Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The explosive conclusion to our conflict with Tonberry's curse. We learn the tragic cost of being a Cursebreaker.
We are PBOP - a TTRPG actual-play podcast where we pretend to be other People! Join us for, hilarious improv, immersive storytelling, and an original score to set the mood. Subscribe now and adventure along with us - for excitement, for love, and for giggles!
Last time on Cursebreaker. Tonberry is making his last stand. We revealed the truth about the corrupted judge, and with no options left, he fled for the fountain of magic. We weren't about to let that happen. Tonberry used every spell in the book to bust out of the courtroom and make his way across the lake to the fountain, fending off the best efforts the party had at every turn.
Tim / GM:But he was alone, and we weren't. The party headed him off, and Uli felt herself drawn to the fountain. She's now glowing with the fountain's power, facing down Tonberry's curse. Let's end this. So all of you are at the top of the tower.
Tim / GM:Uli, at your feet is the not moving body of Tonberry.
Speaker 2:Oh, I dropped him?
Tim / GM:Yes. And standing in front of you is the curse that resided in Tonbury. It's made of the same material as you right now. Also, coming up the tower, on a floating bridge is, Margo, Veronica, and Holly. And they have begun the first step, bait the curse.
Tim / GM:They have invoked the first part of their, curse breaking ritual. Holly, you're being helps to your feet on the floating bridge by Veronica and Margo. They both have an arm extended towards the cursed creature, and Veronica just says, step 1, bait the curse. And, she begins, kind of the same effect that Uli has actually, where her skin begins to steam and glow, with these little droplets forming on it that are starting to lift away. And at the same time, Margo is undergoing the same transformation.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly, grabs them by the arms, and kinda staggers steps to her feet, from falling. And she's like, how can I help?
Tim / GM:Veronica kinda waste no time and she says, stay out of the way.
Hannah / Eryn:Colleague nods and just takes a step back behind them, and just looks around for anything else she can do.
Tim / GM:The curse standing in front of you, Uli, its face, facial features look much like Tonberry's. It's got, these demonic curled horns and these 2 large bat wings, that kind of outstretch and, it stares you dead in the eye as Julian says, such a pity.
John / Doran:You would have been perfect.
Speaker 2:I don't like following orders.
Tim / GM:The curse peels its attention away from you for a second as it sees, Margo and Veronica starting their ritual and it just kind of like hisses at them. And, it seems that whatever they're doing is having an effect on this thing, and it kind of loses its cool for a second.
Speaker 2:Is it just a being of pure magic?
John / Doran:Pretty much.
Speaker 2:Or does it have a type of energy? Dark.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I guess it's technically necrotic energy, this whole thing.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You all see it's Mhmm. Okay. So it it hisses at, over towards where Holly is and then turns around and sees Tonberry's body on the ground. It picks up Tonberry kind of by the nape of the neck, like a scolded kitten, and it sort of opens its mouth wide and makes this, inhaling sound like and you see Tonberry's face just rapidly wither and age.
Tim / GM:And you start you hear something clatter on the floor and it's a bone from Tonberry's leg as he slowly starts to disintegrate until he just becomes a pile of bones and falls off the edge. Oh.
John / Doran:Yes, we won. He jumps around a little bit. Downberry is dead, everyone. Victory. You might wanna hold off that celebration a bit, Snack.
Tim / GM:You hear, don't get so excited. And it, extends a, long fingered hand towards Margo and Veronica. And you hear it go.
Tara / Journey:Oh, crap.
Tim / GM:Holly, you're kind of, hidden by them as they move to protect you. Veronica loses her footing and begins to fall backwards. What do you do?
Hannah / Eryn:She doesn't really know what she's doing, but she's gonna try to grab on to, like, Veronica and Margot's, like, maybe by their shoulders or, like, around their necks, as this is happening and try to just, like, infuse her own magical energy, like, into them and give them, like, any energy she can provide to them to help them.
Tim / GM:When you grab onto them, you feel that their bodies are like hot to the touch, and they're kind of quavering where they stand. You look over at Margo and you can see that her face, her skin is starting to get wrinkled, and it looks like she's almost like drying out. And you start to feel it too, Holly. You're you're sort of withering. You immediately feel exhausted and and like you've never had a drink in your life.
Tim / GM:And then you feel a sudden, shift in weight as you look to your right and see Veronica kind of stumbling, and then you hear you feel her shoulder fall away.
Hannah / Eryn:No. Veronica. And Holly tries to, like, grab both her hands and, like, grab her. Is she, like, disappearing completely? Or is she
Tim / GM:You reach down for Veronica's hand and you grab dust.
Speaker 6:No. You can't.
Speaker 2:You can't count.
John / Doran:You look
Tim / GM:down and see a robe flying away in the wind and you see a few bones falling into the water below.
John / Doran:What?
Tara / Journey:I, I desperately try to cast anime dead.
John / Doran:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:As the bones are falling and as Tonberry's bones are falling.
Tim / GM:You're, you see a bony hand reach up towards the bottom of the tower and, grab on to, the lowest window ledge and begin scaling the side of the building, followed by a smaller skeleton, that is also coming up towards you.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly falls to her knees next to Veronica's, like, dust pile, and just is, like, in tears, as she saw her friend, like, basically disintegrate in front of her. So Holly is just, like, at wit's end, I guess. Sorry. Sorry.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna run and knock it off of the bridge.
Tim / GM:You charge at this thing out of pure rage. And, to you, charging is now just flying forward at an accelerated speed and you feel yourself pass through this thing with, with almost no resistance. You do feel a force as it kind of like shunts you off to one side. So there's there's something to it, but it's nothing that you can't permeate.
Tara / Journey:I am sort of stumbling along As Uli passes through, I reach out a hand and cast vampiric
Speaker 6:touch on it.
Tim / GM:What does that do?
Tara / Journey:It takes 3 d 6 necrotic damage on a hit, so I have to roll for a hit. So it's a melee spell attack. My thought is, like, I can probably sense that it has some necrotic energy, and I'm gonna try and combat that with my own necrotic damage and try and, like
Tim / GM:Fire with fire.
Tara / Journey:Do some damage. I don't know. Fucking natural one. No.
Speaker 2:Did you touch me instead?
Tim / GM:You, you reach out with your vampiric touch, and, it kind of like smirks at you as you do. And, it just as the energy gets close to its mouth, it just kinda leans down and eats it up. It seems to enjoy what you've done to it. Yeah. It takes control of the situation seeing that it's got you all against the ropes.
Tim / GM:It takes a deep breath, and you all feel yourselves being crushed and lifted. I need everyone to make a strength save.
John / Doran:Natural 20.
Hannah / Eryn:17. 16. 17. 10.
Tim / GM:Alright. Everyone but snack is, lifted off the ground. You're not being crushed and that it's going to kill you. You're just being controlled. You're you're lifted off the ground and kind of flailing.
John / Doran:Where is everyone going?
Tim / GM:Are you still flying, Snack?
John / Doran:Yeah. Okay. Snack flies up and looks at everyone kind of nervously, like, what is what is this plan we are doing?
Hannah / Eryn:Snack, that thing has us.
John / Doran:Help. Help. Snack opens his mouth and, is kind of agitated with all his friends in peril and, casts a fire breath on the creature. Nice. This is the first time he's done it, and, like, he gets kinda spooked by it because he didn't intend to do this, and it's happening.
Tim / GM:Okay.
John / Doran:Alright. So deck save.
Tim / GM:Gotta be a 15. Yeah. He beat it. Okay.
John / Doran:So I think Half damage or Half yeah. It's gotta be half damage. I don't have it written down, but that makes sense. It's usually what the deck saves are for. 21.
John / Doran:So 10. Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. The, you see that this thing isn't invincible at that. The fire does seem to affect it in some way. It, like, shies away. You can tell that this is nothing that's gonna, you know, have it sent home.
Tim / GM:Does anybody wanna try anything while you're floating? You can still spell cast and that kind of stuff if you got anything left.
John / Doran:I'm
Tara / Journey:gonna do a magic missile.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Tara / Journey:I see that the fire breath had an effect, and I think that maybe I can do some damage to you, so I cast Magic missile.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Has the fountain been used up? All the magic is in Ooble?
Tim / GM:No. Not used up. You can still see it through the open doors.
Tara / Journey:Alright. 8.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. That also catches its attention. It's, it looks like it's trying to focus on holding everybody in the air, and then, as if somebody was shooting Nerf darts at it. It just kind of, like, moves its head out of the way of these magic missiles as it's being pelted.
Tara / Journey:As I shoot off the magic missile, I say, bait the curse.
John / Doran:Snack will, pull out his lamp, and he, taps it on his arm rapidly. Mhmm. Genie. Genie. Genie.
John / Doran:Genie, you must come out. What? What's the matter? It's something very important.
Tim / GM:Oh, curse time.
John / Doran:No. Well, yes and no.
Tim / GM:He, pokes his head out a little bit and he says, what's going on? This looks bad.
John / Doran:It is bad. But what was wonderful, Gene, is I, cast fire from my mouth. Did you? It did. Yes.
Tim / GM:You'll be a dragon any day, Snack.
John / Doran:Yes, of course. Also, there is there is a curse. What should I do?
Tim / GM:That that's a big boy snack.
John / Doran:Yes. Tibio told me to beat the curse.
Tim / GM:Right. Well, I I don't know if I can eat that. It looks awfully spiky.
John / Doran:Genie, I am nearly a dragon. I may not need you at all in this battle. What I need from you is, what should I do?
Tim / GM:I mean, if you can, injure it, I might be able to eat it. Wonderful. Snack, are you sure about this?
John / Doran:I love injuring things, Jenny. Do not worry.
Tim / GM:Good luck. Let me know if you need my help.
John / Doran:Yes, of course.
Tim / GM:He, pops back into the lamp.
John / Doran:Uly.
Speaker 6:What's step 2? I think you
John / Doran:can do this. You have to find its source. Uh-huh. I think we just saw its source go into the water.
Speaker 6:Margo, have we removed the gas from its source?
Tim / GM:She says, he wasn't the source. He was he was just a vessel being used. She points inward towards the fountain.
Speaker 6:Oh. Shit. Oh.
John / Doran:Oh. We gotta destroy that thing? That's gonna get us into some trouble. Snack is looking around, frantically. What?
John / Doran:Am I supposed to hurt the fountain? Is that what I must do?
Speaker 6:Yes, Snack. Go destroy the fountain.
John / Doran:Yes, of course. And Snack, being free, flies over to the fountain.
Tim / GM:Okay. When you get close to the fountain, you can see a sort of reflection of yourself start to form in its waters. And, Genie, like, pokes his head out again and he's wearing a bib and he's like, oh, back for seconds.
John / Doran:No. This isn't for you, Genie. I must destroy the water. Humph.
Tim / GM:And he goes back in the plane.
John / Doran:Is it just like a pool of liquid? There's nothing discerning?
Tim / GM:And so it's a little strange. The water here is always just this floating glob, in midair. The fountain is just a sort of circle of stone
John / Doran:on the ground. Snacks, eyes dart between the stones and the water, and, back and forth back and forth. And, and I shoot, 2 eldritch blasts at the water orb thing. 18 to hit. That hits.
John / Doran:2nd attack. 22 to hit. Also hits.
Tim / GM:19 damage. So these bolts, sink into the waters and, kind of one chasing the other, and they they sort of stop when they get into the middle of this glob and then all of a sudden the glob changes colors to a deep purple and then it lets up these 2 deafening radial blasts, one after the other. And, you can see the stones all around the room in a fine straight line. You seem to have cleaved the entire room, in in 2 different places. And you guys can see this, energy and rocks just like flying out the doorway as snack you're narrowly missed by your own destruction here.
John / Doran:Awesome. Snack circles around flying.
Tim / GM:The, the curse. It looks down towards the water and, you see it begin to lower a hand and then raise it with these long fingers outstretched towards the sky. The water is freezing over and reaching up as giant thin spikes, sometimes 10, 20 feet long. Yeah. This will trick.
Hannah / Eryn:Gross. Can we see the source of the water, like, within the fountain? Like, is it
Tim / GM:Yeah. It it's like it doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere. There's no, like, wellspring here or no, like, pump or valve or anything.
Hannah / Eryn:What if we drink it? The fountain? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Can't.
Tara / Journey:I don't think that's an option.
Speaker 2:That's no no juice for me.
Hannah / Eryn:Have you even tried feeling thirsty?
Speaker 2:So the the fountain's still not destroyed?
Tim / GM:No. Snack
Speaker 2:it out of there.
John / Doran:No. This is too much fun. You come here. What?
Speaker 2:No. What I'm going to do might hurt you if you don't leave.
John / Doran:And I'd fly away a little bit.
Speaker 2:And then I cast fireball.
Tim / GM:Uli casts fireball. This tiny glowing bead, flies across the area of the outer deck and in through the white doors and into the glob of water, which turns, bright orange like molten glass. And then it starts to expand and expand and then burst outward. You hear the crumbling of stone, and everyone outside can see the top twelve floors of the tower of magic start to lean to one side and, plummet into the lake. The glob is still there.
Tara / Journey:For fuck's sake.
John / Doran:Uh-oh. So I just killed
Speaker 2:a 1000000 people. It didn't do anything, and I am closer to death. How dead am I now?
Tim / GM:So this would be 2 thirds. 2 thirds mark. Yep.
John / Doran:Snack is enthused and will just simply deal more damage to the the orb. Okay. Wow. I will try harder. And, yeah.
John / Doran:I'll just do more eldritch blasts. 19, 16. Both hits? Yes. Okay.
John / Doran:16 damage.
Tim / GM:Okay. You see those same, those straight line cleaves coming out from this thing? As these waves of dark purple energy come off the the water, one of them, slaps the curse, kind of right across the chest, and you all feel your cells start to plummet.
Tara / Journey:So we're all above where we were standing before.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You should be pretty much fine.
John / Doran:If you'll allow it, I'd like to do an arcana check to see if I know anything about how to destroy that fountain.
Tim / GM:Okay. Go ahead. 11? You have seen this thing diminish before, and it was not from violent force.
John / Doran:So Genie absorbed a lot of the magic. Mhmm. And it did go away, so we do need to just drink it.
Speaker 2:Maybe Genie.
John / Doran:Snack. Snack. What part? I think only Genie can get rid of that thing. It's our best shot anyway.
John / Doran:I pull out the lamp again Okay. And tap it on the fountain itself. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Tim / GM:He he, comes out and he says, oh, do I get to drink after all?
John / Doran:Yeah. Bert and I discussed and, I think it's a good idea for you to drink it. Yes.
Tim / GM:Very good. Are are we not concerned about this? And he points at the curse.
John / Doran:Oh, yes. I forgot about that. I think, Veronica and Bingo have it.
Tim / GM:Okay. He, turns towards the water and, begins to kind of hold his arms out to either side again, and he begins, inhaling. And, as this power is, pouring into him, you see the curse start to float towards Genie's turned back. Genie? Genie?
Tim / GM:No. Snack.
John / Doran:This is I'd like to shoot a guiding bolt at the curse. Okay. Hey. 23. Yeah.
John / Doran:Hits him. Fourteen damage.
Tim / GM:What type of damage is guiding bolt? Radiant. You said 14?
John / Doran:Yep. K. Oh, what if radiant's good?
Tim / GM:This, guiding bolt, tears a small hole through the curse as it looks up at Bert and it just hisses again, and then it changes course.
John / Doran:I point at Uli.
Tim / GM:It's, it looks up at you, Bert, and it starts to go
Speaker 2:I float in front of him.
Tara / Journey:I cast ray of frost.
John / Doran:Great news. You have an advantage on that.
Speaker 2:That's really good that I had advantage.
Tara / Journey:It's over 20 to hit.
Tim / GM:That ought to do it.
Tara / Journey:On a hit, it takes 1 d 8 cold damage and its speed is reduced by 10 feet. Just kidding. I'm over level 5. It's 2. Nice.
Tara / Journey:15.
Tim / GM:Nice. Yeah. It, turns to you, Tibia after getting hit, and now it's even slower. And, it's like trying to, like, float towards you. This thing just keeps getting its attention pulled in every different direction and can't choose who to eat first.
John / Doran:I am so confused too. 1st I attack curse, then orb, then we drink orb. What are we doing?
Speaker 6:We're trying everything. I put a
Tara / Journey:hand out to prevent Uli from doing anything.
Tim / GM:I think in that moment, you hear a voice shouting from far away. And it just says, drop attack. And, Dave comes falling off
John / Doran:the bridge,
Tim / GM:holding his giant cleaver over his head.
Speaker 6:He was up there the whole time.
Tim / GM:And he, swings down at this thing, and he misses by a country mile, but you see this, tight arc of wind and electricity continue to fly towards the curse. So it, again, isn't, you know, devastating, but it catches the curse's attention. And once again, turns away from Tibio now and is, chasing down towards Dave.
John / Doran:Alright, Dave. Yeah, Dave. Dave. Didn't forget about him.
Speaker 2:Totally did not.
Tara / Journey:We never forget about our n pcs.
John / Doran:We love them all equally.
Tim / GM:We're in the the final push of this curse now. Upset that it had lost its grip on all of you, it, chooses to instead go for the largest target, which for it is Genie. Oh, no. It's a snack you you see it kind of standing it's standing next to Genie right behind him. You're in between, but it doesn't even regard you.
John / Doran:How close is Holly to me?
Tim / GM:She's probably one of the farther ones. She's still out on that bridge, which is outside
Hannah / Eryn:No. No. Not that.
John / Doran:Tossing the bag, please. No. No time for debate.
Hannah / Eryn:I feel like this is a bad plan. Holly says no.
John / Doran:That's gonna kill me, probably.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm not giving you this again. Remember last time we created ripped up hole in space time? We almost killed everybody. Sorry.
Tara / Journey:That was John girling at Hannah.
John / Doran:No. I'm just kidding.
Tim / GM:The the curse floats up behind Genie, barely paying you any attention, and grabs him by the shoulder. He spins Genie around and Genie just says, hey, sweet look. And the curse reels back and, punches Genie in the face. And Genie kind of goes sailing across the room, and then it begins to, like, chase him down again. Rude.
Tim / GM:Woah.
Hannah / Eryn:Hey. That's our Genie.
Tim / GM:And and snack Genie is not getting back up right away as the curse is moving towards him on the ground.
John / Doran:Okay. Snack flies at the curse and tries to, like, hug him but hugs air, you know, and kind of flies through. I picture Snack, like, does a a flip at like, with the momentum. Yeah. And then as he's coming up from upside down, he shoots 2 more eldritch, blasts as best as he can.
John / Doran:24 to hit? Yep. 11 to hit?
Tim / GM:No. Okay. 17? You've got its attention once again. It, turns from Janie, back towards you.
Tim / GM:In that moment, Margo calls out, Uli, you have to drink it.
Speaker 2:I have to drink it?
Tim / GM:You have to close it.
Speaker 2:If you're sure, I guess I'll go I'll float over there and drink the fountain that's killing me.
Tara / Journey:I follow with the intention of shielding Uli from any attack.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly, once she drops to the ground from the curse, she, starts to book it into the room and jumps across the bridge. I'm just imagining it like a little gap between is that like fully connected because it's just like off kilter, for all the explosions. So she jumps over and she runs up to snack. And this is up to Tim. I was thinking about this, so up to Tim if he's gonna let me do it or not.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly opens her pack of privacy, and pulls out, a gold bracer made of dragon scale. And she yells at snack. She's like, I'm not giving you my pack, but I made this for you. And she gives it to Snack. I knew the dragon scale armor wouldn't fit anymore, but I hope this would.
John / Doran:Snack grabs it, spins around, in circles, and, yes.
Tara / Journey:Magical girl style.
John / Doran:And then, he he does like a like a spin flip thing, and, when he, comes back upright, he is wearing the bracer. Nice. And it it glints in the sunlight. You did? Yeah.
John / Doran:Thank you, Holly.
Tim / GM:The curse looks down at you. Large as you are, snack, you're not even close to the size of this curse.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna drink it. Okay. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Uli turns her attention towards the fountain.
John / Doran:Chuck. Chuck.
Speaker 6:Chuck. Chuck.
John / Doran:And, Fountain stand. Kind of a
Tim / GM:as as soon as you desire it to be so, the water starts to reach out towards you again and just starts barreling into your, into your collar.
Speaker 2:Collar?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Just it's like just hitting you on your body and kind of absorbing yourself.
Speaker 2:Wearing a collar.
Tim / GM:Snack, this, curse looks down at you and, winds up the same way that it just did when it knocked out Genie. And it, throws a punch down towards you.
John / Doran:Snack, crouches down and holds up his bracer right in front of the punch and braces himself. Oh. Yeah. Bracer. That's what it is.
Tim / GM:You hear this this shriek like a banshee, which actually exists in this world, banshees. But this thing shrieks as it impacts that bracer, and it starts like waving its hand around like it just broke a finger during a punch and it like shies away from you, Snack. And it gives you another shriek and a hiss. What's
John / Doran:wrong, little puny curse? We're embraced for that, were you?
Tim / GM:It like holds up a hand as if to shield itself from you, Snack.
John / Doran:Yes. Snack holds up his hand, gathering his own energy, and, in homage to Uli, like, punches forth with his bracer arm and tries to shoot eldritch blast again. Okay. Pew, pew, pew. Meanwhile, 25.
Tim / GM:Yeah. 14. So, Snack, your, your eyes just go wide as your normally violet and orange eldritch bolt, is now, a sort of bright blue with a golden halo around it that's sort of sparkling.
John / Doran:Oh, no. He's a Orion. Warlock.
Tim / GM:Just like just like, Guiding Bolt, just like the moss balls back in the cave, it tears a hole in the curse. Awesome. And it sort of like shrieks and backs away from you again.
John / Doran:Holy crap, snack. I missed a snack now.
Tim / GM:You hear from Hainu.
John / Doran:Snack. Don't. It'll kill you. Who threatens me? And I turn around quickly.
Tim / GM:Ginny just kinda like drops his head back onto the stone.
John / Doran:Genie, I'm protecting you. As you once protected me, I must protect you.
Tim / GM:You can see him kind of like losing consciousness a little bit.
John / Doran:Bert. Bert. Bert. Virginia's dying. We must not let this happen.
John / Doran:I think we just need to beat it back until Uli can take care of this. I'm gonna drop a Sacred Flame on it. Okay?
Hannah / Eryn:Do you have, like, the, genie lamp on your person?
John / Doran:Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly's just gonna run up to snack and be like, snack, give me the lamp. Hurry.
John / Doran:I fumble with it and hand it over to Holly.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly, like, opens it up by the genie to try to just
Speaker 2:get
Hannah / Eryn:her know her.
John / Doran:I was just gonna jump like this next puts this back.
Hannah / Eryn:She opens it up near Genie so he can get sucked back inside the lamp for protection.
Tim / GM:Genie kind of, like, limply tosses a hand up, and it gets, like, stuck in the lamp like a vacuum. Like, and it just gets sucked into it. And this is
Hannah / Eryn:and then Holly almost puts it in her pack out of instinct, and then she's like, no.
Tim / GM:Snack, you're like putting distance between, like, the fountain and this thing, this curse, by by, attacking it with your new, radiant eldritch magic.
John / Doran:I'm gonna be on the opposite side shooting radiant magic.
Tim / GM:Okay. Go ahead with your sacred flame.
John / Doran:That's a dex save
Tim / GM:Oh, okay. For them. That is a 13.
John / Doran:That is not good enough. Alright. Double ones.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, no.
John / Doran:Oh, no. So that's a 2 radiant damage.
Tara / Journey:Hey. At least it's radiant.
Tim / GM:It, it, like, shies down like it's about to die, and then it goes off like, and then he, like, looks up like, oh, that wasn't that bad kind of thing.
Tara / Journey:I'm going to keep casting ray of frost because I'm scared to cast Yeah. Chill touch because that's necrotic damage, and I think it'll feed it. 13.
Tim / GM:That hits. It says 13, folks.
John / Doran:I'm glad the party and all of our, enemies all agreed not to wear armor. Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. 11 cold damage, and its speed is reduced by 10 feet again. Okay.
John / Doran:Uli.
Tim / GM:You,
Hannah / Eryn:Nope. Nope. Nope.
Tim / GM:You are becoming overwhelmed. You are no longer at risk of dying from, burning out or whatever was going to happen. You're now at risk of it feels like you're going to explode.
Speaker 2:K. Can I use magic while I'm drinking magic?
Tim / GM:You can. Be careful. Great.
Tara / Journey:What if you only cast nice spells?
Hannah / Eryn:Like friends. I'm gonna start
John / Doran:Double friends. Best friends.
Speaker 2:Flicker on and off. In large reduce.
John / Doran:I'm worried. That's very low,
Speaker 6:but I got it. Myself.
Tim / GM:You guys see Uli, like, grow kind of, like, huge and then slowly shrink back down. And then all
John / Doran:of a
Tim / GM:sudden you start to hear this, like, jackhammer thumping as she's just like flickering on and off, like her size is just rapidly changing. You can see like like, again, not for the first time in this campaign, her clothes are like randomly tearing in places.
John / Doran:And, everyone Uli's evolving. You need to act now if you want to prevent this evolution.
Hannah / Eryn:Done. Done. Done. Done. Press B.
Tim / GM:Which grabs the attention of the curse in a big way. It sees that this fountain, its its, supply is shrinking down to almost nothing. And it starts to make its way towards the fountain.
John / Doran:Uly, that's a cool trick. The last step is give it everything you got. But also, we're here in this room with you.
Tim / GM:Yeah. This is the last chance any of you will have to act.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly shits her pants. I'm just like
Speaker 2:It's a great last chance.
Speaker 6:Holly, as soon as Uli is done consuming the magic, the the curse will be depowered, and then we will be in danger. Anything we do in here will just not help.
Hannah / Eryn:But then we gotta give it everything we got.
Speaker 6:It's up to Uli. It's not us.
Hannah / Eryn:Uli, do you need us to help you?
Speaker 2:I think I think I've got this.
Tara / Journey:I'm gonna cast mage armor on Uli and then run.
Speaker 2:In one of my flickers, I'm gonna cast protection from energy on fire.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Speaker 2:Just gonna protect myself a little bit.
John / Doran:I'd like to pop another sacred flame and then head out the door.
Tim / GM:Okay. Nat 20. Oh.
John / Doran:Snack, flies up into the air and does a fly by a dragon's breath.
Tim / GM:Okay.
John / Doran:Yeah. He's, like, seen it before. Yeah. Tries it on the curse. Okay.
John / Doran:And then we'll kind of, like, move out of, range at that point. Spell hog. Deck save. I don't know why I rolled.
Tim / GM:15 this time.
John / Doran:Same thing. Alright. Half damage. 7 damage.
Tim / GM:The, curse makes its final push towards Uli as she, is diminishing this glob of water, which is now roughly the size of a watermelon.
John / Doran:Wait. I do wanna do something. I wanna pull out my book. Write a letter to Norp.
Tim / GM:Oh, okay. Yeah. NARP was the professor who showed you what the icy protocol security measure does in the tower of knowledge.
John / Doran:Mhmm. It was that tower of knowledge, not tower of magic?
Tim / GM:Yeah.
John / Doran:Oh, well, okay. Dear Norp, it's Bert. You gotta get everyone out of the tower of magic. You probably already noticed how it half collapsed. Okay.
John / Doran:Bye.
Tim / GM:The, curse charges towards Uli, towards this watermelon sized glob of water hovering in the air. Uli, it comes straight for you and passes through you and reaches for the glob.
Speaker 2:No.
Tim / GM:And you see it being sucked in, swirl around for a moment, and disappear.
Speaker 2:In a good way?
Tim / GM:The the sort of cold intensity of this thing's presence is completely gone. It's just quiet up here and windy being that the top half of the tower got blown off.
Speaker 2:Did I do it?
Tim / GM:Make a wild magic surge.
Tara / Journey:Oh, yay.
John / Doran:Bert's holding his ears like
Speaker 2:Like when you light a firework and it doesn't go off.
John / Doran:Yes. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:That's exactly it.
Speaker 2:I cast mirror image.
Tim / GM:You cast mirror image, and, immediately, this whole mezzanine is filled with, you know, a 150 copies of Uli, and they all disappear in an instant. And then you're just looking at one perfect copy of you that just seems a little bit shiny, as if it's made of water, and it's looking at you in the eyes with a kind of, a kind of wisdom that you don't have yet.
Speaker 2:I reach out slowly.
Tim / GM:It, mirrors your action with the opposite hand, so it's just kind of reaching out.
Speaker 2:I poke.
Tim / GM:It gives you a poke. It stops mirroring you. It produces a small flame in its hand and it begins to manipulate it with a lot of grace and dexterity. You see it create yet another effigy of Uli, almost like a little hologram of flame And then it turns the flame back into a little ball and bounces it to its other hand. And then it just like opens its hands and creates a chess board of little tiny flames.
Tim / GM:What you see this thing demonstrating is an extraordinary level of control over its magic. And it turns the flame back into a small sphere and holds it out towards you.
Speaker 2:I reach out and take it.
Tim / GM:Hovering over your hands now is this tiny spherical flame. And you see it just gently pulsing with the beat of your heart. That pulsing starts to get a little erratic as you don't know what to do with this. The mirror image standing in front of you looks almost expectantly at you and it's making you nervous.
Speaker 2:I try and mimic what it was doing.
Tim / GM:You attempt to do the same thing that it was doing, but it's sloppy. The little flame begins to pulsate larger and larger, and every time it does, it scares you more and more.
Speaker 2:Am I feeling panicky?
Tim / GM:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay. Fumbling for my tankard.
Tim / GM:You like feel it on your belt. Yes. You're you grab your tankard.
Speaker 2:I pop it open.
Tim / GM:Okay. The mirror image reaches out and, like, stays your hand with the tankard.
Speaker 2:Don't use it.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So I think you you kind of panic. Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Tim / GM:The flame goes out of control. And when you feel like you just need one more chance to get it all together, that you can do this if you just got one more chance, it erupts and it overtakes the tower, and the water, and the mirror image. Everyone who's kind of away from the tower, sees it explode with stones being flung in every direction. You all have to kind of shield yourselves. A lot of you aren't that far off away from this.
Tim / GM:Some of you are flung off of the tower onto the ice below.
John / Doran:Snacks flying around, assessing the wreckage. Shielding my eyes against all the smoke and dust and debris in the air.
Tim / GM:Snack, the last thing you saw was the tower exploding and a lot of your friends being knocked in different directions. You're afraid that some of them got knocked down to the ice below. You don't see Uli at all. In fact, it's not till 3 days later that Uli wakes up. You, you awaken in a comfortable bed, in a stonewalled room with some morning sunlight pouring through a window.
Tim / GM:The first thing your eyes focus onto is the back of a newspaper. The headline reads, Judge Tonberry goes down in flames. The newspaper gets pulled away, and it's Bert sitting at the end of your bed.
John / Doran:What do you think? We did it.
Speaker 2:That's great, Bert. What? Where are we?
John / Doran:I'll tell you where we are.
Tim / GM:So a lot of you got very hurt by what happened. Thankfully, few permanent injuries among you.
Tara / Journey:This is the Frodo at Rivendell scene?
Tim / GM:Yes. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Sam.
Tim / GM:Yeah. An old an old man walks in and goes, sorry. Wrong room.
John / Doran:How many of us have an eye patch now?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah. All of us.
John / Doran:Can we be wearing eye patches?
Speaker 2:Oh, the eye patch. Movie. Oh my god.
John / Doran:Where are we, by the way?
Tim / GM:So you're you're in the, infirmary here, the the sort of hospital, in the tower of knowledge. Margo, looking 30 years older than she was, approaches you, Uli, and says, you're in the infirmary. You saved Tildry, Uli.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Me? Just just by myself. That sounds like something I would do.
Tim / GM:All of you. You saved Tildrey.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That that's what I mean.
Tim / GM:She says, she's awake. And, you see, the rest of your party, not too far away, walk back into the room. Holly also looking about 6 years older than she was.
Hannah / Eryn:I thought you were gonna say 16? I was like, no.
Tim / GM:Holly's an old lady now.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Were you to begin with?
Hannah / Eryn:I was 30. I don't know. I wrote it down somewhere.
Tara / Journey:Holly has a really cool white streak in the front of her hair.
Hannah / Eryn:Hell, yeah. Oh, shit. I was 32, and so now I'm 38. And, yeah, I would say she got some definite gray hair going.
Tim / GM:Yep.
Hannah / Eryn:She's got pink hair, so maybe it just, yeah. Just like Stacy from What Not to Wear.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Stacy is exactly what I was picturing.
Hannah / Eryn:Stacy London. She just got the Yeah. White streak with the pink hair stuff. So cool. Ugh.
Hannah / Eryn:Her pink hair is natural. Thanks for asking.
Tim / GM:Margo says, we had no idea what you were up against. We lost the fountain in the struggle, but we would have lost the city if it weren't for all of you. I can't believe I didn't recognize it was a curse holding Tonberry until it was too late. It had taken him over so thoroughly, he showed none of the usual signs of struggle. It's over now.
Tim / GM:Veronica is gone, and I'll always feel her loss, but we also need to keep moving. I don't think this is over, even though I just said it's over now.
Tara / Journey:Holly,
Hannah / Eryn:Holly's gonna reach out to Hannah, just kinda pat Margo on the shoulder with condolences and, yeah, as she's talking.
Tim / GM:It's clear to me now that these curses, they use things like the fountain as gates. There's more for you to know. I'm sorry to be so abrupt about this, Uli, but now that you're awake, we need to put things in motion. I need you all to meet me in the tower of knowledge this evening.
John / Doran:Aren't we there right now?
Tim / GM:Well, yeah. But also be here this evening. Oh, sure. Okay. Carry on.
Speaker 2:Is Dave there? Yeah. Where's Dave?
Tim / GM:Yeah. We'll say it.
Tara / Journey:Can we get, like, a rundown of what happened to all of our NPC friends while we were out for 3 days?
Tim / GM:Sure.
Tara / Journey:Those partial jokes.
Tim / GM:So, Bert, you, you read in this paper, what happened from everyone else's perspective. There was a riot outside of the courthouse, in the wake of this case. Oops. As soon as Tonberry, plead his hand and just kind of essentially confessed to the city that their entire system was corrupt by taking these actions, the people outside, began to revolt. At the same time, part of the tower of magic was destroyed, in some altercation that, nobody saw close enough to really know what happened there, only that Tonberry is dead.
Tim / GM:There was an out of towner who was there who died as well. The, people from, Lamplight Uly, come to wish you well, and, see that you're, you know, alive and woken up now. Bella Beaumont had received correspondence while in Lamplight that, Bert was going to go on trial. Being that Bella is tuned into the city of Tilderie, she rounded up all of your friends there and brought them to Tilderie, to testify on your behalf. That includes Todd Poll and
Hannah / Eryn:Go, David. Go.
Tim / GM:And Veronica and everyone else. Dave is the first to show up. Just a little scuffed up from his, long fall off the bridge onto the tower and then blasted away by the flames. But he's, alive.
Hannah / Eryn:Singed.
Tim / GM:Singed.
John / Doran:Is Malboro still missing?
Tim / GM:Yes. He's still missing. Flann is under house arrest. She's not allowed to leave where she is. Margo Bingo took her into captivity at the beginning of that fight and had her in a nesting doll.
Hannah / Eryn:That's right.
John / Doran:Yes. That's right.
Tim / GM:And, got Henry and some of his, good lawmages to, help out with detaining her in the meantime, while the, the whole court system is under investigation, by essentially a rebel group at this point.
Tara / Journey:Sorry. Investigation.
Tim / GM:Under investigation.
Hannah / Eryn:Are we gonna have a is there a service plan for Veronica?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, Margo is probably, keen to do that as well.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Are you done with your
Speaker 6:recap? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Where's Ilya?
Tim / GM:Oh, that's right. Sorry. I wanted to cover, Ilya and Ulrich. Okay. So, they show up, not first, but eventually, to speak with you.
Tim / GM:And, Ilya is sort of speechless when she walks into the room.
Speaker 2:Hey.
Tim / GM:Hey. Listen, I'm I'm sorry. Yeah? Yeah. I'm I'm sorry I flipped out.
Tim / GM:I'm sorry I walked away. I just I did need to clear my head and and you are kind of an ass sometimes.
Speaker 2:So are you.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Tideo smacks Uli on the arm.
Speaker 6:Wow. Be nice.
Tara / Journey:But He does not say that.
Tim / GM:I think the case went well. Right? All things considered?
Speaker 2:Yeah. We won. Yeah. Thank thanks for showing up.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Sorry. I, sorry I bailed on you to begin with. Yeah. Anyway, or, Ulrich is here
John / Doran:too. Alright. Say, Ilya. Mhmm. You have something of mine?
Tim / GM:Did you use it? Oh, no. I figured out what it was and who gave
John / Doran:you this? I found it and I want it back.
Tim / GM:Alright. Have a nice life.
Speaker 2:What is it?
Tim / GM:She hands back the wand of disintegration.
Speaker 2:Oh, right.
John / Doran:The only thing I think of was the rock that's now at the bottom of the lake.
Speaker 6:Oh, yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I mean, it's it's still down there.
John / Doran:For the last 3 days, Snack has been going around with this dozing rod, swimming around trying to find out. Yeah. Yeah. Cute ass fish. I can locate your hawk rock.
John / Doran:You should have told me that 3 days ago, Bert. You just come back and you're like, completely soaked. I point the wand quickly a couple times in the hospital, and it seems like the right one, and I put it back.
Tim / GM:Yeah. There's like a
Hannah / Eryn:I'm sweating a little bit.
Tim / GM:There's like a nurse walking by kind of like eyeing you. Like, what does he have?
John / Doran:You have nothing to worry about if you don't start anything.
Speaker 2:What do you have?
Speaker 6:A knife. No.
Hannah / Eryn:No. That's good podcast.
Tim / GM:Ulrich, Ulrich looks at you and says, Willie, I'm glad you're feeling better. Listen, there's there's no better time to strike. The whole city is shifted in our favor right now. If we rise up
Speaker 2:Where have you been the last 3 days?
Tim / GM:That's what I'm saying. It's in a state of unrest that nobody trusts the courts, nobody trusts the inner city. This is the perfect time for the people to rise up. The farmers, the real people.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Hey. I'm kinda done overthrowing governments right now.
Hannah / Eryn:Ulrich, what are you gonna overthrow? There there is no government left or barely scraps of 1. I mean, it's just take it over. Just start doing it. There's nothing to overthrow.
Tim / GM:What what happened to the plan? We were gonna take Flynn and and and right?
Speaker 6:It's it's over. We already took Flynn.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. You're good. Just start governing.
Tim / GM:No. But we were gonna crack some skulls and really show them what's what.
Speaker 6:Yes. That happened. The whole tower cracked.
John / Doran:Sorry, pal. You're gonna have to stick to breaking metaphorical skulls, Skulls of bureaucracy.
Tim / GM:He kinda looks deflated, he says. This isn't what I signed up for.
John / Doran:Figuring out what to do after, that's the hard part, pal.
Tim / GM:Wait. So you're saying I've gotta lead and help people?
Speaker 6:If you do not want to lead, Elric, you must find someone who will. There is a power vacuum right now.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's a good time to start a council of the people?
Hannah / Eryn:Or have an election?
Speaker 2:I think having many voices to make decisions for the people.
Tim / GM:You see a little bit of the the fire fade out of him, but at the same time, you see a sort of, sense of duty set into him. And he says, yeah. I think you're right. We gotta rebuild. I may just be a small dragon,
John / Doran:but what I have seen, you have done this already. You have organized many, many people, all oriented towards violence and and destruction. That you have this gift. You you organized already. You've done the hard part before.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Maybe I can organize people to create new zoning laws, you know? Yeah.
John / Doran:Is that what we were seeing? Yeah.
Tim / GM:Alright. Good. Thanks, everybody.
Speaker 2:You already have tons of experience wrangling all of us kids.
Tim / GM:That I do. Well, I wish you a good recovery. And he, like, slaps you, like, way too hard on the shoulder. Oh, thanks. And, hey, Maybe you'll be around for the reunion this year.
Speaker 2:Sure. I'll think about it.
Tim / GM:Oh, well, I'll see you.
Speaker 6:A reunion? Like a family reunion?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Oh, we must go.
Speaker 2:All all of the nesses. It's a lot of socializing. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Maybe. On that note, does anybody have anything else before this evening?
Hannah / Eryn:Holly would just like to get with Margo about planning a service for Veronica.
Tim / GM:Yeah. She she agrees that, that Veronica is is due a service. She makes a note that, all of her friends from Lamplight are are here in Tildren now, and so sooner rather than later, might be best. She suggests doing it, even tomorrow.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Tim / GM:But tonight there are other matters at hand. She asks you all to meet her in the basement of the Tower of Knowledge. Bert, this place is nothing special. I mean, you know, sometimes young knowledge students will come here to make out and get away from the prying
John / Doran:eyes of professors. There's some vending machines.
Tim / GM:Yeah. But, nothing really to write home about. Margo is with Ben when she meets with the 5 of you. They lead you from the tower of knowledge into the basement and they stop over a decorative, circular seal in the floor. And, they look up at all of you and say, this is a bit of a secret that I suppose you're all a part of now, if that's okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. What is it? I love secrets.
John / Doran:Absolutely.
Speaker 6:Are you going to teach us about curse breaking?
Tim / GM:Ben Blank looks up and says, you better believe it.
John / Doran:Are the tattoos mandatory?
Tim / GM:Mario says, yes. And they all, like, push down at the same time. And you see that seal in the floor sink down just an inch, and then it starts to slowly spin. And as it does, it turns into a spiral staircase as parts of it sort of descend away.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, cool. Wow. Burt,
Tim / GM:you have lived your life in the tower of knowledge. You have seen every nook and cranny and every door. You had no idea this was here.
John / Doran:I don't believe it. This was here the whole time?
Tim / GM:You can smell like musty damp air come up from down there and you can feel this like cold wind. They lead you down the spiral staircase. You can see just a few candles burning here. Based on how far down you've gone since you've entered the tower of knowledge, you can tell that you're not far above the water. In fact, there are places where you can look through little grates in the floor here and see, the tumultuous surface of the lake below you.
Tim / GM:You also see a couple flickering candles, placed next to a portrait of Veronica. Margo says, first of all, I believe you should all be, rewarded as best we can with things that will, you know, help your journey, not just money. To be frank, we don't have any money to reward you with. Holly, we recovered this material from the wreckage of the tower of magic. Some, scraps of cloth there were imbued with whatever was in that fountain.
Tim / GM:She, hands you a tiny spool of thread. She says, it seems to respond to the will of the crafter.
Hannah / Eryn:Is it safe to use?
Tim / GM:It's stable. We haven't had anything go wrong with it yet.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, thank you for thinking of me.
Tim / GM:Tibio. Yes. I believe Veronica would want you to have this. And, she gives you Veronica's robe. And, wrapped inside it is a long bone.
Tim / GM:It's Veronica's radius, part of her armor.
Speaker 6:Cool.
Tara / Journey:I hold it up. I I put the robe on, and then I hold up the bone, and I walk away. I I, like, distractedly start walking away and
Speaker 6:go, oh, thank you, Marco. Thank you so much.
Tara / Journey:And then I I walk away and look at this bone.
Tim / GM:Snack. Mhmm. This is something that we usually give to those who, spend a great many years in service to the city. This is something for heroes. And she, unfurls a, a tappard, that displays the sigil of Tildry.
Tim / GM:It's, 3 overlapping triangles.
John / Doran:So Snack, accepts this, piece of cloth and starts putting his arm in through it and is looking around nervously. Thank you.
Tim / GM:She gives you a smile and she says, anyone in Tildry who sees you wearing that would give you the utmost respect. I promise you.
Hannah / Eryn:Holly, helped pull it off of him and straighten it and put it on his head the right way.
John / Doran:That means you're a knight of tilting out, mister Snake. This is good. I can use this. Well, thank you.
Tim / GM:Something else I thought you might appreciate, Snack. We managed to recover this from the courtroom, And, she hands you Tonberry's gavel. She says, be careful with this. It's exceptionally powerful. And you have to promise me that you're not going to summon anyone who doesn't know they're going to be summoned.
Tim / GM:Okay? That's not okay to do. How
John / Doran:Of course, I would, definitely never do that. Bert's hand is just buried. Head is buried in his hand.
Tara / Journey:Why does Nat keep getting the weirdest, wackest, most dangerous shit?
Speaker 2:Can I go get a stamp?
Tara / Journey:Mhmm. Oh, it's on your allies. That's pretty dope, actually.
Tim / GM:And, Bert, I've got this one for you over here, bud.
John / Doran:Lay it on me Ben.
Tim / GM:This here's my baby. And he turns around. No. And he's got No. An actual link.
Tim / GM:He's got a a long silver case and he snaps it open and there's a, gleaming silver quill in there. And he says, this is the silver light quill. I've only ever made one.
John / Doran:I can't take it. This is your best work?
Tim / GM:You have to because it's you now, Bert. There's gotta be someone else on the inside here. Okay? I think you all know why you're down here. Right?
Hannah / Eryn:We're gonna become curse breakers.
Tim / GM:You have the choice. Yes. But, Bert, you can't you can't do this. You're not connected to the Weave, not like they are. That's too bad because I
John / Doran:totally would've gotten a tattoo. But, yeah, I mean Can Bert still get the tattoo then? He just doesn't get the hour.
Tim / GM:I mean, we can we'll just yeah.
Speaker 6:Well, I mean,
John / Doran:we'll we'll do you first and then see if there's any leftover.
Speaker 2:Okay. But Bert's becoming the tattoo apprentice?
John / Doran:Yeah. I I that's okay. I can make the tattoos, and someone's gotta write their story too.
Tim / GM:You'll need these as well. And, he shows you 3 little bottles of ink that he's got for you.
Tara / Journey:Cool.
Tim / GM:Before we continue here, I'll just kinda go over the nitty gritty. Holly, so, this is a really flexible reagent.
Hannah / Eryn:So wait, everyone else just gets their thing done and I have to make my own magic items. I'm just kidding. It's fine. Just teasing.
Tim / GM:The flexibility. Tibio, Veronica's radius.
Tara / Journey:I'm sorry. I'm calling it Ronnie's radius.
Tim / GM:There you go. God. It gives you a, sensitivity to curses and dark magic, which you can pick up through perception checks now, and you can kind of confirm curses at a glance. Cool. The same way that
Speaker 6:she could. Cool.
Tim / GM:Veronica's robe is super comfy.
John / Doran:Next one.
Hannah / Eryn:And cute. I'm fine
Tara / Journey:with that. My trench cloak was getting a little shabby.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So, Veronica had to travel from time to time. This cloak will sustain you without food or drink for up to 7 days, and then it needs to be laundered. Okay.
John / Doran:Snack. And snack. To you, I bestow one of Veronica's other bones.
Tim / GM:Cheers on it. The tabard is a tabard. It'll get you respected in Tildry. The gavel can be used to launch yourself. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:It can be also used to, summon any of your friends to your location as a bonus action.
John / Doran:Yay. If
Speaker 2:they have a tattoo.
Tim / GM:If they have a tattoo.
John / Doran:Oh, do we Oh, I can do tattoos now.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I think we should make it so that it's a new tattoo just associated with the gavel and not the Tildry tattoo that can summon all of Tildry.
John / Doran:I definitely want to be able to summon all of Tildry. Yeah. Any Tildry NPC you want. Yeah. So Easy.
John / Doran:To clarify, can I can I
Speaker 2:summon people?
Tara / Journey:No. Maisie. Maisie.
Tim / GM:It is it is within your ability. It may not be within the law. Alright.
John / Doran:That never Yeah. Mattered. Bert.
Tim / GM:The silver light quill can draw and resorb ink. So if you need to undo a tattoo, you can also do that. He gave you, 3 inks. The ink of Ingress, if you draw a line on the ground with it, nobody but you can pass over that line.
John / Doran:Hey. Great.
Tim / GM:The ink of ether, suppresses magical effects and protects from magic. And the ink of the weave, stores magic in a permanent state of ready to go. That's what the curse breaker tattoos are made of.
John / Doran:Hot and ready tattoo ink.
Hannah / Eryn:Perfectly describes Bert and Thomas.
John / Doran:Oh, man. Hooli. Sorry. I was hungry.
Tim / GM:Upon interfacing with that, GLAB o magic, you, underwent a process I've called assimilation. Upon casting any spell in your vocabulary, you can roll a d20. If your roll is high enough, you are allowed to alter the shape or effect of that spell to a subtle degree.
John / Doran:Cool.
Tara / Journey:Keyword being subtle. Subtle.
Tim / GM:The, the DC for that is equal to 10 plus the spell level.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Tim / GM:On the flip side of that, once per day you can roll a d20. On a 15 or higher you can stop a magic effect that is on you. Ben Blanc, has you all sit in a circle so he can let you in on what they know. It says Okay. To understand curses, you have to understand magic altogether.
Tim / GM:It might sound a little dramatic, but magic is literally all around us, like flowing threads that run between everyone and everything. Most people can't see it or feel it, but some people can. And they can even pull on those threads. People like you. And he points at all of you and does this like handshaky thing when he gets to Bert.
Tim / GM:But, what's at the other end of those threads? Well, as far as we've studied, it's another plane that exists in the same space as ours. That's where the actual energy comes from. These threads vibrate with that energy and we draw on it to, well, do magic. So then what's a curse?
Tim / GM:Well, a curse is when those threads get tangled up or torn. For example, when a wizard gets ambitious and fumbles spell that they aren't prepared for, that could cause the threads to tangle and when the threads tangle it's called a curse. It's simply malfunctioning magic, like a bunch of crossed wires. But when it goes really bad, the threads can tear. And that opens up tiny holes to that other plane I mentioned.
Tim / GM:The plane of magic, if you will. There are things living on the plane of magic and for some reason they really enjoy being here. They latch on to people like parasites and eventually control everything that they do. That's where we come in. 1st, we offer something more appetizing than its host.
Tim / GM:That's our life essence. That gets the curse out in the open. Then, we use a spell of my own design and we destroy the cursed objects that it came from, whatever doorway it had to our world. And finally, we pour every last bit of magical energy that we have into a single stream of energy. Not only does that obliterate the specter, but the force of the spell mends the threads like running a comb through snarled hair.
Tim / GM:Does that make sense? The magic is real? That thing you all saw on the tower, that must have slipped through the fountain of magic at some point. So that's our new mission. Wherever these fountains are, wherever these gates exist, wherever you find cursed items, you have to close them, destroy them, and send the specters back to where they came from.
Tim / GM:They're actively wearing down our numbers. They're hunting us now. You've seen it. Tonberry was infected by a curse, and he came after curse breakers. They're trying to keep their doors open, and we can't let them.
Speaker 6:Are there cursebreakers in other cities that have been in contact with you?
Tim / GM:Yeah. A few. But cursebreakers until now were sort of, I don't know, not a big deal.
Hannah / Eryn:Is there any way to I mean, just aiding in this last curse, it took my life force. Is there any way to how much can we really help if every time we fight a curse we age 10 or more years, you know? I I just don't know how you guys have done it for so long.
Tim / GM:Margo says, I've never faced a curse like that. It was so much more powerful than before. Usually, we would have been able to stomp something like that up before it had a chance.
Speaker 6:If we have many carse breakers working in tandem, does that make the life force strain less severe?
Tim / GM:Absolutely. Ben, run them through the spells. Benjamin blank, takes his shirt off.
Tara / Journey:Tim hands the microphone to himself. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Says this first one, he points to the first big circle, he says, we call that mana flare. It allows magic to run through your body like crazy. That's what happened to Uli. It makes you exist in every plane at the same time. It connects you to magic in a way that you've never felt before, but it also kills you pretty quick.
Tim / GM:Once that's going, you can use, what I call blank's disenchant. That's right. It's my own spell.
Hannah / Eryn:Cool.
Tim / GM:It just suppresses magic in a small area. That's how you close the gate. And the last one, well, sometimes we just call it swinging out. You release everything you have left. Every single bit of magic that resides in you.
Tim / GM:You have to completely empty it. That's the only way to stop yourself from burning up. Margo says, you make yourself vulnerable to curses when you're in that state. Seeing what I've been through and knowing what you know now, who, if any of you, are willing to take this up?
Hannah / Eryn:I will. I've seen what curses can do to families, Maisie and her dad. And I just I know what it feels like to have someone close to you taken away before their time. So I'm all in. And Holly steps towards, Bert and Ben and, like, holds out her arm for the tattoo.
Speaker 2:I have a question. Yeah. Why didn't I age?
John / Doran:Mhmm. Because
Tara / Journey:you were infused by fountain magic. You weren't doing the give the curse all you got. You were consuming. You weren't being consumed, not in the same way.
Hannah / Eryn:Maybe the fountain magic protected you a little bit too?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. You were connected to it in a different way.
John / Doran:Yeah. And, like, this mana flare spell probably, like or or you're encountering that yourself whereas the burst was coming from the fountain
Tim / GM:rather, I guess, would be my guess.
Speaker 2:I'm in.
John / Doran:Snek, moves, behind the spiral staircase and steps into his lamp. Okay.
Tim / GM:You step into your lamp and this space has changed, in accordance with your change and Jeanie's change, becoming larger and more powerful. This space has also become larger and more elegant. The table now is much longer. You can see the tree in the corner, the the sprout that had kind of grown onto the end table, is now, even larger still, with the, satisfied civilians of Tildry having seen their judge dethroned.
John / Doran:I go up to a burlap sack full of cocoa and make a hot cocoa. I just kind of breathe on a little bit and then I go over to the genie's door.
Tim / GM:As you're about to knock on it, it's thrown open by a genie who's wearing a, like plush royal looking robe. And he says, snack. Genie. So good of you to stop by. How can I help?
John / Doran:I I hope you are well. I
Tim / GM:am. You he's, like, got a black eye and he's just kind of, like, smiling at you.
John / Doran:I I kinda glanced into his room a little bit just to take a peek.
Tim / GM:You actually can't see anything into his room. It's just sort of, an ethereal purplish haze.
John / Doran:There is something going on. Oh? My friends, they are all voluntarily joining these curse breakers.
Tim / GM:I see. And, Snack. Curse breakers in general are decent allies.
John / Doran:Are you a cursebreaker, Genie?
Tim / GM:No. I'm a curse eater.
John / Doran:Snack does not know if he likes spicy food.
Tim / GM:I see. Snack, you've come a long way as it is. I mean, look how big you are now. It's okay to be afraid of things like this. It's okay if you don't want to do what they're doing, but that doesn't mean you should turn your back on them either.
Tim / GM:You can still be a part of them and not be a curse breaker.
John / Doran:I want to become a dragon genie, and before it was just whatever young Koval dreams of. Now that I've gotten closer, I am thinking about why. I don't know yet if this slows my progress, so to speak, joining these curse breakers. I may think on this.
Tim / GM:When you were pursuing power for power's sake, how well did we fare? Do you remember those days traveling through the mountains, just you and I? They were lean times. Not much to eat, not much to speak to, not much power, really. But now, look what's happened since we've met them.
Tim / GM:Snack, if your goal is still to become a dragon, I think that's wonderful. But they're the ones that are going to help you get
John / Doran:there. And Eugenie, will you stay? Will we still be allies as well?
Tim / GM:We're always allies. Also, if you drop my lamp, I'm completely fucked.
John / Doran:Thank you. And I come out of the lamp.
Tim / GM:Okay. Everybody is just staring over at the staircase, like, waiting for you to, like, walk back towards them. You okay there, buddy? I come out
John / Doran:and my cocoa slashes all over the floor, and then I just kinda try to scoop it up a little bit and stop and just set the cup down.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. It goes down one of the the floor grates into the lake below.
John / Doran:I don't think I can be a curse breaker yet, but I want to be with you all.
Hannah / Eryn:That's okay, Snack. You don't have to.
Tim / GM:If you change your mind, Bert, I hope you're paying attention tonight.
John / Doran:I sure
Tim / GM:am. Very good. And, Tibio, how about you? You joining up?
Speaker 6:I think that the more curse breakers there are in the world, the more chance that the world will be free of curses.
Tim / GM:Thank you, Tibio. Alright. Hot damn. That's 3 new curse breakers.
Hannah / Eryn:Let's do this.
John / Doran:So is there, like, a secret handshake or something?
Tim / GM:Where do you want it?
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, I get to choose? Holly, like, looks at some different extremities and, like, looks over her shoulder or butt and it shakes her head. And then, she wants to do it on the inside of her left arm
John / Doran:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:On her bicep.
Tim / GM:Bert, you watch as Ben Blanc dips his quill into the ink of the weave and, narrates to you while he's working and he, begins to trace a circle. And then a smaller one and then a smaller one all overlapping slightly, and then a long line going through all three circles. And he says, how about you, Tibio? Where's this going? Not a lot of room to work with.
Tara / Journey:I haven't put it over my heart.
Hannah / Eryn:Cool. Tibio rips off his shirt, he's like.
Tim / GM:Tibio is so chiseled.
John / Doran:What the what the fuck?
Tara / Journey:I'm ripped under there.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yours is pretty small in scale, but effective just as well.
Hannah / Eryn:I have
Tara / Journey:the body of a teenage track star.
Hannah / Eryn:Yep.
John / Doran:Gotta use a fine tip quill for Yeah.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Kinda bust out the the point one millimeter for
Hannah / Eryn:the Wait. Do gnomes have chest hair?
Tim / GM:Not this gnome. Probably not.
Tara / Journey:I don't.
Tim / GM:Alright. You've seen it done a couple times. So here you go. And he, hands the quill to you, Bert. And, points to Uli.
John / Doran:Alright, Uli. Where is it going?
Speaker 2:I am covered in tattoos, so I don't know
John / Doran:Not much room left.
Speaker 2:I think my right front forearm is still open.
Tim / GM:Okay. Alright. Natural one, and I believe leads out. There
John / Doran:we go.
Speaker 6:Oh. 12.
Tim / GM:Plus your proficiency and intelligence.
John / Doran:Oh, great. 17.
Tim / GM:Alright. Not bad. Not perfect. They're not perfect circles, but not bad.
John / Doran:Because it's supposed to go all the way through.
Tim / GM:They finish up and, 3 new curse breakers are born. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Tim, your DM and your genie.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm Hannah playing Holly Hyacinth.
John / Doran:I'm Thomas. I play Engelbert FF Wisherspoon.
Tara / Journey:I'm Tara, and I play Tibio Femur.
John / Doran:I'm John. I play Snack the kobold.
Speaker 2:And I'm Maggie playing Uli.