Dumbgeons and Dragons will begin in a moment.
We hear begrudging footsteps through the town of Vintersmouth.
It's well past Alydin's and every other child's bedtime.
I'm 14. I don't have a bedtime.
As you communicate with the narrator of this story.
I turn to the camera.
You shut up.
Don't tell me how I'm feeling.
She says begrudgingly.
You're making your way to Everbane's.
Previously, Bonwyn and Kav and Bizard had told you it was too dangerous and something that you, as much as an adult as you were, perhaps now was not the first ritual to be part of.
Since Bonwyn had decided to incorporate blood into the ritual.
No risk.
Don't worry.
Everything's going fine.
I'm 14.
I'm not a kid.
They think I can handle it.
Okay, I'm going to go say, hey, maybe I can help.
We've been through lots.
Like, you can't just push me out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've been through lots.
Yeah, okay.
You turn the corner and you see Everbane's and everything looks fine from the outside.
You see.
Then it's probably fine.
You see Kav's two guards seated on chairs out front there.
One is asleep.
I forgot about these two.
We're just going to do a ritual.
If you guys could just wait out here, that'd be great.
It's personal.
That's fine.
Take a snooze.
It's private.
You see the two, one of them turns and looks and sees you and just kind of nods and then goes back to just crossing his arms and trying not to drift off as well.
You find yourself now right in front of the door and one of them looks up and turns to you and says, did you miss the start of the ritual?
They said they were going to cast.
Like, you're usually hanging out with them.
So I assumed you would be in there.
They sent me to get something super important for the ritual.
Cool, cool, cool.
Yeah, well, so I'm just going to.
Yeah, no, haven't heard much from inside there.
So maybe they haven't started yet.
Maybe I'm going to head in.
OK, yeah, have fun.
All right. OK, open the door.
I know which way to put my hand.
I don't know how to open a door.
I open the door confidently like I've opened doors before.
You reach for the hinge.
You don't know what's happening.
They're right.
I can't do this.
It's a swinging saloon door in the middle.
They're hearing everything.
I'm talking to myself about outside that swinging door.
You quickly pull the door open, which covers your view from the guards.
You see a wall of smoke and that smoke reaches out like a large hand grabs you and pulls you into Everbane's.
And the door slams shut behind you,
which stirs awake the second guard and he looks up and says,
What did I miss?
Oh, a kid, a kid showed up and that's about it.
Nods and kind of drifts back off.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a D&D actual play podcast,
and I'm your Dungeon Master Russ More, he him.
Also with me today is Amy More as Alydin, she her.
OK, it's a one.
Guys, great start. Great start.
It's perfect. It's fine.
Carla Maxted as Bonwyn Everbane, she her.
Well, I just leave. I'm outside the shadow now.
See you later. Bye.
Tom Laird as Kavlaran Goldweave, he him.
The moral of the story here is hit the books a little bit.
They just keep yourself sharp.
And Kyle Claset as Bazaar the Wizard, he him.
I think that's Bonwyn's nose.
Or I guess Bonwyn has their nose.
Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon supported podcast,
and you can join us today at Patreon.com slash Dumb Dragoncast.
There are so many amazing bonus episodes over there,
which will help get you through the the slower schedule
we have this summer and an amazing community
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It's a great time.
We hope to see you over there.
And now, fuck it, let's play.
Inside, Alydin, you are thrust into the center
of this ritual circle.
There are four glowing pillars around the perimeter.
Bazaar and Kav seem to be in combat
with what looks to be Kav's shadow.
Grabsping onto one of the other columns
is what looks to be Bazaar's shadow.
Bonwyn is nowhere to be seen.
The forge is billowing fire and smoke out of it.
Runes and sigils that appear to be in Bazaar's writing
are all glowing this magnificent white hot color.
You want to roll an into initiative?
Yes.
Here's a nice of you.
No, I will use my own day.
Thank you very much.
She won't be falling for that crap again.
That's right.
Don't want to sully your dice.
But I'm going to pick the exact same one
that you were rolling.
OK, it's a one.
Guys, great start.
Great start.
It's perfect.
It's fine.
Everything is fine.
It's just initiative.
I got this one.
Plus one.
That's a two.
Everything is fine.
Great.
You're pulled by this hand into the center of this circle.
You see Bazaar and Kav there.
Kav, you would be facing that direction towards the door.
You see Alydin just appear in the center of this circle.
I'll give you all just a little moment
before we jump back into initiative.
Oh, hey, guys.
What are you doing here?
I don't...
I can help?
Where's your shadow?
What do you mean?
What?
Just look for the shadows.
And I point to Kav's shadow, my shadow.
Do I see my shadow anywhere?
Is it attached to myself?
Or is it gone Peter Pan style?
You look down at your feet
and you see your shadow tearing itself
from your feet where it's connected.
What the hell?
Why you two?
We go back into initiative order.
Bonwyn, you are in the smoke.
You were previously trying to grab a blanket,
something to put out fire or cover one of the pillars
to see if that could have...
You were grabbed by something in the smoke
and you tried to grab it, but it went through...
Your hand went through it and onto your own wrist.
You feel the pressure of this hand
grasping tighter and tighter.
You feel your joints and bones
straining underneath the pressure.
Your arms pulled forward
until you can feel the table
that these blankets are seated on.
Rub up against your shoulder
as you're being pulled through towards the wall.
Just as quick as you were grasped and pulled,
you see the face of your shadow before you.
With its other hand,
move through the smoke
and I know if this hits, but if it doesn't...
Does a 13 hit your AC?
No.
You see this clawed hand
tear through the smoke around you.
It releases your wrist,
which causes you to step back a couple paces.
Then you see your shadow
begin to move through the smoke.
It's not trying to hide.
You see the figure displacing the smoke around it
as it starts to circle you and get behind you
where the ritual circle was that you ran from.
We go back to the center with Kavlaran.
Okay, so I'm still facing off against my shadow?
You were facing off against your shadow.
You would have also seen that Bazaar's shadow
went towards one of the pillars.
It appears to be doing something to it.
Caused like a drain in the light that it was giving off.
I don't want to imagine these are undead creatures
in any way, shape or form.
Turn undead is probably not going to be my friend
in this situation.
Do you want to make a roll?
No.
We have been suffering necrotic damage.
Oh, that is true.
All right, I'll happily make a roll.
What would you like me to roll, Russ?
Great question.
Maybe religion or arcana?
They're both minus twos for me,
but that was a 17 on the dice, so 15.
This isn't something Kav has ever had to deal with.
And Kav hasn't had to use a lot of his abilities
or has even known what his abilities are.
The turn undead that you want to do, though,
you're getting a strong sense
that these creatures may react to it.
Like, might be worth a shot, at the very least.
Okay, and Kav remembers when he was told to pray
before the ritual, and he takes that to heart
and gives a little prayer
towards his shadow that's in front of him.
Okay.
You have to make a wisdom saving throw.
Does that prayer sound like,
please, God, fuck off, fuck off?
I've never asked you for anything
in my whole fucking life,
but if you do this for me right now,
I swear to God.
I will ask you over and over and over again
because you're listening.
Jokes on you.
Wisdom saving throw, 15.
You passed.
So I don't think anything really happens then.
Okay.
Yeah, that doesn't really tell you anything.
If you were to try it again.
I don't know if you can try it again.
Is it a one and done?
I mean, it's a channel divinity skill,
so I will read more about that.
Okay.
Unfortunately, they save.
What does it look like as you try to pray
that into existence, though?
Yeah, like, Kav just kind of,
he's still got a shield in front of him,
but he drops his head a little bit
but keeps his eyes on the shadow in front of him
as he's kind of muttering under his breath.
Okay.
Got it.
Yeah, your shield,
any jewelry you have on you
begins to glow,
like a radiant glow
that sends out this wave
towards the shadow of yours,
which does cause it to,
like,
disperse but then quickly reform.
Okay.
It is going to disengage
from the two of you
and
begin to move to
the column that is,
or the pillar that is opposite
the bizarre shadow.
It is going to grasp onto it
and you see it begin to do the same
sort of
procedure, same sort of ritual
in and of itself.
It's like it's beginning to siphon
energy from this pillar.
You even see around its hand
cracks in the stone
of the pillar begin to form.
Bizarre! It's your turn.
Okay.
So, seeing these other two shadows
trying to mess with these columns,
I'm going to do the same,
because they seem magical in nature,
I want to try to bridge the gap between them.
So,
I don't know how this is going to work,
but I'm going to try it anyway.
I'm going to cast Armor of the Weave
while I'm touching the column
to hope that that bridges the gap
between me as a metaphysical entity
and them being as a
magical entity.
And then, sorry,
remind me what Armor of the Weave is.
Oh, it's Mage Armor.
I like it when
Kyle says anything that's
I'm not sure how this is going to work, but
it's a good sign something cool is
going to happen.
I like it when you rename stuff.
You cast Armor of the Weave
and place your hand
directly on the pillar or just
near the pillar? No, on the pillar.
The spell casts normally,
you touch the pillar.
The pillar feels
like cold stone.
But as you
touch it, you feel like this static
electric, almost
static shock begin to go through
your palm.
Make a intelligence saving
throw, please. Beautiful.
That's a 19.
Oh, yeah, baby.
Your hand is placed upon
the stone.
It feels cold beneath your hand.
You feel this electric shock begin to course
through your body, and
the pillar before you begins
to glow,
emanate more light
into the space. It even pushes
back some of the smoke that's around
it. As you kind of look out
of your periphery to the other
two pillars that you can see
where the shadows are,
you see what they're doing at that
same moment is
dimming, is like
dulling the light.
Even where their hands,
what you could call their shadow hands,
are placed around, you see
fractures beginning to form
on the pillar that they
are touching.
As you see that, you get this
memory begins,
it's not yours, but this memory
begins to
come into view for you.
And these figures,
they look, I mean,
they are dwarven.
They are, appear
to be locked in a very
similar ritual
or battle that you are currently
part of. They are fighting off
the shadows around you, and you see
one main figure who
is primarily battling
the image of themselves.
You don't know
who this person is, but
there are some similarities
that you see in terms of
familial bloodlines that
perhaps tie back to the
Everpains.
Gotcha.
I think that's Bonwyn's nose, or I guess
Bonwyn has their nose.
One last question
to wrap up my turn.
These pillars,
they seem like they're very obvious
the structural support
to the entire building.
Yes, they are
load bearing. Can I
break one?
Oh, no, no, no, seeing the others
fracture, that's what concerns me.
They're trying to bring this place down.
Yeah, so I guess two
components to that that you would
pick up on, because you're the one who drew
out the entire circle, or at least
the majority of it, and the
sigils, is yes, they
are, appear to be load
bearing for the structure of
the building, but
also, they are placed in such
a way within this circle that they
appear to be key components to
the actual ritual itself.
Gotcha. Man, Kyle's
brain is thinking like, what did
Bonwyn's ancestor do? Trap some kind
of fire demon inside this
forge, and it's like,
who's actually the prisoner here?
Are we?
You're like, phew, got that captured thing back.
I feel good about that.
As your turn ends, this
image before you, this memory before you
begins to fade away.
You go to Bonwyn. Oh, goodness.
Well, I just leave. I'm outside the shadow
now. See you later.
I go out the back door.
I order
homers into the shrubs.
You guys gonna deal with this
right? Oh my goodness.
Okay, what am I gonna do?
So first make a constitution saving throw for
being out in the smoke.
Yeah.
Oh, nat 20. Oh, thank God.
Remember my other ones were so bad. Oh, they were so
bad.
You're like holding your breath and
trying to just keep enough
energy to hold on and then you
get this second wind that pushes
you, like you tear yourself from the
hand that's holding you
and run quickly back
towards the
ritual circle where you
punch through and you see that since you
left, some pieces have moved
in terms of people in the place
are now
trying to interact
with the columns around
the circle. Yes.
So fun playing a character that doesn't,
well fun, challenging, that doesn't know how fucking
anything works.
I honestly feel like if Bonwyn saw
Bazaar touching
one of the columns, like
that's what she would go do that too
because do you know what the
fuck's going on?
Bazaar's the smart magic one.
Yeah.
Exactly. So you had entered
kind of coming from the back
of the building where your office is
so as you come back in
you see Bazaar by the column which would be
by the front door and then he's
between the two that the shadows
are on so there is one directly to your
right. Oh right
because there's four because cardinal
directions.
Unless there's only three cardinal
directions in this world Russ, what the fuck?
You're just telling us now?
East doesn't exist? What?
Oh my god. Yeah okay
thank you Russ, good clarification.
So I run in, quick scan
Bazaar's touching a column so I'm like
alright
and I touch the
one that no one is
touching. How is Bazaar
touching it? Like two hands
on, hugging it, what do you do?
Like I'm
grabbing that column. That's what I do too.
Hugging it like a tree. Like Bazaar
needs to go to HR after
Oh yeah I know, the way Russ just did it
he's keen at it like
The honking was the
really good one.
That's part of the spellcasting
there.
Abraka honka honka.
It's magic guys, trust me.
Yeah, yeah.
Practice it at the quivering hills
every day.
That's right, that's right. Okay
you, how do I die?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no you don't die.
Make a
also an intelligence
saving throw please. Oh I'm actually not bad
at that, okay. It's a wisdom
I'm real bad at.
Oh I rolled real bad though, so that's a
nine.
Dead, instantly dead.
Insta-dead.
Well then we all get the hell out of there
because what are we doing this for if Bonwyn's dead?
That's right. Great point.
You touch your hand to the column
and similarly to as I had described
to Kyle, but you
wouldn't have seen that,
your hand touches it and it does feel like cold
stone beneath you.
The static shock that you receive
is more intense.
However, you're going to take
one lightning damage
which draws
your hand back and as you
are kind of cradling it,
you turn and look and you see
Malin come back into
view for you and she's kneeling
at the forge, her hand
still on
the coals as I had previously
described. Her hand and
arm begin to blacken
as she touches the coals
longer and then she whispers
to whatever
entity she is
doing her own ritual
to and she says
let the line live.
Let them remember.
And that quickly fades from your view.
I think that's all I would do
because what else am I going to do, like shoot
an arrow at the other column,
you know what I mean? You want to do a
quick free action, scream to the
room, do we have a plan?
Also, Alydin's
there, you wouldn't have seen Alydin before.
That was my plan.
I was going to be like, Bazaar, what do I do?
Okay, well I'll just
do this then. Alydin?
What are you doing here?
Uh-uh.
What are any of us doing here,
Bonwyn? Right, yeah.
Alydin's real philosophical
right now. Really questioning
life choices. Yeah. Yeah,
so is Bonwyn. What the fuck did I do?
You're considering your
options like I do after a hard day at school.
What could I do with my skillset?
Exactly. Like,
say we just destroyed this whole place.
What's next for Bonwyn?
What am I going to do?
Is this worth dying for? Yeah.
Not even that. Is it worth my friends
being hurt for
this fire being lit?
We wouldn't do it if we didn't
love you. You know, a lot of thoughts.
Says Alydin who didn't know what
the hell was happening when she opened the door.
No, my response technically
was, ehh.
The rest was Amy.
Fuck if I know. We're all just
looking over at Bazaar doing whatever
we're doing. Help!
Bazaar's like, I know stuff.
Fuck.
Can I do...
This is a bonus action, but that's okay.
Insightful fighting.
You make an insight check against a creature
you can see that isn't incapacitated
against its
deception check. And
if I succeed I can use my sneak
attack even if I don't
have. It basically just lets me
like, suss out something about
my opponent.
Right.
So let's say my shadow
if I can see it. Did it follow me?
Your shadow's not back yet.
Did follow you out into the smoke. You see
Bazaar and Kavlar in shadow.
Okay.
Whatever one is closest
to me. I mean it doesn't matter
because whatever I learn I'm going to just
apply to anyone.
So you do insight
and you do
deception.
Together.
Oh guys I'm so bad at insight.
Should have considered that
before. Oh well.
Eight.
That was very close.
Shadow got a nine.
Damn it.
Wait, wait, wait.
Is it a saving throw? No it's not.
Just a check.
Forgot I had bane on them.
We go to
Bazaar's shadow who
doesn't leave
the column
and the
fingers begin to extend
like the shadowy fingers begin
to extend around the column
and everybody hears
like a physical crack
in the stone beneath its hands
and part of the sigils
that are being lit around it
begin to dim like
they're moving in an upward fashion
throughout this column.
Guys I think, I think
the everbanes might be the bad guys.
Everyone's family
if you go back far enough
there's some terrible shit.
Questionable actions
and choice. Mine's not that far back.
Oh.
That's the end of that shadow's turn.
Let in.
Magic daddy, what do I do?
Take care of the shadows.
Mine.
Kill me.
The other me.
At first I thought you meant like serving them tea
or something.
Am I gonna go down and like hug my
shadow? It's still trying to remove
itself from me, is that still happening?
Yes, that is still happening. So it's like Peter panning
just like pulling. Can I
hug it? I like that idea.
No.
Well I see it trying to like
get away from me. I would
as a child I would instinctively go down
and see if I could like press
it to the floor like
can I keep it in one place?
Can I touch it if it's part
of me still?
You can absolutely try if that's what you want to do.
Yeah I wanna, I wanna kinda
bend down and see if I can't
grab
my shadow self
around like the ankle. Get back here
you. Get back in me.
That's right you scamp. Yes.
I mean you're a scamp. I assume your shadow
is also kind of a scamp.
I'm imagining a whole Peter pan experience
right now. It's playful,
it's naughty, like come on you guys.
I need a needle and thread.
I'm gonna sew this bitch back on here.
You're trying to like push it to the ground.
Yeah I'm trying to like
first off see if I can like touch
it like. Sure. Not like
you know like if I can feel like it's not just
floor under my hands.
Yes you reach down to touch
your shadow and you feel that there's
form there. It's not like touching
it's not like
touching you or a person.
But there is form to it.
And as you touch it, please
make a
saving throw, wisdom saving
throw. Just any saving throw.
Any saving throw, whatever you like.
Am I, am I
trying to be charmed?
No.
Oh, okay. How about
a 14? As you touch it, you
begin
to hear
this discordant
melody in your mind. Not again!
No! Fucking music!
Elegant is never gonna listen
to music again. Right? And whispers
begin to like come into your mind.
They're not anything that
is, you can't make out what they're
saying but it's like
something is whipping past
you really fast in whatever
space you're in at this moment.
You are going to take
three
psychic damage.
Damn.
Um, okay.
Can't,
if I take psychic, can I still
take a bonus action?
You can still take your action. That hasn't taken
anything from you. Oh, okay. Well, it has.
Well, it's taken part of your
mind, yep.
Um,
as I
touch it and I experience this,
I instinctively draw my
hand back and
I think I would like stomp.
I think I would stomp.
Try to stomp my shadow.
You know when you play Shadow Tag?
Yeah.
Little shadow stomp. So like an unarmed strike just
kind of boot it back in the ground.
Yeah. Sure. Yeah.
Yeah.
How about a 17?
17 will hit.
Where are they going? Nowhere.
I've got zero damage on it so I don't
know what that means. Because you have a minus one strength.
Oh, fuck off. Okay, well that was just
out of anger. Yeah.
So like, yeah, you knock it back
which actually... Like,
get in there! Which actually
tears the one foot
free. Oh, fuck off!
I didn't roll like a bad roll.
You didn't. No, you helped it. This was really rude.
Yeah. Okay.
I want to
like, so the people like, can I
see all my people right now?
Yeah, since Bonwyn came back in, everybody is
now in the circle.
What kind of, like, in what state
am I seeing my friends? Are we talking
like, looking
pretty beat up? Are we looking...
Bonwyn's taking some damage. I'm not
beat up. Bizarre, I think
you took some damage.
Oh, no, not yet. Did Cav take
some damage? What do you mean yet?
Wait, what?
It's a power of positive thinking.
I did take a little bit of damage and I lost
the strength. Oh, right.
Oh, right, yeah, you got struck by the shadow
so I won't tell you why that happens, but
because you don't
know. You wouldn't know. But yeah,
Kavlaran
is looking weaker. Bonwyn has
a few scratches, not scratches, but cuts
on her because she took
some substantial damage.
And I got myself.
Her blood's just everywhere.
I look over, yeah, I guess if
you were using your own blood, you would be
kind of like
red-hand soaked in your own blood.
So I look
over at
everyone and my eyes stop on
Bonwyn and I
look like
scared, like as a child
sees an adult in an emergency situation,
terrifying.
And so
instinctively without
knowing this is what I'm doing, but as
a bonus action, I
cast Healing Word on her.
And I think I'd probably yell
something like, Bonwyn, what happened?
And Bonwyn can
have
1d4
plus
Spellcasting Modifier.
Just three.
Seven healing damage for you.
Max damage.
Max heals.
Take Baxi's damage.
You have fully
healed me, my sweet
angel. What does that look like?
What does that look like?
I think
it looks magic, guys.
I think it's like I'm seeing her
skin kind of
peel up
in real time and I'm like
what is happening?
And so is Bonwyn.
Bazaar is looking over like
I still got a
fucked up eye?
Yes.
That still exists.
We haven't solved that while I wasn't here, did we?
Because that would be cool.
I guess I'll be a part of it.
Happy sad.
You're doing it, Peter.
Okay.
At the top of the
round, everybody
please make an intelligence
savings
no, not an intelligence saving
throw.
Bazaar, you're going to make an arcana
or religion check.
Arcana, please.
Alydin, you are going to make an insight or persuasion check.
It's going to be a
persuasion. Bonwyn, you are going to make
a sleight of hand or performance check.
Sleight of hand?
Definitely.
Kavlaran, a history or investigation check.
Let's do history.
Alright.
Nat 20.
Is that a nat 22?
Oh my god.
This is some father
daughter shit.
We're magic, guys.
We got two more nat 20s?
23, but yeah.
50 was pretty good.
That's pretty good.
It was really shitty.
I've been rolling over a
over a 10.
I think this is important for Tom. He does not experience
low rolls very often.
He thinks a 15's low.
Just in this context.
I dream for 15s, Tom.
So I guess this
is a middle recording then.
Welcome to the middle.
Welcome to the middle that we're doing.
Surprise middle.
You didn't know you were here.
Jess, what do we have going on that we can tell people about?
Jess says so many things.
That you're totally prepared for this question.
How about the amazing
Instagram posts that Jess
is very worried
that
No, I know.
We know.
Exactly.
So Jess earlier today
doesn't believe that anybody's reading
the actual
newspaper image that she's
put together, which is fantastic.
There are little
snippets, things happening
around Vintersmouth.
Go check out our Instagram.
What's our handle? DumbDragonCast?
Yeah.
That's what it is.
And check out all the things that are happening in Vintersmouth
with every new episode dropped.
Two little tidbits of crazy things happening.
Some wild and wacky stuff.
Yeah, we're saying now
is canon, right?
By talking about it here.
Absolutely.
Everything in that newspaper written by
Doddy McBottlebow.
Oh, it's French.
Very French.
Jess, you should be
proud.
And people should be
bowing down to you because of how awesome
it is. Yeah.
Well, I don't know about that one, Jess.
Jess is saying all of these things.
You might get cancelled for that, but
that's fine. They can't hear you.
Don't worry about it.
It's coming straight from
the underground.
Don't post that one in the
WhatsApp, okay, Jess?
But otherwise,
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Boldmouse
the winged pollinator.
Wow.
Weird that the thing
Jess was saying that was so cancelable
was about them.
Wow.
Jess, how did you
The foresight.
Amazing.
Well, thank you. We need more pollinators
out there.
We need more pollinators.
The more winged the better. Exactly.
Wait, are there
like non-winged pollinators?
I don't know. I said it and then I thought
are there non-winged pollinators?
Any time an animal brushes up against a flower
it's technically
pollinating. Technically they could be pollinating, right?
Am I pollinating right now?
Probably not right now.
When you walk through a field of wild
flowers you are though.
I pollinated earlier I guess than when I walked
the dogs.
I purposely pollinated with a paintbrush.
Hell yeah. See?
Purposely pollinated with a paintbrush.
There's so much
pollinating happening
and we're going to get you back to this episode.
Okay, get back to us. I love you. Bye.
Bye.
Okay, so a couple things
happen
as you make those checks.
From the forge itself
cracks begin to form
coming down the hearth and
into the floor and coming up
from those appears
to be a blood like liquid.
Oh good.
Coming up from the floor.
At the same time the
circle itself begins to
glow brighter.
The pillars that Bonwyn is
nearer and bizarre is on.
The light begins to wash away
some of the smoke behind it.
The ones that the two shadows
are on begin to illuminate
where those cracks were forming again.
It's still weaker
but something you did
or your presence being there
is giving more power
to this ritual circle.
At that moment
Bonwyn, your shadow reappears
in front of you and is going
to punch you right in the face.
You did take dodge.
So I have to roll with disadvantage.
Oh that's a nat one.
I don't think I can do worse.
Yep.
So your shadow
reappears in front of you and makes this quick
swipe. You
nimbly dodge out of the way kind of like
matrix style. Everything slows down.
And the hand
extends like the shadow arm
begins to extend as if it was trying
to wrap itself around you
but makes connection with the
pillar behind you and that same
what you could presume is that same
electric shock comes out
and blasts it back 10 feet
into the center of the circle.
It's going to take a small amount of
damage.
Yeah.
You see the shadow
slide back towards
you. So you're like you see it's back
out
in your shadow. It's turn.
It's going to
attempt to pull
free from your leg
which it does. So it pulls the second
leg free and is now standing
up before you.
It is also going to reach out to try
and attack you.
That's probably unsuccessful. That's a six.
Okay.
It's get up. It's off
kilter and you're like just grasping
at air in front of you.
It's the first time it's ever walked by itself. So it's
a little unsteady. Exactly.
Don't worry you'll get me next time Shadow.
I believe in you.
Kavlaran.
Your turn. Okay.
So there's still the two that are on the
other pillars or pillar.
Yes. Bazaards and
yours are on the pillars.
Bonwyn and Alydins are more center
in the ritual circle.
I'm going to take my
Warhammer and swing it like
parallel to the
column to try to like
take out one if not
two of these shadows if they're like
they would be on
opposite sides. So yeah.
I thought maybe there was two on one pillar.
Get a little double here.
Okay. I'm going to yeah I'm going to swing
like down to try to like
A detach it from the pillar
and B like
pound it into the ground.
Sounds good. Yeah. And I think
if I remember correctly I didn't write it down
but I think you were attacking Bazaard's shadow.
Perfect. Let's continue that.
It's 18 on the die
so that's a 19 to hit.
That will definitely hit.
Alright. And I'm going to turn it into like
the two handed version of my
Warhammer just to put like a little extra
Yeah. Fuck it up. Fuck it up Kav.
Have you guys hurt any of the shadows
yet? Yeah. Like
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe done some damage.
And that is eight bludgeoning damage.
Eight bludgeoning
damage. Okay.
Do you want to make a strength
check
just to see if the
power will contest strength
here just to see if it can hold on. I would love
to. That is 13.
Okay. So your hammer comes
down like on top of this shadow which
causes it to break free
from the column and now that
no longer touching it you see that there's like
a almost a
complete fracture through this one column.
It is glowing still
but you smash it into the
ground and like the shadow disperses
beneath you and is like
whisping around on the ground right
now. Okay.
Can I then as like
the rest of my turn
touch the column
to try to like not
have it crack any further. I don't
know like what I could do to help with that but
just like. Sure.
I'll give it one of the ease.
That's it.
Look I saw
everyone else do it.
One in my turn.
As you touch it make an intelligence
saving throw please. Okay.
Let's see
here. My intelligence
never great but it was 17
on the die so 15.
Okay.
Terrible.
I mean
good check. Terrible that you have a
minus two.
Oh yeah. No it's not great
when you were like oh everyone
I was like oh fuck me but then you
change it.
But then he went right back to intelligence.
I went right back to it.
Roll me a
D10 please. I mean look the
role of the story here is hit the books a little bit.
Just keep yourself sharp.
Stay in school kids.
Eight out of the D10.
So you see before you and not
you're facing the
stone and
an image
comes into view for you
and you see an
elderly dwarven woman seated
at her own forge.
You see her smiling
through tears.
Her hand is placed into the
forge so that's unsettling in and
of itself but then you hear
her whisper tell her
she's the last one.
And the memory fades.
Kavlaran's shadows
turn. It is going to make another
attack on the
column that it is on.
And at that moment you hear
as the memory begins to fade
you hear another crack of stone
come from behind you.
You turn and look and you see that your
shadow like it's
grown in size
and it is
like the energy that is poured
into this column is siphoning as
this crack echoes through the
space. It's going to give
that some
more damage.
And we will go
back to Bazaar.
Cool. I'm going to look back at the
orange glowing embers that are in the
forge. Begin a small
incantation and with my free hand
kind of whisk them up into
like this small little like
four beads of fire essence.
I'm going to fire two of those beads at
Kavlaran's shadow and
then wait no Kavlaran's shadow isn't there.
Kavlaran's shadow is on
your shadow pounded
into the ground so it's
there but not there right now.
So Kav's shadow, Alydin's shadow,
Bonwyn's shadow are all visible to you.
Alydin's shadow,
Bonwyn's shadow too. Okay.
Let me think about this. But
Kav's shadow is the only one
touching a pillar. Correct.
Cool. Then
all four of those are going to go at Kav's
shadow. Okay. Well I'll start off
by shooting one at a time just in case.
See what happens. Yeah exactly.
So these
kind of like swirl around in my hand and one
fires off in this like scorching ray
and that would be an 18 to hit.
That will hit.
And that will be 9 fire damage
to the shadow. Oh did we mention
it's a fire shadow? I mean it probably
is but still. Probably
but this is what I've got.
Amazing.
You two
hear this crack and then let off
this fire
this ray towards this shadow
which causes it to wither
beneath
the strike and let out that same
pressurized scream that you heard
when the ritual started.
Alright cool let's do that again then. Okay.
That's a 12
to hit. 12
does hit. Yep.
Alright that's another 9 fire damage.
Same thing so
two repeated like this
this figure is
trying to grasp on
continues to hold on but
you do appear to be doing
some damage to it.
That's a nat 20 on the third one.
Oh shit. Kill that shadow.
Alright.
Rolled lots of damage.
Yeah yeah let me roll my 2d6. Of course
the 2d6 it rolled for me on beyond is like
a 3 and a 1.
But you add that to a 7
on the repeated die roll and that comes out
to 11 damage. 11 perfect.
Okay. And if it's
still standing we'll go ahead and throw the last one at it.
Yeah it releases from the
from the column and like turns to look
at you with
Kavlaran's face and these coal
eyes and it's like looking
like it's like moving towards you now.
Oh yeah definitely the last one
at it then. Okay that's
an 11 to hit.
11 will not hit.
Alright we found our line.
Kind of like
oh shit fire and it goes off stray.
Yeah kind of disappears into the smoke
behind outside the
circle there.
You're still one hand
on the column or did you
move away? No no I'm still still one
hand on the column
regaining my sword and
keeping that song going so.
Sounds good. Yeah. Okay.
Bonwyn your turn.
Do I still have a hand on her? I pulled
it away right? You pulled it away when
it like shocked you. Let's see what I
can do. What's the closest one
or Cavs is the only one we can still
know. No mine's back. Yeah so yours
got like made contact
with that and was pushed
back 10 feet so would be
spatially the closest one to you
is your shadow.
And it's like standing there in the middle like
Keanu like you know like
Fishburne come at me.
Okay.
Well I just need to try
and hit it with something so that I can
also sneak attack on it so I guess
I'm gonna like
throw a dagger
at it.
Okay. Yeah.
And Alydin is like adjacent
to it which is
usually a contention of
you know sneak attack cause that's one of your
friends has to be within
melee range of it.
Oh my
god all my dice are in jail guys.
That was a nine.
And that's a plus six.
So I do nothing.
No I will
I tried nothing happened obviously
I just
threw a dagger in the middle of the room.
So I'm gonna
try and put my hands
back on the column since
that's what everybody's doing and I want to be
part of everyone. Sounds good.
Well together we are Captain Planet
so. Exactly. Since it's gonna come out of
us right. What do I what's safe?
That was intelligence safe.
Oh that was a good roll.
Good roll. Good roll.
22. Oh yeah.
22. Perfect.
Can I do one of these? Absolutely.
Can do. You've earned the rest.
You put your hands back
on and you feel
the energy begin to
course through your arm and up into
your body. It doesn't give you the same
you can feel the tingle of it.
But you can't
it doesn't shock you back. And as
you do that
the view of everything happening around
you kind of
washes away into this new memory
where you see
who
you can't place them but they
are one of the
ancestors that are around
and they are locked in combat
with what appears to be themselves
in shadow form.
Around them they have
other people who are
who are doing very similar things
to the group around you.
Your group around you.
But you see
in a quick moment
you see this
ancestor of yours
like
grapple their own shadow
and like the shadow begins
to become
a part of them.
And then the memory fades.
So I should have been
hugging my shadow.
I don't know. I still don't know
if that's good or bad. Like maybe that's why
she got evil, right? Like
You didn't see what happened. You just see like
We're doing shadow work, y'all.
I was just gonna say our shadow selves.
Shadow Bazaard
who was smashed into the
ground.
Cav you would be closest
to this as it kind of starts to
reform beneath you.
Like it's just at this point
not its full form
but like top torso
and one arm begin to
reform as this face starts to
come up from the ground.
It's going to try and take a swing at you
again. Probably not
successfully. That's a ten to hit.
That is not going to hit.
So it's like swinging at your
ankles as it's trying to reform
beneath you. Alydin, we're back
to you. What do I do, Magic Day?
Bazaard, should I
touch one?
Like I'm pointing at a pillar.
Touch the damaged one that Cav was touching. See if
it'll fix it.
How far away is it? Can I run over there?
Yeah, you're
in the Forge.
In the Everbane's, right?
We said the circle off the beginning was like 30
feet across. So yeah, absolutely.
I want to run to the one that
Bazaard directed me to
and I want to
touch it. But not weirdly
like the adults are doing, like just like you'd
regularly touch a pillar.
Sure.
It's why we didn't want you part
of this ritual.
Too young for this.
Okay, intelligence saving
throw as you touch it. Smart kid.
I am a smart kid. Smart kid.
Oh shit, good thing I'm a smart
kid. 14?
I had a plus five. So as you
touch it, you begin to feel, you feel
the hairs stand up along
your arms as the energy is
building up. The pillar that you
are touching, there are cracks
in it. The
glow of the sigils begins
to glow beneath your hands.
And please roll
a d10.
Well, I never have to, I
never have to roll on a table, you guys.
I don't like it.
How about a seven? Lucky number
seven. Unless it's healing,
healing points to the pillar.
Yeah, that could possibly happen
maybe, probably not. As you touch
the electricity begins to course
through your body, hairs stand on end
and from beyond in the smoke
you hear a child cry for help.
But it sounds
like your voice.
Make a charisma
saving throw, please.
Oh no, is it going to be like a
I'm the real
Alydin. No, I'm the real Alydin.
Good.
How about a 17?
You, you hear you calling
for help, but as, as you succeed
on that. I yell not me, not me,
not me. It begins to fade
and like the smoke and like wind
billowing from outside
silences it.
Is my shadow
is it just standing there like all
stupid and stuff because I ran away from it
or is it following me?
We'll find out on its turn, but
yeah, it would be
where I left it essentially.
Alright, I'm seeing everyone else kicking the crap out of their shadow
so I'm like
shadow bad. So
keeping, I want
to do like a
it's going to be weird, but I'm 14
everything's weird. So like I'm
sliding, I'm taking my hands off
the pillar, but at the same time I'm like attaching
my arm, like my body's never going to leave
the pillar. Okay. My back
is touching the pillar and I get out my
slingshot. Okay. And I want to like
pow.
Like this, all of this is very overwhelming
and my friends seem hurt and I don't know
what's going on. I'm mad. And
I'm hearing my voice and I think I'm having
flashbacks from
terrible banjo man situation
because I'm 100% traumatized.
I wonder how that's going to come up later.
So I'm going to
dig out the biggest
rock in my bucket, which probably isn't huge
because let's face it, I'm not carrying
my rocks. Giant rocks, it's heavy.
And I slingshot
it at
my shadow.
But as I do, there's a
faint glow to the rock
and to the slingshot
as it
creates
turns into a magical
weapon, which gives me a plus one bonus
to attack. Sick.
And plus one damage rolls.
Hell yeah. How about a 12?
We know 12 hits.
We know 12 hits?
We do know 12 hits. We hit the other one.
That's right.
He changes the rules for me
sometimes though.
And so that's going to be
da da da da
1d4 plus
1d5
damage. And then
my
rock that I had slung
once it hits.
Are these like
are these corporeal
corporeal or like
is my rock going through
it? I tried to grab mine
outside and my hand went through.
Now that your rock is magical.
It's complicated.
Shadow creatures are complex.
So there is form
to them.
But they do have
player knowledge. They do have an ability
to like mist.
Right. Yeah.
So from what you could tell right now
there is something to aim at.
So I guess
I could tell you what happens to your
piece before you tell me what
happens to your rock.
So the glowing
rock shoots across
strikes into the shadow.
You see the shadow
where it hits.
Disperse and it lets out this hideous
scream that you heard from Cav's scream again.
Eyes locked on you.
The coals begin to
glow
as you see the rock like fall through
it and like skitter to the floor.
Unless something
changes. It doesn't skitter
to the floor.
It returns
to me.
Oh no I've lost that.
There's so much going on with an
artificer you guys.
I'm just like
I remember you taking that thing
whatever that was when we did your character
sheet at the repeating shot
Jess says. Thank you Jess.
But it comes back to me and
I think that's it.
If it comes back to me
will it go through it again?
And will it hit it from behind and can it see it?
Does it come back?
So your bag of rocks
continually has
a sustained source.
The one doesn't come back it just like you never run out.
Don't think you took
the Thor one that was
like a slingshot effect.
Correct.
So yeah that's it.
I guess a rock reforms in my bucket but I probably
don't notice. There's a lot going on.
Yeah you probably wouldn't be
necessarily. I'll probably notice later.
I'm going to recognize this rock.
I have not put any new rocks in my
bucket lately. It's been days.
Okay
make a perception check.
Just to see if you
How about a two?
Then you don't notice. Alright.
Well figures there's a lot going on.
Back to the top of the
ground.
So the cracks
on the floor and the blood coming up from the floor
continue and for you
Bonwyn
you see
that entity again that you
saw near the beginning of the ritual.
The anvil looking woman.
She's weeping flame
and she is
like a part
of this Malon memory
that you are seeing.
And she echoes like her voice
booms out with
grief in her.
And she says I did not want
her soul but grief
burns cleanest.
And then we go to
Shadow Bonwyn who's
going to
come to you Bonwyn
and again try to attack you.
That is
a
16. Yep that'll do it.
Okay. Wait it attacked?
Yes. Okay I'm going to use
my bane on it to reduce it by a
d4. Okay. So it goes down
to 14. 14.
Is that better?
Better for me. Yeah perfect.
Then that is great. Yeah that
doesn't hit. It
like glides through the space
before you and is
swiping at you with what looks like
a form of
the dagger that you just sacrificed
for this.
It does miss so you don't
take any damage. But we will
go to Shadow Alydin
who was going to attack Alydin.
Alydin's shadow
let out this scream as it was
hit by the stone that Alydin
shot at it. And it's going to rush
towards Alydin, swiping
with its hands. Alydin's
nimbly dodging as she
tries to maintain contact
on this
on this column.
Like one finger touching. Yeah.
That's right. Like trying to dodge.
Like a car from a radio station. Exactly.
Kvlarin, your turn.
Okay. So you've got Bazaar's shadow
trying to reform at your feet.
You've got your shadow who is
being depleted by Bazaar.
Substantially depleted by Bazaar.
Okay.
Does Kav feel anything as his
you haven't said so I guess not. But
as his shadow is like
getting pummeled.
Like is Kav feeling that
somehow? That's a good question.
No. Great.
Shouldn't have even asked.
Don't want to put
don't want to give him suggestions.
Kav is suddenly
deep into the ground. He's on fire.
How many layers are happening here?
No. He doesn't
feel anything. Okay.
I want to cast light
on like the head of my Warhammer.
And then I want
to hold it in like the shadow's
face.
Okay.
The one that's like trying to crawl back out of the floor.
Yes. And now
light. Does it act as like
sunlight or is it just say it's bright?
Object sheds a bright
light in a 20 foot radius and a dim light
for an additional 20 feet. The light can be
colored as you like. Completely covering
the object with something opaque. Blocks the
light. So no it doesn't say.
Okay. Got it.
I will. You do what you want to do and then I'll
tell you. All right. Yeah.
I'm going to cast light on my
Warhammer. It's going to
shine in like a bright kind of
yellowish
light. And yeah I'm going to
hold it into the thing's face while I'm like
maintaining contact with the pillar.
And so I missed it.
Which shadow? The one that's like
crawling back out of the floor. I think it's Bazaar's shadow.
Got it. So
as you put this light into its face like
it lets out that shrill shriek again
and like disappears
into
the ground beneath it.
And I like look around like
yeah?
Looks like it worked.
And you're maintaining contact
on that form.
Great.
Love it.
Is Kavlaran's shadow's turn
who like this shadow
coming towards you Bazaar is like
falling apart. Your hits
on it have done some serious
damage to it. It is going to try and make
one jump towards you.
It's just a jump to the left.
That's
going to be a 20
not natural to hit.
Well damn I only rolled a one
on my on my bane so it's a
19 which still hits. Okay great.
So as it leaps towards
you it like
disappears
into some of the smoke and then you
feel its hand on your
shoulder behind you. You know what?
I'm going to reaction and cast
shield. Okay cool.
So give me a plus five to my AC for the
until the end of my turn or until the
beginning of my next turn I think. Okay
so yeah that I assume helps
helps that miss?
Yeah. Okay great.
It disappears before you but you
put up
put up the shield which glows
and emanates through the space
immediately around you
and you like feel
the hand
on you like these long fingers
come down over your shoulder but it like
slinks off
as it's trying to
grasp hold of you.
It's that awkward coworker who comes up behind
you and starts to give you a little shoulder
massage that you didn't ask for.
God. Your
turn now Bazaar.
Okay so that shield
fades. It's standing
right here next to me.
So
I am going to
I'm going to cast frost
bite. It needs to give me a constitution
save DC 14
and whatever you roll
minus three from it for the bane.
Okay so it rolled a
seven minus
three so that's a four.
Perfect. It's going to take
2d6.
So it takes seven cold damage
and
it has disadvantage on its next
weapon attack.
Okay.
One better. So you cast
frost bite on it.
Which you see
the the form
of Kavlaran's shadow begin
to solidify
as this frost begins to move through
it. The pressure I scream it lets
out until finally it shatters
and is taken away
by the wind and smoke that are
churning around. Only to get
reformed by the wind and smoke later.
Zero trust.
So that's my action. Don't have anything
with bonus action that I can do right now.
So I'm just going to say
Bonwyn I think you need to
make a choice. Do we want
to save this place
or do we want to let it fall?
I think we let it fall.
We have to stop this.
And then
then what do I do?
I've made a decision. I've shared it with the
group. You just sit down criss cross
applesauce and just wait for the building to collapse
on me. Yep. Well remembering
that I saw the
ancestor hug it out with the shadow.
Don't know how that played out
but I'll at least try.
It's a thing I can
do. So I like it.
Okay. And it's going to confuse
all of us because we didn't see what you thought.
And we just saw that bizarre
like decimated one
and that seemed good. As you step
forward and move to embrace
your own shadow
please make a wisdom or
charisma wisdom
or charisma saving throw please.
With
advantage
because two or more anchors
are stable.
So that
is a 15 or
yeah it's a 15.
Come here buddy.
I'm trying to charm it.
Come on.
Don't stay mad.
Get in.
Get in here.
Stop throwing shade.
You grasp the shadow
which is like wildly flailing
at you with this dagger but you get
inside of that and
embrace it and you feel
the shadow begin to merge
with you. Everybody around you sees
this as well. If you
have the capacity
to actually see it.
Some of us are a little busy.
You feel it move through you
and there's this warmth that comes from
it and as you
are like now hugging
yourself essentially
the shadow begins to extend.
Your own shadow begins to extend
in the light as normal.
You feel yourself
begin to glow and
the room
around you begins to
disappear
again into a new memory.
And you see
Malin at the
forge one more time.
And she's smiling faintly.
And she turns
and she looks at you.
Which she hasn't done yet.
Everything
is quiet except for the crackle
of the fire.
And she holds a small
ember.
And she looks up
now not at you but
through you. And she says
tell her the fire
was always hers.
As she herself begins to
fall apart into ash
on the ground.
That memory begins to fade and everything
else comes back and the wind begins
to pick
up and it gets echoing and you
hear this pressurized scream that echoes
out through the entire space.
You hear rumbling
in the walls beyond
the smoke that you can't see
through.
The hearth begins to
burn now with this golden
violet flame.
And the forge begins to
glow and emanate into the
space which causes all of the shadows
to let out
the same scream as they are
blasted into the smoke and
churned up. They are
now away. Everybody's on their
own pillar around
you as the sigils in the ground
begin to form.
You
see one last time this
entity, this weeping
woman
and you hear
maybe it's her voice,
maybe it's something else, but a voice
murmur in your head
and she says
she bled, you bled.
The fire
remembers both.
And there's this explosion
that comes, this more
sound than damaging
force that comes from the fire.
And the smoke begins to
fill in the ritual circle
and cover around everybody
else. And that lasts
for a moment
perceived too long
until
there's a silence and everything
disperses.
The cracks on the floor
are no longer there, the blood that was
there, except for a few spots
that you placed yourself around
has disappeared.
And the fire still glows
this golden violet flame
that you can feel
on you as you move towards
it.
Everybody else
you look around
and in this moment of quiet
the forge
looks as though it did
at the beginning of the ritual.
You quickly look down and your
shadows are where they should be.
Everything appears
calm.
Step on my shadow.
Okay.
Poke it with a stick.
I shuffle my feet, see if it moves with me.
Dumbgeons and Dragons, season
four, episode 32
starring Amy More as
Alydin, Carla Maxted as
Bonwyn Everbane, Tom Laird as
Kavlaran Goldweave, Kyle
Claset as Bizard the Wizard,
and Russ More as your Dungeon Master.
Dialogue editing and sound design of
today's episode is by Russ More.
Our community manager is Jessica Babiak.
Music is from Epidemic Sound
and sound effects are from
Epidemic Sound and Boom Library.
Our amazing cover art is by Matt
Garbutt, and a huge thank you to our
amazing producers, Gabriel Lynch,
Jessica Babiak, Angaron Kiersen,
Kat Waterflame, Perry Mady,
Jacob Madden, Old School
Gamer D, Craig Zeiss,
L.A. Branton, and Chibs
1012. We'd love if you joined
us today at Patreon.com
slash Dumb Dragon Cast for the amazing
community, all the bonus content
and so much more. Patreon.com
slash Dumb Dragon Cast will see
you over there. But until then, have
a great week and we'll talk to you soon.
You got brought in
and then rolled into initiative triumphantly
with a nat one. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. As I
do. Well, it's very scary. There's lots
of things happening. Why would I want to just be
like, I know what to do. I take it
back. I take it back. Let me out.
I just came back to ask everybody's
coffee order for
10 buns though.
When they opened, I was just going to see.
And you see some
of these ghostly figures
that are around the room. Oh, no.
I said you couldn't see those, didn't I? Yeah.
Maybe you can.
Yeah. Yeah.
I just want to
make sure I phrase it correctly.
You see these things that been here the whole time.
No, you don't. They've been here
the whole. It's Sam Rice just everywhere
flying around.
Carla desperately trying to pass her action
for us not letting her.
That's what it looks like from the outside.
Right.
Russ is doing a lot of typing.
I never was.
I know. It doesn't bode well for me.
I just wasn't doing the autofill. I spell
something wrong. It's like, I can't
find the thing. I can do it too.
Me too, but it's just me touching
my dice.
Oh, yeah. I like it.
I'm trying
to read it off his screen. He's got the print
so small. Yeah, I know. I got to keep it small so you
can't see it. Once you
You don't have to keep it that small.
Once you get your new glasses,
I'm going to have to get a new strategy.
Maybe I'll get my new
glasses today.