Episode 319 - Love the Skin You're In

When danger is all around you it is easy to rely on past successes and charge into the unknown. Surely, since you have faced gods and survived, this next peril will be tough but manageable. Surely, we will be able to solve any problem thrown our way. Surely, any foe we face should be more afraid of us than we are of them. But that is not always the case, unfortunately. And you only have to be wrong once.

## **Story**

### Long Story

Previously, on *Greetings, Adventurers!*...

Toby Treacletart used his *Dimension door* to teleport himself into The Vault of Ferrim Pecunia. He immediately found himself getting zapped by blue electricity. The intrepid gnome used his *Levitation* ability to leap off of the electrified gold piles, but that was when the room filled with burning red flames. He fell then, his Re-Breather tumbling out of his mouth. This left him susceptible to the green toxic gas that filled the room. Landing in the electricity, burned by flames, and unable to breath, Toby died, just in sight of his mission, the Jade Pyramid...

Then.

He wakes up. Standing before him, is the gnome deity, Garl Glittergold himself. He is in Glitterhold, a sort of gnomish afterlife. The god tells Toby that he must remain here forever, as he is dead............ PSYCH! He's totally fine, actually. Well, no actually, he is dead, but he can go back, using one of his clones! So that's cool, but first, he gives Toby a bit of advice: to look under Grecky's card table in her room. He then, literally, kicks Toby out of Glitterhold.

And he wakes up in a vat, in the lower levels of The Tower of Grey, back in Greenham. Boris is there, checking on the clones. Toby's oldest clone, an exact replica of how Toby looked before the Seven Year Gap, is now moving around inside the vat. Boris releases him, and Toby, briefly, fills him in on what's been going on. He tells Boris to rally the troops, in case he/they mess up again, and that Boris may have to take over, if things go horribly wrong. With the business taken care of, Toby wants to go back to The Nine Hells immediately, to help save his friends. He gets dressed, has a bite to eat, gets a haircut, and then heads out, teleporting immediately to Grecky's room.

Previously, on *Greetings, Adventurers!*...

Lahni Caplain surrendered to the Robo-Guards. They cuffed her, and put a bag on her head, and they also stabilized Rowan and Skud. And put bags on their heads. So everyone's bagged now. Got it?

Later, after a long rest, the party wakes up, the bags are removed, and they find themselves back in the conference room. The one where they were forced to press buttons a day ago. The message on the wall says "Loyalty requires a small sacrifice". And on the table in front of them are three items: a knife, a box with an indent of a finger in it, and a box with an indent of a toe inside it...

Azazel, Steven, and Frank Ubell are also there, the latter being weirdly chill about all this. Skud tells him he should remove his own toes/fingers, while Frank retorts that Skud should do it. The two skirmish over the dagger, each trying to chop off the others' fingers. It... pretty weird. Ultimately, Skud attempts to pass the blade to Lahni, who deflects that missile back at Skud. He looses a finger, but another one immediately grows back in its place, this one silvery and metallic. In fact, it is the exact same kind of metal that the Robo-/guards are made out of! Frank puts the finger in the box, while Skud, like a fool, tries to kick the knife at him. Instead, one of his toes comes off, because he kicked a knife, like a fool. Like his finger, his toe grows back, also metallic and silver. So weird! But with the sacrifice made, the door opens, and a Rob-Guard escorts them back to their room.

There, waiting for them, looking seven years younger, and wearing a red key card around his neck, is Toby Treacletart.

Also, Frank reminds them that they only have 36 more hours until the Talent Contest!

### Short

Toby dies and goes to Gnome Heaven. He meets the Gnome god, Garl Glittergold, who tells him where to find one of the necessary key cards, then sends him back to Drunkeros. Toby's oldest clone wakes up, with Toby's consciousness, and tells Boris to rally the troops, just in case. He then grabs some potions and teleports to Grecky's room in the Nine Hells, where he knows the Key Card to be. Meanwhile, Lahni, Skud, and Rowan are made to make a "small sacrifice", by one of them chopping off their toe/finger. Skud does both, with vague voluntarity, and they grow back as robot toe and finger! After making this sacrifice, they go back to their rooms, where they find Toby with the red key card!

## **Trivia**

* Toby's lost a lot of his goodies, such as his Robe of Stars, his Flying Broom, his Crystal Ball of Telepathy, and if he had any Immovable Rods, those are gone too
* Toby and Garl's conversation implies that Toby was recently at Glitterhold. I, for my part, don't remember this happening? Maybe someone could fact check that? There's certainly no way to go back and check...
* Toby has bright red hair, and, at first, a wispy mustache, but he shaves that off. He also gets a haircut, so it's shorter now
* Toby also grabbed four 3rd-tier healing potions, whatever that means
* Why did Grecky have the key card?

## **In This Episode...**

### **Cast and Player Characters**

* Michael DiMauro - *Dungeon Master*
* Tim Lanning - Toby Treacletart
* Jennifer Cheek - Rowan Grey
* Mike Bachmann - Skud Derringer
* Nika Howard - Lahnik "Lahni" Caplain

### **Non-Player Characters**

* Garl Glittergold
* Boris
* Azazel
* Steven
* Frank Ubell

### **Locations**

* Glitterhold
* Drunkeros
	+ Greenham
		- The Tower of Gray
* The Nine Hells
	+ Ferrim Pecunia

### **Quest Log Updates**

* [On-Hold] - Stop Tiamat!
* [Active] - Destroy The Orb!
	+ [On-Hold] - Find the first missing piece
		- [On-Hold] - Investigate the City of Brass
			* [On-Hold] - Go to The Elemental Plane of Fire
	+ [Active] - Find the second missing piece
		- [Active] - Investigate the Ferrim Pecunia of the Nine Hells
			* [Active] - Break into the Lower Vault
				+ [Active] - Find the five Key Cards
					- [Active] - Get the Black Key Card from Kate Aurochs
					- [Active] - Get the White Key Card from Lord Gorgos
					- [Active] - Get the Blue Key Card from Grinky Grongus
					- [Active] - Get the Green Key Card from Ser Roses of the River
					- ~~[Complete] - Get the Red Key Card from Zato~~
	+ [On-Hold] - Find the third missing piece
		- [On-Hold] - Investigate the final location
* [On-Hold] - Find Adira Harper
* [Backburner] - Find Lannie Caplain
	+ [On-Hold] - Investigate Galanthis
* [Active] - Find a way to pay back the Ferrim Pecunia bank of Pelor's Hope
* [Active][Jaeludra] - Investigate the Great Colosseum in Caer
* [Active][Jaeludra] - Investigate the Oracle's strange prophecies
* [Active][Jaeludra + Steve] - Save Deephome from The Army of Tiamat

### **Quotes**

**"Skud, you're definitely the most loyal, of all of us."** ~ *Rowan*

## **Rolls**

* **Recap**
	+ Nika - 7
	+ Tim - 13
	+ **Bachmann - Nat1**
	+ Jennifer - 18