C02 - Ep. 19.5 - Karcasuuk Coup - Between the Tales
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Mom, Dad, I humbly suggest you save some money and shop Amazon for back to school. It's for my growth, meaning my body's growing at an alarming rate. And clothes you buy me this year will be very small very soon. Plus, the clothes I love today will be out of style tomorrow. But at least your wallet doesn't have to be my fashion victim.

Hello everyone, welcome to Tales from the Sneaky Dragon. I'm your Dungeon Master, Gustavo Sorolla. We're here with a Between the Tales episode. I'm joined by our cast. As always, please introduce yourself, cast.

I'm Barbara Dunkelman. And I play Elka Von Brath, the half-elf vampire barbarian and the leader of the party. Yes. Can you, like, add another, like, descriptor to there each time? Like, I'm a Capricorn. Because it feels like it just keeps going. I like long walks on the beach. But I hate sand. I have allergies. Yeah. I'm allergic to shellfish.

Since I'm already talking, I'll just say me. Hi, I'm John Reisinger. I play Mati, the Eric Cochran ghost monk. Mati. Confess you? Mati confesses. We're going in the opposite direction today. I'm going all topsy-turvy. Hey there, it's me, Chip Haney, your good friend, your old buddy, your pal from high school. Hey, haven't checked in on you in a while. How you doing? The way you step into your accent is like someone cautiously stepping on an escalator that they're not sure how it goes. Oh, we're going higher. It's Blaine Gibson. I play...

the T-Fling Rogue. Listen, between this and the other campaign and Baldur's Gate, I got so many characters in my head. I just want to make sure that everyone doesn't think that we're just laughing at you because of just any random thing. It's genuinely every time we do this, Blaine looks at the computer. Oh, he has a computer today.

I'm Chris Damaris and I play Barney Farney, the grandfather you've not called in a while. Anytime I hear Barney Farney, I just expect to hear pull my finger right after. The grandfather you haven't called in a while. And he's a human cleric.

The last thing you remember is a smoldering sphoenix lunging after you with open jaws and an inferno of fire engulfing you. A blinding light eclipses your eyes and you feel searing flames licking you from every angle, singeing your skin and feathers for what seems like a lifetime. I'm a tiefling so I go "Ew!" It's really tickling you. Without warning, you all land on solid ground and it feels warm and rocky. Everyone make a perception check. 17 for Elga. 18 for Chip.

12. 19. So what do we have? 12, 17, 18, 19. Really good rolls. All double digits. Barney, the first thing you notice is you feel lighter than normal. Maybe you got strong. You look down and realize all your possessions and equipment are gone. No. All you're left with is nothing but the clothes on your back. Oh, thank God.

I know. Elga doesn't want to see that. The other three of you, Elga, Chip, and Mateed, you see a deep red half sun peeking over a horizon of scorched earth and golden sky. The blackened land is streaked with rivers of molten magma, constantly boiling and bubbling. Is my bum bag on me? Or do I lose my equipment? You only have your clothes on your back. No bum bag. Okay. Okay.

Ship's gonna break. This is the first time you're gonna see him lose his temper. He's gonna go, where the heck is my bum bag? And that had your notes from Carol, right? My wife made that for me and I need it now! Now! Make a investigation check, see if you can find it. Okay. That is a 13. You, you know, start patting down, checking all your pockets and looking on the floor around you, trying to find... I got you, Micah. There you go. That fast? Listen, Foley. Yeah, look, it's... Hey, listen. This is, this bum bag is very important.

You're looking for your bum bag. Please stop doing that. It's actually the sound of him tapping his butt. Yeah, so firm. Congo drums. And you can't find it. You don't see it on your person. However, nearby and slightly in the distance, you see what appears to be like a

A humanoid cornered by a couple of animals. Oh, like cornered as in the animals are attacking it possibly or seem aggressive? Yeah, they seem aggressive. Oh, let's go help. What kind of animals are they? It's not something you've seen before. They're kind of like tigers with fire red stripes that smolder. So might you say they're like little baby phoenixes?

No, not quite. This phoenix, you know, is more of like an amalgamation of different animals. This looks a lot more tiger-ish. Like a fire tiger. Figer. Figer, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like a Growlithe. Ooh, or an Arcanine. My favorites. I assume from context clues, there's a Pokemon. Yeah. Very good, Gus. Hey, inspiration, though. Oh, thanks. Oh, wow. No, don't.

It costs one. No, no, no. He deserves it. How far away is the person who is being cornered by animals? Let's say 80 feet or so. Oh, they're pretty far. I've got pretty good intimidation. Maybe we should sneak up and then I can try to scare them and then we can attack. Is the path to this person obstructed by these molten lava flows or is there a direct path? There's definitely a direct path there.

And could we recognize the person from where we are? Like if it's someone you've met before? Yeah. Make a wisdom check. Okie dokie. All of us? If you want to try to see. Okay. I rolled an 18. We don't need it.

10. Real glad y'all looked. Not even going to look. Not even going to look. Elga, what do you see with your tiny little beady eyes? I'm looking. I see this person. Yeah. It does not look like anybody you've met before. It does not look like anyone we've met before. I see. In fact, it doesn't seem like a type of humanoid you've ever seen. A type of humanoid we've ever seen. It looks like a dwarf with chrome skin. It looks like...

- Like a dwarf with chrome skin. - One of them T-1000 dwarves. - And eyes and hair that appear to dance with flame. - And eyes and hair that seem to dance

Wow, that was so poetic. Yeah, thank you. I came up with it myself. Okay. I was complaining. I only heard half that because I was just enjoying you repeating it. It's a kind of humanoid we haven't seen. Hair that dances with flame. You said like a... I forget what I said. Because I was so focused on copying guns. A dwarf with chrome skin. It looks like a dwarf. Got it. Yeah. I know that one from Marvel Snap. Hey.

Room full of nerds. Okay, what if we, like, got on each other's shoulders? Because the bigger you are, the scarier the creatures are. So we can intimidate them with our size. Okay. Bonnie hops up. Okay, all right, that's good. I want to say that I'm looking at Blaine with, like,

Perplexed eyes And I think Mateed would do the same thing As to why this is the path While we're out in this like open lava space There's something in my mustache Mateed do you want to just walk over there calmly You and me Mateed yeah that sounds much better Mecha Charney Assemble

So Barney's on Chip's shoulders. Yeah. Chip off the old block. Where's his walker? Oh, does he have his walker? No. No. Oh, no. You're old. How are you going to get around, old man? On you. Okay. Do you all have, like, a big cloak or anything, or is it just, like, Barney on Chip's shoulders? It's just Barney on Chip's shoulders. Okay. So then this will require, like, something like a performance check to see how well you guys sell that you are this, like,

Goro style big guy possibly intimidation as well. So I'm hoping for it and then Elga and Mateed are walking over like normal. We better hurry. Yeah, make noises. Do you want a performance check?

Well, yeah, you all close the distance and you see there's four of these tiger-like creatures who have this dwarf-like creature backed up into a corner up against some rocks. Yeah, sure. Barney and Chip, make intimidation checks. I assume you're groaning and screaming like dum-dums. Of course. The scariest dum-dums. 15. Stay away from that robo-dorf. 10. 25.

Two combined. Out of 40. I don't think that's how it works. Yeah, it's not how it works. What about Elga and Matita? Are you just watching this performance? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you guys are

I think at this point, Elga and Mateed have just understood that this kind of stuff happens. And you might as well just watch and just see how it turns out. Okay, let's see what they think of you. Let's make a roll. We're very supportive of our friends and their attempt. Escapades. That's the word I prefer. Escapades. It was on a 19, then it rolled over at the last second to a 3. I know that feel. The tiger-like creatures start backing up and growl at you. And...

Begin you know backing away from the dwarf like creature as well Dwarf like creature come to our come here. We're here to help No, not we I we are one you guys are probably gonna need to say this all as in unison. Yeah ready? 3 2 1 Dwarf like creature come to me I am just one person This is awful

Chris is just saying what he wants to say while Blaine is trying to match him. Does this dwarf-like creature feel calmed by the presence of this creature? Fear not! What's the thing that the angel said? Yeah, I bring you tidings of great joy. Yeah, sure. The tiger-like creatures exchange confused glances and then run away in the opposite direction. And the dwarf-like creature cautiously approaches. Oh, I bet...

I bow for our performance and fall off. How much fall damage? Make a dex check. Make sure you can land on your feet. I like to imagine you bow, roll, and land on your feet. Willy Wonka. At 20, 22. Yeah, Barney totally Willy Wonka's. It looks like he falls and breaks a hip, but then rolls and springs up on his feet. Very spry. Thank you.

I was confused. I thought there was three of you, but apparently there's four. So was I. Oh, yeah, we're here, too.

Bonjour. Where are we? What the heck? We got delivered here by a fire. Firebird. Not the cool ride that I used to drive in high school. We're on the plains of Ignis. Who are you? Why are you here? You don't look like you belong here. I'm a tiefling. I belong in the fire. And then I start putting lava on my skin. Ooh, feels good. I don't think you're immune to it. Exfoliating. Exfoliating.

Just burning your skin off. I'm Chip Haney. Pleasure to meet you. Chip, good to meet you. I'm Mags. Mags. Cool name. What are you? What are you?

This is the first person Chip's ever met. What's your curse for that again? He doesn't quite know how to have small talk. Chip is learning. I want to see you, Blaine, next time we meet somebody and you just walk up. What are you? So just for reference, you only have resistance to fire damage. That's what I was trying to let you know. Yeah.

So you only take half the damage by rubbing lava onto your skin. Do you still do it? It's also lava. It's not fire. Maybe I take like some of the rock. So it's not like lava lava, but it's just like... Hot rocks? I'm just looking out for you. Don't do... You're not impervious to this stuff. Yeah, I know. You give yourself a little spa treatment? Yeah. It's just Chip walking through the lava like Michael Scott in The Office walking across the coals trying to convince us it doesn't hurt. Ugh!

Oh, hello, Mags. It's nice to meet you. Elga steps in front because she's small, I assume, similar size to Mags. Yeah, roughly. And doesn't want her to feel hurt? Yes. Doesn't want her to feel intimidated. Oh, hello. I'm sorry. I'm going through a lot here. Those cinder tooths were chasing me. They were after the water in my canteen. It is very rare down here.

Do any of you need a drink? And Mags reaches to her belt and pulls off a water canteen and hands it out in your direction, Elga. Could I do like a check on it to make sure it's water? Yeah, what kind of check do you want to do? Like a perception? I guess. Would that be a perception? Yeah. Yeah. Is this like Evian, Dasani, Smart? It's Voss. Oh. 20. Yeah, it seems like water. Seems like water. Okay. Yeah.

You perceive it to be water. Yeah, actually, I'm, I guess, a little parched that this is not typically what I drink, but I could make an exception. And Elga takes just like a tiny little sip, but she waterfalls it because she doesn't want to touch her mouth to the rim. Oh, no, it's holding water. Gotcha. Yeah, you take a drink and, you know, even though it's not necessarily Elga's thing, it is very refreshing. I feel so alive. Speaking of which, go and roll me a d6.

Is that all bad? Why do you say it in the most distrusting voice? In fact, you feel so alive, you get nine hit points back. I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take a little slurp. Everyone lines up. Yeah, Mags is still holding it out if anybody wants to take a sip. Thank you, Mags. And then I take a sip. And I do too. Do I do a D6? Yeah, D6. Watch out, six. Matiz, are you able to drink anything or does it just kind of fall to the ground if you take a sip? It just looks like you're peeing. Twelve and eight.

Mateed also takes a sip of the water, but it's like the scene from Casper where all the guys are eating the food. And it's just like, it goes through and something, some sort of processing happens. But then it just like, it just trickles out of like Mateed's like foot. Yeah. So it looks like they are peeing. I give a little to Jacques as well. Yeah. If you want, you can roll a D6 and add six to that as well. I get nine. Nice. Woo!

Mags, what a delicious treat on these hills of Ignis. Where are we again? Barney. Where are the plains of Ignis? Plains of Ignis. I'm on my way to find the Totem of Defeat. Totem of Defeat? Mm-hmm. Defeat? Defeat? It's at Quentin Tarantino's house. Oh, jeez.

Do you know what happened to our stuff? No, I just met you. Did you lose your stuff? I guess you lost your totem. I've got my canteen. Hmm. Where do you perhaps live around here? It seems like a quite a desolate and dangerous place. Do you have a home? Oh, no, I don't live here. I live far away. I'm on a quest right now. That's why I'm here on the Plains of Ignis, looking for the totem of defeat. What does this totem do?

Legend says there's Nefreeti there who's capable of unimaginable magic.

You have some sort of wish that needs to be granted? What are you looking for? Don't we all? Well, of course. I'm looking for my missing wife, Carol. Maybe the Afridi can help. Well, we could split the totem of defeat. I don't want to take it. I mean, it was your thing. I don't want to take it. Well, I don't know. Afridi are very powerful. One, two, three, four, five. There's five of us and five toes. On defeat? Yeah. We each get one toe. Five totems? Hey! Inspiration dot. Five.

Well, Mags, we got nothing going on. We're missing our things, and we just got teleported here by a magic flying firebird. So do you want us to join you? You got teleported here? Where are you from? That's a great question. Why don't you answer it, Chip? You look so like you really want to tell them. I know there's a city called Groteth. Nope. But we just got here from Cargasuk.

Carcassook? Carcassook, yeah. Pyramids and... Not familiar with it. Don't know where that is. Well, have you heard of the Van Halen album, Power Slave? Because the cover, it looks exactly... Van Halen? Iron Maiden. Oh, forgive me, Mags. I'm so sorry. This is embarrassing.

Matide, is your friend okay? Matide, like John, has no understanding of hard rock bands and any rock music or anything like that because Matide spent their entire youth listening to nothing but show tunes. Oh. Where does Matide end and John do it? Matide can't say things that John doesn't know, and so whenever Blaine makes references to Judas Priest or anything like that, I'm just like, sure, yeah, that's cool. You're great. I'm right there with you. If we could just talk a little bit about maybe Phantom of the Opera or...

Jar Butler from 300? Our circles intertwine. How long have you been on this quest? Do you think that you are close to it? Or are you still a ways away from discovering? I believe I'm close to the end of my quest. It has been several weeks that I've been traveling the plains. They're very stifling, and as you can see with all the lava and magma everywhere, it's very slow traveling.

But perhaps we can navigate together and conquer these inhospitable lands. Have you ever heard of anything that is called a sphinx? Yes, of course. The sphinx rules this land. Oh. And what is this land called? Pyroa. Pyroa. Pyroa. Is the sphinx some sort of creature who rules this land, or is it some sort of deity that is in charge? The sphinx is powerful.

You would probably not be wrong to refer to this phoenix as a deity, and this phoenix might actually prefer that. But as to whether it's actually a deity or not, maybe up for debate. Oh.

Darn, I forgot my journal is in my bum bag. I'd be taking these notes for sure, though. Shoot. Don't worry, I take notes in my brain for you, Chip. Thank you, Elga. Considering we are in such an inhospitable land that we are strangers to, I see no problem in joining you on the rest of your quest and maybe finding this totem. And maybe we have some of this...

more of this what you call water. Well we need to make sure to ration it for the rest of the journey but yes I'm happy to share it along the way.

Maybe not right now, specifically. Of course. Is there like a yellow brick road to this wizard? Yes, but the yellow is lava. So we don't want to follow the yellow brick road. Dibs on Tin Man. We've got Dorothy as Elga. I am Toto. No, Jacques is Toto. Oh, yeah. You got the scarecrow over there as Barney. What? I'm scared. I'm scared. If only he had a brain.

So, are you Tin Man, Scarecrow, Dorothy, and...

The lion. The lion. Oh, yeah, because you're an animal. But Mateed knows no fear, so. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But I'll take that. I was the Tin Man in middle school. I don't doubt that. So you're all going to need to, you know, travel and traverse the Plains of Ignis, but it's pretty dangerous. So you're going to need to make a survival check to see if you all are able to make it through. 20. I'll miss you guys. Trez. That was a one. Oh, wow. 17. That's a 13 for Mateed for our... Thanks.

English speaking listeners. Did Chip decide to rub himself with lava again? Yeah. It's a two minus one. Chip just walked in the lava like directly into it.

Well, luckily, it's a group check, and enough of you did well, and you did well overall enough that you're able to navigate. A couple of times, you all have to stop Chip from walking directly into the lava, you know, grab him by the collar and keep him on solid land. I'm drawn to the flame. It's like a little moth. It's like that scene in Aladdin where Abus use the red gem. Yeah.

I mean, I feel, I feel, I've gone on the record before saying lava looks like it should be good to eat. It does. It really does. So after journeying for a little bit to the north, you spot a metallic spire standing erect in the center of a lake of lava. It's a few floating rocks on the surface of the lake. Like in a path-like formation?

Not necessarily an explicit path. You could traverse them like a path, but it's not like it was purposely created or laid out there as a path. Is the environment we're around like... It's like episode three.

Okay. I was going to say, is it tumultuous lava or is it like just flowing lava? Are there like spouts and bursts and stuff? Yeah, paint us a picture here. Yeah, it's usually flowing and pretty gentle, but occasionally every now and then there is like a burst of air or gas coming out from the lava that does cause some splashing. That's why you got to be careful. The spire, how far is it from where we're standing? It's in the center of a lake of lava. The lake of lava has about a 50 foot radius. They're about 50 feet away, roughly 100 feet in diameter. Gotcha.

Gotcha. Does the spire have any noticeable... Is it, like, smooth? Or has it got, like, windows, doors, spikes? Is it, like, a building? Has it got a live, laugh, love sign on it? Ha ha ha.

Live, laugh, blurble, gerble. Yes. Go ahead and make a, let's call it perception because you're still not right up on it. We forgot to blurble, gerble. We did. Yeah. Blurble, gerble, everyone. Blurble, gerble. That's the sound of the lava. 12. Not that you can tell. It appears to be very smooth, very thin. Like you don't know that anything would be able to fit inside of it because it would be small. Are we talking like Washington Monument kind of style? Thinner. Thinner.

Yeah, like almost like a pole of some kind. There's like an unidentifiable flag flying at the top. Oh, a flag. Mags, does this here spire have any significance? What is that? Mags kind of scratches her head and stares at it. Don't know if I know what that is. Maybe it could be the totem. I don't know what the totem looks like exactly. Do you know how big it is? Well, all I know is that the totem is...

I mean, that's pretty tall over there. This seems like a tall totem. Those totems are usually travel-friendly. Although a lot of things are tall to me, so... How tall was it, you said? I didn't say, but it's a very tall spire. Let's call it 40 feet. I want to go touch it. Let's go touch it, gang. So you're going to, what, traverse the floating rocks? Yeah. Okay. Just like Anakin and Obi-Wan in their duel of the fates. I have the high ground. Oh, no.

Okay, so we got a volunteer. So Chip is going out. Anybody else? I'll go. Ooh, Barney, okay. I think I'll watch for now. Yep. We'll cheer from the sidelines. Yes. I think the lines have been drawn in this party.

Our test subjects? You got to go about 50 feet hopping rock to rock across the lava. Each of you make, I'll give you the choice whether you want to make athletics check or dexterity check to see if you're able to hop rock to rock. Okay. I guess I'll do a dexterity. Yee-haw. What the heck? Nine. Athletics. 21. My God.

What's happening? Is this some sort of topsy-turvy world we're in? These plains of Ignoos? Nine, really? That's the best you got? Should I do an inspiration? Sometimes I question the stats that are attached to Barty. After he jumped out the window and landed that, I'm like... Yeah. Did a flip off of Chip's back. Yeah, flip off of Chip. Yeah. Hopping on these rocks. He's a spry old feller. I don't think this is worth my inspiration, Dye. Okay. I'll stick to it.

Going to use that fire resistance. Yep. A nine from Chip and a 21 from Barney. Which together makes 30. Again, that's not how it works. But will that stop us from making that joke again? No. Never. So, all right, Chip, you jump out first. I assume you lead the way because you said you were going first before Barney did. Sure. You begin leading the way and Barney's following behind you. About halfway through the lake, you, you know, jump onto a rock and maybe like that little piece of rock on the edge just wasn't,

secure to the rest of it and gives way under your foot. And one of your legs slips out from under you and falls into the lava. Oopsie daisy, there goes all the hair. I have a question. Do I see him slip before he falls into it? I mean, you both are kind of going at the same time. Like, you're jumping as he's jumping as well. You can think of it like he's on the rock in front of you. Also, canonically, by the way, now Chip does not have hair on one of his legs. Oh, no. Did you want to try something? Well, I have a new ability I wanted to try out. Oh.

Barney's telekinetic. Whoa. Whoa. Are we allowed to mention that we leveled up? What an excellent segue. Thank you, Barbara. You're welcome. Since it's a Between the Tales episode, yes, everyone has leveled up. This changes a lot of things then.

So you all are now level five? Five. We got to level up two levels. So before we were level three, now we're level five. So yeah. So Barney apparently has telekinesis now. And so what that does is it gives me Mage Hand Cantrip, which I can do without verbal or somatic components. And the hand is invisible. Whoa. And as a bonus action, I can telekinetically shove one creature within 30 feet of me and they have to succeed on a strength saving throw or be moved five feet toward or away you.

Oh. And a creature can willingly fail the save. So I was going to see if I could win my mind. Kip, as the rock gives way under your leg and your leg begins, you know, getting precariously close to the lava, do you feel a force shoving you from behind? Do you allow it to shove you or do you resist it? Let's see how this plays out. Let it ride. Shove me. Use the force. Oh, again, like episode three.

It's all coming back. Barney reaches out with his force powers, his Jedi mind powers, and gives Chip a little shove, and just, like, pips him right onto the rock, saving him from 10d10 fire damage. Was that you, or was that a ghost? Did you say 10d10? Yeah. I feel like... You gotta be careful. You're going into Yoda territory with that voice. We don't have the license for that. Yeah. Call it something else. Call it the... The Frick.

The Frick is helping me. Oh, the Frick, the mighty Frick. The Farce. That's funny, too. The Farce is really funny. Oh, the Farce is strong in my family. Tell us you have the high ground, Barney. I have the high ground. Despite your close call, you continue, and ultimately you reach the base of the metallic spire, which is in the center of this lake of lava. Neat. Well, we did it. Guess we'll head back now. Okay.

Okay. No, no, I just want to climb this. I want to climb this spire. I want to take that flag. Oh, okay. Call this Chiptopia. It's pretty smooth. What would that be? Acrobatics? Athletics? How do you climb a pole? You want me to do an acrobatics? Yeah, well, let's call this an acrobatics. Hip, hip. Chip, chip. Hooray! 21. Oh, yeah. Didn't expect you to roll that well. You know, you shimmy up the flagpole. Okay.

Is this something that Chip did in his athletics program in Yamford? Oh, yeah. The way, you know, and I had special training, you know, being with Dagger and whatnot. Oh, true. I can climb all sorts of surfaces, even tall people. True. You shimmy up to the top of the spire and you reach the flag. You said you want to pull it down with you? Well, what does it look like first? It is a field of red with a black arrow pointing down. Okay.

A field of red? What do you mean a field? When you describe a flag, it's like, if it's like a one color, you say it's like a field. So it's a red flag with a black arrow pointing down. He's just trying to impress us with his flag knowledge. I found a flag! I think I... What do I do? I think maybe the flag needs to come. Maybe it needs to like... Like the actual flag needs to come down. You want me to... The flag down the pole? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, I'll lower the flag. But is it a flagpole with a rope for doing that? Because you guys keep making that motion. Or is it just a flag on the top of the pole? See, that's what I was curious about. Like what was going on here? Like where y'all were going with this? Yeah, there is a rope attached to it that goes through the flag and then down the spire as well. I didn't have to climb this thing at all.

There was a rope the entire time. Well, then I'll take the flag down. They'll ride it on the way down. So, yeah, I guess you would grab on to it and then, like, just jump down and pull it down with you? Yeah, I'd grab the flag and the rope, though. I don't want to just yank the flag off of the rope. Flag and the rope. How much do you white chip?

195. 195? Okay. You grab on and, you know, jump down. And one thing strikes you about it. It seems like the rope has more resistance than you would expect for just holding a flag at the top of the pole. But, you know, you are able to pull it down with you down to the rock where Barney's waiting below. And does it sound like... No, it's a lot more sturdy than that. Oh, like...

And as your feet touch down on the rock with Barney below, from the other end of the rope, from below in the lava lake, something comes popping up. Something was tied to the rope on the other end. Oh. And where is it and what is it? It's in the lava lake right next to the rock where you all are standing. And it's a chest. It's made of some kind of metal. Is it like accessible from where we're? Yeah, you can reach it. It's right next to the rock.

Right at the base of this. Rip, open that thing up there, Barn. Can I go and just kind of like touch it and sniff it? We found a chest. Barney's sniffing it. You know, inspect it. Why are you smelling it? I think the lovely burn went on it.

I don't know how that works. Very clean probably. Lava smells like something. Does it smell like sulfur? I don't know. That's what I would imagine. Make an investigation check, Barney. At 20. Nice. Barney on fire today. No, no, hopefully not. You don't detect any traps or anything out of the ordinary. The metal of the chest itself is very hot though. It has been just submerged in lava.

Well, then I'll use my new telekinesis mage hand to open it up. How many times could you use that? It's a cantrip. Oh, nice. You pop it open. It's not locked. And inside you find some coin and a potion. Oh. Can I take it? Yeah. It is...

well yeah i'm gonna count it oh and hand it out oh i don't want to take it all i'm not going to just take everything and not share okay that would be awful truly the worst inside the chest are three platinum pieces 12 gold pieces eight silver pieces and 16 copper pieces all right how

All right, how are we going to do this up? Evenly. So everyone gets a platinum except for one person who gets 10 gold because that's equal to one platinum. Okay. I'm going to up mine to one platinum and then we're going to bring in Matide and Elga. Wait, do we get some to Mags?

That's Barbara. That's Barbara right there. We'll take a vote. Are you going to bring it back to us or can we involve ourselves in this conversation? We should probably go over there, huh? We have to jump across lava. Can you fly me over? Sure, I could do that. I fly...

Barbara's T-posing right now. Elga puts out her arms in a T-pose. Well, Mags doesn't want to be left alone. You can hold my hand. She will hop. I was going to say, Mags seems a bit too sturdy for me to be able to carry both of you. Chrome-like dwarf, going to be heavy. Chrome-like dwarf with fiery hair and eyes. Fiery hair and eyes. Yeah, I'd pick up Elga and take her over to this place. And then so we can be involved in this conversation. Yeah, and then Mags is there as well. Oh, is that the totem?

No, this is just metals of various sorts. Are we dividing this up four or five ways? I'll take a platinum, I guess. And you're taking the ten gold, and then you'll take a platinum. I'll take a platinum, too. You can have the copper if you want. Ooh, copper, okay. I like copper. Okay. This worked out better than Barbara imagined. Very conductive. So I don't get the...

You got the 10 gold. Or I guess take the 12 gold. I'll take the 12 gold. And then you added the platinum? I'll add a platinum. And then we also had silver. Oh, I'll take the silver too. You know what? Why not? Yeah, sure. That makes it actually easier so we don't have to do the math. Great. Good day. Banner day. Banner day. Oh, literally. So cute. So dumb. So dumb. And the potion. What about the extra gold? He took the 12. I took the 12. Ja?

Jacques holds out a paw. Okay. High five. There you go. Fresh paw. And we gave the silver to... The silver and the copper to Mags. Here you go. It's nice meeting you. Well, it's turning out great for all of us. Do you want to make an arcana check to see what that potion is? Okay. 15 for Chipper.

Seven. I wasn't gonna roll because I'm only a plus zero, but maybe I'll roll just in case. Yeah, eight, so nothing. Fifteen. Bimmy? Seven. Barney, Mateed, and Elga, you all are convinced it's just water. You're gonna throw it away. Chip, you disagree with them, though. You think that it's a potion of fire resistance. You've seen these before as a tiefling. Oh, this here, this is a... I, like, clicked the glass. This here's a potion of fire resistance. I don't need this, do I? Because I'm already fire resistant.

Yeah, what happens if you are resistant to fire but then also have a fire resistant? Are you like double resistant? It doesn't. No stacking. Oh, that would be cool. So this is basically worthless to me. This is as useful as Jacques' cat pee. So who wants it? Should we give it to our new friend? No, I think they're okay. Their hair is made of fire. I think they're resistant. Yeah, Max doesn't look like he needs it. Maybe I take it. You hear you go, 401.

Okay. So it's in my inventory? Yeah. All right, well, where to next? Mags, is there perhaps anything in your knowledge of where this totem is that mentions this spire? No, I didn't know what this was. Never been to the Plains of Ignis before. Oh, okay. Maybe that's just something they do here? Just a lovely little ropes course in the middle of a lava land. We should probably keep going. This doesn't appear to be the totem. What a bum.

Let's go! It was good team building exercises though. Trust fall.

Anyways, where are we going? Oh, I guess we'll just continue on our journey. Okay. And then he turns around and begins heading back for the shore. At Lanzi? Because there's definitely nothing else here. Guaranteed. I follow. Do we have to navigate back over? I mean, I assume Elga's being carried by Mateed. Chip and Barney, go ahead and make your checks again. Is it acrobatics? I think what I said was athletics or dexterity check.

14 13 probably should have been acrobatics but oh well whatever yeah you all are able to um hop back no problem to the shore meet up with your with your friends okay did you take the flag chip or did you leave it there i forgot i don't remember what you said i took it

Salutations, my stinky supporters. I often get asked, what's the best way to support Tales from the Stinky Dragon? So to help explain, I brought my good friend, John, along to chat with me about it. Yeah, so the best way you can support us is by one, I mean, obviously just being yourself. That's what that would support me is just knowing that you're being your true self. Me too. And knowing that will help us. But beyond that,

It's by becoming a first member on roosterteeth.com, which is essentially our patron model for people who want to support the show in a financial way. And so if you go to roosterteeth.com and become a first member, it's only $5.99 a month. And basically, if you either become a first member or even just watch our content on roosterteeth.com, we get the most

value out of it, which we then can turn the most value possible into even more stinky content. And on top of just supporting us from an altruistic standpoint, you also get stuff out of it too, right? Like you can listen to our episodes ad free, for example. I hate ads. You could take up a hobby with all the time you save not listening to ads.

Maybe you could make your own dice for your own Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Your hobby could be that you join us on our official Discord, which is only for our first members on our Rooster Teeth Discord, where we're posting exclusive content. Today that we're recording this, I posted some behind the scenes photos from our Stinky Dragon Adventures production that just went into production this week.

Well, you know, it's... Man, you set me up for the perfect segue there, John. On top of that bonus stuff, you also get access to Second Wind, which is our bonus show for Tales from the Stinky Dragon. It's pronounced Second Whind. Second Whind. Yep. Where, you know, we do a dive into that week's episode. We talk about things that

what's going on, you know, maybe avenues that were left unexplored, where the party is, what the plans are, what you all messed up. Sometimes either myself or Michael will be there to help give more information. I've never messed up on this show before in my life. Everything has been strategically planned. Sure. We'll find out the rationale behind John when you listen to Second Wind. As a Rooster Teeth First member, again, just $5.99 a month, you get tons of bonus stuff. You get a discount on the Rooster Teeth store, get no ads in Tales from the Stinky Dragon, background play, offline viewing on mobile apps. Check it out.

It's pretty great. This is a heads up for everybody who's been enjoying the dulcet tones of our wonderful music on the show composed by, performed by, everything by my brother Micah. If you've been enjoying those bits of music that are in the show, this is a reminder. All that music is being put on Spotify and other music streaming services for you to enjoy. But on top of that,

We're also putting all of our music on our YouTube channel in large compilation videos, perfect for you to be able to put on in the background while you're studying, or maybe while you're doing your own D&D session. So this is a good excuse for you to head over to youtube.com and go to our Stinky Dragon channel and you can listen to everything there. Do it. It's beautiful.

Okay, so you have the red flag with a black arrow pointing down. Yeah. Okay. Definitely took it. It's the only thing in your inventory right now other than money. Oh my god, you're right. Oh, right. So you all journey for hours and hours to what seems the furthest edge of the Plains of Ignis. You come to the edge of a cliff and look down to see an endless ocean of flames spanning to the golden skyline.

This is the conflagrant coast. I've only seen it from a distance. Same. It's beautiful, isn't it?

Yeah, sure. As Mags is talking, the cliff's edge starts to crumble beneath her. She starts to slip and fall towards the ocean of fire. Can I reach out to grab her? Yeah, make a dexterity check. See if you're able to grab her in time. 19. You reach out, you know, she starts tumbling backwards, you know, kind of, you know, fanning her arms to try to regain her balance. And, you know, you reach out and grab her by the collar. As you grab, you know, and, you know, look down to see her footing to make sure that it's secure, you spot something beneath the cliff's edge. What?

What do I see? Hanging upside down beneath the cliff is a thick totem pole, smooth as glass but black as night. Ooh.

You know, like totem pole is very similar to the word totem. It's almost like it's in the word. Do you think it might be that? Mags turns, you know, and looks at this. Ooh, that looks very promising. Here, I have some rope and pitons. We can use them to climb down. You know, Mags is pulling out rope and pitons and, you know, beginning to secure them and create a safe passage down the cliff. So it's hanging underneath the cliff? Yeah. And it's upside down, you said? Like a slag...

You had a 50-50 chance. Still like mites? Still like tites? What's the difference? Still like mites are on the ground. Still like tites are up above. Yeah. She asked what the difference was. I'm just explaining. I didn't know if I got it right. There's like a little outcropping. Not very big. Not like a lot of land. But there's a little outcropping further down on the cliff. How far is the totem from like this sea of fire? I don't know.

I'd say the totem's hanging about halfway down the cliff's edge. So it's, you know, it's still 150 feet. So far away. While Mags is setting up a little bit of a rock climbing expedition, can Mateed do a little bit of like a reconnaissance swoop? Sure.

Just checking out, seeing if there's anything in particularly of interest around the totem or... Maybe you should fly like upside down so you could see if it's like what it looks like. Because it's hanging upside down. Yeah, I knew it was an air shoal. I don't think birds can fly upside down. You go really high and then you go swoop.

I saw a pigeon doing backflips on the internet the other day. They can do backflips. I just don't think they can fly upside down. I guess you're not hovering. It was cool. Yeah, I know. I saw a video of a bird riding another bird. Oh, I've never seen that. Whoa. And it made me think of the first campaign with Mud, how he would summon owls and make the owls ride on top of the owls. That's pretty cool. What videos about birds have you seen on the internet, Blaine? Yeah.

We're all sharing. There was, oh, yeah, a big one. He was yellow and very kind, lived on a street or avenue of some sort. Friend to a woolly mammoth. What?

Mateed flies right side up, knowing how aerodynamics works, and does a reconnaissance flyby just to see if there's anything that they can pick up on. You see someone sitting down near the totem. On what? There's a little outcropping. The totem's hanging upside down. But this creature is actually sitting on the ceiling. Oh. Oh, so they're...

You think it's a bat? A fable bat. One of your heroes. What do they look like? It's like a humanoid creature with scarlet red features wearing a glittering yellow vest adorned with brass jewelry. Fancy. Do they look friendly? Are they like meditating? What are they doing? Making an insight check. I would love to because I've got good insight. I just like the idea of my teeth going...

24. You think that this creature seems not hostile, either indifferent or friendly.

I approach him. Okay. You startle the creature who kind of looks at you with a shock. Roll for initiative. The rest of the party will get there shortly. I'm going to give Matit a little bit of time on their own because they flew down there. Oh my! Who are you? Hello, my name is Matit. Is this your totem? Well, it's not mine. I'm...

Kinda stuck here. The creature points at its ankles and you see that it is tethered by two glossy black chains around its ankles to the totem. Why are you stuck here to this black spire? This phoenix imprisoned me here long ago because I'm one of the only other creatures in this entire realm that can plane shift.

So, this phoenix was afraid I would help people leave Pyroa and its kingdom would crumble. I was imprisoned here as a result of it. That is very interesting, seeing as how we were brought here by- me and my compatriots were brought here by this phoenix and could use help getting out of this fiery place. Do you know anything about the totem you were attached to? I know as much as I've seen. Just being attached here for eons, it seems like these chains are all that bind me.

If broken, I'm sure I will be free once again. I'm sure you didn't hear me introduce myself, but I'll say it again. My name is Matit. What is your name? Oh, apologies. My name is Duffy. Ah. Oh. We are looking for you. Oh, well, you found me. That's wonderful. High five.

Mateed, high five. Awkwardly, because Mateed does not do this regularly. You seem to be Stekia. Do you get many visitors? There have been sparse visitors since this phoenix left me here. Do you...

I don't know what to ask this person now. I'm curious. Favorite color. At this point, then I would say the rest of the party would be arriving right about now. Mag's leading the way. Oh my, this is it. We found it. Mag shouts as she unties herself from the rope. Up top, high five. Mags, what is the significance of the totem itself? You never explained that because you said it was near an entity called Defeat. Right, well, the totem is a prison that's keeping Defeat here. Oh, okay.

If we free Daffy, he can help you leave this plane to another one. Ah.

Wait up. I'm concerned about the possible retribution by this Phoenix. I'm not. They already put us here. What are they going to do next? This person could probably help us get out of this weird place. Yeah. Haven't you heard the song Breaking the Chains by Dolkin? It's another 80s metal band. I'm going to go right over Matita. Excuse me, Miss Defeat? Yes? Are you back?

Are you a bat? Are you a bat? Yes. I wasn't sure if you asked if they were a bat. Are you a bat? Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm an efreet. Efreet. Efreet. What is that? No, it looks like you're jailed up. Wait, their name is what? Defeat the efreet. Defeat the efreet. Efreet. Efreet. With a T at the end. Efreet. Oh, the efreet. Probably actually efreet-y maybe, but I would say efreet. Like the fire god creature from Final Fantasy? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Similar, yeah. How do we break these chains, guys? Let's...

mush all of our brains together and come up with a clever plan to free a friend. I think I could rip the chains. Do it! Could I try to pull the chains apart? Yeah, make a strength check. 21. Ooh. I mean, you really give it your best, and you feel like you're making progress, but it's just not quite enough. Oh, these are impossible brick chains if I can't open them.

They're a very interesting material, very similar to the totem, but not quite the same. They're like a keyhole? Make an investigation check. How the heck do we get her out of here? That's a one, my dude. No, no. Cool. Did you know there's lava here? You lose track of the chains as you're investigating them briefly. Could Barney look around at the chains and compare it to this totem and see what the deal is? Yeah. Yeah, make an investigation check. Can I join in? Two, 13. That's great.

Ten! That's not great. Do you think maybe we need to smash the totem? With the chain? No, just smash it. It seems like it's a very similar material to the totem. Maybe it's the same. It's an exotic material you've never seen, so you're not quite sure what it is that you're looking at. I have a question for Diffie. When is the last time that the Phoenix has been by here? The Phoenix has not been here since I was first imprisoned here. Okay.

Can we go try and get the totem? It sounded like it was big. Yeah. And it's attached to the ceiling. Right, yeah. Could Elga try to smash it? Yeah, sure. With what? Her fists. Elga's going brute force on this whole thing. Will that be a strength? Yeah, go ahead and make a strength check. 20.

Wow. Yeah, you start smashing on it and it doesn't break it, but you know, you're giving it your best shot. Is anything happening while I'm like hitting it? Do we see anything like lighting up or? Make a perception check, see if you perceive anything. Nine. No, nothing seems to change. However, as you're looking, trying to determine if, you know, anything's changed, you're looking at the totem, following the chain over to the Ifriti.

And as you're doing that, you know, your eyes keep continuing off into the distance to the Conflagra Coast. And you see a magma mephit slowly rising, flying over near you guys, looking at you with malice in its eyes. Magma mephit. Like a little impish looking creature made of magma with very thin wings. Okay. Maybe we could, you know, use this thing and...

squirt its magma out onto the chain. I didn't like you saying the word squirt. Squirt it out so that it'll break the chain. Everyone make a dexterity saving throw. Okay. This thing's attacking us. Saving throw? Not a check, a dexterity saving throw. Watch out. Oh, I had a 20 and then it rolled onto a 2. 20, 17, 14, 4. Good rolls and Delica. Hello. I'm going to roll for...

Because I was too busy smashing. Yeah. The method exhales a 15-foot cone of fire enveloping all of you.

If you failed your save, you take, so Belga and Mag take four points of damage. The rest of you take half of that too. I'm going to take half of that because I'm fire resistant. How far away is it whenever it does that? Let's say 10 feet away. Okay. Can I try and do something? Yeah. Can I cast? Right before you do that, did any of the magma get on the chains or the totem? Oh, it's fire breath, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a fire breath. It's like a cone of fire. And did any of it get on the chains? Yeah, it seems like the chains are heating up a bit. Can I try and cast Fast Friends? What's Fast Friends? Fast Friends with this little dude. When you need to make sure something gets done, you can't rely on vague promises, sworn oaths, or binding contracts of enjoyment. When you cast a spell, choose one humanoid within range that you can see and hear.

and they can understand you. The creature must succeed on a wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for the duration. Normally, I'd say yes, but a magma method is not a humanoid. Oh, they're not? Oh, shoot some letters. It's an elemental. Can Mati take a stab at this?

Don't stab it I think you can stab it So the Mifit, it floated out of the fiery coast And it's like hovering there and breathes fire in us Yeah Okay, could Mateed take a bit of a dash at it And try a little something Mateed's been working on Which is now called Stunning Strike

When you hit with a melee weapon attack, you can spend one key point to make the target stunned until the end of your next turn if it fails a con saving throw. Ooh, okay. So yeah, I guess make your attack to see if you hit it. I will attack it with my Sling of Sandstorms. I knew that was coming. Oh yeah, you don't have your Sling, that's right. Your butt doesn't have your Sling. Got him! Then what could I do instead?

Aren't you a monk? Can't you just like... Yeah, I can. I was trying to use my new powers and you said I can't use my new powers to not have my weapon. As a monk, don't your fists count as melee weapons? Is that what it is? Melee weapon attack. I'm pretty sure that's it for a monk. I just read weapon and I didn't think that unarmed strike was a weapon attack, but I would take it if you give it to me. Oh, it actually does say that. Under unarmed strike. Oh, it says melee attack.

It doesn't say melee weapon attack. Monk unarmed attacks count as melee weapon attacks. My arms are weapons. Yeah, baby. Then I, instead of slinging up sandstorms, yep, I use my talons and I fully Liu Kang this guy. What did I roll? I already rolled a thing. You rolled a 13.

So a four plus nine. No, my own arm is plus seven. Oh, is it? Yeah. Does 11 miss? 11 actually is exactly what you need. That hits. Cool. I smack this little Mephit. With a stunning strike, right? And it has to make a constitution saving throw? Yeah. What's the DC on that? 14. Con saving. I rolled a seven plus one, which is eight. Ooh, I got marquee as well. That's fun. So you, with your talon, lash out, hit the Mephit, which is stunned. Midair. So it...

I guess it falls back into the sea from which it came. The lava sea. Yes. Well, good job, team.

Everyone helps. Yeah, so just for future reference for D&D, a stunned creature is incapacitated. It can't move and can speak only falteringly. The creature automatically fails strength and dexterity saving throws and attacks against it have advantage. Okay, excited about that. That's good. As it hits the water, two more pop out. I begin flying up in your direction.

Can I attack them too? Or does someone else want to take a stab? I want to jump on one and guide it over to the thing. Squeeze it so it'll squirt magma all over. That's a great idea. Let's do it.

You are bound and determined to get burned. I'm fire resistant, it's okay! And then I let go of the rope. This is what you get when you give Blaine resistance to something. He wants to test the limits. Yeah, so how do you want to do this, Chip? Yeah, I let go of the rope at the opportune moment and then try to land on one of the Mephits. And I want to prepare to help with telekinesis. Ooh, the force. The force is strong. Okay, yeah, you let go, hop down, and land on the Mephits. Ooh!

I'm sure they're not humanoids. They are elemental. My dear Watson. Okay. Well, then I'm going to try to like put them in a chokehold. You're like, say uncle, say uncle. And then I'm going to try to guide them over to the chains to get them to, and then, you know, at the right moment, I'll,

squeezes trachea, make him fire barf onto the chains. Just to paint the proper picture, Miffits are typically small. They're small, yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure Blaine has the right idea of what he's jumping onto. We're not talking about a big old creature. Yeah. They're Miffits. Okay. Can one support my weight or should I also reach out to grab the other one? One can, sure.

Okay. I'm not setting a precedent. In the future, this may not work. It's just Chip launching himself at a Mifit and then it just plummets into the fire. It's like hopping on a bird. Yeah. Like a pigeon. And we established birds can ride on birds. Yeah. So you'll have to make like an opposed strength check with the Mifit to see if you can wrestle it in the correct direction. I'll go move out of the way of where the chains and stuff are just in case. Sure. I was in high school wrestling. Hi-ya!

21. I got a 16. Take that, nerd. Do you give it a noogie or a purple nurple? Uh-huh. Yeah, absolutely. Noogie. You noogie it and wrestle it over to the chains. And then you said you're going to try to squeeze it? Yeah, I'm going to squeeze its little belly and make it barf fire. Come on, barf. Barf, darn you. I'm just not sure that's how it works, but I applaud your attempt. Mm-hmm. Yeah, barf.

drop it pearl drop it spew what languages do you speak common infernal primordial thieves can't and under common so you're screaming barf at it

Yeah. It doesn't quite seem to understand what you're saying, but you're squeezing it, which makes it feel kind of sick. Let's see here. Man, a one. My rolls are terrible today. It begins spewing hot magma haphazardly all over the place. Make a acrobatics check to see if you can control the flow. All right, here we go. The direction of the flow. Uh-oh, it's a nine. Fortunately, I recently upgraded.

I got a small thing. Maybe you're familiar with it, Gus. It's called the lucky feet. You took the lucky feet? Of course I did. It's the same one that I had as Kyborg. You have three lucky points per long rest. Whenever I make an attack roll ability check or saving throw or when one is made against me, I can spin it to show.

roll the d20 to choose which die to use. Go for it. Hatcha! Hatchi-chatchi! 17. Okay, that's much better. Yeah, you're able to focus it and the mephit spews fire out from its mouth all over the chain. They begin to glow from the heat. Okay. Does that hurt? And the mephit falls to the ground there unconscious. Could Elga try to touch the chain and see if it hurts? Like you're trying to see if it's hot? Is that what you're getting at? To try to like pull it apart again. Yeah, it is getting hot.

Yeah. Okay. So it hurts her. Basically to pull the curtain. I just, I don't know if I should use my potion of fire resistance right now. Gotcha. I'll say if you try to pull at it quickly, you'll be okay. Okay. I will try to do that again. Here, I'll give you a hand. Begins pulling from the other side. Thank you. Yes, I definitely needed help with something strength related. Thank you. Go ahead and make a strength check. 12.

Maybe I did need help. Max has a 21. Nice. You both pull on it kind of like tug of war. And you see the links and the bonds begin slowly spreading out until eventually the links separate. Cool.

Go team! The Efreet looks very happy. He lets out a big stretch. Then looks at the remaining mephit, snaps its fingers, and it disappears. What did you just do? Oh, I shifted it to a water plane. It won't have a good time there. Oh, that's so sad. You don't want these things to exist. No, he helped us. He used his barf for the good of mankind.

Us, weird humanoid kind. Not mankind, you know, there's so many varieties of creatures in these parts. I'm just gonna let you keep talking. Yeah, we should go somewhere and talk to the free thing. The glossy black chain exploded with a barrage of embers. And, you know, after snapping out that mephit, the feed just stares down at their feet, floating freely in the air for the first time in eons. I... I don't know what to say.

You could have done what everyone else has done. Lied, cheated, or tormented me until I acquiesce. But you, you four are different, aren't you? Thank you. And may all of you find what you are looking for in this life and the next. Wait, are you just going to leave us here? Oh, of course not. With that, Daffy rubs their hands together. Sparks begin to flicker and flame from their palms. They wink at you all with a warm smile and open their hands. A shower of scintillating sparks surrounds you like a soothing bath.

Everyone can take a long rest. Yay. One of my favorite buttons on this app. And also, you all get all of your equipment back. Yay. I love defeat.

The sprinkling of sparks melts into thin air and you find yourselves back at the top of the Pyramid of Antique. But the entire throne room is empty and silent save for the whistling of wind. You look up and feel the warmth of the dawning sun pouring down through the glass ceiling now shattered into jagged fragments. To the north you find a stairway that leads up to the roof and you see a lifeless hand stretched out at the top of the stairs. You quickly climb the stairs and find the mummy lying on the rooftop with one hand pointing to the southwest.

Stinky toot. Uh-oh. Yeah, I'm...

I should not have made it a toot joke. Yeah. It's inappropriate. Find out what happens on the next episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. I point at it and I say, I'm resistant to that. So, you know, we're not quite done. This is a Between the Tales episode. So obviously everyone leveled up. Y'all are level five now. Whoop whoop.

Up from three. And we do have some questions I want to get to here from the audience. Should we just go around real quick and say like what we've added? Yeah. Do it. Start. Burbra. I don't think I know what Elka does. I didn't really get to use much of what I had, but I leveled up to level five now, which means I have two attacks per action. Hey, two attack buddies. Whoop.

Yeah. Which is going to be great as a barbarian because I do a lot of good stuff with that. I also now have echolocation. Wow. Which is another thing of, I assume, vampirism. So for one minute, you gain a blind sight of 60 feet. The ability can't be used while deafened.

So I imagine I just have like, I could navigate myself around better. Daredevil. And then I also got hold person, which is part of my power normal powers. That is a second level spell where I could choose a humanoid that I could see within range. They have to succeed on a wisdom saving throw or they get paralyzed for the duration. The end of its turn, the target can make another wisdom saving throw on a success. The spell ends on the target. So basically something could just be paralyzed. Yeah.

And then I also got to up some of my ability scores. I chose to improve my dexterity and my intelligence. You don't feel like Elga needed more strength? No, I think she's pretty strong. Elga is really strong. Yeah, because she has a... Like, her saving throw is a plus seven to strength. Cool. Yeah, I just wanted, like, some other things to be a little better. I had a negative on my intelligence before. Now I'm at a zero. I did that with Mud. Good call. To watch out those negatives. Just to get a little bit there. And I think...

That's it. You have one more thing. You also have fast movement now. Oh, yeah. My walking speed is now 40 feet. Right. As long as you aren't wearing heavy armor. And my armor class is now 15. And I have a plus two to initiative as well. Nice. So a lot of perks. Also, my HP is now a lot higher. It's at 61. Barney, what did you get? Well, Barney got the telekinetic, which is a feat. Oh, nice. Is that the farce? The farce. The farce. And so it gives me the mage hand cantrip, which is like...

Special because it's invisible and can be cast like just with my brains. Yeah, plus also it seems like it's more powerful than a typical Mage Hand. Like initially when you said you were going to use the Farce to push Chip, I was going to say no because the Mage Hand only pushes like or moves like 10 pounds, I think. And this one specifically says it can shove someone. Yeah, it can shove or pull and I can do that as a bonus action. So it's like good utility in like combat or just out of combat. Yeah, that rules.

And then that also uses my wisdom to use it and up my wisdom by one. Barney's wise beyond his years. He's wizened. Yeah. And then I got just some new spells, new spell slots. I'm still, you know, kind of picking those, but got some cool new spells. Oh, one thing I got that's cool or not.

Destroy undead. When an undead fails its saving throw against your turn undead feature, it is instantly destroyed if its CR is lower than the threshold for your level. Please don't hurt us. I think me and Mateed are both considered. Am I considered undead? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. We're all by a campfire sharing this and then they just go. I mean. I mean, I'm just a regular girl. Little tiny girl. You'd have to have a CR rating of 100%.

one half or lower. So that's pretty low, right? It's a CR. Yeah. That's your creature rating. Yeah. It's the thing that Mudd used to determine which creatures you could turn into. Gotcha. So like what's an example of a one half CR? Or conjure. Sorry, conjure animals. A rat. Probably like some small bird. Half. It's usually like, yeah, like rodents and bugs and small birds. So they're a bunch of like tiny skeletal birds. I wonder if those locusts would have counted. If they're undead. Yeah. Yeah. If they're undead, probably. They might have been dead. Yeah.

Yeah, CR 1.5 is low, but I assume that's going to go higher as you level. Yeah, I bet Eddie's undead. I bet eventually you can just snap your fingers and make him poop his pants and die. Maybe. Is that it for Barney? Yeah, I mean, spells I can swap in and out. For reference, player level 2 is about CR 1.5. Okay, we are 5. Yeah. Okay.

Chip. Hey there, Chip Haney. How you doing? Sent you a letter. I know it's old school, kind of weird, but what the heck? I wanted to go down to the post office, so I wrote you. How you doing? Anyways, level five now. Been a while. I don't know what I'm doing. Keep it up. Keep it up. How's your mom? Doing great. No, I'm saying that's what you would write in your letter. How's your mom? Tell her I said hi. I got a couple of things. I'm looking for them. It's hard to find these character sheets. Oh, boy. I like how he's writing all this stuff.

I got the lucky feat, which if you listen to campaign one is the bane of Gus's existence. Basically, I can just reroll a dice that's made against me or made for me and I get three of them and it's pretty great. I also, I didn't realize this, but I had this thing called darkness under infernal legacy. It's a spell. Yeah, it's just a thing that I can cast and it's a 15 foot radius sphere where it's just like black. And even if you have dark vision, you can't see anything.

its concentration up to 10 minutes, which is I think perfect because I'm a little rogue sneaking around. And then I also got a thing called uncanny dodge, which is also going to take off Gus real bad because that's starting at the fifth level when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to have the attacks damage against you. So say someone shot a fire arrow at me. Well, I'll have that because I'm fire resistant and I'll have it again because of this stupid thing. That's it.

Darkness is cool. Darkness is neat. And you can see in it. Hello, darkness, my old friend.

I don't think I can see it. Well, you know what? You know who can? You. Me and Elga. I might be wrong. I thought darkness was like a specific thing where people can't see. No, no. We don't need to see. We hear. Oh, that's what you mean. Echo location. I gotcha. So that could actually be really good in combat. Oh, and the darkness can emanate from the object and move with it if I'd cast it on. That's what I was going to point out. Yeah. So you could make it portable. So it's like darkness and then you're just like, uh, for 15 feet. But like me and Chris would still be able to. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

If I put on my... Your blindfold thing. So then maybe I can like tag one of you guys with it. And then we can go around in the dark bubble. Yeah. That's actually pretty cool. That's me. Ta-ta. Speaking in. Chip. P.S. Mateed's doing great. Glad you asked. Bye.

Thank you for your kind letter, Chip. What did you get, Mateed? Mateed didn't grab a feat. Mateed increased some of their ability checks, but now gets even higher dex and even higher wisdom, which gets my armor class up to 17 and...

Also, my initiative as well. But the fun thing that Matide got was Matide, like I said a second ago, Barbara has a second attack as well, which is great, which means I can do even more unarmed strikes and flurries of blows and all that fun stuff. And then Matide already demonstrated their new little move, which is stunned strike. Getting even more melee overpowered, which I love. That's also really useful for the rest of the party to like beat up on a stunned creature. And that's about it.

Nice. Big progress all around. Yeah, this is useful. I've never had two attacks per turn before in any character I've played. So I'm excited. Saddest thing ever watching Bart try a spell, fail, and not do anything else. Well, there I go. Yeah. All right. We have a couple of questions to get through here for Between the Tales before we wrap up here. Shoot! And do we want to mention too that we will be answering even more questions that were submitted in our...

bonus show second wind correct yes that is that barbara you are on top of the segways and all the information today second wind is great because it's like it's a dnd thing it also has to do with the second wind is available to our supporters specifically who are on russi.com and our first members is the name of the title for those supporters and so if you want to be patrons of our of our show you can do that and you can get access to the this bonus show as well yeah great thanks everyone

So the first question comes from It's Death Rider on Discord and Reddit. Cool. Are there times during the day that you find yourself unintentionally speaking like your characters? Absolutely. I think for the hour or two after we're done recording, I just woke

like this and it's like also in my head for a while too but sometimes too if like I'm talking about the campaign especially with Trevor my boyfriend I'll like be explaining something that happened but I'll do Elga's voice I'll be like yeah so then we saw this big creature and he's like you don't have to do the voice and I'm like oh yeah I'm just like so in the mindset of it it's also

a really fun voice to do so yeah I'm in it a lot anything that has ends with an ing now the g is lost so I'm like doing going like I that's that's crept into my life and then also now I say hey there coffee shops they think I'm like hey there hey there

Blaine Gibson here. I would say after the recording, you kind of... I make those grumblings. It's also very adjacent to Yoda. And you already were a little Yoda-ish to begin with. That's true. And I will say this. Well, we've all been working on the Stinky Dragon Adventures, which is the full length adaptation of the... Campaign 1. Campaign 1. Into puppets. Into puppets. And so we've been...

recording for that and doing just prep for that. And so I've been in a lot of gum gum brain. Yeah. Oh, right. Going back and forth between gum gum. That's sad. It's especially hard, especially like for voice acting to swap from one character to another that like

is very similar but different. Like for me, sorry to interrupt as we're going around the table, but like Bart, my previous character, was like still kind of nasally but lower. And Ilga is like up here, a little more feminine. Completely different. It's very different, but also like I'm still doing similar things with my voice. So if we've just been recording this campaign, Groteth, and we have to switch back into doing anything for the puppet stuff as like Bart,

and our other characters. Sometimes it like, I'm a little too high going into Bart. So grotesque, by the way, for Blaine. That's the land. Oh yeah. Yeah. Do that. Writing that down.

It's only in the thumbnail. What about you, John? Oh, no. I slip into mud more often just because that's a fun thing to do. Like I even playing Baldur's Gate in streaming that I've been because I'm playing a druid who's like mega mud. And so I've been doing that a little bit, but just because that's a fun one. Now, I practice the French one every once in a while just because it is a difficult accent in my opinion, because it

That's why I'm so impressed that you're doing it for the whole character. It pronounces a lot of our letters and the way that we construct words in a very different way. Like even just the way that R's, they throw the R's in the back of their throat. Right there. And it's a sound that we as Americans, we don't use that sound. So it's the sounds that we don't use at all are harder. Scottish has less sounds that we don't use, although it is more like mud mouth.

No pun intended. Yeah. So, no, I practice the French thing, but I do not slip into it because it's a very hard accent to do. How about you, Gus? Oh, all the time. Esther, I'm home. Greetings. Never, never. When your wife asks, like, what you're making for dinner, you go, it's...

It's a mixture of... You should. Just see what happens. Speaking of dinner, our next question is from OnWeThereYet on Reddit. Nice. Great name. It's from...

This is specifically for John. Who is running Matide's bakery while they're off on this adventure? Or are the citizens of Atro City deprived of delicious croissants and baked goods until they return? Also, thank you, John, for playing a non-binary character. This campaign makes me very happy to feel represented. Oh, nice. Amazing. Yeah, I appreciate hearing that last bit. Yeah, 100%. Because of Matide being a ghost that doesn't need to sleep or eat, Matide never really had a reason to have to hire any staff. So ain't nobody there. So it's sad. Oh, it's all good.

all going like stale and stuff well maybe a little a few of the things but yeah it's like that like you know everyone's got their like local place they go to every day and everyone just keeps walking by the shop one of those little signs it's like be back at five o'clock but i think we left like it's been a while since we had that first episode we left like you were closing because uh the parade was coming okay so it is closed up yeah but yeah just gonna be uh filled with cobwebs and dust are you up to date on your bills

Are you going to be okay? Mateed actually owns their bakery outright. Wow. Does Mateed live in like a loft upstairs or anything? Yeah. That's cool. Mateed is a ghost and so Mateed has been around for a very long time and the bakery came from also is a family business. So they've been there for forever and so they own that. It'd be cool if there was no staircase going to the loft upstairs and Mateed just transferred through the floor as a ghost into the loft. Like there's no way for someone with a

bad precedent though. If like the old, you know, near dying kind of people are buying up all the property. So then the younger people can't get their hands on it. Yeah. You know, it kind of causes like a weird sort of, you know, landscape for home ownership. Yeah.

Anyways, I love D&D. So bakery on the bottom, birdhouse on top? I mean, a nice little loft. I do like to imagine it's actually one of those bird cages. You can sit on it. If a bird had a choice, they wouldn't have a cage. It's all a perch, though. Do you have a perch? No. I actually think Mateed would have more so like a really comfy chair. Ooh.

Like a chaise lounge? That would be the very, like, the, because they don't have to sleep. Yeah. So it would be a place, because Matit likes to study. Matit is a reader. And so that's what their loft would be based around. With a lot of open windows for... I'm still imagining a chair on a stick sticking out of, so you can perch on your chair. That's just Chris's headcanon. Say bye to that chair, because Jacques is going to... Yeah, scratch it up. Jacques is well behaved. Oh, okay.

He knows what he's doing. Yeah. I tell you what, we'll get one last question here before we wrap up. So this is from at Kevin Marengo. Are you more afraid of the whole party potentially dying in this campaign? And were there any encounters where you really thought the party might wipe? That war was pretty close. Yeah. Right. The puppy. Well,

Well, I mean, our first big fight, Eddie, like put me on my butt. Oh, yeah. So. But it's like weirdly enough, though, I think because of this type of universe and some of the characters that we're playing, I feel like I'm less afraid of them dying because I feel like some of them are already dead. Kind of. There's new avenues that we could take. Yeah. Like new ways of like if someone dies, do they become a ghost and they get to keep playing and now they have like ghost powers, you know, like so I I don't know. I feel like there's more room to play in this kind of universe. Yeah.

we're also low level right now. We just got to five. Yeah. And you are quite squishy at the beginning of D&D. Oh yeah, 100%. I do feel like though the combat has been more challenging, like harder. Like we've been wiping a lot. Like there's been multiple times where

people die. People are dying and we're down to like one or two. We've barely made it through an encounter. Not to constantly make everything connect to this game that we're all playing, but in Baldur's Gate, a lot of death save throws than usual. So it's like, okay, this might be a little more common. Anyway, I think that's it for this episode of Between the Tales. Come back next week. We'll have another episode of Tales from the Sneaky Dragon. Find out what's going on. What's up with that black smoke? Oh, can I say something really quick too? From Lost?

Jesus. Yeah, go for it. While we're working on the puppet show, you know, we're all kind of busy doing that behind the scenes. So now we've handed off our social media content over to our awesome animation team and they're making these amazing cartoons.

So it's not the puppet content that you're used to, but I think it's an awesome supplement in the meantime. So go support that stuff and show us some love in the comments section because the animation team's been working their butts off on it. And puppets will be back. And bigger. And better. Same size, but like smaller. Bigger adventures. Bigger adventures. This episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon was produced by Ben Ernst, written, edited, and composed by Micah Reisinger with additional editing work by David Sanier.

Here's a quick shout out to folks that interacted with us on social media recently. Here's some NPCs named after them in this episode. The Mummy, aka Ryda Rajad, named after user Ryda7s on Discord. Mags the Affableazer, named after at Mags Quinn on Twitter. Dafee the Afridi, named after user DefiantAwareness520 on Reddit. Also, I have to give a special thanks to some friends who provided voiceover for characters in this episode. Mags the Affableazer, voiced by Griff Milton at the underscore IndoorKid.

and Defeat the Afridi, voiced by Ify Wadiwe at Ify Wadiwe. Tune in next time for the thrilling episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon. Oh, God, nerds. You just made a reference to Colossus in Marvel Snap. You can shut it. I said we are. I'm included. You're the king of us. Yeah. I'm included. You're the elder nerd. Yeah, I was a nerd a long time ago. Gus has been a nerd before we were born. I've been a nerd for longer than I...