3.22: Consuming Magic

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Happy pie day. Pie. [00:00:16] Speaker B: Should I doordash some pie? [00:00:18] Speaker C: I think yes, doordash some pie. [00:00:20] Speaker A: Only if you also doordash me some pie. I'm just kidding. [00:00:23] Speaker B: I'm gonna do it since I don't think my grandma made any today. [00:00:27] Speaker A: If you want to join our Patreon so we can Doordash pie to ourselves, you can do that. That's what. [00:00:33] Speaker B: That's totally what all that money goes towards all of the billions of dollars we have on Patreon. Anyways, welcome to spells and whistles. D and d hi b. Podcast rules. [00:00:47] Speaker D: Not. [00:00:49] Speaker A: Welcome back to the welcome back after the break. After we all ate our pie. Yeah, we have high break the happy recording. [00:00:55] Speaker B: Sorry about the elevator music in the middle. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Anyway, welcome back. Last time, jumping right into combat. The fire is spreading faster, causing some issues for everyone in the room. Aarondril makes some moves against id, showing off his healing abilities while zombies are demolished. Caleb's dead body lays on the floor. Melan gets teleported around, and Milo suffers the loss of her second defender model, too. Opal proves to be annoying more than anything else and a sort of bodyguard or lackey of Arendelle. The crew is becoming consumed by fire, and they opt to escape instead of killing Arendelle and Opal. At the end of this fight, everyone's looking rough and choking on some smoke action. Choking on smoke. [00:01:45] Speaker D: All right, I'm gonna read my thing. [00:01:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:49] Speaker E: Darkness and pressure the only things constant in the doll terre trench are darkness and pressure. The maker of waves, disruptor of waters. Can't remember how long she's been there. She didn't hunger. There was plenty to feed on in the depths of the sea. She enjoys the stillness. Her eyes closed, though it didn't matter in the blackness around. Around her, her lips curl into a gentle smile, water flushing past rows of sharp teeth. Theyve grown sharper, her bite wider since she allowed herself to drift. It wasnt the only change. A whip like tail, the tips of her fingers becoming hard and sharp. The peace of mind under the weight of the world. This felt right. This must be who she truly is. Beneath the squirms and fidgets, the chattiness, the absent minded daydreams. Her heart beats slowly. There's the slightest ripple in the water around her, and on instinct, she slashes her arm through the air, claw like hands connecting with something long and smooth, raking through its skin. With a desperate wriggle, the creature slips away, disappearing into the inky depths. Her heart remains steady. Where there is pressure, there is focus. Attunement to her surroundings. Peace of mind in the depths. She is everything the pod wants her to be. A threat. A hunter lurking in the dark. Again, she feels the ripple of water and as she moves to sweep her hand toward whatever creature approaches, something from behind her pierces her shoulder, fangs sinking into her skin and muscle. She lets out a cry through gritted teeth. A burst of bubbles from her lips billowing upward. She twists her body around, digging her claws into the body of the creature. Her jaw unhinges, teeth sinking into flesh. A bloom of warmth against her face and the taste of blood on her tongue as she rips and tears into tissue. Its no longer a creature, its a meal. And she jerks her head from side to side, ripping and shredding this thing that thought it could best her. Bite and tear and swallow and slash and bite and tear again. There's no strategy, no thought. Only the flow of instinct and movement. As soon as it starts, it ends. Chunks of meat start to sink. The crabs and sea stars that live in the vents at the deepest parts of the ocean will benefit from the detritus. The sting in her shoulder lingers. In the distance something glows. A slow flash. A lure. The burning spreads through her shoulder and she winces. Her head snaps to the side, keeping an eye out for more danger. Focus, she thinks. Feel the flow. Another blink of the lure. Two lures this time. Another twinge from the stinging inner shoulder. Not two lures. One doubled in her blurry vision. She exhales through gritted teeth, willing herself to clear her mind of worry. Her tail twitches. When there's danger, I am calm. When I'm under pressure, I am in control. The sound of bubbles from somewhere in the black. Pull her out of her head. Breathe. Let it go. Her hand finds her shirt gripping the fabric over her chest. She can feel her heart beat against her palm. Something comes at her from the dark. Something she didn't feel approaching. A sharp fin slashes her side. Hit it back. Recenter yourself. Find your flow. Another pass from the hunter in the dark. A gash against her leg. Pain. Her heart hammering in her chest. Her ears pop. She flees. The lure in the dark follows. And I think as Auden is running into the snow outside of the institute, dragging along the rest of the party with her, ensuring they're with her. All she remembers is that feeling of being not the hunter, but the hunted. [00:06:07] Speaker C: Whoa. [00:06:11] Speaker F: Yeah. Well, kind of sums it up. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:15] Speaker B: Oh gosh. [00:06:19] Speaker F: Where are we running to? Yeah, I think number 1. Second point of order. Second point of order. The barrier. How are we getting past that? Can we get past that from the inside? [00:06:32] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys want to keep running on the bridge? You totally can. You can pass it from the inside, no problem. [00:06:37] Speaker F: There you go. [00:06:38] Speaker D: Yeah. I think Auden's main goal right now is just distance, somewhere to hide, and, like, you know, that kind of lick your wounds and not be seen is kind of what's driving her. So I think she's making a beeline to get away from the institute. [00:06:56] Speaker C: What time of day is it? [00:06:58] Speaker A: About 05:00 p.m. Or so. [00:07:00] Speaker C: Id is at the OR at least near the back of the pack and is paying attention to surroundings, but is very often looking up towards a crack in the smoke to where there is open sky and just, like, looks at it, looks forward, looks around, looks up at it, looks around again, stays with the group. [00:07:25] Speaker B: I think Myla is trying so desperately to recall anything that they had passed on the way up here. That's just sort of, like, anything. But she wasn't actively looking for it at the time. And she's sort of kicking herself, like, metaphorically because she was so, like, caught up in getting there and getting in and everything leading up to it that she didn't think of a way out. And I think that she just runs until there's, like, I don't know, maybe like, a stretch of stone where we could lose our footprints or something to take cover in or anything. Anything to disrupt whatever mental loop she's caught herself in. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah. The nearest cover is the trees kind of across the bridge. So it's, you know, three minutes away on this bridge, but it's very quiet in the trees. There's not really any. There are no birds. There are no, like, squirrels. Like, really a lack of forest sounds. It's very dead quiet. [00:08:42] Speaker D: I hate that. That's so creepy. [00:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah, just go in. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Guys can definitely head into the trees. It is thick enough that if you take two minutes off the path, you are lost from the line of sight from the main trail that you followed up. That's what you'd like to do. [00:09:02] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:09:03] Speaker D: I think Auden is gonna kind of, like, drag Melwyn along and kind of, like, as soon as I feel like that's enough distance where we can lose them if they're following, she's gonna kind of stash Melwyn in a bush and then, like, run around, find another bush, and just kind of lift it up and, like, you know, like, really just kind of ushering, like, the best thing. [00:09:26] Speaker E: To do now is just hide the pass bias. [00:09:29] Speaker D: We can just lay low and we can get better and. [00:09:34] Speaker E: And we can deal with it once. [00:09:37] Speaker F: Once we lose them, that mental image is something else. [00:09:43] Speaker A: Just. [00:09:46] Speaker B: Plop her in a bush. Yeah, I think Myla just silently follows whatever Auden says. [00:09:52] Speaker C: Is there anybody else that's leaving the institute and, like, taking this path? [00:09:57] Speaker A: No, it's very, very quiet. Does anyone want to make a perception check? [00:10:03] Speaker C: Love to. [00:10:03] Speaker A: As you're running away or kind of at any point before hiding. [00:10:09] Speaker C: Three plus four is seven for id, eight for Auden. 916. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Ah, so close. [00:10:20] Speaker D: This is an easy Ben. It could be Yahtzee with D 20s. [00:10:27] Speaker A: That actually sounds really fun, though, honestly. Let's do it an extra long straight of one through 20. [00:10:36] Speaker C: That'd be crazy. [00:10:38] Speaker A: All right, so the most pressing thing that Auden and Id like notice is that you are the only people running out of here and there's no one coming from any other exit or anything. Like, you feel like the only living souls in this place. Myla, you noticed that the fire is really mostly contained to the very front and that a lot of the back half of the building is still okay for now, but probably won't be that way for, you know, in like 2 hours short rest. [00:11:14] Speaker C: Go back in, see if we can salvage anything. [00:11:18] Speaker B: Uh, gosh, I mean, we can. That's. That's a good idea. [00:11:24] Speaker D: Does id say that out loud or is this ben strategizing here? [00:11:28] Speaker C: Not. He can't say the words short rest. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Sure. [00:11:33] Speaker F: I mean, he could say we could take a short. [00:11:35] Speaker C: We could take a short breather. [00:11:38] Speaker A: Arrested. A short? Yeah. [00:11:40] Speaker B: Quickly eat an eleven and a half foot long subject. [00:11:44] Speaker C: Right? [00:11:44] Speaker A: Just scarf down, swallow it whole, like a sword. [00:11:51] Speaker C: That implies putting most of the sandwich down your neck and then taking the. [00:11:54] Speaker A: Whole thing back out. [00:11:56] Speaker D: That implies being eleven and a half feet long at least. [00:12:01] Speaker A: Also true. It goes into one leg. Is that what you're saying? [00:12:06] Speaker D: Gross. [00:12:09] Speaker F: We need to stop. [00:12:11] Speaker A: Okay, this is supposed to be dramatic. [00:12:12] Speaker F: This is fine. [00:12:14] Speaker B: It's my fault. I started it. [00:12:16] Speaker A: So a short rest is 1 hour, right? [00:12:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So you can take an hour. That means the fire has an hour more to spread, which is fine. That's important. [00:12:26] Speaker C: Got it. I thought you meant it's gonna take 2 hours for it to reach that zone, and then that zone would start to burn. [00:12:33] Speaker A: No, it's gonna take about 2 hours for the whole thing to fill up. So if you. If you wait an hour and go back, you can totally do that. You're just gonna have less building. [00:12:42] Speaker B: There's. [00:12:43] Speaker A: That's the trade off. I'm just letting. Just making sure everyone's on the same page so that we can. [00:12:46] Speaker D: No, I appreciate the clarification. [00:12:48] Speaker B: If we are sort of discussing this in character, I think. I think milo would just mention if there was anything of importance that was still in there. I have a feeling they wouldn't set it on fire. So it's either gone or it's not important. So maybe we let it die out and see what happens. [00:13:09] Speaker C: Or not important to them is the same as not important to us. [00:13:14] Speaker B: I mean, I guess, but, I mean. [00:13:16] Speaker C: Worst case scenario, it's not everything. So they started it in this tower in the front of the building. So if they needed to burn anything, it's there. They're not going to risk people coming in and putting a fire out before it can get to the important stuff for them. [00:13:34] Speaker B: So how do we get around the fire then? [00:13:38] Speaker C: There's multiple entrances and exits, right? [00:13:40] Speaker A: Honestly, there are, like, windows and things. There's one main entrance, and Myla can make an intelligence check, basically, or, like, a history check. [00:13:50] Speaker C: This building is fire code fucking sucks. They pick their target well, really bad. [00:13:57] Speaker B: Abusive as shit. Oh, gosh. Do I reverse mellow 17? [00:14:05] Speaker A: You know that there are a couple of, like, there's one quote, unquote backdoor that you found on accident one time. That's like a hidden wall that moves away in the back that no one wanted to find. There are also a couple windows, but they're mostly, like, 10ft up. Like, there's no ground floor windows. There are only windows starting on the second floor and above. Because why would they let you have a first floor window? Yeah, that sucks. [00:14:36] Speaker B: I'm not gonna let you do that. I think Mila just is, like, there's windows that are up, but we can't reach them from the ground. I guess there's that slidey back door I wasn't supposed to find. [00:14:47] Speaker C: Then let's go there. [00:14:49] Speaker B: Okay, so let's, um, like autumn said. [00:14:52] Speaker C: Lose their trail or they lose our trail and head back in. [00:14:58] Speaker B: Okay, and what about. But what about the barrier? They have to know that we're coming through the barrier, right? That's on the outside of everything. [00:15:05] Speaker C: Like, they're gonna stay in a burning building. [00:15:07] Speaker B: I mean, they just did. [00:15:09] Speaker C: Maybe they knew of another back door. I don't know. [00:15:12] Speaker B: I don't know. Well, yeah. Just thinking out loud here, not saying we don't do it. I think we should, but, like, death clearly doesn't confine these people. I mean, we saw dead people living again. I don't think a building on fire is gonna scare them away? [00:15:27] Speaker C: We also saw dead people die again, so I think fire does do a lot. If you don't want to go back in, myla, you don't have to. [00:15:37] Speaker B: No, I'm not letting you guys just go in. I know where things are. I know it would be stupid to. To let you guys go without me when I clearly could take you guys around places so people go. [00:15:50] Speaker A: How long do you wanna stay before you go? [00:15:52] Speaker C: Exactly an hour. [00:15:55] Speaker A: Exactly. Are you short resting? [00:15:58] Speaker F: That's fine. [00:15:58] Speaker C: I would love to short rest. [00:16:00] Speaker D: I think that would be really good for me. [00:16:03] Speaker A: Okay. [00:16:06] Speaker C: That'S not my hit die dice. [00:16:08] Speaker F: I'm doing fine on hit points, which is really. [00:16:13] Speaker A: No one's, like, twiddling her thumbs. [00:16:15] Speaker B: I'm almost at. [00:16:18] Speaker A: There you go. [00:16:20] Speaker D: Okay, I'm gonna roll. [00:16:22] Speaker F: I guess I'll roll a hit die. I don't need it. [00:16:26] Speaker A: You might as well. [00:16:29] Speaker C: I've got two hit die left. And I'm back up to 76 out of 80. [00:16:33] Speaker D: I'm at 64 out of 81 because I rolled like garbage on my last one. [00:16:42] Speaker B: I used all my hit dice. And I'm at 49 out of 62. [00:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:16:49] Speaker F: I'm looking at arcane recovery. Apparently, I can only get one spell slot back, which is very helpful. [00:16:56] Speaker C: Yeah, because you're multi tier split. [00:16:58] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:16:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Makes sense. [00:16:59] Speaker C: Cares about wizard levels and not total level. [00:17:03] Speaker A: All right. Yeah. [00:17:05] Speaker F: Well, I guess I'll get a singular first level spell slot back. [00:17:09] Speaker B: Better than nothing. [00:17:10] Speaker A: It's not nothing. [00:17:11] Speaker F: Yeah, well, uh, you say that I have no sorcery points and no counter spells, so that's okay. [00:17:18] Speaker C: We're dealing with a fire. [00:17:20] Speaker D: Stealth it up so hard. [00:17:22] Speaker C: Yeah, id will stealth it up so hard. [00:17:26] Speaker A: I'm also down roll a zero level. So we're. [00:17:29] Speaker B: We're. [00:17:30] Speaker A: I'm. [00:17:30] Speaker F: Yeah, I have a couple second levels, but it's fine. [00:17:33] Speaker D: We'll make it work. [00:17:34] Speaker F: Just really hope I'm not gonna need that counter spell. [00:17:37] Speaker D: How is Melwyn doing with all this? I put her in a bush, but health wise. [00:17:43] Speaker F: I put her in a bush. [00:17:46] Speaker D: What kind of state? [00:17:47] Speaker A: I did under a bushel. No, it's a bird in a bush. [00:17:52] Speaker F: Except it's a bean in a bush instead. Tiefling bean. [00:18:00] Speaker D: I don't want to say emotionally, because I know that's kind of an question, but, um, see how she's doing. [00:18:10] Speaker F: Is she dealing? You know, she's been in over her head for a hot minute, and now we're here. [00:18:21] Speaker D: Just imagine her, like, just laying in the bush, like, eyes looking around, unmoving in the bush. [00:18:30] Speaker F: Listen, she's just trying to be helpful, and she's not very good at being helpful. So she's here. [00:18:38] Speaker A: All right, so, Yaran, you guys, during a short rest, saw yarn jump down or not jump, because that's a very far way, but climb down id's clothing, just grabbing onto cloth and climbing down, and they go sit on the ground. And they don't look great. They do look a little charred. They got hit by some fire at some point and took six points of damage, which was unfortunate. So they're just like, sitting on the ground, and you watch them close their eyes and meditative state, and then they just kind of put their hands on the ground, and a bunch of vines grow up around them and start slow healing them. And so they're fine. After the short rest, they heal their six points, and then they're on the ground and they're like, uh, kind, oh, no, I got it. And then they just turn into a little bird and then go sit on Auden's head this time. And they turn back into their little, like, Korok form. [00:19:43] Speaker D: Audins gonna pick yarn up off her head and hold them very close to her face. What kind of help was that in there? You said you were here to help us. [00:19:55] Speaker G: I didn't. [00:19:57] Speaker A: Sorry. [00:19:58] Speaker C: It doesn't say anything. But if you did detect thoughts on him, he's thinking, yeah, even the ball did better than yarn. Did. [00:20:09] Speaker B: The audiences detect thoughts? [00:20:11] Speaker C: The audiences detect thoughts. [00:20:13] Speaker A: I'm sorry. [00:20:15] Speaker D: What? What do you want from us? [00:20:19] Speaker A: I don't. I just want to help you. [00:20:22] Speaker D: What can you do? [00:20:24] Speaker A: I can turn into stuff. I have to see the thing, but. [00:20:28] Speaker G: I can do it. [00:20:30] Speaker D: Adam's gonna just kind of quietly hand Yaron to Melwyn. You guys bonded yesterday. [00:20:39] Speaker G: Did we? [00:20:41] Speaker F: That was half Melwin, half grace. [00:20:43] Speaker A: Sorry. [00:20:45] Speaker D: It wrote on your head for a little while. [00:20:47] Speaker G: I mean, yes, but we didn't really talk. [00:20:51] Speaker A: Yarn's like, visibly shaking like a leaf. I feel so bad. [00:20:56] Speaker D: But Anna is not having a good day. [00:20:59] Speaker A: That's fair. No, it's valid. [00:21:02] Speaker G: Are you all right? Yarn. Yep. [00:21:05] Speaker A: Uh huh. So good. [00:21:07] Speaker G: You sure? Do you want to stay with me, or would you rather be carried by somebody? I'm glad to stay stronger. Okay. Um, I'll stay with you. I'm sorry about the, um. [00:21:25] Speaker F: Just, like, poke it, folks. Where he got singed a little bit. [00:21:30] Speaker G: It's okay. [00:21:31] Speaker A: I don't really die, I don't think. Just kind of disappear back too. [00:21:38] Speaker G: Good for you. [00:21:40] Speaker A: Okay. Um, they, like, shift through a couple of forms of stuff before they're like, uh, I'm just gonna stay like this. [00:21:50] Speaker G: Actually, that's. That's all right. [00:21:53] Speaker A: Um, you know, I don't really want to talk anymore. [00:21:57] Speaker F: That's really fair, actually. [00:21:59] Speaker D: Um, Auden's gonna kind of get up from wherever she was kind of sitting. Um, brush off, like, any snow. And she's gonna say, okay, we'll go in, look around, find some stuff. [00:22:16] Speaker E: We'll go from there. [00:22:18] Speaker C: Let's go. [00:22:19] Speaker A: Hey. [00:22:19] Speaker G: Hey, Melwyn. Hmm? Yeah? [00:22:23] Speaker A: Can you ask Mila if she wants to heal? [00:22:26] Speaker G: Can you wait? [00:22:29] Speaker A: I'm scared. [00:22:31] Speaker G: Could you heal this whole time, Yaren? Yes. [00:22:35] Speaker A: Is that the. No. [00:22:37] Speaker G: Next time, when? Okay, nevermind. Um, do you want me to just do it, or. No, no. Can you? Yep. [00:22:48] Speaker A: You ask her. [00:22:49] Speaker F: Melan's a terrible person to ask to do this. I'm just gonna point that out right now. Melan also doesn't want to talk to Myla. [00:22:56] Speaker A: It's okay. Yarn is afraid of everyone. Now, you made a powerful enemy tonight. I'm gonna make you carry around the BBEG for the next 45 sessions. [00:23:09] Speaker F: Honestly, that'd be funny as hell, though. [00:23:13] Speaker G: Um, Myla? Hmm? Apparently Yaron can heal. [00:23:21] Speaker B: Okay. [00:23:22] Speaker G: Um, Yaren wants to know if you would like a heel. [00:23:29] Speaker C: Jay looks so pissed right now. [00:23:32] Speaker A: I'm scared. [00:23:35] Speaker C: She's, like, doing this thing with her jaw that looks like she's, like, grinding her teeth. [00:23:39] Speaker A: Oh, God. [00:23:40] Speaker C: It's, uh, terrifying. [00:23:44] Speaker F: I mean, I have to get on your bad side. [00:23:46] Speaker A: Jesus. [00:23:48] Speaker B: No, I think Milo, like, sets her jaw a little bit. It would be illogical to refuse. [00:23:55] Speaker G: Okay. [00:23:59] Speaker F: Melon just holds up the sprout. Korok. [00:24:04] Speaker A: Okay. [00:24:04] Speaker F: I don't. We don't know what the fuck yarn is. [00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I like sprout. That's good. Easy Sunday. It's like, maybe Korok is copyright. I can't actually say that. Legally distinct. Korok. [00:24:20] Speaker B: It's a corboulder. [00:24:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So Yarn says, okay. [00:24:34] Speaker G: You have to. [00:24:35] Speaker A: Blow on the okay, and then just turns into one of the little dandelion wish flowers with the little seeds that come off. [00:24:44] Speaker B: She does. [00:24:45] Speaker A: So the little seeds fly off the stem and just circle your head and it does heal you for ten hit points. [00:24:55] Speaker B: Good to know. Thanks. [00:24:57] Speaker A: And then yarn turns back into a little sprout. [00:24:59] Speaker C: Is only burning faster. Let's go. [00:25:01] Speaker A: You guys. Head back towards the institute. There's enough rock around the edge that you can walk around this. You can walk around the base of the school. And Myla shows you to a back panel that slides away with a couple of stone push in presses in combination, and it leads you just into a very dark hallway with a couple of stairs that twist right, left, and then there's some flat space and then some more twisting stairs until you end up underneath a janitorial closet in a slide away floor kind of deal that is sort of trapdoor esque, and it leads you in there. [00:25:49] Speaker B: I used to hide in this closet when I would steal the lesson plans from my teachers. [00:25:55] Speaker C: Nice. [00:25:56] Speaker B: Thanks. [00:25:57] Speaker C: Who was the janitor? There was a physical janitor in a magic school, or was this just a show? [00:26:06] Speaker B: Sort of one of those, like, pity hires. Like, one of the higher ups was like, my uncle needs a job. So he was here. They made him mainly clean up. Like experiments gone wrong. [00:26:23] Speaker C: Good. [00:26:24] Speaker A: The turnover rate is really high for this position. [00:26:28] Speaker C: That guy has so many uncles. [00:26:30] Speaker A: He has a lot of uncles. I say it really high. It's like two or three years, which is like, how long? Like, people are here for like four or five. So they might see two janitors in their time, but they, like, make the janitor clean up, like, magical spills that are super toxic, like, radioactive. Really bad. [00:26:54] Speaker B: It's really not good, but sometimes if you were really nice to them, they would let you, like, stay in the classroom past study hours. [00:27:02] Speaker E: So let's go find those classrooms. [00:27:05] Speaker B: You guys. [00:27:05] Speaker A: Enter the hallway. There are a lot of classrooms in this building. Like, so many that you probably do not have time to check all of them. There are. You can pick some to go into if you'd like. Other rooms in this building include. There's like. There are a couple teachers lounges on, like, different ends of the building because it's a big building. There are a lot of professor offices as well. Of course, there are dormitory rooms as well, because people had to live here. Those are mostly the towers, the dorms, and then there's like, a conference room. There's just a couple, like, odds and ends rooms, a lot of storages. [00:27:59] Speaker C: Ben, did you think Milo, is there anywhere that would. We think they're mixing colors, right? Is there anywhere that would, like, lend itself to that? Well. [00:28:14] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:28:14] Speaker B: Well, there's a lot of. These are mainly the lecture halls down here. There's some more, like, lab and workspace classrooms down kind of at the other end, so you can check there. That'd probably be a good place. [00:28:28] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:28:30] Speaker B: Conference rooms were also big teacher meeting places, so if they were discussing things, conference rooms were. That's where I heard the thing was a conference room. [00:28:41] Speaker C: So does this building look abandoned? Did they, like, force everybody out of it, or. [00:28:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it's more like they sent everyone on an impromptu spring break where people's stuff is still here, but everyone's gone. [00:29:00] Speaker C: They assumed they would be coming back. Yeah, but they didn't. Okay. [00:29:04] Speaker A: Which is very uncommon because they didn't typically have vacation times. People were allowed to leave, but it was like. It was in a very strict process, so this was not a thing that would have happened in regular school year. [00:29:22] Speaker C: Got it. Yeah. Let's head down there to those labs and classrooms. [00:29:26] Speaker B: Would I know if Professor Opal and Professor Caleb had set classrooms here? Or was it more like the teachers and the students met in different classrooms, depending on what their schedule was? [00:29:41] Speaker A: Let me look real quick. [00:29:44] Speaker B: No worries. [00:29:44] Speaker D: Like an office? Smart. [00:29:46] Speaker B: Yeah, like an office space or, like. Like, they're. They're. They're like. I don't know, some. Yeah. [00:29:52] Speaker A: So Opal only taught one class, so she only had, like, one. She had a couple classes worth, but it was the same class. So she only taught in one classroom, if that makes sense. [00:30:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:06] Speaker A: Caleb taught two different subjects, and he moved rooms for that. [00:30:11] Speaker B: Cool. So I think I would also mention that of just, like. Also, Opal had, like, a particular classroom that was, like, hers, so that might be a place to look to. [00:30:23] Speaker A: It was used by others when she was done, but, like, because she only taught one class. [00:30:27] Speaker F: Gotcha. [00:30:28] Speaker B: Understood. [00:30:28] Speaker A: She only had. She only had the one classroom that she was in. [00:30:31] Speaker B: Understood. [00:30:32] Speaker A: You can totally check it out if you'd like. I'm just letting it just. I feel like I clarify things after I say them the second time, so. [00:30:40] Speaker B: No, you're good. No, you're good. That's fine, then. [00:30:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:42] Speaker B: I don't think Milo would bother even mentioning it. Then she'd be like, you don't just leave your cult shit on the counter for the next teacher to come grab. Like, well, maybe you do. [00:30:51] Speaker F: You don't know. [00:30:52] Speaker C: You might if you're undead. [00:30:54] Speaker B: True. I don't know. We can go if we want. We'll see. [00:30:57] Speaker A: Absolutely. How close do you want to get to the areas that, you know are on fire? [00:31:04] Speaker D: It'd be fine getting close. As long as we know we'd be able to, like, get out before the room is overtaken by fire. [00:31:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:31:14] Speaker C: I can stay and watch. Like, by a door? Yeah, go to the places that are close to fire first. Have somebody be, like, a lookout for when the fire's kind of getting closer. Pull everybody out. That kind of thing. [00:31:28] Speaker A: Okay. So where are you headed first, like, room wise? [00:31:32] Speaker D: I think the labs seem like a pretty good option. If they're cooking up weird potions, we might be able to find some of them there as well as any components they're using to make those. So I think that might be a good place to check. [00:31:45] Speaker A: Cool. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:46] Speaker A: You guys head to the labs. A couple of them have already been cut off by a fire, but one of them is free and open. It seems to be very, like, dead in here. There's no, like, lights or anything? No mage lights or anything like that. But you can see that there is a little bit of, like, purple residue in, like, a beaker sitting on a counter across the way as well as, like, a good number of bar stools and stuff that have been tipped over. And it kind of looks like someone just kind of came and like, shoved everything and like, there's stuff knocked over on the counters and things. But that's like the most light that you're getting is this, like, little bit of purple residue coming from this flask. [00:32:37] Speaker E: Could I make. I hate that my investigation is so bad. [00:32:43] Speaker D: I guess just an investigation check. Looking for ingredients of some kind. Stuff that might be, like, useful in terms of like, oh, we know that they're using this kind of material which is found in this area. So they might have, you know, connections with blah, blah, blah. You know, just trying to, like, piece it together in that way. [00:33:06] Speaker B: I could assist if you would like me to. [00:33:08] Speaker D: I would love that. [00:33:12] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. [00:33:12] Speaker D: Um. Oh, my gosh. Even with advantage, it's a nine. I should have just made you roll for it. Probably way better at that than me. [00:33:21] Speaker B: My bonus is higher than a nine, but it's okay. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Okay. Anyway, I think. [00:33:29] Speaker B: I think Milo's like, no, we got this. You've got this. You can do it. You're good. Like you. You're great. You just gotta look for the right things. Not that that's not the right thing. I'm so sorry I misdirected you. That's my bad question. [00:33:45] Speaker G: Anastasia? [00:33:46] Speaker A: Yeah? [00:33:47] Speaker G: Can I just have Melan have detect. [00:33:49] Speaker F: Magic up just constantly because she can cast it at will. She doesn't need to use a spell stuff for that. [00:33:55] Speaker A: I don't know. You're looking through everything and you don't find anything. I think you pick up a piece of paper and then you're like garbage. Throw it away. But Myla probably picks it up just from that. This paper says for the created with a capital c and looks like a recipe, but it's encoded currently. [00:34:26] Speaker D: Is it a similar cipher to the one that Keo used? Or is this different sort of like, unique thing altogether. [00:34:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like a numbers based code. Something different. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:34:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:40] Speaker F: Is the purple shit magical? [00:34:43] Speaker A: Yes, it is purple with a tiny bit of black. I mean, that's pretty much all you get. There's nothing else magical in this room other than that thing and your friends. [00:34:59] Speaker C: While they're in the room. I'm standing. Id is standing at the door, looking out into the hallway, making sure the fire isn't gonna close off their exit. And he's going to have a film of black just go over his eyes for a second, and then just, like, disappear and use divine sense to check and see if there's any undead, like, in the fire down the hallway. Skulking and lurking. [00:35:27] Speaker F: Skirkin. [00:35:28] Speaker D: Skirkin and Lurkin. [00:35:34] Speaker A: You don't feel anything? [00:35:36] Speaker C: Cool. Good for me. [00:35:38] Speaker A: Anything else you want to look for in here? [00:35:40] Speaker B: Is there. Sorry. Is there other similar rooms, or is this basically the one thing that we have? [00:35:49] Speaker A: This is the one that's not cut off by fire. [00:35:52] Speaker G: Okay. [00:35:52] Speaker B: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Heard, heard, heard. Okay, I think Myla's gonna take a look around. This is an old building, and we know they have secret shit. She's just gonna look around and see if there's any, like, false panels in the wall or if there's any place where stuff might be able to be stored or some other, like. I don't know, like a. Like a. Like a beaker that you move and it opens up a wall. I don't know. She just wants to look for secrets. [00:36:18] Speaker A: Sure, yeah. Investigate. [00:36:21] Speaker D: Heard, could I offer the help? Action. But let Mila lead on this one. [00:36:27] Speaker A: Sure. [00:36:29] Speaker B: Oh, that was really good. But it was not straight. Okay, 19. [00:36:35] Speaker A: You do find one little spot that slides away, and there's. You know, there's a couple, like, vial holders in there. It's a very small shelf space, maybe the size of a loaf of bread. But there are two vial holders that look completely empty, though. There's a label that fell off of one of them onto the ground that just says. It says batch three. [00:37:10] Speaker B: Batch three. Just for. Because this is magic bullshit. She's gonna stick her hand in and, like, move it around and make sure it's not an illusion or some shit. [00:37:18] Speaker A: No, it's. No, it's real. [00:37:21] Speaker G: God damn it. [00:37:22] Speaker A: It's real. Melvin gets nothing on the tekked magic for sure. [00:37:27] Speaker B: Picks up the label, puts it with the letter that we got or the note that we found. No other magic, nothing else. We've looked through everything. [00:37:38] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:37:39] Speaker B: I feel good about this. I mean, we found everything, right? [00:37:44] Speaker D: I think in this room. Did we want to check the dorms and make sure there's nobody here or look through their stuff? If they're working on these projects too. [00:37:55] Speaker B: That would be good. Some people might have taken notes or something. So maybe we could go to some dorms. Is there any use in going to, like, a teacher's lounge or. I really want to look at conference rooms if we're able to get there. I really think there's something weird there. Okay, let's do that. Let's do. Okay, let's do that. [00:38:17] Speaker A: You guys head to a conference room. This one is, like, decently away from the fire. So even if there was fire, it's probably not gonna get here for 20 minutes or so. And there's, like, one main conference room here. There are a couple of, like, smaller study rooms that people use, but there's one, like, big conference hall. And, like, miley, you know that there are people who come in once a year and, like, have this huge conference. And it's very, like, it's a big deal around school. They. They come in and talk for like, three days and then leave, but no one ever, like, really sees the people going in and out. They just know that they're. Is something going on in there? So that's what it's typically used for. You, like, open the door to this conference room, and it looks like an absolute nightmarish scene. There are four bodies on the ground. Oh, shit. And a lot of the chairs are tipped over. There's signs of struggle in here. Like a fight went down. Like, things are scattered everywhere. Id. [00:39:34] Speaker G: Eyes. [00:39:35] Speaker B: Your eyes. Can you see? Spooky shit. [00:39:37] Speaker C: I'll divine sense and see if there's undead. [00:39:41] Speaker A: They are not undead. They are truly dead. No worries on that. Id. And Myla can make history checks if they would like. [00:40:01] Speaker C: Straight up. Ten. [00:40:03] Speaker B: I rolled really well. 27. [00:40:09] Speaker A: What was it? I'm sorry. I heard. I didn't process it. Ten. Okay. There's one guy id that you don't know his name, but you know that you saw him a very long time ago. Like twice at the lab. Oh, shit. He has shown up there. You don't know his name. [00:40:27] Speaker C: Did he. [00:40:27] Speaker A: Did he see? I mean, he wasn't around all the time. He didn't wear the same things that a lot of people there did. He probably didn't work there. But you saw him twice in the whole time you were there. Myla. You recognize a couple of them just from being around in school and such and, like, being sneaky as you are, there's a representative from Auspy. Her name is Ara Battlespine, and she is dead here. There is a guy here from Gaznash named Lauret Grimblade who is also dead. So these are the two people that you recognize just, like, straight off the bat. [00:41:18] Speaker B: Okay. Uh, hearing that they're actually dead dead. Myla is going to say, well, time is of the essence. Rubs her hands together, and she's gonna start looking through their pockets and their belongings and finding what she wants. [00:41:34] Speaker A: Uh, yeah, make an investigation check. [00:41:37] Speaker B: Coolio. Uh, 24. [00:41:41] Speaker A: Okay. Um, so you find a country stamp from Gaznash in this guy's, like, pockets, like a passport for sending letters? Oh, no, like, for sending letters, like a. Like a wax seal. But it seems to be, like, a sort of high up. Like, if I put this on a letter, it means it's something superficial, you know? Can I take that? [00:42:09] Speaker B: It's mine. [00:42:09] Speaker A: Now, all together, from these people, you find about 200 gold pieces. Between the four of them, there is a magical ring on aura's finger that is giving off blue magic. There is a pen from one of the people that is also. That is giving off blue magic as well. There's. Am I missing anything? There's a pocket watch that is giving off a little bit of white magic, and I think that's all the magical stuff on them. [00:42:49] Speaker B: They take everything. We'll distribute it later. [00:42:52] Speaker C: Are there windows to this room? [00:42:54] Speaker A: There is one at the back of the room. It's like stained glass. There's some abstract imagery in it, like, it's nothing particular. It's just kind of nice to look at. [00:43:09] Speaker C: Hearing Myla, like, relay that these are important people. It wants to take out some rope and kind of do, like, a fool's nut situation so that he can break the window, lower these people out the window onto the rocks, and then yank on his rope and yank it loose, and then tie it onto somebody else and lower it down. Because if we have proof that these people got killed here, we might be able to get some country leadership ears and eyes on this kind of thing. [00:43:44] Speaker A: Sure. [00:43:46] Speaker C: So he just starts dragging bodies up to the window and then breaks the window? Oh, we could. [00:43:52] Speaker A: If we can fit him in. [00:43:53] Speaker C: Yeah, just have somebody in the chat, put him in the bag if we've got space. I don't know. [00:43:58] Speaker B: Stuff him in the bag. [00:43:59] Speaker C: You guys want to carry dead bodies in the bag? [00:44:01] Speaker B: But if I had a nickel for every time we had dead bodies in the bag of holding up to five nickels. [00:44:11] Speaker D: That's $0.25. That's a quarter. [00:44:15] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:44:17] Speaker G: If we don't want to put them in the bag of holding, because adult. [00:44:22] Speaker F: Bodies add up to a lot of weight very quickly. There's no good way to say this without sounding like a sociopath, but. [00:44:34] Speaker A: I. [00:44:35] Speaker F: Have floating disc that we could use because it floats 3ft off the ground, and we could just pile on a couple bodies and throw it out the window. [00:44:44] Speaker C: I guess that's a good idea, too. [00:44:47] Speaker F: No one can call it back. [00:44:49] Speaker C: I actually kind of don't want to take them in the bag, because then people are like, well, you just found these people on the road and killed them and put them in a bag, you know, but if we. It's very unlikely that we kill people then hike all the way up this mountain and then leave their bodies here, you know? [00:45:08] Speaker D: Sure. I was under the impression we were taking the bodies to these, like, higher ups in other countries. [00:45:13] Speaker C: Yeah, that makes more sense to understand. I kept thinking about taking crime scene pictures, but we don't have a camera. [00:45:19] Speaker D: You know, quick, Mila, get on it. [00:45:22] Speaker F: Nothing to smoke me down. [00:45:24] Speaker B: Um, I mean, I could use magical tinkering to make a static visual effect that appears on one object's surface. This effect can be a picture. [00:45:34] Speaker A: Basically, take a good picture of texts. [00:45:37] Speaker B: Lines, and shapes, or a mixture of these elements. So I think Myla uses magical tinkering to recreate the image, sort of like, an angle from the doorway of exactly what we found in this room with the stained glass window, which I'm assuming is very, like, symbolic of, like, the institute, right? Like, it's stained glass and a very, like. You know. So she, like. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Yeah, creates it. [00:46:06] Speaker B: And she's like, I have receipts now. And she, like, puts it on this, like, just, like, a loose piece of paper from her journal and just, like, puts it in her side satchel. [00:46:17] Speaker D: What were you gonna say, grace? [00:46:18] Speaker G: Never mind. [00:46:21] Speaker F: Okay, my suggestion is completely irrelevant now. Cause that was way better. [00:46:26] Speaker A: Oh, can you use a fireball as a flash effect? There you go. You know, if I had the spell. [00:46:35] Speaker F: Slot for it, I would. [00:46:37] Speaker B: You got light? [00:46:39] Speaker F: I don't think I do, actually, which is really funny. [00:46:42] Speaker A: That's okay. All right. Is anyone looking around the room and not just the bodies? [00:46:48] Speaker D: I'll look around the room. [00:46:50] Speaker B: Mellie and Audie are on the case. [00:46:54] Speaker D: Maybe I'll give you the help back. Well, I don't know, Grace. We both roll pretty poorly. Do we want to both roll separately or try and give someone advantage? [00:47:02] Speaker F: I haven't had a decent investigation, okay? [00:47:05] Speaker D: I'm gonna give you the help action then. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Okay. [00:47:09] Speaker F: Which gives me rocket with sub two. [00:47:11] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:47:14] Speaker F: Not terrible. [00:47:15] Speaker B: 16. [00:47:16] Speaker D: Nice. [00:47:17] Speaker A: Okay, first, super important or, like, super noticeable thing that you see is, like, on one of the chalkboards on the wall, there's just, like, sentences that are like, she was the most brilliant here. She has to know something. We have to get her on our side or underline kill her and get her on our side. I've never seen anyone naturally consume purple magic. And then what's different about her? And it's just kind of almost lunatic scribbled. It's legible, but it's just all over the place. [00:48:01] Speaker G: Um, Myla. Huh? Um, just to make an inference here, did you. Did you eat the purple magic? Eat magic? [00:48:15] Speaker B: No. I mean, no one just use that. [00:48:17] Speaker F: Points to the board. [00:48:20] Speaker G: Huh. [00:48:23] Speaker A: This is probably consume in not a physical way. Melanie's functionally twelve. No, no. It's a super valid question. [00:48:35] Speaker F: I just, like. [00:48:35] Speaker A: Myla would know. I think from context this means, like, not like you actually ate it, but that you're, like, able to, like, use. [00:48:44] Speaker D: It in such a melwin ass sort of way. [00:48:48] Speaker A: No, it's so good. This is not a rep. Like, not any comment on what was said? Because it was lovely. [00:48:55] Speaker C: For sure. [00:48:55] Speaker B: For sure. [00:48:56] Speaker A: She's doing her best. [00:48:58] Speaker B: I mean, purple magic stuff always came pretty easily to me. It was never. I never really thought it was like I consumed it. But I don't know, I just. You know, my brain can be pretty big, so I thought that I just had a really big brain, but I don't know. That's weird. [00:49:18] Speaker A: Continuing on your investigation, you find a list of. They're just called council members. I will send you this list. [00:49:30] Speaker F: Grazie. [00:49:32] Speaker A: I do need to modify 1 second. I wrote a bunch of notes, like, within the list. I should have just known. Uh oh. [00:49:43] Speaker D: This person is the big bad guy. [00:49:48] Speaker A: And actually, if you show this to Auden, Auden's able to make a history check on this list. What? [00:49:54] Speaker B: What? [00:49:56] Speaker D: Oh, no. My history is just as bad as investigation. [00:50:01] Speaker B: I believe in you. [00:50:02] Speaker D: Not a 20, not a 90, but a 14 for a twelve. [00:50:08] Speaker A: Okay, great. This list includes two people from gosnush laureate Grimblade and Thrazilla Blackhorn. Two people from Rain, Kendall Vamonor and Dane Elikin. One person from traila Meredith Cardin, one from Auspy Ara battlespine, one from Nazmore Nilkai, and one from Votara named Wyson Auden, you make this history check, and the name Wyson sounds slightly familiar to you. You start to piece together that they were from Seiya, and they had a Triton name that translated into the one who sings to the current. That's their common translation of the name. You remember this name because they defected when you were very little, and so it was something that everyone talked about for, like, a week, but you were very little, so it was, like, difficult to pull up that memory again until absolutely needed. But they left when you were really little, and a lot of people at home seemed like they were very upset about that. But you're not really sure why, because no one talked to you about it when you were, like, three. [00:51:30] Speaker D: Yeah. I think Auden will probably share that. She'll kind of point out to, like, the list that Melwyn's gone. She's gonna say, I I know them. Well, I don't know them, but that's sort of. They used to be from Seah when I was, like, really little. So I don't know know them. But. But if they're in Votara, maybe we could find them and talk to them. If we're from the same place, maybe. Maybe that would be familiar, and they may be inclined to share with us. [00:52:06] Speaker A: Maybe. [00:52:07] Speaker B: I mean, maybe they know something about these other council members and what they were doing here. I don't know, but it's a good start. [00:52:17] Speaker D: I think we're probably gonna want to speed around some of the dorms. It's starting to get pretty hot in here. [00:52:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Is that it? Yep. We're good. We got it. [00:52:27] Speaker C: I did put the bodies out the window so that they don't get burned. We got a picture, and I'm gonna preserve them because I know some people care about that. [00:52:34] Speaker D: That's very big of you, Ed. [00:52:36] Speaker C: Did you just. [00:52:38] Speaker F: Did you just throw them? [00:52:39] Speaker A: What did you do? [00:52:40] Speaker C: No, I did a rope thing. I dangled them out and lower them. [00:52:44] Speaker A: I'm sorry Grace couldn't figure that out and just listen. [00:52:52] Speaker F: I wouldn't roll down the mountain. [00:52:54] Speaker D: It's on brand. You're absolutely right. [00:52:57] Speaker C: They getting over it down the mountain? Yeah. [00:53:00] Speaker F: At this point in time, I would not put it past id at all to just yeet a body. [00:53:06] Speaker C: He's attempting to curry a bunch of favor from rich people. [00:53:12] Speaker F: Good for you. [00:53:14] Speaker D: Respect the nearest dorm that is not on fire. Could we run there quickly if such things. [00:53:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it's kind of just. They're all, like, separate rooms, so you could just pick a random room. It doesn't. You can roll whatever you'd like to investigate. [00:53:39] Speaker D: I'm trying to think how I could argue for something that I'm good at. [00:53:42] Speaker F: But I'd like to roll an athletics check to investigate. [00:53:46] Speaker D: Hard to argue for that one. Or intimidation. I scare any information out of the woodworks here. I'll probably just go with another. [00:53:54] Speaker F: I mean, I guess if you were just ripping the dorm apart, you could count that as athletics. [00:53:59] Speaker D: Yeah, that's fair all over perception, I guess. Just like, okay, not looking super in depth, but more just kind of looking like. Does this seem like a place that is worth checking out? Oh, my gosh. Low rolls out the wazoo. Six. [00:54:16] Speaker A: No, I mean, it doesn't look like anything interesting unless this person's, like, hiding stuff super well. [00:54:23] Speaker D: Okay. I think it's probably worthless if they've left. They'd probably bring their stuff with them, so. [00:54:32] Speaker B: Hmm. Yeah. All right. Are we good here, then, or should we. Is there anywhere else we need to go? [00:54:40] Speaker D: I don't know of anywhere else that would be worth it to go and look at, but I also don't know this place, so I'll defer to you on this one, Mila. If you think we're clear, then we'll leave. [00:54:52] Speaker B: I mean, we've hit all the big things. The conference room, the library is in. [00:54:57] Speaker A: The back of the building. [00:54:59] Speaker B: Oh, is it in the back? [00:55:00] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, yeah. [00:55:03] Speaker B: Let's go to the library. I think also, while we're running, if we see, like, one of, like, I don't know, like, a weird divot, Myla's gonna run her hands along the wall for anything. Like, again, looking for secrets. This place has secret doors now, so. [00:55:17] Speaker A: She'S like, yes, you know, sure. Let's just make a good investigation check for the whole running time. [00:55:27] Speaker B: 27. [00:55:28] Speaker C: I really let go. [00:55:33] Speaker A: Okay. There is a point where you get towards the center of the building, and you're getting, like, more towards the front so that you can start to actually feel the heat of what's happening in this building. And you find this, like, small section of the wall that you've seen a million times, because it's got, like. It's a big archway into the library that has, like, a couple. Like, a big crest on top of it, like, over the arch, and then, like, a couple of side spaces. And you don't find anything in the side spaces, but, like, you start to kind of run your hand up the door frame a little bit, and. Right, like, if you kind of flip open the crest at the top, like, maybe you get someone to help, like, hoist you up or something. You can flip open this little, like, crest. I say it's little. It's not that little. It's maybe, like, I don't know, the torso, it's bigger than what I'm showing right now, but shield size. Shield size? Yes. [00:56:48] Speaker C: Small shield sized crest. [00:56:52] Speaker D: Large boulder. [00:56:59] Speaker A: And behind that is a book that seems to like. It's bizarre that it's sitting here. It does not have anything written on the spine or anything like that. And that's all you have time to look at at the moment. Unless you want to take time to do something else, do not. [00:57:19] Speaker B: I throw all caution to the window. Tear that shit out of the crest. Put the crest back, shove it into my bag. [00:57:25] Speaker A: Got it. [00:57:27] Speaker C: Consuming purple magic for dummies. [00:57:32] Speaker A: I don't need that. Apparently I need every. I actually need everybody to make it con safe. [00:57:38] Speaker C: Oh, plus four, everybody. [00:57:41] Speaker A: Oh, plus four is true. [00:57:43] Speaker F: Give you one last down. [00:57:44] Speaker A: Boots. [00:57:45] Speaker F: Oh, I wish I was kidding. [00:57:47] Speaker A: No. [00:57:50] Speaker C: I got a 22. [00:57:52] Speaker F: Here's the thing. It was almost a 17 with id's bonus. [00:57:55] Speaker D: Mine is a 17, actually. [00:57:57] Speaker F: Khan save it. Actually would have been more, but 21. [00:58:02] Speaker G: Is not what I rolled. [00:58:04] Speaker A: Okay, Melwin takes 16. Poison damage as, like, taking the book off this thing releases, like, a pressure plate, and a gas just starts shooting down towards the door frame. [00:58:16] Speaker G: Sorry. [00:58:16] Speaker A: Because that's where somebody would be standing. I'm so sorry. [00:58:19] Speaker B: That's totally on me. [00:58:20] Speaker A: So sorry. I should have told you guys to. [00:58:22] Speaker D: Help your breath with us on successes. Are we taking half damage for that? [00:58:25] Speaker A: Uh, no. [00:58:26] Speaker D: Okay. [00:58:26] Speaker A: Just. [00:58:29] Speaker F: Suck. [00:58:29] Speaker C: Interesting id. Hides behind some coughs and says, bad criminal. [00:58:35] Speaker A: Shut up. [00:58:37] Speaker B: I almost died today. Id. [00:58:39] Speaker A: What would you like to look for in this library? [00:58:42] Speaker B: I don't know. What are we looking for, guys? [00:58:44] Speaker C: I'm looking for that symbol. Ooh, the crescent moon with the star or the point triangle. It's not a star. Crescent Moon with the triangle. [00:58:54] Speaker A: Every single book in this library is magical, and it's, like, the worst for Melwin. She just took poison damage, and now everything is just a little bit blue because these books, as Milo would know, have, like, a put back on the shelf by itself kind of deal. Every single book? Yeah, except the one that Mila picked up. That one did not. [00:59:21] Speaker D: Tee hee hee. [00:59:23] Speaker A: So there are no books on the tables. Everything has been put away because it's just a timer based thing. If you're not using it for a certain period of time, it goes back to the shelf on its own. Seems like it's been a while since anyone's, like, had opened a book in here and used it. [00:59:41] Speaker C: Any signs of the symbol? [00:59:42] Speaker A: That's right. Make investigation check I will assist you. [00:59:46] Speaker C: Yay. Ten plus zero is ten. [00:59:50] Speaker B: Flash of genius for a 15. [00:59:53] Speaker C: Sweet. [00:59:54] Speaker A: A 15, I think. You're looking around this library, and you don't see anything at first, and then you start to, like, look, it's one of those abstract shape things where, like, if you line up in the right direction, like, you can see it like this, but it looks like it's been carved out with a knife in, like, a. Really? From, like, a lot of the wood things, like the shelves and the tables and stuff, and, like, a specific chair in a specific spot. Like, when you stand in the right position, you can, like, see the whole thing, and it's, like, very large. A large image, but it all looks like it's been, like, scraped with a knife, like, multiple times. It's not pretty. [01:00:38] Speaker D: The triangle? [01:00:39] Speaker C: Yeah, the center of the triangle. No, I think we had the same thought. The triangle. Like, there's a. In the triangle? Is there something specific that they were, like, pointing to? [01:00:50] Speaker A: No, it doesn't seem like it. You find that little dot in the center, and it just is kind of on the side of a shelf. The book on the other side doesn't. [01:00:59] Speaker C: Like, is there anything at that specific spot where you line up? Is there, like, evidence of ritual magic or anything like that? [01:01:09] Speaker A: It just kind of looks like. There's nothing specific on that. It just kind of looks like they might have used this as imagery for a spell or something. It needed to be a certain way at a certain, like, facing a certain direction or maybe, like, I. Like. I don't think you know what kind of spell would require that. [01:01:36] Speaker C: Can I ask? [01:01:36] Speaker A: Probably something big. Yeah. [01:01:42] Speaker C: What is this? I don't get it. [01:01:44] Speaker A: It's all over. The collective knowledge from the group would be that, like, big. Like, when you want to do big magic, you need typically big ingredients or a lot of. So you can either have a ton of the something or just a big one of the something. So this was probably that it needed to, like, face a certain direction and be hidden somehow so that it wasn't, like. Like, an obvious spell that they were doing. But whatever spell was here is, like, super worn off. Like, it's not being picked up by detect magic or anything, but it was probably something big because it needed to be here, and it needed to be secret. [01:02:31] Speaker C: What's in the direction that it's facing? If we're thinking about, like, the layout. [01:02:36] Speaker A: It just seems like, north. [01:02:37] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. [01:02:39] Speaker A: There's nothing, like, just north. Just, you kind of hit tetros and then ospy and ocean. [01:02:44] Speaker C: Yeah, north. Is there anything that would prove that it was made by somebody that is normally at the school, or is it fresh enough to be where everybody left and then this was made? [01:03:00] Speaker A: Interesting, I think. Could someone make a survival check on that? [01:03:04] Speaker C: I will. Prompting that. I will help whoever makes this plus. [01:03:09] Speaker B: One to survival more than me. [01:03:12] Speaker C: Pretty good. Go for it. [01:03:13] Speaker D: Okay. I'll help you. Great. With the advantage. That is going to be a 19. [01:03:22] Speaker A: This was something that was probably made after. This was probably made after people left, but it was made a lot of times. Like, you can tell the scrapes in the wood. Like, some of them are older than others. Like, they came back and did this multiple times. [01:03:42] Speaker C: So they were casting the spell multiple times, or were they, like, keeping. If it was, like, a lasting effect, they were, like, keeping the effect going. [01:03:52] Speaker A: Also could be if you want to have a permanent spell, you have to cast that spell, like, multiple times over and over for a very long time. There's not a lot of length of time enough for that to matter. A week is good, but it's not a year or ten years. So, like, that might have been their goal. Like, maybe they were starting that process, or they just cast it a bunch of times. [01:04:19] Speaker C: Okay. [01:04:20] Speaker A: One of the two. [01:04:22] Speaker D: So it doesn't seem like. Like, based on kind of the carvings. Are any of them, like, smoothed out more? Could we get, like, maybe an estimate on how long some of the older them ones have been here? [01:04:35] Speaker A: Uh, the oldest ones have been here after students left, so probably a week old. [01:04:40] Speaker D: Okay, so not. Not that long, but not that long. [01:04:43] Speaker C: Is there any other checks we could do or, like, identify? I don't know if that would work. That would tell us what they were casting. [01:04:51] Speaker B: Uh, could I make an Arcana check, or has that already been done? [01:04:56] Speaker A: It's not been done. You can if you want. I to. [01:04:59] Speaker F: Shall I can help on Arcana or roll separately? Up to you. How's your Arcana plus seven? [01:05:08] Speaker B: Well, you. You roll. You roll? Because my. That's. I think mine's a plus eight. So we're basically the same. So, like, nice. [01:05:16] Speaker F: I'll take that. That's way better than what I rolled before. [01:05:20] Speaker B: That's 25. I got. Oh, gosh, I need to do math now. So sorry. I think I might have gotten the same. Oh, they did. [01:05:27] Speaker D: Ya. [01:05:28] Speaker B: I also got a 25. [01:05:30] Speaker F: Hey, let's go. [01:05:32] Speaker A: Okay. [01:05:33] Speaker E: Fortuitous day. [01:05:34] Speaker F: I have knowledge. [01:05:35] Speaker A: Yay. [01:05:36] Speaker B: We spider man meme at each other. [01:05:39] Speaker A: You can both tell that this is not a spell that would ever be taught anywhere. This isn't something that's known or practiced ever. It's not runic in nature. It's not like a wizard spell. Like, teleportation is super runic because you have to tie in a lot of information into the depiction of the spell and stuff. This seems more like a sort of religious spell that needed to be cast multiple times because it needed a tie down spot so that if so, it also seems like whatever was here was not finished. So it's not going to do anything currently, but that, like, most religious magic needs some kind of tie down spot. It can be really small, like a little arcane focus or whatever, but it can also be very big and. And, you know, take up space depending on how much magic you want at a given time. [01:06:53] Speaker B: I think Myla turns to Mel when seeing this, and I think, like, as they have that, like, nod moment of, like, oh, we both know what this is. She says, do you have yarn? [01:07:05] Speaker F: Still points to shoulder. [01:07:08] Speaker B: I pick it up by the scrap. [01:07:10] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [01:07:11] Speaker B: Hi, friends. [01:07:13] Speaker A: Hi. [01:07:14] Speaker B: Sort of. [01:07:14] Speaker A: I'm not. [01:07:15] Speaker B: I'm your. I'm not gonna be mean to you. Is gonna turn the symbol. Can you ask your green lady if she knows what this is and what it does, please? That'd be very helpful. [01:07:27] Speaker G: Okay. [01:07:28] Speaker A: I don't like your condescending tone. It's not condescending. [01:07:32] Speaker B: That's just how I talk. [01:07:34] Speaker G: Okay, okay. [01:07:36] Speaker B: That was condescending. [01:07:39] Speaker C: It was decayed. [01:07:40] Speaker A: Okay, I'll show you condescending. They just kind of, like, stand on whatever you have prompted them, like, whatever you're holding for them to stand on, and they just take. Immediately melt into a puddle in your hand, and it's this green, swampy water that has some moss floating on top of it. I think I melted. And it's just kind of like that for, like, a minute. [01:08:11] Speaker G: Oh, gosh. [01:08:12] Speaker B: What do I do with it? What do I do with it? What do I do with it? [01:08:15] Speaker G: Help, somebody. [01:08:17] Speaker A: I don't know. [01:08:19] Speaker B: Well, put it in, like, a bottle or a cup. [01:08:24] Speaker D: Melan, can we borrow one of your spoons to. I'm scared of them dripping on the floor. [01:08:29] Speaker A: Ladle mode. [01:08:31] Speaker F: Someone pulls out her frying pan. [01:08:34] Speaker C: Oh, so good. [01:08:35] Speaker A: Yes. [01:08:36] Speaker C: Cook the thing. [01:08:38] Speaker F: You're not cooking yarn. [01:08:40] Speaker A: I can't believe you guys hate yarn. So much salty right now. Little salty. [01:08:50] Speaker B: I love him. [01:08:51] Speaker G: Maya. Yes? Maybe don't break the creature sent to us by a goddess. I didn't break it. It just did. [01:09:03] Speaker F: That shemelman just holds up the frying pan with the liquified yarn. [01:09:09] Speaker B: Listen, I work with technology, not little leaf guys. Okay? So, I don't know. [01:09:15] Speaker A: They, like, pop back up after a little bit and just kind of sit there like they're dizzy for a second. Like, ugh. [01:09:24] Speaker G: Okay. [01:09:26] Speaker A: She said that it's very bad, and thanks. She also said apocalyptic shit, but I wasn't, so. Yep. But I wasn't supposed to say that. [01:09:43] Speaker G: So we'll just pretend I didn't. [01:09:44] Speaker A: That is really bad that she. She knows that this guy is from. Really bad for her and also all the other sky people and that he wants to destroy them, probably. Oh, and that probably is his, like, what he decided as his symbol, which, by the way, is really boring. [01:10:11] Speaker G: Who is the he in this? [01:10:14] Speaker A: You know, the guy with the one on his face. [01:10:17] Speaker C: He made his own symbol. [01:10:20] Speaker D: That's so corny. [01:10:22] Speaker G: That's what she said. [01:10:23] Speaker C: So he's. So you follow green lady, right? That's like, your. Your deal. This guy follows his own idea of destroying all the sky people. [01:10:37] Speaker G: I guess so. [01:10:38] Speaker D: Can we talk about it outside? It is getting really smoky in here. [01:10:43] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't notice. [01:10:45] Speaker G: Yeah. [01:10:45] Speaker B: Let's go. [01:10:46] Speaker C: Let's go. [01:10:48] Speaker G: Uh, before we go. [01:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys all head out as. [01:10:52] Speaker G: Never mind. [01:10:53] Speaker A: A good. [01:10:54] Speaker D: Oh, was there more you were gonna do? We could do. [01:10:56] Speaker A: We could. Wait, Grace. [01:10:57] Speaker B: Go ahead. [01:10:57] Speaker A: Go ahead, Grace. What did you want to do? [01:11:00] Speaker B: Milo stays behind with Melwyn. She's fine with fire. [01:11:04] Speaker G: I was just gonna say, before we go in, how do you feel about destroying a table? [01:11:10] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I'll wreck some of the tables with the symbol on it. I'm not leaving. [01:11:13] Speaker A: Okay, cool. [01:11:14] Speaker C: That's a good idea. [01:11:16] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I love it. [01:11:17] Speaker C: Don't leave. I mean, it's probably gonna burn, but even better if it's burned and broken. [01:11:21] Speaker D: Better seep than sorry. [01:11:23] Speaker C: Don't let it cauterize into history. [01:11:25] Speaker A: Well, cuz if the table. [01:11:27] Speaker G: If. If the table doesn't. [01:11:29] Speaker F: If the table doesn't burn all the way, cuz there. There's, uh. Like, there's a. Okay, this is a really, really stupid example, but, like, somebody's house caught fire and their Wormwood game table, which is like a big ass wooden table, was still intact after the house fire. So, like, certain types of wood don't burn quite as easily or might not burn all the way, so. Yeah. Okay. [01:11:54] Speaker D: Nice. [01:11:55] Speaker C: I break a table. [01:11:58] Speaker D: Table breaking. [01:11:59] Speaker A: Id. [01:12:00] Speaker D: That's your new nickname for me. Meg. [01:12:04] Speaker C: Oh, for Meg. [01:12:05] Speaker A: Sure. [01:12:06] Speaker C: I can't do anything about that? [01:12:08] Speaker D: No. Like, from. To you. From. From me. [01:12:13] Speaker A: All right, you guys head out of the building, pick up your dead bodies head back towards the forest, away from this place that is being consumed. [01:12:25] Speaker C: I'm leaving the bodies there. [01:12:27] Speaker A: Okay. It's leaving bodies there. [01:12:29] Speaker C: They're right next to where they got killed but not burned by the building. [01:12:33] Speaker A: I see. Okay. [01:12:34] Speaker C: They can come find them. [01:12:35] Speaker A: Great. [01:12:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:36] Speaker A: Take two. You guys leave the building. It does not grab its dead bodies. [01:12:39] Speaker C: Correct. [01:12:40] Speaker A: And you guys head across to the forest by bodies. Yes. Away from the burning building and, well, on there, we probably only have one episode left of this arc because I think we're gonna wrap up and just kind of discuss what happened, and then it will be the end of the arc. Whoa. It's been our longest arc so far. [01:13:05] Speaker D: Crazy town. [01:13:07] Speaker A: All right, so we will figure out what that next episode. Bye bye bye. [01:13:15] Speaker B: Hello, friends. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of spells and whistles. You can find us on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you can stream pods every Sunday at 12:00 Pacific standard time. Every new episode is chaotic and a brand new adventure, so make sure to tune in if you want to keep up with all things related to the show. You can follow us on one of our many fancy socials. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok ellsandwhistlespod. Twitter spells, whistles, and blueskyllsandwhistles. If you like what you hear, you can come join our community discord. All of the cast members are active there and we have some really fun opportunities like community nights D and D Hangman, and fun general chats for ttrpgs and even showing off your pets. If you feel even more inclined to support us, you can also check out our Patreon page. All of the funds go directly back into giving our show some extra spells and whistles, and you can receive really fun rewards like bonus content, extra chaotic talkback shows, and access to player notes. Thank you again for all of your support, and we will see you next week for another shiny new episode. [01:14:22] Speaker G: See ya.