Episode 2 - The Sunken Hatch

> "*Power from Progress, Progress from Might, Might from Reverence, Reverence from Power*"
> ― Inscription on The Sunken Hatch
>
>

## Synopsis

We rejoin the party where we left off in the previous episode - Teb is decorating his house with the new gold coins that Integrity gave him. The party leaves Teb to his devices and make their way down the long staircase to the base of the room. In particular, the room has the Sunken Hatch itself in the middle with archways in each cardinal direction, each with a statue standing next to it.

Upon observing The Sunken Hatch's dimensions, including four indents that appear to be intended for stones similar to the one Teb had them retrieve, the party reads an inscription on the hatch itself, carved in Draconic.

*"Power from Progress, Progress from Might, Might from Reverence, Reverence from Power."*

The party wonder if this is something like a school motto, but they recall that this place isn't referenced in any way and must have been hidden away for a reason.

They take in the appearances of the statues - they're each larger than life and look like the following;

North: Appears as a warrior dressed in ornate metal armor, face covered by a helmet.

East: A robed individual holding a long thin knife to the sky - Door here is collapsed.

South: A beautiful human woman, sitting, with a crown on her head.

West: An amorphous humanoid made of black stone, headless, but with a cube in their hand.

Upon exploring the eastern archway, they note that it is collapsed, but the room beyond is not.

Winsler looks through the northern archway; he sees a small, circular plinth with a ~1ft diameter bronze ball resting on top of it, behind that being a large slope with another circular plinth on top of it. He also takes note that the ball looks rough, as though it were cast and never polished. Attempting a quick push on the ball, Winsler surmises that the ball must weigh 800 pounds. He calls Mira to come help him push it.

Integrity is left behind and is confused where her friends went - she shouts for the rest of the group, who proceed to shout back and tell her where they are. They quiet down and attempt to push the bronze ball together. They are able to shove it off the plinth, shattering some stone. However, having struggled to do only that, the party hesitates to rely on pushing it to solve the puzzle the room posed ... whatever that may be at this point. They do, however, want to explore the top of the slope.

Integrity makes an attempt to throw her rope in the form of a lasso up the slope, which is about 20 feet away, but she fails to do so and the rope comes back a little wet. Mira gives it a shot herself - she manages to reach the top of the ledge, but does not get the rope around the pedestal at the top, so they're unable to use it to climb. Winsler makes both of his teammates feel stupid and shatters their pride by simply using his mage hand to tie the rope around the pedestal, as it was only about 20 feet away, well within mage hand's range.

Integrity climbs her way up, and notes that the slope is incredibly slippery and appears to have been intentionally lubricated, though ultimately she is able to crest the slope. Unable to find anything, she slides down. It is fun. Mira climbs up to investigate the plinth itself - upon stepping on it, it depresses slightly and she has the remainder of the party come up to depress it, as they're unlikely to be able to get the bronze ball up the slope. Winsler's attempt to climb goes poorly; he holds onto the rope, but lays on the floor. The other two pull him up on the rope, but this coats him and Mr. Wiggles in grease. He casts prestidigitation to clean himself and Mr. Wiggles, and this splashes his friends with grease as a result.

The party are able to depress the plinth and a small slot on another pedestal snaps open. In this slot they find a yellowed envelope with a small bulge. They mage hand open the letter, finding a letter with a greasy black stone inside. The letter reads:

*"To whoever should overcome this trial, we must speak immediately. Contained here is a Sending Stone, which matches a stone I am in possession of. If I have not already passed from this world, I will respond to any questions you have with haste, though we may not be able to meet for a long while. Tell no one of this, else you risk their lives as well as your own.*

*Digger*

 *P.S. Give the lowly Teb my greetings if he is still kicking around the bowels of the school."*

After experimenting briefly with the sending stone, Mira grabs it and tries yelling into it. After a few moments, a response comes back to her in her own head in her own voice:

*"I have the artifact, it is safe, do not seek the others - it is a foolish task. This is not Digger, she is lost."*

The rest of the party are unable to hear this and experiment with the stone themselves, speaking brief messages and getting echoes of the messages back in their own minds. The party resolves to ask Teb who Digger is. They make their way up the stairs, with Integrity walking calmly, described as being 'too cool for school', Winsler sprinting up the stairs like an excited school child, and Mira being caught somewhere in between, going between walking and running at certain points.

The party finally has an epiphany that Teb is a Nothic, a race of creatures that are said to be normal beings cursed by knowledge and drawn to magic. Winsler decides to somewhat rudely wake Teb from his nap.

They explain that they found a message from someone named Digger, which initially makes Teb very happy, but he tries to pass this off as a mistake and says that he does not know anyone named Digger. Winsler trusts him, but Mira sees that he's not being totally forthcoming. Upon being pressed, Teb reveals that Digger was a student at the school ~300 years ago and asks that they not look into the issue further, saying that Digger has been missing for about 50 years or so at this point and that her disappearance was due to a workplace hazard, but he stops himself from speaking further on the matter.

Winsler is a bit of a jag and tries to peer pressure Teb as a friend. Integrity attempts a more overtly friendly appeal which doesn't pressure him and seems to work somewhat.

Teb reveals that he's supposedly got a spell cast on him that makes him unable to speak about the situation. Mira resolves to play 20 questions with Teb to try to get as much info as possible. The following are how those questions were answered.

*Were you and Digger friends? Yes.*

*Do you know why Digger went missing? Yes.*

*Did it have something to do with the hatch? Yes.*

*Did she try to find something there? Unable to respond.*

Integrity asks if he is unable to answer which Teb seems to indicate is true. The party from this point forward assume that this means anything that he cannot answer about is true, or else he could simply say no - this is not necessarily the case as he may be enchanted to be unable to reference an answer to the particular question one way or another.

*Does this have anything to do with the broken statue downstairs? Unable to respond.*

*Does this have something to do with your rock? Unable to respond.*

*Does the rock help unlock the hatch? **"YOU CAN'T TAKE MY ROCK."***

Mira seems a bit annoyed when he doesn't answer this final question, though he indicates he is unable to answer the question that was posed. He does, however, say that he cannot allow anyone to take the rock, especially when Mira attempts to take it. Mira asks if Teb wants to keep the stone for reasons other than it being pretty, which he seems unable to respond to.

Winsler secretly conjures an orb that looks exactly like Teb's Green Stone and tricks him into thinking it's the real thing. In this confusion, Mira snatches the real one and Winsler gets cracked in the jaw by Teb. When asked, Teb indicates using charades that he's trying to protect the stone from them but is unable to reveal why this is the case. He apologizes and says that he would gladly give it to them were things not done in the past that were the responsibilities of all parties previously involved - presumably Teb, Digger, whomever has 'The Artifact', and whoever 'the others' are (the others could refer to Digger and Teb, but Digger had already been referenced and 'others' was plural). Teb makes a point of still calling the group his friends before asking that they return to visit at a later date and pushing them outside his home.

The party resolves, with the real Green Stone in tow, that they are going to continue exploring the hatch area.

## Puns, Jokes, and References

When speaking about Teb's decorating, Sarah references Marie Kondo, sharing her insight on what people should keep.

Ben and Sarah both agree that the inscription on The Sunken Hatch is some Sith Code BS - Sarah begins reading off part of the Sith Code from the middle and is cut short by Luke. It is somewhat ironic for Sarah to refer to the Sith Code as BS despite being a former Dark Side faithful.

Sarah makes reference to the 2015 closing of all Target stores in Canada, saying that the bronze ball must be one of the large balls that were outside of many Target stores.

The first time Teb is unable to answer a question the party poses, Sarah naturally makes reference to Bump and Grind by R. Kelly, singing *"My mind's telling me no, but my body! My body's also telling me noooo!"* As opposed to his body telling him yes.