Episode 6 - The Reading Room

> "The slime vored the dragon! Let's just move on." - Bee
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**The Reading Room** is the 6th episode of Spagoots: Realms, and the 6th episode in the Great Labyrinth story arc.

## Plot Synopsis

*The ever-looming goal of the Soul Door is so close they can taste it! And it tastes like evil! But first, they have to do some required reading. Today, the four become nobody, consider sacrificial murder, talk to an ever-looming foe, and take a shower.*

### The Reading Room

The crew has a dog! We love him, his name is Mauve. In other news, there's only one more obstacle until the Soul Door. The party enters a wide room with a bookshelf and a podium, with an open book on it, written in runes that Altaevo can read. The door lock, trapping the party. Altaevo reads from the book, and it's written by Zip, who says that in order to open the doors the book has to be read aloud.

> ALTAEVO (reading): "Now let's see how this story goes. We have an elf who leads people to their doom, a person who created a doomed place, a little inventor girl, a halfling with a mysterious past, a pair of lovers, an elf who turned on their homeland, what a cast of characters!"
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The book continues to describe the party and their current situation, and as it describes heavy footsteps, the party hears them. Suddenly, a cyclops breaks down the wall.

### Cyclops

It's initiative time! Light Boy casts Bless on Thorney, Altaevo, and Sunny, the latter of which shoots the Cyclops with an electricity arrow and an ice arrow. Altaevo magic-missiles him in the eye, and Quintas conjures a fake Sunny, who climbs up a column and shoots two arrows at him, one in the eye. The cyclops shatters fake-Sunny's column, but everyone avoids the debris but Quintas and Lab. Vinca shoots the cyclops and Thorney throws his handle at the cyclops's knee. Light Boy sacred-flames the cyclopes as Altaevo asks for his name - it's either BAAAAART or ROOOON according to Light Boy and Altaevo's interpretations of his screams. He's defeated, but the page of the book turns.

### Ink Vore

Reading from the book, Altaevo tells Thorney to be prepared. They then read that he feels something on his shoulder - he feels a drop of ink. Ink starts falling from the ceiling and Vinca stands in the ink shower. The ink  coalesces and starts to consume Vinca. Initiative restarts! Sunny reloads her crossbow, and the ink monster starts its turn.

> RYAN: "I just realized exactly what's about to happen. Now Ava."
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> AVA: "Oh! Oh."
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> RYAN: "I need to trust you not to say what I think you're gonna say."
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> AVA: "I make no promises! You're the one that did it!"
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> RYAN: "The ink blob closes in around Vinca, almost in a sort of... consuming motion."
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> AVA: "God I wish that were me."
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> RYAN (very very very loud): "GOD DAMN IT!"
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Vinca takes damage from drowning in ink, and Altaevo pulls him out from the blob. Quintas creates an illusiory Lab, but takes damage from creating it and can't attack. Vinca slices the blob with his shortsword, and Lab shoots it with a crossbow. Thorney tosses the book to Altaevo and tells them to read the next page, but the page just tells them they have to defeat the blob to move on. They write in the book that the ink becomes their friend, and it does! This comes in the form of a spell for Altaevo, but it's a 5th level spell. They also try to use the book to heal Quintas and open the doors straight to the Soul Door, but the page goes black. Disgruntled, Zip turns on his intercom and tells them that he turned the book off. Altaevo names the monster Pinky, with a silent P. Zip reveals he has a coin, but it's not in the Labyrinth. He also reveals he didn't tell Lab about the dragon or the underground village.

### The Soul Door

The party's almost at the Soul Door, and all Lab knows about the door is that it's big and has a skull on it. Once it's attacked, it starts attacking back - lasers fire out of the skull. The souls in the door have the choice to reenter their bodies once the door is defeated, and while they're inside the door, it's like a purgatory. Thorney proposes a plan to attack the door from the inside or do recon by killing a party member (temporarily). The party's divided over this as they reach the door.

The door's exactly as Lab described, and the number 23 is enscribed on the top of the door. The number 25 is on the bottom. Thorney adjusts his plan to kill two people. There are two skeletons by the door. Insight checks reveal one was burned to death and the other's skull was broken.

Thorney knocks on the door, and the skull opens slightly, and there's a pink glow in it's mouth. The jaw then closes. Thorney deduces that the harshness of the hit is equal to the strength of the laser. Thorney hits the door but dodges the resulting laser. Vinca uses his magical gloves to hold the skull closed. Before initiative starts, Thorney proposes his murder-plan one more time, specifically wanting to kill Quintas. Everyone decides not to go through with the plan, and only to die if it comes to it.

> ALTAEVO: "Any last words?"
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> THORNEY: "Anyone want to die?"
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> ALTAEVO + VINCA: "I mean..."
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> LIGHT BOY: "I mean, like, if you're asking..."
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> QUINTAS: "I mean..."
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> BEE: "Literally all seven of us are like 'I mean...'!"
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> RYAN: "Even the dog's looking at you inquisitively."
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> VIN: "The dog's just 'well I mean'."
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> (assorted laughter)
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Let's roll initiative!

## Appearances

* Light Boy
* Thorney
* Altaevo
* Vinca
* Sunny
* Quintas
* Lab
* Zip