Episode 14

**On Episode 14 of There Will Be Dungeons!**

Vorel awakes from a deep sleep, early in the morning, sensing deep vibrations in the earth. As he looks up through the window of the party's room at Laddlebing's Hotel, he sees a giant eye staring at him through the window. An enormously loud voice booms "Where's my shiny!", and a giant hand crashes through the wall of the building to grab Vorel.

Vorel looks up and finds himself staring at the head of a huge cyclops, and realizes he's clenched in the fist of the creature, nearly 60 feet off the ground. He tries to reason with the monster - informing him that he has no idea what the monster's "shiny" is, and that he definitely doesn't have it.

The cyclops proclaims that Tylander stole his "shiny"...and that Vorel smells like Tylander, but doesn't look like Tylander. He also says that he's been tracking Tylander across the desert, which has brought him to the town.

Nash, attempting to assist, convinces the creature to pick him up and lower him to the ground, so they can help him find Tylander. Meanwhile Hope, hearing the ruckus, has jumped from bed at the Buxom Confederate and raced into the streets to see what is going on.

The noise has also brought out Sheriff Randy Clementine, who informs the monster that he has to leave town immediately. Stanley tries to reason with Clementine, pointing out that very little that the Sheriff could do would injure the monster. Vorel then asks what Tylander looks like, and as the monster describes him, Hope realizes that the description closely matches that of "Robert", whom Vorel had beaten badly the previous evening, before having the man drug off to the town jail.

Randy Clementine heads off to the jail to retrieve "Robert", while Nash distracts the monster by casting several fire bolt spells to entertain it. Hope joins in the fun by altering some of the colors in Nash's fire bolts through her thaumaturgy, building trust between the monster and the party.

Randy Clementine returns with "Robert", who the cyclops immediately recognizes as Tylander. "Robert" attempts to convince the sheriff and the party that he's not Tylander, but the monster is unconvinced. As the cyclops attempts to pick up "Robert", Sheriff Clementine suddenly fires off his pistol, shooting the monster in the eye. The creature responds by smashing a huge hand onto Clementine, flattening him in a spray of blood and viscera. The cyclops then turns back to "Robert", who vanishes into thin air before their eyes!

Hope quickly searches around and notices footsteps and dust leading back down the street towards the intersection of Heaven and Hell streets. Nash, Vorel, and Hope begin to run towards the intersection, with the cyclops following them. As they arrive at the intersection, they stop to take in their surroundings...and find that the footprints have suddenly multiplied...there are now four sets of tracks, each leading off in opposite directions! As they stop to try and determine which direction "Robert" may have gone, the monster continues down Heaven street - quickly exiting town and disappearing into the distance.

After casually making his way out of Laddlebing's Hotel, Stanley joins Nash and Vorel  at the intersection as they attempt to determine which direction the real tracks lead off in. Hope, meanwhile, has continued to run ahead...following a hunch that the man has headed back to the house on Thorn Row, that he had admitted as his home.

As Hope approaches the house, she sees the trail of footsteps she has been following disappears through the front door of the house. She opens the front door and takes a step into the house, and is assaulted with the horrible stench of death and decay. She is briefly overwhelmed by the odor, and steps back from the entrance. Wedging the door open, and smashes most of the first-floor windows to try and release the stench. As she round the back of the house, she finds a rear door, which she also wedges open.

Returning to the front door, she is rejoined by Nash, Vorel, and Stanley. Hope informs the rest of the group that there is a horrible smell emanating from the house. Hope takes a moment to wrap a piece of cloth around her face to ward off the smell, while Stanley uses prestidigitation to create a "pleasant smell" which will linger under the noses of himself, Vorel, and Nash.

They enter the building, following the horrid stench up a set of stairs to the second floor. Realizing that they have left the front door unguarded, Stanley heads back down the stairs to ensure that no one sneaks up behind them. As he goes to leave, Nash utters "weenie" to Stanley, who in retaliation removes his magic negating the horrid smell. He the heads back downstairs, which also has the unintended effect of removing the magic protection from Vorel - and both he and Nash nearly begin vomiting due to the horrific odor.

At the top of the stairs is landing with a closed door. Undeterred, Vorel smashes the door open, releasing a new wave of the horrid stench of putrefaction.  A hugely bloated body lies on the floor of the room, clearly having been left in a state of decay for several weeks. Finally unable to hold back, Nash releases a huge stream of vomit and escapes back out to the landing outside the room.

Vorel and Hope continue into the room, which besides from the body, contains an open chest, bed, and nightstand. Vorel crosses the room, and begins smashing out windows to help control the stench...which abates slightly, allowing Nash to join them.

On the nightstand, Vorel picks up a note that has been left there and hands it to Hope, who reads it aloud:

*"Timber, tell The Jeweler that time is milk, and we have waited long enough." Signed; The Red Scarlet.*

Hope, continuing to the body, begins to examine it. The bare chest of the corpse appears to have been hastily cut open in a strange "L" shape, and then stitched shut. Taking a knife from Nash, she opens the wound and looks inside. Finding nothing inside the chest cavity, she suddenly looks at the underside of the flap of skin, and sees a strange glyph that glows with a sickly green light. Before her eyes it begins to pulse strangely...and a huge blast emanates from the glyph, blowing her and Vorel away from the body and showering them with acid!

Recovering first, Vorel sees that the room is beginning to smoke and dissolve around them. Grabbing the chest, he quickly heaves it out of the window. He then turns to Hope who is still dazed from the explosion, and grabs her, running out the door and down the stairs. Before he can make it down the stairs, they rickety staircase gives way under their combined weight, with Vorel sinking through one of the treads.

Stanley, hearing the explosion and commotion, heads back towards the stairs and nearly collides with Vorel. He, Hope, and Nash successfully extricate Vorel from the staircase, and head back downstairs.

While Hope, Stanley, and Nash recover briefly, Vorel heads outside and retrieves the chest. Within it they find several hundred gold pieces, a revolver with the name "Freedom" etched on the side, a flyer advertising a group referred to as "The Liberators", and a sketch of a very regal looking woman with the name "Catherine" on the bottom of the drawing.

After taking a brief rest, the party takes stock of their situation. There is a set of tracks in the dust of the kitchen floor leading to a cabinet...but nothing within the cabinet. Vorel moves the cabinet aside, exposing an opening with a set of stairs behind the cabinet. Vorel takes the lead and begins heading down the stairs. Nearly instantly, a loud "click" can be heard. The stairs suddenly flatten into a ramp, and a large quantity of oil falls from the ceiling! Losing his footing, Vorel begins to slide down towards the bottom, where a large spike awaits! Unable to avoid the trap, Vorel impales his leg on the spike horribly injuring it. Worse, the flaming lantern that Vorel was carrying falls to the floor, lighting the oil!

Seeing Vorel disappear down the stairs, Hope, Stanley, and Nash attempt to reach Vorel through a human chain - but suddenly see fire bursting forth from the bottom of the slide. They quickly pull back, barely missing the fiery blast that launches up the stairway.

Vorel extricates himself from the spike, and levers himself up onto a small ledge in the stairwell. He shouts up to the rest of the party that he's OK and the fire has gone out, and it's safe to proceed down into the stairwell. Stanley casts a feather fall spell on the group, and they drop down to join Vorel.

At the bottom of the stairwell, is a large open area that appears to be some sort of madman's laboratory. Candle stands can be seen scattered around the room, and bizarre paintings cover the walls that portray various scenes of demons and demonic activities. Joining the paintings are what appear to be mutilated human corpses - their eyes, fingers, and toes removed, and the bodies hung on the wall. In the center of the room is fire pit, with an enormous black cauldron suspended above it. Beyond the room is a darkened hallway, leading away from the room.

Approaching the cauldron, they find there is some sort of thick black liquid in the cauldron, with unidentifiable solid objects floating in it. Rooting around, Nash finds a large spoon and fishes around in the liquid...finding some eyeballs and fingers, and a strange necklace. Nash examines the necklace and senses that it definitely is a magical item of some sort, with 5 red gems dangling from individual chains hanging from it. Clearly, this is the "shiny" that the cyclops has been looking for.

While the party is examining the rest of the room, a tinny noise can be heard from nearby - possibly down the darkened hallway. After quickly taking cover, fearing a trap, they regroup and begin moving down the  hall. They also begin to realize that the hallway and rooms beyond likely extend beyond the boundaries of the house above them, likely representing a larger network of room and tunnels.

At the end of the hallway, is another room of horrors. The room appears to be lined with prison cells, and a large slab of stone in the middle. On the slab is a body with a strange cylinder next to it, and strange tubes leading from the cylinder into the body. On the opposite side of the room is another doorway, with a light coming from beyond it, and a desk with the shadowy shape of a person sitting at the desk.

Approaching the corpse, Hope suddenly recognizes it as the mutilated remains of Randall Owen, the toes and fingers removed, eyeballs pulled out. The body appears to be only recently killed...perhaps only in the past 12 hours. Hope's eyes glaze over and turn a dark inky black, as she enters a cold rage having recognized the corpse of her dead friend and employer. She begins rooting around the room, looking for the implements that might have been used on her friend, muttering as she finds something to her liking, "This is going to be fun"...

While Hope is rooting around the room, the rest of the party notice movement from the room further down the hall. Quickly, Vorel and Hope begin to move down the hallway, while Nash and Stanley hang back to cover them from behind. Moving quietly and quickly up behind the shadowy shape that appears to be sitting in a chair at the desk - Vorel springs forth slamming the chair to the ground. Looking down at the chair, he notices that the shadowy form belongs to a small gnome with brown flowing locks that looks very familiar. He then notices that the form is bound hands-and-feet to the chair, and has a cloth tied over its mouth. Fearing a trap, Vorel dashes back down the hallway, and into the room with Nash and Stanley.

Hope begins to move forward towards the tied up body, but before she can take a step, a strange green smoke begins to fill the room. She reaches down to grab the rope binding the gnome to the chair, and her hand passes through the gnome and smacks into the chair...realizing that the gnome is an illusion, Hope lets lose a roar of anger and frustration.

The smoke that began filling the room begins to move from the study area down the hallway and through the room with Vorel, Nash, and Stanley, and towards the room with the cauldron in it. The party turns to follow as quickly as they can - Vorel leading the rush back towards the room with the cauldron. But before he can make it into the room, a huge portcullis slams down into the ground in front of Vorel, trapping them!

The green smoke coalesces into the form of a man, who stands very smugly before them. He announces that he, Tylander Sullivan, has yet again defeated them and has now trapped them!  He then turns around, and lights the fire beneath his cauldron. He proclaims to the party that they are about to see the greatest feat of magic known to man, and begins to speak in a strange tongue and gesture oddly towards the cauldron.

In an effort to stop Tylander, Stanley casts Hideous Laughter, but is unsuccessful with this horrible dad joke. Tylander continues casting, but a look of confusion crosses his face. Turning to the party he asks "What did you do?", then turns to the cauldron and plunges his hand into it. Realizing that the necklace has been removed, he proclaims "Ah, you found what I took from that oaf Orp...which one of you has it?" and threatens them with death if they do not return it. He then tells him that the purpose of his ritual is to summon the "Soul Broker", which Hope recognizes as demonic name.

Refusing to return the necklace, Tylander begins to gesture and weave magic, focusing on the corpses hanging on the walls. As he completes his casting, the bodies begin to burst forth with spikes, and animate, pulling themselves off the walls!