Episode 4

Episode 4: Beware of Goats!

 * Keegan examines the body of the wampus cat to determine if it could have been the source of Warren's infection, but it is clear that the marks on Warren were very deliberately done, as though with a knife rather than the claws or spines the wampus cat had.
 * Rogg apologizes for his reaction to Clancy's alternate form, Keegan asks what the hell was up with that. He brushes off an explanation, likely not wanting to get into it just then, and tells Keegan that "it's a blood thing" and that he isn't going to bite her and that he's not contagious. Keegan and Rogg are confused but accept this nonetheless.
 * The party begins to climb the 30 foot rise that supports a stone spire and a no trespassing sign. There are symbols and writing on the monolith.

No Chat Log for Episode 4
 * Keegan, Clancy, Rogg, and Rhaaza make strength saves and the ground begins to turn into a quicksand-like mire. Everyone is at half speed except Clancy who is stuck fast to the ground. Rogg lifts Clancy out of the mire. Rogg urges everyone off the Mesa, but Keegan ignores him, instead rereading the inscription and then pulling out a coin and locating a small slot on the monolith where she can slide the coin in.
 * The quicksand quickly solidifies once more and becomes safe to walk on, and the rocks from the opposite mesa reform themselves into a bridge connecting the mesa with the obelisk to the mesa with the hag's hut precariously leaning from it.
 * The party gathers and then crosses the newly formed stone bridge. They reach another stone staircase that leads up to a sign that says 'no soliciting'. There is another sign clearly labelled 'BEWARE OF GOATS'. Keegan peeks into the window, which shows a small, sparsely furnished shack. The inside of the shack does not seem to match the outside as there is no fire lit inside, but outside there is smoke billowing from the chimney. Rogg is confused until Rhaaza explains it is an illusion. Keegan tries to unlock the door, but fails. Rogg tries to break the door down and struggles at first despite the door's extremely flimsy appearance, but he eventually breaks open the door.
 * The inside of the room is very different from the illusion. The room is larger than expected and contains a large bubbling cauldron over a small but very hot fire. On the wall there are two doors flanked by two taxidermy heads on plaques - a unicorn and a green dragon. There is a table with a glass ball on a wire stand and several bookshelves and plant stands. There are various creepy things around - yarn of creepy origin, several small humanoid skulls, a jar of pickled pigs feet, etc.
 * Keegan and Clancy begin to poke around the room, with Keegan finding some sort of magical scroll on a bookcase and pilfering it, and Clancy shuffling through a wide variety of plants he is unfamiliar with. Emmett casts light and Keegan sniffs the brew in the cauldron which "smells like dirt". A vanity that Clancy finds contains a jar of teeth, a broken hand mirror, and a curved dagger which Clancy pockets. Clay suggests we proceed up the stairs rather than through the doors.
 * Upstairs there is a creepy and filthy bedroom. There's a bunch of horrible decorations including bones and drawings on the walls. There is a bed surrounded by a huge canopy with a chest at the foot of it, some sort of object in the far corner draped with a large cloth, a wardrobe, and a doorway covered with a beaded curtain.
 * Clancy/Sonder asks the group if they think this is something called "a plot progression room". Emmett replies that Clancy needs to leave that forth wall alone. Rogg, grunts in confusion, saying "But this room is a circle?"
 * Keegan tries to unlock the footlocker at the end of the bed but fails. There is a rustling sound by the covered object in the corner. Clancy tries with Keegan's thieves tools to open the footlocker, releasing a horde of live frogs. The only other thing inside is a gnarled wooden stick with a gemstone tied to it, which Clancy picks up. Keegan hands Rogg a frog. Emmett tells Rogg he has to kiss the toad to make it turn into a person, but Rogg doesn't want to. Keegan kisses a frog - it is "stressed at being kissed" and pees in her hand.
 * Keegan walks over to the covered object in the corner of the room and peeks under the tarp. Instantly, a very ugly, bat-winged chicken lashes out at Keegan from between the bars. She narrowly dodges it and lets the tarp fall again. Rogg muses about witches and possible reasons why one might need to beware of goats.
 * Rogg goes to investigate the room behind the beaded curtain. Inside there is a large crate, a desk covered in papers, and a large painted portrait of a crying child.
 * Keegan goes to investigate the documents on the desk. The documents are actually animated papers and immediately begin to attack her, wrapping around her face. Roll Initiative.
 * Clancy jumps on the desk and stabs one of the sheets of paper and Clay and Rhaza rush into the room and Eldritch Blast/Shillelagh. Emmett heals Keegan and Roggs attacks the paper using handaxes. The chest in the room turns out to be a mimic and attacks Rogg and grapples him.
 * A long, noisy, and chaotic fight ensues, with Keegan mostly struggling to breathe with paper on her face, Emmett healing everyone, Rogg fighting against the mimic trying to eat him, Clancy stabbing things and Clay using Eldritch Blast, and Rhaaza hitting with her staff and summoning bees.
 * Rogg gets the HDYWTDT on the mimic after a long struggle with the object. Clancy destroys one of the paper mimics and Clay the other.
 * Once the fight is over, Emmett approaches the desk to see if there are any real documents there. There is a coded letter and a set of recipes. Clancy investigates a nearby bookshelf and finds out that one of the books is a button to open a secret door, which opens up to reveal a ladder going down into darkness.
 * Before descending the ladder, the party decides to check inside the canopy bed in the other room. When they do, they find Shiloh Cadhill, alive but under some sort of magical sleep and afflicted with a strange bluish pallor.
 * There's a bit of arguing about what to do next, which Keegan gets irritated at, so she begins to descend down the ladder to scout ahead into the room below. The ladder is very long, and the room she enters is dark. After reaching the bottom, she sees sigils on the floor that are glowing red. There is some sort of cell across the way, and when she creeps up, she sees an altar attended by three goatlike, puss-covered, bipedal creatures. The creatures seem absolutely foul and Keegan is takes damage from just breathing in the air within a large radius of them.
 * Keegan returns up the ladder without being noticed and reports what she saw to the group. The group debates whether or not to check out the rooms downstairs by the unicorn and green dragon heads, or to start a fight with the goat creatures down the ladder, or to rest. Rogg and Clay propose that the people who got beat up by the mimics (Clancy, Keegan, Rhaaza, and Rogg) stay upstairs and take a breather and patch their wounds, while the two unharmed people (Clay and Emmett) check the rooms downstairs. Then the party will regroup to fight the goats.
 * Clay and Emmett head downstairs. They try to open the door to the unicorn room, but they are interrupted by the taxidermy heads speaking to them. They introduce themself as Para (the unicorn) and Dox (the green dragon), and they claim that what Clay and Emmett seek is through one of the two doors, and that between the two heads, one always lies and one always tells the truth.
 * Emmett asks the dragon head - "What would that guy [pointing at the unicorn] say if I asked him which door was the correct door?" The dragon head answers "The right door." So Emmett instructs Clay that they should enter the left door. When they open the door, there is a portal of blackness, which they walk through.
 * They find themselves in a darkened cage. Emmett quickly extinguishes his light after he and Clay hear the goat-like humans become alert. They both scramble to hide and SOMEHOW the two of them BOTH get natural 20s on their stealth checks, even though Emmett has disadvantage. One of the goats shows up to the cage and tries to look through the bars for a LONG time, but eventually tells its compatriots that there's nothing there and that the light must have been witch magic.
 * Clay manages to slip through the bars of the cell because he's a scrawny bastard with a good acrobatics roll, but it is very dark in the room. He asks Emmett if he should stay there or get the others and Emmett whispers to him to "get the idiots!" Clay follows along the wall in the darkness, with his only light being from the glowing runes in the floor. This is pretty clearly the room Keegan described from before. Clay figures out that the runes are some sort of slowly activating spell that will affect the entire room, and that the magic is enchantment of some sort. He manages to creep across the entire large room without being noticed until he finally finds the ladder up.
 * He explains the situation and the party decides to rush in to help Emmett. Rhaaza makes some goodberries for the very beat up people since they didn't finish resting and then the party heads down.
 * Clay stumbles on the ladder and the goat creatures hear it, sparking initiative

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