Episode 11: Creator of Nightmares (The Ezry Chronicles with Adam Conover)

Art by: @brooskeeb

**Creator of Nightmares** is the eleventh episode in the series and the third episode of The Ezry Chronicles.

It's the finale of our Ezry adventure with Adam Conover! The party brings Skullis back to Stunkbug's posh one bedroom apartment and interrogates him to a soundtrack of light jazz. Moonshine uses an improvised tire swing to thwart a foe, Hardwon flexes his diplomacy muscles, Beverly has a no good, very bad day, and Stunkbug comes face to face with a living nightmare.

## Plot Synopsis

Dragging the barrel containing Skullis's unconscious body, the Band of Boobs returns to Stunkbug's apartment. They wake up Skullis and interrogate him. Because Stunkbug's memory of Skullis taking drugs before killing his brother is at odds with Skullis's insistence that he's straightedge, Skullis suggests that Stunkbug's memory might have been implanted when Professor Duttle gave him memories of his wizard training. Skullis says he wants to die, so Moonshine gives him a peaceful spore kiss. The Band of Boobs decide to go to Duttle's lab to get some answers, and Stunkbug drags Skullis's dead body with them.

Duttle's robot butler Juan had locked the door to the lab and reports that he was under orders not to let anyone in. Everyone takes a stab at trying to kick the steel-reinforced door until Moonshine tries to win over Juan by saying, "the only difference between you and a real gnome... is that a real gnome has the ability to disobey." Inspired by this, Juan opens the door.

Moonshine breaks away from the party and stealths into Duttle's lab. Juan tells everyone else that Duttle is asleep, so Stunkbug tries to go to his bedroom to wake him, but Juan tries to stop him. Hardwon restrains Juan, which activates the lab's surveillance drones, which Beverly immediately tries to throw a javelin at, activating the lab security system.

Moonshine finds a trapdoor in Duttle's lab, which she immediately jumps down. Meanwhile, Beverly epically misses with his javelin, prompting Hardwon to insist that they hadn't meant to be violent and that Beverly was spooked by a bug in the corner while Hardwon was only trying to hug Juan. Unconvinced, Juan releases green gas, paralyzing Beverly. Stunkbug escapes down the trapdoor while Hardwon tries to persuade Juan that they're on the same side, insisting that Juan could be a bro. Finally, overcome with emotion, Juan switches to attacking the lab security, allowing Hardwon, carrying Bev's paralyzed body, to escape down the trapdoor as well.

The party discovers that the trapdoor leads to a secret underground passage, which Stunkbug deduces leads to the rehab center where the police force brings criminals. Moonshine, the first to enter, discovers that it's actually a mad scientist's lab, filled with test tubes filled with monsters, like experiments gone wrong. One of the test subjects, Moonshine notices, is the criminal Stunkbug was carrying when they had first met.

Moonshine misty steps up to the top of a test tube 30 feet in the air and sees Duttle waiting for the Band of Boobs below. She jumps off of the tube, wild shaping into her fungal form as she falls, trying to crash into Duttle. However, he was revealed to just be a projection, and Moonshine crashes against the floor as the real Professor Duttle emerges from behind a corner, prompting the rest of the party to emerge as well. Stunkbug tries to intimidate him by saying he called the police, but Duttle reveals that he was working with them, leading Captain Oswald to reveal herself. Duttle reveals that it was, in fact, him who killed Stunkbug's brother while experimenting on him, and the Band of Boobs launch into battle against them.

Moonshine and Stunkbug run straight for Professor Duttle, who insists that it was Stunkbug, not his brother, who was the failed experiment, pressing a button to begin lowering a test tube containing Stunkbug's brother from the ceiling. Moonshine misty steps on top of the test tube, swinging it back and forth until it crashes into another tube, causing the glass to shatter, sending Stunkbug's brother crashing to the ground. Stunkbug reveals his name, shouting, "Noooo, Gunkbog!" before murdering Duttle by stabbing him through the brain with his lance.

Gunkbog misty steps up to the top of the test tube with Moonshine, where Moonshine bravely wild shapes into a giant wolf spider and begins climbing down. Meanwhile, Beverly gets sprayed with gas and falls asleep and Stunkbug casts Lightning Lure to pull Gunkbog back down onto the ground. Hardwon snorts some R. Cane to help him in the fight and throws a rock at Beverly to wake him up before slaughtering Oswald with fire.

Poetically, Stunkbug is the one to kill Gunkbog, stabbing him through the back of the head while having a flashback about training with him. His tears slide down his lance and provide lubrication for his lance to pierce out the other side of Gunkbog's skull.

One of Duttle's minions is still alive and he swings on Beverly, ruining the dramatic moment. Beverly kills him with repeated face punches.

Unsure how to proceed, the Band of Boobs decides to set fire to the rehab center, causing it to explode. Hardwon has a wild magic surge which makes him cast fly on Moonshine, who uses Paw Paw as her pilot as the party returns through the underground passage to the lab.

Back in the lab, Juan has completely destroyed the robot security system. Beverly gives him the gold tooth he stole from Garesh as a token of friendship and Stunkbug says he has to stay in Ezry to help undo Duttle's work.

The episode ends with Stunkbug and Juan, silhouetted against the sunset, burying Gunkbog in a graveyard on a hill overlooking outer Ezry, where Stunkbug and Gunkbog grew up together.

## Music/ Sound Effects

* "Anguish" by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com.
* "Harp.WAV" by RepDac3 at Freesound.org.
* "Grenade" by Ljudmann at Freesound.org.
* "Glasshouse" by Themfish at Freesound.org.
* "CINEMATICBOOMNORM" by HerbertBoland at Freesound.org.
* "Mystery of the Dark Forest" by Amadeusz Bartos at Freesound.org.
* "Gypsy Violin Variation" by Howard Geisel at Freesound.org.
* "Fire Forest Inferno" by Dynamicell at Freesound.org.
* "Scary Ambiance" by ashleyxxpiano at Freesound.org.

## External Links

* Headgum
* Spotify
* NAD&DP Subreddit Thread