Welcome adventurers to Probability of Demise, the podcast where critical fumbles meet critical facepalms. Join us as we delve into the darkest dungeons, slay the stupidest gremlins, and roll enough ones to make a beholder weep. Forget epic storylines and heroic deeds. Here we celebrate the chaotic beauty of bad roles, questionable decisions, and characters with more charisma than sense.

We'll be your dungeon masters of disappointment, guiding you through campaigns where the only guaranteed treasure is a mountain of laughter, and maybe some psychic scarring. So grab your Nat 1 dice, strap on your anxiety helmets, and prepare to witness the glorious trainwreck that is our D& D journey.

Because. In the end, even if your character dies face first into a pile of pudding, at least you'll have the Dice God's permission to laugh your ass off.

Welcome back to our pod! These are my friends. I don't care them anymore. They're all mine. You can't have them.

Hello, folks of all kinds. Um, today we are going to roll this beautiful 100 die that, uh, Jason, above me, Gift it to me, and see what our word is. Ta da, ta da! Okay, so, today's number is 70. And the word is No, for a second I thought the word was 70. The word is 70. No. This is a very hard word for Jessica. You know, like, when, uh, Elmo's like, That's a very big word for Elmo.

That's how I feel this word. Balsamic vinegar? Yeah. Is obfuscate. Obfuscate. Obfuscate. Obfuscate. Which means, uh, is to render obscure, unclear, unintelligible, and used in a sentence is the complicated instructions seemed, uh, designed to obfuscate the true purpose of the machine. Well done. Obfuscate. That was number 70.

Beautiful. And Larissa had the word last time, as far as I can keep my brain together on that. And, uh, I think since I put Gus under pressure with having to, to do it in a fun, interesting way, like come up with somebody that, or some, whatever, when, when using it, I am going to say the same for Alua, but Alua, would you, would you I think that this is a patron or a colleague where you might have like some history and get a little bit of that magical inspiration.

I, I think I probably deal with clients more than peers as much. We know we deal with say you got it from a client. So whatever it is, you'll, like, come up with a reason why you got it from a client. Welcome back to the thrilling saga of Alua, Gus, and Serafina. In our last episode, this intrepid trio reunited after some couple weeks of downtime hanging out, but rest assured, trouble was brewing, pun intended, just around the corner.

First up, we have the enigmatic Allua, summoned by a mysterious letter from none other than StickyBeak. Intrigue has swirled as Allua has shared this cryptic message with everyone, and everybody's kind of wondering about, like, where, meh? Meanwhile, Gus's world was turned upside down a bit when he discovered that someone's trying to muscle in on his property.

Quick trip to the lawyer's office, This definitely confirmed the threat but also maybe threw Gus out of the tailspin a little bit. We don't know. Seeking solace and perhaps some clues, the gang gathered together at Alua's parlor, where the many friendly faces of Alua's, uh, companions within the space, uh, came through and they enjoyed some delicious tre treats.

And began their quest to unravel the mysteries surrounding Sticky Beak and the cryptic clue. Remember the limerick? Well, those clever investigators folded it just right, revealing two key symbols, a magnifying glass symbolizing Gus's keen detective skills, and a pair of goggles hinting at Serafina's sharp wit and observation abilities.

Armed with these newfound insights, our heroes are ready for the next adventure. That's right, folk, the next Stop is Brew niversity. What secrets lie within its hallowed halls? Will our heroes find Sticky Beak? And what challenges await them in this academic setting? All right, y'all, you are standing in front of the edifice known as Brew niversity.

A alchemist slash brewing house that has gained some fame for training up some brew masters.

What are you up to?

I'm just standing in front of it, staring at it, remembering. Like a hundred and plus years ago when I was, I was a patrolman and probably had to come here all the time for stupid drunk students doing things. Yeah, they didn't, probably didn't have the same reputation they do now, a hundred years ago. It was definitely in its nascent stages.

It was more frat house than actual alchemical brewmaster. Now their reputation seems to be a little bit more on the up and up. There's still the occasional big bad party and there's definitely, Always a problem when too many dwarves decide that they are going to invent some new brew. I guess. Well, maybe we should find a Lewis symbol before we go find the door?

Symbol? Uh, Oh! Uh, uh, so, uh, the paper. I pull it out. You know how it, like, folds up into things, and I quickly, like, fold it into the magnifying glass. I fold it into the goggles. I'm like, okay, so, uh, we think, um, that lap, that one paragraph is for you, and it'll fold into something representing you. Uh, but I, uh, we don't really know you, so, uh, we don't know what it would be.

I try, I try to like, follow the creases, but, uh, I couldn't figure it out. Can I see it for a moment? Oh, uh, yeah, sure. Here you go. Uh, and quick break DM, I know it says for the spy on the page, but Alua doesn't really consider herself that, so I, my, her impression would be of something pertaining to her day job, as it were.

Um, so she's going to attempt to fold it into a lute. Okay. And I'm going to show her, be like, so like, like this fold, I, like, I, I think that one goes to you. And like that fold I think goes to like your symbol, hoping to give her like a advance. As she says this, all of her lenses have come down to zoom in and she's showing you stuff you can't even see.

Hopefully giving her an advantage on anything that may happen. We'll see what she tries to do. What does Alua do? I try to fold it into a lute, assuming that that's With the support of your friend Serafina, you can roll this dexterity check with advantage. Woo! Advantage! Because that's done me so well so far.

It's going to do you great. I would love to roll double digits. You will. Positivity. It makes it happen. Positivity. Okay, okay, alright. So this was dexterity check 21! Awesome. So as you begin to fold it and kind of aware of who you are as a person, you kind of like kind of make some in insightful moves just based on who you view yourself as, um, Serafina pointing out every once in a while when you get a little stuck that there's another fold that hasn't been utilized and you may backtrack a little bit and then retrack, but fairly quickly, uh, you fold it up and you found the third symbol, elute.

What is that my instrument of choice? What, what is it? Aloo?

Uh, I've never seen one of those. Do you like really blow into it or do you like bang on it? No, it's a string instrument, but it's it rather than. Like a violin. I'm just looking at Serafina like, No, you don't use a bow. Um, you play directly on the strings. Um, but it, um, It's similar to a harp, but smaller and more, um, Oh!

transportable. I have seen a harp. Okay. So, tiny harp. Got it. Yes. It's, it's similar to. Yes. Will you play for us? I mean, you don't know right now. You probably don't even have one, but like, eventually? I'd love to hear you. If we go back, if we end up back at Sincere House, then sure, I would love to play for you both.

Yes! Awesome.

Um, and does anything happen once we hit the third symbol? No? Okay. Um, so I guess the question is I'm really not good at puzzles. Um, do we think that the things we're looking each of us are looking for are here? Or do we need to visit those first? I believe first we are looking for a hidden door. Do we have any idea where to even start to look?

First that door! In there. Just, just in there, in this giant building. Well, after you, good sir. Is the door like, just open, like you can just walk in, or? It's one of those spaces that you can walk in on the front. You see a small desk, or plinth of sorts, made of wood. Um, harried looking servers are running about.

But there's also just harried looking Individuals running about, screaming about various brewing things, uh, We need to clean the floors! Sanitation for proper brewing is a must! And then another individual running by, screaming about the need for additional, uh, hops, uh, a lack of aromatics. Um, just various cacophony of noises and such, and you, you are in a place that both serves but also creates and makes, um, various brews.

Maybe we, back to that room. With the big things that, you know, like, makes it because, you know, the thing said, you know, about fermenting. So what if we went to the room where the fermenting is happening

for me as a starting part, perhaps we could talk to a server or. An employee about a, I'll approach the desk and there's someone sitting there, right? No, no, they've moved away already. Just in the short time that you were, you were pausing to talk amongst each other, it has already been abandoned. And another person sees you waves to you and then keeps moving.

It is a cacophony of motion people in all sorts of different states. And you can see a couple of people who are like posted up off the bar. Um, but then there's a beat or two as just additional chaos. continues to pervade the space, but eventually with patience, somebody finally comes up out of breath. Oh, uh, what, what can we do for you?

Um, hi. Sorry. I know you're very busy, but we were wondering if you Quite busy. Quite busy. Yes, yes, yes. You wondering? Yes. If you're, if you're doing any tours today, tours, tours, tours. Oh, sure, sure, sure. Tours. Tours. Uh, just a moment ma'am. And they speed off. It's probably like 15 minutes later and somebody comes up.

In the meantime, you've been offered taste tests from various people, um, you've, you've seen somebody, have you been helped? Have you, uh, all those sort of like normal, what happens in a place that is busy, but also semi service oriented and, uh, a stout little, uh, dwarven woman comes up and goes, Ah, you're here for a tour?

Yes, please. We would love. Onward and upward. Follow me, folks. Welcome to the greatest Broominster a university ever invented. And she begins to gesture around the main hall that you're in, pointing out the various features, talking about the history of, um, trinkets of a lot of the items on display here are representative of pranks pulled by students in the last 50 or 25 years.

There's definitely a celebration of those types of things. And then she, as the tour continues, she brings you into a back room, uh, and you see all sorts of awards and trophies and, and, and she's like, well, over here, you just see this, these are awards for the brews that would come out of the student section and these are awards that we deliver, you know, we really shouldn't, this is, it's not very important.

Well, it is important. I mean, you should have. Go ahead and look at everything if you would like to, but I'm just going to keep heading down this way. And she's just kind of like bustling. It is one of those tours where you feel like the tour guide doesn't have time to do the tour. Does she eventually, like, if I, do I get a sense that if she were to keep bustling, that she would leave us on our own unattended?

Very much so. Okay. I'm going to just hang back a little and just whisper to my colleagues, say, I think we've at least made it, are we in, in like a back section or not? Yeah. You are very much in a back section. I think we can just let her go about on her way and she may forget about us and we can explore as needed.

And if anyone happens upon us, we just claim ignorance and does that make sense to everyone? Works for me. Yeah, definitely. It's fun when you don't need a warrant.

I love that that's what Gus said. It says out loud and is in Gus's thoughts like, Hey, this is a lot more fun when you don't need to have a warrant. It just gives you kind of like a, I'm going to cast detect magic. Okay, go ahead and cast detect magic while you're casting detect magic to make this switch happen I just need a nice solid group stealth role to see if you're able to slip out from Their observation without problem What I do I am no help for group stealth is I take an average of everything and if somebody rolls in that one And we hope somebody rolled in that 20 So seven for me for me What is that?

23? 23. Aloha. 16. Alright, let me do a little math. Great! You all slip away, I think, for a moment. Uh, Gus. is so caught up in the idea of not needing a warrant that he almost trips down the stairwell that you all head down to like slip away from this individual who continues to just ignore you and move forward and his bustled head, but you slip down this, uh, this wooden stairwell.

Um, And as you make your way to the bottom, it's cooler down here. Smells delicious. Um, hot mash has been cooled down here so many times that that smell of the hot mash cooling has embedded itself into the wooden walls here. And the stone floor is also just, there's something about the space that feels both quiet, Cool, calm, you hear the bustle through the stairwell, but the further down this hallway, and then it opens up into a broader space, and you see storage.

Storage for Bruce. And it's quite a big hall. As we keep walking, I'm gonna keep, I can cast, uh, Detect Magic at will, so I'm just gonna keep casting. Yeah, as with that cast of Detect Magic, you do eventually come to a section of barrels that are glowing to your magical sight. Um, there's a lot of things that glow in Overton and Underton, so this could be anything, um, but you do catch sight of them and there are three of them.

We should check these out. They have magic properties. And as you check out those and you see the magical properties of them, I would like anybody who wants to given the heads up by Gus to roll a perception check. I'm so sorry. A what? Check. Perception. Perception. Thank you three.

Gus. The glow of the barrels is too bright to your magical sight. To see much beyond them in this moment. Thirteen. You begin looking around and lots of barrels around, but, uh, what are you seeing? You don't know. Um, and, um, kind of checking out, oh, that's very clean space. Um, and, and your attention is flashed forward here, Serafina.

You did a lot of celebrating. Yeah. Um, and I forgot my number. 22. Okay. Because I have advantage. So the first one was not good. Alua, your, your, your attention is focused on these three barrels. Seraphina, seeing that your two friends are much more aware of that area in front of them, you begin to look behind and to the side and you find a basket.

A basket full of trinkets in various shapes. Trinkets, as in like Small little pewter images. I would like to go over and look at what these images are. As you come through them, I would like you just to roll out Roll 2D12s. We'll see what you see first. See if you're lucky. Okay. To see what I can see, see, see.

Alright. Eleven. Eleven! Eleven! Um, with an eleven you pluck out one item that looks familiar. Um, it's a cog. And then as you pluck out the cog you see just below it a little tiny pewter piece that looks like your goggles. They don't look exactly like your goggles, but they look like a pair of goggles. I go, Ooh, I think I found, I found, I found, uh, a thing, I found, yeah.

Ulua, as you're hearing the, I found a thing, I found a thing, you note that there's little impressions on each of these barrels. Something's missing. Can you bring them over here? I got, I got one. I'm gonna go give it to her. She hands you what looks like a pair of goggles. I'm gonna look, I'm gonna look for the magnifying glass in the basket.

Roll a, um, investigation check. And I'm going to check the spots that are missing something. Investigation. Is that also an investigation check? Allua, that is also an investigation check. Ten. Investigate. Stop rolling this die, you're ending up cocked. Um, with a tin, it takes you a while, but eventually you find a little icon of a magnifying glass.

16. 16. Uh, you can see that there's these little spots that are about the same size as these various trinkets, as long as you can figure out which ones go where, in what order. And there's, there's three barrels, you said? Three barrels. Okay. Uh, can I, can I see? Your, the, the, the little, what do you found?

I hand it over. Between the three barrels, are there anything different about them, or are they all three the same? All three exactly the same. Okay, um, Is there one, I guess, where, where, these are, where are these from? Uh, over there, when I point to the basket. Okay, and I go over to the basket and I look for one.

Roll a, um, Another investigation check? Another investigation check. Investigation. That one's not as good. Oh, I liked that version. I meant my role, you shit. Ten. It takes you, again, a little bit of time, but eventually you'll find the loot. Gus, Seraphina, while she's hunting, and honestly, Seraphina, even while Gus was hunting, there's been a little bit of time passage.

Did you do anything during that time? Would I have seen Alua looking at the barrels or was I still looking at my own stuff? Now that you've stopped and paused here for a moment, and especially with that previous roll that you made, um, you do notice that, like, each barrel is actually tagged with a little placard or nameplate.

Um, and these three have a different sort of plate on the stone floor right below them. I would like to read them and see what these say versus the other ones. Uh, yeah, as you read that, you see, see, um, the last limerick of the story says the same one that you, that the Lua's paper had on it. It says, Together your strengths must intertwine, for only then will the path be thine.

Reveal your professions, speak them with pride, and the way to the meeting room will confide. Can I? Also, look at these barrels and try I know that Alua didn't say anything different about them, but I'd like to also look at them. I think I want to specifically look at what makes them different compared to the other three.

No. Uh, yeah, I just want to look at them. And roll an investigation check to like really check them out. But visually, at first glance, they're pretty similar. The only things that are different are what I've shared. There's a little bit of an inset, um, that the same size as many of these trinkets that you're, you're looking through in the basket and there is a placard at the bottom.

Twenty two. Twenty two. As you look, you can see that the, it's almost perfectly the same. Looking to the left and right, you can see instead of this little placard that says this limerick, there, that it's, it's a description of what's in the barrel and which student It belongs to what thesis or, or.

Research is attached to, um, the one to the right of these three is a one that's listed as for a specific class, a generic taste testing class. Um, and then further down the way, you can see that there's others with specific courses listed on them. Um, and every once while there's one that's listed for, uh, specific student and their theory.

research or thesis. Uh, but these three, the, the major difference is there's a little inset where one of these little trinkets could fit and that there's the, um, limerick written below where everyone else has just a description of the barrel. Can I see which one would look like maybe The trinket I found, because that's the one I've seen.

None of them have a visual reference that matches any of the trinkets. They just look like little insets that would fit the size of these trinkets. Um,

I'm going to wait for a Lua to come back cause she has. My trinket, and I'm gonna relay everything I just found to them and just wait until she comes back over. Yeah, and if you're gonna wait, then all three of you eventually just, you're sitting there in front of it. The three trinkets are currently in Alua's hands.

I think if we, and for Herrick, these are, these are just like little slots, like kind of like this, or are they like inlays? Little circular inlay spots. Places that are clearly. Intended for something small, like the size of these little trinkets. Perfect. Maybe we could, I mean, there's three of them and three of us.

Maybe if we just stand in front of it and put our trinkets in, something will happen. Poem also says to speak our profession with pride. Speak our profession. I'm going to take my, there's, there's no like discerning marks about which. Things should go where or no, I'm just gonna like take my my magnifying glass.

I'm starting to shoot my own words now Take the magnifying glass and Just set it on one of the in one of the places and just go I am a detective And also a painter nothing happens. So nothing happened. I'll pick it up again. Hmm

Um, I'm going to pick it up and, and look at mine and go, I mean, I, I am a, and I turned to Gus and I say, I, I am a Combshare. As you say you are a Combshare the, the ceiling tiles again to be in motion, molding themselves. Wait, what? I'll hold it up. I am a detective. Again, the tiles get more movement, more glow.

And, uh, artist. There's a little bit more glow, but it's like an incremental tiny amount, whereas the glow from one to the other was big. The painter just like, bloop, a little bit more glow. And, uh, spy. There's a tiny, tiny little incremental blip as you add spy. We both just probably look at Serafina like I just am like staring at my thing like, uh Say what your job is, your profession I don't, um Loudly, I think I work for my brother Nothing happens to increase or decrease the motion of things The note was to the tinkerer, so maybe you're a tinkerer But this, I don't get really paid for it.

But that's where your passion is. I just like doing it. Um. I like to build and invent things and help my brother at his agency. With the Invent, you see a little bit of a deeper glow, but it fades back as what you've just said is not title of a profession, but just part of things and, but you can all see that Invent, and then try Inventor.

Inventor! It moves again, all three words now having been said, Inventor, Compsher, and Detective, the ceiling tiles reform and you see Written in this order witness musical gears

witness musical gear. Okay. Mm. Well the message I'm going to put the detective thing under witness you put it under that word in the barrel slot that matches to it and the barrel rotates and I put mine in the middle one I guess The, that barrel also starts to rotate. I put it, I put mine in the gear. All of them are rotating together and the wall starts to crack open behind the barrels.

The barrels get pulled back a bit, lifted and pulled away and you see a long narrow tunnel that seems to go downslope.

Secret tunnel! Okay, okay. Sorry, I couldn't, I couldn't think of a better sentence. You saw, you saw the literal The fight, right? Okay. Is it, is it dark? Or is it I'd like to know that. It is dark. Dark, dark. I'm gonna hold up my staff and cast Light. And I'm walking forward like Gandalf. Pshhh! Light fills the space as you wander forward into this dark Ah!

descending It warned us next time! Oh. Oh, I was right next to you. I was not prepared in the dark. I could see if you want me to turn it off. I'll turn it off. No, I just, it's just, you know, it's the sudden bright light right next to me. It's a very cool image of you with this light. I like it. Roll a performance check, Gus.

Oh,

uh, 11. I have a decent bonus for performance for some reason. You look debonair and powerful. But so small. Small. S M O L. Don't be a hightist. Alright. I'm gonna move forward into the tunnel. As you continue moving To the secret tunnel! You, uh, cast Lightabout and all three of you enter into the Labyrinth of Secrets.

The tunnel opens up into a fairly large space where you can see the several small cages at each corner of the room and another, uh, passageway ahead. I'm just going And you said cages? Yeah, small Like a cage? Cages. Cages, like the size that you might catch rodents in. Oh, okay. So, like, not must catch. I'm, I'm just going to look at either of them and go, in case you need it, and cast bardic inspiration on each of them.

Are we doing one at a time? Um, I think you can have multiple active. No, you just, you have to check them off, but you can cast them. Yeah. Okay. I know I got to put a bard in another campaign. They last like 10 minutes? I believe so, yeah. Good question. I don't remember. I feel like it's like a ten minute. So yeah.

Did three of you move forward through that space to the next space? I want to just, as we walk by the cages, just check them out real fast. Yeah, roll a quick investigation or a perception check depending on how quickly you're doing this. Because I would then run up, run after them. If they were to get farther away.

So falling a little bit behind, you're going to roll an investigation check. Yeah. Wow, that's terrible. Okay, and then we determined that this is a nine. Investigation! Um, Secret, secret. Fifteen? With a fifteen, you notice that there's a little piece of cheese, weighed very carefully. You can see the mechanism and how it's attached, and that this would collapse down and capture, not kill, a rodent, should it get in there.

It has not been sprung. A quick glance around the room, comparing them, you see that the other ones have been baited, but not sprung. Aww.

They all appear to be live capture traps.

I don't spring the traps, but I want to, like, knock the cheese off of them as I walk. Um, yes, kicking each of the, the, the cheese off of each of them or knocking it off of it. I would love for you to roll a dexterity check. We'll use one to count them all. Jess's foot's gonna get cut. Da da da da da. Um. How much is that, uh, Bardic inspiration again?

D6. Oh, D6? Oh yeah, I never How much is D6? No, it starts at 6, you're right. Sorry. Ooh, not bad after all. 19. Uh, you knock the cheese off, not springing the traps in any way, but the cheese just kind of falls off and out of the cage, each of the cages, um, landing on the ground, which you notice is a little bit damp, but not terribly damp.

And then I run after him. And then I go, that's for my God, because the rat's name is my God. Uh, So the two of you have moved further ahead and you've seen that there's another, you've gone deeper down and you can see that there's another chamber opening up ahead of you. You can hear the sounds of water dripping and landing in other water sources of some sort.

Exactly. As we walk that way, I go, I just turned to Seraphina and say, I didn't realize you were religious.

What? No, I'm not religious. And you said? What you just did, you said was for my god. Yeah, my god. Yeah. Oh! No, not like, god, like, the rat. His name was my god. That's what he told me his name was.

That must have been a very interesting conversation. Yeah. Don't you remember, I was like, whenever I was talking to him, I would always say my god. Because, you know, it'd be like, it'd be like saying, Hey, Allua! I need you! I'd go, My God! I need you! I understand that now, but you have to understand that was a very one sided conversation, and so we had no way of knowing.

Forgot about that. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

But no, I'm not religious. Ah. Good to know. Are you? No, not, not particularly. I, I try to be well versed so that I can speak on the subject when it's brought up in conversation, but If you had to pick one, who'd you pick?

Mmm, I don't particularly enjoy the idea of placing my fate into the hands of anyone else besides me, so I haven't thought on it much. Yeah, yeah, that's valid. Yeah. Alrighty then.

I suppose if I had to, probably one who patrons the arts. Oh yeah, I don't even know any of their names, so I couldn't even tell you which one that was, so. There's a few, but. Oh nice. As you go down. I'll have to go to the library. As you go down to this deeper, uh, space, um, you walk through and it's another room.

There's more traps set here, um, they're still the same size, but they're a little buried underwater and you can see that the, whatever the bait was has actually, um, floated away from the traps. You can find no evidence of that for Seraphina's benefit, but you have reached a deeper level and there's yet another passageway ahead of you.

Is there like a, are these like randomly sat out or are they, are they just like lining the rooms? Set in the corners of each room, four in each corner so far in both rooms. So eight total so far. Huh.

Yeah, okay. Continuing forward into the next space, there's a little bit of water flow underneath you as it spills out of that last room. Um, you come to another room that of course is a little flooded because yet again, water is flowing, but it's danker down here, smelly even. And again, you make out four traps in each of the corners.

Man, they must really have a rodent problem. Apparently.

Another passageway ahead, do you choose to keep? Meanwhile, what Gus is thinking is that something's down here that you slide right. I'm going to keep that to myself for now. You continue going further down, deeper into the space. Room by room, more traps, all unsprung. Until eventually you come to one of the rooms with the traps and everything seems to be pretty much the same.

But you can see there's two passages going off to either direction. But ahead of you is a passageway that is full of debris. Something collapsed here very, very recently. There's no way through it? You can see a small little nook up in the top and you can see two little pieces of parchment saturated with water, um, kind of like half coming out of the little nook of a entrance space.

Hmm. I am going to try to climb up and get those. You climb up and you, um, I would like you to roll a, um, acrobatics or athletics check. I think athletics makes the most sense unless you're doing some. 13 for athletics. Okay. Uh, you climb up there and you pull the two pieces of soggy parchment down, um, and looking at them, you can see that they were folded as birds and one is addressed to you and one is addressed to Serafina.

Okay, I will climb down and I will hand Serafina her parchment.

I hesitantly open it. It's smudged, Serafina, quite a bit, so you can't make out all of it, but it, it looks like it's written by Sticky Beak and it says something along the lines of, Oh, I've been trapped, uh, seeking out your help. Please, check in with the others and come down and, and Um, help me get out of the little bit of a sticky situation I got myself into.

I know I already owe you all a favor, but I would definitely double down on that if you could get me out of here. I could get out on my own, but I'm trying to stay focused here. If you could just gather the others and come down. Um, oh, and, Don't worry about what happens next. And as you look at a little piece of parchment, you finish reading what happens next, you see that all the letters try to reform themselves and they become stuck.

And then eventually after a little bit, some of them weave together and you can see written, In the heart of a big smudge, where secret's big smudge, a hidden's big smudge, awaits your intent, but to pass through smudge, of the past smudge, curious smudge, and you can see that it's the same overall. As you read through it, lots of smudges, lots of words, um, but it doesn't quite make a cohesive explanation.

And then even as you watch it, you can see the ink that has moved itself start to smudge out entirely. I assume mine is the same if I open it. Um, you read, you open yours up as well, you can see, um, the, the, the letters on yours are even more damaged than they, even as you look at them after you read the first bit, you see them try to reform and they just turn into a big black smear that's slowly slides down the page.

It appears he tried to send the letter to all of us, but yours is the only one that got out. I guess that makes more sense. I was surprised to have been the only one to received any com Uh, communication. Communication. , I, I was gonna say correspondence. Oh, um, well, we can't go that, I can't fit through that hole at the top, right?

No, you, your hand couldn't fit through that hole. It's impressive that one piece of parchment made it through there much less. Three That clearly two didn't, but much less. Three. Alright. Shall we go left or right? I'm going to look at either. Are there any traps in here? Yes, there are two that are visible.

Where two others should be, there's rubble. Hmm. Okay.

I'm going to look down either passage to see if I can spot a difference between the two of them. Go ahead and roll a perception check. I'm going to watch her do that and then walk with her while she does that. Are you doing that to try to give her advantage by also looking, or? Sure, yes. Okay, go ahead and roll with advantage, Lua.

Yeah, first roll was better. Thanks anyways. Uh, 21. As you look down the passageway to the left, you can see that it curves slightly but it's still going downward. Um, you can see that there's a little bit of flickering green light, but maybe it's not flickering. It just seems to be pulsing more than flickering.

And as you check out to the right, you can see that it's just a dark tunnel. There is no light source down there.

Can I see anything down the dark tunnel with my dark vision? Uh, yeah, go ahead and roll a perception check separately.

Perception! Uh, 16. You see that this one also curves down like the other one, and that's as much as you can make out. It looks similar to the other one down there. Down the dark one? Like blocking the light from my thing and like looking down the, yes. Well, this one looks possibly different. Should we try that way?

Change of scenery? Works for me. Hey you. Yeah you, in the boring t shirt. I thought you liked Dungeons and Dragons. So why don't you have a D& D t shirt? Don't you know Probability of Demise has t shirts? You got this t shirt. And this one. Of course we've got one with our logo, but this one is my favorite.

Check out probabilityofdemise. com slash store to see these shirts and everything else we have to offer. As we get to, like, the entrance for that path, for that way, I'm going to take, uh, a tube of lipstick out of my, my bag, whatever. And I'm just going to draw like a little star on the, uh, side on the wall.

Yeah, a little marker. Mm hmm. You head down the other tunnel, having left your mark behind. All of you going down. Who's, Yeah, it doesn't matter. The air is a little heavy now, I mean it's been heavy with the dampness. The sounds are the rhythmic dripping from the water. And as you turn that corner into the light you make out, all three of you, um, and with your additional light, Gus, uh, it's very clear, although you think that without it, with the pulsing of the glow, it might actually be harder to make out, um, walls carved from rough hewn stone and darkness.

at the corners is banished temporarily and then brought back by these mushrooms that are clinging to the ceiling their glow fading in and out their caps are the size of dinner plates and they pulse with that light giving the chamber without your light gusts in those areas that your light isn't hitting an emerald amethyst and okra kind of visual effect it's mesmerizing a little unsettling it's almost like The ceiling, where those mushrooms are collected in mass, is breathing.

Beneath them, I don't like it. Beneath them you can make out that the floor is carpeted in moss, and little tendrils as you just even step in, kind of brush your ankles, and then you can see the remains of skeletons. Animal or human, you really can't tell. They just lay scattered amongst that undergrowth of Moss.

Most of them have been bleached by time and the constant damp. Yes. As a deep gnome, do I have any knowledge of these, like, flora or whatever? Of the fauna or the flora? Fauna, flora. Good call, good call. Uh, go ahead and roll a history check. Uh, it'll be a nature check. I, sorry. Nature check.

Fifteen. Because you have history with that space. That's why I'm having you roll the nature check. Fifteen. Fifteen. Fifteen? Yep. Um, you are fairly certain that this moss is a natural moss, it's not underdark creation. Neither of the mushrooms are a natural item, um, they themselves are not dangerous, but I think it does clue you in to Look for creatures that would use it as a refuge, a place to hide, some creatures to even lurk.

Who wants to go first? I can, I suppose.

I don't, I don't really want those, that, that moss is really high.

I'm gonna like, grab a, like, a rock or something. Tickle me. From rubble, and like, toss it into the moss and see what happens. You toss the rock, it tumbles. The sound is reduced because of the mosses, but it's still a bit of a noise. Um, you hear some scuttling. Um, and you catch sight of a little rat's tail going deeper into the moss.

Rats! I wonder if they know my god.

Or is that that might not be It's not, it's not nice to assume all rats know each other.

Maybe you want to try talking to them? Oh, I, I can do that! Um, okay, hold on, I have to admit my knowledge of rat culture is rather sparse. Mine as well. Okay, okay. Um, I reach up onto my horn, I taggle one of my little coins that has a rune on it, Uh, and I cast Peek With Animals. Okay. Uh, and I, I like squat down at the edge of the moss because you said it's kind of tall, right?

Like, ankle height? Yeah. So yeah, okay, so I just squat at the edge and I go, Uh, hello? Hello, friends? My name, um, I'm, uh, uh, Serafina. How are y'all today? Hey. You hear Just squatting and, like, waiting. You hear, what? They're talking to us. What? You hear another one say, Uh, test them out. Ask them a question.

Another one. I like questions. I can answer questions. She asks questions. You, uh, Lua and Gus just hear chittering of rodents. Um, and it's kind of alarming because there's a lot of them. A lot of chittering. But not horribly. And I go, they're gonna ask me questions. Here a question. What do you call a rat who's always nervous?

Uh, I turn to them, I go, what do you call a rat that's always nervous?

I don't know. Gus, do you know? I'm not much of a joking person. I don't know this one. Oh, is it a joke? Hey, uh, excuse me, is that a joke or a question? Question. They don't know the answer to our jokes. Oh, they're terrifying. Oh, we should get out of here. Wait, no, don't leave! Wait, wait! Roll a persuasion check.

See, I should have brought that cheese. Cheese? Cheese? As you say cheese, the scuttling stops. You don't even have to roll that persuasion check now. I have cheese! And I look at Alula, I was like, I have, I have cheese! I'm assuming you had cheese on the table, right? Yes, and the box that I gave you, and I always keep snacks on hand, remember?

Oh yeah, oh yeah! Um, excuse me! Hello! Uh, we have cheese! Are you hungry? And there's no trap, there's no traps. I know there were some upstairs. Um, you could just have it. And I'm gonna like The king takes care of those, no worries. Thanks. What? The king. Like, like, king of rats? Or king of like Oh, there's a king of rats?

Oh, yeah. I go, there's a king of the rats. He takes care of the the traps. Yeah, I got a question for you before you give us the cheese, to test you out. Oh, okay, okay. What do you call a rat who's really good at hiding? Uh, hey guys, what do you call a rat that's really good at hiding? Uh, uh, uh, Invisible?

Aren't all rats good at hiding? Uh, We don't know! You hear really close to you, and I need you to roll a perception check. Oh gosh. Oh, that's not great. Let's see. Um,

Okay. Perception. Uh, That's not good. 13. Ooh. You hear a little too late the answer from a different voice of a rat, a master of dis cheese, and your bag feels much lighter suddenly. And you see a rat scuttle away with most of your snacks. Pocket picked by a rat. All my snacks. Why didn't you take my snacks?

I would have shared. You hear another rat voice. What do you call a rat who wins the lottery? A clamp on all my pockets. You see Azaria closes up every pocket she has and she has a lot. So I'm just constantly like touching because I have a lot, yeah. You okay dear? I think they're going to steal from me again.

Oh, perfect. Hulu, could you roll a perception check as, uh, Serafina asks, or says that she thinks that they're going to steal from her again? That's an at one. You just hear the voice saying in like a Doppler effect as it goes further and further away from you, a cheddar millionaire, but you can feel your snack pocket that you keep snacks in.

It's a little deflated. Me? Yes. But I can't understand them, right? You can't understand them, Serafina, that hears it. You hear the chittering. I'm sorry, did they just Okay. Can we make a deal with them to, in exchange for either information or something so that we can just give them what they want instead of them taking it from us?

Um, excuse me, snack thieves. Um, can we have a discussion regarding, uh, the trade of giving you exactly what you want so you can stop stealing from us in exchange for information? Please. They're trying to make an honest round of us. They're trying to make honest rounds of all of us. Do we like that? Well, you like it.

roll a persuasion check.

ah uh, persuasion plus. What is that? Two seven You. Only if you could answer this question. Okay. What do you call Rat who loves to gamble? And he says we have to answer a question. What do you call a rat who likes to gamble? A high rat roller? That's pretty good. I kinda, I kinda like that, but Gus, do you have anything?

No? Yes? Um, no, I, I've got nothing. Um, we think the answer is a high rat roller. You hear tons of chittering now. Terrible! And then you hear one of them say, Preston, did you know it's a whisker risk taker? And as they say it, they all start chittering. And a larger rat seems to move into the space that you can all see.

It's not just one rat, it's multiple rats all bound together. They seem to be dragging each other. themselves forward. And as they drag themselves forward, you hear, Serafina, a kind of, a kind of A conglomeration of voices say, They have nothing but themselves, let's feast on their bodies. Oh boy. Um, the multiple rats say they're gonna feast on our bodies.

Interesting. Can you not do that? Can you let them know that if they attempt that we will be forced to defend ourselves? The pretty one says that if you do that we have to defend ourselves. I, um, I mean that one. I can't understand you. You're speaking rat. It's fine.

Is it, can we not understand her or can we, I don't think we can understand her side, right? I don't think so. It's up to you. It's not really up to the Seraphina how she chooses to interpret the speak with animals. If she's truly speaking the language of the animals. Then I feel like maybe you don't understand it.

Let us roll a dice, I don't know. 1 to 10 will be they understand. 10 and up. 11 and up, they don't.

It's an 11, they don't understand. You have no idea what she's saying. As I'm just going squeak, squeaky, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. Squeaker, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeaker, squeaker. We're all in the intimidation check but it's not very intimidating with disadvantage. Well, a not so intimidating check.

Wait, seven, 14, and 19.

Okay. I'm beginning to understand all the rat traps.

Second one was a 20 , but I still rolled a 14, which isn't bad, so what am I doing? Intimidation. Intimidation plus two, so 14, 15, 16. Uh. With the 16 you see most of the ancillary rats back away and then start to disappear into other nooks and crannies of the dark, but that massive rat trundles forward a bit and goes, If you want into our home, you're going to have to prove yourselves against me!

What, I'm sorry, me? There's like twelve of you. So which, which of the me's? As it says, as it says me's and you're asking this clarifying question, it darts forward to seek to bite you and I need you to roll, um, Ah!

I need you to roll, uh, invest, not investigate, instigation. What is this word? Initiative? Initiative. Cause I am also someone who can't remember words. Initiative. Um, roll initiative. Eight. And as you're rolling that initiative, um, This was eight. Uh, you hear in response to your last question, Serafina, you hear, um,

Defeat us and you will be negotiated with. Do not, and you shall be feasted with. Um, They want us to fight them, and if we win, they'll tell us stuff. And if not, they're gonna eat us.

Well, if we don't win, I guess it doesn't really matter what they would do. We wouldn't have a choice. Uh, yeah. I got a 10, by the way. 17.

Okay. Uh, great. Lua, 17, you go up first.

You see them charging forward a mass conglomeration of rats. Just the one, correct? Well, the one, the mass. One mass of rat. The one mass. I am going to go, um, Lullaby and goodnight, and I'm going to cast sleep. I'm so happy that you're like, Lullaby and goodnight. Whatever it is Kel asks you are, cause it makes me happy that you sing everything.

I rolled 18, so starting with the creature that has the lowest hit points, up to 18 hit points of creatures are affected by it.

Okay, uh, let's see, you said how many? 18.

You see one of the tangled up rats, and now when you see it collapse upon itself, you can see that the rest are pulling it along still. It's, their tails are all entwined in this massive, gross knot. I'm gonna use my last bardic inspiration, and Cast Unsettling Words. But I guess, I don't know, like, whatever creature seems to be kind of in the lead.

Uh, and they have to subtract two from their next saving throw. That's not a lot, but it will. Okay, cool. And I'm gonna back up a little. Like maybe, I don't know, ten paces? If there's room. Okay, cool. 10 pace is great. Um, as you back up a little and it, and you see this massive amount of rats all entangled by the, at the tail, um, they lunge towards you and they seek to bite at you.

Um, could I have, does a 17 hit Yes. Okay, and does a, well that will hit too. Um, so you're going to take,

uh, 7 points of piercing damage and 7 points of slashing damage. Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch. That sounded painful. You can just see she's, her, her dress is a little torn in places and her, her outfit has like, essentially like bare arms with like, armbands on and there's just like, bleeding points all over her arms from the bite marks.

Alright, that takes us to Seraphina. Okay, so, I'm gonna take out my sickle. And slash at the mound of rats. Um, and I am going to cast, because I can cast at will, Green Flame Blade. Which is, you brandish the weapon used in the spell's casting and make a melee attack with it against one creature you see within five feet of you.

On a hit, the target suffers the weapon's attack, like normal. Um, and then you see a green fire leap from that target to a second target. Uh, and they get fire damage equal to your spellcasting ability modifier. Awesome, roll the attack. Um, nope. You. And I get three The verbal compliment is, These rats are on fire!

These rats are on fire! Uh, twelve? Uh, you, you fling it. You miss the rats, but some of the green flame just kind of drips off and hits one of them. And you see one of them burn a little bit. And it shrieks in a very rowdy voice, kind of separating itself from the chorus of others. And it becomes additional dead weight.

But the main bulk of them turned to you ready to lunge at you at any moment. Uh, Gus, what is the distance from us? And what is the size of this room that they're in? Cause we're in the hallway and they're coming through the room, right? Yeah, they've come up pretty close. I mean, like you all had to be slightly in it to even just talk.

And Serafini was probably at the point of this thing, but, um, uh, Lua having fun. step forward and then trying to step back and trying to find like a safe zone. You're all at the exit to the space and, um, you have a fairly open ended room. It's about 60 feet in length, but you can make out because of the glowing mushrooms in the distance that there is additional passageways and such beyond this.

I'm going to go like starting right at our feet. Um, I'm going to hold up my Overton City watch ring that I do not wear because I still miss being in the watch, but I wear it because it does this and I'm going to cast Entangle 20 feet in front of us. Oh! Okay, um, what is the save? Uh, 13 strikes. They did not make the save.

Yay, I wasn't useless in a fight this time. Oh. Describe how this effect happens, how your entangle effect occurs. I want to say it's just like, it sort of goes in a wave, like vines just kind of shoot up out of the ground. So this wave blasts forth from Gus that you, all three of you see, um, and It first catches that massive group of rats that are all entangled upon one another.

And you see each of them pulled down into the moss as the moss itself seems to come alive and follow Gus's commands clinging to them. And then you hear squeaks off in the distance as individual rats that hadn't quite left the area are entangled and grasped and pulled deeper into the moss that they're hiding in.

They can't do shit unless they can beat the DC. Well, they didn't beat it the first time, so it'll help to figure that out in their next turn.

Alright. I don't think I really have bonus actions. I think I'm done. Yeah. I could hex one, but other than that, not really. I'm good. Okay. Uh, that'll take us back up to the beginning of the order with Lua. Lua! I'm going to Point at the center of the ball of rats. And I'm going to sing, um, I'm going to cast Descendant Whispers and I'm going to whisper sing, um, Your questions are jokes and none of them are funny.

And, uh, Cast Descendant, it's a wisdom saving throw of 13. Uh, they just rolled a natural 18. Minus two. Okay. On a successful save, target takes half as much damage and doesn't have to move away. I can't move away anyway, so that would be They'll take What It rounds up, right? So it will take six points of damage.

I rolled, I rolled, uh, ten. Nice.

Okay. It is their turn, they're going to try to break free. What is the save? Oh, unless Lula has a bonus action or anything. I don't think so, not anymore. Guess what was the save that they need to beat? Nevermind, they did not make it. They are still stuck there.

When you roll a five, you just know.

Um, Seraphina, it's your turn. I'm not used. Pull in a fight. Oh, here we go. I'm going to, am I able to touch the rats without getting in the moss? Uh, you would have to go into the moss to touch the rats. That's not an option. Okay. Well, you're, I think you would also get entangled in my mos based on where you were last.

If you didn't beat the DC you would get entangled in my vines tooth. Sorry. Perfect. So wait, I'm already in the moss from where I, when I attacked? Yeah, this is, yeah, moss is everywhere. But if you step closer to the rafts, you'll be in the shape of Gus's stuff. I see. I see. Okay. In that case, I am going to slash again with my sickle and do the flame blade again.

So you'll have to be up close enough to do this, which is fine because you're in already that close. Roll the attack. Come on, baby. Yeah. 13? Okay. That hits exactly. Ayy! Where are my d4s? Come here, bag. D4. Okay, here we go. I laugh like we all don't have a giant bag of dice like that. So, that's a whole two. Two points of slashing.

And you saw that green thing go in there? Yep, the green thing bounces to one of the other rats, and that is Four?

Okay. Yes. You see a couple of rats just fall over. Again, still entangled, but they don't get dragged by the group because they're all restrained right now. So you just see a couple more of them falling. Um, the mass of rats is slowly being winnowed down. Um, And I don't have any bonus action, so I'm good.

Okay. Since you are good, that takes us back up to Lula. Oh, it's Gus's turn. Sorry. Bad. I, in my head, you just went, so just so you know, you had an imaginary turn where I had you go in my head. How did I do? Did I do a lot of damage? Yeah. You kept rolling out 20s. It was really making me mad. Well, we can keep that.

Just go to her. Alright, um, I'm just gonna, uh, Eldritch Blast the blob of rats. Okay, roll the attacks. Add your spell, Ridiculousness. 16 on the attack, that is 5 damage. Uh, you all see rainbows, or a rainbow, burst from Gus's hand. Hitting the rat pile and another rat is flung backward, almost like unrestrained for a moment as it flies backwards and knocks itself out.

Um,

been lucky charmed away. Anything else? I will cast

I will cast Hex. This is just like one target, right? It's just the rat blob. The Hex? Yeah, that's a cast of spells that really functions as a whole. It's a hoodlum, but it's all one creature first. Conglomerate of rats. Um, I'm going to try to think of an ability, which ability would most I'm going to, uh, cast a dexterity hex.

Um, and then I'm done. Okay. Future note to you. If you cast it before you hit them, you get that bonus to your, um, attack. That plus 1d6. So like a ranger, keep that in mind. I am going to sing Whisper again. The only thing stinkier than this cheese is your jokes. Um, and that's another wisdom save of 13. Oh, that's so sad.

They did not succeed. Okay. So, uh, they can't move. I don't think, but, uh, they would run away if they could, but they're stuck. Yes, there's, so that's 16 points of, what is it? Um, psychic damage. I must immediately use this reaction if available to move as far as its speed allows away from you. Um, but yeah. The speed is currently set to zero.

That's fine. Uh, and I, that, that's it. Okay. They are going, you see, as you do this, it's like the, the first one is like, it just passed over them. They kind of, but now you can see like three of them, blood starts to come from a nose of one. One of them's eyes literally become the X sign of death and just flops over.

Another one's ear just fully folds down. Then a little bit of like green pus loops down. And another one just collapses on itself a little bit, curled up into a little tiny self soothing rat bundle. And then the entire horde of them, super upset, tries to rip free with a natural 20 and escape Gus's bounds and immediately launch themselves at Serafina.

That's fine. Come at thee. It's part of a bonus action. Beautiful.

let's just surge as well. We're gonna surge and we're gonna bonus action. Does a 15 hit Seraphina Uh, closest target available? I think so. It's, yes. You're gonna take 7 points of slashing, 7 points of piercing, and then they're gonna use their bonus action in their enraged state and does a Does a 12 hit?

No!

You see that their tails bundle swipe at you and smash into the moss, breaking it apart as they bludgeon the ground but miss you. But you still take that total 14 points of piercing and slashing. Did you just say they enraged you just like a barbarian rat horde? I don't know, I don't know what you're talking about.

I like to play with stat blocks, don't you? Uh, and that takes us to Seraphina's turn. You've just been slashed, almost bashed, and pierced by Rat. What are you going to do? Well, now that it's right here, I am going to do this thing called Inflict Wounds and I'm gonna boop it on one of it's nose and I'm gonna say Stop it!

That's what I'm gonna do. Okay. Is this an attack roll? It is and I'm gonna roll. Okay. Fifteen. Fifteen definitely hits. Okay, so then, wow, this is so many. Okay.

Okay, five, seven, and a five. So seventeen points of damage. You see rat after rat after rat with the boop. The boop that just hit one snoot. still seems to affect multiple rats as they each get booped in turn as the first rat that was booped is slammed so hard down that it bounces back up and then boots, boops the snoot of another rat and five rats go down there's so few rats left in this entangled mass and Serafina you hear all right all right you you're proving yourself you're proving yourself please stop that's right bad rat mass

He said they broke out of the entanglement, right? Yes, they have broken out of it. So I think I would have fainted by that point. Seraphina, is that all you're gonna do, or are you gonna Um,

I'm gonna go now, give us information. And look to Ulua, say, what information? I'm gonna say, call him a punk. You're a punk. It's good for interrogation.

Um, I mean, about, if there's a way into Are you all disengaging from the battle and Yeah, I'm disengaging because I booped them. All right. You booped them so good. So we're out of combat. I did. Just shut that down. You're a super booper. Booper, booper. Okay, so, uh, Alua, I'm asking about The Sniffy's gonna snoop you.

What now? Uh, if they know of any area where, uh, Stickybeak might be trapped, if they can give us directions, or Mm. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. If they know of a space that, uh, But, uh, how to get into that other space. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. So I look at the rats and I go, We are, he's a kenku, right? Mm hmm. Kenku? Kenku, yeah.

We're looking for a kenku that is trapped. How do we get to the area that has collapsed? The rat's just, like, kind of quivering, and it's, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, it's, it's up, and you hear the multitude of voices a little bit, it's upstairs, the, where the, where the door collapsed in.

How do we get through it now that it's collapsed? Is there a back door? Um, roll a persuasion check. With advantage. Persuasion. Because you freaked me out. Yeah, because I booped him. Uh, persuasion. The rat whisperer. You freaked me out. Okay. Wow. First one it is. Okay. Still not great. 13. It's okay. They rolled like garbage.

Um, the rat mass. Just. Kind of like slowly backs away from you a bit trying to get space, but, uh, another rat moves forward as they're just like, we don't know. We don't know. I don't know. You have to dig them out. We can fit through. Another rats slips forward a little bit out of the mess, kind of like extracting itself finally from the moss and it comes forward and goes, well, if you follow me, I can show you a way that I get up there, but you might be a bit too big.

Will we be too big? Yeah. Or will we not be too big?

Sure.

So this one says that, um, we can follow him and there will be an entrance that I asked him if we'll fit. Will we fit or will we not fit? And he said sure. Um, is there not another

Okay, I guess. What do you think? And I turn to Gus. Is there, if we go Through this room. There's not another way through What is through this room? Can we go through this room to get to the other room? You hear a pipe up. Oh, the rat kingdom Would you like to come and join us? It is the rat kingdom Yes,

I feel like we should not disturb the rat kingdom Seems not ideal for sure

Alua, should we go to the rat kingdom, or just follow the rat? Is that where the entrance is? What did they say? I just asked what's that direction, and they said the rat kingdom. Well, I certainly wouldn't want to intrude, and I think we should probably get to Sticky Peak. We could maybe say we could visit another time?

Okay, um, the pretty one says, um, that one says that we can visit another time to your lovely rat kingdom, but we need to go help our friend. So if you could show us the way and to a way that we will fit. Thank you. This way. And that kind of looks at the mass conglomeration of rats and. You can see three of the rats in that conglomeration kind of nod their head to it, and then it nods, and then it squirreys back up the passageway you've come down.

Off we go. Following it, you go back up to the room with the collapse, and then across and down into the other dark, unlit space. And as you come around, the corner doesn't go quite as deep down as the other one had gone, but you come to an area where you can see a, um, What looks like As the rat circles up it, a well, or at least the bottom of a well.

And as you look up, you can see that there's a bit of light up above. It's a little tight and narrow, but you can see how you could probably climb, possibly. And just as you kind of make this out, the rat disappears from view. Okay, thank you! You too. Alright, would you like to rest? Uh, I certainly need to tend to some of these, um.

They packed a harder punch than I expected. I'm gonna go up to Alua, and I go, May I have your hand, please, kind lady? Of course. And then, when she gives me her hand, I am going to cast, Cure Wounds! Eight points to the pretty lady. Thank you very much. Yeah, as you cast this magic that is your healing, do you have a descriptor of what that looks like for Betty, or?

Um, oh gosh, I don't know for her. Um, maybe just like a, uh, like a glow in between my hands. That like, my hand, have you ever put a flashlight like to your hand? Mm hmm. That kind of a look. That's, that's what it looks like. That's what my hands look like on hers. So yeah, your, your skin begins to glow with, with the light of her magical thing.

And you can feel, uh, a warm tingling sensation flow from Serafina's fingertips. And you feel many, but not all of the wounds close and become soothed. And I just kind of, like, chuck her under the chin and go, Thanks, I needed that. Hee hee hee, yeah, no problem.

I just look between them like, And then I'm gonna like, Try to climb up the thing. Uh, go ahead and roll an athletics check. So is there, Climb up what thing? I missed, What are you climbing? The way through. We're like under a well. Right, but what is there to climb? Just the wall? The wall, you can climb up the wall.

Like I said before, it looks like it's possibly climbable. I mean, I rolled, I rolled an eight, so I did not succeed in probably climbing up the wall. Yeah, you, you go to climb and then you just hear the scraping noise as Gus maybe makes it to your waist height and then just shhhhhh nails on chalkboard a little.

That didn't work. Well, Actually, um, I do have something that might help, I think, I guess. Um, and I, I don't have a, a, what is it, a bag of holding. But I guess maybe just for the sake of the storytelling in this case, it would be helpful to have a bag that Hides the size of things, but doesn't necessarily hold more things than a normal bag, if that makes sense.

It's a collapsible broom. Maybe. I don't know. Do you know what I mean? Like, it Just because I haven't Collapsible broom, okay. Not a bag of holding or Shrinky dinks or anything like that, because that can get really rough. Well, it's just, it's more, it's, yeah, it's more Like you hold out your hand and it just appears.

Technically I can do that, but I would be more inclined to, I'd probably have it on my person. So let's go with it's collapsible. Let's go with the collapsible broom. Um, so I, uh, pull out this broom and it kind of is like, like Jason's collapsible cane, where you just, it's like a, like whatever, there's like a bungee core or whatever, and it comes together.

Um, and I, I sit in the back and I say, and I put like one leg over the other and I gesture to Seraphine and I go, okay, now you do, you here, dear. Uh huh. Um, are you sure you don't want Gus there? We, uh, I think it'll make sense just in terms of weight distribution to go. I, well, I guess maybe if that, if that's more comfortable for you, I have, I have no preference.

I'm just No, no, no, no, no, no. I'll, I'll, I'll sit there. Okay. And I, I get on and I scoot so that like, I'm like just far, like just away from her. Like getting as close to her as I can without actually touching her. All right, um, and now, uh, Gus, you, you in front. I'm gonna take out of my bag an immovable rod, and then I'm gonna stick it in the air as a step, and then step up on it, get onto the broom, and then grab the rod.

Um, with your combined body weight, the broom sags pretty low. Right, but it can carry up to 400 pounds. Yes, with your combined body weight, it is currently sagging. Gotta remember, people have their materials and stuff on them. It's sagging pretty low. So it won't fly? It can try, but you're gonna have to use some checks to see if you can make it up.

Okay. Um. Alright, I'm going to say the command word, which is, I'm going to make it a phrase and say, away we go. Ooh, fun. Away we go. Away we go! And I'm not necessarily trying to fly or make it up through the, I'm just trying to rise up so that, you know, we can possibly, they can climb out and then. Roll an arcana check.

Eighteen.

Awesome. Uh, You begin to rise with the broom and you can feel that it's at or past the weight limit. It's juddering as it goes and you know just based on this new experience that Should you ever try to fly in a situation where you have to deal with wind or it's a tenser situation, this probably wouldn't work as it judders up there and it shakes and it vibrates.

You finally crest the top of where the well space is and you can make out a closed door with a candle lit on the other side of it, creating a glow underneath of it. Um, in a small chamber, uh, And it appears that the well you rose through is actually a toilet. Gus, can you get through? I will climb through the toilet.

You clamber out, you make your way through. This is nasty.

I will climb out and then flip up the toilet. Each person coming off makes the broom steadier, so it makes it easier and easier as you're doing it, so I won't have any rules for that. But you all climb out of the toilet, and you're in a small, small room of convenience with a door in front of you, the other side lit by a candle.

Well, I have to say that was definitely one of my less glamorous entrances. As I like, pick up the broom and put it back in my bag. Um, I'm definitely going to need a hot bath after this. Um, yeah. I guess we move forward?

Uh, after you? Opening the door. I don't know who's opening the door. I guess I will. You catch a startled Sticky Beak, busy at work, moving string along a wall with pictures, your typical prototypical map of something where there's images and clippings and other bits and bobs and various names that make sense or don't make sense.

And startled, Sticky Beak turns, Oh, you made it through the bathroom. And with that, we're going to close off. We hope you all enjoyed this little rendition of making our way to meet a friend. As we close out this little chapter and in our next act, we'll see what Sticky Beak actually is seeking and we will start a new arc then.

Thank you all for joining us. Very, very much. We hope you find your pod and goodbye. Okay, bye! Okay, bye!