Latest / Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama / Episode 46 (S3E46)

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Episode 46 (S3E46) · Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Tony Bible, author of the Photo Jumper,
0:03
Speaker 1: and you are listening to Tell of the Manicor. The
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Speaker 1: following podcast is intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion
0:13
Speaker 1: is advised. Welcome back to Tale of the Manticor Season three.
0:32
Speaker 1: Like the creature from which it takes its name, Tale
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Speaker 1: of the Manticor is a mashup, a cross breeding between
0:37
Speaker 1: two different species of storytelling. Here you will find the
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Speaker 1: unpredictability of old school paper and dice games with the
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Speaker 1: story craft of a dark fantasy novel. No character is
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Speaker 1: sacred and none will be spared if the dice decide
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Speaker 1: their fate is at hand. According to Laura, the Tale
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Speaker 1: of a Manticre is barbed with cruel iron spikes. There
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Speaker 1: will be much pain in the days ahead. Last time
1:14
Speaker 1: on Tail of the Mandicor, in the beginning of chapter
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Speaker 1: forty five, the PCs wrestle with the revelation that the
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Speaker 1: person who casts the illusion of the giant talking fireball
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Speaker 1: is not Odoke Zygog. They are actually his librarian and
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Speaker 1: caretaker of this ecclusium. Furthermore, Zygog is not even here.
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Speaker 1: He's been away for two years on a quest to
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Speaker 1: walk the Golden Path, and he is not expected to
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Speaker 1: return anytime soon. The librarian we learn is a gnome
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Speaker 1: named Natchu. She's very knowledgeable and helps the PCs locate
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Speaker 1: the entrance to the Golden Path on the map of
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Speaker 1: the region they took from Droth. She also shed some
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Speaker 1: light on Zygog's personality. According to Natchiu, the Recluse is
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Speaker 1: simply not the kind of person who would have attacked Oldvay,
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Speaker 1: and is very unlikely to be the one who turned him.
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Speaker 1: To say more, probably the Nomo pines Achilles Vappi wrote
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Speaker 1: his name down because Zygog is the one most able
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Speaker 1: to help. The decision is made to rest and heal,
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Speaker 1: and then, when they're better prepared, to venture out in
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Speaker 1: search of Mirror Lake, where they hope to find the
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Speaker 1: entrance to the Golden Path than eventually Nacho's master. Before
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Speaker 1: they can get to Mirror Lake, however, they'll need to
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Speaker 1: navigate the dangerous Crystal Wood. Nacchio estimates that the journey
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Speaker 1: will take the PCs about three days. I think that,
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Speaker 1: encumbered by his new plate mail armor, Fairwind will slow
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Speaker 1: the group down some. They're also carrying a lot in
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Speaker 1: the way of provisions. Way back in episode five, I
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Speaker 1: set the daily average travel distance at twelve miles a day,
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Speaker 1: so I'll adjust that to ten. Still, at this point
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Speaker 1: in the adventure, it's not such an impactful change. More
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Speaker 1: important is the days to destination counter That destination is,
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Speaker 1: of course, Mirror Lake, where the pieces expect to find
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Speaker 1: the entrance to the Golden Path. To get there again,
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Speaker 1: according to Natchiu, the need to pass through the Crystal Wood,
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Speaker 1: pass by a grayside mountain, and cross an unnamed river.
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Speaker 1: That's three geographic features three days. I like the simplicity
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Speaker 1: of this arrangement. The first location is the Crystal Wood.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what that is or how it got
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Speaker 1: its name, but I do have this disrupt nature event
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Speaker 1: meaning in the bank, so maybe I can use that.
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Speaker 1: I don't need to figure that place out just yet, though,
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Speaker 1: I've got hex crawl rolls to make. First, a quick
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Speaker 1: note before we begin that I'm going back to my
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Speaker 1: usual practice of removing cords, locate plants and animals, and
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Speaker 1: create water spells. As a matter of course, okay, let's
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Speaker 1: start with weather. You know, it feels good to get
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Speaker 1: back to these rolls. Here we go, I've got a five.
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Speaker 1: It's windy and travel is immediately difficult. It won't affect
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Speaker 1: their progress in terms of distance, but moods will be
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Speaker 1: low as a result. Next step is stumble upon. A
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Speaker 1: twelve means no result. Foraging gets a D six, and
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Speaker 1: a one to three will indicate success. Roll a one. Oh,
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Speaker 1: that's good news. I'll make a note to include that
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Speaker 1: in the narrative. And finally, a chance for a wandering encounter,
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Speaker 1: rolling that D six again and hoping to see anything
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Speaker 1: other than a five or six. I see Chapter forty six,
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Speaker 1: Part one day forty three days from their destination afternoon.
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Speaker 1: Mythic event meaning disrupt nature, party status. Achillea fifteen of
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Speaker 1: fifteen hit points, Cord twenty nine of twenty nine, Deni
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Speaker 1: eighteen of nineteen ten, Tier twenty eight of twenty eight,
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Speaker 1: Fairwind thirty one of thirty three, Flicker sixteen of sixteen supplies.
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Speaker 1: The companion have twenty portions of food spells available. Achilla
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Speaker 1: can cast shrink, enlarge, detect evil, glitter, dust and dispel magic.
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Speaker 1: Cord can cast entangle, slow poison, hold animal speak with plants,
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Speaker 1: tree shape and pass plant. Fair Wind can cast hold
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Speaker 1: person despite the rest and plentiful, if not flavorful, food
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Speaker 1: they'd enjoyed over the past few days. The companions became
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Speaker 1: quickly fatigued as they walked northeast into a headwind that
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Speaker 1: would not relent. At least it's not raining, said Durani, miserably,
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Speaker 1: pulling his flapping cloak closed and holding it tightly at
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Speaker 1: his breast. The ELF's dark hair blew back wildly in
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Speaker 1: a sudden gust, but with his usual Stoicismdurani pushed ahead,
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Speaker 1: leading the way for the others. That was about the
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Speaker 1: extent of the conversation among the members of the group,
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Speaker 1: unless Fairwin's frequent muttered complaints counted as talk. For the
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Speaker 1: most part, they kept their own counsel. Achilie was absorbed
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Speaker 1: in doubts that had nagged her ever since their conversation.
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Speaker 1: Would not you at the dining table. She could hear
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Speaker 1: the gnomes voice in her head, asking, what if.
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Speaker 2: Your master Alvey didn't want you to find the man
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Speaker 2: who'd hurt him? What if he wanted you to find
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Speaker 2: the only man who could help him.
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Speaker 1: It forced her to reimagine the circumstances that led to
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Speaker 1: Aldvay being turned to stone. She had pictured it many times,
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Speaker 1: always with Aldvay being surprised, forced to crouch down on
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Speaker 1: the ground in submission, where he secretly scratched his attacker's
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Speaker 1: name into the dirt, before being petrified by magic and
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Speaker 1: having his spell book stolen. If she were honest, finding
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Speaker 1: out that this was probably not how things had happened
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Speaker 1: made her feel worse. She'd been hanging on to this
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Speaker 1: simple and somewhat childish version of events because in her mind,
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Speaker 1: they were actionable. The realization that the truth was something
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Speaker 1: she might never learn, something she could not respond to,
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Speaker 1: that felt truly bad. Achille remembered something else not she
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Speaker 1: had said about odog Zygog.
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Speaker 2: Master Zygog would never have done that. Though he is
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Speaker 2: a pacifist through and through he abhors violence of any kind.
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Speaker 1: She had to come to terms with it. Her version
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Speaker 1: of events did not really add up. They never really had.
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Speaker 1: Oldvay's position on the floor seemed quite deliberate, and his
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Speaker 1: face neither had the look of submission nor defiance. The
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Speaker 1: Oakman had never intervened either, of course. The detonation of
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Speaker 1: the protective glyph on Oldvay's spellbook and the book's theft
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Speaker 1: did support the theory of a burglar if odog Zygog
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Speaker 1: had not been that burglar who in Merith had been
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Speaker 1: Chapter forty six, Part two, d forty afternoon, Bellario scratched
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Speaker 1: at his side with the cuts and burns. It healed,
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Speaker 1: but left us scarred, an itchy patch of skin on
8:02
Speaker 1: his flank. It had been worth it. Though the spell
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Speaker 1: book he'd managed to swipe was exceptional, the best he
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Speaker 1: had ever stolen in his life. He looked at the
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Speaker 1: silver ring on his finger with the black and gold
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Speaker 1: striped gems set into it, and smiled wistfully. Other than
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Speaker 1: the explosive glyph trap, it had all been so easy.
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Speaker 1: Over the past week. He had learned much from the
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Speaker 1: stolen tome, and he expected to learn much more in
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Speaker 1: the future, but there was no time to study it now.
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Speaker 1: He'd been working on the second scroll of Galandel most
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Speaker 1: of the night and through the morning because recently he'd
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Speaker 1: had a minor breakthrough. He now felt that he was
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Speaker 1: very very close to finding what he saw it. Absently
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Speaker 1: pushing aside his breakfast a bowl of boiled onions, something
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Speaker 1: in the text caught his eye. There it was, hiding
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Speaker 1: in plain sight, the key that had unlocked the final passages.
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Speaker 1: He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and redoubled his concentration.
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Speaker 1: He read the passage once, twice and a third time. Yes,
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Speaker 1: this was it. He skipped ahead to the final section
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Speaker 1: and began to hunt through the dense text. What had
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Speaker 1: once seemed like nonsense was now clear. The place he
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Speaker 1: was looking for had a name, and now he knew
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Speaker 1: it Mirror Lake. All Bulleria had to do was find
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Speaker 1: its location. Chapter forty six, Part three, day forty three
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Speaker 1: days from their destination, early evening mythic event meaning disrupt
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Speaker 1: nature party status. The party status is unchanged. The gusting
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Speaker 1: wind was not the companion's only adversary during the day's trek.
10:00
Speaker 1: The terrain itself made the journey wearisome. While the grasslands
10:05
Speaker 1: were easy to foot, the inclined endlessly up, up, ever
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Speaker 1: up towards the looming mountains, which, while they grew larger
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Speaker 1: and larger, never really seemed to get closer. The only
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Speaker 1: reprieve to their hardship came in the late afternoon, when
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Speaker 1: Derni spied the telltale purple flowers denoting burdock. The plants
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Speaker 1: were polled and the roots were harvested and washed with
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Speaker 1: spring water magically produced by cord. The meal marked the
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Speaker 1: only true rest they'd taken all day. After they were passed,
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Speaker 1: the companions resumed a difficult journey northeast, and after a
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Speaker 1: few hours came into sight of a forest. It lay
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Speaker 1: cloaked in a heavy, dimming hush, the uttermost pines dark
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Speaker 1: and tall, with their needles undulating in the wind.
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Speaker 3: Given how far we've traveled today, I believe we've found
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Speaker 3: the crystal Wood.
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Speaker 1: Fairwind observed it looks just like any other boys muttered
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Speaker 1: a Chilia.
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Speaker 4: I wonder where the name comes from.
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Speaker 3: Umm, I believe it was originally named by the elves
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Speaker 3: and then translated into what we now call Old Zation.
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Speaker 3: At least this is what the scroll implies. I managed
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Speaker 3: to study it at some length during our stay with Nachu.
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Speaker 1: You know, Achillia communicated this bit of information to the
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Speaker 1: Alvin brothers, who glanced at the woods and shrugged.
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Speaker 3: All of the places we might expect to pass on
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Speaker 3: our journey. Not only the Crystal Wood, but Greyside Mountain
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Speaker 3: and Mirror Lake too, are mentioned in the scroll, continued Sherwood.
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Speaker 4: Perhaps we didn't even need not choose help mused to Killia.
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Speaker 3: No, no, we absolutely did, was the cleric's quick reply.
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Speaker 3: While the places we hope to find are listed in
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Speaker 3: the scroll, so are hundreds of others. What's more, we
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Speaker 3: only have the one scroll, and trying to decipher it
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Speaker 3: as like it's like trying to read a book with
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Speaker 3: every other page torn out. Worse actually, since there's no
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Speaker 3: pattern or regularity to the gaps of information Sailand.
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Speaker 4: Did the scroll make any mention of the bloom?
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Speaker 3: Unfortunately no.
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Speaker 1: Before long the party had reached the tree line. By now,
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Speaker 1: the sun was hanging low in the west and coloring
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Speaker 1: the mountaintops a fiery orange. Before they entered the woods,
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Speaker 1: a final gust of wind lashed the companions. Didn't it
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Speaker 1: seem like wind and rain always came the hardest in
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Speaker 1: the moments before one reached shelter, as though it wanted
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Speaker 1: to punish them heads down, The party members pushed through it,
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Speaker 1: and soon they were in the forests embrace, where the
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Speaker 1: wind could not reach them. Still knowing that there was
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Speaker 1: something bad ahead, this bloom, whatever it was, they were
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Speaker 1: little comforted. At the top of the episode, they made
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Speaker 1: a bunch of hex crawl rolls, one of which was
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Speaker 1: for a wandering encounter. I got a five on that roll,
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Speaker 1: indicating that there will be one off Mike. I rolled
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Speaker 1: a high low to see if the encounter would happened
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Speaker 1: before or after they reached the crystal wood, and I
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Speaker 1: found out it would happen after they reached it. In
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Speaker 1: other words, the encantig will take place in the crystal wood.
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Speaker 1: There's no need to use a random table to find
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Speaker 1: out what kind of encounter it will be. All things
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Speaker 1: point to a run in with the Bloom. But what
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Speaker 1: is the Bloom? I have no idea. I just thought
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Speaker 1: it was a cool sounding name when I first brought
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Speaker 1: it up. I think what's called for now is a
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Speaker 1: search for an appropriate monster. I've got my fiendfolio here
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Speaker 1: and my monster manuals, as well as a few other resources.
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Speaker 1: If you can hang tight, I'll go away and do
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Speaker 1: that now. All right, I've done some reading and I
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Speaker 1: just can't find anything that's going to work in this situation.
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Speaker 1: There are plenty of monsters that have some elements I'm
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Speaker 1: looking for, but nothing really fits the bill as is.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to surprise no one when I say a
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Speaker 1: custom creature is in order. But here's the thought My
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Speaker 1: usual modus operandi is to go away and come back
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Speaker 1: with the work done. What if instead I made this
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Speaker 1: monster on Mike, sharing the thought process as I go.
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Speaker 1: Would that be interesting to listen to. Maybe let's give
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Speaker 1: it a go between the lines the Bloom. All right,
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Speaker 1: the monster Workshop is open for business. We'll start with
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Speaker 1: some baseline information. Firstly, due to the relative proximity of
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Speaker 1: the Crystal Wood to the Golden Path and all that
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Speaker 1: lies beyond, it's a region that's infused with the kind
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Speaker 1: of wild, magical essence. Therefore, the monster we make here
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Speaker 1: can and should be something unusual, fantastic, and probably horrific. Secondly,
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Speaker 1: monster needs to be mobile. If the Bloom is worth
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Speaker 1: warning the pieces about, it can't be something easily avoided,
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Speaker 1: and since we already know there will be an encounter,
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Speaker 1: it would be cheesy to have the pieces just accidentally
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Speaker 1: wander across it. With these decisions made, the next step
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Speaker 1: is to enumerate the elements that I like I dislike
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Speaker 1: from monsters I passed on. Here's my rejection rundown candidate
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Speaker 1: A the Shambling Mound, the cool classic monster I would
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Speaker 1: like to use but will not, mostly because they are
15:13
Speaker 1: essentially big bags of hit points with a very high
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Speaker 1: ac The fight with one of these would be a
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Speaker 1: long and drawn out blow for blow, and we've already
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Speaker 1: had two of this kind of encounter recently with the
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Speaker 1: animated armor and the giant forest troll before that, So
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Speaker 1: no good candidate B. The besideron this one, found in
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Speaker 1: the Monster Manual two, has an interesting special attack involving
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Speaker 1: hallucination inducing spores. There's even a corresponding chart with some
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Speaker 1: pretty evocative visions. I can see this kind of thing
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Speaker 1: working well in the audio medium, However, I'm not very
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Speaker 1: excited about the look and nature of this one. A
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Speaker 1: funnel shaped mushroom thing is not what I had in mind.
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Speaker 1: Candidates C, D and E the Bloodthorn, choke Creeper, and
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Speaker 1: Hangman Tree. These monsters all i'll have a multi attack
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Speaker 1: with vines or tendrils that need to be hacked away
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Speaker 1: before the main body of the creature could be defeated
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Speaker 1: or else to drive it off. In a way. They
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Speaker 1: are kind of like the plant version of a hydra.
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Speaker 1: I really like that these creatures are very close to
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Speaker 1: what I have in mind, except that they move very
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Speaker 1: slowly or not at all, which I've already mentioned as
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Speaker 1: a problem, but I have an idea to solve for this.
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Speaker 1: I was thinking about Cord's new spell pass Plant, which
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Speaker 1: is like dimension door using trees, and I thought, what
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Speaker 1: if the Bloom had this spell as an always on
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Speaker 1: type of special ability. It could essentially make attacks anywhere
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Speaker 1: in the crystal wood while keeping itst vulnerable main body hidden.
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Speaker 1: In addition to the vine attacks, the Bloom will have
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Speaker 1: a secondary special attack using hallucinogenic pollen. Perhaps it has
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Speaker 1: two types of tendrils, thorny attack tendrils and flower covered
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Speaker 1: pollen tendrils. All right, I think it's time to stat
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Speaker 1: up this custom creature. And as we go, I hope
16:57
Speaker 1: you'll forgive me if I pour a big bucket of
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Speaker 1: weird on top top of it. Okay, with all I said,
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Speaker 1: Tail of the Manticore proudly presents the Bloom Armoor class
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Speaker 1: fifteen hit dice, five hit points per tendril, one hit
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Speaker 1: point for the main body, move sea below, number of
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Speaker 1: attacks ten damage one to six, and sea below number
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Speaker 1: appearing one save ass fighter level ten morale. Morale is
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Speaker 1: equal to the number of remaining tendrils times two. The
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Speaker 1: Bloom is a unique magical creature that exists in in
17:39
Speaker 1: some ways is part of the crystal wood. It's composed
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Speaker 1: of a delicate body and ten fine like tendrils. The
17:47
Speaker 1: body is extremely delicate, so vulnerable that it has no
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Speaker 1: armor class and can sustain only a single point of
17:53
Speaker 1: damage before being destroyed. It resembles a membraneous sac with
17:57
Speaker 1: luminescent flex floating around in the fluid. Inside the sack
18:01
Speaker 1: is buried a foot underground that would be almost impossible
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Speaker 1: to find were it not for the enormous flowers bone
18:07
Speaker 1: white stippled with light blue that grow above ground over
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Speaker 1: top it. These flowers are most strange to look upon, for,
18:14
Speaker 1: in addition to their enormous size, with each flower being
18:17
Speaker 1: one to three feet in diameter, each has in its
18:20
Speaker 1: center a rolling eyeball raging from acorn to fist sized.
18:25
Speaker 1: Despite the presence of tell tale blossoms growing above its body,
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Speaker 1: unless one knew where to look, the bloom would be
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Speaker 1: extremely difficult to locate. This is because the crystal wood
18:34
Speaker 1: is large, covering a space of approximately ten square miles.
18:39
Speaker 1: The bloom can cast a version of the druidic spell
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Speaker 1: pass plant at will, although the main body cannot move.
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Speaker 1: Using this power, it may cause its tendrils to appear
18:48
Speaker 1: anywhere in the crystal wood at any time. The bloom
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Speaker 1: has ten tendrils that come in two types. Eight are
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Speaker 1: thick and thorn covered. They lash, bludgeon, and tear it
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Speaker 1: their opponents. Each one strike with the force of a
19:01
Speaker 1: mace for one to six points of damage. The other
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Speaker 1: two tendrils are covered in white blossoms patterned with light blue.
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Speaker 1: Each blossom has an eye the size of a human
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Speaker 1: eye at its center. These tendrils have no physical attack,
19:13
Speaker 1: but they can puff out a small cloud of pollen
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Speaker 1: at a single opponent each round. This pollen will, if
19:19
Speaker 1: the victim fails a saving throw versus poison, cause them
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Speaker 1: to hallucinate. Both types of tendrils have a high armor
19:25
Speaker 1: class of fifteen due to their speed, because they can
19:28
Speaker 1: attack from any direction, then withdraw and reappear from somewhere else.
19:33
Speaker 1: Tendrils of either variety have five hit points. The bloom
19:36
Speaker 1: attacks by shooting all of its tendrils at once and
19:39
Speaker 1: all from different directions. For each tendril still intact, The
19:42
Speaker 1: bloom attacks with a plus one. Therefore, in the first
19:45
Speaker 1: round of combat, it has plus ten to hit for
19:49
Speaker 1: each tendril has destroyed. This bonus is reduced by one point.
19:53
Speaker 1: When it's lost its fifth tendril, the bloom will begin
19:56
Speaker 1: making morale checks. It will continue to do so every
19:58
Speaker 1: time another tendril is dist Morale checks are made by
20:02
Speaker 1: counting the number of remaining tendrils and multiplying that number
20:05
Speaker 1: by two. The bloom can regrow severed tendrils at a
20:08
Speaker 1: rate of one per day. The bloom cannot be surprised
20:12
Speaker 1: except by invisible creatures. The hallucinatory effects produced by the
20:16
Speaker 1: blooms pollen are the same as those caused by the pasideron.
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Speaker 1: I'll post the table on my blog along with this
20:22
Speaker 1: full monster write up. Effects last one to four rounds. Finally,
20:27
Speaker 1: once a person has suffered a hallucination, they are immune
20:30
Speaker 1: to the effects of the blooms pollen for one full day.
20:41
Speaker 1: I just realized I need to make one more role
20:43
Speaker 1: before I can return to the narrative. It's not a
20:45
Speaker 1: reaction role. I'm not going to make one of those,
20:48
Speaker 1: since the bloom is such an aggressive predator, and it's
20:50
Speaker 1: not a role to see if the PCs stumble across
20:53
Speaker 1: the Bloom's main body while it's technically possible, the chance
20:56
Speaker 1: would be infinitesimally small. Note the role I need to
21:00
Speaker 1: make is for surprise, and only on the side of
21:02
Speaker 1: the PCs, as the Bloom cannot be surprised on a
21:05
Speaker 1: D six. A one or two is bad news. Here
21:09
Speaker 1: we go. Dang it, that's a one. Oh, there's one
21:13
Speaker 1: more thing. In the break I took between writing up
21:16
Speaker 1: the Bloom and sitting back down to the keyboard, it
21:18
Speaker 1: occurred to me that I forgot to include something back
21:21
Speaker 1: in episode forty two. I've been writing Achillia's poem The
21:24
Speaker 1: Song of the Woods in stages, and I decided at
21:27
Speaker 1: some point to adverse every thirteen episodes. I forgot to
21:30
Speaker 1: do the last one, and that's a shame. But it's
21:32
Speaker 1: not the end of the world. Maybe I could work
21:35
Speaker 1: it into the narrative now. Chapter forty six, Part four,
21:47
Speaker 1: day forty three days from their destination evening mythic event
21:53
Speaker 1: meaning disrupt nature party status. The party's status is unchanged.
22:03
Speaker 1: The last light of the sun was fading away, leaving
22:06
Speaker 1: only a faint, burnished glow in the treetops, while the
22:08
Speaker 1: woods below began to sink into shadow. By mutual unspoken accord, a.
22:14
Speaker 1: Chilia and fair Wind had ended their conversation shortly after
22:17
Speaker 1: entering the Crystal Wood. Achilia couldn't decide if there was
22:21
Speaker 1: something actually ominous about the place, or if it was
22:24
Speaker 1: just her mind that made it seem so because of
22:26
Speaker 1: the warning they'd be given. In any case, silence, apart
22:30
Speaker 1: from the sounds of bird song and their footfalls, seemed
22:33
Speaker 1: appropriate for a place like this. After a few miles,
22:39
Speaker 1: she began to wonder how the wood had gotten its name.
22:41
Speaker 1: There was nothing apparent to explain it, nothing of the
22:44
Speaker 1: forest that spoke of crystals at all. However, it did
22:47
Speaker 1: have a dark beauty, she thought. As her boots trot
22:51
Speaker 1: over springy moss and fallen leaves. A couplet from the
22:54
Speaker 1: poem she had been working on came to mind.
22:57
Speaker 4: A darkling sky, a mussy bed, Dangers of the wild.
23:01
Speaker 1: Reside, she recited to herself. Perhaps a place like this
23:05
Speaker 1: could inspire the next stanza. The fourth had eluded her
23:09
Speaker 1: for some time. Besides, thinking about her poem would take
23:12
Speaker 1: her mind off the present and help to allay her
23:14
Speaker 1: fear the third stanza had finished.
23:17
Speaker 4: Thus, the Fox and Fawn, in Silence, Hide and Twilight
23:22
Speaker 4: chose the path ahead here toadstools ring as ecred glade,
23:26
Speaker 4: where shay lights flicker soft and low, and time forgets
23:29
Speaker 4: which way to go. Spells are spoken, and dreams are made.
23:38
Speaker 1: Although she did not notice it, and neither did any
23:40
Speaker 1: of her companions. As the party made their way deeper
23:42
Speaker 1: into the crystal wood, eyes appeared in mouth holes, behind
23:46
Speaker 1: the concealment of ferns and bushes, staring from between tangles
23:49
Speaker 1: of bendy branches, and from the cavities in fallen dead trees. Somehow,
23:55
Speaker 1: the eyes followed them as they walked, watching them, studying them.
24:00
Speaker 1: In her mind, Achilia played with various combinations of words
24:03
Speaker 1: and phrases, selecting and rejecting them on the basis of
24:06
Speaker 1: how many syllables they contained and where their stress lay.
24:09
Speaker 1: He was a kind of intellectual and artistic puzzle that
24:12
Speaker 1: felt satisfying and good, especially when she happened upon a
24:15
Speaker 1: notion that really captured a feeling or described something well.
24:19
Speaker 1: The ideas flowed, and eventually she had her forth Stanza,
24:22
Speaker 1: But she had only just come up with the final
24:24
Speaker 1: line and was almost completely lost in thought when do Renni,
24:28
Speaker 1: leading the group, called a sudden halt. Something's wrong, said
24:31
Speaker 1: the elf in a tight voice, moving his hand towards
24:34
Speaker 1: the hilt of his sheathed sword. What's happening, asked Ferwind,
24:37
Speaker 1: not understanding Dennie's words but fully comprehending the ELF's meaning. Anyway,
24:42
Speaker 1: the birds they have stopped singing. De Rennie was right,
24:47
Speaker 1: the woods had grown truly silent. When exactly had that happened?
24:51
Speaker 1: But there was no time to consider the answer, because
24:54
Speaker 1: at that moment, the woods around them exploded with movement
24:57
Speaker 1: as the companions were attacked from every side. Thank you
25:02
Speaker 1: for listening to Tale of the mandicor if you'd like
25:04
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Speaker 1: like and repost episode announcements on social media. You could
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Speaker 1: purchase a Tale of the mandicor T shirt at Bare
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Speaker 1: Arts dot store or one of my offerings on drive
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Speaker 1: through RPG, and of course, you can rate and review
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Speaker 1: the show on your favorite podcatcher. If you happen to
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Speaker 1: listen to the show on Spreaker, you can join the
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Speaker 1: Support Club for two dollars a month. Members now get
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Speaker 1: at free content. I am super grateful to everyone who
25:28
Speaker 1: supports the show. At this time, I'd love to share
25:31
Speaker 1: a listener review This one was left on Apple Podcasts
25:34
Speaker 1: by Delphon No fled. Delphon writes, amazing, I've binge listened
25:38
Speaker 1: to the first and second season in their entirety. You
25:41
Speaker 1: do an astounding job bringing all these characters to life.
25:44
Speaker 1: Love when you pause to pull back the curtain and
25:46
Speaker 1: explain your DM side. Thanks very much, Delfon. Your handle
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Speaker 1: is so unique that I thought, oh, that must be
25:52
Speaker 1: somemedaing googled it and nothing came up. But then I
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Speaker 1: noticed it's a Balan drome. Yes, I solved your username puzzle.
26:00
Speaker 1: Can I roll on a random treasure table now? Anyway,
26:02
Speaker 1: I really appreciate the review, and I hope you'll listen
26:05
Speaker 1: to this third season two. At this point, I'd like
26:07
Speaker 1: to thank this episode's excellent cast of voice actors. I'd
26:10
Speaker 1: be lost without them. Directing and Fairmind are played by
26:13
Speaker 1: core cast members Kylon and Dave Cooper. As always, there's
26:17
Speaker 1: also the remembered voice of not You by Amanda Tea.
26:20
Speaker 1: Thanks very much, Kylin, Dave and Demanda. Another special and
26:24
Speaker 1: huge thank you goes out to the incredible friendly Mike,
26:27
Speaker 1: who's drawn a mind blowing illustration of the bloom. It'll
26:31
Speaker 1: be up on the blog shortly after this episode airs.
26:34
Speaker 1: Of course, there's a bunch of other stuff on the
26:36
Speaker 1: blog for the curious listener, like maps, tables, crafts, and
26:39
Speaker 1: show notes. You can find it and tell of themanticore
26:41
Speaker 1: dot com. As usual, you can find me as solo
26:44
Speaker 1: Roleplayers Network dot com, Tale of themandicore dot Bluesky dot
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Speaker 1: Social Tale of the Manticor podcast on Instagram, and Tale
26:51
Speaker 1: Themanticor at gmail dot com. The eventual will continue on
26:54
Speaker 1: the next episode of Tale of the Manticor. It's the
26:57
Speaker 1: story where chaos rolls four