New Beginnings, New Mysteries - Episode 34

After a disastrous battle with Buppido the party seeks to lick their wounds and find safety. After a brief rest they seek new angles, new supplies and new allies before returning to the tunnels of Westcleff.

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
And the Darkness Grew Like a Tree | Doctor Turtle
Nerbuldar | Ambient Mixer

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

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Transcript

0:02

[Music] so[Music] so last time you guys had this drawn out slugfest with your not long-standing enemy but former prison roommate and bupido took quite a number uh out on you guys along with his skeletal companions and you while you put up a really good fight uh a number of things both debilitated and um prevented you from truly getting the upper hand except for a very clutch uh use of it was charm person right you used that back on me uh yes i did this pulled that whole uno reverse card and it gave you a a moment of reprieve in which you could uh heal yourselves back up after um both indigo and lara were going down um but eventually with him breaking from his stunned uh placement arthur had charged forward upon bubito and failed to um um essentially obliterate him uh though he he did give it good effort um eventually you all were able to struck down bupido but his skeletons still remained and eventually they swarmed upon you taking down stool and then laura and indigo and safel in a last-ditch effort grabbed indigo's unconscious form um seeing as he looked the most like alive um and started dragging him away while arthur stood to face off with the remaining skeletons pleading with sefel not to leave his body there[Music] and some kind of promise that he had made to his boy and we had left off with the image of safel dragging indigo's form out of these tunnels and to the thunderous clashes of arthur smites and finally what sounded like the tearing of flesh and we now find indigo and safel um sitting within the kind of loose tent that resides outside of the entrance of the tunnels in the west stone cleft area and just before he had kind of sat down to perhaps rest uh cephel had noticed some kind of shadowy form disappearing into the tunnels and now we find yusuf the still unconscious form of indigo at your feet what do you do um so he doesn't have any ability to heal but he knows i think from last time that indigo is not currently in the process of dying so really all he can do is hide out and and recuperate um i think i think he is trying to collect as much of his remaining strength as he possibly can because he believes that and he he basically needs to defend this position he has no idea if anything that was inside that cave is going to make its way out so i think he is sort of posted up at the front with his i mean even sitting he is supporting himself with his staff at his side trying not to collapse from the exhaustion of the battle and dragging indigo's body all this way is so he saw the shadowy form enter yes watching the cave entrance does it appear that anything else is moving or does it sound like anything maybe on its way out or has everything sort of calmed um without even needing to roll a perception check you feel things have grown very quiet other than the noises of the west clef district as you know the city kind of never sleeps there's always something happening and so you hear the noises of darrow and uh people moving and milling about the the area but you for the moment feel like nobody's specifically coming in this direction okay um so within the first hour or so of waiting if nothing is happening i'm going to use my uh arcane recovery okay wait go ahead i will use so i have a com uh i can recover combined level of two spells so i'm going to um regain two of my first level spell slots okay um can you because you're not specifically resting resting can you make a constitution uh check for me sure[Music] uh just a straight con roll just a straight con um you're fighting the effects of exhaustion right now gotcha just because you you didn't have spell slots you did all this dragging you've been brutally beaten yep um not well i was going to say not bad pretty damn good natural 19 uh if that's just straight con that is a 22 total okay you you managed to stave off um some exhaustion but considering like i i i don't know about you guys but whenever i picture spell slots just because it's like weird to be like i've got spell slots i always imagine it as like your your it's always a mental drain and almost maybe a physical drain to be able to cast spells and so when you are out of slots it's like your body and your mind are like i cannot handle what it takes to summon forth that energy and like condense it and concentrate it out into a spell yeah it's kind of like stamina it's not it's not like a check box it's like arc it's like your arcane reserve for the day exactly so yeah i mean i guess recovering that would be a pretty pretty impressive task after everything that happened um it takes does it take you an hour to do that yes it does stipulate that it has to be a like during a short rest which would be an hour of okay just well then go ahead and do everything else that you can mark off for a short rest because it doesn't sound like you're gonna settle in for any kind of long rest or trance uh shh yeah unless you tell me otherwise well i have no idea what your plan is here doesn't have one it's such a yeah because because he does need to rest at the end of it he does need to rest um if you don't there will be more and more contracts oh i know so i think the the the idea of him just taking the short rest right now is sort of that period of recuperating and he's still sort of he's using that time to be certain that they're not going to be followed that you know he doesn't want to just run right out fall asleep in the tent and then they they both get murdered in their sleep so sure it's a it's a brief vigil to make sure that everything has actually settled before he feels confident enough to rest is sort of how i'm uh framing this so i'm actually i'm not even gonna bother spending the time to roll hit dice and things like that um i'm just going to do the arcane recovery finish that short rest not gonna expend anything and then once he is certain um i mean i imagine he he probably doesn't have much choice after a while i would even for who and what he is um physically i can't imagine he wouldn't be on the verge of collapsing losing the rest of his consciousness like i don't think he has much of a choice in that matter anymore so i definitely think there's a point where as soon as he's comfortable and his mind stops racing stops checking every corner thinking of every contingency planning every action that that may occur um the second that that falters he would just collapse into rest okay as you finally kind of nod off perhaps for the first time in a while not necessarily going into a trance but some kind of actual sleep for yourself in this this weird weirdly erected tent over the entrance to this tunnel and i imagine you've kind of tucked yourself in indigo behind some some crates and some barrels trying to get yourself a little bit of extra cover but there's not too much in the way here to to hide yourselves as you finally nod away you we don't know how much time has passed but eventually you kind of like browse yourself up kind of like that feeling when you're you're falling as you're drifting to sleep and then you kind of like jerk awake and then you slowly like you're like i'm not gonna close my eyes and you close your eyes and you're asleep you you have a couple of these moments and during one of these moments um where you're you're not sure if you're[Music] truly asleep or just in a trance you hear what sounds like very quiet footsteps and you feel this sense of weightlessness overtake you and you feel like you are being picked up and you feel your your arms kind of dangle down or it's in your in between the blinking of your eyes we see a uh large bundle of braided white hair as you kind of like pick your head up and you try to look around and you're not too far off of the ground and you see um you feel like a firm strong arm wrapped about your waist and you as you look to your right you see the body of indigo as well being carried along with you and you don't feel any kind of uh ill will within this moment but you are also so exhausted you can't even muster up the energy to to fight back or question whomever this is that is that is taking you there's sort of a interesting dichotomy there of like the last time this happened was the drow carrying us into the underdark and this this doesn't feel at all like that yeah it's it's it's strange and familiar in two different ways and finally like as you the last couple of images you see as you're being carried is you see daryl all about staring at you and you know you're moving through the west clef district and finally you just fully succumb to unconsciousness and then we hear the tapping of feet upon cobblestone a soft humming fills the air to a tune we don't recognize but to sefel it brings with it an odd sense of comfort however in this memory it feels like you're hearing it for the first time finally our eyes pull away from the stones below our feet as the viewer looks up to a larger bulkier figure hand clasping onto this larger and slender fingered hand the view continues up their arm to gaze upon this this person who appears to be a man with a large brimmed black hat with a large crooked peak and beneath this hat we see a pale-faced figure with a large hooked nose broad lips and sunken cheeks they wear a large softly billowing tunic of a lavender color that grows darker towards the cuffs and waists and it bears a large branching pattern that wraps up the arms and where each line intersects we see it's adorned with star-like shapes while at first glance this figure might appear grandiose with a little bit of a closer inspection we see that this once lovely tunic is now torn at various spots and his black trousers likewise in poor repair his bare feet silently tread on the stones and lastly we see laid over one's shoulder a large metal staff his other arm lazily wrapped about it to keep it balanced as they walk and towards the far end of this staff appears a cast figure of angelic nature with numerous wings outstretched in flight and all about them wrap large rings forming a kind of sphere about this figure and within each ring we see it bears an odd circular shape at some random point on its along its length and this large figure underneath its hat turns towards our view eyes us in a small smirk as they see us looking upon the staff one day master safel perhaps you two will bear one though i do not wish it upon you it's a hard road it looks like he's about to say more but stops himself for a moment before continuing this will all appear strange to you but give it time and you shall see true wonders things i imagine you haven't even thought of being possible he chuckles to himself i have heard that you have had quite the imagination though might not be so hard to believe for you after all ah here we are this man stops and points forward with his kind of easy going look and our view moves forward to see a vast black starry expanse and with this cobbled path seemingly floating out into nothingness until we see starting to form amongst the darkness and speckled sky an enormous gleaming castle come into view a tall clock tower stands at its largest peak large buildings branch off and surround its base along with hundreds of smaller buildings that surround it and descend farther but all appear aloft within this night sky and we hear this humming once again this oddly comforting tune to sefell and with a tug of the hand they continue on until you awake you now find yourself sitting or laying i should say in a horribly uncomfortable bed and as you gaze about you you see that you are back in one of the rooms of the bullet's lair you see indigo calmly resting on uh a bed across from yours your belongings have been laid out beside the bed both of you and uh there is nobody else in your in your room but you see that the door is shut um[Music] do i have a i wouldn't have any sense of how much time has passed it doesn't feel like uh i remember when we were on the dark lake we went into that sort of sleep situation and we and we woke up feeling like exhausted groggy all kinds of things it's not a not a similar feeling uh it is and it isn't you're not sure exactly how much time has passed you definitely feel like it has been quite a while um which has to be an even odder experience for you because you don't normally require so much rest right but you you actually feel sore like you've been laying down for a long extended period of time one thing you do notice as you look over at indigo's form is that they their skin has become very gaunt it's almost tight like they've lost a lot of weight surprisingly um not like horribly sickly but their their cheeks are a little bit thinner sure um their their muscles are a little bit more defined in their arms but yeah um sephel sits up and i think the first thing he does is sort of collect his facilities he you know feels the soreness on his body sort of stretches his limbs tries to get good motion in them again and as he is sort of tracking uh across himself he notices that he had removed the the pillowcase inside the cave and he is in all of his glory uh tentacles and all and that sort of sticks with him for a moment but then he remembers he just sort of keeps having flashes of looking back at lara and arthur being swarmed by skeletal figures and the echoing just clattering sound of of bone and rock and metal um he's going to go across the room and sort of uh pull up a seat next to indigo's bed sort of sit there for a minute um and he's going to after waiting a short while he's going to reach out and and try to rouse indigo indigo you you have been locked in a type of repeating nightmare you see flashes of bupido appearing from invisibility stabbing at your friends attacking you you see skeletons over and over you see your friends falling all about you you've borne witness to the death of lara and stool over and over again in your in your mind and you remember briefly awakening for a moment at some point in time uh and feeling the weightlessness uh as you were being carried by someone and being laid upon a bed and being told to rest and that you are uh being watched and taken care of as you were kind of trying to rouse yourself up before this this unknown person had pushed you back down onto the bed very calmly uh with a soothing voice had told you to rest again but these dreams have continued to plague you and finally in this this dream once again we see a skeleton reaching out and it's getting closer and it's getting closer and as it's just about to touch you you are snapped awake and you feel a hand touching you indigo seville oh you're all right where where where are we i think we are back in the blitz there we were someone took us here how are you feeling i i i couldn't i cephela didn't it didn't work our plan it didn't it didn't work we no no it did not there they're all they're all gone i i couldn't take them all i had to make a choice he sort of gets like angry um you know fighting sees fighting himself um she she would have understood lara she would have made the same choice i did i think um how are you still hurt do you still need time to recover how am i feeling will am i feeling like i've had a like a rest am i feeling revitalized or you you've both definitely gone through a long rest so you can mark that up you do have all of your hit points however indigo you feel thin and almost stretched and you feel a like deep seated hunger um that while not painful you can just feel grows more and more intense um kind of gnawing away at you um and you see that there's you know upon both of you that there are scars newly freshly healed over um from whomever took care of you um but otherwise you feel okay kind of that groggy feeling of when you've slept perhaps for too long though that kind of pounding headache that you kind of get that's what you're that's what you're feeling right now um i think i think i'm i think i'm all right i just i'm just kind of kind of hungry in a way that's hard to describe i mean no offense but especially to you well you um you did have the means before to um sustain yourself no oh wait uh i think i actually have been carrying the rations in the bag of holding i think we made that decision um that i would take those things so he will actually he'll remember that and uh get indigo some food is it like hard attack and like that kind of ration there's a lot of uh fungi and uh bits of dried fish that you had caught while out on the uh dark lake um but as you're looking at these rations that you've pulled out none of the vegetation appears appealing to you in any way in fact it almost feels repulsive like you you it's nauseating there's a the word i want um however the fish like you can when you lay eyes upon it you can feel the saliva building in your in your mouth yeah and perhaps like a little too hastily indigo kind of like snatches the the fish as a fella's hand and start just like gnawing directly into it there's a question i i mean seeing this the reaction from indigo there's this sort of question that he's been trying to avoid asking and he kept telling himself that it wasn't wasn't a proper question to ask but he watching indigo with such speed and aggression uh gnawing at the food he sort of he takes a moment um mentioned back on the island with madame delve your transformed state i never got the privilege of seeing why did that not manifest in the cave i i i i don't know i just was so focused on you know first you know getting those skeletons away and trying to heal people up i just didn't want to i can't really do all the things that i do when i'm when i'm like that you lose your your casting yeah i i don't quite know why but i can't i can't channel twirl in the same way i can't normally i suppose you did make the proper tactical decision then you[Music] you did keep us alive indigo for whatever that means to you things could have gone worse if not for your tact indigo looks down not not enough of us i could have done more i could have done i could have done better we have to we have to go we can't leave them there we can't leave them there in that place no no um arthur mentioned something as as i fled a family promise he would have wanted his body recovered and lara of course we cannot leave behind and she does as uncouth as it may be to mention she does have some possessions that may be useful to us or whatever aid we enlist which brings us to that point it would be incredibly unwise for us to go back alone yeah well we did we did get him right we i didn't dream that part off we did get bupido yes this bupido is gone but the skeletons didn't go away there was something i assume it was the altar but i i couldn't get close enough or spend enough time to be sure but i had foolishly thought that if we took bupido down the skeletons would follow but they they were autonomous in in some way they weren't tethered to him even though we watched him uh arise rise them summon them but they still maintained on their of their own accord there's a lot of evil in that room it will take time to cleanse it uh do who who brought us here i'm unsure i saw i saw bundled white hair and it whoever lifted us possessed some strength it felt didn't feel like a chore to carry us all this way and it is some way but they i was barely conscious at the time and obviously they're not here now so i do not know who it was[Music] my i'm sure the innkeeper knows i mean they don't he'll stay here for free i guess but uh to that point i removed the pillowcase over my head oh no the medication yes i i dropped that persona in the cave so the body that my body that was carried from the west cleft here was un disguised for whatever that means for us well i guess it means we don't have to explain a whole lot of stuff but we need to explain a lot of stuff to a lot of people well they always make a new hood there's children's is right here i think i think i will remain this way we have a form of protection in the the badges from the flame keepers and if nothing else my form will intimidate the less hospitable denizens i mean unless we think there is some great benefit to continuing to mask me after i have been paraded through grackle stug as i look around is there any is like the the hood anywhere in here or is there anything else that could have been used to cover him like he was carried in like a shawl or something you see the magic cutioner hood and it's laying amongst his other possessions next to his bed no you saw the[ __ ] [ __ ] it's just not so easy to discard the foot it's a part of me put the pillow back on connor[Laughter] always no one cares who i watch do i put on the hood it's like uh it's like the mask every time you throw it away it just appears in your hand again yeah i cannot escape the magic youtuber [ __ ] that's a good idea it's who i am i mean there are there are minor curses that is oh yeah that are that's basically that you like cannot get rid of it as you guys are both kind of discussing this there's finally a knock upon the door followed by a voice uh calling out to you are you both decent in there i grab the pillowcase and put it on safel's head i will resist a little bit and then give in to my fate okay oh yeah is it all right if i come in uh sure not who i don't know who you are but yes and we see the doorknob turn and it creaks open and a gray dwarf figure steps in they have long white hair they have a semi-scarred thin face with a eye patch over the right eye they are wearing a uh mismatched brigadine chainmail armor uh plate armor set um very similar to uh to anybody who's played the witcher games it looks very similar to like the ursa uh ursine armor uh so it's kind of long it comes down to about their knees they have these tall boots that have uh kind of like this studded toe upon the ends and they are carrying a large tray covered with meats cheeses and breads and a couple of mugs and uh this woman comes in and shuts the door and goes well i'm glad to see the two of you are awake oh you don't need to put the sack over your head it's all right i already know what you are in fact i found that presumed it must have been yours considering the large mess that i had found in and uh threw that on you before i came back here oh the name sue by the way so as soon as he has the invitation he just he rips it right off his head oh sorry that'll take a minute to get used to if it means anything i'm still getting used to it myself you are the one who took us back here i that would be me oh thank you you're you're quite welcome thank you saved our lives oh pish-posh i mean i've only found you kind of in the midst of some barrels and and crates i thought it was quite interesting that you were sitting outside the whirlstone tunnels what were you doing in there by the way we were um attempting to deal with an old traveling companion turned murderer hot we lost a um a number of companions in the squabble you did oh were they in the chamber with all the uh bodies like the large spiraling set of bodies they would be in that chamber yes and i'm very sorry to to to hear that uh but i i only found the um this the pillowcase that you had on uh or left there i didn't see anybody else but a bunch of other bodies so who knows it could have been your friends there i'm i'm sorry i didn't uh have more arms to collect them and was one of those bodies a mushroom that's a pretty indistinguishable figure a mike annoyed sephill i apologize have some respect oh not really i will not speak ill of the dead i would have definitely noticed one of those no i didn't uh i didn't see that who else was with you well all right our friend laura was there she's kind of like like a real buff lady it was like like some scars and some some i don't know weapons well i'm assuming she wouldn't have been very skeletal by any means which was the majority of the figures i saw down there um thinking back on it no i don't uh i don't recall seeing them either about a giant early figure of a man hmm large no i i i don't recall seeing that man either i i did see quite a quite a bit of um when did you enter the cave when did when were you in there oh well uh it was probably in there a little while before you i did hear a great bit of uh noise so uh uh perhaps i don't know i couldn't tell you how many how many hours or how long i was in there i was trying to find um and she kind of gets a little cautious i was just looking for something uh it it doesn't need to concern you too much but uh i heard a great big commotion echoing down the cave and figured i'd probably been away enough that i uh should should have started heading back and by the time i reached that uh large cavern filled with all the bodies in the the the odd um altar like thing uh i didn't see any of your particular friends i did see quite a few uh fissures and little craters within the ground that looked like something that hit them with great force but otherwise uh no no fresh bodies so to speak just your your pillowcase that's odd or morbid do you think they'd be alive perhaps you were mistaken in them being dead no i'm not trying to be indelicate i'm just they there's a chance to fell we had we can't discard a chance i don't want to give us false hope either[Music] i watched him be swarmed they were already close to gone and their bodies disappeared under the bones i will not do that to us well um she kind of approaches over and pulls out a chair from one of the small desks in the room and sets down the tray of food says well come eat and um perhaps we can discuss a little something i've been hoping to proposition you with um seeing as you're you're clearly strangers around here um or we can wait on it i don't want to push our ratio by any means oh we need to we cannot mope too long we need to decide our next steps and we need to act we are still we still have a goal we are still being possibly watched do not have the luxury of being idle longer than we already have speaking of how long ago did you find us oh that would have been about uh six shifts ago yeah about six diseases um and at that moment you actually hear what sounds like a giant whistle blast going off and she goes and that would mark the seventh a [ __ ] week well i so i'll explain this because um and i i'll assume she explains it to you because you guys have no idea how time is kept down here because grackled stug does not necessarily sleep they operate off of shifts because there's always people working and so there is uh a large whistle that goes off every 12 hours so it's been closer to like three and a half days since she picked you up um and so that's what she explains is like every 12 hours a whistle black blast goes off and that is how time is kept essentially so we have stayed here too long already it's been three days that whatever the party that we were meant to survey has been able to continue their plans unchecked we have not checked in with our employer we have been idle and most likely watched by those who would do us harm we need to move well uh no need to to necessarily be russian i i do happen to have a question about that and she pulls out one of the golden badges which you guys realize you are not wearing and she goes i did happen to see these pinned up on your fine clothes and seeing this as the the symbol of the great wormsmith you must be on quite uh quite a mission are you working for the keepers currently yes we were we ran into uh thumber shout on our entrance to the city and he required an audience and we obliged as we are not in the market to deny a red dragon he'd be hard-pressed to find anybody around here that would deny him perhaps except for the the stone giants and uh the deep king himself um but that's that's quite something so what were you doing if i might ask in the world stones tunnels i um since we you'll forgive me are unfamiliar with you though i appreciate the aid you've been given i believe information must be earned i i only withhold because there are those here who have already expressed a want to hurry or harm us and i have no reason to believe you are not of their mind as of now that is a very fair point and i would just have to say that i don't think you should find any reason to worry yourselves about what i'm necessarily doing or what i might do to you in fact i had a proposition of sorts seeing as you have a better connection in the city than i used to have um[Music] me and a good friend have been running around a bit to find um means of supporting ourselves a bit better off than what we were seeing as perhaps you've noticed perhaps you haven't i don't know where you came from but uh there's quite a bit bumping around here in the underdark my friend was recently subjected to a um quite an attack of sorts and so even with that information and everything that seems to be plaguing the city and the people around here as you may or may not have noticed uh we've gone before the deep king and many of the others and pleaded for their help but we've been unfortunately met with knows and gets the hell out and perhaps some stripping of rank and um well anyways uh we're a bit on our owns and we're we're trying to make things a bit better ourselves and seeing as the two of you are strangers who have stumbled upon it seems a means of some security here within the city and what i've recently discovered in the world stone tunnels that might be of use to my friend and i perhaps we could all um find uh a means of interest a mutual interest in which we could help each other no strings necessarily attached perhaps with your um[Music] you know your ends and our um savvy arms and she kind of like flexes and points at her waist which you see there's like a thick sword uh built into her hip um perhaps we can all help each other does this perhaps seem appealing to to the lot of you deal wonderful does seem like a logical decision now um i'm going to let you eat up perhaps you can get yourselves dressed i took the liberty of um finding some clothes that looked somewhat familiar or similar to what you were wearing uh so those are there go ahead and clean yourselves up and uh when you're ready i will be out in the lobby and she picks herself up and heads out the door but the two of you i'm assuming after a little bit of time of cleaning yourselves up eating getting yourself dressed you eventually make your way out into the familiar lobby of the bullets lair and you see sue waiting there and they get up and they go all right so um i think it's best if we grab my compatriot soon to be your other future compatriot and uh and then if we have any other business and depending on what a lot of you need uh perhaps after this meeting uh you can take care of any business and perhaps tomorrow we could set out for uh well i don't know how quickly you're looking to get back there but i had found something of great interest and value to me within the oral stone tunnels and uh perhaps seeing as you you have some more questions about your friends we could take a look in there together yeah that sounds that sounds good to me great awesome well follow me and she takes you out of the bullets lair and as you guys are emerging from it you look about and the city seems a little bit darker to which sue kind of remarks ah it must be the end shift it's kind of the later one if you um catch on something equivalent to the night time above what everything's going it's a little bit quieter and she starts leading you um in a different direction than you're used to usually you head straight into the blade bizarre of the lake district but you find yourselves going past what looks like a large fortress kind of built here uh just that's overlay cold that's essentially the prison don't find yourselves there if you can um though these wormsmith badges and she kind of like hands them back to you sorry i didn't mean to hold on to them for too long um those will probably keep you out of most trouble and eventually she leads you to uh this kind of small small peninsula here on the map uh to the to the north east and she points over jerks her thumb over to the corner and uh she's like that's the dark lake brewery quite a nice place if you're looking for something different that you might not find necessarily in all the the pubs around here but you you usually will find them eventually um but come down this way and you've got to promise me and she turns around on you guys and she's very serious she goes my friends here deserves quite a bit of respect for what they've gone through and i will not be having anybody especially you and she points at yousefel tentacle boy sorry i shouldn't have said that that was rude i don't have very good manners um i won't have anybody looking at her strangely not that she needs me she'll probably kick your ass but i feel like you're assuming a lot about me from not a lot of time known with me yeah that's my inflators what are you gonna do and she turns around she continues to walk towards the water's edge and eventually you guys descend down until you're kind of on this pebbly little beach there and she goes uh she picks up uh what looks like a half-dried torch off the ground and she takes a couple minutes and she finally lies oh thank goodness and just kind of like waves it back and forth over their head and then she then tosses it into kind of like a a tide pool and she goes now we wait hopefully it won't take too long and about a minute later you see a little ways out onto the water what looks like the surf starting to like bubble up as something underneath it is coming forward which probably gives you guys a little bit of anxiety for a moment thinking like the last time we saw something like this it was freaking demogorgon who stood up out of the water but it's this this thing seems smaller until finally striding out atop a large lizard-like creature with these large fringes coming off of its side uh in a like pale dark grey shape uh sitting in a saddle who do we see sam hey hey i've been here the whole time what nice of you to show up um yes so um popping out from beneath the waves is a five foot tall aquatic looking clearly um amphibious uh individual uh for those who are knowledgeable about d and d um they're triton it would be the race nice um and uh she has um fins on her um on all basically the limbs that you can see that aren't covered by plate armor made of black pearl um if you can see um her feet which are fins and her head which is well described with these like fringe it's not chaos oh no that's your giant lizard that you're riding that was oh [ __ ] yeah you're on top of a giant lizard uh like i think they're pronounced quaddle they're like that weird cave lizard i'm sorry that you guys see you'll have to look it up i'll put the name in the chat but anyways let's continue so yes um so a female figure um instead of hair it's like um uh thin fins of sorts um andrew's the nautical expert here what those would be called but um they're not tentacles they're just like many flowing um fins down the head but there's one larger fin which is like a mohawk stretching from the back of her skull down and narrowing down to the center of her back and um she carries a large triton her face is more of like a not a triton a um trident and her face is that like um it has human-ish features but it looks more like a creature that you would find deep within the ocean um more um perhaps monstrous[Music] um and she uh she rises out on this giant lizard and her eyes are um black fully black as she stares out onto the sand and she sees the three of you standing um and she will call out sue you have called i see you've brought people here ah cilla yes no these are um these are the two that i found outside the world stone tunnels that i was telling you about come on down say hello to them that i will uh and she's going to like direct the the lizard like toward um toward the beach um and then kind of slowly um dismount and approach very unrushed taking their time[Music] uh and then she will say nothing and stand and wait hi yes please make yourselves known hi i'm indigo ah indigo you have the crimson skin and broad exterior of a warrior well give me blush hmm and i am safel you are a very interesting individual she kind of uh [ __ ] her head at you fell not familiar with such a name you have the physique of an intellect although my people keep their elders sheltered indoors due to their frail nature and rapidly failing mental state your intellect coupled with your age indicates that indigo is the leader of this duo yes oh you're very good that's uh how perceptive and insightful yes i will let that one slide do you say that under your breath or do you say that like i um you are an astute uh perceiver of of traits however i will assure you my uh my physique and my mental capacities are not something to worry about i do not have the do not contain all of the frailties of your average elder uh yes sue remind me it is the the flair of mines they are the ones that eat the brains aren't they uh yes that um you have that correct um however i have not seen uh a friend here do any such thing and i would hope that um that won't necessarily be happening anytime soon to us at the very least so long as you know we're all taking care of each other yes of course yeah sue says we're all on the same team now i do trust sue indigo you seem very capable well again very personal i look forward to getting to know you i don't know if i believe you well don't worry about that cfl i'm sure you and i are going to be great friends go ahead no i make no mistake here i am not like other land folk i will be honest with you at all times believe me i look forward to getting to know you well i i apologize for my presuppositions honesty is hard to find in individuals as you say but it is admirable yes well um i'm supposed the two of you would be interested in the business that we have within the tunnels that you've found yourselves in before i'm because you there well it's not that i was looking for anything in particular uh sisilla here and i as i told you were just looking for means of greater protection and perhaps weapons or means of combating some of the things and she's kind of like eyeing zilla uh some of the things that we've encountered about here um and while i know the whirlstone tunnels doesn't normally hold anything i'd heard some rumors that um a certain group of individuals hadn't found their way within and made a bit of a hideout and so i took it upon myself to do a little bit of scouting and and she once again looks at uh your new triton companion and kind of looks back and they are kind of harsh i find something quite incredible that if handled with great care could be quite a force to be reckoned with in one that would more than likely from a um[Music] well it would it would certainly help us to have it please these individuals you're referring to would these be the grey ghosts she kind of like raises her eyebrows yes yes i am referring to them how do you know about them well how i know about them is separate than the business that took us into the caves i was able to find information um in in a previous location we were staying in briefly however we were tasked uh that the mission i was referring to the business for the wormsmith did involve an investigation into the grey ghosts or we assumed a a group of them within those caves well i suppose we could help you with that um but there's something that we have that i in particular would want and definitely think it would serve our means and as long as you don't have a problem with it i think we'll get along just fine[Music] they seem to have in their possession surprisingly and she once again gets kind of quiet a red dragon egg yo what are the chances what are the chances would you believe that is what we were tasked to find oh on okay so before you get uh antsy about it we had not decided what to do with it if we found it or whether or not we cared about its fate we were simply tasked to find out if they did indeed have it that's good uh yes i can confirm they have it uh i would very much like to get it uh because i don't know if you know this about dragon kind but when one hatches they bond with whoever they look upon first and though the red ones can be a wee bit nasty uh if it happened to look upon us and she's kind of looking at cilla then um[Music] it could be a worthwhile companion not a pit it's they're pretty smart of those ones but um someone who would be bound to kind of help us anyway a worthwhile ally can i do an insight check on sue does it sound does it sound like she's confident that this is i mean this is a big ask yes like like that is that is a huge task to take on in hatching and essentially taming a baby red dragon so does it seem like she knows what she's talking about and she's confident about it or is this vanity i will say in indigo if you want to get in on this i will say you can either roll a nature arcana to determine if you know this about dragons yourselves or you can roll an insight to see if she seems like she's bullshitting it or not i'll roll the inside because i think india would be listening very carefully to the plan she's going out i'm i'm not even really wondering if she's bullshitting us just does it does it seem like she is actually capable of doing this or is this her is she talking through her ego gotcha gotcha gotcha go ahead and roll ah it's an 11 over here that's a 10 for me all right um she doesn't she seems pretty confident about it and i'm sure if you guys were to kind of like question her a little bit more about it as i'm sure you would just because of the nature of this huge ask right you know she kind of elaborates a little bit more on what she has has learned from others and from a few texts in that while it's nearly impossible to tame a dragon including a dragon wormling if it forms a paternal or maternal bond with whomever it hatches with there will be a connection there and while it is fully capable of its own intelligence and decisions it will in a manner of speaking work with or or for that person so it seems like that's more it's it's kind of a gamble she's like i'm confident we can get the egg i'm i'm pretty sure that we could we can find a way to hatch it um there's quite a few lava flows in case it needs any type of heat about here in the underdark um the real problem is getting it keeping it under wraps getting it out of the city and uh then hatching it of course then it will be a perhaps i would say a 60 40 chance that everything works out well with the hatching of it i i i don't think it i mean if the four of us are there then um 60 40 is technically beneficial odds so yes no i i never thought it would be necessarily 100 we're all gonna die you know um but i think there stands very good chances that this could work out well so does this sound interesting well i will most likely have questions along the way but it seems that we are all um well we all need assistance down here that is a matter of survival and as long as we are forthcoming i think this is a manageable uh alliance great good how do you feel about that cilla i feel quite good um i believe you found worthy adventurers here sue congratulations thank you i do pride myself on my damn it i can't even think about it you already [ __ ] it up yep keep going keep going she does have a charisma of nine so she's she probably was like looking for the word and then there's like a long pause and she's like yeah i forgot it and then there's another moment on networking i'm very good at that that you are uh but um perhaps do do do either of you need any rest or any um supplies or anything that you need to get before we take such a delve back into the world stone tunnels uh still i'll i'll have to fill you in later or perhaps these other two can fit you in with um what happened to them down there it's a it's quite the tail i mean we we do need to resupply and the cup there are a couple items that we were waiting on that i believe we slept through our timeline indigo i don't know if this is insulting to uh suggest are finding um other means of rejuvenation do you think that is a a necessary option i couldn't help but notice that you were previously hindered by being our only source of stability and health oh no i it would be if we can buy some health potions that would be fantastic i will say i'm a little low on funds well don't worry about that too much and she uh sue actually goes around a small correct collection of boulders and comes back and she's wearing a backpack that literally has a barrel on it like that's what it's strapped to and you see she kind of like turns around and she's able to underneath like the first metal band she actually rotates it and it kind of like uh you hear until an opening comes out and she holds out her hands and a potion actually pops out into it she goes i dab a little bit as she's like tossing it up and down and she throws it to you indigo and uh you have a potion of healing greater in your hand and she goes i find myself dabbling with all the little mixtures down here for both um medicinal and uh enhancing tendencies so i feel like you kind of buried the lead in your introduction that like that that is incredibly valuable knowledge to open with oh well like you saved us and you carried us and that's important like i'm not diminishing that but this is incredibly useful please do not do not mistake my my awe for uh irritants very impressed and thankful thank you it's nothing it's nothing too special i uh it takes it takes a little bit of a bit of time but there's quite a bit around here that you can use and um indigo you seem a bit uh savvy yourself anyways i did i didn't look through it i just happened to notice when your book fell out of your um your pouch when i was cleaning you up a little bit uh that there seemed to be some natural drawings uh perhaps i can show you some things so you might be able to make some yourself oh yeah that would be great ah you're a curator of nature indigo oh yes i am that is that is astounding oh silla i bet you could tell him quite a bit of what you've seen down in the dark lake that i could and i would love to do so great this day keeps getting better and better[Laughter] amazing well uh shall we go about our business and um and she like she looks at her wrist there's no watch she's like how about we meet by um the bullet slayer by the next chime uh you know the next whistle that that works for me quite well sure that is amenable great and if we happen to meet each other sooner even better and uh she just kind of starts hiking off see you later oh all right see you soon so sue a puzzle of potions bye silla queen of the deep oh wow are you the queer of the deep she calls me that would not say it is my formal title it's going to say is that a preferred name or is that a endearing moniker cilla will do fine safel the old saphel will do fine sephel the pillowcase no he actually i prefer magic i'm the magic huger oh wow okay well what do you guys want to do welcome back sam can i draw a picture of your your amphibious mount you would like to take you would like to draw my uh dartanian yeah nice please uh and she'll she'll bring you over it towards[Music] wow i've never seen a newt this large before well then let's um collect our things and[Music] meet sue at the next whistle then okay so you guys uh i'm assuming you dismissed d'artagnan and you guys make your way towards the uh blade bazaar area you guys want to pick up your items as it has been a while yeah yeah okay who do you want to go uh find first whose item do you want to try and pick up first um you can grab your your cloak that seems like it's probably a pretty quick sure he's easy to find he was sort of advertising himself yeah uh it definitely does not take you long and you do find uh cloud and they like kind of huff as you get in and go behind the the the desk and pull out this very nice green drake like leather skin cloak um in which they give to you and i will throw this up on your uh inventory later tonight but you with it this green drake cloak you have resistance to poison and acid damage nice that was very nice yes it's beautiful thank you so much i don't remember what this guy sounds like but he's like you're very welcome he was he was kind of a pompous [ __ ] so you know get the [ __ ] out of my store okie dokie we'll listen back and i'll have a different voice next week absolutely yeah if it's if it's been a minute or if they're minor or not i won't i won't remember[ __ ] that guy[ __ ] that guy [ __ ] god claude uh okay so you are now looking for dane iron head yes yes all right yeah he had sort of a was it just sort of like a a stall kind of deal like i don't remember him having a it wasn't a big store it wasn't a big store there was kind of a uh like an easy tent pop-up essentially you know it was a small tent with a bunch of uh displays out in front and you make your way back to what you believe was the spot where that was and you do see the tent and you do see the displays but you don't see you don't see anything in them and you don't see dane iron head okay uh can i can i approach the the tent and sort of um look around see if he he's back somewhere absolutely yeah okay make a uh investigation check or perception check any of you can do this uh 14 investigation okay anybody get better uh 18 investigation okay uh you both realize that nobody's been in here for at least a couple of days you would presume um but clearly there's a number of tracks that had come up to the stand you only see two sets of tracks going one going in and then one going out and then it kind of gets lost in the uh kerfuffle of all the other moving people about um but you indigo decide on kind of like asking some of the neighboring merchants if they know where dane iron had his is and to which one of them kind of like points down the way to a large clump of buildings to the west and says that they have a workshop in which you can find their their sign and that he's probably been there working on any of his his things oh well thank thank you very much svl this way okay uh and you guys make your way to the west part of the dark lake district eventually coming upon uh a number of buildings looking a little bit more residential but you see there's quite a few signs for independent businesses merchants uh traders all sorts of things and finally you come across a uh a sign that says iron head upon it and it shows like a crossed sword and hammer and you see that there's like a heavy metal door there what do you guys do i'll just walk up and and wrap on the door okay there's no answer even after a minute or so there's no there's no answer right to the door indigo is it i know it's generally rude to open without invitation but i assume it it's a storefront we could just enter yes oh maybe i mean yeah i mean he said he'd have his thing done a few days ago realize maybe he's concerned about you you're not showing back up yes you purchased something from this merchant didn't you i was more of a uh scientific trade uh but he is expecting me for the exchange yes a verbal agreement uh yes yes when i say we enter and she'll push the door it's locked perhaps they are out yeah so you don't think you guys like just like skip town on you do you i'm unsure you no that that would be a terrible waste of your abilities well indigo has the capability to um perhaps recently obtained i've only seen it a small amount of times but he can track uh particular items that he he may have seen or been familiar with but as i understand it is a fairly taxing um endeavor and i don't know if this is worth that though i am i'm concerned with carrying on too much further without at least seeing what this iron head had to offer as i look around this like door are there any other openings any like you know like around like the threshold or anything you see uh nothing directly necessarily nearby you do see that there is what looks like a small opening for like a mailbox sunk into the wall near the door and as you're kind of looking about you do see that there's a balcony with what looks like a kind of like patio door uh that seems to be cracked open in like the second floor of this building okay so i'm uh you know there is a crack uh you know the balcony door open there um i don't know if that would be you know frowned upon sneaking in there there was a verbal agreement i would say we are perhaps all right to enter the building i i like the logic uh does anything look odd about the the area like does it look like he's been around here there were tracks around his storefront but does it look like there has been someone here or like any activity around here recently uh i would say this would be a survival check okay um or investigation i'll give you i'll give you guys either one of those to determine what's going on here choose investigation again i'll choose survival time[Music] all right well uh [ __ ] my 21 then yeah mine's a dirty 24 23. nice andrew uh a feeble 18 in this group of giants uh all of you can tell um that it doesn't appear like anybody's been through the main door in a couple of days um cilla though you notice that it looks like with the way that the mailbox has been left slightly ajar and it looks like quite a bit has been like slotted through there relatively recently looks like something has like scratched their way in and out um and you kind of like open up the the mailbox door and you can see that on the other side is what looks like another lid opening and it is also slightly cracked inside and you see that there's a like faint blue light coming from within just ever so slightly applying a little bit of tint to the inside of this mailbox door is blue a common color for lighting here and grackle stuck uh safely sparks with with recognition or presumed recognition it isn't but it is not unexpected for what he may be working on can you um can you see through the mail slot like you could kind of reach in there if you if you had to uh you're asking me uh yeah um i think i could fit my hand in here cool hold your hand out then if you wouldn't mind i'm gonna turn into a crab now a little tiny what the hell all right there's just like this swirl of like purple and then just like there's just little like red and green crab just that is an amazing feat uh and she will like stick her hand in the mailbox and lightly like tip it so that he falls into the into the look okay you are in the mailbox now crab indigo that's actually never seen him do that before the crap sonic the crab scientist will continue i will i will scuttle deeper inside he's a master of all forms he's something you make your way to the other side of this mailbox in which you come across the the other door and you are able to push it down and you see a large room uh it's quite open you see that there are counters and tables all filled with uh papers and beakers and uh materials you see weapons lying about swords daggers hammers all sorts of different things about and you see with your little crab eyes that there is a staircase a spiral staircase in the uh like north east corner that goes upwards to a second floor and you can tell that there's like this bright blue light that seems to be coming down and reflecting off of most of the materials down here um and that must have been what was kind of peeking through the the mailbox but things are quiet except make a perception check let's see if you hear anything[Music] uh 16. you hear was like a moaning like a[Music] coming from the second floor you believe oh my yeah uh with my little crabby eyes here can i see can i see how to unlock would i be able to unlock the door perhaps not just see that there is a key slotted into the door and if you were to somehow like jump and catch it maybe with your crab like momentum you might be able to twist it and maybe unlock the door yo i gotta try that okay uh make an athletics check to jump towards this key so this is gonna blow you guys mind crabs are not very athletic you are the monster banjo shut up i do not believe you honestly that's pretty good uh that's a 14. wow okay you launch yourself and in slow motion we just see it claws grabbing towards it and uh you managed to grab it and with your momentum the two of you outside hear the door unlock and i'm presuming you open it yeah you enter in and you see the same site that you that i had described to indigo and as you look about and you look back towards the door you see the little crab like indigo still clinging to the key wonderfully done friend uh and she will like cup her hands out as if to hold the crab again i will i'll let my pincers go and fall into the hand okay you do and i will walk further in holding indigo in my like cupped hands okay i'll i'll walk with her you all as you're walking through this first floor notice that there's um it looks like there was a flurry of activity within here you see that there are flecks of this blue gem very small amounts that seem to be scattered off of one kind of central um work bench and you see diagrams for like a couple different fantastical looking weapons um but no signs sephel in indigo that you notice of the larger mass of crystal or anything that resembles anything in the pictures but you now all hear that soft moaning and that weird blue light coming from upstairs now you said so the key was already in the door it's like he was that's interesting did he like lock the door and and leave it there or was he trying to unlock it we should be cautious and although he's speaking to the others he's also speaking to himself because he's he's like fighting this mix of uh anxiety at what i mean it just it seems like an off scenario but he's kind of excited to see what is emanating that light okay so you go upstairs pointing us yeah is indigo appointing us yeah my little pincers i'm pointing up the stairs uh and one thing about the crabs i do have blind sight as a crab 30 feet so if there's anyone invisible in here i can perceive them uh you don't detect anybody invisible around um not down here but you do detect that there is someone upstairs um like um looks at safel and then indicates that um indigo is telling them to go up the stairs yes proceed with caution dude um i don't know your abilities so i don't want to volunteer you to lead are are you comfortable with such or would you like me to go first um i'm sorry i thought we were picking something up from a tradesman are we getting into battle i i don't think we are getting into battle but i am unsure this situation feels uncomfortable and i do not know the nature of the moaning hmm perhaps you should hold indigo i very well i will uh i will cup indigo and because i do need the use of my hands i will like put him up on my shoulder uh as i do arachno scurries out of the the collar on the other side and perches on the shoulder and he's giving you just s dank skeletal eyes the angel and the devil um cilla will pull out her trident um from off her back and lead the way up the stairs okay you make your way up the spiral staircase and as you all emerge on the second floor you see that it's a little bit more like a loft and everything is dark here except towards the far back wall you see um both a sloped ceiling and space absolutely[Music] covered in diagrams both seemingly covered with weapons but then slowly becoming more odd weird symbols and runes and sketches of various orb like things and beneath all of this upon a large long desk you see a this glowing blue light is coming from a blue crystalline sphere and part of it however it's not a true sphere as there are it seems like pieces are almost missing from it and from what isn't covered in spherical looks like almost like spikes are coming from out in in a a certain particular pattern and from the base of this medium-sized orb you could say incomplete orb picture uh i want you to picture like a geode like a cracked open geode with like a corner of it missing it's kind of got the same thing and you can see there's multiple uh amazing facets and it just gleams and there's this blue light within and at the base of this you see kind of tr going up one of these larger spikes that comes from within this orb uh there are what look like metal mercurial lines kind of wrapping itself about the base of it and coming down into this long gleaming staff and you hear this moan again and you see kind of laying against the wall propped up is dane iron head and nothing physically appears to be wrong but they have this glazed over look in their eye and they're just kind of like i saw what i saw i saw it and he's just looking at the staff uh i will he'll approach him yeah is this your your man yes as i approach i sort of get down to his level mr iron head what what have you are you all right nice i i saw it i saw it what what did you see i saw it all i saw all of it and from his like glassy eye a tear starts rolling down his cheek and he looks oddly happy i i don't understand it's so[Music] beautiful[Music] i will stand up and back up yeah i mean he's he's like gone like yeah he's just somewhere else yeah um and i i look at the staff and sort of take it in um this i had expected uh or he he spoke as if it were to be a weapon i had mentioned the staff and he he seemed like he he wasn't sure of his capability to make one it must have changed uh he he created you this weapon still is like approaching it yes we found um the crystal used in it was found a little while ago on it on its own as a a large chunk of unworked just raw material he he said that he could make something out of it but was unclear about what that may be this seems to be the labor of his efforts this haft as you like hold it in your hand is oddly soft and if you've ever seen like mercury in its liquid form and that same kind of sheen and almost movement to it as it comes into your grasp the shaft itself how tall is the fell ah cephel is six feet uh he's he's about like five nine five ten but with his hunch he falls at about five seven or eight gotcha so in total length it's probably six feet tall including the crystal on top and as you like pick it up and you you hold it to your side you see what this like round kind of spherical part of it slowly start to split off into three smaller pieces and they break off into smaller pieces and within as they come off you see that there is like a multi-pointed star and that is in from like the bottom spike of it that is what the shaft has attached itself to this mercurial like liquid or metal and the pieces that have broken off are now orbiting in a small way around the central star and the light gets very intense and as it does your vision goes blank and then you find yourself just like flying through a galaxy and that's where we'll end it tonight oh my gosh it's so good to see you again you're one of our favorite listeners you made it to the post show notes thank you so much for your support um yes new outro means new news we started a discord server yes we wanted to create a space for our listeners to meet fellow fans of the show it's a new community so hop on in say hi we'll be there you can find it by going to our twitter page and it's linked up at the top there our link tree slash the madness table has all of our links to all of our stuff speaking of which if you haven't please follow us on twitter and instagram we try to you know post some memes and other exciting stuff especially on twitter so we would love the support there we're also going to be launching a bonus action segment soon where we talk about the behind the scenes for the different chapters of our story so please keep an eye out for those and if you want to submit any questions for a future bonus action segment please email us at themadnesstable gmail.com lastly please leave a review if you haven't all the reviews do is they help us grow it's a quick easy and free way to show your support um and you know we always appreciate that so again thank you so much for listening we hope you're happy and healthy we'll see you next week when[Music] you