MD 223 Pool of the Acid Wasp w/ Gavriel Quiroga (Hell Night, Neurocity, Warpland)

In the corner is a titanic skull-shaped wasp hive that has a steady stream of gooey acid pouring from its mouth, like a waterfall, into a birthing vat pool with larvae floating in it. Consuming acid from the pool gives you a psychedelic experience.

In the hive are horse-sized drones, workers, warriors and one queen named Avispa the Wild Child. All of the wasps have beast-like intelligence, and tendrils that look like handlebars on their midsections that they use to grapple and attack. Avispa secretes psychedelic acid, and if she chooses to inject you with her bio drug, save or transform into a mindless queen wasp. Become someone’s mount, or start your own hive somewhere. Avispa can also flap her hypno-wings to make a buzzing sonic attack that calms you, so she can inject you peacefully. You can undo the wasp curse if you can find a good enough wizard to process the acid into an antidote. 

Priest Judas lives in a shrine to Avispa and has written the words “Ride Beyond and Behold!” in blood on the wall. He keeps buckets of blood next to his shrine to keep up his mural. He wants only the freshest blood, and will be happy to take yours if you don’t need it. He’s here to walk you through the ceremony of transformation. In the center of the room is an altar to prostrate yourself and say the holy words that will call out the queen. He’s been bottling the acid into proper doses and is happy to sell it to you.

The Stinger Gang of mutant-biker wasp riders are here. It’s a right of passage to come here and tame a wasp mount, aka “cyclostinger,” aka a “stinger;” but today’s a special day, a wedding. They’re rooting on a member trying to coax the queen out to turn him into a “stinger” so his new wife can ride him as a mount.

Art: Tiger Wizard  Words: Steve Albertson

Story by: Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, Gavriel Quiroga

Appendix N: The Crow, Ghost Rider, Lobo, TMNT, Misfits “Skulls,” Weird Science, Class of Nuke Em High, Mandy, Ninjak (Joe Quesada), Alien, Futurama, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, American Werewolf in London, W.A.S.P. (the band).

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This episode is sponsored by Exalted Funeral, and we talk about the adventure Void Lord by Frank Gillam & Robb Leef, for both Old School Essentials and D&D 5E. This is part of Exalted Funeral’s The Endless Summoner sale, where from July 26 – 31, 2023, they’ll take 20% off of all sales.

In Void Lord, an ever-consuming pocket dimension rips planar chunks from nearby realities as it grows. With a tragic villain only fueling the chaos, your party will have to frantically fight with light and limb to survive and find a way home… The Void Lord is a 3-part, linear adventure for level mid-level parties that explores darkness and light both as concepts and mechanics. The party will have a frantic fight to overthrow a romantically-driven despot, stabilize a dimensional void, and escape with their lives.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

Come find us at Gen Con 2023 on Aug. 3-6. We’ll be sharing a table with Brain Colon’s Creature Curation.

Our physical adventure map for The Heal World is now available for purchase at Exalted Funeral, with art from our guest Brian Colon of Vast Grimm. This is the true story – of you visiting a planet that’s also a living god – trapped in a time loop – working together to stop a violent demagogue from committing deicide – to find out what happens when people stop being polite – and start getting healed: The Heal World. BUY IT HERE.

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Epic Levels is hosting a Best Dwarf Drawing Contest! The winners will be selected by our host of celebrity judges, all accomplished Dwarf Drawing champs! David Hoskins, Erol Otus, and Tiger Wizard!

We chatted about doing this on our Old-School Essentials episode, and so, we’re really doing it! The contest will be open for submissions through August 17th 2023. You may submit a Dwarf you’ve already drawn, or draw a new one. You must be the author and owner of the Dwarf Drawing, and be okay with us sharing it along with your name on our social media. You can submit any kind of Dwarf you like. Warhammer mohawk Dwarves, Gimli’s, Silly named Snow White Dwarves, Heck! Even Dark Sun Mul (Dwarf Human Hybrid) will be acceptable!

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Thanks for listening to Season Two of the Epic Levels Mad Dungeon podcast, where D&D hip hop group Epic Levels and a guest create a system-neutral, playable dungeon room using improv, comedy, and lifetimes wasted on roleplaying games.

You can support us via Patreon for early episode releases, bonus map content, extra art, access to our discord server, and lots of other exclusive goodies.

Get nerd merch and stay up to date with socials: HERE

Mad Dungeon is hosted by Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, and produced by Zach Cowan.

Theme song by Epic Levels and beat by Mason Grant.

© 2023 Epic Levels. All characters in this adventure–even those based on real people–are entirely fictional.