The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 7

Previously on Taz Royale. I would be happy to swap with you if you would like to switch down the sirens. I will happily accept the gold, but I'll have like an open door policy so you guys can come in and like raid the fridge and stuff if you want. Would you be happy in the so- Would you be thrilled to sleep in it under the stars on the grass? I wish I were fuck about in the eggs what I'd like it for you, hellgrem it, to go inside and fuck about and then come out and tell me what what happens. But you also have this new crystal in your grimoire and a new spell at your command. I would head into one of these other eggs immediately if that hadn't taken you so long. Welcome back everybody to the Adventure Zone, Taz Royale. We join our aspirants in the middle of their free time. Their free block, their lunch, their recess, between trials. Last time we got a run down on who lived, who died, who told your story? It's us because we're the only ones on the podcast. It's actually always us. That's anytime you ask anyone that question as to who tells your story. It's always us. We have such a backlog. TMT, TMT, TMT. We're recording these well before they go out because of how diligent we are and we don't know what the response has been to some of the decisions that were made vis-à-vis people dying, people being killed because of our choices. What's wrong, Chewce? No, I just wanted to mention in the interim there has been an update to our tool here that we use. I'm just seeing this pop up now that there's now animated maps have been enabled and I am Griffin so excited for you to fold that in for me and to enjoy to make it a little bit more like I'm playing a video game and not working because every step you can take in that direction is so huge for us and the listeners. Yeah, for sure. I'll make the whole island spin around, topsy turvy, get silly, make it bigger, make it smaller. It's something really distracting. Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah. I want a world that's coming to life. I want my grow blocks. If we have a grow blocks. I want the bottle. I want the motherfucking ball city a candor up here. I want to see a thriving butroppelus. Yeah, sure. I mean, this sort of child's force perspective drawing of the map that I did that took me two and a half weeks. I think it's evidence of the fact that I am hiding my light under a bushel and could very easily. I see something here wrong. I can mold. Yeah, for sure. So last time we had only one of you, we had a hellgram that sort of spent his free time fucking about with the eggs in Louravitz own words. That leaves us with Louravitz and Richtus. Who would like to go first? How are you spending your free day between trials? If you have any ideas. I have an idea if Justin will allow me. Yeah, because my thing was kind of like going to the eggs. Remember? Yeah. And I kind of like brought him along but we kind of did that as a duo, you know what I mean? Yes. That's what I was doing while he was doing the eggs is I was having a refreshing swim. Sure. If you want your refreshing swim to be the thing that you do, that's absolutely fine. I wanted there to be some sort of mechanical kind of component to the choices that you guys make in this free time. Well, let's do it. Let's have to do his thing and let me cook on the swim for a second. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something happened during the swim. That sounds great. Okay, what's your idea, Richtus? I went ahead to the graveyard. Richtus heads to the graveyard. It's home fields. We're Richtus feels comfortable. Yeah, it is. You can tell when you roll up here that the vibe is just kind of different from how it was during the trial of abduration. Like it seemed like almost there was a special effect being sort of applied here to make things look much, much spookier. This is on it. How's with the lights on? It is very, very much so like the day after the Hollywood studios frightfest or whatever where they're like kind of cleaning, cleaning things up. There's no shambling skeletons about. It just kind of looks like a, looks like a normal graveyard. What would you, what would you like to do while you're here? I, so here's the thing. Richtus wants a physical weapon. Okay. And? Not you. Not me. Not Travis. Travis eats that shit. Yeah, I'm. You're ambivalent. I like metaphysical weapons. Right. I like weapons of the mind. Richtus knows that oftentimes warriors and heroes will be buried with prized possessions. Awesome. So he's going to do some grave robbing. Okay. Wow. That's, that's, that's so great, man. As a necromancer, there's not a lot of, you gotta understand, it's not a lot of worry. Not a lot of taste. Tastes. The mores are different. That which, that which sustains us no longer sustains him. Yes. Okay. So I mean, looking around the graveyard here, there's, I don't know, a couple dozen sort of grave sites. There's, there's, you know, unmarked, sort of just blank tombstones in long rows. There's a few like pretty big monument style gravestones. You sort of like have your choice of how, how regal a grave you want to dig up. What are you sort of like looking for in terms of like deciding where to, where to dig? I'm looking for a monument, maybe an inscription that might give the idea of like this was a fighter of some kind or a warrior or somebody who wasn't just all magic based. Yeah. I'm looking for something where it's like they might have been buried with their sword or dagger or whatever. Give me an investigation check, please. Investigation check. You got it. Well, that's a five plus three and eight. Well, sir, you tripped over it. Ding, dang, headstone and I'll be dang if it isn't a child. Well, that's humiliating. Dang it, man. You're paying it, man. You tripped over a kid's headstone and your pants came down and everyone's darkly tore with an eight investigation check. You don't turn up much. I think looking around, you have a hard time kind of, you don't recognize any of these names, right? It is. I don't see anybody name like Cool Sword McCoy. You do not see anyone called Cool Sword McCoy. Have you ever seen anyone name Cool Sword McCoy? Yeah, there was a kid in eighth grade with me name Cool Sword McCoy. I think the best you do. It was ironic because his sword was really boring. Is it true? Sure it wasn't Cold Sword McCoy because I remember that kid. That was a difficult sword. There is Pete and Pete character. One of the monument style sort of tombstones shows a robed wizard whose cowl kind of covers their face. You can't quite make out who it would be. But you do see at their side a scabbard at their side. So I think in terms of like, you know, information to go off of where you should dig with an eight investigation that's about as good a clue as you are able to get. Well, he's not feeling super confident about that. So it plan B, he's going to go investigate the mausoleum that he went down in last time. Okay. And you know, during all the hubbub and whatnot didn't get a great look at the statue down there. And maybe it has some sort of weapon. Okay. Sure. You head on down down the sort of spiral stone staircase down to the mausoleum. I think as you go down the staircase, your ankle starts to kind of ache reflexively from the self-inflicted wound. Sure. You suffered last time to escape this thing's clutches. When you get down here, it is, I mean, it is still just as spooky down here as it was before when you were in the second trial. You head down, you see all around you, you know, that great infinite chasm leading downward, which like spatially doesn't make much sense. You know kind of how tall this island is. And it seems strange that there would be a bottomless pit in this floating island. So it is a strange sort of arrangement, this giant tomb. There's a long stone bridge. You walk across it. You see where, you know, some of your spit landed when you tried to save, well, where you did save the hasty change, Jennings. And you make your way across to this statue, which again sort of very, you know, archetypical angel of death style statue. And it give me a perception check. Okay. That is a 17 total. It is in a different position than you saw it last time. This statue has moved. Now it has a hand out, but it's the other hand. And instead of holding a key in its hand, you can see that it is holding a small crystal, much like the ones that you have claimed in order to gain new spells. That is what you are able to see with your perception check here. Is it holding a scythe? It is holding a scythe. It is part of, I mean, it's molded in with its statue form. It is part of the statue. Okay. Well, I'm going to snatch that crystal. I'm just going to snatch it up. Wow. Old school bad ideas. Let them pulse this run wild. Yeah, man. Huge, huge mat. It is not an intrusive thought if you lay out the welcome mat for it. What do you want me to do? You want me to break out like my jewelers like glass and like, investigate it. It is only an intrusive thought if you are weird about it. It is a great way to get your arm chopped off. May I just say? Okay, man. You reach forward. Don't act like that is not what you wanted me to do, Griffin. Okay. I mean, I guess. There are things you can do in this game where if something seems suspicious, you can take a moment to check it out or try and diagnose sort of like something. But Rigtis doesn't fear death. Okay, cool. You reach forward. You grab the stone. As soon as you do, you feel really, really, really, really bad. Give me a constitution saving throw, please. Okay. It's a two plus one. It's a three. Yeah. You know what I mean? Prepare to puke. As you grab the stone, no, it's not a nauseous situation. As you grab the stone, you see this sort of pulsating darkness coming off of the crystal. And as it makes contact with your skin, you see that darkness sort of crawl up your veins on top of your hand. And it sort of slowly crawls up your arm and up your bicep and into your body. And I don't think this is something you have experienced before. Give me, give me an arcanic check to try and diagnose what is happening to you. Okay, that's a ten. With a ten. You. You have been cursed. You think that is what's going on. This doesn't feel like a malady of any sort. You don't feel sick. You feel like your life force has been sapped away somewhat. Sure. And until you are able to do something about it, that is going to remain true. Or maybe it will wear off after a matter of time you are not sure because you've never been cursed before, but you do know that you feel weakened inside and out. What that means is you have now taken a level of exhaustion, which is a fifth edition condition that sort of escalates over time. And the first level of exhaustion is you have disadvantage on ability checks. Oh, cool. Yes. However, you have this crystal in your hand. And it has delivered its sort of curse payload, but now you have it. Is there a place to mark on my sheet that I am exhausted? Probably. Okay, I'll figure that out. Post a note. Just a post a note. Is there anything that does the crystal also give me anything else? I mean, you will be able to sort of figure that out by putting it in your grim war with your other crystals. Sure. Why the fuck not? Yeah, I mean, it's already cursed you. I'm cursed already. Okay. You slot the crystal into your grim war. And as you do, your mind is flooded. But it's not quite as clean as the memories that you received when you put in the last crystal. What was the spell that you got during the second trial? Protection against good evil. Protection against good evil. That showed you like a memory of the wizard studying it very, very clearly. This one, maybe because the crystal that you slot it in here was in kind of a state of disrepair, the memories are a bit scatter shot. They don't really put together a clear picture of who it was that was using this. You just see a blade whirling through the air, carving through armies of, of combatants. This was the weapon of a very powerful sort of martial magic user. And you have gained a new spell. And that spell is called shadow blade. Okay. You weave together threads of shadow to create a sword of solidified gloom in your hand. Last until the spell ends, counts as a simple melee weapon in which you're proficient. It deals 2D8 psychic damage on a hit and has the finesse light and thrown properties. In addition, when you use the sword to attack a target that is in dim light or darkness, you make the attack roll with advantage. Oh, hell yeah. You can summon this with a bonus action. It is a dope spell and it has come at significant cost. That is your choice. That is your action here in the free time. What about you, Laura Veth? Yeah. I was over here having a swim. Right. And because I wanted to cool off because I got bored while he was fucking around with the eggs. Where are you swimming? I'm over in the falls. In the falls. Okay. Yeah, in your body eggs. I got bored. And they're near the mountains. So I kind of like that. That energy. But while I was there and I was looking at the mountains, I started thinking about the geography of it, like the nature of this place. And I got curious. So I want to kind of poke around specifically the falls area. Have obliatures? I'm not. I didn't say that. Travis. It was a question. It was a question. It's such an overstep. I want to explore the falls. It's up to you, Griffin, as a narrator. If I encounter something or if there's like specifically something that I'm interested in, but the nature of this place that I am in is what has caught my attention and the thing that I'm currently pretty curious about. Is this man made? Is it magic made? Where are we? That's what I'm interested in. Yeah, that's cool. If you can kind of tell me, I would like to know sort of what sort of role to give you here. And I think it could be something more interesting than just a straight up and down investigation check. So if you can tell me like what it looks like for you to investigate a mountain or a waterfall. So what I'm going to do in this case is a nature check. Okay. So I am trying to compare it against my experience of the natural world, right? That's going to be the hardest to pull the wall over my eyes is when you're faking these like biomes that I'm familiar with. Yeah, for sure. Okay, give me a nature check, please. Perfect. I rolled a four. So fuck me, fuck story, who gives a shit. What's the fucking point? Does he also hold this? Does he also hold this? Why don't I even say to the ship beforehand, Griffin? I don't know, I fucked around in the water. I got wet. I went home. I had a nap. Fuck me. Why do I do it like this? Why do I do it like that? If Stephen King comes up with something, no one's like, uh-uh, Steve roll on a bitch. Yeah, come on. You trip over a child's grave stone as you explore the waterfall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like what the fuck is this doing here? Why don't you fucking do it? Why are children's graves everywhere? With an eight, uh, I think what that means is just that the- you can tell that this place is not a naturally formed place, right? Like you don't get these biomes so tightly packed in together in this circular sort of arrangement. It is too perfect and unnatural to- to have formed, well, naturally. You poke around in the falls. You climb, uh, you know, climb the mount a little bit to try and get a good look around. As you are checking out the mountain, again, like so certain that this is- this was formed with magic. And I don't know that you get anything more sort of concrete than that with an eight. You do notice, uh, coming from the mouth of the sort of mind entrance that you went into where you sort of faced off against the- the big, uh, icy crystalline dragon to get your key. You notice that there are some- there's some faint hints of light kind of coming from the- the mouth of this mind entrance. I want to pick up, uh, like a rock, like a loose rock or something nearby and chuck it at the edge of the- as far as I can say, you know, the- the edge of the world as I understand it. Okay. Um, chuck it at the edge of the island. Yeah. Okay. So like over the graveyard. Yeah. I want to see- here's what I want to see. Does it- does it keep going or does it poof out of existence? I'm trying to figure out if I'm on an achievement or if I'm on a physical place that is like was created through magic. Give me an athletics check as you just sort of eat this- eat this stone. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I roll, Griffin? You know what I roll on that, Griff? I fall! Yeah. So who gives a shit? Yeah. Uh, well, I'm talking to the- I pick up a rock and shit my pants and I die. The rock you don't want to mean. The rock you pick up is a child's graveston. You're like, oh man, what am I doing here? It's President of the Child's Graveston. It's all made up. Yeah. Um, fuck. You pick up the- You pick up a rock. You throw it towards the edge of the island and as it reaches the edge of the island, it just kind of like loses its momentum and slows down. But like your throw was so- I really think you could go with it. Your throw was so shitty that you don't know if that was your fall or some sort of magical kind of interference. It was 4 plus 4. Sorry, 4 plus 37. Is that help? Uh, oh, well, with a 7, no, the same sort of result. Okay. Sorry, guys. You have a sort of natural attunement to the mountains, right? Some of this, I don't think you need to roll for, mercifully. God. Um, this place is- it's not a luxury, right? Like you're touching, you're touching it, you're interacting with it. You're touching grass, right? But that doesn't mean that it is real. And I think your understanding of magic is kind of pretty fundamental. And so like the intricacies, the ramifications of that are a bit lost on you. But I think you know enough now to know that this place was built. This place was created for this purpose. And all of the different areas of it are designed, you know, around some sort of magical purpose. The graveyard below, you know, there is a school of necromancy, right? Like, you know that that is kind of what that is for. The- the mountains here, there's so much magic, you know, about stone and earth. It is, you know, the kind of fundamental element with which you are most familiar. That is why that is here. The lake is, you know, therefore all sorts of water-based magic. That is kind of what you are able to kind of put together with this look around is everything here is here for a reason. And that reason is like the testing or practice of magical ability. Okay. Give me a perception check, please. Please? Nice. You can do it. I appreciate it. I'm just saying I appreciate it. Um. Vicarovate. Oh, fucking yes, dude. Yes, dude. Oh, funny six. Very funny six. Okay. I'll do this for you. Plus one. Another seven. He's on fire. You look down at where the rock was that you picked up and where you, what you threw and you see a small glimmer of amber light. It is like a small sphere, like a, you know, a large speck of dust floating around through the air. And you are not quite sure what it is, but as you, you know, pick up this stone and throw it, this little tiny, tiny little orb takes shape and, you know, crystallizes hardens into like a small, almost like amber marble. And it drops into your hand and you're not sure what this thing is, but it's yours now. Neat, man. Thanks, dude. Yeah, no problem. Thanks. You get a marble. Um, quick bite on it. You take a bite out of it? On it. You take a bite on it. Okay. Um, yeah. I mean, it, it, uh, give me an arcana check. A crunch of chick. Now I get a 13 when I'm trying to eat the marble. Thank you, God. Thank you, Aaron, Jesus. Appreciate you. Thank you, brother. When I need you the most bite in a marble. Uh, 15, you bite this thing and with a 15, you know enough to know like I shouldn't bite this thing pretty good. I shouldn't bite this thing pretty hard because it, it seems to be pretty, pretty magical. Whatever this tiny little amber marble is. Um, you plop it in your mouth like a, like a job breaker. And as you do, you feel a, uh, a deep kinship with the earth. You are reminded of exploring the, the, the crevices of your mountain home, uh, just flunking deep into the caves. This is a, this is a, this is a, it is a, a tiny fragment of, you know, elemental earth. That is when you are able to discern from this thing. Okay. Perfect. I'll put it in my pocket in a safe place. Great. With that, the, uh, sun begins to set over the mountains and you all can see that there are, uh, quite a few wizards coming and going from, if I think the animation on the sunset is broken on the map, I'm not seeing, I'm not seeing it. Oh, I'm, as you're saying it. I'm not seeing sunset. Let me just, I wanted to tie. I was hoping for a tie, but at least I'm, oh, good. That's good. You've made a sort of art guide. Oh, yeah. Our guide all sort of picnic pattern red circle in the corner. Yeah. So that's gone now. And, uh, you can see that there's quite a few wizards coming and going from the, uh, atelier down here, uh, the sort of large, uh, circus tent style, uh, building down by the falls, uh, that appears to have a giant sort of, uh, paper mache cat head, uh, emerging from the top of it. There are some lights that are sort of shining up into the sky, kind of red carpet premier style. And, uh, everyone is sort of making their way in and out of this, uh, of this establishment. As you all make your way down to the atelier and you step inside, you find yourself in a, uh, a large shop. You can see that there is a, uh, a shop counter, uh, behind which you see a number of those crystals, uh, like the ones you all have found and gained spells from, uh, floating behind the, the counter all around the shop are, you know, magical instruments, uh, on, on shelves that the purpose of which for most of them are not particularly clear. Um, and as you three make your way in here, uh, you, you are in here with just a couple of other aspirants who are just kind of poking their noses around. And I don't know how to remove a curse. Um, anybody here, uh, one of the aspirants, uh, is, uh, Tommy Falcon who is floating on, uh, his tensors floating disc around the store, sort of like hover boarding around, looks at you and it's like, oh, man, I don't know. You look terrible though, man. Thanks, bud. Yeah. You taking your vitamins? Uh, no. I don't get, yeah, I should get those. Yeah, man, you've got to take good care of your body and it'll take good care of you. Right? Also, he's an arachocry, oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Cool. Now, like, uh, shrieks and, uh, hoverboards out of the shop from behind the counter, you see someone appear. It is just a normal looking guy in a blue sweater. Oh, okay. And he stands behind the cash register and he clears his throat. Jester's to the three of you and says, uh, well, hi, you're welcome to the Atelier. My name is, uh, my name's Arbuckle. How can I help you? I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. Got a few announcements before you get back to the rest of the episode. We got some new merch up in the McRoy merch store over at McRoyMurts.com. You t-shirt with a helping is always a free action design on it. There's a 20-make-it-stick enamel pins on there. Uh, lots of really, really great stuff this month and 10% of all of our merch proceeds this month will be donated to Border Angels, whose services include educational programs, water drops in the desert, day laborer outreach, familias reunite us in Migration Bond Fund program and shelter aid support in Tijuana to aid migrants and asylum seekers in need. I also want to let you know that I have a book coming up very soon. It's a Choose Your Own Adventure book. It's called The Stowe Away. It's appropriate for middle-grade readers, but I think it's a rollicking adventure, a survival tale set in outer space that anyone would get a thrill or two out of. There's intrigue, there's action, there's stunts, there's everything that a book can't have. I think those are the three, right? I said action in stunts, right? Yeah, no, that's all of it. So you can pre-order that now at bit.ly slash griffin stoweway and it would be gosh, just a huge help to me if you would consider doing that. The book is $10 and it comes out again on March 10th. So don't wait, go ahead and secure your copy today. That's it, enjoy the rest of the episode. We will be back with a new one in two weeks, so talk to you then. Bye. Hey, it's TV Chef Fantasy League. You know, the podcast where we watch cooking competition shows and we treat them like fantasy sports. Right now we're getting ready for top Chef Carolinas. We spend all year covering these competitions, but now it's time for the main event. The apex predator of competitive cooking television shows. Tune in, draft a team and play along. With your hosts, Sierra Cotto, Mike Gabelon, and if you want to wait. New episodes every week at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Wonderful is a podcast where we talk about things we like. It's hard to sell in a promo like this, so we even listed the help of Piano Rock Superstar Billy Joel to tell you about some of the topics we've covered. Take it away, real Billy Joel. Baby Rock's been on the exam. Worsen show, circle time, say good drink. Cassies are sell a tower of annoyed. Keep me up, eight tongue caps, oh, it's Wayne's world. Cheese balls. Wallace even stonkey gone. Futs eyes all mature. They didn't stop the podcast. Except that's not true. They didn't want me to. They didn't stop the podcast. No, they actually did. That was a fact of film. Listen to wonderful every Wednesday on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks, real Billy Joel. No problem, Griffin. Sorry, say good. My name is, my name is our buckle. John our buckle. John our buckle. Yeah, it seems legally invincible. But is it John our period buckle? No, John our buckle is my name. But I'm just a normal guy working here at the Alva here at the Octav Ziggurat. And I'm here to help you all get outfitted for your next trial. Perfect. Do you have any new arrivals? Anything to give us an edge on the competition? Well, technically I'm supposed to wait before I am able to equip you guys with any sort of magical instruments, wait for the crowd to pair down just a little bit. So check back with me maybe after the next trial. We'll see if I have armaments or equipment for you. But what I can do is help you guys up with some new spells that you can use. Do you have any like sourds or creams that are good for curses? I mean, you'd have to check with the apothecary for something like that. I'm actually not licensed to carry shelves. I'm not trying to get my business license revoked. Sure, sure, yeah, yeah. But it does look like they are closed for the evening. Oh, cool. So you should have gone there earlier in the day because you look like that. Well, if you have some buds or candy and nuts, you look like crap, man. Yeah, people keep saying that. It's very hurtful. Yeah, so yeah, you guys want some, you guys will want some magical stuff or what? Yes, please. All right, let me see your cubes. I beg your pardon? Oh, right. Yeah, sorry. Yes. You all have from the small sort of sack that was waiting for you in your different residences inside of those were three cubes of different sort of what's that? They're cubes. For John. Yeah, for John. So there are John Cube Sacks. Each of the cubes, there's three inside of each sack and they are composed of a different metal corresponding to the, you know, the value of the key that you use to access your residences. Because of the switching around that happened, Rick Dis, you have three golden cubes. Hellgram it has three silver cubes in the orbit. You are left with three copper cubes. He says, you exchange those and you are able to get some new spells for your troubles. Of course, you don't get to pick and choose which spells that you want because that kind of goes against the, you know, the spirit of the game. But if you're lucky, you might get worse cubes because I gave them my cool house. I mean, you gave them the house and the cubes were in the house. What's the, John, what's the, give me my cubes. Give me my cube. Hold on, Lord, hold on a second. What's the exchange trail of it? What's the difference? Well, there's one spell per cube. One thing. What? I didn't, you put one, give me the cube. No, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, it's just ignore them. It's really hard because they're talking, but, um, rolling, each, I'm rolling the nice, the same, I heard you, roll the dice, I've seen your other rolls. Ah, each cube will be exchanged for a different spell, but the, the more valuable the cube, the more choices, uh, will be afforded to, the, to the roller. Um, so that's, that's sort of how it's going to work. Each of you is gonna walk away with three spells, but 9 9 plus 5 bug man is that grab me 14 wait wait time out time out damn it Why don't we Work together as the team that we are Give me my cube pool our resources And I can't give more of a choice of the spells we want you see you all see him Frading from giving me the tubes You all see it theoretically you should be going after his cubes. I'm gonna Um next as on your showers back I need to do some inventory so you guys let me know when you're down with this and he just kind of climbs under the counter He just kind of pretend he doesn't think we're he pretends to go down the stairs What's your AC arrow 14? You're not attacking John are you attacking John our buckle? No, I'm attacking the bug man I'm being very clear about this. Oh, okay. You're attacking you are attacking you are attacking hell gram attacking hell gram with your face Okay, yes, I gave him plenty of warings. I got a 14. What is your AC hell gram? 14 okay, are you trying to grapple him? Are you trying to smack him in the face so he will give me my cubes? Okay Yeah, yeah, go ahead and give me a damage roll wait four Okay, you roll a four hell gram it. He just kind of open palm slaps you across the face But weirdly enough like it doesn't hurt your face. You don't move in response to this this attack on your person Loreveth instead you feel an invisible hand slap you across your face And you take four points of bludgeoning damage You see Griffin while while they're distracted Rictus climbs under the counter with John is like I'm gonna go and exchange like this This is awful are they always like this? I have no idea I literally just met them like four hours ago, but I'm gonna go ahead and exchange my cubes while they're distracted Okay, that's that's fine. So go ahead and we'll roll them one at a time. You got gold there. That's good stuff Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't let them know. Okay, how do I roll? So we have things to the spreadsheet Magic of Amanda we have a Random spell generator that's going to pull from the list of spells not currently claimed by a living wizard With a gold cube you get to choose both the The level of the spell that you're going to acquire and then three spells will be provided for you randomly from that that tier of magical spell so okay And right now the spell levels that you are able to to wield our cantrips first and second So is that in the random spell town? Yes, I will I will handle the the rolling and The offering and the random spell tab because it is a bit It is a bit touchy Okay, can I do can I do this spell level two or lower? No, you for specifically for this for the gold like The reward for a gold cube is you get to very specifically outline like what level spell slot You are trying to fulfill and then three will be given to you that you get to choose from one of us and I can do that three times Exactly right okay great can I start with a can true you start with can true okay And is it possible to include non wizard spells or is that a no it is not possible to include non wizard spells okay great so The first is Poison spray Which I believe used to belong to stink bud As you roll the cube of this this one crystal flies down from where they are all hanging from the ceiling to kind of like float in front of you The second is Minor illusion the spell belonging to I believe Athena from from the last trial You see that crystal fly down and join the other one and the last that appears is Message The third crystal floats down so you are offered a choice between message poison spray and minor illusion And I'm happy to outline what those do if you want sort of more more details. What is message do Message allows you to You point your finger toward a creature within range and whisper a message to the target and only the target Here's the message and can reply in a whisper only you can hear I will save this Travis. It seems like the kind of spell that narratively would kind of fight around a lot Sure if you're gonna be but that one out we usually find a way to do you know Subtunian it made a podcast no Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna take Those are on it was message for me. I'm afraid in minor illusion Yeah, I'm gonna take voices right okay, and that's your sheet. Please you have two more dice to roll what level Want to be from let's let's look at first level okay First level the first spell that appears is Identify Identify allows you to figure out what kind of magic item a thing is or what kind of magical effects a person is currently under Uh, the next is Unseen servant Which kind of does what it says on the tent makes an invisible servant who can do do simple tasks before you Uh, and the third choice is May jarmour Wooo May jarmour uh gives you a sort of uh buff to your AC I believe let me oh boy I was tough because I was looking at both may jarmour and unseen server your yeah your base Becomes AC becomes 13 plus dexterity modifier Uh, my dex modifiers plus two so that would bump me up to 15 when I have a cast You so use it. What's the length of it? Dirty hours eight hours. Yeah, and it's not concentration. It's just like counts. Oh Yeah, I'm gonna take me jarmour. Okay And you have one more cube. Yeah, I'm gonna do another first level, please. Okay Uh Magic missile a classic uh-huh chromatic orb Also a classic And Thunderwave Jesus. Okay, three wow three pretty uh classic wizard attack spells thunderwave chromatic orb and magic missile What would you like? Well Chromatic orb Seems like because it gives thunder and fire depending on which I choose Uh, I mean chromatic orb can be any uh of the different mental attacks Um, I'm going to go with uh I'm gonna go with chromatic orb. Okay Uh as these uh crystals appeared front of you as you choose uh from them you Plop them into your grim war which is now very much starting to take on a kind of uh infinity gauntlet sort of appearance as you put more and more stones into it each one is uh, you know joined with memories of uh of of of wizards throughout time And they're they're practice of these spells and you feel like as you plug these stones in those memories become your own and the mastery of the spells that they Provide becomes your own as well And as you stand up from behind the counter are you two still fighting um, I feel like we're probably at a standstill now I ceased the attack when I decided to step back and um Restragrous okay cool. Yeah, so hope you've had enough um you guys really shouldn't hit myself You shouldn't hit each other It's not really a hit it's not allowed um who wants to go next because rick does Did all of his and he did really good I took what about you since he's already traded his cubes and you want to pull our cubes together And you know absolutely not okay fine spend your blood cubes fine. I'll go next with my silver cubes Okay Okay, well the silver cubes uh offer sort of a middle middle ground of choice you can either select uh the level spell you want And one will be provided to you at random Or you cannot dictate the level of spell and three spells will be pulled for you at random that you can choose um from across the different levels So um what would you what would you like? I'll do the uh The three three random spells from across the entire spell list. Okay, and I get to do that three times and you get to do that three times Okay, yeah, okay So second level or below The can trip friends Uh, which gives you advantage on charisma checks against someone, but they know that you did it there's snare which is a first level spell Uh, which allows you to set a magical snare uh and and Toll the dead can trip Necromancy spell that belonged to one of the wizards that you battled at the uh at the edge of the ziggurat during the last trial Griffin. I have carry off to be yes Is it possible to trade spells hmm No Once you once you slot these crystals into your grimoire you there doesn't appear like maybe if you got a flathead screwdriver and really got in there You could prime out, but otherwise they seem to be pretty pretty well affixed in there Now it's told the dead a can trip told the dead is also a can trip Yes, so you got two can trips in a and a first level spell to choose from your friends told the dead and snare I'll take told the dead Okay, okay, so uh What do you want to do now you want three randoms or one from a specific level It's two three randoms again. All right Uh kinetic jaunt Second level spell how fun it is a fun name Uh kinetic jaunt lets you You can increase your walking speed by 10 feet. You don't provide uh you don't provoke opportunity attacks and you can move through the space of another creature All right next All gary another second level spell I think that's the one that lets you talk to god if you want to Uh, yes, you can define you can divine of course The results of a specific course of action you plan to take within the next 30 minutes the DM chooses from Following possible omens wheel for good results. Whoa for bad results. We'll end well I know that sounds like a pretty good spell, but imagine with the par of message you can send messages to gods You just have to point it them point upwards You can do that the point upwards and say hey, God. What do you do this? Uh message works for that too. It's all purpose. What's behind door number three It is Comprehend languages You can understand the literal meaning of any spoken language. What's the word is sending a message to god if you can't understand what he says back Not well with the power of this spell Hey man listen sometimes the dice Want to help you out sometimes they want to give you some really niche specific use case spells and that is the case this time kinetic John augury or comprehend languages The all stars of the fucking wizard spell book Shhh augury I want to talk to god augury it is Uh as you slap that one in you you hear a message from god saying like sorry man Some rough those are some rough choice You got one more choice so you want to go for a specific level or three randoms again So is it one choice in the level? Yeah, so if you chose like a cantrip then you would get a random cantrip It's basically a way of like specifying if you are light on one of the different you know spell spell level categories You can specify exactly which one you want You know, I think I'll take my chances with the three again the three again. Okay friends again cheese Create bonfire Create a bonfire on the ground you can that's a cantrip And the bonfire fills a five foot cube Any creature in the bonfire space when you cast a spell must succeed on a dexterity saving power take one d a fire damage and Frost fingers First level Uh freezing cold blaster in your fingertips in a 15 foot cone every Wow, okay frost fingers uh frost fingers it is sorry friends Okay, you have three new spells uh and you know three new uh groups of memories of the wizards who master those spells and you have added to your grimoire Okay, last up um I I take it you've got some you got some copper cubes for me Yes I suppose I do hey maybe you'll get lucky man don't you know go count yourself out um yeah those copper wids are great Enough of enough from you mr. mr. friends Uh, I hope you get friends Okay with a copper cube uh no no choices here three random spells from across the spell book and uh you get to pick which one so I guess there is one choice sort of afforded to you here um first spell control flames It's a can trip uh You choose a non-magical flame you can see within range that fits in a five foot cube you can expand the flame extinguish the flame It may get brighter or dark it or create a simple shape out of it um cool next earth trimmer first level spell uh you cause an earthquake and you can knock people prone and deal some some light bludgeoning damage To them and that's a first level spell and finally friends Shield another first level spell an invisible barrier. It's a reaction spell. So if you are hit By something you get a plus five bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn It also completely blocks magic missile for some reason Yeah, grab that real quick. Okay Yeah, I'll take shield okay uh once again three spells come in Henshin magic mouth Magic mouth the second level spell it lets you uh In view a message into an object and a mouth appears on it and can speak whenever that spell is triggered frigging to me uh next is color spray Which I believe was the spell of um Bobby Dazzler Let's you shoot out these colorful orbs that Just blind other creatures in the area and finally booming blade Can trip It you brandish the weapon using the spells casting make a melee attack against one creature On a hit target suffers the weapons normal effects and becomes sheathed in booming energy until the start of your next turn If the target willingly moves five feet or more before then the target takes one d8 thunder damage in the spell ends What is the what was the second one called uh color spray color spray? Uh, I'm gonna go with Color spray okay, man as you slot that one in your your memories are flooded by the memories of Bobby Dazzler a lot of smoky darkened clubs where he is Doing his art literally dazzling crowds across the the whole of the fold you get the sense that he was somebody Yeah, do I have any memories of his death? Um like how it went how it all kind of fell apart for him Yeah, I mean you were unconscious So maybe you didn't see exactly what happened the grand betrayal of Bobby Dazzler when he was webbed up and Had his key stolen by hell grammit, but you see it now And you see the flames descend upon him and that is where the memories stop That was a tough break We all died a bit in that damn war huh She and I think we can all agree that it was all hellgram it's full yeah, yeah, for sure Okay, last one uh three spells coming at you The first spell is mending Let's you fix a broken object it's a cancer Uh second spell is Magic missile and finally Detect thoughts second level spell does sort of what it says on the 10 Yeah, I kind of would like to detect thoughts okay These copper cubes aren't too bad Got telepathy dad you hear that no, but I felt it in my mind Okay, detect thoughts joins your grim war Um, okay all three of you have now gained three new spells chosen for you Mostly at random uh you slot them into your grim wars and it's a bit overwhelming the amount of like other people's memories That are joining your own And so you sort of follow the crowd out of the atelier as everyone heads towards the the residences To get some rest before uh the the next trial starts tomorrow unless there was something else you all Wanted to do here in the sort of small amount of time you have left in the day No, okay, you all make your way back to the residences and your dreams that night are Really really intense um mostly because of how your brains have absorbed these these other memories Uh, it is not the most restful night sleep especially for you uh rictus Uh, yeah as as you're trying to sleep, but you just feel like no matter how it's like that thing where sometimes you get so tired that it keeps you Up like you have a hard time getting comfortable and falling asleep because of how tired you are Uh, and so when you awaken the next morning, you know with the hope that You will have slept off this sort of left lethargy uh that is that is not the case you still feel quite exhausted when you wake up in the morning And my feeling is there any like mental Like element of this court is it like an ongoing like there's a dark voice in your head or is it just like I'm exhausted? Um, it there doesn't seem to be any possession if that is what you were asking you have not been this is like its own thing I think you already have given me an arcanate check to try and figure out like the nature of this thing Um, so i'll just tell you like it is not it is not a possession. It is a it is a curse of the body Uh, and this specific curse is is one oh, so instantly rictus is 41 years old because that's what I feel like every day when I wake up Yeah, you Travis have disadvantage on all of your ability check god tell me about it um Yeah, so you you awaken and you feel like you have not gotten really any rest at all you still oh I left my CPAP I'd asked about hook him that up and there's no hookup for it. That's why um Yeah, there was a magical CPAP machine at the atelier, but again the shop is but is not okay That's I'm first on a list for that though. I don't know how many they have but yeah um hey by the way dear listener if you want to send in some item submissions To be stocked in the atelier for their next visit there go ahead and email those to us you can send it to Adventure zone cast at gmail.com Uh, and we'll we'll take a look at those and and maybe we will include them next time. Does that include potions and cells for the apothecary Griffin uh, no Oh, okay, I was just sending any fucking potions or selves guys. I couldn't I can't make this clear enough if you do that I was just trying to provide maybe more opportunity to do for apothecary the apothecary's got the potions and cells Okay, and I'm gonna decide what those are because that will send that to the apothecary If you have to send that to the fucking toilet because I don't need that shit. Okay. I just thought it'd be a chance for more interaction No, you just imagine items not potions or cells. I'll freak the fuck out Okay, you all awake in the next morning and uh join the crowd of aspirants Around the ziggurat there all standing in a a circle around this you know tall towering building at the center of the island All standing in the lawn and as you all join you see the octave all sort of file out of a door from one of the higher tiers of the ziggurat and the crowd gross silent as the as the octave steps forward and one of them climbs up onto the edge of the tier that they're standing on stands up on the wall to face the crowd below It is a very diminutive older woman she is wearing these like coke bottle glasses She's wearing a number of multicolored shawls um and she clears her throat and says Greetings good morning. I am trace the third octave and I welcome you I hope you have gotten your your rest and prepared your your minds and your body For this next trial before that trial makements The remaining aspirants here must first be divided up into 12 groups of four Your collaborators have been chosen for you by the octave Please follow the beams of light emitting from your chest to find your teammates Oh, yes, the beams may burn that's normal Weirdly enough guys you see beams of light connecting the three of you um The fates have chosen the three of you to be on a team together um because it would be so weird if you weren't Fate fate has chosen you all to be together and as you all sort of congregate you see there is a fourth beam of light That is connecting all of you to one more aspirant um Travis yeah go ahead and roll two d20s and one d8 all together please Yeah, here we go It's 30 30 uh, okay, uh this beam of light Is connecting you to someone and as they approach they blot out the sun they are Easily eight feet tall And nearly as wide You can look up and they're sort of silhouetted by the sun it takes you a second to kind of like Determine who or what they are And you can see just sort of sharp points and kighton and claws and all kinds of just wild dangerous looking shit and you see a Extremely imposing looking uh scorpion Thrykean Oh He is uh he approaches you and looks down at the three of you looks at you hell gram it specifically and kind of like Cox's head to the side and says uh Oh What does he sound like I don't want him to hear every every big man kind of sounds like that in my mind What's score? What's the kind of something? It's weird that that's what I sound like in your mind driven yeah Um he doesn't say anything He looks down at the three of you that's convenient for you. Yeah, yeah, wow that's crazy I should use that more often he just a strong solid type you can tell much he's a deep deep deep water He thinks and he clicks twice still I whisper to Lord of it like no that's a real Thrykean right there, you know what I mean look how cool he looks What um he goes and he sort of you he sighs this deep sort of hissing sigh And stands next to the three of you he looks Kind of disappointed with the group that he has been assigned you all have Now Scorpio has joined your party You see all the other aspirants here gather up and Within a couple of minutes everyone has gotten together with their groups and Trace up on the ziggurat says excellent now. I would recommend you get familiar with your assigned quartet as you'll be relying upon one another to pass your next Evaluation and with that a circle of light Forms around the ziggurat lawn Which kind of trickles upward to form a sort of low transparent wall And from that circle of light four lines splinter off and shoot straight across to the far edge of the island dividing the entire landmass up into four quarters The mountains the residences the forest and the lake and each of these four sort of biomes appears to be cast in a light of a different Hugh and in that light you can see these faint floating orbs of a corresponding color with that Loreveth you as you look towards the mountains you see these tiny little amber moats of light kind of floating around Like the one that you pocketed earlier the entire island now kind of resembles a game of Simon for Your visual reference sort of cut into these four different colored quarters Um and trace says I hope you all have spent your free time brushing up on the basic Elemental principles for today We administer the trial of evocation You Maximum fun a work road network of artist-owned shows supported directly by you