Season 1 - Episode 3 - Oops I crit it again

Three skeletons descend from the ceiling!

Scarlett smashes one to powder with her warhammer, then Aggamir expertly dispatches one with his rapier. Saphina Thornbyrne is distracted and concentrating on polishing Cricket, not paying much attention to the commotion. Drusilla, both fearful and amazed, reaches out with her theoretical knowledge of undead using her spell 'Eyes of the Grave.' She is unable to sense any undead nearby, making Scar wonder if this is another trick. Scar grapples the remaining skeleton and tugs on it. She feels a snap and gets hit in the face by a rope. It seems as though, this too was a ruse to scare people away from the lower levels of the catacombs.

Dru, who has been living here for years, has never noticed these traps. Although she has been down these corridors recently, these traps must have been placed within the last few weeks. They continue forward, to where the corridor makes a right turn, to the area where Dru found her jade pendant (arcane focus).

They arrive at a large, 25'x 25' square room that features four stone pillars with a mosaic tile piece in the center This mosaic displays a circle within a circle with some decorative bits on the inside of one of the circles. There are sixteen alcoves within the walls for the dead to be interred. On the far side of the room, there is a five foot corridor. Knowing full well she has been in this room (having gotten her jade pendant in the next room), when Scar asks Dru if she has been in this room, Dru responds with "probably."

Dru leads the group into the next room. This room is 25'x 30', with 25' high ceilings, and the corners are each cut to give it an almost octagonal feel. There are three jade pedestals in alcoves around the room. The middle of the room features a jade alter with a jade sarcophagus on top. Atop the sarcophagus is a plaque. The plaque reads:

"Here lies Idrindin. May he stay at rest, and never awaken."

Despite Dru's best efforts to conceal the pendant in her hair, Scar asks about it, comparing it to the jade in this room. Drusilla tries to play dumb and not know what she's talking about. Scarlett, being the sharp Copper Mantle she is, knows full well she's lying. Dru tries playing it off as no big deal, revealing she's had the pendant since she settled down here eight years ago.

While Drusilla and Scarlett are arguing back and forth, Aggamir and Saphina are investigating. Aggie discovers that these jade pedestals have a divot in each of them, as if to contain something. Saph is walking around and notices a slight draft coming from one of the walls. It looks as though there's a very small piece of the wall that slides back, with a whisper of a breeze comes out of it when she puts her hand against it. Saph, pushing against it forcefully now, feels the section of the wall gives a little bit, but it does not really slide from where it is.

Saphina calls the group over to this anomaly, seeking more strength to try and make this work. Scar and Aggie go to give it a shot together, but Scar cuts herself and slips. Aggamir tries to keep her from falling and braces himself against the wall. He presses up against the spot in the wall and feels it give, but it doesn't really move. Aggie feels the spot and notes that it's about a 2"x 10" section of the wall. Saphina suggests to Dru that she put her pendant in one of the pedestals, to which Dru politely declines. Dru then takes note that this whole place has been suspiciously cleaned since the last time she was down here. Also that this was the first time she'd seen the mosaic (not that it's new, just that she hadn't seen it). Aggie sees some pieces of jade are flaked off and scattered around the floor. Scar sees the lid of the sarcophagus is a little crooked. She single handedly pushes the lid off, revealing nothing but an empty sarcophagus. Saphina determines that the pedestals are not mechanical.

The group runs out of leads to investigate, so Scar gets fed up and smashes the wall, revealing a cave system behind it. With a stairway leading down from the smashed wall, the cave branches to the left and to the right. Scar is unable to determine if one path is more worn than the other. It appears whoever/whatever is down here, seems to do a lot of pacing. Aggamir suggests they take a left.

Heading down the corridor about 10', there is a stone pillar in the middle of a cavernous opening measuring about 15' wide by 10' tall. There are three jugs against one of the walls, then the cavern continues past these jugs. Upon closer inspection, these are 1.5'x 1' fluid jugs filled with lantern oil and stopped by a plug. Confusingly, there seem to be no lanterns nearby. Scar double checks the pillar for clues, and determines that it is just a load-bearing, natural structure.

Continuing forward, the tunnel continues about 15' and turns to the left, where there appears to be a knob in the wall. The knob is attached to a panel which appears to slide open. Drusilla slides the panel revealing a 2"x 10" window in the wall. Dru demands Scar smash it, but Scar thinks looking through it would suffice for now. Aggamir steps up, peers through, and sees an unlit, 5' diameter braiser. There is also a different material in this room. The somewhat visible floor and pair of steps seem to be made of jade. Scar tries to get a look through the window, but bonks her head on the wall. Aggie brings up that there seems to be no visible way in, which causes Dru and Saph to start chanting at Scar to smash it down.

Scar takes some swings, Saph lets off a shot of her thunder canon, slowly chipping pieces of the wall away. After what seems like an eternity, Nathan finally lets them through. Aggamir starts stealthing his way into the room, but everyone else just walks past him without care.

The group ends up in a large 20' wide, 45' long room, pretty much decked out in jade. Atop the jade steps to their right, sits a jade throne, and a few jade figures around it. Two of these figures sit around the throne, while six others stand by it. Scar's initial thoughts of sitting on the throne are squashed when they realize there is already a figure sitting in it. Dressed in dark mage robes with purple embroidery, a skeleton occupies the seat. All of a sudden, the braisers start to light. As light starts filling the room, they see the room is completely encased in jade, and the two jade figures next to the throne, are those of massive jade dogs. The six figures behind the throne are revealed to be jade warriors. Very large text behind the throne reads:

"Idrindin lives. Long may he reign. Lord of the dead."

At this point, the skeleton stands up!

# Fun Facts

Nicole and Emily have a roll-off to determine whether or not Scar has seen the jade pendant in Dru's hair. Nathan has Dru roll a sleight of hand to conceal the gem. He says he wants Dru to "throw the stone," which is a reference to the prequel campaign and Dr. Milo Thornbyrne.

Nova just so happened to roll a natural 20 to investigate the room with the sarcophagus, which just so happened to reveal the piece in the wall, which just so happened to lead to Scar smashing past Nathan's puzzle, which completely changed the way the group approached Idrindin's tomb. Nathan's well thought out puzzle was almost completely useless thanks to this series of unfortunate events.

This is notably hilarious because: When Nathan, Emily, Nicole, and Nova played their first game together (Curse of Strahd), Nathan asked the players what they wanted to see more of in the podcast campaign. What was their answer? ...puzzles...

-cue Nicole smashing a wall in order to avoid a puzzle-

# Village Idiot

With a total of TWO critical failures, and some brilliant ideas for smashing walls, Scar/Nicole takes the Village Idiot title for this episode.