Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 75 | A Chance in Hell: Part 1

Welcome to Legends of Avantris, I'm Felix Ackerman and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. Last time on Beneath Dark Wings, you were in the deepest realms of the abyss. You had experienced making your way into Pizzunia, seeing what had become of Esharp after accepting Pizzuzu's dark gifts. He pleaded with you to help save his daughter, Ravnovia, who had been disassembled and spread across the domains of the Oberith Lords that had been seemingly united by Pizzuzu. You learned that these Oberiths, these proto-demons from another dimension, that there are only 13 remaining from however many. In the great war that you had seen against the Windooks, against the Vati, against the Rod of the Seven Parts or the Rod of Law, and the tremendous uprising of the Tenari demons, the lesser demons, the more common demons that you all know had effectively risen up and nearly annihilated all of them. These Oberith Lords were shades of their former selves and you made your way through the various layers of the abyss where they lurk waiting for Pizzuzu's dark plan to bring them back into power after seemingly uniting all of them. However, you have realized that there was never any love between any of these Oberith Lords and you decided to hatch a plan to turn them against each other, the very least against Pizzuzu. You first encountered the former Prince of Demons himself, Abok's Ab, who had been the Prince of Demons before Miska the Wolfspider that you had seen get slain so long ago. He had been deposed by this entity known as the Queen of Chaos that seemingly fancies herself as the true ruler of all of the Oberith Lords, but had, after the death of Miska, given her favor to Pizzuzu, seemingly convinced to lend her support and help unite these ancient entities to flood Avantres and make this universe in the image of the old universe they escaped from that they had destroyed. So with a little help of the Lord of Lies as Medeus through Caprice, you had agreed, connected with Abok's Ab and made a bit of a bargain to have the, when the time had come to join Pizzuzu, to turn against him instead. And you made your way through assisting these Oberith Lords in their weakened shade states and received various boons and various boons and gifts and powers from them as you made your way through thanks to Esher's portal magic. You the, let's see, you first were in the Forgotten Land with Eriks, the Forgotten Prince who had been turned into just an inky droplet after dealing with an elder evil known as him who watches from beyond the stars. You then went to the Blood Shallows where you had made the deal with Abok's Ab and seen the horrific swarms of the vermin that he controls. You then went to Andrelin, the frozen frigid domain that had once been a beautiful lush garden ruled by Pale Knight and in her bone castle you sacrificed various quasits and murdered them and gained her boon. In the Whispering Cairn, Khazarva Dexus, the horned duke, an enormous skeleton remained being feasted upon eternally by strange gaunt demons. You managed to reassemble Cairn over his horned skull and received that boon as the wind whipped through the Whispering Cairn and finally you made yourself to the Wells of Darkness, a darkened void but with pops of color and stars beyond, orbs of light where Kiberi, the watching master, seemingly inhabiting all of these orbs, watched you and seemingly asking for arcane magic. You all fed spells and all your arcane energies into this gas including Caprice's simulacrum. Duprize was immediately concerned. Oh, Duprize. We don't know. He could be fine. He was immediately concerned. He just annihilated, experiencing oblivion. And in that moment, Kiberi offered you each a vision and in you all asked for various things and remind me if there's anything I missed but really the whole thrust of it is that all across of interest, the eclipse is visible and there are birds empowered, mutated, attacking innocents all over the world. You saw it seen Hyrza and Torvald. You had seen a Siket and Iris's family. You had seen the Mekani Islands and the sea birds being mutated and attacking. They were like barricading themselves, right? Yeah, they were barricading themselves. They were fighting. They were trying to defend themselves. It was basically the birds. The birds. As this great eclipse loomed overhead and with that, once you received the visions, the arcane energy surged and brought a bit more magical arcane energy to Kiberi the Watching Master and you all surged with the strange arcane electricity. You got a long rest and you gained a level and you must continue deeper into the abyss to eventually face the Queen of Chaos herself. Abok's obbs seemingly believing that it would require her to turn on Pizzuzu and require convincing and perhaps either way requiring a battle but Caprice had taken a strange tongue like Belied Like Parasite inside of him, unsure of what that looks like. And that's where you are. Any questions? Anything I missed? Oh, what happened in the rest of the campaign? That's very fun. If you want to know what happened in the rest of the campaign, you can go and watch. Could you read your 20-minute campaign? Was it 20 minutes? I feel like it was probably 20 minutes. It was 20, go watch the whole campaign. Or go watch the episode and watch the beginning. You left that in, right? Nikki's not picking it. What? My 25-minute something. Did you win? Yeah, no, of course I left that in. Yeah, good. Be very funny and cut it. And can you point Big Brown towards your face? I'm a little nervous. Can we get Big Brown on your face, please? Can we please point Big Brown right at your face? There you go. Yep, I have Big Brown at my face. It's like a slobbering noises of a pug. They're not going to pervade the entire group. Oh, also, anyone remember what boons you had received? Yes. I never wrote them down. Oh, that last session? I think I did. You leveled up. I'll find my notebook. You got some stats. Oh, stats. I have it right here. Oh, some kind. You got chat. I don't remember what boots they got. I have 22 strength. Do I still have that? Yes, 22 intelligence. Yep, so everyone got plus 2 and oh, so yeah, hold on. I can tell you right now. So we got two strength. We have not gotten dex yet. We have not gotten con yet. We got two int. We have not gotten wisdom yet. We have not gotten charisma yet. I'm sorry, guys, I'm rolling all these. So it's just strength on you, right? It's just strength and int. I don't know why it won't let me look at the right. So let me do... Stop. I guess I just wrote it down. Felix Ackerman rolled dex, Jackie. I know. I'm not trying to... Stop rolling. Turn that off if you want to. I don't want to turn it off. I want to edit it. Now, why wouldn't it let me edit my stats? Hit the word dexterity. It's... No. Try to hit like just like a great... Hit the top of the box. I rolled a natural 20 on D&B Beyond. It is like the outside of the box. Yeah, they want to make it super easy to hit. It's gonna be a little B for a... Bachelor Bente. Bachelor Bente. You all are floating suspended in the wells of darkness. Not quite the same pitch black void as the Forgotten Lands, but almost like a dark outer space realm with bits of streaks of color, lightning of arcane magic, and those strange orbs that glow and varying a bright nearly neon colors all around you that had seemingly spoken to you, that had seemingly watched you throughout this area. You have just finished receiving these visions to set the stage of where we are. You each asked something that you wanted to see, Brother Groover, how Tommy was doing, how Herja was doing, how the Mcconnie Islands were doing, and I can't recall the other one, but basically you'd all seen what you had asked to see. You had asked to see. Mine was weird. I checked out like a look into the future and like, I don't know. It was a whole fucking thing. You would also... You would also, in the vision, had seen the... The results of if you had assembled Robinovia. That was what I think my question was. I was trying to like, like use my big brain to see like, what's the outcome of us doing certain things. And you had seen that it seemingly would aid you in your ends. And now it seems as if this, as the magic surges all around you, the magic surges, the lightning crackles, you suddenly return back. You see all of your friends as you're floating. The Escher in his bird-like back form is still clinging to your hair buns. And is looking, blinking as if he had not seen that same vision. What do you all do as you float in the wells of darkness with the watching master all around you? Do we have a feeling that, and correct me if I'm wrong, do we know what the total number of Robinovia parts there are is, or do we feel like we have more than 12? Okay, so we only have a few. We have a handful. We have five. One, two, three, four, five. Okay, thank you. I appreciate the reminder. You had just, Big brain on Kelsey. You had just retrieved her eyes. That were kind of swiveling around and looking, and they're this kind of the strange thing where they, it's not desiccated flesh, it's corpse flesh. It is strangely a lie, although she's a vampire. It's a very bizarre experience, and they're all being put in this whatever pocket dimension Escher is using. And we all shared the visions of the questions that we asked, or that was all individual. Like, do we know, do we have all the same vision? I'll say you share, you all share. You all would have shared, just for narrative ease. That's, thank you. We have to keep going. We see what's happening. We see what will happen. We have to keep moving. Do you think that that's actually happening right now? All those poor little birds? I'm worried that it is, yeah. Those are poor little birds? Yeah, all of those birds, they can help it. What about all of our friends in our family? Well, I mean, they seem okay for now. I mean, I think they're going to be okay, but all the little seagulls and parrots and two cans and seagulls and sandpipers and ospreys and egrets and puffins. Did we see any puffins? I mean, you just have to assume. I was thinking of the puffins. The poor puffins. No. Yeah, I think we have to assume that it is happening right now. We have no other choice. And I think we have to assume it's going to get worse. Running out of time. They might not be able to hide out in there forever, to barricade themselves. If the puffins have not been affected yet, they will. The puffins, Towa. Think of the puffins. In the seagulls. And the kiwis. In the arms of the puffins. That was pretty good. That was pretty good. Oh, it's Caprice. You should go head above. Yeah, he's been giving me lessons on the side. I know it's been really busy, but we find time. Well, I have to be freed up the abyssal lessons. It was all nothing but music after that. That's true. That's true. Here, you're fluent now, except for one word that I taught you wrong. That's a joke. Which word? Which word, Caprice? I cannot wait to see which one. Well, as much as I love floating in the abyss, we shouldn't try to move on. We haven't even reclaimed half of the parts of this poor child. There's a lot of road left. And we got to move quickly. And if we've run into more imps, you know it's going to take Caprice ages to argue with them. That's true. I'm not gonna age. Caprice. Caprice, as you say ages, you can't help but see the look of terror in Dupri's eyes as he was ripped from your arms and annihilated. I hope the priest is in a better place. Well, he was just a magical construct, right? It's not like he was real in any way. I see. He thought he was real. It's not like he could die a true death. Yeah, I mean, we all know the truth. That was just an unbelievable display of magic. It was the creation of the weave. Thank you. But I mean, I just sort of invited it in. It's not like I did the whole thing from scratch. It's just like music. It's just like a song. The sum is always greater than the parts. Who knows whether I created a... a creature with feelings and sentience. I'm sorry, what? Who knows if you'd created a creature with feelings and sentience? You don't know. You were just making the argument that I should feel not as bad because it doesn't have a soul, right? I was saying you shouldn't feel as bad because the moment it was sucked away, just based on magic, it should disappear from this world completely. And you're saying that there's a possibility you created an actual entity that could live on without you? Uh-huh. Wait! He looked and sounded exactly like you. Yeah. You're not concerned for what that means if he's just out in the world being you? No, on the inside, I'm freaking out. I may be putting out a really cool exterior, but on the inside, I am having an existential crisis. But what if you are deprice? Yeah, what if you're not... And we saw the real Caprice. Does it have your memories? Yes! Oh, Lord! See? Sorcerers, bars, warlocks. This is what happens when you don't study magic. What if it was returned to the material plane and it's sleeping with herger right now? What? No, I mean, I think he's dead. I think we can all agree he's dead. Yeah, he's fucking dead. He's fucking dead. He's dead. He died horribly. He died cursing my name. And let's think about this logically. I mean, you said yourself, it's like a song, the sum of the parts. All songs have to end at some point, right? As beautiful as they may be. I mean, that's true, except for the song that never ends. How's that go? Hi! One of you knows that you like potions, and the other one, that's very funny. We don't have time for this. We don't have time for 12 hours. I'm not going to start this long, it never ends. What do you mean it'll end? It'll never end. No, it never ends. If you start singing it, it goes on and on, my friend. Why can't you just stop singing it? Some people have started it and they've tried. But they just keep on singing. They didn't know what it was. Then they just kept singing it. Whatever. Caprice cast the spell. He teleported to where the new Caprice showed up, and what was left in his place was Duprice. There are dark, dark magics out there, and this is why we don't mess with things we don't understand. Which means you're Duprice. And Caprice is dead, it's certainly possible. You think back, Caprice. Yeah. And as Toa says this, you know that you have memories of playing a song and then grasping hand in hand as you spun around through space. But as you were spinning, you're not sure what position you were in or what, you can't actually be entirely certain that your memories would be at all different than Duprice's. And I'm a powerful spellcaster. Man, I have all kinds of tricks up my sleeves. I'm very duplicitous. Well, to be fair, one of them was naked. That's true. I still have my... Oh, that's true. Now, I'm not going to put it past Caprice. We've watched him take his pants off once or twice, but that would have been quite the trick to suddenly be naked. And the fake Caprice all of a sudden had all of the clothing. There was also that time he had the hole in his pants rubbed by his gooch. Still got the deck of illusions. No, I'm pretty sure he still has the hole in his pants. The golden scale from that lady. I can't remember her name. Would Duprice not have all of your in-depth reporting? Sure. Would he? No, no, no. One of us was naked, remember? He had nothing. Naked is the day he was born. So we can confirm then that this is Caprice and not Duprice. I mean, I would feel confident, but again, magic's what you're all about. But we can confirm that Duprice is not impregnating herja. Do you have any way to take all of... Why not? And by your logic, if he has all of your memories and he is a duplicate of you, he would be just as in love with herja as you are. Yes, but that... And herja would have no way of knowing... I just saw herja. She wasn't fucking at all. But time has passed since then, and we're not sure how time moves here compared to the material plane. It could have been two weeks since that happened. She could be... If I'm Duprice, then it's the real Caprice. Good for me. I don't know about that, because I think what's most concerning is that if that a second Felix suddenly appeared and had all of my memories, it means they were fabricated. So what's stopping my original memories from being fabricated? What if I was created by somebody else? Oh, what a nightmare. I don't have to worry about that, Tella. I'm honestly really, really happy that I don't have that sort of work-in ability. What if I was fabricated? No, you're not. You don't have magical abilities. And plus, they broke the mold after they made you, but... You're one of a kind. And I don't even wear fabric. No. This is very concerning. I mean, I suppose it's possible that when Caprice cast the spell, he was teleported without his clothes. It's any possible. To the new Caprice, in the new Caprice, was... took his place with the clothes. I would love to say with more certainty that that wasn't the case, but we just can't know. I guess we'll never know until Caprice or Duprice dies again. Should we kill him, Caprice? Well, I guess in theory we tried to spell him, and he might just fall apart in the snow. Oh, does that work? I don't know. How does the spell work? Oh, that's right. You don't study these things before you just go crazy and try shit, and then get... Pedalized for it. This is the consequences of your actions, Caprice. Yeah. Why do I keep making spells that are so fucked up? You should try to song about this. Yeah. Okay. And how you lost your girlfriend to yourself? Potentially. Pretty good song. Well... We should probably get going. But where to? We gotta finish finding all of our vanovia. Right? And I look to the little bat bird creature that's hanging from the feet bun. Uh, if a bird bat could look exasperated, but this bird bat looks very exasperated. What does he expect? And he then looks at you and gives you like a firm nod. All right. Where's your next? He looks around at all of the orbs that are floating around, and there's a little bit of hesitation there. As you realize now is that this realm is filled with the eyes of the watching master. Did I like feel like unsettled by that? I mean, like... Well, you had known that he had wanted to be undetected by any of the obraths. And there's a little bit of hesitation there. And so, you know, you were able to get away from the bone castle of Pale Knight. Oh. But he's always watching. And he's the watching master, so he's generally watching. Ow! Will it do... Do we have a way to obscure our friend? Caprice! More than him being a little bat? He can't help us move on as a little bat. Can't you make him invisible? Will invisibility work on something like this? That's a good point. Did you take two polymorphs? No. Well, I do have the ability to polymorph, though. Just regular type, but that's good. That's fine. Well, then they can't cast his form. Oh, you're right, you're right. Yeah, I have a solution, but it would prevent him from portaling us. I potentially have a solution, but there's this strange floating, squished-faced beast in front of me that makes it nearly impossible to be to harness my balance. Yeah, but I've heard she's so dangerous and you shouldn't disturb her. Oh, God, she's waking. She's waking from her terrible slumber. She's the one that snorts beyond the stars. That's very funny. I mean, if things really get bad, we can hide us. We can hide us sure away from, I believe, a lot of things, but it would basically suspend him in animation for as long as I deem. And I know that that doesn't really help us in this position, but it might be useful at some point. Sounds like it wouldn't raise any existential questions or cause one to doubt so-known existence. Oh, no, it would definitely would. It's complex magic and it raises questions that I don't even want to open that can of worms. Well, I believe the thing can be- I can't. Then why can't you? You've done it before. I can make myself invisible. What? Now, isn't it a touch spell? Yeah. Then why can't you do it to him? Because of the legacy of Malbolja. Excuse me. God! Hold on. Hold on. What did you say? The legacy of Malbolja. Mybolja. Mybolja. That's very funny. Why didn't I think of that? I believe that the bow that was given to me by CERN allows me to cast invisibility regular type. So I could make an invisible bet or an invisible... How long is that last one? About an hour? Yeah, but the moment that he casts anything at all, your invisibility will drop and it'll be visible anyway. It will be complete waste. Yes. Unless you have greater invisibility, which it sounds like you don't. There's a greater invisibility? Yes. Caprice, caprice, caprice. Yeah, but like you said before, what feels invisible and you can see him anywhere? Yes, and entities like this, something that can see from beyond the stars, is going to have something like true sight, be able to see through palatrics. Oh, I have an idea. Why don't we stand in a circle and he can shift out and just will hide him in like a circle of us. What if we just ask him not to look? Oh, that's cool. That's cool. That's not a good idea. The one who sees from beyond the stars. Oh, yes. I don't think that's going to work. I mean, I'll ask him. I just think that most conflict is solved by conversation and communication. And I feel like we're really going out of our way. When we could maybe just say, hey, could you not look for a minute? No peekies. I think I've learned the opposite lesson on this adventure. I think every problem we've dealt with by killing it. Oh, that's true too. So we should try to kill it. I mean, with Molok and Pathomet and Johnny. We've solved problems without killing people before. I once convinced a man that he didn't have that he was going to lose his penis. And then he was killed, Caprice. Oh, yeah. But I didn't kill him. He may have been killed later, but that's not the point or moral of my story. I just think people have to die to solve problems. How lightly is it that we're going to be able to kill diamonds in the future? I don't... Unlikely. Very unlikely. So I could use our remaining diamonds to get us where we need to go. But then should any of you fall in combat? No, no, no. That's not worth it at all. I don't think I could do for you. Absolutely not. How many diamonds do you have? Oh, quite a few. Let me tell you. Let me look through my sack. Check your equipment, Tib. I will. I suddenly smell guacamole. Oh, and that's my sac-a-mole. I have four diamonds. You have four diamonds? I do, yes. Which do you get four diamonds from? We bought them. We did? Yes. Oh, what a long journey we've been on. We were quite smart. Flask full of orange demon goo. That's great. Oh, let me see what I have. Maybe something will help. Character sheet. I don't have anything good. Inventory. Um... Yes, no. I... Aside from that, there's not much I can do. I've got a briefcase full of red, blue, and green gems, for some reason. I've got a water scheme. Felix remembers. I have two tiger's eyes. Like actual tiger's eyes or stone tiger's eyes. Mark these gems. Oh, I have a string. You do? Oh, yeah. I know what it is. If we can't find the conclusion that we can't hide a shoe, then there's nothing we can do. We move forward. We know what we have to do. We have to reassemble Ravinovia. We saw in the vision. The outcome is good for us. Yeah, right. Esho, what exactly... He can't talk us a bit. No. The best... Mime it out. What exactly happens if they see you? You see that... You see that he is... Will kind of climb down, and then he like flaps up, and he tries to extend his wings, and he shakes the feathers, and then he swoops down in front of you, and mimes like clawing out your eyes with his that talent, and then he flies around and around and around, and that's all you see. Okay. That was chaotic, not very helpful. All right, how about this? Caprice, you make him invisible, and then Esho just... cash your poorer, and then jump through it immediately. It will follow you. And even if he sees you, it'll only be for like a very split second. Which would be more than enough. Make your prison check. Oh, I'm sorry. I should not have populated near you. He's behind me. You see as Esher looks at you, and he looks around, and very clearly... He starts to fly out in one direction for probably a good 30 seconds, and then fly and basically sees that these eyes are everywhere. And he eventually flies back, and he lands, and he taps one, two, three, almost as if to signal on the count of three. I think he's trying to communicate. Aw. What? And then he taps one, two, and a burst of black feathers. There is a swirl, a slash of a sword that's circular, and a swirl of magical energy that explodes into existence. It is dark, it's this deep, dark purple. And in an instant, you see the shape of Esher, his vampire flesh, whatever's left of it, not covered in black feathers. His bald head, the avian features that he has, is perhaps he's attempting to shroud himself in black feathers, as then in an instant, without saying a word, he poofs back, and you see a small back rocket through the portal as it glows. Yeah, I mean, I would immediately follow, as soon as you opened the portal, and gave us the one, two, three, and I would follow. You leap through the portal, and immediately feel the hard stone floor of a subterranean cavern that you crash onto, as I search the music here. Oh, dang it! Give a little more warning next time. Yeah, like a one, two, three would have been really nice, Esher. I never know if it's one, two, three, go, or you go on three. Which one is it? I don't know, I still never know. I think it really depends on the person who's doing the countdown. What if the person is a little bird bat? Immediately, as soon as you all land, the portal closes, and Esher immediately turns back into his humanoid form, and he says, oh, that was miscalculated. It was fine. Good job, it's exactly what I told you to do. What do you mean miscalculated? We didn't end up where you wanted us to be? No, we are in the right place, but if you did not make a compelling of enough case to the Washing Master, and he is still allied with my master, then he will know. Compelling case, I didn't think we even attempted to talk to him. You fed him what he craved. Oh, yes. And they were totally consumed, completely gone, right? All gone? That was your take on it, right? Completely consumed. Just read you say. Yes. Yes, the starve for arcane energy completely taps. The only ability he has is to see, but to be powerless to do anything about it, what he says. But with the ability that you, the magic that you fed him, the all raw arcane and divine and primal energies, there is more that he can do now. We just must pray that it was a compelling case. And if our walks are perhaps had communicated with him before we arrived, there may be hope. But there is a chance if I am ripped from existence before you into a plume of black feathers, you will know what happened. If that does happen, what do you suggest? I mean, we need you to portal our way through all this biz. Yeah. Is there a way we can rescue you, find you, or are you going to get deprized, who's totally destroyed, dead, annihilated? Oh, I'm not sure about all that. What? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. No, I need you to just lie to Cabiri for now. He's really worried that his clone is fucking his girlfriend right now. What? Just reassure him. Why would you think that? I need his fight me. We need his head in the game. Just, you know, come on, keep him on task. It was completely annihilated. Turned to snow as soon as it was devoured by Cabiri. There would be nothing left. He saw how it empowered him. It's feasted upon his flesh. In fact, that's what I said. Yeah. Yeah. So if you are taken from us, then... Even the penis left. Is everything over? We just lose some more trapped here forever and there's nothing we can do. That's where the sentient dildo came from. Oh my God. Just deprisers floating feathers. Yeah, me! He always changes a lot, but that's fine. It's because he got older. The time way works out. Oh my God. It's my favorite piece of my rancher's lore. He looks at you and he says, if you are no longer able to access my powers, then... Perhaps I'll maybe last. You may need to just face Pazuzu before we can reassemble my daughter and she may be lost. I would be lost. That's what I'm afraid. And if Abok's orb is alone and they turn on each other, but they ally with the strategy and tactic of Pazuzu, you will be facing not just one alone, but at least seven. Okay. We have to risk it, right? There's nothing else we can do. We gotta keep moving forward. That we can do. But I believe that the last gambit of Virgil's Zern has clouded his mind and filled him with so much agony, he may not even be able to be contacted. I cannot be sure. I hope that's the case. But if he does become the king of demons, if he does utilize the silver crown he has fashioned with himself to claim and harness the power of Thor's Dune, he will know all. He will see all and he will make our reality his. All right, the crown. Play up into the crown. Would you steal the crown from us and give it to him? I sold the hairpin. It was fashioned into a crown. It is what's keeping the curse of the Raven Queen at bay. Oh, that's right. There was a different crown that I was thinking of. I think that you probably give that to Azmedeus. Oh, yes. I think that's probably what he was. I don't say that. Didn't we give that to Big Red? What? Huh? Big Red? Who's Big Red? Big Red? Who's Big Red? Azzy, I told you all about him. He was red at all. I can see a lot of rubies. Yeah. Big Red. I thought when you said Big Red, I feel like you've said that before, but referred to something very different. That's fair. I do say that a lot. As you look all around you, you feel the ground move beneath your feet. You realize now that you are in a subterranean tunnel that goes deep into the earth and then splits. And you see both of the two tunnels then split each of their own as there are various tunnels all around you. And you feel the very slight rumbling of stone movement as the tunnels are slowly moving back and forth as if they are writhing and wriggling. And Escher looks at all of you and he says, we've arrived at the writhing realm, the lair ruled by Ugu-Deng, the squirming king. The floor is moving right underneath me. I feel like I'm in a Jamira Kwa music video. What? What? What was his name? Ugu-Deng. Ugu-Deng. Ugu-Deng? U-G-U-D-N-N. Ugu-Deng. Ugu-Deng. Ugu-Deng. Ugu-Deng. Ugu-Deng. What was that? What was that? Ugu-Deng. I'm going to write Ugu-Deng down in my memory right now. The Uberid. The Uberid. Say something right now. Who was it? Ugu-Deng. The Uberid. My hand is the right thing. The plane point out of the writing realm. The writing king. Sorry. Please squirming king. The squirming king. The squirming king. The squirming? Oh, the Uberid. So he's squirming, right? Squirming. Oh. That doesn't sound very intimidating. What's the- The trees. Yeah? Yeah. Just back to what I was talking about. Is it big red, what you call your underpants? So every time you take off your pants, you say, oh, there you are, big red. I'm not referring to my underpants. What are you trying to? My tail, like. Oh. Anyway. Ugu-Deng, Ugu-Deng, you're telling. Oh. Uh, he, uh, he looks at this at the tunnel all around you and he says, we will need to navigate this labyrinth. And this may be where we run out of time. Is there, do you know what Ugu-Deng is going to require of us? Mm. That could save us time if we're prepared for what we need to offer. All which piece of Ravinovia is here, maybe we could get ourselves through the labyrinth faster if we knew what we were seeking. Could search it out somehow. I believe it is one of her legs as this being is a, a crawling thing. She's- A worm with infinite legs. He has the dainty leg. That's very wrong. That's very funny. That's meaningfully important. That sure does feel. That's possible. This was very fun, though. In clever, too. I, I believe what the, the squirming king would like is to find his way to his true home in this place. After he became a shell of his former self, he is no more than a massive wriggling worms, wandering lost in these tunnels just as we are. Just as lost, just as hopeless. Oh, so we might just sort of like run into him. We might. But for all I know, these tunnels are endless and infinite. Could we call him to us? Is there something craves, something he would come skittering to? If you squirmed, what would you want? I'm not sure I understand the question. Well, I'm just trying to think like a squirming king. Maybe like. Vasilina. Do you think doing that is going to help? Vasilina's close. I feel like if he's lost, he doesn't want anything other than to be free or find a way out. Don't you have a plastic baggie filled with some kind of gelatinous substance? Not anymore. I used the last of it. Oh, well, that's unfortunate. God. Damn. That would have been really smart. I would have just given him the goo. Didn't you say something about having a bag filled with demon goo? Oh, I've got orange demon goo. I don't think we should maybe give him any demon goo. I don't know. I don't know exactly what it does, but. Maybe it cures athlete's foot. Or, or something worse. I don't know. Or something worse. I don't know. If he looks chaffed, we'll keep this in my back pocket as a backup plan. That's fair. Okay. Look, any of us have the ability to find an object or to traverse difficult terrain more efficiently. Oh, well, yeah. God, they wish to press us here. Or do we know what this thing would come out of hiding for? A way to call him to us. I can absolutely locate an object. The problem is the most familiar I am with that object, harder is to find. But you've seen her before, you know? Hopefully not too intimately, but you know her leg, you know what it looks like. And you've recently held parts of her. Yeah. What is that? Yeah, you just saw the leg. It's literally the same thing. The problem is how chirol. Oh, not true. We already got one. It's chirol. If this thing is. Picture it, but just the other way. You're not listening. If this place is too big, it's beyond my reach. It seems like a big place. If this, if this. Infinite. Oberith has been lost down here forever. It could be infinite. There might not be an end to this. Could you try? Is it too taxing? I can certainly give it a shot, but. If anyone can do it, you can do it, Felix. I don't believe in you. That's very kind of you, but you know, there are just limits to these things. You actually study magic, unlike a priest. Yeah. Who doesn't study magic at all. I'm an idiot. God, he just goes about it the wrong way and gives us an existential dream. You know, you guys make fun of me like three, four more times. I'm going to really start getting worked up. It was the most minute dance that I really should. It's very funny. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I would definitely try to. Try to cast a look at object. The problem is that it has, you know, I describe her name and object that's familiar to me, which again, it's not really right. So that'll affect it. And then it has to be within a thousand feet of me. Thousand feet. If it's in motion, I know the direction of its movement. But see, that's the thing is like it's, yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough as all say. And then I can't locate it. If any thickness of lead, even a thin sheet blocks the direct path of your objects. Okay. Not that there's necessarily a light down here, but it's just to put. And how long is the last. So it's, it's concentration up to 10 minutes. So in theory, I could attempt to concentrate on this and think about, you know, these disassembled parts of Ravinopia and obviously I have not feeling with this individual piece, but, you know, think about what maybe magic she's giving off of her RR or something along those lines and try to follow it as we begin to work our way through the maze. Okay. Yeah. You're able to do that. But why don't you make as you think about this as you cast the spell, make an arcana check at advantage. Sure. Lufthia, do these stones seem awfully leddy to you? Yeah, I mean, it just won't work. I would like know is something like, oh, shit, it's blunt. Arcane, you said? Arcana. It's just chipping it to the often tasted one. 22. Okay. Yes. You channel this magic and you sense out your eyes begin to glow as you sense out a thousand feet in all directions. You don't get a sense of any immediate read, but you don't feel anything is being blocked a thousand feet out in a complete orb, a sphere around you as you feel the holes or the tunnels of this place shifting as it begins to go down and you hear kind of a bit of rumbling as the stone not too far from you to the tunnel of the side spills out and then a small hole appears and grows and grows and grows and grows as another tunnel emerges and opens into the tunnel that you're in as another entrance near you starts to close. Oh. And you feel the you feel just the very slight vibration of things very subtly shifting and moving. It's all very slow. I don't like that. Good news. There's nothing blocking the magics. So if we keep moving now, we have about 10 minutes before I need to cast this again. And we if we get closer to it, I might start to pick something up. The bad news is that and I point to the shifting. This maze is constantly moving. It's not set in stone, which means even if I try to remember every pathway, every turn we make and make a mental map, it won't be accurate. Well, then let's just go. Let's just go forward and see what you see. See what we feel. I agree. The faster we move safely. Let me concentrate on what I'm thinking about. And the second I pick something up, I'll know the directions. And don't pick it. I'll pick a direction based on gut instinct. All right. You lead. Keep me in the middle. Esha. Watch my back. If we get stuck somewhere, you can poof a bell, right? Poof us out. Yes, I can move us on to the next player. Then yes, let's go. Any of this seem like or does it seem like the walls and stuff are being altered by magic? Or is it some kind of like living entity? Loneness. I would say that it's difficult to tell immediately. But I know you would. I think that it'd be very obvious, just like all of the other strange layers that you'd been in of this kind of high fantasy abyss where it feels like it's just the nature of this place. But if you are, if it would affect how you are trying to maybe have it use a spell or something. If you elaborate, I got to make a judgment call. Casting true sight would help to see and find entrances and things in this place. That's what I was going to say. I think that would absolutely help. Then I would, in kind of inspecting the walls and seeing how it moves, I won't touch them, but I'll reach out towards Felix and my paw will glow golden as I'll lay my hand on him and I will cast true sight on Felix. Oh, shit. Well, hopefully this will allow you to see more clearly as we traverse this place. I opens on your forehead. Goodbye, Six Level Spell. Is that a true seeing spell? Huh? True seeing or true sight? Oh, pretty sure. Is there a dare go? There is, yeah. Where's that coming from? I should probably. Yeah, I can fix that. Let me double, Dagney, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh. Ah! That's nice. Well, here, let me double check. The Paul gives a witcher. It's true seeing, but it, so the spell gives the willing creature you touch the ability to see things as they actually are for the duration the creature has true sight. Notice the secret door is hidden by magic and can see into the ethereal plane all out to a range of 120 feet. Girl, your tail. So it gives Felix true sight. I'm so glad that was you. Make a perception check at advantage, Felix. Okay. Oh, I'm going to, if I can, inspire Felix. I'm feeling some slight vibrations. Ten or 12. That's a good question. I think I'm at 12. It's got to be 12 at this point. Yeah, it's got to be. Don't drink my beer. Let me see what I get first. Yeah, you got 10 minutes of it. Same amount of time that you have. Oh, I got an extra 12. Get in there. So that's going to be a 20 for perception. You think I want to pull that off? Well, it's the 10 minutes that you have to enjoy for the next 10 minutes. So enjoy the inspiration. I don't think you need to use it. I don't. 20 is insane. With a dirty 20, I think you're right. 20 per se. Iris places a paw over your forehead and suddenly there's a flash as a golden eye of Horus appears on your forehead as your eyes flash gold and then shimmer and shift to that same arcane power that you harness from her divine magic as you look and the entirety of the realm that you are in completely changes. And you realize that you stare out as far as you can see and you see beyond the tunnel that you're in. And while you feel like you are moving and you feel like you are in this endless labyrinth that is constantly circling, constantly shifting and constantly shaking, you look and you see the true nature and torment of this realm as you see a singular tunnel. All of the other chambers veering off are looping back around, but it's almost like an enormous an enormous or a boris, a single endless circle of a tunnel that leads absolutely nowhere. And you see now that everything else, all of the other tunnels that are going off simply loop back to this main tunnel, there is no way out. If there was a being to be trying to find their way, there would be no hope. And you get a sense that if you are able to keep this true saying and keep your eye on the pathway forward, you would be able to lead to the one singular route that would be able to get you through this place. As the eye opens on my forehead and the gold glowing light flashes before it changes the arcane magic, I would have my knife in my left hand and I would have been holding my right hand up with more arcane magic as I'm sensing this and all of a sudden my eyes go wide and I, the time and space and the planes and ethereal and material, it's all before me. I can see it all, this place is, there's no, there's no path, but I can see the truth. The truth is before me and I can lead us. Felix. You would almost like start to see like tears well up in my eyes as like, it's like so much information like flooding my brain. I was like, what the fuck did you do? Is he okay? As I turn back to you, you see a small number two right underneath my left eye. You and you do shed a tear as for a moment as the strange nature of this place, you feel a sense, you feel the same hopelessness as the Scorman Ken. You feel the same powerlessness and the hopelessness and where the same kind of energies that had filled every, that had filled every single one of these layers, you begin to feel this, the nature of this realm as you see it for what it truly is, you begin to feel perhaps what this Oberith Lord is feeling right now. I can see the exact time, date, nature and location of all your deaths. No, I would, despite the overwhelming amount of knowledge and information that's like being downloaded into my brain and the fact that it's like deeply upsetting and I would try to focus and concentrate on the spell that I'm holding with this information and attempt to, I would almost steady myself on Toa and point the direction he would need to go to kind of lead us all. And kind of act like a, just a compass that he could use to lead the way. As I'm sensing, I would just be pointing and leaning on you. Because it's like so much. Really? That way? And I would attempt to just basically direct us almost wordlessly. And I would try to like help Felix to keep his balance while he's seeing all this stuff and try to, you know, help him lead the group. Escher will kind of take a step back and I'll say careful, Felix, do not tap too deep into these powers. You may leave, but your mind may not. I would say anybody who's talking to me would almost think that I'm not hearing them. Because I'm so focused on what's happening with this knowledge that Iris has imparted upon me. And I'm just focusing on my spell trying to reach out for Reven over you. Do that. And this is an enormous, an enormous or boarous deep in the earth, the subterranean chambers. And you see now as Escher poofs into a bat once more as feathers fall down onto the stone floor and then cling onto Lifty's head as you, Felix guides you. And although what you all are seeing is an endless network of writhing tunnels that go up and down, some that climb up and you might be able to scale a cliff wall as you see that in the earth, there's strange ores and actually gems that are appearing out as you feel like you're going deeper. You feel like you are maybe going back around, except if it wasn't for Felix, who is so dead certain of where you all heading. However, without seeing it for yourself, it becomes difficult to believe. Do we just feel lost? As you are feeling like Felix is guiding you astray, that it's lost in the place of this, the truth that Felix has seen, he understands. I need everyone but Felix to roll a wisdom saving throw at advantage because of what he told you against the hopelessness of the writing realm. Oh, hell yeah. 25. Wow, that's pretty good. We'll be okay. That's pretty good. You all have twists. I don't know how many. Advantage. But we can't use them. Yeah, I didn't need it. No, you don't. You roll and you know what the DC is. 20. 27. Oh, wow. Yeah. 22. Oh, let's go. No doubt. You manage to resist as the... Hug her, everyone. You manage to resist as you, as Felix leads deeper and deeper and you feel like it's hopelessness, but you have to trust your friend in this moment as you go continue around and circling. And finally, Felix, I'll say that the true sight will extend the duration of the locate object. If I need to cast against one, I'm happy to cast again. You'll probably need another one then. You'll probably need another one then as you continue as you... Tax my slots, baby. You know what I'm saying? Exactly, right. As you finally feel... Scalest. You finally feel off in the distance a ping. Of... Wait, wait, wait. As you feel... It's there. It's there. It's there. You found it? You can feel it. I saw it. I can feel... Yes, we're getting closer. And... It's ready. It's there that you see that as you make your way closer and closer, you feel the presence going stronger and stronger and stronger as the, as Escher starts to kind of squirm with almost excitement or anxiousness on top of your head lifting. As you, as Felix guides you through these tunnels, ignoring the various different places that that that veer off. And it's here as you begin to turn around a bend that seems to go deeper and deeper, you see, you feel it just around the bend. And it's at this point that you hear rumbling and vibration. The subtle vibration of the, the subtle vibration of the tunnels moving and shifting and shaking you've gotten used to, but there seems to be rumbling, small shock waves all radiating from the, or emanating from the tunnel directly up ahead as you feel it, Felix. And however, as you're close, getting closer and you sense it, you realize that the, that as you're approaching, you see, you know that you are approaching with your true sight, the squirming king or what remains of him. And you see that the leg, what you're feeling is in a place beyond the tunnel. Shit. In the, almost as if there is a something in the center of, in a, in a separate disconnected chamber outside of this, this interconnected infinity of tunnel. Wait, wait, do you guys feel that? No. Surrumbling. Oh, that. Some sort of vibrations. I think we're getting close to whatever entity is lurking down here, but the problem is the Robinovia's leg, it's not, it's not in the tunnel. It's sectioned off. It's separate. How do we get there? We're going to have to deal with whatever this thing is, whether it's by talking to it or bargaining with it or something. There's, there's got to be another way to it. We just have to give it what it asks. It's going to, the thing is in the tunnel though, right? I think so. I, that's the sense I'm getting. I, it's just hard to explain. It's, it's more of a feeling. It's more of a sense. We're getting close. If we can locate where this, this, this thing is, this king. Then we can figure out how to get to the leg and make it, give it to us. All right. Well, I trust you. Thanks. We're close. And I would, I would keep leading us, knowing that there's no connection to where I believe or not Robinovia's leg to be. I would try to lead us to where I believe that the Squirming King is. You lead deeper and you turn the bend and you all feel it get more and more, the, the vibrations get stronger. And finally you see what's creating this before you is what remains of the squirming king. You see thousands, perhaps millions of worms, all squirming along the floor, the ceiling, the walls of the tunnel that you're in. As they're all grasping forward, attempting to move towards you away from you in various different directions. And all of them you realize as they all move back, they're dark, they're slimy, as if these worms are, they move and look almost like separated legs for perhaps some larger creature. As they all arriving in every direction. And you realize now that all of them all go back to the center of this tunnel. As if they are all tied and knotted together as they feel the entirety of the tunnel. And you see this off probably a good 50 feet away from you in the tunnel. And the, all of the various openings are shifting all around you. But you feel the presence, the humming, the pinging of Robinovia's leg off to off deeper away from the tunnel. But I know there's no way to get to it. But not from this tunnel. Right. Yeah. Right. Not from the single connected circular. What do we use Felix? We have to go through. I don't know. I don't know. We're getting very close. I don't know if this thing is, is all of the worms together separate. The worms are different. I don't know. If this is a weekend oberth, can we fight it? Can we kill it? Can we burn it away? I don't know. I think we just have to ask it what it wants. Just lock the evas. It's a good place to start. And we, you know, I think we know that if he's just a mess of worms, hopefully he's pretty impotent. Hopefully you can't hear me saying that he's impotent. We'll speak quieter. Don't yell it out in the hall. Oh, sorry. See like thousands of little mouths go, hey. If it's approached with caution and maybe Caprice does the talking. Yes. Come on. Just a little closer and don't get too close to the worms. I'll take the lead. And just in case I need the, you know, words. We've got you back. Thank you. We trust you. Sort of. Mostly. We trust you. Okay. He approaches. You approach and you see that the wriggling thing and all of the, the swarming worms are all vibrating the walls of this tunnel as they're all attempting to move forward. And as soon as you approach, you see that although they had been pulled in various directions, there is suddenly all of them refocus in towards your direction as they squirm slowly, but surely towards you as you all feel the entire tunnel rumbling around you. You guys, you guys have kush balls where, where you're from. You guys remember those? What? I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know. I guess it's a cultic thing. Greetings. Hi. Hi. Hello there. Great. Ugo Dank, the squirming king I take it. My name is Capriccio de Sesto. You can call me Caprice. We, what do we need? We need to have an obvious leg. I don't know that we should come right out and say that. We beseech thee. We seek a specific leg. One leg, no more, no less. The leg, you may know of it. I was given to you as a gift by, well, you know who. And if you would be so kind as to pass it over, that would be great. If you need anything in exchange, then we can talk. We can start negotiating, you know, back and forth with honors. Thank you. All of you or just you unclear. You wait a moment as the squirming king stops the tunnel and you hear very similar to the other layers. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Gross. You hear. You hear. Foam. Oh, home. Home. Yes, we have been told that you are seeking your home. And you've probably been looking for some time. So if we helped you either get on the right track or find it, that would be a satisfactory exchange. I think he just wants to go home. So couldn't Escher just teleport him there? Escher. Oh, can you? Yeah, yeah, he can't be seen. Remember? Well, I know he's in his bath room. We should have established some sort of communication system before. What if his home is the place that Felix could see, but it's not part of this this living room? Oh, that would be fantastic. He's stuck in his house. Like right over there. You know what I mean? We did it without the little ligus. It's certainly possible. I don't know. It's a good guess. Let's try. If I get him to move out of the way so that we can make it to that room, can we make it to that room? There's nothing connecting it. I mean, it's all of what we thought were these tunnels and passageways. They're all false. I'm going to touch one of the walls. And I just want to see what it is or what it does. Like what's it made out of? You touch it and it feels like an underground subterranean stone. You see a bit of streak of ore within. There's a couple of gemstones around you, but it feels like a deep subterranean tunnel. OK. And it's once again, it's very slowly rumbling and moving as it all squirms around. As it shifts and moves, do the grooves feel like they are cleanly frictionlessly touching each other? Or are there gaps in these walls that worms or other things could squeeze for? I'm not sure I understand the question. It sounds to me like you're saying, is it something that's pre-cut that's moving against itself, or is it just amorphously like? The nature of the shifting. Yeah, it's not like cut. It's just shifting and rumbling. It's not like tectonic plates moving. Yeah, yeah. If not like the stones are moving the way the bricks move with Diagon Alley. No, no, no. It is very much like the the underground shifting stone itself. OK. Jesus. Do I get an idea of how deep from this ore borne stone do I feel how far away this other holding chamber is? Make and make a perception check at advantage because of the how long was choosing last hour? OK, yeah, yeah. At advantage. I got another natural 20. So, oh my god. Oh my god. Damn. So you feel fire right now as if you realize now that whatever chamber this is is just beyond a relatively thin wall of stone is just beyond this tunnel. And that would that presumably that the that the squirming king's home or whatever this chamber he's seeking out has just been a mere, you know, several feet of stone beyond in this entire time. I would like to attempt to find where I feel like it's closest and I would like to try to cast Passwall. Oh, I just had it. My friend look at the big brain on feelings. Filtered weird. Sorry. So it is a one action. A passage appears at a point of your choice that you can see on wooden plaster stone surface, but has to be non-magical. It can't be magical stone. And then I choose the opening dimension five feet wide and feet tall, 20 feet deep at a maximum of those dimensions. The passage creates no instability in a structure surrounding it. The passage will last an hour. You know, when the opening disappears, any creatures or objects still in the passage are safely ejected to a non-octagonal space in your surface of the wall. Actually, it doesn't say that it has to be non-magical, but I thought it did. Maybe that's true. There are different spells. This one doesn't mention it. It's just a Passwall. Fifth level. Transmutation. So I would like attempt to, I guess I don't have to drop my concentration because it's just one action. I would like walk up to where I'm using this true site to like sense where this thing is close, you know, and sense that it's just on the other side. And I would take my dagger and kind of like roughly carve in like a transmutation circle. Yep. And then once I feel like it's done, I would clap my hands together and touch it and attempt to transmute an opening using Passwall to see if I can, we can access the chain. Yeah. Okay. You do that. As you all watch as this, this knotted mass of worms are all wriggling together almost in, in hesitation as Felix Carr is a large circle. That turns and glows silver as his silver blade marks the, marks into the wall the magical energy that is being expended. Obviously doing the work as the various runes and the circles and everything that's done. You see what Felix worked very quickly. And in a moment, the arcane energy feels this chamber, blinding silver light floods the place. The worms seem to not even notice or realize, perhaps being completely unable to see. As the, as you, as the earth and the stone in the chamber around you begins to crumble away. And suddenly it pierces into another chamber that seems to be much larger and tall as this cavernous, an enormous circular cavernous room. As you see that you have pierced into this central chamber and you feel Ravanovia's, the presence of Ravanovia's leg is, it's just through this tunnel. Wow. I really feel like all this studying is finally paying off this last week or so. Get it again, I knew it. Yeah, you're fucking killing it, Felix. Jesus. Wow. Well, we could just, I mean, Felix, why don't you just handle everything? Oh, this is amazing. Because again, Towa, there are limits. I'm doing my best here. You're doing very, very well. Thank you, thank you. We're getting a little lucky. She's just right here. No, like I mean. All right, let's fucking go. Join us to your home. Framed? No, no, no, no, no. Immediately before you can even go, the worms suddenly move with a sense of purpose as they, as they feel the vibration and you see this, this squirming mass uh, uh, slop forward and cling towards the, uh, the, the tunnel as it, as it feels new passages, perhaps that it hasn't experienced in millennia as it pushes forward and you all follow behind it as the darkness opens up an enormous circular room that is thousands upon thousands of feet. You cannot even see the end of it as you see a smooth, dark, um, a smooth, dark stone where rather than there, rather than there being, uh, rough, humid underground tunnels, this seems to be polished and cut in a huge dome overhead and a circular flat, uh, stone floor. And you see that, uh, thousands of feet ahead of you through the darkness. Um, uh, you can somehow see that there is a, an enormous hole at the center of the, of the room and also in the, in the ceiling as you see this, uh, swarming king as Ugedenk, uh, uh, moves forward, the, uh, the, the knotted worms no longer pulling against each other in all different, uh, aimless directions as you see that, uh, as this thing passes that there, that along this floor, there's all many grooves that are carved into the floor that look like to be in the shape of worms and circling one, there is a raised circular pedestal and on that pedestal is a small child-sized leg. There, there it is. You did it. You found it. Okay. I'm just going to take a minute and catch my breath. But there it is. I'm going to wait right here by the, the opening. You guys got this. Oh, don't be, are you okay? I'm all right. I'll go forward with Escher on my head and retreat the leg. Yeah, you do. You do along with Lucy. He, uh, he, uh, perks up in excitement as you approach the leg and it is sitting there. It looks like a, almost, it looks like it's casting its own line because of how pale it is against the contrast of this dark chamber, but you're easily able to pick it up and grab it gently. It, uh, it feels cold, but not dead as you hold it. And you all feel, uh, you all hear the sickening as this massive wriggling shape falls into the central hole in this large, uh, domed chamber. And, uh, in an instant, you feel the, the, the chamber vibrating as all of the grooves in the ground start to, uh, uh, shake and fill with worm-like flesh as it all fills out and, uh, fills the room as you all feel the feet, uh, beneath you, hum and vibrate. And through these vibrations, you feel, uh, your skin start to crawl a little bit. Just like the Scorming King, your entire being squirms as your flesh responds to the, the Scorming King having found his home, his, his palace, his chamber, his throne room after all of these millennia and you all enjoy plus two dexterity. I draw concentration on locate objects. When we locate rabbit, it feels like just to free up my brain a little since, oh yeah. Iris just domain expansion infinity in my brain. All right. What did you say dexterity, right? Feeling dexterous. Dextual. That's very funny. Do you want to get dextual? Hot dog. I finally have plus one new initiative. Nice. No, is that why? And you realize now that as the, as you feel your dexterity, your flesh respond, you realize now that the worm flesh in the grooves is going to the wall of this chamber that is separated magically by Felix, but they then start to go along the edges as if it is being sealed from the, the, the tunnels. You feel like this, this chamber, I guess it was probably how many feet across? It was like five by eight and 20 feet. Yep. Yep. Yep. And so five by eight, it is starting to close and you feel if you do not move quickly, you may be trapped in this place forever. All right guys, time to go. The past wall is closing up. We got to go. Are you sure? I really could use about 12 hours. There's no time man. Not actually, you got to get us out of here. Make an acrobatic check everybody. I'm trying to shove the leg into my backpack, but it doesn't quite sound. That's 20. Wow, that's a third one. Would you say dextract? These dice tonight. Not even third dextract. Acrobatics. Acrobatics, yes. Oh, sorry. Um, I need to. Oh boy. That's insane. Twenty, twenty one. I mean, it's good. I rolled an 11. Yeah. So that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Wow. I rolled me. Yep. I don't like these new rules. Thirteen. What did you get, else? I rolled a one. Oh, that's brutal. Yeah, there's like, that sucks. There's nothing we can do about that. You're dead. No, you don't have key points. Oh hey, but it's not a saving throw. I don't know what I'm so asking. I say, I just know that you have the ability to do some key point re-rolling. I get a twenty seven. Your plus should still be crazy. Sorry. Right. If it's just a dextract. It's an acrobatics. So plus 12. So she got 13. 13. Both her and I got 13. It's an average. I don't know. Good luck. I'll say this. Yeah, good luck. We'll grab Iris and we'll leave you behind. Bye, Loopy. OK. Yeah, I know. You'll be permanently alive. Your deathless nature will keep you alive forever. I know. No, I can still die. I just don't get. I don't want to suffer the effects of voltage. So I'll look great until I die in a misery of worms. So what do you get? 30. 30. 21. 21. 13. 13. Twenty seven. Twenty seven. Thirteen. Twenty seven. Twenty seven. Twenty seven. Twenty seven. Twenty seven. Twenty seven. Twenty seven. Thirteen. Thirteen. As you all are running towards the exit, you both, Loopy and Iris, as the wormflies starting to surge up and squirm and crawl, both of their footing is lost and they tumble forward. They are prone and on the ground as the wall is closing up. You've just all, you all have a moment to act as this, the entire chamber around you is shaking and squirming. That's very funny. I actually, this was a seven. I got a 21. A 21. It is just Iris. You see Iris trip and fall. Sorry, these aren't my dice. It's Iris. Iris, can I loopy? Bye. And then grab her. If she's like, I don't know, would your hands be like outstretched when you fall? Well, anytime I fall or jump, I go like this. You do that. So I'm gonna grab her by her wrist and just like her shot foot style. Let's take that at the top. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna grab her by my wrist and fall. As you see Toa, you realize what he's doing. As you have your paws out, your hair, your hackles are up. As you realize, as the gross worm flesh hits your paw, it's an awful feeling. And Toa, you go in action, make a shot foot athletics check to see if you can eat Iris into the hole and make an acrobatic check to see how well your role will affect his DC. The fourth 90, 20. Nice. Two for me, two for him. Damn. 17. 17. I think it's 32. Let me just confirm. 32. You make it easy. As all of you tumble through, you see the iris on the ground. Toa, as it's closing, you leap through the shrinking tunnel. As you manage to grab Iris before she even hits the ground and grab her paws and you spin once and spin around and Iris feels sick. As Toa just throws you through as the tunnel is shrinking, you see Iris tumble out through the chamber. As Toa, you sprint forward and dive through right as the tunnel closes around. Your toes barely make it out of the hole as it closes forever. Bye, sir. Sorry. Oh, thanks. Thank you, Toa. Well done, Toa. My toes are really wriggling. Oh, that's work. Can you imagine being stuck there forever? I thought about it for a split second until Toa's incredibly strong stone-like arms ripped me from the wriggling void. Yeah. That was really close. We still got to get out of this tunnel. And whatever this plane is, this awful place, I think you're up, Asher. As he transforms back and he pulls out his rape here and he says, and he starts to smile and he looks at you, you love tea, and he says, thank you, my sweet. May I please have the leg? I put my hand in his hand. Oh, he takes it. And he leans down and he gives it a kiss. Oh, the ass? You only say. I'm sorry you have to see me like this. The ass? Stop. Ball virtual for humans. I need a ball here. It's OK. You're dying. I'll yank the leg out of my hand. It's kind of sticking out at an odd angle, but I will yank it out of my backpack. And I think this is yours. It's like an awkward, unrealistically placed world of warcraft item that sits on your back magically. Exactly right. The leg is hanging off and you hit Z and you grab it and hand it to him. He opens up the pocket dimension and places it in and it closes and he smiles and he says, well, we may have, that may be the best thing we've done thus far. We've returned somebody to their home or somebody's. I couldn't help. It's like a good deed. We did a good deed for Oberth. Realizing that the leg was there, he will know that Pazuzu knew. That Pazuzu had the power to free him from his torment and did nothing. Oh, that's a really good point. I mean, we're. We're winning them over. We're so in chaos. That's right. Right. Worms. Huh. What are they good for? Absolutely everything. I don't know what any of that means. Say it again. We're. We're. I don't know if it's true. What are they good for? Absolutely everything. Huh. Huh. I don't think of that great. I roll my inspiration before I get 12. Nice. That's just while we sing this song together. Sweet. Because I'm so inspired before it runs out. Thank you. You're welcome. 10 minutes, right? Yeah. I think we did a lovely job there. So we can go to sleep now. Yes. No, no, we still got six more of these fucking things. Two arms. The. No. I'm so tired now that I've almost fallen into a pit of wormy despair. This was an easy one. Maybe you can just have like a snack or something. Or a cat nap. Here, here, just drink some water and hydrate. Ew. Oh, this was the demon goo. Oh, man. Well, it would have been bad. Oh, man. Why do you keep them next to each other? I. That would be a mistake. Where the fuck is my rapier? We're ready for the next one. Oh, shit. And it comes to the inside the worm room and you just see Caprice's rapier on the floor. Yeah. As Escher looks at all of you and says, it's going to heat up a bit as he cuts another hole into reality. And it's a bright, vibrant green energy that opens up as he approves once more into a bat and flies through as do you all follow him? Oh, absolutely. We haven't come this far. We dabbing. And it wasn't a joke. I'm removing rapier from my inventory. Oh, that's amazing. I love that. I absolutely love that. God. Very funny. Really, it's like cut to the cave where we saved Ravalli and there were the orcs and like he just, he's just Oh, that's right. That's actually. Oh, man. He's been weeks. Oh, man. I loved that rapier. It was used about one time. The humidity hits you the second you enter this place. As you hear the, the, the, the shittering of the great word of strange beasts and creatures all around you. As you see massive looming trees, dense foliage, enormous monstrous size ferns, vines hanging down. As you realize you are in an enormous teeming jungle. As Escher surveys the area and flies around and looks and then transforms back into his humanoid form. And he says, this is a place called the hungry tarns. The hungry what? T-A-R-N-S. Oh, the hungry tarns. I don't make this up. I would believe you if you, you could make it up if you wanted to. And, and you hear the hissing and roaring off in the distance of great reptilian beasts in all directions. As you, he looks at you and he says, this is the domain of Sertras, the prince of heretics. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Avantris and gain access to tons of exclusive perks including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, shroud over Saltmarsh. You can also go to thecrookedmoon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck and more. Thank you. You are in an enormous teeming jungle, dense. Basically the, the, the, the way all around you disappears into overgrowth and foliage. As you see things lurking and creeping along, you see, you hear the hissing, you hear the distant roar of beasts off in the distance. Unsure how close they really are. And, and you are in the hungry taunus, the layer of the abyss that is ruled by Sertras, the prince of heretics. Sertras. Oh, it's a jungle. It's kind of sort of like home. A little bit. It's so hot here. Yeah, it's muggy. It's a little humid. Okay. Yeah, it's a little moist. My fur is meshing. Mine too. You see an enormous multi-eyed lizard about the size of a, the size of a medium-sized dog climbing on a tree and looking down at you along a dual tongue extends out as it laps through the air and looks at you with strange demonic eyes as it continues to make its way up this tree. What do you think the division of tasting buds are on a tongue like that? Do you think he gets like salty and sweet or is it both? I don't know. I mean, maybe you could taste him. He might attack. Let's not try to disturb anything. Let's make our way. Asher, Asher, do you have any idea what we're looking for here? Is there a a ziggurat or a temple, some kind of tomb, some sort of glade? A giant tree. It's kind of like hallowed out. Yeah, a big tree, some sort of a a big cave in the sort of a mountain. But like a jungly cave, jungle cave. A jungle cave. Dark cave. Prince of heretics. It's a heretic. It's temples. Other name of the game here. Stupid. You're all right. Don't be. That's my friend you're talking about. Oh, it's very nice. You're more friend you could please. Temples all over this jungle built to gods that are either long forgotten or never existed. Never existed? Not in this universe. Perhaps gods that existed and ruled in the universe where the Oberiths came from. Who would have built something like that? Yeah, who followed them here? It's crazy to think that so much time has passed that gods themselves are forgotten and gone. Well, it was Sertiris himself that preached the heresy to whatever beings inhabited that doomed universe to turn against the gods that they had led to their annihilation. But perhaps they never existed at all. That was my brain to think about. And so there is nothing left beyond the reflection, a shadow of the Prince of Heretics. It really makes me feel insignificant. Our time here is just a tiny blip of entire passing of time. Yeah. On the one hand, yeah, I get that. And the other, think of the unique things we've seen. How rare the air we breathe, the five of us. And they're sure you're here too. What strange lives we lead. No one else can say that they've seen and done the things that we've seen and done in that order. That's pretty special. You're right. You're right. Where do we even begin the search? You said the like a lizard thing was going up a wall by us. Up a tree. Up a tree. The large lizard has got two and you see another one. You see and you hear the croaking of an enormous, what looks somewhat like a bullfrog. But it's got a great number of eyes going down and it whips out a tongue that's covered in eyes as well as it snaps up a dragonfly that is passing through. Although this dragonfly has wings that go in all directions, pairs in varying directions in this strange jungle that you find yourself in. Well, we need to look for a temple. Point in the direction. I mean, maybe I could climb a tree and see if there's anything sticking out on the landscape. Not a bad idea, but be careful what you might find in foliage. Just pick a tree without any critters on it. I'll just go with this one and I'll pick one that looks kind of large and close to us. You're able to do that. I'll climb up and see what I can see up there. Okay, make an acrobatics check to see how well you leap up. I'll say you won't need to roll athletics here because of the way that tree branches work. I'll pick one other. So. Uh, thank you. You managed to leap from branch to branch as you hear another distant roar booming through this jungle. It sounds deep. It sounds guttural. It sounds utterly enormous, especially with the lungs to make a noise like this. And it sounds otherworldly and unholy as you continue to climb your way you see lizards that look at you and you see some frogs climbing in the trees, the strange, demonic looking frogs, and then they get, they let out a scream as a large tongue snaps them up as a, even a larger lizard smashes into them as you see that you begin to climb. And as the lizard is chomping the, the, the toad, you see as it's immediately snapped up by an enormous snake like creature that devours it as the, as you're watching the rapid circle of life in the strange jungle as you continue to make your way up. And they seem a little bit too big to be seen as prey, but you continue to climb. Eventually you get through the dense foliage as you, you see that as they, the leaves touch you, it almost feels, you see that the leaves are very strange to this jungle. They come out and they're dense green, but they have the veins are of red and they split almost like serpents tongues that are licking you as you are climbing through the leaves. Oh, I'm going to get the leaves in the air. As you almost feel as if it's a little, little damp and you're hoping it's from the humidity and from the moisture in the air, but you feel like this tree itself is tasting you as you make your way out as you finally emerge from the canopy. You look, you, the a, a, a bright, orange sun appears overhead and blast down and you see this massive sprawling, strange jungle all around you. Make a reception check. This guy, 10. You look around and you see that through this jungle, this is an incredibly strange place. It's very clearly not natural. You look and as you see off in the distance as in the distance, you see the certain areas where the trees are shaking and rumbling as, as something seems to be moving through it. And then often the distance over there and there and all behind you, as you see throughout this place, you try to find what seems like an obvious direction, but you do see looming out from the jungle, the top of what looks like a stone structure of these huge slabs of, of red and, and sandstone looking colors that rise up and there's one over there and there's one over there and they seem to dot this jungle. And it's as you poke your head out, you do not see the shadow that passes over you as you only hear the flap of a single flap of wings as you see, you feel an enormous looming creature descending upon you with an enormous serrated jaw of a pterosaur looking creature is descending towards you as you don't notice it until it has a chance to make a surprise attack on you. Buggers. Can you be surprised? I think so. I've been able to single die here. Sorry folks. I got really worried that that was the damage. It would have disadvantage. Straight? Oh, so it was just straight. So it's just straight. You haven't taken damage from and you have your elephant cloak. Yeah, it would have. So it would be straight, canceling out as a advantage, but I can be surprised, I guess. Okay. 18. No. Oh, smokes. Oh, that, you know what? I bet you it was the plus two decks. Oh, you feel that's present the gust of wind as you duck into the canopy as you hear the shriek and all of you hear it from below this horrific reptilian shriek as a as a pteranodon looking creature with with six different wings flapping it chaotically with a serrated beak that is far too long and eyes that are far too large disappeared and you see that behind it were were seven, eight, nine, 10 more as you see that they were descending towards you, but you were able to disappear into the canopy as the first attack missed with these enormous grasping lizard like claws at the end of its legs. I would immediately begin climbing down the tree as fast as I can being kind of reckless if I need to. You can just jump off. Yeah, yeah. Again. So you very effortlessly climb down, seeing these strange creatures as as you eventually arrive as as you see Lufty quickly descending having narrowly escaped being picked up and flown away. That would have been fun. You're right. Whoa. What happened? There's like a lot. There's a lot out there. I saw many things, things I wish to never see again. I don't really have a clear direction we can go, but I'll point in the direction of the closest temple that I saw. Yeah. I think we can start by going this way, but we need to be careful. There are some really, really big things out here. All right, well, that's a start. I mean, that's a direction, right? All right, let's go. Keep an eye out. I'm not going to fly far. And he looks and you see like a another large lizard with six legs. Skins got a big fin on its back and it's kind of eyeing. It's just big enough where it could very easily eat bat escher. And so he says, keep an eye on me. Don't let any of these things eat me. I don't want to get eaten again as he poofs into a bat and grapples and bat it too easy. I'm going to take some of my hair and arrange it around him like a little cocoon. Oh, that's nice. We'll head to the temple. Okay. Lufty, make a survival check to see how well you can guide your friends. You've died stuck. 12. 12. You try to lead your friends in the direction that you believe the closest temple to be. Make an insight check for me. You are a Viking there, I believe, because of wisdom. I am, I am. I would be, I would be 10. 10. Nothing. You. That was a good one. So, well, there'll be a point here as you continue, as you are making your way through under dense foliage is occasionally you all jump as there as an enormous a lizard or a snake or reptiles and amphibians, a few strange insects, a few strange malian looking creatures that are looking down at you. All of them have large mouths filled with razor sharp teeth, but they just seem to be looking at you quizzically like a predator observing as prey and making the calculation to hold back. And you hear a roar. As it is incredibly close and then suddenly you hear the snapping of a tree, the snapping of a log and the rubble. As through the distance, you see an enormous behemoth of a creature as some sort of demonic fiendish dinosaur lumbers in your direction. You see a looming shape, scales, an enormous maw of teeth off in the distance is an enormous beast. You can't get quite a good look at it. It's looming in your direction. It is, it must be at least approaching 20 feet tall. As it stomps through the jungle, you hear the cracking of logs and branches and and and the the skittering of of coobies in the underbrush as it moves in your direction. What do you all do roughly how far away does the sound to us? I would say it sounds probably a good like miles or like no 100 feet. Yeah, like 100 feet through the jungle. It's difficult to even look see far beyond the dense foliage in all directions. I cast spray Eldritch dinosaur pheromones at an eye level. Okay, roll. I got an eight. We all die. Oh, no, no. I was just I would just stop and like look to toe basically and be like, like, I would try to be quiet and like know what to do. I probably try to like hide behind a tree and like hide hide hide. It only sees movement. So don't move. Whatever you do. How do you know that? That's scientifically accurate. How do you know that? Yeah, definitely didn't have fivers either. What? Don't do I need to remind you that when I met you, you didn't know what science was. I still don't know what science is to be fair. Felix and I don't know what dinosaurs are either. I would try to hide and like keep my voice down and like, you know, I would look to tell it for some sort of guidance. I was just saying these things. Uh, okay. Yeah, has this thing like didn't like look at us hungrily or does it know that we're there? Do we can like we can't tell if it's if it's seen you. Okay, it's definitely it's moving in your direction though and left out it let out a bellowing roar. Okay, I will also try to hide in the brush. It could smell us. I will out ungranted. Okay, as in I'm just going to stay in there still. Okay. What are the rest? So, so how are you guys hiding? You're going to do trees like yeah behind a tree and I'm like trying to freeze us. Toa, come here. You're done. If I move a little thing with Felix. If you don't move, it's going to see you. It has no other senses besides its size. It totally makes sense. He sounds pretty confident. Maybe it does. Wait, I think Toa is the person who's lived in a climate most like this. So if anyone's going to know who you tell. I'm trusting Toa. And so I'm just going to stay up there as well. I'll tap myself and change my appearance to be like gray and stone like very much. Super Mario Brothers 3 when he has the stone making a suit on and I'll just like. I need both of you to make a cell check. Okay. I need the three of you to make a cell check disadvantage. Okay. Great. Mike's basically at disadvantage. Anyway, I got 14. I got a nine. Just roll again. Roll again. Roll again. Spike it again. You are two. You are two. Well, I rolled 1920, 2019, 2019. Yeah, that's tough. So it finally came due. And I rolled the natural one. You were two. Well, I also rolled the natural one. I love that. But this is going to go very well. I am double proficient in stealth so I get a 19. That's disgusting. Amazing. Mine, however, is a five. Five. I rolled a natural two. So mine's a 13. That's pretty fucking good. Holy shit. The branches snap and suddenly you see here. And you hear this sniffing as you hear two guttural reptilian voices and unison occasionally or sometimes as coming into this clearing, snapping in, you see an enormous dinosaur, what a fiendish monster. But the closest thing that could be described as a two headed Tyrannosaurus Rex enormous elongated rather elongated jaws, a huge rose of teeth, massive spikes on its back bone all the way down to an unnaturally elongated tail at the end of which is an enormous spiked club with spines all along its tail as it lets out guttural vocalizations as it's very clearly sniffing the air as each head tongues emerge with large sneak like tongues as they flick through the air as their guttural as it stomps in your direction sniffing and vocalizing and as it emerges through a smashing a large low hanging branch out of the way and pushing through an enormous frond, it stops. And you see now this massive beast, you feel that you smell the stink of its breath. It smells like there's it's very irony the stench of blood and the caring exactly right, but also fresh irony blood as it stops and you see four eyes two on each head stare at you as you are just standing completely still as both heads blink at you as I'm sweating. The heads lean down and really the necks are a little bit elongated unnaturally as well as the as they lean down and it is immediately apparent to you that they see you, they smell you and they are it kind of lunges it's it's it's leaning up and looming as very it's trying to decipher what you are as it is starting to perhaps determine that you are prey you realize all of you don't know you need to roll an inside check you all realize that this thing sees you and sees you as prey. Big X, dogs, dog. I think you can see me. I'm so pretty sure you can see me. Start to walk this way slowly. Wait hold up. Walk this way slowly. I mean I saw it in a major image I could have sworn it worked. No no just slowly walk towards me. It's just the one creature. How close to us is it? It's probably like 20 feet in front of you now as it's as it as it leans down and you see as it leans down it's uh it almost gets in a charging stance as both mouths are opening and you see the large row of spines going all the way down its back these massive spikes uh it's looking like it's getting ready to try. I am going to use my feline agility and rush forward and cast management on it. Okay you run forward I need you to see if you get a jump on it if you can start a let make an acrobatics contest as she does this all yellow Felix. Hold on I have another idea for another major image. I think if I hold my hand out and won't attack me it's not allowed to attack me. I don't have to rush forward it's a 60 foot range I thought I had to touch it. Oh no. It's 60 it's 60 foot so I'll just look at it and I'll say the golden foul beast and I'll just uh. So it needs to be a saving throw. Yeah a charisma saving throw. That's pretty good. Plus it's not a land. You two have approached me. I've seen it in a fit of time. I am holding my action for if this thing does charge and the management doesn't work. It has a minus one. Oh perfect say it's I rolled a natural 20. Well my spell safety fee was 19 so it's a. Wait let. I mean unless I do a silver barf. No I don't have it doesn't affect saving throws so it's it's a very barf doesn't no no no I was going to use cutting words but I don't have a barf. You don't have some rebar I created Caprice before he could be that much of a dick. Oh as if you channel this magic don't worry I have this and you say be gone beast enjoy your waiting as you hold your hand Oh this is gonna be really cool and I'll make him go away as as I've got this under control. It bellows out in this uh in this gutter roll of roar that sounds like a very fiendish version of the electronic effects in the legendary Jurassic Park film as it charges towards you the banished completely ineffective as to what are you doing as this authorized there's three of you authorizer on toa yeah he's leaning as his hand up I would like to have saved my action if it charged yep yeah yeah I would see that that's very fair if if I would attempt to attempt to get to toa before this creature gets to talk okay and the moment that I can put my hand on toa before it eats him I would dimension door us 500 feet away from it okay get him out of the line of this charging what if I think that I can so I oh good I was gonna say while you're doing that I from my place in the bushes would look around and see if I can find a rock to throw at the dinosaur like from kind of the side oh I would dimension door us behind this dinosaur so that we are away from the direction that it's charging I would be throwing and ducking back down though trying to do like a one of those I need what is everyone's speed I mean everyone's speed and before we roll for mission 30 feet 30 speed but I would assume that like I wasn't that far from toa as I'm trying to coach him to walk towards 40 feet of speed 40 feet 55 Jesus so 60 if I use feline agility so if you want to use feline agility you may but basically so this thing has 50 feet yeah so you are gonna have to make a contest that's why to see how cool you will be able to dodge out of the way so you I would say that if you leap back um you leap back out of the brush and you find a rock there's plenty of rocks all over the underbrush here and you grab it I need to make an attack roll with an improvised weapon to see how you do as it is thundering towards you bolt out as you see I gotta get a hand yeah so uh we gotta do a uh acrobatics contest what do you do for an an improvised weapon it's a strength uh let me let me look actually with the improvised weapon hold us I feel like I should maybe use the twister too twister we have a few let me use two let me just pop it by two we are very low on twist but well should I just do one or no I'm saying it's okay no this is good okay but just yeah we should use them though well it's a good thing I did that because I rolled a seven but with the plus two that makes it a nine and then I have plus 10 dachrobatics so it's a 19 19 which is better than a 17 um so I would say that you would just add your decks to the roll add your decks add my decks here got it nine could I try something as well as yes yeah yeah so Felix you are running and so the acrobatics check is I rolled hold on um excuse me I got a 17 I got 19 19 okay what are you doing so you are running and Toa you look up as you are Toa it's fine I've got this you as I'm doing this with my right hand I'm going to reach into my uh pack and pull out the mask of haunting and uh from how many sessions ago and I'll put it on my face and it is like a carved wooden mask that looks exactly like mumbo jumbo from banjo kazooie and I'll say and he's an Ingoes in saving throw I might have to not waste the spell slot here I love this a whole lot of casting dimension wizzy's like what is I saying yeah whiz whiz whiz eat no way it fails it is frightened of me for one minute it cannot willingly come closer to me done that's very funny it is charging and it leans forward its tail is swiping it sees you Felix and its tail is whipping around uh in your direction as both heads are lunging forward to Toa as you have your hand out and in a quick motion you put on your mask and a you hear the uh the the banging of drums as Toa um lets out a magical burst from this mask and suddenly the the uh the fiendish dinosaur stops in its tracks and its eyes go wide as it takes a step back and lets out a panicked um a panicked noise of a kind of a guttural of vocalization uh as you f you run up and then I would come to like a sliding stop as I see this thing stop as I'm like putting my hand on Toa's shoulder and realize like I don't need to cast the spell and be like what did you do it's afraid of this very spooky mess as it kind of leans down you see this huge uh this huge uh uh beast kind of has uh it steps down almost onto one knee as it's almost lowering itself its eyes are wide with fear as it's taking another small step back relatively the entire uh ground the jungle shakes with that as it's staring at you staring at the mask with fear it seems to can't even it can't even take its eyes off of you as you have this mask as you are are terrifying it how long is it gonna stay scared for tell him I don't know but they think you guys should run not long okay all right and I'm gonna start walking at it what weighs down eat govok and I'm like waving my my my mall around it kind of looks like big and I think you know obviously like I'm trying to scare away a bear yeah this thing's huge but with the spooky mask that has like that creepy but cute skull on it yeah right I'm trying to scare him and and and basically scare him make an intimidation check at advantage thank you and I'm just repeating eat them both obviously god these dice to the natural one that I rolled uh intimidation is a 20 wow a 20 as you with a 20 no no no sorry 26 oh with a 26 darners are shaking in his face the you get the you see toa get uh he's presenting himself as large but with the mask with the radiating energy that's kind of pounding out with the magical uh the primal magics that are surging from this thing he looks larger and larger as he steps forward and you see that there's there's there's fear in the eyes as this massive beast takes another step back and you see those eyes are wide and as you get close it kneels and falls to the ground at small razor claws tucked underneath as it looks at up at you with two heads in uh in in in the sense of having given up it's working and it's completely uh terrified and in in in in almost a a uh a motion of submission to the fear that you've instilled how did you guys work I did it what does it look like I could mount it you can certainly try um and I'll start to approach it great mighty king of the jungle I am toa common newie and I wish to be your best friend hey well he'll be my second best friend you will be my second best friend and together we will stomp to the temple with my friends on your back and I won't have to hurt you make an animal handling checker advantage that's pretty good pretty good you know handling uh that is a 22 um you approach and this thing is no longer attacking and you see that all of the strange ravenous creatures in the jungle is completely fled and all four eyes are looking at you its tail is down and you approach and as the fear effect of the mask the magical effect wears off you approach and you're able to touch its scaly hide and it remains down and lowered as as as if this king of the jungle is now bowing to you wow damn yes yes i'm done second best friend we will ride upon you now hurry get on hurry hurry hurry i'm not always gonna let me follow his his guide and I get on my climb I'll peek out of the bushes and hop on yeah 100 i fall into i would say everyone in order to scale this thing god choose either animal handling or athletics or acrobatics probably acrobatics depending on how you are going to to get on top of this thing yeah i'm using acrobatics as uh escher is definitely he's trying to pull on your hair to bat it to you away like no no no and uh but he still stays with you does acrobatics or animal handling either one yeah or or athletics it's okay you're too firm i got a 17 of acrobatics as i attempt to dexterously climb up i got a 19 i'll race up and leap into an open spot okay i got a seven as uh i bear my claws and attempt to climb this thing yeah oh boy i got a 20 um and kind of with with escher trying to pull me away i'll kind of take a back approach and sort of just run up the tail far away from the the maws um you do that and you all manage to get on as uh toe how do you you you mount this beast that you have uh scared and intimidated into submission oh god uh let me see what i have here hold on i just want to make sure that like um just trying to see that's all i can tell it's like fighty stuff uh claire voince doesn't really help me augury doesn't really help me um um you are very very friendly thank you very much for being my friend you have very mighty powerful fangs that could bite me in half i will call you fangie the t-rex well do i know what this thing is i don't say that yet it's a dinosaur that probably should be two rex it's a two rex two rex yeah i mean there probably would be some sort of like creative and charming name like devil soar and wow or you know thunder you know that kind of the karnasaur like in uh all the beasts and monsters we've seen so far have had some sort of uh demonic like change to them yeah they're all very monstrous uh jungle animals basically okay all right fangie now when i get on top um i'll tap in the middle of your head to go straight and then two taps to the right and you go right and then two taps to the left and you go left understood have you climbed up uh we're all already up here we're in extreme danger i'm not on that last i'm making it on god 23 you're all fired in this is the same you're not sure but you feel like you have a connection with fangie you feel like you make yourself larger than life and rolling as well as you have you have friend some beating this thing in this submission all right fangie let's do this and i'm gonna crawl up and i'm gonna get right what is he doing sort of what's that song right behind where the two necks sort of converge yep and i'll just to be ready to sort of pat with one way or the other and i don't know if he's gonna listen to me but i'm going to try to direct him in the direction of the temple and uh stop on over there you do that and as you get at the head iris has her claws out and she is scaling up and you manage to get in but as soon as you sit in the raven field or at the at the base of the two necks and feel comfortable there is a soft spot perhaps we're an old you see that there's gashes there's all sorts of battle scars on this thing you can't imagine the skull island level of shit that is here this is skull island the layer folks as you manage to stick your claws deep into one of these deep gashes and scars that has been there and you suddenly all feels you're on top iris you're almost there you go in and suddenly both heads let out a bellowing roar of pain as you all march forward everyone needs to make a dexterity saving throw as the creature takes off into the jungle and rage is thrashing around oh 21 let's go let us go yeah let us go let us go 18 18 21 20 20 30 30 30 you all hold as the as the uh doesn't go faster because it goes faster yeah it is now it is now super it's going 120 feet every six seconds oh as it is charging and you see now that it is thundering through there is a uh you now are smashing through the branches you see that there is a a a dinosaur that's large but much smaller than this thing there's a large fin it's got orange scales and there's a a steam from its breath as it sees this thing it tries to get out of the way one of the heads chops into it rips it in the air tears it in half and devours it mid sprint as entrails and viscera and gore uh hope you as this thing is thundering through barreling through the jungle um at random i need someone to roll scatter die for me as i just determine yeah determine what direction uh a d8 uh and uh the one is north you'll be north you can be north i'll be north eight tell me what that is uh one is supposed to be north right so yeah it's if you're north then it's going to be northwest it begins to charge when you presume to be the northwest and it is just smashing through as uh uh lufti i'm usually making an intelligence check uh to see how well you remember what you'd seen after seeing the the utter terror of i got a 21 21 you know uh you know that this is not in the direction of the closest place as uh you you needed to be heading south and you're now heading northwest as uh you eat the the dinosaur now all of you on and the good thing is is that these massive spikes and uh are our easy hand holes for you where you're all able to hang on it looks a little cartoonish maybe where you're like flying like flags as you're all holding on as this this massive fiendish uh two-headed tyrannosaurus uh is charging through the jungle toa toa we're going the wrong way which is the right way like literally the exact opposite well not literally but i don't know left or right left or right either it doesn't matter just turn around i start hitting left animal handling check it does advantage oh boy i gotta twist some of these i think this is when it starts to go pear shapes i'm gonna double twist two twists yeah you got this toa i'm gonna give you inspiration i'm gonna need it huge a bizoya 24 Jesus Christ what what the fuck you gotta tell on the inspo oh thanks caprice ah that was so inspiring you man how are you going to do this how are you gonna do this you're tapping in what are you doing he is he's now gnashing uh he's now swallowing this uh this poor suspecting dinosaur uh as you see now the bits and pieces scavengers come out from all over lizard snakes uh you see a large uh turtle with a razor uh razor sharp beak is tearing into the pieces that are remaining uh behind you um there's a lot of positive reinforcement okay you did such a great job jumping that little critter now just just go left you can do it and all this sort of like very gently pat him i'm not trying to be like aggressively yeah i'm trying to be sort of gentle and and caring and you suddenly as it's chomping through once the meal is consumed the speed of this beast slows and the thrashing slows are all able to hold on as suddenly you feel like you have finally gained control and you've turned back around in the direction that lufti has guided you in and you are heading back south it's okay as you are stomping through the forest uh through this jungle um being this high up uh you are a lot of these low hanging branches you'll have to you would normally have to duck but the spines on its back are just snapping through them uh clearing the way you get maybe hitting the in the face with some binds you see that any creatures that may have been a threat and you see that there are a number of medium and large sized creatures that would have very easily been able to stalk and attack you and devour you mechanically speaking and you would have to deal with but now that you're on this beast everything is terrified everything is is is running away as you snap your way through the jungle and is there anything that you'd like to do besides just heading towards this temple not me i'm on for the ride good boy see that temple right over there and i'm trying to like lean over and like point so you can see right like that's the one we're going to just keep going make direction you uh i'm gonna keep that roll because it's fucking insane you've been rolling like hot fire as you guide through and suddenly the jungle starts to it does it never opens any kind of clearing like you had seen perhaps um or maybe read about and seen illustrations of uh uh of chalk of where you know there's jungles and they would open up to these great clearings where ruins or cities might be the jungle is so massive you finally see stone through this blood red and sand colored stones through the jungle hanging as you make your way through and suddenly the uh the branches snap and and almost like a barrier of thick vines thicker than your torsos um hanging down that this beast is able to effortlessly tear through and suddenly right before you swallowed by the jungle is an enormous um um ziggurat pyramid style temple where uh you see i think all of you would be able to see very easily uh despite the bit of ruin that this seems to be in or the that that it has it's it's it's overgrown by the jungle and the and the and the forest and you see all of the animals skittering about and the the various lizards and there's numerous snakes all over it some um approaching as uh uh as as long as the this dinosaur creature that you're on they're slithering over it and you don't expect to see a roaring flame from the very top of this temple it seems to be raging above you uh a large um almost tear jock shaped flame that's uh and you can only see really see the top of it from this this angle that you're at but uh you see that and you see that there um are a number of uh stone steps that go up in this massive grand scale temple all right well this is it this is the one that i saw but there are a lot of them here so we should check it quickly and keep moving if we don't find what we're looking for all right oh so i don't remember there being a giant flame coming out of this thing oh that's new was it newer did i just not see it you didn't see it i didn't see it you saw a bit of stone it's all it was all covered but you used to see a little bit of stone through the the the canopies all right hopefully the temple is not aware of our presence no we were so stealthy this is it fangy you can let us stand there no what yep yep no wait maybe we should hang out in case we need to go to a different one oh fangy's part of the family time up keep up keep him here we can't fit in the temple maybe you can climb the stairs go up and we can all hang out together i mean maybe just even just trying to get him to wait outside for us we'll help keep some of the predators away i'm sure there's something he can snack on we'll promise food we we've got lots of demons for him to eat and i'm sure they're delicious i don't think he can leave this area with us when it's time to go and ash opens another portal and then you can let release him what if this is the actual temple and we do find what we needed some of it well then we're gonna have to go and we'll have to leave fangy behind no that's not we're not doing that we're gonna come back outside and ash is gonna make a f**king fangy-sized portal right right you little f**k no not and the thing is if we tell this this creature to stay here well we're inside and then we leave and the creature never leaves and it dies here because it was listening to toa we should let it go into the water and i don't say that because i'm horrified of this creature i don't want to leave fangy go toa tamed him he's a part of the family now this creature was not meant to be domesticated it deserves to be free and that's land that it lives in are we still on fangy's back yeah so the idea is that it's obviously overgrown by the jungle and the canopy is even taller than than the top of this temple and it basically that there are a couple of entrances inside the temple but there are stairs that go to the various terraces all around with the uh bridge here up at the top where a lot of it the uh the entrances are either collapsed or completely overgrown with like thick actual trunks or roots of trees that are growing out of this thing and and you are still on fangy's back if that is his name yeah i was gonna say we'll just leave him here we'll go check it out and then you can tell him to be free all right are you not concerned you will forget who you are the moment he stops looking at you could you forget who toa is the moment you stopped looking at him oh yes what why don't you need it i can't believe you would ever presume the fangy would ever hurt us well like 15 minutes ago he was pretty dead set on eating all of us but now he's more sick of his friend i think toa is right i didn't know it was a misunderstanding it was entirely a misunderstanding he was just acting on his base nature and instinct yeah well that's if he decides to act on that instinct again well he would never eat me imagine if i acted on my base instinct soul at a time you do every day you all the time all right carry on fangy can stay you can let us down now make another animal handling check just trade oh no you kick him a little on your way down and he takes a bite out of you yeah like one of those dogs that's a nightmare 25 oh my god yeah no so at least that you are very gentle and but still firm and with that you hear the kind of the guttural groaning and from both heads as it leans down and kneels that's exactly right uh well done as you hear that and uh you're all able to get off as uh you see that this creature is its small arms are kind of placed on into the ground with this long claws as it looks up at you and almost waiting for the next command as you all depart and walk towards the temple all right fangy this may be goodbye and i may never see you again but i'll never forget all the amazing times we shared again and you'll always be my second best friend they're there they're there goodbye fangy but wait here and if i'm not back in an hour or two then you can leave do you know what an hour is yeah like the kind of crocodilian style like uh hissing or groaning that's all you get is it it looks at you with his large eyes the spine's all over the top of its head and the large club tail kind of smacks into the ground i'll never forget you it'll turn and i'll start walking up the temple yeah i follow i follow my head's kind of hung low and i'm just like trying to like be kind to tell and like you know comfort him i didn't realize that uh toa and i had seen the same major image it's remarkable we should reach major and you know it was saying that song from the the famous porno film Jurassic Park it's a it's a film designed to be titillating and sexy i'm sorry what it's sexy oh sexy yeah oh i've seen a lot of sexy major images well a Jurassic Park happens to be one of them all right well i'm not for it the next time i have an opportunity to go to the theater if you're into that sort of thing i don't know if you will like that sort of film i i like to read naughty books yes this is a little different little different we'll try it open your eyes to something new all right well we should go inside though i am a guest what the creature will turn on us i'm i'm gonna hear any of this i'm walking i'm walking i'm still in the mask yep yep yep i haven't taken it off yep and uh i'm just sort of dejected league walking up the stairs he's going to be all right he's known that creature for all of 10 minutes maybe we should give him like a kitten or something they formed a bond that no two creatures could possibly know except for maybe me and toa he'll be all right it's gonna take some time it's that happened really quick in escalated quickly been through a lot of emotions all right we've all been through a lot especially fangy it's gonna be okay you hear a bellowing double roar from down below you as you're about halfway up the temple you're taking your time the steps are very overgrown they're definitely larger than than even toa steps you're gonna you have to take your time and climb it's a little bit slippery but if you being careful you don't have to make a roll in order to ascend this and as soon as you hear this bellowing roar you realize that all around you are dozens of fiendish looking vipers that had been descending sneakily slithering in and uh as you've been distracted in your conversation and as soon as the bellowing roar echoes through all of the serpents and snakes that have been on this temple slither away in fear as as fangy is seemingly scared off the predators that had tried to kill you as you continue and finally make your way to the top exhausted and you see now you feel the heat even before you get to the top terrace of this temple and you see that there's ancient statues all throughout your path as they seem to be in the shapes of creatures sometimes humanoids but the faces are always faded or the heads are crumbled away they're faded they're worn they're weathered as if they are built in honor of of god that no one could recollect as you finally arrive you see an enormous pillar of flame raging in a metal and stone brayser uh the uh it's a 10 foot tall uh plume of flame is uh is flickering back and forth and it glows with this a bright red with uh with streaks of purple through in and greens and blues as it rages and you see now that um on an altar before this sprazer horrifyingly is a small piece of flesh and it seems to be a child-sized tongue on the altar as you see now the shadows casting that was mostly an old thing the shadows casting throughout this uh the top of this the the darkness of the canopy is showing shadows that are cast by this roaring flame the statues uh they be broken and weathered statues that are around this top terrace they're casting and they form and they dance and they elongate and you actually see a silhouette take shape in the shadow it seems to be an enormous snake-like creature with two heads each head with four jaws as it snakes back and forth and out from the torso of the snake or two elongated slithering hands as something seems to recognize your presence and you feel the presence of something casting these shadows as the brazier roars atop this temple did you see that you say two heads yes everything reminds me of him it's okay buddy it's all right no i'm fine he's still helping us i'm fine is this me am i am i up is this circus yes your toa i apologize for doubting you we would not have made it to this spot if it hadn't been for fangy clearly you have something deep and meaningful with our creature what do you do it was very special thank you for protecting us but i'm gonna be okay but i'll turn and we'll see the mask it's like the wojak that has the mask it's like but like there's tears there's tears there's tears right there's tears right there's tears right there's gritting your teeth yeah yeah that's me right now yeah that's very funny do we think this is uh circus it's gotta be okay i'm sorry did you say andy circus circus i don't know what what what his or her name first name is mr mr i don't know mr circus prince prince prince prince so the first name could be andy's name sure all right i'll try it can't imagine anyone being named andy no it's sounds so alien in grotesque yeah he's a silly name it is a silly name it's a silly if we ever mean anyone named andy let's beat the shit out of him yeah and then it's cali and i'm like it oh you see this razor is roaring and flickering as the shadows are are dancing about and you see this shape within the shadow i'll walk up a few steps hi uh my name is capriccio de sesto and you can call me caprice uh you may be uh circus don't know your first name might be andy not sure uh all the venerations all the uh the accolades prince i understand uh we are here to barter perhaps uh or if you want to part with it if you want to i mean they might just want to give it away uh that child's tongue we're looking for him we collect him i would love it we have a bucket full of them we got a whole bucket that's iris mouse tongues i love tongues advantage because because you're being assisted i just can't get enough child tongues persuasion uh 28 raise your roars up again and feel the heat blast you as your infernal lineage actually you're able to resist it and weather it um a lot better and you feel it less than your companions and you hear a voice all of you do essence of what i think i think they're trying to say essence essence well one moment let me confer with my friends and then we'll well essence you up uh i don't essence of what what does what do they want our essence what's the definition of essence i don't know it's did you go to that one the adventurous equivalent of a hospital and you provided your essence in a cup you said i was in gulf to go and i needed the money yes i know but you've done it once couldn't you do it again i suppose we could give it a shot it's darryl gonna jack off oh they pay more for blood yeah like the platelets and the good stuff they really gotta suck it out of you though really yeah oh i really was poor at the time i think they just that's just what i've been to golf i would have given more for blood i just didn't realize that was an option my point is do you think that would work it's worth a shot i don't know but look we all have vessels i'm not worried about the vessel oh no are you worried about the location it's not in the mood the ambiance we could come in the time is it right do you need to be in the mood to fill your essence into the cup it's a little no it's a little muggy it's you know it's i can i can fill my essence anytime i want to i want to dehydrate it you know i mean i a drastic pork happened to be on that would be better however i will make do i just don't think that's what the prince of heretics wants i don't know it guys he was like he'd be right at their alley this man's pretty heretical you're so good at it do be honest what you're describing would make any clerk blush good i'm not blushing but i don't quite understand yeah i know you don't so say that's not what he wants okay but that's what he gets is there really a thing that we have to do to fill your essence yes but no that is not what this conversation is about i i just don't think that that that you that can be your plan b all right plan b very strong plan very strong plan plan b can we stop saying the word spill maybe just like share gives i don't see i either of those are better yes if you don't mind sharing your essence it sounds more friendly of course all right well i um wait hold on don't we need to be also kind of seating all right you know descent against p-man we should probably mention something about that right we forgot to do last time sorry you couldn't hear us you said the word seating and then i lost everything you said after that and p-man and spilling essence uh why don't you spill your essence on him and then say p-man made you do it that's from p-man maybe let them know that this prince will be helped because of our plan with our oxob if if you know we could make a deal in your essence is sort of the handshake so to speak oh you use your hand to spill your essence whoopee can you no i cannot can you teach iris what she's talking about i just the oh yes that's not what i was asking i know what you're i know what you were saying where you're going with that oh do you use your tail that is very important planning sure what if it's like uh like uh like uh it or it all have to spill our essence together you cannot uh ike work ike or ike or ike what are you trying to say what to the point what are you suggesting i got this demon goo throw it in then well all right but do you think that will work i did this is probably potent stuff you know well but it's not really our essence it's the essence whatever you got that didn't specifically ask for our essence i think it just said essence top of what are the implications of giving it that that essence i don't know but i don't know why i took this it seemed like it seemed like a powerful thing none of us know why you do anything that you do we we found a fucking half cracked egg of of what was almost certainly the you don't have to describe it to me i was there yeah and i thought you know what i'm gonna goop it up into this vial and i'm gonna hang on to it for a great rainy day fantastic it's raining porn i'm not disagreeing with you i'm just saying that this feels essential this is this is the the it's certainly somebody's essence the egg white of whatever that creature was right human what that's comes from that comes from p-man right this is this is important stuff guys it's only one way to find out it seems like in the hands of circus that'd be that'd be huge can i say let it rip all right oh is this from the egg of p-man and what zern turned into yeah zern's egg zern's egg oh zeg as as as kermit would say zeg there are all these snakes about all these snakes about spitting everywhere yeah that's very funny i i i think the demon goo is fine we can try it let's play and then you have your plan b and you know if i have to take one for the team i'll do whatever i need to do circus i turn around and i raise my hands up and i walk forward we have found the essence or innocence that we find i think what you will find to be quite more more than satisfactory get ready for this but you hold your arms if your shirt your jacket turns gray okay hold your arms up again like they all it's gone on me and the kermit's this yeah no no no i am all i am disintegrated it is a nightmare on the on the kermit below it was it was nice and clean we'll fix it all right throw the good circus witness i don't know if you know what this is it's one of a kind this is goo goo taken from an egg an egg born of how do i describe this this is some sort of a demon egg a zern zuzu baby yes zern zuzu baby and uh give it how potent that combo must be i i feel like you have to accept do you agree give me a if you're down otherwise i got a really special surprise for you making the snakes spit please don't say that he's spitting behind you i am standing up i'm gonna have to sit down real soon i real soon oh dear what say you circus princess heretics do you accept this powerful potent offering yes that sounded like yes it sounded like yes yes it did all right i'm gonna pour it into your brazier uh bra uh uh brazier don't use your teeth you idiot i'm not if it gets in your mouth you know what's gonna happen your nipples would do it tonight though what are you doing give it to me okay when he loosened it for you and i loosened it i'm gonna pour the icor into the brazier brazier uh like an altar uh trying to almost almost like submerging my hand into the flame uh watching the shadow keeping my eyes out for danger not paying attention to the snakes not thinking about plan b just offering a powerful sacrifice and probably creating some sort of horrible new thread of canon that will almost certainly come back to bite me in four to six years it'll be fine it'll be fine i'm sure feeding another demon lord the essence of uh the susie was so i don't know no ramifications no he doesn't fucking know with that a dirty verge you pour dirty virtual and it hisses and pops as the orange goo the demonic icor this egg stuff that had been laid by pizuzu the would be new king of demons the lord of the lower aerial kingdoms and the flame erupts into an orange flame and it rages as you hear a hiss and a shriek within as the flame shifts from red and purple to a bright orange shifting black within as you see the shadows of the snake emerge uh rub into the flame a a dancing shade the with two-headed snake like monstrosity shifts and shakes and you see as it slithers and bursts into a million different motes as you see an eye another eye another eye another eye another eye four wings explode from the center covered in eyes a the head of a an avian crow like demon emerges a jagged beak numerous eyes all across its head as it bursts out the shadows snake out everywhere as you see very momentarily the shape of a man the silhouette of a man missing a leg holding a cane covered in eyes until it then bursts again into eyes as you all feel the heat of this the heat of this flame and in the shadows in the shade the images within change and flicker in two other shapes i need everyone to tell me one of your character's deepest darkest secrets oh damn thank you so much for listening to the legends of avanches podcast we hope you enjoyed the session if you want even more campaigns to listen to become a member of our patreon at the pearl dolphin tier or higher to unlock shroud over salt marsh a patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas you can find that at patreon.com slash legends of avanches if you want to chat about the episode with the avanches community join us on discord at legendsofavanches.com slash discord we also 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