Session Zero Heroes - A TTRPG Actual Play Podcast
Speaker A: Uh.
Speaker B: Jasmine Oolong, green and white. Long ago, these four teas were skilfully brewed at the Blissful Brew. Then, everything changed when the shop's popularity threatened its existence. All Mr. Okeron, the shop's owner and tea master, could do was to recruit four teenage orphans to learn his trade and staff his shop. A year has passed since the orphans were hired, and although their skills have progressed, they still have a lot to learn before they can brew anything. But I believe that they have the potential to make the Blissful Brew the greatest tea shop in the world.
Speaker C: And welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Benders and Brews. But today I've got an extra special episode for you because, uh, currently I'm sitting in the studio with just Cameron and Connor, aka Bill and Brock.
Speaker D: Guys, how's it going?
Speaker E: Oh, it's going great. How you been doing, Skylar? I missed.
Speaker C: For those that don't know, I just got back on a week and a half long trip from Denver. I'm not going to talk a whole lot about it, even though we said I should. Um, but it was a great time. It was very relaxing, very refreshing. Um, side note, you're probably wondering why Skyler? Why are you in the studio with just Cameron and Connor? Well, uh, David Mchaler are doing some life stuff. They're kind of re situating themselves, um, from some big changes, positive changes. Wonderful, exciting, super cool changes. And, uh, so we're just kind of doing a little one shot today to keep, uh, things going and, uh, hopefully give you some fun, uh, story to listen to. So that's what we're doing today. Like I said, it's just going to be Bill and it's just going to be Brock. It's going to be kind of back, what, like maybe two months ish before everything kind of started happening from season one prequel adventure.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: Prequel.
Speaker A: Cut. Yeah.
Speaker D: Deep cut.
Speaker C: Uh, Mr. O'Grad will still be.
Speaker D: Well.
Speaker C: We'Ve said this before, you're just jumping in at this point. You need to go back. You need to stop where you are.
Speaker D: And you need to go back from the beginning. Something messed up along the know.
Speaker E: That's right.
Speaker C: Click the wrong button, the algorithm has messed with you. And you need to write the algorithms wrong. So anyways, all right, we're going to get started with a very special, uh, side adventure featuring Bill and Brock.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker C: As the two of you finish up the last of your chores at the blissful brew, sweeping up the last of the dust from the floor that arrived via the bottom of the sandals from guests you've been serving throughout the day and cleaning the jelly spots off the last of the saucers and serving dishes. You feel a lingering spark of energy inside of you. This fizzling sensation that, uh, starts from your chest and tingles all the way up to the tips of your fingers and the heels of your feet stems from the excitement of an event that's about to happen. And sure enough, it does. Mr. Okeron steps through the doors of the kitchen. I think that's about it.
Speaker D: Everyone, come over.
Speaker C: Come on, come over. I have something special for each of you. And as you all begin to circle around him like a sports team waiting on their coach's next instruction, he has a massive smile on his face and begins to pass out some small jingling pouches to each of you.
Speaker A: Happy.
Speaker C: Uh, early soul rest day, everyone. You smile as you peek into the bag to find a collection of seven silver coins rattling around as you shift through them. Now, I know the holiday is all about resting the soul and finding one's inner peace and blah, blah, blah. But I know that all of you are excited for the days off and going out and doing fun things. And I just want to make sure.
Speaker D: That while I myself will be off.
Speaker C: To visit some old friends across the Earth kingdom, that you all will, uh, have plenty to keep yourselves busy with while the tea shop is closed. So consider this a little holiday bonus. As each of you takes your small pouch, you peek at the fresh, shiny coins and, uh, excitedly head off to bed. Although you find it a little bit difficult to sleep because you're thinking about the holiday and all the free time and now this small allowance that you'll have to do with as you please. It's not often you get a chance to get away from the tea shop. That makes, uh, up most of the time in your days. So this holiday has your minds stirring with ideas. So what kind of ideas are going through you heads as far as what you might want to do with this free time you've got?
Speaker E: I mean, we're in the Earth kingdom and we got a few days off. I could go back to the old farm, maybe, uh, give some of the money back to the family, see the parents, see Mr. Cabbage man. Yeah.
Speaker D: Wrestle some hogs, wrestle some hogs.
Speaker E: Take some potshots at some seagulls, sling mud. Slinging mud is the best thing the universe has to offer, and you mock it.
Speaker C: I think Brock desperately needs to become.
Speaker D: A politician so he could do some mud for it. Uh, what's Bill thinking about? Um, not much. Uh, he doesn't have any plans to get away for the weekend. He's planning on just taking it easy, enjoying time off from work. Uh, he's probably going to, I don't know, he might do some hiking, some, um, just wandering around nature because that's where he finds peace. And I think he's just going to pack a, uh, sack of food and just kind of like camp, live off the land for a couple of days.
Speaker C: Sure.
Speaker A: Wow.
Speaker C: It's a very soul rest day is.
Speaker D: Actually taking the holiday. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C: I need to rest my soul.
Speaker E: You don't want to go out and sling some mud?
Speaker C: Hey, we all rest our souls in different ways.
Speaker D: No judgment here. Yeah, no judgment.
Speaker C: As, uh, you awaken the following day, you come downstairs to make yourselves some breakfast and find that Mr. Okaron is already headed out on his journey to meet up with some old colleagues and friends from his traveling days. I love how, like, tease the idea that, hey, Mr. Okaron's still alive and he's gone.
Speaker D: Well, he can't go.
Speaker C: He's got things to do. That's right.
Speaker E: Just so you know, when it is in the story, like canonically speak, that's right.
Speaker D: Uh, he's alive. It's before.
Speaker C: To clarify, um, Mika has already disappeared, as she often does. And given her skills developed alongside her father and the Water tribe, you know, there's no chance of following her as she tends to leave no trace. Go Han mentioned something about a food tour and was excited to see just how far he could get with the map that he's been drawing up since you met him. Although he's very detailed and often tried to show the two of you his map, which he's very proud of, uh, your lack of interest left you nodding and smiling. And all of Guao's words went in one ear and out the other. So he could be anywhere right now trying out all the culinary delights of the Earth Kingdom had to offer. And who knows where that is?
Speaker D: I have to ask out of podcast? Yes. Did Dave tell you this?
Speaker C: No, I can't.
Speaker D: This is how well you know exactly like something Guawan would be like, I want to go tour the food.
Speaker C: I'm going to go find all the places that all the visiting people at our tea shop have been talking about. Like, oh, this is almost as good.
Speaker D: As tell me that.
Speaker C: Where is that?
Speaker D: Where is that?
Speaker C: I want to put that on my map.
Speaker E: That's, uh, such a GuoHan thing to do.
Speaker C: It's a GuoHan thing for sure. Oh, that should be a T shirt.
Speaker D: It's a.
Speaker E: Like I've only seen the.
Speaker D: Reference.
Speaker C: It would just be Cameron's face, though. We wouldn't use bills.
Speaker D: Yeah, that way people can aim the tomatoes better.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker D: They're moving me off the stage or whatever.
Speaker A: Uh.
Speaker C: Brock, you watch as Bill walks past you carrying a couple of bags loaded up and begins to head out the door.
Speaker E: So where are you off to? Big Bye?
Speaker C: Big Bye?
Speaker E: Big Bye. The Earth Kingdom's lingo, uh, is already coming back. I'm already that relaxed.
Speaker D: That chill. Um, I'm going to go enjoy Soul rest day. Uh, what are you doing?
Speaker E: I'm going to go back to the old farm and, uh, have some time with my family. You should come.
Speaker D: I don't know. I had other plans. I wanted to go do some other things.
Speaker E: Uh, such as?
Speaker A: Um.
Speaker D: Swing my bow staff, break rocks, real cool stuff like you do.
Speaker E: Well, you can swing your bow staff anywhere. You know where there's a lot of rocks?
Speaker D: Your farm on the farm?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: Okay, we got to go clear off some rocks. We can do some extra hands.
Speaker D: I know a really cool rock breaking place. Uh, but, uh, it's a secret place. Family, uh, secret, and, uh, I sadly cannot tell you. I know it might hurt, but family secrets.
Speaker E: You need to tell me about places with cool rocks. Since we've been over this.
Speaker D: I know this is like the fourth time you've told me. If I find a cool rock to.
Speaker A: Give it to you.
Speaker E: You just have to tell me where it is.
Speaker D: The downside to giving you cool rocks, Brock, is all the ones that you've shown me are cool, weigh at least 50 pounds, and I can't bring those back to you.
Speaker E: It's this guy, man. He doesn't even care. Well, fine. I will go off on my own. I'm going to build a tunnel. That's what I'm going to do. You, uh, can break some rocks.
Speaker D: I bet you can't. I bet you can build a tunnel. You've been talking about building tunnels.
Speaker C: You've been really on about this tunnel lately. Both been talking about this list of food places he wants to go to, and you've been talking about this tunnel.
Speaker E: You know why I love tunnel?
Speaker D: He keeps saying there's a tunnel underneath the blissful brew that you hide all of your cool rocks.
Speaker E: I mean, don't tell anyone else about that. I told you that in confidence.
Speaker D: No one else is here besides this random patron who's just talking to us.
Speaker E: I love tunnel. Hold on one SEC. I love tunnels because you can break rocks, and there's always the chance the rocks come down on top of you. And then I just have a bed. And then it's also dark, so I just go to sleep. So worst case, I end up under some rocks, and I get a good power nap. Best case, I get to break rocks for, like, hours.
Speaker D: Post power nap.
Speaker E: Post power nap.
Speaker D: That's the dream right there.
Speaker A: Exactly.
Speaker D: Post power nap, rock breaking. Um, and that's what I'm going to go do at the secret rock breaking spot.
Speaker C: Can I get a raspberry mint tea?
Speaker E: Hold on 1 second. I'm just a dishwasher. You see, this is why they left without us. You see, Guo and Mika, they don't like this part of you.
Speaker C: You see, we're going to have a.
Speaker E: POW out because you keep so many secrets, mr. Bill, if that is your real.
Speaker D: Mean yeah, but secrets are family. Secrets are one thing, and you know to are you gonna force Mr. Okaron.
Speaker C: To give up the secret ingredient to.
Speaker D: His family secret tea?
Speaker E: I'm a dishwasher. I don't make tea. And plus, I didn't know, Mr. You don't make tea?
Speaker D: No, I'm just dishwasher, and I just serve it. We actually have been closed for a couple hours. I don't know why you're still here.
Speaker C: And the man storms out.
Speaker D: We still take a tip of tip. He's gone. Anyways, um see?
Speaker E: Even you chase him away because of your secrets.
Speaker D: That wasn't a secret. I told him I've got things to do. Brock okay, I hope you have a great time hanging out with your family, but for now, I got to be on my way, okay?
Speaker E: Okay. I'll see you later. And can we walk off in the same direction?
Speaker D: Phil grabs his stuff, walks up the tour, and Brock walks.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker C: You have to be next to the person because otherwise it feels like you're being followed. And then it's only awkward for them. But for both of you, it's very awkward because you're heading in the same direction.
Speaker E: Like mountains.
Speaker D: This way.
Speaker E: Your rock place.
Speaker D: No, it's not that way. It's somewhere else. I just need to go that way to buy some stuff.
Speaker E: Uh, okay, cool.
Speaker D: Anyways, bye.
Speaker E: Brock okay, see ya.
Speaker D: And I start walking in a direction. In a different direction.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker C: All right. Brock you see him slowly fade into.
Speaker D: The distance and like, uh, an, uh, alleyway.
Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker C: So you watch him turn a corner into an alleyway.
Speaker E: Oh, I'm following him.
Speaker D: Okay, but why, may I ask?
Speaker E: Because we're here for family and the boys are family.
Speaker D: It has nothing to do with the secret rock break?
Speaker E: No, not at all about the secret rock breaking place that I need to know about. All right, well, do I need to roll for stealth?
Speaker D: Like, rely on your skills in training?
Speaker E: Well, I rolled a nine.
Speaker D: Uh, plus your focus.
Speaker E: My focus is zero because I'm just all passion, baby.
Speaker C: So with a nine, it says that you do it you succeed, but you do it imperfectly.
Speaker E: Imperfectly.
Speaker C: Now, I'm trying to think of when you're following somebody, how you can succeed, but do it imperfectly.
Speaker E: What if I do, like, a Bugs Bunny tunnel, and so he can obviously tell that it's me, but he just.
Speaker C: Like, well, yeah, I guess at the end of the day, that is the definition of doing following somebody imperfectly, which is that they know the whole time. Now, whether you know that Bill knows is kind of up in the air.
Speaker D: How are you following Bill? That's the real question. If you're underground, are you?
Speaker A: No, no.
Speaker C: That's exactly why you know it's. Because every once in a while, you just kind of, like, casually glance behind.
Speaker D: You and you see a head pop up out of the ground. You're doing?
Speaker C: Like the mole from the Earth Rumble Stadium thing.
Speaker D: Oh, yeah. You stick up your head, and once in a while you actually have, like, a mole rabit on your head or something pop up.
Speaker E: Or what if I follow him like I do, like, the Tiptoe sneaky follow, and then whenever he turns around, I just dive into the ground. But there's still, like, an obvious mountain.
Speaker D: You do an obvious dive, like an.
Speaker E: Actual hike dive into the ground.
Speaker C: And I think to top it all off, you're doing it cronk style, where as you're going, you're like.
Speaker A: You got.
Speaker D: Your own theme song.
Speaker E: Brock falling wind, built to see some really cool rocks.
Speaker D: And then like, I'm going to follow him.
Speaker C: But are, uh, you telling me that you did that on no, no.
Speaker D: He didn't want to tell Brock where he was going, but he figured Brock would follow him. But he knows where his spot he is going, and he knows there is a place where he can lose him right before he gets there.
Speaker E: Because I still succeed in following you.
Speaker C: This is what Bill's thinking.
Speaker D: Maybe he won't lose you, maybe he will. We don't know.
Speaker C: But in his mind, he's like, I.
Speaker D: Don'T care if he follows me because I've got this ace in the hole that Brock doesn't even know about. And once I get to the ace in the hole, you're in trouble. Right?
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker D: It's like mother Gothel and Tangle hiding the flower underneath the know at the start. It's like a bush.
Speaker E: Yeah.
Speaker C: And it's like you'd never find it.
Speaker D: Even if you followed her, because it's like such a quick thing you can hide.
Speaker C: This is a problem. And this is where I'm sure a lot of the audience starts to hate me, which is that, uh, I've only seen half of Tangled.
Speaker D: This is the first scene of the movie.
Speaker C: Yeah, it's been a long time. I feel like I watched half of it when it first came out after theaters, but like, to DVD or whatever. And that's as far as I got. Don't ask me why. I feel like something came up. I had to go.
Speaker D: It's one of the best ones.
Speaker C: That's what people have told me he hasn't learned.
Speaker D: I need to watch the frying pans.
Speaker E: Yeah.
Speaker C: Or I got to remember the frying pan. And ah, anyway, so I would say, actually, there's an exact situation for this situation, and that is that, uh, I think Bill should roll a trick once he gets to his ace in the hole spot that he's referencing.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker C: And we'll just see how successful he is at tricking or trying to lose Brock, essentially.
Speaker D: So I got minus one. That's a six five.
Speaker C: That's definitely a well, I guess there's no point in even asking which one you choose because it doesn't matter.
Speaker D: There's no choice. I just completely failed.
Speaker C: But you assume I could play what.
Speaker D: My ace in the hole was and we could play from there. How's that?
Speaker C: And then we'll play it in this scenario.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: So what his ace in the hole.
Speaker D: Was is where he was going is Bill was going to a tree. Uh, I've actually referenced this tree before in the podcast way, uh, back when, I don't know in what context, but it basically said it's like Bill's quiet place is this M tree? So anyways, he went to the tree. And his ace in the hole was just to quickly jump up and climb into the tree because he knows this tree like the back of his hand. Right. Um, but the problem was this was like the very first time he brought his bow staff because he was in a rush. And he brought his bow staff, but he left it at the base of the tree when he jumped up quickly. And he normally leaves it at the bottom of the tree because what he puts in the tree is supplies. And he hides it in the tree. But he left his bow staff on the ground because he's so used to the habit of laying the bow staff down, going up the tree, grabbing the supplies. So this time he wasn't grabbing supplies, he was hiding. Right. But his bow staff's just sitting there.
Speaker C: He was too much in a rush.
Speaker D: Correct. And he fell into a habit like his rush. So anyways, he builds up in a tree. So when Brock turns the corner, he just sees a bow staff resting on a tree.
Speaker C: It's a pretty big hint.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: So I'll go up, I'll grab the bow staff, and I'll just kind of look up and be like, hey, buddy.
Speaker A: What's?
Speaker E: Uh, know, I figured my family could wait a bit, just hang out with my boy. What you doing up there?
Speaker D: You've got to be kidding me.
Speaker E: Oh, no, I'm not. I'm just right here. What's up, dude?
Speaker D: Can I come up?
Speaker E: Looks cool up there. Uh, before you even answer a rock.
Speaker A: Elevator.
Speaker E: I'm right up at eye level. Like, what's up, dude? You dropped this on the ground. I'll hand you your boat.
Speaker D: I don't need the boat stuff. It slows me down when I climb the tree.
Speaker E: What are you climbing the tree for? Are you trying to get rid of me?
Speaker C: Can I be honest?
Speaker D: Yes, m and no.
Speaker E: Yes and no. Yes, I was trying to get rid.
Speaker D: Of you because I wanted to be alone, but no, because I normally always climb this tree when I get here.
Speaker E: Well, see, there's a problem because you're not alone. Because I'm here for you.
Speaker D: You're here to disturb my quiet time.
Speaker E: I would never I'm here for the cool rocks.
Speaker D: I lied about the rocks. Actually, there are some cool rocks I can show you. And Bill's going to grab this bag that's right next to him. Well, my Midwest just showed right there. That's my bag. Uh, he grabs his bag.
Speaker C: That just doesn't sound worse.
Speaker D: Actually. He grabbed it and he kind of, like, climbs back down the tree with it. And, uh, he gets down to the ground.
Speaker E: I'm still standing on my elevator.
Speaker D: Just you can probably lower.
Speaker E: I don't lied about the cool rock.
Speaker C: Again, there are some cool rocks.
Speaker E: Uh, do you understand what I went through to get here?
Speaker D: Yeah, a lot of diving in the tunnels. Yeah. I thought you were just doing that for fun.
Speaker E: And you mean to tell me it was all for nothing because the rocks aren't?
Speaker D: Um, um, there are some rocks.
Speaker A: Look.
Speaker D: And, uh, Bill kind of like, ushers him to look. So what this tree is mind you, I want to paint a picture. This tree is over the edge of a cliff. So it's like one of those trees that's, like, grown out of the side of a cliff. And you're like, when you look at it, you'd be like, how the heck does that work? But this is just an old, ancient tree that the roots are just so deep that it's just there. And the OD thing about this tree is it's totally out, um, on the edge of this cliff path, and it's totally alone by itself, right. And, uh, Bill just finds this tree. This is kind of the exact same thing way back when he finds it to be a representation of himself. He's, like, alone on the edge of a cliff, right. Anyways, uh, he points over the cliff, which is a giant valley filled with beautiful sights and stuff. You can see a lake off the lake in distance. You can see everything. And then Bill points to the opposite end of the cliff where there's a ton of rocks, and he says, look over there, Brock. Those are some of the coolest rocks I've ever seen. Look, that one even looks like a face.
Speaker C: It looks like you rock, Brock.
Speaker E: Man, those do look pretty cool over there. We should go check those out.
Speaker D: I've never been over there.
Speaker A: Uh oh.
Speaker E: Well, what a perfect time.
Speaker C: I'd rather do what I came here.
Speaker D: To do and enjoy my vacation.
Speaker E: I'm not here for your tree allegories being just like you. I'm here to break some rocks and follow Bill. And I've already done one of those, so we're doing this. Can I just start running off? But I take his bow staff. With bow staff in hand, I run off to the other side of the lake. Do I need to roll?
Speaker D: Running all the way to the lake?
Speaker E: How far is it?
Speaker D: It's pretty far away in my mind. I guess it could be closer.
Speaker C: Well, I mean, he's running towards I'm running towards, making his way.
Speaker E: I don't know if I need to roll.
Speaker C: You don't even need to roll.
Speaker D: You're going to chase him. But before he chases him, he's going to quickly throw the supply bag he.
Speaker C: Has and add him into the truck. Put it back.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker D: He's going to go chase it after him. All right. You get back here with my bow stat. That's mine. That's precious merchandise.
Speaker C: And you better not break any rocks with that.
Speaker E: No promises.
Speaker C: And as the two of you run together, bill chasing Brock in some sort of adorable little sibling big sibling looking situation as he's playing keep away with you holding, uh, your Bow staff, uh, the two of you, uh you make your way up and down some rolling hills and short mountains and a beeline towards this area with the face rock that Bill says exists. And as you crit I'm not saying it doesn't bill saw it, and he says it looks like a face.
Speaker D: Brock's face.
Speaker C: Explicitly brock's face.
Speaker E: Uh, good looking rock.
Speaker C: Well, handsome rock right there. As you crest a lush plateau, the long green grass blowing in the wind, you see some sort of a cave opening that goes into one of the mountain sort of areas in this series, uh, of hills and mountains that you're kind of running around through. And you pause for a moment because you see something moving towards near the entrance of this cave. Uh, you see a man dressed in Fire Nation garb and he is sitting on an ostrich horse cart, which he kind of pulls up in next to alongside the cave. Uh, parks this cart, hops off his vehicle and proceeds to withdraw a barrel from the back of this cart, which he then rolls into the cave.
Speaker E: I mean, we can't not check that out.
Speaker D: Check what out?
Speaker E: I want my Bow staff back. Oh, you'll get it eventually. Hold on.
Speaker D: No, I want my bow.
Speaker A: Step back.
Speaker E: We're going to investigate this cave real quick.
Speaker D: Why?
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker E: Bye.
Speaker D: He's just running into a cave?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: Okay, follow up. Definitely taunting me with maybe when he gets into a cave, he starts, like, hitting it on rocks. Hey, you stopped that. You stopped hitting those rocks.
Speaker E: I'll pick up, like, little pebbles and start hitting, like, a baseball bat or something.
Speaker C: Okay, so it's, uh, a couple of minutes before you guys make it down to the cave entrance, since that individual, that mysterious figure, kind of ran inside. So there's maybe, like, a five minute difference before you're able to get in there. Once you are directly inside the cave's opening, you find a small room with a split in tunnels, one leading to the right and one leading to the left above. Like, in between these two tunnels, you see, uh, an arrow that looks like it's drawn out on some kind of chalk, and it points to the tunnel on the right.
Speaker E: Well, Mr. M. Give me my Bow staff back. Any bright ideas?
Speaker D: Give me my Bow staff back. In a minute.
Speaker A: Hold on.
Speaker E: I give you the bow staff, you run off and leave me here. So we're in this together, are we? We're in a cave. It's a really cool thing.
Speaker D: Just why are we in a cave?
Speaker E: Because it's awesome, and we saw a guy come in here. I got to investigate.
Speaker D: What do you mean a guy? You said this mentioned this guy twice now.
Speaker E: Yeah, there was a guy. He was, like, rolling some barrels in here. I mean, that can't not be something sketchy. And so why not investigate?
Speaker D: Well, because I know how good you are at stealthing and hiding behind people.
Speaker E: What do you mean?
Speaker D: I knew you were following me the whole way to the tree.
Speaker C: Just to specify, though, Bill, you would have seen the ostrich horse and the cart parked outside of the yeah, you didn't see the guy, but you do.
Speaker D: Know, like well, that's kind of weird.
Speaker C: To just leave a I'm not doubting.
Speaker D: That there wasn't a guy.
Speaker E: But you are doubting my sneak.
Speaker A: Yes. Correct? Yes.
Speaker E: Well, what a time to, uh, change your mind.
Speaker D: Let's go. No.
Speaker E: Can'T hear you.
Speaker D: I will go with you if you give me the boat stuff back.
Speaker C: That's a promise.
Speaker E: Now, how do I know you're not just going to run off once I give it to you? I mean, you could say I promise all you want. My dad promised to come back and look what happened. He's a viable cabbage farmer. I messed that up. Well, I tried to make an absentee.
Speaker D: Dad joke, and it didn't work out. It's okay. Bill puts his hand on Brock's alder. It's okay. There's no shame in having a good father figure in your life.
Speaker E: I'm going to do, like, a quick clap just to cut that out. Okay? Just to cut out that stupid joke.
Speaker C: Uh, do you want to do a comfort or support?
Speaker D: That's an option. It's like the opposite of comfort support. This is more like consoling effort.
Speaker C: Well, then, if that's the case, you could do a plead.
Speaker D: Oh, yeah, I'm pleading with him. Give me my boast. I gave him my deal. I'll go with you into this cave.
Speaker C: All right, give me my bo.
Speaker D: Step back.
Speaker C: That's.
Speaker D: Four total.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: I like how I normally roll really good, and I could do this many one shot, and Bill's like, I don't know what to do. I'm on vacation. I let your guard down.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: It kind of falls on deaf ears.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: Ah. So sorry. I can't hear you in a tunnel.
Speaker D: Let's go. Okay. Which tunnel did you run down?
Speaker E: Probably the one with the arrow.
Speaker C: Uh, the arrow pointing to it.
Speaker D: Of course. It says, follow me.
Speaker E: It says, Certain death to the left. Sketchy guy with a barrel to the right. I'm going to go to the right.
Speaker C: All right, so this tunnel opens up into a wide area, more of a chamber than a tunnel, really. The floor of this tunnel is covered in a layer of hay that's so thick, you can't even see the floor of the cavern below it. There are, though, some strange and almost seemingly because of the way that they're cut into almost like, tombstone shapes. Um, there are these manmade stone, or at least allegedly manmade stone outcroppings that poke out from the straw floor that just seem to sit there, um, above the or sticking out of the straw.
Speaker D: How many are there?
Speaker C: Uh, there's about a dozen.
Speaker E: You said there's a cavern in there?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: Or we're in a cavern.
Speaker C: You step into the opening of. This cavern, the tunnel kind of becomes a wide cut.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: And you can't see the floor because it's all covered in hay. And then amidst, uh, this whole area covered in hay, there are these stone outcroppings that stick out from the hay, and there's about a dozen.
Speaker D: And that's all we can see in the room.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker D: Just these stone outcroppings.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker D: And the hay.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker C: I mean, unless you want to do some kind of investigation or something.
Speaker E: Well, I've never seen a stone I couldn't hit.
Speaker D: No, not with my bow staff. Don't even think about it. I see him raise it above his.
Speaker E: Head like a spear as I raise the bow step.
Speaker A: Don't use a rock.
Speaker D: Break rocks with rocks. Don't use my bow step. The last thing I want to see you do is break that staff.
Speaker E: That's what you sound like. Fine, here's your stupid bow step. So I'll toss him as bow staff.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker D: And that's when Bill runs out.
Speaker E: Immediately, I'll just go up to the nearest one of these little tombstone things, and I'll try and dig the hay out from around the stone.
Speaker D: Bill is going to do too.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: Because I got to figure I take this.
Speaker C: Are you going to the same one that he's going to, uh I'm more.
Speaker D: Like I was thinking I was going watching him to see he said he was going to break it, so I was going to kind of watch him break it. But then when I saw him actually getting down, doing a sensible action, bill's like, oh, okay. So he gets down and starts hoping to move the hay.
Speaker C: Okay, that was sensible action.
Speaker E: When have I ever not been sensible?
Speaker A: Uh.
Speaker C: So, Brock, as you start well, as both of you start to clear away some of this hay that's by the stone, um, you kind of, like, clear it away, and then you end up getting around to the other side of the stone. So it's very flat. Um, so it has, like, two faces. Like, imagine like, a coin. One face is towards you, and it's just stone. But as you come around to the other side of this outcropping rock, you see the other face has, um, zero or like, a big circle drawn on it with that chalk. Same kind of chalk, same kind of style as you saw with the arrow pointing at the tunnel. Uh, as you clear away the hay, you just find just regular floor, stone floor, uh, below you.
Speaker E: So if this has a zero on it and there's, like, ten or twelve of these things in here, I wonder if the other ones have different numbers. So I'm going to go over to another one and do the same thing.
Speaker D: Brock, I thought you couldn't count.
Speaker E: Well, I can identify a number.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker C: So you notice they're in rows of like, there's two. Uh, like I said, it's kind of more of a cavern but it's pretty uniformly sized, so it's almost like just a wide tunnel, I guess you could say. Um, there's, like, two of these stone outcroppings almost, like, perfectly adjacent to each other, probably about, like, 10ft apart. And then there's 5ft between the end of the stone outcropping to the wall. So it's about 20ft total wide. Um, so the first stone that you walked up to was on the right side, and you clear it out. It had the zero on it. You move forward to the next one. You go diagonally, so you go to the one on the left. Do, uh, you clear out hay, or do you just look at the outcropping?
Speaker E: I'll clear out hay.
Speaker C: Okay, you'll clear out some hay. It's just stone. And you see another zero on this rock. But as you turn around, you can see the face of the rock behind you, the one that was right next to the one that you cleared the hay from. And it has an X on it.
Speaker E: We're playing tic TAC freaking toe, man.
Speaker D: What? What do you mean? I'm going to go over to a different one and clear it.
Speaker C: When you go to a different one, do you go to one?
Speaker D: The one straight above the one we first cleared, straight up to the right.
Speaker C: So the one that Brock didn't clear, the one next to the one Brock just cleared. Uh, okay.
Speaker E: So the first one had an O diagonal up to the left had an X middle. And the one next to the one that I had originally done was an O.
Speaker D: No, that's the one clearing.
Speaker E: So we've only done two.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker C: Um, so you walked up to this one. It had an O on it. Um, you went over to this one. You looked, and it had an O on it. That one looked back, and this had an X on.
Speaker E: Okay, so which one are you going to?
Speaker D: The one above the first O.
Speaker C: This one?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker C: Now that we've drawn it out, everybody is good with where we're at. Maybe, um, I'll try to remember to take a picture.
Speaker A: I don't know.
Speaker C: I might just make a version of this that's been edited so that it looks fancy and not just me making weird drawing stuff on the paper, but anyway. All right, so you walk up to this other one, and as you do, you feel a slight click underneath your foot. And then all of a sudden, you feel yourself thrown backwards as a massive explosion erupts in the cave. You, um, take a fatigue, and you are impaired.
Speaker E: Should have been more careful, man. More careful. Broccoli. That's what they call me.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker D: You took my stick.
Speaker E: You have your stick, actually.
Speaker C: Sorry. You're stunned. Okay, so after, ah, a couple of seconds, as per the stunned concept, uh, you're able to pick yourself up off the floor. Um, and you see that the whole area where the hay was where you had stepped. It's obviously scattered everywhere. Some of it is all over Brock right now. Um, and the stone outcropping that was there has been blown to smithereens. Uh, there is no stone outcropping there anymore.
Speaker D: Just gone now.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: Okay. Did I win?
Speaker E: Yeah, congrats. You won the Get Exploded award.
Speaker D: The weirdest game of tic TAC toe I've ever played.
Speaker E: Where else would you want to be spending your vacation other than getting blown.
Speaker D: Up and my tree?
Speaker E: Uh, don't, uh, even worry about the tree. It'll still be there.
Speaker D: Hey, funny thing is, Brock, I've broken more rocks than you.
Speaker E: Uh, so just in a rage, I'll just go and kick the next one. I don't even uncover. Um, I just kick this one, the.
Speaker D: One above the exploding one.
Speaker C: It blows up. You take one fatigue, and you also get sent flying backwards right next to.
Speaker E: I was like, Take that, idiot.
Speaker D: Ah, I got you.
Speaker E: I bet you feel real stupid.
Speaker D: I feel dumb.
Speaker C: Brock, that one's gone.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker D: Do we happen to know why these are exploding?
Speaker E: I don't know.
Speaker D: Why are we even messing with these?
Speaker E: Because we saw the guy.
Speaker D: He's not even here.
Speaker E: Allegedly. We got to keep looking. Allegedly.
Speaker D: There's no guy here. There's the other tunnel.
Speaker E: Oh, tunnel.
Speaker D: No, I know what you're thinking. No, you don't know where you would go underground.
Speaker E: I know exactly where I would go. So Brock so before getting into a tunnel haphazardly, brock will do a bit of Earth bending in the ground to sort of open up a little hole that he would then jump into to start a tunnel. So he'll step on the ground and open it up like an elevator shaft type deal.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker E: And just make sure that there's no more explosives underground.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker E: I'm, like, in the middle, though. I'm in the middle.
Speaker C: You're just opening up a straight down elevator shaft.
Speaker D: I do have to ask very important question here.
Speaker C: Straight down, is it just rock sized.
Speaker D: Hole or did you make it bigger that Bill falls down with you because he's right next to you.
Speaker E: Well, now that you like, I don't put myself down. I'm standing behind it. That way if there's anything under there.
Speaker D: You can jump down.
Speaker E: I don't fall to certain do a.
Speaker C: Reliable skills and training. He's doing the minecraft.
Speaker E: You don't dig straight down.
Speaker C: Don't dig straight down, because then you're in trouble.
Speaker E: What do I add to it?
Speaker C: Uh, that one is focus.
Speaker D: If it's your skills and training, yes.
Speaker E: Okay, so seven.
Speaker A: Seven. Okay.
Speaker C: You do it, but you do it imperfectly. So, um, you start to fall because you just opened up and you kind of misjudged the size of your hole. Uh, your foot starts to go down. Uh, you reach out to grab something and you grab onto this root that's kind of hanging out of the wall. And you pull it and it pulls down kind of an OD amount before just stopping all of a sudden. Uh, but it allows you to catch yourself before you fall down the hole.
Speaker E: Okay. So I'm just kind of dangling from a vine now.
Speaker A: Ah.
Speaker D: Bill's going to offer him his bow.
Speaker C: Staff to grab after he kept it away from you.
Speaker E: That's so nice of you. I'll grab onto the bow staff and then come back up top and assess the situation we got here.
Speaker D: Lift him up.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: You lift him up.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: Um, would you like to roll and assess the situation then?
Speaker D: I'll do the same.
Speaker C: Or do you want to help?
Speaker D: Sure.
Speaker E: Okay, so I'm assessing the situation. He's rolling to help.
Speaker D: Well, this marks a fatigue. If I help oh, that's true.
Speaker C: You already helped.
Speaker E: Let's just assess the situation.
Speaker C: I got a six.
Speaker D: I got a seven.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker C: Well, Brock, you're a little, like yeah, you're a little shuddered from exploded.
Speaker D: You almost fell.
Speaker E: It looks like we got a hole here. I'm like, I have a concussion.
Speaker C: Well, you're looking down your hole. You're like, all right, let's see, what was I looking for again?
Speaker E: There's definitely a hole.
Speaker C: There's a hole. It's a hole. And sure enough, it is a hole. It just goes down as far as your Earth bending skills allowed it to go down.
Speaker E: I was hoping for 10ft the most.
Speaker C: Okay, so there's a ten foot hole.
Speaker D: Oh, jeez.
Speaker C: Uh, Bill, on the other hand, you get to ask me one of the questions from the assessor situation list.
Speaker D: What should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker C: What should you be on the lookout for? Uh, actually, yeah. As you glance, uh, across the room, you notice something that wasn't there before. Uh, you see that there is a mirror at the end of the room, as I said, wasn't there before, but now it is. Uh, and through the mirror, you can actually see all the stones, uh, from the other side, so you can see what markings are on the other face of the stone.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker D: Uh, I'm going to hit Brock.
Speaker C: I hit him.
Speaker D: I'm going to tap no, like the thing where you tap something back of your hand.
Speaker C: Hey, Brock, uh, was that there before?
Speaker E: Was what there before? Those six mirrors. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker D: It's just six.
Speaker E: I exploded. I probably hit my head down there. Don't worry.
Speaker C: I was a little bird flying around his head.
Speaker E: Anyone going to get that phone?
Speaker A: What's? A phone?
Speaker D: Brock no, it's just one mirror, Brock. But you see the mirror, was that there before?
Speaker E: I don't think so. It was just kind of dark in here.
Speaker D: Uh, Bill's going to look a little closer and see the back of the rocks now.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: So you can see that all of them are marked with either a zero or an X. Um, and you can see which ones are marked with which. Obviously, you're able to work out that uh, things would be in reverse because it's a mirror.
Speaker D: Would we?
Speaker E: Yeah, you would.
Speaker C: I feel like I feel like, yeah, if it was Brock looking at it, he'd be like, all right, all the X's are over here.
Speaker D: Put them down the right order, and we'll just have Brock go to the oh, that one's.
Speaker E: Are the so from left to right.
Speaker D: So I was just going to tell you.
Speaker C: I wasn't even going to mark on.
Speaker D: Unless you really needed it. So you just want to go jump to that left one and build points to the one up to the left. Just keep following that one straight ahead.
Speaker E: The X?
Speaker D: No, the circle. Yeah. He points at the front right one, and he points to the diagonal. He says just jump to that and then just keep going straight from there.
Speaker E: Okay, so I'll follow the circles.
Speaker C: All right, you follow the circles. So you go to these two.
Speaker E: Uh, yeah.
Speaker D: And right before he goes to the last one, bill's going to yell, wait.
Speaker A: He'S got 1ft in the air.
Speaker E: Why?
Speaker D: Uh, go diagonal. Okay, I miscalculated something.
Speaker E: Whatever.
Speaker C: Nerd.
Speaker D: They're my custard.
Speaker E: I'll go diagonal.
Speaker C: Bracko's diagonal. And you find yourself at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker D: Bill's going to follow same order.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker C: And then as you guys both make it to the end of the tunnel, uh, there's a short tunnel that goes past that does, um, not have any hay on the ground or anything like that. You also notice, uh, to your right, kind, uh, of in a corner, there is strangely, uh, familiar looking route just hanging from the wall.
Speaker E: Strangely familiar route like the route that was in.
Speaker D: Is this like a dead end?
Speaker C: No, there's a tunnel that keeps going. I'm just letting I want to pull that route. All right, you pull the route, and as you do, the mirror at the end of the hall sort of, um, almost like, uh, one of those bookcases where you pull the book and it kind of moves. This one just it spins like it's on a platform. And then on the back, there's just a rock that, uh, just blends in.
Speaker D: With the back of the cave.
Speaker E: That's probably fine.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: Let's keep going. Right. It's probably fine.
Speaker D: It's a rock.
Speaker C: And of course, as you look back, you can just personally see all the X's and the zeros since you're on the other side of the rock. Um, all right, you go a little bit further down, uh, the tunnel, and you come to another chamber. Uh, coming into this chamber, you can see that there are now three different tunnels that you can choose from.
Speaker D: What, uh.
Speaker C: That go further in? Yes. Um, the tunnels are each labeled with that same kind of chalk artwork that you saw before. Uh, one of them shows a series of swirled lines suggesting almost like a cartoonish tornado. Um, one of them has a cartoonish foot with little, like, wavy lines coming off of it. Like as if someone were saying, this is a stinky foot. Um, and then one of them has no drawing, but instead has words and it just reads, if you're not Kuro, don't go down this tunnel. I mean it.
Speaker E: So we're going down that, right.
Speaker D: Which one?
Speaker E: Uh, the one that says, if you're not Kuro, you don't come down here. Why else would they have that sign if not something cools on the other end?
Speaker D: It's probably some dude's bedroom. Cave bedroom. Yoon would be familiar with that.
Speaker E: Yeah. And then we can bond and become friends over our love of cave style bedrooms.
Speaker D: What kind of dude did you see come down here anyways?
Speaker E: No, it was just a dude with a barrel, which is weird because there's no large impressions or anything in the ground. Are there impressions on the ground of where a barrel might have been?
Speaker D: Oh.
Speaker C: Do you want to assess the situation?
Speaker E: I want to assess it so hard.
Speaker D: Assess the situation, too.
Speaker C: You look around and you're like, no, it's rocks. Why would there be any it's not dirt. There's no barrel impression.
Speaker E: Well, so much for that.
Speaker A: Um, yeah.
Speaker E: You got any better ideas? Would you rather go into a tornado or a place that smells like feet? Or would you want to go check out a best friend, potential best friend named Kura?
Speaker D: I want to go back to my tree.
Speaker E: Well, too late.
Speaker C: Uh, that's the one option I'm not giving you.
Speaker E: We're in the tunnel. We're already here. We're having an adventure. We're having fun. So where are we going? I love being told I'm having fun, right? We're all having a good time. Uh, it's a nice little hike. Don't worry. So, story time. So I'm going to do a quick little thing here. So on our last day in Flagstaff, right, there's a hike called Devil's Bridge. And so I had been there before and it was like, uh, an hour long hike. So they were like, you know, we got to do something easy because we've been hiking for like four days straight. And I was like, you know, there's this nice little easy hike called Devil's Bridge. And it's like a mile one way to a mile back. And so we start on the trail and we're on there for like 20 minutes. And they're like, we should start to be going uphill, right, because we're on, like, ground level. Uh, so I'm like, don't worry, it's a nice little hike kids do. It'll be fine. And we pass these two ladies that came up. Uh, yeah. So we started at like 1030, right? And we look at our watches. It's like 02:00.
Speaker A: Oh, my God. Yeah.
Speaker E: So everyone's just like, dude, what did you get us into? I was like, don't worry, it's a nice little hike. So 3 hours later mind, uh, you I'm in jeans. Cameron didn't pack a full water bottle. Josiah's in jeans. Nick was the only one who's smart enough to wear shorts and pack a full water bottle. And we're up at the top and everyone's just like shooting daggers at me. It was a nice little hang.
Speaker D: Kids do it.
Speaker E: Kids do it.
Speaker A: Kids do it.
Speaker C: 4 hours old ladies do it. So you got your three tunnels.
Speaker D: Just choose a path and I'll follow you.
Speaker E: Enie meanie mini. We're going in the other in the.
Speaker C: Kuro, the one where it talks about.
Speaker D: A new best friend.
Speaker E: All right, we're meeting a new best friend whose name is apparently Kuro.
Speaker C: Kuro, you say how you say it's all good. Um, all right, so as you guys come around to the corner, uh, so this tunnel kind of like is at angle. You go in, you take a corner. You can kind of hear something as you're making your way around this corner and you quickly realize what it is that you're hearing. Uh, the tunnel itself is quite brightly lit, uh, because even worse, uh, because there is a wall of flames shooting just kind of like in the shape of a wall. Like it's not shooting towards you. Like incredible. It's just like a series of flames all shooting into each other from the walls, the ceiling and the floor. And it creates just a wall of flames in front of you, blocking your ability to get through.
Speaker E: Well, yeah, no, I'm not well, we're on stone floors. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to earth bend some walls to block the flames. We're going to walk right through. I'm m going to rely on my skills and training.
Speaker D: You better.
Speaker E: Uh, and we're going to go right through that wall of flames because I rolled a seven.
Speaker C: Okay, so you stomped the ground.
Speaker E: Wait, it's still with focus, right?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: So seven.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker C: You stomp the ground. A chunk of rock comes out and it moves forward over the kind of openings of wherever these flames are coming out of. It blocks the floor, but the flames from the ceiling are still coming down and the flames from the two walls are still coming across. And you're feeling quite tired between the.
Speaker D: Explosion and the other thing, the constant hole digging.
Speaker E: Well, you see, I'm, um nothing if not stubborn. Um, stubborn as a mule. Wait, can I even roll again?
Speaker C: You can, but I'm just going to warn you because of how tired you are, you're going to take a well, okay. Because all things considered, with rely on your skills and training, it explicitly says you can make it a full success, but you'll take a fatigue if you do.
Speaker D: So, I mean, can I just roll again?
Speaker E: Because I just rolled.
Speaker D: No, I had that cheating, classic Connor Dice roll right there.
Speaker E: I was like this and I'm like, yeah.
Speaker C: It says you can accept the consequences, which are that you only cover one section.
Speaker D: You want to succeed on that first mild success and get a fatigue.
Speaker E: What's the alternative? We just have to reassess and figure something else out. Yeah, all right, let's just reassess.
Speaker D: No, I'm not going that way.
Speaker E: Well, what would you suggest anyway but that one. You're, uh, just no fun today, are you?
Speaker D: Dude, I'm not a fan of fire.
Speaker E: Fine. We'll go in the stupid foot tunnel.
Speaker D: As long as there's not fire, I'm fine with it. All right.
Speaker A: Foot tunnel.
Speaker E: Secret foot tunnel.
Speaker C: All right, so as you guys, you make your way back to the first chamber or I guess technically second that was the first chamber. Anyway, uh, you go down the tunnel with the marking of the foot. That looks thank you.
Speaker A: Ah.
Speaker C: As you guys make your way down, this, um, this one has a much fainter glow about it. And you quickly realize this because, uh, as you turn another corner, um, it opens up into a floor that is covered with hot coals and embers. Um, it's a very rounded out, almost a perfect circle through this tunnel. Like I said, the floor is covered with these coals. Um, there's some sort of flame or something underneath it that seems to keep these embers hot, but it doesn't really shoot through too much. Um, and as you look at the walls and the ceiling, you notice that there's this strange ooze that seems to be dripping down across it.
Speaker E: Well, I don't have a problem with this because I got them calloused feet. So what's your problem? What's your idea here?
Speaker D: I'm just going to walk across these coals.
Speaker E: I can I don't know about you.
Speaker D: How big is it?
Speaker C: Uh, it is about 20ft long.
Speaker E: Pain don't hurt.
Speaker C: Pain don't hurt.
Speaker E: I got the calloused feet.
Speaker D: I'm good.
Speaker E: I'll just walk across.
Speaker C: What would be a better T shirt idea? Pain don't hurt, or I've got the calloused feet.
Speaker D: I want to see him cross first.
Speaker E: Okay, I'll just walk across. I'll saunter even I might even meander, how's he doing? Perhaps gallivant.
Speaker C: As you take your first footstep onto the coals, you hear the sizzle of meat cooking, and you immediately pull your foot back because these temperatures are hot, hot. Much like a mattress store sale.
Speaker E: Good analogy.
Speaker D: That'd be great.
Speaker C: Uh, I hear a loud coming out of the.
Speaker D: Tom and Jerry type scream. Uh, how you doing there, Brock?
Speaker E: I'm great. I was chilling.
Speaker D: Why are you on the ground holding your foot?
Speaker E: Don't worry about it. It's all good. I'll get there, I stumped my toe.
Speaker C: Pain don't hurt. Pain don't hurt.
Speaker E: It's a nice, easy walk. Kids do it.
Speaker D: Only miko is here.
Speaker A: Cool.
Speaker D: That burn off real easy.
Speaker E: All right, well, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try the other foot. You want to try the third tunnel before we figure out which one to do which one's the easiest?
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: Uh.
Speaker D: I don't know.
Speaker E: Maybe go back so stupid with your sensible ideas anyways.
Speaker D: Come on, Brock.
Speaker E: Be impulsive once in a while.
Speaker C: Uh, bill leads Brock hopping on 1ft out of the tunnel and back to the chamber where they take the third and final tunnel that depicted a tornado uh, looking thing. And again, it's got a corner around the corner. This one's pretty well lit up, and you find yourselves, uh, it opens up into a sort of wide circular room. And in the middle of this room, there's a flaming vortex that just seems to be nonstop. Uh, there's a heavy wind that seems to be moving throughout this room. Um, you can kind of see some openings in the walls of the room that you wonder if maybe they're what are allowing the wind to kind of come through. You're not sure how. It's got to be something you can't see deeper into the tunnel or something, but it's pushing air through here, which is swirling around. And there's a tornado of literal flames swirling in the midst of this tunnel.
Speaker E: Where are the flames coming from?
Speaker C: Uh, it looks like the floor and the ceiling. There's some sort of, like, spout almost that is maintaining the flames in here.
Speaker E: All right, time for impulsive idea number three. I'm going to try and earth bend a giant rock, and I'm just trying to plug the holes on the top and the bottom.
Speaker C: Where are you pulling the rock from?
Speaker E: Wasn't it like a stone? Oh, it's a stone floor. And if the flames are coming from the floor, I might just, um that's a great question. Uh, can I first feel the floor with my non charred feet in hands okay. To see if there's any heat coming from the ground? Is this a roll situation?
Speaker C: No, um, I could tell you the heat is coming from the tornado for sure. The flaming vortex. Um, the ground and the walls of this open area seem to be reasonably, like, just warm but not hot. But the vortex itself, like the spinning flames, um, because it's so random and variating, uh, sometimes it winds out to the full length of the cavern, and sometimes it kind of pulls itself into a thinner vortex. Um, but it's not really in any kind of a pattern, so it's hard to like you wouldn't really be able to look at it and be like, one, two, three. Okay, go. You can see an opening in the tunnel or at the other end of this room. Of course.
Speaker A: Mhm.
Speaker E: All right, so given these three options, and leaving is not one of them. Yeah.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker E: Can I assess the situation?
Speaker C: Sure.
Speaker E: All right, here we go.
Speaker C: You're really distracted by the flames. They're kind of freaking you out.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: I wanted to look for if there's another one of those moss things.
Speaker C: Moss? What do you mean by moss?
Speaker D: Things we pulled earlier in the back.
Speaker E: Well, I got a nine.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker E: So I can assess uh, well, you don't see anything.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: How many questions do I get to nine?
Speaker C: You'd get one question.
Speaker E: What year can I use to blank? Or what is biggest thread? What should I be able to look out for? Oh, what is our best way through on this one?
Speaker C: Your best way through would be by blocking either one of the openings for the air or one of the openings for the fire.
Speaker E: Well, I already thought of that.
Speaker D: What if you close those things on the side? Close the things look and bill points at the holes on the side that are creating the wind. What if you just took your rock bending and you just closed those holes? Wouldn't it cause that tornado spinning effect to just stop and it would just be a pillar of heat in the middle and we could just walk around the edge of it.
Speaker E: First of all, how dare you forgot like a rock bending. But secondly, I think that could work. So I'll earth bend the uh, air holes.
Speaker C: Okay, now normally I'd say this is easy enough to do, but with your injured foot I'll have you rely on your skills and training.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: I got a four.
Speaker C: Or maybe it would have been Push Your Luck, but I don't think it.
Speaker E: Really well, let's roll for Push Your luck.
Speaker C: Well, if you have an addition to.
Speaker E: It, I think I should roll again.
Speaker D: So what's he do?
Speaker E: I got an eight. I got double fours for the second roll.
Speaker D: Okay, what'd you get for the first roll?
Speaker E: I got a four. Don't worry about it.
Speaker C: All right, so you go to do your earth bending and as soon as you realize that part of the form to do this earth bending requires the hurt foot. And so the second you slam that foot down, it just shrieks with burning pain and you immediately pull back and you're a little frustrated because you're semi disabled. In fact, one might say you are impaired.
Speaker E: Oh. Am I impaired?
Speaker D: Leg disabled.
Speaker E: Uh, mark one fatigue or take minus two to all physical actions. Uh, jeez. Or choose one fewer techniques.
Speaker C: Oh, that's for NPCs. Uh, so the first thing is for player characters. The other one. Uh, so if you ever inflicted an.
Speaker E: NPC well, I would only have three potatoes. Mark one. Could I if you're going to mark the rest, I'm going to say can I mark the one fatigue but do it in order to have success and not because I'm impaired. Because if I'm losing one fatigue anyways, might as well have it actually work.
Speaker C: Oh, you're saying for the realize.
Speaker A: Well.
Speaker C: I think that's only if you get the seven to nine, which does it imperfectly. Uh, if you get less than that, you're just failing completely.
Speaker E: And I just got to choose now what I'm taking.
Speaker C: Well, I think you choose that in the moment when you do something you'll either take minus two. Or you'll mark the fatigue.
Speaker E: Oh, wait, my focus is plus one. Either way, it's a five.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker C: It's still a failure.
Speaker D: You're poor foot.
Speaker E: I think I'll minus two to my abilities.
Speaker A: All of them.
Speaker C: Um, well, it's just for physical if you're doing something, like, physically.
Speaker E: So my entire brand.
Speaker D: You'Ve, uh, really limited our group.
Speaker E: Okay, well, it's a prequel. I got to survive.
Speaker D: I didn't think we were going to die.
Speaker E: It's a fun little cave explorer.
Speaker D: Kids do it.
Speaker E: Kids do it's. A fun little cave exploration. All right, so now that I am in pain okay.
Speaker D: So Bill sees him writhing on the ground, and he's just going to kind of be like, okay, this guy, um, he's going to walk over to one of those holes that's creating the wind, and he's going to see what happens when he puts his hand against them.
Speaker C: Okay. Um, you put your hand against it, you feel the air trickling through your fingers, but obviously you've kind of plugged up the majority of what's coming through. Um, what you see is that the vortex kind of slows a little bit on one side and kind of gets pushed ever so slightly to the actually towards your direction, because the air from the other sides of the cave are pushing it towards the one that doesn't have air coming through it.
Speaker D: How many of these holes are there?
Speaker C: Um, there's probably six, I believe.
Speaker D: Six. Three on each side?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: I mean, they're scattered about, so it's kind of like, ah, a diagonal line, almost.
Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker C: Because if they were straight across from each other, they'd just be blowing this.
Speaker D: And when he pushes his hand against the block, the hole does it feel like air is coming out of it?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: And it's stone under us. Right, right. I can do it.
Speaker E: I can earth bend.
Speaker D: Can you Earth bend with your hands? Yeah. Now, your foot I mean, it's not.
Speaker E: Going to be as good, but yeah.
Speaker D: How about Earth bend dirt onto a stone to just solidify it? Yeah, I could do that.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker D: I'll be right back. And Bill's going to start taking off into the other room. You stay right here. Don't hurt your foot anymore.
Speaker E: I'll just be here sitting in pain. Don't mind me.
Speaker D: Bill is going to go run off to that hole that Brock made.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker D: And he is going to grab as much loose dirt as he can, and he's going to start filling up the extra bag he has on him.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker D: Because he has his pouch of his stuff that he was going to take to with.
Speaker C: Just to clarify, this is a ten foot hole.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker D: He's grabbing loose dirt on the side.
Speaker C: Of the oh, on the side of the hole.
Speaker D: He's just filling up the bag with the loose dirt.
Speaker E: That bag back in the tree?
Speaker D: No, he had his own bag.
Speaker C: There was a couple he had a couple of bags.
Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker C: You load up some dirt into this bag.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker D: Well, there's other clothes and stuff in it, so he's going to kind of, like, dump those off into, like, a corner. A corner where the moss sorry, the root was that little alcove kind of thing. He ditches his stuff, puts it away there. He grabs his dirt, it comes running back to Brock, and he goes, all right, Brock, you're going to put this dirt in this hole, and then you're just going to press your hands on it and you're just going to solidify it to block the hole.
Speaker E: Okay.
Speaker C: I would use mud and water, but.
Speaker D: I don't got any.
Speaker E: I have my spit.
Speaker D: Uh, no, you don't need to spit.
Speaker C: We're not waterbenders.
Speaker D: You're a rock bender, not waterbender.
Speaker E: I'm a what?
Speaker D: Brock, don't take offense there's, earthbenders. You're a rock bender because you love rock so much.
Speaker E: My name's Brock.
Speaker D: Brock The Rock Bender.
Speaker E: Brock Lee the Rock Bender All right.
Speaker C: So I'm going to call this a help.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker C: So you'll do a fatigue.
Speaker D: That's fine. I feel like that makes sense because I'm getting tired from running, because what I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be moving back and forth between him and doing this on the wall, and it's probably going to get me tired.
Speaker C: It's going to take some time running.
Speaker D: And moving and stuff.
Speaker A: Absolutely.
Speaker D: That makes sense.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker C: And then, Brock, uh, I will let you do rely on your skills and training.
Speaker D: And he gets a plus one.
Speaker C: You get a plus.
Speaker A: That's it.
Speaker D: What about a plus? Oh, he gets another plus one because he assesses the situation. He's using the information to help him. I guess that's a plus one.
Speaker E: So I'm back to zero because I have a minus two on all physical actions.
Speaker D: Will this count, though, because he's not using his foot bill's, giving them the simplest action? He can just put dirt in a hole and just press it into it.
Speaker A: Sure. Yeah.
Speaker C: Since it's, uh, minimal physical activity for Brock, I'll let him do it at normal.
Speaker A: Nice.
Speaker D: Uh, so plus two extra to your normal.
Speaker C: Because, I mean, the physical action was very like the impairment was explicitly his foot.
Speaker E: So plus two to what? I roll? Plus the focus?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker E: So I have a nine.
Speaker C: A nine, okay. Um, you're able to get three well, you wouldn't even quite be able to get all three from one side. You're able to get two from one side and one from the other, which causes the flames to kind of move more upwards and focuses the vortex above you.
Speaker D: That's cool.
Speaker E: So we can just, like, lay fires.
Speaker D: From the bottom and the top?
Speaker C: Yeah, but it's kind of like just the way that you blocked out the it would push from above. So it'd actually be let's say you did the top ones, then okay. And then the one where below is just not even air holes are pushing it's. Just pushing it straight up. Uh, so the bottom, it kind of like narrows out the bottom of this twister and widens out this safer for.
Speaker D: Us to just cross near the bottom.
Speaker C: On, uh, the edge almost crawling. You could probably crawl.
Speaker D: Crawl around the edge.
Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
Speaker D: I think it looks good. We can just crawl across now.
Speaker E: All right.
Speaker C: It's just perfect for Brock.
Speaker E: It's perfect because I can't use my foot.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker D: Okay, well, Bill's going to be like, I'll be right back. And he's going to run back. He's going to empty whatever dirt hit the side of his bag to empty out the dirt through the hole. And he's going to load his stuff back up into whatever. He didn't have much. Uh, so it's like extra clothes and stuff, a little water canteen. But then he puts that back in his bag and he comes running back to Barack. He's like, all right, buddy, you can crawl. And we're going to start crawling across the bottom of this floor to the other side.
Speaker C: All right. Uh, as you make it through, you make it to the end and it opens up once more into another chamber. And in this chamber, there's really not much here. Uh, there's a little bit of food and drink, which is nice. Um, and there is chalk ah, writing on the wall that simply reads the place through this tunnel. The place where dreams are blown up. And there's one tunnel to choose from this time. So not really even to choose from.
Speaker D: It's just one tunnel.
Speaker E: Well, I've never seen a bigger welcome sign. Let's do it, bro. Let go.
Speaker D: Let's go.
Speaker B: Thank you so much for listening to our show. Of course, don't forget to follow or subscribe to our podcast through whatever podcast site that you're using, such as itunes, Spotify, YouTube, and others. Additionally, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just look for the social media icons. Following us on social media gives you access to all news announcements and of course, new episodes as they are released. You can check out our website, Bendersonbrews.com, which will feature all of our episodes as well as news announcements and even cool character and player profiles. It's a great hub of information for the Benders and Brews podcast. And finally, we would be truly humbled if you would be willing to take the time to leave us a review. If your podcast site allows you to do so, such as on itunes or in the case of YouTube, you can hit the like and subscribe button and drop us a comment. Tell us about what you thought about our podcast episodes. It sure would mean a lot to us. Avatar Legends is a tabletop role playing game created by Magpie Games, Nickelodeon, Avatar, and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of Viacom International, Inc. All rights reserved. I also want to thank the following artists who you can find on Fiver for their amazing creative work on this podcast. Character art was done by Alicio Papa. Draw background art by Konichi. Music by Joe Tims. Two one five. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker A: Bye.