Season 5 Episode 23

**Synopsis:** They take the opportunity of a quiet, shared camp fire to try to extract more information out of the wizard. A bout of collective amnesia has lead to them forgetting his name of Mallerthil, and instead thinking he is called Fizzbort. Ronnie, in command as always, takes the lead in the interrogation. Unfortunately, Fizzbort-the-once-Mallerthil has little more to offer. He just reiterates that they must begin to look for a way down to the lower levels. From interrogating a guard, though, he did learn about one possible way down. If they can get to the center of the keep there is a royal hall with a throne. The throne room has been overgrown with some type of magical growth. If they can get behind the growth there is a place where they can descend deeper into the lower levels. They can take this hall farther to the NW to eventually get to the “big doors," royal doors where guards once stood. There may also a less direct series of rooms and passageways which would take them to the same destination. His understanding is that sometimes the arch lich visits his old throne room, but that mainly he’s in his lower levels scheming.

As he finishes relaying this, the lava starts to glow and give off a strange mist, so our heroes rightly hightail it back out into the hall to restart their journey. Peaking up the hallway they see that further ahead it curves in opposite directions. One direction seems seriously obstructed by branches while the other seems more clear. Fizzbort-the-once-Mallerthil decides to send Fidge in the unobstructed direction to check for guards, but only lasts a minute or so before getting smushed. "50-60 guards that way," Fizzbort-the-once-Mallerthil relates to the group. The way of the magical growth it is!

As they get closer they see branches sprouting from the walls and floor, and parts of the ceiling have caved in. This way seems quite hazardous but possibly passable. Lucas notes that this was one of the main halls leading to the Royal Hall and is shaken by how much things have changed. The group is more than a bit intimidated by the path forward, but as is becoming increasingly frequent, Winnifred steps up with the perfect spell for the job. She relates that she can talk to plants, possibly garnering their help and making it easier to move through them. Dr Uid, half plant himself, can only match her growing powers.

They decide to work in tandem. First, Winnifred will make her way a bit down the hall, cast her spell, allowing Dr Uid to get a bit further along to cast his, and eventually they should make it all the way down this long, multiple city block length hallway. The plan starts out well, and Winnifred takes the opportunity to use her massive charisma to become friendly with the plant, but quickly enough disaster strikes! It turns out that the vines were holding up the ceiling, and as our heroes spells cause the vines to recede, the ceiling begins to come crashing down!

Everyone is able to dive out of the way except Lucas. When the dust clears, he is nowhere to be seen. Qweep dives onto the pile of rubble, digging furiously to find their new friend. Eventually he uncovers a hand, and the group clears away the remaining rubble to reveal Lucas, his legs trapped under a huge chunk of stone. After a failed attempt they eventually manage to get him out from under the stone to see that his legs are mangled and he is quickly bleeding out. They rush to bind his wounds and heal him, pulling him back from death's door. His legs are completely mangled, though, his right leg of pancake thickness and missing his left foot. He remains unconscious. Jolly, a true follower of the Silver Flame, offers to take the burden of carrying Lucas on his back.

With additional caution they continue the plan. Dr Uid moves as far as he's able and asks the plant to recede in just the right way so that the way forward is opened but the ceiling remains supported. The plant begins to recede, but sends some violent imagery into Dr Uid's mind. He's able to snap out of it just in time to dive out of the way of some falling ceiling stones. The path forward has been revealed, but it quickly ends in what seems to be an impenetrable wall of vines.

The group moves forward, and Winnifred's charisma wins the day. She compliments the plant on the purplish pink hue of its thorns and offers to write an epic poem about it. Overwhelmed by the flattery, a tunnel opens up in the vines, guiding them directly to the doors of the Royal Hall.