Triple Click
Hosted by Jason Schreier and Kirk Hamilton
The big finale! Leon, Key, and Bing reckon with a ghost from the past... and some imps in the present.
19,676 words · 6 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
Hello, everyone. Kirk here with the grand finale of Triple Quest, the three-part D and D campaign that Maddie, Jason, and I recorded earlier this year with special guest Dungeon Master, Critical Role's Matthew Mercer. Acts one and two are already in the main feed, and you should definitely listen to those before you listen to this one. They ran at the ends of October and November, respectively, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. We also recorded a Session Zero planning episode where we rolled characters. That one went out alongside Episode One. This would normally be where I would tempt you to become a Maximum Fun member so that you could get early access to the next episode after this one, but this is the finale, so there aren't any more episodes.
I'll still say that if you're able, we hope you'll consider becoming a Maximum Fun member and supporting the network and our show. We don't sell ads on Triple Click. It really is just a listener-supported show, and it's your support that makes it possible for us to do stuff like this. Not just the money that we spent traveling and hiring Matt, but the amount of time that I personally dedicated to editing these episodes, writing music, making all of them just so. It was a pretty huge undertaking. It was really fun, but it was a lot of work, and especially this finale was a lot of work. But, man, I really think that it came together. And I can only spare the time to just put that much work in because of the income that Triple Click generates.
So, maximumfun.org/join. If you're able, throw some support behind indie podcasters messing around and making stuff that they think is fun. All right, that's enough gabbing from me. You all want to know how it all shakes out, how this thing ends, so let's get right into it with the grand finale of Triple Quest.
I'm Maddy Myers.
I'm Jason Schreier.
I'm Kirk Hamilton.
And I'm Matthew Mercer, and this is Triple Quest.
Last we left off, this trio of odd burglars, if you will, had once found themselves scattered to the four winds after a a theft gone wrong left one of their kind publicly executed and the rest of them sent off. Until eventually, destiny came calling and brought them back together.
Right to the point.
As Evex the Vice.
We've got an opportunity.
A strange kind of gravel-voiced figure called them in for one more job.
One of her crowning keepsakes, the bracelet of the Emerald Mar.
They were sent off to the dwarven keep of Thornhold by the Mirror of Dead Men in the North. Here, in recent years, the dwarven Lady Obiela Amberthak had been married into the Margaster family and had kind of taken over.
Throw them out.
You had been hired to infiltrate this keep by whatever means you felt necessary, clamber into the heights of her tower and steal from her a singular artifact, a beautiful polished silver bracelet imbued with ten green emeralds. Bring this back, and you would be paid handsomely for this. As such, you all set off to Thornhold itself, had some conversation, some infiltration, masquerading yourselves as traveling merchants.
You'll always feel that your breakfast was well-cooked if you have this little box in your possession.
Sending off various distractions by lighting your merchant tile on fire into the nearby forest. Nice work, Q. I do what I do. What can I say? Sneaking into the odd shadows, making some friends amongst the nearby guards. Oh, hello. Uh, uh, I'm here. And eventually infiltrating the tower proper, you began to discover that perhaps you weren't the only one seeking to steal within. You found other guards inside, slaughtered or not unconscious and hidden. Alive or dead? Very much not moving and covered in blood. You began to encounter traps and dangers that were set within this tower the further you climbed, until eventually, you began to find this other rival group of thieves.
I appreciate the help back there, but, uh, you know... Guess this makes us rivals, right? Upon trying to chase on their tail, it seems the leader revealed himself to be none other but Biana, the lost sister. Biana? Thought executed, but now before you, alive, and apparently bitter.
You let me die.
As she and her troop of two other thieves clamber ahead of you up this tower, you all race to keep up and figure out what's going on, and if you can still complete your job before they do it for you.
So, Kiasandreen, Leon Goldpedal, and Bing, as the three of you clamber up into this chamber with odd structures and pillars and statues around you, this gelatinous, quivering, yellow ocher-type creature slops onto the ground and begins to quiver and slide across the floor between you and your quarry that now rushes up the spiral staircase. What would you like to do?
Well, I mean Bing draws his sword and yells, "Biana!" and attacks the, uh, the ocher slimy creature.
Fantastic. I'd like you all to roll initiative if you don't mind.
Alrighty.
I got a six.
Eighteen for Bing.
Three.
Alrighty, so as if the narrative called for it, Bing, weapon drawn, you're the first to the top of this initiative order as this strange slime kind of begins to just push in your direction. You take out your blade and rush to strike it. Are you going to just straight up attack it with your weapon?
Uh, yeah, just a greatsword attack.
Go for it. Go ahead and roll your attack.
That's gonna be a ten to hit.
A ten hits. It's not very difficult to strike. It's, it's a large entity and it's not moving extremely fast. So you go ahead and strike it with your first attack. Go ahead and roll damage.
10 damage.
Perfect. As you strike this creature with your massive greatsword blade, it carves through its body and where it divides, the wound itself left open and shifting. You watch as this massive jelly creature continues to split where you carved and then is divided into two smaller entities that now seem to shift as autonomous, separate beings.
Um, don't care for it.
No more slicing this thing, buddy.
Not a fan of this. We gotta go fire.
Well, Bing is, Bing is unfortunately just, his blood is up, so he's gonna take an extra attack and attack the one to the right.
Go for it.
That is gonna be a 19.
19 indeed hits. Go and roll damage for the next strike.
That's another 10 damage.
You carve through it again. With each of these strikes, it seems like your blade isn't quite as impactful on a being that is made of a gelatinous substance. You're carving through it, but it seems to almost reform around the wound. And with that second strike on the one on the right, it too divides into two smaller beings.
God.
Okay, that'll, that can be the end of my turn.
Alrighty, finishing up Bing's turn. The quivering mass of dark amber kind of solidified liquid aggressively begins to now divide the three entities now spreading out. The two that you've recently divided now, under the smallest ones, are going to strike towards you, Bing. For, it's gonna be a 15 to hit. What's your armor class?
16.
16. You just managed to kind of dodge out of the way as it attempts to strike you with one of its pseudopods. And it just manages to slap into the side of one of the strange kind of waist-high decorative boxes with no impact. The secondary one's gonna go ahead and try and hit you from the other side. Same roll. This one now, you managed to deflect with your greatsword blade. And kind of step back into a defensive position, neither of them finding purchase on you. One of the, the kind of medium sized one that you haven't given a second strike to, elongates its body to move between the slight gap of the decor and strike around to where Leon is. It's going to attempt to strike you with its pseudopod.
Oh, that's going to be a natural 19 for a 22 to hit. Okay, that definitely strikes you. So you try and move out of the way quickly, but in this moment, it seems like this slow moving mass moves lightning quick, far more than you expected, and part of it reaches out and slaps you on the side of the neck and shoulder. Your armor seems to absorb some of it, but the part that hits your neck begins to burn and sizzle the exterior of your flesh. You take six points of bludgeoning damage, which just kind of slams you into the side and you kind of catch yourself, but four points of acid damage as it begins to
burn and sear the outside of your skin.
That's the worst slap I've ever gotten. I've gotten a lot of slaps.
That finishes there. Go Leon, you're up with Key on deck.
All right, Leon is pissed. Leon is going to cast magic missile on all three of these fuckers.
At once? Pew pew pew? Yeah, split them up, so it's one, one for each.
Perfect. All right, so go roll 1d4 plus one damage for each of these.
Okay. That's two damage, four damage, and five damage.
Alrighty, so as you, as you reach your hand out, kind of briefly muttering your incantation, these spears of pure arcane energy arc around up into the air of the chamber and then
slam into the sides of these three jellies. The smallest one that had somewhat pincer attacked being gets struck, seems to almost make a strange blubbering cry before dissolutes into a the other one that got hit that's near being, looks like it's barely holding itself together. While the, the main, the largest one that still stands seems to still have a hearty amount of constitution to it. Do you want to stay where you are, or do you want to try and shift around Leon?
All right, so the largest one is near me, like if I, am I within the range of like, it'll get an opportunity attack if I try to move away?
No, no, you can try and move away.
Okay, um, yeah, I'm gonna um, kind of look for some, is there like a pillar or something that I can hide behind? I want to try to hide somewhere.
Oh yeah, definitely. There's a number of places in the architecture that kind of add little pockets and shadows to the side. So you can dart off to the right-hand side and kind of run behind one of those.
That's what I'm gonna do.
All right, so you can use your bonus action to try and hide. Go ahead and roll a stealth check for me.
Okay.
Uh, that should be good. Seventeen.
Great. All right, that finishes your go there. Uh, you go ahead and hide into the shadows and assume that you're fine here. Uh, with that, we come up to Key's turn. Key, what are you doing?
Uh, well, I already cast my fireball last time around, so I'm looking at what I got left here. And we got some cantrips, baby. I'm gonna go, I mean, I also have a magic missile. Hmm. How many, how many have we got left? We got one that's like, pretty solid.
And one that's barely holding on.
You could do like, two and one.
Yeah. So two of the magic missiles go towards the bigger one, and one goes towards the remaining one. I see, this is like a math problem. I love this. Let's do that, let's do that. Magic mistling it up.
All right, so go ahead and roll, uh, three D4. Yep, D4 plus one for each impact.
All right, so the first one's one, and four, and two.
Great. So the, uh, the, the, the first missile that arcs out and strikes the one that's barely holding on for two points of damage, it blasts in its side and it kind of splatters almost in Bing's direction. And Bing, you instinctively kind of step back out of the way as its, its form kind of splatters across one of the nearby kind of, uh, knee-high, uh, art pieces. And you watch the art piece begins to smoke and sizzle. Uh, the other two, boom, boom, slam into the side of the largest one. It kind of takes the impact and shakes like a jello mold before it kind of holds itself there. Damage, but still holding its ground. You want to stay put, or you want to try and back away or move throughout the chamber?
I'm gonna, I'm gonna hide also. I don't have that much health left, I don't think. So I'm gonna hide also.
Okay. All right.
Bing's a strong one. I go behind Bing.
Valid. All right. So you go and like hide behind Bing, trying to like make your form small. Like you can kind of like the Japanese game show where you try and fit into the spaces. You're just trying to not be seen.
Yep, exactly.
Perfect. All right. Finishing your turn. That brings us back to Bing's go. Bing, you have the one kind of medium sized, kind of quivering mass in front of you. It looks damaged, but still standing. You get the sense your blade is not doing much to it.
Right.
Hiding behind Bing. Maybe not my greatest hour, but it's fine.
Yeah, Bing just doesn't really have much other than his sword. So.
Don't do it Bing.
No, Bing like, so Bing looks at his sword in one hand and he looks at the, um, at the ooze creature in front of him. And then he just makes a fist and he just punches it.
Yes, punch it. Go ahead and roll, roll, roll an attack with her unarmed, if you don't mind.
Yes, this is gonna be a 17.
17 hits. All right. Uh, Bing, how do you want to do this? Describe to me how you, how you physically with your fists beat this thing to death.
So Bing just, um, he just kinda, he's holding the sword over one shoulder and just like launches just super solid haymaker. Kind of right up and through the slime so that there's as much surface area impact as possible.
Perfect. It splatters and scatters around. Uh, the, your fist hits with such strength and such speed that it doesn't actually like burn or damage your skin. But as you pull your hand back, it does feel a bit numb, almost like you hit your funny bone and it's gonna linger for a moment for a bit of discomfort. But as the, the immediate danger fades, you can look up on the opposite side of the chamber where the, uh, the rising case of staircase kind of heads up to the upper level. And you no longer have sight on the other troop that is ahead of you.
Okay, Bing sort of turns and looks behind him and, um, so Key, you're hiding in his shadow.
Yeah.
He, he says, so Bing says to Key, he says, where did Leon go? We're losing them and turns and starts running toward the stairs.
Key just silently motions to Leon to get out of hiding because she still saw where he went and is like, let's follow this guy who is probably having a mental breakdown. She just communicates that with her eyes. You know, like you do where she you're like.
Leon says, hey, Key, I don't think Bing is okay right now. I think we need to help him out.
Yeah, you think?
So as you all keep try your best to catch up to Bing, Bing is in full sprint after them and is a bit quicker than the two of you, if I recall. Indeed, with a with a walking speed of 40, you are you are failing to keep up directly. Bing, you charge up after them and you enter what looks to be an upper hall of this tower. This is an incredible collection chamber with darkened woods and and banisters all along kind of an upper staircase that rings a secondary floor in this massive kind of antechamber space. Within this, you can see there are library shelves that kind of line the upper area. But here in the center of the room, there is a massive central pillar that sits in
the very middle, a very wide pillar, probably about like a good seven to 10 feet wide that runs the full length of the 20 foot tall chamber. It is covered in beautiful runes and like golden inscription. It's it's an incredible piece of decor and the rest of the the interior very much matches that aesthetic inside. But what really catches your attention is the room is filled with a number of wooden cabinets and chests, intricate containment units that are all beautiful and have what look to be places where they had labels or plaques on them, but they've since been either removed or hidden. This looks to be a collection. And as you enter, you see Biana and her two compatriots are in the process of trying
to quickly jostle some of these open. They are searching throughout them.
Okay, do they notice me?
Uh, you know, are you trying to, your speed and aggression, are you trying to come in quietly?
No, I'm just sort of curious if they've, if they're sort of looking away from me, or if they seem to have noticed that I came up the stairs.
Uh, no, they do not.
A really, really terrible perception check on Biana's part. They seem to be at the moment engrossed with expediency to rummage through the extent of this collection.
So Bing sort of, he sheathes or, you know, straps his sword to his back slowly while kind of walking to the side, keeping his eyes on the three of them. And he just says, "Biana, talk to me."
Biana stops, this momentary prying of one of the locks on these chests in the ground, stands and glances over her shoulder towards you, her one like scarred and ruined eye kind of instinctively blinking as it, the muscles try and recall a semblance of functionality.
"I didn't expect you to show up here, but if you're going to make yourself useful, come help me and leave the rest of your compatriots behind. There's a place at my side if you want it, but you have one shot."
Bing looks back at the stairs as he sees Ki and Leon.
At this point, they both kind of, they both just now make it up to the top of the stairs. And you can see Bing is kind of standing between where you've risen to the top and his sister Biana amongst this massive collection chamber.
He looks back at his two compatriots and then turns back to his sister. He says, "Biana, you know me well enough. I wouldn't betray them, just like I didn't betray you."
"You all left me to die. I was abandoned, I was captured, and when I was put up on that block, nobody lifted a finger to try and save my life, try and break me free, try and speak on my behalf. I was left for dead. I was dead. But Xanathos will promise me. They brought me back from the brink, and they fed me, they raised me, they trained me. I have a home, a better home than any of you ever offered me. So, if you're not going to grovel before me and join the rest of my compatriots, then you are an enemy."
At this time, one of her compatriots is going to attempt to open one of these chests.
And is still working on it. They're having a hard time with the lock. And they're both like kind of stopping and staring at their leader in the middle of this, this brazen burst of emotion and kind of go back to their work hurriedly like, this is not the time.
So Bing now slowly redraws his sword and he says, "Biana, I could never bring myself to really hurt you and this isn't over, but you need to get out of our way."
Leanne and Ki are just kind of like watching this.
No, I'm gonna creep forward. I'm gonna creep forward.
All right, Leanne is keeping pace with Ki and Leanne is getting ready to attack these fools.
Ki is feeling extremely sad and worried and is still like, "How did Biana escape? I want more information."
So a lot of questions.
A lot of questions.
Hey Bing, can you ask some questions?
No, it's fine. Ki understands this isn't the time, but that's just what's going through her head right now. She doesn't have attacking on the brain. She's just like, "What's going on here?" But she's creeping up.
Okay, as the three of you begin to kind of step forward, Biana gives a smirk and kind of cocks her hip to one side.
"Look, my job here isn't to carve a bunch of old faces. My job here is to find what we need and flee. If you get in the way, we're going to retaliate. But in the meantime, we have a job to do." And she snaps her fingers and looks over towards the half-orc, who you kind of caught a glimpse of earlier and goes, "Damian, put them on ice." And the bard kind of stands up and is like, "I guess if that's what you want me to do. Look, no hard feelings." And is going to go ahead and flick a finger in your direction, Bing. Bing, I need you to go ahead and make a wisdom saving throw for me.
That's gonna be a big ol' three.
A big ol' three.
Key, I need you to also roll a whisp.
Throw for me.
Alright, so that's an eight. Now we're at 11.
11. Alright.
Bing.
Key, both of you watch as this odd energy begins to kind of curl around the fingers of this half-orc. He whispers something with a hum, and as he snaps his fingers, almost in the way that he was called to attention by Biana, both of you feel this music kind of fill the sides of your ears, almost in your head, and this high note screeches into the center of your mind. Your muscles lock up and you are both momentarily paralyzed.
Uh...
So do you, Leon.
As both of you lock up, Biana shoots a look at Leon and says, "Stand by, or it's a proper race, Leon." And she turns around to go back at the lock, and the two of them put their heads down to start trying to unlock these chests.
Leon is going to cast Sleep on the three, on Biana and her pals.
Alrighty. So, just kind of give you the heads up there. Sleep has-
It's on hit points, right?
Right, it's 5d8 hit points. You can affect how many creatures the spell can affect within that area up to that number of hit points. So you can roll that 5d8.
Okay, so let me roll. Yes, okay, let me do that.
And we can decide how best to try and distribute it. Because if it doesn't go over anybody's current hit points, it'll have no effect.
Then, nothing, okay.
It's exactly like melatonin dosage. So it's pretty easy to just one go on.
See, not everything's fantasy about this, Key.
Okay. 28 is the total.
28.
Alright.
I will let you know that if you were to spend all of this, it would affect the bard that just like cast the spell upon your friends.
Okay, can I tell if he's like, is he like doing some like active casting? Or he's going back to the lockpicking?
Uh, he's just gone back to the lockpicking. He basically cast this on your friends and then turned back around and is now trying to get one of the cabinets over.
So this isn't like a spell that requires concentration. Okay. Um, yeah, I'm gonna cast sleep on the bard that's taking out.
So you watch as he's like, alright, start to get this open.
And just like slams face down into the middle of the ground, hits the ground. And as soon as he hits like the, the, the center of this like polished floor with a heavy thud, there's two of the compatriots kind of glance over nervously, take a big sigh and go back to their picking. Uh, the two of them are gonna attempt to pick a lock. Uh, it looks like the other one, the kind of elven figure, uh, is frustratingly still attempting and, and not doing so. However, uh, Biana does open, uh, one of these cabinets. Could I have one of you, uh, well, have it be Bing since you're related, go ahead and roll a D10 for me.
It's gonna be a nine.
Nice.
Sorry.
No, that's good.
No, but it's not good because I'm rolling for Biana.
Oh, right.
So, uh, Biana, uh, opens this cabinet and there's a flash of, of kind of reddish, uh, flame that bursts out. She ducks back out of the way and you all hear
as this winged entity just bursts forth out of this cabinet and begins to fly up into the center of the chamber's air. Maybe, uh, standing at about two and a half, three feet tall, you see a humanoid red scaled fleshed creature with leathery bat wings and these kind of pale yellowish glowing eyes with a toothy jaw that kind of opens and slightly drools. It kind of flies up, yes, yes, stay away, this is what you steal here. And you watch as this infernal imp now has been unleashed in the chamber, flying up towards the ceiling about a good 15, 20 feet on top. And Biana just goes, you've got to be kidding me. And then ignoring the current empty cabinet goes to pick another chest.
That will, we'll say, bringing it back around here, since we have the initiative order still going now in this bit. Actually, you know what? Now that we're engaging, and both of you are asleep, let's go ahead and roll initiative for how things are happening here, including those who are currently paralyzed. Just to have a new order.
Seventeen for me.
Twelve for Bing.
Okay, now it's five.
So, top, now we're actually in like an action round here, based on this initiative. Leon, you are up first. It looks like some of them are quick to go thereafter, but you have the current floor.
And just to be clear, we're an initiative roll for the action, but like, nobody's in combat yet, or we are in combat?
I mean, it's up to you whether or not you want to take actions that are combat oriented.
Kind of casting spells at one another.
I mean, is it clear that the imp, like, is the imp attacking us? I guess that is the question.
The imp hasn't attacked anyone yet, but he's certainly cackling to himself, flying above, and looks like he's looming over you all with aggressive intent.
Okay, I'm going to use a message cantrip.
I'm trying to decide if I want to try to talk to Biana or to the imp. I'm gonna send a message to Biana, and I'm gonna say, "Let's all work together, and we'll sort out the details later. We might even want different things here."
All right, go ahead and make a persuasion check for me.
All righty. That would be a fifteen.
Fifteen, fifteen's not bad. I'll say, you send this message to Biana. Biana, who's currently now rushed over to one of the chests on the ground and is in the process of trying to jostle it open with her lockpicks, kind of pauses for a second and glances over her shoulder, not making eye contact with you, but acknowledging you in the chamber, and then responding to the message, you hear the whisper back into your mind from her saying,
Perhaps, but I have to keep my contract, as I'm sure you have to keep yours. If we're not going to come to blows, at the very least, maybe let's keep this a friendly competition for as long as it stays friendly.
Alrighty, um, does the message, does that count? Yeah, that counts as my action.
That is your action.
As my bonus, I'm gonna try to hide, as usual. Leon is a big hider.
You got it. Go ahead and roll stealth check.
Okay. Uh, let's see, 14.
14, okay. So you have jumped now in the middle of this chamber with all these different chests and cabinets, you kind of find a path through some of the cabinets and vanish into that chaos where you think they aren't watching. Bringing that now, it is now the Swashbuckler's turn, is gonna try and unlock one of these chests. They're rolling horribly, they're on the, they've been on the same chest since you got here, you're gonna be like, "On that fucking chest!"
I'm imagining, uh, I'm imagining, uh, Joe Pesci in Home Alone, as this Swashbuckler is completely...
It's a great visual.
Hair is all on fire and...
Yep. They, they actually like abandon that chest and move on to one of the side cabinets, kind of darting by not from, not far from where you are, Leon, but not taking notice of where you're placed, and they begin to try and open the lock to one of these other cabinets. We're not coming to Biana, who has kind of, after that whisper towards you, seems to be contemplating, and she's still gonna continue and pick lock, but you have distracted her enough with your message that she's gonna have disadvantage on her lockpick attempt. So, uh, it's a good roll, go up with disadvantage. Ooh, a natural three. Biana seems to be caught in her head from what you had said, and momentarily is unable to get through this difficult lock. One of them getting kind of jammed inside, and you hear a little under her whisper, "God
damn it!", uh, and is still trying to push into this, but you've definitely kind of gotten into her head a little bit. Finishing, uh, Biana's turn, we're gonna come to Bing. Bing, you are currently still held and bound by the magic, uh, that this bard set upon you, who is snoring loudly on the ground in the middle of this chamber. You try and steady yourself to try and shrug it off. Make a wisdom saving throw for me at the end of your turn.
That's a natural one, so.
That's gonna do it.
It's going really well.
Time to switch to the other 20 seconds.
That high pitched whine still crawls in your mind. It has a melody to it, but your brain can't grasp it. And all of your body feels like it's locked up like an entire head to toe charlie horse.
The worst.
That's gonna finish your go. Uh, that brings us back to the imp. Uh, the imp is going to go ahead and, uh, it's going to go ahead and, and, and swing down towards one of you and attempt to lash out and, and, uh, sting with what looks like a scorpion bit of its tail that you hadn't noticed until it kind of whips out as it swoops down. We're gonna see who it goes after. Uh, one to three are, uh, uh, key being in Leon, one to three, and then the other troops for the four to higher.
Shouldn't it, shouldn't it go after the, uh, one of the people who opened the chest in the first place? Can I roll a persuasion check against the DM to persuade?
This is Leon trying to convince God of what should happen.
It's an interesting point. Uh, checking the creep, the imp's passive perception. You are stealth from it, so, uh, you are actually absolved of that. And it rolled you on the dice roll, so I'm gonna reroll.
Oh.
Ah, that brings us to Bing. So Bing, uh, the imp streaks, like streaks down from above.
It's gonna go ahead and attempt to make a strike at you because you're paralyzed. It does have advantage on the attack roll.
Uh, which, yeah, that's gonna put it at a 30, no, sorry, 23 to hit.
That'll do it.
That is gonna be, uh, double dice because it's, because it's next to your auto crit. Ooh, that's dangerous. Um, that's gonna be a seven points of piercing damage to you.
And I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me if you could.
That's gonna be a, an 11.
An 11 is enough. Actually, it was just the DC of its poison. Uh, so you only take half damage from the poison. Uh, that'll put you at six points of poison damage.
Wow, okay.
Uh, with, that's gonna finish the imp's go. Uh, the bard is unconscious on the ground and loudly snoring. Uh, that, so that's gonna be his turn. That brings us back to Key. Key, you are still locked in place at the end of your turn. Go ahead and make a wisdom saving throw for me again.
Come on.
Why is this happening to me? It's a two.
All right, the spell still holds strong. Oddly, and Leon, you being a bit of a practitioner of magic yourself would understand too, certain magics that hold sway over minds and bodies require concentration to maintain the spell. This can be disrupted usually by either heavy impact or pain or damage upon the caster to force them to try and maintain it. The bard is unconscious, but the spell is still maintained because nothing has truly kind of struck him to scramble what holds the spell that your friends are both still bound to. So that kind of strikes in your mind as they're having a hard time breaking free from this.
Hmm, this is an inception situation.
Yeah, hot tip suddenly appears in Leon's mind.
Speaking of which, Leon, it's your go.
Hmm, but I don't want to get all of them aggro. I don't want to get Biana aggro against us. All right. Um, all right. Sorry, Biana, I say. And I use a fireball. Uh, no, I use a sneak attack, um, because I'm in stealth. Um, I'm gonna use a sneak attack with my crossbow on the, uh, yeah, on the sleeping bard.
Could it be so sneaky that no one even notices that Leon fired the arrow?
I'm not sure, since given how few people are in this room and two of them are being held.
There's a lot of locks to pick in here. We're all looking for stuff.
It's true.
Fantastic.
I tried to do it in a stealthy way so they can't see me.
All right. Well, because, because, uh, one, you're hidden. Two, your target, uh, and you're, you're shooting the bard on the ground. He is very much asleep. Uh, so you have advantage. However, he's, he's a flat on the ground, which puts you at disadvantage for ranged attacks. So just make, make an attack roll. But I will, but this is definitely sneak attack because he is unable to defend himself.
That is a 23.
That definitely hits. So roll, uh, your 1d8 plus 4 damage, plus your sneak attack, which is an extra 3d6.
All right. Uh, so 1d8 plus 4 is 7. And then, let's see, and 3d6. So 6 is 21 damage.
21. Damn it, oof. You hear this scream as the bard shoots up from a sitting position, uh, kind of grabbing his leg where your, uh, your crossbow bolt, this is kind of like Ace Ventura jammed into his thigh. And he's just staring at it like, ah!
Sorry dude.
See if he maintains concentration. Uh, he does not, with a four. The spell drops and both, uh, Bing and Key have control of their bodies once more, the spell dissipating. Uh, the bard is conscious.
As my bonus action, I yell out, "Biana, I had to hit your bard so my guys could be free. Now, let's all team up and take down this imp. Get away from those chests, you morons."
It's a really long thing to say as a bonus action.
I feel like I would be convinced by that.
Yeah, conversation should be fine. Uh, are you, are you, are you trying to be convincing or intimidating in this moment, given the chaos?
Or just insulting?
Convincing.
Okay, yeah, alright.
It's kind of a mix of, uh, yeah, performance persuasion, that's all.
Fair enough, yeah. Go, go ahead and roll another persuasion check for me then.
That is a natural 20.
Woo! Okay.
Beautiful.
Uh, so at, at this point, the, uh, Biana kind of turns back from the, uh, the, the cabinet's been giving her trouble, and looks at you with this like steely angry glance, uh, and you could see almost going for a blade at her side before the bard stands up with this like hobble. And he goes like, "Actually, I think this is a great idea. This hurts a lot. Um, yeah, it's why, why don't we just work together, eh? Please?" And Biana kind of grits her teeth, looks at the rest of you. Very well. That's a problem. Stop that. And then maybe we'll just see who gets the, uh, who gets the chest first then.
Uh, and with that, uh, it's gonna be the, uh, the elfin, uh, Rogue is gonna go ahead and spin around and rush over towards the imp that's next to you, Bing. Uh, kind of taking a cue from Biana and is going ahead and swing with a rapier and a dagger towards the imp. Uh, yeah, that's gonna be a 22 to hit. Pretty great.
Useful.
Uh, okay, not too bad. That's going to be, uh, six points of damage to that imp. The imp takes a heavy strike from the rapier and a natural one on the dagger. So unfortunately, while the rapier strikes the imp, uh, the elf sw- uh, follows up with the dagger and swings up, but the imp kind of pulls back and flies further just out of range, uh, of that dagger swipe. Um, that's gonna finish their turn. It's now Biana's go. Biana kind of stands there for a second, seeing all this go down, sees the damaged imp and is gonna go ahead and pull a shortbow out from the side of her. She has like a, uh, a little leather strap that connects to her belt that holds the shortbow, almost like it folds up. She unfolds it rapidly and sits it upside, pulling from her other thigh a quiver,
uh, bow and is gonna go ahead and aim and shoot towards this imp for a natural 20.
Damn.
Dang, Biana!
This is still good.
So useful. Love this.
Glad they're not fighting us.
Uh, alrighty, that'll be, uh, twice dice damage. That's six plus four, 10. Uh, Biana quickly releases an arrow and the imp's just kinda cackling as it flies up.
And just plummets out of the center of the chamber, spiraling down as it hits the ground. It just incinerates in a burst of ash, leaving a little like darkened circle on the ground where it hit.
That was easy.
Biana looks over at you and goes like,
"We're not working together, but we're working aside each other. And to the best thief, let us win."
Bing coughs and sort of puts his sort of back on, on his, uh, back on his back and looks at Biana and says, "We haven't lost your edge."
Of course not. You have to take an edge to gain a better one. And you see, she kind of points to this massive scar on the back of her neck from where you, uh, heard the sound of the blade that took her life.
Hmm.
Uh, seems to have left a mark and kind of leaves even a further hint of curiosity as to her current status of life.
Datitude.
Bing just sort of grumbles and looks around him. Are there any, what is, what are the sort of nearest chests to him on the ground?
Indeed. So looking about the chamber here, you can quickly get, there are six cabinets and 12 chests throughout this chamber. It looks like one cabinet has been formally opened and one chest has been formally opened. So there is one of each currently that have been kind of revealed. The rest of them still remain closed.
And they all look the same?
They all have differing general tweaks and kind of uniqueness to the scrolling and things on them, but they all look like a similar make, like they were all crafted or commissioned by the same guild of furniture builders and makers.
Are there any that look weirdly similar to the one the imp came out of? For example, like, is that a clue we could be discerning? I don't want any more imps is where I'm going with this.
Make a perception check for me, if you don't mind, Key.
Sure.
It's a 20.
A 20?
A freaking 20.
Looking at the opened and kind of somewhat charred cabinet that the imp came out of, what you can tell is the, the doors on that cabinet kind of blasted open have like a gold trim on them. That looks like it was untouched and unscathed from its flame burst out there and has some sort of runic scrolling on it. And immediately you glance around and see two other cabinets that have that same kind of gold seal along the inside. So you can, you can count out two other cabinets amongst the chamber that likely holds something similar within.
Okay, Bing is reaching toward one of those cabinets right now.
Towards one of the gold cabinets?
Okay, just trust me, don't open that one. We don't want more imps. That one looks real similar to the imp cabinet.
So Bing was just reaching for the cabinet and then he just kind of stops and then he looks at you and he says, "All right," and he like kind of pats the cabinet a couple of times and then moves on to the chest next to that cabinet and just sort of tests it, like shakes it and sees if he can, if he can, you know, get it open.
Anyway, other than picking the lock.
Understood. So the lid of the chest, it gives like a faint quarter inch give and you feel the latch kind of catch it. So it is lock like the rest of them, but there is a little place to get your fingers in there. Like you could try and pick the lock or you can try and force it with brute strength. Your call.
Bing isn't really much of a lock picking kind of a guy, so he just, he just puts one hand, like he kind of pulls up the gap, puts one set of fingers in there and then the other, and then just tries to fully jaws of life it open.
Beautiful. So you can go ahead and make a strength check for me. So roll D20 and then add your strength modifier. Bing, you have plus five.
Do they have jaws of life in Faeon? I guess this would be the equivalent.
Bing is the jaws of life.
It's like a mage hand situation.
Too many hands, yeah.
All right, that's going to be 16.
16. It takes some, but you hear the metal begin to creak and then ping, ping, ping. Bolts that are holding its metal casing begin to give before the lid slams open. Roll a D10 for me, Bing.
It's an eight.
That's an eight. As you open the lid, there's a brief pause before a cluster of what looked like ropes, but they're animated like serpents or snakes kind of entwining and nodding around them. All reach out to try and grab and wrap around you to pull you towards the chest. Go ahead and make a strength saving throw for me to see if you can break free from their grasp.
That's a 20, not natural.
Oh, easy enough to do. The ropes try and grab you and pull you towards it. You grab the edge of the box and as you pull back, they begin to tear free with your arms. You reach and grab the rest of them and just physically rip them in half. You hear these series of tiny squeals.
As the ropes kind of pull back into the box.
So you've definitely, you've ensured another chest is not what you seek.
Okay, Bing sort of just looks to see if Biana saw that. He's like, I opened it with my hands. It's ropes. Stupid ropes.
Biana glancing over her shoulder, looks towards you. That same kind of steely darkness and intensity kind of melts away for a second, saying, "Well, you got half of it, right?"
Bing just sort of smiles a little bit to himself.
She clears her throat, gets dark and stoked again and goes back. And now the bard is gonna go ahead and attempt to open, and rolls a natural 20. The bard goes, "Hey, I got one!"
There you go, buddy.
Opens up another one of the chests. If I can have, Leon, if you could roll a d10 for me.
Alrighty. Uh, five.
Five?
Oh, God.
Yay.
"I got this one!" Opens the lid, and as soon as he does, this purple gas
emerges around and he goes, "What? I don't know if this... not again." And just passes out once more, snoring loudly on the ground, kind of curled up with his thumb in his mouth.
Amazing. Leon looks at Biana, "Hey, you guys need to do some short rests before you come into a tower like this. Looks like you're, you are not taking care of your party."
Biana kind of spits on the ground and looks back at you. "I don't know, I see one less infernal imp carving into your friends, huh? We all got our strengths, Leon."
Touche. Say, Biana, what is it you guys are looking for here? What is it that Xanathar has sent you to get?
She kind of narrows her eyes, kind of quietly considering what she can and cannot go about. She says,
We're looking for a personal heirloom of the owner of this tower. At which point, we'll say if this conversation, Key, it's your go.
I want to keep opening stuff. I don't think I have the ability to convince Beyana of much of anything at this time. I'm going to leave that social engineering to Leon. So I'm going to try to open another, another item and hopefully not hurt myself in doing so.
No worries. There are three unopened cabinets and it looks like there are nine chests, though there are two members of the, the rival faction currently focused on a couple of them. So do you want to go for a chest or a cabinet?
I'll go with a chest. It feels like something a bracelet would be in, but who knows?
Great, great. So you, you go ahead and go towards the nearest chest. It is locked. Do you, do you have a means of unlocking it or forcing it?
I mean, I have, I have like an okay dex score for sleight of hand. So can I pick locks just using that or can I just give it a go? I don't know. I don't have, I don't have, this isn't Resident Evil. I don't have a number of lock picks in my possession. This is D and D, so.
No worries. Well, if you, if you look at your inventory, do you have thieves' tools?
I do. I do have thieves' tools. Yes.
You do have a bunch of lock picks.
You're right, I do. I'm a Jill Valentine over here. I can play the piano too.
Just don't become a Bing sandwich. Go ahead, go ahead and roll a d20 and add your proficiency, which is three, and add your dexterity, which is two. So add five total to the roll.
Okay. All right. So it's 18.
Woo, perfect. So indeed, you get down there quickly. You know, it's been a little bit since you've had to jump in front of something locked and, and show your capabilities as a thief. But as soon as you get down there, all the sense memory comes back. And within just a matter of moments, you've picked through all of the tumblers and it slaps open and the chest is now yours to grasp. Roll a d10 for me, Key.
Yeah, it's a six.
It's a six. All right. A purple fume bursts out of it. Make a wisdom saving throw for me, if you don't mind.
Okay, 11, 12, 13, 14.
14 is great. The fume passes around you, catch your breath just in time, close your eyes and step out of the cloud. It eventually dissipates unaffected.
And I go, not falling asleep. No, no.
You hear echoing around one of the side chest.
Poor orc buddy. All right, that finishes your go. That brings us back to Leon.
Leon is like, guys, it is not in here. We are just opening a bunch of trapped chests for no reason. Leon is gonna look around and see if there are any other kind of hidden exits out of this room or kind of secret compartments that wouldn't normally be visible.
Okay, you can look for, if you want to look through details of things around the chamber, you could roll a perception or investigation check, your choice.
And just as far as what's visible, it's we have these cabinets, these chests, there are no windows or doors or anything like that in the room, just the staircase going down.
There's no windows or doors. What you see is that there is a, there's an upper kind of small level that's kind of like halfway up the height of this chamber where some library kind of shelves sit up there. But you, you do not see any other exit. You do not see any further up in this tower, which is, I think is why, be honest, Troop felt this is likely where it would be hidden. But also, this tower has a bunch of odd, unique things about it. So who knows?
Okay, so perception check?
If you'd like to, perception or investigation, your choice.
Perception for sure.
Let's go.
17.
17 is great. So you glance around, you don't see any sort of immediate signifying exit points. You don't see any like trap doors in the ceiling or any like hidden doorways that are kind of well placed against the nearby walls. What you do notice, though, The seventeen, the central pillar of the chamber and that beautiful kind of scrolling and glyph-like designs that's carved into the wide pillar. It looks like it almost, it almost has a humanoid sort of outline, almost like someone carved a, an artistic rendition of a Vitruvian man, if you will, like two arms and two legs within this stone pillar that kind of wrapped through it.
Just a beautifully artistic scenario, but upon the brow, there are a number of beads of green that kind of get lost amongst the gold scrolling and the surrounding stonework.
Hmm, can I still go or do I have to wait? Was that my action, the kind of investigation?
To spend your turn, like really glancing everywhere to make up that detail, that's going to be your action, but you can still move in bonus action if you'd like.
Okay, I'm going to move to where that humanoid is and just kind of like hang out near it and hope I notice something while everyone else is taking their turns.
Okay, you got it. So you kind of mosey on over to the base of that pillar?
Can I push things as my bonus or is that an action?
I'd say, well, as a rogue here, as part of your, dash, disengage your hide action. Unfortunately, I'd say with all you've done here, you can, as a bonus action, wouldn't be able to kind of futz with it too much. You could begin to try and investigate or try and get near it if you'd like, but it'll be till next turn.
Yeah, I'll get near it. Okay, I'll get near it and, and spot some, hopefully, hope to spot something while everyone else is taking their turns.
You got it. All right. That brings us now to the elven figure of beyond this crew is going to go ahead and attempt to open their chest and succeeds finally, the poor bugger. So, let's see, if I could have, Leon, go ahead and roll a d10 for me.
That is an eight.
That is an eight. Alrighty. So, as the elf kind of opens this chest, another cluster of what looks like vines begin to emerge like the ropes did earlier, kind of growing rapidly and reaching out towards them. They're going to attempt to move out of the way and do so. So they slip out of the grasp of these vines that kind of stay there, kind of wiggling in the air, reaching for anything in the vicinity. And everyone kind of notes to kind of keep a wide berth around the outside of that chest and moving over to one of the nearby cabinets. Finishing their go, Biana, uh, kind of keeping an eye close. I'm gonna see. Up home. No, Biana, Biana at a cursory glance doesn't make notice of Leon kind of slightly sauntering over to the central pillar and hasn't picked up on what you've picked up on.
And continues to focus on the chest in front of her. Uh, is going to, that definitely picks that lock up. Bing, go ahead and roll a d10 for me.
God, a seven.
A seven. Okay. Uh, so we've already gotten the two ropes out of here. I will go ahead and roll, you know, roll again for me, Bing.
One.
A one.
She opens the chest and there's like a flashbang sort of moment. Uh, but like a greenish tint and as the flash subsides, you can see there is this like heavy, uh, kind of brackish green cloud that has encapsulated her. She's coughing within. And, uh, fails her save. She, Biana, is gonna go ahead and take uh, four points of poison damage. And is currently poisoned. She's not.
So she's not undead. She's not a zombie.
Yeah, the poison is affecting her. So that, that does give you at least some clue that maybe she's not on that side of the spectrum of existence. But as she pulls out of the cloud and kind of waving her hands in front, coughing, you can see kind of like the veins and the side of her neck and her forehead kind of bulging as the poison kind of holds in and kind of tries to hide it like, I'm good, I'm good, I got it.
Is trying to move over to the next space, finishing her go Bing, you are up.
Okay, Bing is, so Bing is next to a chest. He's just gonna, Bing is oblivious to what Leona is doing because he's kind of distracted by Biana getting poisoned and also the fact that she said he looked cool when he opened the chest. So he is gonna, he's gonna just check the cabinet next to him, check the door on it.
It is definitely locked. It's not a heavy lock, but it looks like it could definitely be forcible or breakable.
All right. And there's like a lock like on the, on the door of the cabinet?
Correct. You can see there's like a keyhole on it and there are like two bars, both externally and interior of it. It's just barely visible in the crack.
Okay, he's gonna use the pommel of his greatsword to just kind of break the lock, to just hit it as hard as he can.
Hell yeah. Go ahead and make a strength check for me if you don't mind.
That's a 17.
17. Oh yeah. You rear back and quacks, hit it with all the might, the metallic strength and weight of your weapon, the heft of it, just smashing through as it does. Go ahead and roll a d10 for me.
Oh boy. Four.
A four. You slam through and in just that brief moment, you see this kind of flicker, like a candlelight inside. And then all the air around the cabinet kind of like pulls into it in an instant. Now you, being trained to be on your toes at all times, you do have a feature, danger sense. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw, but you do have advantage on it because of your danger sense.
That's gonna be a 13.
13 is just what you need to get past it. So the, all of you hear this cavernous explosion sound.
The cabinet that you had knocked through detonates, sending wood splinters everywhere as a blast of flame encircles the space around you. Everyone, your eyes, I mean, Biana, the whole troop, except for the sleeping bard who kind of like for a second disturbs and then goes back into his slumber, all look in that direction. And in this fiery blast that seems to swirl around as it dissipates, you fear to see the scalded form of Bing. But Bing, you had managed to just pull out of the way in time untouched by it, except for maybe a little bit of, little bit of cinder curls to your eyebrows.
He wipes off the cinder on his eyebrows. Says, "This one's empty."
Perfect. Bard, keep sleeping. Key, it's your turn.
I agree with Leon that every single container in this room is probably
full of something I don't want to encounter. So I go over to see what Leon is, is doing. And do I have, I feel like I don't have as good of like magic perception abilities as Leon does, but like this feels like a magical puzzle. Can I tell if like the green stones are emeralds or like if they're related to the thing we're looking for in some way?
You do see what looks like five emeralds that kind of set across the brow of where this like this like chiseled in shape is on the pillar. If you want to see if there is a magical facet to it, you could make an Arcana check if you'd like.
All right. That seems useful.
All right. Go and roll a d20 and add your Arcana skill, which is a plus one.
Okay. Seven plus one is eight.
Eight. Ah, you, you know, you haven't spent a lot of time studying the ins and outs, that the magic that you muster is instinctual and part of your very essence. You're not fully trained to know why the weave of the world and Mistrat and all the various like magic facets of the world have chosen you. And in this moment, you also have no idea. How it would affect this pillar.
Yeah. Big ego on Key. No clue what's going on with this pillar.
All right, I guess I don't get it. I, in classic Leon fashion, what is my bonus action? Can I push it? Will that achieve anything? I don't know. I don't have any bonus actions.
I'll say because you weren't scanning an entire room and you were just kind of looking up at this particular pillar, I'll consider your bonus action for inspecting the pillar. You still have an action.
Can I just do like a regular perception check and see if there's like any type of interlocking Zelda-style puzzle that we can do? Like, does this thing open?
Can we get a bracelet out of this?
Yeah, you can make a perception or investigation check, your choice.
Okay, perception as plus three, so I'm gonna do that.
Fourteen.
Fourteen. Seventeen, great. Sixteen's what you needed. You glance up at this pillar and where those emeralds are, you can see the kind of like metallic scrolling that's set throughout. The metal that these emeralds are set in is a different silvered, almost platinum-type metal, whereas a lot of the surrounding metals is gold. It definitely stands out and looks like the front of a circlet.
Interesting. I assume Leon can tell this too. I just whisper it to him.
Just elbow him like, "Check that out."
Good catch, Key. Great catch.
Perfect. And in Keysco, Leon, you're up.
Okay, can you describe what I'm seeing exactly? So it's the outline of a person and on the top, it's the emerald beads?
Yeah, there's this tall 20-foot pillar that sits in the center of this chamber. It's about just under 10 feet in its width. And along it is all of this glyph-like scrolling, like intricate circles and runes that kind of spiral. It's a beautiful, almost elvish-looking carved work of art that kind of encircles this entire pillar from top to bottom. But here along its base, part of that scrolling kind of takes the artistic shape of a human, or humanoid, you know, arms and legs, kind of a Truvian man's style, kind of embedded in the pillar. And across the brow of this featureless shape, you can see now, especially with the help of Key pointing out the details, it looks almost like the circlet is embedded in the middle of this art piece.
Okay, Leon is going to put his entire body against the pillar and against the humanoid shape and like the exact figure where the human is like, like putting his arms alongside the arms, etc., etc.
Bing notices this and just sort of turns.
Hey Bing, don't worry about it, just keep smashing locks.
He is nodding like, this makes sense.
And actually, Key, you gotta, gotta help because this is a wide pillar. For Leon to kind of get both the arms and up against the pillar, you kind of have to maybe get behind and help lean and push up.
Yeah, yeah. Key is gonna spot me while I do this exercise.
Perfect.
As Key does this, Bing sort of sets down the lock that he was working and just sort of stops and just watches.
As does, uh, Biana. Biana and, and the standing elf both kind of stop what they're doing and glance over with an odd cock to their heads as they watch this. As you do, you feel the stone on this pillar begin to suddenly vibrate. Like it begins to have this, this odd kind of energetic shaking quality to it. And the outline of this, uh, this humanoid kind of carving begins to light up with a faint greenish tint. There is definitely some sort of enchantment within this pillar.
And as you stand there with your arms around it, it's like the pillar begins to push back. And you realize it's because where the carving of these hands are, they've emerged from the pillar to be hands that wrap their fingers into yours. You are now kind of locked in some sort of silent stoic dance with what looks like an odd, somewhat flat carved stone entity given consciousness that begins to step forth from the pillar you kind of pinned to its front, being held like a scarecrow across its chest.
Leon, Leon, never one for being silent or stoic, is like, hey, you have to buy me dinner first.
You're now seeing this kind of plain, kind of featureless face that's standing right before you, a little bit taller from your form, your elvish form, right beneath where this circlet is, and it is indeed embedded in the forehead of this entity. The emeralds kind of glow, and as it does, two green eyes glow through the stone and kind of crack. Like, these two little kind of spiral cracks happen where the eyes would be with green light kind of peering out from behind them. And you hear and feel deep within this stone this resonant
"And I need you all to roll initiative."
Ah, okay.
Ah, natural 20.
Nice!
So 24.
24 for Leon. 22 for Bing. Alrighty. Oh, man.
For me, it's just a 4.
Okay, you got it. So because it's kind of slowly emerging from this pillar, all of you rapidly kind of gather, making eye contact and realize this is a threat to all of you. And there's kind of a general unspoken sense that, okay, you know what? Maybe we should all work together on this.
Leon, you're now, like, your hands are still held by this entity in front. What would you like to do?
Um, so, uh, so it's like, so I'm like grabbing it and it's holding my hands. Um, okay, so I try to disengage. I try to get my hands out of its hands.
Okay, cool. Uh, I will say you can use your bonus action to disengage from this creature. Go ahead and roll an acrobatics check for me, just to kind of like squirm out of its grip as you pull away.
I have a plus 7 acrobatics. Let's see.
Heck, yeah.
11.
11? A 10 was what you needed to get out, so you pull out of its grasp. And it wasn't like a, it was, it looked like it was about to kind of really grip down on your fingers and hold you in place, and you just managed to pull out just in time, kind of leaping off the pillar and backing up to where Ki is. And the entity is now kind of like kicking both of its feet free from the pillar like
Leon says, pulling out just in time is my specialty.
So you still have your action and movement. What would you like to do?
Leon is going to cast. Well, he doesn't have any spell slots, so we're gonna do a,
let's try to be clever. I'm gonna do a mage hand and use my special arcane trickster ability to make it an invisible mage hand and try to grab the kind of the circlet from its head.
The bracelet that I guess it's wearing or the circlet that's wearing.
You got it. So you kind of craft your mage hand as you back up and send it up there. The invisible mage hand kind of drifts up towards its forehead and attempts to grasp where the circlet is embedded. It's embedded pretty, pretty well. Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your spellcasting modifier, which would be, I believe, intelligence for you. So add a plus one to it.
That is a 18.
18. The circlet is not shifting. It looks like a fair amount of strength would be needed to try and pry it from its form or sunder it entirely. So a good, a good attempt, but it looks like it wasn't quite enough. You can try and continue to move. You did disengage, so technically you can move back and have it not get an attack opportunity against you.
Yeah, I'm gonna back up and get as far away as possible from this thing. And then I'm gonna whisper to Bing, Bing, go for the circlet. Try to rip it off of this thing's head.
Alrighty, that finishes your go. Key, you felt, you know, in the moment, kind of, kind of confident that Leon had stepped down, you were shoulder to shoulder to tackle this, and then you'd look over and Leon's just gone.
Bing, it is your turn.
Okay, Bing sort of nods his head at what Leon just said and then reaches down next to him and grabs a chest off of the ground and throws it at the stone creature.
Go ahead and roll an athletics check for me, if you don't mind.
Alright, so he got a 17.
17, still very good. So you reach out, pick up the chest, and chuck it over towards this creature. It slams into it, shatters across it. Roll a d10 for me, if you don't mind.
Yeah!
That's a 9.
Oh, that's the imp.
That's a 9. It smashes across it, there's a flash of flame, and now like a bluish winged imp emerges like, it looks down, just kinda confused at the massive kind of stone, uh, kind of glyph hulk that stands in the chamber.
Uh, so that puts the glyph, or that puts the imp on the board. The imp will go just before key. Alrighty, uh, so Bing, do you want to move on your turn, or stay put? They're still surrounded by cabinets if you want to keep chucking things at it?
Um, yeah, I mean, if that's, is that a second attack? That's, um, or is that, does that, do I get a second attack with a chest, or is that different? Like a thrown object, different?
No, you do, you do have two attacks. Why not? Let's go for it. You want to throw?
Can I rage in between? Can I activate my rage in between these?
Yes, you can. So you go ahead and begin to like grit your teeth and get ready. Go for it.
He grits his teeth, he gathers all of his energy, and he makes a very high pitched sound. He goes, "Bing!"
And his, his rage, uh, it ignites in a burst of cold. And 10 feet around me, everybody gains 3 temporary hit points, as long as my rage is active.
And then he grabs a second chest. Uh, I could say the second chest that's within reach, and just throws it straight, straight at this creature.
You got it. Alright, so go ahead and roll another athletics check. You have advantage because you are raging.
That's gonna be a big, is that really, yeah, a big 26.
26. A heavy impact on this one, kind of sending the glyph hulk kind of back onto its back foot as it does. Roll a d10 for me.
That is gonna be another 9.
Another 9? So, this is the final one of the chest that you saw that had the gold trim, now bursting across from it, uh, you watch that one, and that hits, and a pinkish imp emerges, and kind of joins the other blue one, they look at each other, and hiss at each other, and now they're, looks like they're about to go for each other.
Two imps enter, one imp leaves.
Excellent. Bing just starts laughing at the top of his lungs and draws his sword and prepares to fight, but that's the end of his turn.
You got it.
No movement.
Great. Finishing Bing's go is Biana's go. Biana, kind of seeing this chaos, is gonna go ahead and pull out her short sword and dart to go and come to Key's aid, kind of running across, leaping to one of the cabinets and kicking off of it, sending the cabinet kind of tumbling back and hitting the far wall, but pushing her, springing into the air, spinning wide, and as she does, she pulls out a secondary short sword from her side, and it's just like the spin, this whirlwind of blades as she descends, striking towards it with two hits. That's gonna, yeah, that'll hit. And oof, the second one will not hit, but she can take, no, she just gets two attacks, it's a hit and offhand. So with that, it's
going to be, oof, nine points of slashing damage against it. However, it is halved because this is a being of stone and it is resistant to piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning. So instead, it takes, we'll say, five for the heck of that. She does have sneak attack because she is right next to you, Key, for an additional, oof, oh, a five, five, and a six, that's amazing, additional 16 points of slashing damage, still reduced to halve to eight, but still, that is a solid 13 points of damage in that opening round against this entity. As her blades kind of, almost like sparking and scraping across it, she lands next to you, was like, I don't know why, I figured that would have more impact. But
nice to see you, Key. And she kind of glances over with a half-cocked smile in your direction.
I smile back and I'm like, missed you, B.
That's gonna finish, that's gonna finish Biana's go. The elf is gonna go ahead and throw, no, she's, after seeing that array, it's gonna be, is gonna pull out, actually is gonna go ahead and take, take a, take an inkling of inspiration from Bing's go, and is gonna go ahead and pick up one of the only two remain, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, only three, three remaining chests that are there, and is gonna attempt to throw it in the direction of the sentry.
Bing says, yes.
With all that said and done, it's gonna be a 14 to throw it, which is enough. And this elf is not as strong as being by any means, kind of like has to grunt heavily to do something, but then lobs it. It looks like it's not gonna make the full arc, but then Biana kind of kicks up off the ground and gives it that extra push and it slams into the side.
Volleyball set.
Yep. Key, go ahead and roll a d10 for me.
It's a seven.
A seven. As it blasts against it, another cluster of animated ropes spring out and attempt to wrap around this entity. The massive glyph hulk, weirdly enough, with a super low roll, even though it's pretty strong, gets wrapped up in these ropes to a certain degree. The ropes don't fully restrain it, but it does, well, as I'll say, it is restrained at the moment. It won't be difficult for it to break free, given like its anger and stuff, but it is currently held in place. It can't move and it has disadvantage on its attack rolls.
So no damage, but it is definitely kind of gummed up a bit. The elf kind of quietly gives a fist pump.
The two imps are going to go for each other. One's gonna strike at one with a natural two, fails, while the other one's gonna go ahead and does manage to sting the other one with its tail. This is some mini kaiju combat happening over here.
Leon pulls out some popcorn.
So that's gonna be five points of piercing damage. Well, actually, it only takes two because they are resistant to piercing damage. They're both, no poison, they're immune to poison, so they're just both kind of clawing each other like a couple of angry siblings in the air. Finishing their go, that brings us to Key. It's your turn.
Okay, this seems like as good a time as any to use fireball.
Key is always in favor.
That's a very key thing to say in general, I think.
I mean, when in doubt. All right, am I far enough away? Is everyone else far enough awake? Key kind of looks around. She's like, is everyone far enough away that I can count? Pass fireball. No one else is gonna get hurt.
Uh, you and Biana are definitely right up against this creature.
Alright, alright, alright.
However, however, you are also, it is taller than you.
Cause where, where, uh, where Leon had to kind of clamber up onto the pillar to get eye level with this creature? And you had to kind of help hold him up.
This creature was that height as it pulled itself free from the pillar. So it probably stands about eight, nine feet tall. You could try and aim your fireball up. The chamber is tall enough that you could try and blast it, but it's a 20 foot tall chamber and it is a 20 foot radius. So, uh, you could try and, if you want to, you can try and move out of the way.
Uh, and blast kind of off to the side to try and catch it in just the edge of the blast. It'll probably incinerate a lot of books. But you don't care, right?
I don't really care about that. No, that seems fine. Um, can I do that and then use my bonus action to like push me and Biana out of the way? And like save her, you know, like I'm, so I'm, I'm kind of like fireballing the golem like on its side, right?
And getting a lot of books behind it.
Sure, I'll say.
And then I'm like, clear! And I'm doing a flying leap.
I love it.
To Biana, so she doesn't hate us.
Great. So you go ahead, cause you're both side by side and the creature's like not that far from you. You go ahead and go into a shoulder charge, kind of push like, trying to get you both out of the way, action movie style. So we'll say, yeah, you lose your bonus action to do that.
Go ahead and roll, roll an acrobatics check for me, if you don't mind. This is to see how well you can, you can manage to maneuver both of you to a safe space.
I got a seven. Okay, plus two.
A nine. Okay. Uh, so as you push both of you out of the way and unleash your fireball, you let this bead of, of red arcane energy that kind of streaks across to one of the far walls behind where this pillar is before. Explodes and spills a good third of this chamber with spinning arcane flame. The sound of it kind of rocks the tower itself and it echoing.
This massive explosion, kind of you can almost feel it hitting the lower floors with its vibration. Um, it does fill the chamber with flame, uh, catching the, uh, catching the, the target of this. However, uh, I will say this, either you or Biana get caught in the blast with advantage on a dexterity saving throw to try and reduce the damage. Who do you pick?
It's gotta be me. I feel like I deserve it. I don't know.
Yeah. So go ahead and make a dexterity saving throw for me, uh, with advantage. So you get to roll twice, take the higher number and then add, uh, two to it.
Damn it. I just rolled a one. Are you kidding me? This is gonna be such a dramatic ending to this story.
Uh-oh. All right. So go ahead, go.
So what am I adding?
So you're rolling your fireball damage. Uh, that is eight D six damage. So roll eight six headed dice and add them together.
So that's 20 for the first roll.
You're just going great. 13 for the second roll.
So 33, 33 points of fire damage. So the, you, the blast catches the stone, uh, glyph hulk and with full bear, it does not succeed at saving throw and takes a massive 33 points of fire damage. As you're pushing Biana out of the way in that slow motion moment, the bright light of the flame kind of heads towards you. And you realize in that moment, ah, you miscalculated before you take 33 points of fire damage.
I'm dead.
So yeah, you are, you are definitely unconscious and the, and you are dying. So, uh, Biana kind of stumbles back out of the way unharmed. Uh, the rest of you watch as Key gets blasted about 10 feet from where she was standing, kind of rolling. And is not moving on the ground. Key, I need you to go ahead and roll a death saving throw for me. At the end of your turn, because you are unconscious and dying. You roll a d20. You want to get a 10 or higher. 10 or higher is a success.
And a lower is a failure. You want to succeed three times before you fail three times, or you are dead.
This is good. It's very hard to die in this game.
You girl got a three. Am I dying, guys? Am I dying?
You never want to say it's very hard to die in this game.
Yeah, you just said that before your roll. I have a great feeling about this. What could go wrong?
Possibly go wrong.
I don't know.
Oh, it's gonna be so dramatic.
I lost all my luck on getting an eight.
As Key lies unconscious on the ground, kind of still bits of flame, kind of burning the edges of clothing and form. We shift now over to the glyph hulk's turn. The glyph hulk blasted by the flame, angry, looks around, doesn't see Key, who is now on the ground, and B'Yana's been pushed out of the way. It angrily glares across the way, unable to see the now unconscious Key. And B'Yana, having pushed out of the way, it seems to focus its ire on Bing. It tenses against the ropes that keep it restrained currently from the chest that was thrown against it.
And it is a natural one, preventing it from breaking free from the ropes. And its frustration, it gives this low, guttural, kind of muffled
kind of humming cry. As it does, its green shattered eyes begin to glow brightly, and a beam of arcane energy kind of cyclops beams out towards you, Bing. Bing, I need you to make a dexterity saving throw for me.
That is a 14.
And actually, you have an advantage on this, uh, because you are a barbarian.
Well, it's still gonna be a 14.
Okay, there we go. Uh, so that just fails, unfortunately. The beam catches you as you try and dodge it out of the way. Uh, you take, uh, seven points of necrotic damage. As the beam hits you, it's not forceful, and it doesn't burn, but as it, but as it kind of hits your skin, it feels cold and numb. And as you kind of get back off of your knees after trying to dodge it out of the way, where it hit you, your skin is now beginning to blacken and crack, like it's been immediately plagued.
Yikes.
That finishes its turn. We come back to Leon.
Uh, Leon is grossed out, and he loses his turn. No, um, Leon is going to, I mean, I still like the idea of taking off that crown, but Bing won't listen to me, and my mage hand is not gonna be strong enough. So Bing, so Leon is just gonna use his fire bolt cantrip on, uh, old what's-his-name fuckface, uh, the Gollum.
You got it. So go ahead and roll. Uh, that's gonna be, yep, a d20 plus four.
Uh, that would be a 13.
A 13 unfortunately misses. The bolt hits, but where it hits, it looks like some of the, uh, the stone glyphs on it kind of flash, and it almost dispels the bolt before it impacts in its chest. No impact. You still have your bonus action and move, however.
I'm gonna hide.
Okay, so go ahead and roll stealth check as you dive down behind one of the still-standing cabinets, the few that are there, and a mostly destroyed chamber.
Uh, that would be, uh, not good. Uh, seven.
Seven, got it, okay. You go and dive behind a cabinet, right as the cabinet kind of catches the edge of your cloak and spins, and then tumbles over. It doesn't break, but it slams the ground with a heavy thud, leaving you standing exposed, and the heavy sound causes the entity to shift its attention over, and now it definitely perceives where you're standing.
That's gonna finish your turn, Leon. Uh, with that being, you're up.
Okay, so if I, I don't have any healing potions left, so I don't really have a way to help Ki, is that right?
Well, you would need more than just a healing potion, right?
A healing potion, you could try and feed somebody.
A phoenix stout, if you will.
Yeah. Uh, yeah, any means of healing could be. Uh, the other magic practitioner in this chamber is currently sleeping soundly at the foot of a chest. The snoring, or half-orc bard, uh, is currently nowhere to be seen as he's just behind your visual sight.
Okay, um, so Bing looks over at that bard who is sleeping on the chest? And is he kind of, he's like, is he kind of leaning on the chest?
Uh, he's actually curled up in the fetal position with a thumb in his mouth, kind of just on the, at the base of it. Like, he kind of slumped and slid down it, and it's just kind of napping.
Okay. So Bing is gonna pick up that chest? Can he do it in a way that bumps that guy in the head while he's picking it up?
I'll allow that. Uh, go ahead, go ahead and make a strength check. I would say with a disadvantage, uh, in this instance. But, but because you are raging, it just makes it a straight roll.
Oh, sure. Okay. Oh, nice, that's a 19.
19. So as you pick up the chest, poof, you slam it in the side of his head. Uh, I'll say enough to do a damage, and the bard kind of like, uh, uh, hey, what's, what, what, what happened? What's going on?
Um, so Bing, Bing is sort of, is holding the chest over his head, and he looks down at the guard, and he looks over at Ki, and he's like, "You help her!", and then he throws the chest at the, uh, at the stone being.
Okay. Uh, he goes like, "What do you mean, help? We're supposed to be..." And then glances over and sees the massive stone creature that's rampaging, goes like, "Okay, I get it!". You go ahead and throw the chest, uh, go ahead and roll, uh, go ahead and roll an athletics check for me.
That's gonna be a 21.
Heck, yeah. All right, so with that, you go ahead and take this chest, uh, one of the few still standing, and it smashes across it. Roll a d10 for me.
Five.
A five. This one explodes across its chest, another small localized explosion that blasts into it. As this chest detonates, uh, oh, a natural one on its dexterity saving throw, taking the full brunt of the damage. Go ahead and roll 4d6 for me if you don't mind, Bing.
Hell yeah.
That's gonna be nine.
Nine points of fire damage. The chest bursts across this, this stone creature. It's like, it's front stone engraved chest that's now blackened and charred with the multiple blasts that have rocked it. Uh, you can still move if you want to.
Mm-hmm. Uh, there's one chest remaining, is that right?
Uh, there is one chest remaining.
I, I'm gonna, Bing, Bing sort of seizes on that last chest and heads over to it and grabs it and throws it.
All right.
Athletics. Oh, nat 20.
Oh, oh, oh, yes.
That's a 28, I guess, modified.
Roll a d10 for me, and I'll say, I'll say roll, because it's a natural 20, roll three times, and I'll, I'll, I'll choose from the list which is the most horrifying.
Okay, great. We've got a one, a 10, and a four.
We got a 10. Okay. Uh, so, the one smashes across it, and it does the green gas of poison kind of bursts around it. It seems unscathed as it does not breathe. Uh, you said it was a, which one was the last one you rolled? A four?
Uh, four, yeah.
Right. Uh, we'll say like, like, the, the, the gas that kind of emerges from it, uh, has no effect. The four doesn't, doesn't seem to go off. There's nothing in there, because this is like a massive, like, multiple trapped one that you did with this natural 20. However, after the shards of it shatter across its chest, all these splinters of wood kind of fly outward, all these splinters of wood kind of fly outward and then stop in midair. And these strange kind of silver tendrils of arcane power seem to emerge from where the impact happened. All the splinters begin to pull back in as this small localized black hole kind of briefly.
Begins to open where it hit and as it does, all shards of wood, stone and bits of paper and books and things that have fallen from this all begin to kind of warp and spin around. The stone creature tries to pull away, but it can't. The ropes still holding it in place, so it is going to have disadvantage on its constitution saving throw on this. Uh, that's a natural 20, but it has disadvantage. And a 3! That's a failure! (laughing) So, go ahead and roll 6d6 force damage for me as it's now being like crushed into the middle of this tiny singularity.
Alright, that is... wow.
27.
27. Oof! As the singularity pulls in, the creature kind of hunches over, feeling itself pulled in. The ropes snap and are destroyed by the proximity, and immediately the singularity kind of vanishes with a little popping sound. As it does, the glyph hulk stands up and you can see in the middle of its chest is just cracks running all through it. More of that kind of green energy is kind of peeking through. It looks fairly damaged and very angry.
That finishes your turn, Bing?
Yes.
Alright. Biana is going to dart over right in front of the entity to grab the unconscious body of Ki and attempt to drag her away from any sort of bit of danger. In doing so, she will trigger an opportunity attack from the now freed glyph hulk, which will try and slam her with a fist. Oof, with a natural 16, that will definitely hit. So that will be...
Oof, 14 points of bludgeoning damage against Biana.
Biana, who is still poisoned from that chest earlier, takes a heavy hit in the back and is knocked to the ground, kind of still protecting the form of Ki before picking herself back up and begins running off and kind of scoots her over towards where you are being. So Ki is now unconscious at your feet. Biana looks up at you and goes to say something before coughing up blood across Ki's shoulder and part of the ground. Looks like the heavy, like sledgehammer-like hit she just took definitely cracked something. Finishing Biana's go, the elf on the side is gonna go ahead and you don't see the elf for a second until you hear "Ahhhh" and you see the elf is pushed around and there
are the three remaining cabinets side by side. She's trying to push one cabinet into the others to cause a domino effect. She'll go ahead and attempt to make with a natural 15, it's only plus 2, that'll be 17, that does it. The cabinet kind of "Ahhhh" dominoes in the next one, last one, slams over into the side of the stone entity. The stone entity feels the impact, instinctually spins around with a massive fist to backhand it, reflexively to try and fight off whatever attacker is there, and shatters this cabinet. You know what? Ki, go ahead and roll a d10 for me.
It's an 8.
That's an 8. As this bursts forth, more of these vines now emerge and attempt to wrap him up. Ki, a natural 19, does make a strength saving throw. So, a nice try by the elf and companion of Biana, but this entity does manage to break itself free of this kind of interior trap enchantment. Finishing that go, the imps just keep striking each other. They're kind of out of the fight focused on each other, they're not even present at this point. Ki, it is your turn, I need you to make another death saving throw for me.
This is terrifying.
Okay, it's a 10.
Okay, so that is a success. So you have one failure and one success. Kind of still teetering on the knife's edge.
But that does finish your turn.
Still breathing.
The glyph hulk takes its turn. Now freed from the ropes, damaged and furious from what Bing has unleashed upon it now multiple times. It goes into a terminator sprint.
And is attempting to swing at you twice, with one with each of its massive sledgehammer-like fists. The first one comes at you. Ooh, natural 18, that's gonna be a 25. And the other strike is going to be an 8 plus 7, that's going to be a 15 to hit. What's your armor class?
16! So the first fist comes and hits you square in the sternum. You feel your rib cage kind of crack in multiple places from the impact. It sends you sliding back on your back foot by about 2 feet. You take... Oh my goodness. That's gonna be 22 points of bludgeoning damage. You are raging, which means you take half damage from bludgeoning damage. So actually you only take 11.
Bing falls to one knee and then stands slowly back up.
The other fist comes forward to try and finish you off. Describe to me Bing, how you managed to avoid the second strike.
Bing is on one knee after taking that great hit. And as he stands up, just sort of stumbles backwards and accidentally dodges the fist.
The fist just barely misses your nose by a centimeter. You feel the wind of it kind of blow your hair and clothes to one side. You catch yourself just grabbing the side of your sword barely in time. That finishes the Hulk's turn. Leon, you're up.
Alright, um, so when the elf pushed over the cabinets, only one of them shattered? Like the other two are still leaning against that one?
Correct. Or leaning against the cabinet, yeah. They're still nearby.
Okay, but they're like, they're looking... Oh, but the Hulk ran over towards Bing, so he's not there anymore?
Correct.
Okay, okay.
Man, I really wanna rip off that friggin' circlid on his head. I feel like that's gonna stop him, but I don't think I can.
Bing, if only you would listen to me. I'm gonna cast another firebolt tantrum, cuz that's pretty much all I can do on the Hulk.
Great, go ahead and roll an attack.
That would be, uh, 10.
10 unfortunately doesn't hit. These firebolts are striking its back and just kinda flaring off, no impact.
I'm gonna try to hide again for my bonus.
Okay, roll stealth check.
Uh, 11.
11. You duck behind one of the kind of cracked cabinets. There's not a lot of places to hide now that most of the terrain has been destroyed, whether by fireball or by intentional destruction. But you managed to find one alcove. You think you're pretty well hidden. Finishing your turn, the bard that's now conscious kinda gets up to its feet, still having the bolt in its leg, it's like, ah, this hurts so much, hide. Oh goodness, looks down and sees Key is just burnt, the little flames still kinda flickering on death sword. Ah, this is no good. Leans down and kind of hums a little tune, has a little like harmonic hum, goes like, huh, and begins to kind of, it looks like a wiping his hand sort of motion, but as he does, this kind of faint pulsing golden light begins to spill between his fingers, and then he sets them down onto the shoulders of Key,
and casts Cure Wounds on you at second level.
And so that's 8 plus 3, you heal 11 hit points, Key, and you're, you come to consciousness on the ground.
Alright, does that mean I'm like at 11 out of my 22? Was I at 0 before?
You were at 0 before and now you're 11 hit points.
Finishing the bard's turn, Bing, you're up.
So Bing is now standing next to a recovered Ki and a bleeding Biana. So he sort of squares up next to Biana and just looks down at her in this very familiar position for the two of them to be in. And then he looks at where Leon used to be, and then he looks forward at the stone creature, and he roars and leaps on it and attempts to rip off its crown.
Okay. So full rage within you, both for the, uh, the protection of family that you thought once gone, and the protection of family you've since forged, and the, the possibility of losing it all around you. You are filled with a seething strength as you leap angrily onto this massive glyph hulk and begin to just tear towards its forehead. So with each attack, you can attempt to do so. You are raging, so you have advantage. Make a strength check. With advantage, so roll the twenties and add your strength modifier.
So a twenty-one.
So you need to beat a twenty. So describe to me, Bing, how you tear this circlet from the entity.
So Bing initially just, he jumps onto the creature. It's quite large, and he's ripping, pulling at its head, and it's sort of swinging and flailing, stomping around the room. And he climbs up onto its shoulders and is just grabbing, grabbing at the, grabbing at the crown, and he starts to roar. At the top of his voice, he's just shredding his vocal cords, pulling at it, and he just rips back and pulls it back.
As you tear it free, it wails. And as it does, this like weird, uh, like vibrational cry, uh, the stone around its entire body, begins to crack throughout and shatters all off in all directions in an instant. As you kind of pull back, holding the circlet in your hand, you look forward, and where it was standing while the stone has broken apart, there is a wispy, kind of green, ghostly form where it once stood, an echo of itself, still standing but exposed, kind of drifting in its space with this weird, windy kind of... Sound. It is, it is heavily diminished in its capability.
You have a second attack if you like to, Bing.
So it's like, it's like a spectral being, like a ghost being. And I'm holding the circlet.
All right, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna swing my sword at it.
Right? So with a circlet in one hand, you bring the sword ready, swing towards it, roll an attack.
See what happens. Why not?
That's gonna be a, uh, seventeen.
Seventeen definitely hits. Don't worry about rolling damage. Your blade swings through it harmlessly. As your blade kind of passes through, it kind of crackles for a moment. And whatever like faint bit of arcana this entity seems to hold that keeps it tethered here is unaffected by your paltry physical weapons.
Okay, um, Bing just sort of spits some blood out and leans on his sword.
His turn is over.
Biana is kind of getting up next to you, kind of going shoulder to shoulder with you. After noticing this, looks down at both of her blades. And kind of, their shoulders sink a bit, sheathes them. And quietly looks you with her one good eye. Kind of gives you a nod of like, we go down, we go down together.
And Bing just sort of gives her the same look back and nods.
The elf that's back in the way sees this and takes a dagger and throws it toward this entity. It just passes through it harmlessly and you hear, shit! And then they, then they go, they go to hide and end up sneaking up right next to you, Leon. Oh, hello.
Shouldn't have wasted your dagger there.
I'll pick it up later, it'll be fine.
The imps, both just kind of screaming in the up, up, up, upper echelon of the chamber, kind of clawing at each other like a, like an impish. Slap fight. Key, it is your turn. You are still on the ground, conscious. What do you do?
So probably like a magic missile is a good way to go, if anything. All right, all right. It's not gonna set anything on fire.
They will not, no.
Of course I know.
Are you casting it at first or second level?
Let's just try first level. I'm, I'm real, I'm a little singed. I'm a little freaked out right now. Let's just go like, let's just see if it works, baby. You know, let's just try it.
All right. So go ahead and roll, uh, 1d4 plus 1 three times.
All right. So 3 plus 1 is 4.
4 plus 1 is 5.
And 4 plus 1 is 5. So that's 4 or 5, 5.
That's great. It only had 12 hit points in this form. So, uh, Key, describe to, describe to me how you magically sunder the remnants of this entity.
Key, her clothes still a little on fire, looking more emotionally shattered than she has yet to look over the course of this campaign, is like, all right, this is what I got. And so she pew, pew, pew, crossing her fingers, literally watching the ghost kind of evaporate. A sparkle, sparkle, sparkle, sparkle. She's like, did I do it? Did I do it? She's looking around.
As, as the, the last bits of it kind of fade away into the ether around you and the, the circlet clutched in Bing's hand, what little, you know, flaming elements just kind of slightly smoldering off on the periphery, uh, with the elf kind of poking its head for it. Biana looks back at you and kind of just nods. That was impressive.
So were you looking for this circlet too, or?
Yes, yes. That was, that was part of my job. That's what I was hired to do. Is that what you're all here for?
Yeah, that's what we're here for too. And Bing is sort of holding it and looking at it. He sort of studies it. What, what does it look like up close?
Uh, it is, it is a gorgeous, uh, kind of like platinum, silver circlet that is a multitude of thinly crafted cables that kind of weave together like, like a braid, like a, like a, an intricate Celtic braid of metal. And along it, there are smaller, uh, emeralds that eventually get larger and larger towards the center to meet as, uh, like two central pair of the full 10 across. As you're inspecting this and all kind of emerging from hiding, you hear across the chamber.
And you watch as from the upper staircase area, the opposite side of where the fireball detonated, thankfully.
An invisibility illusion fades. And there you see standing Lady Obella Margaster, the strange owner and a seemingly magical caretaker of this tower, begin to step down the stairs towards you all. That was quite impressive for all of you.
Bing just sort of half draws his sword and steps back and sort of just checks on all of his companions.
Leon is trying to figure out why she cares so much about this circlet that she would go to such measures to protect it. Can she do, can Leon do some sort of, I guess,
make an insight check?
Insight check?
Insight check to kind of ascertain what their current mood and intent is.
10.
10. Lady Obella Margaster is a deeply enigmatic and of a figure, and a woman of forceful personality. Her presence consumes a room to the point where you feel like you almost have to get against the walls. And even the brief time that you've met her, while you were in the exterior of this tower, hucking your wares as traveling merchants, there was something about her that was offsetting and strange. And here, within her chambers, it all begins to click. She is quite the weaver of the arcane arts. However, you're not quite sure what the scenario is. Her clap comes to a close as she begins to step towards the center of the chamber around the pillar.
At first glance, I knew you likely were not just traveling merchants. But then again, I was also the one that put out these contracts.
Bing sort of re-sheathes his sword and spits a little bit more blood and says, "I knew it."
Leanne just looks at Bing and is like, "What? No, you didn't."
You knew it? You knew it.
Bing sort of turns to the two of you and he's holding the circlet and he looks at the room and he sort of points. He's like, "Well, look at all of this. Look at her." And he points over at Abella.
Well, I have married into a very affluent family and I have ways to spend my time. You've all proven yourselves to be functional burglars and adaptable spies, which I may have use for in the future. This wasn't a robbery. This was an audition.
Interesting.
Bing sort of exhaustedly sits down on a chunk of stone that's remaining on the ground.
Leanne is impressed. That's, that's, uh, it's good stuff. It's a good, good, long con there, my lady.
Bing is now spinning the circlet around on his finger and he says, "What about this thing? Is this even anything?"
That piece, it was a gift for my wedding. I'm not particularly fond of it, but I figured it was a nice, a nice centerpiece for enchanting the protective wards of this chamber.
He lets it, he lets it spin down and, and looks at Bianca and he sort of, he's like, and he raises his eyebrows and offers it to her.
She takes it and glances at it for a minute and kind of like spits on the ground.
Lady Abella, what was this an audition for?
Well, now that you can see a little more of my truth, and to I am behind the public facade, I wish to see who amongst the finest of operatives could become my favorite chosen. Those who would succeed on this contract would be offered a majestic stipend under my watch, influence and boons throughout my favored servants of this keep and those who are allies of the magisters that locales all across the Sword Coast. Opportunities to climb within the hidden elite of the circles that control and forge the future of this landscape.
Leanne just looks at Bing, he's like, "Oh yeah, did you know that too?"
Bing just shrugs and says, "I mean, it beats living with livestock."
I mean, it sounds pretty good to me.
Boons, influence and boons. It sounds, it sounds pretty good. I like boons.
Well, what happened to Elix? Was Elix working for you?
Elix was the one who received the contract. But indeed, he was one of my, uh, old, uh, compatriots. A previous hire who aged out of his usefulness, but is still useful for his contacts. So I see that he sent some of his finest to come prove their mettle.
Bing, uh, Bing is very deeply injured, like he's just bleeding kind of everywhere and he's pretty messed up. Uh, but he stands up and he, so he looks at, um, at Leanne and Key. He says, "So the two of you are in?"
I look at Biana and I'm like, "You forgive us?"
Biana, who's also like blood trickling from the mouth, like, standing is as strongly as she can, but you can, but you see is, has taken a few hits, kind of grins a bit of, you know, around her bloody teeth and goes, "I've literally survived worse. So I think, I think for now we're fine."
Bing turns and, and looks at Obella and says, "Well, I think we're interested."
Leanne says, "On one condition, Luther comes with us."
Lady Obella kind of thinks to a second. Well, if you believe Luther has more usefulness, you have an eye for talent as well. There are two things. One, my husband cannot know of our dealings here. You are just bodyguards.
Of course not. Husbands are useless.
Exactly. And two, this was a competitive dual contract circumstance. So, do you wish to, uh... And she gives kind of a, a nod and a hand gesture about battling it out. To see who still stands to raise and take this great opportunity? See, Biana kind of looks over like, "What?"
As we're having this conversation, are the imps still just slapping each other in the air?
They are in the air. Just kind of like floating through like
pairing up in the corner.
Bing shakes his head, looks up at her and says, "Package deal."
And you agree to these terms? Biana kind of looks with her one good eye back at Bing and the rest of the troupe. Looks over towards the ragged bard who's kind of yawning and the elf who's still kind of hiding in the back, who kind of like gives a shoulder shrug.
Well, you didn't specify how many people needed to be the troupe. I think six, and looks over towards Bing. Or a fresh seven, sounds like a good crew to keep. Lady Obella contemplates. I would like a group persuasion check here, so that the three of you could all roll persuasion checks for me.
Twenty-four.
Oh my god, a nineteen.
Twenty-seven.
A twenty-four and a twenty-seven!
We're feeling very persuasive after this fight.
Yes, you are. Lady Obella crosses her arms and grins.
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership. As she smiles and kind of flicks her hand to one side, all the flames in the chamber go out at once. The imps are dispelled, screaming back to what realm they came from. And a number of the candles across the room that were blown out from the impact of the detonations bring a warm, welcoming light to the room. She goes, "Welcome to Thornhold Tower, friends. You're home."
As we pull back from the tower, through one of the walls, we drift out over a nighttime view of Thornhold itself. Many of the servants kind of scattered around, kind of glancing up at the tower, confused by the ruckus and sounds that have emerged from it. We see now the moonlit sky over the nearby oceanside cliffs over the Sword Coast, as a new family has been forged.
Now, the three of you, as you sit back in your lush chambers to rest and recover after a very harsh and, well, hard-earned night, you have a moment to kind of think over this moment before the night comes to a close.
Are we together?
If you'd like to be, yeah.
Yeah, I think we're in like a common room, say.
Yeah, we're hanging.
Okay, Bing heavily bandaged and pouring himself a glass of mead, looks across the room and says, "You know, there are a lot of people I could have done this with, but I'm glad it was with you two."
Same, buddy.
Here, here. I'll drink to that. But are we gonna ever find out how Biana came back to life, or what?
Yeah, we gotta go find her room. I got a lot of questions. Did you see that scar on the back of her neck?
Oh my god, she like needs some makeup. She needs to work on that thing. At least wears some... Pop your collar.
I don't know, I think she looked pretty good, considering.
Bing pours two more drinks for the two of you. Says, "Well, I suppose we can just go ask her."
We go to Biana's room and knock on her door.
You have your drinks with you. Probably took a bottle with you, knowing Biana's, you know, wine-down technique.
We got our red solo cups and just a ton of...
Biana, we have a blood all the clothes!
The door like creaks open and Biana kind of leans in. You can see herself bandaged on the same scale the rest of you are, looking towards all of you and immediately grabs the bottle from your hand and just takes a heavy swig. I appreciate the delivery. I was having a bit of a nap, but you're welcome to step in, I guess, if you'd like. And she gestures into the chamber as you all kind of come into this, you know, what looks like a very dusty guest room that hadn't been touched in a long time. Like, most of the furniture is still covered in sheets, except for the bed where she rested is just like tossed.
Never much for interior decoration, are you?
When you meander as much as I have, you don't really spend enough time to put effort into a place you'll probably never see again, but maybe that's changing.
So, Biana, after what happened, I don't know if you know this, the three of us, we all went our separate ways. We couldn't even look at each other anymore. So to see you here, you thought we abandoned you? I mean, we thought you were dead. What happened?
Takes a heavy swig from the drink. Turns out the executioner has has a few debts to the Xanathar Guild, and one of their own folk saw some potential in me. It also seems that our failure at our last gig wasn't our fault, but was sabotaged.
Bing makes another like a tight fist, and he says, "I'd say I knew it, but the two of you wouldn't believe me, so just keep it to myself."
It seems they have a recruiter with an eye for talent, and they made sure the cut was just deep enough to make it look good, but not beyond magical repair.
Bing says, "So much time went by. You didn't, you didn't look for me once?"
Well, those who I was indebted to didn't tell me for a while that the sabotage was external. And I, to be honest, still believed that there wasn't an effort put into even trying to stop this. So yeah, I held some resentment. Maybe I still do. But we'll see how time will tell.
So who sabotaged us?
There's a fun little troupe out there that seems to have been reestablishing itself from water deep in spaces beyond ever heard of the Xintarum. And with that word, we pull back through the window beyond the fallen curtains that frame the nighttime. And that information might be for another story.
And that is Triple Quest.
Yeah. I didn't die.
You did it. Congratulations.
He just shouts that out the window into the night. I didn't die.
That was so great. Well done. Thank you, Matt. Thank you for all of this.
Thanks so much. That was just wonderful.
Thank you. Y'all had a so much fun. Y'all had a super.
Thanks a lot.
Triple Quest was written by Matthew Mercer with improvisational assistance by Jason Schreier, Maddy Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edited and mixed the show and also wrote and performed all the music, and my friend and DM Sam Parrish helped me edit this finale episode. We were only able to afford to hire Matt to run this game because of the generous support of our Maximum Fun members, so if that's you, thank you so much. And if you'd like to help make it possible for us to do things like this in the future, consider becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join. Okay, this adventure is over, but the next adventure always beckons. We couldn't have done it without you, so for Bing, Leon, Key, and Luther, thanks for joining us for Triple Quest.
Page updated November 5, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated