Gather your sword and board and get ready for adventure because it's time for pain campaign.

Three, two, one. Let's roll.

Welcome back to our unmitigated disaster of a DD campaign with friends. We asked the question of what happens when we combine a coming of age summer camp with d and D, the dice of fate. Well, we are going to find out what happens here. Let's get started. From the murky bottom of time before time. Following a rare mushroom instead of stone, we have Mike playing gold or Firebeard, the honest to goodness dwarven Druid who's old enough for a beard and a beer and knows how to use the shilelehead. Hello, Mike.

Hey, how's it going?

When this warforged lays its hands upon thee, you better hope for some divine intervention, because wood and metal still has pain and emotion. Mike Levine is TR 33, the war forge Paladin.

What's up, guys?

When tracking is needed across a path, it seems lost or an arrow needs to find his target that seems too far away. We look no further than Bridget playing belleth, our tiefling ranger who hates plants, loves adventure and to Gnarl Tooth island. But as we wrapped up our last episode, something very odd happened. And I'm Michael Hyde, off key raider rock as always. And I'm playing seven, the bard. But it's not about me. I'm gonna pass it off to our friend Liam. He puts the danger in DM. Our master of ceremonies, Liam, take us away. As we make our way back into this episode, how about a little story from McBarn? As we set sail on this adventure for campaign, our adventurers got ourselves onto a boat when we saw an island in a horizon, only to have our ship almost come to a halt. Without further ado, let's get back to our party and set forth on this episode of campaign.

And as of right now, you're maybe like 100ft ish away from this island. Did you want to go consult the captain or just let things take their course? Right now, the ship is heading towards the island.

How far would you say this island is away from us? Like miles wide?

Definitely not miles. You're 100ft, give or take. Maybe you're pretty close to this point.

Okay, can I. Can I use my awareness as an action? You can expend a ranger spell slot to sense whether any celestials, dragons, elementals, fae, fiend or undead are present within 1 mile of you. This feature does not reveal the creature's location or number, just like if they're there.

Certainly you detect elementals.

Oh, okay.

Do I notice if there's any of them, like, on the boat? Like, they're on the boat with us? Like, can I see, like, make a perception check or something?

Hold on. I'm seeing if they're looking at primoval awareness. So I would say, because the spout particularly says you don't know where they are. You don't know if there's any on the boat. And I don't think it tells you. Yeah, it doesn't tell you where in that 1 mile radius they are. I will say that now, as you have done that and are approaching the island even closer, you do see a solitary figure sitting at a table on the island.

Whoa.

Okay. So I kind of, like, relay that, like, hey, like, there may be some weird things, but I'm not 100% positive sure.

So the captain starts shouting out orders. Something's gone wrong with the boat. I can't control it. We're drifting toward this island. Be prepared to anchor. And at this point, you are now basically in distance to get down to the island through means of playing core, taking, like, a little row boat down to the island. On the island itself, the. The water and wind. While the wind is still play, the water seems a lot more calm. You see at a table with, like, a deep, like, almost royal purple tablecloth on it, with a person who has piscine or fish like features on them. They have blue greenish skin, which to you all is not necessarily unusual because there's plenty of races in the world. So you may have heard or seen some of them that have fish like features before. And around the table, unlike smaller, like, end table type things, are a few, like, ornate things, and otherwise, he's silently sitting at the table.

Is this table just like on the island?

Yeah, literally sitting on it. The island is about 50ft across.

Are we close? Are we close enough to get off the ship and approach?

Yes, if you would like to. If you would like. Yeah, you're close enough. At this point. Like, if you would like to embark to the island, you can.

Shall we put fate in our own hands?

I think maybe. Let's go tell Lara. Hey, do you want us to go check this out?

Or have boats one, two, three or four been lost to a fish person?

I mean, if anything happens on the boat, we could probably float on me.

A good plan a. If that doesn't work out, we'll come up with a backup plan.

All right.

I like Bella's plan.

So you go up to Alara and what do you. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss before that?

No, I just. Yeah, I just wanted to ask her, like, do you. Do you want us to go see what this is? What, do you want us to stay here? Because this seems like a. And like, we're friends now, so we'll help you out if we necessary. But this seems like a weird situation.

It seems like no matter how we arrange the sails, the boat, the wheel, I can't get this boat moving. So, like I said, I've had a little bad luck, but this doesn't seem too bad. You know, this isn't like, you know, 20 pirates attacking us. So if you don't mind checking it out. You all seemed pretty strong getting the ship back for us. If you want to check it out, go ahead.

Alara, have you been to this island before?

I think, according to my charts, this island doesn't exist.

Huh. That's good.

That's very cherry.

I don't know if we should disembark. What if she leaves us here? What if she's lying to us?

Well, at least we'll be together.

Tree, if you want to make an insight check, you can.

Okay. I will do that. Hold on.

I'm gonna give him the help action. Sure.

How are you helping him?

I'm gonna sit. I'm just gonna put my hand on his shoulder, and just like Pat, like I have been trying to comfort.

Vantage back here. We 1st 114. Okay. Doing it again, and it's a three.

Good thing for help actions.

Okay, um. So as far as you can tell, captain, Alara is being forthright with you, and she does seem a little scared. Like, she said, she's had bad luck, and she's not sure what this is, but she is. Otherwise, as far as you can tell, is being truthful.

Shall we?

All right, so I just say, I go, girl, we got this. And I go, let's go.

Can I also tell her, girl, we got this on the way down?

Just like echo, girl, we got this.

How'd I do, though?

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So I just want to make sure, before we continue, I heard, like, someone, like. As if. Like they were.

I was gonna say, I think we lost Mike.

Oh, we lost tree. I didn't even. I was counting four people, but I was counting myself in that not just.

You're gonna hurt his feelings if you say you didn't notice.

I noticed. Tree left. I noticed.

Hey, I'm back.

I'm sorry.

I got disconnected.

Okay.

Roll for initiative, Mike. Right. No, I'm kidding.

So, yeah, you. You all take, like, basically, like this little fold up, rolled up ladder that is dropped down to the island for y'all to. To get down. So you get to the island, and square in the middle is that person that you saw that has like, the green, blue skin, some, like, piscene features. Sitting behind the purple table, or I should say the table with a royal purple tablecloth. And they say, greetings, travelers. Would you like to play a game?

Can I use persuasion or performance?

I feel like I've heard this before. I don't think we should play.

I'm into it. I'm into this.

I want to come now.

Any game.

I am but a wandering traveler like yourselves. Me, my island. And I like to play games with those I encounter.

Oh, if this turns into princess bread, I'd like to come over to him. And I like to grab a seat.

Guys, I'm feeling weird about this.

Yeah. So sitting so in front of the table. So in front of the purple table, four chairs appear.

My good man, how are you this evening? What game do you have for us here?

Oh, well, my favorite game is 38. Do you all know how to play?

No. No. Don't know how to play. Don't want to play. I'm good, I'm good.

Sorry, excuse my friend. It's his second day learning English. Tell us about it.

So the way the game is played is you're gonna be rolling some dice. This one that has 20 sides, this one that has twelve sides, and this one that has six sides to it. And basically the buy in for each round is ten gold. And he reveals, like, a small pot of gold next to him. And essentially whoever rolls the highest wins. Unless someone rolls below a ten, in which case the lowest number wins. So a 32 would be to 16, but a two would be to 32. Cause it's below ten.

Guys, I got this.

I can win. I can win anything higher than a four.

I got this.

You've had your oath for, like, five.

And a half minutes now you wanna play a game?

I know he said I didn't want to play, but I want to play that. Guys, I want to play.

Can I. Before. Before tree gambles himself away, we never see him again. Can we just do a perception check on this guy? See if there's anything about him? Any sort of being dishonest with us or intention wise?

Yeah, absolutely. Do an insight check.

14. 1517.

Anyone else?

Can I actually make a perception check to see if there's any wonky stuff happening with the table and the dice that he has in front of him?

So I'll say that you can do. I would say if you want to, that would be more of an investigation check, but you can absolutely make one. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

I did a perception tech too, so check.

Okay, so one person did insight, one person to perception, and one person did investigation. Or what did you choose to do?

He's like, I'm not going near that table.

I don't even want to go near that table.

Okay, sure. I'll do.

You know, I'll do an inside check to see if I can figure out what's going.

There's, like, other people. I'll handle the inside checks first, and then we'll get to the other two. Oh, sorry.

I got a 17.

Okay, so you also got to remember.

You have bardic inspiration, just in case you need it. Not for this one, but in case you need it.

Yep.

Thank you.

So, based on, like, his, like, boisterous body language and attitude, like, he. He seems to generally enjoy playing games, but it does seem like you find something in his voice that seems like he's, like, a little. Little lonely. And then. Bella, you did an investigation check, and you said you were investigating this guy to somewhere else.

Yeah. Like, the table. Is there anything sketchy that, like, he's gonna try and, like, screw us out of something?

Tell me how you investigate the table.

I just, like, look at it and see if there's, like, you said there's a tablecloth over it, right. If there's any, like. Like, almost like he put, like, magnets or, like, something like that. I could see through the tablecloth that's.

Going to be from your side of the table. It looks fairly normal. The only thing is that, like, the wind is just, like, making it, like, flow a little bit here and there. And then I got a perception from tree. So you happen to notice that one of the little bobbles that he has next to him, he has some little pot of gold that shows he can make the bets. He looks like he has some fine plates, things like that. But it's also an astrolabe looking device on one of the little, smaller tables. And I don't know if she would know what an astrolabe is, but it catches his eye.

It looks sparkly. I see a sparkly thing, guys, and I think we should check it out.

Can I do an arcana check just to be see if there's anything about this situation?

Yeah. And at this point, I will say his smile is starting to fade. Are you guys okay? I feel like you're all kind of doing a little peek around and doing little.

This is all very new to us.

So I throw ten gold in. I'm like, eh, I'm a bedding girl.

Me too. Let's do this.

Okay, sure. All right. So reverse flank, throw ten gold in. The genie lifts, like, his fingers and basically magically moves a ten gold into the center. So if anyone would like to use any dice, I have extra. Or if you'd like me to use some of yours. If you have any, I could use yours. Does anyone actually have dice on them? Some people start with dice in their inventory from, like, the starter packs.

It's a great question.

Let me look.

Bel, if you have some.

I have dice.

Cool. So you could use yours.

Yeah.

I do not have dice.

I guess a disguise kit is not gonna help me right now. No dice for me.

Okay. So he goes, by the way, my name's Maurice. It's a pleasure to meet you all. If you would like to borrow some dice. And he takes out another little small chest. Here are some dice you could borrow. Please. Select one with a 20 side die, one that has twelve sides and one that has six. And then you'll be ready to go, and you can choose any ones you want.

Thank you, Maurice.

So you all pick dice to your liking? He goes, all right, so ten gold in for everyone. It looks like you, young lady, have put your gold in. And you, with the mandolin, put gold in. Anyone else?

I put in ten goal as well.

Oh, thank you, kindwarf. And, uh. Ooh, you. You have an old soul, my friend, it appears. How are you? He talks to truth.

I. Yeah, shakingly. I kind of throw ten gold in because I'm feeling good now that he explained the rules.

Okay, great. Yes, I know. Math can be hard. I know, I know. All right. How old of a soul would you say he has? Oh, about as old as that boat. First points to the ship. He squints at the ship. The floating box of death five. What the.

Just ignore it. Just ignore it.

It's fine.

Should have seen it before.

Have you seen more people? More.

More creatures like me? I've seen a lot of things over the year. I'm kind of just someone who likes to travel upon the sea on my little island here and like to meet new people and play games. And so far. And he points his little pot of gold. This is the goal I've earned over the years. But the most important thing is having fun. So everyone can roll for the first round. And as you're rolling, I'll ask a question after you guys are all.

Do we roll all of them?

All three. D twenty. D twelve.

V six. G twenty six. Okay, then you add them up. Or you just. You add them. Okay. I feel you need to know.

I forgot to mention one other thing, and this is. This is a bad thing. So he goes. Before. After you roll, if you would like to. You can hide your roll. And if you would like to raise the bet or hold where you are, you can most. Like. Like most other games where you can bet, you could raise, you could fold, you could hold. So right now, I am going to.

Hold for this episode. You know this, right? Because you got to know when to. Yep. That's right.

Okay, so I rolled and I rolled a six.

Wait, my friend. My friend.

Buddy.

Would anyone like to raise before we all reveal our rolls?

All right.

No. All right, my. My young tree friend, you seem like you want to share first. Go ahead.

Yeah, I rolled, and sure enough, I rolled a d on my d 20. I rolled a six. On my d twelve, I rolled a four. And then on my.

You had them together. Oh, right.

So I rolled the twelve.

With all three dice.

With all three dice.

Oh, man, that's quite low. Well, how about the rest of you? Surprise, surprise.

Might as well. I'll come clean. I got a 2020 for me.

I told you I had this game with the bad guys.

I rolled a nine.

You rolled a nine. Oh, my gosh. I. I rolled a ten.

I rolled a seven.

You rolled a seven. I love it. And your name, young lady?

Belle.

Belle, the pot is yours. So you can add to your personal inventory now, because, everyone, you can always change this however you want later. But your personal inventory, that's gonna be, what, a plus 30 overall? You add 40 back, but it's. You make a net 30.

Maurice, can I ask you a question? Is it okay.

Oh, I was about to ask you one myself. Like, where are you all heading?

We are heading to a camp.

Oh, not camp. Shimmer Lake?

Uh, maybe.

Well, I hear that's one of the finest institutions we have for producing the greatest heroes of all time.

Well, you know, I don't like to. You know, uh, I don't like to kind of boost myself up here, but, yeah.

As you're sharing that, he puts tengoal back into the pot, getting ready for the next round.

Maurice, how do you decide when the game ends, out of curiosity and goes back to the water?

Well, you could end the game anytime. I just like to play games. But I will say that if I run out of gold, the game. The game will absolutely end for sure. Because then that wouldn't be fair to you guys if I bet with nothing.

Right, right. And what happens if we run out.

Of gold first and the game also ends? Because that wouldn't be fair.

Does it end in a bad way?

Can I get anyone some refreshments or food?

Why do I thank you?

Some water, perhaps? Trying to drug. I would never drug you.

Ah, thank you, Maurice. I'm pretty full as of the moment. You're so very kind.

Yet every screen that I've ever seen is when you meet a strange person. Don't take it.

Tree's like, I'll take two, please.

But he guys, he seems like a nice guy. I mean, a little weird, but nice guy.

Would anyone like to play around? Two?

Yes, please.

Yeah, I'll throw ten more in.

Let's do it.

Well, you know, all my friends are doing it, so why not?

That's a good thing you learned since you've been with friends for such a short time.

So tell me, it's been quite a while since I've been on land. How is the world doing these days?

Well, all the heroes seem to be gone, and they're looking for new ones to go to this camp. And everyone who's gone to camp we haven't heard from, so.

Oh, my. Well, nonetheless, I think I see four heroes before me. You all look like very capable people.

You're far too kind.

So I rolled a 23. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to say, if I would like to raise. That was my mistake.

Maybe now that we know.

But I'll let you all do what you will. I rolled a 23. Like, to raise or fold? You can.

I will fold.

Are we working on this collectively? Like, is this a good thing for all if our side of the table does well?

Well, it's kind of like four against one, right?

Are you asking Maurice? Are you asking the.

I'm talking to seven. I'm like, guys, it's. It's four against one here, right?

I think we're really trying to get either to the. To maybe our good friend. Our new friend, Maurice. I guess we're really trying to see who empties a pot first, right?

Yeah.

All right, well, I'm holding. I'm gonna hold you.

Okay, everyone can now reveal their dice. As you know, I have a 23, 26.

I'll serve a 23. 28.

Six.

Yes.

I literally rolled three nat ones.

That's like, anything. Can I just tell you something?

I hope that this is the only time you roll three at once.

So, listen, I'm just gonna throw this out there. I think it's when you patted me on the back. I did something to you? You just transferred the negative rolls to you.

Oh, man. Can you imagine if this persisted? Like, past this encounter?

So you rolled. Oh, that's a one, not a 13. I'm sorry. So, belf, you win again. Yes.

All right.

Ten more seem to have a knock for this. I'm almost afraid to play again, but shall we? And he puts in another ten gold.

Guys, before we do anything, I'm just gonna say, listen, we all played. It was fun. I think we should kind of just kinda go somewhere else.

Ten more in the pot for me.

Oh, thank you, Kai.

It means the world.

I don't get to meet people very often, and playing these games is what I live for.

Morris, while we're playing, can you tell us a good story, people you've encountered, and open that case?

Last two minutes for me. I'm done. I cannot gamble anymore.

Well, I'll tell you a story, but I will be raising. So he puts another ten gold. And he says, well, one of the last things I heard about Camp Gnarltooth, or, sorry, Rock Narutooth island, was that there was a Mount Dahan. And Mount Dahan is known for having an artifact of great magical power.

Mount Dahan.

So, as he finishes that sentence, would the rest of you like to meet me at 20 gold?

I'm kind of hurting him. Bank here.

So I'm not going to play this.

Sure.

No.

Yeah, I'll do it again.

So you said. Yeah. So just remove another ten.

Boop.

Done. Okay.

Yep. So put another ten. Okay, so would you all like to start by revealing your rolls? Must anyone else would like to raise?

Do we reroll now or do we keep the original rolls?

No, keep. You keep the original roll.

All right, I'm good. I'll hold.

Okay, so we're at 20 gold apiece. Go ahead, Bella. Since you, you've been winning 2028.

Oh. Oh, my.

That's because I didn't play.

You beat my 22.

This is not good. This is not good.

22 for me. How's it going, Maurice? How do you do this fine round?

I unfortunately only got a 20. You can all make an insight check if you want.

Insight Insight 1820.

Net.

19. Nat 20, but minus one.

How does that work if he has a minus one but he rolls a Nat 20?

Thinking that twenty's a Nat 20, right?

That's what I was gonna say. Right? Yeah.

Nat twenty's not 20. But I couldn't hear gold. Or did he I'm sorry. He's gotten out for me. Sorry. It's like. It's like literally the only time that he says.

He said it again. A 14. Are you serious?

I heard 14 that time.

It would be funny. Basically, everyone. Thank you, everyone but Goldware. You notice that even though he's lost this round, there's almost like a little twinge of a grin on his face. He says, oh, no matter, no matter. We could always play again. His store of gold is running out. He has maybe, like two rounds left in him.

Guys, I'm telling you, I'm not getting good vibes here. I'm not getting good.

So we should keep playing.

Oh, God. Oh. Why not? I could tell you more about Mount Dahan if you'd like to know more, or something else. And he puts in ten gold. So now he has only ten more gold left in his spot after he put some more in his. Can you excuse us for one.

You were gonna do it. Okay, we're gonna do it. We're not gonna chat about it, we're gonna do it.

All right, I'm in. I don't care.

I'm into. Let's do this two more times. Let's do this.

Why not?

You notice the wind start to pick up a little bit, too as. As you're in for this round a tree. Seven. Bellas, my dwarf and friend. You don't want to.

To join on the fun, only it's too rich for white blood.

Any dwarf that I've met is rich enough in friendship and spirit, I'm sure you could afford it. You know what?

I'm just gonna. I'm gonna take my gold and I'm just gonna stand over by gold door and just, let's say Bella's kind of like, do their thing, because I'm getting.

A little freaked out here. I'm not leaving.

I'm just gonna be over here watching you guys. But, you know, you do your thing, I'm gonna raise.

Can I raise?

All right, all right. And then we'll make things interesting. Yeah, sure, I'll raise. I have to. Unfortunately, this is all in for me. So he takes his last thing. Gold.

Okay, here's where the bad stuff happens. I feel it. I feel it.

Well, either in life, either you wait for it to happen, or you bring it on, right?

So, here we are, lit in my leaves. Before we reveal, everyone can do a little perception check.

You're doing great.

Gives me a negative one right off the bat.

Natural 20.

Thank God.

16, so 14. So, Bell, if you. I'll say belf is the one who notices this. You notice that the wind seemed almost, like, perfectly aligned with his role. You don't know for good or bad, but you seem to see it, like, perfectly aligned with the way his dice rolled, essentially.

Meaning that the wind impacted the dice or the wind.

Well, you would know the seven.

Think.

Very loudly in her head that he rolled the leg. Wind blew. Is that what you mean?

Yeah. Yep.

Okay. Did he go all in?

Yeah, he's out of money. He put his last ten gold in, so here's 20 in the pot for him. So we're all holding a 20?

Yeah.

Yep.

All right. Come on.

Bella's 14. Damn, Bella.

Oh, man. That's unfortunate, because I got an eight.

I got a four. I literally can't even. I can't even make this up. It's like I've known better.

I would say you cheating, but you seem to be fairly honest. Well, I congratulate you. You've taken me for all that I'm worth. And he gives you the last of the gold. So do you think you put it in the back of holding on your personal inventory where you do it?

Adding it to my golden whatever, but I'm gonna split it personal once. Like, all go back, we'll split it.

But is there any way to, like, just check this gold out to make sure it's, like, not anything funny about it or cursed or.

Yeah, you go and make an investigation check. If you wanna ask bells for something.

Good in that bag, just make sure you don't. You're good.

I mean, we need to work on our secret language. I know.

Sure.

I could have enough of it.

It just seems this is such an ancient being that maybe something special about it, possibly.

I mean, here is one of them, if you want to, like, do whatever.

What would that be? Would it be arcana check? What would that be?

Listen, like, if you just need to just ask for it.

No, no. I know that when it comes down to it, you are. You have your money full. I'm just curious. The look of this gold from this, Maurice seems like such an ancient person. I think that it might be interesting to look at his gold versus our gold and see if it maybe is from a different time period.

Liam, how much was I adding after that last round?

So Maurice put in 27. Sound like he put in 20. So you're going to be going up by 40 overall, but 60 back into your inventory if you took the 20 out.

Okay, what would that be, like, an investigation check. Arcana check would be a good one. To see if you're concerned about something being cursed or.

Well, are you trying to see if the coins are magical?

Yeah. No, no. It's more with the magic part. I don't really care if they're fake or not.

So do an Arcana check. Yeah.

Twelve.

As far as you can tell, they are perfectly mundane.

Okay, back to Bella.

Certainly older, but perfectly mundane.

Back to Bella. Throw a coin back.

I want to ask this guy about the mountain.

So what do you ask him?

I want to be like you mentioned a mountain and an artifact. You got any more information about that?

So as you were just. You asked, as you're stuffing away the last year goal, he's like, well, I'd love to tell you more about that, I really would, but I must be going now. And the chair pulls back. And as he rises, instead of legs, you see almost like a little mini tornado where his legs would be, and he grins. Thank you very much for the game. I have been waiting so long to be rid of that gold.

Here we go.

That is a type of genie. Yes. You would know that after seeing that seven. I say, based on your knowledge, you would identify that as a type of.

Genie called Amerid and as knowledge of a mered. Did we just entrap ourselves into a bit of a problem with this goal that we took?

Like I said, based on your investigation, the goal, it was perfectly mundane. Nothing wrong with it. But as he drifts away, the table and all the end table and all the niceties start disappearing. The only thing that remains is the small astrolabe.

I think that is maybe what was tying our boat to this island or.

Him to the island.

Yeah, I'm gonna go with him. And now we're all stuck here. When I said, let's not play, but everybody wanted to play, everybody was like, oh, go. Let's throw it all in. And now look at us.

You hear from above the deck, Captain Largos. The water seems calm. Now we can leave.

Yep, now she's gonna leave us.

We're done. We're done. Do we wanna touch this thing or leave it here?

Literally everything I said is coming true.

Guys, the one time you don't listen.

To me, the one time maybe leave it there.

I feel like I'm in agreeance with Goldur in this one.

Yeah, I think, yeah. Can I make an investigation check? Just looking at it to see if I can see, like, if there's anything, like, with it. I don't want to touch it, though.

Yeah, I'm doing Arcana check to the astrolabe?

Yeah, you can. Absolutely. Yeah. Make an investigation check, and then seven, you can make an Arcana check.

Six, six, net. Okay.

You know, this is some sort of navigational tool belt. That's. That's all you can tell about it. Seven, with your proficiencies and with your Arcana check, you can sell that. There's a little bit more to this astrolabe than appears due to the nature. You can feel a very slight magical eminence for it just because of the purpose of the astrolabe, which is not just one for star navigation, but it is for planar navigation.

Do you guys. I'm feeling some planar navigation from this thing. If you think it would be wise of us to try to pick it up now with our hands, but to maybe wrap it up or not make contact with it, or do you think we feel safer with leaving this year?

Listen, man, that's on you.

If you decide to touch it, I can kind of do a protection from evil and good spell on you. Yeah, I don't know if that may help, but maybe. I mean, the protection grants several benefits. Creatures of those types have disadvantage on.

Attack rolls against the target. Wait a minute.

Also can't be charmed, frightened or possessed by them.

All right, can I. Yeah. All right. Can I try to wrap it up in something, like a piece of cloth or something and just kind of not make physical contact with it?

If you want to, like, take a piece of cloth from, like, your inventory or something? Yeah, you have to.

Yeah, I think I'm going to do that.

Okay. So you. You wrap it up and that's that. You are able to hold it.

Inventory?

Yeah. If you want to store in your inventory, you can.

What would you call it? Just golden astrolabe.

You can call it planar ash astral eight.

Let's call it thing we want to get rid of. How about we call it that?

So, listen, I don't see a six in that boat. So as far as I'm concerned, things are going okay.

Lordy.

Start walking. Oh, yeah, I want to start walking back to the boat, too.

Okay, let's go on the boat.

So you all make your way back into the boat, and Captain Lars says you look like you just went through something. I want to let you know that if you have not already checked it out, we did set up your quarters. You want to. I see you're carrying all your stuff. If you want to put your stuff down into your rooms below deck, you absolutely can. Looks like you're carrying a lot of stuff, so I would recommend it, but it's up to you. She set up your rooms. Would you like to take advantage of having your rooms?

Oh, yeah, I think so.

Yeah. Are we sort of close together? Are we within proximity?

But you'll each have a little mini cabin.

I will go out into the hallway and protect my friends.

I was gonna say, should we take turns? Do you wanna. You go. Oh, you got this. All right. Thanks, man. He got this.

You all head to below decks, tour to the rooms. Captain, Laura has, like, one of the crew members show you the way. So you. You all enter your rooms. They show you which one is yours. Seven, we'll start with you. You enter your room. Are you. You putting your stuff away? You put in the planar astrally down somewhere?

Yeah, I think I'm gonna try to carefully put it down and not make physical contact with the actual metal.

Just put.

If there's a piece of furniture or some sorts, like with our other belongings, like, just kind of put it all together or maybe in a bag.

So as you start shuffling it around and put it, like. Maybe like a little corner under the bed, um, something appears before you. Uh, it is from about the shoulders up. A vision, a a almost physical, uh, manifestation. Almost like a, uh. Um, very, like, translucent. Almost like ghost like it. So it's basically an apparition appearing before you. Um, it's not fake. It is your brother Val. And you notice he's wearing his trademark peacoat that's collared, just popping out into the frame of essentially what you can see of him. He's got his blonde hair and tapered ears. And you hear, hey, seven, how you been? Hi. Just kidding.

I can't hear you.

Truth is, if you're seeing this, well, something's gone awry. And the parameters of the spell were set to activate if you ever went near Gnarltooth island. Which tells me, if you are hearing this, that you somehow decided to join the ranks of heroes, because I don't see why else you go to Gnarltooth. But as you know, I was hired to be a counselor there. But almost as soon as I had arrived, I had been called away on a mission, and the journey so far has been utterly devastating and difficult. It's like they knew where we were going, and the only people to have seen me leave before heading out the mission were the other counselors. It's a coincidence, but I wanted to warn you to keep an eye out regardless. But the main reason why you're seeing this is I want you to tell you please tell mom and dad I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for all of you, especially you, as you embark on this journey, that I love them and you. Oh, and one more thing. If you take your mandolin and you look in the back, you're gonna notice a small but almost imperceptible button towards the bottom right corner. I suggest you click it, and with that, the vision fades.

I'm completely shaking. My hands are shaking, and I'm gonna try to. Well, that was unexpected. Thanks a lot. All right, I'm going to. I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna press the button.

So you.

Holy moly.

Press the button, and you hear kind of, like, gears turning and clicking, and the mandolin, oh, he broke my mandalorian, transforming and somehow turns into a very fine and elegant rapier.

That is very cool. I'm gonna be. That's never happened to my mandolin before.

You notice, it did take a good 10 seconds to transform, though it was not instantaneous.

Does this look like something that I recognized, like, from Val? Was this his or.

Uh. Well, as far as you might know, for you, that this mandolin was left by your brother, as you. You yourself might recall, but you did not know the full capabilities of your.

Mandolin until now, you mysterious bastard. You alright? I want. I want to pick it up. Can I pick it up? Is it.

You're. Yeah, it's been in your hand the whole time.

So now this is a. I can take it out of the case. Like, I can take the mandolin, and I can separate the sword.

Yeah, you can say, if you would like to have a transform to more kind of think, like, I'm gonna make some Sci-Fi references right now. R ejecting Luke's lightsaber, if you will.

Oh, cool.

Return of the Jedi.

Very cool. If that's very cool.

Wow. For sure we could flavor it. Can I try putting it up just to see how this thing works? Can I try putting it back and pressing the button again? Is that how that.

Yeah, so you kind of, like, twist it, put it back towards, like, the center, and you press the button, and the gears start whirring and shifting, and it starts putting itself back together into a mandolin.

That is incredible. I think I'm gonna keep that a little bit of a secret for now, actually.

Make me an arcana check. Make me an arcana check.

16.

So with the 16, you might surmise that having encountered a genie, a magical being, with that interference gone, that might have set the way for vowel spell to activate. Alright. With that future campers we will call it a night.

Well, that's gonna do it for this episode of campaign. Well, between an astrolabe, a genie, questionable gold, and a message from seven's brother with a secret about a mandolin, we have so much left to go. So just like Kenny Rogers on this episode, we're gonna know when to hold him. And we'll be back next week. See you next time. Campaign is produced by Levine, Orlip, Liam, Bridget and myself, Michael Haidt. I edit mix our show. Our intro voice recording was done by the one and only Coltrane. Music used in this podcast was sourced by Fanatical's 2023 music bundle featuring dark fantasy studio. If you like campaign, we hope you'll consider going to our show notes and supporting the show. Doing so helps us put out more shows just like this one. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.