Tavern Tales - Maze Rat Pack Ep. 01 - The Sky Blind Spire Part 1

Summary

Tales from the Stinky Dragon Episode Summary: "Tavern Tales - Maze Rat Pack Ep. 01 - The Sky Blind Spire Part 1" Release Date: September 10, 2024

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Introduction to the Adventure

In the premiere episode of "Tavern Tales," hosted by the ever-patient Dungeon Master Micah Reisinger, four friends embark on a comedic yet thrilling Dungeons & Dragons journey within the whimsical world of Rodentia. The cast introduces their uniquely flawed and charming characters, setting the stage for an epic quest filled with humor, camaraderie, and unexpected challenges.

Character Introductions

• Barbara Dunkelman as Muffin Murphy ([04:22])

  • “She's delicate, she's got nine fingers, some patch clothing, and a very menacing personality.”
  • Muffin's secret? She speaks only in whispers, adding an air of mystery to her formidable demeanor.

• Blaine as Billy the Rat ([05:13])

  • “Billy is a pudgy little character with mutton chops, like the henchmen you think of beside a mafia boss.”
  • A skilled fingersmith, Billy excels in lock-picking and tinkering, embodying the classic underdog hero.

• Gustavo Cirola as Eric Ratmansky ([05:58])

  • “Eric Ratmansky is a barrel-chested individual wearing ceremonial clothing with a menacing personality.”
  • Known as the muscle of the group, Eric's large birthmark adds to his intimidating presence.

• John Risinger as Big Benny ([07:10])

  • “Big Benny, or Benjamin Ratcliffe, is the team's ace and muscle, marked by bloodstains on his clothing.”
  • Benny’s strength and protective nature make him indispensable to the team.

The Quest Begins: A Call from Murin

Murin, an elderly Rodentia, urgently hires the party to locate his missing son, Vol, who ventured to the enigmatic Sky Blind Spire—a tower rumored to house untold treasures and potent magic. Murin fears that Vol has not only sought fortune but may have also attracted the attention of the ruthless Rikaloo gang, led by the shaman Pestis. The reward? Fifty silver pieces each, with the promise that any treasure found within the tower is theirs to keep.

• Murin ([10:26])
  • “Vol has been gone for 24 hours. He insisted we search the tower immediately, but I feared the dangers.”

Journey Through the Scrublands

The adventurers set off on a half-day journey north through the scrublands, encountering minimal resistance but facing environmental challenges like unexpected drizzle and cloud cover. Their path leads them to a serene lake, where a rowboat awaits as their vessel to the tower.

• Barbara Dunkelman as Muffin Murphy ([16:00])
  • “We all jump into the boat and start rowing across this massive lake,” signaling the transition from land to waterborne exploration.

Entering the Sky Blind Spire

Upon arrival, the towering structure looms ominously, its five stories adorned with windows in each cardinal direction. The team boards the rowboat, maneuvering through remnants of prior adventurers—each footprint and hidden hole suggesting a desperate search for something valuable or dangerous.

• Micah Reisinger as Dungeon Master ([21:37])
  • “The tower is five stories tall with individual windows on each floor. Each window has a chain dangling down to the one below.”

First Encounters within the Tower

Stepping into the first level, the party is greeted by a large stone hall filled with iron cages holding decayed bodies. A glowing tile marked "One" activates as they enter, accompanied by ethereal lights above their heads, setting a supernatural tone for their quest.

• Barbara Dunkelman as Muffin Murphy ([34:45])
  • “I don't know if we are close enough to these hanging cages to see if they're missing any teeth.”

As they investigate, they uncover eerie details—barefoot tracks, holes around the tower’s perimeter, and decaying bodies wearing ornate masks covered in tongue-like symbols. The discovery of a blueprint revealing the tower's convoluted layout deepens the mystery.

Unveiling the Tower's Secrets

The team navigates through numbered rooms, each presenting unique challenges and cryptic clues. From grappling with serpent-like spirits in the fountain room to deciphering messages from King Oswald urging the wizard Teetardinal to abandon his menacing project, the adventurers piece together the tower's dark history.

• Micah Reisinger as Dungeon Master ([44:29])
  • “The message inside reads King Oswald is begging Teetardinal to give up his dark project and return to his seat.”

Climactic Confrontations and Escalating Tensions

Tensions rise as the party faces spectral guardians and navigates through twisting corridors, culminating in a fierce battle with a giant pelican-like entity. Strategic maneuvers, including shoving a vial of poison into the creature’s mouth, lead to its retreat, allowing the team to press deeper into the tower.

• Blaine as Billy the Rat ([67:37])
  • “I shove this vial of poison into the giant's mouth, and veins around its face start turning green.”

A Challenging Escape and Unresolved Mysteries

As the party gathers Vol's deceased body and secures the tower, they encounter enigmatic artifacts like a potion labeled with cryptic symbols and face ongoing supernatural phenomena that suggest the tower’s deep-rooted enchantments. The episode concludes with the team poised to continue their exploration, leaving listeners eager for the next installment.

• Barbara Dunkelman as Muffin Murphy ([85:32])
  • “I try to grab the torn piece of fabric and see what's inside.”

Notable Quotes

• Barbara Dunkelman as Muffin Murphy ([05:41])

  • “Feels good to be talking to my normal Duncan voice again.”

• John Risinger as Big Benny ([07:11])

  • “All right, well, I'm John Risinger and I am playing Big Benny.”

• Micah Reisinger as Dungeon Master ([43:57])

  • “It's a living ecosystem kind of thing.”

Conclusion

"Tavern Tales - Maze Rat Pack Ep. 01 - The Sky Blind Spire Part 1" masterfully blends humor with adventurous storytelling, showcasing the dynamic interplay between the Dungeon Master and the players. As the Maze Rats delve deeper into the mysteries of the Sky Blind Spire, listeners are treated to a rich narrative filled with clever character interactions, unexpected twists, and the enduring charm of true friendship amidst chaos.

Stay tuned for Episode 2, where the Maze Rats will continue their perilous journey to uncover the secrets of the Sky Blind Spire and confront the lurking dangers that threaten their mission.

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This summary encapsulates the key events and character dynamics of the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for both seasoned listeners and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Micah Reisinger]

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[Blaine]

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[Micah Reisinger]

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[Blaine]

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[Micah Reisinger]

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[Blaine]

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[Micah Reisinger]

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[Blaine]

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[Micah Reisinger]

Decisions, decisions.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Wait a minute. Are you still looking for cars on Carvana?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Decisions, decisions.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

When I used Carvana, I found the exact car I was looking for in minutes. Bought it on the spot.

[Micah Reisinger]

Electric or full diesel. Decisions.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Come on, you've been at it for weeks.

[Micah Reisinger]

Just buy it already.

[Blaine]

You're right. Crossover it is decisions decided whether know.

[Micah Reisinger]

Exactly what you want or like to take your time. Buy your car the convenient way with Carvana.

[Gustavo Cirola]

What is this?

[John Risinger]

You have not signed up for Stinky Dragon Patreon. That's crazy. Hello, my name Alexey Tinchenko. I am big superstar of the Patreon exclusive D and D campaign, the Sea Squad. And if you're not subscribed to Stinky Dragon Patreon, ah, then you are missing out on big cool adventures. We have a whole collection of mini campaigns called Tavern Tales that you can treat those ears of yours too. Just go to sneakydragonpod.com, sign up for a membership and you will have access to hours of exclusive content, including an epic adventure with myself and my good friends from the SE squad. Okay, so you go to stinkydragonpod.com and sign up today. Okay. Bye bye.

[Blaine]

Kind disregards to all you rodentious. Get her on into the Stinky Dragon. Sip on our latest libation. 10 gallon rat.

[Micah Reisinger]

A mixture of. Pardon me, Guzzler. I do hate to interrupt, but don't you and Duncan ever get thirsty talking about all these beverages you've brewed, huh?

[Blaine]

You know, no one's ever asked us that before, but now that you mention it, yeah, I do have a hankering for a Vermin Hatton. And you know me, I'll never turn down a cup of Joe.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Ooh.

[Micah Reisinger]

Whew.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

That's better.

[Blaine]

Feels good to be Talking to my.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Normal Duncan voice again.

[Micah Reisinger]

I wondered as much. Now, I'm no expert mixologist like yourselves, but I'd be happy to look after the bar while you take a load off and as you say, swallow your latest will.

[Blaine]

Wow. That's mighty generous, friend.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, thanks.

[Micah Reisinger]

Think nothing of it. Besides, I believe I know a tale that would interest you in particular. Guzzler. Oh, yeah?

[Blaine]

Which one is that?

[Micah Reisinger]

The tale of the Sky Blind Spire.

[John Risinger]

You ever think that, like Gus's wife fears for her life when she's listening.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I just want an entire one shot of Gus switching around to all the voices he's done.

[Micah Reisinger]

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a special One Shot Tavern Tales episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. I am not Gustavo Serolev, but rather Micah Reisinger, normally the writer, editor and composer for the show, but today I am your Dungeon Master.

[Blaine]

Pew, pew.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Pew, pew.

[Micah Reisinger]

I am joined today by a party of four lovely players. Please introduce yourselves, your character name and a brief physical description of your character.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Hello, everyone. I am Barbara Dunkelman and.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Hi, Barbara.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Today I shall be playing Muffin Murphy. Muffin is. Let me just go through the list. She's delicate, she's got nine fingers. She's got some patch clothing. And her personality, she's very menacing.

[Blaine]

Oh.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

But the little secret about Muffin is that she talks and whispers.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

What's the distribution of the nine fingers?

[Unknown]

Well, you know, I have like, just no thumb.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, okay.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I don't know.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

If it was like six on one and three on the other, that would.

[Unknown]

Be really cool, actually.

[John Risinger]

So every movie you see is not good because you can only give it one thumbs up, one thumb up.

[Unknown]

One thumb up is still pretty good. It's like halfway.

[Micah Reisinger]

I take it you're female. So are you Womanacing woman? Yes.

[John Risinger]

I'll go next. I'm Blaine, and today I'll be playing Billy the Rat. Billy is a pudgy little character with mutton chops and he's kind of like a. Whenever you think of like a mafia boss and you think about the little henchmen that he has next to him that are always kind of like rubbing their knuckles and saying, yeah, boss, that's Billy Brad. He's what is called a fingersmith. So I think he's gonna be like a tinkerer and he can like lock pick stuff.

[Micah Reisinger]

Gotcha.

[Unknown]

Wait, Fingersmith?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Unknown]

That's kind of insulting to me, I think.

[John Risinger]

I'm so sorry.

[Gustavo Cirola]

It sounds kind of ableist when you.

[John Risinger]

Put it that way, but I'm gonna call everybody Boss.

[Unknown]

Boss.

[Blaine]

Yeah. Maybe Billy can smith you a new finger.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I do like that.

[Blaine]

Hello, I am Gustavo Cirola and I'll be playing Eric Ratmansky.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh my God, I just got it.

[Blaine]

Eric Ratmansky is a very barrel chested individual wearing ceremonial clothing with also a menacing personality. You can be woman missing muffin. I'll be menacing. And he has a rather large. Yeah, he has a rather large birthmark on one of his cheeks.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, wait, cheek on the face.

[Blaine]

Or you can see the one on the face. Maybe if we get to be better friends.

[Micah Reisinger]

You can.

[Blaine]

You can see the other one matching one. If there was another one.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

It's interesting. Billy the Rat was described as being like the henchman. I figure Eric Ratmansky is more like the boss, like the mob boss. Like. Yeah, see, we're going to go and we're going to break their legs. Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I feel like we got a theme going with our rat already.

[Micah Reisinger]

Absolutely.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh my gosh, that's funny.

[Blaine]

So that's Eric Ratmansky in a nutshell.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

All right, well, I'm John Risinger and I am playing Big Benny. Big Benny to his friends. His Christian name is Benjamin Ratcliffe.

[Blaine]

Oh, okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

But Big Benny's a rather large rat, big chested, he's got some bloodstains on his clothing. Yeah, he's ace. Gonna be the muscle around here, if you're okay with that.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

So that's Big Benny right here.

[Unknown]

I could also say.

[Blaine]

Yeah, yeah. Sounds like I got some good muscle here.

[Micah Reisinger]

You see everybody say y. 1, 2, 3. Yeah. Today we are playing a wonderful one shot that I found called the Skyblind Spire. Cool. And what's more, we aren't playing D and D5E.

[Blaine]

What?

[Micah Reisinger]

We're playing a different tabletop role playing game called Maze Rats. As you can probably guess by these names, Rats. We'll be playing a much simpler system. Fewer rules. Instead of a D20, every roll in the game is a two D6.02 D6s. And then you kind of add those up. And if it's 10 or above, then it's a success. If not, then it's a failure. There's only three stats in the game. Strength, dexterity and will. The first two are pretty self explanatory. The third will represents using force of personality perception or willpower. Every player is tiny, tiny, tiny. With four maximum hit points and a limited number of items.

[Unknown]

So delicate.

[Micah Reisinger]

So tiny. There are only like three classes in the game. Funnily enough, everybody chose the same class.

[Blaine]

No way.

[Micah Reisinger]

Except the path that you guys chose. So in the third. The third class is like a path. You get to specialize in something. Three of you chose the same path. And I'll let you guess the fourth is not a man and chose a different one. I chose. We rolled dice. That's true.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

No, you could choose the path.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

No, I roll dice.

[Micah Reisinger]

You could choose a role.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Mine was randomization.

[Micah Reisinger]

Well, there you go. Yeah, I did. I did.

[John Risinger]

The fates let me choose it.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I followed the rules. The thing said roll dice. I roll dice.

[Blaine]

I rolled dice, too. What are the odds that we all ended up on the same thing? This doesn't make any sense to me.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

Wait, so we're all the same strength and dexterity and will? Or the same paths, like the job or whatever.

[Micah Reisinger]

The fingersmith. You're all your three of your fingersmiths.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

And the one without a finger. The one missing a finger is not a finger. Smith. Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, I feel like this works out pretty well.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Which, you're a briarborn. Is that correct?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Briarborn. Yes.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. So fingersmiths are good at, like, tinkering, picking locks, picking pockets. Briarborn is good at tracking, foraging, survival stuff. Other than that, all the listener needs to know is that our party today is comprised of rat humanoids that I've come to call Rodentia. That is not a rule in maze. Rats. You don't have to be a rat. I just thought it'd be fun. I.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Like, there were rats. I want to be a rat.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, definitely.

[Micah Reisinger]

Any questions about that? About the rules of the game team?

[John Risinger]

Does Eric Radmansky have, like, another podcast about, like, eating food or, like, a regulation podcast?

[Micah Reisinger]

Just curious, the fact that you just.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Didn'T straight up name him Eric Badour.

[Blaine]

Yeah, honestly, guys, it's also an homage to a project we never got to make. There was a podcast we wanted to make called Good News Ratman.

[Micah Reisinger]

Breathing Life into Something here.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Exactly.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, let's begin. Murin is an elderly rodentia. He's hired you all to find his missing son, Vol. I'm gonna pause right there and say, if you're not taking notes, you might wanna.

[Blaine]

I'm opening it up right now.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Murin, I was looking for my notebook.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I'm ready to go. I'm already, like, missing son Vol has.

[Micah Reisinger]

Been gone for 24 hours. He recently heard of a tower filled with treasure and teeming with magic. Vol insisted that he and his father, Mirren, should search the tower immediately. But Mirren refused, saying it was too dangerous. After all, if Vole had heard these rumors, then it's likely other, more unsavory types had also heard the same rumors as well. Like the Rikalu, a rodentia gang of greedy cutthroats led by a shaman, Pestis. Murin's best guess is that Vol has run off to the tower, but, God forbid, some trouble has befallen him. The tower is about half a day's ride north through the scrublands and is surrounded by a large lake. Murin is paying each of you 50 silver pieces to find his son. Yeah. You may keep anything you like in the tower. All he wants is his son.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Touch nothing but the lamp.

[John Risinger]

But the rat.

[Micah Reisinger]

Do you have any questions?

[John Risinger]

So, Pastis is a shaman and he leads. What's the name of the gang?

[Blaine]

The Ricolu.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Ricolu.

[Micah Reisinger]

Rikaloo.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Rikaloo.

[Blaine]

Yeah, we're taking down those Rikaloo, see? We're gonna bust out the pipes and we're gonna hit him in the knees.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, that's right. Bust him in the kn.

[Unknown]

Okay, maybe we don't have to resort to violence. Maybe we could just kind of sneak in, get what we need. Sneak out?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah. Stealth mission. Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Violently.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, violently, though.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

You guys are definitely a bunch of guys.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Guys. Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Mirren approaches the four of you and looks particularly at Eric, thinking that this must be the boss. Eric, are you sure you four are up to this? I really do insist. You need to find my son.

[Blaine]

Yeah. See, we got the muscle and the brains. We're gonna get in there, we're gonna make sure the Rikaloo aren't in there, and we're gonna bust up Batiste, and we're gonna get your son Vol, back. All by dinner time. What are you cooking?

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Dinner time.

[Micah Reisinger]

That's amazing. I'm quite thrilled. I was hoping we'd have dinner together. So that's perfect. All right. Go about half a day's ride north past the scrublands, you'll find the lake, and that's where I think he'll be.

[Blaine]

Yeah. I don't want no Scrubs. Scrubs is the kind of guy who can't get no love from me Hanging.

[Gustavo Cirola]

On the passenger side the best friends ride Trying to holler at me, yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

See, I don't know this song, so I can't join in on this.

[Gustavo Cirola]

You need some TLC in your life, brother. Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Tender Loving Cheese.

[John Risinger]

That's the name of the group, right?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Tender Loving Cheese. Anything you want to do before you head off?

[Unknown]

You said past the scrublands, right?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yes.

[Unknown]

Any foes we should be aware of? The scrublands. I don't know that area too well.

[Micah Reisinger]

Shouldn't come up to much trouble in the scrublands. But I would beware that if there are other people that have heard of this tower, they could be rivals in your venture. And there's no telling what's in the tower.

[Unknown]

Are you also paying them 50 silver apiece? Like, are we, you know, kinda combating against some other people you sent off to rescue your son? Or are we the only ones?

[Micah Reisinger]

No, of course I want my son to be found. Okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

If perhaps one of us does not come back, can we split their 50 silver piece as well?

[Micah Reisinger]

That is completely up to you.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Perfect. Good to know.

[Micah Reisinger]

Why.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Is everyone staring at me? See? Yeah. Miriam, I got a question for you.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yes, go ahead.

[Gustavo Cirola]

You got any, like, equipment that you can send with us? Like some weapons or some. Some potions or something? See?

[Micah Reisinger]

You don't have any equipment with you.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I've got a crossbow and a short sword, but if you want to hook me up with something else, that'd be cool.

[Micah Reisinger]

Is there something in particular you're looking for?

[Gustavo Cirola]

I don't want to die in a very weak.

[Micah Reisinger]

You're telling me this now before you go on the venture, that you're very weak?

[Gustavo Cirola]

You know, I know that you know that I'm weak. I'm just. I'm just saying, if you got any medicine, see.

[Blaine]

Don't worry, Billy.

[Gustavo Cirola]

My boss, Eric Mayor at Manski, could use it.

[Blaine]

I'll protect you, Billy. Just get under. Get under my arm. Here. Yeah. I'll wrap it around you, hold you tight. And if the enemies come, I'll put you between me and them.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah. Cuddly and warm. Wait, what?

[Micah Reisinger]

I just rolled a dice to see for luck. If Murin happens to have a potion of healing. He does. So I will give you one potion of healing that basically gives you one hit. Point back. Do you have room for that in your equipment?

[John Risinger]

I will hold onto that.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay.

[John Risinger]

Oh, actually, would I have to drop something else that I have?

[Micah Reisinger]

I think y'all started full. Is there something that you'd be willing to let go of?

[John Risinger]

I have a large sack. What's a steel mirror?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

You probably don't need that steel mirror.

[Micah Reisinger]

On corners and stuff.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Looking around corners.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, that sounds pretty cool. Chalk. I don't need chalk.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, Quit school. Yeah. I'll tell you what. If you put it somewhere creatively, I'll let you. I'll let you hold onto the potion.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Well, I got a tail. See?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

There you go.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Ah, I'm gonna hold on to it with my tail.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right.

[Unknown]

You could also, like, put it in your mouth and pretend it's like one of your teeth for my mind.

[Micah Reisinger]

Excellent for an audio podcast. Anything else?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Did you got any food? Sure.

[Micah Reisinger]

I mean, yes. I'm a fellow Redendant like yourself. I'm sure you want some Brie?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yes, I prefer Gouda, but Brie's fine.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, let me see if I have some Gouda. Oh, Vol must have taken it.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny takes all debris and shoves it in his mouth.

[Micah Reisinger]

Excellent. I hope you enjoy that.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Vol's got all the Gouda. It's all the more reason to go find him, boys. And Muffin.

[Unknown]

Yeah, thanks for being inclusive.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, sorry, what is broad generalizations with the guy's term?

[Unknown]

Broad generalizations?

[Blaine]

No, no.

[Gustavo Cirola]

What have I done?

[Micah Reisinger]

Mirren kind of looks down at his, like, fake watch on his arm.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Let's go, let's go, let's go.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, you all head out and start heading north, I assume through the scrublands.

[Blaine]

Yeah, yeah, you said it's about a half a day's ride to the north.

[Micah Reisinger]

Half a day's ride. Yep. What are we riding?

[Blaine]

Question. What are we riding? Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Well, what do you want to travel by?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Oh, I want to travel by Eric.

[Blaine]

Since we're small, diminutive rats, are there, like, larger beast of burden rats that we could ride to? Take a step? Kind of like.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That's not how this works. We don't, as humans, ride larger humans.

[Blaine]

Like a Secret of NIMH kind of thing. How Mrs. Frisbee was smaller than the rats of Nim. Like, there's bigger mice that. Or bigger rats that we could be riding.

[John Risinger]

Don't Mama. Possums let their babies hold onto their skin and then they just kind of walk around with them. Maybe we could do that.

[Blaine]

Find a possum.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I've decided Big Benny has a pet cat that he rides.

[Blaine]

Oh, that's pretty tough.

[Micah Reisinger]

A big pet cat? Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Can I have a cat?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Am I allowed to? Okay, I have a cat.

[Micah Reisinger]

What's the cat's name?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, this is my cat. Funny enough, he's called Muffin as well.

[John Risinger]

That would be confusing at all.

[Unknown]

How do you get that with you?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

After one, it's actually with the ph. Ph.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, Muffin. How about for sake of confusion, we call them Little Muffin? Yeah, I'll call you Little Muffin.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I'll call him a cat Muffin.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

No, other way around.

[Blaine]

Yeah, see, our friend is regular sized Muffin and the cat's little Muffin.

[Micah Reisinger]

See, A mini muffin, if you will.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Mini muffin.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Fine, fine.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, so I've got. Someone's riding a cat. Another person is riding another person.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I'm gonna. I'm just gonna go off on my own. I'm gonna ride, like, just run myself.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I'm just gonna run.

[Micah Reisinger]

That's fine. Yeah, that's fine.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I think Muffin would be very, you know, quick on her feet, sir.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Mr. Ratmansky. I'll carry you, sir. Yeah, I'm real fast.

[Blaine]

See, here's my beast of burden, see?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, that's me. Beast of burden.

[Unknown]

Yeah, Beat the button.

[Blaine]

See, I like to think muffins doing like the Monty Python and the Holy Grail thing where you're running, but you're acting like you're riding a horse and, like making the clip mop sounds.

[John Risinger]

That's great.

[Micah Reisinger]

I love that. Yeah. So you all take off through the scrublands. It's early morn at this point. The only kind of rough spot you encounter along the way is a bit of cloud coverage that turns into a bit of a drizzle. It's a bit wet along your journey, but as you're making your way kind of past the scrublands, you. You start to see in the distance on the horizon, a lake. And as you're getting closer, the clouds sort of part. The rain subsides and the sun peaks out and it's actually a bright blue sky today. You head on towards the lake, I assume.

[Blaine]

Yeah, it's a sign.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah. See, it's a sign.

[Unknown]

Yeah, a sign.

[Micah Reisinger]

One of the things that you recall about that Miron also told you in this request to go on find his son is that this tower was built by a wizard named Teetardinal.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

E. Tartanal.

[Micah Reisinger]

Teetardinal.

[Blaine]

I appreciate the difficulty in spelling everything. That's great.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yep.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Now you know what it's like. First campaign.

[Blaine]

This is tough. This is tough.

[Micah Reisinger]

Funnily enough, I did not come up with that name.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, this is pre written.

[Micah Reisinger]

There are some names that I made up in this thing, but this is not one. Teetardinal's spire was to be his greatest work. It's a stone tower crafted as a giant arcanum, granting a great reward to those who unlock its secrets. Nobody knows the secrets, though, because Tetardinal fell to his death before he could use it. As you approach and come to the shore, there's a rowboat and you can easily start making your way across. Who's going to be rowing on the oars?

[Blaine]

Benny, get to it.

[Unknown]

Who's the strongest?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah. I tie a lil muffin to a tree and I say, oh, dad, you'll.

[Micah Reisinger]

Be right back, okay?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

You stay right back.

[Unknown]

Are you talking about me?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Nope. We've already established this. I wanted to call him Little Muffin, but you said you need to be Muffin, so. The Casano Muffin.

[Unknown]

I'm the og I'm the OG Muffin.

[Blaine]

Your regular sized muffin.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah. This is your regular sized muffin. This is Lil Muffin. Okay? And Lil Muffin's gonna stay here, and I'm gonna be right back. Okay, Daddy, Be right back. And I get in the boat and I just start rowing without even waiting for anybody to get in the boat.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Muffin takes off and jumps in.

[Blaine]

Yeah, I'll follow Muffin and jump in as well.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh. Oh, no.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I was petting a little muffin.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm on my way. I swim to the boat.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

It's just a little rat hand.

[Blaine]

Like, does Little Muffin enjoy cheese as well? Do you share any of the Brie that you collected?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

No, that's silly. Cats don't eat cheese, guys.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Gary's bad for cats. What is wrong with you, Eric?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

See, yeah, actually, my girlfriend's cat loves cheese.

[Micah Reisinger]

My cat loves butter, so there you go.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I love that you guys. Wait, is it vegan butter?

[Micah Reisinger]

It's vegan butter.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I was gonna say, I like the idea that your cat only likes real butter and you guys are vegan.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

You just packed.

[Micah Reisinger]

We have bagels often in our household, and butter is, like a constant thing that happens. So, yeah, our cat loves to go and try and get the butter. Anyway, y'all peaches. Yes, peaches. You all jump into the boat and start rowing across this massive lake. Now that you've had a chance to get closer, you can start to make out the form of this tower. It's like I said, it's five stories tall. There are individual windows on each floor. Sorry, from the third floor and above is what I meant. There's four on each side. In other words, cardinal directions. For each window, there's a north window, an east window, south window, west window.

[Blaine]

So you said four on each side. Is it one in each cardinal direction or 4?

[Micah Reisinger]

1 on each side, 4 all around.

[Blaine]

Okay, got it. Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. So there's five levels, four windows, three doors, two roofs, and a partridge and a pear tree. Each seem to have a chain bolted to their sills, like the window sills, and they're dangling down to the window below.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

So, like a connecting chain?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sort of. Yeah. Like it's connected to the window sill, and then it's dangling down to the window below that window.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

If it starts on the third floor, does that mean, like, from the second floor window you could reach the chain to crawl up to the third?

[Micah Reisinger]

Potentially, yeah, potentially. Okay, so the first floor, you can't really seem to reach it unless you have another means of climbing. Yeah. Lake is all around you. You see mountains in the distance. The sun is rising to the east. The weather seems clear. You finally reached the shoreline. And what do you want to do first? There's also a door at the bottom of this tower.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I want to hop out of the boat onto the shoreline.

[Blaine]

Me, too. I'm following Muffin again.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Come on, Eric.

[Blaine]

It's a good idea. Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Wait, so we're on an island? Is that what we're on?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. So it's an island in the middle of the lake, towers on the island.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And we're at the shore of that tower right now?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, shore of the tower. There's a bit of mud and grasslands kind of leading up to this tower and then a door at the bottom. Can.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

What is my name?

[John Risinger]

Billy the Rat? Can he cop out and then flip the boat over and then cover it with foliage to keep it hidden, like, camouflaged?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, absolutely. You look around and you see there's a few sparse shrubs that are still on this island, but it's full of high grass as well. So you start, like, I'm assuming, like, hack away at some of the plants and start covering it with twigs and shrubbery.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I just don't want nobody stealing our boat, see?

[Unknown]

Yeah, that's a good idea.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That's covering it in, like, shrubs and mud.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Who's mud?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny goes over and writes in the mud that's covering the boat here. I don't want us to lose it.

[Blaine]

Good call.

[Gustavo Cirola]

That's a great call. Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Smart.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could Muffin look around to see if there's any sort of, like, traps or anything hidden in the grass kind of nearby the door?

[Micah Reisinger]

Interesting. Yeah. You start inspecting, kind of looking around, making sure you're taking in your surroundings, seeing if there's anything of mischief. And on closer inspection of the shore, you see that there are small barefoot tracks in the mud going in and out seemingly of the tower.

[Blaine]

Guys, there's bears here.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, no. Also, as you're kind of, like, circling around the tower and checking the walls and stuff, you see that there are holes dug around the perimeter of the tower. Several. Like, just kind of in a circle.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

All around the tower, like Mole holes kind of thing. Like, just like a hole in the ground or like a trench.

[Micah Reisinger]

It looks like they've been filled back in. Oh.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Like maybe someone's looking for, like, a hidden key or something.

[Unknown]

Oh, maybe. Yeah, that's a. That's a good. That's a good point.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

You said barefoot tracks. So are they, like, humanoid feats? Rats or like, rats?

[Micah Reisinger]

Well, when you look at them, you see boot prints. So, like, it's hard to tell. Like, it would be the same size as you. So, yeah, humanoid in nature. And they're. They're clearly bipedal, but difficult to know, like, what maybe the race or species might be.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And do I know what kind of, like, race the riccoloo is?

[Micah Reisinger]

Ricola.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

You have heard of this gang, and they're similar to you in that they're rodentia.

[Unknown]

Okay, guys, there's tracks going in and out of the tower. And also all these holes around here. Maybe they were looking for something.

[Blaine]

Yeah. I did have one point of clarification I wanted to ask about.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I'm sorry, Gus is just little. Yeah, Gus is little. Yeah. And then just going right into his Gus voice to talk.

[Blaine]

It's like in game versus meta game.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

No, I liked it. I liked it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

How big are the holes? Like, we know there's holes there, but are they big enough for us to crawl in, or are they just big enough for us to put our hands in?

[Micah Reisinger]

Good question. Yeah, they're very small. Like, maybe dug out with either a small spade or even your hands. Almost like a flower size. Kind of like what you'd put into the ground. Does that make sense?

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

I have a crowbar. Can I kind of, as safely as possible, just poke a hole? Maybe use the crow.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, God.

[John Risinger]

What's the hook on a talon?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Is that what it's called on a crowbar?

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

Yeah. Can I use that to kind of dig out a hole? I don't know.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, sure.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I hope it's not a land mine, but I just kind of want to see what's in these holes.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, absolutely. You can start trying digging your way through one of the holes. Just one of them, I'm guessing.

[John Risinger]

Yeah, sure.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay.

[Blaine]

I'll try another one as well.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure. Yeah. You both start digging, and after maybe a few minutes of getting some of the dirt and digging through roots and stuff like that, you come across a single tooth, and you both find each a single tooth, like just a normal tooth that you'd find in a humanoid.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Weird.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

In each hole.

[Micah Reisinger]

Mm.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

Someone's trying to Grow dentures here.

[Gustavo Cirola]

There's holes everywhere. It's like Swiss cheese. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Should we look in the other ones to see if there's teeth in all of these holes or. I don't know if someone like took other teeth or buried their own teeth in here. Maybe they think like the Tooth Fairy comes to this castle.

[Blaine]

Yeah, I don't know. It kind of. Kind of creeps me out.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Is that how it works? Are you supposed to do that with your teeth? You're supposed to bury it when you lose your teeth.

[Unknown]

I lost all my teeth very young.

[Blaine]

Oh, here, you can have this one. I'll hand Muffin the tooth that I have.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could I inspect it to see if there's anything special about this tooth?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, you can. Eric hands with the tooth and you start inspecting it. It doesn't look anything remarkable. It just looks like any other tooth. Maybe it's like a different particular one in the mouth from, say, Billy's tooth.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

But is it bloody?

[Micah Reisinger]

There would probably be some dried blood at the top, like where it might have met the gum.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And you said it's a different one than the one that Billy found?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, probably from the, like, could be from the same species and mouth, but it just, you know, a bicuspid versus, you know, a molar or something like that.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out if it's maybe like the same creatures, teeth all in different holes, or if it's from different creatures.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah.

[Blaine]

Worst case scenario, we can say we found Vole's teeth. Yeah. Maybe we get 25 silver for that.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, not bad.

[Unknown]

That's good point.

[John Risinger]

So you said that they looked like freshly dug. Was that safe to say? Or was it just kind of like it set itself apart from the rest of the land?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, if you had to guess, it was probably dug like within the last day or two.

[Blaine]

Okay.

[John Risinger]

And then the door. We keep talking about the door, but we haven't really approached it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yep, there is a door.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I slam my fist onto the door.

[John Risinger]

Oh, hello, stinky dragon fans. It's me, Blaine, here to talk to you about a little sponsor named Hero Forge. Do you have, like a tabletop game that you enjoy but you don't, like, have like, cool minifigure? Well, Hero Forge is her. Oh, to help.

[Micah Reisinger]

It's key.

[John Risinger]

Use some work. Hero Forge offers fully customizable tabletop miniatures with dozens of fantasy species and thousands of parts to choose from. They have every species you can think of. They've got halflings, they've got half elves, they've got Cat folk, they've got rat folk. If you can name a D and D species, it's very likely that Hero Forge has it. And then you can make it and you can put it in like a cool pose, like a cool weapon. Yeah, they're easy to use. Design tool lets you build your perfect miniature online using a fully 3D in depth character creator right in your web browser. So you launch the thing up and then it's just like, hey, what kind of species, what head do you want on it? Well, tell me about its body type, what kind of clothing you want to put it in, what kind of gear, what kind of pose, what kind of stage. All the colors. It's super rad. The Hero Forge 2.0 color technology allows you to create your perfect miniature in color with advanced features like decals, makeup, war paint, and more. Design your unique miniature and get it printed in full color.

[Micah Reisinger]

No painting needed.

[John Risinger]

Unless you're into that, in which case you could probably just print it out in gray and then paint it yourself. That's fine too. Oh, speaking of, Heroforge also offers downloadable model files for users to 3D print their unique designs at home. So you could just like make your creature, you know, for fun and then maybe down the road, if you have a 3D printer. Printer Opoom. Hero Forge is constantly expanding its catalog of customizable options, adding new parts every week and major features like new species and custom posing on a regular basis. So I made a little Chip Haney guy from Campaign 2, and I love him. He's got like the purple skin and he's got the shitty. I even was able to find like a way of putting a fanny pack on him, which I don't think it was supposed to be that, but then, you know, they had like a bag and I could just put it on his belt and like, position it perfectly. He's got jorts. Hero Forge has jorts, ladies and gentlemen. Hero Forge has jorts. I love my little figurine. I have him sitting on my desktop and hopefully if we ever do like a, you know, a tabletop session with them, I'm. I'm bringing my little guy.

[Micah Reisinger]

He's my little.

[John Risinger]

My little man. So if you're interested in a little Hero Forge guy for yourself, you can visit heroforge.com to start designing your custom miniature today and check back often because new content is added every week. Sometimes I'll pop in there and I'll just like, make a new little dude. It's a lot of fun. And if you want to get 5% off your order. You know, of physical miniatures, you could just use code Stinky at checkout. That's right, Code Stinky. S, T I, N, K y. It's all caps here. You probably don't have to make it all caps, whatever. But you can get 5% off all orders of physical miniatures. So go check out heroforge. They've been an awesome sponsor, just a logical sponsor. I'm super stoked because all of us have made our little characters from Campaign 2, and it's been a blast seeing what everybody's cooked up. So, yeah, go check them out. And thank you, Hero Forge.

[Micah Reisinger]

Is anybody else out there like me.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

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[John Risinger]

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[Micah Reisinger]

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[John Risinger]

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[John Risinger]

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[Micah Reisinger]

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[Alexey Tinchenko]

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[Micah Reisinger]

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[Alexey Tinchenko]

Visit us cellular.com for details.

[Micah Reisinger]

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[John Risinger]

I was gonna say, like, I don't know. Is there anything peculiar about the door? Anything remarkable?

[Micah Reisinger]

It's a large double wooden door. Okay.

[John Risinger]

And there's no locking mechanism of any.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sort on the outside. You don't see anything, though.

[John Risinger]

Okay. Yeah.

[Blaine]

Let's go in, gang.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Do you think we should try to just go into this here door?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

You want to try opening it?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, what the heck? Eric, do you want me to open the door?

[Blaine]

Yeah, go for it.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Ah. Boss says open the door. I gotta open the door.

[John Risinger]

I open the door.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right. You open the door, and it unlocks. Swings wide and. Yeah, you can kind of see inside now. Do you. Where do you. What do you want to do?

[Blaine]

I'll shove Billy aside and step in.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, I thought you were gonna shove him in. I kind of wanted you to.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, so. So Eric steps in first. Is that what I hear?

[Blaine]

Yes.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. You enter a large stone hall filled with iron gibbets. These are cages that are dangling from the ceiling, and they're each filled with bodies that have been long decayed. There looks to be about six of them splayed out in this hall.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could I go up to one of them and see if they're missing teeth?

[Micah Reisinger]

Boom. I say the same thing as you and Eric. As Muffin and Eric walk in, just as soon as you step in, you notice something on the floor. You see a special tile that is ahead of you, and it begins to glow. And it seems like it's slightly depressed into the ground, almost like a shallow bowl.

[Blaine]

Gotta get it some Prozac.

[Micah Reisinger]

In that tile is an etched number, and it says one. Like the number one. And seemingly at the same time, a spark of light appears over each of your heads.

[Unknown]

Did you just get a good idea.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Or.

[Unknown]

What'S going on?

[Micah Reisinger]

And I'm sorry, you said you wanted to look at something in there.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah. I don't know if we are close enough to these hanging cages to see or if we could see the mouths of these bodies. I know that's kind of gross, but to see if they're missing any teeth.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. You go and inspect any body in particular? Just any of them.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

The closest one?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, sure. You come to the closest one and they look like they've been decayed for a long time. Some of them are missing teeth, some of them aren't. And as you're inspecting this one that you're nearby, the skull that is on top of this body is adorned with a dusty but ornate mask. And the mask is covered in. You can only guess, they're tongue. Like symbols. Like symbols that are meant to represent a tongue? Yep. That's what you find in the first one, at least.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

When Muffin moved over to inspect the cage, did Muffin change position on that tile? Like, did Muffin step off of it?

[Micah Reisinger]

She didn't step on it necessarily. It was just like the first thing you see when you come in. And you kind of notice it as you come in because it's. Maybe they're looking up and then, like, kind of glance down.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, so it's depressed on its own and it's lit up and there's a light above.

[Micah Reisinger]

Correct. Yeah. She didn't depress it. It was already lit.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And there's just a glowing light above me and Eric's head.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, like a small mote. Spark of light.

[John Risinger]

Regarding the glowing light, are glowing lights, like, identical or are they different colors? Are there different numbers or anything noticeable.

[Micah Reisinger]

Between the four of us? So all of you step in?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, we haven't stepped in. The only people who said they stepped in were Eric and Muffin.

[John Risinger]

Oh, I'll step in. Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Big Muffin.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Yeah. Spark of light appears right over you. And to answer your question, they look all the same, like, similar size. They look just like a small spark of light. Almost like either a moat or like what you'd imagine in movies, like a fairy might look like or something like that. But it's not. It doesn't have any particular shape to it. It's just like kind of an orb of light.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Is it telling us to, hey, listen?

[Micah Reisinger]

Funnily enough, my voicemail ringtone is like, hey, listen.

[John Risinger]

Oh, really?

[Micah Reisinger]

That's so funny.

[Blaine]

How annoying.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I don't know how you get annoyed by that.

[John Risinger]

I'd be like, shut up.

[Blaine]

Can I go up to that tile, that depressed tile and stomp on it?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure, yeah. You go up and step on it.

[Blaine]

No, stomp. I'm very clear.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sorry. Stomp. Yeah, yeah, sorry. My mistake.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

He does a Stomp routine really quick.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Beat him while he's down, see? Yeah, I'll join him.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

A voice comes through the hall and says, to the left this time. Yeah. No, nothing seems to happen other than, like, it kind of echoes in the hall.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny wants to go over. Benny wants to walk in.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

So does Benny get his own light as well?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, Benny walks in, he has a light that comes over him.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

And I'll also say that now that you've kind of had. You've all four have had a chance to kind of look around, you notice that there are a few egresses out of this hall, a few ways that are in different directions.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

So those are exits.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'll pause right here. And also say that you might want to keep track of where you go from here.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

So we're in this room. What's the shape of this room?

[Micah Reisinger]

You're coming in from the east. Okay. And it's mostly a rectangular hall. I'll just keep it simple. It's very rectangular, and it's pretty tall as well.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So is it, like long ways, rectangular from where we're standing, or like, rectangular wide?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, rectangular down the way you're looking.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

Like, from east to west.

[Blaine]

I'm just gonna warn you now. I'm picking up my phone. I'm not using it. I'm drawing. If you see me using my phone, I'm drawing a map so I can keep track of what we're doing.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny wants to go over to the same skeleton that Muffin was looking at in the cage. Is it reachable? Like, could you reach your hand into the cage?

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. They're, like, only dangling maybe a foot or so above the ground.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Can I lift the mask off of the skull?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay. And is it a Rodentia skull?

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, is the skull itself is, like.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

The skeleton rodentia in biological nature?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, this one seems to be.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay, can I tear one of the teeth out?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure, yeah. You just use your fingers or you're using something in particular?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, actually, I have iron tongs.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Gross.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

So let me get this straight. You lift the mask of tongs and pull out your tongs? Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, and I just reach in there? It just shake it.

[John Risinger]

Right.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

It just. And he pulls out a tooth.

[Micah Reisinger]

Just a bit of dentistry.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Just a bit of dentistry. And then Benny proceeds to go outside, dig a hole, and put the tooth in it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, yeah, I'll say that. Takes you a few minutes to go and do that. But what does everybody else want to do in this Room.

[Blaine]

I'd like to count the number of egresses and see how many they are and where they are.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Said there was three.

[Micah Reisinger]

Three? No, there's actually two egresses out of this place. Sorry, we got caught up in the map thing.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

What's an egress?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

It's an exit.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Thank you.

[Micah Reisinger]

I say that because they're not always doors. So, for instance, the one to the. To the south is a corridor that leads to a room that smells of a bonfire. So that's what you can tell from right here. It smells like a bonfire. To the west is a door off its hinges on the floor, crooked, and it leads to another room that doesn't seem to have any particular senses to it at this point. Doesn't seem to trigger any senses.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I should have used a bigger piece of paper to draw this summer.

[John Risinger]

I'm at the edge already.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I'm like, oh, no, a room to the west. No more room on the west.

[Micah Reisinger]

One last thing I'll give you all, is that as you're kind of looking around, you notice that the ceiling, like I said, it's really high above you, and you notice a hole in the center of the ceiling maybe 30ft up. It looks kind of like a chute. Like a hole that a chute is going up past the ceiling.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Feel like things would have been coming potentially down it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Potentially.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And then you said there are six cages of dangling bodies. Right. What is the, like, orientation of them throughout the room? Like, is it like two rows of.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Three or is it just random?

[Micah Reisinger]

It's pretty scattered. There's kind of three towards the front and then two in the back.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

They don't look like they were hung in any particular way.

[Blaine]

So there's five total.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sorry, there are six. I don't have the sixth one on here, but there are six on here.

[John Risinger]

Okay, we've mentioned, like, this is the tongue one. We haven't really looked at the other masks on the other cages. Can we, like, inspect those?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, could I also have taken the masks?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. I assumed you wanted to take the mask.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Right, Yeah, I took the mask off.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

And I'm holding that.

[Micah Reisinger]

Mark it as mask tongues or something like that.

[Blaine]

Before we look at the other ones, Blaine, there was just one last thing I wanted to circle back on. Those were the only two exits out of the room to the west and the south.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. Other than the one you came through.

[Blaine]

Okay, yeah. Great, great. Thank you.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sorry?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Nothing.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure. Billy, you wanted to look at one of the other bodies.

[John Risinger]

Yes, but before I get too Far from that. The exit or the entrance that we came in from, is that north or east?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

That's east.

[Micah Reisinger]

East Cayman. East. There's exit to the south and west.

[John Risinger]

Trying to get my mapping skills.

[Unknown]

Trying to get your bearings.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

There you go.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, that's pretty close. Looking at a map that goes through.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

This is what mine looks like.

[Blaine]

Similar, yeah.

[John Risinger]

Working on it.

[Blaine]

We're all on the same page, more or less.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

There you go. Is there anything peculiar about the inside of the mask if I look at.

[Micah Reisinger]

It, Like I said, it's a bit dusty. It's ornate. It's kind of carved with these tongue like symbols.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I put it on.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. Okay.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Roll. For a new character, as you put.

[Micah Reisinger]

It on, you feel a surge of ethereal, magical energy kind of course through your own mouth.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Ooh.

[Micah Reisinger]

So, one thing you should know about old school role playing games is that the longer you spend in a room, the more chance there's gonna be things that will happen.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[Micah Reisinger]

Other creatures may find you other things. This is a living ecosystem kind of thing.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

We are screwed.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm going to roll right now, and I'll be honest with you. If something happens or not. Okay. As you put on this mask, I'll kind of conclude that first, like I said, you have field surge through your mouth and you feel like you might be able to speak in other languages now.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, boy, mate, I feel smarter.

[Micah Reisinger]

As you do that. It's just by chance that you start hearing voices? Actually, not just you, but everybody starts hearing these big, deep voices kind of cascading, echoing through the chamber. And you can't tell exactly where they might be coming from. It could be to the. Maybe to the south. And it sounds like they may be singing a song.

[Unknown]

The voices of an angel.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Love this song. One of my favorites.

[Blaine]

It's a choir.

[Micah Reisinger]

Nerds.

[Blaine]

Let's go get them.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Are the bodies in this room wearing masks as well, or is it just that one?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. Let's go back to Billy. I think you were looking at one of them, right? Yeah. So, yeah, both you and Muffin start looking around, I guess, at these other cages and the other things you find in the cages. There's one that seems to be holding a small pewter scroll case.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I'm gonna grab that.

[Micah Reisinger]

That's all you find on. Actually, the rest of the. Is those two things, the mask and the small pewter scroll case. All right.

[John Risinger]

Billy would like to grab that.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure. Do you want to look at it or just hold onto it for now?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Inspect it, open it Open it.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Open it, open it.

[John Risinger]

I realize that I have it in my hands when I open it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

You're so used to other people doing things, you're just like, wait, protect.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, you open it up and you see there's actually a message. Excuse me, I said that really weird. A message inside. Massage a methase from the ancestor of a nearby ruler. Looks like it says King Oswald. And they seem to be begging Teetardinal to give up his MAD project. It's really confusing, and the only thing you can make out is that he wants him to return to his seat by the throne. Some sort of advisor.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So does this imply that Teetardinal was, like an advisor to a king kind of thing?

[Micah Reisinger]

Kind of sounds like it. Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

He's off doing his little spire, and the king didn't want him to.

[Micah Reisinger]

Maybe.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And who sent that again?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

King Oswald.

[Micah Reisinger]

King Oswald?

[Blaine]

Yeah, he's asleep upstairs right now.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I forgot.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Oh, yeah, your dog's name's Oswald. He is king.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

A lot of people don't know this, but Gus is a huge Penguin fan from Batman.

[Micah Reisinger]

As you all are kind of inspecting these cages, the doors that you came through suddenly slam. Maybe it could have been the wind. Maybe it's something else, you're not sure. And you start hearing thumping sounds coming from the south, like a big boom. Boom, boom.

[Blaine]

Let's go get it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Same place where the singing was happening?

[Micah Reisinger]

Mm, you seem to think so. I guess where it was coming from.

[John Risinger]

Was it Bonfire Room, too? Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could Muffin, like, kind of sneak around, like, the door down the hall and see if she sees anything to the south? You mean to the south?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah. There's no door. You just see a corridor.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I meant the archway.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah. You kind of, like, peek around the corner of the archway and you're trying to see what's down the hall. Yeah, you can't see anything yet. All you can hear as you get closer is thumping of big feet. That's all you can imagine, is these huge feet are just stomping down the hallway.

[Unknown]

Okay. So I don't know if we should go that way. Maybe we should go to the west.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, yeah.

[Blaine]

Sounds like a plan.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah. Big scary noises.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

But also, I want to say that nobody heard her because she whispers.

[Blaine]

So you said that, but nobody really hears it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

At that point, she runs to each of you and goes, I think we.

[Unknown]

Should go to the west. I think we should go to the west. I think we should go to the west.

[Blaine]

Yeah. Lethal way regular sized muffin.

[Micah Reisinger]

Y'all head west towards that door off its hinges. And you enter a narrow corridor lined with six stone rooms. So it looks like you enter one of the rooms itself. So this is one of the six. And in the middle is, like, a hallway. And spidering off that hallway are five other ones. So like, three on each side kind of thing. I'll give you more directions in a second, but I'm going to describe this first room. As you enter, you notice a similar depressed tile in the center of the room. And it has number two.

[Unknown]

I think we're going in the right way.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Let's go. Yeah, yeah. See, we're. Same page. Same page.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah. Do we still have lights above us? Do you actually all four still have.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

A spark of light above you, but not two?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Can Benny reach up at it and try to grab it?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure. And to answer your question, Muffin, you just have one. Each of you have one at this point, Big Benny, you try to swipe at your spark of light, and your hand goes right through it, but you feel a little cold mist as you swat through it. So you come into this room, and there seems to be a hallway right in front of you that goes north and south. So you've come west, and now you're hitting a hallway t intersection that's going north and south. And all along on either side of that north and south are three rooms on each side. You're in the middle of the right side, if that makes sense. The eastern side.

[Blaine]

Gotcha.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And you said there's three rooms north, three rooms south, three rooms to the.

[Micah Reisinger]

West, three rooms to the east. Hallway running north and south.

[Blaine]

We came out of the middle on the east side.

[Micah Reisinger]

Correct.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay, we came out of one of these.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So we came out of one of the rooms.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay. And was the number two in that hallway or was it, like, in the corridor? The first room.

[Micah Reisinger]

So as you go into the room, they see the two. As you exit that room, you see this hallway.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And was the room we came out of, like, if there's, like, three down, were we in, like, the middle one coming out or top or bottom?

[Micah Reisinger]

The middle one?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Middle.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay. Could Benny turn around and try and pick up the door that was off the hinges and, like, try to jam it back into the hole that it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Was pulled off of? Yeah, I'll say we'll make our first roll just for fun, because we haven't rolled anything yet. So roll 2d6 and add your strength modifier. Ooh, good rolls. Cause you're trying to, like, kind of brawn your way into slamming this door back into place.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That is 11 plus 2. 13.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yep. Above a 10, you succeed. So you grab it. It's kind of like dangling with hinders. It's really rusty and with no problem whatsoever. It feels like it's made of paper. You just slam it into the wall and it just perfectly aligns with the archway around it.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Nice, Benny Just kind of turns around, goes. Yeah, that's how you do it.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Risinger]

I also dust off my hands.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

Dentist and a carpenter. What Cat Benny do. Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

So, yeah, you're kind of in this hallway. You see six or five other rooms, six total. To the north. The hallway keeps going to another room that kind of smells a bit like a wharf.

[Gustavo Cirola]

A dwarf.

[Micah Reisinger]

A Klingon. Yeah, exactly. Those are the two things you kind of see right now are all these rooms and another way out. North.

[Blaine]

And that's one of the doors or is that a separate exit?

[Micah Reisinger]

It's just the hallway keeps going north.

[Blaine]

Gotcha. Okay.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And not south.

[Micah Reisinger]

It doesn't go south. It just has those six rooms that you can see right now.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So it's kind of like a dead end at the other end of the hall.

[Micah Reisinger]

Seems like it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

From what you can see, I'd like.

[Blaine]

To enter the hall and immediately take a left and try to open the door at the southeast corner. So, like when we came in, the one to our left.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, gotcha. Yeah. So one thing you notice right away, none of these rooms have doors on them.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, just egresses.

[Blaine]

I'm just gonna bravely walk in then.

[Micah Reisinger]

To the southeast, you said southwest.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yes.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So, like, you do a little turn.

[Micah Reisinger]

Like a U turn kind of thing?

[Blaine]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

You walk into a chamber with two windows in the walls. One window is to the east, another one's to the north. Each has a chain bolted onto its window sill. A nearly naked rodentia corpse is sitting on the floor, leaning its helmeted head so it's got a helmet over its head against the north windowsill.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Got you with your pants down, see? Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

A crude knife seems to be plunged into his stomach. Seems to be a male from what you can tell. And a trail of blood drips along the floor to and from the eastern windowsill.

[Blaine]

I would like to approach the eastern windowsill and try to look out of it.

[Micah Reisinger]

You look out the eastern windowsill and you start to get confused and a little bit of vertigo or something. It doesn't make sense. You should be on the first floor, but you're looking like from the third floor.

[Blaine]

Gotcha.

[Micah Reisinger]

Huh?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Did we Go up.

[Micah Reisinger]

Somehow, from what you can tell, you just walked straight. You didn't elevate or descend. You just stayed in the same plane.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Hey, boss, the third floors got those chains on the windows. Maybe we could climb up.

[Blaine]

Yeah, get out there and do your best climbing.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, you got it, boss.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, I'll go up and I'll climb.

[John Risinger]

I'll see if I can climb from that window up to the next one. Because these have the chains on the window sills, correct?

[Micah Reisinger]

Correct. Okay. What I'll do is since it's a little high up, it's a little risky, but it has a chain. So I'm gonna give you advantage, and you're gonna do a strength check to just with advantage. So 3D6. And you take the two that are the highest rolls.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Three and a six plus.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, plus.

[John Risinger]

Oh, plus one. So 10.

[Micah Reisinger]

You just made it.

[Blaine]

So you did roll 3D6, right? It was three and a six.

[John Risinger]

Yeah, I rolled a three, a six, and a one. Just making sure you Gotcha.

[Micah Reisinger]

Gotcha. Cool. Yeah. So you climb out the eastern windowsill. You're three stories up. It seems you start grabbing onto the chains, and are you just, like, arming this thing? Are you using your feet to kind of shimmy your way up? What are you doing?

[John Risinger]

Yeah, let me see if I have anything that's relevant to this. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm. I guess I'm doing that thing, you know, where you, like, lock your feet so that you can kind of like, heft up to the next arm hold, you know?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

I mean, rats can have. You know, they have, like, pretty good dexterity with their feet.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah. Start climbing.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Climbing. Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right. You reach another window on the fourth floor now, is that right?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

You're going up?

[John Risinger]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. And you come in, you kind of, like, peer in. And before you enter, you see that it's some sort of study. And there's books and shelves of dozen tomes or so, tons of sketches kind of sprawled out along this room, littered on the floor. Do you notice that there is in the corner another one of those depressed tiles, and it has the number 22. Oh, no.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Jumped ahead a little bit, you see? Yeah. A lot of nerdy stuff in here.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'll also say I didn't mention this, but as you entered this southeast room, Eric and Billy, the spark of lights above your heads don't come with you. They seem to stay in the hallway.

[Blaine]

Oh.

[Gustavo Cirola]

What are you doing in there? Why aren't you afraid to come in here?

[John Risinger]

Come on.

[Gustavo Cirola]

We lost the spark, boss.

[John Risinger]

Oh, wait, are you actually with me?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

No, you climb.

[Blaine]

I'm still. Yeah, I imagine I'm just looking out the window at you. Okay, So I can see you, we can talk, but, yeah, we're not, like, right by each other, all right?

[John Risinger]

I communicate all the information.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Bunch of nerdy stuff. Number 22 on the ground, and I lost my spark. I ain't got no spark. See? What do I do, boss? I'm scared.

[Blaine]

I've got an idea of what I want to do, but I don't want to, like, steal the show from Muffin and Benny if they have any ideas if they want to do anything while we're doing this.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Well, I was going to say you might want to try to find a chute and go back to the start to go back down to the first room, because it did have that chute going down.

[Micah Reisinger]

I don't think I told you this as well, but when you came into that first room with the two window sills, it had the number 23 written on it.

[Blaine]

Oh, that was the one with the decaying corpse.

[Micah Reisinger]

Corpse, correct. And then you climbed up Billy, and you found 22.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

The party is split three ways right now, so Benny's gonna help us a little bit and join the corpse room.

[Blaine]

Okay, in that case, I'm gonna yell up to Billy, hey, hang out for a sec.

[Gustavo Cirola]

You got a boss.

[Blaine]

And I want to go peek out the north window and see what I see. From the north window?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yes. As you're approaching the north window, you start to hear that same pounding of feet coming closer down the hallway.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

The hallway where Muffin is.

[Micah Reisinger]

Correct. Let's jump back to. You're in 23. Correct. Correct.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. You look north, and again, disorientation kind of takes over your senses. And you're looking from the fifth floor, but not just that. You should be looking north, but you don't recognize it as the same direction. It looks like it's actually the opposite direction. South.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I think we might be in a maze.

[Micah Reisinger]

No, Real confusing as you all are kind of reeling from this realization. You hear these stomping feet coming down the hall from kind of the western direction, about across from 23. And what do you want to do?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

So Muffins in that hallway.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

And they're stomping coming from that west way.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, I was coming in through that corridor where the two was. You guys went into that hallway and turned around.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. So, like, the southwest is where these feet are coming from.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Southwest. Okay. Could I, like, without going into the rooms kind of like, look into them to see if I see any other numbers on the floor.

[Micah Reisinger]

You do. I'll give you this. You go through each room, and starting from top left to top right, so north west to northeast, you have four at the northwest, three at the northeast. Coming down into the middle, you have five on the west side, two on the eastern side, which is the one you came through first. You go down to the bottom level, 6 on the southwestern side and 23 on the southeastern side. In 4 in 3, those are the northern ones. They each have a window as well. And you notice that they're heading in different directions on different levels. Gotcha.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So there's some type of weird portaling. Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Who's in 23 right now?

[Blaine]

Benny and me.

[Micah Reisinger]

Eric?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, 23 and me.

[Micah Reisinger]

You came back down?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

No, no, he's just confusing it. He's making a joke.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I'm making a joke. You know, I'm a bit of a joker.

[Blaine]

Yeah. I'm standing by the northern window looking out. I had yelled at Billy to maintain his position up there, and I think Benny came into 23 with me.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, Billy's still holding. Perfectly still.

[Micah Reisinger]

Benny, as you're looking around, you notice that this rodentia corpse has something holding. He's holding his hands, like, grasping it tight.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I look at what he's holding in his hand.

[Micah Reisinger]

It looks like a torn piece of blue fabric. And just as you're looking at it, it kind of like, not disappears. It's not invisible. But you can't seem to find it anymore.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Huh.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I tried to reach out where it was in the hand that I just saw it in.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. You reach out for it and you kind of find the arm and you start making your way up and you can feel it, but you can't, like, visually see it anymore. Like, it should be there, but it's not. Like for some reason your eyes can't find it.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

This is very confusing to me.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Cloak of invisibility.

[Micah Reisinger]

See?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I grab what I can't see and I pull it as hard as I can out of the hand.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, you pull it out of the hand. And as you look down at your hand, your vision kind of unfocuses, focuses, tries to find it. And you can sometimes catch glimpses of it, but then other times it's just. It's not there at all.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

How big of a fabric is it?

[Micah Reisinger]

Very small piece of torn. Okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Little scrap. If I take the scrap and I put it over my eye and I look at Eric.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Does he disappear? What happens? What do I See?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. You're not seeing through anything, but you're just seeing. It's almost like you have an eye patch over your eye.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Now ask Eric what he sees.

[Micah Reisinger]

What?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Hey, Eric, what you see over my eye right now?

[Blaine]

I turn around and look at Benny, annoyed. What do I see?

[Micah Reisinger]

You see him holding up his arms and you're having a hard time seeing what he's actually holding. It's. Is he covering his eye? Is his hand masking his face? You're not sure?

[Blaine]

So can I see his eye through it?

[Micah Reisinger]

You can't.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

So what does he see? Does he see blackness or the wall behind me or.

[Micah Reisinger]

No, like I said, he sees you holding up something and he can't tell if it's your hand covering your face or if he's holding something. It's hard to focus on it. Very confusing.

[Blaine]

Hey, Billy, Benny lost his eye. Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Oh, my God. What's going on down there?

[Blaine]

Where's your eye? Benny, do you wanna come back down?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Do you wanna come back?

[Blaine]

Yeah, come back.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay, I'm gonna deal with this a little bit later. And I put the piece of fabric in my pocket.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. And I'll say, billy, you've come back down. No problem.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, see, and while I'm there. There was a knife in the corpse.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, there's a knife in the corpse. Aye. And the corpse is also wearing a helmet. Just a reminder.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Nah, check the helmet.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm not trying to sway you. I'm just trying to make sure you remember all the details.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, all the details.

[John Risinger]

I like that you're bending down as if you're going for. And then an inch away, you switch.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Over to the helmet.

[Micah Reisinger]

Your other hand is reaching for the other thing. Yeah. So you go for the helmet. I'm hearing.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Yeah, you go for the helmet. And it's kind of like the knight helmets, where it's flat down covering his face. What do you want to do with it?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I lift the visor up.

[Micah Reisinger]

You lift the visor up. And it's the strangest thing. It's the same phenomenon that you had with this piece of fabric you saw.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Is it feminine?

[Micah Reisinger]

You should be seeing this person's face, but it's like a square is kind of covering it, but you can't tell what it's made of.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Weird.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, what do you want to do?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I'm gonna go with Benny. He punches the face just to see what happens.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Yeah, you punch the face and whatever this is falls down and into maybe the corpse's lap, kind of towards the floor. And you start to get a better vision of it. For whatever reason, you disrupted something that made it kind of more visible. And it looks like a blueprint.

[John Risinger]

Billy wants to join. He starts kicking the body.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah, you start kicking the body and it's like jostling and it kind of slides down the windowsill onto the floor.

[Gustavo Cirola]

That's right.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, you showed him.

[Micah Reisinger]

And also as this thing falls off the face, you recognize this person, this corpse. Oh, from a description that Murin gave you. Uh. Oh, you think this is Vol.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, no, I just.

[Micah Reisinger]

What's the description that you've been kicking on the graph?

[Blaine]

Mission accomplished, boys and girl. Let's go back and get our money.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So vhol is the missing sun. That clearly looks very passed away.

[John Risinger]

Like 24 hours passed away.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, it doesn't look like a skeleton or anything. Just clearly is deceased. Clearly has been plunged with a knife and is nearly naked.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Arsh. Won't be clear. He was dead before I punched him. Okay, hold on. The blueprint was in front of his face inside the mask?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yep.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay, just. I just realized that weirdness of it isn't near sighted. See, see just inside his biker helmet.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Is the piece of fabric. You got part of that blueprint.

[Micah Reisinger]

You can compare the two if you want.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah. Is Muffin gonna join us?

[Unknown]

No.

[Micah Reisinger]

So let me resolve something.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay, I'm gonna look at this blueprint, but I want to know what Muffin's doing.

[Micah Reisinger]

Let me resolve something real quick. As you're looking at this blueprint, you see something written in blood in the corner and it's the words Rikalu invisib. And then it kind of trails off.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay, I think I know what that means.

[John Risinger]

And Rikalu is the leader of the Pastis. No, they're the gang. They're the gang. Pastis, leader of the reclue.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

They might be invisible.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah, they're probably wearing whatever this fabric piece you got was.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, so you have this fabric piece that you're looking at and comparing it to this blueprint and it dawns on you that they're both like. As you get glimpses of both, they're both blue, but they keep kind of shifting out of perspective. And I'm going to send you all something in slack.

[Blaine]

All right boys, let's grab bowl and get out of here and get our money.

[Micah Reisinger]

Zip zaps up.

[Unknown]

Mission accomplished.

[Blaine]

Billy, pick him up. Let's go.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, yeah, I'll pick him up.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, you tell Billy to pick him up and not Benny the giant rat.

[Blaine]

Well, Benny's got his hands Full with the blueprint.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, wow.

[John Risinger]

All right.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I'm his right hand guy. What's the matter?

[Micah Reisinger]

See, so as you're looking at this blueprint, you see that it's the entire layout of this tower. And it really doesn't make sense how this is built because it should just be up and down. But there are chambers all over the place of various sizes, heights, and it seems like it's been marked out to have all these numbers that you keep finding on the floor, like where they might be located and what might be inhabiting some of these rooms. At least at the time of his exploration.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Gee whiz, my map was all sorts of wrong. Wow.

[Blaine]

I do want to say I'm pretty. I'm pretty happy. My map is pretty close, but this is. This is mind bending a bit.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oi, Muffin. We found a map.

[Unknown]

Yeah, but I found the numbers, so why don't you get back down here? We probably have to go in order.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Get back down.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I'm still where we came out and you guys went down the hall.

[Micah Reisinger]

She means.

[Blaine]

No, we're still in the same level.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Okay, this here picture shows a bunch of storks and birds. That seems kind of fun. Maybe we want to go to number nine.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

To be clear, I'll pick up Vol and I'll walk out of the room back towards where Muffin is in two.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Does the moat get back onto Benny's head?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Do I get my light?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, the light starts following you again as you're in this hallway.

[Unknown]

Okay, so that means we don't have to go all the way back to one. And then I'll do it all over again. Because that would be a headache.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

As, as, as Benny walks towards back to Muffin and sees his light, he just starts humming.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Muffin slapped Benny.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I slapped Muffin back.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh. At the sound of this slapping, you hear fixed stomping sounds coming from the southwest room that you know as the Room six. And boom. You see this head pop out from the corridor, but it can't seem to protrude through into the room. He's too big.

[Blaine]

I smell rodent jar, I stab it in the eye.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Oh, I'll join you, boss.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, we're gonna roll Initiative.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, we're fighting.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, so what I need, since Eric, you're the one that wants to stab this thing. Roll me a D6 and I will roll against you three. You got a three, I got a five. So my side, we're doing side based. Initiative is going to go first. That means in this first round, the giant in this case is going to take a turn, and that's the only person in this party that you can see. And then when he's done, you guys will have a turn. You can go in any order you want on your turn, and then we'll reroll initiative again. So you wanted to stab it in the eye. Go ahead and make an attack roll with your 2D6. Trying to get a 10 or above.

[Blaine]

That is a 4, actually.

[Micah Reisinger]

Roll with advantage, since it was a surprise attack. Roll with advantage and see if you just See if you hit it.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

One more dice.

[Blaine]

One more dice or three new dice.

[Micah Reisinger]

Just do one more.

[Gustavo Cirola]

You got a boss. Here, have my dice.

[Blaine]

That's a. Yeah, thanks. See, that's a five, which would have made it an eight. Five plus three.

[Micah Reisinger]

Eight. So, yeah, you try and go for this eye, and maybe the head is just still, like, squirming around, like, a little too high for you to reach as eroded dementia. And you start to stab at it, but it just kind of squirms out of the way just in the last second. Okay, so that was kind of a surprise attack. Now it'll be the giant's turn. And the giant kind of sees that you're trying to stab its eye, and it kind of reaches out behind it and starts pulling something from its body. And you see this club kind of like fall to the ground, and it can't seem to swing it, but it's gonna hit you, so it's gonna try and land. Land on you, basically. And he rolled an eight and he has a plus one, so that's a nine. So it's actually gonna. You're gonna take one point of damage from this. Ah. Because what we do with damage in. In maze rats is you roll to try and meet the AC or beat it. And the difference between the AC and the roll is the amount of damage. So in this case, 9 and 8, which is your AC. So you have one point of damage.

[Blaine]

Ah. Avenge me, boys and girl.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Boss, no.

[Micah Reisinger]

Now it's all the rest of your turns, and everybody can go, including Eric.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I want to attack next. I want to defend my boss.

[John Risinger]

So then I'm going to take my. I'm going to keep some distance and shoot it with my crossbow.

[Micah Reisinger]

And I will say also that in maze rats, you can do 30ft of movement on your turn, and you can take one action. And that action could be attacking, could be running away, could be any number of things. Create illusions that you want to come up with, and we'll Roll with it. Okay, so you're gonna try and shoot it with your crossbow? Yeah, go ahead and roll. 2D6.

[Gustavo Cirola]

2D6 coming up. This one's for you, boss.

[John Risinger]

Yeah, two and a three.

[Micah Reisinger]

So five total.

[John Risinger]

Yeah, five total.

[Blaine]

You gotta do better.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. You fire off your crossbow, and it pings the side of the giant space, but doesn't seem to phase them at all and just gets kind of angry and goes. You see, like, the archway starts to rumble and the stone starts to crumble on the outside of it. Who's next?

[Unknown]

Guys, I think we should just run away. This thing can't get through. We gotta get through this maze. Why don't we just run?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I like that idea.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, run. Yeah. See? Run.

[Unknown]

We already got the biggest guy on our team down a point, so, you know, bad news, bears.

[Blaine]

Flattery gets you everywhere.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So could Muffin start running towards the room with the three, which would be the northeast?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure. Yeah. You can easily make your way up there, and you kind of move out of its eyesight. What does the rest of the party want to do?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I'll follow.

[Micah Reisinger]

Follow.

[Blaine]

Okay, I want to follow. I could take an action before I move, though, right?

[Micah Reisinger]

You can.

[Blaine]

And I'm, like, right up on the giant's face.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Who wants to stab it?

[Blaine]

No, no, no. Can I shove a vial in its mouth? Uh.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh.

[Blaine]

And then take off running following Muffin?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. What kind of vial?

[Blaine]

A vial of poison.

[Micah Reisinger]

Whoa. Okay.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Ooh, you got poison.

[Micah Reisinger]

This is gonna be risky, so I'm gonna make you roll for it.

[Blaine]

Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

In this case, are you're really fingersmith nimble with your hands?

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

So you can roll with advantage on this. Okay, so 3D6.

[Blaine]

That is an 11.

[Micah Reisinger]

11 beats it.

[Blaine]

Six and a five. Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

So you shove this vial of poison into the giant's mouth, and it instinctively, like, starts chomping down, thinking that maybe you put your hand in its mouth and poison just starts to pierce its lips and sizzle. And you see veins around its face start turning green, and it immediately starts thrashing about and reversing its entry into the room back where it came from. And you just hear it rumbling, not necessarily stomping down the hallway, but it's clearly moving away from you all.

[Blaine]

Yeah, that's what you get. See, I'm gonna take off following, running, following Muffin.

[Unknown]

That's what you get. See?

[Micah Reisinger]

And you hear yells of pain in the distance.

[Unknown]

Probably a good thing you did that, because we'll have to go into that room at some point.

[Blaine]

Yeah, see, clearing the way.

[Micah Reisinger]

When you.

[Blaine]

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[Barbara Dunkelman]

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[Micah Reisinger]

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[Alexey Tinchenko]

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[Blaine]

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[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, thank you.

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[John Risinger]

So I guess we're still going to three.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

And then I guess. Do we just want to hit the remainder of these doors? In the corridor are 4, 5 and 6.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I think probably what we have to do in this scenario is go through all the rooms in numerical order. Yeah, I don't think we could skip anything. So, yeah, it's good that we have this map now because we could see the sequence of rooms and the directions we need to go. So it kind of provides the answers for us.

[Blaine]

But do we have to. Yeah, yeah, take Vol back, see? Get the money.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I mean, that would be a quick way to end this.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I mean, how many episodes do we want out of this adventure?

[Blaine]

See, maybe, Benny, you should drop Vol off over there at the entrance with the gibbets. Yeah, sure. You have to carry him the whole way because then it's a lot of heft for you to be carrying around.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, okay.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah. You're a little guy. You don't want to carry this big old heavy thing the whole time.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I feel I could make him fall my size.

[Gustavo Cirola]

No, but just we're a bunch of big guys. All of us equally.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

The biggest.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Biggest.

[Unknown]

All of us.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny goes over and I guess pushes on the door that he secured.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, you push on it and it just kind of falls off its hinges onto the ground.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I walk into the room and I put Vol's body near the tile. That glows with one.

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay. And then I head back to my team and go to. We're all in three.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. Okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

We're in the third room.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yep. And the spark of light seemed to follow you as you go to this third room. And like I said before, you have a window to the north. And that's really. That's all that's in this room. The number three in this window to.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

The north, I see it says 4W. So W obviously stands for West. But does 4 mean we could get into room 4 from that window?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

We'll have to find out.

[Blaine]

I think maybe you should look out that window and see what you see.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could. Yeah. Could Muffin look out that window?

[Micah Reisinger]

Absolutely you can. Yeah. You look out that northern window and it should be like the shoreline that you saw in the distance as you came towards, but you actually see the west and you seem to be four floors above and you're kind of seeing maybe the noon sun above you heading towards that direction. Oh.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So I think the numbers with the west, north, east, and south, it's like how many floors up we are rather than the room?

[Blaine]

I think so.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Yeah, that seems to track with what, the windows you've seen so far. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, so nothing in this room then. So should we just go over to 4?

[Micah Reisinger]

4?

[Unknown]

Let's go across the hall. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[John Risinger]

Across the hall is four.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yep. Across the hall, there's a four on the ground and a northern window. And you kind of look out and see that you're in the same direction as the previous window in the west, but it's the third floor.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Now I run back over to three, and I go look out the four window, and look down I go, hello, everybody.

[Micah Reisinger]

Hey, what are you doing up there?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Hi.

[Micah Reisinger]

Hi. As you leave four, you see that your spark of light doesn't follow you?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I go back and I get my spark.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay, but did we. We did see him. Like, if we are all looking out the window, we could see each other from floor to floor.

[Micah Reisinger]

If you're looking up and down.

[John Risinger]

Yeah, yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay.

[John Risinger]

But then if I look out the window and then look down the hall, across the hall, do I still see his butt?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

Whoa.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Right?

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm not tracking that again.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, I'm sticking out the window. We're playing portals here. Okay. And I can wave down to them and they can look to the right and they can see my butt in that room.

[Blaine]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay. Excellent. This is fun.

[Blaine]

Point of clarification. The mote of light followed us into four, but when Bendy left to go to three, it followed him into the hall but did not follow him into three.

[Micah Reisinger]

Correct. Yeah. It would have followed to the hall and just stayed there.

[Blaine]

Okay.

[Unknown]

Okay, so I think.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Did we all go to four yet?

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Okay, give me five.

[Unknown]

Okay, Nick, one more down. Five. We're doing this, team.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, you go down to the west, and you see that there's a five. And there's nothing else in this room. I assume you leave that and go down to the sixth one as well.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Correct.

[Gustavo Cirola]

You assume correctly.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Where the giant came out of.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. So the southwest room is number six. And you see that the corridor seems to keep going northwesterly on a stairway.

[John Risinger]

Wait, where's the giant?

[Micah Reisinger]

You don't see the giant. Actually, right now you do see trails of green poison and blood going down towards what you see on your map into the next room, and then south from that room.

[Blaine]

Okay, you don't see him because I killed him. Yeah, so you don't mess with Eric Ratmansky or you get the poison.

[Micah Reisinger]

You again.

[Unknown]

Does your poison make someone disintegrate?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, there's like a trail, right, but no body.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, there's a trail. Okay, so what, you're at the bottom of these stairs. What do you want to do?

[Blaine]

Climb up.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'll take the lead.

[Blaine]

I'll follow Benny.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, yeah, and go up.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, Benny, you climb up into this room and you see it's a large fountain with an aquatic statue. It stands in the center of this room. To the east of the fountain is a bowl like tile on the floor bearing the number seven. As you enter, immediately these serpent like spirits emerge from the water in this fountain and start diving for your spark above your head. What do you want to do?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Go snakes?

[Micah Reisinger]

I.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

We don't know.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could I try to evade it?

[Micah Reisinger]

So you want to climb up the stairs as well and join them?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, it was just me. So I'm in the room. The snakes are coming at my little room.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I thought you were just following or leading.

[Micah Reisinger]

If everybody's falling, we can see you're all there at the door. Let's do that. Let's do that.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I've got a steel mirror. Or maybe the reflection will make them bounce off and go away.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I like that.

[Micah Reisinger]

You hear it say, give us the.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Spa, I'll give you some mirrors.

[Blaine]

What if we just leave, guys? Yeah, just go to eight.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Oh, that's true.

[Micah Reisinger]

It's gonna lunge after Benny.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I dodge and go for a tuck and roll. A roll like a somersault to the north.

[Micah Reisinger]

Excellent. Make a 2D6 roll with Dex added to it as you're dodging away. That's my Dex plus one.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That was only eight.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. You are trying to dodge to the north, is that correct?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

For some reason, as this serpentine spirit comes out, there's dribbling water across the floor and you slip. And so as you're diving, you may only make it like halfway there. And you're kind of at the eastern side of this fountain now. Yeah, on the ground and it's still coming for your spark. Trying to grab it and thrash at it. What are the rest do you want.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

To do while it's distracted by him? Could I run in and jump and try to grapple the little snake guy?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, go for it. Go ahead and make a strength check. So 2D6 plus strength.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I have a zero strength, I believe. Nine.

[Blaine]

Oh, so close.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Just the same as the number of fingers you got in your hands.

[Unknown]

Oh, my God.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm gonna call this an attack, in essence, because that's what you're trying to do is grapple this thing and you meet its ac or you beat its ac, I should also say, because you're interacting with this thing. So I'll let you know right off the bat that it's AC is 6. So you had a 9. Is that correct?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yes.

[Micah Reisinger]

So you have a death grip on this thing. Now. What do you want to do with it?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could I try to rip it in half?

[Micah Reisinger]

Absolutely, you can. I'll say with a. With a 9. You absolutely rend it in half. And the spirit is still alive, but on both ends. It's kind of like wriggling in each of your hands now.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Is it like when you cut a worm in half and it turns into two?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, it's sort of ethereal. You don't understand how you're actually holding this thing, but it has some sort of corporealness to it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So it's alive still.

[Micah Reisinger]

Mm.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay. Could I shove it into the water in the fountain?

[Micah Reisinger]

You do that, and you see that it's two halves. Start joining back together as you're putting on the water.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, no. Oh, no.

[Micah Reisinger]

Magic water.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Quickly take it out.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. They separate again, and then they start wriggling in your hands. What do the rest of you want to do?

[Blaine]

Get a blow dryer.

[Micah Reisinger]

So we got Eric and we got Billy.

[Blaine]

I'd like to. While Benny's on the ground and Muffin is wrestling with that spirit, I'd like to use that time and their distraction to try to run around the fountain and get to the northern exit.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Do you want to go west or east around the fountain on the east.

[Blaine]

Side where they are? Because I want to use them as that distraction.

[Micah Reisinger]

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. You start running just normally across the side of this thing, and you can make it easily to the corridor to the north. Yeah. You kind of come to this room that has a number eight on it with a couple other exits. Come branching out from it.

[Blaine]

Come on, you knuckleheads. Quit messing around. Let's go.

[Micah Reisinger]

And what does Billy want to do?

[John Risinger]

Billy would want to follow suit, but based on what's been happening, theoretically, would he be able to deposit his light and then come back to help the others? But his light is in safekeeping. An eight.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Like lock your light in room eight and come back.

[Micah Reisinger]

So you want to go all the way to 8 and then come back pedal or not back pedal.

[John Risinger]

But if I Have the movement to do it, or at least pull my crossbow out to assist the other two who have not made it to eight yet.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, absolutely. You follow suit with your boss, Eric, and you kind of make an about face, seeing your friends kind of in trouble. And you want to fire your crossbow. Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I say you hold right here, Sparky. You stay here, Sparky.

[John Risinger]

And then I pull out my crossbow, and I. I don't want to shoot the one that's in Muffin's hands because I don't want to accidentally hit Muffin. But I do if there's another one.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. So there's another one that pops out and is starting to head towards Big Benny.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Stay on target. Stay on target.

[John Risinger]

I'm gonna shoot at it.

[Micah Reisinger]

So go ahead and roll 2d6 and fire that crossbow.

[Unknown]

And I have an idea after this is done.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay.

[Gustavo Cirola]

That's a seven plus.

[John Risinger]

Do I even add anything?

[Micah Reisinger]

Not for the crossbow, no. 7 beats it. And so it takes one point of damage as this bolt fires from your crossbow and impales the side of its face. And it starts thrashing around because you've blinded. You half blinded it.

[Blaine]

Yuck.

[Micah Reisinger]

Cool. It's kind of stuck in midair, thrashing about, trying to look for this. Big Benny rodent.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Come on, Benny. Come on, Muffin. We gotta get going.

[Micah Reisinger]

What do you wanna do, Big Benny?

[Unknown]

I have an idea.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I want Muffin's idea.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, go for a Muffin.

[Unknown]

Could I run over to the window and throw all these snakes out the window?

[Micah Reisinger]

Absolutely you can. So you're gonna go towards the west, around the fountain to the south, and chuck it out the window.

[John Risinger]

Yeah, you do that.

[Micah Reisinger]

You take both halves and you just throw them out the window, and they start falling all the way down. And you're like. From the fifth floor, they just seem to fall almost all the way from the top of this tower all the way to the ground and kind of land on the grass below.

[Blaine]

I'm sick and tired of these snakes in my tower.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, Big Benny, what do you want to do?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny wants to scramble back to his feet and get to the north door, out of this room.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, I'll say. If all of you want to make your way to the north, you totally can.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

Hey, you know, looking at the map, if I'm in room eight, I'm looking out the third floor window to the north. Theoretically, would I be able to see.

[Micah Reisinger]

The snake fall past me? You absolutely would. Yeah. So this third floor northern window, you just see it?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yeah. After throwing those snakes out the window, Muffin also wants to head to the north.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny turns to Muffin and just goes, thanks, I appreciate that. I'm in your debt.

[Unknown]

Yeah. You know, I've seen the movie Snakes on a Plane, but never Snakes in a water Fountain.

[Micah Reisinger]

Snakes in a spire. All right, Snakes in a spire. You all safely make it to the threshold of room number eight to the north, and your sparks all follow you. And this second serpent spirit seems to be thrashing about, can't seem to find anything, and dives back into the fountain.

[Unknown]

Okay, note to self, don't go to that fountain ever again.

[Micah Reisinger]

So now you find yourselves in this four way room. You've come from the south. It's a square room with these cardinal directions in each way. And then there's an 8 on the floor and a window in the northwest corner.

[Blaine]

Hey, Billy, you wanted to see some birds?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, birds, boss. Yeah, like, I like birds.

[John Risinger]

So looking at the map, there's a staircase that leads down into what looks like floor nine. But there's also four giant pelicans.

[Micah Reisinger]

Are they awake?

[John Risinger]

Like, what's the status of these big old birds?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

You gotta look in that room.

[Micah Reisinger]

You want to listen down the stairwell? Yeah, yeah. You listen down and you absolutely hear the ruffling of feathers, the squawking of giant creatures that are bird like. And it definitely smells like something of a wharf with like guano and grass and mud, that kind of stuff.

[Blaine]

Oh, this connects back around to the earlier passageway where you said it smelled like a wharf to the north. Okay, I gotcha.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Okay, gang, so we got a bunch of birds in the next room. What do birds not like? How can we put these birds to sleep?

[Blaine]

Get little Muffin in there. Yeah, Little Muffin. She'll chase him away.

[Unknown]

Should I go grab one of those snakes and bring it into this room? And it just unleashed havoc.

[Blaine]

I like it.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

This might be a controversial idea. What if we just ran?

[Unknown]

I like to run.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, what? What if I know anything about birds? If you make a lot of noise and you just wave your hands around a lot, then the birds are scared of you and you can run past them.

[Blaine]

Yeah, bird brains.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I got an idea that might not be as dangerous. Okay, so in the north west corner, there's a window facing to the north on the third floor. Okay. And I. Follow me along. If you look at the map, there's another window in there, and it's the second floor window facing the north. So what if I distract them in the window and you guys run behind them while they're looking at me? And then you get from room nine to room ten.

[Micah Reisinger]

I love this.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

How are you going to get to 10?

[Gustavo Cirola]

I don't know. But I want my team to get along. As long as Mr. Eric gets through, that's all I care about.

[Micah Reisinger]

Also hand this to you. If you do that, I will totally let that happen. And you know that all four of those windows from your map are on the same level. And all you'd have to do is swing to the next one and to the next one and to the next one, because they're all the same level, but they're all the cardinal directions. So west, north, east, south.

[Gustavo Cirola]

A lot of athletics checks, but I think I can do it, guys. You guys believe in me. Hands in the middle.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

There's also a corridor that says E all the way to the east.

[Blaine]

I was going to point that out, but then I realized I think if we do that, we skip nine, then we go straight from eight to 10. Yeah, yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

You would assume that's right.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

We have to go in nine.

[Blaine]

So let's build on Billy's idea. Okay.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

You go from the window in 3 north down to 2 north to get into 9. Go back to the window in 3 north, then go to the passage, mark E, then come about the other side and go to 10.

[Unknown]

I am so lost right now.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm just gonna run easiest pie.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I'm just gonna follow suit.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay, hold on. I do the window thing, right?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I'm distracting him from the window. Okay, you guys run from room nine to room ten.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yes.

[Gustavo Cirola]

And then one of you goes out the door to the east hallway and then comes back to room eight. And then you distract them.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. While I run through the. While I go through the window.

[John Risinger]

Yeah, yeah, you got.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay.

[Micah Reisinger]

You mean the hallway labeled E? Is that what you meant?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay.

[Unknown]

Hopefully that door is open.

[Micah Reisinger]

Let me just clue the audience in here. From 8, there's a Western path that's labeled E, and it wraps around to room 10. It's almost like you're going out the left side, coming in the right side.

[Blaine]

It's like Pac Man.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Gustavo Cirola]

It's a portal.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I don't know how we would have done this without the picture.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

This is nuts.

[Micah Reisinger]

It's hard. Billy, you're gonna go out the. The northwestern window that's labeled 3N, and you're on the third floor on the north side. And the rest of the party goes down the stairwell. Billy, you're going to climb down, I'm assuming, to the second level. On the north side still. Yes. Okay, you do that and you start approaching the windowsill of that pelican room with all these eggshells and mud and sticks and these huge dire pelicans that are just enormous and squawking. The rest of the party, you start making your way down the stairs, I'm assuming sneakily.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

And kind of wait for his signal.

[Blaine]

Walking on eggshells.

[Micah Reisinger]

Exactly.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Good one, boss.

[Micah Reisinger]

What do you want to do?

[Unknown]

Bird shells.

[John Risinger]

All right, so in order to distract them, I have a crowbar. So I'll hold on to one of the chains from the window sill and I'll take the crowbar in the other hand and then I'll start just banging.

[Gustavo Cirola]

It up on the wall, just.

[Micah Reisinger]

You know from your experience with birds that they hate high pitched sounds and shiny objects. Yeah, they're like weak to them. So you start doing this thing and, like, it just starts making this racket that echoes off the corners and the walls of this room. And the birds start going crazy and just flapping about.

[Blaine]

That's the signal, guys. Run, run, run. I start running from 8 through 9, trying to get over to 10.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, same.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Same here.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, so, yeah, you three kind of hug the southern wall away from these birds as they're looking northward towards Billy making a racket. And you slink past, and as you're getting towards the corner, you see the number 9 mixing all this hay and straw and twigs. And along the way, I'll also say as you're approaching the door for 10, you see on the ground a pelican beak from a dead pelican, like it's fallen off of it. And you see three venomous quills, like something that they're sort of poisoned, like it died from poison. And there's something lodged inside the beak as well.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

As I run by, I pick it up and grab it and take it out of the room.

[Micah Reisinger]

Absolutely. Yeah. You all head towards 10, and meanwhile, Billy's on the window still and he's making a racket with this chain and crowbar. What? What do you want to do now, Billy? Oh, yeah, you got their attention.

[John Risinger]

Okay, so theoretically, I would be able to see them run through the room and then enter 10. So then I would know that's probably my signal to climb back up to safety. Quote, unquote.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

Into room 8 and then await someone to come in for through the east hallway that connects room 10 to room 8, and then have them distracted on my behalf on the other side.

[Micah Reisinger]

I got you.

[John Risinger]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

So go ahead and make A climb check as you're going back up. So you're going to do a strength check and you're going to do 3D6 like I said last time, because you have advantage on this chain being here. Okay.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

This entire show, I've been listening to Blaine's voice, and it's been triggering something in my head. I'm like, I know this voice, and I finally figured it out. Did any of you watch Bear in the Big Blue House?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

No.

[John Risinger]

Okay, so Kristen, I told her I give her a taste of my voice this morning, and she was like, oh, that's rat from It's Tutter.

[Micah Reisinger]

It's Tutter.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

You sound. If anybody pulls up any clips of Tutter from Bear in the Big Blue House, it sounds exactly like Blaine. Ra.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I thought it was Sizzler. No, no, Mickey Mouse.

[John Risinger]

I rolled a six and a five, and then plus strength. I guess that's a one. So 12.

[Micah Reisinger]

You have done this before now, and you're just racing up this chain up to the next window still back into room eight. Who's coming? Out of 10 to distract, I wanted.

[Blaine]

To open the door to the passageway e that's in 10, just to make sure it's unlocked and open.

[Micah Reisinger]

Absolutely. You go for that. You reach for it, it's unlocked, it swings open.

[Unknown]

I could go distract.

[Blaine]

All right. How are you, Muffin?

[Unknown]

I'm brave, I'm fast.

[Micah Reisinger]

What do you do to distract the pelicans? They're all in a tizzy right now. They're trying to look out this window, and they can't seem to find what was making all this noise.

[Unknown]

Luckily, Muffin also has a crowbar, so.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

She wants to take it out. And then is there, like, there's like, a. I assume like an archway?

[Micah Reisinger]

Archway that you're looking through? Yeah.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could I just, like, bang it on either side of the archway?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, absolutely. The birds follow suit and start flapping their wings, cawing, and looking for the source of this racket. And one of them eyes you and starts lunging right for you with its beak. Uh oh.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay. As I'm doing this, do I see if Bill. Billy is getting through the room?

[Micah Reisinger]

So, Billy, you're going to the hallway?

[John Risinger]

E. No, no, he needs to go. I would go back out the window now that they're looking.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, you're gonna do the same thing the party did?

[John Risinger]

Yeah. I'm gonna go back down now that they're newly distracted, and then I'll run through nine into ten.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay.

[John Risinger]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

You start sneaking on your way southwards. Same thing. But There's a giant pelican that's blocking your entrance because it's going towards your friends. Muffin.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Wait, I have a question. Couldn't he have just stayed by those windows as I distract them and then hop into the room via those windows and skid her out?

[Micah Reisinger]

He could have. We're here now.

[John Risinger]

I mostly just wanted to hop out of the way to a well. Yeah, I could have done that. I just didn't know if the pelicans would attack the long.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'll give you this, too. You would know that since you kind of were making a racket in this window still, the spark would have gone into nine if you want to leave it there. Oh, and you could keep going either way. I'll let you decide what you want to do.

[John Risinger]

Okay, well, then maybe while Muffin is distracting them at the stairs, I'll run through east hallway, through 10, dip my toe into nine on the other side of the room from the distraction, and then head back to 10.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, okay. I'll say that this all happens in the same sequence we just said. You climb down, you go into room 8 and make your way down the stairwell and see that there's this giant pelican. Anyway, you backpedal and go towards this hallway and kind of come out on the other side of 10, and you dip into room nine. You get, like, a toe in there, and the spark comes flying towards you, and still there's this giant pelican beak coming from Muffin.

[Blaine]

So now we're all in 10, but the pelican is about to attack Muffin.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, yeah. It's trying to squeeze its way in.

[John Risinger]

Can I shoot my crossbow at the pelican that's about to attack Muffin?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure you can do that? All right, go ahead and roll 2d6.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I hope their AC is low. It's a 5.

[Micah Reisinger]

Unfortunate. Doesn't seem to meet the pelican. I guess you're a little bit frazzled. You've run. You're kind of sweating and heaving from all this exercise, and you fire, and it just fires off to the side of the wall and misses completely.

[John Risinger]

Can I look at Benny and Eric and say, we need to make noise.

[Gustavo Cirola]

We need to help Muffin out.

[Unknown]

I got this, guys.

[Micah Reisinger]

Hold on.

[Blaine]

Okay, do it, Muffin.

[Unknown]

I'm surprised they could hear me.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay, Muffin then takes the crossbow and starts to run the other direction, but as she's running, hits the beak of the pelican with the crowbar.

[Micah Reisinger]

Crowbar, crowbar. You're doing, like, an improvised thing, trying.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

To stun it kind of.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, I would say it's more like a dex or strength. I'll let you kind of decide which one you want to add to this.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Let's do dex. So 2D6.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, 2D6 plus your dex.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So that would be an eight total.

[Micah Reisinger]

It meets it just on the dot. So, like, you. You slam it on its beak, and its beak kind of, like, hits the floor kind of dazed, and you have seconds to kind of get out of this thing's eyesight.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I will run towards Holly. So I could get back into room 10.

[Micah Reisinger]

I think you're in room 10, correct right now?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, you can be, because you're in nine. You can move into 10.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Is there a door or anything we could slam shut?

[Micah Reisinger]

If you want to make a door, you can. Or if you want to look around for something, you totally can do that.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay, good. Muffin, look around for, like, a big plank or something to, like, shut the door with.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, so you're in this room 10. It's a square room with paths heading in three cardinal directions. North, east, west. There's a depressed tile with a number 10 on it. You don't see anything on the ground, but you do think that you might be able to pry this door to the east off of the wall. Like, kind of like what Big Benny did before. Like, it's really rusty and on its last hinge.

[Unknown]

Okay, guys, get the door. Get the door and shove it on this archway.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Muffin's kind of out of breath because she's so scared.

[Micah Reisinger]

I do that.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I drop the pelican beak that I grabbed, and I go do that with the door because I'm so good at that.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

So strong.

[Blaine]

It's your area of expertise.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, pelican beak drops to the ground, and you lunge this door into the archway. Make a quick strength. Check.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That is 14.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, easily, same thing. Slam it into there. The beak is shoved back into room number nine, and you all are safe in room number ten.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Dang, you rolled good.

[Blaine]

We did it.

[Gustavo Cirola]

King. Whoa.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Muffin all of a sudden sees the beak on the floor and goes, I.

[Unknown]

Thought one of them got in here.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah. Can I pry the beak open now and see what was inside of it?

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, you have three quills that were stuck into this beak. You also open it up, and you see that inside is a bottle, like, with liquid inside. Some kind of potion.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Ooh la la.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I pocket that for now.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, I'll say that it has a label on it. It's just a picture, and it has two feet with arrows pointing down below the feet. Two feet? Two.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Like shoes with arrows pointing down.

[Micah Reisinger]

Is it.

[John Risinger]

Oh, is it like a potion of slow fall or whatever it's called?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Might be something like that. Or it makes you go really fast down. We'll find out. We'll find out in the moment.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Feather fall, maybe.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, so you have a corridor to your north, a door that you've taken off the hinges to the east. Now that one's on the west, and those are the three ways out of this room.

[Blaine]

It's corridor time, boys.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Well, hold on, boss. My danger sense is tingling. Looks like there's, like, a giant pit in the hallway between 10 and 11.

[Blaine]

Yeah, you better go first so you can. You can find all the danger for me. Get in there, Billy.

[Gustavo Cirola]

You got a bus.

[John Risinger]

Micah's. That pit that seems to be in the hallway in front of us, is that there? That's the thing, right?

[Micah Reisinger]

You want to go into that hallway?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

Attaboy. I pat Billy on the back because he's so courageous, but it's like, also subtly pushing him into the hallway. Yeah, get in there.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Thanks, boss. Thanks.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm not trying to trick you. I'm just trying to make sure that. So you know on the map that it's there, and now you're going to go into the hallway to see if it's there, Correct?

[John Risinger]

Yes.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. You enter into this narrow corridor, and, yeah, you do in fact, see the pit. But for some reason, the pit seems like longer than it. It is on the map. You can't make sense of it. It's similar to that kind of feeling that Big Benny had earlier with this torn fabric and this blueprint map. It just seems like it shouldn't be as big as it is.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, I know this one, Billy. I heard before. The penitent man has to. You have to. You have to just kind of go.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah, yeah. Indiana Jones, Last Crusade, Sean Connery. It's a classic. Yeah, yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

What do you want to do?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Do you have any Dirk?

[Blaine]

Now the penitent man's got a kneel. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Dirt on hill.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Oh, yeah. What was the faith one you had to walk across?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

You know, I have chalk. Hey.

[Micah Reisinger]

Hello.

[John Risinger]

So I want to crumble up the chalk, and then I want to.

[Micah Reisinger]

Blow.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

It onto where that should be into the hole.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[John Risinger]

I put it up to my little tail, my rat tail, and I go.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

He just fits all over it and just makes it wet.

[Micah Reisinger]

Which is wet chalk. Absolutely. You crumble up this chalk into dust and you blow it and you see that? It does, in fact, land where you think it should on the map. Like, this hole is only maybe three feet across and wide, but it seems like it's seven. But when you blow the chalk, you find the rest of the floor, and it's no longer obstructed. It's where it should be.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I'm gonna take the leap of faith. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna run.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right.

[John Risinger]

I'll try to jump the chasm.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, go ahead and make a dex.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Check the full 3ft jump.

[John Risinger]

So it's two dice and then plus the modifier.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. Okay.

[Blaine]

I'm gonna call you Billy Big Brain. Look at the big brain on Billy.

[Micah Reisinger]

That's a six plus two eight. You follow the chalk, the dust, and you leap across. And just as you're about to clear it, you start to fall, and you're half on this ledge on the other side, sliding into the chasm now.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Oh, God.

[Blaine]

I'm gonna jump across and try to help pull him up from the other side.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Don't hurt yourself, Boz. No, you don't leave me.

[Micah Reisinger]

Make a dex check to try and clear the gap and be on the other side. Right?

[Blaine]

Yep.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I like that. The fail on this is just resulting in more rats, like, falling into this chasm as we all try to help.

[Blaine]

So 2D6 is 4.

[Gustavo Cirola]

There it is.

[Micah Reisinger]

There it is. What happens? What happens is you land on top of Billy and start sliding down his back. And now you're holding onto his ankles and you're dangling down the scouse even more.

[Blaine]

Come on, nincompoop. Pull us up.

[Micah Reisinger]

Now there's a Rodentia ladder.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Muffin, could Muffin try to jump across?

[John Risinger]

Absolutely.

[Micah Reisinger]

Let's do this.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

My deck is high, so hopefully.

[Micah Reisinger]

Let's go.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

That is a 10.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, so you clear. You clear across Billy's head and onto the other side. Now what do you want to do, Muffin?

[Blaine]

Pull me up and then pull Billy up afterwards.

[Gustavo Cirola]

At the bottom of my legs, Eric.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Is actually lower, but he's like, pull me up first.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Well, I mean, it does make sense to pull one person up at a time because trying to lift two people is definitely more of a strength. So I will try to actually.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, that's what Eric meant.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I finally can't. I probably can't reach Eric with just my arm. So could I put my crowbar down?

[Blaine]

Absolutely.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah, you can hold your crowbar down. And what are you going to do?

[Unknown]

Grab the crowbar, Eric?

[Blaine]

Yeah, I start grabbing at it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

And I'm Going to try to pull him up.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'll say either one of you can make a strength check with advantage, or both of you can make strength checks and see if you both make it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

What's your strength like?

[Blaine]

Yeah, I think we should both do it. I got a plus one.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

See, I got nothing.

[Blaine]

All right, let's both do it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Okay, so we're both making strength check.

[Gustavo Cirola]

That just increases the chances of failure.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I know. I see Barbara's face before.

[Blaine]

Before Barbara reads it. I do want to say earlier, a couple rooms ago, this is exactly why Eric did not stop to help at the fountain. Because he didn't want to get himself into more trouble. That's why he tried to run by. Look what happens when he tries to help. He tries to jump in and help Billy, and he's gonna fall into a pit to his head.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

You had to get across this chasm anyways.

[Micah Reisinger]

And we conclude this adventure with the lesson, don't help each other.

[Blaine]

What did you get, Barbara?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I got a seven.

[Blaine]

I rolled a nine, but my strength is plus one, so that's a ten.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, so you're holding on just fine, Eric. But it starts to slip in Muffin's hand and falling down now. You have a great grip on this, though.

[Blaine]

Drop me a rope, Muffin.

[Micah Reisinger]

We haven't heard from Benny. What does Benny want to do?

[Gustavo Cirola]

Benny. Benny, help. It's so love to you.

[Micah Reisinger]

So now you have two people that are in this ladder hanging on the ledge, and you have Muffin that's starting to either lose track of this crowbar or herself is starting to fall down as well.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Oh, I would sooner let go of the crowbar.

[Micah Reisinger]

Your grip is loosening on it.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yes.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay, Benny's gonna make a jump.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Make a Dexter. Oh, God.

[John Risinger]

Oh, God.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Don't worry, fellas. I'm on my way.

[Gustavo Cirola]

He's gonna die.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That is a 10. Exactly.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, wow. You clear everybody. And, like, you maybe even run wall across the side and, like, avoid all these bodies that are in your wake.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah, doll, walk, parkour.

[Micah Reisinger]

And you land on the other side. What do you want to do?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I crack my knuckles and I.

[Gustavo Cirola]

We don't have time for you to crack your knuckles.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I have authoritis. You can shut up.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Arthritis.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

And I grab Muffin and I start pulling Muffin back.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay, so just to be clear, she's losing grip of this crowbar.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Well, then I put my hands. I put my arms all the way around Muffin and onto the crowbar that Muffin's holding and pull back.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, I like this Idea. And I'm gonna give you something. You've torn two doors off their hinges, no problem. So you have, like, all this strength and all this confidence. I'm gonna give you advantage on this strength roll because you're just completely in the clear on this. You know it.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

12 with advantage.

[Micah Reisinger]

Ooh, I'll say. You start pulling up Muffin, you get the grip on the crowbar as well. Muffin's in the clear, and I'll say that. Now Eric is holding onto the shoulders of Billy. So now they're kind of level with this ledge.

[Unknown]

Now you crawl up.

[Blaine]

Yeah, I'll put my feet on his shoulders and lift my weight up and pull myself up.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Billy's got really great grip through.

[Micah Reisinger]

He's got a good grip.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I can do this all day.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. Veins are just throbbing in Billy's veins in his head. So go ahead and make a strength check, but do with advantage since the other two are on the other side holding that crowbar for you.

[John Risinger]

This is for me or for Eric?

[Micah Reisinger]

Eric. Eric.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Cause you're climbing up.

[Blaine]

That is a seven.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Come on, Eric.

[Micah Reisinger]

It was with advantage.

[Blaine]

Yeah, it was a three and a three. It was a three. Three, two.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, my God, what you just did. That's a three and a plus one. Oh, okay. So now you lose grip of the crowbar, and now you're starting to slide on the back.

[Blaine]

Billy, pull us up.

[Micah Reisinger]

See?

[Gustavo Cirola]

You got it, boss.

[Micah Reisinger]

Super.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

These rolls, you need to hit her hard with 2D6.

[Micah Reisinger]

They are.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I try and I grab Billy and I go. Billy, I need you to pull with all your might. Okay.

[John Risinger]

Okay. So I'm gonna roll strength.

[Micah Reisinger]

You're gonna roll strength. You're both gonna roll with advantage because of the confidence that actually. Let's do this. Let's do this. Big Benny is gonna make a will check real quick. We haven't done that yet.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That's not good.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Is it a zero, your will?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That is correct.

[Micah Reisinger]

Trying to inspire confidence into Billy right now.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Okay, so I'm doing a will check, and he's doing a strength check.

[Micah Reisinger]

Just do the will check first.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Just do the will check. That's a six and a four. That's ten.

[Blaine]

All right, nice.

[Micah Reisinger]

I'm gonna say we're gonna speed through this because you guys are doing so well in these roles. Now you inspire this confidence into Billy. Billy and Eric managed to thrust themselves back out of this chasm, and you safely all land breathing and heaving on the other side towards the room. Eleven on the far end.

[John Risinger]

I like a kid that just got out of a swimming pool from drowning. I make my way up to Eric.

[Micah Reisinger]

And I'm like, boss, are you okay, boss? I'm just patting him down, boss.

[Blaine]

Yeah.

[Micah Reisinger]

After all these jumps and leaps over this chasm, Big Benny, you look down at this potion, you feel like it's surging with power, like you've been doing something that it wants to do.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

I down the potion.

[Micah Reisinger]

Oh, you down right now. Okay, sure. As you drink it, this green liquid kind of seeps down your throat, into your body, into trails all the way down into your feet. And you feel like you could jump maybe double, maybe even triple your height of what you could. What you could before. And I'll say on your next jump or two, you'll be able to do that. It won't be wasted right now, like you'll be able to do on your next jump.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny proceeds to jump back over the chasm and then back, back over the.

[Micah Reisinger]

Chasm to where we are, and the green stuff goes away.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Wow, that was cool.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I'm gonna kill you.

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, you guys are on the threshold of room 11 to the north. It's a very sparse room and only goes one direction, to the east. Is that where you want to go?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yeah.

[Blaine]

Let's do it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Now we're going east. Go east and you go through this short hallway to another small room labeled 12 on the floor. And there's one window to the north, and then to the east is another corridor that leads further on. You can see that on your map.

[Gustavo Cirola]

Okay, gang, I don't want to rely too heavily on this map because our audience at home can't hear you see it. However, if we're looking ahead, there is, like, a series of staircases and really, really big statues of big, scary things.

[Unknown]

We can't see that yet. We're not in there.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I know, but we can see it on the map. Muffin, stay with me. Stay with me. So there's. There's a window here, and I think we can avoid all that junk if we just. No, never mind. Nevermind. I.

[Unknown]

Was that what you were talking about?

[Micah Reisinger]

All right, do you guys want to move forward?

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Benny pushes Billy through the window.

[Blaine]

He's institutionalized. He loves going in and out of windows so much, he's got to do it all the time now.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

Yes. Benny walks into the next room, into what he thinks is room 13.

[Micah Reisinger]

Yeah. You see this huge staircase of several levels and landings moving north and south. And along these staircases are four statues that look like altars.

[Gustavo Cirola]

I told you.

[Micah Reisinger]

Each of them has a bowl or Some sort of tray at the bottom where all these offerings have been laid at their feet. And then to the north, at the top of this staircase, you see this ominous figure. It's just standing there somewhere, sort of person. They look like they're in rusty armor and they're not looking at you, they're just staring off into the distance. What do you want to do?

[Blaine]

I would like to approach that rusty armor and investigate it.

[Micah Reisinger]

Okay. Yeah. You get closer to it and you see that there's this person. It looks very gaunt, like it's covered in armor. And you can tell that it looks like it's a skeleton inside and it's kind of swaying uneasily, staring off in the distance. What do you want to do?

[Blaine]

Can I look, like, follow its gaze and see where its gaze is looking in the distance?

[Micah Reisinger]

Sure, yeah. You kind of turn around and look down this staircase, kind of following where it's looking. And you don't catch sight of what it's looking at, but you follow the trail. And it seems like it's following something that's floating in the air, maybe like a piece of dust or a bird, like you can't see. I don't know, it's weird.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

What are all the different statues or like figures that we're seeing?

[Micah Reisinger]

Each of them, like I said, have these offerings. They're just humanoid looking statues that seem to be cloaked. They kind of represent maybe different species that you're aware of, of humanoids. And at the bottom of each of these you see little offerings. Do you want to look at one in particular?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Yes.

[Micah Reisinger]

All cardinal directions in the corner. So which one do you want to go to?

[Barbara Dunkelman]

I want to go southeast.

[Micah Reisinger]

Southeast. Okay, you go to the southeast and you see there's this flask sitting on the bottom. And it's kind of sizzling where the cork is.

[Barbara Dunkelman]

Could I pop it open?

[Micah Reisinger]

Absolutely. You open it up and you can tell that this is no doubt acid that's in this flask. Oh, you're not sure how it's not eating away through this flask, but maybe it's some sort of material that can't be dissolved.

[Unknown]

You know, everything in my bones tells me I should take this, but I'm really worried about taking an offering from one of these things. But I'm gonna do it anyway.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That is not the end of that statement I was expecting.

[Micah Reisinger]

As soon as you pull it away, an immense phantasmal door appears in the middle of the staircase. And out steps a large, looming, spectral figure. Its penetrating gaze fixes squarely on Muffin and immediately begins gliding menacingly towards her.

[Alexey Tinchenko]

That I did expect.

[Micah Reisinger]

Thanks for listening to episode one of this Tavern Tales adventure. Stay tuned for episode two next week when you can enjoy the thrilling conclusion of the Skyblind Spire. Did you know that you can directly support the show by becoming a [e-mail] stinkydragon Become a patron and you could get your name shouted out. Like adygardenia, Ephanyshire, Drewbieni, and Elydillard. These patrons directly support the show and get ad free episodes. Even more Tavern Tales like Sea Squad, a superhero miniseries. Hey, my brother did that. Access to our Patron Only Discord Server bonus content like Second Wind and Behind the Screen and much more. Again, that's patreon.com stinkydragon we can't thank you enough for your support that lets us make this show. This episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon was produced by Ben Ernst and edited by Micah Risinger and Katherine Arnold. A special thanks to Michael Prescott for letting us use his written module. Want to run this adventure on your own? Head on over to trilemma.com that's T R I L E M M A dot com or find the link in the show notes. Tune in next time for another thrilling episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon.