Ep. 3 Dancing With Shadows Chapter Three

## Listen

Ep. 3 Dancing With Shadows Chapter Three

—George R. R. Martin, *A Feast for Crows*

After defeating Drec Shugaan, the party ventures deeper into the cave. They loot a tomb for magical items, and Lyle reveals he's not Lyle after all.

## Synopsis

This episode starts off in the great hall Drec Shugaan died in. As the fire dies down, Draconos, Lyle, Beric, and Acko see a massive statue of a hobgoblin in very ornate armor holding an odd looking weapon. On the bottom is a plaque that they get Acko to read: *"If you sell me I am worthless, if you give me I am priceless. When I am taken back I am broken, I am only real when I am spoken."* They kind of accidentally solve it—Beric reads the oath from last episode to see how similar the two are and a section of the wall near the statue starts to rumble and moves aside. They see a dark hallway, and Acko casts Light on one of Beric's arrows so they can see how far it goes. Before heading down the tunnel they loot the body of Drec Shugaan and find a flail, shield, and a chain mail shirt.

Draconos grabs the goblin that first came with them and runs down the hallway. He rounds the corner and see a crypt that looks like it hasn't been touched in some time. It has five coffins; one large one in the middle on a raised platform, and two smaller ones on either side of it. Drac goes straight for the big one. It looks like it's been disturbed at some point, and doesn't have a lid. Inside is a hobgoblin skeleton wearing ornate plate armor with his hands folded over his chest, holding a cane. A beautiful amulet is around his neck. All three of the items have a golden light shimmering out of them through purple gems. Drac give the armor a test poke with his battleaxe. On the coffin is some writing in goblin, and he calls Acko over to read it.

Back at the statue, Beric and Lyle are still trying to figure out the writing on the statue. Beric gives a few guesses. *"Love. A promise."* Acko points out that it sounds like they need an oath, which they've already said and a door opened when they did.

Before the rest of the party can join him, Drac reaches for the armor. The hobgoblin skeleton immediately jumps up and grabs for his throat. The lids of the other coffins open and four more skeletons climb out. Lyle, Beric, and Acko hear the commotion and run into the room. The skeleton holding Drac grabs the cane that was on his chest and yanks on the handle and a weird sharpened chain comes out.

*"It almost looks like a ribbon. Almost."
"Careful, bro."
—Eric and Jeff*
Drac tries to cut off the arm that's holding him and doesn't quite manage, but at least breaks his ulna. The skeleton shrieks in pain and lets go. After defeating the skeletons, the group takes a closer look at the treasures in the coffin. Drac tries splitting up the loot, but Lyle completely ignores him and goes for the chain. He stares at it, mesmerized, and mutters, *"That's the weapon of my people."*  He snaps out of his trance and sees Beric and Draconos staring at him, completely confused. He tells them to trust him, and then starts changing shape. He turns into Trant, and then Gregor, then Beric, and Draconos. Finally he settles on a shape. He's about the same size as Lyle, a little thinner, with less defined facial features, pale skin, and silver hair.

*Have you guys ever heard of a changeling? That's a me, hi. I'm Dex. I've been living as Lyle. Like, everything except for my name is who I really am, but yeah. So I'm gonna be taking this ribbonweave now."
—Lyle*
And with this he changes back into Lyle. He explains what a ribbonweave is; when the chain isn't extended it looks like a regular cane, but the user can press a small lever on the side and extend the chain out to 15 feet to slash at or trip the enemy. It can also cast Daylight once per day. After this big reveal, Draconos casually takes and dons the armor. Beric grabs the amulet, which can change his damage type to radiant once per short rest. Acko takes the holy symbol. He sees the writing that Draconos noticed earlier and reads it for them:

*"Here lies Laruuch Da'kaar, leader and commander of the light of Ja'Sharaat, along with his favorite items; his weapon, Shadow Light; his trusted armor, Dawn Light; his necklace, Coming Dusk; and his holy symbol, The Light Within the Shadows."*
Carved into the stone walls are images of great battles, including the hobgoblin in a dramatic pose holding Shadow Light. Directly to the right there's a break in the wall that looks like it leads to a natural cave. Before exploring the cave, they ask for either a short rest or some healing, and the goblin gives them some potions. They finally ask his name; he's called Blergh. Lyle asks him to gather his goblin friends to start the search for Jacob.

After they've healed up they hear the scream of a young boy coming from deep within the tomb. They run towards the scream, into the entrance of what looks like a natural cavern. The stone walls are wet and porous, and it looks like there's a gray gas seeping out. Acko has Light turned on, but the further into the cave they go the dimmer the light gets.

They enter another cavern and two goblins jump them and attack. They have inky black skin, like they're somehow corrupted. A third one seems to appear from Beric's shadow and stabs at him, and a fourth jumps out from the light behind Acko. It reaches and tries to touch him on the chest, but Acko swats his hand away, leaving a black hand print. The party fights and kills most of them, but then the shadows from the corpses start rising and attacking.

Lyle goes down, but luckily Blergh hears what's happening and rushes in with a healing potion. Lyle gets up and casts Daylight from his ribbonweave, making the shadows recoil. Acko casts Sacred Light on one of the corpses, destroying it before its shadow can rise.

They kill the last of the shadows and goblins and hear another cry for help. They sprint towards the sound and come across an arch made from old, gnarled, white wood. Within the arch is utter darkness—Lyle's Daylight can't even penetrate it. As they arrive they see a figure handing a young boy off to something in the archway, and Beric dives for him. The figure turns, extends his hand towards Beric, and Beric stops as if an invisible wall appeared before him. The figure smirks at Lyle, and raises his hand again, this time pointing at Acko. A ray of darkness shoots out and attaches to his chest, and with his other hand he snatches Acko's holy symbol. He let's Acko go and pulls the gem out and crushes it. An image of a golden dragon escapes from the gem, and they hear a faint dragon's cry. Acko is crumpled dead on the ground, and the figure walks back through the portal.

More shadows try to reach out through the archway, but it seems like they don't have the power to get through. Blergh screams for everyone to run and flees.

End of episode.

## Locations

* Breland
	+ Dhakaani Ruins

## Spells

* **Acko**
	+ Light

* **Beric**
	+ Create Bonfire

* **Dex**
	+ Daylight

## Quotes

"I'll tell you what. One of the things you can always count on with a paladin is grave robbing."
*—Jeff*

"Okay, hang on. I just dropped that I'm a damn other species and you're like, 'I can do you one better. I have a mouse named after a garbage nut.'"
"Cashew's a great nut!"
*—Jeff and Trevor*

"D-O-N? Don light? Or—oh. *Dawn* light."
*—Trevor*

## Trivia

* Cashew likes Draconos's new armor.
* Beric gets the first critical hit of the game—ignore damage resistance, and deal triple damage.