Shadows of the Past

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

[CLINKING] Peacocks. This summer, during the biggest sporting event of the year, Peacock turns to two broadcasting legends for the Olympics coverage you can't find anywhere else. I think they mean us. Oh, [BLEEP] Um-- [CLEARS THROAT] With an incredible duo sure to take home the comedy gold, Olympic highlights with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. New episodes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, only on Peacock. Coming to Apple TV+ on August 9th. You're the Marine? Yeah. You're the ex-con. Yeah, I did time, but you're only going to cast aspersions at me. From the director of Mr. and Mrs.

Smith and The Bourne Identity comes a new film. It's your first job? I know what I'm doing. It's a little late for a crit change. Starring Matt Damon. Everybody in New England is after us. And Casey Affleck. Go, go, go, go, go! What are you doing? Taking notes. Taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. The Instigators, rated R. Streaming August 9th on Apple TV+. Episode 144 of the DNR Podcast is brought to you today, in part by Black Shell Media. If you go to BlackShellMedia.com, you can find out all about the games that they're putting out on Steam right now. We have been playing them on our streams.

We plan on playing a bit more of them. We played Sanctuary RPG, and there's a couple others that we might be giving away and checking out. We're going to be giving you guys more info on that soon. If you go to Black Shell Games on Twitter and follow them, they're always posting about new games. So please go check them out. Help support an indie company like that. Those games are not very expensive, and you'll get a hell of a lot of game time out of them. Episode 144 is also brought to you by GeekFuel. If you go to GeekFuel.com/DA&DR, as always, for the first time, sign up.

You will get a special gift from them through us, just as a thank you for signing up. It helps them out. It helps us out. And you're going to get a cool box of geeky stuff delivered to your door every single month. Last month, they gave away Star Wars tickets, and that was really awesome of them, considering it was really tough to get them when the movie first came out, if you remember. It also had a fantastic t-shirt, and I think that's my favorite one by them so far. Every single box is guaranteed to give you a brand new t-shirt that is exclusive through them.

You won't find it anywhere else. You can't go buy it in a store. So check them out. GeekFuel.com/DA&DR. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason. I'm the dungeon master. Going around the table. Start with Jamie. Hi there. I'm Jamie, and I play Korath, Forest Keeper, Eagle-Eye, Seeker. And Mack. Hi, I'm Mack, and I play Kaluna Volgheris, the Wilding Shaman. And Eric. I'm Eric, and I play Ordon Kingshield, Dwarven Knight. And Jasper. This is Jasper. I play Merrick, Ethelred, Human Cleric. And last, but certainly not least, Brynne.

Hi, I'm Brynne, and I play Santos, the Ghisarai Saigon. So last time, you guys ended up-- wow, a lot of stuff happened here last time. OK, so Kaluna's doing fine. We're past all that. You guys have trekked into the wilderness now, into the mountains specifically. And you were looking for the entrance to this long-lost gateway to Infernal Lodge, this big library that's supposedly in the area. And you happened to meet Ordon while camping out one night. And you guys got to talking. Actually, you got to talking a lot. And eventually, you kind of spilled the beans on what you're after, what's happening.

And in the process, Santos kind of learned what you guys are after and what's happening. Eventually, trekking through the mountains, you did end up finding the entrance to this place. And I wanted to pick up right there, because I believe just getting to the doors is where you are now. These things are absolutely massive, and there is a huge wooden bar kind of blocking it. And so what it looks like is that someone has went to a lot of effort to make sure these doors remain closed. What would you guys like to do? How part of the door does this feel? Like, does it feel sort of like a hastily done thing, but it's still a big deal?

Or is this like now it's riveted in and it's a big deal? Not riveted in, but there are definitely braces on the side to keep this in place. And it looks to be-- it starts about five feet off the ground. It extends for a couple of feet. This is a huge wooden beam. So all five of you lifting up on it, you may be able to lift this up. But then there's the problem of not being crushed by it after you get it off the braces. Can I look around the edges of the door to see if-- I'm looking for signs that the door's been opened recently. So whether it's dust movement in the ground or buildup in the joints or something like that.

Sure can. Now, are you trying to find a secret way in, or are you just doing a perception check, just like that? I'm just looking around for the moment. Give me a perception roll. So Ordon's going to spot a couple of things. One, there's going to be a plate. And there's elven writing etched in the side of it. And this is off to the side of the door. And it reads, "Desaree Grodd. Who here speaks elven?" Hello. Just Kaluna? I know Kaluna does, but just Kaluna? I think it's just Kaluna. I think it's just Kaluna. Yep. And roughly translated, it's place of infernal knowledge.

Good. That sounds friendly. Was I able to tell if the door's been opened at all semi recently? That's the second thing you're going to notice. OK. It looks like these have been closed for a very long time. That beam has been there for maybe a century, maybe a little longer. Someone has went to a lot of effort to make sure this stays closed. And you can kind of see where the weather has gotten to it. And it's definitely been here a while. And you can kind of see where a few other people maybe have-- maybe animals, maybe something has sort of beaten against this big, weathered piece of timber has seen some kind of like ax blow, sword blow, something like that.

You can see little cuts and mars. But it's very thick. And it's not going to be easily sliced through or cut through. Well, damn. I mean, just for due diligence, Merrick would probably just try to check around to see if there's any weak points or something like that, something that would just make this easier. Do me a favor, roll a Dungeoneering check. Dungeoneering. 28. The doors themselves look to be pretty standard. There doesn't-- it appears as though without this big ass bar in the way, these would open. There doesn't appear to be any switches or anything to activate the doors themselves.

They look heavy as hell. But they could be pushed open or-- the bar itself also appears to be really standard. It just-- there's no fall away to it or give. There is one structural weak point. And the bracket holding up the right side of this massive piece of wood appears to be a little weaker than the other one. So while lifting-- outright lifting the wood and just tossing it away is kind of an impossibility, maybe working at that bracket could be something you do. OK. This is going to be a stupid idea. But could Thanos punch through it? The door itself?

Yeah. You could try. Or through the beam or just the timber. Or yeah, just aiming directly at the beam. Because then even if it doesn't succeed, you might be able to lift it up with the pieces that go flying in different directions. If the bracket's the weak point, that might be what you want to target instead. That's what I'm thinking too. Oh, that could work. Yeah. I mean, here's what it could mean. It could mean that whether it's the force punch or if it's just us hammering away at it, whatever it is, the timber's going to potentially fall over on that side.

But it doesn't mean that we can really get to the door very well. So we're still going to have to lift it out or push it away or something like that no matter what. Right. Legitimately-- like, realistically speaking-- not legitimately speaking. That's stupid. Realistically speaking, it's going to be loud however we open this door. So-- Only thing that concerns me is are you going to be losing-- I wouldn't use it daily. OK, I'm just saying, like, just something-- Force punch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK. So I get to use a thing that I asked Jason about, like, literally earlier this week.

Jason, can I charge first? You can, yeah. If you were-- Sweet. You'll be able to reach this bracket, but it's going to be a little awkward. You may want to-- Uppercut? You can, yes. I can lift you up if you want. You will fall over. Just, like, yeah, get on your hands and knees and Thanos can stand on your back. Like a table. Just be aware that if she succeeds, this is probably going to drop down quickly. OK, so Thanos will kind of look at the-- we're aiming at the-- what's it called? Bracket. Bracket. So that's kind of where she wants to be. How tall is that compared to her?

Yeah, this starts at about the five foot mark. OK. So I mean, she could just go up. Yes. Yeah, so she can handle that. She can just punch down at it instead of forward. Right, so-- Well, up at it. Eric's right, though. Well, if you raise your fist over your head and go down. Oh, you're like, OK. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. I'm almost turning on the web camera at this point. I'm like, yeah. I'm thinking Street Fighter uppercut. That's the only thing. That could work too, but I feel like it's better to go down for some reason. I feel like I get more force going down.

Stop saying that. Well, you told Corey to get on her knees earlier. I mean-- Can we just fast forward to when she goes down? Oh my god. Now she's 14. Eric's right, though. If this busts and falls, it's going to be the kind of thing that you need to get super out of the way very quickly, or basically you're kind of in a dangerous way. Where is the bracket on the door, like in the middle or on the side? Oh, they're on the sides of the door. It's not even on the door. OK. Yeah. So yeah, OK. Santos is going to charge. Here I go. Are you guys-- And I'd like to stand off to the side so I'm not-- Yeah, everyone else, I'm guessing, is standing away from the giant beam.

No, I think it's smartest to stand directly under it. OK. I feel like that's a good idea. Right, guys? Yeah, definitely. Merrick is actually generally concerned about, OK, this is a good idea, maybe. But also, I don't want Santos to get hurt. So he's kind of being-- he's ready to rush in, maybe. OK. So Santos's eyes, I believe they go red, right, Jason? Yep. Her eyes are going to go red. She is going to roll a shitty ass nine. But I do automatically hit, right? Yeah, it's not putting up a fight. Like you're-- yeah. So what is the plus-- the modifier for the plus nine?

Or it's not a plus nine, but it's plus-- Five. Five. Cool. So I'm going to hit this. It's going to do 24 damage. So Santos is going to swing at this. And they look to be pretty heavy duty iron brackets. They're obviously heavy duty enough to hold up this huge piece of wood. But the problem is time and maybe someone working on this and weather and all that have kind of gotten to it. Santos is going to strike this. And there's going to be a pretty resounding thud. Two things are going to happen. One, that noise is going to sort of echo and reverberate against the door.

You can hear it just kind of ripple. And you're going to see a dent in the bottom right hand corner of this bracket. You can kind of see where the bracket twists a little bit. And you can definitely see where you've done some damage to it. But it's still going to hold onto this big piece of wood. OK, then Santos is going to take a deep breath, charge again, and hit it again, if that's OK. Charge. 12 that time. Yep, so plus 10 damage. 10. And force punch. One punch, but not really. This is the second one. That's 29. Objectively worse than the first time because the first time I only got plus 5, but you know whatever.

This time, Santos is going to swing again. And this bracket's going to come loose. It's going to be the same resounding thud. And there's going to be a split second where her fist strikes this. And then the bracket's going to come loose and fly backward. It's going to land somewhere behind Santos and sort of hit the dirt. And you can just hear it. And then for a split second, this log is going to hang in midair and then drop. And it's going to make an attack versus Santos' reflex. That doesn't have to. I mean-- [LAUGHTER] 13. That hit. Jeez. That hit a lot. Oh, man.

OK, so this big, heavy piece of wood is going to come down on Santos' foot. Aw. And it's pretty much going to-- I would say it's pretty much going to crush her right foot. Like, it's just going to come down. Let's see how much damage it's going to do, though. OK, so 26 damage. That's a lot for her. I would imagine Santos would be in some pain. Yeah, she'd probably be pissed and realistically probably fall down and just clutch her leg. Is it stuck underneath? I would say yeah. OK, then she will immediately try to struggle to pull it out, despite what a bad idea that would be.

I know it's a bad idea. Maric's rushing over, absolutely rushing over. OK, and he's also going to motion to Ordon to grab it. We're trying to pull this off so that Santos can get away. OK, I will-- I imagine she's also cursing in deep speech. That's primarily what she knows that language for, is to just say things that she wouldn't get away with saying in common. That's the only reason to know another language. Honestly. OK, so Maric, you're going to roll an athletics check. Who's going to assist? I believe Ordnance. Athletics. Athletics. I've got a 14. Oh, god.

You beat me by one? I mean, it doesn't matter. One isn't-- I don't think one point will matter if you want to do it. Well, Maric did motion me up, and I would have jumped in. Well, imagine seeing her foot crushed. Anybody could jump in. I was going to say, yeah, Cory likes to watch children suffer. Doesn't everyone? I mean-- I'm just sitting there laughing, pointing at-- National pastime. Fucking dumbass. What a dumbass. Can Kelowna just sort of be standing off to the side, ready to drag her out from under it? Let me get an assistance roll from both Cory and Ordon.

And that's with a plus 2, because you're trained in it. OK. So here's my athletics. It's a 15. The important thing is you guys are going to assist, and that's going to give-- OK, that's a 19. So you guys are going to lift up on this big, heavy piece of lumber here. And that is just going to inch this up enough for Thanatos to be able to pull her foot out. That's all we need. Howie. And that would be for, I would say, just a few precious seconds. And then this would probably be too heavy for the party to just clean and jerk, just lift it up. Why did I say that in this group?

Why? [LAUGHTER] Eh, eh, eh. Why did I say that? Wow. Wow. I watched a lot of Strongman competitions, so that didn't faze me. But-- Yeah, but welcome to group 3, Eric. I mean, as soon as the bar is down on the ground, Merrick's going to go straight for a heel check. Maybe someone should have been holding the bar while I was printing the bracket. I'm just saying. Hindsight, 20/20. Yeah, we would have been crushed. Probably, yeah. Yeah. All right, so I'm-- But then your foot would be fine. Exactly. It evens out. I'm heel checking. OK. Oh, yeah, you're-- yeah. My foot's fine.

Yeah, you're going to-- so that, I imagine, would be an amazing relief to Thanos. Awesome. OK, then Thanos will, as soon as she can stand up, she will. And she'll just look over the door like, there, it's open. Just for canon's sake, can Merrick have done the Mr. Miyagi thing, where he blows into his hands? And then clap together and start doing that? Yeah, claps together and rubs. And then-- OK, great. Thanks. Here's the thing. The door's not actually open yet. Oh, do I need to punch the other bracket? Because I totally will. No, no, no. I have an idea. I'm just punching.

I do have an idea. Just keep your feet out of the way this time. OK. What would your idea be, sir? OK. If we can get everybody involved to lift the very furthest end of this timber, the end that's fallen to the ground, and then we all pull away from the door and sort of go around in an arc, basically what we would be doing is putting all of the pressure on that other bracket. And then it could pop off. So I really like this idea. I have a slight modification that you may or may not like. If we all get behind the beam that's next to the door and push, I think we can actually apply more force and push the front edge of the bracket away from the door even more so what you're asking to do by first action.

We just push it forward away from the door. There you go. Yeah. And basically, I guess that's what I'm kind of trying to say. I mean, if we tried to lift it up, that's a big, big deal for us to keep carrying it. But if we can get behind it and push it, I think it's a better idea. Who's going to be main grabber? Who's real strong? I think we have a Goliath. Ah, my mod is four. Oh, but that's what I use. Oh, it's athletics? I'm 14. I got 10. Wait, no, that's acrobatic. Athletics is eight. So I should probably-- I think I'm probably the second strongest just behind Corey.

I've got a six. I also had a six. OK, so you do want to resist. I am so much stronger than too much of our party. I can assist. Wait, I'm not trained in it, though. So I can assist. It doesn't matter how high it is. It matters if you're trained in it or not. Well, I mean, if you roll high-- You get a plus two for being trained in it. But isn't assisting a flat d20? Yeah. So it would just be like a regular person rolling. It wouldn't matter that I'm trained more than the other ones. True. OK, Ordon, do me a favor. Roll an assist. Is that with a plus two? No, that's flat.

That's a flat d20. Yeah, OK. Well, OK, Corey. OK, and because I'm trained, I get a plus two. Well, no, you're doing the actual roll. I'm doing the thing. You're getting a negative one. Yay. Well, that's OK. We can still do this. You can do this. [GRUNTS] I'm so strong. So I imagine Corey's going to squat down. Yes. And just-- The whole time just thinking of when she threw those heads overboard. I can do this. I'm so strong. So just wrap her arms. And she can barely wrap her arms. Even the size of Corey, wrap her entire arms. Just bear hug this thing. And she can get around halfway and just all of her might lifting up.

And she's going to get it about three feet off the ground. And I would say everyone's watching her do this. And it looks like every blood vessel in her body is going to burst. What are you going to try and do with this now? You got it up off the ground. And I imagine you're just sort of shaking holding this thing. Yes, it hurts. So we just wanted to get it away from the door, yeah? Like push away from the door like you're walking out of the door, except with that thing in your hand. So pulling back. Walking backwards with it. Oh, I see. OK, OK. So I was thinking-- so you're-- I'm just trying to-- Yeah, no, I get that.

Should we all try to get behind and start-- so Corey can start pulling, walking backwards, and we're all sort of pushing. Because we can all sort of now fit behind it a little bit, right? Right. Tiny bit, yeah. I imagine Thanatos probably can because she's so small. And very tiny. Whoever can do it. I mean, I think Merrick would be like, oh, OK. And he's going to come over and-- So that would be an acrobatics role, I'm assuming? No. Clearly acrobatics. And just try to basically-- Something heavy and moving it is acrobatics, Jason. I don't know what world you come from.

I would say anybody could try it. Like anybody can-- yeah. Merrick is definitely just going to rush in there and try to spot, just like try to help. And then try to pull this away from the door, push, in his case, this away from the door. OK. And then Kaluna's just going to be ready to heal any hands that get crushed. I go, it's winter. Do me a favor. And everyone who's assisting with this, give me an assistance roll. That's flat D20, right? Yep. Ooh. So helpful. OK. Oh my gosh. Ugh. Thanatos just grabs onto it, but it's the part that's way too high. So she's like actually on it.

Just hanging off. So-- That's actually an extra like 90 or so pounds. Well, it breaks even. So Corey, go ahead. Give me another athletics check here. Here we go. Oh, wow. Nice. Almost like a second wind. She just gets-- Look at those guns. Did you buy your ticket back? I did. Yeah, you did. I would say you'd see like veins bulging and stuff. Like this is-- yeah. So Corey's going to start to slowly walk backwards with this thing as the rest of the group pushes forward. And everyone do me a favor and give me a perception check. Cool. Look at that sick three. Sick three. 25.

Corey, Maric, Kaluna, and Thanatos. Corey, Maric, Kaluna, and Thanatos, you're going to hear firstly this wood. You're going to hear it start to kind of flex. Like you can hear it creak just a bit. The wood's flexing? Yes, the wood is-- flexing means bend. Shut up. Fucking flexing. Is it girthy wood, Jason? It's moving with me. It's not-- It's not completely still. Yeah, it's moving just a bit. And you can hear that second bracket. You can hear the metal kind of strain to keep up with this. And as you move backward with it, it's getting worse. I'd say there's a good like a two foot gap between the door and this wood now, on the right door at least.

Are you trying to move it further? Good question. I mean, the goal is to be able to get to that door. It's not to destroy the timber. Like who cares about the timber if we can get to the door? But it just needs to be that we can really get to the door in case we need the left hand side or the right hand side or whatever. I kind of like the thought that we're all discussing this as Cory's holding it, like every sitcom when they're moving and two people have the couch. Yeah. So we probably don't have quite enough clearance yet. Yeah, let's keep going. So another round?

One more round. Let's do it. I'm helping. Helping. Oh, god. You are not helping. I hate you all so much. This is as much as I help when I actually help move shit. OK. You're going to break even again. Merrick's really the only one helping at all, but both Ordon and Santos are impairing you so much that it doesn't matter. It's because I'm so tall and both of you are so tall or so short. Yeah. That's really what it is. You can't reach. Cory, do me a favor. I don't know if I have it in me, but here we go. Oh, god. Oh, no. Shit. I rolled on your feetsies. Cory is going to trip and fall backwards with this.

No. But not on me, right? But not on me. And the right-- Oh, no. The right side of her body is actually going to get lodged underneath this large piece of wood. Whoops. And that is going to do 30 damage to Cory. Damn it. But you are going to move it back, I'd say, another eight inches or so. That's my health piece, like, leave. So I'm assuming we'll try to roll this piece of wood off of her. Yeah, what do we have to do to get it off? Well, she's just really quickly going to exclaim, motherfucker. And she's very aggravated at this point. Kaluna's going to spring over ready to fix her up once they get the shit off her.

And I'll get ready to boost this off. And I assume other people will be assisting. Yeah, let's do it. I'll help. What do we need? I'll help as much as I've been helping so far. You just need to lift this up just a little bit, just to get it off of her right side here. So who's doing the main roll? I have the second highest athletics, other than the pinned person. So-- Go for it. Can Jamie also assist technically? Oh, yeah, she can. Yeah, she can. Sweet. All right, I'll do that. All right, I'm assisting. Here I go. Wee. Yeah, I helped. Yay, I helped. OK, so plus one so far.

I'm assisting too. So I get a plus two because I'm trained in it. Yep. Rah. Yeah, check that out. Gorgeous. Oh, jeez. Great. Gorgeous. And Ordon, you're rolling with a plus three. So that's a 21. Yep, that'll do it. You're going to lift this up and-- I imagine Corey's going to wriggle out from underneath of it. Yeah, she'll sort of scoot from underneath and just sit there for a second. Eel check. Go right ahead. Yep, that'll do it. Thank you. You're welcome. So this has been difficult so far. Annoying? Yeah, annoying, frustrating, yeah. So there's a little over 2 and 1/2 feet between this bar and the right door.

Would that be-- I know this is a detail. Would that be at roughly the center point? In other words, could we open the-- if we could just open the door. Like if we could just-- would it open about 2 and 1/2 feet? About that, yeah. OK. Well, I mean, I don't want anybody else to get hurt. And we should at least go see what we can do, right? Give the door an open here? I mean, if Caloon is doing the heel check, Merrick's going to just sort of go inspect the door and see if he can get behind there and see if there's any way of opening it. He'll inspect the door seam between the door and the two and things, all that.

Do me a favor, roll a perception check. 27. The doors actually seem to be in relatively good shape. Like they seem to be very well manufactured. A lot of care and attention was put into this place. At the very least, the front door was very well taken care of. And they appear to be made of reinforced iron, something like that, something very, very sturdy, definitely metal. And they also, while they're exceedingly large, like taking them off their hinges, something like that, would take forever. This wooden bar was pretty much the only thing keeping them from opening up, it would seem.

There's a very large handle on either door, and there doesn't appear to be any locking mechanism, anything like that. OK. I mean, while Merrick is sort of poking around there, everybody else is sort of doing their thing, I think he'll just-- just to see, can he open it? Even if he-- maybe he can wedge a dagger or something if he has to, or if there's just a handle, he'll just grab it. OK. Just to see if it's possible. Go ahead. Do me a favor, roll an athletics check. 11. OK. Well, Merrick's going to pull back on this door a bit. And I don't know if you've ever reached for a door, you're like, OK, I'm going to open this thing.

OK. And you start gradually putting more into it. And it's going to budge. It's going to start to swing open just a bit. And it appears it's going to need a little more oomph, but it does look like it's going to open. Nice. OK. That's what he was looking for. So hey, everybody. Door's open. It's unlocked. Good, it better be freaking open. Yeah. Is everybody OK? Is everybody healed up? Is everybody in pain? Might be a little late to ask this. Did we bring torches or anything? That's standard adventuring stuff. Cool, it's in the pack. Yep. Before we go in, can Kaluna roll something to see if they remember from the book if there's any weird shit to expect in there?

No. Or I mean, we had the book, Kaluna Can Look. I think that's the name of the book. But I think they wouldn't take that time. Is that weird shit to expect? Weird shit to expect. [LAUGHS] So can I roll a thing? Yes, no, maybe so. I would say that would be common knowledge that Kaluna has now. There's no role needed-- Cool. --for that. There's a lot of mystery actually surrounding the place in terms of what to expect resistance-wise. An educated guess would be that as far as people go, you probably won't run into many people. If so, they're going to be either old or in few numbers, something like that, because the way the book describes it is, before any writing just stops, that they were researching tieflings and then demons tangentially.

And then something occurred that had them cease all of that. And then obviously, they decided to seal this place off. So it doesn't specifically mention anything like, oh, there's guys with clubs just waiting for people to walk in. Nothing like that. See, I was thinking, watch out for those gross mutants we left behind. Doesn't mention anything about that. Yeah, OK. Just making sure. Question two. This is at the end of the day, right? We finally found the doors at the very end of the day. Is it dark yet, or is it just the sun going down at this point? I would say you've been fiddling with this door for a little while.

I'd say the sun is setting. OK. Well, it's not like it's going to be daylight inside anyway. That's a good point. But should we get some rest? I mean, nobody has to rest right now for powers and stuff. But should we do this daybreak? So it's close to nighttime? Yeah. Right. I was going to wait for just a second. If we stay up all night, then we lose points. So it might be a good idea to fall asleep somewhere. Probably not in the dungeon. Yeah. In the library. In a cave or something. It's a library. Library, guys. Yeah. It's so cozy in there. OK. Mariko is just going to say that we should probably make camp.

We should probably not get into the dungeon if we're going to be staying up all night. And then first thing in the morning, we need to go in. So is there any cover in the area? Or are we-- is the mountain area too stony to support much plant life here? Well, the way this kind of worked out is this area is very mountainous and everything. So you guys came into an area that's just this door. It's sort of a cul-de-sac of mountainous terrain. So there's the small trail that led you here, then this large open area where this door is, and then that's pretty much it.

You'd have to leave. There's shrubbery and stuff like that. But the mountains themselves are kind of your cover. I say we just get a few hours of sleep right here before we head in. I think so too. I'd feel bad if we left and let something out. So let's-- Ordon will turn to Marek and point up into the sky and remind you that we had a visitor the last time. Yeah. Fair. Does the place look big enough? Like the skyline, I guess? Does it look big enough for something to get in? I know that wouldn't stop fire or something, but it-- It's always a big, wide open sky.

OK. I mean, let's just-- We should do shifts again. Yeah, let's just do shifts. I know it's not the safest place to be, but I'm not willing to go in yet unless we've had a little bit of sleep and we're all at our best. Because if we go in and we try to camp or whatever, it's just not going to go well, I bet. You guys are going to lay down and I imagine make a little camp. Just do the regular bedding down stuff, and you're going to get some rest. For those of you at home, I know we did a little roll at the end of the last episode. I did not forget about the roll.

Be patient. Fuck you. That's just for the-- you shouldn't have listened to that. That's for the benefit of the listeners, I said. I'm sorry, did you say something? No. So you guys are going to get some sleep, and you're going to wake up feeling really refreshed and ready to go, kind of charged up. I imagine you're just trying to get four or five hours of sleep, something like that. Yeah, it's not like-- yeah, totally. Yeah, totally. OK. So you guys are going to pack your stuff up, and what would you like to do? We've got to open up this door. Yeah. Stare at it.

Who wants to get in there and grab and pull? Crack her open. I could try to help, but last time it didn't go well. So I mean-- 25. Corey is going to walk up to this door and start to pull back on it. Grab the handle here, and it's going to give her some fight, and she's going to have to put a little muscle into it. But she is going to start to pull this door open, and then she's going to reach a point where the door is going to reach the wooden bar and stop dead. And that's going to be a little over 2 and 1/2 feet for you to squeeze through here. And some of you with bulkier armor are going to have a little bit of a tough time squeezing through, but you're going to be able to get in.

Santos has enough room to dance. Yeah, pretty much. So are we walking inside, guys? Nope, we just wanted to open the door. Let's go back. We're done. I think we're done. All right, guys. Good session. We got everything we needed here. And that's a good-- Last thing before we go in, just as we're sort of getting all prepared to walk into the door, Merrick is going to just look around. Is there any sort of foliage? I know we're in the mountains, but are there any sticks? Or like-- Oh, there's brush and bushes and things like that. He's looking for as close to a 10-foot pole as he could possibly find, something that he can take in with him and be able to poke around.

Well, do me a favor and roll a perception check. We'll do that. See what you can find here. OK, 23. There are some branches nearby. You're going to get-- it's about the size of a staff, something like that, like kind of crooked and gnarled and stuff, because it's a tree branch. It's not finished. But about six feet long, somewhere near. OK, so yeah, about his height. He's a little bit short. He's pretty short, but not that short. Yeah, OK, that's perfect. It's just something enough to be able to tap on stuff, touch something, push something without being in harm's way, if possible.

Right, totally. That's all. So he's just going to carry that with him. Yeah. OK, sweet. And he's ready with a torch. Like, he's got it in his hand ready to be-- I kind of imagine, yeah. Right. Well, do me a favor and roll a perception check. Oh, by the way, before I roll, he's not being a dumb ass. Like, he's not going in completely blind here. 29. Well, first of all, this place is going to be dark. The-- oh. And made of spiders. I couldn't do that. Sorry. Like, they're all giant. So they're making that-- Oh, god. Don't-- The place is dark and full of spiders. Do you know-- The night is long and full of spiders.

OK. There is actually-- I don't like spiders. A lot of people don't like spiders. This is not unusual. But I really don't like looking at spiders like especially close up things of their face and their mandibles and stuff. And I'll tell you why that is. It's because I watched the Hobbit cartoon long ago. And-- It scarred you for life. And it did, because they had the big, huge, giant spiders. And they were furry. And it was scary. So how did that make you feel, Jasper? Made me feel scared. There are not spiders. It is going to be dark. And only your torchlight is going to illuminate this place.

You're going to feel the faintest bit of cool air run past the party here. As the door opens and you're standing here, it's kind of a stale, musty air to it. And this place has not been aired out in a very long time. Just kind of a-- not corpse-y like Darmock's place or something. But I mean, it's just kind of like an old, wet basement type of smell. Like very-- just the air is almost thick, like soupy. There are going to be a set of stairs that lead down. Now, the stairs themselves look to be fairly well-crafted, almost dwarven in nature. Like they are chiseled out of the stone.

The rest of this appears to be a cavern, a very large cavern. And it naturally leads down. The stairs are obviously an addition. But the rest of it has been almost seemingly completely untouched. And they appear to go down for a while. What's this vestibule area before the stairs? How roughly big is it? Could we all fit in there pretty well? Oh, yeah, before you would walk down any stairs. The entire party could be standing here-- OK. --looking down. This area, it matches the doors on the inside. So it's pretty damn big. And then everything just sort of narrows up and goes down.

Gotcha. So Merrick's going to get the first glance, make sure everything's cool. And then he's just going to stand there and sort of help people through. And what he'll do is just light torches as people come in, right? Whoever's holding a torch. Kaluna will definitely trail behind and sort of look at the sky before they very reluctantly go in. Fantas will squeeze in. And once she's in, she'll take a spot right beside Merrick, like right up front so that she's near him, because she doesn't want to hold a torch of her own, because she might need her fists.

Good. That's good thinking. Well, there's stairs. There's not much else. Should we just go for it? Should you tap it with your stick first? Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I think every once in a while, not that you need to address this until I actually really say it, but every once, I mean, he's just kind of tapping around. But I'm sure that wouldn't change the outcome of anything. But-- Just kind of like just checking shit out. Yeah, I mean, like the stairs are solid. You know, he would notice that kind of thing. I think just obviously if he's got his little staffy thing.

But yeah, I mean, let's just-- now's the time to start, right? Down there with the ducks. Can I roll his engineering check on the stairs? Sure. Yeah, go right ahead. Whee! 28. I'm good at this, guys. Look at this. That's myriad. So I would say that Merrick is sort of like just you wanted to tap the stairs slightly just kind of like-- just to see if they're like solid, move around or-- Yeah, I mean, just so they don't crumble away whenever-- Right. I would say that the only thing of note that's going to happen is it is going to make a sound like the wood kind of striking the stone is just you're going to hear it kind of echo in here.

And it's wonderful acoustics in this chambery part. And they seem really solid. They're just going to sort of like crouch down a bit and take a good look at them. There doesn't appear to be any shifting in the stairs when you did that. There doesn't appear to be any mechanisms that she could see where the stairs would fall away or turn into a slide or 10,000 spiders, something like that. It just looks-- they look to be, for all intents and purposes, stairs. Sweet. I don't buy it. I don't think these are stairs at all. I think it's a slide. So I mean, you did mention that this looked dwarven, at least in architecture or-- Yeah, I mean, they look very well made.

Like, usually people like humans just do not have the patience. It's like, I don't know, they go down. It's kind of-- like, have you ever been to a national park or something like that, and they kind of make, like, stairs out of the rocks that lead there naturally? It's like, eh, good enough. They're like stairs. Dwarves are like, no, no, no. These need to be smooth and gorgeous and polished and oh my god. Like, they'll work on them for fucking decades until it's right. They're obsessive about that. Not really even just about the stairs, but just the general architecture that we're just standing there.

Merrick's going to look at Ordon and say, what do you think? I mean, Ordon will be impressed with the stairs, and the cave is large and unfinished. I mean, he's going to motion that we should be getting on with it. Yeah. Don't be a racist, Merrick. You guys are going to descend these stairs for a while. Minutes, in fact. You're going to feel this slight temperature change as you descend. It's going to start to feel a little cooler. A few degrees cooler, actually. It's kind of-- I mean, it's decent outside right now. Like, summer's ended and fall's just starting, and the temperature's starting to drop.

It's not terrible, because being an adventurer and wearing a lot of armor and hiking around everywhere, it gets sticky and sweaty a lot. But it actually feels really pleasant down here. You're going to reach the bottom eventually. Now, where everything is unfinished tunnel leading down into the bottom, once you reach the bottom, all the floor work has the same care and attention that went into the stairs. Like, very, very gorgeous polished floors, finished stonework, that type of thing. And then the cavern walls are going to-- not crazy abruptly, but gradually, the care and attention that is on the floor is going to start to-- you're going to see etched stonework and things like that.

And it looks like this is actually a finished portion of whatever this is turning into. And what's in front of you is a very long hallway. It goes straight for about 30, 40 yards, you would estimate. And along the side of the wall, it looks like there's places to hang torches. Are there any unlit torches or anything that are already in the sconces? No, just the sconces themselves. And it appears as though they run the length of-- there's probably about six or seven on either side running the length of this hallway. The hallway is large enough that three people could walk side by side, down it, and you'd have a little bit of wiggle room for your shoulders and such, but yeah.

So I don't know if there would be a role for this. Is there any sort of common sense about, like, oh, if this is a library, this would be the entry hall, or-- actually, you know what? Do me a favor. Everyone roll a history check to see what you'd know architecturally about libraries and how this is shaping up so far. Thanos has been to a few. Merrick's been to a couple, I would say. So far, architecturally speaking, this is not like a common library. The largest libraries, at least on the mainland, would be in the cities of Esterhold, Winterhaven, things like that.

Overwatch has quite a nice public library type of thing. Some of them are more religious in nature, like church libraries, like Rare Text. Esterhold, obviously with the Temple of Kord, has something like that going on. Some of them are more just storybooks or history books, things like that. Most of them, most of the larger ones have some flowery architecture. They're really nice inside. Acoustically, they're nice. But first of all, this is deep underground behind solid metal doors. And then even when you get to a portion that looks like it's finished stonework, it's a little more grand than what a regular library would have.

And most of them don't have long, empty hallways at the entrance of them. Right. Yeah. Most of them aren't this spoopy, is what you're saying. Yeah. Essentially. It's a very spoopy place. My spider sense is tingling. Can I-- Merrick's just going to check out the sconces on the wall just a little bit more, just to see if there's anything that he notices about anything. Should I perception that? Go right ahead. Give me a perception roll. 17. These do look a little more-- again, a little more flowery. Like everything at this tunnel beginning and then going forward, everything's a jumping quality, really.

The sconces themselves appear to be polished silver. And they don't appear to be-- other than that one cosmetic difference, they don't appear to be different than what a regular sconce would be. Like holding-- it's just holding a light source. That's it. But yeah, that's a very financially irresponsible way to hold fire. Right. Do they look like-- is there any indication that they have been used actually to hold stuff? I mean, like is there soot? Do they look like they've been-- A very long time ago. Yeah. Not recently. Right, right, right. OK. All right. Well, anybody have any objections walking down this hallway?

Nope. OK. Merrick's going to lead the way, just like we're doing. But he is going to use his pole. And it just-- I don't know. There's just some sense that-- Just kind of tapping around, checking the wings. Yeah, not like a cane, but ahead of him as much as he can do it. Like tapping. Checking to see if the floor is solid. Yeah, like, I don't know. Just this feels a little empty. Well, do me a favor and roll a dungeoneering check and give me a plus 2 because of your stick. All right. 27. So Merrick is going to lead the way here with Thanatos, kind of side by side.

And I would say just a few feet in front of him, constantly just like jabbing at the stonework, just checking things. You're going to get about 3/4 of the way down this hallway. And then Merrick is going to strike the stone in front of him. And the stonework on the ground, there's going to be a thin strip that's a little less than a foot. A foot wide and then runs the length of the hallway is going to shift. And then there's going to be just ahead, right about where that strip would be, there is going to be a large blade that slides out of the wall and just stabs out horizontally.

This would be on Merrick. It would be like lower chest, upper abdomen, somewhere in there. This would be like right in the rib-ish area. On Thanatos, it would be a little higher. And if anyone were to have been standing there, they would have most certainly gotten stabbed. Merrick's going to do the parent in the car thing, where whenever they're about to stop abruptly, and they put their arm out. He's going to do that for Thanatos, like stop moving. Thanatos is going to stop, but then after half a second, do that mom don't touch me in front of my school friends thing of like, meh.

I just wanted to save your life, honey. Not in front of my friends, mom. I didn't want you to have to die. OK. Why don't you lick your finger before you wash my cheek? Gross. OK, that was a close call. Does the blade reset, or is it just in the middle of the hallway? This is going to-- it's going to pull back after a second, and then it's going to slide back into the wall. Now, the crazy thing about the architecture is it doesn't-- it barely looks like there's room in between. Like it just looks like it was part of a seam, something like that. And then just like, it's a very thin blade.

It looks tremendously sharp. You can hear it kind of ring in the air as it flicks out. Like this mechanism is amazing, like architecturally speaking. Like someone, again, took a lot of time to make this. Wow, OK, so Merrick's going to-- like everybody saw this, right? Merrick's like-- Oh, god, yes. OK, so everybody careful. And is it clear now that this has happened where that-- the plate would be on the ground? Oh, yeah. And you know, assuming that everybody's a normal-- I would imagine you'd point it out. It's like, see this thing? Don't step here. That's basically what I'm saying, is like, I think that-- you know, I'm assuming that would happen.

So we've got-- we're about 3/4 of the way down. Can we tell what's at the end of this yet? At the end of it, it looks as though the hallway is bending to the right, and there's a sharp corner of the head. Now, at the very end of the hallway, there's this big stone wall. And it looks as though there is some sort of symbol etched in the stonework, but it's a little dark to make out exactly what it is. Anyone got low light? Yes. Hello. Dwarves. Hey, the dwarf who can probably read dwarven. Let's get over this trap and just make sure everybody is over it before we move any further down.

And honestly, I mean, because of that, Merrick's going to keep tapping, right? He's jabbing. Yeah. I don't think he's-- I don't think he's going to stop doing that. When Kaluna goes over the trap, they're going to do that little kid thing. I don't know if you've ever seen a little kid on an escalator where they watch really carefully and they jump over it. They can do that. Is there any chance that from now on, every time Santos sees a new section, she can roll a dungeoneering check? You could pretty much roll a dungeoneering check on-- On any. --anything you haven't done yet.

OK. Yeah. Then I would like to roll a dungeoneering check on the rest of the stairs, the ones that are immediately ahead of us. Oh, there's no stairs. Not stairs. I thought we were still on the stairs. For some reason, I know we're in the library. We're just in a big, long hallway. Just a big, long hallway. Me paying attention. That's good to know. Just kidding. All right, so I will do the rest of this hallway, like while Merrick's kind of watching to make sure no one else gets hit. And she's kind of blocking the way so no one else can go in front of her. So they're all kind of huddling up in one area that they know is safe.

And she'll do a dungeoneering check on what's ahead. 27? 27. Gorgeous. OK. That seems to be the only plate like that in this hallway. And the way it blends in, it's very tough to spot. And it seems as though maybe the people who built that were banking on people just missing that, and then that being the last thing that they miss. Getting to the end of this hallway, again, it sort of turns into an abrupt right corner. And at the end of it, there is this dark-- the stonework's a little dark. And then what appears to be chiseled into the wall is a symbol of something that-- give me a perception check on this portion of it.

I would say the party is pretty much there. Everybody. So give me a perception check, everyone. Shoot. Look at how perceptive I am. So everyone in the party is going to pick this up. Some of you are going to notice some finer points. But we'll get to that in a second. It looks to be a stonework version of a demon's head. Huge curled horns, wrapping back, snarling face. And it's large enough that it covers a majority of this wall. Now, Merrick pulls out his smartphone and takes a photo just for later. Snapchat. Spends the next 15 minutes trying to find the right filter.

Yeah, for Theriogram. This appears to be some sort of-- it's either the symbol for the library or something. There's a reason this was carved into the wall itself. And since the hallway only leads to the right, there's really only one way to go with that. Kaluna and Thanos are going to pick up a couple of extra details that, one, someone took a very long time to carve this. A lot like the stonework in the walls and the stairs and things like that. I mean, some of these pieces could have taken years or more. And two, the inlays for the eyes, specifically, for something carved into stone, there is a huge amount of detail.

And the eyes themselves appear to be-- they appear to be like ground flecks of ruby or some other red gemstone. Could I do an arcana check on those? You sure can. 22, still got it. Different character, same awesome arcana. Except it's not. It's actually kind of shitty. But I rolled well. Thanos isn't going to pick up anything necessarily arcane or magical about the carving or even the eyes themselves. But there is something eerie about the amount of detail that someone would go into to chisel something so gross of looking. Is there any blankets or cloth around, tablecloth, anything like that?

Not in the hallway. You guys do have sleeping rolls and stuff in your packs. I don't want to give up a sleeping roll. And then I'll have to sleep on the ground. I just kind of want to cover it, just in case. Something about the fact that the eyes are carved so much more makes me think that someone's watching us. You know what I mean? And you know what? Thanos is going to say that. And maybe not as a serious thing, but she'll be like, it feels like someone's watching me out of those eyes. Kaluna has Corey's hand in a death grip. They're going to let out a little shaky huff.

They clearly are not happy. She'll use her other one to give it a little pat. It's going to be OK. Ordon would like to walk over and run a dungeoneering check on the carving. You sure can. Ordon's going to walk up to this sculpture and sort of run his hands over it and really inspect it. And there doesn't appear to be anything sinister about it. Or there are no trap doors, no nothing like that. And that's really kind of strange, considering if this place is a library-- and there obviously is some reverence to it. Someone wanted to keep this hidden, and someone was doing some kind of research or whatever.

It stands to reason that there'd be a couple of really nice pieces. But again, this is an awful lot of work to put into something that's just decorative. OK. I guess I'll just shrug at Thanos and say, it's just in your head. Don't worry about it. I don't want to belabor the point. I'm sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, Thanos is going to look a little bit offended, but just move on. Like, whatever. I don't want to belabor this, but Meric is going to have to do the same thing. He's going to have to look at it and just see if there's anything to-- it just seems so odd.

Is there anything to push or pull or something with this thing? Go ahead, run into engineering. Nope, 16. And I guess it's Ordon's turn to give you the lock. Yeah. Dude, I gave it the thumbs up. It's true. Actually, that's pretty rude. OK, well, Meric will just shrug, but he's just going to poke one of the eyes as he's standing there, because they seem funny. So Meric's going to poke the eye. And the eye is sort of dug out and carved. I mean, there is so much fine detail in here that someone actually went and did the little inlays where you can see veins in someone's eye, like little bloodshot things, and that's where the ground up bits of ruby are really kind of intense.

And then you get to the pupil, and that's bright red, just ground. And you can feel that texture. You can feel where someone really worked at this. And that's the only part that's rough, that rough sort of ruby-like substance. And then the rest is really cool, flat, smooth stone. OK. Well, I mean, Meric's impressed, but doesn't feel like there's anything else going on here. So we're at the bend already, right? So we're-- We're at the bend already. Looking down the hall, there's another hall. And it doesn't seem to be-- it's obviously-- it's not as long as the other one, firstly.

It's also a little more narrow. And there's going to be a set of double doors at the end of it, just wooden double doors. And they're about 25, 30 feet away. OK. This looks to be at least one place we're headed, right? So anybody want to knock? Is the ceiling finished here, or is it-- Oh, ceiling's finished. This is no longer a cavern. Like, you guys have-- there was no door, like a proper door to walk through. But right about the time you hit that long hallway, everything started looking very finished and polished, like you just walked into a building. OK.

OK, well, carefully and tapping on the ground, worried for traps, Meric's going to make his way to the door. And inspect it. Well, this is the first regular looking object that you've seen since you got here. It's a very-- it's a gorgeous set of wooden double doors. Like, again, craftsmanship is second to none. But other than that, there's nothing fantastical about them, though no crazy etched stonework or anything too crazy elegant. They just look like really nice wooden doors. They also appear to be locked. Mm. If a dwarf with low light vision were to peer through the keyhole, would he see anything?

You could try. I would like to try. Instantly, spiders. Oh my word. [LAUGHTER] You're looking through the doorknob. [LAUGHTER] Hey, I'm due to these door things, OK? What is a door, really? Well, Ordon's going to bend down, and it doesn't look as though he could see through the locking mechanism itself, almost like someone jammed something into the locking mechanism. Mm. Mm. Could I roll a dungeon earring on it? You sure could. I got 26. Thanos is going to walk up to these doors and sort of inspect all the nooks and crannies. Now, the locking mechanism appears to be really standard, just a locked set of wooden double doors.

They fit really tightly together, so it's kind of tough to tell what's on the other side of it. The biggest thing that she sees on this side is that everything is sort of hidden, like hinge-wise, and everything will get-- so you can't really take it off its hinges. But the way it meets with the stonework, if someone wanted to place a trap there, it would be pretty obvious the way the wood meets the stonework. And Thanos isn't seeing anything there. OK, cool. We need Kaluna and Merrick's answers, but I might be the one with the highest deep-free, which is really scary, because I only got a plus 8.

Oh, yeah, I've got a plus 5. Wow, really? I'm the best? You guys are pretty straightforward as a crew. You have the smallest hands. Yeah, you're the smallest. I do tiny little hands, I guess. We have honest faces, and that translates to our fingers as well. Whenever anyone drops a watch down a sink, I'm right there. Tiny little hands. OK, see, her first inclination would just be punch, but I do think this situation, she'd realize that Thievery trying to pick it first would be a good idea. So she'll roll up her sleeves, and I guess every adventurer's kit has the lock picking set, right?

So I'll try with my plus 8, even though you just said there's something in the lock. Well, it's going to give you a negative to your Thievery check, a negative 3, actually. Negative 3. All right, I'll put that in on my end. I think Merrick would-- even while that's happening, so it's not to stop Thanos from doing anything, but I think he would just put his ear up against the door to see if he could hear anything at all. OK, cool. Do me a favor, roll a perception check. And that can be happening while Thanos is-- No, you go ahead. Do your thing first. Because you're not going to hear shit anyway, so I'm just going to-- 20.

Wow, that's presumptuous. Well, it was a 6, to be fair. No, it was a 21. See, I don't look at the rolls. I look at the results. We're not playing with Izzy. Merrick's going to press his ear against this door. He's going to notice two things. One, this door is extremely cool to the touch. And two, it's going to sound stark quiet on the other side. OK, I'm going to go ahead and continue with my lock picking. OK, go right ahead. No one wants to interrupt again. OK, with a negative 3, here it goes. I just care about you, honey. 20. [LAUGHTER] 20. Santas is going to fiddle around with this door for a while.

And it's going to take a bit before she realizes that this is getting nowhere. That this is just beyond her skills as a lock pick. It's fair. I'm 14 and have never even dealt with a lock before. [LAUGHTER] You did really well. She's going to look up at everyone else, like, just because I have tiny little hands. OK, so would you mind if I percept this door specifically looking to whether or not punching would help? Yeah, sure. I'm not even joking. Go ahead. That is what she's going to be looking for now, is whether it's susceptible to punching. 24. These juicy wooden doors look like they'd fly clean off the hinges if you gave it a good whack.

She is going to start charging. Before she even tells anyone that the lock picking is not working out, she is going to start charging. Just stand up. It's like, OK, fuck this. So during the charge, if anyone wants to stop her, they can, because they will see her eyes go red, and they'll see her hands heat up. The year goes. She's charged for 14. OK. Yeah, Merrick would be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. I mean, it may be easier than this. And let's just try to force it open first and see what happens. And then after that-- That's what I'm doing.

They'll-- That is what she's going to respond to. That's fine. But we don't know what else is down here with us, if anything at all. And we could come in just blaring into the library, but we don't know what's here. So if we don't have to announce ourselves, let's not do that. Fair? Fair enough? She'll calm down, but she seems to be kind of annoyed, like whatever. So Merrick's going to just try to force this thing open. Just again, just sort of-- For the record, though, that was my best charge yet. And he was-- I'm sorry. I know. It's against doors. Doesn't that apply to your-- That was usually charged against more things.

Doesn't it apply to your next role, though? So-- Probably not that she calms down in between. No, that's the-- Yeah. OK. Merrick's just trying to get a sense of how easy it would be to kick it down, push it down, open it up. They're not crazy thick. They're a little more on the decorative side than built to like-- not like city gates or something like that. So you're guessing ramming your shoulder into it would maybe do the job. If you get a good whack at it. That's what I'm thinking is if we can do that, then it won't make a huge ruckus. I distinctly heard a ruckus.

I'm sorry, I'll go sit over here now. So yeah, Merrick will just try to knock it down. Santos is just now leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, kind of hoping you fuck it up a little bit. I'm kind of hoping I-- I'm kind of-- Throw out his shoulder. I mean, OK, he's going to try, but he's not going to do it so hard that he would hurt himself doing it. He's just going to try to see if he can put enough force behind it to get these things open. Do me a favor, roll an athletics check. He's not going full berserker. We'll see how-- 25. Merrick's going to pull back and with one smooth motion, just jam his shoulder in between the two doors.

And you're going to hear wood sort of snap in the middle and this locking mechanism give as the two doors swing wide open. And there's going to be that kind of staggered forward motion of just like, whoa, just kind of catch yourself on the other side of it. And everyone do me a favor, roll a perception check. That's sick three again. I imagine you're just really frightened about being like all inside. You want to be outside again. Basically, yeah. God, I bet it would be-- for Colin, it would be a very, very, very bad thing. It's bad enough being in buildings.

Yeah, exactly. And now it's a cave. The second these doors swing open, Merrick is going to stumble just a foot or two into the next room. And everyone is going to be treated to quite a magnificent sight. Whereas the hallway almost feels a little claustrophobic compared to the rather large hallway that you walked down to get here. This is going to open up into a massive library. We're talking like a football field's length with ceilings that go 65 feet into the air. And it is gorgeously not only decorated, but chiseled out of the stone itself. There are multiple-- like lining this entire thing, huge bookshelves that sort of spider web and wrap around.

Not necessarily set up like a traditional library would, where it would just be row after row of books. There are sections like that. And then there are sections that sort of splinter off and go down into almost hallways of huge bookshelves and massive tomes and everything from journal entries and things like that. This just goes on for what appears to be forever. And these doors are going to slam open. And it is going to ripple through this room. Like you're going to hear it go on for forever. So ruckus. Ruckus, you're saying. Lots of ruckus. And it appears to be not lit necessarily, but the light from your torches does appear to illuminate it somewhat.

And there also appears to be not a natural light, but sort of a faint blue glow running about the floor in certain areas, almost like track lighting. But some sort of something magic. First thing Merrick is going to say is, God, I wish Jetsee were here to see this. Aw. Take a picture. And then he'll take a picture with a smartphone. Tag her in it. Hashtag beautiful. We just have to stop by the gift shop real quick. Get a-- Yes. Get like a-- A t-shirt. How was this? Postcard. Little wish you were here. Amazing. If we ever do another round of theory of postcards.

Oh, yeah. Aw. That would be a good one. That would be a good one. Gloom is going to let out a little, uh, because they're almost more unsettled by the wide open space than the weird, culture-focused space. I thought it was books. But yeah, they're sort of unsettled by like, it's a huge room. You probably can't even see the ceiling. There's weird blue light. They're just-- they're not happy. What? I don't even know where to begin now. So we're here. We're at the library. This is where our answers are supposed to come from, maybe. Right? Like, it would appear so.

I mean, I guess this is what Merrick's saying. We're there. Now what? Start reading? Is there any-- I mean, I guess that's-- shit. I'm actually overwhelmed. I'm actually thinking, like, what the-- where the hell would one begin? Before, like, everyone's going to probably start looking at books, but could Santos, like, do a round around the library and, like, do a dungeoneering? Well, a round's going to take you a while. This place is so massive. And it's not just the space. OK, because the space itself, if it were just the space, the raw enclosure that you're dealing with here, it would take you a while to explore every kind of nook and cranny of it and just check everything for-- whether it be traps or hidden passages, whatever.

Add in the fact that there are miles worth of bookshelves and then books on top of that. And then there are long tables set up where people were obviously reading. And then that branches off. There are whole sections that look like someone has slept here. And then there are whole sections that look like that there may be a completely different dedication of study to these places. And therefore, they should be kept separate, that kind of thing. Like, it is sectioned off. And it just keeps going forever. Are there signs? Yeah, is there any sort of wayfinding?

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though there's a Dewey decimal system or a-- it doesn't appear as though-- like, OK, if you were to make some sort of common sense guess that the people who lived here knew this place so well that they just knew what they were looking for. They were like, I'm looking for this. And it's like, oh, I know where that is. That's on shelf 402A next to-- and then they would just kind of know. Fucking nerds. I mean, you've got to think, though, that anyone who took as much time and care to build this place wouldn't just throw books randomly on shelves.

That is very true. So even though there might not be a record of where things are, you could probably look at common occurrences and get a rough map of things in your head. Are there any books that have scary demon faces on the sides? You know, funny, you should mention scary demon faces. I thought they'd reoccur, honestly. Based on the last scary demon face, I was like, I bet this is going to be a running theme. I just hope this one isn't moving. No, no, no. Now, that's another thing. You appear to be the only things moving here. You don't hear anything beyond that big initial slam.

That's the worst part. You appear to be the only living things in here. And you will see on the walls, if you look back, like back towards the back here, and you see where the bookshelves are starting to wind around toward the left in a certain section, you will see that demon face etched into the wall again. Could Santos maybe draw attention to that scary demon face? Be like, does anyone recognize that guy? Because at this point, she's got to assume it's a guy, because it's the exact same face, right? What would we roll to recognize a demon face? I'm assuming history.

You could roll history or religion. So Santos will run religion. She's got 15, so probably shit. Good job, Kaluna. I'll do religion. All that weird demon knowledge that Kaluna happens to have. Maybe she saw it in the book. Maybe they saw it in the book. Maybe. Well, here's the thing. This face, all told, occurs three times so far that you can see. Once in the hallway before you, the second time it appears slightly altered. And that's in the wall leading back toward that section of the library I was talking about. And that one appears to be-- it's not as full.

It's a little more gaunt. The horns have dropped away for the most part. They're sheared back. It almost appears to be sickly. And then there's one all the way in another section of the library. And this time it's barely recognizable. It's really tough to tell fine detail from here. But it appears to have the same structure as the other face, just much more gaunt and stripped away. And you'd have to get a little closer to see more detail. Yep, fuck it. Why not? So Merrick's going to go up and try to get a little bit more detail on the third demon face. How far away is this?

I mean, would this be like the 50 yard line in the-- Yeah, somewhere in there. Like, it'd be a way. It'd be pretty far away. Jason, I'd like to start to follow Merrick. But you mentioned that this room was colder than the previous room, right? Yep. Moving throughout this room, does it get colder? Or like, is there a source that I can kind of identify, like a direction of the source? Well, that is a fantastic question. It is going to feel just a little colder. Every once in a while, there's going to be-- sort of the hair in your arms stand up a little bit, just a little chill in the air.

And each time you sort of get used to that temperature change, it's going to sort of drop again, specifically the further you move into this library. OK. You're going to walk up to this face that's etched in the stone? Yeah. I think Merrick would be intrigued enough, especially if he's noticing the differences. And Ordon will be following along a little slower, looking around, but moving the same direction. Once you get up to this thing, you can tell a lot of fine detail. The horns are completely stripped away now. And it's sort of wrapped. The lower portion of the face is wrapped more in a cloak.

And it appears as though the eyes, before they were sort of-- that crushed red ruby-like gemstone substance has been replaced with something that's a little more pale and white, something like that. And that's been used throughout the face, because what it appears as though is covering the entire visible portion of where skin should be would be maggots. Live maggots. Not live maggots. Someone took the time to carve-- Ew! --individual maggots, like thousands. That is the worst thing I've ever heard. Merrick would know of one such demon that sort of has a reputation, and that would be Valnor.

Oh, shit. Yep. He touched. He touched on skin. It was gross. He had maggots and shit. I remember. Time to leave. Kaluna just keeps saying, nope, nope, and heads out. I imagine they're just-- every time they take a step, they're just quietly-- I'm like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Everyone do me a favor and roll a perception check. Why is my perception so shit today? Oh, shit. Oh, look. Another sub 5. Who would have thought? Oh, no. I'm saving it for later when it's important. Everyone in the party, except for Ordon, is going to feel something touch their skin, almost a breeze, something like that.

And it's going to sort of gently caress the air around them. And it's going to be sort of a chill wind. And it almost feels as though someone is walking up and just sort of gently stroking your forearm or any exposed neck area, like a cheek, something like that. Just something like it feels like a breeze that is almost-- it doesn't feel like air. It almost feels like silk. Kaluna's just going to make the noise that I made. Just like, nnng. And then it's going to stop. After a few seconds of that, it's just going to stop. I like to imagine that as that was happening, Santos turned around and started punching at the air, just expecting someone to be behind her.

And it was mad when there wasn't someone to be punched behind her. Can Kaluna just drag Kory behind them over to Merrick so that they can have two hands to hold? Merrick will hold Kaluna's hand. That's actually-- This creepy demon face, is this at eye level or is this-- are we looking up at it or-- A little up at it, yeah. This is a rather large piece. They're all pretty large pieces. So if Merrick recognizes this as Valnor, I think he would take his 10-foot pole, 6-foot pole, and just jab it. Jab the face, I mean. No, I got you. Kind of out of like a-- like, bah.

Merrick's stick is going to harmlessly ricochet off of this stonework. And it is going to-- it is going to make a slight sound, just like a k. And just, again, because of the size of this place, there is an echo, but it isn't-- yeah, I mean, nothing of consequence seems to have happened. That's cool. It was all for Merrick. He feels better. OK. OK, good. So I guess Ordon is going to walk over to the nearest shelf and just pick up a book. OK. Attempt to-- what language is it in? Can I read it? This one appears to be written in common. And it's sort of detailing packs that people have made with Valnor himself.

So this is detailed occurrences. And it appears to be one in a volume of at least 16, because you're holding-- you're holding number 16. And looking at the shelf, you'd see that this kind of goes on for a bit. OK. You just crack it open. And this is story number 32 in the book. And it just goes on to recount someone making a deal to be able to play beautiful music. That's what they wanted to do. And they sold their soul to get that. And then eventually-- Dude priorities. [LAUGHTER] Well, they had their reasons. It takes like five years to learn piano. Just fucking buckle down.

What the fuck? Not to get really good at it. Fair. But-- You're going to sell out concerts with five years of piano practice. I'm just saying. Period. They're not going to sell out concerts anyway. Everyone's dead. For those of you at home, if you want to become an amazing concert pianist, don't make a deal with a demon. Practice makes perfect. Believe in yourselves. [LAUGHTER] So I guess I'll just turn to the group and say a lot of Valmor packs and just kind of put the book back on the shelf. There is going to be a large amount of dust that is kicked up from that.

It doesn't look like these tones have been touched in quite a while. Everyone do me a favor. Roll a perception check. I'm so perceptive tonight. I love it. Wow. Oh, I'm the most perceptive. Except Jordan is also equally as perceptive because we both got crits. But the point is very perceptive. Taluna's seized or some shit. There's going to be a noise from the back of the party. And this is far behind you, tucked away in a corner. If you were to walk in and immediately turn left, there's sort of a living area. And the party's going to hear something shift or move behind them.

And Corey, Thanatos, and Ordon are going to turn around. And just out of the corner of their eye, they would swear that they saw something move through one of the book stacks. It almost looked human, just not quite solid. Dude, this place is totally fucking haunted. Yes. I want to go home. Guys, I love ghosts. OK, what would I roll for Thanatos to know that that's a ghost? If it were a ghost, like if she was thinking, was that a ghost, and wanted to check her memory to whether or not this is a ghost. I would give you a-- not even a nature check, really. I would give you a history.

History. Hell yeah. Let's do this. It's a ghost, guys. 20. It's a little soon to tell if that's a ghost or not. But again, that's if what you saw was to be believed. It was just like you hear noise, turn around, and there's nothing there. Just you thought you saw something not quite solid, not quite corporeal, and it looked to be human shape move through one of the stacks. Like through? Like-- Like through. Like a ghost? Yes. One could say such things. Like a ghost with you guys. Like a ghost. So how far away was this? This was towards the entrance where you guys walked in.

Did anyone catch like gender, size, anything like that? Because I figured if they saw it well enough to know it's human, they would probably know like it was a dude human, or it was wearing armor, or something like that. This appeared to be female, firstly. Not wearing armor. Appeared to be like robe, something like that. Something like casual living attire, something like that. Like dressed, not like pajamas, but definitely not dressed for combat of any means. On white spooky dress is what you're saying? No. No, no, no. I mean more like-- Scholarly robes.

Almost-- almost like that, maybe almost priestly-ish. Oh, this is probably just the cleanup crew. This is janitorial staff. A ghostly janitorial staff. It's actually the living Dewey Decimal System. If we just ask her questions, maybe. Cortana. It's Cortana. Actually, you know what, if no one stops her, Thanos will call out to the maybe not a ghost, but definitely a ghost. OK. So you're just kind of shouting at it, just trying to get its attention? Yeah, like, hey, what's up? Except not that. So Thanos is going to shout toward the thing, and it's going to echo throughout the entire library.

Like as she's doing that, she'll close whatever book she had, or whatever. I'm not sure. She wasn't really looking at a book, but she'll go after it. OK. So starting to walk toward the living area, I want you to do me a favor and roll a perception check. 32. All of the beds in this place are made immaculately. And this is sort of inset into the wall. It's almost a separate room that has no door or anything like that. It's just like a bunk area. And there are like bunk beds set up. And it appears as though there are about 12. Every one of these beds, except for one, is made up.

One appears to have the lone sort of almost a burlap-y type of blanket. For all of this decoration and all of this, the living area here seems to be the least decadent. And this one bed is completely torn apart. And getting close to it, the dentist would see that there appears to be some sort of parchment, like a small note. Can she read it? It would be in common. Hell yeah. Read that shit. It's written in spooky blood. I just sent it to you on Skype. Ooh, secret messages. Let me go read it. Oh, shit. Santos will say that out loud. I'm not sure if anyone can hear her.

It would echo, yeah. I don't think Merrick would have just been like, oh, Thanatos is walking away. Oh, she's got it. Yeah, I think-- I mean, I'm assuming we all sort of are-- even if Thanatos is sort of being in charge. She would just walk away for the ride. I'm sure. She should have learned from mistakes, but she did not. She might in battle, though. But she does wander. So she will like, oh, shit. And then that will kind of echo. And whoever comes up to her, she'll just like hand them the note, probably Merrick. Because again, she sees him as like, you're in charge of this shit.

Here you go. Wow. Shit, Merrick's going to say. It's going to echo? Yeah. OK. And then he's going to read this out loud. "This place is now tainted. We've made a horrible mistake, and this place is no longer safe. The traps won't stop them. The barrier won't hold forever. I'm leaving tonight. Please don't try to stop me." And then it's signed, "Keeper Lindsay." Kaluna's going to raise one of the hands that's still holding other people's hands. It's still holding Merrick's hand. Right. Yeah. It's like a-- it's a chain, a chain of friendship. And they're going to say, "This tainted me." Remember your soup?

Yeah, that's a great, great point. Your soup was tainted with something bad. Kaluna's whole face is going to wrinkle up. And they're going to sort of look at everyone, and then back at the door, and then back at everyone. Look, I don't know what's down here. I don't know what's happened. But we came here for a reason, and that's to find out whatever information we can about demon armies, and gods, and everything we can when it comes to that stuff. And I know there's a lot of stuff here, but we've got to figure out how to narrow it down, and then get the hell out.

Anybody have any ideas? OK, so-- oh, sorry. No, go ahead. No, no, that's it. Is there any role that, like, Thanatos can do to, like, look at the floor and around to see if there's any signs of anyone passing through here recently? Sure can. Give me a perception. Anything anyone, I should say. 29. It doesn't look as though anything, whether it be creature, or person, or anything, has walked around here in a long time. And all the objects appear to be covered with a pretty thick layer of dust, and the place appears to have been really well taken care of up and to the point where that all just stopped, for whatever reason.

Everyone in the party, do me a favor and roll a perception. If I miss a ghost because of what I just rolled, I'll be pissed. I'm busy looking at the floor right now. Corey and Ordon are going to hear another noise. And this time, it's coming from the far end of this library. And if the echoes aren't playing tricks with you, it sounds like it's coming from within, like, a set of stacks, like, somewhere in the back, like an area you haven't been yet, the area I was talking about that's sort of like spiderwebs. And it sounds like something either moved, or shifted, or an object has been moved.

But the echo is going to reach you. And yeah, Corey and Ordon would definitely hear that. I think Ordon is going to reposition himself closer to it, grip that weapon a little tighter, and probably slowly start to get a better angle for viewing in that direction. Like, I'm not walking off, but I'm kind of shifting. And I think Corey, at this point, will have to let go of Kaluna's hand to pull out her bow. And she'll just matter of factly state to the group, we are definitely not alone in here. Kaluna will trade Corey's hand for their totem. Guys, what are you guys worried about?

Ghosts can't touch people. They can touch our hearts. Apparently, they can shift books, though. We don't know that it's a ghost, Brianna. I know, in my heart, that it's a ghost. They'd just like to charge, though. What if it's like a soul-sucking reaper? I'm charging. What if it just needs love? Well, yeah. What did you hear? Something back there, and she'll motion. Something back there moved. And briefly, before I saw a figure, we are not alone. Could-- OK, so Thanos charged up. She got her eyes reddened, and her hands all red. Could she go to the direction that Corey just pointed in, and just force blast, even if there's nothing there?

Oh my god, no. I would like to do that. Unless someone stops me. Corey will stop you. Damn it. She's not going to let you go towards the noise that they just heard, not knowing what it is. We are going to stay in a group. No one will be separated. And we're not going to draw any attention. Can I say one thing? Hats off for playing a different character, because if that were Jensia, no harm would come to these books. Exactly. I was actually about to type that in the chat. Thanos has no-- gives no shits about literature, or learning, or any of that, which is actually weird for her species, even.

But Thanos and Jensia would not go on. OK, we've got to stay on guard. We've also got to find something, and find what we're here to look for, and get out. So do we prepare for battle? Maybe it was an echo. Is it pretty certain that it wasn't-- is it pretty certain that it wasn't just an echo? It was definitely that something had moved on its own. Something created an echo from that part of the building. I'm just-- this is what Merrick would be going through, because he didn't hear it. He'd be like, maybe he heard something. I mean, I guess Ordon could reply, it could be rats.

It could be-- I mean, there could be something, some-- I don't know what they'd be living on, but there's something moving over there. Would Kaluna know if there would be rats this deep underground? Roll a nature check. I feel like Kaluna's paranoid now, otherwise I wouldn't ask. Look at that crit. Oh, that's intimidate, not nature. You're going to intimidate the shit out of these rats. We're going to count to 20. I'm going to intimidate the rats. Turned into a 37, though. 37. Yeah. It is highly unlikely that these are rats. Given the-- now, if this were a regular cavern, something like that, you might get some other creepy crawlies.

You might get spiders or something like that. But it's pretty unlikely that they'd be feeding on anything that you would see so far. It doesn't look like there are any signs of a struggle. It doesn't look like there are-- it doesn't look like there's anything to feed off of. And if there was something to feed off of, they probably would have finished a while back. I'm just going to say, guys, I think we'd all feel a lot better if I just went and punched it. I know Kaluna would feel better. It'll light up the area for a minute, too. Thanos, when you see a thing to punch, go ahead and punch it.

But let's not destroy the library that we came here to look for. Right. I wouldn't aim at the box. Probably-- OK, I think maybe the best course of action in order to get what we need and not die would be to take the people with the strongest sort of knowledge seeking base and have them look and then have the other people who are not so good in that area paired up with them or to protect them so that we're not separated. But this is a huge library. We need to find what we're looking for. We can't spend all day in here. All I got is that we're pairing up, so I think we're going in three different directions.

Let's not split up, gang. Let's not split up. Oh, no, no, I'm not saying we split up. I'm just saying we should be as quick as possible in here. I'm absolutely twisting what you said. Right. So yeah, Merrick will go down by himself through one stack and look at every book. I'm kidding. Yeah, OK, yes, fine. Maybe there's something down here. I don't know. I'm not going to be surprised if something is spooky in a library that hasn't been opened up for demon years. But we've got to start looking, and then we've got to get out of here. I don't even know where to begin.

We've got too much to look at. Kaluno will drag Merrick over to the nearest pile of books, grab one, and hand it to him. Very impatiently, like, do this so we can fucking leave. Dancis will grab a random book off a shelf that's like a good distance from the last book we took off a shelf so we can spread out and try to find the demon army area of the books. Yeah, like, I guess Ordn might even be a little unsure what it is exactly that you're looking for at this point. Right, right. God stuff. Keywords. What are our hashtags that we're looking for here, guys?

Yeah, just for a search engine. Yeah, demon army-- demon plus army. Gods. Demon plus-- Specifically in, like, gods in human form who are trapped. Right, so trapped gods. Those are all your meta tags. Just go through the indexes real quick. Right. Yeah, I mean-- I guess those are the two big ones. Those are the two big things. So we're looking-- I think the biggest thing on Merrick's mind is demon army stuff. Like, he's probably very interested in the Valnor stuff specifically because if Valnor is the one who's putting some shit together, then it's very, very curious to him what would be gleaned from that area and that information.

Well, you know where there are salt books relating to Valnor. That's what I-- yeah. If they're all related to Valnor, that'd be weird. I mean, he's on the walls, so whatever. Just a little side note also, if it caught Fantus's eye, she'd also have an eye out for the word "cyon" just because I am one. And if I-- like, she's not specifically looking for it, but I would say if it caught her eye, she would pay attention. And of the opposite spectrum, Gory is more leaning towards the looking for gods trapped for, you know, reasons. Definitely. Everyone do me a favor.

Roll an intelligence check for me. Straight up intelligence? Straight up intelligence. OK, so it's the check, right? Next to the intelligence? It's the check, yes. Yep. Oh, wait. I think I grabbed dexterity. What? So fucking smart. Holy shucks. I am not smart at all. This is a slog. The details here in these records are so thorough that some of these break down to, like, and then on the fourth hour of the 96th day of the-- like, it goes really-- some of these are very, very slow. Some of these, you're going to get partway in and realize this is just someone's diary.

This isn't necessarily something you'd be looking for. There may be, like, a stray random. It's like, they believe that there are demons in the world, but there's no real account-- like, any mention, it seems, of anything that they think would be even partially involved in their studies, they kept records of or collected. My soup looked funny this morning. Thanos-- let's see here, Thanos and Ordon-- Thanos, Ordon, and Caluna are each going to come across a couple of different things. One, Ordon is going to find some mentions of demons in general, mostly making a deal with a demon, how to get out of a pact with a demon, that type of thing.

And certain demons are different, Valnor being the most notable among mortals. And it goes into great detail about how you'd have to break a pact with a demon. And once you have sort of signed the contract, as it were, it's up to the demon's discretion. You are pretty much at their liberty. That you have-- you've made-- you've kind of made your bed, and you have to lie in that. That doesn't sound good, but OK. It doesn't sound great. Thanos and Caluna are going to start to find a couple of passages about demons finding their way into the mortal realm. And again, where they live is a physical place, but there is a barrier that separates them.

It keeps them from being able to just sort of strut up onto the surface world and just be here. And there are accounts of demons gaining such power that it was possible for them to find weak spots, like chinks in the armor, and slip through. But just them, it would be very, very difficult for them to sort of blow this wide open. It would take a hell of a lot of power and knowledge and all that, but it is not impossible. And that it seems to be their main object of study is finding out what it would take for demons to be able to make it to the surface world and then compiling all the knowledge they could to prevent something like that from happening.

Everyone do me a favor, roll a perception check. Kori, Caluna, Ordon, and Merrick, you're going to hear another noise coming from the same area as before. This time, it's going to be a little more clear. And it sounds like movement. Doesn't sound like an object moving. This sounds like something crawling. Caluna's going to summon pig over in that direction. Again, this is quite a ways away. I was going to ask if I could charge, and then I remembered I didn't hear it. Jason, I'd like to put the book that I was reading about demon packs in my own pack and then start to move slowly over toward that direction.

All right. There is a large expanse. This library is very open, and you'd have to move around tables and chairs and things like that. Those long, classic library tables. And then crossing the great expanse of this library and then getting to where it looks like there's corridors set up of books and bookshelves. Do me a favor and roll a perception check. Everybody or just the people who heard the first noise? OK, is someone moving with Ordon? Oh, I assumed-- Someone would be moving at a distance behind him. Yeah, I see we were all kind of going as a pack, even if we're being a little loose about it.

All right. Just checking. Everyone do me a favor and roll a perception. Hey, twinsies. Hey, there, twins. Everyone in the party. As Ordon is sort of in the lead and approaching this area, this is clearly a different portion of the library. There is going to be a very faint glow, a very pale white light. And it's going to materialize about 10 feet in front of Ordon. And it's going to take the shape of a man, human. You can vaguely see through him, dressed pretty much the same as the woman from earlier. And he is going to start to walk down the corridor of books away from you.

Guys, guys, I think I'm waving at guys. Um, I'm trying to think of what Thanh doesn't do in this situation. I think she would call out and follow again, just like she did the first time. Not really caring if anyone else follows too, because we all traveled in a pack over here. So I'm assuming that this is not what created the sound that I heard. So I'm still trying to work my way into a position to see or find what's been crawling around. So you're going to continue down the corridor of books here? Yes. Is that a different way than the ghost just went? No, that's the same way.

OK, so we're both going the same direction. It's just that following a ghost. Oh, yeah. I'm just asking. In my head, I thought I was saying I was going in a different direction. So I'm glad that's not true. No, you are both going in the same direction for now. This is sort of a winding pathway of bookshelves, these interconnecting bookshelves, these huge, heavy, tall bookshelves. We're talking like 15 feet high. They're going to continue for a while. Like, seconds are going to go by where you're following. And this thing is going to keep a very even pace, just sort of walking.

It doesn't pay you any mind. If Thanos were to catch up to it, which wouldn't be too terribly difficult, what would she do? As long as he doesn't look hostile, she's just going to keep calling out to see, like, hey. Kind of like, hey, turn around. What are you doing? Kind of thing. If he doesn't respond to that, eventually she would kind of jog in front of him and try to get in his way, like every stupid person who meets a ghost does, even though ghosts pass through people. Hey, listen. Hey, listen. So you're going to navvy this ghost. I'm going to navvy the fuck out of this ghost.

And she'll probably, as she's following him, kind of mentally take in all the shit he's wearing and all of that. But mostly she's trying to get his attention. This thing is going to-- it's almost as if it just doesn't see you. It's not going to make eye contact. It's going to keep the same steady pace. And as Thanos jogs in front of it, it is not going to break stride. And it is going to move clean through her and just sort of break apart for just a second and then re-materialize on the other side of her. And Thanos is going to feel this strange warmth as it passes around her.

And then it's going to keep moving to the end of this corridor of books and bookshelves. And this appears to open back up. Are you going to continue to follow it? Oh, yeah. Are there any markings on the spines of the books? Or do we have to open them and kind of go through them to tell anything? Some of them have markings. Some of them are just sort of bound leather. You've reached an area of the library that appears to be dedicated entirely to tieflings. Every book on these shelves appears to have some corollary to tieflings or tiefling stories, something like that.

At the end of this lining of bookshelves, it opens back up, almost as if the library has been segregated and purposefully built this way. Do me a favor, everyone. Roll a perception check. Morgos. Morgos. Everyone in the party is going to watch this being break to the left and join 10 other people that look somewhat similar to him. There's a mixture of male and female, a couple of half-elves. But they all appear to be not quite existing in this space. And there is a massive sculpted mural on the wall above them. And it appears to be some sort of monument to tiefling agony.

Many of them have skewers running through them or being segmented or something terrible. And there's an inscription at the base of it that reads, "We must never forget the mistakes we've made." Kaluna, Merrick, Corey, and Thanos are going to not only see all of that happening to the left, but behind them, on the right, coming from around a corner, you're going to hear that same noise that sounds like something crying. Only this time, it's much more distinct and close. What would you like to do? Move pig in the way. Charge. Yeah, I think just like defensive maneuver.

Get ready. The party's going to ready up and sort of take a defensive stance and wait for whatever made that noise to round the corner. Seconds are going to tick by as the apparitions behind them shuffle back and forth and appear to pay them no mind. And eventually, it seems as though whatever's making that noise doesn't hear you or can't get to you. So does it seem like it's trapped somewhere or-- You can't really tell from here. Well, like-- You just hear movement coming from around the corner. OK. Unless somebody stops her, Thanos is going to go try to look around the corner.

Oh my god. Guys, she has a running theme here. It is like having an impetuous 14-year-old in a party. That's the point. All right, so-- Yeah, Kaluna doesn't want to fuck with whatever's there, so they're just like, you have fun. Let me ask a quick question. Would this be something that Thanos is doing stealthily, or is Thanos just kind of charging around the corner? I would say Thanos is the one for stealth. She would take the long way around the corner, so she wouldn't go straight up against the wall, so that there would be a chance for her to see the thing.

And she has a force punch ready to go. OK. OK. So if there's anything there, she will immediately-- even if it's a friendly thing, even if it's just another ghost, she would force punch it, is her plan. Good plan. [SIGHS] OK. I'm making another horrible mistake with this character, aren't I? We'll find out together. And planer as she is dies. If she dies, it's her own damn fault. Let's go. Go turn the corner. Thanos is going to round the corner. And the way this is set up, this particular portion has quite obviously been kept away from everything else. It's not barred off, but it's definitely-- this is where the books sort of stop.

Book shelves stop as you round the corner. Thanos is going to see several small figures. They appear to be gray-skinned, sort of hunchbacked, gnarled teeth. If they stood upright, if they're capable of that, they may only stand 3, 3 and 1/2 feet tall, somewhere in there. And it appears as though they're skittering up and down the walls in this corner. There appears to be some sort of large hole in the floor itself. It doesn't appear to be a naturally made hole. It's something shimmering. Now, some of these things are climbing up the walls themselves. And this opens up into the floor and would open up toward Thanos and the rest of the library.

And as they spot her, they're going to try to move toward that and then shimmy on the ground in her direction. They're going to reach a point. And then they're going to start to skitter up, almost as if they're just moving up thin air. And the air itself is going to ripple. Now, while all of that's going on, coming from around that corner, because Thanos could see most of it, there's going to be one other figure. And while the creatures are skittering up the wall, they don't appear to be incredibly intelligent. They appear to just be testing the limits and just like dogs on a chain.

They're just trying to get to what they want. There's going to be one pretty well manicured hand sort of stroking at the barrier. And I say it's well manicured, except for one feature. Oh, god, no. Oh, no. The nails themselves appear to be sort of long and unkept. And as the pads of his fingers graze this barrier, I would say that's a pretty good time for us to stop for the-- Fuck. God dang it. Nope. Oh, no. OK, there's a barrier. There is a barrier. Yeah, yeah, we're fine. We're fine. Fine. Oh, my god, no. That was awesome. I hate everything. I'm so sorry about that.

I am just playing her issues. No, that's fine. Do it. You're supposed to. This appears to be such a general annoyance sometimes to fucking-- just but that's kind of a good thing. That's what it's supposed to be. I also feel really bad because I'm like, I know. Because I used to play Jodzia. I know how much we want to plan ahead. No, you should. This is exactly what you're supposed to do. I love it. Yep. Don't apologize anymore. For when your twins are teenagers and they're stupid. I appreciate that. Run around with their seed demon and fucking creepy pedophiles.

Well, what's cool is every time they're going to get ready and do something reckless and impulsive, they go, dad, unless someone stops me, I'm going to get ready and sneak out of the house tonight. And as usual, it's going to depend on how much wine I've had. Go ahead. Go ahead. Do it. I want to see this. Go on. Yeah. Oh, man, I'm excited. Man. Yeah, I know. He's going to try to talk to us, too. If he can't break that barrier on his own, he's going to try to convince us. Oh, yeah. Oh, I mean, he's got this barrier. We can just get some books and camp right next to him on the other side, and we can ask him questions.

And it'll be friendly. Like a bedtime story. Right. Can you ever see Silence of the Lambs? Oh, yeah. Nope. [LAUGHTER] Oh. Your next session's going to be so much fun. I can't wait. This is going to be good. I'm excited. I like this. Can I just say that-- The samples still fire that force punch, by the way. Like, just add the barrier. Oh, my god. What if you break it? Yeah, don't break the barrier. Good point, but still, I want to know. I mean, I remember a quote from something from somebody named Keeper Lindsey who says, "The barrier won't hold forever." Oh, yeah, that's a good point.

Well, maybe you shouldn't have dug a hole to the fucking hellmouth, Lindsey. I don't know. Just a thought, Lindsey. I really can't wait. This is so much fun. So excited. I am very excited. That was the best reveal. We need to catch up with posting, because they still don't know who Eric is. Nope. Well, you and I are working on two G3s back to back. Yeah. So that'll be good. So we're going to catch up. So it'll just be this one in the can. So yeah, I'll post something eventually. When we do have it, I imagine there's going to be a lot of exposition. We're going to peel back a layer or two.

The trip to the library is going to do exactly what I said it was going to do, and your next big thing. Yes, please. Guys, we really, really hope that you enjoyed today's episode. It's the last one of 2015. If you'd like to go to our forums and check them out and give us some feedback on the episode, let us know what you think or anything that's happened in the year. We've got a couple of different threads up for that kind of stuff. We want to make 2016 even bigger. And some of the ways you can help us do that is by just spreading the word. Share it with a friend.

Share the show on your Facebook page, your Twitter, whatever. If you like a particular episode and want people to listen, go for it. We're making recap episodes on YouTube so that people can jump in at certain times so they don't have to listen from episode one on. We really appreciate iTunes feedback, like reviews, that kind of stuff. Again, all of that really helps us out. Everyone who supports us on Patreon, who supported us this year and hopefully will continue to support us in the future, we really, really appreciate that at patreon.com/dandr. That's how we keep our lights on.

That's how we pay our bills. And hopefully this next year, we are going to make DNR even bigger, even better. We hope to see a hell of a lot of you at Dragon Con. So thank you very much for listening. And we will see you next time.