The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 4

Previously on Taz Royale. Yeah, I had to break my foot to get it, but I got it. Go ahead and make an acrobatics check for me. I want you to beat a 15 in order to get through these waters safely. How about a six? No, that actually weirdly doesn't do it. I'm going to cast burning hands. Yeah, give that dragon a taste of still medicine. You snatch this stone out of the liquid. And through the windows, you can see the trees near you. Russell as the Titan reappears. Welcome back to the adventure zone. We are deep in the midst of our second of the eight wizardly trials of the Conclave. The sort of clock interface hovering above the ziggurat shows there's only like a 15 minutes left before the great fireball in this guy descends. The three of you have had varying levels of success in securing the keys you need to reach the ziggurat before the fireball falls. We're just going to pick right back up with Rick this Ravenwood IV, the first in our initiative order. Hi, Travis. Is it too early to use my summon? Is it too early to use your summon? Yeah, the summon ball has your limit gauge. Has your limit gauge chart. Yeah, I'm only at like 60%. Yeah, I think about that. You had just unsuccessfully attempted to get through this waterfall to find this shining treasure within that you were going to be free. Or you could say I successfully failed at it. You failed. And fell in the water where you were pulled up by a young man wearing a big plush looking sweater and headphones who whispered to you in a very convincing voice that you should give him your key. He is casting his special spell on you. And that special spell is suggestion. You make a wisdom saving throw on a failed save it pursues the course of action described to you to the best of your ability. The number you are looking to beat is 13. Okay. And this is technically a charm spell which I believe you have advantage on. Yes, I do. Okay, so roll twice trying to beat a 13 on a wisdom was safe. I had the map up. I don't like to roll through the map. Oh, but I worked so hard on the map. No, I like to look at the map. I'm looking at the map, but I want to have a second thing up. Okay, you said wisdom saving throw. Yep. With advantage beating a 13. Wow, okay. 13 on the money. And there's a 19. Okay, amazing. You definitely feel this guy sort of reaching into your mind. I think that maybe this guy chose the worst imaginable target for this for this ruse because you just sort of put this evil entity underground in its place that was way better at this than he is. And so you are unmoved by this by this action. He still kind of has you by the wrist. What do you do? Yeah, I'm sorry, man, but I'm not going to do that. I just I broke my own foot to get this one. So like I'm going to hold on to it and stuff. But I can I'll help you find your own key if you want. Shit. What's your name? Yeah, he pulls you up on shore. And he whispers called whisper whisper. Okay, yeah, that'll be easy to remember. I don't even need like a demonic device or anything. The only way I talk is by you. Yeah, should I whisper? You don't have to. Okay, great. Actually, I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to hear you. He points to his headphones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I hope I'm going to help you find a key if you want. I've already got mine. Um, he kind of squintes his eyes at you as if he is checking you over to tell if you're trying to screw him over in the way that he just tried to screw you over. I think make a persuasion check here. Okay, maybe we have to persuade somebody to help them. But I think that it is so weird that you're response to. Oh, that is a failure. That is a one covered on 19, you know, he says nice try. I wasn't born yesterday. I'll find my own key. Okay. And he takes off in to the south towards the rows of houses down in the residences. Desperately, desperately searching for a key. You look around those icons over the ziggurat show that there's only like one or two gold keys remaining. Most of the other keys have been picked off. You get the sense that this guy's going to have kind of a tough time at this point. And just looking around like the wizards who don't have these like floating key icons over their heads are getting pretty fucking panicked. And running around just like knocking over potted plants that look a gunner them and just lifting rocks up off the ground one by one. Making their own keys out of soap. You do see you actually see a dwarf who is he's found like a little patch of grass by where you are on the west side of the falls here. He is like on the side of the mountain and he is like digging earth out to try to make like a hole to hide in. Hoping that that will be sufficient to keep him from getting it. People are people are kind of freaked out and understandably so. But you have about 15 minutes here and you have your key you cannot be attacked for it unless you're in the red zone around the ziggurat. So as long as you don't go in there you're fine. You can see from your position there are some people camped out in that red zone waiting for people to try to fucking step through. So you get the sense that it's with whisper. Yeah with whisper out of there I'm going to take another run at climbing up into the falls. Okay. I think I can maybe move a little more carefully. Okay. A little more slowly now. Take my time. Go ahead and make a what did we say last time acrobatics or athletics your choice. I'm going to choose acrobatics and like I said I'm moving slowly. I will reduce the DC because this is your second shot at it. I think you probably have about 15 right on the money baby. Yeah. Walking a little bit more carefully this time you are able to sidle sort of across this very very narrow gap pressing hard up against the rock as the falls just sort of hammer down behind you. You get the sense that if you had really gotten in there it would have been pretty uncomfortable being pounded by this waterfall but you're able to reach this alcove behind the falls where there is a plent set up and on the plent is a crystal. Not unlike the one that is set into your into your gauntlet into your grim war what do you do. Well I mean that's why I came up here so I grab it. Okay. And I eat it. No no no no that was a different thing. That was a different art. Just like I was a different art. Yeah. I grab it I put it in another slot in my grim war. Yeah. I should have picked a different one. Yeah. Grim war is a great word. Cool. It did I do like it. All right. You slot it into your grim war and this is this is this is Richter's is first new power right. Yep. So you have this extremely disorienting experience where you are suddenly subject to memories that are not your own. They are the memories of what looks like an acolyte or a priest. It's hard to kind of like tell exactly what's going on but there's there's it's definitely some sort of monastic kind of order. And you see a an invasion. And the sky turns dark outside of this abbey and demons pour out and begin to assault the church. And this wizard raises their hands and a warding circle goes around the the inhabitants of this abbey. And as you snap back to reality. Oh, there goes the rabbit. I think we did that like even in the last episode. Oh boy. You realize that with these memories you have gotten a new power. You have a second spell. You can now also cast protection from evil and good. That is your answer. One of our more judgmental. Yeah. But also also non-committal. Yeah. And just like the horrible, like just the middle, you know, the evil of neutrality. That's nice to me. A little bit scarier is epithetian. Yeah. Take protection from eggshell. Father Gary protect me from apathy brother. Yeah. You know, maybe that's what we all pray for that. Maybe we should all just pray for that. But I just don't care. Yeah. Okay with this spell you feel like your kind of natural talent for warding off mental manipulations spells is like dramatically enhanced when the source of that thing is celestial or aberrant or demonic in nature. Like for instance, the skeleton statue that tried to take over your mind in time. I want to go back there then and make fun of it. That's too late. You are the beat him. You beat him to hard. You beat him. You broke the sequence break speed run. Rictus Ravenwood the fourth speed strats. Yeah. Let's hop over to Laura Veth. Laura Veth. You have seized the golden key from the icy dragon that you thoroughly destroyed with a melting blow. Are you leaving the mine or done with the mine? Great. I did what I meant to do here. I'm all set. Great. As you step outside, you can see the two surviving elemental rangers cleared out. From your position, sort of like on this plateau in the middle of the mountain, you get a great glimpse of the entirety of the octave ziggurat island. You can see just anything you want to from your position. You see this great purple crystal building up to the north, this huge wide path of woods surrounding the western border of the island. There's a lake with this intricate glass lily building in the middle of it. There is an arena. There's all kinds of stuff. You can also see this display over the ziggurat showing that there is maybe 15 minutes left and not many keys left. You can see the people sort of camped out in the middle waiting for people to try and get through to the entrance. Can I ask a clarifying question? Yes, please. It's just occurred to me. I've had it in my head this whole time. That like the doors are whatever the way we would use the keys for are not currently accessible. But could we go there at any time? Anytime. Yeah. There seems to be a deadline though. If I don't do it before 15, is that a problem? If you don't get in the ziggurat before the fireball falls, you will be destroyed. Oh, okay. No, no, no. I'll be in the ziggurat for sure. There is not a, the doors are open, right? The hesitance here, Travis, and I mean, I think you can see this too for sure, Lord of Death, is like, there's also people, you can see a lot of people with those key icons over their heads just outside the border of this park. There's people running day, right? Yeah. That's those people who decided that they were going to be on deep. There are lots and lots of people. You get the sense that though keys have been seized, not that many people have actually gone in this ziggurat because people are waiting for other people to go first to get killed by the people running defense so that they can go in unperturbed. But so far, nobody's kind of very animals up here. Any animals up on this? I mean, burps, burps for sure, birds all over. Big birds, little burps. I just look at for someone to talk to. Can you talk to animals? No, just like, talk out. I just want to talk. I don't have anybody to tell what I'm thinking or talk about my feelings. You know what? Just as you, just as you Justin think that is so crazy. A wizard climbs up over the edge of mountain plateau. No shit. Okay, cool. And it is, it's going to be, let me see, which one is it going to be? Who do you want it to be, juice? I'll tell you this. I'll send you the Google Docs and you the Google number. Can I just choose a number? Sure, choose a number between 37. 37. Okay, sure. Very, very quickly up the side of the mountain, you see what appears to be a ninja wearing this very detailed blue armor. They have these spikes of ice coming up off of their forearms. They hop up on top of the mountain and you see this icy ninja. Look at you and then look at the cave and say, you did it already? Yes, yes, no spoilers in there. We're evading him. I'm afraid. Shit. He starts immediately looking out over the vista looking for a key. He seems kind of panicked. Listen. You look at me, yes. You can see me. The thought of taking my key wouldn't cross your mind, right? I mean, if I understand the rules correctly, I cannot or I will be punished. Well, excellent. Excellent. So, I'm going to go around and have a fuck about in the eggs. Would you like to come along? Perhaps I'll be a key there for you. You think that in the eggs? I have no idea. I have my key. I'm not that concerned about it. But what I'm saying is I'm going to go have a fuck about in the eggs. If you'd like to toy with me, perhaps you'll find it. Make a tuning. I'm called absolute zero. Hmm. Fascinating. Can we just call a tuning? I'm gonna fuck about in the eggs with me. Zero. Perhaps we'll find a key for you. Make a persuasion check. If you want to just fucking chill with with sub zero here, I mean, absolute zero here. I think that he should do a percent. I'm offering to help him. Yeah. No, for sure. But he also... I'm offering to let him come on my fuck about. Yeah. But so do... Okay, it's a seven. So don't come. Well, it's seven. So no, never mind. I can tell from your express. You know what? Absolute zero. I bid you the very best. But I'm going to go fuck about in the eggs. No, I'll go. I'll go. If there's nothing here, I'll go. Yeah. Cool. Uh, he starts climbing down the mountain to head towards the eggs. And you do the same, I assume? Yeah. Okay. You are able to find an easy enough path down. You are a mountain man. I'm not going to make you roll to climb down. Uh, this is actually zero. That's my secret. I just saw the girl all the way down. Yeah, he turned into a little man ball and you zoop down. Oh, he's a coron. You and... As a better pull. You and absolute zero roll up to the eggs. They were still rolling. There is a... It's like a... They're in a row in a sort of quarter circle around the ziggurat lined up against this sort of circular pathway going all the way around the building. And as you approach, you can see there are eight of these little tiny dome shaped... Like a bigger, bigger than a pup tent. But that's vaguely the shape of them. They would be big enough for you to go inside without having to, you know, crouch down or kneel. I would like to start by investigating the surface of the eggs. Yeah. Okay. I want to figure out what they're made of. Give me an investigation check. Oh, six. Egg. Egg. Is there a door? There it is. There's a small arched door in each egg. You also notice that they are numbered one through eight. You are... Zero. Yeah. What is it? Do you want to open one of these doors? I have to help you, a key. I don't... What if it's a trap and in the trap lasts for longer than 50 seconds? Oh, that could be fatal for you, Zero, but you know what? It will be fatal. Not finding a key, yes? Okay, fine. All right. Yeah. What's your lucky number, Zero? I mean, Zero, but that's not like one of the options. Not an option, is it? Maybe three. How does three feel? He looks at three. He says, uh... Yeah, okay. I guess so. Yeah, three is as good as any, I guess. I'll catch you on the outside unless I get out way before you in which case I'm just going to make a run for the Ziggurat. Good luck. Zero, if you should die. May I have your gem? What are you talking about? What is that? I'm winking. I'm winking. Okay. I'm winking. I'm zero. I'll be taking it anyway. That's... I'm... All right, man. Zero. We're running out of time. Yeah, we really are. He climbs inside of the door. And as he goes into the door... I watch behind him to see what I can see inside. It disappears. The door disappears immediately. And now he is just inside of this egg. The door disappears immediately. So what do I see when he goes into the door? So now there's an opening? I just want to see inside, Griffin. What's inside? You see egg. Like, you know, can she...? I feel like my bad image of the gauge drill is still on to your face. Still definitely. You're gonna have to shake it up. No, I mean, you see, you do not see anything inside. It appears to just be a white egg. Just say it's an egg. Just say it's an egg. But as you go... And the door disappears. Okay, I press my ear to the egg. Okay. Um, give me a perception check, please. It's a natural twilight. Holy shit. You hear the baby chicken sign pecking around. I'll see the egg. I cannot feel the egg. But it's gone as my witness. I will heal this egg. You hear... You hear... Not with a 20-eye note. A voice speaking. With a 20, you are able to tell that... Have you talked to your gauntlet yet? Hmm. I don't remember. I don't think... I don't know if you have. You hear a pleasant man's voice speaking. And you hear absolute zero sort of answering and return. You just kind of make out sort of, you know, like a peanut teacher style, the timbre of their voices, but not exactly what they're saying. And then you hear what sounds like a wave, like an ocean wave, and then you hear like the sounds of different wild life. And you hear absolute zero go, whoa. And that is what you hear within the egg. What do you do, Lord of the... Man, I don't know. I already got a key. I don't know. I'm gonna wait another 30 seconds. I have a thing. Okay, then we're gonna jump over to Hellgram it. No, I got a key. I don't see any reason for me to be a hero. The funniest imaginable outcome of this is absolute zero rolls out. Like, how was your egg? I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, man. Hellgram it. Back to you. You have just seized a gemstone from the bottom of this acid-filled barrel at the bottom of this tall tower, just as you hear the telltale signs of the invisible Titan outside, returning from its pocket dimension where you kind of scared it off to. What do you do? I'm gonna slam that crystalline to my grim wall. Okay, as you do so, you receive a memory from beyond. It is not one of your own. In this memory, you are a human man, which is weird enough already, not being in your insectoid kind of form in this memory. And he is a very sort of like wispy, tiny looking dude, and you see him climb on top of a platform in the middle of a town, and open his mouth, and as he does so, this shrill piercing siren comes out to alarm the town as a hoard of monsters approaches, giving them time to prepare for the assault at hand. And as you come back from your reverie, you realize that this power, that this man had, is now your own. You now have the spell alarm. You set alarm against unwanted intrusion. Choose door window or area within range, and until the spell ends in alarm alerts you whenever a tiny or larger creature touches or enters the warded area. You can designate creatures that don't set off the alarm, and you can choose whether the alarm is mental or audible. Also, as you come back from your memory, you realize that someone else has come into this bottom floor of the tower. It is a dude with very sharp features, very awkward looking, almost a unibrow. He's got this ill-fitting, grey suit that is too small for him. And he also is picking some leaves and twigs out of his hair. And as you see that, I think you realize that you've seen this wizard before. He was just grabbed and launched from the tower by the invisible Titan, and appears to have survived the encounter. And he looks at you and says, Oh dear. This is uncomfortable. Yes, yes, yes it is. How do we resolve this? Oh wait, wait, wait, I have an idea. I have an idea. And he takes off spring at the stage. Right, wait for me. No, no. All right, you take off up the stairs. This tower is about seven stories tall, with this winding staircase leading up the entire span of it. You are not going to be able to reach the top with sort of a single action here. But if your plan is to try to like gain as much ground as you possibly can, you know, before the Titan figures out what's going on, or before this guy can catch up to you, you know, if you're going to be within your power to do so, I would need an athletics check, if you're just like straight running, unless you have some other sort of wily scheme up your screen. I was thinking leaps and bounds. Leaps and bounds, okay. So, a way I could use acrobatics. There is, I not for just running up a flight of stairs. All right, so, I mean, you're not going to fail and like fall down the stairs. This is a question of like how fast you are, basically. Right. Check first. Okay, that's a 10. Okay. Yeah, with a 10, you take off, you catch this guy by surprise. And he is going to start running right behind you. I'm going to roll for him. Just keep it honest. We'll see. We'll see. He is, he has a negative one. Also, two athletics just like you. So, this will be fair. That is a 13. Okay. So, a 13, he is able to kind of catch up to you. And you guys are basically on the same step. Give me a perception check, please. There it is. And that is a 12. With a 12, you, it's like a shadow passes by the window that you were, that's just sort of to the side of the step that you were just scaling. But it is not a like fully opaque shadow. And that is enough to tell you that you, the, the, the Titan is just sort of outside where this window is. Okay. Is this the same window from a through which it grabbed this poor was you? You are a bit lower than the window that this, this wizard apparently made it to before. I think he comes to a, he comes to a dead stop on the stairs. And kind of, he ahead of me. He was about the same level as you. So, he has stopped sensing that there's a thing outside of the window. What do you do? I'm going to try to blend in using the carapace, the chameleon carapace. Does that just give you advantage on all stealth checks? Yes. Because that seems insane. Well, you, I mean, the rest of his life has been as a bug griffin. So I mean, there's checks and balances. Yeah. Okay, giving you advantage. Like, you're not going to have an easy time like getting into the clubs or whatever. Right. So the, the exact language is, you, you get advantage on dexterity stealth checks made to hide. So I think the limitation here is like, if you're hiding in place, you can use this. But if you are like trying to sneak by something, it would not be as effective. Okay. So what, what, what is your end goal here, I guess? I want to get past that window and leave Twiggy there to be a bind to distract the Titan. I think with that in mind, then, if you are trying to, if you are trying to move while being sneaky to try to get even more ground in front of this guy, it's, it's just going to be a regular stealth check. Okay. All right. Stealth check. And that would be come on. Give me some good for it. 16. Yeah. Okay. With a 16, this shadow passes. And you changed the color of your carapace to match sort of the stone of the stairs. And this wizard looks kind of alarmed as you continue moving. You hear him say, no, don't go to stop moving. You'll kill us, but. Well, you survived before, right? So, you know, take your best shot. I'm serious. I'm sure he won't see you. I mean, and even if he does, if he throws you, you survived the last time you'll survive again. Give me a persuasion. Give me a persuasion check. I'm going to say there's a pretty high check. I want to see like a maybe a 18 or higher. No, 13. No. He shakes his head. He says, I have a special falling power, but I can only use it a few times a day. The shadow leaves. It passes away from the window. He says, wait, wait, can we just talk about this before we take off in a race? It seems dangerous for us to just push, push ahead like this. We can, we can probably figure out another way to settle who gets the key. All right. What do you have at mind? What's your name? I am a hellgram. I'm Dr. Legume. I thought my name was bad. Griffin, you son of a bitch. It's me, Mr. Bean, but it's Dr. Legume. Dr. Legume, I'm flexible, friend. He says, well, there's a name. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. I'm not flexible. Well, there's another key in the tower. There's a copper key about halfway up. So we can go up and we'll, like, rock paper scissors and decide which one of us gets the gold and which one of us gets the copper only fair. That does sound fair. But, uh, now I don't think so. Okay. So I'm running again. He is going to run in pursuit. You have made it about a third of the way up the tower. Let's get another athletics check here. God, seven. Okay. That is a ten. He is able to get a lead on you. You hit a step that has eroded somewhat and you trip. And he is able to run in front. Give me just one more perception check for me. Okay. That's a ten. Okay. My role is suck. What are the things you guys keep rolling with the two and the zero? That's a 20. Oh. When there's a consecutive, it is a 20. You, neither of you actually clock it this time. You see a just too late. A shadow pass over a window in front of the two of you. And you both kind of come to a halt. He's like three or four steps ahead of you as you hear the Titan roar from outside. And then you see some of the stoneworks surrounding this window crumble inside. And you can just see the faint traces of a fist and an arm as the Titan reaches inside of the tower to grab you. To grab who? To grab you both. He is in front of you. He is closer to the hand. So I guess to grab Dr. Lagume if that is where his hand falls. Got a few announcements before you get back to the rest of the episode. We got some new merch up in the McRoy merch store over at McRoyMurts.com. A new t-shirt with a helping is always a free action design on it. There's a 20 make it stick and namel pins on there. Lots of really, really great stuff this month. And 10% of all of our merch proceeds this month will be donated to Border Angels. Whose services include educational programs, water drops in the desert, day laborer outreach, familias reunite us in Migration Bond Fund program, and shelter aid support in Tijuana to aid migrants and asylum seekers in need. I also want to let you know that I have a book coming up very soon. It's a choose your own adventure book. It's called The Stowe Away. It's appropriate for middle grade readers, but I think it's a rollicking adventure, a survival tale set in outer space that anyone would get a thrill or two out of. There's intrigue. There's action. There's stunts. There's everything that a book can have. I think those are the three, right? I said action in stunts, right? Yeah, no, that's all of it. So you can pre-order that now at bit.ly slash Griffin Stowe Away. And it would be gosh, just a huge help to me if you would consider doing that. The book is $10. And it comes out again on March 10th. So don't wait. Go ahead and secure your copy today. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the episode. We will be back with a new one in two weeks. So talk to you then. Bye. Hey, it's TV chef, fantasy league. You know, the podcast where we watch cooking competition shows. And we treat them like fantasy sports. Right now, we're getting ready for top chef Carol Reina's. We spend all year covering these competitions, but now it's time for the main event. The apex predator of competitive cooking television shows. Tune in for after team and play along. With your hosts, Sierra Cotto, Mike Gabelon, and if you want to, anyway. New episodes every week at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Wonderful is a podcast where we talk about things we like. That's hard to sell in a promo like this. So we even listed the help of Piano Rock superstar Billy Joel to tell you about some of the topics we've covered. Take it away, real Billy Joel. Did he rock spin on the sun? World's in charge of circle time. Siga, drink asses, a salad, tower of annoyed. Keep me up eight tongue caps, ooz, wanes, whirl, cheese bowls. Wallets, even stonkey, gone, fun-size, almond joy. They didn't stop the podcast. Except that's not true. They didn't want me to. They didn't stop the podcast. No, they actually did. That was a fact of fib. Listen to wonderful every Wednesday on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks, real Billy Joel. No problem, Griffin. All right, Rictus. Yes, I'm looking at the map. Yeah. And it seems like the best coverage for a clandestine approach to the Ziggy is through the eggs. So I'm going to make my way to the back of the eggs to plan my approach. Okay, cool. We are having our first encounter here. You make your way towards the eggs. I'm not going to describe all the stuff again, because you Travis got to hear it. And now Rictus sees all this stuff. The third egg appears to be sealed for some reason. Not sure why. You can see that there is a very imposing looking Goliath wizard staring at these eggs intently, trying to decide what to do with them. Sorry, to be clear, I think he's listening. He's not as ear pressed up against the eggs. Okay, great. So I've got a 20, so I'm not going to stop doing this. Yeah, no, you're going to hear the fullness of this egg experience. He has a gold key kind of insignia over his head, right? He does, as do you. And I'll say in this moment, you two definitely catch each other's eye. Thank you for reminding me about the gold key symbol hovering just overhead. You can also see because of those symbols, there are some people, there's at least three people in the lawn in this red area surrounding the Ziggy, who are camped out, and they are just going to keep a fucking beatie-eyed watch on the two of you. Because they can tell you you have what they want. Hi. Hey, how's it going? Congratulations on your key. I was saying congratulations to you. It was quite formidable. Are you waiting for the egg? I was never gonna fuck about it in the eggs. Okay. And my friend, a welcome friend. Another competitor slipped in here, and I was rather waiting to see who's going to die. Oh, okay. Did he? Not as yet. Okay. At least I haven't heard the sirens. Okay. My name's Richtus. Richtus Raven would, the fourth, heir to the breathless field, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, well, I'm lower-width. Lower-width? Lower-width, dream-wonder-a-gonjable. Okay. Can I? This... Your seem very... Wait, one moment. Okay. I'm gonna take another listen at the egg. Oh my god. Wow. Life is so beautiful. I stop listening. I tell you, he's having a time now. Okay. The next time we're free to wander around, I think I might come to the eggs enough more than I fuck about. If you can. I fuck around? I, for a path, seeming to fuck with. Ooh. Right. The mood strikes. Okay. I said to my ninja friend in here, she would... I was trying to assist him in a rather lateral way. And it seems like it's working for him. Cool. And I see it's of course tragically killed. Yeah. I was thinking, since we already both have gold keys and stuff, should we like work together to get to the Ziggrop, maybe get some other people with keys to like, team up to get to the Ziggrop safely? You mean a collaboration? Yeah. I love that. Yes, we'll, what should we call ourselves? The survivors. Okay. The key masters. Sure. The two masters will watch each other, and they'll have each other's backs aboard lone fighting unit, protecting their keyless friend, the ninja absolute zero. Well, I mean, I guess if he wants to make his way to the Ziggrop, but I don't think he doesn't have a key, uh, if the door reappears on the side of the egg. And... It's a boy. You see absolute zero climb out. And he has lowered his mask, and you can see he is just like grinning ear to ear, tears, tear stained face. Uh, he has a copper key and signature over his head. Oh. Oh, there's no shame in that zero. Oh my god. You guys. I don't know the symptoms. Spoilings. I'm going to have a fuck with later. It seems like he had a pretty good experience. Oh. Wow. It's just that I saw all of it life and the connections and... No, no, again, again, I'm going to have a fuck about later with the egg. He has for no spoilers, man. It's all connected. It's all connected. I'd rather... I... Zero. I believe I asked nicely. Okay. Fine. Uh, who's this? You found another go-go-key guy. That's cool. Yeah. I'm around this. You guys, hey. You're the founding members of the key masters. Oh, okay. Does it matter that I'm like in the copper key club, I guess? No, all of a... You'll have a lower part of the hierarchy, but you're still a member, don't it? You won't have many of the same privileges. Should we have a developer, some sort of clubhouse? Perhaps you won't have a... There will be access level. Yeah, access level. Access level. So are you guys going to go in these eggs or fucking what? Next time. Yeah, there's like eight minutes left or so. Yeah, there's five minutes left. For now, let's go... Let's do three of us, Jenny. I think I'm actually gonna... He takes a look at all the eggs. I'm gonna take a pop into egg one, maybe. Just to kinda... See, like, I like to three so much that I would love to actually just get to see some. Well, I... Because what if the eggs are gone after this trial? Like, what if the eggs are just a trial thing? And then we can't do them any other times. Zero, I don't think that's a good idea, my friend. I think you might end up getting destroyed by the gigantic viable. I can get in and out no problem. I've gotta check out egg one. You can make a persuasion check here if you'd like to try and convince Hepsluz here to not go in egg one. Yeah. And the reason I am gonna do that is because I am about to leave. No question. And I'd rather he not use up all the eggs. Yeah. You know what I mean? You don't know how many charges. I don't know how many. As far as I know, three is capped. Yeah, he's like, I don't... I don't know. You can't let him use up all the eggs. So yeah, I am gonna persuade to come with us just to like... I guess also the added muscle for the key mask. Um, let's... You're trying to beat a 13 persuasion check here to get him. No, that was our perception. Ignore that file. Wow. Ignore it. He was perception. 18. 18. Absolutely. Uh, within 18, he looks inside of one. Uh... Fine. Uh, right. Yeah. Shit. Gosh, we're gonna come back and do like a key master's team building exercise with like the eggs and... Oh yeah. You're right. Okay. Cool. Key master's great. So what's the plan? What's the plan here? Uh, we're gonna make a run for it. I'm gonna look around. Like if I sneeze out of my hand, quick sort of summary. I could shoot ice nives out of my hands. Okay. I think if anyone tries to like, try and kill us when we're in the red zone, what's your guys sort of whole deals? I have like, Spectro hands, one that comes out of my left, that hurts people, one that comes out of my right that heals people, and it's kind of a loot in exchange, a closed circuit. Very, very cool. And what's your... Oh, I also have a ward against good and evil. That's a really complicated, your power is that you have magic hands at once. Yeah, it's a lot of like, esoteric judgment calls. Yeah, cool. And what about you? Laura? One who brought you to the eggs. Okay. So the three of us will team together. Right, yeah, cool. The key masters. All right, and we'll barrel all the way through. Zero, you should stay to the rare ISO. I want to scope around it. I don't see if there's anybody else camped out with keys floating above their heads. Like winning. Yeah, go ahead and make a perception check, I guess. If you're just looking around to see to get a lay of the land a little bit here. That's a seven. Okay. I want to look again harder. No, with a seven, you... I mean, people are scattered kind of all over. You can see... With a seven, you can see that there is at least one body laying in the middle of the red lawns surrounding the ziggurat. So someone has already perished in their attempt to make it to the door. You can see there's like a cluster of people on the other side of the ziggurat. You can see like a handful of folks over by the... In front of the gardens, there's like rows of benches in front of a small platform. You think it's maybe a bit of like an outdoor lecture hall. And you can see that there are at least a couple of gold keys and a couple silver keys floating over some wizard's heads. And they seem to be like sort of gathered up in a circle maybe trying to come up with a plan. You can also see that one of those gold key guys, like you can't make out a lot of details about these people, except one of them is a giant tarantula. So that one is pretty easy to see. Noticable? Noticable, yes. Yeah. And one last clarifying question about the ziggurat. Are there multiple entryways? Or is there like one place we're trying to get to? There is a great question. The ziggurat has one main entrance. You can see it on the front here. It has sort of three different ramps to the west east and south that are leading up to this front entrance. And then there are doors you can see on the higher levels of the ziggurat, but it is a like 20, 30 foot climb up pretty sheer smooth stone. Pretty sheer smooth stone. So you get the sense that that would be quite difficult, but it would be another route. Fittingly, most of the kind of defenses I think you guys have figured out are surrounding these front ramps up to the entrance. Well, I'm not really like a combat guy or whatever, but should we go to the front and see if we can get more key masters? And just full frontal assault or what do you think? I'm so glad that ended with assault. Yeah, listen, I stumbled mentally halfway through saying it. I feel that the more of us that can walk together, the better we are running rather short on time for the accrual to where we at. There's about about eight minutes left. I know you're pulling this out of your ass. You're not tricking me. No, I have like a special hourglass. I know you're just, no, I have a special hourglass made of ebony and it's embarrassing enough to ask my brother what pretend time is. Seven minutes left now because you're being like this. You're not, and can I say seven minutes, eight minutes would have been long enough for you to do an egg. But seven minutes, seven minutes. I already told you I'm not trying not to use up your eggs. I'm gonna try not to rush to your incredible egg. Just say it's an absolute zero at such a good time in the egg you wanted to go on another one. So it must be something. Not that he's having the time of his life. Where are we at now, time wise? Well, you ran out, the fireball killed you all. No. Seven, seven minutes. Let's, I say we head back to the front and see if anyone wants to join the birdiest boys in the whole game. I'm not that burly, but yeah. Yeah, let's do that. Okay. Round up for me. The keymasters begin walking. I'm guessing around the red lawn of the Zigarot, not through it, to where the other key havers are strategizing in this outdoor lecture hall. And we're gonna hop back over to Hellgramit. Hellgramit, you are about a third of the way up the tower as the invisible arm of the Titan smashes through a window on the side of the tower. You know what, you and Dr. Lake Yum make dexterity saving throws. He's gonna have disadvantage. And the loser is going to get targeted. His lowest is a 13. How about a natural 20? Holy shit, man. There it was. Yeah, natural 20 will absolutely do it. You see him stop and the scene kind of stands still as some of the stonework from the window, like rattles down the stairs and falls the two or three floors down to the ground level. And as that happens, Dr. Lake Yum looks back at you sort of nervously and then says, I think it's going, I think we're, ah, wait, wait, wait. Do I have a time to speak to him before he's tossed? Yes, you have time to, No, he does it. He is not, he is not yeeted immediately. He is kind of like seized from the stairs and now you see him sort of floating over the, just like the void falling down to the, where he would fall down if he was released by this Titan. He is floating and seems to be in great discomfort. Thank you. Let us form an alliance. I can help you. I will save you. But we have to form an alliance. We'll color ourselves the key on us. We'll be the key on us. All right. All right, yeet both of us. I will save you. I will save you. You wish dad with Mr. Bean. I will save you if you promise I can have the gold key and you will take the copper key. Give me a persuasion check. I guess. Well, okay. You know what? There's no atheists and foxes, right? That's what they say. And I don't think that that's true or makes sense. But I don't think you're going to need to persuade Dr. Dr. Legube here to let you, he says, Help me, squish me. All right. And so, Hill Grimmit casts an infestation on the hand of the Titan. Okay. So it is good. No, let me ask you something. Yeah. Which side of the tower is it reaching in from? It is reaching in from the outside. Yeah. Well, yeah. I don't know if that was what you were saying. North, south, east or west? North. Okay. So infestation, the hand has to make a Constitution saving throw. Yes, yes. Or takes one D6 poison damage. Yes. But I'm assuming this is sort of like what you are, what you did last time, where it is sort of a distraction thing, or you just ran out. No, okay. All right. I do have a plan. I will do this on the table. This thing is a giant. And so it has a plus four to its con save. Okay. This is 13 plus 417, which I do imagine is going to. That does it. Yeah. 16. Dr. Legume says, Okay. So what's the plan? And he is yanked out the window as your bugs failed to find purchase on the arm of this Titan. As you look out the window, you see Dr. Legume goes soaring through the air, and then you see just as he is about to disappear again into the woods, crashing down with tremendous force. You see just an explosion of allusury feathers, just sort of cascade off of him and his descent slows dramatically and he yells, That was the last time I can do that. And Dr. Legume is gone. I'll gram it, holes ass up the tower. Okay. Give me an athletics check again, please. Damn, too. All right. It's not going to go great. You start rushing up the tower. And I think that it's maybe a mental thing more than anything because you know that this Titan is outside and you have elected to just like try and rush, knowing that you are sort of short on time here. You are able to reach sort of the halfway point of the tower where the stairs expand out into a little overhang, looking over the fall down the center of the tower. And sure enough, as Dr. Legume promised, sitting on a plenth on this small overhang is a copper key. With this athletics check, you are not fast enough to like make a lot of progress before you hear the Titan stomp back over towards the tower. I'll need a perception check. If you want to like try and really try and emulate his position, but you're about halfway up this tower. I think I will grab the copper key. Okay. You grab the copper key as you do so and you see a faint copper key insignia up here over your head. And so let me ask you this. This is a spiral staircase running along the edge of the tower. The inside of the tower. The inside of the tower, correct? Correct. Okay. Then, theogram is going to try to jump to a lower level. Okay, very, very cool. This will be an acrobatics check. And you're jumping down, right? Okay, you're basically trying to jump the width of the tower. It is not, it is obviously much, much taller than it is. Why? It is a tower. And so this will not be the most difficult check. I will need a, if you want to do it without any consequence, I'm looking for a 13 or higher. You will clear it with a slightly lower roll, but we will see how that goes. Sure. How about a dirty 20? A dirty 20 absolutely gets it. With a dirty 20, I will also say, you lost track of this Titan. You were not really keeping a great eye on it. And so you were on this little overhang on the north side of the tower. As you jump to land on the stairs, like one story lower on the south side of the tower, you see the window that was just next to this overhang, also explode outward and something grabbed that plinth and lifted up into the sky and yank it out of the tower. It is very, very good that you moved. So I'm 20 feet up, right? You are, yeah, about 20 feet up. And there's a window where I am? There is, yes. There are windows every like five feet or so, so you can be the next one. I am going to jump out the window into the trees and hope I can keep from killing myself. Cool. So one D6 bludging damage for every 10 feet a creature falls. You are next to a pretty big thicket of trees, right? They reach up about 10 feet. So if you want to try to make an acrobatics check again, you try to land among the branches of these trees, then that is absolutely fine. Depending on your success, we'll determine how much damage you take from the fall, from the trees, from whatever. Yeah. Go. 12. OK. Describe to me what it looks like. Hellgram it looks up. Seize that invisible hand grab in the plant. Takes a look at how far down he has to go down the stairs. Doesn't think that's going to work. So he looks out the window. Seize the top of the trees and just kind of leaps out of the window yelling, or the screech. OK. You leap from the tower and you're not a bug with wings, right? Well, they're not functional. OK, cool. I think your wings, whatever non-functional wings you have, kind of reflexively are like, oh, come on. Nope, nope. OK. You land among the upper boughs of these tall pine trees and desperately kind of, you know, spray out your limbs and your tail, trying to just like grab anything you can to slow your descent. But instead, you kind of just like one hits you right in the stomach and knocks all the wind out of you and you kind of loop around it and then fall and you hit several more branches. You do land a... You do land in a fairly sort of like soft patch of grass underneath these trees, but you are going to take some bludgeoning damage just from being whacked by all of these pines. You take three points of bludgeoning damage. OK. Were you injured from the acid already? I was. Yeah. All right, cool. You are beat to shit. Like, you had a healing potion earlier, obviously, but like your garments or whatever at this point have been slashed and acid burned and whipped with tree branches. But you do manage to get to your feet wounded but still with it. And you can see the tree branches or the trees on the opposite edge of the tower on the sort of north side of the tower begin to bend and break as the Titan figures out that his quarry has escaped. What do you do? I'm going to quote Creedence Clearwater. I'm going to run through the jungle. I'm heading for the ziggurat, baby. OK. Then you run through the trees back towards the sort of observation platform where you were revived. As you get here, you can see that just next to the observation platform, there's this outdoor lecture hall where several other wizards have gathered. And these wizards appear to be strategizing to figure out a plan of attack as some other late comers rush up to join this position. Laura Vith and Rickdis and Absolute Zero arrive here around the same time as well. At this point, there's about, there's eight of you all in total with keys of varying qualities. And you all reach this platform. And as you do so, a bell chimes. And the clock hanging over the ziggurat begins to flash red as it displays that there are five minutes remaining before the fireball descends. Maximum fun, a work road network of artist-owned shows supported directly by you.