Silent Escape

The full episode can be watched here.

***Previously on... the Portals of Brae***

After completing the Arena challenges, the group heads over the VVIP lounge, where Bozzy awaits them. Bozzy is dumbfounded that the party has achieved 3 VVIP nominations in a single day – quite frankly, it’s never happened before. As he shows them around the exorbitant VVIP section, however, his wife Baron Snozbourne makes her entrance.

Baron is less than thrilled that 4 new VVIP members have ascended the ranks so quickly. She comments to Bozzy that behavior like that could stir the masses and disrupt the balance of Dasakloob. When asked, the Party tells Baron that they simply wish to leave, and she happily escorts them to the VIP Exit.

Trisden remains highly suspicious of Baron and of her eagerness for the party to walk through the door, but the others ignore Trisden’s caution and head on through. Trisden reluctantly follows and his suspicions are immediately confirmed. Baron releases the illusion magic that’s been disguising the VVVIP entrance as the VIP Exit as alarms sound. Bozzy screams at Baron, asking what she’s done, and she replies saying that she’s done what he could not – preserved the sanctity of Dasakloob. As the adventurers step into the VVVIP area, they find themselves in a truly bizarre place filled with glowing lines that light up like synapses, as if they had stepped inside a computer. Almost instantly, giant figures appear and blast the group unconscious.

They awaken inside of narrow cells, stripped of their belongings and clothes. Around their necks, a strange collar that punctures through their flesh and wraps around their vocal cords. They are unable to speak. To make matters worse, Cypress has been separated from the group and is no where to be found. In the cell next to them: Styx the halfling who stole their Tuliport seeds.

Styx acts quickly, pointing out that their cells are slowly transporting them towards a death chamber. They use the only item available to them: a severed hand in Trisden’s cell. Aramaya shatter the bones in the fingers and creates a lock-pick from a sliver of bone. Styx, a seasoned thief, proves her worth to the team by unlocking all of their cells.

A deadly game of hide and seek begins. The Quiet Place is populated by Security, who come in a few forms. There are the Alphas, enormous brutes with 1 giant eye where a head should be, and there are the Betas, who are smaller and wear full body suits. The group will have to find Cypress and their belongings before they’re able to escape. Preventing them from getting around, however, are security checkpoints that require a key to pass through.

Sneaking through hallways, listening to doors for signs of the life and hiding to avoid the guards patrolling and working in the area, the terrified adventurers slowly uncover a horrific operation. The citizens of Dasakloob who are sent to the Quiet Place are murdered and their organs and limbs are harvested for the creation of new Security guards. The rooms are filled with gruesome experimentation on the halflings and the dwarves, some so vulgar that the Party can’t bare to observe them for long. Often, they weigh mercy killings against the threat of sounding an alarm and being caught, only to realize that self-preseveration will require them to ignore the horrors that they are witnessing.

After a while, the heroes find a contraption that forcibly removes their collars, and Trisden spends all of his healing keeping the group alive through the brutal process. With their voices returned to them, the spell-users at least have access to magic once again. Now better equipped, they sneak into a room where a Beta Guard is dissecting bodies and take him out. Stealing his outfit, they uncover a harrowing truth: the Beta Guards are what remains of the halflings and dwarves who have been taken here, stitched together into unGodly Frankenstein creations. Continued exploration takes them to their equipment, but the Tuliport seeds are sealed behind yet another security checkpoint.

Their final discovery is an enormous room filled with hundreds of security guards suspended in liquid-filled tubes. In  n adjacent room, they see a mechanism that transforms Beta Guards into Alpha Guards. In this room, the group also finds a Security Key… but when they take it, they sound a full-building alarm. Running back out, the Security Guard tubes are bursting open. The stealth mission is over… now their only goal is to survive.