311: The Head Sack

## Summary

An announcement suggests their host's name might actually be the distinctly less inviting *Captive-Eating* Coyote, and so it seems the party will be forced to play the carnival games in order to escape. A hidden door through one of the mirrors leads to a stomach-churning, gravity-defying, spinning tunnel, and then a huge hall of mirrors. Their reflections are odd, occasionally appearing as disturbing alternate versions of themselves. They quickly get lost in the maze and are then attacked by a huge mirror monster.

## Synopsis

As Rosco collapses to the ground with poison darts sticking out of him, a party horn sounds and a booming voice announces, *"Can you make it through? A wonderful prize awaits you! An audience with me, the Captive-Eating Coyote!"* The party realise they must have misheard the coyote's name up until now and suddenly this feels like a wholly different situation. The darts are plucked from Rosco's body and Raphina heals him, while Will stalks back to the room at the entrance. He finds that the giant coyote head's mouth is now shut tight. It seems completely solid and immoveable, so he tries firing off an *Eldritch Blast*, but it just ricochets off without leaving a mark. He takes out his frustration on the taxidermied coyote, eventually ripping it's head clean off.

   The trapped door that Rosco had triggered reveals only a brick wall behind it. Batthwack charges at it with his shoulder, thudding into it heavily, but it's solid. Will arrives back in the mirror room and tells them all that they're trapped. It seems they're going to have to play along and solve this puzzle if they're going to get out of here. Batthwack begins hunting through the stuffing inside the taxidermied head (it's empty, except for the coyote's skull), and then they investigate the mirrors. They stand on the footprints marked on the floor looking at their crazy reflections, but nothing happens. Both middle mirrors, the normal ones, can in fact be passed right through, it's discovered. Batthwack walks through one and finds its completely pitch-black behind it, despite his *Robe of Eyes*. Rosco sticks his head through the other, and sees a spiralling cylindrical tunnel of blue and green stripes, with a door at the other end. Oddly though, the door is positioned near the top of the tunnel.

Batthwack steps in and attempts to run up the side of the tunnel, which in fact requires no effort whatsoever. He even stops when he reaches the top and continues to spin round with the tunnel, gravity apparently having no effect on him. The others join him, and it is incredibly trippy. Batthwack and Rosco are overcome by the queasiness, but everyone is able to make their way to the other end and reach the door. Going through, they find themselves in what seems like an endless hall of mirrors. Floor to ceiling mirrors surround them in every direction and stretch off as far as they can see.

    The party begin to rummage through their packs and try to think of ways to navigate this mind-bending maze. Raphina pulls out her prayer beads, and Will his chalk. Batthwack recalls the spinning tunnel and thinks of another way to add a little colour around here. However, they find that no mark can be left on the mirrors, which seem to magically clean themselves a few seconds later. Nor can Batthwack break one with his shield; they're more solid than the bricked up doorway in the other room. The other odd thing is that occasionally one of the mirrors shows altered reflections of each of them, but when they turn to look properly, the reflections suddenly go back to normal. Batthwack's altered image shows him wielding two huge axes and wearing full plate armour with a helm covering his face. His eyes are two glowing red spots. Will is occasionally reflected as clean shaven and with completely white hair. Raphina's weird reflection shows her foaming at the mouth, with a ruined eye half hanging out. And Rosco occasionally looks like he's in his early 20s, stick thin and naked, his modesty only protected by some leaves. *"I haven't looked this way in years, but this is accurate. This is the way I used to be,"* says Rosco. Will suddenly catches a glimpse of something else reflected in the mirrors, perhaps there is another entity in this maze with them. Will even tries interacting with the mirrors using the book in which they'd apparently seen images of their futures, but nothing seems to happen.

Rather than being perturbed, Rosco's actually quite taken with these glimpses of his younger self and wanders off into the maze searching for more of them. The others follow. They wind their way around until they think they see one of the mirrors moving. When Will yells *"Hey!"*, it echoes ominously in the quiet. Rosco sings a childlike tune as he continues to aimlessly pick his route through the maze. Will grabs Rosco by the coat and slaps him, and he does seem to snap out of his stupor. Batthwack however, has drawn his sword and seems obsessed with trying to stalk his altered reflection. *"Don't you feel it? They're getting closer,"* he says ominously. It begins to feel more and more that they've lost their sense of direction.

Will turns and suddenly realises that a hulking figure is standing right next to him. It's a head and a half taller than him and has the appearance of being made entirely of shattered diamonds. It raises its claw to take a swipe at Will and Batthwack flings a javelin which glances off its shoulder. The dragonborn charges in with his sword, but the blade is turned away by the creature's glassy exterior. The party are totally confused, surrounded by multiple reflections of themselves, the creature and each other. Whatever part of Rosco's subconscious it was that went into a dream earlier, now casts *Unseen Servant*, which takes a loose thread from his torn coat and carries it to the monster, leading Rosco right to it.

Will instinctively ducks away from the creature and casts *Invisibility* on himself and Batthwack, which immediately makes things a little less confusing for the others. However, no sooner has he done this, than the creature suddenly splits into two, creating a mirror image of itself. Raphina, who has been sitting, skulking on the floor, now casts *Thaumaturgy* and unleashes an almighty top A, the intense reverberating sound causing cracks to appear in the second mirror monster. Then both creatures turn to look directly at Raphina.

## Quotes

* Abby (when the players are faced with a tactical map containing three duplicate icons for each of them, Eric's experimental way of representing their reflections in the hall of mirrors): *"So which Will is he swiping at?"* Eric: *"You're not sure."* Abby: *"Oh, come on! ... Okay."* Eric: *"You're right. I doubt everything I've just done."*

## Trivia

* The episode title quotes Alex. Will angrily punched the taxidermied coyote's head off and brought it to show the others. Batthwack then pulled all the stuffing out to ensure there was nothing hidden inside. Will: *"Hey, that head is mine!"* Batthwack: *"What?"* KT: *"Is it all deflated-looking now?"* Alex: *"I'm gonna throw him the head sack."*
* It seems that the art of taxidermy is mostly just about preserving the skin of the animal, but *"a traditional method that remains popular today involves retaining the original skull and leg bones of a specimen and using these as the basis to create a mannequin made primarily from wood wool (previously tow or hemp wool was used) and galvanised wire."* See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxidermy#Traditional\_skin-mount
* *"Don't call me Shirley"* from *Airplane* (1980): https://youtu.be/ixljWVyPby0
* JGL's famous hallway fight scene in *Inception* (2010): https://youtu.be/X-KDt-G1pJ0
* *"Mummer's farce"*: https://phrasegeek.com/Mummers-Farce.htm
* *Man's Search for Meaning* by Viktor Frankl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s\_Search\_for\_Meaning
* *"Don't Blink!"* from a 2007 episode of *Doctor Who*: https://youtu.be/cwdbLu\_x0gY
* This week's episode description describes the Pork Fried Dice wiki as: G.O.A.T.

## Gallery

*Main article: The Art of Pork Fried Dice*

## References

1. ↑ See episode 284: Tusk Me In the Dick