Episode 190 - Becoming the Monster

Fanart of the "Banner of the true god"

## Intro

**Episode description:**
A proud moment for every DM

**Opening Quote:**
*"Uhm-"* - Lauren
*"Hi guys bye guys!"* - Sarah
*"-so-"* - Lauren

**Player introduction:**
**Lauren,** *"Hello and welcome to another episode of the Tabletop Champions, I'm Lauren your dungeon master and with me tonight we have Ben who plays Throden-"*

**Ben,** *"Hello!"*

**Lauren,** *"We have Kyle, who plays Irpaks-"*

**Kyle,** *"You're as dumb as a mule and twice as ugly. If a strange man offers you a ride, I say take it!"*

**Lauren,** *"What kind of r-never mind. Ah, Sean who plays Clover-"*

**Matt,** *"What kind of ride do you want?"*

**Sean,** *"I can't stop you if you wanna punch me, it might work."*

**Lauren,** *"Matt, who plays Fanel-"*

**Matt,** *"Who whises to fight must first count the cost."*

**Lauren,** *"And Stephanie, who plays Raquel."*

**Stephanie,** *"Why do you think I took you to all those Police Academy films? For fun?! I didn't hear anyone laughing! Did you?!"*

## Episode Summary

### Another night at The Khul Tavern

    The group spends another night at **The Khul Tavern**. **Clover** has won the *King of the Bar* competition, and Lacey hands him his prize: a long, beautiful wand in a wooden box. Clover casts an identifying ritual on it and learns that it is a *Wand of Pyrotechnics*.

The inn is abuzz with patrons playing jaunty tunes. When **Raquel** chimes in with tales of the many times that Aramel, the mythic *King of the Pirates,* has saved the realm, a story-off is called, and the patrons crowd around the party. Clover delivers the great story of a battle when his idol Colin single-handedly crushed 30 trolls to save three damsels. But the bar falls silent when **Irpaks** speaks up to regale the grand tale of how he came into nobility.

#### Irpaks' very unique story

> “*Well, gather around, for this is a tale about my life, and the topsy-turvy direction it's gone!
> So please, just give me a moment while you lie and I'll tell you a tale of how I became kown as the young emir of Carulon Skie.
> My youth was spent at ease and at play in a city of sibling friendship. We spent our time at leisure and playing child's games when a darkness grew across the land. The darkness brought with it a seedier crowd and a small but swift example worried my mother to the point of break.
> She insisted on a swift departure to the home of her sister's family, despite my many pleads otherwise. My arrival in the city set me aloof, until I noticed a carriage coach with the dice of my childhood and a crispness to its' sigil. I commanded my driver to deliver me to the castle.
> I looked at my kingdom: I had finally arrived, to sit on my throne, as the emir of Carulon Skie.*”
>
> —Irpaks[[source]]
>
>

With Irpaks stealing the show, the patrons are cheering him. Once the excitement has died down, **Throden** leaves the inn to check on his mycelial zombies. Clover notices, and secretly follows.

#### Throden's graves

Back at the barn behind the inn Throden immediately notices someone must have been trespassing: the door is ajar, his tarp is disturbed, and the hag zombies are gone. Out in the harvested corn fields, he spots a flaming flicker.

When he walks toward the field, the flicker grows into a giant pyre. At the center he sees the hag corpses standing, burning up. The fire seems controlled. The Drow zombie indicates the bite marks on its arm again. The Lizardfolk then casts mold earth to bury the remains of the hags, and orders his zombie into a third grave before clubbing it back to death. Clover, having witnessed it all, returns to the inn, haunted.

The Mousefolk brings all this up with Raquel, but Throden's explanations don't help calming him. They discuss what they saw out in the fields and Clover muses that it must have been very powerful fire magic, possibly a *fireball* spell. Clover asks if Throden has any enemies, which the druid confirms, yet fire magic does not fit the bill of any of his rival clanspeople. After several more ales, the Mousefolk goes to bed *"without doing his thing*186*"*.

Meanwhile the young woman who was found with the hags has approached Fanel. She finally gives her name: **Dawn**. Then she asks Fanel to be tucked into bed. He ends up leaving her the cot in his room.

#### Clover's dream

During the night Clover is haunted by a nightmare. He finds himself back in the void he last experienced during the battle with the hags188, and realizes now that it feels like the darkness he saw in the dream at the beginning of the season185.

A masculine voice is teasing him about his intentions, then shows him a dark cave filled with purple spider webbing. A creature walks in the web, shows itself as a giant spider with a human head, two faced. The monster warns Clover to be afraid and lunges at the young wizard. In this moment, the arcane disc appears from Clover's pocket and shields Clover. The spider is surprised and driven off.

Clover has a rough awakening in the morning and finds that the hags' grimoire and arcane disc have fallen out of his pack. A specific page lies open. He takes everything to Raquel's room. She asks him to describe the monstrous spider, but she can't place it. Clover however now remembers rumors he overheard back in Haven: a week ago, a great battle happened, during which a portal appeared. A monstrosity matching Clover's dreams drew a group of adventurers into the portal and vanished.

Clover breaks the news to the others over breakfast, and recruits them for the journey back to Haven, intending to build a real adventuring group. Then Dawn joins their table, and the group is still at odds about where she should stay. Clover invites her back to Haven, and she follows him outside to the cart, where he summons *Jerry* and *Patricia*, the giant moose, for her to ride on.

### Journey back to Haven

The group travels southward to Haven over the next four days. Raquel uses this time to get to know Clover better, appreciating the wizard's loyalty. He agrees to leave the talking to her once it is time to convince his mothers to let him go. Clover also *messages* his mom, **Melody**, and informs her of his return.

#### The hags' grimoire

*Main article: the hags' grimoire*
Examing the hags' tome once again, Fanel and Raquel realize it is written in *Primordial*, which both of them can understand. Fanel leafs through the volume and discovers many unsettling things within, including a full page solely dedicated to the name **Kri'zakth**, and a record of the fiends' efforts to bind living spirits to inanimate objects. The ladder gives Clover a hunch to have another look at his arcane disc188.

#### Clover's arcane disc

With the knowledge from the hags' book, Clover understands that they tried binding a living spirit into the silver disc, using powerful *evocation* and *transmutation* magic. The Mousefolk feels a sentient presence within the trinket, bound by a *Planar Lock*. He realizes that the disc is capable of non-verbal interaction. He informs the party.

Raquel thinks of her contacts, realizing that she might be able to find an appraiser for the disc's worth back at *Aramel's Rest*. She proposes the group travel there.

On their fourth day of travel, they have come close to Haven. As the village comes into view, they hear the sounds of battle, and see it burning.

## Memorable Quotes

**Clover,** *"Didn't it serve its time when it was alive?"*
**Throden,** *"Yes. And then it served more time in un-death."*

## Trivia

* Lauren describes the hags' disc as *"a home-brewish thing"* in this episode.
* This is the first appearance of Melody, Clover's other mom.

## References

1. ↑ Xanathar's Guide to Everything p. 141