Eberron Ep. 3: RiteAid of the Dead (The Sharnbound Saga)

Our Adventurers happen upon a distillery of the Red Water Potion that seems to be permeating the forest floor with its fog. They see a group of sleepwalking zombies surrounding the owner of the Factory, who happens to have access to the party's ride to Sharn. 

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Hi, welcome to Knocked Prone. My name is Cade, uh, and we are gonna join- this is the third episode of the Eberron series. Last we left your guys' characters, you helped the survivors of the ship, or at least Thorla did, but you guys saved Rizzi, the most important member of the ship, a little halfling with grills. You have sent the three of you off to- to bring back- airship, rather, to bring back, uh, to pick up the remainder of the survivors as the three of you have headed towards Sharn, and last session we had y'all just approaching the Redwater Distillery. You see smoke is billowing out of this chimney, and everyone go ahead and make me a perception as you walk up to this brick building. That is an 11. 11, perfect. Nat 20! Whoa! Seven. Seven, all right. With a natural 20, uh, you're gonna get a little bit more than, uh, than you bargained for. You listen in, Sid, at the front of this V formation that you all have been traveling in, and you hear something that sounds a little bit like- like somebody left on the horror TV channel on a little too loud inside of this Redwater Distillery. Um, can he identify whether it's something used in the distilling process? Mechanical process? Absolutely. With a natural 20, this does not seem to be mechanical in nature. This sounds like- you've heard of Redwater, uh, in the dealings of the back alleys of Sharn. Redwater, uh, is kind of like- it's a potion, but it's almost like a drug. It can send people to sleep. However, if people take too much of this Redwater, uh, potion, they are forever transported away to their elemental plane of dreams, and their bodies sleepwalk pretty much eternally after. They are reminiscent of modern day zombies. So that- that is what you are hearing with a natural 20 inside the Redwater Distillery. Um, Sid wanting to be a lot more trustworthy to his companions at this point would definitely, uh, kind of- okay, hold on, hold on. There's something inside there. It's- I don't know that much about distilling, but this does not sound like, uh, like a- like a mechanical process happening in there. Here, come- come over here to this, uh, we'll crouch under this window. I want- listen in. I want to see if you guys hear this too. Crouching, I'm standing. Crouching, you're on your tiptoes to try and match their height. I can get you a box if you need. And as the- as the three of you crouch beneath this window and are able to have pointed out to you, you hear this guttural sound of- of what you would describe to be, uh, zombies inside of this building. But you can also hear muffled whispers, muffled, uh, not whispers, muffled panic noises inside. So when people are in that zombie trance, are they considered dangerous, or are they just more like, just, you don't know. They don't love it. Okay, I know more, right? Like, we have to- we have to get in here to talk to this dude. So, I understand you have a really good heart and you really want to help people. But. We- Why is there a but? You want to get to Sharn, right? And- and you need to help, uh, Thorla. Thorla, Thorla. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're- you're- you're - you're, uh, bandmate. I can get us to Sharn, but gonna have to go find the guy who runs this place. Probably in there with the zombies. You think he is a zombie? He's not that dumb. How well do you know this guy? I'm gonna give, like, the- more than you do. Do I believe her? I mean, you have no reason not to believe that- that Vel would know more than you about this person. Fair enough. Especially since they're on a first name basis with them. Yeah. And a last name basis. That's- that's a lot of- Sometimes being on a first and last name basis is more important than being on a first name basis. Very true. Well, seems to me I want to help people. You want to meet up with the guy inside, but there might be people in there that also need help. And I'm not saying you can't help them, but not till we have secured a passage to Sharn. Then you can do the knight in shining armor. What's your plan, then? Just gonna knock on the door. You're just gonna knock on the door with the zombies inside. Doesn't that kind of give up our element of surprise? Do you have another idea? She knocks on the door, we wait by the back door. This idea. Do you have any way to protect yourself in the advent that the person who answers the door is a potentially dangerous zombie? I mean, do you remember your friends back there? When we were- when we crashed and you had to help a bunch of people and you had to get so loud to get everyone to come over and kind of get out of a trance? That's step one. This is a little further into, you know, breathing that fog. So they're probably mostly out of it. Okay, so maybe they're not dangerous. That- that seems like that could be a thing. I think Cid would do a quick investigation though and see if there's like a back door, a window that's open on an upper story. Alternate ways in. Alternate ways in. Absolutely. Oh, that was almost a five, but instead it is a 15. But hold on, uh, investigations, intel- intelligence? That's a 14. Well, with a 14, that's okay. So, uh, you are able to find, it seems like, you know how in restaurants they have kind of that like really heavy metal back door that has like the push stop, you know what I'm talking about? Like a push door that is like kind of one way. That is propped open by a rock in the back of this, uh, red water distillery. Okay. All right, you want to try the front door? I'm gonna go around to this back door over here. I'll stay at the window. Perfect. All right, if things go bad for whatever reason, try and, uh, send a signal and I'll see if I can do anything to help you. Are you gonna go through the door? What's your plan in the back? Uh, well, I didn't want to- I didn't want to spring anything. If you're trying diplomatic approach at the front of the building and I didn't want a knight in shining armor or anything too fast, unless you'd rather I either go to the front door with you. Dragonborns tend to make statements when we walk into rooms, so. I have subtlety and quietness get you lots. I have bright red scale, so subtlety's a little tough. I want to maybe use his chaotic nature, but- What if I go through the front door? Whatever's in there, I'm just like, hey, here I am. You go through the back door. Pause for a second. Can- Do we- Do we know - Are we near the river? Yes. Do we sense the river? Yes, you can sense the river. You hear, uh, faint trickling in the distance. It's not close enough that we can see, like, is the boat there or is there a person down there? Actually, uh, this distillery is on, uh, so you know in Skyrim, you know those, like, spinning wheels? Uh-huh. What are those called? Waterwheels. Waterwheels! Boom! Yes, on the other side of this distillery, there is a waterwheel that is being churned by this river into a large lake of sorts. This is the hilt of the Wood River. It is the lake that is standing between you and Sharn, and you do indeed, similar to what your pager, your beeper, said to you last session, your arcane beeper, that there is in fact a boat on the water. I don't really know how to drive a boat. Certainly not my skill sets. Would we really need Giddy Briggs? You could indeed take Giddy Briggs's boat. Do you want to keep this relationship going or not? Would we be able to tell where the muffled voices are coming from? Uh, yeah. I mean, go, especially finding the back door, go ahead and roll me, everyone go ahead and roll me a perception check as you are standing next to your perspective entrances. 11. Unnatural 20. Seven. Seven. All right, Victor, uh, you find a box to stand on so you can see into this, see into this window. Uh, Cid, uh, joked about a box and then you found a box while he was gone and you're like, that's actually a good idea. Like, I'm gonna do that. Not while Cid can see. So, uh, you step up onto this box and you see all dispersed throughout this room is a cluster of elves that are overdosed on this red water potion. And they wander through this like open, it's like a warehouse floor. It almost looks like a warehouse because it has like, what are they called? The square pallets of pallets of potion distilled into these, like are packaged for selling. But at the center of this room, standing as still as, as he can is a, uh, is a gnomish man who is, uh, also standing on top of a box looking as if he's afraid of a mouse. Uh, but you would know that he is afraid of zombies who are wandering around him and he's being as silent as he can be. So they are dangerous. From what you could perceive, it seems that he does not want to be noticed. And with a, uh, unnatural 20, you are also going to notice that he has like, almost as if to remind himself, he has his fingers pressed up against his lips that are pursed as if to, to motion to himself, to be quiet for himself. Cause he does not know that you are there. Um, I am going to try and like wave my hand and like try without tapping on the glass. I don't want to tap on the glass. Yeah. And, uh, in, in his peripheral vision, he's going to see movement and he's going to look over. You don't know this, but this is Giddy Briggs. Uh, Giddy Briggs looks over at the window and sees a war forged waving hand. And, uh, he's going to look over into your eyes. Do your eyes glow? Yes, they are orange. He's going to look over into your orange glowing eyes and he's going to mouth the words, help. I'm going to point at the front door. And he gives you a big thumbs up, but then like realizes that he took his finger away from his mouth and is going to do this again. Uh, pointing his finger back up to his lips as if to remind himself not to make a noise. Uh, and what would you, what would you all like to do? Let us know that, uh, there's this Elvis trance dream. So we're all of these guys in trances. Uh, I mean, at this point, I think all of you have rolled a good natural 20 enough to remember this information. Yeah. So at least during the travel, you were able to talk about how the Redwater was dangerous and how that it could put you to sleep potentially forever. And so I think each of you would have at least somewhat of a grasp that this is what is happening. Okay. In that conversation, would Sid have shared any of his knowledge from, you know, living in the lower end of Sharn of what Redwater does to people he's seen there? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Uh, that is whatever information you would like to share about what you know about Redwater is welcome. So I think Sid knowing he's not at full hit points, he's, he's still a little bruised from the last, the last big adventure. I think he's a little bit tentative, nervous to just go barging into a room with an un, an uncertain number of potentially dangerous drug addicts. Right. And so I think he creaks the door open as slowly as he can, listening for any creaking on that and would try and move into the room. Make me a stealth check as you do this. Stealth is plus three. Oh, that's not bad. Remember, you do have points of inspiration. Oh, you know what? I think this is a good time. I'm not saying that you have them. I'm saying you have them. 13 plus three. So 16. Okay, perfect. With a 16, you are able to, uh, agilely creak this door open. I say creak, but the onomatopoeia of creak does not happen as you slowly press this door open. However, uh, one thing does happen with a 13, a, you push the door open that seems to have something that once was hooked on it, but it falls to the ground. Uh, a set of crafts gnome boat keys falls to the ground in front of you. You, you pause for a moment as the ringing of these keys kind of jingle out. A few of the sleep, sleepwalking elves are going to go, go right back to normal because jingling keys are not as important to them. Fair enough. Pockets the keys. Okay. You now have the keys to the boat. I think Sid has a choice to make. You could either run back around, close the door quietly, run back around, and we could do Vel's initial plan of maybe we just take the boat or he could do his, uh, knight in shining armor thing. I think he's going to go back around and quietly close the door. He wasn't that far into the room. With that 13, you were able to do so. Sneak back around, come around the corner, see you standing on a box. Go. Good idea. Nice. Nice. And then sneak over to the window, kind of gesture for Vel to come over and hold up the keys so we can re -evaluate our current position. Perfect. Yeah. Sure. Do you, does Sid want to help anyone for any reason? Or if he knew that Giddy Briggs was the owner of this distillery and thus he's the one that created the zombies, how would he feel? I think Sid having seen the effects of this potion in like the improper hands in the city does not have good feelings about it. He has friends in the city who have been personally affected by it. But overall, Sid is not one to cast blame too harshly on the average Joe's type of person. Honestly, the more money that Giddy Briggs has made off of the selling of this stuff, the less likely he is to want to go in. You would know that this boat is, is gold encrusted. The keys are even gold encrusted. There's a, the, the, the words Craftsgnome are in diamond, like they're like carats, multiple carats of diamond for each of these letters. I think, I think Sid would still feel a little guilty. I think his main reason in coming around is he does not want to start another thing that could make our situation go from tenuous to terrible without at least clearing it with you guys. Do we save the drug kingpin or do we let him die? I think we ask, okay, so how did you get the key? I, I, I was sneaking in the back to see if I could get in there and investigate a little bit more. I cracked open the door and clink right down in front of me. I guess they were just wedged on top of the door. I don't know who put them there. What, what happened to the, to the, to the zombies inside? They, I mean, they made like a, like a, I heard like a, but then nothing else. So I assume they just went back to meandering. We know, okay. We know enough about this that we would have to have a possible antidote. So can we actually save them? Save them? No, save him possibly. I'm looking at that boat out there and I, I know what this stuff does to people. I don't want to just leave somebody in the clutches of potentially very dangerous people at the same time. He has made these people very dangerous. So I am not going to try and push in there. If you guys feel like the best course of action is to save the people that are waiting back there for us to send an airship. I think there's a little bit. If we're saying sound, we're saying sound makes them. I could use a minor illusion, make a loud sound in the front of the warehouse, and then he does whatever he wants to do. Maybe it makes him feel better. And maybe we just create a distraction and let him run out. Yeah. And then let the guy inside run out the back door. Yeah. That doesn't mean he's not going to do bad things later, but maybe that makes him feel better. Were you able to see anything when you were standing on your box? Yeah, he's back there. He's chilling. He's hiding. Did he see you? Yes. Okay. Do you think, do you think you could communicate this plan to him? Like we're, I don't know, do some, do some pantomiming and point, you know, zombies go this way, you run this way kind of. I tried. So he thinks that we're going to knock on the front door and then he's going to run out the back door. All right. You, you have to tell him to run. I'm going to go to the front and make a lot of noise. We hope the zombies move. If not, let me know. Okay. Don't worry. I was like, bye. That's what I thought was going to happen for a minute. So what is, what is first? Who who's taking action first here? I'm waiting for the big loud noise. I am going to come back to the front. Everything seems locked and dark. I have decided that the best minor illusion would be to make the consistent sound of beating drums. So I am going to start more soft and soft stuff, and then it's going to get really loud. Yeah. So it's basically going to go soft, soft, loud, loud. And then we're just going to hear a massive clang. Did the zombies react? Okay. You have a choice here. Would you like this to be an arcana check because of minor illusion or a deception check with disadvantage? Deception with disadvantage. Okay, perfect. Go ahead and roll it. At 20. Bummer. With disadvantage. So you'll have to roll again. Again. At 12. Take the natural 20 since you got a dirty 20 the other way, because it's more fun that way. You make a loud knocking sound on this front door and every single one of these zombies is going to walk over. And this gnome is going to clatter off of this box and is going to try and run as fast as he can, not really thinking about, again, he takes his fingers off of his pursed lips and forgets that he's not supposed to make a lot of sound. However, your sound is going to drown out his sound and he is able to run out the back door and he is panting red in the face. And you have now saved this gnome and the zombies are distracted. They are all in the door. They are fully taken on the bait. So you all see the zombies are running one direction. However, you assume, you all assume that once they get to that door, they're opening it. So what is the next plan of action? Giddy Briggs is panting, has not said a word yet. What would you like to do? He ran towards Sid. Yeah, I think Sid would, he's a gnome. He's a gnome. All right. Sid would grab him, hoist him up and truck it over for the boat, toss him in the boat and then spin and try and make not a beeline for the front door, but probably for like the edge of the building where he could see around to make sure these two aren't going to just suddenly be swamped. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you're, you are, you truck over, toss the gnome into the boat and are able to come back to Vel and Victor. And Vel and Victor, what are, what are the two of you doing? I just watched the gnome dash across the warehouse. So I probably went to the back corner and just waited for Vel to come around the corner too. Perfect. Before I dipped any further. The last boom, I just casually turn around and just walk calm and coolly back around the building. I'm not too worried. Yeah. Yeah. They don't seem super fast. Yeah. This is a classic case of kiting from the video game, Black Ops 2, when you play zombies. Black Ops 3, you kite zombies and you have successfully kited these zombies and have outpaced them and are on the other side of the building. And you have the keys to the boat. You have the, the kingpin out of breath inside of his boat. Are, where are we going? Whip the keys out of the pocket and start the boat up. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. I think we kind of want to know what happened. Whoa. To the, to the elves, to the zombie elves? We were discussing whether or not this was a intentional overdose. There is a workplace accident. All right. Or like, is there anything of value that could be lost in an accident like this? I think Sid is personally, uh, probably on the verge, not on the verge. He's tempted sorely to potentially throw someone like Giddy Briggs just into the water and see if they can swim and not care if they can't. So he's going to let you guys handle your interrogation and investigation. Yeah. I think we take advantage of this poor elves' misfortune. Yeah. Okay. Uh, so you, uh, go to talk to Giddy Briggs. What, what are, what are y'all saying? I want to know how he's going to react. So I'm going to come up to, to Giddy Briggs and say, you can call me Val. Hello Val, you can call me Giddy Briggs. Sid throws him in the water. No, please! I'm just kidding. He like dunked his feet in the water so he has wet shoes. My shoes, these were expensive Jordans. Takes his shoes. No, not really though. He takes his shoes. They're too small for you. How dare you? As you were. You don't seem so surprised. Surprised of what? You were supposed to give me a ride. Yes. Who sent you? Was it, um, do I owe someone money of sorts? I can pay. Are you worried? A wealthy man is never worried. He just, uh, diversifies and liquidates. Kind of made me feel worried. You were just really scared. I mean, it's not every day that we have you. There was a sign on the, on the, the cutting room floor as it were. And it said, we've not had an accident in several days. And that sign is now at zero. Well, it seems that we helped you out here. Quite, yes. Is there any sort of compensation? Yes. Compensation. Yes, quite. I, I have a plethora of, uh, red water potions. We noticed. Yes, yes. If you like, I could, uh, provide some, uh, granted you might have to get past my, uh, disgruntled workers. It seems that they are, um, unionizing. I think it crumbles. Who has the best stealth ability? I have a three to stealth. I have a one. I think I'll stay here with Mr. Gnome guy. Maybe you two go see if you can sneak around and see if there's anything worth the value. Okay. You build skills for that coming in handy later. I'll be whoever you want me to be. I'm going back to the building. Okay. To our front door. That's at the front door. That's true. That's where the back door was propped with a rock there. Do we get this? You said that they were going to burst, probably burst open and, and head out, right? Okay. So they might not even be in the building at this point. Yeah. Yep. Uh, so, uh, Bell heads over to the back door. Yes. You pick up an insta-kill. Well, okay. Okay. Giddy did say, Giddy did like allude to like, they're not going to make it much longer. And he's been around this red water much longer than we have. So like, as you get to the building, like you, are we hearing the zombies? Do we feel like they've been inspired? Yeah, go ahead and roll me a luck check. A luck? That is just a straight D20. Nothing added. 17. 17. Ooh, okay. Yes. It seems that all of these unionized workers, as it were, have escaped the, uh, red water distillery and are headed in a direction in the forest. That is not the direction with 17. That is not the direction of the survivors that you are, uh, planning on going back to save tentatively. So they, they head off in a direction and you are, uh, hopeful. Did, did Sid, uh, come with me or did we, did he stick back? Yeah, Sid came. Okay. Okay. That'd be kind of funny to accidentally send the zombies in the direction of our friend, of the wreckage. That was what the luck check was for. I was like, they are escaping, but which way they go is up to me. Okay. So, so well, all right, let's look around in here. And, uh, if there's something of value, he's not going to give it up without some serious coercion. Uh, he doesn't seem the type to let go of valuables lately. So we'll just, um, peruse and perhaps help ourselves. All right. Uh, everyone go ahead and roll me a D20. An 11. Do I adding anything to that? Just, just a D20. Okay. Am I not going in then? I am not going. I'm making sure he doesn't take off with the boat. Oh, perfect. That's actually, do I still have the keys to the boat in my pocket? Yeah. But, uh, but, but maybe he has a spare key. Maybe I have a spare. Yes. Uh, so, uh, Vel and Sid, what did you guys get? An 11? 11? 13? Okay. Yeah. With an 11, uh, you see, Sid, you pick up what is like a tasting spoon. This seems to be the stirring spoon that they use to sample the product as a distillery worker. The practices here seem a little less to code. And with a 13, Vel, you find the ledger to the distillery. It has like, what's the word? Recipes for red water batches for new ingredients, new, um, inventions that are being hoped to be made by the, uh, by Giddy Bricks. Pocket that. Yeah. Perfect. So you pocket this ledger with, with some blueprints inside of it. Victor, go ahead and roll me a D20 as well. To the nine. Um, you see Giddy is kind of looking like shifty side to side and is like, like reaching into his, into his cloak pocket. Go ahead and roll me a dexterity check. An 11. An 11. Yeah. So with an 11, Giddy pulls out a magical bottle of bottled thunder and is going to throw it at you. With an 11, you were going to toss it between your hands. Go ahead and roll me a luck check. That is just straight D20. That is three nines in a row. Three nines in a row. Okay. Uh, with a nine, this is going to detonate and there's going to be a that happened. It is not going to harm the boat. However, go ahead and roll me a D6 and get a three or lower. Five. Perfect. With a five, this, this, you take five points of thunder damage as well as in the distance you hear, as it seems that whatever sound this has made, uh, has, has caused the, the zombies to turn back around and Giddy, uh, as he throws this bomb, he's, he's trying to hotwire, uh, his boat underneath and is just hoping that maybe that killed you. It did not. It did not. Yeah. Um, do I have an action? You do have an action. I'm going to have stick step on him. Perfect. Uh, go ahead and roll me an attack. Actually just roll me damage. He's on the ground. Or actually roll me with advantage because that, uh, if you get a nat 20, that'd be more fun. Another nine and a 15. So that's a 19 total to hit. That'll a hundred percent hit. Go ahead and roll me damage. Can you imagine if Giddy had an armor class higher than 19? Actually, no, that doesn't hit. I only take natural 20s. That's an 11 for damage. Whoa. An 11 damage. Uh, Giddy is going to Your steel defender is going to wipe the remnants of a gnome off of the bottom of its feet. Like it's got gum stuck on his shoe. Yeah, exactly. Sid and Vel, uh, you hear this massive thundering, uh, as you get your items and you hear the zombies, uh, turn tail back towards the distillery. Um, what are you doing? We better leave. We better leave. I don't know what that was. I was hoping to look around a little more. So much for that. Uh, pocket the spoon and hightail it for the boat. Perfect. Yeah. Uh, you hightail it for the boat. Vel, go ahead. What are you doing? Oh yeah, no, absolutely. I know they're not going to come at us fast, but that was pretty loud. And worst case scenario, our ride is gone. Yeah. Uh, roll me a luck check as, as you were heading that direction. With advantage. 20. Well, natural 20. Well, perfect. Perfect. Uh, out of the forest work, you hear a as this hyena is running from these zombies is well in front of them with a natural 20. Uh, go ahead and roll me another D20, uh, for, uh, this magic item table as you.