Peak Performance

**Peak Performance** is the 5th Oxventure episode of Season 2 and the 17th episode overall, in which the Oxventurers confront a great evil dwelling on a mountain.

## Synopsis

An old wizard frenemy dispatches Team Oxventure to a remote, icy mountain in search of a great evil. Can Corazón, Dob, Egbert, Merilwen and Prudence scale the mountain and restore the precious balance of nature without freezing their bits off? Let's hope so.

## Summary

The story starts off at an unknown time after their last adventure, at Necropolis on Sea. Everyone enjoying a nice brunch in their mansion, but Corazón wishes they could move out of the old decrepit house. He writes a letter to an estate agency, which Prudence says she'll take to the rookery, but she deliberately doesn't send it and hangs out with the rooks instead, not wanting to sell the house. Corazón is hanging out in the living room with Dob, when there is a sudden clap of thunder. The Wizard Binbag appears before Corazón and Dob, expecting to be next to Merilwen. Everyone gathers to the living room and show different levels of excitement towards Binbag.

Binbag gets down to business and says he needs their help yet again. He explains there is a frozen to the north of them, and it is a bastion of great beauty and power. A great evil has appeared on the mountain and is threatening the balance of nature, but it was too far away for Binbag to see what it was. Corazón thinks it's good that the great evil is far away from them, but everyone else want to go for various reasons, so he reluctantly agrees to go too. As they all collect supplies for their trip, Egbert taking his eighty wolf pelt coat he got for their heist, Dob asks Binbag why he can't just teleport to the mountain and then teleport back and tell them what the evil is. Binbag explains that his teleportation magic needs to recharge between uses, so he can't right now. Corazón still wants a reward for doing something he doesn't want to do, and Binbag reluctantly says he'll give them some money or something, which appeases Corazón. As they leave with Bismuth in tow, Binbag warns them that many things slumber in the mountain and they should not be awoken.

They journey towards the mountain, with Corazón complaining the whole way. After a long journey, they come across a large, beautiful snow covered mountain. Everyone is reassured that maybe their quest won't be so bad, except of course for Corazón, who wonders how they're going to get up the mountain. The head up the mountain until they discover a previously made base camp, with hidden caches made by previous mountain climbers for future climbers. Corazón sees through his telescope that the path up the mountain is clearly laid for the first few feet, but it dissolves into frozen wilderness afterwards.

They collect a few supplies from the caches, and Merilwen spots a message from a fellow druid that warns her that there's a Dragon at the top of the mountain and it should not be awoken. She relays this to her Guild mates, and they wonder if this is the great evil or if the great evil is disturbing the Dragon. Corazón is immediately interested, as Dragons usually have hordes of gold, and hopes some of the coins he's looking for are in the pile. Dob doesn't remember which coins he's talking about, and Corazón reminds him that he's looking for coins to uncurse his former crew. Corazón then gets so annoyed that Dob forgot his backstory that Dob has to cast Calm Emotions on him. They then decide head up the mountain.

The Guild tie themselves together, Dob being tied to Egbert and Merilwen, and Corazón being tied to Prudence. Merilwen shoots an arrow with a rope attached to it so they have some help climbing up the mountain. The path begins to get quite arduous, and the two teams split up. Prudence uses Spider Climb to climb up a steep section of the mountain, dragging Corazón behind her, who uses it to his advantage. The other two trench through the snow, and Merilwen used Wild Shape to turn into an octopus to make the journey easier for them.

Team Dob then hear a whining, and find a wolf caught in a trap. Merilwen transforms back into her elf self and casts Speak with Animals. The wolf is so twisted in the trap that it sounds like he has a weird accent, but he says if they free him he won't kill them. Dob undoes the trap and frees the wolf, before casting Cure Wounds on the wolf. The wolf is suspicious of them, but seems to relax. It then sees Egbert's eight wolf pelts and gets defensive. Merilwen explains to the wolf that Egbert's fine because he's her, and she's a member of The Circle of The Moon and admires the intelligence of wolves. The wolf, whose voice is normal now, introduces himself as Remus. Remus says that he suspects that he would have been skinned if whoever laid the trap came back, and would appreciate it if they don't mention the fact that he fell into it. Remus then goes off to find another animal in a trap and eat it. Egbert then takes off his wolf pelt coat out of shame.

Meanwhile, back with Prudence and Corazón, Prudence finishes climbing the cliff and come face to face with an Ice Mephit. It roars at them, which disturbs the Dragon for a second, but nothing comes of it, although all three of them are tense for a moment. The Ice Mephit then focuses back on the two. Corazón sneak attacks the creature and stabs it with his rapier, but it grabs the blade in fury. Corazón then pulls the sword out and hides. The monster then swipes at Prudence, but she ducks. The Ice Miphit then summons a fog, obscuring their vision. Wanting to avoid any attack that might cause an avalanche, Prudence uses a stiletto knife to cut up its wing, preventing it from flying. Corazón then sneaks out of his hiding place and skewers it through the head. The Ice Mephit gets the last laugh, as it explodes upon death, slicing them up.

Team Dob hears the Mephit explode and hurry over to see Corazón and Prudence wincing in pain. They recount their adventures to each other and Merilwen tells them that Remus got trapped in a trap, to which Corazón immediately has Bismuth sends a raven to spread the word. Dob and Egbert heal Corazón and Prudence's wounds, and immediately begin to feel very cold. Dob casts Heat Metal on Egbert's armour, to provide a source of heat, briefly burning him before Dob heals him.

After a quick break around Egbert's armour, they continue up the mountain. Prudence triggers a rock fall trap, and Corazón saves her with Mage Hand Legerdemain before the rock trample a bunch of trees. This does cause the Dragon to roar, but nothing happens again, making Corazón think it went back to sleep. They wait a bit to make sure it's safe, during which Egbert licks his mace and gets his tongue stuck, and Dob uses Prestidigitation to make it taste of raspberry and vanilla. Once they are sure they're safe, Prudence thanks Corazón for saving her, to which Corazón tells everyone and plans to write a message for a raven, but Bismuth secretly doesn't send it.

With night closing in, the Guild decide to set up camp. After finding a place to set up their tents, they discover a pit trap nearby which Prudence sees is glowing with dark magic. While dismantling it, Dob falls in and gets skewered. Egbert rescues him, and they yank the stick out and heal his wounds. In his delirious state, Dob sees a cow, and Egbert senses that La Vache Mauve has counted this towards his atonement. Prudence, however, sees a purple substance crawl into Dob. Dob is concerned by this, but he takes the one stake that he "pulled out" and places it as a defence barrier, while Corazón starts a fire.

With camp set up, Corazón takes first watch, using Disguise Self to disguise himself as a gun turret. His watch is pretty uneventful, and he deliberately falls asleep out of boredom. Two hours later, Merilwen comes to reveal him of his duties and discovers him asleep. She wakes him up and he claims he warded off a group of Goblins and thinks he sees a bear, but she sends him to bed. With Corazón gone, Merliwen notices a pair of footprints leading to the pit and then to the tent. Someone was here when Corazón was asleep. She wakes Dob up, inadvertently waking everyone up, as they all follow the footprints.

Corazón is so focused on following the footprints he runs into a tree. Merilwen casts Speak with Plants and talks to the tree Corazón just ran into. She asks the tree if it saw the person who left the footprints, and it says it did. It explains that the man who left them has been there for a few months, setting traps all over the mountain, and he killed a few of its friends and built a cabin nearby. In exchange for giving the information, the tree asks to kill a woodpecker that has been annoying him. Merilwen refuses, but Corazón does it, pinning it to the with his crossbow, delighting the tree. Corazón then roasts the woodpecker and divvies it up to those who want it.

They all decide to head to the cabin to see what this guy's deal is. Dob decides to climb a tree and jumps from branch to branch in order to get a better vantage point. Dob spots a small wisp in the clearing up ahead, letting him know they're going in the right direction, while Corazón spots something in a snare trap. They investigate the snare and see that it has a dead rabbit in it. Prudence scans it and sees that it has the same aura as the last trap, letting her know it was laid by the same person. As they decide not to eat it, out of fear of contracting whatever got in Dob earlier, the trap undoes itself and the rabbit gets up and begins to run towards the smoke Dob saw, but kicks it Corazón it into the forest out of fear.

Despite being creeped out by the whole ordeal, the Guild are curious about how the whole thing works, as Remus and Dob didn't seem to be zombiefied by the traps they were in. Merilwen proposes that maybe it only happens if the animals die in the trap, and Dob theorises that maybe the trapper is doing this to avoid collecting the dead animals himself, as they come back to life and come to him instead. To test this out, Corazón kills a woodpecker with his crowbow and puts it in the trap, but nothing happens. He then wounds a woodpecker and sets off the trap, killing it. The trap then comes undone, and the woodpecker comes back to life like the rabbit. Egbert the kicks it into the woods.

With the traps' mechanics sorted out, the Guild decide to continue heading to the cabin. They eventually arrive at the cabin, and Dob stealthily lands on the tree to listen down the chimney. Apart from the fire, he doesn't hear anything. Corazón approaches the cabin, and sees from the footprints leading from the door that the owner has recently left but hasn't come back yet. He opens the door and is confronted with the face of a bear, only to realise it's taxidermied. He then combat rolls into the cabin, everyone else following after, and sees that the entire place is filled with taxidermied animals, and sees a basket on the fireplace containing the rabbit they saw and one of the woodpeckers they killed.

Prudence tries to look for the source of the trapper's necromancy, but doesn't find anything. Merilwen looks around and is annoyed at all the taxidermy. Corazón chucks his telescope up the chimney so Dob can keep an eye out for the trapper. Dob then suggests that everyone in the cabin hide inside the taxidermy and waits for the trapper. Egbert hides in a bear, Corazón hides in an unknown horned creature (commenting on how bad it smells), Prudence hides in a mountain goat, and Merilwen transforms into her cat form. Dob then hides behind the chimney and waits for the trapper.

An hour passes, and Dob sees a rugged, scarred man approach wearing a coat made of eleven wolf pelts. Dob hoots to alert his Guild mates. The man enters the cabin and they see that he is wearing a hat made out of cat pelt that looks identical to Merilwen's cat form. The form that was based on her dead cat, Simon. The man then looks around the room and narrows his gaze on Merilwen. Corazón jumps out dramatically, but the man doesn't seem surprised, and asks if they are the ones who've been messing with his business. Everyone climbs out of their hiding place, Dob coming down from the roof and coming inside, and confirms it. They ask about his hat and the man, whose name is Vex, explains that so long as animals are marked by his traps they come to him whenever they die, be it due to the traps or by old age, eyeing up Dob as he says this.

Merilwen transforms back into her elf self and asks how Vex has Simon, to which Vex explains that after she buried him Simon crawled out of his grave and walked all the way to him, and he turned Simon into his hat. Merilwen demands that Vex gives her Simon back, but he refuses, and Merilwen says if he won't give her Simon she'll *make* him. Vex then grabs a mace and summons a taxidemied bear back to life. Dob tries to cast Crown of Madness, but it doesn't work. Corazón lights the bear on fire, and then hides outside. Egbert dropkicks Vex into the bear, causing him to ignite as well. Prudence, upset that it's too late to chat Vex up, fails to conjure an Eldritch Blast and destroys the roof. There is a brief pause, but the Guild hears the Dragon roaring and taking off. With the Dragon inbound, and Vex on fire, Merilwen grabs the hat that was once Simon, mildly burning herself, and then casts Entangle, catching Vex. The bear then jumps out the window, trying to put itself out, but it fails and dies again. With Vex trying to escape his bonds, Dob stabs him in the foot and melts his rapier with Heat Metal in order to make sure he doesn't escape. Corazón casts Grease to make the flames do more damage, and everyone leaves the house, savouring the look on his face.

As soon as they leave the cabin, the White Dragon arrives. Egbert speaks to the Dragon in Dragonic, explaining the person who woke him up is currently on fire in the cabin. The Dragon then destroys the cabin and freezes Vex with its breath, before shattering him with its arm. The Dragon then asks the Guild in the common tongue why he shouldn't kill them, to which Egbert explains that they captured the person who was trespassing on his mountain so he could smite him. Merilwen the explains that they were sent to the mountain by Binbag to restore the balance to the mountain, and with Vex dead they believe they have succeeded. The Dragon bows at them, causing Merilwen to freak out in excitement. The Dragon says that he appreciates them helping him, but he says he thinks Binbag is a jerk. Meanwhile, Corazón spots the Dragon's cave twinkling in the distance, and is tempted to nick some of his gold, but eventually decides that he doesn't want to risk dying and he likes the Dragon. The Dragon then warns them not to return to the mountain, as it will be the death of them. He only stays his hand now because he respects Bismuth, who he then bows to.

With the business done, Dob looks at the location he is doomed to return to upon his death and then jumps on Egbert's shield with Egbert and Bismuth, and they sled down the mountain together. Corazón casts Feather Fall on him and Prudence and they jump off the mountain. Merilwen takes the hat that was once Simon and gives it a proper burial, followed by a somber walk by herself. The Dragon then flies off back to his nest and all is still on the mountain once again.

When the Guild return to Necropolis on Sea, they find that Binbag is gone. Corazón is annoyed and makes a mental note that the wizard now owes him money.

## Notable Events

* Dob loses his rapier.
* Merilwen takes revenge against the man who turned her cat into a hat.
* Binbag leaves without giving the guild any reward

## Guild Hijinks

* Dob uses Heat Metal to heat up Egbert's armour so they can be warm, burning Egbert in the process.
* Egbert gets his tongue stuck on his mace trying to lick it, twice.
* Corazón runs into a tree.
* Dob falls into a stake and is stabbed, allowing magic residue to seep into him.
* Corazón and Egbert kick two zombie animals into the woods.

## Character Development

* Prudence thanks Corazón for saving her life.
* Corazón decides *not* to rob a Dragon.

## Behind The Scenes Trivia

* Andy rolls a d20 to decide not to rob the dragon, with full intent of going for the gold if the roll was 10 or below.
* Vex and much of the plot of this episode were inspired by a comment Ellen made to Johnny; that she would like to see Merilwen get angry.