Timothy (DM): Welcome to shadows, a prophecy, a D&D real play podcast, where we will find out what it takes to become a hero, face our darkest fears, and pull ourselves out of a pit of despair.
Shadows of Prophecy is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast with violent themes and adult language listener discretion is advised.
With us today to traverse through adventures of loss and tragedy. We have myself, Timothy, our ambivalent DM, Dan, as the ever so helpful healer's apprentice, Tristen Barrette, and Ellie as our homely gossiping potter, Babetto "Babs" Brunello.
Join us as we enter the Shadows of Prophecy.
Prologue: A Word Unravels
Chapter One: A Call to the Void
The cosmos shifts, Celestial bodies, orchestrate in dance, rotating on points. Time turns and the universe hums. From a single spark, life blossoms. One becomes many, and the cycle of all things begins as a march forward from the birth unto death, the constant lurch of energy toward the entropic death of everything. The one true inevitable. As we sit here, watching in all and wonder, the macrocosm of reality, we zoom far, far, far into the first hero of our tale, a microscopic speck of a being, an inconsequential vessel of an utterly minute increment of energy. We zoom into this trivial being to find ourselves in the town of Null
The town of Null is a quiet, rural Hamlet on the Northern border of the Gallatice Forest on the Eastern edge of Everfear where everyone knows each other by name once a waystation between Siag and Galadia. The rolling hills of Null are home to a reclusive set of farmers that generally keep to themselves. And rarely is it that anybody leaves.
It's a brisk autumn morning, as you sit at the table in your mentors, cottage, the whistle of the teapot begins to fuss and as Crickets slowly stumbles from his perch, his age showing more each day, the fog in his eyes and the dulling blue of his feathers. You get up to grab the tea.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, I hear crickets. Let me, let me help. And I'm gonna help him down from his perch. Give him an arm.
Timothy (Crickets): Oh, thank you Tristen very much. I appreciate your generosity.
Dan (Tristen): Of course. Um, and I'll go grab that to you. Then I'll like sit him down in a chair and then head over to the tea and prepare it. Pour it, add sugar.
Timothy (Crickets): We have. Did you sleep well? Tristen?
Dan (Tristen): Yes, very well. Uh, the cots not the comfiest, but we'll make do
Timothy (Crickets): yes. I, I do apologize for my lack of, uh, comfortable quarters, but, uh, I appreciate you bearing with me.
Dan (Tristen): Is it crickets or cricket?
Timothy (DM): Crickets
Dan (Tristen): and multiple crickets. Um, and how long have I been here?
Timothy (DM): You've been living with crickets for a couple of months.
Dan (Tristen): Okay.
Timothy (DM): At this point, he has been teaching you the ways of healing with herbs and kind of showing you the ropes around town. So you've started to learn a little bit about the different ailments that each member of the town has. And you’ve become a little bit familiar and you might have to check your notes, but how to prepare their medicines.
Timothy (Crickets): Gotcha. Okay. Cool. After breakfast, Tristin, do you mind running to the edge of the forest to gather some herbs?
Dan (Tristen): Oh yes, of course, sir. Um, which ones?
Timothy (Crickets): Uh, yes. Where did I do you, do you see my notes over there on the table? Or did I leave them upstairs in my bedroom?
Dan (Tristen): Um, I'll check the table.
Timothy (DM): You go over to the table and you see papers scattered about you start sifting through them and you aren't seeing any like, grocery list or sorts. So maybe checking upstairs.
Dan (Tristen): I'll head upstairs and check the bedroom.
Timothy (DM): All right. You go up the creaking stairs until you reach the second floor. Cricket's bedroom is on the left and you enter on the nightstand. You do see a piece of paper where you see several herbs listed among them are Black Ash Bark, Blue Aloe, Sourgrass, and Maid's Lily.
Dan (Tristen): Cool. I'll head back down. Um, I found it, it was up in your bedroom.
Timothy (Crickets): Oh, very good. And would you mind while you were out stopping next door and paying Babs a visit, her balm is ready.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, perfect. I'll grab it and put in my bag
Timothy (Crickets): and please do remind her that it is to be applied three times per day, and that she should refrain from washing it off for at least one hour. Otherwise the effects may be null.
Dan (Tristen): All right. Three times a day. Don't wash for an hour. Got it. I'll let her know and I'll head out. There's nothing else to do, right?
Timothy (DM): Yeah. So you head out of the cottage, uh, the door swings closed behind you and you see Babs house just next door.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, perfect. Neighbors.
Timothy (DM): Babs. What does your house look like? How do you keep it?
Ellie (Babs): My house looks like... it looks like those.. Older people who have lived in the same home, their whole life. And so their yard is just so full of, you know, a little rainbow whirly gigs and like a little water fountain and the remnants of seven to 12 stars--, half started garden efforts and decor, those weird ceramic suns that people sometimes like, hang on the outside of their house. She's definitely got those. She made them herself, her trees have those little like faces, you know, like where they make the eyes and the nose and you put it on the tree. She loves that. She's taken that to its logical extreme with all things in her yard. Um, yeah. And other than that, yeah, it's like a cozy little cottage, it's sort of low slung. That's one story, it's sprawling. It has sort of an extension on one side that houses her studio.
Timothy (DM): Awesome. So you push past the front gate to Babs, uh, kind of front garden area. Um, and you make your way down the stone path to her front door.
Dan (Tristen): I knock
Ellie (Babs): just a minute.
You hear from inside clinking, shuffling thumping, like slamming the door. Oh. And then the door is unceremoniously elbowed open. It opens outwards. So you have to Dodge backwards a little bit. And Babs is standing there with her hands up in front of her covered in clay, a little smudge of clay on her nose.
Oh, Tristin. What a pleasure to see you. You just in time? Should I put on a kettle?
Dan (Tristen): Oh no, I, I don't have the time for some tea, but thank you. Um, I, uh, Crickets sent me with this balm
and I take it out and present it and
I should probably come in and set it down. Shouldn't I?
Ellie (Babs): Yes, please. You can just, ah, ah, come on in, come on in, uh, close the door behind you,
Dan (Tristen): right?
Ellie (Babs): She assures you that you come right into like a lovely homey little kitchen.
Uh, you can just set it on the table there.
Uh, she gestures to the table where you can see maybe some other balms that you've come to drop off that are fuller than they should be if she's been using them as she should be
just on the table, like a usual sweetheart. Thank you.
Dan (Tristen): Of course... ummm, Babs. We need to talk,
I'll sit down the, uh, the balm on the table and gesture to the other bombs.
Ellie (Babs): Oh, can you, could you believe that? Well,
Dan (Tristen): Babs, your rash isn't going to get any better if you don't use the balms three times a day and Crickets says, make sure not to wash off the balm for at least an hour.
Ellie (Babs): I look like the kind of woman who has time to stand around for an hour with my hands up in the air doing nothing?
Dan (Tristen): No, I guess not.
Ellie (Babs): So what, so it's a little bit difficult for me.
Dan (Tristen): I understand. What about, um, let's see, three times a day. So are you, do you. Are you just claying I don't know the proper word for that, pottering all day, no breaks.
Ellie (Babs): Uh, sometimes I stopped to make myself a little snack. Speaking of which, would you like a little snack?
Dan (Tristen): Um, I don't have too much time, but if it's already made, I'm not going to say no to some breakfast.
Ellie (Babs): Okay. Yeah. Well, I got some apple slices and peanut butter over here. Is that something realistically? I got some apple slices and peanut butter that I was prepping for my grandkids, but you could have some instead..
Dan (Tristen): Oh, thank you.
I'll take a couple. I won't take all of it,
but you need to do this, your hands aren't going to stop burning until you use the balm on a regular basis. They must hurt. It looks like they hurt.
Ellie (Babs): Oh, it does. It does. But when, when the passion of the clay burns inside your heart, you can't just turn your cheek, turn your head away and apply balls. When the inspiration strikes me, look, you're a sweet kid, Tristen, and I appreciate you. And I know you and Crickets are just looking out for me and I will try to do better.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Thank you. *tongue tied* Trying is the first step.
Ellie (Babs): I'll do it right now.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, perfect. Wash your hands first, please.
Ellie (Babs): She heads over to the sink. Washes her hands off.
Uh, comes over
Dan (Tristen): new balm, new balm. Don't use the old one,
I'm going to gather up the old ones.
Ellie (Babs): Um, scoops out of the bomb, rubs it on her hands.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. One hour, go read a book or something.
Ellie (Babs): I'll get the pages all greasy.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, whoa. Is there like a stick that you can use to turn the pages? I can see there's like a spoon, like a wooden picking spoon.
I gesture with my elbow to like, with your eyes, turn the pages with your elbow. That could work right. There has to be some way.
Ellie (Babs): Oh, maybe I'll just die! ohhh... Yeah, no, it's okay. My grandkids are coming over in like two minutes and I'll have them turn the pages for me.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, perfect. Yeah, I will. Um, let you be, then enjoy your time with your grandkids and I will see you around.
Ellie (Babs): Thank you so much, sweetheart. Give my best to Crickets for me. Tell him if he needs extras of those mugs that he likes for the tea I've got, like, eight.
Dan (Tristen): Okay.
Ellie (Babs): And they're just sitting back there. Nobody's using them.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Yeah, we don't get to, well, I guess we do probably do get a lot of guests actually. In retrospect, I will, I'll ask him and I'll let you know.
Ellie (Babs): Okay. You have such a great day. Sweet, hot. Would you like some apple slices for the road?
Dan (Tristen): Oh, I'm okay. Thank you. So, okay.
Ellie (Babs): Are you sure? Can I put one in your pocket? I was just going to put one in your pocket. I'm going to just put that in your pocket for you.
Dan (Tristen): *Talking over each other*
Ellie (Babs): okay. Goodbye, sweetheart.
Dan (Tristen): Goodbye.
and I'm going to slowly make my way out the door. We're going to like back out the door. Um,
Ellie (Babs): yeah. And as you're, as you're leaving, her grandkids are coming. Her daughter, uh, is coming in with her two little toddler grandkids.
Dan (Tristen): Hello, everyone. And I'll hold the door open as they like that.
Ellie (Babs): Great. Uh, they're cheering. apples and peanut butter, apples and peanut butter. And they B line for the apples and peanut butter.
Dan (Tristen): Perfect. Shut the door.
Timothy (DM): Uh, so as you shut the door behind you, you feel the squish of the peanut buttery and balmy apple in your pocket
Ellie (Babs): oh, it's so good.
Timothy (DM): And you turn around and start making your way to the edge of town, to the edge of the forest, where you know that you can gather quite a few of these herbs.
Dan (Tristen): Perfect. I guess I'll just go to the normal herbs spots that I know where these herbs are
Ellie (Babs): making the rounds, you know?
Timothy (DM): Yeah. So, um, give me a nature or survival check
Dan (Tristen): sure. Which one's better ? Oh, they're the same. Let's go with uh, nature?
That was a Nat one.
Ellie (Babs): Oh, no.
Dan (Tristen): Off to a good start.
Timothy (DM): Right? Um, so you head to the edge of the forest and you start kind of scouring your normal area, where you find a lot of these just at the edge of the forest before you have to like, press in, but you realize that you've picked this area quite clean over the last couple of weeks.
You might have to check one of your other locations.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Um, do I have any other, like, just inside the forest, is the forest dangerous? Am I --?
Timothy (DM): The forest is not particularly dangerous and you're, you're quite familiar with this forest. So you press in and make another survival or nature check with advantage.
Dan (Tristen): One of them was a 1, 5, 8.
Timothy (DM): Uh, you find that your mind is wandering today. Maybe your conversation with Babs
and your anxieties around Crickets as well, keep pressing to mind as you find yourself kind of wandering into the forest and realize that you're in an area that you don't quite remember so much.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Oh, great. Okay. Um, so I don't know where I am. I've lost in a sense?
Timothy (Crickets): Lost in like a, you find yourself temporarily displaced sort of way.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. I will survey the area for the herbs that I'm looking for to see if there are any there. Should I roll another one?
Timothy (DM): Yes, please.
Dan (Tristen): With advantage or no,
Timothy (DM): at this time, regular,
Dan (Tristen): that is a 14.
Timothy (DM): Alright, so you find an Ash tree and you are able to scrape the bark off of it.
Dan (Tristen): Perfect. Black Ash. Check. I have a list, a grocery list.
Timothy (DM): And as you're doing so, you do notice your normal patch of Maid's Lily
Dan (Tristen): oh, good love that I can orient myself to.
Timothy (DM): Yeah.
Dan (Tristen): Perfect.
Timothy (DM): So you head on over and you start picking some Maid's Lily
Dan (Tristen): check
Timothy (DM): and now you've reoriented yourself in the forest.
Dan (Tristen): All right. So now just the Blue Aloe and Sourgrass. Now, where, where does that Blue Aloe grow again?
Timothy (DM): So you follow your pathway down to the blue aloe patch, closer to the edge of the forest. And that's when you hear the agonized wails of several towns folk in the direction of the well, echoing through the hills. You hear a young voice,calling out for help,
Timothy (Walter): help help. Is anyone there ?!?
Dan (Tristen): Do I recognize this voice?
Timothy (DM): You recognize his voice as young Walter, a boy of 10.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Um, and -- , I guess I had towards the voice then, um, yeah, I head towards the voice. See what's going on and the wails coming from the, well,
I much prefer the well dolphins myself, but wow. They're much more, uh, charismatic and friendly.
Ellie (Babs): Well, well porpoise,
Dan (Tristen): well porpi
Timothy (DM): So you, uh, briskly make your way back into town and in the center of town is the well. Around the, well, you see a gathering of towns folk, a couple of the town elders can be found there, several families and everybody is kind of fretting about. There are a couple of people kind of leaning over the well, calling back down to Walter.
As this information becomes more apparent, you realize that Walter has fallen down the well. He's injured and they are all kind of collecting rope in order for Clayton to Spelunk down the well. The commotion has attracted a good portion of the town. So you watch as Clayton ties the rope around his waist, ties and other end at the top of the well along the post and starts to descend down.
You hear some commotion echoing out of the well, and eventually you see Walter and Clayton's head crest over the top of the well, and he climbs out at this point, they turn to you.
Timothy (Clayton): We must get him to crickets right away. It appears he has broken a leg.
Dan (Tristen): Oh yes. Please bring him this way. Is Babs there?
Timothy (DM): Babs is here.
Dan (Tristen): Has a been an hour?
Ellie (Babs): I love a commotion.
Timothy (DM): Maybe half an hour.
Dan (Tristen): --Is Babs still holding her hands?
Ellie (Babs): Yup.
Dan (Tristen): Okay, perfect.
Ellie (Babs): She's being a good girl.
Dan (Tristen): I make eye contact with Babs and give her an approving nod..
She, uh,
Ellie (Babs): nods back to you. She's like, kind of in the middle of a conversation with her, uh, her kids and one of her neighbors and she is obviously gossiping about something.
Dan (Tristen): I will lead Clayton and party back to Crickets' place.
Timothy (DM): Alright, so you carry the boy back to Crickets' place. Can you give me a perception check?
Dan (Tristen): Yes.
Timothy (DM): As you investigate his injuries.
Dan (Tristen): That's the third Nat one I've rolled today. Four rolls. Uh, so yeah, that's a. Yeah.
Timothy (DM): So in the commotion, we're leading the party over to Crickets' and you're not paying too much attention to Walter as of yet, so you don't notice anything. You haven't really assessed his injuries
Dan (Tristen): makes sense.
Timothy (DM): You push open the door to Cricket's cottage and you see, he's still sitting at the, the morning breakfast table and he is taking a snooze.
Dan (Tristen): I will go up to crickets and lightly shake him awake,
Timothy (Crickets): um, well Tristen, or would it w w who are these people? What's happened?
Dan (Tristen): Crickets, um, you know, Walter, uh, Walter fell down the well, and he seems to have broken his leg. So if you could take a look, maybe say,
Timothy (Crickets): Oh, dear Walter playing a little too rough. Yes. Yes. Bring him in back and lay him down. And I will, I will take a look to see,
Dan (Tristen): um, I will help Clayton, um, bring him to the back to put them on the table.
Timothy (DM): All right.
Dan (Tristen): The operating
Timothy (DM): you lay Walter down on the table. Give me another perception. Check.
Dan (Tristen): That is a 23.
Timothy (DM): All right.
Dan (Tristen): Much better.
Timothy (DM): So as you lay Walter down, that's when you notice he has broken his leg from the fall, but along the lower half of his leg, you see strange black boils. Around the wound and they seem to be tendrilling up his leg,
Dan (Tristen): like underneath the skin?
Timothy (DM): Yeah.
Dan (Tristen): Um, crickets, um, take a look at this
and I'm going to show him the boils.
Timothy (DM): So Crickets is going to come into the backroom and start examining the boy. You notice, he looks quite surprised and you're taken aback and he doesn't say anything at first. He examines Walter's leg, not touching it, but just looking it over. And then he turns to you.
Timothy (Crickets): Uh, yes, uh, just a few broken bones, but nothing, some medicine and a little prayer and time won't fit.
Dan (Tristen): But crickets. What about, what about these here?
Timothy (Crickets): Could I have everybody leave while I take a further inspection of the boy and he motions everybody out of the room?
Dan (Tristen): Me as well?
Timothy (DM): Yes.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. I guess I'll leave.
Timothy (DM): Uh, so you exit the room and you all sit and wait for quite some time.
And after maybe 15, 20 minutes, you hear the door to the backroom, opening and Cricket exits.. Uh, he comes up to you Tristen and kind of pulls you aside.
Timothy (Crickets): I fear that I do not know what afflicts the boy beyond the broken bone. I know you were quite concerned and I see the same, but I cannot tell you what it is. I have never seen this before.
Dan (Tristen): I imagine that's very uncommon for crickets to not have seen.
Timothy (DM): Yeah. I mean, in the town of north, um, most ailments are fairly mundane. You don't come across too many bizarre illnesses or injuries.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Well, what can we do then is that there has to be something that we could do for him.
Timothy (Crickets): Where did you find the boy? You say? The, well?
Dan (Tristen): Yes, he had, he had fallen down the well and broken his leg, Clayton spelunked down and, um, pulled him out. Interesting.
Timothy (Crickets): Interesting. He seems to be muttering something under his breath. I can't make out much, but I've heard the words, it watches and something about a rune. I wonder if whatever is down at the bottom of the well would explain his affliction.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Um, Does--
Ellie (Babs): he, he looks at you significantly, as he says. I wonder if whatever's at the bottom of--,
Dan (Tristen): okay. Yeah, I can go look. Yeah. I'll I'll I'll see if Clayton can help me down the well,
Timothy (DM): So you look around and you notice that Babs has overheard this conversation.
*laughs*-- just listening,
Ellie (Babs): her head pops up the window.
Did somebody say you're going down a well,
I'm sorry. You know me? I'm a terrible eavesdropper. I hate feeling out of the loop. I like to know what's going on. So what's going on.
Dan (Tristen): I give uh... Crickets--.
How you doing? Check it out. She holds up her hands, which are still covered.
Timothy (Crickets): I'm very happy to see that you are listening to my medical expertise.
Ellie (Babs): Oh, crickets. You know, I'd love your medical expertise.
Timothy (Crickets): Um, oh, I didn't notice. Uh, how long have you been sitting there?
Ellie (Babs): Uh, pretty much the whole time. Just crouched outside the window, like this, like this, she demonstrates she crashes back down and then pops back up like that the whole time. Ooh. But I couldn't hear great.
You could probably enunciate a little bit better for the benefit of people like me who want to know what's going on outside the window when
Dan (Tristen): dropping some leaves
Ellie (Babs): dropping some eaves
Timothy (Crickets): I would fear riling the town. So we may want to keep this under wraps.
Ellie (Babs): -Oh, me, my lips are sealed. I'm very good at keeping secrets.
Timothy (Crickets): Yes, of course.
Ellie (Babs): Hey Kaitlin,
under wraps, Babs. I will tend to the boy, um, Tristen, if you would like to go and figure out what we discussed.
Dan (Tristen): Like is a strong word for wanting to do this, but I will. I will. I will. Yeah. Let me, let me go grab Clayton. Um,
Timothy (DM): so Clayton is no longer in the cottage after Crickets has kind of cleared everyone out. Walter's parents are still there, but most of the rest of the town has kind of left the premise. You can go into town to search for Clayton.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. I will go ahead. Come on Babs. You're part of this now.
Ellie (Babs): I love to be part of things.
As we leave, she like, I dunno, hops in the window, surprisingly spry, uh, as we leave and we've passed by Walter's parents, she goes,
oh my gosh, Ann Marie, I can't tell you much, but we're going to the, well, it's a secret though.
Timothy (DM): She looks at you, very confused and very worried, thanks you and goes back to talking to her husband.
Sweet couple real sweet couple. Although, you know, sometimes at night you can hear them yelling at each other. Their tone gets a little aggressive. It makes you wonder, doesn't it. Doesn't it make you wonder, Tristen, what do you wonder about Tristen?
Dan (Tristen): Uh, I wonder about herbs and --
Ellie (Babs): Herb?
Dan (Tristen): And...
Ellie (Babs): Did you know that last week I saw Herb out back with his goat and he was braiding it's further into the most intricate little designs.
I never took him to have a craft's person's touch here. I thought he was just allowed. And yet that was the prettiest goat I had ever seen.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, Herb. Yeah, for sure.
Ellie (Babs): We all wonder about Herb.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. Herb. What a, what a character. I do want to go see that goat though.
Ellie (Babs): Detour on the way.
Timothy (DM): Sure. You, you can stop by Herb's along the way.
And you see, he has like a little pen in the back where he has a couple goats.
Dan (Tristen): Is their hair intricately braided?
Timothy (DM): Yeah. He's braided, uh, the long Tufts on the back of the neck,
Ellie (Babs): like a show pony,
Timothy (DM): like a show pony.
Dan (Tristen): Oh wow. Babs. You're right. That's--
Ellie (Babs): I'm always right.
Dan (Tristen): That's-- I should get him to braid my hair, or at least show me how
Ellie (Babs): you're telling me.
Dan (Tristen): All right. To the, well, I guess,
Ellie (Babs): would you like to see this strange little pig that I saw two months ago,
Babs was just going to take them on a tour of every weird animal in town.
It - it looks like a regular pig, but it's small. And I think it has human eyes.
Dan (Tristen): As we take this tour, I'm going to try and detour Babs into the direction of the, well, at every chance that I get, oh, let's not go across town to see this two headed snake that you might've seen on the road.
Ellie (Babs): It might have been two snakes close to each other, but I think it was --.Okay. Well, yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm focusing. I'm focusing.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah, but afterwards, we're going to finish this tour.
Ellie (Babs): Okay.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Good.
Ellie (Babs): You and me Tristin. I'll make us commemorative dishware to celebrate our tour of all the strange animals in all.
Dan (Tristen): Perfect.
Ellie (Babs): I'm so glad you're here. I've wanted to talk to somebody about this for ages. My kids just don't appreciate it.
Dan (Tristen): I don't understand why. That's strange. Animals are fun.
Ellie (Babs): You and me. We're two of a kind. Peas in a pod, two heads on a snake.
Dan (Tristen): Sure, sure. Babs. Yeah, sure.
Timothy (DM): Um, and as you, yeah,
Ellie (Babs): she keeps them almost like patting you on the back of that and remembering.
Timothy (DM): So as you're making your way to the, well, have you noticed that Clayton is there and he has started boarding it up.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, um, sir. Mr. Clayton, sir.
I don't know why I raised my hand.
Ellie (Babs): We're in class. I have a question.
Timothy (Clayton): Oh, uh, yes. Uh, Tristen, what is it?
Dan (Tristen): Um,
Timothy (Clayton): how is it, how is Walter
Dan (Tristen): he's doing okay. But, uh, cricket said that we need to go down, back down into the well to see something. It seems like Walter might've brought something up with him.
Um, oh, so we need to go check out.
Ellie (Babs): Well, it's a secret though.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. You can-- please don't tell me it's probably nothing, right? Babs, nothing
Ellie (Babs): nothing
Dan (Tristen): but Crickets asked that I go check down in that dark. Well, it's fine.
Ellie (Babs): It's fine.
Timothy (Clayton): Well, well, what could possibly be at the bottom of the, well, this has been the town drinking water for ages.
Dan (Tristen): Yes. Uh, maybe just a critter that bit him. It's hard to say. We were just going to check out, you know, you know how, like sometimes there are mice or rats in the, well, that's not the first time that that's happened.
Timothy (Clayton): Well, I hope nothing has died down there. We'd have to seal it off and let it, uh, we'll clear out for a while.
Dan (Tristen): Well, that's, that's why we're going down to check.
Ellie (Babs): No need to seal it off preemptively you know? If nothing's wrong down. We're just going to take a little Gander, a little look, see.
Timothy (Clayton): Oh, all right.
And at this point he registers that Babs is present and that this whole conversation,
Ellie (Babs): Like what you've done with your facial hair recently, I know the breakup was hard for you, but I really think you're coming back in a strong way.
Timothy (Clayton): And he turns to Babs and he just goes, uh, uh, a -- you're going, wait, you're going down there with him.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. Yeah.
Timothy (Clayton): What,
Dan (Tristen): yes. Babs, if you didn't know, is an old time spelunker and
Ellie (Babs): such a Snoop.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah.
Ellie (Babs): I just hate being left out. All right.
Timothy (Clayton): Well then I think it would be against better judgment for me to let you go alone. I, I, --
Dan (Tristen): Well, we were hoping you'd help us get the ropes. Climbed down. Nope. Can't say it's my, I can't say it's not my first time that didn't make any sense. It's my first time going down into a well, and I don't know what I'm doing.
Timothy (Clayton): Oh, uh, I mean you just hold onto the rope. Um, it, yes, I will help you out. Um, well, it's a good thing that we still have the rope that I, uh, took down to get Walter.
So I guess we'll, I'll try that to back up
and he knots fit again along the post, throws it down the well.
I'll go down and first, uh, just in case there's any difficulty and, uh, uh, you can come on down after me.
Ellie (Babs): How much room is there on this? And you're a darling, but you're so big. You're going to take up all the space in that itty bitty little well.
Timothy (Clayton): That is fair. Maybe I will go down first and I will, I will call back up, uh, when I've reached to the bottom, you, you, you do not need to, to, to worry about a thing.
Ellie (Babs): No, no, because what if something happens down there and I don't know about it. What if you see something cool down there and you don't tell me about it Clayton, like you didn't tell me about the breakup.
You know, I uh, I had to find that out third hand and I was very upset because I thought that we were close
Timothy (Clayton): Babs. Um, I will communicate everything that I see. Uh, but I mean, there's probably nothing. There's probably nothing down there.
Ellie (Babs): Well, then I should hope there's some water down there.
Timothy (Clayton): Well, yes, I should hope so.
Ellie (Babs): Is. Are we supposed to like, stop? Do we want to go down? Is it okay if he goes down?
Timothy (DM): Yeah.
Ellie (Babs): Okay.
Dan (Tristen): We'll follow after, right?
Timothy (DM): Yes. So Clayton is going to tie the other end of the rope around his waist as a security measure. And he's going to start dropping down into the, well, you hear him calling up intermittently
Timothy (Clayton): all good down here, Babs. There is nothing to see, nothing to see, nothing to think. Oh,
Ellie (Babs): oh,
Dan (Tristen): oh,
Timothy (Clayton): oh.
Ellie (Babs): Oh.
Dan (Tristen): Is that good? Oh is not good, right.
Ellie (Babs): It depends.
Dan (Tristen): I guess that's true, cause oh, a braided goat hair.
Timothy (Clayton): Tristen, Babs.
Ellie (Babs): Yes.
Timothy (Clayton): It appears the water has spilled out of the weld. There's there's a chamber down here.
Dan (Tristen): Uh, oh, is right. Oh, all right. Uh, has it been an hour?
Ellie (Babs): That's a great question.
Timothy (DM): Yeah. At this point it's been an hour.
Ellie (Babs): Okay, great. Babs is back in function.
Dan (Tristen): I check the sun to see where it's at. Uh, Babs. I think you're good. You can go ahead and wipe down.
Ellie (Babs): Great. Yeah, she kinda like shakes out her hands. Oh, that's so great. I immediately just starts like touching things in her vicinity.
Timothy (Clayton): Uh, you, you may want to come down here. Um, there's enough room for us strangely enough.
Dan (Tristen): All right. Um, I guess I'll head down next. It'll be fine. What is Babs' race.
Ellie (Babs): She's a half-life.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So we could probably go to get like, climb, not know, sort of like together together, but at the same time, because you're like small.
Ellie (Babs): Yeah. I can, uh, move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than small.
Dan (Tristen): Perfect. Um, so I guess I'll tentatively grab onto the rope, um, and start lowering myself down into a well, it's fine.
Timothy (DM): Okay. So you start descending down to the well, uh, it appears, um, pretty much what you assumed a will would look like on the inside. There are other stone bricks that run up either side covered in Moss and other lichen sorts of flora.
Tristen is actively nervous. Um, you could tell he's like breathing heavy, um, kind of eyes are darting around and as he lowers himself down into the well
Ellie (Babs): great Babs, um, gathers up her skirts, uh, hops onto the side of the world, rotates over like wraps her legs around their open, begins to descend as well.
Oh my gosh. It's like being back in my teens. When I used to sneak out of the house to meet with my lover.
Dan (Tristen): Where did you go, where would you meet your lover? That this reminds you of it?
Ellie (Babs): Oh, you know, well, I live in a single story house, but I'm kind of short. So I had to use the rope to get out the window, so my parents wouldn't know it was Harold, by the way,
Dan (Tristen): Harold. Oh, how was he doing?
Ellie (Babs): You know, he's doing okay.
Dan (Tristen): I haven't seen him at the Crickets in awhile.
Ellie (Babs): He's Hale and hearty. He's very robust, honestly, when it comes to life partners, I think I should've stuck with Harold. But, here I am...,
you notice
Dan (Tristen): that the conversation is like helping Tristen calm down as he lowers himself.
Ellie (Babs): So like she's above. So she's like yelling this it's totally like echoing down and I'm sure like Clayton is just at the bottom. Also people walk by the well
Timothy (DM): everything is echoing, there's so much going on.
Ellie (Babs): Her ex-husband walks by just as she says I should've gone with Harold. And he's like--,
Timothy (DM): when you hear the sloshing of water below you, um, as Tristen, your foot hits the ground, there is a shallow pool of water beneath you much too shallow for a well, and that's when you look up and see a slender opening of crumbling brick that reveals a natural cavern system at the bottom of the, well. The water that was collected in the well has spilled out into the cavern.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, um, I'll help Babs down as she gets closer to the ground.
Ellie (Babs): Thank you, Tristen, you're such a doll. She, uh, ties up her skirts a little bit, so that happens. Don't get wet.
Dan (Tristen): I imagine we have torches that we utilize, but Clayton has lit a torch.
Timothy (DM): Yeah. Clayton has lit a torch. He just had it on him.
Dan (Tristen): Of course.
Timothy (DM): Don't worry about it.
Ellie (Babs): This guy is prepared.
Timothy (DM): He's the town prepared person.
Ellie (Babs): Yeah, that's true. That's his role? He's like the guy,
Timothy (DM): the guy,
Dan (Tristen): He's just like, what's his job? I'm not sure he can do it. He just, he just does the things,
Ellie (Babs): just like the guy. He's the stunt man.
Dan (Tristen): It's Clayton.
Ellie (Babs): It's Clayton.
Timothy (DM): Everyone knows Clayton.
Ellie (Babs): Yeah.
Timothy (DM): And the kind of crack in the wall is two and a half feet wide. So a tight little squeeze, but it starts to open up on the other side.
Dan (Tristen): Shall we, and I gesture towards the crack in the wall?
Ellie (Babs): I love this. Yes, let's go.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. And I will shimmy on through.
Ellie (Babs): And Babs will also shimmy on through
Dan (Tristen): Does Clayton? Cause Clayton, as we, as we've established, is big, man.
Timothy (DM): Yeah. He's already on the other side of that point.
Dan (Tristen): Daddy? Sorry, daddy?
Timothy (DM): He's already, on the other side of this point, you can see his torch light down into the natural cavern. There's like a little bit of a narrow pathway before it opens up into a larger cavern, maybe 35, 20 feet in size. To your left, you see wooden planks that have been nailed together to barricade a passageway leading out of the cavern, but the wood has rotted and the barricade has collapsed enough to squeeze through.
In front of you, you see a sort of natural looking stairway. So it's smooth as if people have walked this path before, there's like a kind of grooves where people's feet have hit time and time again. And it's, but it's mostly like a natural stone not carved or anything like that. And to your right is another narrow pathway that's kind of completely opened up.
Ellie (Babs): So Clayton, well, I guess I can decide, we can decide what this is in character out of character, but like, was there water in the, well, when Clayton came down here to get Walter.
Timothy (DM): No.
Ellie (Babs): So like when Clayton came down to get Walter, Walter was lying at the bottom of the, well in the little puddle.
Timothy (DM): Yeah.
Ellie (Babs): Oh. So he knew!
*talking over each other about Clayton being suss*.
Okay. Well,--
Dan (Tristen): Let's inject him into space.
Ellie (Babs): Calling a team meeting or whatever it's called. Um, can you, sorry, can you summarize our, uh, egress options for us one more time? There's something like to the left, something to the right, something ahead.
Timothy (DM): Yeah. So to the left has been barricaded, but decayed away.
Ellie (Babs): Okay.
Timothy (DM): Natural stairs are forward.
Ellie (Babs): Okay.
Timothy (DM): And to the right is just an open, narrow pathway, so.
Dan (Tristen): Okay. Um, what do the stairs lead up to anything? Is it like another chamber?
Timothy (DM): They lead down, and you see the water has been like trickling down alongside it.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, okay. Um, is there anything in the room that might cause like boils or blisters? Like a fungus or,--
Ellie (Babs): I forgot that's why we were down here.
Timothy (DM): Yeah, give me investigations.
Ellie (Babs): I got so excited about it at all.
Dan (Tristen): That's an eleven.
Ellie (Babs): That's a four. Babs is not looking for boils.
Timothy (DM): So you see that it's a rather kind of an open area. So you start investigating, looking around, looking for mushrooms or fungus or slime or spores or like literally anything, and your search turns up nothing.
Dan (Tristen): Boo
Timothy (DM): just dirt and stone and water.
All right. Yeah. Three options.
Dan (Tristen): Do I hear anything down any of them, or smell anything or feel any wind?
Timothy (DM): Give me perception.
Ellie (Babs): 6.
Dan (Tristen): 22 or 21, 22!.
Timothy (DM): You hear the trickling of a water and flashes beneath your feet, but you do feel a breeze. And as you put your finger to the air, you feel that it's coming from the right.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, okay. Um, there seems to be a breeze coming from this direction, which means it goes out of here. Um, thoughts, do we take that one down? Down seems ominous.
Ellie (Babs): Down does seem ominous. Well, I'm thinking little Walter was just lying here in the puddle, right. When whatever happened to him happened. So if there's nothing immediately obvious Ms. Little puddle, that means something that means either something came and went or perhaps it's like spores carried upon the wind.
Dan (Tristen): Well, that's true. That's a good point.
Ellie (Babs): So it's mobile is the point we're looking for something mobile,
Dan (Tristen): right? So that sounds like a good, that's a good start. And we'll head down the right path.
Ellie (Babs): Does Clayton come with us? What's Clayton doing, how's he feeling about this?
Timothy (DM): Clayton] is rather quiet. He's holding the torch and kind of following your direction. So he presses forward down the right. It's narrow, maybe three to four feet in width at any given point before it opens up into another natural cavern. This is smaller than the one that you just came from. But what you notice is a stone stairwell that is carved, that maybe once led up to the surface, but has long since caved in. You can feel a faint breeze coming through the cracks between the stones, but it does not look like there is an easy way forward. You'd have to shift some fairly large stones and boulders.
Dan (Tristen): It doesn't seem like an air carried spore. Well, it could be, but not that came this way.
Ellie (Babs): Should we search around?
Dan (Tristen): We can search around a little bit. Yeah.
Ellie (Babs): See if there's any--
Timothy (DM): another investigation
Ellie (Babs): --boil looking, oh, that's a 16 for Babs. She's really feeling the spirit, now!
Dan (Tristen): 14 for me.
Timothy (DM): Alright. So as you investigate this room, your eyes are drawn to the stone stairs where you can see a border that's been carved along the edge of each step, and they're kind of this, like this little swirl pattern that's repeated over and over and over, along the trim of the stairwell.
Ellie (Babs): Well, that is really delightful.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. Um, like you could use it in your pottery. Maybe that could be like our friendship plate with the animals on the outside. So definitely not gonna curse ourselves.
Ellie (Babs): I am loving these symbols, you know, I'm a woman who can appreciate artistry wherever I see it. I can appreciate fine crafted handiwork. I can see the love and care and attention that with, I mean, carving organic curves like this into a material like stone is not easy.
Dan (Tristen): I imagine, especially with such detail, small detail.
Ellie (Babs): Fascinating. Fascinating. I wonder what all this was.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah, that's a great question. I guess. Would we recognize it to be like of a certain community? Like, does it look Dwarven?
Timothy (DM): Give me a history check.
Dan (Tristen): That's my fifth, Nat one today or fourth?
Timothy (DM): Nat one? Yeah, nothing to mind. You don't recognize the style. Um, you don't know of any ties to this particular pattern.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, well, well I guess we head back to the other chamber.
Ellie (Babs): Yeah.
Timothy (DM): Yeah. Clayton leads the way back into the first chamber.
Ellie (Babs): Thanks Clayton. You're so reliable.
Timothy (DM): Uh, he nods at you.
Ellie (Babs): Clayton's suss! Clayton's suss!
Timothy (DM): Give me an insight.
Dan (Tristen): Oh yeah.
Ellie (Babs): Oh yeah. We can do that.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. Eight,
Ellie (Babs): 14.
Timothy (DM): Clayton's particularly quiet, Babs. This is uncharacteristic of him, but
Ellie (Babs): maybe he's going through a personal crisis.
Timothy (DM): You did also insult him.
Ellie (Babs): Wait
Timothy (DM): in a way.
Or
Ellie (Babs): I told him I liked his facial hair, that he was recovering from his breakup,
Timothy (DM): the breakup.
Ellie (Babs): He didn't want me to know about the breakup. Yeah. I know. That's why I had to find it out third hand and--
Dan (Tristen): Jen is doing great. So--
Ellie (Babs): She has a new guy.
Dan (Tristen): I know. I saw that-- maybe like, like 10 feet back. I'm like, oh my God, I know
Ellie (Babs): Peter. Right? I mean, he was a gangly little kid, but he grew up to be quite a looker.
Did you
Dan (Tristen): know that Peter is still dating Ann Marie?
Ellie (Babs): Oh my God.
Dan (Tristen): Other Ann Marie, not the Ann Marie as in Walter's mother
Ellie (Babs): oh, Walter's sister.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. Walter's sister. Yeah.
Ellie (Babs): Well,
Dan (Tristen): yeah. And they're like, okay with it. So that's kind of fun.
Ellie (Babs): I know that the kids are really open-minded.
Dan (Tristen): I know everyone thought
Ellie (Babs): But Clayton, poor Clayton, you know,
Oh, that's why he's so calm. He's like, I'm going to climb back up the fucking well and leave you.
Goodbye. Well, okay. Um, but yeah, Bab's antenna are up. Not necessarily like that she thinks he's suss, but like, she's like, oh, he's unusually quiet. Like what is going on? I have to know like, yeah, something's up. So, um, yeah.
Well, how about the watery stairs? The watery natural stairs.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. Can I, before that, can I double check the, uh, the barricade that was built on the left-hand side?
Is it still there? Is there still enough there that like, I couldn't get through, unless I tore it down?
Timothy (DM): You could squeeze through the boards.
Dan (Tristen): Okay.
Timothy (DM): It decayed pretty heavily.
Dan (Tristen): Gotcha. So if something did come through here, it could have gone that way. It's not like the, it's not like it's blocked off enough or something.
Timothy (DM): Yeah,
Dan (Tristen): Yeah, let's go check out the stairs. Yes. Let's do something ominous first.
Ellie (Babs): Well, I was thinking like, if it was something about the water that like made it boils
Dan (Tristen): the water,
Ellie (Babs): if it was like a little dead animal that poison the water,
Dan (Tristen): follow the water,
Ellie (Babs): follow the water.
Dan (Tristen): That's what Crickets always says.
Ellie (Babs): Carefully. She has her little walking stick. She's like very carefully--
slips and falls, slips and falls. You know, she doesn't have like a life alert, but you know, I'm
Dan (Tristen): Like, can I offer you an arm?
Ellie (Babs): Thank you, darling. She leans very heavily on you, but she is a halfing. So it's like fine.
Timothy (DM): Right? Uh, so Clayton leads the way down the smooth and irregular natural stairs. The path kind of narrows as you go down, and you can see and hear the water trickling alongside the stairs. As you make your way to the base of the stairs. The tunnel has again, narrowed to three to four feet diameter, natural cavern walls down a long narrow tunnel.
Ellie (Babs): Is it like single file?
Timothy (DM): Yeah. So Clayton proceeds into the tunnel and continues to lead the way.
Ellie (Babs): Great. We follow him.
Timothy (DM): And as you see the light of the torch kind of proceeding in front of you, it goes on maybe 50 feet before Clayton moves out of your view and you. The large chamber opens up from the light of the torch. You see several pillars and archways that lead to a large broken portal, two golden slabs covered in runes, sits on the tile platform that runs the length of the cavern. Broken jars and cobwebs fill the crevices along the walls.
Dan (Tristen): Uh, where's the water gone off to, has it drained somewhere else?
Timothy (DM): The water has kind of pulled at the base of the stairs, but you see that it does trickle off into several different directions and kind of dips into cracks along the natural cavern.
Dan (Tristen): Gotcha. So
Timothy (DM): draining off something. Into the earth.
Ellie (Babs): I can't believe this was down here the whole time.
Dan (Tristen): I know we've just been living above it for, I don't know. I can't imagine how long
Ellie (Babs): your whole life,
Dan (Tristen): my whole life,
Ellie (Babs): my whole life.
Dan (Tristen): Maybe probably, your whole life yeah, definitely. Your whole life..
Ellie (Babs): How old do you think this is? How old do you think I am? Don't answer that.
Well, uh, anything that looks like it would cause black boils in this room.
Timothy (DM): Uh, so Clayton has pressed into the room and is walking along the tile platform. You see the torch light flickering and casting shadows all over the chamber. Give me investigation checks.
Dan (Tristen): Okay.
Ellie (Babs): 19.
Dan (Tristen): 9.
Ellie (Babs): Woo. Babs is getting into it now.
Timothy (DM): So as you start to survey the room, you can see that anything that was once here has decayed or broken long ago, these runes are ancient much older than the town, much older than anyone who first settled here. And every corner is filled with cobwebs. You see mice scurry around and you notice that the golden tables are etched with writing
Ellie (Babs): the same runes? Or writing we can read,
Timothy (DM): as you approach the table, you can read the words.
'The void is our release'
Ellie (Babs): on both of them or just one or the other. Are they the same?
Timothy (DM): You go and you look at the other table and you see the same words.
'The void is our release.'
And as you look around the room in the flickering Torchlight, you notice oily black substances dripping down the wall.
Dan (Tristen): Oh, yeah. Yeah. That, that looks like it might be it. Um, uh, I'm going to go, Medicine it.
Timothy (DM): All right. Give me a Medicine check.
Dan (Tristen): Yeah. Like I'll take out my dagger and like scrape some of it to kind of see if, without touching it. See if I can get a glean on what it is
I rolled a three, but that's a 10.
Ellie (Babs): Wow. Medicine boy. Wow.
Dan (Tristen): It's been two months.
Ellie (Babs): You're a quick learner.
Timothy (DM): So you take your dagger and you begin to scrape the substance off the walls. I need you to roll initiative.
Dan (Tristen): Okay.
Ellie (Babs): Oh, we've done it now.
Timothy (DM): All right. So as you scrape the oily substance with your dagger off the wall, you see it begin to move the liquid, start to collect as a glob of black oily substance starts to lash out at you from,
Dan (Tristen): I was going to say it's probably not a dagger. It's probably just to make my herbalist knife.
Timothy (DM): Yeah.
Dan (Tristen): Hello? Not a weapon.
Timothy (Crickets): Tristen, what do you do?
Dan (Tristen): Uh, I'm going to back up cause it lashes out at me. Um, and I think I'm gonna just hide behind the table, like get behind one of them, put it, put the table between me and it, just like I have a barrier.
What though? Uh, who, uh, what's that.
Timothy (DM): And as you call out, you see the torch splashes into a pool of water below and the lights go out.
And that is where we will put a pause on today's story. Thank you all for joining us for a plunge into the abyss. I hope you all enjoyed this episode of Shadows of Prophecy. Join us next time to find out what becomes of our unfortunate players in this most dreadful act.
Shout out to my brother known as the chill, electronic vapor soul artists, LUSQ for writing our chillingly epic theme song.
Editing by Scrubcast, and a big shout out to Sirenscape for some amazing atmosphere and music. Make sure you check them out at sirenscape.com. I always use them at my game table and it adds that little something special to bring your players into the story.
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