The Logician (episode)

"The Logician" is episode 69 of SuperQuest Saga. The team faces off against The Logician in a trivia style battle of wits! Answering this trivia incorrectly may have shocking consequences.

## Synopsis

### Introduction

* Will Stark shall be your logical dungeon master for this evening.
* Josh Freeland is playing Sebastian Crenshaw, The Forsaken.
* Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal, the firbolg galactic druid.
* Brian is from space and he does magic and sneaks into your mom’s house (Wizard/Rogue).

### Recap

Last time a lot of stuff happened; a lot of riddles, a lot of puzzles, lots of scratching heads, but they got through it all. There was a fight with a shadow of a dragon (not a shadow dragon); they then acquired the Dusk stone and used that with the Dawn stone to get into the library proper. Echo stole a lot of books and put them in his secret chest. At the bottom of the tower was an evil orc pillar with a riddle that dealt necrotic damage for incorrect answers. Next was the Hall of the Forsaken, which housed a lot of pre-cult Orc relics. They solved a fiery word search, knelt before statues of Orc leaders to avoid damage, used birdseed to cross an invisible bridge, Sebastian picked up a cool horn, and finally, as a group, entered a metal door where they met The Logician.

### Welcome to My Game Show

The Logician stands behind a glass panel above a metal room. On the floor is a grid of metal squares, 5 columns of 9 rows. The Logician is long and lanky, with wiry tubular arms and hands that have ten digits each. His face is ovular ending in almost a point, with seven different sized lenses on his face for eyes.

Echo walks in, pushes his hair to the side and says “Well, hello there.” The Logician says “Hello” back, missing the General Kenobi joke.

The Logician says “Welcome, dear guests, or should I say, contestants. I must say, I’m impressed you made it this far; and in better condition than calculated.” The Logician holds up his hand, and in his hand is what looks like a flash drive. “Before you lies the final gauntlet; a test, which if passed, I will concede defeat and hand over this. A star map divulging safe passage through the black hole ridden central galactic range.” Echo asks if that is a USB3 and The Logician responds that it is USB5. Echo is disappointed in the outdated technology.

“Well this map has been here a very long time, I don’t know what to tell you… You stand at the precipice of a 5 by 9 grid, each square representing a query you must answer correctly to move on. Each column represents a specific category… Arcane!” and above one of the columns on the wall a sigil of a spellbook lights up. “Combat!” a second sigil of a sword and shield lights up. “Personal Past!” a third sigil of three humanoid figures standing side by side lights up. “Nature!” a fourth sigil of a tree lights up. “And Religion!” A sigil with multiple symbols of Enneanism lights up.

“I highly recommend sticking to one’s strengths. The rules are as follows…” Sebastian looks around confused. Echo is disturbed by the Personal Past category.

### But Wait... There's More!

“Three contestants may enter and step on a square to start the game. Once a square has been stepped on, a question will be asked to the contestant on said square. The contestant will be restricted from moving to any other square until the question is answered correctly.”

“The answer must come from the contestant standing on the correlating square. Contestants cannot give answers to other contestants. Once a question is answered correctly, the contestant on the correlating square may move horizontally or vertically to an adjacent square.”

“Victory is achieved if a contestant can answer the final question in a category.”

“But wait… there’s more! You may be disallowed to give each other answers, but let it not be said that The Logician is a cruel game master. You will each be given three lifelines.” He snaps his fingers “50/50!” and a glowing sigil “50/50” appears. “Phone a Friend!” he snaps his fingers and a sigil of an old rotary phone appears. “And… Second Chance!” he snaps his fingers and a sigil reading “Second Chance” appears.

“50/50: I will be gracious enough to limit your answers to one of two. Phone a Friend: I’ll allow you to call your friend up there in the *Victory’s Ascent*. I believe he is a smart fellow, he might be able to help you. Second Chance: if one answers incorrectly, you can quickly intercede and use your second chance for one more chance to answer the question.”

Echo asks if they can stack benefits, if he can use more than one lifeline in a row before answering the question. The Logician says that they can. Percy asks if they can give someone else their Second Chance, and The Logician says each of them can only use their three lifelines. Primina notes that he said three contestants, but there are four of them in the party.

“You, my dear, I’m afraid that in this game you are the prize, and I would not have you hurt by entering this gauntlet. I have been asked to bring you unharmed to the emperor.”

Sebastian asks The Logician what happens if they get wrong answers, since The Logician just mentioned he does not want Primina to get hurt in this game. “Incorrect answers will cause an electrical charge pulse through the square in question.”

Echo casts Misty Step; instead of the usual teleportation via beam of light, his armor quivers and the spell does not happen. “I’m afraid I’ve put a ward up against most types of magic involving transportation.” The Logician states. Sebastian thinks this whole thing is very odd.

Percy speaks up. “Who wants to do what as far as these categories go? You know, we gotta play the game; once we play the game we can beat this guy’s ass, and then get outta here!” Echo shoots at the glass but his shots dissipate when they pass the first row of squares, stopped by some sort of force. Echo looks around and notes that The Logician has energy barriers set up; probably multiple barriers that get stronger the closer they are to The Logician. “Shall we begin?” The Logician asks.

Percy tells Echo that she thinks they need to play, there doesn’t seem to be another option. Echo wants to keep trying to push through the barriers with stronger spells, but agrees that they don’t know how many there are and it’s better to save their resources for a fight. “We will make him pay.” Sebastian agrees.

### It's Open Notes... If You Got 'Em

Primina sits down to watch, looking very peeved about the situation. Persephone reassures her that once they’re done with this game, they’re definitely beating up The Logician. “Oh when we finish this, I’ma finish it.” Primina responds aggressively.

Persephone casts Enhance Ability; she gives everyone Fox’s Cunning to boost their intelligence and everyone has little fox ears and a tail. Persephone steps on the first Nature square; it lights up and she becomes surrounded in a glowing white barrier. On the right-hand wall, a blue screen with white text appears and The Logician reads it out loud. “This deadly flora is banned in most major star systems due to its dangerous psionic abilities.” Persephone answers “The Nymphae Colossus?” The Logician responds, “Correct!” The barriers around her drop and the three squares, one on either side and one in front of her, light up. She steps forward and continues on the Nature column; the barriers surround her once more.

Sebastian steps onto the first Combat square and the barriers surround him as well. Another question appears on the right-hand wall. “A monster is immune to damage from non-magical bludgeoning weapons. Does it still take damage from falling?” Sebastian answers, “No?” and the barrier around him starts shooting lightning from all directions, dealing damage. “Incorrect!” The Logician says. “I meant, yes!” Sebastian says. “Too late now!” The Logician responds.

Echo steps onto the Arcane column. “All devils are immune to what forms of damage?” Echo knows that there are two immunities and one is fire. He answers fire and necrotic; which is incorrect. He gets zapped by the barriers. “Close, but incorrect!” The Logician states.

The blue wall has the next Nature question for Persephone, and The Logician reads it. “This primal entity dwells on a world of water.” Persephone responds “The Lady of Sunlit Shallows” and is correct again. The barriers around her drop and she steps forward to the third row. Sebastian is still on his original square with the same question. “Can I say, yes?” The Logician tells him he is correct. Sebastian looks at the squares available for him and decides to move forward with Combat. Echo gets another chance at his question and answers “fire and poison.” He is correct and moves forward in the Arcane column. Echo starts to enjoy himself now that he’s got a question correct.

The Logician reads Percy her next question. “What types of damage disable troll regeneration?” She decides to use her 50/50 lifeline. On the screen two options appear; “Fire, Necrotic” or “Fire, Acid”. Persephone gives her answer, “Fire, Necrotic” to The Logician. She is incorrect and takes lightning damage. Sebastian gets his second Combat question. “A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations something special occurs.” Sebastian answers that the attacker gets a surprise round; he is correct and moves forward to the third row. The Logician asks Echo his next question. “This sorcerer origin is capable of producing random, wacky effects.” Echo’s answer is “Wild Magic Sorcerer”; he is correct and moves forward.

Persephone now knows the answer to her question although it is no longer showing on the screen. She answers “Fire and Acid” and takes another step forward. Sebastian’s next Combat question is: “This fighter subclass is known for its mastery of battle maneuvers.” Sebastian answers, “Uh, would that be Battle Master?” He is correct and moves to the fourth row. The Logician reads Echo’s next question: “While the Magic Missile spell is all but guaranteed to hit, which 1st-level spell can you cast to cause it to miss?” Echo tries to use his Phone a Friend lifeline to call his friend Special Guest Jake, but The Logician can’t trust him with any calls other than to Watt. Echo argues a bit and The Logician eventually acquiesces his demand. Echo calls Special Guest Jake; they chat a little bit about what Echo has been up to, like how he finally went back home. Echo knows Special Guest Jake plays a lot of Dungeons & Dragons and asks him if he knows the answer to his question. Special Guest Jake thinks it is Shield. Echo thinks he may have wasted his call. Echo asks about Special Guest Jake’s cat, and The Logician cuts the call. Echo answers “Shield” and is correct, and he steps up to the next row.

The Logician presents Persephone with her next question. “What are the five types of dragons?” Persephone knows there are pulsar, meteor, and void dragons but she can’t think of the other two. She uses her Phone a Friend lifeline and calls Watt. The Logician patches her through; Watt answers and asks Persephone what’s going on. She tells him they are in a war-games type Jeopardy! Game that The Logician sprang on them. They have to answer a bunch of questions and if they get the answer wrong, they get shocked. Percy hopes Watt can help since he’s so techy and smart. He tells her the other two types of dragon are stellar and nova. Then the call ends. She thanks Watt even though he’s been hung up on, and asks The Logician if she needs to answer or if he heard that. The Logician tells her that she needs to answer the question. Percy thinks that’s stupid since it was on speaker and he heard, but tells him the five dragon types. She moves to the fifth Nature square. Sebastian’s next Combat question is: “If you ready an action, does that use your reaction?” He answers “Yes” but is incorrect and takes lightning damage. The Logician reads Echo’s next question. “This plane of existence lies in the space between our realities.” Echo’s answer is “The Voidharrow” and he is correct. He moves forward.

Persephone’s next question is: “Is a Wild Shaped druid immune to Charm Person and Hold Person.” She responds that she doesn’t think so, but is incorrect. Sebastian’s question remains the same so he answers “No.” He is correct and moves forward. Echo’s next question is “Spot the issue in this scenario: A wizard, who is already under the effects of Expeditious Retreat, has an allied sorcerer cast Haste on them. On the wizard’s turn, they use their action to cast a roaring Fireball. Then, using their additional action provided by Haste, cast Ray of Frost. Finally, they use their bonus action to Dash away from the enemy, per the effect of Expeditious Retreat.” Echo says “You can’t fucking Fireball and then Ray of Frost, or whatever you said! That’s illegal!” He’s correct and takes a step forward.

Persephone gives the correct “Yes'' answer to her previous question, “Is a Wild Shaped druid immune to Charm Person and Hold Person?” and moves forward into the next row. Sebastian’s next question is: “If you take an action that includes more than one weapon attack, can you break up your movement between those attacks?” Sebastian answers “Um, yes?” and is correct; he moves forward. Echo receives his sixth question from The Logician. “This stupefying 8th-level spell will only allow you another saving throw after thirty days have passed.” Echo thinks on the list of 8th-level spells and answers, “Feeblemind.” He’s correct and moves forward.

Persephone’s next question is: “This plant-like monster trudges ponderously through bleak swamps, dismal marshes, and rainforests consuming any organic matter it can in its path.” Percy hesitantly answers; “Is it a shambling mound?” She’s correct and moves forward. The Logician asks Sebastian his next question: “By taking this feat your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level.” Sebastian answers; “Uh, that would be Tough.” He’s correct and moves to the seventh row. Echo’s next question is: “Assuming they also took the Metamagic Adept feat, how many Megamagic options will a 20th-level sorcerer have access to?” Echo uses his 50/50 lifeline to narrow it down to two options; it is either “8” or “6”. Echo picks “8” and is incorrect, taking a lot of lightning damage. He mitigates some of the damage by casting Absorb elements.

The Logician present’s Persephone with her next question. “This monstrosity wanders the stars leaving Astral Silica Diamond wherever it nests.” Persephone remembers that these creatures were the ones that destroyed her little droid, but she cannot think of the name. She uses her last lifeline, Second Chance, to buy some more time to think about the answer. Sebastian’s next question is: “By taking this action your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks for the rest of your turn.” Sebastian answers; “Uh, would that be Disengage?” He’s correct and advances to row eight, with all his lifelines still available to him. Echo is still on the same question from last round and provides the correct answer, “6”, to move forward.

Persephone remembers that the monster was the Astral Dreadnaught, and is able to move forward to the next row. The three of them start to notice that The Logician is starting to look a little twitchy; he’s surprised they’ve made it this far. He reads Sebastian’s next question. “Can you stow a weapon as part of a move, and then draw another as part of an action?” Sebastian answers “No” and is correct, advancing to the last row. “This is very impressive, I’m shocked.” The Logician remarks. Echo’s next question is: “What is the soul container of a lich called?” Echo answers “Phylactory.” The Logician hesitantly tells him he’s correct, and Echo also advances to the last row.

Persephone gets her next question. “This species went extinct over 70,000 years ago, but is now merely endangered.” Persephone answers confidently, “Orcs.” She’s correct and gets to move forward to the last row. Sebastian is ready for his final question. “These classes choose fighting styles at level two.” Sebastian uses a lifeline to call Watt. “Sebastian? Is everything okay down there? Are you still playing weird space Jeopardy!?” Sebastian tells him they’re okay. “This is some weird shit, man, I don’t know. There’s these questions, and then they zap you. I don’t like it, but we’re doing what we can do here…” He asks for help on his question even though he knows it’s not Watt’s forte. Watt is sorry, but he doesn’t know. Sebastian tries the 50/50 lifeline instead. The first option says, “Paladin, Ranger” and the second option says “Paladin”. Sebastian chooses “Paladin, Ranger” and the entire game system shuts down.

### Sore Loser

The Logician says. “This… This is impossible! My calculations!” Echo tries to Misty Step forward but the wards are still up. “I… I refuse to accept this! I refuse! Somehow… Somehow you must have cheated! I… I-” his speech is cut off as a black metal blade emerges from the center of The Logician’s chest. His central energy circle starts to blink and he looks around; the party doesn’t see anything. “No… No. You wouldn’t betray your own kind!” His energy goes out and he slumps away.

Suddenly, a standing humanoid form appears as if an invisible veil is pulled away revealing a black warforged with six arms, dressed in a dark cloak, with a hunched over form as if permanently stalking. Five katanas are sheathed on its back; one is in its uppermost right hand. Its face is the least human looking of The Freelancers that the party has seen; no obvious eyes or mouth analog. Instead, its central head has a vaguely triangular light formation.

“He always was a sore loser.” The warforged grabs the flash drive and hits a button, lowering the glass partition. He tosses the flash drive out to the party. “I believe this is yours. I am The Ambuscade. I will most likely kill you, but not today. I would fight you at your full capacity. You should leave this place… As I said, The Logician is not a graceful loser. We will meet again. You will not see me coming.” And he disappears. Echo takes pictures of The Ambuscade while he is talking.

As soon as The Ambuscade leaves, everyone feels deep shaking as if big detonations are happening beneath their feet.

## Characters

### The Party

* Sebastian Crenshaw: a half-orc fighter. Endangered species.
* Persephone Goldpetal: an albino firbolg druid. She's got the notes.
* Codename: Echo: an elf wizard/rogue. Don't ask how he knows about lich stuff.

### NPCs

* The Logician: a warforged. One of The Freelancers. Calculations omit his sore loser tendencies.
* Primina: a genetically engineered young woman. The MacGuffin. Tired of sitting out and ready to kick ass.
* Watt Wainwright: an elderly gnome. Hey, he's a smart guy. And he's just waiting. So use a lifeline. And call him maybe.
* The Ambuscade: a warforged. One of The Freelancers. He be sneaking.

## Trivia

### Behind the DM Screen

* Will was unable to craft a game without including metagaming. The Personal Past category would have worked differently from the categories about mechanics.
* The lightning damage taken for incorrect answers scales up the closer to you get to the end.
* Will had a list of questions prepared for each row of each category.
	+ Row 1: Roll 1d10
	+ Row 2: Roll 1d8
	+ Row 3: Roll 1d8, reroll 8
	+ Row 4: Roll 1d6
	+ Row 5: Roll 1d6, reroll 6
	+ Row 6: Roll 1d4
	+ Row 7: Roll 1d4, reroll 4
	+ Row 8: Roll 1d4, odds or evens
	+ Row 9: One question available.