Episode 1

The thumbnail for Episode 1, illustrated by Nelson

"**Temple of Venom - Episode 1**" is the series premiere of *Soulbound.* The party joins up in a small jungle village, all hired separately for the same job, and join forces as they traverse deeper into the jungle around them.

## Synopsis

The episode begins with the cast introducing themselves:

* Reese is the Dungeon Master.
* Charles plays Kalius Femirai, the blue tiefling paladin.
* Isak plays Ronja, the tabaxi wild sorceress.
* Nelson plays Flint, the fire genasi rogue.

Afterward, the story begins in earnest.

The party starts off in a village called Petalnew, each of them having been called to town and hired separately by a man named Medrith to find his younger sister. She, like several other people from the area, had disappeared into the jungle, and the party is asked to locate and rescue as many of them as possible. Medrith provides the party with a map and points them down the path to the north of town, then leaves them to their own devices.

The party introduces themselves to each other, then make their way into the jungle. They stumble across a Displacer Beast, their vision of it initially obscured by its innate magic. Since it's distracted with eating a massive spider it appears to have killed, they attempt to sneak past it. Only Flint succeeds in doing so and they are drawn into a fight. Kalius does a significant amount of damage to it in the first round of combat; Ronja's magic immediately goes wild, turning her *Firebolt* into a 5th-level *Magic Missile;* and Flint lands a sneak attack on it. In retaliation, the creature displaces itself and attacks Kalius twice, though only one manages to hit. Immediately afterward, Kalius kills it.

After looting the carcasses of both the Displacer Beast and the half-eaten spider, the party moves on, though not before watching several more giant spiders approach the dead Displacer Beast and begin to eat it. They come to a fork in the path: to the left is the sound of running water, while to the right a path lined with beautiful flowers has been carved out of the thicker foliage by heavy foot traffic in the direction of an enticingly sweet smell. Kalius protests the idea of going to the right, but is outvoted by Flint and Ronja.

The path to the right is slightly overgrown and leads to a small moss-carpeted clearing permeated by the sweet scent from before. In the center of the clearing is an orchid-like flower, its petals red in the center and fading outward into pink and orange with white and purple spots along the edges, its stem striped with varying shades of green, that proves to be the source of the smell. Ronja goes to get a closer look at the flower and inhales some of its pollen, which results in her temporarily losing control of herself and picking the flower. Doing so causes a massive Venus fly trap to erupt from the ground beneath Ronja and attack the party. Ronja shoots a *Firebolt* at it, doing extra damage due to plants' vulnerability to fire. Kalius lands two successful attacks against it as well. The Venus fly trap grabs Kalius with a tendril and attempts to swallow him, though it fails to do any damage. Flint attempts to shoot at the plant but misses. Ronja uses Tides of Chaos to force a wild magic surge, casting the spell *Grease* on herself in the process. Kalius makes one more successful attack, freeing himself from the grapple. The Venus fly trap instead grabs Flint, this time succeeding in dropping him into its mouth. Flint manages to escape the plant with a critical hit from inside it and drops back to the ground. Ronja fails her save against her *Grease* spell, falling to the ground as she throws out another *Firebolt* and sets the plant on fire. Kalius attacks it two more times, one of which being a critical hit, cutting through the stalk of the plant and reducing the main body of it to ash.

The party backtracks and takes the path to the left this time, which leads them to a hill overlooking a small waterfall that feeds into a stream. Across the stream and further into the brush is a mostly-destroyed cottage that appears to have been crushed along with everything inside it. Flint sneaks in to investigate the cottage up close. He finds an old woman in white robes who has been crushed to death beneath part of her roof. The only items of interest are a few gold pieces, which Flint pockets, and the small cloth hat lined with rainbow-colored feathers that the woman wears. Upon completing his search of the rubble and deeming it safe, Flint calls the other two over. Ronja appears more interested in the prospect of loot than the woman's corpse, but Kalius seems disturbed and immediately asks to bury her properly despite both Flint and Ronja's insistence that a burial would be a waste of time.

Flint compliments Kalius, causing the feathered hat to glow slightly. He tests its magic briefly, then pockets the hat as well. Kalius and Ronja do attempt to identify the hat, but fail their arcana checks and don't manage to glean anything about it beyond the fact that it's magic, though it is stated out of character that the hat is powered by and feeds off of gay thoughts. Kalius gives the old woman a proper burial as the sun sets. The episode closes with the party settling down for a long rest among the ruins of the cottage.

## Featured NPCS

* Medrith: the man who initially hires the party.

## Trivia

* This episode is the introduction of the Hat of Homosexuality.
* Kalius is shown to have a strong distaste for sweet smells, though it is unspecified whether or not this extends to sweet tastes.
* Isak rolls the first natural 1 of the campaign during Ronja's first turn of combat.
* Nelson rolls the first natural 20 of the campaign while attempting to escape the Venus fly trap's jaws.
* This episode marks both the first time Ronja calls Kalius 'Tiny' and the first time she calls Flint 'Big Boy,' both nicknames assigned almost immediately after meeting them.