Phantom Nirvana: A Dungeons & Dragons Podcast

S2 Ep9 - Red Water

• Phantom Nirvana • Season 2 • Episode 9

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In our Last Episode the characters defended the fleeing caravan from terrible airborne enemies. The caravan is heading in the direction of the sanguine pool in hopes of finding the key to their homeland. This is season 2 Episode 9: Red water. 

Music in this episode is by Sun Umbra and Dying Suns. Synth by Xkeril. Heartbeat by loudernoises.

Warning: Contains dark themes that may not be suitable for all audiences. Instagram @phantomnirvana
Email phantomnirvana@gmail.com

SPEAKER_02:

Close your eyes and open your mind. This is Phantom Nirvana, a Dungeons& Dragons podcast. Be advised, this story contains dark themes that may not be suitable for some audiences. And now we present Phantom Nirvana.

UNKNOWN:

Phantom Nirvana

SPEAKER_02:

In our last episode, the characters defended the fleeing caravan from terrible airborne enemies. The caravan is heading in the direction of the Sanguine Pool in hopes of finding the key to their homeland. This is Season 2, Episode 9, Red Water.

SPEAKER_05:

The wagon itself rolls right underneath the cephalid and Rodrigo with a sword drawn jumps up into the sky. You see him in silhouette with the cephalid behind and he jabs it up into the center and is enveloped by the drapery of that top cap and it brings him in and sort of stops its advance and you can see the billow of sand blows up And the sturges continue to swarm around, but the caravan moves away. It becomes silent after a few moments as you realize that this danger has been left behind for the moment. You all realize what you've just witnessed. And there is an instant change to the tone of the caravan. Sadness. at what they just saw.

SPEAKER_01:

We cannot let Rodrigo's death be in vain. We cannot slow down. We need to put good distance between us, but we will get to the sanguine pool. We will get the second key. We will regain our home and we will never have to deal with these dangers again. And

SPEAKER_00:

Marcus says, Rodrigo, and raises his bow in the air.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and the caravan, they all shout his name. They look at you, newcomers, with confused eyes. Most of them are very confused about who you are, but they recognize this as a gesture of admiration for what that man did. Some people come to introduce themselves to you. The family introduces itself to you there on the wagon. Sam, after a time, you begin to be accepted by the caravan, maybe after an hour or so of people riding up, introducing themselves. As the caravan continues to move without the sturges and the cephalids stirring up the sand, you can see in every distance that it's just an expanse of rolling dunes, matte gray sand. The day goes on, and you are now traveling with the caravan. So there's going to be this passage of time, and I'm interested in how... you would spend your time with the caravan if you had maybe three days of this travel. Let's start with Rehana. What are the duties, the tasks that fall on you as the leader, as the queen, when the caravan is on the move?

SPEAKER_01:

Rehana's concerns are keeping the caravan together, seeing to the wounded, especially Ranulf, taking inventory of who was lost, what was lost, following directions of the scouts however Mal's message of that secret memory has her distracted so and she feels like she's not giving the best direction because she does want to speak to this new party that showed up apparently with a message she unknowingly sent herself

SPEAKER_05:

okay I think we have time for that conversation but I want to make sure that everybody heard something that she revealed about who's there Ranulf is not dead

SPEAKER_02:

yeah that was something i wanted to ask earlier on when we showed up like if we could if josh could find octavia surely ran off would have been somewhere visible to the queen would we would have noticed that he was with us or i don't know in the midst of it all maybe we just didn't until now if

SPEAKER_05:

that were something that you were to investigate mal you probably would have learned that the council members travel separately from the queen when there's potential for combat because they don't want to keep the leaders of the tribe together in danger if they were all to perish at the same time. So they travel in different wagons and each of them have their own sort of tent and wagon situation with a couple of folks that care for them. And Ranulf in particular was wounded And if you sought him out, you could have a conversation with him about that.

SPEAKER_02:

So that is how Mal would spend any time that Rehana wasn't available to talk to me. I would like to find Ranulf and learn the lore that surrounds this whole incident, see if there's any more to make sense of.

SPEAKER_05:

Let's say that you spoke to Ranulf. He sort of had some vague recognition of who you are, and he revealed that he had been wounded in an attack by the Yontai.

SPEAKER_00:

These

SPEAKER_05:

are the folks who had taken Kalamesh, the homeland of the tribe, that they had resolved themselves, especially when they saw the cephalid, to make for the sanguine pool to find the second key. They knew that there were tabaxi there at the sanguine pool and that some kind of reckoning about the curse that is on the undying light would have to be dealt with. I think that they probably would have told you about the sanguine pool and how it's kind of a, you know, as you can imagine, it's sort of a reddish brackish water in a circular pool that there is supposed to be something beneath it that would allow passage to to an underground cavern. How would Joshua Ames spend his time in the three days of caravan travel? Josh

SPEAKER_04:

knows that there are some shiny spears that these folks have. So Josh would try to track down a shiny spear and obtain one of those.

SPEAKER_05:

You could probably do that fairly easily. What would you be able to offer or barter Or is there some kind of plea you might make to get one?

SPEAKER_04:

Josh would make a case that he tried to defend the caravan and threw his only spear to kill one of the Sturge and that it got lost in the attack.

SPEAKER_05:

Make a persuasion check, I guess. That

SPEAKER_04:

is a natural one, my friend. I think

SPEAKER_05:

that you would get, I mean, honestly, I think they would give you one, but it would be the worst one. It would be probably tracks. Yeah. It would be kind of the crummiest, like most beat up old spirit that

SPEAKER_00:

they have. Look out for splinters on the handle. Seriously. Can you try again and tell them you're the guy that saved the ale? You're

SPEAKER_05:

asking the wrong guy, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Right. Oh yeah. Seriously. Just out of curiosity, will that, will that be a 10 foot reach or is it sort of like my busted spear that I had before? That's only,

SPEAKER_05:

let's, let's give it, let's give you reach. It's a proper. Yeah. Right. Is there anything else you would do during that time?

SPEAKER_04:

Josh would approach Sam. And so Sam, you know, when we fought that, that Urcheon, that Inogu's flail, every time you hit it, it would like charge up and it gave you like more damage the next time. Do you think like right before we went to bed, if you hit me with the Inogu's flail, would it like charge up so that next time we get in a battle, it'll just be ready to go and I can sleep it off? You want to try this? Josh, I don't think that's quite how it works. If you want to try it, I'm game. Are you feeling okay?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm feeling great. You're talking about asking me to hit you with a flail? I'm just trying

SPEAKER_04:

to help out. I want you

SPEAKER_00:

to know if you're going through anything, you can share with me and with all of us, I assume. Thanks, buddy. Maybe... Self-flagellation isn't the

SPEAKER_04:

most helpful. I mean, I flatulate a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

Sam, absolutely face palms. Axel,

SPEAKER_05:

take me through what you're doing on the travel time. So I don't remember if we lost the gear that we were given before the fight with the crab. Did we lose, like, because I had leather armor and a sling. Yeah, you still have that. Okay, cool. Then I think he's just going to spend his time going around and asking what they know about the cephalopod, the octopus thing. Because they all seem pretty freaked out and know that they were in grave danger. There are some folks who would tell you that this is a creature that stalks the desert and it can appear out of nowhere, really. It can blend in with the sand. And when it is close to you, it creates this aura of confusion and can even cause blindness. The people who are sucked up into it, it basically eats them. And it's not something that they are ever able to kill, right? They just have to keep running. So the experience of packing everything up and immediately beginning to move versus everyone packing up and then ready, set, go, that sort of pack as we go, build the plane as we're flying it sort of thing that was happening is the norm for them. When one of these creatures shows up, they just get up and go. And there's no telling when it could show up, but the fact in this case that it went after the Urshion rather than the caravan immediately was a blessing, I guess. Again, it's called a cephalid. Is there anything specific you'd want to know about it? Yeah, I want to know if it's like an organic creature or a magical being or if they know anything like that. Well, it is a monstrosity. It doesn't have eyes. It uses echolocation, so it can bounce its voice off the sand dunes, and it's attracted to the movement. So some people in the caravan believe that if they just stayed very still, it would just go by. But that is not obviously the reigning opinion. Interesting. Okay. You always have potential to change the course of this. But they're going towards the Sanguine Pool. Is there anyone who wants to bring up concerns with that or try to alter that course of action?

SPEAKER_00:

So we're heading towards the Sanguine Pool. Is that where the Tabaxi were? Didn't we hear that? And this whole curse thing was caused by tensions with the Tabaxi. Do we expect there's going to be any issues when the caravan gets there? Has the caravan gone there before? It seemed like they were... intentionally going that direction as soon as they were moving.

SPEAKER_05:

They have never been there as a caravan. Individuals claim to have been there, including Ranulf. Yes, that is where they were going when they packed up to go. What you would have learned about that was that there was an assassin attack after Rehana, Hilroy, and Mikael, Sonora, and Glenn, Rodrigo, and several other Folks from the caravan went and killed the Urshion with no help from strangers. When they basically threw everything together to run away from the cephalid, after it appeared, Rehana made the decision that they would head in the direction of the sanguine pool and that some folks in the caravan were very supportive of this and knew why they were going in just this direction and others didn't. were sort of torn about whether or not they should be going there and what good could come of associating with the tabaxi in any degree.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, Mal, you seem

SPEAKER_00:

to be building a rapport with Rehana. So if you hear more, let us know.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, maybe let's have a snippet of the conversation that Mal and Rehana wanted to have.

SPEAKER_02:

Great. Hey,

SPEAKER_01:

girl. Excuse me if this is rude, but I actually don't remember your name.

SPEAKER_02:

No, of course. My name's Mal.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a pleasure to meet you, Mal. Suppose we've met before. There's no other way you would know such a private, detailed memory of mine.

SPEAKER_02:

We did meet before. I'm curious if we are going to have to do this again. And I'm wondering, what is the plan when we get to the Sanguine Pool? Are you expecting violence? Are you expecting diplomacy? The

SPEAKER_01:

plan right now is... to approach expecting diplomacy and to plea for the help of the Tabaxi people to get the secondary key to Kalamesh. But I am curious, why would I have shared something so deep with you? What is the message? I

SPEAKER_02:

explained to you that my friends and I are experiencing time in an unusual sort of a loop that seems related to the candle that your people protect. So when we met for the second time, you gave me that memory so that I could repeat it back to you when we met again.

SPEAKER_01:

What does that have to do with the candle?

SPEAKER_02:

The candle going out is what seems to be resetting time for us. For my friends and I, your candle has gone out twice.

SPEAKER_01:

Twice? Is it really a titan that attacks us?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

My father was right. I knew it. I knew it. My father was right. This makes it even more important to get back into Kalamesh. This candle is not safe in the desert.

SPEAKER_02:

It's really not, but the good news seems to be that your narrative is progressing even though we're repeating. The last time we were with you, we helped you hunt the Urshion, and now we return to hear that you all just hunted the Urshion successfully, but without any involvement from us. Does that make sense? So it feels like our time is sort of staggered somehow.

SPEAKER_01:

That is strange. Did the Yontai attack while you were here? Because we were attacked by them.

SPEAKER_02:

They did. It was a terrible tragedy and many people were killed.

SPEAKER_01:

That sounds as though, even though time is resetting for you, it's still going on for me and my tribe. We'll still have to deal with the same problems. The giant cephalid, the Urshion, the Yontai.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't understand why we keep appearing in your life. But it seems to have something to do with helping you succeed in returning home.

SPEAKER_01:

We need all the allies we can get.

SPEAKER_05:

So after three nights of traveling, the tribe reaches the Sanguine Pool. This is a small oasis with a few rotting palms and a towering formation of columnar basalt jutting out of the sand. Has anybody ever seen one of those?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

It's like the devil's post pile, the way that the basalt kind of stacks in these geometric shapes. It's jutting out of the sand. And at the base of this rock formation is a pool 40 feet wide of murky reddish water, or you assume it's water. As you approach it, the caravan assembles around the pool and And folks definitely are keeping their distance. You know, the guards will come and survey it. You all step up towards the pool. It is like glass across the surface, this reddish surface. And as you're standing there looking at it, Marcus, you have this flashback. You are standing on the deck of the pool. at your high school and you're in your bathing suit just before first period and it's kind of cold this morning. You and several other students are standing there and you're looking down at the water. The water is not the normal color. It is pink. The pool water is pink. And as you look closely at it, you can see that there is definitely something dark at the bottom of the pool. And the boy standing next to you, one of your friends, John, says, what the fuck is that? Marcus

SPEAKER_06:

just stares.

SPEAKER_05:

The teacher, Mrs. Keller, strides out after a moment and addresses the remaining class members, as you're staring down into the water, which she obviously has not noticed yet, you can hear her voice is muffled and distant. The shape at the bottom of the pool is a body. And your vision shifts focus and you see your reflection in the water, but it's not your reflection. Once again, it is the face of Lucas staring back at you. You and the rest of the class are sent back to the locker room and school was dismissed for the day. For years later, there was an urban legend that the girl tried to jump off the 10 meter board and land in the lap pool, but landed on the deck and died instantly. But you were there and the body was in the water. And when they drained the pool, they found that her wrists had been cut. And with that, you are brought back to the sanguine pool. I couldn't save her.

SPEAKER_02:

Couldn't save who, Marcus?

SPEAKER_00:

It wasn't me, but Lucas knew what was happening to her. And he didn't know what to do, and then it was too late. He never told me that.

SPEAKER_05:

Some of the guards crowd around closer now. And one of them, Glenn, says, well, what now? To no one in particular.

SPEAKER_01:

Rihanna is also kind of lost looking. She's looking around the sanguine pool for any clues. She's touching these giant rock pillars, the basalt pillar-like structures, trying to pick up anything.

SPEAKER_05:

You hear the clearing of a throat behind you, and you can see that several of the council members have assembled, including Ranulf, who is bandaged around his abdomen. And Derotha, the older woman, speaks up and says, I didn't even want to come here. We should have found the nearest oasis and protected ourselves from the cephalid. Why are we even

SPEAKER_01:

here? Derotha, maybe you can help. Instead of bringing everybody down, we lost a lot of people, but we have a goal. Do you know any lore or any insights about the sanguine pool that can help us?

SPEAKER_05:

Older man, the other council member, Yalogo, he says, well, we've come here. There must be something in the pool. that we must reach. I wouldn't advise disturbing the water. We don't know what lies beneath or what that reddish liquid would do to us. But we have to get down there somewhere, I would wager. Hmm. I wonder how much time we've got. And he kind of looks around at the sky.

SPEAKER_00:

So Marx wanders up to the pool, kind of stares in it apprehensively at first because he's he had that vision of seeing Lucas's face instead of his own in that

SPEAKER_05:

flashback, but he looks, I don't know. It sounds like the viscosity of this. There's no reflection or is there? Yeah, I think you would see it. It would be dark. I mean, the water itself is, like I said, it's kind of darkish red.

SPEAKER_00:

So he sees his own face and he cast detect magic.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. So that field sort of extends that from your body across. And, um, You're not getting any magical vibes from the water itself, but you do sense there's something beneath the water. There is an object down there at the center in the bottom of the pool. There's something at the bottom. I can feel it, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

How far down is it? Can you tell? Can you gauge distance?

SPEAKER_05:

Maybe 20 feet down?

SPEAKER_01:

Rehana turns to Yalogo. and asks, you mentioned not disturbing the water. Do you know anything about the sanguine pool that would put us in danger?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, I don't know. Just look at it. It doesn't look safe, does it? If you were to go in there, there's no telling what could happen to you. Why is it red? I don't know. Water shouldn't be that color. Is it water?

SPEAKER_01:

Can I tell if he's sidestepping actually answering or if he's really just blundering? I

SPEAKER_05:

think he's probably just musing about questions without wanting to sound like he doesn't know. Yeah, very diplomatic. Do we have anything? Rope? Basket? Yeah, you're given both of those things. They're both brought forward. Probably several baskets. You have your pick of baskets. People are there to help. Okay. When I detected something in the pool, did you say I could sense how big it is? Like what size basket we would need? Yeah, I think it's probably about a foot square. Okay, so I choose a basket that's a foot and a half square. Am I throwing it in? Yeah, go for it. Are you tying a string to the basket? Yeah, so we had rope. Is that what's happening? She said rope and a basket, right? And you throw the basket in. Let it sink down. And I throw the basket in. Well, I think the basket would float, wouldn't it? We should have thought of that.

SPEAKER_02:

This is a Monty Python scene.

SPEAKER_05:

This big dramatic thing that I throw the basket and

SPEAKER_00:

it

SPEAKER_02:

just

SPEAKER_05:

goes

SPEAKER_00:

plop right on the top. African swallow. It's a witch. It's a witch. As we're pulling the basket out, Sam is sort of twirling his fingers in the water. It's not burning, is it?

SPEAKER_05:

No, you're not feeling like they are burning. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, if it's only 20 feet down, Sam takes like a sniff of the water. Is it kind of rank?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, absolutely. It's got this very strong iron smell to it, like when you lick a penny.

SPEAKER_06:

Is

SPEAKER_05:

it water? Can I tell? Can I tell if it's water? Make a nature check. Oh, dude, that's my thing. Yeah, that's like the first time I've had to do that. Right man for the job. That's a 16. Okay, you are able to tell with that role that that it is it is indeed water. And the reddish color is likely caused by an extremely high iron and manganese content in this water. If you made another let me have medicine check. That might be the first medicine check we've done in this. I think so. Yeah. Yeah, what does that do? It's a 14. Okay, you would know that swimming in this pool for any amount of time, if it were very high, could potentially cause a serious asthmatic or chronic lung issue. What about fish? Would they survive? Axel,

SPEAKER_00:

can you turn into any sort of...

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not

SPEAKER_02:

like a gator.

SPEAKER_00:

Something big enough to grab it. We don't want to send you down as a fish.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, maybe

SPEAKER_03:

an alligator. Let me see if I can do that.

SPEAKER_05:

You should turn into the barracuda from Sword in the Stone.

SPEAKER_01:

Octopus. An octopus would give you arms.

SPEAKER_05:

Axolotl. Fish with legs. Oh my god. I like this. You're all brainstorming on the water's edge there. I like this. I can be a crocodile. Yes, you could. Wow. Axel belly flops in, but mid-fall turns into an alligator or a crocodile.

SPEAKER_00:

Come on, Axel Lottl. It was right there. Sam is getting the rope ready to tie it around Axel and turns around to see him making this transformation mid-air.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, so you splash down into the water, and I'd like you to make a constitution check. Okay, um... Hopefully crocodiles have good constitution. 12. As soon as you are submerged under the water, you feel yourself begin to asphyxiate, a tightening in your chest. You can feel your skin tightening around your bones, your muscles constricting, and you're able to move, but it is very difficult. All right. The crocodile has the ability to hold breath. The crocodile can hold its breath for 15 minutes. Okay. So I guess I move towards the direction that Marcus was kind of keen on. Okay. You feel intense pain in your chest that radiates throughout your body and you take 18 hit points. Okay. I'm still a crocodile. We're good. You are going to... swim down um maybe the first five or so feet beneath the water and i want you to make another constitution check oh my gosh nine okay um your body is racked with pain as even more uh constricting of your chest cavity happens uh almost caving in on itself you feel like um You can barely move your tail. You begin to atrophy. The pain is so much. And as you hold your breath, it is as if your insides are turning to ash. You take another 12 damage. Okay, so now I'm back to Axel. Okay, so you are about five feet beneath the water. Where are you going to go now? I think I'm going to go back up. You're going to swim up and out? Yeah, he lost his confidence when he transformed back. Okay, as you turn to leave the pool, you take a last look back and you see what looks like a bath plug at the center of the pool. Interesting, okay. And I'm safely out, or...? Yeah, I think you would be able to get safely out. Okay. Yeah, nobody go in there, dude. That's pretty rough. Yeah, you come crawling out and you are looking pretty rough. I mean, your skin is basically all tight and torn and red. So

SPEAKER_00:

how does that work when you're in wild shape? Like you have the animals hit points and when they get to zero, you just go back to yourself, but you're at whatever you were at?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, so the crocodile had 19. He hit me with 18 first. And then the second hit took me down to my base form.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you lost the remaining

SPEAKER_05:

11. How much hit points did that leap put you to? What was the second hit? Do you remember? 12. Okay, so then I'm at 11. I'm at 17.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, so as you all kind of pull Axel out of the water and try to dry him off, people gathering around to offer him food, healing, bandages, whatever he might need, they're sort of seeing to his wounds. You turn back and look at the water, and after a moment of staring down at the water, Ranulf finally steps forward onto one of the backs of the wagons, looking down over the pool. And he says to you as he clutches his side, I'll swim down. And don't don't do that. There's a plug at the bottom. We could probably drain it. My lungs turned to ash, apparently. So this isn't it's not good. I'll swim down. He starts to climb down off the wagon.

SPEAKER_01:

Rehana stops him and says, don't be so hasty.

SPEAKER_05:

I'll do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Stop rushing to your death, old man. I need you here with me.

SPEAKER_05:

And he drops to his knees there at the edge of the pool. And you can see the sadness in his eyes as he's kind of looking around hopelessly. I just

SPEAKER_03:

want to be useful. I say it once and I say it twice. I say the deed and I say it now. I guess it goes to show you just how much they know.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for listening to this episode of Phantom Nirvana, a Dungeons& Dragons podcast. Our cast is Our music is by Our music is by