
Like, he is...
From what you gathered,
there's a whole community. He's
generations deep of sentience.
They gotta
know something.
Yeah, but he probably does.
I mean, this guy does.
He was happy to tell you anything he knew for bread and then he doesn't know anything useful
Where shall we continue on, Darkstar?
Well, you guys have, essentially, Leonard is happy that you have halted the flow of magical water into the local farmlands and water supply.
So, essentially, it's mission complete.
So, whatever you guys want to do from here, side quest
is done. You guys can go back to
hunting for the
legendary artifact that's hidden somewhere
far to the west. Or
whatever else. It's like you guys have pieced together
that there's
a fair chance that
the artifact is real, but
there's a very real chance that
they just use it to lure
adventurers to the island.
It's more of just like
we want you to come here with your money
and you buy weapons and pay our
smiths and income.
And if you die out there in the woods,
no loss
on our part for the most part.
I'm looking
at this map and I want to go to
the center of it where there's a vortex
of water.
I want to see what he's ever
returned from. That's great.
What?
Can you remember this mapsly?
She said from all accounts, nobody has
ever returned from here.
They had aerial flyovers from a long distance away to get a general idea of the landscape.
But yeah, nobody has ever gone there and has come back.
But we could be the first.
It makes sense that that's where the artifact
would be
I mean there's probably
lots of amazing and
expensive things down there
you also got warned about the river
which this river is interesting
because it doesn't flow from the center to the
ocean it flows from the ocean to the
center if you look that
whole river
is filled with corals and sunken
ships and all kinds of stuff.
And all of that debris
and stuff flows down into the center
of the island.
So the water actually flows from the ocean
into the middle and then
out through the bottom of the island.
Is the
center... Oh wait.
Nobody has ever returned.
So they don't really know.
But I'm wondering if it's a portal to another dimension.
I mean they don't know.
There's all kinds of stories there.
They do say like gates.
To underworld.
Some say like gates to.
Different planes of existence.
Some people just say it's a giant hole in the ground. It goes to the
Underdark somewhere.
Like, they know
the water goes somewhere.
They theorize about where the water
goes because the water flows inland
instead of outland.
So it goes somewhere. And people have come
with skyships and then flyovers
and stuff. But even if you get
too close,
apparently flying ships,
the weather is very erratic and the magical disturbances
are pretty severe.
So even flying ships in that area
is extraordinarily dangerous and difficult.
So the few scouting flyovers they've had
are, you know, incomplete.
Darkstar, what should we do?
Now, also to put this in perspective, guys,
each one of these squares
is about, or these hexagons,
is about 20 miles and
takes about a day to walk.
If it's, you know, normal travel.
If it's thick, underbrush underbrush or bad weather sometimes two days
um so as you guys already walked like i said 80 miles to get here
so it is also like oh we're just gonna go to this town way over here and you just get there. It's a long walk to anywhere.
There's a jungle with lots of mushrooms on the
west side of the map, too.
This is one of the
surfaces that if you
got to
Cardiff's gate,
the Aurora might be able to
drop you off at a
place, but then there is no
real way back unless
you have a scheduled pickup, which if you miss,
then you just don't have a way back.
But that would also be
extraordinarily expensive.
We could charter a ship to drop you off, like an airship, but extraordinarily expensive. Like,
we could charter a ship to drop you
off, like an airship, but
it would cost money.
I've got a big golden idol. Is that going to be a good enough
pay for getting a ride
somewhere?
I mean, it might be.
But it's 10 pounds.
I mean, that's like 500
gold coins worth. That's probably enough to get
dropped off anywhere in this southern section
like honestly where they would be able to drop you out for 500 gold you could probably walk to with relative safety
that's a rip off
I think
we should
ask the crow to show
like his village
or whatever the
his murder
and hopefully
we find a smarter
a more knowledgeable
sentient crow
among his murder.
And charismatic.
We want not only knowledgeable, but charismatic.
Willing to talk.
One that's just got the gift of gab.
Persuadable. Let's say persuadable,
not charismatic.
I will give me...
You talk to him. I guess give a persuasion
check on him introducing you to his friends.
Or his family.
Or what have you.
I'm waiting for it to load again.
It keeps logging me out. I don't know why.
Okay, hold on.
Persuasion.
I got a 20.
What, what, what?
I got a 7.
Not very persu decisive today.
He would love
to, but he probably
tells you that he would already be in trouble.
He's not supposed to talk to...
Well, I guess you're not humans, right?
No, I'm a panda bear.
He's not
supposed to talk to humans, but you guys aren't
humans. Maybe it's okay.
Um...
He looks at
Darkstar probably
a little bit more like, I don't know, you look
a little bit too much like a human.
Like, you're not
exactly a human,
but you look a lot like one.
He probably thinks that it would be better if Darkstar didn't go.
And that if you took off your clothes.
Whose clothes? Mine?
He wants Darkstar to get rid of his armor?
No, he wants Woo and Leonard to take off your clothes, and Darkstar, like, Darkstar, he's like, I just can't take you.
You look too much like a human.
These two, if they need to take off their clothes, then I can probably take them.
I'm gonna feel naked without my robe.
Well, you don't have to do what he says,
but he's just like,
this is the only way I can take you to my town.
Like they are like,
I already broke the rules pretty much.
Not easily persuadable.
I got a 20 though.
Well, you persuaded him.
He's just like,
I'm not gonna,
he's like,
I'll do it.
If you don't get me in trouble.
Like I'm pretty sure
they're going to be mad.
I don't go anywhere
without Darkstar
because Darkstar is really good at battling.
I'm not.
You realize
it's against the law of his people
to talk to humans.
The fact that he talked to Darkstar, he feels like he's already broken the law. his people to talk to humans so like the fact that he talked
to dark star he feels like he's already broken the law he's gonna get in trouble
and he's just like well i'll take you guys but i'm not just gonna turn myself into the po-po
like
like dark star gotta stay here Just talking to him is a crime. So, talking to the Crows
seems like it's gonna separate.
It's gonna... How do I say this?
It doesn't seem like
it's good for our party to split up.
I agree.
But yeah, I mean, he was willing to.
Like I said, he just...
His people, he's not allowed to talk to humans
Dark Star looks a lot like a human
Maybe even turn into something else
You know, sometimes the crows
Turn into people and they go into town
And they play jokes and stuff
Can you turn into a crow?
I can't turn into a crow
Dark Star
Let me roll a deception check I can't turn into a crow. Start, start.
Let me roll a deception check and see if I can get him to believe me.
So he expects you to turn into a crow so you can go to his town.
No, the deception was that I would before we got there, but not that I'd do it right now.
That's why it was a deception.
You will turn into a crawler.
You can and you'll get there.
He'll roll a save on that.
What does he think?
He got a two.
He's like, oh, sure, no problem.
He probably says, meet me at the base of the tower.
And flutters out the window.
So now we have to go down all those stairs.
Yep.
Oh, you also have to sneak past all those zombies again.
Give me a still.
Okay.
Unless you guys want to rappel out the window or something.
I mean,
could do that.
I got a 21
for stealth.
Okay.
This time Leonard got an 11.
Down the stairs, it's easier than up them.
And my stealth is This time Leonard got an 11. Down the stairs, it's easier than up them. And I still
So you guys
help Leonard up and down
the stairs, his 300-year-old
turtle self. Keeps him quiet.
You guys get
through this area where there's some
of the zombies just kind of meandering around.
Back down out the other side and out front, there is a crow sitting on a perch.
Just kind of waiting for you as you guys approach.
He kind of just gives you like a wave with his wing and flies off to the next tree that's like 100 feet down and sits and waits.
He flies faster than you guys
walk, especially since like you
have to, you know,
climb over. There's not a path
the way he goes, you know.
He's just like, it's this way! No concern
for what's on the ground
between you
and him.
So, you know, you guys slowly traverse this place as he takes you southward from the temple.
Does a 28 with a nature check help any?
What are you trying to do do just to navigate through this
yeah more quickly
to keep up with the crow so
just the fact that he flies over the
brush and boulders and things here
it's nearly impossible
to keep up with him like even if you
are even skilled moving
through this area dexterous
he just flies faster
than you do. Your move speed is like 30,
his is like 120.
He just flies ahead and kind of sits
and waits for you and flies ahead
and sits and waits for you.
kind of seems annoyed that you guys are so
slow. He insists that you should just all
turn into birds and fly with him if you can.
We'd save so much time.
I can't turn into a bird.
So he's going to have to learn some patience in his young years.
Okay.
So as you guys are going,
I'm going to say that he does warn you that something is following you guys.
And that you guys should get ready to fight or fly away or whatever it is you do.
You should fly away if you can.
That's what he tells you.
So what does you do when he says Something's gonna try to eat you
You should fly away
Well I can't fly away like I said
And we should probably
It's supposed to be you
He flies away
We should probably
check the area
or is he trying to trick us
oh no not
too long after you guys after the
crow is like I'll be careful like there's something
like he even was like it's behind us it's coming
up like it's following us
points it out to you you guys look over
in that direction and you
can see what is, again,
a large predator.
There are big lizards here. What else? Owl bears are fun.
And they're mean and territorial.
And was never an issue for the crow because he just flies up to this area
you know
this large
predator has like grizzly bear
claws and the beak of an owl
the body of the bear
comes out of the forest behind you.
Just kind of at a jog, heading straight for you.
I rolled a 20 for perception. How far is it?
I would say it's like 120 feet.
Okay.
The crow told you from a good distance away.
I'll even say, let's say it's 200 feet away.
The crow saw it and was flying around.
It was like, oh, you guys should fly away.
Okay.
It's too far for any of my strikes, so...
I mean, you can hold action until it's within range.
I'm just saying that it is
if that's too far for anybody
then it's just running towards you
like it is not
we should try
to avoid it
attacking us
I mean you can do a nature check if you want
or history if you want
stories you may have heard about owlbears.
It's an owlbear.
Yes.
Give me a second, it's loading again.
I don't know why it keeps doing this.
It might be my service.
Yeah.
Got the face of an owl, the body of a bear.
I prepare a firebolt.
I got a 23 nature.
23 nature.
You know about owls.
They are aggressive,
territorial apex predators.
Even if it wasn't hungry, it will try to kill you
just because you're in its territory.
Anything that's bigger than a dog is considered a threat
and or food, and it kills it.
Oh, fuck. We need to get out of this.
My hold action is a firebolt, which will hit it at 120 feet.
I rolled 19 to hit and 24 for damage.
All right. As your 24 hits, you hit it.
It screeches and runs off.
That's a lot of damage is this big predator.
You know, level 1, level 2
might have eaten those guys.
You are just like,
not today.
The power of the sun
flows through you
and hits this thing
and then it just turns around.
It's like, nope, nope, not that.
It's hungry, not suicidal.
Or territorial, not suicidal.
It's still an animal.
You did more than half of its hit points.
It is bloodied and scared
and runs away.
See, it's good to have a high-level paladin with you.
Right?
Eventually, he's gonna
separate. He's gonna
protect me.
Because I can't do much with
my daggers.
Yeah.
The crow
doesn't get far
before he sees you scare off the owlbear.
And of course,
he's impressed by your power,
but also
is a little scared about,
you know,
you won't blow anything up in his town, right?
They will be so mad at me
if I take you there.
Is it safe to say he's, like, a teenage crow?
Yeah, you get that he's not, like, fully...
He's definitely, if not a teenager, recklessly irresponsible still.
Like, you got the idea that he's definitely a criminal amongst his people because he he's not allowed to talk to you even like like
the humans dark star he looks like human like you he might have got away with
you're wearing clothes so he really shouldn't have like he was intrigued
because you're not humans but you're also more human life than you know he's
like I don't know.
They didn't say he wasn't allowed to talk to pandas, right?
Like, it's definitely... He definitely has been like, no, you're not supposed to.
But he did it anyway, because it wasn't rules as written.
You know what I mean?
So... As you guys get closer, he insists you guys stash your gear somewhere uh and that dark star now turns into a bird um you get you get the idea that you're getting close to
live or where he's afraid they'll start seeing you at least. How far away are we from his murder?
You guys move so slow, I have no idea.
I don't want to stash my gear.
What happens if the crows attack us?
I need to be able to defend myself.
Well, he obviously
doesn't...
He...
What if they attack? He's like, well...
He can't really guarantee that they won't.
He's like, ah!
I'm not gonna stash my
gear, little birdie. Sorry, buddy.
Okay.
I cast
a minor illusion
on the crow
that makes him think
that song has stashed her gear
and I have turned into a crow.
A minor illusion
that everybody can
see and see if they believe it or not.
I don't think that it's powerful enough for that.
I think at this point, the crow realizes he's been deceived because you don't turn into a bird.
And he will tell you that he's going to go home.
And he will tell you that he's going to go home.
If you want to approach the village on your own,
he points you, it's a little bit farther this way,
and points down to the south there,
where you'll just go...
Oh, hold on. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
My bad. I had a spell I forgot.
There's a spell I have called Alterar Self, which can shape change.
So you can turn into a big bird.
Yeah.
You might be able to change into what would be a small creature, which is still a large bird.
You're like still like two or three foot tall.
like
still like two or three
foot tall. So you're like a goose
or a crane or something
at best.
What about a black swan?
Or I could turn into a griffin.
It's still a bird and it's big.
Griffin's not a bird though.
It's a lion bird.
Oh, there is a bird that is a Griffin, isn't there?
There's also the mythical animal.
Yeah.
The mythical animal is the first one that came to my brain.
Okay, you pick which.
Because as long as I'm an animal, I should be...
Yeah, well, that's the thing.
I should be good with the rules.
It doesn't seem like he'll be... He doesn't care. He's turned into an animal, I should be... Yeah, well, that's the thing. I should be good with the rules. It doesn't seem like he'll be as...
He doesn't care. He'll just turn into an animal.
And that's also like, you know,
you could give your gear to
Darkstar potentially to carry
before he turns into an animal
and it just kind of hides it on him.
Okay.
Like, it's how that magic effectively works.
As long as you don't mind taking him, you know, giving them all your gear.
The crow is just worried about taking outsiders to the village and outsiders that look like humans or act like humans.
You know.
Humans are bad.
Well, I can, I trust Darkstar.
He's not gonna rob me.
So. Well, I can, I trust Darkstar. He's not gonna rob me. So, I'll give him my gear.
I'm not, I'm still not sure about this whole disrobing thing.
I think Leonard is fine to just, you know, do it.
300 years of experience, you know, when in Rome.
Man. years of experience, you know, when in Rome Oh Man
Stretch
Goes for a walk
I also don't know
He has a whole lot other than his top hat
and his cane, honestly
He takes off his bow tie
Honestly He takes off his bow tie Honestly Leonard doesn't wear that many clothes to begin with
How attached is this crow to me disrobing?
It would make it
He just basically would be a lot easier for everybody
He thinks it's a good idea
I'm gonna roll to decide He just basically would be a lot easier for everybody. He thinks it's a good idea.
I'm going to roll to decide.
1 through 10, it's a no.
10 through 20, it's a yes.
Got a 19.
You get naked.
Oh, man.
It's been a long time since I've taken these robes off.
You never think of a dark star who turns into a large bird.
We'll say a swan. You know,'s bigger than the crow because you can only go down
one size
in character
size. So from medium to small
these creatures are diminutive
which is below small.
A crow would be.
So you're
bigger than they are but you're still a bird
and you can waddle your way in with everybody or you're even fly as a bird.
Um, most birds can fly anyway, unless you became a penguin, which I don't know why you'd do that, but you could.
Um, but yeah, you guys get closer.
closer you see that the trees themselves are all still alive um but there are you start seeing more
You see that the trees themselves are all still alive.
and more crows as you get closer and their nests are larger and more ornate than most nests like
they have and instead of just like having under nests they have like roofs or shelters built over
the tops of their nests as well uh to help keep them dry and safe during storms and stuff.
They're still constructed the same way birds' nests would be constructed,
but the shapes of them are different,
to be more inclusive, to keep them safe on more sides.
Also, your perceptions and your nature is fairly high. Most of them are fairly
well hidden. You're sure that you're seeing a couple of them, but you're sure you've passed
more than you've seen as far as the birds still pretty seamlessly blend in with nature.
And then as you guys get close, there's a large tree that kind of has a clearing area.
And the crow just kind of goes out and sits on the branch and does a normal crow call.
He tells you guys that you're here, that this is his village.
And that he's asking people to come talk to you.
A couple larger crows do fly down.
One flies to a lower branch of the nearby tree,
and its voice is...
It sounds like it speaks with a lot of wisdom,
but it still comes from a smaller creature.
It has a speedy, higher tone
to it. So even though it's, like,
reprimandingly, and, like,
it's deep for, like, what the crows
would be, as far as the crows'
voices go, it still sounds
relatively high-pitched,
and it's just talking to the
crow that brought you in here, and it's like,
how dare you bring outsiders here?
You know the dangers
um he says but they're not humans uh and he begins to defend himself that you know they're
not humans and the rules say not how to talk to humans um as the crow begins to look over you he
He waves his wing and is going to do a dispel a dark star back into an elf.
Deceptions.
And he looks at you, and he clearly can tell that you're not human, but you are a human kin, and your kind are not welcome here.
But they want to know what lies and deceit.
What is it that you, you know, why do you bring lies and deceit?
What is it that you seek to gain from us?
Not once have they ever spoken to a human that did not have greed in their heart.
What do you want?
We basically want to know if they have knowledge
artifacts
we wish them no harm.
We don't come with lies and deceit.
We just changed our appearance
so they could realize we're not a threat.
Because we're not a threat to anything that is not evil.
We are not a threat to anything that is not evil.
He sees you speaking that you feel like true.
He still believes that, you know, coming in here under a false shape was deceitful,
but he may not have seen you otherwise.
He still does not want to give you information.
He's generally
just like you should. You should have been
brought here. You shouldn't be here.
I don't want to help you.
You've been
nice.
You've conveyed
what you want.
He tells you that they will not aid
you in your quests
for power and conquest
and that
you should go back to where
you came from.
Can I say
something to the crow?
That's very authoritative.
Yeah, he's
friendly.
Also, when you persuaded
him, it kind of went from i think we should kill these
people to i think you should leave can can i at least tell him that we're not here for conquest
we're here to protect for everybody's highest good and we heard that there was an artifact that is extremely powerful. And
if it gets into the wrong hands, it can cause a lot of problems for everybody. And I would so
graciously be grateful if he could just help us a little bit. And I apologize for my companion who deceived.
He was just trying to do his best so that it was easier for us to communicate.
Well, the crow who seems just racist against humans,
there's really no other way to put it.
It's just like it's in his nature to lie and deceive. You know, no, nothing we can do about that. Um, you imitating them is concerning,
but you're a bear. Magic did not take away your form, which was, you know, he tells you
was kind of surprising to him. Um, he expected more lies than were uncovered.
So, that probably...
But yeah, still, he's just like,
yeah, wrong hands.
You know, that could be you, for all I know.
Not helping.
These crows just seem like a waste
of our time.
They do seem generally like they don't like you.
What did I do as a panda bear for crows to not like us?
Just because I speak and wear clothes like a human?
Yeah, well, you get the idea that they don't like humans.
Whatever is their whole shtick that they don't like humans whatever is their whole stick is they don't like humans
When you also got the idea from the from one of the crows that these a lot of these crows have magical abilities to change shapes
and to do things and that they do sometimes interact with humans, but never in a
never in a way that
Never in a way that is seems to be positive
seems to be positive.
But yeah, they want you to leave.
They are not happy
you visited.
You can likely see your way out
or they have their
young companion
help you see your way out
and suggest that he
find a new place to nest if this kind of behavior is going to continue
is there any what can i roll to change these hard-headed crows mind because i don't want to attack them that probably won't help give us any
information i mean words are words are just words you know what i mean like sometimes you can't
use them to get your your goal done like some people just can't be reasoned with in a fashion
you know went away these people were unreasonable enough they wanted to kill you a few minutes ago,
and then you were like, hey, hold on.
We don't want that.
You don't want that, really, do you?
And they're like, I guess not.
Get the hell out of here.
And now you're like, well, can we be less, you know, hostile?
And they're just kind of like, no, no, you're too close to human.
We don't trust you.
Now, you do know that from handling people in the world and in general,
everybody has something they want or something they fear.
It seems like these people fear, these crows fear humans.
Like, they're afraid of them.
The fact that you are akin to one is frightening to them.
You are the monster in the night, you know what I mean?
Mm-hmm.
And now you're trying to make a deal with them,
And they're just like, no, we don't make deals with monsters.
and they're just like, no, we don't make deals with monsters.
OK, I tried an Insights, and I rolled a 24.
So would that help me find a way to persuade them,
but to figure out how we can get what we want from them?
to figure out how we can get what we want from them.
I mean, looking around at his demeanor,
your insight gives you the fact that he is fearful for his people.
He fears that you could harm them physically, you know, with magics.
You could destroy their homes and their well-beings like you also get the idea that starvation is always you know
forefront as these sentient crows begin to have more concern with each other and
like how the population grows and where does food come from they don't really
have the means to manufacture farmland.
You know what I mean?
They don't have the ability to grow and manufacture food stocks, but they're starting a society or a tribe that is purely stuck in hunter-gatherer,
not because they don't have the intellect to move forward,
but because they don't have the thumbs to move forward.
And they're fearful of humans who have you know in the past you can only assume
done things that would
seem bad
to crows
I think I figured
this out so
what I do
is I
tell them the story
of the animal human war is I tell them the story of
the animal-human war
in the village you passed
days back now
I let them know
that if they do
assist us
how we will repay their
favor is
on our way back we'll talk to some of the animals, not the humans, because they're afraid of humans,
and probably get some of the horses and draft animals to be bringing them like a wagon of bread every so often to help with their growing population.
So it's kind of a bribe, but cloaked in diplomacy.
And we owe the crow a wagon of bread anyway.
Precisely.
Does that work james
well give me a diplomacy
you will uh
find out
as they tell you to leave and you
one more plea with their leader
okay Juan Wu is rolling all kinds of dice. What does
I get?
Sorry, I was just playing.
I did a charisma
because I couldn't find diplomacy
and I got a 21 for charisma.
Okay.
Yeah, I think on here it's persuasion.
Sorry, I just said the wrong words.
But that's still pretty good.
So you look around,
you see what they need.
They're afraid of people.
They need food.
This crow was obviously like i do i'll work
for food i'll do stuff for food um the elder is looks at you and as you can tell he's an older crow
as concerned that you you know you won't keep your word to to him Because again, you're human kin. You are prone to deception and lies.
He probably looks at the panda and at the turtle
and says, but I would trust the two of you
to swear upon it,
that you would fulfill your oath as such.
And, you know,
this is a very serious matter.
You know, it's protection of his people.
He's keeping everybody safe.
But your oath to
to make
to bring food and supplies
to aid to his people.
Now, there is no wagon.
There's no way to get a wagon here. There is no wagon. There's no way to get a wagon
here. There's no trails. There's no
anything like that. The Crow
is old and wise enough to know that
even bringing stuff here would
be difficult. He
says that the murder
will arrive
and basically gives
a moon position
when it's here
at the town's edge.
Each month we will return
and we'll expect your company.
That also gives him the ability
not to tell everybody in town
where their village is,
which he does not want.
He doesn't want you to tell people where they live,
but he will come to you for food and supplies.
Now, you want artifacts,
much like the younger Crow said.
You need to be more specific about the powers you seek,
and he will find out information,
and he will deliver you.
Deliver to you on the first payment is made.
I rolled a 20 persuasion to let him know that I will hold and honor this deal.
Oh, he knows you will.
As he asks you to come over and kneel and accept the oath that you will as he asks you to come over
and kneel and accept the oath
that you will fulfill it
as tended
and as you do so
you feel magic wash over you
and you have
what an arcane mark appears
on you
where you have a small spot
of what would be probably like
greenish tinted fur.
It's probably very simple.
Maybe it's a black spot,
like a black feather.
It's crows.
He just branded me because of my oath?
Yep.
Dang.
He didn't tell me he was gonna brand me.
I mean, it was painless,
but you accepted the oath
and bound by
magic.
He expects Leonard to do the same,
which Leonard speaks what he
intends to do and
accepts it. Leonard being
300 years old, maybe
remembers it, maybe he doesn't. He's gonna
do an Arcana check before he gets it all
on him. Yeah, he's been around
a long time. With 14, I'll give it.
You also see it.
I got a 26 Arcana check.
Well, basically
this is an oath bind. This guy
has the powers of
a High Cleric
or a Master Paladin and has just bound you with a what's a holy oath.
Like if you break it, you will be cursed.
What happens if he breaks it?
All he's going to do is show up and eat and tell you what he's done.
you what he's done.
Yeah, he's supposed to give us information.
Yeah, I was like, yeah, he's supposed to give us information.
He probably would
see if, I mean, he would
willingly be bound by oath as well.
I don't think he can cast it on himself
though.
And I don't have
the power to do that to him.
The fact
that he has the power to do
this would also indicate that he has the power to do this would also indicate that he has, like, divine power flows through him, right?
Which means that he is either extraordinarily evil, or that he is righteously minded and doing what he truly feels right for his people.
Can I do an insight check to see if he's evil?
You sure can.
You probably should have done that before you had an oath made, but...
Well, I'm a little reckless right now.
It doesn't tell me anything.
I got a four.
Yeah, you don't really know.
These crows are hard to read.
Now, paladins,
as far as Leonard and Darkstar are concerned,
have the ability to just sense good and evil.
These crows are not inherently evil.
And by that, I mean they're not trying to destroy the fabric of the universe.
They don't actively sacrifice people to demons or devils.
They don't read as evil.
Now, as far as what you would perceive as detrimental to your society possibly like their
society is not your society uh and you're even a foreigner you could be considered detrimental to
society you know what i mean it's depending on whose perspective it is uh and what aspect they're
trying to read it through these crows who are clearly fearful of humans, they are not good nor evil.
They are just crows who want to survive and they want to do what is right for their family and their clan.
Now, keeping themselves alive could align with other people, but as history has so far, it has not.
They've always been in opposition to other people.
The humans clear the forest.
The humans, you know, get rid of this
and get rid of that. They kill the bugs.
They make it harder for the crows
to live day after day.
What's up, Song?
I rolled a religion check
to see if I can learn more
about his powers.
I got a 20.
Well, you know religion in and of itself creates power.
Gods and belief in the structure,
just the structure of belief and the power of will in this world
has the ability to start to reshape reality.
You know that this cleric has a fairly large flock of people who believe in him, you know,
maybe pun intended there, I don't know, people who believe in him and his powers, that if he is not directly attuned to a divinity of some sort,
which he may be, he also could have manifested this power through social structuring and people's
belief in him and the power he would wield. As far as this religion goes, they don't clearly identify
to a god that you can recognize,
but they do seem to have very ritualistic structures to their society,
which would indicate that they are guided by some presence
and some manner of being here that was an outside influence.
was an outside influence um like they definitely have some indications of of like they've been
influenced by other religions or the other things presence but it's more like they've observed and
mimicked things and it's still kind of like a compilation of their own beliefs. These crows have not, like,
copy-pasted any religion
that you can identify,
but you can definitely see
where they have mimicked
certain types of structures.
They've mimicked certain types of, like,
I'm going to say religious,
but it's more like ritualistic behaviors.
Like, you can see that there are perches that are all set up at certain angles and in, like, semi-circles around certain areas in the glade.
These things aren't natural formation.
These things are created, though they grew from natural things, they were shaped and formed through the intent of these people. And as you
look around and look closer at the trees, all of the trees have been shaped and twisted and turned
and where they hold the nests better. They have, you know, extra knots in the trees. They've got
extra overhangs in the branches. These crows take the time to shape the trees
as they grow to make these homes
make them more suitable for homes.
There are birds and they could fly
away, but it would
take them... You'd say that they've
been living here for over a century.
Some of these trees are very old
and shaped.
This civilization is not new.
Like, this civilization has been here a long time.
Well, them being wary of humans is smart.
And it's probably why they've existed for so long.
I did a history check and And I got a 25.
To find out if he's.
The first leader.
Like how old he is.
Or if he's been.
His gifts have been passed on to him.
By somebody. Elder than him.
Like how he came into power.
Well as you guys.
Have made an exchange.
Of food for
information, you begin to
ask him for more information.
probably reminds you that
there was an agreement
to be made for information,
but he will act on good faith.
He tells you he is not the
first of his line. he is one of many uh generations of generations um
you know they they don't really have written records but they have spoken word uh he knows
of at least five you know grandfathers back um who had still roosted here and he's sure it was long before that the his
people are here they've been here for a long time every time that there are you
know they're basically their largest struggle is the famine and confrontations with other factions and forests and growing civilizations.
He's happy to tell, like, not happy to tell you, but willing to tell you that he wasn't the first.
And he considers that gift of information about his people as As an act of good faith.
On his behalf of this agreement.
I thank him graciously.
Yeah well.
And if you guys hold your word.
Which he's sure. Go get that bread.
Because I don't want to curse.
Oh and. before we leave uh i cast a zone of truth
so that he can this leader of crows can see that whatever i told him before is actually true and
we we are a party that keeps our word and we are a party
that keeps our word and we do not
seek domination.
Well, identifying
your power and your ability
to, you know,
eliminate lies from
the world,
he definitely guarantees you
some favor in
his eyes, but you still, you know,
you can't just erase
generations of
dislike.
Even if you're not human, you're too close to human
for him to be comfortable around you.
He appreciates your effort
and hopes that you can help
keep the true humans in line
is, you know,
they've been very destructive.
And you guys,
he will find information.
Again, you're just looking for powerful magic, right?
Anything that's...
Because he wants, like, again,
he wants to uphold his part of the deal
what is it exactly you're looking for other than just powerful artifacts
meaning that is not easily found and that a lot of people are looking for it and we ask for him to
uh how do i say this like other members of his murder, like when they're out
and about just to like observe and find information and if possible report to us every time we
bring them bread.
So you wish for his people to be spies for you?
Yes, and also if they find the whereabouts of magical items,
we want that information too.
Well, you know, spies are paid together with information,
and that's the information you're gathering.
gathering.
He says
that whispers
in the wind have
already told him that you
possess the
stream's source.
Is this true?
Of course it's true.
I don't lie. I'm a good
panda bear.
He says that many here will suffer
without the stream and its source.
I will give them the decanter.
And for everybody, mostly his people,
but people beyond as well, will suffer.
I will gladly give
him this
decanter of everlasting
water.
This, to him, seems
almost unbelievable,
but ultimately
his goal, he expected this to be a much more difficult
conversation,
honestly. He was like,
I don't like you.
Can you give me something?
Like,
since you guys have the conversations
and you begin to build this,
you'll give him that.
extraordinarily grateful for this
gift. He has
you basically place it upside down
somewhere nearby.
He says that
they can keep it, you know,
there. It doesn't even matter
to him that the stream will be in a different place,
just that the stream still exists. In fact,
having it here in his territory,
you realize, gives him
kind of a leg up on like territory and disputes.
Like animals fight for territory and the territory near the water is the most
valuable.
You literally just moved the stream and gave him prime real estate.
So he'll,
he'll very,
how do I,
Oh my God,
I'm English.
He'll do really well in finding us the information we seek.
You definitely see that there's a shift in his demeanor as your kindness is going to help his people a great deal.
Food is grateful, but this water will bring food, even if you fail.
bring food, like, even if you fail.
Like, even if you guys are
lying poops that get cursed
to suffrage,
we will have water, and water
and food. Water brings food,
and we'll do better than we had been.
At this point, he wishes
you well on succeeding instead
of, you know,
we'll see how this goes.
How many
uh, so there's oath I probably should We'll see how this goes. How many...
So this oath I probably should ask before I swore it.
How long does it have to be honored for before it can be lifted so I won't get cursed?
Well, he can lift it at any time so like at a meeting if you're like i'd like to stop
he would release you from it at this point it's more of like an insurance thing that like you're
going to do it at least once um but like you can also go to another higher level like a higher
level paladin or cleric somewhere in the city, and they could also remove it. You just need somebody of a strong enough power or ability.
Now, like I said, you either have to be very powerful,
generally in the good sense,
or very powerful in the evil sense.
Or, like, you know, there are neutral factions as well,
but very powerful magics.
So you just have to find somebody of equal or greater
magical power to remove
it. Chances of finding
a good guy that are willing
basically comes down to finding
a church, you know. Finding a
bad guy that'd be willing to remove one of these
is way
nastier. Yeah, I don't want
to go near the evil people.
To get rid of one oath
bound curse to
take on a worse thing? No, thank you.
Yeah. Well, yeah,
the oath is to, uh...
I have no problem going to get
this guy some bread. Or his
town some bread.
Oh, and James,
I wanted to ask,
what was the artifacts
called that dranced
almost like godlike powers to somebody?
I forget.
Okay, whatever it's called,
we call it the godlike powers
kind of artifact.
We remind the crow to be on the lookout for that one as well.
If there is any such thing on the island.
Give him a name or word specifically to look out for.
That definitely makes his job easier.
Now, you guys just heard
rumors, and it was just in the
newspaper. Everybody in town
is talking about
the artifacts that the
Artificers Guild is looking for.
So, they'll
definitely hear stuff about it.
You know what I mean?
But organizing that
information
would be difficult.
You do realize that, like, if you're just like,
oh, if you hear anybody talking about this,
like, it was the headline of the newspaper,
you know what I mean, a couple weeks ago.
So, at this point, it's a little bit out of the headlines,
but it's still very popular.
I'm wondering if we can also have the murder of crows keep a lookout for the invisible person.
Good idea.
Oh, there you are, James.
As far as invisible people, they won't see them, but they'll let you know if they hear anything.
But he's got magic powers. He should be able to detect that.
Yeah, he can't stand
the whole forest.
Like,
this, um,
again, the crows aren't like your friends
still. They're like, yeah, we're not enemies, but
well, not friends still.
Um, more like business
partners at best.
Um, They do like
that you gave them the water. They're friendly.
They're trying.
They're putting forth effort, but you still
realize that they're still
very resistant to
this relationship.
They're putting in some effort. They agreed to look for information oh sorry off the top
of my head can't remember what the name of that artifact was i know as the storyteller
i should remember these things but oops so before we go get them some bread
can we ask them
if there's anything else they would like us to do
for them before we leave
just as more of a show of good faith
another show of good faith in our part
they honestly don't know
they don't like
to imitate humans or anything, so they don't
want any of that kind of stuff.
The only thing they like from the humans
is the bread.
Do they like other
food besides bread?
They do. I mean, crows will eat a lot
of stuff. They eat fruits and vegetables
and meats.
They're omnivorous.
They'll eat whatever. And that's the
only thing. That's what the young crow
wanted was bread. So it comes
up that they would eat bread, but
they'd eat about anything.
Are they
open? Is the
leader open to us bringing
a cart that has more than just bread
on it?
Yeah. And like I said, you you guys are gonna meet him at the edge of town um like they wanted to do like
you know weekly monthly exchanges whatever it is you guys whatever frequency it is you guys
needed information they could use exchanges for food
has someone offered them any
mushroom
magic yet?
I offered the teenager one,
but he didn't want any, so maybe
we should offer the leader.
I think that
he has, you know,
telepathic conversations with it,
but they're not going to
meld and become one.
They both have, you know,
respect for each other's existence,
but they don't want to be
more of the same being.
Which is
essentially,
you are
connected to
the hive mind creature to like directly,
like it lives within you to some extent.
Now,
the weird part about that is,
is you don't technically need to be alive for it to live within you.
The fact that you are alive allows it to like talk to you and communicate with
The fact that you are alive allows it to talk to you and communicate with you.
you.
Is the crow willing to plant some mushrooms for us?
I think that there would probably, again, it's a society of people here,
though the leader makes all of the top-down decisions.
You guys were probably dismissed from the center there
relatively quickly,
though that doesn't mean you don't have crows
that are following you and watching you
or other crows that you can't talk to along the way.
All of them kind of fearful and curious,
hopeful that you'll be bringing food back. All of them kind of fearful and curious hopeful
You know that this you'll be bringing food back
Or that they'll be meeting you to eat food somewhere
Yeah, the elder crow probably gets fed up with you fairly quickly
not He's grateful for the water. he's happy that you guys didn't all
have a fight and a bunch of his
friends die
he's still old and
grumpy and
wants you to do, be on your way
with whatever it is you're doing here
perhaps
even towards the goal of getting
them what they wanted
it's
basically like you don't have to go home but you can't stay here kind of vibe
with the elder as he's like alright I'm done talking to you but as you notice
there are lots of crows in this part of the forest and most all of them seem to
be sentient if not all of them seem to be sentient. If not all of them.
That's hard to tell.
James, is there a game to hunt nearby?
Because I'm thinking if there is, we could hunt down some big game,
throw some meat for ourselves,
and leave the rest for the
crows as another offer of good
food. You can eat the meat.
I'm not going to eat the meat.
I will eat some mushrooms.
Not the ones that I'm
carrying, no.
There is, it is a very
dense and vast wilderness.
As you begin to look for
tracks or stuff, give me a survival
check so you see how good you are at
tracking food.
It's out here, but can you find
it? Is a whole other question.
I did a nature
check for mushrooms and
got a 28.
There's lots of mushrooms
to be foraged when you know where you
to look, you know, under some
logs and leaf brush and
things like that. Eatin' them up!
I got a 10 on my survival check.
You see
that there are deer tracks.
You don't know how old they are.
You're honestly, like, they go both directions. You don't know how old they are. You're honestly...
They go both directions. You don't know which ones
are newer.
Yeah, you know they're out here.
But you don't know where they're at.
Okay, I guess I'm sharing mushrooms
with some.
Alright. I got plenty. Okay, I guess I'm sharing mushrooms with some. All right.
I got plenty.
You guys head from the crow's town.
They were, it is actually getting closer to dark.
You guys walked through the forest quite a ways to the southeast.
Which way do you guys walk as you leave the
crows encampment?
Wherever the bread is.
So you guys walk out of the crows camp
for a little ways to the north.
The sun begins to set.
I imagine you guys set up camp and you're gonna
try to rest for the night just let everybody get their magic spells back and uh restore a few hit
points if you're injured night goes well you know you guys take some shifts on watch
or actually the mushrooms probably are also very helpful in that aspect.
the thunder rises, and you guys
continue your path northward.
And we roll the dice to see what happens
as we walk.
Great fail! You guys, something terrible happens. We roll the dice to see what happens as we walk. Great.
You guys, something terrible
happens.
Give me a minute to figure out what it is.
Say that again?
Something terrible happens to do what?
I said, give me a minute to figure out what it is.
Oh, no.
I don't plan
these things ahead of time. I just roll dice
and then try to
interpret them.
So, I'm going to say humans,
other adventurers,
have followed you
into the woods, to the temple,
and to here,
and they don't look friendly.
They also don't look.
They definitely look human.
Which you guys are not that far from where the crows live.
You know that they will be.
Very upset.
If these humans get to their town.
We need to kill them all.
I'm not a pacifist in this one.
We gotta protect the crows, otherwise I'm gonna get cursed.
Is that too violent? Well, I mean, it's up to you guys.
How you guys act.
I'm going to say I want to roll a dive and see how close they are before you realize they're there
well you guys are fairly lucky they are like a hundred feet out in the woods like you guys can see each other and call to each other before like they see
you slash you see them you guys are aware of each other
They Want to know if you found anything at the temple all they found was a few zombies and nothing of value
You know they followed you the stream is dried up
Yeah, hopefully that's not too terrible but it was it's actually you get the sense of the
stream has been there for a couple decades like it wasn't new like the skeleton you found of the
adventurer was a couple decades old it was still a skeleton everything else in there had basically
turned to dust like that guy that guy was, you know,
new in comparison.
But that was
decades ago that he died
there, probably.
I don't want to tell these people that I gave
the water vessel to
the crows. I want to hide that
from them. I want to tell them
we didn't find anything but a goblin sword
Okay, well I guess the deception check i'll give you
Advantage because you're gonna tell them about the goblin sword which seems interesting and valuable
I got an 18.
Ah, well, they are going to roll the dice and see if they believe you.
They rolled a 5.
I mean, that's more than we found.
You know, they're going to keep, you know, anything.
They basically ask where you're coming from and
if you found anything that way if you want you need another deception check if you don't want
to tell them about the crows definitely don't want to about the crawl crows i rolled a 19 for deception
look at that paladin line.
I bet Leonard probably just think.
Oh, they got a nat 20 on that one to see if you're lying, though.
They can tell that there's something that way.
Like, you said nothing. There's nothing.
But they got a nat 20 on their sense motive or their insight.
They can tell that there's something
that way.
Can I tell a bunch of mushrooms
that way?
No, tell them there's vampires.
That's a lie.
No. Yeah, yeah.
Roll another deception.
Okay.
I was trying to go by
just tell them some truths and then they...
Okay.
Vampires it is.
Give me a minute.
I'm going to roll.
That was 11.
I feel like I should have went with the mushroom.
Oh, can I give them?
Can I give them one of the mushrooms?
Well, they got a 17.
They don't believe it's vampires.
They probably don't even know.
Like, everything out here is dangerous, though.
So, like, whatever you're hiding.
They probably don't push it.
But they definitely got looks on their faces. Like, what's up? Like, whatever is're hiding. They probably don't push it, but they definitely got looks on their faces, like
what's up?
Like, whatever's that way.
Can I offer some of the
mushrooms I just forged that are food
and not magical and sentient?
Yeah, I mean, these guys are, like,
they're not hostile towards you,
but they are going, like,
they clearly plan to go the way that you guys came from.
Like, they don't say that to you,
but after you talk to them,
they're just like, you're like,
nothing's that way.
And they just kind of gave each other a glance.
I mean, you guys also have decent, like, sense motives or insights, like...
I feel like we need to prevent them from going where the crows are.
And, uh...
There's got to be a way we can persuade them.
I don't...
Do you have any ideas, Darkstar?
What we could say to persuade them to go elsewhere?
Okay. Do you have any ideas, Darkstar, what we could say to persuade them to go elsewhere? We could try a persuasion so that we make them think that we believe there were vampires there,
but there was something even worse that fooled us to think
it was vampires because vampires are not as dangerous as what is actually that kind of a
convoluted lie but i'm just i'm just hoping they don't roll high i don't want you cursed by the crows.
Well, they didn't roll as good this time.
They believe you that it's dangerous that way,
but they came out here to find
treasure and fortune, and, you know,
that never comes easy.
Oh, well, we can
tell them that, uh,
we...
Oh, man.
Oh, man.
I can't say that.
Uh, can I...
I'm over here like,
I got a big gold thing in my backpack.
You think that'll persuade them
to, like, go elsewhere?
No, that would make them think we found it where the crows are.
So, I mean, I don't want to kill humans because of a bunch of crows,
but honestly, if we can't convince them that that is its death to go where we've been,
we just might have to
or maybe just kill one
you might have to kill them
I don't want you to be cursed
so I have to protect you
if that means killing a stranger,
then
that might be what we have to do.
We can kill them and rob them.
And take anything that they
might have.
That probably tells you guys to calm down
now.
Like,
Luffy doesn't want to just kill strangers
in the woods. Like, that definitely
doesn't sound like we're the good guys. Like, Lennon doesn't want to just kill strangers in the woods. Like, that definitely doesn't sound like we're the good guys.
But he also agrees that, you know, not going that way would be ideal.
He says, you know, there's the chance that you could pay them.
They came here for money and fame and treasure.
I mean, if we gave that to them, would they go home or would they go look for more?
They're probably greedy men, so they'll probably look for more.
I know what we could do.
Sorry to interrupt, James.
I'm so sorry.
I'm good.
You're talking to Leonard, so he's happy to hear you. Okay. We could lead them back to the temple and then trap them in the, you know that cellar thing that we found?
Tell them that's where all the treasure is.
Because it's true, so we don't have to do a deception.
But tell them there's loads and loads of treasure there.
Wait, where all the guardians are that we can't get into?
Where Sai is sling.
Well, that's a good idea.
We can ask them if they ventured into the basement and found the room with relics.
I mean, they went in the same way you did.
They didn't find the relic room because they didn't search that place as well as you did.
You got a pretty high roll knowing it was there.
knowing it was there.
They didn't know it was there.
They didn't know it was there.
They did talk to an interesting fella
while they were there.
He was in the dining hall.
He had told him that you guys were here
when you explored the place.
He assumed that whatever you guys found,
you had taken.
The guy who was with you assumed that whatever you found, you had taken.
But if not, then...
You know, maybe they will go back and take another look around.
They...
Like I said, they're looking for money, treasure, fame, stuff like that.
So...
But while you guys are standing in the woods
debating
what to do...
What?
What?
What does that sound?
I want to do something
and it's just not working.
I'm looking through
stuff
to find a thing.
What's this?
Oh, yeah, this is it.
Neutral evil.
That looks fun.
Uh... We're standing here talking to this dude
Talking and out of the
Woods comes a big
Old beastie
You know everybody
Oh fuck
Bird says you should fly away
No um Okay I cast a shield fly away. No, um...
Okay.
I cast a shield
to protect
Leonard, Wu,
and myself.
Basically,
I'm kind of
being a bit of a bad guy and serving
up these strangers for the creature to hit first.
Well, you are good at battle, so that's a good strategic move.
Okay, so this thing comes out of some trees nearby, as you guys were talking.
It looks like it has come up from
one of the underground tunnels. It looks like it was a lizard, or it is a lizard, but now it is
large and undead. So basically, it's a large, overgrown, undead cave lizard kind of looks like a small zombie Godzilla and by small I mean
it is it's it's like I don't know 30 feet long or so for Godzilla it's small
um come up out from underground you guys heard it coming from a ways away.
Like, it's big.
It's not like it's knocking over trees and coming towards you guys.
Uh, I'm gonna say when you hear it, it's probably a couple hundred feet away.
Well, I've prepared a dagger and, uh, got a 16.
Which you can also throw a dagger, 30 feet as it approaches as you this thing is moving towards you guys
These guys first instinct with you is to run
But as it comes out of the out of the woods and it's smashing through trees
and it's smashing through trees.
You can see that it is
It's not going to get away from it.
It moves faster than you do by a long shot.
So they try to take up defensive positions,
and they are going to...
It doesn't have any ranged attacks,
so they're going to use their longbows to try to shoot it before it gets to you.
If you guys have any longbows or ranged attacks,
it is just rushing across.
We'll start at 300 feet, and then it's at 200 feet.
They prepare their longbows, and as it goes from 200 to 100,
the four of those guys are all going to shoot their bows.
Pew, pew, pew!
I cast a Sorcerous Burst.
It should hit it at 120 feet.
19 to hit for
24 damage.
That does it.
They got a hit hit and a crit.
So they're hitting it with heroes.
what did you get, my friend?
I got a dagger hit 16 and the damage was 4.
Well, yours will be when it gets closer.
What did Found did, what, 16 did he say?
19 to hit, 24 damage.
24, that's a good number.
How did you get 24 damage?
He rolls a bunch of dice
With magic
And then they all are going to
Go pew pew
Alright
Uh so
All the little mouse clicks in the background
It's like click click Click click Alright, so... Hearing all the little mouse clicks in the background.
It's like, click, click, click, click.
They did 20 damage to it.
As it's continuing to rush towards you guys.
It's at 100 feet.
They pull out their spears and they're going to hold the line.
It is going to... What are you guys going to do? At 100 feet, you pull out their spears and they're gonna hold the line. It is going to... What are you guys gonna... At 100 feet you get another turn. What are you doing, Dark Star?
Leonard's also gonna take shots at it. Pew pew, Leonard.
I'm gonna do a Chromatic Orb, which is...
It's a multiple hit.
Dramatic orb for 23
damage. That's our first one.
And the second
one is 14.
As you guys just hit it with
everything you got as it's running towards
you, it looks like you've hurt it a fair amount.
Like, it's undead, so it doesn't feel pain.
Uh, but you've, like, done a lot of damage to it.
Uh, but that doesn't stop it from coming right at you guys.
So those four dudes standing in front of you guys are going to hold the line.
are going to hold the line.
And one of them,
I believe,
hits him.
That's it.
But that's okay.
Holding the line still does a lot of damage.
we will do
3d6.
It's 10 damage as it stabs into the spear line. And then the monster begins to attack.
It has multi-attack, two claw attacks, and then a trapping rend. Okay, so it attacks the first dude with a big
old monstrous claw
for 19.
He pins that dude down
to the ground and
piercing damage as he rakes
over him. He is then
going to get another attack
from the big old monster.
That is another hit.
That's another 17 damage
and gives him the ability to rend.
And that's a 6 on the dice,
but how high does that go?
Oh, no, no, no, no, six, that's not good news for you. Weapon attack plus ten.
That was the second dagger. It was really bad. Six that's not good news for you. I have an attack plus 10. Yeah, that's not good
Dagger is really bad
Yeah, well the monster runs up and claws this dude twice and grabs a whole of them
Bite and then there's like ripping him in half and biting into him
essentially he already has two failed saving throws
and is back to your guys' turn.
He's only standing like 20 feet away from you at this point.
You hit him with the first dagger, and then the second one you miss.
Dark Star, Leonard's going to stab him with his longsword. What are you gonna do, Darkstar?
I think he just got rugged, but I pulled another dagger roll and I got a 17 with a damage of 5.
There you go.
I feel like I can't do very much
with these daggers against this
big monster.
Every damage counts.
I mean, one hit
point is, you know, sometimes all
you're keeping alive.
Everyone counts.
going to roll another dagger hit
until he comes back.
Oh, not bad.
I also have some stuff I'm going to have to do
before too long.
I want to finish up this battle.
I imagine Darkstar does
something heroic.
Right?
On average, he's been doing, like,
20 damage a turn, so I'll just give him
that and say I know what he did.
Leonard went,
these guys,
one of their friends is
dead,
as it just kind of bites it in half
and throws the body
going to then attack to their friend
19 hits
and he becomes grappled
so this monster ran up out of the woods,
grabbed a hold of the one dude, and
basically ripped him in half, and
has grabbed a hold of the second dude,
and you guys
are all doing all you can to
stop him from murdering everybody.
This round, I imagine you
guys all just attack him and take him down.
Sorry, I'm just also kind of, like, speed
narrating a little. I didn't realize what time it was.
But you guys kill this thing
after another round, but it does manage
to kill one of the men that
you found in the woods and
grievously wound another.
And unlike
the 5e rules where like we played with moat and found
before uh three five healing they don't heal nearly as fast this guy being injured in the
depths of the woods is a real liability to his homies um but I think we're going to kind of wrap it up probably here with you guys
surviving that attack.
These surviving men
that are with you are going to want
dismember
this lizard
and find if he's got any treasures inside.
You know, maybe he ate
people with money.
They're gonna...
Oh, well, we can
figure
it out how to distract them from the crows
next time.
Well, I mean, they also
already... One of them died. That might
be distracting.
True.
You said one of them was grievously
injured. I feel like I should offer some
healing.
That's probably good enough.
One of them being dead is definitely
a morale crusher.
Not like just dead, but like ripped
to pieces dead.
Brutal.
How do I roll
for the...
Oh, I just...
I have a mending spell.
You gave me a cure wound spell, too.
Yep.
So you'd be able to do a d8 plus your
modifier to help heal him.
Where do I find that?
Well,
it's probably your wisdom.
So. Oh,
thank you. Or your intelligence.
I guess it's a wizard spell. It uses
your intelligence modifier.
Oh, the intelligence modifier is much
higher than the wisdom.
Good for you.
I got a 19.
What you wouldn't do is save. You wouldn't do a save.
You'd roll a D8.
The dude would be willing to heal him.
You wouldn't have to overcome any.
He wouldn't have to do any saves or anything.
But you'd roll a D8 and then add whatever your intelligence is.
Oh, man.
That's so bad.
I got an 8.
So, yeah.
And then whatever you're in plus your intelligence modifier and then he heals that much
um but only having so many spells and he would only probably heal um i'm gonna say a couple
like probably like seven hit points a day so it'd take him a couple days to not be injured
um so i guess it's not too grievous it's's just bad, you know, cuts, scrapes, bruises.
And you still heal pretty fast in this world, just not overnight,
which is the 5e is just anytime you get hurt,
you can just long rest and your hip points are all the way full.
And I was like, oh, it's so hard to have, like,
environmental challenges at that point.
You know? Yeah, no, environmental challenges at that point. Um, you know?
Yeah,
no, that makes sense.
hopefully they're gracious and they take the advice to go back to the
room.
Just avoid the crows altogether.
Just avoid the crows altogether.
They have no clue. They can be clueless
They have no clue.
They can be clueless about the crows.
about the crows.
I will chat with you guys.
Next time.
Sometime before that.
Have a good day, guys.
You too.
Ciao.
Ciao.
