Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Welcome back to Tunnel Games, the game where we have some guys in the tunnel.
Um, yeah. Last previously on Tunnel Goons. Our three daring heroes found themselves in a spooky, ooky, deep, dark chasm under the lake and had to solve the mystery of the plant to get out. The mystery was that the plant likes it when you're kind to people, when you're nice to your bros, when you dab each other up.
So they have learned that lesson. That's super great. They carried on with their journey and found this little oasis, as Ant called it, in this underground kind of spot. It is lush and green, and there was a small green thing that kind of skittered and slammed the door, leaving them not trapped in the room. But the option is to go back the way they came or get the door back open somehow. Right. As they were discussing options on what to do, they heard a very gravelly, grouchy sounding voice from the other side of the door. Ant suggested, do we need to, like, bro out again? The voice said, no, and we'll just kind of pick up right where we left off.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: I would also like it to be noted on record that we have Bud, a magical plant, which couldn't possibly mean anything about the type of plant it is.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Oh, I.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: I feel responsible for the naming of this flower, and I didn't even think about it.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: That good. That good. Good Bud right there.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Like, short for buddy.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: And it's a plant.
[00:02:08] Speaker D: Absolutely. I fully agree with that.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: You don't look nice.
[00:02:17] Speaker D: The audience at home can't. Can't hear my facial expression.
[00:02:21] Speaker C: I'm a snitch.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I think Ant is gonna probably get up from. He was kind of crouched, looking at this pretty butterfly. I think he's gonna kind of get up and, like, cautiously move closer to the door to see if he can see who's in that.
The face. Face in the square.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Yeah. You are able to see it's a very small, kind of like, window hole. And you see, like, kind of like webbed hands. Like, frog, like, kind of like, pull up and you see this, like, very round face, bulbous eyes. Like, it's not a full frog. It's like if a frog was more of a guy, kind of like a very strange little creature. You haven't ever seen anything like it. And it kind of does, like, the frog blink where, like, its eyes don't blink at the same time.
Kind of like it doesn't have eyebrows, but it's definitely, like, glaring at you.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Hey, so can we go through this door?
[00:03:27] Speaker A: No. And it Slides the little thing across with the little.
[00:03:34] Speaker C: Go knock on the door. Rap on the door.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: What do you mean? No, the thing kind of slides open again. We haven't had people come through here in so long, and I'm not about to start letting people through here again. I'm not going to do anything that you ask me to. And it slides the thing closed again.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: Gonna knock the. The door again and say, can you open this window again?
[00:04:02] Speaker A: No, you hear very muffled through the.
Through the door.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: Wrap on it again.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: I was going to say, is there a handle or is it just like wall?
[00:04:15] Speaker A: It looks like a flat door. Maybe there was like a handle at some point. There's kind of like a knob that looks like it has broken off and is laying in the grass at the foot of this door.
[00:04:29] Speaker D: Finn is going to sort of flip his head down and ruffle his hair and flip it back up and he's gonna go over to the door and knock and say, hey. So I know you said that you haven't let people through here, but what if we just wanted to hang out with you?
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Why would I wanna hang out with you?
[00:04:52] Speaker D: Well, you don't have to. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. But, you know, we're pretty cool. I don't know if you were like, chosen.
So we're like. We're pretty cool and like, we'd love to hang out with you. Also, we have food. We have snacks. I got a book. I've got a bear trap.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: The thing opens just a tiny amount at the mention of a bear trap.
[00:05:18] Speaker D: And you know, we always said that four is an adventure, but five's a rager.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah, Finn.
Ant's giving Finn two thumbs up from. From behind. Yeah, good.
[00:05:31] Speaker D: Finn gives a thumbs up back.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: I don't think that, like the whole chosen thing is something just kind of spread like willy nilly like that, you know, why not?
[00:05:44] Speaker A: What?
[00:05:44] Speaker B: I was told I didn't get any lessons.
[00:05:47] Speaker D: I mean, my parents told like all of my third cousins that I'm a chosen, so I think it's fine.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: A rock told me so.
[00:05:53] Speaker C: A rock is so unfair. I've had to keep this. Oh, wait.
[00:05:59] Speaker D: No, no. Sorry. Tesley. I know you have words. I'm so sorry. Don't mean to. He turns to ant.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: Not for you.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, the rock, it like it. It rained, which is crazy. I was in the desert and it rained.
[00:06:16] Speaker D: The dunes run.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. The dunes of ruin to the west.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: And under the light in the full moon.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And it rained. And then I was sandboarding, and I got, like, stuck in mud, and I looked over at a rock, and the part of the rock that was not rained, well, the rock got rained on. But then the dry part was the words.
And then I looked out. I said, yeah. I was like, I mean, I feel like that means something.
And then I didn't really think about it again for a little bit until all this storm stuff started to really pick up. So. Hey, sorry, man. And I'm like, turn back to the little frog. It's like, I know you were interested in the bear trap. We just kind of met each other, so we're working through some things. We also have a plant. And I point at whoever has the plant.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: But the bear trap, it does not open.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: I have a parasol.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: I don't want a parasol.
[00:07:15] Speaker D: What do you want?
[00:07:17] Speaker A: I want to keep this door closed. I don't want to do anything you guys want me to do. I'm feeling very contrary.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: I don't want you to open this door.
[00:07:28] Speaker D: Yeah, I like it in here. I think it's pretty great.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: You hear this pause for a moment before the door, like, pops open just the slightest bit.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: I really don't want to walk through this door. This hand, like, starts slowly making his way to the door. Through the door. If it's open enough to do that.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you can, like, stick your, like, fingers in and, like, pull it open. And you're able to do. So you don't see the little, like, thing in this hallway. You do see some, like, wet, like, footprints from, like, the dewy grass that kind of scuttle off and then lead to this, like, really small hole in the wall where this thing has just seemingly squirmed through and is no longer around anymore.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Okay, well, I guess that's the. That. Wait, so, no, wait, hold on. How long did you know pointing at Tesley, and how long did you know pointing at Finn about being the Chosen playing on both.
[00:08:38] Speaker D: I'll let Tessely go first.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Tesla flips to the first note in her book.
Her journal entry.
[00:08:48] Speaker C: Like, right before puberty, I guess, maybe right after.
Around that time.
[00:08:55] Speaker D: Did, like, your, like, family tell you?
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, my granddad told me.
Kind of knew all my life.
Guess he had a dream or something.
[00:09:09] Speaker D: Before I was born, I mean. Yeah, my parents told me, too. They told. My parents told me. I was like. Apparently they've, like, always known or something. They won't tell me how they've always known. They said they'll tell me when I'm older, even though I'm like 18 now, can always be old. But when I was like, when I was like, like nine or so, I was eating. I was eating Alphabet soup.
And at the end of the bowl, after I finished the broth, it spelled. It had the letters that spelled out chosen. That's when they were like, oh, it's time to tell him.
So they. That's when they told me. And then I was like, oh, so that explains why you were putting me in, like, taekwondo when I was at, like, 4 years old.
And why, like, you know, they were sending me to, like, really fancy tutors, but, like, really prestigious, like, public schools. So that way I could, like, it wasn't private school because.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Private charter.
[00:10:01] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, it was a private school because, yeah, it was like, yeah, it was like a charter school. Thanks, man.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely those.
[00:10:08] Speaker D: Yeah. And then, you know, I picked up. And then I picked up the disc and the rest is history, you know.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Oh, that's. That's pretty different, I guess, than a rock. A rock? Yeah.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: You're saying that not only did you learn from a rock, but there was a monsoon in the dunes of Ruhn and you didn't think further about it?
[00:10:31] Speaker B: I mean, the weather's been getting weird for a while.
It happens. It rains occasions.
[00:10:38] Speaker C: Do you not ruminate?
[00:10:40] Speaker B: No.
I take it one day at a time, man. Like, I was like, that was pretty cool.
I never could find that rock again. So.
[00:10:54] Speaker D: Oh, I'm gonna turn to the little creature.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Sorry. Mangled off into a hole somewhere. It's not like, out and able to see.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: It's.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: You can see like little, it's little, like froggy kind of footsteps that lead to this drain pipe esque kind of crevice in the wall. I mean, if you shine the flower in there, you can maybe see the eyeballs kind of peeking out before it squiggles farther back.
[00:11:22] Speaker D: Sup, bro? What's your name?
I'm Finn.
That's Ant Tessly.
What?
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Antsch man.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Henchmen?
[00:11:35] Speaker A: What? Aunt Schmant.
He's like, gotcha.
Discord is probably not picking things up very well.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: That's not my name.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Creature thing.
[00:11:49] Speaker D: What? I don't want to know your name at all. In fact, I, I, yeah, I don't want to know it.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: You see its face kind of like pucker up in, like, a pothos.
They call me Pothos. Like the plant.
[00:12:09] Speaker D: Pothos, like the plant.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: That's cool. I'm Ant, like the creature. Well, insect, like the insect.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: So Tesley, like the human.
Never thought about it.
[00:12:26] Speaker D: I'm a human, too.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: I can see that.
Why are you in my tunnels?
[00:12:33] Speaker C: We were just trying to get out. We were landed in a lake, and then we were in a cavern under the lake, and then this was the only way out.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: He kind of like Finn. You can see, like, a little bit of, like, shifting and like a little froggy finger kind of, like, tapping on his chin a little bit deep in thought. Pothos seems to be. You want to get out, you say?
[00:12:59] Speaker C: You seem to want us out, so why not help us get out?
[00:13:04] Speaker A: He gives a lengthy sigh. If out is what you wish, proceed down this path. You'll come to another cave. It will be small. Go in the cave, the door will close. You will rise. You will be out.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Is this like a reverse situation, though, you know?
[00:13:23] Speaker A: No.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Somehow that doesn't happen.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: I mean that genuinely.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Somehow it's getting worse.
It's getting less believable every time.
[00:13:39] Speaker D: Okay.
Do you want to come with us?
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Why would I want to go with you?
[00:13:45] Speaker C: Why would you not?
[00:13:47] Speaker A: I have my flowers and my butterfly here.
[00:13:51] Speaker D: One butterfly.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: It's pretty nice.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: It's my friend, my acquaintance, Nothing more.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Coworker.
[00:14:01] Speaker D: Okay. What. What if your butterfly flies away?
You should go find. I mean, there's more butterflies in the woods.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: What need for you.
Why should I. Why should I leave? What is out there? Storm clouds and darkness and bad, bad things.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Actually makes a lot of valid points about that.
[00:14:25] Speaker D: That's fair.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:26] Speaker D: Cool. You can stay here if you want. I was just. I just thought I'd offer.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: I will.
[00:14:30] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Like, Tucks himself. Have you ever seen videos of, like, frogs that will, like, squeeze their little arms under their little bodies as they settle? And he's doing, like, that kind of thing? Getting cozy in drain pipe.
[00:14:45] Speaker D: All right. Pothos.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Hey. Yeah. It's been real, man.
I think so. I think we're current. It's currently happening, so that's pretty real.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: Things are currently happening.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: That they are. Okay. Small cave door. We go up. Is that what he said?
[00:15:07] Speaker C: Go in. We rise up.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: I'm so ready to not be underground where there could be water crashing through the ceiling at any moment.
A good rain cloud could really flood the place. So, yeah, I'm ready to see the sky.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: Don't tell him that water comes from there, too.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: I didn't hear it. I don't hear anything. I'm walking this way.
[00:15:36] Speaker D: How out of the ordinary is talking frogs in the land of Ruhn?
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Very unusual and strange.
[00:15:44] Speaker D: Finn's not gonna really know what to do about that. And so he's gonna take his book of the gargoyle in the pit out, and he's gonna leave the book at the front of the little hole and be like, if you get bored, I'm like halfway through it, but I feel like you could get some more use out of it. Maybe you can read to your butterfly friend.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: You hear a pause for a minute before he says, mayor trap.
[00:16:07] Speaker D: You want the bear. You don't want the book, but you want the bear trap. What are you gonna do with a bear trap?
[00:16:13] Speaker A: You said it earlier. I just wanted to follow up.
[00:16:17] Speaker D: I'll take the book back and I'll put the bear trap down. Not set up, you hear?
[00:16:22] Speaker A: A little.
[00:16:23] Speaker D: If you use this on me or the other two chosen, I'm gonna take it back.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: You don't get any.
[00:16:33] Speaker D: I'll go catch up and be like, I think I just gave our new arch nemesis a bear trap.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: I mean, at least it's stationary.
So as long as we don't go back past the frog, which I'm not entirely certain we won't have to because he was a bit. He gave that information too easy, you know?
[00:16:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: I did say it was feeling very contrary.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Who has the Tesla? Do you still the yeah.
[00:17:06] Speaker C: Have plants?
Do you want him back?
[00:17:10] Speaker B: I mean, like, if you don't want to hold it anymore, I'll hold the plant. But I mean, you can hold it.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: God, I wish I could inside this man.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: We can all share the plant. It's fine.
[00:17:19] Speaker C: Can I make an aerodite girl plant.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Just like the plant?
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Awesome. You carry on your way. The door kind of gives way to another kind of like tunnel. And you're grateful again that the plant is able to light your way a little bit. You carry on for a good decent while.
The path doesn't seem to like change directions or anything like that. It just seems to be a very well traveled just kind of direction that you are going. Tesley, with your compass, you can read that you. You sort of went west for a little bit and then reoriented to be traveling northward again. By your calculations and based on how you have like how far you have walked, you're probably getting pretty close to win it peak, which is strange and unusual way of getting there, but hey, getting there anyway. Yeah.
You continue going and you get to the point where like you've been walking for as far as you can tell with no sunlight. You get to the point in the day where you've been walking for a good long while. You're beginning to feel a little Fatigued, and you get to a point where you wonder if, like, if you would like to sit down and have a rest for a little bit for the night. It's kind of starting to feel like a day has gone by, though. There's no sun to really mark the passage of time in any sense.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: How are you guys feeling?
Y'all need a break?
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I have this, like, knot in my shoulder that I think is from falling into that cavern forever ago.
So a rest could be good.
[00:19:15] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I'm down to kick back for a bit. Need be.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Do we have any idea of, like.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: How long we have left of your little journey? It's not. You're not quite sure how the path is straight and turns occasionally, so it's not like you can clear shot, see where you're going, and you're not quite sure where in the lake you started beneath. It could be anywhere from, like 30 minutes to three or four hours, maybe. Just kind of depends on how twisty turny the path gets farther ahead and kind of where your journey began.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: I mean, if we. If we rest, then we'll be ready for whatever's out outside the caves, the tunnels. I'm sure it'll be more stormlings.
[00:20:09] Speaker D: So, yeah, I mean, I'm down to rest.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. What kind of accommodations are you guys getting yourselves set up with? Are you making a fire? Are you, like, do you have bedrolls with you? Like, what's kind of the. The setup?
[00:20:31] Speaker B: I got a cloak. I know I'm like a yellow cloak, according to my inventory.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Gonna cocoon about it.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: I got a sand board.
I'm probably gonna put, like, my board down, and then my pack and then my cloak over top, make a little pillow. That's gonna be my. My vibe. I'm gonna take the weather vane out because that's sharp. Not gonna lay on the weather vane in my bag.
[00:20:58] Speaker C: I was also thinking bag, pillow, cloak, blankie.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Tesley, this is probably not too out of the ordinary for you, but it is probably being. Probably being. It is probably very strange setting up camp with two people that are not from the caravan, that maybe don't have that kind of experience. Are you taking charge in any capacity to help them get set up, or are you letting them do their own thing? Or like, what. What is kind of as you're watching these guys kind of set up their. Their thing as best as they're able. What's. What's the. What's the move here?
[00:21:41] Speaker C: I think, yeah, like.
Like, it's not like a typical. It's not something that she would use to like camping with exclusively. Like other people who are not used to, like, the same conditions.
And so I think that there's like a.
Trying to figure out how to describe it.
I'm not really thinking about, like, oh, they probably, like, I should probably check in, see if, like this and that, if they know, like, how they're doing. So, yeah, more of like a.
Let them tend to their own thing until I guess somebody looks like particularly like very noticeably uncomfortable or unsure, then that might spark like a. Oh, maybe you haven't camped regularly, but until then, no, it's.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: You know what I mean? Sure, yeah.
[00:22:39] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. Yeah.
Just used to it. And so nothing seems like worth questioning.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: You pull out what rations you have and kind of munch on various dried meats, hardtack, maybe some like, rune equivalent trail mix. I don't know.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Rune Valley Bar.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Rune Valley Bar.
[00:23:03] Speaker D: Valley Bar.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: It's really crumbly.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:06] Speaker D: Oh, gosh. Why is the sand dunes.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: It's from the dunes.
[00:23:12] Speaker C: The dune bars.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Rune Dune bar.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Rune Dune bars.
Incredible.
Yeah. Awesome.
You are able to get some grub. Yeah.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: I was like, I think Ant is so. Ant's very used to like camping. They basically exclusively like, tent camping situation for all the year. But he's not used to the ground being hard.
So he's like stomping around, trying to like, like a dog circling, like, trying to make the ground, like, softer. And it's just like, like kicking up dirt and just being like kind of like grumbling a little bit. And I was like, it's fine, I guess. And then eventually just like puffs and settles down.
I know it's a good thing he's 20. It's got springy bones. Yeah.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Finn, were you ever much of a camper?
[00:24:09] Speaker D: I don't think that Finn's ever been much of a camper, but I think that Finn is one of those, like, work hard, play hard, sleep hard kind of guys. And so, no, he doesn't like camping. He doesn't sleep on the ground regularly. But I think that he sleeps so hard that it doesn't matter where he is. And so he takes out some rations, starts eating some Rune Dune bars and beef jerky and, you know, finishing out the last of his first water bottle. And then I think that he actually probably finds a spot where he can sit kind of upright and puts his backpack behind, like, the lower part of his back and then puts the cloak that he has, his gray cloak sort of on top of him like a blanket or Like a Snuggie total like airport sleeping basically.
And right before bed he sort of looks around at everyone and he's like, man, we crushed it today.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: The flower gives like a little happy soft pulse of light.
[00:25:18] Speaker C: Good job, guys.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that is job, bud.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: It wiggles a little bit, but you think it's just because Ant like nudged it just a little bit on accident.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Gave it a little elbow bump.
Well, I mean, I guess we're. We're almost at the mountain, right? And we got the flower to light up. Yeah, I think we're doing. Yeah, we're doing good.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: Doing well.
[00:25:40] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: No good.
[00:25:44] Speaker C: Yeah, that too.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Although last time we slept, we ended up in a lake.
So not super excited about this time.
[00:25:55] Speaker C: To sleep to take watches or. It is a little concerning how easily everything's happening.
[00:26:04] Speaker D: I'm really nervous of what's happening on the surface. We haven't seen the sky.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we've just been in these tunnels.
[00:26:13] Speaker A: You did see the sky for a little bit in the little green room.
[00:26:18] Speaker D: True.
[00:26:18] Speaker C: We just claw our way out then.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: And there, just climb some trees and get out. So true.
[00:26:25] Speaker D: Okay, well, I can stay up first. Catch up on the book and you guys aren't going to be able to wake me up, so.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, so how do valid. No, he's going to wake us up. One of us.
[00:26:44] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: That was my God speaking to make this.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: I can go in the middle. Yeah, I could be second.
[00:27:00] Speaker D: Right on.
Let's make it happen.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Ant's gonna do his nightly prayer routine. Even though we're underground, he's gonna pull out his weather vane and do his little paces to each cardinal direction.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Nice.
You get like the slightest breeze onward, but other than that, no, no, nothing crazy.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's just a nightly ritual, you know. Gotta do it. Can't sleep without it.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: Can I have each of you make just roll a D6 for me and tell me what you get.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: Making me pick a favorite child.
Hey, six, you are my favorite child.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Four.
[00:27:47] Speaker D: Okay, four.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Great.
Any other nighttime routine things or before.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: We get attacked in our sleep. Anyone want to do anything?
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Who'd do that to you guys?
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Only a truly evil game master.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: Like terrible.
[00:28:05] Speaker D: I think Finn will just make sure that like he's reading. But as he's taking first watch, he's sitting cross legged and the flower is in like his lap and the book's out in front of him and he's just making sure that it's like.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Oh, you're reading to the flower.
[00:28:23] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm reading the Gargoyle in the pit to the flower.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Awesome.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: How does the flower, like.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: Seems content.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Perfect.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: The Story of the Goblin and the pit. Sorry, the Gargoyle in the Pit. I was thinking about the alternate title that came up earlier.
The story of the Gargoyle and the pit is not like a super complicated one. It's kind of about, like, this young, young boy who finds himself in a pit. And there's a gargoyle down there, friendly, and helps him face these trials in this pit to escape. And as you're reading, you're like, huh, I resonate.
[00:29:08] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: I'm also in a pit.
[00:29:09] Speaker D: Yeah. I think that Finn's, like, reading this next chapter out loud. And he leans down to the flower and he's like, you know, I know that it's a really simple plot line, but what we're really reading it for is the prose and storytelling. So if you've noticed these sort of. And is like, kind of nerding out about how books are written to this little flower.
While everyone else is asleep, you go.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: Into how paper is made at all.
[00:29:36] Speaker D: I don't think so. I think Finn starts. He's like, well, you see papers. And then he's like, we'll talk about papers when you're in the soil. Ground.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Wait until you're sitting down.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: We'll talk about paper when you're older.
[00:29:55] Speaker D: Yeah, basically.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Great.
Finn, as you are sitting and reading, you kind of hear this low kind of like whooshing sound. It sounds like air moving through the tunnel maybe a little more than was before. And maybe about 10 minutes later, there starts to be like, just a small little, like, rivulet of water that comes from uphill down toward where you guys are all just a small little trickle. But as you are sitting there and reading that is happening.
[00:30:28] Speaker D: I'm gonna wake up. I'm gonna wake up Tessily first.
Be like, Tesley.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Tesley, Tessely.
[00:30:35] Speaker C: What? What?
My turn already?
[00:30:38] Speaker D: No, no, don't freak out. No, don't freak out because Ant's gonna freak out. There's water.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: There's water on the ground over there.
[00:30:46] Speaker D: There's water on the ground over there.
[00:30:48] Speaker C: That was not there before.
[00:30:50] Speaker D: That was not there before.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: It just started.
[00:30:52] Speaker D: There was like a wind.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: There was like a.
[00:30:55] Speaker D: And then. And then now there's like a, like, water going. Do I. Do we wake up? Do we move? Do I wake up, Aunt? Do we move?
[00:31:03] Speaker C: Not yet. Not yet.
[00:31:04] Speaker D: Do I just pick him up?
[00:31:06] Speaker C: How. How quickly is this, like, water, like, flowing, trickling?
[00:31:11] Speaker A: It's like, moving at a steady pace, but it's not, like, widening or anything. Like, it's. It's just like a little stream, like a.
Like, maybe 2 inches wide at most. Like, just kind of steady stream of a steady, light stream of water.
[00:31:29] Speaker C: That's a lot of water.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: Two inches.
It's not two inches deep. It's just like two inches along the side of the.
[00:31:38] Speaker C: I was. I was expecting. Expecting like this. I'm holding up my pen for the audio.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: I see.
[00:31:44] Speaker C: Which is very much smaller than 2 inches wide.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Like two fingers, if you were to hold them next to each other.
[00:31:52] Speaker C: Oh, that's not an inch.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: I don't know how big an inch is. This is my biggest, like, flaw. Anytime I cook anything, and it's like, roll out the dough to, like, 8 inches.
[00:32:01] Speaker C: I'm like 2 inches in inches. Like this.
[00:32:06] Speaker D: This.
[00:32:07] Speaker C: Like the. Between your first and second knuckles.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Okay. Like an inch, then maybe a steel.
[00:32:14] Speaker C: Sizable amount of water. Is there anything. Do you have anything to, like, plug in with? Or do you think this is, like, a touch in and it gets worse situation?
[00:32:26] Speaker D: I don't. I don't know. Maybe I can. I mean, maybe I can roll a rock in front of it.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: Can you roll a rock with him on your back without waking him up in case we need to, like, run?
[00:32:39] Speaker D: I can try.
Yeah. Yeah, I can do it. Yeah, I can do that.
[00:32:48] Speaker C: Although he's pretty small, I might be able to lift him. How stocky is this man? How solid is he?
[00:32:54] Speaker B: He's not stocky. He's a little whippersheet.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: He's a little guy.
[00:32:58] Speaker D: If I take him and you just take his stuff, maybe we can divide and conquer the carrying.
[00:33:03] Speaker C: Sounds good.
Or should we just wake him up and then, like, not say anything about the water and just be like, we're just gonna go this way.
[00:33:11] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Oh, that might be good. That might be good. Just be like.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: Be like.
[00:33:16] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. May.
Yeah.
[00:33:19] Speaker C: Don't ask questions.
[00:33:21] Speaker D: Yeah, don't ask. Just. Oh, he's gonna ask questions.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: I don't blame him.
[00:33:26] Speaker C: I love asking questions.
[00:33:27] Speaker D: I'm really bad about not answering people's questions, man.
I can't lie to a bro.
[00:33:35] Speaker C: Would you lie to a bro to protect him?
[00:33:37] Speaker D: Yeah, but it'd be really hard.
[00:33:41] Speaker C: How much more water is there?
[00:33:43] Speaker A: It is the same amount.
[00:33:44] Speaker C: Okay. Awesome.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: I just love the idea of, like, in a movie, it cuts to the two of you talking, the water, aunt sleeping, and it just. It, like, increases in speed, cutting between them, but the water doesn't get faster. The Water's not getting worse.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: It's the.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: But you're panicking more.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: It's the same shot. They've just reused it.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: That's. So there's, like, one bubble that does the same thing.
[00:34:09] Speaker D: Okay, what if. What if you just. Okay, what if you just go back to sleep, and I'll stay up and I'll keep an eye on it, and if it gets worse, I will. I'll rewake you.
I mean.
Yeah, I don't know.
[00:34:28] Speaker C: If it gets worse and he has to wake me back up, you'll have to wake both of us.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: It's fun. Maybe.
[00:34:37] Speaker D: Let me go. Let me just go check it out.
[00:34:39] Speaker C: It's not.
[00:34:40] Speaker D: Guys, go check it out.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: You hear a shuffling as Ant kind of moves and turns over and then goes back to sleep.
[00:34:48] Speaker D: That was too close.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: That was too close.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: I'm just gonna go.
[00:34:50] Speaker D: I'm just gonna go look at it. I'm just gonna go look at it.
Here, you hold Bud, and I'll go over and I'll light my lantern and see if I can find the source of this water.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Tessella, you have kind of the. I imagine Bud kind of spotlighting Finn from behind, looking down at this plant. He walks into the darkness, the water carrying on as it has been for who knows how long. You don't know how long it took Finn to wake you up.
Finn, as you are sort of traveling by lantern light, the light reflects against this little rivulet of water, this intricate kind of dancing glow across the floor. As you proceed deeper and deeper down the path you were treading, you get to a point, and you see there's kind of, like, a little pool that has formed up ahead. And it looks like the water that is, like, coming down your way is, like, overflowing from this pool. As the pool seems to be filling with more water, it's, like, leaking down the side of this sort of tunnel wall. There are in a lot of national parks in the United States and other, like, state parks, they have these things called, like, weeping rocks. Oftentimes it's like a landmark. But basically, the water from rainfall, snow, melt, whatever has, like, seeped through very porous stone and, like, leaks out the side of it. It kind of looks like that's what's happening here, where there's just water coming from the wall. You don't see a plug, like, you know, a place where you could plug it or, like, an opening in the wall. Just kind of seems like there is water leaking from this wall and moving down toward where you all Are taking your rest.
[00:36:43] Speaker D: I will go back to Tesley and I'll say, I think it's raining really hard and it's coming through the rocks.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Right? Oh, I guess it didn't stop. Makes sense.
Is that the only way out of here?
Or is that just a way?
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Yeah. As you are. Finn went up to go and investigate. And again, similar. Seems to be just the path that you are on. This is the road the tunnel is leading you toward.
[00:37:17] Speaker D: Yay.
I think we have to go. I think we need to wake up and I think we have to go. If it's raining really bad, then really bad things might be happening. And that means people are in danger. And that means that we are the chosen ones and it's our turn to go and stop it.
[00:37:33] Speaker C: With you. With you. All right. Yeah, he'll be fine.
[00:37:38] Speaker D: Yeah, we'll be fine.
[00:37:41] Speaker C: Exposure.
[00:37:44] Speaker D: I pulled all nighters before. We're good.
I'll go walk over to Ant.
Hey, buddy.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Hey. Is it my turn?
[00:37:55] Speaker D: We're actually gonna go and carry on.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Oh, all right.
[00:38:04] Speaker D: Yeah. So we'll just keep our eyes ahead and walk forward.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, I mean, I guess. Let me get my stuff. And as Ant is getting his things, I feel like his people.
[00:38:18] Speaker D: Oh, I got. I got it.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: It's okay.
[00:38:19] Speaker D: No, bro, it's okay. It's okay. I got it. I got it. Man.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: You step in the water with yourself.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: I step in the little. The water with my socks. And it's like, hey, guys, why is it wet?
[00:38:32] Speaker D: We're. We just gotta go. We're going.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: Yep. Okay. Yep, okay, yep. Going.
Put hopping on one foot while I'm putting my boots. My, like, boots on.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: Going.
[00:38:48] Speaker B: My feet are soaking wet.
This is the worst.
[00:38:52] Speaker A: This is terrible.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Oh, they were just dry after waking up soaking wet. Every night we sleep, we just wake up soaking wet. Oh, woof.
[00:39:04] Speaker D: I'll look over to Tesselly and give a thumbs up.
[00:39:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Return the thumbs up.
Very questionable look on her face.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: I feel like Ant is looking between the two of them because he just woke up and there's too much happening here with the gesturing. And he's like, okay, yeah. All right. Who. Who wants to lead?
[00:39:28] Speaker C: I'll lead.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: You got the plant. Yeah. That's probably smart.
[00:39:33] Speaker C: Yeah. Holding plants up, but holding him up.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Big, big yawn from Ant.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Like, you're gonna make me yawn for real. I'm so sensitive.
Tesley at the front of the line, wielding Buddy, I think you're probably the first one to notice that as you pick up the plant and as you begin to walk down. Well, up the path, I suppose, as it is on an incline, the direction in which Finn traveled. You proceed onward, and you see the water, which is still continuing to flow at the same rate, is deviating from its path. Little droplets begin to kind of be pushed out and sort of trickled toward you a little bit, kind of as you're stepping. You pause for a minute to watch this happen, and it begins to pool around your boot ever so slightly before you take a step forward. And more of these droplets kind of seem to be, like, moving toward you.
You kind of look back and you see that it is happening to your companions as well.
[00:40:41] Speaker C: Like, in a very unnatural way, I'm guessing.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: Yes. But it's not the way that water normally behaves.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: No, this is how water behaves, guys. Water always has it out.
[00:40:51] Speaker C: Hey, you take that back.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: Water always has it out for you and is, like, high stepping.
I do not like this. We gotta go look back to the.
[00:41:03] Speaker C: Others and see if they also notice that keeping on at the same time.
Because can't, like, sit here and deliberate about it.
[00:41:15] Speaker B: So, like, are we gonna run Night two running. Maybe water away from water.
[00:41:20] Speaker C: Oh, we can run.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: A good idea. Okay.
[00:41:21] Speaker D: Do you want to run? We could.
[00:41:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:23] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: A jog could be great.
[00:41:25] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Ant's gonna take off before anyone else starts saying that it's good.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: Are you taking butt or are you running in the dark with the light behind you?
[00:41:36] Speaker B: I'm gonna kind of run with the light behind me. I'm getting out of here.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: Cool.
Then this is gonna give you a weird kind of view as you're kind of, like, nudging ever so slightly past Tesley in the front. You get to the place where Finn. Finn found earlier. You don't know that Finn found it earlier, though. But this weeping rock in front of you and this pool of water kind of coalescing at the bottom where the stone maybe has worn away from seemingly years and years and years of water running and pooling and collecting and eroding. And as you kind of get to, like, the edge of this pool, it's like the size of, like, a sidewalk square. Like, it's not particularly large, but it is, like, noticeable.
You sort of kind of try and, like, cheat the corner a little bit to, like, nudge around this kind of pool and around the corner, and you see the water on the wall begin to, like, stop flowing at a certain point and start to pool. Sort of intermediary. And you kind of do you stop to, like, look at what's happening or are you continuing on with your way?
[00:42:49] Speaker B: I feel like I like, slide a little bit to a stop and like I'm still like, looking at it as I'm trying to walk away because I'm like, what is happening?
[00:43:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Like the water is still flowing and it still has that movement. And the flower's light is sort of piercing through this water and casting strange.
You know, that pattern of water against the wall. And you realize that the sort of stopping point is moving outward. And it is a hand made entirely of water stretching from the wall, reaching out towards you. Ant.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: I don't even have the plan. And it's like, no.
And I think it's gonna try to jump out of the way. I'm gonna do a little dodge. I don't know. Get out of the way.
Get out of the way of this plant or this.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: Would you make me a skull crawl?
[00:43:43] Speaker B: I would love to make a skull.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: Crawl, sidestep and get out of the way.
DC 10. No.
[00:43:50] Speaker B: Got a five.
[00:43:52] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: Okay, sorry. It's a six.
Okay.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: You try and get out of the way a little bit. And as you're, like focused on this, like, watery hand that is reaching out towards you, you aren't paying attention to where your feet are going. And your foot kind of catches the edge ever so slightly and slips into this pool with a little slosh. It's not deep. It's only about ankle deep. But you find yourself almost rooted to the ground in a way as the water begins to kind of slowly wrap up your leg. Like the feeling of the way that water will absorb into like a cloth. It is moving, but quicker than it should be as it starts to kind of creep up your leg.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Yeah. I think Ant is just like, help, help, help, help, help. And is trying to smack the water with his hand. I don't know. He's got nothing on him.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: If we had started running, like, right as he did. How far behind? Not very awesome.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: Oh, I'm gonna drown in ankle deep water. Help.
[00:45:00] Speaker C: Can I like football tuck bud with one hand And I guess sports metaphors continuing. Sorry, Finn, not to jack your swag one handed, like kind of. I was gonna say baseball bat with the oar, but I guess it's more like a downward chopping motion at the hand, not a dance at the hand.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: I was like, why do you chop it?
[00:45:26] Speaker C: I love him.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: Take my foot off it. Can't grab me anymore.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: Go ahead and make me a brute roll and add one to whatever your total is because you're using your Ore. The difficulty here is a 10.
[00:45:39] Speaker C: It doesn't matter. I got a 13.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Oh, my word.
[00:45:44] Speaker B: Perfect score.
[00:45:46] Speaker D: They said it doesn't matter.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Your ore. It's an ore and it perfectly slices through this water. It's not like a hand being chopped off. It just kind of cuts and it sprays and it's gone. You hear this kind of like wet gurgling sound, like water draining. And it almost sounds like a yell or a groan of upset and rage. Are you sticking around or are you getting out of there?
[00:46:14] Speaker C: No. Yeah, I think keep running. Let's go.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I think Ant's gonna pick himself up, be like, the water's mad. I hate it.
[00:46:26] Speaker D: Go. Let's go, let's go.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: Finn. Yeah. You're kind of bringing up the rear. I'm assuming you've got, like, silver lining out. Ready to.
[00:46:33] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm like, ready to go. I am going to keep an eye behind us and just make sure that, like, the mean water isn't following us, basically, because that would suck a lot.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: Yeah. You take a peek back, the water doesn't seem like it's moving up the incline beyond where you guys are running and everything. So it seems relatively safe if you just keep going. But as you kind of turn back, you see not only like a hand, but you see, like the full form of like a person step out from this wet wall. They don't have any features. They're just kind of this statue of water, for lack of a better description, flowing and moving and shimmering in the distant glow of this flower. She doesn't seem to take a step towards you or move towards you, but you get the feeling that you are being watched by the woman in the wall.
That is probably where we will stop our session for the night.
Well, thank you so much for listening so far to Tunnel Goon's miniseries. I've been having so much fun running this game for my buddies here. Thank you so much, Jay and Lucas and Morgan for being my little. My little goons.
I couldn't do it without you. So thank you for being here.
[00:47:57] Speaker C: Thank you for being our ref.
[00:47:59] Speaker D: Oh, my gosh.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: So happy to be if you're enjoying this game or you have questions about the system and. Or just want to check it out yourself. It will be linked below in the description. It is an itch game. It is pay what you want, but if you have the means to pay for it, I would always recommend supporting indie tabletop makers. It's by Nathan Treem or Trim. Not quite sure how to pronounce it but it's a great game. I'm a big fan. We will have another episode coming out next week so make sure that you are following along on your podcast listening platform of choice and also on our social media. We are everywhere pretty much at Spells and Whistles or spellswhistles depending on the platform. But that will also all be linked below because we love you that much. To make it easy for you, join our Discord hang out, whatever, you know. Any, any. Yeah, Morgan and Lucas, thanks for being here. If you want to plug anything, go for it. Now's the time.
[00:48:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we have a D&D YouTube channel. It's called Party Gremlins. So if you like D&D5E, come check it out. We got a homebrew game and avernus module, both DM'd by ears truly and another like anthology one shot kind of thing DM'd by one of the other players.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: So Lucas is such a slay GM and it is so much fun getting to play with him. So also with Morgan in a 5e game, I just love my buds and I will hype you guys up all.
[00:49:29] Speaker C: The time and then all of the things over there.
[00:49:32] Speaker A: Yeah, Morgan's an all star regular so. But yeah, just thank you guys for being such good storytellers. It's been such a pleasure. So we are down to just two two little episodes of this miniseries left, which is crazy to me and it's been really fun. So I hope that you've been enjoying it so far. Also, after these next couple of episodes we will be getting back into the main Spells and Whistles campaign. So if you've been missing id, Myla Auden and Melwyn, fear not. You'll we only have to wait a couple more weeks. We will be hashtag Sewback. What is it? We are hashtag Sewback WeAreSoBack.
[00:50:09] Speaker B: Yes, I think that sounds right.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: But yeah, that'll be happening also soon. So we're so back very very excited to get back to the Inked Expanse. But I think that's everything that I have to say. So I'll let you get back to your regular day now. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great week and we'll catch you next time. Bye.
