The Madness Table: A Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Podcast

Playing Dress-Up with a Mindflayer - Episode 29

June 22, 2022 The Madness Table Season 1 Episode 29
The Madness Table: A Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Podcast
Playing Dress-Up with a Mindflayer - Episode 29
Show Notes Transcript

The party takes some time dealing with Sephel's ever-present tentacle problem. But there is something else amiss in Gracklestugh, and it's not the smothering black smog. A new friend is made on the way to the Wyrmsmith who has a proposition for our adventurers...

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition playthrough of Out of the Abyss adventure module, written by Wizards of the Coast.

Dungeon Master: William Johnston
All NPCs: William Johnston
Indigo Honeydew: Andrew Walker
Sephel Hesk: Brendan Proal
Lara Wippen: Sam Conklin

AUDIO:
Latin Electro #10 | Dmyra
Cosa Peluda | Dmyra
Nerbuldar | Ambient Mixer

Dnd 5e, underdark, drow, wizard, cleric, warlock, Dungeons and Dragons, The Madness Table, D&D

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[Music] so[Music] um so basically last time you guys spent your time trying to uh get some information and make some friends while keeping yourselves kind of disguised and hidden from the rather uh mean and nasty population of gray dwarves you try to find out a little bit from what you could inside the bullets lair before you made your way over to the shattered spire where a lot more of the mercenaries and visitors go to have a drink here in the dark lake district you met some interesting people and potentially made some friends and or allies you had some powerful boos and you decided to start making your way back to the the lair to get some rest in and as you were making your way there indigo sensed that you were all being watched and through the crowds as you guys shifted back through the district he noticed a couple of uh drow kind of keeping tabs on your wall until as you are starting to make your way down through the tunnel into the lair uh they he he sees six figures kind of shadowed standing outside and that's where we had ended and indigo as you're kind of like staring out at these these six shadowy figures and they're probably 60 70 feet away they're a good distance um and you guys are ever slowly going down there's this very large looking shadow that comes in front of the entrance way as you guys are a little ways into the tunnel and it looks like this large imposing figure and it kind of like stops for a second and then it starts descending towards you and as it does it starts getting smaller and smaller and smaller and you guys are still kind of walking um but you hear the clinking of what sounds like chain mail and metal plates moving in the swishing of a large cloak and you realize that it is a quite a large uh figure and as they come into view more of the details do you see an eight foot tall man with this wild longish red brown hair a large kind of spiky wirey beard um they have this charcoal gray uh kind of skin with these uh dark dark eyes and they are wearing this kind of worn and beaten a large set of plate armor and across their shoulders they're very broad shoulders you see that there's this uh wiry cloak and on the right hand side as this kind of clip comes up there is a large head of what looks like some kind of massive bore sitting there um and in one hand they seem to be carrying a very large satchel and in the other you see a uh very large almost um it's a mixture between a maul and an axe on a very short handle but it seems uh incredibly heavy and as they're kind of thunking down towards you guys um i guess a really good two figures to keep in mind when uh i'm describing this figure is um a combination of andre the giant like their arms and their legs are thick as freaking tree trunks they're massive and um have all of you guys seen the animated movie brave yeah oh yeah okay uh you're picturing meredith's father so like that's how broad this figure is um and they're coming down and they've kind of got the smile on their face and uh they kind of greet you you all uh you know oh but pardon me i would just be moving on by you excuse me excuse me any kind of like you see he has instead of a full helm he just seems to have kind of a leather koif with a small metal plate on the top and he pulls it off a little bit to like tip his hat in a sense puts it back on and like i'll just be moving by and you go as you look back up the tunnel you see that those six figures are no longer there uh as we continue to walk on in uh i would like to whisper to um safel and lara so i don't know if you noticed but before this very impressive uh human just uh walked by hill hello um i'm pretty sure our um previous um[Music] captors are are are lurking around they they spotted us you saw them oh yeah they're like just back there we've probably been flying this for quite a while uh laura's gonna spit around and try to make it out are we we're like pretty far down though right you're a ways down now yeah you you can just kind of see the top uh dome of the cavern entrance but uh yeah you don't see anybody behind you now how many of the figure has moved on beyond you um i i think i saw six of them[Music] i don't like that like did you get the impression that they recognized you um it seemed like they were kind of like following us um so i'm going to say yeah but also they just you know they saw we were going and then they kind of skedaddled so i think we're good to take a rest and i think we kind of kind of need to do that um before we get started but maybe we'll be you know if we keep moving you know maybe we can shake them and it seems like a fairly safe place as long as we keep watches i'm sure we fine also have a meeting with a large and imposing figure tomorrow we may be able to shift in allegiance with him to our benefit very smart phil very smart i know[Laughter] well i think we should i think we should also consider finding perhaps another member to join us and i would feel better if it wasn't just us three and the mushroom hey well we do have a few options we um i mean if we get past a few lies there was that dancing mercenary from the shattered spire you you liked her did you sephal well she seemed to be willing to help us and she certainly seemed she could hold her own and i enjoyed her artistic expression[Laughter] i wanna know what love is i feel like that's more appropriate first of all yeah she seems like she can totally take care of herself and just like zooming in as she's dancing on the table that's playing yeah if you felt that her physical prowess was more than sufficient then i'm fine with that well there's her there is i mean indigo seemed quite enamored with the the fellow that briefly walked by us um i noticed you look a few times just be i mean polite what like a he built like a brick house look at the dams of that guy i i agree he's he's perhaps a fine option as well in terms of um well power i i do agree though we everything we seem to be either trying to find or have not find us seems to be in one place in a short period of time having allies other than the fungus uh may become necessity very quickly okay two things three things one more friends always better two carefully vetted friends yes i've heard i've heard both ways too maybe we should check in with the uh the worm smith before making any decisions and you know maybe the what he has for us is gonna you know lead us down a certain route maybe one that will have a specialty uh three do not forget all the times that stool who is standing right here has saved both of your lives that's right those of all those have all been negated by the fact that i saved his life in turn but i do agree with you wait when what speak to the warren smith i i i don't think that's how that works i also agree which this this feels weird i'm uncomfortable with this situation but i'm not downplaying uh stools usefulness in this specific case normally totally am right now i agree with you however more numbers are better and more arms are better nice stool and i fist bump and i say i know math big number good hell yeah yeah the square root of 144. big numbers i don't know what numbers are only ask me questions that haven't been known by science yet cephel being ridiculous i hate you all and he just turns and starts walking towards the rooms dibs on first watch laura leans over to indigo it's 14.[Laughter] wow stool's like what's that other voice in your head lara no who's the other guy talking to you yeah i own your brain you're mine there's a lot of frequencies man sorry let's uh yeah let's let's rest please okay safel will take um actually he would request second watch because by the time that watch comes along he will have essentially finished his long rest okay okay indigo indigo has a belly full of spear of the deep leg he's good for first watch yes that's that's definitely going to be a disadvantage uh okay so you all head back to the room you are settling down for the evening is there anything as as you do that your characters do specifically to like help them wind down is there any kind of like lingering thoughts or or any such thing before they kind of drift off in their own ways i think sort of uh ritualistically safel makes sort of his like peaceful meditative practice of just copying down his spells you know making sure that everything is lined up taking extra time so it's like neat and orderly and and everything is uh memorized and also i think all of the[Music] magical items he has and notes of potential magical items he lays out in front of him so he takes like the different colored crystals he takes the note that he took about the um i always forget the mage's name the mage that that initially started like twisting the magical crystals down here um just all of those things that are sort of uh goals for him to sort of understand he lays in front of him and and meditates on them okay uh just for shits and gigs since you have those crystals in front of you why don't you roll another arcana check sure it's been been a while since you kind of looked over and pondered them okay um actually here's what i'm gonna do i actually rolled really well but because he is super intrigued with these crystals and i want um i want to do as well with this as possible because i am super intrigued by these so as he uh is inspecting the these crystals and and looking them over he he's unsure if it is sort of a mixture of old knowledge trickling through or new knowledge gaining but there are almost voices and and impulses and thoughts sort of intertwining in his brain and sort of telling making him consider things that he wouldn't have before or adding on to thoughts that almost don't feel like his own and he is going to uh burn one of his knowledge from my past lives okay i'm sure yep i still have one of those left so i can go ahead and do that uh so i'm gonna add an extra d6 onto this okay uh so i rolled a 16 plus seven so 23 and then i rolled a two on the d6 so that is a 25 even okay um i'm pretty sure when i described those crystals a while back when you guys were in the castle there was a green and a blue one yes uh there was a i know the blue one oh there one's out in the courtyard i think the red i think the other ones were red they yeah they they contained different energy otherwise they were clear that's right okay uh yeah so yeah i have i have two uh two red shards and one large blue chunk because i think i did pretty well at harvesting that one and you put one of them into your staff i believe we did red yeah red is in his staff and red is in my shield yes um so that energy that you guys saw kind of come and go from those clear crystals they're no longer red in fact they're clear uh there doesn't seem to be energy inside of them and as you are pondering the clear ones safel it kind of better clicks inside you know that they hold energy they contain energy and they can expel it in your staff you realize what it can do for you in this particular instance when you cast a or you go to cast a spell and it is of like you you essentially uh like there's a couple of touch attacks that you can do as a a wizard and usually if you miss it's gone it's wasted right okay it can preserve it one time so you do not expend the spell slot interesting and then once that's done it can't do it again for the day and that's specifically with touch base spells with any spell that you would um yeah essentially like the touch ones anything that you would touch upon a wielder so like the crystal has to touch it not necessarily your fingers if you're going to put the spell through it but for some reason or another you don't make contact it's able to hold on to that energy just a little bit longer before you release it very cool once once per day that can happen and you realize that with lara's shield because of the crystal that's in it and she can absorb slash resist a small amount amount of any type of uh elemental or energy damage not psychic but like fire thunder all that kind of stuff she can negate a small amount of that damage because it will absorb it into the crystal and she could potentially should she make contact with someone release that energy back at them that small amount that it absorbs so it's sort of like the absorb element spell pretty much yep that's super [ __ ] sick so those those crystals are pretty good um the larger blue one though yeah that's this one like almost gravitational or not gravitational but you said it seemed lighter than it should it's its weight is almost non-existent and when you had used some of your gravitational uh magics it had kind of reacted to it its glow had become brighter in a sense you realize that's exactly what these crystals are all about it's a type of moon stone literally they are deeply connected with gravitational magics or of celestial kind of natures anything kind of beyond in space but what it can do in particular depends on how you use it but however you do you know it will enhance those types of magics i think yes um so once the fell realizes that because he was sort of he laid out all these objects and was doing this as sort of like a meditative trying to to come and find peace but as soon as he realizes what those crystals can do specifically the the blue crystal um he gets it's invigorating it's so exciting to him that this this is now a chunk of magic that i mean he he in a way uh has been searching for more connections to this type of magic um so he's super excited about that and i think lara uh is lara awake or is laura asleep right now probably resting right uh yeah rusty okay so he's super excited about the red one but hold on to that he we said it was a larger blue chunk is there any way that he can um break off like a smaller size essentially he wants to switch out the crystal in his staff he realizes that like okay this one is super cool but this one directly connects to my magics and he he wants to get a smaller chunk of the larger blue crystal that he has and he's gonna fix that one to the staff instead do you have a jeweler's kit or some type of hammer i don't think so what do i have i've gotten i've gotten a lot of random [ __ ] i have yeah i have a flint dagger that would probably crack immediately um no i don't yeah i will say with a jeweler's kit you could make very precise cuts and make a very nice faceted gem uh out of it to vary uh to a very specific size and all that kind of stuff and maybe even whatever you're trying to you know and put it into your uh your staff you would have far better results if you were to kind of just try to break off a piece you run the risk of destroying a lot of the material that you do have um so it's kind of up to you or if you don't find or if you don't have either of those things which doesn't sound like you can try to find someone within grackle stug who might be able to do that before that is my thought he yeah it's it's super frustrating to him because he's very excited about it and he doesn't want to wait but if he understands that he risks ruining the usage of it i don't i don't think he'd take that risk okay so i i think he will he'll take the knowledge he's super jazzed about it um but he will begrudgingly wait sure sure okay um indigo or or lara anything before your watch or rest that's kind of running through their minds or anything they do um i can bob i think indigo is kind of processing that the kind of chaotic city scene is by far the most densely populated place we've been you know been a while uh so he takes some time to do some sketches of grackle stug um as he gets ready for his watch nice nice i honestly picture all the sketches that i have in this book as indigo's now of like the different people and you know all the figures of the great dwarves and the city and stuff like that that's a fun thought for me sorry listeners you don't get that unless you have the adventure pad nice lara um i think that she just does her routine which i imagine is like checking on her weapons sharpening making sure everything is clean and ready to go um and then going through her list of everyone that she hopes to kill one day and then she'll go to sleep wow how very arya stark okay saying the list a couple times to herself yeah right it's either arya or santa claus each one's bringing you a gift uh okay so you guys settle in for the presumable evening um and as you are uh indigo how do you post up for watch by the way are you like sitting by the door are you just on your bed keeping kind of like an active ear out what are you doing for this i imagine indigo is like seated at the foot of one of the cots um and like he has his book out in front of him and he's kind of doing some sketches while he like keeps an eye you know he'll make sure he stays awake uh and then like in like the hand that he's using to like hold the pages he also has one of like the daggers that they sharpen down from short swords back in the castle just like at hand just kind of like absolutely twirling it as he you know sits and waits okay um as you all begin your your rest and stuff like that you indigo uh definitely here and go ahead and roll me a perception check on top of that uh you definitely hear the heavy footsteps of that uh large figure it sounds like they're going into the room basically right across the hall from you guys you hear the door open and shut uh you hear their kind of belongings hitting the ground and stuff like that you hear the voices of various patrons coming in and out but what's your total there um so the total is seven but it started as a one i don't know if that's important for you or not you know okay um yeah that's that's basically what you hear for your time in the watch is people coming and going the voices back and forth opening and closing of doors maybe the weird kind of occasional telepathic snore from stool uh as they sit in the corner uh presumably asleep you can't really tell cause like the holes where their eyes are don't move or like close they're just there so it's probably like a doll that sits in a chair staring at you like that's not terrifying at all no absolutely not um especially not with our fan art where he looks like a little hobo which i love he's so cute i love him so much um yeah but that's that's all you notice for your watch super catchy all right i'll go uh once i know once i see phil started to rouse himself because he's pretty i imagine his wrestling was almost like clockwork i go and like give him a nudge okay what about you indigo i'm not indigo uh safel do you reside within the room do you go outside do you how are you taking your watch uh he is going to yeah no i think he'd stay inside the room um i think he would post up probably on the wall if there's space on it like directly across from the door okay okay when you said on the wall i'll all i was picturing i was like is he really gonna burn spell slots to just like gravitationally keep him on the actual wall no we're not that powerful yet give me my staff and we'll see but uh no right now you know right now he's just like leaned up against the wall staff like over his lap um thinking on a lot of things but mainly just keeping a watch on the door okay uh make me a [ __ ] chuck all right ooh we'll go ahead and do this indigo do you want to make me a constitution saving throw by the way i would love to let's get there uh six six okay cool wrong six uh 13 13 okay um yeah you're sleeping you're sleeping soundly there there indigo um working off that booze uh stefael you are so caught up in all of the various things that have happened to you and the recent discovery of what these crystals are um that like the comings and goings of people fade from your mind you know you you hear them but you know you don't pick up on anybody trying to break into the room or listening at the door nothing seems to kind of capture your attention and your watch goes by smoothly um we're gonna do one more did lara or stool want to take it um he'll let stool do it stew will do it okay laura needs her beauty sleep she's gotta have it otherwise she's gonna kill him in the morning so i imagine that's that's part of the routine kind of like uh from princess bride where he's like the dripper higher roberts would be like good night wesley probably kill you in the morning uh yeah she says at the stool every time i just like the thought of like indigo going or somebody going to laura to wake her up and she just opens one eye like a quarterback says don't even [ __ ] think about it no absolutely not i i you cannot conceive how little i care for the watch i will let all of us die your lives mean nothing to me still uh okay so stool then takes watch and he just plants himself in the middle of the room and zafel since you are now currently the only one awake to really notice this you see that like he is always in this time period very slowly just emanating a small amount of spores and you kind of see them drifting towards the door and yeah that's all you see but he just kind of sits there and just occasionally the little of those spores um but you all managed to get a full night's rest so i need both safel and lara to make constitution saving throws by the way uh is this against disease or poison this is against disease so you're probably fine aren't you uh no i just have advantage okay i got a 10 a 10 oof okay you you fell are fine you do not succumb to the smog but however lara i guess it was just faded you are sick you have what is called the grackle lung so kind of over the course of this this last stage of her rest uh sephill you start hearing lara kind of sniffling and coughing and occasionally hacking a little bit and appropriate i can like hear you know the breathing that somebody does when they've got like pneumonia like the mucus in their lungs like just the wheezing noise i just imagine that's like it gets deeper issue she was probably snoring really loud too yeah it just got worse and worse and worse but laura when you wake up uh and you kind of start coughing and you you blow your nose you see that like both your phlegm and like your snot is coming out black it's just straight up nastiness it's like me after being at the forge like that's just how it looks it's bad um but yeah you actually have a level of exhaustion as well because you have contracted this disease and that will stay until you are able to save from it but for every day that you continue to have this and you do not save another level of exhaustion will incur itself upon you i could die you could very well die from this disease so is it you know what i kind of like it though because now i don't have to hide my sniffling good good this is this is how it works out yeah podcast listeners love that [ __ ] it's me it's my favorite thing this is how dedicated we are to you all yeah i have to wonder is like the general population is it just kind of the like the disease that shall not be named where it's like everybody either got sick and just [ __ ] died or they just got accustomed to it like everybody that lives here is just kind of okay at this point with the smog or is every inhabitant just one day away from dying thinking back on it as you see her kind of coughing this stuff up zafel i will say that you have uh 20 intelligence you have a passing and a passive enough what the hell is that word oh my god your passive intel intelligence is able to tell you that um the both the darrow and the grey dwarves were not affected by this you saw none of them hacking up or sniffling nothing of the like they seemed perfectly fine but a number of the uh other races that were kind of making their way around the dark lake district did have this same kind of hacking cough wheeze and sniffling so you think that the the natives of the city have become uh essentially immune to this condition oh my gosh in a sense yeah it's unfortunate yes the good old grackle lung what about drought the drow you did notice that they were coughing a couple of them a couple that those that you did see yeah it seems seems just if you know your lungs can withstand the the horrible amount of smog that drifts throughout the city um you know some places seem a little bit better you know as you guys were walking out you saw most buildings especially those within the stalagmites uh seem to be spewing some kind of exhaust essentially you know smoke coming from the forges um so you know if it's bad on the streets or up on the uh you know in the less crowded upper ramp parts of these stalagmites inside must be absolutely god-awful um but yeah yeah lara she like stumbles out of bed and she's like coughing and there's like phlegm everywhere that's really black oh i feel awful this place is hell still's just sitting there she he's like it's not supposed to be taking effect yet i mean what oh no not horrible he doesn't actually say i mean he would write us all from the inside to kill him now are you are you okay laura apparently the smog is in my lungs it's well i i'm exhausted and yet i think i slept longer than the rest of you ah that sucks yeah i'm sorry i am i have i can remind me tomorrow morning i might be able to do a thing i just wasn't thinking about it when i went to sleep but um now that i know like i might be able to help i you're saying you could have fixed me but you didn't think about it well i'm saying that like i have to like prepare in order to do that and i just like didn't know this was a thing that was gonna happen to you until right now i i will say in indigo's defense which i very rarely speak in i think we did not we we were not aware of the atmospheric condition not atmosphere what is there is there is a sphere of underground but my yeah they fell would know brendan doesn't um but the uh the heart sphere yes we we were not aware of the effects of the smog around us it's fine i'm not concerned clearly i just need to do more push-ups and she'll get down on the ground and start working out okay every time she switches up she just like throws up more like black yeah i just need to work it out wait okay it's like it's like when you're when you're really hung over and you're like i just need to sweat it out of my system yup yeah definitely ain't like that though it just kept coming hair of the dog with like edward 40 hands if i if i get drunk i won't feel the effects right if i die all right so you guys have awoken uh you will all need to eat some kind of food except for sephel because you're weird um so do you guys like go to find something to eat you just eat from your rations well i got it i was actually like any time i visited a city it's like oh god i don't know anyways um i would sephill would actually while they're trying to figure out um what they're going to eat if you do descend to the lower floor or exit the building we do need to figure out how to hide my visage without using all of my magical abilities yes um so out i have a thing for this uh indigo pulls out his sketchbook and like turns around a page and it's like like definitely your cloak and then like just like a black pillow case with eyes cut out over it so like you'll be like an executioner but like a magic executioner i call it the magic youtuber[Laughter] i love it safel hates it i'm here for it is that supposed to be safel in the drawing yeah it's the fill in like a couple of minutes after i cut through this pillowcase i need to ask about the logistical implications if if for whatever reason the sheet shifts itself to not be direct so that the eye holes are not in front of my eyes yep that catches suckers on your tentacle to like keep the bag in place boom good stuff good stuff thank you spells with it are there suckers oh yeah they're like fully functioning octopus tentacles well i knew they were like like a pen like they could grab things with them yeah i know i know so little of my own race well i mean you haven't really studied yourself you've just kind of been like okay this is a thing now like this is fine everything's fine listen in the number of questions that he has why was i a human and now am not is definitely on there but it's not that clearly not important it's not the highest when when did i turn into this brain-eating monster i don't know anyways stones[ __ ] yourself i think it's fine i would hide your face i've seen other people who look worse he gives like the longest like gravelly sigh i will accept if there is no better option great i'm going to rip a pillowcase off the bed and hit it this is humiliating i mean you're the one who has to hide your face so don't talk to me for the rest of today i think don't telepath at me don't telepath at me keep your little freaky spores out of my brain okay so this is hysterical and all what about my limbs you don't have gloves you have gloves no i don't have gloves[Laughter] i mean how did i remind you we started in prison they stole all of our [ __ ] and then we were we've been in the under dark well where do you get gloves um in my inventory says uh clothing fine social outerwear would i have any gloves sure let's say you have gloves are they the same size though will they fit we shall see they're like michael jackson white gloves yes absolutely they are oh don't be ridiculous i of course i have gloves i'm an adventurer she'll get them out and hand them to you she begrudgingly puts them on so so let's take stock of this there is a there is a tentacle-faced uh squid eldritch creature yeah in black and purple robes a you said black pillowcase what did we have in the room i hope it's totally black yeah yeah so black pillowcase white gloves yeah listen if i see that guy in the market i'm not gonna mess with him he's definitely insane and i'm definitely not a mind player i i just i'm more saying this out loud for some day someone will draw this well it's gonna be great all we need is a storyline that you have leprosy or some similar disease and that's why you have to keep covered and then no one will touch you i we could say that i have contracted a severe case of whatever the hell you're dealing with i don't think there's a minor case of you leprosy lose half of your limbs well why why clear why does it need to be minor we want people to stay away from you no i'm saying why would i say severe case of leprosy if you have leprosy it's already pretty severe it's a rapid onset it he got it last night and he's he's losing everything so quickly i woke up and my arm was just next to me cauterized in everything yeah right uh no i we can say i've contracted a severe uh case of whatever disease is going around uh the contagious sort it has passed on to you and so i have covered myself to not infect anyone else around me can i can i roll an insight check on this disease that i'm feeling uh and whether lara is connecting it to contagion or environment uh you you already know it's environmental based it's not a like virus or bacterial you know infection or pathogen you know it's just because of the environment that you know it's like allergies essentially i am patient zero for the new mutation of leprosy moves inside the bag you could just pretend that like your nose just fell off or something i mean okay well so here is i'm not doing this i'm not i'm not doing this the magication is great no the magic cutioner is actually the better of these two options that is the problem nice i thought they were combined i am actually excited about the magic at this point well we need we need to move on we need to we're going to be late to go see the wordsmith he said tomorrow which is very flexible can we only just eat a good berry do we have to have breakfast we could have a good berry okay if you want a good berry still holds out their arm and just like a whole bunch of good berries are there thank you go ahead have them i'm so glad i don't eat[Laughter] yeah laura will grab one savelle eat the food he just starts chucking it at your bagged head the fat lord the food so fell just looks at him he doesn't say this out loud but if you could see his expression under the under the pillowcase it would just be what are you he takes a good barrier he puts it in one of his like spore holes and he's just like watch this and then just like post and just go poop okay holds his nose and just talking yeah his blowhole timeline so you you guys have figured out this disguise that you're going to attempt out in the public eye you know you have a meeting with the worm smith at some point when you get there uh presumably because you still don't know what time it even is uh and this is truly the city that doesn't sleep um you have all eaten you have lots of things that you can trade and barter with or buy what is your first order of business i mean i think we should just go see the wormsmith like first things first you know we all have weird stuff we could do but you know he told us where to go find him let's go i totally believe i think yeah i think i think we have other things to do but if we have to do that in the morning then our best bet is to go there first anyway and then like i don't know you guys probably have other stuff that you want to do like shopping okay all right uh cool so you guys make your way out of the bullets lair as we'll continue to call because the dwarvish term i'm just not that great with uh and you start making your way to one of the gates that you see to what would be on the south of our roll 20 map here as that was the way that uh fember fembershout had gone um i'm just saying it that way because it sounds like thember chad otherwise i just remember i called him thunder chode and that's still amusing to me and only me because we are children uh you guys start making your way to the nearest south gate which you do see that there are a couple of guards at and as you're approaching you see that same large figure standing in front of a couple of those guards kind of discussing something with them and uh as you start to approach one of the other guards kind of steps forward in your direction and you can kind of hear that uh this figure and the dwarf that they are speaking with are kind of in a a small heated argument um but yeah this guard approaches you the three uh the four of you i should say and is like state your business what you need here at the gate we are here to see the word the worm smith is something going on there with um that gentleman uh the the dwarf looks back and um the the large figure actually here heard you kind of call out and he turns around and he goes oh i'm i'm trying to move beyond these walls i don't understand why i'm not allowed uh to move beyond them it's i've never seen a city like this i'd like to see more of it um and oh go ahead uh no i think lara would have just responded um there seems to be some some confusion he's with us we were specific specifically invited to see the worm smith oh uh make a i could see it going either persuasion or deception i'll i'll let you pick um let me just check what's better um don't forget you're exhausted yes so for anyone who doesn't know that means they have to roll twice and take the lower i mean does anybody help her out does anybody say anything else to try to make this better or not i was actually i will help her uh i don't want to roll because i have no bonus but i will say um yes we we had informed him specifically to meet us uh this morning we slept separately but he was meant to meet us with with them shot okay uh let's see all right this figure uh they kind of like hear you and they're kind of squinting at you and it kind of hits them what you're trying to do and they're like oh yes no no no i i'm so sorry i got in a little bit later than than them no i'm with them yeah so uh cephel will look at him and say you know i have we had specifically informed you to meet us at the ballets lair before we came here i've i told you there would be issues if you tried to come alone it's better that we travel in a group you're right you're right i'm sorry i can't believe i i i forgot that little bit of information thank you for reminding me i'm so sorry he's like saying that to the the gods and he's you know kind of like giving a bow to them as they are half of his size um but lara what's your role uh so not a disadvantage not a disadvantage so it's a 13 and i roll persuasion okay okay uh the the tall figure who you don't know uh puts a large hand on a colossal hand on your shoulder is like uh oh yes no of course everything's fine i'm sorry just meeting back up with him and uh the the dwarves look at each other and kind of at the others behind them and uh the one that had approached you all then turns back to you and goes you say you have business with the wormsmith and how did you all meet them the worm smith came to us upon arriving to gracklestub hmm so he had a prior meeting with you and who would you be to be so special to the worm smith we don't have the foggiest idea that's why we're going to meet him[Music] you are impeding his will do you want us to tell him that you kept us from the meeting yes what's your name make an intimidation check advantage can i let laura i will say that you aided with that like what's your name what's your badge number kind of deal like yeah right pretty much well is it advantage does it manage to cancel out it uh yeah it would cancel out yeah it would be a straight roll well that is i can't read these freaking dice 11 plus 6 is 17. damn okay he his eyes kind of flare for a second and uh he's just like all right um open the gate i'm i'm sure i'm sure nothing will befall them out there trying to talk with a worm smith it'll be fine and uh the others kind of stare at him and he like whips around in this really weird way and points his finger at the big figure and he's like but just know i'm watching you and he gets like weirdly angry out of nowhere and then like the others are kind of staring at him and they're like eyeballing this other dude like yeah[ __ ] this guy and then simultaneously you all kind of notice that they all just immediately go back to calm and they turn around and they start opening up these large gates that you're all standing in front of and uh you guys are allowed to pass through weird that's super weird[Music] uh and she'll head on it okay uh you guys start making your way through the gates and as you uh make your way through i'm gonna go ahead and adjust the map here we'll take a uh i didn't wait for the turn taking a minute to kind of reveal some stuff as you guys are walking this is what you're starting to see as you guys passed through this large figure kind of walking along with you their their armor shaking and creaking they they turned you all as you guys are kind of a little ways away from the gate and they go hey um i appreciate that very much i you did not need to do me such kindness we did not need to but if i'm being honest we don't know what we're about to walk into it wouldn't be awful to have an ally oh and uh i'm assuming that has to do with something of this this worm smith you speak of have you met the worm smith no i um only arrived just last night we are um about to go have a meeting with a adult red dragon who met us upon our arrival yesterday morning supposedly and told us to meet him supposedly in his lair he's just kind of stares at you for a moment no reaction and then he's just[Laughter] oh that's that's a good one i uh i didn't and yes he's like staring at you all yes it's quite a oh you're serious about this yes no i i promise you i'm not joking you're welcome to come along if you'd like to fact check me however well i would actually recommend that you come along being that we just lied for you and if you don't come along it'll be very clear that it was a lie yeah that that's bad lying is wrong it's a little strong army but yeah i was gonna say it didn't need to get locked that this quick but um no you helped me in a small bind i'll hope you wouldn't what will hopefully only be a small bind um no i'm definitely introduction uh introduction should probably be in order the uh strongly assertive one is lara i didn't mean to be quite so aggressive there i was trying to be helpful they they thrust out their huge hand and they're like no worries lara i've i've met uh quite a number of people not all super receptive but i am author arthur vane then sticks his hand out to indigo and i'm sure you know you all go around kind of introducing yourselves um and he yes so where is this this lair of this worm smith tunnels to the south west we were told anyway we've never actually been there all right well i um i suppose we can get lost together no worries no harm there i'm sure we can't run into too much trouble i'm i'm sure an adult red dragon walking through smog covered streets would leave a few tracks perhaps um can i start can i like make a look sure yeah go ahead roll a survival check anybody can can do this or hell um arthur can take a look indigo will do his own i am not great at survival so i will leave this to the experts arthur got a natural 19 plus three good because i got a four yeah okay oh sorry five three five um as you guys are kind of like all uh chit chatting and stuff like that and you're like well obviously there's gotta be tracks here like something like that can't be unnoticed uh our arthur manages to kind of like pick out as you guys start making your way um the yep that's exactly how it is he's he's uh murraying that[Laughter] and uh he's like he finally sees some tracks and he's like skipping from one to one he's like oh yeah i found it i found the trail and this can help us out here um and as you guys are making your way through the streets eventually you are passing uh more and more of these structures built in and amongst these stalagmites until you finally reach what is this large stone bridge uh passing over a large chasm and as you look at the edge of this space to your left and to your right you see that this space continues for quite some time let's see yeah i'm just trying to get it all revealed here for you guys uh yeah you see this large kind of gap in the ground um where is it it's uh you would reckon as you're looking at it probably around 200 feet deep and at the base of it as you guys like look down over the edge i'm assuming some of you do as you're making your way across you see that there are wagons and people on a kind of what looks like a pebble stone road down at the bottom just making their way to and fro you see um to what would be on our map here the right that there is a large incline that start me starts making its way up into the shallower parts of this chasm until it reaches a large set of gates in which there are a number of wagons and people trying to move their way in and out of these set gates um the the gap here just to kind of get you guys a little more acquainted this bridge is 500 feet long it is a massive gap uh and you see that there are numerous uh a large number of bridges going across this this space here and as you're also looking down can you all make a perception check for me[Music] okay cool um so lara you kind of just start coughing a bit but you know you're i'm assuming the others kind of describe it to you because you're like oh what am i not seeing here um you all notice that there are all over the walls on uh on the inside of the space there are holes and stairways and like uh small almost dumb waiter elevator style systems moving up and down and you see that lots of uh the dwarves are coming in and out of these these holes and you would presume that this must be where they actually live in comparison to the rest of the city that inside these cavern systems of the chasm this is where they reside versus everything up above here on the level that you are on must be kind of like the work area the other thing you notice is that there are very few darrow walking about and anytime they see you and kind of look upon your forms and see who you are not being a a grey dwarf or a fellow daryl they sneered spit at you and scowl and they kind of like move along the other thing you notice is besides the five of you now there are no humans there are no drow there are no orcs it's only gray dwarfs and arrows on this side of the wall that you had passed through in that gate and as you finally make your way across this chasm you see that there's one very large uh structure in particular i'm gonna paint it here on the map this one here and from it you see uh as it travels up the the stalagmite you see that there are a number of openings that kind of become small uh landings almost and upon each one of them you see from your current position you see eight of these different ones you see that there are large trebuchets and what looks like um maybe i think i would only claim that lara would know what the other things are you see these very large um black cylindrical type tubes pointed downwards along the very edge of these these ledges and you realize that there are also these large canner cannons and mortars along with these trebuchets and that they are all positioned upon different sections uh or like aiming over different parts of the city uh and you you think that this must be like the main fortress of grackle stug uh and as you guys are kind of making your way more more and more tracks of the dragons start to kind of appear wandering their ways about uh can all of you either make an investigation survival or perception check for me you got it dirty 20 for investigation another natural one on perception damn oh i got it 18 and yes that was a disadvantage nice wow okay wow um indigo i imagine and correct me if i'm wrong here just like this structure in particular must be like uh i when i read this what this this place looks like i thought of ministerith from lord of the rings like that's kind of the scale and everything you should be thinking about here um i imagine this catches your eye and you're like trying to do a bunch of sketches and stuff like that and the you know also the chasm and you know the the the styles of the grey dwarves is different here than those that you saw in the dark lake district there's a lot more fine clothing and armor and by fine i don't mean like gaudy decadent it just seems like the materials are are better built uh you notice that the the gray dwarves uh don't seem to go for any kind of overly decorative or uh embroidered materials or anything like that nothing flashy they are purely about function fit and uh making themselves look more powerful that's what you kind of are noticing as you're you're walking through this part of the the city um laura you notice that there seems to be a large contingency of tracks kind of making their way to the south east and uh safel you have noticed that there are these a couple of gray dwarves that you've spotted that have kind of been eye eyeing you like who who is this group of people kind of wondering about they are dressed in these white robes with a symbol of a flame kind of embroidered into the middle there and underneath them they are still wearing like a variety of lighter armor but you see a number of these figures kind of flying here as well do you guys follow tracks or what are you doing we clearly need to follow the tracks they're heading to the southeast agreed continue on to the dragon do not mingle with i i imagine these are the keepers of the flame i had mentioned before reading about but let's not get factionally involved before we have more information let's go to our scheduled meeting okay um you guys continue farther south and eventually you come around one uh kind of larger stalagmite here pinging it once again on roll 20. for you guys uh and as you do you see that there is kind of a a couple of small outcroppings what looks like small buildings built into this large cavern wall that has now come down from the top uh you know it forms a dome over the city and it comes down here to this wall and you see a couple of buildings and more figures come out with these white robes with the flame symbol decorating their chest and um they they kind of look at you quizzically but they don't say anything sorry uh so we this is at the stalagmite this is a little bit farther south you guys are okay you're like here i'll go ahead and we'll do tokens by the way are these figures in the groups are they blocking our way or they just like peeping us they're not necessarily blocking your way but it seem they they don't know why you are there um and like they seem to be kind of keeping an eye on you and as you stand there not necessarily saying something more of them are coming out of the buildings and seem to be kind of forming a uh a line of sorts behind this one this first figure that came out um at at the point of multiple people emerging i think safel would step forward um we do not wish to impose on an area we are not welcome we were invited here by fembershod wormsmith to meet all the figures at that kind of gaze at each other and um what are people's passive insight twelve i first felt uh it's just a ten for indigo that is surprising to me you have intelligence 20 your passive is at least 15. insight is wisdom oh investigation no one ever asks for passive charisma sorry sorry yeah it's it's not really because it doesn't [ __ ] exist you wore water safel and uh arthur just look at you and like get good scrub but intelligence is a dumpster oh okay so both uh arthur cifell indigo and stool you all independently see this kind of collective worried look pass over all of their faces uh but they try to keep a particular type of calm and then this figure in the front um looks at you all and uh goes very well uh i am guard car and i will escort you into thunder shoud's domicile if you would please follow me closely and i would suggest that you do not touch a thing or you will incur his wrath understood thank you oakland oakley okay lead on stool absolutely not gonna touch a thing good arthur just looks at the rest of your arms like huh don't don't worry about me i'm not going to touch a thing i don't think i'm really up for the dragon right now and you all proceed inward uh and a couple of of these dwarves are kind of following you guys as you start going farther and farther into this cavern and as you do the heat the ambient heat of grackle stuck just seems to get hotter and hotter until this sweat is just like prickling at the back of your necks uh until you guys oops i gotta go back to reveal area thank you old hunty you guys finally come into this chamber and i have a little passage here to reach you guys as the dwarf priests lead you to a building carved from stone outside the huge entrance the ground trembles slightly and a thunderous voice echoes against every wall the voice calls as a reptilian behemoth comes into views it scales the color of lava its bright yellow eyes glowing in the shadows of the cave before coming into the light and this this all strikes you as kind of odd when he says this you didn't say i was having surfaces for dinner today and the dragon chuckles his massive body gives the distinct impression as you all noticed before that he is a bit overweight perhaps indicating some eating habits that don't vote well and that same dwarf that has been leading you in and you spoke to before he goes foreigners and he turns you all meet the father of the flame the ever burning and the foundry's heart fember shout out to the wormsmith of gracklestuck and he bows and he leaves you all in the presence of the wormsmith to which uh they kind of turn and recede farther back into this this layer of theirs and uh not even waiting for you guys to follow do you follow them come this far might as well yeah yes okay you proceed in worth and as you do small torches uh you know start lining the walls until eventually you start here the shifting of coins and metals as denver child climbs a massive horde of gold and then settles down behind upon it and just the shifting of their weight just sends a cascade of these these coins and jewels and different things to the ground you know kind of pushing the pile backwards and they turn their massive head to you and they say i'm glad you accepted my invitation and game i'm sorry for what i said before but i have to be careful around those keepers what reason do you have to be careful for small creatures you could crush them if you wanted to could you not i very well could but i have found it in my greater interest to merely observe them i am thinned i am paid for all of my services but i have noticed that something is amiss something about them asks them worrying and i am curious for this new way yes i have a small task in mind one that you'll know about doubt be rewarded for and find yourselves with a greater sense of protection while within the city i think laura's gonna look at the the crew kind of like that sounds nice oh my god we are listening my task is quite simple and you already know some of it from what i've told you i need you to find out what has the keepers of the flame in such disarray what is worrying them and why we upon our trip here encountered some resistance throughout the city are you able to is there something you can do to make that easier for us as we gather this information yes yes i can and in dwarvis dwarvish you hear them speak that name and it takes a minute but you eventually hear the running footsteps of that same dwarf that had kind of escorted you in a little bit uh and they stand and then they bow and then go wharton smith and fema child looks up at him and these disciples of mine shall be needing badges of gold indicating they are within my service and make it clear that if anyone interferes with their business for me they will burn for it and garb takara looks a little taken back and surprised and they bow uh immediately your excellency i will have them made right away and they run off and femicide kind of chuckles and like shimmies their way sinking into the golden gems a little bit more well that will do it i think yes um thank you for your aid in this um where a couple clarifying questions how important is discretion to the keepers of the flame and or from the keepers of the flame in this investigation i i assume you don't want us simply walking up to them and asking what their their problems are where should this investigation begin uh their large head descends down towards you till that very large yellow and orange eye is staring right at you so well i knew you were a smart one yes keep it discreet if you must i gather that there's something else holding me sway upon them perhaps you can inquire as to what that is say that i'm merely concerned for their own safety and that as they have been such good tenants of mine that i'm merely enduring their own safety i am sure that they will ask you to perform of some service for themselves they are a greedy sort and i think that happened long before myself i do ask that whatever they ask of you you bring that information to me first i require all first-hand accounts i will not be held out of the loop i think we can agree to that perhaps absolutely that being said do we i assume we would need um free passage into your chambers without an escort if we are to foo to have a conversation with them and then immediately ask them to escort us to you it would be questionable behavior would it not we need a means of contact they will not disturb you should you come seeking me now i will make that most clear i will always know when you approach my lair i and i think perhaps i think perhaps we've already seen some of what is going on with the dwarves at the gate to your to this half of the of grackle stug the they started a certain disposition and then rapidly became enraged and then it was as if a switch had flipped and they were fine again are you aware of risings from the dark lake i have no information about this i do not venture into those waters i am quite thoroughly here we were recently at a trade port that i believe was referred to as slipper dupe that has since been supposedly sunk destroyed laid waste by a large demonic creature that rose out of the water and there were similar effects of disposition and mental state in a number of individuals who saw that creature i do not have enough information to draw any conclusions but it does seem reminiscent curious these are all good things to perhaps mention to the keepers this does not really many bells for me though but this does further intrigue me as to all who have have you ever found your way here to crackle stuck you are all and their eye kind of looks over the five of you of an our our destination is ultimately the surface we are not from here clearly i could gather that as much but i have had enough of this talking see god gather your patches synonym begin your investigation i expect reports very soon and i am apt to hear more of your stories when you do come back your personal stories and they retract their head and they kind of wave one of their large taloned arms at you you are dismissed safel is smart enough to bow oh yeah uh they kind of like shimmy again and they hold their their neck and their head up high you can tell that kind of groveling and behavior very much pleases them uh arthur is like typically following suit and stool as well who has kind of shriveled up and been standing behind indigo just like is [ __ ] hot and i'm a plant his cap is like yeah i need water uh yeah so you have this melting this mission what do you guys do get get the [ __ ] out when dragon tells you to leave okay uh as you guys start exiting the cavern and you reach the small buildings outside of its entrance uh that dwarf appears and they uh pass out to the five of you these five large uh dragon head like badges essentially picture like a sheriff's badge but the uh but it's like a figurehead of a of a red dragon there in this bright gleaming gold and they hand it to you all and they go uh if you just present this to any guard that you come upon and tell them that you are on fember shouts the great smith's business they'll let you you through thank you uh laura's gonna pin it right next to her pin of the deep mother i love it he's collecting boy scout pets you get all the pins[Laughter] or the pokemon yeah yeah how many towns can you walk into without being questioned for how many towns can you walk in being questioned this makes two now yeah and how many of them are still standing uh one for so as you all put these bin uh pins on these badges uh lulartocar looks at you all and he's kind of like rubbing his hands and could i ask you all a question you made absolutely what what did our worm smith ask of you he is concerned of the state of affairs of the people of crackle stuck he's noticing attitudes and dispositions shifting and he is worried as to whether or not it will affect him or not and since we are new and don't have much options for protection or work he has chosen us to sleuth it out for him he kind of appears surprised and goes oh i see um all right that's that's quite fine um there is rather something troubling the rest of us it's um i don't know how to describe it other than to say that those of us of a deeper magical nature have found that something something has torn through or it's almost like a hole has been torn in the world the fabric of the world and well it's definitely because of the grey ghosts if you ask me the what the grey ghosts are no good rotten thieving guild here of deros working against us they um facts and perhaps you could help us with this they took something of large importance to us something that if we don't get back could mean disaster for our city and the wormsmith and that would be[Music] wait you have to promise me this that you'll have to go looking for it and that not a word of it will be spoken to them shout it's just like eyes squinting and nodding just like um this is like the classic don't tell your mother don't tell your father you tell both get the best uh output yeah like both of them are in trouble and you got both prizes yeah you guys are kind of kids in candy store right now with all you can do yeah i think yeah lara looks at him seriously and nods the uh arthur kind of like leans over uh laura and it's just like yeah you can uh you can you can trust that we'll we'll keep this quiet for you don't don't worry about it uh and make a deception check just okay um gar 2 car looks over the lot of you and kind of like looks around goes it's our belief that the grey ghosts stole our most prized treasure to use it in this foul ritual whatever they've done to tear open this this hole in the world and what we need back desperately is our red dragon egg and that's where we'll end it tonight hey you loyal listener you've made it this far to the post show notes and that means the absolute world to us thank you so much for being here if you have one more second we would adore you if you could leave a rating and a review in whatever podca you're currently listening in the ratings and reviews are astronomical when it comes to growing the show because it's what gets us noticed for new listeners so if you have just a moment to do that please do and we also have a twitter facebook and instagram if you want to give us a follow it's at the madness table and if you've noticed we are now posting weekly episodes because of supporters like you so if we haven't said enough thank you and we will see you in just seven short days for our next episode when so[Music] you