The Dungeon - Part 1

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Your support helps keep our lights on and lets us do the things we do. So, thank you all so very much. Without further ado, let's get on with the show. Previously for group C, with the group fractured and barely hanging on, they decided to continue to their destination in Kodai. With them already coming this far, it just seemed foolish to turn back now. But will they reach their destination? And what will they find when they get there? That's where we pick up things today. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason.

I'm the Dungeon Master. Let's start with Zach. What's up? My name is Zach and I play Ardorus. A human endurance. [Laughter] There was a pause there? Oh, okay. I slipped. I'm sorry. And Vri. Hi, I'm Brianna and I play Klara Uraithdale, the half-drow fighter. And I almost said Elorath and Lisa. I'm ready to go. I don't know. I'm not drinking. Hey, I'm Elorath and I play Lisa. The humans suck. [Laughter] And Ryan. Hey everyone, I'm Ryan and I play Varys Alder, the half-elf monk. And Mandy. Hi guys, this is Mandy and I play Nika, daughter of Ender, the elven druid. And last and certainly not least, the birthday boy, Jasper.

It's true. It's true. I'm finally old enough to drink. I'm really excited. And I play Maric Eltharid, human Clairelock. Can you feel that guys? We're nearing the end. It's coming. Oh baby. So last time we sat down, we came to a bit of an understanding where you and the royals are going to forge forward and work as a team. And, you know, maybe solve this mystery together with the power of friendship. You're closing in on where you're fairly certain that the entrance to this place would be. But as of now, it's nighttime and we're going to give you guys a long rest.

But I had a couple of questions for you guys because there's still some friction within the original party, obviously. What would the sleeping arrangements be? Are you guys hanging out near each other? Are you a little more spread out? I imagine you're used to making camp near each other. This would be a fairly large camp considering it's you, the royals, and I must say they're caddies. That's disrespectful. Their assistants. Nika and Ardonis are right here. No way. So rude. What do you think, a pitching witch? They're sandwich artists, Jason. Sandwich artists!

They're administrative assistants. Oh no. So what are you guys feeling? Would there be any attempt to speak to each other any further? Is it pretty much just silent? Because I imagine this is only like an hour or two after you decided to march forward. I don't know. As far as like Elrath, I feel like she's just going to be like, not like visibly angry anymore, more just like tired and sad. So she'll just be like walking along quietly for right now. Maybe kind of dragging the butt of her flail in the sand and sticking close to Clara. Yeah, I feel that Merrick's a flight risk.

So he's going to wait until Merrick settles down and then probably settle down probably close-ish to him. Yeah, he's not a... well, yeah, he maybe is a flight risk. He's... man, Merrick's... wait, let me ask a question. How many people are there in the group of people bedding down? I know it's our party, but I know there's the royals, but are there like a couple of dozen people or is this more just on the order of a couple of handfuls? A couple of handfuls. Like beyond the people you've been introduced to, there'd be like three or four more people. That's mostly carrying equipment.

Like, okay. Yeah. Alright, so no, I would say almost opposite, strangely opposite from what you thought about flight risk. In this case, if they're going to be bedding down and taking a rest, I'm sure they're going to have some rations or something like that to deal with for everybody. Without saying any words, like he's definitely not being happy and smiling to people and ribbing them and stuff. He's basically on his own as if he were in a bubble. However, he is going to find some stuff from his pack and he's going to take some... I'm just going to arm wave here a little bit, but some flour and water and some salt and whatever.

He's going to take whatever fire there is and he's going to make some little flat rolls type thing, like an unleavened type sort of bread. Just something. And you can tell he's just biding his time and he's not interacting and he's focusing on something and that's it. And he's going to, when he finishes all of that up while anybody else is talking or anything else is happening, he's going to be walking around and just sort of shaking a basket like, "Here." Kind of like take some. And he would do the same with some tea as well, eventually. Again, this is not the Merrick of, "Oh, we're in Tessia's house hanging out and everybody's going to have some tea." This is almost like Merrick is doing it for himself, but he's just doing it and handing it out to everybody else.

It's going through the motions. Yes. Is he looking anybody in the eyes or anything like that? Is he being dejected completely? No. He's not looking someone in the eye like a puppy who's scared isn't looking. He's just flat out not looking as if no one else is there. He's just kind of going through his stuff, doing his thing, and he's walking around and not even looking at people, just handing it. Like, "Here you go. Here you go. Here you go." But he's not looking for connection. If that makes any sense. If you're walking around and handing these out, there'd be this tiny moment where Mav would see this and he'd grab one.

And then he'd kind of elbow Faye to do the same thing. Like, she's clearly going to pass and it's like, "Come on, come on." Like that type of thing. Like, there's a lot unspoken. There's like, "Come on, the guy's right on the edge. Just take a damn roll." Like that type of thing. That's it for Merrick. Does Merrick take any food to Clara and Elorath? Yeah. But again, this is to everybody. He's not acting mad at anybody. He's just acting mad at the world. And it's clear he's just in shutdown mode. But he's not shutdown and then going to sleep. He's shutdown and going into, like you kind of said, it's like muscle memory almost.

"Well, I guess I'll just make some crackers and hand it out to people. Hopefully that'll be nice." And they probably got some herbs and spices in there. It's like, "These are actually pretty fucking good for being a cracker." But he's not like, "What do you guys think? Do you like my crackers?" He's just doing stuff. And yeah, he would go to everybody. I think Elorath would probably take them. She wouldn't be like, "Hey bud, thanks." It would just be like a nod, like, "Thanks." Because she's more tired now than mad. She's just like, "Okay, tired and sad.

Just thanks for the rolls." I think that's partly what the muscle memory is too. It's just exhaustion's taken over. It's just like, "Well, at least I can cook something for people, I guess." I want to hug Merrick. No, he does not look like he wants to be hugged. I do need someone to hug Merrick. This isn't about you, Merrick. Excuse me, sir. I think Clara would probably pass. She'd probably make a point of saying, "Thank you" very low, but she wouldn't look at Merrick when he offered them either. I don't care. He's fine. He's just going to keep going on. Not to prolong all this, but eventually, once he does that, he's going to probably brew some tea and have enough cups around and gather enough vessels for tea to be poured.

He's just going to sort of all have it in an area near the fire. He's not going to walk around to every person and give tea, but he's going to have it all ready for people to just come grab something. He's just going to go wherever near Varys is and just start getting his bedroll ready. As all the cooking is going on, Varys is going to look around to see what our setting is as far as where we're going. I know nighttime is pretty much here at this point, and we're probably limited as far as our vision, but he's mainly looking for is there a high point where we can scout some?

There are dunes, definitely. I wouldn't say they're a great vantage point, but you could definitely see for a little bit. He's going to make note of that because in the morning, he's going to experiment with something. He wants to take that glider and go to one of these dunes and just glide out a little bit and see if he can spot anything that's like, "All right, avoid this area. Let's go this way." Just to make sure that what happened last time doesn't happen again. Okay, let's do it. Okey-dokeys. As Marek is unrolling his bedroll and he's done with passing around his food and drink, Ardoros is going to try to catch him while he's a little singled out and just walk up to him and say, "You make a delicious cracker, holy man." Thank you.

I'm not holy. I can tell you that. Enjoy your cracker. Well, hold on there. I disagree. You might have been through a lot, but I can see the light of the gods shining through you somewhere in there. You know, it's funny. Whenever you say, "The light of the gods," that's going to be kind of like a weird paper cut for him because it's so monitor-specific, right? The word "light" is probably just a little bit of a pain for him. So he's going to wince slightly whenever you say that. He's going to kind of wave it away. Not rudely, but just like, "Listen, I appreciate that.

There's a lot of distance between me and any holy light these days, but I appreciate the attention." And he's going to be genuine for a second about it. Just cutting through the chatter and just basically appreciate that he actually even came up to him. And Ardoros, he's going to give you a wide smile. He's going to say, "Oh, but we have so much in common. See, to me, we're brothers. I believe myself to be a born-again priest of Avandra from a small church in Brightport. So I see a brother like you, a priest like myself in a different manner, and there's no way you can completely stray from the light.

I see the good in your heart, no matter how bad it gets. As long as you have someone like me who won't get up on you, it's going to be okay." He's going to smile at you and say, "Whenever you feel like you want to get something off your chest, you want to talk to someone who's not going to judge you, who's not going to hurt you in any way, I'm here to accept all your sins, brother. All of them." Merrick is going to take all of that in and kind of dumbfounded for a second. It's just so positive and it's completely outside the realm of anything that's been happening lately.

It's going to catch him off guard and he's actually going to chuckle a little bit. And then he's going to take his tea. He's going to finish the rest, slam the rest of it. He's going to put the cup down and he's going to just reach his hand out onto Ardoros's shoulder and just kind of beam like, "You are a light in and of yourself." And you know what? I think I needed that. So, cheers. "Cheers, mate. Whatever you need, I'm here for you. Doesn't have to be now, but whenever you need it, I have your back, brother." He'll clasp your shoulder and he'll say, "Hang in there.

The path through the light, it's tough and it gets dark. It gets dark as all hell. But you're strong. You'll make it through it." I haven't seen the light in a long time. And he's going to look up. Now, I imagine this is kind of from experience. In my volcanologist days, having been into the mountains of South America, where there's in the desert, where there's nothing, there are probably so many stars in the sky right now that it's almost overwhelming. With that kind of picture in mind, he's going to say, "It's been a long time since I've seen much light." He's going to look up into that sky and see all of those stars.

And he's going to smile a little bit. It's going to be a broken smile. But he's going to look back at Ardoros and look in the eyes and he's going to say, "I think I'm going to get some rest." And he's going to start to lay back and he's going to be looking up in the sky at the stars and his eyes are going to be wide open. He's not closing his eyes or anything. But he's just going to be staring. And Ardoros, he's going to chuckle a little and walk away and he's going to say, "Keep looking at the stars, mate. They shine so brightly because that's Avandra changing your luck.

Have a good night." God, I hope so. Mav's actually going to walk up pretty soon after that, mostly trying to get the attention of Clor and Elorath because that's the two people he's had the most contact with in terms of, I guess, group leadership. And he clears throat and he's kind of... you can tell he's tiptoeing around something. So, Faye had a concern and I wanted to talk to your group about it just because, well, we've never done anything like this, so it'd be nice to have a battle plan before going in. Typically, these places are kind of cramped, traps everywhere, that type of thing.

And we're going to be going in with a pretty big group. So how do you want to approach this? Oh, hmm. Clor's going to kind of look at Elorath and then over to Marek and Varys and then back up at Mav. Did you have any suggestions? Well, to be honest, we couldn't find a lot of data on what we're walking into. Hell, it took us going to three different researchers to get a bead on exactly where this could be. Everything inside is pretty much a mystery. I'm not afraid to tell you. I don't know if your intel is better than ours, but I'm going to bet that we're probably walking into something really protected.

So... Hey Jason, what was my intel like? When's the last time you took a look at that? Um, by intel? Yeah. Was it on the boat or was it because you were you were looking through for mapping purposes and stuff like that? Yeah, I think that that 20 was the last time. But I could roll again if you want. I think you should roll again. Yeah, I feel like that was to find new like I can't coast on that forever. Investigation? Yeah. All right. Can I get advantage because my girlfriend helped me? Um, that was months ago. So like three sessions ago? Yes. I'm going to say you're on your own.

You're in game that's like five hours. Okay, here I go. I'm gonna close my eyes. Was it good? Not the worst. I don't think it was very good. Oh, it was it was fine. Ladies and gentlemen, for everyone at home, that was a nine. Yeah. I'm going to say you don't know much about what's in inside. A lot of the a lot of the data you gathered was, you know, where, you know, best guess is where this would be, you know, lining up on the continent. And, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Question. Do I know maybe like in a general sense who put together the like it was Aladrin. Right. Or was it already there before the Aladrin?

That's the thing. A lot of people assume it was the Aladrin because it's it's pretty high functioning magic. But no one's been here. So no one's positive. There's some people who say it was gnomes because there's a gnomish tribe that came from Kodai a very long time ago. I like the word gnomish. It's a good word. It's fine, right? It's cute. I like it. All right. So Clara won't say anything then because part of me wanted to be like, well, if it was Aladrin in origin, but like, if that's not even for certain, then, yeah, she doesn't know very much. How did your group usually tackle things like this?

You going guns blazing? Are you more meticulous? Give me a bead on who you are. She's gone blazing. I'm meticulous. And she's going to smile down at Elorath. That will actually get like a chuckle like, yeah. You right. That said, in this situation, considering how magical the gates themselves are, one can imagine there's going to be magical traps. I don't think we have anyone in our group. And she's going to kind of like her muscles tense a little bit when she says in our group. But she's going to say it in a way. That's not magically inclined anymore. So how's your group look on that front?

Well, truth be told, I usually lean on Fey for that. That's her area of expertise. I think that's more what she wanted to know. And what looks at anyone who's outside of the group is competition. We normally do. But since we're working together, I more just wanted to kind of see what you guys are all about. But I think I got a good handle on things. So lean on her for the magic stuff and just play this by ear, OK? OK, that sounds good. We should get there tomorrow. Was this close enough for Marek at all? Oh, yeah. This is all to everybody. Marek's still laying down, staring up at this guy.

He's going to say, do you have anybody who's good at stealth? He's going to raise a hand up and do the thing. The goliath, clearly. Yes, exactly. We haven't heard a peep from him because he's so sneaky. That's true. So no, not much stealth. This is definitely underground. And it's definitely going to have magic traps. I mean, muscle up front, casters in the back. We need some long poles. Do you have long poles? We have Tark. We all need long poles. At least a few. There's going to be traps. There's going to be secret doors. That's how these things work, right? You can do better than anybody.

If you when you say long poles, if you're like asking people have them, Elrath will probably like pull out a javelin and just like, eh. I guess I'm asking, does this count as a long pole? Long enough. I'm sure we could manage a couple of others. It's long to her. Yeah, that's. It's like a lightning rod coming out of her back. Lightning. Oh, it's just too soon. I have crowbar. Look, I'm sure we'll figure it out. It'll be great. Just just get some sleep. I'm going to talk to Faye about this and try to calm her down. Thank you, Vav. And like that silence, leave some of that in where it like it took Clara a minute to remember to like be a person for a second.

And say thank you. So Varus wants to use this glider. Yes. OK, what is the main goal? Just to kind of like do a loop and see if you can see anything? Pretty much. I mean, so his goal is he wants to scout out and to see if there's any spots that we need to avoid. OK, so you already got you already got the height enough to use it. Do me a favor. Give me a dexterity check to see how well you fly this baby. Okie dokie. Oh, oh, really? First time. Do me a favor. Give me a D20 roll. OK. OK. OK. So there is this up on this hill, one of these dunes here, and he takes off.

And you're going to probably you're probably going to be flying for 10 or 12 seconds. And the wind is going to pick up in an awkward way. Nice gust. And you are going to careen sideways into these brambles. Oh, God. She's. And it hurts like hell. Like you're just going to be tangled into this. So it's this this this very dry, almost a driftwood quality, but big ass thorns on them. So while you were up there, you saw a few things. You're going to see a couple of those dusty, like sandy plants where you can get water and things like that. Nothing. Nothing that was like, holy shit, there's more dragons or there's more this.

There's nothing, nothing on the horizon that was immediately eye catching, you know. OK, perfect. OK. Not even going to bother rolling damage programs because we're going to get a long rest, but you're going to need some ointment. Like it's going to be. Yeah, it would be one of those things that like he doesn't really hide it, but just like as he's walking back to camp, he's like pulling these little thorns out. Probably give it like a little like, ow, every time he pulls one of these things out. And then he'll give a small report when he gets back. You know, there's a couple of places if we if we go this way for so long, we'll hit a little watering hole where we can keep our water supply and, you know, go here, go there and just give everyone the know.

So I haven't given everybody a long rest. Are we are we ready to hit the ground the next day? Let's do it. I still have 45 damage, are you sure? I. Yeah, I just put mine manually back where you weren't in the combat tracker. That's why. Ah, OK. Ah ha. Because I had already invited us. Did. Here. There we go. Oh, I realized I put my max like hit points into wounds. So that's that's that's yeah. I mean, oh, say that to us, Jason. Same role for fatal heart attack. I wish I could. Dark. Yeah. Stay with us while we say it's OK. Sorry. That was inappropriate. Not inappropriate.

Just if any time it was like a I'm putting this podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's the humor. Yes, but in 2020 it becomes real. So don't don't die. All right. No, promise. Everyone's going to get up pretty damn early. I'd say you all lay down for maybe five hours or something. Everything's going to be packed up and you're going to hit the road, as it were, and travel. For another seven hours. And as the day progresses, people are checking their maps over and over. I imagine your team is checking the maps. There's you know, and you're honing in on that that big red circle.

And you expect when you when you cross that last doom, like it's like, oh, we're going to see something over the next one, over the next one. And now you're you're basically standing on top of this. And everyone's. There's this weird tension in the air where, oh, did we travel all this way for nothing? Is this the wrong spot? Is this, you know what? Shit, because there's nothing there. It's just more sand. And the royals are going to start to fan out. Because they have it on good authority that it's like, no, no, no, we've we have cross references over and over and over again.

It's got to be here. It's somewhere around here. What would be your reaction? Can. My first inkling is that there's something either it's hidden by sand or there's some sort of magical thing happening. Oh, OK. Those are my two. Like, I'm fairly certain we're in the right place. So since Clara can't do magic, like at all, I don't even know why she has a plus one for Akana, to be honest. Could I do a survival check to see if I can, like, figure it out? Give me an investigation. Damn it. Give me an investigation. I knew that was the right one. I was just hoping that, like, it could kind of steer you in the direction of survival.

Yeah, I think that's where if you said like, I'm going to look for tracks to see if there's anything going on in the sand or something. Why would there be tracks? All right. Oh, never mind. She's going to suggest. Yeah, you're going to careen into a bush and it's going to be. No, it's a five. Oh, no, brambles. Yeah, it's just brambles. OK, that said, she reluctantly would approach Faye. She is kind of she's kind of zoned out. You could tell like she's she's kind of feeling for something magical here and she is going to she's going to cock an eyebrow at at Clara as she approaches.

I mean, she's already doing it. I don't want to fucking talk to her. I mean, you approached. Yeah. Is there any chance you think it's hidden magically? There's going to be a beat where you genuinely feel like she might not even reply to you. That's what I'm hoping. I'd rather not have come all this way for nothing. Did you find anything? She'll shake her head. She there's this weird second where she's going to look Clara up and down. And you feel like she's going to say, say something, but she just she doesn't. Bitch was thinking something racist. I know it.

Wow. Maybe we should try branching off into smaller groups to see if we can find something. Sure, you do that. Fucking whore. I'll go talk to Mav. I think your boss might have a better idea of what to do. Ooh! Then she'll turn away. Ooh! Fuck you whore. Wow. Oh, she will stop concentrating. And there is a second where she goes to follow and just there that anyone watching this exchange, you'd see her clench a fist and just like, OK. I'm not worried about combat in this underground cavern. We might not get there. To give you an idea of how poorly she took that.

Imagine we're at Dragon Con and someone walks up to you. Someone walks up to you. It's like, hey, could you ask your boss if you guys could change? Oh, man, it's like when that one bitch assumed that you knew more about D&D first edition than me. Why don't you ask Jason what he felt about for a dick? I still say that's because I just look old. You were alive during first edition and I was not. I get it. Makes sense. You're saying the assumption. I know. I know. They're partners, though. They're partners. And it just ate her alive. So what we're saying is I won that exchange.

If the goal was to piss her right off, yes, absolutely. Good. It was once her goal was to piss me off. Let's just go out to the ship. I think we got what we came for. That was the victory, right guys? All right. Drinks all around. Anybody who is looking, do me a favor. Give me an investigation check. Are you talking to Mav? Yes. Or was that just a dig? Okay. No, that was like... Should I do it? I already did an investigation, but should I do it again? I think you got one in here. You're good. Oh, Elorath. Really, Lisa? I got a zero. I'm just imagining a space while she's combing the air.

We ain't found shit. Oh, my sweet summer half-flame. This one's like, yeah. We're all closer home. Elorath has a negative two and I rolled a two for a net gain of zero. By the way, the hair pick joke from that was my favorite joke from that entire movie. It's fantastic. Anyway. So Nika found it, right? Nika's inside. She's already at the gate. She won. Why are you guys back here? God. Yeah, Nika won. I've been waiting as a snake for a while. Nika's going to uncover something. And there's just this little lump. And as she uncovers the sand on top of this and getting rid of it, you're going to see...

If you start digging at it, it looks to be like a pedestal. Like a tiny half-pillar, almost. And it's all made of this sandstone. And on top of it, you're going to see this... I'd say it's about nine or ten inches in diameter. And you're going to keep brushing this off and you're going to see that there is a spot for a hand. There's a recess and someone could put their hand there. Now, the odd thing is that this hand only has four fingers. Alright guys, rock, paper, scissors. Who's going to lose a finger? Someone gets a finger cut off, put the hand there, we win.

Are there any species in Theria that have four fingers? I was just wondering. Jason? Is that a thing? Roll to see if you know that. I mean, I feel like I would just because I... fair enough. Is that nature or what is that? Oh wait, is that a thing? Is one... not with that... I'd say intelligence. Let's see if you've read about it. History. Yeah, give me something intelligence-based. I'll give you an intelligence roll. It's a straight fucking... Nope. Eleven. Nope. Fingers? You don't know. Hey! No? Thirteen, fourteen, nope. Rude. So, what you mean is as far as we're aware, no.

As far as you're aware, no. Because the way you make it sound is like you have no idea how many fingers anyone has. No, no, no, but you're specifically looking for like four fingers. Nomes? No. Elrath, hold up your hand. So it's like I don't know if this is human or drow, but definitely five. Is it like it's missing the thumb? Or is it missing like a pinky or... It has a thumb, but there's only three other fingers beyond the thumb. Is it like one of the fingers is like thicker? Like there would be two fingers stuck together? Oh, Vulcan. It's um... Kinda, yeah.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I wouldn't say it's like super thick or anything like that, but like these kind of look like slightly beefy fingers anyway. Yeah. So there's a thumb and two other fingers. Or a thumb and three other fingers. Three other fingers. Because the carving seemed like a finger is obviously missing. Like there's like still, like let's say if the pinky was gone, there's still kind of the bulge for that part of the hand. Or does it seem fairly uniform as if like the four fingers are natural? This looks uniform. Like it was naturally carved that way.

Like it was purpose built. So we'd have to shave off someone's entire side of their hand to make it fit. I think someone with only three fingers probably made this. Like I don't think the intention is like you have to cut off a finger to... Because otherwise it would have the bulge like Ryan said. Let me ask a question. Would Nika say anything upon finding this? Oh yeah. We're hoping he's brainstorming how to fix this. Nika doesn't told anyone about it. No, she's keeping this all to herself. She's just going to stare at me like, "Oh yeah, I know." Then she covers it back up.

Just like, "I really don't want to go in here. No guys, sorry. I know I brought you out here, but no." She's going to use her gust cantrip spoh to kind of uncover it. Then she's going to just kind of call out. It's like, "Oh, I found something. Adoris, go get the others." Aww. Adoris was trying to help by like flexing his muscles kind of like towards the sky. You know, just trying to be helpful in general. So I mean you said it was like, "Great job, Nika." Are you impressed with Londra? Sorry. Your muscles glisten very well, Adoris. Now go get Master Mav. Thank you.

Right away. All it takes is a compliment. But yeah, Adoris will call everyone over and try to explain that this carving has four finger holes. So Mav would run over and right off the bat, him and Faye are going to start to have a conversation. And it's not that they're trying to leave anybody behind. It's just this is their usual... This is just how they operate. And I think after a few seconds, Mav would turn around and kind of wave you guys into just like, "Come on in. Come on in." Clara will approach and like hand on him. Yeah, sorry. For the most part, like she doesn't have a lot to contribute.

So, okay. What we have here is interesting because we have a few possibilities. So this might need a specific hand to get in, or it might open up for anybody who has that many fingers, or you might be able to fake it. This might be just a thing where they didn't want sand or something to set it off. Is there any magic coming off of it? Are you ready for some petty bullshit? Yes. Okay. She is not going to talk to you, but she will tell Mav. It's like, "Tell her I said..." No, not like... It's not quite that bad. I think that's like, you know, like in old sitcoms where it's like, "Oh, my wife is giving me the silent treatment, but I secretly like it." That's kind of what it is, honestly.

Like, "Oh no, the bitch won't talk to me anymore." How horrible. I'm picking up something faint. Yes, it obviously does more than just bar entry. And again, she's kind of speaking low. Adora says, "If that's the case, I wonder if we can just dispel it and bust it right open." Mav's going to think about that for a minute. Well, that could work. Or it could completely sever the tie and maybe it won't open ever. Or it could kill us all. Mav's going to start to unbutton his jacket, like the sleeve here, and he's going to start to roll it up. And you can see him kind of make the shape of...

He's like testing it out and just kind of measuring it to see if his hand would fit. I feel like Clara would do this because hands are more complicated than just how many fingers there are. There's also general size. So Clara will do the same to see if her fingers would match up. Minus one, obviously. Yeah. And I'd say these are a little bit more slender. Mav's probably... It would probably be just a little too bulky where he's measuring it up and he's like, "Okay, I think that's too close. I think it's too big. I don't want to accidentally set this thing off in a bad way." Clara, you want to give it a shot?

I'll try it with my pinky first. And she'll kind of like half smile at that, but there's a seriousness to her voice that's like, "This bitch will cut off a pinky." But she'll take a deep breath and try it. Do me a favor and give me a flat D20. Okay. Twelve. It almost fits. And I'm not. If you didn't have that pesky pinky finger... Oh man. Is it activating at all? Like, is it doing anything? It's not doing anything. With or without a pinky, if it was pressure-oriented, it would likely at least start doing something. I don't want to cut off a pinky and then find out that's not how this fucking thing works.

I'm not telling you what to do. She's going to say that out loud to Mav and Fey and Elrath. Like, look, if the chances are me losing a pinky will open this thing, I will. But I'm not going to do it if we're not sure that'll work. Fey is going to look Clara dead in the eye. I have a knife. Mav's even going to look at her like, "Okay, come on." Then Andoris will try to ease attention and say, "Let's not jump to worst case scenarios here. I'm sure we could figure out another way to open this thing without anyone losing a finger." Are they... We just... We just need to think outside of the box.

Brainstorm. Varys is going to look over at Maric. Do you happen to have a needle and thread? Yeah, I've got my whole medicine kit. It's got all kinds of stuff. Why? I just want to try something. And so he's going to take one of his extra shirts that he has, and with the needle and thread, he's going to start making almost like a pouch where he can make a sandbag. That he can kind of form it into the shape of this hand. That way, if it is pressure, he can kind of hopefully get that fixed. So it may take him a little bit to do that, but he's just going to start working on that.

I think Fey's the only one standing nearby that would have a hand similar to Clara's size. And she's going to make this gesture, just kind of like, "Okay, spread out." Like that type of thing. And she's going to roll up. Like she's got these big puffy mage sleeve things. And she's going to set her hand in there and kind of like push. Oh, okay. And then she's going to go ding dong. And then the door's going to ring, and it's open! And it's going to open! Alright! Okay, if this bitch opens the door. And then I just sit there with my shirt half full of sand. You have one magnificent sand boob.

Hot. It is too. It's very hot. It's kind of scratchy. Yeah. Okay. Nope, I knew it. I knew it was coming. Mark. That's what I... Okay, Mandy, that's what I was thinking. I was like, "I don't know if her fingers would be long enough." That's the thing. Like, smaller, yes, but not... I think we're looking for like slender, like an average human type of hand. Piano playing fingers. Yes! There you go. Like Uma Thurman hands. So she's going to adjust her hand and set it in here, and let's see... No, it's not gonna do anything. Her hand is at the wrong angle, and Clark chuckles, and then...

Shh! Shh! Shh! Shh! Don't move. And she's basically going to pull it out. Well, I'm not losing a finger for this. I'm a caster. I need my hands. I use swords. And I visit brothels. Sorry. And I have a girlfriend who would really appreciate me keeping all of my fingers. Thank you. She knows what I mean. Do you give the "I hold swords" line? Yes. And she... Oh, man. This is getting to the point. You know where there's... What is this catty... It's very... Where's the catty, bitch? And you know what's really unfortunate about all of this? Is I know this bitch is based slightly off of me.

And they're just doing a good job. Wow! And that pisses me off. Wow! Because I am a petty bitch deep down inside. Um, she's not even going to look at Clara. I bet it's a two-handed club-like weapon. I'm sure missing one finger isn't going to slow you down any. By chance, did Ferris finish with this pocket? I would say yes. Yes. Okay, so as he walks over, he's just going to go, "Anyways..." And he's going to, like, put the sand on... Or, like, put the bag of sand on top of it. Ferris did not just make a friend. You did not. I hate you more now than when you ran away from the dragon.

Just so you know. He's just trying to get you guys to stop arguing. Yeah, we're not getting anywhere. You could weigh my last word. Uh-huh. So he puts the sand bag on top of this, and then he puts his hand on top of it where... Almost, like, in line with the print. And he's going to try to, like, push down and use that sand to fill the form out a little bit more. Yeah, it's not going to do anything. Hmm. Clara, considering she can't get the last word with Faye, is going to saddle up next to Merrick with her arms crossed. And not really looking at him, but looking at the pedestal thing.

What are the chances you could put my finger back on? Probably pretty good. Might not work anymore. That's true. Is it right hand or left hand, Jason? Uh, this looks to be right hand. She can fight fine with both hands, but, like... It's definitely going to put you at a disadvantage to lose a pinky right now if you didn't have to. Just... Let me try. Just let me try. How about that? I don't know. Merrick's hands are not particularly stubby. I've never actually talked about this for his character. He actually plays a flute. Did you know that? I didn't know that. Yeah, he plays a flute.

Is that in the book? Because we can call those back right now and we can just... Yeah, you know what? Let's do that. That's what truly keeps the monster at bay. Yeah, his nimble fingers. They're not meaty, beefy fingers despite his visage. I mean, is it worth trying? Let's see. How do I try? So, you put your hand in there. Give me a flat d20. He's doing this sort of like before we go there. Let's just exhaust all of our options. We've got a few people here to try this with. Hang on. He's just going to slam his hand onto it. Okay. 13. I think there's this moment where everyone's kind of like...

Now every time someone tries it, you get eight or nine heads kind of hovering over this thing. It's like, "How does that fit? How does that fit?" And it's just like, I think your fingers are just a little too long. Like they're just outside of the template. And eventually, Faye's just going to give this exasperated sigh and try to grab at Clara's hand. Come here. Before anything with that... She's not holding a knife. I just need to put that out there. Yeah. I mean, before anything else with that, as soon as Merrick starts to pull his hand back, Varys is going to put his hand there.

I mean, he's not a human, but he is a half-elf and he has, I mean, he's young. His nimble fingers. So he's going to go ahead and put that down to see if it lines up. Okay. Yeah. Nobody needs to lose a finger until we know. It's so close. Like, it's so close. Is it the finger? It's not the finger so much as I would say you have a bulgy thumb. Not by most people's standards, but like for this, it's like, "Oh, damn, that's a little..." Like a Dan Ovedan thumb. I have no idea who that is or what you just said. They're called toe thumbs. He's one of the game grumps.

Don't be rude. Don't be rude. Like Megan Fox. Yeah, Megan Fox has it too. Toe thumb. Oh, man. So he's going to give like this sigh and then go, "Well, I just punch shit. I wouldn't mind giving up a pinky, but I don't fit." Okay. So one sec. So still reaching for Clara. Still, I, you know, and just put your hand in there again. Clara's going to kind of like give her a look like, "I know you're about to pull some shit," but she'll put her hand back in there. Just hold still. And she's going to mutter something and cast a spell. While she's doing that, just for flavor, Clara is going to be closing her eyes and looking away and like tensing. 100% thinks that Faye's about to cut off her finger.

No, no, no. But like that's what she thinks. Yes, yes. No, I get it. She is going to... She's going to shrink the size of your hand by centimeters. Just a tiny bit. Just the tiniest bit. And the ground is going to start to shake beneath everyone's feet. Like, alarmingly so. And I would say most people are going to start to step back because jutting up from the sand slowly, it's going to shake and vibrate, are these angled stone pillars. And they're almost sharp and kind of forming this steeple. And it is going to continue to raise and raise until it towers above everyone in this big-ass party.

And you're going to see this circular entranceway that appears to be closed. And slowly but surely, it is going to open like this iris. And you're going to see stairs leading down. And after all this shaking and this disturbance, she's going to give Clara a look and then kind of like a slight smile and then undo what she did to Clara's hand. Then she shrinks it down to nothing. It's gone forever. Then she says, "Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself." And then she... Clara's going to kind of look at her hand and raise her eyebrows and give a shrug like, "Alright, not bad.

Alright, fair enough." And after a pause, after the dramatic raise, Adoris is just going to wait for it and say, "You guys think this is it?" Varys responds by walking over, picking up a rock, and then goes, "Maybe," and shrugs and walks over. And then he kind of just tosses the rock in to make sure like there's just... You're not going to get shot in the head with an arrow as soon as you walk through the door. Yeah, this is going to just kind of careen, just like, "Ting, ting, ting, ting." Kind of go down there. And it looks to be like two stories worth of steps.

And as the rock careens in there, you're going to see lights. Instead of torches or something, it's almost this... It's bright white, but it's got this tinge of blue to it. And it's going to light up almost like this weird cross between fluorescent lighting and like a lava lamp almost. And there's going to be one on each side evenly spaced all the way down, and then you're going to see light flood the bottom area. And you're going to see this clean, polished stone floor all the way at the bottom. Varys looks back and goes, "I think we're good." And then he kind of pokes his head in, still a little hesitant, looks both ways, and then just starts walking down slowly.

He's definitely taking his time, though. Clara will hurry in after him, like first worried about him, but then when it seems okay, she'll just kind of saddle up next to him. And as they're headed in, she'll kind of mumble to him, just loud enough for him to hear, "This sandbag was a good idea." Thanks. And no eye contact, just responding in a very similar format, which is kind of that mumble to where only she can hear. And then she'll fall back a little. "Because I don't want to be in front, fuck you." Matt's going to tell all the extra people that we're carrying things, like, "Okay, just set up camp.

If we're not out in two days, leave." Good plan. I like it. And the royals would start to go down these stairs. "Oh my god, guys, we're here! We did it! Yay!" "Starting it." "And I got a pinky!" "That was a close one." "That was!" So... If I were playing Thanatos, that pinky would be gone. Fucking immediately. We would have just punched the wall down. So, going down these stairs... You're going to start to see this big vestibule come into view. And there are these massive stone carvings, these murals, on either side of the wall stretching to the end of what appears to be this massive room.

And it's almost kind of set up like a big hallway, funneling you to a door all the way to the end. This time, a large double door that's barred three times in front. And there's a plaque hanging over it. What's it say? What does it say? What does the plaque say? It is in a language you've never seen before. Fuck! Sorry, that's out of my mind. So, meanwhile, Merrick is going to be looking at these murals. What kind of story or scenario is depicted in that? Well, this is interesting. Because it... Some of this is going to be very familiar. It's depicting these gates being constructed and you could kind of see this magical energy radiating off of it.

And you could see these beings stepping through one side and appearing on the other and that type of thing. Like, it's very... This is very clearly the place. What's odd about these, and I think everyone would start to kind of notice this at once. There's no beings in any of these murals that look like you. These are... They appear to be... These creatures' average heights, kind of elongated heads, almost like kind of xenomorph-y, but not to that extent. Much more stubby. They look frail. They look... Generally, it doesn't look like combat was their strong suit.

Like close-quarters combat. And they do have the four fingers that mimic that etching that you had to get through outside. My god. Okay, are these lizard people first and foremost I need to ask? No. Okay. Fuck, that's so cool! My mind went straight to aliens. Kind of, right? Picture me as that guy from the History Channel just... Aliens. Oh my... We might have found the singular ancestor of all the races or some shit. Right. I can't even conceptualize what they look like. I need another rundown. Xenomorph-y. Not... Like they... If you had to take an incredibly slender elf and then kind of elongate some of their features, give them more exaggerated...

Like a head that kind of... It's kind of like wispy. Not pointed, but it's like someone was playing Mario 64 and kind of stretched out the back of the head. Oh god. Pointed ears? They are somewhat pointed, yes. Somewhat, but not like super elongated like their heads are. No. You know long-head Jedi guy, right? Yes. Yes. Is it anything like that? Imagine it curving back slightly. Like a swooping back. Wait, is this kind of like a Martian manhunter head? Slightly, yeah. I guess it depends on which Martian manhunter because there are... Yeah, sometimes he just looks like a dude.

Sometimes he looks like... It's like, "I'm a green guy. My name is Dave." Like, sometimes. Well, usually when he's like that, that's another shape-shifted form because he wants to fit in because he's very insecure because he's a cutie pie and I love him. He likes Oreos. Anyway... I feel like we're getting distracted. Alright, so I get the murals and the gates and the creatures. Now, one level in, like looking... So it's clearly like, "Holy crap." Like, we're in the right place. Yeah. Holy crap, there's some weirdness, especially when it comes to the beings who maybe either put this together or whatever.

I guess everybody's kind of imagining it. Now, like looking towards any of these murals for clues or hints or something about what's to come. That makes any sense. Like another level of detail in around the gates themselves or something that might be like, "Whoa, here's a big red flag," kind of a thing. Well, you could tell that it is telling a story, right? So as you descend the steps, that's where the murals start. And then for probably like 200 or 300 feet down this immaculate, well-lit hallway. This is huge, right? I'd say it's probably 50 feet wide, this hallway, and then all the way down.

It kind of reminds you of like an airplane hangar type of thing. Like it's this... This is like the welcoming air. This is where the information kiosk would be, right? This is the vestibule. So it is telling a story. So you can see that conceptually they came up with this idea, they worked on it, and there are several different shapes that they had for these. And then they settled on that ring that you'd be familiar with now. And the way these are laid out, it looks like this took them quite a long time. And it also looks like that there are no other races depicted in this mural, which could mean one of two things, that there might not have been any other races at the time, or that this is a story talking about them constructing it so no other races were necessarily to be depicted.

It could go a couple of ways. It's up to interpretation. But all the way at the end, you're going to see that the story sort of shifts, and the last few feet of either side of these murals would be them sort of shutting the project down and sealing everything off. But it's very loose. It doesn't go into why. So there's no depictions as far as like something happening. It was them building them using and shutting it down. It's like these murals depict bookends. It's like, okay, here's the start date of the project. And here's where we decided to pull the plug.

All right, thanks for coming. So in the final image, does it show facial expressions on these beings? Like, do they look upset or scared or mad or anything? Or are they just like... It's almost disappointment. Oh, they're not mad. They're just disappointed. So it should be noted that this plaque is sort of long and stretches over this big double door with the three bars sealing it off. There are two of these handprint things exactly like the ones outside, but one's right and one's left, and they're many feet apart. Mmm. Another thing just for flavor before we get started on this, Clara's going to take out a piece of paper and the charcoal that she puts around her eyes and does a rubbing of whichever of the creatures looks the best, like the best image of what this is.

The long headed guys. And then rolls that up and puts it in her pack. The entire time Mav is just losing his shit about like, holy shit, just like taking all this in and kind of turning to you at some point, like your group, your gang, it's like, are you getting all this? For the first time in what feels like a long, long time, Clara is going to be smiling genuinely. Like she is actually excited, like her hands might be shaking a little bit. This is... This is amazing. Uh... Sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was just going to ask Jason, were there any... throughout this whole mural, were there any mentions of like, when the gate was actually active and like being powered, were there any silence powering it or any endurance, I should say, powering it?

Like, was that shown? Or did they skip over that part? There's no, there's nothing that you'd interpret as, oh, that's an endurance, that's what's powering this. It's, it's... You can see like blasts of energy and things like that. You could clearly tell it's like, yeah, that's how they, like, maybe that's how this was designed, but there's one interesting tidbit. So, you know those little, those little pylons that when you're standing in front of a gate, you put your hands on top of there and your channel energy through it, right? There are two devices that they seem, that they seem to be missing pieces from the gates that you know, and there's something that's sitting on top of them.

And it looks like this is super crude, but it looks like more of those fucking handprint things. Oh, wow. So what everyone may have been doing is essentially trying to use a crowbar to get in their car. Oh! Yeah. Oh! Okay. That's fucking cool. All right. And the endurance is the crowbar. It's not a crowbar. Clara's just going to be staring at these murals for a while before she notices the hands. And then she's going to kind of look over to say, be like, all right, can you shrink one of mine and one of yours? She's okay. Her mouth is going to open ever so subtly.

Like she's going to say something and then just nod like, yeah, come on, let's do it. We're going to become hand buddies. Friendship through the power of hands. Okay, ready for a deep cut? And I shouldn't even know this because I never watched this show. Sure. We're hand twins. Like Joey from Friends. Wow. Which I know about for some reason. Even though I never watched Friends. We watched 50 hours of it at Dragon Con. Yeah, but I didn't pay attention. I did because that was like, oh my God, I'm not on? Cool. Let's watch Friends. That was so weird because I missed that entirely.

Like a wave of friends. I was the right age. I just didn't care. Oh, I mean, you know. I was actually too young. Just kidding. I wasn't the right age at all. I was about to say you because you're 10 years younger than me, so you are not the right age at all. Which actually was probably why I don't care. I didn't care. My sister was closer to the right age. Yeah. So she is going to, I almost said, edit your hand. That sounds much more, that sounds like a scalpel is involved. That's all you were worried about in the first place. So she is going to, the spell slots are being taken up.

It is true. Oof. But you don't know what level she is. 30. No. So both of you are going to place your hands in these receptacles. And one by one these bars are going to slide off. You know, one to the left, one to the right, one of the, you know, so all three are going to retract into the walls. And then the doors are going to start to crack open toward you slowly. And there's, there's, there's a part that it's very interesting. Mav is kind of going to grab Faye by the shoulder and pull her back just a little bit. Like it's very subtle. But just kind of like, okay, okay, step back, step back, just in case something comes out of that door type of thing.

And this door is going to open. And behind it, there's a divider. Now, instantly, this place is going to break to the right and left. There's a divider in between them. Which means everyone is going to have to decide either right or left or we're going to have to split you up. Fuck. Very interesting. You're going to hear, like, there's going to, I imagine there's this silence of like it creaking open, creaking open. And then there's like a beat where people are looking around and kind of seeing what's going on. And then you're going to hear like Evan in the back.

Of course, like just like instantly. It's like, fuck, like. I love him so much. And I want to be on his team. Here's the like, I actually rolled and I was like, okay, on a 10 or above, Clara is not going to care on a nine or below. She's going to make a point of not being with Merrick and Varus. It was a 10. We're fine. Wherever we end up, she's fine. Mav's going to, Mav's going to pitch something to the party. Okay. So this kind of goes against the plan, but this might be a blessing in disguise. Because no matter what, someone's going to get to the other side and someone's going to figure this out.

And we double our chances by splitting up right now. So, we take the teams we're used to working with and we try to make it through. And he's going to hand it, he's going to hold his hand out again to shake. No matter what, we try to meet up again. And we share the credit for all this, okay? Just promise not to set any traps back up behind you. There's going to be a big grin on his face. I wouldn't dream of it. Wait, does that mean Adoris and Nika are going to go with the Royals? Don't know. Well, actually, Adoris is going to speak up. He's going to say, "Well, I think we need to do something to even the odds a little here.

If we split the party to original size before we met, our friends over here, they're going to be pretty lopsided if you think about it. How about me and my good sister Nika over here? Help them out. What do you guys say?" Do me a favor, give me an insight check. Okay, Nirma. Everybody, so that's a five, so you're probably not going to pick up on this, but Mav's going to be a little too eager. Like, that's a great idea. Yes, yes. You should definitely go with them and help them out. That's fantastic. Good work, Adoris. Good work. It is a good work, Mav, and he's going to fold his arms.

Why don't you just say it? You want to get rid of me. I've been stealing your shine since day one, since you met me. What? Like genuinely, genuinely, like what? You've never accepted me as part of your crew. You saw the potential I had as an adventurer. You wanted me far away. So you know what? I'm going to go with them. Evan is going to start to laugh his ass off. Like, almost uncontrollably. Like he finds this all very amusing. God, I wish I were going with Evan. I love my dwarf grandpa. He's gonna like, okay, you can see that Mav's about to like, like, angrily speak up, but then he's going to catch himself.

Look, no offense, buddy, you were a hireling. I mean, we needed the help, yeah, but we weren't... We were taking you on full time. And that's the problem, Mav. I'm pretty damn good. And I know it. I can be part of the A-Team. And I'm going to prove it. We're going to become an A-Team. These guys are pretty, these guys are pretty tough too. And we can do something. We can clear this place just as well as you guys can. Oh boy. Clara is like, purposefully like, kind of stepping away and like, looking in another direction. Like, who the fuck is we? I just want credit.

Nika is also like, looks like she wants to fade into the background. Like, okay, this is drama. Mav's going to speak up. Look, look, I'm fine with sharing the credit. It's not something I'm used to doing, but I'm fine. But I mean, come on. You were lucky we picked you up. I know, I know I lucked out. I know you guys are the best around. But I thought we had more in common. I thought you wanted the glory all to yourself. You seem like that type of guy. Like, you want to be number one. Because I want to be number one. Look, how about this? We wish each other luck.

And we'll see who makes it to the finish line first. That's in character. He's going to hold out his hand to shake. He'll shake it. Yeah. Clara is shaking her head in the background. Like, god damn it. He's going to say, let's make this bet glorious, my friend. You're going to see a shift. He's going to look back to the Royals here. And he's going to kind of give them this nod. And you're going to see a shift in the part. Evan's going to stop laughing. And you're going to hear bones crack and shit as Tark just flexes his neck and glories in the background sharpening a god damn axe.

This is a different... they've come to work now. We're officially done fucking around. And they got the magic user. True. Maric's going to speak up real quick. Hang on, hang on, hang on. He's been kind of stepping all the way from the background like everybody else and looking at these murals and whatever. But he's catching wind of all this. Wait, are you saying we are now in a race? Are you saying that we are against each other for this? We're not sharing any credit? Well, I wouldn't put it like that. He's looking at Mav. Go ahead. Yeah, no, say it, but he's looking at Mav.

And he's going to hold up. Sorry, go ahead. I just wanted to say, the way I see it, it seems more like a friendly competition. If we have to split up anyway, might as well be competitive. And Mav's going to pretty much hold up his hands and say, I mean, if that's the way you want it. The rules are going to start to... they're going to start to kind of pull together here. Good luck, everyone. You want to pick a side? Right or left? Clara just looks actually like legitimately pissed in the background. Let's go right. All right. Everyone watching Max. Merrick's going to start walking straight in.

Yeah, Varys is going to follow suit. The royals will go left. You're going to hear from the right hand corridor after he's out of eye shot. Here, whoever's with the quartermasters this way. After everybody files in, these doors are going to start to close again. And again, there's a divider directly where the doors meet. So these two pathways are sealed off from each other. Oh, cool. We don't have reduce. Because we separated from the magic user. So we can't open any of the doors. You might not need it again. We don't know. Should have kept my bag of sand. I mean, they've only used them twice within five feet of each other.

So, I mean, it doesn't seem like they'll use it again. True. We'll have to see. Could have had a sand boob. I feel like Varys would have kept it. She'd be like, you know what? I made this. I'm so hot. No, it was one of those things for like... Varys tried it and as soon as it didn't work, he started like, like he hunched over and started taking out the stitching. I'm like, well, that didn't work. Oh, I feel like collectively we have enough sand in our gear. I'll make another. Yeah. Hand to hand. Everyone take off your boots. So are you guys ready for the first room?

Yeah. Yes. So as you explore this place, what's interesting is you don't need torches, at least so far, because every time you round a corner or take another step, like just like about 10, 15 feet in front of you, these lights will just keep coming on and they'll stay illuminated while you're in there. And you're going to wrap around a couple of... I would compare it to visiting an aquarium, like kind of wrapping around corners and stuff like that, and you're going to see bits of decoration here and there. They're not telling a story, at least it doesn't look that way.

But after you open... After you round the corner to the right again, this is going to open back up and you're in another very large room. It's pretty damn long. And it appears as though there are these massive glass walls on either side of this room. And at the very end, you're going to see a set of 10 levers. And there's something floating in front of them. How would you like to approach? Perception? Cautiously. Cautiously, but without there being any other real sign of danger, it seems like that's an empty room otherwise. Is that right? Yeah. Close enough for taking a better look if there's a perception involved here.

Give me a perception, everybody. Okay, not terrible. Oh, okay. I was like, wow, do not put this on LRS. Oops, wrong one. Adoris trips. We tried, Mandy. We tried. There we go. Adoris and Merrick are going to notice some stuff. That this definitely seems to be some sort of test, something like that. And if you look around, as you start to walk closer, that floating object appears to be this metallic looking, kind of a thick frisbee looking thing. And it's going to be slowly spinning in the exact same spot, just kind of like suspended in midair. And as you approach, it's going to start to spin faster.

And slowly but surely, a form is going to start to appear kind of ghostly, kind of almost like a projection, a hologram, something like that. And it's one of those same figures that were depicted in the murals out in front. And it looks to be around 6'2", somewhere in there. Average height, it's going to be projected onto the floor here, just directly in front of you. And it's going to start to speak. But the language is gibberish to you. It doesn't make any sense. And then there's going to be a pause, and there's going to be this mild jolt, like a shockwave that emits from this disk and kind of pulsates through the room.

And then this thing is going to start to speak common. So in front of you, there are 10 letters, all of which also appear to be kind of ghostly, kind of like they look corporeal, like you can grab them, but there's something kind of wavy about them all. "Greetings and welcome to the temple." And it's kind of stuttering, like it's partially scrambled almost. And it is going to wave to these letters. "Before you is your first trial. I can only give you one clue, and then you will have a fixed amount of time to solve." "Only one of these letters opens the door in front of you.

The rest spell disaster." "The correct letter is the one that represents all of our work here." And it's going to fade away. "Now, here's what we're going to do." "You have 10 minutes to solve this puzzle. Go." What? Okay. Oh my god, you put up a timer. Yeah, you're actually sharing the screen. An actual countdown. Fuck you. Okay, so the rest spell disaster. The correct letter. I thought there was the one that represents all of our work here. Holy shit. Like trying to make out more information. Ooh. Nice 20. I'll try two, even though it's just flat, so it's not going to be any.

Yeah, okay, Merrick, tell us what it is. Okay, yeah, I got a 22. 20 plus 2. Yeah, is there any what? What can be seen in this room? Is there anything? Well. Hey. Hey, hey. These levels. Nice. Oh. There you go. So, Elrath, Merrick, Varys. There's something that you're going to notice right off the bat, and it's interesting. Well, okay, let's start with what you see, and then the investigation is going to be. We're going to follow that up. What you see are all of these levers appear to be exactly the same if you touch them. Not pull them, but if you touch them, they all have this waxy feel.

And I think Elrath's going to be the one to figure it out first that one of them is obviously different, but they're all enchanted to have the same tactile feel and visible look. And that is clearly part of the test. How does Elrath notice the one is different? There would be no reason for these to be enchanted that way and have that wavy look without there being a difference. There's a clear visual difference to one of these that can't be perceptive by you. By the way, while you're looking around, remember those glass walls I was talking about? Yes. On either side of them, behind this thick wall of glass, water is going to start to dump into these chambers behind the walls.

So while you're investigating and looking around, just tidal waves of water are going to start to fill up behind these walls. Okay, cool. Okay, so you said they all feel the same, and they all look the same? Mm-hmm. Okay, so I think the way that Elrath would probably explain it, because I feel like everybody else would be trying to look around the room or whatever, and she'd just be like ping ping ping, poke poke poke poke poke, and she'd be poking them, right? And she'd just be like, "Okay, so all these are supposed to look like a different one. Can we see if one of these, which one is not enchanted to look like the others?" Okay.

I guess everyone... If that makes sense, I don't know if that's how it was explained or whatever, that's how I took it. Was that one of them is actually what it appears to be, and the others are enchanted to look like it. Correct? If you were to put it into words, I'd say that one of them is made out of a different material than the others. Oh. And you can't see it, and you can't feel it, but there might be another way to figure out. Oh, okay. You said they were waxy, right? They kind of feel waxy, yeah. Clara's gonna take out a dagger and drag it across each one to try to see if it reacts differently, like the knobby end of it.

Not turning it, obviously, but like... Right, right, right. Just kind of like trying to score each one? Yeah, exactly. Okay. And they're not... They don't feel different as you're doing that, but that could be part of the enchantment. Unless you really give it a good stab, maybe? Or like, yeah, they're reacting the same way. Maybe they can chunk off each. Oops, I... Oh, yes, if you'd like to try. Ooh, that's a good idea. That's a good idea, Nika. And Clara's gonna try that. You're starting at one? Yes. So you're just trying to like cut into... Yeah, like do a little circle cut with her dagger.

So the first one is not going to give it all. It's like you're hitting like rock or something. Alright, moving on to number two. Okay, same thing. I got ten minutes. Okay, number three? Now you got five minutes and eight seconds now. Shut up. Number three, number four, number five, number six, number seven, number eight. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not rush. Yes, let's rush. Number three is going to react the same way as the first two. Number four is going to be the same thing. Number five is also going to react the same way as the first four. Meanwhile, this water is towering over your heads at this point.

If this were to release, let's say, it is going to drown you. You will have seconds. Number six is going to, again, it feels like you're trying to chip into stone or something. But number six has a little bit of give around three inches in. It feels like there's some kind of give. Number seven is going to feel completely different. It's going to take some effort, but you're going to slice in. Number eight, nine, and ten are going to feel pretty much like stone though. OK, so number seven, I'm able to slice into. Yep. She's going to tell that to the group.

Like, I'm able to slice into this one and not the rest. Three minutes and 50 seconds, everybody. But it represents all of our work here. How could that be part of the deal? Maybe that's the magic on it. Or maybe the result of pulling it. All connected. That's that's what the gates are for, right? It's for connecting the world. Yeah. And this is the hub, right? This is where all of the work is here. All of the hub is here. But I don't understand how it helps us choose which one this is. Is anyone good with magic? No, not this kind of magic. Cast fireball, actually.

I might dry it out a little. Fuck it, Clara's going to do an arcana check with our fucking plus one arcana. Guidance. I'm going to, well, too late. No, guidance. He's going to put his hand on your shoulder as you as you do that. And it's just going to give you a plus four. OK, so 18. What are you trying to figure out? Roll a d4. Sorry. D4. Sorry. Let's see. Oh, 15. I'm just trying to sense the magic. Like I'm trying like if I could see it or feel it in any way. See, the problem is, two minutes, 10 seconds. See, the problem is it's affecting all of these, right? They're enchanted all in the same way.

Now, again, you've tried stabbing and scoring. Is there another way you could see if maybe this reacts differently? I would like to have Nika use produce flame and try and like cook the wax. Yeah, cook that one and then cook the number eight just to see what the difference is. Number eight is not going to catch fire at all. Number seven is going to light up like it's made of wood. Clara's going to grab that one and pull it. Are you sure? Do it. Unless someone stops her. It's kind of done. I think that's it. Yeah, I think that's it. Varys at this point is looking for like air bubbles of like if this starts flooding, where do we go?

Uh huh. So you're pulling it? Yeah. The water is going to stop flowing and there's going to be this calm in the chamber for a moment. And that disk is going to start to spin again. And another hologram is going to appear. And slowly but surely, they they're going to show snapshots of where each gate is in the world, at least. Like if you if you were if you knew where the white ravens cape were, you'd see that you'd see. And there's one that looks like it's in the tundra. There's one so slowly but surely one, two, three, four, five, six. And then one in the dead center, seven, representing the one that's somewhere in this facility.

And that door is going to open. Oh. OK, that's good news. That's really cool. Good job. We're not drowning today. I was like, this is the first time I'm excited not to find water. Oh, you like doughnuts, do you? Paris is going to start moving towards the door. Maris is going to look at Nika and just nod his head and say, nice. Nice. Same. Yeah. Between that and the fucking door, Clara is duly impressed with Nika. Like, fuck yeah. She just nods like, well, she's the one who pulled the lever. She had the guts to do so. Thank you. You saved us. Yes. Great job, Clara. You too.

So the store is going to open and the next set of hallways is going to come into view. Oh, no. That's all it takes. That's it. Because I was like, I don't want to split the party anymore. No, no, no. It's not it's not it's not two different hall. It's one set of like it just wraps around. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. Oh, no. It's okay. I'm out. You know what? I'm heading back. And it's interesting to note each time you enter the next door, it closes behind you. And you're going to wrap your way around again. Those lights are going to light up. And this time the room is going to open up once more.

And standing at the end of this place, you're going to see a door. Same as the last one you entered, but standing in front of it is this giant stone golem and its eyes are going to open the second you walk in. Let me get a map for you guys. Fuck. Not even a riddle or anything. Just. No, this is just like, okay, you saw my riddle. Now it's time to whip ass. Whip ass? Really? Whip ass. Like it's got big it's got a big stone whip. Mm hmm. It's really into it. Hot. Yeah. Golem daddy. Oh, no. Did you hear me consider whether or not I was going to say that? Good. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Now there's two golems. Yeah. One standing on top of the floor. Oh, a golem mommy too. Oh, that's it. You know what? God dammit. With some hot golem titties. I was going to say, I was like, how do you know it's the mommy to ship golem titties? Yeah. You know what you call boobs boulders? Oh, so if it's wearing a- It's time to go to bed everyone. So it's got a stone bra that it calls its over the shoulder boulder holder. Yes. Oh, Lord, take me now. I'm happy. Yeah. She's a brick house. Oh, that was good. That was good. And I think that's a good time for us to stop for the night and we'll pick up with this fight next time and we can explore the rest of this place.

Alrighty. I guess next time. At least this will be a nice easy edit for Jason because I don't edit the group Cs. Wow. Yeah. There's a group A in the camera that I can work on. Fuck you. I just I mean, it's the way you put that. I don't do two takes. Amateurs like you do two takes. No, it's literally the opposite of that emotion. Because if I hear my voice, I'll have an anxiety attack and want to kill myself. Wow. Same. No pressure. Thank you, Lee. Same wavelength. Yeah, I used to be able to listen to all of ours and then after a while, I'm just like, oh, I can't.

I can't do this. I do it like if I have to. I did this month's last Bastion because I had to because that was the only one available. But I hate it. Usually you build up a callous to it. Like you do when you have a silky smooth voice like yours, sir. Wow. Okay, way to save yourself from that group C comment. That was good. It's a terrible lie, but a lovely one. Let me butter you up a little bit. Thank you so much for making time for this on Monday, guys. Thank you guys. I appreciate you guys moving it to Monday for me. That was a weekend got pretty bad. Thank you for playing on your birthday, Jasper.

Happy birthday. Oh, you're doing great. This is great. That's what I want. Thank you. Were you satisfied with the first part of the dungeon? Was it dungeon enough for you? Of course it is. Are you kidding? This is perfect. This is my best birthday present ever. And Casper, you didn't even realize it, but we're back. We're going to we're racing the Royals again. Just like that. Yeah, I know. It just kind of happened. I mean, we're going to get ditched anyway. You guys know that, right? We're going to get ditched. Oh, yeah, for sure. They were going to like we were going to get to the end and they were going to be like, oh, this is nice.

Now we're going to seal you in this tomb forever. Wow. What do you mean in? Mav is nice and Evans adorable. I mean, they were trying to do this right there. They're going to go all the way to the other side and then start to come down our side and plant more traps and then go out and say that they did it. They're building a second golem next to them. Yes. A better golem. Oh, boy, we really hope you guys enjoy today's episode. Of course, you can give us feedback by dropping us a line at the D and D, our podcast at Gmail dot com. That's the A and D, our podcast at Gmail dot com.

And of course, if you're supporting us over at Patreon and you haven't checked out our Discord server for just a dollar, you can join that and get all kinds of awesome shows and stuff like that that you can listen to while you're just waiting on a new episode to drop over our Discord. We have dozens of channels and hundreds of people talking about all kinds of stuff. It's honestly the thing we've been using to kind of keep our sanity this year. It's just talking to you guys. So thank you all so much. Again, we really appreciate your support and we'll see you next week with a brand new episode of the show.

Thanks, guys.