S4E10 — Rivals — Nonamatt v Decima

Champions and players	Drakoniques as Nonamatt; hshahid_ as Decima
Result	Nonamatt (kills Decima with Psychic Lance and the arcane hand; the Grandmaster then saves Nonamatt from the Shadow King)
Arena	a glowing lavender, purple and teal forest of fluffy trees, with drifting “dandruff” and dandelions
Hosts	Caustic Phoenix (Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer); Mudcat narrates and plays the Shadow King
Watch	YouTube

What happens

Opening: Taco Tuesday in the Dread Fortress

1. 0:00:44 The Acolytes follow Elusia down into the Dread Fortress. It usually smells musty, “as if air stale has sat there for 20 years,” but tonight it smells of grilled meat and cheese. Tacos. The Grandmaster runs down the hall and kicks open the door to the Shadow King’s throne room: “You ordered tacos without me?”
2. 0:01:34 The Shadow King: “Well, it’s Taco Tuesday.” She points out it’s Sunday. He replies, “the last time I cared was before the Gregorian calendar. So it could be Tuesday if I wanted to be Tuesday.” She insists they always get tacos together. He says he ordered thousands of them “because I can,” then snaps his fingers and tables of tacos appear all around.
3. 0:02:15 — The goblins have names. The Grandmaster says they’re a team and the staff deserve tacos. Tabitha, Sarah, Kennedy and “all the goblins” come sniffing in through the doors. She tells him: “We have 328 employees here, and we know they all have names!” The Shadow King had only numbered them 1 to 328 (“this one’s number 7, I think… 17, 70, I’m not sure”).
4. 0:02:52 — Kesa. The Grandmaster kneels and calls over a timid goblin with bright pink hair in a ponytail and mittens, because it’s freezing in the dungeon: “I work here and I like tacos and my name is Kesa.” She hides behind the Grandmaster. The Shadow King promises Kesa a gift, a taco. Then he summons a spectral hand that shoves a handful of tacos into her face and knocks her across the throne room. “Hand delivered.” The Grandmaster: “You’re the worst.”
5. 0:04:07 The two champions get first pick of the tacos, and he isn’t allowed to shove tacos in their faces. A long “fill all their holes with tacos” exchange follows. The Shadow King: “I haven’t met a hole that couldn’t be filled with this many tacos.” The Grandmaster: “I don’t want to know how many holes you’ve…”
6. 0:04:48 — The amulet. She clasps her amulet, which scars her hand “once again with another cut,” and a portal opens.

The twins arrive

7. 0:05:12 — Nonamatt steps through nervously: “Not much of a fighter… Are we in the right place?” The Grandmaster says they belong here, and that it is not her they should worry about.
8. 0:05:46 — Decima walks in confident, shoulders back and chest out.
   • Look: a tall minotaur with a humanoid face, large bull horns, a septum piercing and bull ears.
   • Weapon: a greataxe over one shoulder. Its filigree mirrors Nonamatt’s staff.
   • They smirk: “Are you ready to die?”
9. 0:06:23 — Nonamatt’s look.
   • Just as tall as Decima, “on the cusp of lanky and slender.”
   • Swims in a long robe of blues, reds and golds; the sleeves cover the hands and it reaches just above the ankles.
   • Grips a golden staff with an ornamental horned head, the horns curving so the tips don’t quite touch. He holds it tightly to stop the shaking.
   • Looks like Decima but slightly darker-skinned and more gaunt, with the same horns and ears. His eyes shift between blue and green with the light.
   • He keeps trying to avoid Decima’s eyes, but Decima is the only familiar face there.
10. 0:08:03 Decima stares daggers at Nonamatt without a glance at the room. “You can still leave.” Nonamatt: “this is a battle of ideals, and while I might not be physically strong, I think my ideals are. I’ll stand until I fall.” Decima: “You know I don’t want to do this, right?” Nonamatt: “And I don’t want to do this either, Decima. You can still go.”
11. 0:08:52 — Vegan tacos. “Oh, adorable siblings to the end.” The Grandmaster offers shredded beef, chicken, shrimp, fish and vegan tacos.
    • The Shadow King mocks the vegan ones: “Why not just eat the vegetables?”
    • She throws a vegan taco at him (21 to hit). He opens a portal, and it comes out and hits her in the back of her own head.
12. 0:10:06 — Derek. Both twins say beef “is not really my thing” and ask for vegan.
    • The Grandmaster goes bright red: “I am so sorry. These are not from around here.” She shucks all the beef tacos out the window.
    • The Shadow King: “Derek, is that you?” She: “No, not Derek. And his sister, Casey. We waited for Derek to pass peacefully first, and then…” He: “That’s why he’s so gamey.”
    • Nonamatt loses his appetite.
13. 0:10:58 — Tacos for the crowd. Decima squishes two vegan tacos together in one hand and shoves them in their mouth: “These are really good.” The audience asks for tacos, so Decima shoves a whole tray at the crowd. Acolytes cheer: “Decima for president! Give the people what they want!” Drew awards Decima a d4 bless on their first roll.
14. 0:11:52 — The tray (Chekhov’s tray). Nonamatt takes one of the trays: a beautiful silver platter, embroidery etched in, two handles, about five pounds. He struggles with it (“I’m just a weak little boy”) and tucks it under his arm. The Grandmaster: “It’s a family heirloom, please destroy it.”
15. 0:12:37 — Family. Decima: “Guess you don’t like your family very much, huh?” The Grandmaster: “Have you met them?” and points at the Shadow King.
    • He: “That’s just rude. I’ve taken great care of you here. I didn’t even kill you when I came back.”
    • She: “And this necklace is really just for looks and it’s not a shackle.”
    • He: “That’s for your own good. We all know how children can be.” She: “Children? I’ve lived a hundred. Never mind.”
16. 0:12:57 She opens another portal: “We’re not fighting where the tacos are.” On the walk, Decima leans in and whispers to Nonamatt: “I thought we had family drama.” Nonamatt: “I’m still going to fight… But yeah, I think we might have it better.” Decima: “Weirdly enough, yeah.” Drew: “I don’t care enough to roll.”

The arena: the glowing forest

17. 0:13:51 They come out in a lavender, purple and teal forest of fluffy trees, “as if it is Horton Hears a Who all over again.”
    • Purple “dandruff” and dandelions float through the air. The table runs a Head & Shoulders gag: “I forgot to use my Horton shoulders.”
    • The trunks, roots and branches glow and light the space.
    • There is no sun, stars or moon. The only light above is the crowd of Acolytes, who “look for red or whatever color you bleed.”
18. 0:15:00 The Grandmaster: “Show them what sibling rivalry really looks like. Don’t go easy on each other.” She flies up to her throne. The Shadow King: “We’ve brought you tacos, but now we’ll bring you some real sustenance. Let the battle begin!”
19. 0:15:46 Decima rolls a natural 20 on initiative. “I like my 20s like I like my tacos… Natural and dirty.”

Round 1: the echo of Morta

20. 0:16:46 Decima brushes dandruff off, hefts the greataxe and thuds it to the ground. “Nonamatt, you know that I can’t let you, I can’t let you kill the God of Fate, okay? I need to be the God of Fate myself.” Nonamatt: “No one should be in that position. No one should have that power. It’s just built for corruption.” Decima: “I’m done talking. I was done talking when Morta died.”
21. 0:17:52 Decima uses their Echo Knight power with a twist. The echo is not of Decima but of their late brother, Morta, and it appears beside Nonamatt. The Grandmaster elbows the Shadow King: “Good thing their family seems a little weirder than ours.” He: “on the scale of families… they’re way more fucked up than we are.”
22. 0:18:59 — The hand. Nonamatt hesitates and steps back: “Morta.” Morta looks like both twins, with the same horns and ears and a slightly different build. He reaches out as if to hold Nonamatt’s hand, and Nonamatt takes it.
    • Decima casts Inflict Wounds through Morta’s hand. Morta curls his fingers around Nonamatt’s, and for a second Nonamatt feels warmth. “It feels corporeal. It feels real.”
    • Then Nonamatt’s fingers weaken, and the weakness crawls up his arm.
23. 0:20:43 Nonamatt flinches, and a pulse of telekinetic energy erupts from him (Gift of the Gem Dragon). The apparition evaporates.
    • The Grandmaster notes he said “apparition,” not “brother.” Nonamatt: “My brother would never, never hurt me. And I think being hurt snaps me out of this daze.”
24. 0:22:13 Decima gives one humorless laugh and circles the central tree, which pulses and shifts colors: “What? Afraid of our brother?” Nonamatt: “That wasn’t our brother. He wouldn’t hurt me or any of us like that.”
25. 0:22:48 — Ball bearings. Nonamatt pulls a bag of ball bearings and throws them down in a 10-ft square. They are tiny and half-sunk in the fuzzy grass.
    • He slams his staff and casts Magic Stone on three bearings, which glow bright gold.
    • Then he scurries backwards: “I’m dressed like a noble… but I’m very much out of my comfort zone.” “I’m not much of a fighter, but I think I’m an okay tactician.”
26. 0:24:48 The Grandmaster, sincerely: “Don’t worry, retreat is a great strategy! Get good positioning!” Bec notes that Elusia, a ranger herself, thinks it’s the ideal way to start a fight. The Shadow King: “I just think you’re a coward.” She says only the Acolytes get to heckle.

Chaos event: the Box of Chaos and Lady Magdala (0:25:38)

27. The Shadow King rolls 14 (“more better than a 10”). The Grandmaster and the Shadow King argue over who summons the Box.
    • She: “No, the Box is coming because I’ve summoned it.”
    • He: “No, the Box is coming because the Acolytes demand it, and I’m a man of the people.”
    • She: “They don’t even know who you are, really. That’s why you have me running these.”
28. 0:26:22 He snaps his fingers. The Box lands right in the middle of the ball bearings, and its lid flips open, empty.
    • “Who’s it gonna be this week? I don’t know. Lady Magdala. Have you died yet?”
    • He reaches a shadowy hand into the crowd, picks Lady Magdala up by the head, swings her around “like a chicken” till her neck breaks, and throws her body into the Box.
    • The lid shuts and rumbles. It flips open in a fiery column of yellow and pink fire, with shadowy hands and yellow eyes poking out. “There! Happy?” Nonamatt: “That was scary.”
29. 0:27:24 — The rules. Decima: “What’s in the box?” Shadow King: “That Acolyte was. I just killed her.”
    • Any sacrifice, at any time, as a free action, gets a random magic item back. “It also takes cryptocurrency.”
    • The twins decline. Decima: it’s “really bad for the environment. Maybe all this dandruff is because of the cryptocurrency mining.”
    • The Grandmaster says he should have hyped it more: health potions, daggers, swords, bubbles, orbs of annihilation “have come out of that box.” He: “I don’t know what the box is going to give. It all depends on the strength of the soul.”

Round 2: the bearings and the balls

30. 0:29:19 Decima: “How do you feel about getting in the box, Nana?” They beeline for Nonamatt.
    • They spot the bearings. Nonamatt has never pulled this trick before, so it’s perception, not history. The Grandmaster: “these balls are very visible.”
    • Decima dashes through them with the Mobile feat but fails the Dex save (6, even with advantage). They slip and fall right beside the Box of Chaos.
    • Their greataxe swings out and catches a handle of the Box, prying it further open.
31. 0:32:40 Shadowy fingers creep over the side of the Box: “Is that for me?” Decima: “No, no. I’ve got something better for you. Leave this alone.” The something better is Nonamatt: “I would like to shove Nonna in the box. I made up my mind and I ain’t changing it.” The Box agrees to wait.
32. 0:33:36 — The animated bearings. Nonamatt flinches at Decima’s fall: “that wasn’t the plan actually, sorry about this.” He slams his staff and casts Animate Objects on 10 ball bearings, which surround Decima, some hovering above.
    • Seven and a half hits: 47 bludgeoning. They slam Decima from every direction while Nonamatt keeps saying “sorry, sorry, Decima, I did say I want you to just talk. I’m sorry.”
    • The Grandmaster: “That’s like the worst obstacle course ever.” She adds: “Personally, I’ve never been hit by so many balls before.” Then: “Sounds like a Friday night. For you, yes, absolutely.” That reply is speaker uncertain; it was transcribed under 01, but it seems to be the Shadow King’s jab and her comeback.

Chaos gift: the hot potato (0:36:48)

33. The Grandmaster holds out a floating gift in bright blue sapphire paper. Each twin rolls a d20; “No twin dice.” It confirms the two are twins. Nonamatt wins.
34. 0:38:23 “How do you open presents? This is a big test.” Nonamatt opens it meticulously, so the paper can be reused. The Grandmaster: “You mean you’re a psychopath.” Nonamatt: “I mean, you saw what I just did to my twin.”
    • He pockets the sapphire paper and a lavender ribbon.
    • Inside is a potato: “We’re now playing hot potato.” It steams, gets hotter, and explodes after two rounds on whoever holds it or is closest. Nonamatt keeps it so as not to be impolite.
35. 0:39:34 The Shadow King rolls 13.

Round 3: Morta with the axe

36. 0:40:05 Decima has been fending off bearings with the axe, and every “sorry” is “one more pinprick” in their mind. “Stop with these, you coward!”
    • Morta’s echo appears again, now wielding a ghostly copy of Decima’s greataxe, staring with blank eyes.
    • The Shadow King: “It’s perfect. He’s getting personal now. I like this.”
    • Decima uses the taco bless to land one hit. “Something he would never have been able to wield in life.” There’s hesitation in Morta’s ghostly eyes: the first and second swings fall beside Nonamatt, but the third sweeps his legs.
37. 0:42:37 Nonamatt pulses again and destroys the echo. He looks at Morta’s image “very sad and apologetic”: “I’m sorry.” Then the nerves die away and he glares at Decima for using their brother’s image to do something Morta never would: “It’s like desecrating the dead.”
38. 0:43:54 Decima starts to push past the bearings but stops, because ten opportunity attacks are waiting. They move around the far side of the Box instead, never actually looking at Nonamatt.
39. 0:45:35 — Sacrifice to the Box. Nonamatt psyches himself up (“I’m doing better than I thought I would”). He sends one ball bearing flying into the Box while the other nine follow Decima.
    • The Grandmaster jokes that there’s only a single mug inside the Box: “Only those in the box have ever just seen it.”
    • The Box gives a leather breastplate. Nonamatt describes it as translucent, flexing like leather, with a purplish-violet gleam. He pushes it on awkwardly over his robe, and it melts into the robe, which gains its glisten and adapts to whatever he wears.
    • It grants +1 AC and, through “a surge of power and prowess,” advantage on Constitution saves for the match.
40. 0:49:45 — The band. The Grandmaster asks whether his bearings have names: “Nonamatt and the Mats,” later “Nonamatt and the Minimats.” “I’d go listen to that band.” The remaining nine bearings hit Decima for 39.
41. 0:51:03 — The magnet. “Enough of this.” The Grandmaster holds up a small silvery disc, “what we call in the science world a magnet,” and pulls all nine bearings to her. The one inside the Box ricochets around, unable to escape. “You need to kill your wonderful sibling another way.” She throws them behind her.
    • The Shadow King: “No more balls. You’re such a cheater. Why are you such a cheater?… I was enjoying that.”
    • She: “Listen, balls are just half the show.” He: “Enough with the balls. Hit it with the shaft. Staff.”
42. 0:51:59 — Mind whip. Nonamatt presses the staff to his head so its horns meet at his third eye. His own horns glow gold.
    • He pulls a black tendril out of his forehead, which becomes a dark whip, and lashes Decima: Tasha’s Mind Whip, 14 psychic.
    • Decima (“Big brain time!”) fails, and is limited next turn to a move, an action or a bonus action.
    • The Grandmaster: “Look at you pulling the essence from your own mind, turning it and manifesting it into pain. That’s what we’re looking for.” She’ll take all his balls away if he throws more.
43. 0:54:07 — Hero points. Both have bled and are “a little closer to death than I realized.” The Acolytes grant both champions hero points. “Throw away those character sheets and give us a move we’ve never seen before.”
44. 0:55:11 The Shadow King rolls 16. The Grandmaster, in a good mood, calls a 10-minute break and promises more tacos (cut from the mp3).

After the break: the Acolyte eating Derek, and the food fight

45. 0:55:45 The Shadow King: “Hopefully you’re filled with tacos. In your mouth holes.” Nonamatt spots an Acolyte eating Derek; “I thought we threw that away.”
    • The Shadow King: “they’ve already gotten three quarters of the way through.” Nonamatt: Derek “was very conscious about reuse, reduce, recycle.”
    • The Grandmaster: “We’re such a toxic family.” All taco proceeds will go to Derek’s family. A faction of fans wear “we love taco” shirts with “taco” crossed out and “Derek” written in.
    • The Shadow King: “He’s in a lot of places. That stomach, and that stomach…”
46. 0:57:04 — The rewound taco. Decima throws the nearest taco at the Shadow King. It’s heading low, so Nonamatt slams his staff and casts Chronal Shift: everything stops and reverses. “You threw it a bit too low last time, try a bit higher.”
    • In reverse time the taco returns to Decima’s hand. Decima takes a bite first, then throws higher.
    • It smacks the Shadow King in the chest and shoulder, and the grease slides down “his well-oiled muscles.” He glares, his eyes flash yellow, and Decima feels a chill down their spine.
47. 0:58:54 “Well, all in good fun, maybe we should have a food fight!”
    • He summons tacos and throws them at the Acolytes. The hard shells pierce their bodies, and Acolytes fall out of the stands in a ring around the battlefield. “I like to have fun too.”
    • A horde of goblins pours in with little “medicare packages” to triage the taco-piercing victims.
    • Table riff: bean-filled tacos do “bean fire damage… It’s in an obscure rule book.”
48. 1:00:20 The hot potato is now sizzling audibly in Nonamatt’s pocket. Round 4.

Round 4: Decima consumes the Box of Chaos

49. 1:00:53 Decima spends their hero point. It wasn’t the bearings that hurt. It was the mind whip, which (with Drac’s blessing) carried the memory of Morta as he truly was in life. For a second Decima almost reconsiders, then shakes it off.
    • “Enough of this. I am going to fix the mistake. Morta wasn’t supposed to die. That was a mistake and I’m going to fix it.”
    • Decima takes a running leap into the Box of Chaos and pulls the lid shut with the greataxe.
    • The hero-point ask: instead of being consumed by the Box, Decima consumes it and its power. “Because if they’re gonna be a god, it’s time to ascend.”
50. 1:02:36 The Grandmaster: “we have never seen anyone come in and try to take over the box of chaos.”
51. 1:02:56 — Inside the Box. Decima is not consumed, but is not alone. Many sets of yellow eyes and shadowy figures surround them and speak in unison: “What is it you want?”
    • Decima: “I am your god now. Fight for me. Kill my twin in my name.”
    • Souls: “So you want our power. Is that what you’re saying?” Decima: “Yes. It’s rightfully mine after all.”
    • The Grandmaster describes the Box as “one of many souls, a legion… of those who have been consumed and witnessed battle after battle.”
52. 1:04:08 — The ascension. The shadows swirl. Their yellow eyes leave trails until the Box holds a yellow tornado, which lifts Decima.
    • The souls enter Decima’s mouth and eyes. “The box of chaos becomes you and you become it.”
    • Decima regains three quarters of their health and wears the shadows as a shield (+2 AC) and over their weapons (+2 to hit).
    • Decima is thrown out, and the Box lies dormant.
53. 1:05:37 The largest shadow is Lady Magdala, who circles Decima’s head like a circlet. Decima’s eyes are completely yellow, with yellow spirit-wisps leaking from their mouth. Still under the mind whip, they can only charge to stand right in front of Nonamatt.
    • His hero point first asks to augment Chronal Shift, split timelines, and become the one who took the power. Bec hesitates because it takes away Decima’s agency: “that’s super fucking badass.”
    • Nonamatt revises it: he pulls in the Nonamatt from the timeline where he took the power, as his ally. Bec accepts it as an echo. The other-timeline Nonamatt is covered in shadows, with glowing yellow eyes.
54. 1:10:10 The Grandmaster to the Acolytes: “This truly becoming a 2v2 fight, a way in which hero points have never been used before… not only do the Acolytes look down upon you favorably, but so does the Grandmaster. You truly are creating greatness before our eyes.”
55. 1:11:41 — The furniture attacks. The ball-bearing ban doesn’t cover other items, so Nonamatt casts Animate Objects on the silver tray from the opening and on the now-dormant Box of Chaos. Hamna: “Chekhov’s gun returns!” Bec: “Beauty and the Beast where it’s the end fight scene and the furniture’s just attacking?”
    • The Box hits Decima for 10 and the tray glances for 3.
    • Nonamatt: “Decima, please, we don’t need to do this. If you’re already corrupt by this power, how do you think you can be able to handle the throne of the God of Fate?”
56. 1:15:01 — Threads of fate. Decima, facing the echo-Nonamatt, says nothing. The shadows on their back spin into thread, “like the threads of fate itself,” and snake toward Nonamatt’s feet. Over one shoulder: “This is not corruption, if I’m right.”
57. 1:16:00 — Rage. Decima rages, hoisting the axe: “This is for Morta.” Their eyes glow brighter and the shadows boil off them.
    • The echoes of the consumed Acolytes, “these warriors of the past,” attack Nonamatt while Decima takes on Nonamatt’s echo.
    • Nonamatt pulses again on the first strike and destroys Decima’s echo before the rest can land.
58. 1:17:27 — Linked through time. Drew rules that because the echo came from a hero point, it gets a Con save. Nonamatt rolls a natural 20 with the breastplate’s advantage.
    • “The Echo is intrinsically linked to you through time.” It stays standing, but Nonamatt takes half of its damage.
59. 1:19:04 — The scar. Decima’s axe slices through the echo’s wrists where it holds its staff. The shadow pulses through the axe, through the echo, and into Nonamatt’s hands.
    • Nonamatt: “almost like looking at a time lapse of a wound healing, the wound appears on my hand, but it also just immediately heals over and scars over as if this was a wound given to me many, many years ago.”
    • The Grandmaster: his hands “have been dealt some damage time and time again… keep an eye on those.” “I’m a bit of a fan of my hands.”
60. 1:20:51 — The arcane hand. Nonamatt recovers a spell slot (Arcane Recovery). His breath coalesces around the scarred hand until a Large spectral hand appears: Arcane Hand, AC 20, strength 26. The tray and the Box drop lifeless as he drops the animation.
    • It punches Decima for 15 force, mimicking Nonamatt’s own punch, and carries the same scar.
    • Because it copies his hand, which is nervously clenching, it clenches nervously too and drips spectral hand sweat that vanishes before hitting the ground.
    • “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Nonamatt rubs his hand on his robe, and the giant hand rubs itself on the grass.
    • The echo moves to wall Decima off from him.
61. 1:25:36 — The potato explodes. It bulges, morphs, and cycles through reds, oranges and blues before exploding.
    • Nonamatt casts Absorb Elements and clasps his glowing gold hands around it, cartoon-style, “like someone clasps down on a grenade.” He takes 9.
62. 1:27:12 — The Grandmaster is furious. “No! That’s not how my hot potato goes.” She throws a barrage of potatoes at him for 10 bludgeoning. The Shadow King: “Absorb this.”
    • She: “You have any idea how hard it is to curse a potato to explode after two rounds? It takes a lot of magic… it requires a lot of materials.” Nonamatt apologizes.
    • Decima: “Personally, I’ve never disrespected you like that… I would have eaten the potato and it would have exploded inside of me.”
    • Nonamatt shows his tiny arm muscle. “Maybe if you ate more potatoes.” “starch just sits around really badly for me.”
63. 1:28:52 The Grandmaster: “The two of you have entered this arena to challenge essentially the fate itself. Will you not take it into your own hands?… Who is it that will control the fates by the end of this? Which of you will dare challenge the gods?” The Shadow King rolls a 10: “It’s embarrassing.”

Round 5: “I decide your fate now”

65. 1:29:33 Decima: “Taking fate into our own hands, huh? Well. Sibling, I decide your fate from now on, so get used to it.”
    • They hook the greataxe blade around the echo-Nonamatt’s horns and win the strength contest: “Pumping iron. Pumping potatoes.” “I don’t lift weights. I lift potato sacks.”
    • They swing the echo and the arcane hand together and fling them at Nonamatt’s feet. They land unceremoniously and do no damage, but Nonamatt feels his own horns pulled and dizzy.
    • Table aside: a dice sound “like a Mario game,” Toadstool.
    • Decima: “that is not your fate. I decide your fate now.”
66. 1:33:05 — The argument.
    • Nonamatt: “No one should be able to decide fate. That seems to be left empty for us to choose, each individual to choose.”
    • Decima: “If we were left to choose, Morta would have still died.… Is that what you want?”
    • Nonamatt: “No, I want destiny in our hands… Not someone’s hands.” Decima: “In my hands is where destiny belongs.”
67. 1:33:33 — The launch. Decima runs up the arcane hand, uses it as a launch pad, and leaps onto Nonamatt to pin him.
    • The Grandmaster rules fall damage: “somebody who’s had, like, their nieces and nephews lunge themselves at me, I guarantee you take damage.”
    • Nonamatt tries to catch Decima with the arcane hand. In a Dex-off, he casts Silvery Barbs: “What would Morta say?” The Grandmaster: “How dare you bring up the…” Nonamatt: “I’m not the one bringing the apparition of Morta to attack me.”
    • Nonamatt rolls a natural 20. The arcane hand closes and holds Decima in place.
68. 1:36:02 Decima’s axe points at the ground. Nonamatt doesn’t recognize his sibling: covered in shadows, fire in their eyes, “this unbridled rage.” He has seen them angry in battle before, but “not like this. Not when you invoked our sibling.”
    • Nonamatt: “Morta wouldn’t want us fighting like this, but you give me no choice, Decima.”
    • Decima: “Let me go. Unhand me.” The Grandmaster: “Quite literally, unhand me.”
69. 1:37:04 — The squeeze. The hand squeezes (13, halved by rage). The Grandmaster: “You feel held. Aw, that’s actually kind of nice.” Decima: “It’s like a weighted blanket.” Nonamatt: “Until the squeezing starts.”
70. 1:38:23 — The second mind whip. Nonamatt whips out every good memory: every time they saw Morta smile at them, from childhood to adulthood, “and in the last day we saw Morta alive.”
    • They include memories of Morta scolding them for fighting: “your siblings should have each other’s back.”
    • Decima fails again (an 8).
    • Hamna’s description: each memory lands as a separate lash, and with each one shadows snake off Decima’s body and fall to the ground, like the hand sweat. Decima is losing their grip on the souls they consumed.
    • Eyes closed, brow furrowed: “stop, this isn’t going to work. Morta’s not here anymore. That’s the problem. That’s the problem.”
71. 1:41:07 Decima rolls 24 to break free. Nonamatt uses Silvery Barbs advantage but gets 19, and the hand lets go.
    • The Grandmaster’s ruling: a third mind whip would face advantage, because siblings learn how each other fights.
72. 1:42:49 — The cornered animal. Blinded by fury and feeling the power slip away, Decima panics, “like an animal that’s been cornered.” “Why can’t you just see that what I’m trying to do is fix the problem?”
    • They charge, grab the echo-Nonamatt, and ram it and themselves into Nonamatt. The hand’s opportunity attack misses.
73. 1:45:09 — The challenge. Decima holds the greataxe out one-handed (only possible in the shadow form): “If you think you’re so right, if you think that nobody should be able to control the fates, then what are you doing right now killing me? Are you not deciding somebody’s fate?”
    • Nonamatt: “I’m sacrificing the fate of one to save the fates of many, Decima. You are choosing to take the fate of one to control the fate of many.”
    • Decima: “And you really believe that, that that’s what’s best for everyone… For us.” “I do.”
74. 1:46:23 Decima throws the greataxe at Nonamatt’s feet. “Then kill me. Prove to me that you want this, that you’re right.” Nonamatt: “if I don’t kill you here, what will you do?” Decima: “If you don’t kill me here, then you don’t get to decide my fate. You don’t deserve it. Be brave for once.”
75. 1:47:39 — Nonamatt’s speech.
    • “I’ve been chastised quite a bit today for how I fight. I summoned those ball bearings, and apparently that’s different to you summoning your echo.”
    • “I’m standing in a realm I’ve never seen before amongst acolytes cheering for one of us to die in front of what I can only imagine are the equivalent of gods or demons for entertainment. And I haven’t ran.”
    • “Decima, you know me. I’m scared out of my mind. But it does not mean I will run. I need to stop you from not just losing yourself, but hurting others. And if that means I have to kill you, I will.”
76. 1:48:55 Decima: “You’ve always believed in the good of everything, in the good of people. But you’ve always been afraid of acting on it. Consider this your final test then. Act on it.”
77. 1:49:30 — Morta’s hand. Nonamatt steps back. Behind him the echo of Morta forms and lays a warm hand on his shoulder, the same warmth as before. It tightens: a warning not to run.
78. 1:50:12 — The kill.
    • Without looking back, Nonamatt places his hand over Morta’s. “With power on my tongue”: “I’m sorry, Decima.”
    • He casts Raulothim’s Psychic Lance by uttering Decima’s name. Decima doesn’t fight back and autofails: 23 psychic, incapacitated.
    • Time seems to stand still and the Acolytes hold their breath. The arcane hand floats over and wraps gently around Decima. “I’m sorry,” under his breath. Then the clenched fist strikes (19 force).
    • Decima had 18 HP left.
79. 1:53:11 — Decima’s death. Decima falls to their knees. Their mossy green hair, worn half up, half down, falls over their face. They look up and give a genuine smile, “none of that condescension, no smirk.”
    • Their dying words: “Don’t be sorry. Morta would be proud.”
    • The shadows fall away “leaving just Decima.”
    • The fog sinks over them like a blanket, a shroud.
80. 1:54:40 Nonamatt kneels, rests Decima’s head in his lap, and quietly rocks while singing a song from their childhood that Morta used to sing to them.

Aftermath: Kyle, and the Grandmaster’s stand

81. 1:55:13 The Shadow King appears with a hand on Nonamatt’s shoulder: “Well, don’t be sad. Family is difficult for everyone.… that was an impressive fight. You look hungry. Let me, uh, make you a taco.”
    • He snaps his fingers, and a giant tortilla wraps around Nonamatt’s body.
    • A giant parts the treetops, dandruff blowing from his head. “Let me introduce you to Kyle. He loves Taco Tuesday.”
82. 1:56:27 — The spear. The Grandmaster wipes away tears; she was swept up by the scene. “You will not take his life today.”
    • She drops without opening her wings, hits the ground with a thud that shatters the fog, and holds her spear to the Shadow King’s throat.
    • He: “You’re going to deny Kyle a meal?” She: “Kyle doesn’t need a meal… he deserves to live.”
83. 1:57:26 — The Grandmaster’s speech. “This is the fight that we’ve been waiting for. This is what we look for in every deathmatch.”
    • “The moment where they face their fears, they find courage, they know their values… That is what a deathmatch does. It asks us to bare our souls, to be willing to sacrifice ourselves or those we love for what we hold true.”
    • “Did not Nonamatt prove to us that truly fate is our right for our own individual selves, but we should not take it from others?”
84. 1:58:23 The Shadow King: “I can see this means something to you, and I’m not such a bad guy.” She: “I beg of you. I have let you taken so many lives. Well, I’ve had to stand and watch, but give me just this one.”
    • He: “Well, I can’t say no to you. You’re like a daughter to me. And besides, none of these lives mean anything to me anyways.”
    • He snaps away the tortilla: “Have it your way.”
85. 1:59:04 — Escape. She grasps the amulet and opens “just the smallest of portals”: “Go… Run.” Nonamatt uses the arcane hand to gently lift Decima’s body, and they go through the portal together.
86. 1:59:35 The Grandmaster to the Shadow King: “Thank you. Even if this will cost me, I will pay that.”
    • He: “Oh, don’t look so sour. I was happy to do it for you. We’re getting along famously. Besides, if we don’t have family, what do we have?”
87. 2:00:07 Her wings open: “Welcome and good night to D20 Deathmatch!”

Dried Blood (after-show)

In-character (canon, Dried Blood)

• Nonamatt’s final thoughts (2:12:31), carrying Decima “back home for a proper burial”: “tell the people you love that you love them because you don’t know when you won’t have the chance to do that ever again.”
• Decima’s final thoughts (2:13:18): “if you believe in something strong enough, you should be willing to back it with your full chest, whole ass, go all the way with it. No half-assing your beliefs or your values.”
• Drew (2:01:51): “Everyone’s crying, but Kyle’s hungry, so who’s the real villain here?” Nonamatt’s player: “I’m so sorry, Kyle.” This is a joke, so in-character status is unclear.

Out-of-character (creator notes)

• Bec is still crying. Both players were asked back as returning storytellers.
• The players agreed in advance on twins who love each other but are ideologically opposed. One of their other siblings (Morta) was killed, and they blame the God of Fate. They had no childhood backstory beyond “we are twins and we had an older brother named Morta.”
• Drac didn’t expect to win. Hamna “rolls like ass.”
• Drac built late: a wizard against a barbarian, “exact opposites, exact parallels for twins,” using only non-physical spells.
• Hamna realized midway “I think this is Nana’s game,” and that Decima dying was the more satisfying narrative. They weighed leaning into corruption against a sacrifice that forces Nonamatt to decide, and chose the sacrifice in the moment.
• Drac credits Hamna with reading Nonamatt’s indecisiveness and constant apologizing, then demanding he finally decide.
• Drew on the hero point: “We’ve had people sacrifice the Box of Chaos before, but nobody has specifically asked to consume the Box of Chaos. And it works for us this season because the souls are taken from the Acolytes. It used to be the Shadow King’s soul.” He praises choosing the story over winning.
• The tray was a “classic Drak move”: plant a minor detail early and pay it off later. “Ball bearings in Animate Objects”: “if 10 die, you just cast it again on another 10.”
• Player advice: “If you’re a wizard, carry ball bearings.” Hamna: get creative with your character sheet, “okay, hear me out.”

Who and what appears

Characters

Nonamatt (Drakoniques).

• Look: a horned, bull-eared twin of Decima; lanky, gaunt, slightly darker skin, eyes shifting blue and green. Wears a noble-looking robe of blues, reds and golds and carries a golden staff with a horned head.
• Nature: a wizard, “not much of a fighter… an okay tactician.” Nervous, apologizes constantly, idealistic. Believes no one should hold the God of Fate’s power.
• Origins: has never seen the Void’s realm before (“a realm I’ve never seen before”).
• Powers shown:
  • Gem-dragon telekinetic pulse.
  • Ball bearings and Magic Stone; Animate Objects (the “Minimats,” the silver tray, the Box).
  • Chronal Shift (rewinds time). His hero point brought in an echo of himself from a timeline where he took the Box’s power, linked to him through time.
  • Mind whip drawn from his forehead through the staff; Arcane Hand; Silvery Barbs; Absorb Elements; Psychic Lance.
• Scars: a wrist and hand wound that appeared already healed into an old scar; the arcane hand carries the same scar.
• Gains this episode: the translucent leather breastplate from the Box, merged into his robe; the sapphire paper and lavender ribbon.
• Outcome: killed his twin. Spared by the Shadow King at the Grandmaster’s plea, he left through a portal with Decima’s body for burial at home.

Decima (hshahid_). Nonamatt’s twin; a tall minotaur with a humanoid face, bull horns, bull ears, a septum piercing and mossy green hair.

• Weapon and powers: a filigreed greataxe; Echo Knight powers (manifests an echo of Morta instead of themself); rage; Mobile feat; Inflict Wounds.
• Aims: wanted to stop Nonamatt from killing the God of Fate and become the God of Fate themself to “fix the mistake” of Morta’s death.
• Box of Chaos: threw the crowd tacos (earning a bless), then consumed the Box of Chaos, gaining a shadow shield of Acolyte souls with Lady Magdala as a circlet. Lost them under the memory whip.
• Death: dropped their axe and let Nonamatt kill them. Dying words: “Don’t be sorry. Morta would be proud.”

Morta: the twins’ late older brother. He looked like them, with a slightly different build. He used to sing them a childhood song and scolded them for fighting. His death is the root of the conflict, and the twins blame the God of Fate (Dried Blood). He appeared only as Decima’s echo: warm to the touch, hesitant to strike, and last seen as a hand on Nonamatt’s shoulder warning him not to run.

The God of Fate: unnamed in this episode. Has a “throne”; Decima wants the role and Nonamatt wants to kill them.

The Shadow King (Drew).

• Ordered thousands of tacos and numbers the goblins instead of naming them. Last cared about calendars “before the Gregorian calendar.”
• Says he “didn’t even kill” the Grandmaster when he came back; calls her necklace “for your own good.”
• Picks Box sacrifices from the crowd at random.
• Hurt Kesa, started a piercing taco food fight, and tried to feed Nonamatt to Kyle.
• Spared Nonamatt because the Grandmaster is “like a daughter to me.”

Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer (Bec).

• Wears an amulet or necklace that cuts her hand each time she opens a portal. She calls it “not a shackle,” sarcastically.
• Knows the goblins’ names and is called “a ranger herself.” (Her “their nieces and nephews” line at 1:34:24 is about other people’s families, not hers.)
• Says the Shadow King runs the shows through her because the Acolytes don’t know him.
• Uses chaos magic tricks: the gift, the magnet, a cursed hot potato.
• Wept at the fight, held her spear to the Shadow King’s throat and begged for Nonamatt’s life, saying “even if this will cost me.”

Kesa: a goblin of the Dread Fortress staff with pink ponytail hair and mittens. Likes tacos. Knocked across the room by the Shadow King’s taco hand.

Tabitha, Sarah, Kennedy: named goblins among the 328 Dread Fortress employees.

Lady Magdala: an Acolyte the Shadow King killed and threw into the Box. Her soul was the largest of the shadows Decima absorbed.

Kyle: a giant who loves Taco Tuesday, summoned to eat the tortilla-wrapped Nonamatt. Denied his meal.

Places

• The Dread Fortress: musty halls; the Shadow King’s throne room, with a window and several doors.
• The glowing forest arena: lavender, purple and teal fluffy trees with glowing trunks, roots and branches; a central color-shifting tree; drifting purple dandruff and dandelions; fog; the crowd’s light in place of a sky.
• The twins’ home (unnamed), where Decima is taken for burial.

Items

• The Box of Chaos: now fed with Acolyte souls (“it all depends on the strength of the soul”); it accepts anything, including cryptocurrency. Consumed by Decima and left dormant, then animated by Nonamatt.
• The family-heirloom silver taco tray (animated).
• The translucent leather breastplate (+1 AC, advantage on Con saves), merged into Nonamatt’s robe.
• The cursed hot potato in sapphire paper with a lavender ribbon.
• The Grandmaster’s magnet: a small silvery disc.
• The Grandmaster’s amulet/necklace and her spear.
• The giant tortilla.

Lore statements

• The Dread Fortress has 328 goblin employees.
• The Box of Chaos is “a legion” of consumed souls that have “witnessed battle after battle.” It can be consumed rather than consuming.
• The Shadow King and the Grandmaster call themselves family (“Have you met them?”, “We’re such a toxic family”, “You’re like a daughter to me”).
• Hero points can create entirely new moves; the Grandmaster called this the best use of them ever seen.

Quotes by character

Nonamatt

• 0:08:22 “This is a battle of ideals, and while I might not be physically strong, I think my ideals are. I’ll stand until I fall.”
• 0:17:43 “No one should be in that position. No one should have that power. It’s just built for corruption.”
• 0:21:20 “I think my brother would never, never hurt me.”
• 0:24:54 “I’m not much of a fighter, but I think I’m an okay tactician.”
• 0:38:23 “I mean you saw what I just did to my twin.”
• 0:57:20 “You threw it a bit too low last time, try a bit higher.”
• 1:07:50 “I can’t let you destroy yourself, Decima. I’m sorry.”
• 1:33:05 “No one should be able to decide fate. That seems to be left empty for us to choose, each individual to choose.”
• 1:35:08 “What would Morta say?”
• 1:45:59 “I’m sacrificing the fate of one to save the fates of many, Decima.”
• 1:48:34 “Decima, you know me. I’m scared out of my mind. But it does not mean I will run.”
• 1:50:12 “I’m sorry, Decima.”

Decima

• 0:05:46 “Are you ready to die?”
• 0:08:03 “You can still leave.”
• 0:17:39 “Nonamatt, you know that I can’t let you, I can’t let you kill the God of Fate, okay? I need to be the God of Fate myself.”
• 0:17:52 “I’m done talking. I was done talking when Morta died.”
• 0:22:13 “What? Afraid of our brother?”
• 0:33:16 “I made up my mind and I ain’t changing it.”
• 1:01:47 “Enough of this. I am going to fix the mistake. Morta wasn’t supposed to die.”
• 1:03:25 “I am your god now. Fight for me. Kill my twin in my name.”
• 1:15:01 “This is not corruption, if I’m right.”
• 1:29:33 “Sibling, I decide your fate from now on, so get used to it.”
• 1:46:23 “Then kill me. Prove to me that you want this, that you’re right.”
• 1:48:55 “You’ve always believed in the good of everything… But you’ve always been afraid of acting on it. Consider this your final test then. Act on it.”
• 1:53:11 “Don’t be sorry. Morta would be proud.”

The Shadow King

• 0:01:47 “The last time I cared was before the Gregorian calendar. So it could be Tuesday if I wanted to be Tuesday.”
• 0:02:39 “I just had numbered them 1 to 328.”
• 0:04:04 “Hand delivered.”
• 0:10:49 “That’s why he’s so gamey.”
• 0:12:44 “I didn’t even kill you when I came back.”
• 0:26:06 “No, no, the Box is coming because the Acolytes demand it, and I’m a man of the people.”
• 0:27:29 “That Acolyte was. I just killed her.”
• 0:28:49 “I don’t know what the box is going to give. It all depends on the strength of the soul.”
• 0:58:54 “Well, all in good fun, maybe we should have a food fight!”
• 1:55:25 “Well, don’t be sad. Family is difficult for everyone.”
• 1:56:14 “Let me introduce you to Kyle. He loves Taco Tuesday.”
• 1:58:48 “Well, I can’t say no to you. You’re like a daughter to me. And besides, none of these lives mean anything to me anyways.”
• 1:59:46 “Besides, if we don’t have family, what do we have?”

The Box of Chaos souls (Drew)

• 0:32:40 “Is that for me?”
• 1:03:17 “What is it you want?”
• 1:03:35 “So you want our power. Is that what you’re saying?”

Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer

• 0:01:25 “You ordered tacos without me?”
• 0:02:33 “We have 328 employees here, and we know they all have names!”
• 0:12:31 “It’s a family heirloom, please destroy it.”
• 0:12:49 “And this necklace is really just for looks and it’s not a shackle.”
• 0:15:00 “Show them what sibling rivalry really looks like.”
• 0:26:11 “They don’t even know who you are, really. That’s why you have me running these.”
• 0:51:03 “You need to kill your wonderful sibling another way.”
• 1:27:48 “You have any idea how hard it is to curse a potato to explode after two rounds?”
• 1:56:27 “You will not take his life today.”
• 1:57:26 “That is what a deathmatch does. It asks us to bare our souls, to be willing to sacrifice ourselves or those we love for what we hold true.”
• 1:58:33 “I beg of you. I have let you taken so many lives. Well, I’ve had to stand and watch, but give me just this one.”
• 1:59:35 “Thank you. Even if this will cost me, I will pay that.”

Kesa

• 0:03:20 “I work here and I like tacos and my name is Kesa.”

Acolytes (crowd)

• 0:11:25 “Decima for president! Give the people what they want!”

Canon notes

• The God of Fate the twins hate is Fil (Philomena), the same God of Fate as in Vythorn’s Return.
• Deaths under the Shadow King are permanent unless a later season brings someone back.

Canon notes

• Pronouns: use “they” for Decima and Nonamatt.