The Curdled Web is the sixth episode of season 16, Neverafter.
Intro[]
"Hello, one and all, and welcome back to another thrilling episode of "Dimension 20: Neverafter." I'm your humble Dungeon Master, Brennan Lee Mulligan. With me, as always, are our Intrepid Heroes. Say "hi," Intrepid Heroes!
[...] Last we left off, the heroes of the Neverafter, those fairytales of these Times of Shadow, more monstrous than ever before, ventured into the mines beneath the village of Tuffeton, here, in a new 'once upon a time.' Having the veil peeled back to all of the various instances of these haunted tales, our heroes venture forth ,with the knowledge and some of the artefacts gained from their previous lives, into a more twisted, haunted vision of these lands of myth and fairytale. Descending into the shadows to face an arachnid entity of unspecified characterises based on the communication between another band of adventurers that seek to be gathering stories, contacted through Mother Goose's book: the fabled Scheherazade, reaching out with the knowledge that certain instances of magic across realms had been seen. Indeed, a tapestry holding some image of the Princess Elody had been spied in these other stories. Indeed, it seems that gateways and portals abound. Arcane princesses move between the realms, as fairies conspire to enact their vision of things to come, and perhaps other forces still: wolves, and stepmothers, and, perhaps, even geese [...] move upon the shape of stories themselves.
But we concern ourselves at this moment not with matters cosmic or grand in scale. No, something much more tangible awaits you in this place. Traversing webs deep in the darkness [...] Due to the horrors you have endured and the lives you have shed, passed through, and re-emerged from, spiders are not the only horrifying thing crawling in this dark cave. And, in fact, you have the drop on these crawling arachnids."
Content Warnings[]
This episode contains the following content warnings at the given timecodes:
- Arachnophobia (throughout)
- Minor Endangerment (throughout)
- Misophonia (skittering, scratching sounds) (19:59-20:08, 29:18-29:23)
- Misophonia (squelching)(32:50-33:16, 44:32-44:47, 1:01:57-1:01:58, 1:14:15-1:14:22, 1:18:24-1:18:30, 1:22:15-1:22:23)
- Misophonia (cracking)(1:24:27-1:24:30)
- Body Horror (32:50-33:16, 1:22:15-1:22:23)
- Flashing Video (36:10-36:14)
Synopsis[]
Locations[]
- Tuffeton
- Muffet's Web
Characters[]
Players[]
- Prince Gerard of Greenleigh
- Puss in Boots
- Pinocchio
- Mother Timothy Goose
- Ylfa Snorgelsson
- Princess Rosamund du Prix
New[]
- Little Miss Muffet
- Muffet's Hoard
- Spoon
Returning[]
- Pinocchi-Crow
- Jack Hubbard-Goose
- The Stepmother (visage, voice)
- Senator the Ram
- Scheherazade
Mentioned[]
Trivia[]
- Muffet's spider battle mini is first revealed by descending onto the battle map by a string. It genuinely scares Brian Murphy as it comes down, and the group breaks the combat to thank the art department for their work.
- Muffet's web and all the spider battle minis are irridescent, and glow in the dark.
- Zac Oyama uses a non-existent tabaxi ability to add +2 to his attack roll after a failure. The actual ability is a Hobgoblin ability below:
Saving Face[]
Hobgoblins are careful not to show weakness in front of their allies, for fear of losing status. If you miss with an attack roll or fail an ability check or a saving throw, you can gain a bonus to the roll equal to the number of allies you can see within 30 feet of you (maximum bonus of +5). Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
It is one of the abilities Brian Murphy's character, Prince Gerard of Greenleigh, a Hobgoblin reskin, is able to use this episode. However, Zac Oyama’s character, Puss in Boots, mistakenly uses it later in the episode, at (1:17:40-1:17:54).