Crack a Bud Heavy, fry up some potato skins, or start digging a sleeping trench just for the fun of it, ya’ll, because we’ve got a thick ‘sode this week!
We last left our Third Mates in quite the precarious positions with Quick Blast Cass Callaway getting the jump on our very own Zirk Vervain.
Check these out:
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 15, Portrait of a Blade
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 16, Curses & Cliffhangers
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 17, Monsters of the Mountain
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 18, Temple of the Guardians
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Introduction
Will they manage to escape her clutches? Is Batilda still alive somewhere deep within the temple? Will Bukvar ever get to make a delicious pizza again? Almost all that and more in this week’s episode, Blade Witch.
Recap
Quick Blast Cass Callaway has Zirk dangling over the edge of the pit deep in the Temple of the Guardians, and has demanded that Henry and Fia drop their weapons or she’ll drop their Alchemist ally.
Fia drops the revelation on QB that Zirk is the son of her arms dealer.
QB is stunned. She looks at Zirk, and figures that they know she works for Stella Vervain because of the Vs on her weapons.
“Stella Vervain is sponsoring this here trip,” she explains. “Gotta have money to make money, and we’re going to make a lot of money, ya understand?”
She asks what the hell Stella’s boy is doing out here. She keeps Zirk hanging over the edge, but says that Stella never mentioned anything about having a boy Fia writes a note saying that “QB killed Zirk Vervain” in Bukvar and sends him away, though QB manages to shoot him out of the air.
QB explains that she’s looking for Batilda (or her remains) because there is quite the bounty on her head. Realizing that they’re after the same thing, Zirk pulls a gun on QB.
Everyone rolls initiative.
Zirk shoots QB, but doesn’t manages to wrestle his way back onto solid footing. Fia grabs Zirk (Emily crits) from QB, pulling him away from the edge. QB shoots Fia and knocks her out, then pumps lead into Zirk, knocking him out as well.
Henry’s the only one left up so he attacks her with his claws, and then uses an action surge to blow the horn that Kenley gave the party three episodes ago that calls on the aid of the Deep Folk of the mountain.
“Henry, you see, like chameleons on the cliff face, four of these short, stocky humanoids suddenly appear. Grey skin like stone, with yellow cat eyes that glow in the darkness, they have pointy ears and some have tusks that protrude from their lips.”
Spritle throws a stick of dynamite at Quick Blast Cass Callaway as Zirk and Fia both fail their first death saves.
The Deep Folk join the fight and start stabbing QB, who is confused about where the hell they came from. QB takes three shots at Henry, but only lands once. He’s still standing as the rest of the Deep Folk stab into QB.
Henry talks QB into surrendering, and feeds some health potions to Fia and Zirk. Once they’re up, Fia keeps her eye on QB, who is still surrounded by the Deep Folk. Fia forces QB into making a sprite promise that she would not go after Batilda.
QB explains that someone named Moxorra is offering a lot of money for the bodies of Blades, and that Zirk’s mom is just after the money, just the same as QB and Petty Jack.
QB leaves after Zirk takes her hat. The Deep Folk leader grabs her cloak and forces her to empty her bag, which is full of gold and gems.
The Deep Folk tell them that there was a flood deeper in the temple, and that they had survived the attack on the temple thanks to help from Kenley, and now that debt has been repaid. However, they offer to keep watch if the party wants to take a night to rest (they’re pretty damn hurt), which they agree to.
Fia mends the dead Bukvar before going to sleep, bringing him back to life. The Deep Folk explain that there are some tricks for draining the water from the whole floor (getting some serious Ocarina of Time Water Temple vibes, which isn’t a good sign), but that some of the mechanisms have been damaged.
Zirk tries to come to terms with his relationship with his mother. Fia offers this sage piece of advice: “Forgiveness is not for them, it’s for you. It’s for the peace of your soul, not theirs. It’s a decision for you to make — what is right for you.”
Henry encourages Zirk to try to make amends because he knows there is a lot of things he’d left unsaid with his own kid, and thinks that maybe Stella feels the same about her own estranged son.
The gang does some more research into Henry’s curse. They determine that the fairy is definitely a spring fairy. The Deep Folk leader (whose name I’m not even going to try to spell) seems interested in the ritual. He says that the Deep Folk sometimes speak with the Great Fairies, and asks if there’s any place that Henry has always been drawn to.
“The sea,” he says.
This narrows things down to about 8 spring fairies who are related to the sea. The party goes to bed for the night.
In the morning, the Deep Folk warns that some Great Fairies are to be feared, even if they may have been born from the Trickster. He also says that it is unlikely that there would be Horrors deep within the temple, but that they may come up against dangerous Fairies — like Kalista, the fiery summer Fairy, who does not like humanoids.
“Some, like Kalista, believe that the Fairies should have never wasted time working with humans in the first place.”
The Deep Folk also used to visit an autumn Fairy named Sienna, who never came back after the attack.
Bukvar pretends to be a Sapphire again and places himself into the next statue of the emo Fairy, and Emily rolls another nat 20 for his performance.
A stone doorway lifts. Water pours out of the area, and they see that water from a cracked waterfall appears to be slowly filling up the room. Fia uses Mold Earth to patch up the crack in the wall, which seals the fissure for this room.
The party sees steps leading downwards into the water. Fia has an Alter Self spell to give herself gills, and Zirk makes two potions of the spell for himself and Henry.
Fia turns Bukvar into a little octopus. The potions last for only 10 minutes while Fia’s spell last for an hour, but she has to maintain concentration while underwater.
In the first level the Third Mates see statues as well as a few doors that appear to lead further into the mountain. Henry goes for a door that could potentially drain the room. A statue of a sea Fairy is giving off zaps of electricity, which Henry gets hit by. Fia swims past it successfully. She casts Shatter on the stone door, which opens and begins draining the room.
They check out another door in the room, where they find a Bag of Holding on the drowned body of an acolyte.
Further down they find a hallway that has a swirling current of water, like a tornado. Henry sends Shank in to test the waters AKA get torn apart and die. Henry goes in after, taking some damage from the debris. Fia makes it to the other side where she finds another stone door and another set of stairs heading downwards.
The water warms up for Fia as she heads further down, so she turns around to help Henry and Zirk make it through the area.
Spritle plants some dynamite onto the next valve and blows it to hell. The water drains, and the party grabs a 9th level spell scroll from an adjacent study. Murph determines that the spell is not Wish, but is instead Time Stop.
Further down the hall they see a statue that seems to be creating the steam that is warming the water.
There are two doorways in the hallway, and there appears to be more stairs at the end of the hall by the statue, about 100 ft away. Henry swims up first, seeing that a glowing rune on the statue of Kalista is what’s causing the painful heat. He scratches out the rune ending the effect.
Fia gets stuck while trying to enter one of the side rooms (rolling a nat 1). Zirk casts Cure Wounds on Henry, who helps to unstuck Fia by breaking the door down. Inside the room they find a Cloak of Protection. Henry wraps it around his waste like a towel.
Fia checks the last room to see if Batilda is inside — she’s not — so the whole crew swims down to the next level.
“You see, against the wall, looking like she’s about to input some code or use some kind of magic or something, is Batilda, frozen in place. You see her purple cloak and leggings are tinted icy blue, as is her skin and previously purple hair. You see she has one hand reaching out to this door that is closed, and the other one is nursing a grievous wound in her mid section.”
Fia realizes that she looks to be under some kind of a spell. The gang thinks that maybe Ulwin, the emo Winter Fairy, may have frozen her in place. Fia uses Batilda’s blade to break through the closed door. It smashed open a hole, allowing water to flood out into a passageway that appears to be a way out of the temple. The Green Flame Blade that Fia used in the attack warms Batilda’s body, which thaws and falls to the ground.
The witch looks wet, shivering, and sickly, but alive. Fia and Zirk both cast healing spells, though her wound still looks bad and she appears to be suffering from being frozen for so long.
She manages to open her eyes. “Little fang…”
“Yes, Batida, it is me. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, I didn’t know you were in trouble, I would have come sooner if I had known, I didn’t know,” Fia says.
“Little Fang, I saw you a few weeks ago, you’re so big?”
“Yes, you were frozen here by a fairy, the winter fairy. He saved you by freezing you, and it’s been eight years and I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that but you’re here and you’re okay and everything is going to be okay.”
“Good. Bukvar, be a dear and put on some tea.”
Batilda stabilizes, but seems to have about five levels of exhaustion. She can’t move but will be okay with some rest.
She falls asleep in Fia’s arms. Zirk realizes that she definitely needs to be in a bed to get better. The Third Mates follow the water out the door and head out of the temple.
They get swept into a river that runs through a tunnel. they’re heading for a light, an exit, at the end, but suddenly a frozen wall appears in the flow of water, stopping them from continuing on. Ulwin the Winter Fairy appears.
He wants Batilda to stay in the temple. He wants to keep her frozen here, alive, forever. Fia begs him to let them go, while Zirk pulls a gun on the fairy.
“‘Oh Zirk, when I am finished with you I will make sure that that ugly weapon is away, and we will create a beautiful memory together. I won’t remember you like this.’ You see he raises a hand as icy energy and frost gathers around him… and that’s where we’ll end our session.”
Commentary
Anyone else get nightmare flashbacks to getting stuck in Ocarina of Time’s Water Temple as a child, unable to figure out how the hell to move forward, not realizing that it’s possible that the game can literally break to the point where there is no way forward?
Just me? Cool. Cool cool cool.
Anyway, I was glad to see that the Third Mates did not get hardlocked on their own watery quest, and that they actually managed to find what they were looking for, namely a still-living Blade Witch.
Buuuuut I’m getting ahead of myself, as usual.
I completely forgot about the Horn of the Mountain (or whatever it was officially called, seeing as I wasn’t smart enough to write it down on that episode’s recap), but it was good thinking on Jake’s part to use it. I thought he was surely a goner if he had to go one v one against the infamous Quick Blast Cass Callaway.
I’m glad QB, much like Petty Jack, lived to see another day, because these mini-bosses are honestly pretty cool characters.
As were the Deep Folk! Especially because they stuck around to offer some info about Henry’s curse, and what the Third Mates would be up against further into the temple. That little warning about fearing the Great Fairies was some great foreshadowing for the twist at the end there, too, because we were clearly meant to think of the Fairy of Summer, rather than of Winter, as being the one to watch out for.
Okay so the gang got a spell of Time Stop?? Damn, you know that’s going to come in handy down the line.
I liked the flooded temple’s mechanics to an extent, though I feel like in a regular game of D&D (you know, without edits, or players realizing that they have an audience that they don’t want to bore to death) that whole situation would have taken quite a long time. It felt like it was dragging a little bit in the episode, even, though there were at least some differences so far as the dangers went for each level.
It would have been cool if there was a different solution to draining the water with each subsequent level as well, though.
I thought that the way Murph justified Batilda still being alive after all these years was rather clever, because I’d been wondering just how much disbelief I’d have to suspend to accept that someone could live trapped in a flooded temple for 8 freaking years.
I never considered cryofreeze as an answer, but it definitely checks out.
The little sleepover convo that Zirk had with his closest friends about his mother before going to bed was also super touching, and really showcases that this story isn’t all just ball jokes and Spongebob references — though those were much appreciated as well.
I’m excited to see just how tough Great Fairies are to fight (if that’s the route the party is going down, and it seems to be the case) because it could also give an idea of what Henry’s going to have to do to free himself from his curse.
Who knows, maybe Fia will have to use that Scroll of Time Stop sooner rather than later!
Roses:
- The Spongebob bit
- QBCC living to fight another day
- Balnor’s “cameo”
- Shank dying such a hilariously painful death
Thorns:
- Bukvar getting shot hit way too hard
Buds:
- Bathilda reuniting with Fia and Kenley — if he’s still alive, that is!
That’s it for this episode! Find other NADDPOD Listen Alongs here and share your takes, predictions, roses, and thorns in the comments below.
Episode 18, Temple of the Guardians
Check these out:
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 15, Portrait of a Blade
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 16, Curses & Cliffhangers
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 17, Monsters of the Mountain
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 18, Temple of the Guardians
- NADDPOD Listen Along: Introduction
