Hello, playing games with strangers, listeners, this is CELs,
otherwise known as ai.
We wanted to come to you before this next episode and
potentially several of the next episodes.
I'm not sure how often Dave will put this into the,
the cue to be before an episode,
but because the subject matters that we are about to deal with are going
to be a little ble, they are probably going to be things that
honestly not everybody can handle.
And while we are still handling these subject matters in a
way that is accessible for all,
is something that even grandma can enjoy,
it's still topics that may give you
issues.
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depending on their age, you may want to reconsider.
There will be trigger warnings in the description.
So please check those.
We love our fans and we love what we do,
and we love bringing content to you.
But we do not want to cause anyone to have problems.
So please check those trigger warnings. You can skip ahead of them.
And while you may not understand everything that's happening, your,
your health mentally is more important to us.
Thank you. I hope you enjoy the show.
Hi everybody. Uh,
welcome to this week's s edition of playing games
with some of the cast.
We all knew this wouldn't last. Ooh, I .
Did they quit? Was the last session just too much?
I I, dude, that last session was a lot. It was.
A lot. But this, this one's gonna be even better. I mean,
or it'll be a lot less. Yeah. Well, hey.
, the fact, the fact that we have you here,
Josiah kind of terrifies me to be perfectly honest.
I see how it is. .
I guess. We're doing introductions now. Uh,
we have Dave and Josiah here right now. Uh, just them,
um.
And, and squid's coming.
Squid said she'll be here late. So.
So Dave has volunteered to recap for us.
.
Got it. Did I? You outta it? I thought it was you cuz you weren't here. Okay.
Yeah. I'll put my, I'm ready. Let's go.
Oh,
I'm going to recap because I'm the only one of the three of us who's listened to
all of the last session in its entirety to remember.
Wilder decided he wanted to talk to XOs,
cause reasons,
and XOs showed up and had a conversation with Wilder, with his fist.
Wilder got the blunt end of a feeble mine spell,
and got drugged down a flight of stairs after which, uh,
XOs decided to murder Alene and then
Dimension door out of there and breaking all arcane laws.
Callum used the same dimension, jumped in the dimension door before it closed,
and followed him up to the tower where they had also met up
with or bog and Amarin. Oh yeah.
Callum cast, uh, greater restoration on Wilder. Wilder came to his senses.
Zao Scott annoyed,
threw wilder against the tower and then disappeared.
Amron felt the sense of her sister,
who had been acting weird,
walked past her in the possession of Mayra,
a assassin of sorts who was carrying Rhoda's soul stone.
After a confrontation within the tower,
Mayra gave the soul stone back to a,
a sets out to try to find Rhoda and figure out how to put a soul back in the
body only to find bits and pieces of, uh,
a, an ased Rhoda outside of the tower
who we left off with him running towards Castle Ler or what remains of it
that has tentacles flying out of it. Meanwhile, in the land of the dead,
AEN gets saved from being eaten by Kerick,
by Leona getting eaten by kerick making aen the aspect of
death. And then Aen got resurrected. There was some screaming,
uh, they figured out that Aen is the aspect of death.
Leona's last words were, uh, a confession of love for Wilder,
which was conveyed to Wilder from a lean.
So that's a happy time for Wilder. And by the way,
Leona did get ll to safety,
but failed to mention where safety was too wilder. So,
and then everybody went down into the under Dark ex castle. Man.
Lagar got smashed as they were coming back up to try to reconnect with Amin
and or Poo. So they are in the under dark.
Amin is looking for her family somewhere in the, in the fallen tower.
I feel like I'm forgetting things. And if I am, I apologize. I am only one man.
I just, it just occurred to me I wasn't supposed to do that until after the, uh,
theme song . So there's that,
that goes to show you how prepared I am for this evening. , uh,
you're still just stalling .
I am cuz I don't know where I'm going to go.
And now time for our theme song.
Playing games with strangers Know There's no
Danger
Playing
Strangers.
Who we're gonna start out with you because we got some ground to make up with
you, figuratively and literally, uh,
last time we saw Poo, you were on your way towards Castle Ler.
You had an encounter mm-hmm. with,
uh, Christopher. Mm-hmm. ,
who revealed to you that he had always been
a servant of Kerik mm-hmm.
. And that he was around again. So that's.
And so that's a thing. And after this encounter,
what did Poo do?
Well,
I kept going towards where the giant thing was just
to get some more, um, information on what was going on, really.
See if there's anyone I could help out with.
So as you are heading north towards Castle Stir,
you watch as these tentacles that are coming up out of the ground,
swing out and grab onto random residents of the city of
Northern Tower fall. And as they grab people, it raises them up in the air.
And as they go up in the air, you see that they are,
it's almost as if the tentacles are consuming the people as they kind
of ash out. Like people in the Avengers movies,
when Thanos snaps his finger, oh.
Dear oh brother.
As well as, uh, these tentacles land waste to the architecture.
You, through some Def Monk movements,
you are able to avoid being snatched up by tentacles.
But it seems like the closer toler you get,
the more frequent the 10 particular strikes seem to be.
Um, I'm gonna take some cover as much as I can right now
and, um, see if I can get a good look at like, where the center of this,
you know, of, of this particular, as you said, mass is.
I just re re want to see if it's like just one point or multiple points,
you know, like, where is it?
They're all coming out of the foundations of Circler. Okay.
Uh.
Roll.
There's some moments where Call of Kalu has the stat builds, right? Like,
if I were to say roll an idea check,
I would say roll a history check.
Okay.
It's gonna be a low dc.
It's gonna be a low roll. Uh, actually not 17.
You remember the flesh pit?
Yes, I do. Vividly.
And . And, uh,
you kind of get the feeling like maybe that's where those tentacles are.
Okay. Pushing out of it could be a possibility.
Like those rooms are sort of like summoning rooms.
I have a an idea of where that we should have done something earlier.
Oh, why didn't we? Oh, this is us a mess.
That's what it is.
Um, am I pretty well, well in cover right now?
In as in cover as you can be for Yeah. An apocalypse.
I'm in the middle of a, a town. The town, right? Like what's,
what exactly would I be around?
You actually had ducked into you.
You had seen a seamstress shop whose front door was left open,
and so you had ducked into it. Perfect. Uh, the,
the sign on the front said making uniforms at Castle Ler be back later, uh,
around you. It, it's, it is some, it's kind of like a,
just the general shopping district as far as, uh,
uh, like there's weapons, there's uh,
clothing, there's, uh, just a,
a series of stores up and down the street and there's a lot of people. Okay.
There's a lot of people who are running towards the tower as,
uh, the community crisis.
The three community crisis centers that are set up in TowerFall are the two,
are the two castles and the tower.
Perfect. Um, what reach do these tentacles seem to have?
Are people able to get out of the reach of these tentacles at all?
These, these tentacles are massive.
Like Galactus from Marvel?
Yeah.
Size tentacles.
So they, there's like no good places.
They, they can reach, they can reach into Southern Tower Hall.
Okay. And.
Actually have.
Okay, so I'm in the seams strips type shop right now.
Yes.
Um, is there anyone else in here with me?
Uh, you know, this shop seems pretty, uh, pretty empty.
Okay.
Roll an investigation check.
Sure, sure. That's a seven.
Nothing here, but I suppose.
I will say that you do pick up the sense of three sp three
different individuals. No, I'm sorry. Four different individuals on the air.
One of them smells familiar, but you can't quite place it. Okay.
Um, and another one makes your, uh,
nose runny and eyes itch.
Ooh.
Almost like a cat.
You said the sign said that they're making uniforms at the castle. Mm-hmm.
.
Um, I'm gonna see if there's any uniform type things around here.
Okay. Uh, roll in investigation check.
Sure. 15.
After searching around this, um,
this building takes a couple hits from tentacles as you're in there. So, uh, it,
there's a lot of shaking. Um,
some of the walls start to crack a bit.
So it may be that this building during this investigation is starting to become
a little bit unstable. Uh, you do find a guards uniform.
It looks like it was designed for an or so it
may fit you, but it might be a little tight.
I'm gonna go ahead and, uh, just go ahead and, and slip that on.
No, couldn't hurt to, uh, have a uniform on. And, uh,
let's see.
As you slip it on, it's pretty snug and slightly uncomfortable, sir,
of like wearing pants that are, might be like one size, a bit too small.
This seems rather familiar.
.
It's like slipping into an old jacket.
So I put that on. And then, um,
since this building seems to be collapsing a little bit, I just look around,
make sure there's no one in this building and go outside. Uh,
I'm gonna look for two things.
Okay.
A cart
and a place where I might find explosives.
That's some very specific things. Um.
I'm a very specific individual.
When you say a cart, do you mean like a horse cart or.
Something that I could, uh, wheelbarrow. Yeah. Wheelbarrow type cart.
That is what I'm looking for.
Okay. Um.
Put some stuff in hand cart. Yeah.
I'm going to need two different investigate, uh,
two different investigation checks to do this.
First one is a four,
second one is a 13. So.
Okay.
You don't see a cart amidst all the chaos.
Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
It may be that, you know, um,
some people have looted whatever cars they can find to get
their personal belongings or their,
or things that they consider necessary from their homes that they can't leave
behind, be it heirlooms or whatever.
And to run towards the castle,
you've seen a more than a few people with such things pushing their,
their goods in that direction. Um,
you are able to find a couple bundles of, uh,
explosives that look like they were designed for excavation purposes.
Great. Yeah.
I will grab those and then I will,
I'll stand out kind of in the street. Um,
see if I can wave down anyone who's running since I look official in my uniform.
Are you there? You're there are you sir? Stop.
Stop please.
I'm gonna have you make a persuasion role.
Normally I'd give you disadvantage because you're in the middle of a panic,
but because you do look like a person of authority,
I'll wave the disadvantage and let you make it as a straight role.
It's a good, it's a nice, it's a, it's a wonderful straight roll.
I'll tell you that. It's gonna, this is good.
I rolled a zero on that persuasion check.
Oh, no. Uh, nobody listens.
They're just running past me as I'm standing there.
There's rubble everywhere. Uh,
terror on everybody's faces and nobody's listening to anybody.
Right now. This isn't working. Alright. Uh, uh,
nearest nearest bar. Nearest bar.
. Um, and I, I start running for the nearest,
the nearest bar that I can find. I know I'm familiar with. Uh, I mean, I'm,
I've, I've seen a couple around here.
You find a local in called the Dew drop in.
I burst through what's left of the door. Okay. Um,
and I head towards the back room to, to see if I can find any,
any kegs of alcohol of any sort.
I'm looking for the b the as many kegs of this,
of al alcohol and flammable liquid as I might find in, in here.
Roll a perception check for me please.
Okay. Uh, 16.
You notice as you're running through this in that the
layout of this inn looks exactly like the layout
of the, uh, yawning portal to an uncanny degree. Okay.
I can't seem to shake the feeling that I've been here before. This is,
and the, uh, that would mean the, oh,
I'm a little confused at the moment. Focus pool focus.
We need to make a big explosion.
There's something to get rid of these tentacle things. Take it to the sauce.
Yes. Yes. Boo. Yes.
Um, as I'm on my way to the back room where I know, I mean,
in the yawning portal where there would've been, um, the,
uh, alcohol stored, I, uh,
look down to see if there is a portal where the yawning portal
would've been.
Well, the yawning portal was actually a reference to the trap door. The,
well that was underneath the, the Inn, which, yes. Which.
Uh, that's what I was.
Okay.
There is the trap door behind the bar when you go into the back room to look for
the extra supplies.
You also notice in the same spot there is another circle of
teleportation.
In, um, Durden's office area.
Uh,
and there is lots of kegs of mead and ale
there, but there, the,
the alcohol content in that I probably would not be enough to burn. Uh,
roll an investigation check.
Come on. Come on. There's got to be something here.
Um, but I do, um, take some, uh, mead while, you know,
I'm here. Um, a five.
Yeah. It's hard to find anything super strong. No.
No, no. Ah, bother.
And I, I sit down on the, on the floor, um, in there.
Oh, what to do, what to do what To do, what to do.
I rip off one of the lids of one of these barrels and stick my, my head in.
Okay.
Then I bring my head back out after taking a couple
drafts. Um.
Okay. This is it. I've got these,
this will have to do. Okay, we're going in.
Oh, what about that, the thingy?
Just real quick. Look.
Hey, just take a real quick look at the, the, uh,
teleportation circle in the other room. Okay. Trying to figure out if,
uh, it's active at all. Not that who knows much of that sort of thing.
Say go about, say go ahead.
About, make our Connor roll if you want to figure that out.
Yeah. I stand in the middle of it and wiggle my fingers around a little bit.
You.
Stand in the middle of it?
Yeah. And wiggle my fingers a little bit. This.
Thing on?
I rolled the five on. Oh, no Archana. Oh.
Um, okay.
As you stand in the middle of this teleportation circle.
And wiggle my fingers, very important.
And wiggle your fingers.
You have a momentary and yet not unfamiliar
feeling of breathlessness as everything goes bright
black around you and suddenly you are
elsewhere in a different in. Or rather,
it looks a lot like the same in,
but there is a language being spoken out front.
A panicked language being spoken from out front that you are not familiar with.
It was on. Um,
but this is the same place. Must not be working. Okay. Someone,
someone needs help that, that I can do.
Nice. I I go towards the, the panic language being spoken. Whoever's.
You step out of the back room to several surprised looks
from probably about 13 font tars.
Ah, yes. Hello there. Are you trying to escape the,
the tentacle things? I didn't see you in here before, but, um,
I've got a plan. It involves explosives.
Can I hold up the explosives that I have?
Do me a favor, Josiah?
Yes. Yes.
Because I'm going to incorporate some Paul of kahu Lumi mechanics here.
Got it.
You're essentially going to be making a luck roll.
I need you to roll me a percentile dye and it needs to be under 20%.
Okay. What about that 38? A 20%?
No.
So this group of font tars whom you've never seen before,
and you've never seen this many font tars in one space,
all turn and look at you already panicked from what you see as a tentacle
holocaust happening outside.
They turn and look at you as a strange creature running out of the back room
with hands full of explosives.
And they all turn their blades in your direction
and begin to charge. I'll give you one reaction before.
Um, before they I, uh, sit down on the ground and cross my legs.
Whoop.
. I am peaceful.
I am. And try to look as peaceful as I can.
I will also say this,
make a per what's your passive perception?
Oh, now that, that is 13.
Giving you lots to work with. Here.
I am trying to save you Josiah, and you're.
Making No, you don't try to save me. That's not your job.
Okay, fine. Fair enough. Fair enough. I'm gonna,
I'm gonna give it to you anyway just because I wanna see how, how this pans out.
Okay.
When you stepped into the do drop in,
it was starting uhhuh, it was starting to get towards the evening hours. Mm-hmm.
, um, where you are now,
it looks almost like it's mourning outside.
Okay.
I think poo being a being that
would establish time of day based by sun placement would notice these things a
bit more readily than, yeah.
I'll take that.
Si The more civilized races.
I need you to make a persuasion role to try to demonstrate
that you.
Are my peacefulness.
Trying to be peaceful.
Yes.
Does poo, does poo put down the explosives when he sits and crosses his legs?
I don't really have a place to put the explosions. I don't. Or the explosives.
I don't wanna sit 'em on the ground.
So I just kind of put 'em under my armpits and, uh,
hold them there and try to free up my hands, you know, in a nice wave.
All right, go ahead Jack. Go ahead and just roll a straight persuasion then.
Yep.
.
Well, it's not natural, but it is a one.
That's the end of the campaign guys. We're done.
.
Death by font tar. Who knew?
.
They approach you,
they stick their blades in their face and they start shouting at you in a
language that you don't understand.
They do not seem all that happy that you are there.
Wait, what language are they speaking? Maybe I do speak it. Actually,
uh, one second here. Um,
I actually do understand, uh, what they, um,
are saying. Cause I have the tongue of the sun and moon.
I understand all spoken languages and any creature that can understand a
language can understand what I say.
Okay?
Aha.
Thank you Josiah. You made life easy for me.
I come in peace. I come in peace.
As you begin to focus and you start to, you start to understand,
this is just starting for them.
Like as you start to piece together the mumbo jumbo that you heard when you
first came in there, they're trying to figure out what's going on. There was,
uh, some sort of abandoned building in town that exploded and there's tentacles
coming out of the ground and they're trying to figure out
what needs to be done to save the town,
or what you overhear them saying.
They've received reports from several cities up and down the coasts of Fania
that this is happening all over.
Um, sorry that I came in like that. It was unexpected.
I didn't mean to scare you. I am from TowerFall.
Have any of you ever heard of TowerFall? It's what I'm, I was.
The look on one of their faces drops to a look of concern
as he puts his, uh, grave down. What of our brother? Kai. Oh, Kai.
Have you, have you encountered Kai?
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I I know Kai. Yes. Very nice. Um,
well, well mannered. Um, he, he, uh, works for a friend of mine.
Actually works with a friend of mine. Uh, but, um,
I I I I just came from TowerFall and um, this attack has been,
the tentacles are going on there as well, unfortunately.
Okay. Um, is, is, is he, well.
Last I know, but, um, uh, you seem to have, uh,
be be being attacked by the same thing that we were. Uh, I, I would, um,
recommend getting everyone, uh, as underground.
These tentacle things seem to grab things up,
anything and knock over or anything. But if, if you have any place underground,
get your people there.
He, he turns to the other ones and shouts to them to start
organizing the town and taking them,
taking them down into the tunnels as they throw open the trap door
behind the, uh, behind the bar. Alright. Thank, thank you.
My furry friend. Uh, we will try to evacuate the town Yes. Into the tunnels.
Um, I don't know much about these things.
I believe they are summoned some somehow. I,
I think ours was in a room of a, of a flesh and,
and summoning. Somehow I was on my way to try to.
That sounds disgusting.
Yes. Explode it, uh, to hopefully do,
do something to, to stop it from attacking more,
but I honestly don't know what what good that will do. But, but it's,
well, it's the only thought I could think of.
This, the, the, this strikes me as being something too big to fight directly.
Perhaps you would do best going back to your city and assisting them in the same
way you've assisted me.
Yes. Do, do you, do you know how this thing works?
I'd very much like to see if I could find my friends and, and, um,
reconnect with them. Right.
Right, right, right.
He gestures to the other people as to begin the evacuations.
He runs in the back and starts quickly scr scrolling onto the circle and he
goes, go quick. Uh, and, and be swift about saving your people. Right?
Yes. I've wiggled my fingers again. .
Uh, you step on there and you are back in the do drop in.
And right as you appear,
it takes a large hit and it seems like it's about to come down.
All right. Um, I, I run out the door, uh,
out outside and I, I yell, um, I'm yelling in the streets.
Everyone get away. Go, go underground hide. If anyone needs help, I'm,
I'm here. I'll, I'll do something. And also, have you seen my friends?
?
I need you to make two rolls for me, please.
Oh.
Goody. I need you to make an investigation check.
Oh.
And a persuasion check.
That is a natural 20 minus one for the investigation check.
Okay.
And a natural one minus two for the persuasion
check.
Awesome. As as you are saying this, you do actually find, uh,
an entrance into the underground tunnels.
Yes. Perfect. Everyone down, down here.
As you are trying to get everybody's intention,
you're like waving your arms and running through town. Yeah.
Shouting as loud as you can, trying to get people's attention. Uh,
and people just see a giant bug bear screaming and throwing
its arms on the.
Explosives.
With explosives. Uh, so yeah. Nobody,
like everybody is running away from you.
Right. Well, um, okay.
I stored the explosives in my pack.
I need you to make a dexterity safe, please.
That I can do. That's 18.
Uh, right about this moment, a giant tentacle shoots down from the sky and,
uh, slams into the ground where you were standing.
You managed to ju leap up and barely dodge it.
Nope. I head towards the, the hole that I found into the underground.
And with that Emron,
who is our last remaining party member Who is above ground? Hey.
What's up?
Hey girl, how you doing?
Just kneeing my head hanging out.
. All right. So what, what's,
what's a marina doing?
Um, aside from the panic attack like that aside,
we're going back into the tower. We're gonna find a safe place in the tower.
Oh, that's right. We left off with you sitting down after finding the, uh.
Yep.
The remains of Rhoda. It's.
Me in ahead. What's up? I,
are people still like flocking to the tower?
Yeah, people are still flocking into the tower. It's starting to get crowded.
Uh, you have seen more than one person getting trampled trying to get into this
thing.
Cool. Uh, I think because.
Castle Man Lagar has been destroyed now. So this is the only remaining.
Yeah, there's, there's like a basement to the, uh,
downstairs at least. Cuz we were on the stairs before.
Mm-hmm.
, um, are, are my buddies here? I don't remember if I saw them.
Rita and Gallier.
As you recall, uh, Brita got mangled.
Oh, that's right. See, I, I owe you a few, as I said.
Uh, she is, uh, make a, make a medicine check.
Yeah. It's just an eight.
I'm kind of focused on some other things at the moment. .
You're not sure what's up with her, but last you saw her,
she did not have use of her arms or legs. Uh.
I don't need 'em. You.
Left her in, you left her in the, uh,
possession of her husband.
Great. In that case,
I'm gonna find whoever seems the most composed in grabbing reach,
who looks like they're the least panicked.
Out the corner of your eye, something catches your attention.
Not because of what it looks like or because of how it's moving,
but because of how still it is in your peripheral vision.
And you turn and you see an older man
that seems to be standing on an elevated platform,
just watching as things are happening
with just a sad expression on his face.
Does he look familiar to me or.
I'll say this role history. Check for me, please.
Okie dokey. Uh, that's just a, a straight 12.
How much is this? The priest dude, whatever his name was.
Yeah. Did you ever meet him?
I mean, never in the campaign, but I've lived here my whole life.
So who is to say truly?
That's why I was having you roll that history check.
I don't think a thirteen's gonna be enough to really know him.
I'm not much of a religious dear. You see, um, I'm,
I'm going to do the very polite thing of snapping in his direction and
pointing at him. Can you help these people get in further?
He looks at you and he seems a little bit surprised.
Do you can see me?
Can you help these people?
He looks at you. Do I have the capacity to help these people?
I have the knowledge, but you're the only one who sees me.
I she just turns away . She doesn't have time to do with that right now.
That's a later problem. Um,
I will look for someone else that is calm ish.
No, wait. You've been touched by the tower. Fall. Legacy.
Speak faster if you have something to say to me because things are happening
rather quickly. Here.
You see me because I need to help you. What are you here for?
I am here to get these people safe.
These people cannot be saved, at least not by my hand. They don't see me.
Here, let me show you. And he reaches towards you in his arm.
Literally goes into you,
you feel a cult presence inside your berry being almost to a
violating degree. Like,
there's another person inside of me and I don't like it.
Yeah. I I don't, I'll tell you right now. You're correct.
And he pulls his hand out and he says, do you understand.
Yes and no for a number of reasons? Um, okay,
well see,
here's the thing is I need these people to get in further and I also need the
people that are trying to get in to stop dying.
And I can go out there and do that.
So I need someone in here to do the other part.
And if you can't talk to them,
maybe you can help me later. We can just chat it out.
I'm sure it'll be very helpful for both of us.
Your family is here.
Yes, they are. Follow.
Me.
I I don't think you're listening to me.
He darts down a hallway.
Oh, I can't, I don't have time for this right now. I don't,
I don't think she follows.
Okay.
I will k keep note of what hallway it is,
but I don't think she follows right now.
She's going to go,
she's gonna sit down the head of her sister that she's still holding.
We'll deal with that travel later as well.
She's just gonna check at the door to see how many people are still coming
while still keeping a side eye at where this man disappeared to.
There is a large crowd of people trying to force their way in. By this point,
this chaos has been going on for probably an hour and a half now.
So you kind of see the back of the line in the distance. Mm-hmm.
.
And then abruptly,
a very thick tentacle comes slamming down on
the crowd and it looks like an ocean of raspberry jam
with extra seeds
as it gushes up against the side of the tower.
Are there still people alive out there?
Or has this kind of made my job easier?
Um, alive is really.
A Are there people able to walk on their own out there? ?
Oh God, no.
Okay. All right. Um,
as long as everyone that I can see that is currently like actively pursuing the
door is inside
my task is complete as I was just going to try and fend off tentacles,
but I can't fend off that one. So, um.
Make a perception check.
17.
So you notice though, that as these tentacles have been coming down,
they've been,
it seems like they've been meticulous to not touch the tower.
Great. Okay. So I feel like they're pretty safe here.
Like these things have been hitting all the,
all the buildings and destroying them,
but for some reason they have been specifically not making contact with the
tower.
Okay. So I, I feel pretty good about people being inside here. Uh,
you know what, I'll go follow this man. I'll give you your side Quest. .
They, my side quests.
I'll give me my side quest.
I'll push past people because I'm a kind individual.
I'll pick up Rhoda's head first. Actually, , I'll bring that with me.
, we gotta take someone. I, you know,
I don't know how soul stones works, so.
Okay, so you follow down that hallway. You don't see the old man. Uh,
you do see a crowd of stunned people looking at the stairway
in the middle of the floor,
and it looks like several people have fallen down the stairway.
Like they didn't expect it to be there.
Are they? Okay.
I mean, for people who fell down some stairs,
and you overhear, you overhear murmurings of like,
it just came out of nowhere.
Yeah. Sounds like the way I should go, I guess.
And I'll just kind of as politely as I can be in my current state of emotional
everything, just move as, move aside. Pardon?
People are giving you a wide birth because they, it's a,
it's an angry font tar who's carrying ahead.
And ala the, the grave in the head. Both weapons in the right hands. Mm-hmm.
.
Um, great. Then I don't have to be overly rude. Excuse me.
Pardon me. Thank you. Excuse me. Pardon me. Uh, and I'll head down the stairs.
You make your way down the stairs and you can tell that there's like a network
of rooms underneath here that these hallways have a very regal feel,
but they do also feel not often used. Like.
Does this feel like crypt? Like.
No. Roll a history check for me, please.
I'm so good at this.
A 13.
Yeah. You're not sure what these are.
Again, not a religious individual.
But there are tapestry, there are gilded tapestries along the walls.
Um, but there are several torches that aren't in use.
It's like only one out of every seven torches down this hallway are lit.
So it, someone's been using it.
And the people upstairs don't seem like super eager to come down this.
Stupid stair. Stair. No, they seem apprehensive because this stair,
because from what you gather, the stairway came out of nowhere.
Perfect. And the angry fanar went down it, so mm-hmm. .
I'm just gonna set Rhoda on a table. Leave her there for safekeeping, uh,
and continue down this hallway.
Um, as you go down these, this hallway,
there are several rooms that come off this hallway as,
as well as several other hallways that branch off of it.
Any of them have torches lit?
All of them do to a certain degree.
So there, there are people like actively in all of these hallways.
You could assume that, yeah.
I'm gonna do the age old maze technique of if I follow one wall,
eventually I'll find it.
So.
I'll take the first turn. .
You said you'll find it. What are you looking for? Because like,
there are rooms everywhere, so.
I mean, I'm assuming this man came down here.
Okay.
I'm not being quiet,
so I assume if he wanted me to follow him and I did,
so he will eventually pop out of room and say, Hey,
very loud font our lady, come here.
Okay.
So I'm just gonna clunk about these hallways for a little bit. ,
what else do I have going on? Kingdoms and shams. I got no queen to protect.
Uh, you smell
a cooking dinner wafting down the hallway.
Better than something else cooking. I guess
I will head in that direction.
And you come outside of a door and as you
approach the door, you hear a familiar voice that you haven't heard,
at least in person for quite some time.
You hear your mother's voice behind this doorway.
Yep. I walk in, I, there's no ceremony here. Ceremony, dad.
Uh, you walk in and all of a sudden your mother turns around and with a shockla,
she goes,
em and she re she runs up to you and embraces you like a prodigal daughter.
She's like, you know what? That's fair. That's fair. It's a trying day.
I'll actually give her a hug back. This is fine. Is this man in here?
No, he is not.
Okay. I'm also making eyes at, uh,
Ida and Nickis to make sure that they look alive and good.
.
Nickis looks like he's seen things.
Again. I, I paid a lot of money for that to be not the case. .
Well,
but then bae kind of paid a lot of money to make it the case again.
Men.
Ida seems a a bit more resilient as younger children do.
That'll come back to Haunter in later years, but oh.
It, it wouldn't shock me.
We'll figure that out in 10 to 15 years. .
Mm-hmm. .
Um, okay. Uh, did a man come in here?
Kind of ethereal man, can stick his hand through you.
Makes everything a little chilly.
She, she chuckles and he, he just kind of comes and goes as
needed. He doesn't really, he doesn't really address things,
but he seems to know what the most necessary thing is for a person.
So you can also see him because he seemed alarmed that I could see him.
Sometimes.
Okay. Okay. Oh, um, food smells good.
Um.
How are.
You guys?
Please come in, eat.
Well, I think she just does. She just goes to sit down and eat.
She's a tired little deer. It's been a long day.
Uh, I'll give a a little look at Ida Nickis and then back to Bob and say,
do you know where the others are?
Nickis just gets wide eyes and starts shaking his head like, no,
let's not do this. Okay. And your mom goes,
did you bring them with you?
Uh, I'm sure they're safe. . I I brought some of them,
some parts of some of them. Um, uh,
I everyone was getting to safety.
Safety. Is there something wrong?
It's, uh, a bit ous up there.
Oh dear. Do you think we should go help?
No. I I think it's a bit beyond that
at the moment.
Well, I mean, if there's people who are in need of help,
we should do what we can.
There are a lot of people in this tower that could use help. And in this room.
Amin, what's wrong? This, this isn't the Amin that I know.
The, the Amin I left up top would have been up there,
what's become of my daughter.
While a man put his hand through my body and then said, follow me.
Your family is here. So I thought I should come check on you guys.
Cuz that doesn't happen every day or any day
before this day. Um,
it's also just been kind of a long few days in general.
So I think
in order to answer what has become of me, um,
I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I d I don't know . It's been,
it's been, yeah, but I'm helping.
I am helping people. Uh, I did help people.
She just pulls you back into her embrace. She goes, oh my sweet baby girl.
Hmm.
Uh, she, as she pulls away from me, she goes, well,
let me give you some food and
we can figure out how we can best help this situation. Tell me what's going on.
I haven't seen the surface for a while.
How long have you been down here? Why are you down here?
I have more questions after those two.
What's your passive perception?
Uh, 16.
You noticed that
she has a crippled hind leg that
is.
Get in line honey.
That is put up kind of in a similar looking cart that your front
two legs are. But hers look like,
looks like it's been bent and broken and reheal in a
way that is abnormal.
There was a day your father went too far. And
for the sake of self-preservation, I had to go.
And I've been down here since.
I see.
Have you seen Rhoda?
Um.
She brought your brother and sister down here?
I I think when her mom says that, uh, her,
her demeanor changes very much from
like that, that hug from her mom felt really good. And her saying that felt, oh,
like this could actually be a normal thing.
And then her mom's confession has definitely soured that immediately.
And she doesn't look interesting in talking to her mother at the moment.
Is, is something wrong?
Um, a lot of things are wrong actually,
which you would know if you weren't
hiding down there while your children were left up there on their own.
Well,
you speak like someone who's hasn't had to make the decision as to
whether or not to have to choose one thing over another.
I have had to make many decisions like that.
That's not what this is about. And this is not how I want this to be.
You have a choice in front of you, whether or not you can forgive what,
whatever it is you think I've done
or if you wanna hold that grudge. But you're welcome to stay here.
We have food and we are left largely unbothered.
Yes, I have noticed.
I think em gets up and leaves.
Where's she going?
Uh, to go get ahead of the situation.
Um, she's gonna go back the way she came.
Okay.
Head upstairs to go see that people are being taken care of.
Um, as you start to go that way,
you see that some people are starting to venture down the stairs.
I think, uh, like just as I see people coming down,
I will just like open doors as I walk back towards them just to like show that
they're open mm-hmm.
.
And as it's, it's almost like in these, in these doors there's,
it's almost like there's these dusty suites that are behind these doors.
Uh, she'll just as she's walking by,
just like tell people to make themselves comfortable and at home and mm-hmm.
.
Let as many people in as they can cuz there's a lot more upstairs and get
comfortable. Help people out. Be good. Okay. She'll go upstairs.
I will say that one door that you open has a dark staircase that goes
further down and there's a cold wind that comes up from it.
We'll.
Slowly close that door. .
Okay.
I think she would like mark it, but also like try to keep it closed just cuz
that doesn't seem like something people should be going further down into at the
moment. Um,
so I think she'll just like stick like a python or something in the door jamming
with a little mark that says don't go in there.
Dangerous.
.
Because people never wanna open doors that say don't go in.
That never happens. Uh,
so you are heading back up to the surface level.
Yeah.
What are you doing up on the surface?
Just making sure. I mean,
there were people that were trampled and a lot of that probably didn't know
there was a staircase to downstairs and crowd control
trauma management, doing a little triage.
While you're holding rod's head.
Uh, I'm going to like wrap it up and put it somewhere with my pack and.
Okay.
I'm not just walking around like holding it like, all right guys, listen to us.
We know what we're talking about.
All right. Wilder,
we left off with you underground, underneath Castle Man,
Lagar dealing with some hard truths you've
been forced to come to terms with.
Mm-hmm. .
And what does Wilder want to do other than just sit down and cry?
. I went, we're past that. . Explain the situation to me.
Uh, if I remember right,
essentially we're kind of trapped down there in the under dark.
Well, you're not quite in the under dark yet. You are underground.
There's a tunnel that goes further down into the under dark,
but there's a network of a bunch of different tunnels that, you know,
that are under the city as far as how to navigate them.
You aren't super familiar with.
And I am with a crowd of people that got stuck down there as well, right?
Yeah, yeah. You were,
you were evacuating people down here prior to the castle coming down.
All right. Put Dave all alone in a room with hallways.
That's a great idea. Um,
I assume aliens doing crowd control and I'm gonna leave that to her and I'm
gonna start just walking down the nearest tunnel. Um,
looking for, you know,
pathways to the under dark or another way to get back up
cuz we're separated from everybody else very much in my head.
You don't have dark vision, do you?
I do.
What are you in your own head about as you're venturing?
Definitely, uh,
the situation with Leona more trying to understand like,
is she actually gone? Just a lot of like surely, you know,
she can't be gone. She's, she's powerful.
I know that I think at some point thinking about
Leona will go, yeah, I, but she knows where LL is.
So now it's almost like as I'm walking through this tunnel,
very much the way that I would, uh,
almost just like having panic attack because it's now, okay,
well if Leona's gone, then Elle is gone.
And he, that just keeps going through his head because he knows he can't fix it.
All right, so as, as you are thinking about these things and you're,
you're smelling it over,
over a period of time and you're become more panicked
a little bit and just caught up in your own anxiety
and you keep having this overwhelming sense of powerlessness
for a brief moment. As you're walking aimlessly through these tunnels,
you catch a brief glimpse of light
as you hear a door close.
And I assume that the door closing sounds like it's coming from the same place.
The light is, yes.
Mm-hmm. .
I'm gonna head that way.
It's about 500 yards away. And as you get there,
you see
a staircase going up to a door and it's
a long staircase.
I'm going to draw my rape here and carefully
approach the door.
After creeping up this long staircase. You reach the door
and you hear some voices from the other side of it.
You can't really make out what they're saying because you know, door.
Uh, I would like to investigate the door to make sure it's not trapped.
All right, go ahead and roll an investigation.
That's a 15.
Uh, seems okay.
Okay, I'm gonna open the door.
You open this door and you see several civilian looking people
standing within the vicinity and they look startled as this
man with a sword comes out of this doorway and they have a look of panic on
their face as they look upon you.
Sorry to, to interrupt. Um, and, and no need for alarm.
I'm gonna sheath my sword.
Can you kind of gimme a good whereabout of where we're at?
You.
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