C03 - Ep. 47 - Under Oondar Fire - Crying Bloody Mirror-der

What's up everybody, I'm Jimmy Wong. How's it? It's Josh Lee Quy. We're the host of the Command Zone podcast. You've probably heard of Magic the Gathering. Whether you're a new player or a seasoned veteran, or you used to play and want to get back into the game, you've got to check out Commander. It's the most popular way to play Magic, and for good reason. It's everything you love about board games, but with Magic cards. Deep rewarding strategies, infinite creative deck building possibilities, and it's multiplayer. So there are tons of opportunities for complex social interactions. If you can't tell, we seriously love this game, and we think you would too. I mean, why else would we talk about it for like an hour every single week? All right, so if you like Magic the Gathering, check us out at the Command Zone, the premier podcast for all things Commander. Available on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are found. Welcome to this drama. There's two of them following me. I know that for sure. I'm down over the package and we'll let you go. You'll let me go. Oh, that's cute. The first bullet hits me in the chest, sends me staggering back a step. The Strata. In a dystopian city, a struggling career is forced to go into business with an underworld ganglord in order to pay for the treatment that keeps him alive. Check out the Strata, anywhere you listen to podcasts. Dumb Dums and Dice invites you to listen to Agents of the Inquisition of Warhammer 40K RPG podcast. Interrogator Morgan Rawls is holed out of prison and assigned a team of hand-picked operatives to lead on a mission ordered by the imperial regent himself. Her task is so secret that she's forced to operate under special condition. Her actions will be denied even by her own inquisitor. Can Morgan become a true agent of the Inquisition? Or will she and her team fall to chaos before their duty is done? Agents of the Inquisition is produced by Dumb Dums and Dice, Canada's number one TT RPG company. And his rule set is a re-skin of D&D 5.5E, so it's super accessible for listeners. Agents of the Inquisition is a great introduction to and celebration of Warhammer 40K, so it doesn't matter your experience with Warhammer, you're going to be thrilled. Spotify called it an instant hit in 2025, and it's already in the top 10% of video podcasts. Follow and listen to Agents of the Inquisition wherever fine podcasts can be found. The Emperor Commands it. (Music) Mary Meetin's Oumolers quirk screw into the stinky dragon and ingest our latest infusion, this little piggy digged up the market. It's a mixture of tunneling tea leaves, well water, ground up, guava juice, a landslide of lychee lemon juice, an avalanche of agave syrup, and soy milk and topped with a clovell of cardamom. One engulfing of this ground up gulp and you'll be dishing the dirt and digging beneath the surface and then dredging out the past and going down rabbit holes and rethinking your life's choices. Previous side ventures uttered with the undead to uncover the unknowns of this underground mine. They spotted signs supplying bearings for bunlap, unearthed, another have thought provoking thomatic and gavred at the Golden Rod Demigod. Now they're toe-to-toe with the titular tear of this teardew keep, the chimera, draw yourself a drip and let's dive into this dink drama. Hello everyone, welcome to Tales on the Stinky Dragon. I'm your dungeon master Gustavus Arula and I'm going to hit our four players with an arrow. Hey guys, I just had a thought. I think we're good on no more plushes. We've got all the good ones made, you know? Everyone who's got who needs a plush made as a plush. I mean, we sure technically four have been made because I've got gumbo in one hand and mud in the other hand. So I think we're good. She is so tiny. I love him so much. What do you think, audience? You think we're good? I think we're good. You know, don't even tell me. I know we're good. No more stuffies. Shookson, you John, this is audio podcast and no one can see it. See what? See what, Chris? I don't know. No. Oh, he almost fell to his trap. I rolled a one five, 17, 10. All right. So it looks like we've got John with a 17, then Doug with a 10, Gunther with a five and 12 with a one. Tolder, I feel like you've had some bad roll slate for everyone. You know, not yet. Not yet. I'm not the back of the line. This we don't want mine. Get out here. This week's arrow question is for what play would you audition and what role would you want? And that's submitted by algae. Oh, great question. That's like the Algerock's child's fun nickname, like Algerock Jr. Algerock. Before we get into the answer to the question, I do want to point out. I don't know how often we mentioned this except at the end of the episode, but where are people asking these questions, Gus? Yes. Oh, what a great question, Barbara. Where are they asking? Where are they asking these questions? I don't know why I said it like that, but you know, these are taken from members of our patron at StinkyDragonPod.com and as part of that, you can join our discord and you can send me questions like this. I thought you were just asking people on the streets. So you go to our patron StinkyDragonPod.com. That's right. StinkyDragonPod.com. Then you can, you can submit your own arrows. When did we tell Blaine we've all been getting paid for this and he hasn't for a while? He just spent on the street waiting for people to ask him a question. Yeah. Everyone makes money. You just make funny. There. That's good. That's really good. It's a shame the episode hasn't started yet. That wouldn't have been a question. John, you're up. Hi everybody. I'm John Rice here and I play Nadi Wonder who is a drought warlocked drag queen mother of the bringer of the apocalypse and generally all around good gal. Yes, yes, very good gal. If I were to audition for a play, I'm going to take this a step further than I'm going to say it's going to be a musical and a place to know just talking. But if I'm going to be in a play, there's going to be music whether or not I sing the script. So we might as well make it a musical. And I was thinking about this and you know what? I was listening to an album the other day and it just got stuck in my head like I want to be in the musical hair because I heard these two gentlemen singing a song from hair. And it just sounded like I've really fun. The way these guys performed it, this duet of theirs, it seemed really good. And so yeah, I want to be in hair. But like you ask like what role and I just want to do all the hair. Can I just be that role? Can I just be in charge of all the hair? And not just behind the scene. I want to come out on stage and do hair as well. So I just be constantly giving people more hairspray and body and blowouts and all that kind of stuff. I think there's another musical that could be in called hairspray. You could do a double feature natty. Yeah. What a creative and sonatty. Why do you sound spitsy? It's sulking. Buhu. He's buhu tall. So yeah, that's what I do. I want to do hair. Oh, that's that's one. You heard it. Gustavo? I may have heard of it. I may have been cursing that musical for a week or two, a couple of months ago. Yeah. There's a mouthful of words in that song. Yeah. So joining our patreon is hearing Gustavo sing that song from hair. And if it's making that word straight to the bed, join in spite of it. All right. Thanks, natty. Appreciate that. Next up, Doug Boone. Hello, everyone. It's Barbara Dunkelman playing Doug Boone, the Artificer bug bear. And so there is actually this play that I've heard of that I think Doug would be perfect for. To the point where I don't think Doug even needs to audition, I think they would see me and see me interact with things and know that I'm perfect for any role in this play because Doug is a little clumsy. If you guys weren't aware and there's a play called the play that goes wrong. Oh, where things are falling, set pieces are coming apart. Oh, there's all sorts of mischief and madness. And I think Doug just got to show up and be Doug and things will go wrong naturally. So I'm ready for my debut on the stage. Pull me in coach. It's I think a part I was born to play. You need to be a dog in a china shop. I'm so upset by this answer because we were gonna go to that play when you mean our significant others were out. And I was like, we should go to this play. And you're like, we should go to wicket. I was like, we'll go to wicket. That's when you're in London. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. Wicked was great. But man, I still think about that play. It's so funny. Yeah. I've never seen it. But I've heard of it. And I heard it's very entertaining to watch. But wicket was wicketly wicketly wicketly. I hear they made a movie out of it. If if I could sidebar about Doug for a moment here, you know, you were talking about Doug being clumsy. If I get a little meta here, I think it's what I meant to say. Yeah. And so I decided to look at Doug's character sheet. And Doug's dexterity is 14. And I thought, oh, that's not that clumsy. Then compared to you to everyone else in the party. And you're the least dexterous. This is a very dexterous party that we've got going on here. Daily dexterous. Yeah. Don't Doug is I think it's because I got these like big old hands, big fingers. It's like, you know, you know, when you're like trying to dial something on something and like at your press and all the wrong buttons and stuff like that, it's just little things where, you know, I'm still trying to figure it out. But if I try to work on, you know, electronics or some type of invention. And for some reason that I could really finish that. You can do it your your fongers become fengies Fongers They go honking fongers. I don't like that I love the word fongers. I've never heard someone say that in my whole life All right, thanks the dog next up I have a crystal man. It's probably got there the male croque folk fighter and for me I would audition for the play Cats. Oh, I've never seen this play But I imagine it would help me We get insight into the mind of a predator a bird And then also hey, I think hunter. Do you know how many names cats have? I have a name of a character I was going to play but I don't know how many names how many names to cats have go watch the show and you'll learn They tell you in the first song. Oh Well, the one I would play I think because of the name is Wonka's trap. It's a good name. It's also a baritone Yes, I don't think you're a baritone Sorry, you've been a bit of a musical person over here. I don't think with that voice. I think you might be a base I see it was more of a rom-tom-tugger. I was thinking told I was thinking the same thing. No, I'm glad you said it Yeah, yeah, oh, so is it a whole like enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of deal with cats and birds going on here Gunther? Yeah, I do not particularly and friends with cats, but I'm not against them I think you just it's like learning learning a new ways to hunt Lions, yeah, yes, I want to see Gunther learn to like use retractable claws in his house I want that as an alert on my phone. All right, thanks Gunther and Finally, oh, oh, you hoots me. It's tall. I've been waiting all day to answer this question If you do the PP dance outside of the interview room. So ready. Where am I? Oh, hey, it's blingipson I play told the male thumb tech barbarian and as far as I play that I would want to participate in I think I would be perfect for the 10 man in the Wizard of Oz and I want to clarify not wicked because that guy sucks, okay? He is Very a really mean character. You're a barbarian. Well, I can still be a friendly barbarian But anyways, I think I'm going to play the 10 man in Yeah, I think I could just I could be naked on stage. I'm costume. I'm wardrobe ready. No makeup needed Just shine me up with your total facts You know, it's funny. I was also considering having my answer be auditioning for widget of Oz Yeah, and you think I mean obviously guess which character I would audition for I didn't I mean guys clearly it'd be Toto Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, you'll be a very large Toto Okay, okay, I also I'm sure Dorothy, you know There's no place like home. Yeah, I always think you would be the Wizard of Oz because he makes contraptions Oh, but he's he's not a nice guy That he makes contraptions contraptions contraptions Uh, what a what a fun motley collection and maybe we could get all of you to play all your respective characters in one mega musical with uh, hair, cats, the Tin Man all in the play that goes wrong Yeah, now I'm trying to think like us as the cast of Wizard of Oz you'd have Nadia's Dorothy Told as the Tin Man Doug is the the lion and I guess Gunther is the scarecrow He's backwards just like scarecrow. Oh, hey, isn't the brain. Oh, how's joke The best jokes are followed up with that was a joke that was a joke And as you know, you're looking at the golden rod disappearing back into the ceiling Everyone except Gunther there's some motion in the water slide that catches your attention You see almost like a reflective image in the water a beast of some kind looking at you In the water at the bottom of the water slider the water like rushing through the water slide the water rushing through the water slide Could I go up and take a closer look? Yeah, you go up and and as you're approaching it the beast begins like pacing back and forth And then it slowly steps out from the water before you whoa and it appears to be like a large fusion of three different beasts Made up of some kind of multifaceted glass all the chimera It's three-headed two-winged and one-tailed and it looks at you Doug walks eyes with you and with all of its heads Let's out a cacophonous hideous animal roar The chimera emerges from the reflective surface of the water slide Bone dry catching you all by surprise the chimera looks like a weird amalgamation of different creatures It's left head and hindquarters are that of a bison it's center head and four quarters are that of a raptor And it's right head and tail or that of an ostrich all with the wings of a manta ray All right, dear gosh as the chimera emerges from the water slide and looks around the room the gold tassers begin running away as quickly as they can out of the room I have a question when the chimera emerged to didn't go we Because it was coming down to water slide did I get to date is having a great time tell you what? Why doesn't everyone roll me a d20 okay? Just a standard d20 yeah to see if it had fun. Is that what we'll call this luck five two eleven 12 which as you know when toll rolls it isn't that 12 So that's like an at 20 yes, the chimera whoops around very rapidly Lacking his tail out at the four of you. Why isn't everyone make me a dexterity saving throw The tail of an ostrich to be specific, right? Yeah, let's get real close. I was gonna say it's mostly feathers Oh, it feels so good on my face That's a good one a six Saving throw 21 at a nine and then a seventeen seven So 12 and nadi succeed As the tail whips around and lashes out at the four of you nadi or john making your your comment about the ostrich tail Something about the light glistens off of it and you realize that the tail is covered in mirror shards Oh near and it slashes at all of you those of you who fail your saving throw take 21 points of piercing damage Ooh those are gonna succeed take half. So we'll round down at six 10 Hachi Chachi. All right. It's 21 Yes, uh, Gunther. Oh, oh and falls down. Oh no, uh oh Oh is uh you said there's shards of near and it's tail Yeah, like he's covered in it. Yeah, is it does it look like those chimera? That's what I was thinking the it like are those part of its tail or does it look like it Collected those or like got hit with those making Nature check for me Douglas. Oh, oh 12 and 12 from what you can tell you know as it flashes by you think it's it's it's all part of it Okay, okay, and it's just the tail. It has it not the full body It's it's like composed of some kind of like diamond hard multifaceted glass the entire chimera Go chat after spinning around and lashing out at you all the chimera looks around the room regarding it Doug with your with your your nature check there you think it's got an angry look on its face Then it walks back to the water slide. It's gonna go again Shudders near the mouth of the water slide then very quickly takes off in a run Towards the western wall towards the painting of the treasure vault and jumps through the paint Whoa, are you still? Yeah, and as you're looking at the painting it seems like it changes you know You saw that it would look like a treasure vault a second ago kind of wobbles a little bit And then it's almost like from your point of view it falls down onto the floor and it's now face down facing the floor Took care of that problem. It's trapped now. Can't get back out. I need a roller geeky check Okay, I wonder where that went to see if you'll go and peek at the other side of the painting Okay, 18. I that's a positive so I'd say he won't okay Good boy, but that was a thought though in my head is that I would want to look to see And I was like an intrusive thoughts. I apply to geeky. I appreciate it. Oh Oh, could I go help Gunther Chris nice role-playing White down Gunther, please We're admiring art. Yeah, Doug. What do you want to do? Could I go help him up and then cast cure wounds? Yeah I'll do it at the second level because he's a very hurt. Okay, that'll be a 13 points of healing. Oh Yes, thank you Oh, it's everywhere. Sorry, it did not mean to make it weird, Doug Yeah, that damn. I'm glad you said it I think I accidentally like pop something back in place so I get it, you know, it's feeling good. Oh be nice. I'll have what he's had (laughing) - Could I just not cast the spell, but could I just go and try to crack Tulps back? - Oh, yes, that felt good. - I think I broke a fuse or something like that in there, or I don't know. - Take your dog, I apologize for falling down. I'm only at half my strength at the moment. - Well, it's okay, we'll get you back in ship shape. Tip top ship shape, what is it for you? - I can tell, I can tell you Barbara, we're so not common with the end of that idiom. - Ship, ship. - Ship, ship, ship, ship, tape. - Ship, ship, ship, tape. - Thank you, Tulps. - Why are you only at half of your ability, Scoomther? - I have made a sacrifice. - Was it your deity? - Perhaps, yes. - Not in between us, not you. - No, just so. - When did you do that? - To turn to two episodes ago. We need to go out for drinks and talk about this. You've got relationship issues that we need to get to the bottom of, speaking of deities, with a click and a word, the golden rod reappears from the ceiling. - Hey, buddy. - Look what you've done. - What we do? - What did we do? - What do we do? - You have locked the way to the freezer. I can't get there anymore. What am I supposed to do? - I think we'll put the map back up or the painting. We can just stand back up. - Also, we had no involvement in that coming down, by the way. - Yeah, that was the Kibera. - Kibera. - Kibera, so just to be clear, the painting in this room is still in the same orientation, but the view you see is no longer of the vault. You see the floor through the painting. - Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We're playing with portals here. - Oh, it's not face down? - Right, it's like the other side of the portal got put down onto the floor. - Oh, oh, so like, okay, so they went on the other side, knocked down the painting on that side, and so they put right. - No, you all are the cause of this. - And with that, the golden rod begins throwing water. Like, profusely, just water starts flowing out from the golden rod all over you, Doug. - Oh gosh. - And you feel like your joints start to stiffen up a little bit. - Oh, geez. - And everyone else can see that Doug slowly from his feet to the top of his head is turning into solid gold. - Oh, no. - Feel it. - Oh my god, you look fabulous. We have to help. - Oh, yo, oh, oh, oh, oh, damn. - Let's get in. - Inaddy, go rush over and put the painting back up. - You can't, the painting in this room is still up. It's the corresponding one on the other side that's down. - So that's your playing portal, right? And then the thing that the other portal is out is turned down. - Yeah, okay. Turn down for what? - Stop, stop. What do you want? - Do you have any other thing other than Doug? We'll give you gold. - Gold? How much gold? - All of it, whatever. - I don't know about all. - And where am I meant to put it? If I can't get to my treasure vault. - We'll keep these back up. - Wait, where is your treasure vault? 'Cause we could go there and we could fix the portal. - The vault is at the top of Cameroa Keep. It's where the Cameroa makes its layer. - Okay, so to recap, this is just a shortcut. It's not like across the world. It's literally in the same building and your door just got jammed to get directly there. - There's no elevator and gold is heavy. I don't know what you're getting at. I'm lazy here. (laughing) - He's got a point there. Gold's really heavy. It actually is. It's quite a heavy metal. - How old do you know you have a gambling problem? (laughing) I mean, okay, I think that this is an easy enough issue to fix. We can just stop pouring molten gold on Doug here. He looks fantastic, but I don't want him to die. - Oh, this is kind of painful. - Just so you know, so I'm painting the picture quickly. It's water that's flowing over Doug. But Doug is turning the gold as the water's flowing over him. - Yes, but we can fix it. We will put it back, but we need Doug to do it. - Could I try like moving out of the way of the? - You can't, you are solid gold, Doug. The golden Doug. - His catchphrase is literally, I can figure it out. You need this guy for this job. Stop putting him into the gold form. - And the other phrase is, I got a heart of gold and it's coming to fruition. - Oh no. (laughing) - All right, fine. Though it's settled, you will restore access to the vault and I will free your friend. - But you free your friend first. - You drive a hard bargain. - And with that, it's almost like the golden where reverse is the direction of the water. And it comes back up out of Doug and Doug restores himself into his normal furry self. - Well, how is your tent? - I think that gold had a little bit of a moisturizing effect 'cause you look lustrous now. - You are glowing my goodness. - Is it kind of, do I have any like remains of the gold on myself? Like, you know, and you're out in the snow and the little like snowflakes are just dusting you and it looks all magical and beautiful. Is that a Doug with the gold? - No, but your teeth are gold. - Oh, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. - Just one tooth, one tooth. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, give me one tooth. You have one remaining gold tooth. So I like that. I have a question about this kind of mirror. Do what do you know of it and how can we defeat it? - Making persuasion effect for me, Gunther. - Fourteen. - Oh, the kind of mirror is for roasteth and can take many forms. It can also move. - It can move? Like a cow? - It can move. - You begin getting covered with water and told them to pull. - The chimiora can also transport itself through reflective or translucent surfaces. - Pull your gold. - Does that mean it could come through 12? - Ooh, what a wise question, my furry friend. - Is it going to be like a chess poster or constitution here? - The golden rod reverses the water and told there's no longer gold. - Typical tooth. - No, you have nothing. - Do what is there anything it is afraid of? - Oh, yeah, like super effective attacks against it. - We don't know either of yet. We have not been able to defeat it. So we cannot say. - So what is your relationship with the chimiora 'cause it seems like you occupy the same space, you know, chimiora keep. So you must encounter it and like a lot. - Do you have any like super sweet tips or tricks? Give like a game guide or something? - She codes. - We have been unable to defeat it. So out of yet, we do not know. - What does it want besides just to knock over art? - It devires peace and quiet. - Oh, I feel that. - It was probably your loud noises that threw it here and angered it to begin with. - Which is why this is all your fault. - Okay, I'm sorry to see your logic on this one. - Yeah. - Now hurry, go store access to my Trevor. - Okay, well you said that's at the top of the keep? - Yes. - Okay, then what's the quickest way to get there? 'Cause you know, we're trying to do this for you so it might as well help us. - The stairs? - Well, no, it seems to make sense, which stairs? - Do I have to do everything for you? Ah, the agreement is you figure it out. There are many ways to get there. Now let's just go and do it. - Okay, okay, watch. - Seems like we got a bit of a stealth mission on our hands. - Yes. - And with that, the golden rod disappears back into the ceiling. - What the jerk? - Time to go upwards. - Yes. - Do we want to attempt to walk up the water slide? - Who is team leader? - I think it's a believe. - I think it is still Doug. - I think it's time we change that. - So just before you change, then just to recap this specific room, but to kind of go back into what Toph was saying there. There is this water slide to the northwest that the chimera appeared from. In addition to that, there's a corridor to the west, which is how you all enter this room to begin with. And there is a tunnel to the east, which is kind of dark and drafty. - The tunnel to the east interests me for some reason. Anybody want to just check out that tunnel real quick? I'm curious what that draft is. - Yeah, let's do it. - Net, Netty walks over to the east tunnel. - Yeah, you're still team leader, Doug. Before we could, I could still use, I'm still. I do not want to be a liability. I might need a short rest. - Oh, I have an idea. If you want to not be a liability, starts worshiping a different call. - Oh, how does that sound? Got him. - Do we have the opportunity to take a short rest here? - Yeah, that's up to you guys. That's up to you, Mr. Team Leader. - Yeah, you know, Gunter, I want you to be able to be a tip-top shape. Ship-shop, ship-shop, ship-shop, ship-shop, ship-shop. - Yeah, that's up to you. - Uh, so let's go ahead and take a short rest here. Take a couple deep breaths, maybe do some stretching. - (laughing) - Perfect. - Dundobs and Dice would like to welcome you to the grim darkness of the 41st millennium. In the Valentine's Harracy, a Warhammer 40K RPG podcast where professional improvisers play the Genesis adaptation of the dark-harracy role-playing game. Newly promoted "Inquisitor Lucius Valentine" has received visions of the death of the immortal God Emperor, so he's forced to team up with high-bred criminals in anyone else he can find, all in an attempt to defeat a cabal of shadowy foes and save the galaxy. Trending on global fiction charts and produced by Dundobs and Dice, Canada's number one TTRPG podcast company, the Valentine's Harracy has already been downloaded more than three million times, So join the legions of faith. fans already listening. And it's worth noting, the Valentine Heresy is a podcast made for Warhammer 40K veterans and people brand new to the law. No matter your Warhammer experience level, this podcast is for you. The Valentine Heresy are Warhammer 40K RPG podcasts. Follow and listen to it on your platform of choice, now. Night has fallen. 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It's interview with The Vampire if it had all the characters from Parks and Reckonet. As you are taking a rest you notice two animals walk into the room sniffing around. Looks like they have a wolverine body with a mane of pine-green hair and a long tongue. What's the face look like? It's hard to see because a lot of the fur and the hair is like hanging over the face. So you can't really see the face itself but you do see a tongue sticking out. It's like a zigzagoon. Can I go up to it? Yeah it seems like startled almost like it didn't realize you were there at first and it backs off the two of them back off, begin growling. It's okay, we're not predators, we're just passing through, don't want to cause any problems, don't want to fight you, everything is okay. Make an animal handling check for me, Douglas. I'm going to use my inspiration dye, inspiration dye. That was the three. So here comes the inspiration dye to save the day. 20. Nice. All right. Yeah, they seem, they were like all the muscles in their body were super tense. But as you kind of talk to them in a calming soothing voice, it seems like their muscles relax a little bit and they begin slowly backing away from you, back towards the eastern corridor. Hey Doug, you seem to have a good rapport with them. Why don't you see if they could, they could guide us a little bit to our destination. I'll give it a shot, I don't know, they speak our languages though, but they seem to be calmed by your voice and presence. We can always use more familiar as dog. That's true, never full enough of people that keep track of here. Well gentlemen, do you happen to know how to get to the closest staircase going upwards? Oh, the beatboxing, my god, beautiful. If I'm understanding most code, oh, he's dot dash, dot, dot, dash, dot, dash, dot, dash. No, no hesitation. I love it. Did the chimera, when they like swiped at any of us, do they leave like a shard of glass or like hair or a feather, see any sort of rimmed into the chimera or whatever. Here's a pile of poop. I mean, I'll take it. Yeah, if they got that to it. We're trying to incorporate some new mechanics to do things a little differently. Roll me a D20. Let's call it a luck check. D20. 14. Yeah, you see a small shard of glass, like a little bit of mirror that must have broken off of the tail as it swiped at you. Nice. I grabbed the mirror and I pull out a bit of ration kit and kind of going along with like what Doug is going after. I'd be like, you know, I hold it in front of them, you know, kind of like, where did it go? Where's the chimera, bro? This is what you look like. Could Doug maybe also try to imitate the animal that we saw the chimera as well as as told us doing that to like try to get them to piece the puzzles together? Now, you guys play in charades with these things. Is that what you're doing? Yes. Okay. Doug, why don't you remind me what did the chimera look like? Well, I'm very happy you asked that, Gustavo, because it looks like different creatures. A bison, a raptor, ostrich, wings of a mantra ray, and then the tail, of course, has shards of mirror in it. It's crazy. That's really good. Why don't you make me an animal handling check them for your performance there, Doug? 13. 13. They get, obviously, they get a whiff of the piece of mirror that you're waving in front of them told, and they see Doug doing an excellent pantomime of the chimera. Wow. Gunther, it makes you a little scared based on what happened last time. You deserve to be a broad way. The two creatures seem to get excited and make a b-line for the painting, and they start excitedly pawing at it. They might be babies. Okay. Can we try to pick up the painting or like, do you guys want to try to go through here or something like that? Maybe that's what they're telling us. Yeah. I mean, my understanding is correct. Like, the painting is on the wall, but the view is of the ground where the next painting portal is. Correct. So, like, I can only imagine that at best, we could try to pry the edges and see if we could like, lift the very portal that we are trying to go through open, but I don't feel like that's going to work. Yeah. Then the two animals then take off running towards the water slide excitedly. Wow. They're going to have fun. I think they might be babies of things like kind of babies. Yes. They are different things mixed together and they seem to get excited. Oh, such a shame we have to kill its mama. I'm not necessarily, or maybe. I think it will kill us if I'm being honest. That's very kill. Is the water slide go up? Usually a slide would like, I mean, if you wanted to climb a slide, you'd be able to because it would be somewhere that's elevated, right? The slide comes down. It's an ascending water slide tube, but the water goes up. I have an idea for this slide. The water flows up? Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. What was your idea, Toll? If the water goes up, then we could potentially float up through this slide. But if not, I have a backup plan for how we can climb this. We all float down here. It's very good for you. The animals run away out towards the western corridor that you all came from. OK, oh, OK, I throw my rations at them. They seem to ignore it and they just run past. Great waste of rations, cool. We wanted to go through that. I didn't want to say we wanted to go through that one corridor where the kind of air was coming out. But also, this seems like an upward direction if that one doesn't pan out, so maybe that could be plan B. Keep leader? You know, I want to do what Toll wants to do. OK, well then, I mean, we can go up the slide then if that's what we want to do. I think we should give it a shot. I mean, the water's going up, and to me it makes sense. OK, go and throw all you recovered. Yes, I'm good. Let's go. All right. Let's go. Got the runs and jumps into the slide. Gunther's very excited. The water slide, you know, it's an ascending water slide tube that has rushing fresh water. It seems impossible for the water to be ascending like this. Gunther, you jump in. So the other three of you see Gunther dive in and disappear up the water slide tube as it spirals up. No, we got rid of that guy. I'll follow. 12 dives in. What does that sound like? Cool. It'll be more pneumatic like when you go to the bank and they have the tube, but it goes nice. I guess I guess we're all going if we're going to stay together. Shall we? Bud bears first. Doug and then daddy. What does it sound like when you dive in, Doug? What? He doesn't quite get pulled in and daddy has to push him in a little bit. And daddy, what does that sound like when you dive in? Daddy jumps in. He just, here we go. Yeehaw! Yeehaw! All right. Everyone, go ahead and make me Constitution saving throws. Oh no. Are we going to be turned to gold? 21. Rollin' hot today. 20. 24. 17. Everyone rolled really well there. You dive into the water slide and it's very violent. You know, it spins you around, up is down, down is up, you tumble through it, and it makes you really queasy, but you manage to maintain your composure. All four of you, a pretty quick succession, one after another, emerging the other end of the water slide. Well, from your perspective, you're just in water. You're in a big body of water. Gunther, you went in first. What do you do? Well, does it inst? Summary like. Yeah, like the water slide has spit you out into like a pool, but you're at the bottom of the pool, essentially. Think of it that way. I'll look around, so I can see and move around pretty well in water, do I see anything stick out? If not, I'm going to swim up. Yeah, you little leapads. Make me a perception trick, Gunther. 11. It appears to you looking around, you know, you have some experience in doing this kind of thing. Like, you're at the bottom of a lake of some kind. Oh. And you look around, and you see a couple of barrels on the bottom of the lake, with something glistening in them. Okay, so I went to the barrel and see what's up. Yeah, do you have any like special ability to like hold your breath or to operate underwater? It's not listening. - Is it in my character sheet? - Okay, I just wanted to do it if you had anything. - Sorry, you swim over and you see four barrels that appear to be cracked like they've been down here and they've been worn for a bit. And like I said, there is like glistening, almost like the glistening of gold in them. - Oh. - Can't you try and swim it up to the top? One of them? - You mean like carry one up to the top? - Yeah, there's it too heavy. - The barrel? - Make me a strength check. - Five. - You try to lift it up and it's just like between the fact that it's partially embedded in the ground and all the weight of the water and whatever's in it, it just really doesn't budge. - I'll take my wafting warp pick and smash the barrel. - Yeah, you take your pick out and you swing, it's a little difficult to swing underwater but you manage to swing your warp pick and strike at the barrel and it splinters open. Revealing 61 gold pieces. - I guess I'll take them. - I can. - Yeah, you reach out and start collecting the gold pieces and this is when everyone else kinda enters the bottom of the lake as well. One after the other, you jumped in first with a little bit of lead time so give a little bit of time there, Gunther. The other three, three of you also emerge. All of you, you know, when you emerge, you feel a little queasy, you kinda turn around and you're at the bottom of this body of water. You look around and you see Gunther smashing open a barrel starting to pick up gold pieces. But Gunther, as you're collecting these gold pieces, something's weird about them, they change. - Oh. - All of a sudden, you're surrounded by a school of fish. - Oh. - You thought they were gold pieces, but it's actually-- - Yeah, goldfish! - Small fish, and they begin swimming around you very quickly, picking at you. I'm gonna try and swim up and get out. - Yeah, you swim up to the surface. Yeah, from the other perspective of you other three, you see Gunther being followed by a school of fish that are like swimming around him and he's swimming up to the surface. - Oh, Gunther's making friends, all the long, Gunther's making friends. - Yeah, Nanny would start swimming up to the surface and taking Gigi with her. - And Doug, right? - And taking Doug, and Gigi would grab Doug. - Okay, thank you. - Could Tole take the barrel, not smash it open, and take it to the top, he can breathe under water, because I have storm salt. I wonder if the gold-- I wouldn't know that the goldfish turned from gold to goldfish. - Yeah, you wanna go over and try to pick one up me. I'd make a strength check. - Sure. - Ooh, 19. - And make me a perception check as well. - Six. - Okay. - It's really heavy, but you manage to heave up and pull one of the barrels out from the floor of this lake and carry it up to the surface. - You can be, and everyone will say, is on the shore there. Gunther, you manage to eventually escape your newfound friends. - Yeah. - Okay, I found some loot. Gunther, make me a perception check. - Okay. - 13. You think you're missing some gold? - Oh, you're missing 61 pieces of gold. - Ah, clever, good fishies. - Clever good fishies. - You manage to pull your barrel out to the surface and it's filled with gold. - Don't be careful. That is not gold, it is goldfish, and they will steal from you. - Okay, can I take one piece of gold out? I mean, it's in a barrel, so they're kind of, you know, you can fish in a barrel, you know what I mean? - Yeah, you take a piece of gold out. - Okay, put it in my pocket. - Yep, yeah, add one piece of gold to your inventory. - Seems fine to me, I don't know what you're freaking out about, little guy. - Well, be careful in the water. - Oh, so maybe when I go back into the water, that's when, okay, then I wade back into the water with my new gold piece. - Yeah, there's gold. - Okay, great, I've nothing wrong here. Everybody load up on gold. How much gold in the 40 something? - 46. - 46 divided by four. - Let's be scrambling for a calculator. - I don't need a calculator for that. - What? (laughing) 11.5, so everybody gets 11 gold pieces. - Around 12 to 12, if you want, for some of us. - I was gonna give the rest to Gigi, you know. - Oh, oh, oh. - I'll take 11. - I'll take 11 too. - Thank you very much. - Well, Natty needs more than most of us. - Now, Natty doesn't need any. Y'all keep misconstruing Natty's lack of need of monetary wealth as Natty has a gambling problem. (laughing) Listen, you haven't been to the clubs in a while. You haven't done your circuit. You haven't been in any shows recently. I know work is hard right now. - So, we're on the shores of Chimera Lake. - You find yourselves on the shore of a forested lake with the scent of cedar in the air. You hear distant singing and this lake appears to be a pristine lake, a freshwater fish. There's fog that lingers at the top of tall evergreen trees on either side of the lake to the west in the east and a rocky, rushing river mouth to the north that feeds into this lake. - Where's the keep? - I don't know. Maybe you're still in the keep, maybe not. - Ceiling, tell me about a ceiling. Is there a ceiling or is there a sky? - Yeah, there's a sky. Well, you look up actually and you see fog at the top of the tall evergreen trees. - Okay. - So we're outside. - So would it be accurate in saying that fog is kind of limiting our. - Your line of sight? - Visibility? - Visibility, yeah. But is that what it is? We can't quite see the edge. - It's hard to see. The fog is lingering at the tops of the trees. - Okay. - It appears like it down to the southeast. You see descending stone steps. - Descending as in the steps go down? - Correct. - Into the ground. - It's hard to say. - Well, like. - They descend into the distance, yeah. Like, they don't go underground. It's like descending off into the distance. - Yeah, the perspective goes off and you can't see where they're going. - Correct, yeah. I didn't realize you'd been like underground. - It's just communication. People talk different. - Last question. - Really quick. - Singing. - What direction? - Making investigation check. - Plus one, so that's nine. - Yeah, it seems like it's coming somewhere from the tree tops. It's really hard to make out. It's almost like it's kind of echoing around. - I see we climb the tree, see where we are. - What are the birds up there? - Then we are better in their house. - You know, I don't know what that sentence meant. Like, I don't know what that means. Could you break that down for me, good? - We are better. We are in their territory and they have to defend themselves. We could push eggs. - I mean, they have home field advantage though, wouldn't you say? - No, they have home field advantage where they can die from trees. - With a loud crack, one of the tree starts falling near you guys. Everyone make a dexterity save you throw. Oh my god, it's gonna crush you. (laughing) - 30/20, 15. - 11? - Well, glad we didn't climb that one. - 18. - Yeah, you all managed to dive out of the way as the tree follows where the four of you were standing just moments before, and all four of you hear giggling in the distance. (laughing) - Okay, natty is gonna send Geeky after the giggling. Geeky, get those gigglers. - Make a giggit check, see if he listens to you. - Charles is in the trees. 11. - That's good, right? - That's enough. - It's over 10? - Yes. - Is that the giggit check? - Yeah. (laughing) - Geeky begins running into the distance. - Geeky, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit, giggit. - Guys, that's something in those trees. And it ain't no man. (laughing) - The trees are pretty tall. They're like 60 foot tall cedar trees with bluish green leaves and reddish ground bark. - Do we see the end of them? And what's the order day, like, kind of-- - They have bluish gray groups and the fog that seems to linger at the top of the trees. And again, it sounds like singing or giggling. Giggie reaches the base of one of the trees and begins looking around, almost like sniffing the ground, trying to find the source. - Okay. Gunther's climate tree, the one that gays looking at. - Yeah, you run up to the tree and begin trying to climb it. What is that, an athletics check? - Athletics or acrobatics, I don't know. - Yeah, I'm kind of split. I feel like it could go either way. We'll do, I know it's better for you, so we'll do acrobatics. - Yes, thanks for your trip. - 13. And the way Gunther climbs, he uses his tongue as a-- both a help thing, he spits it out. He laps the thing and uses it as a-- to help him climb and also as a support so he can't fall. - That's pretty cool. - Wow, off-brand Spider-Man. (laughing) You begin climbing the tree without too much difficulty. And you make good progress going up to the top. And as you're climbing up in the tree, the singing seems to get louder and louder. - It's hunting up there. - Make me an investigation check, Gunther. - 13. - You get near the top and you think you see someone up there. You see what appears to be an old woman hiding behind the other side of the tree with her, just her eyes peeking out, looking at you. - Humanoid? - Yeah, humanoid looking woman. - Not, not so looking. - No, no. - Come on, get down from that tree, get down from that tree. - Can I gesture for the guys to fall? - Yeah, describe the gesture to me. - Well, I'm holding on with the one hand in my tongue and then goes, "Oh, okay, so I'm going to-- I'm a point ten and wave towards me and then point up and then do make a little humanoid person with my fingers, like two fingers down, two fingers up, like-- - Sure, oh, he's big, sure eights, he's big, sure eights. How many syllables? - You all see a gun through just speculating bizarrely up in the tree. - Hey, gun through, we can hear each other from this distance. If you wanted to tell us-- - Gun through, you could just tell us, yeah. - His tongue, he's using his tongue. - But we can still hear you with the, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. - He does, also, gosh, he doesn't have to use his tongue. He has arms and legs. - Eat? Well, he described it that way. - He's just going like this. - That is a singing woman. - They're the singing woman, he says. - A singing woman. What is she singing about? Yeah, and what does she look like? Oh, old. She's got a checkered face and a toe-stool body. Green with yellow polka dots, and she's wearing a jerkin made of felt. How far is she from you, Gunther? Pretty close to 10 feet, maybe? Gunther-- [GASPS] --and gestures 5/5. OK. And point the direction she is. 55. She's 55. 55 is not that old. [GASPS] Gunther points up. She says he's number one. Nadi shoots an Elge Blast that direction based off of his triangulation. Oh. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, go ahead and-- This woman dropped a tree on us, OK? Shots fired. Do you have to make a roll for that? Yeah, an attack roll. Is that 16 plus? Where's Elge Blast? Plus 7. That's a 23. OK, yeah, that hits. Hey, out of kindness, because it is an old lady, told we'll run to the base of the tree to try to catch. Roll for damage? Yeah. Six, sports damage. Gunther to your horror, you see Nadi pull out her finger pistols and shoot an Elge Blast. It sizzles through the air, flying really close to your face, impacting this trail old woman in the tree tunnel, knocking her out of the tree. [GASPS] I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. Make a-- make a texturdy save me through. OK. We have a saying back where I come from. It goes Nadi around and find out. [GASPS] Roll the one, but I saved it because I have advantage. Should I roll the 16? The one would have been funnier. That would have been really funny. It would have been pretty funny. I wish I had always stood to the one, yeah. Yeah, she falls very rapidly towards the ground. Told you run to try to catch her. You stumble a little bit, kicking a rock, but you quickly regain your composure. And with a dive, you catch her before she's able to hit the ground. Oh, thank you, dearie. Of course, of course. Let me give you a hug, guys, I've got her. Correct. I also hope we do not recast this character. Why would you say that, Barbara? Well, you guys are such a beautiful voice, even the way you speak is beautiful and very sing-songy. Melodic, is that a word? Melodic. Yeah, anything can be a word if you want it to-- Spizzle drizzle. Spizzle drizzle. Hey, yes, Spizzle drizzle. Why did you throw a tree at us? That was my grandchildren. The ones who made the tree? Falling us? Yes. Oh, OK. Where are they at? Somewhere safe. Somewhere over the rainbow. Are you jumpy? What's your name? You can call me Grammy fungus. Grammy-- oh, my god, there's a cream for that. Guys, I can't come into work today. I got the Grammy fungus. Can I do something I've never done before? Yeah, what do you want to do, John? I'm going to use my auto harp. Heck yeah. I've had this new auto harp for so long, and I've not used the abilities, and it makes me sad every time I read through it. Instead of just straight up intimidation, Natty's going to play, use the action, famous fable, which basically allows me to kind of do a bardic thing, and I can invent something that an NPC has heard about us, or me. It's an interesting ability. OK. You might have to confer with Micah on the exact mechanics of how the succeeds or fails, because that's the end of it, other than it gives an example of what this can be. But Natty plays a song that tells the tale of the four, the six travelers, four, seven, eight, the six. No, no, no, no, damn it. The seven travelers. And Ross will do it. Woo-hoo. Who, those who treat them with kindness, find fortune in their future. And those who treat them with malice, especially with trees are cursed forever. OK, so yeah, go ahead and invent the scenario. Yeah, I mean, just what would that be? You mean you want me to make up a song right now? Like, I'm Wayne Brady, I sing this song. Yeah, what's that like to come up with a song on the fly? Well, playing D&D. There was a tale of seven chaps. They never needed any naps. Treat them fair, or you'll get woe. They've always fight and win their foe. That's it. That's all I'm giving you. I like the incorporation of woe from all of it. Oh, yeah. Into your famous fable. No, it was more just John said a sentence, and then made later John figure out how to rhyme that sentence. That's all I did with Bart. Start with one, and then you'll see where we're at. Yeah, you'll know where the next variable track goes if you just put down one. Yeah, I kind of want to play a bar next campaign. Because this is, this sounds terrible. I mean, not exactly. It's so fun. It's a great character. Ooh. I have heard to treat you fairly, fair, travelers. OK. Yeah, because of the song that he does say. Shut up. So why don't you get your grandchildren down here so we can talk to them and see what's going on here? Grandchillens. From the tree tops, you hear a chorus of voices saying, "No, we don't think so." You're going to get cursed. You're going to get cursed. Don't make me play the song again. You can't find one. I've got a very strong grip on Grammy fungus. Uh-oh. My muscles are tensing and it's getting tired of her. That sounds like the gree-step deaf guy from Family Guy right now. Do it! Do it! You are a nerd! You won! Are you beckoning me to kill your Grammy fungus? Do it! You need to have a talk with these grandchildren of yours. OK. Hey, Grammy, are we inside the key pride now still? Because if you couldn't tell by the fact that we're all drenched and dodging trees, we're a little lost and we're on our way to complete a quest for a God. Of course you are in Chimera-Key! That's perfect. That's perfect. You got great pitch. Wow. Have you seen this guy and Doug does his impression of the Chimera-R-R-R-A again? Uh. Yeah. Doug's good at this. So, yeah, it's a really solid impression. He did it once. Oh, yes. We have like a, we have like a shapeshifter or performer on the team, but I like, I like Doug. V in the Chimera. I like it. He's doing interpretive dancing. It makes him feel good. Yeah, it's great. He's got to express himself. It helps. It's healthy. Exactly. Talk, be the wings. Be the wings. It's a man-ta. It's a man-ta-ray. The sound of a man-ta-ray. Be the wing. Gunther's taking notes because he was so bad at it. It was a dream. When you did the knoll? No, no. Just trying to gesture with my hands in the tree. Ah, yes. Find the Chimera, continue climbing the key. Y'all got stairs over there that seem to go down. Is there anywhere in this, we'll call it a room that goes up. Take the ridges to the north, west or east, either is fine. Okay. You mentioned earlier that they had a toad body or something, they were like checkered body, checkered face, toad stool body, green with yellow polka dot, where's a jerkin made of felt. And speaking of our patrons over at StinkyDragonPod.com, this is an NPC that the community helped come up with, with Micah, over on our Discord, if that sounds like something fun or something you don't want to do, head over to StinkyDragonPod.com, one of the many features, one of the many benefits. Okay. How about you, how about you, you know, from one parental figure to another, you're doing a good job. Okay. I know it's hard. I know it's difficult, and it's just like you're just wrangling monsters, but you're doing a good job. I want to make sure you know that. They told me I could kill them. They said, no, they have no care for this woman whatsoever. She's better off coming with us. You ever had a kid? No, you haven't. I'll answer for you. Okay. And it's hard enough without people judging you, because kids are going to be kids. You know, you can't control them. One of my kids have ever tried to kill me. He has hundreds of them. All kids are different. Okay. They don't mean it. They're just playing. Hey, little kids, I'm going to break your Grammy fungus, his neck, what do you say about that? We're not playing. Kill him. I mean, this is an issue here. All right. You know what? I've come full circle. I like those kids. Those are some good kids. Okay. You're doing good. You're doubling down. You're doing good. I'm going to let you go. Best of luck. Because I don't think you're going. I don't think you're long for this world. Daddy takes the 11 gold. She just got him puts in a Grammy fungus's hand and says, "Here." You need help. Go buy yourself something. I'm going to give you a little bit of money. the 11 gold pieces from you with her left hand, then with her right hand, she outstretches it in your direction, Nadi, and mushrooms begin growing out of her hand. ♪ For you ♪ - Psychedelic. - Like out of her hands, I gotta pick them off her hand. - Yeah. - Oh. - Yeah, that's cool. - Oh. - Are these, where are these four? Decorative, edible? - Are these children? - Are they like grenades? (laughing) - They are what you make of them. - Oh, good Lord woman. - Just tell her. - She's making you adopt her babies. - They are mushrooms. (laughing) ♪ I could tell ♪ (laughing) - Okay, Nadi, how many do I get? You guys, how many mushrooms? - Three. - Okay, I got, I'm pocketing the three mushrooms, and I'm going to, I'm going to wait to use these mushrooms at the most opportune time possible. - Nadi, I have something like that, too, when I hold up my bend of mushrooms. (laughing) The mushrooms begin sprouting from it. They're trumpet-shaped mushrooms. They're green with yellow polka dots. They smell like your grandma, Nadi. - You don't know what my grandma smells like. - Well, these mushrooms do apparently. - Are you my Grammy? - No. - Okay, all right, team. Well, we've got at least a destination or a direction or at least option to go west or east. She said just go up the ridge. - The school. - Okay, up the ridge. - Yeah, let's get that all. - Oh, last question. Where did those stairs go? - Yeah, that's a good question. ♪ Those stairs go to the lab ♪ - Lab? - Doug. (laughing) What kind of lab? My friends a bit of a scientist here. (laughing) - I'm a bit of a scientist. - It's my second. (laughing) ♪ I don't know not mushrooms boring ♪ - Well, team leader, where are we going? - Oh, man. I don't know if I could decide in this case. Maybe it's time for me to give up team leadership. I feel like I'm having decision paralysis. Too many decisions into too short of a period of time. Gunther? This seems like a job for you. - You're giving it back to Gunther. It's just going back and forth. - Wait, is he right before? No, give him my knock-unther. Let's get in there. Oh, told. - Me? Oh, I'm so worthy of this position. Okay, let's go. (laughing) - With that Grammy-Fungus curtsies and she goes back to the tree and instead of climbing it back up with her head facing this guy, she almost gets on the tree upside down with her head facing the ground and her feet towards the air and she climbs up the tree backwards. - Weird. - Her kids start throwing pine cones and rocks at her. (laughing) - Good luck. - I know you have decision paralysis, Doug, but do you need like re-stocking or anything for like lab equipment? Would you like to stop by? 'Cause otherwise we could just keep going up kind of here and keep, but I do want to give you this opportunity. - I do feel just kind of guilty going to a place where just, you know, I'm interested in going, but if you guys are okay, make a little pit stop in the lab. - I mean, I like a lab. - Okay. - We could find use in a lab. There could be like thomotech things. - Okay. - Gunther's I called you? - Sure. I am just as bad of a leader because I like to think democratically. All right, we're going to the lab. - The lab. - Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill. - The sign of a terrible leader listening to people. (laughing) - There's more of a bakedman's world house, but yeah, Bill, nice good. - Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh boon, the science guy. - You all descend these stone steps to the in the south eastern portion of the room and they slowly continue descending and eventually you find yourself back in what appears to be, what you would traditionally think of, like as I keep going back to your earlier questions, Nadi, you find yourself in some kind of laboratory or workshop. It feels really humid in here. There's a cistern and a shelf with objects. Well, there's actually two shelves. There's a shelf of objects and a shelf of glass cylinders that seems to contain some kind of specimen. - Total checks is shield. Is there any sign of thomitech technology? - You take a look at your shield and it does not appear to be glowing, okay. Oh, and the exits are, of course, to the northwest where you just came from and there appears to be a door to the south as well. - Okay, hey, Doug, you want to check out that specimen? - I really do. - Okay, let's go over there. - I'll go over there with Nadi. And in the process, Doug is already taking out his tools as if he's going to do science. - He's salivating a little bit. - Ah, you guys could just go on in without me and I'll just be back here with you. - Doug and Nadi, as you, you know, you step through the archway that leads into this room and as soon as you do, I want both of you two to make me dexterity saving throws. - Ah, this 11 plus 3, 14. - 12. - Seemingly out and nowhere, water rushes down from the archway, dousing the two of you, instantly turning you both into solid gold. - The golden rod in here not wanting us to do science is that what's going on? - Would told be able to, without touching them, maybe using some sort of rope or something like that, pull them out of the water flow. - Let me read you a little bit of this description and then I'll let you act on that toll. So this archway, it's a gothic pointed archway that's bathed in a beam of light from above and it's ornately carved stonework. And at the top, there's gilded glyphs that drip with condensation at the foot of these ascending stone stairs. So yeah, you want to try to reach in and kind of pull them out of the water there, toll? - Yeah, using some sort of instrument that I could easily drop that way, I don't myself get turned into gold. - Yeah, Gunther, make me a perception check. - Okay. - Oh, sorry, guess, five, five, okay. - I told you reach out and you begin trying to knock natty and dug out from the water and make me a, just make like an unarmed strike, like a attack roll plus strength plus proficiency bonus. - Unarmed strike, there was a 16. - Okay, 16. Yeah, you're able to knock them out of the water. Which direction do you want to push them into the room or pull them back towards you guys? - Pull them towards me, which is safety. - Yeah, you pull them back towards you and once they're out of the water, the gold wears off and they, they reamp it. - Pull, where did your clothes go? - Uh oh, you guys are seeing Bjorn's birthday soon. - I was gonna ask, what are we seeing? Are we seeing Bjorn or are we seeing actual like full stomatic pull? - You're seeing stomatic toll. - Okay. - Oh my God. - So I was like, his skin might constitute us. - Yeah, it's gone. My suit, it's my mother boat. Look away. (laughing) Where'd they go? - We took your clothes. (laughing) - Are those little frogs we've told to people following us? - Not frogs. - You hear the voices come from behind you from the room you just left. - Nadi shoot them with your eldritch blast. Quickly murder, kill on sight, death. - It's too big for us, but we're wearing it anyway. - Nadi casts Mage Hand to go try to pull the clothes back. - So let me get this straight. There's someone, children running around in Bjorn's skin. - No, they all stacked up on top of each other. - Just like a trench cover. - Confirmation from body. - Yeah, you don't see them right now. You just hear the voices, but presumably, it could be either of those. - Okay. - Yeah, the voices have just come from somewhere in that other room up the stairs. - Listen, we gotta go back that way. Well, maybe we don't. But we do. Let's go get the skin later, okay? - Okay. - Okay, promise. We're not gonna leave this keep without that skin. - Hey, my eyes are up here. - Okay. (laughing) - Hey, I have a question. Did you shave his butt? Is that what you, did you have to shave the whole area? - Who Bjorns? - Yeah. - Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's from parts of the preservation. - Okay. - You moisturized, yeah. He often got complimented for his booty. So I want to honor him. - Doug, make me a perception check. - 15. - You think that there's something about that beam of light in the archway that triggered the trap. You think if you avoid the beam of light that it would not trigger the water to fall on you? - Am I close enough where everyone could hear me if I told them that? - Yeah, you're right next to him. I told you back on that side. - Okay, I just avoid that beam of light. I think that's what's causing this. - Horizontal, vertical beam of light, vertical. - Vertical. - Okay, so we seem like kind of shimmy past it. - Yeah. - Okay, then we shimmy past it. - I assume Doug, you resume your walking over to the shelf. You and Nadi? - Yes, please. - Avoiding that beam of light. - Nadi has also changed her visage to have a lab coat on. - Ooh, nice. - You'd look around the shelf and it appears to be a wooden shelf of plants and animals kept in glass cylinders. There's some gold idols, some living. You take a look at a few? - You think they've been like testing, turning, living things in the golden here? - Well, I mean, if you look at the, I feel like they'll be testing a lot of stuff. I mean, the chimera is definitely a combination of a bunch of different animals and potentially even objects with the way it's tail looked with all the mirror pieces. - I don't know, there's gotta be some experimentation happening here. - Guys, you think they dissect frogs in here? - No goodness, no hope, hope not. Gunther starts throwing up. (laughing) - But yeah, I definitely would like to take a look. - Yeah, you take a look at one of the specimens and it's a miniature sunflower in a glass vile. - Oh, hey, Gunther could duck pick it up and show it to Gunther and say, "Man, how about you, chance to just look like the wilder flower?" - Does it? - No, no. - Okay, never mind. I just, maybe it's a little insensitive but me to assume flowers look like other flowers and the wilder flower. - The duck has flower blindness. (laughing) - It's a rare and serious condition, everybody. - You take a look at another one and in another specimen jar, you see what appears to be a solid gold toad stool. - Toad stool blames. toad stool. It's whatever it's what I've got this family. It's in the name. Toad stool. It's a stool sample. We should not touch it. I knew someone's going to make a poop choke. I just wanted to quickly ask if the I don't know if I'd be able to tell this, but is it like the way the Toad stool looks gold? Does it look like the same type of liquid gold that was pouring on us? Like it kind of tell if it's the same kind of consistency? Well, it was water that poured on you. That turned you into gold, so yeah, this just appears to be from what you can tell solid gold. Okay. Okay. Do you think they're trying to synthesize the will to flower like make a fake one or something? Well, there's also totes as a mushroom. There's will flowers not a mushroom. Yeah. Well, the sunflowers. And they said and there's also animals. I think it's just a bunch of stuff maybe from that they found in nature and outside and stuff like that. I see. We could investigation check, Doug. Yes, please. Mr. Investigator. Oh, come on. Six. Hey, nanny's there too. Can nanny investigate. Okay. It's not going to be much better. It's a seven. But come by. That's a good team. All right. Rolling for Gigi. Let's see. Gigi rolled in 18. So what did Gigi see? Gigi sees some grandchildren wearing tall skin. They're also standing on top of each other. There's like three tall. It's like three little kids in a trench coat pretending to be an adult. No, I think you're wrong there, Gus. Nanny looks and Gigi's on top of them and has made them for people. Yeah. Exactly. Gigi's joined into the conga line. No, as you're putting the gold totes tool back on the shelf, Doug, your hand bumps into something else on the shelf and knocks it over. It falls to the ground and you see that it was a bent piece of a green armor plate. It seemed like it was floating in the air when your hand hit it and then as soon as your hand bumped into it, it fell to the ground with a loud clatter. Does this look recognizable to any of us? Doug, you're going to share it with the group? Yeah. Doug, you find it and you turn around with it and you show it to everyone and Gunther, you recognize it. It's a green plate armor that's only crafted in fly flats. Is that that that's where he's from? Yeah. This is armor of my people. Is it belong to bun lap? Maybe he left it behind? It very well could be so. You tell if there was like room, but enough room like for his muscles and stuff like that. Like if this is the actual piece. Does it still smell like him? Oh check, oh check. You made me do an actual spit take barber. It could be because he grew it because of muscle and that's why it's discarded. Oh no, what a problem. It was floating? Yeah, it was just like floating above the shelf and then clatter to the ground once it was bumped into. Is there other pieces floating? Got that you see. I put something right where that was to see if there was something making it floating or if the armor was, you know, like if it's like a little floating bed. Yeah, you put something there and it just sits on the shelf unmoving. Maybe if you try equipping it, you can figure out like it gives you some sort of benefit or something. You won't fit in it. You won't play it. It won't look as good as you as it will on bun lap. Is it a full thing in armor or like just a little piece? Just a piece of a plate. A plate let to be specific. Good. Nadi. When we came in here and saw that stuff, the thought in my head is look for notes to see if there's signs of whose lab this is because we have thus far not only we've met somebody that strikes me as a lab tech. Yeah, I mean, you look around and, you know, you re-examine the room and you can, you see, you know, the cistern, the shelf of objects and the shelf of the glass cylinders, the specimens which you are, you're at, but nothing that seems to really the note who owns it or who it belongs to. Weird, but there's a door to the south. Yes, and then there's the archway to the northwest which you all came through and then a door to the south. Open or close as currently closed. Door handle? Yes. Up here. Just to see if it's a closet, Nadi opens the door. You open it up and on the other side you see a dark and drafty corridor with a collapsed floor. It's about a sheer drop into maybe some kind of tunnel. Then across the collapsed corridor on the other side, you kind of get the faint smell of wine from the other side. Is that where we fell through from beginning? No, that was outside. Okay, okay, that's close. Okay. Because we've now actually gone up. Yeah, and so we're at the. Came back down. And then we came down. So do we want to leave the lab and then go up the staircase that Grammy fungus told us to go through? Yeah, we can go either way. We can either venture further or retrace and go up the thingies. Can we quite figure out what they're actually trying to do here? I don't know if all the pieces to the puzzle are here. It's your job. I need to spend much more time in here researching. I mean, I need to proper sample size and I need evidence, you know. Is there anything that we miss? Bjorn takes a passive look around the lab. Is there anything else that we missed? Bjorn? Sorry, I'm thinking about. They're playing weakened at Bjorn's over there with my father's skin. Nice. Take an inspiration directly. We can have Bjorn's. I think that feels like you might have been holding on to that one for a while. No, I mean, improv, just like. Good. Good job, man. That's what you get when you listen to Tales from Sneaky Dragon, top notch improv. Quality. Just as a reminder, you all at one point did open a door to a corridor from a room that smelled like wine. I was going to say we, and there was, it was, we described, or it was like described as like a dark kind of musty. Correct. When you, right, when you're in the banquet hall, you opened the door. You didn't end up going through, but there was a collapsed floor there. And that room, the banquet hall did spell of wine. Yes. So the logical leap would be that this eventually connects back to the banquet hall. Somewhere maybe. Which is good because this was, I think, the place that Doug originally was going to say before we decided to go to the water slide. So like, that loop is closed. I feel comfortable to move on. No, it's not. No. No, because he's, he's talking about when we were down with Claudia. Claudia. And then went into that room with like the turn style and the, the bridge with the frozen water. And then we went into the room with the, the banquet hall with, I drew things with horns. I think they had like, they had like little pincers. Oondareans in there. Oondareans, yes. Yeah, this is where the, and Dorian's went up, right? Yeah. They, they went through that door. Correct. To go and follow Nadi's persuasion. So we've closed that loop, but we can still go back out through the archway and go up the ridge, the way that granny fungus holds us. Well, now you presented another thing, though, we could go get Claudia. I mean, no. All right, let's, all right, gang. First and foremost, I'm taking that skin back. Very offensive. Imagine that I like paraded your Grammy fungus around and was like, you wouldn't like that. They wouldn't care, Dolph. They told you to kill their granny. They might be into that. Okay, bad example. But I'm taking that back. Sure. So I'm going to take the beyond skin back. We're going to go back outside. We're going to go up the stairs. The Grammy fungus recommended. Okay, you turned around to leave the room. And all four of you make me a, let's call it a perception check. Ooh, 18 plus three, 22. And that's 12. Seven, five. We're going to be releasing dice and we want to release a 12 set and all the dice are 12. And nice. It's just just seven dice of 12. As you're walking out of the room, say, Doug and Nadi, you take a look at the sister, which is a three by three foot underground, that kind of container of water is filled with steaming water. And you see a golden mosaic tiled interior. Do you think is this the place where the golden rod probably resides? Well, I bet you it's a betcha. The water is the same kind of water that turns things gold. Potentially. Potentially. Maybe. Let's test it out. Nadi grabs like one of those gold vials that you said are like somewhere and like dips it in the water. Do you pick the sunflower or something else or the whole vial? Uh, yeah, give me that sunflower. Okay. So you take the sunflower out of the vial and dip it in the water? Yes. You dip the sunflower in the water and the sunflower transmutes and turns into solid gold. Okay. So this is the lab where they make this water that has magical mildest abilities. So I put what I wonder what the point to this is. I wonder if it's supposed to be for the golden rod to get more gold. I mean, yeah, I mean, it probably is just part of their stick a little bit because they just used it to dump on on Doug. As you're looking, you know, in the in the cistern and dipping the sunflower, uh, you, you know, you take your eyes are invariably drawn towards that mosaic and you see the mosaic depicts a venn diagram of symbology, an empty circle overlapping with a golden circle and with a water droplet in the middle. And you see a solid gold plug at the bottom of the cistern connected to a chain. Yeah, Nadi pulls that chain. Sure. Nothing could go wrong. Yeah, as he said, there's a chain attached to something. I'm going to pull it. But watch is where the water is going to pull out like I ain't going to be landing on my feet or anything. You reach into the water to pull on the drain. Oh, the chain was inside the thing. Yeah. Is there something I could do to not have my hand in the water? You tell me. Is there a glove around? There's a mint in the mushrooms. Well, Nadi wears gloves and a full clothes, like a full sleeve shirt. So could I just do that? Sure. You try to protect your hand and you reach in and pull it on the chain that's connected to the plug. And it it pops out, and the water begins very rapidly draining out of the cistern. - And the toilet just flush, the poopy goes down. - That's cool, sample, sample, sample, sample, sample. - The tiles shift, revealing something in the water. It reveals something that's in there. It seems almost like a secret room that was not visible before. - What? - What? - Secret room. - Like a painting? - Maybe a portal, type thing, because it seems like those actous portals mean? - Maybe. - Should we go in there? - Cisterns big enough for bodies to pass through? - Yeah, it's like three by three. - Okay. - Three feet by three feet? - Yeah, yeah. - Okay, floats down. - Yeah. Well, you don't have, oh, I was confused 'cause of the liquid. - We all flow down here. - You hop in there entering this previously unseen room. And as soon as you enter, you have a soothing feeling of calm and safety. There's plush floor cushions around a hearth with a fire with metal drainage pipes and a lever connected to a chain. - Metal drainage pipes and a lever connected to a chain. - Yeah. - A lot of plumbing in this episode. - Do we see where the chain is going to? Like the lever with the chain? - You're mechanically minded, Doug, so you would probably be able to ascertain this. You suspect, you hypothesize as it were, that pulling the air ice, that pulling the lever will most likely close the ceiling up again, making this room secret and hidden once more. - Okay, well, now that we're all in here, should we close this back up just in case, you know, someone could get the jump on us? - Sure. - Sure, sure, yeah. I mean, what could go wrong? Let's not be able to open it again and be stuck in this room forever. - Woo, yeah! - We get trapped forever. You guys are organics. You run out of oxygen, die. I live on forever surrounded by the corpses of my friends. What's the worst that could happen? (laughing) - Go figure it out. - I feel like this is a fear you've been holding on to. - Oh no, that's not crazy. - So when you trapped under water, and you think about these thoughts all the time every day, just walking, no oxygen. - Yes. - Yes, everywhere, death all the time. - Well then, what if I just let it crack a little bit? - I think that's a good idea, yeah, yeah. - Could I like pull it, and so it's like, it doesn't, could junk all the way close, but like, there's a little, or is it all or nothing kind of thing? - It seems like it's an all or nothing thing. Like pulling it is going to activate it, and that's not like, it activates something that proceeds, it's not like you're a one-to-one pulling the lever and activating the time. - Well, let's, all right, everybody in search, the room mode, all the oxygen free, if you see something. - Okay, I'll leave it open for now, but if we want to close it at any point, I'll run over and crank the lever. - Okay, so you leave it, leaving it open for now? - Yeah. - Yeah. - I'll do my things that I did that looks for secret stuff. The what you're gonna call it, things. - What you call it? - So what does this thing do to you, Bill? - I, I watch him call it thing. - Yeah, you don't have that on your character sheet? - Everyone should have that. It's the, where is it? - Where is it? - Is it the what you call it, yeah? - Yeah. - Octopot of Obscura. - There it is. - Ooh. - Yeah. - You pour out a little bit of the octopus, you gotta make like a roll on that, right? - Mm-hmm. - Oh, we had that rule thing where it kind of governs how what our inventory is. - Three. - Okay, so do I keep it? - I think it was 2D60 roll at this point, isn't it? - Oh, that's right. - Yeah. - Is that recharged per rest or is it like, once it's out, it's out? - Yeah, for like a long rest. - Okay. - And then a two. - Yeah, both of those drops. We have no die left until your next long rest. - Hopefully you find something really cool. (laughing) - Yeah, you are partly octopus and it flows towards something secret or hidden. - Mm-hmm. - I mean, you're in a secret room. (laughing) - It flows around and it goes to the border of the room and flows all around the corners of the border of the room. - You found it, go third. - I have the worst attorneys. (laughing) - Nadi would go over to the hearth. - Oh, good idea. - You go over who, nice and warm. - And would sit down and enjoy it. - Feels really invigorating, really relaxing. - Could Doug look around the room and see if there's any like, mirrors or paintings or like anything shiny? I know that's like three different things, but. - It's, yeah, I'll give it to you. - It's like the same general vibe. - Yeah, in the decor section. - Yeah, you look around and there is nothing like that. Even the closest would be the drainage pipes which are metal, but they're not lustrous. They don't shine. I guess same thing with the chain, but it's like a dull metal. - Well, at least we're safe from the chimera ride here. That's, you know, point one for this room. - That's the thing we're trying to find though. (laughing) - It's true, but it can't get the jump on us, you know? - Okay, okay, unless it comes down into this hole and we're trapped in here with the chimera. - Yeah, but then it can't escape. So at least we have to get the jump on it, you know? - You are. - You are a glass, half full. - Gentlemen, I cheer you on for it. (laughing) Does anything happen to Natty as Natty is enjoying the hearth? Like, I don't know, levels up or something? - Levels up. - All my health is back on the side. - I mean, I have all my health. I only dropped 10 points and then we'd sort rested. - Yeah, I know, it just feels good. - Okay. - And you feel like a sense of calm comes over you. Like you could really unwind and let your hair down as it were here. - Okay. And then an infernis pops up out of the fire of the hearth. - Is there anything else? - We could get into a pillow fight that he mentioned. There was pillows. - Natty throws a pillow at 12. - Oh, he, he, he, he, no, you captain grumbles. (laughing) - So, like, matter wise, it's like a, since it's like a secret room, it's a room you could take a short rest or a long rest if you wanted to without risk being discovered since you're, you're kind of hidden here. - Oh. - So we just found kind of a safe spot then. - All right. - So, well, I mean, does it seem like someone has been in this room recently? - Yeah, you take a look around and you see like a sticky pouch in one of the corners of the room under a cushion. - Let me pick it up, see what it is. - What's a sticky pouch? - It's like a pouch, but it's like sticky on it. Like, it's, like, a pouch that you would, an adventurer would carry, but it's sticky. - All right, okay. - You open it up, take a look, and inside you see freeze-dried flies. - Oh! - Oh! - I'm happy to see it. - Wait, can I hold it up and show Gunther and ask if he recognizes this or if, you know, his bun lap has had this for? - Yeah. - Oh, it looks delicious. - Well, like, okay, wait. I don't know how long he's been sitting here, but it's just bun laps. Have you seen him wear this before? - I, yes. And the freeze-dried is a way to preserve them and take them on long trips. - Well, if he wouldn't mind you eating the rest of his snackies, then I think you could go. - I would mind him eating the rest of my snack. (gasps) - What? - Oh, that boy's high snackies. (laughs) - You'd look up and see a very handsome outfit. His muscles glistening with sweat, looking down from the still-propped open door. - You just had myself off. - And he got startled too much and shoots him with an elge fly. - No! - No! - I know. - Save some of those for me. - It's so good to see you. I thought we would, wow, how are you doing? (laughs) Find out how bun lap is doing in the next episode of Tales from the Sticky Dragon. - Oh, the worst cliffhanger ever. We need to know. - Like the imagery of him coming in shirtless, glistening with sweat while we're in this luxurious room with a fireplace going and told him to be like, - Let's see some fan art in Discord over at Sticky Dragon. - That's the color of the romance novel. - Somehow he has long hair. - Froggy-o. - Froggy-o. - It shoots a frog, Fabio. - Froggy-o, that's great. - Summer is hot, but what's even hotter is our Patreon. And what's even hotter than that is our Patreon with Memberships at 20% off. Get all our content at free tons of bonus shows and podcasts and access to our Discord by becoming a member of our party. All Memberships both monthly and annual are available. For 20% off, you can code summer, stink, all one word, all uppercase, that's s-u-m-m-e-r-s-t-i-n-k at stinkydragonpod.com. Join our Patreon for 20% off. Any and all Memberships is only available for the month of July. So join our party and kick off your summer with us. 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Join us in the tavern next time for another aromatic adventure of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. - It's a room you could take a short rest or a long rest if you wanted to, without risk being discovered, since you're kind of hidden here. - Oh. - Oh. - So is there like a table with med packs and them with ammo? - Bandages, syringes. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, all that stuff. - Bandages, yeah. - Pills here. - Pills here. - Thank you. - You got the green plant, you got the red plant. - So we just found kind of a safe spot there. - I guess so. - All right. Does it seem like someone has been in this room recently? Like is there a hot cup of tea or a lit cigarette? - A lot of cigarettes in our story. Grammy fungus was taking a smoke break from the. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to get away from them kids. - She goes in there immediately. It was like, I'm so sick of this singing. (laughing)