Hi i'm Olma, Flynn, March, Ceallach, Shraya

and i'm your DM Ethan welcome to Venture Forth

hi hello there i'm keller omar flynn

march and i'm your dm ethan welcome to

venture forth

[Music]

so

[Music]

previously you guys had rescued a pair

of elves

from the clutches of a spider's nest you

guys had freed them and discovered

that uh there was another member of

their party who had made it back

to their elven commune possibly with an

artifact of some sort

racing back to the commune uh shraya and

flynn took to the skies to get to the

commune back

uh to get back to the commune faster

while the rest of you guys helped these

elves

hobble along on the path back um walking

back

uh you guys were um entrapped

by a mess of vines and roots and

uh some sort of evil that had been

uh stirred up from the shadows around

you

um after a little bit of a struggle to

get free of these vines and the vines

getting you guys once again and then

getting free again you guys were able to

finally

uh remove yourself from the clutches um

flynn and shreya made it back to the

commune discovering that there was

a bit of an uproar there there was

conflict brewing

about what they should do with the uh

the elf

who was on the ground shivering and in

the midst of some sort of transformation

whether they should cast him out kill

him or

possibly just let him be you guys all

made back to the camp but this level of

tension began to rise

more and more and more until an

accidental

uh killing of one of these elves

resulted in

uh combat with some of these elves who

have never

taken up arms in their life um but uh

decided to defend their families against

what seemed at the moment to be

you guys invaders um kalec

and flynn gave impassioned speeches

about why they should stop fighting and

what they're actually there to do and

the elves seeing that these leaders

were rising up amongst their ranks um

and their

former leader farlane was just getting

knocked to the ground and had this sort

of primal urge just to

to defend his family going feral almost

seeing that they decided to back off and

side with you guys as as sort of the new

voices

of reason oma having

accidentally slain one of these elves

received uh forgiveness from

uh one of the older elves there and

um from ildoria herself as well um the

goddess whose temple you guys are

currently in

um ildori's magic

filled most of your chests and you guys

were able to

feel empowered again and and even a

little bit stronger than before

um kilik had uh heard a voice in the

back of his head

also encouraging him on a different

aspect of the job that you guys just had

done

of the desecration of this temple as he

was able to feel stronger than before as

well

as you guys feel the uh the effects of

ildoria's magic

fading away you guys come back to

consciousnesses

as your eyes open back again and you see

that the world is around you is just

a little bit more vibrant than it once

was and you look over and you see

shraya eyes still closed

from this this inner transformation

shraya your transformation goes a little

bit deeper

than everyone else's as you

feel this special connection to the

energy that's filling you

you see visions of your past

you see visions of of

mountain tops and of cold snowy paths

and then your vision cuts to

a different location not as cold but

still snow on the ground and your vision

cuts to

a family but not a family of your own a

family that you are adopted into

and you feel this this sense of

community

within you and you feel

the spirit of these wolves around you

begin to to fill your soul and and you

remember the comfort

that you had felt being accepted by

these people who weren't your own

but still wanted you nonetheless

[Music]

you feel just this this overwhelming

connection

to that family and you feel that

you now more than ever relate to them

on a spiritual and emotional level and

possibly even a physical level

as you open your eyes once more

you feel your uh your power begin to

grow

as you look around to the rest of your

party who seems to be feeling the same

i shudder a little bit and i look up to

the sky

and for a brief flash uh

the entire my entire frame of vision

kind of

flips into like a negative photograph

where all the

colors reverse and then just as

briefly as i see that uh it snaps back

into

regular vision again as whatever has

been

unleashed or unlocked the connection

within me

uh just rushes through my entire body

and i look around to

the rest of the group and kind of

wide-eyed and

and say did you all feel that too yeah

yeah i did um feel

felt good

so i'm still on the ground um

we we didn't like lose consciousness

right we just

no time really passed no it was it was

just a momentary

thing okay so um i'm still kneeling on

the ground

and um the elven woman's hands on my

shoulder

and my hand is still like resting on the

forehead of and the hair of the elf in

my lap

and my eyelashes are wet with my tears

and i just keep my head kind of bowed

and i reach up and i hold on to her the

hand that's at my shoulder

and i just clutch at it um as i

try to slow my breathing down and and

feel

the warmth like try to allow the warmth

to stave off

any continued darkness

that i feel in my head and my

um like weighing me down

um and this elderly elf um

sort of reaches down into your lap where

the elf's head is the unconscious elf

and she sort of picks him up by his

shoulders and his neck and

allows you to sort of move out from

under him and she looks to you and she

says

it's okay i have him now i will take

care of him

i walk back over to kellic

towards the center

okay and you are uh all joined again by

the rest of your group um

you guys have sort of culminated in one

area of

the temple as um the rest of the elves

are sort of

moving back in a way forming their own

group um sort of

consoling each other and uh some of them

are thanking

the elves who had stepped up to defend

them and they're sort of

coming back into their senses um flynno

he still has i guess he's loosened up a

little or

he's loosened up a little bit and i'll

look uh

like after after i feel that surge um

i'll look down to farlane

and after saying that stuff to him i'll

kind of release the

pressure of my shield and kind of

see if he's changed at all see if he's

noticed these things that have happened

or is he still intent on

attacking me he's not making an

immediate move

to attack you um he's actually going to

he's on the ground

he's going to try and use his arms and

legs to just sort of kick away from you

um sort of in just a frantic moment of

panic

um and as he moves away from you he

moves around

and sort of runs back behind one of the

big stone pillars of the temple

um just sort of getting out of sight of

you

i'll let him go and i'll turn to the

party and i'll look back at

our potentially transforming

friend and see how how he's doing

um yeah so whoever wants to go up and

make a medicine check

uh you can do that if someone else wants

to help i'd like to

do it advantage okay okay um would you

guys

okay okay like you can do that at

advantage okay

hey man that was that's a great job i i

think i think because of you

we were able to calm their situation

down so

again great great job i

i've kind of uh broken into a sweat

uh but it's a but it's sort of passed so

i'm just like

kind of drenched but no longer like

panting or

or exhausted just just sort of like a

cool air about me and and a kind of

shocked just sensibility like i'm moving

kind of

slowly but intentionally uh as i look

over this guy

and i just uh reach into my bag and

without looking at something i just hand

him the rope and i go

great idea flynn so you know what it

came to it was very useful to us

no problem man i i told you it would

help yeah you're not wrong

really excellent excellent call how's

how's he looking

huh whatever was going on it seems to

have

you know come to a stalemate for the

time being everything i remember this

fur from last time

do you no and and i kind of rub my

fingers on it what does it feel like

um as you move your fingers over it it

feels rough

it feels it's not like soft hair

um it definitely feels rough and

textured but as you move your fingers

over it um

you feel okay kalec you see the pores in

his skin begin to

just open up a little bit and the hairs

begin to recede

back into his skin that was a natural 20

for the medicine check

uh for a total of 26.

definitively this is after a couple

moments of him being freed from

whatever magical item this is um after a

couple moments

it is definitely receding back within

him his nose and his mouth are beginning

to shift

back into place um they're no longer

elongated and

um the hair is uh moving back into his

skin cool

cool

um can i is he conscious

he's slowly coming back into

consciousness um as you're inspecting

him further

um he stops shaking and

um he looks up at you

i fancy meeting you here

are you back with us now it's

good to see you familiar face again

do you remember uh do you remember your

name

i i think so

uh yes alithar aliphar

and i'll say an elvin i'll come back

and he says back in alvin thank you very

much

do you uh well

can you sit up and i'll try to just like

kind of get him uh to a

stable place of sitting comfortably

and he leans up and yeah i think

i think i can still just feel a little

sore

but yeah i think i think so are you are

you cut

anywhere is there any laceration to your

skin

um i don't he looks down at himself as

if he

hasn't seen his own body in years and he

looks down and he inspects over it

i don't i don't feel like there's

anything

right and uh i hate to

you know it's nice to see you uh cogent

but i have to know do you do you

remember what happened

i i believe i do

if you give me a moment i might be able

to recall

thank you there was

a a group of goblins who came by

the commune and

they were attempting to ransack the

place

so we drove them out we drove them north

through the trees all right and we uh

we came across a larger goblin

camp i think where it was

yes it was to the north we discovered

there

uh uh uh an old graveyard

up to the north graveyard that the

goblins were

ransacking they were taking things from

the graves

they they found they found something

in one of the tombs it uh

[Music]

what what was it it

was it no it was

yes yes it uh one of them

one of them found a crown one of them

found a crown and

uh he put it on his head and began to

transform

um so i i ran up and i

attempted to take it but i could only

take what

a piece of it where where did that piece

go it's important

that that no one no one must take that

piece

we've become acquainted with that

information

uh i don't uh think it's wise for you to

know the location of it

just to be safe uh but uh okay as as

long as no one touches it

it began to transform the goblin and i

i took a piece and thankfully uh i've

been able to

stave off the transformation but it was

getting more and more difficult by the

day

hearing this i'll sort of give a side

long glance over to shraya

uh to just like okay and like nod in the

direction of the

of the shard of this crown uh to just be

like

you know whatever we gotta do to secure

that let's let's get on it

um and can i can i does everything

alatar is saying

seem to be uh true can i

make an inside check

[Music]

uh that is a that's a 22.

nice 22. um yeah definitively he's

he's telling the truth he seems a bit

shaken up by it um

and yeah it seems that he was attempting

to

hold at bay whatever transformation was

going to happen

um in order to protect

the people around him well you're you're

a stronger man than i

well done i'm impressed

thank you i'm i'm sure most anyone here

would have done the same

i i though did not i just i

i was able to secure a piece of the

crown i did not get

the entire thing um as i left so

i i would imagine that whoever now holds

the crown

holds the remainder of whatever chaotic

magic

resides within that shard that i took

do you have any sense and uh by the way

uh we we got your comrades as well

you guys have somehow all made it

through this ordeal

oh it's good oh it's good to see them

and he

he raises his hand in waves um over to

the twelves that you guys saved

do you have any sense of does this have

any bearing on the

on the shadows of this place or or do

you think it's unrelated

just from your you've been farther into

the darkness than we've uh

been able to go yet yeah

yes um it seems that the

opening of of this this tomb that held

the crown

unleashed uh whatever evils beset this

place

all right well that's

that is well needed insight i thank you

alethar you got some rest all right

and uh be careful about farlane i think

he's uh

a little bit of a break from reality

so i just keep a watchful eye uh is your

father still around

[Music]

in this place

i'm i'm not sure um

i i can take a look do you do you need

to speak with him

no i just just want to see that you're

looked after

i want to make sure you have people you

can trust would you be able to

to help me to my to my home

absolutely thank you and he just kind of

stumbles up

onto his feet and sort of he leans most

of his weight onto you it seems as

though his legs are are very weak at

this point

and uh he points you over to one of the

little shacks that's set up

um sort of in tandem with a tree and uh

as he walks over

a couple more elves from the larger

group see that he's up and walking now

and they come over and they help you and

they they help take him into his home

um i would like to

when when hearing farlane again uh i'll

walk over to shraya um

and kind of point in the direction where

i saw farlane

scurry off to and to say hey um

he ran over that way uh i think if

anyone should talk to him it should be

you

you know him better maybe you can calm

him down i'm gonna go check on march and

oma but you know i'll be right here if

you need me

please keep a watchful eye and i direct

my gaze down

to the little the tiny little flame

that's burning over that gold piece

or that gold shard um

and i take a actually take a little

like a couple torches out of my uh

from out of my pack and i and and i put

those torches

like right over where the flame is to

try to grow it a little bit bigger

uh i don't know if this will do anything

to it but for now anything that can try

to reverse

the ill will inside this object

i hope i hope we can

get rid of its evil properties

[Music]

me too and you look to the the shard uh

where the where the flame is beginning

to heat it up

um and you see that uh it is in

a magically produced flame so it seems

to be

heating this metal there's just a very

slight warping that's happening

it's not really melting necessarily as

this fire isn't

too hot but there is definitely a slight

warp that's happening in response to the

heat of the

excuse me of the fire

i will go and check on farlane

hey um before you do uh great job man

we we we made it i think we're doing

great

i just you're doing great i give them a

little

pat on the on the knee i'll see in a bit

and i'll head over to

martian i admire your enthusiasm

[Music]

and i walk over today and uh you walk

over to farlane and as you

round this stone pillar you see him

just completely collapsed on the ground

hands over his

face just weeping intensely

pauline a good friend

what was that all about what what

prompted you to

resort to such chaos and violence

hi i had to protect

i had to protect them

you've forgotten the very thing it's

kept us here for so long

it's not on one to shoulder the burden

of all and i

am gonna tap uh

the crystal of my staff to my forehead

and i'm gonna uh

stake the quarter staff into the ground

and slowly but surely there are gonna be

some

fines that grow up around the staff and

uh

and glow with a with the energy with the

pink purple like fluorescent

uh energy along with the patterns on the

staff and i'm going to attempt to

calm him with a lovely image of these

vines just blossoming

cool okay his attention for the moment

is occupied by

this beautiful display of nature

and uh his weeping subsides a little bit

but

he's he's still definitely crying okay

i'm gonna he says i don't i don't

wha what can i do now i can i can't

i can't stay here i've

i've brought fear into this place

and i i can't i can't stay what

what do i do i suggest perhaps you come

with us

since you've felt the urgency and the

fear

and the chaos flow through your body

perhaps

someone in arrowsfeld might be able

to take what you have seen

and hear your story to back up our own

i i can come with you i

just i don't feel like i can stay here

anymore

i understand i will pause

check with the rest of my group and see

if

they are keen to let you accompany us on

our journey

thank you

and as you turn to leave he reaches out

and he grabs at your arm

and he grabs your wrist and you look

back at him

and he looks into your eyes he says

my friend i'm sorry

then he lets go of your wrist and as he

lets go

i actually let go of my staff

and let the vines that have grown up

onto it uh

keep it supported and straight up into

the earth and it sort of starts to

rotate a little bit and i leave it there

with him

as i turn to head back to the rest of my

group

[Music]

okay and as you turn back uh you see

flynn approaching oma in march

what do i see when i kind of approach

are they still surrounded by these elves

or do they seem no the elves are

uh beginning to to move away and some of

them are going back into their homes

some of them are are congregating into a

larger group and just

sort of discussing what's going on um

but you see that most of them have

backed away

um i had walked towards kellik

so is it just march in that kind of

grouping

yeah march where where where are you at

i haven't moved

i've just i've got my eyes still on this

uh this piece of gold and the flame

um i'm kind of just wanting to sit there

trying trying to observe and look at

everything and see how it's all going

what's going on and just not really

wanting to

move myself from right here um yeah so

alma and march are sort of on the other

side of the temple from where

the elves are grouped up okay i'll walk

up to them

um hey hey guys

you you're okay

almost almost just staring into the fire

that's the golden fire and and she just

shrugs her shoulders non-committally she

won't even

look at you um

he'll kind of kneel down

next to her and pull up pull out his bag

and reach in and dig through and find

uh one of those acorns that he picked up

um it probably won't mean a lot to you

but

something that i like to do to kind of

keep me

centered whenever i'm having trouble

i like to collect things um

um i got made fun of it sometimes but i

i think it's always going to be

something

cool to have to kind of remember you

know

all my adventures and i actually grabbed

a few of these egg corns

to remind me of this place and

kind of what we went through together

and i if you don't want it i can hold on

to it until

later but i thought maybe it might help

you

remember that you know there are good

memories and bad memories but

they help us grow i'll hold that acorn

out to her

um oma will reach out and

and take a hold of the acorn and just

look at it in her hand

and she'll

just stare at it

i don't think i want to remember and

she'll put it back on the ground

we all make mistakes sometimes and

do things we regret but it doesn't

[Music]

it doesn't make you a bad person that's

what you're worried about

she looks up and for the first time she

looks into your eyes and you see

just depths of sorrow

that you should not be able to see in

somebody her age

and she just shakes her head and lowers

it back

it'll be okay we're here for you

no turn to march and

i'm fine mar

i'm gonna kind of look at you and be

like i don't really regret it i mean

i mean i regretted how hard i hit him i

just i didn't mean for that it just

he was in a compromising position what

was i supposed to do

i'll um i'll pick up the acorn from the

ground

and i'll just kind of look at march and

hand it to her and say

hold on to this for her

i don't know if it'll mean anything in

the future but

maybe maybe you can use it

i'm gonna hold it in my hand and sort of

look at it and then look down and go

you know flynn fellow weave you're not

off bad

a pretty good one and i'm gonna just

sort of put it just in my

in my back of my uh my pack and

continue to sort of look between kalec

and alma and knowing that in the time

that i've been with with oma

that the the thing that she's just gonna

need is just space and

and time and she will come around to us

when she wants to

but i'm not going to be farther than 15

feet away from her

then i'll just or i'll just uh kind of

sit next to march

give her a pat on the knee just kind of

take in the scene and maybe look out and

see which

what uh what mckay looks up to

okay um you look over and you see

kalec emerging from uh this house where

he had

just dropped off alithar

and you look past him to the trees to

the north

and you see that the the diminished glow

of the protective trees there is

beginning to come back

and you look over to the gold that is

right next to the fire as it begins to

warp and slightly

melt you can see

the trees almost in response begin to

glow even brighter once again they're

still not at their full

potential but they seem to be coming

back a little bit as this gold piece is

melting

hmm

[Music]

what in the hell's what's going on is

everybody

does everybody see this yes now

everybody

kellick is coming back from the house uh

shraya is returning from

his talk with farlane and you guys all

sort of put two and two together with

this gold piece i want to

sort of just turn slightly to fun and

you see that right yeah

but i don't know if i understand what's

going on

tria you seeing this

am i am is yelling over to me am i

nearby

yeah you guys are both sort of in the

same group okay

i think whatever's ailing the forest is

pegged

that piece right over there and i refer

over to

the shard and i and i see it looks like

my fire is

slowly but surely eating away at its

energies

alatar said it came from a crone but

there's more of it

the goblins that came through here

robbed a graveyard to the north

and they opened up some kind of crypt

and

uh within it was and i gesture

sort of broadly to the shadows around

this darkness that has overtaken the

forest

well then it sounds like wherever that

is is

where we should be going yeah does uh

allah

know the way can he lead us or is he

still too weak to

to move what is your what are you

thinking i don't want to push him too

hard

we don't know how far he was able to you

know push that

uh presence from his spirit

these things can have you know a lasting

impact on

right the insides of you maybe

a map or a map of sensible

yeah we could ask him to at least draw

us a rough sketch of where we should go

olyra irva do you know where this

cave is this area is do you know how to

get there

yes we were we were up there

um with alethar when he um uh

took whatever it was that he took um

it uh it's just to the north um if you

if you uh take the guiding trees up

there

though most of them i imagine are

diminished at this point it should give

you a straight shot

to uh to the graveyard all right

and it's just past where this where the

spiders had you just keep going up north

past that

i would say uh a few miles but not too

far yes

all right just so we uh get the timeline

straight here orva

you all engaged with the goblins in the

graveyard or was that just alithar

we all did and then you took this piece

of the crone

and then you headed uh back south to

bring it back to the camp or or what or

he

left you and you had to give chase

[Music]

we were uh we were chasing the goblins

and

when we discovered their larger camp um

we were

uh taken prisoner by just their their

numbers

um and we were only held captive for

a few minutes or so before alithar saw

um them removing something from one of

the graves he

went and he attempted to grab it and

made a dash back for the camp

um and in the commotion we attempted to

to follow him but

i saw a transformation begin within him

and we

just could not keep pace with him coming

back to the camp

i don't remember much after that as i'm

afraid we were

stuck in spider webs right so you got

captured by goblins then captured by

spiders then captured by vines

and now you're here that seems to be

accurate yes would you guys get captured

by vines

uh something's happened it's fine every

i've worked so the rope didn't help then

man

it helped you know worked not for the

rope flynn

we would have all certainly perished

what wrote i'm gonna look and look at

caleb

and then just look down at um at flynn

and be like

the rope is what saved us into a big

wink to kayla

like and i and i to irva's question i go

the rope

of friendship or perhaps if you used it

you and your friend here might not be

captured so often

i understand he like kind of dips his

head a little bit

well if we're heading back out um

you still got it right because we

probably should use it on our head out

yeah i gave it back to you what time is

it damn roughly you said it was

afternoon

yeah it's like uh about 1 30 in the

afternoon

i i uh my feathers sort of sweep

to the side a little bit and i say this

of course begs the question

if we are set to take on a

encampment of goblins flynn

do you think we have the adequate

evidence now to perhaps enlist

more of your elite fighting force

oh uh boy uh jeez well

uh uh it's kind of my thing

so i kind of have to do this like on my

own

um uh but i'm kind of like supposed to

like low-key maybe get a few people to

help

um this is like supposed to be what i do

so

no they want me to do this unfortunately

but but maybe we can ask some of the

lovely townsfolk here that um

want to protect their town maybe they'd

like to come

nearly killed one of the townsfolk hero

with a single

swing of her fest nearly nearly i'm i'm

gonna shake my head and just say

i think that these people have been

through enough even even lyra and irva

i'm not sure even though i understand

that

you have been there and they have know

the way

i'm not sure it makes sense to ask

anyone else

or put anyone else in danger that's

simply mine too

well i will i will my good friend

farlane doesn't feel how can i say this

welcome here anymore and

no matter where we choose to go

i would be great deeply grateful if

perhaps he could come with us

i am going to let out a

that guy wants to come with us

it is quite dangerous out there

oh yes maybe you should come with us he

can go first

marge he wishes to redeem himself

the path to redemption is uh

a long one so i you know it's good that

he wishes to start as soon as possible

uh march if you'll have it i i

i'm open to it i can't stop someone from

wanting to help

i am going to let out a very long just

sigh

just go fine

it's fine i just if he pulls any of this

[ __ ] again

i'll kill him myself hopefully it

doesn't

uh come to that okay like can we

just chat over here a little bit just

maybe like walk over with me

yeah sad and i'll try and like bring

them away from mainly the elves i'm not

worried if the party hears but like the

elves and like

uh alethar especially

um and i'll kind of whisper under my

breath to

okay like um do you think it's wise to

leave alethar here what if he tries

turning again what if he starts

seizuring and we're gone

i'm worried about that should we tie him

down would he let us with the town let

us

should we take him with us it appears to

me that

his transformation is directly tethered

to the piece of the crown that he

okay held um

i certainly wouldn't uh be against some

sort of prakash and perhaps we could

just discuss it with uh

those people the people with whom he

lives uh most closely so that

it's not just public knowledge of his

vulnerability we can't

be sure that there aren't people

who believe what uh farlane was

recommending to still be the right

course of action i don't want to leave

him

vulnerable to violence it seems like

alira and

irva are alethar's friends maybe

or at least comrades maybe they can keep

him safe inside a house away from the

public for

at least until we get back well i do

question their

competence relevantly uh i

i do think uh we can at least trust

their motives that they're

interested in the best for their town

here

yeah well

yeah i think that's a good idea um yeah

it's the best we can hope for i

i can i can do my temporary casting to

to be sure that

he's cogent enough but

i was able to speak to him and he and he

he seemed to me to be

sincere which is the first i've i've

been able to talk to

uh the man himself behind the shadows if

you will

that's reassuring for sure i still think

it's probably good to

have him maybe locked up with his

friends in a house

i have to agree um maybe we bring

charlie in on it because

maybe he'll be able to persuade it his

town spoke better than we could

perhaps prop so all right try

[Music]

uh do you think uh irva and ulira would

be

a game to just keep a keep a watchful

eye

on uh our friend alithar and uh just

just keep him inside for now i trust

these elves

with my life i don't think there's any

reason

that the

type of energy surging through them

could be combative what i'm more

concerned with is and i motion over to

the flame

we must after we leave keep that flame

going

it must be a task put on by the town to

keep that flame alive

so that what is underneath it continues

to melt and dissipate

that is the source of the ill energy

that pervades this land

what state is the is the chardon dm

[Music]

it's uh it's beginning to melt a little

bit more um

it's not really melt into like a liquid

um it would need a very very hot flame

for that but it's just sort of warping

in response to this but no

real damage is being done to it um

should we take it with us i i feel like

leaving it here might be a bad idea

you can't leave it here what it did to

alathar and

mind you i think alithar may be of great

power i think he might have a lot of

heart if nothing else he was able to

resist the transformation for quite a

bit there

yeah we can't be sure that someone of a

weaker constitution will

fix it up yeah i think we take it with

us

maybe wrap it up maybe try it i know you

you like doing this but just

could you not for us put it in your

feathers maybe just keep it wrapped up i

actually i have a box we may be able to

just throw it in there

uh i got it from uh from cold crest

we can wrap it up in some pit in some uh

cloth and throw it in there and

you know it should be safe as much as it

pains me i will relent this time

and seed this distrustful piece of metal

into

whatever crafted box you may have

if uh ephraiah will put out the flame

that he's

uh done then i can use some some uh

calipers uh from my medical bag to just

lift the shard and and uh maybe then

i'll hold the box open

wait a few seconds for it to cool down

put it in a cloth and then

uh would it fit in that box that i got

in cold crest

i think yes okay yeah it would fit uh

almost perfectly the uh the length of

the

shard is just under the length of the

box so it would fit really well

and uh after you remove it from the

flame it cools pretty quickly

um as this flame wasn't the hottest

thing in the world so it cools back to

normal temperature pretty quickly

cool put it in there put it in my

in my in my bag my backpack

all right hopefully it doesn't mess with

my head ready to go

uh yeah if you have any thoughts if

red wolves do let us know

real deals would it make sense for us to

perhaps

change hands on who's carrying it every

hour or so just as a precaution if i

start feeling weird

i will give it to you march oh no i did

not say i wanted to carry it

i merely said if i start feeling weird

i'll give it to you

alma

oma looks up when she hears her name and

just

looks very confused she was not paying

attention to anything

if if i start feeling weird i'll give it

to you

shraya i want nothing to and then i look

at the box

i think i'm just gonna hold it

[Laughter]

i think well just let us know if you

start feeling well and then we'll make a

decision from there

okay we'll do uh

i will uh cherry oculus after this

conversation or as this conversation is

happening and i'll cast eyes of the

grave

as my eyes burst into into an

orange embered flame uh to just take a

look at my

at my team here have they been infected

with shadows of any kind

that i can tell um no none of them have

been affected um

they're still sort of coded in this

undead scent uh but not originating from

them

uh it's it's no different than when you

had inspected them

in the forest the same sort of lingering

effect

all right it's the ashes pool and poor

i'll dispel the effect

pauline and i yell over to him

bring me my staff i believe we are

almost ready

to set off

i kind of i'm gonna quickly want to look

around and see if there's any

food or any additional rations because

we have no idea

uh if we can grab something from

somewhere beat that fish

yeah may not be great anymore

you might want to take that out of your

out of your your wings and maybe i don't

know

yeah that's pretty starting real bad

um yeah as as for lane approaches uh try

with your staff you can march take a

look around uh if you want to see if you

can find any rations

okay i'm gonna do that i'm definitely

gonna look for rations and just

stuff to generally hold us over for a

few days journey

anticipation

[Music]

uh as they do that uh

where is alma now she just standing or

yes yeah so she was by where the flame

was the flame has been put out though

um so she is still staring in basically

the same spot that the flame

was um but she's standing i'm standing

now

um i'll i'll just kneel down

to her and uh ever so lightly just put

my

hand on her on the closest shoulder to

me

and say nothing just just sit with her

for a moment

and then um after a little bit has

passed i'll just say

it's a long long road ahead of us

but you're not alone

[Music]

and then i'll wait another moment

[Music]

and i'll uh stand up before he

starts to walk away she'll she'll turn

to i'll turn to him

thank you

thank you alma

let's go find some food huh

maybe marge is uh found something

salty yeah dm do i have any luck in my

search for rations or even

food we can shove in our faces now yeah

what was that uh perception check

or you can make an investigation if you

would like

it doesn't matter same thing fourteen

uh fourteen um you look around you don't

really see too much

you do see that there is a very small

basket of

um collected what seems to be fresh

fruit

i am going to take that and sort of

bring it back over and

just again instinctively hand

the first whatever it may be perhaps an

apple or or a pear just hand it directly

to

alma and then kind of look around

everyone anyone else

let me eat this now or

yeah i'll take an apple yeah kellogg

will just worthlessly

i will just grab whatever and hold his

hand up to catch one

i'm gonna toss it toss it up flynn like

perfect perfect transaction between

march and flynn real quick

thanks still looking down at

oman saying um if alma's gonna take

the food that i'm gonna hand her shoop

i'll take the food

i'll eat it kind of mindlessly

try out anything i still have saved

these from

a day or two ago and i sort of flop one

of the fish

out from my wingspan and the smaller one

i just sort of

toss up into the air and catch in my

beak

as i wolf down one and uh with the

larger one i start

sort of taking it apart with my talons

and and saying

oh i haven't had a fish like this in a

very long time

i'm just gonna just go

and just put the rest of the fruit in my

pack be like never mind looks good

you gotta eat it is a delicious fish

to the rest of you however uh that thing

smells rancid

i'm it's trying to smell for the rest of

this journey now

you didn't smell before anytime i'm

gonna have everyone

make a constitution savings uh to see if

they can

survive this terrible

no actually i was ready i was ready to

roll

no it's not it's not that bad it's not

that bad um

so uh with you guys's food packed up um

are you guys heading north

yeah would you guys like to do anything

else in the commune before you head out

um if no if not

flynn or i'll take out the rope

and i'll uh just that just to clarify

we've

had a conversation with irva and lira to

keep an eye on

avatar and all that sort of totally yes

yeah so they they went over to

his house um and yeah they they seem to

be sitting with him and and

consoling him and and we've

vaguely marked on the map where they

said the graveyard was and so on

yeah so um yeah they they took out uh

just like a very simple piece of paper

and they sort of

drew out for you where the commune was

where the

the um path of the guiding trees were

and then just off of that where the

graveyard is

um and uh farlane walks up to

shraya uh with trey's staff and

uh sort of bows his head as he gives it

back and he says

are you guys coming back here or am i am

i coming with you

now you may come with us if you wish

but we are not going to addersfeld we

are we are traveling northward

try and find the center of this evil

this will probably be the best way that

i can

do what i want to do in protecting my

people i

will come with you if you'll have me

i've talked it over with the rest of my

group we will have you

thank you and as you guys look north

towards uh towards the trees um the

trees to the north

have almost come fully back to life um

as the um the

sort of the conduit for this evil magic

through

alithar has dissipated now in this area

um

the trees have have lit back up and you

can see clearly now

um four or five six of these guiding

trees now fully alight

into the path into the the forest where

as

before they were getting slightly dimmer

as you went on now you can see

fully a light in the path in front of

you nice

so as you guys all uh move forward

towards that uh that path into the trees

is there anything that you guys would

like to do to prepare for the journey

before you actually

walk into the forest

then hold up the rope

i'll take the rope make sure it's tied

tight this time oh yes and i just loop

it

loosely and i'll just tie it right to my

belt as well

right behind him and then i'll hand it

to whoever else wants it

i'll just kind of go down the line and

once that's done whoever ties himself up

oh

i'm gonna take up the rear um having

overheard

farlane's fairly genuine

remarks about how this would be the best

way for him to prove himself to his

people when he was speaking to shraya

i'm going to

kind of sort of internally shift my

feelings towards him and

feel like okay he clearly knows he

[ __ ] up and he's trying really hard

to to make up for it but also still

be on guard ready to smack him if need

be

but i am going to take up the rear if

that's okay with everybody

i'll be right in front of you

are they just behind flynn if he's laden

okay and then try are you comfortable in

the middle i don't like being tied up

but it's for a better

it's for a good group dynamic i suppose

these are just my thoughts

[Laughter]

uh takes the rope as well and um

if you'll allow him he ties himself up

right behind

tria yeah um

caleb you sure you don't want to take a

lead

i mean being the strongest and and the

and the wisest i i figured maybe you'd

want to help us

get to this cave then i most certainly

uh i'm not the strongest here oh i

wouldn't uh

go from there thank you

she needed to hear that i'm definitely

the strongest i know i kind of set you

up

go ahead and move on yeah yeah i just

wanted to make sure we can make her feel

better

of course yeah i understand really could

you take the lead though because i can't

see

anything really oh all right yeah sure

sure yeah i can't see in the dark very

well we just kind of like

awkwardly switch around in our yeah

with the rope we have to like go

underneath it and

step up and as we're doing that um i'm

gonna i'm gonna try and tie

the rope tight on on caleb if i may have

noticed on in our shuffle that it's a

little loose

this is like a i want to keep him safe

type thing jeez

all right this [ __ ] rope man

okay um so as you guys are all secure

heading

heading into uh the forest um

you guys are walking through and again

greeted by this warm light of the trees

that you guys

traveling north last time had not seen

you guys continue to move forward and

you guys can see on either side of you

on the right and on the left

just at the edge of where this gentle

golden glow

ends you can see vines moving like

snakes

in the shadows and you can see them a

couple try and

move into the to the light area where

you guys are

and they seem to be rejected and

deflected back

you guys continue traveling to the area

where you had seen the spider webs

and you could see up into the trees the

spiderwebs are completely singed back

you can see

that uh there are like these burnt tips

on where the spiderwebs used to be

as they are just completely demolished

by this divine energy and not

able to pierce the veil of these trees

you guys walk right past where the

spider nest

would have been completely safe

and as you guys continue walking you

seem to be pretty

safe within this glow and then you

hear off in the distance in the shadows

you just see some sort of giant figure

moving as you feel the ground

vibrate with each footfall and you can

hear

[Music]

as trees and branches snap making way

for this

massive beast just beyond your vision

but you guys continue heading forward

and

through the light you guys are able to

eventually come

to an opening where you guys see

a graveyard you guys look out and you

see a couple of headstones here and

there it's not a very large graveyard

probably

only 50 to 60 graves here but then you

see

off in the far corner a much larger uh

mausoleum which it looks like a

sort of a bigger and a nicer structure

you guys look around and you take a look

for a second and it's tough to sort of

see as this graveyard

seems to be encapsulated with shadow um

the light of the trees does not

unfortunately extend to the graveyard

there are no guiding

trees around it but sort of dashing in

and out of the shadows from grave to

grave

you see a number of goblins you can't

quite pick out how many

but there may be three four

you see maybe five i you couldn't tell

if that one was the sixth one or the one

from before

but you guys see goblins darting from

grave to grave and it seems like they're

looting this graveyard

unaware of your presence um so as you

approach

how would you guys like to uh to

approach this uh graveyard if

if flynn notices if i notice these

i'll kind of guys guys down down down

down

and i'll go into my bag and i'll pull

out a book

that i've i've only pulled out a few

times before and it has it's kind of

like a

a thrown together parchment with like

maybe

uh a half put together

leather binding and on the cover of it

it's it has like a

like a c with a line vertically through

it

and i'll i'll flip through the pages and

i just give me give me a minute give me

a minute

and i want to look up uh my my writings

on goblins

and see if i can maybe refresh my memory

of some of the stuff that i've written

down

okay um yeah for sure are you looking

for anything in

particular um yeah i think i would be

looking for anything about maybe

reasoning with them um and maybe

what their mode of combat is

like what do they usually use in combat

yeah for sure um so you would know that

um

the in your notes um it's pretty much

iron light standard to

decimate goblins when you see them it's

exceedingly difficult

to negotiate with them and it's not

advised to negotiate

um unless they have something

that you require um it's in your notes

it uh

it references that just that it's it's

almost easier to just plow through them

than to have to negotiate with them

if they're in smaller numbers okay and

anything about what they use

in combat yes um

weapons are for the most part makeshift

often faulty and are not well crafted

um you uh you know that goblins

generally use um uh

just like makeshift swords that aren't

very well constructed

and um sometimes the more skilled among

them

uh will carry short bows okay guys

um just for my notes here it's saying

that

we should probably just fight these

things they're probably not going to

want to talk to us

and their their weapons aren't that

great so we shouldn't have too many

problems but i think we should maybe

just try and

attack them first we shouldn't try and

negotiate

we might be better off just getting a

surprise surprise on them what do you

guys think

and i'll close as i say that i close my

book and just kind of tuck it back in my

little backpack

the only dealings i've had with goblins

has just been you know caravans have

been a part of

being you know raided or robbed uh

you know never had too many altercations

with them but

you're the monster hunter flynn so i'll

defer to you i suppose

not sure how comfortable i am

uh march do you have any thoughts on

this

i'm with flynn i have no problem killing

these things

never had a good interaction with the

goblin i'll look up and

and look around and everyone

but what are we why are we here

what's the reason why are we here

omar they uh the crown uh the piece of

the crone

turned alatar into whatever i know but

none of these have the crown

so if we just

kill them how does that get us any

closer to finding the crown

well that's that's on this graveyard

purpose

i think uh i think it might have

something to do with the beast

uh in the forest

i um we have to start here this is where

this is the source uh

i'm given to assume i i can't say for

sure

if you want oma we can

try to sneak around them

um and maybe just see if we can find the

one with the crown

maybe maybe they're in that building

over there

um we could try that

how large is this uh graveyard dm can we

see can we see to the

to the furthest end of it is it kind of

a smaller

place with a few yeah larger structures

yeah there is um

just the one larger structure um and

then there is

sort of a uh a

small flimsy gate that surrounds

the entire thing um yeah

probably no more than 70 feet across

you can you can easily see from one end

to the other

oculus and i'll cast eyes of the grave

can i is there any undead

and and also if i take a look at the

goblins while i have it up

are they infected in some way the way

alatar was

um yeah so with eyes of the grave you

get a

strong undead presence from

the mausoleum from the building up into

your left

you get a slightly uh

potent smell from the goblins

um very similar to um

what you saw in the spiders is that they

seem to be sort of affected

and and almost poisoned by

the darkness around them but they're not

emanating anything of themselves

and can i tell is this graveyard uh

dedicated to ildaria in in any way or or

of any of the old gods

is there does the mausoleum bear her

marking or anything

looking around um you uh distinctly

don't see any markings of any gods here

okay all right

uh well uh definitely the big building

is uh where we want to head so maybe we

could sneak around

does anyone have any ways to

sneak better does anyone have an

experience with sneaking better

i don't really i'm pretty sneaky i have

a little bit

alma you're saying maybe you could

i i'm i'm pretty sneaky

all right

secretly so i i'm used to it

well uh if you uh if you're

uncomfortable engaging with the goblins

then

maybe you could just give us a sense of

what's going on

uh further see if they're talking to

each other

march are you uh do you just want me to

sneak into the into the building

i don't think you should go in by

yourself i think you're going to need us

do you want me to just sneak and look

into the building and see what's in

there

yeah and maybe come back of course yeah

yeah yeah yeah marge can you attest it

i feel a bit insane uh sending a child

into a

cursed mausoleum

i feel more bad for the mausoleum than

for alma cause

alma's yeah she can handle herself

although i very much so am still not

into the idea of letting her go on her

own but i can tell you that

i'm not very good at the whole sneaking

thing of life that is alma's

quote-unquote specialty alma we'll be

right here so you cry out and we'll

come running okay

okay um oma as you step forward uh

through this gate

to get into the graveyard i'm gonna have

you make a stealth check for me as you

attempt to uh

move through uh past the goblets and

then i am actually going to have you

make that at

advantage um because you are protected

by this line of graves here

and these graves uh count as half cover

oh cool so i'm gonna allow you to uh

do that at advantage as it's gonna be

tough for the goblins to see you

ah okay let's see

that's a 19 so let's see what the other

one is all right

yeah so that's a 19 plus five wow nice

um yeah so you're able to uh expertly

step each foot into the soft parts of

the dirt

um and goblins do not seem to be

paying attention to you whatsoever they

are preoccupied with looting these

graves

as they're digging them up you look over

and you see that they're not really

finding anything too good

um it's mostly like uh shirts that were

once on

uh rotten corpse that they're taking and

nothing really of value to you but

possibly a value to them

and as you walk over into the mausoleum

you walk up

these four stone steps and it opens up

into a small room and you see that there

are

a couple of graves on either side but

then

in this center in the center of the room

there is a much larger casket

the casket is made of stone and actually

merges with the floor as if it was built

into the stone itself the top of it has

been completely

taken off and discarded off to the side

and you hear

a deep gush of wind from the inside of

this tomb as you look

down and you can see it actually extends

down into a staircase

below the mausoleum do i hear anything

coming from down there

make a perception check for me

eleven

dead silence

you every once in a while you hear uh a

small drip of water

as it hits and reverberates off of the

stone around it

but besides that you don't hear anything

okay do i see any evidence of like

recent

recent um you know movement through this

area

um yeah as you're looking over the stone

um make

an investigation check

um

it's another 11 yeah 11 uh that's enough

you look over the edges of the stone

where the

um the lid of the casket would have been

on top of

and you look over to the lid and there's

dust and cobwebs all over the lid

but then this rim that is on the base of

the casket

doesn't have any dust or anything on it

so it looks like this the lid of it was

removed relatively recently to reveal

this stone underneath okay

um then i will try to

head back to the group and let them know

what i see

okay um and as you head back to the

group you are able to stealth back

just the same as you were sort of

finding your same

footing and get back to the group

um there's no one in there

it does look like there was one really

big casket

but under the casket it's just a

stairway underground so it looks like it

leads to like

um a cave or a dungeon or

some type of um thing underground but i

couldn't hear anything

from under there so maybe that's just

where the object came from

um it does look like people have been

people things goblins have been through

there relatively recently

but that's all that's in there

um if that's where you saw the darkness

coming from though

then there probably means that there's

something

under there so i i don't know if that's

where we need to go

or we have to look

okay if if we don't find the crown

itself we'll find

what it's connected to i i don't know

anything about this um

please well we don't want to be followed

so um

is there any way to get the goblins that

are here to go away i could try to scare

them

does anyone have any way of convincing

them that

there's something nasty coming out of

the woods

um i don't think so

yeah i don't have anything like that

either um i uh

i speak arc so i could uh

try to sound like an arc maybe

and uh i don't know yell at them

chat stealth might be

a good first option try and sneak past

and if it doesn't work

yell at them yeah let's give it a shot

hey

okay yeah but but alma did this you said

this was a grave did it have

you know a lid or anything or is there

any way for them to

lock us in from the outside uh-huh

there is

not a fan of being locked inside of a

grave

i am similarly hesitant definitely even

when you're alive

i spent a lot of time in catacombs

do you think there's probably another

exit or there should be

there should be multiple ways i mean

there's no way of knowing right it's not

it's not usual that it's

a single mausoleum usually it's a

building of some kind but

uh well maybe it's some kind of

connection

right i mean it sounds like the i mean

it's not typical that

you said it was a a tomb or a

you know a single uh rest in place right

but it

descended into rather there were other

like

burial sites around but there was one in

the center that was bigger

and that was the one that had the lid

off that that did have a

staircase right well it's hard to say

but

i'd i'd be surprised if goblins were

wildly enough to

think of a solution like that in k in

in cages especially if they don't know

we're down there

did um did any of them have a crown on

their head that when you snuck by

dm did i no no they did not

okay uh-oh well if none of them had a

crown that that probably means that

the one with the crown is in this

dark scary basement thing

um and if that's the case i don't know

why they would close that person

in so we might be safe if there's more

in there they wouldn't want to lock

their

friends in besides march you could just

push the lid off

right here right because you're

wait never mind i'm just

throw a glance at you you're like yes i

can absolutely

so don't worry at all then yeah we'll be

all right we'll be fine let's get in

there

and also flynn don't you think that

perhaps if

somebody is inside this tomb and does

have this crown that perhaps

he is transformed beyond the extent

that alethar was and is no longer a

goblin or human or

anything to that nature but now a

creature

that is substantially larger than us

that would be quite exciting it's also

an easy way to identify him right he's

likely transformed that's what the elves

all suggested

true unless he's found some way to

control it but

i'd be surprised either way it seems

like it's something we need to take care

of

so we're going down yeah i have

reservations but i believe

and agree that this seems like there's

no other

another option than to do this i mean

march you could probably wade through

those goblins like they were water but

i you know there's no need to take more

life than we have to

if the nicest thing you've ever said to

me

i mean i i one-up myself every day it

seems

pretty kindness all right well let me uh

let me untie the rope from everyone and

we can stealth in okay

let's do it let's go i want to look at i

want to look at far lane quickly

i i oh go ahead sorry i just wanted to

look at farlane and just

do you have any thoughts on this sir

um i defer to you

i probably i've never even been here

before

very good answer what it's about

um if we do get into a bit of a um

uh scuffle um should i stand back

or how how do i defend myself are you

acquainted with any sort of magic for

elaine are you just

uh are you just very very brave

i am i don't know any magic no

and did you bring a weapon with you or i

did not maybe maybe just hide then

i hide i can i can do that yeah i'd say

go with that

does anyone have anything extra they can

give him just in case

somebody gets close i barely have enough

to arm myself

personally i'm gonna very begrudgingly

hand him one single javelin

um okay this uh last resort

got it the pointy end goes at the enemy

yes

i mean he held a sword to you i think he

knows where the pointy end goes

he missed though so i'm just making sure

pretty pretty terribly

all right let's do this try you ready

when we when we go i would like to lead

everyone through the path i've already

gone through so where i already know the

way

um so this is the best way guys you

should follow me

okay okay um as you guys walk forward

i'm gonna have everyone

roll a stealth check again um except for

ulma oma you know

exactly which way to go um and everyone

else rolls stealth

at advantage nice so i have disadvantage

on stealth so basically just roll one

just a straight roll yeah i'm so good at

this guy

i love it when advantage comes through

really clutch right

you're like [ __ ] roll great roll yeah

[Laughter]

i feel that okay uh

kellick what did you get for your stuff

is that 19 for me

okay uh march do you have yours yet i

have 14.

okay flynn 16. and try

nice okay um so you guys all follow

olma's path and as she leads you up to

the the building um

you guys walk up and you see exactly

what she saw a uh

a open tomb that leads into a staircase

going down

is there anything in here any you know

uh

debris of transformation or or

signs of a battle that occurred signs of

uh struggle

make an investigation check for me if it

seems like we're

looking around a little bit i'll kind of

lean up

on the inside of the door so i'm not

standing in the open

and i'll kind of instruct the others to

kind of like hunker down while we take a

quick look around

okay so if a goblin comes up they don't

see us standing in the

that's doorway 11 on the investigation

11.

you look around at the stone um you

don't see any signs of

a battle it might be easier to determine

if it was dirt or something but

with this stone that has been here for

this long it's already got scrapes and

scratches on it is very hard to

determine

try it does it strike you as strange

that uh there would be

you know a commune dedicated to alderia

and then just

north of it not but you know half days

travel

uh that has nothing to do with her

i'm not so familiar with the customs and

traditions of the folk in this part of

the world

i suppose it is slightly strange

um i guess a lot has changed in the past

uh few decades

uh let's uh descend shall we it

pains me too do we have to

treya do you want to save your forest or

not

try if it helps you feel better i i feel

the same internally

none of this excites me that's such a

small space well we don't know how big

it is on the inside

i got to be honest there's a bit of

comfort in this for me yeah it's not too

small for me

i'm gonna light i'm gonna light a torch

and duplicate to the

amount of light that is on it

and i'll i'll cast the light uh can trip

on the uh

the uh blade of musical

okay and just as it had happened in the

forest before

um oma you amplify the light and it

uh almost immediately recedes back into

uh

the normal glow um kellich your light

lights up and then after a second it

dims to about half

half of it so it'll be 10 feet of bright

light and

10 feet of dim instead of 20. when i

when i

um when i do that though i take a deep

breath

um and acknowledge that it did work

that time and and just look i just look

at my flame for a little bit longer

before heading in

okay um can i get a marching order for

you guys heading into this uh this tomb

who wants to take point i mean i will if

you want i can hold the light in front

of us

yeah great i do yes yeah i can't really

see

too well in the dark so i'm kind of

staying near somebody that has one of

these torches

um i'll go towards the back um i can

hold the torch back in the in that area

so that those of us who can't see back

here

are good i'm gonna be directly behind

her

with uh i mean i'm gonna bring just

again natural instinct

get that warhammer out uh

and then sort of is farlain gonna come

with with us or will he be staying up

top

it's commonwealth okay then i'm gonna

just sort of

look at ferlane and just kind of just do

one of these

tip outwards to tip outwards so that if

you've got a throw

you yeah okay well done

uh okay can we just brief for elaine

quickly on

you know there's gonna be some crazy

stuff down here

more than likely so be careful what you

touch

and hold on to and just try and try to

do what you're told

right i will not touch anything

if i can all right i will follow in

in your exact

do footsteps see anything friends i

wouldn't recommend following mine

okay i i will follow whoever i am behind

she was a good mentor

you know all right uh okay

feeling about this you guys descend down

the steps um

into this cave it's uh it looks like it

uh is like an underground tunnel system

here as

as you spiral down this staircase

you can feel it getting colder and

colder and

the walls look like they are damp with

moisture as you guys get to the bottom

of the staircase you guys look down and

you see a long

narrow hall in front of you kellek you

look forward and

as you have dark vision you can see this

pretty clearly

you look forward and you see several

bodies on the floor

um it's unclear exactly what they are

but they're about 20 feet ahead of you

um and you see quite a few bodies on the

floor

20 feet dead all right uh well

the old ways are the best ways

eyes of the grave do they appear to be

dead bodies or some of the other kind

they are

all dead bodies um but you do

only get um

that that aura of death from

about two-thirds of them the other do

not emanate

anything

so they all right

uh eyes forward everyone

there might be something afoot here

that's cryptic

uh we're in a crypt

perhaps we should keep our arms forward

as well

[Music]

all right uh i'll i'll continue on uh

um

[Music]

that's all i can think to do okay you

step forward towards these bodies

and the first one that you come across

emanates with that aura of death

and you look down and you see that it is

a goblin slain here with

with a large slash through its chest

you walk forward again and you see

another goblin body again with

another slash wound as if from

maybe a sword or some sharp

weapon you creep forward to one of these

other

figures that does not emanate either

life or death

and as you approach it you can see

it looks like some sort of metal

possibly iron and as you look at it

further

you can see arms and legs and a torso

as it looks like some sort of iron

construct

you look a little bit further on the

inside and you see tiny little gears

that are dormant and you can see all

over these

the armor on the outside of it seems

very

rusted and weathered as if these things

are are

ancient and you see it laying there

motionless on the ground

[Music]

then uh everything

in that book of yours about whatever the

hell this is

um no

and i'll walk up and take a look at it

like do i recognize what this thing is

um you can make a

make a history check for me sure

all right that is a

seven a seven you don't know what this

thing is

it looks like it's some sort of metal

man with like gears on the inside um

as you look a little bit closer you can

see that there are a couple of

um crossbow bolts a couple have hit it

in the chest and a couple have

hit it through the neck seemingly um

destroying some of the essential gears

on the inside

oh you know i actually i actually have

have seen one of these

um i've seen them all the time at

training they're like

target dummies and you kind of set them

up and you use them to

shoot arrows at so that's that's what

these are

i i definitely know so how do you

suppose the goblins died

fight and target dummies

i don't think they died fighting them do

any of the goblins have crossbows on

them

they don't they all seem to have uh

slash wounds

um and as you look down you can see um

sort of protruding from the forearms of

these

um metal men you can see sharp blades

emanating about two or three feet

are they covered in goblin blood they're

covered in some sort of blood

and the gob the dead goblins are the

only bodies that are down here that

appear to be bleeding so

yes probably pretty formidable dummies

uh yeah let's uh

let's be ready here first uh well can i

tell

just from looking at them damn or i'd

like to inspect them if i can

what if they have any sort of apparent

weakness within their deconstructed

form on the ground here is there some

way of telling how they were deactivated

if the bolts hit the weak spot yeah uh

for sure let me see um

let me pull up exactly what this would

be for you

just make a straight intelligence check

for me

would i be able to help him with my

infinite knowledge on target dummies

[Laughter]

um uh i'm gonna say no

that's totally fine intelligence uh that

is a

uh 17 uh 17. um

it appears that um looking over this

thing

it probably once was a pretty formidable

fighting machine um but with all of the

rust

on the gears on the inside and the rust

on the exterior

armor um these things probably were

seriously

impeded um by the time the goblins

actually got down here it probably

wasn't too tough for these goblins to

take them down

judging by the amount of bolts that are

stuck in them

but you do looking looking in this

hallway um

you now have a chance to sort of count

the bodies and you do see that there are

seven

goblins um laying dead on the ground and

three

of these um metal figures

somebody didn't want this tomb to be

raided

that's the best i can tell from this

shall we carry on yeah

only way through is forward all right

okay so you guys continue walking and

you make it to the end of this hall

where it makes a 90 degree turn to the

left

and you guys take a couple steps in and

you can see the left

uh of the hallway sort of opens up into

this

semi-circle of a room um

only about 20 feet in uh

diameter this thing opens up and there's

a little uh pedestal

in the center of this circle and it

uh builds up and it builds up and it

builds up and about

four feet off of the ground there is a

small

red gem perched at the top of this

pedestal

i i started to walk back out

in front of the rest of the group and

and walk a little bit more swiftly up

up to it and start checking it out

okay as you walk up to it um as you walk

up to the pedestal

um you begin to inspect and without

touching anything

you walk within about five feet of it

and all of a sudden

it blinks out of existence and it

vanishes and you hear

and then down the hall a little bit

going in the direction that you guys are

going

you also hear a similar

[Music]

do we see anything uh make a perception

check as you look down the hall

i don't have dark vision should this be

a disadvantage uh yes it should be

that's a good point okay

there okay okay nine

nine um it's tough you you see it it

probably came from

somewhere down the hall you can't see

exactly where though

so shraya approached this crystal on the

pedestal and the crystal disappeared

we heard a sound and we heard a similar

sound not too far ahead in the same

tunnel as that that is accurate all

right

uh try it if you step away from the

crystal does it

i would like to see it again so yes i

will step back

you step back and nothing happens

okay should we go check out where we

heard that sound maybe it

went over there yeah does it sound

like um does it remind me of the

teleportation circle

sounds that we've used in the past yes

it does

marge doesn't that sound like

when we use the teleportation circles i

was just thinking that

none of this can be good do you think

maybe

the gem just moved to a different place

yeah i think it's definitely teleporting

itself from this location further down

the hall

i think my concern is is that it's

enticing us

and therefore leading us into a trap

that we don't necessarily

want to be

i'll surprised with and touch the

pedestal

like i just want to see what happens if

i make contact with it

you touch the pedestal and it feels like

cold

stone all right nothing happens when you

make contact with

it it's not um it's not like it's

invisible right he when he if he touches

where

the gem was yes there's definitively no

gem

any longer

yeah i think it's probably luring us um

can we put a torch down that way

i i do think it's probably luring us

somewhere

well uh

oh that's where we're going i mean is

there anywhere else

are there alternate uh routes here

in this uh if i look around are there

different channels we could go down

besides the one where this teleportation

thing is looking around you see

um just ahead of you um just immediately

down the hall

you see it does split into two different

directions you see one splits

to the left and one continues on

straight

the one that continues on straight like

you're the only one that can really

see this at this point um the one that

continues on straight opens up into

a larger room which is where you heard

that teleportation sound from

straight and to the left those are the

options all right uh we can

check out the left side if you want to

see me the only one here who can see in

the dark

uh wow you can see in the dark

that's pretty dope i uh

i just sort of like indicate the color

of my skin

uh yeah i can uh i guess i'll uh

take a look i'm going to sneak up to the

the opening of the chamber

okay make a stealth check for me

that's a nine a nine okay um you walk up

to the edge of the chamber

um you see now as you approach the room

um you see that it opens up into

a um a circular room about 20 feet in

diameter

um and you see on a almost identical

uh uh pillar

the gem resting on top

is there anything how big is the chamber

um it's about 20 feet in diameter

and is there there's nothing else just a

pedestal um yeah so there's a pedestal

in the center and then you do see um

a doorway leading on to a room beyond

that the door is open

to that room but you're not quite able

to see into that far room

all right uh i'll sort of call back

yeah this seems like a trap to me

how far away is he

from us he's um just about 30 feet ahead

of you

um is it safe to come up to you

seems that way best i can tell

all right i'll i'll head up to kalec and

can i see uh into the room and see the

crystal or is it not lit

you are i don't know you're just able to

see the crystal

um yeah i kind of agree with you i kind

of feel like this this might be a trap

um i can poke it from out here though

i have my bow we can try i can try and

shoot it and then we could just stay

safely out in the hallway i'm gonna i'm

gonna walk up towards

where the split off is and say or

or we should just go down this way and

and ignore the crystal

okay for now did you say the crystal is

in that room

[Music]

and i sort of like walk toward

the opening and gaze into the room

uh the crystal i'm i'm just being

prompted

to to want to get closer to it and i

slowly start walking

my eyes fixed on it can i hold my hand

up and stop him wait wait

wait wait it looks like a trap

drya yes

you're probably right but uh

can can i see am i able to see the

the crystal in any kind of detail or is

it kind of like with flynn you can

barely make it yeah you can just barely

take a look at it it's it's red um it

doesn't glow

at all um like the other gems that you

saw um

but uh yeah it's it's just about

i mean it's a couple inches in diameter

[Music]

perhaps if i'm quick enough maybe i can

grab it well

let's see at least what's down the other

way first

could i just remain here i would very

much like to keep looking at it

as long as you promise me you're not

going to go in

it's okay it's not safe try if you go in

it's going to disappear so you actually

are safer

you're going to have more time with the

crystal if you keep it keep a good

distance

i don't like that logic but it's it

seems to make sense

and if it disappears it might reappear

back where it was

before so actually it might be better to

stand where it was before

and have someone else go in and try and

get it and then it'll pop back over

am i making sense it's gotta keep going

down the

the tunnel there i think then it's gonna

lead us farther

what do you see down this left path

maybe we should just try

i'll i'll take a look down the left path

can i see i'm of the mind to go down the

left path as well

um you look down the left path and um

you can see a couple of feet in the

um stairs go down further

so you can't really see into what's

beyond that

all right if we're all on board with

this let's just

go down the steps hi sure before we

before we head down

okay like does the room with the crystal

in it look like it's

that's it are there any doors that are

on the other side of the walls or

anything

yeah it proceeds farther it looks like

there's another pedestal that's why i

think uh

the crystal is going to keep moving yeah

that's up to you guys if you want to go

down just a quick thing to note

in the room beyond the one that you're

looking at with the pedestal you do not

see an additional pedestal in the in the

other room

oh i misunderstood that's that's my bad

i didn't clarify

uh but i did see an additional room yes

you did

okay all right uh

well i have no idea then i i saw an

additional room

that's all i can tell well if we think

this is a trap i think maybe going

downstairs might be the

best thing to check first

it makes i mean it just makes logical

sense that the

it's a tomb so the lower we go the

closer to the

base of the tomb the closer to whatever

this tomb is built

in in the name of

yeah what do you guys want to do

[Music]

down the stairs i suppose i agree

i will stay here and keep

watch um

you're gonna stay here try i think you

should come with us

i just i'll i'll make sure that no one

follows you down there

um sure try if if you help

us we'll get the gem when we come back

i mean we have to come back up to get

out right

yeah probably we'll get it on our way

back

also shreya you know i've we can find

other gems other places but

this one you know it'll be here just

let's go

well i suppose you're right

i just don't like going deeper into this

place

it'll be okay you'll be with us

what she said omar will protect you

ah all right i'll keep going down

further from the surface all right caleb

give a little high five to alma lead the

way buddy

i uh before leading on i will uh

go over to shraya and sort of

[Music]

uh looking over him looking over his

his brown feathers uh i will sort of uh

give him a little pat on the head and

i'll

lean forward and i'll give him a kiss

between his eyes

and i'll cast protection from good and

evil i steam

on him give him a bit of good will

uh and uh maybe some confidence because

we get deeper into this

place nice okay uh so that does give you

uh

uh uh

aberrations celestials elementals fay

fiends and undead all have

disadvantage on attack roles they make

against you and

you can't be charmed frightened or

possessed

by creatures of that variety

[Music]

thank you i i suddenly feel more

able to go continue on

it's the best i can give you i

understand your interpretation

that's cool okay so you guys

what's down this thing head down the

stairs um and it continues on

into the continuation of this hallway

as you're walking down on your right

there is

a door that seems to be closed and

locked

it's a wooden door and you cannot

there's no viewport

you cannot see into the room and you

also see that the hallway continues on

going straight

um i would like to look at the door and

and look at march

and reach into my bag and and

show her my my tool kit and and just

kind of

wave it and like nod towards the door

as if to ask should i

open it i'm i will be responding with a

nod and kind of a chin tip towards the

door

of an agreeance of potentially trying to

try and see what's behind this door

um i would like to try to use my uh

these

tools to unlock the door okay uh make a

slight of hand check for me

you have to use tools that's so cool i

do have these two nice

and i'm proficient in them yeah so uh

even better

you can add your uh tool proficiency

bonus to this role

uh where would that be

it's just just your proficiency yeah you

have proficiency in these tools

so that's really helpful actually so um

17 17. nice um

not but a moment before uh you stick

your thief's tools into this lock

um before it completely releases from

the door

it's one of those big heavy iron

padlocks

and it releases from the door um and you

are able to

take the lock away

[Music]

cool um i'm gonna

look back at march and and just kind of

who wants to open it i'm

instinctually gonna just come up and uh

stop myself from just doing like a you

know karate style kick to open it

and and try and open it just do we hear

anything from beyond the door

before we make a perception check

please both of you guys can since you're

both up at the door

okay oh that's so good okay um dirty 20.

i got 21. okay um you both listen in

and you hear silence you hear nothing

coming from this room

[Music]

sounds like a lot of dead people

[Music]

[Laughter]

what's in there what's up what's behind

the door

you said there's a viewport there is no

viewport oh there's no viewport okay

man i hate love this all at once i

should we open it i don't hear anything

open the door i don't hear anything i'm

gonna i'm gonna you you push from down

below i'll push from

from up top see what happens okay i

kind of oh i'm trying to like put a head

around the corner

like around it

so scared okay you guys put your hands

on this door

and it slowly creaks open and as you

guys look inside you see

um a couple rows of coffins

um inset into the walls itself

um it is almost like these these

um little uh

cubby holes almost for these coffins

have been set

into the stone you guys look in and at

the center of the room

there is a pillar very similar to what

you guys had seen previously

um it is just standing in the middle of

the room

no gem atop its uh its stand at the top

um something's up do we see anything

else

all these bizarre teleportations and

this one's hidden behind a locked door

i'm not exactly excited about this

well the question is if we go up

we go up uh stairs and we approach the

crystal

teleport down here we don't know

do we get it does this matter

do we get any anything coming off the

coffins there's a lot of like cubby

holes for coffins do we do we feel any

kind of

any kind of spooky vibes going on from

the coffee you want to make a spooky

vibes check

you are more than welcome to like a

spooky vibes check i mean

this whole thing is spooky so yeah i

will have

the entire group roll a spooky vibe

just as a reminder it is uh just adding

your wisdom modifier

okay

all right let's just when you've got it

just let me know nine

dirty twenty thirty twenty thirty twenty

jeez okay

wow um uh everyone except

alma is getting some pretty serious

spooky vibes down here

seems fine seems totally fine

uh all of you the

just sort of the hairs on the back of

your neck are standing up as you sort of

feel some sort of uh um

ulterior motive almost of of this whole

place

something uh below sort of its surface

level use

uh i'll i'll uh channel the eyes on my

patron once more cast eyes of the grave

uh

are there are there undead uh in these

coffins

um nothing undead no everything in here

is is

[Music]

really truly dead

[Music]

the gem is sounding a little bit better

right now

i mean there's nothing in this room

right now besides this

aperture or apparatus for the gym

uh should we look down uh the rest of

the aisle or do you want to go back up

let's well i say i say we continue

forward

but that's just me do you want to see if

the gem does

teleport down here should we should some

of us stay down here and some of us go

up and

i kind of like that idea try it would

you like to go back and touch the gym

but i feel like i could be the fastest

but only but

only if you promise to come back

yeah the question is why right

do we need this gem we don't who knows i

like how it looks

and i would very much like to hold it

all right let's let's go go wait

all right go ahead try it okay do we

even know if this gem is

he's fine he's protected from me are you

sure

no we're not sure it's real i'm sure

it's not just a projection of something

we don't regardless it seems to be some

kind of clue

i don't know what it's doing here but

maybe we need to progress it if we can

find it

if we can get a hold of it we could at

least find out right i i'm interested to

see if it leads to here if it doesn't

so so so flynn just just come back here

wherever it teleports come back here

don't don't follow it

yeah i would also say get ready in case

it teleports right here maybe you guys

can grab it really quick

if we teleport there i'm gonna put my

hands in the center

let's get ready okay all right you want

it ready

yeah so you guys head back up uh into

the previous chamber

up the stairs i'll stay downstairs okay

uh

downstairs with that and you guys both

get um up to the room

with the gem um and uh i light it

towards you you light a torch okay

yeah for sure yeah yeah um so you get up

to the gym

and right as you approach it right as

you're reaching your hand out to grab it

and after a second you hear behind you

at the initial pillar

back where the the gem was originally

did you guys do it yet did we did we see

anything happen downstairs

you do not no uh

try it stay here i

i think it went back to the other

pedestal i i could probably

go grab it okay can you see do you need

light

i i could take a torch i'll pull out

another torch because i think i you have

a few

in in that pack so i'll just pull out

one more and i'll transfer the light

to the other torch that i have and i'll

hand him one okay here you go

come back okay i i just want to see if i

can

be quick enough this time okay

let me know what happens i'm gonna go

try and grab it again from the first

okay uh i will stand at the at this

location and and stay there with my

hands

ready gotcha or the second location okay

try you once again reach your hand out

and getting close to it it disappears

out of existence

flynn for not even a split second

it blinks in and then out of existence

you are not able to touch it

crap and then down in in the the uh the

next room

where kellik oma and march are

in and out of existence in the blink of

an eye ah

did it did it go back to shraya does

ryan see it again or did it go nowhere

else no one currently sees it

okay wow i will wait for

flynn make a perception check for me

okay boy

all right it's uh not too great

eight eight just in the room beyond you

the one that

uh doesn't have a pillar in it but the

one that kellick pointed out to you

you just begin to hear

[Music]

as if something is beginning to be

dissolved in

acid and with that we are going to end

today's session

we're going to call it right there that

was intense

wow what the hell is going on

there um yeah that was intense i had a

lot of fun with that one i hope you guys

did too

um yes we're gonna call it right there

and we cannot wait to see you guys all

again

next week bye

hi i'm rebecca i play alma mark on

ventureforth

thanks so much for listening if you like

what you're hearing

or if you just like me please

subscribe and leave a review it really

does help

you can also support us on patreon for

exclusive content from our recorded

precast with all different characters

i play a half work barbarian also we're

on clubhouse

find us admining dnd on clubhouse for

discussion rooms

live gameplay and more bye nerds

Venture Forth is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. We play 5th edition (5e) Dungeons and Dragons in a home-brew D&D actual play setting. Our campaign takes place in the high fantasy realm of Elbor. A world of monsters, heroes and epic tales to be told. D&D is a TTRPG, a tabletop roleplaying game, also known as an RPG. Our gameplay is perfect for beginners to Dungeons and Dragons from episode 1.Olma, Flynn, March, Ceallach, Shraya

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Venture Forth, Dungeons and Dragons podcast, 5e, actual play podcast, d&d, d&d 5e, d&d actual play, d&d campaign, d&d gameplay, d&d podcast, dnd, dnd 5e, dnd campaign, dnd podcast, dungeons and dragons, dungeons and dragons campaign, rpg, ttrpg

https://www.ventureforthdnd.com/
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