Dragon Hunters - Episode 118

We're hunting a dragon!...Tomorrow! While Sephel buries himself in books, Starcaller gathers more information on Delkvir and Scylla deals with the shame of her mental break.

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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
Artomis Star Caller: Andrew Walker
Sephel: Brendan Proal
Scylla: Sam Conklin

AUDIO:
Ice Cavern | Tabletop Audio
Latin Electro #10 | Dmyra
Cosa Peluda | Dmyra
Endgame | Tabletop Audio
Blackberry's Hedge | Secret Jane
Nerbuldar | Ambient Mixer
And Darkness Grew Like a Tree | Doctor Turtle
Night Sky | Jar of Flies
Kevin Macleod | Air Prelude
Kevin Macleod | Dreams Become Real

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Transcript

0:01

my friends my fellow podcast enthusiasts my Maddy baddies welcome to another episode of the Badness table on this we will endeavor to en Rapture you in a story of Glory sacrifice and the creeping Insanity that comes along with the stresses of adventuring and combating the ever encroaching emphasis of the demon Lords and if that sounds like you're kind of shy come on down to the Mad table Discord jop on in there have yourself a good time and don't forget to like follow And subscribe everywhere we are which is honestly most places on your phone accept your contacts you cannot call me but you can email me at the madness gmail.com if you got a question for will in the gang you can put it right in there and our next bonus action we will be trying to answer it not only trying we are legally obligated by the law that we have chosen the law of the thin line between life and death and if that is your kind of thing come right on down to our coffee page drop a coin drop a review or tell your best buddy that you like this podcast and let you try it too but don't tell Jesus tough Knuckles he knows what he did and he can't be trusted well that's off me come on down William show them how it's done you're you must be on like five watch lists at least just budding Psychopaths I look forward to the day they try to catch me his his FBI agent that watches him through his webcam is always horrified I was waiting for you to end that first bit where you're like as we Face these terrifying Demon Lord I was waiting for these are their stories with that sound in mind uh we turn to Brendan's Incubus as he seductively approaches demogorgan and his tentacles um which if you want to catch on how we got there listen to the previous episode that's how you Brendon you've clearly entertained one head are you going to entertain the other damn well you know if given the option for another head oh my Lord don't know de gorg has two actual heads uh all right Jesus that was our x-rated version that you can catch on our only fans uh and that's why we click explicit yeah fair fair uh so last time you guys ventured through the swamp very briefly getting us uh back to this uh this Camp of goblins that are on this Crescent Crescent shaped aisle uh where they have told you that essentially their their Village has been overrun by lizard men who were once once Servants of Delk a black dragon who kind of ruled over the swamp and they now seem to worship the river King and this small group is just one of perhaps a handful they're not really sure of their numbers that are now trying to seek the help of perhaps one or more of these other Dennis of the swamp one being a giant like Hunter that resides on the very edge of the swamp near the plains where they thought he would perhaps be of the most um immediate and easiest to persuade to help them you know come slay this giant Beast the second one was a shrouded figure that carried the air of death with them somewhere to the South and they knew very very little other than um it didn't normally Venture close to them except for when the large storms ravaged through the swamps and then lastly being that previously mentioned Delk uh this black dragon that has been disappear uh has disappeared for the last two weeks who seems to have potentially lost control of these lizard men and would normally fly about the swamp looking for these goblins that were not quite resisting but evading his his gaze and his ey and it seems like you guys are pretty content on trying to find this dragon um but you you're standing amongst all these goblins how do we continue from here would we be permitted to uh rest at your camp for a while we would like to well I would like to rest for some time if star caller saala if you are Keen I could use the recuperation h i i as well I could use with a rest and um perhaps we could spend some time getting to know um the swamps through your tals perhaps resting is wise and I believe I have some Magics that I could extract from the books Jimmy uh provided that could be helpful in the next few days um tell me what's going on here guys we know what sp's doing right yeah I I I know I'm gonna be lame fing nerd I'm gonna be lame I'm popping open uh underland Magic MH and I am going to get out the copying supplies that I acquired a while ago uh and I'm going to start copying locate creature into my spell book which so that is a fourth level spell so it will take me a total of I believe 200 gold and8 hours to copy fully damn being wizard sus into a full rest yeah okay well does that can you do that it does not count as a rest a long rest has to be like sleep okay all right so at most for you you need 12 hours because you only need like half the night technically to rest well we're we're doing this during the day like they're they're doing stuff we're preparing and then we're going to like rest rest my point is for you to recover all of your spells if you do that at the same time as we need a minimum of 12 hours it would be 12 hours yeah okay all right so immediately Cel sets to work on transcribing this new this new spell down into their spell book what's going on with starer and Sila um I think stalk car is going to spend like the first few hours kind of like watching the Goblins as they go about like moving around in their camp and just like seeing with like The rhythms of life here also how they move about the swamp um if you know after he kind of like relaxes for a bit um he will try to maybe talk to um um rat mud rot mud mud yeah I was like mud um or my my muddy buddy um about a little bit more if he knows anything more about um Delk that might be helpful um it seems they spent a lot of time evading him but I'll try to get to know anything that they know about like people who have encountered him like what kind of what kind of dragon we're really dealing with starer has never um as far as I know like encountered a dragon before um he wasn't there for the thumbers Sha um episodes so this is his first like bite at the Apple um and he is trying to approach it um with with the eye um that you know it would be great to destroy the river King but it'll be even better to take out a black dragon too okay Sila what's going on with you just in case any of this aligns with star caller's Mission here yeah um I think Sila will accompany star caller in asking these questions and I think the reason that she does is because they're all hanging out around camp and Sila is like sitting like across from star collar like it's almost like she's caught in her thoughts about the fact that she attacked him and she's like watching him awkwardly like is he like did I really how could I have done that like it's very much like every time you look over she like looks away but she's like she's definitely looking and like trying to come to terms with all that she did and then and then I think as she sees you talk to um rot Mud She will join you um but then after that it's the long rest okay uh you guys see vasana is uh healing Vlad a little bit for uh all the wounds the bite marks from the Hydra that they had taken um but you're all you all end up sitting around this um these Fallen logs that sit around this very meager Fire H to which rot mud was kind of quietly scolding Pig mud before seeing you all approach and goes now go on and assist your mother and you see Pig mud kind of look at you all and then run off um to where his mother quills in is weaving more of like a smaller ghillie suit uh which you can see she's like trying to fit onto Pig mud um some of the things you noticed about these goblins in general is that they if they're not moving as some are standing guard on these stilts and stuff like that around this area you it's so easy to lose sight of them they have truly mastered the art of camouflaging themselves in this environment and they move exceptionally quietly even on your trip over here on the stilts other than the very gentle swish of water from it you hardly heard anything um and there is always a it's palpable in the air this alertness of anything that could happen and they are very wary about going near the water especially the deeper waters and you can tell that those goblins posted up on the outside are um more intent on what lies in the water potentially very closely as things are a bit murkier than anything out in the distance um and you see that there's like two other kids a little bit younger than Pig mud who are moving about the camp and you see them a couple times start like chasing each other and they happen to be getting close to the Waterfront and super quickly like everybody swarms in like a pack and grabs these kids before they even have a a chance to touch the water so that's the general air you get here is it's high alert nobody feels comfortable even though they're very they're trying their hardest to keep themselves busy but everything that they're doing is strictly tied to survival right now but you you sit down with rot mud here and he turns you and um he goes I see that you have questions on your mind what can I assist you with ah yes friend rot mud what can you tell us of this delv the black um your your people seem Adept at evading him but what what sort of Beast is this well I appreciate the compliment in a sense and he crosses his arms thumbs sticking up kind of tight he's like um we weren't always so lucky to avoid him he was a bit of a two front battle you see with his his lizard kin running around looking for us eating us we always knew if we ran into them it was perhaps a 50/50 chance that we could PR them to let us go or we could be eaten but maybe it's something closer to like a 3 three three repeating chance cuz they could always take us back to him but as for Delk himself in the early days we tried to approach him with some reverence and we only wish to find ourselves in a an abundant place where we may Thrive and we could never come to terms he demanded anything of gold or silver or Mighty Val valuables we might have and when it became clear we had none even though he did sit upon a rather large pile that it was to be servitude or death to which we promis servitude and then did our best immediately to begin hiding ourselves when that agreement was struck they were large quite large I I could not ascertain an age for you if I if I had to put a number on it but uh they were certainly have I would I would say perhaps close to the size of the river King last I saw him but uh they enjoyed flying low and the waters wow very unsafe now they weren't always so occasionally you'd have to worry about a geyser or when he would fly low he would cause the Waters to churn and move and blow and now you just worry about losing a limb or dying indeed thank you sir and um it's all the stilts are Best Bets for moving across the um liquid portions of the swamp it's what we found is best as to avoid the detection of the king but also some of the Crocs in these Waters or the lizard lizard men we try to travel at night as much as we can and stick to the Shadows see if you can get used to the balance of the Stills we reckon it probably harbers nothing more than like a bird walking or dipping down for but a moment so far we have not lost too many with these methods of course you always run into the chance of finding yourself cornered by the king himself or any of his cronies for sure but I would recommend it unless you have better means know that suit quite well we are used to working in the dark so that'll be perhaps a comfort for silla um to be out of the scalding Ray of the sun indeed no one should have to live in fear of the water and we will do our best to find the silk Feer and perhaps rid the river King from the swamp entirely he would gladly appreciate that it would certainly make it a bit easier to live here perhaps see our loved ones proberbly put to rest and you see he kind of glances over and you see that there are these like uh they've taken the long kind of whip-like branches of willow trees and you can see that there's like bundles of uh figures there towards the edge of the C camp and like you can't see anything there it's basically like mummification with vegetation and he goes it is our proper custom to put them in a small canoe while those of us come forward and surround them with their valuables and rocks till they sink to the bottom of the swamp that is an interesting C I had not heard of it before and I hope that one day you will be able to do it um if you excuse me I would I think I should like to speak to Vlad okay um star caller what you doing um I think that star car will spend some time um speaking to vasana um cuz I don't we didn't really ask her opinion uh and I want to make sure she's on board with this um new dragon hunting Dragon persuading Dragon finding Adventure sure um sael I don't know how you picture the process of like transcribing a new spell into a spell book clearly it takes takes you eight hours so that's you know I don't know if it's something about the runes or whatever but a part of me almost imagined perhaps part of that length is tied up into you could be jumping in and out of conversations as you're just transcribing stuff and understanding it so feel free to like jump in on some of these conversations I'm not going to say you can't be a part of that when describing no and I'm sure at some point like my take on it is it's sort of a mix between like super meticulous arithmetic because you have to get like the runes just right but it's also to him it's almost a form of art of like getting those Strokes just precise getting the ink to sit in just the way that makes the the scrawling work um but it's definitely something that like after probably 4 hours straight of copying he's like okay I need a break come back to this your fingers take the SATs you're like it's like all right quick 15 and we'll come back yeah uh so yeah he'll probably at some point check in you know when when they're done with their conversations he'll reconvene with the others and sort of get the delay of the information that they've gathered okay um let's go Sila and Vlad first unless you want to wait for starer to have his conversation um no well my immediate thought was if she sees star caller heading over to vasana um isn't vasana with Vlad she's they were they were healing him a little bit it was probably like 15 minutes later that you guys have turned away from your conversation with rot mud um or maybe not quite that long um but they are like V's kind of on her own she's checking her bags she seems to be resting a little bit as well um and Vlad is you can see he is seated and he's like he's like watching the other kids play and uh with your passive Insight you think he like wants to go join a but you can see he's like fiddling with his hair where that one of his horns kind of Peaks through a little bit um and he he's kind of looking a little sad again okay yeah then she's definitely going to talk to him alone okay all right she wasn't going to but he looked all pathetic just kidding s s Sil car I guess she could not give a damn no um Sila will approach Vlad um Vlad are you feeling all right uh Vlad kind of sits up a little bit drops their their hand from their hair and goes uh I'm I'm better uh V was very kind to use some of their healing on me and um you can see he's like hesitant to meet your eyes yes ver vasana is quite kind isn't she did I did I attack you um well you something happened uh star caller told me when you've faced some of these creatures before that your minds have been hurt by them or something like that um yes I did not recognize it as such when it happened of course or even after it is as though upon seeing something so shocking it is like your mind protects itself and in my case it was involuntary self-defense I had thought everyone around me was Deon and it was so convincing that a certain blood lust hit me and looking now I feel great shame that I would scare you and apparently starer was quite frightened as well make a persuasion check eight okay um he meets your eyes a little bit more but you can still tell he's a little frightened of you um and but he's he's trying to be brave um he goes uh yeah no you um I I think he was a little scared I you the the Hydra was something though thank you for um taking care of that I I wanted to tell you that before I lost my sane view of what was happening I I was prepared to get you out of the fight at all CA Vlad you were prone and in danger and I I felt a certain maternal Instinct over you uh to get you out of the fry and that is why I perhaps feel the most shame because that instinct was immediately turned around um I would never hurt you Vlad Roll Another persuasion with Advantage please please two uh it's an 11 okay I'm just not very charismatic was also a little uh a little bit lower um but but Vlad nods their head at you and goes thank you I I do appreciate that are you all right uh yes I will be fine in time Triton are quite resilient we we have to be I I had um a question for you I know that you're you are partially or perhaps fully draconic I know you have this form uh it's magic of A Sort that allows me to do this I see how do you feel about meeting a black dragon um and you can see their eyes grow a little bit wider with excitement and they're like I would love the chance to meet another but I'm not I don't think they're of the nicer ones that sarak told me of though he said my predecessors weren't necessarily nice either and that I had to be better than them H um I was worried you would be um less excited if you are eager then that makes me feel better oh it's it's honestly a little frightening but considering what they went we just went through I don't suppose it would be worse you do you think I do not think it would be worse I would not allow it to be worse okay then yeah I I'm I'm excited I would love to to meet this Delk fear good I'm glad to have your support now when I walked over here you were looking kind of sad and staring in the direction of those children are you sad children uh not not at at them I'm just different and you can see like even in this half humanoid form like their tail kind of swings around the rock that they're sitting on and they're like I I just worry you know they said the dragon was someone that had tried to hurt them and there's these lizard men and now the river King and I am not wholly dissimilar they would probably just be scared of me so um no I'm not I'm not sad at them I think you do them a great disservice by assuming that they would be scared of you these people have they have survived here and I would even say in in spite of Their Fear um and I would also tell you we are all a bit strange particularly myself uh and she like gestures to like her her like entire body um and I do not think you should let it keep you from living Vlad I do not want you to have regrets tomorrow that you did not take time to try and make a friend you if you think of the worst case scenario you go over there they're scared of you and you come back very unlikely okay uh I can try uh and Vlad kind of slowly gets off their Rock and um kind of goes over to where the other kids are are playing and he's already even a little bit bigger than them but um you see very quickly uh yeah actually I'm going to make this a 5050 roll you see the the kids kind of stare at him for a moment but then are immediate like they have like a little um ball made out of reads that have been like bundled up as best as possible and they kind of like toss it to them and let's go event they get into a game and start kind of playing and you can see some of the other adults in the area seem to be slightly more lihe hearted for the moment for seeing that uh which is nice go let's go Star cller you coach vasana who's kind of tending to her her bag and her own wounds she's kind of taking a rest but she looks up at you as you approach R it it dawned on me a moment ago that you may not have signed up for this oh well um it's certainly not what I was expecting of my first Journey to the prime material but I can't say that I haven't been enjoying it to a large degree there are all manner of dangers in the Wilds uh so I'm not unaccustomed to Danger this is just uh a different Journey something new to be learned it's fascinating to know that there's such beasts here or or to see perhaps firsthand influences of another nature taking place but I'm quite all right good and are you um are you open to our our Gambit here to not immediately pursue our AIMS in the city but instead to Aid these these folk no I think it quite admirable really that the three of you would want to jump to such lengths upon just barely meeting these folks it's uh it's an endearing quality that you all share to want to undertake something like this I I'm glad you think so in the war that we are fighting the war againsts an ultimate and insufferable evil its appearance anywhere is a threat to us everywhere you must be careful to Snuff it out whenever the infernal flames of the Diabolical would light also we might get to meet a dragon which would be pretty cool it is well spoken uh black dragons though can be a bit testy not that many of the other chromatic are different so we best have a good game plan for when we find them yes yes do you have you meed with Dragons before do you know um what sort of negotiating tactics might be successful um I have heard they like great wealth let's see what she gets here uh she goes um no I I haven't had the pleasure of meeting any the closest one that I'd ever heard tale of was a friend of uh my father's but I believe they were a moonstone Dragon a bit different from a black um so no I don't I really don't have anything other than knowing that um chromatics are capricious and all sorts of nasty things but yes I've have heard wealth um some perhaps collect certain things I'm not entirely certain what uh this one could cover most but I think that would help us if we could find that yes and uh I have some bobles I may be willing to part with I'm also hoping that this dragon has been inconvenienced by the r King as I I think may be the case it is not uh it seems an insignificant presence here if we could appeal to that uh perhaps even if they felt that they are being challenged by this Beast we could um pose a solution to that problem yes it certainly could work in our favor making this negotiation much easier well said again uh when do we plan to travel next I know I could use a bit more rest um regain some of my strength my temperaments um uh friend rud indicated that traveling by night was the most expedient and effective route so perhaps when DUS settles um if it works well with our companions that will be our time to exit the camp very well that should uh Supply me with a good amount of time to get ready I I I myself must rest as well but I'm glad to have you by our side I'm quite happy to help do you require um healing of different Natures perhaps I might have something in my limited repertoire that I could help you with my my body will heal with a bit of rest um so no I I thank you but I think rest is all I require very well I shall leave you to it then Y and I think unless he interrupted star caller will kind of um like doze like you know a little like chatting with Dawn's Edge in his mind but mostly kind of settle in for a little bit of a nap um while they kind of recuperates during this rest period sure what's going on with everybody else unless you guys are just kind of finding your your corners and laying down for a bit um soel would want to track down Sila during his uh Hiatus from booking yeah I think she would find you oh um I was just going to come look how is it going your um learning it's long and tedious but it's it has a particular familiar piece to it feel like I've been doing this for eternity H I would offer to help but it is it's not my proficiency I don't H you wouldn't care for it no how are you doing I am I am still quite um shocked at myself that I I seem to have frightened Vlad and although I spoke to him I'm not certain that he believed me when I told him I would never hurt him because as far as he knows I would and that does not sit well with me that I could lose my mind in such a matter do you remember down in the neverlight Grove outside of Zuck moy's Tower how could I forget when I attacked you in Star cller you set me in my place quickly and just as quickly you forgave and we moved on because we know what we're dealing with and that is what we do we've been fighting creatures outside of our comprehension for too long and we've been fighting our minds for the same time we know the stakes we know what happens but we're a team star caller knows that so does Vlad I think where it feels different is and I hope you do not take offense to this fell had it been you I do think I would forgive myself easier and it is not because I cherish you you know it is it is more so because star caller and I our relationship has been quite tense and I do not trust him I do not it would take time to rebuild build that trust and so I suppose I found myself is it possible that I was more likely to attack him in this subconscious anger I feel that anger within me quite often and suppose that is what bothers me I suppose I understand it's almost you're right it would be almost better if you had taken your anger out or your your laps and judgment out on me yes and I do not mean that because I want to hit you but no we have that understanding exactly but probably earned a couple knocks but I would never and with star collar it just feels like Darkness and rage like it's something that was already there and the madness just drew it out and to know that it is there means that I have Darkness inside me which I do not like congratulations Drusilla you're becoming human I do not like it none of us do that's why we aren't human yes it's yeah it is a difficult line to walk and the times that we live in are making that line thinner and thinner I would not in my right mind in any better circumstances suggests a dragon as our first possible Ally yes a younger me would call myself a fool for suggesting it but I should tell you that Vlad is excited to meet the dragon oh I'm sure he is I I worry that the dragon will covet Vlad but perhaps there's no way to know I don't yet know Vlad as well as I would like to I'm working on it but one thing I do know about him very well is he has a keen mind and he's incredibly clever and tricky when he wants to be I'm not so much worried about him I caught that as well I would not worry so much about your standing with them time will bring out what it needs to and you know worst case if things don't uh shape up with star collar we just treat it like this Dragon relationship that means to an end inde worse worse case we still have that time piece if we need to get the hell out of here yes yes we do lots to consider I will I will leave you to it I do still need to get my rest oh yes I suppose I should finish yes if you need anything well let me know I will be in that pool of water right there just don't Splash around too much of course uh she will sink into the water yeah so you guys all settle in for for a long rest here um so for the total of transcribing spells for spel on onto that it's going to take you about 12 hours which puts you um roughly around I think it would be like 800 p.m. uh 8 or 900 p.m. when you guys decide that you perhaps feel ready to head out unless there's anything anybody wants to do any checks uh knowledge roles whatever preparations you tell me um I think sael would definitely like to do some sort of knowledge check for the um for the purposes of just trying to recall anything about black dragons in particular the kinds of things that might make them tick what you know aspects of their personality to perhaps capitalize on when this meeting happens sure go ahead and make that rooll okay uh would this be what nature uh I will say nature or Arcana considering they're pretty magical beasts okay they have their own section of their DB books Okay the reason we're here uh I'm going to just for pure success I'm going to burn a knowledge as well burn it to the [ __ ] ground what's a 21 get me all right uh I will say you can ask me three specific questions about what you want to know here three specific questions and they could be in whatever way you want to phrase them sure but I just don't want to blab too much sure sure sure okay put me on the spot that's fine feel free to ask your friends too for I I will say you collaborate this that's a good call I mean yeah what what do we want to know like what is the most helpful here um I think I I really want to know about like uh what black dragons are typically known to like uh hoard and collect okay call that question one okay if we know their motivations I think that's important yeah sure you recall a time period in which you were actually studying way back in the day with sarak one of your days in in the tower that you had both kind of created discussing the uh their Brethren so to speak and you remember when you were talking about black dragons one time and how similar to a deep Dragon like sarak they love cultural or magical or anything of great significance that came from a now lost culture or city um anything of kind of a reliy nature they totally love that crap um which kind of put them at odds with deep dragons who also very much like objects like that but they're a little more intellectual about it versus their black cousins um these ones aren't particularly good because of the the areas that they survive in on taking anything of like cloth or wood or paper uh they like things that are a little bit sturdier um the other thing you would know is they love gems and anything Gem and trusted they are significantly more apt to to want something like that as well okay are they question how territorial are they uh you still thinking upon this um this conversation you had with secra you feel that they are quite territorial but they love using their goons these lizard men to spy or take care of business for them like he they don't have qualms with going out and getting dirty um but they also have spies everywhere in their their layers or their environments and it could be a bird it could be a bug it could be a regular rep it could be just about anybody that inhabits there so it has eyes and ears always watching okay that's good to know uh at at that point sael will sort of mention offand you know we after the point of leaving we should be careful how much we discuss our plans uh about conversing or or perhaps you know bargaining with this creature it might learn our plans ahead of time if so just something to be aware of understood very well um third question yeah Andrew slash emus anything we're missing anything major um in the case that we have to seek this Beast outside of its lirer because the river King may have like taken Dominion there perhaps not sure um knowing anything about what kind of areas they like um like I I don't know if black dragons are like one of the semi aquatic ones or or not like what kind of terrain might be looking for what's their summer home yeah yeah yeah what's the what's the summer home like um okay you guys all feel good about that question yeah I'm not trying to trick you by asking that I'm just no legi asking let the man have it okay so you know um or able to recall that they generally like uh ruinous areas within a swamp like environment they tend to like this one the most out of other environs other sometimes it's jungles but swamps are kind of the big deal um to which you were told by rot mud that there was a ruin towards the center of the swamps where that's where their their kind of Nest was so anything that had been old or decrepit with water relatively close by uh is definitely something of interest and could potentially serve as a a new home or an additional layer of the Dragon um go ahead and anybody in the party can do this somebody roll me a persuasion check well I'd be happy to okay I'm glad someone is yeah not me uh uh persuasion 24 jeez uh R mud overhears your conversation and kind of comes over and they Supply you with a little more information about the journey uh and to signify when you were drawing closer to the lair um they tell you that about you know five or so miles from where the Delk lives the bugs started to get worse within the swamp you know mosquitoes wasps all sorts of nasty uh Critters and crawlers they they would come out of the woodwork so to speak incredibly fast and the air felt a little more pungent and nasty um and so he informs you if you start noticing those signs you're drawing close um and that the the ruins that they spoke of before they said that when they were brought there by the lizard folk they were meant to stand on what looked like the ruinous old floor of some kind of large building of sorts that had a tower uh a semi crumbled one and they were led to an old set of stairs at the base of this statue down below it into a um filled swampy watery kind of basement that was partially land and partially water and the dragon Delk laid within that that area so its chamber was below and slipped into the water when their deals had come to an end so that's what he informs you to look for uh and kind of gives you an Insider tip on what it looked like and where to go sounds like we have a plan indeed do we need to prepare any further or should we move it's getting late indeed the night has fallen and our friend friend tells us that the night is the time to travel we may have an advantage against some other surface dwellers as we are accustomed to the dark I have everything that I need vanana Vlad are you ready they both nod their heads then it is time okay um so RM mod points you in the general direction and um he actually volunteers um one of their companions by the name of rug R RG rug um that they can guide you a decent amount of the way there but as to potentially avoid any IR or if things got too hairy they were dipping you know um and so I would like everybody at first to make athletic or acrobatics checks to get used to the stilts again I will be swimming okay in that case Sila can you roll me a stealth check while I hear from the the guys here sure I got a 12 12 okay uh critical 20 for a 25 nice nice all right so I got 11 11 okay you all begin making your way through this swamp in the darkness and thankfully all of you have dark vision so it's it's not hard to keep up with rug who leads the way for you all um now I need star cller sael and fana to roll stealth checks as well see how quietly you can move okay that's better 18 good that's much worse 11 God damn it okay uh vasana here alog together got a 16 so you guys are doing pretty well you're you're going through you're you're getting some pointers from rug and rug in uh whispered tones about how to move quietly and it couple of times they end up having to stop you and Sila you kind of pull into the shallows as these crocodiles swim past you a few times you see a couple of giant anacondas moving around as well you can hear the in the distance the like scrapping and bellowing from various creatures moving on and about three hours have now passed but you guys have made decent Headway I need everybody to roll me stealth checks again uh 21 21 nice Sila seven seven sael five all right uh I'm rolling so many naal 20s tonight too bad it's not in combat uh V is at a let's see here oh should I be rolling for Vlad uh no Vlad is flying okay he's I don't know maybe he's flying loud he's he's far enough above he's I don't know why I'm arguing to rolls do you want him to die CU it seems like your streak wow um thankfully as a group you manag to get by my roll of a five to be noticed by anything um so another about 4 hours pass I need everybody to make perception checks now oh almost a crit 14 14 18 18 nice almost a crit six beautiful a natural one you mean almost a natural one Vana got an 18 total so Vasa kind of points it to you guys um and seel you catch on very quick and then Sila and star CER that she notices lots more dead insects everywhere or abandoned hives kind of found in different bows of the trees just half broken and you can see like the shriveled uh still husks of wasps and cicas and all sorts of different creatures all around and while there is kind of a nasty rotting stench it's not very palpable but you definitely know that you've been you're now in the dragon's territory and after now a total of seven hours have passed you come to this wider break in the river uh or in one of the rivers and you see in the Moonlight this decrepit Tower what looks like the broken ruins of a floor and foundation with some pillars about with this large Hill kind of forming behind all of this and r kind of turns back to you all and goes there it is the lair do you want to go across I think we should continue from here and you should return to your village or Camp you see him swallow like really hard and you can hear that all right then and he just slinks back on his stilts and disappears very quickly into the vegetation uh I'm going to uh cast locate creature okay so uh let me hold this that spell description pull this up right here tell me describe or Name a creature uh that is familiar to you and knowing the name the type like that is criteria um you sense the direction in the creature's location as long as that creature is within a th000 ft of you if the creature is moving you know the direction it's moving uh the spell can locate a specific creature known to you or the nearest creature of a specific kind such as human or unicorn so long as you have seen a uh such a creature up close okay so you use this for delv yes and I I use his name I specified Delk the black dragon I this is what I imagine it's almost like Predator Vision heat vision kind of kicks in like this totally different sight comes over you and you can see somewhere beneath the foundation is a large Cavern across the way like you can see through the water and into this but instead of seeing what you would see picture to be like the shape of a dragon and like the glowing essence of it you see almost what looks like a small cloud in that space and you know that the spell is telling you that this is Delk fear but what you physically see in this site does not make sense something isn't quite right with him a the Beast is there but there is a chance it has been corrupted something is not right with this place and anything that inhabits it we should perhaps expect something tougher than we already were tougher than a black dragon you mean right well worst case we wipe one Scourge from the swamp and carry on but let's see what Headway we can make Absolutely I'll lead then and safel will just start marching towards the ruins okay you all make the Ford across this river which takes a little bit more effort as it's a little bit wider and swifter moving but you all manag to make it um now that you've been traversing so long on these these stilts for hours when you get to the other side how do you guys proceed there's this the stone is more of like a granite very old you can see that there's cracks and shifting amongst the the stones and the pillars and that dilapitated Tower behind it all and you do see that there's like a cave in opening that just from your current point is just darkness do we trust the the buildings make do we believe it is safe to go down I believe safe is a very loose term in this circumstance but it does appear the clearest path I will go down H if you mean structurally it apparently holds for the dragon I don't see why wouldn't hold for us I was going to say that I would go first but perhaps star caller if you have if you are able to do so quietly and then signal back very well um and Stark holler gives like a nod um pulls up his the hood of his cloak uh and he will um take a peek inside I'm actually going to uh I am going to continue with you just cuz so locate creature is a concentration spell so I'm going to uh up to an hour so I'm going to keep a hold on that so we just always have a bead on its location and if it starts moving moving as we are entering okay then um all right you now that you're kind of on this old floor this Old Stone floor you look down and that cloud like substance you still see it there you don't think it's much bigger than you but it seems to kind of like be moving around a space below you kind of making these odd twists and turn in a figure eight slowly and then it will occasionally deviate from its path and then move in a different direction just keep circling and moving star CER did I make you roll a stealth check not yet do it uh that is a 25 25 beautiful you proceed forward to this Tower and as you get closer to this kind of caved in opening you see the ruins of old stairs as your dark vision starts to kind of really kick in in this in these gray tones and then you see it begins to spiral downwards and you can hear like the light um movement of water down below do you continue I do okay you start moving down these large ruin stairs and eventually the water black kind of comes up to you and you step in and it feels warm warmer than the water outside in the river but not like a hot tub or anything it's just just mildly warm lukewarm and you can see in front of you there's kind of like this large hexagonal chamber but that's all you see I'm going to go out of the water I'm going to step back up um okay and how how far back is seel in this uh you probably went down about 30 35 ft um so if you like if you went back up to the stairs and you look back at where and the others are standing well I was going with him so that I could keep going yeah so I could keep tabs them where it was gotcha gotcha gotcha seel on the stairs then with this extra sight going on that you have or the sense you see that glowing moving Cloud beyond the end of this hexagonal chamber like there's something beyond that where this movement of of Delk is gotcha it's further down it's moving but not with intention or at least awareness of us it is in in the water I can't tell that much I can just feel it is further perhaps there's a chamber or perhaps it is below I don't know um very well um and as I'm going to look back towards where we believe delavia is is there any way forward besides into that kind of like sunken hexagonal chamber um no this is the only room that you could proceed forward into um but you because you did tip your dip your toes into the water you don't feel like it gets deeper per se at least not in the confines of this chamber before you well do I get the sense that the image from the spell is clouded because the creature is submerged roll me an Arcana check okay I'm going to test your knowledge of this spell and how sure how you would see things otherwise nope that makes sense 23 23 you would know um from back in the day when you were casting a spell all on your own for whatever purposes you needed it comes to you that you should be seeing the definitive outline of this creature if it's this close so what it makes you believe is that something fundamental about the makeup of Delk has changed and that no water or no pH physical barriers should be disrupting it in the manner that it is appearing to you sure so so I am seeing what should be Delk but you know it's Delk yeah the the criteria is black dragon and something has happened that has shifted him just enough to be recognizable but just barely yeah he it's just a amorphous cloudlike movement Beyond this does not bode well Andre had such a wide-eyed look there any theories my friends well we've dealt with one strange myasthma like cloud in this swamp what if delk's in a bunch of leeches h how interesting takes one leech Beast to kill another leech Beast what are we thinking here conspiracy theory time okay black dragons use pawns they subjugate those lesser than them and send them out to do their dirty work what if the true River King slash Lee Beast is delir and the[ __ ] crocodile is his right hand interesting what if Delver has been corrupted by fish influences oh yeah yeah that yep that's there that's not not not great for us it's possible the whole swamp has Sam I'm at the top of stairs man I don't know I don't know Sam's like shut the [ __ ] up and come get me I'm like hello sh a fish lady waiting so we've established we don't know what's beyond the the water we don't know if this creature is submerged or not we should get no I'm describing this poorly the water in this hexagonal space is maybe a foot deep okay the cloud is coming from behind one of the walls oh there's like a sorry I misunderstood there's a solid wall there's water on the floor but it's not like a pool of water into a six-sided hexagon room with a foot of water sitting in it and behind one of those walls is the movement of the cloud iiz my description was not AP will has introduced a puzzle a puzzle it was not one that I had planned for but a puzzle nonetheless this is a good voice that you made come out Sam so that for another NPC sometime H yeah we should receive uh retrieve Sila receive we should receive sah yes yes very well let's make our way back s's right behind you like you took too long you rang I was awaiting your call crack of thunder lights up Silla right behind Jesus is all all right down there uh no I mean no no definitively no there should be a dragon but he's not there but he might behind the wall it's weird come take a look sure it is weird I was gonna say did you say weird with a V what the [ __ ] do you not a German accent yeah my name is timus star I mean I mean we were drawing the lines with subtext but if you just want to say the quiet part out loud it is what the negative TW intelligence character would do oh oh he wants to subjugate those lesser to do his bidding for him no[ __ ] I want to apologize to all of our German listeners I don't they know what they did okay so Sila will lead the group down and I will confidently stride into the water okay you stride into the water it's it's a nothing happens this water seems dirty but overall uh can I like cup some of in my hand and like sniff it sure is it is it like do you want to swirl it around in your palms yeah is this a lovely bouquet to you survival you know we never get to roll survival not in a while it's been a while 21 21 wow nice you recognize that there is Old Blood and like little bits of visera in your hand as you scoop up this water and you can like smell it smells like iron and like you hold it on in your hand for a moment and you get like this slight numbing beginning to happen in your hand and you realize that it's slightly acidic this water uh yeah she like this water is acidic and filled with seemingly remains that doesn't bode well the other thing you would notice Sila with that high survival check is that the far wall you can see towards the bottom where the water kind of touches that wall is there's what looks like roots coming from the water and somehow forming into stone but where the water kind of like laps up against it or should be lapping up against it you see that it doesn't you can see against your left and right hand walls it like kind of as you moved it splashes against that and kind of Wads back in where that far wall is it just seems to keep going so F I believe this is um and she will approach and put her hand on the wall that you put your hand there and you feel it sink into what feels like vines or tendrils of vegetation and it pushes through and you feel like air a few inches through this is not illusion indeed I feel uh can I grab the vines and pull it out to show them yeah yeah you do and as you pull them back towards you this kind of a handful you all see this illusion break and you just see this large curtain of like roots coming down in front of you well let us investigate um and star collar will kind of slide through the vines okay does star caller going alone or does everybody follow no I'm following absolutely not okay you all push through this curtain of hanging roots and V like tendrils and as you step in you see this water does get a little bit deeper before it touches some some Earth which builds up and then you see coins and you see crates and then you see bones and as your eyes are kind of coming up on this scene you see the skeletal fleshy remains of a very large or huge black dragon that looks like it was turning and snapping towards its rear half where you then see the rest of its split body torn and half sunk into the deeper waters Beyond this pile of treasure in the midst of this treasure and these skeletal rotten remains you see an object it is a Scabbard from which a cross guard and handle come up into this what was perhaps a fin looking Blade the Scabbard is green and you can see there's holes or maybe perhaps more accurately sockets of where what look like perhaps gems were once inserted and hanging in the air above the pommel of this sword sticking from the pile is this greenish wisp that has been roaming around until it kind of settles above the object and you can see it seems to turn and there's this brightness that looks at all of you and then you see it start to grow and expand until you see the ghostly form of a black dragon it's wisps of green kind of smoke and Essence swirling about it as it kind of lays low in this this form across its treasure and goes well we have gu and we'll see you guys next time boy howy I didn't see that one coming uh if you did email us at the bastable gmail.com so we can ask you how'd you know that and you you can ask us why do we do that we have bonus acts answer your questions and if you can submit them by our email address or by hopping on to our Discord we can hang out with the lovely communic uh community that we've been gathering around us these last few years it's been a while we're having a great time we're well over a 100 episodes now um come on join us on our Discord follow us on all of our social media platforms Instagram Facebook Tik Tok the program forly known as Twitter um sometimes um you can also drop us a coin on our coffee page if you are so inclined and if you like the program recommend it to a friend leave us a review tell us what you like about it email Brendan what you don't and have a lovely rest of your day Maddy bades will see you next time