Episode 10 – The Pool

Wicker is leading the way again with the flowers and she crosses over a ford in the river before long you see the sun start to peek through the trees above you and uh it's getting a little hot you know there's dead grass here and there's bright flowers and it smells like honey and it's it's nice and warm and you follow wicker along a bend in the river where the river turns into a waterfall but the water is going bottom to top whoa cool it climbs up this cliff face and it looks like the the rocks on either side are fairly sheer and uh there's thick forest on either side you could go around probably it would take a while I um I want to take a rock and throw it into the up up waterfall yeah the water yeah the up waterfall yeah so you throw it and uh it you see it flow upwards okay oh okay well yeah I'm gonna jump into that up waterfall tuck yeah so you jump in uh give me a defy danger strength 12 12 son of a bitch so he's like surfing so you uh I grab a flat board I put it underneath me I'm like I'm inventing a new sport you're not gonna marty mcfly this you knew that new sport you've been looking for well listen to this look listen with your eyes okay so you hit the water and you're you're kind of swimming you're treading water and you feel the water pulling you up but gravity outside of the water still very much acts like it's supposed to so you're being pulled down outside of the water okay and it's only when you fully submerge yourself are you able to swim upwards and you're powerful lungs and your powerful arms and legs you're able to push yourself like you swim up this waterfall keep describing your powerful thighs your fabulous glutes uh but you yeah you kick under the water you quickly realize you have to be fully submerged and you kick yourself up this waterfall and you come out the top okay and you guys see tacoma swim up a waterfall whoa wow yeah amazing yeah hudir is still like this is the worst I hate it here how am I gonna you guys are well and how am I supposed to do this can I turn into a giant seahorse and put you in my pouch you cannot turn into a seahorse pouch what the fuck are you talking about I'm in vagina um no you can't turn into a giant seahorse I uh I look over the edge of the cliff and I'm like guys it's super easy just use your glutes okay billy's gonna use his glutes and he's gonna do the same thing billy just jumps in yeah defy danger strength five five okay no it's fine mark a point of experience okay so you are being dragged up this current okay and um yeah you're really being like you jump in you're like yeah this is awesome I'm being pulled up a waterfall and then it gets pretty fast and you're kicking your little arms and legs and you're trying to keep up oh god but it's really taking you it's the current has you um um um um you're standing at the top like oh hey look he's doing it wow he's really he's really hauling ass oh uh-oh and then you see billy hit the top of the waterfall like bang you like shoot out of the water holy fuck and then hit the river and start rushing down the river uh I give chase okay I see him fly in the air and jump into the river yeah and then I guess I turn back to everyone before I start running and I go uh it went about as bad as you think it could possibly go and yeah so you see and you just turn around and you bolt yeah you see billy shoot up out of the waterfall and you see tuck go it's bad and then turn and run okay I'll uh I'll jump in the waterfall as the crocodile who deer's like wait what okay if I successfully turn in crocodile can I eat her gently okay okay okay roll 2d6 eat her gently is the name of a metal album I really like eating her gently with his jaws 13 uh fuck me all right so you get three you get three so I just like num num num you don't have to eat her gently okay you can carry her up the waterfall okay she's fine with it she's into it she loves it okay so I spend my hold one of my holds taking who deer up the waterfall and I gently put her close to ground and also shoot up in the air really far well no you can't do both of those things how are you gonna do that you're gonna gently leave her where on the edge of the one that's falling and you're all as I go up I she rides with me and then as I I see okay here's the top I put her out and then I keep going up can you give a good push yeah big flick tail it's not as gentle as you'd like because you're trying to maintain speed she hits the dirt pretty hard and he's like okay Is she okay?

She's just like, ow! I hate this! And she hits the dirt, and you keep going, and you, yeah, Tuck, you're running. Yeah. You see a big-ass crocodile start rocketing down the river. I go to jump on his back. Yeah! Cool, cool. We're gonna do this like a Capri Sun commercial. Gravity works here for us. So Tuck turns into a silvery slime. And starts rocking to, like, he's racing down the river to a cool, like, early 2000s rock-pop-punk song. It's very inspirational.

Everybody wants to get outside and be active. Cruising down the street last week. Yeah, exactly. So you hit the wall. You steal my sunshine. I'm sorry. That's fine. That works for me. That was great. It's more of a Sonny D song. Yeah. I know. It's pretty funny. What a trivial distinction. It's more of a Sonny D song. So, wait. Okay. So, Billy, what's Billy… Billy's trying to swim against the current. Like, back to them. Yeah. Give me another Defy Danger strength. Okay. Wow. Four. Okay. Sorry.

It's okay. You just hit some rocks underwater. Roll a d6. Three. You take three damage as you just, like, bang against some rocks. Poor Billy. So Billy is underwater for a second. And then he comes up, like… Ugh! Give me… What are you doing? What are you guys doing? He's surfing on my back and we're at Billy. Do I have to roll to get onto his back? It's not a huge river. There's not a huge risk of you ruining anything. Okay. Cool. So that's fine. And you guys are racing along.

And you see Billy bobbing like a cork. Yeah. I go and put my snout underneath him and flick him up to tuck. Okay. You can spend a hold to do that for sure. Yep. Defy Danger. Maybe… Catch. Dexterity to catch him. Catch. Twelve. Yep. Boom. Like a little football. Nice. Perfect spin. Thanks, you guys. Yeah. Very casual. Yeah. Again, you're swallowing. You're coughing up water. So much water. Oh, man. I hold him up to my face. I'm like, what's all the damage that you've suffered?

Oh, and then I just have a little barf. Wow. All the water. Sorry. There's a lot of granola in there. Yeah. There's a lot. That's disgusting. I'm sorry. So you guys… So you get out of the water and Houdier hobbles up. She's like, this is awful. So bad. Where's Wicker? Anybody seen Wicker? Oh, Wicker. And you see Wicker like paddling down the river. Soaking. Very like furious. Like… Get her. Should someone get her? Yeah. Get in there. I'll go get her. Okay. So she climbs up on your snout.

She's weirdly not creeped out by your shape shifting, you've noticed. She's totally chill with it. So she knows that it's you and she hops up and yeah. She's like… Shaking. Trying to get dry. I snort some air on her to help her dry off. She kind of likes that. Yeah. Yeah. And she's licking herself for a while before you get going. And Houdier looks at the sun and says, well, it's not like who knows, but we haven't really lost that much time.

The last couple hours has been pretty bad, but we're still kind of on schedule, I think. Great. Yeah. Let's… Is everybody feeling okay? Yeah. This is Wicker. Yeah. Which way? Does Wicker? Does Wicker want to go? Anybody need some reindeer moss? I don't… My tummy's feeling a little weird. Reindeer moss? Reindeer moss? Okay. Thank you. Nobody wants this. She… I go foraging for like hours. Sorry. That's fine. I don't even care. And Wicker continues on the path that only she can see.

But Billy is following along and 20 minutes later, you find a… You guys ever been to like… No. It's not… It's not going to mean anything to anybody. I still want the question. Well, I mean, like, have you guys ever been to like the, you know, like the Goldstream River, like campground? There's that eddy. There's that pool, the rivers. And there's like, it kind of comes down a little bit, this little waterfall and the rocks all keep the water really still.

The river that you're following falls down a little rock, well, floats down into this water in this big pool that's maybe 30, 40 feet across. It's very still. And you see tributaries of a river. And you see tributaries of a river running up rocks around trees, all coming to a confluence in this big pool. Cool. Wow. This is crazy. There's a rock face that goes up one side, like a jutting rock that goes up 60, 70 feet. Very large cliff face, but it's not… There's no water there.

And it's sort of a wall abutting one side of this pool. And your deer says, this is it. What do we do? Well, if I'm right, we need to… We need to… We need to… We need to… We need to… We need to… We need to… We need to… We need to… We need to… Put Billy in this pool. And Billy, you need to relax yourself. Let this… Let the waters wash over you. Okay. And we'll see what happens. I should say I… Can me and Ving get in there with him? Help him out? You can.

It might be dangerous. Try and relax him? Yeah, you absolutely can. It might be a little… A little dangerous. Could it help? It might help. It's quite deep. Okay. And you look down, like… And it's… And it's deep. Well, if it's… You can't see the bottom of the pool. If it's dangerous, why is a child going in alone? Well, he needs to go in. Well… That's the whole reason that we came here. Can we hold him in? Yeah, we might try to secure him. That would be a good idea.

Let's tie a rope around him and tie it to this tree at least. Yeah. Do you have any… Have you ever done this before, Hootier? No. I heard about it. In detail? Where did you hear about it? In a book. Okay. You heard about it in a book. You sound like an idiot. Hey. I'm sorry. I'm just… I'm really nervous. That's fine. It's a stressful time. But you have to understand, this isn't something that's happened to anyone that I've ever met. Ever. Magic, as far as I knew, was dead. You know what?

I'm just going to get in. Billy takes off his toga. Okay. You see his little butt. And he just jumps in and floats up. All right. Oh, Billy. Okay. All right. All right. I guess I'm going to just kind of, like, dangle my legs in the pool and be ready, just in case. Yeah. If can I hang out in the edge as a… Some sort of swimming creature? Yeah. You can get in the pool if you want. Yeah. I'd like to be in the pool with Billy. All right. Did you remain a crocodile?

Or did you come back and are you shape-shifting again? I have one hold left. I'll use that. I'll be a crocodile. You'll just remain a crocodile? Mm-hmm. So you just slither into the water? Yeah. I get in, too. Okay. And are you just, like, holding on to the edge of the pool or something? I'm just going to hold on to Ving. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Great. So you get in and you do feel like your feet don't touch the bottom. And Ving, you, like, dip your head under the water when you get in. It's deep.

It's deep. There's stuff down there, too. It's weird. It's, like, not natural stone. It's really scary. It's pretty scary. Yeah. It's that really creepy feeling where the water goes light to very dark. Yeah. Yeah. And you can't see what anything is through it. Can I kind of look at the bottom and try and, like, see if there's anything I should be worried about down there? You can discern realities. Yeah. Okay. Nine. One question. What happened here recently? What is about to happen?

What should I be on the lookout for? What here is useful or valuable to me? Who's really in control here? What here is not what it appears to be? What's about to happen? What's about to happen is part of this information is what Houdir is saying. And she, like, reaches in and touches the water. She says, this is magic. It's magical water? It's not magic. It is very rich in energy. I have made a lot of my living being able to follow bits and pieces, scraps of power.

And this is more than I've ever felt. And she takes her hand out of the water. And she seems a little scared. Okay. I go, cool. And I drink some. It tastes like pond water. It tastes like river water. It tastes minerally kind of gross. Yeah. And I drink more of it. Stop. Stop it. And then I take some of my mouth. I spit it at Billy. It feels weird. Stop it. Yeah, Billy, this feels very strange. Yeah.

It feels, you know, when you spend too long in a hot tub and your head starts getting a little light. Yeah. It feels like that. Okay. And you feel it welling up. You feel that feeling welling up. Mm-hmm. To the point where it looks like, it feels like it's going to burst, like it's going to be too much. Mm-hmm. What do you do? I get, like, really scared. And I kind of want to, like, get out. But I know I shouldn't. So I just, like, let go. You just let go? Yeah. Give me a defied. Danger. Wisdom?

Nine. Nine. Okay. As you start to, like, let go, you feel energy start to run through you. Oh, okay. Like a sieve. Oh. Like that lightheaded feeling starts to go away, but you feel it running through you. And as it does that, you feel something start to move in you individually from that. And you know that if you just keep letting go, it's going to come out. Oh. But it's, like, trying to push its way out almost. Oh.

So you can either keep it in, and who knows what that's going to do, or you can relax and let it out completely. Do I want to let go? Does Billy want to let it go? I don't know. Maybe not. Well, what does it feel like? It feels like… Your soul's trying to poop. The feeling that you remember… Kind of, yeah. It kind of feels like your body's trying to expunge itself of something, and that something wants to be expunged.

So it's like the feeling that you felt just before you flipped out on the floor. Yeah. On the crocodile. And that you felt just after. It's similar to that. Is it cool stuff? Do I want it? Well, it doesn't… It feels… Like, the more the energy runs through you, the better it feels. And this thing doesn't feel good. Certainly. Certainly doesn't feel good. Hmm. Okay. Well, I'll do the one that feels good, I guess. You'll just let it out? I guess so. Yeah.

That is what a child would do, I suppose. Just go for the thing that feels good. Yeah. And you feel… You know how… Ever since… Ever since you found the box, Billy's been really… Grumpy? Grumpy. Yeah. Kind of shitty to everybody. Yeah. Or not shitty, but initially aggressive. You know what I mean? Like snippy or that sort of thing. That… All those feelings of tension and aggression towards the people that you care about kind of go away. Oh. You just feel relaxed. Okay.

And Billy's just kind of floating. How does Billy… What does Billy do? He's like a little starfish. He's just floating in the water. Wow. And then he starts doing like snow angel kind of things. Yeah. Once the feeling's gone. Uh-huh. And Houdier says, Billy, are you okay? Yeah. I'm just hanging out. Okay. Are we done here? I think we did it. Great. Cool. That was a lot easier than I expected it to be. It resolved itself with no conflict. Yeah. Hooray.

They said ominously as this still pool of water starts to lap out against the edge of the pond. Billy, get out of here. Ugh. Yeah. Yeah. Does Ving just notice right away? Yeah. Yeah. Billy. This isn't right. I'm a water crocodile. Yeah. Yeah. You're all… Yeah. That's true. So I'm really, really… Yeah. I'm at the edge. Oh, that's a good point. You feel the water. Yeah. You feel it moving in an unnatural way. Oh. And it's flowing through my gills and it tastes different. Get out of the hand.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So I… Yeah. So I'll scramble up. Defy danger dexterity. Okay. Seven. Seven. Okay. Okay. Um, you don't have anything on you because you got naked before you jumped in the pool. Well, you know. Because this kid gets naked so much that I… It feels nice. He's free. I feel like people are going to have an issue with there being a naked kid in the show so much. Yeah. Also one that we kidnapped for sure. Definitely raises a lot of questions. You know what, everyone? It's fine.

I like it. It's not sexual. Okay. It's just… Saying that it's not sexual makes it questionable. Yeah. Yeah. So you… Okay. All right. Some very strange stuff happens, Billy. As you're swimming away, you're looking around like, what's going on? Mm-hmm. And you see your friends. You see Tuck attached to Ving, who's a giant crocodile. And you see as they're like, get out of here, just behind your friends, the water rises up. Whoa, guys. And it's about to come down behind them.

You know that you could warn them, but you'd still be in the water when stuff starts popping off. Oh, I'm going to warn them, I guess. All right. Hey, you guys, get over here. Yeah. Tuck, you look up, and you see the water has risen up into this pillar. Oh, shit. There's like a water… A dick. A water dick coming out of the water. It looks like a dick. Can I try and cut the dick in half? Okay. No. Okay. One more time. Yeah. So there's like a big pillar of water.

It does kind of look like a dick, doesn't it? It does. I hate this. That was straight. Then we can leave it all to you. And most of all, I hate myself. Whatever. It doesn't matter. You're about to get… This water is basically… There's a form coming out, forming out of this water, this risen water. Soaking wet hammer. A pillar comes out of the water, and it starts to take on a more humanoid shape. Oh, fuck. Arms on either side. A very indeterminate head shape.

It's just sort of a flowing person coming out of this water. Is it the robe? It looks kind of like a robe. Kirill. You asshole. Shimmering blue. And you're about to get… He's about to punch you. Can I just… Push… I'm a giant crocodile. Can I fling him out of the way? Can you push… Wait. Flip me into this piece of shit. It's just water. What are we going to do to it? I don't know. Piss in it or something. Okay. I'll figure it out on the way. Just like I always do. All right. So…

I'm going to punch it. I'm going to say that's a 2d6 plus strength. Probably with an aid from Tuck if you're getting into it. I'm going to do it quick. Oh, same time. No. Okay. So, eight. Ten. Ten. Plus an aid. So, you get plus one. So, it is a nine. Yeah, unfortunately. So, it's not like an unmitigated success, but… Oh, also form crafter? Yeah. Did you add the strength? Additional strength, negative dexterity. Okay. So, it is a ten? Yeah. All right. Well, I mean, easy enough.

You get your giant sinewy tail. Yeah. And you kind of flip your backside up and Tuck jumps off of it. And you're sent careening at this water thing. What do you do? I do… I do a pretty nice front flip. And I've got my two-handed axe in one hand. And then as I come out of the flip, I bring my axe down where it looks like that misshapen head is. Yep. And then I also piss. Yep. In it. Jesus. I piss into it. And I'm like, take this, piss monster. Great. And I slice. Fucking piss monster.

All right. So, you swing. Mm-hmm. And you, like, go right through it. It's water. Like, you hit the water and your momentum carries you out the back of the water. Mm-hmm. And you just land. Like, you hit the edge of the pool and tumble back into the water. Pee. Okay. And you've peed yourself, I suppose. I pissed in the water? Great. It's totally different. Yeah. Great. But, yeah, you just don't, like, it just… Right through it. Yeah. It feels warm. Yeah. That might be something else. Great.

Great. So, yeah. There's a water person here. And they're big. Can I swim up it? Like, nine feet tall. Into its head? Yeah. Yeah. You totally can. Okay. I guess that would… So, are you… How many holds do you have? Oh, one. Yeah. So, it would be a defy danger strength, I guess, to kind of push yourself up the current. Eight. Eight. Oh, nine. Nine. Okay. You will be able to swim up it. Mm-hmm. But you feel it start to, like, constrict on you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The water get dense almost. Okay. And it's starting to harden around you. Yeah. And it gets cold and icy. Oh. And it's trying to… It's starting to try to crush you. Can I spin as fast as I can? Well, I mean… Can I go into a death roll? You can, but it's going to, like… Basically, if you try and do anything else in here, it's going to hurt. Well, I don't want to get hurt. Mm-hmm. But I want this thing to go away. Mm-hmm. Is it, like, freezing?

It's turning its body to ice, basically. I can try and break it apart. If it's ice, then I can smash it if it's half ice and half water. Okay. I can go into a spin. Death roll. You are going to take a D8 damage. Seven. Ugh. Seven damage. Ooh. You feel the ice crystals from the torso section harden and grow into your side. Whoa. They're filling my gills. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And they're ripping at your gills and stuff like that. It's not good. I'm coughing up blood. Yeah. It's bad in there.

Billy, you see all this happening, and you're still in the water bobbing around. And Hudeer's like, Billy, get out of the water. Billy, come here. She reaches down and just grabs you. Oh. By the way. She grabs you in the arms and yanks you out of the water. Okay. She says, go. Get out. Run. Run? Yeah. Run away. Look at this. There's like a water person beating the shit out of your friends. Oh, my God. And she's like, we need to leave. But I can't leave them. I don't know what to do.

I'm just frozen there. Okay. I'm in pain and gurgling blood saying, run, Billy, run. Yeah. And Tuck is like bobbing back out of the water like, bleh. You see Ving inside this thing as it starts to harden. I need to help Ving. He's turning into ice. You could smash it. Yeah. Yeah. Can I smash it? Oh, I mean, maybe you could smash it. Yeah. Can I head over there with my axe? Like, swim over? It's hard to fight in the water. But you are close to the edge. You could always jump out. Okay.

Then I climb out onto the edge. How far away is it? You could swing out. Like, he's at the edge of the pool, basically. Oh, okay. And he's big. I climb out of the pool. I run a little distance away. And then I run back for, like, force of hammer. Yeah. Axe. Give me a hack and slash to just express your strength. Eight. Ten. What's your damage die? D10. D10. Plus your plus one damage from the axe, because it's two-handed. Four.

You chip into it, and you break a part of it, and water starts to pour out. It looks like you at least got its attention. Yeah. You definitely heard it. Okay. Then I want to do that move where I bring it over to me. Well, you've already done a move. Shit. So then you're inside a frozen man. Okay. As you're, like, wriggling around, you see the blade of Tuck's axe, like, crash into you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like, oh, man. The axe is gone. Yeah. So you can hack and slash while you're in here. Hack and slash crocodile face. Ooh. Ten plus 13. Great. So that's… You get to roll a D8. Two. Two. You are, like, whipping back and forth, and as you, like, break the ice out, it's just pulling itself back in. Like, you're breaking it, but it's reforming too fast.

It's water yeah yeah it's it sucks to be in here I hate this yeah um billy yeah you're still on the edge of the pool and your friends are kind of freaking out what do you do like I can't talk to it can I uh no you don't think you can it hasn't spoken at all what is anything yeah is there anything in your inventory that you might be able to use a crystal you do have a crystal can I pick pull it out that energy that you felt flowing through you while you were in the water you don't really feel it quite as strong anymore but you do feel it still swirling around a little bit in you and you feel that when you hold the crystal in your hand you can feel it sharpen a little bit can I go back in the water yeah can I try to lead this thing away you could go back in the water for sure could I swim down yeah you could try and swim down you tell me yeah billy is an idiot so he's just gonna swim down and try to take that water wizard back into the water you hit the water and you feel that energy start to flow through you and you do feel it amp up a little bit basically it's very uncomfortable it's fine and I say fuck you perel and then I swim down the water billy language no and um yeah so you hit that water and you feel this like borderline painful amount of energy start to well through you and perel does or the water monster uh does stop and loosen a little bit and like turn bodily and um start to go down like it starts to dip down into the water what do you do you're just it's kind of letting you go almost yeah well I'm gonna let it let me go and go to billy okay and surround him with my tail and make a circle around him tuck that's what's happening is this water thing is like kind of receding into the water you saw billy jump in and say fuck you're gonna let me go and go to you and then start swimming down well I guess I put two and two together I'm like well fuck this box it's still on my back uh-huh like this fucking thing is the source of every single one of these problems so I take it off my back and I'm gonna just smash the shit out of it with my axe oh because fuck this this isn't our fucking fight it's not our problem and like billy's about to drown this guy's fucked up beyond repair like fuck this I'm gonna kill whatever's in this box I don't give a shit anymore screw you genie yeah exactly he thinks there's a genie in there what yeah what was it that I thought was a genie not a genie but a wish granting spirit okay yeah fuck you and all the wishes you never gave me box genie okay um you ain't never had a friend like me roll it all right 2d6 plus strength 13 oh my god this box by all accounts has been pretty sturdy you remember the lid doesn't really come off but it did start rattling back in mudlark which was what led maggie cole to be so concerned about it and she wanted it taken somewhere where the wards would be strengthened to the point that it wouldn't be an issue anymore uh that has not happened since you have had it so you swing down and you bring your axe down as hard as you can right on top of the lid and it cracks okay it doesn't break but it cracks which it has never done before wow um so strong thanks it's a little disappointing for you I'm in a bulk phase right now and um inside okay so you guys are swimming down billy you're trying to swim away kicking your little arms and legs ving you were kind of being let go of your axe and you're like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die still dragged along and uh when you crack the box you guys don't know what's happening at the same time obviously uh billy you feel something oh yeah a little bit while you're in the water you feel it reverberate through the water okay and the the force stops and immediately turns around and starts whipping back the other way and it comes up out of the water it's still got you vinging like it's moved you to a big arm and it's starting to grow a little bit and the pool is emptying it's a little bit it's going down a little bit it's going down a little bit it's going down a tiny bit but you feel like it's it's pulling waters from deep deep in this pool uh and it just pounds you tuck with a huge torrent of water okay what do you do uh I guess I dodge okay uh so you okay so that'll be a defy danger dexterity uh five six six okay yeah take a d8 roll the d8 six six damage as you get like slammed against a bunch of rocks I guess the reason why uh my dodge didn't work is because I took a minute to try and think of a clever quip to say yeah you're like hey yeah I was gonna say hey piss monster why don't you you're like slammed down and ving you see this happening as you're being like moved back and forth in this thing's arm you see the water go out you see tuck get crushed down and the water pulls back and you see the box and it's like oh my god it's like a big rock and it's like a big rock is gone and you see it in its arm I swim towards the box try and get it in my I try to eat the box okay give me a defy danger dexter you try to eat the box I'm going at a full force mouth open okay oh seven seven okay um you think you can get there fast enough but it's gonna have an opportunity to react basically it'll it'll really try and fuck you up if you do this you get the idea how much damage can you still take not much I have I'm at six you have six left okay you swim towards the box you see it oh there it is there it is there it is oh and um it hits your jaws are you trying to swallow it I want to get it in me okay so you do that and I say you'll have to open me up to get back your box and sort of a shitty tuck yeah totally for an impression and then I go good impression yeah that's a good one I'm gonna eat your box piss monster so you say that I'm gonna eat your box piss monster underwater in a crocodile voice yeah exactly and you get the box in your mouth it's weird because you'd think that considering this is part of nature or that this thing is composed of natural elements you figured you'd be able to talk to it but you don't hear any voices um but what you do feel is the the connection that you feel between yourself and the spirit world this sort of give and take that allows you to change form locks you don't think that you could get out of this form if you wanted to uh and you don't take any damage damage but you know that you're stuck like this right now and that this thing is very angry and I have its box in my mouth yeah I start swimming back downstream okay out of the pool for my friends yeah billy you see you come up out of the water and you see ving swimming down uh this thing's body you see tuck slammed against the rocks uh you're like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die you're starting to come out of it like come out of this horrible crushing blow that it dealt you I go why don't you take some more piss okay and yeah billy you come up out of the water and you see all this happening and you feel like you that this crystal is letting you direct it in a way so you have an option okay I'm basically gonna let you cast a spell oh cool whoa cool that's cool I'm basically gonna let you cast a level one spell called magic missile okay to cast a spell you're gonna have to give me a 2d6 plus intelligence that's right the stat for casting spells is intelligence um what's your intelligence zero okay well zero is not as bad as it could be yeah so 2d6 plus your intelligence to cast a spell okay eight eight okay so on a seven to nine you either draw unwelcome attention to yourself or put yourself in a spot the spell disturbs the fabric of reality take minus one ongoing to casting spells until the next time you prepare a spell or after it is cast the spell is forgotten if you choose after it's cast this spell is forgotten you will never be able to learn magic missile oh but I wanna there are other spells but magic missile would not be one of them hmm do I have to take that one no no no that's just a choice you could either draw unwelcome attention to yourself or disturb the fabric of reality oh my god I want to disturb the fabric of reality yeah which means you'll take a minus one to casting spells until the next time you prepare a spell or after it is cast the spell is forgotten until you learn how to do it properly it's fine okay so you all this for give me 2d4 two two okay so three when billy releases this energy from his hands projectiles of pure magic spring from your fingers okay like what do they look like I imagine more like a beam oh it's a beam okay yeah yeah yeah yeah it's and especially in this water being where you're inside the water in this crocodile form as you're trying to swim down this beam of water is going to be a beam of purple light cuts through this water form punches through the ice punches through the water punches out the other side and this water creature kind of like reels back you hit the water and you've got the box in your mouth on your throat or whatever and you're swimming around yeah I go up on shore I want to go as go to billy as far and uh get to him and try and put him on my back and run away from the pool as fast as we can okay yeah it's like like it's trying to slam down on the side as you run uh it's going to be another defy danger unfortunately um I guess dexterity which is at a minus one I believe seven seven okay um you could get billy out of the way you could spit the box out but this thing is gonna hit you basically wait those two things I can spit the box out and billy you can get billy in the box out of danger but you're gonna take a hit on the way okay I think I need to cough up this box and tell billy that it's important that get this box out of here yeah totally don't destroy this box yeah and it's like leaking like you can feel it and you can feel it and you can feel it and you can feel it and you can feel it and you can feel it and you can feel it and you can feel it and you can feel it and you can see it leaking energy yeah okay don't listen to your dreams save the box okay I'll do that okay roll a d8 three like it just slams down on you and you feel like bones break but billy is thrown free and tuck you are seeing like ving is getting slammed over and over by this water thing what do you do uh I use the what are you waiting for move I taunt it over to me oh yeah you say what are you waiting for yeah great all right so how does what are you waiting for you're waiting for me to say waiting for work I cry out a challenge to my enemy roll plus constitution plus 10 they treat me as the most obvious threat okay I got two plus two is four okay mark another point of experience what's your challenge I I guess I keep calling it piss monster great and I go hey piss monster uh pick on someone whose piss is inside of you okay so it like it it rises up to its full height which is you know 10 11 feet now holy fuck and uh it looks at you and it picks ving up and its whole fist turns to solid ice and crushes him ving no and it throws him down next to the pool uh-huh do I have to roll hmm sure roll your damage roll a roll a d8 can I just roll a little dice for a second yeah roll the d8 six what's negative three mean oh my god what does negative three mean negative three means that you um there's a move yeah yeah this move is called last breath 2d6 straight nine nine stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck the form of this water form just starts to recede back into the pool and you see it run down the river that you came down and down all the other tributaries in the area this water just pushes out from the pool okay yeah so I guess I run over to ving and you see a big old crocodile and I guess I I try and wake him up doesn't move uh what does the seven to nine that he rolled mean seven to nine means that when you are really examining this you're like trying to roll this crocodile over and trying to revive it in any way you notice that it doesn't have gills hey hey buddy wake up hey you piece of shit like wake up come on you fucking idiot come on wake up we won okay it's gone you're okay you're okay okay you're okay wake up it's okay you're okay and you hear wake up wake up wake up and you open your eyes and you're looking into the face of an elk a snow owl and a polar bear and the elk says where's crocodile the wild wood has given hand to druid born of elf and man a lantern light in endless dark with courage from the deepest heart from barren lands of ice and snow upon the plains where nothing grows there stands a figure of the land a druid born of elf and man a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman a dragon woman The broken three who walk the path The bonded three who stand and fight Through darkness of an endless night The loss of one, the sacrifice Of he who's born of wood and ice For strength of arm and speed of flight Could not contain an ancient blight The hollow road, it takes its toll From those who hunt the wilder of The longest walk, the hardest plan Await those who fight the will of time The water wheel will turn no more The water wheel will turn no more For those who walk the broken shores A world of light and love bereft Awaits those who break the will of death On roads beyond the kin of men Between the word of now and then Through paths of love and hate Paths beyond the sight of light A figure moves with will to fight With broken staff and bloody hand Walks druid born of elf and man A world of light and love bereft