Speaker 1: This is hex Girl, and you're listening to the Tale
of the Manticore. The following podcast is intended for a
mature audience. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome back to Tale
of the Manticor Season three. Like the creature from which
it takes its name, Tale of the Manticor is a mashup,
a cross breeding between two different species of storytelling. Here
you will find the unpredictability of old school paper and
dice games with the story craft of a dark fantasy novel.
No character is sacred, and none will be spared if
the dice decide their fate is at hand. According to lore,
the Tale of a Manticore is barbed with cruel iron spikes.
Will be much pain in the days ahead. Last time
on Tail of the Manticor, the last chapter begins with
Achille's ascension to level three, which she learns the spell
glitter Dust. Following this, there's some brief DM talk about
the Inner crypt from a dungeon design perspective. When the
narration begins, the characters are about to enter this final
room and complete the dungeon crawl. Before they do, Fairwind
promises Achillia that no matter what they find, inside, he
will stand fast and face it the little ways ahead.
Durr Anni in tent Here are the first to go inside.
Dorani tells tent Here not to touch anything, as they've
taken the strange custom of human interment. The Inner Crypt
is a wedge shaped room ringed with stone slabs. The
furthest away is cracked and broken, but the other six
have occupants, the skeletal remains of the Camore Royalty and
their closest servants. When Achilia and fair Wind enter, the
half elf unwraps Prince Leir Haines's skull, intending on returning
it to its proper place. As she does this, fair
Wind utters a prayer for the dead. Meanwhile, ten tears
curiosity gets the better of him and he touches one
of the treasures in the crypt. At that same moment,
and as fair Wind speaks the final word of his prayer,
there comes a noise from the far side of the room.
All turn in look and see another worldly and spectral
form covering above the remains of the queen. Clearly, this
is the ghost of Vania herself. At first, it seems
that the ventful spirit will forgive the party's intrusion since
they're there to put Prince leir Hain's soul to rest,
But the mere presence of a cleric of Sudal is
enough to infuriate the undead Queen. She easily shrugs off
Fairwin's attempt to turn her, taunts the priest, and then
animates her skeletal warriors in preparation for combat. I had
expected to launch right into combat in this episode, and
we will get there, but I realized since releasing the
last chapter that there is a little more of this
story that needs to unfold. First, it occurred to me
that there's an opportunity here to use my current event
meaning tense agreement, in a way that enhances the narrative,
and I'm going to take it. Do you remember where
we left off. Fairwind was attempting to turn the Queen's
vengeful spirit, but and of course he doesn't know this.
She is too powerful for him to even have a
chance at success. He'd have to be a third level
cleric just to have a shot. Anyway. At the end
of the last episode, I asked you to freeze frame
your imagination on the scene of a defiant Fairwind clutching
his symbol attempting to banish Queen and Ayah. The companions
are unsure what to do as they watch these two
personalities face off. Meanwhile, skeletal warriors hop down from your slabs,
raising rusty swords. Chapter twenty one, Part one, Day sixteen,
late afternoon, mythic event meaning agree tension, party status Achillea
nine out of nine hit points, Court eight of fourteen,
de Renni nine of nine, fair Wind eighteen of eighteen,
ten Tier ten of ten spells available. Achillia has memorized
message cord can cast, entangle, locate plants and animals, and
slow poison. Half a state be gone by our lawn.
None may harm a servant us at all. Not peasant,
nor warrior, nor Queen commanded Fairwind, his face a raging storm.
The wraith of Queen and Ayah seemed to shudder as
peals of unearthly laughter erupted from her. Farewell suddenly felt
the impotence of his words. Alone. With that feeling came
primal fear. Still, he refused to back down. The Queen's
laughter subsided just as the pair of skeletal warriors feet
touched the crypt floor and they scraped their long swords
from the surface of their stone slabs, dragging tails of
cobwebs behind them.
Speaker 2: Wait.
Speaker 1: The skeletal warriors froze in place, and the queen's ghost
turned to face.
Speaker 3: A Chillia, you have brought me solace, and so you shall,
she rewarded. I was swelling you and your companions leave
the slave also, all that I might have some small
van much the rest of you may God for you.
Speaker 1: A Chillie had no answer to this. In her heart,
she wanted to live and accepted the idea that abandoning
fair Wind was justifiable. She also didn't see how they
might otherwise survive the next hour if he did not.
After all, their enemy was already dead. Could one kill
that which was already dead? She didn't know, and she
didn't want to try to find out. Acilia's whole body trembled.
She wanted nothing more than to flee, but her legs
felt like they were made of sand. Near By, Ferwin
seemed about to answer for her. He let go of
his holy symbol, and something profound seemed to come over him.
The cleric's eyes shone like dark jewels. He was going
to do it. He was going to give his soul
to this hovering creature to save the rest of them.
Cherwin looked briefly at his new friends, then turned back
to the Queen and opened his mouth. But before he
could say a word, Achilie discovered some reserve of courage
deep in her heart and let loose her last spell
of message, but the Queen with as much force as
she could manage. It was such a powerful and surprising
psychic blast that the Queen reeled back, shrieking in pain
and outrage. An instant later, the skeletal warriors were upon them.
I mentioned in the last episode that the Queen is
a home Brew creature, a cursed wraith, and that while
she can only be harmed by silver and magical weapons,
making her all but invulnerable in this scenario, she cannot
directly harm her enemies either. Instead, she has the power
to animate an amount of dead equal to her hit dice.
Since she has four hit dice, each of her skeletal
warriors will get two. I statted up these monsters in
the previous episode and determined that each would have eleven
hit points, an ac of fifteen that would take half
damage from the elves swords and to kille his dagger,
but full damage from Fairwin's cudgel and chords. As I
think we're just about ready to get into this fight,
but there is still one last thing to do, because
today is a level up episode for fair Wind, and
he's going to need all the advantages he can get.
Having achieved level two, Fairwin gets new hit points, chances
for stating, and finally his first spell. As dramatic as
it would be to have him use it, now, the
rules say he cannot cast it until he has had
a chance to pray, so for the time being, it's
just the hit points and the chances for better stats
to figure out. For new hit points, I've got a six.
Oh wow, with his exceptional constitution, that becomes an eight.
Fairwin's total max hit points is now a whopping sixteen.
Now that could really make a difference with such a
great hit point roll. I don't even care about the
stat roles still, I wouldn't say no. So let's see
what the dice will say. For strength, I've got a
five intelligence, a two. How about wisdom? A five For dexterity,
I've got a three for constitution A six. What this
is wild? It takes his plus two bonus to a
plus three the max, and it retroactively adjusts his hit
points up to eighteen. Unheard of for a second level cleric. Actually,
it would be really impressive for a third level cleric,
and even respectable for a fourth. This guy is something
special and rare, that's for sure. The lasstat is Charisma
six holy smokes pun intended. That is insane. What a
level up and all that. Before Fairwin gets to choose
a spell, all I can say is he had better
survive this fight. Speaking of which, there is no more
putting off the inevitable. It's time to play at this
battle and see what happens. Injury Combat Round one initiative,
The Skeletal Warriors A one, the Party A three. We're
off to a good start. Since this side of the
room is forty feet wide and the only things in
the room aside from the occupants are the stone slabs,
I'll say that there's enough room for all combatants to
move freely. Cord and ten Tire will take on one
skeletal warrior, while Fairwind and Durni will face the other.
Achillie will stay out of combat with the dagger in hand,
ready to throw it if the opportunity presents itself. It
looks like all the pieces will need the same number
at fifteen to hit their targets. Will start with Court,
who swings his battle axe with a ferocity that belies
the placid expression painted on his face. The roll Oh,
come on, I got a one. The skeleton is far
too nimble and chords axe strikes the stone slab hard,
shivering the construct's arm and causing him to drop his weapon.
He'll lose his next turn for that. Hopefully ten tier
will do better. I have got an eight. The Skeletal
Warrior parries his blade with disturbing ease over to the
next grouping fairwind smashes his cudgel into the enemy, but
within eleven it merely clangs noisily off its rusted iron breastplate,
having no discernible effect. Reads up to de Rennie to
keep this round from being a total flow for the PCs.
His role A five is a miss. Well, it's terrible,
and it might get a lot worse. It's the Skeleton
Warrior's turn. We'll stick with the second group and roll
high low for a target. High is de Renni, low,
fair Wind it is, and the Cleric only has an
acy of ten. Yikes, here's the role A seventeen. Ah, sure,
now I get a good roll. It looks like first
blood has been drawn. How bad will it be? On
a D eight Ooh, it's bad? An eight fair wind
takes the full force of the Skeletal Warrior's rusted blade
as it slashes a red line from his left shoulder
to his right rip cage SA declare it, grunts in
pain and staggers, but somehow stands his ground. Over to
the other group another high low high is Cord Hi
Cord will be the target. A fourteen is needed to
hit the construct the role A six. Cord manages to
duck under the blade as he drops low to retrieve
his lost battle axe. Well, round one was not too great.
I hope things will change in round two. Initiative The
Skeletal Warriors four the party three. Is it any surprise
the companions did not expect their opponents to be so strong,
and they lose their initial momentum. The Skeletal Warriors strike again,
rolling a D six to see if the enemy changes targets.
On a one to two they do a two They
do with Cord ducking by one of the slabs. The
skeletal warrior aids his next strike a ten tier. A
fifteen is required to hit the elf, rolling another one.
Oh okay, I'm going to make a ruling on the
fly and say that the rusty sword strikes the stone
slab when it misses ten tier, but instead of dropping,
the weapon shatters a few inches above the hilt. This
skeletal warrior will keep his next turn, but his long
sword will now be treated as a dagger. Mechanically over
to the next trio. Another d six to determine if
the target will change A two. That's another yes, de
Renni is the target like ten tier. Doranni's arm clasp
is fifteen. The roll of fourteen. The sword tip whistles
right by Doranni's face, so close he can feel the
air it displaces, but just missing. It's the piece's turn
to fight back, and they had better lansome hits. Durranni thrusts,
trying to get under the breastplate's lower lip. A three
means his sword skates harmlessly across and off the armor.
Fairwind clasps his left arm against his new wound and
brings his cudgel around for a backswing. An eighteen. Finally,
a hit the cudgel does a mere one to four damage,
but there's no damage reduction for blunt weapons, so the result.
Speaker 3: Will be.
Speaker 1: Four points. The metallic gong is this time accompanied by
the cracking of bone. The Skeleton Warrior staggers back, but
immediately returns. Two fights over to tent tier. He tries
to chop off a bony arm at the elbow A nineteen,
amazing rolling for damage on a decent four points, reduced
to two points for the creature's resistance to slashing weapons.
The arm is not severed, but bone charges are still
sent flying. Although the damage is minor. It's his chart.
Cord must bend his turn recovering his axe. Therefore, round
two is over and we move on to round three.
Initiative The Skeletal Warriors A two the party before. Well,
it's about time the piece's got the initiative. Let's hope
they make it count. Cord has his axe back, Let's
see if he can do something with it this time.
A thirteen is a good role, but not good enough.
The blow glances harmlessly off the Skeletal Warriors Pauldron ten
tier hacks away at that same arm, A seventeen nice
ten tier. I checked the first Ad Monster Manual to
see if damage should be rounded up or down when halved,
but it didn't say so. I'll just say ten tiers
sword will do one point on a roll of one
to two, two points on a roll of three to four,
and three on a roll of five to six. The
roll five, okay, then damage will be three points and
I think that arm does come off at the elbow.
The skeletal warrior now has just six hit points. Back
over to fair Wind. He swings with a renewed confidence,
now certain that these undad monsters can be killed. A
four means his cudgel is swattered out of the way.
Duranni can still act and he chops down at his
enemy's femur. A fifteen is just enough and the damage
one point. Now both skeletal warriors have been reduced to
six hit points, so that's looking pretty good. However, it
is now the enemy's turn to attack. Will the skeleton
facing Durani change targets? Yes, he returns its attention to
fair Wind. Given the clerics ac that is not good news.
The role to hit A seven. Fairwin manages to step
to the side and avoid a thrust that might have
otherwise ended his life over to the skeletal warrior attacking
ten tier. Will it change targets? No, will attack him again.
Ten tiers ac is fifteen. Here's the role A nine
ten tier Perry's the broken blade. Well, that round was
clearly in the piece's favor. Oh, by the way, I
haven't forgotten about a Killia or the Queen. It's just
that those two cannot do much more than watch the fight.
So it's time to move on to round four. Initiative.
The skeletal Warriors a one, the party a four. While
the party's good luck continues to hold. Ten Tier aims
up for the jet and turquoise encrusted skull. His blade
sings out, but a six is a miss. Yep Cord
will attempt the same ah another six another miss. Fairwind
and de Renni have managed to flank their enemy. Fairwind's
cudgel crashes in and at twelve will not be enough.
Once again, the weapon rings the skeletal Warrior's armor like
a bell. Deur Rennie uses the momentary distraction to land
a blow A seventeen that is a hit. Way to
god Renni images three points one more good hit. We'll
put this thing down. But before the pieces can try,
it's the Skeletal Warriors turn to strike back. No change
in target means it's still fair Wind, Who's in danger. Wow.
We An eight means fair Wind is somehow spared once again.
It looks like somebody really is watching out for him.
Back to the other trio, tent Ti remains the target.
Here comes the attack. Roll A twelve means Tenier can
dodge the attack. It is now round five initiative, the
Skeletal Warriors A six the party A five. Yeah, that
good luck couldn't last forever. Let's stay with ten Tier,
who will try to dodge a second quick slash of
the broken sword. An eight on the die means he does.
Will fair Wind be so lucky with this poor armor class?
It seems unlikely, but let's let the dice to the talking.
A four okay, so it all really must be watching
over him, and now he can strike back. His cudgel
whistles through the air, and a fifteen means it connects.
This could do it. A defour for damage two points
is not enough to destroy the Skeletal Warrior. But I
think there's a satisfying crunch as the club crushes the
jet in turquoise covered lower jaw. One more hit will
end this foe. Can Dereny do it? Natural twenty the
LF leaps up on the slab and swings his short sword.
He cleaves through the spine of the neck, and what's
left of the skeleton's head falls to the floor. A
wonder if ten Tier can do something similar. He's going
to try. He just needs a fifteen or better. Rolling
a one that is not what I wanted to see.
His enemy shoves him roughly back, and ten Tier hits
the floor of the crypt hard enough to have the
wind knocked out of him. Ah, he'll lose his next turn.
Kord brings his battle axe to bear and swings that
looked like an eighteen, but it was a thirteen. Another
miss for the construct. Looks like will be going on
for at least one more round. Round six initiative. The
Skeletal Warrior a five, the party a one. Unfazed by
the defeat of his ally, The Skeletal Warrior that shoved
ten Tier to the ground, tries to stab Chord with
what remains of its long short What the hack Another
one that's the fourth crit fail this battle, and I'm
using real dice too. This will give the pieces a
very good shot to end. Thinks. Cord attacks. Oh natural twenty.
I can't believe it. What are the chances of that?
So what does this look like? I think? Cord reaches
out with his wooden hand, grabs the skeletal warrior by
the collar of his breastplate and pulls it down onto
the nearby slab. Then he holds it steady while his
battle axe comes down on top of its skull, smashing
it to smithereens. The battle ends with both skeletal warriors headless,
one on the ground and the other kneeling at his
own burial slab as though it were an altar. On
the far side of the room. There's an awful shriek,
and in a flash of greenish light, the wraith of
Queen and Ayah disappears. Fairwin dropped his cudgel. Then he
looked from the headless skeletal warriors to the back of
the crypt, which, in the light of his barely surviving torch,
was almost completely in shadow. His mouth moved, but no
sound came out, until eventually, with a voice like a
creaking door. He said a name, Halo. Then he said
it again, a little louder, but distractedly. He put a
hand to the front of his robe, which was now
smeared with his own blood, and it came away red.
He looked at it, blinked as though waking from a dream,
and then fainted dead away. Chapter twenty one, Part two,
Early evening party Status Achillia nine out of nine hit points,
Chord eight of fourteen, de Renni nine of nine, ten
Tier ten of ten, fair Wind ten of eighteen. Spells available.
Chord can cast, entangle, locate plants and animals, and slow poison.
Fair Wind awoke to a world of total darkness. Ah,
I am blind, he sputtered, and then groaned in pain.
Speaker 2: You are not blind, fair Wind, soothed a Kilia, But
your torch has gone out. We did not want to
move you because you were bleeding so much.
Speaker 1: Where are we asked the cleric in a weak voice,
and then suddenly animated. Is everyone all right? He tried
to rise, but Achillia gently held him down.
Speaker 2: We are still in the crypt. You've been hurt. De
Rennie dressed your wound as well as he was able.
What you did back there Farewind. That is the bravest
thing I have ever seen.
Speaker 1: Never mind that you are sure everyone is safe.
Speaker 2: I believe so. You've been unconscious for a few minutes
and nothing has happened.
Speaker 1: Oh thanks ad All. Fairwind's fainting at the end of
the battle had alarmed a Killia and the others, but
after their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they saw that
he was still breathing, and they relaxed a little. Cord
and Tentire went to investigate the far end of the
crypt and confirm that the spirit was truly gone, while
do Renni cut a wide piece of cloth from the
bottom of Fairwin's robe to use his a bandage. Standing
by the Queen's slab, Chord and ten Tire came to
the conclusion that the spirit was no longer there. Kord
also discovered something on the slab in the opposite corner,
but before Tentyre had a chance to stop him, the
construct had already plucked it from the pile of cowbwoy
by remains. The young elf half expected the wraith to
reappear then, but to his relief, nothing happened. When they
rejoined the others, De Renny suggested that ten Tyr return
to the room where they entered and retrieve another torch
so that Fairwin would be able to see when he
came to. When Tantyer hesitated, his brother tightened the impromptu
bandage around the cleric's chest and.
Speaker 2: Suggested, perhaps Achillia should go with you.
Speaker 1: Ten Tire frowned away the notion and left through the archway.
Speaker 2: Don't get lost, little mass.
Speaker 1: De Rennie called after him. I'm trying to imagine how
ten Tyers feels as it goes off alone to retrieve
a new torch. I'm sure his heart is still beating
heart from the last encounter. It's not just that he
survived a deadly battle, but his experience in the crypt
is the first time he's ever encountered the undead. Adding
to that, ten Tyr is still unsure if he caused
the Queen's wraith to appear when he touched one of
the crypt's treasures. Despite court having gone and the same
with no consequence for ten Tier, making his way back
to the room through which they entered will not be difficult.
I'm looking at my map and I can see that
all he needs to do is always turn right. He
can't get lost. However, along the way there are three
opportunities for him to take passages not yet explored. Would
tend to do something that foolish. On one hand, as
a character, his primary motivation is to prove himself, and
he is certainly curious. He also has a wisdom score
of six. On the other hand, he would definitely be
scared to find other spirits around, or even that the
Queen would return. I mean, I would be This is
one of those rare times where a solo play is
a bit tricky. I'd prefer not to roll to see
how a PC acts. So here's a potential solution. I'll
send a quick email to Kevin Barringer, who voices ten Tier,
and ask him what he thinks the young alp would do.
Here's a part of the email I send to Kevin. Hey, keV,
I need to ask a what would ten Tier do question?
What would you do? In this situation? The Pieces are
in a crypt and have just defeated some undebt ten
Tyr has never seen undead before this and is quite shaken.
Despite the pieces victory over the monsters, he sent off
alone to fetch something while his companions lick their wounds
and he has the opportunity here to go rogue and
wander down unexplored halls. But would he It would be
tremendously risky. There's a battle between his curiosity and lack
of good judgment and the ordeal he has just been through.
Which side do you think would win? Keeping in mind
that if he does go off alone, he will likely
be putting his life at risk. Now I have to
wait for his reply, and so will you. Because we
are at the end of this episode. Part of me
hopes Kevin says yes, and an equal part of me
hopes he'll say hell no. I guess we'll all find
out next time. Until then, thanks for listening to Tale
of the Manticor if you're enjoying the show and would
love to help to supported, there are lots of ways
to do so. You could recommend the show online or
to friends. You can like and repost episode announcements on
social media. You can pick up one of my offerings
on drive through RBG or a T shirt at www
Dot Barrs dot store. And finally, you can rate or
review the show on your podcast or choice. I'm super
grateful for all of your support At this point, I'd
like to share a listener review. It's an old one
that I let's slip by. Sorry about that. It's by
Jay Webster from his role Play Rescue blog. Chay writes,
if you've play Dungeons and Dragons, especially BX, then you
need to be listening to Tale of the manticor a
story where chaos rolls. Specifically, you need to listen all
the way through seventy six episodes to the finale of
season one, best end of level boss fight ever. Thank
you very much, Jay, and I'm sorry it took me
so long to get to reading that on air. Now.
I'm sure many of you know that I'm a big
fan of Chay and his show. If you are listening
to Roleplay Rescue, you definitely should be. It's excellent stuff
of something else that's excellent. My cast of voice talent.
This episode features four greats. Dave Cooper as Fairwynd, Fiona
Howet host and GM of the one of My Rolling
podcast as the Wraith of Queen and Aya, Ky Allen's Doretti,
and Kevin Baringer as tent Tier. Thanks very much to
all four of you for sharing your talent. Well, this
is about the time that I usually say something about
social media and then sign off. But wait a minute,
have I been doing this show for five years now?
By said doll, I really have passed my fifth year
podcast diversary. Where does the time go? I know that
I am one lucky guy forgetting to put my craft
out into the world, and I do not take it
for granted. Thank you to all of my listeners and
collaborators for helping me to make this happen and continue
to happen. Tale of the Mandicorp has now been downloaded
over eight hundred thousand times and I can see the
million download milestone in the distance. Not a number I
can even fully comprehend, but it does appear to be
within reach. This season brought out a different tone than
the previous two. It also came with a new hosting
company in the form of Spreaker. I'm grateful for the
listener's willingness to indulge my desire to take some risks
and change things up a bit. Before I sign off,
I'm bringing back my annual tradition of Tale of the
Vandagor by the numbers three three products offered for sale
on drive through RPG and Pretty Sooner before more and
that soon, nine on air PC deaths and several more
implied eleven eleven new Elvish words, fourteen original gods and
deities plus two saints. Sixteen story so far, bonus episodes,
twenty twenty maps both of the overland and interior variety,
uploaded to the blog, thirty one one Orkish words, fifty
seven pieces of original fan art sent to the show
by my talented listeners. Eighty plus plus hours of fiction
released to date, not including bonus episodes, meaning it would
take almost three and a half round the clock days
to listen to the full story thus far. Ninety one
one guest introductions for the show, one hundred and eighty
one one original scores, twenty one of which are new
for this season. Two hundred and ten episodes published in total,
including bonus content, exactly three hundred in game days played.
Approximately seven hundred thousand words typed into scripts, which and
this takes my breath away, is fewer than the number
of times the show has been downloaded by about one
hundred thousand. Here's hoping for many more words, many more scores,
many more scripts, many more characters, and not too many
more character deaths. I'm so glad you're all with me
as this tale unfolds. It really means a great deal
to me, and this tale will continue to unfold on
the next episode of Tale of the Manticor It's the
story where chaos rolls.