C03 - Ep. 45 - Under Oondar Fire - What's Mine is Yours

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. I've got a question for you, listener. If you could wake up tomorrow and be better at one thing, what would it be? Maybe you'd want to be better at having less screen time on your phone. Maybe you'd like to improve your relationship with a loved one and be a better partner. Maybe you want to get better at dealing with anger issues and you want to sort through those feelings in a healthy and better way. Better is a feeling defined by you. And for BetterHelp, it's a BetterHelp therapist who really gets you. It's a focus on global emotional well-being with thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100 countries. It's progress. So I myself have actually been going to therapy for about five years on and off, and it has helped me tremendously. I've been able to control my emotions so much better and feel like I've grown as a person. 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Next, they navigated north and noticed a nomadic melee matching in motion. Then, Gunther's name was thrown into the ring for a throwdown against Throng Tong, who was there to thrash Gunther with a thought-provoking thesis. When the walloping was over with, they went their way but were withheld by the Wilderflower who wanted Gunther to withdraw from wanting the Wilder Shield. Conclusively, they convened at Chimera Keep but confoundingly collapsed into a cavern. Cobble a cup and let's continue this Kokodris Chronicle. ♪ ♪ ♪ Hello, everyone. Welcome to Tales from the Kokodris Dragon. My name is Gustavo Zerola and I'm your Dungeon Master. I'm going to hit our four players with an arrow. By the way, Micah does this to himself. I'm just going to say it. Yeah, it's a mouthful. You do it to yourself, Micah. Next time you read an intro, just put a boxing glove on your mouth like the Throng Tong. Just up that ante. This week's arrow question for. Ooh, I did it to myself. This week's arrow question for our podcast is. is if you had to defend yourself in combat using a vegetable, which would it be and why? And that was submitted by WaterBear. Everyone go and roll a d20. Let's get this in order. I used to sleep on the WaterBear, but it was not good for my posture. That's what they call me when I go swimming. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes I sleep on a BugBear. I don't have a joke. I'm just going to. We just went around the horn. Seven. Seven. It's a roll off. Eighteen. Eighteen. Fourteen. Dang it. Dreads. Dreads. John, what was yours? I didn't hear yours. I was waiting for Chris, but he's taking his sweet little time. Oh, I was trying. I couldn't find it. Eight. Oh. Critical failure. Okay. So it's Barbara, Blaine, Chris, John? Oh, no. Blaine? I think it's Chris because we both rolled seven. You got a seven. That's right. Okay. So Chris, Barbara, Blaine, John. Thank you. Let me teach you a little thing about dungeon mastering. Well, math. The thing I learned from it is that when everyone just yells, yells out numbers, sometimes it's hard to keep track of them all. So that's why when you guys said you had a roll off, I was like, I'm not going to crowd Gus with any more information right now. The problem was before I had you all roll, I thought, should I write these down? I thought, no, I can't remember four numbers. And then the roll off happened. I was like, oh, I'm not prepared for this. I like to crash Gus like he's a computer and throw as many pieces of information at him to overwhelm him. He can handle it. To where he goes, thunk, and then I have to control and delete Gus. Yeah. I make that Mac sound. Yep. Okay. Okay, Chris, you are up. Hi, I'm Chris Damaris. I put Gunther. Defiant today. Oh my gosh. Fighter. Level eight. Croak folk. Here's what's going down. What are you going to do about it? I actually did have to defend myself with a vegetable one time. That tracks. Oh. Yes, yes. So there is this, so Bunlap, he has, there were two sisters and he liked them both. And so we went out into, out to the dangerous part of the desert and to look for a very special, very special flower to give to both of them. We had to find two. And in the way, we were, of course, attacked by birds. And these were, and they nearly, I nearly died. I nearly died. But then at the last second, Bunlap was like, the cacti. And so we used the cacti. We, we died, burrowed in and pulled them out and then used them as swords to the fight of the birds. Is a cacti a vegetable? Do you eat cacti? What do you, what side, like what, what main course do you eat with, we're using cacti as a side? Just curious. Oh, it is a vegetable. You can eat, you can eat. It's kind of like, um, cucumber. You can eat it, doesn't define it as a vegetable. Yeah. Well, we eat it where I am. At my village, we eat cacti. I remember we used to just like, we used to divide things into vegetable, mineral, and animal. Like that's three. What a wild categorization. Why did we do that? Don't, don't, don't get me wrong, Chris or, or Gunther. We eat it where I'm from, Mexico, but I don't think we call it a vegetable there either. Just for a real world connection here. But, okay, okay. Um, I guess. What would it be then to you guys? Just out of curiosity. Cause I, I don't know. I don't disagree with you, but I'm also like, it's a plant. Yeah. I never thought of it as a vegetable growing up. Like, I don't know. Like lettuce is a vegetable, right? Cactus or the other, like prickly pears. Those veggies. It's a plant. It might be a fruit. They're vegetables. I thought. Stick with it. Hey, stick to your guns. You, you started so strong and defiant earlier, Chris. Stick to it. It is a vegetable. Yeah. Okay. I'm seeing, I'm seeing conflicting information online, Gunther. Some say you're right. Some say, some disagree with you. We'll say you're right. I tell you this, the birds that attacked us, they, they said nothing because they were killed by a vegetable. Okay. You're right. Put the cactus down, Gunther. We're all friends. To be clear, he comes from a certain people group, maybe to the croak folk. They are vegetables. We don't know how good of scientists the croak folk are. Yeah. You guys can't be insensitive to Gunther's culture. Please. His culture, comma, ignorant. Ignorance is part of our culture. Now you. Oh. It's all making sense. It all makes sense now. I understand Gunther completely. I get him now. So did y'all, y'all gave the flowers? Was the mission successful in the end? Well, yes. And let me tell you this. Bunlap was very popular. I could tell why. Okay. All right. Thanks. Thanks, Gunther. All right. Next up, I think was Barbara. Yes. So I am Barbara Dunkelman and I play Doug Boone, the artifice or bugbear. And, uh, when you're talking about, you know, vegetables and what constitutes a vegetable, there's a lot of debate, apparently that can be done, but what you're not going to debate about is this being a vegetable and that is broccoli. Okay. And the reason why I'm picking broccoli when you're defending yourself, you know, in a battle situation, part of your strategy is disguise and being able to be sneaky and broccoli. If you've seen it in, you know, large amounts, kind of looks like a bush or a tree or something like that. So if you have enough broccoli, you could kind of camouflage yourself as if you're in, you know, the woods or hiding in, in some type of shrubbery. Sure. And so, you know, I think sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Doug, have you seen how big you are? Yeah, I got a lot of broccoli. But also in Doug's defense, Doug can squish down real small into tight spaces. So I think Doug could hide behind some broccoli. This is a clever, I'm going to write, Think of it next time when I'm in danger. always got some broccoli in my pocket, Gunther, and I think like, you know, the small handful I have should conceal you pretty well. That is an excellent plan. I feel like I'm having a flashback to another timeline, another life. Yeah, okay, broccoli. You gotta hide. The best offense is a good defense. Yes. Okay, got it. I was about to say that you know broccoli's a vegetable because it was in VeggieTales, but those guys had a tomato leading that show, and that's not a vegetable, so I can't trust this. And I know because Blaine's favorite fruit is a tomato, so it can't possibly be a vegetable. That's me. I talked about it in Second Wind. If you want to hear more about my love for fruits, Second Wind, that's the place for you. Just wait until you hear Ben's favorite fruit. You'll have to listen to it. I don't remember what it was, so yeah, I'll have to re-listen. How do you remember? I'll spoil it. It was a b****. Oh, sorry, that was so long ago, I forgot. Is this morning? No, bleep that out. People have to go listen to Second Wind to know. Bleep it out. StickyDragonPod.com. That is it. Settles that. Next up, speaking of Blaine. Hey, it's Blaine. I play Tolv, a male Thaumatech Barbarian, level 8. Yoo-hoo, it's me, it's Tolv. And, oh my goodness, if I get into a situation where I have to defend myself with a vegetable, I'm in a bad predicament, but I'm always going to turn to my trusty-wusty friend, the Rhubarb. Yeah. You know, Rhubarbs, they're dangerous. You know, like the stonks, they're edible. You know, I wouldn't know because I don't really need to eat. I think they're pretty sharp, I think, too, right? Well, the leaves are poisonous. Oh. Yeah, yeah. So you be careful with those Rhubarbs, but I also have an affinity for the Rhubarb lady. She was a meme several years ago, and she went, Rhubarb! And I think that's funny. I don't remember that one. There's something about Barb that makes me laugh so much. Oh. Thanks, Blaine. I appreciate it. Yeah, I make you laugh? Wow. Thanks, Blaine. Tolv, who are you talking to? Wait a minute. Oh. The wires are crossed. Yeah, for some reason, Barb is a really great, it's just a great sounding mouthfeel. Barb, you know, it's a great name to give someone. Rhubarb! Definitely not, you know, reserved for those over the age of 50 or anything like that. Yeah. Definitely has not fallen out of fashion. Definitely not. It's weird how names do that. I know. Yeah. Not a lot of Gustavos. No. Not even in Mexico anymore. It's becoming a, it's not a very common name anymore for some reason. Not John's and Chris's or a dime in the dozen. Yeah. Yes. A lot of Blaine's. The pain of having a complicated sounding non-English based name is having to spell it every time you place an order for something on the phone. Anytime a call, like a takeout order. Alright, here we go. G-U-S G-U-S. You ever got a good one from Starbucks or something? Normally, I think lots of times what I do also to kind of, well, on Starbucks actually I use the app and so they print it out. So yeah, I can avoid that nowadays. He's beating the system. But yeah, thankfully technology is paving the way so I don't have to constantly spell my name. And it always shocks me how slow people write. Anyway, thank you Blaine. Last up, John. Also funny spelling John. Yeah, J-O-N for those who don't know. I wasn't going to say anything when you were like having to spell my name. Like, what if you have the most common name ever, but still have to spell it every single time? Like, what if you had the name they literally use? Literally used to describe people who don't have a name. But it's not the right way. Anyways, I'm John and I play Natty Wonder who is a drow warlock drag queen, mother of the bringer of the apocalypse. You know, forever friend to Captain Grumbles and wife to, or betrothed wife. We haven't really sorted that out. I like death. She's cool. If pressed with, I'm thinking about this while all my very intelligent compatriots were sharing this. I'm thinking about this while all my very intelligent compatriots were sharing this. were sharing their knowledge of the vegetable world. And I was thinking about, oh, I remember this one time that I was sifting through a bunch of stuff in my mama's temple, and they had this box full of, like, really important, like, old little tablets, little stone tablets that were, like, small and, like, palm-sized. And I remember seeing all these little creatures that were sketched into them. And I saw this one that was like a bird, and he was holding a leek, and he looked so scary holding that leek as a weapon that I was like, man, that must be the best weapon in the natural world. And so that's my answer, as I learned from these very historically important little stone tablets that leeks, they're deadly. I don't know. That sounds a little far-fetched to me. There it is. There it is. And no one else. The blank faces right now, Chris. The blank faces. I was just going to say that a leek could be deadly if you have it in a boat. True, true, true. So I'm guessing at this point, you haven't found a far-fetched in Pocopia yet. I don't know if I have. Let me see. I'm just letting you know, Barb, that was a very, very lengthy reference to Pokemon. Oh, it's a guy who has a leek. I see. Yeah, he has a little bird. No, I have not found him yet. What's his habitat? I'll have to figure it out. I don't know. That'd be a good question. That we should not let the birds learn of this offensive move. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do not need it. They are dangerous enough. Wait till you find out the one that uses the other side of the leek as a sword and shield. Oh, my gosh. I do not want to meet such a bird. That would be a rivalry, Gundo. Thank goodness that technology has been lost. These ancient tablets. I'm so confused, but I'm happy to be included. Yeah, I can tell Gus is like, I have no idea. I have no idea. Hey, no cap. Okay, great. Lots of vegetables. Lots of information gleaned here from the arrow. Thank you, everyone. Let us know in the comments what dish you can make with all four of our vegetables. Yeah, the classic cactus, broccoli, rhubarb. You can do a smoothie. It'd just be real bad. A bitter smoothie. You put your ear to the ground and hear a muffled wailing deep beneath the ground. However, the sound is quickly altered. overtaken by thunderous rumbling. The icy ground cracks and gives way. You all collapse suddenly into a sinkhole. Everyone roll a dexterity saving throw. 15. Or 18. Rolled a 15 and then a nat 20 because I've got advantage. You all plummet 30 feet down into a cavern below, but most of you keep your footing, managing to tuck and roll into the fall, except for Doug, who takes 12 bludgeoning damage from smashing into the rocky floor. A dilapidated sign clatters from the ground next to you. It reads, Open Weave Gold Mine. Once the cavern settles from the cave-in, you make out the shadows of an underground mine with walls marred by caustic burn marks. Something suddenly breaks the silence. Heavy footsteps thump in the darkness, heading straight toward you. You hear a voice. Oh! You know, I've always said we could use another entrance to the mines, and sure enough, there you all come, a tumbling down smack dab right in here without even knowing where you were going. Well, you know, at least I assume that's the case. Oh, you know, Mom said I always shouldn't assume. You know, what she'd say, Claudia, if you assume, you'll turn into a donkey. Which didn't make much sense to me, until that is she turned into a donkey herself, just out of the blue. No explanation, no warning. Mom's a donkey now. Man, what'd she go and do? She up and ran off into the woods with no goodbye, or letter, or nothing. Just no more mom, or donkey, I guess. Donkey mom? Anyway, listen to me gabbing all about me, me, me, me. I should be welcoming you to Open Weave Gold Mine. Why they call it that? I'll never know. But what I can tell you is that in here, what's mine is yours. Claudia breaks. Well, I tell you this, your mom sounds like a jackass. With a wink and a flourish of her hands, you see the source of gabbing is from a goliath about 50 feet away. She has filthy ginger hair and chiseled muscles from head to toe. She's wearing overalls and knee pads made of what looks to be waterproof chambray, but what really catches your eye are her chartreuse green powdery wool socks. Get it? What's mine is yours? Anyway, if you folks are going to be down here in these parts, I'd highly recommend you take a little perusal of my mining merchandise. Could save your life. I mean, it would have saved Lester for sure. Poor Lester. He swore he could hold his breath for longer. He said, I don't need no special mining equipment. I'm a professional. But I tried to warn him, this place is no joke, even for veteran miners like Lester. Oh, that reminds me. He told me this great story about how one time he dug up these two gemstone knives in a camera wall. I rolled a four. Gigi attacks her. I rolled a D, 20, and I rolled a four. I was like, are we supposed to? Yeah. Gigi is biting her chartreuse wool socks right now. Oh, look at that. What a cute little guy. I think he just wants to come up here and play. Do you think he's overstimulated? Maybe he just needs to get a little bit of outside time. The dust of the cave-in has more than cleared by now, and you see you're in a slow. John took his headphones off. He's overwhelmed. I think he's going to go get his medication out. You were literally giving me, like, a sensory overload. Sensory, yeah. Alright, we're taking a break now, okay? Chris peed his pants. I can see it on his camera. He's, you know, he did too much. The dust of the cave-in has more than cleared by now, and you see you're in a sloped mining cavern that's partially submerged in water. The walls and ceiling are made up of brownish-red rock, and all along the ceiling are pipes that drip every now and then. In front of you is a railway that slopes north down into a water-filled corridor, and to the southeast is a stone door with no handle. And Claudia, the Gabbing Goliath, stands near the northern watery slope behind a merchant stall made of minecarts. What do you want to do? Gabbing Goliath. Well, man, I feel like we are supposed to go talk to her to find out what it is we can buy from her, but I don't. Don't. You're like, I'm good. You don't have to. There's another exit. But Natty Wood, this is the problem. This is like, this is character versus John right now. Gotcha. Cabin Goliath, they might have wares to sell. They're running a store, are they not? Yes. Amongst many other things, that is one thing she mentioned. Okay. Yes. What do you have that you would recommend? Yeah, and when you say which mine is yours, does that mean, like, we could take anything for free? Or is that a mine pun? Also, respond succinctly. We're going to play a game called Five Words or Less. You know, I have to say, I feel bad for Claudia because they're down here, assuming they're all alone. So they just want to chat. They just want to, you know. Why do you think they're all alone? Holy Natty, you mean. Nope. John, that's John. I want to be very clear, that's John talking. John. John's the bully. John's the bully. She's splitting her attention, looking between you and a giggy, unsure what to do about the child gnawing at her socks. Oh, you see, I've got plenty of wares to offer visitors like you. You see, you're going to need all kinds of stuff when you go down to the mine. I got a pick hammer, a hand drill, a wedge, a snorkel face mask, a mine car, a mine permit. Got to get a mine permit if you're going to go down to the mine. Because if you go down without a mine permit, then you're going to get stuff out of the mine. Hey, guys, why don't I take care of the mine permit? I'll do the paperwork while you guys take care of it. I'll take a look at the wares. How about that? Oh, yeah, sure, yeah. Could I sign in for all four of us at the same time? Absolutely. Signing, you know, here you go. You got the mine permit right in front of you. That's five gold pieces. Well, you know, normally it's supposed to be each, but I'll just go ahead and do a special deal for you, because I like the cut of your gym. Just five gold for all, we'll cover all of you. Now, do you guys have, like, does this mine specifically, like, coffee beans or some sort of caffeine mineral that you have consumed? Oh, heavens no. I'm just full of life and, you know, happy to be here, talking to some friends. Love that. Also, could I do a quick read-through of the permit to make sure we're not, like, signing away something important? Oh, that's smart. Yeah, make an intelligence check, Doug. I rolled a one, but I'm going to do my inspiration die. That's probably a good call. Because ten? Not bad. You know, hey, who actually looks through and reads line by line their contracts? You kind of go, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Doug does it for fun because he can read very fast. Oh, I see. Can he read as fast as he can talk? Fast show, actually. Ooh, it seems to be on the up and up. It grants you non-exclusive permission to dive into the mine and to retrieve and keep any precious metals that you may find. Oh, so finders keepers, essentially. Yeah, cool. All right, so you said five gold? Yeah. All right, coming in. I want to check. The snorkel face mask, I'm assuming, is for helping you go underwater. But I feel like Tolva has. Something that has that ability. Hold on, I'm checking. Well, didn't you spend, like, a ton of time just sitting underwater? Yeah. I just wanted to make sure. I wasn't going to say it. Oh, you see, all of the tools I sell are water repellent because you might need it because some of the parts of the mine are underwater. Ooh. That's real fresh. What do you think my mom is up to right now? You know, she just wandered off into the woods. Do you think she's carrying stuff around? Do you think she's helping someone? Does she need help? Is it because she's a donkey? Yeah, she's a donkey mom. Were you guys having, like, a familial misunderstanding where you guys, like, really didn't understand each other? And, like, you know, your mom was trying to convince you to marry someone and you didn't want to, and then she turned into a bear. I mean, donkey. And, like, do you have, like, really red curly hair by any chance? And, you know, you're shooting for your own hands and all that stuff. Take an inspiration dive. That's good. Instead of how you do. That was a reference to Brave for those of you who still look confused, Chris. Okay, I haven't seen it. I have a hammer and a pick for my. Wait, just Smith's tools. They would have a hammer, a pick, and a wedge, right? Yeah, I imagine. Okay. I guess the only thing we might need is if you guys want to go into Valter and then, you know, a mine car. How big are the mine cars? What are the features? Airbags? Four-door, two-door? Hatchback? And will they fit all of us? All six of us? Four of us? We'll say you could probably all fit into one mine car. I'll be nice there. How much for a face mask? Oh, snorkel face mask. Guaranteed to not fall off. Only ten gold pieces. Jeez. Whoa. I'm used to being underwater. It's high quality. You can't expect to cheap out on high quality merchandise like this. All right. I will use ten of my eleven gold pieces to buy one for myself. How do you have so few? Because I got rid of them all because I bet on worm horse thingies. Oh, right. The Burma Mustang. Oh, you won't regret it. You're going to enjoy that. That's going to keep your face nice and dry. Could I quickly tell if she's lying about there being water underground? Can't we see water? You can make a vibe check if you want, but you can see water to the north. Okay. So, you know what? How about, Natty, I buy your water mask? Sure. I'm okay using my money. I'll buy both of them for me and Natty because I don't think Tolv and Gunther need it. Correct? Yeah. I don't think I wouldn't need one, right? Because I'm used to, like, being in the water. You tell me. What does the character should say? Well, I don't know. It doesn't say anything about water, but. Nor does mine. I think it's interesting how Chris has been very specific about saying he's a desert-type frog, but he always brings up that, like, he's very adept in water. Well, because that's where their town is. It's in, like, an oasis. Yeah. Think of the beach. The opposite of a beach. Oh, sorry. Barb was trying to help, but Barb did it wrong. Think of the beach, and then think of not a beach, and what that wouldn't be, apparently. Well, like, instead of a little bit of sand and a lot of water, it's a little bit of water and a lot of sand. That furthers the idea that you would be really bad in the water. Yeah, but I grew up in the water. I'll take a hand drill, a snorkel face mask, and that's it. Okay, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, we can double this up. You get a special deal, 15 gold. Okay, let's do it. And how about a mine car? How much does that cost? Oh, funny you should ask. That's also 15 gold. Okay, I'll take care of the mine car. Can you do, can you, Claudia, can you do 12? Let's play paper, rock, scissors. Here you go. Ready? On three. One, two, three, go. Oh, let's go. On three. One, two, three, shoot. Oh, paper, rock, sorry. No, can't do 12. You got to do 15. Rock, you know, that's just so me, right? A rock, oh, God. It is a mine. I know, I'm trying to be thematic here. I know, I'm surprised she didn't go with a rock. Well, maybe, you know, if the person controlling me had thought about that, it probably would have been a rock. Now, oh, my goodness, now that I'm looking at this mine car, there's like an owner's manual. Claudia, can you read this to me real quick? I wonder what her version of real quick would be. She just kind of explodes. I've got a pet, and if you do and you're like me, you love them and you'll do anything for them. You don't even think about it. In my case, a small dog. In your case, maybe a dog, maybe a different animal, maybe a big dog. Who knows? But you know what it's like. You're their world. You're all they have, and you're probably willing to do anything for them. I know I am willing to do anything for my dog. Well, today's episode is sponsored by the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program. If you've ever found yourself awake, at 2 a.m. phone in hand, googling things like, is this normal for dogs or do I need to call the vet right now? You're not alone. 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Cause I assumed a little, the railroad tracks in the north are how we'll take our car out of here. But what's that door go to? Oh, you know, I've never gotten up that door. I don't know what's going on over there. Maybe you should go take a look and tell me what you find up there. Sure. Mystery door. You want me to come with you? I mean, yeah, more the merrier. You said it was a door without a handle. How do I open it? Yeah. You take a look and it appears to be a door made of solid stone with no handle on it. Is there hinges? Not that you can see. Maybe they're on the other side. Oh, okay. Well, Doug, we've got a conundrum here. I could figure it out. Yeah. I'm hoping you could. He said it. He said the thing. He said the line, Bart. Oh, that'd be a good shirt. Like a little construction, Doug. Yeah. Oh, yeah. What if I did this? Oh, yeah, yeah. What if I used my ghostly gaze and looked through the door to see what's in there to see if it's worth it? Is that your other drag name? Ghostly gaze. That's my crew. Yeah. Yaws. I can see through it. What do I see through the door? Yeah. Also, Natty finds it works best if she puts her face right up against the object she's trying to see through. So she's got her face flush against the, smooshed up against the door. Excellent. You see what appears to be like a mechanism. You can see an internal mechanism in it that opens it with hinges on the other side that connect to a foot switch that's kind of hidden beneath some dust and dirt on your side of the door. Oh. On the other side, you see what appear to be steps leading higher. Natty does like a little soft shoe dance and then ends her little dance with pushing her foot on that little button that she now knows exists on this side of the door. Yeah. You do a little soft shoe dance. You do a little soft shoe and shuffle over and step on the switch and the door slowly slides open. Ta-da! Wow. Wow. Natty, I must say, I'm wildly impressed. That was adorable. You know, I've been in this room a long time and I've never even seen anyone go over there and touch that door. In fact, I wonder why I'm here. Natty goes in the door and closes it. As soon as you, like right as you begin walking towards the door, it begins sliding closed again and you manage to step through right before it closes. All right. No one follow me. I need someone to let me out. Okay. Doug's on the other side. Doug will stay on the other side of the door, but saw Natty do that, so knows how to open it, I would say. Okay. Make a perception check for me, Doug. Okay. I was like, Doug? You're going to hide this button? Well, we got to see if Doug was so enthralled with your dance that he noticed where you stepped or not. 21. Okay. Yeah. Doug did see where you stepped. He did notice that the dance ultimately led in that. I got eyes in the back of my head and the front. And the side. And the side. I am a biblically accurate angel. Do not fear me. Be not afraid. Natty, you climb this staircase and come to the top and you find a similar solid stone door at the top of the stairs, but you're on the inside of it and you trigger it to open and when the door opens, you see what appears to be some kind of foyer. It feels a little cold. It's carved of marred, but ornate stonework dappled with gold flakes. In this room, you see a frozen pond and a smooth stone footbridge crossing over that pond. There's mirror shards penetrate an arched ceiling. Oh. Mirror shards, as in they're like stuck into the ceiling? Yeah. Okay. We encountered magic mirrors. Remember? They were like portals. Yeah. Yeah. In the underground place, under ocean place, right? Yeah. We were able to put like our arms through it and it would come out the other side. Yes, yes, yes. First, Natty's going to tell us what's going on. Natty's going to take her foot off of this new button and see if the door closes on its own because she's going to have to figure out a little system here if it is. Yeah. You wait a few seconds and after several seconds, the door slides closed as well. Okay. Can we say I have Captain Grumbles with me? Sure. Okay. Captain Grumbles, stay. Stay, Captain Grumbles. He's like your gambot. He just is there when you need him. Yeah. He just doesn't do anything and curses a lot. Yeah. It's perfect. It's like everyone's favorite uncle. So then Natty goes into the room. Into the foyer. Huh. Yeah, he is. Let me give you one additional bit of information that maybe I didn't give you there. From this room, you see a couple of different exits. You obviously have the door that you're walking in through, which is in the northwest corner of this room. Yeah. On the northeast corner, you see another door that appears to be kind of shiny. And then to the south, you see a turnstile. This is purely in Natty's room, right? Yeah. Or is this? Okay, okay. What is this mine? There's a turnstile? Well, think about it. Make a wisdom check for me. That's a Nat 20. Ooh. Yeah, if you think about it, you all came in on one level with the keep and then fell down. And then from down, you took stairs back up. So you're back like on the grip. Oh, I'm in a foyer, so I'm in an entrance. Right. This is the entrance to the mine. Okay. Frozen pond. Little bridge that goes over the pond. Yeah, the footbridge. Bridge leads to turnstile? Yeah, the footbridge goes north to south. So yeah, the footbridge does essentially lead to the turnstile. Okay. Then shiny door. Natty investigates. Yeah. You walk over and take a look. Like you just investigate. You don't open it or anything. It's got a handle? Yeah, it does. Oh, okay. Yeah. Natty checks it. The door, as you go to open it, you realize that it's some kind of gilded material. And you open it. And once you open it, you're overwhelmed with the. The smell of wine. Ooh. Mommy juice. And yeah, looking through the door, you see what appears to be maybe a banquet hall of some kind on the other side of that door. Whoa. Is there anybody in there? Make a perception check. That's only an eight. What's my modifier? Three. So 11. Yes, you do see a couple of creatures on the other end of the hall who seem to be unaware of you opening the door because they are in a heated argument at the moment looking at a document on the table in front of them. Oh, Natty would have a hard time not listening in on an argument. At the far end of the table, you see three creatures that look like massive bullhorned Undarian devils. Oh. With mandibles. The three of them are in a heated argument. No, I'm telling you, the Wilder's shield is further up in the keep. Then another one interjects. Yes, but that's where we saw that fighting frog that killed so many of us. We must proceed with caution. Natty would change her visage to match them. Okay. Using Natty's abilities to transform her appearance. We'll get to that in one moment. I'm going to hop back to everyone else, and then we'll deal with that. Okay. Okay, yeah. So the three of you are still waiting there in that little entrance area with Claudia. Do you think your friend left you? Is she ever going to come back? Because, you know, she went up there, and then she didn't come back. It's kind of like what happened to my mom. She just went off into the forest, and then she didn't come back. But she was a donkey, of course. Your friend wasn't a donkey. I would never say that about your friend. Your friend seems like a totally fine person. Yeah. Yes. Do you want us to, like, find your mom or something? Yeah, is this a quest? Oh, heavens no. No? Oh, okay. Are you lonely? Do you have any other company or anything? Oh, no. I've got lots of friends here. And she pulls up her right hand from under the table and pretends like it's a puppet. You see, I've got Handy here. Hello, my name's Handy. I'm friends with Claudia. I can sit here all day, and I sell stuff. Well, Handy, you've got to let me talk every now and then. You can't just hog the conversation. I know, I know. It's a fault that I have. I know. You see, Handy always does that. She always butts in and just keeps going and doesn't know when to shut up. You've got to let other people talk to have a good conversation. Isn't that right? Yeah, I know. That's what I was telling you. Handy, I told you. Stop interrupting me. The one time I don't have sleep as a spell. Do we want to make our way towards Natty, or should we wait for an indicator that they're What was that, Natty? Yes. Oh, yes. Sorry, our friend is calling us. It sounds like. Hey, guys, I think Natty needs our support over here by the door. Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, Claudia, you want to come along? - Oh yeah, heavens yeah, that'd be great. I would love your friend. I already miss your friend who's already up there. Do you think she likes me? Because I like her. I think we could be best friends. I think so. Come along, come along. I think she really likes you, yeah. They took a shining to you for sure, yes, yes. Yes, come along. I think actually, do you want me to open the door and you could go in there and go find her? I think she might be lost. You might need to go help her. We're going to send you ahead. How does that sound, Claudia? The listeners don't know this, but every time I start talking to Claudia, John slowly takes his headphones off. I don't have to listen. I'm not in the room. I'm not in the room, man. He's gone. It's canonically accurate. I don't know what you say. It's role-playing, yeah. I feel like I've discovered John cannot stand the quick talking. Blaine cannot stand the slow talking. Was it Captain Kirk? Oh, yeah. And the sloth people from Campaign One, yes. Yeah, I don't like the slow talk. Oh, I will take a slow talker all day long. Well, let's go on an adventure, yes? Well, I think maybe one of us at least stay out here just in case you can't open the door from the other side. Yeah, that's what Captain Grumbles is for. Captain Grumbles is up top. With Natty. I don't want to offer it up, but do you think a gambot would be cool watching the mine car and the door? Why don't me and Gunther stay out here and watch and Toad, why don't you go in and find Natty? And with Claudia, of course, yes. Well, Claudia could stay out here with us. Okay, okay. I'll just stay here. We just have to come up with a signal. Then you knock a certain way, then I knock a certain way, then you knock another way, then I knock a different way, and then I let you in. Claudia, I think we must all stick together. We can't leave you behind. You're part of the party now. I think we could leave Claudia out here. It's just for safety purposes, you know, guys. That's an important part of the team. Heavens no. Yeah, I can't possibly leave my shop behind, you know, because that's all I have left. Do you know any fun songs or signals that you would want to do? How about this? You hear us knock, it means to open the door. I don't know. I don't know if there would be any other reason that we would be knocking other than if we wanted to come back out through the door. Okay, got it. So when you say knock, you mean like a knock or a knock-knock or what kind of knock? Let me think. Why don't you determine that, Tolv? A knock-knock, yeah. Just a simple knock-knock. Maybe, hey, you know what, Claudia? Maybe I'll throw a little flare at you when we come back, huh? How's that sound? Ooh, okay. I look forward to it. I can't wait to see if we can get a little flare again. Okay, all right. Knock-knock. I'm Googling songs that you could play with knocks. It's Phil Collins in the air tonight. All right, we'll see you later, Claudia. Keep an eye on that mine car for us, wouldn't you? Oh, you got it. I won't even charge you for the extra supplemental mine car insurance. Okay. Wow. I'll tip him one gold. I feel bad. Claudia's, I feel bad for Claudia. She's, you know. She's lonely. Yeah, I know this personality. Maybe I have this personality. I don't know. I see me in this picture. All right, so we go through the door? Yeah. You all proceed through the door, and there's a staircase going up, and you come up to the top, and you find yourselves in what appears to be like a foyer for a building. It's kind of frigid. It's carved of marred but ornate stonework, dappled with gold flakes, a frozen pond, smooth stone footbridge that crosses over the pond north to south, and mere shards penetrating the ceiling. Natty had a plan of something she wanted to do that would require her to be alone, so could we resolve that before they join me in this area? Yeah, I'm going to resolve you as soon as they come up and see you. They're going to see you walking out. Okay. Can I quickly test, like, I don't know how high on the ceiling these mere shards are, but can I see if they are, not like stab and then create loud noise, but can I test to see if these are portals or just actually mere shards? Sure, we'll do that when we come back to you because right as the party comes into this room, you all see Natty doing something at the door, at the door in the northeast corner of this room, and what you see is. First, Natty's going to take a moment to think, and Natty's going to use her ability moment to think to stop time, basically, and just walk over. Since I can't interact with stuff, this is just reconnaissance. I'm going to walk over to where those three guys are, those three people, those three Andarians, and just see, like, do they have anything on the table? Notes, weaponry, anything that would give me some sort of information or an edge on, like, if I were to. approach them, or talk to them, or anything like that. Yeah, make an investigation check for me, and I'll give you advantage because you are taking a moment to think here. First roll was a 14 plus 1, so that's a 15. Second roll was a 12, so it's 13, so 15. Okay, I'm going to further read the description of the room for you now that you're walking in, and then we'll resolve your question about what you can find there. So this is definitely a banquet hall of some kind. It smells of wine. You knew that, the smell, and when you open the door. There's a wooden banquet table that's broken in half by a curved fang piercing it through the ground, through into the ground. Golden chains of macrame design hang impossibly sideways, dangling towards the center table. The top of the table is rather sparse. However, you can see where these Undarians are at the end of the banquet table. The document that they're huddled around appears to be some kind of map. Oh. Now you want to look at that map. The map appears to be. It's rudimentary and seems to be incomplete, but it does appear to be, based on your limited knowledge, it shows the room you came from and this room and some of the surrounding rooms. Oh. So it's like a map of what Natty thinks is like the mine or the keep. Right. More like the keep. More like the keep. Okay. Man, would love a camera right now. Just don't have one. I feel like you got a good memory, though, to be able to recreate it. Yeah. I remember we discussed the photographic. Memory of Natty Wander. Yes, yes, yes. I mean, yeah. I mean, John has one, so John would be able to take a little mental image of it. Okay. Then Natty would go back to where the entrance of the door was. No. Is there another door that they would have come in then? There is. Yeah, there are a couple doors. Okay. Tell me about those. Because I imagine they're not using the mine door. That's what I was wondering. It's like, did they come in through something and, like, came into the foyer to the banquet hall? Or is there another room that led them to this banquet hall? Yeah, so there's the door you came through, of course, which is in. The shiny one. Yeah, the southeast corner of this room. To the north, there appears to be a dark corridor that's also an egress out of this room. Just open corridor, no door on it. Correct. Yeah, Natty's going to go up that way because this actually helps with Natty's plan. Okay, so while time is still frozen, you're going to go over there. So just letting you guys know in a meta-wise, I'm going to try something. If it doesn't work out, you guys are going to need to save Natty. We are your teammates. We shall. So it's really good that we made sure you guys are on the way. So you make your way to that northern corridor and it's rather dark and drafty. Make a dexterity saving throw. Okay. Give me something good. That's a 19 plus dexterity. 22. That's pretty good. Pretty good. You walk into this corridor and you almost lose your footing because as you step through the corridor, you realize that the floor here is collapsed and there's a sheer drop down to some kind of tunnel system. You land before Claudia. She starts jabbering. Psychic damage. Psychic damage. You manage to keep your footing, but the shock of it scares you a little bit and your right leg goes numb. My right leg goes numb? Yeah, you shake it all about. Yeah, just from the fright. Oh. The fright? Of almost falling into the darkness. Gus, does your leg go numb when you get scared? Do we need to take you to the doctor? No. Meta game wise, I'm rolling on the meat grinder table, so stuff starts happening as you all are moving around. That's fine. Natty's going to use this. Natty's going to use it. You always use it for the performance. And so Natty then starts time up again and then shambles into. My captain grumbles. They're starting to have each other's mannerisms. Actually, Natty's going to actually specifically use this leg thing and change her visage to be damaged, hurt. But she's Undarian. Okay. One of the Undarians at the table, I don't know if I mentioned earlier, is also injured. The one that was screaming. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they were talking about that. Yeah, yeah. And I'll come in and be like, guys, guys, the frog is back. The frog is back. It's right up. It's right up that corridor. Let's go get him. The frog, the one who's injured, looks rather worried, but the other two grab their weapons. I'm not in a state to fight. He's just right up that way up in the keep. I'm going to take a rest. Here, you guys can handle him, right? Make a deception check. Can you see Tolv through, like, past them? Maybe I'm like, I'm like mimicking a faint. Oh, yeah, I like that. I was going to say it's low. I rolled 11, but Natty has plus seven on deception. Oh, my God. 18, my dude. Okay, yeah. The two uninjured ones pick up their weapons and charge off through the northern passageway. The one who's injured remains there. And then Natty faints. Oh, dear me. I have something that I can, I have something I can do with the injured one. Kill him? Yeah, I mean, at this point, if you all had walked over, you could intervene. You can see, you would have gotten to the door to see Natty or make a intelligence check, Tolv. Also, would we know it's Natty? That's why he's making this intelligence check. Okay. Oh. I rolled a five, but I'm going to use my inspiration die because I really want this bit to work out. I think that's it. 'cause this is a great bit. Oh, that's not bad, 15. - Okay, you see the scene play out and you're pretty sure the creature that fell down, you know Natty well enough, having traveled with her, that you feel like she's probably in disguise and has convinced these other Undarians to leave and has pretended to faint in front of this one remaining injured Undarian. - Okay, I sneak up very quietly and then I use my mitten of mushrooms and I release the fungal spray. And as a reminder, it's a mushroom-covered Thaumathek glove. It smells musty, spongy texture, attracts hungry animals, glows in your fungus. Making fist releases fungal spray, 15-foot cone, DC 13 constitution save. On failure, target unable to form short-term memories for 1d4 turns. On success, target loses current train of thought. - Whoa. - Good use. - I like how you could've just said, "This makes it so they can't make memories," but you read us the entire item description. - Good stuff. - In his defense, I normally ask for that. - Yay! - Just like that. - Yeah, that's great. - Just to remind everyone. Yeah, make me a stealth check. - Okay. - Also, I think Doug would see you using that and be like, "Oh my God, that is so cool. I need to figure out how to make one of those for myself." - But I have to warn you, anytime I use it, it makes a fart noise. It just goes. - Does that mean we have to take away one of the party farts? - Oh no, that's my ammunition. Ooh, okay, my stealth is at disadvantage, so unfortunately this is a five. - Oh, I was gonna make you roll with advantage because Natty's distracting, so that'll even out. So we'll just take the first one. That'll evens out to one roll, so we'll just go up. - I rolled off that 17. - Okay. - Yeah, you managed to sneak up and release the fungal spray into the face of this Undarian who's unaware, who has to make a constitution saving throw. I rolled a 10. - Cool. - On failure, target unable to form is for one D4. Okay, so one D4 turns. I mean, I'll roll a D4, but I don't really know. - Yeah. - Four, great. - Okay, great. - So they're like max confused. - All right. - Yeah. - Natty will spring up. - Yeah, I back away. I back away. I've done my business. - Well, I mean, this guy could just like, is just now like dumbfounded for a second. - Uh-huh. - Natty's gonna grab the map and walk towards the door and grab Tolv and just pull him like a mother pulling their toddler out of Ross. You know, that. - Specifically Ross. - To the door and then go through the door and close it behind her. - They were busy hiding in all the coat racks. - I was playing ball. - Back into the foyer. - Yes, back into the foyer. - Okay, you do that. Grab the Undarians, very confused. Tries to stop you, then forgets what he's doing. Then tries to stop you again. And just like seemingly stuck in a mini time loop. - And this door had a doorknob, yeah? - This door was closed, yeah. And it was unlocked when you came through. - But has a doorknob, yeah? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Hey, Tolv. Yeah, I'm gonna need to use that hammer of yours real quick. - Hold on, I wanna see if I can do it with my bare hands. I'm gonna rip the handle off. - Make the, make the check, Tolv. - Was it strength? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. - Dirty 20. - Yeah, you're able to break it and that kind of jams up the door so that the knob doesn't work to open it. - Still got it. - Amazing. - All right, Tolv, you break off the doorknob, making it more difficult to get passage through this way through the rooms. And Natty, you're reunited with your party. But before you're able to say anything to them, everyone roll me a perception check. - Okay. What do you perceive? - 13. - Six. - Nat, 20. - Nice. - 18. - So I think everyone but Gunther would hear this. You hear a few different voices calling from the south, like not in this room, but the other end of the turnstile. Yeah, you hear voices calling out. - Belder, Belder, Belder. - Builder? - Belder. - Bob? - Belder, is that you? - Hello? - Doesn't Natty say that? - Yeah. - You all hear footsteps coming closer. And then from the southern end of the room, from the other end of the turnstile, three goliaths approach and regard the party. - Oh, have you seen Belder? - I don't think we have, but we have seen our very good friend Claudia. - Did she talk your ear off? - Oh, but yes. But Claudia's so nice. She means well. - And have you met Hendy? - It's true. He was real talkative that one. - Yeah. - What about Undarians? Have you seen any Undarians? - Natty quickly turns-- - Her visage should not be Undarian. - I had assumed you dropped it when the spores went off and you all were leaving that room. - Yeah, they were running around and screaming about frogs or something. - What? - They were screaming. - Do you know that there are Undarians here? Is this a place that they camp out? - We think they took our leader, Belder. - Oh. - No, is it Belder or Builder? - No. - It's just like it sounds. Belder. - Okay. - Can you spell that out for me? - What are you all doing here? Are you looking for gold? You better not be looking for gold. - We just kind of stumbled upon this place actually and-- - Literally. - Yes. - We're actually here to deposit gold. - Deposit gold? - Yes. - We did spend quite a pretty penny to get the supplies we have right now. - That's true. - Supplies? - Supporting the local economy here in wherever this is. - Gold mining supplies? - No. - No. - Adventure supplies. - Yes. - Yeah, we got a mine cart just to go cruising through the mines, you know? - We're scientists. - Yes. - You can deposit the gold with us here. We'll hold onto it for you. - When we get, if we find any, which we definitely won't. - Your friends said you were here to deposit gold. - Yes, exactly. - Yeah. - We don't have yet any. - How can you make a deposit if you don't have any? - Well, we already bought the, oh, you've confused me. - We don't know you. Why would we give you our gold? - Yeah, and Claudia said, you know, what we find we get to keep, finders keepers, so. - Well, Claudia's not the boss. Belder is. - Well, Belder's not here. - We're trying to find Belder, and Belder says you can't take the gold. - What are your names? Let's see, there's a kind of air of confrontation. Let's just like calm down. What are you guys' names? Let's get here. - Confrontation. - You look like a Glary. - Glary? - Yeah. - Glizzy Glary. - Me? I'm Sleepy Z. - 'Sup, Sleepy Z? - 'Sup with you? - Sleepy Z, that's cool. You like an artist, like I like to, I don't know, do you do music or anything? That's just a cool name. - No, I'm just looking for Belder and taking care of the gold mine. - Well, why don't we just go look for her down there? You know, we'll be on our way and we'll see if we can find her. What does she look like? - Yeah. - Belder? Oh, you'll know her when you see her. She's really energetic. Can't miss her. - Okay, that's not really a physical description. - Yeah, yeah, thank you, Doug. It's like, maybe just tell us what color hair she has. - Well, Belder's also a Goliath like us, so you can't miss that. - She's got a lanky frame. She wields some golden butterfly swords. Can't miss it. - Okay, golden butterfly swords. - And is it Goliath as well? - Yeah. - If we run into Belder, we'll tell them Sleepy Z's looking for her. We're gonna send her right your way. Ooh, you're gonna be employer of the month. You're gonna, ooh, big rays coming your way. - And don't take any gold. - Of course not. - No, you're going to give us gold. - Well, consider it. If we run into any. - I want to be very clear. I said we're going to deposit into the mine. It's like a game. We put it down in there. And then if you find it, you get to have it. - But you can skip that and just deposit it straight to us. - Nope, part of the fun is the game. It's like Easter. I could give you the chocolate, but I'm a hide it first. - I don't know this East tar. - I'll tell you about it later, but it's fun. Trust me, I'm a mama. - That is technically very trustworthy. - Hmm, make a persuasion check for me, Natty. - 15 plus three, 18. - Okay, as long as you promise you won't take any gold, you help us find Belder, and kill any Undarians you find on the way, then you're okay. - I mean, we'll do the first two, but I'm not going to promise strangers I'll kill people. - He looks you up and down. - Aren't you in the mortalian? - Yeah, but you ain't my commanding officer. - You're not superior. You're not small and yelling at us in a shrill voice. - Yeah. - You're not small and yelling at us in a shrill voice. - Somewhere in the distance you hear a steel eye. - Yeah. - Okay, we'll let it slide this time, but don't take any gold. - Yeah, you better. - We better? - Yeah, you're getting a little snippy here with me, okay? 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And local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling, just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. These Goliaths are leaving back to the south. And what are you all doing? We're going to go back to the door. Yeah, heading back to. Nattie's dear friend, Claudia. Yes. Okay. My dear departed friend, Claudia, right? Unfortunately not. So you're going to go back downstairs? Yes. Can I ask what this frog. You said there were frogs. What other frogs? Who are you asking? I'm asking Nattie. The guys that I just got to get out of here, they're talking about a frog who was killing all their people. And I would assume. What? I would assume it's Bun Lab, but they didn't say he was attractive, so I don't know. It's hard to. Yeah, it's hard to tell. And where was he? I don't know. They just said it for a second. I had to move quick. I didn't want to die. They said something about the wielder shield or something. You don't know that? Yeah, we don't know that. Four of you make me a perception check. Ooh, that was bad. Ooh. Six. Five. Oh, 26. Whoa. Three. As you all are making your way to that door that you all came up through, Doug, you hear a very timid voice call out. Are they gone yet? Captain Groblers? It's first words. I mean, yeah, everyone but us is gone, so probably whoever you're referring to, yeah. Are you Belder by any chance? You turn around to see the source of the voice, and a Skrani Undarian crawls out from under that footbridge. They must have been hiding down there. Their breastplate is iced over, and they have a small satchel with them. Well, I'm just so scared of them. They're so big. It's a Skrani Undarian? No, Sleepy Dino. Yeah, it's a Skrani Undarian. It's like the ones that were in the other room. You were in, yeah, you saw them. Like, the one that you, the fungus spray on, uh, Toll's plane. Oh. Why would they not like you? Why, why are you afraid? Well, they're, they're trying to kill our kind. Aren't you, aren't you an Undarian? Well, yes, but I don't want to be. Oh. Oh, self-hating Undarian. I want to leave the castle. I'll leave the Undarmy, but it's just so, so, so difficult. Well, good news. We have room in our party to add another person if you want to join us. Yes. Can I? One in, one out. I guess Captain Grumbles has to stay behind. We'll put you in Bill's PC. You heard her, Toll. One in, one out. We'll see you later, okay? You go find your siblings. All right, bye. My name's Razzleberry. What are your names? My name is Gunther. Razzleberry, why are Undarians here in the first place? I'm Doug, by the way. Thank you for letting all of us introduce ourselves. Sorry. I am so rude. I'm, these are my friend, Doug. It's okay. Listen, Razzleberry, our friend Gunther here just heard about potentially his old buddy, Bunlap, potentially being involved in some shady stuff. Have you seen him by any chance? He's like me, but stronger, more handsome. Sexier, yeah. Yeah, but better in kind of every, like, facet that a person could be better. Yes. I'm just kidding. No, it's true, Bunlap is very good at lots of things. Oh, so that's Natty and that's Tove. R-Razzleberry, my name's Dose. Wink. I don't want, they could be a spy, I don't want to give away my information. Oh, yes, and I'm, my name is Nunther. Nunther, yes. Well, the new Darby's here. I'm looking for the wielder's shield. They know it's here somewhere. They what? Uh, I don't know, uh, the wielder's shield? Why would they need, they should not have that. Do you have it? What's in that satchel? Uh, no, this is my stuff. What value does the wielder's shield give to the Undarians and the Undarmy, great name by the way? I don't know. That's beyond me. They just, they just told us to find it. As far as a frog person, no, I don't think so. Is he meat? Is your frog meat, does he look like this guy? He points at Gunther. I mean, he looks a little like him, but I don't recall him being very mean, although if he is fighting against you, he might be seen as pretty mean, I can understand that. Oh, he sounds scary. Now that you're on our team, he will not be mean. Oh, okay. I mean, technically he was, you know, he left us and you're like the betrayer of your people, so we don't know that Bunlap wouldn't turn on you. Wouldn't there? He would not. He would not. I was going to suggest maybe, uh, Rosalberry, you know, like you clearly don't want to be part of the Undarians, you're trying to kind of get out of here, right? You'd like to maybe leave without a trace so they can't know where you are and kind of get out? Yeah. Well, we could help you do that, maybe if you give us some information. Oh, yeah, okay, I have lots of information. Excellent. Bless you. Bless you. Oh, yeah. Allergies. Do you know why you guys are looking for the Pathfinder? The Pathfinder? From what I understand, the Pathfinder is the key to the Undarmy victory. Vague. Well, I mean, think about it, it's like. They're trying to find the gates of Hyra, right? Yeah, this is like, essentially will be a grunt in the army, like how much information really filters down, what do they need to know, you know, it's like this is, these are higher-up decisions you're asking about. Fair. Have you been up there? Uh, you point to like up in the keep? Uh-huh. Yeah, I have. Was it, was it all on Undarians up there, or who was up there? W-well, uh, there's Undarians, and there's Goliaths, and there's monsters. Oh, my. They're all pretty nice, though, so far, from what we were able to tell, they're not really scary. Oh, they're scary to us. Well, I, for one, would like to go up there, if that is where the wielder shields are, and also where Unlap may be. I mean, we do. I wonder if that map will tell us. Could you fill in the blanks on this map? That we have like a map here that seems a little incomplete, and maybe you could kind of tell us roughly where the wielder shield and, uh, this crazy frog. Beep, beep, boo, doo, doo, ba-doo, doo, doo. It could be. What? Crazy frog? Crazy frog. Come on, crazy frog. I don't know if that's the exact tune, but it's, uh. Boo, doo, doo, doo, doo, boo, boo. Somewhere. It's like that silver, metallic-looking frog thing. He had the goggles on his head. Beep, beep. Yeah, come on, crazy frog. Nope. It was. It was from a long time ago. Blank expressions. Oh, I know. I know what it is. I'm waiting for Chris to figure it out. I looked it up, but. I recognize. Old memes. the way it looks. Old memes. But I don't know. You don't remember going to like a. Like a skate park as a kid, and that was what they were blasting at the skating rink? Beep, beep. Well, I don't know where the wielder shield is. Otherwise, we would have found it by now. Right. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay, and you don't know where the frog is. You said that much. He's hiding. He strikes when we're not expecting it. Cool. Predator. Nice. Love it. Oh. Well, Gunther, do you and Bunlap have like a secret phrase you say when you're like, "It's all clear," and you want each other to like come out or something like that? Yeah. What we say is, "It's all clear." I like it. Directly to the point. Okay. Oh, oh. Here's a question for you. Have you seen anybody that looks like me, and I rip my face, my Bjorn face off, and on my Thaumathek face. I'm going to make a roll to see if that scares them. Rosalberry starts screaming uncontrollably. Are we done? Gigi is going. Ooh, I actually rolled a nat 20 on this with Gigi. Gigi's going to go over and try to console them because Gigi's also Andarian looking and so Gigi's going to go over and try to go for a hug. Oh, my God. Oh, what a fun little guy. That's not at all terrifying. Tell your friend to keep her skid on. Gigi turns around and starts talking back to Thaum. Oh, I know, I know. Like wagging his finger. Thaum did nothing wrong. Listen, we're all. Now Gigi is doing it to Gunther. It's okay, it's okay. All right, I'm putting it back on. But anyways, have you seen anybody that looks like that, though? They're called Thaumatheks. They're actually quite nice. No. I think I would. I remember that. I've never seen anyone like that. Okay, all right. You should not yell in horror. There's nothing wrong with not having skin. Well, no, but you've got to admit it was pretty shocking. He did it for shock value. He was trying to get a reaction and that's the reaction he got. Gunther's being. Gunther, I appreciate you defending me. It's okay, Gunther. I'm used to it. It does not make it right. I know. Inspiration die for you, Gunther. You get a special edition toll of inspiration die used whenever. No expiration date. That is neat. Okay, so I don't know how much Rosalberry is going to be able to help us out. They are so low on the totem pole that. I don't think we need to take Rosalberry with us. I think we should. Oh, I didn't know if that's what you were insinuating. Sorry. Well, no, I'm just like, I don't know what else we can ask them. Is there any other open-ended questions that we need assistance with? Well, Rosalberry, do you know where the Undarmy might be headed to next? Well, from what I understand, from here, the Undarmy is marching straight to Fort Edridge. Oh, that's not good. Oh, why there? Well, to fight. Oh, that's like home base. That's like headquarters. Well, not you this now, because you are now on our team. No, no, I'm trying to leave. I don't think they want to be in any military. I think they're trying to get out of fighting, so. I just want to go home. If you want to go the way we came in, if you just head up, there's a giant sinkhole that we created that you could maybe pop out of and escape that way. Well, how about this? I like the direction you're thinking, but what if we give Rosalberry. Rosalberry, there's someone in the room down this hallway, and they're very friendly, and I think they might be able to help hide you until your compatriots have left the area and you can go independent. Okay, that sounds good. Okay. Wait, who is it? It's not Claudia, is it? It is Claudia. Oh, she met Claudia. Have you met Claudia? Yeah, Claudia. I could hear her talking. Yeah. Well, you know, I get that that's a lot. I'm going to agree with you, that's a lot. But she's a Goliath, and the Undarians are not going to be coming down here and messing around. They're also not going to want to spend time near her, so. And I think the other Goliaths don't want to spend any time near Claudia, so she's kind of a repellent, which is kind of what you need right now. That's true. But Claudia's allied with Belder. And Belder's back. That's bad. They're trying to eliminate the Undarians. Okay. Um, hmm. You know what? Do you know how to get to the Tropicaran Islands? Go along with me. Uh, yes. It's due west. Okay, I have a sister there. Her name is Elva. She's so lovely. Very good person. I think you could team up with Elva, because she's also not, like, part of the Undarmy, part of the Mortalion, and she's kind of just like a wild, free spirit, which sounds like up your alley, dude. That sounds wonderful. Yeah, maybe. Okay, so I. Can I. I'll give you her bird address. I don't know. So you can write her a letter and find her. But she should be in the Tropicaran Islands. She looks like me. And I pull off the Bjorn mask again. Check your prejudices. So maybe. Maybe you can stay in touch with us. I want to make sure that you get there safely, but I don't know what else to do for you, Razzleberry. Okay, no, that sounds great. Have you been in contact with her? When was the last time you talked to her? What's the last thing she said? It was a while last time we talked to her. I think we were at Fort Indridge, which is where your army is going to attack, and she was in the Tropicaran Islands. God, I hope you're not a spy. That would totally suck, Razzleberry. No, no, no. I'm not a spy. Maybe you said her word that I'm coming, and I'll head in that direction, and then you said a bird, and I'll send a bird. And your bird will verify my bird. Oh, yes. I do not like this talk of birds. No, it's two-factor authentication here, Gunther. It's good. It's good. We like this. TFA stands for two-falcon authentication. Take an inspiration die. That's good. Send them in. I'm going to. Okay, I'm going to scan you, and then I draw a picture of Razzleberry so that I can send the letter to. It's just ASCII. Elva. Okay. Yeah, I'll write that letter to Elva, and then we're at the first chance that we get of running into a bird. Maybe Claudia has birds. I don't know. Okay. That's a good idea. I'll sneak my way out past Sleepy Z and make my way west. All right. Best of luck, traveler. Give this to Elva for me, and I give him a big hug. You seem like you need one. Thank you. And then while I have them in my arms, I pull off my mask when they're not looking. Stop it. Stop it. My back is just my naked Thaumatech face. Okay, okay. I'm getting used to it. It's a little better every time. Good, very good. See? Progress, Gunther. Okay, yeah. Razzleberry would begin trying to slowly sneak their way out in a southerly direction to leave the keep. Godspeed, Razzleberry. He saluted. Salute. Alrighty, time to mosey, guys. Yeah, I guess we know now that they're going, they're going to have to Fort Edridge, so we should probably hustle and get word back to Iron. What? No, not Ironclad. That guy's a stinky dinky. Steel Eye. Steel Eye. Yeah, sorry. It's all the metal guys. It's true. Yeah, and I feel if we're here for too long, those Undarians who went looking for the frog are going to come back. Yeah. So what is, speaking of which, nice segue, Doug, what is the idea here? Are you all going to stay in this room? Going to go in a different direction? Who's team leader, by the way? I don't think I, I think I forgot. It's Doug. Is it Doug? Okay. I would think we would just go back out the way we came. And then instead of going through this door, we would go towards the, I guess, the mine. Sure. So y'all want, you want to go back down the stairs to where Claudia was and then north up into the mine? Yeah. And Tolv is going to give us the knock. Okay, here it goes. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. Claudia, it's us. Open the door, we knocked. Oh, you see, I thought that might be you guys, but it wasn't the knock that we agreed on. So how do I really know it's you guys if it's not the knock that you said you were going to knock? Because if anybody could just knock a knock. I said I was going to give you flavor. But then we said, you know, we agreed on a specific knock and then you're not doing the knock. So then I was like, well, maybe it's not them. Okay, here, here you go. Knock, knock. Okay. The door slides open. All right, Tolv, feel free to continue your song if you want to continue playing or something like that. Yeah. Just to be clear, as soon as the door opens, Natty B rolls to the minecart. And it's like, and it's holding Gigi and dragging Captain Grumbles behind her. Like covering your face as you're walking by kind of thing, yeah. Holding Gigi up over her face so she can't see and then just, and just holding Captain Grumbles' hand and heading to the minecart. You caught her on a bad day. She's on her way somewhere. Yeah, that, that song that, that Tolv was playing, Doug, now that's just stuck in your head. You cannot get it out. Like it's difficult to concentrate on anything else. Do, do, do, do. I can feel it calling me in. I mean, it's no Madonna, but it's pretty catchy. It's a, yeah, it's, it's going to be difficult to think about anything else for, for a little while. It's a, it's all Phil Collins all the time in Doug Boone's head. Do you remember me? What happened? Did he, did he smell something or was there something that caused that? It's the meat grinder table. Stuff happens every time you all change rooms. So this one is mental stressor, song stuck in head. It was like, oh, well this is perfect because you just did that. I once saw the most brutal thing on the internet where someone said Phil Collins' music sounds like how a burp smells. I don't agree with that at all. I love Phil Collins, but. I understand the line of thinking, but I disagree. Yeah, no, it's, Phil Collins is amazing. Yeah. He brought us the Tarzan soundtrack. Thank you. Absolutely. So Natty, you make a beeline to that Northern edge. Yes, please. It's frigid muddy water that floods the Northern half of the room. And this water has a brownish red tint to it. And like we said before, there's a, well, you all bought a mine cart. So you can take a mine cart to the North through this partially submerged corridor. Cool. Natty puts her mask on as well in preparation. So does Doug. Oh. Count their well too. And Gigi turns into a aquatic creature. He could do that? Yeah. Captain Grumbles, you do your thing. Captain Grumbles doesn't have to breathe. breathe. Oh, right. What does swearing underwater sound like? Yeah, so you all continue north past Claudia to the room that's a little further to the north. And in here, you enter this room, and you see it is a circular mine shaft. And there's hissing steam and a low ceiling. It's almost like it's small folk size, so it's pretty cramped. Is it a Goliath mine? It's a mine. The Goliaths are here. Well, they said they owned it. That's what I'm going off of. I mean, they might just run it, but not actually go down in there. To the west, you see a caved-in corridor and a separate pile of rocks nearby, and a central steam-powered elevator that seems to spiral. All forge ahead? Yeah. I see what you did there. Wait, steam-powered elevator going down? I assume you go up and take a look at it, too. Sure! Yeah. You take a look at it, and it seems to be a spiraling elevator. A spiralvator, if you will. You take a look at it, and it seems to be a spiraling elevator, and it seems to be a spiraling elevator. I will not, thank you. Spiralvator. It seems to be like it's powered by natural steam, and there's a silk-like parachute material. It holds about two people at a time, and it looks like it goes up and down. What's the strength modifier needed to ride the lift? The DC. Yeah. How many gold coins are you going to spend riding this thing? Help me visualize this room, Gus. So we went north to where there's tracks, that are minecars on, yes? Yeah, yeah. And then this led to another room we're in that has an elevator, and then there's a room to the west. Spiralvator. I'm not going to say that. Spiralvator. Spiralvator. Spiralvator. And so does the track, do the tracks end here, or do they go further? They head all the way up here to the spiralvator, and it seems like, yeah, it seems like they come to an end here at the spiralvator. That's all we paid for? All right, hop off. It looks like the rail is unfinished, like it's still being added onto. All right. So I got a minecar. That's like buying a vehicle for the highway that has, like, a kilometer done. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty cool, right? I want my 16 gold back. Okay. And then there was a, there was said there's another room with, like, rubble to the west of us? There's a caved-in garage. There's a caved-in corridor to the west. Okay, caved in. So does the spiralvator go up, you said? It was like the steam and the parachute? Up and down, yeah. Okay, theoretically, would that be roughly the same geographic area that the lavish hall, dining hall, leading to, like, where we sent those Zundarians off to? Would it kind of, like, do you think, cross paths with that area? Because that might be where the Wildershield and Bunlap are. It, you think it would, based on the layout, it would probably be close, maybe not exactly lined up. So you want to go up and not down further? I'm talking to Taluv. I mean, in the very least, we might be able to get the jump on those Zundarians that we sent in. I, I do feel like we need to find Bunlap in the Wildershield, because otherwise I don't know what else is in this mine. Like, where else? There is also another corridor to the east out of this room. That's another exit, I forgot to mention. That just complicates things. I mean, I feel like if we're in a mine, we should go down. That would be my first thought, see what's down there. I guess. You know me, I do not need anything that is in a mine. Everything I would want is in the opposite of the mine. The Bunlap and the Wildershield. Well, I mean, we got these snorkel masks, and, you know, I kind of want to test it out. Uh, group vote, or do we want to let the team leader make the call? Your leader. We'll just take a peek down there. Let's use this spiral elevator, and then if we don't see anything, we could maybe take the corridor to the east, or go up. I mean, to be clear. You have no idea where Bunlap is. He is up there. For all you know. No, you don't know if he's up there. He could have gone all kinds of directions. We just know that he fought some people at some point in the up-- We don't know if it's Bunlap. He could be down in the mine further. It could be some other sexy, sexy frog man. I was hoping someone would say it. I didn't want to burst Chris's illusion here, but it's like he was really stuck on going up. And I was like, I don't know-- You have no idea where he is. Right. I thought, okay, maybe I'm wrong. I misheard. All four of you, make me a perception check. Okay. Perception. 19. 11. 8. 1. That a boy. That's a 2, though. Plus 2. Plus 1. Equals 2. What was yours, Natty? You had a good one. 19. 19. Okay, while Doug is talking about the spiral elevator and, you know, the prospect of going down, that must draw your eyes to it and to the lower level. And as you're looking down near the spiral elevator, you see something. In the water. Oh, a mermaid? A mine maid. Mermine. You see a corpse of one of those Undarians that you had seen previously in the banquet hall. Oh, it's not Russell Berry, is it? No, it's not. Okay, okay. And it's skewered by a lance, and you can see the broken tip of the lance inside the corpse. And the tip of this lance catches your eye because it's unusual. It's made from a bird beak. What? Well, there you go right there. I think this is a calling card of a people that probably vanquished birds and then used them as materials for weapons. Did, uh, Gunther, did you and your people used to do that? Or did Bunlap used to do that at all? Do you remember? I will say this. Bunlap, his name, his last name, not his actual name. Bunlap Beakbane? Beakbane? Beakbane. Beakbane. What's his theory? He just keeps getting better. He's getting cooler and cooler, by the way, I just gotta say. So he could, I could see him using the beak of our enemy with his sword. Is that typically his calling card? His calling card is winning. That's, that's so cool. This guy's legendary. He seems to be winning. He's Charlie Sheen from 2009. He's got a tiger's blood. Hashtag winning. Is there anything else in the water or any other paths to take? Make me an investigation check. Cool. You got it. This is going to be a winner here. That's a 13. Not bad. Sorry, I was just getting ready to fail. Yeah, you see shiny rocks in the water. Shiny rocks? Shiny rocks. I just, I feel like that's a trap. I don't know. Is there any way I can fish those out? Diggy goes for the shiny rocks. Okay, oh, there they are. There it goes. Diggy picks up one of the shiny rocks and it's, it's a gold nugget. Oh. Oh. Pocket it, pocket it. Don't, don't show that one guy. Don't show Z, Sleepy Z. Yeah, Giggy looks at you, Doug, and he gives you a nod and then he swallows it. Well, I mean, that, I guess, technically works. It'll come out solid all the way out, so we'll get it one way or another. Uh, Giggy, if you find more shiny rocks, just go ahead and eat them up. Giggy gives you a big thumbs up. We're going to regret that at some point. Could I go investigate the dead in Darien? Yeah, it looks very similar. You did not see the other ones in the banquet hall, Doug, but you did see Rosalberry. This looks like a more, like a stronger version of Rosalberry, like a, a warrior of some kind of fighter. I was just going to see if I could, like, take this spear and take a look at it and maybe bring it over to Gunther. Yeah, the lance is broken. So, you know, it's like a broken shaft and the, the tip, which is this long bird beak, which you're able to dislodge from moving Darien. And you can show it to Gunther if you want. Is it possible to, like, tell what type of bird it came from and what region that might have existed in? Make a, is there nature? Make a nature, yeah, make a nature check. Or do, and do I recognize it? I'm going to use my flash of genius. It was a nine, but I'm going to give it a plus four to make it a 13. Okay. Yeah, you look at it and Gunther also takes a look at it. And it seems like it's some kind of large bird from the desert, a very desert region. Oh, Gunther, you might know the name of it. What, what's the name of this kind of bird? Oh, the Goggles. The Goggles. Bless you. The Goggles bird. Because they, they gather in goggles and then they, oh. Yeah. A gaggle of goggles? Goggles. Golgol. Golgol. G-A-L-L-G-U-L-L. You sure? Golgol. Golgol. I can do something to help. Do you want to talk to him? Oh, you talk with the dead, right? Well, Gus, I was reading, uh, "Animate the Dead." And there's an interesting paragraph in it that I never noticed. "Animate the Dead" is about animating them and then maintaining control over them. Ooh. And you reuse the spell to maintain control. I get to use the spell again if I use a long rest. But until that control is not maintained, I can cast it again to animate more dead, and I can control up to four dead creatures. Really? Yes. The creature's under control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you've given. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must. cast the spell on the creature again before the current 24-hour period ends. And then, uh, this use of the spell reasserts your control over up to four creatures you've animated with the spell, rather than animating. Yeah. I think that's assuming you cast it at a higher level. Oh. What you can do is do a reset right now, reassert your control over Captain Grumbles right now, and add this creature on as well. Sure. If you promise me don't make this another NPC. No, no, no. No, no, this is not, this is a. This is Hellboy just talking to a dead person in the graveyard to get information. Wait, so are you about to factory reset Captain Grubbles? No, no, no, no, no. He goes through this every day. Him and I, we just have a little moment where we re-up our relationship. He goes through his severance. Yeah, yeah. We just kind of reassert each other in that we, you know, we like each other. Just one of us is using necromancy to do it. To enslave the other, yes. I like you, do you like me? Circle yes or no. Okay, so then I cast Animate Dead on this guy. Natty, your eyes cloud with an otherworldly darkness. What little light was in the cavern is immediately extinguished. As you conjure necromantic energies from the realm of the dead, the veins in your gesticulating fingers pulse with an unnatural purple glow. The corpse's fingers mimic your own, cracking and crinkling to life like desiccated worms writhing in the dirt. The cadaver suddenly slams its fists to the ground, releasing a cloud of steam all around as it hobbles to its home. Its horned head wafts through the mists and stares with narrowed, unblinking eyes locked on Gunther. Ah! You cannot kill Kleiner so easily, croak folk. I will have my revenge. Without warning, the undead Undarian charges, horns first, straight for Gunther. To be continued. Don't miss the extra content on our Stinky Dragon YouTube channel and Instagram account. Not only do we share this video with you, share the grand tales of our podcast, but we also post action-packed gameplay videos and our side-splitting animation and puppet shorts that shall bring a chuckle to even the grimmest of adventurers. Subscribe today and never miss a thing. YouTube.com slash at StinkyDragonPod and at StinkyDragonPod on Instagram. New episodes of Tales from the Stinky Dragon premiere every other Wednesday wherever your streams of podcasts flow. And on the Stinky Dragon YouTube channel. Tired of waiting for the next adventure and looking for a quest? Join the ranks of the Stinky Dragon patrons at StinkyDragonPod.com to get early access to episodes and unlock a horde of exclusive treasures and powerful artifacts. For example, every one of our patrons gets access to Tavern Tales. These are special D&D one-shots, mini-campaigns, and other sorts of role-playing grand adventures spun within the hearth of the Tavern. You can also receive a coveted shout-out on the show, just like Matt, Sean Dwyer, Dr. Dr. Alhazard. Dr. Alhazard? Dr. Al. Blaine Howard. These putrid patrons directly support the show and get access to all these perks and more on our Patreon. Stop missing out on the adventure. Become a patron today at StinkyDragonPod.com. Some NPCs were named after patrons from our Stinky Dragon Discord, and some of our friends provided voices in this tale, including Sleepy Z, named after ZZZ, voiced by Jeremy Dooley, at RealJeremy, Jeremy Dooley. Roslberry, named after Roslyn Nuttall, voiced by Chris Kokinos. Find him on Twitch, at Twitch.tv slash ChrisKO. Kleina, named after Logi Zherkelson. I think that's how you say it. Sorry, Logi. Voiced by Corey Akagi. This week's arrow question was submitted by WaterBear. This episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon was produced by Ben Ernst and Micah Reisinger, written and composed by Micah Reisinger, and edited by Alina Lukorchek. Join us in the tavern next time for another aromatic adventure of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ The frog is back. It's right up, it's right up that corridor. Let's go get him. Which frog? Not talking to you. Talking to Ben. Oh. Gunter, which frog were you talking about? Wait, there's a frog? That's not me. Doug just comes to the door. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Offer valid August 20th. 27th through September 16th. US only. See store online for details. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode, available now. Elblond Plus and Pro Plants.