Speaker 1: Hi, this is Real Killer GM and you're 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 chapter seventy three, the pieces find their
way blocked by a horrible creature, a giant humanoid towed
demon called the Hesro Yellowfly. Considers giving up and going back,
but his companions, it turns out, wish to continue, each
for their own reasons. The Hesro is at the bottom
of a large pit, where it lays about feeding on carrion,
perhaps because it has only one eye. It has not
yet noticed them, but that changes when the party sneaks forward,
led by Shawnay, successfully covering half the distance undetected before
the Succubis. Sevan materializes near the entrance and gives them away.
Luckily for the party, the Hesro is momentarily surprised, and
they take advantage of the few extra seconds. Cat's Pain
dispatches the Succubis with his last magic missile. Jace rushed
down to the bottom of the pit, intending to engage
the demon in melee. Bazu raises his holy symbol. Yellowfly
leaps from a height of twenty five feet onto the
monster below, and shawn Ay creeps up from behind to
attempt a backstab. I am itching to get into this fight,
but it would be foolish to do that without first
leveling up the two characters who are due of promotion today.
Both the Yellowfly and Cat's Bain will increase in power,
with the former attaining level nine and the latter eight.
Let's do Yellowfly first. A fighter gets a D eight
of new hit points rolling for that A six is
a great roll, and the new score is thirty eight
of fifty. His basic attack bonus remains at plus five,
and although part of me wants to tinker with this,
I'm just going to leave it. Rules as written this time.
Saving throws, likewise, do not change until that brings us
to potential attribute improvements. Let's dive in. A six on
A D six means the stat in quest shin will
increase by one point. Strength A one intelligence five wisdom,
I've got a four? How about dexterity, the five constitution,
the three last chance here charisma A one. Looks like
the hit points are all he's going to get. It
certainly could have been worse. That hit point roll was
a good one, after all, and I could be grateful
for that. And with the Yellowfly done, we're on to cat'span.
The young magic user gets a D four of new
hit points rolling. I've got a two. Pretty unspectacular, but
them's the breaks. The new total is nineteen of twenty three.
Like with Yellowfly, his basic attack, bonus and saving throws
do not change, but he still has the chance to win.
Stat increases. Let's see how it goes strength a one
intelligence six. Finally, and right where accounts to fifteen goes
to sixty, the rules would award him another language here,
but of course that doesn't make sense for this story,
and so we are moving on Wisdom one dexterity three constitution.
This would be nice A five charisma A four well,
not amazing but not awful. Last up as a new spell,
kat'spain can roll for another fourth level spell, but he
will not be able to use it until he copies
it into his spellbook. Even then, unless he reads it
right off the page like a scroll, he won't be
able to cast it until it's memorized. Let's roll to
see what spell it will be. As usual, if I
roll one already assigned to a PC in either season
of the show, I'll make a new exotic spell table
rolling in D twelve against the list in the ose
SRD that eleven is let me see wall of ice. Interesting? Well,
I won't bother reading the spell description until later, as
realistically chances are it'll never come into play. Okay, Level
up t are done, so let's unfreeze the frame, get
into the narrative and see how this combat will play out.
Chapter seventy four, Part one, day, one hundred and eighty four,
time unknown, one hour and forty five minutes of lantern
fuel remains party status. Yellowfly thirty eight of fifty hit points,
Shawn Ay thirty of thirty five, Jase thirty three of
thirty eight, Cat'spain nineteen of twenty three, Basu twenty one
of twenty three spells available. Cat'spain has memorized detect magic Web, mirror, image, haste,
slow and dimension door. Basu has prayed for cure light wounds,
light bless, locate object, and cure serious wounds and Jurycombat.
Apologies for having ended the last episode just when things
were heating up, but I suspect that this encounter will
take some time, and that is something I had really
run out of. Let's give this combat the space it deserves.
We begin in the same surprise round where I hit
the pause button. Kat's Bain has already taken his action,
slaying Savann with the magic missile. Jase is running to
engage the demon face to face and needs to spend
his turn getting to it. Yellowfly has recklessly leapt onto
the demon. He's on a ledge twenty five feet above
the ground, twelve feet above the demon's head. I'm going
to improvise a ruling here, something that takes into account
risk and reward. I think a plus one to hit
and plus four to damage feels about right to balance
that out. If yellow Fly misses, he will take two
to twelve points a falling damage. He'll need a ten
or better to hit the hesros ac of twenty one.
Here's the roll A six. Oh no, that's a miss.
Falling damage is the price of failure, rolling two D
six seven points. The Hezro swatchs the fighter away mid
air and fly hits the cavern floor hard. Yeah, he
has thirty one hit points left. Hopefully Shawnee will do better.
Before she can even make an attempt, she'll need to
say versus poison just to get close to the demon.
The stink coming off it is that powerful. The number
to beat is nine, rolling A fifteen. She holds her breath,
rushes up and strikes with all bonuses, including the plus
four for the backstab. She needs to get an eleven
to hit the roll Come on, shawna nineteen. Yes, does
she not always deliver? Damage will be doubled because of
the backstab. So that's one D six plus one times
two rolling rats. I've got a one on the die.
That means damage will be just four points. She gets
her blade in, but the demon's rubbery skin is much
thicker and tougher than she thought it would be. The
Hesrow now has forty hit points. Basu is the last
to go. He raises his holy symbol, determined to succeed
where he previously failed. This demon he would not suffer
to remain in the presence of Saddal's divine might. Turns
out that's easier said than done, and unless he gets
a nine or higher on twoty six, he will fail
again the five on the dice. The demon, with its
one good eye, looks up at the cleric and his
shining holy symbol, but instead of being repulsed, it laughs
in Basu's face, with slime dripping from his lower lip
like a beard. That's it for the surprise round. I'll
call it a mixed success. It certainly could have gone better,
but things will get a lot harder for the PCs
when they find out that melee is not the best
way to deal with the Hezrow. It is round one
initiative the Hesrow A two the party before, well, that
was lucky. Yellowfly is quick to regain his feet and
then he, Shawney and Jace have the demon surrounded with
both Basu and Kat's bay and looking down from the
ledge above. Yellowfly must save versus poison before he can attack.
A ten on the die or better is needed. A two.
As soon as he gets up, he doubles over and
vomits all over his feet. Jace will need to save
as well. His target is a twelve, a Huntherd two.
The stink is so strong it's almost tangible. Jase's eyes
water and his stomach turns. Shawnay with the seventeen, makes
her save, but still needs a fifteen or better to
land a blow. A five is not enough, and the
demon steps out of reach. Bazu realizes that his companions
are going to need his healing powers, so he spends
his turn running down the ledge, following the path Jase
to a class round that leaves cat'spain. He needs to
make a big move here. What about the spell Haste
would that work in this situation? Since the rules did
not specify, I did some research online to see if
the spell affects all creatures in the radius of effect,
or if the caster can choose who is hasted and
who isn't. Everything I read indicates the latter. Yeah, He's
going to cast it even hasted, the companions should not
get two saves to resist the Demon's stink, but to
be fair to my PCs, I should allow Basu a
second action. A Shawne who successfully made her save a
second attack, so Basu will not join the melee, but
he will run up to a yellowfly and cast cure
light wounds on him. The fighter regains five hit points.
Shawn A second attack is next. A thirteen is close,
but not good enough. Now it's the Hesro's turn. The
demon is smart enough to recognize the wizard for who
he is and the threat he presents, Even if it
knows as a Razul's wish to spare him, I don't
think it's going to honor that wish. It'll use telekinesis
to try to rip cat'spane off the ledge and bring
him to the cabin floor at its feet. Before I
roll catspains save to resist, I need to see if
the Dagger of Negation will shield him from the Demon's magic.
Looking for a thirty or under one two percentile here
fifty five. That's no good. Cat'spain must now make a
saving throw or be yanked from his perch above the
fight as an eighth level magic user. The target number
is twelve. Rolling a fourteen, A Catspain utters a quick
counterspell and wards off the arcane energies surging up at him.
It is round two initiative the hero a one. The
party of five lucky with the initiative again. Thanks to
cat Spain's haste spell. All PCs will now get two
actions per round that the rules do say hasted spellcasters
may only cast one spell on their turn. Fair enough,
I'm ruling that those in melee will only get one
save per round against the Demon's stench, pass or fail
all or nothing. Yellowfly, invigorated by the clerk behind him him,
tries to rise, but four means he is unable to
do so. Jase two will try to find the strength
to close with the monster. Then nineteen will do it.
He forces himself into striking distance and his sword flashes out.
He'll need an eighteen to hit. Can he do it
with two attempts A six and a two. The Hezro
shoves the warrior back, and Jace, unable to find purchase,
slides through the piles of offal and bones. Shawnee is up.
Come on, Shawney, let's get another win. Here's her save,
but fourteen is more than enough, and her two attacks
a fifteen and a seventeen. From her perspective, time seems
to slow down as Kat's Bain's spell imbues her with
preternatural speed. The sentinel darts in once and again four
six and four. That's twelve points of damage after adding
the sword's bonus. The savage smile crosses the rogue's face
as black goo spurts from two puncture wounds in the
demon's thigh. Bazu is going to get into this melee.
I think that's his best move right now, his safe
to withstand the stink A one yikes. Thankfully you can't
quit fail a safe. The cleric suddenly feels bile rise
in his throat and then falls to the ground right
beside thellafly wretching cat. Spain will go last. I wonder
could he cast slow on the demon. I don't see
why not, though it's very unlikely to work given the
demon's magic resistance and easy saving throw. But I think
he's going to try anyway. The hesro's magic resistance is
fifty five percent, so I want to roll above that.
Here comes the roll and nine. The spell fizzles out
as soon as it strikes the monster and is wasted.
Too bad. It would have been so cool to see
both of those spells working in concert. I guess we're
doing things the hard way. Speaking of which, it's the
hesro's turn to act. Since the others are incapacitated, it
makes sense for it to attack Shawne, and it only
needs a seven to hit her ac of fourteen with
claw claw bite. The rolls seven, thirteen, and I'm wincing
as I make this next roll a nineteen. Oh no,
that's three hits. The hero grabs the thief, lifts her up,
and shoves her into its mouth. It wears back, and
she is turned upside down with her head in its
throat and only her kicking legs visible damage will be bad.
Two points, two points and eight points is twelve, and
Shawna is now almost down to half, with eighteen remaining.
At this point, I'm going to use an old coach's
trick and call a time out to break the other
team's momentum. A quick ad break before we continue.
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Speaker 1: We are back and it is round three initiative. The
Hesro five the party the six third time lucky at
initiative and the companions had better not waste it. While
the demon is busy trying to eat Shawn, a whole
yellowfly tries to find the strength to help, and A
fifteen He does two chances to hit, looking for anything
over and eleven, an eight and a sixteen. One strike
gets through the silverthorn white hot. In its eagerness to hurt,
the demon draws a burning slash across its back. Let
her go through one D eight plus five damage will
be come on big money. The three plus five is
eight points. The Hesro gags shawnee onder the floor in
a torrent of thick saliva. It is now below half
and must make a morale check, but not just yet.
Jase has not taken his turn rolling to withstand the
demon's stench. A nineteen is a success. Jase gets two
attacks and his normal sword can hurt this demon. Still,
the target number is high eighteen, rolling twice fourteen and eighteen,
one blow connects and does six points. Here the demon
falls to one knee and rises back up just as
Bazu moves in with his staff, but with a five,
the cleric drops to his hands and knees, with his
throat burning. Unable to stop the violent wretching, shawn Ay,
her hair plastered to her head with slime and digestive juices,
can attempt to fight back. A sixteen makes the save,
and she gets to her feet, swinging her sword two
handed as the world around her plods along at half speed.
She needs a fifteen to land a blow of fifteen
and a sixteen. How lucky is that damage will be
not much? I rolled a one and two after bonuses,
it's five points, but the hesro is in bad shape regardless.
With only nine hit points left, Kat's bain is the
last to go. He isn't going to waste another spell,
so he'll throw his normal dagger. He has a little
dexterity bonus, but will still need an eighteen or better
to hit. Also, since he has only one normal dagger
and will not risk throwing carricks, it'll just be the
single chance The nineteen what at one point of damage. Well,
every bit counts. It's the Hezro's turn. Now the Monster
manual provides no more else dats, so I'm assigning it
a score of ten, rolling two D six and on
an eleven or twelve, it will flee or surrender A
three not even close. In fact, it is enraged and
the hasted companions see its grotesque toad face twist in
insane fury as it roars in challenge, breaking at its
own flesh with its clawed hands. It is round four.
The Hero A five, the Party A three. The Demon
will use telekinesis to pick up two of them and
launch them against the far wall of the cavern on
the other side of the pool. Targets will be randomly determined.
It's Shawna and Jace. Each will need to make a
save or else take two D six damage from the
impact and lose their chance to retaliate. Shawnee needs a
ten or better A four. She fails and is plucked
struggling into the air before being hurled against the wall. Ooh,
nine points of damage upon impact. She is badly hurt.
Now it's Jase's turn. He needs to roll at least
to fourteen twelve, He too is ripped off his feet
and slammed into the cave wall beside Shawnay. He takes
six points of damage. Now it's the companion's turn. Kat's
Bain spends his round running down the ledge to the
cabin floor while staying well clear of the demon. Conversely,
a somewhat stunned Jason picks himself up and starts making
his way back across the pool and towards the hesrow.
Shawn Ay wisely decides to fight from a distance at
this point and untoulders her beau that leaves Yellowfly and
Basu flies Save versus Poison roll is a seven. Once again,
he stumbles, unable to breathe in the cloud of rot
and death. Bazu has been so far unable to even
get close, but he will try again. A nineteen means
he finds the strength to rise. Unfortunately, he'll need another
nineteen to hit with his quarterstaff. Even with two attacks,
he to take a miracle, rolling a three and a six.
No good. That's it for round four, and it was
not a good one for the PCs. Let's hope for
better in round five. Initiative, the Hezrow A six the
party A one. The hesrow has broken the companion's momentum.
High low to see if it uses a normal attack.
High will mean it does lo it'll use telekinesis again,
this time on Yellowfly and Bazu. Let's make it interesting.
High low to see if it slams them like a
didshawn A and Jase, or if it throws them into
the pool, which would be extremely dangerous for either man
due to the weight of their armor. Low will indicate
the pool rolling. Hi. Okay, now I've just had a
devilish idea. If not water, then how about fire. The
hero will fling Yellowfly and Bazuo against one of the
three large braziers, or at least it'll try to. A
save to resist is allowed flying need to twelve are
better A one. He is plucked into the air by
an invisible force and then zips sideways into the side
of the bronze brazier, and what I'm going to rule
damage will be two D six plus two OUCH ten points.
That takes the fighter down to just twenty six. Now
for Bazu, his saving through target is the same. A three.
He goes for a bad ride too and impacts the
brazier at the same time as Fly, ringing it like
a gong and spilling a hot shower of embers in
all directions. He takes nine points of damage and has
just twelve remaining. The demon, now standing alone, rises to
its full height, lifts its arms in the air, and
pounds its chest like a gorilla, all the while bellowing
at the companions, who are now divided and at other
ends of the cavern woo. A brazier nearby lights it
from underneath a hellish orange that glistens on its slimy skin.
Then it turns to Shawnee and Jace and starts lumbering
towards them, stomping through the fish carcasses in the way.
Shawnee responds with two arrows, while Jase hefts his shield
ready to re enter the fray. Shawnee is very good
with a bow and onlyaning to fourteen to hit, rolling
twice sixteen and six. That's one hit. A single arrow
pierces the thick neck four three points. The demon drips
black blood, but in its fury, it does not even
seem to notice the new wound. What the demon did
to Bazu and Fly gave cat'spain an idea, and he
acts before Jace can rush in. The mage cast the
spell web, using the demon and the brazier closest to
it as anchor points. Because he does not target the
demon directly, magic resistance will not come into play. He
throws up a hand, utters the arcane words, and sticky
tendrils shoot up from the ground, one after another, linking
the demon to the flaming bowl. Immediately, the many strands
catch fire, and seconds later the demon is engulfed in flame.
I need to check the monster manual again before I
assign burning damage, as I suspect the demon will be
immune or resistant. Hang tight, Okay, the book says it'll
take half damage from fire. I expect it as much,
but it will still take some damage. According to the
spell's description, a web will burn for two rounds, and
anyone caught in we'll take a D six each round.
Rolling half a four is two. It's not much, but
it brings the Hezro down to just three hit points.
Jase stops in his tracks, not keen to engage a
flaming demon in melee, so that brings us two round
six initiative. The hezrow a one the party a five,
the demon would be blinded by smoking fire, so this
makes a certain amount of sense. Let's start with Shawney,
who loses two more arrows for her turn. She needs
a fourteen or better. At eleven and seventeen. There's one
hit in there. This could be it rolling damage. Three
points is just enough. She puts the arrow right in
the demon's eye, and still a blaze. It totters and
then falls backwards to the cave floor, where it erupts
in purple flames. When all the smoke has dissipated into
little bits of smoldering web have gone out, the only
thing that remains is a cracked ball of black glass,
about the size of a fist. Despite Bozzi's warning not
to go near it, Shawnee was crouched down, prodding it
with the tip of her sword. It's the eye, she said.
Her own voice sounded too sharp, bright and fast in
her ears. Everything did. After the demon fell, Katspain ended
his quickening spell in the world had seemed to accelerate
all around her. The magic Gezer was over by the
cuccubist's skull.
Speaker 3: All that remains of the other one is over here.
Speaker 1: He looked up at his companions. Every one of them
was injured, Shawnee badly, so while he remained almost untouched,
this realization was uncomfortable, and something had just occurred to him. Besides,
so he pulled a book from his pack and opened it,
flipping through the pages until he found what he was
looking for. Zygog's Pantology Demon had a chapter concerning the
death of demons. A quick scan of the text confirmed
his fears.
Speaker 3: I do fear that these beings are not, in fact
truly dead, he.
Speaker 1: Told the others, without looking up. What do you mean
not dead? Yellowfly looked incredulous.
Speaker 3: Well, according to this book, demons can only truly be
destroyed on their own plane of existence. I believe that
we have only banished them for well, and it says
for one century then they can return.
Speaker 1: The century is a long time, and it must mean
we have not left our own world, said Shawnay, with
an insight Catspan wouldn't have expected. But she was not
entirely correct. It only meant that they were not currently
in the Abyss. He did not mean that they were
still on the prime material plane. Still, Caspian decided not
to gainsay her and instead replied with a nod and
a wan smile. He returned his attention to the book,
skimming ahead until he found another passage.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 1: Here it is a finger on the page and trace
the words as you read them.
Speaker 3: It is possible to keep them away for longer. However,
certain items are required.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Tale of the Manticore. If you've
enjoyed the show and would like to help to support it,
there are so many ways to do so. You can
recommend it online or to friends. You can like it,
repost episode announcement on social media. You can pick up
one Shot in the Dark, the Pendulum world building tool,
or Encyclopedia Manticorca on Drive Through RPG. And finally, you
can rate a review the show on your podcast Troupe Choice.
Any and all of these things really helps the show
and I really appreciate it. Speaking of appreciation, at this point,
I'd like to read one of your kind reviews. This
one was left by PowerCore on Apple Podcasts. Power Corps
writes John and cass to do an excellent job balancing
action with role play and exposition. Cole's fate still hits
heart and that gotter Di state will always hold a
special place in my heart. I look forward to whatever
the next chapter will be, and however, the Iceland the show,
and thanks for the hard work. When I first read
this comment, I wondered, why does the goddard es date
hold a special place for you? But then I saw
that this handle belongs to the amazing dread Maps, and
then it all made sense. Dread Maps does a spectacular
job of bringing the Goddard to State to vivid and
detailed life through his art form as a battlemap compatible
with the Foundry VTT. If you'd like to see it
in all its glory, visit dreadmaps dot h dot io
forward slash g O D d A r D hyphen
this date. Thanks both for the wonderful review and for
your inspiring work, Dreadmaps. I'd also like to thank my
excellent voice talent. As this is a combat focused episode,
the only dialogue belongs to Katspain, voiced as always by
ky Ellen. Thank you so much, Kyellen. Katspain just wouldn't
be Caspane without you. For listeners who would like to
get in touch with me, I'm at Manticore Tale on
x or Tale of the Manticore Podcast on Instagram and
there's always email Tales themandicore at gmail dot com. Finally,
I keep it a blow where I post all kinds
of show on RPG related stuff like art, maps, tables, crafts,
and show notes. You can find it at Tale of
themantcor dot blogspot dot com. The adventure will continue on
the next episode or Tale of the mantacor the story
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