Scheduling Changes

Riddles in the Dark will be making significant adjustments to its scheduling effective after today's session. Up to this point, the show has been every Tuesday, but we have elected to move towards a bimonthly schedule, with two sessions every month. The time will be the same as it has been, 7:00PM CST, but we are hoping with this change in scheduling that not only will the show have its lifespan extended, but also help in avoiding burnout by making it a bit more of a special occasion. We appreciate your understanding.

Updates on VODs

Previously, the idea we had intended with how VODs would be handled is they would be stored in the collection to be viewable at any time. Unfortunately due to how Twitch works, past broadcasts are erased from the platform, even if part of a collection. As a result of this, the first and second episodes are no longer available; episodes will no longer be accessible from the collection sixty days beyond their broadcast date, so please be sure to watch them if you happen to miss any and want to be able to catch up.A campaign's collection can be accessed from this website by clicking on the title text of a campaign found in their respective episode list. The Marble Castle campaign collection can be found here.

Episode Writeups

There are times in which we will likely play through sessions off-camera as a break from the spotlight. In the event that a D&D session happens but is not recorded (as was the case this time), episode synopses will still be written and added so that viewers can remain caught up. Be sure to check the Recap section of the website to stay caught up.Episodes that were not broadcasted will be denoted in a different color on the episode list.

Series Revival + Website Update

After a long break, Riddles in the Dark is slated to return, complete with two new party members! Details will be released at a later point on the new characters, campaign, etc.. Episodes still have the possibility of being streamed, but there's also a chance they could be recorded and thrown onto a separate channel.The website has received a facelift as a response to this new information. Profiles and such will be updated in the coming days.

A sense of deja vu falls over these lands, a familiar adventure is about to unfold...

Our adventure begins on a crisp spring evening where the townspeople of Gulluvia are heading to its tavern, The Sleepy Mice. At a table in the far corner stands Uriah Reid, a half-elf veteran and self-appointed cardsmith. He asks the company of the pub if any had heard of the particular card game of War, to which he gets one response from a kid sitting with his mother. More than happy to see even one person involved in his hobby, he volunteers the teen to a game. A few hands later, Uriah triumphs and scores a single new card after a mediocre negotiation.Across the room at the bar sits a dhampir by the name of Nemiri Blackwood, brooding over the task laying before her with a glass of wine. With a shallow attempt of staying unnoticed, she scoops up and wrings out a field mouse she spied into her drink, much to the discomfort of the barkeep as well as the two other patrons with which she was sharing the bar.Overhearing the action in the corner, a tortle going by the name of Sarc saunters towards Uriah's table, introduces himself, and makes an inquiry on the game he was playing. Ecstatic that he had this opportunity, Uriah obliges. In return, Sarc hails over an employee and asks for two of whatever the woman at the bar was having, pointing towards Nemiri. They tell the barkeep who looks over with mild disgust, but shrugs it off and whips up the drinks anyways (supplementing the call for mice with ox blood).While Sarc learns the inner machinations of War, a fresh face enters the tavern with a mountain lion in tow. Synnove Windsdottir with her faithful companion, Fennlop, make their way towards the bar. The barkeep, clearly distraught by such a large animal in his establishment, asks that she either be left outside or tied to the bar. Synnove begrudgingly goes along with him, tying a rope from her bag around Fennlop rather loosely. She takes a seat and orders ale while listening in on two travelers and their card-playing shenanigans.After a tad more pondering, Nemiri asks the barkeep what he knows about a jewel in reference to the flier up outside the tavern. He describes to her in vague details, knowing its name, My Lady's Heart, as well as a hefty bounty for its retrieval. The conversation was intriguing to one of the patrons at the bar, a half-elf named Halira Galyne, so she shifted down one seat to try and get a better listen. Nemiri notices, but pretends to ignore her. The barkeep continues, going over rumors of how the gem might lay resting in an old castle lost to time, leading to several adventuring parties heading in that direction. The talk of adventure and history attracts the other bar attendee, Artorias Wright. Already knowing quite a bit about the jewel and the lore behind it, he moves down a seat and orders the next round of drinks on him, Nemiri declining and Halira ordering a pint of mead. They give a cheers, raise their glasses, and continuing listening to what the barkeep has to offer.Feeling they might have some information that could be of use to her, Synnove grabs Fennlop's lead and heads towards Uriah's and Sarc's table. Synnove asks of the whereabouts of a tall man with dark hair but with the two of them being foreign to this land, Sarc and Uriah both shrug. However, as they do, Sarc spies Artorias from across the room and gestures towards him. Artorias sees this and, after grabbing his drink, makes his way over to the trio. Just as he was doing so, one of the staff brings over a bowl of ox blood to their table for the mountain lion. Nemiri can smell it immediately and jets across the room, staring a hole through Synnove. Nemiri asks her if her cat is going to drink that bowl. Not really caring what Synnove's answer is, Nemiri grabs the bowl and chugs its contents, staining her face and some of her black dress with blood.The group looked on in shock, Artorias and Halira not even able to make it to the table before this unfolded. Synnove looked at Nemiri as she wiped blood from her face, then let out a hearty laugh. The barkeep shouts towards the group and tells them to take this business elsewhere, clearly not liking the idea of freaking out his customers, and suggests that they make an adventuring group of their own. After excusing herself and her behavior, Nemiri drops the once-upon-a-midnight-dreary act and asks the group if they would assist her on her quest to find My Lady's Heart. The ragtag bunch can see through her intentions, but simply ask for a little more than their cut of the gold in return, such as Synnove and her hunt for the location of her mentor or Uriah and his hunt for a legendary War card.In a seeming semblance of agreeance, the party of six exits the tavern and eyes a tinkerer and his granddaughter headed out of the city. Synnove hails him down and asks if they'd be able to catch a ride. On the condition that they keep him and his granddaughter safe on the road towards the next town over, he allows the group to stow away in the carriage. As they ride along, they slow down upon meeting a man and a flock of sheep off the side of the road. The tinkerer asks what he wants, and the previously-presumed shepherd demands he hand over everything in the cab. Many of the sheep instead turn out to be bandits ready to ambush those who travel the roads at night. The adventurers grab their gear and get ready to tussle...

The party is surrounded by bandits, demanding the tinkerer hand over everything he has in his wagon. Some of the party members pipe in to intimidate them, with Synnove heading the charge. Uriah brings Fennlop into the equation, pointing out the very obvious risk the bandits would be taking should they try and steal from them. Halira peeks out of the back of the wagon, assuring the thieves they want no business with this cart. With their combined aura of unease, the bandits and their captain back off, leaving behind the seven sheep costumes they previously donned. Sarc and Artorias, both previously perfectly content with sitting in the wagon, figured they were in the clear by this point and stepped out of the wagon to retrieve the sheep costumes. The party continued into the next town, satisfied that they were able to keep the tinkerer and his granddaughter safe.The group made it to the next town, Mere. Synnove and Sarc used the time before night to obtain a bounty from the town guards for relieving the bandits of their disguises. It was paltry in comparison to what they could have received had they captured a bandit or two, but accepted it nonetheless. Uriah made a beeline for the general store for a chance at more cards, but was unsuccessful thanks to closing time. Meanwhile, the remainder of the group gathered at the Unusual Hill tavern for a round of drinks, Nemiri in particular ordering the specialty Butcher's Blend. When Uriah arrived, he was displeased that he wasn't able to nab something new for his deck but perked right back up when Nemiri showed interest in the game of War, asking to play a few rounds with him. After a best of five, Uriah reigned supreme (though it was admittedly much closer than expected). Sarc and Synnove strode into the tavern with the bounty in tow and divided it among the crew, 8 silver pieces for everyone. The party all raised a glass towards today's efforts and their soon-to-be registered adventuring party, then headed to the Frightened Sheep next door for the night (with most of the party using the remaining sheep costumes to successfully barter a better deal for a room of course).Very early next morning, all but Uriah (likely due to spending a little too much time buried in his cards) were awoken by quite the ruckus outside. They had just happened to stop in town before the military arrived to collect what they refer to as a tithe. Sarc, understanding the situation a bit more, attempts to wake Uriah again in futility. Everyone else gathers around, planning what their next move should be...

Two generations have resettled the valley and rebuilt a kingdom upon the ashes of an old one. A party of adventurers arrives in a small capitol to find either riches, history, or more. If they dig deep enough, a forgotten bloodline, a foreign army, and secrets riddle the land.

Our band of four travelers meet in a tavern in Gulluvia and exchange stories. Upon questioning the barkeep, they learned not only of a caravan headed to Mere, but of a quest for a mysterious treasure worth one-thousand gold pieces. The group opted-in for being bodyguards for this covered wagon, successfully scared off a group of thieves, and made it to the town unscathed.After a night of drinking and dancing on stage, our heroes made their way to the mayor's to register their company officially. However, just as they seal the deal, a military force made their way into town to collect taxes and potentially discover this freshly-minted party of four...

The newly appointed Chapman & Chaps Co. find themselves head-to-head in a battle of snoot with a pompous military officer. After belittling him to the point of him exiting to retrieve his superior, the group makes up a plan to escape. Uriah picks up and pockets the party's payment for a successful escort (with tip included of course), then Nemiri successfully acquires their horses as a means of their escape while Artorias and Halira assure that the mayor charts them up a useful map.However, just as they are about to exit, the officer returns with a mysterious knight claimed as his superior. The chaps convince the knight that the self-obsessed man his merely wasting their time, and as such, his bones were crushed by a strange magic. The group persuades the mayor, in shock and awe of their plan that went off without a hitch, to join them on their journey with a newly detailed map in tow. However, as soon as the first watch starts, Uriah notices something peculiar in the woods...

In the shroud of the night sky, our heroes find themselves face-to-face with a gang of Kobolds. The four quickly ready themselves for battle, even Mayor Edmund getting in some intimidating words. From turning heads into smoothies, to creating a watery grave right under their feet, Chapman & Chaps flawlessly dispatch their adversaries.After pocketing the spoils of their bout, the group continued on their journey, following the map the mayor had charted. The band came across a large wooden door to an aged building. All four of them relentlessly beat on the door until they are met by someone very slightly opening it: a tiefling by the name of Sirrai Kirri. A few flirting attempts and a boyfriend reveal later, the group is allowed entrance as they are not seen as a threat.The heroes make several inquiries to Sirrai, eventually coming into more knowledge of the location of the Marble Castle. To keep them to their word, Sirrai asks the heroes to provide collateral in the case of them attempting to steal the map. The chaps eventually decide that the mayor would suffice, considering the tiefling had shown intrigue in him since their arrival (but not without modifying the mayor's appearance to merge the timelines).With a freshly-charted map in tow, the heroes make their three-day trek to the Marble Castle. One day out from the castle, however, the company finds themselves in the middle of yet another mysterious set of circumstances...

The band, as they were camping, saw an unknown group of soldiers that appeared to be fleeing. Through their wits and guile, they were able to disguise themselves as sheep and merely observe them pass by, overhearing what sounds like an orc problem in the direction they're headed. The group, having stolen a scrap piece of paper that identified the men, moves onward towards the Marble Castle.Artorias and Uriah force open the castle's main gate with brute strength, allowing the group to step inside. However, once met with a choice of direction, the four of them enter in a quick Round Robin bracket of War, which in a shocking turn of events, Nemiri comes out as the victor (to Uriah's extreme dismay). Nemiri elects to take the group forward, through another gate that Artorias and Uriah (through hot tears) once again open.The chaps come across what they notice as a differently-colored panel on the floor; thanks to Uriah's conjuring of a servant confirming suspicions, they discover it was a trap. Halira creates safe passage over the pit, but Nemiri does not make it over the pit safely. After being pulled up with rope and Uriah getting a couple of quips in at her, Nemiri and the rest continue forward.Through the darkness, Uriah eyes a giant gelatinous cube and alerts it to their presence. Each of the group takes jabs at it, from Artorias shoving almost 50,000 pounds of jello across the hall to Halira setting the hallway (and slime trail) ablaze. Thanks to the combined efforts of Nemiri burning the cube from the inside-out and Uriah's eldritch magic, the cube becomes small enough for Halira to destroy what remains of the liquid. What remains is a leathery goop, which Artorias pulls out and dumps his mess kit to contain. Nemiri is able to gather a cup of the substance, perhaps for the group to save for a not-so-rainy day...

After scooping up the slime, the group makes their way further into the castle, through the newly unblocked halls. Entering what appears to be a fairly empty room that would loop back to the hallway with the trapped floor (minus a statue with historical value which Uriah peddles to Artorias for some card money), Halira and Nemiri notice what turns out to be a secret entrance into yet another room. Within it is a book, detailing not only the function of the jewel they are trying to acquire, but its relative location.The team exits the room into the hallway adjacent from the previous, and like before, there was a trapped floor that Artorias spots. However, thanks to Artorias' and Uriah's combined hubris, both elegantly jump into each other while trying to cross the floor without tripping the trap, thus falling into a pit of spikes. Uriah was injured, but Artorias was knocking at death's door, barely escaping thanks to Halira's summoning of water and Uriah's assistance in carrying him to safety.Nemiri mends some of Artorias' more fatal wounds and the group continues forward as they were. They come across a room further towards the end of the hall, trying to scope out what's inside. Nothing but shuffling until Halira declares the promise of food, leading to the bashing against and ultimately destruction of the wooden door. Behind it was a beastly spider, ready to chomp down on the meal presented before it. Halira attempts reasoning with the spider, holding out rations, but it traps her in a web and scarfs down all her available rations. While distracted, the spider is attacked by Uriah, whom also frees Halira. Nemiri jumps in solely focused on making sure the spider is killed, and casts an earth-shaking wave towards it. Unfortunately, Halira is also caught in the blast. Artorias, still wounded but confident, lines up a crossbow shot directly in front of the spider....he misses and quickly dashes away behind the portcullis.The spider, now targeting Artorias, fails to account for the others as it passes by and is struck by Nemiri with a crossbow shot, mortally wounding it. However, Halira (whom is still trying to become friends with the spider) succeeds in breaking bread and convinces the spider to leave and seek out other food. It begins to exit the castle the same way Artorias went, but Nemiri finishes it off with a final crossbow bolt. The group loots what they can from the spider corpse, including several leg pieces of varying stickiness, eyeballs, and fangs still dripping with poison. With yet another beast vanquished under their combined boot (however reluctantly a kill it may have been), the Chaps continue their exploration of the castle...

Sacking up the various spider parts, Chapman & Chaps venture further into the decrepit palace. Deciding that there may in fact be trouble in the room from which the spider scurried, the team thought it best to perform a preemptive fumigation. Halira chucks a fireball into the room, popping any remaining baby spiders and turning the webs into cinders. She brings the group the loot inside: some grieves to complete the armor set Artorias was carrying and an ordinary golden ring.A little ways down the corridor, the chaps get a bit dizzy before noticing the encroaching purple moss across the ground and along the walls. Taking note and standing back, everyone tries their own unique way to get rid of the moss, either through Artorias punting it down the stairs or Nemiri ripping it off the walls and tossing it towards Uriah. Both, however, fail, despite how cool it would have been; Artorias instead lamely sets it ablaze with a torch. The group continues down the hall to find a small cave-like area with a pool of freshwater. The four of them take this opportunity to take a long rest, mostly because of just how late it was getting.Refreshed and reinvigorated, the team exit the cave and go down the other route previously obscured by the moss, backflipping and somersaulting the whole way. They find a much larger cave with a deeper lake of freshwater, which has the glow of something at the bottom that may be of value. However, there are also some peculiar bubbles in it. The group wracks their brains trying to piece together what exactly those bubbles could be before Artorias drops a spider leg into a column of them. A bubble then envelops and takes the gooey leg underwater, holding it there for sometime before releasing it. Determining they're a threat to retrieving the item in the depths safely, the chaps opt into popping them before diving. Nemiri takes a flimsy dagger grabbed from the spider room and pops four of the twelve bubbles with ease, then Uriah lays it on a little thick with an eldritch blast for the rest of the bubbles. Uriah then dives into the pool and resurfaces not only with a substantial amount of gold but a ring with a silver wolf bust attached and initials etched into it. The group divides the money and Uriah holds onto the ring for safekeeping. Before leaving, Artorias makes note of a grate in the water for later.Wallrunning and looping back around to the entrance, the team is met with three carrion crawlers feasting on the spider corpse they haphazardly left behind, one of which was on the wall adjacent to the one which Artorias was running across. Artorias makes the first move, firing a crossbow shot at point-blank and actually hitting something this time. However, in an attempt to escape after getting a decent hit in, he fails to dodge and is grabbed by the carrion's tendrils, poisoning him and leaving him paralyzed, but he is able to shake it off before the next carrion gets to make its move. However, this one is also able to reach Artorias, and once again sets him knocking at death's door, getting even closer to killing him than the spike trap. Nemiri assists Artorias with a few healing words, pulling him back from the brink once more and curing the poison/paralysis, but leaving him unconscious. Uriah, seeing this fight already going incredibly sour, summons a mysterious power to increase the potency of his illusion, creating such a strong scent from the spider that the carrions forget about them and scuttle towards it. With the crawlers now past one of the gates, the group makes a break for it (with Uriah carrying Artorias) and Halira forces the portcullis behind them shut. Once everyone is out of harm's way, Halira brings Artorias back to consciousness and the team head onwards to continue their quest, however shaken they may be.The chaps go down the west wing, hearing voices but unsure if they come from the room before them. Uriah, before turning the corner, summons his familiar, Octavia (in the form of a raven) to sleuth and search it (after some petting and awe, of course). Once it had been cleared, the group trudges inside, finding lots of strewn papers, heavily damaged books and scrolls, and plenty of empty inkwells. Artorias, interested in potentially getting his mess box back, transfers the slime powder to a few inkwells. Afterwards, the team settles in for a short rest, hoping to be ever closer to the gem they seek...

Having taken advantage of the quiet with a quick rest, the party presses onward further into the palace. Uriah, thinking ahead, thinks it wise to send Octavia into the next room for a quick search. However, a few moments pass after she enters with no response, which was deemed unusual by her keeper. Halira heads on to investigate, and peeks into the room to discover Octavia submerged in a gelatinous cube.Uriah rushes in while they have the element of surprise and yanks his raven from the goop, even keeping his arm from suffering the same paralyzed fate as her; he sprints south of the cube's room, the floor somewhat giving way underneath him (to which he alerts the rest of the crew). With Uriah's familiar safe, Halira chucks a fireball inside and sets the room ablaze. Artorias, not so eager to face yet another monster in his injured state, tosses Uriah his rope across the potential hazard as a precaution, but runs along the wall to safety nonetheless and sends back a crossbow bolt towards the cube as a parting gift. Likewise, Nemiri makes it across just fine with the assistance of Uriah and Artorias, also following suit in firing a bolt the cube's way. The cube starts making its way through the door, stinging Halira with its acidic pseudopods. In her attempt to jump the gap, however, Halira puts enough pressure on the trapped floor for it to give way, but her grip on the team's rope kept her out of god-knows-what sludge was below her. Once the party pulls her up, Halira sends a thunderwave in the cube's direction, sending a worrying amount of noise echoing throughout the castle. They stand and watch as the cube slowly moseys over to them, sinking into the pit before finally stopping.After some mocking of the gross little idiot and a little more shooting at what's effectively fish in a barrel, the group continues forward. However, as they press on, they hear footsteps coming from much further down the hall, probably attracted by the shaking earth and blast of sound not too long ago. The chaps slink into the next room, having stumbled upon the castle kitchen, which has been in operation recently from how it looks. Uriah investigates the room and comes across a barrel of mushrooms, into which he decides to stick his hand. This unsheathes some of the most absolutely foul stenches the group has ever experienced (with a bonus of Uriah's glove being absolutely covered in this new odor). However, at the bottom of the barrel is a ring with the initials A.E.S. on it, which Artorias finds to be particularly interesting and believes they may have tagged their mercenary group that's currently in pursuit of them. The footsteps are getting ever closer, so the team decides to make their move.Artorias asks Nemiri to toss him one of the crude throwing knives she'd grabbed earlier, of which he tosses down the hall to create a distraction. Unfortunately, he just wasn't stealthy enough and whatever was approaching weren't deterred in their investigation. Uriah casts a minor illusion over the now-slimy trapped floor, giving it the appearance of the rest of the marble floor. The group ties a rope around each other for safety and each of them make it back over the trap with no issue, and finally see what's coming up from down the hall: what they assume to be the mercenary group based on their equipment. Halira tries to get them to stop rushing towards them, and while some do stop, it's too late for those leading the charge and they fall through the trapped floor (though no one notices where they go). Uriah initially tries to persuade the rest of them to stop, but he notices the kobold that was able to escape from the ambush-turned-massacre they had launched days before, quickly turning Uriah's plea for understanding into taunting. The mercenaries continue the charge, with another falling face first into the pit and finally alerting the rest of the group. The kobolds are halted by their shaman, but the half-orcs continue the rushdown and one more succumbs to the acid pit.The main group of mercs comes to a complete stop, and explain that they are protecting this castle and the jewel under payment from a cleric. The chaps, pondering over how to act next, decide to play along with them. Uriah comes forward with a proposition, explaining that Chapman & Chaps Co. is an exceptionally prestigious adventure group and will pay them handsomely to escort them through the palace. When asked how much they'd be paying, Artorias pipes in with doubling what they were originally offered. The mercs' eyes light up and come to an agreement with the party. The shaman opens a secret passage, clearing a convenient way to the west wing of the castle that they've been tasked with guarding, completely oblivious to the group's words being lined with deceit...

The team is escorted into the room housing the merc grunts, and as they stand around, Nemiri hatches a brilliant scheme. The bard pulls out her lute, heads to the back wall, and begins playing music. This grabs the room's attention, allowing Artorias and Halira to slip away, partially in thanks to Uriah's embarrassing but effective distraction to those near the doors. The two make their way down the hall and end up in a more cavernous area of the castle wing.Within the darkness, Halira spies a chain on the wall, with it connecting to the enchanted collar of an owlbear cub. Using her animalistic linguistics, Halira is able to comfort the cub and learns its starving. Artorias, with his emotions appealed to by the poor creature, tosses Halira the remaining spider legs of both varieties, to which she feeds to the cub. The two of them, knowing it'd be terrible to leave it behind, frees him of his attachment to the wall (the collar is more fickle and likely won't be coming off for a while). Halira learns it's a male cub named Sevrin through further communication, and they all continue through the castle's catacomb-esque passage. Nemiri and Uriah as her temporary dancer continue to distract the crowd, having attracted the rest of the mercs.Artorias, Halira, and their new friend come across two doors. Artorias pulls a coin from his bag and flips it since it's about as effective a method of choice based on Halira's detection for each of them. One heads later, they enter the room on their left and find it to be a fairly average room with nothing of real importance. Sevrin leads the two towards another door, this room being far more interesting. Along the wall, the pair notices extravagant mosaic murals of all kinds adorning the walls, including that of a king and queen, whom is presumably holding the staff of which holds the gem they seek. On the eastern wall, however, they spy a peculiar keyhole with a bluish-white light permeating from it. With no other way to go, Artorias and Halira head back to check the other room. Back with the distraction duo, Nemiri is flipping through her mental catalog of songs and sweating, not knowing if she can keep the charade up for much longer; Uriah is saying a short prayer for Artorias, figuring it's about time for him to almost die again probably.The search party enters the other room, and with some incredibly sharp eagle eyes, both of them spot a shiny golden key underneath a worn down cushion. With this new discovery, the two of them head back into the room with the keyhole, and place the key into it. That entire wall, as well as the key, vanish into thin air and a pedestal with a floating magical sword waits before them. Artorias, while incredibly begrudging knowing his track record, grabs the sword. Behind the pair and their owlbear friend, the king they had previously seen on the mural materializes from it and leaps to grab the sword from Artorias' mitts. The specter succeeds and proceeds to lay a meaty blow on Artorias. Halira tries to damage the mural in hopes it would affect the mosaic king, but it did nothing but allow him to take note of her position. Artorias runs to the king's side and, to his incredible shock, causes him to vanish from one punch; it turns out that it was all a continuation of the illusion previously though to have been dispelled when the key was turned in the wall; strangely enough, Artorias was never even wounded.Artorias stows his new sword and hails Halira into the room, which now has a new centerpiece: the staff of the gem for which they've been searching. Eyeing it very carefully, the pair can absolutely feel some magic emanating from it, however unknown its effects may be. Artorias and Halira cautiously approach it, and as one of them reaches out to stash the staff, a woman's bellowing laughter fills the room and permeates throughout the castle's walls...

Following the ghoulish guffaw, both Halira and Artorias fell to the floor in an intense fit of laughter. Nemiri and Uriah's show they had been putting on for the mercs had been halted by all the ruckus. Curiosity struck the pair, so Uriah pointed out that the two currently rolling on the floor laughing in another room had gone missing, then came up with the brilliant excuse of Halira being one of the greatest comedians he had ever met, of which he would bring back so she could tell them all just what's so funny; Nemiri, on the other hand, used her adeptness of vile words to shout down any naysayers to them going alone. Unfortunately, the orcs weren't entirely convinced and asked that two kobolds escort them, one being the female that Uriah had charmed earlier and the other being the runaway.Heading through the cavernous passage, Uriah and Nemiri could hear the echoing laughter of Artorias and Halira. When they came upon the room they had been searching for, the two adventurers elect that the runaway, named Tuhsu, should run on in ahead and scope out what exactly had happened, while the other named Thren would stay back to guard the door and make sure no funny business occurred behind their backs. A faint blue glow could be seen from the door into the next room. Tuhsu entered and spied the source of the light, as well as the laughter. In the center of the room, beyond the two bodies giggling to themselves, was a pedestal with a staff wedged into it. Knowing exactly what that meant for him if he could bring it back to his fellow mercs, he lunged towards the staff, eager to remove it from its stone confines. However, not quite understanding what caused the laughter, Tuhsu immediately falls prey and begins to laugh himself. Uriah and Nemiri step into the mosaic room, observing what kind of tomfoolery is before them. The laughter in Artorias eventually subsides; he gets up, brushes himself off, and yanks the staff from its stone, noting that its signature jewel is absent from the silver branches adorning it.The two chuckling messes on the floor come to their senses, then the group begins to (very loudly) discuss what they have to do about Tuhsu. The group decided that they can't kill him, but Uriah, knowing for sure that Tuhsu will spill the beans on the staff, walks up to him and starts berating him like there's no tomorrow. Once he's finished, he pulls a fast one on Tuhsu and illusions a tear going down his face. Nemiri took it one step further and illusion'd a large wet stain on his pants, giving that fake tear a whole lot of genuine ones alongside it. With him now a sniveling mess, the adventurers can confirm that he won't snitch on the staff; as a precaution, Artorias conceals it in his bedroll.The party makes its way back to the gathered mercenaries, who had been getting a tad impatient wondering what was going on with Halira and Artorias being absent. They interrogate Tuhsu, but despite their hostility, his resolve is steady and he spins a yarn that the group believes: a beast had been found and was capable of casting magic that would cause laughter, but it had been slain with no issue. However, some of them eyed the suspiciously shaped bedroll Artorias was carrying and began to question him on that. Unable to convince them of anything, Halira blurts out that they found an owlbear and to look at just how adorable he is. No one seemed to care, outside of the two sorcerers who then doubled down on their shouting towards the group on what Artorias had. Halira, once again coming in to save his skin, shouts out that he has something... unbecoming of an adventurer and it's none of their business. Artorias turns beet red, not because it's true of course but because it's the last thing he wants people to think of him. To Artorias' chagrin, the band of mercs believe the group's very convincing spiel and leave the topic alone, thinking significantly less of the man in question but leaving it alone nonetheless.The group gains clearance to search the second level of the castle, this time only being escorted by Thren. They make their way up the stairs in the room formerly containing the staff, glad to be making progress unsure of what lies ahead of them...