C03 - Ep. 34 - From On Hyra - Return of the Bling

Summary

Tales from the Stinky Dragon

Podcast: Tales from the Stinky Dragon
Episode: C03 - Ep. 34 - From On Hyra - Return of the Bling
Date: January 7, 2026
Main Theme:
The party of four hapless adventurers continue their perilous and comedic journey through Sora Sump and Boiling Bluffs, untangling the mysteries of a botched resurrection ritual, reassembling their Thaumatech friends, and forging bonds of both metal and kinship—all while cracking jokes, pondering familial pride, and rallying for a long rest.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the party delves deeper into the aftermath of a chaotic resurrection ritual, confronts their feelings about parental pride, struggles to reassemble dismembered Thaumatech siblings, and finally returns the stolen Fire Opal of Fireballs to its rightful place. Along the way, they bond, banter, and barter, picking up a mysterious new relic—the Scales of Scry—from the Kindlekin’s reliquary, before setting out toward Sky Blue Falls Prison and stumbling on a peculiar, ominous scene at its icy threshold.

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Key Discussion Points & Moments

1. Table Banter & D20 Parental Pride (05:00 – 14:09)

• Prompt: “Do you think your parents are proud of you? Why or why not?”
  • Doug (Barbara Dunkelman): “I’m pretty confident my parents are not proud of me…Doug was never really a violent guy…There’s also a lot of other things that happened that I don’t think they’ll ever be able to forgive me for.” (05:19)
  • Natty Wonder (John): “When I walked out of the door to head to the army, they literally said, ‘We are proud of you, Natty Wonder.’” (08:08)
  • Tolf (Blaine Gibson): “I know Bjorn would be so proud of me. I mean, I cooked fish and I took on his legacy and carried his skin on cool adventures and wore him all around.” (09:34)
  • Gunther: “When my parents died, they were very proud of me…If they were alive now, I do not think they would be proud.” (11:05)
• Spirited jokes about toe socks, “micro machine” feet, and age gaps set a silly, self-aware tone.
• Memorable running joke: “Amuse boosh,” originating from a meeting, becomes the party’s new blurbal gerbil.

2. The Aftermath of the Dretch Den (14:09 – 27:15)

• Sifting Through the Chaos: The group discovers Neo’s head among rubble and deduces that with the right mechanical and arcane expertise, he can be revived if body parts are found.
  • Doug (Barbara Dunkelman): “I can figure it out, guys.” (15:30, 18:57)
• Communicating with Surrendering Dretches: Gunther uses Abyssal to convince the dretches to surrender their armor—pieces suspected to belong to Neo.
  • Gunther: “Please give us your armor.” (20:41)
• Fire Opal Mishap: Tolf nearly fumbles the Fire Opal, then suffers burns catching it—no one witnesses his “cool” catch; the Opal’s disturbance seems to halt a ritual in progress, draining boiling oil and causing apparent spontaneous combustion of the Druid Dretch.
• Ritual Recap: The group pieces together that their intervention sabotaged the attempted resurrection of “the Baron,” leading to her flaming, fleeting reappearance.

3. Investigating and Looting (33:05–43:00)

• Natty investigates the emptied pool and finds ritual reagents and a valuable peridot gemstone (500 gp).
• The party loots further: Doug and Tolf gather Neo’s pieces, and Tolf finds the “crystal barrel of clearance”—a curative crystal, and the “Cube of Concoctions”—a potion-creating ice cube (41:46).
• Party decides to follow the large ritual drain, which leads them conveniently back to the riverbank.

4. Thaumatech Reunion & Robot Reconstruction (46:42 – 61:14)

• Reuniting with Neo & Tio: Emotional and comedic tinkering ensues as Doug and Gunther reassemble the Thaumatech siblings, fumbling with pieces but eventually restoring function (with a few anatomical liberties).
  • Tolf proposes a “body part swap” (60:56) between siblings as a sign of connection and proof of reunion: “Now, whenever I pick my finger, I will think of you, Neo. Or pick my nose.” (63:03)
• Revelations:
  • Neo reveals the siblings are seeking sanctuary at Copia Convent, rumored to be a refuge for Thaumatechs—Ironclad is not their creator, and they hope to learn more about their origin. (53:16, 59:01)
  • The party plans to send leftover leg parts to Elva, keeping everyone connected as they go their separate ways.

5. Return to Boiling Bluffs – Fire Opal Restoration & Relic Selection (66:26 – 76:46)

• Returning the Fire Opal of Fireballs:
  • Flack, the gnome priest, accepts it nonchalantly—only keeping the gem, discarding the rod.
  • As thanks, the Kindlekin allow the group to borrow a sacred relic.
• Reliquary Choices:
  Flack presents four options:
  1. Claws of Commandments (single-use, burns to ash)
  2. Scrolled Scroll of Scorching (Eat/read for Scorching Ray, tongue burns for session)
  3. Scales of Scry: Grants five seconds’ direct contact with the fire god when thrown into flames
     • Natty chooses the Scales of Scry (74:39)
  4. Fire Opal of Fireballs (now returned)
• Inside jokes and banter color this segment: “Is this like a one in, one out kind of thing?” (69:00)

6. Rest & Next Destinations (77:14 – 82:32)

• The party is welcomed to rest at the Kindlekin Temple (“You brought back the fire op...you don't have to pay anything.” 77:31)
• Investigation of travelers’ packs turns up nothing; Flack reiterates that thaumatechs are to be welcomed and even rewarded with five gold (79:08)
• The party enjoys a rare long rest amid scented candles and cots.

7. Road to Sky Blue Falls Prison & Ominous Encounter (82:32 – 87:56)

• The landscape shifts from boiling cliffs to snowy fields.
• Gunther feels déjà vu upon observing two eagles on a leafless tree—an image that unsettles him, reminiscent of his escape from Sky Blue Falls Prison.
  • “Do you recognize this area? Maybe since...this is what you broke out of...” (84:47)
• The party arrives at a striking frozen lake—at its center is a prison tower with a moving circular watchtower on rails.
  • All spot a brawny halfling, Candle Cody, in a red jumpsuit, hopping ice sheets—suddenly snatched by blue claws beneath the surface:
    “And with a splash, the halfling is snatched into the icy lake by blue curved claws without a trace.” (87:16)
• Mystery unresolved—cliffhanger.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If I was a Pokémon, my new name would have been Amuse Boosh, because that's all I could say for the rest of the day.” – Tolf (06:53)
• “When my parents died, they were very proud of me. If they were alive now, I do not think they would be proud.” – Gunther (11:05)
• “You know, my toes are actually called Micro Machines.” – Tolf (13:42)
• “I can figure it out, guys.” – Doug (18:57)
• “Be respectful. Don’t do that. That’s my brother.” – Tolf, to Gigi (48:04)
• “Now, whenever I pick my finger, I will think of you, Neo. Or pick my nose.” – Tolf (63:03)
• “It’s good luck to give them five gold coins.” – Tolf (76:32)
• “This is a lovely village you have here.” – Tolf, posing as a Thaumatech (80:24)
• “All the leaves of the trees…just a couple little loose ones.” – Gunther, reflecting on the unsettling scene (83:34)
• “With a splash, the halfling is snatched into the icy lake by blue curved claws without a trace.” – Dungeon Master (87:16)

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Important Timestamps

• 05:19 – Start of the “are your parents proud of you?” roundtable
• 14:32 – The discovery of Neo’s head in the rubble
• 20:41 – Gunther demands dretches surrender their armor, in Abyssal
• 21:27 – The Fire Opal mishap: “The fire opal at the end of the rod just kind of comes loose.”
• 34:17 – Natty’s investigation of the ritual pool and magical loot
• 46:42 – Reassembling Neo & Tio; Thaumatech emotional bonding
• 66:26 – Return to Boiling Bluffs, restoring Fire Opal
• 74:39 – Natty chooses the Scales of Scry in the reliquary
• 77:14 – The party enjoys a long rest at the Kindlekin temple
• 82:32 – The journey toward Sky Blue Falls; Gunther’s déjà vu and the eagles
• 87:16 – Candle Cody’s abrupt disappearance; cliffhanger ending

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Tone and Style

Fun, boisterous, and brimming with inside jokes, the episode balances slapstick humor, earnest character moments, irreverent asides, and meta-commentary. It is equal parts actual-play adventure and D&D sitcom, making complex plot developments accessible and engaging for listeners old and new.

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Summary Conclusion

This episode sees the group closing one chapter—thwarting an unholy resurrection, fixing their Thaumatech family, and restoring peace to Boiling Bluffs—only to set off toward new mysteries: an isolated prison amid frozen wastes, and whatever monstrous force lurks beneath its icy surface. Relics have been borrowed, bonds reaffirmed, and between the toe jokes and heartfelt hugs, the party’s adventures promise more chaos, camaraderie, and cliffhangers ahead.

Transcript

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

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[Flack]

Let's go, Grandpa.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Wait, you did?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yep.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

On Carvana. Just put in the license plate, answered.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

A few questions, got an offer in minutes.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Easier than setting up that new digital picture frame.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You don't say.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, they're even picking it up tomorrow.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Talk about fast.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Wow. Way to go.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

So, about that picture frame.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Car selling made easy on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply New year.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Same extra value meals at McDonald's. So now get two snack wraps plus fries and a medium soft drink for.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Just $8 for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And for delivery foreign.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Clink our way into the Stinky Dragon and ingest our latest infusion absorb. Matter of fact, it's a mixture of Metallo milk, slam a meal, tea leaves, cleaning cloves, release energy extract, and top with a dismantling of cinnamon. One absorption of this kinetic cup and you'll be kicking brass in no time. Previously, our adventurers were drenched in dretches, but quickly closed in on a clear path to the dretch den. They overheard an ominous exchange between Infernus and a Druidic dretch about the pursuit of the Pathfinder. Finally, B team Backed up a resurrection ritual into reverse and are now putting their heads together with Neo. Round up a refreshment and let's resume this rank recollection.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Tales of the Stinky Dragon. I'm your dungeon master, Gustavo Sorola, and I'm gonna hit our four players with an arrow.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I have an arrow. What happened to the Micro Machines guys?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

He's still alive.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

What's he up to?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, yeah, Who? He's also the Federal Express guy. He did the Federal Express commercial way back in the day. Yeah, I feel like I just woke.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Up in the middle of history class. What are we talking about? What is this Micro Machine?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Micro Machines guy?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

What was the arrow?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Who do you guys remember?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Do you all not know Micro Machines?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Sean.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Google Micro Machines.

[Flack]

Gu.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Are we that old? Are we Micro Machines old?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Anyway, thanks for listening, everyone.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I didn't know that was that Micah. Micah knows Micah. Micah knows what Micro Machines are, and he's young.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I'm gonna go in the corner and, like, decay to, like, a pile of dust and bones. Micah writes he knows Micro Machines.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

It's the Matt Damon Saving Private Ryan mean right now.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, listen, we're so old, the whole gist of these toys was that they were small cars.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

It was tiny.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

That's it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

They were little Hot Wheels, but they were small.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, like Hot Wheels, but, like, tiny. And the guy in the commercial would talk real fast. That's it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's all.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Looks like Mario.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Say, I learned.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Anyway, this week's our question is, why is Gus so old and will he be dying soon?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, yes, he will be.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I mean, the average human being lives to about, like, I don't know, 78, 79 years old. And doing the math on how much he got left, you know?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You're telling me. You're telling me not to get a mortgage, Doug. You're telling me do not get a new mortgage?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Let's just say you're past your midlife crisis.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, for sure. All right, everyone. Oh, this week's hour question is, do you think your parents are proud of you? Why or why not? And that was submitted by Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker. Everyone go and roll a D20. Let's. Let's see how this shakes out.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Roland.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

7 12.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, 12. I get it.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Nice. Oh, 12. 12's got.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I got.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, 18, 6.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

So 18 12. 7, 6. Sounds like the order we are going in. Do you think your parents are proud of you? Why? Or why not? 18. What was that? Doug, take it away.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

That was Doug, it's me, Barbara Dunkelman, playing Doug Boone, the artificer Bugbear.

And, you know, unfortunately, Gustavo, the answer was no. I'm pretty confident my parents are not proud of me. You know, we were raised to be pretty vicious, you know, going into battle, fending for ourselves, and Doug was never really a violent guy. And so I never really made my parents proud in that sense. But, you know, maybe. Maybe someday they'll come around when they realize, like, what I do is also important and also impressive and needed in society. But until then, yeah, it's. There's also a lot of other things that happen that I don't think they'll ever be able to forgive me for. So not a great start to the episode here, really.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, this is. I'm glad you rolled that 18, Doug.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's really kicking things off on a high note.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's the tone of the episode tugging at my collar. Here is the toilet seat left open? Do you keep lights on at night? What did. What did you do to your father?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The fridge was left open. Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, unforgivable.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, I used to keep the AC at 73. There's a little too.

Too much power being used.

No, I'm kidding.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All right. A dark potent of things to come.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Portent.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Portent, not potent.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Amuse bouche.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I'm a dum dum. Using the wrong word.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Amusement.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I don't think the amuse bouche joke is a stinky dragon joke. I think it's our business joke.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It will become a stinky dragon.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Jo.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Now that we explain it. John used the word amuse boosh in a meeting. And then Blaine could not stop using amuse boosh in a meeting because he'd.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Never heard of it before.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

If I was a Pokemon, my new name would have been Amuse Boosh, because that's all I could say for the rest of the day was amuse boosh.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Amuse boosh?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Is that our new blurbal gerbil for this campaign? Amuse boosh. Welcome to Canon.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The greatest present in the world I could get, like, as a 10 or 11 year old, would be like an amuse boosh of micro machines. It'd be like.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

They are.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

They're like a little taste of a hot wheel.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Thomas Edison used to visit little Gus in his house.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's like a warm wheel.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You would have liked it, Blaine. I think for my 10th birthday, my parents rented Predator and all my friends came over and we watched Predator on vhs. It was awesome. It was best birthday ever. Everyone. My two friends who Showed up. We talked about that for, like, the remainder. We still talk about it, how awesome it was. Anyway, 12. Who had a 12?

[Flack]

John.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, that was John.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, it's John. Hi, I'm John, and I play Natty Wonder, who is a drow warlock drag queen mother, and not to step on what is clearly a traumatic part of Doug's, you know, story. And what makes Doug Doug. I don't.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I don't.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I feel bad following up with that by saying, yes, I do know.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

My.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

My parents are proud of me.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, look at you.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's why I didn't want to bring it up, because it just felt like, look at me. I'm Natt Wonder. My mamas love me. When I walked out of the door to head to the army, they literally said, we are proud of you, Natty Wonder.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

My life's perfect.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's not a. It's not a competition.

I'm happy for you, Natty.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

And. And I. And I make sure to. To pass that on and tell Gigi anytime I can. I'm so proud of him.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, good parent.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

So, yeah, there's nothing funny there either. It's just my guy. I got proud parents.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All right. It's good to see that we have the yin and the yang here. The. The opposing forces.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I think I'm the only yang. I think there's going to be a lot of y. This group if I know their stories.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All right, who's next? I think next was Tolf. Am I right?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's right. Hello, I'm Blaine Gibson, and I play Tol V. Yoo hoo. It's me, the male thaumatech barbarian, level six, and I have to ask a clarifying arrow. I'm just going to shoot a little dart back at you.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Which.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Which parent are we referring to? Are we talking about Ironclad or the other one? Maybe the one you can remember the name born Bjorn.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Bjorn. I like that he had the question ready, but not the details. He's like, I'm gonna ask that, but I remember. I'm not gonna bother to look up the specifics. Why don't we go with both? Because the. The question says plural. Okay. So I think you can dive into both of those.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

The reason I didn't know Bjorn's name is because I called him dad. So, you know.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. Yeah, that's why.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Good save. Well, I know Bjorn would be so proud of me. I mean, I cooked fish and I took on his legacy and carried his skin on cool adventures and wore him all around. And everybody loves Bjorn. They See that big orc guy? And they go, that's a good man right there.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

And you could see the smile on his face. Oh, wait.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Wow. Wow.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

So, yes, to Bjorn and for Ironclad, I couldn't give two toots, you know, I think.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I don't know.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Like, I'm sure he's disappointed that I'm not his, like, main guy anymore. But I'm sure he's also, like, happy because I'm out there, like, rebelling against him. And he's all like, yes. Oh, I am a Sith Lord. Yes. I kill you, you kill me. So much fun.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Toll thinks he's the main guy kind of main character complex going on here. That's good to know.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm wrong.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I would have to ask Ironclad. Let's. Let's get him in. Special guest Yarrow. Ironclad, let's ask you.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

He' Bjorn will have things to say to this. They're coming out of his mouth right now.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All right, thanks, Blade. And last up, the genesis of the question. Gunther.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yes. I'm a level six fighter, and I will say this. When my parents died, they were very proud of me.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, why do you say it like that, Gunther?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

But when they were alive, they were not proud of you.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

No, no, no.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Only when they died.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yes. They were proud of me when they were alive, and they were proud of me when they died. If they were alive now, I do not think they would be proud.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I'm asking because you state that tragic event on an up syllable. When my parents died, they were proud of me. Like, are you, Gunther? Do we need to talk? Did you kill me? That's kind of what it sounded like.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

They were proud of how I killed them is what it sounded like.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

No, I did not. I did not killed him.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That was John talking. Gunther. Didn't hear that. Okay.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Oh, I was just saying I think it. I. When I think back to if they were proud of me in that moment, that makes me feel happy that they were proud in them. Proud of me. But it makes me sad that if they were here now, they may not be unrelated.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Question. How many toes do you have, Gunther?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Enough.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Why do you have six or 11?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Got my eye on you.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Six or 11.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I have the proper number of toes.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay. Okay.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Six.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Got it.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

It's evading the question.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

No, that would be very confusing.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

We all have six toes and then another four. So technically, you're correct.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, Doug with the.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Or.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Barbara with the. Technically correct.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

That's where my typecast comes in.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, the best kind of correct.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Exactly.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Does to have toes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, but I mean, let me see.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Well, I have. You have little. Little append. Little digits that are like little digit. Digital mechanical digits.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Like my thaumatech foot is toes. But you know, it's like Bjorn skin is kind of like loose socks sometimes, or gloves, you know, when you're putting on. And then they, you know, the toe socks. And then like one slips into the other one. So it can be a little, you know, like my pinky toe might be flopping around because one of my thaumatec bones isn't in it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Wait, does that happen to you?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Blaine?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's the worst.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You worn toe socks, right? Yeah, yeah. I hate toe socks.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, toe socks. As in like. Okay, now I get it.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

No, I've not worn toe socks. Gossaro for you.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Did you ever wear those naked footwear? Like the toe shoes?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, no, no. Okay.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Those give me the heebie jeebies for some reason.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, just thinking about it, like my toes being separated.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Didn't James wear those for working out?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yes, probably.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, he did.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Voice of Bjorn.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, voice of Bjorn.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Your father.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

You remember.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All right, thanks everyone. Appreciate the insight. Let's never speak of toe shoes again.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

What an amuse bouche to this episode.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yes, yes. Y.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

So stupid.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You know, my toes are actually called micro machines.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's good, it's good.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

That's the stinger for the end of the episode.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Whenever I get my first inspiration, dice, it goes directly to Blaine for that.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. The gretches begin trying to swarm you and grapple you, but you use your might to push them away and shove them to the ground and make me a perception checkpole.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Okay. Sorry it took me that long to find where the perception is. It's always the one that's hidden away. That's a 17 hidden in that alphabetical.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Order of your text.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's alphabetical, yes.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, my God.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Guys, did you know? When were you going to tell me?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh my God, that's incredible. This is our job.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Incredible.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

As you shove the dresses to the ground, something catches your eye. In the western pile of rock by the by the pool. A glinting blue gray metal. It's not just a piece of metal, though. It looks like a head. Tolf you look down and see what appears to be the head of Neo amongst some of the rubble here.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Dear brother, how are you?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Make me a perception check.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh my God. I hope he's not dead. Please don't be dead. Neo.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Speak to me, Neo 13:13. The head has definitely seen better days. It looks like it's been mangled a little bit and beaten up. And it seems like it's almost inert. There's barely any. I don't want to say life, but barely any power flickering behind it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, dear.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Could I take a look at it and maybe try to tinker with it.

To get it to function?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I'm gonna need Doug's catchphrase before you do this, Barbara Dunkerman.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I can figure it out, guys.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

There we go. Brings me life.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I could figure Neo out.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Tolv would be very concerned and would be like, of course. Anything, anything. Please help if I need to lend my parts. C3PO.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Just to continue setting the scene, Doug. Absolutely you can do that. But just to continue setting the scene. There are additionally some remaining dretches in the room that were not killed as part of combat. Okay. Yeah. So just setting that so you all aren't entirely alone. We're not in combat, but there are just these, what were enemies a little while ago still mingling about the room.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Are dretches intelligent? Like, can they speak?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I think they were described as green gorillas.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I don't know if they said anything before.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

They did not. However, they can speak. They do not speak common, and they are very. Yeah, like. Like Barbara said, they're described as greenish gorilla like undarians. They're covered in fetid pustules and boils with gnarly curled claws and fangs. And they're armored with plates of blue gray metal. And as you look around at them, they all raise their hands as if in surrender.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Would you say it shpeaks?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, oh, it speaks.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's a Stinky Dragon Adventures reference.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, oh. I was like, what is that? That sounds familiar.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, I made that show and I was like, woo.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Gus's German character going, it speaks.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Check out Stinky Dragon Adventures. And my terrible German accent [e-mail] impeccable German accent. Impeccable. I'm like Michael Fassbender in Inglourious Basterds. I grew up on a mountain. That's why my German accent sounds a little different and a little weird than what you would expect. Yeah, it's a little unusual.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

So they're putting their hands up in surrender.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You said they're just raising their hands and looking around nervously.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

They don't speak common.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Correct.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Do we know what they speak?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Probably abyssal.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Gunther speaks abyssal.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

So let me deal with Doug first, because Doug or Barbara, Doug said They wanted to go try to take a look at Neo's head.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yes, please.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. What do you do for that as an artificer? Do you have, like, a tinkering ability or.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Doug goes up and starts singing, what's in your head?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

In your head, Zombie. I had. Let's see.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Had to finish it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Barbara actually has to sing the entire song of Zombie if someone brings it up.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Listen, you have to get to the title.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I have my quirks, and that's one of them.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I love that. Learning things.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I do have, I believe, tools.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

You have the manual.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

The manual for it. I feel like I would just kind of open him up in the back to see the wiring or maybe any sort of, like, electrical parts and maybe use my history or intelligence to tinker. I do have tinker's tools as well.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, you have tinker's tools. And I will say, just to kind of describe to the rest of the party in the audience, the artificer has some abilities that don't necessarily apply here, but I can see, like, having some overlap. Right. Like, you have repair, which you would use on your defender.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yes.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You also have magical tinkering, which is, like, you use that to augment abilities, and you've used that in this campaign as well. And I feel like these aren't explicitly something you would use in this scenario. But we'll modify. We'll say, you know, you have knowledge of the way these things work, and you're able to kind of figure it out, so to say.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

So I can figure it out. Thank you, guys.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

So why don't you make me. What kind of check should we call this? Let's call this a survival. No, no, no. Make a. It's not arcana. But I feel like he would be like that.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Like, intelligence, like history.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. Make an arcana check just because it is intelligence based. And I feel like that's what we're going for. And it is kind like a magic technology.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

It is magic technology.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's true.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

10.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Do you want to hit inspiration? Die. Would that help?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Maybe.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, do it.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I give Barb my inspiration. Die.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All right.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay.

Arcana.

Once again, yama, not 20 for a 24.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You look at it and you know that this kind of technology that appears to be powering this hit is, like, radically different than any technology you've worked with. Not only saying that it's more advanced, but it's just an entirely different foundation of technology. Even the basics that you would expect are radically different. When you pop open Neo's head You are able to confirm that it is not, for lack of a better word, dead. There is still power in it. It just needs to be reattached to the rest of its accessories in order to regain function.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay. All right, well, good news, Torv. Your sibling here is not dead. I just gotta maybe reattach him, maybe to his body. There might be other pieces missing, but we could try that first and see if that works.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Well, I see that on these Undarian fools, these dretches, that they're wearing blue armor that could be pieces of my brother's. So maybe we should command them to take him off, and we could gather up all of the pieces and reassemble him.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, and they seem to not really want to fight us, so maybe we could just ask nicely.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Gunther shots his word. Please give us your armor.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Do you say it in common?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Abyssal.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Abyssal.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

What does that sound like?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, you just pitched something up there at the end there.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Are you down with the sickness?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That was funny. Hey, Gus, you're funny.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Gunther pulls out his rapier, points it at the dretches, mutters in abyssal at them, and they begin nervously removing their pieces of metallic armor and placing it at their feet. As they're doing that toll, you know you're holding the rod of the fire opal of fireballs. It seems like the. The fire opal at the end of the rod just kind of comes loose and falls off of the rod.

[Flack]

Oh.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And skitters to the floor. It begins rolling around.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I try to catch it. Don't want to get it away.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Bumble.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. Make a dexter. Dexterity. We'll call it a saving throw.

[Flack]

Cool.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Perfect, because I have advantage on those. That's a 19 and a 6.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

19.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay. Yeah. It falls off of the rod, but before it's able to hit the ground, you do that really cool thing. Normally, no one. Yeah, no one's watching. No one saw it. Of course, the opal falls off and almost hits the ground, but you reach down and catch it just in time. And you look around excitedly to see if anyone noticed, But Doug and Gunther are looking at the dretches. Natty's eyeing the pool with Giggy. And nobody saw that really cool thing you just did?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

The other day, I threw my keys.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

At Eric Bedor, and he caught them in an impossible catch. And it was like, five minutes later. I was like, I should tell him. That was really cool. Because you never.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Never.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No one ever sees that cool stuff.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

No one ever sees it. Yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

And now everyone knows because you told.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

The podcast Eric is a hero, guys.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Everyone always sees when you trip on something dumb or when you, you know, bang your head on a door or something. No one ever sees the cool things. So you're able to catch the fire opal before it hits the ground. And while you're holding it, it burns super hot.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I see.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And you take a little bit of damage. Okay. You catch it. It's much like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, picking up the staff headpiece, it starts burning at your hand, singeing Bjorn's flesh a little bit, doing seven points of fire damage.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Is that raging?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

You probably were from the combat.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, you were raging.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, but does that fire damage, does that affect it? I thought it's only, like, piercing damage.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Oh, yeah, good call.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It wouldn't. Gee, thanks, Barb.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Golly.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

That's the Council of Barbarians. Yes, it's me.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Council of Barbarians, here to guide you straight. He's right.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Is it helpful? You should only be here when it is a boon to me.

[Flack]

I'm sorry.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

It is a boon.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

There.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

He's right there.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No, get out of here.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I know. I don't know anything about being a barbarian. Shall we, guys?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I'm getting out of here.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Bye.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Bye.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All right, bye. Oh, yeah. So the dressers are removing their pieces of metal and laying them at their feet. And the fire opal falls off, but you catch it tolve and it begins burning your hand a little bit. It's a little bit of an ouchie. And as you're holding it, looking at it, you hear, like, a gurgling sound. A blurple gurgling sound.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Like from the gym or from, like, the goo oil stuff?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

No, I'll tell you what. Tove and Natty make me. Perception checks. Okay?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, 17, 13.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Nice, nice, nice.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Both of you, notice that the pool of boiling oil isn't as boiling as rapidly as it was before. It kind of quiets to a simmer. And the level begins lowering in the pool. And you see it emptying out via the drain in the northern end of the room.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Oh, that's probably good, though.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Is the horn still there?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

What a great question.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

No, it's not.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The horn is still there. And the level of the pool slowly recedes and goes down, exposing more of the head and the body attached to the horn. Tol, tov, Tov.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Put the opal back on the stick. I wouldn't rush to do that.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I want to see if I could click it back in Lego style.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Come on, make a. I'LL give you the choice. Make a strength or dexterity. Check on that.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Feeling strong today.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Strength.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Six. Oh, God.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Ay yai yi yi.

Yeah. He cracks it in half.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, inspiration die to goo.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Haha.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I rolled it again. And I get a 13.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Thirteen. Okay. Perfect.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Better?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's exactly what I needed, I think.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. You managed to smash the fire opal back onto the top of the rod. It's not the prettiest. It looks like maybe you broke it a little bit. It's a little splintered, but it's holding. And you look at it, admiring your work, very proud of yourself. And then you smell something.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Who did it?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

It's not Gigi.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Is something on fire?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Tove's hand?

Maybe a little bit.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Is it the staff?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You look down and you realize that the dredge druid has spontaneously combusted. His body is laying there now, burning.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

This room is weird.

[Flack]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I'm gonna stomp him out. It's okay. I shall protect you.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Somewhere, a volunteer firefighter crosses his arms and nods approvingly.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

You're doing it. You're starting to believe.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. You. You begin trying to put out the fire on the body of the dredge druid. But Natty, you're focused on the horn and the rest of the being that is being exposed in the pool. And out from the pool clambers a very haggard looking, looking oily and deformed version of the Baron with one horn atop her head. She looks around, stumbles, seemingly in a daze, then suddenly lights on fire and disappears.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, perfect. That's how she died the first time.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

And that definitely wasn't like. Was it an illusion that we were seeing or. Because I know we tried to touch the horn earlier.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You grabbed the horn, Doug.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah.

And it was like. I felt it. Right?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You grabbed the bull by the horns.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. You pulled on it and you saw part of the head.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Ass. The dretches. Did that just happen? Because the summoning did not.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Complete.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah. Failure.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Success.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Also you gotta give it to us in infernal.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Beautiful.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Roughly translated, Gunther, they say, I don't know. That was his job. And point at the body that is being stomped out by Toll.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I'm just like both feet on it now. Jumping on electrically.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Hey, everybody. John here. And I know some of you all have dice goblins in your life that you got to get a gift for this holiday season. You know, you gotta get them dice, but you don't know what kind of dice they want or which ones they already have. And you're just tired of trying to figure out this weird problem. Well, take a breather. I got a solution for you. All you got to do is go to heroforge.com and get them a Hero Forge holiday gift card. Cuz see, you can take the guesswork out of all this by letting them design their own dice. You know Hero forge, they have 3D printed dice that they use the same process as Hero Forge's color printed minis. And anything from Hero Forge can be added in the dice maker. It can then be rotated and scaled within the dice for perfect placement. You can choose number, size and color. Choose from all polyhedral dice, shape options, regular or XL dice. You can let them go crazy with their dice and you don't have to figure anything out. All you gotta figure out is go to heroforge.com, get them a holiday gift card and problem solved again.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

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[Natty Wonder (John)]

So to recap what just happened, the fire Opal fell off of the stick so it Detached from its original place. When that happened, the oil, it stopped bubbling and it started to lower. You then put the opal back on the stick. The druid dretch, he caught on fire and the oil kept going down and out comes.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

You called it the baroness.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

A deformed baron.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Or baron, like a shambling, nearly dead, kind of oily and deformed version of the baron.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Okay, maybe I put the battery in wrong. I put plus to plus and minus to minus. And now the thing that was casting it is on fire, and the thing that was receiving it is not on fire.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I believe that the spell was not complete. So they were trying to revive the baron, and then, because they did not, the baron goes boom.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, Natty uses her shape changing ability to don a plaid hat and a raincoat and goes to investigate the dead baron's body.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Ooh, well, disappeared.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Did it not?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The dead druid dredge.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Wait, where's the baron's body?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It disappeared.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, it disappeared.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, that poofed.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, the baron, or some might say the oil baron, spontaneously combusted and disappeared.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Okay.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Robert keeps giving, like the one eye shocked, wink, all that.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Then instead I want to like Ace Ventura and get in kind of. Is the pool empty?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Pretty much, yeah.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Can I get in there?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

No, I wouldn't recommend that, Natty.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Why?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, just in case it comes back. We don't know what triggers it, and that might be ouchie, ouchy. I mean, you go, you do it. But I'll leave my hand here if you need to jump out and grab someone real quick. Okay. Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, let's have a safety. Let's have a buddy system.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Doug, you're kind of leaning over the edge with your arm outstretched just in case Natty needs to escape. And then Natty goes down into the pool.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

You can just hold me by my wig and you can just pull me up because that thing's on there solid.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I would never mess with your hair, Natty. I know better than that.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, Natty gets in there and just, I don't know, tries to see, like, if there's anything to be seen in this empty oil pool.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Make me an investigation check.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Investigation is plus one. So that's 16.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You poke around and look through the pool, which is the pool itself is still actually very hot because it was just filled with boiling oil. Not that long, but, you know, it's bearable. It's not like you're going to take damage from it or anything. And you look around and you see a drain where you presumably all of the liquid went out to. And it looks like it connects via cutoff to that drain in the northern end of the room. And looking around, you see various. Make me an arcana chick as well.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I can do that. 15.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You see what you presume are various or the remnants of various reagents, like magical reagents. Bits of special wood, bits of ivory, bits of, like, herbs. And amongst it all, you found a rather large gemstone peridot. Gemstone?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Does it look like it's from the ring of an NFL thing?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

No, it's a character from Steven Universe, you idiot.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Dummy.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Wow.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I knew Blaine would back me up on that.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I knew Blaine would back me up on that.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I do love.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's pretty hefty. You hold it in your hands and you think it's probably worth about 500 gold pieces.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Ooh.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, wow.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I know someone who needs that.

Looks directly at Natty.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, I was gonna say, like, who?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

John looked confused. Natty, you have no money.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, but Natty doesn't care about money.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Don't spend it all in one place.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Natty'll stow that away. I gotta write that down. 500 gold peridot. Okay, so I found stuff that just confirms we've stumbled upon a ritual. Where are we? Why are we in this building?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

To get the thaumatech brothers and sisters.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

We're in Sora sump.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay. We came in here, and that druid was having a conversation with Infernus. Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yes.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yes.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

They were saying that they found the Pathfinder.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

They stormed the gate in one week.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Pathfinder is near One week to storming. What? They were storming something. The Hyra. Gates of Hyra.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

The gate.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Did we hear what this dread Druid was doing?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

What?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

They talking to him first. Did we hear anything else?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah. Would that have been like, vo. That we wouldn't have heard the last line?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The Dretch Druid says is let the ritual of resurrection begin.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay, so this was.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Wait, so, resurrection?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

How did we leave the Baron? Does anybody remember how we left the Baron?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I thought she was, like, all, like, fried up because Gunter and Tov tried to melt her wooden armor with some molten lava.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Do not draw me into this. I was just bystander.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's right. Cause you guys were. You guys were puppeting the Baron's dead body.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yes.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yeah, very realistically.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's true. I was a little convinced, to be fair. The acting was on point. They even had her accent down pat.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah. So we interrupted this.

[Flack]

This.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

This ritual so the resurrection didn't happen. That's why I think the baron went poof.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah. Yeah, I saw.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Likely.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I wonder if it was like a. Like, they were actually, like, if they had remnants of the baron and then they were gonna reincarnate her that way.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I want to talk to Tolve. I want to talk to Tove.

[Flack]

Yes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I wonder if they had, like, physical parts of the body that was left over, which there probably wasn't A lot. A lot of ashes.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

If I was.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

If I'm being honest, or if they can just summon a being based on its soul, you know, like, do they have to have like.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, yeah. Is it. Do you need the ingredients of the body? Well, it's clearly this. This. This fire opal you got is. Is imperative to this process because the druid was using it when we came. When we came in. And when you broke it, it stopped the process entirely. I think that's what happened. Yeah. What happened?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

What if I put Bjorn's skin in the pit and we bring back my paw paw?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

You know what? I've watched this movie called Pet Cemetery. Nothing bad can happen. Nothing bad can happen.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I love that Pigshaw movie.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Right? Captain Grumbles.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, I don't have my beep anymore.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You don't have the beep? No.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I knew. Say a bad word, Gus. Say a bad word. I mentioned that in our watch party this other week where we had you doing the beep sound effect for him, and I was like, oh, we just changed our equipment, and Gus doesn't have the beep anymore, so he's just going to have to swear on the show.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, Michael will have to beep it out.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It feels really weird saying that in this.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

This recording.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I think we've got some stuff we got to figure out. Is there anything else we want to accomplish in this room before we head back to Neo's body?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Why did you need these points to the head thaumatex? And what did you do with them?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Shiny protection.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Where is the rest of them?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

They point at the pile of metal on the ground.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Okay, can we gather all that together and ask the team any questions for these. These goofballs?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I don't think we can get any other information out of it. They're so stupid. They didn't know, like. And the main guy, the necromancer, One druid was. Is done.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

So should we check the body before we go?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I mean, I stomped on it pretty good.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, but maybe has something in. In the pockets.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay, before we leave the room, I also want to check that pile of the metal and stuff like that to see if there's any parts I could tell that go with To.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's coming with us, I think.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I just don't know how much it is. If it's like too much for us to carry or if it's just like small pieces we could take.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You should be able to carry it. Okay, so just to summarize, you're looking at the body to see if it has anything. Who's doing that?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I'm on top of it, literally already. So I will do it.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You'll do it? Yep. And Doug, it sounds like you are collecting metal pieces. Is that correct? Sure.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And Gunther is still talking to the dretches. And Natty is still in the pool or coming out of the pool.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Natty climbs out.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Natty climbs out of the pool. Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

It's hot.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's pretty hot in there.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Cast some where the fireball thing came from.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

If they know we know where that came from.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Where?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Because it was missing from town.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, My church.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Oh, that's right. That's right. Sorry, sorry.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You're good.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

THEY LAUGH.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Gunther, last pack.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Hang on.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And pokes one of them. They begin backing away like they're very slowly, not very sneakily, trying to just back out and leave the room.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Okay, you get out of here or else. And speak not of this. Hold your lobster.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

They turn away and run away until Infernus.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

We said it'll really tick her off.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I'm sure they're going to get right on that. Okay. Yeah. They turn and run and leave the room. Here, Toll, if you're taking a look at the body, make an investigation. Check.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You got it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Use them. Robot eyes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Zeep.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Zoop.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Zeep.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Fifteen.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Scanning, scanning.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

RoboCop.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Scanning, scanning. It's just Toll saying that.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Engaging eyes.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

They're watching you.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You begin looking through the body.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

And.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And you know, it doesn't have much in his robes. I think it seemed like the main thing that this druid was carrying was the rod, which you have. But you do find a small gemstone in one of his pockets. It's a transparent yellow green gemstone. Seems very delicate. You're surprised it's still in one piece because it looks like it's ready to crumble to dust.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I did stomp pretty hard on it. Do you know what kind it is?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Make arcana. Check.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, Magic gemstone five.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay, I'll tell you what, Tole. You've cracked me so consistently up. Why don't you make me a medicine? Check.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

14.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You think that this is some kind of medicinal aid Toll. It's so dusty. Because it's intended to be crumbled and applied to an ailment.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

He turns it over and he sees the words ricola.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I guess I'll stow that away because I don't think we have a immediate use for it. But it does sound, like, important.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, I'll say. Metagame wise, if you crush it in your hand or like on your body or something, it clears a condition.

[Flack]

Oh, cool.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

What do I call this thing?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Emergency.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It is the crystal barrel of clearance.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, I got a crystal barrel.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Damaris.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Hey.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Sorry. And then I have a follow up question because I found a thing called the Cube of Concoctions. So while we're talking about meta stuff, do you know what that does?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The Cube of Concoctions.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Where'd you find that?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

When we were doing the like, left path, right? You know, like and all that.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, I found it then.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, nice.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's described as an ice cube made of unusually colored gems. Metagame wise, you can use this. You could place it into water and it turns water into randomly flavored potions.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, cool. It's like a. It's like a crystal light.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I wonder what the purpose of that would be like, game wise, if anything, or just for funsies.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Well, the potions would probably be potions, so he doesn't know.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, he said flavored, so I don't know. That has effects.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

If we have like a boss fight coming up, then I'll just, you know.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah. Crush one back, roll the dice. Yeah. So is there anything else in this room or can we go put these robots back together?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

They have names.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

You can remember your dad's name.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Don't get on me. His name is dad.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Papa.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Do we figure out a way to transport that fire thing?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It seems like it's adhered to the end of the rod. It's not super secure, but it's holding.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

All right, let's go back to Neo and Tio.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Thank you.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

There you go.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Before that, I want to ask Gunther and Doug to make me wish. System checks.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

You got it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

One of these things is not like the other.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I only rolled a 10, so.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, no, I rolled a one.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Cool.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, two, technically.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Should have got a plus one.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I'm sorry, Gus.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

No, no, it's fine. I'll leave it at this. Okay. Doug, don't you find it weird? Don't you think maybe drains all connect to each other?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, yeah.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Like they all. They all meet up and go somewhere together, right?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah. One would presume this and this. This drained out. Where else have we seen another place where this could go?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

But there was the drains that we crawled through back to the temple where Nati's tongue became two. Or there's also maybe the river that is full of this oil stuff. Maybe a drain there.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

IO and Tio were in the drain system.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, but they were in like a. Like it was like a whole separate room. Right. They weren't like in a place.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Pool.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Correct.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

They were out.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

There's a sauna drain. I know that. That's what we came through.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yeah, they were out by the riverbank, right?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, they were at a riverbank. Correct.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, that was. We saw the blue gray metal in the sauna drain and that's what led us to Neo and Tio.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I guess. What would be the purpose of following where this drained?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You don't have to.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Is it large enough that a person could follow the drain?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Also, did the body of the Baron disappear, as in, like, poof? Or like it actually went through the drain, disappearing?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Poof.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, poof.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Like.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Like, as in like a strong toilet or it just ceased to be?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

What?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I don't know. No.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Like, was it. Were we flushing it or.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, you know, there's like. Like there's some toilets where it's like. And it like, sounds like.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, like an airplane explosion went off and put.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Pneumatic systems.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, like that sucks everything in the room.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

No, the body just disappeared. Like it. Yeah. Ignited in flame and then just kind of vanished.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. I forget who asked, but. Yeah. You think you all could fit in the drain?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

All of us?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's pretty big. Yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, maybe, Natty, maybe you had something. Something going there by going in there and.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Let's go. Let's check it out.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Maybe we should just follow the drain.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, let's go.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, gosh. I'm just saying, if something hot touches this fur, I'm gonna ignite like a fireball.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

What's your marching order going in here?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I'll go first, I'll go last.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I'll go third, second.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

So, Natty, Toll, Gunther, duck. You all take a look at the drain. And, you know, after some back and forth, after some discussion, you decide to head on in. Natty, make me. Since you're at the front, why don't you make me a perception check?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Happy to 17 plus 3. Dirty 20.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Dirty 20. You lead the party through the tunnel, which seems to. Or I should say the drain, which bends left and right occasionally kind of winds around, has smaller drains connect up to it that are piping in water and oil and various other foul smelling liquids. And eventually you exit the drain at the riverbank not too far upstream from where you encountered Neo and Tio.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay. Shortcut.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, that's much easier if you went.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Back the other way. I was going to ask you which direct opposite directions. Left, Right? You went in order to get in here to find your way out.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That would have gone so well. Gus, I'm so sad you didn't get to see that opportunity.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Other I think we would have had to play the card game all over again.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, God.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

All new visitors. New wanderers.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Zatbana.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Get ready for more Wanderers.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Zatbana. The quacks.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Could I take the head of Neo and try to attach it to the body that I assume is still in here?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. You all saunter on over to where Natty runs.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Natty runs faster than she's ever ran her life.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Natty runs.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Natty runder.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Natty Naruto runs to be the first to get up to Neo and Teo. You walk up and Teo, of course, spies you first.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, you're back.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And Doug, I presume, you take Neo's head and begin trying to tinker and help it. Neo's hands seem to be getting in your way as you're trying to reattach his head.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay, listen, help me help you, okay, buddy? I'm trying to get this back on. And if your hands keep getting in the way, some finger might accidentally get in there or something like that.

You.

You don't want that stuck between your neck and your head.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Is that a threat?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Hov would come in to like calm him down and hold his hands through the process.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, that's very. That's very nice. Take inspiration. Diabling.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Your brother is here with you. He's holding your hand.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

New data. Gus likes genuine moments of sincerity.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

New data point.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

New lore dropped. Okay, yeah. So you're working on Neo and reattaching Neo's head. Gunther and Natty, what do you two want to do?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Gigi has grabbed Tio's head. Who's the other head?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The other one's Tio and Tio is just a head that is missing a body.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Gigi has grabbed Tio's head and is rolling it back and forth between Natty and him.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Be respectful. Don't do that. That's my brother.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

He's playing with your brother. It is not in a good way.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I'm going to be sick.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay, Gigi, put the head down.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Don't act like I'm the crazy one.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Roll me a four sided die, John.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Good lord, here we go. Classic Giggy moment. Giggy licks the head.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Giggy eats the head.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Giggy, Gigi poops on the head.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Love all the ideas. Thank you.

[Flack]

Poor four.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Gigi somewhat dejectedly puts the head down, but he doesn't know what it is. He puts it down upside down. So Tio's head is now standing upside down on the riverbank.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Very good, Gigi. Very respectful, Gigi, make it right.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

And Gigi gives him a little kiss.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Doug, since you're working on Neo's head, make me. What did we say earlier?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Arcana.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, make an arcana check.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Arcana.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Doug sounds bummed because that doesn't seem like a Doug.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay.

Thing nine. I mean, I have a plus four to Arcana. She's not my highest in terms of like my various intelligence stuff, but yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Just a 9.1Inspiration die. Would that make you feel better?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

No, I mean you don't have to give that to me to. You earned that all on your own.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, but I mean, this is my brother, you know.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Could tove just help? Could Toll just help?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, can I help?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Why?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, why don't you make an arcana Rollis? Well, toll to assist, I guess I.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Have had to do like some form of maintenance. That's a one.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, actually, you know what?

I don't need your help to. You just keep holding your brother's hand.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

As he says that. One of his ears just falls off.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's like an Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator trying to fix fix the Robert Patrick Terminator. Totally different platforms.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, okay.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, it's, it's more complicated, you know, like, like you. If you saw earlier, it's a little more complicated than you're used to. It's going to take you a little while to reverse engineer it and then try to connect it all. Like earlier you were having difficulty because you didn't have all of the connections. Now you have them all. It's just a matter of working your way through it. So it'll just take a little while to, to get through that. Yeah, you got. You can figure it out.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I can figure it out.

[Neo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

While that's going on, Gunther, what did you do with all of that metal you collected?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I mean, I think me and, me and Doug had picked it up and stored it. Can we start putting it together as best we can?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, I'm a little busy here with Neo.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, Doug's preoccupied, but you can start trying to do that. If you want Gunther, you do have a smithing background.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Okay.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

We'll say it's like. It's like trying to fit together a complicated jigsaw puzzle. So why don't you make me just roll a D20 Nadji proficiency modifier.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

If Gunther reveals that he made it back in his own image so it's just a frog sized robot.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

That would be awesome.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

That's not great. Seven plus proficiency. So 10.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

10. All right. Not the best, but not terrible. You know, you're making slow progress trying to put it all together. Teo chimes in every now and then, seeing what you doing, giving advice on how things fit together and where things go. It's.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

It's like Chewbacca putting back together C3PO backwards.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It is. It's just non stop Star wars references.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Here to these aren't. These weren't your favorite siblings, right? Like, if we don't get these ones right, there's ones that are more important.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I love all of my siblings equally.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Not numerically.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Come on.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Doug. After several minutes of wiring together Neo's head onto the body, there's like a large spark. And then something seems to change. And Neo's head pops to life.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

But he's only speaking in Spanish.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Ay dios mio.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Is this working?

And he gives it a little like, knock. Make sure it's like on there stably.

[Neo]

Oh, yeah. This seems to be working now.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Neo, how do you feel?

[Neo]

I felt better, brother. It's unusual down here.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

It's good to see you. I'm so glad that you're back. And thank you so much, Doug, for fixing my brother. I give him both a hug. Yeah. Wow.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

My first hug.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

It's not your first hug.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Get out of here.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

From tolf, right?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Definitely. Definitely. No. I had to resolve something that it was getting tense and I had to hug it out.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I remember that because I said. Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I will not take no for an answer. We've done.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

We've done a group hug. I know that.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

My first hug of the day.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

There you go. What happened to you and Tio? I mean, was it the. I guess it was the dretches.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Right?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

But what were you guys doing out in these parts?

[Neo]

You see, we were fleeing from Ironclad and we were rafting down the river. We got away, but then we were stuck into oily river. Then we got ambushed by these dretches who stole all our parts. We went to the town for help, but the locals accused us of stealing something. Some kind of fire opal. So then we had to camp out across the river. But due to power shortages, our memories began fading.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Okay, well, we have your head back on your shoulders, and then we're going to reassemble Tio's body. We're gonna get you right as rain. Okay. Also, Elvis says hi. She didn't say hi. But I ran into her, and I'm assuming she would say hi.

[Neo]

Oh, how is she doing? Is she still in one piece?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

She's doing great. She lost her leg, but we got it back. And then now she disguises herself as somebody else, and now she's off on another adventure.

[Neo]

It seems like you've done the best of us, brother.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, that's so kind of you. I wouldn't, you know, stop.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I'm getting bashful.

[Neo]

I mean, you're mostly in one piece. The rest of us aren't.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Fair. Yeah, that's true. Have you seen any of our other siblings since, you know, we all escaped ironclad?

[Neo]

No, but we were hoping to come across more siblings. We were heading to a safe haven, and we think they may have additional siblings joining there.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, where?

[Neo]

A place called Copia Convent, to the.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

South we're supposed to be. Oh, we know where that is. We talked to the lady. That was the one, like episode one or two. I talked to them.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Is it Priestess Chess who told us that?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, she's from Copia Convent.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

How do you know that? Copia Convent is a safe haven.

[Neo]

It is a known place of refuge, and there have been rumors saying that they will offer sanctuary, that we can trust them. It is a safe place.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, very good.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Well, then if I run into more siblings on my quests, then I shall send them that way.

[Neo]

Oh, yes.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Could I call over to Gunther and.

Say, hey, do you think you found maybe Tio's body parts in that pile of stuff?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Then putting it back together, I look.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Over and there's four arms.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I think Tio now has a super long tongue.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yes. That looks good. Yes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You've taken some, you know, some liberties. Some liberties with the design. That's in. Interesting. I don't remember him being that short, but.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Oh, well, you. It's.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

How.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

How old? Maybe younger. They were.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

What?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Maybe they were younger and that's why they so short.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No, I mean, they.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Maybe. I don't.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I don't know.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I think they look good.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Well, their feet are, like three times as big and they're squatting constantly.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

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[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

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[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

How's it coming with Tio?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's getting there. It's. You know, he's obviously you don't have all of the parts. But, you know, you fashion together a bit of a torso and an arm, and the pieces are coming together. It's getting there.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Doc, can you help him out?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I'm afraid he's going to make my brother into a frog robot.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, I could help up here. You're doing a great job, Gunter. Let me just help you look for some pieces here, you know, because, you know, you got a frog body, so you might not be as familiar with, like, you know, Tove's type of anatomy or.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

That is true.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Anything like that.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

That is true.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Could Doug help assemble what he thinks the parts of Tio's body missing are?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, you know, you get there, Doug, and you know, of course, like any puzzle, you got to start with the corners and then work your way in. And of course, you know, once you explain this to. To Gunther, it all kind of clicks and y' all are able to get to figure it out, and you begin making rapid progress reassembling Tio. While that's going on, Neo has a. An aside with you. To.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, hey.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

To.

[Neo]

There is another rumor we heard.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Go on, tell me.

[Neo]

We've heard tale that Ironclad is indeed not our creator and that we were created by someone else.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, no, I. I think that that sounds about right, because he doesn't seem too smart. I think he would rather, I don't know, manipulate and use existing things than create his own. He only knows destruction, so it doesn't seem like him to create.

[Neo]

Yes, absolutely. We were hoping to find further leads to let us know who indeed created us.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

See, well, maybe as we find more of our brothers and sisters, we can create, like, a network and then, like, you know, find who our creator was and what our original purpose was. Because I don't think it was being on a ship with Ironclad and, like, doing terrible things.

[Neo]

Yes, we were hoping to find more data at Copia Convent that can lead us to an answer.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Very interesting. Okay, so then, other than that, once we get them assembled, then really all we need to do is return the.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

The fire.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, the Fire Gem of Fireballs to the town.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Fire Opal.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Fire Opal.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Fire Gem. Whatever.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Opal's gems.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's type.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. After several. Several minutes, Doug and Gunther, you're able to reassemble Teal and. Yeah, seems like more or less the. The correct orientation. Who's to say what the correct number of arms is?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yes, Listen, I. I don't base it off. I've never seen him before, so I.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Think you guys put his right cheek on his left butt cheek.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, whoops. Yeah, you're right.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

You're going to sit crooked.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It kind of looks good, though. Gives him a little sachet.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I just.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I just had an idea, and this might require a retcon, if you guys are open to it. But maybe as a way of keeping in connection with his brothers and sisters, to can swap out a part with each one of them. Like, it could be, like a small thing, like a little piece of plate armor or a digit or something like that. A toe.

[Flack]

Toe.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

It's like, just so that there's, like, something, like, multicolored that way. It's like it. It's like our way of showing that we're back together in some form or fashion, even if we're separated by great distance.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

So it's like a. Like a physical representation. So, like, I'm just trying to get your intention here. So if you run into another sibling, you can show proof of having met the other siblings.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Exactly. It's because. Because, you know, we're all distinct colors and configurations. So it's like I've seen Elva, I've seen Neo, I've seen Tio. And then, like, here are the parts that represent them, and then they can do the same if they run into our brothers and sisters. That way we can kind of keep track of who's where.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I think that's really fun.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah. Neo and Tio, I know you just got your bodies back, but would you be interested in just maybe swapping a single part? You know, I already have some Elva pieces, so we could, you know, do that as a way of just showing that, you know, we could still be together in some way.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Do a little trade.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Maybe something a little more, you know, significant than a little trade, but sure, yeah. What Gunther said.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Do a little trade. Make a little love. Get down tonight.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

These are my siblings. I don't know why you're singing that inappropriate song.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Doug just misses music. It's been a while since he's gotten to listen to anything.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Don't get me started on missing music.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

We'll have a jam session later.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Natty needs to find an instrument or something.

[Neo]

Oh, yeah, brother. I think that's an excellent idea. What parts would you like to swap?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Let me see. I guess Neo, I shall take a forefinger. And Teo, let's swap out, like, a collarbone. I don't know, Something like that.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Sure. Yeah. You begin working at the various pieces and unattaching them, reattaching them, swapping them out, and. Yeah. Which finger?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Left index.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Left index.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I'm gonna write this down.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's a good one.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

And then I would also want to do, like, a retcon, because Elva was missing leg pieces. So maybe there are some components that we had to swap because we also found, like, another one, you know, so like, maybe like a kneecap.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Kind of help that out.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You could also maybe request it via Raven. She has communicated with you, and you've communicated with her in a previous episodes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Cool.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Now, whenever I pick my finger, I will think of you, Neo. Or pick my nose.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Pick my finger.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

We're not there yet, but we'll say once you get back to town here in a little bit, which you're going to, I presume, is your next stop. You'd send a Raven to Elva? What would you want it to say?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Elva? I found Neo and Tio. They were in disarray, but we reassembled them as a way of keeping track of all of our siblings. We are exchanging components. Here is a piece of my leg. Please send something back in return so that I have proof of your life.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay. Which leg? Love?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Big bro, Big slash, little slash. Your favoritest, brother.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Favoritest.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Which leg or part are you sending?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Which part specifically what part did. Let me see. I know that they were missing.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Talk about Elva.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Less plague.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Missing entire left leg. Yes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Cool. Yeah, I'll do that left leg piece.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Great.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's fun. I like this, because then by the end of it, I'm gonna be, like, all multicolored, and it'll be like my whole family's on me.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It's like you have genetics with this.

[Flack]

Yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Ah. You have your brother's collarbone.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

What is the next step here? What is the plan here? You all have pretty much reassembled Neo and Tio. What are you all doing?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Sounds to me like we should go to Copia Convent.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Well, I'd like to return the fire Opal first.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, right, we should do that. And then, I guess. Yes, into Neo and Tio.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Well, where are we geographically?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Because weren't we heading?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

We were going to the ruins.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Wait, hold on.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Let me pull my notes.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Are we at the ruins of Raisin now?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

No. You all had taken off east from Fort Endridge. Copia Convent is close to Fort Endridge, so it's behind you now, and you passed it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

We're at Boiling Bluffs.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Correct. You're at Boiling Bluffs. And presumably your next stop was Sky Blue Falls Prison as you make your way to the front.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Right, right, right, right. Sorry, I was confused because I listened to an old episode.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're heading there for safety, so that's good. They can head there. We should keep heading forward.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, I agree. And we also need to make sure that we bring back the fire.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Opal, let us do that now.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Also. Yeah, yeah. That kind of, like, exchanging of components and stuff is like, I think, like a good goodbye for Neon Tio as I let them onto the next part of their journey. How do they look, by the way? Did we get the majority of their components? Are they like.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, they seem pretty much back to normal. Not 100%, but pretty good. Like, most of the way there. You know, there is some. Some wear and tear.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

They get up, they get ready to take one step and everything just falls apart on the floor.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Very cartoonish. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, they. They would bid you farewell and continue on their journey. As they were doing. They. They know where they're going. They just got sidetracked by this attack. So they bid you farewell and tell you to take care.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Very sweet goodbye.

What a beautiful family moment.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Really is.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I like this new, like, Pokemon card game that I've got going with the body parts. It's fun.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Gotta get them all.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I will say, Tom, you know, like, just hold your siblings close.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

I think he is there. Attached to him.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No, I got.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Oh, sorry.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Thank. I understand, Doug.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I mean, physically it's good.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

But emotionally, of course, Doug, I. I value and cherish every moment with my family.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

So you all are heading back to the temple, question mark.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yes. I want to see my fiery friends.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Do you tell?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. You all leave the riverbank and head back into Boiling Bluffs proper itself and head over to the font of the fire eater where you were previously, which is what Natty is alluding to. And do you remember who you're looking for there?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's a good question, Flack.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, there you go. Take an inspiration dock.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Wow.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Nice.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I didn't even remember that.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I didn't either. I just wrote it down.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

You just looked at all the names you had written down and you picked one.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

No, I mean, like I said, I've actually got a pretty good system in my notes now. Although I've been slacking on it the last couple of sessions of my highlighting, but it's right there.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Flack.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

We went to the temple. Flack, the gnome, who's a fire master with the Kindlekin priests.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

He's a balding gnome.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Chris is like, gimme, please.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay. Yeah. You walk back into the temple and. And you find after searching around for A couple minutes. You're able to find Flack.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Hey, Flak attack.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

We've got your fire opal.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

It was all intact the whole time. We had it, too. Nothing bad happened with it, or no mistakes were made with it, either.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

That's right.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. He kind of furrows his brow a little bit and looks at Doug.

[Flack]

Wait, so do you or don't you have it? I don't understand. Is it okay?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yes, we do.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Y'. All.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Silence is an option sometimes.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I'm nervous. Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah. And I motioned to Tol to hand it to him.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

And I give it back.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's very nice.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You had a lot of fanfare.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

That's very.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I like.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Thank you.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Wow. Yes.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

He has a puzzled look on his face as you pull it out and present it to him. And he takes it from you, Cole. And grabs the. He just kind of, under his breath.

[Flack]

Mutters, what is this garbage?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And takes the rod off of the opal and throws the rod away on the ground.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

All right.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I was like, dude, we bring the practical rock thing.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Wait, so he can handle it without it being burning?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Like, it seems like he's totally comfortable holding it.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Cool.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yes.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

The fire master, Gigi chases after the.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Stick, by the way, does he drop the axe in favor of the stick?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

No, you can just grab his mouth.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's a dog.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Like a dog. Like a dog. He's fetching the stick.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

He still has. He still has that axe in his mouth or in his hand.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

That axe has been all over the place.

[Flack]

Oh, thank you so much. This means a great deal to the Kindlekin. As a token of our appreciation, we could lend you a relic for your journey.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, is this like a one for me, one for you? Kind of the one in, one out kind of thing?

[Flack]

Exactly.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Library.

[Flack]

Well, not usually, but, yeah, we'll make an exception after all. You a member of the Kindle Kin, Natty?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yes, I am. Thank you very much. Well, what kind of relics you got? You got like, an assortment or is like, just one?

[Flack]

I could show you. Follow me this way.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Love to.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

He turns around and begins making his way over towards the reliquary.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay, is this like bones of saints or. You got cooler stuff than that.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

That's pretty cool for a religion to have bones of saints. I mean, that's pretty neat.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's a little weird to me.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Pretty metal.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I recently learned total tangent, and I'm going to keep this very quick. I recently learned that the remains of the conquistador Hernando Cortez are in Mexico City.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Really interesting.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, it's really weird because they want.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

To keep an eye on him, I guess.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

He was actually buried in Spain, but then his remains were sent back to Mexico. And it's like in a. I read this article. It's in, like, a dilapidated church and. No, that's. And I think it's attached to a hospital that's been there since the 1500s, and nobody wants anything to do with it. It's like a forgotten, disregarded relic because nobody likes him.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, no, these history's one of the history's biggest butts.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Right. So it's really, really weird. Anyway, there's a great article in the New York Times about it. If any of our listeners are curious.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Why don't I just burn it?

Burn it.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay. So you walk into the reliquary and you see an ornamental glossy black box that rests on a plinth, and it's marked with ancient runes. I don't think you all came into the reliquary your first time here in the temple.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

No.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Flack makes a beeline for the glossy box and opens it up, and inside you see a couple of relics. And he says, these are sacred to Earth, Kindlekin.

[Flack]

But we can allow you to borrow one if you wish.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Borrow?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yeah, borrow one for each of us.

[Flack]

Let's keep it to one.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Is it the flight logs?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Is it the.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

The P2 breed outs? Black box down.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Nice black box.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

How many relics are there in there?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

There are four total now that Flack has placed the fire opal of fireballs back in.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay, could you maybe describe what each of these does?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

He seems very proud, having hope in this box and pointing out the various relics that are in here. He says, gather round.

[Flack]

Gather round. These are the relics from the fire eater's first manifestation. Can you believe it? Right here we got the clause of commandments.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

What does that do?

[Flack]

These grant you the blessing of casting commands while holding a claw.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

And so I guess has three uses.

[Flack]

Yeah. However, it burns to ash immediately upon use.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Okay, how are we supposed to return it?

[Flack]

Yeah, you know, collect the ashes, bring them back here.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Next to it is a scroll. And he points at that.

[Flack]

This right here, this is the scrolled scroll of scorching.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And this looks like a blackened scroll with burnt edges. It smells tasty. And it's got script written on it in Draconic.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Any of you guys read Draconic?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No. I wish I did. Sounds like a cool language. Sounds like you could really milk that as, like a Joke or something for like a whole campaign.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Is it is like a fire spell or something?

[Flack]

It's a scroll scribed with the divine words blessed straight from the fire eater. It also leaves a burnt taste in your mouth.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And if you speak or eat the scroll, scorching rays hurl from your tongue.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Cool. What if you got three tongues?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Question mark, three times the burn.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

However, there is a downside. Your tongue is burnt for the rest of the session.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

So if we eat it and to return it, how?

[Flack]

Eh, you'll figure it out.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh God.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I don't know if I want to put that in my mouth. If it's been used before.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

We'll make potatoes with the excrement and then we'll bring those potatoes back.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yuck.

[Flack]

Over here we got the scales of scry.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And it's two huge reptilian scales. They're charred black and they glow dull red.

[Flack]

You hurl these into flames for a truly eye opening experience. Experience? You toss them into a fire and the scale opens as wide as a reptilian eye. And you can see in here the fire eater for a whole five seconds.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Whoa.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Five seconds.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Wow.

[Flack]

A beeper.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Wow.

[Flack]

I know, it's hard to believe, right? You can even speak with a God.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

We've done that a few times already.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

What?

[Flack]

No. You're lying to me.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Well, not the fire eater though.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

No.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Or have we?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

No, we haven't encountered them.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay. The sea drinker and the fire eater are in love.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

So maybe the sea drinker would like that.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, I was gonna say maybe. That would be a good bartering tool.

[Flack]

And finally, this last one, you're familiar with the fire opal of fireballs?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's a blazing, fiery red, translucent gemstone the size of a grapefruit. It's constantly steaming.

[Flack]

Legend tells us this is a single teardrop shed from the fire eater herself. Be careful though. It's incredibly hot. Burns to the touch. It'll even damage you if you're not prepared while holding the gemstone. You can cast the spell. Fireball.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I don't know which one of these is the most. I mean, Natty, it's your call, right?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yes. This is my church.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Bless up.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Bless up. Amen. Yeah, I go with the scales of scrying. That seems the most mysterious and interesting.

[Flack]

Oh, okay.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You can add that to your inventory, I believe. Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I'm thrilled. For the moment we throw it in the fire. I'm like, hello, can you hear us?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yes.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Hello. Can you hear me? Hey, what's up?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Five seconds. It's over.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Over.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Dang it.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It'll be even worse than the sending stone.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, and Flack.

[Flack]

Yeah?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I wanted to be very clear that if at any point you guys were under the impression that some robots were the ones who stole this. It was a bunch of dretches, really. Specifically this Druid one. And maybe you could clarify this. He was. Or they. I don't remember what they were, but they were trying to use it on a pool of boiling liquid to resurrect an Indarian that we had fought previously and possibly murdered.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh.

[Flack]

Most troubling. Where did this go down?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

In the mines.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

In the mines?

[Flack]

In the mines. Oh. This warrants further exploration and discussion. We have Kindlekin down there right now exploring the mines, but this information, that could help us root out what's actually happening.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Also, if you could, like, pass the Verd around, because I think that there was a misconception. The thaumatech, those robot guys, totally cool, totally chill. They're actually really nice and misunderstood.

[Flack]

Okay, good to know.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Just saying.

[Flack]

All right.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah. You know, just saying.

[Flack]

Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

So if you see one, don't. Don't give him any trouble. You know, Let them. Let them go their way.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

In fact, give them. Give them five gold coins if you see.

[Flack]

Five gold coins.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, yeah. They're very cool, very chill, very groovy. Yep, that's right.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

It's good luck. It's good luck to give them five gold coins.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

That's.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yes. Culture, sure.

[Flack]

Makes sense.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Flack would hand over the scales to you, Natty. You're the one taking him, right?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And as he hands him over, he leans in close and whispers something into your ear. I'm gonna slack it to you. And it's up to you. You can say it to everyone or not. It's up to you. Then he pulls away. Then he goes back, closing the glossy black box that's resting on the plate.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay, I understood. Understood. I turned to my teeth.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I tell. I tell.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Later.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

I tell you later. Kindle Kin business. Cold, Cold.

[Neo]

Vink.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Vink.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay. Is there a place place we could rest?

[Flack]

Certainly. As a member of Kindlekin, you're welcome to rest here with us. We got cots set up for you priests and visiting travelers.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay. We could probably use a long rest.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Is there, like, a friends and family discount that we could get as friends? With Nanny here?

[Flack]

Are you kidding? You brought back the fire op. Fireballs. You don't have to pay anything. You're welcome here.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Very cool.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, well.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

He leads you to another room that is filled with beds. Got cots with woolen blankets for priests and visiting travelers. And there's boxes of scented candles set up. And a couple of the beds have travelers packs by them.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

As in they're occupied.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, God. It's a hostel.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Sort of.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Flack leads you to some open beds.

[Flack]

You can rest here.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Could I look at one of the traveler's packs real quick before we go there? Just to see if there's any, like, loot insignia on it or like anything that would indicate it's maybe familiar to us?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah, not looting, just looking.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Just looking? Yeah. Not taking.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Make a investigation.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Check property of infernus. What?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, my gosh. 8. I can't roll well today.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

What you looking at, Doug?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Apparently nothing.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Ah, let me see.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Can you see that? I don't have my glasses on. Maybe that's the issue.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Eddie rolls a 17.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You take a look at it, and it's a very plain leather bag. It doesn't seem like there's any really identifying information on it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Hey, Flack, who do these bags belong to?

[Flack]

Let's see. Some of them are Kindlekin priests and some are travelers. People you know coming on pilgrimage. Come view our relics in the reliquary. Perhaps you heard of it.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Oh, okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Any of them thaumatechs?

[Flack]

Thaumatech? Oh, you mean the metal people. No, no, they were stealing our fire opal. That's what we thought at least. And no, we just ran them off.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Right, right. But what happens if you run into a thaumatech going forward?

[Flack]

Give him five gold.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Five gold.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, great. Okay.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

You're such a quick learner, Flag.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Good job. Just making sure. Awesome.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

And very friendly.

[Flack]

Be friendly.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Got it.

[Flack]

Okay, that's very good. That's very good.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay. Natty takes a long rest.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, you all can take a long rest here if you want.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Oh, my gosh. A long rest. I didn't think I'd see the day doing a trance.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I mean, Natty does that too, but.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

You do a steering contest while we trance.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I guess. Gigi never blinks.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Oh, he's just got dust and dirt on his. On his eyeballs.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

He's just. He's just wide eyed all the time.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Unmoving. Yeah. You all rest and you. You feel refreshed.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I suppose we should head to our next destination, right, team?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I suppose so. Sky blue falls.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

The prison.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, sure.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

We could go. We could go.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

See you later, Flag. See you later.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Have fun.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

And then I want to. As we're like leaving town, I want to turn a corner Take off my Bjorn head and then go back and be like, hello, I'm a Thaumatech. Hello. What's this?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Money, please.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Do you really want to do this?

[Flack]

Yes.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I. No, do it, do it, do it.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay. Okay.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Yeah.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, wow.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Wow.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

This is a lovely village you have here.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

As you're walking through boiling bluffs, doors to houses and businesses close and windows pull their shutters shut. You make your way to the temple and out front, Flack is directed some acolytes who are making repairs to the exterior of the building and sees you make a perception check.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Okay.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

10.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Is something bad gonna happen?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I don't care either way. Thank you for doing this.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You see what appears to be a look of horror come across his face, which is then like, stifled and like a very fake artificial smile comes across his face. And he comes out with hand outstretched.

[Flack]

And says, welcome, friend. Can we help you with something?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Thank you. I'm just passing through. What's up with this place? How are you?

[Flack]

Oh, this, this here. This is the temple, the font of the fire. Oh, wait, here we go.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

He reaches into his pocket and rummages around.

[Flack]

Ah, nuts. I'm a little short on gold. Here's one gold piece. Why don't you take that and feel free to. To move along, you know, just keep going.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

How so generous of you. Do you guys have a place to stay where I can just, you know.

[Flack]

Yeah, yeah. People like you. Yeah, absolutely.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

All right.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Wow. This. This flat guy is really learning quickly. I love it.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Well, I won't take up much of your time. I was just passing through, so thanks for the gold piece.

[Flack]

Oh, right. Hey, let your friends know that we are friendly and we know that you're cool in our books.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

All right? Let your village know that I'm not to be afraid of so they don't have to slam the doors and the windows shut. It's cool. I'm cool.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

See?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Hey, give me a hug. Come on, give me a hug.

[Flack]

Okay.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's a very stiff, awkward, Gus boy.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

All right, see you later, Flack. I queen stranger.

[Flack]

All right, see you later. Wait, what?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's exactly what it's like when your grandma meets a drag queen for the first time.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yeah.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You rejoin up with the rest of the party.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Bjorn head back on.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You all depart and begin making your way over land in the direction of Sky Blue Falls Prison. While you're traveling, the boiling oil cliffsides give way to wintry fields with occasional dusting of snowfall. Gunther. As you all are walking, you see two eagles perched on a Tree that has only a few leaves on it. And as you stop to consider the beauty of the scene, the leaves fall off of the tree.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Do I recognize them? Is there something of significance this to Gunther?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's just very. It just stands out like it's a very beautiful scene. And it's very unusual that this tree is there with the eagles because there doesn't seem to be any other trees around. Just that one.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Can I wave at the eagles?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Hello.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You give them a wave and it doesn't seem like they notice you or regard you at all. They're staring into the distance.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

And their leaves fell off.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. Of the tree, not the eagles, of course.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Can I look at the leaves and see if there's anything significant?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

All the leaves of the trees are just a couple little loose ones.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah. There weren't very many leaves on the tree and they all fall off. Maybe it's the wind. It's kind of wintry and cold here.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Yeah.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You approach the tree, Gunther, and as you get close, the eagles take flight and leave. Haha. And you begin taking a look at the leaves that are on the ground. Make a nature check 14. Yeah. You take a look and it seems like nothing out of the ordinary. They're the correct leaves for this tree and they're here. Maybe the other ones that felt before already got blown away by the wind. It is a little windy.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

And look at where the eagles were looking at. Like maybe from there where they were perched. Or see if they were looking at anything in particular.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It's hard to tell. Right. Because eagles have their eyes.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Oh yeah.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

A little differently than we do as people, I should say. Their vision is very different than what we experience as humans and humanoids. So it appears that they were maybe looking in the direction. Direction that you were walking towards or that you're going to. If you had to take a guess. You feel like you've done this before, Gunther. You have an overwhelming sense of deja vu.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Gunther starts to sweat.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Frog sweat.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Googling. Do frog sweat.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Do you recognize this area? Maybe since I know like this sky Blue Falls prison is what you broke out of. Maybe you've been like brought past this tree before.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Yes. It feels familiar. What if we go somewhere else?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

I mean, should we just keep walking?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Okay. I guess so.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Are you uncomfortable?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

No.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah. You seem totally.

Know what I mean.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Because of the birds? Is it just the birds?

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Well, I do not like birds generally.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

No.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Neither did your last character.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

All right.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You get an inspiration. Die. That's really good.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

I already got one. I'm Good. Tapped out.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

So I guess Gunther will continue forth kind of reluctantly.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Okay. After traveling a little longer. In the distance, you see a building rising on the horizon. And you get close, closer and closer, and it looms larger and larger. And you see it's a prison tower of stacked cells that appears to be in the middle of an icy lake. There's a localized cloud that hails over the tower frequently. And the watchtower circles the lake and the prison on railway.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

The watchtower is on a railway and it's moving around.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

That's pretty cool. Sorry.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

The imagery of that is really dope. Sorry.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Like, it's like the prison and then the watchtowers going around it.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yes.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

I love that.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

It's awesome.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

The tower's in the center of the frozen lake.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

The prison is in the middle of the frozen lake.

[Gunther Bootkiss Windbreaker]

Is it on an island or is it just like on the frozen lake?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

It appears to be built into the frozen lake.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Oh, I can't get over that imagery. If I encounter that in a video game, I'd go, whoa.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Whoa. Well, Gunther, it seems we're here.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

How'd you get out? So we can get back in?

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Yeah, reverse engineer.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

All four of you. Make me a perception check.

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

15, 16, 14, 16.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Wow, those are all really good roles.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

This is a tight grouping.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

You're asking Gunther? Natty. You're asking Gunther for information about how he broke out and how you get back in. When all four of you at the same time notice a humanoid in the middle of the lake. It appears to be a brawny halfling in a striped red jumpsuit. The hopping between sheets of ice floating on the frigid lake. He sees you all turn around and calls out to you four.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Hey, you.

[Neo]

Hey, where you going?

[Tolf (Blaine Gibson)]

Come over here. The name's Candle Cody. As you can see, I'm in a bit of a.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

And with a splash, the halfling is snatched into the icy lake by blue curved claws without a trace.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Should I not have bothered writing his name down?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Or shortest lived patron.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Should we go try to save him?

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Maybe we can find out what that's all about in the next episode of Tales from the Sneaky Dragon.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

We've got some big news, everyone. You've heard us talk all about the cool perks we offer on our Patreon and how it's the best way to support our show. Well, from now until January 15, we are offering a special New Year's promotion. We are offering annual members memberships to our Patreon at 20 off. That's right, 20 off. Annual memberships. Head over to stinkydragonpaw.com and use the code STINKY2026. That's STINKY in all caps 2026 to get 20 off an annual membership to our Patreon. We want you guys to join our party so come be part of the best and I would say stinkiest community in the world world. Hope to see you there. New episodes of Tales from the Stinky Dragon premiere every other Wednesday wherever you stream podcasts and on the Stinky Dragon YouTube channel. Want to listen to the show 48 hours early and ad free. You could support us by becoming a [e-mail] or join as a member on Beacon TV. Both give you early ad free access and a members only Discord for their respective platforms. Looking for even more stinky content and community perks? Our Patreon offers exclusive bonus shows, behind the scenes content, access to the Stinky Dragon, Discord Members Only, livestreams stinky community events and a shout out on the show. Just like these patrons s wheel, lilybug s callion001, thecheesenight and james star Life. These patrons directly support the show. Get ad freed episodes, access to our patron only Discord server bonus content like Second Wind and Behind the Screen and other stinky perks. Thank you so much to our patrons. Once again, that's stinkydragonpod.com we are incredibly grateful for your support which makes this show possible. Some of Our friends voiced NPCs in this episode and listeners who interacted with us on the Stinky dragon. Discord had NPCs named after them. We have Tio, voiced by will earl at DNDshorts. We have Neo, voiced by Adam Baird at Grufftech. We have Flack, named after Flakes, voiced by Micah Risinger at Micah Risinger. And finally, can do Cody, named after Cody Bickford, voiced by Andrew Blanchard, who is dlanshard.

Thank you friends.

Thank you for providing such wonderful vo. This week's Arrow question was submitted by Gunther Bootkiss. Windbreaker. I've heard that name before. Sounds familiar. This episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon was produced by Ben Ernst and Michael Risinger, written and composed by Micah Risinger and edited by Alina Licorczyk. Tune in next time for another thrilling episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Sam. It is known as a place of refuge and there have been rumors saying that they will offer. What is the word they will offer?

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Sanctuary.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Sanctuary. Thank you. They will offer sanctuary. I was seeing a Homer Simpson running into the church, and I was like, what does he yell? That Reverend Love Sanctuary. Yeah. Reverend Lovejoy's like, I regret ever teaching him that name.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Or like, the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

That's what I think about.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

No Simpsons.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Not classic literature and stage play.

[Flack]

No Simpsons. Always.

[Dungeon Master (Gustavo Sorola)]

Yeah, the Simpsons.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

This is the story of the one as an H Vac technician, he and his digital multimeter are in high demand. So when a noisy office H Vac.

[Doug Boone (Barbara Dunkelman)]

Turns out to be a failing blower motor, he doesn't break a sweat. With Grainger's easy to use website and product information. He selects the product he needs to.

[Natty Wonder (John)]

Keep everything humming right along. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickranger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.