Rolling in the Deep

**Rolling in the Deep** is the 4th Oxventure episode of Season 2 and the 16th episode overall, in which the Oxventurers pay off a long standing debt.

## Synopsis

The Oxventurers head deep underground to fight a mysterious evil at the behest of a severed head, which isn't even the weirdest thing that happens to them that day.

## Summary

A week after their last adventure, the Guild are still in Necropolis on Sea, having won a mansion. They are enjoying themselves at a pub called The Bloody Gills, which Bismuth is the landlady of. She introduces the Guild to her favourite drinking game, the Couplet Game, where everyone must down their drinks while someone says a rhyming couplet. As they play, a severed head lands on the table, which seems to have been dead for quite sometime. Everyone ignores the man who threw it, and Dob casts Speak with Dead to ask it some questions. The head is too long gone to talk, but it does spring back to life. It then tries to spit at Prudence, but it only produces puffs of dust. Prudence recognises the head. They then waste their questions on the head, and the head goes back to being dead.

The man who through the head, who has been patiently waiting for the Guild to be done with it, says he thought Prudence might recognise the head. The man looks filthy, like he's never taken care of himself, he has a long beard and filthy rags. Dob then casts Prestidigitation on the man's rags, cleaning them up. The man is impressed by Dob's cleaning abilities, but gets down to business none the less. The man says he's been looking for Prudence for quite a while. Prudence admits the head was her hermit adopted father, Cyrus who she killed for trying to force her to worship a god named Zargon the Returner, a god who wants to drown the world in slime, when she wanted to worship Cthulhu. In his rage over Prudence killing Cyrus, the man accidentally misnames his god, who punishes him by forcing slime to come out his ear. Egbert comments that no one can mock his god ever again after learning about Zargon, which the Guild agrees to.

The man explains that, by killing Cyrus, Prudence is now in the debt of the Guild of Hermits. The Guild is confused at the fact that such a thing exists, as the whole point of being a hermit is to be by yourself. The man explains that they want Prudence to return to Cyrus' cave and break off her pact with Cthulhu, or else they'll kill the Guild and all their friends and family. The Guild refuse, discovering that as long as they don't worship Zargon the man will be punish in their stead for getting his name wrong, which they exploit until the man agrees to find a better option. The man then leaves the pub and is heard reluctantly talking to another hermit outside. The man then comes back in and explains that they could do them a favour instead.

He explains that there is a cave nearby, called the Cave Without Incident, which the Guild of Hermits consider a prime location. Ironically something of incident has happened in the cave. The hermit who lived in the cave was recently killed by an unknown assailant, and they have lost tons of would be hermits trying to get it back. The man wants the cave for himself, and if the Guild can get the cave back for them then Prudence's debt will be paid. To make sure she does it, the man makes a necklace with Cyrus' head on it and seals it on Prudence, with it only coming off when she pays her debt. Despite loving the necklace, much to the man's annoyance, the Guild agree to go on the quest, in order to clear Prudence's debt and not die.

With the Guild still quite drunk, they decide to go straight away before they can sober up, bringing Bismuth along with. They arrive at the cave and see that it is a relatively nice sea side location, for a cave. Prudence takes this opportunity to thank her Guild mates for helping her out, but Corazón ruins the moment by pointing out they don't really have a choice. Prudence uses Detect Magic and sees that, even though the warlock who lived in it is dead, there is something deep in the gave giving off a kind of magical heart beat. They enter the cave, and Corazón casts Dancing Lights to illuminate the cave.

They eventually come across a seemingly bottomless pit, so deep when tests it by saying "Hello" it echoes for an hour. They spot a drawbridge on the other side. Suspects it's a test of faith, and tells Egbert to try and walk across the chasm. Bismuth ties a rope to Egbert, so Dob an stop him from falling to his death. Egbert steps over the edge and immediately plummets. Everyone grabs the rope, and Prudence, Corazón and Dob smack their faces against the floor, while Egbert smacks into the side of the pit. Everyone pulls Egbert back up out of the cave, now sure that it isn't a test of faith.

After Dob heals everyone, they notice a lever on their side of the cave and try to pull it, only to find it's surrounded by a glass maze. As Corazón plans to send Mage Hand Legerdemain into it, Merilwen uses Wild Shape to turn into a giant octopus and slithers through the maze. She pulls the lever, which takes a while due to Corazón turning off Dancing Light to avoid looking at her, and the drawbridge comes down. Dob congratulates Octowen, and asks if she can squirt ink, to which she shrugs and accidentally squirts, covering him entirely.

With the drawbridge down everyone crosses it, except Octowen and Prudence, Octowen crawls on the walls and Prudence follows her with Spider Climb. They eventually find the hermit's living quarters, along with his skeleton. Dob casts Speak with Dead and the skeleton tells them to leave. Dob says they will, after he answers their questions and Octowen will show him a cool trick as thanks. Dob asks him how he died, to which he says that he was killed with an axe by what he thinks was a Troll. They ask how to navigate the rest of the cave, but the hermit never went any deeper out of fear. They asks how many Trolls there are, to which the hermit says he knows there's at least one, before dying again. Dob is disappointed that the hermit didn't see Octowen's trick, and Octowen pets the corpse and accidentally defiles it.

They journey further into cave and come across a single chest in an empty room. Prudence reads the Infernal text on the chest that says "Full of spiders, do not open". She then tricks Corazón into opening it, and he gets covered in spiders, eleven of which hide in his beard in a way that he won't find them for weeks. Corazón writhes on the floor for a bit and then runs deeper into the cave. Everyone follows him, and find another chest. Prudence's grimoires, Frisky and The Darkness, jump out and start circling it. Prudence reads the Infernal text and sees that is says "Full of salted meats, do not open". Dob boots it open, and it is indeed filled with salted meats. Dob suspects that it might be human meat, made by the Trolls, and allows Frisky and The Darkness to eat it. The enter to the next room, and there is another chest that says "Full of treasure, do not open". Suspicious of Prudence, Corazón uses his Mage Hand Legerdemain to lock pick the chest. It unlocks, and the floor opens up beneath them.

Corazón casts Feather Fall on everyone, although he gives Prudence a glace that tells her he could have let her fall, however the spell doesn't work on Bismuth, as the spell only works on five people, and she lands feet first and her legs are forced inside her torso. Dob tries to fix her, but it doesn't work. Bismuth then climbs onto Dob shoulders and they all look around. They find themselves in a terrifying under cave, which Prudence finds quite pleasant, and can see something floating in the darkness in the distance. Octowen crawls down to get a closer look, and sees a what looks like a brain with ten tentacles and a beak. She then see that there are eight of these things in total, and heads back to the group in fear.

She transforms back into her elf self and tells the others what she saw. Prudence realises that what Merilwen saw was a bunch of Grells, and gets a chill as Cthulhu tells her that he likes them, like a dad getting excited about a rare car. Dob asks the group if they should get rid of them, and they all decide that they should ask the Grell for help on their adventure. Since they're blind, Dob gets the idea to disguise themselves as one. Merilwen transforms back into an octopus and Dob makes two tentacle disguises for him and Egbert with his Disguise Kit, and they go to talk to the Grell.

Corazón casts Comprehend Languages Dob so they can understand the Grell. Dob tells the Grell that he's been sent from head office by Grellking: King of the Grell, who is so impressed with what they've been doing in the cave that they are going to play a little game of Hunt the Troll. The Grell are confused, as they thought they were a republic, but Dob tells them that they became a monarchy led people after they were born the cave. After Dob and the Grell argue about the pros and cons of the monarchy, seven of them become convinced when Dob claims there are ten Trolls in the cave. Dob then claims that they will be accompanied by some "prisoners" that Grellking has sent, which the Grell find amusing.

Dob then summons Corazón and Prudence and they all head towards where the Troll is. The Grell lead them through a rock pool and down a passage way. One of the Grell says it's been awhile since they fought a Troll, because their feeding system is a chest trap, and Trolls aren't very good at lock picking, except for one named "Dextro". The Grell then say that they think the Troll is in the next room, before it paralyses Corazón for asking too many questions. Dob asks the Grell to unparalyse him, but the Grell refuse due to how funny it is. Besides, the paralysis won't last *that* long.

Upon arriving at the door to the room withe the Troll, Dob tells Prudence to lead the charge, because everyone else is pretty mush predisposed. They enter the room, and see glass tanks filled with fluid and some humanoid figures, which seems familiar. In the centre of the room is the Troll, who Prudence tells that they are here to fight him. Luckily, the Troll is stupid and thinks they are here to check up on the soldiers they are making. Prudence takes this opportunity, and says she is. The Troll says that the soldiers aren't ready, and doesn't care if the "big scary magic lady" wants them now. Prudence asks if he means Liliana, which the Troll confirms. Prudence asks Dob what they should do, and he says that they should destroy the soldiers and prevent Liliana from having them. Prudence tells the Troll that she was ordered by Liliana to destroy the soldiers, as they are a bad batch. The Troll is annoyed, but does it anyway.

The Troll smashes a tank, and a half formed Egbert clone emerges from the fluid. With the Grell being blind, Merilwen turns back into her self self and casts Entangle, but she misses and fails to restrain it. The Egbert clone then picks up a pipe and runs at Egbert, but it misses him due to still being groggy. Prudence then uses Agonizing Blast and blasts parts of the clone's face off, which gives Egbert some confused emotions. Egbert tries to reason with the clone that they don't have to fight, they are family. The clone refuses Egbert's pleas, as he doesn't care who he's serving, he just loves to fight.

The Troll meanwhile is still in the process of smashing the tanks, but stumbles as he tries to smash the second one, only putting a small crack in it. The Egbert clone then charges at Dob the tentacle. Dob then charges at the clone and trips him up, causing his already weakened face to get impaled with a shard of glass from his tank. Egbert is really smuggling with this whole situation. Corazón is still paralysed, but he gets Prudence to help him up and he stabs the Egbert clone. The Egbert clone cries out to his "papa" before dying. The Grell meanwhile, still confused by the fact they are now ruled by a monarch, accidentally stab each other.

With the Troll still trying to inadvertently break out more Egberts, Merilwen turns back into an octopus and grapples the Troll like a baseball bat. Dob casts Sleep on the Troll, but it fails to knock him out. Egbert decides that he is over the death of his "son", and charges his Flame Breath to boil the vats and kill the other clones. Unfortunately, he apparently wasn't as ready as he thought, as he accidentally flame hiccoughs blasts himself instead. With the Troll totally imbomilised, Dob takes the axe out of its hands and kills it. With the Troll dead, Prudence uses the Pale Tincture she stole from Jacques Darkfall to poison the tanks, killing all the Egbert clones. With the last one dead, the necklace around Prudence's neck falls off, signifying that she's cleared her debt, and she boots it into the tanks, causing them to explode. It is at this moment that Corazón's paralysis wears off.

With their business done, Dob reveals to the Grell that he was Grellking all along. He tells them that he was looking for a fitting successor to his throne and is so impressed with the Grell that he give it to them so they can be a council of wise elders. The Grell then celebrate the fact they will be a republic again.

## Notable Events

* The Guild finds out Liliana is trying to make an army out of Egbert's DNA.
* The Guild pays Prudence's debt to the Guild of Hermits.

## Guild Hijinks

* Merilwen accidentally squirts Dob with ink while in octopus form.
* Prudence tricks Corazón into opening a chest full of spiders.
* Dob manages to found and abolish a Grell monarchy within a day.

## Character Development

* Prudence avoids attacking the Egbert clone's kidney so they can give it to Egbert.

## Behind The Scenes Trivia

* Due to time running out, Johnny had to bend the rules to an extreme and make sure Dob's attack on the Troll killed it.
* The episode title could be a reference to Adele's song by the name name
* Johnny saying that Frisky and The Darkness were "chomping on them in some sort of chain" is a reference to Chain Chomp from the Mario series
* Ellen saying "follow the spiders" is a reference to the second Harry Potter book "The Chamber of Secrets"
* Andy calling the chest full of salted meats "The Chest of Erised" is a reference to the first Harry Potter book "Harry Potter and The Sorcerers / Philosophers' Stone" and the mirror Harry finds within the school that shows those who peer into it their deepest desires.
* Andy breaks the wall when he talks about how Bismuth does not have official art like the other characters that have shown up in the series.
* When one of the Grell is talking he says that he feels like there is a set piece up ahead, Andy makes this into a joke about video game boss battles when he says "an executive room with a load of med kits in it"
* Johnny breaks the wall when the Grell says that Corazon would only be paralyzed for "two combat rounds, hypothetically", they breaks the wall a second time when they say, as one of the Grell, that it will attack when its turn comes around in the initiative order
* Johnny references the movie Weekend at Bernie's when Prudence struggles to prop up the paralyzed Corazon, he says "Very weekend at Corazon's"