Ep. 83 The Bramble Heart

## Watch

The Bramble Heart | Khyber Shards #83 | D&D 5e Actual Play

—Pog

Esri makes the crocodile his friend, and the group continues on their way through Blackbriar. They go through an archway and get attacked by a shambling mound; to Shade's horror, her lightning attack actually heals it! They hear Tyris's voice again, still talking about a test. To everyone's horror, Pog is swallowed by the shamblimg mound.

With Shade unconscious and Pog still in the mound, it's River who comes to the rescue. She bursts through the briar wall in a tangle of vines and tendrils. She grabs the vines and forces Pog to be spit out, and after Esri heals Shade, she slashes at the shambling mound one last time, causing it to collapse in a pile on the ground.

## Synopsis

Hearing Pog scream bloody murder, the group gathers to help. Esri makes the crocodile his friend, who bursts out of the water on the other side of Pog and grabs Splicer in his massive jaws. Shade attacks it and Ari shoots his blaster at it. Pog feels this massive anger that this thing that was once a creature has been turned into an abomination, and necrotic energy washes out from him onto it. It flops down, dead in the croc's mouth. The voice rings out to initiate cleansing protocols. Esri leaves to get snake meat.

They hear vines making a ruckus down another passageway. Esri feeds the crocodile.

They go out through an archway, and see vines have strangled the trees to death. As they walk further in, Shade spots a vine reaching for their legs and shouts a warning just in time to avoid some attacks. Ari gets tangled up in it as it wraps around his legs. A little vine blight wraps around Shade. Pog uses fire magic. Shade teleports out of the vines and attacks the shambling mound. To her alarm, when she uses lightning against it, it seems to repair itself. It's grabbing them, hurting them with its vines as well as releasing spores to poison them. Shade falls unconscious from the vines.

The voice says they're getting highly irregular readings, and need to finish this quickly. Pog is swallowed whole by the shambling mound, and the vine blight knockes Ari unconscious. The voice says there's a full-on system failure on the wall.

The wall of vines begins to change colors, from a green so dark it's almost black, into a luminous blue. A hole is rent in the wall, and standing in the breach is River. Blue tendrils fill the gaps in the hedge.

Esri's spell heals Shade, and she slashes at the mound.

River reaches down and grabs the vines on the ground, turning them blue, and that blue rushes through to the interior of the shambling mound. Pog is spat out. The mound shambles away, and Shade slices it apart as it passes her, collapsing it into a pile of plant matter.

River's hair is floating around her, blue tendrils running from her into the briar wall around her.

## Spells

* **Ari**
	+ Eldritch Blast
	+ Dissonant Whispers
	+ Silvery Barbs (twice)
	+ Tasha's Mind Whip
* **Esri**
	+ Blight
	+ Chill Touch
	+ Dominate Beast
	+ Healing Spirit
	+ Healing Word (3rd level) on Pog
* **Pog**
	+ Aganazzar’s Scorcher
	+ Burning Hands
	+ Inflict Wounds
	+ Green-Flame Blade
* **Shade**
	+ Cure Wounds on Pog
	+ Misty Step

## Quotes

"The downside is that this crocodile is gonna walk even slower than it normally does to do anything."
*—Colin, after Esri casts Dominate Beast on the crocodile*

"It's mostly in a crocodile's mouth; I'm gonna give it cover, but go ahead."
"That feels fair, actually."
*—Philip and Colin*

"Philip, that's beautiful work on that right there, just for the record."
"Oh, thank you."
"Please don't kill Pog."
*—Colin and Philip*

"That's heartbreaking."
"I know."
"You don't look heartbroken, Philip."
*—Casey and Philip*

"Help us Kael Kenobi, you're our only hope."
*—Pog*

"You're not gonna like Eleven. I mean, River."
*—Colin*

"I really wanna be sarcastic, but I don't wanna risk airhorning right now."
*—Colin*