Speaker 1: Hey, this is Mike from a Fool's Quest podcast and
you are listening to Tale of the Manticore. The following
podcast is intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised.
Welcome back to Tale of the Manticore Season two. Like
the creature from which it takes its name, Tale of
the Manticore is a mashup, a crossbreeding between two different
species of storytelling. Here you will find the unpredictability of
old school RPG paper and dice games with the story
craft of a dark fantasy novel. No character is sacred
and no character 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. There
will be much pain in the days ahead. Last time
on Tail of the Manticor, in the last chapter, the
pieces fight and defeat a Type two demon also known
as a Hesro demon. The giant toad like monstrosity does
not go down easy, however, it comes close to devouring
Shawn Ay and twice uses its innate powers of telekinesis
to fling the party members around the cavern. Perhaps the
hardest aspect of the battle comes from the demon's horrible stench,
which makes those nearby collapse to the ground, too nauseated
to act, and thwarting roughly half the piece's attempts to
engage it in melee. In the end, thanks to Catspin's
judicious use of a Haste spell, the pieces take it down,
but not without sustaining several injuries themselves. After the fight,
Cat'spain laments that neither the Hesro Demon nor the Succubus
have truly been destroyed. They have merely been banished back
to the Abyss for a century. However, he believes there
might be a way to keep them away for longer,
if only they had a few necessary items. Chapter seventy five,
Part one, day, one hundred and eighty four, time unknown,
one hour and thirty minutes of Lantern fuel remains, party status,
Yellowfly twenty six of fifty hit points, Shawn Ay nine
of thirty five, Jase twenty seven of thirty eight, Cat's
Pain nineteen of twenty three, Basu twelve of twenty three
spells available. Cat'spain has memorized detect magic, mirror, image and
dimension door. Basu has prayed for light, locate object, and
cure serious wounds. Go on, Casbane prompted Yellowfly, looking hopeful,
What things do you need? The young maid snapped his
book shut and sighed, then smiled bitterly.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't happen to have a vial of holy water
and a jeweled holy symbol, would you?
Speaker 1: Yellowfly deflated? No, I left mine at home, he joked humorlessly.
I do it was basio. The others all looked at
the cleric. He explained, that's what I went to retrieve.
Speaker 3: When we were at the Church of the Sacred Flame,
and I was in Sister Erness's in a sanctum malone.
Speaker 1: Remember Seneh. The rogue nodded her eyes bright.
Speaker 3: I was only looking for her holy symbol. I knew
she would have hidden in there. But I found both
hers and the one you switched for the false.
Speaker 1: Seboli Bazi pulled a pair of disks from his bag.
Both were made of valuable red gold, but one of
them was encrusted with dazzling jewels. I also found this.
Now he replaced the holy symbols and drew a little
wooden case out of the bag. Walking into the light
of the nearest brazier, he opened it so the others
could see inside, resting atop a cushion of yellow velvet
with three tiny crystal bottles holy water, Basu explained. Shawnee
looked over at the cleric, saying, I've never seen holy
water before. Is it magical? Her voice sounded strange. Then
she stood up, swayed drunkenly, and fainted to the cavern floor.
Everyone had seen how the demon had tried to eat
her whole. After that, she had been thrown against the
cavern wall. Obviously she had been hurt, but she was
so stoic that her companions had not been aware of
the extent of her injuries. I set up, exclaimed Bosio,
rushing over to help her. Basu was going to use
his last curative spell on Shawnee. Spell Cure Serious Wounds
is a fourth level spell, but its power is actually
quite modest. It's really only as good as two Cure
Light Wounds spells stack together. You can restore just two
D six plus two hit points. Well, that's not very impressive.
Shawnee really needs the help. Here's the role A six
and a one. So Shawnee gets back nine hit points,
and I think she's gonna need them just as a reminder,
Kat's bain does still carry a single dose of healing potion,
the one received in payment for their help in switching
the jeweled Holy symbol. But you know, I think he's
going to hold onto it for a bit longer. A
few moments after Bosi removed his hand from her brow,
Shawne stood up. She looked and felt twice as good
as she had before his healing prayer. Thank you, she said,
Thanks Sadah, replied the cleric, Thanks Sadal. Then Shawnee's hand
went to her throat and touched the shape of TAM's key,
still hanging from a cord under her shirt. Bazi smiled
at her and then directed his attention to the glassy
orb on the ground. He knelt down beside it, took
the jeweled Holy symbol in his left hand and one
of the holy water vials in his right. As he
spoke a new prayer, he emptied the full contents of
the vial over the demon's remains.
Speaker 3: Holy Sadal, be this water the instrument of your wheel.
With it, and by your grace I purify the corruption
that is hateful in your sight.
Speaker 1: The holy water hissed and sizzled like frying bacon where
it touched the glassy surface. When the right was complete,
the orb was gone and only a tiny shard of
obsidian remained. Bazi picked it up and as though it
were hot, transferred it to his bag.
Speaker 3: That will be enough until I can put it in
a proper receptacle.
Speaker 1: The process was repeated over the succubist's skull, which likewise
became a piece of obsidian. Bozzi stirred it in his bag.
As well, you sit and it's safe to carry them,
Sean asked the cleric. By no means was the blood reply?
Yellowfly broke the hard silence that followed, and we should
move on kat'spain. Will you light the lantern? Of course,
replied the magic user, moving to do so as he spoke,
how much oil is left? Cat's being squinted at what
remained in the lantern and replied.
Speaker 2: An hour two at most. You're right, Yellowfly, We had
better keep moving.
Speaker 1: Follow me. Then Yellowfly took the lead, walking around the
still pool and past the piles of carrion bones and offal.
Most were the remains of smaller fish, but there were
other and larger creatures there too. Yellowfly saw a dead
squid some three feet long. There was also a cracked
rib cage on the cavern wall on the other side
of the pool that was so large he could have
stood inside it. Most disturbing of all was a skeleton
that had the bottom half of a fish in the
top half of something distinctly humanoid. He decided against any
further investigation and walked right by it. Before long he
reached the cavern exit. Beyond he could see the curves
and bumps of natural rock gave way once again to
the straight lines of worked stone. For those interested in
old school tabletop roleplaying games, solo RPGs, and gritty analog artwork,
maps and setting supplements, subscribe to castlegrief on substack. That's
castlegrief dot substack dot com. Castlegreef is a relatively new
creator on the scene, but has been immersed in tabletop
role playing for decades. Their articles feature play reports, tips
and tricks for running old school games, hex crawls, and more,
as well as plug and play setting information, always accompanied
by lots of old school black and white artwork. Their
zines and supplements can be found at castlegreef dot ich
dot io. Chapter seventy five, Part two, Day one hundred
and eighty four time unknown, one hour and twenty minutes
of lantern fuel remains. Party status Yellowfly twenty six of
fifty hit points, Shawney eighteen of thirty five, Jase twenty
seven of thirty eight, Cat'spain nineteen of twenty three, Basu
twelve of twenty three spells available. Cat's Pain has memorized,
detect magic, mirror, image and dimension door. Basu has prayed
for light, bless and locate object that hadn't gone very
far down the hallway before. The light from the braziers
could no longer reach them, and it was only their
lantern by which they saw. At least they had put
some distance between themselves and the terrible still of rotting fish.
The worst of this dench had disappeared along with the demon,
but even then it was still almost too much to bear.
The companions were presently making their way along a passage
with flagstone floors and walls of neatly fitted and unmortared brick.
Up ahead another sixty or seventy feet, it terminated in
a rounded arch. As they got closer, they slowed their pace,
even though they were beginning to expect the strange and
the bazaar in this place, they were still not prepared
for what they found in the next chamber. It's a gallery,
said Shanna, who had patted ahead with Katspian's lantern to
search for traps, and finding none, returned to report. She
handed the light back to the young mage and fell
back into her place in the marching order between Basu
and Jase. Yellowfly, as usual, took the lead. C'me on Denor,
he said, starting to walk forward. Stay by me and
hold the lanterns Cat's being started. Had Yellowfly just called
him day Or? That was a name he knew, but
it was unlikely Yellowfly had ever heard of King Vince's
arch mage. What was happening? He suddenly remembered that Shawnee
had said Fly had called her by the wrong name
before too. When did that happen? Ah, Yes, now he remembered.
It was in the courtyard with the erotic statues. Had
he called her day Noor too? He wished he could remember.
By now, they had reached the arch beyond. It was
a chamber that would not have looked out of place
in white Stone Castle. It was a kind of gallery,
As Shawnee had said. The whole space was not especially large,
a rectangle of approximately thirty by fifty feet with a
single closed door on the far side. The walls were
crowded with portraiture. It was odd enough to find a
gallery in a dungeon, but even stranger was that all
of the portraits were of the same person. Was that
Calfrey Cat's beans replied, astonished, There could be no mistaking
that face that the king did not quite look himself.
Instead of the regal pose and confident smile. They had
seen it in the king's various likenesses during their time
in the castle. These paintings all showed a broken man
who cringed and drooled, who were an idiot's slack jawed
grin and vacant stare as. The party filed into the
room and spread out. They saw that every expression was
more grotesque than the last, and getting worse the further
in they went. By the midpoint of the room, Calfrey's face,
in its various iterations, had taken on such extremes in
its expression that mirth had become agony and idiocy had
turned into insanity. The back wall was the worst. In
the portraits hanging there. Colfrey's face was decayed, pale and sunken.
His eyes were black pits, and his teeth were long
where the gums had retreated. Calfrey was not alone in
all these pictures. Some of the full length pieces included
the flower bearing children he was wont to pose with.
In every case, they too looked deranged, deformed, and decayed.
Their clothing was stained, and their bouquets dead. The party
members were now scattered about the gallery, regarding the various
pieces with a mixture of apprehension and morbid curiosity. Yellowfly
and Shawnee were standing together. Jase was by the door
they had come through, sword in hand. Bozzi was on
his own by the side wall, and Cat's Pain, also alone,
was near the far door, where the most gruesome art hung.
None of the others seemed to notice when one of
the portraits came to life and addressed Kat's pain by.
Speaker 4: Name, Phalan or you, young man, you have the makings
of a king, and I should know.
Speaker 1: The portrait by his shoulder grinned, stretching its decayed lips,
it was as though the withered face was simply speaking
to him through a window.
Speaker 4: You and your friends have dispatched my lackeys that wasn't
very polite. Good to see that you're unhurt, though.
Speaker 1: Cat's beIN turned away from the smiling face of the king.
But another portrait came to life and kept on speaking
without interruption. Phalan Falin, Phalan.
Speaker 4: I think we both know it's time to end all
this have But you spent your whole life building spires
to knowledge. I can simply give it to you.
Speaker 1: Cat's beIN turned his back on this one too, But
now three new portraits animated and spoke all at once.
Speaker 4: We exist in thin places, you and I and are
meant for greatness. Why stand in the shadow of others
all your life when you can rule them instead.
Speaker 1: Cat's beIN realized at this point that his companions could
neither see nor hear what he did. They still lingered
here and there in the gallery, without having taken any
notice of the bizarre occurrence at the far end of
the room.
Speaker 4: Come, Phelan, as I'm sure you are aware, the bell
cannot be unwrung.
Speaker 1: Yellowfly, kat Spain's companion, was squinting in one of the portraits,
with a look of perplexity darkening his features. When he
did not respond, Katspain tried again yellowfly. This time the
other man did look up what is a cat's pain?
At least he had use the right name.
Speaker 2: But still, are you all right? Of course I am,
I am very well. But yellowfly, we need to keep moving.
Speaker 1: The young mage held up his lantern by way of explanation.
Both men knew how low they were on fuel, and
the idea of being caught down here in the dark
was unwelcome. Yes, of course, shawnee, you make sure the
way a head is clear. The rogue nodded and moved
past cat's Clearly, she did not see what he did that.
All of the coffreys in the room were coming to
life and watching her movements for the look of bemused interest,
but they only watched and did not comment. As she
went to work as a DM, I know this door
is not locked, but I haven't decided if it should
be trapped. Let's do the usual thing and ask the
dice gods. Since I think the chance is on the
low side, I'll say that a one or two on
a D six will indicate that it is the role
afore means it is not trapped. With that done, there's
no need for any further roles, and we can return
to the narrative. After a while, Shawnee looked back over
her shoulder and kissed the air, using the cant sign
for all clear. When nil a Fly knodded back, she
opened the door behind It was a short passage ending
at another rounded arch, identical to the one they had
passed under when they had entered the gallery. Shawnie waited
while the party resumed its usual marching order. She let Yellowfly, Katspin,
and Basu pass by her, and then slipped in before Jace,
who brought up the rear. As Katspan left the gallery,
he tried to ignore the portraits, but there was nowhere
to look where he didn't see a deformed, decayed, or
demented king Colfrey watching him intently.
Speaker 4: Come to me, Phelan.
Speaker 1: Said one of them. It was echoed by another, come
to me, and then another, and another and another, until
there was a chorus of kings beckoning to the wizard.
Speaker 3: Oh Cam, came to me, Faith, Come Come.
Speaker 1: Kat'span clenched his jaw, looked at his feet, and left
the voices behind. They had only taken a dozen steps
down the new passage when Yellowflies stopped in his tracks.
Everyone knew why, because they had noticed it too. It
would have been impossible to miss it. Something smelled wonderful?
Is that food I smelled? Brett said, shah Nay and
beef stew and onions came Jase's voice from the rear.
Considering recent experiences, the group mistrusted their senses and advanced
with caution. When they reached the arch, cat'span shone the
light from his lantern into the room beyond, and they
immediately saw the source of the smell. The room was
rectangular in shape and a little larger than the gallery
had been, and had no visible exits. In the center
was a table set for five. Its surface was covered
with fragrant food and elegant silverware, and included a large,
unlit candelabra as a centerpiece. Around the table were high
backed chairs of polished wood, and squarely behind each seat,
a unique tapestry hung on the wall. The artistic focus
of each tapestry was a single person, and it soon
became clear that these figures were the Companions themselves. Closest
and on the left, was the likeness of Jase. The
tapestry had been woven in silver, green, and blue. It
depicted the fighter's limp body under a line of choppy waves.
A few bubbles floated up from his mouth as he
sunk towards the bottom. The piece on the opposite wall
showed Basio. He was bare chested and had a large
bloody hole in his left breast. In his right hand,
he gripped his own ragged heart. The expression on his
face was not one of anguish, but rather disappointment. Next
to Bazu's tapestry was the Yellowflies. His was not a
full length likeness, but a close up portrait of his face.
There was nothing gruesome, unpleasant, or macabre about his The
only thing that was out of place was that Yellowfly
was pictured wearing a crown of dark metal studded across
the brow with orange jewels. Across from Yellow Flies was
another portrait that showed Shawne from her collar bones to
the top of her head. The picture was vivid with
intense colors. Orange threads competed with yellow in the depiction
of flames that wringed her head and ignited her hair.
Unlike Bossi's picture, she was shown to be suffering tremendously,
so her bubbling and peeling face was frozen in a
screen as she immolated Kat's Bain's was the only one
that ventured into the phantasmagorical. His was positioned behind the
chair at the head of the table and showed the
wizard from the waist up. But in the Picturekat's pain
had two heads growing out of a single neck. One
of the heads had a gory crater in its forehead,
right where the young mage would occasionally summon his third eye.
The second head had no such wound, but looked bizarre
in its own way. Katspan's eyes were elongated, his nose
was gone, replaced by two vertical slits, and his smiling
mouth was opened to reveal small pointed teeth behind his lips.
I can't look, said shah Nay. What is it all me,
asked Jace, horrified. It's more sorcery, said yellowfly. Touch nothing.
Do not like the candles either, and then, turning to
Cat's beIN, asked, what do you make of this place?
The wizard shrugged.
Speaker 2: I suspect it's trying to wear down or resolve, or
to delay us while our fuel runs out.
Speaker 1: Cat's beIN should have considered his words more carefully. What
do you mean when you're saying it's trying to delay us.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean anything specifically, Cat's Bean lied. It's just that,
from what I've read, the demons we fought often serve
something greater.
Speaker 1: Something greater. Yellowfly prompted his face.
Speaker 2: Dark another demon.
Speaker 1: I suspect when you decided to keep this information to yourself,
some small muscle in the fighter's jar twitched. Leave him be,
yellow Fly, if he knew anything important, he tell us,
said Jace, walking deliberately between the two men and then
into the chamber. Shohnnie followed him, as did Basia. Yellow
Fly and Cat's be It remained in. The Fighter looked
the wizard in the eyes, and in a low voice, said,
listen carefully. If you suspect anything else, I'd urge you
to share it now. Katspain was conflicted inside. He desperately
wanted to come clean, but he had withheld the truth
for too long and could not bring himself to admit
what he knew. In the end, he merely stammered a
feeble denial.
Speaker 2: I uh no, yellow Fly, I I don't know.
Speaker 1: There was a tearing sound that drew Yellowfly's attention to Shawney.
When he looked, he saw that the dining room had
completely changed, and his companions were all wearing expressions of shock.
The place was almost empty now. The chairs were gone,
the food, along with the succulent and tempting smells, were
gone as well. Where the table had been, there was
no long stone sarcophagus with stylized lid slightly askew. Shawnee's
eyes were wide and her mouth was an open oh.
In her hands she held the rotted and ruined threads
of some ancient tapestry, almost completely disintegrated. The other tapestries
were likewise now ragged shreds of gray and brown. Kat's
Baines was gone completely. Where it had been, there was
now an exit. Yellow flies shot Shawnee a look of
cold disapproval. I thought, I told everyone not to touch anything.
I couldn't better look at it any more. Flat. I'm
sorry everything in the air whilst only an illusion, said
Jase slowly, as understanding dawned on him. Shawnee touched the
orphan key at her throat and said, in a voice
so low it was almost a whisper. The blackness of
Mountberry's they were no longer in a dining room, but
a crypt. It appeared, and Although it was almost completely empty,
the presence of the large sarcophagus in the room was disturbing.
Its dialized lid showed the top half of a reclining
figure that was skeletal, but not a skeleton, human like
but not human. The eyes were too long, and the
nose was just a pair of vertical slits. Cat's Pain said, Yellowfly,
your poor foote. The Wizard took an involuntary step back,
and his hand came up to cup his mouth. He
had realized the same thing. Jace motioned at the gap
where the lid of the sarcophagus was askew. Is there something? Insighed?
Finding out was the last thing Cat'spain wanted to do,
but he summoned the courage to raise his lantern and
directed the beam at the gap. Everyone held their breath
and leaned forward. It's empty, breathed Jase, the relief in
his voice clear. What do we do now, asked Shaunay,
after a period of heavy silence. Strangely, she did not
address yellow Fly. Her question was for Cat's Pain. The
companions looked to the wizard. Eventually, Katspin lifted his arm
and pointed at the little rectangular exit in the place
where his tapestry had hung. Yellowfly and Jason nodded and
gript their swords tighter. Shawn A Touchtam's key once more,
and Pozi whispered a silent prayer. Just it all. Somehow
everyone knew this was it. Thank you for listening to
Tale of the mandicor if you're enjoying the show and
would like to help the support it. There are lots
of ways to do so. You can recommend it online
or to friends. You can like and repost episode announcements
on social media. You can rate or review the show
on your podcatter of choice. And finally, you can pick
up one of my products on drive through RPG. Stick
around at the end of the credits for the announcement
of a new third party expansion module for one Shot
in the Dark that I am very excited about. As
you know, I love reading your kind reviews on the show.
Here's one by valsa Gamer on Apple Podcasts. Valsa Gamer writes,
this podcast draws you in with the story elements, but
then the dice over the dice. The dice are sometimes
cruel and lead the story in new directions. This is
what makes it so fabulous. Thanks for sharing your creative
energy with all of us. Oh those dice. As a gamer,
they can be so cruel and so kind, and I agree,
it's the not knowing that keeps me coming back to
Thank you so much for posting that review. Listener reviews
mean a lot to me personally, and they also help
to grow the show. I'd also like to thank my
awesome voice talent. I've got the usual trio of regulars
ky Ellen, Kevin and Andrew playing Kat's bane Jas and Basu,
and I'm delighted to have back on the show the
very talented Dave Cooper playing an illusion, while several illusions
of King Calfrey. Thanks very very much to the four
of you for breathing life and personality into this story.
For listeners who'd like to get in touch with me,
I'm Ad Mantacore, Tale on x or Tale of the
Manticor podcast on Instagram, and there's always email Tale of
Themanticore at gmail dot com. Finally, I keep a blog
where I post all kinds of show and RPG related
stuff like art, maps, tables, crafts, and show notes. You
can find it at Talefthemantcore dot com, blogspot dot com.
I'm going to put something a bit special in the
blog shortly after this episode airs a stat block and
a detailed spell list for azor Zul. I think there
will be some listeners who will want to see what's
going on. Mechanically speaking, I'm also aware that some people
will not want this, so I'll make the blog entry
invisible until the reader highlights the text. No extra info
unless you want it. In other words, the adventure will
continue in the next episode of Tale of the manticor
the story where chaos rolls.
Speaker 5: The storm rages, and beneath it your village burns. Raiders
have taken the survivors, leaving ashes warmth once thrived, but
beneath the ice and despair, an ember of hope can
still shine through the darkness.
Speaker 1: Will you cower in the snow drifts?
Speaker 5: Or will you raise a group of heroes to forge
a path through the blue for vengeance and rescue, Fight
for survival, defeat your foes, and rescue your people from
the clutches of darkness. One Shot in the Snow a
wintry expansion for the One Shot in the Dark RPG.
Get your copy now and drive through RPG