[MUSIC] All right, the champions all received a missive and it reads champion. The society received a request for aid from one of the new owners of Bowden Hammer Manor. Cyprian Redmont. Since Redmont and his family moved into the Manor House, they have had issues with decaying plants, blighted crops, and unseasonable cold. In addition to this, a sentinel adherence station in the region has also reported unsettling rumors about a plague of nightmares and hallucinations. Due to the range of concerns, I am assigning you another high-ranked adherence to investigate. I am certain you will represent the society with dignity and determination. Make the necessary preparations and meet your colleagues at Boden Hammer Manor 10 days since Odara Wellhouse principal strategist the Society for Benevolent Intercession. So the champions have arrived at Boden Hammer Manor, which is it's a large country manor house that has been Sitting vacant for some time, it's a little bit run down. The grounds haven't been kept up. And looking at it from the outside, you arrive at night time, the moon is shining down on it, and it doesn't appear super inviting or even well lit. So, you're approaching the front. There's a large staircase up to a big, surely a grand entrance before big oversized doors. And who all is here at the doorstep? Well, I tell ya, I'm Raric, Raricmanto. I am a Bridgeborn Earthkin Witch. And my pronouns are they/them. You can see the clothes that I'm wearing are neutral hues of browns, greens, and grays, covered in dirt and moss. My eyes are like dark caves. My body is tall and muscular, formed of rock and earth. Tattooed all across my body are etchings of spells and runes covering all my exposed skin. And my skin is the color of ashes into earth. And my attitude, you see me, I'm like a mountain, stoic and sultry. I do tend to flirt with everyone. - And who is playing Rorick? That's probably a good time. - This is Mikayla, aka Mrs. T. Much. - I am Darius Thorne. - Venomai Yubi. - I am a war born, a Ferris warlock. When you look at me, you see that I am wearing darkness. You can't actually make out clothes. But what you can see is that I am wrapped in darkness, extending down my arms and up my neck. And even when they are raised out to my wings, Anetheris is kind of like an angel. So Darius is typically you would expect him to be a brightly glowing creature, but he is more of, if you can picture darkness glowing, he is glowing with darkness. He is very tall and his, like I said, he has very dark, wide wings that will raise and pronounce him. And hey, I'm revealing too much playing Darius. You two are the only ones that arrived on time, apparently. Nice to meet you, Darius. What about you, my little friend? >> I'll go ahead. This is a teacher. So I'm playing M.S.A. who would be a witch, high-born, Simia, who comes from kind of like a nobly background and started there but then wanted to give back to folks around herself because she realized that a lot of things that she thought were wrong and thought she knew everything and definitely did not know how the world works and how people were and why they were the way they were. And so short, Simeon, very stout, brown skin covered in a cloak with a hood up holding a staff, very strong physically, as well as mentally. But even with all that, still a bit overconfident and full of themselves until they remember they shouldn't do that. a pale yet darkish yellow brown tan skinned fungal ambles fashionably late towards the manner and he nods towards Mrs. too much. Who's name character's name I forgot already. Raric. Raric. I do hope this is not a waste, like the last time we were gathered together. And he bows to the other folks there with a little bit of a flourish. And you realize that though he's probably about six foot tall, a couple feet of that or the cap of his head. And so he's actually just below or just above naval level for most of you, of course, his eyes are. And he's not wearing a shirt, but has a long flowing cape, dark burgundies and black colored clothing, very stylish, very well, well made. And his eyes peek out from underneath his cap like bright blue lichen They can have a fuzzy texture looking to them as you kind of look at them. He's not wearing a shirt. This does he have a six pack? Oh gosh, no, he has a dad button mushroom dad bod. So yeah, he's kind of thick and not in the muscular sense. Yeah, this is a mushroom top. A mushroom top. I love that. Stop it right now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This one's real fast. And I'm sorry revealing say your characters first name again Darius Thorn Darius okay Darius and M say and Raric and Marl Morel Morel like more Yes, I'm gonna be mostly serious, but I had to do some mushroom puns wait to see my experiences Oh, why aren't you sure them with us? Oh, yeah, that's that'd be great. Okay. So yeah, my my experiences are deep roots Not much room for error Oh Not a fun guy and off the beaten path. Was that a vegan jet? Do you say off the meeting path? Oh By the way While we are doing the initial stuff Raric has is a moon witch and they have the lunar phases ability Your spirit ebbs and flows like the phases of the moon at the beginning of each session roll a d4 and gain the matching effect Until the end of the session so I'm gonna roll my d4 and I got a 4 so my effect is Waning so the moon I suppose is waning and I gain up plus one bonus to my evasion Nice, I don't think I have that. Yeah, that's one of the that's one of the enhanced subclass things for the moon Okay. Yeah. Yes. What is your character? I'm Magde Gruegg. I am a moon witch, Katari, but flavored as a fox. I gained my magics while I was familiar to a witch. We later parted ways and I kept my magic. I've used it to try improve places as I go through. I love that. Also, who is playing Magdegg? Oh, yes. This is Eris of the Naturals. Magdegg's pronouns are she/her. Awesome. Some of my experiences are rock hard stare. How do you like me now? I have a tattoo for that. Green thumb and mess with the Raric, you get the thorns. I have a tattoo for that. It's brilliant. I love it. They basically have all their spells tattooed over their body. They don't carry a spellbook. They just tattoo stuff. So that's yeah. Okay. I feel like Fullmetal Alchemist. So you have a stone, you have a stone scan. Does that mean that they're chiseled in or is it painted on? They are. So I've chiseled it in and then painted. So it's engraved but with like. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Teacher M say. What are the pronouns? Cheer. OK. I just want to try to. We have two gals, two guys, one person. OK. All right. Yeah. Okay. Anything anybody else wanted to share about their characters? Did the others want to share their experiences? I know I also answered some background questions as well. I don't know if everybody did that. I did a little. I have the experiences soup chef. She's good with herbs. She has a little bit of a background in collecting herbs for the witch she was familiar to magical conduit to she's she's familiar she was kind of used as a an extension of magic moss maiden she likes the woods a lot and she's also got herb nerd I love that so much. I think we're going to get along. Herb-nerb. Herb-nerb. She just wants to herb-nerb. She just wants to herb-nerb with the highest level. It's not too late to change that. It's fine. Hey, yo. Herb-nerb. Oh, my goodness. Strictly correct. I cannot believe that Rarik forgot to introduce you guys to their very cute familiar/small pet. And it is a frog named Zinks. And they are blue and green with smooth, glassy skin and a pair of blue antenna that make it look like an alien. It's a headband, but they like to scare people and tell people that they're out of this world. How adorable. Thank you. MC's got experiences. First one, I can talk my way out of this. Second ones, I'm always right. Third one, taking center stage and then Sydney, expert climber and then walking encyclopedia with a variety of knowledge because of kind of the high born background and well studied. Cool, cool. Darius's experience are experiences are bear witness. Fallen from grace. Leap without looking. not long for this world and my life is not my own. Hey, that sounds like somebody I know. I was going to say. That's so good. The Darius have a axe that they want to throw. Knowing it's a warlock, that's maybe not the benevolent God of light But that you may be familiar with. Gorge. Maybe. Maybe. Man, I swear. If that's the case, Michael and I were like, totally in sync, a hundred percent in sync. You haven't asked me. You haven't asked me. That's amazing. And I love it. The page is your page. And it's the sunless. Oh. Oh. - Sun's less bunce less. Oh no. So I know nothing. No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Very serious. We don't allow spooky. Spooky laughing there. There's no fun allowed out. All right. Does everyone do their experiences? Yeah. Does anybody else want to share anything? Or background questions? I think everybody shared their experiences. Yeah. I do have background questions, but not sure if we're doing those. Yeah, I didn't fill in any background questions, but I kind of gave a little bit of background that I just kind of wrote. I didn't follow the questions or anything. Gotcha. Maybe because these are new characters for a one shot, we'll save the background for if it becomes relative to the narrative. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, sounds good. Well, on that note, let's go ahead and step into Bowdenhammer Manor. So what you are seeing is a blueprint of the manner, something that the family found when they moved in. It's something they've been adding to. It's not a map so much as a reference for where things are located within the house. And this is, you know, there's no grid. This is not like meant for you to have to take steps across, you know, a hallway in order to find something. you should be able to drag your tokens. You know, if you want to say, "Hey, I'm over here doing this," but it's just sort of an outline of the lower level of the manner and the upper level. And I will let you describe the rooms as you go into them. Just because I wasn't sure this was clear, on the right-hand side of the lower level is a library, and on the right-hand side of the the upper level is the second story of the library. So this is library right here. Yes. So that's like a ladder, a book ladder? Yeah. Well, that's the ladder up to the observatory. A low, OK. OK. Ice Moon, which is-- might find something helpful up there. Sure, sure. So here at the entryway are partners Arlena Silverport and Cyprian Redmont, they are both Katari. - Cyprina or Sabrina? - It's Aralina Silverport and Cyprian Redmont. Aralina is the mother and female partner of the family. She's a waterborne Katari with sort of light orange fur The Cyprian is the father and male partner and he is rich-born Qatari with the dark graver and their child is also in the house, but not present right here at the entrance because teenager, you know, so Arlena introduces that their child is in their room and they use they/them pronouns. I guess Aralina wants to make sure that anybody who comes to her house treats her child the way that they want to be treated. She is up front in letting you know about this. And the Cyprian who wrote the letter to the Society for Benevolent Intercession who was requesting aid because of things that have been going very strangely since they moved in. What do you want to do? Well, first of all, I do want to say, Ms. Aralina, I get it. I would do the same for my child, and I also use they/them pronouns. It won't be a problem. I can assure you. My team and I are professionals and we will deal with this banner. Now, can you tell us a little bit more about the problems that you're having? Yeah. The talking skull that is the clasp of Morell's cape, stage whispers, their team, since when. And Morell just puts his hand over the clasp, so you turn to cover it for the moment, and allows the conversation to continue. Morrell, when will that ever stop? It didn't stop when it died. I'm not sure what will. Yeah, that was a waste of a spell. Here, those work pretty well. Sorry, would you say there, dear? Our lead side eyes, the group, specifically the talking cloak class. And then returns her attention to Eric to answer their questions. She says, our family moved in not long ago, I will be very straight with you. We bought this house at a relatively, and somewhat surprisingly inexpensive price. We were looking for something large, even though our family is not large. My partner, Cyprian, doesn't prefer to be outside. And Cyprian kind of interrupts. It's like, I don't go outside at all just to be clear. Arlene is like patting me. - May I ask why, dear? - I don't like to talk about it a lot, but it causes me anxiety to such an extent that I cannot function, I cannot be unaccompanied and I prefer to have cover overhead at all times. Magdeg just goes forward and grasps his hand, like grasps one of his hands in two of her hands. She's like, I completely understand you, dearie. I will not ask this question again. Thank you for sharing. It's a lifelong affliction. It's been worse as I grew older, but we have learned to work with it and my partner is incredibly supportive of my needs and I work from home and communicate by letter or missive and that is sufficient for me. Lena continues that since they moved in, there have been some strange occurrences such as hearing voices that, you know, they can't find any, any source of, you know, it is a big house, but not so big that there are, you know, people living in rooms they don't know about. And there's nothing nearby, no nearby houses. This was to her understanding, an old family, like country home that, you know, they would retire to during off season. And when it wasn't an exciting time socially in bigger cities, but the family fell out of favor, or something to that effect. And this house has just been out here pretty much unoccupied for quite some time. Is there a particular room that you've noticed these voices coming from? Yes, is there any direction? Darius is still... Um... Darius is standing outside and he says, "You said you didn't believe there was anything living in any other rooms. But that doesn't account for anything that could be in those rooms. And then he turns his attention back to what he's doing outside the doorway. Old doom and gloom aren't you, Deirei? What's Deirei's for you? You've met him, right? Aurelina is kind of moves forward and pokes her head out the door. Looking him up and down a little Suspiciously. What are you doing out there? I am making sure that this house is safe to enter and if you look at the door frame you will see a light smear of blood on the left side and on the right side and on the above the top. As Mei turns back, she's going to go, "Well, I have the choice." Sipron waves his partner back inside and it's like, "Come." I did ask for their help. These are the experts. This is the reason that we have reached out because we don't know how to deal with this. So, Arlena moves back next to him. In fact, they would both kind of move back and say, you know, you're welcome to check out the home. The one time that we heard voices, It seemed to be coming from the parlor, which is a ground floor with windows to the outside. So, I mean, it's possible, you know, it could have come from outside, but again, there's nothing nearby except that cemetery over there. Thank you, ma'am. And Rarik goes over to her hand, holds out his hand for her hand to Arlena. Oh, Arlena takes Raric's hand and squeezes it. He kisses it gently and lets it go. Arlena blushes a little bit, but doesn't pull her hand back, you notice. But she's very sincere when she says, you know, you're welcome to check out anything in the home. If there's anything that we can do, please let us know. You know, we just, we want things to settle in our new home. We want to make our life here. But, you know, it's been a little hectic. Thank you very much. Mza get over here Mza just actually like or Mza sorry pops up and just kind of like without even thinking just goes Like walks right over to Rarick Wait a second Looks up and says Did they say there's a cemetery outside? That's what I heard. Doesn't this look like a little bit of a fixer-upper to you? I mean, it didn't look very good when we were coming in. That's what I was going to ask. I grew up in a cave. This is pretty nice to me, but you come from that fancy stuff. Is this normal? Yeah, no, no, no, it's not. Nope, nope, I wouldn't run down house next to a cemetery. I don't think that's what we'd really be picking up, but I guess everyone's got to get their jolly somehow. Yeah, I mean, I can understand getting it for a price. What's that? Magdeg? Magdeg says quickly to Olina and Cyprian. Don't mind that. They're pranksters. They're jokesters. We'll take care of it for you, Deity. Just Darius looks at everyone flirting with the homeowners and talking trash about their house and then looks at his work on the door frame and just says, yes, and I am the one that's embarrassing. Hey, GM, can I ask you a quick question? I have a thing that is only dependent on a long rest. Is it safe to assume that we would have taken a long rest before this? Like it's okay. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I should have said that. Have your everything ready to go like you're fresh. Okay. Thank you. Rested. Rested. I was about to say that. I got the same brain, yo. No, Arly. No, Arly. Well, all right, folks, should we go around? MSA, do you want to lead us? You know your way around these types of houses. Yeah, yeah, no, I'd say I think we should start in the parlor. I'll say go right to the source. I'll say I bet you the teenagers up in their room doing who knows what, but I'd say we should go with the-- right over to the parlor and see what's happening. And as MSE then is walking, I'm guessing like kind of down and stopped me if it was wrong GM, but I'm assuming like kind of like there's a hallway. I can make like a right turn is the placement of everybody kind of like where we think it is. So I'm still pretty close to Oralina and Cyprian. Yes. you are looking, so the tokens and the blueprint don't really correspond in size. So you could say the hallway is about four feet wide. Okay, so this is a large house and it has big rooms and long halls and you're still, yes, I mean, you're still in the entry way with the homeowners. But don't rely on the token size. No, no. Yeah. I was wondering more if Cyprian's pretty close by to me still. Yes. So SMA starts to walk over towards the through the hallway, over towards going to the parlor, or sees Cyprian kind of nearby, looks Cyprian up and down, then kind of glances over and says, "Can you tell me just one more time what you think might be happening here?" And it's kind of trying to see if Cyprian might sort of have any hints that we didn't maybe hear from Oralina. And yeah, just try to find a little bit more. Cyprian says well as I wrote to the society for for aid Some of the weird things that we have personally seen We have some Crop fields that have fallen to blight to be fair we're not farmers We didn't we didn't move in here to to farm but Even normal landscaping plants have collapsed into decay. We can't seem to keep an herb garden alive. And sometimes the cold for this being a fairly mild autumn, the cold is piercing. It's Like not even a fireplace will help you escape this cold. We will sometimes move to another part of the house He hears that he kind of he's still on the front porch does he see That are the plants at the front of the house the landscaping is it a state of decay outside? Like right near the front door Yeah, I would say not all of it, but there are like patches of it that Some of it is just things are overgrown because it wasn't a manicured lawn but there are definitely things that that look sickly unhealthily and just flat-out dead In strange patches definitely not like You know like an end of summer dormancy Is it in a good does raric over here this conversation? I'm assuming I Would say so yeah Rarick is gonna make the brain has a pretty deep booming voice. You know, yeah rarick's gonna make their way back out and Look at the plants. Do I see one that's particularly decayed? Yes, there's several that you can see that are within range. Could I use my experience green thumb to do an I guess a what it be in syncs check to see like if there's any sort of Natural phenomena that could be causing the plants to have died Yes, go ahead roll instinct Okay, so I have a plus two to that experience by the way that was a terrible That was a three with fear, but I'm gonna add a plus five for my instinct so incredible makes it an eight plus two degree thumb so ten I just went from a three to a ten just with my We love Max characters. Yeah Yeah, you You you succeed in Investigating it, right? But you can't determine the exact cause Because of the role of fear however as far as you can tell it's it lost life like it collapsed. It wasn't like a normal plant would, you know, wither and die. This is like it collapsed into a puddle. It's not a good word. But like a pile, a mush of pie, a mushy pile in like it deteriorated quickly is what I'm trying to convey. Gotcha. Is there still leaves on the plant? They're just like dead? Or is it literally like mush? Like, there's nothing to pick up. This is just a flavor. I'm gonna say it's just, yeah, no, it's just like rotted vegetation. I'm gonna... Just because it's decaying, I don't want you slandering mushrooms. Here's some food for you, Morrell. You see a dead guy and handed to a human and say, "Here's some food for you." That could be his relative. I mean, that could be his relative. I mean, it's not a mush room. It is dying plans. And he, it doesn't. Whatever. And I will pinch a little bit of the mush between my fingers, examining it, smelling it, and then flick it away and then go back into the house. [Laughter] Is Cyprian kind of like this couple fancy at all? Are they like middle, lower class? I'm asking just because I am high born, so I get advantage on roles with certain things. Yeah, I would say middle class. Definitely. This is, in theory, a manor house would normally be well outside their range, but they found it, it was spacious. So my privilege thing for Highborne wouldn't kick in with this couple. No, I don't think so. Okay. Just checking. Esme, she, you know, looks at Cyprian and then kind of sees everyone else behind her and then goes, well, you know, I guess we should go find out what's happening in this parlor parlor then and then you just see because she's wearing like a cloak and then suddenly it looks like she disappeared because the cloak just like falls down to the ground. But then you know there's like a little like lump at the very bottom and then all of a sudden the lump starts moving and then you notice that there's just like a cute little kitty cat walking out from under the thing and looks up and just goes and then starts walking. Darius is going to grab Morrell and going to say, did you understand the cat's name because she has called herself as May and M say, and I just want to actually. Yes, may and I'm sorry, M say, M say, M say, I think somebody else said it differently than it messes up. So it's M say. It may have been me because that's fine. There's like 50, there's yeah, there's also a lot of names. So I think this is teaches first time getting a name wrong on the podcast. So that's First time first time ever I'm known for my perfect pronunciations of all the words In say I believe say and say Cyprian by the way is uh first startled by the collapse of the cloak and then sees a tiny, tiny cat and is like, "Okay, that's cute." And he decides to wander off into the dining room to work. Every mama. And I follow behind MZ. To start, Robert just called MZ the cat mama. I just want to make sure I got that. You're a mama cat, aren't you? You bet I am. Magdig is gonna pick up MZ's cloak and just drape it over her arm. just follows suit and is like, "Well, I guess it's what we're doing now." So polite that one. And Meryl wanders a little slowly behind and he's fiddling with a little bit of like grass or something in his hand. He's like making a little something out of it. It's hard to say what it is. So far, I don't know why we needed five of us. He says to Darius. Darius. And continues into the parlor. Checks his work on the exterior door frame and then kind of enters into the entryway of the house, following behind, but at a distance. around listening. Does Darius hear anything? Is there anything out of the ordinary something that is not a house sound? I think why don't you roll? What would you roll for that? Instinct sounds good to me. Instinct? Sure. There's roll the day, baby hit the math rocks. We make a lot. Yeah, yeah. It was just so bad. I did the first second. Sorry. Second. So bad. Literally the literally the lowest thing you can roll without a one and a two. Yeah. Amazing. With fear. Yeah. Well, that means is this is not much higher. That is a nine with fear. Yeah, with everything at it. It was a one on the hope die. It was a six on the fear die and then I have two day instinct. So you're welcome. You're welcome. It's okay. You're doing my plotting. You get as much fear as you want. We're imagining it'll be fun for me Is that a thread I think it's a promise if I recall so Darius no the you really You could pause and try to to listen but you don't hear anything other than the murmur of voices as people are moving through the house. You probably hear the the creek of chairs and doors opening and closing. Possibly. Our Lena says, you know, kind of calls out to the group. You know, I don't want to get in your way. I don't want to interfere. Just, you know, if you have questions, let me know. I'm going to retire upstairs and work on spinning. So it's me and Rarik in the parlor right now. Looks like. And say looks around the parlor, sees the lovely couch right in the middle, naturally walks up and kind of just like scratches it, just like put some like nice little ripthread on that thing, little scratch post scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch. The cat on the back of the couch interrupts peering down at this intruder. What? You know how that works. I was going to say, is the cat talking? The cat is giving the impression without words that you have lost your mind and that couch is is not for you. - And so it looks up, it's like awkward. And it's like kind of slowly like pause backwards like one at a time. And looks around and looks towards the windows up and down in the ceiling. And sees there are some paintings on the wall and notes that some of them just seem kind of like standard like old paintings seem somewhat faded away. Like you've been there probably before Cyprian and Orlina and goes up to one of them and looks further at it and tries to, feels like there might be something there to give you a little bit more background or knowledge on the house. But looks at it to see if anything kind of clicks that might tell us anything more about what this house's history is. - You see, as you said, the paintings are old and faded and they were definitely around before this family moved in. And they're also not a Katari ancestry, which so far that's all you've seen of the family is Katari. So you know that these paintings predate the family moving in here. It looks like they are paintings of well-to-do people who, you know, probably the family that previously inhabited, but it seems like the clothing is antiquated, there's no, nothing seems modern or current that you recognize, just that everybody appears posh. Okay. And say shares that with both is it my maura, my rel? Morel. Morel. Yeah. Morel. And Morel. Is that a kind of mushroom? Yeah. It is. Morel. It looks like the cap. Yeah. That they have or he has. Is it usually like M. O. R. E. L. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Then shares that information also with with with Rarik and then continues to walk around, you know, the room, you know, sort of investigating trying to see if anything happens to S. May. Um, yeah, I'm saying my own character. We can then we can know it's. No, it's. [laughter] like the entryway, because there's a door that leads from the entryway straight into the parlor, right? Can I see the paintings through the the open doorway? Yeah, you can. There's a sort of like the grand old style of house where you would throw open all of the double doors in the entertaining parts of the house. When I see the paintings and I move, Darius kind of moves back and forth. Do the eyes of the painting seem to follow him? OK. OK. No. I. I want to say yes, but just try to go with that. Morel is going to look around the parlor. Are there plants? dead plants here as well? Anything inside the house that was like a decorative plant would have been dead before the family moved in because it was all abandoned and nobody was taking care of it. Oh, I see. So they've left the dead plants just lying around? They're still cleaning up the manor. That's what I'm getting. All right. They're rehabilitating the house, boat and hammer manner. Raric sees a nice old rug on the floor. Can I lift it up and see if anything's underneath? Yeah, go ahead. What do you see? Well, I rolled a seven plus five, 12 with hope. Is there anything under there? There's not I can make up some flavor. No. No, you would lift the rug and see nothing out of the ordinary. It's just normal, normal floors that match the rest of the manner. Sure, it was under there. And then I flip it back over. Um, emcee goes and peeks under the, uh, the couch to try to see if there's anything under the couch. I just checked under there, emcee. I thought you looked under the rug. The rug is under the couch. I thought you lifted the rug to look under the rug as opposed to just under the couch. Fine, fine. Double check my work. There is also nothing between the top of the rug and the bottom of the couch. It goes like all the way down. There's no like, you know, like the legs aren't very tall. even so there's nothing there. Nothing there, okay, fair. On the couch. Do we get the feeling that any... Do we have the perspective that this place, this house's, this room is haunted? Like is there any feeling, sound, anything? Or are we just investigating an old room at this point? You appear to be investigating an old room. No, do you share that with everybody? Or? Well, I can say everybody has, everybody who wanted to went into the parlor and looked around, investigated, inspected, didn't find anything particularly unusual. all. So. Morel shakes his head and says out loud, "This is beginning to feel like the last time, Rarik." But allow me a moment. And he literally sits on the floor, kind of cross-legged, does a little centering exercise and calls out to commune using the skill commune. If there is something spooky here, some evil or otherworldly presence, please show me where it is. Give me some indication of where to go. And he rolls 46 and I got two fours and two threes. So I can either hear sounds or see a vision. Yeah, let's do that. Taste of flavor, smell of scent or feel of sensation relevant. I think I'd like to see a vision if possible, or hear sounds that would indicate where to go. But you hear sounds. You sort of lean in trying to focus on the sound that doesn't seem to be coming from this room after all, but it's a bit of a raspy, husky voice that seems familiar to you, although one you haven't heard in a long time because they're no longer part of the living. So what did the sound say? Who is it? Whose voice do you hear? Oh, I see. Oh, I see. Okay. It's actually a spirit that I've spoken with in the past. So it's known to me and the skull. One of our first cases that we did was helping this spirit Depart this plane. The voice the spirit says to you danger Danger and then cuts off and fades Okay, not the most helpful they've been What did you hear Murrow there is a dangerous spirit here So it's not all hokey pokey Okay, whatever you call it (laughing) - Indeed. - No dancing, no fun. - No hokey pokeys. - I mean, if it were hokey pokey, we'd have to turn ourselves around. - That's what it's all about. - Just went around in a circle. (laughing) - Is that you sighing or your skull? That was the skull. (laughing) - Well, so we know it's not hocus pocus and I guess we just keep checking things out. What do you think? Magdig? - I, we have a lot more house to cover. We've only taken on one room. - True. Why don't you lead the way? - You like it. If you insist, if you insist. - I do. in order to... And then I put in my rock heart stare. Save some time. I would just describe some of these rooms. When you came in to the entryway, you went into the parlor that's to the right hand of the entry. Across the other side, there's a game room and past that a music room. And these are both rooms that haven't been refurbished. So a bit of... I mean, you can see their intended purpose by the stuff that's in them, but they're definitely not recently used. Down the hall from that, there are what presumably would have been servants quarters, but the family has just moved in and Doesn't have anybody living on the premises. There's a big kitchen with a big big stone hearth and then there's the dining room where Cyprian is currently sitting at the table working on correspondence And then on the ground floor, the remaining right-hand side of the ground floor, there's a little bathroom and the big library. And then there's also a large staircase going up to the second floor. >> Music room. >> What would the room with the piano be? >> That's the music room. >> That's the music room. >> Appli named. You know what I've always found mischievous misuse goings on to be near? Libraries. There's always something happening in the library. True. What's books? I would say you get a lot of books together. There is some some stories to be told. Spirits and witches both like libraries. Let us away. I don't need books. I've got skin. But I'll go anyway. You might find some fascinating rock formation you like in a book. True. I hear they have illustrations now. Something I could copy on my skin, I guess. If I follow. Exactly, Deary. I think I'll start at this back wall. everyone pick a wall or a bookcase and we will have a little rummage, shall we? Do what we can't turn up. Now, the library, you can see they've started to clean up and there are some books that were not salvageable, but they've started organizing what's there and dusting and sweeping the room out. Daria has gone the opposite way of the library and is... If you were closed, you'd have him say, "I'll leave the witches to their books." And he's just looking in all of the other rooms on this floor. So if any of the doors are closed, he's just throwing the door open and looking inside to see if there is anything jumping out at him. And we're all in the library looking about investigating, right? Yes. So let's do instinct roles to perceive what we perceive. Sense. We're trying to sense for for the spirits. Is that what's going on? I mean, I was going to try to assist Rorik in the looking that Rorik is doing by, you know, maybe hopping on Rorik's shoulder, getting a little poke from one of the thorns like, and then settling back in, sitting down a rock shoulder go, Thornie again, looking over the similar area to what Rorick is doing, attempting to assist Rorick in the search. Still as a little cap. Mm-hmm. Okay, just checking. Morel, instead of assisting Rorick, Rorick has a friendly rivalry with Rorick. So goes to the opposite side of the library and is like sensing and like waving his arms around as if he could, you know, feel the spirits moving through his cap. And I got a 25 with hope on my instinct role for sensing and perceiving. Oh, and I get a role of D8 to help with advantage for Rarik with my cat form. So I get plus seven for Raric on whatever Raric gets, which is probably terrible. Well, it was a six with hope. So that isn't bad. The hope part is a bad. My instinct is five, so that'll be 11 total. Plus seven. Plus seven. It's not too bad. 18. While you are all searching around the library and investigating. So I'm sorry, what was Rarix role? It was 18 total. Eight total. Including the help. OK. And Morrell's was 25? 25 with hope. 25 with hope. OK. Morrell and-- sorry, Rarix was with hope? Yes. OK. Just making sure. So, Morrell sees an old writing desk and decides to look through it and see if there's anything that they are familiar with and finds, let's say, a medallion and you recognize it as similar to a book that you read describing a necromancer that had attacked, raised an army of undead and attacked village far away. It's allegedly a historical record, but you could never back it up with any other facts. There were no other records of this attack. And the only thing that you've seen since you read that book is this medallion that seems like the description presented in the book of the Necromancer's Sigil. And it was found in the writing desk. Does it look like the writing I mean, Dusty's been used a lot. But they're okay. - It's dusty. It looks like they've been more focused on saving the books than anything else. And while you're inspecting that, turning it around, flipping it over, you might notice that if you look around, somebody's missing. Magdig has disappeared from sight. You're not sure where she went. She was right there. She was telling everybody what to do. You know, trying to make everybody get along and work together. And then suddenly she vanished. Just as you are preparing to look for Magdege because, you know, what, where could she have gone? It's a big library, yes, but not that big. Arlina rushes into the library and says, where's Ziprian? Have you seen him? He, he said he would come upstairs and I haven't seen him. Did you see? M say looks over just goes, you can speak use your words. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sometimes I just really get into the character. And say looks good. That's good. Or or or Alina goes, you you you lost your husband. Your partner. Yes. I've checked every room upstairs and I walked through, you know, the rooms that we use down here. Nobody's seen him. He went to the dining room last I saw. That was where I saw him last as well. Magda, wait, where's Magda? Wait, wait. What? You've lost also one of your party? I mean, she was just here. Magda? Apparently. Magdig. Darius. Magdig. While we're hollering around for people, Meryl goes to Arlina and kind of holds up the medallion and asks if do you recognize this? Aralina is a bit distracted because she's worried about her partner. She says it looks like a bit. Not exactly, but like that old banner that's hanging in the entryway. I just assumed it was some sort of family sigil, you know, of the family that lived here before. But she wanders back out checking the dining room, checking the parlor. Darius walks by her. I'm not finding Cyprian. Did he see in anything in any of the rooms? Just. And he didn't see Cyprian. Nothing out of the ordinary, you know. OK, did he see Cyprian? Didn't see Cyprian. Room like he was pretty much in the hallway the whole time. He would have probably seen. OK. The whole time. No. Darius folks his head in. and says, "You yelled?" Well, I seem to be missing Magdeg. I just wanted to make sure you weren't missing too. Maybe we should stick together from here on out. This is some curious business. And the role that Rarik did for Inspection. It's coming up now, just a little delayed. You notice that this "Where You Last Saw" magdick, there's some books, a skew on the shelf, and it appears, you know, distinctly out of order from the rest of the books that they have clearly been tidying up as they go. >> Really? Erlina, whatever your name is. >> That's just me. That's not, that's not Rory. That's me. >> Okay. >> Erlina, sorry. I know you're walking away, but um, were these books always like this? What books no What about Cyprian? I don't have time for this. She goes look for her People never listen to me. I have good ideas All right. Well, let's go look at this. Why not I? Go over and I investigate the the books near rep magnaic with standing as you approach the books Morel pipes up helpfully. You may wish to be a little careful over there. Okay. And he holds up the medallion. And he's like, "I believe the previous owner of this house was a necromancer." And he explains the story of how he's read about this necromancer. It never found any evidence that they existed until this cool thing in his hand right now and gives the full story to those who are listening. And apparently, this symbol matches the hanging in the entryway. So we could be dealing with the domain of an accomplished necromancer, of some renowned. Good looking out. I'll tiptoe to the other side of the room, checking each step. I also am also seven feet tall, hulking and made of stone, so do with that what you're attempting to tiptoe. Nimbly walking. So nimble. Yeah, with your seven foot stone body. You begin to look around. like and can and say just like do a little cat paw thing like trying to show, you know, the Raric like this is how it works more, but look, I don't have four legs. Like this, like this. God and say just drops out of the beast form goes back to the Zamean form just like this and starts like tiptoeing on more regular, you know, just the regular form. So drop drop that a v-sform for everybody, by the way, in the camp. All right. So now everybody is sort of approaching this, right? But everybody's approaching where Magna was last seen. And you fumble through the books and realize that the whole shelf is loose. And because you are quite large and strong, you are able to easily shift the bookshelf aside and you see that there's a trap door below it. I will say, I am big. I am heavy, but I am not very strong. These muscles, they're cosmetic only. I actually like carved my skin in my body to look more muscular. Just so you know. I respect it. But anyway, I can make a role if you need me to. No, that won't be necessary. The shelf is already sort of loose because clearly Magdig found the trapdoor and pushed the shelf out of the way. It kind of swung back, but it's not like it's lodged firmly in place. It's designed to kind of slide and move, so it doesn't take a lot of… Okay. Makes sense. Is it just a trapdoor or are there stairs or something going down? But you have to look the door to find out. Oh, oh, I see. It's a trap door in the floor. And I was like, we didn't hear someone fall out of the room. OK, I'm with you now. OK. Does anyone here good at looking for traps? I mean, I'm saying it feels pretty good about traps. Yeah, go for it. I mean, what would you roll for that? I would assume instinct, but up to GM, I perceive sense, navigate, perceive a trap, but do you tell me? I didn't realize I'm pretty good at instinct. I was going to say I was thinking because we're all witches, so you probably are as well. But that's fine. I was just going with it. I wasn't going to question you, right? Sorry. Roll. Roll instinct. All right. Um, so I'm going to be fun ass or something also. So. Yeah, I'm going to spend a hope to use my I'm always right experience. And as I go ahead and look around and be like, yeah, you know, I'm seeing a million like this in my time. Looks like all the other ones out there. And as I take a peek, you know, you seem to kind of like walk around and then most of you are sort of looking like getting the feeling this person actually doesn't really know how traps work very much, that this high born individual is sort of putting on a little bit of a front for this particular thing. Maybe she's knowledgeable with other things, but this is definitely not it. But that is, so it's a 17 plus four for my instincts. That's 21 plus five for experience. So it's a 26 with fear. And that's not knowing any five experience. Yeah, five experience. So it's funny, it goes mechanically, as I was building this character, I was like, the experiences are insane, because I didn't even max them out. I think you can get them up to like plus six. Yeah, plus six, I think is as high as they let you go with the experience. But yeah. Yeah. So 26 with fear, sorry. Good GM. Do with it what you will. In spite of the apparent fact that M.Z.A. has not as much knowledge as she portrayed about traps. Nothing is apparent and nothing triggers by her movement around the trapdoor. [C] M.Z.A. just reaches down, grabs it, whips it open, goes, "This room is clean." [D] Like Ace Ventura? Is that specifically the reference? No, it's poltergeist. I have extra size of diamonds. I just like cinema, bro. I just like having you go to East Ventura. Should we bring up the... I don't think Ace Ventura has ever been referred to as cinema until now. - Oh, just throwing that out there. - Jen hates us right now, Jen hates us. - The trap door is open. The, there's, it was not an untrapped door rather. It's open, you can see not much. There's not a lot of light, but you do faintly hear Magda. Hello? - Magdeg. - Someone up there? - What trouble did you get yourself into? - Hello, Dini. - What? - I'm not quite sure. I think I blacked out for a second. - Did you open the door? - Apparently. And say just jump down. I don't know. And say just jumps right in. And say jumps right in. OK. Well, it is a narrow wooden stairwell-- no, staircase. Steps. Wooden steps going down into-- Oh, sorry. There's steps. That's going to hurt a lot when I jump in. OK. Fortunately-- You might have asked magic before you, you know Through yourselves down the steps There's no home homeowner's insurance here to pay for your your injuries We're not liable for you sign the way and say jump and say jump down 100% Okay I mean, do I, does M.S.A. fall down the stairs? Do I make an agility reaction role? Like, what am I doing? I just bonk my head. Do I take a stress? You tell me. Yeah. I think M.S.A., you know, like leaps as Simia sometimes do. But they, it's not that far before, you know, she realizes there are steps. But everybody there's stairs. Yeah, so she may stumble a little bit, but catch herself and proceed down the stairs, like a normal person. Normal is not a word I'd ever use to describe him, say. I heard that. I look around awkwardly. Yeah, Morrell, why would you say something like that? the skull pipes up. Well, he wouldn't be wrong, would he? Well, shall we go down then, I guess? I'm talking to Morrell, not you idiot. She says to the skull and the skull responds, yes, we shall. And Morrell goes. Motions for everybody going down the steps. Yeah, we're going down. No, no, we can't go down. down cut it out then cut it out and put it took me a second to get this okay so is there is is there is a do you want to take a rear again take a rear again would walk stone follow down walk stone after a moment town, down, down. Okay. Alright, so you all make your way down the steps. Unfortunately, due to the number of people and the age of the stairs, they start to tremble and then collapse behind you as you enter what appears to be an old cellar. It's dirt floor, stone walls, it's not been accessed in living memory probably. There's some crates and barrels. There's a crate and barrel down here in the corner stores. There's some barrels and crates. There's nobles and barns, for example, just as another thing. Right. Okay. That's something I didn't quite get that. Tell me you don't live in the US. I'm not telling you don't live in the US. I'm American. I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, all right. Is that all Americans? And you the rubble and just look at it. It would look interesting in any way. Does it look interesting? Do you want to do an instinct roll for that? Maybe the rubble itself isn't that interesting, but there is actually a hole in the wall where the the stones have tumbled out of the wall. It might feel a little like damp moist air. Darius kind of looks in the hole in the wall and just says, "Everyone, this looks significant." And then with a really black ominous arm because it's clothed in darkness, points into the darkness. And everybody else. Well, I just I got to say I was a little worried about you, Magdeg, but I'm glad that you, uh, you know, I'm glad you kept yourself safe down here. Looks a little shady to me. Oh, well, that's that's that's nothing new. I'm used to falling down holes in this profession. You're used to falling down holes. Well, yes, no, it happens quite often. I mean, that's a little concerning, but, you know, let's talk about that later, I guess. No, I need an experience for somebody who's just not experienced. You never know when someone's laid a pitfall trap somewhere in the woods. Well, I guess I have a few of those in my day. And M.C. is looking around the cellar again. So we have some rubble. We have some, we have a Creighton barrel, right? It's right near the, it's right near the Sbarra. Creighton barrels. And you can stop at the Pinkberry on your way out. I don't know what that is. Trying so hard not to laugh. There's also a wall with rubble coming out of it. How big is the hole in the wall in the darkness? Quick DM, how big is the hole? Well, you appear to have more experience with the holes than... Okay, so sorry. >>Lean in, Jen. Just lean in. >>In your window. >>It's the rod all over again. >>Someone in the rod, some might say. >>It is definitely, the ball is caving in basically is what's happening. So there are stones at the bottom and some that are leaning out from the middle. And it's definitely big enough that our smaller champions could easily get through. So not everyone, bigger people would have a hard time getting through. They would, but also this is not like a sturdy structure. I will say, Raric goes over to the hole, puts their finger in their mouth and puts it into the hole, like up trying to like test for wind, but note that Raric does not have like a wet tongue. So this action does nothing. But he's seen people, or they've seen people do it. And so they're trying to assess if wind is coming out of this tunnel. I don't know how you do it with the in your your lines, but typically how we check stones in swan. You don't check to see if wind is coming out to see if there this is to an external door. You don't put your finger in your mouth and then wet it and see if it's cold. No, wait, I usually stick in an inanimate object in there first. In your mouth. No, in the whole deity. Not a savage. I guess I defer to you then. Raric looks a little angry at not being the one to figure this out. Steps aside. While they're examining the whole, Marell is examining these crates over here because Nucrum Ancer House, you know, there could be something interesting. They're good. So so he's gonna he's gonna dig through the crates. You want to make a roll for it? Yes, that is a 20 with hope 20 with hope Yeah, so you rifle through the crates and they're not very sturdy, so it's easy to pry open lids and things and it seems like a a lot of old. Clearly they've been here for a while, but they are ritual supplies. The kind that you haven't seen used for anything good? Is there anything in particular that stands out to you? I was just trying to see if we could fit more evidence that this necromancer domicile, and it seems like if we were approaching like, I don't know enough about necromancy, and a witch stuff, not an acrimoniality. It's totally different. Do they have a laboratory, a ritual center that they use? Some files and vials. Yes. Files and vials. Nice. they would have probably a pretty extensive, I don't know if laboratory, but definitely some place where they are running experiments and trying to increase their power and find more ways to reach further into the dark. So, so, OK. Yeah. OK. Nothing, nothing of use for us to going forward, like, you know, flaccidaries or litch equipment kinds of things. Nothing that you would know how to use. Fair enough. So Morelle explains, oh, look, I seem to have found supplies. They're probably of no use to us being who knows how old, but more evidence that this necromancer was here. I don't think the age matters, Morell. I think the fact that these are, for necromancy, matter more. We're all good witches, I hope you recall, and a word. It's hard to remember sometimes. Merle is pointedly at the one person who is not a witch in the group. In case they have an experience. I didn't say that. No, he's wearing shadows. You're not supposed to throw shade at him. Oh. Oh, like burn, dude. And and and Wally, while once he's done with that, he actually takes It's a little mannequin out of grass that he made and hands it over to Magdege and says, "Hold on to this, please." But I told you. Can Magdege examine it? Yeah, you're welcome to examine it. It's a tethered talisman. And so I have imbued it with my protective essence. And while you're holding it, you can expend its magic to reduce the hit points they mark by one. And I can't create a new one until a short rest and this one has been used. All right, I got to admit, Barrel, that's pretty cool. Talisman. Was it tethered? Something else. Talisman. They're not a talisman factory, just to say. I can make one. Thanks. You already have a Creighton barrel here. Seven days I can make you a talisman. I don't know the reference, but I love it. It's for my small play, Deity. It's not very well versed in those. I grew up in a cave. What's your name? You didn't get involved in this one. I'm say there's a semi-shaped holder. There's a semi-shaped hole in all of us. I think I see you approaching it. What do you mean? I mean, I'll do you one better and I'm going to mark a stress to transform again into a cute little weasel and weasel my way right into that hole. All right. Amazing. Yep. So, you know, and say you just see again, just like, just like shrinks down into size and just goes right on in. And I guess, is it safe to say I can just work my way over there? GM, I'd assume? Yes. Yes. You make your way into the rough, hewn, possibly hand dug tunnel that leads off. There's no light. It's very dark. But you can see a little way in front of you. Hmm. I'm wondering. Maybe a lot, but that may be far range. That's okay. Yeah, I'm just wondering if there's a way that I could help myself see a little better. I guess I have a torch if I want to get out of this form. I'd say those of us back in the main area, if we could light torches before we go in. I have one in my inventory and one with the rest of you. I have one. I can call through a small hole with a torch and not burden yourself. Not a problem at all because I have a skill, not much room for error. M say, uh, just starts to work her way forward though in, um, what's called the weasel form, um, trying to be a sneaky sneak. And, um, in the dim darkness, very dark light, whatever we have there, um, trying to just see kind of get a feeling for what's around. I don't want to keep advancing because I don't know on the map, you know, if I should kind of like, you know, because I figure a theater of the mind in it. Right. Yeah. Are you are you scouting ahead or were you just trying to slip in and see make sure it wasn't dangerous before everybody joins you? I wanted to scout ahead a bit. I think I'm say certainly doesn't want to get too far from the rest of the party, but get far enough ahead to kind of know that there's no immediate danger if we're trying to get everybody else potentially in You know, we want to know that and say would want to know that this is sort of clear before we make that move. All you see is rocks and dirt and darkness. There's just not much that you can see from where you are. It does. OK. Maybe you get the impression that the tunnel goes on a little ways. Maybe I don't know. Hollow echoing noises. Mm hmm. OK, I'm saying kind of goes back towards where she had come in and looks over at the rocks on this side of the tunnel. And does it look like I'd be able to move some of these rocks around in order to help other people get in to make it big enough? As a weasel. Well, I could transfer. I could drive the beast for. It's a very strong weasel. Yeah. The rocks are it's crumbling already. It would not be that difficult to expand the the entrance. Okay. And say, just actually goes right back up crawls right back through the pole and shares with the folks right around there, what she had seen, noting that, you know, the tunnel is dark, but it seems to go on far. And this seems to be the only way that we have to go for right now. Certainly seems like this could be an entrance to the more secret parts of the house. But this is my element. So. What did you say, Magdig? We can't exactly go backwards, can we? I believe that the avenue is closed to us. Yeah, it all looked normal up there anyway. Well, notes. That this area was probably sealed for a reason. Be on your guard. We literally just heard your ancestors say danger. I think we were already on guard. You know, ancestors said what love? Oh, yeah, I forgot you fell on the hole. Yeah. Morel, they spoke to this guy. And maybe it wasn't an ancestor, some spirit doesn't. Darius lets them talk and just pushes through. Anyway, they said he just. Hey, I'm talking. That's why I'm going. I didn't know that. from New York, like from Brooklyn. I just heard somebody say that once. That was cool. Anyway, uh, yeah, they they heard from a spirit and they said, danger. No big deal. And I follow Darius. Kind of I put on a big show, but I'm a little embarrassed that that he called me out because I'm known for talking a lot too much. Rock big talk big. Does Darius have any trouble getting through the entryway? Oh, very big. OK, just one check. No. I think I've made it. Like I said, it's it's crumbling already. There's a dire shaped hole in the wall. No, not that it's Raric shaped hole in the wall. Yeah. I mean stone on stone. Probably, you know, like if anybody else had any doubts, rocks, stone skin would have loosened any rocks that were left. And they tumble down and. Hey, this place kind of looks like my nursery. Weird. I'm as anybody I'm say kind of goes back. I mean, I guess this is suggested. Is anyone going to light a light a torch? Sorry, lights a dark down here and holding it so close to him. All of the light is absorbed into his into his darkness. And he looks at it and looks at him, say. Puts the torch out and puts it away again. I mean, I can hold it for you if you want. Darius takes the torch back out and hands it there. Or else. I mean, are you gonna light it or? Anybody got a light? Well, I can get you. No. I take the torch and I just kind of, I try to lighten against the stone wall. Just kind of swing it. Garius actually walks up and takes it from Magdeg and makes a direct eye contact with Rarik tries to light it on Raric. Yeah. Light it on the lake. Roll for it. How? What do you think that is? Like, I think that's Vanessa. Yeah. Yeah, I would say Vanessa. I think Vanessa because I made of rock, but I have also made of dirt and moss. So Vanessa or or or the rock part. Presence form. I think you don't want to tell me what I'm going to go with. It's a drastic difference than presence. You are making a show of this, clearly. Fourteen with hope. Fourteen with hope. I'm going to give it to you. I'm sorry, what was the DC on that? Say for flavor that you did it on my rock hard abs. Absolutely, you can. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So did you want to try my Darius would make eye contact with Raric and very frustrated at the insinuation that I should light a torch when. Darius knows that Raric has a torch. so that I should do it and would just strike it like a match on Rarick and then turn back to turn back to Morrill and just say the worst part is I know they get their rocks off to this. You bet I do, baby. Enough of that, both of you. Morel says, "You have no idea." And so he just kind of slowly weasels her way forward and is like, "I've never been with this group before. This isn't new." And she works her way sneakily and skulkily further down the tunnel. Purposefully, like with some lead away from the group, both due to, you know, the plethora of innuendo and whatever just transpired on those rock hard abs. While at the same time, she's a little bit like, they do look nice. Then just kind of keeps going a little bit further forward, trying to again, anticipate with her smaller stature, anything that may be coming up ahead. And say is what still weasel is weaseling skokely. Yes. Very sneaky. Very sneaky. He's carrying the torch again. Is it? Raric. Raric's carrying the torch, yeah. And Mza is skulking. I was assuming that gives me some help seeing that fair GM. I'm guessing I can't see far off in the distance, right, but better than before. Right. Just a little bit. As you move forward, you can see not much new, you keep going and there's more tunnel, more rocks, more GM trying to unmask things. Do I notice the walls like being rough hewn like a person like manually cut through these? Or like this is they are definitely not some kind of like advanced technology or even magic crafted this was dug dug out by hand. Do any of these like rocks on the ground or anything, anything of interest there just kind of like random detritus? It is mostly random debris, but maybe... This one looks like bones. ...give it a little instinct or something. It's a lot of instinct. It is a 16 with fear. A 16 with fear. If you look closely at some of the bigger piles, you notice that there's some bones in there that is not all rock after all. The further you get, the more bones you're seeing. And if you look very closely, you might notice that the finger bones are worn down like they dug for a long time. Okay. I don't go to share that with anybody or anything. Just kind of keep moving forward. Totally normal. Just another other day. Mm-hmm. Another weasel day. Yep. Do these bones have flesh on them? Are they like so old that they are purely like the bone? It just bone. Bone is all that's left. I was going to say, as Raric goes through, they would have caught on because they grew up in the mountains and they're surrounded by rocks all the time. know what rocks look like. And they were passing by particular piles noticing that these don't look like normal rocks. Do I find anything that looks like a human femur bone? >> Specifically? >> Specifically a femur bone. >> You have to roll for that. >> Okay. >> That's actually pretty good. Except for it's with fear. Six and a seven. So, help me do my 13 plus, what was it, instinct? Yes. Plus five, so 18 with fear. 18 with fear. You, yes, you succeed. So, do you recognize a femur? I'll say that I think it's a femur. Yeah, but it's, it's, you did roll with fear. So, and I don't have a human bone. Yeah. If you, if you are not familiar with human bones, you don't have any sort of outside reference for it either. Okay, I put what I think is the femur bone in my bag. Okay. And then I keep walking. And is the rest of the party kind of following along and you know, they're not like moving their tokens on our map, but I just wanted to for clarity. So I guess I'll follow along. He is looking up at the ceiling. Are you? GM question. The aforementioned graveyard. In earlier parts of the story. Do did we see that when we entered the manor? Depending on the direction you approached from, it would be very easy to see. It's a large regional cemetery. Which direction from the house was that cemetery? Okay, that's fair. That's fair. To the right? The house didn't have a compass on it. So, but yes. That was my question. It is the same direction. Does Darius realize that he is, like, does he have his bearings enough from the broken staircase and the trap door that he realizes he is heading towards the cemetery? If you would like me to. You want to try a knowledge roll? Also, keep in mind, we're in a Necromancer's house, so... 15 with fear! Maybe bodies. Oh my God, we are all not doing good. This... Okay. Yes. I feel like Darius is not one to rush about willy-nilly, so he's got some presence of mine to keep track of what he's seen and where he's headed and would piece together that this is the same direction as the cemetery they saw outside the house. in the rear of the group. - And Morel has to comment on what he just saw from... - I mean, it's sticking out of his bag. It's like a baguette, like, you know, just comically large sticking out of the bag. - Yeah. And so he's like, have you started taking souvenirs? Not superiors, no, but I thought it could be helpful later. You never know. I mean, it doubles as a weapon and I could maybe, I don't know, transform into something that looks like it. Or I don't know, talk to it. You never know who you're gonna meet. We're in a Necromancer's dungeon. Are you moving forward? Yes. >> MC definitely is. >> I'm following close enough behind that my light is still reaching MC, but far enough behind that my thundering steps are not going to alert anyone of her. >> So as you take a few more steps and come around a bend, suddenly there's sharp lines of formal walls and an inlaid stone floor and torches flickering on the walls. Oh, MZ, this reeks of traps. But there's no traps over here. Remember that one upstairs? I nailed that one. And say actually in the the weasel, you know form just actually just kind of rolls right into this area and just walks right up to Kind of right down going towards you said there's like kind of like a door at the end of it there is a door at the end or That's something not like a traditional door. It is a large I mean faintly glowing with strange sigils. A little bit mostly opaque, but there's something on the other side. You, emcee, so I guess it's like it kind of almost happens. in one fluid motion where MCA drops the beast form, goes back to simia form. But as she transitions back to simia form, she's immediately seated in sort of like knees bent seated position and sort of like a prayer, sort of like meditation and does go ahead and invoke her commune, reaching out to a kind of like ether. And so for em say, it's not actually one in particular, but it's almost like she's searching for the right one to get an answer at that time. And she makes a connection with a spirit, feels a sense of warmth in her chest. And then what do I need to roll? D6 is equal to my spell cast rate. So I got to do... I think mine's instinct. Is that my... Where are you... Yeah. A six. Oh boy. All right. So I would like to commune with this ancestor and deity that's bringing a warmth to my chest and a connection to something greater than myself to physically experience a scene relevant to what is going on behind this door? Or what is this door about? I guess I would say. Wait, what's the second question? So, it's really one question, sorry. So the question is, what is this door or what's going on, I guess, behind this door? Or again, you know, use of flexibility, obviously, like what is this door connected to or something? But then the role gets me the option of psychically experiencing a scene in relevant to that answer as if I was there. No, physically experience. Is it? It's a cyclic. Like a clay. No, I can't read. Yeah, that's all right. Very close. He did. He did. Psychically. No, I read it like two times. I got it right. It's for a cycle. Psychically. But the cycle. I'll leave. OK. Physically, your awareness, excuse me, spreads out past the barrier. What was the rule? I roll this. I roll those are those are your that's your skill. Okay. Commune dice and you get to pick. Okay. Yes. Okay. So, uh, yeah, your awareness passes, passes the door and you can see that is a large open cavern extending out pretty far. I mean, it's a very far distance across the cavern. There's light, so maybe there's an opening on the other side of the door to the outer world. world. But you would also hear the sounds of chanting or spellcasting. Does it feel like any positive or negative connotations? You also don't have to tell me that part, but yeah. Do I need to tell you? No, no, no, that's what I'm saying. You don't have to. I mean, it's it's not clear here. It just says that I experienced a scene I don't know if I get it a sense that this is a good or a bad thing, but yeah I think Rarik's got it You don't get in a necromancer's dungeon and look for happy things There's no there's no unicorns and rainbows, okay You see Wow answer. I'd expect her to exclusively work on rainbows and unicorns. True. True. And say gets up and kind of looks down and sort of dumbfounded for a second, because then she feels that there's something awful probably has happened in this place and maybe continuing to happen and doesn't know exactly what the chanting is or what it's about, but then goes backwards towards her companions to fill the man on the things that she saw and experienced with her commune. So have we all met up by this entrance? Yeah. My dig comes up behind em say and drapes her her cloak around her. That she was in catch. She's been carrying since upstairs. Very fast. I know it's more than you look a bit cold. Yeah. M say wraps herself in the cloak and puts an arm out onto met Magdig's Magdig, Magdig, Magdig is a shoulder and as a gesture of thanks. And thank you for not losing this. I always leave behind. Could M. Say ask what is near this door? There's like a, like what's around the door right now? Around the door? I see a switch. There is a lever on the floor. Four-wall, pick your pick. Not much else besides dust. You can see the footprints of yourself and your party because there was so much dust that hadn't been disturbed before this. And are these little magic lights on the wall here? Probably. I will say that before we enter this, I mean, mess with the roar, get the thorns, I better prepare myself for some battle, huh? And I'm gonna... I'm not using my experience, but I'm gonna use my Thorn Skin spell. So I'm gonna spend a hope to sprout thorns all over my body. When I do that, I place a number of tokens equal to my Spellcast trait, which is +5. When you take damage, you can spend any number of tokens to roll that number of D6s and add the result together to reduce the incoming damage by that amount. If you're within melee range of the attacker, deal that amount of damage back to them if you take a rest clear all unspent tokens. So basically this will last for our whole session until I use everything. Just you see the in the areas of my skin that are not stone that are covered in moss or covered in dirt, you see thorns pop out. - All right, so everybody's over here in this hallway is what I want to call it, this path, this path down to this large weirdly glowing door. Yeah. And Emse will go ahead and create another moment of peace for herself prior to opening up this door. You see like a ring of kind of- in this weird creepy carved... Okay. It's perfect. A little ring of flowers somehow still sprouts up right around Emsay as she's there, which you know, seems odd as it's kind of just like growing out of the stone within the very quickly. They don't just like fall apart. They more so just fade away. And I go ahead and can clear up to four stress. OK. I don't think anybody else has any stress, by the way. Nobody else is stressed, right? Yeah, because I could do two more. I only had two marks, but I was like, oh, zero from Beast Form. So walking around as a cat. From walking around, we've gotten stress already. OK, every time you do Beast Form, you're literally jumped out of the fancy one you got to work in. So there's some stress been involved. That's true. There's a little bit. That's true. That's true. Yeah. What will you do? Before we go in there, Darius, I have to ask. I mean, it's the elephant in the room. Everyone's been wondering it, I assume, because everyone thinks like me. Darius, are you-- do you have any experience with the dark arts? I mean, we're here in this area. You seem to be very familiar with darkness, and I just-- I can't help but notice. Do you know anything about Nekromancy? Or I mean, I guess any form of dark art. GM. Do you know what we're getting ourselves into here? Necromancy or the dark arts? Darius, that seems like something that would be in your background. I have experienced darkness. But I'm afraid. That what I have encountered. might be unrelated to what we are about to face. - We'll shoot. - You were hoping- - I was hoping that was the key. - I mean, why else would you be a part of this group? You're a warlock, we're all witches. - I will know my purpose. - Why did they send you with us? - When it is in front of me. Yeah, I guess I'll take it. Morell literally folds one arm across his chest and puts his head on his hand and shakes it with his eyes closed. What? What did I say? There are a number of different groups involved in our loose company, or organization, if Oh, fair. Did I say, did I say something wrong? We don't have time. Let us move on. Fine. We'll discuss this later. And say. You got the lever. And say turns around just like. What? What did I say? So like I left my family because of things like this. Join the sorry, wait, hold on. What's it? What's it called again? It's called the Society for Benevolent Intercession. I will tell you, we were going to call it the foundation, but I refuse to have something with an FBI acronym. Oh, no. Fair enough. is like, "Join the society for benevolent intercession. It'll be great. You'll go adventuring. It'll be different than this. It's the same everywhere." And then, as M. Say says the last thing, it's like, "It's the same everywhere." Then she pulls the lever, or attempts to pull the lever, I guess, is her thing. In before, wrong lever, M. Say. As Imse reaches out to pull the lever, suddenly all the light vanishes and you're surrounded by darkness, not knowing what could be happening, what could be coming, you draw your weapons, and a dark aura envelops you. And you hear the sound of stone grinding on stone. A-yo. And this is the point where you either make a choice or make a roll. Would this be, can I just ask, kind of outside of the story? Would this be a good time to use my moonbeam spell where I can make it light so we can see? No. Okay. Hold on. What you've heard is the sound of walls crushing in on you. Good thing I made a stone. Good. I'm going to stone can still crush stone. I think it. I guess if you want to if you want to roll, do so. Otherwise, I will tell you what your choices. Do we all? You have to decide now. Can I say for each of your roll, or everybody's going to roll their own favorite die? Just one. And you can, I mean, individually, you can pick one or the other. You got you don't all have to roll. Can I flavor this also to say that instinctively when I felt the like walls tumbling in that I would reach out for Morel like to protect him, like, to just try to like guard him with my body. It doesn't have to do anything. Right. Yes, I understand. We kind of hate each other, but we kind of love each other. I mean, what do I say? Okay. I'd like to roll. It's a friendly rivalry. It's a friendly. What we have? Is it a 19 with fear? Just one die. Whatever is your favorite? One die. Is it D12, D28? Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Nope. All right. Fine. I never used D28. I know. That's all I was going to use that. My bow die. Is that a one? What'd you get? Yes, I got a one. Is it really? I got a one. One, and a one. Rianth got a four. What? 15. 15 and 14. All right. For those of you that rolled odd numbers, the one and the 15, I wish that I had you, well, I wish I was receiving the rewards of those roles, but you take the Rianth. Reanimation transformation reanimated For those of you that rolled even you take the ghost transformation The walls crushed you this was some Star Wars trash compactor There was a scape. So That's pretty crazy. We're exploring more of the void Here that's why you should know transformations that is why so I'm amazing need I can provide the transformation cards Reanimated our corpses who have been brought back to life Stitch up says during arrest you can only clear hit points if you have access to remains from a recently deceased creature Describe how using this material affects your appearance You cannot clear hit points by any means except a downtime move or the risk it all death move If need I hate this description See I have this femur that I wasn't using for anything but fair if if you Detest the the thing that you got I would let you pick the other one. This is I'm not that hung up on it I just wanted to use some of the transformations. So if you're not familiar with risk at all, that's when you it's your death move. When you mark your last hit point, you roll duality dice. If hope is higher, you stay on your feet and clear hit points or stress equal to the hope die. If fear die is higher, you would cross through to the other side. But with the reanimated transformation, you have the corpse feature when you risk it all on a death move. If you fail, you can permanently mark out a hit point to succeed instead, and then you still use your hope dies value to clear hit points of stress. So the reanimated are sturdy and have some... What I was reading about the transformations is there's a good feature and a drawback to them, so that they're trying to balance that. So we're playing around with it a little bit. The ghost transformation is a spirit trap between the mortal realm and the veil of death. Spirit form, your physical form, can shift between corporeal and incorporeal. Mark a stress to transition into and out of your Spirit Form. While in Spirit Form, you can move through solid objects, are immune to physical damage, and take double magic damage. You can spend too hope to attack or physically interact with the material world. And the other feature is ephemeral. Cross out a hit point slot when you take this card and when you increase your tier. So the people who are ghosts have just lost four HP. When you mark your last hit point, you must choose a blaze of glory. I'm not increasing my tear after I take this card. I'm only. Right. I've already increased my tears all the way. I'm happy to do it your way. I. OK, I think that is that is a fair evaluation of it. I am happy to do it. Do it your way. You are the GM. You tell me. Okay. I took it as, as crossing out four hit points by the time you're two or four, one for each tier, but I see what you mean about when you increase, but you already did. So what are we doing? We're taking four? We're taking four? Okay. Yes. So, so a point of clarification Does when the reanimated can't heal from spells or skills from the HP? Yes, that's my understanding. Okay. Correct. You can't clear hit points by any other means. Now, is everybody okay with the transformations that they got? Yeah. Yes. Nobody's getting demigod. Don't even think about it. I'm not sure I fully understand how the corpse thing works, but I'd say let's just play and we'll figure it out. That's fine. Okay. Yeah. All right. Unfortunately, nobody checked the lever for a trap. Nobody inspected the door, the barrier, into the next area. And when the lever was pulled, it sprung the trap that killed everybody. Now there is this dark aura surrounding all of you, and the strength of the necromantic power is bringing you back in some form. So you are either reanimated or you are ghosts, and you are able to proceed to try to resolve the situation. [Music]
