Chos3n - Rule One: Don't Die

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello everybody and welcome back to Spells and Whistles, a usually D&D5E podcast, but not this time and not the next five times because I am going to be robbing the DM seat from our beloved DM Anastasia. We have some cast members who are very busy with some really cool opportunities in their lives right now, so we wanted to kind of give them a chance to take a step back from the podcast, focus on the amazing things that they're doing and just, you know, just take a little breather, you know, feel the vi. So I'm going to be running a little miniseries called Chosen. This is utilizing the Tunnel Goon system which is a wonderful and very simple. I think it's two page RPG. It is a 2D six based system with three different skills that the player characters will have access to. So it's really easy to just sit down, make a character and just get going. So if you're looking for a nice game to like play in between games of your like, I don't know, it's a great game. I can't really recommend it enough. I have it linked below in the description. It's by Nathan Trim or Treem on Itch. So if you're interested. It is a pay what you want game so you could get it for free. But we always love to support indie creators, so if you have the means to I would certainly recommend give it a little something something so we can keep getting amazing games from amazing creators. We also have some amazing guests joining us for this miniseries. We have Jay from the podcast as well as two new friends, Lucas and Morgan. So Lucas and Mor, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a joy and a pleasure playing with you so far and I can't wait to see how our story continues to go. Thank you so much for being here. I have yapped and yapped for so long and I'm so sorry you're about to hear me yap and yap a little more. But it will be relevant about the game. So sit down, relax and enjoy the first episode of a Tunnel Goons miniseries. In a time not too far away and a world just beyond our own lies the beauty island of Ruhn. From desert lowlands to forested foothills, from bowing carved out valleys to towering regal spires. Her wonders are many and the inhabitants of Rhun are just as beautiful and varied. Green grass, yellow sand, mountains with their purple hues in the light of the setting sun, a rainbow of colors decorating and amplifying the natural beauty of the land. Her skies are Wide and open, occasionally dotted by clouds billowing and white or gray and weeping. Yes, it is agreed by all that Rhun is the most beautiful place a person could live. So beautiful that many people choose to ignore the brewing black clouds in the distance. It began about 30 years ago, starting as a little speck in the distance, something easily put out of mind. But as time passed and the darkness grew, the people of Rhuhn realized this growing bleakness. The growing shadows would not go away on their own. Rumors, like the clouds began to spread of the shadows growing closer. Lightning flashes and thunder rumbling from the distance, of downpouring creatures, stormlings destroying entire villages. But just as fear runs rampant in times of terror, so too springs forth hope. Whispers of a prophecy that can reverse the darkness, that can bring about light once more, begin to trickle from village to village. And that is where our story begins, with three citizens of Rhun traveling from different corners of the island to meet the Sky Reader, an oracle of sorts. Letters appeared mysteriously summoning these three to her, requesting their aid in a grand quest to save Ruhn and all that she is now. For those listening at home, it's time that I share a little secret with you. Each of our player characters have been given a secret assigned role to help inform their character and to help aid them in figuring out their part in this upcoming journey. Each of those roles were concealed from each other and told to be kept a secret. So as our characters introduce themselves, I'm going to be punching in a little more information that the players will give to us about their characters. So as they get going, keep that in mind. Their roles are secret. None of them know who the others are. Jay, will you please describe your character? [00:04:31] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Real quick question. What is the terrain that we're walking through on the way to the Sky Reader? [00:04:39] Speaker A: Wonderful question. Ruhn has all kinds of biomes and different ecosystems, but the place that you are right now is kind of like a coniferous forest. So lots of tall pine trees, some craggy, like limestone rocks with lots of lichen on them. Think forest, but more of a dry forest than like a rainforest. [00:04:59] Speaker B: Gotcha. Perfect. So walking through this forest, we see a taller, broad shouldered, young, freshly a man. He just turned 18, probably like a month or two ago. And he stands out very much from the forest and the lichen and the green around him with this bright red, almost orangish frizzy hair that frames his face in layers and comes down to his shoulders. Bright ice blue eyes, a crooked smile littered with freckles across his face. He has on almost looks like a rune equivalent to a JanSport, but it's only on one shoulder. And there's a bunch of. There's like a pair of sneakers tied to it that are some sort of sports sneakers. It's filled with books and bits and bobs and anything that may or may not be useful to him, including a disc golf Frisbee that's sort of tucked in the top and barely peeking out the top. He walks. Walking is generous. He kind of trudges a bit, stomps a little heavy through the forest as he carries on towards this sky reader that he received the summons from. And my secret role is the chosen. [00:06:31] Speaker A: Amazing. And I have a question for you. Well, first off, I just want to say, Jay, one of the things I appreciate about you as a player is that you are not afraid to canonize whatever you want. And I love that Frisbee Golf is canon in ruin, and I respect that so much. [00:06:45] Speaker B: That is like. That's like football. [00:06:46] Speaker A: Yeah, we have varsity golf. [00:06:48] Speaker B: Golf or disc golf, I guess, but whatever. [00:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I don't mean to, like, change the vibe, but what wonders or terrors have you seen so far on your journey from home? [00:07:03] Speaker B: Oh. [00:07:06] Speaker A: If you need time to think about it, take all the time you need. We can cut out whatever we want. [00:07:11] Speaker B: So Finn is very. His name's Finn. Finn is very used to being around people and being kind of the center of attention. So I think the biggest wonder was probably his little send off party, which I know is not really on the way, but, like, legitimately, that's the best thing that's happened since he's been alone on the road because he is alone and doesn't know anything. And the dark is cold and scary. And I think that even, you know, he's brave, he's confident, he knows he can handle himself. But that does not detract from the sinking fear that maybe he isn't quite cut out to what everyone else wants him to be. And I think that because of that, anything that's flying overhead that he can't see right away, anything that is low to the ground or stomps or skitters is. It's unnerving. And I think that the terrors that he faces are just the terrors of not knowing what the next direction is. [00:08:21] Speaker A: Very artfully said. As Finn kind of navigates through these tall pine trees, weaving in and out and trying to find the semblance of the path that he was following. Most people don't travel this far south to the island of Ruhn. So your best guess is the large sort of mountain that you are traversing towards. And as you continue on your way, occasionally jumping at the shadows, so to speak. We will move on to our next player. Lucas, will you please tell us about your character? [00:08:59] Speaker C: Hey, what's up, everyone? My name is Lucas. I use he, him pronouns. Yeah. So my. My guy. He definitely looks out of place in this. This forest. He is wearing a pretty, like, long cloak that's a very sandy yellow kind of pulled up over his hair. But you can see sticking out of this cloak is, like, kind of spiky purple hair. Very like. I wouldn't say bright purple, but it is aggressively purple. You can tell it's purple. Purple eyebrows. He's got a little bit of, like, a real scruffy goatee mustache situation going on. Also purple facial hair. Two different color eyes. One is purple. Sensing a theme here. And the other one's kind of the same kind of dusty yellow gold of the cloak. He's wearing quite a lot of jewelry on him. Bunch of like, almost obsidian or dark black stone, like choker necklace, a bunch of earrings. And he has a pretty gnarly scar that goes, like, horizontally across his. His nose. He's wearing a package, got all the good things in it. But tied to the top of the pack is this really decorative wooden kind of sandboard, so to speak, with a pretty cool pattern of orange and yellow. And kind of as he's making his way through this very rocky terrain, you could tell he's out of his element quite, quite aggressively trying to continue to find the path and head towards. Towards this summons that. That he got. And probably he would be smaller, both skinnier and shorter, I assume, than Finn. How. How Jay described Finn, he's. He's a little bit more of a tiny guy. So a short king, one might say. My secret role in this game of tunnel goons is the chosen one. His name is Ant. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:11:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Short name for a short king. [00:11:33] Speaker C: Short king. [00:11:36] Speaker A: My question for you, Ant, how has the path you've traveled so far differed from what you're used to? You mentioned that he looks to be sort of sticking out like a sore thumb. Some of the items he carries with him are indicative of another world altogether, it seems. So tell me a little bit about those differences and how Ant has felt about those so far. [00:11:58] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a lot colder here than what he's used to. I mean, it gets cold in the desert at night, but the cold during the day, even with the sun out. And by cold, it doesn't matter as long as it's not 100 degrees. It's considered cold. [00:12:14] Speaker A: Sure. [00:12:15] Speaker C: But yeah, this is really his first time away from the, the dunes of Rune where he, he grew up and spent all of his, you know, childhood and into his young adult. He's, he's like early, early, early 20s. And so that first step, like out of being able to see, like you could see really far in the desert. If you just get up on top of a, you know, a sand dune or there's a little bit of rock outcropping, you can see really far. And I think he's feeling a bit claustrophobic with the trees pressing in. You know, you can't, you can't see around the corner really. And so that's constantly kind of going through his mind. He's ready for, for something to be lurking. [00:13:15] Speaker A: Coming from a different place altogether. From Finn, you are also traveling on a very different path. And as you are also making your way towards this long towering hill or small mountain in the distance, the sun is momentarily covered by a cloud passing by. You look up, it seems to be one of the safe ones. It's just a puffy white cloud lazily gliding across the sky. But that uneasy feeling that you've had with you since leaving home doesn't seem to be a fan of the sudden shadow that overcomes you. As ant carries on with his way. We will move to our final player charact duo. Morrigan. Will you please tell us about your character? [00:14:06] Speaker D: Hello, I'm Morgan. I use all pronouns. My character's name is Tessily. She's about 5 7, wearing like a kind of half dress, like more of a dress in the back. Like greens and reds and purples, like jewel toned colors over like a white turtleneck with like tan pants, brown, blue shoes. Overall that is like a lapis blue cloak. All of the metals that she's wearing are like warm toned, like golds, bronzes, very chic. [00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:41] Speaker D: The ends of her like sleeves, like short sleeves over like a long sleeve. Ends of the short sleeves have like tassels just like the m bottom of the hem of her dress. She's got like a brown bob. The front parts are like braided on either side of her face. Hair comes to about like your chin tan skin from being outside as well as like a scattering of like colored freckles, amber eyes. She smiles, she's got a bit of like a gap tooth. And she's walking right now with like a walking stick, what looks to be a walking stick. It's got like some strange latches at the bottom and then like a hook kind of near the top, just under the handle that doesn't have anything on it currently. [00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:31] Speaker D: This Tesselly, she her. My secret role is the chosen one. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Tesselly, like our other characters so far, you have been sent a letter to come and see this sky reader. How have you been feeling since receiving that missive? [00:15:59] Speaker D: Strange. I mean, Tess has always been like, traveling all over, but this is the first time she's ever been like, on her own. Separated a bit from her caravan earlier and has been traveling down here. Excited. There's a mix of emotions. There's. Yeah, she's mostly excited, though, ready to take on whatever's coming. [00:16:37] Speaker A: Finn, Ant and Tessily, each named or dubbed the chosen One at one point or another in their lives. This has led them, guided them in the last couple of years, ushering them towards whatever may lie ahead of them. And here, dear listeners, is where our story truly begins, with three very different individuals meeting on one identical path. Awesome. Again, just like our other potentially future companions we'll call them. For now, you've come from a different place. And so the road you travel has also been different. You are coming up over a small kind of canyon crest, and before you, that same towering hill in the distance, you're able to see just the tiniest pop of bright green against the otherwise slate gray stone. It looks to be kind of a triangular like roof shape. And if you were to wager, that would be probably where the sky reader, where the sky reader is waiting for you. And so you sort of continue on down this path, there's another sort of narrow canyon crevice that seems to have a path leading through it. And you sort of tuck in to the canyon. And in the distance from where you are, you also see this peak of a green roof, this building nestled within a sheltering overhang of this lone mountain. As you begin, sort of, this seems to be for our listeners at home. This is where our hero's paths are about to converge. And as you see this thin canyon before you, you see another figure weaving around a handful of boulders before slipping out of sight. A blue cloak, the only thing that sort of flashes before disappearing. What do you do? [00:18:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I think Ant probably goes. And quickly, like double checks the. The letter to be like, am I. Is it just me? Am I supposed to be meeting someone? Did I. Did I miss something in the letter? The summons, Wondering. And then fully back up wondering, like, oh, maybe that's the sky reader, you know, oh, Am I late? And kind of starts to hurry towards the the individual and the general building to go and hear what they have to say. [00:19:30] Speaker B: Awesome. [00:19:33] Speaker A: Finn, despite your missive to seek out the Sky Reader, you've been following this path as best as you can. You can't help but feel a little sidetracked when you see a flash of something dark sort of scuttle into a crevice in the ground. [00:19:59] Speaker B: Finn is going to whip the rune Jansport around runesport and is going to fuddle in it. [00:20:09] Speaker C: Runesport. [00:20:10] Speaker B: Runesport. And is gonna fuddle in it for a. He looks between his lantern and his crowbar and is gonna go with the lantern for now and just sort of approaches where he saw this thing scuttle in and is gonna say hello. Is. Are you Sky Reader? [00:20:37] Speaker A: And is gonna start approaching from in the canyon walls. This voice starts sort of echoing and making its way toward your ears. Ant and Tesley. You hear a young man's voice. Hello. Hello. Hello. Kind of echoing down towards you. You don't see where this voice is coming from though. [00:21:02] Speaker D: I know how echoes work and I didn't say that. So that means there must be someone else here. Right? Hello. [00:21:13] Speaker A: Both of our gentleman friends here. Hear that echoing answer. Echo. Hello. [00:21:21] Speaker C: Are you all talking to each other? [00:21:24] Speaker A: A third voice begins to bounce around the walls of the cave. Wait. [00:21:29] Speaker B: Which one of you is a Sky Reader? [00:21:32] Speaker A: Not me. [00:21:33] Speaker C: Not me. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Oh, sky. [00:21:37] Speaker C: Are you? [00:21:40] Speaker B: No. [00:21:41] Speaker C: Wait. Where are you? [00:21:42] Speaker B: I'm this way. Hang on a second. I'm gonna start kind of like squeezing my way in to this area where these voices are coming from. And I think there's a point where I sort of peek around a corner and you just see this head peeking out the side. Tall. And you see the wave of red hair. Oh. Sup? [00:22:14] Speaker C: Hey, do you know where the Sky Reader is? This is it. Right. [00:22:22] Speaker B: I'll pull out my runesport and go to the front pocket and pull out my letter. I think it's. Look around. The walls are pretty tall, huh? [00:22:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So you're kind of cool. The path seems to be like. I'm trying to think how to explain it. And I did this to myself by making a tricky description in an audio only medium. But where Finn was is kind of the normal ground level. The other two have come through different ways that are sort of leading uphill through this. If I say slot canyon, does that mean anything to you guys? Okay. [00:23:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:00] Speaker A: Like just a very narrow like squeezy. Yeah. Like you're just kind of heading up that way. [00:23:06] Speaker B: Cool. So I'LL look up and I'll say, I think it's. I think we gotta go up, like, up. So if we go back the way I came, I think I was going that way. And he's sort of like pointing and gesturing wildly with his hand of sort of where to go. [00:23:21] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm gonna hold up my letter because I see his letter. I'm like, letter. [00:23:27] Speaker B: Oh, you got one too? [00:23:30] Speaker C: Yeah. I wonder how many people got letters. [00:23:33] Speaker B: Sick. [00:23:34] Speaker C: Yeah, that's cool. This is fun. [00:23:36] Speaker B: I'm gonna call. I'm gonna call out to the canyon. Hey, did you get a letter? [00:23:41] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:23:43] Speaker C: That's three. That's a good number. [00:23:47] Speaker B: Rule of threes. [00:23:49] Speaker C: My name has three letters. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Whoa. I mean, mine technically has three letters too, but one of them's repeated, so it's four. Total. [00:23:57] Speaker C: Sick. Hold on. We're gonna try to find the other person here. Just keep yelling your name or hi. Maybe hi. [00:24:09] Speaker B: Me? [00:24:10] Speaker C: Yeah, you. I'm gonna. [00:24:13] Speaker D: I'm up here. [00:24:15] Speaker C: I'm gonna try to navigate the echoes towards this person's voice. [00:24:22] Speaker A: Awesome. I think you have an inkling and understanding that the flicker of blue that you saw earlier is probably this third individual. So you know to proceed farther into the canyon and as you do so, your eyes kind of fall onto tessily. I'm assuming Finn is close behind. [00:24:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:43] Speaker A: Awesome. The canyon kind of widens a little bit, creating this nice, like, eye shape. If you were to take an eyeball and, well, not an eyeball because it's a ball, but like the shape of an eye while it's in the socket and has eyelids. [00:24:57] Speaker C: An oval. [00:24:58] Speaker A: An oval. It's an oval shape. [00:25:01] Speaker D: Like a football. [00:25:02] Speaker A: Yeah, football. [00:25:03] Speaker B: Football. [00:25:04] Speaker A: That's what it's. Go for it. [00:25:06] Speaker C: An egg, perhaps. Not an eye. [00:25:09] Speaker A: An egg shape. Anyway. The football shaped canyon opening. Geez Louise. [00:25:18] Speaker B: We got there. [00:25:19] Speaker A: We got there. [00:25:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:20] Speaker A: Welcome to this journey. [00:25:24] Speaker D: Glad to be here. [00:25:25] Speaker C: Bruun's famous for its football shaped canyons. Despite the fact that football's not a sport here, football doesn't exist. [00:25:35] Speaker D: Inspired by the shape of the canyon. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Which is why we naturally say eyeball, because. [00:25:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it's world building. It's all on purpose. [00:25:45] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:25:46] Speaker A: For sure. [00:25:47] Speaker B: Canon. [00:25:47] Speaker A: Awesome. So you two see Tesley, who I'm assuming is kind of paused in her trek toward the sky. Reader. [00:25:54] Speaker D: Kind of like writing a bit in, like, a book. Also kind of flipping through, like, past pages looking for, like, more information about, like, do I know where to, like, go from here? Like, how much of, like, we researched about this, looking for kind of like that Information. [00:26:12] Speaker C: First roll of the game. [00:26:14] Speaker A: Go ahead and roll Erudite. And you're rolling. I just want to make sure I understand just kind of about the area, the sort of natural zone of ruin that you're in right now. Is that right? [00:26:26] Speaker D: Yeah, kind of. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Perfect. I'm gonna set your difficulty score at a six. [00:26:35] Speaker D: It's an 11. [00:26:37] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay. Blew that out of the water then. The three skills that our players have access to are Erudite, brute, and Skulk. What was it? I already forgot Skulker. There we go. So, Tesley, an 11 out of a six. That is super. Crushed it. What information is there? Anything in particular you're looking for? [00:26:59] Speaker D: I think, like, go where to find, like, the sky, like, as much as like, would be known or would have been able to be found, to be unknown for sure. [00:27:11] Speaker A: So the sky Reader, you know, to be on the southernmost tip of the island of Ruhn. The Ruhn is kind of scapula shaped, which is a weird me. [00:27:22] Speaker C: And my body part is this, like, something about the. The island. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Just thinking about Bones, I guess. Yeah. The southernmost tip of Ruhn. She presumably lives in a really big tower, is kind of what people have said, looking out to the ocean and the clear skies to get a reading on the clouds and the stars at night. Hence the name Sky Reader. People have always described her as an oracle of sorts. And nobody's really sure why the of sorts is always tagged on. Who knows? Maybe you'll figure it out. But you know that the big sort of Mountain. Hill. Big hill, small mountain. There we go. That you've been approaching. Seems to be. It's marked on the map that you know and you know very well and you feel very confident that if you just carry on through this route, it should spit you right at the foot of that hill. Yeah. So you see these two. Two fellas kind of roll up around the corner of this canyon waving their letters excitedly. [00:28:33] Speaker D: Hello. [00:28:35] Speaker C: Hey. [00:28:36] Speaker D: Just on my way, if y'all like to join. [00:28:39] Speaker C: Letter. [00:28:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:40] Speaker C: You got a letter, too? Yeah. Sweet. [00:28:43] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [00:28:43] Speaker C: All right. Yeah. I mean, three's a party, right? [00:28:48] Speaker B: Yeah. How many letters do you have in your name? Eight. [00:28:54] Speaker C: That's a lot of letters. [00:28:55] Speaker A: Okay. I'm only counting seven. [00:28:58] Speaker D: Maybe I'm wrong. [00:29:00] Speaker A: Hang on. [00:29:00] Speaker B: I think it's seven, but it's okay. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Seven. That's good. Just throw an extra S in there. [00:29:06] Speaker D: I count on my fingers and everything. [00:29:10] Speaker B: Cool. Well, my name's Finn, and he sort of, like, points. [00:29:16] Speaker C: Yeah. My name's Ant. [00:29:17] Speaker B: Ant. Okay. [00:29:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:19] Speaker D: Tessa Lee Looks nice. [00:29:20] Speaker C: To meet you, Tesla. Cool. [00:29:25] Speaker B: Cool. [00:29:25] Speaker C: Sky reader. [00:29:27] Speaker B: Yes. Sky reader. [00:29:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:30] Speaker B: Shall we? [00:29:30] Speaker C: That way. Probably need to go. We're like in the Canyon Valley. [00:29:38] Speaker A: So it's a little canyon. [00:29:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:42] Speaker A: As you kind of stow your letters and prepare, Finn suggested climbing out. And so as you're kind of getting ready to do that, that same dark shadow catches your eye again. Finn, as you see this, what you know and recognize to be as a stormling crawling down the walls of this canyon, I'm gonna send an image to my players and if you're listening at home, join our Discord. I'll send pictures in the discord also. [00:30:16] Speaker D: Oh my God, it's so cute. [00:30:19] Speaker C: I don't think it's supposed to be cute. [00:30:21] Speaker A: It's toeing the line. You see this thing? It is for audio description. It is kind of a mass of dark gray and black storm clouds. But instead of the smooth, fluffy looking clouds that you're used to seeing, this one is jagged, almost like someone has cut away bits of it with like a sharp knife and those sharp edges remaining. It has two large unblinking eyes in the middle of its face and an open, pointy mouth lined with rows of teeth that look like light lightning bolts. It's on all fours and it sort of chitters at you a moment before it lunges at you all. We're not gonna roll Initiative. We're just gonna sort of play it by ear here. Because there's no Initiative in tunnel goons. Who would like to act first? And what would you like to do as this stormling jumps at ya? I see a hint from Jay. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Spotted it. Sure. I think that as Finn sees this little creature, he's like, oh, not these little shits. He's gonna reach in his runesport. He's gonna pull out his disc. Golf Frisbee. That's silver and it has the name Silver Lining on it. [00:31:43] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. [00:31:44] Speaker B: Chuck it at the thing. [00:31:46] Speaker A: Incredible. I think that is probably going to be a brute roll. Will you go ahead and roll your Brute plus one for having an item that helps you out here. How many dice do you have? Or what's your score in brute? [00:32:00] Speaker B: So I have a plus one in brute as well. So it's plus two total to whatever I roll. [00:32:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:07] Speaker A: Your difficulty score for this is going to be a 10. [00:32:10] Speaker B: A 10. Okay, so I rolled a six and a two. That's an eight. [00:32:16] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:17] Speaker B: Two is a turn. [00:32:19] Speaker A: Perfect. So, yeah, you throw this silver lining disc at this creature. And I kind of want it to like Captain America off the Wall of the canyon off a boulder, and it knocks into the side of this stormling's head as it kind of lets out like you would expect it to scream, but it instead just unleashes this rolling, thunderous rumble. And at that, you sort of feel the walls of the canyon shake just the tiniest bit. A little bit of debris catching your eye as you see another one of these creatures sort of closing in on you from the direction that you came. This one looks a little bit different. It's standing on two feet, and the tips of its pointy fingers seem to be covered in ice, like these narrow spikes. It looks like as it exhales, there's this cloudy puff of breath from this thing. It looks very chilly. Who wants to go next? [00:33:21] Speaker B: I'll smack him. [00:33:23] Speaker A: Smack em. [00:33:24] Speaker D: Got my stick. [00:33:26] Speaker A: Great. This one also has a tent. [00:33:36] Speaker D: That's another 11. [00:33:39] Speaker A: Amazing. Okay, as you go ahead and tell me how you whack this thing, Are you going for the one that looks icy or the one that looks more. [00:33:47] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, I'll go for the icy one. [00:33:49] Speaker A: Okay, great. [00:33:50] Speaker D: Kind of like baseball swing at them or golf swing at him. Whichever one is like. [00:33:56] Speaker A: Whichever one is canonized. [00:33:58] Speaker C: Disc golf. So I feel like golf is there. [00:34:02] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, like, if it's like, shoulder level or if it's like, foot. [00:34:06] Speaker A: Level, maybe they play, like, weird golf on run. [00:34:10] Speaker C: They play field hockey. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Baseball is called golf. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Golf, yeah. Yeah. You give a big swing, and you kind of clock this thing. A little, like, chunk of ice kind of, like, goes spinning off of it and into the canyon where it shatters. Ant, what would you like to do as you see these two chittering, freaky little creatures? [00:34:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm gonna take my bag and just, like, chuck it at the. Are they're like. Are they pretty close to each other, or are they, like, Is there one closer to me than the other? [00:34:55] Speaker A: If we're talking D and D terms, they've got you flanked. So there's one coming from the direction of the entry of the canyon, and then one has climbed down sort of ahead of where you were, toward where you were going down the walls and is now kind of like geckoing on the wall. [00:35:12] Speaker C: Okay, then, yeah, I'm probably gonna take my bag and chuck it at the one that was the storm, the more rain looking one. And I'm gonna use that as a distraction to kind of, like, sneak to the side and, like, just jump, and I'm just gonna, like, pile drive down. I really want it to be a skull crawl, But I know it's probably not. I don't know. [00:35:37] Speaker A: I've been going for the distraction. I'm happy to call that a skull. So go ahead and roll that. [00:35:42] Speaker C: The bag just goes like helicoptering because I have my sandboard tied to the top of my bag, so it just like helicopters towards it. So it's got dodge out of the way to avoid that. And I'm going to come in with the. The power drive. So I have a plus a mean elbow to this. Yeah, mean elbow. A bony elbow. [00:35:59] Speaker A: Awesome. So I'm going to say you have a plus one for the distraction of using your bag and then plus whatever your. [00:36:06] Speaker C: I have another plus one in skulk. [00:36:09] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:36:09] Speaker C: And this is. What's the 10? A 10 as well. Oh, hell yeah. That is 11, 12, 13. [00:36:18] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:36:19] Speaker A: Okay, big dammies here. So in. [00:36:22] Speaker C: He's a quick little guy. [00:36:24] Speaker A: Yeah. He's scambring in tunnel goons. However many counts above the difficulty score you are. It takes that much damage. So, Tesley, who hit it one above its difficulty? It's. Next time you hit, you only need a 9. And for this one, you only need a 7 to hit it next time. So great work on bashing into this rain thing. [00:36:48] Speaker C: I also want to kick off a wall. Can I kick off a wall? [00:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And it looks awesome. That's so sick. I love it. [00:36:55] Speaker C: I get my bag back. It's got all my stuff. [00:37:00] Speaker A: Awesome. I'm gonna say that at this kind of reeling still from a heavy blow from a big stick, tessily the ice thing. Stormling is gonna look at you and it's gonna go and it's gonna cough a large hail ball at you. Will you please make me a skull coroll to try and nimbly dodge out of the way. Difficulty on. This is going to be a nine. [00:37:31] Speaker B: It's a four total. [00:37:33] Speaker A: A four. Okay. [00:37:35] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:37:35] Speaker A: So unfortunately, you were off by five. You are going to take five points of damage as this thing hits you square in the chest. [00:37:43] Speaker D: Oh, I need a nap. [00:37:45] Speaker C: Oh, no. [00:37:48] Speaker D: I'll happen or else. [00:37:53] Speaker A: And at that, we will return sort of to the top of our pseudo initiative. It's a new round. If someone wants, like, you can shake up the order. We can go in the same order. Whatever you guys prefer. [00:38:07] Speaker B: Does Tess Lee maybe want to respond to like I do that the eyes? I don't want to. I don't want to choose who goes or anything. [00:38:16] Speaker A: Are you hungering for vengeance right now. [00:38:19] Speaker C: Or you have vengeance in your blood? [00:38:22] Speaker A: Maybe. [00:38:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:24] Speaker D: Can I. Can I hit him again? [00:38:26] Speaker A: Absolutely. Go ahead and make me another brute roll. [00:38:31] Speaker D: Do I have time, like, to, like, unhook my stick into an ore and then hit him again so there's like, more oomph, more ore? [00:38:42] Speaker A: Sure, absolutely. I'll let you do that. [00:38:44] Speaker D: Cool. I'll do that. [00:38:47] Speaker A: I'm gonna say it'll just be like a flavor thing, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:38:51] Speaker C: Each round is actually 10 seconds because. Make up the rules. [00:38:55] Speaker A: This is not D and D. Yeah. [00:38:57] Speaker D: You're not gonna believe what this roll was. It was another 11. [00:39:01] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Stay winning. Okay. Fabulous. Yeah. I think with the ore, this one connects a lot more solidly. And you see, again, kind of like chunks of ice, like, splintering off of this thing, its teeth. Whereas the other one has almost lightning bolts for teeth. This one has just kind of icicles. And like, you know in cartoons when someone takes, like, a punch to the face and the odd tooth goes flying? It's like this, but a little, like, spray of tiny little icicles as this thing kind of, like squeals and scampers, scampers back a little. So great. Thank you. [00:39:37] Speaker D: Cool. Thank you. [00:39:40] Speaker A: Who is next? [00:39:44] Speaker C: I'd say Ant is made it to his bag and is attempting to untie the sandboard from the top. So, like, as that's happening, if Finn's doing something else, because I feel it's gonna take antisecond to get his board untied. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. Finn is going to just. I'm assuming in this time, the one that I hit has probably grown closer to me. So I think that I grab Silver Lining off the ground, and instead of going for a throw with it, I'm going to. Instead of holding it to throw, I'm gonna flip it into the palm of my hand, and I'm just going to drive down with it and try to knock this thing in the head. [00:40:28] Speaker A: Bonk it real good. Absolutely. Yeah. [00:40:30] Speaker B: Make it real good. [00:40:32] Speaker A: Brute roll. [00:40:33] Speaker B: Insert bonk sound effect. Wow. [00:40:38] Speaker C: Bad cloud. Bad. [00:40:39] Speaker B: That is bad cloud. That's a 13. [00:40:45] Speaker A: A 13. Oh, my gosh. Okay. [00:40:48] Speaker C: Is that a max? That's almost a max roll, right? [00:40:51] Speaker B: Almost, baby. [00:40:54] Speaker A: Okay. This thing only has. Has one hit point and one AC or whatever left. So tell me how you, like, obliterate this thing. Pretty much. [00:41:03] Speaker B: I think that this is not the first run in that Finn has had with these creatures. And I think that he knows that in every single storm and in every single cloud, there is a silver lining. And it's all a matter of precision. And you have to find the spot where to hit And I think that in that moment he finds that small piece, that small disturbance or crack in the stormling, and he chucks silver lining through it. And it goes through this creature and just sort of disperses, bisecting it. [00:41:40] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah, you kind of like slam that down. Does it feel like solid when you connect with it, do you think? Or is it like cutting through butter with a warm knife? That's the rest of the existence. [00:41:52] Speaker B: I think there was a time where it was a little more solid, but I think now it's just like cutting through butter. And he hits it, it bisects. And he turns to everyone else and he's like, are you guys okay? And then notices the other two. He's like, damn it. [00:42:07] Speaker A: There's just look for the spot. Oh, there's just the ice one left. [00:42:12] Speaker B: Sees the other one. Cool. He's the other one. He's like, look for the spot. Doesn't know how to explain it. [00:42:16] Speaker A: So, yeah. Awesome. And by now you've been able to rummage and break free your sandboard. What you gonna do with it? [00:42:25] Speaker C: Yeah, so my sandboard, AKA snowboard looking contraption for everyone else, but it basically just has like two ties that you just tie yourself into it, your feet into it, and you're not coming off that board. But instead I'm going to take. Take the two, like foot ties and like wrap one around one wrist and grab with the other. So it's almost like a shield in front of him now. And he's gonna jump in front, like run up and jump in front of Tesley and be like, hey, you good? And kind of hide it and be like, I'll provide cover. You, you swing, you raise, swing with that stick. And it's gonna basically use it so, like Tesli can sneak out from behind the COVID and hopefully get a good shot while protecting from both of us from any ice. Hail. Balls. [00:43:20] Speaker A: I dig it. [00:43:21] Speaker C: Hairballs. Golf balls. [00:43:23] Speaker A: Hail. That's really funny. [00:43:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:26] Speaker A: Awesome. Okay, great. It'll be one of the creatures turn. Finn, this last kind of like you've cut down so much of the excess, like cloud bits that it's like really small. It's kind of like the size of a guinea pig. We'll say, like, it's just kind of this like, small little thing, but it is fast and it is gonna kind of run at you and try and like gnaw on your ankle a little bit, will you? What gross, man roll. Do you think could be appropriate for a voice avoiding this thing? [00:44:00] Speaker B: For me to avoid this thing? Yeah, I unfortunately think it's skulker, which I don't want it to be unless you're okay with me trying to stomp on it for brute. [00:44:10] Speaker A: If you want to try and stomp on it, I will totally allow that. [00:44:13] Speaker B: I would love to try and stomp on it. [00:44:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:16] Speaker B: Cool. That's an eight. [00:44:21] Speaker A: An eight. Okay. The D. I want to say the difficulty score was a nine. So you are gonna take one little bite of nibble damage as it kind of like it's pointy lightning teeth. It feels like a really aggressive static shock. Like its teeth aren't actually like digging into your flesh. But you will take one point of harm since you were one off of that. Ow. Ouch. TOM AND JERRY voice Great. Okay, we will move into the next round. We have Ant in front of Tesley, providing a little extra coverage. So if there is any kind of like dodge roll or anything that needs to be made, I'll let you take a one for that. We have Finn, who is kind of kicking at a small gerbil sized stormling and this ice thing is freaking out. Yeah. Who has something they would like to do? [00:45:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I could. Yeah, definitely take that plus one to dodge. Out of the way. I am at half and then. Yeah. Do you want to get this one? [00:45:34] Speaker C: Are you. Are you talking to me as I look back real quick? [00:45:39] Speaker D: No, I'm talking to the thing about you. I'm talking to you. [00:45:44] Speaker C: Okay. And so Anne's gonna turn from shield to like double hand axe situation. Just like King Kong style. Come down on this. [00:45:57] Speaker A: That's so evocative. I love that. Yeah. Go ahead and roll me a brute. Check. It's difficulty score is only out of seven for now. Okay. [00:46:06] Speaker C: I have a plus zero to brute. [00:46:08] Speaker A: Oh, you have a plus one because you're using your tool. [00:46:12] Speaker C: Okay. My. My board is currently being bludgeoning instrument a basher. [00:46:18] Speaker B: So plus one, a basher. [00:46:21] Speaker C: Four, five, six, seven. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:25] Speaker C: Okay. So just I'm just clip them with it. [00:46:29] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:46:30] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm like, I'm afraid to break my board. So, you know, I don't go too hard right near the ground and I'm like, pull back. [00:46:36] Speaker A: Keep it chill. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna say it comes down hard and you're able to kind of push it off a little bit. It kind of scrambles for a minute before it kind of looks between the two of you, it looks at its little companion that's just kind of like, like over in the corner, little thunderous rumbles. Like teeny tiny Little ones. And it realizes that this is not a situation it wants to stick around to see the end of. And so it is going to turn tail, and it is going to start scrambling out of this canyon and off into the forest. Unless anyone has anything to say or do about that. [00:47:17] Speaker D: I want to journal about it a little bit. [00:47:21] Speaker C: I'm gonna write my feelings real quick. [00:47:24] Speaker A: It's research. [00:47:29] Speaker C: I mean, I did just attack, but I was like, I don't know if I want to, like, get away. I was gonna try to, like, opportunity attack as it runs away. I know that's not a thing in. [00:47:39] Speaker A: This, but you could maybe encourage Tessily, too, or someone. [00:47:44] Speaker C: Get it. Don't let it get away. If anyone would choose to. [00:47:49] Speaker A: I was gonna say, no pressure. Do what you want. Do what your character would do. [00:47:54] Speaker C: She would journal. Journal. [00:47:56] Speaker D: I'm a researcher, okay. [00:47:59] Speaker A: She's a lover, not a fighter. [00:48:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I can start journaling and then hear him say that. And then do, like, reflexive. Like, we're on the edge of, like, the thing, right? Or are we, like, where there's no. [00:48:12] Speaker C: We're in. We're in the canyon still, I think. [00:48:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So the canyon walls are kind of going up like this. The room you're in is that that kind of oval egg shape again. And the canyon walls kind of curve up around the side a little bit towards the top. So it's not like the level it's currently. Correct. You're in in the canyon. [00:48:34] Speaker D: Great. [00:48:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:36] Speaker D: I'll hit him with my foot. [00:48:39] Speaker A: Kick them. It's kind of climbing up the wall right now. [00:48:45] Speaker D: Can I smack one of my books in? [00:48:47] Speaker A: Sure. Get journal. Idiot. I love it. [00:48:53] Speaker B: Disc. [00:48:54] Speaker C: Chuck, that journal. [00:48:56] Speaker A: Inspired. [00:48:57] Speaker D: It's a nine. [00:48:59] Speaker A: A nine. Awesome. Yeah, that's gonna hit pretty solidly. It's gonna take it down, too. Yeah. There's this kind of, like, flutter of paper as this hurls through the air rather majestically, and it kind of smacks into this thing and hits the ground of the canyon. It kind of squeaks and scuttles again. Finn, you're up. You have a little. A little ankle biter going at ya. [00:49:26] Speaker B: I want to stomp on it. [00:49:28] Speaker A: Okay. Give it a stomp. I don't think there's any way that you could miss this, actually. You have to get a one. So stomping that. [00:49:37] Speaker B: Cool. I got. I got a 10 locked in this time. [00:49:44] Speaker A: No kill. Like overkill. Yeah. You bring your foot down, and there's this kind of, like, puff of, like, fog or steam as this thing Just kind of vanishes. [00:49:59] Speaker B: He's like, kind of like, like, you know when you try to hype yourself up before the big game. He's just sort of like like hopping in place a little bit. He's like ready to go. Awesome. [00:50:13] Speaker A: Cool. It is this creature's turn. And I think that it is going to scramble the rest of the way out of the canyon and disappearing off into the forest. But congratulations. You guys have survived your first ever tunnel goons combat. Hooray. [00:50:30] Speaker B: We were in a tunnel and there were goons. [00:50:32] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. That's insane. Who would have planned that? [00:50:41] Speaker C: Wow. Ruler. What are you called? The referee. [00:50:45] Speaker A: The ruler? Yeah. [00:50:49] Speaker C: The umpire. We're playing baseball, guys. [00:50:52] Speaker A: Safe. [00:50:53] Speaker B: It's golf. [00:50:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Thank you. The frisbee golf commentator. Do you have a referee in Frisbee golf? [00:51:04] Speaker B: That's a really good question right now. [00:51:07] Speaker A: I can't. [00:51:07] Speaker C: Ultimate Frisbee. So. Which is like the football of Frisbee. [00:51:16] Speaker A: It is a self refereed sport. Even in serious tournaments it is rare to involve officials. [00:51:24] Speaker C: Wow. [00:51:24] Speaker B: So I am your God. I'm joking. I'm kidding. Joking. [00:51:30] Speaker A: Self governed, you know, joke. [00:51:32] Speaker B: Teehee. [00:51:34] Speaker A: Awesome. Okay, you guys. Tesley's got a very sore bruise forming against her like shoulder. And Finn is still kind of like buzzing a little bit from that zapping bite. But you all kind of are catching your breath. You don't see any more of these little critters scampering about. [00:51:57] Speaker C: Ant just has like one curl slightly out of place. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:52:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:03] Speaker A: It's a good look. [00:52:04] Speaker C: Yeah. That was rough. [00:52:09] Speaker A: Brushes it out of his hairy. [00:52:14] Speaker B: Those things suck. Are you guys okay? Did any sort of seize Tesselly's bruise and was like. Yeah. You gotta be careful for those little shits. They just do that unfortunately. Yeah. [00:52:28] Speaker D: Learning it's fine. It's all part of it. Dinda. So. [00:52:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:39] Speaker C: Hey. Yeah. That's a step. [00:52:41] Speaker B: No one died. [00:52:41] Speaker C: I think so Ant is like regathering his pack that he chucked at one of them and making sure that nothing broke in there. It like he pulls out a mirror and is like, thank God. And puts the mirror back in. Like good. That didn't break. [00:53:02] Speaker A: That'd be seven years bad luck. You know. [00:53:06] Speaker B: If I look up at the sky, is there a storm cloud coming closer that these things came from or is it pretty like clear skied still? [00:53:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Great question. You are in a slot canyon. So the bit of sky that you can see is quite narrow right now. The sky looks mostly blue from what you can see. But it is starting to get kind of later in the evening. So it has taken on not later in the evening. The sun is beginning to go down. So you're starting to see the streaks of like pinks and oranges. The couple of normal looking clouds in the sky have this really lovely silver lining to them about now. Yeah. But you're not seeing any particular source for these stormlings. [00:53:53] Speaker B: I think that's more concerning than seeing the source. So Finn will turn towards Tessilian ant and we'll just say, I don't want to interrupt your journal time, but we should probably get inside at some point. Usually when there's one of them or two of them. Three. [00:54:15] Speaker C: There could be a third. [00:54:16] Speaker B: Three. Two. Three. Three. Two. [00:54:20] Speaker A: There were two. [00:54:21] Speaker B: Two. I can't see. I left my glasses at home. [00:54:29] Speaker A: I'm writing that down. And that will pass you in the future. [00:54:32] Speaker B: Okay. [00:54:33] Speaker A: I'm just kidding. [00:54:34] Speaker B: Sounds good. Usually when there's one or I guess two, there's more to follow. So I think we should keep moving. Not to tell you what to do, but I'm gonna keep moving. [00:54:46] Speaker C: Yeah. No, this looks like a dangerous place to get trapped in. [00:54:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:52] Speaker C: Ambush kind of situation. [00:54:55] Speaker D: Write down this information about there. If there are two or three, there are more as we're walking. [00:55:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Also, if you want information on them, I can just tell you about them. [00:55:08] Speaker D: Oh, absolutely. [00:55:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So he'll sort of start talking very loosely about the little that he does know about them as they are walking towards the sky. [00:55:22] Speaker D: Reader Soaking it all in. It's all going down on a pen and paper. [00:55:27] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah. You are able to kind of carry on through this canyon. It's starting to get like dark by the time that the slope kind of comes up and you come out from below, flat top of it, I guess, and exit the canyon entirely. And that kind of puts you at this little clearing. And just ahead is the foot of this big hill mountain thing Everyone at this point can see. Not necessarily the green roof as it is getting dark, but you can see some warm light coming from presumably a building up there. I think it was Ant who clocked the roof earlier. So you're able to kind of like, since you know what to look for, kind of piece it out a little bit. And you see there's a flight of steep stone stairs that kind of leads up to this building up there. It's tall, standing at about three stories of stacked logs. It kind of has a log cabin look to it. And the roof is a green shingled a frame peeking just shy of a stony overhang. Thick tall pillars hold up a balcony, and you can see various telescoping tubes and pipes peeking over the edge. Some regular telescopes as well, peeking over the edge toward the ocean, if you kind of are looking up at it. The door is painted a faded golden yellow color, and there's a pewter knocker that you can see dangling on the front of the door. You have arrived at the the home of the sky reader. And I think that that is where we will stop our very first session. Not session, very first episode. We're gonna play another chunk after this. We will at home. You'll have to wait a week anyway, so thank you all so much for listening. We'll catch you next week with the second part of this little mini series. And bye. [00:57:30] Speaker B: Goodbye, Sa.