I don't know. For continuity sake, I'm not sure. So, yeah. I mean, what even is consciousness? What is it? And also...
How are we feeling? Technically, you are not actively taking damage. See, I don't like that. I don't like that you've had to... I can give you damage if you want. I mean, it's very early in the episode to request this, but I'm always obliged. That was the way that I wanted. So I believe, if I remember correctly, you are tumbling through eternity. However, you are no longer grappled by a creature that is emulating your worst memory or attempting in various ways to emulate your worst memories and relationships in order to hurt you and are...
bouncing around through various shards of harmful reality. Is that an accurate summation of the situation? I thought that I had just fallen into the element of surprise. Am I incorrect? Genuinely, is my memory of that incorrect? You have not fallen into the element of surprise. The fact that you are asking if something has already happened would negate automatically the element of surprise. No, but there was fire, earth, wind, water, and screaming. I remember saying that the first time and you all laughed like it was a joke, but I had genuinely assumed.
And it was really funny as well. Yeah, often my ability to understand the universe is. But yeah. I can confirm that surprise is not actually an element in this system and has no atomic weight. Oh, interesting. One very important detail I remember from last episode is that Hamid and Azuji, due to some excellent reflex saves, were holding hands while tumbling through a weird void with portals to unknown realms.
This is accurate and upsetting to me and has thus drawn my ire. So I am going to be rolling for you two first. If I thought your memory slash note-taking was worse, I'd claim that we were also holding other people's hands too. But I don't think I'll get away with it. I am going to give you a number, Bryn. Okay. And Azu. Well, I say Bryn and Azu. Bryn and Helen. I would like you to remember this number. Your number is three. Okay. What is the number? Three. All right, then. No more, no less. Five is quite out. Benjamin. Ooh, your number is five. Five is your number. Sure thing. Yeah.
Your number is four. Four is your number. Terrible number. Oh, no. Wild's number is one. You don't know if that's a good number or a bad number yet. And Skrark's number is... Five? Six.
Maybe this is the order that we're going to wake up in. I think this is the locations we're being flung into. Oh, God. Alex is like, oh, you know, it's going to be interesting. There's all these portals. They will have different effects on how things get to the end. But, you know, we're going for an efficient kind of game. Now, split the party. Into pieces. End of campaign. That is efficient. That is an efficient end to a campaign. So let me just get the old D6s out. There we go. Good dice, D6. So we're going to start with Azu and Hamid.
You are flung away from it and out in towards the void and immediately... No, you know what? I'm not going to say immediately. Give me a perception check before we even get any further. Fine. 24. Oh.
I'm not sure that's a number, but I'm willing to roll with it. 17. 17. I'm afraid only Hamid gets a slight glimpse of, I'm going to say Cell, smashing into one of those shards we were talking about before both of you smashing into a shard of your own. The shard that you smash into is quite hot. By very hot, I mean as hot realistically as I can get it, because what you do is you're plunging and you're falling through the void. At first it almost looks like a crystal, but it seems to have space and flames moving within it. And you both together smash into this. However, instead of a shatter...
what you do is you have a sudden searing pain of heat that applies to both of you. And as soon as you have felt that pain, you have immediately bounced out the far side of it. You both, and I am aware that Brynn is going to bring additional mechanics into play, you both take 14 fire damage. It's an instantaneous smash and fire, and then you're out the other side. I strongly disagree. I believe I take four fire damage. I believe that is an accurate summation of your situation, yes. Could you please take the numbers that you have and take a number off? So you had three, you now have two. Okay. Cell, meanwhile, you thankfully smash straight through a... Oh, I really hope it's a poison reality.
I'm afraid it is not a poison reality, though it is an exciting reality. As you're drawing near to this thing, tumbling end over end, you see it appears to be full of clockwork. Very, very full of clockwork. Clockwork you're about to hit very, very quickly. Oh, God. Oh, no. The gears. As with Azu and Hamid, you smash through this shard and are immediately subjected to large amounts of sort of bludgeoning and or shredding as you smash up against a bunch of gears and then tumble out the other side. I'm not resistant to that. You take... Ooh, very lucky. You only take four damage for that one. Your number goes down. In which case then, Zulf, you're up. So...
You are tumbling end over end, and this is before any of you get to take an action, by the way. You will be able to take an action after this round of these things. As you are tumbling end over end, you are thrown straight into a very lightning-looking place. Lightning is the order of the day. It's quite bright. You might have to close your eyes. I know you like to keep them open during planar events that can, you know, kill everyone, but I'm afraid instinct might take over. Depending on your resistances, obviously make deductions, but you will be taking nine lightning damage as you plunge through this thing and then out the other side. At this stage, I am going to be not doing a formal initiative order, but I am going to be treating you all as sort of...
units, if that makes sense. So starting with unit one, you are now going to be able to act. If you want me to go into full initiative order, I can. However, it's going to be easier for you to just declare an intent of what you want to do, whether that is hold on and hope, whether that's fly around. Anyone have any actions they wish to take? By unit one, who do you mean? Sorry, apologies. Unit one, that would be Azu and Hamid. Unit one.
I'm worried about the NPCs, because some of them were also quite badly hurt. Are we tracking HP for them? Because currently I have Skrark's sheet in front of me, and I don't know if you have the previous damage that Skrark had taken. I will be answering that question at a later time. Now is not the time for questions. Now is the time for action. Specifically, is there anything that you are going to be trying to do? Hamid is going to attempt to cast Fly. Okay. Your attempt to cast Fly, I'm afraid, automatically fails. Fair enough. I am not requiring a reflexase for you to maintain holding onto each other's hand, though. Azu, is there anything else that you are going to be intending to do? Azu is going to hug Hamid more fully.
In terms of like a, in the way that you would try and protect a child from an explosion. That is fine. As you do so, you pull Hamid close and wrap your large pink armour around him. Just as you fly straight into another charm, this one seemingly full of interacting boulders of some kind. Oh God. Taking a further interview, 13 bludgeoning. Feel free to make any deductions as required. Alex, this isn't good. I don't like, I don't, this is, you're being very, you're a very bad man. Okay.
I mean, since you have the opportunity, Helen, it might be wise for Azu to use some lay on hands on Hamid at this point because he was carrying some damage. I'd be happy for you to do so at this point. Well, I think you can afford to wait till the next time we get to act. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do next time. I'm just thinking what she's instinctively going to do and that is protect the small being. So I believe that your number has dropped to one. Is that correct? Yes. Fabulous. Cell, what was your number? It's three now. Three now. Fabulous.
Okay, I'll give you good news, bad news. The bad news is the next shard that you are coming into, you can only identify by the fact that it is a pure darkness far, far deeper than the surrounding void. Oh, God. Is there any action that you would like to take prior to plunging in? I'm going to limit it to a standard action. Cast Cure Light Wounds. Okay, yeah, so that's 1d8 plus... My cast level is... Probably 10. Yeah, so it's plus 5 then. Yep, that's good. So 1d8... So I cure 11 damage, which is actually quite important. Then immediately take 8 necromantic damage.
Okay, that's cool. I'm just glad that I did that. Just sustain. Just sustain. Your number is now down to two, yes? Okay, it is now down to two. I'm going to go with you one more time. Okay.
You may take one more standard action, should you wish. No, that's it. The next shard that you plough through appears to be some kind of blizzard, but again, by the time you smash through it, you're out the other side. You take a further 12 cold damage. Oh, why didn't I cast... Literally, as I said no, I was like, I should cast Endure Elements. That's what I should do, but no. Your number is now down to one, yes? Yes, it is now down to one. As a consolation, Endure Elements probably wouldn't do something against the plane of cold itself. Fair enough. Because it won't protect you from a fireball, you can't Endure Elements to reduce the damage on that. Oh, yeah, yeah. True.
You're wise. You're consolation. I accept. And I appreciate it. It's more that I'm staring at the spell that does do that. Hey, Alex, which plane am I going to smash into? So, I am going to say now that I know you've been pouring Ralex into the planes. I'm going to go ahead and give you a free knowledge check to recognize the plane that you are approaching before you have your standard action. 24. 24. You are certain that this is one of the outer planes that you're powering towards. Very difficult to determine which one specifically. Most likely, it's going to have some kind of force effect on you. Okay. Would you like to take a standard action?
Yeah, I'll cast, I don't know, Protection from Energy Sonic. You can't really protect from Force Energy, so, you know. Protection from Energy Sonic, that is a divine cast, correct? Yes, yes, everything I cast is divine. Yep, it goes off. Could you please remind me of the description, just so I can log that way in my head? Temporary immunity to the type of energy I specify when I cast. It absorbs 12 points per caster level, so 120 points of Sonic damage. I doubt I'm going to be able to deal 120 damage of this thing to you.
I am afraid you take 12 force damage on this one. What's your number down to? Three now. Cell's number is now one to match Azu and Hamid, correct? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. You look like you are next ploughing towards another dark void one like what Cell went through. Not that you saw Cell go through one. You have a standard action should you wish to take it. Nothing I can do against that.
Only six damage. You've got quite lucky on the damage rolls. That's good. Your number should be down to two by my mass now. Yep. Okay. And then the last one. You seem to be falling towards one that is emitting a blinding light. Bright, bright white. Nothing I can do against that. I wouldn't even give you a knowledge planes because it's too bright to look at to discern anything useful. Probably playing a light then, isn't it? You heal six damage. There's the tiniest moment of a choir of beautiful voices before you plunge out the other side with your number now at one as well.
Can I now get the total number of hit points that Skrark had kicking around? He has a total of 50, and he had already lost 25. So he was down to 25, yeah? Yeah, he does have some healing potions, and I don't know if a standard action to drink a healing potion between flying through all these damaging things is something he would be able to accomplish. It is. So yes, I'm not going to be telling you what's happening with Skrark beyond what's required for tracking, because you don't know, so he's mined to command and control. He uses both his healing potions, so wipe them off his stats. Very sensible. Okay, at which point, Aswin Hamid, you come to in a tunnel. It appears to be semi-industrial in nature, dark.
Pitch black, in fact, with some faint water noises and maybe a very, very distant sound of mechanism or something similar. And by come to, I mean face down with no memory of how you got there. The last memory you had was plunging through the last thing that you took damage from. Okay. Hmm. This sounds like an underground tunnel.
Like the tube. I mean, you said it's completely pitch black, right? Pitch black, pitch black. Well, I can see. Industrial because you can feel metal grating that you are lying on currently. Yeah, I mean, Hamid is going to do his best to just feel around because he can't see. Does he even know Azu's right next to him? You can still feel Azu's hand in yours. Well, your hand in Azu's, let's be honest. So you know the hand is there. Ah, the Jurassic Park play. I'm very improving. No, because one extra thing does happen just as you start to come together. You have just enough time to realise what's happening.
And then a camel is summoned moments like barely, like right next to you. And suddenly the place is washed in bright dancing lights. And Hamid starts to fly all simultaneously. Whoa! Camel lights flying. Topaz! Topaz seems fine. Okay. Though it is a squeeze for a camel in here.
Oh, um, I'd even say, I'm going to go ahead and say that Topaz has a light glow that even augments the dancing lights. You're definitely in some kind of industrial-esque tunnel, though it appears to be non-functioning. Don't think, like, it's not got steam and moving parts, it just seems kind of an obscure service tunnel. I mean, I guess I take stock of our surroundings, now that I can see. You're in a long, straight service tunnel that disappears into darkness on either side, though one side is mostly obscured by camel.
As he was going to get up and give Topaz a big hug and then send her back to the celestial plane because this is no place for a camel. This is indeed no place for a camel. Topaz is happy to oblige. Maybe with a nuzzle before doing so, but yes, this is a dark service tunnel is not a place for a celestial camel. Yeah. Azu, where are we? I don't know, but are you all right? Are you hurt? A little bit, but I'm okay. Where's everyone else? I don't know. Should we call for them or... Ooh, ooh. Azu is going to take out a mobile stone. Okay. And because she still doesn't really know how they work, she's just going to take Zolf into it. Zolf doesn't have one. Who in the party currently does have a mobile stone? Just Hammond and Azu.
I am absolutely fine with this. I would like this to stay canonical. You pull it out and say Zolf into the mobile stone. You and I are the only ones who have them. Oh. Well, apart from Einstein and Faseek and Emeka. Okay, well, you probably don't need to get them involved. Okay. Hello? Oh, Professor, hello. Hammond? Yes. Hello? This is unexpected. We didn't... How are you? I thought we weren't meant to be talking. Hello? I'm glad to hear you're alive. We all thought you were dead. We're alive. How are the others?
We don't know. How are you? You're alive, too? Um, it's kind of complicated. Can I call you back? I'm in the middle of something. Well, we probably shouldn't be talking anyway, so I'm just glad to still hear your voice. Thanks, Professor. Bye-bye. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What? Are you all evil and vain yet? No. No, are you? Good to know. Okay, bye. Bye. Um, I guess we should head in one direction and see if we can... I mean, I don't know if I should keep the lights on so I can see or if we're gonna... We don't know if there's anyone, you know, any, uh...
It's the thing that's going to try and hurt us in these tunnels. Could you give me a perception check, please? But I guess you'll make a lot of noise, so maybe it won't matter very much. Natural one. Good. And I only got 19. Good. Because I rolled an eight. I'm very happy with this as a scenario. I couldn't wish you better. Well, tell you what, you're injured, I'm also a bit injured, so let me just, as he's going to cast, lay on hands on Hamid and on herself. As you do so, at the distant end of one end of this tunnel, you don't know where north, south, east or west is, you hear a very, very distant...
Is that applause or is that feet? It's that exact sound. I mean, it sounded like mandibles to me. Yes, an insectile clicking. But your healing goes off without a hitch, so please roll that first. Okay, so Hamid is going to get... Nice! Hamid gets... 69 hit points back. Wow! No, Hamid gets 17 hit points back. Nice, nice. And Azu gets... Also nice. And Azu gets 15 hit points back. Fair play. In which case, then, I'm going to jump to a different party member. Okay. Sel. Okay. You...
come to, stood inside what appears to be a derelict inn of some kind. And you appear to be in the middle of a task. You appear to be taking an inventory of your equipment or something. It's all laid out. It must have taken you a while to do so. And you have done this kind of a thing before. Think of it more like alchemist prep kind of thing. You seem to have been finishing up your prep. You have no memory of how you got here beyond the last pain that you took when we were rolling for the damages. What is the architectural style of this derelict inn? Is it, say, Japanese? No. It seems to be, to your eye, Western European.
Okay, right. It has no windows, which is odd. It appears that it was vacated in a hurry, lots of overturned tables and so on. It looks like if someone wanted to make something look homely with very little in the way of quality materials and had an aversion to light. You are in something that, broadly speaking, could generously be called a two-story space with surrounding balcony. However, one of the balconies has collapsed and the other one is shut up. There are, to your eye, two doorways from the room.
One which appears to be behind you currently and appears to have a rudimentary trap set up on your side of the doorway. And there appears to be another door which you would guess leads into the kitchen or something similar that is currently boarded. No, which is currently barricaded. That's a different descriptor. Yeah. OK, interesting. Now, I would expect that Sel's father would have told them about the existence of other London, but they would not be familiar. They would not have thought it through enough to think...
In London, no light, poor materials, probably underground. You do have light. There is a lit torch within the inn with you. No natural light. No natural light whatsoever. So, hello? Hamid? Azu? Zolf? Skrark? Skrark? Wild? Wild? Anyone? Oh, okay. Gonna...
If I look at my inventory, is it accurate according to what I know? I'm going to give a slightly fluffy description for obvious reasons. Okay. You appear to have used a bunch of reagents, more than you thought, for the manufacturing of bombs. Not in a way that is mechanically you are running short, but you appear to have made and used a decent number of bombs. Right, so I may have been in some fights that I do not remember. Yes. How many bombs per day do you have? 16 per day. You can deduct six. Oh, okay. I actually had fewer than that left before, so... You will have lost up to six bombs. Right, yeah, I had six bombs, so I now have no bombs. I had carefully saved those bombs.
In case I needed them. Sorry. Perhaps I did. Right, so this place does not look bombed. Let us see if outside looks bombed. Okay. I am going to jump to Zolf. Yep.
who plunges into very cold, very dark muck of some kind. Cool. Splosh. It's full circle, man. It's sewer time. Back in the poo. I must confess, it does have a reminiscent smell now you think on it. Surprisingly, my first instinct is to not drown. So I swim to the surface, find a place. I'm not taking my surroundings. I want to not drown. You pick an arbitrary direction, swim until you find a wall and then use that to navigate, right? I have dark vision, so I can see something, but I'm not asking. Can you give me a single swim check, please?
Oh, okay, good. 20. Yeah, you're fine. Basically, it's actually comparatively easy to stay buoyant, and there seems to be bitritus in here that, like, you very quickly find something you can hold to float on, and then you pull your way to the side, find yourself facing a wall. At one point, there's definitely a current that seems to be pulling you to, like, a grate, but it is covered with a grate, so you can navigate past that, and eventually you find your way to some kind of metal ladder or similar, and you can pull yourself up onto a platform. Okay. Am I in a sewer? You are certainly in something akin to a sewer. Your guess is, yeah, you seem to be in a sewer. You are in what appears to be a... something akin to a silo in design.
that seems to have multiple pipes leading in with some, and seems to then have a larger, single-grated pipe leading out, and that is crisscrossed with a number of walkways you see to your eye. Only one exit, though, from the room that is like a formal doorway, though you could probably fit through multiple of the intake pipes. Oh, bloody hell. I wonder if this is real. All right, well, I'll look around. I obviously don't see anybody else and bleed through the door. And at that point, I'm going to take a break, and then you can all figure out what's happening in the break, and then we'll just magically reconvene afterwards, OK? Oh, lovely. Yep, nice. So I'm going to be joining Azu and Hamid in a tunnel with a distant clicking.
Should we move away from that? What do you think? Lights on or lights off? Let's leave them on for you. Probably best, yeah. You sometimes make better decisions than me, so let's... I don't know if that's true. I think we do best together. Anyway, let's head this way. Okay.
As we get the axe out. Start walking. The opposite direction, presumably. Yeah. Okay. I guess Hammond is not walking, actually. Hammond is just floating gently along. Thanks for the fly spell. Obviously, by the way, please do deduct those spells from, like, you have cast those spells. I got it off when I cast it earlier, even though it had severe effect. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. In that case, then, could you please give me first, both of you, are you trying to be stealthy or just plodding along?
I'm just plodding. I can't be stealthy. Yeah, I mean, Hamid is naturally quite stealthy, but the fact that they've got light means, yeah, and the fact that he's right next to Azu means that no, I guess. Understood, that's fine. So you continue down the tunnel for a little ways. I keep glancing behind us to see if the clicking approaches. It's definitely following you. It doesn't seem to be approaching, but it's definitely following you. And as you continue down, you reach a door which appears to have like a service door, you know, with a turn handle. It is slightly ajar, but not enough that you can just see into what's ever beyond. I open it.
I'll dismiss the dancing lights just before we push it open. OK, so to be clear, you now have no light sources as you're opening the door, yes? Yes, but I have dark vision, so I should be able to have a peek in. Hamid is going to basically, just before he dismisses dancing lights, he's going to settle into a, like, hands on Azu's shoulders position. Have you seen that really famous halfling backpack picture? Yeah! That position, but he doesn't have the backpack because he doesn't need it because he just flies. He's just flying, yeah. Understood, yeah. But the hands on the shoulders means he doesn't need to be able to see, and he can just kind of let Azu's movement guide him, potentially. Yeah, it's clever. Give me a perception check, please, Azu. OK. That's 18. Actually, Hamid, can you give me a perception check, please, as well?
33. For the 18, I will answer you, Azu, first. Within the range of your dark vision, you see what appear to be a few trampled market stalls in a large open space. It appears to be an underground space. It appears to be a retrofitted industrial space, potentially, of some kind. You see sort of brickwork arches, some exposed plumbing and so on. There's the occasional drip here and there. And within range of it, you see two to three trampled stalls. As you're looking at that, I'm going to say that you're distracted. Hammond, with yours, you see... I don't see anything. Obviously, you don't see any of this, but you feel like you were in a large space.
and you see a very, very distant blue glow at the far end of the space. Very, very, like... It isn't like a very clear point of light or anything like that. It's quite dim, and it's a decent distance away. You've sort of opened the door and gone, ooh, big cavernous space. Maybe blue?
Is it safe to put the lights back on? Yes, it doesn't seem like anyone's in here. It's like a market, but underground. I will recast. And Dancing Lights only lasts a minute as well. So when I say dismiss it, we can literally just wait 10 seconds and it will have gone off. So I will cast Dancing Lights again. It does have a range of 200 foot, so I'm literally going to summon the torches at the edge of that range so they're not right in front of us. And I get to move them as I want. So I don't think I can move them further away than that, but I can sort of move them around. So I'm going to start moving them around to light up as much. And I'll sort of zigzag so they're a bit closer to us and then a bit further away again. You recognise where you are.
This is where you were jumped by a bunch of people in the other London market. That is what I thought. It appears to have been vacated, but not necessarily in a panic. Most of the stalls seem to have either been left or sort of, like, not, like, struck, if you know what I mean by, like, striking a stall. But there doesn't appear to be much in the way of, like, leftover stock or, like, things left out. It looks more like people moved out of here en masse than people fled here en masse. Oh, oh, I know where we are. Oh, that's good. I don't know if it is. We're in London. Oh. Other London specifically.
Right. I am going to jump to Zulf. You're headed through that corridor, correct? Yes. Okay. Heading through that corridor, you find yourself in... I'm going to go a little bit broader than just the exact situation you're in because I kind of have to. It's very clear quickly that you're in a series of service tunnels, most likely for sewage, plumbing, etc. I'm not going to bother with you. You see a left turn and a mid turn and a right turn. I haven't written any entire maze. You are in a set of service tunnels that you do not recognise. What's the plan? I'll try and get out. Okay. Are you looking to go up? Are you looking to go around to find features or down?
what presents itself. Okay, sure. In that case, then, give me a general... No, give me a survival check, please. 21. 21. You're able to make sure that you don't get turned around at any point. It helps that they are intentional service tunnels, they're not natural winding cave pathways and so on. Very clear to you very quickly that you think you... Well, whether you think it, but it's very reminiscent of London. I mean, given we were going to London, it makes sense. As you continue, you start to notice A, large amounts of movements of water, and then B, you start to discern sort of two major points of interest which you're going to be able to use to make decision-making. One is that there's a couple of turnings where there is a dim, static blue glow coming from. You can choose whether to go down them or not after I've given the second factor.
The other one is that you find yourself in... Do you remember there's a couple of stairways up and down into other London? I do. You find yourself at... You basically manage to find one of those as well. Not the main thoroughfare, but certainly a stairwell where you're like, well, this is going to go all the way up and all the way down if I need it to. It takes a while to find, maybe like an hour or so of careful, because you're not being random and you're not just sort of charging through. But those are the two salient points, really. Is the blue the same shade of blue as the blue we know and love? Yes. Then I will not be going.
to those places. I presumed as much but didn't want to assume. I'm going to try and find a way into other London proper because I think, you know, the surface is going to be horrible and the blue glow is the blue glow. Yeah, that's fine. In which case then, I'm going to jump to Sal. So Sal, you are going to be heading outside of the inn, yes? Yep. They're going to listen at that front door first before going out for sounds of a fight. Can you give me a perception check, please? I can. I can do that.
Ooh, natural one. I mean, obviously, they add quite a bit to that, but irrelevant, presumably, because natural one. Natural one, understood. There's an additional detail that I have tracked, and I forgot to mention, but I figured you'd connect the dots anyway. You're no longer in beast form. Ah, right, yes. No, that is useful. It's mechanically salient, but I realise they didn't explicitly state that. No, yes, I had assumed I wasn't in, but it is good to be clear. And I also then thought you were going to say, like, there's a lot of trays around that look like they would be perfect for the storing of a quiche. You hear nothing outside, nothing discerned. The trap itself appears to have an alchemical...
element that you recognise. It appears to be a suspended alchemist fire over the doorway that will be tripped if someone were to head through the doorway without paying attention. Do I need to deactivate it in order to go through the door? No, the trap is designed entirely to A, go unnoticed and B, to be easily managed on this side of the door and to be very difficult to detect from the other side of the doorway. Cool, can I open the door then? Exciting times. Yeah, you open the doorway and you find yourself in... I don't know if Sel would have ever seen anything like this. I want you to imagine almost like a large subway tunnel, but it appears to have like buildings built into it.
They appear comparatively ramshackle and abandoned. Not abandoned in the sense of, like, ruinous, but I mean more in the sense of empty with very little signs of things being left behind. Yeah, probably the closest thing would be between the towns that we visited in Japan and Shoeen's kind of institute. So there's a slight suspicion that we might be underwater because... That would scan. That would absolutely scan. There's definitely the sounds of distant running water, the odd drip and so on, occasional steam from pipes and so on. Yeah, reminiscent of Shoeen's not terrible. Building on that natural one, I'm going to say that Cell is becoming increasingly confident in their theory that they are...
underwater in an even more ramshackle underwater base and is gathering lots of evidence for this. They're going to go back and grab that lit torch if it's a carryable one. Yes, it is. So they're going to grab that and then just... walk out and walk down the tunnel, I guess. Yeah, so heading down the corridor tunnel, it's very densely packed. Assuming that people would have been living here over densely packed. It feels more reminiscent of like a close to a slum, maybe. And as you're walking down this tunnel, you can see that it has a very slight gradient. Some that heads very slightly down and some that heads very slightly up. It only goes in those two directions. I'll need you to pick one. Up. Okay, cool. Because we want to get above the water level. Ah, I see. You continue heading up there and then...
Back near... I'd say you're walking for maybe five minutes, ten minutes. And then back towards where the inn was, you hear a clanging. Like a... And then a couple of beats. And then a... Cell whacks on some metal nearby. Is this in Morse code? I don't know Morse code, but Cell probably would. Cell would know Morse code. This is not in Morse code. It appears to just be like... I mean, it could be, but if it is, it's gibberish. It's not in the Morse code that they know. You know, there could be dialects. But anyway, Cell will just...
Hello? Anyone there? Anyone? Anyone at all? You know, even if you attack me, that would give me information. So... Hello? It takes a little while. There's no response. And then after, just when you think, okay, nothing's going to happen, we're talking like, you know, a minute, solid, two minutes or whatever, you hear a... A little bit closer. Seems to be from a slightly different direction. Okay. Ah, I see. I don't see. I don't see at all. But, you know, it's lovely to meet you.
Could you kind of two taps? Can you understand me? One tap for yes, two taps for no. Wait. Yeah, can you understand me? One tap for yes, I suppose no taps for no. There's no response. Okay, well, so you did dig that for yourself. Two taps for no, I can't understand you. Okay, okay. I don't know any more tunes. I really should have learned more tunes. I didn't know it would be so useful in survival situations. You suddenly realize you've been so busy berating yourself, you haven't noticed the enormous hulking figure that is stalking closer towards the rim of your torchlight. Oh, hello.
Hello? Hello, what are you? Friendly, huh? A massive, filthy hand pokes into the torchlight and kind of puts up like a finger and then taps like down, down, like, shh. Quiet, friendly. I'm going to jump to...
Hamid and Azub. Okay. I'm thinking about the process of time passing, given that it's been a fact of other people. Fly's probably worn off because that only lasts 10 minutes. Fly seemed to trigger the second that you arrived. It was not pre-triggered. That's any point. Yeah, we've not been walking around for 10 minutes yet. Way back in the mists of time, I cast Mage Armor, which lasts 10 hours. You did? No, that's still extant. Cool. Okay, should we look around, I guess? Yes.
The thing in the tunnel is definitely moving closer. Should we go and look at that? There is a second thing in the marketplace somewhere at a distant corner. It has a lower tone. Let's find a defensible position and see if we can see them. As it is a defensible position. Quick, plant your flag on her.
All right, where would we be good? Azu looks around for like raised platforms or anything in the space? Or the nearest overturned market stall? Yeah, that too. There's plenty to choose from. Azu's going to pick one at random and be like that one? They're not especially robust. They are mostly like cloth and poles and so on. And it'll provide some initial cover, but it's not like a barricade that you can... No, it's more like just reduces the number of directions we can be attacked from simultaneously. It can reduce the number of directions you can be seen from simultaneously, which is almost the same thing. Yeah, close enough. Okay, so once we've found that, I'm going to send the dancing lights back to the tunnel entrance and like illuminate it, the exit we came out of. Are you hiding? Yeah.
Could both of you give me a stealth check, please? I mean, this is going to be potentially points. I am going to be applying bonuses, though, because you have actually prepped. You're not just kind of doing the game thing of crouching and then seeing a little eyeball symbol. 14. I rolled a three, so 21. So almost the same values. Hamid's not trying very hard because he feels like he's not going to be the less stealthy one, no matter what. Well, he's not wrong. As you are sort of waiting, you start to see an approaching blue glow from that corridor. Hamid, Hamid, there's a blue thing. There's a bad blue. Should we go?
Go where? We heard something else similar nearby. I couldn't tell from where. But it's blue. The second one is still very, very far off. It doesn't appear to be approaching, but it's definitely in this big space somewhere. What if it's a Vady thing? Okay, okay. I think I remember this place well enough. I don't know where we should go. I mean, we could head to the surface, but if we're in London, the whole city might be overrun. I don't know where else to go, though. As you are saying this, you receive a telepathic message. Give me your knowledge, Arcana.
24. It is ascending. Let me get the voice right. Oh, God. Away from the tunnel. Head away from life. Oh, OK. Thank you. What? I didn't do anything. Who are you? I'm Azu.
I got a message, Azzy. Oh. Oh, that's weird. They may not be able to reply. They said to hide from the lights, so I guess we should do that. That's what I was saying. Yes. I dismiss the dancing lights. Yep. And grab onto Azzy's shoulders quite tightly. Okay. I don't think any direction's going to be better than any other, but if we can hear those clicks, let's stay away from them too. All right. And just avoid the lights if we can. I can't see now. I can see. As you say that, you can start to see, because a large, blue glowing... I say large. Large for a medium-sized creature.
clawed blue glowing hand reaches out from the tunnel and grasps the side of the doorway it has thick bulging blue veins running through it and as it reaches and digs into the doorway large chunks of wood tear away from its claws and I'll end the episode there And she can't see anything. Well, she can see, but... Rusty Quill has a horror podcast, blah, blah, blah. Respect his craft, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no. Okay, if you're going to skip huge numbers of monsters and go straight to London, I'm going to have to just cram a lot of death into very, very small spaces, and that's okay. Oh, dear. At least we have the luxury of returning immediately whilst everyone else has to wait, right? Yay! Let's do that, then. Bye. Bye!
Thanks for listening.