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Brenna. Milo. And Greg. All right. And to cover what happened last episode, my boy Akio is going to step up to the mic. Oh, yeah. Akio, drop a beat. Oh, let's see. Last episode, we fought in a bubble. Except for me, because I got kicked out of it. You don't need no stinking bubble. I played my own tune. They only beat my drum. They only beat up your drum.
We got past it. Oh, we found this big piece of metal at the bottom of the lake. A weird thing. Yeah, it was a real weird thing. What was inside? A stuffed animal that Brenna gave to Milo. A little stuffed iguana. A little stuffed iguana. Love it. Yeah. They need to feed the ice creatures and they're heading towards the temple. Yeah, and then Greg and I are in a loving skin-to-skin embrace. Embrace. Yeah, for the warmth. For the warmth. Right. Clarification. It's for warmth. Well, life for survival. And because Greg's head fits ever so perfectly in the crook of Akio's chest hole. All right, so with the ice, Mephits defeated.
You guys approach the temple with, I would say, cautious determination. Cautious in that you know that there's... Cautious like a fox. That's not a saying. But you know that there is potential danger here, but you're determined to get into the temple. So the freezing water still surrounds you. The light from the temple, it illuminates more, filling this crater that you're standing in. So there are several large pillars of ice that are jutting out from the structure, like crystalline stalagmites. They're refracting the blue light in every which direction. So the size of these ice blocks, they vary. Some are as small as, like, a loaf of bread, but others being, like, the size of a small house, like a hut.
So they vary from tiny to massive. But as you move closer to the temple, Milo, your amulet begins to glow brighter and brighter, illuminating the crater even more with each step you take. The temple itself has a large edifice with a pitched roof that runs down the center. So it's kind of like an A-frame house. It's pitched in the middle. It goes all the way across the length of it. And this large opening is carved into the front. That's that archway you guys saw last episode. But however...
The entrance is blocked by the largest of these ice crystals. It's a massive obstacle that stands 35 feet tall. But this one looks a little different because instead of having a translucent crystalline center where you can kind of see through it where the light refracts, it's kind of clouded. There's, like, some strange dark substance in there that you don't quite recognize. Is it ice for sure? Oh, yeah. I mean, all this looks like ice. It just looks like there's something, like, in the ice or behind it, yeah. It's a dragon. It's a soul of a dragon. It's Silvana. It's Randy. Come to access revenge. Well, we do. Hit it with your hammer.
He doesn't have it. I don't have my hammer no more. That was sad. That was sad. Hit it with your axe. I'm going to hit it with the hilt of my short sword. Okay. You can go ahead and roll it. Oh. Do I get a sneak attack on it? No. You snuck up on that ice real good.
20. Okay. So you grip your sword like a hammer and smash the base of the hilt into it. And you see a tiny little fracture just kind of spiderweb out a little bit before stopping. Is there such thing as a shield bash in D&D? Not in any type of official mechanic. Okay. Can I smash my shield into it? Who do you think you are, Captain America? You're Thor. I'm Greg, Kelsey. Yeah, Kelsey. Yeah, go ahead and roll me a strength.
10. You kind of just put all your weight behind your shield and just run yourself into it, and you don't really see much result from where you hit it, but you see the spider web where Milo landed. It gets a little bigger. We'll see that. Can I use my amulet on it? Yeah, you can certainly do that. Okay. 22. Oh, that's awesome. Fire Inferno. I don't have a hair dryer. Have we done 22 before?
22. If you're lulling Reed, then probably not. I mean, I don't know. It's just very hilarious for this exact circumstance. This one is called Sub-Zero. And it says the target is encased in a thick block of ice. It grows thicker? You're welcome. So, okay, I'll make this flavorful. I can spin this around. You get the impression, Milo, that the power from within the amulet...
is actually trying to prevent you from gaining access. Whoa, think about it. Because who put her there in the first place? Ophelia. You can't, I mean, I'm going to see that for you. You can't make this stuff up. You can't write these things intentionally. Silvana blesses us in many ways. Ophelia doesn't, though. Arcana checks that. Absolutely. Go ahead and roll that Arcana check. Kyo.
It's going to be a solid 10. Okay. Akio, you're getting a strong magical prize. Oh, guys, it's so magical. That's what we've got the entire time we've been in the box. But. But. Listen, listen. Whereas before, on the surface, near the banks of the pearl, you felt just a general divine type of magic. Here, however, you're sensing a much stronger divine celestial kind of magic. There it is. But also a different kind of magic. One that I'm familiar with? Yes. But you're not quite able to discern what it is. Nebromancy.
Can I firebolt the ice? Let's do it. Go ahead and make it. You don't even have to roll it. Just roll the damage.
Oh, cool. 13. Okay. So as the ice starts to like seal thicker around this opening, Greg, you just put your hand on the ice itself and heat just blasts. Flames shoot out from around your hand. And you see your hand starts to like depress inwards towards the center of this ice cube. So you're kind of creating this little like concave style hole just with the heat from your hand. You're probably, I'd say, a quarter of the way into the center of it. Okay. So if you do that a few more times, does anyone else have any fire spells? Oh, I do. Okay. I'll do it. Okay. So Akio.
12. Okay, yeah, same thing. You put your hand below Grey X, so you're kind of still in the same center focusing your fire. Grey X, go ahead and roll me another one as well. Ooh, mama. Oh, 10. Okay. So yeah, you guys both put your hands on this cube, and you start like a blowtorch cutting right into the center of this thing. Wizards! You get to a point where you think you're about halfway into it when suddenly this deep, bellowing voice echoes throughout the crater.
What do you do? What does it say? It's more just like a very low guttural rumble. It's a yawn. Do we recognize it? It's like a dragon's bow. Everyone roll me a history check. Oh, I'm going to definitely know this. Except Milo. Sorry, dog. You weren't around. You weren't around. I rolled an 11. 10.
Uh, 23. Okay. So, Akio, you just keep blasting it with fire over and over. You're so concerned about getting to the center of this thing and threw it into the temple that you're not going to be dissuaded by whatever you just heard. No. Greik, however, he's got his hand melting it as well, and then at the very last moment, he pulls his hand off as the sound triggers a memory.
from underneath the mountain in Norwich. And at the exact moment that Greg realizes the tone he hears, the ice shard explodes. And everyone's favorite three-legged black creature, Malomet. What? Drags himself out. What is he doing down there? That's an excellent question. What's going on here? At this moment, the amulet around Milo's neck explodes with a beam of light. I thought you meant just explode. Bless my heart. It's like Ragnarok. They just blow up this magical item we've used for so long. But also, you kind of look up at the bubble around you and you see this hexagonal mesh kind of form along the barrier of this bubble.
and you determine that the surface is now protected in some way. Of the bubble you're in? The bubble you're in is now protected. Whereas things could pass through freely before you feel a very strong barrier. So Malomet can't get into it? You believe so. I hope so. Let's test that theory. Let's roll initiatives. Malomet! What if I don't want to? Last time Malomet beat us. We did not win. Sylvanas saved us at the last minute. She took Malomet back to her place. She's grounded, first of all. She showed up to us.
I got an 11. I got a 10. You and I are just rolling the same. You rolled an 11 and I rolled a 10 for history. My history's real good. Well, guess what I rolled. 13? An 11. Korea got the best roll. Akio, you said you got 11 as well? Yeah. What did you just say? I heard Korea got the best roll. I heard Korea got the best roll. Here's what's funny. When you first encountered Malomet, he was like a challenge rating 9.
Uh-oh. Which was really high for you guys. You guys were, like, level two or three. Yeah, we were babies. Probably even level two, I'd say. We might have been three because I think I was an Eldritch Knight by that point. Maybe. That's a good point. The babies. So, if nothing has changed up until that point, now you're the most equipped. Like, you're on an evil, even playing ground with this guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, this is, like, your truest form of redemption right here. Oh, nice. So, anywho. And I also just wanted to reiterate that. Well, it's back because this dude is dope. So. Can he breathe in the water? Oh, he's fine. He's a demon lord. I mean, he probably needs to take some water.
or the reason why it's so cold down here is because he's there. So he goes first as one is wanted to do. And he, he looks down at the five of you and is just enraged. He's got, he's standing on one of his arms and he's got, so he looks like kind of like a Y right now with his other two arms outstretched in front of him. And with his, with his hand eyes, he like just circles the sphere, kind of like just pushing on it a little bit, trying to breach the surface, but he's not able to. Like a sucker fish.
Yeah, kind of. Ew. Or a lamprey. Yeah. Oh, no. No, those are nightmares. So he's going to put his hands together and bring them up high over his little body, his little connecting body, and slam them down on the barrier. And so just so you know, the barrier does have HP. Oh. But what I, well, I'll fill you in on what you guys know. Can't stay in here forever. Precisely. All right. He makes a multi-attack. I'm showing him lampreys. Oh, lampreys, yeah.
he slams his fist down and you see this hexagonal blue kind of pattern flash like all of his energy is being focused on protecting that one spot and then it dissipates again before he puts his hand together once more smashes down again the barrier coalesces to protect that spot and then once again resettles so you don't exactly know how much damage she's dealing it but you know that it's a lot. How are we going to attack? So, in front of you is the back half of this ice crystal. So he exploded out the front, leaving the back still intact. So what I need you guys to do is get through this thing. You've got to get through the rest of this ice barrier and get inside the temple before he destroys the bubble and ultimately you guys. Okay. So, Greik, you are up first. All right, we've got to get through the ice barrier. Then I'm going to burning hands. Okay, that's an excellent call. Burn, baby, burn. The ice barrier also has its own hit points.
My thumb and spreading them out wide. To receive the football. And I'm Greg, the long snapper. Josh and sports. Good one, guys. 3d6 fire damage. Yep. That ain't bad. Burn, baby, burn. Hey, hey. That's a good roll. 13. Okay. So you can tell that this flame attack is definitely dealing more damage, or it's melting through this ice block faster than traditional bludgeoning attacks were. Okay. So just be aware of that, you guys. Milo, you are up. I'm also not trying to tell you guys you can't fight.
Malomet. Oh, I'm going to fight him. We just want to get inside. I feel like you guys would know that that should be your priority. Since using the amulet on the ice isn't going to help, I'm going to use it on Malomet. Great. 33. Okay. That's a new one. Jim Riggins and him. We've now done 47. Is this one called Riggins Riggs? This is not called Riggins Riggs. Milo, the power of the amulet becomes too much for your body to sustain, and you fall into a deep sleep. Uh-oh. Roll me a D4.
Three. All right. Without intervention, you fall unconscious for three hours. Oh, shoot. Does the amulet still hold the... You fall. You begin to fall to the ground, but before you do, you're suspended in midair, just kind of floating. Okay. Like a magic trick. But the barrier remains. Is this 33? That's 33. Sleep? Sleep. It's called sleep. Did anybody see that happen? Oh, yeah. You're in a tight little quarters. Okay.
I'm focusing on this barrier. The amulet, it feels kind of like Frodo in the ring. You feel a great heaviness. These flavor rolls. And it just puts you to sleep. It is Akio's turn. Kid's got to take a nap. It hasn't taken a nap in a long time. It's been a long journey for you. Sorry. Can the amulet be taken off, Milo?
Over my sleeping body. You could try. He puts it on Apple Sleep. You gonna go for it? Is that now your chance? How big is Malumet? Malumet? Yeah. It's pretty big. Pretty big. Malumet. Big enough. Could he be, say, polymorphed? You can give it a shot. You got one shot. One opportunity. You cast polymorph? Yep. Okay. He's gonna make a wisdom saving throw. What's your spell save DC?
Don't matter. It's 14. You rolled a 22. Rip. It's backwards day though, so. Still 22. No, I meant. So lower numbers are better. Still 22. Nice try. Even on backwards day. That's not what I meant. Excellent thought though. I like the fact that you're like, you're prioritizing just like getting past the enemies rather than defeating them. I think that's really cool actually. But not today. This guy is committed. Yet. We do have another character that has the polymorph skill. Nope. I already used my fourth level spell to turn into a mermaid.
Totally worth it. It's cool, though. And I actually did find mermaids in the Monster Manual. Oh, nice. They're called merfolk. Yes. It's PC. Brenna? I would like to first do my bonus action. Okay. And inspire Graek by saying Burn, Baby, Burn, as I was earlier. Oh. So you get a D8 of inspiration. Please actually use it. Yeah, please use it. And then I would like to try and wake up Milo. Okay. Yeah, you reach down, and because he's floating, you're not quite sure how to handle him, but you just kind of shake him real quick.
And I will tell you the result of the shake in a little bit. Shake off. It is Wester's turn. Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about her. Our pacifist. Westra is straight up terrified right now. She's never seen anything like this. Everything that she's gone through up until this point has not at all prepared her for an underwater excursion to face a demon lord, which is ultimately guarding the creator of the world. I mean, when you say it like that, it sounds scary. It sounds weird, right? So as Malomet brings his hands together to bring on a new series of blows, she is more overcome with fear than anything and instinctively puts her hands up to try and stop whatever's happening from being...
crushed, despite the fact that she's in a protected barrier. So she puts her hands up to stop the blow and just barely puts her hand outside the barrier. And so Malomet, going back to the beginning of the turn order, brings his hands down and slams on the barrier and just grazes Wester's hand. At that moment, Wester's eyes roll to the back of her head and her suit charges down and she falls unconscious. Nuts. So I'm going to have Malomet roll his damage.
That's a lot. And more. And then he's going to do it again because it's multi-tack. All right. So you can tell that this bubble, it's fading. This guy is doing work. But Malomet himself realizes that he's seeing that you're able, like you're breaching through the remainder of the ice crystal faster than he would like. So after he's done slamming his fist down on the bubble, he separates his hands and starts climbing up. Oh, yikes. Climbing up the temple wall. And he just kind of like escapes view for just a moment. Hate that.
Okay, Greg, you're up. All right. I don't care what he's doing. We got to get through. Okay, I'm going to firebolt with my... Oh, I guess I have to... Do I have to roll the firebolt to attack? No. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and add the d8 to the firebolt damage. Good. You can do that, right? Wait, to damage. No, inspiration, you can't add to damage. Okay, okay. Cutting words can remove damage. Okay. Ten. Okay. And are we through? You are not yet. Then I'm going to action surge. Okay. Come on.
And that's nine. And I'm going to use my ability to do a cantrip and then attack. After the nine, I'm going to take my sword and try and just shove it through. So you did an additional nine? Yep. Okay. And then go ahead and roll the sword damage? Ten. Nice. Okay, so Greg.
You're holding your left hand on this. You start yelling. This thing is melting before you. It's puddling on the ground below you, and steam and fire is just blasting out from behind your hand. You can almost not even take the heat of what you're blasting because you're just putting so much of yourself into it that you have to pull away your hand lest you burn yourself. And then just out of anger and frustration that you're still not through, you just start smashing the crystal even more. And you jab your sword into it, and you can feel your sword poke through. It's not shattered yet, but you've made it through to the other side. Milo.
You are in a vacant black expanse. You are floating on your back. It feels like you're floating in water, but you're just like floating in nothingness. Like Eleven from Stranger Things. Kind of. You're in the Upside Down. In the darkness, a creature walks up to you. Am I awake? Yes. Do I see the creature? Yes. You recognize this elven female as Ophelia. Oh. Hello. She walks up to you and bends down and says, Do you know what you are attempting?
No, not really. Your friends have told you you are here to free my daughter. Yeah. In hopes to defeat Valisar. Is that correct? Yeah, I think so. I think that's what we're doing. You do know there is no defeating Valisar. His power is far greater than anything Silvana has to offer. He can simply not be defeated. Well, can you help then? She laughs very sarcastically at the thought. She goes, child.
Everything you and your friends and all of Brandis is experiencing right now is a direct result of insolence and insubordination, childness and immaturity. Well, I guess. But when my mom sends me to my room, I can still play with toys in there. And I only have to be in there for a little bit. And then when I say I'm sorry, she gives me a hug and I can come back out and play. So maybe if she says sorry to you, that she can come out and play. Milo, I have a proposal. A puzzle?
A proposal. You have defined all odds and exceeded what I thought possible for the puny life this planet has sprung forth. You have somehow shown great heart, fighting prowess, but not lost yourself to the pettiness and the selfishness that overcame this entire planet almost instantly. Milo, I propose that you come live with me. Here? Well, not...
Not here. There's nothing here. But I will take you home, where I live. I will teach you the ways of the Celestials and the Deities. And one day you will yourself be a god. It's a good thing this isn't Sherwood. Yes. I accept. You had me at, I have a proposal. Are there any spells I need to eat? You must come alone. You are not able to bring anyone or anything with you. Well, they said after we're done I can go see my family. Will I still be able to see my family?
Child, your family will not survive this war. None of your friends or anyone on Branis will be able to defeat Valisar. The fight is already lost. That's not true. We're not done yet. Are you refusing my proposal? Yeah. I'm refusing your proposal. Now, let me go back to my friends. And as you're saying this, you get roused back awake by a shaking Brenna who's screaming at you and trying to get you to open your eyes. Milo, open your eyes. Are you okay? A puzzle! A puzzle. Did you solve a puzzle?
She had a puzzle for me. What was it? She said I could come live with her. How is that a puzzle? I don't know what that means. We're breaking through. You just hear Greg screaming as his hand is getting singed, and that brings us to Akio. I step up to Greg, put my hand on his shoulder, and say, I got this. I lose it. I firebolt. All right, go for it. Seven. Okay. Cross the streams.
Greg, where your sword was wedged in before, you couldn't pull it out. Now you're starting to feel that grip kind of loosen. Awesome. The heat is starting to expand it enough to where you can pull your sword out now if you want. Akio, I'll let you firebolt again because there's really nothing else we can do here. This is more a formality. I was going to make a strength run with my shield if it was weak. Six. Okay, cool. Can I at the same time follow the fire with my shield? Because when I'm raging, I get advantages on strength checks. That's true.
We're nearly at that point. Give up. It's no use. You're too weak. Your magic isn't strong enough. Let a real wizard do this. Okay. That brings us to you, Brenna. You've roused my love. I just go, woo! Keep it up. Doing good. There's literally nothing I can do. I punch the ice. Can I punch the ice? Yeah, you can punch the ice. Okay, I punch the ice. All right. You shove Greg's sword through the hole. Yeah.
Hope you didn't need that. It's fine. I can recall it. And we're nearly there. Okay. All right. It is now Wester's turn, and you see her body kind of just, like, lie motionless on the floor and really faint. You just, like, see a flicker of light. Feel the little charging. I probably could have helped her. Could have. You just clapped for us. We totally forgot about her.
So Westra's little, like, charging hole that sustains all of the crystal power, it starts flickering just really quickly back and forth before finally clicking on, and her whole suit lights up. And then her eyes shoot open, and they've no longer been rolled to the back of her head. Her pupils look fine, but she gasps for air and kind of breathes in and, like, just sits down or sits up on the lake floor and kind of just, like, trying to catch her breath a little bit. That brings us to Malamet, who you don't see right at the moment. Okay. But...
Out of the corner of your eye, Brenna, as you kind of look down at Westra and then over at Milo, you kind of look up at the top of the bubble and you see this giant ice shard come flying towards you guys. Right out of the big guns. Yeah, this is a heavy attack. This is going to be the one that pops the bubble. It's possible. We're so close. What's on the other side, though? The inside of the temple. Yeah, so if the bubble pops, we'd have a couple turns, right? Or would we float up to the top? You don't know. Physics, man. Well.
I'm really glad no one called out the fact that ice floats. Yeah. Because that would have tipped the hand that there was something weird about the ice that you fought last episode. But magic, man. It was. It was magic. So. I mean, pineapples grow on trees. Yeah. And organs have? Trails. Yeah. No. The pipe organ. Oh, yeah. Strings. Strings and hammers. Strings and hammers.
Trials, yes. Wait, no, you're an idiot. Yes, of course. Okay, so this massive ice shard drops upon you guys, and a large section of this bubble just collapses. Water starts rushing in, and Greg... It's like seeping into the bubble. Yeah, Greg, I need to know what you're doing right now. Does it seem like the ice block is weak? Oh, definitely. Then I'm going to make a strength... I'm going to smash it with my shield again. Okay. Just ram it with all my mind, throwing everything I've got. Do it. 19. All right, Greg. You kind of...
Put your whole body behind the width of the shield and really plant yourself. And right as you're throwing your shoulder into it, the water starts rushing in behind you and almost like propels you forward a little bit. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. You break through this ice, toss yourself into this open foyer in front of you, and the water just spills into the bubble. And it actually creates like an air vacuum and shoots all four of you into this open foyer.
the foyer thank you your bubble has been destroyed uh milo the amulet lights up with a brilliant burst of light once more before shutting down entirely and the water looks like it's just smashing up against glass like you guys are not underwater anymore you are breathing air you're not in a bubble you're in a a watertight somehow magical temple and you are no longer at risk of drowning or suffering exhaustion or any of that stuff so You guys are sprawled out in this foyer. Uh, Westra is just, she's standing up and her, she's just rubbing the temples, the sides of her head with her fingers. And she is like, pale as a ghost. Is everyone all right? Yep. I'm fine. Greg summons his sword as he stands up. Okay. Do we know where Malomet went? Up. So far as you know, he's just on, on the temple somewhere. He went up the temple.
Are we in, like, a hallway? A foyer. Yeah, it's like a big rectangular-shaped room with two wooden double doors that you imagine lead into some type of sanctuary of some kind. But Westra is just, like, frozen in place. Just unable to move. Still incapacitated? You can't tell, like, there's nothing physically wrong with her that you can see. Eyes closed? Her eyes are open. Oh, open. She just looks totally not there. I'll go over to her. Do you have any potions? What's the matter?
you kind of like walk up to her and like pull on her, uh, her shirt a little bit to get her attention. And it takes like five seconds of you like tugging on her before she's like snaps too. And looks down a wide eye. She goes, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, friend. Um, I don't really know what, what happened there. Um, I was very scared. I put my hands up to try and try and stop the blows. And I think it touched me, the terrible creature out there. And when it did, I, I felt it like,
In my brain. In my soul. I feel what it feels. I feel where it's from. Well, where is he from? Someplace dark and evil and terrible. I think it's called the Abyss. That sounds about right. I've never been there. No, we don't go there. We don't go there? No. I've never been there either, but I feel like I have. I feel like I've spent a lifetime there. Sounds a little bit like the plane of the damned.
Where is that at? It's Dathmuros, Malamut's brother. It's his realm. Akio kind of like. Sure. Yeah, he shudders at hearing that. Time passes differently. You know how I told you I couldn't send you anywhere that I've never been before? With my portals and she kind of like opens and closes her hands. Aye. I think I could send you to the Abyss if I wanted. I feel like I know it like intimately.
I don't want to send you there. I don't want to go there at all, but I know... Could you send someone else there? Maybe. I mean, you'd still have to go through a portal. All right. I can't force anyone. I don't think. You couldn't force a creature there? No. And she just kind of, like, throws open a portal out in front of her, and she's like, it's...
It's just a hole. It's just a dimensional tear, I think. But if it was, like, charging toward us, you could throw that portal. And if they didn't stop soon enough, they could go through the portal. Yeah, yeah, maybe. I think so. Something to keep in mind. I've never... I don't know how this happened. I've never once been able to send someone anywhere that I've never been to before. We know an elf named Valoran, who's been working on developing magic for interplanar travel. I think you might have just cracked it. Well...
This plane of the damned, where his brother lives, I don't think I can go there. No, but I wonder if all you need is contact with the being of another plane to gain access. Planes are on top of each other. It's not like you go over there. It's not like a place on a map. Aye, they're in the same space, but on a different plane. Yeah, no, that makes sense. That's exactly how I feel. Like, I was here with you guys, but I wasn't with you guys. I was somewhere else entirely.
Maybe it was contact. Ever since I touched the crystal underneath the statue in Norwich, I felt very strange, very powerful. A little scary, but I don't need crystals anymore to power the suit. And just touching the crystal gave me that ability. And now touching that creature did something else. I don't know. And she kind of takes a step back from you guys. She's realizing that contact could be a bad thing. She's like, I don't want to hurt you or I don't want to hurt anyone. Maybe I just need to stay here.
Lass, Greg moves forward quickly. And she takes a step back. He can't reach her? Oh, if you want to like show it, like make a sign of... I just want to put a hand on her arm. Okay. And just go like, you're not going to hurt us. It's all right. We're on the final stretch here. We're going to free Silvana. And then there'll be hope again. Who knows what he's doing right now up there. But if we, if we cower down here, we won't be able to stop anything. You're right. You're right. And she kind of like...
takes her hand and like puts it on your arm. It's like a symbolic gesture of mutual exchange. And she throws me into the, yeah. And then off you go into the abyss. Uh, she goes, I, I can do this. I can help you. And together we can, we can win. And she kind of like says it with like half questioning, half determination. Don't worry less. I'll believe enough for all of us. All right. So, uh, she feels sufficiently confident that she's not going to die and that she has a decent grasp, at least on what just happened.
So, at this point, you guys can do whatever it is you need to do if you want to take a short rest to regain hit points. That would be nice. I need more bardic slots, so... Okay. A short rest will at least get you half of something. I don't know how... I'll look it up. Yeah, it's... You get four spell slots to use. You can put them, like, four level ones, one level four, two level twos, something like that. It's just half your level. So, if you guys want to do that, you can take some hit dice, heal up. Just get comfy for about ten minutes before you move on. Brenna, if you want to sing something. Yeah, sure.
I'll sing home, home on the range. Ooh. And so that means that you fools gain an extra d6 hit points. Do you roll it? Yeah, I will. Two. It's two you didn't have. That was enough. Back to fool. Cool. So you guys take about 10 minutes. Check your wounds. Just catch your breath. You feel a little less claustrophobic than you have for the last about 30 minutes to an hour of being in that very enclosed bubble space. And whenever you guys feel ready, you can open the door and move on. Are we ready?
Yeah. Ready? Cool. So Greg, you walk up and swing the double wooden doors open wide and walk into this large sanctuary style room. You're immediately overtaken at the size of it, but also the emptiness. It looks like your traditional temple where there would normally be pews or benches or something like that set up, but this is completely empty. Save for the fact that there are, how do I want to put it? Almost like stations set up around the room.
In one corner, there is like a reading station with like a vanity desk, lots of books, pieces of paper, feather and quill kind of thing. You would almost imagine like this is where someone would like write in a journal or a diary or read old books or just this is where they would spend their time maybe in a bedroom or a study. That's my space. In the other side of the room, there's like a vast wardrobe, credenzas and vast closets filled with clothes, but they are all women's clothes. Then going a little bit further down in this in the sanctuary, you see another place set up almost like a makeshift kitchen. You see pots and pans.
lots of vegetables herbs stuff like that at the very end of this temple there's a small elevated platform maybe three steps high that acts as acts as like a stage or some type of speaking platform and there are two objects of importance placed on this temple one of which is a very thick dark black coated it almost looks like a like a rock but it's way too smooth to be a rock looks like glass almost but sitting in front of that dark glass object. Is it a sphere? It's more like a... An oval? A rough cut. Very rough. Like a really loose, recently mined gem. Okay. But it's big. It's like person-sized. Like a large nugget. But sitting in front of that graic is a hammer. I will go inspect the hammer. You can get the writing desk.
I meant like that's Kelsey's spot. Running Kelsey up different interests. This is both Josh and Greg. This aligns on every personal and RP level. In case you haven't noticed, Josh and Greg are actually the same. Very close. Greg, you walk towards this hammer that you've never seen before, but somehow gives you a sense of familiarity. It shares the runes similar to what you've seen on Maelstrom. Greg's hands start to shake. He kind of reaches them out a little bit, and he just says, One to break.
And at the words you say in Dwarven, you see orange and green lights start to fill all the ruins of the hammer. Can I grab it? I think you'd be silly if you didn't. I lift it with my hand. You pick it up freely. Both hands. It feels good in your hands. Like a war hammer? Mm-hmm. Oh, man. I turn around and I go, it's the third hammer. What does it do? Tears in his eyes. What does it do? I don't know. This is a sister to Maelstrom.
Is it called Femalestrom? It's designed for war. It's made to break. Is it made to break that rock? I could try. Do it.
Maybe Silvana's in there. Greg gives it a swing. As you wind up and class the hammer in two hands and bring it back behind you, the four of you take a giant step backwards. I have real-life goosebumps right now. Oh, cool. Yeah, this is like... Because I wrote about this thing. I know you did. And then you went ahead and made it its own thing. And now it's here. Oh, my gosh. Ha-ha, it's in Laurendale. Ha! I don't care. And then he says, Silvana, help me. And then he... All right. You bring the hammer into this rough-cut gem and...
At just the first briefest moment of contact, it explodes into more smaller pieces than you've ever seen any type of mineral or rock or gem suffer from this type of impact. It is just obliterated. And it fills with smoke and a bluish-greenish kind of light emanates from the smoke and it fills the whole space instantly. And as the dust and the light and everything starts to fade away and settle down, standing in the center of where you just made impact is the most beautiful elf woman you've ever seen in your life. Renna. Dressed in white robes.
Just tears streaming down his face, and he drops the hammer to the ground and falls to his face on both knees and just prostrates himself, like, face on the ground. Okay. This woman, her eyes shoot open, and without saying a word, she just very casually, very slowly walks up to you, takes her hand and, like, puts it under your chin and raises it up to look at her and says, I always had faith in you, Greik. And that's where we're going to end this week's episode. Are you crying? No, I feel like it. Oh, my gosh. You sucker. I totally never thought I'd get a hammer again. That's so awesome. I wasn't going to let you face Valisar without a hammer, bro. Come on. And I got a shield. I'm like so ready for this. I'm like the whole Avengers. I'm all Avengers. I got all of them. I'm so happy right now. I'm super raging. I have the third of the three hammers. Thanks, Reed. You're welcome. Yeah. Always the plan. As soon as I read your story, always the plan. I would love to see.
Greg fan art with the new hammer. That's all I'm saying. What hammer is this? So in Josh's story that he wrote about the hammer that he had for like 100 episodes, I mean 120 episodes, he wrote lore that it was forged from one central rock, but three hammers were made from this rock. One to build, one to break, and one to be the balance of the two. So Greg had the build. I had the balance. I had the balance. Oh, it was, what's his name? The maul uses both a sledgehammer for constructing and a tool for war. And so it's made to be the balance. The one to build.
is an actual forge hammer. Right, that's right. And that's the guy, what was his name? I forget. Baldrick? Yeah, Baldrick had that. Spoiler alert, he was eternal. What? Gave him longevity, and he used it to craft incredible weapons. And now this, the third hammer, was never, it was deemed too dangerous to be used. Yeah, so it was hidden away. Kind of like Silvana. That's kind of the idea. Oh, interesting, yeah. Why is the hammer there? In front of the rock. The idea was that, when I was making this at least, that it's kind of like breaking case of fire type of thing.
Yeah. The only people that are ever going to find this is going to be if the world is literally coming to an end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is the fire axe that you're supposed to like bust. So I think Sylvana created an almost kind of like fail safe. She knew that she was about to get punished.
And so she had kind of put these pieces along the way to try and eventually free her from... For the right people to find these clues and free her. The lore said that Hrothdar, the son of the first king of the dwarves, took the three hammers and fled in Vorstead. And that he kept two of them, but discarded this one in the heart of a volcano. That was the lore. That's the lore. So Greg was not expecting, and I was not expecting, to see it show up down here. And here it is. Here it is. Awesome. Papa bless. Papa bless. Like I said, I love the fact that...
Something you wrote totally independent of our story inspired me to make things based on that. It was really cool. It fed into each other like an Ouroboros. Snake devouring itself. That's the beauty of D&D, man. Anywho, that's the episode. I hope you liked it. I did.
This was a good one. So thank you guys for listening. Thank you for writing in and letting us know what you think of these episodes. You can do so on Twitter at Sneak Podcast. You can leave us podcast reviews if you want as well. iTunes or Stitcher, Podbean, whatever podcast service you use, there's probably a way to review it. We certainly do appreciate those reviews. So we also want to give huge thanks and shout outs to our friends at BattleBards who let us use a lot of sweet music and sound effects and also our amazing patrons on Patreon who support the show financially and get access to all that cool behind the scenes kind of bonus content that we provide for our patrons. So if you like the show and you want to support us financially, there is a lot of cool stuff that you can return in like custom art, behind the scenes audio.
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So we're nearly there. So don't dismay. I've never officially said this, I don't think, on the podcast. So don't dismay when you hear that we're ending. We're going to take a break, but we are coming back with something new. We'll have more details about what that is exactly. We've shared it before. So if you want to find out what it is, it's on Twitter. It's on the Patreon. That's your friend. Yeah, we will share it with the full podcast audience near the end. So we will let you in on what we're doing, let you know how you can follow us and stay up to date with when we're coming back and all that fun stuff. But don't be upset. This is not the end, the end.
We're just, this is the end of this tale, and then we will continue. It's not goodbye. It's just, see you later. I don't think I was even quoting anything. I think I was going to beat that into each other. Anywho, anywho, anywho. We're going a little long, so thank you guys for listening. I'm Reed, your host and DM of this original D&D adventure. To my left, we have, Akio, Milo, and Drex. All right, then.