C2 E65

Truths are told and lies are re-told. Will our heroes be able to trust each other after this week’s revelations!?!

## **Story**

### Long Story

Last episode, it was Day 41 of the campaign. Now, Michael suggests that another day has past, which naturally makes it Day ~~42~~ 46, of course. It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for T'Chuck, who enters The Goblin Pit Too, bright eyed and bushy tailed. The same can't be said for R'Oarc, however, who's currently retching and heaving in the bathrooms. Ratma Ritmo explains to T'Chuck that she got up to something last night. She doesn't know WHERE R'Oarc went, but when she returned, she was "full of mud" (not "covered in mud". Full of.). She started drinking from the local well, which is not advised. Ratma had put a note on the Quest Board to investigate the well, it's been pretty gnarly of late. After R'Oarc drank of it, she fell ill, and is now indisposed.

Meanwhile, Selene has been trying to find a new calling. Realizing she loves drinking, she's begun shadowing Ratma behind the bar. Maybe she'll start bartending, who knows. Screech enters the tavern, and T'Chuck, who now likes Screech, razzes him to do 10 push-ups. He does them, easily. Or at least, appears to. It's unclear. Anyway, T'Chuck gathers Selene and Screech, and tells them that they should go check out the well. Screech ducks behind a curtain, claiming that Beholder-doodle would be a better fit for this mission. And out from behind that same curtain, immediately appears Beholder-doodle! Together, they head out to the well, which is either 100 or 90 feet away the tavern.

Beholder-doodle gets to work, switching into Detective Mode. He lowers the well's bucket, and retracts it, revealing some nasty looking water. It's brown-ish, and sludgy, and more importantly, has a finger floating in it! Gross! Well, where there's a finger, there's bound to be more body parts attached (at least in my experience), so the party agrees they need to go down there. Beholder-doodle sits in the bucket as T'Chuck lowers him down. It's dark, but the vigilante has the Darkvision Goggles, so it's fine. As the well gets deeper, it begins to widen out. Not by much, but more than just standard well width. Beholder-doodle sees some more body parts, noses and ears, etc. And he also sees a shape moving toward him quickly.

The hero gets scared (hey, we all do from time to time), and uses his grappling hook to make a hasty escape. He tells the others, and suggests they somehow electrify the water, to kill whatever it is that's moving around down there. They agree to the shocking, but can't figure out how to make it happen. Instead, they decide to go down there and take care of business by hand. T'Chuck goes first, removing some of his armor so that he doesn't sink. The large Hobgoblin bogey-boards down into the water, and looks around to see a 20x20 ft area. No land in sight, but he is able to use his *Stone Shape* spell to create a ledge to stand on. Good thing, too, because he also sees a shape in the darkness rushing toward him. T'Chuck clambers onto the ledge just in time. And he sees the floating body parts begin to merge together, to form a horrific humanoid mass.

They attack the thing. It's a very brief battle. Selene sends a quick *Fire Bolt* down at it. Angry at being disturbed, the creature (which is itself pretty disturbing), smashes itself into T'Chuck. Beholder-doodle wants to get in on all the action, so he leaps headfirst down into the well, or should I say, sword first. He crashes into the creature, breaking through it and sinking into the water. A shocked T'Chuck *Inflicts* some *Wounds* upon the beast, and finally, Selene finishes it off with a careful *Lightning Bolt*.

After the battle, Beholder-doodle emerges from the water. From the fall, and the water, he's looking a little worse for wear. His costume has become waterlogged, and is wearing away. And his mask is torn, revealing his face beneath it.

T'Chuck is in disbelief. At first, he tries to convince himself that he's just in shock. Maybe literally, since Selene sent a Lightning Bolt down here. But no, even after rubbing his dang eyes, there he is, plain as day. *Screech is Beholder-doodle!*

He can't deal with this right now. They still have to complete the mission. T'Chuck fishes around, to find a pair of lips that used to belong to someone. After casting *Speak with Dead* on the mouth, he begins questioning whoever this used to be. They learn that this person died via drowning, after being knocked off of a boat. They used to live off the coast, in a small village. The only weird thing is that "Bill" from town used to get pretty weird around a full moon. Finally, the lips ask to be buried at sea. T'Chuck vows to do this, and (after curing the lips to preserve them) pockets the lips, to deal with later.

With no more business to tend to down here, Screech grapples T'Chuck, and then grappling hooks them both up to the top of the well. Then, T'Chuck gives Screech the right hook, sending him tumbling back down the well. He turns to Selene, who knew about the Screech/Beholder-doodle thing. Selene is incredulous that T'Chuck never put it together before. Screech was able to quickly grapple back out of the well, and tries to convince T'Chuck that he needed to hide his identity, because of his many enemies.

This shouting match is interrupted by Ratma Ritmo, who tells Screech to stop pretending to be Beholder-doodle. They reveal everything to her, and she pretends to have known all about it. She then reminds them to check the board, because she's been putting a ton of shit up there (they never do this). The party does tell her that they should probably shut down the well, until it gets cleaned out. It's pretty horrific down there. Apparently, someone named "Bill" was behind it. This perks up Ratma's pointy little ears. She knows a necromancer named "Bill", who's pretty far away, out by the coast. Coincidence? Doubtful. She goes off to put a new note on the board regarding all of this.

T'Chuck is feeling hurt and betrayed. He, too, writes a note and places it on the Quest Board. It reads: "Apologize to my friends for lying, and hurting their big hearts, even though they've been so nice to you. Open to anyone. All comers welcome. Everyone from Farhold has to apologize, please see T'Chuck (of Rimeford)." With that done, he decides to go relax in the hot springs.

Screech joins him, and the two have a heart-to-heart. Screech reminds T'Chuck that his parents were killed by magic. He vowed that day, that he would never also be killed by magic, and so he took it upon himself to dress up as animal characters, and fight magical crime. And speaking of the other animal characters, it's slowly revealed that Screech was all of the other vigilantes: Drop Bear, Koala-T, Man-Ant, and yes, even Squirrel Man. Some of these personas, T'Chuck knew were the same. I'm pretty sure that, before Beholder-doodle (B.B.D.), ALL vigilantes were one and the same. As far as I can tell, reviewing the Wiki, Man-Ant had revealed himself to be Drop Bear and Koala-T back in Ep 15, and Drop Bear revealed himself to be the Squirrel Man in Ep 17. So, at that point, all vigilantes were the same person. Anyway, they are all the same now, and all Screech.

T'Chuck begins to take pity on Screech. He sees that the former billionaire is clearly a pathetic, broken, miserable man. He can't stay mad, and even reveals a secret of his own. T'Chuck isn't his real name. It's just "what he goes by now". He does NOT reveal what his name actually is, however.

The episode ends with Screech claiming he was also Milton Graves. I have no idea what to do with that information.

### Short

It's Day 46 of the campaign. T'Chuck finds out that R'Oarc has made herself sick drinking from the local well. The party agrees to go and investigate the well, and see if anything is up down there. Turns out, there is. A scary golem made of human bodies is "living" in the well, which the party is able to dispatch. T'Chuck casts *Speak with Dead* on a pair of lips, and learns that they were most likely killed by a necromancer named "Bill". The lips wish to be buried at sea, a request T'Chuck vows to fulfill. During the fight, Beholder-doodle's mask fell off, and so T'Chuck learns that he and Screech are one and the same. He's angry, but, after learning that all of the vigilantes are all Screech, T'Chuck grows to take pity on him. He's clearly a broken and troubled man. Screech reveals that he was also Milton Graves, a statement I beg of Mike Bachmann to be a joke. I can't imagine how I would make that work in the Wiki.

## **Trivia**

* Day 46 of the campaign.
* The well is a different water source than the one they had cleared out on Day 41.
	+ They don't drink out of this well. It's mostly used for watering plants and things like that. They don't drink a lot of water here in Mineford because they have beer.
* Michael re-iterates a few of the town's occupants. Griff is the brewer. Kitten is the Mushroom-folk who hangs out with Griff. Dan looks like Guy Fieri, and is the baker. There are "theoretically" other people here, too.
* Screech can hold his breath for 12 seconds.
* T'Chuck and Beholder-doodle receive Inspiration for jumping into the well.

## **In This Episode...**

### **Cast and Player Characters**

* Michael DiMauro - *Dungeon Master*
* Tim Lanning - T'Chuck
* Jennifer Cheek - Selene von Esper
* Mike Bachmann - Screech Echo / Beholder-doodle (Screech)

### **Locations**

* The Underdark
	+ Mineford
		- The Goblin Pit Too

### **Quest Board**

* [Ongoing] - Restore Mineford to it's true potential
	+ [NEW][Complete] - ~~Defeat the Flesh Golem residing in the well~~
	+ [NEW][Active] - Investigate "Bill, the Necromancer", in the far off city by the coast
* [NEW][On-hold] - Take the disembodied lips to the oceanfront, for a burial at sea

### **Quotes**

* **"Good thing I've only been drinking alcohol, ha ha ha! I'm mostly kidding..."** ~ *Selene von Esper*

* **"Michael, I'm always just tryin' to find out."** ~ *Mike Bachmann*
**"He's not fucking around, but he is tryin' to find out."** ~ *Tim Lanning*

* **"I would like everybody to know what a good job I'm doing of not mixing player rage with character rage, because I'm not initiating player combat right now."** ~ *Mike Bachmann*

## **Rolls**

* **Screech** rolls *Constitution* upon doing 10 push-ups - 5 + ?
	+ He argues that he doesn't have to roll, since he claimed he did the push-ups very easily

* **Screech** rolls *Deception* upon doing 10 push-ups - 15
	+ He does 10 push-ups "as far as they can tell"

* **Beholder-doodle** rolls *Investigation* to Investigation the well - 20
	+ He finds a finger floating in the water

* **T'Chuck** rolls *Strength* to lower Beholder-doodle into the well - 18
	+ Success - He's able to lower the hero

* **Beholder-doodle** rolls *Perception* to look around in the darkness of the well - 20
	+ He sees a few other body parts on his way down

* **Selene** rolls *Intelligence* to see if she can figure out how to electrify the water - 6
	+ She can't figure it out

* **T'Chuck** rolls *Athletics* to bogey-board down the well - 18
	+ Success - He does that thing

*Combat Begins vs Creature*

* *Initiative*
	+ **Selene** - 17
	+ Creature
	+ **Beholder-doodle** - 14
	+ **T'Chuck** - 4

*Round One*

* **Selene**
	+ Casts *Fire Bolt* on the Creature (with Disadvantage) - 12
		- Hit - 10 Fire damage
	+ Uses a Bonus Action to *Telekinetic Shove* the Creature underwater, requiring a *Strength Saving Throw* - 19
		- Success - Not shoved

* **Creature**
	+ Melee Attack (Punch) vs T'Chuck - 24
		- Hit - 13 Bludgeoning damage

* **Beholder-doodle**
	+ Jumps onto the Creature, swords first, with an *Acrobatics* check - 9
		- Fail
	+ Melee Attack vs Creature (with Disadvantage) {x2} - 9, >9
		- Hit, Hit - 21 damage

* **T'Chuck**
	+ Casts *Inflict Wounds* on the Creature - 15
		- Hit - 32 Necrotic damage

*Round Two*

* **Selene**
	+ Casts *Lightning Bolt* on the Creature, requiring it to make a *Dexterity Saving Throw* - 7
		- Fail - 24 Lightning damage - *Kills It*

*Combat Ends*

* **Beholder-doodle** rolls *something* to grapple them both back up - Nat 20
	+ He didn't need to roll, but cool, it looks awesome

* **T'Chuck** makes an attack roll to punch Screech (uses Inspiration to roll with Advantage) - 17
	+ Vs Screech's *Strength* roll to avoid the punch - 3

* **Screech** rolls *Acrobatics* to grab onto something and reverse being shoved down the well - 18
	+ He grapples back up