Elephant in the Room

**"Elephant in the Room"** is the sixteenth episode of *Mountain of Mystery*, airing on June 27, 2023.

The session was DMed by TanisJr93 and hosted on his channel on Twitch.

## Summary

*...continued from session fifteen*
Having reached the southern border of the Labenda Swamp on their way to the town of Berleben, the party proceeds through the wetlands for two hours with little difficulty, as Trouble walks nimbly across the surface of the mud; she and Aboukir guide the group while Sado surreptitiously flanks them and Kahlan and Lazarus guard the rear. As they continue, Lazarus notices a hissing sound to the group's left, and spots ripples on the surface of the water moments before Aboukir hears a nearly imperceptible shift in the water to the group's right; he grabs Trouble and pulls her out of the way immediately before a crocodile emerges from the swamp, and the Druid attempts to negotiate with the creature, offering it her breakfast leftovers which Aboukir flavors with seasoning from his spice pouch. The crocodile accepts the food before calling out to another crocodile, which emerges from the swamp and advances toward the group, passing Sado without noticing him; Kahlan offers her breakfast leftovers as well as Prints and Lazarus offer some of their rations, and after feeding the crocodiles for ten minutes, the creatures retreat into the swamp, leaving the party to pass unharmed.

The group reaches Berleben shortly after midday, finding the town half-sunken into the surrounding marsh and swarming with insects, and they head to The Drowned Nest inn to rent four rooms for the night from innkeeper Uma Cole. She asks if the party has come to Berleben looking for trouble, and Lazarus jokes that they brought Trouble with them, after which Aboukir picks up the Druid by the back of her collar;
Trouble furiously demands to be put down, and the Mammothari eventually obliges as the innkeeper explains that Starosta Carliyle Vesperwind has left most of the governance of the town to Idolmaster Julienne Droogba, who can be found near one of the shrines.

The group wanders the town for about an hour before finding the Idolmaster at the temple of the Dawnfather; she identifies them as adventurers, and they confirm that they have come to confront the dragon, having followed a flyer posted in Zadash. She explains that the reward for slaying the dragon keeps decreasing because the town has less to offer the longer the creature lairs nearby; Aboukir hypothesizes that the flyer might instead be a way of luring in adventurers as an offering to the dragon, and Trouble agrees that such a plan would actually be smart. The Idolmaster questions whether anyone in the group has ever killed a dragon before, and they realize that Aboukir is the only one among them who has; she assures them that they will be paid the 15,000 gold that their flyer offered if they succeed in killing the dragon, and may keep a portion of the creature's hoard.

Julienne confirms that the dragon is not old enough to be considered ancient, and offers the group a hand-drawn map with X's indicating areas that have been attacked as well as a circle with a question mark; she explains that the dragon has been seen burrowing into the marsh, and admits that much of the town sits on top of swampy tunnels. Aboukir then requests eleven goats and is granted six by the Idolmaster, who also confirms that she has neither a political rival in Berleben nor a nephew that she doesn't like. Trouble reminds Aboukir that she can both summon goats and turn into one, at which point the Mammothari cups the Druid's chin and tells her that she won't want to be a goat for his plan, after which Trouble threatens to attack Aboukir if he touches her again.

Lazarus interposes himself between them as Kahlan announces that the group needs food, drink, and sleep after their time on the road, and Aboukir retreats to the inn as Kahlan, Trouble, and Lazarus visit The Fungal Fount apothecary to shop for supplies. They encounter Smithe Durban, who offers them two potions of healing for 100 gold each, but they decline, instead purchasing the supplies to brew their own potions for 75 gold; Kahlan also trades the Owlbear feather she recovered in the Pearlbow Wilderness for a 6 gold discount, giving the money to Trouble. Smithe also requests that the group collect some of the dragon's acid after defeating it, offering them three enchanted vials to hold it and promising a good price for the material; they agree, and return to the inn to eat dinner, after which Lazarus, Prints, Kahlan, and Trouble settle into one room, Sado takes another, and Cash retires to a third.

Kahlan prays to Kord for safety and guidance, after which Trouble demonstrates how to use an herbalism kit, and the two of them successfully brew three more potions of healing: they give one to Prints and one to Lazarus, after which Kahlan visits Aboukir's room to give him the third potion and a large tankard of ale. She assures him that he does not need to seclude himself from the rest of the group, but advises him not to touch or pick up Trouble without her permission anymore; he agrees, and Kahlan invites him downstairs for another drink.

Reading his copy of *In the Belly of Dragons*, Lazarus recalls a conversation he had with his father the night before the team left Zadash: after having taken an elixir of alert repose following open fight night at the Empyrean Arena, he had remained downstairs in the dining room of The Hearth Inn reading his book. His father had ventured downstairs from his room at about two o'clock in the morning, and Lazarus had ordered two shots and a tankard of water, drinking the two shots himself and delivering the water to his father. They discussed Shiloh's team's original name before Lazarus manifested his wings, and Shiloh explained that his son's Aasimar heritage was likely a result of his service to the Stormlord. Lazarus then asked what had happened with Cash's father and Prints's father, and learned that the means by which their team had defeated the multiversal monstrosity had required New Moon to sacrifice himself; Shiloh had agreed to strike the killing blow, but Jean had interfered, stabbing the Tabaxi in the back instead. Lazarus marveled at his father's strength, and promised to walk with his team through the gates of the hells if that is what is required to keep them safe; Shiloh then returned to bed, after which Lazarus and the barkeeper jokingly discussed how much of *In the Belly of Dragons* was actually true.

While Trouble sleeps, she experiences a dream of her warren beneath the tree in the Savalirwood; she feels the presence of the fragment of the multiversal consciousness, and realizes that it is lost and disoriented within the fractured labyrinth of her mind. Surmising that her mind is the safest place for the shard of the entity to inhabit, she wakes up laughing hysterically.

The next morning, the party eats breakfast before meeting a middle-aged Halfling man who delivers the six goats that Aboukir requested, explaining that he briefly saw the dragon once. The group precedes back into the Swamp north of the town with little difficulty, reaching the banks of the River Ounterloch by midmorning to arrive at the location of the most recent attack; Lazarus soon notices a small black cat sitting on an exposed root, and watches as it fades briefly before reforming. He manages to connect telepathically with the cat, and hears the word: "Follow." Trouble then attempts to communicate with the creature, and notices that the creature is exerting a great amount of effort to maintain itself as she hears it say in Sylvan: "Follow. Help."

The group follows the cat while remaining cautious, and are eventually led to a muddy clearing where the cat almost completely fades before Trouble notices the dead body of a half-elven man wearing robes; the cat thanks the Druid in Sylvan before disappearing entirely. Aboukir notices the remains of a spellbook that appears to have been destroyed by acid, as well as a set of deep footprints leading to the body and then leading away from it. Prints then notices the transparent figure of the dead man nearby as the spirit of the cat leaps into his arms; the figure approaches her and extends his hand, and she takes it, feeling the same icy sensation and radiating warmth as the spirit and the cat disappear and the fur of her paw and foreleg turns black. The party gathers the man's body, which bears the markings of a dragon bite, and Aboukir surmises that the dragon is large enough to pick up someone of his own size. Prints and Trouble cast the *Mold Earth* to create a grave on an elevated patch of ground, and Kahlan notices a necklace bearing the symbol of Kord as the body is laid to rest; Trouble recovers three gold, seven silver, and a pouch of components from the body as Cash performs funerary rites, and Lazarus confirms that the necklace should be left on the body rather than taken.

Moments after burying the man, the group is attacked by a squad of kobolds: Lazarus kills one immediately with a psychic dagger, and Aboukir telekinetically pulls one that appears to be their leader toward him, striking him with his trunk. Trouble *wildshape*s into a crocodile, and Prints unexpectedly fires a pair of *Eldritch Blast*s, killing a second kobold and injuring a third; another kobold attacks Aboukir as Cash casts *Toll the Dead* on the leader, who retaliates by casting *Burning Hands* against the Genasi, the Mammothari, and the Goliath. Sado then leaps from his hidden position, attacking and grappling the leader before another kobold manages to strike him.

Lazarus strikes the kobold who attacked the monk with a pair of psychic daggers as Aboukir uses Cash as a bludgeon to attack one kobold, grapples another with his trunk, and kills a third with a devastating blow from his warhammer; Trouble bites the kobold that had attacked Aboukir and drags it into the water, prompting another kobold to flee the fight as Prints casts *Aganazzar's Scorcher*, killing two more kobolds. Cash attempts to cast *Toll the Dead* on the leader again, but the creature *Counterspell*s it before *Misty Step*ping out of Sado's grasp and casting a brutal *Fireball* that strikes Prints, Kahlan, Cash, Lazarus, and Aboukir, as well as one of his own kobolds. Kahlan then advances on the injured kobold, killing it with a pair of devastating scimitar attacks.

Sado then manages to grapple the leader again and deliver a headbutt that disorients the kobold.

*...continued in session seventeen*
## Notes

* The events of the session occurred on 27-28 Cuersaar 839 PD, with a flashback to the 25th of Cuersaar.
* The session featured 13 natural 20s, including one by every player character.
* The episode shares its title with the 72nd episode of Campaign One of *Critical Role*.
* Alternate titles for the episode include, but are not limited to:
	+ "The Heat and the Grossness"
	+ "Food's Talking to Me"
	+ "This Lopsided Backwater"
	+ "The Gates of the Hells"
	+ "It's Hammer Time"

## Quotes

* "You know, there was this one time, I was in a dungeon, yeah? Yeah? And I managed to bluff my way past by selling a dragon some real estate. Forty-seven gold of his own money on something that was technically already his." – Aboukir Hogue
* "This is a very displeasanty place." – Aboukir Hogue
* "Mister Aboukir: I don't know how to phrase this question, but I guess the closest I can come is... Why are you like this?" – Trouble
* "I am not a child! Put me down!" – Trouble
* "Adventurers will never cease to confuse the shit out of me." – Julienne Droogba
* "I need eleven goats." – Aboukir Hogue
* "Aboukir: I'm pretty sure the most annoying people in her life right now are us." – Lazarus Oldman
* "Aboukir: I can summon goats! And I can turn *into* goats!" – Trouble
* "There goes the elephant in the room." – Lazarus Oldman
* "Good luck! Try not to die and stuff!" – Smithe Durban
* "I don't understand money. Why do we do this? Why not just– I have the shiny thing; I hand the shiny thing to the crazy man; the crazy man gives me things; I give you things." – Trouble
* "That's likely my fault. Back when we were adventuring around, I was... involved with the church, uh... of the Stormlord, and I was... not... Ah, fuck it: I was powerful. And because of that, I guess a little bit of that divine energy kind of bled through. And here you are." – Shiloh Oldman
* "When... When we were facing that thing, we tried many ways to get rid of it. Many of them went wrong; some of them went horribly wrong, and we were running out of options. New Moon, through his own wild magic genius, said he found a way, but to do it... If we did it, he wouldn't survive. We knew he wouldn't be able to do it himself, because the power inside of him, once he had it inside, wouldn't let him, so it had to be one of us. As the one in the group who took it upon himself to keep them alive, I decided it would be me, and the rest of the group agreed. We all agreed it would be me. And when the time came, and I looked at Moon, my hammer in my hand, Jean stabbed him in the back and killed him. He took that from me. It was supposed to be me, and I will never forgive him for that." – Shiloh Oldman
* "I cannot imagine... the strength that you have to possess. Because we're all running around out here – I don't know why I lost my accent, dad; it's weird – we're running around out here; we're all willing to sacrifice our own lives to protect each other and protect everyone, and... I can't imagine the ability to allow someone else to sacrifice themselves. To be willing to help someone else sacrifice themselves if that's what is required. I don't think that's a strength I'll ever have." – Lazarus Oldman
* "I'll promise you one thing: I will walk side-by-side with Prints, and with Cash, and with Sado, and Kahlan, and Trouble, and Aboukir all the way through the gates of the hells if that is what is required." – Lazarus Oldman
* "Oh! Oh dear! Um, is it– is it alive enough?" – Trouble
* "The color of my father is not very important." – N3rdyTeacher
* "What you all don't know is that this is an elite force of rabid fighting goats." – Aboukir Hogue
* "Can't *Counterspell* a foot!" – TanisJr93
* "Stop it, you peasants!" – Sado Thuliaga

## Episode

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