S3 Ep3

**Full Episode**

The voice echoes throughout the chamber. The group turns to each other, uncertain for a moment. With no immediate threat appearing, they decide to venture on. Fin opens the door leading further into the dungeon, revealing a long hallway with a few branching paths. Immediately to the right and left are dark, narrow hallways. Straight ahead, the group sees a pit. Rory sends her echo scouting ahead, and it's a good thing too; about five feet before the obvious hole in the floor, the echo falls through the ground. Upon investigating, the group realizes that the "pit" is actually solid ground, surrounded on all sides by the real trap: an illusory floor disguises a real pit directly in front of, behind, and on both sides of the fake pit.

Stepping gingerly, Balthier and Val embark down one of the hallways and find a room filled with various crates. Inside are many humanoid arms, bloody and mangled. The lads, horrified, hear the voice once more: "Does this disturb you?" They call out to the voice and receive no further answer. They regroup and begin their tentative path down a different hallway, tossing rocks in front of them to catch any other pit traps. They narrowly avoid another trap and Fin rolls a solid -1 attempting to disarm it. Nevertheless, the group proceeds. They find the chamber straight ahead is saturated with standing water, and another door appears to lead deeper into the dungeon. Not ready to confront that yet, the group makes their way down the hallways to the left and right of the fake pit in the ground. Balthier checks the hallway to the left and, through a locked door that quickly becomes unlocked thanks to Bal’s badassery, he finds a room full of empty cages. One appears to be busted from the inside out, as if something broke out of it. Not keen to explore that on his own, Bal closes the door once more. Bal, Fin, and Rory explore the hallway to the right, while Snibbles and Val stay behind in the chamber with the standing water. Snibbles finds another drawing of the Lady of the Water/Lady of the Ocean, and begins to take notes. The Lady appears to wear a dress that vaguely resembles an octopus. Val asks Snibbles if his mother wore dresses like that; Snibbles responds that Celeste’s fashion sense was more earthy and less… octopusish. In the meantime, Bal, Fin, and Rory venture down the hallway to the right. They find a grizzly sight; less beautiful women clad in octopus dresses and more a prison, one cell containing a mangled corpse. The far cell, though, contains a very strange creature. It appears to be a small humanoid plant creature, barely smaller than Snibbles. At the sight of the body, Rory cries out, calling for Val and Snibbles to come help. While she helps them across the pit trap, Fin and Balthier attempt to communicate with the plant creature. It is awake and sentient, but does not appear to understand their language. Val uses his natural affinity for all things natural and gentle, and grows a pink blossom in his hands to give to the creature. The plant creature appears to appreciate the gesture, and the group sets to work freeing it from the cell. It walks out and attempts to move on its own away from the group, but they do their best to communicate with it: the way out isn’t safe, the halls beyond are filled with traps, and armed guards could still be laying in wait on the surface. It’s clearly difficult to communicate this though, seeing as how the creature doesn’t share any language with the group. It chatters on, indignant, clearly wanting to leave. After a very frustrating round of charades with Rory, though, the creature appears to understand and sticks with the group for the time being. Snibbles, the constant guardian of the group’s singular braincell, identifies the creature as a Vegepygmy, a plant-type race that typically has their own language. We all decide that we would kill or die to defend the Vegepygmy.

### Boss Fight! Boss Fight! Boss Fight!

With that, the group ventures into the final chamber. They are greeted by PriestGuy McPunchableFace, whose real name they’ve not had the pleasure of learning yet. The priest greets them jovially, and it takes just a moment to realize he’s surrounded by various cadavers on cots. On desks at the ends of the room, various chemicals bubble in flasks and beakers. Bal greets the priest, questioning him casually. The priests keeps up his act, lying blatantly to the group. Bodies? What bodies? He hasn’t seen any bodies! No one needs to make any insight checks to know that that’s bullshit. As the conversation wanes, Val gives Bal another kiss on the shoulder, casting Guidance. “Don’t miss,” Val whispers. I Won’t, the priest booms.

With that, combat begins! The priest puts up a great fight. When he’s hit for the first time, the priest transforms from his seemingly normal human form into a strange creature with grey skin, sharp teeth, and gills. He manages to escape some of their attacks by melting down into water. He stuns the majority of the party with a terrifying screech. Even the Vegepygmy goes down at one point. However, by this time, the party has had it up to their ears with this guy’s shit. Rory gets the finishing blow, stabbing him between the eyes as a reaction as he attempts to flee through an unseen crack in the wall. “Your lady is a bitch,” she hisses. The priest collapses, dissolving into water.

The group takes some time in the room to regroup. They study the cadavers, which seem to have various runes etched into their bodies and guts. Val makes sure their eyes are closed and uses his magic to help them decompose naturally. After a few moments though, the group notices that the water is beginning to gather on its own. It seems that the water that once made up the priest’s body is trying to reform. Bal, Fin, and Rory fill their waterskins with priest juice. Before leaving the room, Rory makes short work of the flasks using her pike; the room begins to fill with gas as the chemicals mix and mingle.

### Bittersweet Departure

And with that, the group ascends to the priest’s “private chambers”. The first thing they notice is the apparent lack of an ominous obelisk. Rory shoves a bookshelf onto the trapdoor leading down into the dungeon while the group listens for any sounds outside. They don’t hear any signs of a struggle in the temple’s larger chamber. The group takes their time a bit, preparing to fight their way past the Darklings. They search through the old books in the room, and Rory finds a particularly interesting historical tome about the old Elven kingdom, and Snibbles takes some books that don’t appear to be written in a language they understand.

Bracing themselves for the fight, the group advances into the larger chamber. They aren’t faced with hostile Darklings, however. The Darklings they left in the chamber have life in their eyes. They shakily ask what the group did to free them from the influence of the priest; upon hearing that the priest juice was last seen gathering once more, they are saddened, understanding that the priest is not actually dead. They assert that the group must leave immediately, before he returns. Rory asks one of the Darklings for their name, who,  after taking a moment to think, recalls that their name was Corvis. The Darklings begin to rush the group towards the beach. Fin pauses to grab a few rocks from the ruins of the old altar, and Rory rushes back to where the obelisk was. She takes her pike and begins to scratch the surface of the floor, attempting to scribble away the markings there, eventually breaking her weapon against the ground. Despite her strength, the markings remain unscathed.

On the way to the beach, the Darklings explain that the priest arrived on the island some time ago and “changed them”. They periodically appear to struggle against an unseen force, the blank look from before the priest’s temporary death taking over for moments at a time. As they approach the beach, they see at least a dozen Darkling gathered at their boat, working frantically to get it fixed. Rory pleads with the Darklings to allow one of their community to accompany them back to the Flotilla. The islanders all look to one Darkling in particular; they identify themselves as Carric Liadon, and they volunteer to go with the group.

Bal attempts to get the attention of one of the dogs, hoping to tempt it onto their boat with eel meat. However, that falls through, much to the dismay of chat. As the boat sails away with Carric and the Vegepygmy, Val creates an array of Dancing Lights in the air. “Watch for these lights,” he calls. “They mean hope.” The Darklings appear appreciative as the boat sails almost out of eyeshot. However, at the last moment, the crowd on the shore parts, and the familiar shape of the priest appears. He offers a single, punchable wave at the departing group.

### On The Road Again

The journey home to the Flotilla begins. The next three days are filled with little but conversation and an abundance of fog. Snibbles tosses some healing to Fin, who has escaped the island with a whopping 2 hitpoints. Val, Snibbles, and Rory stay up to chat a while; they regret not being able to enjoy their time on solid ground. However, they’re eager to return, bring a reckoning to the priest, and plant their feet on the island again. Val questions Rory about her echoes, pointing out that they don’t look exactly like her. When Rory looks at the echoes, though, she only sees herself. The differences that are apparent to the party are unnoticed by her. Snibbles gives her a mirror and she takes a moment to really look, finally noticing the difference between her and her crazy-eyed echo. It’s troubling for a moment, and Rory explains more details about the vision the obelisk gave her; seeing herself on a deathbed, her body devoid of life. Snibbles and Val express their excitement to build more memories together, to replace the ones Rory lost. They end their watch by reading the book Rory found. It tells of Carinth Isenthiir, the rebel mage to led an uprising against the old elven kingdom, as well as the history of that kingdom itself. When Val and Snibbles retire for the evening, replaced by Fin and Bal, Rory rushes to Fin to tell him all about what she’s learned of Carinth. Carric also wakes up and takes up a position at the front of the boat. Rory and Fin speculate on the origin of the Vegepygmy, and ask Carric whether the Darklings or Vegepygmy arrived on the island first. Carric isn’t sure; he remembers the priest arriving, and recalls that they thought he required help. They found themselves adhering to his every request until there was no more of themselves left. He recalls dreams haunted by whispers. Rory notes a similarity between the nature of the Darkling’s dreams and her own vision. Carric mentions the dreams featuring a “door that the water rushes through”. The whispers in the Darkling’s dreams often repeat, “Open and closed, open and closed. To catch your breath is to meet death. No one can open the door.” Fin reassures Carric that they will find the priest and kill him once and for all, citing that they have bottled up his watery corpse in their waterskins. Carric is horrified, urging them to get rid of it. At his assertion, Rory and Fin dump their waterskins into the ocean, ridding themselves of the priest. Hoping to help him relax, Fin and Rory invite Balthier over to tell Carric of the history of the Flotilla, translating as he speaks. Most of this particular recounting centers around the Sinclaire family, but Bal does mention that the most prominent family of the Flotilla is likely the House Valoris. The Valoris and Sinclaire families are mostly rivals, both vying for greater influence within the fleet.

With Bal’s story stretching long into the night, the morning arrives. The party is on course to meet up with the Flotilla, and though Carric and the Vegepygmy appear to struggle with some seasickness, the day is mostly uneventful. Val spends the day attempting to learn to communicate with the Vegepygmy, and makes a little progress. He learns that her name is Dicentra, and uses his newfound understanding of her language to communicate "Sorry about before". Bal and Rory spend some time talking about the Sinclaire family. Balthier explains that he hopes to be the one to find liveable land, as it would secure the legacy of the Sinclaires as the greatest family in this new, watery world. And so the fourth day of travel comes and goes uneventfully. Carric grows more and more restless throughout the fifth day, and at Snibble's revelation that they are headed towards yet more boats, he becomes seasick. Fin attempts to help him by throwing him overboard for a refreshing swim, but finds himself hurling into the water instead. He narrowly escapes a shower of vomit and re-boards. The group spends most of the day tending to Carric, who does eventually begin to feel better after soothing words from Snibbles and a Guidance spell from Val. To finish the day off, the group sits down for a nice game of "Go Fish". Snibbles spends some time deciphering one of the big, important looking books they found in the obelisk chamber. It's hard to understand, but they make some progress. Rory sits with Bal and begins to teach him elven-- however, the dialect she teaches (and speaks) is old and outdated. Dicentra grows more and more restless, and Bal subtly casts "Comprehend Languages". She appears to be ranting about not wanting to be on this boat anymore; she thanks them for their help but really just wants them to set her down at the nearest island. Not able to speak back to her or do anything to oblige her request, Bal keeps the information to himself. Dusk finally sets in, and as the group settles down for another long rest, they are greeted by yet another strange sight: a derelict, empty ship, floating aimlessly. The name on the side reads "The Ariadne". It appears the adventure is not yet over.

And that's where we left off last week on Dirty Twenty! We have video recaps as well as full episodes up on Kanoadaddy's Youtube Channel: just navigate to the top of the page and you'll find the links! See you on Friday!