Tavern Tales - Maze Rat Pack Ep. 02 - The Sky Blind Spire Part 2
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Nah, not quite. What's up? Sell my car in Carvana. It's just not quite the right time. Crazy coincidence. I just sold my car to Carvana. What? I told you about it two days ago. When you know, you know. You know? I'm even dropping it off at one of those sweet car vending machines and getting paid today. That's a good deal. Great deal. Come on. What's your heart saying? You're right. When you know, you know.

This weekend, it's ravioli. Next weekend, ramen.

Find the detail that moves you with immersive dining experiences from Sapphire Reserve. Chase, make more of what's yours. Learn more at chase.com slash sapphirereserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Kindest regards to all you, Ricolou. Slink your way into the stinky dragon and throw back our latest thirst quencher.

Miscontru Blue Crew Brew. It's a mixture of indigo bye-bye tea leaves, agave vermilion vermin syrup, and not navy nutmeg. One slurp of this sneaky sipper and you'll be... Wait, where did you go? You were just here. Anyway, previously our adventurers ventured into the tower of the late wizard Detardinal in search of the missing son of Murin.

Little did they know that simply stepping through this spire is an entirely different story. Literally. Can this pack of rats reach the end of their maze? Or will they reach the end of their days? Draw yourself a drink and let's dive into this dank drama. ♪

As soon as you pull it away, an immense phantasmal door appears in the middle of the staircase and out steps a large, looming spectral figure. Its penetrating gaze fixes squarely on Muffin and immediately begins gliding menacingly towards her. That I did expect.

What do you want to do? Could Muffin, as she's making eye contact with the sink, slowly put the jar back into the offering of the statue? Yeah, you put the flask back in and it still approaches you further. It doesn't look like it's moving quickly towards you, but it is zeroed in on you heading in your direction. Well, Muffin's dead, guys. Can I help?

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I go down to the same statue that Muffin's at and I take my vial of acid that I've had this entire time and I put it with the offering as well. Something that you brought on your journey with you? Yes. Okay. As you do that, you kind of walk in step with this floating spectral figure and it sees you and bows its head towards you and says, See, you're on the path.

That's right. I'm on the path. May I proceed? Are you going to the altar? I was just on my way to the altar. Then where might we find said altar? Where are you going? I must stay here, but if you are going to the altar, that is...

At the top of the tower? Right. Can I take my friend with me? Is she going to the altar as well? She is totally going to the altar with me. Yes, altar. My pupil will be thrilled by this. It's saddened that T'Tardinol could not finish this path.

This makes me sad too. It really does. Tear right to the eye. Yeah. That's the guy who quote unquote fell. Yep. Big fan of him. What do you want to do? I reach out and grab Muffin's hand.

and walk to an egress out of this room. As you're doing that, Muffin grabs one of the jar sacks. Oh, my God. You're taking one of the offerings. Right. Is it supposed to be stuff we take, or is it we need to leave stuff? We ask that you offer offerings, not take offerings. Right, I didn't know if it was like a give and take kind of thing, like leave a penny, take a penny kind of thing. You're just taking, you're not giving the offerings.

I just wanted to see the brand. I put it right back. Actually, you know, the same kind of stuff we got at home. Yes. Yes. As you do that, the spectral figure reaches out behind it and a door appears behind it and opens ominously into blackness. Where might that be leading to? Is that room 14? No.

No, 14 is elsewhere. Oh, game. This is perhaps like a warp pipe. Might we skip a few levels? Actually, this special figure points to the east. 14's this way. Oh, okay. This door leads...

To the after. What? Well, we should do the after after. Perfect. That sounds about right. Yes. So you're going to leave the vial there, little muffin, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to leave the vial there, right, muffin? My hands are clean. Vial's there. Hands in pockets, as my mom always said. Hands in pockets. I ain't got no pockets.

I'll put them in your pockets. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. As you put them in the pockets, this spectral figure says, By the way, if you ever need help in this staircase again, my name is Esme. My name is Big Benny. It is a pleasure to meet you, Esme. Yes. For future reference, it's nice to introduce yourself to people.

Right, it usually is. So if we want to summon you, we just say Esme? Do we have to say it like three times or like what? How do we do that? That'll work.

Okay. Okay. I think we should get out of this bleeding room and get to number 14. Yeah, 14. Yeah, 14. Esme backs up into this doorway and just like stares you as it's entering the doorway and the doorway closes and disappears in front of you. So what's the cheesemay with Esme? Nice, nice. You want to move towards 14? Yeah. Yes.

So you'll exit the staircase room 13 and head your way east towards room 14. It's a small room that branches off with stairways leading up and down. In the center of the room is the number 14 on the ground. What do you want to do? Yeah, you want to take that stairway to heaven? Yeah. No. No. No. That's the wrong room. That's Eplen, see? Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know if anyone in human existence has said that sentence before in that kind of dialect. Led Zeppelin, yeah, see? Yeah, yeah. It's a classic. Yeah, we got to go down the stairs, down the stairway to hell. See? Down east of here. Yeah, it seems like the next number is 15 if my math checks out. So that would be down the hall?

Down the hall, down the stairs. Benny points to Muffin and goes, this one seems smart. Let's go with that. I think 15 is next. I went to school one day. For a whole day? A whole day, yeah. How did you make it through a whole day of school? That's amazing. My brain is so wrinkly right now. I just went to school hard knocks, see? Benny elbows up to Billy and goes, is the brain supposed to be wrinkly? I don't know. What the...

Yeah, yeah. If Eric says so, then yeah. All right, y'all descend the staircase down several, almost like two flights, it feels like, to the room 15 you see on the floor, but it's almost don't find it with all the refuse and garbage that's strewn about on tile. Yuck, see? As you're walking in, apart from the dire smell that you're taking in, you also see these enormous flies that are buzzing around. They're

huge, like way bigger than they should be. And they're kind of buzzing around all this like detritus and kind of notice you and like shift around as they kind of see you and they're looking at you like kind of feeling you out. Flies, big flies. How big are the flies compared to rat people? Like are they birds to us? Bigger than that. Okay.

This room that has filled with refuse, are there any other features to it? Like is it just a standard room that's filled with refuse and flies? Yeah, as you look up, you see that there is a shaft. It's a very odd dynamic and perspective though. It feels like it's cone shaped, like it's getting smaller as it reaches the top. Oh, as it reaches the top. So more like a pyramid. Yeah, except it's conical. Would you say it's the width of like one or two of us?

Like if we went, if we hooked arms back to back and put our feet up on the wall and climbed, is that something? Ew. That might be some like sticky, gross walls though. I would say that if you try and do that and put pressure on the backs and try and climb up that way, it will be a really far reach on the bottom. Way more than it is at the top, obviously. But as you get to the top, you're not sure from this angle if two of you could fit through.

Like, it's really hard to tell how narrow it is at the top. It's really far. Do the flies fit through the hole? From here, it doesn't seem like it, but again, you're like 30, 40 feet away, and for some reason, it seems even further. Could I approach the flies? Yes. Okay. They start buzzing. Benny walks up to him, and he goes, Hello, fellow vermin. My name is Benny, Big Benny, to my friends. We are trying to find our way

We are trying to find our way through this tower. Do you perhaps know how we might get past this room?

Unfortunately, I do not speak- Wait! Wait, I have a mask! Yes you do! Can I understand them? Or can you speak, Fly? You put the mask back on? Yeah! Okay, you put the mask back on and suddenly you can start speaking, Fly. What? No way. Jeff Goldblum! Hello, fellow vermin. My name is Big Benny.

How are you doing? Huh? How can you hear us? From our perspective, do we just hear Benny going... I have recently procured an ability through an apparel construction. I'm able to understand your complex and beautiful language. Cool.

What might this room be strewn about with so much lavish materials? Home. He's thinking their terms. It's home. It's home. What is above home? Not home. Perfect. Really getting a lot on this guy. Try another fly.

Is there... Thank you, Muff. I appreciate the suggestion. Is there perhaps one of you who is your leader? Starts looking around, kind of like looking at the other three flies in this room. I like the idea of a fly looking around, like the whole body is just moving. They have like necks. Yeah. And they start like buzzing each other like... Okay.

Are they big enough that maybe Muffin could utilize them for flying power? Like strap on and fly away? Yeah. Or like a jet pack kind of thing? Yeah, pretty delicate and small.

I'll say it's completely possible. The way they let you is a completely different matter. Right, right, right. Okay. So we are trying to get up to no, no Ohm above you. Understand? I totally understand. Okay. Okay.

Okay, my friend here, her name is Muffin. Would there be a way for us to ask a favor and you take Muffin up to the hole up there? Make a will check. This is going to go great. You got it. I like the idea. Muffin is just seeing Big Ben pointing at her and pointing up.

Okay. Rolling for Will. That's only a seven. As soon as you say muffin and point at muffin, that one buzzes straight towards the girls. Muffin! And starts like trying to like nibble on muffin a little bit. It tickles muffin. Muffin.

I don't know what to do now. Much like a cowboy trying to break a wild horse, I'm going to jump on a fly and try to ride it. Oh, God. Okay. Tell me what your approach with this is. Like, in what way are you doing this? Once that one fly is distracted trying to eat muffin, I'm going to walk up behind it and then just try to jump on its back and see if I can hold on to it and, like...

try to pull up. Do you perhaps give us a yeehaw? Yeehaw! There you go. Welcome on in to the Stinky Dragon. Just like I thought!

Okay, yes. Since you're not trying to will this thing, I'll say it's more like a strength check that you're trying to wrangle this thing into submission. Typical Gus. I try to go with diplomacy, and he goes for violence. That's such a Gus move. That's just how Gus solves all of his problems, even in real life. My will roll is actually better, but since we tried will and it didn't work, let's try the other way. Where there's a will, there's no way. There was no way.

2d6? Mm-hmm. And you said strength, right? Correct. 9 plus 1, 10. That's a 10. Yay!

What are you just grabbing onto it? Is that what you're doing? Yeah, and I'm going to like try to like find a way to see if there's like little hairs on it where I can like pull to try to get it to go in the air. They do have little hairs on them, right? Yeah, absolutely. You grasp anything you can on where would be the neck of this thing. And for some reason, this fly like completely eases like it was meant to be ridden. Oh. And kind of like

waits for you to take the lead. Okay, yeah, I pull up. Let's go. You hear a trumpet in the background, like, and then you just, like, take off up this wall. And as you're getting higher and higher, it's getting narrower and narrower, and you're concerned you're not going to be able to even fit with you and this fly through this hole at the top.

Is that a fat joke? How far away is, does the hole appear to be from where I am when I start to worry about this? I'll say the exit to this is probably like 10 feet away. You're getting really close. While he's thinking about that, what are the rest of you doing? Watching in absolute awe. Yeah. I was hoping that someone would have a rope and we could just toss it down and I'd climb up that way. Like, boss, Eric.

I'm not there. Eric's really far up there now. Billy's holding back to see if someone else makes it up even before he tries to wrangle a fly. Okay. Yeah, I think we're just all watching to see if it works. Yeah, you know. So what do you want to do? In that case, I'm going to try to ride it out as long as possible. And then if it seems like it's going to become too narrow, I'm going to try to jump up for the hole off of the fly.

- Billy's trying to hold his arms out until he's like following just below, like trying to make sure he could catch. - Catch his boss. - I got you boss, I got you. I got you boss, I got you. - Billy, as you're kind of like making your way through this garbage, getting closer to the wall to make sure you catch your boss, roll a D six for me. - Yeah, you got it. Okay, here we go. D six, that's a four.

As you're kind of rummaging your legs through this trash, you come across a coin. It's a silver coin, and it's like bigger than a plate you would eat dinner off of. Whoa. Silver coin the size of a plate. But it looks like a coin that's maybe been like the opposite of shrunk.

Enlarged? Yeah. Does Billy see any like coin slots like on the front of a pinball machine or anything? You look around for coin slots. You don't see any. It's really odd. Yeah, you wish there were though. Okay. It would make sense. Yeah. I'm rich. So. Well, that's only one coin there.

-Yeah, but it's huge. It's worth a lot. -Jump back to Eric. Eric, you're getting closer and closer, and you're just kind of like getting ready to leap off of this fly at the chance you need. And the fly below you is starting to get nervous. Like, you think maybe it doesn't like leaving home, and it's also getting close to this hole, and it's concerned that we're not going to make it. So it starts like kind of wobbling. What are you going to do? -I guess at this point is when I need to make my leap, either straight up or to the wall, whichever seems more likely to be made.

Do you have anything on your person you want to use to help make that happen? Yeah, thinking or getting ahead, I have some iron spikes that I picture I would use to either like hold into the wall or to like try to grab up near the hole at the top. Absolutely. Okay. I have two iron spikes. Okay. Yeah. If you pull those out, I'll say you can make a dex check with advantage. Okay. Whoa. Be dexterous.

I think this is really a cool idea. Would you call those like pitons or pythons? Pitons. I hate you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we just recorded the second wind for that Infinite episode. Oh, did we? I forgot to bring that up.

I will forever be corrected on the pronunciation of P-I-T-O-N. Who knew? It's piton, even though it's spelled Python. It's the weirdest pronunciation for a word that shouldn't be that way. Yeah. So I rolled a five, a six, and a one. So that's an 11. 11. Yes. You leap off of this fly as it kind of starts nose diving away from the hole above you. And

you latch onto the edge of this seemingly cliff side, but it's stone, stonework of a wall, and you kind of see the edge at the top, and you think you can probably pull yourself through, but it'll be a tight squeeze, kind of like through a vent shaft. So the two options I have here is I can either try to tie a rope to the spikes and then drop it down and make it easier for everyone, or I can try to pull myself up

and try to go through the hole. Based on what I'm seeing here, which one seems like an easier option of the two if I had to choose between the two of them? I actually see a reason why you couldn't do both. Okay, in that case, I'll try to tie a rope here and then drop it for my friends below. Not my friends, my traveling companions below. And then try to pull myself up ahead. Do you think Billy heard that and his heart broke a little bit? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

So yeah, you tie off the rope on one of the pitons and then you kind of pull yourself up the last bit. I'll say that since you rolled so high with the deck check, you don't have to make a check for that. You get to the top and you climb the rest of the way. Is that what I hear? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

We will resolve that in a second. The rope falls to the ground and the three of you have a way to climb this thing now. Ladies first. Yeah. And she points to Billy. Oh, oh, curtsy. And

And then I climb up. Make a strength check with advantage. Strength check. So that's all three dice plus my modifier, right? Yeah. You got this rope that's been thrown down to you. Whoa, triple four. That's eight, nine.

-I'll say you start climbing and you get about halfway and your foot slips and you're having a hard time getting your footing, but you're still holding onto the rope. -Okay. It's this coin, it's just so heavy. -It's really slick and sticky in spaces and it's hard to tell which is which when you're climbing. -Should I drop down and then give it another go after someone else or-- -It's up to you all. What do you want to do? You see your friend starting to slip and fall. What do you want to do? -Guys, guys, I'm falling. Guys.

Boss Eric! How would we, like, help that, though? Push my butt! You got inventory if you want to look through there, or if you got anything creative solutions you want to do, you want to talk to the flies more? Can I...

I have a war hammer. Could I perhaps, like, golf swing up and help Billy up the rope? Oh, my God. That's how Billy died. As you pull out your war hammer, you kind of look at Billy, and Billy starts to look like a nail. Yeah. Nice. What are you staring at? Or like a ping pong ball that I can just kind of send back up. Croquage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, croquet. All right. I'll say if you...

you can kind of push this garbage up a little bit and give you a boost to get a little bit higher. What'd you call me? And if you want to try and swing at him, go for it. Yeah. I will say that he'll probably take damage unless you roll really high above a 10 is what I mean. Because, like, it's a hammer. It's hitting him. It's going to hurt. Yeah. Big Bitty, why are you holding your hammer and looking at me like that? Yeah.

I'd say if you get anything like above a 10, you won't cause damage. We'll say that. Doc, you'll never believe how the Warhammer got up there. It was a million to one shot. Oh, God. Normal roll? Yes, because you've not really done this kind of thing before. That's what you say. Okay. It's fine. It's fine. We got this, Billy. Billy, we got this. Oh.

Oh, rolled a five and a six. That is 13 with my modifier. Oh, my God. Wowie zowie. All right. You kind of angle it in just the right way where, like...

Billy is expecting it like he's ready to kind of boost up off from his butt and you swing and hit those cheeks. He was presenting. Is that what we're saying? He was. Yeah. OK. Tail out. Ready to go. And yeah, you get boosted up. I'll say like another five, 10 feet up this rope and like you're you're maybe like 15 feet away from the top now.

Okay. You're welcome. Thanks, Benny. So I'm 15 feet away from the top. Yeah, and you see the same thing. It's very conical. It's getting really tight at the top, but you do see some pitons where the rope is latched onto. Oh, thank God. Okay, I'm going to grab onto those and maybe either use them as footholds while I hold onto the rope or just kind of support my way as I continue up. Yeah, I think you could totally do that. You managed to get a handhold on each one and like...

squeeze your way to the top and you find your friend, your boss. Oh, boss Eric, so good to see you. Yeah, that's a good boy. Come on here. Yeah, yeah. All right, what does Muffin and Big Benny want to do? I hate this so much.

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- I think Muffin watching that happen, she's almost tempted to ask to be helped the same way. Like sans rope, just like hit me with your war hammer. I think she's just gonna try to straight climb. - Okay, she got dex right? - Yeah. - Yeah, you start moving your way up to this garbage heap and roll a D6 for me. - Just one D6? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Five.

Yeah. Yeah. You step on something and it makes like a, almost like a gong kind of sound. And as you get your foot like away from it, you realize it's a giant brass bell. So we had a giant silver kind of cork

plate looking thing and now a giant brass bell. Yep. Have we seen these objects before or like regular sized before? Maybe in your life you have but regular size but at this tower you've not come across these things. I wonder if there

if there's things like falling from that hole. Like, I guess, would these things seem like they could fit through the hole at the top? You kind of like size it the best you can and like it doesn't make any mathematical sense. Hmm. Because like I'm wondering if these are coming from somewhere. Could I look at the bell? Sure. What do you want to discern about it? See if there's any like markings or writing on it. Sure. You kind of feel your way around it, clear off some of the dirt and grime and you come across some words etched like

hammered into the top of the dome and it says lunchtime. Uh-oh. You know, I am thinking how there's a bunch of flies down here. Maybe this is like where the food goes. Maybe. I hope it's the food. Like at the cafeteria when you put your tray in or scrape all the trash off. Benny's looking at that bell with his hammer really, really hard.

Could I maybe before climbing up, just like rummage around a little bit to see if there's any other items kind of under here? Absolutely. Yeah. As you're rummaging around, you start seeing other items in the garbage, but something else tracks your attention more in the garbage. You see footprints that are like actively walking through this garbage right now.

Uh-oh. Making impressions in the dirt and grime, and you don't see anybody in front of you. It's one of the Rickaloo. Yeah. Could I, like, as I'm tracking the footprints, try to grab whatever person or creature this might be? Yeah.

in front of me? Sure, make a dex check. Nine. Oh, no, plus two. Eleven. Eleven. Just put the bell on top of him. So you see these footprints in front of you and the bell's right there and you kind of like launch off the bell and grab a hold of something in front of you that you can't quite get a vision of, but you know it's there. And you see like the rustling of fabric and like kind of here squeaking and like squirming around. Could I try to pull...

um their clothes off wow

All right. Like if I like, because I know, because I think we know about the fabric at this point, right? How like these creatures are invisible and so they're probably wearing some type of invisibility cloak or something like that. Pull the robe. Do you just grab it and pulling? Is that what I'm hearing? I think I would pull like upwards. Up? Yeah, sure. So you try and like grab a hold, whatever this fabric is that you've got your hands hold of and you throw it up and you find a rodentia that is shock and awed at you finding it.

- You can see me? - I sure can, little man. Now where's the rest of your clan? - Now Muffin's whispering is creepy. - It starts like backing up, it's back to the wall, like kind of scared of you. - Nowhere to run.

And then it pulls out a knife. It's a very crude knife. It doesn't look actually very intimidating, but it is a knife nonetheless. What, are you going to spread me on some toast? Don't come any closer. I'm just here for the silver. Silver? I mean, the silver? What are you talking about?

There's tons of it in here. Okay. Points out like the giant silver coin. Like, there's silver right there. What's your name? My name's Balthazar. Balthazar. By any chance, Balthazar, are you a part of the Reikalu gang? That's pronounced Reikalu, but yeah, that sounds about right.

Now listen, I wrote it down on my paper and I don't know, I don't, I didn't write like phonetics on it. You don't look like you stayed in school for more than a day. I've never been in school. Do you work for Batiste? Bastards. What's

Once again, another name that sounds pretty different. Pastis, yeah. Is that okay? And are you responsible for taking our friend Vol? He throws the knife at you. Could I dodge it? Yeah, I'll say you make a dex check and I'll make an attack roll and we'll see which one gets higher. I rolled an eight. He rolled a four. What?

He misses. Yeah, he tosses this knife, but it's like, it doesn't seem like it's very hefty either. And he doesn't, he wasn't really prepared to throw this thing. It just kind of whiffs past you. What do you want to do? Choke him. Lightly. To where he could still talk. Lightly. That's such a Canadian way to approach combat.

-Well, I don't want to kill him. I don't have information. -I know. It's like you caught yourself being too violent and your Canadian-ness came through. -Kill him politely. -All right. Do a strength check. -Okay. Seven. -Seven. Yeah. You grab a hold of him, but maybe you still have a lot of grime and slime on your fingers from all the garbage and stuff you've been touching, and he kind of slips right out of your hands. He's up against the wall. He's trying to eye his solutions and sees this rope and grabs hold of it. -I mean, yeah, sure. Go on up.

Can Eric and Billy see what's going on? Do they know that this is happening? You tell me. When you get to the top, are you more concerned about the top or the bottom? Since Eric is up there, he trusts his boss, so Billy's, like, more concerned about getting the others up here. Okay, yeah, you kind of look down and, like... Because I could just shoot this guy off the rope. It seems like everybody at the bottom...

is bigger than they should be. -Ooh. -Like, they look like they're giants down there. -Weird. -Easier targets. -I mean, could be. -Can I try to grab, uh, Balthazar? -Yeah, Balthazar is, like, grabbing hold of this rope and, like, getting ready to climb, and you're gonna try and grab what? -I have manacles. -Nice. -Fresh-baked bracelets. Gum-gum? -No, I ain't no gum-gum. These are manacles. -Not boyacles. -No. -I was thinking the same thing. -Hey-o.

Can I lock him up or try to restrain him with them? Yeah. Actually, could I like, since he's trying to climb up, could I just manacle his legs, like his feet? Absolutely, you can. That's what I'm going to do. All right. He starts getting his handhold on it and he starts climbing up and you're going for his ankles, right? Yeah. Now, pants him. Man, ankles. Yeah.

All right, make a dex. Check. Eight. Okay, you get one on, but the other one kind of slips off as you're trying to like chain them together. Just as good. Just as good. I grab the one that is not on him and I just pull. Okay. He's going to make an action real quick to see if he can get further.

And he doesn't have strength, so he has a four. So he fails like he's like feeling the anchor weighed down and you grab a hold of him. And what are you going to do? Try and just pull him all the way down? Yeah. Could I try and like ball and chain him into like the trash? Good God. Make a strength check. Yeah. That one's only going to be an eight.

You do it and you pull him off the rope, but it kind of lands on you and you both get knocked into the garbage as well. Okay.

So now you're kind of scrambling around in this detritus. Muffin, get him. What are the two of you at the top doing? Well, with me, I know Billy was looking down and more concerned with the bottom. I think Eric would be more concerned looking at the top. Like, in Eric's mind, he's already done everything he needs to do to help people up. There's no help. You don't need to help anybody. Right. The rope's there. It's on them to come up now. So I would be... Eric would not be looking down. Eric would be looking ahead. Oh.

Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah. Gracious. I can fill you guys in on what's happening up there. You enter a messy hall split in two with bones littered about. There's a large cooking pot over on the side with a fire pit underneath. And...

There's these like sleeping mats that look like they're made of hay. They look really rough. And then, of course, there are giants, maybe like four of them that you're starting to count out. -Uh-oh. -And this hall that's split in two, there's two different numbers, 16 and 17 on the ground. -Maybe they're just really small people and we're looking at them from a weird perspective and they look huge.

How many vials of poison did you bring? You got enough for everybody? Eric's fresh out. Oh, no. Do you recognize any of them? You actually do. You recognize one of them is sitting by the fire and has this green stain.

stain across its chin is like nursing it trying to like whine to its twin next to it. I'm so glad Eric went up first. I'm so happy right now. Oh my god. We'll deal with this later. What are we doing with the Balthazar? What's going on down there first? We all decided to run away from this giant and Gus is like I'm gonna go and give him poison. That wasn't Gus. That was Eric. That was Eric.

Can Billy, who's looking over the edge, call down to his friends down below and say, should I take this shot? Do you need help? Shoot him. So we shouldn't keep this guy alive, right? To get more information out of him? You can live with an arrow in yourself for a bit. What do you think? She's asking Balthazar. You want to know from him if he wants to stay alive?

Yeah. Yeah, that's a great idea. I love it so much. Okay, then you better listen to him down there because I got my crossbow trained on you, dude. Yeah, we want information. You look really small up there, though. Well, you look really big and easy to hit from here, so... I guess it's a matter of perspective. I never thought of that. Yeah.

So what do you want to do? Should we try to get some type of information out of him or should we just continue on? I feel like I don't care for his information and just want him to not be able to attack us anymore. You have him already chained. You could chain him to something to make him stationary so he can't join his friends or something.

Is there anything for me to attach the other manacle to in this room? Sure. There's a pipe on the wall. It looks like it's big enough or small enough to be able to lasso a chain link around. Then I manacle that other end to the pipe, and I turn to him and I go, you want to play a game? Oh, my God. Uh.

And I say, you stay there. Okay? Steal his cloak. I don't think I'm going anywhere. Yeah, I take his cloak and I give it to... Or Muffin has the cloak, right? Yeah. Yeah. I pulled it off of him. Yeah, Muffin keeps it. Okay. I mean, it's a little cold in here. Could I put the cloak on? Yeah, you can put the cloak on. Okay.

It's on me now. As you put it on. Muffin? Yeah, exactly. You look around and like Muffin is like hard to find now. You see like footprints where Muffin should be, but it's almost like Muffin's not there anymore. Benny, I'm right here. Muffin, what was that? I'm wearing the cloak. Oh, that tracks. Don't tell Billy or Eric. I kind of want to surprise them.

Yeah, Billy, you look down and Muffin's not there anymore. Okay. I think we lost Muffin. I like that. I love pranks. I'm a big prankster. Why don't you get on my back and I'll climb us up. Okay, okay, okay. Muffin, hold on to the back of Benny. Okay, I climb. All right. Like, what's his face in Princess Bride? Princess Bride. Yes. You make a strength check and I'll say it won't be advantage or disadvantage because you're just pulling yourself up with someone else on your back. Okay.

That's double fours with the two. Ten, even. Dirty ten. Okay, yeah. You start climbing. You see that below you, it seems like you should be further away from it, but it looks bigger below you, and you see that this Rikalu, you know, Rodentia is still down there, chained and linked, but it seems like, from out of perspective, they're getting bigger, but you're at the top of...

The conical shaft is getting smaller and you finally reach these handholds of these pitons and you pull yourself up. I'll hold on to them so then Muffin can get up first since you said it was like small enough that it couldn't be like two of us. Yeah. Okay. Muffin climbs up. All right. Yep. You climb up and then what? And then I go behind Billy and I tap him on the opposite shoulder. Yeah.

Yeah, boss, what do you need, Eric? I like the picture that my back is to him, so like muffins between us and we're not facing each other at all. I tap both of them on the backs. Eric, you playing pranks on me? You guys both look at each other and you actually can't see each other for a second. Where'd you go? Looks like the room is just there, but like it's like some kind of shadow, some play of tricks, like there's a phony mirror or something like that. Boss! You know I hate pranks. Get over here. Ha ha ha!

I pull myself up. Okay. You all enter this hall filled with giants. Yeah, like I said, you have four of them. Some of them are hanging out by the fire. And then there's a few like kind of resting or sleeping, that kind of thing. And there's a bunch of bones and clutter on the floor. Yeah, luckily they know better than to mess with us anymore. See? Yeah. When you say they're giants, does that mean they're probably too heavy for us to like push? As you're looking at them this time, they look different to you.

The first time you saw them, the head was too big to come through the doorway. The body was too big to come through the doorway. And now they look large, like larger than you, but they aren't like building sized or room sized. They're more like just really tall and big people, like maybe 10 feet or 15 feet tall. Are we in Alice in Wonderland? Yes.

Muffin in Wonderland. That's interesting because the creature we stabbed in the eye, that was the giant that we thought. Or tried to stab. Yeah, tried to stab. Yeah. In fact, he's here. He's by the campfire. Yeah. Right. So Muffin's actually here, guys. What? Where? No, she's not. And she's actually got a cloak on that she might be able to get past these large fellows with. I died.

I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm alive. I'm just wearing one of the clothes. So we can do something like we did in the bird room. You know, maybe, you know, looking at the map, if you ran through these rooms, I think you can maybe draw their attention so that we can also enter the rooms that we need to go to. I also wonder if maybe it's going to sound mean. I don't know if these things are hostile other than the fact that one of them tried to growl at us before. Maybe we should just like push him over the edge. Oh my God, that's murder. Murder.

I love it. As y'all are talking amongst yourselves, you kind of see one of them by the fire start sniffing around. Potentia. I think the hole's too small. See, we got to make a break for it. Whatever you say, Eric, I'll follow. I'd be down for running. I mean, I'm invisible, so I feel kind of confident, you know? Stakes are super low for you, muffin.

I say that to the wrong area. I'm not looking at Muffin, but I think I'm looking directly at Muffin. Could I maybe sneak across and do a bit of reconnaissance first while they're kind of more hidden? French stuff. Absolutely you can. I'll say you're walking gingerly across this floor. You almost step on a bag, like a

sack of silver coins that are just kind of spilling out onto the floor. There's a ton of them. It's a rather large treasure trove. Do you keep going or what do you do? Yes. You press on and kind of ignore your instincts to grab all this silver and you move forward towards the edge of the room and you see three ways out of here. One to the north, west, and then east. East heading towards room 17.

Okay. You said this room is just like full of these beings. It's like three or four. Yeah. They're, they're mostly migrated to the East side towards room 17, but there's one that's kind of near the silver that is sleeping at the moment. Oh, sleeping. Okay. I go back and just relay this information to the team. Okay. What do you guys want to do? Should we just do a good old stealthy? Yeah. See? Yeah.

Yeah, whatever the boss said, I'm there with them. And if anyone finds us or gives us guff, they get the dagger in the eye. Oh, my gosh. All right, I'll say, Muffin, you don't need to make any kind of checks for this, but the three boys need to, and I'm going to take the lowest one, and that's going to be what the group check is. Well, actually, I'm going to take the blueprint that I have of the map,

and I'm just going to hold it in front of my face. I love this so much. There's a headless rat walking by. I will give you advantage. Yeah! So John gets advantage, and Blaine and I roll just 2d6. Dex checks. Dex checks. 3, 4, 1. Rolled an 8. Rolled an 11.

I got an eight. -All right. You guys make it about halfway through the room and your just eyes, maybe they're drawn to the silver. Maybe you've recognized that giant is giving you like putting you on edge and you bump into each other as you're trying to shuffle along this room. -Yes, I couldn't see your face.

And the one that's by the fire looks up and sees the three of you standing right in front of them. -Protentia. -And starts getting up from their seat and moving towards you. -Please, please don't get up. -I'm going to point at him and yell, "Yeah, you stay seated down or I'm going to mess you up again, see? You remember me?" -They look confused on their face. They recognize you, but you look different for some reason. And go and make a will check.

Yeah, because you're much bigger, probably. Yeah. I don't think I'd recognize a rat if I saw it again. You'd recognize a rat if it put poison in your mouth. Yeah. I guess if it also talked like an old bugsy, like a mobster. I rolled a nine and I have a plus two on Will, so that's 11. Whoa. Oh, you got Will. Yeah, Will's my thing. Oh, it like starts to put it together like rat, rodent,

Poison, no! And starts backing up and trips over the fire and falls to the ground and kind of awakens the other three giants around them and they start looking up. Perfect. Trying to see what the cause of the ruckus is, but they're in the other room and they don't see the three of you yet. Benny speaks up and goes, Chase it! That's exactly what I was going to say. And just runs for the room to 17 and the exit out of 17 as best he can.

Okay, yeah, you make a dash for it and head towards this other exit to the east. Same. That's definitely what I had in mind. Make a break for it and make a run. I'm going to do the same, but for me it's pretty easy because I'm completely invisible. Yeah, you kind of see them coming and you're probably first in line at this point. Billy's going to run, but then he's going to see all of that silver. He's going to stop and he's going to say, Oh, boss, look at all this money. There's got to be at least 30 pieces here. I don't know.

That's a biblical references. And that guy, Murren? Murren. Murren. Murren. He did say we could keep all the silver we want, all the treasures, right, that we found? Certainly did. Could I make a grab for any stuff and just keep running, or is that going to totally trip me up? If you want to try and grab them, you'll make a dex check, because this is a risky situation. It's not that you can't grab them, but if you roll low, something may happen to you from the giants.

Do it, do it, do it, do it. Go for it, Billy. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take all this money. Yeah. All right. Make a dex check. We'll split it 90-10, see? Yeah. What? 90 for who, though? That's 8 plus 2, 10. Nice. You get 17 silver pieces in just a fast grasp of these bags and start making your way to the door, or are you going to grab more? Two.

No, I'm gonna call it good there. All right, you can add 17 silver pieces and then you start heading towards the east and out of the giant hall here. The four of you make your way through this patched sea on your map and head into a small room labeled 18 on the floor. There's a strange thing happening to the north that you can't quite make out, but judging from your experiences thus far with the fabrics, you think it has something to do with this blueness again. Mm-hmm.

That was good work, Billy. You gave me 15 of those silver. I'll let you keep two of them. Whatever you say, boss. Yeah, whatever you say. Hey, guys, just letting you know I'm still here. Who said that? Who said that? I don't know if this room to the north maybe has more fabric that you guys could use and do what I'm doing. Super sneaky. I do like stealth. And then also to the east is an egress that branches off in several ways. Can we try, like, poking or prodding at that northern passage that seems like...

like weird, like the fabric? Yeah. You want to use anything in particular? I guess I'll use my dagger and just kind of like poke at it. Billy just raises his hand. I was looking at my character sheet. Yeah, you start like poking out where it looks like it's a wall to you, but you keep poking and it like pushes in like it's fabric and stuff like that.

Cotton, fabric of our lives. I keep thinking the same thing. We spend way too much time together, all of us working together. I'm going to try to grab at it and see if I can pull it down. Sure, yeah, you reach out your hands and you immediately feel fabric again. And if you want to take your dagger or try and scratch away at some fabric, you totally can. Yeah, I'll see if I can cut away at it. Roll a d6. Okay.

That is a three. You get three feet of this fabric. Oh. Oh. It's a nice little cape. And once the fabric is gone, what is exposed behind it? Like, was it hiding something? You see, yeah, another egress, another corridor heading north. And it's actually a familiar corridor. It's the same one when you first entered that you heard the stomping of giants. Yes.

We still was like, it was the smell of smoke was coming from it as well, if I remember right? Yes, exactly. So you would guess that this would go back to the first room. I guess the smell of smoke was the fire that the giants were around, maybe. That's what you surmised, yeah. Yeah. They're all connected in the circle of life. Can you imagine if we went through that circle?

side first, the smoke side. Oh God, we'd be lost. I wanted to. That was my initial inkling was to go that way, but I'm glad we didn't. Bad times. Can I try to take some fabric as well? Is there any left that I can see? Absolutely. It's a big section of this wall that is kind of like obscured for you. Yeah, if you want to do the same thing, just roll a D6. Okay. It's not my boss doing it. Now I want to do it. Eric's my hero. I won't tell him that, but I think he knows. Two. Yes, you get two feet. Okay. Uh,

Uh, should we proceed along the numbers? Yeah, let's do it, see? You want any, like, cool fabric, though? You can look invisible! Yeah, like me. He's got tons. He uses it for the best, uh, the best use. He hides his face, see? Ah, good one, boss! Ha ha ha ha ha!

So you guys see in your map that you can go south and then take a right going west and you would hit 19 if that's the room you want to go into next. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all head that way. You recognize that...

South on this hallway is the same staircase where you met Esme and had these altars and statues. But instead you take a right and go west into room 19. Before we get into 19, I yell down, I go, "Hey, Esme, we made it over here." -Hey, Esme! -Remember me? You see a door up here at the middle of the staircase and it kind of creaks open just slightly and goes,

And then closes. That's my friend. She just goes, yeah, boy. So y'all enter this sparse room with two windows to the west. They both seem to be on the third floor looking out south. And then there's one more thing that you kind of notice in the corner of this room besides the number 19. And it's this small tattered coin purse. Can I pick it up?

Sure, yeah. You want to look inside or just hold on to it? I'd like to look inside. Okay, you open it up and you see one coin. This one's a normal size coin. It's not a plate. It looks different from most coins. It's not that like the sigilon is any different from the currency of this land, but it just, there's something about it. The sheen of it, maybe it's, it feels nice in your hand. Like, I don't know. It just like, you don't want to let go of this thing. Okay, guys, I'm going to, I'm going to hold on to this for us.

And if anyone notices any, like, you know, as my buddy Billy there said, like a big coin slot or something like that somewhere, let's keep an eye out. Gotta watch out for those. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And the only exit is the way you came in and all the sparks have followed you thus far. Cool. Yeah. Let's backtrack, go back out to the east, hook a left, back up a little to the north, and then hook a right to the east. Yeah. Yeah. You all follow your map and you head towards room 20. Okay.

And another sparse looking room with two windows again, but this one has a set of stairs to the south. You find a bottle is kind of hanging on one of the windowsills.

Hanging? Sorry, sitting on one of the windowsills. He's chilling, hanging out. Hanging out is what I meant. And this is in room 20? Yeah. Empty or full of something? Yeah, it is full of something. Actually, I would say it's not actually completely full. It looks like it's been slightly used. Just don't drink it because I previously found a bottle of acid, so that would be bad news bears. I'm pretty thirsty, though. That's looking pretty good. It doesn't look like the acid. It looks yellow this time.

I don't want to drink that either. Yeah, it's free Mountain Dew, see? Free Mountain Dew, I love Mountain Dew. Chug, chug, chug, chug. Oh, you guys. Can I give it a whiff? Yeah. Yeah, you reach out to grab it and you can drink it, sniff it, whatever you want. But you also notice there's a label on it.

Labels are for losers. Yeah, I should probably read it. Reading for nerds, see? Just drink it. We'll look after. Real rats just drink what's in mysterious bottles in towers. Aw, shucks, you guys. You guys are such pranksters. I'm going to read it. You read it, and it says, potion of super strength, and there's a question mark at the end. Oh my goodness. Just urine, guys. Nothing to be seen in here.

I'll pocket that. Okay. Actually, I'll share with the group. Hey, guys, it's a potion of super strength, so if I want to be as strong as Benny, maybe I'll take it, but I don't think we need it right now. Why'd you lie to us then, see? Can I trust you? Well, I told the truth. Yeah, I don't know. You said it was nothing, see? You got caught in a lie. Yeah, but you guys are goofing with me, so I'm goofing back. It's what friends do, right, Mr. Eric?

Just gaslighting Billy. So you guys are in this room. Like I said, there's two windows at the top. There's a couple of egresses to east and west. You find on your map, it's places you've been before. The only place you haven't been yet in this hallway is down south on the staircase. All right, let's make our way downtown. ♪

You head down the stairs and you reach room 21. It's a sparse room again. More of these windows and a set of stairs. And then the room is 21. There's one thing that's odd about this room. There's no way to go other than the window. Hmm.

- Especially. - As you look out the window, you see that you're high above on the tower facing the east, and you notice that it's starting to get actually a little bit dark outside. - Uh-oh. - Maybe the sun is setting opposite of where you're looking. And also about this window, there's blood on the windowsill and a small tooth. - Oh, another tooth. - Like the ones we dug up? - Yeah. - I guess I'll grab this one and put it in my pocket, take it with us. We seem to be teeth collectors now. - Yeah. - Okay.

I'll look at it first. Does it seem like the other teeth that we undug? It seems like it could be the same time frame of like look and feel of these other teeth. Like obviously a different tooth, but could be from the same mouth, could be the same species. You're not sure. I'll pocket it. We probably should have looked in Vol's mouth.

Yeah. Smarter rats would have done that. We didn't look right. Now you open the helmet, but you're more focused on the map. And he's all the way back in the first room, which at this point is, I mean, it's not that far back to get to. Yeah. We're too busy beating the snot out of him.

Oh, yeah. Could we go through the back through the fabric doorway that they cut off of and go check on his mouth? Do you want to go back or do we want to keep going forward? See, because we go to 22 and 23 and we're back there. I mean, ultimately, what we're going to learn is whether or not this is his teeth, which I don't know if it's like vital to a puzzle. I'm always Mr. Eric, you know, wherever he goes, I follow.

I'm like a shark. Yeah. No neck. Can't turn back. I don't know what that means, but yeah. I guess we'll just save it for the end when we get back to the beginning. All right. Yeah. It'll be a good reveal for the end. It could also be like a fly instead of a shark.

Maybe these teeth are just like the Riddler trophies in like the Batman games where they're just collectibles, you know? Yeah. You solved my puzzle. Yeah. All right. Where do you want to go? I guess out the bloody window, right? Yeah. Seems like the only way forward is down. Yeah. Yeah. So you see there's a chain dangling out the window. I'm assuming someone wants to start climbing. I'll go first this time. Oh. Oh.

Brave Benny. Okay. Yeah, you start climbing down, and it's not too hard. Go ahead and make...

just for kicks and giggles, a strength check with advantage. That's a nine. Nine. You make it to the bottom and where this thing is nailed on the window still starts to like come up a little bit and unhinge a little. Can I do like a rappel move where I just push off the building with the chain and swing into the window on the fourth floor? Uh,

- Yes, I'll say if you don't do well, there could be serious repercussions either for you or the chain being no longer usable. - Do it, do it, do it. - This feels like a worthwhile stunt. - Yeah, this feels like a worthwhile stunt. This feels like we, all I'm hearing from Micah is you should totally do this. - Yeah.

Go for it. I got the opposite impression, actually. That's what I heard, right? Right, Billy? Do it, dude. This is going to be a dex check. Yeah, that's fine. Hey, boys. Hey, boys. Dex with no advantage or death with advantage? There's no advantage. There's no advantage? Okay. You sure about that?

Go little brother! I won't need it. I won't need it. Just gonna reeeally get these dice mixed up. Ready? And... Ha ha! Ha ha! Ten! Dirty ten! Oh, nice, nice. Eat my rat shorts! The-

The hinge that this chain is linked to starts bending away, and at the last second, it clamps back down as you swing back into the window, and you go through the opening. -Yeah, and I tuck and roll. -All right. And I yell, "Clear!" You swing, and you tuck and roll into this room, and you recognize-- Actually, you don't recognize this room, but someone else might.

You come through the window and you're... It's covered with books and scrolls and tables. Oh, the study. Yeah. The nerd room. Yeah, we did tell Benny about the study. There you go. So you would recognize it from the description before. Benny is horrified of this room.

Yeah, so you see, Benny just kind of took action and went out the window. But you see, I've got another rope here. And I think this could have helped us and made things a little easier. Yeah, so what are the rest of you going to do? I guess you could use that as a repelling thing. So if one person stays up top, they can have the rope wrapped around the other person that's climbing down just as a safety precaution. Yeah. Yeah.

- Yeah. - I'll say you guys kind of anchor this rope down. You have the chain still. It's not quite as sturdy as maybe the rope is, but with those two things and you guys being careful, you three easily are able to descend down this into this next room into the window.

Wow, this is a cool room. I've never seen it before because I was waiting in that hallway. Is this what school's like, see? I've been in this room. There's a lot of books. That's all I know. So you said there's a table with some papers? Yeah, there's like a dozen tomes as you're kind of like glancing across all these papers.

you see the word "castromancy" over and over again. K-A-S-T-R-O-M-A-N-C-Y. And there's a hundred torn sketches of, like, what look like blueprints similar to the one you have, but they're torn about, there's notes marked through them, there's, like, things in the margins. And one thing that you do notice that's common in all of these is this 24th room. And you don't see that on your map. -Hmm.

Wait, so they all have a 24th room, but our map doesn't? It doesn't actually have the room itself. It just has that in the notes, 24th room.

All right. So that's, that's, uh, to Tara, Tara. What's his name? T Tardal, not all T T Tardal. Yep. You got there. T Tardal. That was, he didn't finish. So he didn't get to the room 24. Do we know where 24 is? It's not on our map. I've got an idea. Yeah, me too. Boss, you go ahead. You go ahead, sir.

I think we need to count all the windows, see? And we need to see there might be one that doesn't connect anywhere, you see? What? Every floor has four. There might be one missing. Well, he did fall, right? So maybe he was trying to reach the 24th room or look for it or something. Oh.

So maybe it's, yeah, you're on to something with the windows. So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. In room 20, there are two windows, but they only have one symbol saying where they're going. Same with 19.

Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Dang it. So those match up. There's still more books and tomes and stuff if you want to keep looking for any more information. Can I look through them? Sure. You kind of peruse through some more, like, buried books and paper that you didn't see initially in the glance, and you see something written in the margins in, like...

a hand script. It's no longer, like, been stamped around or, like, maybe officially planted on this paper. And it says the words Drowned Lover. V-Lin is a name that you keep seeing over and over again. V-Lin? Yeah. V-I-L-I-N. V-I-L-I-N. It's some kind of, like, poem, you gather? Like, it's not very good, but it seems very heartfelt. I think I'm onto something. Oh. Yeah. I am. I am.

Totally lost. No, no, no. I got something. I got something. Okay, go for it. Never mind. No, never mind. Did it go? Is it gone? It came and went. No, it wasn't. Well, I thought I found the missing floor, but it was 5S. It's just real small on the map, and don't ignore me. Means there's a sixth floor? Oh. I'll also point out that you guys realize you're still in 22. We need to go back to 23. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe we should go to 23 and then try to figure this out. Yeah. And if we go through the window here in 22, it'll take us down to... 3E? 3E. Which would be 23. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, as you're looking at the window, you realize that there's more blood on this windowsill. Did he, like, fall and just, like, knock his head on all of these windowsills? Well, maybe he was looking out of 5E and fell down.

He had a knife in him. So I think he got stabbed somewhere and then was climbing down. No, Vol did. Right. We're talking about Vol? Talking about T-Tardinal. I was talking about T-Tardinal, how legend is that he like fell. Yeah. But I think like it's possible he fell by like looking for something or got pushed. Did 5e have the window? Did that window have blood as well? It did. That's when you came down. Why would there be blood at the top?

Top. This is wait. I thought this tower only had four floors. No, it's five. Five floors. So top floor. If we look out for a window and look up, is there anything above 5E? Look out for E and you're looking up past it. Yeah, we're like in room 22 and we're looking at the window that I flew in. You know that there's a top of this tower. There's no more rooms, but you know, there's a top of this tower. I think we got to go up there. Maybe that's the altar that cheese make. Nerd. No. He's me.

Esme. Esme was talking about cheese, man. I heard cheese master and I was like, oh God. Okay, let's go to 23. Let's go to 23. We have to do that first. Yes. All right. So you all go out the window, kind of similar to what you did before and start to descend down into 23. You make it inside and that's where you see this blood still spilt on the floor, but no longer a full corpse.

And then you see a window to the north and it's off the fifth floor. I just want to check real quick. We still got our orbs above us, right? We didn't lose those? Oh, thank God. Okay. So if we stick our head out of that north window, so we're looking down the south direction of the fifth floor. Yes. Yeah. As you guys are looking out this window, you hear three sets of footsteps coming down the hallway and they stop right at the threshold of this room. Be very quiet.

Are you still wearing your cloak? Yeah. Okay. I know I am. Could I like listen to see if they are saying anything? You are listening and you hear breathing, but you don't hear any talking. And all you hear is, that's the most horrifying thing ever. Like a weapon being drawn of a weapon. Maybe they're just like swapping out the Game Boy cartridges. This tower just got really creepy. Yeah. And then you hear something fall on the ground that clatters and it's the manacles that you had before. Uh-oh.

- We get our deposit back now. - Let's roll initiative. - Oh no! - Oh good lord! - We should have gotten him. - We should have killed Balthazar. - It's a 2d6 for initiative? - 1d6. - 1d6. - I'm just gonna go with Barb. What did you roll, Barb? - Oh, you sure you don't wanna go with Blaine? - I got two sixes. - She held up a finger. - No, I went like this. I got a two. - You got a two? Okay, I got a six. So these creatures are gonna go first. - These? - These are the Rikalu, if you had to guess.

and you already heard an unsheathing of something. First one goes for Big Benny, and you see this obscured kind of warping of space lunge out at you. And at the last second, you instinctually like deftly jut out of the way to the left, and you hear it kind of like just nick your fabric, and it's some kind of metal scraping against you. Next one. This time you hear the stretching of fabric and fibers, and it sounds like...

almost like a rubber band stretching. Eric. -Huh? -You hear something whiz past your head like a rock or a bird flying past you. -That's right. See, that's a warning shot. Get out of here. -Then last, Billy, you hear another thing whiz past your head as well. They just don't seem to have you zeroed. Now it's your turn. What do you guys want to do? -I have a Potion of Strength. If I was to take that, could I use the effects on this turn or would it have to be until the next time? -Absolutely. -Okay.

Okay, then I'm gonna be like, "Boss, I've got you!" And I'm gonna chug the potion of strength and then draw a sword and shield and just hack at the area. I'm assuming where they are just based on the weirdness and the, you know, vision blurriness.

-Yeah. You drink this potion that's yellow and you read the label again, like as you're looking out of the bottle, emptying, and it says super strength and both your arms become enormous, like gorilla-sized arms and they actually weigh you down and now you're like almost upside down like a handstand with like how your arms are just so heavy, but you feel like you can throw or punch anything if you can get your arms up. -Wow. -Okay.

Then I want to see if I can get my arms up and just start swinging. Just start at these cloaked figures. All right. Make a strength check and I'll give you advantage. Yeah. We're going to call him Billy Big Arms. See? Yeah. Yeah. Shoot. That's a...

Six and a two, that's eight plus one, nine. You feel a connection as you start helicoptering these massive arms, these biceps around, and you hear it connect with like some kind of bone cracks and you see something fall to the floor and the cloak that was covering it is,

falling off of it and you just see this bloodied rodent just staring blankly at you now. Oh, cool. Boss, I killed one for you. One shot. Yeah, good job. He's like the brother from Umbrella Academy. Oh, yeah. I get compared to that guy a lot, actually. Oh, the actor from the Netflix? Yeah. Let's keep going. Who's next? I'll go. They can't see me, right? Because I still have the cloak on. Correct. And they don't have any special abilities to see people in the cloak. You don't know. Could I try...

try to flank one of them, get behind them, and take my two daggers and stab them in the back. So let me ask you, if you can't see exactly, you can guess where they might be and they're kind of in this doorway, how do you think you'd get around them?

Ooh, that's a good point. Ooh, instead, actually, I have a lantern and oil. Oh, God. Could I take some of my oil and, like, throw it onto the ground? Absolutely, you can. And then what do you want to do? Like, keep going with that idea. Well, I don't know if I could use my lantern, but I also have a tinderbox. Yeah. And I kind of want to light it up. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Are you going to light it at the same time? Are you going to toss one and then hopefully toss the other? Like, what's the mechanic here? Essentially, my goal is to, like, make this oil flame up. Yeah, on the ground. So it potentially, like, burns them. Let's do it. Make a dex check, and we'll just say it's a flat dex check, not advantage or disadvantage. That would be a 11, actually. Yeah.

Yeah, you managed to get it. What you think is like if there's one on the ground, like it seems to be covering the left side of this doorway, you think there's two other ones and you toss it in kind of towards them. Immediately hits the ground and...

flames jut out from this oil and start filling the doorway with these like red hot licking flames. And you start hearing like screaming and like they start backing up a bit. Do we see like their cloaks or something? Or like, are they on fire now? So we could actually see where they are. You can see the flames. Yeah, like catching them on fire. You still don't see them perhaps, but like you see where they should be now. Like it's kind of their outlines in the fire. Okay.

Okay. And that's probably my action, right? What did you roll again? An 11. You see one of them fall to the ground and is trying to douse themselves, but they can't do it in time, and they kind of fall over.

but they're not uncloaked, but you see that they're like, there's smoke rising from the ground from this lifeless corpse. Okay. And there seems to be one left after that happens. There's one left. Okay, that's my turn. Way to go, Muffin! Who's next? I guess I'll run up with my dagger and try to stab at the area, wherever the final one appears to be.

Sure. And I'll also say, like, you guys don't have to go, like, one at a time. You can do things together if you want. You want to stab together, Benny? Benny, you want to do a stab? Yeah. Could I, like, if you can stab them, could I then, like, use, I have a shield. Could I use my shield to, like, push them into the fire even more? Yeah. Or back into the fire or something like that? Cast them into the flames. Yeah, you totally can. Let's do, Benny, you make a strength or dex. I'll leave it up to you. And then, Bonnie...

Boss, I'm going to ask you to do just an attack. Yeah, see? Nine. Yeah. Five. Nine to five. You guys look at each other like, we got this. And like you start lunging forward, but it's just like the flames are too hot. And you're like, oh, this is actually harder than I thought. And you're like dancing around these flames. Billy, you messed me up. There's one more. I'm so sorry, guys. I'm sorry.

Ooh, this final one is like really upset at all this and starts screaming out like, you killed my friends! And like starts lunging towards Big Benny. And you see this knife come out you. Like it's clearly like not, no longer cloaked by this blue fabric anymore and lunges towards you. And you see it stick you in the arm. Oh!

You see it stick in your arm, and it's going to be really hard to move that particular arm, but you don't take any damage at this point, at least right now. Okay. Adrenaline. Where are we with initiative? Are we back to another initiative roll? That's true. Actually, we didn't roll. I'm just going to say it's y'all's turn now. Okay. Then I would respond to such a transgression. Me too. Buffy sees this injustice and takes both her daggers and tries to stab. Yeah, you all four can do something together if you want. Let's gang up on it.

up on him, beat him while he's down, and Hulk smash. All of us. Yeah. Not Benny. I've still got one hand that can use it, and I have a one-handed axe, so I swing that around. Okay. You can make an attack roll. Billy, if you want to do another advantage strength.

And then whatever else the rest of you want to do. Attack. Similar to Muffin, I'll go in with dagger. Nine. My attack is 12. Okay. No, I got a 10. Okay. Eight. Okay. Hey, you're the brains. You're the brains. You all four take this thing down and like tear it to shreds really is what happens. Yeah. And falls into this ashy heap of rodentia. And there are no more enemies to be dispatched. You have...

Cleaned my rat maze. Yeah. We did it. But there are flames that are still clinging onto this room and starting to spread on the floor. That's my bed. Have I got a water scan or anything like that? No. There's a lake outside. See, you can use the lake.

And just a reminder, there is a window to the north that's on the fifth floor. Should we try to go up to the top, top of the top roof? Yeah. If we look out that window to the north and we look up, is there a way to go up and into something that is a new room? There is a chain dangling down. Whoops.

Dangling down to us? From above. What do I do with this knife in my arm? Could Muffin take it and yank it out real quick? Totally can. That's what they always say. Whenever you get the knife stuck in you, you gotta pull it out immediately. It's better to be kind of injured than to try to climb a rope with a knife in your arm. Blood starts oozing out of your arm and you can feel it again. You could probably use it again, but you do get damaged from it.

What's my damage? It was one. I have medicine with me. I have three medicine. Could I give any one of the medicines? Absolutely, you can. I lost an HP and I got it back. Boss, are you injured? Boss Eric? Nah, I'm good. I'm tough. See? Killer. It's like that scene in Kung Fu Hustle with the throwing knives where he accidentally stabs his partner and then pulls it out and puts it back in. Love that movie. It's such a good movie. That's a great scene. Yeah, let's...

Let's climb up that chain, see? I'll lead the way because I got these big alarms and I can help you guys up. You go, big arms Billy. You got it, boss. All right. I'll climb up. You lead the way and start climbing out onto this chain. And as you do, you see the sun is almost completely set. The sky is starting to dim. The moon is full and casting beams that are glistening off these chains. You climb further and further and further until you reach the top.

and you come across an altar. There's a table that looks like it's made for some kind of offering or ritual that you're not sure what it could be. - Yes, we was right. - But you do realize that-- - Oh, oh, oh, oh. - Sorry, you have more to say, Micah. - You do realize that your spark is still above your heads.

And I'm assuming all of you climb up there. Yes. I climb up. Muffin, didn't you find a special coin? I did. Should we get Esme here just to watch or just hang out or just do it ourselves? I say just go for it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Muffin looks at Eric and goes, I got it. Yeah, do it.

You're the one talking about phone and a friend, see? So I'm just going to make sure, give you the encouragement that you need, see? She puts the thumb up to Eric, and then she takes the coin out and puts it on the table? Altar. Altar? You pull out the coin, and you try to put it down, but it doesn't leave your hands.

Sticky hands. I guess I'm going with this. Muffin, let go of the coin. I'm trying. Make a will check. I'm waiting for that. Seven. You don't want to let go of the coin. Why would you? Muffin. Something's compelling me to not let go. But as you approach this altar, you see that the spark over your head starts falling in front of your face and kind of, it's almost like if it had a face, it looks at you in the eyes.

and then enters the altar, and the altar starts glowing with murky light. Oh. Maybe it wasn't a coin. I think I need Eric to tell me to do it again. Do it, do it.

Is it the coin or is it the light? I'm confused. What does the light in the altar look like? It's almost like water waves if you're looking at light underwater. You see these lines kind of washing across the table. What's happening with the lights from everyone else's heads? They're still a little bit, like a few steps behind you, so they're still hanging out above their heads.

I'll approach. Yeah, let's all approach the different sides of the altar. Same thing. All your sparks kind of come out in front of you, in front of your faces, and then move forward into the altar, and the altar becomes even brighter and brighter. Before you know it, lightning starts striking in the air. Everybody make a dex check. Oh, no.

That is a six. Eight. Nine. Seven. The eight and nine are fine. The six and seven, you're going to take six, two damage, and seven, one damage. I'm down to two. All right. And the weirdest thing is that the lightning didn't come from the sky. It came from the lake. Whoa. Like it shot out and kind of arced right for you all. What we do now? You hear a voice emanate from the altar. What is your wish?

Our wish is for you to return the life to Vol. I don't know what we're actually trying to wish for. I mean, that would be nice, yeah. It's a very noble wish. As you finish saying that, Muffin, you hear like way down in distance,

What do the other three of you want to do? Do we get a wish as well? What is your wish? Oh, cool. We all get a wish. Oh, yeah. Happy day.

I wish for another kitty. Every campaign. The cat lady of the group. I am. Thank you very much. I will take that title. A tiger appears next to you. It's a big kitty. And it starts purring affectionately. Hello. I will call you my favorite.

Wasn't your other cat also called Muffin? That is correct. I find this offensive. Everybody make a dex check again. Do we need to get out of this lightning room? I might die. Ten. Thirteen. Okay, that was a ten. Six. Uh-oh. You're going to take two more points of damage. Eric falls to the ground. Whoa!

Lightning strikes Eric in the chest and he's thrown into the parapets of this tower on lifeless. What do you do? I want my wish! I want my wish! I wish that my adopted dad Eric was back alive! What happens? What happens, Eric?

And I pop open, uh, and I see glowing light around my adopted son, Billy. And I have my two giant arms. Come here, give me a hug, Papa! Oh, come here, son. No!

Eric, make your wish. We need to get out of here. We've all heard of bear hugs, but you've never seen a gorilla hug like this. From a rat. Yeah, I wish I was respected as a legitimate businessman, see? You feel something appear like a piece of paper in your pocket. Oh, I pull it out and look at it.

Says Eric, tycoon and master of all business. Yeah. One day this will be yours, son. See? Let's get out of here now. That's my dad. As that's happening, Muffin goes, Esme, Esme, Esme. Esme appears and a door opens before you just in front of the altar. Yeah.

Muffin runs for the door. Chase it. I run. I run. Same. Same. Do not wait for lightning. You guys start running for the door and clouds start sparking with life all around you and the lake starts emptying out from water. Just as you close to the door, the whole tower explodes with light and water and floods the island below. Luckily, you're on the edge of the lake on the other side. Oh, the

It's a shame Vol had to die twice. Yeah, I was gonna say, where's Vol? Where's Vol? You see Vol is in a rowboat, like just trying to get out of there, but he's stuck in a waterless lake now. Oh no. I knew me riding boat here was gonna be a good idea. Good call, buddy. Great call. Our tale moves forward into the future.

Vol has returned to his father, safe and sound, and wiser than before. He heeds his father's wisdom much more, now having a second chance at life.

Muren is a rodentia of his word, and then some. Upon hearing the report of your heroic adventure through the spire and what you've done for his son, he doubles your promised bounty and rewards each of you with 100 silver pieces. Whoa! The fate of the Reekloo gang remains a mystery, particularly because it's unclear how devastating your dispatching of the three blue-cloaked rodentia was to their faction.

However, word has begun circling throughout the region that Pestis, their leader, is looking for the four of you, this maze rat pack. The lake that surrounded T-Tardinal's tower is henceforth permanently dried of all water.

From what few clues you unearth from the Spire and its secrets, it seems the curious castromancy that was cast upon the structure has fallen dormant since its destructive demise. But what of its connection to the lake, or this perplexing path of sparks? Perhaps the door to that enigma shall be unlocked in due time.

What becomes of the four of you with your newfound treasures, magic, and granted wishes? I slowly expand my business empire, uh, and corner the market on cheese imports and exports across the land. Yeah! Very good. Um, what does Billy do? I pay for a prosthetic finger for my friend Muffin if she wants it.

And I try to follow in my papa's footsteps as a legitimate businessman. Jesus. What? What?

Benny would do, obviously, the one thing you would do with this kind of money injection. He buys a farm and he turns it into an animal shelter for cats. And they're all named Muffin. They're all. It's called Muffinland. I can get behind that. What about Muffin? Muffin happily takes the finger that her friend Billy acquires for her. He gave you the finger? Yes. Yes.

Unfortunately. So used to it. She attaches it to the hand that already has five fingers so that she has four and six now. Perfect.

Perfect. Super hand. I think that, you know, she's not one to settle down anywhere. So she, you know, lives her life on the road and I think wastes away all of her earnings gambling. That's the line. Classic muffin. The best story to end on. And this concludes this tale of the Skyblind Spire. But is this the last we will hear of our Maze Rat Pack?

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This episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon was produced by Ben Ernst and edited by Mike Reisinger. Hey, that's me. And Catherine Arnold. I know her. A special thanks to Michael Prescott for letting us use his written module. Want to run it on your own? Check it out at trilemma.com. That's T-R-I-L-E-M-M-A dot com. Head to patreon.com slash stinky dragon for all things stinky. And tune in next time for another thrilling episode of Tales from the Stinky Dragon.

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