S2 Ep12 - A Difficult Exchange

In our Last Episode the adventurers solved the riddle to open one of the doors and battled the terrible creature within. They found the treasure room containing the triangular jewel just moments before the tabaxi rushed in. In a clever moment, Marcus solved both of the remaining riddles opening all the doors and releasing a dragon and a fire elemental. This is season 2 Episode 12: A difficult exchange. 

Music in this episode is by Sun Umbra and Sagey.

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

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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.

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Phantom Nirvana

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In our last episode, the adventurers solved the riddle to open one of the doors and battled the terrible creature within. They found the treasure room containing the triangular jewel just moments before the tabaxi rushed in. In a clever moment, Marcus solved both of the remaining riddles, opening all the doors and releasing a dragon and a fire elemental. This is Season 2, Episode 12, A Difficult Exchange. Right, so yeah, the Achiarnel and several of the Tabaxi are in the corridor between the riddle room with the monsters... and the treasure room because you hear just as that dragon that silver dragon sort of burns up with this icy gout one of the tabaxi you hear a second screech and that is the third and final door scraping open and then this second creature which you see come hoving into view it is wreathed in flame standing maybe 15 feet tall you can feel the heat down the corridor from this particular area and it's swirling. This is a huge fire elemental that sort of whips its way around the riddle chamber quickly like a whirling dervish. So Ak-Yaranel turns to you all and he says, what have you done? I don't know. I was just trying to figure out the riddle. I didn't know I was... Speaking out loud. I don't know if he would realize that you said the solution to the riddles. I think that he would just assume that you did something that he's unaware of. And he would shout at you. Do you have the titan's jewel? Give it to me. And he reaches out his hand. And you can see that the tabaxi that are with him are armed. They have spears. So I remember the plan was we had the fake one to give to him. Who had the fake one to give? Mal will walk up and slam one into his hand. Give us the key. That was the arrangement. He takes it and he's like, step back, step back, step back. And he starts to inspect this thing. After a few moments of looking at it, he gives a grunt and a nod and says, yes, all right, this is fine. You can have the key. And he reaches into a pouch at his side and he pulls out this, he pulls out a large brass key. I mean, this is a very down the middle, straight, just like your standard large brass key. Nothing special whatsoever about it. And he just, without taking his eyes from the jewel, he tosses it into the treasure room and it lands on the ground there in front of you, Rehana. I walk forward to scoop it up. Can Josh do an insight check to see if he thinks it's the real key or to make sure that he's not trying to pull something over on us? We don't want him giving us a fake something that he's trying to pass off as real. Yeah, sure. Who would give a fake item in a handoff like this? That's a 14 Yeah, I don't think with a 14 you're able to tell if this object is fake by looking at him. Cool. And I don't think you know enough about what it's going to be used for or presumably would be used for to be able to save from looking at it if it is fake. Right. How about whether or not it's magical? Can I? I think that your whoever cast detect magic is probably still in effect, right? I mean, I don't think it would glow magic. Didn't somebody cast detect magic before we left? We did. We'll say that it's still going and it is not glowing with magical energy of any type. But nevertheless, Rehana, you've picked it up. Yeah, she would have put it in her bag for safekeeping. OK, in the same bag with the with the with the jewel. I'll hold on to it for right now. Actually, I'm not going to open my bag. OK, fair enough. So he he spits at you the words. So how are we supposed to get out of here? And in the behind him, you can see as he sort of flat he and his tabaxi flatten themselves against the wall of the corridor. You can see this fire elemental whipping around the room and the dragon is screeching loudly, blowing these big gouts of cold. And it starts to kind of move around the room and you're wondering if it knows that you're down these corridors. Looking at this mace, I'm even less sure about... a giant fire elemental than I was that demon thing before. Maybe we should see if there's any back ways out of here. Yeah, if we can just get these two to fight each other, we've got ice and fire, right? Yeah, I'll give a quick search around the backside of the room if I can. Okay, give me an investigate check in this case. That's a total of 17. So you're not able to notice any other exits aside from the two corridors that opened up. All roads lead back to the riddle chamber, with the two monsters okay and remind us when we were in the room before and we started it didn't they close the door behind us or was that door closed by starting the but since then the tabaxi came in Yeah. That's a good point. It could be open. I mean, I can't imagine they'd shut it behind themselves. Okay. I was wondering if we could see it down any of our tunnels back into the main room. Okay. If we can see that it's open, it might be worth it for us to try to sneak and dash around the side of it and just avoid the conflict. Okay. Okay. Yeah. If you want to make a perception check to have a look and see. That was only a 9. Okay, I think somebody's probably helping you. Why don't you take advantage? And that's a 10. Okay. Yeah, from this angle, you're not able to see. You'd have to go to the mouth of one of these corridors to be able to see across the riddle chamber to see if that entry door is open. Okay, guys, I'm ready to go look unless there's any other better ideas. I mean, I could try to make friends with the dragon and we could see. You're so friendly. And I would like to cast animal friendship on it. Yeah, okay. So you get, you're going to have to sneak to the mouth of one of these things unless you want to try and hit it as it walks by. So give me a stealth check. Okay. I'm good at stealth anyways. Don't worry, guys. I got this eight plus 14. Okay. Oh, no. I don't like it when he laughs. So as soon as you come to the mouth of this thing, you kind of sneak your way down there. The big silver dragon turns its head and it clocks you. I mean, the eyes, they zero in on you immediately and it charges toward you. I try to cast animal friendship. That's what I'm here for. Okay. Well, unfortunately, the spell does not seem to take any effect. Oh, fuck. As you clutch the morsel of food in your hand, it just sort of dissolves and so does your bowels as this dragon charges towards you. I think it would probably make a charging attack on you real quick as it reaches you and tries to slash at you with its claw. And it rolls a 25 to hit. And you take... It's not very friendly. No. No, you take 13 points of slashing damage from this thing. Okay. Okay. you, working its way, kind of shimmying itself down in there. Now that it's distracted, what if we go through the far tunnel and try to make a break for the exit? Axel, did you see if it was open when you were out there? Axel opens his mouth and he says... He says whatever he said. You didn't see, did you? I don't know. I don't know. You tell me. I don't know. I don't know. Did you see? You want to respond to him? You know what? I'm let's just go for it. Let's go for it. I am going to run over to Axel to try to help him up. She was moved by how he just fearlessly ran forward trying to help the group. And so she's going to go straight to him and be right by his side. And Mal is going to turn heel and run the other way around through to the other corridor to go take a look. And I'm going to stay well back as best I can. And I've got dark vision for whatever that helps okay make a stealth check as you reach the mouth of that corridor oh sure great and that fire elemental is still whipping around kind of you guys know that uh that screensaver the dvd one that like bounces from corner to corner that's just that's the that's the fire elemental going around the around the chamber oh well the good news is that i rolled a 20 but the better news is that i have disadvantage because of my armor So it comes to a 10. Okay. Let me make a contested roll. Yeah. Well, well, conveniently for you, the dragon is very distracted. So you're able to see, I'm guessing you want to see that. Yes. I'm looking for our exit. Yes, it is open. It is across catty corner from where you're at. I'm going to send message to Rihanna that the exit is open and that it is in front of their corridor. I know what to do here. If we're, If we're leaving through there, Phil's always yelling at us for not using our magical items. I'm going to use my special cloak to duplicate myself in the room so that he stays distracted by my copy. And then we can move. Okay, so you're putting him, what, at the other end of the corridor so that the dragon keeps going for him kind of a thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he just keeps scratching and screeching this dragon. And Mal's going to add some prestidigitation for added effect. Oh, okay. Some stomping sounds or some kind of scuffing or... Yeah, so it sounds like the rest of us are still back there too. Yeah, so I like that. Okay, all right. So the dragon is very distracted by this. I think that's pretty darn good. And you're going to... across the room so what's the deal with the fire elemental are we just going to try to stay away from it or what's your how are you handling that as you move out into the space just just keep running if we can if we can all make it through the other door that that might that's going to be our best option I think okay I'd like to cast chill touch as we run through the room on the fire elemental oh interesting okay I make a ghostly hand it's my grandma and clap itself over the mouth of my target. Okay. Go ahead and make your spell attack roll. 11 to hit? Yeah, 11 is not enough. So the hand flashes off past this thing, in factually. And I want to remind you that Akiaranel and his cronies are definitely hot on your tail following you as you loop back around to this other corridor and start to move into the chamber. So the four of them are with you. Anybody else... Have any specific way they want to handle this fire elemental as they move through? I will be following at the end of our group, expecting to make more noise than others with my plate mail. Okay. But I won't necessarily wait for the tabaxi falling behind me. I see. Okay, so you're shuffling along across quickly. Let's have everyone make an athletics check. Okay. And I want you to give me above. An 18. Oh my god. There's no way to give you above an 18. We don't have any blessings or bardic anything. Nobody can help anybody here. I got an 8. Me too. Me too. 12. I got a 16, which is not good enough apparently. 11. Okay, so this thing comes whipping across, comes all the way down the line, hitting every single one of you. And what is this thing again? I'm sorry. This is a big whirling dervish like fire elemental thing, like 15 feet tall pillar of fire. Do we get a reaction on this attack?

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No.

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What are you thinking? I've got Hellish Rebuke. Hellish Rebuke, yeah. Sure, but let me do damage to you first, right? Okay, also, wait. Hold up. We've been fighting for a minute. I might not need to cast this right now. Hold, please. Go ahead. Standing by. Standby to standby. So it comes whipping across and basically scorches all... How many of you are there? Six, seven, eight, nine of you. And all nine of you take six fire damage. If the target is a creature or flammable object, it ignites. And until a creature takes an action to douse the fire, the target takes five fire damage at the start of each of its turns. So you are all now ignited on fire. Right down the thing. And you're probably halfway across the room. And definitely this would get the attention of the dragon who turns around and sees all of you there. On one side is this silver dragon. On the other side is this massive dragon. What actions would you like to take at this point? Go, go, go. Keep going. Axel's unconscious, unfortunately. Oh, my God. Oh, no. You fell unconscious? Okay, where were you in the lineup? Were you towards the front? In my imagination, I was, like, in the middle because I had to stay, like, a couple seconds to activate my ability, and then Sam said he's going to go after, so... And then are my guards with us still? I felt like they were in the room with us before. Yeah, it was Glenn. Glenn's with us. Okay. So Glenn is, let's see if the Tabaxi, they're definitely not dead. Glenn is not dead either. They're all pretty hardy. And then I have fire resistant armor. You have fire resistant armor. So you take half damage. Okay. And that means, am I on fire or fire resistant armor? I'm going to say no. Okay. And Rihanna is holding the actual stone, the real one, right? I think so. She's technically got it in her bag. Isn't that so? Yeah, hidden in my bag. Okay. Mal would have also held back. I'm not very fast anyway. So when Axel goes down, I'll stop and touch him and cast Spare the Dying and yell, Sam, can you carry him? Absolutely. Okay. Tell us how Spare the Dying works. I touch a living creature with zero hit points. That creature becomes stable. Oh, nice. Instantaneous. Okay, make a strength check, Sam, to pick up Tiny Axel. Okay. Can I order Glenn to help Sam? Yes, sure. Take advantage then, Sam, with your strength check. So a total of 14. That's enough. He's a little guy. So you pick him up. And I'd like you all to make another athletics check quickly. 19. 20. 11 again. 11. Switch your dice now. I did. 15. 20 this time. Did anybody get less than a 16? I didn't check that. Josh did. Josh and Mal. I was never great at PE. Fair enough. Yeah, they're right. There you go. Okay, so both of you take a bite and a claw from this dragon. Mal, you are going to take 16 slashing damage from the claw. And Josh Ames, you're going to take 20 piercing damage from the bite.

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Ugh.

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It's not not contested at all by AC or it just hits. No, it hits you. It's happening. It's already happened. And with that, you make it to the other door and you right through. Right. And there you are inside the same labyrinthian corridors. You can see that Akiarnell is there, but his two bodyguards have died and they're not with you. Glenn is there. So Akiarnell immediately closes the door behind the group. and turns to you. He's like, why did you open all of the gates? Why did you do that? I think it was you, dude. We were doing fine until you rushed into the room and all of a sudden the dragon came out. So why did you fucking do that, dick? Gaslighting in D&D. And Mal wants to use intimidation while Josh is going off. Okay, describe to me how you might intimidate me. I just want to get up in this cat's face. Would you say anything or just sort of get up in his face? No. No, I just have a powerful, powerful look on my face. That's it. Okay. Go ahead and make an intimidation check. Okay, how's 26? Nope, I did the math wrong. 22. I did the math wrong. Yeah, still fine based on what I rolled. So yeah, he backs off, raises his hands up like, no trouble here, no trouble here. And he backs, he puts his back against the door and then he hears a screech from inside and he gives a jump and then immediately rushes down the corridor away from the group of you and waving his hands in the air like, ah, ah. God! Rehana kind of shakes her head as she watched the display. It was like, he mentioned this being the Titan's gem, and you've said you've seen the Titan. I was hoping to ask him. I think we've scared the bejesus out of him, but I think there's something more to this gem. It doesn't matter. I have the key. Let's get out of here. Let's go reclaim Kalamesh. We can go home. And I can't thank you enough. With that, you hear this sort of rumbling sound, distant. It's getting louder. And then this big boom, boom. And it shakes the brass ziggurat. I mean, the whole thing just rumbles. So from above, you're within this building and there is this loud, thunderous sound above you and around you. Did you guys hear that? Given that Rihanna trusts Mal the most in the group, she locks eyes with Mal and says, does this sound familiar? Is that the Titan? Oh, shit. EM, does it sound like Titan footsteps to me? As a matter of fact, it does because there's a big stomp sound that you hear next. Similar to the first one, but not quite as loud. The glass of water on the end table next to us vibrates. That's it. That's it. Exactly right. Mal's going to whip around to Rehana. Yes, definitely. Also, if you need that information from that cat, I'm happy to go get it for you. If he used the wrong gemstone to appease the Titan and called the Titan here... We gotta go find him. Okay. And we start heading in the direction he went? Yeah, I think Rehana would start chasing down after Akhman now. Is your plan to get out of the Ziggurat or specifically go to Akiharanel? I think the idea is if we can avoid being killed by the Titan, that would be ideal. If there is no escape from the Titan, then intervening and trying to prevent the titan from showing up are you leaving the ziggurat to do that or no yes okay that's the question out of the ziggurat you go as you're running through it you notice that those uh loud booming sounds above you are continuing like walking and you can hear some cracking sounds and breaking sounds as well as it continues and as you exit the ziggurat into the cavern you can see that those stalactites and things are starting to crumble and the hole that you came through from beneath the sanguine pool is starting to cave in and sand is rushing down and starting to make a pile in the center of the underground lake, if you can picture that. And it's kind of crumbling open, just kind of opening up above you, this cavern. And then you turn around and you look behind you and with a glittering splash of brass broken brass this dragon comes flying out the top of the ziggurat does a circle around the inside of this cavern giving this loud screech sound and flies up out the opening hole above you i think we did our good deed for the day freed a dragon unleashed a dragon on our friends on the surface you mean oh you need to find a way up there. How does it feel? Knowing nothing is real. That your love's just a game. A fiery play. Ride for the steel. Steel. Steel. Ride for the steel. With your hands to the sky Soft love inside ground Oh, there's a bird in the land you're kissing goodbye you're kissing goodbye Thank you. Our music is by Seiji, Sun Umbra, Gypsy Vision, Gang Colors, and Turn Try.