Phantom Nirvana: A Dungeons & Dragons Podcast

S2 Ep10 - Beneath the Sanguine pool

• Phantom Nirvana • Season 2 • Episode 10

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In our last episode the adventurers traveled through the desert and arrived at the sanguine pool. This is season 2 Episode 10: Beneath the Sanguine pool 

Music in this episode by Sun Umbra and Sagey, Rope sounds by bahaish, Metalic drone sounds by uminari, water swirling sounds by fran_marenco.

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

SPEAKER_00:

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.

SPEAKER_01:

And now we present Phantom Nirvana.

UNKNOWN:

Phantom Nirvana

SPEAKER_01:

In our last episode, the adventurers traveled through the desert and arrived at the Sanguine Pool. This is Season 2, Episode 10, Beneath the Sanguine Pool. Mal's gonna crack her knuckles. and conjure a mage hand and send it down to the bottom of the pool. Yeah, good, good, good. A spectral hand that looks like her grandmother's hand with an antique ring on the middle finger and long nails painted kind of beige, you know, old lady beige. And the hands are wrinkled and a little bit spotted. And the hand just dives into the water towards the bottom. Okay, so it heads down into the water. You can feel in your mind's eye that there is this sort of ring atop what is basically like a bathtub plug beneath the water. And the mage hand of your grandmother wraps its fingers around the ring of the plug. And it is able to lift the ring up, up, up. but unfortunately it has a limit of 10 pounds. And how heavy is this plug? The ring itself is able to be pulled up. You're sensing that it's coming, coming, but it will not pull the full plug. It will not. You tug and you tug, but you can't pull the plug because you're guessing it is greater than 10 pounds in weight.

SPEAKER_00:

How many times can you cast that? At will. What if we had a rope and a hook and we had the mage ham hook it and we from the shore pulled the rope? That's

SPEAKER_01:

a great idea, Rihanna. No wonder you're a queen. I love it. I love it. Mal's going to shake her hands out. Crack her knuckles a little bit. Crack her knuckles again to conjure a second mage hand. Does someone have a rope and a hook? Yeah, let's assume you're ready to bring one. I think that's fine. So you gather one, some hemp and rope, get it down, and the mage hand takes it down into the water. And latches the hook around the ring. You've got the rope. Are you going to pull? Mal is absolutely not going to pull.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Who's

SPEAKER_01:

the muscle on the

SPEAKER_00:

team?

SPEAKER_01:

I sort of slap Josh and he and I will go try pulling on it. Let's do it, friend.

SPEAKER_00:

Rehana will send some of her guards to help as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's good, Ben. Let's have Sam make a strength check with advantage, please. Okay. A total of 20. Okay. 20 is enough. So as you give a strong tug, the three or five of you that are grabbing onto this rope, you hear this loud as the plug is pulled and it gives way and you can see that it floats to the surface just as this large pool of reddish water begins to drain down into the ground. You are seeing the sand start to slurp down towards the center and the water itself is whirl pool into the center in a rush and it creates this soothing mesmerizing sound as it flows down down down it's got this deep rich shade of red that is reminiscent of you know blood or wine and it seems to glitter in the bright desert sun as it swirls downward as the water drains away the pool slowly shrinks and disappears leaving only a damp patch of sand where it once stood and the sound of rushing water fades away and the desert returns to its usual silence and you can see that there is an opening at the center in the deepest part of where the pool was that is about two feet wide a circular opening into the ground

SPEAKER_00:

and

SPEAKER_01:

Is the slope of the ground towards that hole precarious? No, it's walkable. Okay. Well, then I guess I'll go up and try to see if I can spy anything down the hole. Okay. So you get up towards the edge, and I'd like you to make a perception check as you peer down into this hole in the ground. Total of 16. Okay. Okay, you're looking down, peering down. It is darkness in the hole, but it's got this incredible moist smell, and you can hear dripping sounds and water echoing. And as your eyes adjust, as you peer down into this hole, you can see that what is beneath is a massive underground cavern. It is vast, and there are huge stalagmites growing from the ground around this central underground lake that is directly beneath where you are. So if that makes sense, the water from the sanguine pool drain down through this hole and into an underground lake.

SPEAKER_00:

Is there any way to know if the lake water is the same red liquid?

UNKNOWN:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it's safe to assume at least some of it was because of what drained down, right? Maybe diluted if it were water. I'm just going through your thought process. I don't think from here you'd be able to tell exactly what it was, especially being as it's so dark. Can we tell how far down? Yeah, it is about 35 feet down to the surface of the lake beneath where you are. And to the bank of the lake? I was going to say, is there a place to... Yeah, if you're kind of peering down into the hole, you can see that it is a wide, calm body of water. And you see that there is a shore circling it on all sides. So you have no idea of the depth of the water, but yes, you do see some shore there that's sort of... I don't know. It's a pretty good distance. This is a pretty wide underground lake. The whole sort of the opening drops off into like the middle of the lake, not near one of the shores. Yeah, it would be tough if I see what you're getting after and it would be tough to like go through the hole and not land in the lake unless you drive some kind of wacky contraption or a bit of acrobatics that would let you carry for you know 30 40 plus feet horizontally hey axel you've been turning into some some pretty wild creatures can you turn to anything that can that can fly or crawl on the the underside of the cavern to Investigator, I don't know. I like this carrying rope idea. You know, I can't fly, but I don't see why I can't turn into a spider. Oh. Okay, I like that. Do you think a strong enough spider to hold us and carry us over? Or a strong enough spider to take a rope down and then we can all zipline in. Ooh, spicy. I like that. Have I fought a giant spider yet? Have we fought big spiders or can I imagine one? I don't think you fought a giant spider, no. I would say no. I think Axel's been on some trips. There's probably some giant spiders. Yeah. They get pretty big. They may probably be in Australia. They got some gnarly stuff over there. I was talking about different kinds of trips. Oh, hey now. I like that. I got what you were saying. They both work. You can get in the two foot, three foot spider range. Yeah, okay. He turns into a pretty big spider. Big enough. Maybe for the purpose of tying it around. Okay, I like that. So you're going to crawl into the hole and along the ceiling kind of a situation yeah that's what I was thinking I like that So as you enter this underground cavern, you can see that it is vast with, as I said, towering rock formations stretching upwards toward the ceiling high above and the darkish water sparkling in the dim light. The air is cool and moist and the sounds of dripping water echo throughout the cavern. As your spider eyes adjust to the darkness across the ceiling, you can make out the details of the cavern. The walls are jagged. and rough with veins of glittering minerals running through them. Stalactites and stalagmites protrude from the ceiling and floor, forming intricate patterns that seem almost like a work of art. The lake itself is enormous, stretching out very far. The water has a reddish-green tint that seems to glow in the dim light. And from this angle, now that your eyes have focused, you can see schools of fish darting around in the water. Their scales are catching the light and shimmering like jewels. As you sort of approach the edge of the lake, on the ceiling, of course, there is a cool mist that catches your skin from below as air whips down from the desert into swirling against the water and up, filling the space. And you feel a sense of awe and wonder at the sheer size and beauty of this space. You see on one side of the underground lake that there are several dark tunnels leading away from the giant cavernous space. And as you turn the other direction, you catch sight of a magnificent structure that stands tall. It is a multi-story glittering brass ziggurat. Its exterior is adorned with intricate patterns and designs and whirring gears seem to be constantly in motion on its surface. The site of it, near I think it'd be smart. at this point to try and find somewhere to hook that rope up. Maybe you could find a stalagmite to tie it around. Yeah, something like that. Okay, so he'd have to make it to the ground to get a stalagmite. Is he coming kind of like down one of the walls sort of a thing? Yeah. Avoiding the structure. He likes how it looks, but he knows this enough after his experience in the pool that not everything is as it seems. So he would like to avoid it. Okay. Great. So you come down around and you find pretty easily, you find a stalagmite that seems appropriately sized for you to tie it off. Are you going to change back from your spider form to do that? Yeah, I have to, yeah. Okay. I'd like you to make a stealth check. Oh, I'm good at that. It's 18, 12 plus 6. Make a survival check on how good the rope is, please. Okay. We're talking about the knot that you're tying or whatever.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

13, 10 plus 3. All right, so you've tied it off. Can I use message and ask Axel, what's going on? What's down there? Well, there's a pretty cool gold building thing. You guys should come down here, though. So he says there's some cool gold building thing down there, guys, and we should come down. Can you test the water down there to see if it is deadly like it was before? I'm not touching any more water in this place, dude. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

How do we get down there?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. You guys told me to bring a rope down here. I did my part.

SPEAKER_00:

I think we're going to try to zip line. So we tie off the other end above and use a cloth or another rope to just kind of swing down.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll go. Josh is going to. Now, remember, Octavia is there with you. She's there every step of the way, brother. Oh, wow. Well, Josh is really going to try to impress. Josh would just do it barehanded, but feels that that might actually end poorly. So Josh is going to take the spear and hook one end over the rope and hang on to like either side of the spear and go down. Let's have you make an athletics check. That is a... Okay. I think that an 11 is pretty okay. I mean, it's more than 10, Brian. It's pretty okay. It is pretty okay. Pretty okay. I think it's not pretty. I think you're like the spear sort of jostling back and forth as you're doing it. And maybe like your pants fall down while you're swinging down into the thing and you kind of widen your legs to keep your pants from falling off into the water and you hit the stalagmite and you take one bludgeoning damage. Flop onto the ground. Fair enough. Who's next? Who's next? Mal's going to unhook that hook that we just had and use that. Make your athletics check. I got a six. That is not pretty okay. Okay. Am I falling immediately? No, I think you swing down in and sort of fall as you're coming down. Maybe it was just too much speed slunked up and around the rope and flopped and fell. And as I am falling, I am going to cast Misty Step to get myself the rest of the way to the shore. Oh, I didn't know you had it too. Oh. a couple of misty stones there you go Rihanna, I mean, our group is going to be going down there. Is anybody from the tribe going to join us, do you think?

SPEAKER_00:

I intend to leave Ranulf in charge of the majority of the people that can protect the flame. I will bring my strongest guards. DM, which one is my strongest guard of the remaining? Is it Hilroy, Mikael, Glenn, Sonora?

SPEAKER_01:

The strongest one of them? Yeah. Which one do you think is strongest?

SPEAKER_00:

As a queen, I feel like I could be carried down the rope because I have absolutely no strength.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what about Glenn? I mean, she's pretty strong.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So Rehana responds to Sam and says, Gilroy, Mikael, Glenn, and Sonora will join us.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So Glenn gives like a kind of comes forward and she, she takes off some of her heavier males. Cause she's got to do like a kind of a acrobatic type of movement here. She's just heft you up onto what her shoulders or her, her back. Do you cling onto her like a little queen monkey or something?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I go backpack.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Yeah. Why don't you give me an acrobatic or an athletics check for Glenn? with a plus two to her role. I'm not going to do it, but just curious if when you Misty step, can you like take someone with you? No, my understanding is no. Okay. Yeah, because you just go. So if you're holding on to somebody, you're just going. But you do take what's on your person. Just go nude. What counts is on my person. Well, that's what I'm saying. I'm inviting some flexible use of that. Who knows? Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I rolled a 10, so plus two? Yeah,

SPEAKER_01:

plus two is 12. All right, you come swinging around. Glenn gets you down. Hefty, you offer back. Who's next? I'm confused. What do we have to get down this thing? We don't know. We're all just winging it with the

SPEAKER_00:

rope. There should be, like, materials within the camp, like sashes, rope, little pieces of cloth that you could use. Maybe not the caravan.

SPEAKER_01:

Marcus tries Misty's step, and I know that I'm five feet too short, so...

SPEAKER_00:

That's five feet too

SPEAKER_01:

short from the surface of the lake. My dude, not from the bank of the lake. Can I miss each step to like a point on the rope, like lower, like down the rope and grab it and then, okay. And then try to swing and drop down. I'm trying to get to the bank. I'll roll some dice. It'll go badly. He's wearing the shirt. He's a, I don't have great luck right now. Ever. You blink out of time and space on the, the surface there and there you are appearing within arm's reach of the rope suspended for a moment Looney Tunes style over the lake. And you're going to do what? Almost like a I don't know, like if you jump, right? You grab something and swing yourself and let go. Right? I'm trying to do that. I'm like misty stepping to the rope and then grab it, swing and then... Give me acrobatics, Mr. Bard. Okay. acrobatics. 18 plus 3. That's what he's doing. He has to make an entrance. Yeah, my goodness. Describe how you land that trick. You know, I land kind of like kneeling on the ground and I kind of look up surprised that it worked. And just like... Cool, cool, yeah. Of course. Alright, Mr. Campbell. Okay, well, Sam was looking up just as Marcus blinked out of sight, uh, because he was finishing tying off some rope that he was tying around himself as a harness. Okay. And you're going to just do it safe and steady. Yeah. Yeah. I'll take a little bit extra time over and was getting down and I'm going to tie myself a harness that I can tie off and slide down on. Okay. And, uh, so I want you to go ahead and make a, uh, make an athletics check? A total of 20. What kind of armor are you wearing? Let's double check. Half plate armor, which adds 40 pounds. What kind of weapon you got? I have, you know, this flail. What do you think that weighs, big dog? D&D Beyond would suggest it weighs 10 pounds. I don't know if that's accurate, though. I think that right as you're reaching, being over the shore is when it breaks. This rope with We've got slung to the stalagmite and you come splashing down in the surf on the shore of the underground lake with this big, loud, clattering, clanging splash. And everybody's there maybe 20 feet away from you. It makes a big echoey noise as you land. All right, so from where you're at, you can see the big ziggurat, maybe 300 feet off in one direction. On the opposite side of the lake from you is the dark tunnels. And then there is some shoreline area all the way around. Rayana, your people knew of the Sanguine Pool. I think some claim to have been here before. Do you have any knowledge of the Sigarat or what we might be looking for? Sorry,

SPEAKER_00:

Sam. Up until now, this was just rumors. I actually have no idea what this giant, shiny mechanism is.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I guess let's walk around, look for an entrance or something.

SPEAKER_00:

Glenn, keep an eye out on the three tunnels. I don't want anybody to come up behind us and catch us unawares.

SPEAKER_01:

Marcus is walking toward the... Yeah, we'll move towards the cigarette.

SPEAKER_00:

Are we trying to stealth and hide and sneak around, y'all, or are

SPEAKER_01:

we just beelining? Yeah, I was going to say that Axel is really scared of that thing and is hiding behind one of the stalagmites. I think Sam at least... I mean... I'm being cautious, but I'm not stealthing. Marcus is just walking straight up. No stealth. Yeah. Mal's going to go around behind that stalagmite and say, Axel, bud, we can't hang out here. We got to go.

SPEAKER_00:

Geez, all right, fine,

SPEAKER_01:

I guess, fine. We'll protect you. Don't worry about it. Axel limps along in his jorts. So as you approach the ziggurat, it towers above you. Just as you're coming up to what you assume is the front of it, you can see that there is an arched doorway in the front face of it. And standing in front of this doorway, Doorway wearing glimmering piecemeal gold armor and holding a very long spear is a humanoid with features of a cat. Burr on its face, cheeks, whiskers, long whiskers. You can see teeth coming down, pointed, sharp pointed teeth, ears, sharp pointed ears and a very long tail. You can tell that this is a very elegant creature, obviously very nimble. There's a natural grace to the way that it stands. It looks across at you, all of you, this lone figure, and in a deep gravelly voice, it says to you, who are you? What is your business in our territory?

SPEAKER_00:

Rehana steps in front of the party and announces herself. I am Queen Rehana of the Undying Light. I come here in seek of the second key to my home, Kalamesh. Where is the leader of your people?

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome, Rehana of the Undying Light. I have heard the legend of your people. I am Ak Olkuz of the Tabaxi. We are the protectors of this place. And he gestures with his paw. We guard the ziggurat and the secret it contains. And then from behind him, eight other of these creatures, all in piecemeal golden armor and with similar spears and swords of golden metal, assemble behind him. They are all very tough. He continues, You have trespassed into our territory. You will come with us to stand before Akyamanel. And he gestures with his hand for you to come. And then he turns and walks through the doorway into the ziggurat and the other tabaxi step to the side, creating a corridor for you to walk into it.

SPEAKER_00:

Rihanna held her head high and follows. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Cool. Cool. Cool. we follow, I guess. Right. Josh resist the urge to pet one of the cat people, but resists barely. Yeah. But you're all walking in as you are along with Glenn. Yeah. Okay. You are led into the brass. Let's see. You're at the interior is dark and shadowy. You hear that were that clicking mechanical sound of this structure itself. Uh, It's lit inside by the dim glow of flickering torches. The cat people that are leading you inside take you through a series of twisting tunnels and stairways until you reach an ornate door made of brass. And one of these tabaxi pushes it open, revealing a grand, what looks like a throne room inside. And you enter this space. It is lit by a bright glowing orb that hovers in the air above where the throne is. And sitting on the throne is another of these tabaxi. to backseat these cat people with this gruesome scar across his eye. And the other eye glimmers like a cat in the dim light. And he is dressed in a luxurious robe of gold and black. And he looks upon you as you enter. And his eyes narrow with what you're guessing is suspicion. But these people are altogether unscrutable. Let's have you all make a perception check. 19. 24. 19. 19 plus 4. 23. So those of you who rolled over a 20 noticed that there are some pickaxes laid across on a couple in a couple places and some bed rolls here as well look like sort of temporary beds that are set up on the sides and then also you notice that there is a wooden crate that is full of straw and nestled in the straw are these glass orbs that are full of this glowing green liquid what you're assuming is the leader of these Tabaxi steps forward, addressing some of his brethren there in what you're guessing is their native tongue. They speak in hushed tones to one another, pointing at you and kind of gesturing to the door and gesturing this way and that into different directions of the structure that they're in. There's some talk, there seems to be about eight of them in this room. And after a moments of this what becomes tense conversation, the leader turns to you, his eyes cold and calculating, and he says, I am Ak-Yamanel. You have trespassed in our territory. Who are you? And why have you come to this place? Mal steps forward and says... Is that how you address a queen? This is Rihanna's soul of the people of the Undying Light. Ah, Rihanna! I know the name. I know your father's name so mere. The Undying Light, the cursed people, the deserts forgotten, mother's ruin, yes. We possess the key to Kalamesh. So why do you come? Marcus steps forward and says, please, sir, we're all in danger, including yourselves. We need to get these people back to Kalamesh because there are incredible monsters there. attacking us, these people. And for some reason, they're a target. And it seems like getting home is the one way that we can end all of this. Can you please help us? Are you queen too? No. Who are you? I am Marcus Birkhead. I have seen what the future holds. What does it hold? Death. For whom? Everyone.

SPEAKER_00:

Rihanna puts her hand on Marcus's shoulder, kind of thankful gesture, but kind of signaling him to hold on. She steps forward. We don't have a clean past. By all rights, my people were cursed by your queen after the betrayal of our greatest shame. And we carry the reminder every day so that we will never forget or repeat such a travesty. The Yontai took our home before I even know what a home was. I led my people through terrors to survive. And our goal is to get back to Kalamesh. We've lost so many. I fear that soon there will be no one left. My people will be extinct, that the undying light will lose hope and cease to exist. But with this second key, we can rekindle this hope. We can have a place to call home. Help us. Help the undying light claim our home. Let us have the key to Kalamesh.

SPEAKER_01:

And he turns to his compatriots there and sort of... He's sort of taken aback by the formality of your speech. Why don't you make a persuasion check? Oh, come on. You can make it with advantage if you like. Since Marcus... I was trying to be persuasive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

17 plus 8, 25. There

SPEAKER_01:

you go. He says, it is a touching story. I... I do feel for you. The curse was not my doing. I understand that people did some bad things, but what does that have to do with me? Aside from the fact that I do have the key now. So I appreciate your need and I will help you if I can, if you are willing to help us. What do you have to bargain for? What do you have to give me? I

SPEAKER_00:

understand. She kind of looks and gestures around the room, the state of the guards. This room isn't as well adorned as I know the Tabaxi like it to be adorned. There are many riches in Kalamesh that I don't have access to. All my birthright. But I can't bargain much if I don't have my birthright.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's a give me the key now and I pay you later situation? You want me to do that? What do you need? Well, I need help. I need... We have a little situation here with the ziggurat. So we have opened up this pyramid to search for riches and we have managed to unlock every part of the ziggurat except the last one. We cannot unlock the magical gate. There are three of them actually. And if you were to help me to do that, and he looks at his other feline friends and they sort of give like a, oh man, I don't know about this. If you can help us to do this, we would be happy to give you the key for your calamesh.

SPEAKER_00:

How many people have died trying to open this gate?

SPEAKER_01:

Some. Some people. I don't know. If I say 12, will you not do it?

SPEAKER_00:

I'd like to know what I'm up against.

SPEAKER_01:

While this conversation is going on, Mal wants to sidle over towards that crate with the glowing orbs

SPEAKER_00:

in it

SPEAKER_01:

and try a bit of Wii investigation or Arcana. I don't know. Does it seem magical? Make an investigation check first. Cool. Not great. A 12? Yeah, I think you get a good look at them. They're spherical. They are filled with a glowing green liquid of some kind. Does it look like anything I've seen before? It looks a bit like a lava lamp. Yeah, there's about eight of them in there. It doesn't match my alchemist's fire. Now that you mention it, it does sort of look similar to your alchemist's fire, yes. But much larger in this case. If I recall, your alchemist fire was just a vial. Is that right? Little flasks. Little flasks. Okay, yeah. So this is much larger. This is like the size of a, I don't know, like a bowling ball. Cool, cool.

SPEAKER_00:

In order to succeed in having the key, I need to help you. What more can you tell me about this gate? What does our team possibly possess that your team hasn't had?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I don't know you very well. But I've been stuck here. We've all been stuck here for weeks trying to break into this thing. And we can't get through it. And now you're here. Did you come alone? Are there people up above?

SPEAKER_00:

We do have the rest of my tribe up above.

SPEAKER_01:

They're all up there. Oh, my goodness. I would love to give you the key. I really would. I would love to be done with this place. Maybe it would take you to show you. Let's take a look.

SPEAKER_00:

Lead the way. We'd love to.

SPEAKER_01:

So you're led through a labyrinth of tunnels, a continuing labyrinth of tunnels, and you see around you as you walk sprung traps with wire and spikes. You see you pass through several large chambers with dead creatures and bloodied bodies of other tabaxi. It is clear that these tabaxi are basically treasure hunters. And they sort of smile, those of them that you pass as you move through, smile crooked grins at you. So you reach a brass walled chamber. And he says, this is it. Come in, touch nothing. It's about the size of a tennis court. He leads you in. As you look around, there are shallow grooves everywhere. in snaking around the floor of this chamber that are eerily reminiscent of the lines on a tennis court. And they separate the space into six square sections, and the grooves encircle each of the six sections several times, if you can picture that. And he says to you, this is the gate of the last wing of the ziggurat. If you look over here, you can see that there are three doors there with some script above them that we cannot read. And he points to... these massive arch top doors with some script written above them and he says so these three doors remain locked and we cannot seem to open it we've tried everything can't figure it out and they behind these doors is fabled to be a large triangular jewel It is within this final wing of this structure. It is purple and it is a large triangular jewel. And if you were to be able to unlock this last gateway of the ziggurat and enter the treasure chamber and bring us the jewel, we will give you the key to your home. We will give you the key to your home. Can Marcus cast detect thoughts on this guy? Okay. So you get the surface thoughts for free. And then if you want to go deeper, I make a wisdom check, right? Yep. Yeah. And it's 15. The DC. Okay. So the surface thoughts are, of Akiyama now are that they really are stuck and stumped by this puzzle. It is very dangerous and they've been unable to clear this room and get to the, basically everything that he said about the space is true. But on top of that, you get the strong sense that he is not going to play fair with you at the end of all this. Can I probe deeper as far as what this treasure is that he wants and why? Yeah, sure. So I rolled a 17. So I'm able to resist that, correct? Yeah. Okay. So unfortunately, as you try to probe his mind, he's able to block you out. And you can see he turns his head towards you as if he sort of sensed that something was happening. And he says... Now, in order to begin this process, it can be only six of you, and we, the rest, will have to leave.

SPEAKER_00:

What do you mean there can only be six of us?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, there are only six spaces, you see, and the only time we've ever been able to open one of these gates was when we had six people in this room.

SPEAKER_00:

And then they died?

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. So we don't know exactly what they did or said, but we know there were six of them in here.

SPEAKER_00:

And you don't know which gate they tried to open.

SPEAKER_01:

We do not. And you sort of look over as he says that, and you notice that there are more pickaxes laying against the wall where these arched top brass doors are. And then there are also some burn marks, large charred burn marks and shattered glass. on the floor against the doors as if they tried to use those glass orbs and were not successful.

SPEAKER_00:

There was script above the door. Is it by chance dwarvish?

UNKNOWN:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, no, let me see. I'd like you all to make a perception check one more time for me. 12, 13, eight,

SPEAKER_00:

17, 14.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So none of you notices as you're looking up at the script above the three doorways that Akiyama now has backed his way out of the room and has pressed, um, or depressed a button against the wall and the brass door into the space slides shut, blocking you all inside there, along with Glenn. So there are actually seven of you now.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. So we don't even, we didn't get visual on the key guys. He's like, I got the key, but we didn't even see. This is why I was saying

SPEAKER_01:

somebody needed to do an insight check to see if we even have it. Yeah. If it's here or if it's somewhere else or at the bottom of the lake. But I have like negative a hundred to insight.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Should have just killed them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think if we get the jewel. I

SPEAKER_01:

didn't want to be crazy Marcus again, but I thought about it just stabbing him in the neck with an arrow.

SPEAKER_00:

You gotta

SPEAKER_01:

get back to those glowing green glass balls and just start chucking them. But, I mean, that is if we ever get out of this room. No kidding. Quick check, what kind of a person is Glenn? Is Glenn a human person? It's your standard fill, muscular woman. that whole fetish thing that's right i forgot mal doesn't mind mal doesn't mind um just just checking because we have two sort of two smallish folks and then a number of regular size sort of folks yes so i wonder if josh and acts might need to share a square Excellent. Let's do it. All

SPEAKER_00:

right, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Get on my back. So you guys are moving to each of the six squares. Mal, as you are looking at the script, you notice that it is in Infernal. I don't know why, but that rings a bell to me. Okay. All right. The first one, Josh. You can go ahead and read this in the chat. Yeah, so the one on the left here, from what I'm getting, it says, I am not alive, but I grow. I don't have lungs, but I need air. I don't have a mouth, but water kills me. I don't have a mouth, but water kills me.

SPEAKER_00:

see you but no one's ever

SPEAKER_01:

here in my head following that's rare for sure to be fair the theater on your head sitting through your sins i don't understand mother's milk from the tap string yourself from the sap wipe my comments sitting on your lap it may be as hard but you'll

UNKNOWN:

We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00:

They're

SPEAKER_01:

already down you No mud, no lotus

SPEAKER_00:

He doesn't know this Swallowing from the love where his throat is Left right, right foot, I'll tell you where to go Good or bad, no matter, unknown is the goal Only

SPEAKER_01:

taking what it gives,

SPEAKER_00:

a toll is a toll Except where the dice rolls, a roll is a roll A roll is a roll

SPEAKER_01:

This just isn't real It's just a tear

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank

SPEAKER_01:

you. Our music is by Seiji, Sun Umbra, Gypsy Vision, Gang Colors, and Turn Try.