Episode 099 - The Sword in the Stone

## Intro

**Episode Description:** Our first real combat, it goes as expected.

**Catch phrase:** *"Mister ohh she is ... it's gonna be so lighthearted"* - Stephanie/Lauren

**Player greetings:**

Sean - *"Hello and welcome to another episode of The Tabletop Champions Podcast. I'm Sean your dungeon master and with me tonight we have:"*

Kyle - "Every morning there is a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend's four post bed"

Ben - "Hey, you got my name right"

Matt - "Let the good times roll"

Stephie - "Never trust anyone and never get caught"

Lauren - "Hallo"

## Review of previous episode

### d20 Rolls

* Kyle = 11
* Stephanie = 5
* **Lauren = 20 -> Sean**
* Ben and Matt is unknown

## Episode

### Meeting The Order of the Burning Arrow

Alenia wake up as the first person and show the note from The Order of the Burning Arrow to the rest of the party. The note states that The Order of the Burning Arrow wishes to meet with the party at The Lost Tree, in The Lost Woods.

After some discussion the party decides to go meet with The Order of the Burning Arrow, approaching the forest with caution. Before the party leave, they meet up with Shelia and council to ask whether they should give back the money. The council decides to trust in the Havenguard’s decision. They decide to deliver the money back.

The journey to the woods goes without any problems. When they are about to reach The Lost Tree the party decide that Colin and Ren should scout ahead from each flank of the meeting place. Colin nimbly makes his way through the trees and Ren is scouting the underbrush. Unfortunately, Ren is spotted and somebody shoots an arrow in front of her. A cloaked figure next to The Lost Tree calls out the party, telling them they are spotted. Ren cautiously makes her way out, after giving an apologetic look to the rest of the group. Elyron and Minos are the first to walk out to Ren, and Alenia follow a little afterward. Colin stays hidden.

It turns out that the cloaked person is a previous spiderling of Alenia’s, named Silo. Silo tells the party that The Order of the Burning Arrow wish to make an alliance with Haven. Haven is placed in a strategic advantageous place and The Order of the Burning Arrow wish to increase its defenses. In return, Haven has to stop letting any more refugees from the “traditional” races into the city. The party will not accept the demand and turn down the offer for an alliance.

### Missing Children

All the sudden the party hears an alarm bell from Haven, indicating something is wrong in Haven. When they turn around Silo is nowhere to be seen. Fortunately she didn’t take the money with her, and the party decides to keep the money.

The party rush back to Haven. When they reach Haven, Myrta Azeal tells them that three children from the orphanage mysteriously have gone missing. The townspeople have found a mystically floating black piece of cloth. In the children’s room there are signs of struggle, and it appears like they were taken out through the window. On the window, Colin finds a small amount of black liquid oozing down a glass shard.

Ren finds small droplets of black blood, leading off toward the southwest of the housing over the fence. She finds no footprints from children, almost as if they had floated away. Ren and Minos manage to track the black blood to an unknown place in the forest.

### Boulder-Skull Dungeon

The party arrives at an ugly weed covered hill. The south side of the hill is decorated with several large boulders, positioned to shape a skull. And the north side is crumbles forming a cliff of loose sand and gravel. There is no sign of life around the hill, and an aura of creeping doom hangs about it.

Minos notice tree rock with crack, corresponding to the nose of the skeleton. He attempts to cut the boulders open with his sword. However, he misses the boulder and hits the ground instead leaving the sword stuck.  Minos tries to pull the sword out of the ground, but he doesn’t have the strength (two critical failures in a row). Luckily Alenia is strong enough to pull out the sword for Minos. After splitting the boulder, it reveals a staircase leading down to a cave.

The party descents down the staircase. The first room they enter have vaulted roof supported by four pillars. The pillars are encrusted with gems and fine metals. In the ceiling there is a carved stone face with an open black mouth.

Colin sneaks ahead into the south hallway. When he enters the room, the floor begins to swivel and Colin falls into a pit of acid. Colin manages to run up the wall, up to the ceiling. He continues further running along the ceiling (which is just something he can do).

Colin now stands in the entrance to a large circular room with four exits. In the center of the room there is a large pile of bones, and Colin hears the sound of a large creature eating. After reporting this to the other players they decide to start searching for the children in the staircase to the north.

The next room is heavenly decorated with bright colors, mosaics and six paintings. The room has a door to the left, but it doesn’t appear to have any handle or lock. Through the door the party can hear the voices of children. After searching for some time, Elyron finds a switch to the door in one of the paintings.

When the door opens, the party can hear children sobbing. They enter the room, which has four cells along the western wall. Two of the cells are locked, and Christoph and Tristane can be heard through it. But before the party can reach the children, a cloaked creature attacks the party. After the fight Minos cut the lock to one of the cells the children are in and Alenia pick the lock of the other. Christoph and Tristane tell that Jade was taken through the passage to the north.

Ending(Sean): The bigger question is, are you going to escort the children out the front or are you gonna have them follow you further into the dungeon.

## Fighting

 Episode body count
 Total body count

Ren: Fueled by anger from seeing her friends getting knocked down, Ren continuously shoots the monster with arrows, until it dissipates.

 Episode knock outs
 Total knock outs

## NPC's Introduced

Silo - Member of The Order of the Burning Arrow, Previous spiderling.

Christoph, Tristane and Jade - Kidnapped children from the orphanage.

## Trivia

* In this episode, the bag of gold “magically” increases to 5000 gold pieces.