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S05E15 - Dungeon Crawl Classics - The Precipice of Corruption - Episode Two

Having made their blood sacrifice, our intrepid party of inept rabble venture deep into the horror-filled corridors of the Temple of Herlezzect (yeah, we can't pronounce it either) in the concluding part of our playthrough of Nick Baran's "The Precipice of Corruption" for Dungeon Crawl Classics.

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Broadcast on:: 14 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

I don't want to flip this dungeon to make money. I'm not sure if I want to love this one or list this one. The game was already solid enough that while I can tell that it's a reset, it's not mind blowing. It's not, oh, got to ask my character, my players to reroll stuff. Don't have to do that. And it's like the biggest errata that they've ever written. If you. Yeah, that's, that's actually a good way to look at it. It's like after 10 years of cruft and design and stuff. They have 200 pages of errata to give you. Wait, was that a erotica? What? Yeah, yes. I'm glad I'm glad to have that. I'm very glad to have it. Well, who wouldn't. But it's mainly green slime base. That's right. That's right. It's all green slime errata dragons. I took a picture of it and texted my college buddies. We're still playing on Sundays and D&D. And they're like, I said, look, oh, look with the owl bear dragged in, because you know what I got as a free bonus when I bought the book, my choice of one of my choice of one of three key rings or a big D 20. And I chose the owl bear key ring, which, weirdly enough, I am as emotionally pleased with as the book itself. Did you say the book comes with 200 pages of errata? No, no, like, that's just the way to think about it. Like the book is like 200 pages of play as head book errata. OK, no, that's nothing. Wait until the new hours of magic comes out. It's going to be something similar, right? I think it's going to be similar. Eight hundred pages of revisions. Oh, I mean, I'm actually I'm actually very excited for ours magic. I cannot wait for that to come out. That's like next month, isn't it? I think yeah, I think it's 600 pages is the book. So that's going to be amazing. That's going to be amazing. It's going to be my favorite role playing tome of all time. It's going to be very expensive, but I don't care. I don't care than you are to their using looks really, really good too. It just looks good. You know, I'd be happy to play that even just like twice a year. Just more hours, please, more hours. It's like the Twilight Imperium of role playing games. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Like even Kathy loves Twilight Imperium is finicky as it is. There's just something magical about that. Which is bizarre to me that she likes laughs. It's because that game is so social. Like there's some it seems like it's all crunchy rules, but it's really like the best social board game I've ever played. If that makes sense, even Kathy's like, oh, yeah, we got to get everybody together and have that for a weekend. It's such a fun time that game. I've got the expansion now. So it'd have to be a weekend. Yeah, I call this the only one that has a copy. I mean, I would buy a copy if I was to host it for sure. I sold off my copy. I had third edition though. You guys are playing fourth or. Yeah, I was supposed to be better. It's essentially the same as the third edition, except I would say it shaves about an hour off the game. Maybe only like eight hours. Maybe even maybe even 90 minutes, both of our games. I think we're maybe five and a half, five, six hours. I'd say between five and six hours. There was whiskey involved. I remember that and they were like, I think six players. Yeah, we had a full table. Yeah, not technically full table, but it was a full table. Yeah, that was a lot. So it was pretty and that included, you know, a break for. For dinner, yeah, such a good game. Yeah, that was incredible. And I remember that you had a video, like a 10 minute video, and you were like, you need to watch this before you play it. And of course, I was like, Oh, God, do we really have to do this? And it was really, really helpful. It was like it was like the one it was it was like one of the times I was like, Yep, he was spot on. This is we needed to watch this video. There's no way I'm teaching that fucking thing to anybody. So it was very helpful. It was just no time to sit down with people and teach that thing. So it's like you've to come ready for it or fuck off. Maybe something else. Yeah, you posted some game the other day and you're on Facebook that I thought was pretty cool as a board game. I can't remember the Arc Nova, the zoo one. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's the one marvelous. That's a good game. Best thing I've played in years. Oh, it's got me playing solo board games again. I think I've been playing the solo version of Terra Mystica, which has been being quite a joy for me to play, but good God. I've played as the witches, the chaos magicians and the giants. And it's all it's all a lie. It's just it's all just procedural procedural, procedural, Matthew, heavy as hell stuff, but it's really fun. I like it. So am I beat it? I beat it once. I managed to be a deck of cards. The AI is a deck of cards. It works really well. And I managed to be at once at the easiest level. So only once, otherwise it's just kick my ass. But yeah, Arc Nova is like one of the best things I've played in a long time. I picked up the new Dominion Saturday called Rising Sun. Oh, feudal Japan themed. Oh my God, themed, of course, is we're talking to minion here. It's a weird one. So I don't know, haven't played it yet. Did just play the the other new one that came out for it, which came out like two years ago and somehow I missed it. Plunder, which is really good. They're all good. They're all good. I really missed a minion. I've almost forgotten how to play it because it's been so long. Oh, it's like riding a bike. I guarantee you. Well, I'll bring some, I'll bring just some down to Chicago one of these days. All right, shall I just do we have more catching up to do? I don't know anything that happened. And I also don't know what characters are available. I think all of your characters are available. Yeah, I don't think any of them died. I don't think any of your characters died. But there was that ran off. Yeah, where they were, where they both, Jenny's. Well, Jenny's, yeah. Yes. Yes, they were mine. That was a hang on. Let me get my sheet, my cat sitting on it. Um, sorry, Hugo, uh, Dallas and Kane ran away. Oh, yeah. And there have been no. I have, I have Ripley and Jonesy. There've been no casualties so far as far as I know. But it's just like a cowards, a bunch of cowards. This is the problem. Like, wrongs gone soft. This is the pro have knock on and soft. It's just, this is the problem when, when you play with such excellent players. No, no, no, no, excellent. Nothing. I left for one week and ordered to host my lovely nieces and show them a good time. And what do you people do? You fit you for forgotten how to put zero level characters in threatening positions. Oh, you forgot about risk of every word. Don't worry about risk and reward. Guarantee, there's one, there's one, it's coming up now. Ham, lamb, spam and Graham. There's still all the life. Um, Dallas ran away. This is the, this is the precipice of corruption. Yes. Hello, this is the precipice of confusion. Pressing the corruption is two dollars down. So I have, I have two NPC characters. So if anybody's like short below their four or five, I'm happy to give up on or both of them. So we have, you know, split the load is what I'm. OK, I shall recap. Damon wasn't here. Your characters were played by, by other people, but your characters. Remember, so you can just ask them. Press this corruption part two. Your unseemly mob of cutthroats and fortune seekers have traveled to the foothills of the mangled hills. And he did the call from the remote town of Stenards constable Clarissa Hamms to lead a day long search into what the locals call the forbidden lands to the West and help find a missing hunting party led by the constable son, Tuckeran. In the company of some hirelings from Stenards Common Fire, you sit out Westward at first light. The trek is hard but uneventful until you come to a covered bridge over a stream. There you encounter a well-dressed man being devoured by corpse crawlers, or a test worm-like creatures. Unable to save him, you tear off a piece of his tunic as proof to bring back to Stenard and press onward across the bridge. On the other side, you follow a trail of footprints. You are certain belong to the hunting party. Along with many other inhuman footprints. The trail leads to a cliff face where after fending off an attack from a small pack of wolves, you uncover a false entrance carved into the cliff face. The entrance radiates evil magic. You open it by making a blood sacrifice. Hurray! The rock face vanishes and you are faced with a cloud of weirling steam and fog. Stealing yourselves, you venture forth into the darkness beyond. That's where we left off. I was there for that. I remember all of that. I believe Garrett. I remember the wolves. When we finished up, we wanted to retcon some torches for you guys and some. Yes, I would show up for that. And you have, you have all, I know you were here for that, Jenny. Well, but wait, I think we haven't played since Damon was playing. Yeah. We had planned, we'd separated his characters, and then it fell through. Oh, yeah, so we just never, it just fell through. It fell through. It fell through. Yeah, I missed nothing. So now we're region feeling. That's good. I forgot like a big chunk of my life there. And I accused you of not killing my characters with enough efficiency. I'm so sorry. And that's why. I thought you were just being a dick. No, Damon. I thought he was like, oh, yes, I remember that. No, no, he was there. Okay. So you were here for it all. Okay, I missed nothing. Okay. That's excellent. I'm glad we've, I'm glad we're all here. Then we're all on the same page. We're such good role players. Okay. So our entire map right now consists of square equals five feet. And what a double door. A double door. And then dark is beyond. Oh, yeah. That's the entire map you're missing right now, Jenny. I've just described it completely. Oh, all right. Thank you. Thank you. That's helpful. Well, we're gonna go in. Okay, you got your torch and you stick. You step on through. We step on through to the other side. Break on through to the other side. Yeah, we're not breaking anything. We're breaking the fourth wall. Okay. Okay. Good job. There's a giant fire in the middle of the room. Whoa, shut up people. Silence. You stand in a white corridor with a high ceiling that ends in a large sealed wooden door. Hanging high above you from rotten wood beams are a half dozen corroded bronze bells clanging loudly. They are of different sizes. The clatter and clang. The walls of the hall are rough and damp with large crevices scattered along both sides. Beside you at hand height, are two open-mouthed skull carvings adjacent to the door's stone frame. The swirling mist behind you vanishes and the false door of stone takes its place. Oh, very nice. Jonesy and choppy chopperstein, or chucky chopperstein. No. Catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of their eyes, but it's quickly gone. There's probably nothing. You hear a soft but shrill whisper in the distance. You will, Neil. Oh. Well, what, Neil? Yeah, who's Neil? Who's got a 10-foot pole? Ah, you know. It's a little, I think. And Lambs got one. And Lambs. So all these bells, huh? I don't know what to make of that, exactly. But there's a door on the far end. There's no side doors, right? I can't quite tell from the map. Just the door on the far end. There are not. There are narrow or large crevices. Scattered-- Like, are the crevices that a human-sized figure could crawl into? Or are they just a few inches? Um, they're large enough. The four largest cracks are wide enough that a small person, like a child, or a halfling, or a small to medium-sized dog, could go through them with little difficulty. A full-size adult human. Probably by, like, moving through them, like, sideways. You'd have to-- Oh, so they're pretty sizable. Really carefully. Okay, so something could jump out of them at us, it sounds like. So Lambs will take his 10-foot pole and go slowly down the hallway. He'll start, like, for example, on the left is a crevice. He'll poke into the crevice, and then he'll poke to the right. Do we want the archers up front with Lambs? Do you have archers? Well, I thought we have people with short bows. That Jaguar has a short bow. So does Manos. They both have bows. Okay, and we did get six arrows recently, so we should at least have something. Yeah, well, how about you just stand right with me, then? Sure, sounds good. Me being Lambs. Or, yeah, Lambs. So yeah, yeah. Lambs starts by poking into the crevice on the left, and assuming that does nothing, he'll poke the square on the right. How far in are you poking? I have a 10-foot pole, so, you know, we'll say seven to eight feet, probably down into that crevice. Lambs needs to give me a look check. Oh, what could go wrong? I've got his look as seven, so you need to roll under a seven. Oh, that's not going to be a problem. What if you have a minus one lot? Oh, he does have a minus one lot. I guess I... Yeah, that's the best bonus on it. So either way... Well, it's not a ball. ...because it's a penalty in your case. Yeah, so it becomes an eight. No, your nine doesn't become an eight. It becomes a 10 in the case of a look. And right, yeah, yeah. Because it's going the other way. It's bad for him, yeah. Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. So, Lambs is poking the 10-foot pole in there when he feels it. Dang on something in the middle of the passage along the ground. Okay. And can Lambs give me a reflex save? Oh, of course, is what Lambs do best. Plus zero, it looks like. All right. Fourteen. Fourteen. He puts the 10-foot pole in. He feels it snag on something along the floor. Then you hear just a thunk. And as soon as he hears it, Lambs jumps to the side. And that just as he does so, a truly huge wooden javelin. Comes shooting out of the crevice and smashes and shatters against the wall behind you. Well, that was a little frightening. So I'll test that last one then and be prepared to jump aside. Yeah, okay. Nothing happens. But you hear insane gibbering softly echoing through the halls from somewhere ahead of you. Ahead of us. Like behind the door, maybe. No, no, no. I mean, down through this crevice. Oh, okay. Okay. If I shine my lantern down through that crevice, can I see anything? Yes, you can. You can see that the crevice seems to lead to some kind of intersection. It's a very narrow passageway. I mean, I guess we could go in, but we would be very hard pressed. Like one at a time, yeah. To accomplish anything. I think I would prefer the door. Yeah, me too. Even though it seems more obvious and therefore more dangerous, because, you know, this is just two more horrors in DCC form, right? But nevertheless. Well, now hold on. The gibbering. Does it sound like a human gibbering or not human? It does not sound human. Great. I love it. Okay. In fact, give me a, I'll tell you what, Rob, can you give me an intelligence check? Okay. So that'll be Torgo, the jeweler who's a well-educated fella. He's got a plus one on that check. He speaks for some reason common and halfling. Is it halfling language? He is not a halfling. Um, no. Okay. That's a nine on that intelligence check. Nine. That doesn't feel so great. No, it does not sound human. Well, one of my characters who has the best perception will listen at the door. Just straight up D20 roll. Doesn't matter who it is. All right. Let's take a roll. 14. I hear it. Oh, you can't hear anything, but you can vaguely smell the scent of dong coming from somewhere. There might be gone farming. Well, those wolves are pretty scary. Oh, that might let go a little bit. Not even names. So you're examining this door? Yes. In front of you is a heavy wooden door. The base of the door is covered in moss, insects occasionally creep in and out of the tight gaps in the boards. Well, those of you with thieves tools, maybe you should check and see if there are traps, or otherwise it's locked, etc. I should tell you that this entire cavern is very warm and damp and humid. And so all of this, this, this door just looks sudden. The wood just seems sudden and saturated from the human to see. And that's why there's like so much moss growing all over it. So there's just moss thriving on it. I'm going to, can I just take my dagger and slowly work around just a seam just to feel if the wood has expanded into the door frame? Yes, you can. And I mean, it's going to be gentle. Yeah, um, yeah, you, you can tell that the door isn't locked, but that it has indeed seems to have swollen in place. Okay. And would probably take a good hard shove to open. Would a hand axe do some, some good to it? Oh, I'm just going to be in a strength roll. Okay. Who's real strong? Let's see who we're going to do. Okay. Slim dude, man. He's going to, he's going to try it. Strength of 12, but, oh, rolled a 19. Oh, a 19. Yeah, he goes crashing through the door. Okay. And the door opens and pitch ortling echoes through the steamy hot corridor. It feels like a nightmarish fever dream. Yelling in harsh, inhuman voices. Four short, dangly humanoid creatures. Lurch and sillier group with short spears. A fifth paces back and forth at the back, gauging your movements. The rest leer and cackle in shrill voices as they swirl and stab. Their breath is heavy and stinking in the steaming hot chamber. Their eyes are impossibly wide and unblinking, glaring with wild intensity. Their teeth are pointed, erratically placed, broken, and rotting. Their mouths froth with the light following each jab, roll for initiative. So they don't want to parlay? They don't look like they want to talk now. Manos tries to seduce them. Yeah, right. They all drop their weapons and their pants. Very well. Okay. 14. 13. 20. Oh, not 20. We're fast. Yeah. I got a 21. Excellent role, players. This must be the party we were looking for. Yeah. A nice, we're going to have to kill them. One of these days, I swear a DCC module is going to throw sleestack status. I'm going to be so happy. Yeah. Seems nice. What is their size column? They're shorter. They're shorter than humans. They're maybe, says their unblinking eyes are their dominant feature. The size of the eyes appear to have been enhanced by the rough removal of their eyelids, creating a wild-eyed appearance. Below their eyes is a mouth of sharpened teeth, which are broken, rotten, and erratically placed. The true stature of them is hard to determine as they hunch and lurch on their emaciated frames. Clothed in scraps of cloth and armor, they are vile, smelling creatures that revel in filth. Are these guys over with the sex pistols? Oh, if you're hungry, we should just give them some candy bars. Anybody have any candy bars? Be friendly. Maybe they're visiting from Portland. All right. All right, Damon's got the 21. Right, so if I'm first. Yes, you are. All right, first up then, we're just going to go right down the order here. And am the rice farmer will attack with pitch. From the land of sky blue water. Yeah. Uh, let's see. Please tell me he comes with a bear. I wish. Well, you need a cheerleader bear. I assume that misses. And nine? Are you happy with that? Or do you want to maybe burn some luck? I'm going to let it go. Okay, it does miss. Yeah, I don't have any luck to burn on them. I don't have, I don't have a lucky crew. Well, that's not really true. Ham and lamb are quite unlucky. I can burn, you know, spam and gram can burn some luck. All right, lamb, his weapon is a dagger. Making the attack. Little dagger poke poke into the eye and eight. No, that's not going to work. All right, time for some good people. Spam who has a hammer. Spammer. Oh, geez. All right, we're going to burn some luck on that one. Um, do I, like, how much would it take to hit? How much luck do you want to burn? We'll try two. The hit is successful. Awesome. So 12's to target. Or last part. Or, well, let's, we don't know that. Let's not say it. And damage with this hammer. Pound, pound. For what? Shiting down. One. Uh, narrate your kill. Oh, wow, with one. Oh, all right. So hammer, uh, straight into the wherever the ear socket would be on this thing. Just fresh in the skull. All right. It goes down. That's suspiciously easy. Yeah. All right. Graham with the pitchfork. The cheese, I can't hit. I'm not spending that much luck. I have two NPCs. I still don't want to do it. Here comes N's log splitter. Oh my gosh. Talking about miserable roll. Oh, I don't have my little buck. My little buck's upstairs. It's a terrible string of roll. Hold on. Fumbles table. Just a Fumbles table. Okay. Is that D4? D4 Fumble. D4. Three. Three. Your weapon comes loose in your hand. You could grab it, but your grip is disrupted. You take a minus two penalty on your next attack roll. All right. Yeah. Finally, we have Mirard who has a staff. Jesus. Yeah, never mind. Oh wow. It's five. I mean, I didn't roll above a seven for any of these. Any of my characters. That's a lot of terrible rolls. Yeah, it always throws me terrible rolls. You and I burned our good rolls on the initiative. I mean, that was awful. Yeah. All right. I'm done. That's all I can do is flail around, hap, you know, haplessly. Okay. Rocking. The initiative. So my hunters flank out to either side to shoot at these guys with their short bows. Here's Manos with the six. That'll be a miss. And here's Jett Jaguar with the three. Okay. I'm going to have to waste a lot of time rolling damage here. Mitchell lunges in leaps in. Waving his cleaver around. The D20 plus nothing. Print eight. He's already burned some luck. I'm not going to. Ah, but our friend Torgo. This jeweler's dagger for 15. 15 hits. And damage the lowly D4 for four. Um, yes, narrate the kill. Okay. Um, Torgo kind of weaves in through the crowd at these things and just past the spear point of this one. And kind of like actually pokes blindly. It is very surprised when the dagger sinks in and more surprised when what seemed like a, you know, solid but feeble blow fells the beast. All right. Seeing that the combat is not going their way. The creature that was hanging back behind the four that are attacking you moves off to the east of you. Coward. Oh, I've got Gary with that NPC higher lying too with his short sword. There the mouth. He silently rolls a 20. Oh, he's all very natural. He is D six damage. D six damage plus a plus a four on the on the crit table. Crit for a four on the crit table. So two is the damage roll. Four on the crit table. Do you have that handy Garrett? Yeah, yep. A strike to foes kneecap. Inflict d four damage was a strike and this foe suffers a minus 10 foot penalty to speed until you max. That's another four. So that's six total, which I'm guessing. Yeah, yeah, that is a knee cap. That's a kill which you can. Kneecaps into death or not. We'll go with kneecaps into death. I think that covers it. The last remaining creature looks around at its fallen comrades. It says that you jabs at you weekly with its spear and then flees backwards up the corridor and then disappears into a crevice in the wall to the left. Howard, I'm back and face certain death. The one went through. Okay, one went through a door at the back and one went through a crevice. One went to the east. This corridor here is 10 feet wide crafted of ancient weathered stone and covered in condensation with patches of moss. There are four five by five alcoves with carved reliefs of twisted faces, leering skulls and scuttling beasts. Each face weighs ideas of corruption agony and decay. The alcoves have piles of worm filled dung in various states of decomposition. The base of each wall is lined with rotten wooden boards. Okay, and one of them. Sorry, how did one of them get out then? Through an alcove? Yes, it disappeared through an alcove. Okay, they're all kind of-- Yeah, and he kind of that one that was hovering back around here disappeared through, I said, through the left. He disappeared through this alcove. Yeah, look down that northeast one. Like, is it a passageway or is it kind of this narrow crevice thing that we've seen before? It is a crevice. So, if I throw my lantern light down it, can I see any farther? Five, 10 feet, say? Oh, wow. Okay. So we have doors as well. Yeah, I don't know about wandering around in this crevice thing. That seems dangerous. No, definitely not. Oh, yeah, there's a door in front of you here also, yes. There's another like heavy wooden door again covered in moss swallowed from condensation. Do we want to try and check any of these crevices or at least that one? Don't know by the door. I say let's go through the door. Yeah, I think door. Make sure it's not trapped or anything like that again. You know what, my hunters want to look around and see if they can see signs of human captors being brought through here. It's like damp and mossy right through the chance of tracks. Sure, sure. Good call. Yeah, give me an intelligence. 20 is the better of two, which will be manos. We're 15. You do see drag marks. And you see lots of kind of footprints of these like in human footprints, which you now assume are these creatures. But you also see drag marks as though they were they were dragging something heavy through this corridor up toward the door or into an alcove. Okay, good. No, no, no, from like from this door up through this door. Excellent. He also notices that the rotted boards on the base of the walls just seems like extremely rotted. Should we bust open any of it? I'm worried about what might come out if we do. Well, well, we know that the people or it seems likely that the people we're looking for were dragged through the doors. Yeah, I think that's the most likely outcome. We're going to always come back and start ripping out floorboards if we want to. Yeah, I'm not really here to do. I don't want to flip this dungeon to make money. Yeah, I figured this isn't in and out. I'm not sure if I want to love this one or list this one. Honestly, I love that show. Let's wait. Let's wait till the end. We got to see what, uh, if there's any turn on the edge. Yeah, continue exploring. Okay, so again, you're going to try and bust down this door. Can somebody give me a strength check? Who's got a good, strong character? My guys are all middling. Yeah, mine are all pretty. Well, yeah. No, I don't have anything. The 13 is the best I've got one. So that's a plus one. Yeah, it's a pain hasn't run away. We would have been all right, but he ran away. Uh, can I help? Sure. Oh, yeah. Can people kind of assist with this? Well, yeah, I got a 12 for my strength score. All right. Here's Manos' role and you can decide what the help does. I rolled a little 11 then. I rolled a nine. Oh, yeah. Easily. That's a natural 20. Oh, two of you. Both of you are crashing through the door and you find yourself in a short corridor, flanked by walls of weathered stone that rise 10 feet above you and arch into a peaked ceiling. 15 feet in front of you are two ornately sculpted posts, depicting arcane sigils and macabre details. They appear to suspend a rope bridge that stretches into the darkness ahead. As you advance towards the bridge, you hear pitched gibbering and inhuman chatter. In the distance, you can see shapes darting around with excited movements. An orange robed figure looks on as a human in torn regional clothes. It's slumped atop the column on the opposing side of the chasm about 40 feet away. A gangly creature lets out a beastial laugh and pushes the standardite over the edge. He emits a weak cry as he plummets, attached by his wrists to a heavy rusted chain with fraying rope. He falls for what feels like an eternity when the chain suddenly goes taught and a distant agonized scream drifts through the chasm. Pressing forward on the other side of the rope bridge are six skulking humanoid creatures, wielding short spears. They are clothed in a patchwork of stolen leather cloth and protective metal scrap. Bug-eyed and frothing they deliberately stride onto the bridge, emitting twittering squeals as they advance. The robed onlooker retreats into the darkness beyond. Roll for initiative. Damon, what you got? 14. 14, Garrett. I got a 10, 1-0. Rob. Also a 10. Jenny. Or. Ow. Okay. And me is going to be 11. All right, Damon. That's all down to Damon again. Really? That's a mistake. You're our only hope. There are six of these creatures advancing across this rickety wooden rope bridge towards you. Can I have one of them actually get across the bridge and then attack them? You mean, I don't want to fight them on the bridge, that's what I'm getting at. Oh, you want to wait for them to advance towards you? Yeah, I don't want to wait. Yeah, if that's all right with your compatriots, yeah. I mean, we've got there's 15 feet between us and the bridge anyway, right? So we can kind of like file out onto the into this room, but not all the way to the bridge. Right. My read of this is that they're already on the bridge. I don't want to do any fighting on that bridge. So I want them to come off the bridge. Yeah, they reach the midpoint of the bridge and then they just stop. Those are the bridges. Goating you to approach. All right, time to shoot some bows, I think. Yeah, shoot some bows and because, you know, my actions would have been like waiting for them to see what happened, I suppose. So otherwise I have, I'm, I guess, the only person with a plus of mind to hit other than the NPCs is Graham. Everybody else sucks. So if I can send Graham onto the bridge to fight the first one, I'll do that. Oh, so Graham is running onto the bridge to attack? Yeah, is that okay? Oh, yeah. Okay. As he runs onto the bridge, the bridge just swings precarious. Yes, I'm going to need a, give me a reflex save. I didn't see them take a reflex save. They're good at bridge. 19. They're good at very, very good at bridge. Oh, yeah, he's fine. Okay, now I can poke. You may poke away. Poke with the pitchfork. 14. Well, 14 hits. Kill, kill for three. Now reach your death. No, pitchfork, right? You were right below the rib cage. Lift him over the edge of the bridge, drop him into the abyss. All right, very, very nice. Yeah, it seems bizarrely delighted and honored to be dropped over the edge into this chasm. And it's just cackling wildly as you drop it. Oh, so I don't hear a Wilhelm scream? You hear a sickening thawed after quite a long time there. Okay, I mean, I have other characters that can go with this initiative, but you know, it's a broke bridge, right? So I guess they wait. They wait for now. Yeah, they're like too abreast on. They're coming at you like there's a, there's a, like three rows of two of each of each. Oh, so is it too abreast on the bridge? Yes. Oh, okay. So we could get too abreast. Well, in that case, I'll send my will. Oh, yes, as are, as are these things. These, these things are also too abreast. Anybody, if you're sending somebody else on there, I'm still going to need a reflex dive. Okay. So it's going to be N's log splitter. He's the only other person that's any good at combat at all. My group. So here's the reflex save, which I assume is going to be straight up. I don't see anything else on the NPC data. Four. Uh, four. Um, yeah. It's going to be good, isn't it? Yeah, N's log, again, the bridge just swings widely. And, um, as it does so, N's log, log splitter goes tumbling down onto the wooden planks and the bridge pitches to the right deeply and N's desperately tries to grab onto a gap between two of the planks. But as he does so, his axe slips away from him and he foolishly lets go in order to grab his precious axe and pitches over the side of the bridge and falls screaming into the chasm below. There's the bell. So does he live? Hey, I can't say. Let me check the falling damage. No. Oh, just 10 to 10 falling damage. Yeah. Oh, that's sad. Yeah. Very, very sad. Okay. The cow. All right. Okay. So you've still got one of your, you've still got one of your, uh, characters out on this bridge. Yep. And you still have two more characters or three more characters. They're not coming. They all suck at combat. Those are literally the only two that had any chance of hitting, so. Okay. A second, one of these things comes up to join its compatriot in a two by two row in front of you and lashes out with this crudely hewn, wooden short spear and oh, that's a fumble. All right. I love it. A fumble for a three on the fumble table. Three on the fumble table would be your weapon comes loose in your hand. You quickly grab it, but your grip is disrupted. You take a minus two penalty on your next attack roll. Right. Um, yes. The other one has a go, a character for 13. Does a 13 hit? Who's it going for? That should hit anybody. It is hitting, uh, Damon's character. That's the only one who's within range of it. Yeah. Graham. Yeah. Oh, a 13. Oh, a 13 does hit. Okay. You got an eight, a 10. Yeah. And it is stabbing at you with his short spear. Okay. Four. Two points of damage. Still alive. Still alive. It goes right through Graham, through the front, out of the back. And it's just. I do not like this. Wild. Yeah. But it's like a really, really narrow little spears. Yeah. Yeah. Even worse. Um, these other, there's, there's three more of these things behind, but they're blocked by the two in front of them. So, uh, it is back to Garrett or Rob. I got it. My archers go. Okay. So they're going to kind of like, again, like they're trained professionals. Dodge off to the side here. So they get clean shots past Graham. So here comes Manos with his short bow for a four. So then we'll move on to jet for a 10. All right. He's going to spend two points of lock. So 12 then. Oh, yeah. That hits. Okay. All right. So that is D six damage for a two. Oh, yeah. And they're right to kill. Oh, these guys are still blue. Cause great. Uh, okay. Yeah. So the one that the sneaky double that just stabbed for Graham here. Well, as he's, uh, just as he's pulled his spear loose, he's cackling insanely. Uh, he takes a shot right into the neck and staggers down onto the bridge. All right. That's my guy. I just met a couple of days ago. What were fast friends? Yeah, we like family now. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. All right. Is that, is that your turn down or? Yeah. I think I'm not going to have my other two guys charge out under the bridge of fucking death. Doom. Booking, booking. He said, fucking death, by the way. But the B kids. Swering is bad. Garrett. Oh boy. Oh boy. So there's four guys still up on the bridge. Yes. Okay. And Graham five guys. Graham. So there's five. Okay. Who's on both? So that's going to suck either way. Okay. So I have a rope. So Slim is going to tie the rope to. Yep. We're going to do it to Dizzy Demento. He's going to, who's going to kind of drop his flint and steal quick. But, um, so yeah, we're just going to wrap, wrap the rope around him. And then Dizzy's going to kind of go up and stay behind Graham to try and stay out of attack. And he's going to hold on to the side of the bridge. Like the rope and then try and hold on to Graham as much as he can. And then the other two are going to cut the rope bridge. Oh wow. Okay. We might be willing to get across. So would you like attacks against rope bridge or what would you like? That's your call. I'm going to try and coordinate it where Dizzy runs up and kind of like grabs the waist or belt of Graham. And he's, yeah, hold on. Trust us. We're going to drop the bridge. And then, um. Okay. Well, right there. Okay. So Dizzy stepping out onto the bridge. Yep. The wood field slippery under your boots. Each step forward causes the whole structure to bounce and sway. Give me a reflex save. And he is tied with a rope, right? Correct. Thirteen, one three. Thirteen, fine. The rope is holding. He manages to keep his footing. Okay. So by the time Dizzy reaches Graham, the, so the other two started kind of sawing away at the sides of the bridge while Dizzy's kind of running out there. And they're trying to just work their way through. And then Chuck, he's going to chop through his. Sam didn't quite make it through his or Chuck is going to help with that one. And then we'll see what happens. Give me a tack rolls then for both of those. On the, uh, on the rope. On the bridge. Seven and eight. Seven and eight. Okay. Who's doing the one to the left? Chuckie Chopperstein. Chuckie Chopperstein hacks at the rope to the left. And it splits and twists. And who is hitting the one on the right? Sam, the Duke of Yuke. Sam, the Duke of Yuke does likewise to the right and the rope. Blitz and savers and breaks with a sickening snap. The tautness of the rope suddenly loosens, was flying off into the air. And the bridge completely pitches to the right, causing one of these creatures to fall screaming to its death and the others to grasp onto the left to side remaining rope. Dizzy manages to grab onto Graham before Graham plunges to his doom. Oh, give me another reflex save for Dizzy, will you? Great rolls, that one. Dizzy and Graham slide down the bridge and go plummeting over the edge. And you just see the rope tightening behind them. Who is holding the rope for them? Lim is holding the rope. He's going to grab it and brace. And yeah, I need some help here! And I guess would that be the only action for all of my... Oh, then I also have Erhan Leechgripper. Yeah, give me a strength check for him. Okay, shit, that's a six! And is he getting any... Any characters haven't gone yet if somebody needs to help? Well, so I've got Erhan Leechgripper who's with us as well, the healer, and he would have, you know, hearing that, tried to grab onto him if that would help. Do you want to roll from him or... Yes. Natural 20. Okay, the sheer weight and the ferocity with which the rope tightens, drags Glim to the ground and sends him hurtling towards the edge of this catam. But as he's doing so, the barber surgeon with amazing speed and athleticism dives and grabs Glim by the legs, managing to secure his ankles and prevent him and dizzy and Graham from plumbering to their death. Yay! You managed to pull them all back up. Oh, gosh. Wow. Okay. That's heroic. So now there are these three things remaining on the bridge. Do they remain on the bridge? Oh, yes they do. So yeah, these things are still on the bridge and they're furious at what's happened here and they're freaking out because this bridge is irreparably damaged. It's in severe danger of just collapsing entirely. And they gingerly make their way across the bridge towards you. And Jenny, you are up. Oh, thank God. I figured I'd been forgotten. I wasn't going to get any action at all. All right. Who's closest to me? Take you, Pickett. They're all close to you. Okay. Who's again? I'll just pick one. I'll go random. And I'm... They're about 10 feet in front of you? Oh, so I'm going to have to go forward. Sorry. I'm going to have to walk forward. Ripley would have to close the gap of the 10 feet. Is that what you're saying? Or you could wait. I'll close the gap. Okay. Brave. Brave. At least steps onto the bridge. Give me a... The bridge is like wildly unstable. Give me a reflex save. Nine. That's not going to do it, is it? Ripley stumbles and tumbles onto the bridge. So, falls loses their balance, falls onto the bridge, but does not fall off the bridge. That's good. All right. So, Jonesy, probably also 10 feet, yes? Yep. Jonesy's going to wait. Okay. We are back to Damon. Right. So, I've saved from getting thrown off the bridge. I think it's time to poke a few holes in more of these weird creatures. Here we go. Oh, that looks like a natural 20. That is a natural 20. So, I think it's going to kill him. And you're going to need a d4 on the crit table. Three. Stunning crack to forehead. Inflict plus 1d3 with this strike. And the full falls to the bottom of the initiative count next round. So, that just kills them, right? Do I have to roll the extra dice? Or just... Do it! All right. So, it's d8 plus d3 plus 1. d8, solve a bip. Yeah. This is my one fighter. Seven. Oh, yeah. Do you manage to take out the biggest one? Can I rate you kill? Well, it sounded like the crit had to go to the head. So, we're going to send the tines or the pitchfork through each of the eye sockets and out the back of the skull. And then a quick twist of the wrist. Can I crack that skull open? Yank it back out. All right. Yeah. This thing falls not to the bottom of the initiative table, but to the bottom of the chasm below. Let's see it laugh through that one. I'm not sending anybody else on. So, that'll do it for me. Okay. There are two of these things facing down. Graham here. Oh, this may be Graham's final stand here. The first one lashes out with its claw. Oh, for five. That's going to miss. Yeah. And the other one stabs with its spear. Oh, answer for a five. Yeah. I can't get a... They're just thrown off balance by what's going on with this bridge here. So, yeah, they both miss and Garra or Rob. I think Rob went first last time. So, go ahead. Let's stick with that. Okay. Here come my archers again. Shooting at these guys who are clying at ground. D20 minus one for Manos for 19. That's a nad. There's a nad. How does that work? That's a nad 20. And that 20 is a nad 20. All right. Here's my crit for a three. Stunning crack to forehead and flick plus one, three damage with the strike. And full falls to the bottom of the initiative count next round. He just falls for a total of six. It's a kill. Yep. And it sounds like it's defined that it hit him in the head. Boom. Hey, Jet. No minus one. His bow. With a six. That's not going to hit. Yeah. Why did you roll a D20 column? Doing morale check. That thing is still... Oh, okay. This thing's still hanging in there. Garrett, I think you... Well, oh, no. Do you still have another one? Well, Torgo is the first dagger. No, those are my two archers. The second one missed. No, I don't want to leave them unarmed. That's it. Else is briefly. Yeah, his dex is not great. So yeah, no, that's it. Okay. Garrett. Okay. So I don't have anything arranged. Is there room enough for somebody else to go out and try and attack these guys? For two of you to be abreast. For two? So one more could get out there. Right? Okay. So then we're going to kind of try and do the same thing where we're going to wrap the rope around Chucky, Chopperstein. And he's going to go out and see if he can make it go of it. Try and give him a, give him a hack. Give me a reflex. Okay. Seven. Fuck. Um, yeah. No, he's going to, he's going to tumble and fall onto the bridge. He loses his footing and falls. Is that worth some luck? He's not fall off the bridge. Just falls and seven. Okay. Um, so then is that his turn? Yeah. I mean, you could, you could burn some luck if you wanted to. Seven. He has a luck of 14. What is it? Turn on holy checks. Would, would four luck make a difference? Yes. Okay. So I'm going to expend four luck. Okay. He does not lose his footing. Okay. So you get to attack then? Yeah. He manages to join Graham in the, in the, in the front row here. Hey. And then swing it. He's swing. Fuck for. I'm not going to be able to pump that with anything. So no, he's there. Great. Is that your turn? Yeah. I basically, uh, one of them tied the rope and the other two are kind of holding on to it. Yeah. Erhan doesn't have any ranged anything and there's somebody already up there. So the hope was that he was going to kill the last one. But right here we go. Jenny, you're up. Hurray. Okay. I take it. Ripley is okay and has dusted herself off. And from her stumble. Yes. And she's, and she or he, it's a. He's on the bridge. Yeah. He took the sib. Ripley is on the bridge. Yes. It's on the bridge. So yeah. Yes. He's on the bridge. So no more. He's on the bridge checks for her. Excellent. And that means that she can search forward and stab one of these beasties. We'll assume that Graham or, um, how I can't even keep track of who's who anymore here. Graham or Chucky will duck to allow her to reach this thing beyond. Oh, okay. Well, I mean, would that require some agility? Maybe it did. No, no, no, no, no, just do it. Just do it. Just an attack. Near gun. All right. Just an attack. All right. All right. All right. 1D, 20, there's a zero strength. 10. Does that hit? You want to burn some luck? I do want to burn some luck. How much luck do you want to burn? Oh, I've only got six, but I'll, I'll burn a point. Okay. Burn that point of luck. And do you hit? Excellent. All right. So dagger is 1D4. No, no extra modifiers, unfortunately. Oh, great. One. I barely scratched him. One's been killing him so far. That's a weak little thing. Weak little emaciated skeletal thing. Nerecha kill. Ripley drives the dagger into the beast's throat. And with all her strength throws over the bridge. On the point of a dagger. Thank you very much. Yeah. And with that, the final no lid is what we're calling these creatures. Plubits to its death. And the bridge is free and clear and highly unstable. Oh boy. I'm not going to call for any more reflex saves. Well, maybe we can do since we've got some, how long is the bridge? I think it's about 40 feet looks like 15 if each square is five. Well, it dips down. Oh, it does dip down way down. Way down way. Way down. Yeah. That's why it was funny. A 50 foot length of rope says that we could like kind of station people on either side to help people stabilize as they cross. Absolutely. Sure. Okay. But, you know, before we go, Torgo wants to look at the column that the road, the bridge is taken from maybe while other people are crossing and just look at the weird figures and stuff carved into it to see if that gives any sort of hint as to who these people are and what they're doing here. Give me an intelligence role. All right. He's my clever one. So that's a plus one. He's an educator guy. He's a jeweler. For God's sake. Who doesn't know anything too? He I assume will be nothing from looking at the mysterious figures. No, they're just these arcane sigils and these kind of like hideous carving things on there. And all you can get is a sense of like a real sense of evil from this. You know it's not good. You don't know what you can't read it, but you know it's not good. Okay. You can proceed to cross. All right. So we'll assume that you all cross the bridge. Yes. Dinding on the other side, the art ceiling architecture continues. At its end is a massive wooden door inscribed with runes of ancient evil ensconced in skulls, glittering insects and depictions of decay. Centered on the door is a larger version of the skull carving you saw on the capstone of the false entrance. Red, gems, and flicker, even without torchlight. A glimmer of warm malice pierces the soul of those who gaze upon it. I need everybody to make DC five will bear check every character. Every single character DC five. Every single character. Let me know. Let me know if it's under a five. Otherwise it's fine. That's good. Minus one. Targo barely good. Mitchell's good. Jet is good. He's got a seven. It's a what save? Will. Oh, fuck. Okay. Well, I had two fives. Fives are enough. You just have to not go on here. All right. Dancing on the edge there, people. Oh, yeah. I got a seven and a five. Oh, those are you. Lots of fives coming along. I'm all cleared. Actually, I forgot to put the minus one on Ripley. So it's actually a six and a five. Barely barely needed. Okay, everybody passed. All right. What you want to do here? All right. This is a door. It's so there's a skull thing. This is looking like the one we did the blood sacrifice on earlier. The skull does. Except on this one, the eyes. It's got these red gemstone eyes that seem to just flicker with their with their own life. They look like actual gemstones. They do look like actual gemstones. I'm for a little. Are you getting greedy? Dungeon Master's Guide action here or is this player's handbook? The player's abock. Did you not see the cover of the player's handbook? I did. Yeah. Maybe on the way out. However, let's look at this door here. Manos will have a look at it. Does it look like the door in from the false way? Or like, what does it look like? The wooden swollen doors? Or the exterior door we came in through? It doesn't look like any of them. It's another wooden door like the others. Except this one is in much finer condition. And it's also inscribed with elaborate runes. The other doors in this area have all just been just utilitarian heavy wooden doors. This is very, very ornate and decorated. With skulls and insects and... Well, of course we open it. Did that robe figure go through these doors? Is that right? Oh, shit. Wait a minute. Uh, isn't there a dude hanging down the chain here? I thought he died. Oh, he was chained up. Oh, he wasn't like dangling. He was chained up and thrown over, right? Sorry, at one point I thought he was like attached to something and they threw him down to dangle him down. That is not the case. Yeah, the dangling from the end of this rope about 70 feet below you. In the chasm, in the darkness, you can, yeah, you can make out the body of this, of this, uh, this presumably sacrificial victim that you saw kicked off the edge. You can't tell from, you can't tell from this distance whether that person is alive or dead. Okay, so we team up and haul him up sort of gentle-like. Sure. It's going to be a combined strength of about 30 to pull this person up. Okay, well, manos is 13. Ripley's a 10. She can help. I got a 12 and an 11 that I got two 13s. Yeah, uh, roll them up. 10 and a 7. I'm kind of weak. Roll them up. Every bit helps. I got a 19. 10. 18. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm 19. That was a plus one. Yeah. You managed to, you managed to- Pull me up. 18. You managed to drag, you managed to drag this person up. And you can see that they're indeed alive, but in a deep state of shock and both of their risks- they're both of their risks. The bones in their wrists are just completely shattered and broken. Also, there are two of those large worm-like corpse crawlers attached to their skin and trying to butterfly. Yank the corpse crawlers off as quickly as possible. Yank them or stab them off? Well, whatever. Or burn them off of the torches. Oh, there we go. That's thinking. Sing them up real good. Okay, well, yeah, give me a go. Who's two's going to try and hack them off? Who's got the torches or hacker? Like, if we just like sing them, won't they just like curl up and fall off? But when I've encountered corpse crawlers in the real world, that's what happens. Okay, yeah, you burn them off. You burn them off and they, you know, go scuttling away. You're not crawling on this corpse. Oh, she's not dead. Oh, who's controlling that healer, fella? I've got him. Graham could also use some healing if you can spare it. Well, I don't know if he has like pure wounds, but at least he can like help this guy out a little maybe. He does. He has bloodletting and surgery, and he will heal anyone in need. Yes, if you would like it, make a luck check. Who would like the healing? Oh, Graham would. Okay, so make a luck check. Me? Oh. Yep. And what, so luck check, you got to roll below your luck score. Okay. I did it. Okay. Oh, good. You get four hit points back. Well, that's more than I can hold. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of, it's a recommendation of like pulling and pushing and grabbing and like, Oh, I would say we caught her right here. Weird ways. Caught her right with his poker. Yeah, it gets his poker. He eats his poker up in a torch flame and just car rises that way. All right. Get some leeches on there. Yep. Oh, yeah. So that's one who else would like some. What about this guy? This guy we just dragged off is what I was thinking, at least kind of stabilize them a little bit. Okay. Who's going to roll for him for his luck? Oh, not I said the pig. Seems like a pretty lucky fella to me for 16. 16. That's that's he fails the luck check. Garrett. So our hands go down. No, no, no, no, never mind. Never mind. I'm sorry. I take that back. If you fail, you take that two points of damage. Wait, wait, wait, wait. 16 fails. What did he need? He needed to. You have to roll under your luck. Seven? He did a seven or. Oh, under. Oh, okay. Please have more. Oh, he's okay. He has currently has three hit points. So he's down to one hit point. Okay. You do recognize this person. One of you, I don't know who recognizes him. Oh, Erhan Leechkripper. Recognizes him as Imniks, who is a hunter from standard and was one of Tucker and Hem's hunting party. We're on the right track. Is he able to talk? Yeah, he can talk, but all he can do is say his name and that he's from standard. Okay, got it. He tells you that there were three others with him and that there are nightmarish faces and a massive room with pillars of skulls ahead and that you should turn back. He's right. I mean, we've now rescued the whole, we've rescued everybody, right? This is it. Yeah, he is able to move on his own, but they still have broken wrists. So they're not going to be, they're not going to be able to assist you in any kind of combat. That's good. Just stay close and we'll do it. We can't to protect you and. Okay, so you're in front of this massive door. Open it, right? I guess let's check it first. Yeah, check it first. But otherwise, open it, yeah. Would it be a luck check? Because Jones, he's got a ton of luck and he's feeling super lucky. You don't need to do it and it's just you just... No, check. Checking it, you notice that there's like just a faint heat radiating from these gems in the face of skull. But then that you can't see anything. It's not trapped. Well, that's good. I guess do we open the door? Yeah, okay. Let's open this door. You pass through the heavy doors into a wide hallway. Every inch of stone is a relief carved in horrific depictions of massacre, blood sacrifice, and bodily desecration. Five feet ahead on either side of the passage are exquisitely detailed sculptures of tortured faces which protrude from the walls. Each is twisted and malformed, but with a sinful beauty that draws and holds your attention. These masks are uniquely repulsive yet hold similar elements like many faces of the same level and entity. The mouth on each twisted face is a gape and spilling something grisly or obscene. From the chitinous insects that devoured the deceased to probing tongues lapping decaying flesh, every grotesque visage ligs together in an orgy of revolting imagery that sickens you to your core. I need everybody. To make a wheel parrot check. Anybody who rolls under a six, let me know. Nope, 11. Hey, thank goodness. Got two made it so far. What's the total we need to hit? Oh, we need it. You want to be six or better? Sorry, we need everybody. Okay, and my NPC. Eight. Eighteen. Okay, good. Eleven and 18. Yeah, there's a failure. Lamb. Yeah, lamb fail. Two lock keeps them in the party. Yeah, I think we'll have to spend it. Okay. We'll spend the two luck. We need to beat a six. Where's the wheel par? There it is. Yes, five. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, I'm going to burn my luck and I'm going to go down to five for Chucky Chopper Stini rolled a one. If that's possible. Oh my gosh. I'll spend five luck. Yeah, we'll spend five. I have luck to burn, but that's a lot. Okay. Yeah, okay, you talk about unlucky. And then finally, I have Bird. Jesus. Terrible rules. Okay. Exceeds, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Each face is different and seems to change form as your attention is turned away. Regardless of torture, lantern light, every mouth seems to contain an impenetrable darkness that does not appear to be part of the relief. I don't feel like interacting with any of those. Can we just move straight on to the door? At the end of the hall, there is a massive ornate wooden double door. Yeah. Don't look at the masks. Don't touch them. Go to the door. Yeah, you're sure as you pass them, that these faces seem to change form. From the just out of the corner of your eye, they seem like they're moving. But you're not sure if it's just torture light. No, they're moving. Shaddles. Just as long as they don't pop off, it's already eating us. I'm fine with it. So you reach the end of the hall. A massive ornate wooden double door stands before you. It is intricately carved with every manner of corruption and debauchery. These horror depictions push the limits of your imagination, so much so that some of you feel the need to avert your eyes. These perverse rights to some aberrant, unnamed god cut through your psyche in a way you thought no image could. Amazingly, it's not asking for a... For a rule, I was waiting to hear what the rule was. No, no. Okay. Well, where's our cautious people with the thieves' tools? To the door thing again. Well, does it look... Is there a visible lock on this thing? Or is it just another push open door? They just seem to be just just two massive double doors. All right, we'll get the strongest of our wimpy characters and try Amano, so it'll be one of them. Just be if we can just open the door the old-fashioned way. Here we go. He's very wimpy. Says Ripley with the 20. Ripley's got the 20. She's badass. The massive double door opens and the creak of the hinges echo through the giant hall. Scattered sconces light this hall, creating patches of brightness followed by deep shadows. The oils used produce harsh scents that make your head light and your lungs burn. Where there is illumination, you can see plain stone framing a bronze relief, which portrays atrocities and horrors in gruesome detail. Adding to the magnitude and horror of the room are pillars of stone with skulls inset into cubbies that climb into the darkness overhead. It strikes you that there must be hundreds of skulls adorning these great columns. On either side, two human figures slump chained to the pillars. They appear listless but alive, with the passive movements of those with broken bodies and spirits. Straight ahead between the two rows of pillars stands an altar of skull and bone, backed by a bronze partition along with a central skull design surrounded by arcane sigils. As a final act of blasphemy in this unholy place, a humanoid of great size sits on the altar as a throne. A bulky tarnished mace with a bronze skull head leads at his side. Off to his side, stand two figures, one in robes that look orange in this torchlight, and a second in clothes typical of the citizenry of standard. Krateka kersect amatera, I am Goresek the lidless. I welcome you to the hall of corruption. Goresek is a mountain of a creature. He stands close to seven feet tall and is covered in fur, patchy leather, and metal armor. He stares at you with unblinking yellow eyes the size of plums. His pointed ears hang while his moist toothy maw grids with delight. He stands and bellows kneel before me in the common tongue. As if to punctuate his words, an uncertain number of inhuman creatures seem to emerge from scattered crevices, leering while levelling their spears. All right, I think now that we've seen the hall of corruption, I'm going to go with Lister. Yeah, we don't want to keep it, I agree. Okay, I can now reveal that there are six of these creatures that have come out. All right, plus six creatures plus big guy plus orange. Dude, is that right? But wait, you said the other guy flanking the big guy was in the villager clothing? Is that the son of the magistrate? Yes, they're not flanking them. They're just standing nearby them. But this guy's a turncoat, it sounds like. Well, it's difficult to tell from here. Hey, standard person, come with us and we'll get you to safety. Yeah. He looks uncertain. He looks at this gorsack thing. He looks too afraid to do anything. He looks terrified of this creature. Oh, okay. All right, now. Are you waiting for an action or are we rolling for initiative now? You are all rolling for initiative. I've got a bunch of initiative. I need to roll here. Oh, 17. I got a 14. 17. Nice. Columns rolling. All the things. 'Cause we are going to die. Damon. 13. Okay, Robert, Jenny. You are all first, Jenny. I've been. Yeah, can I take this one, Rob? Okay. All right, so I want to try to try to get these creatures away from the sky. So how far away are they? They're all within melee range. Okay, so I don't need to cross the room or anything. All right, so I'll just take the nearest one and Ripley will go after him with her dagger. 17. 17 hits. Okay, damage. 1d. 4. Well, not much. That's enough to kill it. Excellent. Can I describe the kill? Sure. Ripley under hands with her dagger and disembowels this thing. It's not strapped to the ground with a sickening plop. All right, Jacob. Dead. All right. Jonesy's going to get his crowbar and go after the next nearest one of the six. He's not going after the big guy. And unfortunately, Jonesy's got a minus modifier. Well, still 16. All right. And the crowbar used as a club is a really sucky 1d4 minus 1. 1. You cripple it, but it's still standing. All right, so I kneecap it with a crowbar, but unfortunately, it's still standing. All right. All right. That's me. That's me done. Rob. Okay, so yeah, my melee guy, so Mitchell with his cleaver tries to take out one of the unwounded six rubs. He's an 11. Oh, wait, 11 hits, right? 11 hits. Great. So that will be a D six for three. Yep. All right, the kill. He cleavers him most cleaver away. All right. Torco will stab with his jeweler's dagger. Add another one of these six for a seven. Oh, he's very long lock. Yeah, I'm not going to spend four to do that. Okay, my. Oh, wait. I have, uh, what's his name? Gary with the mouth with his short sword. One of the higherlings here. Roll on. Okay. So that's D four on the fumble table. Three. I believe that's the one where he juggles his sword. He'll have a minus. Minus two on your next attack. Yeah. That leaves the archer who I think are going to shoot at the big. What's the big guy's name again? Gorsack. Gorsack, the littlest. Gorsack, the littlest. Okay. Yeah, they're kind of trying to stand clear of the fray here. Or such the justice. Yeah. For a five is going to be a miss, I assume. And then a 19 from Jett. Yes, that hits D six. I'm guessing it'll take more than one point to take him down. However, for four points though. Very nice. Nice. Good start. Four points. Very nice. All right, that's my crew. Somehow all of them alive for a good moment. The standardized sees an opportunity to escape from Gorsack, the littlest. And runs towards you. And he identifies himself as Tucker in Hems. And he says, please, we must flee this place. We must flee this place now. And he cowers behind you. Garrett, you are up. Okay. There's the one. Ah, this isn't going to be good. But Sam, the Duke of Yook, is going to try and take a stab at just one of these remaining guys. Nine is two. So it's a 15 with the minus two. For one of the no lid guys. Yes. Correct. Okay. And so then that is one hit point of damage. And the thing goes down. Okay. Then we're going to, Dizzy Demento is going to try and do the same thing. Just to see if he can land a hit. Oh, geez. So that's a nine. I'll use two luck to hit that one. All right. I'll use two luck. Will that hit one? Yes, it will. Okay. Marked. And that is one hit point of damage. Okay. And that one's up. Oh, yeah. It's still up. Okay. So then Erhan is going to take a stab at it. Rolls a 19 to hit. And just want to make sure. Okay. That's just a D4 with the bone saw for max damage of four. And they're right. The kill. He just puts it. He actually knocks off the skull and then grabs it with his thumb. And he puts his thumb through the eye. So now he's got a skull. Like his thumb through the eye of the skull that he's holding. Oh my goodness. That's all right. He's going to save it for later. Okay. Yeah, this is. Then let's see. I got two more that are going to go for Gorsuch. So Chuckie Chopperstein is going to try and take a shot at the big guy. Roll the 10. 10's not going to make it. What a 14 hit. I don't know. You want to burn some luck? Oh, that's the last eye. I would put me down to one luck and yes I do. Yes. 14 hits. Okay. One luck. All right. Luckily it's a D6. So red for good. Max hit points of six. All right. Nicely done. Yeah, this thing. Howls in pain. And bellows you fools. You must kneel and respect my authority. So on that slim dude. Mon's going to come up and try and do something here. Okay. He rolled a 14. 14 hits. Okay. So this is with a dagger. Daggerman's two of the hit points. Right. And it's still up. Oh, yeah. All right. Got it. Well, hey, I am fully engaged. That's my turn. This orange robed figure behind Gorsick springs into life. And attacks one, two, three, one of Damon's. Pro. How many do you have standing? Five. You have five. Yeah, we've got everybody. Okay. Well, it's going to be one of your four main characters. It's going to be character number two, which is land. Okay. And that is going to be he pulls a dagger from beneath his robes. Oh, I need to do an attack. I'm sorry. You were just going to do the damage, weren't you? Yes, I was. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah, yes. Point for an 11. Oh, well, that will hit. I think. Oh, an 11 does hit. Does it? Yeah, just makes it. And yeah, he pulls out that dagger. He plunges it into lamb. Oh, three hit points of damage. Dead. On per lamb. On the deceased. Falls lifeless to the floor. He was a confidence artist, but now he's not so sure. Oh, wow. Now we're on to, there's two more of these, um, spear-carrying little goblin no-lids things. And they are going to attack one of Jenny's. You've only got the two, right? Yep. It's going to be Jonesy. With the spear, 12, 12 is, does a 12 hit? For armor class, yeah. Yeah, okay. It's got to be three hit points of damage on Jonesy. Oh, barely hanging on to life. Okay. And then the other one. Oh, my God. It's attacking you again. Oh, but it's attacking Ripley. Ripley? Okay. For an 11? Yeah, that hits. Okay. And that is going to be two hit points of damage. All right. She's still alive. Okay. And then Gorsick, the littlest. Oh, no. grabs his mace and did a fury, lashes out at Jared's gang. Oh, it's going to be. Oh, where are you? It's slim. Slim dude, man. Dude, man. There's only one hit point. If you can hit AC 10, he's dead. For 20, he's a 20. There's a 26 hit. Holy shit. Yeah. It's a crit. What? Oh, and it wasn't at 20. Oh, it's good to know. Oh, and it's all to a crit. I don't think we need to. I don't think we need to. Please, can we do a morale check for us on this? Oh, it does five points of damage. Slams this mace into slim and brushes every bone in his body. Slim goes flying through the air, just smashes against the door behind you. And his bloody corpse just goes sliding like a slug down the door. And this guy whills around. Because it's going for Garrett's team again. And once again, there is a healer in the mix. So I still have four. Oh, yeah, I know. But I only focus on your main characters. And so it's going to be busy for AC 10. For 13. Oh, yeah. AC 10. I mean, it's and minimum damage will kill them. Well, don't worry. It's not minimum active points. Brings. He just brings the mace above his head in both hands and just slams it straight down on Dizzy's head and Dizzy's head explodes like a watermelon. Yeah, he got Gallagher. He got Gallagher. It's canon. It's canon. OK, so Lambs going to get an attack in before dying. Now is that going to make it right? Yeah, I don't have any luck to burn. I don't I don't I literally don't have I have I'm down to like five luck. I can't okay. Well, I guess you know what? It's the end, right? Well, we'll have 10 hit. Well, will a 10 hit? Nope, well, 13 will hit. No, a 30 or 13. So yeah, I need four fine. I'll be at one luck. OK, one luck. So hit. And then here's the damage. Four. Very nice. Goresek is gasping for breath. He just can't believe that he is being bested by you. You know, humans pea ons next is ham. Ham with his pitchfork as good as anybody else, though. But we'll try it ham 14 hit damage. Six six narrate the kill. Oh, it's a kill. Oh, this guy's big, right? Yes, he is. Yeah, well, it's a pitchfork. So we're going to we're going to it's going to be a thrust up into the groin. Hoke, just all kinds of hitting hitting. We're going to hit the major veins going through the groin right into the scrotum area. Blood, blood, and blood. OK, yes, Goresek, the lidless is defeated as his corpse crashes to the floor. The orange robed figure turns and runs disappearing through a crevice behind the altar, followed closely by the two remaining no lids. Tucker and hems kneels before you and vows his services and the services of the constable and all of the people of standard for your services. You help him unchain the two humans from the columns and they are Vela and Narub, two other members of the hunting party. And you all return within a few hours back to standard with the four surviving members of the hunting party too much, a plum, and a claim from the people of standard for ridding them of the corruption to the West. And that's the precipice of corruption. Oh, that was good. Oh, that was fun. That's a lot of checks. We got lucky on those checks. A lot of dice. It was a great way to finish. Nice. We did it. Bye.

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