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Tavern Watch Plays D&D, Oops! All Artificers edition, episode 1: Into the Mournlands
Jan 12, 2026
Is there any D&D 5E class more flexible without a single multiclass level than the Artificer? Frontliner, support, pet class, magic gunsmith, weird mapmaker, Dr. Frankenstein, whatever your fantasy of "techno wizard who builds thing" is, the Artificer has a way to help you live it out. In celebration of that, this edition of Tavern Watch Plays goes to the original home of the Artificer class, Eberron, as DM Matt Rossi guides a ragtag crew of adventuring tinkerers through an adventure into the dark and blighted expanse of the Mournlands. Our players for this adventure:
Joe Perez as Luther Benedict Greensmith, Esq., a Shifter Armorer Artificer
Anne Stickney as Coriell Kahz, a Changeling perfectly normal Halfling Artillerest Artificer
Liz Harper as Lionelle, a Kalashtar Cartographer Artificer
Nick Marino as Royial, a High Elf Alchemist Artificer
Join our band of merry crafters as they set off into an adventure that might end up a little spooky, a little ominous, and probably a lot more waterlogged than anyone was properly planning for.
If you enjoy our game, you can grab Eberron: Forge of the Artificer for yourself for your D&D book collection today, adding the species of Eberron and 2024-compatible Artificers -- including the all-new Cartographer Artificer -- to your array of character options. Artificers are always a rollicking good time and can really fill any gap in a party, plus Eberron is just frankly one of the coolest worlds ever developed for any edition of D&D, so I definitely recommend checking it out.
Music from this episode is "Crossing the Chasm" by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.
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Visit us at https://blizzardwatch.com for the latest news on Blizzard games, and don't forget to subscribe on Patreon to support our efforts! https://www.patreon.com/blizzardwatch
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0:12
Heat. Heat.
0:30
Hello everybody. Uh this is Blizzard watch plays games or tavern watch or however you want to call it.
0:36
Point thing is you're playing a game. We are playing D and D. We are playing D
0:41
and D with all an artificer party which I don't know why Liz wanted to do this
0:48
but I also don't know why I said okay. Um, either way, here we are. Uh,
0:55
normally we would do a thing where I have the party just go around and introduce themselves, but instead of that, we're going to do something a
1:01
little different and start with a brief intro. The water is extremely murky and dark
1:10
and much much blacker than you would expect. Um, the sun is doing very little to cut
1:18
through the cloud cover and the fog is everywhere as the boat rumbles with its
1:24
elemental engine. Joe, what is your character doing on this boat?
1:31
It's like a powered skiff. Honestly, just kind of sitting back trying to act casual while paying attention to
1:37
everything that's going on because I am very used to just being on edge all
1:43
the time, but I try to make it look like I'm not on edge because then your enemies don't expect that and then you can be the ball work that they didn't
1:48
see coming. And your character's name is uh my character's name is Luther
1:55
Benedict Greensmith Esquire. Uh, you'll hear a typing sound
2:00
and letters appear underneath Joe's character's face as he says what his name is.
2:07
Um, okay. So, you're that's what you were doing on the boat. Kind of staying chill, staying alert. Yep. All right. And same question.
2:16
You see a small female looks like a halfling just like a normal halfling who
2:24
is um kind of at the edge of the boat. Is there like a rail to the boat?
2:29
It's like a Chriscraft motorboat from the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade except with a giant magic engine on the
2:35
back. Okay. So, she's got like she's got her her hands like up on the side the rail
2:41
and she's kind of peeking over the side of the rail. She's like 3 foot2. She's not She's not really tall at all. And
2:47
she's just kind of watching what's going on. And um her name is Corel Cause.
2:53
All right. And it also then says halfling with a question mark. Um
3:01
there's as you're sitting there the there's a thing up near the top of the boat where the people run out of seats
3:08
and so forth and it turns and you realize that this boat has a war forged head.
3:14
mounted on it. Be careful of the spray. It's mildly toxic. And the head springs
3:21
just swivels back over. Um, thanks for the heads up.
3:26
As the sunlight continues to try and cut higher, you start seeing a shape in the
3:33
distance, which is the shape you guys are heading towards. Um, you knew it was
3:38
going to be there, but still it's massive. much larger than you were. Even though you've been told it was large,
3:44
had no idea it was going to be this big. The war forged head goes, "All right,
3:49
everyone. You've all been paid. You all know the job. This is the underwater
3:55
heist." And it cuts to Liz, your character. What do they do when they hear that?
4:03
Uh, I love this. Um, so I am Lionel. I'm a
4:10
dark-haired human appearing person and uh she's just looking ahead towards our
4:18
destination. Well, we've all been preparing for this. This is fine. This should be fine.
4:24
All righty. And your name Lionel types out maybe won't be fine.
4:32
And finally, Nick, as you see everybody and you're wondering why you keep hearing clacking sounds every time
4:38
someone says, you know, their name, uh, you are now the focus of the camera. It
4:44
has swiveled to you and has g Royal has gone from
4:52
uh, looking off into the distance and admiring the view to wondering where the
4:59
clacking is going. You could see his eyes shifting from left to right and he sweeps back uh long black hair of his
5:06
face uh as an and behind his pointed elf ears and then takes notice of everyone
5:14
else getting ready once the war forge has stopped speaking.
5:20
Okay. Um at this point the boat starts to slow down and a bubble forms around
5:25
it of what is some kind of magic. uh you're pretty sure you don't even really
5:30
need to to try and make a a roll for this. It's pretty obviously some kind of magic. Um extending from the engine of
5:37
the boat and the boat then goes down into the waves. It doesn't like pick its
5:43
nose up and then jam itself down. It just starts going down like it's sinking
5:48
except it's still moving forward. Um it does slow down considerably. It
5:53
was moving pretty fast, but now it is much slower now that it is fully in the water. And big lights all around it,
6:00
which are like it's actually like the spell dancing lights, but very bright, much brighter than you
6:07
you would expect, appear around it as it descends. Uh, and it descends for quite
6:12
some time. Uh, it's like it's it's like a five, six minute drop, and you'll feel
6:18
your ears popping. M but it doesn't get up to the pressure. If any of you know anything about se
6:24
deep deep sea diving, you'd know that the pressure would would be much higher than just ear popping. But if no one
6:30
does know that, then that's fine. Uh the narrator filled you in anyway. Uh so
6:36
what are people doing before this boat gets to where it's going?
6:42
I'm just uh double-checking the supplies in my bag, what I've what I've got on me, what I have handy. Uh okay. Okay.
6:49
You know, just kind of doing an inventory under my breath. Okay. I've got rope. I've got plenty of crossbow
6:55
bolts. I have uh Yes. Yes. Yes. Just doing that last minute check.
7:02
All right. Anybody else? Remind me. She's just saying aloud to nobody in particular. Remind me what
7:10
exactly we're doing here. Just Thank you. The head of the war swivels to look at you. I was hoping someone
7:17
would ask. As you are aware from your briefing, and thus I don't need to tell you, looks at
7:24
the camera that is floating around. This is the Mourland, previously the kingdom
7:30
of Sire, C Y RE, for those of you who do not speak native corv. Uh when the five
7:39
kingdoms went to war a generation ago, their various magical armies and
7:46
strange dragon marked houses and other complications, including the creation of
7:52
my people, the war forged. And and he puts a hand on his chest like, "Yes, we're so great." Um caused sire to
8:00
ultimately be completely destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion nobody knows
8:05
about. Nobody can tell us where it came from or why it happened. However, this place and as he says this place, the
8:12
lights start hitting what is a gigantic structure and it's a structure. It's
8:18
artificial that is going up from here. It actually breaks the surface of the water above you. You can see it. Uh and
8:26
the sinking ship is now heading straight towards what looks to be almost an
8:31
airlock. Um, but it's got a dock coming off of it,
8:37
too. And as you enter into the dock area, you realize that the water is being pushed away from this entire place
8:44
and like a giant bubble around the dock. The dock is generating it. You can even see as artificers, you can all see the
8:50
the specific runic engravement that's being that was made to do this. This
8:57
place, which was part of Sire's uh kingdom's
9:02
defense and research divisions, is rumored to have been involved in that
9:09
explosion. We are sending you in to recover and identify anything that could
9:16
be related to that. as private individuals. You may not personally
9:22
care, but the organization that is paying you and also paying me in case
9:28
you care about that wants to know how it was done to make sure it can never be
9:34
done again. That would be ideal. Yes.
9:40
And now, thank you again for the question. It allowed me to do some exposition. He turns his head and brings
9:48
the boat in to dock. And as it docks, you realize that the water the the thing
9:55
that repels the water only repels it on the top side. So there's water underneath you. So the boat can
10:01
literally come up into the bubble and connect up on the side. Now you are you
10:06
can step off of this boat. It the field goes down. He steps up out of the boat
10:13
like he you you actually see like a piece slide forward and a piece slide back and he stands up. He's an actual
10:18
war forge. He's not just ahead. And he goes, "I will I will cover your entry and ent exit and I will make sure
10:26
nothing attacks this vehicle while you are gone." Well, I can't actually make sure nothing attacks it, but I will
10:32
protect it. Good luck to you. If I am killed, you're not getting out of here.
10:39
Well, maybe you'll figure maybe you'll figure something out. I mean, you're clever people. He then walks off of the boat and just
10:46
takes a position all the way down uh where the dock ends and he pulls like he
10:52
pulls like something like a like a rod out of his leg and the rod telescopes and then a head forms like
11:00
and now he has like a collapsible hammer in his hand and he's just waiting.
11:08
Coriel clams out of the boat. Yeah, it's actually pretty well. It's It
11:13
seems to create the proper exit for somebody of your size. It It
11:19
doesn't It's not hard for you to get out. That's so polite. Anyway, so she gets out of the boat and kind of looks and
11:25
waits for everybody else. Yeah. As you're looking around, you can again you can see the dome of like
11:31
energy that's holding the water away. And it's it's very sparkly. Uh which you I guess you'd want you'd want your magic
11:38
to be sparkly so people knew it was there and weren't just blah. Uh and it also it seems to like travel with the
11:46
water like it bends and flexes. It doesn't just to like act immobile. It
11:52
has give like possibly because that makes it less expensive to to keep running.
11:59
So that's something you notice while you're looking at it. Anybody else? And terrifying.
12:07
I'm already out of the boat. Like I I think I would have already started like taking up a a slightly forward position.
12:13
Not really saying much to anybody. My job here is essentially a bodyguard. Um
12:18
that that's what I'm here for. I am here to protect. Um but that means also kind of being a little bit in front and just
12:25
making sure that nobody blows themselves up or the rest of the party. Uh so Luther will just kind of step uh step
12:31
forward a little bit uh and then as he gets to the end of the dock, he'll uh put his shield down uh point down. It'll
12:41
stand up a little bit on its own. Then he'll reach into uh a little compartment on the side of his plate mail and we'll
12:46
pull out a cigar and light it and then pick his shield back up.
12:53
Okay, Luther has taken a a position at the front. Um, anybody like anyone else
12:58
want to talk before we just get into going inside? Um, Corell is making
13:05
Man, I'm getting our name. We We picked similar names, Ann. Oh, sorry.
13:11
No, it's I I didn't double check. Uh, Lionel is just making sure she's got uh
13:17
gloves on, that her skin is all covered. She pulls up like a little mask over her
13:22
face. Uh because yeah, the mourn lance is usually not healthy for organic
13:27
beings like us. But here we are. This is as Lionel says that
13:34
uh you notice that the water is extremely dark here. Like light light hits it. It looks like
13:40
you're looking at a like obsidian mirror. Um and there's just you do not
13:45
see the sun through it. You can barely see this tower. The only reason you can tell that it breaks to the water surface
13:51
is because it actually is even darker directly in front of the tower than it
13:58
is everywhere else. But that's that's like it's like shades of more black. Um,
14:03
great. Great. Before we get going, I want to reach into my bag and hand out hand a piece of paper to everyone
14:10
individually. Uh, hang on to these. It's uh you know if if and if anyone opens it
14:18
up it shows just a map of our immediate vicinity and it has a dot on it where
14:24
each of us are right now. And while while you are holding this you get um an
14:29
additional 1d4 to your initiative roles. And it will it will update as we go. You
14:37
will always know where every other person with a map has. And I should I have maps for everybody. Yes, we all
14:42
have a map. And the map then appears in the corner of the screen
14:49
so that you know people watching this can see it. Um just you know just for a thing. Uh so yeah as you guys walk down
14:56
the dock taking care um does anybody like want to make any kind of check?
15:02
I mean I think I'm going to be making perception checks as we move along. Just kind of keeping an eye out.
15:07
Uh give me three example ones. We don't need to make you roll for everything. Just give me three. Cuz this is about a
15:13
300 yard dock. So 600 ft. Actually, no.
15:19
Go 900 ft. So it's a pretty big dock. It It goes away. So give me three of those rolls. 12 17 16.
15:27
All right. Uh 12. You don't detect anything. There wasn't anything to detect. 17. You
15:35
absolutely detect something because there is something to detect. Um, it's a gigantic
15:41
pulsating yet dark metallic shape. It was camouflaged pretty well considering
15:47
it's a solid 5 and 1/2 ft across. Uh, and it is again, it's metal, but it's
15:53
pulsating. And it is absolutely covered in sigils, but they're not any kind of sigils
16:00
you've ever seen. Personally, I will take a big puff of my cigar
16:08
and blow it against the uh the shimmering object to kind of highlight it for everybody else as they can see
16:14
the the smoke curl around it. Uh we have uh something here. I I'm not
16:21
sure what it is. Could I investigate this? See if it's anything I recognize, have learned in my
16:28
studies. Sure. Uh,
16:33
Arcana is also possibly useful. That's a 19, which Arcana are
16:39
investigation. They're the same. Okay. Um, going to use Arcana here. The
16:46
writing on this is magical, but it's extremely crude.
16:51
like you're not you almost feel like you're looking at an idiot somehow
16:58
managed to create an enchantment because someone else took a long time to teach
17:03
it to them. And that's as you're trying to figure out this trying to understand this like
17:09
where have I seen anything like this before? um you recognize one symbol that
17:15
is in a completely different language because it's in Elvin and it's in old Elvin the Valinar Elvin
17:22
and whilst you don't know you might know the language do you know Elvin I don't I do okay if you know Elvin once this is
17:29
pointed out the Elvin section says hail lady Bibdul pulp
17:37
blipdul poop pulp not poop that's a completely different person. Hope.
17:42
Yep. I don't know who that is, but someone important.
17:48
When you say that, uh, Liz understands. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Isn't that a
17:55
Kuatoa thing? The fish people? Why would the fish people be in this underwater
18:01
bastion? Oh, wait. I answered my own question. Oh, it is an underwater bastion. Okay.
18:07
Uh hm. You are now pretty sure that this thing has malign intent.
18:15
Well, it's the Mournlands. I would assume everything has malign intent against us. Uh what is verdict? Do we break or not
18:23
break? Do do I think that breaking this would help us or would it cause a terrible
18:29
arcane explosion in our faces? You see, all signs point to yes, but you're not 100% on this. like you've
18:36
never seen this kind of thing before, but just just the fact that you succeeded your Arcana check means that
18:42
you get that sense in the back of your head that the dungeon master is warning you about something. Okay. Yeah. I
18:51
I I don't know the right solution to this one, but I say, can we walk? I
18:58
mean, is there a safe distance? We could walk around it. Smashing it is always an option. and
19:04
smashing it could also blow up and kill us all. I don't know. It's It's either or.
19:14
I I guess they're looking to the the voice of God here for an answer. We can walk around or we have to go through it.
19:21
You kind of have to try and do one of those things to find out. I mean, theoretically, if one of you had
19:27
the ability to disarm traps or so, I was going to say, um, I don't know if I have that, though. I have thieves
19:33
tools, but we are all proficient in thieves tools. So, that's just a
19:39
that's a baseline artificer thing. Yeah, you can make the roll and try and disarm it. Uh you're going to be using
19:45
both those tools and actual some of your magic to do it. But yeah, what would we roll for that? Yeah,
19:54
I believe um you just roll in the thief tools, don't you? You just add your uh
20:01
hand of hand. It depends on if you're not really good slight of hand. So I could try and disarm it.
20:07
All right. It just lets you add your proficiency. Yeah.
20:13
So you got an 18 in the roll. Yep. You reach in with the tools and there's
20:19
a you realize I'm not going to be able to actually fit this into anything in here. So you start using it to scratch
20:25
off specific squiggles that you're you can see arcane resonance with
20:30
one of them you almost scratch too far and for a second you're like oh my and okay okay we're okay we're okay we're
20:37
okay we're going to get no we're okay and then as you remove the last two it
20:44
it's like it deflates and
20:49
pops like not not in an explosive way like it just kind of goes
20:56
a fart noise? No, not quite a fart noise, but not too far away from a fart noise.
21:03
More like a loud belch perhaps. Uh, and and a kind of gas comes out of it.
21:09
It doesn't like hit all of you, but you can see this green and black
21:14
thing, this cloud just kind of drift away from it. H.
21:22
Do I know what that is? Um, you could make another investigator arana check.
21:28
Investigate. Also, if you had medicine, you could make that.
21:34
That's an eight. Yeah. You don't know. Okay. I'm assuming it's bad because the
21:41
color isn't that great. A medicine check is certainly useful. You could you could definitely do that.
21:50
16. Okay. Um, it's not a gas you've seen
21:56
before, but the fact that it is green and black and also laced with some kind
22:03
of magic, you're real, you're positive that ain't good to breathe.
22:09
Like, you're very lucky that that didn't spray on you guys. Okay. So, it did disperse basically.
22:14
Yeah. Instead of a bunch of it coming out, it all just kind of dribbled out one side and and drifted away in the
22:20
breeze that you suddenly realize is here in this bubble in the water. That's not creepy at all. Um,
22:27
okay. Well, everyone take care to avoid breathing that in. Yeah. At this point, the narrator
22:33
realizes it didn't do a gag and Royale appears underneath Royale in typewriter
22:39
lighting, except that there's a space between Roy and Al. I mean sorry was was
22:44
it like yeah Royal and then it's like was that where that went? I can't remember where his space was and that's
22:51
you know that that bit gets covered up and now you are at the doors of this
22:57
possible airlock into the greater structure.
23:02
Is it is it locked? I mean there's ways to find out. Can I Can I
23:07
I would like Yeah. I I'm going to push everybody back a little bit and then I will be the one
23:14
that tries the door. Okay. You just going to grab the door and pull? Yep. Sure am. So,
23:20
uh Luther, um I want to say before you do this, I will establish a telepathic
23:27
link with you. I just kind of have a feeling that maybe we've worked together before and you are perhaps familiar with
23:32
me being able to do this so we can talk telepathically. You can talk back to me.
23:38
Um, be careful. Remember what happened last time.
23:43
I'm always careful. And that's why like that's why I've moved everybody back. Shield up. I try
23:51
the door. Okay. Okay. You have a telepathic link
23:56
with with Vanel. Uh yes, both of us back and forth.
24:05
I'm definitely a totally normal absolutely normal humanoid person as I am also a totally absolutely normal
24:12
humanoid. I entire party is a little not totally human. Um anyway, uh
24:20
um Luther, you love this tower.
24:26
You want to defend it. You wait. Why would I love a tower? I
24:32
don't I don't build towers. I build smaller things. This This is a far too ungainainely a structure for me to have
24:37
built it. I don't even know why I thought that. Lionel, you love this tower. And you don't have any problem
24:44
with that. In fact, when you see magnificent that Luther is going to open
24:49
the door and violate the sanctity of the tower, you know you must kill him.
24:55
Oh. Oh. Is there any sort of save for this or
25:00
you technically just failed a save. Um but we will let you have a save before we go into initiative.
25:08
So make yourself a merry little wisdom save. Okay, I have advantage on those.
25:15
And I rolled natural 20 plus uh plus one. Killing Luther would be bad. I have to
25:22
remember that. Killing Luther would be bad. I was just telling myself to make sure he was careful. No. No. Bad.
25:31
So, you don't you don't kill Luthor. Attempt to. I don't know that you would just kill him. I mean, maybe he's he's got defenses. Who knows?
25:37
He's Yeah, he's pretty strong. But I shouldn't try. It'd be bad for both of us. Yep. Just weighing up the options. Very
25:44
unhealthy. But you definitely There was something very strange about this door. I say that
25:49
out loud. All all all of you are at least aware something's going on. Both Lyme and Lucer know that the door tried
25:55
to control them. Yeah, I was going to say I assume that I have felt it even though I I succeeded. Yeah, because you were like, why am I in
26:01
love with this door? This doesn't make any sense. This building is not that hot.
26:07
Guarded your mind. Door tower seems like it has magic defense to make you love
26:14
it. I do not understand why, but uh yeah, be careful. And I finish opening
26:20
the door. All right. The door slides open. It actually like
26:27
you basically turn something and push and then instead of the door swinging open it the thing you're pushing pushes
26:34
in and then there's like an iris that forms and that iris opens up and then
26:41
there's bars under behind that and the bars move to left and right and then like a concentric circle sweeps sweeps
26:48
sweeps to be open. Then there's a noise and you hear like
26:53
as the vault door pulls in and is spun to the side with the giant teeth on it and everything and you are now actually
27:01
in. I stepped through the threshold taking point.
27:06
All right. Uh, one second cuz now your maps are going to show you something and I was ready for this. Ooh.
27:19
Although you'll note that while I was ready for this, I wasn't ready enough to have the images quite to my at my
27:24
fingertips. So, not quite as ready as I was hoping, but nevertheless, narrating.
27:30
Narrating because we don't want to be too quiet. Is it Is it dark in here or is it lit?
27:37
Oh, yes. Very dark. Extremely extremely dark. Like antagonistically dark. I cast light
27:43
on the end of my I I cast light on my long sword. What's the normal range on light? Uh it's a torch.
27:49
Okay. Uh so like 30 ft or 60 ft. 60 ft. Uh for dim light. It's 30 ft. Now
27:55
bright bright in a 20ft radius. Dim and an additional 20 ft. Ah there. Okay. Divide all that by 1/2 because
28:03
something is suppressing it. It still works, but you got like 12 feet of
28:09
bright and then 12 feet of dim instead of like 30 and 30.
28:16
I just got to say the lie. I've got dark vision. Yeah, it it work it is also half as
28:22
effective as it normally would be. Yeah, I was going to say I also have dark vision. I'm sure I would have noticed that already, but I don't I don't know who has and does not have
28:28
dark vision. So, not me. I thought I did, but I can't remember where to see that.
28:36
I would under your features and traits. Yeah, I'm looking.
28:55
I would like to cast fairy fire, which objects in a 20ft cube within range are
29:03
outlined in like what looks like red ink. And so
29:09
objects and each creature in the cube is also outlined if it fails a deck 14
29:15
saving throw. Okay. Um, if you also look in the party,
29:21
you know, the D and D all artificers chat, you'll see a map I put in there
29:26
that appears on your maps as you have maps that tell you where we
29:32
are. Um, you are currently there's a long curving pathway that is
29:38
the initial dock that you just took in. When it gets
29:44
to these two dividing parts, that's where you're currently standing. The number two.
29:50
Yes, I believe so. Okay. Okay. Mind I'm blind, so I can't read this very well. Yeah, it splits. It goes straight and
29:56
then it goes to left and right. Yep. You can tell on the map. You can't actually see in real life. You your the
30:03
fairy fire outlines those changes like the the three branching paths, but it doesn't show you any of this other
30:09
stuff. But the map picks up some of this stuff. although it doesn't necessarily tell you what it's for or
30:15
anything like that. You just know that there's a body of water in a room ahead of you. Um then down from that there's a
30:22
branching path that goes to something. Uh then there's a another body of water
30:28
that's further in and that body of water is even larger.
30:35
And I I pull out my map. I like feel something odd and it's like, okay, this is uh interesting.
30:48
Well, which way do we want to go? Coral's kind of looking back and forth.
30:56
Well, we could flip a coin, though. It would have to be a three-sided coin. I don't have one of those handy.
31:02
There's Yeah, there's three options. Coin. Coin. Not so good. We could spin a dagger. Go that way.
31:09
Just roll a six-sided die and one, two is left, three, four is straight, five,
31:14
six is right. Just saying.
31:19
Okay, I'll roll. Sure, do it.
31:24
One to left. I guess. Okay. I start making my way down that that uh
31:31
tunnel slowly, methodically. As you are heading down that tunnel, um the first
31:36
thing you notice is the complete lack of smell.
31:44
Like there's no decay or rot in this area at all.
31:49
And as you your foot swings forward and hits bones and you look down and see
31:56
scattered what you could think are humanoid bones, but you're not 100% on what they are. They are not covered in
32:03
flesh. There is no scraps of flesh. There's nothing holding the skeleton
32:09
together other than time. And when you kick it, it just scatters because there's just nothing holding it there
32:15
other than gravity and you know when it fell. So, and there's no smell at all.
32:24
Long long dead creatures. thing is is that the mourn land only
32:30
formed about 50 years ago. So
32:35
whilst 50 years is a fair amount of time for DK to happen, uh just um Royale's
32:43
medicine would just know this automatically. There's no way it would have decomposed to the point where
32:49
there'd be literally nothing. Microbes would be here. And if there's
32:54
microbes, you can smell them. They actually have that kind of knowledge in Eberon, by the way. They know the microbes exist. So he's like, he looks
33:03
to you guys and you all looked at each other and you're like, why is this why is there no smell here? I immediately start being on the lookout
33:09
for jellies or slimes. All right. Uh, can I do an investigation check? Uh,
33:16
looking for traps or anything of that nature in the wall? Maybe another sigil or anything that might send gas into the
33:23
room. Absolutely. Uh go ahead and make that roll.
33:30
Uh 25. Yeah, you detect all three traps. Um
33:37
however, the three traps appear to be electrical in nature
33:42
and not they don't seem to do anything about gas. Uh they they're almost more
33:49
like an anti- anti-pest system, you know, amped up. Like it not enough
33:55
to not This would kill you. Uh or at least it would do a lot of damage, but it's it doesn't have the kind of
34:02
sophistication like it's not a lightning bolt trap. It's literally just massive static clouds that, you know, it's the
34:08
kind of thing that, you know, when we want to keep the mosquitoes out of our tents, a smaller version of this would
34:13
work. So, it's odd, but
34:20
you you you find them. They're not hard to avoid. You don't even have to make a disarm on them. Once you know they're
34:25
there, you just know not to step in certain places. It's it's not tremendously complicated. Uh, but you
34:32
keep going and you descend and you hit a point where you hit go down some stairs and now you're going kind of straight
34:37
and not up and down anymore, but you are still heading forward down that hallway
34:42
that you see there. The one that's ended. There's a room at the end of it.
34:48
You're about at this point, you're pretty close to entering that room.
34:53
And it's still pretty dark here except for the light from Yeah, the darkness seems to be
35:01
omnipresent. Uh you don't know why it there's nothing around here that's like
35:07
automatically telling you, oh yeah, everything will be dark. It just feels like light is having troubles.
35:15
Can I check to see if uh I can smell anything now?
35:20
Bill like actually go ahead and make uh do you have a survival make a survival
35:28
check whether or not you have the ability you can still try. Okay.
35:36
Anybody can if they want. 11. All right. Yeah. Well then then you don't get it. Um anybody can make that
35:42
check if they want to. Five. So no 12.
35:51
Uh 10. Yeah, I'm not very good.
36:00
All right. Uh then nobody got it. So yeah,
36:06
one of the weird things about this sometimes you're like, "Well, nobody detected anything." And it's like, "That sounds like there's something there."
36:14
The narrator turns to the camera and goes, "There's nothing there, but they'll probably won't believe me."
36:23
And they'd be fools, too.
36:29
Can we see if there's anything up ahead that looks ominous? As I'm glad you asked.
36:40
Okay. It flipped around from the the first
36:46
map. Sorry about that. But this is where you are. This is where you're going.
36:52
Oh, okay. Maybe that maybe a description of what
36:58
we're looking at for those that are home for the audio format that this is. Yeah, that's fair. The narrator then
37:04
gets that silky smooth tone that everybody loves. Uh, and unfortunately I'm not capable of producing. So you'll
37:09
just have to imagine that I suddenly have dulit tones. Uh, the room is deep
37:15
and vast like a gigantic series of bridges, but each bridge only
37:23
connects to the others in one place.
37:28
The water that flows in here is different than that of the area around
37:35
this structure. It is clear and blue and swirling around at high speeds for
37:43
standing water. There doesn't seem to be any ingress for new water. So, the idea
37:49
of how it is doing this is a little hard to discern.
37:59
There are sconces along the walls that have sigils in them. And these sigils
38:04
burn with blue, red, white, and black luminance. Yes, even black luminance.
38:11
You don't know how that happens, but there it is. And beyond it all, there is a room. You
38:20
can see a door. And on your map, you can see tell that there's a room. You have the little magic maps and there it is, a
38:26
room. Uh, but you don't know to what purpose it has.
38:32
Do these sigils match the ones we found outside? Oh, no, no, no, no. These are
38:40
these are from the these are from five kingdoms magic. This is in fact, you're
38:45
pretty sure it's Syrian in origin. Although, you know, everybody used all
38:51
the original five kingdoms of humanity used pretty much the same thing uh when they were one kingdom. Uh they were like
38:59
one empire with five kingdoms each ruled by a house descented from the first emperor. And
39:05
therefore, you know, you can't say absolutely that it's Syrian, but it seems very likely based on where you are
39:12
and what they look like that if it's not Syrian, then it would be one other one of the other currently existing
39:19
kingdoms. Does the water look ominous?
39:24
Actually, it it only looks ominous in that it doesn't look ominous. It is like extremely clean and it's
39:32
moving. It's actually circling and each one the the the furthest out one is
39:37
going clockwise. The inner one is going counterclockwise.
39:43
How deep is this down from the walkways? Like uh is it You don't know.
39:49
Right under. Okay. I can't tell. You can't tell by looking.
39:56
You don't see any You don't see anything. You see water and the water appears to just go down until you see
40:02
nothing. you know, it's just water watercolor at that point. Uh, but not watercolor. It's
40:07
it's just water. Can I can I um pull out my tinkerers
40:13
tools and do a little bit of tinkerers magic and just like make some ball bearings.
40:20
Sure, you can do that. And I'm going to toss one if I'm in the water. Just one.
40:25
Okay. It floats. Floats.
40:30
Floats. It floats and ball bearing. Okay.
40:36
Well, I have to look at your character sheet. The ball bearing goes
40:41
right near your head because it didn't make the roll. Um, the ball bearing just got used as a bullet, like a slingshot
40:48
bullet, uh, and did not hit you, but it was trying.
40:54
Wait, so like the water shot it back at me? Mhm. And now you hear bubbling noises.
41:00
Uhoh. Uh, we might be in for a little bit of something.
41:06
What is above us? Is it just ceiling? Anything of note?
41:12
Uh, it's a giant turtle with a dragon head and a big scaly tail and it looks
41:20
at you and says, "Does anyone speak Aquin?" No. Nope. No. Okay. Does anyone speak draconic?
41:26
I do. I speak draconic. Okay. You speak draconic? All right. In Aquin, you have no idea
41:32
what it just said. Then it realizes you didn't understand it. And so it switches to Draconic and it's like
41:40
no, I am irritated with you. Why did you throw garbage in my pond?
41:47
This is my water. I summoned it and keep it clean.
41:53
I'm so sorry. I was just it's so clean and nice that I was wondering if there
41:58
was something interesting about it. You were looking at his shell because he was literally like adhering to the
42:03
ceiling somehow. He turns and drops and goes right on the middle center of this
42:10
and he's actually his body takes up that entire platform directly in front of
42:17
him. and his his head and limbs go to this first ring of stone and his tail
42:25
actually reaches all the way back to the doorway of the door behind him. And he's
42:30
like, "Uh, technically I'm supposed to kill all of you." And the the binding is
42:35
pretty strong, but that hasn't been reinforced in a long time. So
42:42
So I don't suppose you have a lot of money? Um, I have some. Who who told you to
42:48
kill people? Uh the the ones that summoned me here and trapped me in the binding
42:54
were No. Do you tell people that you in prison? Was it lady and then blurbop?
43:01
Whatever that was. Yeah. No, a goddess did not pull me here. I
43:09
don't think Oh, that's the goddess. They look to be human. Oh, okay. I mean, well, not human, but
43:15
you know, like all of you, you're not like you, you're not a halfling. And you, uh, I don't know what you are. You
43:22
get furry when you I don't know if they can understand you. He's talking He's talking draconic. So,
43:27
if they don't speak draconic, they have no idea what's going on. This giant turtle thing is just yammering at you
43:33
and pointing its gigantic scaly. It This thing is seriously like if yammering
43:38
back in this It's like the Tasmanian devil is, you
43:44
know, was talking to another Tasmanian devil, much smaller one. But yeah, he's like, "Well,
43:51
Roy has never been so terrified." I thought you said you spoke to Conic.
43:57
No, just Ellish and Dwarfish. Oh, yeah. Yeah, though. Yeah. The only person who knows what's going on here is
44:03
Corell. Well, can we just kind of avoid the whole killing us thing because we're
44:08
just I mean, I don't even If you can release me from my bindings,
44:14
I'm willing to not kill you. I don't want to be here. This is horrible. All the water is
44:19
It's a really little room for you, too. Yes, it is not. It I mean I I'm I'm not
44:27
that old. I'm only 120 years old. I have life to live. I want to say my mother
44:34
and my sisters and my brothers and my fathers. I don't know which one of them was. Actually, my father. We do a
44:40
communal thing. Where where's those bindings at? Those right there on the wall
44:45
to those. And there's of course the other ones on the other side which you know mirror them and thus they have to be disrupted in the proper order in the
44:52
proper sequence. Are they are they in the Syrian kind of language? Oh yeah, as far as I know. I I don't
44:59
know what that gabbledook is. I was asking the narrator. Oh nar like sorry I was asking. Um yes.
45:08
Okay. Maybe let me see. Let me talk to my friends real quick here because they don't they don't speak draconic. But let
45:14
me let me talk to my friends real quick here. We'll see what we can do. We're pretty smart. We should be able to get you out of here because this is just no
45:20
place for you. No, it is not. And I I although I some of my belief in your possible
45:27
intelligence is dimmed because they don't speak draconic because why wouldn't you? I'm going to wait and find
45:33
out. Okay, hang on one second. You tell them they have 10 minutes to come up with a proposal
45:39
before I start breathing steam everywhere. Yeah. I turn around and like fill everybody in. Okay. So, dragon
45:47
turtle's okay. It's been a very long time. Turtle doesn't necessarily want to kill us. Turtle would rather be free,
45:52
but those bindings on the wall, those things on the wall, they're binding him here. Can we get rid of him?
46:00
And because then he'll be chill and he'll just leave. What do these things on the wall look like?
46:05
Uh there's one for there's one for like his red, uh blue, white, and black. Um
46:13
Oh, like the dragons. And there's one on each side, and then on the other side there's a mirroring
46:20
ones that So you'd have you have red, blue, white, and black on one side. On
46:27
the other side, you have black, white, blue, and red. So that there's red going to red, white going to white, black
46:34
going to black, blue going to blue.
46:40
Okay. You guys got any ideas how to dispel this thing?
46:47
I'm going to do something that I'm stealing blatantly from Joe, which is
46:53
describe to me a way you think you could help solve this and then pick something to make a check with it. and you're
47:00
heading for you're trying to get a communal success target
47:07
would lining up dragon elements to the colors
47:14
sound I'm going to think about what I know about the history of of the is it
47:23
cerillians or what is it fear the nation c y r e se I'm thinking
47:29
about what I know about the history of Seir and the significance of these colors and why those colors in
47:36
particular would be used here to see if I can like kind of discern
47:42
what we need to do. What would you be rolling for that history? Okay. Uh go ahead.
47:51
That's a 17. Okay. You you do that for a bit. You're
47:57
thinking, you're you're pausing and you're like, the fact that these runes are in Syrian does not mean they have
48:03
any connection to Syrian history. Everybody used basically the same rune system with very subtle changes based
48:10
purely on originally we all used the exact same runes, but then we became five different places and therefore our
48:16
runes got different just because our the way we wrote and drew and shaped things was a little different that we all had
48:21
our own cultures. So that's that's not a connection there. But the color
48:28
you do figure out these are connections both to types of dragons and elements
48:34
that dragons are often associated with. For instance, black dragons are related to swampy marshy corruption. Um
48:42
basically tainted or defiled earth. White dragons are creatures of intense
48:50
cold, like winter itself. Um, so freezing air. Um, the the blue is
48:58
lightning based. Oh, and you remember the lightning traps and
49:03
the red is fire. So,
49:09
you know, there's a small child with a blue arrow on his head who just appears and gives you a nod and then fades away
49:16
again. If you get it, you get it.
49:21
Okay. I'm assuming you share this with the the class. Yes. Yes.
49:26
I walk over to the blue Gemini thunder punch it. Okay. Uh
49:32
but there's one on either side. Go ahead and make an attack roll. Sure. Give me one. Tell me if you
49:37
succeed. Uh well, tell me how what you do because I'm not that this is not that hard to hit. No, Thunder Thunder Pulse is literally
49:44
it's a a um option of my uh kit. Uh
49:50
basically, it's like it's like Thunderwave, but instead it's a punch. So,
49:56
okay. Uh does a 12 hit it?
50:02
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, roll your damage to that
50:07
six points of thunder damage. Okay. The wall cannot make a saving throw uh to to avoid being knocked back,
50:14
but neither can the wall be rocked back. So, we'll just call that. But that adds to the possible
50:19
It does not It does not have a knock back for this one. That's fine then, cuz now I don't have to think about it.
50:25
Um, but yeah. Okay, that seems to have done something. However, the other side of here is now quivering.
50:32
You have to disrupt them both. you realize they can't be disrupted one at a time.
50:38
I see what um what Luther has done and I look to the one that he hit on the other
50:44
side and I would like to use telekinetic shove on it which is that one is a
50:52
knockback on a saving throw. It does not do damage. Make an arcana check before you do this.
50:57
Okay. Damage. It is no kind of damage. It's a knock back. Oh yeah. But I wonder if I can use it to
51:03
just put force into it. Do you think I need thunder damage? You are pretty sure that's exactly why
51:09
he chose the spell he chose that he Okay, I rolled a 17.
51:16
Stop before you do that because it's not going to work. Okay, it's thunder. Um,
51:22
can I can I approach this thing? Can I get close to it? You you can move. Um,
51:27
it's a it's a big room, but if you move, you should get you can go your if you go your full move, you can get to that side
51:32
and be in in within 5 ft of it. Okay. So, I want to go to the one across
51:39
from the one Luther was in and use shocking grasp on it. That is a touch
51:44
spell, which could be hazardous to my health, but does it need to attack with Shopping Grass or you just save from the thing?
51:52
Let me see. On a hit, the target takes you roll.
51:58
Okay, make that attack roll. You know that a 12 is sufficient to hit. So,
52:04
Luther, we I think we need to do it this at the same time. Sure. Uh that's a natural 20. So, uh 25.
52:12
Uh okay. You don't have to do it again. You're within the six seconds. Yeah. Keep So, she got it just before it would
52:19
have Okay. activate. There's There's a little wiggle room on this trap. It's not if you just did one and just walked away,
52:25
then it would be bad. But as long as you're trying to get them done since it's initiative order thing and nobody
52:31
could really ever make sure to get both of at the exact same time, there's a little wiggle room. So, right now, blue
52:37
goes out and the dragon turtle. That's better. I might be able to Nope,
52:44
not quite yet. But but I'm happy. I I'm happy. I If I
52:49
do kill you, I'll I'll do it quickly. I won't. I've got two flasks of alchemist fire.
52:56
Uh, seeing what the team has done, can I throw one of each flask on the red one?
53:03
You're a fourth level. We are all fourth level. So, you don't have any way to do two
53:09
throw attack to two attacks in one round, do you? Just just give a flask to somebody else. Oh, okay.
53:15
I'll give it to uh Coriel. Okay. Okay. So I go to one side to the red one
53:23
and go. You ready? Yeah. On three. One, two, three.
53:31
Again, you need to be the 12 to hit these things. They're not that they do not have a lot of support and not armored or anything.
53:37
Uh 12 like a spell attack or basically uh I think it's just like it's
53:43
a throwing weapon attack. It's like you just throw it and roll your Do I just roll a d20 and call it call
53:49
it? Yeah. If you've got a deck bonus, it would count. D20 plus decks plus proficiency.
53:56
Yes, you would also get your proficiency bonus. I got a 12 on the dot.
54:02
Well, okay. That's that's a problem. Um, how did you do uh Royale?
54:08
12 on the dot. Okay, Royale actually hits it.
54:13
It starts uh technically speaking, you you two should not be going at the same time, but you know, we're letting you.
54:20
Boom. You you just got fire on yours. There is no fire on the other one. And now it is gone back around to Joe's
54:28
character, and you've got your turn before this thing goes
54:33
tentacles up.
54:38
I mean, I hit that thing with something in six seconds.
54:44
I'm going through my list of what I have available to me. Give me a second
54:50
because I have a feature that I think I can use here. I just got to find the list.
55:06
Can Can you light a torch? Uh, yeah. I mean, I can I can
55:11
He wants to play with his the spells if he can. Ah, yeah. Yeah. He's going for the hero moment.
55:17
No, not even a hero moment. I'm just trying to use the I'm just trying to use the cool stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
55:23
Cuz I have No, I'm hyping you up. I think I can just produce a lit torch as a tinkerer.
55:29
Okay. So, it just kind of slides out of your armor or something. Uh yeah, I'm just double checking.
55:35
Yep, I can. Uh so then I will just use my tinker's magic to uh literally like
55:41
slide a lit torch out of like the sleeve of my uh my plate mail, the uh the van
55:46
races, and just be like, "Here you go." And just smack uh or light the fire gem with it.
55:52
Make the attack roll. It's, you know, you're hitting it with an
55:57
improvised weapon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
56:03
17. That's fine. And just as it's about to do something
56:08
that wouldn't be good, it goes, "Oh, okay. No, there's fire on both of us." And it goes out. Now, two of the
56:15
bindings are down. The dragon turtle is rocking in its shell, going, "Oh, almost. Almost. Oh, I hate
56:22
the distance. working on it. Be patient. I haven't eaten you yet, have I?
56:29
No, you haven't. Thank you very much for that. The uh the the the
56:34
black one. Corruption. Acid. I think I I think black dragons do acid. Yes.
56:43
I It's like the file. Yeah, it's It is acid. Yeah,
56:49
black dragons breathe acid. I take I take out my alchemist jug.
56:54
Oh, because it's one of the two blowing on it. It's one of the two infusions that I have.
57:01
I have I have one. Do anybody have another? I don't
57:07
I have an alchemist jug. Ah, let me just I'll point out that at this point technically it's Liz's action
57:14
followed by by Royale and then f but I mean you could take the alchemy the the
57:19
acid thing and go stand next to the thing and be ready for the next person to come up. That is something you could do.
57:25
And then the last one is cold that I have nothing else. I don't have any I don't have anything
57:32
for either of those things. Well, why don't you guys take the acid?
57:38
Just borrow the drug. give it back to me. It's not like it's that big of a deal.
57:43
Say between the two of them, uh, Royale and Lionel uh, manage to
57:50
get acid onto both of the black sigils in a in a room in a good reasonable amount of time. That does leave you,
57:56
however, with the white sigil. And the the oddly thing is the dragon turtle looks like it's hurting like as you do
58:04
this because the magic that was originally originally binding all four elements is now circling just through
58:10
the one binding. So whilst he is not held in three ways, he is taking some
58:16
kind of damage from this. You can see there's like rhyme forming on his face.
58:23
Rhyme like cold frost. Like little like literal icicles. Like you you've been outside and it's
58:29
been like cold enough that there's like a sheet of like ice on everything and even tree have it like that.
58:35
Hey buddy, can you can you bring your face over here real quick? I need one of those icicles.
58:41
Uh no, but I can do this. He holds out each of his gigantic
58:47
flippers, which also have these enormous claws on them, and they they easily cover the space between both rooms. I
58:53
mean, both to both walls of the room, and sticks them
58:59
into the the, you know, water sigil, the blue sigil, the frost sigil in this case.
59:04
There we go. And as he does, there's a ting sound and
59:11
the completely invisible to you but was there to him. Magical effect drops and
59:19
he is cold. He's very cold. He's like, I do not like being this cold. Um, but he
59:25
is he he's like, I I can leave the room, I think. Let's find out. and he goes up
59:34
like very very up and smashes into the
59:40
ceiling and then realizes wait I can't actually fly
59:45
and comes back down very hard. He shakes the entire room.
59:51
Uh, everybody makes some kind of athletics or acrobatics check to not get
59:56
knocked prone as he does this. That's a big old 14 for me.
1:00:04
13. That should work. 14. 14 and 13 should work. 10. 10 does not work. But Royale work
1:00:10
20. Yeah, Royale is fine. Uh, but uh it was
1:00:17
Lionel, you rolled a 10. Yeah. Yeah, you fall prone. Um, that means that when he throws himself
1:00:24
forward at the doorway that leads out of this place, the how the the path you
1:00:29
just took, um, he splashes the water on you. Oh dear.
1:00:36
And you gain 300 hit points. What? For one?
1:00:42
For one round. Yo. Oh, that feels um Oh,
1:00:47
I know. It's beefy for one round. For one round. My my base hit points are
1:00:54
27. So, you had 327 hit points for a round. So, imagine that your hit point bar goes
1:01:01
then goes so for 6 seconds you were practically unkillable by anything in this room and
1:01:07
then you were fine. And he manages to push himself through
1:01:12
that doorway. Um, and you don't know like it it must kind
1:01:18
of be like a grease turtle trying to fit itself through a very small passageway, but he seems to be going for it.
1:01:26
Goodbye. Oh, watch out. Don't go in there. Traps. Yeah, the the traps are fine. There's uh
1:01:34
something in that room that I was told not to let anyone have because it was the key to an ultimate power.
1:01:40
Oh, that could destroy worlds. But I don't care anymore. Have fun. And thanks. With
1:01:46
that, I guess we'll take our first break. Uh yeah. So this is this is the end of
1:01:52
our first episode. We have we have successfully read a turtle. That I guess
1:01:58
that's good. Maybe. Sure. We'll find out.
1:02:04
Solid maybe. Solid maybe. And we didn't die. Yay. Woohoo.
1:02:13
Blizzard Watch is made possible due to generous contributions of patreon.com/b blizzardwatch. Your continued support
1:02:18
means that this podcast site and community is able to thrive and grow. Blizzard watch supporters enjoy exclusive benefits like early access to
1:02:25
our podcast. Better chance at having your question answered on our podcast or the Q&A and ask free site experience.
1:02:30
That friends, we'll see you next time.
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