213: The Seven of Decapitations

## Summary

The party head off down the tunnels towards the cliffs until their way is blocked by a gate-less fence. Mo demonstrates his true strength and forces an opening for everyone to crawl through. Will and Batthwack briefly share some quality time alone together while the rest of the group investigate the way ahead. They find a ladder leading up to the lichen caves and reunited, the party begin to explore.

## Synopsis

The group head down the underground tunnel, saying their goodbyes to the two Cliffside tunnel workers, who are dragging the unconscious bodies of the Waterside workers into their side room. They wonder briefly about going to the paper plant, with Gwen suggesting that Will (who is still in disguise as Marko) could pretend he's giving the party a tour of the plant as the puzzle competition winners. However, they ultimately decide to stick to the plan of going to the lichen caves, especially after Gwen reminds Will that the paper plant scanned them for magic, and they've had enough of people messing with their magic! Gwen almost sounds as offended as Will on the matter.

They check their map and remind themselves where they are before heading down the tunnel, which is better lit and maintained than the one they'd been in previously. Before long they reach a major bend in the tunnel and two other tunnels (one of which looking more like the old abandoned tunnel from before) join theirs at a large junction. The other tunnels also contain pipes joining with theirs into a single pipe that continues in a southerly direction. The party scan the featureless tunnel for ladders or secret doors as they go, but find nothing. As they continue the passage narrows a bit and they have a sense that they're going downwards slightly. Will is of course very concerned about this.

Eventually the group arrive at another very sturdy fence barring their way, but this time there's no door in it. Hopes are dashed and resolves are tested as it appears they will make no further progress this way. The party discusses where to go instead. Raphina wonders about a spell she can cast that will show her the direct route to any location she's familiar with. They dismiss the suggestion of visiting Tess; not only do they want to stay as far away from Waterside as possible, but also with Will disguised as her deceased boyfriend it's just too low, even for him. They wonder about the book store, where they can at least bribe Bella with more chocolate turtles. However they are worried about resurfacing on Cliffside after all the trouble they caused during the puzzle competition. Mo offers to try and simply break the bars and everyone thinks it's worth a shot. Batthwack helps, but once Mo gets in the zone and his muscles are bulging, Batthwack is shoved out of the way. Mo strains as he pulls on the bars, two bolts fly off the fence and a corner of the gate bends upwards. Will makes a mental note never to mess with Mo. They have to get down on the floor to squeeze through the small gap, but they manage it.

Wondering if they should try and cover their tracks, Gwen offers to use her fire breath weapon to destroy the gate, but they decide to leave it as is. They continue on to a bend in the tunnel and then 30-40 feet beyond that the pipe abruptly ends as the tunnel continues ahead. Will raises his concerns to the rest of the group, that is, they're well underground now and the open pipe could flood the tunnel with no means of escape. Raphina asks Selenia what she knows about all this. She says she doesn't know much as she's only been here a short time and hasn't been in the tunnels before. She explains she was smuggled into town on a barge and sneaked in. Everyone except Will wants to continue further down the tunnel, despite his protestations about gelatinous cubes, etc. Will waves them off as they walk away, but Batthwack hangs back, feeling obligated to stay with him. The rest of the party go round the corner out of view, just as it dawns on Will that he can actually breath underwater. However, it's not much consolation because now Will has to worry about the quality of the water. While they wait, Batthwack uses the card stock he bought at the stationary store to start work on a new deck of cards. Will asks Captain Clockface where he was while they were looking for him and Batthwack fills him in. Will is incensed about this, saying that he was worried sick, but Captain Clockface knows this is hyperbole.

Meantwhile, the rest of the party continue on, hearing the sounds of Will's voice echoing in the distance. The tunnel cuts to the right and then to the left, before ending abruptly with a ladder which goes up about 30 feet to a wooden trapdoor. Gwen ascends, listening carefully before opening the trapdoor a crack. She is met with the sight of a large cavern, filled with lichen that gives off a bio-luminescent light. She doesn't see any people. She calls down to he group to relay her findings. Creeping up as quietly as she can, Gwen finds that the ladder emerges directly into the floor of the cave, which is also covered with lichen. The top of the trapdoor is also covered in lichen so would be almost totally invisible when closed. The cavern has no signs of any mad-made things or people working and there are three openings going off in different directions.

Raphina goes back to tell Will and Batthwack and hurries them along to the ladder and they head up. The cavern is relatively large and clearly part of a cave system. There are stalactites and stalagmites though no-one knows which are which. Raphina is licking them, which Gwen suggests might not be too clever. Will wonders how much the lichen is worth and starts thinking of various business ventures, such as Raphina making tea out of it. He even suggests giving it to the Bella if they run out of chocolate turtles, but Gwen reassures him that that won't happen. Will scrapes some lichen off the cave wall and it's glowing on his finger. He then wonders about taking some to use as a source of light and scrapes more lichen into an empty bottle. Raphina says this reminds her of catching fireflies who used to try and steal things from them. Gwen wonders about making glowing candy.

The party can't discern much difference between the three exits in this cavern. Batthwack thinks he left-hand tunnel them might be slightly larger than the others. Will asks if either of the cats could smell the air down each of the exits and then detect which way has the clearest air and is therefore the best direction to go in. Gwen ridicules this suggestion, but has a go at smelling the air herself, only to get a nose full of lichen instead, which causes her to sneeze all over Will. Looking down he can see he's flecked with glowing snot. Gwen is very apologetic and immediately casts *Prestidigiation* on him to clear it all off. Will also does his own *Prestidigiation*. Batthwack heads down the left-hand tunnel.

## Trivia

* The episode title quotes Eric. Batthwack was designing a new deck of cards while waiting with Will in the tunnel. Alex said he didn't get very far with it, but instead of diamonds and clubs, etc, the cards were going to be designed with *"weapons and horrible battle injuries on them"*. Eric replies *"Ah I got the seven of decapitations!"*

## References

1. ↑ See episode 202: I Bet You Think This Pneumatic Tube Is About You
2. ↑ See episode 197: He's a Lot Nicer To Us When He's Pretending He's a Terrible Person
3. ↑ Denise confirms Gwen is a golden dragonborn
4. ↑ It was actually Denise who reminded everyone! See episode 189: We Do Not Dip Our Toes Into The Cheese
5. ↑ This wiki editor remembers which one is which using the old mnemonic *"When one has ants in one's pants, the \*mites go up\* and \*tights come down\*!"*