- A list of the topics, themes,
and subject matter
featured in this episode
has been included in
the video description.
(intense music)
Hello one and all.
Welcome back to another
thrilling episode of
Dimension 20: Neverafter.
I'm your humble dungeon
master Brennan Lee Mulligan
with me as always are our intrepid heroes!
Say hi, intrepid heroes.
- [Everyone] Hi, intrepid heroes.
- [Brennan] Aw shucks.
- We're shy.
- Everyone's a little shy.
- Shy.
- A little scared.
(players laughing)
- It's a little scary.
And indeed, we have much
reason to be scared.
For, last we left off,
our intrepid heroes were
stopped by the roadside
in the Blackwood Forest
with the Chandling Caravan
on their way to Shoeberg in
the lands of the Neverafter.
We met Rosamund du Prix,
aka Sleeping Beauty,
having escaped from
the thorn-choked towers
of the kingdom of Reverie.
(Siobhan gagging)
We met Mother Timothy Goose
of the village of Pottingham,
We met Mother Timothy Goose
of the village of Pottingham,
a witch, a bard, a storyteller,
and someone who's made a
terrible bargain with a-
- Maybe it was a good...
Maybe it was a good deal.
- Maybe it was a good deal.
- It could all pan out.
- We met the living puppet
and marionette, Pinocchio.
- That's me.
- With a nose
ripped off his face,
and with a strange relationship
with a woman who seems to be able
to speak from beyond space and time,
conjuring doors that
she needs to communicate
to the fabled wooden boy.
We also met Puss in Boots,
former benefactor of
the Marquis de Carabas,
making his way through the world once more
after the downfall of
the Kingdom of Marienne
and the coming of terrible
giants in the storm.
We met the Prince Gerard of Greenleigh,
currently unaware of the location
of his lady wife, the Princess Elody.
- But everything's fine.
- Everything's fine.
And slowly transforming back into a frog,
which sort of feels like
it shouldn't be happening.
(Ally laughing)
And we also met, Ylfa Snorgelsson.
Did we actually get the name
in the episode last time?
- [Lou] I think we did.
- [Murph] I think you did. I thought you-
- Big episode two reveal.
- [Brennan] Big episode two reveal.
- My name is Ylfa Snorgelsson.
- She blew them down, right?
- Yeah.
(Emily laughing)
- AKA Little Red Riding Hood,
with a strength more than
would at first appear
to be quite normal for a young girl
in the village of Pottingham.
And we saw some of what maybe transpired
back amongst her family
and the wind that blew them all away.
However, these visions
and echoes of the past
are not where we find ourselves now.
No, indeed, we find ourselves
here on the way to Shoeberg
for various and sundry reasons.
But now gathering around
a campfire for supper
on the long travel to one
of the few cities left
during these times of shadow.
Last we left off, Pinocchio,
you were just emerging from your carriage.
The rest of you were
engaging in some chores
here and there to help, as
the matron of the caravan,
The Red Hen, had said that
nobody that didn't help
would be able to have any dinner.
Lord Bandlebridge, who, of course,
was horrible with a very
violent coterie of people
is hiding in his shoe carriage.
But the Hen and Boffit, the trollson
kind of right-hand
enforcer of the caravan,
as well as one of your fellow travelers,
King Cole of the Kingdom of Jubilee,
who does not wear a crown
on his head any longer.
Probably for the painful
irony of wearing a crown
when you have no subjects or kingdom.
We return as dinner becomes
ready around the campfire,
We return as dinner becomes
ready around the campfire,
and we see the warm light and glow
as the trees are framed in
warmth and orange light.
as the trees are framed in
warmth and orange light.
Campfire lit.
And you see Boffit looks
to you, Mother Goose,
and takes the silvery birch log
on some of the sort of
more normal firewood
that's been placed there, puts it there,
and a little twirl of
sparks (imitating sparks)
rises up from the campfire.
The Hen says all right, anyone who uh...
lended a hand or a wing or
a talon, as the case may be,
you can go ahead and serve yourself.
- Oh, I, believe that's me.
- And you definitely, you, you-
- I was over here, yes, helping.
Helping in all the ways
that one would help.
- I saw him helping.
- All right.
- This stuff is moving-
- I brought
this handful of berries.
- Hey, all right sister,
throw it on in the pot.
As long as you...
Everyone doin' their part,
that's all we can ask for.
Okay?
- I stirred the pot
with the hilt of this
sword I haven't let go of.
(players laughing)
- You haven't let go of the blade.
- Yeah, so that's why the
hilt is stirring the pot.
- Sure, do you want a
hand gettin' that out?
Is that caught in there?
- Yeah, do you want help?
Can I cast a really quick Healing Word?
- Yeah, go for it. You
can cast Healing Word.
- Okay, three plus...
So that's a good nine.
That's huge.
- Pretty good.
- Thank you, Mother.
- You see that Cole looks over and says,
You're gifted to the touch of magic.
- Yes, when it comes to helping the kids,
I feel like it's really a two-way street.
They're magical, I'm magical,
and where we meet and help
each other is magical.
- Oh, that's beautiful.
- Thank you.
- I'm a writer as well. (laughing)
- Wow.
- What sort of things do you write?
- Stories of all kinds.
I really, I'm, I was
kinda famous in my village
for writing stories
that the children liked,
but right now I'm working
on some stories...
that are really personal.
- Oh, that...
You kinda lobbed that back
to me in a way of sort of,
it sort of made it seem like
I should comment on that.
- No, no.
- But I don't
have an observation.
- No, no.
And what about you?
What do you do?
What are you traveling for?
Why are you going to the boil?
- The boil,
Shoeberg.
Since Jubilee fell,
and my,
my fiddlers were k*lled
defending the castle,
I've just been...
seeking...
I don't know what.
Shoeberg was always a
place that I resented
for seeming to thrive
when so many other places
were falling away.
But you see Cole takes a pipe out of
a sort of saddle bag on the ram,
and clumsily sort of packs it,
which is something that he doesn't appear
to have too much practice with.
But he sits down and just says,
I suppose I'm traveling there because
in the wreckage of my old kingdom,
there doesn't appear to be much hope.
I sort of thought,
I dunno as I can say,
that I would travel
there and meet someone,
anyone with answers,
anyone who could point me in the direction
of how things used to be.
- We're looking for answers, too.
- Yeah.
Can I roll an Insight
check on this person?
- [Brennan] Yeah.
- Okay, okay.
That's a 17.
- On a 17 Insight,
you feel like a strange familiarity
you feel like a strange familiarity
with this man that you
have not met before.
- Okay.
- Something feels like,
especially when he was
talking about his fiddlers,
you almost heard something
when he said that.
But it's hard to, it's...
Fire's crackling in front of you,
people are sort of serving
themselves and eating
part of the soup that's
been set out before them.
- Can I try to get a little bit closer,
kind of our group kind
of peel off a little bit
of can you tell me more about
or-
- Yeah.
You can go sit next to him.
Because the whole Bandlebridge
contingent has not come out
it's a smaller group here.
There's a sort of young
sort of teenage girl
who's traveling with the caravan,
who's in one of the
other Chandling wagons.
Boffit is here, the
little Red Hen is here.
She's speaking to the young girl.
Another figure is speaking to the rabbit
pulling the teapot.
And you see that the
gentleman who's riding in that
is a tall slender man
wearing a sky blue cloak
with an eye patch.
And you see he's speaking
to the rabbit at the front
of his wagon that has not joined yet.
But you sit closer to Cole,
and he just looks over,
and he looks at you studying him and says,
Is it strange to say, friend,
that I feel as though I've
met you somewhere before.
- I'm wondering if it's our
grief that's really similar.
I lost someone also.
So I think we're both kind of maybe,
mourning a little bit
and looking for answers.
What happened with your,
your fiddlers that you mentioned briefly?
- They were the greatest in all the land.
Nowhere in any of the
realms of the Neverafter
could you have found three
musicians more skilled.
It's such a strange thing
to be born into royalty
and to be a king.
So much w*r and bloodshed, and
yet Jubilee was small enough
and seemingly tucked away
from the matters of the larger world.
It felt as though we had
gotten away with something.
A small and merry kingdom.
We spent our time in festivals, harvests,
the people were fed and happy,
and my days were filled with...
ordering plays and orchestras
and letting leave of the castle
to any musicians or bards
that wished to use it.
And I certainly enjoyed my
share of kingly amenities.
And I certainly enjoyed my
share of kingly amenities.
I certainly had a pipe
collection, many, many...
Perhaps I probably partook of tobacco
more than I should, but,
it was a merry place.
And I know that there
have always been troubles
in the Neverafter that
befell one place or another.
But something feels wrong.
Doesn't it?
- Mm-hmm.
- And it feels so cruel to say from a man
who knew so little of
hardship before the w*r came,
but I couldn't shake the feeling that...
something was different.
These times came,
I took up the sword off the mantel,
and there was a moment before
I took the sword off the wall
that I wondered if it would even come off.
If perhaps it had always
just been there as...
something...
that should have stayed.
I'm sorry to take your time by the fire.
I know that-
- No, no, we...
Is Red here also?
- Oh, I don't think...
I think when you peeled off with him,
I gave you privacy.
- Oh, okay, yeah.
- I think, yeah.
So if anyone, like, I
think you guys are private,
but in by just sitting next to each other
on a small like box or crate
that's been pulled out
to be placed by the fire.
- [Ally] Okay, yeah.
- So it's
that kind of privacy
that happens in the dark
around a fire where it's just like-
- Okay, well then I at
least like point Red out.
I'm just like, yeah, the
two of us experienced
some hard stuff as well.
It seemed like everything got really bad
and really inexplainable all at once.
- They were,
they were wonderful, you know?
- The fiddlers?
- One of them was so gifted
at a merry reel or a jig
that he had but to draw
the bow up to the strings
and he would start dancing a merry caper.
I would be on my banquet
table dancing with every maid
and valet, lord and lady, up and down.
They knew not to even set the plates
until we had danced for an hour more.
- That's crazy.
- It was.
- That's really cool.
- It was wild and mad.
It was ill advised.
Many were hungry by the time
we were finished-
- So you'd just da-
Everyone's shoes just on the table,
and then they put a plate down.
- Then they put plates down.
We changed-
- That's cool.
- We changed the cloths.
- Oh, that's cool, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah.
I don't mean to, you know.
- Who is nearby Mother
Goose in this moment?
- I would say that if I was,
happened to be kind of close by.
- Give me a Perception check.
- I'm curious about
something in particular.
- Yeah, I'm kinda eyeing
people up, I think.
- It's a 12.
- 12, okay.
- 15.
- 15.
What are you curious about, by the way.
- Was I close enough to hear
what they were talking about
do you think?
- Yes, on a 12
you can hear them, yeah.
- Well I was just curious
about the fact that
he was not really great with the pipe,
and it seemed like he also
had a big pipe collection,
and so like I wasn't
sure if there was any-
- Weird thing there.
I think you look at him,
and I think you have been
around royalty enough to know.
- He's just royal and that
someone else would do that for him?
- Someone else has been
doing that for him for-
- Oh.
- Gerard, on a 15, you hear fiddle music.
It's very subdued under
the crackle of the fire,
but you're sort of like
seated off on a corner
and you hear very faint fiddle music.
Sad, a little bit somber.
But as Cole starts to sort of say,
the dancing on the tables
and getting lost in how sort
of silly and outrageous it was,
you hear the noise of
three distant fiddles,
or you think at first
that they're distant,
and then you realize
that they're not distant,
they're just muffled.
They're somewhere close by.
- Would I know this was magical in nature?
Or would I think that this was
just something everyone might hear?
- You wouldn't know for sure,
but the inclination to believe
it is is pretty sensible.
- Okay, I think I'm
probably near Rosamund.
- [Brennan] Mm-hmm.
- I think I would say
do you hear as he speaks
there's fiddle music?
- No, I, no I don't (clearing
throat) I don't hear anything.
- Hmm.
Did you think that's, perhaps-
- Are you okay?
I put my hand up to see if he has a fever.
- Would I be able to hear it?
- His face is so sticky.
- Very slimy.
- You can get a Perception check for me.
DC 15?
- While I'm chatting.
Yeah, yeah, definitely hit it.
It's like a 23.
- 23.
Fiddle music's coming outta your book.
(Siobhan gasping)
- Wait, I'm so sorry to interrupt you.
- It's all right, yeah, it's all right.
- Listen to this.
- Is that-
Are those your fiddle-?
Let's, can we tear
through the book and look?
Is there anything on any page?
- You open a page and
light and music pour out of the-
Now everyone sees this,
light and music pour out of the page,
and you hear fiddle
music and you watch this
muscle-bound old king just look
and sort of weep looking at
a spiral of golden motes-
- Can I work with him and write
this in like a rhyme scheme?
Just something about the the fiddlers?
- Yes, you can.
A couple of eyes dart over.
You see the gentleman over by the teapot
looks-
- In the blue coat?
- In the blue coat with
the eye patch looks over.
The Hen and the young girl do as well.
I wanna know what everyone
else's reaction is
to seeing this very magical
thing unfold in this moment.
- Have I seen this kinda
stuff with the book before?
- I don't think you've...
You've seen Mother Goose do magic,
but what's the expression
on Mother Goose's face
as the book does this?
- I think I'm just lost in being so glad
that we finally found...
I think I've only nailed
one of these before,
and it was Jack and the Candlestick.
- Yeah, so, I think you
see a look of surprise
on Mother Goose's face,
which is probably more the
thing that would affect you
than magic happening.
- Okay, but I'm sure it's bad.
I just, I'm just not like power gaming it.
I think I'm lost and not-
- Yeah, for sure.
- To try to hide this.
- [Emily] I think I think
it's good.
- I'm just like, yes.
- I think I'm just like,
go Mother Goose, go.
You got this.
- I think I kinda see opportunity,
like maybe this is some way to
break the curse or something.
- You see that-
- Pib drops a potato out of his mouth.
(Ally laughing)
- You see that the old king looks,
and do you take up a quill
and start writing?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- He looks and he smiles at
you and he says there they are.
And he's, you don't see figures,
you just see golden motes of light.
He sees something.
- Tell me everything that you see.
- It's me.
It's old,
it's old King Cole.
Motes of light shimmer, and
you see a much happier...
He is, in this current state
he has been through a w*r.
So he's like very muscular and towering.
In this version he is big and prosperous,
like happy, fat, bedecked
king with a crown,
giant broad shoulders,
capering in golden light over a table.
And you see he goes, Old King
Cole was a merry old soul,
and a merry old soul was he.
Called for his pipe and
he called for his bowl,
and he called for his fiddlers three.
(wind blowing)
Light goes around,
and you see in this moment,
and you see that like a piece of light
is almost like handing a pipe to him.
He's about to continue speaking,
and I'd like for anyone that wants to
to make either an Arcana
check or an Insight check.
Arcana is gonna be the more useful here.
- [Zac] I'm gonna do an Insight.
- Cool.
- I'm gonna do Insight
because I don't have a minus-
- 21 Arcana.
- I got an 18 Arcana.
- 14 Insight.
- Really bad stuff over here.
- 19 Insight.
- 15 Insight.
- I guess I got a 21 Insight
if we do Insight, but...
- Golden motes of light gathering
in the king's face on a 20,
you said 21 Arcana?
Did anyone else beat a 21 on anything?
On a 21 Arcana, you're
continuing to write.
The poem is not even having to finish.
Like it's already illuminating.
Like the thing that
happened with Jack's poem-
- The O has already become gorgeous.
- The O has already become
gorgeous and illuminated.
- Oh.
- How did you do that-
- Fantastic O.
- Mother Goose.
- I wish, I wish
these were my calligraphy skills.
(Emily laughing)
I'm writing like bad chicken
scratch, and it's like-
woo hoo hoo.
- I write, but I throw
my own name in there
just to see if it'll make it
beautiful, and it doesn't.
- On a 21 Arcana check,
Old King Cole is continuing to speak,
and I think you can feel a magic...
much more older and more
profound than the stuff
that you cast through your own witchcraft.
Something very powerful is happening here.
You are at a point now where the spell
can either take effect or
you could stop it here.
And for the record, this doesn't feel like
a bad thing happening.
But you can just tell either
something very profound
and very magical is in
the process of happening
and I can allow it to happen and conclude.
Or if I wanna stop it for some reason
I would have to do it right now.
(hushed intense music)
- I think we just keep going.
- Yeah, this has never happened.
- I don't think I would've,
I would put the kibosh on it.
- Yeah.
- It's not like you're
hurtin' for blank pages or anything.
- Yeah, yeah you're right.
- I've only doodled-
- It's pretty much all
empty pages.
- On a couple.
- And it goes away immediately.
It's not even good paper.
- You see every fiddler he had a fiddle
and a very fine fiddle had he.
There's none so rare as can compare
with King Cole and his fiddlers three.
And you see that they wide their arms,
and for a moment it's more than
just golden motes of light
in the shape of people.
You see in the light, faces,
still just of that golden light,
but they go, Your Majesty.
still just of that golden light,
but they go, Your Majesty.
Go to hug him.
He embraces them, weeping,
looks suddenly healthy
and round and happy again.
And, whoosh, in a blast of golden light
the rhyme is completed on the
page and King Cole is gone.
(intense music)
- Um, uh.
- Uh.
- Um.
- Ask the page if he's happy?
- Is she-
- I write are you happy?
- The words disappear.
The little Red Hen, I'm gonna need.
- He's dead.
(Brennan laughing)
- Did you k*ll him?
- Did you just k*ll him?
- Did you just k*ll that guy?
- You k*lled the king?
That's regicide.
- The king is dead.
- He could just be in the book.
- I think that-
- Oh, well then
let's get him out.
- Didn't he look happy
on his way out?
Okay, can I do an Investigation check
to see if anyone's gonna k*ll us?
- So immediately what I'm gonna need is...
kind of like a Persuasion
check with disadvantage,
as The Red Hen looks and
just sort of sees what
is transpiring here.
So go ahead and gimme a
Persuasion with disadvantage.
- (laughing) f*ck, that's a two.
(wincing)
- Okay, it's a two.
- Okay, there we go.
- It's a two persuade...
Oh, six.
- Six, okay.
- I don't know what happened.
- [Brennan] She- See she says,
We're gettin' the hell outta here!
- [Ally] Yes we are.
- No you're a witch! (scared clucking)
And like flutters up.
- But you're so cute.
Please come back
and give me one soft hug.
- What the hell. No thank you!
- You forgot your car.
- What?
- Didn't the chicken have a car?
- I think they're gonna take it.
- Yeah you see she says, Boffit,
we're gettin' the hell outta here.
- She was on foot?
(Ally and Emily laughing)
- You can stay.
Anyone else that wants to
complete their ride can,
but that's all for me.
And you see that she
gets in one of the wagons
and even basically like
taking the thing of stew,
they just, the hen.
- Stew!
- Easy with the stew.
- Hey, I stirred that stew.
It has a lot of my blood in it.
- Wait is anyone going
through Nat King Cole's...
- I know-
- Or Nat King Cole?
Is anyone goin' for Nat King... (laughing)
Crooner just shows up.
Is anyone going for his cart?
- No, no one's going for...
- The ram.
- Yes.
Pinocchio's gonna...
I think was a little a half step back,
but is just gonna put himself
between the group and the cart
in case anyone makes a break for the cart.
- So to protect it.
- Yeah.
- And make sure
it's yours, ours.
- We have to make sure it's
ours, yours.
- Can I do an
Animal Handling check on the ram?
- Yes you can, go for it.
- Great.
Why hello, why hello, Mr. Ram.
It's a nine.
(Brennan laughing)
- The ram bulks but doesn't run.
It backs up.
Without its master here it's
sort of just like (snorting).
Snorts and paws the ground.
To describe what's going on,
'cause this is a flurry of activity,
the Hen and the young girl
have rushed off to the lead wagon.
Boffit runs off to the other carts
and you see the only sort
of points of confusion left,
and you see the only sort
of points of confusion left,
it looks like Boffit has
banged on and yelled something
in Bandlebridge's shoe carriage.
The only person that looks
confused about what is happening
is the gentleman in the blue cloak,
who sort of looks at
what's just happened here
and makes eye contact with you.
One eye disguised by an eye
patch, but looks over at you,
and I need to know what
everyone's doing in this moment.
- This is chaos.
- Can I try to act
really confident and say
anyone who wants to
know what just happened,
you can come over and ask.
- Give me a new Persuasion.
You rolled a six.
You're gonna do this one
with a disadvantage as well.
- (laughing) Dammit.
- Anyone who wants to
know what just happened.
(Siobhan laughing)
- Oh okay, not too bad.
14.
- You do that.
Is anyone else doing anything
in the flurry of activity?
- I'm with Rosamund by the cart.
- With Rosamund by the cart, gotcha.
- I think I would go-
I'm kind of keeping an
eye on Mother Goose here,
'cause I am interested in what
just happened with that book,
but I'm also kind of
sticking with the other royal
and seeing what's going
on here, and like I'm,
I'll say I'm kind of over there.
- I'm definitely not looking to leave
this space.
- I think we just
wanna make sure we get that cart.
- Yes.
- I personally
take a power stance by Mother Goose
ready to fend off anyone who attacks him.
And I also kind of say under my breath,
I don't think this is a bad thing,
because I think we've already
made enemies in Shoeberg
and it wouldn't be bad to find
a different point of entry there.
- Oh yeah, still go to
Shoeberg, but get...
Yes, yes, yes.
- But not do it in a way
that people...
- In a big caravan.
- Exactly.
- I run over to Stephan.
- Yes.
- Stephan, where is the castle again?
Where are you guys headed?
- What's- what?
Our whole thing is over.
- But aren't you like-
- Our whole thing is over.
- But what are you
doing in Shoeberg?
- Our whole thing is over.
(players laughing)
- We caught you guys.
- Stephan, you stupid m*therf*cker,
tell him where-
- Call me
a stupid m*therf*cker again.
- Guys, try and get
Stephan to come with us.
- You stupid m*therf*cker.
- Come on, hurry, there's
not time to explain.
- Stephan, come on.
- Come on.
- Get Stephan to come with us.
- Give me a Deception.
(Ally laughing)
- Can I give the help action?
- Yeah, but it's...
He's already got disadvantage so-
- It's a flat.
- He's flat.
- Then I rolled a 21.
- A 21, Stephan goes-
- Stephan get over here
you stupid m*therf*cker.
- There's no time, Stephan, come on.
- Stephan closes the door
behind him, steps out, what?
- Come on this way.
- Come where?
- It's this way.
- He steps out with you, what?
- Come on!
- To where?
I'm already out.
- We're taking steps backward.
Stephan.
- Stephan, I'm gonna
try to pickpocket him.
(players laughing)
- Go for it.
- Come on.
(players laughing)
- Eight.
- Bumping into him-
- Eight?
- Yeah.
- He's got a plus two to Perception,
so you need him to roll a five or under.
That's 18.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- Okay, gonna describe...
Can I slap the a*s of the
horses driving the shoe
to send it on its way?
- Yes you can.
So you go,
he slaps your hand away-
- Oh my god.
- And goes, the f*ck are you doing?
- Hurry!
(everyone laughing)
- You smack the horses
and the shoe takes off,
and Stephan goes f*ck, my ride!
And just starts sprinting
after the shoe carriage.
- Hey Stephan, go to hell.
- f*ck you, you stupid m*therf*cker.
- I hate you, I hate-
- "Our whole thing is over".
- Our thing's over,
it's over when I say it's over.
- It's never over, Stephan.
- Okay, so you guys crowd
around the chariot, right?
- Yes.
- Oh, it's a chariot.
- It's a chariot.
- It's so small-
- It's so small.
- It's gonna be snug.
- It's gonna be snug.
- It's fine,
I can walk alongside.
I'm in the prime of my youth.
- I'm little.
- You can be on the ram.
- The carriages take off.
I will say this, as the
carriages begin to go,
you see the dude in the blue cloak
basically go to get in his...
He looks confused like
he missed what happened,
but he goes to get in it
and starts to drive after
the rest of the caravan
just for lack of anything else to do.
But does not look like in a panicked hurry
to get out of there.
- Excuse me, sir.
- Yes.
- This way.
- I'm sorry, what is this?
- I am Puss in Boots.
Your name?
- You may call me Herr Drosselmeyer.
- [Zac] Herr Drosselmeyer.
- Yes, I noticed that
the rest of the caravan
has suddenly fled at what
would seem a breakneck pace.
- [Zac] Yes.
- There was a terrifying
ostrich in the woods.
- An ostrich?
- You also saw the terrifying
ostrich in the woods?
- You told us about it.
- I assume you
told me about it.
(players laughing)
- Oh, I did come back-
- It was naked.
- Screaming from the woods
(Ally and Emily laughing)
saying that terrifying
bald ostrich.
- It was a,
it was an awesome display of magic.
- Mm-hmm, by someone who
then (tongue clicking)
took off.
The King Cole did some amazing magic,
and then now he's gone.
- Ah, this is the story
you wish for me to...
sort of, believe?
- Yeah, I...
Did you know the King Cole?
Nat?
- King Cole?
I knew his acquaintance from
having traveled in the caravan.
Sorry, did you say there
was an ostrich nearby?
- Mm-hmm.
- Completely shaved.
You've never seen a nakeder
bird in your whole life.
(Ally chuckling)
- This is-
- Even at the dinner table,
honestly.
- This is deeply troubling.
Will you watch my carriage?
- Yes.
- He whips his cloak around him,
vanishes in a thing of light,
but his carriage is still right here.
So you see the teapot
carriage with the rabbit.
You guys still have the campfire
and the chariot with the ram,
as the rest of the caravan kind of
speeds off towards Shoeberg.
- I immediately go inside
the carriage. (laughing)
- Oh my god.
- Hmm.
- It's fine.
He does this all the time.
- Are we sure?
- I mean-
- 'Cause you guys kinda-
- I'm kinda glad you did it
- I've known you for a minute-
- 'Cause it looks really cool.
And you've gotten in trouble like-
- So many times.
- Well normally we're better,
but you know...
I also, we don't normally run into
princes and princesses while we're doing
our whole prince scheme.
- So you discover that the
door to the carriage is locked.
- I, tink, and try to pick the lock.
- Give me a DC 20 Thieves' Tool check.
- Okay, and that's just proficiency.
- [Brennan] Proficiency plus dexterity.
- Okay, so that will be plus five.
19 on the die plus five.
- 24.
- (tongue clicking) Claw comes out,
you help yourself in.
Wooo.
- Cat burglar.
- You look inside a teapot
and see a hallway stretch
hundreds of feet down,
and see a hallway stretch
hundreds of feet down,
lined with clocks on all sides.
You are clearly looking at the inside
of some kind of alpine manor house
of clockwork and like wild machinery.
- Okay, wow.
Kind of a lot of clocks.
(Brennan laughing)
- I look for any sign of of the...
What's his name again?
- He referred to himself
as Herr Drosselmeyer.
- I think I tentatively step in here like,
hello, hello?
- You walk in and start sort
of saying hello in there.
Everyone, as you enter,
everyone else out here,
a lot happened all in a quick moment.
Your book still kind of shimmers,
and the last of the golden motes of light
kind of vanish and disappear.
Puss has jumped into
Drosselmeyer's carriage.
For the rest of you,
what are you doing as
Puss enters the carriage?
- I guess I wanna go up to Mother Goose.
I would like to ask you how you did that.
- I don't know.
- Where'd he go?
- The short,
the short version of this is,
this book was given to me
because it's a tool to fight the bad
that is happening right now,
but I don't know how it works.
And so the last time that
this kind of happened,
it was about my son,
but he was already dead.
So when he disappeared it wasn't as crazy.
I didn't know that this would send
living, breathing, talking people...
wherever it's sending everyone.
But then, yeah, I show like,
it's like a limerick.
- Can I touch it?
- Yeah.
(soft string music)
- What does Pinocchio imagine will happen
when you touch the book?
- Honestly, Pinocchio wants
to see if when he touches it,
his hand goes into it.
(glitching noises)
Or like if it is at all penetrable,
like in the way that Nat
King Cole disappeared
and was taken into the book.
- We're just gonna go full
Nat King Cole at this point.
- Yep, yep.
- Sorry, Old King Cole.
There's only one King Cole in my life
as an African American,
and it's Nat, okay?
- It's Nat.
- So you're trying to introduce
some new King Cole into my-
- New ring to Nat 20.
- Exactly.
- Incredible.
Give me either a Constitution
or a Charisma saving throw.
- For touching the book?
- Wow.
- I'll give you a Charisma saving throw.
Chaos.
I'll try that again.
That's a 19.
- You brush your hand over the book,
and as you drag your
fingers across a blank page
A beautiful etching of an
island filled with toys appears.
- What the hell?
- What was that?
- What the hell?
- What was that?
- What the hell?
What the hell is this book?
- The etching fades, but pretty slowly.
You can see it starting
to sort of fade away.
It looks like, Pinocchio,
there was some sort of, like it didn't...
Everything's okay.
- I show everyone.
- Could I touch it?
- Yeah.
- All right, hold on, my
hands are really bloody.
Okay.
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] I'll take
Constitution or Charisma.
- That's gonna be a Constitution.
Nat one.
- Try it.
- Gladly.
(intense music)
(eerie string music)
- You touch the book.
- I hope I see toys, too.
(heart thumping)
- All of you watch,
and the first thing you do
is you all hear something,
which is you hear the splitting of seams
as Red grows about twice,
three times in size,
and you hear (growling)
Red, you are shifting.
- Everyone look away, I can't control it.
- In this moment, as you begin to change,
where does your mind go?
What's the first emotion
as you begin to experience the change?
- Embarrassed.
- Embarrassed.
As you begin to feel embarrassed
you see, this time not in ink,
but in deep red blood (gasping)
an etching appears in
the book of a young girl
picking flowers on the side of a road.
And you see that the etching grows
as Red gets bigger and bigger as-
- Is it Ylfa?
- It's Ylfa, yes.
And you see that it grows,
and past the little glade of flowers
you begin to see trees,
and the illustration spreads
and the blood spreads.
And so far as these
illustrations have grown,
once they are rendered, they remain still.
But suddenly Mother Goose,
you look down at the page and see that
a part of the illustration
is not remaining still.
In the drawing there's
something moving in the trees.
(intense music)
- Can I slam the book on her hand?
- You slam the book shut on her hand.
And as you do, you pull your hand out,
and all of you watch,
right as you made the
decision to close the book,
the thing moving in the
trees lunges forward,
and as you close,
all of you watch, rendered in
blood that is growing bones,
a massive fanged mouth goes roar.
(wolf growling)
Book is shut.
- I think I still feel really embarrassed.
I say I'm sorry Mother
Goose, that was my fault.
And I walk and I stand behind a tree.
- Is Red still huge?
(Emily laughing)
- She begins to diminish in size.
- I go after Red, and
I'm like, hey, don't...
You don't have to be embarrassed.
- No, it's my fault.
- No.
- Pinocchio did it and saw toys,
and I put everyone in danger.
(Lou laughing)
- No, Pinocchio saw-
- Pinocchio summoned toys,
and I summoned a wolf to eat all of us.
- Well, maybe yes, but I-
There's something very
important you need to learn,
and that's, if something
scary is happening to you,
that's one thing.
But if you add a bunch
of shame on top of it,
now it's doubly worse.
You don't have to be embarrassed of this.
- Thank you Mother Goose,
but I think my embarrassment is what
saved us in that situation.
I am a monster.
- No.
- And I'm embarrassed.
- You're not a monster.
You're not a monster.
- I'm a monster,
and I'm embarrassed about it.
- I will not stand here
and hear that you're a monster.
- I'm a monster, (deep) I'm a monster.
(players laughing)
(Emily growling)
- You're an amazing kid.
You're a good kid.
I'm like holding, you,
Jack, you're a good kid.
(Brennan laughing)
- I'm growing, growing
so that you can't even,
now you're just doing my hips.
- No, Jack, come here.
(players laughing)
Full transference.
- [Emily] (grumbling) I'm a monster.
(Ally and Emily laughing)
Okay, I go back to the group.
- Great, so,
some people see nice things
and get sucked into the book-
- I'll be forward and
say that the place is,
- I'll be forward and
say that the place is,
it's fun, but it's not all good.
- [Murph] Okay.
- The toys?
- Yeah.
- How is it bad?
- [Ally] Yeah, how's it bad?
- Please tell me how
you're a monster, too,
so that I don't feel so alone.
- Well I'm made of wood-
- All of this is temporary.
- And I don't-
- You know what I mean?
- Is it?
- Sometimes it feels like-
- Yes.
- Being human is temporary.
- Amen.
- True.
- Compared to what
I'm turning into.
- Gerard as you say,
all this is temporary,
you do see the book in
Mother Goose's hands.
- If someone were to
just grab it for a moment
and pull out at the right time,
then it'd be like when
King Cole was sort of
getting big and merry,
he could have just been
happy and been normal again.
If you time it right.
- You think?
- Yes, I can break the curse.
Give me the book.
(Ally laughing)
I take the book.
- I give it to you, I give it to you.
- I open it up and I slam it down.
Just get ready to pull me out
as soon as I'm a handsome prince.
- Constitution or a Charisma.
- Just remember-
I have my hands
on either side of the book.
- That's an eight.
(Siobhan laughing)
- And what check were you doing?
What save were you doing?
- Con.
- Con?
You watch your webbed
hand goes from green...
to a, for halfway through,
and then sort of ruddy pink,
fingers again, fingernails
instead of little spongy.
- Good, good, good, good.
- Going up, and you all see...
Gerard, you're changing
back, you can feel it.
Your posture's changing.
And then you see in the
middle of your book there is,
nothing's going in, because it looks like
he's trying to draw something out.
And as he's drawing
something outta the book,
you see that the pages in the center rot,
(paper crumpling)
and there is a depression,
a weirdly spherical depression in the book
a weirdly spherical depression in the book
as you are changing.
- He's trying to take from it.
He's trying to take from it.
- I'm just trying, I'm doing...
This is normal.
- I'm gonna...
Timothy, I think that we need
to take this away from him
or he's gonna ruin the book.
- You think so?
I don't know.
Can he ruin it?
It seems really powerful.
- It's just gonna regrow.
It's fine.
- I don't know.
- Okay, I trust
the authority figure.
- Your call.
- You're partway human, zap.
- No!
- You slam the book closed.
As you do, you see that
spherical depression,
your hand comes out, is immediately
slimy and webbed again.
- No.
I thought I'd at least
get you a hand out of it.
- We had it.
- But when you open the book up again,
that depression is gone.
The hole in the page is not there anymore.
- Is there anything left from
either of their interactions with it?
Like the island of toys
sketch or all the blood?
- You look back,
the island of toys is pretty
much gone at this point.
The thing drawn in blood,
that's mostly gone now as well.
And you see...
And nothing really got written
when Gerard put his hand up,
but this weird depression showed up in it.
- Mr. Mother Goose, I
hope that this doesn't
come off as rude or insensitive,
but it definitely feels like
this book and you having it,
it feels like you have no idea
what you are dealing with.
And I mean, I'm not sure that
Nat King Cole is gone or hurt.
And I mean, I'm not sure that
Nat King Cole is gone or hurt.
- Mm-hmm.
- But it definitely feels
like you need to be more careful.
- Okay, yeah, okay, I get it,
It's not a party trick to pass this around
and have everyone touch it, and-
- It does seem like a
terribly dangerous thing.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, do you wanna touch it?
- No.
- Okay.
- Yeah. I don't think-
- It's for the best.
- I'll give it another go.
- No. (laughing)
- No. (laughing)
Oh my god.
- Gerard.
- It was, did anyone
see how handsome I was?
- Your hand?
- Anyway, my story is completely fine.
I'm just waiting for a prince
to come along and save me.
I'm not cursed at all.
- Maybe the prince is in here.
Maybe you would see a vision of who your-
(intense music)
(Murph laughing)
- You touch it-
- My god.
- And you see, as your hand touches,
spreading out beautiful
flowering vines, roses,
thorns, and a portrait.
Over the portrait a face begins to appear.
- My true love.
- Beautiful, handsome
prince rendered in ink.
You cannot say that you recognize him,
but the face looks perfectly proportioned,
strong, heroic features,
broad chin, noble brow,
strong, heroic features,
broad chin, noble brow,
gazing lovingly out from
the page of the book.
- I start unabashedly weeping.
- Oh, he's so...
That's so nice.
- My beautiful husband.
- This is, is there anything else
that's happening with the book?
- I guess be carefully
he doesn't bite you, 'cause
that happened to some of us.
- You see the face of the prince
flicker, and for a
minute it's another man.
(static crackling)
- What?
- Still a prince,
but a little bit less handsome, perhaps.
- Are we all looking at it?
- You're all looking at it.
- So it's not...
Is it you?
You human, you?
- No.
- I have only met one
prince in my whole life,
so I'm gonna keep referring back to you.
- I am also handsome, but...
- As you are looking at this,
I'm gonna need a saving throw from you.
You can choose Constitution or Charisma.
(low intense music)
- 18.
- Something's wrong with the picture.
It's one print.
The crowns shaped differently.
He's looking in a different direction.
It's almost like the
jacks in a playing card
of like profile, like three quarters,
and you feel something,
something's pushing back
on you with your hand,
almost like something is asking the briars
to give way to show something else.
- Get outta the way briars.
I need to see my husband.
- As you say get outta the way briars,
the entire portrait fades as the briars
begin to move back towards
your hand on the blank page
and new ink appears.
Anyone that's looking can
give me an Arcana check,
if they want, or an insight.
- Got a minus one Arcana check.
- I got a Nat 1 and I have
a minus one to Arcana.
- [Brennan] Zero.
- [Murph] I got a-
- 11.
- 16 Insight.
- I got a 12 Arcana.
- 12 Arcana.
16 Insight, you can see Rosamund
is clearly like
interacting with something.
And on that, you said 12 Arcana.
- 11, 12.
- 11 and 12 Arcana.
Pinocchio, you're exactly right.
Mother Goose is a witch, has magic,
knows about this stuff,
and this is the equivalent
of a proficient technician
having a piece of technology
beyond the ken of,
it's like you're holding
something that is profound,
and we don't know how or why it works.
So both of you on those rolls,
it's not high enough to,
you can't do anything before it happens,
but as it's happening you know that
one of the rules has changed.
Even though everything's
been very different,
like your drawing was different,
your drawing was different,
the hand was different,
everything that's going on,
you're like, no, no, this is a big change,
because you see the sort
of green ink of the briars
fades back into Rosamund's hand,
and a black ink starts,
but it's not actually ink,
it's like chiaroscuro,
it's almost like charcoal.
Sort of just appears on the page
and this like rapid sketch
of an empty fireplace
is suddenly there,
and all of you hear a rush of wind
as the real trees above you
suddenly bend in a tempestuous
burst of gale force winds,
and on the page in front of you,
you see that something thuds
from the chimney of the drawing
into the empty fireplace,
and you see a figure in
gleaming glass armor, foom,
lift a visor, look at you as a drawing,
and you see a woman's face going,
(discordant echoing) sister, you're awake.
- And you close the book.
- I think, I think,
I think we should stop.
(everyone laughing)
I'm gonna say it, I think we should stop.
- You have a sister?
- Apparently.
- I open the door out to the
rest of where everyone else is.
- Yeah.
- You're never gonna believe this.
There's a bunch of clocks in here.
(everyone laughing)
- That actually sounds really interesting.
- Can I open it back up?
Is anything in there?
Like her hand's not near it, but,
the charcoal or-
- Describe to me how
you're opening the book.
How are you opening it?
What are you attempting to do?
- I mean I am away from her,
and I just wanted to
thumb through the thing
so that I can see the
face of the woman again
to maybe kind of remember-
- So you're going back
to the page where they had
that sort of charcoal.
- Yeah, I'm just kind of
filing through real quick.
- You get back to what
you think is the page.
It's blank at this point,
so it's hard to tell,
and as you are looking at it,
I'm gonna describe what happens next,
but I need you to understand
that as I describe it,
it is not a drawing.
All of you watch the page,
as the form of a hand
All of you watch the page,
as the form of a hand
made of parchment reaches out
for your throat. (grunting)
- Red.
- Wah.
(Ally laughing)
Can I...
I was in a power stance to defend anyone.
- That was almost a Nat 20
and was instead-
- Silvery Barbs.
- Okay, Silvery Barbs I'll
roll with disadvantage.
Great, you shut it.
But again this is...
It almost is like the flat parchment
is suddenly like a sheet.
It's like it has form and
some of it punches through,
and the hand that comes through
has the form of a gauntleted hand
that goes for your throat.
- You have advantage
on whatever anything you need to do.
- Oh.
- But you dodge it and can close the book.
- Oh, okay, oh, okay, great, great.
Nevermind, okay.
I thought it had my neck.
- Tim, you gotta stop.
(Brennan laughing)
- Okay, okay.
- So the only one who had
a fully good experience
with the book is me.
(Brennan laughing)
- Okay, okay.
- Okay.
- What's going on with this book?
- Do you wanna go at it-
- It turns you back
into a human.
- We fill you
completely in on everything that-
- No one should touch it, right?
- Also let's just run also
what you were doing inside of the teapot.
- I left a my boot in the doorway.
So, I just walked around.
I was like very...
I think Puss is very
aware of the fact that
this book stuff was going
on, seems important,
I don't wanna get too far away from that,
but I was just like
hello, little cat in here!
- Go ahead and give me
an Investigation check,
if you'd be so kind.
- Nat 20.
(Ally gasping)
- Nice.
- You walk in and you see
there's only one clock on the wall
that's actually running right now,
and you see it has the
figure of a little cat on it.
- That is quite curious. (laughing)
- And you get a sudden,
on a Nat 20, you get a sudden inkling,
noticing that there's a
little hook on the wall
that can be moved up,
almost like the flag on a mailbox,
that can sort of...
You bat it with your little cat paw,
and as you move it it stops the pendulum
and you look out the window
and see the road outside
and see that time has stopped.
Your friends...
So you can actually, on a Nat 20,
have as much time in here as you'd like,
because your friends are in the midst
of experimenting with the book
as you are inside of this teapot carriage.
- Just gonna probably take
a couple hours, take a nap.
- (laughing) Honestly, a million percent.
- Look for some food, maybe just eat.
- On a Nat 20 Investigation,
really you can find as much as you'd like,
but I'm interested in
what Pib is interested in.
- Yeah, that's a good question.
I think Pib ran in here at first,
because he thought this
carriage was leaving
and wanted to make sure
that they had enough space.
'Cause it seemed like the
chariot was gonna be kinda small
and didn't want every
sort of vehicle to leave.
So I kinda ran in here and just was like,
I don't know, maybe
something useful was in here,
in sort of a self-interested way
and has come into this room that is huge,
and is just wondering if
there's anything sort of,
I think just looking, now
knowing that it's sort of
of a magical situation.
- Nature.
- Maybe if there's anything that he could
take for himself that is useful,
or if there's anyone in here,
'cause he knows that guy vanished.
- Hell, yeah.
I think there absolutely is some stuff
that you could take in here.
You begin to search
throughout the carriage,
You begin to search
throughout the carriage,
if it can be called that,
though, truly within,
you realize that you're almost inside of,
it is like this sort of
grand clockwork alpine manor,
but the sizes of things,
it's just all a little bit
interesting the proportions.
It's almost as though
you're in a dollhouse,
that these proportions would look good
maybe to a giant that was like
looking over them at a different angle.
But you're like some things
are a little bit thin
and some things are a little bit thick
and some things are a little bit long
and some things are a little bit short.
However, many of the objects herein
do appear to be quite significant,
and on a Nat 20 Investigation
you enter a room where you see
several sheets over things to prevent them
from collecting dust,
and there is one enormous sheet
over an object towards
the back of the room.
You see that it is leaned
up against the wall
and you can't help but notice
that the temperature drops
a little bit in here.
- (meowing) I look around.
Do I see my breath?
Is it that cold?
- Just a little bit,
a little bit of vapor.
- I go towards the like bigger
object that you described.
- Going up towards it,
you raise a little bit of the flap...
and see a mirror,
underneath the sheet,
and you can see yourself in it just fine.
But there's something about the
mirror, a little bit cloudy.
You catch your face being a small animal
sort of at the edge of the
mirror where it's the clearest,
but towards the center
it's dark under the sheet
a little bit,
but it does seem sort
of murky, hard to see,
not as reflective as
you might have imagined.
Being a Rogue and a scoundrel as you are,
on that Nat 20 Investigation,
you know the place where this was crafted.
You know the kingdom that
it hails from, I should say,
not too far away.
This comes from the Kingdom of Tapestry.
That is a kingdom that fell some time ago.
You remember hearing some stories
of things that took place there.
There was a lot of fine
crafting and working there.
There were a lot of Dwarves in that land
who were capable of making
incredible magical things.
Wrought works of spell
craft and enchantment,
and you behold the mirror here,
and you can tell this
thing is very magical.
(eerie music)
- Is it snowing here?
- As you look around it,
you...
see, as you imagine that,
there is sort of a face
forming in the mist
up in the center of the mirror,
almost as of vapor it seems.
You see-
Shape of sort of feline face appear,
wrought in fog and mist.
- Hello?
- Address me by my name.
- Oh.
- Is it moving with me or no?
It's on own?
- No, it's on its own.
- I don't...
I'm sorry, I feel like
I'm at a disadvantage.
I do not have your name.
- Nothing more than the object
that I am, Your Eminence.
- Nothing more than the object
that I am, Your Eminence.
- Eminent. (laughing)
Mirror?
- (sharply inhaling) Again.
- Mirror.
- Yes, Your Grace.
- Are you attached to anything?
- I think I'm kinda leaned
up against a wall right now.
- Mirror, mirror leaned
against the wall... (laughing)
- Do you wish to see anything, My Lord.
(gentle music)
- I'm curious about a couple things.
I'm wondering if anyone I remember is...
I would like to see the
Kingdom of Marienne.
- You behold, your old kingdom,
the village of Amanti, where
first you met young Pinocchio.
You see the ancestral manor
of the Ogre of Carabas.
You see the royal castle
where Tomas, the miller's son,
You see the royal castle
where Tomas, the miller's son,
dwelled for many years
as king of that land,
reduced to rubble.
You look and see the face of
ruin brought to that place.
You look and see the face of
ruin brought to that place.
(gentle intriguing music)
What is Pib feeling in this moment?
- I think he's feeling
more sorrowful about that
than he thought he would.
I think it was, of course,
a sad time for him,
but also has been trying to
find what the next move is,
but also has been trying to
find what the next move is,
and he can't help but look back at that.
- Mist fades as the Kingdom
of Marienne leaves you,
and you are left with that thought of...
what it is you might do.
- Well Mirror, is there anything...
If you were a little cat like me,
is there anything that
I should be looking for
in your opinion?
- If I were a little
cat like you, My Lord,
I would first need to know
for myself what I wanted.
Do you dream of...
power, riches, wealth,
to be the cleverest, the fairest,
the wisest in the land?
- I think I just dream of
being the most comfortable.
- You see, as you think of comfort,
the mirror...
shifts around,
and shows you
mountains, oceans, forests,
all of them in shadow, strife, and horror,
filling the land of the Neverafter.
And you see all of them, whoo, boom,
swallowed up into the
pages of a large book.
As the book opens,
strife and ruin is removed from the world.
On the very final page of the book,
this beautiful illustration
of a cat wearing boots
this beautiful illustration
of a cat wearing boots
with a large and wondrous
hat, and a brand new cloak,
on a massive cushion
with a mouse by the tail.
- Now that's comfortable. (laughing)
(Brennan laughing)
- I recognize the book, I assume.
- Yes, you do.
- Okay.
I kinda was like,
I think I'm still wary of
this mirror. (laughing)
- Yeah, for sure.
- I'm going to talk to you later now.
(Siobhan laughing)
- May I ask a favor only in exchange
for what I have shown you?
- Oh, after the fact, okay.
(Ally and Siobhan laughing)
What is it, and we'll see.
- Would you simply
mention me to your friend?
- The one with the book?
- The wooden boy.
(eerie music)
- He has been running off
on his own a little bit.
Alright sure. (laughing)
- Thank you, Your Eminence.
A cleverer and more cunning
cat, I have never met.
- Stop it.
(Brennan laughing)
- You close the sheet and are
welcome to leave this room.
Where's Pib at as you leave this chamber?
- I think Pib is trying to figure out
exactly what he's looking for.
I think he was pretty focused
on how he had it good.
I think he was pretty focused
on how he had it good.
That kingdom was a high water
mark in his life, Marienne.
He worked so hard to get so much,
and now that's all gone,
and he's looking for, yeah,
he's still looking for
whatever the next thing is,
but doesn't know how the book-
- As you leave,
you had your question of what is
of the Kingdom of Marienne,
which is the past.
Then you had your question of
what would be the most comfortable
and saw the vision of the book.
Two is not a very lucky number.
Maybe there's one last
thing to ask the mirror for,
as you specifically
think of what comes next.
- I go back to the mirror and like,
"Hello, sorry."
(whoo)
I had one last question for you.
What do you think the future holds?
- You journey now to Shoeberg.
Hungry pages ask for restoration,
a world now lost to the Neverafter.
A road is closed
past the gates of Shoeberg
to where you now head.
None who have ventured
there have ever returned,
not since the times of shadow came.
The road to the Kingdom of Elegy,
in that place is the
first of many treasures
in that place is the
first of many treasures
that the book requires.
- Hmm.
- Going in that way, you will
come very close to a magic.
- Going in that way, you will
come very close to a magic.
If you can gather the treasure safely,
though I do not think it will
come to you in any other way,
but in dealing death,
then I imagine you may
have your way forward,
but it will come at a cost,
and indeed you must be aware
the sisters of your new companion...
now know.
Mirror fades.
- What?
The sisters?
Okay.
I guess Pib thinks about that
and heads back to where
the other travelers are.
- We emerge back out to the road,
Puss in Boots rejoins you.
- There's clocks and I
guess Mirror, couple things,
but-
- A mirror?
I haven't looked in a
mirror in, well, 100 years.
(Ally laughing)
- Well you're perfectly made up.
- Yeah.
- Oh thank you.
- You look great.
- This is my natural face.
- That's crazy.
- That's unreal.
- I do sometimes take
a little bit of blood from the cuts
and put it in my cheeks just
to give myself a little-
- Okay, now that's crazy.
- Yeah, you look great.
- Do those not heal?
Is that just-
- No, no.
Some of them have, but no.
(Brennan laughing)
But when my prince comes along,
everything will be okay.
- Okay, you know.
Well the prince part that-
The book was scary, right?
It wasn't the prince part.
- Yes.
- Maybe the prince part is scary.
- Well, it seemed to show a prince
and then many other princes.
- Mm-hmm.
- But as long as one of them
is coming for me, honestly.
- And then a sister
that you don't recognize?
- Yes.
- I do not know who she is.
- Okay.
I guess we fill you in on everything
that happened to each person
or kind of what we remember.
- Interesting, wow.
And all of this in the book?
- I just show, yeah, so far the only pages
that have stuck are
Jack and Nat King Cole.
- Nat King Cole.
- Nat King Cole.
- Curious.
- You may know him as Old King Cole.
- [Ally] Yes.
- Ah.
- Nat was his first name.
- But he's a natural.
King Cole.
- To his friends
he was Nathaniel.
Nathaniel King Cole.
- Nathaniel King Cole.
- He told us that before he
got sucked into the book.
(Emily laughing)
- No, it's kind of
he screamed it-
- My name is Nathaniel.
(Lou, Ally, and Emily laughing)
I mean I don't know when the
teapot guy is comin' back.
- Yeah, so do the clocks do anything?
Or you said it was just full of clocks?
I guess.
I guess-
- What is this about clocks?
- Oh.
- You see that walking out of the woods
comes Herr Drosselmeyer with
a leash around the ostrich.
- Ugh.
- Wow.
Can I pet it?
- I cannot well stop you from doing this,
but I do not recommend
it, as the bird is ornery.
- I pet it. (laughing)
- Give me an Animal Handling check.
(players chuckling)
- Kid, what are you doing?
- 18.
- Oh.
- 18, bird says wanna pet me?
- Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't
realize you were sentient.
- Yeah.
- No one said that.
Okay, how about you pet me?
- Fine, I have to do it with my head.
- Okay.
(players laughing)
- See he just rubs his head
on the top of your head.
- Wow, there's not a feather in sight.
(players laughing)
This is the nudest skin-on-skin contact.
(players laughing)
- Naked as a jaybird. (laughing)
- I kinda get in between them.
Okay, Red, is this your friend-
- But I'm not a jaybird.
I'm an ostrich.
- Great, okay.
That's so great.
- I was just gonna say,
I was gonna try to peel off with Pinocchio
and see if I can give a-
- You peel off as Herr
Drosselmeyer turns and says
so it seems that the caravan
has departed rather abruptly.
- Yes.
- Yes, I think we'll probably still
be making our way to Shoeberg.
What brings you to...
Why are you traveling to Shoeberg?
- Yeah.
- I travel on my way to Shoeberg
because there are some artifacts
of arcane significance therein,
and I am doing my best to
gather those elements as-
- What are they?
I can keep an eye out for them.
I'm a bit of a hunter.
Could be an antique hunter.
My grandma was.
- I am something of an
antique hunter myself.
There is a clockwork man that
I am pursuing in Shoeberg,
There is a clockwork man that
I am pursuing in Shoeberg,
a creation of mine who
has sort of scattered off
a creation of mine who
has sort of scattered off
on his way and I need to collect him up.
- Oh, the artifact, you created
it, and now it ran away.
- This is correct.
I am something of a mechanic and magician.
- Oh, cool.
- I understand that there is
some magic afoot here as well.
The chicken who was running the caravan
seemed to be very alarmed
by the sudden disappearance
of the grieving monarch
who was also a member of our caravan.
Yes.
- Mother Goose
has a real talent.
- Yes, I-
- But magic is everywhere.
It's the magic of comradery and...
parenthood. And-
- Oh, okay.
- The king disappeared due
to the magic of parenthood?
- Yes. (laughing)
Yes-
- All right,
can I just do an Insight check
just to get sort of a vibe-
- Yeah, what's this guy's-
- Just to see if he's...
15.
- On a 15, you get a sort of
mysterious sense from this guy,
but he does appear to be one of many
drifters in this age
where everything has been uprooted
and people are sort of off on
their business in the world.
You do sense that he's telling the truth
when he says that he is a magician.
- On the artifacts that you collect,
is that what you're saying?
- [Brennan] Yes, this is true.
- Are they all things
that you've built yourself
or is it other things as well?
- On occasion, I have managed to discover
- On occasion, I have managed to discover
other things of significance or importance
and collected them into my wagon here.
It's a long journey.
My friend Eidelgrin can confirm.
You see the rabbit nods his head.
- Cute.
However, are there any artifacts
that you were looking for in particular?
- No, yeah, we just,
we thought that maybe this,
and I have like a candle
that has been broken,
but there's still the
wick holding it together.
(Emily laughing)
- We think that maybe
this might be magical-
(Emily laughing)
And the king touched it
and was sucked inside.
- This candle, may I observe?
- May I please do an Ins-
I don't have any kind of
ability to do anything
other than fight, but can
I do some kind of Insight?
I wanna see if he's clocked the book.
- I think you see that
he has clocked the book.
- Okay, okay.
Does it seem like he wants to take it?
- Not to your knowledge, no.
- Oh great.
- Okay.
- Pinocchio and Pib,
you guys sort of walk off
from the rest of this conversation.
What do you guys say to each other?
- So, first off, what happened?
Where did you go?
With the key in the door.
- Oh, I just, I thought
I saw somebody in there,
but there was nobody.
It's just like goods and stuff, you know?
I think some onions and other-
- Onions.
- Vegetables
and stuff like that.
- Onions and vegetables, okay.
- Onions and vegetables.
- A mirror inside there
wanted to talk to you.
(players laughing)
- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, a what?
- A mirror wanted to have a chat.
- Would I have any idea as to why a mirror
would wanna talk to me?
- You have no idea why a
mirror would wanna talk to you.
- You talked to a mirror,
and it wants-
- Also what are we doing
with these people?
- I don't know, I mean, hey,
I was gonna come to you
about what the play was,
but no, I'm kinda thinking maybe
we stick with these royals.
- I'm happy with that.
- Yeah, see if we can get
somethin' from 'em, you know?
- I don't think we are very
good at pretending to be royals.
- Yeah, exactly.
So let's ride in the company of some
and then mooch off whatever
they are able to get.
But I'm sorry, the mirror
wants to talk to me?
- Yeah, just have a chat or something.
- A chat?
- Yes.
- Do you think I should go?
- I just, I said...
I think you should go just
to make things all square
between me and the mirror.
- Yeah.
- But I...
- What's he talkin' about?
Like what did you guys chat about?
- I think we talked-
Well, honestly, we talked about the book.
- Oh.
- The book is the answer to things.
I don't know, to maybe...
I think it's our ticket.
Maybe even more so than the royals.
- Okay.
I mean, what, do you wanna
sneak back into the cabin
or do we ask the guy if we can go in?
- I think we just, probably just...
I think he...
Maybe we just keep quiet and-
- Yeah.
- Sneak on over there.
- Just do a little, we'll
do a little once-over.
- You sneak back towards the carriage?
Did you leave a boot propping the door?
- One boot-
- One boot
propping the door open.
You guys sort of sneak back around.
- Pieces of the wax kind of fall off
in the part where it snapped,
and I've been collecting all of them
just in case they're magic, too.
- I'm so impressed with
Mother Goose right now.
- If you would like me
to examine this candle
or any other artifacts of importance,
I would be more than happy to do so.
But I would ask that you'd be
completely forthright with me,
as utmost honesty is
needed for the magic to...
do its intended purpose
without any unexpected...
side effects and other
negative consequences.
- So-
- Oh, okay.
- I've been really taught to
be very wary of strangers,
so if you want complete honesty,
I would like a little
transparency from you
so that we might know what sort of,
what you are bringing to this table,
because I can't exactly walk into a forest
that I don't know where it goes,
if you know what I'm saying.
- Very well.
- Super eloquent.
- I will be as honest
and forthright as I can.
The clockwork man I am pursuing
I consider to be my godson,
and I am afraid that
there is a degree of grief
that may have driven him to rash behavior.
And I am worried about the
vengeance he now seeks.
So I am pursuing him for personal reasons.
Here in the Neverafter it seems that...
it takes a great deal of strength
just to hold on to what
little we might have.
I have not always been a kind man,
and I've not always been
a man that is dependable,
but I know a great deal
of magic and its workings.
So, if there are questions that you have
that are magical in nature,
I shall do my best to answer them.
- If we were to show you
something that we consider ours,
and you liked it, would
you try to take it?
Because that's not okay.
- I give you my word.
- Do you wanna touch this book?
(players laughing)
And I open it up.
- He takes a hand, puts it on the book.
- Careful, there's werewolves in there.
It has nothing to do with
the person touching it.
(players laughing)
That's what I heard.
Rumor goin' around.
- Multiple people in the history of it
have-
- It's sort of a rumor
going around, yes.
- Yeah.
Or inside a book, not the person.
- Puts a hand on it.
(intense music)
There,
within the heart of the book.
This is not the only book like this.
There are others,
others attempting to
save what they can save.
You are less alone than
you imagine, Mother Goose.
There is something the book needs,
something...
an early part of the
world that was broken.
We have all felt it in our own time.
There have always been
great dangers and perils,
tragedies and heartbreaks
in the Neverafter.
But in the times of shadows
something has gone wrong.
There is a deeper wound
in the heart of our world,
in this- (gasping)
And you see that his head goes back,
his cape flares out behind him,
and you see that the interior
of his cloak becomes text,
and you see that the interior
of his cloak becomes text,
and you see it's moving
sentences and paragraphs.
It's bars of music.
It's like musical notes, and
it's like words and names.
It's like musical notes, and
it's like words and names.
You see a reference to a
mouse king or a king of rats,
something with seven heads.
There's all this stuff you see.
He looks into it and he says
something deep and profound broken.
The heart of our world born of words,
things sewn together.
The six of you have come together.
It is no accident.
There are very few and
precious chances left
for things to be set to right,
and perhaps even some of those ways
of setting things to right are
themselves doors into traps.
You see that he,
there's sort of like this glowing again,
once again in the book.
He looks into it and says
someone here knows the first
thing that the book requires,
there are friends, after that first gift,
you will be able to speak
with them, talk with them,
more answers remain after the (grumbling).
You see his face withering a little bit.
He looks like he's (gasping).
And you see there's something
almost like owl like,
like he's sort of, his
eyes are getting wider.
There's almost like a
degree to which his nose
is becoming like the beak
of some kind of bird.
And in this moment he gazes at the text,
And in this moment he gazes at the text,
and suddenly his face
is filled with light.
(ethereal music)
(whoo)
He looks and says...
There is a way to use this gift,
a gift that you bargained for very dearly,
I think, Mother Goose.
There is a way to take the
careful steps to bring the world
There is a way to take the
careful steps to bring the world
to a day that might dawn with bright sun
and the ending of a time of shadows.
Great and many other challenges
and perils that will face you.
This will not be an easy task.
Much will be asked and much given.
The book hungers, and one here
knows for what it hungers.
After that, the steps I cannot see,
but I know this, it is unfair and unjust
the burden now placed upon you.
There were steps to be taken before this
that could have seen
your lives kept smaller
and out of the way.
We are past the point of
that decision, my friend.
You carry this with you,
and if even one of your
companions strays from this place,
you will not have the
strength or cunning you need,
and all will fall to shadow
forever and ever more.
There are but a handful of
paths forward from this place.
The last thing I will say is this.
From what I can see within this book...
And again, more and more owl like.
(intense music)
Many will offer answers.
I would trust your heart
and the heart of your companions alone.
(gasping) He turns briefly into an owl,
and then is just text hanging in air, and-
- Oh, I was gonna slam it.
Oh, goddammit, goddammit.
- What was the text-
- Two for two.
- That lingered in the air?
- The text that lingered,
the wings said Herr Drosselmeyer
and the words around it
said magician, magic.
You saw a reference to fairy
and sugar plums and winter time
and (whoo) gone.
- Is the carriage still there?
- I think, let's cut into you two here.
- They're fine out there.
- He seems like a nice guy.
- Inside the...
You are inside the carriage.
You make it back to the
room with the mirror in it.
- I talked to this mirror
for a little while.
- Yeah.
- Said that they wanted to talk to you.
Maybe they're a fan or
something. (laughing)
- That'd be wild to have a fan, but-
(players laughing)
Yeah, I can do an autograph
or something if he wants one.
(Emily laughing)
Do you have a pen on you?
- I do not.
- Mirror.
- Do you move the sheet?
- He's kinda weird, but okay.
- Well, alright.
- It's cool?
- Yeah.
- I move the sheet.
- Mirror.
(whoo)
- Young boy's face appears.
(tense string music)
- I don't know if this is the same...
Maybe.
- Again.
- Mirror?
- Yes.
Where am I kind of located?
- Leaned up against the wall. (laughing)
- Mirror, Mirror leaned
up against the wall?
- That is right.
- Is he turned on?
Is this like a sexual thing?
- Now I'm unsure.
More reactive than last time.
- Little boy, bring me back to her.
- Hmm?
- Bring me back to her.
(angrily) Bring me back to her!
- I'm gonna throw the sheet on.
- You throw the sheet over it,
and as we do you hear a
sudden crack in the teapot,
and the teapot starts to
decompose and fracture.
(teapot cracking)
- We gotta get outta here! (panting)
- You both sprint outta the teapot.
All you guys see the teapot
collapsing and shattering
and you see, ka-coom,
leaping out of the door
Puss in Boots and Pinocchio.
- Woo!
- You two left?
- Okay, so we all have to trust each other
and trust each other's intuition.
(Emily laughing)
I can't wait.
- Wait, uh-
- Hey team.
- Hey.
Is the ostrich still here?
- The ostrich is here,
seeing that no one is now
hanging onto its leash,
goes...
Am I free to go?
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- Absolutely.
- Sprints into the forest. (laughing)
- Do you want us to take the leash off?
- No!
And just runs off.
- What were you two doing in there?
You said there was just some clocks.
- Did the guy come back?
Is he not here?
- No, he's gone.
Where'd he go?
- He turned into an owl.
- He turned into an owl
- And then he turned-
- And he-
- Into some words.
- Some text and disappeared.
- Oh okay, so-
- And apparently one of us
knows what's going on.
- Yes.
- So does the person who
knows what's going on
wanna say what's going on?
I think it might be-
- Well, I know the
book is special.
The princess is special.
So it might be me who knows.
- Okay, I-
- I'm really sorry
I've been withholding.
- No, Red-
- It's just I've never-
- It's okay.
- Been around
so many royals before,
and I don't know what-
- Red.
- The manners are.
- Red we also know that-
- So I'm putting my cards on the table.
- I rub your back-
- I am a werewolf,
the book is special.
- It's okay.
- The princess is special.
I'm sorry.
- You're very obviously
a werewolf, it's fine.
- I'm sorry.
- It's okay.
- We did all guess it.
- I will admit that we,
I have learned some things.
- Oh.
- And when I went inside, there was...
a...
Inside there was kind of a lotta clocks,
but there was also a mirror-
- Okay.
- That I had sort of a conversation with
who seemed to have answers
on a number of topics.
One very important thing about that book
is that I think there were
more artifacts of magic
that could help if-
more artifacts of magic
that could help if-
- Yes.
- Give me either an
Insight or Investigation
or like a History check
with advantage, Murph.
- Nat 20.
- Wow.
- Yes.
- Yes uh.
- You hear artifact.
You hear Puss in Boots talking
about artifacts for the book,
the sphere.
- The gold sphere.
- You said gold.
(intense music)
And as you say gold,
it was just a sphere in the book.
It was just a hollow carved in the book.
But you remember... what?
You remember an object from
your life that was that size.
A golden ball dropped by a princess
into a pond full of lily pads.
- There was an artifact that was like
something that was missing from the book
that I had retrieved for my
wife when we were younger.
that I had retrieved for my
wife when we were younger.
- Oh, the thing that was...
When you touched it?
- Yes.
- Oh, so you
weren't taking from the book?
- Of course not.
- So I think-
- Wait, you look like
you just learned that now
in this moment, too.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- Did you think that-
- No, no, no, no.
- You were also taking from it?
- I trust you.
- Do you want me to be honest?
I didn't care.
- Okay, great.
I just wanted to be a human,
and I still do.
And if you leave me alone with
the book, I'm gonna touch it.
(players laughing)
- Well, we won't do that.
- Okay, so what was the story?
- Do you know where it is?
- The...
Would it have,
- I have an idea of where it lies.
Of significance, I don't
know if it's the same.
- Well, it would've been with my wife.
I think she would've...
I don't know if she
would've kept it on her.
It would've possibly been
in the castle at Greenleigh,
but the castle is,
I don't know if it's completely fallen,
but it was certainly...
I bravely fled when things got dodgy.
(Lou laughing)
- Those usually aren't
used together.
- I've also bravely fled.
- I have also bravely fled.
- I'm a coward.
- Red, I've seen you-
- You're the bravest person-
- You're a child.
- I've ever met.
- [Murph] I've seen you grab someone.
- Yeah, you defended my life
like not 45 minutes ago.
- Probably only because
I don't value my own.
(Brennan laughing)
- Well, I mean two things can be true.
Maybe you're brave and we need to work
on your own self worth.
- We need to figure
this kid out in addition to other things.
But it could-
- Mr. Pib said
he had an idea of where it would be.
- Oh, yes.
Does the road to Elegy
mean anything to anyone?
- Anyone that wants to
give me a History check.
- Ooh, baby.
- [Siobhan] 17.
- 23.
- Nice.
- Yeah, you were a prince, you know Elegy.
There's a road from Shoeberg
that leads directly to Elegy.
Elegy's another fallen kingdom.
And I'm sorry, what did-
- [Siobhan] 17.
- 17.
Yes, you remember that...
Well, this was a long...
You've been asleep for 100 years,
but in your time there was,
you remember the Kingdom of Elegy.
It was another...
It was a beautiful, a beautiful kingdom.
A lot of merchants and sort
of a burgeoning middle class
of merchants and traders
and artisans and crafters
and all sorts of things.
- Okay.
- You remember it more recently.
You remember there was a
bit of a kerfuffle in Elegy.
On a 23 History check?
You remember hearing
something that you thought
was kind of nuts,
which is the whole kingdom
got turned upside down
because the young prince
made every marriageable woman
in the kingdom try on a shoe.
- Hmm.
- Okay, so this crazy story,
we were all gossiping about it.
(players laughing)
- Wow, royal gossip.
- Okay-
- That's good goss.
- That's true love
right there.
- Really?
- He didn't stop until
he found his princess?
- Okay, then that's where
I'll set my standards.
- No, well, okay, we'll
speak about this later.
- Drosselmeyer did say
something about there
maybe being other books like this.
Like this isn't the only one of its kind.
So.
- Yeah.
What's a group of books called?
A library.
- Yeah.
- But also if someone else has this book-
- Yeah.
- Maybe they actually
know how to use it and they can help you
in kind of figuring out-
- Yes.
- How-
- Well I thought he was
gonna help me and I didn't
close it fast enough-
- And then he is gone.
- And now he is completely...
Is it in the book anywhere?
Can I thumb through?
Oh no, I'm not gonna ever open it again.
Sorry, nevermind, I forgot
about the throat grab.
- I do it.
- Yeah, yeah, you can, here.
- But yes, so Puss...
Yeah, you did hear about this thing
on the road to Elegy,
or the road leading up from-
- Shoeberg.
- From Shoeberg.
Yes, yes, yes.
- The road of Elegy.
And it sounds like it's not
exactly going to be a nice time.
- Hmmm.
- What is the stakes?
- Well, he told us that
we six have to stay together as a group,
and if one person strays
it will make us too weak
to carry this all out.
And I know that we all just met, but...
- Why does everyone always
ask you not to stray?
I-
(players laughing)
- Why, someone give me
a mission that's like,
hey, this is gonna require
you to stray a lot.
- Well, we can stray.
We just have to stray together.
- [Ally] Exactly.
- Well that's
a nice way of looking at it.
- That's a nice way to
think about it.
Right, together not-
- I'm gonna set that as my standard
as well.
- Running off into teapots by ourselves
and withholding information about mirrors.
- My guy, I barely know you.
(players laughing)
- Yes, as you remember...
So the mirror mentioned the road to Elegy,
which you guys know is
sort of like on that way.
And Drosselmeyer said to you specifically
that someone in your group knew already
where this next thing that the
book needed could be found.
So you have a general location
and the knowledge that there is something
that the book is hungry for.
- And does it seem like that
was what he was talking about?
Or is there someone in the group
that really knows what's going
on and they're not saying?
- Your third question,
your third question was-
- 'Cause that's how
I heard it.
- Yeah.
Your third question was
sort of for what comes next,
and that's when the mirror
mentioned the kingdom of Elegy.
- Got it, okay.
- Could I ask Prince Gerard
what do you think that this
orb will mean to the book?
What did the artifact
mean to you or your wife?
- To me it...
I mean to me it's personal
because it represents...
the first time I met my- my wife
and of us coming together
and falling in love.
and of us coming together
and falling in love.
But besides being sort
of something personal,
I don't know why the book would want it.
- But you are writing
personal stories now.
- That's what I'm kind of thinking.
I don't wanna do this yet, obviously,
because we really need you,
but I think if I write your...
When I wrote the story about
my son and his candlestick,
I think maybe that was an important item,
and he was sucked into the book.
I think there's a way for me to have you
brought into the book permanently,
and it sounds like it's a really sweet,
peaceful place in there.
But I also don't know if you
want to leave this world-
- I don't trust trust it.
- Or our party, yeah.
- Mother Goose, you're holding the book,
and again, you holding the book...
It's when other people touch the book
that sort of this crazy sh*t happens.
Give me an Arcana check if you want.
- Nice.
- Nice.
- 23.
- You are thumbing through the book,
and you look into it,
and a bunch of other people
have touched it and done stuff
and you see little hints
of ink here and there.
You get to a page that's not
where the rhyme about Jack is,
nor where the rhyme
about Old King Cole is.
But you go to a page and you
see just a small illustration,
the kind that would almost
be between a paragraph break,
and you see it's a merry
king dancing on a table
and leaping onto the table to
join him over a candlestick
is a picture of your son.
And you see that they both look happy.
That there is something
here almost of like,
you had one story,
and that was just a story
that lived by itself.
And now you have two, and not
only do you have those two,
but now you've gotten this third thing
of them being together.
- Whoa-
- Okay, this seems-
- I'm uniting-
- This seems good.
I'm down to go in the book.
- The people.
No, no, we need you.
- Yeah, we, I guess we all
have to stick together.
We need-
I think that we could see you
becoming a full human
while you're out here,
and then we could put you in the book.
- Yeah, if you go full frog,
we'll put you in the book.
How about that?
- No, no, full human.
We're gonna help you get
to full human out here.
- Right.
Okay.
- Doesn't that sound nice? (laughing)
- Find your princess again.
- Wait, as you're going
through those pages,
you go back to the page that
was the last one you opened,
that was the most scary,
that still has a little
bit of that charcoal on it.
And you see that you have some ability
to move that with your fingers.
As you move it you see
it spells the word Elegy,
and moving it in that position
you see that a sort of
picture comes into focus
out of the charcoal, and it look-
you see a kind of frightening object,
but you see that it is a
long shard of glass, crystalline,
and you see that it appears to be dripping
with some kind of ichor
obviously everything is drawn in charcoal,
but it appears to be almost
like a spear made of glass,
rough hewn with something
dripping from the end of it.
- Wasn't your sister wearing glass?
- Yeah, I was wondering.
- Wearing glass armor.
- That was the other
thing the mirror said,
that your,
someone's sisters were aware?
- Sisters?
- I thought they said sisters.
- [Ally] Okay.
- So we're gonna have to keep it...
Okay, so now I've gotta keep you safe,
but it seems like you're
under attack as well.
- Seems like we have to
keep you safe most of all.
- I've got two details to work now.
(players laughing)
- Oh, I just remembered
I have something-
- I do love a child
with a job.
(Emily laughing)
- Pull out the scroll that I stole.
- Yes.
- This seems less important, but I-
(Siobhan laughing)
- Oh, you pull out
the little scroll.
It's a scroll of genealogy,
and you see it shows how Lord Bandlebridge
is related to the
burgomeister of Shoeberg.
- And burgomeister is-
- Is like the mayor.
Looking at that scroll.
- Okay.
- You see the name Cressida Lumley,
the burgomeister of Shoeburg,
and anyone that wants to can give me
a Investigation or a
Perception check there.
- I guess I crit with a natural one.
- [Brennan] Oh no.
- 19.
- [Emily] So that's a zero again.
- 18 Perception.
- [Brennan] 18 perception.
- 19 Perception.
- [Brennan] 19 Perception.
- Okay.
- [Emily] I did get a zero.
- With a 19 Perception I
think you look at that name,
the name Cressida Lumley,
but you see it,
you're sort of looking at it,
and there's some sort
of weird familiarity,
and then it lists her age.
It says that she's 117 years old,
and there's just something there
that gives you a wrinkle in your nose,
kind of similar to the feeling you got
when you were first talking with Cole
only about an hour before.
A small clue there.
All things being equal,
you remember also that Drosselmeyer said
that there were other books like this,
but also said something
about it being conditional
on that first artifact,
that there was something
about getting that first thing
that the book needed.
- (gasping) It needs like
a table of contents, I bet.
- Oh. (laughing)
- As you're assembled
here the side of the road,
you hear a voice speak up and
the giant rabbit, Eidelgrin,
whose teapot and master
have totally disappeared,
says I am very sorry to-
- Oh, you talk?
- Yeah, oh yes, that's true.
We do talk-
- That's why I
didn't try to pet you,
because I learned quick I'm
not supposed to do that.
- No, that's okay.
So there's a...
(Emily laughing)
There is another wizard who can
make a teapot for me to pull
or give me a job-
(Emily cackling)
For some reason.
- If you want to help pull the chariot.
- I mean then the ram's out of a job.
- But can't we just have both?
'Cause we're gonna-
- But maybe they
could be coworkers.
- Be heavy.
- How do you feel about that?
- Yeah, ram and-
- I could leap behind the
chariot and push or...
- Yeah-
- If there is another way to-
- I just start climbing onto the rabbit.
- Hey there's a little guy up there, huh?
(Emily laughing)
- How big is this rabbit?
- Oh, the rabbit is about
the size of a horse.
- So can-
- So can a couple of us
go on the rabbit?
- Yeah, two of us
are on the rabbit, two
of us are in the chariot.
I can ride on the ram.
And I run alongside.
- Okay.
- [Emily] I have too much energy.
- Okay, sure.
- I don't wanna be
Mr. Safety over here, but,
do any of you guys have a way to kind of
change what you look like or
help me not look the same.
Just in case-
- I turn into a werewolf.
- Yeah, I'm-
- My god, no.
- I can put my hair in a ponytail.
- Yeah, I don't know,
I'm a little puppet boy.
- [Ally] I just mean in case the chicken-
- We're all cursed.
- In case the chicken has run into town
and been like there's scary magic witches,
and then they're all waiting for us.
- Well the chicken left not that long ago.
Maybe we can-
- I know.
- Get there faster
than the chicken.
- I've read this in so many stories,
and I just cut off my pigtails.
- Oh, yeah.
- Yikes.
- Wow.
- That was fast.
- I don't think that
would help me look much different.
Could I have the pigtails?
Can I make a wig?
And now I have kind of like a short bob.
- You know, actually does
look better than the hat.
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
- Definitely better than the hat.
- Yeah?
It's kind of like...
- You can rock a bob.
- The hat on top to keep it-
- Oh my gosh, thank you.
- No, no, no.
- You see Eidelgrin
looks up at you and says
where are you trying to get?
Are you worried about the chicken
lady who runs the caravan?
- Maybe a little bit.
- Yes, I think we're trying
to make our way to Elegy.
- Yeah, I thought we were
more worried about the people
that you had a bad-
- Well,
there are many ways to get to Elegy
without having to go
through Shoeberg first
if you're worried about
the little chicken.
- Oh, fantastic.
- Let's do it.
- Okay.
- Yeah, we can go
through the forest.
- Oh, how lovely.
(players groaning)
- No, maybe-
- Why don't you like that forest idea?
- Specifically not supposed
to not stray, right?
- That ostrich is still
in there somewhere.
- I'm very proficient in the forest,
and I can help us get through.
- Okay.
- Okay, I don't know.
- Are we that afraid of the chicken?
- I'm not that afraid
of the chicken.
- I'm not that afraid
of the chicken.
- I'm more afraid
of the chicken
- That's a more social-
- than I am the ostrich.
- I look into the deep dark forest.
- Yeah the forest looks bad.
- Rosamund, you look at
the deep dark forest.
Do you do anything as you
sort of gaze into the forest?
Eidelgrin looks over at you and says
Do you really know your way
through the dark forest?
- Oh, I am so good at forests.
I've spent the last six
months learning a lot.
- Oh wow, you seem like someone who's...
Well, I'm not just gonna
make an observation
about you right to your face.
That would be terribly rude.
(Murph and Brennan laughing)
I was raised in a better hutch than that.
- Okay, now I have to know.
You have to tell me.
- You seem right on the edge.
You know?
- Oh, I am, but I can do
a forest and that's okay.
- [Brennan] That's all right.
- Most of my skills, not useful anymore.
- Let's see, I mean this is pretty tangled
even for a rabbit, but...
You see as Eidelgrin sort
of hops over to the forest,
as you accompany, you see
that in front of Rosamund
as you accompany, you see
that in front of Rosamund
the sort of thick tangled
brush actually parts
(brush clearing)
and reveals more open forest.
- See?
- Well, then
that's a clear path.
We're not straying if the way
is literally opening to us.
Or is that just a thing
that happens to royals?
I've never met them before.
- Oh, I don't know, it just started
happening to me.
- Does that happen for you?
I shove Gerard.
(players laughing)
- Ah!
No, I'm turning into a frog.
- I just wanna speak from experience.
I think sometimes things that
are cool and seem fun up front
then get real f*ck' nasty
like 10 minutes in, so-
- (cackling) What?
- If you wanna do this, we can,
but I just want us to be ready.
We could need to scrap hard.
- I'm ready to...
I've got my fencing book right here.
(Brennan laughing)
- Okay, bad sign.
- Of course I know how to fight.
(Brennan laughing)
I've got
the "Rabbit Rushed Onward".
(Murph imitating a sword)
(Lou laughing)
- This is-
- Two Eels for Supper.
(Murph imitating a sword)
(Lou laughing)
- Are these moves?
- I think I'm repeating
these all with my axe.
- These are my moves.
- Sorry, and you are
reading how to do them,
the methods?
(Lou laughing)
- So they're called the sword forms,
and you just do the thing.
- Can they be performed with an axe?
- I suppose so.
There's little pictures here,
if you could see how to-
- Wow, the man performing
those is so skinny.
- Yes, yes.
(players laughing)
Yes he is.
- [Lou] So what do- Are we-
He's just by himself
in all these pictures,
so I don't have proof that they work,
but this is an old book.
- Well, whatever we do,
I guess as long as we do it together-
- Together.
- We'll have the strength for it.
So, I mean are we gon- do we,
are we afraid of the hen and
wanna go into the forest?
Or are we gonna just-
- I'm not that afraid of-
- At this point I am not-
- I'm-
- But this seems inviting, I will say.
- I'm not afraid of the
hen, but if we have,
if we're on a magical quest
and a magical door opens up
for a magical girl and
then we go see about a hen?
- Yeah, I will say I
am a castle guy, and I-
(Lou laughing)
And Rosamund has kept me
alive in the forest, so.
- I'm very much an indoor cat. (laughing)
- I mean, you know what,
I'm gonna switch gears.
Let's do the f*ck' forest.
Let's do it.
(players laughing)
- Okay, Red,
I've got your back in the forest.
I wish you the best of
luck while we go in there.
- I've got your back in the forest,
and I wish you the best of luck
when we go in there, Timothy Mother Goose.
- Thank you.
- And Sir Cat, if you're an indoor cat,
if you'd like to ride in my hood, you may.
- Um, looking at this scratched-
- So thorny.
There's so many holes in this-
(Emily laughing)
- I think I'm good right here.
Thank you, thank you so much.
- Okay.
- Bardic Inspiration.
(pleasant chime)
- Thank you.
- All right, to the forest?
- Hey Mr. Ram?
(Brennan huffing)
We're gonna hit the forest.
You feelin' good about that?
(Brennan huffing)
My man.
(everyone laughing)
He's ready when we are.
- All right, I hop on the chariot.
- I hop on the ram itself.
- [Brennan] Incredible.
- I'm in the chariot as well.
I kind of duck down and looking worried.
- I guess I bow to the bunny rabbit,
and then climb on his back.
- Ah, very respectful.
I appreciate the courtesy.
Onward, then.
- Where are you?
- I'm sprinting alongside.
- Just hop on the rabbit.
- I have too much energy.
I need to burn some of this-
- Okay, great.
- And all of you go into the woods.
- Oh my god.
(Brennan laughing)
So with the ram and the
chariot, Eidelgrin the rabbit,
this motley assortment
of fairytale adventurers
embark into the deep dark forest
towards the Kingdom of Elegy.
- I told you we were going into the woods.
That's why I wore
this forest thing.
- There you go.
- [Ally] Oh my god.
- Siobhan, where is Rosamund at
in terms of her Ranger abilities?
What sort of threats do you avoid?
- I mean I have Natural Explorer,
so my favorite terrain
type is, of course, forest.
What else would I pick for a fairytale?
So I have proficiency,
My proficiency is doubled...
for proficient skills when I make
an Intelligent or Wisdom
check related to the forest
while traveling for an hour
or more in a chosen location,
difficult terrain doesn't
slow your group's travel.
Your group can't become lost
except by magical means.
- Wow.
- You remain alert to danger
even when you're engaged
in another activity.
You can move stealthily at
a normal pace while alone.
You find twice as much food while foraging
and while tracking creatures you learn
their exact number, sizes,
and how long ago they
passed through the area.
- Ooh, this is gonna be Ranger done right.
- Incredible.
So all of you venture into the dark woods,
which for most of you is a death sentence.
Rosamund seems to guide
you through the forest
on all of the hidden paths, deer trails,
by pools of water surrounded
by toadstools and mushrooms,
clear brooks that run through moss
from which it is safe to drink,
and you move through the
woods further and further
until you eventually
some day or two later,
journeying from this
place, mounted as you are,
even finding space for the chariot
to safely maneuver through the forest,
you arrive at a small wooded ridge
overlooking the first signs that you
have actually exited from the Blackwood.
I'm going to roll one little roll here.
- That's crazy. (laughing)
This is just wild.
- Honestly this forest was very easy.
It's not dark at all.
Really quite light as forests go,
in my experience.
- When you're awake, yeah.
- Way to go, Rosamund.
- I agree.
- I mean, yeah, Rosamund big- big ups.
- Yeah, good job.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, I mean, yeah,
can't knock the hustle.
(Brennan laughing)
- Big ups.
- Big ups, Rosamund.
- Just huge ups.
- Thank you.
I have never had any ups before.
- Giant ups.
- To have some big ones-
- Yeah, these are some
f*cking big ups.
- It's my first
good day in a while.
- Hell, yeah.
Honestly same.
- Oh boy.
- Yeah, this feels
like a fun field trip, right?
Or would I imagine.
I was homeschooled by Grandma.
- As I'm going by,
I'm teaching Red Riding Hood
what all of the plants are.
- Wow.
- Leaves of three
let them be.
- Show me more scat.
- You can eat this one.
That's bear, be careful.
(players laughing)
That's a bear poop.
- As you emerge from the woods,
you go from the thick primeval
forest, and you're out now,
you come over a ridge
that looks down at kind of
a little, I guess you'd
call it like a hamlet,
but it's a very
interesting kind of hamlet.
It doesn't seem very agrarian,
even though it's rural.
It's a couple of plaster buildings
with orange clay roof tiles.
There's a little well in
the center of the village.
It looks totally abandoned.
You know that Elegy is a fallen kingdom.
It looks like this is
just one little outpost
kind of on your way.
You know that the forest
will pick back up again.
You can see it.
So you're kind of like crossing
almost a little peninsula
So you're kind of like crossing
almost a little peninsula
of the edge of civilization
towards more of the forest
that you know heads
towards the road again.
You guys had actually kind of
bisected and skipped Shoeberg.
Shoeberg would've been like...
You would've had to go to Shoeberg
and then come back on a different road.
But you see this sort of little collection
of abandoned homes and then more forest
past this little village.
- How long has this been abandoned?
Is this like weeks, months, years?
Give me a Survival check.
- 25.
- 25, damn.
You look around, signs of life.
You don't see any human
footprints in a while.
And nothing of that size really.
No livestock, no horses.
But there's plenty of small wildlife.
You see there's some bird nests around.
You can hear some birds even.
Sort of gray overhead.
You've arrived here like
you've been sort of traveling,
you rested, you went through the day,
but in the Blackwood it's very
hard to tell night from day.
You've arrived here again.
This is one of those strange
realms as a fallen kingdom
that you look up and see
the sun in a nighttime sky.
So you're in a weird
kind of purple twilight
with stars in a black sky,
but a sun just by itself.
Whatever courts govern the heavens,
it seems that the court of
day and the court of the sun
are now at odds and are in some places
no longer dwelling with each other.
This is one such kingdom.
- Is there an inn here
that we could maybe...
- On a 25 this place is being
as abandoned as it seems,
there might be an inn
nearby, but as likely as not,
you see that some of these homes,
you see that some of 'em were abandoned.
Some look like they're not
even boarded up at all.
And it would be totally fine just to-
- Just find the nicest place.
- Yeah, find the nicest place-
- Wow.
Squatting with a princess and a prince.
- I love a sleepover.
(Ally laughing)
- Me, too.
- [Siobhan] We can do each other's hair.
- I read in...
The idea of one seems really cool.
- I'm great at hair.
- [Emily] I've yet to achieve.
- Even with your grandma?
- You have two pigtails.
- That's true,
I have done a sleepover.
- [Lou] (laughing) Glued on.
- For our journey through the forest.
- Gerard, what hair did you
have before the whole, you know?
- Before the whole,
well I still have a few.
(Siobhan laughing)
Beautiful-
- What the... (laughing)
Wow, I didn't notice.
- You didn't?
- Just like six or seven?
- What-
- How much hair do you have?
- What are you laughing at?
(players laughing)
- I'm not, it's just-
- In between the eyes,
I couldn't quite see,
and knowing that there
are six or seven hairs there.
- I could braid them.
- When I am handsome again,
no one's going to be laughing.
(Brennan laughing)
Everyone's just
gonna be excited-
- Why, what will we
be doing instead?
- What are we doing
instead of laughing?
- Just going wow.
- Sorry-
- Did you see that guy?
- Sorry, am I to understand
that you are suggesting
that we would become actually just
thrilled when you are handsome again?
(players laughing)
- When you see how handsome I am,
you'll all kind of talk
a little bit about-
I am that type of guy,
where I walk in you go,
that guy's pretty handsome.
- Honestly, I can't wait
to get this guy back up
to snuff.
- I'm gonna
leave it a surprise to say-
- I mean, yeah.
'Cause you're pretending you
can't see the hairs up there,
but they're there.
So that's what it looks like.
- Depending on the angle,
the eyes are in the way.
But anyway.
- I hope your dream of
becoming pretty handsome-
(players laughing)
- Again, not like perfect or anything.
Like when you were looking at your prince,
and he kind of went from
super hot to like pretty hot,
that's me.
I'm-
- You're number two?
- Second click.
(players laughing)
Second click prince. (laughing)
- Okay.
- Like, it's like Prince Charming, me.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- It's hot.
- Well if we can get some hay for the ram.
- For me?
- Oh, you were just gesturing to me.
- You're a person.
- [Ally] You get some hay.
- I mean, hey, I eat for fun,
but you actually need
to eat like real food.
- Yeah, you need to eat food.
Also wolves eat food.
- [Ally] So we're just going through-
- I know.
- Yeah.
- We're just going through the town?
- Yeah, you find like a
lovely little dwelling here
that seems like a larger
house that might actually have
like three or four bedrooms
in it that you could-
- That's great, let's see if they have
like a wine cellar or something.
- Yeah, can we have-
(Lou laughing)
- [Murph] Just like super disrespectful.
(Lou dying of laughter)
- Let's see if they have a wine cellar!
- Yeah, yeah.
- I mean, hey,
we've been roughin' it for while.
Let's see if they got some wine!
- Give me Investigation checks
as you guys go into this little hacienda,
yeah.
- Natural 20.
- Natural 20?
(players laughing)
What are you looking for?
- Wine.
(players laughing)
- You guys see there's a
really paltry wine cellar.
Who are people that were
most psyched about wine?
It was Pinocchio (laughing) and Gerard.
- Yes!
You go down-
- I'm looking for wine
and milk.
(players laughing)
- You go down.
There's a very paltry kind of wine cellar,
and you, Puss, you smell
the smell of fresh air
behind one of these wine barrels.
- Doing the cat mouth a bit.
(players laughing)
- I'm gonna say you just Fonzie a barrel,
and a secret door opens into
a vast untouched wine cellar.
- Whoa.
- I don't tell anyone and I close it.
(players laughing)
- Oh my god.
- Puss, what you get?
What's down there?
- Did you get anything?
- It seems like nothing down here.
(players laughing)
- I got a nine trying to find your wine.
- A nine trying to find wine.
For Mother Goose and Rosamund,
what do you-
- I would love
a glass of Merlot in the bath,
so I'm gonna be looking
around for any sort of pail
I can fill with water.
- Go with like pump outside
and go get that.
- Yeah, some kind of good travel food,
if there's any sort of hams.
- You had a 25 Survival check,
right?
- Yeah.
- What did you roll
for your Investigation?
- Nine.
- A nine?
Oh but wait, I have double proficiency.
So 11.
- There you go.
You don't find any food
because as you open a larder,
you open a sort of
cupboard, and you see in it-
And I think that people-
'Cause you're out-
So you're both, you're looking for-
- Think I was just tryin'
to help him find wine.
- Cool, so you guys
are down in the cellar.
You're outside with a pail,
looking for a pail of water.
- You're like underfoot kid.
- Rosamund-
- Just trying to help.
- You open a cupboard,
and as you open it up
you see a small village
of little makeshift homes
you see a small village
of little makeshift homes
in the cupboard and a
group of mice gathered
in a little town square of their
little mice houses in the cupboard.
And you see they all
collective kind of (screeching)
goes out-
- Oh, hello little mice.
- You see one of the mice
steps outta the front and says,
(sobbing in terror) please
your ladyship, you can eat me.
Just don't eat the rest.
Please don't turn this
into nothin' unnatural or-
- No, don't be afraid I won't eat you.
What happened to you?
- Well, we've just been hidin', we has.
Eatin' them old wheels of
cheese in the pantry yonder,
but we've just been avoidin',
we've just been avoiding her.
- Who's her?
- The one up the road, she is.
She came here once back
long, long years ago.
And she...
She shifted us, she did.
- Oh, you're the people of this town?
- No.
- No?
- She had done turned us
into the people of this town.
We's the mice of this town.
- You're the mice of this town
that she turned into
the people of this town
and now you're mice
again but you can talk?
- My cousin Ogbert was
turned into a man, he was,
somethin' terrible.
And you see a little mouse
who's next to this house
they built out of old playing
cards and beeswax and stuff
says they were right awful ma'am.
I was scurrying about lookin'
for a bite of cheese, I was,
and a lady showin' up as she'd done
with a crown and wings
and floatin' and that.
And she come out to help.
There was a giant, you know,
like yourself, a human,
(dramatic music)
and she was a nice enough lass
and always shared some crumbs for us,
and she slept right there in
that bed by the fireplace.
And you just see some rags on
the ground by the fireplace.
And one night as it were,
this horrifying magical thing happened,
this horrifying magical thing happened,
and me and Donal, we was out there,
and he was faster than me,
and me and our cousin Norbert,
she took her wand up like this, she did,
and she turned us into people!
- Oh no.
- It was like we wanted to drive a coach
made outta a pumpkin to a ball,
and we came back and we
remembered everything about it!
She made us want to be good servants,
and we didn't even
understand things like that.
- Oh.
So-
- It was a whole four
and a half hours, it was,
of being people, unnatural like.
- And how long ago was that?
- I don't, couple years.
- And you're still...
- I'm real upset about it.
(Ally laughing)
- Wow.
- She does it, you know?
She'll see some young lass
who wants to win Queen of the Mayfair,
and she don't care no difference,
and she'll make a donkey a butler,
and a mouse a coachman,
and- and- and a bucket into a valet!
And then there I am a
man talking to a man,
but I'm a mouse and he's really a bucket.
(players laughing)
(creepy music with glitching sounds)
(everyone trying to hold their laughs in)
It'll drive you mad if you think about it!
- Can I come in with my bucket of water?
- Yeah, you come in.
- Can I help-
- That could be a man!
- No, what?
- It could!
If she wants it.
She'll turn you into
anything, anything at all.
- Can I help you?
- [Brennan] What?
- Do you wanna come with us?
- No, please, just don't
tell anyone we're here.
She hadn't come back.
- Oh.
- As long as there's not...
Wait a minute.
You're a young lassie.
- No.
- I'm actually, 118.
- What did she look like?
- You're 118?
You look great.
- Thank you so much.
- What did she look like?
What was she wearing?
- Gown.
Gown and that and a hood
and a crown and ringlets.
But last we saw her, it was different,
even worse than before.
She had come in and...
she had done her spells,
but the shadow had come.
We'd heard word from the people here
there were some other young women here,
and their mother had gotten them
to carve their toes off with a knife
or cut their heels off their feet, like.
And then the princess,
she up and left.
And that's when the storms came,
and that fairy came back with hollow eyes,
mad beyond reckoning,
turnin' all sorts of
creatures of the field,
beasts and birds, into
seamstresses and garland makers.
And she was grabbin' up
lassies left and right
and makin' 'em fall in
love, and it was a horror.
- That sounds awful.
There was a shoe, right?
- Aye, you know it?
(warped trombone sound)
- I think that's what
we're looking for here.
I think we're looking for the shoe.
- A shoe.
- The only information we had was that
he turned the whole town upside down
looking for someone to fit into the shoe.
So, I think that's-
- Well, we remembered.
We remembered the shoe the first time
and we remember it the second.
- The second?
- Well, the first time
it were nothin' more
than a glass slipper, it were.
And that's why them girls
had chopped off their heels
and chopped off their toes.
Pinocchio, you're down in the
wine cellar havin' a ball.
- Oh, I'm sorry-
- Are havin' a ball?
- Are we havin', okay.
- I let them know eventually.
- [Brennan] Oh, you let
them know eventually.
- Then we're havin' a f*ck' ball.
- You're havin' a f*ck' ball.
- I almost didn't tell you idiots.
(players laughing)
- What vint is this?
(cork popping)
- Give me an Arcana check.
- I'm not good at that.
That just happened one time, dude.
That's a...
That's a four.
- A four.
I think you're gettin' f*ck' blasted.
You're just gettin' tipsy as hell.
You're good.
- Wooooo!
- Damn it,
goddammit, goddammit.
- You see Donal, the sort of
spokesman of the mice here
goes, right, that first time
it were a glass slipper.
The second time a girl had come back here.
She'd come back because
something had changed.
The woman who used to live here,
she changed into somethin' fierce.
One night by the fireplace
she called her daughters down to her.
We saw them go behind the
chair by the fireplace,
and we never saw them girls again.
But that woman stood up.
(sinister string music)
She got on a horse.
We had known her to
have a name before then,
but none could remember it after that.
And shortly after that, Her Highness,
the princess come back,
and she came here because she knew
something foul had happened.
Both those daughters were gone,
and the woman who used
to live here had left,
this place was abandoned.
Princess came back,
and she and that-
You see that the other one, Norbert says
and that's when the fairy came back, too.
She had come back and
she told the princess
to get back to the castle,
keep livin' her happy
life with the prince like.
Said get back to things as they
were and as they should be.
And Princess looked at her
and told her she were a
foul thing, that fairy.
She broke off the heel of
one of them glass slippers.
And the last time we saw it,
she had took it up in her hand,
and that young lady who
ain't been nothin' more
than an ash maid, treated
so awful by her sisters,
she took a spear of glass and threw it
and drove it through the
heart of that fairy there.
Cinderella k*lled the godmother.
- Where did this happen?
In the living room?
- Right outside.
It happened out by the well.
- Can I go sniff around for blood?
To get a-
- Yes you can.
- To get a taste-
- Give me
a Survival check with advantage.
- Can I call down to the guys?
- [Brennan] Or Perception.
Yeah.
- Hey everyone-
where is the-
- Shh shh shh, we're not.
- I'm gonna go ahead and
add the Bardic Inspiration.
- Yeah, go for it.
- What is that?
- D6.
- [Emily] D6?
- We're not partying down here.
- Okay, that is an 18.
- You smell old blood.
Fairy blood stains forever.
It smells like spice and
cinnamon and sparks and embers.
- Does it smell like the
blood of a stepmother
or a godmother or a mother
or a grandmother or maiden or a crone?
- It smells like a godmother.
- We got godmother blood.
(Brennan laughing)
I memorize the scent.
- Can I run out there?
Or are we still chatting with the mice?
- You can absolutely run out there.
You guys have tons of bottles
from the wine cellar downstairs.
- Upstairs, it sounds like-
- Yeah, just bring-
- [Murph] I mean we'll just bring
a couple of bottles
- Yeah.
- Bring a couple of bottles.
- I can't, I'm too small.
So someone else is carrying it.
- [Lou] Yeah, okay.
- I don't have hands.
- You should, you're bigger than...
- What, I'm a prince.
- Here, let me give you-
- I'll take, I'll hold-
- Great, thanks...
Oh, okay.
- I can hold two.
- Eight.
- Just just, just...
Okay, just the two cases.
- I think everyone's gonna be real excited
when we show 'em all the wine we got.
- Carry me.
(Zac and Murph laughing)
- You smell that it's a
powerful magical scent outside.
Pinocchio, as you wander up,
you guys have have the bottles,
go ahead and give me a
Perception with advantage again.
- Pinocchio.
15.
- 15.
- You look up the stairs
as you're walking.
Mother Goose and Rosamund
have been shouting.
Red's shouting from outside.
And you look up the staircase,
there's a doorway up there.
- (quietly) Not now, Mom.
- Hey, I toss my two bottles to Gerard.
- I already have a lot.
- Hey, we, well, I'm gonna
go get upstairs real quick,
and I'm gonna run as fast as I can.
- Bad excuse.
- You run upstairs, you get up there.
Gerard and Pib, you guys head out.
You go to that door.
You look at it.
Pinocchio,
it's- it's the door.
It's not the door that you walked through
to get to that hallway.
You're looking-
- Oh, it's the door
I look through.
- It's the door you look and see
where she only lives in silhouette.
You're seeing a door here like one...
There's something about it.
Even with a wooden body
you feel suddenly nauseous,
like you're seeing something
you're not supposed to see.
Like the moment of seeing
the great and powerful Oz,
and then here's the
man behind the curtain.
This is the door, the original door.
You're seeing some naked
piece of old magic,
and it's just a dusty old wooden door
a little bit off its hinges.
- Is there anyone immediately next to me?
- No.
- I'm just gotta open it a little bit.
I just wanna peek inside. (laughing)
- You open it a little bit.
You see a fireplace in this great bedroom,
bedroom of the lord
and lady of this house.
And you see a chair by the fireplace
and you see some shapes behind it.
- Ma?
- Two skeletons on the
other side of the chair,
one with no toe bones,
the other with a chunk
of its heel carved off.
You see bloody hand prints
all across the floor.
Your stepmother isn't calling you,
but this was her home, you think.
And you think that here in this place,
a time came where she needed
something deep and powerful,
a time came where she needed
something deep and powerful,
and you think she ate
the two young girls here.
(people wailing, glitching sounds)
(eerie music)
- Okay.
I think she ate her two daughters?
- You see cracked bones,
marrow sucked out of a femur.
It looks like...
And the bloody hand
prints are the hand prints
of a stately woman in a
regal dress on all fours
devouring her daughters bite by bite.
- This is your mom, dude?
(players laughing)
- My stepmom, dude.
- That's f*cked up.
- You keep calling her mom,
dude, it sounds like-
- Dude, well I have
never had a mom before.
So my first mom is my stepmom.
So it's just my first
opportunity to call somebody mom.
Stepmom's a mouthful.
Okay, cool.
- You get the feeling like
if she sees you here and you don't know
if she has some way of doing
that, you'll be in trouble.
But you also know that
this place is meaningful.
Something happened here that
was magically important.
- I'm just gonna, real
quick, real real super quick,
super quick,
really quick,
and I'm gonna close the door
behind me when I walk inside.
- Close the door behind you.
Give me an Investigation check.
- Okay, I'm not good at this.
Can I give you more Perception
checks with advantage?
(Ally laughing)
(Emily laughing)
Oh, 17?
- You
see...
in the room there are a few things.
You see that there is a small
etching on a bedside table
You see that there is a small
etching on a bedside table
of what looks like a very
kind, paternal-looking man,
of what looks like a very
kind, paternal-looking man,
merchant of some kind.
On the other table there
is a carving knife,
as from a kitchen, blood stained.
And the other thing in
closing the door behind you
that you feel on that 17 is
that doorknob's a little loose.
- Why are doorknobs loose?
It's like somebody's trying to get out?
Why is a doorknob loose?
Okay.
- Your friends are gathering outside.
- I'm gonna grab...
Can I grab the etching of a man?
- [Brennan] Yeah.
- And I'll grab the carving knife.
- You grab them both.
- And I'm gonna head back outside.
- You head back.
Doorknob's still loose in the door.
Perhaps just 'cause the
door and a lot of the house
is deteriorating, but grabbing it,
it does feel loose again.
- Why are doorknobs loose, huh.
But I'm now back.
- Yeah, you can leave the room.
- Doorknob's loose?
- Yeah, like not firmly attached
to the mechanism inside the door.
(eerie stinger)
- Do I feel like I get...
(players laughing)
Do I feel like I can finger the doorknob?
(Ally laughing)
Is that what you guys want me to do?
(players laughing)
Yeah, if I take the doorknob out,
do I feel like I can finger...
Does this feel takable?
Or if I pulled hard enough
I could take it with me?
- Yeah.
- I'll give it a yank.
- You pull the doorknob of the door off,
hold it in your hand.
You feel powerful magic
emanating from this.
- Ooh.
(sweet dreamy music)
- And then simple, warm
brass doorknob in your hand.
Whatever you were almost
waking up goes back to sleep.
But you have it in your hand.
- Okay.
I'm gonna put it in
whatever weird pocket I have
and join my screaming friends.
- Join your screaming friends outside.
- Okay, you join your
screaming friends outside.
And again, this feeling as you leave
of something deeply haunted,
of seeing something...
That feeling of nausea you
get in situations of, oh,
there's someone that I
really know is not at home,
and I'm seeing the door
to their bedroom open
or they left their journal
on the table or something.
Like something private
and old and profound
that you just recognize
that door from in the door.
You've seen it because
she's always in silhouette.
But that door always has the light on it,
and you just have seen it
too many times not to know.
- Mm-hmm.
- You head out.
All of you are gathered outside.
Is there anything left that
you do before heading off
to follow this trail?
- I think I let
everybody know that we're looking for,
the glass shard is probably
the part of this glass slipper.
And then let them know the whole story
that the mice told us.
- Sorry, where are the mice?
(Murph and Brennan laughing)
- It's a little country of mice living-
- Can you show me.
- No, no, no.
No.
- [Zac] Are you sure?
- They left.
- I think I could figure something out.
- I think they left already.
- Did I say mice?
I said, I meant lice.
- Nevermind.
(everyone laughing)
- Can I go and sneak in
and talk to the mice
and ask them the color
that the fairy, the godmother wore?
- Oh, she had a great
purple gown, she did.
- Purple?
- Aye.
- Oh!
Well then I don't know her, I guess.
Thank you.
- Thank you, kind lass,
and we always do love
to meet a nice young lass
who's a pleasure to talk to.
But you should leave,
'cause if you stayed,
someone'll turn us into a servant.
- Thank you, thank you, absolutely.
I get whatever crumbs I have in my pocket
and give it to them.
- You see, someone says, a bounty!
We'll have a parade in your honor!
Scoop up the crumbs.
- I think I'm gonna
take Mother Goose aside
and just say I was eavesdropping,
and I heard all the talk
about young girls coming in
and starting to think
I could be a liability.
Beautiful young girl.
(players laughing)
- Yeah, of course.
Yeah, you're so cute, yeah.
- Should we be worried about me?
- You know, I just, yeah,
you kinda have this energy
of kind of like a manic,
like don't fall in love with me kind of-
- Do I give off that vibe?
- I just, I think you're
gonna be very happy,
but you're not a liability, okay?
- Okay.
- And you can't keep
looking for-
- [Emily] Okay, you sure about that?
- In your mind you're like,
uh-oh, what if I'm a liability?
And then you're looking for proof.
- Right.
- And it's exhausting
to keep batting that out
of your hands every second.
- Okay, okay, yeah.
- Just let...
I'll let you know if I
think you're a liability.
- I'll be honest with you.
- Okay, good, good.
Yeah, yeah, you let me know,
'cause I know how I look.
- Yeah, definitely.
And a evil stepmom would
scoop you right up.
- [Emily] Yeah.
- I believe it.
Yeah.
- All right.
Thanks, thanks for this talk.
- Of course.
You know what?
Anytime, and I pat you on the back.
I give you another Bardic Inspiration.
(players laughing)
- Pib.
- Hearing the story there was in the town
or the blood was, was
there a well or did you-
- Yes, out by the well in sort
of the center of the town.
- Can I just make an
Investigation check on the well?
- Sure, absolutely.
- 17 plus three, dirty 20.
- Dirty 20, yeah, you see
that there's a well out there.
You smell the water down there.
It smells like there
might be one or two coins
that didn't make it all
the way to the water
and stayed on the stones here,
a couple people throwing them in.
But it does look like
generally a well that
people used for well water.
- Okay, that's all I'll do with it.
- Somebody got stabbed
by the well?
- Yeah, there's
godmother blood everywhere here.
I've memorized the flavor
profile, personally,
but if anyone wants to spelunk this well,
I could definitely get into that.
- Ylfa, you smell the blood
and you smell where it goes.
- And where does it go?
- Wait, hold on,
nose to the ground.
Shimmy to follow it.
(players laughing)
- A young girl wearing a red cloak
with a huge woodsman's
ax strapped to her back
on all-
- Oh my god, I can find it, I can find it.
- Yeah, Red goes scary fast on all fours.
(players laughing)
- Whoa.
- Okay.
- [Emily] I go backwards.
(snarling)
- Get it girl.
(Emily laughing)
- Wolves don't do that.
- You take off back towards where
the Blackwood picks back up again.
- I hurry to go with her
so that she has somebody
who will stop her from getting lost.
- I'm gonna get the ram real quick.
- Yeah, I'll get Eidelgrin.
- You get the ram, you get Eidelgrin.
- Just load up the chariot with wine.
Come on, we're going, we're going.
(players laughing)
- Hiya.
- You get to a certain
point traveling with them
where you actually do hit the
road coming from Shoeberg.
Blood continues in this direction.
(slow piano music)
The next place you have to get to,
you face a bit of a
sheer, maybe like 30 foot,
40 foot cliff, moss covered
roots, things like that.
It seemed like the fairy godmother
may have been spilling
blood as she was flying.
- [Siobhan] I see.
- Oh.
- So that's what your
senses are telling you.
It puts you guys in a position
where Eidelgrin and the ram
cannot come with you up that cliff.
But you also have them
on the road right here.
So it's up to you whether
you want to lose the trail,
send them back to that sort
of safe little village,
or have them stay on the road.
- Maybe it's the growing predator in me,
but I don't wanna lose this trail.
- I don't either.
- Well we can send 'em...
So we can send them back to-
- Eidelgrin's completely intelligent
and can absolutely make
his way back to the house.
- All right.
Okay, you guys go back to the house,
and we'll come find you.
- I can, when I return to the house,
maybe I can find there's
a mention of some cheeses
in a larder, and I could make
some pairings with the wines.
- [Siobhan] Oh.
- [Lou] Yeah.
- Wonderful.
- [Lou] Great.
- Roll them out, you know?
- Yes.
- [Murph] You're fantastic.
- If you can find-
- [Zac] We're going to be hungry.
- Incredible.
- And if you can find any hay
for Senator, that'd be great.
- Sorry for who?
- (laughing) I named the ram.
- You named it Senator?
- Yeah, I named it Senator.
- Quietly named the ram Senator.
- Yeah, by myself.
- Strong choice.
- Power move, and I appreciate it.
- [Siobhan] Very strong choice.
- I named the ram Senator.
- [Murph] Wow.
- It feels strange to say
it feels like you're a guy
that does a lotta gambling.
It feels like you would like
bet on a ram named Senator.
- I mean, who wouldn't bet
on a ram named Senator?
- I would certainly
bet on a ram named Senator.
- Senator is the fastest thing
I can think of.
(Emily laughing)
- Nothing more reliable.
- So Eidelgrin and Senator-
- Senator, yep.
- Head back into the house,
as you guys scale the cliff.
(Emily laughing)
I need to ask you guys,
you're following this blood.
The blood is old, but you
begin to smell other things.
The blood is old, but you
begin to smell other things.
You begin to find old corpses
close to the road.
You see that bodies have
been dragged off the road,
clearly merchants.
There's a couple of like
shattered shoe wagons,
people coming up from Shoeberg.
This is a place where
highwaymen or some other things,
but highwaymen don't k*ll
people this brutally.
There are just like
dead, disposed remains.
And what you notice is
there's a lot of marks here.
Your Survival check, there's
like a pile of some gold here,
and it looks like the gold
was dumped out of a chest
so that the chest could be
carried away more easily.
- So it's just a bunch of loose gold?
- Like a bunch of loose gold.
- I'm gonna grab like
10 pieces real quick.
- Yeah, if you just wanna grab
10 gold pieces, go for it.
- Can I do an Investigation
or Survival or?
- Yeah, give me an
Investigation or Survival.
- I would like to also.
- I'll do Survival.
- That's a crit.
- Oh hell yeah.
- Hell yeah.
- Not only are there
marks in the forest floor
of chests being dragged away.
You also see the thud of...
You also see the thud of...
There's like claw marks
from a wooden armoire,
of like a claw foot armoire.
But they're so deep that
it's like it was bouncing,
that something was bouncing
a heavy piece of furniture
through the forest in a direction.
- Is the furniture coming alive?
- Well I mean if this woman
is turning mice into people,
why can't they-
- Maybe her blood
is just making things come alive.
- Does it seem to me like
that the chest kinda,
that someone took gold out of,
does it feel like maybe they had something
they cared about more than gold?
- Puss, you think they
cared more about the chest?
- 'Cause the chest could become a friend.
- If the chest was a person,
then it would start barfing up
the stuff that was in it, right?
Yeah, 'cause to talk it needs to-
- So it'd be like, hi,
- It needs to be empty.
- I'm a little chest.
And the gold would
get in there.
- It makes
logical sense to me.
- [Murph] This all adds up.
So it's just like gross bodies.
- Yes, dead bodies of the
people in these caravans.
- Gold.
- Does it look like they were k*lled by...
- How were they k*lled, yeah.
- On that crit, lots of weird
types of blunt force trauma.
Someone getting a drawer into the face,
but also some weapon wounds.
You see spears and arrows
and stuff like that.
- Do these guys maybe seem,
'cause they're in the middle of a wood,
do these guys maybe seem like they're
some kind of mob that
were out to get somebody
and then the chests were stopping them?
Is this a pitchfork situation?
- It doesn't look like
these people were a mob.
It looks like most of the corpses
you find close to the road
were either...
The oldest ones seem like initial caravans
that went missing.
And then the most recent ones are like
the more heavily armed
people that were sent
to find out why people
weren't coming back.
- Okay, interesting.
- So I guess we could suss this thing out.
It's probably gonna try and come for us.
- Yeah.
- But maybe we
should be (quietly) quiet.
- (quietly) You got it.
- (laughing) Go ahead and
give me a group Stealth check.
- [Lou] Like the grave.
- 18.
- 28.
- [Brennan] Wow.
- 14.
- 18, 28, 14-
- Wait, 27, sorry.
- [Brennan] 27.
- Chain mail I roll with
disadvantage, right?
- Yes.
- Whoa.
- 11.
- Uncharacteristically
bad nine for a little cat.
- [Brennan] For a little cat.
- 16.
- [Brennan] 16.
And you had an 18, sorry?
- No, no.
14.
- So 16 is actually
our third highest roll.
So on a 16 group stealth check...
You guys are moving.
It is night once more.
As you move, you guys see
not only do you have Ylfa
perfectly following the track
as it moves through the forest,
you also see that Red's got
a little bit of that thing
of you know in the dark where eyes
will have that shimmer of light behind.
Like you'll see a cat in the
dark or a wolf or something
and you avoid any kind
of briars, plant foliage.
Where Rosamund walks, there
just are no twigs to snap,
rocks to shake loose.
You guys are moving very
silently through the wood.
So the first thing is light.
You see...
In the darkness of the forest,
you know that you're heading
back towards the road.
You are also starting to see
horrifying little sculptures
You are also starting to see
horrifying little sculptures
of wire and household things,
a birdhouse full of human finger bones,
a strange watering can filled with blood,
all sorts of objects decorated
throughout the forest,
and there begin to be piles
of kind of larger objects.
You also see a kind of
indiscriminate slaughtering of like-
You also see a kind of
indiscriminate slaughtering of like-
You see there's a dead cow, a dead horse,
just throat slit left here in the woods
next to some of these objects.
- Slit like with a knife?
- Like with a knife.
Like not animal v animal, weaponry.
The first thing you see as you move,
as these sort of piles of objects
get bigger and bigger, you hear...
Rather, you see light in
the darkness of the forest.
Very subtle, but you
know that you're probably
only a couple dozen yards away
when you see the little bit of light,
and shortly thereafter you hear the noise
of sort of bumping of
wooden and metal things
sort of jostling together.
But it's big.
It sounds like, almost like ships,
like the noise boats make
when they bang together in the water,
and you hear also voices,
some horrible mixture of a man's voice,
some horrible mixture of a man's voice,
but coming hollowly out of a wooden chest,
going (gasping and struggling to speak).
Like a chest that can't
seem to hold enough air
to make the vocal chords go.
You hear a voice of
someone trying to scream,
but instead of a throat with vocal chords,
it's just a series of clanging bells,
and over all of that as you
approach closer and closer
you hear a high shrill, now now servants.
Everyone to attention.
There are interlopers, yes?
My little helpers have let me know
that there are those nearby in the village
that would mean us harm.
We've seen a rabbit and a
ram moving through the wood.
These creatures of blood,
there is no telling they might be working
for our wayward young princess!
And it is critical
(eerie forest music)
that we take those
who have spoiled her mind and
made her abandon her destiny,
who have spoiled her mind and
made her abandon her destiny,
we must return Elegy to what
it was always meant to be.
we must return Elegy to what
it was always meant to be.
She will come, and when she
apologizes to her godmother,
(groaning) she will get
this thing out of me.
This is what you hear.
You have come to the edge of where
that original Stealth check can get you.
My question for you is,
you still have not seen sort
of what you are up against,
but you've gotten close enough
to see some loose trees.
You know you're right near the road again,
which is where the light is
and where these forms
or figures are gathered.
What is more important
for you in this moment?
Do you want to...
There's sort of like some hillocks,
some little things that you
can kinda stay hidden behind
to not be exposed.
Do you want to stay 100 percent hidden?
Do you risk getting an actual visual
of what you're up against?
Or knowing that you are
closing the distance,
do you wanna get in position to...
do whatever it is you wanna do here?
- (quietly) Feels like we're
gonna have to k*ll her.
- (quietly) Well we can
just pull the thing out,
and maybe we just grab
the thing-
- [Zac] (quietly) I wonder.
- (quietly) Yeah, that's a good idea.
We just pull a thing and run.
- (quietly) Pull what thing?
- (quietly) The thing.
- (quietly) All we need is-
- (quietly) The thing, oh.
It's her?
- (quietly) Yeah.
- (quietly) That's the blood.
- (quietly) Yeah.
- (quietly) Oh.
- (quietly) I think we
should just try to get the-
- I wanna cast Sleep.
- (quietly) Guys that's crazy, that's way-
- Could I go in tandem with Mother Goose
and try to, as soon as
Mother Goose casts Sleep,
try and go in and just go into a rage
and try to grab that?
- You guys can all
get ready to...
You have done your Stealth check.
So you can all get ready
to pop the f*ck off
at the same time if you want.
Here's the issue.
You are still a little bit far away,
and you haven't seen what
you're up against yet.
So you have to weigh element of surprise
and all just popping the f*ck off
with having a little bit of distance
and not knowing what you're up against.
- How far away are we?
Are we like 500 feet away?
Are we-
- I would say you're
probably something like
between like 60 to 90 feet away.
- Right.
Is there any way I could
climb this tree and see?
- It's gonna come down
to another Stealth check.
- If you wanna get visibility-
- We don't all have to go.
- It's gonna come down to
another Stealth check.
- I'm pretty small.
- Oh yes.
- And I can...
I don't normally like
to do things like this,
but I can-
- Yeah, if I can maybe-
- Perfect, great. That's awesome.
(Zac laughing)
- Is there any way that I can
give Puss in Boots the Help action?
- Absolutely, at the
beginning of the Stealth
you can absolutely give the
Help action, yes, yes, yes.
- I don't really...
- (quietly) If you just go through here,
there's a little bush over
here that you can hide behind
and then if you just climb
up that ever so slightly,
hide in the shadows
you can probably see it.
- (quietly) Do you have any more
of those special little
taps on the back on you?
(Brennan laughing)
- (quietly) I do.
- (quietly) Oh I mean I
think you could, yeah.
I didn't think it was
a special thing.
- I pet you and go,
(quietly) I really believe in you.
Thank you for joining us.
(Zac purring)
- (quietly) I'll just get a
better look and then come back.
All right.
Here's my stealth.
- [Murph] (quietly) Prepare my forms.
- Dirty 20.
- You stay out of the torchlight.
Do you move over the hill in front of you
or around the right flank of the hill
or the left flank of the hill?
- Can I make a Perception check or do I
or does it not-
- I think it's
more about your intention of
right gets you closer,
but also farther away from your friends.
Left keeps you closer to your friends,
but farther away to sort
of see what's going on.
- I think that's probably
what he would do.
- So just staying close.
And then over the hill would
give you height advantage
so you'd have the best line of visibility,
but you might be the
most exposed up there.
- I think the, the least exposed, closest,
- I think the, the least exposed, closest,
I think.
- Cool,
give me a Perception with
disadvantage in that case.
- (quietly) I think it's gonna be okay.
- That's a 13 plus Bardic.
Plus...
oh six.
- Hell yeah, 19.
- 19.
- You see an enormous pumpkin carriage
rotting in the middle
of the road, sagging.
The stink of the sugar
sweet rotting gourd,
this massive carriage,
and standing in this sort
of yawning rot opening
of the pumpkin carriage is
a sickly green crown-wearing fairy
with a jutting spear of
glass coming from her chest,
the wound scabbed over as it
rests lodged within her heart.
She looks sickly swamp green
and like something
neither living nor dead.
And she is surrounded
by her staff of servants
here in whatever sick mockery of the world
she once envisioned.
She has lost much blood and much magic.
There are barrel soldiers
who have the heads of men
growing from the sides of wooden barrels
who wheeze into chests made
of banded beams of wood
with no lungs to hold their breath.
You see there is a blacksmith whose head
is still an anvil and
sways there with hammers,
seemingly only able to swing
at whatever reverberates
off the steel as it
bangs its own anvil head.
Just this assortment of
transmutations and transformations
Just this assortment of
transmutations and transformations
half done by an undead fairy godmother.
- Is there a clock boy?
- Not that you can see on that roll.
- Do I look at this and I...
I just wanna be able to see if I can do
some sort of Insight
roll to see if they...
are, if this is them
being forced to do this,
if they're like happy to serve or no?
- These are halfway between
humanoids and constructs.
So, it looks like they
are obeying commands,
but it also looks like
they are existing only for a function.
It's, in other words,
if you were thinking about
what these beings are,
are they like humanoids or constructs,
they are mostly objects,
and the sentience that
they have been rendered
is like a half done spell that leaves them
in a state of rage and pain,
because they really should just be
the objects that they were.
The spell is a crass and selfish thing.
It's like holding on to something
that is being made manifest
by just pure spite and will.
that is being made manifest
by just pure spite and will.
- I'm going to try to sneak
back and tell the group.
- On that Stealth you
managed to sneak back
and can inform your friends.
It's a large crowd.
It is a...
Managing this crowd of
these half transformed
objects brought to life,
it's more, if this was a
fair fight you'd all die.
- And it's unfair in its current...
So when-
- Well what I mean is if
you were on an open field
under the sun, you would all be dead.
- Is there a way...
- [Emily] Is there-
- She's looking for young girls.
- Oh, I told you I was a liability.
- If I-
- I agree.
- Or you.
Either one of us.
- I know both of us
are equally attractive.
- Yes.
- Yeah, totally.
- Do you want your braids back?
Would you try to pin them back in?
- I actually like you with a pixie cut.
- It looks very cute, yeah.
- Oh, thank you.
- And so it does seem like she's
keeping these abominations alive.
So maybe if we could focus on her.
- Oh.
- Yeah.
- Maybe break her concentration?
- I mean, all we need
to do is get that shard
so it could be a matter
of sending someone in
to just cause a distraction,
to have her sic all the people on them.
Someone grabs the shard
while her minions are away
and then everyone just tries
to get that person out of there.
Or we, a bunch of us go in
while one person goes to get the shard.
- I feel bad.
I think...
So if I were to try to
lull them all to sleep,
it starts with the lowest...
(cross talk)
And it would never reach her,
and that's kinda the only
thing I can offer to a fight.
I don't really have anything else.
- From what she was saying-
- But she is bleeding a lot.
If you could,
if we could get them away from her
then you could try and
cast Sleep at just her.
- Yeah, maybe.
- Maybe, I do feel like she
might be sending them off?
I don't know if they're
just gonna stay here.
We might be able to wait
for some of them to leave.
- Oh maybe.
But what if then they're
sent in our direction
and they find us?
Well we're still-
- We're just hoping
that they're sent somewhere else?
- They mentioned the town.
- Yeah, that's true.
- And they mention Senator and the rabbit.
- Yeah, they definitely
mentioned Senator by name.
(Emily laughing)
- They said the ram and the rabbit.
I just really want it to stick.
I'm hoping that if I
say it enough times-
- It sticks,
it sticks, it sticks.
- My thought is just
that we try to draw these guys away
and then send someone in to go after her.
We have two teams.
One team is distraction team-
- And the other team
is extraction.
- The other team
is extraction.
- Distraction and extraction.
(Emily laughing)
- I just don't really see
myself on either team.
I'm holding my broom.
- Yes you are. You're on extraction.
- But who is willing to distract?
- I am.
And as I say that I shift,
and so I get even (groaning)
taller and then I get...
seven extra temporary hit points,
and my AC is increased.
- [Ally] And that brings you
up to how many hit points?
- That brings me up to...
22.
- 22. (laughing)
- That's wild.
- Is there any way that maybe
I also go with the distraction team?
Because I can lead us
through difficult terrain,
and we won't be affected by it.
- I like that a lot.
- We need someone
to get us out.
- I think Rosamund
should be on distraction.
And I'll go with her.
And I think the three of
us can be on distraction.
And the three...
- So it's just the dude with
the broom, me, and a cat?
- Oh, you've got the book.
- And we're extraction team.
- As you guys raise your
voices a little bit,
I'm gonna need another
group Stealth check.
- f*ck.
- Oh.
- But, Pinocchio.
Oh boy.
- Oh dirty 20.
- [Brennan] Dirty 20.
Okay that's good, 'cause I got a 11.
(tense grand music)
- Three.
- Eight.
- Three, eight, 11.
- No.
- Three?
- [Brennan] Three.
- Nine.
- [Brennan] Nine.
- Oh boy.
- All of you hear (gasp)
what's that out in the forest?
- Okay, it starts now and I just run in.
Roll initiative, baby. (clapping)
- Extraction, distraction equals success!
- That's all for this episode
of Dimension 20 Neverafter.
Join us next week as we face
a fairy godmother. (cackling)
Join us next week as we face
a fairy godmother. (cackling)
- Ugh.
- In the times of the Neverafter,
combat is a always
frightening proposition.
- Come with me if you wanna play.
- I'm afraid.
- Don't be.
- What a good little
cat you are. (cackling)
- f*ck. sh*t. Damn.
- Oh.
- (gasping) What?
- Oh my god.
- Your situation has
considerably worsened.
- That's a crazy move.
- Oh wow.
- I'm absolutely f*cking toast.
- Oh sh*t, really?
- Creatures like you
need to learn manners.
- You're saying it in that
tone that's like you idiot,
which is scaring me a little bit.
(Brennan screeching)
- [Siobhan] I'm really worried.
(Brennan screaming)
- No.
- No!
- Things continue to look grim.
- [Emily] Jesus.
- My God.
- (quietly) Holy f*ck.
- All right Gerard...
- The pressure is really building.
- [Brennan] This could change
the entire course of the combat.
- What?
- What do I do about that?
- Ah.
(Brennan screaming)
(loud cross talk)
(players screaming)
- I'm going to see you dead tonight.
(Brennan cackling)
- [Siobhan] Be brave.
(intense music)
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16x02 - Mirror, Mirror
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A tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master.
A tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master.